The whole time they had been talking, Sydney had been balanced half on, half off, the stool. In hindsight, making her move when injured was a stupid idea. But, the anxiety she felt since waking up was only growing worse by the minute. The skin crawling need to move, to do something was increasing by the second. Whatever was causing it wouldn’t let her wait any longer and now that the ball was rolling she had to go with it even if she was at a major disadvantage.
Doc must have assessed her condition and decided to take a chance and call her bluff. He lunged at her, catching her by the throat and wrapping his larger hand around hers that held the grenade. She had been too nervous to remove the pin and hold it the way Doc had that first night, but now she wished she had. His weight carried them over backwards and they crashed to the floor in a pile with Sydney in between Doc and the stool she had been sitting on.
Between the weight of the man on top of her and the pain of the stool digging into her back, she was shocked she didn’t let go of the hand grenade. All the breath was knocked from her and she was pretty sure had broken some ribs, or maybe even her spine. It hurt bad enough to be a broken back. They rolled off the stool together like they were spinning through a horizontal dance.
When they stopped rolling, Doc was still on top of her and Sydney pushed at his face trying to force him off. When he only grunted and squeezed her throat harder, she curved her fingers into claws. Even though the air had been knocked out of her lungs, she could still feel the pressure on her throat and it doubled the choking feeling. Panic whirled through her as she raked her nails down his face. She could feel skin and blood cake underneath her nails and she dug in harder. He shrieked and let go of her throat so that he could protect his face.
When he twisted his face away from her she was able to turn her body enough to bring her good knee up and slam it into his crotch. His scream was cut off as he gagged and choked, his face going deep read to nearly match the scratches across his cheek. He wasn’t able to fight her as she shoved him off and yanked her hand out of his grip. Not being able to use both legs made her crawl slower, but she was free at least.
Unfortunately, she only got a few feet away before Doc grabbed her foot and pulled her towards him. His fingers clawed for the grenade and she made a split second decision to roll the bomb across the floor. It was either get it out of both of their reaches or let Doc take it from her. Her goal had been to buy herself enough time to subdue Doc and retrieve the bomb.
Doc cursed when he saw the grenade bounce across the living room and under the TV. As they watched the bomb bounce away, they both froze when a heavy weight hit the door to the basement. Fuck! Sydney began fighting harder than ever to get away from the doctor. Panic and near hysteria caused her to kick frantically with her good leg at his face. He covered his head with both arms and waited out the attack. She rolled again and used the sofa to lurch to her feet. She had just grabbed the lamp that sat on a table next to the couch when Doc’s weight slammed into her again. She was surprised that he didn’t go right for the grenade, but his crazed screaming made her think he had finally snapped. Now he wanted to hurt her more than he wanted to get to the bomb.
He grabbed her by the hair and his momentum carried them into the wall next to the basement door. They slammed hard enough to knock a picture loose and it crashed to the floor. Her head bounced hard enough to make her vision blurry and when he used her hair to pull her head back and slam it into the wall a second time her vision went black. She felt herself falling and all she could do was grab ahold of Doc and hope to bring him down with her. She held onto his arm and shirt as tight as she could and he fought to stay on his feet. Her dead weight pulled them both to the floor in slow motion and he cursed loudly.
Another loud crash at the door made Doc glance up but Sydney forced herself to ignore the Dyian for a moment, long enough to reach for a shard of glass from the broken picture. By the time he realized what she was doing it was too late. She buried the three-inch spike of glass in Doc’s neck and pushed him off her with a roar of anger. He rolled off her, his hands fluttering at the piece of glass in his neck and making disgusting drowning sounds.
The Dyian slammed into the door again, hard enough to crack the wood. Her heart thumped in her throat as she crawled and rolled across the room towards the grenade. She fumbled in the dark space under the TV feeling for the bomb. She could feel dust and dirt but nothing that would be a bomb. Her shoulders jerked when the door crashed open behind her but she refused to look in some childish belief that not seeing it would make it go away.
