Wolfen (4 page)

Rather than answer Isaac, Nate pressed the weapon into
Sinna’s hand. The safety was on. Good thing, otherwise she would have put it to
Nate’s forehead and fired.

“Keep the safety on unless you hear something, understood?”

Calm, calm, calm.
Sinna turned on her heel and headed
for the cluster of stores some thirty yards away.

After a confused moment, David followed. “He gave you a
gun,” he said, when they were far enough away from the group.

“You want it?” she offered.

“No!” He nervously shifted his glasses a fraction of an
inch. He was just nearsighted enough to make him a liability with a weapon.
“No, ah, you can keep it.”

They came up on a corner convenience store with broken-out
windows and a mess of looted shelves and garbage inside. After so long, Sinna didn’t
hold out hope for anything still edible, but then again, her standards for what
constituted edible had lowered considerably over the last decade.

Keeping an eye out for movement in the shadows, she stepped
in with her toes first. “You know what to look for, right?”

David nodded. He was twitchy.

“Here, help me move this.” Sinna stuffed the gun into her
waistband, took hold of a toppled shelf and, together with David, righted it to
get at what lay underneath.

Party supplies.

Well, that would be awesome if someone had a birthday.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t eat plastic spoons. Sinna grabbed the pack of
plastic cups, though. She could make a water filter with those, something
they’d definitely need.

“There’s nothing here,” David said from behind the register.
“Not even a shotgun. What kind of convenience store doesn’t have a shotgun?”

“Probably one of the first things to be taken.”

No food, no water, no flashlights, batteries, or matches.
“You want to check the storage?”

David made a face. “Not particularly.”

Considering the door had been torn off its hinges and was
surrounded by old blood stains on the wall, he was probably right. “Okay,
moving on.”

At least the other stores were of some use. They found a
couple of long-expired protein bars and a can that oozed out juice when they
opened it. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. They ate what they could. Wouldn’t
have been enough for everyone anyway, and Sinna refused to share with Nate and
Connor.

They scored big in the athletics store, however.

The storage room had been another massacre site. Closable
doors made for tempting hiding places, but unless that door was metal and
weighed a ton, it didn’t hold up well against Grays. Whatever happened here had
happened a long time ago. No trace of any bodies remained.

They did find several blood-stained shipping boxes, though.
Sinna exchanged a look with David, and they dug in, scouring what could be of
use. One box held about a hundred pairs of cargo pants. Sinna didn’t wait for
an invitation; she found a pair that might fit, and changed right then and
there. She wasn’t the bashful type, and besides, David was too busy doing the
same thing to notice her pasty bare legs.

The next box had shoes still wrapped in their original
plastics. Sinna gave a cry of delight and tossed out pair after pair of
ankle-high black hiking boots, searching for the right size. Unfortunately,
they were all the same: made for men, and a size and a half too big. Still,
they were better than the ratty ones she had on now. She kicked them off and
wriggled her toes before stuffing them into the new pair. Never before had she
been so grateful for old world craftsmanship.

David found a whole crateful of coiled climbing rope in the
last box. He shrugged. “Never know when it might come in handy.” They each
looped two coils over their shoulders and carried a third. Their collective
loot was as good as Christmas morning, and they were grinning on their way out,
when Sinna stopped. Her gaze had snared on a female mannequin set up in canoe
hanging from the ceiling, dressed in a decent-looking gray jacket and an
inflatable vest.

David squinted up at it. “Looks to be about your size. Then
again, it could be an elephant for all I know, so don’t go by me.”

“Gimme a boost,” she said.

“Are you serious?”

She shrugged. “Why not?”

“Why no—okay, fine.”

They set everything down, and David knelt, locking his
fingers together, expecting her to step into them. Instead, Sinna rearranged
him with his back to the pillar, then climbed onto his shoulders. “Can you stand
up?”

“No!”

“Oh, don’t be a baby. Just push.”

He made a sound like a dying giraffe, but he did manage to
push to his feet and, braced back against the pillar, held steady. Sinna
reached out as far as she could. Her fingers just touched the canoe.

“It won’t work. We’re too far.”

“Have faith, young buck. I can do this.” She pushed the hull
to get it swinging. When it came back, she pushed harder. Little by little, it
swung just enough to jar the mannequin, and on the next pass, she grabbed the
arm now hanging over the side, and pulled. The mannequin, Sinna, and David all
came tumbling down. It wasn’t a soft landing, but when she caught her breath,
Sinna couldn’t help laughing.

