The Dying of the Light (Book 3): Beginning

by Jason Kristopher

  “That’s not necessari—”

  “There are several other indicators, too, sir,” Marquez said as he sat back in the chair. “The kills have all been methodical and precise and used weapons exactly the same as our own. They’ve all been killed with combat knives or .40-caliber rounds, all head shots or stabs. I know how we kill, sir, and this is one of us.”

  Gaines turned in his chair to look eastward toward Mount Rainier and the forest. “You think it’s her, don’t you,” he said, more of a statement than a question.

  “Who knows for sure, sir. But it would make sense. She was one of the best, Colonel, and we’ve never found her body. And if anyone could sneak up on not just one or two but eleven Driebachs, it would be her. Plus, they’ve been left for us, easy to find, almost gift-wrapped. People are talking, sir, they’re saying it’s her come back from the dead as some sort of vengeance demon or something.”

  Gaines snorted. “People are idiots. Let them talk, just makes them more scared of these things, which is good. Just Driebachs?”

  “No, sir. There have been plenty of walkers killed too, but some of those were by the Driebachs themselves.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They were torn apart, sir. Brute force, and there’s been nothing in the area strong enough to do that for twenty years.”

  Gaines said nothing, just continued to stare out the window.

  “Sir, should I tell—”

  “You will keep your mouth shut, Lieutenant,” Gaines said, his eyes snapping back to the lieutenant’s. “Is that clear?”

  Marquez nodded. “Uh, yes, sir.”

  “No sense in riling them up if it ain’t her, is there? No, best stay quiet for now.” Gaines looked back out the window. “And double the guards. If there are that many of these fuckers running around, we need to be on our guard.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Mount Rainier National Park

  Eden hadn’t seen any more signs of the Driebach pack leader, the one she thought of as “Alpha,” but the others had made enough of a trail for Foretti to follow without a map or flashlight. She crouched above a small dip in the rocks, sure that the one she was tracking tonight wouldn’t have seen, smelled, or heard her. She was a ghost, floating through the night and taking out her prey with nary a whisper.

  Like “Beta Female” down amongst those rocks eating whatever poor woodland creature she’d caught this time. The remains of a fire made details of her shadowy figure impossible to determine, but the Hunter didn’t care about those anyway.

  Eden raised her mask and pulled her hood a little tighter. She felt the weight of the rifle on her back but wanted to keep that ammo as long as possible. Besides, she’d taken out bigger badasses than this before with just her knife.

  She hefted the knife in her right hand and tested its weight, as always. She could probably hit the Driebach in the head from here, but there was no sense in taking chances, especially when she had gone unnoticed so far.

  Careful to remain silent, Eden crept forward, eyes on both her target and the ground to insure no loose rocks gave her away. The fading twilight also helped, and the crunch and smack of Beta Female’s meal covered any slight noises.

  Just as she got within striking range, the creature sighed. “Boreí den boreí na teleiósei akómi kai éna gévma…”

  More of that language Eden didn’t know. The Driebach glanced over her shoulder straight at Eden. The Hunter was frozen, motionless, locked in an inexplicable moment.

  The Driebach put down the remains of its meal and gestured to the other side of the fire it had built. “Ela kai na kathísei. Íthela mia mikrí synomilía me deípno,” it said. When the Hunter didn’t move, it continued in English. “Come and sit. Let us talk.”

  Eden blinked and came out of her stasis. She held the knife ready and looked around for the trap. Beta Female was the bait, and she was about to get hit from behind… except there was no one there.

  “There is no one else here, Hunter. Just you and I.”

  Eden shook her head, still unsure of what she was seeing and hearing and trying to make sure this wasn’t just some weird dream. She crept forward, putting her back to a stone outcrop and the dying fire between herself and the Driebach.

  Beta Female, as Eden called her, was, or had been, young, a little older than Eden herself when she was turned. The creature was short but average in build. What remained of her skin was dark, almost olive colored, and the eyes that looked at the Hunter from within a sea of raven-black hair were a startling green. Eden had no doubt that despite its small stature, the Driebach could move as fast or faster than herself, however, and she drew her pistol just in case.

  A .40-caliber bullet would stop most anything, Driebach or not.

  “You are the one hunting us.” It wasn’t a question.

  Eden could detect a trace of accent she wasn’t familiar with, which made sense given the unknown language it had been speaking. The whole situation was so surreal that she wondered if she was dreaming. “Yes.”

  “You chose not to kill me,” the creature said.

  “I can’t honestly say why.”

  “You are experiencing much doubt right now. This will be the least of your concerns.” The creature tilted her head to one side. “Where are my manners? My name is—was—Sariva Christoforou.” The creature looked at the Hunter. “And you are Eden Blake.”

  “How could you possibly—”

  “We know much about you.”

  “This is weird.”

  “I imagine so.”

  “Why are you alone?”

  “I was to be the bait to trap you—” Sariva held up a hand as Eden jumped up. “There is no one else here. We decided on a different plan.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “It makes no difference if you do or do not believe me. There is no one else here.”

