Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3)

by Toni Boughton

  She clawed at the floor, swinging her hands in wide arcs as she battled to get free. The man leaned forward, his bulk pushing her almost flat against the tiles. His warm breath ghosted across her ear as he whispered something to her. Over the pounding of blood in her head Nowen thought he was saying ‘Don’t fight, don’t fight’. No. Can’t die like this. She reached for the wolf.

  To no avail. Against the man’s immovable weight there was no room to change. With each sickening thud of her heart in her chest Nowen could feel the world getting more distant. Her hands beat weakly on the floor, reaching out blindly. And then her fingertips brushed across something smooth and cool and metal.

  The pipe.

  Nowen stretched out her fingers. The pipe, for one eternal moment, hovered on the verge of rolling away. Then she had it, pulling it forward until her hand wrapped around its comforting length. The black spirals had blocked out her vision entirely and it was with the absolute last of her strength that Nowen brought her arm back toward her shoulder, aiming for the source of the warm breath that wafted across her cheek.

  The blow landed. Weak as it was it was still enough to loosen the restraint around her throat. Nowen drew in a desperate breath; oxygen flooded her lungs and set her nerves ablaze. She dropped her head and arced her back for the ceiling. The man’s weight slipped away.

  Nowen pulled herself to her knees and swung around, bringing the pipe down in a savage jolt on the man’s left arm. Bones broke with an audible crack. The man screamed and tried to writhe away. She didn’t let him get far, sliding after him and striking out at his head with the pipe. The metal connected right above the man’s temple. He fell still to the floor and Nowen crouched next to him, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest. I turned my back on you once. Not again. She slammed the pipe against his head, again and again until only a spongy mass of blood, bone, and brain tissue remained.

  Nowen rose from the body, letting the pipe slip from her red-slicked hand. There was no one else in the corridor; either everyone was staying away or they were arming themselves to face her. Her gaze fell on the gurney that stood halfway down the hall from her. The wolf that lay on it was facing away from her. Its fur was gunmetal-grey.

  She walked up to the gurney, her mind blank, her eyes running over the limp body, searching for any sign of life. Her fingers coursed through the staring, unkempt fur, feeling the bones of the hind legs and the hollow in front of the flanks. She let her hand rest on the stark ridges of the rib cage for a moment, and when the fragile rise and fall of a thin breath came she was filled with an emotion she had no name for.

  Nowen’s hands grasped the shaggy head of the wolf, lifting it until she could see the black scar that bisected one side of the face. She cradled Everett’s head in one hand and pried the single eye open with trembling fingers. The copper orb was dull but the pupil reacted to the faint light. She let the eyelid fall shut again and gently laid Everett’s head back down.

  The emergency exit door behind her opened. Nowen whirled around, a snarl on her lips as she readied to defend her pack mate. It was Benjamin who stepped through, and she forced herself to relax. The young man gave her a slightly shocked look up and down, and only now did she notice the state of her clothes.

  “Oh, man, Nowen, are you ok?” Benjamin asked as he hurried toward her.

  She shook her head. “Not my blood. What are you doing up here?”

  “I came looking for you. We got the Revs moved away from the car pool, and when Sean went off to yell at someone ‘cause we had just barely enough bait to move them, I snuck off.” He looked down at the gurney. “Who’s this? Whoa, it this Everett?”

  “Yes. We need to get him out of here. I suppose it’s too much to ask that there’s a working elevator in this building?”

  Benjamin shook his head slowly. He touched the matted fur of Everett’s shoulder. “No. Sorry. Damn, he doesn’t look good.” He looked up at Nowen, horror spreading over his dark-skinned face. “Is Sage here? Is she like this?”

  Nowen raised a hand to keep the young man from darting past her. “Sage isn’t here. She was moved earlier today, and I think I know where. First, we’ve got to get Everett out of here, and down the stairs seems the only way.”

  Benjamin opened his mouth to say something, but the echoing clang of metal on metal stopped him. Nowen looked behind her, staring at the corner where the hallway turned. The other exit door. Someone shouted from that direction, and as she recognized the voice her anger re-kindled.

