Forged From Ash (39 page)

Cal let out a series of barks as he moved his head back and forth. From several directions, Half Breeds closed in on Rico. They loped toward him knowing he posed no real threat and could be pulled apart at their leisure.

Waiting just long enough for the closest five Half Breeds to get comfortable in their superiority, Rico picked one of them as a starting point and fired the Sig Sauer again. This time, the shots were louder, and the pistol bucked against his hand with significantly more force as the Snapper rounds placed beneath the two normal rounds got their chance to show what they could do. Rico aimed and fired in a steady series of loud shots. One by one, the charging Half Breeds were knocked off their feet. High impact rounds sliced straight through protective layers of fur and unnaturally resilient flesh before expanding into a flat piece of jagged metal to rip their bodies from the inside. When each round exploded from the back of a head or through a spine, it took meat, bone and skin along with it. The Half Breeds that weren’t killed instantly were reduced to quivering, whimpering things with only enough strength to curl into a defensive ball.

Rico could hear more of the creatures coming but didn’t rush as he fired his remaining rounds at the closest Half Breeds and then ejected the empty magazine. Calmly, he reached into his pocket for one that was loaded with nothing but Snappers, slapped it into the Sig and chambered the first round. He dropped two Half Breeds with shots through the head. When Cal started backing away, Rico lowered his aim and shot the pack leader in the shin. If it had been a normal round, the wound would have slowed Cal down for a little while. The Snapper blew out the back of his calf, turning muscle and tendons into a red mist. An inch to the right, and it would have amputated Cal’s leg just below the knee.

The moment their leader fell, the remaining Half Breeds ground to a halt. Their twisted faces were impossible to read, any expression wiped away by the ravages of The Breaking. One of the braver creatures became impatient and started running again. Rico had just enough time to place a Snapper between that one’s eyes. The Half Breed staggered as its head swung all the way back upon a multi-hinged neck. Its legs buckled, and its chest hit the ground. Only then could Rico see that less than half of its skull remained.

Cal lay on the ground near Rico’s feet. When the pack leader exhaled, his entire body seemed to relax. Whatever focus he’d had was dispelled by fatigue and pain. Seconds later, the remaining Half Breeds scattered. The ones Rico could see broke into a run like dogs after snapping the chain that had been lashed around their necks. The directions they chose to run seemed completely random. Only a few took notice of Rico, and when they got close enough, the Skinner gave them a lethal taste of his custom ammunition. Gunfire erupted from the direction of the truck stop as well, bringing a smile to Rico’s face.

“Now then,” he said as he pointed his smoking barrel down at Cal. “I asked you a question before. Answer me now, or I start burning away more pieces of you.”

“You…will kill me anyway.”

“You know about Skinners,” Rico said. “So you must also know there are some pretty messed-up things I could do to you whether you’re alive or dead. You can either talk and come along with me so I can get a look at you the easy way, or you can give me grief and I’ll dissect you using blunt instruments and a corkscrew while you’re alive and kicking.”

“It doesn’t matter if you know what is meant to happen or not. It is already….in motion.”

“Then you got no reason not to tell me,” Rico pointed out.

“You….were going to be taken to…Nishta.”

“Nishta? Where the hell is that?”

“Nishta commands many packs. She is leading the assault.”

“Now we’re gettin’ somewhere,” Rico said. “What assault?”

“Many cities will be attacked. Now and in the weeks to come. The humans will come to help and she….she will trap them.”

Rico scowled down at the pack leader. The gunshots behind him were becoming more concentrated, and the burning in his palms was slowly starting to fade. “That’s why you were attacking this place? There’s some sort of big trap being set up.”

“No,” Cal groaned as he wrapped his spindly fingers around his wounded shin. “My pack…we just…need to eat. Protect my territory. I would bring you to Nishta and….she would bring my pack into hers. We would eat well again.”

“How do you know about this Nishta?”

“We heard her from….from the voice of the Full Blood,” Cal said. “The Full Bloods can speak to all of us…through our heads. Through the wind. The strongest of them…Esteban…told us what to do. Told us to follow the words of his chosen leaders. Told us we would be rewarded if we brought Skinners to his leaders. Leaders…like Nishta… would bring Skinner heads and hands to him.”

