by J. Thorn
“Major and Kole. What do they want?”
“Not sure,” Mara said, shaking her head. “I think Kole wants to inflict pain, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. But Major, yeah, Major wants something more.”
“More than what?”
“More than hurting you. He wants out of here. We all do.”
***
Kole and Major ambled along the path, weaving in and out between the creatures. They seemed to have no purpose other than following Samuel and Mara. Major expected to be blown back by their rotten filth, but the sense of smell had all but disappeared in the locality. Along with the loss of sound, he knew the Reversion was almost complete.
“Can we get to them?” Kole asked. He hobbled forward, each couple of steps causing him to wince in pain.
“Yep,” replied Major. “The walking corpses will keep ’em pinned down. Won’t hurt ’em none.”
Kole nodded and kept walking, occasionally sidestepping a group of the creatures. He passed one on his left, looking deep into its face. Kole shuddered when the creature turned its blank eyes on him. He felt the desperation there, the pain.
“Think the next cabin is over that ridge,” Major said, shaking Kole from his thoughts. Major pointed along the path in the direction the horde was traveling. A throaty howl broke through the silence and made the horde stop in their tracks. Major and Kole turned to face the alpha male striding along the path, the wolf’s eyes never leaving the staggering undead.
Chapter 13
You stole my prey, and now you must make recompense.
Major stopped and looked at the alpha male. “I protected my investment.”
Kole looked at Major and then back at the wolf. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked.
The old man brushed off the question with a wave of his hand.
Where is he?
“Up the trail. The horde follows, like you.”
The alpha male stopped five feet in front of the men. The other hunters in the pack flanked him on each side until they stood blocking the path. The horde froze in place, swaying in the imaginary breeze.
He has the girl?
“She’s with him. I’m not sure who has what.”
Kole stepped up to stand beside Major. “Are you talking to these coyotes?” he asked.
“Wolves.”
“Whatever. Can you really understand them?”
Our pact involved you and you only.
“I know,” Major replied, looking at Kole. “I know.”
“What, man?” Kole asked. “What do you know?” He shuffled on his feet, clenching his fists and looking back and forth between the wolves and Major.
We’ll still hunt the man in order to fulfill His command, but we also want recompense for the delay. The girl.
“I don’t give a fuck about her.”
Then it isn’t genuine, is it? We’ll take him, too.
Major felt the alpha male’s mental nod toward Kole. “He is not mine.”
“Hey, hold up. What the hell are you talking about?” asked Kole.
Major turned to look at Kole, his eyes hard, dark, determined. “It’s out of my control,” he said.
“What is?” Kole asked while the alpha male padded forward.
The rest of the pack circled the two men while the horde remained fixed. Kole looked at Major and then at the wolves, understanding seeping into his mind like water running over a dam.
“You can’t do this!” he screamed at Major.
The old man shrugged and took a step back as the alpha male emitted a low growl, ears up and eyes fixed on Kole.
“This is not my doing. I’m a subject of this locality, like you. I wouldn’t worry about it. The Reversion is going to swallow us all soon, anyway.”
Kole gave Major a menacing look before tossing his bloodied bandages to the ground. A few of the hunters snuck forward and sniffed the blood as if it were an aphrodisiac.
“In a world losing all sensory input, you throw hungry wolves a handful of bloody bandages.”
Before Kole could reply, the alpha male sprang forward. His lean body flew through the air toward Kole’s neck. Kole raised a forearm, striking the alpha male on the head, deflecting his lunge with a whimper. The other hunters stepped forward.
No! He is mine.
“They want to prove themselves, the way you did. They want to fight their way to the top of the pack.”
“Stop talking to them, you asshole,” said Kole, spitting each syllable into the silent, still air.
Mine.
The hunters stopped, but their eyes remained locked on Kole.
“Why are you letting them attack me?” Kole asked.
“I’m not letting them do anything,” Major replied. “They have needs to fulfill, like all of us, and they have beliefs about the Reversion and what might stop it.”
“Human blood?”
“Probably. But I’m not a wolf, so I can’t say for sure.”
The alpha male growled again, shaking its head and realigning its equilibrium after absorbing Kole’s shot.
“What about Mara and Samuel? Let’s sell them out.”
“Mara,” said Major, “is not worth a thing to me. Or them. But Samuel. He has something I need, and if I have to sacrifice you and the girl to get it, I will.”
“This isn’t fair,” said Kole.
“Of course it isn’t, you spoiled little shit. You’ve slipped into another locality, one damned for all time. Or at least until the Reversion eats it. You were nothing but a disgusting human being in your life. Why do you think you’re owed any decency now? Be happy you didn’t slip into a locality more violent than this one. The alpha male will tear out your throat and you’ll be dead in minutes. Trust me, there are worse fates for those like you.”
Enough.
Major held both hands up and stepped backward. The pack stepped past him until they encircled Kole, the alpha male crouching down before him, ready to spring. Kole looked at Major with a bloody tear running down his face. He shook his head at the old man, but he said nothing.
