Chapter Thirteen
Now
Nowen woke to the taste of blood in her mouth. It was hers and not a prey animal’s, which meant that something was wrong. She kept her eyes closed and concentrated her other senses on finding out where she was.
The smell of fear mixed with the smell of unwashed bodies, several of them, kept too close together in a small space. There was a faint murmur of voices nearby, and a sensation of gentle rocking. A fleeting feeling of déjà vu had her wondering if she was back in the hospital, and everything that had happened in the last few months was a dream.
Nowen assessed herself next. She was lying on her side with her hands restrained behind her. A headache throbbed through her skull, making her nauseous, and the right side of her face ached in sympathetic counterpoint. When she tried to open her eyes only the left one did; the other eye felt glued shut. She blinked a couple of times and then looked around. Six sets of eyes looked back.
A tall, thin young man detached himself from the group of people huddled together a few feet from her. He knelt next to her and laid a hand on her head. Worried grey eyes set in a light-brown face studied her as he used his other hand to brush back the wild black curls of his hair . A large bruise spread across his left cheek. “You’re awake, finally. I’d ask how you feel, but that would be a silly question, wouldn’t it?” The young man spoke with a British accent, a tone that made Nowen think of movies with stuffy people wearing suits. “I bet something cold would feel nice against that eye, but we used up the last packet of frozen food a couple of days ago, I’m afraid.” He pointed to the bruise on his face as he said this. “You’ve been out of it for close to six hours. Do you think you can sit up?
Nowen looked from him to the rest of the group of people who hadn’t moved from their huddle. She returned her gaze to the brown-haired man. “Who are you?”
He smiled. “You can call me Lennon.”
“Is that your name?”
“Well, it’s my last name. I’m not fond of my first name, so I try to never use it. Now, do you feel like sitting up?” At her nod Lennon slid an arm under her body and helped her up to where she could lean her back against the wall. Her head pounded from the exertion and she had to close her eye for a moment. Lennon must have noticed her discomfort and she heard him ask for someone to throw him a water bottle.
She opened her eye as he held the plastic bottle up to her lips. She took a few sips and then looked around. She was in the small camper, she guessed, and the interior looked a whole lot like the truck cab in which she had sheltered the night before - just a little bigger. She nodded at the other people who still hadn’t moved from their position. “What’s wrong with them?”
Lennon looked at them with a hint of disgust as he capped the bottle and set it on a small counter behind him. “They don’t like me much, and they’re afraid of you.”
Nowen stared blankly at the young man. “Afraid of me?’
“Well, a little afraid of you, and more afraid of what our captors might do to us because of you.” He paused, thoughtfully. “You’ve not told me your name. What should I call you?”
“Nowen.”
“Just Nowen?” He looked bemused for a second, and then shrugged.”Eh, I’ve heard stranger. Anyway, we watched as you took on Tuck and his men. You did rather a good job on the big one - broke his nose! - but now you’ve made them quite mad. Oliver hit you a couple of more times after you went down, and then when they threw you in here they warned us not to assist you.”
“So why are you?”
Lennon smiled again. “Oh, I like to rock the boat.”
Someone from the group called out, “The rest of us are going to pay the price for that!”
Lennon rolled his eyes. “Here, lets introduce you to the rest of this cheery group. The loudmouth is Hank Roberts,” and he pointed at a middle-aged man with dark blonde hair and a beer belly. Roberts narrowed his eyes at this but didn’t say anything. “The lovely woman next to him is his wife, Carla, and the two girls are their daughters, Lisa and Michelle.” Mrs. Roberts, thin as a racehorse, drew her two small children closer to her sides. The girls were twins and looked to be about eight years old. They took after their mother, with the same thin build and the same auburn hair. All the family members eyed Nowen suspiciously. A short young woman unfolded herself from the corner of the camper and came forward. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and had startling purple and green streaks running through its mouse-brown color. She dropped to the floor next to Lennon, and Nowen realized that she was couldn’t be more than seventeen or eighteen years old.
