Nowen reached for her door handle. “Wait, what are you doing?!” Benjamin whispered. She ignored him, opened the door, and stepped out. The sky was almost perfectly split in half, black clouds and pale sunshine meeting along a distinct line. A chill breeze was blowing and Nowen sucked in the cooling air like a long drink of water. She looked back at Benjamin, who was staring at her with confusion and fear. “Keep the truck running. I won’t be long.” She slammed the door shut and started toward the three men.
Her eyes marked them, taking them in. The leader, the fat one, stood in a relaxed position, his shotgun resting on his shoulder. The other two, who appeared weaker, copied the leader’s stance. Nowen mentally set them aside, concentrating solely on the fat man. She stalked toward him, her anger growing with each step she took. Humans! Humans and their petty nonsense, keeping me from finding my pack mates. I have had all I can take of humans trying to order me around. Trying to make me act like them. Trying to make me one of them. I have had enough.
The leader’s grin faded as Nowen came closer. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. The wolf strained at her skin. As the fat one’s grin disappeared her own grin spread across her face, and whatever he saw in it made the leader swing his gun down and point it at her. She grinned wider, baring her teeth, a snarl rising from her chest.
The fat man raised his gun. “Ok, bitch, just stop right there!” Nowen kept walking. “I mean it! I’ll blow your goddamn head off!” She spared a glance at the muzzle of the gun; it wobbled in the man’s grasp, and then she saw his finger tighten on the trigger. She slid to one side as the shotgun fired, the noise loud in her ears, and as the fat man brought the gun back to bear on her she leapt forward.
Nowen grabbed the barrel of the gun and forced it upwards, using her momentum to slam the fat man back against one of the vans and pinning him there by a clawed hand on his throat. From the corners of her eyes she saw the other two men standing still in shock and surprise. She brought her attention back to the man in front of her. “Are you with Humanity’s Saviors?” Nowen rasped, her words coming out through gritted teeth.
The fat man’s chest heaved as he fought for air. His eyes, a deep and strangely beautiful shade of blue, shimmered with tears as he shook his head. “Are you with New Heaven?” Nowen asked, and again he indicated ‘no’.”
“Good.” She released him and stepped back, wrenching the gun from his limp hands. She flipped it so she was holding it by the barrel, and then planted her feet and swung the heavy wood stock at the fat man’s head. The crack of his skull shattering echoed across the highway. Blood, bone, and brains spilled from his head as the fat man slumped lifelessly to the pavement. Nowen stabbed the other two men with her gaze. They were both staring at her wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and on the cool breeze she smelled the tang of urine.
“Drop your guns.” At her snarled words the weapons clattered to the ground. “Kick them over here.” The two men complied, the shotguns sliding across the road to bump against her feet. “Can you move those vans?” she asked. Rapid nods met her question. “Then do so. Right. Fucking. Now.” Nowen waited as the men scrambled into the vans and drove them quickly away, speeding down the highway and off into the distance. She scooped up the guns and walked back to the truck.
The passenger-side door opened just as Nowen got there. Benjamin was leaning over the seat and she handed him the guns before pulling herself up into the cab. As the young man stowed the weapons she sank back against the cracked plastic and closed her eyes, willing herself to calmness, her wolf excited by the blood. The truck started up with a rumble, and she swayed slightly as the vehicle swerved and then straightened.
When both her and her wolf were relaxed again Nowen opened her eyes. The storm was right overhead, rain just starting to bead on the windshield as thunder boomed through the sky. She looked at Benjamin and found herself surprised to sense no fear emanating from him. “I do care. Sage and Everett are my pack mates. Nothing will stop me from finding them. My fury at their captors is bottomless. But it’s safer to show no weakness; in the wild weakness can get a wolf killed. Walking around weeping and cursing and tearing out my hair does no one any good. But I do care. Never doubt that, and never question me about that again.”
Benjamin nodded, sharp and quick. The truck drove on into the storm, and the headlights cast little illumination against the darkness.
