“I just splashed a little gasoline around. Must’ve hit something important, huh? I wasn’t expecting all this - but then neither were those fuckers!” Suzannah laughed and swung the car onto the road, speeding away from the burning compound.
Nowen turned in her seat and watched the raging fires spreading through the forest like red and orange veins in a poisoned body. Will all of New Heaven burn? It seemed likely. The conflagration grew smaller in her view as they sped away, but it was still growing, she knew. Questions came to mind and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answers.
Will Vuk survive?
Please...let him die.
Chapter Fifteen
The old car sped through the night. Nowen slumped across the back seat, half-listening to the quiet murmuring from the front of the car. Savannah and Sage were discussing what to do next; it didn’t sound like their escape plan had extended much beyond just getting out of New Heaven.
“We need to get off the highway. They’re going to come after us, right?” Sage was saying.
Suzannah chuckled. “Those weirdoes are going to be too busy for the next few days to worry about us, sweetie!”
Sage said something, speaking hardly above a whisper, and Nowen couldn’t make out the words. She agreed with the girl though. If Vuk is alive, he’ll come after me. At this thought an icy wave of fear and dread sluiced through her veins. I don’t want him to. I don’t want to go back. I can’t - I can’t - I can’t...Nowen groaned, and the voices from the front seat fell silent.
Sage leaned around the edge of her seat, backlit by the dashboard lights. “Nowen? Are you ok?” she asked. Worry and hesitance were in her words.
Nowen managed a weak nod. “I’m fine.” She wasn’t; her heart was racing with fright and her mind was a massed jumble of tumultuous thoughts. She heard herself talking out loud as she fought to control herself. “Vuk tortured the wolf.”
A quick, indrawn breath from Suzannah. Sage, however, only dipped her head in acknowledgement, her rough tangle of curls bobbing in the wan light. “Go on.” the girl said.
Nowen opened her mouth but for a few moments nothing came out. Finally she could speak. “I don’t have that much control over the wolf. For all the time I - we - were in that cage, I was...very far away. The wolf had turned on me in her madness, and I was there, but not there.” She shrugged her shoulders weakly. “I can’t explain it any better than that.”
“That’s ok.” Sage murmured.
Nowen took a deep breath and continued. “I could see some of the things that Vuk did to her, but it was like a dream. Or a nightmare. And now that I’m back in my mind and my body, I’m getting all of her memories, her feelings, her-”
Nowen jerked forward suddenly and dry-heaved as she relived, for a moment, the wolf’s pain as an electric prod was dragged across her pads. She would have vomited if there had been anything in her stomach.
Sage thrust something at her and Nowen took it automatically. It was a canteen and Nowen unscrewed the cap and raised it to her mouth. The water had a metallic taste, as if it had been in the canteen a long time, but she didn’t care. She drained the container in a matter of seconds, ignoring Sage’s admonition to go slower. Her stomach roiled when she finished but she kept the water down.
She handed the canteen back to Sage. “And now I can’t tell if what I’m feeling is coming from the wolf or me.” A wave of weariness swept over her and she let her head drop back against the seat.
“You talk as if you and the...wolf...are two separate things.” Sage said.
Nowen sighed. “That’s how it’s always felt to me.” Each word seemed to take a massive effort to say, and she fell silent.
Suzannah laughed, uncomfortably. “I can’t say I know nothing about what you two are talking about-”
“Yes you do!” Sage interrupted.
Suzannah continued as if Sage hadn’t spoken at all. “But we need to decide where we’re going. Like I was telling Sage, those crazies aren’t going to be coming after us any time soon. Still, we can’t just drive aimlessly forever, right?”
The rear window exploded inward, showering Nowen with diamonds of safety glass. Sage screamed. The old car jerked sharply to the right before straightening out again. Nowen raised her head above the back seat and peered out the rear window. Eye-searingly bright lights cut through the darkness and she flinched away. The rumble of a large engine blew in with the wind, and now she could hear the engine growing louder as the lights jumped forward.
