Nocturnal

by Jami Lynn Saunders

  Aiden was a cross between a leopard and something like an alligator, with leathery skin covered in short fur. His face was elongated, with a snout that bore fangs like those of a sabertooth tiger. His pupils brought to mind tales of dragons told to her as a child. One of Aiden’s hands was a reptilian claw, the other a feline paw with razor-sharp tips. He stood more than eight feet tall and was covered in muscle.

  Salvatore emerged from the tarp-covered vehicle and headed toward Rebecka and Jack.

  “I’m sorry,” Salvatore said to the doctor. “I should’ve held on.”

  “Stop blaming yourself, Salvatore,” the doctor said. “I made the choice to drop into the rapids. It was more important that you protect those girls, and I sense that they’re in good hands with you, despite your secret.” The doctor projected the last three words into Salvatore’s mind.

  Salvatore’s eyes widened. “I better get back to them.”

  Jack nodded and turned back to Rebecka. “You’re worried about Rathbone and the rest of the men and women.”

  “Yes. But how do you know?”

  “I can read your thoughts,” Jack replied. “Take your men and go to Rathbone. Aiden, Salvatore, and I and a few of my nocturnals will stay here to see to Abby and Pippa. The rest of the nocturnals will go with you. Pippa is hurt. I’ll tend to her.”

  “I can’t leave you with only a few people to protect you,” Rebecka said.

  “No feral force could overcome us,” Aiden said. He had returned to human form and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Besides, there are no ferals close. We’d smell them. They’re all inland at the place you call the Pits.”

  “I don’t know if I should go.”

  “Rebecka, if you don’t lead my nocturnals to your friends, they will all die,” Jack said. “The scent of ferals is heavy, too heavy for even a group of four or five hundred men to handle. My nocturnals will turn the tide in your favor. Don’t debate this, just go.”

  Rebecka felt a wave of pressure, as if Jack were probing her mind, pressing her to his will. She shook it off as the nocturnal creatures began to emit high-pitched noises. Rebecka gazed around at her men and made the decision. “Saddle up,” she commanded. “We’re going to the safehold!”

  Her men cheered and started the two vehicles. She designated who would stay and go and ordered most of her men into one vehicle, leaving the covered one behind. She gave a final order to the few remaining soldiers to stay put but vacate the area if she didn’t radio back in time. Jack Tanner assured her they’d succeed, that his winged creatures would keep that promise.

  When Rathbone saw the safehold, he feared that he had finally taken on an impossible task. But he forged ahead, and every soldier was ready to fight and prepared to die.

  Even in the dark, Rathbone could see the black smoke billowing from inside the safehold. Piper and her team had set some vehicles on fire. Stage one was complete. It was time for stage two.

  Rathbone and his troops swept down upon the savages, who were too focused on penetrating the safehold to notice. Dozens of men rocketed teargas canisters through the air from hand-held modified rocket launchers. Greenish smoke rose, and a cloud soon covered the swarm of ferals. As the men reloaded and launched another volley, Rathbone hoped the gas would choke most of them out, buying his people time to reach the captives. But seconds later, he knew his hopes were dashed.

  Out of the heavy green mist came hundreds of red eyes. Rathbone screamed, and his werecats attacked them head on as human soldiers fired into the massive horde. His troops were outnumbered, probably five to one, and a horrible bloodbath was inevitable.

  A group of ferals rammed Rathbone’s Jeep, flinging him onto the ground. He rolled and came to a standing position and took out three ferals with a handgun, gutting another with his long knife. “Mangus,” he yelled, his eyes wide as he heard the young man scream. A dozen ferals were eating the young soldier alive. He was surrounded by death. All he could do was fight to stay alive and kill the enemy.

  As he fought, he saw the headlights of military vehicles piercing the fading greenish fog. “Piper!” he yelled, catching a glimpse of her in the lead vehicle. She’d fled the Pits and was driving straight toward him, running over several ferals as he rolled out of the way. She spun the vehicle to a stop and jumped out, firing two machine guns at the swarming ferals. She handed Rathbone one of the guns and they fired together, trying to carve a hole through the rush of maddened beasts.

