Donners of the Dead (11 page)

I could only hope that on our way back down—if Isaac could ever find what he was looking for—that we would run into them again. My curiosity about the creature was both eating me up inside and filling me with fear.

Jake turned around in his saddle and eyed me underneath the brim of his hat, as if he sensed the tension in me. Sometimes he looked downright concerned about my well-being. When I stared back at him, trying to neutralize my face, he nodded up at the trees. “Are these here pinyon pines?”

I studied the large pines we were riding beside. “Looks like.”

“Think you’d be able to harvest some pine nuts out of them?”

I gave him a disgusted look.

“What?” he asked. “I’m being right with you. We’ve got enough food for ourselves for the next while so long as I can go back to bagging some rabbits and deer, but I’m a bit concerned about the horses here.” He smacked Trouble’s shaggy rump which caused him to flick his tail. “Pine nuts are high in calories. It’ll get ’em through this if we can’t find grass.”

“The harvesting season is over,” I said. I hated that I did actually know a thing or two about pine nuts. The way Jake smirked at that admission made it even worse.

“Too bad,” he said, then turned back around. I stuck my tongue out at him then couldn’t help but smile at myself. It was funny how being trapped in a cabin with someone for five days could make you feel like you knew them for a long time, even when you hadn’t.

I could have said the same, too, about almost everyone else. Donna proved how dedicated and resourceful she was with the way she looked after Meeks while he proved how quickly he could spring back from such a horrific event. He’d lost some of that spark, that jovial quality that had lightened our spirits before, but after the first two days had passed, he refused to feel sorry for himself. His change in attitude was probably one of the reasons why he was healing so nicely.

Tim too had gotten to feel more like a fatherly figure to me while I began to see Avery as more of an equal than anything else. It was like once I realized his feelings (or lack thereof) toward me and started interacting with everyone else, my silly infatuation with him began to dissipate. Had my crush on him stemmed from the fact that he’d been the only boy around me, the only person to really show me any kindness until now?

I was mulling that over when Jake abruptly brought his horse to a stop, causing Sadie to skirt around him. I pulled back on the reins and looked dead ahead to where Jake’s unwavering focus was.

The smell of rot hit me before my eyes picked up on it. Far up the path, in the middle of the snow, lay a body, lifeless and immobile. Its skin was pale, though not as white as the snow, and was clothed in what looked to be animal hides.

“Are they dead?” Jake asked me quietly as the rest of the group came to a halt behind us.

“Smells dead,” I said. We exchanged a meaningful glance. Even though it looked different from what I’d seen before, we were still too far away to properly check, and the smell was still the same as before: rancid and unforgettable.

“Don’t you think we oughta go over there and check?” Tim asked. “They could need our help.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Oh, goodness me,” Donna cried out from the back. I turned to see her bring her horse around Avery’s and toward us. Her face was collapsing with concern. “Someone’s hurt out there.”

Jake raised his hand to motion for her to stay put. “We don’t know that just yet.”

She shook her head, her blonde curls springing. “But they could be alive. We have to go check on them.”

“We’ll have to ride past, at any rate,” none other than Isaac shouted. “We’ve got guns if anyone tries anything.”

Donna frowned at him with disdain. “Tries anything? There is a poor soul out there who needs our help.” She gave us the same look. “You should be ashamed to call yourselves Christians. My heavens.”

And then she clucked to her horse and started off toward the fallen body.

“Donna, no!” Jake yelled. He kicked Trouble’s flanks and started after her. I was about to head out too but he yelled at me over his shoulder, “Everyone stay back!”

Donna was already dismounting and running through the snow toward the body, her calico skirts held high. Jake was quick off his horse, seeming to vault off with ease, but it was too late. Donna was already bending over the body and touching its shoulder with her hand.

“I think he’s alive!” she cried out excitedly.

Jake was so close to getting to her, just a few feet away, when the fallen person lifted up their head, and with an open, snapping mouth, engulfed Donna’s outstretched hand.

It was alive, indeed.