David groaned. “I hope your new wardrobe is freaking worth
dying for. Grays would have heard that for miles.” He hadn’t seen enough of
them to know about their poor hearing. Sinna chose not to enlighten him.

Sitting up, she divested her war prize of the inflatable
vest and the coveted jacket. Underneath, it wore a T-shirt made of that fun,
quick-drying material. Sinna took that, too.

David gathered up their gear as she changed, but, being a
man, he couldn’t resist a peek. By then, she’d already donned the T-shirt, and
his gaze caught on her silver cuff. “What is that?” he asked.

Sinna’s face momentarily flushed hot, then turned very, very
cold. She rubbed the metal, warmed from her skin, and shrugged on her new
jacket to hide it. “A memory,” she said, considering the subject closed.

But David was a curious one. “Not a lot of people walking
around decked out for a party. Where’d you get it?”

The thing had weighted down her wrist for three years. Sinna
had gotten so used to its presence, she rarely thought about it anymore. She’d
hidden it from the others at first, afraid someone would try to take it from
her. Then the candles had run out, their numbers had thinned, and in the cold,
dark rectory, with her long sleeves rolled down to her fingers for warmth most
of the time, no one had noticed. No one had cared.

And Sinna had let herself forget.

Gerry.

The pang of her memory almost doubled Sinna over. How could
she have forgotten? “It was a gift, okay? Now let it go. The others are
waiting.”

“Touchy subject? That means boyfriend, right? That’s a man’s
cuff, if I’m not mistaken. It’s too big for your arm; not supposed to overlap
like that. So, what’s his name?”

Sinna ignored him. She took up the ropes again, and headed
out, leaving him to follow or be left behind.

“Nice threads,” Isaac praised when they got back. “You look
like Miz Rambo in that get-up.” He was sitting on the ground with Amy and Matt,
resting his legs. Nate and Connor stood guard. Both looked none too happy to
see Sinna and David come back empty handed.

“Sorry,” Sinna told Nate. “I would have shopped for you, but
I didn’t know your size.”

He didn’t answer, merely nudged his chin toward David for
his report.

“Nothing,” David said, keeping their two measly protein bars
to himself. “At least nothing we’d want to eat.” He handed over two coils of
rope to Nate, who gave one to Isaac and one to Amy. Connor took two from Sinna,
keeping one for himself and giving the other to Nate. Such a well-coordinated
team of psychopaths.

“At least we tried,” Nate begrudged, and looked Sinna over
from head to toe. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she definitely
did not like it, especially when he held his hand out for his gun.

Sinna hefted the weapon, then stuck it into her waistband
behind her back. “You know, I think I’ll keep it.”

“Sinna.”

“Nate.”

His cheek twitched, and his upper lip drew back in a snarl.
Maybe if she didn’t have the gun and her new, kickass comfortable shoes, his
intimidation might have worked. But compared to the other monsters running the
city in packs, Nate was nothing. And there was no way in this world, or in any
other, she would hand over a weapon to someone who neither needed it, nor had
any inclination to defend them with it.

“It’s smart, Nate,” Isaac said. “As long as we have guns, we
should spread ‘em around. More people shooting means less people dying.”

“She should keep it,” Amy agreed, surprising them all. “And
if you have more, I want one, too.”

“What’s the point?” Connor said. “You don’t know how to
shoot it, anyway.”

“Oh, and you do?” David returned. “Why should the two of you
have all the weapons? Like you’ll keep us safe if shit hits the fan, the way
you did with Tam?”

“Look what you’re doing,” Nate told Sinna, voice low so the
others wouldn’t hear him over their own arguments. “This is why I kept it to
myself. We can’t afford this kind of dissent among the ranks.”

“We’re not your ranks,” she growled.

“Is this because of Tam? I
told
you—”

“It’s because I finally see what a self-serving bastard you
are,” she snapped, her own voice rising beyond a safe level. “Why
would
I trust you with more guns? You want to prove you’re still the good guy? Now’s
your chance. Empty your pockets and spread the wealth around. Let’s see what
else you’re packing!”

Somewhere out there, a Gray screeched into the sky.

Everyone fell silent.

