Nightmare
Two weeks after we left the little building, we found something worse, worse than the big ruins by far.
The smell hit me first. I lifted my head, scenting, and then the river turned. A faded gray length of poured rock angled into the ruins. Compared with the others, these were small, but raddled with damage. Many had rotted away or crumbled to rubble.
And the place reeked of Freaks. It was the first time since heading north that we’d seen any signs of life. I’d started to wonder whether we were the only ones left. Scary thought. But this frightened me more.
Because it was nearly dark—time when we started looking for a place to rest—I could see them, shambling in the distance. That was their territory; I sensed it in my bones. I wasn’t sure where we might be safe, but I was positive we shouldn’t pass. “Let’s not go through there.”
Fade turned. “You smell it too?”
“We all do,” Tegan muttered. “It’s disgusting.”
Stalker gazed into the distance, one hand shading his eyes. “If we cut east, we can go around it.”
“That’ll take us off course,” Fade said. “But I think we’d better.”
I didn’t say so, but it wasn’t like we had a course. Another path, overgrown with grass, led east. It had been made of that poured rock too, but time and rain had worn it down, so it was mostly broken, more dirt than anything else. It led away from the river, but maybe we could get back to it once we skirted the danger. Unless those ruins had a small human population, the Freaks must be preying on one another. That would make them more desperate and more feral than the ones we’d fought.
Or they could be hunting … like we did. The comparison worried me. I didn’t want to find them like us in any fashion.
“I can’t believe they’re here too,” I said.
“They’re everywhere.” Fade’s voice was grim, his face cast in sharp relief by the rising moon. It silvered the world, making it soft and cool.
A grim thought—everywhere we went, we would be hiding from them, running, or fighting. Maybe we should’ve stayed at the little house by the river. At least there hadn’t been any Freaks in the area, and we’d had food. But we’d all wanted to try to find the place Fade’s sire talked about, where things were better. I was beginning to think it was hopeless.
Coming over the next rise, I froze. There were ten Freaks, and at first they seemed as surprised as we were. Still hideous, still terrible, but they looked healthier than the ones we’d left behind. The Freak hunting party raced toward us; they dropped their kills—animals, as I’d guessed—and snarled in vicious anticipation of bigger, sweeter meat. I whipped out my daggers.
“Get behind us,” I called to Tegan, but she had my club and she took a position beside me with fierce determination.
“I’ve been practicing with Fade,” she said.
There was no place for her to hide here anyway. It hurt a bit when Fade and I didn’t go back-to-back like we used to, but I had other things to worry about. Stalker fell in on my other side, blades in place on his hands. The Freaks surrounded us, no doubt expecting an easy win. They couldn’t be used to prey that fought back.
These weren’t as hungry as others we’d encountered, so they attacked with their claws first, teeth second. I used my elbows to block like Stalker had taught me while going for the quick slashes against their torsos. I didn’t have his speed, but I managed to avoid most of the hits and protect my chest. We each needed to take down two, and then split the difference.
Beside me, Tegan swung wide and hard; I gave her plenty of room. She drove them off while I caught them in the recoil. The world narrowed to the stab and punch, kick and thrust. Blood spattered. I swiped it from my eyes and kept fighting. I had no time to look at anyone else, now. These Freaks weren’t going down as fast as the others.
Kill them, Silk whispered in my head. Kill them all.
My Huntress nature emerged, sharp and clean, like a new knife rising from the hissing steam. These were smart. I saw in their eyes, as they tried to learn my tactics and lunged to test my reflexes. My daggers flashed in the moonlight, blood on silver, and my heart sang with each spin, each press of the attack. I hardly felt the wounds I took. I didn’t know how bad they were. I lost sight of everything until the last Freak fell. Fade killed it with a clean slash of its throat. Beneath the stars, on the grass, it showed dark as the night sky. The gurgling, choking breaths slowed, then stilled.
My breath came in hungry gulps. “Everyone all right?”
“Few cuts,” Stalker said. “Nothing serious.”
Fade smeared some blood off his palms and onto his shirt. “I’m fine.”
I turned to Tegan just as she crumpled. Fade caught her as she hit the ground. She dangled in his arms, pale and wan. Her eyes looked big and scared.
“Where are you hurt?” he demanded.
“Her leg,” I said softly. The fabric of her pants had torn, revealing a long gash on her upper thigh.
With my dagger, I cut the bottom of her pants into strips and Fade tied off the wound. It helped with the bleeding, but she didn’t look good. That won’t heal on its own, I thought. The claws had rent her flesh deep.
The pain of having the slash tended put her out, or maybe it was the sight of her own blood. I’d seen people react that way before. Whatever the reason, she went limp in Fade’s arms.
“Let’s get out of here,” Stalker said.
I paused and glanced at Fade. “Can you carry her?”
A sense of having been here before came over me. I remembered asking him that about the blind brat—and look at how that turned out. His face went tight. “I can. We need to find a place to rest and see if we can do something for her.”
No arguments there. Since I had the best night vision, I set the pace and scouted ahead for more Freak patrols. The farther we got from their ruins, the more I hoped their numbers would be sparse. I couldn’t count on us finding a safe spot to rest soon, though. I had to assume they were all around us. My one comfort—that I’d smell them before I saw them, even with my good sight.
