by Tufo, Mark
“Mia you’re doing that drifting thing again,” Jess said with no small measure of alarm.
“The two-legger might be a good one, but she’s going to get us all killed nonetheless,” Patches said. “I could drive better than her.”
I snorted, thinking how her little legs would try to reach the go-faster and the go-slower pedals on the floor.
“It won’t be so funny when we’re upside down,” Patches said haughtily.
I turned my head as far over as I could. It made my stomach feel funny, and I agreed with the cat AGAIN that ‘no’ it wouldn’t be so funny if we were upside down. I barked to get Mia’s attention. She looked at me in the rear viewer and she immediately gripped the steerer as the wheels bit into the soft dirt, sending the rear of the wheeler into what Jess called a fish-tail. That made no sense--it didn’t smell like that gross stuff the cat liked to eat. Two-leggers are funny animals.
The burning disc was coming up as Mia stopped the wheeler. Jess got out and stretched and then opened the door so that the rest of us could get out. I hopped down, immediately followed by Patches. Ben-Ben looked like he was still sulking from his near-bacon experience. Jess had to coax him to join us.
“I’m hungry, Jess,” Zach said, smiling as he reached for her nose.
“Are you hungry?” She nuzzled his face.
“He just told her, why can’t she understand him?” I asked.
“I wish I couldn’t understand him either,” Patches said, going towards the sand.
“As much as I hate it Jess, we’re going to have to pull off into one of these towns and look for supplies and gas.” Mia shielded her eyes from the burning disc and looked around.
Neither of them were happy about it, and to be honest…neither was I. We had found Winke and Faye, but most two-leggers had been – at the best – distrustful; or worse, outright hostile. The last one taking us all, save Patches, hostage.
“There were signs for a place called Hurricane a few miles up,” Jess said.
“Not sure I like the name, but it’s as good a place as any,” Mia said.
Ben-Ben walked over towards the side of the road; he lifted his leg, almost making water on Patches. She hissed and ran away.
“Next time you try that, I’m going to put a claw in a sensitive place,” Patches told him as she groomed herself.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
He appeared as if he hadn’t woken up too well. Still dreaming of his giant bacon slab I would imagine; but then again, which of us there right then wasn’t. My stomach was twisting in knots thinking of anything to eat. I was tempted to ask the cat if she wanted to hunt the green lizard – chicken-tasting things – when Mia looked around and told Jess we should get going.
According to what Jess said, the place called Hurricane was twelve miles off of the main hard-packed road. It didn’t sound all that far to walk, but with the wheeler blowing out cool air from the front I didn’t see why we should go out into the heat…especially without any ice cream.
CHAPTER TWO
“Where are the bitches?” Icely said, staring through the front windshield. He kept getting closer and closer to the glass as if that would extend his viewing range. “Can’t you make this thing go any faster? he asked Schools.
“I’m going faster than I want to be,” Schools replied evenly. He had the Mercedes running at ninety miles per hour, well under what the high performance machine could handle but far faster should something come out into the road or already be there. Anything more than a subtle shift for avoidance at this speed would send the small tank hurtling through the air. “We’ll catch them,” Schools said. What he didn’t add was ‘if they went this way.’ Icely’s theory that the girl was heading back to Colorado was circumstantial at best. If they were, which he had doubts, they were on the right track. There were not many ways they get there from this part of the country. It was stark, open and an unyielding landscape.
Schools was doing the math. The women had a two hour lead on them, and at a modest sixty miles per hour they had a hundred and twenty mile lead. If they were heading to Colorado at this pace they’d catch up to them in four hours. The big ‘if’ was the destination. Icely had put together a team of four pursuit cars and a truck carrying a giant tank of gas. Mia would have to stop, and getting gas without power was not an easy feat for someone who did not have practice in it. Plus, they were traveling with a baby, supplies would become paramount – things in which they had an abundance of in the chase cars. Time was on their side, and then the giant ‘if’ came out.
