Madelyn's Last Dance

by Ike Hamill

  Scarlett veered to the right. Her only hope was that the animal would keep going straight and follow Niren instead of coming after her.

  She got lucky.

  She heard the thing accelerate right by her as she ran. A second later, she heard it grunt and growl. She paused, listening. When Niren screamed, Scarlett dropped into a crouch. Her wide eyes couldn’t see much but the trees immediately around her. They offered no protection. She had a decision to make—was she safer staying still or should she run?

  It could easily run her down. She decided that she might be safer to hide.

  The animal grunted and trees cracked and fell. Scarlett crawled to a place where the brush was thicker. She ducked under a downed tree and hid next to a mound of dirt. She had the thick trunk above her and dirt at her back. She stayed perfectly still as the animal began to move again.

  Niren moaned. Scarlett couldn’t imagine why he was still alive.

  She listened as the animal picked up speed again and crashed through the woods. It was moving away from her position. Scarlett allowed herself a deep breath and slipped out of her hiding place. When she could barely hear the thing in the distance, she ran in the opposite direction.

  # # # # #

  Scarlett moved carefully. She reached the edge of the clearing again and seriously considered just running. But that strategy hadn’t worked for Niren or Caleb. Occasionally, in the distance, she still heard a scream following a roar from the beast. She couldn’t fathom how the two were still alive. There had always been rumors about Optioners and how hard to kill they were. Scarlett had never really believed the stories. In her experience, fleas were the only things that were really hard to kill. Those things could survive anything. With big mammals, one bullet through the heart always did the trick. And there was no telling how big the fangs were on the creature.

  She tried to picture it blotting out the night sky and tried to gauge how tall it was. It was at least four or five meters tall—maybe even six. Nobody was ever going to believe her.

  Scarlett froze when she realized that she couldn’t hear the thing anymore. She didn’t hear it knocking down trees and she didn’t hear Niren or Caleb moaning. For a second, the more optimistic side of her rejoiced. She thought there was a chance that the thing had gone away. Maybe she had just moved far enough from it that it was out of earshot.

  She felt its breath before she heard it.

  It was impossible—how could something so big have snuck up on her?

  The breath was hot but it still sent a cold shiver down her spine. The air was moist and smelled of rotting death. It grunted as it sniffed at her. The thing’s inhalation pulled at her clothes and hair.

  She had to run—there was no other choice.

  Scarlett sprang forward. Her feet never touched the ground.

  The thing’s jaws closed around her. Its fangs snapped shut on the other side of her torso and she felt its premolars pinching against her back. She was compressed between its gums. A half of a meter forward or back and she would have been impaled by teeth.

  Scarlett felt lucky for an instant and then it stood up.

  As the ground disappeared below her, she realized just how wrong she was. The thing wasn’t five or even six meters tall. She had to be at least ten meters high. As it strode forward on two legs, she felt like she would break in half with each footstep.

  Scarlett held her tongue. She might die, but she wouldn’t give the thing the satisfaction of hearing her scream. With mounting horror, she realized that the animal had likely eaten Niren and Caleb. Their twisted flesh and broken bones were waiting for her down in the thing’s guts.

  Gravity evaporated as the beast dropped down to four legs. Reality flooded back as it galloped forward. Scarlett wondered if it would hurt when her spine finally snapped.

  The thing slowed and stopped. She waited for it to crunch her between its teeth and swallow her down. Instead, the thing dropped her. She tumbled through the air and then landed on something soft. Something below her grunted as she tried to push herself up.

  “Niren?” she asked.

  “Caleb,” he said.

  She didn’t waste any more time. Scarlett jumped to her feet and started running. The paw came from nowhere. It hit her in the chest, knocking the air from her lungs and driving her backwards. She landed back on top of Caleb again. He grunted when she rolled off of him.

  “Don’t try to run,” he said. His voice was a thin wheeze. “It will hurt you.”

