“Don’t move,” he whispered. “Don’t even breathe unless you absolutely have to.”
Ryan squeezed his eyes shut. What other options did they have? Think!
Fact: Animals have better night vision and senses of smell than humans. Well, he and Emma were pretty much out of sight, but smell… oh jeez, both of them were bleeding from those plants. Would the wolves catch the scent of their blood?
He wet his index finger and held it up.
Emma raised her head, whispered: “Okay, now what are you doing?”
“Checking the wind.”
He’d seen snipers do this in war movies.
“Why?”
Should he mention the blood? No. Why add to the whole Fear Factor thing going on here. He felt the breeze cool the front of his finger, toward the direction they’d heard the howls. Good.
“We’re downwind. They won’t smell us. But they might hear us if you don’t zip it.”
Emma nodded and lowered her head. Ryan huddled closer to her when he heard a thrashing in the foliage downslope and to the right. Something broke from the brush near their position – whatever it was, it had been really close by. It made panting, whimpering sounds as it dashed across the clearing. He peeked at the pale form as it raced away from them.
Oh jeez, are you kidding me?
A man – a naked man. And he looked like he was running for his life.
Emma had spotted him too, sucking in a deep breath and opening her mouth.
Ryan didn’t even think about it – he clamped a hand over that mouth.
“Shhh!”
The man was literally running for his life – because just as he reached the half-way point in the clearing, two dark forms exploded from the brush. They unleashed the now-familiar hideous howls as they caught sight of their prey. Lithe and muscular, the predators accelerated into the meadow. The naked man screamed and increased his speed, elbows and knees pumping furiously, but he looked slow, almost plodding in contrast to his pursuers.
Heart pounding, mouth dry, Ryan stared in horror as the creatures closed the gap. He’d expected a wolfpack, but these things… well, they weren’t wolves, not like he’d ever seen. Wolves in movies and in zoos were smaller, more doglike. These animals looked longer and much bigger. But the way their dark fur blended against the background of shadowed trees, he couldn’t be sure. Details were getting hard to pick out. Trying to stay focused and not panic, Ryan concentrated on what he was seeing – if they were wolves, they were huge, and their limbs were… somehow wrong, and their snouts were too short, and –
What on Earth were they?
Well, for one thing, they were fast. The naked guy didn’t have a chance. He disappeared into the trees at the far side of the clearing with the wolf-things close on his heels. Just before they all vanished into the brush, Ryan noticed they were running on all fours only some of the time – mostly they were running on their hind legs, like men.
His mouth went dry. His tongue felt like leather.
Wolf-men?
Seconds later, screams echoed from the woods. Hideous, gurgling sounds. Ryan’s delicate stomach churned as he translated the pain and terror he heard. He felt even worse when the sounds abruptly stopped.
Emma sobbed. “Oh, God! That poor man!”
He felt numb. He was rarely at a loss for words, but he felt used up.
Where are we?
No, really – blood-sucking plants, man-eating wolf things… what had they gotten themselves into? Nothing made any sense.
And what to do next?
Move on and look for civilization – that had been Emma’s original idea and it remained a good one… if they could find any such place.
But move on how? Stumble around in the woods until full dark – knowing wolves were wandering around out there? Had those two creatures had their kill for the night? Would they still be hungry? And even if they weren’t… were there other things lurking out here?
Waiting for them?
10
Witnessing what had happened to that running man left Emma paralyzed. She couldn’t move, could barely even think. She lay flat in the damp grass, contained by the outward forks of two massive tree roots, afraid even to look up. If one of those wolf-things saw her…
This was all her fault. Brilliant idea, leaving the truck. What had she been thinking?
That was what she needed to do now – think. She pushed the fear down. Think-think-think!
“Ryan,” she whispered. He lay to her left, his gaze directed toward the bank of shrubbery from which the attack had come. “Night’s coming. We can’t stay here.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We’re too exposed. But where do we go?”
“I don’t see many choices. We can find some cover in the underbrush as long as it’s not full of those weird flowers, or we take our chances and head into the woods until we find a good tree we can climb. What do you think?”
“You’re asking me?”
Emma forced a smile. “Do you see anyone else around?”
“No, and I don’t want to. I…I don’t know… I think we’re in trouble no matter what we do, but underbrush isn’t going to protect us if one of those things catches our scent.”
“I agree. We’re better off up and out of reach. We need to find a tree we can hide in.”
Emma swallowed hard and pulled herself up to her knees. She regarded Ryan, who’d already risen into a tight crouch, like a runner at the starting blocks.
“Which way?” she said.
He pointed across the meadow, perpendicular to the road at their backs, to where a dark green swath of woods awaited them. She doubted it was more than a hundred yards of open space to cross, but it looked like a hundred miles.
How am I gonna do this? The thought threatened to seize her up again and she fought it off as she grabbed Ryan’s hand and stood.
“Okay, let’s do it!”
