Clementine screamed from inside the truck. Hal needed to do something, so he climbed out on the passenger side. Grant moved out of his way, giving him space to reach the truck’s cab.
“Did they get on you?” Grant repeated.
Sally glanced up at him, snarled, and said, “Grant, get that fucking gun out of my face!”
Grant lowered his gun. Sally climbed to her feet.
“Did they—” he started to ask again.
“No,” Sally replied. “I don’t think so.”
“Grant, watch your backs,” Hal reminded him. “Where there’s one wolf…”
“Yeah,” Grant agreed as he turned toward the trees.
“Clementine,” Hal called out to the older woman still seated in the driver’s seat.
Clementine stared back at Hal with bloodshot eyes. She reached to her head and dug into her scalp. Her nails broke the skin, sending rivulets of blood down from her hairline. She pulled so hard one nail lodged in her flesh and broke in half. The others raked the skin down, ripping it and causing more blood to soak her temples, cheeks, and on down to her neck.
Hal kept his eyes on her as he leaned back and called out to the others. “They got her. She’s turnin’ into one of them things.”
“Get away from her, Hal!” Sally yelled.
He couldn’t believe his eyes when Clementine grinned at him through gritted teeth covered in blood. It seemed like she was trying to speak to him, but red spit dribbled out of her mouth with each unintelligible grunt. He backed up a step when she began to slide along the seat, dragging her ass along it as she swiped her arms out at him in a desperate attempt to bring him closer.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered to her as he lifted his rifle, aimed it at her head, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet tore through her skull, exploded the back of it, and shattered what was left of the driver’s side window. Clementine went slack. Her face was destroyed.
A growl came from the woods behind him to Grant and Sally’s right, and before any of them had the chance to react, a rabid fox leaped from the trees and bit down on Grant’s leg. It was small but fierce as it tried to climb his leg. Grant, unable to keep his balance, fell to the ground and used his free leg to try and pry the animal off him.
Hal aimed his gun at the fox, but he couldn’t take the shot without destroying his friend’s leg.
Sally backed away and turned to find she was face to face with a small black bear. It was only about six feet away from her. She screamed, “Hal!”
“Fuck!” Grant yelled as he kicked his leg and threw his head back against the ground, trying to keep his hair as far away from the fox as possible. His gun was useless with the creature wrapped around his leg. It was clear he was as afraid to take the shot as Hal was.
The fox’s fur shifted. The lice were about to pounce.
The bear in front of Sally lifted up on its hind legs, putting itself too close to her hair. Hal sensed she was in the most danger, so he turned toward the bear and shot it in the neck. It fell to the ground and whimpered, but it didn’t stop coming.
“Sally, run!” Hal yelled. “Get in the bed of the truck!”
He turned his attention back to Grant but still couldn’t take the shot. So, he did the next best thing. In high school, he played a little bit of football. He wasn’t the best field goal kicker, but he had a hell of a punt. So, he ran at the fox, lined it up perfectly, and blasted it with his boot. He wasn’t expecting the fucked-up furball to take flight, but it did.
Hal waited a second to make sure Grant wasn’t infected. He’d seen how quickly the transformation happened. Grant scooted his ass against the ground, staring at the forest with fear in his eyes, but he didn’t scream, he didn’t howl, and he didn’t try digging to his brain with clawed hands. He was okay.
Sally’s scream brought him back to her situation. She was in the bed of the truck now, but the bear was tall on its hind legs and was swatting at her, growling, and trying to climb into the truck.
“Get it, Hal!” she yelled.
Hal rolled into the bed of the truck, stood up, and aimed at the bear. It looked back at him with eyes that seemed possessed. Blood seeped from its jaws and it swung its paw out with a deadly fury. If this were an action movie, it would have been the perfect time for a one-liner, but he couldn’t think of anything witty to say. Then it came to him. Before pulling the trigger, he looked straight in that bear’s eyes and said, “Hey, bear. You bear-ly stood a chance.” Then he shot it in the face and the beast fell to the ground, dead.
Grant backed toward the truck and climbed into the bed, meeting Sally in the middle. The two hugged each other and Hal couldn’t believe his eyes when Grant pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. She struggled for a second and then relaxed in his arms and went with it.
“I’m sorry,” Grant said as they finally broke from their embrace. “I needed to do that.”
“Maybe you should’ve done that a long time ago,” she replied.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have done it at all,” Hal joked with a roll of his eyes.
He had nothing against love, but now wasn’t the damn time for these two to be acting like horny teenagers. They needed to get to Stonewall Forge.
“How high do you think these things can jump?” Hal asked as he stared down at the dead wolf and the bear lying only a few feet away from it. He moved closer to Grant and Sally.
“I hope it’s not that damn far,” Grant replied.
The fox that had attacked Grant’s legs came darting out of the woods, aimed right at the truck. It snarled and leaped into the air. This time Grant pointed his pistol and caught it with a bullet in midair. Hal didn’t get to see where the shot landed as the tiny animal was flung by the force right back into the forest.
“Damn that thing is angry!” Grant yelled. “It almost took my damn leg off earlier.”
“Was angry,” Hal agreed. “Ain’t much of anything now.” He looked down to see Grant bleeding through his jeans and added, “If it got any closer to you, you would have ended up like Clementine.”
Sally wiped tears from her eyes, and Hal felt insensitive for talking about Clementine like that.
“Hell, I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize y’all were that good of friends.”
“All these poor animals,” Sally said through her tears.
“Poor animals?” Hal replied.
“They’re fucking victims, Hal,” she shot back.
Hal rubbed his temples, trying to force away the headache coming on. “All right, don’t get all snippy.”
“What do you think?” Grant asked.
“Truck ain’t worth a damn now,” Hal replied.
Grant nodded. “So we walk.”
It seemed their only option but marching down this dirt road with rabid raccoons and other ferocious furballs more than eager to take a bite out of them didn’t seem like a good idea. The truck had been the plan. Now, they had no plan at all.
27
It was a bonfire made of blood and bone. The shrieks emitting from the infected teenagers would haunt Nitsy for the rest of her life. They had been people once. They’d sat with her in the auditorium, each with his or her own reason for coming to the conference.
Now, seated in the bed of Andre’s truck, with Robbie’s arm around her, she watched them burn. She heard the monsters inside them scream in their suffering and that was the only part for which she was grateful. She couldn’t help wondering if, deep inside their minds, the teachers and students were in there somewhere. Did they feel the pain of the fire’s flames?
Phyllis and Bradley were both seated up front with Andre. Robbie had tried to talk Nitsy into riding in there with them, but she’d refused. She wanted to stay with him. She trusted him. Looking at him now, she watched as his hair blew in the wind, and it was the first time since leaving the cafeteria that she’d thought about her wig being gone. He was seeing her right now, the real her, without being glammed up. Robbie didn’t seem to care. Maybe he was the one.