by Sara Clancy
“Turns out that a dozen terrified teenagers is a really good distraction,” Benton shrugged as he toyed with the iron bracelet Nicole had given him. It was too small to spin around his wrist, so he had taken to flicking it along his arm instead. “Especially since my parents are now their sole caregivers for the night. How is your mom?”
Nicole shifted her eyes to the bathroom door before looking back at him. “Rattled.”
He smiled at her attempted joke but it didn’t seem to help.
“If her leg’s not broken, there is definitely a few fractures,” Nicole said. “I’ve done all I can but I think she’s in a lot of pain. And she’s going to be in a lot more when the shock wears off.”
Benton couldn’t look up from the bracelet as he spoke. “I’m really sorry, Nic. I should have done more to make sure she didn’t go out there.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
His attention flicked to the new, clean bandage that was wrapped on her forearm. “Yeah, it never seems to be my fault.”
“Hey, at least this isn’t going to scar,” she said before rushing on. “I keep going over it but I can’t understand why Allison would do this.”
“I think it was just bad timing when she showed up.”
“Other people saw her, you know.”
“Yeah,” Benton nodded. “I felt her more, too. That girl’s got a lot of rage.”
“Well, if she wasn’t so horrible to you, I’d be a bit more sympathetic.”
The bathroom door opened and they both jumped to their feet. Since the front desk’s well prepared emergency kit had included crutches, Dorothy was somewhat mobile. Still, they kept a close eye on her as she crossed to the nearest bed and eased herself down. She sat with her back against the wall and Nicole helped her to raise her leg up onto the mound of pillows. The rulers that were used for a makeshift splint gave the bandages around her leg an uneven shape. Only her toes were visible and they had become discolored and swollen. He tried not to stare as he sat down on the opposite bed with a pained grunt. Instantly, he felt stupid for being so delicate when the woman before him was under a bus an hour ago. It felt like all the fluid in his joints was freezing into place and he couldn’t stop wincing at almost every movement.
“We should call you an ambulance,” Nicole said.
“I’m not putting anyone else on that road,” Dorothy shot back.
Benton got the distinct feeling that this was a conversation the two women had been having for a while and resolved to stay out of it.
“And besides,” Dorothy said, “they can’t get here. We barely did. That road would be completely swamped by now.”
“Okay, so we keep going forward.” Even as Nicole said it, the words morphed from a statement into a question and back again.
Benton flicked the bracelet on his wrist as the room fell silent. It felt like they were both waiting for him to say what they all knew.
“We can’t bring her in this state,” he said softly.
Nicole shot him a dirty look and he rubbed his face so he wouldn’t have to see it.
“Come on, Nic. I’m already slowing you down. If you try and look after both of us at the same time, we’re all going to get killed.”
“I’m not leaving my mom here,” Nicole said.
“I’ll be safer in here than I will be out there.” Dorothy spat out the words as if they tasted foul in her mouth. “You two need to leave. And soon. More roads are going to flood and you need to beat these things back to Fort Wayward.”
“Mom.”
“Honey,” Dorothy stammered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It didn’t remove the tremble in her voice. “I saw it. Really saw it. After it rolled the bus onto me, it landed on my chest. It’s nothing but teeth, eyes and claws.”
“Claws?” Benton asked.
“You can’t see them when it flies. Just when it lands. I felt them cutting me as it forced me under the water.” Her words trailed off, broken by a gasped breath. “It smiled at me. It laughed as I was drowning. That laugh...”
Quickly but carefully, Nicole bundled her mother into a tight hug. The older woman clung back, her hands balling into the sleeves on Nicole’s sweater. She looked pale, worn, but no matter how many times she closed her eyes, they always snapped back open. Benton sat silently. He had seen them, heard them, felt their teeth sink into his skin, and knew there wasn’t much that could be said to make that memory better. So he flicked at the iron piece on his wrist to keep his fingers from freezing into place and waited.
