FULL MOON COUNTRY (FULL MOON SERIES (vol. 2))

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FULL MOON COUNTRY (FULL MOON SERIES (vol. 2)) Page 39

by Terry Yates


  Kyler picked himself up off of the blacktop. The palms of his hands were skinned, but other than that, he was fine. He scrambled over the tailgate, and into the truck where he was met by Lauren, Joe, Zack, Dustin, Sam Fong, and Heather. Sam and Zack and helped get him over the tailgate.

  “Where are the others?” Kyler asked, looking up at the others…but the others weren’t looking at him; they were looking just behind him. Confused, Kyler turned around on the floor of the truck and looked at the road. In the middle of it stood a figure, standing just in front of the sinking sun. Because of the sun, the figure only cast a silhouette…a five-foot-three inch silhouette, with a mop of dark, brown hair, and wearing a hospital gown.

  “Who’s driving?” Kyler asked, nervously.

  “FranAnne,” Sam answered, still staring at the little girl, equally nervous.

  “Go, FranAnne,” Kyler said softly. “Go…”

  As if the little girl heard, little Sarah Lewis began trotting toward the truck.

  “Go, FranAnne,” he said a little louder.

  The little girl was no more than fifty yards away and gaining ground.

  “Go FranAnne!” Everyone began to scream. Zack and Dustin beat on the back of the cab.

  FranAnne, for her part, had no idea what was going on, but after all that had happened in the last months, and of course, just a few minutes ago, she didn’t need to be told twice. She put the truck in first gear, and floored it.

  “Go! Go! Go!” they continued to scream as the little girl began to catch up. They could hear the ‘Flop!’ ‘Flop!’ ‘Flop!’ of her bare feet as they hit the pavement. She was no more than thirty yards and gaining, when the truck began to pick up speed.

  “Go! Go! Go!”

  Kyler and Sam stayed on the floor, watching from the tailgate. They both let out a sigh when Sarah Lewis began to drop back, but quickly replaced it with a gasp, when they saw that she was catching up again, the ‘Flop!’ ‘Flop!’ “Flop!’ of her feet becoming loud again.

  “Go! Go!” they began to yell again.

  Confused, FranAnne gunned it again. Looking down, she saw that she was doing almost fifty miles an hour. She had no idea where they were, because there was no one in front of them unless they were miles ahead. There were now woods on both sides of them, with the exception of a pasture here and there. She couldn’t see where the road was going, because these old trucks had old lights. The green fluorescent light coming from the dashboard lit the cab up, but the outside ones were nothing to write home about.

  “Speed up!” she thought she heard again from the back, so she pressed down the accelerator even harder.

  Sarah Lewis wasn’t falling behind, but gradually catching up. Not only could they hear her feet against the blacktop, but now they could hear her panting. Joe had begun to growl, but Lauren held him back.

  Everyone continued to scream and beat on the bed of the truck, both to scare the girl away, and the other to tell FranAnne to go even faster. One worked, the other didn’t. FranAnne sped up, but the little girl wasn’t afraid. As a matter of fact, she was now within twenty feet and getting closer. Kyler and Sam leaned out and beat on the tailgate, trying to spook the little girl, but again it had no effect. She just panted louder and ran faster. Jesus, Kyler thought, they must be doing 70 MPH! The little girl was no more than ten feet away now, her panting sounding to Kyler as if she was anticipating her first meal.

  The girl was now three feet away, and was lifting her arms. Kyler reached back into his pants and pulled out the automatic revolver. He looked down carefully. This time, he found the safety and pushed the button. According to Cpl. Williams, the gun was ready to shoot now.

  As he was about to look up, Kyler felt a small jolt, followed by an even smaller thump. When he looked up, he saw the little girl. Just like in the hospital when she sat up and looked him in face, she was now hanging onto the tailgate, her face again only inches from his. She still looked pretty much the same…big brown scary eyes, etc, but now he could see that she had little fangs glimmering in the darkness. He screamed and raised the gun. As he was about to fire, Sam and Zack moved up and began kicking at the little girl, who snapped at them viciously, even once, grabbing Zack’s trouser cuff in her little, but strong jaws. Unable to fire the gun with Sam and Zack so close, he scooted forward and began to kick at the little girl. The three of them were kicking her in the head, the face, and the chest, not including trying to dislodge her arms from the truck. None were having any real effect. She was just too strong. Her body absorbed the blows. What the shit, Kyler thought. Back on the island, he had kicked little Oliver Dixon so hard that the little werewolf sailed like a football, but this little girl was getting stronger.

