We made it to the treehouse, making the turn I should have originally made about a mile back. The daylight was limited, forcing me to turn on my headlights. I still hadn’t said a word to Missy, but I was starting to feel bad, now that my temper was subsiding. I think part of it was a pride thing that got me so worked up. I felt embarrassed and aggravated at myself for getting us lost in the first place. I was no less wrong than her.
“I’m not mad,” I finally said. “At least not anymore, and it wasn’t entirely at you.” There, I made an effort to clear the air.
I peered over at her as I waited for her to reply, and couldn’t help but wonder if she was mad at me. She sort of had her reasons to be, too.
My best friend shifted in her seat beside me, flicking her hair over her shoulder, her hair that she sort of made a wall between us with by hanging it down around her face. “I—” she started, keeping her face turned toward the windshield instead of at me though as she talked, but her voice quickly sharpened, changing octaves. “Ohmigod! Stop. The. Car!”
On reflex, I slammed the brakes because I knew my eyes weren’t on the road. “What? What is it?”
Before she answered, she was already opening the car door.
“Missy,” I grabbed at her arm, stopping her. “What are you doing?” My eyes darted to the windshield, I didn’t see any immediate vehicle coming at us. Or anything really.
“It’s Anubis—look!” She pointed to the glass, slightly to the right. I followed her finger and sure enough, up ahead, just barely in the perimeter of my headlights there was that damn dog again, barking.
Where were Zac and Margeaux?
“Something’s wrong!” She slipped out of my grip and before I could stop her she was bolting out of the car, calling the dog’s name.
I cursed, but quickly followed suit, putting the car in park but leaving the engine running with the lights on.
Anubis came jogging over to her, still barking.
She knelt down to the road, in front of him, petting his sides to calm him down. “Hey boy, what is it? Where’s your family?”
The dog kept barking, pawing at her and then trying to turn away. She clasped his collar to keep him steady, which just made him rowdier.
She looked up at me, her blue eyes wide. “I think he wants us to follow him.”
I stood there, crossing my arms. “We are not following him!” Was she out of her mind?
“Dee! What if they are hurt? What if that’s what he’s trying to tell us?”
“Missy, he’s probably just lost. Zac probably left him off that damn leash again.”
“After what happened today, I highly doubt that.” She tightened her grip on the collar. “Calm down, it’s okay,” she muttered to the dog than glanced back at me. “Plus, we’d hear them yelling after him like last time, and I don’t hear anythin—” Pausing, she cocked her head to the side, shushing the dog. “Actually, there’s that sound again. I thought I heard it. Do you hear it? That weird bird noise?”
Once the dog quieted, I listened for about fifteen seconds and sure enough, I heard that same noise again, repeating its continuous pattern. It sounded a lot closer than it did when we were at Buck and Kyle’s trailer, but was still a good distance from us. Only this time, recognition hit me. The restless, determined dog might have played a big part in the remembrance.
“It’s a whistle,” I boasted, my stomach churning. “I think they might be blowing a whistle.”
“Ohmigod, that means they are hurt, right?”
“Maybe they are just trying to get the dog’s attention.”
She stared at me, like I was grasping for straws. “I think the dog would be running toward it if they were just trying to get his attention. It’s like he knows it’s them and he’s trying to lead us to them on purpose.”
I gulped. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was right. This wasn’t a good sign. I was just grasping at straws because I didn’t want to think of the alternative.
“We have to help them.”
“Missy, we can’t just—”
“Dee—if it was us wouldn’t you want someone to help?” She paused. “What if this was Duke—what if he was trying to show you the way to Jason. Would you just ignore him?”
I grabbed Missy’s arm again and yanked her away from the dog. He didn’t go anywhere. “Jason is my boyfriend. You are my best friend. Of course, I’d go—but we don’t know them and I don’t want to risk my life for them.”
