by Jo Schneider
The other two hissed.
“He’s not the one we’re looking for. Pelton is looking for a girl,” one of the holders said.
Wendy leaned forward, watching.
“No one will know if we use him now,” the same Skinny said.
Dennis tried to squirm free, but they had him. His thick arms were easier to hold on to than Wendy’s were.
A deep, resonating satisfaction rippled through Wendy as the Skinnies shoved Dennis to the floor and spread him out, each taking a limb.
All of the sleepless nights, the dreams of Skinnies clawing her skin off, kept Wendy watching. Waiting.
The Skinnies looked at one another. “For the Primate,” they all said. Then, as one, they each lowered their faces to Dennis and licked him.
For the first time, Dennis made a sound. It was a roar of protest. One that would go unheeded. He arched his back and thrashed his whole body around. It almost worked, but the four Skinnies were too much for him.
A tremor wracked Wendy’s core. The largest Skinny bit first. His teeth sunk into Dennis’ shoulder. Blood squirted from between his lips and sinew gave way as the Skinny pulled the flesh free.
Dennis—the cords in his neck bulging as he continued to fight—turned his head away, and his eyes fell on Wendy.
The Skinny came away from Dennis with a mouthful of flesh and blood dripping down his chin. His forked tongue licked his lips and he smiled.
It was worse than one of Wendy’s nightmares.
A true monster lay before her.
Wendy’s knees gave way beneath her.
That’s what she was becoming.
Her eyes met Dennis’. They only lingered for a moment before he looked away and started to struggle again.
He didn’t expect her to save him.
She didn’t expect herself to save him. Wendy held one of her hands up in front of her face. Drying, smeared blood covered most of it. Her arm shook. She looked through her fingers to Dennis, who was about to get another bite taken out of him.
He was afraid, and stupid, and a bully. He was a kid who had never been through what she’d been through.
Kev’s words came back to her. “He’s not brave like you.”
Watching Dennis now, she had to disagree with Kev. Dennis had done everything he could, alone, and now he was facing death with dignity.
“Oh hell.” Wendy rose and drew her knives.
Chapter 19
Channeling her anger proved to be easier than Wendy thought it would be. She leaped forward toward the Skinny that held Dennis’ arm. She came from behind and crossed her knives around his neck. A moment later Wendy yanked him away.
Dennis didn’t need help getting free after that. He punched the Skinny who had taken a bite out of him, then used his newfound mobility to wriggle away from the others.
Wendy took one of them out with a spinning kick to the head. The woman’s skull crunched and she fell to the ground.
A moment later Dennis and Wendy stood with only several dead Skinnies between them.
Dennis’ haggard breathing filled the air. Wendy took inventory of his wounds. Blood seeped from a large gash on his head. His shoulder looked like raw meat and a scrape or bullet graze on his leg added to his loss of blood. If she left him he might die. Her eyes traveled back up to meet his.
Rage met rage. Wendy still had her knives in her hands. Dennis had picked up another sword and his gun, which he must have dropped earlier. Wendy waited for him to raise it and shoot her.
Silence stood between them. Wendy’s body began to ache, registering the wounds she’d received in her battles.
Dennis spoke first. “Where is everyone else?”
“We had to split up.” Wendy said. “Hound said they got you all. How did you get away?”
“I was between a couple of generators when they found us. I snuck away hoping to find you guys.”
“Did you find the part we need?”
“No, did you get the meds?”
“Everyone has a set. Including Matt, who I just sent outside.”
“And you stayed behind?”
Wendy jerked her head at the dead Skinnies. “You heard them, Pelton wants me. I’m hoping Matt can slip through if Pelton is chasing me.”
The two of them continued to stare daggers at one another.
Wendy broke the silence. “Do you know another way out?”
“This way might be clear,” Dennis jerked his head over his shoulder.
They continued to stand there, staring.
“You should wrap that shoulder up,” Wendy said. “You’re losing a lot of blood.”