My hand flew to my mouth in horror as Donna let out a horrific scream that was made of terror and pain. Jake grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back and out of the way. But it was too late. She was missing her hand from the wrist down. It was now in the unhinged jaw of the person who was sitting up in a squatting position, hair wild and white, clothes cloaked around it like a dressed-up dog. Blood poured down its chin, staining the snow.

Before it could even move, however, Jake had his revolver out and shot the man through the chest. The man slowly looked down at the bloody hole with idle curiosity before chomping down the rest of Donna’s hand, her fingers twitching from the movement like she was waving goodbye. Jake watched, totally frozen, as the man swallowed it down like it was a piece of roast, his crazed, pale eyes glued to us. Then, with a final smack of his bloody lips, he ran off into the trees and disappeared.

Meanwhile Donna was still screaming and bleeding profusely, blood spurting everywhere. Jake ripped off his coat, trying to wrap it around the bloody stump. It took all of us a moment to snap out of the shock of what just happened.

I immediately kicked Sadie over to them and jumped off of her into the snow, running toward the horror, while Isaac and Hank spurred their horses off into the trees in the direction of the man, hooting and hollering in their pursuit.

Jake was trying to hold her in place, but Donna was wild and even too much for a man like him. I quickly grabbed his coat and tried to hold it on the stump, trying not to breathe in the stench of rot and blood nor look too closely at what was unfolding, while Jake held her back. Soon Tim and Avery were at our side, with Meeks too disabled to do anything but watch a fate worse than his own.

“What the hell was that thing?” Avery shouted. It was rare to hear him curse but I’d be surprised if we weren’t all cursing now. “What was that? A person?”

I shook my head, tears of horror and frustration threatening the sides of my eyes. “I don’t know. It looked like a man, but no man could do this.” And that was true, not only on the moralistic side of things but physical as well. Donna had small hands, but he had put his entire mouth around it and bit it right through like he was eating a carrot.

“Demon!” Donna shrieked, flailing against us. “Demon! The Lord is angry with me!” Then she started babbling too fast to make any sense and began to collapse to the ground. Tim and Jake lowered her gently, and once her head was back against the snow, she promptly passed out.

“Please don’t let her die,” I said out loud, though I wasn’t sure to whom. I liked Donna a lot and she would not have been here in this situation if it wasn’t for me.

Jake felt along her neck and gave me a nod that looked exceedingly grim considering his face was streaked with her blood. “Pulse is weak, but it’s there.” He looked to his coat I was holding around the stump, how the blood kept pooling out underneath. “We need to stop the bleeding right now or she will die.” He looked to Avery. “Avery, I need you to go get the first aid supplies from the mule’s pack. Bring everything we didn’t use on Merv.”

Avery nodded, happy to be useful, and took off back toward Meeks and the mule. Only the crunch of his footsteps stopped right away.

I looked over my shoulder to see Avery standing still in his tracks. Further down was Meeks on top of his horse. Both of them were staring at something that was crawling slowly out of the forest, heading right for them.

W
hile the man
who attacked Donna had been partially clothed with disheveled white hair, this man was naked and ice blue. He looked just like the one who had taken Meek’s pinky.

Now he was pulling himself forward on his hands and knees as he came out of the snowbank, struggling to get up. I couldn’t help wondering if he was hurt or dying, even though there was no blood on him. Was this some sort of ruse that these creatures put on, pretending to be wounded or dead to gain sympathy? Surely they had to be smart enough to know it wouldn’t work a second time.

“Meeks, get out of there!” Jake yelled at him. But Meeks seemed too scared to even get his horse to move. Avery reached behind him for his knife, not taking his eyes off the creature who was still crawling forward toward Meeks.

I looked to Jake. “Throw Avery your gun!” I said frantically.

His eyes widened. “I don’t reckon a gun will do the trick.”

“Jesus Murphy, that just can’t be,” Tim swore and brought out his revolver. “This will at least scare the horses away.” He fired a shot at the creature and hit it in the shoulder, the snow around it quickly growing red with blood.

It didn’t stop him but it did scare the horses, so much that Meek’s palomino reared up, and with Meek’s useless hand, he was unable told on. He went flying off the back of the horse, landing in a puff of snow just a few feet away from the creature.

