At least there was safety railings on both sides of the stairs, it was the only thing that got her up the whole flight. Doc followed her carrying the IV stand and by the time she made it to the top she had to sit on the couch the closest to the door. “I need to catch my breath,” she told him as he locked the basement door and put the key in his pocket.
“Fine. I’ll put on coffee.”
“Can I have water first?”
Doc brought her a glass and she took a large gulp before rolling the glass between her hands with her eyes narrowed in concentration. When she felt like she was capable of making it, she used the rolling stand to cross the room and sit at the breakfast counter. “Why is the Dyian making so much noise?”
Doc seemed calmer but he still wasn’t willing to answer her question. Instead, he filled a baggie with ice and handed it to her across the counter. “Put this on your knee. I’ll get you an anti-inflammatory in a moment.”
“What did I do to it?”
“It might be dislocated. Can you move it at all?”
Sydney tried. “Not much,” she yelped. “Will you look at it?”
“Later. If you can move it at all it’s not broken and probably not dislocated either.”
“Can you wrap it up for me, or something? Do you have any painkillers?”
Doc looked annoyed but, tired of her whining, he left the kitchen to retrieve a first aid kit from his bathroom. When he returned he hesitated before getting too close, but, she did her best to keep an innocent and neutral look on her face. He pushed the second stool out of the way and sat the kit on the counter. He kept an eye on her as he opened the white box and retrieved a roll of elastic bandages.
Several muffled but loud bangs drifted up the stairs and through the locked door. Doc glanced over his shoulder, his brow furrowed with worry. “Why is the Dyian so pissed?” Sydney asked.
Doc finally answered her. “I’m not sure,” he sighed. “It’s been like this since last night.”
“Is it trying to get out?”
“It would seem so.”
“Can it get out?” The uneasiness Syd had been feeling rose to alarm.
“I don’t believe so.”
The fact that Doc didn’t exactly sound confident worried her more. She wished she knew if the Dyian would be a threat to her or not. “What would it do to me?”
He tried to smile reassuringly. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
Because it can’t get out? Or because it wouldn’t hurt me? It wasn’t worth the risk to wait around and find out. Another boom from downstairs caused her and Doc both to jump. She might have been imagining it, but the boom of the Dyian hitting the walls may have been accompanied by cracking wood. The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she looked to Doc to see if he heard it but if he did he was pretending he didn’t.
“You’ll have to take your pants off for me to wrap your knee,” he told her, looking awkward as he made the request.
The empty water glass exploded when she slammed it into the side of his head. Stunned, he fell back onto his butt and she hopped off the stool. The IV stand was heavier than she expected but she managed to lift it into the air and bring the wheeled end down on Doc’s head.
Xander
As the front tires gained traction on the pavement the back tires spun in the wet grass and nearly sent the SUV careening out of control. Shay squealed in alarm and Zack was tossed across the back seat.
“Careful,” he yelled.
Regaining control of the truck, Xander gritted his teeth. Everything in him was telling him to run. He could feel the cooling drops of blood and other stuff dotting his face and hands. The smell of gunpowder clung to him burning his nose. Every sense was heightened in his state of shock.
“Xander! Slow down,” Shay begged in a thin voice.
He forced himself to ease off the gas and he concentrated on staying on the curvy road. The trees were blurring past and it was disorienting. Xander had to take a couple of breaths to get himself to calm down. “Is everyone OK?” he asked.
“I think so,” Shay nodded.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to be OK again,” Zak admitted.
“Right,” Xander rolled the window down a little needing to feel the air on his face. The sun was coming up over the tops of the trees and should have been beautiful, but he couldn’t appreciate the view. His need to run was almost as strong as his need to find Sydney. As soon as he had her back he was getting the hell away from here. He had visited New Orleans once for Mardi Gras. Maybe he would go there. Make Shay and Zak go with them. They could move their businesses. Maybe they should all even change their names and appearances.
“Xander!” Shay’s voice brought him back to the present.
“What?”
“Are you OK?”
“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I just want to find Sydney and get the hell out of here.”
“Me too,” she agreed.
The road they were on was a curvy one, forcing Xander to pay attention to his driving and not what had just happened—which was a good thing.
“Do you think Sydney has one of those things in her head?” Zak asked softly.
“Shut up!” Xander spat with more vehemence than he had intended.
No one spoke again for a while. “I’m going to, again, insist that Sydney sees a doctor whenever we get her back, I think the benefits outweigh the risks at this point.”
Xander conceded. “I know.” He glanced at the clock wondering how long they had been driving. It felt like hours but he knew it had only been minutes, maybe fifteen.
“Watch out!” Shay screamed.
Xander looked up to see a person standing in the middle of the road. He hit the brakes hard but was too close to stop in time. Instinctively, he jerked the wheel to the right aiming to go around the guy who had not even flinched at the big truck currently sliding toward him. The tires screamed against the pavement and as they spun past the guy Xander could see blood running down his face. Before he had time to process what he was seeing the truck went airborne across the ditch and nosedived into the grass.
