Road Beneath the Wood (The Temple of the Blind #4)

by Brian Harmon

  Or perhaps the cry was nothing more than a product of his imagination.

  He swept his flashlight from side to side and was startled by a pale form on the forest floor. It gazed up at him with a face that looked more like a bird’s than a man’s. Huge, empty sockets seemed to regard him with hungry apprehension, the way a starving man might look upon a steak he was sure was poisoned. Huge and gaping jaws, hard and toothless, appeared to cry out with terrified rage, though it was as silent as the rest of its kind. It had no legs and its arms were wrong somehow. They were not wings, but they were not arms, either. Unwilling to linger, he moved on before he could understand what he saw.

  He remembered the first creature he came upon after he entered the forest, the one that had been dragging its mummified lower torso behind it as it fled from him, and realized that a good percentage of these creatures, perhaps a massive majority, must be badly crippled. The harshness of the world alone, as the old man had described it, suggested that much. One didn’t simply die here and wake up a flesh-starved zombie. It wasn’t like those old Living Dead movies he’d seen over the years.

  He’d always found it hilarious that the walking corpses of those movies seemed to want only to eat the flesh—or at their corniest, only the brains—of the living, and yet the victims of these voracious monsters would often return as zombies themselves, dead and gray and bloody, but usually surprisingly whole. Hollywood’s zombies, it seemed, while deadly, only had the appetites of little old ladies, merely nibbling at their victims and then moving on, having devoured only a bite or two.

  Here, the truth was that if these things caught something living, the carcass they left behind would be in no condition to get up and walk around. It would be in pieces. The lucky ones were likely to be left legless, like the one he’d just left behind…or worse. He wondered how many heads were lying on the floor of this immense forest, snapping their rotting jaws together, unable to even move, stranded forever in an empty blackness. It was chilling to imagine the festering souls trapped within such a gruesome prison, enduring endless eons of maddening nothingness.

  Those things pacing him in the surrounding trees, however, were whole—or at least mostly whole. Some of them managed to keep their bodies in death, and while he wondered how they had done this—perhaps they had climbed a tree or crawled into a hole somewhere and died of thirst rather than at the hands of these relentless creatures—he was more concerned by the simple fact that they were there. The fact that they were whole was dangerous. In their entirety, they would be more deadly, more capable of catching him should they realize that whatever mask he wore was only an illusion and that he could do them no harm. And these were the ones that would keep pace with him until they found just that. Those less dangerous, those with missing limbs, incapable of pursuing him, those were the ones he passed by in the darkness, glaring at him from the shadows. As long as he remained mobile, they were only dangerous in an ambush. And even then, the old man’s mysterious cloak would probably ensure that they would be far too busy trying to escape to do him any harm.

  He glanced behind him. The bird-like thing was no longer within sight, lost again in the shadows of the forest, but another one was peering back at him around the trunk of a large tree. This one had a face that was not only human, but remarkably feminine. As he turned forward again, he recognized the glint of reflected light from an earring.

  A woman, he thought, and shuddered a little. The humanity that he’d seen lingering in that face filled him with fresh revulsion. What would become of him if they caught him? What kind of pain would he endure? What kind of agony? And for how many eons would he suffer?

  Something moved to his left. When he turned, he saw with instant terror that something was charging him. A grotesque creature not upright, like a man, but on all fours like a beast, rushed at him in awkward, though amazingly fast, ape-like lunges. His heart leaped in his chest. It came within a few feet of him and then lost its nerve, turning at the last moment and rushing off at a different angle like a bullet deflected by some invisible force field. Thankfully, it was still unsure of him. But next time it would not hesitate. Next time it would kill him.

  It rushed back into the trees and then circled around and glared at him from around the oily, black trunk of a very large night tree. Like the others he’d seen, it had no eyes. Were these things all blind? It made sense, now that he thought about it. Surely the soft flesh of their eyeballs would be quick to shrivel and rot. And what good were eyes, anyway, in a forest with no light? He wondered if any of them actually saw him, or if they only sensed the life within him?