  “Thanks,” Scarlett said. She put a hand to her head and felt the sticky blood there.

  Something black flew through the night. Scarlett ducked, but it still knocked her over.

  The person’s legs were tangled with her arms. She shoved.

  “Get off,” Niren said.

  Scarlett blinked. She could just make out their shapes in the dark. The animal had herded them all back together.

  “If we all run different directions…” she started.

  “Forget it,” Niren said. “The bear is too fast and too big. Plus, it seems to appear and disappear at will, if you haven’t noticed.”

  She looked around and realized that she couldn’t see the thing blotting out the sky anymore. It had indeed disappeared.

  “What does it want then?” she asked. “Why doesn’t it just eat us?”

  “Don’t give it any ideas,” Niren said.

  “This is impossible. Bears don’t get that big,” Caleb said. “This has to be some sort of a trick or something. Someone is playing a joke on us.”

  “If it’s a joke, it’s not very funny,” Niren said.

  # # # # #

  Scarlett shivered in the dark and hugged her arms close to her body. She felt her body giving up. Adrenaline had coursed through her until it had burned off all of her energy. Now, she was at the thing’s mercy, and it wasn’t even around. She hadn’t seen, heard, or smelled the thing for several minutes. It might be the perfect time to run.

  “Scarlett’s right,” Caleb said. His voice sounded stronger. “We all run different directions. Maybe it won’t get all of us. I’ll go across the clearing, towards those rocks. I might be able to get under them before it catches me. It won’t be strong enough to lift those rocks.”

  Scarlett looked across the clearing and wondered how Caleb was able to see rocks. She couldn’t see anything except the line that the black trees made against the clouds.

  “You’re crazy,” Niren said.

  “We can’t just sit here and wait for it to come back,” Caleb said. “That’s crazy.”

  “This thing is psychological, not physical. Stay calm and it can’t hurt you,” Niren said.

  Scarlett figured that they both had lost their minds. Niren was delusional and Caleb was hallucinating about rocks.

  She came up with a new idea. The thing hadn’t chased her when she had hidden. Maybe if she moved slowly enough, she could get into the woods and hide again. She slid her butt a few centimeters and waited for the paw to bat her back towards the others. When it didn’t come, she moved a tiny bit more.

  Caleb yelled in surprise and then she heard it.

  When she turned, she saw its huge form blotting out the sky and she smelled the thing’s foul breath.

  Caleb’s bones crunched. She saw its white teeth close on him and he moaned.

  “Stay calm,” Niren said.

  It was a crazy order. Who could stay calm while a giant bear ate their arm?

  She saw the thing’s massive paw move in and press Caleb to the ground while it tore at his arm. Scarlett felt a dull ache in her guts as the bear tugged upward, tearing Caleb’s arm from his body.

  Scarlett didn’t have any control of herself after that. Her body acted on instinct. She jumped up and ran.

  Niren was next to her. He was running too.

  “Get away from me,” she said.

  “It will only take one of us,” he said. “Watch.”

  Scarlett didn’t care about his opinion. She turned and ran a new
direction. Niren stayed with her. Scarlett turned again. Even when she shoved him, sending him tripping off into the night, he got back up and caught her.

  The bear roared and started to chase them. She heard its thunderous feet as it galloped after.

  Scarlett had been angry, frustrated, and incredibly sad, but she couldn’t remember the last time she had really been afraid. Wyatt was the one who would have nightmares so bad that they would wake him up. She had always been the strong one who would tell him that it would be okay. Now he was dead and she was running through the dark from an impossible monster. Fear gripped her heart. She wished that she could wake up and tell Wyatt all about this horrible dream. Tears rolled down her face as she ran.

  It didn’t matter how fast she moved, the thing was still gaining on them.

  She heard it panting and then felt its breath again.

  Niren let out a surprised yell when it snatched him.

