Chapter Eighteen
Now
Zoe was still screaming. Nowen levered herself up on her knees and looked around. Something had stopped them from tipping over completely. There was no indication of what might be happening with the rest of the group; the clamor of the Revs made it hard to think, much less hear anything from outside. The door had swung open a bit, revealing the concrete parking lot and nothing else.
She realized she was kneeling on Matt, and that he wasn’t moving. Looking down, she saw why; his slide across the floor had ended with him in an awkward angle against a cabinet door. His head was twisted at an angle so severe that his chin was almost resting on the back of his left shoulder. One earpiece of his ubiquitous sunglasses was jammed in his right eye.
Nowen spared a moment to look the body over - and then saw a glimmer of metal on his belt. “Zoe!” The fierceness of her tone cut through the other woman’s near-hysteria. “Come here, I need you!”
Zoe drew herself up to her feet and stagger-walked to where Nowen still knelt on Matt’s body. “What do you want?” she shouted over the noise of the Revs.
Nowen motioned with her head. “There, on his belt, the key ring. He might have the key to these handcuffs.”
Only now did Zoe notice Matt. Her wide eyes grew even wider as she looked at him. “Oh my god, he’s dead!”
“Not important - check the keys!”
With a trembling hand Zoe picked through the small number of keys, flinching at each thump of a Rev clambering overhead. “Here, here it is!” She unhooked the key ring and turned to Nowen. Nowen shifted awkwardly so Zoe could reach the cuffs. The metallic jangling of the cuffs falling free was music to her ears, and she drew her aching arms around to look at her hands. They were swollen and purple, and deep ridges marred her wrists where the cuffs had cut into her flesh.
“Wh-wh-what do we do now?” Zoe shouted.
Nowen shook her hands, trying to get sensation to return. “We don’t know what’s happened to the others, or if we’re even still attached to the truck. We’re safe here, I think, at least for a little bit.”
Glass shattered above them and a scythe-shaped piece as big as Nowen’s hand landed in her lap. She looked up to see the camo Rev’s skeletal arm reaching for them. The window was still mostly intact, but Nowen didn’t think the glass could support the Rev’s weight much longer.
Zoe grabbed Nowen’s shoulder, fingers sinking deep into the flesh. ‘Oh God, we’re gonna die!”
Nowen shook her loose. “Stop it! Panic isn’t going to help! Stay calm. Just stay calm, ok?” Zoe nodded weakly. Nowen turned her attention to the camper’s interior, trying to quell her own sense of panic. The wolf was awake, and didn’t like being trapped and surrounded. The animal’s fear and desire to flee was stoking her own anxiety.
Zoe interrupted her thoughts. “The sheet. It’s got blood on it, from...from Mrs. Roberts and the...um. Do you think that could distract that dead-head up there?”
Nowen looked at the wadded ball of fabric, lying next to the bed. It was still sodden with blood. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s worth a try.”
The young woman reached past Nowen and grabbed the sheet. She held a bloody corner up to the grasping hand, and it clamped around the fabric like a spider on a fly. The Rev pulled his trophy out the window. “He took it! “ Zoe said excitedly.
“Ok, maybe that’ll distract them for a minute. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“How?!”
Nowen gritted her teeth as fire-dipped needles punched through her hands. Sensation was returning with a painful vengeance, but in exchange she was getting mobility back in her hands. She flexed her fingers as she looked around the interior. Her eyes landed on the slightly-opened door. “There - out the door!”
Zoe pulled herself over to the exit, dropping on her stomach to get a better view. Slowly she slid her head up to the opening and looked out.
“Is it clear?” Nowen crawled across the slanted camper to join Zoe.
The young woman pulled her head back inside. “Yeah, it looks like it. I think we’re leaning against another car, and there’s a couple more cars around us. Maybe we can crawl under them to get away.”
Nowen gave a sharp nod. “Let’s go for it.”
Zoe went first, edging cautiously out the door on her stomach. Nowen followed, her progress made easier by the fact that her hands felt almost back to normal. She joined Zoe underneath the car nearest to them. The smell of old oil and rust rose from the pavement.