Chapter Sixteen
“Well, there it is. Scottsbluff.” Benjamin said and passed Nowen a set of binoculars. She raised them to her eyes and looked over the city.
From her spot on top of the truck cab, in a grassy field a couple of miles off Highway 26, Scottsbluff, Nebraska lay sprawled out below her. Her position was at the west end of the city, not far from the overgrown remains of a golf course. At first glance Scottsbluff looked like every city she had seen since Flux scraped the earth clean. Her gaze skimmed over burned-out neighborhoods, long-deserted store fronts, cars with weather-stripped paint and decaying tires. The only movement she could see at first was from a few Revs that maintained their endless, lurching walks to nowhere.
Nowen raised the binoculars higher, searching in the approaching twilight for any signs of human life. A flash of light from a tall building caught her eye; she watched it for a few moments before deciding it was just a reflection of the setting sun. A blocky, multi-story building kept pulling her gaze toward it. There was something familiar about it, and finally her mind deciphered it: a hospital, not too dissimilar in shape from the one in Exeter.
She passed the binoculars back to Benjamin and stretched her arms out in front of her. They had reached this spot hours earlier in the day, and the long period of doing nothing was wearing her down. She wanted to fight, to attack, to run - anything other than more waiting. Nowen rested her head on the warm metal of the truck. Her eyes closed as she prodded at the thought of which she was most afraid: Scottsbluff was a dead end, and she might never find Sage and Everett, ever.
“There’s an awful lot of dead people - what do you call them, Revs? - down there.” Benjamin’s words drew her out of her contemplation.
Nowen raised her head. “Yes, Benjamin. Revs are everywhere, remember?”
“No, I mean, there are more Revs down there then I’ve seen in one place in a long time.” Exasperation colored his voice as he nudged her with the binoculars.
She sighed and propped herself on her elbows, raising the glasses to her eyes again. “Where are you seeing them?” she asked. “Check the hospital.” Benjamin said, and Nowen focused on the large white building.
Buildings and cars obstructed most of her view but she could just make out the Revs staggering toward the hospital to join the larger mass gathered there. Night was drawing down fast and even with the wolf’s vision it was getting harder to pick out details from this distance. “Revs go where humans go - noise, smells, and motion motivates them. So...where are the humans?” she murmured thoughtfully.
As if in response to her question several windows on the top floor lit up. Nowen trained the binoculars on the windows; curtains were drawn in each but she could pick out shadowy movement behind them. Benjamin eagerly took the binoculars back and she sat up on the truck cab, her legs dangling down the front windshield. The distant moans of the Revs carried to her through the quiet stillness of the evening.
Benjamin sat down next to her, and they studied the hospital in silence for a few minutes. Finally the teen spoke. “I think this is the right place. Now what?”
“We get in, find Sage and Everett, and get out.”
“We might need more of a plan than that. I’ve been thinking...why not just go in the front door?”
She glanced at him. “What?”
“The Saviors were telling us back at the Fort that they’re always looking for new recruits. I’ll just get as close as I can, get someone’s attention, and tell them I want to join them.”
“That could work. Ok, we’ll head down there in the morning-”
Benjamin
held a hand up. “Nowen, I think it’s too dangerous for you to come along. We want to find Sage and Everett, right? Well, if your theory is correct and the Saviors and New Heaven are one and the same, isn’t it possible that there are people there who would recognize you?”
She growled softly. Another delay. “What if someone recognizes you from the Fort?”
Benjamin shrugged. “So what? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“The dead guard?”
“How would anyone here know? Or care?” His white smile flashed in the darkness. “Besides, when I tell them that I’ve actually seen several of those hideous monsters they’ll probably make me leader of their group!”
Nowen snorted. “Don’t tell them you kissed one or they might kill you. Fine. You go. In the morning. But I can go take a look around the place tonight.” She pushed off the truck cab, landing in the high grass with a soft thump. A glance back at Benjamin showed he had turned away, giving her privacy she didn’t need. The gesture touched her anyway, and she stripped her t-shirt and shorts off quickly. The clothes and sandals were tossed into the truck cab and then she let her wolf out.
