Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (17 page)

Nowen shared a glance with Suzannah. The red-haired woman ran a gentle hand over the girl’s head. “Honey, why would they kill a little boy? It doesn’t make sense.”

Sage shook her head. “I don’t know, but I know what I saw.”

A thought came to Nowen, the edge of something monstrous. “Sage, was there anything wrong with Kai? Was he sick, or did he have trouble walking or talking? Anything like that?”

The girl’s dark eyes glistened with unshed tears but she nodded quickly. “Yeah, just a couple of days before the blue-shirts had come and done their tests on us. They did a
lot
of tests on the new kids, and Kai had only been there a couple of days before me. One of the blue-shirts was talking to Valerie and I pretended to be playing nearby so I could listen. The blue-shirt said that Kai had a bad heart. I remember that Valerie looked really upset. I asked Kai later if he knew he had a bad heart. He said that he had a ‘murmur’ in his heart, but it never kept him from playing.”

“So they killed him over that?! What the fuck - my mama had a heart murmur and she had six kids! Never even slowed her down.” Suzannah said. Anger and confusions fought for space in the gaze she turned on Nowen.

“No, it makes sense. A horrid kind of sense. New Heaven wants only the young and healthy people, and even then I bet they lose more than they get.” Nowen said softly, more to herself than the others. The enormity of Vuk’s plan was unfolding before her. Some of the things he had said, why he had kept the wolf alive (even if just barely), what New Heaven’s purpose actually was - like a bolt from the blue all the pieces fit together. She gasped and sat up straight. “I know what he’s doing.”

“Who?” Suzannah asked.

“Vuk. I know what he’s doing. Or, trying to do.”

“Well, what is it, damn it?!”

Nowen looked at the girl and the red-haired woman. “He’s making more
vukodlak
.”

Chapter Eighteen

Nowen lay awake in the dark room and listened to the wind beat at the windows. She and the other two had spent most of the afternoon and night talking, and now she just wanted to be still and enjoy the quiet. She thought back over their long and twisting discussions.

Suzannah was of the mind that, having escaped once, it was “pure damn craziness” to go back. She just wanted to get as far away as possible. Sage had been all for charging back into New Heaven and saving the people there, and she had grown indignant when both Nowen and Suzannah had shot down that idea.

Nowen didn’t see the point. Those people at New Heaven were strangers to her, and in the world as it was now the chances were that something bad was happening to someone somewhere. She tried to explain this to Sage but the girl seemed to grow more horrified at every word and even Suzannah was staring at her bemusedly; eventually she trailed off. How to explain that this wasn’t a movie, where a handful of people could overthrow the bad guy even though they were outmanned and outgunned? How to tell a child that nature abhors a vacuum, and while one person or group could be removed more would just rush in to fill the empty space?

Eli’s call to dinner had broken the uneasy silence between them. They ate a meal of canned chili with some kind of flat bread that Eli had cooked over the camp stove. After the meal he went upstairs to check on his wife, and Nowen followed Suzannah and Sage back to their bedroom. By the illumination of a flashlight they played cards and talked about their next step. Two hours of rambling discussions led Nowen to the fact that none of them knew what to do next.

Now Nowen turned to her side, carefully, trying not to disturb the other two. The night had grown chilly, and just after Sage turned off the flashlight and climbed into the bed to lie between Nowen and Suzannah, Nowen had asked if they knew what month it was. “November. And not too far from Thanksgiving, I think.” Suzannah had answered on a yawn. “Viktor was crazy about knowing what time and day it was. He had, like, five different calendars in his bedroom.”

Nowen counted back in her mind once again.
It had been July, I think, when Anton found me. July - that sounds right. So.
Four months. Four months at New Heaven, trapped inside while the wolf was being...tortured.
Sage’s determined face rose before her eyes as she remembered the urgency of the girl’s plea.
I’m sorry. Those other people, they really don’t matter to me.

She looked up and out the window next to her. The sky was dark, no stars shining, but the impression of movement came to her. Clouds were passing ponderously across the sky, and she wondered for a moment if there would be snow soon. The thought of snow released a cascade of memories of her mountains in Wyoming. The urge to go home swept through her like a wildfire.
Soon. Soon. I hope. If it’s safe.

