Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (21 page)

A soft scuffling sound nearby made her heart skip a beat. She shone her light in the direction of the sound and saw Sage lying on her stomach in the aisle in front of her. The girl was reaching under the bottom shelf and as Nowen joined her a small can rolled out and thumped against her foot. She picked it up; it was a can of beets.

Nowen and Sage managed to collect half a bag of canned food in this way. When they were certain they had gotten as much as they could they headed further back into the store. The shelves told the same dispiriting story of having been stripped with superb efficiency. Sage found several boxes of powdered drink mix of some strange flavor combination that seemed to delight her; Nowen was able to add a package of hard candies and a can of nuts to their small hoard.

She carried the bag over one shoulder and led Sage toward the sporting goods. A light flickered over them from somewhere ahead.
Black-shirts!
Nowen dragged Sage behind her and raised her flashlight. “Watch it! Are you trying to blind me?!” The whispered words carried a weight of indignation.

“Suzannah!” Sage gasped and ran toward the woman. Nowen joined them and dipped her head at the stuffed bag at Suzannah’s feet. “Get anything good?”

The woman looked up from tousling Sage’s curls and grinned. “Eh, a little bit. Aspirin, ibuprofen, bandages, some of that ointment that heals cuts up real fast - New Heaven or looters had cleared all the hard drugs out from behind the counter but there was some stuff that got knocked under the shelves.” Sage giggled at this. “Oh, and I got some, uh....” Suzannah glanced down at the girl “stuff for, you know, ‘that time of the month’.”

Sage crossed her arms and stepped back. “I know what a period is, Suzannah.”

“Good for you. What other exciting things do you know?”

Nowen turned away from their good-natured bickering. She walked down the main aisle, shining her light down the corridors that branched off. The guns had been cleared out but there was, surprisingly, a lot of random stuff left on the shelves here. She stopped in front of the bike racks, arranged one over the other, and studied them.

Suzannah joined her. Nowen waved her light over the bikes. “I have no idea what would be best for a long trip. Any ideas?”

“Mountain bikes. Big ol’ knobby tires for gripping the road, sturdy frame for going over rough surfaces.”

“We’ll be sticking to the roads for the most part.”

“Yeah, but we have no idea how bad the roads are gonna be, right? There’s been no one out there doing maintenance for a year-and-a-half.”

Nowen nodded. “Good point. See anything you like?”

Suzannah moved down the aisle, studying the bikes. “Yeah, there’s a few that’ll work. Tires are flat, and chains need to be oiled.”

“Ok, tell me what you need-” Nowen realized that there was no one else with them in the aisle. “Wait - where’s Sage?!”

Suzannah grunted as she wrestled a large black bike free of its companions. “She’s just over in the toys.”

“I’m going to go check on her.” Without waiting for a response Nowen turned and walked away.
What is with these people and their constant desire to wander off? Safety in numbers.
The words, the thought, felt strange to her, and after a moment it hit her.
Safety in numbers. As of a few months ago I never believed in that.

Sage darted out of an aisle and slammed into Nowen, cutting off her wandering thoughts. “Oh! Nowen, I’m sorry - I didn’t see you there!” The girl stumbled over her apology and drew her hands behind her back. “Um, is Suzannah by the bikes? I’ll go help her.”

Nowen caught Sage by the shoulder. “Hold on. Why are you acting so weird? What do you have behind your back?”

With a groan of embarrassment Sage revealed a doll, a girl with pink hair, pinkish skin, and what looked like a tattoo of balloons on her face. Sage ran a hand over the doll’s hair, smoothing the curls. “These came out last year, and I really wanted one. My mom said I could get one for my birthday.” The girl looked up at Nowen. “My birthday is July 10th. So, I never got one.”

“It’s lovely, Sage.”

The girl slid the doll into the front pocket of her hoodie. The doll’s cheerily-smiling face poked out from the pocket. “Thanks, Nowen.”

They walked back to the bike racks. Suzannah had gotten two bikes ready in their absence, and then she and Sage worked on finding one that would fit the smaller frame of the girl. Nowen found a large backpack, somehow overlooked, and as Sage and Suzannah finished prepping the bikes she loaded as many of their scavenged goods into the pack as would fit.

