by Maxey, Phil
Joel looked in the rear mirror at the young man seated behind, who nodded. “He’ll know. Over.”
There was another pause before Anna spoke. “Has he asked you about Jasper? Over.”
“No. How’s Dalton? Over.”
“Sleeping, last I looked. How much longer will we be on the road? Over.”
“If we can keep to the highway, just over an hour. Copeland should be somewhere above… Over.”
The four-lane highway wound through and over low hills and forests, with no sign of life amongst the darkness.
In the RV, Dalton emerged from the rear room, walked past Barry and sat opposite him at the small table.
The Boy winced at the dark red stained sheet that had been tied around the big guy’s chest. “Does it hurt?”
Dalton waved his hand. “Ain’t nothing.”
“Did you kill what did that to you?”
Dalton frowned, his eyes looking up. “Not yet.” He turned awkwardly in his seat to those at the front. “We making any stops on the way to find blood?”
“One way trip all the way to Lake Tahoe,” shouted Anna over her shoulder.
He turned back to face the table and let his head fall back.
In the back of the pickup, Kizzy rested her head on Amos’s shoulder. He wanted to sleep too, but needed to keep probing the Drak’s mind, a few hundred feet above them. He had already discovered that the former CEO was double crossed before he had a chance to do the same to the kings, and that all he wanted was to kill them and get his organisation back, even if it meant working with the original enemy. Amos had no idea how everything would work out, but right now Copeland was the best chance they had of escaping.
The man in the pickup’s bed behind was still unconscious, his mind shutdown over the strain of fighting against the collar, and because of that Amos wasn’t able to gleam any memories from it. It was pure instinct he was going on that whoever the old man was, he wouldn’t want to kill all of them on waking.
The highway rose and they ascended through a wall of pine, covering steep slopes above and below.
Joel tried to keep his thoughts and guilt to himself, for he was acutely aware of who was seated behind.
“I don’t blame you,” said Amos. It was a lie. He did blame Joel for leading them into an ambush, even if he missed the other mind reader. But if the plan to leave the mainland for warmer climbs was going to work he needed the FBI operator driving to be free from baggage. He needed him to help keep himself and Kizzy alive.
Joel sighed. “I appreciate that but what happened is on me. It was my idea to rescue Anna… and I led the team.”
“And I should have known there was another mind reader. We all make mistakes.” Amos looked out into what he could see of the trunks and branches moving past.
“You learn anything from Copeland?”
“He thought he would rule alongside the kings… that didn’t work out too well for him.”
“And now?”
“He wants control of his company back, and Rynon and Eltir dead. If you help him do that, he will play by our rules.”
“Has he thought about Jasper?”
“Some, but it’s more a distant sadness… regret maybe than a thought. He thinks you have him somewhere, and you will use the boy against him.”
Joel stayed silent, as did Amos.
The air grew ice cold as they moved into the mountains, the trees embedded amongst a rich void, so close to the two-lane road that no view of the lighter sky was possible. Dalton was the first to hear the howl even though he was half asleep.
Static came from Anna’s radio followed by Joel’s voice. “I think I heard a howl. Over,” he said.
The two vehicle convoy continued as the road veered around a bend.
“Far off, maybe it was a real—” A cascade of howls now were echoing off the hills and rock faces around them.
Dalton got up uneasily and walked to the front. “They ain’t no dogs. That’s the real deal.”
“How far away?”
He sniffed. “Hard to tell. Few miles maybe.”
“We got a problem. Over,” said Joel as the brake lights on the pickup in front of Anna burned red.
“What? Over.”
“Looks like trees have fallen across the road. We’ll have to stop. Over.”
They pulled up near a group of fallen trees, some forty-feet in length with splinted trunks that were lying across the concrete.
Joel got out, leaving his M4 behind and walked to the closest of them, then placed a hand on the bark and pushed. It moved a few inches before he gave up. He looked at the other vehicle. “Going to need some—”
Howls boomed out, filling the air and he spun around to try and gather their exact location. The RV’s door flew open and Dalton walked down the steps.
Joel jogged over to him. “What’s going on?” His breath took form as white mist.
Dalton shook his head. “I don’t know. Something ain’t right. They know I’m here but…”
Silence returned to the forest as both men extended their senses as far as they could. Kizzy went to get out, but Joel waved her back inside.
Tree branches snapped. Dalton whipped his head to the right, but more wood broke to the left. Joel noticed Dalton’s form slowly changing.
“Get back inside, I got th—”
A snarling shape leaped from the darkness at Dalton, who changed to his wolf form just as the werewolf smashed into him, both of them barreling into the side of the RV and denting the metal plating. Joel’s eyes were now black, his hand’s claws. As both werewolf’s slashed and tumbled to the ground, he went to help but more branches cracked and other creatures burst from the trees, one landing on the pickup’s hood, crumpling it, then smashed the windscreen. Joel went to run towards it, when a gust of wind blew across him, and the wolf-man was gone. Claws beneath beating wings taking the flailing creature up into the air.