“Now what?” Zoe whispered.
Nowen looked around. The shuffling feet of Revs were everywhere, it seemed. The howls and shrieks had faded some as the Revs searched for their prey. Ahead of them she could see that three or four cars were tight against each other, giving them a short hidden path away from the camper. She nudged Zoe and pointed ahead.
They made a slow, steady progress under the cars, reaching the last one in the line and pausing to determine their next goal. They had ended in a kind of cul-de-sac of vehicles, a small grouping of rescue and military trucks. Nowen stood up in the small space and checked her surroundings. Zoe followed her lead.
The grouping of trucks offered them shelter from the eyes of the Revs but it also blocked their view. Nowen chose something that resembled an oversized SUV and climbed up a massive wheel. From this height she could see a large portion of the parking lot. The camper was a couple of hundred feet behind them. At some point during the attack Tuck’s truck had managed to get separated from the camper. She could see it driving away from them, weaving through the abandoned cars and metal barriers. Damn. I really wanted to kill him. A small distance away to her right side the curved wall of the center rose up into the sky. She could see a set of double doors at the bottom of the wall.
The larger mobile home was off to her left about twenty feet, the front end jammed against an overturned ambulance. Revs surrounded the RV, clawing fur purchase along the sides. As she watched the RV lurched into reverse, dragging down the shrieking undead under its wheels.
Nowen hopped off the wheel and crouched on the pavement. She pulled Zoe down next to her and leaned close to whisper in the other woman’s ear. “We’ve got to keep moving. Oliver and his group are over there,” she pointed to the left, “and I want to get away before he decides to head this way.”
“Oh, damn, why can’t Oliver just get eaten already! Wait, where’s Tuck?”
“Driving away as fast as he can. Ok, the convention center is just over here, to the right. I saw some doors - we might be able to get inside.”
“But what if there’re dead-heads in there!”
Nowen shrugged. “Worth a try.” She didn’t wait for an answer but turned and crawled under the barrier of vehicles toward the center. After a moment she heard Zoe following her. In a couple of minutes they were at the tall glass doors. Trash was strewn everywhere in the recessed area in front of the entrance. Nowen scurried in a hunched-over crouch to the door, Zoe clinging to her side like a shadow.
Nowen glanced around - so far their luck was holding, and no Revs had spotted them. Zoe nudged her and pointed at the doors.
The glass doors, twice her height, were intact, but the glass was dark and shot through with cracks. The faint odor of smoke clung to the entrance. Nowen reached out a hand and shoved against one of the doors, which swung open easily onto a dark hallway. She grabbed Zoe’s hand and pulled her along as she stepped into the center.
“Oh, shit, what happened here?” Zoe’s quiet words dropped into the dead silence of the short hallway. The walls and furniture were blackened with smoke. A smudged-grey sign, warped plastic edges curling inwards, pointed right to a convention hall. Nowen glanced at Zoe; the young woman nodded, and they turned to the right.
The absolute quiet of the center reminded Nowen of the Wyoming prairie. They reached a set of heavy wood doors and cautiously pushed through. Another dark, short hallway and then the massive convention hall opened before them. Zoe gasped, a sound of
utter horror. Her cold hand wrapped around Nowen’s tightly.
This was where the majority of the refugees had been kept. There was still some semblance of order to the rows of cots that filled the floor, but the fire that had raged through this space had warped them into twisted, nightmarish sculptures. The remains of the refugees were everywhere. Blackened sticks of arms, blackened arcs of ribcages, blackened humps of skulls. Here and there a white flash of teeth shown amid the charcoal bodies. The roof and walls were as black as the dead, and there was a gaping hole in the back of the convention center where the fire had eaten away the wall. Nowen could see a glimpse of the parking lot through the collapsed area.
She led Zoe through the hall. Stepping on the bodies was inevitable; they crunched underfoot, dead leaves and insects on an autumn forest floor. The faint lingering odor of roasted bodies made Nowen’s no, not me, the wolf’s mouth water. Zoe’s breathing was harsh in her ear as they picked their way toward the back of the hall. The urge to go faster was almost overwhelming as fresh air came through the gap.