  Scarlett kept running, waiting for the jaws to close on her again. She lost herself in her moving feet as dark shapes zipped by. She ducked automatically under limbs and jumped over rocks. It was a while before she realized that she didn’t hear the bear anymore. She didn’t hear it running after her, didn’t feel the ground shaking, and didn’t feel its hot breath on her back.

  Still, Scarlett didn’t slow down. She had no idea where she was and had lost her orientation. Without being able to see the stars above, she couldn’t even establish which way was north.

  She ran.

  There was a light up ahead. Scarlett almost veered away from it. She imagined that it was probably a reflection caught in one of the bear’s enormous eyes. After a second, she realized how silly that was. Scarlett kept moving.

  Her pace slowed. She began to drag her feet. The light grew closer.

  Scarlett had to stop. If she kept going, she figured her heart might explode in her chest. The moment she let her feet slow down into a walk, she heard the thing’s growl in the distance. Scarlett whimpered and began running again.

  Chapter 33

  {Eyeball}

  SOMEONE’S LIGHT CAUGHT THE front of the building. They stopped moving. Everyone just stared at the front of the house, covered in painted eyeballs.

  “Come on,” Amelia said. “The entrance is around back.”

  Logan moaned. That seemed the spur everyone back into action. They carried his limp body on the stretcher around the house, following Brook and Amelia.

  Brook ran up the stairs, nearly tripping over a vine. She banged on the door. After a few seconds, she decided to push her way in.

  “Addison!” Brook said as she pushed open the door. “We’re coming in.”

  She put her shoulder against the door. It scraped across the floor as it opened far enough for them to carry Logan inside. They moved him through the kitchen into a room with a big table. As they were hoisting Logan into place, Addison came down the stairs.

  The older woman swept her light up and down Logan. A concerned sound slipped out of her mouth.

  “We need your help,” Amelia said. “You still have all those wraps?”

  “He needs more than wraps,” Addison said. “You need to get him to Flower Street.”

  “We tried,” Amelia said. “We don’t know where any of the healers are. They’re all hiding.”

  Addison nodded and moved to the kitchen. She came back with a handful of old wraps and a huge knife. Jacob found a lantern and hung it from the ceiling fixture. In the light, Addison’s blade was black with tarnish and dirt.

  “What happened to him?” she asked, looking at the pus oozing and bubbling from his leg.

  “Giant spider,” Harper said.

  “Oh!” Addison said. She began to cut away his torn pant leg so she could see the extent of the injury.

  “I’m not a healer,” Addison said, looking up at Brook.

  “We’ll just use the wraps,” Brook said. “That’s what we came for.”

  “It won’t work,” Addison said. “Not if this is venom. You have to get out enough of the venom so the wrap can work on living flesh. Otherwise it will form a buffer of dead tissue.”

  Amelia was tearing open the packages. “These are so old. I don’t know if they’ll even work.”

  “They’ll work,” Addison said. She leaned over Logan’s leg and pointed her knife at his wounds. There were two big puncture wounds with jagged edges. The surrounding muscle looked like it had been eaten away by acid. Away from the punctures, he also had several eruption points where the skin had burst open, spewing thick fluid. “You’re going to have to hold him down.”

  Jacob took his feet. Harper and Brook took his shoulders. They waved to Isaac and Penny who were hovering near the kitchen door. They came in and put hands on Logan as well.

  Addison moved her face very close to one of the punctures. She sniffed at the wound and angled her knife.

  “You’re going to clean that knife, right?” Isaac asked.

  Addison didn’t reply. She pressed the tip into Logan’s leg. He yelled and whipped his head back and forth. He tried to buck but found himself secured by all the hands on him. He didn’t have the strength to fight as Addison carved out yellow chunks of dead flesh.

  She kept cutting until she hit pink muscle and deep red blood. When she put out a hand, Amelia gave her wraps to pack into the hole. When they soaked through with blood, Addison plucked them out and tossed them into a dark corner. She packed in fresh wraps as fast as Amelia could unwrap them.