“Like you care.”
Wendy raised her eyebrows. “You’re right, I don’t really care, but I might need you. And you might need me, so let’s just play nice for a few minutes, shall we?”
“This coming from you?”
“Yes.”
Dennis studied her for a long time. Finally he shrugged and turned. “This way.”
Wendy stepped over the dead and followed him. Neither of them spoke, which meant they noticed the sound of running feet long before it got to them.
There was nowhere to hide, so they waited around a corner. Wendy squatted down and Dennis loomed above her. The monster growled. Wendy told it to shut up.
No gunfire. Just running, the occasional grunt and the scrape of metal on metal. Then the noise increased. More running. Skinnies yelling and groaning. Wendy shifted her weight. Dennis remained still except for the tremor in his hand.
“Maybe we should go,” Dennis said.
“Maybe,” Wendy said. “Do you know another way out?”
“No, is there anywhere to hide back there?”
“Maybe,” Wendy said. “Come on.”
As she rose, a figure burst around the corner. He’d been running so quietly that Wendy hadn’t noticed he was so close. She shot forward toward him, ready to strike.
“Wait!” Jeff waved her off.
Wendy skidded to a stop as Jeff did the same.
Dennis was right behind Wendy, and bumped into her, sending her into Jeff.
Jeff caught her, but not before her face was in his chest, which was heaving trying to get air. The smell of sweat assaulted Wendy’s nostrils, and her hands pressed into Jeff’s stomach and found it wet.
For a brief moment, Jeff froze. The world stopped as Wendy pulled her hand back and found it covered in fresh blood. She looked up and her eyes met Jeff’s. A mixture of relief and concern slid away as he said, “We need to go.”
Before Wendy could get her bearings, Jeff grabbed her hand and started to run. Dennis was right beside them.
“What happened?” Dennis asked.
“There are Skinnies everywhere. Kev and I got separated.” Jeff’s shoulders slumped as they took another corner. “Where’s Matt?”
“I got him outside, but had to cause a distraction,” Wendy said.
“What are we running from?” Dennis asked.
“About a dozen Skinnies and a couple of Pelton’s guys. Is there a way out up here?”
They burst into the hub. Jeff started for the way Wendy had sent Matt. She pulled his hand back. “Can’t. I sealed that one.” She pointed. “And we came from that way.”
That only left three possibilities, and only one of those had an open door.
Jeff didn’t look pleased, but the yelling from behind got closer, and a light appeared from the direction from which Wendy and Dennis had come.
“Come on,” Dennis said. He led the way across the hub and through the last door. They plunged into the dark.
Unlike the other passages, which looked to be for vehicular transport, this one was the right size for people. Moldy carpet covered the floor and the walls had been painted.
Wendy looked back and saw Skinnies crawling through the door.
“Faster,” she said.
“We need to lose them,” Dennis said.
“Or hide,” Jeff said. “Find a door.”
As
they ran, they started to pass signs of a fight, but this one was twenty years old and covered in dust. A few shriveled bodies lay against one wall. Jeff almost tripped over a discarded gun. They came to a crossroads and turned left.
“They’re going to be able to follow our footsteps,” Dennis said, looking down.
“I’m hoping they’re not that smart. Find something to barricade a door,” Jeff said.
A deafening boom sounded from behind them. They all ducked.
“Here,” Dennis said. He stooped down and came back up with a metal pipe.
Wendy’s light landed on a familiar sign next to a door. “Stairs!” She pointed.
Jeff followed her gesture and punched in the code they’d used to get downstairs. The door popped open with a hiss. Wendy went through first. She only got a few seconds to glance around before the others followed. She let them take care of the door as she took in the stairwell.
More dust. From here the stairs only went up. A skeleton in clothes lay half way up the first set. Wendy shone her light up, but couldn’t see past the first landing.
“Wedge that in there,” Dennis said.
Wendy turned back and found the two boys barricading the door.