They crouched next to the collapsed wall and surveyed the back parking lot. A handful of Revs wandered among the small number of cars here. Beyond the end of the lot was a row of buildings and, behind that, the interstate.
Nowen turned to the young woman next to her. “Zoe, we’re going to make a run for it. We can get to the end of the lot without the Revs seeing us. Just go from car to car. Quietly.” Zoe nodded and took a deep breath. “Got it.” she replied.
They made a dash for a dirty red van, sinking to their knees next to the back wheels. A quick peek around the bumper showed that the Revs had still not noticed them. Zoe pointed at an eighteen-wheeler that had jackknifed around a delivery truck, another twenty feet away. Nowen rose to a crouch and prepared to run.
The flat crack of a gunshot split the air. Zoe screamed and flinched away. Nowen leaned back around the end of the van. Another gunshot echoed through the parking lot and a small hole punched through the van’s bumper. She yanked her head back, her heart pounding in her chest.
“What’s going on? Who’s shooting at us?!” Zoe gasped.
“Back! Back inside!” Nowen pushed past the young woman but had only taken a couple of steps when there came another gunshot and something whined off the pavement in front of her. She leapt back to the safety of the van, knocking Zoe off her feet.
Zoe struggled up to a crouch and turned wide, frightened eyes on Nowen. “What the hell’s going on?!” she said. Nowen ignored her and dropped to her stomach, looking under the van for the shooter. At first she saw only the staggering feet of the Revs who, attracted by the sounds of the shots, were moving toward their location. Then a vehicle moved into sight, near where the parking lot ended. She recognized it.
She slid back out from under the van and looked up at Zoe. “It’s Tuck.”
A look of utter bewilderment spread over Zoe’s face. “What?”
“Tuck. That bastard’s out there firing at us. He’s keeping us pinned here, and the Revs are coming.”
“Oh, God, what are we going to do? I don’t want to die here. I don’t want to die here!” Zoe’s voice rose with each word until she was nearly screaming.
Nowen raised a hand. “Shhh! We just need to think.” Another crack, and a window in the van shattered above them, raining shards of glass on them. Zoe flinched again, clamping her hands over her head.
“We’re going to die! We’re going to die! There’s nothing we can do!” The young woman’s voice was colored with hysteria. Tears ran down her face.
There is something you can do. Feral eyes glowed deep in her head.
“I can do something.” she sighed. The wolf grinned.
“Wh-what are you talking about?” Zoe tremblingly asked.
“I can’t explain. Just don’t freak out. Stay right here, ok?” Nowen grabbed the young woman’s hands in her own, waiting until the hazel eyes were completely focused on her own amber ones. “I’m going to draw the Revs away, and with any luck take out Tuck, too. Keep an eye out; as soon as it’s clear, run. Try to get into one of the cars. Got it?”
At Zoe’s hesitant nod Nowen dropped her hands and backed away a couple of steps. She closed her eyes, and let the wolf out.
Chapter Nineteen
Now
A sour stink of fear and urine swamped the wolf’s nose. She shook her head roughly to get rid of the smell and took a couple of steps back and away from the female human in front of her. The female was whimpering like a pup but was much too big to be one, and the wolf wrinkled her nose in annoyance. For some reason this caused the human to whimper even more.
The wolf turned away and moved to the other end of the metal thing car she was behind. She was in a large area of hard black ground. There were more of the metal things cars - you know what they’re called here, and there were humans. She sifted their scent from the air - they were the dead-not-dead she had come across before. She growled, low and fierce. The dead-not-dead were unnatural, and everything about them meant danger and death.
A large cracking sound startled her. Her ears drew flat against her head, and the other part of her, the human that kept her from running free, knew that sound was dangerous. The wolf swung her head about, searching for a way out of this place of cars and humans and dead-not-dead. She saw a way, a path past all the obstacles between her and the north. North meant home, and that’s all the wolf wanted. She ran.