The glass in Doc’s throat made his scream gurgle horribly and she knew the Dyian had him. She slid her hand along the floor desperate to the find the grenade and beginning to fear that she had been mistaken about where it ended up. Heavy footsteps pounded across the floor coming towards her. At last, pushing her face into the space between the floor and the table, she was able to reach the bomb. She closed her hand over it and rolled onto her back coming face to face with the Dyian.
Xander
The thick underbrush made walking difficult enough, but having to carry Zak made it even slower going. “Should we circle back and try to find the truck?” Shay asked.
“I don’t think it’s drivable.” He took a deep breath and winced as the pain flared harder. He dreaded his next admission. “And, I’m not sure I could find our way back.”
Shay and Zak didn’t say anything. They weren’t sure which direction they had come from either. A combination of the dense trees and having been herded by crazed monsters, there was no telling how far away from the truck and the road they had gone. “Maybe I can climb a tree and try to figure out which way to go?” Shay offered.
Xander lowered Zak to the ground and rested against a tree. “It can’t hurt,” he agreed. “I’ll give you a boost.” He ignored the pain in his ribs and shoulder as he put his hands together and Shay stepped into his grip. He lifted her weight and his vision blurred. He took deep breaths and by sheer willpower he refused to pass out. Shay heaved her way into the branch above them while Xander slumped next to Zak. He could hear branches shaking and the grunts of Shay climbing.
“How are we going to get out of this mess?” Zak asked.
“Hell if I know. I’m just sorry you and Shay got dragged into it. We were trying to keep you out of it.”
“Oh, shut up. You know we wouldn’t let you guys face this alone.”
Zak’s words meant a lot to Xander. The guilt he felt over losing Sydney and risking Zak and Shay’s lives ate at him on top of everything else. “I think this is bigger than all of us at this point,” he was reluctant to admit it, but had to be realistic.
“I know.”
“If we can make it back to the road we’ll find help. Tell the police everything. But let’s leave out the weird shit. We’ll just tell them that some crazy guy kidnapped Syd and we tried to find her and some people ran us off the road.”
Zak patted his leg in relief. “Good plan.”
“We probably should just have done that to begin with,” Xander rubbed a hand across his face.
“It really isn’t that easy though. You know, things could get fucked and it will come down on us.”
“Me” Xander insisted.
“We are all in this.”
“No. And Syd would agree with me. You guys need to stay out of it as much as possible. I’m going to take the blame for whatever happens.” Xander refused to consider what they were really trying to plan for. If Sydney didn’t make it out alive someone would be blamed for her death. Unless they caught Doc in the act everyone would assume Xander—and possibly Shay and Zak—were responsible and concocting a crazy story to cover their tracks.
Before Zak could argue Shay called down from above them. “I can’t see shit from up here.”
Xander’s stomach sank more. “Then get back down here before you break your neck. Or before that other psycho shows up.”
As Shay carefully descended Xander climbed to his feet and hel
ped Zak to his. Shay dropped from the lowest branch and dusted the bark from her hands. “I couldn’t see anything really, but there is a break in the trees that way,” Shay pointed north. “I don’t think it’s a road. It could just be a clearing. But there might have been a path cut into the trees towards it too.”
“Like a driveway?” Xander asked.
“Yeah. It could be a cabin.”
“How far away was it?”
“I couldn’t really tell,” she admitted. “A couple of miles maybe.”
They both glanced at Zak. “I’ll make it,” he assured them.
Xander had his doubts, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. If he hadn’t also been hurt and exhausted he could probably carry the shorter, skinnier man for a while. But not a few miles. And definitely not while he was injured. “OK. Let’s go.”
As they walked he tried to keep an ear out for the man that was still unaccounted for. It was hard to hear anything over the sounds of their own crashing through the woods and anything he did hear he couldn’t tell if it was animals or something worse.