“Icely, if they’re going to Colorado—”
“Not if,” he said coolly.
“Okay…fine. They will still need to pull over and get food for the baby.”
“I’m going to tear that thing’s head off,” Icely said distractedly. “I was prepared to raise that smelly little thing, teach him everything I knew. Not now, though, not ever. I’m going to have that bitch watch, too. Maybe I’ll even keep her around for a while.”
Baby dodged a bullet there, Schools thought.
“We need to split up,” Schools said. “Any one of these cars has enough to take out two women and a baby.”
“And a people-killing dog. I saw the eyes of that dog, fucking thing wanted to tear my throat out.”
Would that have been for the better? Schools thought.
“I’ll take a fully automatic weapon over a dog any day,” Schools replied.
“Fine…you tell the cars which way to go, but you make it abundantly clear I want Mia alive. And Jess,” he added.
“Icely they have at least one gun. It’s going to be much more difficult to do that. She’s not going to just give herself up.”
“And the baby, I want that fucking thing alive as well so that I can kill it personally with my own two hands,” he said, completely ignoring what his security chief had just said. “Oh yeah keep the dog alive, too. Maybe I’ll tear its throat out.” Icely had a wild look to his eyes now. “Oh, and the stupid fucking cat, too. I want someone to toss the thing in the air like a pigeon so I can shoot it with a shotgun. Yeah…nothing would make me happier than to say ‘pull’!” He laughed.
“What about the little dog?” Schools asked. It was meant to be sarcastic, but Icely didn’t pick up on it.
“Oh, you can kill the little Toto fucking thing. All the others I want alive, Schools. You understand me? Your men kill any of my new toys and I’ll play with their lives instead. You got me.”
“Loud and clear, boss,” Schools said as he told the driver to pull over.
The other cars followed suit. He spent a few minutes pouring over a map and telling everybody where he wanted them to turn off and Icely’s specific instructions should they come across the runaways. There were groans of protestations.
“You have Tasers and pepper paint balls…use them,” Schools said, shutting down their clamoring.
“Fat lot of good a Taser is going to do against a bullet,” Lionel, Schools’ second-in-command said.
“If you kill any of them, I suggest you find someplace else to live,” Schools reiterated.
“That’s as much a death sentence as coming back and telling Icely,” Lionel replied.
“One way is less painful than the other.” Schools folded the map back up.
CHAPTER THREE
According to Jess, this place was named after a great wind. I don’t know what she was talking about, it was quiet; nothing was moving, not even the leaves in the trees. I saw some winged ones, ‘birds’ I think Jess called them. Patches seemed fascinated by the birds--kept licking her mouth every time she saw one fly by.
“Look at all the crows,” Jess said, pointing to some tethers that were placed between a couple of the fake trees the two-leggers called poles. I followed Patches’ line of sight. The tether seemed to be sagging from the weight of them.
“You believe in omens?” Mia asked Jess with trepidation.
“Should I?” Jess asked back.
“I don
’t like it here.” Mia craned her neck to look up at the birds as she passed.
“Let’s just do what we have to and go.”
“Are those good to eat?” Ben-Ben asked Patches.
“Flying bacon,” Patches replied looking out the back of the window. Ben-Ben immediately joined her; his back paws on the seat and his front resting up by the rear viewer. His tail was wagging so fast, I thought he might be capable of flight.
I was busy keeping an eye out for two-leggers of all varieties, living and somewhat dead. The only thing I’d seen moving since we got into Hurricane was the birds.
“Riley, I’m awfully hungry,” Zach said, pulling my attention away from the viewer.
I was about to respond when the car came to an abrupt halt. I had to admit it was funny when Ben-Ben was hurtling through space and fell into the back of Mia’s seat. Patches had dug her claws in and hadn’t moved an inch. I was just able to brace myself and keep from shifting too much.