“You’re tellin’ me all these slobbering, filthy dogs are planning and taking orders? Every Half Breed I ever seen apart from you only knows how to eat, run and sleep.”

“They are wild…and in pain….but they can hear the Full Bloods. They obey strength.”

“What else did Esteban tell you to do?” Rico asked. Just speaking that Full Blood’s name made anger stab through his chest like a hot poker.

“To kill.”

Rico leaned down to place his gun’s barrel against the knee on Cal’s uninjured leg. “Half Breeds don’t need to be told that. What else did he say?”

Although the pack leader was obviously having trouble staying in his current form, he didn’t have as much trouble hacking up some pasty fluid from his throat and spitting it at Rico. The wad of bloody saliva hit Rico’s chest and spattered up onto the bottom of his chin. Instead of giving in to a fit of rage, Rico wiped his face dry with his sleeve and turned away from Cal.

“You want me to kill you, is that it?” Rico asked.

“You will kill me. That….is what you do.”

Rico didn’t take more than a few steps before he stopped to study the ground. When he’d handed his gauntlet over, it had been given to another Half Breed where it was carried in its mouth like a chew toy. Every step of the way between the truck stop’s fence line and the spot where he’d made his stand, Rico had kept his eye on the creature carrying his weapon. When the shooting had started up again, that Half Breed had been the first one to receive a Snapper round. It took a bit of searching, but the dead Half Breed wasn’t hard to find, and its chew toy was nearby.

“You know what your problem is?” Rico asked as he picked up his weapon and slipped it over his right knuckles. “You think you know all about pain. Now, I bet you must know a hell of a lot, but there’s still plenty more I can show you.” His grip tightened around the weapon, and thorns pierced his skin. The pain from that never lessened, which he’d always thought was an important part of the weapon’s design. It got his adrenalin rushing and sent a spike of reflexive aggression through his body that prepared him to put his weapon to use.

“How long…do you think you can threaten me,” Cal growled, “before my pack returns in greater…numbers?”

“The real question here,” Rico said as he willed a single, thin blade with a hooked end to emerge from his gauntlet, “is how many pieces of you I can remove in that same amount of time. The answer may surprise you.”

Cal spewed more threats, which Rico ignored.

The Skinner got to work for a minute or two, and then the conversation became truly interesting.

A
few gunshots cracked through the air but were sporadic and quickly dwindling down to nothing. Linda and Gary were still on the roof taking pot shots at the occasional werewolf when Haley shouted, “He’s coming back!”

“Is he all right?” Linda asked.

Gary looked through the scope of his rifle and said, “He’s covered in blood, but he seems to be walking ok. Mark, Jimmy, go and see if he needs any help.”

The two men standing on the ground just below Gary’s position ran to the gate and raced around the outside of the fence to meet Rico. He was dragging something behind him, and the gauntlet was still on his hand.

“Any more of those things attacking?” the Skinner asked.

Mark was a tall guy with brushy hair and a youthful face. He winced at the sight of the thing Rico brought along with him, so he tried not to look at it again when he replied, “Just a few here and there. Should be chased away pretty soon.”

Although Mark was keeping his eyes on Rico, Jimmy couldn’t take his off of the bloody mess Rico was dragging. Jimmy was white as a sheet as he looked down at the gruesome sight and couldn’t help but ask, “What is that?”

“Oh,” Rico said as he glanced back. “That’s the leader of the pack. Shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Now I won’t be able to get that song out of my head.”

Either the two men weren’t up on their golden oldies or were too shaken by the mutilated form of a part-human, part-wolf. Several pieces had been removed from Cal’s body including some fingers and a few long strips of bone which rested on Cal’s stomach so they wouldn’t be left behind. Jimmy squatted down beside the strange creature and nudged one of the bones. “What is that?” he whispered.

“A rib,” Rico said.

Jimmy looked up and was about to ask something else when a thin, bony hand reached up to clamp around his wrist. “JESUS!” he yelped as he stood up and pulled his hand free of Cal’s grasp.

“I……told you……what I know,” the pack leader groaned. “You said…..”