“Guys,” Zak gasped after walking for less than thirty minutes. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to rest. Every step I take is killing me and I can’t breathe.”
Shay and Xander shared a look of worry. Depending on how bad Zak’s ribs were he could end up puncturing a lung. Shuffling through bushes behind them caused them all to freeze. “It could just be an animal,” Shay whispered. But a low whimper disagreed with her.
“I’m pretty sure that’s human,” Xander whispered back.
“You guys should run. Leave me here,” Zak whispered vehemently.
“Just be quiet,” Shay directed them all. She took the limb she had used to fight off the other two back from Xander. It had made a good walking stick but that wasn’t why Xander hesitated to hand it over. He didn’t want Shay in harm’s way.
“I’ve got this,” he said. “You and Zak keep moving.”
“That’s just dumb. I’m moving faster than either of you,” she jerked the log out of his hand. “I’m going to lead him in another direction and you two keep going north. I’ll meet you at that clearing.”
“No!” Xander started to protest.
“Just go!” Shay snapped before turning and sprinting as fast as the underbrush would allow her, making as much noise as she could.
“Shit,” Xander cursed. But instead of chasing after Shay he heaved Zak to his feet and half carried him further north.
They had only been running—more like limping quickly—for a few moments when a noise from their right startled them enough that they stopped in confusion. Shay should have been leading the crazy man away from them, there shouldn’t be any reason for him to be coming back this way. Unless something had happened to Shay. The person was moving fast, too fast for Xander and Zak to outrun. Xander dropped Zak to the ground and searched for a weapon. He picked up a large rock and turned towards the approaching sounds.
The woman that Shay had hit first burst through the trees looking more like a monster than she had before. A large gash in her head dripped blood down her face and she was making loud grunting sounds. Despite the fact she was obviously in pain the woman lurched at Xander and he raised the rock to fend her off. Her flailing hands deflected his blow enough that instead of a head shot, he ended up cracking her shoulder with a hit hard enough break bones. The woman yelped and collapsed at his feet.
He tried to back out of her reach, but she caught his foot and bit down on his ankle. In shock and pain he screamed and kicked his leg trying to dislodge her. Xander lost his balance and landed on his butt which made it easier to kick her loose using the leg she wasn’t currently gnawing on.
A tree branch was jammed into the woman’s face and Xander was relieved to see Zak doing his best to fight the woman off him. Between Xander’s kicks and Zak’s jabbing, the woman finally let go and Xander was able to climb to his feet. He picked the rock up again raised it high over his head. The woman stared up at him with contempt, fear and agony and he had to close his eyes before he could bring the rock down. It connected with her head with a sickening crunch and Xander dropped the rock with a loud thud. He wiped his hands on his jeans and tried to regain control over his breathing.
“You did what you had to do, man,” Zak assured him. “You put her out of her misery.”
“I know,” and Xander knew he would eventually believe that once he had time to process everything.
More rustling from the trees caused both men to stiffen in alarm and turn towards the sound. But it was Shay who burst through the trees looking more disheveled than before and she had some new scratches on her face. “Are you guys OK? I heard screaming.”
Feeling somewhat sheepish, Xander admitted it was him. “That one attacked us. She bit my leg,” he raised his pant leg to reveal an oozing circle of bite marks just above his boot.
“They can’t transmit anything can they?” Shay asked.
“I hope not. I really don’t think so.”
“Just bacterial infections,” Zak said unhelpfully.
“Thanks for that,” Xander muttered. “What happened to you?” he asked Shay.
“I took care of the third one,” she said simply.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Xander pulled Zak to his feet again.
Chapter Fifty One
Sydney stared transfixed at the creature that stood over her. Her breath was caught in her throat and she felt like she would float out of her body at any moment. A strange squeaking sound slipped out of her throat and the creature tilted its head at her. She hadn’t known what to expect, but nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.