The wind shifted in odd patterns through the city, coming
from all different directions, swirling and turbulent, which made tracking by
scent difficult. But Grays were born hunters; they lived for little else, and
it wouldn’t take much for them to latch onto a scent.

As the seconds ticked by, Sinna stared down one street in
particular. She couldn’t be sure that was where the sound had come from, but
something
was out there, and it was headed this way. She held her breath, strained her
ears for any hint of sound, but was met with only silence.

“Enough,” Nate finally said, clutching that big gun of his
like a security blanket. “We need to keep moving.”

So they did.

He never emptied his pockets—nobody pushed for it—but he
didn’t take Sinna’s handgun away from her, either.

They headed into what used to be the downtown financial
district. From one block to another, massive skyscrapers stretched toward the
sky, obscuring the landscape and casting long shadows. Nate and Connor scouted
the way, their earlier formation forgotten. The rest of them followed as fast
as they could manage. Just as Sinna had predicted: when push came to shove, the
strong left the weak behind.

David had no trouble. Amy, holding Matt’s hand, came right
behind him. But Isaac struggled, half-skipping, half-hopping, with Sinna
supporting him on his good side.

“Go on with you, girl. I’ll be awright.”

She dragged her gaze from the empty street behind to glare
at him. “Keep hobbling, old man.” Shouldering more of his weight, Sinna picked
up their pace. A considerable gap had grown between them and the others, and
although David and Amy kept turning to check on their progress, they didn’t
slow.

Then, suddenly, Amy did a double take. “Mother of heaven…”

Sinna spun around to look, making Isaac almost fall over,
and she whimpered at the sight of a pack of Grays lumbering six blocks down the
street. Eight emaciated figures weaving back and forth. More than Nate and
Connor could handle on their best day, fully armed.

Isaac sighed. “You go on, Sinna. I can hold ‘em back some.”

“Not happening,” she growled, and spun back so fast, Isaac
had no time to prepare. His cry of pain bounced off the walls, amplified
tenfold, but he bore down and fought to keep up with Sinna as they hurried
after the others.

“In here!” Nate called, waving them inside a building.

“Come on, Isaac. You can make it, I know you can. Let’s go!”

Behind them, the first screech rent the air, followed by another,
and then a third—a chorus that could freeze a person’s blood. Without glancing
back, Sinna knew they’d caught on. The Grays would be running for them now.
Adrenaline flooded her veins, and with that extra shot of strength, she
narrowed her focus on her target and jogged the last few yards into the
building, half-carrying Isaac.

As they crossed the threshold, her heart fell. Nate had
chosen poorly; this wasn’t the shelter they needed. An empty, wide-open lobby
with broken-out glass doors and a security desk built into the floor? Some
debris and random furniture littered the marble tiles, but nothing big enough
to barricade the doors. Nate and Connor ran back and forth, looking for a way
through or out, but aside from a flimsy door leading to a stairwell, which
would bottleneck and kill them faster, they were trapped like rats.

Sinna could hear the Grays now. They’d grown quiet vocally,
but their footsteps pounded like drums in Sinna’s ears. If she strained, she
could make out their movements; the moment they split up, several sets growing
fainter as the others neared.

Closer.

Closer…

“Nate! Over here!”

They all hurried to Connor’s side. He was trying to pry open
an elevator door with a piece of pipe. Even with his strength, he couldn’t budge
the counterweight on his own. Nate slung the rifle over his back and picked up
a rough piece of broken metal to help him. “David,” he said, “get the rope
ready. Sinna, you take out that goddamn gun and get ready to shoot!”

Sinna nodded, facing the front, waiting for the Grays to
show. Somehow, Nate and Connor managed to pry the door open a foot and a half,
and propped it that way. It was a damned tight fit. Nate leaned in, looking up
and down. He swore. “We’re gonna have to climb.”

“What?” David said.

“Aw hell, I’m done for,” Isaac muttered.

“The elevator cab is only two stories down. We can make it.
We’ll go down and find another way out. With any luck, we’ll lose them in the
confusion.”

“Yeah,” Connor said. “Magic.”

“David, the rope!”

David dropped his bat to uncoil the rope he wore.

“There’s a ladder to the left,” Nate said. “You’ll have to
step all the way to the edge and lean far in to reach it, but it’s there.”