The alpha male launched himself through the air again. This time, Kole’s defensive blow glanced off the beast’s muzzle and into thin air. The wolf’s paws landed on Kole’s neck, pushing him backward until he lost balance and collapsed hard on the ground. The alpha male opened its jaws and clamped down on Kole’s throat like a steel bear trap. The wolf growled and shook its head until blood spurted from Kole’s jugular. The man’s eyes remained open as his body twitched in the dirt. When he no longer moved, the alpha male raised his head and howled into the darkness, signaling the other hunters to partake in his kill.
Major stood by, careful not to interrupt the alpha male and his hunters. He closed his eyes as the tearing of flesh filled his ears. The locality would devour the experience like everything else, but until that happened, Major had to experience it. When the wolves had finished their obscene feast, the alpha male nudged a hunter. The wolves gathered behind their leader amongst the horde still fixed to the ground.
And now the other. The female is of no consequence to me. She has no power.
“But he does, and you’d better remember that.”
The alpha male looked at Major, blood staining his coat.
I know. I felt it last time. But that was before. I have become more powerful since.
“So has he,” replied Major. “So has he.”
***
“I think we’re here for a different reason. I think we have work to do, people we owe.”
Samuel nodded, taking deep, long breaths.
“Redemption?” he asked.
“Of sorts. Do you trust me?” Mara asked.
“I guess.”
“Give me your hand.”
When Samuel’s hand landed in Mara’s palm, she threw a shoulder into the door and exited the cabin. The horde surrounded them, but they stood motionless in place.
“Why aren’t they coming at us?” Samuel asked as they sprinted down the pa
th and away from the Reversion.
“A force has held them temporarily. They won’t remain immobile long. Hurry. Let’s get some distance.”
Samuel looked at Mara for a moment, realizing there was more to her experience in the Reversion than what she had told him.
Mara ran down the path, her dark hair swaying against her back. Samuel followed her as she continued moving east. The trees hung over the path like dangling fly paper, ready to snag them at any moment. Mara kept moving through the darkened landscape until the path opened on a plain that stretched as far as she could see. Long wheat stood still and silent. Samuel looked up and saw the Reversion in the sky, constantly moving east toward the endgame.
“They’re not behind us,” Samuel said.
“They will be. Come on.”
Mara sprinted again, this time through the field toward a black hole on the other side. As Samuel drew closer, he realized they were heading for the gaping maw of a cave embedded in the deep rock of a mountain. The opening appeared as a solid wall of jet-black fabric.
“We’re going in there?” he asked Mara.
She ignored his question and slowed to a jog. As she approached the entrance to the cave, the wheat tapered off until nothing but undisturbed dirt lay in front of it. Samuel felt the muscles in his body tighten, and he had to fight to keep his bladder under control.
“It feels evil,” he said.
“It probably is,” replied Mara. “But it’s our last chance to escape the Reversion. And the wolves.”
As if on cue, Samuel heard another round of howling. He looked over a shoulder and saw the first shapes shuffling from the tree line into the field. He recognized the gait and knew the horde was back on their trail.
Mara looked at him and took his hand. She looked at the cave and back to the undead.
“It’s your call. I can’t make you.”
Samuel nodded and followed her through the opening, into darkness that penetrated him to the core.
***
“I could use the horde to draw him out.”
The stalkers. They avoid that place.
“I know, which is why we must get him to give up. You and your pack are not great enough in number to pursue them through the labyrinth.”
How did the girl know about it?
Major felt an accusation in the unspoken question.
“They have been running for their lives, to the east. The Reversion has pushed them there.”
The wolf licked his teeth and circled back around to survey the hunters. The old man was right.
You have bait he will take?
“I have many tools at my disposal,” said Major, with a smile spreading across his face. “I don’t know if he’ll leave the girl, but he will be disoriented, at the very least.”
Go. I will wait for you. But realize that time here is short, and the Reversion slows for nothing. I will not suffer another cycle by failing Him.
Major nodded and stepped past a throng of the undead as they approached the cave. He tried not to look at their faces as he contemplated a strategy for luring Samuel out with enough time to find what he needed before the alpha male tore the flesh from his bones.
***
What appeared to be a black hole from the outside softened from within. Ancient stalactites and stalagmites bit into the cavernous space. The old rock glowed with a dull, heavy cast of gray light, as if it came from the final throes of a dying sun. The floor of the cave lay covered with a fine powder, dry and unlike the heavy, moist soil of the forest. Passages extended in all directions, heading deeper into the depths of the mountain.
Several of the walls wept. Trickling streams of water followed grooves etched in the stone over eons, the droplets crashing into puddles on the ground like cannon fire echoing throughout the space.
Mara stopped and looked at Samuel as they stood shoulder to shoulder, their backs to the entrance. She looked into his face, shuddering at the pale complexion brought on by the inner glow of the cave. When she turned to look at the cave entrance, she saw the darkness of the locality brought by the Reversion, making it seem like a heavy curtain had been drawn across the last remnants of their world.