Corine screamed as the window around the other side of the RV shattered, and grunts and growls mixed with the clatter of gunfire as Anna fired at three new beasts scrambling towards the RV. Joel ran to the first, slashing across its face, making it howl in pain, but another crashed through the now open gap into the RV. Anna spun around, but the creature who filled most of the interior space smashed her weapon away and lunged at her. Joel turned just as the thing was about to bring its foot long claw across her, but instead it stopped as if frozen. A tip of a levitating blade appeared through the front of its skull. Corine let out a breath as the beast collapsed.
Joel spun around to the fourth creature as it tore into the side of the pickup. Kizzy and Amos scrambled out of the other side’s door, blood coming from the young man’s nose. Kizzy’s body enlarged, muscles bulging but the creature leaped over the pickup’s cabin and slammed into her, knocking her backwards. Joel not understanding Amos’s inaction joined the fight, running forward and slashed across the back of the beast, which whirled around to attack, but just as it took a step forward, a branch as big as a small tree smashed across the things head, its neck and skull cracking. Kizzy dropped the wooden club, and looked at Dalton who was still battling his own foe. They both ran towards the werewolf that was getting the better of him, when there were a series of thuds. The werewolf snarled, staggering back with blood running from chest wounds. Anna fired again, this time at the creature’s skull. It fell to the ground dead.
Everyone looked anxiously at the wall of darkness they were within for the next attack, but silence had returned to the forest.
Dalton fell back against the RV. Joel ran to him, holding him up, with Anna doing the same, taking his other shoulder. “They…” He swallowed.
“Don’t try to talk,” said Anna. We need to get you inside.
“They weren’t human anymore… wild… like…” His eyes closed and they took his full weight.
CHAPTER THREE
The RV’s engine whirred then chugged, then gave up. Joel swore under his breath and lifted his head from beneath th
e hood. He looked at Anna by his side, holding a flashlight at the engine block. “I can’t see any reason why it won’t start. Maybe a stray bullet or something.” He looked back at the other vehicle. “Pickup’s totaled as well.”
Anna’s eyes looked up. “Is he still...”
Joel closed the hood. “Yup.” He glanced at the old man, still unconscious in the bed, then walked with Anna to the RV’s side door and walked inside. Spaces were cupboards used to be sat between broken wooden panels and a hole in the ceiling. Dalton was lying in the rear bed, while Barry and Corine sat at the table, and Kizzy and Amos on the ripped padded seat on the other side. Joel wanted to know why Amos couldn’t handle the wolf attack by a quick mental exertion but the young man had his head down, a dark red stain still visible beneath his nose. Kizzy had her arm around him.
“I’m going to check on Dalton,” said Anna moving to the back room.
“Both vehicles are out of commission,” said Joel to the rest. “So we’re going to have to walk out of here.”
“But what about the monsters?” said Barry. His eyes drifted to the wall of black, visible where the side window used to be.
“We just got to hope the ones that attacked were it. But we can’t stay here. The corporation’s force will probably come through here sooner or later.”
“But… where are we?” said Corine.
“About forty miles from where we need be… If we stick close to the road, but not on it, then if any military vehicles pass by here, we should’t be detected.”
“Unless they got another Jasper,” said Anna emerging from the shadows of the rear part of the RV.
“If we can find another vehicle, then it won’t matter if they do. How is he?”
“He needs blood.”
“We all do,” said Kizzy.
“What we going to do with the old guy in the back of the pickup?” said Corine. “I ain’t carrying his sleeping ass all the way to Tahoe.”
“Maybe that’s his Alkron ability,” said Kizzy. “He can sleep through everything!”
Stifled laughter rippled around the group, but Amos remained stony faced.
“We’ll have to carry him,” said Joel. “We still got ten hours till sunup. Everyone get your stuff.”
*****
Amos marched at the back of the group. He had no light of his own but Joel’s and Corine’s in front was enough for him to traverse the moss-covered twigs, loose rocks and sodden dirt. An hour earlier when the howls rang out, he pushed his mind into the thick blanket of trees around, but just as he started to intrude into another’s consciousness, his own snapped back exploding pain into his skull. As the clawed fur covered things slashed and hacked at those around him, he sat like a terrified child, useless to help with blood running over his top lip
As he trekked across the uneven wet ground, he wondered if the collar had done permanent damage to his brain, or maybe going up against the woman in the yard was too much. Was this what happened when two mind readers met? The loser’s brain melts?
And now I’m like a human… no, worse… a weak human that needs blood to live…
Kizzy crunched through the undergrowth, her body bigger than it should be, while carrying the back of a makeshift gurney, with the old man strapped to it. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know something was wrong with the young man behind her. Once in a while, she would twist her neck like an owl, to make sure he was still there, but would only hold the strange pose for a second so not to freak him out. When the attack happened she cried out for him to do something, but the blood streaming from his nose gave her the answer. His ability was broken, and she decided there and then that she needed to protect him until it returned… if it ever did.
Anna carried the front of the piece of bed that they tore from the RV, but her eyes were continually looking skyward. Every now and again she would glimpse the cross-like shadow beyond the tops of trees, or would feel the breeze be stronger than it should be and her heart would beat faster. She still hadn’t come to terms with their former enemy working with them, or stranger still, helping them. She was sure it was a trick of some kind, and when that was revealed she needed to be ready.