“And I’m Zoe Pena. Man, it was nice to see Oliver take a beating! That dude’s nuts. Wow, you have beautiful eyes! What color is that? Everyone says hazel’s a nice color, but I can tell they’re lying. It’s like when my parents said there was nothing wrong with my natural hair - please! Parents always lie to you, but it’s ok, because they do it out of love. Or, at least, that’s what I told myself-”
“Zoe!” Lennon interrupted. “This isn’t the best time for that.” He turned to Nowen. “Anyway, welcome to the trip from hell. Any questions?”
She nodded. “First, can someone untie my hands?” The binding was cutting into her wrists, and her hands had long ago gone numb.
Lennon shook his head. “Sorry love, those are handcuffs they slapped on you.”
Nowen looked down at herself. She was wearing only jeans, a sweater, and her boots. “Where’s my pack?”
“Oh, man, they took that! Oliver took your ski suit, too. Dude is creepy; took his sweet time undressing you. I half thought he was going to jump your bones-”
Lennon sighed. “Zoe, please.”
Zoe rolled her eyes at this and stuck out her tongue. “Dude, she should know that Oliver is a total weirdo.”
Nowen looked over the two and studied the family at the back of the camper. They hadn’t moved, although it looked like the mother was clutching her children even closer to her, if that was possible. She turned her attention back to Lennon and Zoe. “What’s going on here? Who are those men, and what do they want with me?”
Lennon looked at her. “Why don’t I tell you what’s happening here...well, I have to start back a few months. We all either live in or got stuck in Tie Siding back when the dead-heads started rising and killing everyone. The Roberts lived there, and I was passing through with a...friend,” and here he stuttered over the words, “on a vacation trip. Zoe, you came from-”
“Ranch about forty miles from Tie Siding. Totes exciting.”
“Right, right. Well, things fell apart. My friend and I were just outside Ft. Collins when it was getting really bad, so we decided to come back here to wait until the military or whomever rode in to the rescue. We thought that such a small town would be safer than a larger one. I don’t believe the dead-heads were much of a problem there, were they?” Lennon looked at the Roberts for confirmation; they pointedly looked away.
Zoe shook her head. “Nah, at any given time the population is lucky to break an even thirty. Over a weekend? Probably about 12 or so people in town.” She turned and looked at Nowen “I rode things out at my parents’ ranch, coming into town for news and company occasionally. We kept waiting for someone to show up and put things right, but...”
“They never did.” Nowen said, quietly.
The other woman nodded and looked down at her lap where her slender hands twisted together. After a moment Lennon picked up the thread of conversation.
“Some of the residents left town, attempting to reach family. They never came back. Once a rancher came into town and invited us back to his place. He said he was miles from any other people, and we could try and a make a go of it with him. We turned him down; thought it best to stay where someone could find us.”
Zoe snorted derisively. “And someone did. Boy, did someone find us.”
Lennon took a drink from the water bottle and passed it to Zoe. “Tuck and his friends came into Tie Siding about a wee
k ago. We thought help of a sort had arrived. Well, you’ve seen Tuck, right? I would bet anything that he’s former military of some kind. He talks and acts like every Hollywood depiction of a hard-ass general.”
Zoe spoke. “He sure acted like a stereotypical bad guy! Rolls into town, gets a headcount - by then we were down to just eight- starts ordering us around. ‘Give us your supplies, and get in the camper!’ Shit like that.”
“Did anyone fight back?” Nowen said.
Lennon abruptly stood up and stepped a couple of paces away. Zoe watched him sympathetically as she said “Of course. When they started waving their guns at us and took a swing at me. Tuck used to have four men with him. We got two of them, and they got three of us.” Her voice lowered. “Tuck killed Lennon’s boyfriend. It was only pure luck that Lennon didn’t die too. He just got beat real bad.”
Lennon came back and joined them, his eyes bright with unshed tears. “Tuck and his men scavenged what they could, loaded us into the camper, and would have left two days ago if it wasn’t for that blizzard. Bad luck for you, I’m afraid.”
Zoe nodded. “Yeah, they decided to take one last look through the post office for anything else they could take. Matt was left outside to guard us, and he’s the one who saw you coming. Water?” She shook the plastic bottle.