“Damn fools, what the hell are you doing?!” someone shouted from outside the wheeler. I had to spin my head to see who it was. It was a large man in very short white fake furs that barely covered over his reproductive parts. He had more hair over his body than I’d ever seen on a two-legger. Could have been part animal as far as I was concerned, and that seemed to make him a better person in my eyes.
“He’s got a gun!” Jess screamed.
“And no damn pants,” Mia said as she tried to get around the man. He pointed the metal bee-slinger at the front of the wheeler.
“Shut off the damn engine,” he told them, not quite as loudly. “Now!” He made the slinger do some sort of metallic sound.
“Not again,” Patches said, standing next to me and watching.
“Is he a wolf?” Ben-Ben asked when he had finally righted himself.
I honestly had to think about it. He had thick, shaggy fur coming from his head and a heavy beard.
“Shut the fucking engine off,” the man said again, this time placing the barrel of the weapon against the viewer. If he sent out a bee now Mia would be stung deeply.
She turned the wheeler off and placed her hands in the air.
The man looked over at Jess and then into the back seat.
“Put your damn fool hands down, grab the baby and the animals. Come on and be quick about it,” the man said before turning away and walking off the hard ground and onto the grass.
“Mia? What do we do?” Jess asked.
“Start the car and leave,” Patches answered.
Mia looked at the danglers, and then back over to the man; probably trying to figure out if she could get out of there before he could make the fire stick shoot.
“Grab Zach, I’ll get the animals,” Mia said, opening her door.
The wolf-man turned back around. “Hurry up, you damn fools, and do not slam the doors,” the man said as he was looking about wildly and getting closer to a house.
Mia shrugged to Jess but opened the back door to the wheeler. “Come on, Ben-Ben,” she said. I followed quickly behind.
Jess had opened the other side and grabbed Zach. Patches looked from open door to open door but did not move.
“Come on, Patches.” Mia stuck her head back into the wheeler.
“Patches, come on, sweetie,” Jess said, looking in from the other side.
We waited a few moments. The cat wasn’t budging. She hissed at Mia when she reached in to grab her.
“Cat, what are you doing?” I asked, crowding in around Mia’s legs.
“I’m not a dog,” she said haughtily, “I don’t come when I’m called like a common cur.”
“Fine, you tell the dead ones that when they get here.”
Her eyes opened wide and her head whipped over towards me.
“Shit, they heard. Let’s go!” the man yelled.
“Zombies!” Jess and Mia said at nearly the same time. I could smell them coming.
“Patches, come on!” Jess said angrily.
“She does look somewhat like a cur,” I said to Ben-Ben as Patches leaped out of the wheeler and was catching up to Wolf-Man.
“What’s a cur?” Ben-Ben asked as he struggled to keep up with my longer strides.
Wolf-Man held the door open as Patches, Jess carrying Zach, Mia, then me and Ben-Ben came in. He quickly shut the door and turned the knob. It made a large clicking sound.
He placed his fire stick next to the door and moved further into the room. He pulled a covering back on one of the outside viewers to look outside.
Mia quickly grabbed the rifle the man had put down.
“You know how to shoot that thing?” the man asked, never turning back towards her.
“I do,” she said solemnly.
“Good…you may need to before all of this is over.” The nearly naked man let the material fall back in place.
I was thankful for it. The room was a multitude of bright colors that hurt my eyes trying to take them all in.
“The name’s Koala,” he said with a wide, gap-toothed smile. “Like the bear, get it?” The man dragged his hand through the thick fur on his chest. “Is it the underwear? Sorry, I’ll get a robe…don’t get much company.”
“I’m Mia, this is Jess and her brother Zach. The big dog is Riley, the little one is Ben-Ben and the aloof little one is Patches,” she said quickly, getting the introductions out of the way.
“Circus in town?” Patches asked as she looked around the room much like I had. I did not know what she meant.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” he said genuinely enough. “Don’t let Jumper bother you, he’s not nearly as fierce as he looks,” the man said before he departed the room.