  “Kress! Kress, where the hell are you?! Those last specimens should have been on the road twenty minutes ago!” The sound of Zoe’s voice grew louder as she approached the connecting hallway.

  Nowen began to walk toward that voice. “Benjamin. Get Everett down the stairs. I’ll meet you by the burn pit in a few minutes.” The young man stammered something but to her it was as distant and inconsequential as starlight. Bands of black fur rose from her skin and wrapped around her arms and legs as she moved into a jog.

  “Kress! Melanque! Smith! Damn it, someone answer me before-” Zoe’s voice stopped abruptly. She found something. The doctor’s body? Nowen ran. The sound of her feet on the tiles nearly covered the sound of other footsteps running away. No!

  Nowen swung around the corner at full speed. The emergency exit door at the end of the hallway was closing, and she caught a glimpse of a long brown ponytail as the door shut. “Zoe!” Nowen roared. She ran faster. Bloody tracks marked her passage. She slammed through the exit and plunged down the concrete stairs.

  A floor and a half below her the bouncing beam of a flashlight showed Zoe’s path. Nowen pounded down the steps, vaulting over the handrail to the third-floor landing. She tried to push herself to go faster the battle on the fourth floor had taken a lot out of her. Her throat ached with every indrawn breath, her limbs burned as she ran down the stairs. No. NO! Zoe is not getting away!

  A glance over the railing showed the flashlight beam disappearing through the first-floor door. It took Nowen another thirty seconds to reach the door herself. She plunged through the open door and then the first-floor hallway stretched out before her. There was no sign of Zoe.

  Just the Revs that were making their slow way out of the rooms that had been their prisons.

  Nowen came to a stop in the doorway. The undead creatures hadn’t noticed her yet. Straight through, or back up the stairs? Something glinted in the wan moonlight that made its way through a dusty window, and Nowen watched as the simple soda can tumbled through the air, arcing over the Revs’ heads. Beyond the horde she saw a woman’s shape dart away into the darkness of the hall.

  The can landed in front of her with a ‘bang’ that echoed down the corridor. Warm, sticky liquid splashed across her feet. Every Rev turned in her direction. Their cry rose up, an undulating moan that rose and fell and rose again. The Revs nearest her reached out with their withered arms.

  Nowen stumbled back through the doorway. Her hand found the metal handle and she pulled frantically on it. The door didn’t budge, and there was no time to find out why as bony fingers dragged over her arms. She shoved the nearest Rev, an old woman in a stained black dress, back into the horde and turned for the stairs. The concrete was cool under her feet as she started the long path back up. She could hear the Revs right behind her.

  Nowen reached the turn where the stairs doubled back and continued up to the second floor and found she could run no more. Her body trembled with exhaustion and the adrenaline that had coursed through her so recently fled, leaving her with shaking legs. As she lurched up toward the second-floor landing she couldn’t help but look back. The stairwell was filled with Revs, and although they struggled and stumbled as they climbed she knew from experience that the undead wouldn’t tire.

  Nowen pulled herself around the second-floor landing with the help of the handrail, the moans of the advancing horde chasing her. The door that let onto the second floor was tantalizingly close but she couldn’t chance going for it only to find
it blocked. The fourth floor was accessible, and all she had to do was stay in front of the Revs until she got there.

  Her wolf’s amber eyes opened deep inside, eager to come out. No. There’s too many to fight. I’ve just got to get up a couple of more flights of stairs. Her thought was cut off as a clammy hand wrapped around her right ankle and dug jagged nails into her skin. A startled yelp escaped her as she fell, landing hard on the concrete steps.

  The Rev holding her moaned louder and the others picked up its cry. Nowen tried to pull herself upward and away but her arms gave out and she collapsed back to the stairs. She kicked backwards with her legs and felt the Rev’s grasp slip loose. A glance back showed the other Revs climbing over each other in their desire to reach her. She looked back up the steps in front of her that now seemed miles high and miles away. I’m not going to make it. Like the leading edge of a storm the Revs fell on her.

