“Barricade the door,” he yelled as he stormed out, following Careen. A pair of perfect-looking, perfect idiots. I was furious, my thoughts harried and weakening. What was he trying to prove? I dragged a chair over and jammed it under the door. I then started my nervous pacing around the room, every now and then peeking out the window.
I couldn’t see anything and apart from the initial scream, there was no sound. I tapped the glass nervously with my newly grown back nails.
Click, click, click.
Grabbing the torch, I scanned the backyard, then went to the front yard and did the same. The thin stream of light barely managed to harass the darkness out of the way so I could see one snippet of a scene. I did this for about half an hour, gripping Orry close and trying to breathe. As I walked, I got angrier and angrier, feeling flames wrapping around me and heating my temper. If he wasn’t dead, I was going to kill him.
On my rounds of poking the torch out the window, something flagged in the corner of the small shaft of light. A paw. It stopped dead in the torchlight like it was a solid barrier. The creature was a still as stone but in the cold I could see mist floating away from its muzzle. I moved the torch inch by inch over its body as slowly as I could, the light shaking and dancing with the trembling of my hands.
It was the strangest creature I had seen yet. Its flame-orange fur pooled in its chest and then fanned out in a diluted white and orange spray. Along its back, black stripes ran like jagged scratches, hugging its ribcage. The black and orange markings spread all the way down to a fluffy, long tail that was only slightly shifting under the light. It was enormous.
It had been facing forward up until now, its long body pointing towards the other homes, its face focused on something further away. I flicked the torch light behind it, discovering several other paws, under several other tall, muscular creatures. There were five of them. When I came back to the leader, it turned and seemed to be looking directly at me. My heart stopped. I swear its ears reacted to the change in my heartbeat. It knew there was blood flowing through my veins. I could feel it pumping hard and inviting this terrible creature closer.
It opened its mouth wide and I could see the damaging fangs. It didn’t roar—it yawned. Had it had its fill? The idea made me feel sick. That man, that poor man.
A shot cracked open the silence and the animal started running. I held my breath as they turned and ran through the gap between our house and our neighbors. They went file like foot soldiers in ineffectual camouflage. My gaze connected with the man that lived next door, his eyes unblinking and wide with fear in the window across from ours.
They padded through noiselessly, a whisk of orange and white blur, and they were gone.
The entire house shuddered in relief. But I couldn’t un-see that scene. Now I knew they were out there.
The door rattled and I jumped. Fervent knocking startled me to action. No animal was going to politely knock at the door. I let out a hysterical laugh at the thought of it. ‘Excuse me, would you mind terribly if I came in and ate you?’
“Rosa, open up.” Joseph’s voice was ragged. I knew he had to be alive. Somehow, I thought I would have to feel something if he were really in trouble.
I opened the door and several men pushed past me, dragging what I assume used to be a person under what was left of his arms. I gagged involuntarily.
They laid him down. He stared at the ceiling, a barely audible whimper coming from his bluish lips. How he was alive, I’ll never know. I wondered whether will took over at that point. His body was devastated. There were parts of him that didn’t look human, straggly streams of torn flesh attached to his body, or protruded out of his shredded pant leg. Anyone could tell he was a dead man. He must have been hanging on to life by sheer force of will.
Let go, I thought.
The men stood around him in a broken semi-circle, bewildered looks on their faces, gripping their guns like they were teddy bears.
I watched Joseph calmly and methodically move around his patient, wrapping up his wounds, compressing bleeders. All the while, talking to the man in reassuring whispers. It gave me insight into what he was capable of, his talent and his strength. If it was possible, it made me love him more.
He looked up, his eyes piercing and focused. “Has anyone called the hospital?”
One of the men stepped forward. “He won’t survive.”
Joseph’s broad back shivered. The acceptance was in his face but when he looked at the man, he spoke comforting words.
Joseph put his hand to his forehead like he was trying to read something in his head. He rolled up a jacket and placed it under the man’s head. Reaching into his small medical bag, he pulled out a syringe, loading it with clear fluid.
“For the pain,” he said.
The man took his one good arm and crawled it to his chest with his fingertips, finding the pledge charm and gripping it tightly. His dark face was going grey as the blood drained from his body.
I kneeled down at his head, trying not to look at the rest of him, just his face. His eyes rolled around but when he found mine, they locked onto them. “Marina? Marina,” he gurgled, blood pooling in his mouth.
I nodded. I would be Marina. I stroked his hair
He stared at me and I could see a smile crossing his lips as he breathed out once and never breathed back in.
It took the men, Careen, and I a couple of hours to clean up the blood. I made them cups of tea and tried to keep them in the house but they were anxious to get back out there. They wanted to make sure everyone was safe and then report to the town leaders.
Joseph was in shock. After his efforts, he’d collapsed in a chair and hadn’t moved since. His face was pale, with his shirt rolled up to his elbows and crusted with blood. His eyes stared vacantly off into space.
After everyone left and Orry was settled, I turned my attention to Joseph. He was shaking a little, a dark look on his face. I tugged his sleeves down over his wrists, running my finger along the old, scooped-out scar on his forearm. I gently pulled the blood-soaked shirt over his head and tried to put a new one on.
He grabbed both my wrists tightly and shook me once. He stared at me intensely, his green eyes swirling and slightly wild.
“Just leave it,” he whispered almost angrily and pulled me into his arms roughly. I balled the shirt into my fist and threw it on the floor.
I curled up in his lap and pressed my ear to his chest, listening to his heart beating so fast I thought it would wear out. I slowly moved my hand in circles across his skin until his breathing slowed. We fell asleep in the chair. Both reminded that we were not protected and that even though we were in a house, this was the wilderness. We were prey.
The day after our encounter with the tigers, we were summoned to a meeting at the movie theater. Although to me, it seemed more like we had walked into the middle of an argument. I wondered if this was how they ran things? It almost made me miss the rigid order of the Superiors. At least they just got on with things. These people were talking in circles.
Five people sat on the stage behind a low desk covered by a frayed tablecloth. A podium was set up facing them, where people were taking turns addressing the leaders. It was a mess of yelling, swearing, and heated emotions. What I could gather was people were upset about the tigers and they were thinking of moving the ‘plan’ date forward. It felt like I’d flipped open to the middle of a book. I could read the words, get a sense of the action, but had no idea why they were doing what they were doing. As they talked though, things started to clear.