Suzannah yelled “Get down!” Nowen dropped flat on the bench seat just as the front windshield shattered. Sage screamed again. Suzannah cursed and then the old car took off with a jolt, like a race horse under the whip. Quickly it drew away from whatever was following them. Above the roar of the wind Nowen could hear Suzannah bellowing at the top of her voice. “Whoo! Someone sure took care of this baby!”
Cautiously Nowen looked out the back window. The headlights were growing smaller and she could just make out the faint strains of loud, pounding music. Metallica, I think. She faced the front again and pulled herself forward between the seats, so that she was near the gearbox. Suzannah’s gaze was locked on the dark highway. Sage was hunched forward, her head in her hands. She was crying, very quietly, and Nowen, with some hesitation, placed her hand on the girl’s thin shoulder. As strangely unfamiliar as the gesture was to her, it seemed to comfort Sage, and the girl’s crying stopped.
Nowen looked up at red-haired woman driving. “Can we outrun them?”
Suzannah’s voice was grim. “Not forever. We only got a quarter-tank of gas, and this boat is drinking that up fast. Those fuckers are still back there; I can see them in the rearview.”
“We’ve got to get off the highway.”
“No shit. We’re coming up on a city. Bozer, I think.”
“Cities are dangerous.”
Suzannah snorted. “Yeah, but even cities out here in the ass-end of nowhere gotta have suburbs, right? Or hell, ranches and farms. Pretty sure everyone up here rode horses everywhere. Damn. Never thought I’d miss KC.”
Nowen watched the other woman’s hands on the steering wheel. Their grip was sure and confident, maneuvering the car easily around obstacles, even at their speed. Concentrating on the hands made it easier to say what she had to. “Thank you for rescuing me.” she said.
Suzannah spared her a glance. “You’re welcome. Thank you for not killing me back at that motel.”
“Uh...you’re welcome.”
Suzannah nodded, her gaze back on the highway. “Look, we got off on the wrong foot. I ain’t gonna apologize anymore. Nowadays, you gotta do what you have to if you want to survive. That’s what I did. I have a feeling you’ve done the same.” An image of Anton’s arm, half-stripped of flesh and muscle, flashed through Nowen’s mind. Suzannah continued. “I swear on the Good Book, for what that’s worth, that I didn’t kill anyone. And if those guys did, I didn’t know about it.”
Nowen had nothing to say. They drove in silence for a few minutes, the thrum of the wind whipping though the car the only sound. Then Suzannah spoke. “Hey girls, check it.”
Sage and Nowen looked out the broken windshield. The woman was pointing at a billboard, illuminated by solar-powered lights. The car slowed as they approached it until they could read what was written there. “Bison Run Inn! Clean Beds! Free Wi-Fi! Slot Machines! Heated Pool! Exit Now!”
“Well, what do you say? Feel like playing some slots?” Suzannah said, laughing, as she slid the car past a wrecked motor home and onto the exit.
The Bison Run Inn sprawled like a wounded bird in the glare of the car’s headlights. Two long wings, each three stories high, spread out from a central building. One of the wings, the left one, had burned at some point, and now lay collapsed in on itself. The remaining structure looked in good shape. Cars were scattered through the parking lot, and as Suzannah drove past the good wing Revs appeared. There weren’t many, and to Nowen’s relief none of the looked to be the f
ast ones. They were drawn to the sound of the engine and the glare of the headlights.
Suzannah grunted. “We got a bitch of a problem. Bet you anything those rooms got electronic locks.”
Sage spoke, for the first time since the back window had been shot out. “We could break one open.”
“Sure. You weigh, what? Eighty pounds? I’m not much better - men like curves more than muscles. And Nowen here? She can barely keep her head up!”
“Well, they might not be locked at all. I mean, if there’s no electricity, the doors could all be unlocked. Or, maybe someone left in a hurry and didn’t close their door.”
“Yeah, and maybe the place is crawling with CZs. We ain’t got no weapons, sweetie! What are you gonna do, ask them politely to leave?!” Suzannah said in a near-shout.
“What do you want to do, then? Just sit here and complain?!” Sage shouted back.
