by Ike Hamill
The bear snapped its jaws at her. Madelyn’s body reacted on its own. She jerked back away from its teeth, but then moved in even closer. Her chin was almost touching the bear’s nose. She could smell nothing other than its oozing blood.
“Then again,” she said, “if you don’t attack me now, I’ll be their hero. I bet you don’t want that either. You can’t kill me, and you can’t let me win.”
The bear withdrew slowly. It backed away from Madelyn. When she stepped towards it, it turned and growled at the building.
“Hey!” she yelled at it.
The bear ran for the building. A man was crouched behind bushes that had grown up near the foundation. The bear’s muzzle disappeared into the bushes and came back out with the man between its teeth. The bear shook the man. He screamed once before his back snapped.
The shooting started again.
One person leaned from a window and shot directly down at the animal. His bullets didn’t seem to have an effect.
“Mac,” Elijah said, touching her arm, “that didn’t look good.”
“What?” she asked, turning towards him.
Someone emerged from behind a tree. He raised his rifle with it pointed at Madelyn. She didn’t recognize him.
“She made a deal with it,” the man said.
Madelyn tilted her head. She wasn’t following his logic.
She pointed at the bear. It had thrown its victim to the ground. It stood on his body with one paw while it pulled his arm off with its powerful jaws.
“That’s your enemy,” she said. “You’re supposed to band together and fight it. Solidarity is the only way to win against The Wisdom. You can’t let it divide you.”
Even in the low light, she saw the man’s finger move to the trigger. Elijah raised his gun and pointed it at the man.
“She stood up to it,” a nearby woman said. “Shoot the bear.”
“She’s in league with it,” the man said. He was still coming forward. He meant to get as close as he could before he pulled the trigger.
Elijah was fast. When the man was close enough, Elijah sent out a sweeping kick at the man’s leg, knocking him off balance. He pulled the trigger, but the bullet sailed over Madelyn’s head. Elijah brought the stock of his rifle around and knocked the man in the head, sending him to the ground.
Madelyn picked up the man’s rifle before he could get his hands back on it.
She shook her head.
“You people are hopeless,” Madelyn said. She looked at Elijah. “All of you. You’re not paying attention. The only way to beat this thing is to know that you can. A good defense doesn’t work.”
She ran after the bear, tossing the rifle to the side as she went.
# # # # #
“Shoot her,” Penny said. “She’s going to join it.”
“No, don’t!” Jacob said. They were crouched behind the same rock wall. The person to the left of Penny was pointing one of the lights. Penny commanded the guns in their little unit. She didn’t listen to him. As Madelyn ran towards the bear, Penny put her eye to the sights of her gun.
Jacob pushed her weapon down.
“She’s not going to join it,” he said. “She’s going to kill it or die trying.”
“Why did she throw the gun down?” Penny asked.
“Because she’s angry,” Jacob said.
She glanced at him and then turned to the other shooters in their group.
“Hold fire,” she said. “But keep aim.”
Her group obeyed.
Not everyone did. As Madelyn ran, several shots cut through the air. Dirt erupted on either side of her. Madelyn was fast and erratic. None of the shots found their mark.
She jumped as she approached. Her hands caught the fur on the bear’s haunch and she climbed its back. The bear snarled and twisted. Madelyn was nearly thrown from her grip. She held on with one hand and kept climbing as the bear stood. It whipped around the other direction. Still, she climbed. The bear gave up trying to bite at her and instead dropped the ground.
It rolled over her.
Jacob caught his breath. When it stood upright again, he expected to see her crushed form on the ground. Instead, she clung to its back like a tick.
“She’s a ghost,” someone whispered.
“No,” Jacob said. “She’s not a ghost. She’s just angry.”
Despite Penny’s orders, her people didn’t keep aim. They began to lower their weapons as Madelyn reached the bear’s neck.
Chapter 40
{Predators}
RYAN DOVE THROUGH THE window and ran. He was sure that they would catch him at any second. His lung was compromised and he wasn’t able to keep up his normal pace. Besides that, Elijah was fast. In their brief encounter, Ryan realized he was no match for Elijah’s speed.
Ryan glanced back to see how close they were to catching him.
A smile spread over his face. They weren’t even following.
He slowed a little and reached over to his back. He maneuvered what was left of his flesh back into place, so the tissue could seal itself back up. His body knew what to do. It just needed a little mechanical help to get everything realigned.
Inside his chest, he could feel the blood vessels restricting flow to the damaged branches. He felt the top of his lung stitching itself together so it could hold air once more.
He caught a scent on the wind.
Another person was trying to hide in their house. He could smell their fear. Ryan found the path they used and approached the building. He glanced up at the camera. With any luck, they were watching. His primary goal was to drive people like this towards the others. It would certainly make his job easier.
Ryan pressed on the door until the lock snapped. He paused in the doorway, letting his ears tell him where the victim was hiding. He crossed the kitchen to the door. Even if his nose hadn’t told him where to go, he would have seen the handprints around the knob. People were careless—they always left a trail right to where they were hiding.
