by Tracy Sharp
“I got her, I got her. Easy does it, sweets.”
May started crying again, tears streaming down her face.
“I got you, honey. It’s okay, now.” Zed reached the car and placed his hand on the door handle.
Alarms went off in Robyn’s mind. “Zed!” She screamed.
He turned to look at her, a question on his face.
A click and the back door swung open. May looked down at something in front of her, at her feet.
Her mother sat up, her throat cut. Blood oozed from her wound. Her lips moved. “Not taking her,” she rasped.
Zed stared, his mouth open. “Jesus Christ.”
“Mama…,” May whimpered. “Mama…”
“Oh, God.” Robyn kept the .45 aimed at Spider and moved toward the car.
Zed backed up, hands up. “Easy, lady. Just take it easy.”
Robyn peered into the back of the car. May’s mother pointed a shotgun at them. “Not taking her.” No sound came out, but Robyn could read her lips just fine. “She’s mine.”
“Take it easy,” Robyn said. “You need to get to the hospital.”
A deep rumbling sounded from down the highway. She glanced up to see a tractor trailer flying down the road toward Spider, who stepped directly into its path. He looked back at Robyn and smiled that death smile. “All right.” He nodded. “All right.”
Robyn stared at him, frozen.
He never looked away from her eyes. Not even with the truck knocked him high into the air and into the ditch on the other side of the road.
She’s coming with me. Her voice was in Robyn’s head now, a whisper like wind moving through dead leaves.
“Let us help you. You don’t have to die.”
A dry, sandpaper croak. I’m already dead.
Robyn backed up, trying to move away from her line of vision.
It doesn’t matter. Her soul belongs to him now, the dead voice said.
“What are you talking about?” Robyn said, moving around the car to the other side. May’s mother didn’t try to look at her anymore. She stared straight ahead, eyes on Zed, unmoving. Her arms slowly moved to point the shotgun at May.
May squeezed her eyes closed, silent sobs shaking her.
You know who. He wants you. You’re special. And so is May. But she’s coming with me. We’re both Hellbound now.
Robyn stared at Zed as she made her way to the other side of the car. She curled her hand around the door handle.
It was a dilemma. If they waited just a little longer, she would be dead. But she could pull the trigger before she died.
It occurred to Robyn that she didn’t know May’s mother’s name. “Don’t do this. You can show her love before you go. Let her grow up. You gave her life. Let her live it.”
She shook her head just a little, still staring straight ahead. You don’t get it. I sold her soul. Spider sold his. I sold mine and May’s. We needed money for drugs and he was so… persuasive. I thought everything would be okay if we just got through that last hump. It wasn’t. It won’t be ever again. He’ll come for her anyway. It’s best if I’m with her.
Robyn watched her hands on the gun. She didn’t have much time left. She knew it and they knew it. Now was the time. Before May’s mother pulled that trigger. She looked Zed in the eyes, and knew right then that he understood perfectly. He nodded once.
In the next instant Zed was screaming and diving toward May’s mother. Shock registered on her face and she swung the shotgun toward him.
Robyn whipped the door open and grabbed May under the arms as May reached for her.
The shotgun swung toward May again.
But by then it was too late. Zed grabbed the barrel of the gun and swung it away.
And took a bullet in the stomach.
It seemed that a river of blood flowed from the wound, from between Zed’s fingers as he clutched at that the bullet hole, groaning.
Robyn ran toward the truck with May wrapped around her. She pushed her into the passenger seat. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“No.” May grabbed at her arms and held tight. “Please don’t leave me. You won’t come back.” Terror shimmered in her eyes.
Robyn looked back at Zed, who was staggering to the truck.
“He’s almost here. Just let me help him to the truck. I’ll be right back.”
“She still has the gun. Please don’t.”
Robyn waited until Zed reached the truck, then ran around and opened the door. She helped him into the backseat, where he sat back, hands pressed against the wound. “Go,” he whispered.
She climbed into the truck and drove away from the car. She didn’t look back, but could imagine May’s mother sitting calmly on the floor of the back of that car, barrel of the shotgun pointed outward. Glassy, dead eyes seeing nothing.
She drove with her foot pressed firmly on the gas. Where was the nearest hospital? Where the hell were they? She had to find him some help or he was going to bleed to death right there in the backseat.
Robyn pulled over to the side of the road.
May stiffened in the passenger seat. “Why are you stopping?”
“Stay put, sweetie. I’m just going to get Zed’s cell phone to call for help.”
“Hurry.” May looked around, her face wary. “It’s not good to stay here.”
Robyn leaned over into the back. Zed stared at her, his eyes wide. The parts of his skin not covered in blood were pasty white.
Christ. Don’t let him die. She took off her jacket, then her T-shirt. She threw the T-shirt to him. “Press that against the wound.” She pulled her jacket back on.
Zed did as he was told. A bullet wound to the stomach could make even the toughest guys behave.
She was becoming loopy. Bordering on hysteria, where unfunny things seemed hilarious. She focused on the moment. “I need your cell, Zed. I have to call for help.”
“Pocket,” he croaked.