Sinna looked over her shoulder. Nate’s arms were longer, so
he looped the rope through the rungs, then stepped back to let David get in
closer, holding onto him as the teacher followed Nate’s instructions to reach
the ladder.

“Eyes front, Sinna!” Nate snapped.

She obeyed, but backed up toward them so she could see the
elevator shaft for herself.

Oh, my God.
A pitch-black hole straight down, and
they had no light. Sinna’s heart pounded as David reached for the ladder, and
missed. Amy cried out, and Sinna nearly died when his foot slipped off the
edge, but Nate held him fast, telling him how to move.

“All the way to the edge,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ve got
you.”

David turned sideways, one foot on solid ground and the
other hanging over the abyss as he strained for the rung. “Got it!”

Sinna’s knees locked and her mouth went bone dry as Nate let
go of David, letting him disappear into the darkness. They listened for
trouble, but only a subtle thud met their ears when David landed on the cab
roof. “Made it!” he called back, and his voice sounded so far away…

Two stories? Might as well have been fifty thousand leagues.

Matt went next, sliding into the opening with ease, and
Sinna started to shiver, gun arm going limp at her side. “I can’t do this,” she
said numbly. The darkness, the forever way down.

No light except for a tiny green blink so far up, she wasn’t
even sure it was real. Sinna remembered that climb up to the surface of
Chernobyl with perfect clarity. Gerry had been shaking with strain and fatigue
halfway up, so Sinna had to climb on her own, one rung at a time.
Keep
always looking up. See the light, your guiding star. The dark at the bottom is
where the monsters are.

The faint scar on her arm throbbed with the memory of pain.
She couldn’t remember the details of that day, but she did remember the
screaming.

It’s happening all over again!

Sinna couldn’t take another step toward that elevator shaft.

Grays closing in, scraping against the tinted glass panes in
the corner.

Amy down the hole. Gone.

Nate tied the rope around Isaac to help lower him down. Then
Connor disappeared into the darkness. Nate waved Sinna over, but she couldn’t
move. The world was shaking—no, she was. Her body felt so light, if someone
nudged her, she’d float away. But her feet felt huge and rooted to the spot.

“
Move!
” Nate snapped, and she flinched.

Finally, her feet moved—they had to. She came right up to
the edge of the elevator and glanced down. Nothing. Just an endless abyss, and
all of her friends lost inside it
. I might never see them again. Them, or
anything else.
Blind little moles, scurrying around in the dark. Hiding,
whispering, hoping the monsters wouldn’t hear.

Nate tried to tie the rope around her, but Sinna pushed him
away. “No!”

“We don’t have time for this, Sinna!”

The next screech sounded just outside the door and Sinna got
her first glimpse of the pack’s leader up close. Definitely male—Grays didn’t
wear clothes. He walked with his head canted forward to better scent the air,
his body comprised of little more than skin and bones. But his eyes were
piercing, ravenous, with a vast, gaping emptiness and a terrible hunger to fill
it. His gray skin was mottled with bite marks and open sores; there were chunks
missing from his sinewy flesh. A patch of long, dark hair fell over his face in
disgusting blood-drenched strands. His teeth were bigger than the usual Gray’s;
he couldn’t press his lips closed. And his claws… God, she’d never seen
anything so monstrous.

Sinna stood transfixed by the sight of him.
This is how I
die…
Fitting. The concept of Karma in practical application—

Nate gave her shoulders a hard shake. “We’ll do this
together. Come on, it’s easy. Nothing to it.” He squeezed through the door,
stepped onto the ladder, and held his hand out for her.

A snarl. Three more Grays behind the leader pushed to get
in, but he wouldn’t let them, still scenting the air for his prey.

Monsters behind her. Blackness of hell beckoning ahead.

I can’t do this.

“Sinna, move!” Nate hissed.

I can’t!
Shaking, terrified, she looked Nate in the
eye. He nodded, ready to climb down with her. She was only a few inches away,
and the Grays were holding back. They could make it.

But as Sinna toed the edge, she couldn’t take her gaze off
the tips of her feet, already dipped in shadow. The rusted pipe bracing the
doors open held on by the grace of good luck a half-inch above her shoes.
Staring at the orange patterns of corrosion, Sinna’s haze of terror lifted for
one brief moment.

The pipe.