Eventually, Dorothy let go of Nicole’s arms and sat up straight once more. “You said there are hundreds of those creatures?”
“At least,” he nodded.
“It’s okay,” Nicole said with a tremble in her voice. “I’m not going to let them get in here.”
“You can’t let them get into town. Folks won’t be ready. It’ll be a slaughter,” Dorothy countered. She looked from Benton to Nicole and back before adding, “I will probably rot in hell for this, but you were right, this isn’t a two person job. You’re going to have to get some help.”
“Benton’s parents will never listen to us,” Nicole said a second before she caught onto what Dorothy was actually suggesting. “Do you have any suggestions?”
“Well, I know two people who have been eager to get in on the secret,” Benton said.
Stunned, Nicole turned to him. “Meg and Zack? You really want to trust them?”
“Zack is strong and Meg is resilient,” Dorothy muttered as she mulled the choices over.
“We’ll have to get Danny, too,” Nicole said.
“Nope.”
“Benton, Meg isn’t going to go without her sister.”
“Yes, but I’ll be upset if Danny dies.”
***
The rain pelted against the bus windows, accentuating the lingering silence. Nicole nervously flicked her gaze from one friend to the next, but couldn’t figure out how any of them were reacting to the information she and Benton had just laid out before them. It was a lot to ask a person to accept. Time dragged on until Nicole could feel every second of it consuming her. Benton wasn’t faring much better. While he tried to be patient, she could see the stress on his face. The cold in his bones was warring with the fire within his skull, and he was quickly losing his ability to simply sit back and give them the time they needed.
“A banshee?” Meg said slowly. “You think we’re going to believe that?”
“It would be impossible to accurately describe how little I care about what you think or believe,” Benton said as he rubbed his temples again. “Just help me get into town.”
“Yeah, that’s the way to ask for a favor,” Zack scoffed.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he pushed his fingers harder into his pressure points. “Am I not being polite enough offering to save the lives of an entire town? Not living up to your standards?”
“Zack, he’s just trying to help,” Nicole commented.
Zack bolted up straighter. “Help? I’ll help as soon as he starts telling me the truth.”
“I just did,” Benton said. “Thanks for paying attention, by the way.”
“The whole truth. Not just the bits you want to tell us.”
Benton was practically grinding his fists against his skull now and Nicole quickly tried to take up the conversation to give him some time to regroup his thoughts.
“Zack, that was everything, I promise.”
“Come on, Nicole. You think I can’t do a Google search? Everywhere this guy goes, people die.”
“That’s what people do!” Benton bellowed in exasperation. “It’s like a third of our existence; we’re born, we live, we die.”
“There are way too many bodies for it to be coincidence.”
Spreading his arms wide, Benton leaned forward and yelled with every ounce of strength he had left in him, “Banshee!”
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Nicole cut in. “So let’s find common ground. Hands up if
you saw Allison.”
Meg shot her a sideways look. “Well, we only really have Benton’s word that it’s Allison.”
Nicole twitched and Benton looked to the ceiling as if praying for salvation. “Fine. Hands up if you saw the woman in the middle of the road.”
She thrust her own hand into the air and looked expectantly at Benton until he lifted his too. Meg, Danny, and after a moment of hesitation, Zack, all put their hands up.
“I’m not disputing ghosts. Or whatever that flying thing was,” Zack grumbled. “I’m disputing that this guy has a magical scream. Because if he doesn’t, this is pretty much a suicide mission. Anyway, banshees are females, everyone knows that.”
“I’m done,” Benton mumbled. Nicole tried to soothe him but he just rubbed his hand over his face before snapping, “In or out? And I don’t just mean that abstractly. If you’re not coming along, get off the bus so we can go.”
“He’s in a lot of pain,” Nicole offered as Benton burrowed his hands in the blanket on his lap.
“I’m in.” Danny didn’t flinch as both Zack and Meg twisted around to face her.