  Nowen thrashed beneath the clutching hands, heaving her body up another two steps as the Revs moaned and growled. Fingers raked across her back and she snarled with the pain, using it to force herself up another step. A distant part of her mind wondered that she hadn’t been bitten yet, and as if in answer she heard the snap of teeth by her ear.

  Her wolf was back, staring at her with angry amber eyes. I’m sorry. I have no energy left. The look her wolf gave her was almost human in its disgust, and then her mind was shoved aside as the wolf lunged forward.

  The black wolf threw herself up the stairs. The change had been fast but not fast enough to avoid being bitten by several of the Revs. The wolf could feel the unnaturalness infection in her body like a cold blast of wind. As she struggled free of the dead-not-dead’s grasping hands the sensation of ice coursing through her veins threatened to overwhelm her.

  A moldy hand with the stench of long-dead flesh scraped at her muzzle. Teeth furrowed along her right side and hands gouged at her left. She yelped as hunks of fur were torn loose. The infection was prying at her brain with frozen claws. The wolf put her head down and pulled for the small landing just a couple of steps away.

  The dead-not-dead slid away as the black wolf sprung free. Without pause she swept around the turn and up the next flight of stairs to the third-floor exit door. The dead-not-dead howled behind her and the wolf recognized the sound for what it was; frustration at the escape of prey. Her blood raged through her body now like the heat of the summer sun and she could feel the cold unnaturalness melting away with each beat of her heart.

  She flew easily up the last few steps to the fourth-floor exit. It took a little maneuvering but the wolf was able to turn the doorknob and swing the door outward and open. She slipped through, whirling to watch the metal panel shut in the face of the horde of dead-not-dead. Their moans beat as ineffectually as their fists against the door.

  Zoe! The wolf turned and ran down the hallway. She slipped a little going around the corner but quickly regained her pace. Only the empty gurney stood in the hall, and the wolf sped past without giving it more than a glance. The emergency exit door here was propped open by a chair and the wolf swept through and down the stairs.

  Strange, muffled thumps rose up from below. The wolf could scent none of the dead-not-dead so she didn’t slow her pace, hurtling past the third and second-floor landings in a blur. The mellow glow of a dying lantern brought the last couple of flights into soft focus, and now the wolf saw the cause of the unusual sounds.

  Benjamin was dragging a thin mattress that held the grey wolf’s limp body down the steps. He looked up at the wolf as she drew near. “Nowen. The wolf bared her teeth at him as she leapt over the mattress and plunged down the last flight of stairs. She heard him calling after her; she didn’t stop.

  The door into the basement level was open and the wolf ran down the dark passage. The dark-furred human was yelling at her from somewhere far behind but all that mattered to the wolf was the exit to the outside. There was no doorknob on this side, just a bar that ran horizontally across the door. The wolf threw her weight against it and the door swung open. She tumbled out into the warm night.

  The wolf’s searching eyes locked on the red glow of car taillights just pulling away from the hospital. She raced along the make-shift barriers, looking for any way out. Her human was driving her forward now, desperately searching for the make-shift entrance she had used earlier. The rumble of the car engine was growing fainter. At her human’s urging the wolf flung herself at the smooth white barriers, paws scrabbling for purchase.

  The young human was calling her. The wolf snarled and continued her futile effort to climb free. Something thudded against her side and she whirled about in a fury. A small rock lay nearby and she growled a warning as the male stooped and picked up another rock.

  “Nowen, I need your help!” The male’s voice was odd. He’s crying. Crying? “Nowen, please. I want to find Sage as much as you do. But Everett is...I think he’s dying. He needs your help.” At the male’s words the wolf felt her human’s anger drain away. “We know Sage is still alive, and we will find her. Right now, Everett needs you. I need you.”

  The wolf looked over her shoulder. The red eyes of the car was very distant now. She was suddenly aware of her weariness, and of her human’s. Even if she took off running after the vehicle she would never catch it. Everett first. Then Sage. The wolf turned her back on the vanishing car and padded slowly over to the young male.