Nowen shrugged the pack on and tightened every strap she could find.
I’m tired of leaving our stuff behind. This damn thing is staying with me, come hell or high water.
She joined the other two. Suzannah had the rest of their supplies bundled in the tote bag and strapped to her back with a bungee cord and now stood astride her bike, waiting for Nowen. Sage had already mounted her bike and was making small, tight loops in the aisle.

As Nowen threw her leg over her own bicycle’s seat and prepared to kick off she saw Sage pull out of a loop too fast and go down. The girl’s bike slid across the floor, connecting with a rack of baseballs. The balls sprung free, bouncing off shelves with a clatter of metal that rung through the still air.

Nowen was off her bike in a flash, sprinting over to where Sage sprawled on the floor. “Are you ok?” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the falling baseballs.

Sage stood up, quickly. “I’m fine, I’m fine! Just clumsy. Sorry.”

“Ok. Get your bike and let’s get going-” Something cut her off, a noise that rose from the far end of the store and seemed to swell until it was everywhere.

The howling shriek of a Rev.

Chapter Twenty-one

“What the
hell
was that?” Suzannah hissed. Nowen shoved Sage at the fallen bike. “Get on it. Now.” Nowen whispered and turned to where the red-haired woman stood. She swept her light over the other’s startled face. “Get Sage and get out of here, as fast as you can. I’ll be right behind you.” she said and gave Suzannah a nudge.

“Ok, ok. But, what
was
that?” Nowen turned away from the question and sought out Sage. The girl was on her bike, and as another fingernails-on-chalkboard shriek echoed through the darkness Nowen pointed at Suzannah. “Go!” she urged and darted over to her own bicycle.

In the few seconds it took her to mount the bike the other two were already gone. Gripping the flashlight in her teeth she pushed off, wobbled for a moment, and then she was speeding down the aisle. She swung right at the end of the passage and now she was hurtling down the main path through the store. Ahead of her she could see the outlines of Suzannah and Sage, pedaling furiously for the entrance. The shrieks of the Rev sounded louder.
Or doubled. How many are in here?

Halfway down the aisle something lunged at her from the side. Automatically she applied the brakes and the Rev, a blur of mold-colored flesh in the rags of a blue uniform, tumbled past her front wheel. The Rev went sprawling across the floor and Nowen started forward again. Her breath wheezed out around the flashlight in her mouth, her jaws aching from holding it there.

She looked ahead. There was no sign of Sage or Suzannah. Instead, there were two Revs running toward her, their decaying features swimming through the light from her flash.
Damn!
Nowen turned sharply to the right and shot down a lane. In the flickering illumination she could just make out a large open space ahead. She pedaled harder, the shrieks of the Revs following her.

The aisle opened onto an area dotted with empty racks. The Revs were behind her and the way in front was clear. She wove around the racks with the idea of losing her pursuers in the tangle of metal. A wailing howl seemed to come from right behind her and without thinking she glanced back over her shoulder.

Her inattention cost her. A Rev was less than two feet away and Nowen, startled, jerked on the handlebars. With a squeal of rubber on linoleum the front wheel of the bike twisted sharply to one side and she went down, dragging an empty rack with her.

The rack was shaped like a ‘t’, four bars branching off a central pole. In her tumble to the floor Nowen ended up beneath the rack, the bottom of a triangle with two sides formed by the branching bars. She wrapped her hands around the bars and shoved upward - slamming one of the top bars right through the chest of a Rev.

The Rev’s momentum and weight carried the rack back toward Nowen. Somehow she had managed to keep the flashlight in her mouth and in the bright cone of light the Rev, a wraith in a ragged business suit, snarled and snapped his jaws at her. His dark-yellow eyes were fixed on her, their jaundiced color almost glowing in the grey-green skin of his face. He thrashed violently and his body slid further down the metal bar. Dark liquid drooled from his mouth.

Nowen grabbed the two bars on either side of her and heaved, rolling the rack and the Rev to one side. She followed, using the motion of the roll to pull her off the floor. The Rev was now pinned to the linoleum, and as he fought to reach her his shrieks built in intensity until they sounded like a siren.

Nowen stood up and looked around.
Bike. Where’s the bike?
Something hit her from behind and she went flying. Only a pegboard display of cheap jewelry kept her from landing on the floor again. The Rev that had slammed into her roared in her ear and she felt jagged fingernails digging into her shoulders. Nowen threw her arms over the top of the display, grabbing desperately for any handhold. The jingle of earrings and bracelets falling to the floor mingled with the gnashing of teeth as the Rev bit at her.