  With his eyes fixed on the hateful thing and his heart pounding in his chest, he called out Olivia’s name once more.

  From deep in the forest, he heard her cry back, “Help me!”

  A fierce energy welled up within him at the sound of Olivia’s voice. It was her. She was really there. He wasn’t too late.

  Her voice came not from ahead of him, but far to his right. Had he not heard her call out, he would have gone right past her, never to find her. He turned and ran toward her.

  Around him, the creatures of the Wood were still growing in numbers. For the time being, he was keeping ahead of them, but he would not be able to do so forever. It was only a matter of time before another one decided to get bold. And the next one might not reconsider before tearing out his guts.

  “Where are you?” he called out. The sound of his voice filling the silent darkness of the forest almost made him cringe. He didn’t know if these things could still hear sound or not, but he felt certain that their shouting would draw them by the hundreds.

  “Here!”

  Her voice was coming from straight ahead. She was much closer now. He ran through the trees, weaving between the crowded trunks as he hurried into the deepening forest. He tripped once and stumbled, stubbing his toe, but he didn’t stop. His hood fell twice and the second time he left it. It wasn’t doing him very much good anyway. The old man hadn’t lied. The cloak hadn’t held them back for very long at all.

  Directly ahead of him, one of the night trees had fallen over. He steered toward the lower trunk and leapt easily over it. Beyond it, several more had been uprooted as well. He ran around two of them, skirting the gaping holes where their roots had once gripped the soil, scattering a pair of curious corpses as he did so, and came upon three more trees that had fallen together in an unavoidable pile. Spying a gap between two of them, he began to crawl through it without thinking.

  It was the first time he actually touched one of the trees and it almost wrenched a scream from him. It felt like a living thing, not in the way that all trees were living things, but in an animal-like way, like he was touching not bark, but cold, clammy flesh.

  He remembered again the Sentinel Queen’s warning not to touch the roots of these trees while he walked through the tunnel. She hadn’t said anything about the trees themselves, but she also hadn’t said anything about living corpses, either. He had no idea if it was safe to touch the trees, but it was too late to be cautious now.

  Fortunately, nothing terrible happened to him. He pushed himself through the gap, relieved and somewhat surprised, and immediately continued running toward Olivia’s voice.

  He wondered vaguely what had caused these trees to fall. The old man told him that there were other creatures in the Wood. Creatures that even these wretched, deathless things feared. Creatures like the one that had taken Olivia. If it was big enough to reach into the third floor window and snatch her away, then it was likely more than big enough to topple these trees.

  At the very least, he hoped that they would slow down his pursuers.

  “I’m here! I can see your light!”

  Wayne cleared the next fallen tree in a single leap and in the flashlight’s beam he saw her. She was crawling between the trunks of two overlapping trees, coming to meet him. Her dark hair hung over her face as she wriggled to the cold ground and then scrambled back to her feet. She was still wearing he
r khaki shorts and white sneakers, but she no longer wore the blue polo shirt. That was wrapped around her left arm in a makeshift bandage. All she wore on her top was a lacy white bra that was now smeared with dirt and blood. There was a scratch across her left cheek and blood caked on her belly and dried into her shorts.

  She rushed blindly to him and wrapped her arms around him. “I knew you’d come!” she cried. “I knew it!”

  “It’s okay.”

  Olivia pulled away from him and looked up into his face. Instantly, an expression of surprise and joy washed over the desperation and fear that had overtaken her gentle features. “Wayne? You came for me?” In the glare of his flashlight she hadn’t been able to see who he was. She had only known that someone had finally come for her.

  “I told you I’d take care of you.” Suddenly tears had sprung into his eyes. He’d found her. He still might not get out of this, still might not live to even see his butthead roommate again, but he hadn’t failed her yet. For the time being at least, he was still her hero.