She pulled her gaze from me, to stare down at the dog. “But I can’t live with myself if I just leave him out here. He’ll keep going, looking for help, and what if he finds no one? Or what if Buck or one of them, kill him. Please Dee, you know I can’t just leave an animal in need.”
I mentally smacked myself in the head. Right then, I knew I was caving. The way her wide blue eyes begged me to help him, and knowing damn well she literally wouldn’t ever forget the moment she left this dog standing here all alone.
“We don’t even have a flashlight,” I sighed. This was complete suicide. If only I never missed that damn turn.
“We have our flashlight apps on our cell phones,” she blurted, her expression brightening. She knew she’d won.
“And what about my car? What do I do with it?”
She looked around for a moment then pointed to the right. “Over there. Park it there. There’s more of a shoulder. We will come back for it.”
Deep breath. Calm down. Relax. “Will we? How do you know? We don’t have anything to protect us Missy, if Buck or someone comes after us.”
She rolled her eyes. “Anubis is with us. He’ll warn us of anything. Just like Duke did.”
My heart beat quickened. “Duke has a bum ear—we almost didn’t make it one time because of him.”
“Shut up,” she scoffed. “Duke saved our lives. I know it. You know it. You are just stalling.”
I blew out a breath, flicking a bug that was buzzing away from my ear. I was stalling. Bum ear or not, Duke did save our lives. He, specifically, saved mine last time when the guy’s hand was around my throat.
Duke was the reason I liked dogs again, after so many years of being afraid of them. But would this dog—would Anubis—ruin that?
“Just go park your car, and make sure you grab your bag with the snacks and the drinks and our cell phones. I will wait here with him.
16
Why didn’t I just let Jason lead us?
Listening to my best friend, I parked my car exactly where she told me too. Before climbing out of it, I searched everywhere for some kind of weapon, just in case. I had a pen in my glove compartment, but unless I wanted to give someone a temporary tattoo—and hope for ink poisoning, that wasn’t going to help us much, especially if a bullet did nothing.
Nevertheless, I walked with my car keys lodged between my right knuckles, figured it would give an extra bang to my punch should someone get close enough. My left hand held my cell phone out in front of me, and I was extremely thankful for advanced technology.
If I had my dad’s cell phone, I’d be screwed. It was an old pre-paid model, that didn’t have all these special apps like Missy and I’s smartphone had. Of course, if I was really lucky, I’d have service and I could just call someone else to come do this search and rescue job.
I wasn’t that lucky.
Missy had taken off her belt and made a makeshift leash with it.
“Creative,” I mumbled when I rejoined them.
She shrugged. “Best I could do under the circumstances. I don’t want to lose him and this way he can still lead the way.”
“Yeah.” Lead the way.
Trying to limit talking so we could listen for the whistle—and mostly to draw less attention to ourselves, we made our way down the road, our flashlights’ glow bouncing back and forth in front of our feet, before Anubis led us onto a path, straight into the woods.
The flashlight apps gave off a decent amount of light, but beyond that ray of comfort, darkness pressed in on u
s. Each step further from my car was another step closer to the possibility I wasn’t ever making it home again. I would never see my parents…Spencer…or even Jason again.
Jason.
Sigh.
He would be so mad right now if he knew what we were doing—how stupid we were being. I could practically hear him lecturing me, in a tone that was not exactly a yell but might as well been. I inwardly cringed at the thought. Also at another thought—the fact I don’t think I ever said I loved him back.
What if I never did?
“Whoa! Slow it up, dog,” Missy huffed. She was being dragged slightly ahead of me by a relentless Labrador. He really wanted to get to his owners. As exhausting as it was for us, I admired his devotion.
For the most part, he stopped barking and just pulled, panting, sniffing at the ground continuously. When we heard the whistle, he’d slow it up and listen, then take off again. We hadn’t heard the whistle in a while though, and that was pretty worrisome. I was hoping it just meant they were tired and taking a breath, trying to recoup their lungs before continuing. My mind, however, continued to conjure up the most awful images with each further step I took. Images like, loss of limbs and half-eaten faces—well, half-devoured faces with lips still intact since they were obviously still capable of blowing a whistle.