Samuel’s eyes met Mara’s. He let his breathing slow while surveying the inside of the cave. The glow of light produced phantom shadows that slithered over the pockmarked stone. He felt the cold, moist, subterranean air on his face and detected the faint aroma of wet limestone. The open passages reached out to Samuel like bony fingers threatening to pull him inside the mountain to an unending maze of labyrinthine tunnels.
“Now what?” he asked her.
Mara looked back to the entrance and then grabbed Samuel’s hand. She jogged to an outcrop of rock against the north wall of the cave, pulling Samuel behind her. She placed her back against the cool wall and then stood upright when it chilled her to the core.
“We can hide,” she replied.
“From who? For how long? I don’t see how—”
Mara cut him off by placing her index finger to his lips.
“The horde hates this place, and I don’t know why. I remember seeing them standing out front before, a long time ago, when I first got here. Kole and I were hiding in the trees, and we saw Major coming out. But the undead, they weren’t in here.”
“What about the wolves?” Samuel asked.
“I don’t know.”
The air within the chamber changed as a slight breeze raised gooseflesh on their arms.
“What’s the point?” The question came from the cave’s entrance, echoing off the walls until reaching their ears in a concurrent reverberation. “You’re only delaying the inevitable,” said Major, his words drawing nearer.
“C’mon,” Mara whispered.
She grabbed Samuel’s hand and sprinted around the side of the outcrop. The two rushed headlong into the nearest tributary and raced through the kinked maze of stone until it ended in a solid wall of rock. Mara turned and ran back toward the main cavern, towing Samuel by the arm. She ducked into another passage, only to end up at another dead end.
“Go ahead and try them all. I’ll wait. But the wolves, eh, not so sure about their level of patience. And the undead, not sure if they even understand the idea any longer.” Major’s voice came through the air with clarity. He was getting closer.
“What do you want?” Samuel asked as he stepped around Mara to face the entrance to the cave.
Major appeared from behind an outcrop. His hair appeared more silvery than it had before. He walked with a lurch, and the headband slipped lower on his forehead, making his eyes forlorn.
“There’s a lot about this place that you don’t know, son.”
“So you’re my father now, my caretaker, is that it?”
Major chuckled and waved a hand in the air.
“You and the girl come out here so we can talk like human beings?” Major asked. “Ain’t like I can do that with the stalkers or the pack now, can I?”
Mara shook her head and tried to pull Samuel toward a third unexplored passage deep under the mountain. He bit his bottom lip and stepped in front of her, pulling his hand from hers.
“Okay.”
“I’m really a business man, Samuel. Once you understand that, I think you’ll find what I have to offer will be a fair trade, one that benefits both parties involved.”
“Don’t trust him, Samuel. He’s devious and manipulating. He belongs here. He deserves to be eaten by that cloud, swallowed by the Reversion.”
“Mara, dear. Such ugly words from such a tragic beauty as yourself.”
“You say you have business with me,” replied Samuel. “Let’s hear it.”
“I wouldn’t have saved you from the alpha male and sent you to the Barren to get rid of you. That would have been a foolish waste of resources and time, neither of which occur in abundance in this shit-hole of a world. Scary to think this is the nicest locality I’ve been in since I started slipping. Not exactly postcard material.”
Samuel
scoffed and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “You have thirty more seconds before we run headlong into the mountain. If the Reversion is coming, we’ll go on our own terms, with each other. Judging by the ghouls that didn’t follow you in here, and the limp you got going on, I don’t think you’re in a position to chase us down. What do you want, old man?”
“Fine. I’ve made many deals in my time, and I’ve always believed a certain level of civility helped to ease the negotiations.”
“I never said we were negotiating. You’re down to twenty seconds.”
Major stepped forward, distributing his weight on both legs. He looked over a shoulder at the entrance to the cave, where dark coats of fur had begun to pace back and forth at the threshold.
“They’re scared of it. Won’t come in. Yet. The wolves and ghouls will wait, but I won’t. I need to slip again, and you have the talisman to do it. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t matter—you’re going to slip with me. I’ve done it before, slipping with someone else. It’s risky, sure, but no more risky than remaining here in this dying place. And the girl, well, it would be good business to leave her for the wolves. She’s flickering out, one way or another.”
Mara shivered and reached for Samuel’s hand.
“I don’t even know if I can slip with another. And if I did, why would I take you? I can take Mara with me.”
Major laughed. His voice echoed throughout the cavern and brought a yelp from one of the pack that strayed too close to the entrance.
“And how are you going to do that, Samuel? Tell me. Exactly how are you going to slip into another locality, let alone find a way to take her with you? You may have the talisman, but I have the know-how,” Major said, tapping the side of his head with his index finger. “You got the Dodge Daytona, but I got your keys.” A dark, greasy smile spread across Major’s face.
“You’re an evil son of a bitch,” said Samuel.
“We don’t have time for empty insults, young man. You get the knowledge of the slip in return for my ticket and the girl. Take it or leave it.”
Mara growled.
“How do I know you really know how to use the talisman to slip this locality? How can I be sure you’re not tricking me?”