The creature was tall and skinny, standing on two legs and was vaguely humanoid. Except its skin was a dusky grey green color. If there had ever been any doubt this thing came from another world it evaporated on sight. Nothing about the creature seemed to have originated on Earth. Its eyes were bigger than a human’s eye but they were so dark she couldn’t tell if it had a pupil or anything resembling a human eye. It blinked slowly at her and its eyelid looked hard and rough like that of a reptile and receded into its skill when its eyes were open. All of its skin looked reptilian. But, whereas a reptile’s skin often looks smooth and supple despite its stiffness, this creature’s skin looked dry and flaky. It didn’t look healthy. Even the color looked faded and anemic.
“Please don’t hurt me,” Syd whispered, unsure if the Dyian understood her or not.
The alien’s slitted bump of a nose flared, taking in Sydney’s sent. Its head resembled the shape of a humans but was more narrow and elongated and its skull was larger and hairless. The thin crack of its impossibly wide mouth opened and it shrieked at her, nearly splitting its face in half. She flinched and closed her eyes. Her body was trembling and her heart was racing, slamming painfully against her breastbone. Without moving her head, she dared a look to the other side of the room to see what had happened to Doc. He lay slumped against the wall with lifeless staring eyes. By the looks of it, his throat had been crushed and the shard of glass was in pieces glinting from the gore.
“I’m-I’m glad you killed him. He was an evil man.” The Dyian shifted its head toward the dead doctor and it rumbled low in its throat. “Right. He deserved what happened to him. But we didn’t deserve what he did to us.” The Dyian turned back towards her quickly and narrowed its eyes at her. “I’m sorry for what happened to you. I don’t want to hurt you.” The creature glared at her as if it knew she was lying.
Sydney told herself it was, in part, due to the abject fear she was feeling being confronted by this alien creature. But believed, without a doubt, she needed to kill it. Granted, she knew it was wrong to compare the Dyian’s reactions and looks to those of a human, but she didn’t underestimate the malevolence she saw in its dark, dark eyes. It’s cold, reptilian look was dangerous. It wasn’t just angry. It was scared—and a cornered animal was a deadly animal. She needed to get to her feet. She needed to find a w
ay to restrain the creature long enough to blow it up. And if she couldn’t, then she would blow them both up. Ideally, if she could re-contain the creature long enough for the infected others to make it back here, she might be able to take care of all the problems at one time.
She noticed a gash on the creature's arm that dripped thin, blue-black blood. “Are you OK?” asked, nodding at the wound. The creature didn’t look away from her face. “I can help you,” she said softly. She slid the grenade into her pocket quickly, trying to act as nonchalant about it as she could. The Dyian edged back from her in quick jerky movements but Sydney didn’t know if it was because it was afraid of her or if was because it needed room to attack. She held up her hands, “I’m just going to get up and get something to help clean your arm. OK?”
She had no idea if the creature understood or not, but it backed away further and she pushed herself to a sitting position. It took a herculean effort but she managed to climb to her good leg. Her movements backed the Dyian further away and it watched at her with a sharp edge to its glare. The last time she saw Doc’s tranquilizer gun he had stowed it in a drawer in the kitchen, she just needed to get to it. If she could sedate the creature she might be able lock it into her room until she figured out what to do.
She hobbled towards the kitchen and the Dyian didn’t take its eyes off her the entire time. She hated turning her back on it, but she didn’t have a lot of choice. She couldn’t back towards the kitchen on her bad leg and not risk falling over something. She had made it halfway across the room when something set the Dyian off. Either it guessed or sensed what she was going to do, or it was just waiting for her to turn her back. Either way, it leapt the length of the living room area and the only thing that saved Sydney was that her good leg gave out at the same time. She crashed to the floor as the Dyian went flying over her and slammed into the wall in between her room and Doc’s.
Don't Let Them Find You Page 35