“Seriously,” Meg whispered.
“Yes,” Danny affirmed.
“You really think he’s a banshee?” Zack asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Danny challenged. “That demon is heading to our home, our families, and they’re the only ones trying to stop it. I don’t care if he’s a unicorn, I’m going to help.”
Nicole reached across the space separating them and squeezed Danny’s hand. “Thank you.”
“And you wonder why I like her better,” Benton mumbled, now holding the blanket to his chin and trembling. He seemed to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
“Well, you’re not going without me,” Meg cut in before she turned to Benton. “For the record, I’m following Nicole, not you.”
Benton didn’t give any indication that he had heard her or cared.
Zack shook his head and pushed further back into his seat. “Let’s get going.”
Chapter 11
The rising water was quickly swallowing the road, and Nicole was losing track of it. The bus’s steering wheel rattled within Nicole’s grasp. Her fingers ached as she struggled to keep the bus from fishtailing every time the wheels found a mass of water and forced them to shift. With only the dim headlights to judge by, Nicole was never quite sure if she was about to drive them off a cliff. She wanted to slow down but Benton’s low, agonized groans forced her to go faster.
Benton had pulled himself into a tight ball, but not even all the sheets could help him maintain any of his body heat. Danny had taken pity on him and sat close enough that her warmth might transfer to him. It wasn’t helping. He was visibly growing worse and was no longer able to silence his moans of pain.
“He’s really not looking so good,” Zack expressed as he came up beside her.
“I know,” she said breathlessly, sneaking another glance at him in the rearview mirror.
Meg had come up behind her and leaned against the back of the driver’s seat.
“What is wrong with him?” she whispered.
“I think it’s this land,” Nicole whispered back. “Or maybe all the dead people. But we’re almost there.”
Yanking hard on the wheel, she rounded a blind turn. The high beams swung around, illuminating the falling rain like crystals as the windshield wipers struggled to force the water aside. A white mass suddenly came into view. It filled the road as they hurdled towards it. Nicole slammed on the breaks. The back wheels hit a watery patch and the bus started to swerve, shifting further to the opposite side each time she tried to compensate. For a moment, the earth dropped out from under them and they lurched down. With an intense crack and a bone-rattling jolt, they finally came to a stop.
Mud and muck covered the mini bus. The lights were off. The engine was dead. Surrounded on all sides by near complete darkness, Nicole lifted her head from the steering wheel. Rain pinged against the windows and streamed over the back of the bus. Slowly, the sounds of rustling, of strangled grunts and shifting material, drifted to her ears.
“Is everyone all right?” she called.
Benton growled in answer, sounding more bothered than anything else. One by one, the others announced themselves. Small patches of light flicked into existence and she struggled to see what was happening by their glow. The mini bus was propped up onto a forty-five degree angle, nose deep in a pit. They were sinking. She could tell that much when water began to pull and lap around the cracked windshield.
There was some more rustling and a bright light carved a vivid narrow tube out of the night. Benton had found Nicole’s bag and retrieved one of the flashlights. He wavered as he tossed it to her without a word. She caught it with fumbling fingers.
“Okay, well,” she said, trying to stay calm as she drifted the light around the bus, “the important thing is that no one’s hurt.”
“Right,” Zack grumbled. “And the fact that we can’t get this out of here without a tow truck is coincidental?”
Danny clicked on the second flashlight Nicole had brought and, after flashing it around for a moment, set it on the windshield.
“That water’s rising. We need to get out of here,” she warned.
Zack paused for a moment as he looked at them all in turn. “Do you think it was a ghost that ran us off the road, again?”
Using the chairs on either side of the aisle as a handhold, Meg pushed herself up towards the rear window. She shone her light through, but couldn’t compete with the rain and reflection.
“Nicole had been speeding in the rain around tight corners,” Meg pointed out before looking back and adding. “No offense.”
