Michael sneered up at him and wiped sleep from his eyes. “Good. I was getting sick of all these girls ordering me around.”
Hayden thought the look was approving, but he couldn’t be sure. The twins, Angela, Caitlan, and perhaps even the doctor, were now the most important people in his life—they were the only people in his life. And then there was Nicholas… his son. The boy still believed Jake had been his father, but there was no denying the fact he had grown close to Hayden in the last few weeks. Perhaps a part of him did see the truth. Maybe that’s why Nicholas was holding him so tightly this very moment. He placed him back on the ground with some effort.
“Yeah, I came back, and I won’t let us get separated again.” It was a promise Hayden intended to keep. “Where’s Caitlan?”
He heard the leather upholstery squeak from the front seat of the Audi. “Trying to get some goddamn sleep but failing miserably.” She climbed out and gave him an even more disapproving glare than Michael. “Took your sweet time joining back up with us.”
“I was… detained.”
“Who’s the old fart?”
“My name is Dr. Fred Gill.” The old physician didn’t offer his hand out to her.
Angela cut in before things could escalate—and they usually did when Caitlan was being introduced to strangers. “Let’s build this fire up and get warm.” She looked over at the Buick’s smashed in windshield and bloody fenders. “You can tell us all about what happened back in Brayburne.”
Hayden and Fred exchanged another ominous look. “I don’t think there will be enough time to get into the specifics,” the doctor said.
“We really should get moving,” Hayden added. He was looking out over the gravel pit’s southern wall, back the way they had just traveled.
Amanda took Nicholas by the hand and led him away from the adults. Smart kid, Hayden thought. Michael looked at the others in turn and finally shrugged. “I get it… Grown-up shit.” He buried his hands in his pants pockets and kicked a stone out of his path on the way to join the other kids.
Hayden whistled at them ten minutes later to join them again. The children slid down from their gravel pile perch and ran towards the cars. Angela and Caitlan were moving fast, folding up blankets and packing their meagre collection of supplies back into the cars. Hayden was refueling the Buick, the old doctor was draining another container into the Audi. Michael had seen his parents act this way when they were still alive. It usually meant something bad was coming—a big thunderstorm maybe, or perhaps a blizzard. It’s how Angela had acted when they were trying to get out of the shopping mall without that murdering psychopath ending their lives like he had their mother’s. Calm but anxious. Quick but not rushed.
Quiet fear.
“You guys are scaring me,” Amanda said. “Why do we have to leave so fast? This place is fun.”
“You kids ever go to Disney World?” Caitlan asked.
The twins shook their heads in unison and the girl answered. “Mom and Dad said they were gonna take us there in a year or two. Guess that ain’t gonna happen now.”
“Nope, I don’t imagine it will any time soon.” She lit a cigarette and inhaled a few quick drags before continuing. “Well, children… we’re readying to travel about as far away from that magical kingdom as you can go.” She hiked a thumb behind her in the direction of the two men. “According to those yahoos, we’re heading somewhere nice and freaking cold… cold enough to freeze the life out of anything that might decide to try and follow us.”
Again the twins responded together. “Huh?”
She flicked her butt into the smoldering fire. “I’ll explain what I can in the car, but right now we have to start hauling ass.”
Chapter 39
The sound of the walls buckling in on all sides was like metallic thunder crashing around them. “Goddamn it.” Louie wheezed somewhere beneath the behemoth crushing him. “Get the hell off me! The shed’s gonna tear apart and leave us exposed.”
Roy was no longer trying to kill Louie—or at least the energy he was now expending wasn’t going to get the job done on its own. The big man was exhausted, laboring for breath on top of the smaller man. “Where’s all the… where’s that fuckin’ crashing sound coming from? Why’s the… why’s the shed still rocking?”
A giant bovine head smashed through the window and lodged in the frame. The raging beast thrashed, and the shed moved with it.
“Fuck me!” Roy screamed. The cow’s black nose poked at his leg and enveloped an entire boot in its mouth. Roy could feel the intense heat of it, the pressure of its teeth closed in around his ankle. “Its gonna eat my foot! Jesus Christ, Louie, make it stop!” He stared into the animal’s wet, dead eyes and struggled to pull free. A grey mist was clustered to the thing’s snout—crawling, swimming, moving up in snaking lines to the corners of its eyes, and down into the maw of its dripping mouth. Roy kicked with his free foot and felt something pop under his boot heel as it stuck inside one of the eye sockets. The creature made an enraged snorting noise, and black snot shot out of its nostrils, spraying across Roy’s pants.
“Get those pants off,” Louie wheezed. “The ticks are all over you!”
“I can’t! The thing’s going to tear my fucking leg off!”
Louie managed to work his hands up under Roy’s armpits. He braced his feet against one buckled wall and started to push. Roy sensed in his fear what he was trying to do and kicked at the cow’s face again. The heel jammed into its other eye, and Roy pushed back with all of his remaining strength. He heard the laces on his boot begin to snap against the teeth as his trapped foot started to pull free. The black slime on his pants was working its way towards his crotch.
The boot remained in the animal’s mouth, and Roy’s foot slid out. He unbuckled his belt and pushed down on the waistband of his pants with quivering hands. Both Roy and Louie squeezed up into a corner of the overturned shed. The cow coughed the boot out; its grey, swollen tongue whipped against the metal wall like a grounded fish. The wooden window frame began to splinter apart as more of the beast’s body pushed through the opening.
“We’re fucking dead,” Roy cried. He had pushed the tick-covered pants away, but it would only buy them a few more seconds. Something outside smashed up against the wall they were cowering against. Another enraged cow was pushing them towards the snapping jaws of the one jammed in the window frame.
Multiple gunshots fired from somewhere outside. Part of the cow’s head disappeared in a red spray and splattered against the metal wall inches from Roy and Louie. The snorting and snapping ceased. The cow went limp, its body settled onto the ground. Its head went still at an awkward angle still lodged in the window frame.
There were more gun shots, and the smashing behind them stopped. Whatever was ramming into their backs was as dead as the thing hanging in front of them. Louie continued counting the number of shots outside. Three, four, five… six. It was a heavy, thumping sound—more cannon than gun barrel. It had to be a powerful weapon indeed to tear open the thick skull of the dead cow in front of them. Finally the shooting ended, and Louie’s ears rang.
A woman’s muffled voice called out. “Is anybody in there?”
Another female voice responded. “Well something alive is definitely in there. Those infected cattle wouldn’t have tried tearing it apart if there wasn’t.”
Roy’s fat face was stuck up against Louie’s cheek. He whispered. “Should we answer?”
Louie shook his head adamantly. “Not yet. Listen.”
The voices continued mumbling for a few more moments, and then one of the women laughed. “It’s probably a stray cat, or maybe a racoon crawled in through the window. We wasted a lot of good ammunition on a critter. Let’s go.”