  Half of Rathbone’s men began fleeing back to their vehicles, but the ferals swarmed them as they fled and ripped then apart, only stopping to feast on the remains. Rathbone continued to fight, side by side with Piper, but soon a group of around twenty ferals had them surrounded. Every time one fell to their gunfire, another would replace it. Finally, their ammunition ran out.

  “I’m sorry, Piper,” Rathbone yelled as the ferals moved in for the kill. He wished he had saved two rounds. But the ferals abruptly stopped. They lifted their noses to the air and sniffed. They hissed and began running as creatures dipped down out of the smoke and early morning mist and began grabbing them and lifting them upward. Screams filled the air above, as ferals were killed and dropped back to the ground. The high, piercing squeal of the nocturnals filled the air. Piper covered her ears as dozens of nocturnals landed and joined the fight.

  Rathbone unleashed a savage war cry that was answered by another as Rebecka arrived with her troops. Men, werecats, and nocturnals shouted back and continued the fight with renewed hope. The tide had turned, and the ferals knew it. Still shrieking and hissing, the surviving beasts retreated.

  “I can’t believe it,” Rathbone said as he watched the creatures run away. He looked around at the dead. Among the bodies, there was not a single nocturnal. He was thankful they were on his side.

  “Jack found us,” Rebecka said. “We decided we couldn’t abandon you.”

  “I figured your stubborn butt might pull a stunt like this, but for once I’m glad you did!”

  “Rebecka,” Piper shouted and ran to embrace her old friend.

  Rebecka hugged her back and then smiled at her. “You’re not going to believe who we found.”

  Rathbone grabbed Rebecka by the shoulder. “Let her find out for herself.”

  The fighters regrouped and headed out toward Highway 101 to join the small band of people, now the hope of the entire planet, hidden twenty miles away.

  “I can’t believe we survived,” Rathbone said. “You know what this means, ladies. Heaven is on our side, and things are about to change.”

  “Humans, werecats, and nocturnals, and whatever the hell Aiden is,” said Rebecka. “I’d say that’s some tapestry of sorts.”

  Rathbone watched the sun come up. He didn’t see the nocturnals disappear, but when he scanned the sky, they were gone. He was glad they had come to the rescue, but he wasn’t sorry to see them go.

  Rathbone thought about what he needed to tell Piper Reyes, who was sitting in the rear of the vehicle. He’d known Piper nearly twenty years, since she’d returned after three years missing in action during a sweep across the continent for werecat survivors. She was a crucial player in his strategic alliance between humans and werecats, and also one of his best friends. He’d spent countless nights consoling her over her lost children.

  Rathbone turned to look at her. She had been meditating, but now she opened her eyes and saw him. “When did you get back?” he asked.

  “A few weeks ago,” she replied. “Gabriel and I made it to New York, but it took us months. When we arrived, the girls were gone. The Library was burned to the ground, and word on the street was that my daughters had been killed outside the gates. So we sneaked into Alex’s compound, and Gabriel held a knife to his throat while I questioned him.”

  “And?”

  “He said it’s true. The girls had fallen in with some young street thug named Aiden.”

  “Really? Aiden, you say?”

  “Alex said they accidentally set fire to the Hunter
Library and left the city in fear they’d be thrown into a cellar for life. Alex said he sent a group after them, but before they could get to them, the girls and this Aiden boy were attacked by a band of hyenas. But I just can’t believe it. In my heart, I know they’re still alive.”

  “Hyenas, eh? Never did trust them. In some ways, I think they’re more conniving than ferals. But it sounds to me like this Alex is even more conniving than hyenas and ferals put together.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough. But how did you get back here, and how did you end up in L.A.?”

  “We were holed up in New York for weeks as Alex and his men hunted us. Alex wasn’t just going to let us walk out, regardless of what truths he pulled out of us, so we stole his biplane.”

  Rathbone chuckled. “Stole a plane, eh? That’s the Gabriel I know.”

  “Yep, that’s my Gabriel,” she replied. “Unfortunately, by the time we made it back across the continent, the northern fog was so heavy that we couldn’t make it to the mountains. We had no choice but to turn south and land in L.A.”