The wolf shook all over, settling her fur into place. The dark male called after her as she trotted off through the high grass. “I’m gonna move the truck back to that little campground we passed earlier. Be safe.” She waved her tail once and moved into a run.
The wolf approached the hospital in a long arc from the left. On this side of the building there were only a couple of dark streets and houses, and the lights on the top floor shone like fallen stars. The click of her nails on the paved road caught the attention of a few wandering Revs. They trailed after her as she approached the hospital.
She slowed to a trot less than a block away. Her night vision picked out the mass of Revs that flocked around the hospital, their low moans rising and falling like the wind over the prairie. The wolf turned down a winding side street and moved parallel to the hospital. Nowen searched for signs of guard towers, fences, or any kind of defense, but found nothing. If it wasn’t for the lights the building would appear as deserted as the rest of the city.
The wolf’s ears pricked at a sudden rattling, clanging sound. That sounds familiar. The nearest Revs turned en masse, their moans rising higher as they shuffled toward the sounds. The wolf watched them head to the front of the building, wrinkling her nose as the group that had been trailing her stumbled past in a fetid cloud of decaying flesh. A new smell caught her attention and she lifted her nose to the air, filtering the stink of the dead-not-dead until she knew what it was: blood. Human blood, and skin and bone and organs.
The Revs, drawn on by the sounds and smells, trailed away from the left side of the hospital. As the last staggering figure weaved its uncertain way around the corner of the building blinding lights shredded the darkness. The wolf flinched and dropped to her stomach in the weedy grass as the thrum of a car engine washed over her. The headlights swept overhead as the vehicle pulled away from the hospital. The wolf leaped from her hiding place and raced after the car.
She followed the red eyes of the tail-lights through the dark streets. Dust coated her fur and white shards of bones scattered under her feet. The car never increased its pace but it still drew gradually further and further away. The wolf slowed to a trot, her tongue lolling from her mouth, and watched the car disappear into the night. Nowen urged her on with the promise of just another block, and with weary acceptance the wolf turned one last corner.
Whoa! Nowen’s surprise was matched by the wolf’s. She came to a stop in the middle of the street and took in the sight before her. Three or so miles away, lit by the flickering light of multiple torches, two long and wide concrete roads made a lopsided ‘X’. Some distance below the ‘X’ a small building could be seen. Strange shapes were gathered near one end of one of the concrete roads, and after a moment Nowen realized what they were. Planes. Small ones...this is an airport.
The wolf’s attention was on something else. Near the point where the runways crossed was where the torches were most concentrated. The wolf left the street and loped through the grass, angling for a better view. The scene below became more visible and for the second time in less than five minutes both Nowen and the wolf were shocked into stillness.
A chain-link fence had been set somehow into the runway, forming a large ring. Or corral. Outside the ring a series of cargo trailers formed a secondary barrier. Studded here and there in the space between the trailers and the fence were tarp-covered cubes. Humans moved between the barriers and on top of the trailers, and to Nowen it looked like they were armed.
There was a sudden commotion at the furthest end of the corral. The wolf trotted in a long arc toward the flurry of motion, dropping to the grass when she found a good vantage point, her eyes locked on the humans and their strange behavior.
At this end of the corral was a gate, made of heavy metal panels and topped with sharp-tipped wire. One of the tarp-covered cubes cage, like back at the Fort was shoved up to the gate, and as Nowen watched one metal panel was pulled back and a handful of Revs stumbled out into the torch light. From somewhere on the opposite side of the corral a rhythmic, metallic banging began. The Revs moaned and started moving in the direction of the noise.
Back at the gate the first cage was pulled away and another one wheeled into place. For a moment nothing happened; the wolf kept her eyes trained on the dark opening of the gate waiting for something to happen. A human male in dark clothes stepped up to the side of the tarp-covered cage and slammed a metal pipe against it. A terrified howl came from the darkness and the wolf shot to her feet, deep growls rumbling in her chest. The human hit the cage again, and three wolves shot out into the corral.