He was glad he instinctively put on his seat belt when his chest slammed into the shoulder strap instead of his face smashing into the windshield. But all the wind was knocked from his lungs and everything went black and his chest exploded in pain. When he came to the truck was sideways, parallel to the road and rested with its side against a huge tree that was raining leaves onto the crumpled hood. Xander blinked, trying to clear his head. As his vision focused he could see someone moving towards them and at first he assumed it was a witness to the accident coming to help them. But then he noticed the blood on the man’s face and he remembered what caused the crash to begin with.
“Shay?” he turned towards his sister.
She was moving, slowly and clumsily, but at least she was conscious. He looked for Zak and found him scrambling to get off the floor where he had landed since he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. The smell of hot metal, oil and antifreeze burned his nose and he worried about the risk of fire. “Are you hurt?” he asked Zak.
“My ribs,” Zak groaned.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Xander told them. “He’s coming.”
“Who?” Shay mumbled.
“The guy. The guy in the road. Get out!” He began trying to unbuckle his seatbelt and Shay was trying to push open her door, confused when it wouldn’t budge. “You’ve got to crawl over,” he told her finally free from the seatbelt.
Xander opened his door and stumbled to the ground, nearly falling into the ditch. Pain radiated throughout his whole body. He could barely breathe his chest hurt so badly. He opened the back passenger door and grabbed Zak by his hands and pulled him out. He was almost wedged between the backseat and the front seats. As he pulled Zak free he saw the bloody man step off the road fall face forward as if he hadn’t realized there was nothing under the long grass except a ditch.
Xander turned to the driver�
��s door to help pull Shay out of the vehicle. “Run,” he told them both. Adrenaline was pumping through his body and he was ready to fight.
The bloody man had climbed out of the ditch and was half crawling and half running at them. He was in between them and the road and that is the only reason Xander could imagine that would justify Shay pulling Zak towards the woods. “Not that—,” he tried to call out to them but his words were cut off when the man slammed into him sending them both to the ground.
Xander’s vision went blurry again and it was all he could do to stop the man from clawing his eyes out. He finally knocked him back far enough to have room to swing and he slammed his fist into the guy’s bloody jaw sending him to the ground. He rolled away and used the truck to help him climb to his feet, gasping against the ache in his chest. The man came at him again and he raised his foot in time to plant it against his chest and kick him away. The guy’s snarls ended in a loud grunt as he went flying.
Xander leaned into the truck looking for his gun. He had dropped it in the console before driving away from Pan’s body but now he couldn’t find it. The man jumped onto his back grabbing a handful of his hair as leverage. He was making agonized mewling sounds just like Pan. Xander threw an elbow backwards hoping to catch the guy in the face but he was too close and Xander couldn’t connect.
As a last ditch effort to get the guy off him, Xander threw all his weight backwards and slammed them both into the ground. The breath was nearly knocked out of him again but he was able to roll off the guy who was clearly struggling to breathe. He hoped he had broken some of his ribs and he drew back his foot to make sure. As he slammed his boot into the guy’s side Xander realized he was screaming like a crazy person—kicking over and over again. Movement from across the road caused him to look up from the squealing man at his feet.
A woman was running at them from the field across the road. She was making strange yipping sounds and tearing at her hair and the anger that had risen inside Xander turned to alarm. More movement, this time from the west, sent Xander into full blown panic. There was no way he could fight off all three of them. The first guy was already trying to get to his feet. Xander dove inside the truck in one last effort to find the gun, but it was nowhere to be seen. He couldn’t bring himself to go back out the driver’s side towards the two crazed people closing in on him. Instead, he used his elbow to knock out the spider-webbed glass of the passenger side window and threw himself out of the broken window head first and hit the tree on the way down, scraping some of the skin off the side of his face before he slammed into the roots at the base of the tree.
Someone grabbed his arm and he nearly came up fighting until he realized it was Shay. “Come on! They’re coming!”
He managed to get his legs under him and Shay pulled him towards the trees. He realized running through the woods was a bad idea, but they had already committed to that escape plan and they had to go along with it since backtracking would run them right into their pursuers. In the woods it would be easier to get lost and harder for someone to see them and help them. On the other hand, though, they might find a place to hide. He could still see the road when they made it back to Zak who was catching his breath against a tree. The three of them supported each other as they hurried as fast as they could through the woods. Xander tried to keep track of the path they took, but he was too disoriented to tell one direction or tree from another.
They couldn’t seem to outrun the snarling people chasing them either. They were fast, but the fact that they were in so much pain and frenzy was the only thing that kept them from catching up. They weren’t working together but were, nonetheless, doing a great job at herding them deeper into the woods always a few yards behind or to the side. Zak was whimpering and groaning in pain and Xander was struggling against the pain in his chest. He might not have broken any ribs, but he was pretty sure that the seatbelt bruised a few at least. Shay seemed the least injured, but she could only do so much to help get the two men through the forest that was quickly becoming denser.