“There was a car in the middle of the road,” Nicole defended.
Benton perked his head up at that but didn’t comment. He already looked exhausted, and every breath was a struggle.
“Make sure your raincoat is buttoned up tight. We need to get you out of here,” Nicole told him.
With a staggered nod, Benton detangled himself from the blankets and pulled the hood of his coat higher. His silence set off a thousand warning signs in the back of her head. Benton was many things, but silent wasn’t one of them. With everyone’s help it took a far shorter time than Nicole had thought to gather them all just below the rear hatch.
Zack put his hand on the lever and his shoulder to the door before he hesitated. “What if those things are out there?”
A scream ripped from them as something smacked against the door. It was met with a sudden light and a high voice.
“Hello? Is everyone okay?”
Zack ducked lower as if to keep himself from being seen. “Can these monsters talk?”
The sweet voice called again from beyond the glass and the outside emergency latch was wrenched open. The door yanked open, allowing in a flood of water and a howling wind. Nicole’s long hair whipped across her face. With one arm looped around Benton’s and clinging to the flashlight, and the other holding tight onto the back of the nearest chair, she couldn’t clear her face of her hair or the water. She aimed the beam of her flashlight onto the stranger’s face. A second later, she realized that it wasn’t a stranger. Not completely. It was the woman from the McDonald’s line.
“Oh, thank God,” the woman smiled before turning back to call over her shoulder. “They’re okay. We’re coming up.”
“Who are you?” Zack asked, cautiously pulling himself out.
The question remained unanswered as they worked to pull the others up from inside the bus. When Nicole and Benton were the last two remaining, she gently coaxed him before her, careful not to hurt him as the woman reached down to grab his hand. With her hands on his waist, she felt the jolt that ran through him when they made contact. She snapped her head up to see him frozen in place, his eyes wide even as the rain drizzled into them. The woman stared back with a faint smile, urging him to let her help him out. Benton didn’t move.
At his h
esitation, Zack mumbled something about him being sick and reached back in to yank Benton up himself. Nicole could only watch as Benton was pulled from her hands and out into the night. Rain washed over her face, a cold chill that made her cringe back at them. The woman stretched out a hand towards her, but Nicole was looking past it. Benton was staring at her, fear lacing his eyes as he slowly shook his head.
“Come on, Nicole,” Zack urged. “We have to go.”
Benton shook his head all the harder but the pace seemed to drain him. She couldn’t refuse, but his warning turned her guts into a trembling mass. Slowly, she reached up. The woman snatched up her hand the second it was within reach. The sensation only grew worse as she was hurled from the bus.
“Oh, hi again,” the woman smiled.
Nicole mumbled a hello and tried to pull her hand back. The woman’s fingers tightened and locked her in place. Benton pushed past Zack and latched onto Nicole’s wrist. It made the flashlight in her hand sway and the beam skittered across the area. The glare from his eyes that Benton narrowed on the woman, didn’t hold a hint of the sickness that was pressing down on him. But it startled the woman enough that he could yank Nicole out of her grasp.
The tension was broken by Zack’s insistence that they move back up to the road. It was a much slower process as water gushed down the steep incline. Nicole deliberately went slower, letting the others move on ahead. Before she could say anything, Benton whispered into her ear.
“Have you got your gun?”
“Back of my waistband. What are you seeing?” she asked.
“Death. It’s following her,” he whispered. “How do you know her?”
“She’s the one I told you about. The one who was around when Allison grabbed me.”
After what felt like an eternity, Benton met her gaze. All of her anxieties were mirrored back in his gray eyes and she felt her guts twist.
“Keep close.”
She couldn’t tell if it was a warning or a plea, but she nodded all the same. They scrambled over the last hump and Benton slumped down over the road. Tremors rippled through him as he clawed at the ground. Nicole instantly dropped down beside him and tried to pull him back up onto his knees. He slumped against her as his chest heaved.