  By the time she started on Logan’s second puncture, he had passed out. Brook wiped away the sweat that was rolling down the sides of Logan’s face.

  “His pulse is really weak,” Penny said.

  “Let me work,” Addison said.

  “He’s losing too much blood,” Amelia said. “You have to give him some time before you cut any deeper.”

  Addison straightened and pushed the hair out of her eyes. She had been working so close to the wounds that her face was covered in blood and pus. Amelia watched horror as Addison licked her lips and then spat at the floor.

  “It doesn’t matter how much blood he has if the venom circulates any more,” Addison said. “The only thing that’s saving him now is that his blood vessels were damaged by the venom. If this stuff gets to his brain, he’s a dead man.”

  “You’re not a healer,” Amelia said. “You said so yourself.”

  “Let her work,” Brook said. “We have any other choice?”

  Amelia looked away. Addison went back to cutting.

  Jacob straightened and backed away, wiping his brow. He exhaled as he looked down at the scene with fresh eyes. Logan’s blood was dripping over the edge of the table and down to the filthy floor. The house around them looked like nature was taking it back. A vine had wormed its way through a crack in the window. Grass sprouted from dirt packed into the gaps between the floorboards.

  “We should go,” Jacob said. “We should catch up with the others and see if anyone else needs help at the other rally points.”

  “Don’t worry,” Penny said. “Finn and Jack know what to expect. They’ll recruit more help along the way.”

  “That’s the thing,” Jacob said. “It’s not always a pit—we told you that. It can be wolves.”

  “Or corpses that come back to life,” Harper said.

  “Right. And we know that Harper and I can fight them, but we don’t know about other people,” Jacob said.

  Addison put out her hand and Amelia filled it with another wrap.

  Brook stood up straight and wiped her hands on her shirt. She blinked and looked around. It was like they were coming out of a trance, one by one, as they realized that they were no longer needed to hold Logan down.

  “They’re strong and capable,” Penny said. “Trust me, they can handle what they find.”

  “Like you handled yourself?” Brook asked. “You people were all in that pit.”

  “Now we know what to expect,” Penny said.

  “No, you don’t,” Jacob said. �
��That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

  Addison finished. She coughed into her sleeve and took another wrap from Amelia. As they watched, she used the precious wrap to wipe blood from her hands. She tossed it to the corner with the others.

  “He’ll need a lot of fluids,” Addison said. “Prop him up and get as much water into him as you can.”

  Amelia nodded and moved towards the kitchen.

  “Now what are you people arguing about?” Addison asked.

  They glanced around, but nobody spoke.

  # # # # #

  “We assume that it’s The Wisdom,” Jacob said finally. He described the incidents from that night and then backtracked. When he got to the part about Harper, she took over and told her own story. After that, Jacob talked about his aunt’s encounter with the strange force.

  “We don’t know exactly what it wants, but we theorize that it intends to take away our will to survive and our sense of community.”

  Addison frowned. She poked at Logan’s leg again and then waved Amelia away so she could look at his gums. When she was done, she motioned for Amelia to go back to dribbling water into Logan’s mouth.

  “I’ve seen it,” Addison said.

  “Seen what?” Isaac asked.

  “Your Wisdom thing. You forget, I’ve lived here a long, long time.”

  Harper shook her head. “I’ve researched and talked to all the old-timers. There’s no record of the Wisdom ever coming to Fairbanks before. My grandfather lived in this area since before the cull and he said that…”

  “Hush,” Addison said. “I knew Gabriel. He was a good man, but he didn’t always understand what he was looking at. None of them did. Those fools lived here back when Fairbanks was the northern edge of the world. Did you know that the ice used to be north of here? Can you imagine? It used to get so cold that the river would nearly freeze all the way through. And that was back when the river was more than a kilometer across.”