  “Where’s Gabriel?”

  “When we landed, we reported back to Olympia. Gabriel was given orders to lead a group of scouts back north. They needed me here to prep against a growing group of ferals from the east. We never realized how bad the feral infestation would be or that it would happen so fast. The feral population has quadrupled since we left, and that was less than a year ago. Now I know we should’ve stayed. We were needed here. I knew better than to go, but my heart just couldn’t let go of my girls.”

  “Piper,” Rathbone said, reaching his right hand backward to grab hold of hers. “You don’t have to let go.”

  “We’re here,” Rebecka said as she spotted the tarp-covered flatbed truck. It was partially hidden behind a clump of brush near the entrance ramp to Highway 10.

  Rathbone and Rebecka glanced at each other, then Rathbone turned to Piper. “Piper, your girls aren’t dead.”

  She stared at him. “How could you know that?”

  “They’re here, Piper,” Rebecka said. She reached back and took Piper’s hand.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Piper said.

  “It’s true,” Rathbone said. “But before you see them, we need to explain a few things and … prepare you.”

  Aiden and Salvatore restrained Pippa, who was convulsing as she fought against them. Aiden guided Jack as he injected a needle into the line of tubing that fed into her arm. He had offered up his blood to give her a fighting chance, as Pippa had done for him weeks earlier, but the doctor said he couldn’t risk tainting her blood—it held the secrets to humanity’s survival. All they could do was keep her hydrated and sedated.

  Abby continued to scream, even after she’d been injected twice. There was nothing to do but put up with it.

  Aiden heard a vehicle approach and got down from the flatbed to wait. Jack joined him as a truck pulled in and parked. Rathbone, Rebecka, Salvatore, and a woman Aiden didn’t recognize got out.

  “This is Piper Reyes,” Rathbone announced. “She’s Pippa’s and Abby’s mother.”

  “I’m assuming you’ve filled her in,” Jack said to Rathbone.

  “Yes,” Rathbone said. “I gave her the short version and tried to prepare her.”

  Aiden immediately took the woman’s arm and led her to the back of the flatbed. Tears streamed down her face as she looked from Pippa to Abby. She fell to her knees, crying uncontrollably. Rebecka boarded the flatbed and put an arm around her. Then she led Piper off the flatbed and into the crowd of hundreds of humans and werecats that were now gathering.

  “What’s the plan?” Salvatore asked.

  “We head north, as soon as we’re organized,” Rathbone said. “You three will stay here on the flatbed with the girls, and I’ll leave a few soldiers with you. Doc, your pet bats have gone AWOL, and we can’t wait for them to show.”

  “They’ll catch up,” Jack said. “They’ll nest through the day, but they’ll find me at night.”

  “Not sure how they’ll be accepted in the safehold,” Rathbone said.

  “If they’re to accept me, they’ll accept my brothers and sisters.”

  Jack’s black, hollow eyes seemed to press against Rathbone’s mind. “We’ll leave within the hour,” was all he said to Jack before he left.

  As he walked away from the covered flatbed, he felt Jack’s mental grip loosen. He liked Jack Tanner, but he didn’t like being controlled.

  The recent battle had left the troops exhausted and stressed. They struggled to pull themselves together. Rathbone knew he had six or seven hundred tired and hungry men and women, but there was no time for rest. They had to distance themselves from the Pits before what was left of the ferals came back to kill them.

  Rathbone and Rebecka pulled the massive team back together, and the convoy headed out onto the highway. Rebecka drove Rathbone’s Jeep while he rested in the back. Piper reluctantly rode shotgun, but she wanted to be with her daughters. Rathbone said it was best to let the doctor treat the girls unimpeded. Then he drifted off to sleep.

  He was awakened hours later by the sound of Piper screaming, “Ferals!”

  Rathbone reached under the seat for the automatic and locked it in its metal holster. He swung the gun to the right and scanned a group of shadows. The shadows looked like werecats. Rebecka hit the brakes, and the Jeep skidded to a halt. Spanning the highway were more than a hundred hyena werecats, fully morphed. One of them stepped forward.

