Trail of Blood

by Michael McBride

  Adam glanced one final time at the sun descending behind the rising mountains before the shadows swept over them. The road wound to the left, beginning its graceful ascent. The temperature dropped steadily in the darkening shade. The forest closed in on the four-lane highway, the shoulder shrinking as strange trees that once must have been pines and junipers reached toward them with alternately stiff and limp claws, hiding ominous black shadows beneath that moved like mist around the trunks. Creatures scampered through the thorny underbrush, darting from their peripheral vision, never holding still long enough to be clearly seen. Sharp-tipped weeds reminiscent of yuccas grew from the cracks in the road, and in some cases climbed up the sides of the dead cars in preparation of claiming them as their own.

  Adam flicked on the single headlight to ward off the coming night, the weak stream barely diffusing into the darkness ahead. They would only be able to drive so much longer. He was exhausted, and his back felt like he’d been folded in half the wrong way. His legs positively ached from the constant vibration of the motor. His stomach cramped, a combination of the stress and hunger, and his bladder felt as swollen as a watermelon pressing against his pelvis. He could only imagine how the others must be feeling. They would need to take a break soon, maybe even set up camp long enough to get what little sleep they could manage before heading back out on the road. His gut told him they were going to need every last ounce of their strength.

  The initial, though unspoken, plan had been to drive as far as they could before nightfall, but he hadn’t anticipated losing several hours of useful daylight when the sun vanished prematurely behind the peaks.

  He glanced back over his shoulder in time to see the string of headlights flash on, noticing that the gaps between riders had lengthened considerably. It looked as though Jill was now a quarter mile behind, forcing him to slow to keep the procession close enough together.

  They couldn’t afford to be driven past their limits. He had no idea what was in store around each coming bend. They needed to stay sharp, their reflexes honed to a razor edge. If they were sluggish at all, they would be too easily overwhelmed, and he would never be able to forgive himself if he allowed anything to happen to them for the sake of speed. The need to reach their destination had become paramount, but if they didn’t heed caution, they might never arrive at all. The next good spot. As soon as they reached the next suitable breaking point, he would pull off the road and allow them a few minutes to recuperate. He knew better though. A bathroom break would turn into a meal break, and the next thing he knew it would be pitch black and they’d be dozing around the fire. But what other option did they have?

  The highway wound through the mountains, a valley opening on the far side, the hillside growing steadily steeper directly beside them to the right. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of a river clear down at the bottom, wending through the black pines far below, just the occasional sparkle of the setting sun on racing waves. Higher they climbed, until finally the road leveled off at the summit of the first row of mountains. An off ramp veered to the right, leading to a leveled section of ground where the trees had been cleared away to make room for a large parking lot surrounding a small dark building, beside which an even smaller stone domicile had been erected.

  Adam tapped the brakes to make his taillight flash and slowed, performing a quick count of the headlights behind him before riding up the ramp and heading off to the right into the large asphalt circle. There were several cars in the diagonal parking places along the curb in front of a wide cement path leading up a short slope to the main building. A luxury sedan looked like it had been torn apart from the inside, the leather upholstery shredded, balls of glass covering the ground around it. A single parking space separated it from a white minivan filled with dark silhouettes straining against the seatbelts, wasting away. He couldn’t bear to look inside. Some of those shadows were so small, their heads barely higher than the rear seat backs.

  Giving the vehicles a wide berth, Adam rode up the handicapped ramp and onto the lawn, heading for the overhang off the side of the building, beneath which were several wooden picnic tables. He coasted up beside one and killed the engine to preserve what little gas remained and straightened the kickstand with his heel. By the time all of the others joined him, he was already off the bike, pacing with both hands to either side of his lumbar spine, trying to stretch out the sore muscles.

  The motorcycles were louder than he had hoped they would be. Maybe it was the strange acoustics of the mountaintop, but it almost sounded like thunder. Knitting his brow, he walked away from the others toward the line of trees at the eastern edge of the rest stop. He looked back and saw that several of the cycles were already off. The ground, and even the air around him, vibrated, the thunder growing louder and louder. He heard distant screams beneath the rumble. Slowing, he cocked his head to the sky, his eyes never leaving the wall of mutated evergreens.

  “Do you guys hear that?” Adam called without looking back.

  The sound grew louder, drowning out any reply that may have been made.

  A black cloud rose against the night, swelling over the treetops, which began to sway gently. The cloud swelled far too quickly, faster than any storm Adam had ever seen.

  The screams grew shrill, piercing, but they weren’t human. They sounded almost—

  Dark shapes shredded through the trees, exploding outward, racing toward him.

  Adam threw his hands over his head and dove to the ground. The air came to life around him with shrieking, a rush of air battering him before the assault commenced.