I tried desperately to block the thoughts, but considering I actually had real memories of that kind of stuff from the last time I was here, it wasn’t really hard to imagine.
The bag straps were digging into my shoulder, the pack bouncing against my lower back uncomfortably. The air, a sticky, humid, bug-infested nightmare and my flashlight app just kept drawing every winged insect toward me.
Keeping my lips pressed together, I inhaled and exhaled loudly out of my nose so I could eliminate my chances of swallowing a gnat or a mosquito, even those white, fuzzy-looking moths.
My bangs actually felt heavy on my forehead, the strands sticking to my skin in a greasy, damp disaster. The bottom pieces jabbed at the corner of my eyes, but that wasn’t what was irritating them. Some stupid allergen out here was making them feel like sandpaper. I continuously had to rub at my eyes, so much so that eventually I even put my keys into my pocket so I had full use of my hand.
I thought it was a little late in the season for pollen, but apparently I was wrong.
I hated having allergies.
The path we were on started off pretty level, the terrain mostly just ground roots, rocks and loose dirt. It wasn’t until it started to incline, that it really became a problem. The climb was laborious, tedious, and almost impossible.
After my fourth fall, I finally cracked. “Miss—this is getting ridiculous,” I huffed, losing my battle against mouth-breathing. “I can’t see shit.”
Reaching for my phone, I stood up, brushing off my skinned up knee. The perimeter of my light beam caught on a large spider web to my left. I hated spiders, and I was thankful I didn’t fall into it.
“You know our batteries aren’t going to last forever.” I stared down at my cell phone; it was starting to get warm. I needed to shut the light soon, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Missy grunted something up ahead. She was having her own trouble trying to walk while being pulled forward by Anubis.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” I grumbled, as my ankle turned out again on a ground root.
“I said—” she groaned, and Anubis suddenly started barking, and yanked forward so fast, she lost her balance and slammed down onto the ground hard, her cell phone falling a few inches away, and going black.
“Miss—” I shouted, hurrying over to her, careful not to fall myself again. “Are you okay?” I mean I heard the fall. I shone the light of my cellphone all around us, heart racing as Anubis continued to bark. It caught on the backside of a white-tail hopping away, and realization hit me that the damn dog was just barking at a deer.
Sighing with relief, I turned the light back to my best friend, helping her up. Her chin was bleeding from a scrape, and she was massaging her wrist, the one that somehow still held the belt loop attached to Anubis.
“Shut up,” I yelled at him, as he continued to bark and pull at her hold. I was losing faith in dogs again. One track minds, all he wanted to do was chase after the deer. It’s like he forgot all about his mission.
Missy handed me the belt. “Here, hold him for a second please.”
I almost protested, but I did. He was a strong dog, and I teetered forward for a moment. Digging my heels into the ground, I tried to use my weight to keep him at bay.
“He’ll stop barking once the scent is gone,” Missy continued, as she bent down, reaching for her phone. “He is still an animal you know.”
I shook my head. To her, animals were never wrong.
Missy groaned when she flipped her phone over. The screen was smashed in.
“Does it still work?”
“I don’t know. I’ll let you know.”
She started to push at the screen, and Anubis suddenly jumped, growling, yanking me and my flashlight glow away from her.
“Anubis—will you—” I didn’t fall, but I wasn’t necessarily prepared for it either and my cell phone fell from my grip too, screen-side down. For a moment everything around us went black, and I panicked. Squatting down I quickly snatched it back up, shining it toward Anubis, ready to really holler at him.
I watched in horror as a man lunged at his face.
Anubis snapped, and jumped out of the way, breaking my hold on the belt—I may have instinctively dropped it though— and the man continued for us. There was no time to run.
