Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (55 page)

“Dodge,” said a voice from inside the
Corvette.

Samuel paused and looked over at the
girl. She smiled and then winked at him.

“Ain’t even close. You got sixteen
pistons under that hood. Over three hundred horses. Go pick on someone your own
size,” he said.

A voice came from inside the Corvette,
hidden in the blackness. “No balls. I get it.”

Samuel gripped the leather covering on
his steering wheel.

“I can handle the lady too, seeing as
how you ain’t got what it takes to satisfy her.”

Samuel looked at the light and back at
the empty void of the Corvette’s window. He nodded and turned his attention
back to the dangling traffic light, anticipating the turn to green. He set his
left hand on top of the steering wheel and dropped the right on the gear shift
set between the seats. He revved the engine a few times and used his left foot
to push back into the seat. Samuel took his right foot off the brake and teased
the clutch with his left until he felt the gears of the manual transmission
edging forward, pleading to open up into a full gallop.

When the light turned green, Samuel
slammed the accelerator to the floor and popped the clutch with his left foot.
The Dodge lurched forward, and he heard a giggle from the woman sitting next to
him. The engine drowned out the passionate wailing of Eddie Vedder as the CD
player moved on to play “Release.” The rear tires of the Dodge screamed, and
the acrid smoke of burning rubber reached his nose as the Dodge pulled him
underneath the traffic light and down the right side of the street, now serving
as a drag strip.

The Corvette appeared to hover next to
Samuel’s car, teasing and taunting him like an angry sibling. It stayed locked
in position, using the oncoming lane as its own. Samuel heard laughing coming
from the passenger window until it closed, drenching the Corvette in
inky blackness.

Samuel glanced at his gauges, the
needle pushing toward sixty. The blinking yellow lights at some of the
intersections faded like fireflies in the summer night. He tried not to think
about the people stumbling from the bars, witnessing the race. Samuel loved
this college town. They knew him here. They knew his car.

The Corvette roared, and Samuel saw it
lurch forward. He smiled and shook his head, frustrated by the driver’s
decision to toy with him and, at the same time, impressed by the sheer
brutality of the Chevy’s 305 block. He feathered the clutch to bring the RPM
gauge back into the red before shifting gears.

Samuel watched the taillights of the
Corvette move forward as his own speedometer broke the century mark. The two
cars rocketed down the sleepy street like two bullets from a gun.

When the Corvette jacked low and
dipped a shoulder into the highway onramp, Samuel realized he had to concede.
He knew the Daytona did not have the handling of the Corvette, and he pulled
the car to the curb, feeling the effects of the alcohol replacing the
adrenaline of the race. He picked up the woman’s purse and searched through her
wallet until he found her ID, complete with home address. Samuel glanced at the
woman and he turned the car around. He drove toward her apartment, where he
would most likely need help to take her safely inside.

The race left him dizzy as its effects
receded. Samuel would have to lick his wounded pride and forego the physical
satisfaction of a sexual conquest. He found no solace in doing the right thing.

He felt her hand in his, tiny and
vulnerable. She squeezed to let him know she was still there. The room came
back into focus, and he recognized the same indistinguishable furniture that
had been in the other cabins. Samuel’s breath hitched in his chest. He stood in
the middle of the room with Mara at his side.

“Did you see it?” he asked.

She nodded and wiped a tear from her
face.

“I should have learned from that. It was
so close to being a catastrophe.”

Mara turned and trailed a finger down his
cheek. “We all fall short. We all screw up.”

Samuel brushed her hand aside and walked
to the window. Blackened film covered the windowpanes as it had all of the
cabin windows. He tried seeing out of one, hiding the rest of his tears from
her.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Another cabin. Probably a little further
down the path, but not too far from the Barren.”

The moments preceding his visceral memory
flooded Samuel’s head. He recalled the shuffling horde of the undead and the
distant but closing sound of the pack howling at the dead sky.

“Major and Kole. What do they want?”

“Not sure,” Mara said, shaking her head.
“I think Kole wants to inflict pain, and he doesn’t care who he hurts. But
Major, yeah, Major wants something more.”

“More than what?”

“More than hurting you. He wants out of
here. We all do.”

***

Kole and Major ambled along the path,
weaving in and out between the creatures. Major expected to be blown back by
their rotten filth, but the sense of smell had all but disappeared in the
locality. Along with the loss of sound, he knew the reversion was almost
complete.

“Can we get to them?” Kole asked.

“Yep,” Major said. “Looks like the
walking corpses will keep ’em pinned down. Won’t hurt ’em none.”

Kole nodded and kept walking,
occasionally sidestepping a group of the creatures. He passed one on his left,
looking deep into its face. Kole shuddered when the creature turned its blank
eyes on him. He felt the desperation there, the pain.

“Think the next cabin is over that
ridge,” Major said.

Major pointed along the path in the
direction the horde was traveling. A throaty howl broke through the silence and
made the horde stop in their tracks. Major and Kole turned to face the alpha
male striding along the path as the creatures parted, the wolf’s eyes never
leaving the staggering undead. Kole and Major stood between the wolf coming
from the west and what was left of the place in the east with the undead lining
the path like folks at a parade.

Chapter 13

You stole my prey, and now you must
make recompense.

Major stopped and looked at the alpha
male. “I protected my investment.”

Kole looked at Major and then back at the
wolf. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked.

The old man brushed off the question with
a wave of his hand.

Where is he?

“Up the trail. The horde follows, like
you.”

The alpha male stopped five feet in front
of the men. The other hunters in the pack flanked him on each side until they
stood blocking the path. The horde froze in place, swaying in the imaginary
breeze.