  As they continued to kick her, the thing that had once been Sarah Lewis, pulled her leg up on top of the tailgate. Kyler had no choice. The little girl was just too strong for them. Everyone was in a panic. Heather was screaming and had buried her head in Dustin’s chest. Zack and Sam were still screaming and kicking the girl. Only Lauren was calm.

  Kyler raised the gun up to the girl’s forehead. He was close enough to where he knew he didn’t need the laser, plus he didn’t want to see any part of the girl’s face when he shot her in it.

  Sarah Lewis stopped snapping at Zack And Sam and just looked at Kyler in the darkness.

  “I’m sorry,” Kyler said softly, his finger tightening on the trigger.

  “Now!” he heard Lauren scream from behind him.

  Kyler had thought she was yelling at him to shoot her, and wanted to yell back that he was about to do as much, when he heard a loud growl, and from over him, Zack, and Sam, jumped Joe, who landed just to the left of the little girl. She immediately growled upon seeing the dog, and tried to snap at him, but Joe was too quick. He ducked down and took a step back, then when she turned her attention again to Kyler, the dog jumped at her, chomping down on the girl’s forearm. The creature that had been Sarah Lewis howled in pain as Joe tugged on her arm. She hissed and tried to pull away, but the dog was hanging on. Kyler heard a ‘little girl’ scream, then the tearing of flesh. Her eyes were open wide now, and all of them could see that they were now that fiery yellow. She was about to turn

  The little girl raised her head to the sky and howled. As she did, Zack reared his leg back, and then kicked her hard in the chest. Sarah hadn’t been expecting the kick, so she was caught off guard. As she started to fall backwards, the girl reached out with one hand and grabbed the tailgate. This time, Sam slammed his heel down on top of it. He heard several of her fingers crack and break, causing her to let go of the truck. They heard her yelp, then hit the pavement. They could hear her rolling over and over on the blacktop. They continued to look down the dark highway. For a few seconds, they saw nothing but blackness behind them, but after a few seconds, they saw a pair of yellow eyes, followed by a loud high-pitched howl.

  Everyone got up and moved back to their side of the truck. Embarrassed, Heather moved back over next to Lauren, leaving an awkward Dustin to resume sitting next to Zack.

  “I guess we can tell FranAnne to slow down now,” Kyler said, breaking the silence, while putting the gun back in his pants, having remembered to put the ‘Safety’ back on.

  Zack and Dustin beat on the back of the box several times. When they noticed that they weren’t slowing down, the boys beat on it again. Still nothing.

  Inside the truck, FranAnne wasn’t about to slow down. Moments earlier, she had looked to her left and seen what she thought to be a reflection off of the lights inside the cab on her window. That’s what it had to be. At that moment, they had woods on both sides of them. But the more she looked, the more she noticed that they seemed to be getting bigger. She rolled down the window to find that they didn’t disappear with the rest of the reflections from inside the cab. Quite the contrary, they were getting bigger. They were that familiar ‘werewolf yellow’ that she thought she’d left behind months ago. She also heard running in the woods, which wouldn’t have been
so bad if she hadn’t been going almost 70 MPH!

  FranAnne floored the accelerator. As she did, she could feel the bodies in the back rolling. She looked left, trying to find the thing. For a second, she thought that she might’ve left it behind, but then she heard it running through the woods. She looked down at the speedometer. It was between seventy-five and eighty MPH! She knew that these old trucks would burn out if you pressed them too much, and then where would they be? She also needed to pull back on the speed, because the old highway road was starting to become hilly and now there were starting to be curves in the road. They were too heavy to go any faster, but that thing was dodging trees at 70 MPH. She knew she couldn’t lose it without wrecking the truck

  “Oh shit…” she uttered softly. Off to her left, she could see that the sun had just gone down over a pasture.