“They can still blow it,” Dennis said.
“Then we should get going,” Jeff said. He looked at Wendy.
“Seems clear.”
“Then we go up. All the way up.”
Wendy took the front and quickly ascended the stairs. There were only two flights. She ignored the door on the first landing and went to the second one. It had been blown already—years ago—and hung by a few shreds of metal.
Beyond lay another giant room. A glitter of dust filled the air. Wendy flipped her headlamp on. The beam didn’t get far, but far enough for her to recognize a transport.
Dennis entered behind her and let out a whistle. “That’s a big transport.”
Jeff emerged and led them away from the door. “Are we above the repair bay?”
“Should be,” Dennis said. “They can lower huge chunks of the floor to get the transports down there and out of the way.”
“Do you think any of these transports will work?”
“Maybe, but power cells die after a few years, so I would say not. Unless they have a power source like ours.”
“Can you fly?” Jeff asked.
Dennis shook his head.
Jeff looked at Wendy. “You?”
“Uh, no.”
They stayed together as they moved farther into the hangar. More dust. A few more bodies. To her right there was a hole in the floor with a pole that led below. A handful of rusted trucks and carts sat against one wall. The remains of a computer terminal stood near the door, the parts tossed on the floor like trash.
They kept going past three larger transports. One of them had an open door. Dennis went inside. A moment later he came out with a handful of sleek, egg-shaped cylinders.
“What’s that?” Jeff asked.
“Grenades. There are some guns in there too, but I know these will work.” He handed two to Jeff and one to Wendy. They were smaller than the ones from Shelter.
“How do you use it?” Wendy asked. The grenade sat in her palm like a river rock.
Dennis held his up, his fingers on the short sides. He indicated the pointy ends “You press the ends for ten seconds, then throw it.”
“Is there a delay?” Jeff asked.
“I wouldn’t give it more than ten more seconds.”
Wendy pocketed her egg and turned to wander farther into the hangar. That’s when she noticed a small ray of light coming up from the floor. “Guys, over here.”
The two boys followed her as she rounded the end of the transport and squat down.
One section of the floor was loose. A corner sagged enough for them to be able to make out a quarter of the repair bay below.
“Don’t put weight on it,” Dennis said. “I noticed one of the platforms was unstable from below.”
“Good to know,” Jeff said. He finally took a moment to look at Dennis, then Wendy. “How much of that blood is yours?”
Wendy shrugged.
Dennis said, “Too much.”
Jeff pulled his pack off and dug inside. “Sit,” he said to Dennis. “Wendy, help me.”
They pulled Dennis’ shirt off and tried to clean out the bite on his shoulder. Wendy felt strange touching him. Her fingers trembled, but she kept it together, remembering that she could have prevented the injury.
They also put bandages on his leg and head. The tense look on his face relaxed when the painkillers kicked in.
“Do you need my help?” Dennis asked as he looked at Jeff’s stomach.
“No,” Jeff said.
“Good, I’m going to see what’s going on down below.” With that he got on his hands and knees and worked his way to the crack in the floor.
Jeff turned on Wendy. “What about you?”
Wendy took a step toward him and slapped him on the right side of his ribs. Jeff grunted and shied away.
“What about you?”
Jeff glared.
“Take off your shirt,” Wendy said. She dropped her own pack and fished out another bandage. Jeff removed his jacket. Wendy ignored the hiss of pain as he pulled his shirt up over his head. When she turned back Jeff stood half naked.
Wendy did her best to ignore that fact and studied his wound. “What did this?”
“Gunshot. Just a graze.”
Wendy pulled out a cleaning towel and said, “Get ready.” She put one hand on his chest, and the other pressed the towel onto the wound. The fact that the bullet had cut a trench into Jeff’s side told her that it was more than a flesh wound. She was pretty sure her fingers were a mere towel’s width away from one of Jeff’s ribs.
Jeff breathed through his nose.