  She kissed him. It was a quick, hard smack on the lips, and then she was embracing him again, her arms wrapped around his neck, almost choking him in her grip. “I can’t believe it was you. I hoped it would be, but I didn’t know.” She was almost in tears. “I didn’t know if you were even alive! How did you find me?”

  “Long story. Listen, we’ve got to get out of here.”

  Olivia pulled away from him and ran the back of her hand across her wet eyes. He saw that one of her nails had broken and somehow that made his heart ache. “I don’t know where we are. I don’t know what happened. I was upstairs. I was watching that thing…” Suddenly a fierce sob escaped her. “I thought it was going to kill you!” she cried.

  “But it didn’t.”

  “I know.” She was trying to control herself. She wiped at her tears, smearing makeup and dirt across her pretty face. She took two deep, shuddering breaths and then began to speak again. “It…it dropped you…and I remember wondering what happened…then…then the glass shattered… and…and…” She shook her head.

  “I know. I thought I’d lost you.”

  She sniffed back the tears, ran her hand across her face one last time and then dropped her hands to her sides and looked up at him. “Something grabbed me. I remember being jerked back and…” she shook her head. “I don’t know. It was…it was all really fast. It ripped my shirt.”

  Wayne took hold of her hands and gave them a comforting squeeze. “It’s okay now.”

  “I don’t know what happened. I felt everything clamp down on me, like I was being crushed, I couldn’t breathe. Then I fell. I cut my arm.” She was talking fast now, almost babbling.

  “It’s okay now. I’ve got you.”

  Olivia shook her head. She couldn’t stop talking. It was the only thing that was holding back the sobs. She’d been so terrified out here in this darkness. “I think whatever grabbed me is still out here. I heard it moving but I couldn’t see. It’s so dark.”

  A twig snapped to one side and Olivia spun, startled. One of the things that had been chasing Wayne was perched on one of the fallen night trees. It glared at them with the face of some horrible thing that might have been a terrible mockery of a human being even when it was alive. There were more behind it, climbing over and through the fallen trees, at least eight of them in all. Most were upright like humans, but some, like the one that had snapped the twig, were hunched over like apes. One was down on all fours, crouching like a wolf. All of them seemed surprisingly agile, and Wayne guessed that the slower, more awkward ones would be along soon. Their progress had almost certainly been impeded by the fallen trees, but he knew they would not be stopped.

  “Oh crap,” Wayne sighed, sounding as though something had sucked the very breath from his lungs.

  Olivia pressed herself against him and stared at the new arrivals. “What are they?” she asked in a voice he could barely hear.

  “They’re…” What? What were they? The old man had never really said. “Dead things,” he said at last. “Zombies…sort of.” Although the old man had specifically told him that they were not zombies, Wayne thought that it was the closest word he knew to describe them.

  “No way. I can’t deal with that.” Before, she had sounded almost hysterical, now her energy suddenly seemed to be gone. Wayne understood perfectly.

  “Me neither.” He turned toward the nearest of them and threw his arms up. “GO AWAY!” he screamed. “GET OUT OF HERE!”

  Two of the creatures turned and fled, but only two. Another retreated several yards and then stopped and glared back at him. The rest stepped back as though slapped, but that was all. Even the two that had fled hadn’t gone far, he knew. He could hear them in the darkness, shuffling their dead feet through the dirt, circling back around.

  Wayne opened his mouth and screamed at them, howling like a madman, giving them the full volume of his voice. He felt like a child pretending to be a monster, and in a way that was exactly what he was.

  The creatures did not move. Not one of them. Not even a flinch.

  “Oh shit.”

  “Wayne…”

  “I know.”

  A couple of them took a step forward.

  “Wayne!”

  He turned and looked behind him, but already one of them had approached from that side. Another was circling around on their left. Others were there too, deeper in the shadows. They were all around them. Soon they’d close in. It was only a matter of time.