“I said if you talked, I’d stop what I was doin’,” Rico said. “I stopped, and now we’re headed back inside the fence. Shut your fucking mouth, or I’ll pick up where I left off.”

Cal let his head fall back again and went limp so Rico could continue dragging him toward the truck stop. Mark and Jimmy were content to watch out for more Half Breeds instead of engaging Rico in any more conversation. They made it through the gate without incident where Rico’s two escorts said a quick good-bye and found somewhere else to be.

Big Linn and Haley ran toward the front of the truck stop as Mark and Jimmy headed in the opposite direction. Although Linda slowed down when she caught a glimpse of Cal, Haley ran right up to throw her arms around Rico. “I wanted to do more to help,” she said. “Why didn’t you let me?”

“Because it’s not your fight, kid,” Rico told her.

“I still could have helped.” Leaning sideways to get a better look at what was behind him, she said, “That’s the pack leader. Is he…alive?”

“Yeah. Me and him got some more to talk about. How did everything go back here?”

She released him from her friendly hug and stepped back. Most of the truck stop’s inhabitants were gathering around but didn’t want to get too close. “We were watching you leave,” Haley said. “Gary was about to send someone after you when you stopped. He couldn’t get a clear shot, though. Plus, you may have been too far away.”

“That’s ok. I didn’t want them to shoot at us. Did anyone else get hurt during Round Two?”

“Felt more like Round Three or Four. The pack was wilder than before. They ran around a lot, climbing up the fence, some of them clawed at the gate. A few of the guys were scratched up by a couple of those things that almost got inside, but that’s about it. The wolves that weren’t wounded or killed were scared away.”

“We got an idea of where they went,” Gary said as he ventured closer to Rico and Haley. “In the mornin’, we could see about cleaning some more of them out. I’d say things are back under control for a while.”

Rico nodded. “I might join you on cleanup detail after I get some sleep and breakfast.”

“You got a place here and all you can eat for as long as you want, buddy. We’re real grateful for what you did.”

“You guys held up pretty well, too,” Rico said. “Thanks for havin’ my back.”

Gary waved that off, took a few more steps toward him and tried to get a look at the bloody mess Rico was dragging. “So…uhh…what’re you planning to do with him?”

“You got a place I can lock him up?”

“There’s some shower stalls that are pretty solid. No windows. We’ll have to get some chains and stuff to lock it up, but we should be able to figure something out.”

“Great. Show me.”

The showers Gary talked about were in the middle of the main building, just off of a room filled with small televisions and a few arcade cabinets. Although the video games were on, the televisions were covered with dust. Rico grinned while tapping a rack of booklets and fliers advertising the many scenic and family attractions to be found in the area. Tourism had become an idea that was just as quaint and outdated now as Sock Hops and soda fountains. He dragged Cal down a hallway leading to two large bathrooms and half a dozen larger doors that had once been sealed by locks which had since been torn out.

Knocking the closest of those damaged doors, Gary said, “These used to be locked up good and tight. Needed a special number that was handed out at the cash register when you paid for shower time. Not exactly roomy in there,” he added while pushing the door open to reveal a shower stall and a small dressing area. “But there ain’t a whole lot of ways for that thing to get into much trouble.”

“You used to be a trucker?” Rico asked.

Gary nodded. “Is it that obvious?”

“Seems like you know your way around these pay showers pretty well.”

“Yeah. I drove across this country and back plenty of times before things got torn apart. Seems only fitting that I make my home in a place like this. I was in them more’n I was ever at my real home.”

Rico didn’t ask about Gary’s home. If he’d wanted to talk about it, Gary would have and might at some other time. If he never did, there was the very real possibility that the only thing remaining of Gary’s home and family was more broken glass and dead bodies. Those were the most common things to be found just about anywhere.

“How long you intend on keeping that thing here?” Gary asked. “We should be able to keep it locked up for a little while since the fight’s out of it, but they tend to heal up pretty quick.”

“I’ll take it off your hands when I leave tomorrow.”

“That works. Havin’ these showers here are nice. We’re lucky some of ‘em still work and that there’s water flowing into any of them at all. You’re welcome to use one, by the way,” Gary added cheerfully.