“I can’t run anymore,” Zak gasped and stumbled to the ground holding his side.
Xander tried to drag him to his feet even though he himself didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to keep running. He wiped at the blood from his scraped face. “Get up,” he urged Zak.
Shay was spinning in circles looking at the ground. The female was rushing at them and Xander braced himself to try to fight her off. If he could take care of her before either of the men got to them, he might have a chance. He stepped forward to meet her and she lunged at him screaming maniacally. Before she was on him, Shay swung a broken tree limb at the woman’s head. The heavy branch connected with a wet sounding crack and sent the woman spinning to the side. Xander slumped back, almost falling on Zak. Everything in him screamed for him to get up and help his sister, but he was too weak and in too much pain.
The guy, the third one to join the attack, stumbled out of the woods from the right and Shay turned towards him and planted her feet. She cocked the branch back, twisted her hip and stepped into the swing. The man’s head snapped to the side and the sickening crack told Xander his neck was broken. Shay turned in circles, her eyes narrowed in determination as she searched for the first guy. He had either given up on them, couldn’t keep up because of his injuries, or was smarter and was hanging back waiting for his moment to strike—because after a solid minute he still hadn’t made a move. The only sounds were the three of them panting for breath—even the early morning animals were quiet in the wake of the attack.
“I’m sorry I nicknamed you Ball-Dyke in high school,” Zak tried to joke but ended up whimpering more.
Shay nearly smiled, proud of herself. “I’m glad those years of softball were worth something. But you two have to get off your asses. We can’t stay here. There’s no telling when the other one is going to pop back up.”
Chapter Fifty
The metal wheels of the IV cart clanged down on Doc’s head and the reverberation turned Sydney’s stomach. She tried to right the stand and put her weight on it, but she nearly fell over. One of the feet was bent causing the whole thing to become unstable. Doc groaned at her feet and she knew she needed to hurry. She didn’t have it in her beat the man to death with the IV cart. She was one those who yelled “double-tap” at the movies too, but when push came to shove—beating an unconscious man took more brutality than she had. She let the IV cart fall with a clang.
Sydney eased herself to the floor the best she could before fishing the grenade out of his pocket. It was heavier than she expected and warmed from being in Doc’s pocket. Holding the small explosive caused chills to raise hairs on the back of her neck. She was literally holding something that was just waiting to explode. By the time she was able to climb back to a standing position, using the stool she had been sitting on, Doc was starting to stir.
When he was conscious enough to realize what had happened he snarled at her. She held up the grenade and he blinked until it came into focus. “What the hell are you doing?” he wiped blood out of his eyes.
“Stopping you from cutting into my brain.”
“But you don’t understand. I can prove there is life on other planets!”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
“You ignorant bitch.”
Tired of listening to him whine, Sydney held up a hand. “Just shut—” A loud crash from the basement cut off her words and caused her to jump and nearly drop the grenade.
“What did you do?” Doc gasped.
“I didn’t do that!”
Another, smaller, crash brought Doc clumsily to his feet and Sydney nearly fell trying to back away. “I think it’s loose.”
“No, no, no…” he muttered.
“What’s it going to do? She asked.
He hesitated, “I don’t know.”
Sydney could guess what he thought it might do. “If you want out of here you had better get me the keys to the door and the van.” Sydney figured
she could make him let her out then she could escape in the van. She hoped she would be able to drive with her left foot.
“No,” Doc shook his head.
At first she thought he was still lamenting the fact that the Dyian was loose, but then she realized he was telling her he wouldn’t give her the keys. “Are you stupid? I don’t think it is going to want to make friends with you, do you? Just give me the keys and you can leave with me.”
“I don’t care,” he was nearly crying now.
She glared at him. He would rather die than not complete his work. If he let her go his questions about her condition would go unanswered and the Dyian would end up escaping. His work meant more to him than his own life and his need to know was winning out. “Fine I’ll blow us all up if you don’t let me out.”
“You don’t have the guts,” he said almost calmly. “You have tried very, very hard to stay alive.
“I think you’ve underestimated me. I don’t want to die. But I would rather blow myself, you and that creature up than let you or that thing hurt people.”
“People? People aren’t worth this creature’s life. This is the greatest scientific find since antibiotics!”
“It’s not worth the damage it will end up doing to humanity. Where will it end? I’m assuming it will continue to reproduce, and its offspring will reproduce. Humans aren't prepared for this.”
The whole time they had been talking, Sydney had been balanced half on, half off, the stool. In hindsight, making her move when injured was a stupid idea. But, the anxiety she felt since waking up was only growing worse by the minute. The skin crawling need to move, to do something was increasing by the second. Whatever was causing it wouldn’t let her wait any longer and now that the ball was rolling she had to go with it even if she was at a major disadvantage.
Don't Let Them Find You (The Dyian Series Book 1) Page 34