The front two tracks of the Cat were clear of the cab now, safely on solid ground but with less than two feet of space left between the front of the vehicle and the curving edge of the road. She brought the Cat to a dead stop and turned the wheel as far to the left as she could until she could see the tips of the left track poking out from beneath the gantry. She eased the vehicle forward, ignoring the gasp from Rhiannon as the kid surely saw how close the back of the Cat was to the edge. Pushing down on the accelerator, Emily glanced at the mirror on the right side of the cab; she could see the back right track was hanging over the precipice, spinning in midair above the drop-off.
And then the creatures hit the almost stationary Cat like a tsunami, and Emily felt the vehicle slide farther sideways on the slushy ground. She couldn’t see a thing now as the creatures hammered into the vehicle, fighting each other to get to the already open hole in the windshield.
Emily cursed and pushed harder on the accelerator, but it was useless. She couldn’t see a thing, and, as more of the creatures joined those already jostling for position, she felt their added weight finally prove too much and gravity take hold.
Emily instinctively threw an arm out across Rhiannon’s chest as she felt the front of the Cat begin to slowly tip skyward.
They balanced for a second on the lip of the cliff, and Emily thought that maybe, just maybe, the tracks would find some traction, but that thought quickly disappeared as she felt the Cat begin to slide over the edge. And then it was all too late.
It was over in a matter of seconds. But it felt like minutes.
Inside the Cat the cabin was dark, every inch of the exterior covered in the crawling horrors. That was probably a godsend. It meant Rhiannon wouldn’t see the fall. But that didn’t stop the girl from screaming as the massive vehicle began to pick up speed, sliding backward down the cliff toward the valley floor below.
Emily felt the Cat begin to turn, the weight of the engine compartment dragging the front of the vehicle sideways, and for a moment she thought they were going to tip over and roll the remainder of the way. But the big vehicle remained upright as, now facing forward, they continued their slide.
One by one, the spider-aliens either leaped clear or were thrown from the Cat as it bounced and slid over the escarpment. Emily saw flailing forms of aliens bouncing past her, followed by an avalanche of snow and other debris.
The Cat hit something hard, maybe an outcrop of rock, and the right side lifted off the ground, dislodging more of the aliens into the air. The tracks came down again with a ringing of strained suspension springs that jarred the occupants and snapped Emily’s teeth together painfully.
A rush of cold and snow entered through the windshield, filling the cabin with freezing air.
Emily had a clear view of the onrushing valley at the base of the escarpment as they hurtled toward it. Glancing over at Rhiannon, Emily could see the girl was pushed back into the support of her chair, her eyes pinched shut in terror.
“Hold on. It’s almost over,” she tried to say, but the words were lost in the rumble of the Cat’s headlong fall.
Then came a bone-jarring shudder as the Cat thudded deep into a snowbank at the base of the cliff, sending a cascade of white powder high into the air. The Cat rocked three times as it settled back on its four creaking tracks.
All was silent.
“Are you okay?” Emily asked Rhiannon as she tried to unlatch the girl’s safety harness.
Rhiannon opened her eyes and gave a weak smile, accompanied by two thumbs up.
Thor peeked his head back through the gap between Emily and Rhiannon, whining quietly. He was fine, apparently.
The Mossberg lay at Emily’s feet. She picked it up and cradled it to her as she looked around the exterior of the cabin. The front of the Cat was buried almost up to the windshield in the snowbank that had finally brought them to a stop. But to the left and right of her, she could see an occasional broken limb sticking up from beneath the snow or the shattered carapace of an alien.
The only sound was their breathing. That meant the engine was dead. If it wouldn’t start, then they would be as good as dead themselves out there. The temperature could drop to minus thirty in a heartbeat. There was no way they could survive and no hope of rescue.
Emily said a silent prayer to whatever gods might be looking over them and turned the ignition key. The engine fired up instantly, and Emily raised her eyes skyward in an equally silent thank-you.
She moved the gear stick into reverse and began to edge the Cat out of the wall of snow.
They had landed at the base of the ravine. On the right was a wall of rock that might just as well have been Everest; on the left was the final curve of the road. Beyond that was the open plain of snow that would lead them to their next destination.
Emily accelerated the Cat slowly, listening for any noises that might indicate a problem with the engine or a broken track. The only sound was the roar of the engine and the whistle of wind through the hole in the windshield.
“We’ll have to do something about that,” she said to Rhiannon, nodding toward the hole. “Or we’re going to freeze to death in here.” There was no way even the powerful heater could keep up with the freezing air that was rushing in.
They had lost the left mirror on the driver’s side during the fall, and one of the supply boxes had broken open and spilled its contents over the back row of seats.
They left the ravine behind them, zagged left a few hundred feet across a field of white that seemed to stretch out to eternity, and then bumped up onto the road.
Emily put another five miles behind them before she finally felt safe enough to stop the Cat and jury-rig a repair for the gaping hole. She emptied the remaining cans of food from the spilled cardboard box, then pulled it apart at the seams, taping the cardboard to the windshield with medical tape from the first aid kit.
“It ain’t pretty, but it’ll have to do,” she said to Rhiannon, staring at the repair.
With nothing but clear road ahead of them now, the Cat picked up speed and roared down the road toward Coldfoot.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The place looked like a cross between an Old West town from some black-and-white fifties cowboy movie and a POW camp.
“Welcome to Coldfoot,” a sign had proclaimed. And you’re welcome to it, Emily thought as she steered the Cat into the center of the encampment.
To the south were rows of single-wide billets that Emily assumed must be the “hotel” accommodation a sign a few miles outside of town had hinted at. All she really cared about was following the hand-painted hardwood signs to the gas station.
In front of the farthest wooden building, Emily saw the familiar shape of two gas pumps, conspicuous by their brushed metal bodies and bright-blue tops. Adjacent to the pumps was a chain-linked area, and secured behind the fence were several huge metal cylinders that Emily guessed was where the gasoline for the pumps and heating fuel for the buildings was stored.
It seemed logical to Emily that the farther north they traveled, the less effect the red rain might have had on the people crazy enough to want to live in this godforsaken land, especially after what they had witnessed back on the mountain. That could mean the chances of there being more human survivors rose accordingly, and Emily was well beyond trusting anyone she didn’t know at this point.