  Eden sat back again. Either the monster was telling the truth and no others were out there waiting and Eden could take her, or she was lying and Eden was already dead. In either case, she might as well warm herself by the fire, especially since she hadn’t built one of her own in days to avoid drawing attention.

  “So why the chit-chat?” Eden asked. “Why not just kill me?”

  “Because you could be useful.”

  Eden snorted. “If you think I’m going to help—”

  “Oh, perhaps not willingly, not at first. But you will help.”

  “Listen, monster—”

  Sariva jumped up but didn’t move toward Eden. “Anaidís lígo skýla! An den sas chreiazómaste sti zoí mou tha tróne tin kardiá sas enó échete parakolouthísei!” It closed its eyes and counted to five—something Eden had seen her parents do enough times while raising their children that she would recognize it anywhere.

  “You will help us, whether you want to or not.”

  “No way in hell.”

  Sariva returned to her seat. “Tell me something. Why are you out here?”

  Eden shifted on her improvised seat. “I just am.”

  “All by yourself? Why? What possible reason?”

  “I’m hunting monsters like you!”

  Sariva’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t jump up again or raise her voice. “Who are you to hunt us? You are a scared little girl out in the world for probably the first time ever, taking on the ‘monsters.’ Why?”

  “I’m not—”

  Sariva shook her head. “You are barely old enough to hold a weapon. A good Hunter, I will give you that, but you could be a good Hunter and still live with the rest of your people. No, there is something else going on with you. Some ridiculous teen angst or something. Why are you really running away?” Sariva paused, and her voice changed, dropping to a slow, rhythmic pitch and tone. “Who are you to take on the world by yourself? Who are you?”

  “I’m…” Eden didn’t know how to answer the question. “You…”

  “You know nothing about anything. Yet you ran away. You put yourself in harm’
s way, telling yourself you could hunt us and that would make everything okay.”

  Eden tried to look away from those green eyes, but something in them held her gaze. Why was she out here? Why not let the Hunters do their job?”

  “You have been killing us for weeks now,” Sariva said, her voice steady and calm. “You are running from something. Running, always running.”

  The creature stood and began pacing back and forth like the tigers Eden had seen in the zoo films she’d watched back in school. Sariva’s eyes never left Eden’s, though.

  “You think because you are out here, you are on some mystical journey, some heroic quest,” Sariva said. “You are not a hero, you are not a savior. Who are you?”

  The creature’s eyes were mesmerizing. Eden felt herself drawn into those emerald pools, knowing she should resist but at the same time wanting to just let go. It would be so easy. No one back home would ever know. Hell, they probably already thought she was dead.

  She was alone. So alone.

  “The world is a big place outside your bunker,” Sariva said, who paced a little farther around the fire toward Eden. “For weeks, everyone is thinking you are already dead. What would be the point in going back? You cannot save them.”

  Sariva was right. She’d left because all she could do was hurt them. She’d done terrible things, and people were dead because of her. They were better off without her.

  Those eyes, those green eyes.

  “Who are you to be their savior? What makes you think you have that right? Why would anyone ever believe or trust you again?” Another pace closer, then another.

  Eden couldn’t look away, but it didn’t matter. The creature was right. She could never go back.

  “You are alone, the way it should be. You will always be alone.” Sariva came another step closer, and another. “Who are you? What are you?”

  Eden stared into those eyes and felt her own begin to well up. She didn’t want to be alo—

  The snap of a branch nearby reached down into Eden’s psyche, into that part of her that had truly internalized all her Hunter training, and she glanced in its direction by reflex. Eden felt as if a haze had been lifted from her mind, and she saw the outline of someone else at the edge of the light. Another Driebach?

  “Gamóto, sas eípa na meíneis píso—” Sariva said, her voice raised and her neutral tone gone.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Eden could see Sariva—no, the Driebach, goddamit—was much closer, and she let herself smile a little. Eden didn’t know what had just happened, but she was thankful that the new Driebach couldn’t sneak up on a corpse.

  In a flash, Eden was on her feet and had thrown her knife at the second monster with her right hand and had her pistol up and pressed against Sariva’s forehead with her left. Like something out of one of those old movies her dad liked to watch. Her throw was well aimed, and the knife sank to the hilt in the monster’s eye. The Driebach dropped to the ground twitching.

  Sariva stood still, not so much as blinking, as Eden turned back her way.

  “I guess you were lying, then,” Eden said.

  “Kill me and you will be alo—”

  The suppressor on the gun only minimized the sound of the shot that killed Sariva Christoforou. It didn’t muffle it completely, so it was still loud enough to alert the others Eden knew had to be out there, ready to come in and take her. Because of course that had always been the plan: capture Eden Blake, turn her, and use her against her own people.

  “You can’t turn me,” Eden said to the creatures she knew were listening in the darkness. “I’m immune. And I’m going to hunt every one of you bastards down.”

  Eden knew they were faster than her, but she knew this terrain better. She’d studied it, lived it, and she could escape… but she needed a head start. She grinned, slipped her hand into her pocket, and pulled out one of the three new slim-line grenades she’d taken from the armory just in case. She pressed and held the button on the side for four seconds—pulling a pin was so 1940s—and tossed it into the remains of the fire.

