by J. Thorn
“‘Kay,” the woman said, “but hurry.”
Samuel led her from the alley to the sidewalk. A few lonely souls skulked by, caught in drunken limbo. The bars had made last call, and the breakfast restaurants hadn’t opened yet. He glanced to his right and watched the neon sign of the bar flicker into cold darkness. He turned in the other direction and stared until he saw the taillights of his Dodge, the twenty-inch tires snuggling up to the curb.
He had done this before. Many times. Samuel knew the drill, knew his limitations like every good drunk. He would ease into the street, stay slow, and keep to the residential streets. Avoid traffic, and that would allow him to reach home safely. Intellectually, Samuel understood the risks he was taking, but the young college girl pawing at him skewed all of the statistics. He would return to his room and they would explore each other like first-time lovers do. It was the aroma that drove him mad. Samuel could smell her.
“Lezzgo, silly,” she murmured, placing a hand in his lap.
Samuel shook his thoughts loose and put the key in the ignition. Fear slid across his face until he realized it was the wrong key. After four more tries, Samuel discovered the ignition key and started the car. The Dodge came alive with a throaty rumble after he pushed the clutch to the floor and pumped the accelerator three times. Pearl Jam’s “Oceans” came through the speaker system, and the woman fumbled for the volume knob, turning it until Samuel felt like Eddie Vedder was singing to them from the backseat.
“Album of the year,” she murmured.
“This is killer. Not sure how Pearl Jam is going to top this record.”
Samuel fastened his seatbelt and looked over both shoulders before easing into the empty street. His body took over as if the effects of the alcohol, the slurred speech and the slowed reflexes, had subsided. He looked at the girl and pointed to her seatbelt. Samuel wanted to see the way the nylon restraint would run between her breasts, accentuating her curves.
“I trust you,” she said. The woman closed her eyes and leaned back against the headrest.
Samuel put the Dodge in first gear and eased from the curb. The parking meter stared at them as they drove past, its cyclopean eye red and menacing. He coasted underneath the first traffic light, which blinked yellow in the pre-dawn darkness of Fifth Avenue, the main strip dissecting the quaint college town. The next set of lights swung in the gentle summer breeze, red.
“Wazzup with these?” he asked.
The girl just mumbled.
Samuel waited and looked back and forth, wondering why the second intersection’s lights had not gone to blinking yellow, and more importantly, why they were red in his direction. Before he could contemplate the answer, a dagger of light pierced his rearview mirror, and by the time Samuel reached to flip his mirror to the nightshade angle, the vehicle was beside his.
The chrome side mirror captured the reflection from the copper street lights in a way that made it look alien. But it was the 1977 Chevy Corvette attached to the mirror that made Samuel forget about the sexual tryst he had in the works. The tinted windows and T-tops made him think that the vehicle had to be from California. They did not have the need or the legislation to make that happen out here. Chrome side pips ran from the back of the front tires underneath the door until they flared out at the rear. The black paint job glistened as if the car were wet. The ‘Vette slowed at the intersection until four inches separated the passenger-side window from Samuel’s. He waited as the window came down with the slow lurch of a handle turn.
“Dodge,” said the voice from inside the Corvette.
Samuel paused and looked over at the girl. She smiled and then winked at him.
“Ain’t even close. You got sixteen pistons under that hood. Over three hundred horses. Go pick on someone your own size.” A voice came from inside the Corvette, hidden in the blackness. “No balls. I get it.”
Samuel gripped the leather covering on his steering wheel.
“I can handle the lady too, seeing as how you ain’t got what it takes to satisfy her.”
Samuel looked at the light and back at the empty void of the Corvette’s window. He nodded and turned his attention back to the dangling traffic light, anticipating the turn to green. He set his left hand on top of the steering wheel and dropped the right on the gear shift set between the seats. He revved the engine a few times and used his left foot to push back into the seat. Samuel took his right foot off the brake and teased the clutch with his left until he felt the gears of the manual transmission edging forward, pleading to open up into a full gallop.
When the light turned green, Samuel slammed the accelerator to the floor and popped the clutch with his left foot. The Dodge lurched forward, and he heard a giggle from the woman sitting next to him. The engine drowned out the passionate wailing of Eddie Vedder as the CD player moved on to play “Release.” The rear tires of the Dodge screamed, and the acrid, bitter smoke of burning rubber reached his nose as the Dodge pulled him underneath the traffic light and down the right side of the street, now serving as a drag strip.
The Corvette appeared to hover next to Samuel’s car, teasing and taunting him like an angry sibling. It stayed locked in position, using the oncoming lane as its own. Samuel heard laughing coming from the passenger-side window until it ran back up, drenching the Corvette in complete, inky blackness.
Samuel glanced at his gauges, the needle pushing toward sixty. The blinking yellow lights at the intersections faded like fireflies in the summer night. He tried not to think about the people on the sidewalks witnessing the race. Samuel loved this college town. They knew him here. They knew his car.