  II

  EVELYN FELT HER FLESH TRYING TO VIBRATE RIGHT OFF HER BONES. HER legs ached and her back was a study in cramping. Jake’s arms were so tight around her abdomen she feared he might pulverize her organs, and she had to grind her teeth to keep from screaming, but finally, finally Adam veered off the highway. She breathed an anticipatory sigh of relief when she saw the parking lot and the small cluster of buildings. One of them had to be a bathroom. An honest to God bathroom. How long had it been since she’d actually sat on a toilet? Since she’d actually used toilet paper? She’d been living like an animal for so long, squatting behind rocks and having to drip dry that even a rest stop bathroom sounded heavenly.

  Gliding through the lot, she followed Adam’s path between a pair of cars she didn’t dare inspect too closely. By the time she eased up the short grassy knoll to the picnic area, Adam was already off his bike and walking in the opposite direction, stretching as she intended to do the moment she hopped off of that vibrating deathtrap. Snapping down the kickstand with her heel, she almost moaned with relief when the tension around her lap abated and Jake slid off the seat behind her. She followed suit, unslinging the shotgun from her neck and rolling her head on her shoulders to work out the kinks. Her legs were trembling so badly it made the ground feel like it was shaking. Setting the shotgun on the picnic table, she turned in time to see the others pulling onto the concrete slab and beneath the corrugated aluminum overhand. Her hearing had adapted to the thrum of engines so that she hardly even noticed them until they were silenced. Another noise lingered beneath. Not the furious buzz of the cycles, but more like the distant roar of a turbine engine, the sound of passing through a long tunnel in a car with the windows down.

  She looked across the lawn at Adam, but could only see his back. He appeared to have divined the origin of the sound and was staring past the dense forest ringing the rest stop. A black cloud rose against the night, swallowing stars, swelling like a Tsunami preparing to crash down upon them. The breeze shifted so that it blew from the cloud into her face, bringing with it a smell not unlike turned earth with the faintest hint of smoke. The roaring sound grew louder with each passing second.

  “Adam!” Evelyn screamed, but he couldn’t hear her. What was he doing out there anyway? It felt as though they were standing in the path of a tornado. “Adam!”

  Evelyn ran toward him, but she barely made it several strides before the
bank of trees exploded. Needles and branches fired from the thicket like shrapnel from a massive denotation. Tiny black shapes knifed through the greenery. Adam threw himself to the ground a heartbeat before Evelyn did the same, squeezing her eyes shut and screaming down into the grass. In her mind was a snapshot of the last thing she saw, the cloud tearing the forest to shreds, filling the air.

  There were screams all around her, horrible shrieking noises that lanced her eardrums like needles. What felt like hands slapped at her body, claws grabbing handfuls of her hair and tugging frantically at the strands to break free. She swatted at one of the bodies, brushing smooth feathers. Something sharp stabbed the back of her hand several times in rapid succession before freeing itself from the tangles.

  The rush of wind made her clothing billow and snap, granting something with terribly sharp claws and flapping wings access to her bare back, fighting and flailing until it exited from the bottom of her shirt. She rolled over and covered her face, hoping to keep the remainder of her hair from being torn out and her back from being shredded to ribbons. Daring to open her eyes, she found herself staring up into a massive deluge of birds, downy breasts knifing past right above her. Multicolored shapes, their hues subdued by the darkness, battled for position even within the cloud of their own ranks, beating each other with wings and slashing with claws and talons. Feathers rained down upon her. Evelyn struggled not to scream for fear of what might end up in her mouth.

  The roaring wind went on for what seemed like forever while she slapped at the wingtips tapping at her and knocked the frenzied avians off of her. And then as quickly as they had descended upon her, they were gone. The shrill shrieking faded to the west like a freight train thundering through the valley, the dark cloud growing smaller against the night sky until it blended into it. Down fell from the heavens like snow.

  It was a moment before Evelyn calmed her heartbeat enough to rise. There were stinging cuts all along her back. A dribble of blood followed the course of her spine. Dabbing at the scratches on her cheeks, she turned to face Adam, who was surveying the lawn around him. Insignificant mounds dotted the field, unmoving amidst the feathers settling on the mat of needles and branches. Several stragglers flew past overhead. Something with inordinately long wings honked like a goose while much smaller red and blue birds darted past.

  “What in the name of God was that?” Adam gasped.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Evelyn said, turning over dead birds with her toe. “I’ve never seen so many species flocking together. It’s unnatural.”

  “Something must have really scared them.”

  “I’d hate to see whatever could do that.”

  Adam could only nod. He reached for her face and grazed his fingertips across her cheekbone. The scratches were swollen and irritated, but appeared purely superficial.

  “I’m fine,” she said, brushing away his hands. “I’m more concerned about why so many birds would be in such a hurry to get to the west. It’s not a standard migration.”

  “I suppose we’ll find out soon enough,” Adam said.

  He was right, she knew. Whatever had frightened those birds was undoubtedly positioned directly in their path. She recalled the faint scent of forest fire and thought of Jill’s vision. A massive wildfire could certainly stir so many birds to flight, but she had a sinking sensation that it had been more than just an uncontrollable blaze. The true terror lurked beneath the smoke.

  She shivered.

  “Best rest while we can,” Adam said, wrapping his arm around her waist and heading back toward where the others were still climbing out from beneath the picnic tables. “I don’t care to speculate as to what we’ll come across tomorrow.”