Instinctively she jerked her head to one side and fell the rush of air as the Rev’s head darted forward. Her scrabbling hands locked around a couple of posts on the other side of the display board. She clenched down and, with a grunt of equal parts effort and fear, she flung her head back forcefully.

The back of her skull connected with the Rev’s face so strongly that she saw stars. The Rev’s grasp fell away and she whirled on the undead creature. In one hand she held a thin metal post and she brought this weapon up and then forward. The rounded edge of the post punctured the Rev’s leaf-yellow eye and slid inward a couple of inches. She released the post and slammed her palm against the flat end. The metal piece shot forward, a foul liquid oozing from the flattening orb, and the Rev slumped down and away.

Nowen, panting, watched the undead thing for a moment. The sound of pounding feet drew her gaze up. A third Rev was almost on her.
Oh, damn it all to hell!
There wasn’t time to run; she did the only thing she could think of and simply stepped to one side. The Rev flew past her, falling into the jewelry display and knocking it over. The Rev shrieked and fought to rise. Nowen turned and ran.

In the bobbing illumination of the flashlight, still somehow firmly clamped between her teeth, she saw the toy aisles straight ahead. She swung left at the intersecting aisle and ran for the sporting goods. The screams of the Rev had changed, growing closer again.
Bastard got free.
Nowen saw the sign for the lane she wanted and made a sharp turn. Her foot slipped on a baseball and she fell sideways into the shelves.

A thin squeal of pain bled through her teeth as something on the shelf sliced along her side. It felt like liquid fire but there was no time to waste; judging by the shrieking the Rev was just a few feet away.

Nowen lunged forward and wrapped her hands around the smooth wood of a baseball bat. She planted her feet and turned on her heels, bringing the bat up in a high arc as she did. The bat smashed into the Rev’s face and she felt more than heard the cracking of bones. Rotted teeth flew from the Rev’s mouth as the creature’s head snapped to one side.

Mold-colored hands twitched violently and the Rev swung its head back to face Nowen. In the flashlight’s glow she could see that this Rev was more decayed than any other she had encountered. There was no hair left on the head, and the skin was wrapped so tightly across the bones she could see where she had shattered the thing’s cheek. The jaw hung loose, broken by her blow, but the yellow eyes still gleamed with hunger and the Rev reached for her.

Nowen took a step back and swung the bat again. This time she aimed downward and the fragile lower leg bones broke in two. The Rev fell backward, jagged off-white shards slicing through the worn pants. Mindlessly the Rev tried to rise, and as Nowen walked up toward its head it raised its thin hands and grasped at her.

She pulled herself free and moved over the Rev’s head. The empty eyes rolled in their sockets as the Rev tracked her, a hungry shriek crawling out of its damaged mouth. She raised the bat over her head and brought it down squarely on the thing’s forehead. The thin skull cracked and a black mass of brains and thick liquid spilled out.

A shuffling step came from behind her and Nowen turned and swung the bat wildly in front of her. In the wavering light she saw pale-red hair and startled green eyes. Suzannah stumbled back, the bat just barely missing her face. “Holy shit! Stop trying to kill me!”

Nowen lowered her trembling hands, resting the end of the bat on the floor. Her heart was pounding in her chest, a trip-hammer beat that made her feel sick. Without warning bile flooded her throat and she spit the flashlight out before turning away and vomiting.

Someone held a water bottle out to her and she rinsed her mouth out, flushing away the sour taste of half-digested corn. She wiped her mouth and took another sip before turning back to Suzannah. She locked the woman’s eyes with her own before she spoke. “Why the hell did you sneak up on me?”

Sage stepped forward. “We didn’t. We were calling your name, and then we saw you fighting that Rev.”

A half-smile quirked across Suzannah’s face. “Yeah, we got our bikes our front and then came back for you. We just followed the sound of the fighting - you sure as shit did a number on those poor bastards back there!”

Nowen took a deep breath, and then another. Her heartbeat was finally slowing, the adrenaline leaving her body. She felt more normal, and then just as quickly a wave of weariness threatened to pull her down. She looked at Sage and Suzannah; they were looking back at her expectantly. The girl cleared her throat. “So,” she said, “are we going or not?”