Nowen turned away from the argument to look out the shattered window, watching the Revs, colored red by the brake lights, staggering along in their wake. She raised her eyes to the curve of the highway. Bright lights flashed near the exit they had taken, and she tensed. They’re going to find me, and catch me, and take me back to the cage. Nowen clenched her teeth on the frightened scream that welled in her throat and swung around to face the front, where the other two were still arguing.
“Suzannah!” Nowen hissed. “They’re back there, at the exit! You’ve got to hide this car!” There was no need to quantify who ‘they’ were; Suzannah’s whispered “Fuck!” showed she understood immediately, and she switched off the car’s headlights and sped up. There was a small jolt to the car as she drove over the curb and out of the parking lot, followed by a larger jolt as a Rev was knocked aside.
Nowen looked out the back window as the car drove away from the Bison Run. She thought she saw lights flashing over the parked cars and silently urged Suzannah to drive faster. Without warning there was a squeal of brakes. Nowen was thrown to the floor, and as she fought to right herself she could feel the car reversing. “What? What is it?” she asked.
“A house, with an open garage.” Sage replied. “Suzannah, turn the lights on for just a moment. We need to make sure there aren’t any Revs.”
Nowen got back on the seat in time to see the brief flash of headlights reveal a large garage full of household junk but absent of any undead. Then the lights were turned off again, and in the near-total darkness Suzannah pulled the car as far forward as she could. Metal squealed as the car crushed something, and then there was silence as the engine cut off. Sage was out of the car in a flash, and Nowen heard the rattle of the garage door lowering. What little ambient light there was disappeared.
Sage climbed back in the car. “I didn’t see anything out there!” she gasped.
“Good. We might just be safe here.” Suzannah said. She paused, and Nowen could hear the smile in her words as she continued. “Hope neither of you snore, ‘cause we’re gonna be spending the night together.”
There was a window, partially blocked by a stack of board games, high on one of the garage walls. Nowen lay stretched across the back seat and watched the sky slowly lighten. From the front seat came a steady, even breathing that told her the other two were asleep. For Nowen, rest had been elusive. She was bone-weary but every time she drifted off into something more than a light doze she was inundated with the wolf’s memories. She felt those moments as if they were happening now, crystal-sharp blades that cut into her mind again and again.
Even worse than the wolf’s fear and pain was the dawning realization that the wolf was...gone. Nowen had reached for the wolf time after time over the past night, only to find nothing. You should be happy. Isn’t this what you wanted? Not having to fight with the wolf, not having to fear that you would lose control, not having to fear that you would lose yourself? There was an emptiness inside that she never thought she would feel.
Someone was watching her. Nowen turned her head and saw Sage, looking around the edge of her seat. In the weak light Nowen got a better look at the girl. Sage looked more well-fed, more healthy - but there was a shadow in her eyes that spoke of things seen that should not have been.
The girl smiled. “Good morning. How do you feel?” she asked softly.
“Thirsty. Is there any more water?”
The smile faded. “No. It wasn’t easy getting anything past the guards. That canteen was all we had.”
The canteen you drained last night. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
Suzannah spoke from the driver’s seat, startling them. “No use crying over spilt milk. Or drunk water. ‘Sides, I think you needed it more than we did.” The young woman stretched and yawned before she continued. “We can find food and water just about anywhere, I bet. Hell, let’s see what this house has.”
They got out of the car. The garage was stuffed with the household detritus of many years, and they had to maneuver through and around piles of junk. Sage tripped and fell over a heap of boxes, but when she came up she was grinning. “Look!” she said triumphantly. Clutched in her hands was a scarred wooden baseball bat.
“Oh, hell yeah! Give that here, sweetie.” Suzannah took the bat and knuckled her fists around it. “This will take the piss out of any CZ we come across.” She stepped up to the door that looked to lead into the house and glanced back. “We ready, girls?”
Sage nodded. Nowen, leaning against the car, raised a weak hand. “Here goes nothing.” Suzannah said and reached for the doorknob.
The door swung inward before she touched it, and the smooth metal eye of a gun barrel caught them all in its gaze.