Hell, Missy was still trying to get her phone to work.
17
In life or death situations, I’ve personally learned the body does go into the aforementioned flight or fight modes, you always hear about. But, often times there’s another mode—the unmentioned mode–one I like to think of as the ‘freeze’ mode. It’s when you are so damned scared, you don’t know what to do so you don’t do anything. Maybe that fell under the “flight” category, I’m not sure, but either way, being scared frozen was the worst case scenario.
I wasn’t frozen, but my best friend was and I honestly think it was because of Anubis and had absolutely nothing to do with fear for her own life.
And that was a big problem, because her life was currently at stake. All of ours were.
The guy was one of them. The snarl from him, the hiss from his lips, his unnatural movements, the pale, almost dying skin, the purple, sunken eyes, the sweating forehead, Anubis’ barking, I didn’t need any more warning.
I just needed to fight.
Flight wasn’t an option at this point, not unless I wanted to leave my best friend as shark bait. And I wasn’t leaving my best friend.
As the guy pounced at us, I raised my cell phone and shone the light right into his dark, soulless eyes. If he had any feeling left, I was hoping that would deter him momentarily, long enough to come up with a plan B.
The light did nothing.
He reached out and grasped at my hand. I withdrew it quickly from his attempted grip, reaching into my back pocket with my other hand, fishing for my keys, in the same swift movement.
As his arm was raised, Anubis jumped at it, mouthing at it, but only skimmed off a layer of skin with his teeth before falling, sliding across the ground, because the man was quick on the reflex. The flesh wound made him hiss, however, the sound sending instant goosebumps down my spine.
He swiped at the dog, only slicing air above his head, then spun to Missy who was right next to where Anubis fell. But Anubis was quicker. Pouncing right back up, he leapt for the guy’s arm again. His teeth connected, and this time when his body swung outward, his mouth remained lodged into his bicep, leaving him dangling by his canines instead of hitting the ground.
The nasty hiss turned into a full-blown, blood-curdling yowl.
I took that moment as my opportunity. Shoving my keys once again between my knuckles, I wound my
arm back and sucker-punched the man straight into the temple with as much force as I could.
The cry that sounded next was my own.
My hand crunched against his face, the end of my keys jabbing into his skin. Perhaps I didn’t push the actual keys out far enough, because my knuckles took the blunt of the punch.
I also dropped my phone again, in the midst of the movement. Jumping back, I dove for the light shining it back on the man the instant I grasped it. His teetering already stopped. My punch had little effect on him.
Tthrobbing in my hand meant the effect was going to last on me instead.
Anubis began to salivate, growling through his bite, as he swung by his mouth. Blood dripped down from his gums, onto the ground like a running faucet. I could see his jaw loosening, and gripped my keys once more, but this time I just fisted them, hoping to stab him in the freaking neck.
Anubis dropped, rolled to the ground, but was already spinning back up, blood red fangs exposed. Before I could move, the dog already leapt again. This time over-extending his jump, and biting into the guy’s face.
They both tumbled backward, the man landing hard onto his back, with Anubis breaking grip. I ran to attack, only to be knocked out of the way by Melissa who suddenly snapped out of her stupor.
Her phone was lit by the flashlight app again, and she was rushing at him.
Regaining my balance, I sprinted forward, snagging her before she made contact—what was she going to do, hit him with her phone? We needed that. I locked my arms around her back, bear-hugging her as tightly as I could without dropping my phone or keys.
My hand was throbbing, almost to the point my grip was slackening on its own accord. Tears sprouted from the corner of my eyes, but I continued to hold her, easing her backward one unsteady step at a time. My flashlight barely touched the body on the ground. Instead it highlighted the trees to our right because of the direction my left hand was in.
I still was able to catch a glimpse of Anubis as he recovered, and went for his neck before the man was able to upright his body.
Dead Friends Series (Book 2): Dead Friends Running Page 9