The Corvette roared, and Samuel saw the black sports car lurch forward. He smiled and shook his head, frustrated by the driver’s decision to toy with him and, at the same time, impressed by the sheer brutality of the Chevy’s 305 block. He feathered the clutch to bring the RPM gauge back into the red before shifting gears. Samuel’s blonde cohort smiled while holding the seatbelt across her chest.
Samuel watched the taillights of the Corvette move forward as his own speedometer broke the century mark. The two cars rocketed down the sleepy street like two bullets from a gun.
When the Corvette jacked low and dipped a shoulder into the highway onramp, Samuel realized he had to concede. He knew the Daytona did not have the handling of the Corvette, and he pulled the car to the curb, feeling the effects of the alcohol replacing the adrenaline of the race. He picked up the woman’s purse and searched through her wallet until he found her ID, complete with home address. Samuel glanced at the woman and he turned the car around. He drove toward her apartment, where he would most likely need help to take her safely inside.
The race left him dizzy as its effects receded in much the same way that the alcohol had hours earlier. Samuel would have to lick his wounded pride and forego the physical satisfaction of a sexual conquest. He found no solace in doing the right thing.
He felt her hand in his, tiny and vulnerable. She squeezed to let him know she was still there. The room came back into focus, and he recognized the same indistinguishable furniture that had been in the other cabins. Samuel’s breath hitched in his chest. He stood in the middle of the room with Mara at his side.
“Did you see it?” he asked her.
She nodded and wiped a tear from her face.
“I should have learned from that. It was so close to being a catastrophe.”
Mara turned and trailed a finger down his cheek. “We all fall short. We all screw up.”
Samuel brushed her hand aside and walked to the window. Blackened film covered the windowpanes as it had all of the cabin windows in this locality. He tried seeing out of one, hiding the rest of his tears from her.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“Another cabin. Probably a little further down the path, but not too far from the Barren.”
The moments preceding his visceral memory flooded Samuel’s head. He recalled the shuffling horde of the undead and the distant but clo
sing sound of the pack howling at the dead sky.
“Major and Kole. What do they want?”
“Not sure,” Mara said, shaking her head. “I think Kole wants to inflict pain, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. But Major, yeah, Major wants something more.”
“More than what?”
“More than hurting you. He wants out of here. We all do.”
***
Kole and Major ambled along the path, weaving in and out between the creatures. They seemed to have no purpose other than following Samuel and Mara. Major expected to be blown back by their rotten filth, but the sense of smell had all but disappeared in the locality. Along with the loss of sound, he knew the Reversion was almost complete.
“Can we get to them?” Kole asked. He hobbled forward, each couple of steps causing him to wince in pain.
“Yep,” replied Major. “The walking corpses will keep ’em pinned down. Won’t hurt ’em none.”
Kole nodded and kept walking, occasionally sidestepping a group of the creatures. He passed one on his left, looking deep into its face. Kole shuddered when the creature turned its blank eyes on him. He felt the desperation there, the pain.
“Think the next cabin is over that ridge,” Major said, shaking Kole from his thoughts. Major pointed along the path in the direction the horde was traveling. A throaty howl broke through the silence and made the horde stop in their tracks. Major and Kole turned to face the alpha male striding along the path, the wolf’s eyes never leaving the staggering undead.
Chapter 13
You stole my prey, and now you must make recompense.
Major stopped and looked at the alpha male. “I protected my investment.”
Kole looked at Major and then back at the wolf. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked.
The old man brushed off the question with a wave of his hand.
Where is he?
“Up the trail. The horde follows, like you.”
The alpha male stopped five feet in front of the men. The other hunters in the pack flanked him on each side until they stood blocking the path. The horde froze in place, swaying in the imaginary breeze.
He has the girl?
“She’s with him. I’m not sure who has what.”
Kole stepped up to stand beside Major. “Are you talking to these coyotes?” he asked.
“Wolves.”
“Whatever. Can you really understand them?”
Our pact involved you and you only.
“I know,” Major replied, looking at Kole. “I know.”
“What, man?” Kole asked. “What do you know?” He shuffled on his feet, clenching his fists and looking back and forth between the wolves and Major.
We’ll still hunt the man in order to fulfill His command, but we also want recompense for the delay. The girl.
“I don’t give a fuck about her.”
Then it isn’t genuine, is it? We’ll take him, too.
Major felt the alpha male’s mental nod toward Kole. “He is not mine.”
“Hey, hold up. What the hell are you talking about?” asked Kole.
Major turned to look at Kole, his eyes hard, dark, determined. “It’s out of my control,” he said.
“What is?” Kole asked while the alpha male padded forward.
The rest of the pack circled the two men while the horde remained fixed. Kole looked at Major and then at the wolves, understanding seeping into his mind like water running over a dam.
“You can’t do this!” he screamed at Major.
The old man shrugged and took a step back as the alpha male emitted a low growl, ears up and eyes fixed on Kole.
“This is not my doing. I’m a subject of this locality, like you. I wouldn’t worry about it. The Reversion is going to swallow us all soon, anyway.”
Kole gave Major a menacing look before tossing his bloodied bandages to the ground. A few of the hunters snuck forward and sniffed the blood as if it were an aphrodisiac.