Robyn fumbled in the left pocket of his jeans. She remembered him as being left-handed. She found the cell and glanced up at him.
He winked at her and grinned. Yeah. This was fun for him. This was living. Not for long, though, if she didn’t find somebody to help him.
She called 911. They told her to stay put.
Next, she hit Toby’s cell number on speed dial.
“No,” May pleaded. “We have to go. They’ll get us if we just stay here.”
Toby answered. “Have you found May?” Urgency made him shout into the found.
“Yes. I’ve got her. I don’t know where we are.” Robyn felt like crying. Frustration and panic shook her to her core. She wanted to scream into the phone.
“I know where you are. Downloaded the app Zed told us about. I’m on my way.”
“Hurry up, Toby. Bad things have happened.” She tried to keep her voice calm for May. “Zed is down. Just get here.”
Robyn ended the call and then turned back to May. “Who will get us?” Though she knew who May meant. Them. There really wasn’t a name for them, was there?
“You know. The bad people. They’re not like us. They’ll kill us and take us to Hell.”
“Who told you that?”
“Spider. After he and Mommy sold our souls. I saw the devil. He looked at me and his eyes were silver. I saw him.”
Robyn reached out and caressed May’s arm. “Nobody is going to get us. I promise, May.”
Though she hadn’t exactly been doing a bang-up job of protecting her up until now.
Robyn glanced in the mirror. Zed stared straight ahead, through the windshield. “Stay with us, Zed. Help is coming. You’re going to be fine.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t even blink.
May began crying softly, her little chin resting on her chest.
“It’ll be okay, sweetie.”
“I have to pee. Really bad.”
Robyn’s bladder was full too. “So do I. It’s okay. We’ll go together. We’ll be fast, okay?”
She pulled May out of the car an
d took her hand. May squeezed her fingers tightly. They walked a little way off the highway and crouched behind a bush.
“Okay, this is good. Go for it, honey.”
They both squatted, watching the road and the truck as they emptied their bladders. Robyn found some clean tissue in one of her pockets. There was a wad of it. Toby’s wife must’ve had allergies.
Yeah. Think of another dead person to avoid the fact that there was a dead person sitting in the back of that truck.
Jesus. Just when I thought life couldn’t get any worse.
But he might not be dead.
Right. Just keep thinking that.
Then another thought occurred to her. She could bring him back. Like she had with the dog and the owl. She could bring him right back again. He’d be fine.
Robin stood up and pulled her jeans up, and May did the same. The rumble of a vehicle coming down the road sent relief flooding through her.
“Thank God. They’re coming.” Robyn took May by the hand. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Robyn waited while May pulled her jeans up. She watched an old pickup truck pull up behind Zed’s truck. This wasn’t the help she’d called for. Robyn gripped May’s hand and crouched down behind the bushes again, peering between the branches. She looked at May and brought her finger up to her lips.
May stared at her with round, frightened eyes and gave a solemn nod.
The pickup looked to be from the eighties. Old and falling apart on the frame, but used maybe as a farm truck, only for hauling. A concerned citizen? Robyn hoped, as she watched the driver and passenger doors open.
A large man in jeans and a thick, plaid shirt stepped out of the truck. Even from this distance Robyn could see that there was something off about the guy. His face was devoid of expression. His movements were a little too deliberate for somebody checking out a strange situation. Even the most courageous badass would be a little cautious when approaching an unfamiliar car sitting on the side of the road.
Robyn cursed herself for not taking the gun that was still lying next to Zed. She wondered if he was still conscious. She closed her eyes for a second and prayed that he wasn’t. If this farmer was one of the collectors, she didn’t want Zed to feel anything he might do to him for being on the side of the angels.
The guy leaned into a back window. Robyn strained her ears to hear if he was talking. Silence.
A second later a crisp, clear crack sounded, making Robyn jump and May scream. She clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes terrified as she stared at Robyn.
The man stumbled back, arms pinwheeling, then righted himself and turned toward the woods, facing the direction of May’s scream. A gaping bullet hole darkened the white T-shirt he wore beneath the plaid overshirt, right where his heart would’ve been. He took a step toward them. Then another. His face was blank as his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, struggling for breath.
“Aaaaaah,” he said. “Aaaaaaah.” Blood gushed from his mouth and made its way down his chest, staining his shirt.
“Oh, Jesus,” Robyn breathed.
The sound of a vehicle made the man turn his head.
Robyn and May watched as Toby’s truck came bulleting down the road, not slowing down for the man, but picking up speed and hitting him, sending him flying over the hood and then rolling off the truck and into the ditch.
Toby’s truck came to a screeching halt and he jumped out of the truck, carrying the flamethrower slung over his shoulder. He left the truck door open and lifted the flamethrower, pointing it toward the ditch. He stood still for a long moment, weapon pointed toward the area into which the man had been thrown.
Within seconds, the figure of the man came staggering, lurching out of the ditch, one arm jutting unnaturally to his side and outwards, the other swiping at the air. His face was now an open-mouthed mask of gore.
Toby waited, weapon lifted and pointed at the man.
Robyn’s heart thudded as she watched the man moving closer and closer to Toby. “Come on, Toby. Fry him. Do it.”