We all held our breath as the creature raised its head to look at Meeks. Then with one last burst of energy, the creature lunged and landed right on top of him.

Meeks screamed, trying to fight him off while Avery started sprinting toward them, his knife out.

But it was too late. Meeks was too injured, too fat, too slow. The creature buried his head into Meeks’ chest and with wet snarls, started feasting on him right there and then. Meeks screamed and screamed and then suddenly stopped. His heart was dangling from the creature’s bloody mouth.

I fought the urge to vomit while Jake was up on his feet and running toward Ali the mule, who was still trotting off in the distance in fright from the gunshot and the screaming. I had no idea what he was doing, and now Avery was at the creature, his knife raised in the air.

The creature cried out as Avery drove his knife into its back, again and again, until it swiped at Avery, knocking him a few feet back.

“Avery!” I yelled, and got to my feet, trying to get to him before the creature did. However weak it was before, it was now growing stronger by the minute.

The creature leaped at him, tackling him into the snow, while Avery tried to hold him back, keeping his snapping jaws just inches away from his face. Blood poured into Avery’s eyes and he was being overpowered with every second that passed.

I wasn’t going to make it to him in time. I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do to help him without getting myself killed, but I had to do something.

And apparently, Jake thought he had to do something too.

“Don’t move!” Jake yelled as he came running toward Avery, an axe held high above his head. I didn’t know if he was talking to me or Avery—probably both. I froze and Avery quickly turned his head to the side, closing his eyes tightly.

Jake swung the axe down like some kind of mythical god, his large muscles straining through his thin shirt as he let out a war cry, and the blade met with the back of the creature’s neck.

The axe didn’t go all the way through, just enough so the creature’s head was half off and Avery was able to roll out of harm’s way. Jake pulled the axe out and brought it right back down, this time severing the creature’s head. It rolled across the snow until it settled face up, those glazed blue eyes looking blankly at the sky.

Jake stuck out his hand and helped Avery to his feet. “Are you all right, boy?”

Avery nodded quickly, but I could tell he wasn’t all right, not mentally anyway. None of us were. Meeks was lying in the snow in a pool of his own blood, his heart having been ripped out and eaten by the same creature, man, monster that Jake just decapitated, while Donna was unconscious in Tim’s arms having lost her whole damn hand to another one of the monstrosities.

Jake looked around, his hand flexing on the handle of the axe. “I’ll go gather up the horses, while you guys get the first aid kit and fix her up best you can. We need to keep moving if we want to save Donna, and I reckon we’re much closer to Donner Lake than we are to the our last camp.”

“You reckon?” I repeated. “You don’t know?”

He shook his head and gave me a leveling look. “Isaac and Hank are gone, and we can’t wait around for them to come back. Isaac has the map. If we lose the trail, I’m afraid you’ll have to lead us there. And you’ll have to hurry. We may have killed one but there’s at least one still out there.”

With that in mind, Avery and I quickly got the kit from Ali and tended to Donna the best we could. In fact, all we could really do is apply the same treatment to her that she did to Meeks.

Poor Meeks. I kept looking behind me at his mangled, lifeless body that was constantly being shadowed by scavenger birds overhead. Jake quickly shot one before it had a chance to feast on him, saying it would make a good roast. He then picked off a few more birds that tried to peck at Meeks. I watched him carefully and knew from the pained look on his face that he was trying to be good to Meeks, even in death. It hit me even harder to see emotion on someone as stoic as Jake McGraw.

As soon as Donna was bandaged up and laid across the front of Jake’s saddle, we were on our way, heading back through the woods with her horse in tow behind Ali. We traveled for about an hour, all four of us looking to the forest with trepidation, certain that one of the monsters would come back for us. Every thump of melting snow, every crackle of a tree branch made us jump in our saddles.

I was trying my best to keep my senses on high alert, paying attention to any peculiar smells or noises, but after a while, we lost the trail just as Jake feared and it was up for me to find our way to Donner Lake. I could only hope that the lake truly was closer to us because we should have been heading back toward civilization. As far as I was concerned, no amount of money was worth any of our lives and yet Meeks had already paid that debt.