Nate had to lean far to the side, jeopardizing his own
balance to help her; he couldn’t dislodge the pipe from that angle. Even if
they made it down to another floor and found a way out, if this door didn’t
close, the Grays would only follow. They were fast; there’d be no chance of
escape.

“What’s going on up there?” David called. “Nate? Come on!”

The Grays’ leader growled, feet smacking the marble floor as
he stepped into the lobby. His pack spread out around him.

Again, Sinna met Nate’s gaze.

He must have read something in her expression. His own eyes
widened and he shook his head. “Don’t…”

Sinna shifted back a half-step.

Nate launched forward, trying to grab onto her, but his
fingers skimmed her jacket sleeve instead. The desperate lunge cost him his
balance; his foothold slipped, and he slammed hard against the metal ladder. “
Sinna!
”
He righted himself and, instead of going down, climbed higher to try again,
wasting precious seconds on a lost cause. Sinna couldn’t let him risk them all.
Not for her.

“Good bye.” She kicked in the pipe and the counterweight
forced the door shut, just as the Grays broke into an awkward lope.

Sinna spun on her toes and ran toward the back of the
building. Behind the elevator bank, the wide hallway branched off in a T, the
left one ending abruptly in a set of restrooms. She stumbled to a halt, turned
quickly, and dashed off the other way. The Grays had reached the elevator,
screeching and snarling, claws scraping at the smooth metal doors where the
scent of their prey was strongest.
They’re animals,
she reminded
herself. They couldn’t use tools, and wouldn’t be able to fit their claws into
the door seam to pry it open. The others were safe, but the Grays wouldn’t hang
around forever. They’d give up on that lost cause and come for her.

And there was nowhere to hide! Nothing but small utility
closets and a dead end. Not even a ceiling air shaft—nothing! Heart in her
throat, Sinna reached the very end of the hallway and pounded on the wall.
Solid concrete. No way out.

Shaking with excess energy, she turned and spotted a small
open window high up, halfway back toward the main lobby. Could she make it?
Do
I have a choice?

She took the chance.

But three running steps into her attempt, she skidded to a
halt and froze.

Five Grays rounded the corner, heads canted forward to scent
the air. They were horrifying creatures with half-rotted skin covered in scars
and scabs stretching over their bones to the breaking point. The front two had
broken claws. Another was missing an eye. The fourth, a female, had only one
breast, with the left side of her chest torn open to expose her ribs and lung.
Sickening green saliva dripped from their mouths. The female dribbled onto her
chest, shaking herself every so often as if the acid hurt her open wound.

Sinna didn’t dare move. The Grays were in no hurry to
advance, perceiving an end to the path. The anticipation probably whetted their
appetites. Claws flaring and curling, they shuffled closer, step by uneven
step. It was meant to mislead. They were capable of mind boggling speeds; they
could run six blocks in less than two minutes.

Sinna looked at the gun in her hand. She could empty the
magazine into them, and it would only piss them off. These creatures didn’t
feel pain like humans did, and they were incredibly difficult to kill. Severing
the spine was just about the only thing that could keep them down long enough
to possibly bleed out. Had Nate known that? Was that why he’d tried to get them
to hide, rather than open fire with his assault rifle? Did he even have any
bullets left?

She sobbed a chuckle. What the hell did any of that matter?

I’m coming, Gerry. I’m coming home.

She could almost see her den mother smile at her.
Not
yet, baby girl.

Sniffling back tears, wiping her nose on her nice, clean
jacket, Sinna resolutely raised the gun to her temple.
Yes. Now.
It was
time.

Eyes squeezed shut, she tried to recall her happiest memory.
The Grays would not be her last sight on this Earth. She wanted to go out with
a smile on her face. She remembered Beethoven’s
Tempest
, a song that
always reminded her of Victorian costumes and the gleaming parquet floors of a
ballroom. Not that she knew what parquet looked like. With the melody in mind,
Sinna pressed the barrel harder into her temple, finger quivering on the
trigger.

But she couldn’t pull it.

The Grays shuffled close enough for her to smell their rank
breath, to hear their claws clicking on the marble floor. And still she
couldn’t do it. One’s chin brushed her shoulder, pressed its nose to her skin
as it sucked in a harsh breath, and huffed it back out against her neck. She
squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
Shoot! End it!

Her hand refused to obey.

A low growl rumbled in her ear, leathery skin grazed the
knuckles of her free hand.

Sinna whimpered, recoiling.