“Do it, Toby,” May whispered beside her. She whimpered, her little mouth turned downward, looking from Toby to Robyn and back again.
“Don’t look, baby.” Robyn reached over and covered May’s eyes with her hand.
The man was merely a few feet from him when Toby lifted the weapon and shot a long stream of fire at him, then backed away, watching the man lurch a few feet more before collapsing onto the road.
“Turn to me, honey.” Robyn gently turned May to face her. May covered her face and sobbed. Robyn lifted her into her arms and carried her to Toby, who waited, flamethrower hanging from his shoulder, while the man burned on the ground a few feet away.
†
Robyn would drive Zed’s truck and May would ride with Toby. Too late for rescue trucks. She didn’t take Zed’s pulse, but she could tell that he wasn’t breathing. His skin had taken on a pale-blue shade, and it didn’t look like anybody was home inside his body. May had seen too much death already. She didn’t need to see any more.
“I’ll bring you back, Zed. I can do it. I’ll just bring you back. You’ll be good as new.”
She kept talking to him, as if he could somehow hear her. But then it occurred to her that if Zed really was as dead as he appeared to be, she didn’t want May to see him that way. The poor kid had been through enough.
She pulled over to the side of the road, watching in the rearview as Toby pulled up behind her. She climbed out of the truck and headed toward him as he started down the road toward her, his face concerned.
“What’s up, Robyn?”
Robyn stopped in front of him. Looked up at his face. “I think Zed is gone.”
He hung his head. Did a slow circle in the road. Came back and faced her again. The air was thick with the unspoken question.
Finally he spoke it. “Can you bring him back?”
Robyn let out a long breath. Looked at the sky. “I don’t know. I can try.”
Bringing an animal back was one thing. Bringing a person back was another. There was no guarantee that it would work, and if it did, would they be the same?
They were both silent for a long moment before Toby gave a single nod. “Do it.”
Chapter 14
Sirens sounded in the distance. They needed to take Zed somewhere quiet and safe. He was already dead. That was apparent. So there wasn’t a rush.
Robyn took a side road and followed it for a while, with Toby behind her. The sirens became louder, shrieking past them. She continued until the trees hung over the dirt road and the last of the dusky light filtered through the leaves. It began to rain. She sat in the truck for a moment while fat drops fell on the glass. She stared at them as they spread and bled over the windshield.
Thunder cracked overhead, making her jump. She watched in her side mirror as Toby left the truck and came toward her. She rolled the window down, her nerves jittering and dread creeping over her.
Bits of rain hit her face as she looked up at Toby.
His black hair was already soaked, hanging slightly in his dark eyes. “You okay?”
She nodded, but she was sure he could tell that she wasn’t okay. “Toby, I think you should get May to a hotel. Just tell me where you guys are. I’ll meet you there.”
He shook his head slowly. “I’m not leaving you out here alone with a dead man.”
“This isn’t the kind of night for a little girl to be out. Seriously. I don’t want her to get sick. And she’s been through enough, don’t you think?”
“I’ve got the heat on in the truck. Come on. Let’s just get this over with, and then you can tuck her in.”
She sighed, watching him for a moment. “Okay.”
He nodded and headed back to his truck, his shoulders slightly hunched against the wind and rain.
She caught a glimpse of her face, which had taken on the look of the hunted, in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were fearful and wary. She wondered if that look would ever leave
her.
Thunder boomed. Better start moving.
She turned and looked at Zed, half-lying, half-sitting in the backseat. He had been trying to hide back there when he died, the top of his head barely visible to anyone outside of the car unless they had been standing really close to it. Like that farmer guy had been.
He wasn’t a farmer.
He may have been at one time. Before they got to him.
Whatever. Get moving.
Robyn climbed out of the truck and opened the door to the backseat, sliding in next to Zed. A whiff of something foul hit her nostrils. She closed her eyes. He’d let go of everything when he’d died. This would be humiliating for him if she were able to bring him back.
That was a big if.
Better start. Slowly she brought her hands up to his chest, then thought she’d better lift his shirt so that it would be skin on skin. Lifting his shirt, she tried not to cringe at the blood all over it. She laid her hands on his chest, now slick with the blood smeared by his shirt. Fighting hysteria, she closed her eyes.
Come back. It’s not your time to go.
She gently moved her hands over the slippery surface of his chest, feeling nothing.
Come back, Zed. It isn’t too late to turn back. You have a job to do here. I am calling you back.
Still nothing.
Robyn took a shuddering breath and swallowed down panic.
Zed, I’m calling you back. You were not supposed to die. Come back. Come back. Come back. Come back…
She leaned in close and listened for breath coming from his lips.
She heard nothing but rain.
†
They dumped him in the river. There was nothing else they could do.
Robyn made May promise not to look out the window, and then—in the pouring rain—she and Toby dragged Zed out of the truck, to an embankment, and rolled him the rest of the way into the water. He went in with a muted splash, mostly drowned out by the rain. Robyn said a silent prayer for him.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, watching the water where he had slipped below the surface.
Toby slid an arm around her and led her back up the embankment to the truck.