  Evelyn agreed. They were going to need their rest if they hoped to be sharp enough to face the coming day. Moving that fast, the birds could have been far ahead of the blaze, but she wasn’t willing to stake her life on it.

  She sidestepped a bird’s breast, one long wing pointing up into the sky, its beak askew. The grass rose from the height of her ankles nearly to mid-shin before resuming its normal height. After a couple more steps she looked back and saw the patch of longer grass. It was bereft of the mess of needles and feathers like the rest of the area, as though something had shielded it from the barrage. As they walked father away, she could tell that the patch had a distinct shape. Long appendages stretched away from a square torso with a single knob for a head.

  She nearly gasped aloud.

  The grass had grown long precisely where she’d been sprawled only moments prior.

  III

  Western Colorado

  A HERD OF WHAT ONCE HAD BEEN ELK THUNDERED DOWN THE SLOPE, SLALOMING between the tree trunks that grew at angles from the steep incline, roots reaching out from where the ground had eroded away from them like the appendages of so many octopi. The precariously balanced dirt and rocks gave way beneath their mighty hooves, and they slid only long enough to gain a moment’s balance before launching themselves toward more solid footing. Golden antlers flashed in the moonlight, rich peach-colored fur leaving tracers against the night, marred by reflections from eyes as bright as stars. There was no time to slow. Behind them the angry ebon cloud of death filtered through the trees. They were going to have to stop at some point. They could only run so far.

  There was a loud crack of breaking bone and one of the creatures tumbled headfirst down the hillside, antlers snapping off, shattered leg flopping uselessly. It bleated in pain before pounding a tree trunk with its flank to the tune of fracturing ribs. With a wretched whistle that sounded more like a scream, it called to the others, but they charged past, throwing up dust in their wake. Their instincts told them that the fallen stag was already as good as dead anyway, and it wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last, to be abandoned in the panicked stampede.

  At the bottom of the slant, they bounded through a wall of pines with needles so sharp they tore out clumps of fur, and into a broad meadow. Chest high grass grabbed at them, trying desperately to loop around their ankles, but they tore through, the fear driving them onward to the point of exhaustion and then beyond. The sky overhead became as bright as day beneath a blood-red sun before molten fire rained from above, spattering all over the field and the terrified creatures charging through it. The weeds caught fire immediately, billowing acrid smoke. An agonized choir of screams filled the night over the rising crackle of the blaze. The smell of burning fur was thick in the field. Flaming haunches bounced through the dense smoke toward the far edge of the meadow as more and more magma poured down from above.

  Something roared behind them, a sound like the entire mountain cracking, and was answered by another somewhere in the valley to the right. Atop the crest of the cliff from which they had just fled, a dark human shadow fired rainbows of glowing flame high into the air, expanding before raining down all around them. The wall of smoke rolled down into the valley, a tide of impending asphyxiation washing across the meadow.

  The herd crashed through the barrier of trees on the far side of the pasture, shredding underbrush and barreling headlong through thickets that slashed through their hides in bleeding arcs. Rodents squealed and chattered, scampering across the detritus toward holes and warrens that would prove too shallow. The upper canopy caught fire, smoldering needles and leaves dropping to the forest floor like lit matches. Liquid fire drained down through the bark, which channeled it to the roots and the kindling scattered around the trunks. The coarse hair that formed their hooves started to burn in peeling strands, the flames lapping up legs that were already ablaze with exertion.

  Another bellowing roar…closer.

  Flames swept up the rear haunches of the stragglers, churning bodies trailing slipstreams of fire, asteroids barreling through the forest before succumbing to the blistering heat and falling in stride, crumpling into the shrubbery to burn unimpeded. Those in the lead charged even faster, the thunder of their tread echoing from ahead, a sign they knew all too well. The forest p
eeled back, giving way to a barren slope that terminated abruptly. Beyond were distant hills sharpened by pines and the snowcapped peaks above timberline. The gap between was hazy with smoke. Stiffening their legs and digging into the ground with their hooves, they stopped at the edge of a tall limestone cliff, the ground more than a hundred feet below.

  The lead stag snorted and pranced nervously. Its fur had been singed to a crisp black all the way from its right shoulder up its neck and along the side of its face. Its milky eye could only dribble tears into the blistered wound on its cheek. The fire behind glowed in its good eye, the trees becoming an abruption of flame. It took a single stride to the left, its movement answered by a roar like a sonic boom that filled the valley. A quick motion to the right and something large and hairy sprinted into view. The beast lowered its head and roared.

  A black shape in the form of a man appeared to grow from the burning forest, passing through the flames unscathed.

  The bull elk rose to its full height on its rear legs, kicking at the air in a show of intimidation that had nothing of the desired effect. The creatures stalking the herd only closed the gap.

  Whirling, the elk charged away from the burning man, reaching the edge of the cliff and launching itself out over the valley below. The herd followed, shrieking as they hurtled into the nothingness and plummeted toward the ground.