“Hold on,” she said right before she dug into the wound. Matt had told her that the towels worked the best the farther you got it in. It would stop the blood and clean it better than a bandage.
Jeff hissed and doubled over. He stifled a moan. His hands came up to the back of Wendy’s neck and his head lowered until his cheek pressed against hers. She felt his weight transfer to her. “One more second.”
Jeff let out one more grunt of protest. Then Wendy pulled the towel out. Jeff stumbled and almost fell. Wendy put her hands on his upper chest and guided him down. He went to his knees with her.
“We probably should have started down here,” Wendy said.
Sweat rolled off of Jeff’s face. He raised his head. “Probably.”
“Here,” Wendy said. She motioned for him to put his hands up. When he did, she gently pressed a bandage in place.
They were close. Wendy’s nose was just inches from Jeff’s chest. As she put the bandage on, he wrapped his arm around her. Without warning, he pulled her in tight. A few seconds later, he loosened up. Just about the time the painkillers should have kicked in.
But he didn’t let her go completely. Instead he wrapped his other arm around her and said, “Thank you.”
Wendy put one hand around his waist, afraid he might fall. “You’re welcome.”
She could hear his heartbeat.
They stayed that way for longer than was comfortable, but not as long as Wendy might have liked. Jeff pulled away and frowned down at her.
“What about you? You’re covered in blood.”
“I don’t think much of it is mine,” she said.
He kept his hands on her shoulders. “What happened?”
Wendy looked away. “I killed a lot of Skinnies.” Jeff seemed to sense there was something wrong. He gave her shoulder a squeeze.
“Dennis?” he asked. “You with us?”
“Unfortunately.”
“What’s going on down there?”
“Looks like this Pelton guy is right there, along with his entourage. I can’t see our guys, but most of his Skinnies are headed that way.” He pointed.
“We need to cause a distraction. You
said that one of the sections of the floor was unstable. Can one of these grenades take it down?”
Dennis sat up as Jeff pulled his shirt back on. “Sure. If we can get it in the right place.”
“What are you thinking?” Wendy asked.
“Taking out as many of the Skinnies as we can, and making enough noise to draw everyone inside.”
Dennis leaned down and looked through the crack. “If we could get more of them under here, I could blow it for sure.”
Wendy peered below and saw a few Skinnies moving beneath them. She squinted as a plan formed in her mind. “I can make that happen.”
Chapter 20
Neither of the boys liked her idea.
“It’s too risky,” Jeff said.
“It’s suicide,” Dennis said.
“I didn’t know you cared.” Wendy scowled at Dennis.
“I don’t, but this crazy plan puts our lives in danger too.”
The three of them sat in a circle on the floor. From what they could gather through the crack, most of the Skinnies were spread out—some on patrol and others outside. Pelton, who stood twenty yards away and below them, only had six Skinnies with him, along with three others that looked to be normal, but the low light and the distance made it hard to tell. None of them could spot Riggs and the others.
Jeff cleared his throat. “It’s only a matter of time before someone figures out where we’ve gone. Pelton will send people after us.”
“The easy thing to do would be to toss a couple of grenades down through that crack and try to blow the supports from up here. Then use the chaos to sneak out.” Dennis folded his arms across his chest.
“What about the others?” Wendy asked.
“We don’t even know where they are,” Dennis said.
Now Wendy folded her arms across her stomach. “Let me go down there and find them.”
“Cut it out, you two,” Jeff said in a tired voice. “We need solutions, not bickering.”
Wendy waved her hand around. “I’m telling you, let me go down there and challenge Pelton. He won’t back down, and he won’t kill me, not if I ask him to fight. I’ll draw him under this spot. The noise will draw the Skinnies, who will follow us. I’ll get as many as I can under here before I give you guys the signal to blow it.” She pointed to the crack. “You don’t even have to go downstairs.” She looked at Jeff. “Then you two should take the meds I have in my pack and get out.”