Chapter Sixteen
A voice like a rusty bike chain croaked at them from the darkness of the house. “I tol’ ya’ll I’d shoot ya if’n you come ‘round here again!” The shotgun bobbled as the speaker motioned toward the garage door. “Git out! Git out now!”
Suzannah slowly raised her hands in the air. “Hey, we’re just looking for a safe place to spend a couple of days.”
The belligerent words echoed through the garage. “No! I don’t want nothin’ to do with you folks, and I’ll only give ya to the count of five to git the hell offa my property!”
Nowen tensed in anticipation of the wolf’s reaction to the angry stranger. And again, there was nothing. Her head spun suddenly and the walls looped around her in dizzying swirls. Next to her Sage stepped forward, her hands raised. “Sir, we’re not with the New Heaven people.”
The gun paused in its motions. The ratchety voice said, with a note of hesitation, “Ya ain’t?”
“No, sir.” Sage replied quietly.
“In fact, we just escaped from them last night.” Suzannah added.
There was a thoughtful silence. Then the stranger spoke. “Ya ain’t lyin’ to me, is ya? ‘Cause I’ll shoot ya if you so much as blink wrong!”
“No, sir. We’re not lying to you.” Sage, again.
The gun moved forward, and Suzannah and Sage stepped back. Nowen watched as a tiny old man followed the gun into the garage. His head, bald and liver-spotted, was just an inch or so above Sage’s. His eyes were bright chips of sky in a deeply crevassed and weathered face. He was wearing a pair of old overalls with a flannel shirt, and his feet were, incongruously, covered in a pair of pink socks with a cartoon horse design. His gaze ticked from Sage to Suzannah before settling on Nowen. The shotgun wavered in her direction. “What’s the matter with her?”
“She was a prisoner of the New Heaven people.” Suzannah said.
The old man tottered forward a couple of steps. “Don’t look like they treated her so nice.”
“They didn’t.”
The old man looked at the car next. His eyes widened when he saw the missing windshield. His gaze was awed when he turned it on the red-haired woman. “Sure as shit you gals have been through the wringer! Escaped from them cultists last night, huh? Was that ya’ll that made all the ruckus?”
“Well, we had to make a distraction to escape, so we set a fire.” Suzannah grinn
ed as she replied. Then a puzzled look crossed her face. “But how could you know that from here? That place is miles away.”
The old man dipped his head slightly. “Yep, sure is. But most nights, if’n it’s clear and the dead folks ain’t walkin’ around, I go ‘cross the street to the Suchong’s house. Them was nice folks, had a couple of cute kids with them funny names I couldn’t never pronounce. Shame about them kids...” His croaking voice trailed off and his eyes grew dim as he became lost in his memories. They stood in an awkward silence until Sage gently cleared her throat.
The old man startled. “Now, what was I talking about? Oh, right, the Suchongs. They built them kids a little house up on their roof, and put a real nice telescope up there. I like to go up and look at the stars at night. Sometimes I catch sight of a satellite. Anyway, I saw a goddamn big fire from that New Heaven place. Thought maybe them cultists had finally gone ‘round the bend and burned themselves all up.”
The old man coughed harshly and stepped back into the house. “Well, no need to stay out here all day. We can stand around and stare at each other just as well inside.” He disappeared into the darkness. Suzannah helped Nowen to her feet and she followed the tiny old man down a short hallway and into the kitchen.
The kitchen was just as crowded as the garage. Boxes and bags fought for space with piles of books, clothes, newspapers, and other assorted junk. In the enclosed area the stink of rotting food and mildew was overwhelming. The walls were yellowed with grease and nicotine, and even the linoleum floor felt tacky under Nowen’s feet.
Their host was searching through an open cupboard. “Take a seat there at the table. I got a little coffee here somewheres.” Sage looked at Nowen. “What table?” she whispered.
Suzannah stepped up to a carefully balanced pyramid of bundled fabric. “Here we go.” she said and swept the bundles to the floor with a wave of her arm. A yellow pine table with four matching chairs was revealed, and the three of them sat down.
Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) Page 11