“Should we leave?” Jess asked quietly.
Mia looked inside the gun and seemed content when she saw whatever she had been searching for. She strode quickly over to the other side of the room and looked outside the same viewer. “Can’t,” she replied, letting the dark take over quickly.
“Get off of me!” I heard, the voice sounding pretty muffled.
“Sorry!” Ben-Ben exclaimed, getting up quickly. He had jumped up onto the couch and sat down on the head of easily the oldest dog I had ever seen.
Patches approached warily, her tail dancing back and forth rapidly. The old dog did little more than follow her movement with his milky eyes. “How many seasons?” she asked the ancient one.
“Lost count after my fifteenth,” the dog told her.
“You can count that high?” I asked, coming over.
“Higher if I had a mind to. Don’t do much more than lie here anymore and watch dust settle. The name is Jumper.”
Patches snorted.
“Always disliked cats,” Jumper said.
I laughed with him. “Is your alpha a good person?” I asked, looking out for the safety of my pack.
“I’ve known a bunch of the humans in my time. He would be the best of them all.”
“That doesn’t necessarily answer the question,” Patches replied.
Jumper’s neck cracked and popped as he swiveled it to look directly at her. “You know, sometimes cats are too smart for their own good.”
She sat and licked her front paw.
“He’s never said a bad word to me or ever raised his hand in anger. His friends have told him over and over again that he should ‘put me down’ and he always tells them, ‘when it’s his time he’ll go.’ He carries my food over to me and he used to bring me outside to relieve myself. Now he has a place set up in the kitchen.”
“I go in the house, too!” Ben-Ben yipped excitedly.
“Yeah, but he doesn’t do it on purpose.” Patches deflated the small dog’s ego.
I knew what ‘put down’ meant. When George had got sick the alphas had talked about it. That was when he went to the animal doctor and never came home. I’d always thought the alphas knew everything; how I wished they’d let him live out the rest of his time, however fleeting it may have been. Just one more moon with him would have been worth it.
“I smell a lot of fear on your pack,” Jumper said. “My nose is about the only thing that works…can’t even chew my food anymore.”
I heard Koala coming back from wherever he had been. Jess stood straight, and would have bristled if she were a dog. He came back into the room carrying an armful of fire sticks.
“Grab what you feel comfortable with,” he told Jess and Mia as he placed them down on a large chair.
He sat down on the couch right next to Jumper. He had put on more fake furs and reached into a pouch and pulled out a crinkly container, I think the two-leggers called them baggies. Ben-Ben had come over to see if what was inside might be edible, he sneezed heavily when he caught a big whiff.
“Weed?” Mia asked.
“Not for me, never touched the stuff. More of a Red Bull kind of guy,” he said as he pulled out a small jar of peanut butter from another pouch. “Jumper has glaucoma. I was able to get him a prescription.”
“You got your dog a prescription for weed?” Mia asked.
“I’m not sure if it helps at all, but I do know he whines less about his pain after I give him some.” Koala mixed a little of the potent smelling substance called ‘weed’ into the delicious peanut butter. I was salivating thinking about getting some of the sticky substance onto my tongue. “I’ve been with this dog through two wives and four moves. Used to drive a truck before all this madness started. This dog has seen more road miles than most men. Used to take him with me everywhere I went. Had to stop the last couple of years, it hurt him too much for me to move him in and out of the cab.”
“Sorry,” Ben-Ben said. Before I could ask him for what he jumped up and licked the entire mound off of Koala’s palm.
Koala’s mouth opened wide. “Oh-oh.”
“What’s ‘oh-oh?’” Jess asked.
“You’re little dog is going to be high as a kite soon.”
“Will he be alright?” Jess asked, coming to his side.
“He’ll be fine,” Koala told her. “Hungry…but fine.”
“I’m already hungry,” Ben-Ben said, licking his chops while trying to force the peanut butter down. Koala reached down and stroked Ben-Ben’s face.