On this thought her eyes drifted closed. Nowen hovered in that strange space between awake and asleep where everything seems like a dream, pulling her memories of home over her and sinking ever downward into sleep. She was walking
not running? as the wolf?
through a snow-drenched stand of trees when a low growling filled her ears. She whirled, snow flying around her like a shawl. The sound grew louder though still distant.
Bear? Cougar?
The trees around her began to tremble, white clouds lifting from the branches and into the air. The growling
rumbling that’s a rumbling a mechanical noise
was closer now and she braced herself to face whatever
not an animal get up get up
was coming through the trees
get up GET UP!

Nowen jolted awake into a room lit by moonlight. The clouds had passed on while she slept. The growling sound had followed her from her dream. It was low and muted and close. She glanced at her companions. Sage was curled up next to Suzannah and the red-haired woman had an arm thrown across the girl’s small body. They were still asleep. Nowen slipped from the bed and wedged herself in the crowded sliver of space between the edge of the mattress and the window. She looked out.

The bedroom was on the back of the house. There was a small and overgrown yard with only a tumble-down fence separating it from an alley. The backs of the houses on the next street behind them faced the alley, and she ran an eye over their abandoned yards and toys and cars. The rumbling sound grew closer. Some instinct drove her to crouch down in the small space as best she could. She raised her head just enough to see over the sill.

A large truck drove slowly down the alley. The growling/rumbling was the engine. The headlights were off but the bright glare of a spotlight shone intermittently from the interior of the vehicle. The light flashed over the houses across the alley, disappeared, and then suddenly blinked on again, right in her window. Nowen didn’t dare move. Unconsciously she held her breath as the harsh light poured into the bedroom. It stayed there, a moment that lasted an eternity, and then it was gone and the truck crawled on. In the moonlight she could just make out the flames scrawled along the body of the truck.

The next morning Nowen drew Suzannah aside as they headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Sage was helping Eli; the old man and the girl were hitting it off and if he sometimes called her ‘Amanda’ she didn’t seem to care. From the sound of a hand-cranked can opener breakfast was either more chili or chicken soup.

Nowen and Suzannah stood among the towering stacks of old newspapers and magazines while Nowen told the woman what she had seen the night before. By the time she had finished visible despair could be seen on Suzannah’s face.

“Well, shit. Do you think they found us?”

Nowen shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know enough of how they act to know if they’re aware of where we are and are waiting us out, or they don’t know where we are but have an idea. Either way, I think we need to leave.”

Suzannah sighed and crossed her arms across her chest, leaning back against a pile of newspapers. Nowen could see the headline of the paper on top, huge black letters that screamed ‘
FLUX SPREADING! MILLIONS DEAD!
’. “Yeah, you’re right. This is a nice place to rest and regroup, though. I was kinda hoping we could stay here a while longer.”

Nowen smiled. “Even with the Rev upstairs?”

Suzannah made a shooing motion with her hand. “Hell, Eli ain’t that bad, and it’s kinda touching, in a weird-ass way, that he cares for his wife that much. If she is chained up like you said, she ain’t a problem to me. I kinda over-reacted, I know. But the Flux...it wiped out my entire family, in one way or another. Either straight up killed ‘em or turned them into CZs.” She wiped at her eyes. “Enough of that shit. Long time ago. Big question now is: are
you
up to traveling?”

“Yeah.”

“Bullshit.” Nowen blinked at the sudden, harsh word. Suzannah continued. “Honey, you look like hell. I can count your ribs through that flannel nightie, and if your cheeks sink in anymore they’ll meet inside your mouth.”

Nowen raised a hand to her face. Her cheekbones did feel prominent, but hadn’t they always? “Do I really look that bad?”

Suzannah laughed. “Oh, is that vanity I hear in your voice?”

“No. Concern. Showing weakness can get you killed.”

Suzannah stopped laughing and fixed Nowen with a disgruntled look. “You are so weird. But nah, you don’t look all
that
bad. You could stand a lot more food and rest, is what I’m thinking.”

“I don’t think we have that much time.”

“Me neither. So, again: Are you up to traveling?”

Nowen nodded, keeping her gaze on Suzannah. “I don’t know how much stamina I have. I don’t feel weak, just tired. I guess the road will tell.”