He opened the door and pushed aside the heavy curtain. At least the woman down there had taken that precaution. He hadn’t seen her light because of the curtain.
Ryan looked down at her. He was staring right down the barrel of her shotgun.
“Heidi,” he said. “I didn’t know you were living over here now.”
“Ryan?” she asked. She lowered the shotgun a few centimeters, but still kept it at the ready. “Ryan, where’s Ursula? I haven’t seen her in a week or more.”
“May I?” he asked, gesturing towards the stairs. He didn’t need to ask—he was pretty sure that he could rush down the stairs and have that gun away from her before Heidi could pull the trigger, but there was no sense in risking it. He had already been shot once that night.
“Of course,” she said. “Sorry.” She lowered her weapon and stepped back from the landing. Ryan closed the door behind himself and descended.
She saw his injury as he stepped into the light.
“Ryan! What happened to your shoulder?”
“There’s trouble out there. I’m sure you’ve heard?”
Heidi backed up and wrapped her arms around the shotgun, pulling it to her chest. Even when times were good, she was a timid person. In times of crisis, she folded. Her finger was still way too close to the trigger.
“I heard people were being eaten,” she said.
When he stepped forward, she retreated.
Ryan nodded. “We’re on the trail of the perpetrator. That’s how I got this.” He pointed to the bloody hole in his shirt. “And it’s why I’ve come. We’re going door to door, telling everyone to get to the safe harbor. There’s a gathering there.”
She shook her head. “I don’t leave the house after the horns. I didn’t hear them tonight, but I assume they were supposed to sound. Anyway, I’m waiting for the klaxon in the morning.”
“I understand,” Ryan said. “I’ll tell my wife that she’ll see you in the morning?”
“Ursula is th
ere?” she asked.
Ryan smiled. “Of course. She’s organizing tents so everyone can have a safe place to sleep tonight. It’s going to be cramped, but we’ll manage.”
He started to back towards the stairs. If she saw the exit wound on his back, his fairy tale would lose its credibility.
“Everyone’s there?” she asked.
“Not yet, apparently,” he said, smiling again.
“I suppose if Ursula needs help…”
“I’m sure she does,” he said. He extended his hand for her and turned to welcome her towards the stairs. Ryan was careful to angle his back away from her. When she reached to take his hand, he had his opportunity.
Gently, at first, he took her fingers. When he had a good grip, he jerked her forward. Ryan batted the shotgun from her other hand as he closed his teeth around her throat. With one bite he managed to crush her windpipe and sever the important blood vessels. With his next bite, he crushed her spine.
Ryan lowered her to the floor.
In order to reconstruct the damage from Amelia’s gun, his body needed supplies. It needed proteins and minerals. His wife’s best friend, Heidi, was a warm collection of precisely the right materials. Before the light completely disappeared from her eyes, Ryan began his resupply mission.
# # # # #
“Get up,” Ryan said. He scanned the dark horizon and then kicked the leg in front of him.
“We can’t,” Niren said. “It will come back.”
“What will come back?”
“The bear,” Niren said.
Ryan felt full of strength after his meeting with Heidi. He reached down and picked up Niren by his leg. When he lifted the young man, he untangled himself from Caleb, who remained on the ground.
“There’s no bear,” Ryan said. He sniffed the air. There was the scent of something powerful, but he couldn’t place it. It might have been a bear, but it was long gone.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Niren said. He struggled to get himself right-side up. Ryan let go and Niren spun in the air to land on his feet. “It attacks us every time we try to run. It nearly killed Caleb.”
Ryan laughed. “I told you that he was too weak.”
“He was getting stronger,” Niren said. He leaned over in the dark and shook Caleb until he began to moan. “It takes longer without direct exposure. If he hadn’t hurt his hand, I’m pretty sure that the exposure that I gave him would have killed him outright. You have to give him credit—I don’t think most people would have survived a conversion the way he came to it.”
“None of that matters unless he can pull his weight,” Ryan said. “He’s either helping us or hurting us. There’s no other possibility.”
“I can pull my weight,” Caleb said. He stood up slowly. “You think that you two can pull this off on your own? Why don’t you try that and see how it turns out? We barely have enough people with three of us.”
“You’re a fool if you think you’re the only person available to help us out,” Ryan said. “There are others. It’s a big world, and you don’t even know everyone in this community.”
Ryan turned and began to walk away from them.
Niren watched carefully and studied the woods. He was waiting for the bear to materialize and attack. When Ryan walked several dozen meters without being molested, Niren started after him. Caleb caught his arm. “You really think there are other Optioners around? Wouldn’t we know about them?”
“I don’t know,” Niren said. “But Ryan has been working this angle since before we knew it existed. It’s best if we stick with him.”
“We’re going to have to find some fresh meat before we’re going to be able to function,” Caleb said.
“I know,” Niren said. “Don’t worry—I’m sure Ryan knows that too. Come on.”
They followed Ryan as he headed for the trail.