Nowen found her anger rising to meet her wolf’s as she looked at the poor creatures that huddled together beneath the torches. The vukodlak were thin and rangy with staring fur. One of them had dropped to the runway where it lay in a puddle of its own urine. The other two crouched next to each other, heads jerking as they looked about for escape.
The banging noise had stopped. The black wolf took several steps forward on stiff and trembling legs as she watched the Revs move toward the vukodlak. One of the wolves, a scrawny animal with a pale red coat, noticed the Revs. The wolf whirled and ran toward the gate. An arc of blue lightning sent it stumbling back. The red wolf stood a moment with its head hanging down, and then tremors ran through its body as the human inside fought to free itself.
Nowen looked away from the pathetic thing as it flopped on the ground, caught between shapes. Of the other two vukodlak one, its coat the color of dust, was backing slowly away from the approaching Revs, growling weakly as it did so. The other wolf lay still on the ground, and only when the Revs fell on it with gnashing teeth did it move. It was too late, however, and the black wolf watching from the darkness beyond the corral snarled in anger as the thin creature’s brown fur became sodden with blood.
Shouting came from the gate. The wolf dragged her eyes from the dead vukodlak and watched as humans milled around the metal panels, sliding another cage into place. The dusty wolf had run to the far edge of the corral. The pale red wolf was once more fully wolf, panting heavily from its futile efforts, eyeing the Revs as they finished with the dead animal and began to stagger toward the gate. We have to do something. Nowen knew it was foolishness and would most likely only result in her capture or death, but she and her wolf could not stand by and watch others of her kind be killed.
A metal panel was violently pulled back. From the darkness of the cage another wolf emerged, a big animal that leapt out with no hesitation. It paused for a moment, swinging its head from one side to another, and the black wolf almost barked out loud as she saw the single copper eye in the gunmetal-grey fur.
With a vicious growl the grey wolf ran at the Revs. Beneath the flickering torch light all Nowen could see was a swirl of fur, white teeth, and then black viscous blood. In less than a minute all the Revs were down, shredded beyond recogni
tion, and Everett was loping toward the dust-colored wolf. They touched noses and then the two of them moved toward the third vukodlak. The pale red wolf rose at their approach. Everett slowed to a walk, the other two falling into place behind him, and headed toward the gate.
Nowen watched the metal panel slide back. The two vukodlak slipped past Everett and disappeared into the tarp-covered cage. A human male on top of the cage motioned at Everett. The grey wolf sat on the runway and cocked his head. The male motioned again, this time with anger. Nowen grinned as Everett raised a hind leg and scratched lazily at his side. The male shouted. Everett found something very interesting to sniff at on the runway.
A bright blue arc of lightning leapt from the human to Everett. The grey wolf yelped in pain and jumped to one side. The black wolf bared her teeth and watched as the grey wolf struggled to keep his feet under him. Another flash of lightning sent him crashing to the ground, and it took all Nowen’s effort to keep the black wolf from charging the barriers.
Another human ran toward Everett as he writhed on the runway. A loop of chain was tossed around his neck and then the human began to beat the wolf with a wooden bat. The black wolf stood stiff-legged, growling, foam dripping from her mouth as she worked her jaws in anticipation of tearing the human’s throat out. Not now, not yet. Soon, I promise. It was only the understanding that the human in her head shared her fury and desire to kill that kept the wolf still. The other said not now, and the other could talk with humans and understand them better than the wolf could, so for now she would wait.
She watched as the grey wolf, unconscious now, was dragged from the corral, and blood flecked the foam that slicked her lips. With an almost unsurmountable reluctance the wolf turned away from the airport, padding slowly across the dark land. With the loss of adrenaline went her energy, and it was only the knowledge that the young human was waiting for her that kept the wolf on her feet.
Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3) Page 15