Emma started running and Ryan fell into step beside her. She dropped his hand as they picked up speed. Racing headlong across the uneven open space, she felt like she was always ready to trip, to fall forward over her own clumsy feet… but she kept moving, pistoning her arms and legs as fast as she’d ever pushed herself. Her glasses bounced up and down on the bridge of her nose until she reached up to steady them. The last thing she needed was to drop them now – or worse lose them.
Ryan lengthened his stride and started to move ahead of her.
“C’mon, Em! Time to open it up!”
Scanning the meadow left and right, Emma figured they were more than halfway. Even in the dying light, she felt so completely vulnerable out in the open. If anything was looking for them, it couldn’t miss them. She started to get a pinch in her side, just above her waist, like a hot needle being pushed under her skin. Her breath was getting ragged, and between gasps for air she thought she heard the cry of another wolf-thing.
Distant. Faint. But definitely somewhere out there.
Her legs were getting rubbery. She was so out of shape. She’d never liked sports, never saw the point. Now she wished she’d participated in something. She felt like she was flailing her arms, like she’d suddenly forgotten how to run. God, she felt so clumsy!
“Almost there!” Ryan’s harsh whisper penetrated the mist of fatigue that was threatening to envelop her. He seemed to sense she was fading and was urging her on. “You’re doing great!”
But she wasn’t doing great at all, and she knew it. Every lumbering step forward felt like she was pulling herself through a spongy swamp and the ground seemed to be sucking at her Vans, trying to pull them off her feet.
Another howl echoed across the meadow.
Still faint, but from where? Were they running away from it… or getting closer? She had a feeling something was behind them, but no way she could twist her head around to check. Her vision was getting a little blurry and she frantically checked for her glasses. Still there, just a little fogged up from her sweat and panting breath.
“That’s
it! That’s it!” Ryan’s voice louder, a register higher, as they reached the treeline. “We made it!”
Instantly, she felt the dark green coolness of the tall trees embrace her, imparting a sense of protection. It felt almost chilly in the copse, maybe because she’d been sweating so hard. She wasn’t used to this kind of exertion, and her poor conditioning embarrassed her. Ryan wasn’t even breathing hard as he slowed the pace to a walk. Playing soccer and lacrosse – that’s all he did was run.
They moved deeper into the woods where thick shrubbery filled in the gaps between the trunks. The heavy fragrance of the tooth-flowers reached her; despite its sweetness, the scent repulsed her.
She watched Ryan as he carefully searched for just the right tree. He went about the task with a single-mindedness that made Emma feel better.
“Okay,” he said, snapping his fingers. “This one looks like it’ll do just fine.”
“How do we get up to the first branches?”
Standing by the base of the tree, he cupped his hands forming a stirrup. “Put your foot in there – I’ll give you a boost up. No sweat.”
Emma followed his instructions, and he lifted her higher so she could grab the lowest branch and pull herself up and onto it. She felt awkward, but she wasn’t about to botch this up. Another second and she was stable and looking down at him as she moved laterally to another thicker arm of the tree.
“What about you?”
Without answering her, Ryan back-pedaled about twenty feet, then ran at the tree, ending in a leap toward the lowest limb. He grabbed with his long fingers and his skinny outstretched arms seemed almost to come out of their sockets. But he held on, started swing back and forth until he could hitch his leg over the branch and pull himself all the way up.
“Nothing to it!” he said panting heavily.
Normally Emma would have laughed or tried to say something sarcastic, but she was frankly amazed at his agility and his swagger. He never once doubted he could do what he just did. Plus, she knew it was something far beyond her own abilities. Never again would she sneer at people playing sports.
“We make a pretty good team,” she said, meaning it.
He smiled. “Yeah, we do, don’t we.”
“Now what?”
“I think we climb a little higher, use the leaves for some cover… at least we’re a lot safer up here.”
We hope.
Emma nodded as she felt rumbling pangs in her stomach. But there was no sense talking about being hungry right about now. No. Better to suck it up and wait things out.
Just then, another long, keening howl pierced the silence. It too spoke of hunger and need.
An hour passed with few words between them. Both were drained from the trauma of the wolf attack and the exertion of reaching the relative safety of the tree. It seemed to Emma that daylight had leaked out of the woods with alarming quickness, and now they clung to the branches as if suspended in a black void. So black she couldn’t see her hand held right in front of her eyes.
“Okay, so this is really dark,” she said in a very soft voice.
Ryan chuckled. “Yeah, no kidding. I wonder if there’ll be a moon coming up anytime soon.”
“A little moonlight would help.”
“I’m thinking our eyes will adjust to the dark pretty soon. It won’t be too bad.”
“And then what? I hope you’re not thinking of climbing down.”
He cleared his throat, didn’t answer right away. “Not without someplace to go. I guess we have to think this through one step at a time. We can’t count on anything for sure in this place. Wandering around in this dark without any idea where we’re going would be dumb. We’ve got no moon, no landmarks… we could wander for hours and wind up right back here.”
Emma’s thoughts exactly. Wandering in circles in the dark while being exposed to predators. Better to stay here.
