The longer she held, the weaker her fingers became, turning into useless claws. It could have been fifteen seconds or fifteen minutes; it all felt the same.
A shot rang out, but nowhere near her.
She heard yelling from up above, followed by rustling brush underfoot. Branches snapped, each one closer than the last. Whoever it was, wasn’t very far off now.
She was slipping.
It was him. It had to be. Quinn had found her.
He was coming to kill her, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
Colleen
This was either a terrible decision or one that would save both of their lives.
Colleen backed up while looking down, knowing better than to make any eye contact right now. The red-furred beasts still held their spot.
So much for the loyalty she had supposedly bred into these killers.
Her next few steps were through the quickly growing puddle of red pooling next to Kali. Her actions were purposeful and slow, minding not to set the anxious animals off. Still looking down, she felt around, finding the device to control them. She put it in her pocket and kept backing up.
Colleen could feel Jackson’s chest expand and he let out a growl. She gently tugged on his ear and he backed down.
“Easy, boy, now’s not the time. We’re both too old and far outnumbered.”
Before she knew it, she and Jackson were several yards away. It wasn’t much, but enough of a head start until her back struck a cold concrete pillar, spinning her halfway around. Colleen turned back around to find “man’s best friend 2.0” out of the room and several feet closer.
She paused. Tiny yellow and black eyes stared back at them in the murky light.
There were three of them, all of them much more terrifying than anything she had seen before. The ones that had chased them in Tacoma were underfed puppies compared to these.
Colleen palmed the remote, adjusted her direction, and kept backpedaling. Jackson did the same. The dogs moved forward more, sniffing and stepping over the chilling corpse of their former tormentor.
They increased their speed, taking longer strides and making up ground. Colleen sped up as well, but she misjudged her steps and her elbow collided with a nearly empty shelf next to the stairs. As if in slow motion, the teetering frame fell. She reached out to stop it, fingers coming up empty. In all the commotion, her hand accidentally pushed the small button.
The lead animal whined a low baritone sound that twisted into a rasping growl.
“Please, not this, again.”
Pausing only a second, the scarlet beasts lunged forward, nearly closing half the distance between them in one bound. Colleen yanked another shelf down as she and Jackson turned tail and run up the stairs. They were nearly halfway up before their pursuers collided with the fallen shelves, only providing a temporary diversion.
Jackson trailed behind her, his long hair and ears flapping as if in slow motion.
“Jackson, move!” She yelled.
They pounded up the stairs two by two, Jackson now by her side. The beasts were close behind, their claws clacking against the concrete steps. Colleen grabbed the handrail on the second flight and pulled herself forward, her long legs carrying her to the top of the steps.
Sprinting across the room at the top, she slammed her shoulder into the crash bar for the set of double swinging doors. Jackson slid through the narrow opening. Colleen turned around and kicked the doors closed as she fell back. She sucked in a huge breath, pressing her hand against her thumping heart. This was just a slight respite; her pursuers would eventually make it through.
What came next was like a boulder crashing into the door. The heavy sheet of metal collapsed outward as the tempered glass cracked and fell to the ground.
Jackson bolted again and left her behind. He had never been this skittish before. She caught her breath and started again, calling for him to wait for her.
She paused at the next exit. There were two sets of doors, one leading into an interior bathroom with no access to the outside, and the other, the main room, filled with hundreds of people.
Boom!
Shaken from her thoughts, Colleen knew she had to make a choice.
“I'll be trapped in the bathroom with no way out, but if they chase me into the main room, there's no telling what these things might do.”
She pushed the handle and headed out into the massive room. While not as jam-packed as it would have been at breakfast, there were still almost forty people working and talking. She scanned the room and spotted Lito, still talking. Behind her, another boom coupled with the muffled sounds of the dogs.
“How did no one hear that?”
They were through the first set, and only one more set of doors was between her and being mauled to death. She darted across the room in Lito's direction, the remote firmly in her hand. His eyes grew wide as soon as he spotted her.
“Lito… we have… to go… now!” She yelled as they barreled towards him. Jackson slipped in between his legs to hide, his tongue wagging.
“Colleen, I thought you were—” Lito reached down to stroke the soft hair, but Jackson recoiled.
“No time… to talk… things went bad.”
“Why am I not—”
Creek… Boom!
The second set of doors exploded open as if made of wet cardboard. The viscous pack piled out, one of them shaking their head, stunned. It only took a second before people spotted what had caused the noise. People were screaming and shouting as adults picked up their children and ran. It was absolute chaos; everyone running in different directions. The dogs just stared as if awaiting command.
“Did you?”
“Yeah, I’ll explain later,” Colleen said, bent over, hands on her thighs, as she tried to catch her breath.
“Then let’s go now!” Lito said.
“No, I’ve got a plan… and I need your help.”
Ahnah’s pupils were dilated entirely, her mind in another world. Colleen snapped her fingers, bringing her back.
“Anything,” he said.