Joel kept throwing some light towards where he thought the highway should be, to make sure they were going in the right direction and making corrections where needed. The terrain though was tough going, sapping even his hybrid stamina so he knew it would be a lot worse for those behind him that didn’t have that. They wouldn’t make it to the lake by morning. A place to rest for the day was going to be required.
As the minutes turned into hours, he tried not to curse their luck. Tried not to let the constant misfortune cover his thoughts too much, but as his legs grew heavy he wondered if that was part of the scourge as well. Once infected, your fate of suffering was sealed. And now, he was betting everything on the thing still flying above them. A human that ended the world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dalton grumbled something as he staggered along behind Barry but in front of Anna. Before she could ask him to repeat it, she saw the same silhouette in the distance between the branches that he had. A large arched roof with smaller flatter ones on both sides.
“Looks like there’s a building up ahead,” said Joel. “It’s on the other side of the road.”
They awkwardly climbed up the slope which became increasingly steep as it approached the concrete, made sure there were no vehicles coming and then moved as quickly as they could to the other side. Joel broke a lock on a door and they all bundled into the entrance area of a bar.
Anna and Kizzy placed the gurney on the ground, the former sitting, catching her breath. Dalton grabbed a bottle from behind the large counter which sat at the center of the establishment, and then disappeared off through a door at the back of the room, Amos following. Kizzy went to speak but held her tongue.
Anna closed the entrance door, jamming the back of a chair beneath the handle, then looked around. Glass bottles and glasses hung from their usual spots on walls, along with framed photos of a middle-aged couple. “Doesn’t look like they had any trouble here,” she said.
Joel nodded. “Not sensing any vamps. We should be okay…” He looked to the others who were seated. “But we’re close to the road so keep light to a minimum.” They all agreed.
Kizzy looked down at the man she had just carried. “What are we going to do with him?”
Joel scanned across the rough but dignified features of the still unconscious inmate. “Leave him there. I’ll write a note and place it near him, so if he wakes he’s got some idea of how he got here.”
“What if he wakes and freaks out?”
Joel searched around the back of the bar, quickly finding what he needed. “Find a room to sleep in with a lock on it.”
*****
Amos looked at the curled up young woman in the bed behind him. Unlike she, he couldn’t sleep. He put his jacket and boots back on and made as few boards creak as possible as he left the room on the second floor. Attached to the bar building at the back was a bed-and-breakfast with five good-sized rooms, which were now all filled.
He needed some air. He made his way down the stairs, through the hallway to the connecting corridor to the bar, and pushed open the door. If his abilities had still functioned he would have known the old man was seated across the room, a bottle and half full glass on the table in front of him.
“Oh… hi,” said Amos to the figure lit by a hint of moonlight.
The old man didn’t reply or look in Amos’s direction, instead he took another sip from the glass.
Amos took a few more steps into the room, trying to adjust his eyes. “You’re awake… I mean, conscious…”
The man put the glass down. “Yup.”
“I’m—”
“I know who you are. You’re the clown who wouldn’t shut up in the yard.”
“Err… yeah I guess.” Amos took a few more steps closer. It was hard to tell but it looked like the collar was no longer around
the old man’s neck. “My name is Amos. What’s yours?”
The long wrinkled face looked across to the young man. “Nelson. You carry me here? The note—” He gestured to a piece of paper on the table. “— Says there’s a group of you. All otherhumans?”
Amos nodded. “Yeah…”
“What can you do?”
“You first.”
Nelson smirked, then took another sip from his drink. The door behind them creaked open. Joel was standing in the doorway.
“Thought I heard conversation.” He walked to the old man’s table, slowing a little on seeing his neck. “Good to see you’re doing better. I’m Joel.”
Nelson held out his hand, which Joel shook. “Nelson. I owe you a thanks for bringing me out here.”
Joel pulled a chair across and sat, while Amos leaned up against the bar. “We found you in the road. You escaped?”
“Yeah. They took from me a small town down south. Thought I would be willing to join their jackboots. They were wrong. So they sent me to that place to try and convince me otherwise. They were still wrong.”
Joel smiled. He gestured towards the bottle. “Mind if I join you?”
“Sure…” Nelson sniffed. “You’re a hybrid?”
Joel smiled while bringing his flashlight out of his pocket and switching it on, then placing it on the table. “Do I smell that bad?”
“Hybrids have a certain smell about them.”
Joel quickly moved to the bar, got a glass then sat back down, pouring himself some of the clear liquor, then took a taste.
“You a wolf?” said Amos to the older man at the table.
“Ain’t no animal.” Nelson looked at Joel. He could tell the hybrid wanted to know what his ability was. He sighed. “I can move stuff with my mind. Metal.”
“Ah…” said Joel. “We have a girl with us that can do the same.”
Nelson’s eyes briefly grew large and he raised his eyebrows. “I’ve not heard of any like myself.” He looked back to Joel. “You were law before…” He looked around the room. “Everything went to shit?”