# # # # #
After their next kills, Caleb and Niren were much faster on their feet. Their bodies were still repairing the damage, but they had the fuel they needed to move. The three spread out and took different neighborhoods. Their goal was to clear out one-hundred percent of the stragglers. Most people had already fled, but some were still locked away in their hideouts.
Ryan’s approach was simple—persuade the person to go, and if they wouldn’t, kill them. The people who agreed to evacuate on their own were useful allies. They knew where their neighbors were hiding and they would help the cause. The three wanted to generate a momentum that would sweep up the remaining people and get them moving towards the safe harbor.
Even though all three had the same plan, most of the people who Caleb found ended up walking towards the safe harbor. Most of the people who Ryan encountered wound up dead.
They covered a lot of territory and met back at the heart of downtown.
Niren looked north, towards the sounds of gunfire.
“We’re going to have a problem,” Niren said. “The people we’re dealing with now are the skittish ones. As soon as they come out their houses and hear those shots in the distance, they’re going to go right back inside.”
“We need an explanation,” Caleb said. “A cover story.”
“No. We’ll just kill them all,” Ryan said. “This is our last night. If we let these people scatter in the morning, we’ll never eradicate them. This is our last chance.”
“We can’t hit all the houses,” Caleb said. “If they’re not going to group together on their own, what chance do we have of getting all of them?”
“Fire?” Niren asked. “A controlled burn?”
Ryan folded his arms and thought about that possibility. He shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of pulling in more Hunters to the area. We’ve reached a decent stasis.”
“They’re going to be pulled in by the gunfire anyway,” Niren said.
“That’s Kappa Three,” Ryan said. “I’m not that concerned about up there. They’ll hit the safe harbor and then bounce. If we draw them into the suburbs, we’ll never be free of them.”
Niren nodded.
“If there was some way we could make this Wisdom thing work for us instead of against us. A power like would be pretty useful,” Ryan said.
“Maybe if you hadn’t subverted our research, we could have found a solution,” Caleb said.
Ryan laughed at him. “You never knew what you were researching.”
“That’s not true,” Caleb said.
Niren turned away.
“I guided you the entire time. It’s hard to believe that you still haven’t recognized that. And you did nothing more groundbreaking than reproduce the original procedures of Vyermin R&D. And I’ll tell you one thing—those were the most talented minds the world has known and they couldn’t explain the origin of The Wisdom. Why would you begin to think that you had a chance of figuring it out?” Ryan asked.
“It’s funny that we were such fools, but we were the ones who came up with the process that you needed,” Caleb said.
Niren moved between the two of them.
“I’m not sure what we’re gaining from all this arguing. We need to control this situation. There’s no future for us if we don’t. Do we all agree on that?”
“Of course,” Ryan said.
Caleb nodded.
“Good,” Niren said. “Regardless of how we got here, we know that some people are still hiding. I’ll grant you that it’s not ideal, but I disagree that it’s a complete crisis. Even if they survive until the morning, all is not lost. If they try to run, they’ll go east or west. We don’t want to infect this area with Hunters, but there’s no reason we can’t set up traps on either side of the city. Those who we can’t hunt down, we’ll let nature take its course.”
“That’s good,” Ryan said.
“As for The Wisdom,” Niren said, “we can let it play itself out tonight and see where the wind takes it tomorrow. As far as we know, it doesn’t stick around for any length of time, correct?”
“I’ve come across ver
y little information, but as far as I know, that’s correct,” Ryan said.
“Good,” Niren said. “While our goals are aligned, I think it’s reasonable for us to allow The Wisdom to do its work. We don’t have to know where it came from, or what its purpose is to benefit from the work it does.”
“True,” Caleb said.
“Excellent,” Niren said. “So what’s our strategy?”
“Containment,” Ryan said. “The bulk of people should be in the safe harbor now. The Wisdom is there. We only need to contain anyone who might try to escape.”
“Perfect,” Niren said. “Let’s figure out how to do that.”
“I have an idea,” Ryan said.
Chapter 41
{Turn}
ALL AROUND THE FIGHT—from every angle—the people watched. Some were perched in trees. Others were looking through the windows of the buildings. Jacob and Harper were crouched behind the stone wall with Penny. Several of the people pointed lights at the battle. The citizens lowered their guns.
Madelyn clung to the bear’s neck with her legs. She had one handful of its brown fur. The animal thrashed and shook, trying to dislodge her. It stretched back with its paw, but couldn’t reach her. At one point, the bear drove itself back into the corner of the building, but Madelyn moved to the side to avoid impact.
The bear turned his head towards the sky and roared when Madelyn shoved her hand into its ear. It flipped over and smashed its own head into the ground. Somehow, Madelyn hung on. The bear’s blood flowed down her arm and shoulder. She had her hand deep into its head.
At one point, she dragged out a big handful of flesh and bone. The bear thrashed and Madelyn managed to keep her handful of fur as her legs flailed. When she regained her grip with her legs and shoved her hand back inside the thing’s skull, a cheer went through the group.