One of them spotted Colleen, letting out a howl that resonated throughout the room. If she hadn’t been terrified at the moment, then she would be in awe.
In full light, they were massive, far beyond her imagination. The red fur was even more striking, and the teeth like daggers, even more menacing as their lips receded past ashen gums.
“Plan, now!”
“Yamuna, is there a place we could trap these things?”
“What,” she gasped, back in a trance. “I… I don’t know.”
The dogs started towards them, less than fifty yards off and closing fast.
“Come on, think,” Colleen said, shaking the girl frozen in fright.
“The basement?” Yamuna’s words barely above a whisper.
“That’s where we came from!”
“The planetarium?” Yamuna yelled, “I don’t… I don’t know.”
Colleen clicked the button on the remote as the dogs stopped dead in their tracks and howled in pain., clawing at their necks. While continuing to deliver a shock, she grabbed Yamuna, and calmly said, “Show me, please.”
Yamuna snapped out of her terrified trance and headed for the escalator, Jackson following closely behind. Colleen pushed Lito ahead and brought up the rear. Once they had at least a decent head start, Colleen let the button go, giving the dogs relief. Everyone was at the top before the animals had climbed.
“This way,” Yamuna said, pointing toward a set of glass doors with a sign that read Willard Smith Planetarium.
Colleen’s heart dropped into her stomach at the sight of their destination. Glass doors weren’t keeping hungry, stampeding animals out. The transparency was an invitation. She peered back to see her pursuers clambering up the narrow escalator, its claws slipping as it tried to get traction on the metal steps.
Yamuna was to the doors before anyone else. She reached down and pulled up something on each side as two windows les
s than reinforced doors closed.
I guess she’s smarter than I expected.
Jackson, Lito, and then finally Colleen were through both sets of doors. A glint of red fur emerged around the corner—they had made it to the top. Colleen pulled the metal doors closed, and Yamuna twisted the handle, not only locking the doors, but sending metal poles into the casing and threshold of each door. Colleen backed up and let out an exasperated sigh as the thick glass doors sucked closed, trapping them all inside.
Fifty-Two
Marisha
Marisha was jerked out of the water with such intensity it felt like her arm might pop out of the socket. She tried to fight back, but the frigid, malevolent water had depleted all her energy. They pulled her ashore and dropped her to the ground, still holding onto her wrist. Her body so numb she felt no pain. She sucked in a huge breath, letting life return to her weary mind. There was a hollow voice, but the rushing water drowned it out.
“Stop fighting me… got to go,” a husky male voice said as it grabbed her under the armpits and pulled Marisha to her feet. The sudden movement made all the blood rush to her brain. Nausea picked at the back of her throat.
“Give… me a second,” she finally spat out.
“We don’t have a second. He’s coming, NOW!”
Marisha was dragged along, weary legs stumbling forward through the brush and up the steep bank. They crested the bank, and she collapsed to her knees, taking in huge breaths of cold air. With each breath, she woke up more.
“Please move. I know you’re tired, but—”
A bullet flew through branches and slammed into the ground, leaving a tiny puff of dirt.
“We really have to go.”
The man reached a meaty hand out, but Marisha slapped it away. She wasn’t ready to move yet. Her head was still spinning. Just as soon as she had felt her lungs completely fill with air, she was enveloped by two massive arms that squeezed and lifted her up. The ground got further away as her body was thrown over his shoulder and then cradled around his neck. In seconds they were moving, the ground flying by as she was in and out of lucidity. Branches clawed at her skin and hair. One last shot rang out, but it was far away. They had escaped Quinn, and Garrick was dead.
Marisha let herself be carried; with the little strength she had in reserve, she wasn’t about to fight anyone off.
Who grabbed me, and where are they taking me?
She tried to muster a few middling words. “Where… taking… me?”
With no answer, she stiffened her body and tried to wriggle out of his bear-like grip.
“Calm down. I’m not hurting you. Once I know he’s not going to find us, then you can go. Enjoy the ride.”
Marisha tried to open her eyes. The whole world spun, making her dizzy as the world flew by. She clenched her eyes shut as a massive headache burrowed deep down inside her brain. The memories of fire and death reeled by again.
“Not today,” she moaned, “Not today.”
In a few quick seconds, the pain subsided. She had escaped a bad one that time. She was going to live.
Marisha hadn’t remembered being put to bed or her rescuer building a fire to keep them warm. In fact, she wasn’t too sure of how much time had passed since the last time she was conscious. Opening her eyes, she saw what looked to be twilight. She had to have slept for at least a few hours.
The man, or at least she thought it was the same person who had helped her, was bent over using something to pry at the latch on a silver collar around his neck.
“Damn!” he huffed, as his hand slipped.
Wanting not to alert him, she inched her arm under her body to prop herself up, feeling something warm draped over her body. This certainly wasn’t hers. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she spotted some clothes hanging on a low branch, a few feet above the fire. They looked oddly familiar.
“If those are mine then…”
She rubbed her arms with her hands, then stopped. She peered under the jacket, seeing only her underwear and bare skin. The man went back to working at the collar. He hadn’t noticed she was awake with his back facing her.