The red-haired woman studied her face. “Ok. Let’s get Sage and tell her what’s going on.”

Over breakfast (canned chili and dry pancakes) Nowen told Sage and Eli about seeing the Screamin’ Devil drive past. The discussion grew tempestuous after that, with Eli promising to hide them forever from ‘them cult bastards’ and Sage and Suzannah ready to leave that moment. After twenty minutes of this Nowen slammed her fist down on the table and got everyone’s attention. “We’ll stay one more night, and leave in the morning. Eli, would it be an imposition on you if we were to take some of those clothes you have stored in the bedroom?”

Eli ran his hand over his bald head. “Naw. Naw, y’all take what you need. I can pack you up some food, too. Gots more canned stuff than I know whats to do with.”

“Thank you, Eli. Sage, you stay here with Eli and help him with the food. Suzannah, let’s you and I go through the clothes.” Nowen stood up from the table.

“Nowen?” Sage looked up at her. “Where are we going?”

Nowen opened her mouth and then found herself at a loss for words.
Tell the truth.
“Honestly? I have no idea. Away. As far away as we can get from New Heaven.”

Nowen, Suzannah, and Sage looked over the supplies they had gathered. Night had fallen, clear and cold, and they used a flashlight to check everything in front of them. Eli’s house had concealed a wealth of tote bags but no backpacks or duffels. Nowen had rigged the three bags they were taking with carrying strips torn from a spare sheet. The loads would be uncomfortable but could be carried on their backs without too much trouble.

Suzannah nudged one of the bags. “Sage, honey, there’s more than just canned chili in there, right? ‘Cause while I do like chili, it plays havoc with my insides.”

The girl nodded seriously and dropped to her knees next to the bags. “Yes. I got corn, beans, peas, carrots, and asparagus.”

“Asparagus?”

“What?” Sage looked up at Suzannah, her face half-shadowed. “I like asparagus.”

“
Both
you and her are weird.” Suzannah said with a nod at Nowen. “And you got some water?”

Sage nodded again. “What about you guys?”

“Oh, we got clothes, and some flashlights and matches, and a couple of knives from the kitchen. And a first-aid kit. Crazy old man had
eight
kits in the bathroom alone! God knows what else he’s got in this house.”

“With luck we can scavenge for more supplies on the way.” Nowen said. “The question remains, though: which way? North?”

“To Canada?” Sage asked. “I heard at New Heaven that the cold slows Revs down.”

Suzannah mock-shivered. “Hell no! Let’s go to California.”

Nowen smiled. “Crossing the Rockies might be a problem. Let’s start off by heading north, and get as far away as possible from New Heaven.”

The red-haired woman chuckled. “Well, ain’t much of a plan, but it’s all we got. Now, I’m so happy to be wearing clean clothes, I plan on sleeping in them.”

Nowen looked down at herself. Among the masses of clothing she had found several pairs of jeans that were long enough to fit her legs. The extra jeans and three Montana State University sweatshirts had gone into her bag. She wore a fourth MSU sweatshirt, one with a hood and deep pockets. A pair of brand-new sneakers, just out of the box, over thick socks completed her ensemble.

Sage spoke as she struggled into her new clothes, a pair of boy’s khakis and an oversized sweater. “Those clothes you have, Nowen? I think they belonged to Amanda. Or, I mean, Eli kept buying them
for
Amanda.”

Nowen looked at her. “Who’s Amanda?”

“Eli’s daughter. She died in a car crash like, six years ago. Her and her little boy. I think that’s why-”

“Shhh!” Suzannah’s urgent whisper cut through the room. “Listen! You hear that?”

Nowen listened. The rumble of a powerful engine, getting closer. Nowen scooped the flashlight off the floor and hit the power button, plunging the room into darkness. She could hear the rapid breathing of the other two, matched by her own. The engine noise was regular and stationary now, coming from the front of the house.

There was a moment’s silence, and then it was shattered by the sound of the front door banging open. Nowen heard Eli’s voice, raised in indignation. Someone else was shouting at the old man. Nowen flinched at the touch of a small hand on hers, and then Sage was pulling her down to her level and whispering in her ear. “Let’s go!”