  At the same moment, Eden spun and ran down the rocky slope. She knew they’d be coming after her, but they hadn’t been visible from the fire, which meant they were a little ways back. And if she’d timed it right…

  The explosion shook the ground under her feet and she stumbled but recovered fast and poured on the speed. The Hunter had one chance to get away, and she wasn’t about to waste it.

  It was only later, when she’d made her way back to her camp and was packing it up to move again, that Eden realized Sariva had been right after all.

  She was alone and would be for a long, long time.

  In the month and a half after her encounter by the fire, Eden had often thought of Sariva Christoforou and found the Driebach’s question kept coming back to her.

  “Who are you?” What seemed such a simple question was anything but. Eden had lain awake at night, listening to the forest around her, wondering who she was. Who she had been, who she would be. Humans weren’t meant to be alone, and yet she’d chosen to be. Was that the right choice?

  She’d killed seventeen Driebachs now but still hadn’t found Alpha. He was stealthier than the rest, rarely showing himself and always seeming to find new humans to recruit to their cause. The Free Zone would never be safe until he was gone.

  She’d managed to kill all but a few, and she was sure the word had gotten back to ExForce, since she’d left some of the bodies for them to find. She might not be much on a team, but she could still protect them.

  Now, she refocused on cleaning a fish she’d caught that morning.

  It wasn’t more than a minute or two later that she heard the first shot. Her head snapped up and southwest, and she listened for a second crack of a rifle. A heartbeat, two, a third, and then the shot.

  A mile, maybe two. Southwest. If she guessed right, it was an AR-15, which meant AEGIS. Had they sent Hunters looking for her after all? Probably not. Probably more Driebach hunts going on.

  It didn’t matter. They were too close. She needed to know what was going on. She threw the fish onto one of her cooking rocks and stowed the rest of her gear under a rocky overhang. It had sheltered her from the wind, rain, and cold and would do the same for the gear. Eden pulled on her hood and facemask, then snatched up her rifle and headed toward the gunshots.

  It didn’t take Eden long to find the source of the shots. She perched high on a rock formation, screened from easy view by some convenient trees and bushes, but with a good view herself. From below, they’d have a hard time spotting her, but from up here, she could see them just fine.

  Like much of life, she’d found, it was all about your perspective.

  The Hunters were good and crept through the woods with little noise. They had gathered around a couple of walkers, the target of the shots she’d heard. Eden recognized Marquez at the head of the group, as usual, flanked by Foretti and Fontana on either side. Giuliani brought up the rear. She raised a hand to her cheek as she felt a phantom slap and wondered why she’d bothered to look for her old team.

  They didn’t want her. They’d said so in no uncertain terms. Hell, Giuliani had threatened to kill her if she ever came near him again, and she believed every word.

  She shook her head. No, this was silly. There was no point in watching the team. They would never take her back, and she wasn’t sure she would go even if they offered. There had been too much done and said between them now. She pulled up her facemask and secured it beneath her hood. They were better off without her, and it was time to leave.

  The wind picked up and blew the trees around, and Eden shivered. It was going to get cold tonight, and she—what the fuck was that? She picked up her rifle and tracked the sight’s crosshairs across the slope below her to find the movement she’d spotted. Where was it? Where was it? There!

  She felt the blood rush to her head as she gazed down the slope at the Driebach that crouched behind a low wall of rock. The rock would’ve blo
cked the Hunter team’s view of the creature. It was only pure luck that the tree had been blowing that allowed her to see the movement of the thing when she did. It was obviously following the team and smart enough to hide downwind from them. If she didn’t do something, they’d be in serious danger.

  Eden braced herself on some rocks without taking her scope off the creature. She adjusted the scope to account for distance and other factors, then lay her finger along the trigger guard. After taking a few deep breaths, she prepared to fire, but just as she was about to pull the trigger, she stopped.

  If she shot the thing, they would know she was here. Chances are they were hunting the Driebach to begin with, and it outmaneuvered them. So they must be prepared for it and would probably be okay. They didn’t need her mucking up their hunt. Eden sighed and took her finger off the trigger. Still, maybe she could find a way to warn them.

  Or maybe… Eden sat up and pulled her survival knife from her pack. This one was much different from the one she had carried before. It was longer and stronger with a serrated blade. She slung the rifle on her back and crawled to the rear to avoid giving herself away against the hilltop.

  It was the work of a few minutes to creep down the rocks to within a few meters of the Driebach. She’d taken care to use its own trick against it and stay downwind so it couldn’t detect her. She was above the creature on the hillside and had managed to get into a spot where she could just about drop down it and take it out without anyone seeing. She set her rifle down, as it would only weigh on her and reduce her speed and agility.

  For a moment, she thought about the wisdom of her plan. So many things could go wrong, but at the same time, she could take out the threat to her team without them ever knowing she was there. And then she could go back to her solitude.

  “Fuck it,” she muttered, then judged the distance, bounced once on the balls of her feet, and jumped.

  She was already falling when she noticed the second Driebach to the right side of the first, hidden by another outcropping of rock, and she recognized it immediately. The pack leader. Alpha.