  Rathbone got out of the Jeep, automatic in hand, and approached the beast.

  “You have one of our own held captive,” he said.

  “You mean Salvatore,” Rathbone replied. “He’s not a captive, he’s one of us now.”

  “The boy has no name,” the creature said. “The men, women, and children of our pack are known by scent alone. We smell his scent strongly and have been following him since he disappeared.”

  “Kind of odd you’d follow a boy who claims to come from across this land.”

  “The pack sticks together. That is how we have survived since the Fallout.”

  “You should’ve stayed back east. Out here your chances of survival are less likely.”

  The creature began chittering, a sinister laugh that spread among his pack. The hyenas reverted to human form.

  “We are not here to oppose or threaten you,” the leader said. “We only came to collect one of our own.”

  Salvatore jumped down from the flatbed and went to stand beside Rathbone. He nodded to the alpha leader of his pack. The man sniffed Salvatore and then hugged him. “We are happy that you’re alive. Where is your mentor?”

  “He was killed by ferals back east,” Salvatore said. “I had no choice but to continue on. The ferals were too thick. I could not return home.”

  “The ferals have grown in numbers,” the alpha leader said. “We cannot return, either, so we will take you and find a new home for our pack.”

  “He’s not going anywhere with you,” Aiden said, appearing from the growing crowd behind Rathbone. With a quick gesture, he exposed his clawed hand for the alpha leader to see. “We need him here with us.”

  Rebecka and Piper appeared. Soldiers had begun exiting the vehicles, and some of them had guns pointed at the hyenas.

  “Though his place is with us, if he chooses to stay with you, we won’t interfere. Still, we must find a home, and, should he so choose, he can live among his family.”

  “Why don’t they come to the safehold in the mountains with us?” Piper asked.

  Rathbone turned and shot her a look of surprise. He was shocked that she’d trust a hyena.

  “You couldn’t be speaking of the mysterious safehold of the werecats, could you?” the leader asked. “We’ve heard the tales of a great land in the west, safe from ferals and home to our own kind—and apparently humans as well?”

  “You’re welcome to come,” Rathbone said, “but you’ll have t
o follow behind. We haven’t enough room in our vehicles for your pack.”

  The alpha leader smiled, and took Rathbone’s hand. “We accept, dear brother. We’ll travel on foot. There’s strength in numbers, and we’ll be of great use in case of a feral attack.”

  Rathbone nodded and then looked at Rebecka. “Spread the word that we’re taking a break to eat,” he told her. “We all need our strength.” He turned back to the alpha leader. “Your hyenas are welcome to join us. We’ll be back on course in two hours.”

  As Rathbone walked away, he wondered how he was going to ditch a pack of hyenas.

  The stench of L.A. disappeared as the convoy sped down Highway 101, finally turning onto a road called Highway 280. Piper rapped her finger on the dashboard of the passenger seat, every fiber of her being alive with anticipation. After decades of hope and longing, she was finally with her children, but she wondered for how long. One was barely clinging to life, the other was out of her mind.

  The ragged crew of survivors shared a common thought that seemed to hang in the air—home. They all dreamed of reaching it, resting, regrouping, and rethinking their plan of attack against the growing feral abomination that was spreading toward them like a rash. The ocean came into view, and soon they saw a large body of water, the name of which was labeled on various faded metal signs.

  “San Francisco Bay,” whispered Rathbone, now at the wheel of his Jeep. “Been ten long hours. We’ll take shelter for the night just up the road.”

  “Is there a new safehold in this area that I don’t know about?” Piper asked.

  “Under-bay storage,” said Rebecka, who was sitting in the back. “Across the bridge and up just a ways by a little town that used to be called Strawberry.”

  The group crossed a bridge and skirted Richardson Bay, just above San Francisco Bay, and reached Strawberry soon after. A huge cargo warehouse, still fully intact, stretched along the water. The warehouse was an eyesore, rusted and covered with decades of dirt. Piper was surprised when Rathbone brought his convoy to a halt behind it.