  There was a turn in the road, so she had to look away. She also had to ignore the ones in the back who were still beating on the cab. As she made the short turn in the road, she felt everyone in the back rolling once again. When she straightened the truck out, she looked to her left where she saw several open acres.

  “Oh no…”

  For a moment, she saw nothing in the darkness, until she was getting ready to roll up her window and slow down. Then she the yellow eyes again. She could see the thing’s shape now as it ran alongside the pasture fence. FranAnne gunned the accelerator again, but she wasn’t losing it. She heard the thing jump the fence. Now it was running next to the truck. She swerved back and forth, hoping to knock it down, but no such luck was forthcoming. She could hear its footsteps on the pavement. How could anything on two legs run that fast? FranAnne swerved again to the left, but there was no jolt, no thump...no vibration at all. For a moment, she thought it could be gone. Maybe it had fallen or something. Geez…falling at 80 MPH would have to hurt. She had just about convinced herself that it was gone…when she heard it land on top of the truck.

  “Why won’t she slow down?” Heather screamed.

  They had all fallen to the floor the last time that FranAnne had accelerated the truck and were scared to get up again. Sam crawled across the floor and was about to beat on the back of the truck when something massive landed on the truck just above them, causing the truck to lurch to the right. When it straightened up, there was a moment of silence…and then Joe growled.

  The top of the truck suddenly exploded inward, metal and wood flying all over the bed. Everyone ducked and screamed as a large clawed hand shot through the hole in the roof and began to swipe at anything on the inside. Kyler pulled his gun, and began to crawl toward the hole, but with all of the noise and commotion going on, he couldn’t tell what was what or who was who. Bodies were constantly crashing into him or rolling over him. He heard snarling, screaming, and Joe growling. When he reached the hole, he saw that the clawed hand had something in its grip and was trying to pull it out of the truck. He heard screaming and gurgling as the thing tugged on its victim. As Kyler reached the hole, the arm was retracting itself through the roof, its victim in tow.

  Kyler heard the thing howl in pain. He saw that Joe was hanging off of its arm/foreleg and biting viciously into it, but still the arm retracted itself. Kyler grabbed the beast’s arm/foreleg around what would be the wrist and tried to pull it away from the neck that it was holding. It felt strange to the touch. It felt like a dog with a human wrist. Whoever the thing was holding, was fighting for their life. It continued to gurgle as Kyler felt a warm liquid spraying onto his firearm that he knew had to be blood. He couldn’t pull the hand away. The body kicked and writhed as it began to rise through the roof. With Joe still hanging on, Kyler reached up and pulled him back, but Joe wasn’t letting go so easily. Kyler felt a pair of arms reach out into the darkness and grab hold of Joe and yank down. Kyler could see Joe’s silhouette coming down, bringing torn flesh with him. The truck lurched sideways as the werewolf screamed in pain, pulling its victim through the hole with it. Kyler and another pair of arms were trying to pull the victim down by its legs, but it was no use. Kyler could hear bones breaking as the werewolf pulled the body through the too small opening. Kyler dropped onto his back and retrieved his pistol again. Something hit him in the eye as he pointed the gun up toward the hole in the roof and fired. He hadn’t expected the quick burst of gunfire from the automatic pistol, but he held the trigger down. The gunfire went up into the roof just to the left of the hole, causing wood, metal, and bits of canvas to shower down around them, but he kept firing and aiming to the right until the pistol was firing through the roof. He scarcely noticed the screaming around him, but he did notice the one from the roof. It was the werewolf. Kyler kept blasting through the opening until he heard one last scream. He felt the lode from the roof lighten, followed closely by something landing on the road, and then rolling into the grass. It was gone. Kyler was about to sit up when he felt the truck screeching to a halt. As it came to a stop, Kyler felt all of the bodies in the truck roll over him, putting him at the bottom of a pile.

  Kyler heard the driver door open and FranAnne hop out of the truck. Everyone moaned as the group began to untangle their limbs in the darkness.

  “Is everyone all right?” he heard FranAnne ask.

  “It got someone!” Lauren’s voice replied.