  Was this how it was going to end? Was this where all his efforts had brought him?

  “What do we do?”

  But Wayne didn’t know. He thought of all that he’d done, all that he’d suffered, his trip through that horrible tunnel, his unnerving walk between the two markers, the painful memories he’d had to relive to keep his nerve, his raw feet and aching legs…and then he thought of Olivia. Olivia hadn’t asked for any of this. She’d been pulled into this mess not because she wanted any of it, certainly not because she deserved any of it, but merely because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just because fate decided to spit in her eye and turn its goddamned back on her. Perhaps he deserved this kind of end, perhaps it was what he had coming, but she didn’t. She should to be able to go home. She should be free of this pain and fear. And the fact that she was going to die next to him sent a hot rage boiling through him.

  He stepped forward, placing himself between the closest of the approaching monsters and Olivia. He drew strength from the fury he felt at the gross unfairness of it all. He wouldn’t go down easily. He was ready to fight. “Come on, then!” he screamed at them. “You want me, you dead fucks? COME AND GET ME!”

  But the creatures did not come for them. In fact, each of them took a step back, then another. One turned and fled into the forest. Another followed. The rest hesitated, but then they all turned and ran, rushing away from him as though they had seen the devil in his eyes.

  Olivia stared after them, utterly lost for words.

  “Wow.” Wayne’s voice was soft, almost breathless. Had that really just happened?

  The creatures fled into the darkness, many of them stumbling and scrambling over the broken trees. Even as he watched them go, Wayne realized that something wasn’t right. In fact, something was terribly wrong. He realized this even before one of the things rushed from the darkness at their backs and fled not away from him, but past him, almost within arm’s reach… As if he were not even there…

  Behind him, a thunderous crack broke the silence and he turned. One of the trees flew from the darkness and crashed to the ground before them, its black, shiny trunk breaking apart in great twirling splinters. Behind it, an enormous shape appeared, a darkness that seemed even blacker than the empty and endless night that surrounded it, a writhing shape without any discernable form.

  “Oh…” Wayne said, as though all the energy had been drained from his body.

  It was easily over three stories tall, but difficult to see.
Its body moved strangely, shifting and pulsing, almost fluidly. It hurt the eyes to try to see it, as though its very existence was more than the human mind could comprehend.

  He barely even heard Olivia scream.

  It wasn’t fair. He stared up at this shape for a moment, the shape that had really scared away the zombie-things. He might have laughed if the joke wasn’t so old.

  Whatever it was, Wayne realized, it wasn’t going to be frightened by whatever the old man had done to the cloak. He grabbed Olivia’s hand and the two of them fled, leaping over the trunk of the nearest fallen tree and then around a thick clump of roots still clinging to the soil from which it once drew its nutrients.

  Behind them, the creature stormed after them, crushing great black branches beneath its unimaginable feet.

  “Where are we going?”

  That was a good question. Where could they go? They were in the middle of a forest that didn’t appear on any map. He couldn’t get out the way he’d come and there sure as hell weren’t any conveniently placed neon signs with the word “EXIT” pointing the way home.

  “I don’t know,” he confessed.

  Ahead of them, he could see trees that were still standing. That was good. It would be easier to run where the trees were still upright and perhaps they would slow down whatever was behind them.

  “This way! Come on!”

  Olivia followed him without question.

  In the jittering beam of the flashlight, a dark, staggering form appeared.

  “Wayne!”

  The creature wasn’t looking at them. It was moving away, probably fleeing the same monster from which they were running. Wayne hurried around it, leaving it plenty of room.

  Behind them, a tree crashed to the ground, followed closely by a second. It had left the clearing. Wayne could actually feel the ground trembling beneath his bare feet and he found himself reminded of the Jurassic Park movies. This was no tyrannosaurus rex chasing them, though. This thing might be older than even the most primitive dinosaurs, and countless times more dangerous.