He has the girl?

“She’s with him. I’m not sure who has
what.”

Kole stepped up to stand beside Major.
“Are you talking to these coyotes?” he asked.

“Wolves.”

“Whatever. Can you really understand
them?”

Our pact involved you and you only.

“I know,” Major said, looking at Kole. “I
know.”

“What, man?” Kole asked. “What do you
know?” He shuffled on his feet, clenching his fists and looking back and forth
between the wolves and Major.

We’ll still hunt the man in order to
fulfill His command, but we also want recompense for the delay. The girl.

“I don’t give a fuck about her.”

Then it isn’t genuine, is it? We’ll
take him, too.

Major felt the alpha male’s mental nod
toward Kole. “He is not mine.”

“Hey, hold up. What the hell are you
talking about?” Kole asked.

Major turned to look at Kole, his eyes
hard, dark, determined. “It’s out of my control,” he said.

“What is?” Kole asked.

The alpha male padded forward and the
rest of the pack circled the two men while the horde remained fixed. Kole
looked at Major and then at the wolves, understanding seeping into his mind
like water running over a dam.

“You can’t do this,” he yelled.

The old man shrugged and took a step back
as the alpha male emitted a low growl, ears up and eyes fixed on Kole.

“This is not my doing. I’m a subject of
this place, like you. I wouldn’t worry about it. The reversion is going to
swallow us all soon, anyway.”

Kole gave Major a menacing look before
tossing his bloodied bandages to the ground. A few of the hunters snuck forward
and sniffed the blood as if it were an aphrodisiac.

“In a world losing all sensory input, you
throw hungry wolves a handful of bloody bandages.”

Before Kole could reply, the alpha male
sprang forward. His lean body flew through the air toward Kole’s neck. Kole
raised a forearm, striking the alpha male on the head, deflecting his lunge
with a whimper. The other hunters stepped forward.

No. He is mine.

“They want to prove themselves, the way
you did. They want to fight their way to the top of the pack.”

“Stop talking to them, you asshole,” Kole
said, spitting each syllable into the still air.

Mine.

The hunters stopped, but their eyes
remained locked on Kole.

“Why are you letting them attack me?”
Kole asked.

“I’m not letting them do anything,” Major
said. “They have needs to fulfill, like all of us, and they have beliefs about
the reversion and what might stop it.”

“Human blood?”

“Probably. But I’m not a wolf, so I can’t
say for sure.”

The alpha male growled again, shaking its
head and realigning its equilibrium after absorbing Kole’s shot.

“What about Mara and Samuel? Let’s sell
them out.”

“Mara,” Major said, “is not worth a thing
to me. Or them. But Samuel. He has something I need, and if I have to sacrifice
you and the girl to get it, I will.”

“This isn’t fair,” Kole said.

“Of course it isn’t, you spoiled little
shit. You’ve slipped into another locality, one damned for all time. Or at
least until the reversion eats it. You were nothing but a disgusting human
being in your life. Why do you think you’re owed any decency now? Be happy you
didn’t slip into a place more violent than this. The alpha male will tear out
your throat and you’ll be dead in minutes. Trust me. There are worse fates for
those like you.”

Enough.

Major held both hands up and stepped
backward. The pack stepped past him until they encircled Kole. The alpha male
crouched down before him, ready to spring. Kole looked at Major with a bloody
tear running down his face. He shook his head at the old man, but said nothing.

The alpha male launched himself through
the air again. This time, Kole’s defensive blow glanced off the beast’s muzzle
and into thin air. The wolf’s paws landed on Kole’s neck, pushing him backward
until he lost balance and collapsed hard on the ground. The wolf opened
its jaws and clamped down on Kole’s throat like a steel bear trap. The wolf
growled and shook its head until blood spurted from Kole’s jugular. The man’s
eyes remained open as his body twitched in the dirt. When he no longer moved,
the alpha male raised his head and howled into the darkness.

Major stood by, careful not to interrupt
the alpha male and his hunters. He closed his eyes as the tearing of flesh
filled his ears. The locality would devour the experience like everything else,
but until that happened, Major had to live it. When the wolves finished their
obscene feast, the alpha male nudged a hunter. The wolves gathered behind their
leader amongst the horde still fixed to the ground.

And now the other. The female is of no
consequence to me. She has no power.

“But he does, and you’d better remember
that.”

The alpha male looked at Major, blood
staining his coat.

I know. I felt it last time. But that
was before. I have become more powerful since.

“So has he,” Major said. “So has he.”

***

“I think we’re here for a different
reason. I think we have work to do, people we owe,” Mara said.

Samuel nodded, taking deep, long breaths.
“Redemption?” he asked.

“Of sorts. Do you trust me?” Mara asked.

“I guess.”

“Give me your hand.”

When Samuel’s hand landed in Mara’s palm,
she threw a shoulder into the door and exited the cabin. The horde surrounded
them, but they stood motionless in place.

“Why aren’t they coming at us?” Samuel
asked as they sprinted down the path and away from the reversion.

“A force has held them temporarily. They
won’t remain immobile long. Hurry. Let’s get some distance.”

Samuel looked at Mara for a moment,
realizing there was more to her experience in the reversion than what she told
him. She let go of his hand.

Mara ran down the path, her dark hair
swaying against her back. Samuel followed her as she continued moving east. The
trees hung over the path like dangling fly paper, ready to snag them at any
moment. Mara kept moving through the darkened landscape until the path opened
on a plain that stretched as far as she could see. Long wheat stood still and
silent. Samuel looked up and saw the reversion in the sky, constantly moving
east toward the endgame.