  Everyone sat up and automatically slid to the back of the truck where FranAnne stood with what looked to Kyler like an assault rifle in her arms. She was nervously aiming left and right, looking for any signs of the thing.

  Kyler could see Heather Schill curled up in a ball and sobbing. Lauren was petting a bloody mouthed Joe whose hackles were still up. He was shaking in anger as he growled lowly at the blackness.

  “You okay, Doc?” Kyler looked up to see Sam Fong looking at him.

  Hearing a groan to the left of the truck, they saw Zack Olson attempting to sit up while holding his head. Kyler crawled to the front of the truck where the hole was. He looked down to see the object that had probably hit him in the face just before he fired the pistol. It was a tennis shoe…Dustin Lawson’s tennis shoe.

  CHAPTER 55

  Mary Sue and Rex had jumped into the squad car with Denny and Rhonda Weaver, who was sitting up on her own, but was leaning against the door, asleep or passed out. Mary Sue waited for Rex to jump in, then she put it into gear.

  “Hang on!” she cried out as she turned the wheel sharply to the left, causing the car to do a doughnut. The tires squealed as she left the parking lot and fell in behind a group of army trucks that she wished would go faster.

  Rex and Denny were keeping an eye out for any signs of the werewolves. Rex had to crack the window so he could stick the barrel of his shotgun out of it. There were two more locked up against the dash. Mary Sue reached over and turned her lights on.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Rex asked, looking over at her.

  “I’m still sheriff until we reach the county line,” she answered, matter of fact, and looking straight ahead.

  Suddenly, the car lurched forward. Something hit them from behind…and that something was still with them. Denny looked over his shoulder, but saw nothing. At that moment, the roof began to cave in. A werewolf was on top of the cruiser and trying to beat the roof in. Stunned, Mary Sue tried to keep the car on the road, while Rex aimed the rifle at the roof.

  “No!” Mary Sue screamed. “That’s a scatter gun! You’ll hit us all.

  “What do you want me to do?” Rex screamed back.

  Denny sat frightened, watching the roof, while Rhonda Weaver slept.

  The pounding on the roof was causing it to cave in. Mary Sue took her revolver and with one hand on the steering, tried to aim it toward the small hole that had now appeared in the metal and was becoming bigger with each hit. Mary Sue was having trouble aiming, because the hole was too far behind her.

  “Here!” she screamed. Handing the pistol to Rex, who now had to duck his head because of the collapsing roof.

  Suddenly, they heard a quick burst of fire, then a scream from
the werewolf.

  “Look!” Denny screamed, pointing ahead.

  From the back of the truck ahead of them, the three saw a burst of gunfire light up the bed. They heard another scream from the roof, but still the thing stayed on. Mary Sue tried swerving to knock the beast off of the car, but it was no use, plus she didn’t want to be making erratic moves with someone shooting a gun in their direction.

  The thing continued to beat on the roof of the car and Mary Sue continued to try to lose it. The roof had caved in so much that both Rex and Denny were both having to duck down in their seats. The werewolf had almost destroyed the entire passenger side of the car.

  “Pull up!” came a voice from Mary Sue’s radio, which was lying on the seat between her and Rex. “Pull up!”

  “What the hell?” Mary Sue screamed, groping for the radio while trying to keep her eyes on the road.

  “Pull up!” Potts yelled into the radio. “Pull up!”

  Potts had jumped into the back of the food truck, which turned left on the highway out of the hospital, while several of the trucks went right on the highway, and he was pretty sure that he’d seen Kyler chasing one of them. He’d seen one of the things begin to chase after the lady sheriff’s car. He couldn’t shoot at it. The sheriff’s car was between them, and he didn’t want to take a chance on blasting a hole in the pretty lady’s, or anyone of her people’s heads, for that matter. He’d taken the radio that he had taken from Williams, turned it on, and pushed down the button.

  “Hello!” he had yelled into the old radio. God, he loved these old things. No cell phones or weird gadgets hanging off your shoulder. “Hello!”

  He was answered first by Private Jordan, who was driving one of the trucks, and then by Pvt. Jefferson who was driving another.

 

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