“In a world losing all sensory input, you throw hungry wolves a handful of bloody bandages.”
Before Kole could reply, the alpha male sprang forward. His lean body flew through the air toward Kole’s neck. Kole raised a forearm, striking the alpha male on the head, deflecting his lunge with a whimper. The other hunters stepped forward.
No! He is mine.
“They want to prove themselves, the way you did. They want to fight their way to the top of the pack.”
“Stop talking to them, you asshole,” said Kole, spitting each syllable into the silent, still air.
Mine.
The hunters stopped, but their eyes remained locked on Kole.
“Why are you letting them attack me?” Kole asked.
“I’m not letting them do anything,” Major replied. “They have needs to fulfill, like all of us, and they have beliefs about the Reversion and what might stop it.”
“Human blood?”
“Probably. But I’m not a wolf, so I can’t say for sure.”
The alpha male growled again, shaking its head and realigning its equilibrium after absorbing Kole’s shot.
“What about Mara and Samuel? Let’s sell them out.”
“Mara,” said Major, “is not worth a thing to me. Or them. But Samuel. He has something I need, and if I have to sacrifice you and the girl to get it, I will.”
“This isn’t fair,” said Kole.
“Of course it isn’t, you spoiled little shit. You’ve slipped into another locality, one damned for all time. Or at least until the Reversion eats it. You were nothing but a disgusting human being in your life. Why do you think you’re owed any decency now? Be happy you didn’t slip into a locality more violent than this one. The alpha male will tear out your throat and you’ll be dead in minutes. Trust me, there are worse fates for those like you.”
Enough.
Major held both hands up and stepped backward. The pack stepped past him until they encircled Kole, the alpha male crouching down before him, ready to spring. Kole looked at Major with a bloody tear running down his face. He shook his head at the old man, but he said nothing.
The alpha male launched himself through the air again. This time, Kole’s defensive blow glanced off the beast’s muzzle and into thin air. The wolf’s paws landed on Kole’s neck, pushing him backward until he lost balance and collapsed hard on the ground. The alpha male opened its jaws and clamped down on Kole’s throat like a steel bear trap. The wolf growled and shook its head until blood spurted from Kole’s jugular. The man’s eyes remained open as his body twitched in the dirt. When he no longer moved, the alpha male raised his head and howled into the darkness, signaling the other hunters to partake in his kill.
Major stood by, careful not to interrupt the alpha male and his hunters. He closed his eyes as the tearing of flesh filled his ears. The locality would devour the experience like everything else, but until that happened, Major had to experience it. When the wolves had finished their obscene feast, the alpha male nudged a hunter. The wolves gathered behind their leader amongst the horde still fixed to the ground.
And now the other. The female is of no consequence to me. She has no power.
“But he does, and you’d better remember that.”
The alpha male looked at Major, blood staining his coat.
I know. I felt it last time. But that was before. I have become more powerful since.
“So has he,” replied Major. “So has he.”
***
“I think we’re here for a different reason. I think we have work to do, people we owe.”
Samuel nodded, taking deep, long breaths.
“Redemption?” he asked.
“Of sorts. Do you trust me?” Mara asked.
“I guess.”
“Give me your hand.”
When Samuel’s hand landed in Mara’s palm, she threw a shoulder into the door and exited the cabin. The horde surrounded them, but they stood motionless in place.
“Why aren’t they coming at u
s?” Samuel asked as they sprinted down the path and away from the Reversion.
“A force has held them temporarily. They won’t remain immobile long. Hurry. Let’s get some distance.”
Samuel looked at Mara for a moment, realizing there was more to her experience in the Reversion than what she had told him.
Mara ran down the path, her dark hair swaying against her back. Samuel followed her as she continued moving east. The trees hung over the path like dangling fly paper, ready to snag them at any moment. Mara kept moving through the darkened landscape until the path opened on a plain that stretched as far as she could see. Long wheat stood still and silent. Samuel looked up and saw the Reversion in the sky, constantly moving east toward the endgame.
“They’re not behind us,” Samuel said.
“They will be. Come on.”
Mara sprinted again, this time through the field toward a black hole on the other side. As Samuel drew closer, he realized they were heading for the gaping maw of a cave embedded in the deep rock of a mountain. The opening appeared as a solid wall of jet-black fabric.
“We’re going in there?” he asked Mara.
She ignored his question and slowed to a jog. As she approached the entrance to the cave, the wheat tapered off until nothing but undisturbed dirt lay in front of it. Samuel felt the muscles in his body tighten, and he had to fight to keep his bladder under control.
“It feels evil,” he said.
“It probably is,” replied Mara. “But it’s our last chance to escape the Reversion. And the wolves.”
As if on cue, Samuel heard another round of howling. He looked over a shoulder and saw the first shapes shuffling from the tree line into the field. He recognized the gait and knew the horde was back on their trail.
Mara looked at him and took his hand. She looked at the cave and back to the undead.
“It’s your call. I can’t make you.”
Samuel nodded and followed her through the opening, into darkness that penetrated him to the core.