“Um…” she mumbled.
The man instantly stopped and lumbered his body around. She could see him better as the fire lit up his intense features. His head was shaved, revealing many scars, starting at the bottom of his jaw, leading up to the crown of his remarkably large skull. He had torn filthy clothes, unable to hide further deep scars and burn marks. There was no denying it; the man was massive.
He reached for her, but she jumped back.
“Where are my clothes? You better not have—”
“You were soaked, freezing, and on the verge of hypothermia. Would you rather I’d have let you die?”
Although he looked different without his oversized jacket and head covering, he had to be one of the people they were transporting.
“Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting it.” She said.
“What are you, eighteen?”
“Just turned, I think.”
Marisha couldn’t remember the last time she had thought about a birthday. They hadn’t been the same since her parents had died.
“So, you’re about the same age as my sister; trust me, I wasn’t too happy about it either.”
She tried to get up, but felt her arms give out.
“Give it a few minutes and try again.” He said.
“What’s your name?” Marisha asked, “I’d like to know who I have to thank for saving my butt.”
“Jude.”
“You don’t talk much, huh? I’m—”
Jude waved her off and went back to working at the metal collar. She wasn’t sure what she had done to ruin this guy's day. Within a few more seconds, he had brute-forced it off, letting out a massive sigh of relief.
Marisha clutched the jacket to her chest and sat up.
“What is that thing? It looks like some sort of collar.”
“That’s because it is,” He said, rubbing raw a spot on his neck. She could tell it had been there for quite some time by the scars, scabs, and yellow puss oozing out.
“That.” She said, pointing to his neck, “must really hurt.”
“It's nothing. It’ll heal.” His voice is suddenly dour.
Marisha stood up, still holding the jacket over her chest, and took a few steps to grab her clothes hanging over the fire.
“Do you mind… um?”
“Sure.” He said and then turned his back to her.
She didn’t know why she cared. Modesty in the conservative sense was lost on her. This wasn’t exactly a world where trivial ideals were a priority. When you struggled to find a meal every day, the idea of someone getting mad at you for not changing your soaked shirt behind closed doors seemed silly.
“I should have thanked you for saving my life instead of giving you a hard time.”
Marisha slipped toasty, dry clothes over a body that was already developing chill bumps. She pulled on socks and boots and twisted her hair into a simple braid.
“Don’t worry about it.” Jude said. “What’s done, is done.”
“What does that mean? Are you trying to say escaping that monster was a bad thing?”
“You wouldn’t get it.” Jude huffed and turned away from her again. He got up and then started gathering more dry wood for the fire.
“What exactly wouldn’t I get, Jude?”
Jude stopped and slowly exhaled, letting his shoulders fall, and shook his head.
“I’m not going to lie and say that I had some genius plan for all this, but you’re free. Free! Don’t you get it? He was going to kill you if I didn’t do what I did.”
His bald head turned red, his scars even whiter. She could see the veins in his forearms pop and his shoulder blades narrowed together.
“Did you ever stop to think that what you did wasn’t as helpful as you think? That maybe I wanted to be there.”
“So you wanted to be chained up like an animal, waiting for the next jol
t of electricity to bring you to your knees? To be his slave? Call me crazy, but that never entered my mind.”
“You… don’t… get… it.”
Marisha put her hands in front of her, palms up. “Try me. I think you’ll find there’s a lot more that I get than you might expect.”
“Doubt it.”
“My mom always used to say, ‘DRUG paznaYOTsya v byeDYE,’ a friend when in need is a friend indeed. It’s Russian so, take it for that.”
She could see him put his hand up to his chin and rub it. The faint head shake of self-contemplation taking over. His body drooped and he spoke.
“We weren’t just on our way to be slaves.” His voice became weak as his words seemed to get caught in his throat. “We were on our way to see our families again. I haven’t seen them in nearly two years. And this… this means I’ll probably never get to see them again.” He raised a fist and slammed it into his palm. The sound like the crack of a whip. “Your actions have consequences.”
Her heart broke for him. She swallowed hard. Every word that came to mind hung on the tip of her tongue. None of them were the right thing to say.
“I…”
“Yeah, so don’t try to fool me by saying you were trying to help. I saw and heard everything you did. This wasn’t for you, and if by some slim chance it was, then you went about it terribly. Next time, don’t.”
He wasn’t wrong. There was nothing about what Marisha did that was done with anyone but her best interests at heart. The scary part was not knowing if this was her true self or someone she wouldn’t even recognize. Quinn was an evil man who did terrible things, and yet this man here was in a position he had to accept if he ever wanted to see his family again. Marisha tried to think back to her family, the memories still a jumbled mess of reality and madness.
Marisha wasn’t sure how old he was, but by the looks of his deep lines and rough skin, the Terror would come for him sooner than later. She needed to not try to fix things but to listen.
The Maddening: Book 2 in the Terror Saga Page 29