“My only worry is falling asleep and falling of our branches. We need to keep watch on each other.”
So they clung to their branches in silence as time dragged on. Gradually, she started to see a little more clearly.
“Hey,” she said softly, pointing off to her right through the trees. “What’s that? It looks like a glow.”
Ryan looked in the same direction. “You’re right! That’s lights, Em! That’s the lights of a town!”
Before she could respond, he started to climb down from their perch.
“C’mon, let’s go!”
“What? Where?”
“That’s a town…and a town means people… we can get some help, so let’s go.”
A town…the first ray of hope they’d had since the tornado. She just hoped they survived the trip.
11
“Thank God!” Emma cried as they crested the hill and saw the town – a quaint gathering of tidy houses, pretty much like Skelton Springs, but with more hills, and no cornfields. “People! Civilization!”
After homing in on the glow on the horizon, they soon found a road, which led them to their present position.
“First thing we do,” Ryan said, “is find a police station. We’ve got to report those people back there.”
“Back where?”
Emma didn’t want to say that the first thing she wanted to find was a McDonald’s or a Wendy’s or a Burger King – even a Seven-11. Anyplace that had food.
Ryan looked at her. “What do you mean, ‘back where’? Back where they had us locked up, where they put us up for auction, where…” He looked around. “Oh. I get you.”
Right. They’d been turned around so often, neither had the faintest idea where they’d come from. Emma certainly didn’t.
“What do we tell them?” she said.
“The police department’s got to have a map. Maybe we can get an idea from that.”
They hurried down the road, passing tree-lined lanes of small cottages on the outskirts where a few people strolled about, but all the while they homed in on the brighter lights farther on. As they entered the center of the business district, they found a grid of streets crowded with shops and storefronts. The auto traffic was almost as light as the number of pedestrians.
“Should we ask for the police station,” Ryan said, “or just look around for it?”
Emma was looking for Golden arches but not seeing any – not seeing anything familiar, in fact. The storefronts looked so picturesque, almost like…
“Ryan, does this look real to you?”
“Well, yeah. But then again, not really. Kind of like a movie set or something you’d see in the Magic Kingdom.” He pointed to a store with a sign over the door that read Sweet Treets. “Let’s hope that’s real. I’m hungry.”
Thank God! Emma thought. He mentioned food.
But she kept a level expression and said, “Oh, really? In all this excitement I guess I kind of forgot about food. But I think I could eat something. Just a little snack to take the edge off.”
Like three Whoppers with two sides of fries and a chocolate milkshake.
For appetizers!
An adult couple walking ahead of them entered the store. Emma couldn’t resist stepping up to the window. With Ryan beside her, she watched them buy a handful of treats wrapped in gold foil. A sign over the display basket read Midnight Delights.
The man handed one to his female companion, a pale, narrow-faced blonde who opened the chocolate bon-bon and popped it into her mouth. She rolled her eyes with delight as a drop of cherry juice seeped out the corner of her mouth. Her tongue captured it. The man ate another and smiled with obvious pleasure.
Emma felt her mouth fill with saliva.
“Oh, man,” said Ryan. “Chocolate…what I wouldn’t give for just one of those.”
Emma said: “I. Am. Starving.”
Okay. There. She’d said it.
“Yeah, me too,” Ryan said as he reached for his back pocket. He stiffened, then began frantically patting his jeans. “My wallet!”
“What about it?”
�
��It’s gone!”
“Did you lose it?”
He gave her an annoyed look. “No, I gave it to one of those Chinese people.”
Okay, she deserved that.
“Where is it?”
His voice dripped sarcasm. “If I knew, it wouldn’t be lost, would it. Damn!” He punched his thigh. “A million places it could have popped out.” He gave her a bleak look. “We don’t have a cent.”
Her stomach growled again. “What’re we going to do?”
Ryan shrugged. “Let’s check out some of the food stores and see what develops.”
She looked hard at him. “Meaning?”
“Meaning, we wouldn’t be the first people to steal a loaf of bread because we’re hungry.”
She flashed back to the play their folks had taken them to see last winter in Kansas City: Les Mis. She couldn’t help think of poor Jean Valjean, imprisoned and then pursued his entire life for stealing a loaf of bread.
“Ryan, are you crazy? Suppose we get caught?”
“Well, we are looking for the police, aren’t we? That seems like a good way to find them.” He grinned. “Two birds with one stone.”
He started off down the street where they passed an old-time butcher shop with an array of fresh cuts of meat in the window. She found something odd about the display, something both familiar and unsettling. It got worse as she stood there, peering through the glass, and watched a clerk wrap a large mound of brains into white paper for a gaunt-looking man.
“Argh,” she said as he tucked the package under his arm and headed for the door. “How can people eat that?”
Ryan didn’t answer. He was gaping at the customer as he hurried past them – the man’s face was stained with what looked like rot and peeling flesh.
“He looks like one of those guys with that crazy doctor,” he whispered as the man moved away with an odd, off-center gait.
Definitely Not Kansas (Nocturnia Book 1) Page 7