The wolf swept around a couple of large cars, keeping them between her and the direction of the cracking sound. A dead-not-dead Rev lunged at her as she flew past the end bumper. She slammed her body against the male thing’s legs and sent the creature flying. Behind her came another cracking sound and then the crash of shattering glass. She increased her pace, running as fast as she could force herself to go. Not far ahead she could see where the hard black ground changed to grass, and the wolf set her sights on that.
No! The wolf stumbled in her flight as the other’s voice rang through her head. She slid to a halt next to an overturned car, a long metal thing that smelled of rubber and rotted meat. She dropped her head, pawing at her ears as the other kept talking. No. I have something for you to do. The wolf snarled and bit at the air. She wanted to run, to feel the grass under her paws, to get away from this dead place.
No! Not yet. You will do this. We have to help someone. Frothy salvia dripped from the wolf’s lips as she fought against the other. Images started to flash through her head - the large male human with no fur Oliver hitting her us, the shorter male with thin grey fur Tuck trying to dominate her. That image especially rankled, a subordinate male attempting to displace her as the alpha. We will teach them a lesson first. And then we will head home. The endless prairie, the snowy peaks, the clean air and the abundant prey - they filled her senses and kindled a longing so strong she almost howled. Deal? The wolf gave a small yip of acceptance. Good. Let’s go.
The wolf dropped to her stomach and crawled under one of the vehicles until she could see where the shots were coming from. The male called ‘Tuck’ was inside a car that’s called a truck, leaning out an opening in the side, something long and shiny in his hands. He was looking back toward the car and the female she had left behind. There were a few Revs wandering in from the left side of the lot, drawn by the sounds of the shots. She slithered out from underneath her shelter, waiting for the stragglers to pass further to her right.
A scream from behind her almost startled the wolf to flight, so unexpected and fearful it was. Zoe! We have to go back! She snarled angrily. Now! The wolf had twisted back on herself and was racing toward the scream before she knew it. She snarled again but didn’t fight the urgency that was taking over. In a moment she was back where she had started.
The female screamed again. The human was backed up against one of the cars, surrounded by Revs. The wolf plunged into the middle of the unnatural creatures, snapping and biting. She sunk her teeth into the foul-tasting meat of a leg and yanked, pulling a hunk of tissue a
nd flesh free. As the Rev staggered from her attack she whirled around to the other leg, this time catching hold of the reeking creature and jerking as she went. The Rev fell backwards, taking two of its fellows with it as it went down. She shot through the tangle of limbs and bodies and turned in a tight arc to charge back into the group. The female had managed to crawl under one of the cars, and with one target gone the Revs turned their attention to the wolf.
She leapt onto the back of one of the fallen creatures and launched herself at a large Rev, hitting it in the chest. She drove her muzzle for the vulnerable throat, her powerful jaws meeting each other through the muscle and flesh. Fetid liquid oozed into her mouth and it was only with the urging of the other that the wolf kept her hold.
The force of her jump drove the big Rev back into the horde, but this one wasn’t going to do down as easily as her first victim. Its hands grasped for purchase on her body. Without warning she found herself falling. The decaying skin on the creature’s throat had given way beneath her weight. She landed off-balance, just unsettled enough to allow another Rev to lunge at her.
She wriggled away from its weight. The other Revs had closed in, and she felt a shared burst of sheer panic. For a moment she was trapped, the Revs grabbing at her ears and tail. One bony hand swiped at her eyes and a sharp tugging came from her back where another one had managed to sink its fingers into the heavy fur. The wolf drove through the a small gap in the enclosing legs, fear lending strength to her body. Pain jumped down her back as she left a Rev holding a swath of fur.
The wolf turned, a few feet past the creatures, and looked for the female. She saw the human, staring out from the inside of a car. Zoe’s fine for right now. Let’s see if we can lure these things away. The wolf turned again and started loping away from where the female was sheltered. The Revs followed.
Let’s take them to Tuck. The wolf barked in agreement, pleased with this plan. She angled toward the truck that held the one called ‘Tuck’, barking to keep their attention on her. More of the slow-moving creatures noticed the procession and moved to join them. Oh, damn, the gun!
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