Nowen shook her head. “What do they want with us?”
Zoe studied her fingernails. “I think they want to restart civilization, you know, build a new society they would rule, crushing all that stood in their way.”
Lennon managed a weak smile. “Miss Pena has read far too many post-apocalyptic books. No, I believe Tuck has another use for us in mind.”
Nowen looked at him. “What?”
“Bait.”
“What do you mean, ‘bait’?”
“Tuck will use us as bait when he comes across any areas he wants to explore. I believe the plan would be to send us out first to draw any dead-heads, or other armed people. We are, it would seem, expendable.” Lennon rubbed a fine-boned hand across his face. “Well, that’s our sad story. What about you? How did you come to be walking down the highway at that moment?”
Zoe spoke suddenly. “Hey. We’re slowing down.” The rocking of the camper came to a stop. Lennon stood up and peered out a small window in the door. “What do you see?” Zoe said.
“Nothing but the mountains.”
The slamming of the pick-up door was audible in the silent camper. Nowen, concentrating, could make out the crunch of footsteps on gravel. There came a loud banging on the camper wall.
“Get away from the door, or I will shoot you!”
Lennon whispered to Nowen, “Oliver. And he still sounds pissed. Can you stand up?” At her nod he and Zoe each grabbed an arm and got her on her feet. Her head throbbed so fiercely she had to fight the urge to vomit, swallowing back a mouthful of bitter bile. “Clear!” Lennon shouted.
The door opened slowly, the barrel of the shotgun sliding through first, the round bore at the end seeming to look around like a never-sleeping eye. Then Oliver flung the door wide open. Behind his bulk Nowen could see ochre-colored hills set against a sky fading to sunset.
The big man stepped inside, removed his sunglasses, and studied the three of them. Deep purple bruises, tinged with yellow and green, ran from the bridge of his nose to under each eye. He looked at Nowen, and his voice had a nasally, stuffed tone to it. “Hello, bitch. I still owe you for the nose.” Without warning Oliver took a quick step forward and slammed the butt of his shotgun into her abdomen. She sagged, only kept from collapsing by the grips on her arms.
“Bastard!” Zoe shouted. “Big man, beating up a woman, huh?!”
“Shut up, or you’ll get some too.” Oliver growled.
“Try it!”
Nowen raised her head, locking her gaze with Oliver’s. “Zoe, stop.” she rasped, fighting another wave of nausea. “He’s not worth it.”
An ugly sneer crossed his face. “Bitch, if I have to beat respect into you, I will!”
Nowen just looked at him. The wolf could see that this man, for all his muscle and thunder, was low in the pack- and he knew it. He would attack those who showed weakness or couldn’t fight back, but he would roll over and bare his throat for the alpha.
Her lack of response angered him. His bullet-shaped head grew red with rage and he raised the shotgun for another blow. “Oliver!” someone shouted outside the camper; his massive body twitched as if he’d been hit with an electric shock.
The leader, Tuck, stood at the base of the steps. The mirrored shades still hid his eyes. When he spoke his words were calm, but Nowen could sense the restrained anger in his voice; deep inside, the wolf stirred in response.
“Oliver, what are you doing?”
Fear rolled in almost-visible waves off the bigger man as he lowered his weapon and faced Tuck. “They, uh, they were trying to escape, sir.”
“Were they?” The quiet words dropped into the silence like stones into a pond.
“Y-yes, sir.”
The slight man looked at Oliver. A light breeze lifted strands of his thinning hair as he stood there, blank mirror eyes reflecting the pink-tinged sunset. Finally he spoke.
“Hmm. I see. Oliver?”
Oliver’s startled gulp was audible to everyone in the camper. “Yes, sir?”
“I don’t want you interacting with these people any more. Go help Matt.”
“Yes, sir!” The big man jumped down from the camper and sprinted away out of sight, his eagerness to escape obvious. Tuck stepped up into the camper now, waiting until Lennon and Zoe had helped Nowen to her feet again. He removed his sunglasses, folding the thin temples and sliding them into a shirt pocket. He crossed his hands behind his back and addressed his audience.