We walked through the night with Fade and Stalker taking turns carrying Tegan. She woke up eventually and asked us to let her walk. I just shook my head and kept moving. I hadn’t been this exhausted in a long time. Living aboveground had made me soft in some ways. As if from a distant dream, I remembered our run to Nassau and how only willpower kept me going. I called on it now to keep moving—and I wasn’t even helping with Tegan.
I felt like I had to offer. “If you want me to take a turn with her—”
“We need your eyes,” Fade said. “At least until it gets light.”
“Do you think we’re far enough to stop?” I sniffed the air experimentally and it smelled clean, only the crisp scent I associated with trees and plants, mingled with a hint of musk from some animal that had marked the bark, and a trace of rotting leaves. I also got the tang of blood from Tegan’s wound, so anything hungry in the area would scent her too. Bad situation. The Huntress in me suggested we should leave her behind, too much dead weight. I silenced that voice with an angry clench of my teeth. It wasn’t a choice I could make; maybe I did have part of a Breeder’s heart, and that possibility didn’t shame me anymore.
Stalker answered, “Best to keep going until daybreak, at least.”
Tegan just whimpered and Fade shouldered her again, taking her from Stalker. I didn’t have the watch or any sense of where we were going now, so I simply followed the road and watched ahead for trouble.
Just before dawn, I smelled it.
More Freaks—their rot carried on the wind. I spun in all directions, scanning for them. They came from behind this time, which meant they were tracking us. Worse and worse. Dark words boiled up, full of fear and dread, but I swallowed them and kept my report practical.
“Put her someplace safe. We have another fight coming.”
Fade carried her off toward the trees and laid her down gently. “Stay here. Don’t move. I’ll make sure they don’t go for you, and if they do, I’ll stop them. Understand?”
She nodded, flattened herself against the ground, and went still. Playing dead? It might work as long as we occupied their attention. This time, we had twelve incoming and we were down one fighter. Not that Tegan was great on her best day, but she’d been deft enough at swatting them back. It kept them busy long enough for the rest of us to slice the monsters up.
“Four each,” Stalker said.
I nodded and planted my feet, despite the aching exhaustion that coursed through me. It would have to be daggers this time. Though I could use my club—Tegan didn’t need it—I no longer had the strength or stamina. The odds of winning were steeper this time, and the potential consequences of loss more grave.
As the Freaks charged us, I braced for the first wave. I didn’t expect to survive the fight, but the steel Silk had instilled in me wouldn’t let me roll over. I wheeled and cut one open. Its guts spilled out, slicking the ground. I danced backward, dodging an attack and leaping away from a snarling bite. These Freaks were angry—I saw it in their bloody eyes; they knew we’d killed their kin.
I caught a claw in the side. The pain astonished me, but before the Freak could fully rip into me, I stabbed it through the hand, and it wrenched back, worsening my wound. But not as bad it could’ve been. I still had my guts in place. I ignored the pain and sank my other knife deep into its chest. Punch and pull, as Silk had taught me. The monster fell, but two more took its place.
Tiring, I fell back, slipping in the blood and guts. They came at me from both sides, and I took them with twin downward slashes, just as Stalker had taught me. I had no doubt the extra training saved my life. I turned to see how they were faring, only to watch Stalker and Fade drop the last Freak, cutting into it in unison. They were fierce, beautiful, and oddly complementary, like the moon in the night sky. For a moment, I studied Fade’s darkness and the fair gleam of Stalker’s hair, and I ached.
I covered my injury with one hand as we stumbled toward Tegan’s hiding place. She sat up, her face tight with pain. “Did we make it?”
“Yes,” Fade said. “I don’t think another tracking party can catch up to us.”
I wasn’t so sure, especially now that we were all covered in blood, and two of us wounded. To make matters worse, we all desperately needed a rest, and if we stopped here, now, they’d pounce on us while we slept. But I recognized that Tegan needed reassurance. I let the lie stand, but when Fade’s eyes met mine, I called him on it silently. He lifted his shoulders in a quiet shrug of acknowledgment.
As the sky lightened, I dug in my bag for my sunglasses. I still couldn’t see as well as the others during the daytime; maybe I never would. I’d do my best to compensate with hearing and smell. My bloody fingers left smears on the sidepieces, and my hands trembled as they fell. I pressed the right one to my side again, hoping it wasn’t as bad as it felt. I remembered how the Wolf had died on the steps of the library. I didn’t want a quick and merciful death—what was more, I didn’t want to see how easy it would be for Stalker to do it.
Keep moving, I told myself. Just like the tunnels.
Stalker took the lead this time, and Fade swung Tegan into his arms. I stumbled after him, knowing both of us needed our wounds tended, but there was nothing but this dusty, silent road, leading endlessly into the distance. The fields around it stood empty and quiet, only the lone tree occasionally breaking the rise and fall of the land. It was green and lush and lovely, damp with what Stalker called morning dew, and I wondered if it would be the last dawn we ever saw.
Still, I walked on.