  Chapter Twenty

  The house in one of the nicer suburbs of Scottsbluff probably looked much like it did before the Flux, Nowen thought. The grass was high and weedy and the driveway that swept in an arc around the house was cracked and studded with green shoots, but the building itself was in good shape. Well, from the outside, anyway. The two-story structure of painted brick still had all its windows intact and doors attached.

  Inside was another matter, and as Nowen opened the side door that let into the enormous kitchen she glanced at the ceiling. Sometime in the past couple of years the roof here had caved in, and the interior of the bottom floor had accumulated a layer of dust, dirt, leaves, and other debris. The tan-and-rose tiles in the kitchen and the once-plush slate-blue carpet elsewhere were only visible in scattered patches. The furnishings, all metal, glass, and leather, were in the same sorry shape.

  None of that mattered to Nowen as she walked through a dining room where a long table was still set for a meal that had never come. Her destination was the living room, another massive, open space with floor-to ceiling windows that looked out on the city. In front of a stone fireplace that looked big enough to roast a pronghorn were several mattresses. On the one nearest the fireplace, where a small blaze kept a pot of water at a steady simmer, lay the grey wolf.

  As Nowen approached the mattress Benjamin rose from a brown suede recliner that sat next to the fireplace. His eyes fell to what dangled from her hand. “What is that?”

  Nowen held the naked carcass out. “Rabbit.”

  Benjamin eyed it suspiciously but made no move to take the body. “What do you want me to do with it?”

  She grabbed one of his hands and wrapped it firmly around the rabbit’s hind legs. “Go cut it up.”

  “I don’t know how to do that!”

  “First time for everything.” At the look of absolute horror on the young man’s face Nowen took pity on him. “Cut the legs off at the joints, here,” and she pointed, “then slice it down the underside. Make sure you remove all the organs and entrails.”

  “What?!”

  She sighed. “Just bring me the legs and toss the rest outside. Not too near the house, though - I don’t feel like having to compete with other predators.” She sank into the recliner and turned to look at Everett’s still form. “How is he?”

  The hesitation before Benjamin spoke told Nowen the story. “The same. I gave him a little water, but I think the mattress got most of it. I keep talking to him, calling his name like you said, but he just lies there. No response.”

  She lay her head back against the chair and let
her eyes drift close. “I’ll stay with him. Just go do the best you can with the rabbit - we’ll try to get some meat in him too.” Benjamin grunted an affirmative and she heard his footsteps lead into the kitchen. Another sigh escaped her as her weariness threatened to drown her.

  The chair was musty-smelling but very soft and it took all Nowen’s strength to resist the comfort it offered. It was a short fall forward to the mattresses and, once there, she crawled over to Everett and stretched out near his head. His breathing was just barely audible; she laid a hand gently on his rib cage and took comfort in the steady rise and fall of the fragile bones. Sleep pulled at her and she turned her mind to the events of the last day.

  With the release of the Revs into the hospital the place had fallen into chaos. She and Benjamin had moved Everett to the motor pool amid the screams of people being attacked and the moans of Revs as they fed. A couple of vehicles remained in the garage and as Benjamin drove away from the hospital in a pickup truck Nowen looked up from Everett’s body to see flames and smoke billowing from the fourth floor of the building.

  Benjamin had chosen the house. Nowen was uneasy at the thought of being so close to whoever might remain of Zoe’s followers, but Everett’s condition was enough to warrant the stop. After she and Benjamin had gotten the unconscious wolf set up in the living room she had gone out in the breaking dawn to hunt for food.

  Now it was Sage who consumed her thoughts. Nowen burned to be on the road again even as every muscle in her body ached with the need for sleep. We can’t spend too much time here. Zoe knows I’m alive; what if she moves Sage somewhere else? She opened her eyes and stared up at the vaulted ceiling, where delicate chandeliers of cobwebs hung. There is no place they can take her where I won’t find her.