“I would prefer that we have no more trouble on this trip-”
“Then let me go.” Nowen spoke evenly.
Tuck ignored this outburst and kept talking, speaking as calmly as if he were discussing the weather. “If we work together, we can make it through this tough time, and come out the better for it. Cooperation is the key; without cooperation, we will be the same as the undead. Existing, not living.” He turned his gaze on Nowen. His eyes were pale, pale blue, like the summer sky seen through a sheet of ice. “However, if there continue to be problems, then I will have no choice but to enforce discipline, in any way I can. For instance, it would be a shame if something happened to one of those lovely little girls, wouldn’t it?”
Nowen fixed her one good eye on Tuck. “Would it?” At this Mrs. Roberts gasped loudly from the back of the camper. One of the twins started to cry, softly.
Tuck tilted his head to one side, studying Nowen. “Interesting.” He straightened and looked at the other occupants. “I need a couple of you to come help move some cars out of the road. You.” He nodded at Lennon. “And you.” A nod of the head to Mr. Roberts, who started to babble nervously. “Now.” Tuck said, and his voice warned there would be no second asking.
Behind Nowen’s back she heard Zoe whisper a word of caution to Lennon. He released Nowen’s arm and followed Tuck outside. Mr. Roberts came next, trailed by the near-hysterical sobbing of his wife. The door slammed shut behind them, plunging the interior into a dusky gloom.
As soon as the latch clicked home Zoe let go of Nowen’s arm, forcing her to lean against a small counter to her right to keep from falling. The teenager crossed her arms across her chest and glowered at Nowen.”What the hell was that all about?” she said venomously.
“What?”
“Were you trying to get those little girls killed?”
Nowen glanced at the twins and their mother. They all had the same deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces. She looked at Zoe. “I won’t be held hostage by threats.”
Zoe looked dumbfounded. “What does that even mean?” At Nowen’s even look she threw her hands up in frustration. “And you can’t go mouthing off like that. Maybe you don’t care if you get us all shot up, but I do!”
“Sure, at Oliver. And only to try and get him to stop hurting you. Although I’m beginning to wonder if you were worth it!” Zoe moved to look out the little window in the door. “Tuck, though...he’s another story entirely. He’ll kill you as soon as look at you.” She turned back to face Nowen, pulling her long purple-green-brown ponytail over her shoulder as she did. The young woman ran her hands through the length of hair while she spoke. “Tuck’s scary but he has a point. We, here,” and she motioned to the camper, “have to work together to get away from those men. We can’t afford to turn on each other.” She raised plaintive eyes to Nowen.
Nowen turned away from that look, her memory trying to super-impose bright blue eyes over Zoe’s hazel ones. There is no ‘we’. Their fight is not mine. She had one goal that drove her and there was no room for anything else. This delay, this enforced interruption in her journey, was a frustrating but minor obstacle. She would be free soon, one way or the other. Enough time had been wasted already; she couldn’t afford to waste anymore.
These people were on their own.
Chapter Fourteen
Now
The next day Nowen saw Tuck’s bait plan in action.
The previous night had been uncomfortable. When Lennon and Mr. Roberts had returned, after over an hour outside the camper, Zoe had pulled the young man aside for a whispered conversation. Nowen sat on a small cushioned seat at the hitch-end of the camper and knew the whispers were about her. When Mr. Roberts started speaking loudly and in an outraged tone she guessed that his wife had filled him in on her actions, too. She closed her eyes and turned her attention inward, concentrating on how to escape, ignoring the angry words that passed between the two men.
Matt came by shortly afterwards, to feed the captives and let them out for a bathroom break. It was only when he held a sandwich out to her and she cocked an eyebrow in return did he seem to realize that her hands were still bound behind her back. He tossed the handcuff keys to Lennon and placed the shotgun barrel flush against her forehead. Nowen considered for just a moment letting the wolf out, but Matt’s steady hands and watchful eyes would make that a losing choice. Her hands, purplish and numb lumps at the ends of her arms, were re-cuffed in front of her.
Wolf Running Page 10
