TORMENT (21 page)

“Friend of yours?”
Garbarino asked.

Austin could have recognized his panicky run. He’d seen it twice before. “He’s not one of them.”

“It’s him?” Mia asked, watching the man.

“Him, who?”
Collins asked.

“We saw him the first night,” Austin said. “They killed him.”

“They killed him?” Garbarino said, “But...” He looked at the faded, blue tarp.

One of the two bodies was sitting up beneath the tarp.

Garbarino jumped back, taking aim. “Shit!”

The group turned as one and took a collective step backwards.

“Oh my God,” Chang said.

After a moment of shock, Austin turned around, looking for the panicked man. He found him at the end of the driveway. He was out of breath, eyes wide, but no longer running. He met Austin’s eyes for just a moment and gave a slight tilt with his head that said,
follow me
.

“Up the driveway,” Austin said. “Follow him.”

The man ran from view.

“Go!” Austin shouted and the group listened, chasing after the man.

Austin stayed behind, listening to the woods. The approaching army was still a good distance off, but had somehow tracked them here.
They followed White
, he thought.
He knew we were heading north through the woods
.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Vanderwarf’s voice came from the tarp, hands lifted up and searching for a way out.

The form of White rose up next to her. “I’m sorry.”

“So am I,” Austin said.

At the sound of his voice, White and Vanderwarf began violently clawing at the tarp. The sounds of anguished weeping followed.

Austin silenced them again with two bullets and then chased after the others. He hoped it would be the last he saw of White or Vanderwarf, but at his core he knew he’d see them again.

25

The driveway wound through the woods for nearly a mile. Its circuitous route slowed their actual progress, but freedom from fallen branches and dead brush allowed them to move much faster, and in near silence. Before long, the snapping branches and chorus of voices behind them faded away.

The man who’d been murdered in the suburban driveway led them to a dirt road lined with tall, dead grass. Austin eyed it, weapon in hand. It would be the perfect place for an ambush.

But none came, and five miles later, when the group had settled into a steady pace, he holstered his weapon and focused on keeping the group together. Chang and Collins often lagged behind, asking for frequent breaks, but their guide never stopped. They all ate and drank on the go. Bathroom breaks were accomplished by two people running ahead, ducking behind a tree, and then rejoining the group as they passed.

After the sixth mile, Chang caught her second wind and walked with Mia, Austin and Liz. She watched the way their panicky guide would run ahead and then stop, looking back over his shoulder to make sure they were still following. “He’s like our own personal Gollum,” she said.

“Like in the swamp,” Liz added.

“You’ve seen Lord of the Rings?” Chang asked.

“Seen it?” the girl replied. “My mother read it to me.”

“That seems a little...odd,” Chang said.

“Why?”

“You’re like, what, eight?”

“Seven.”

“Exactly.”

“So?” Liz said
,
her voice filled with defiance. “I’m probably smarter than you.”

Chang laughed. “You might be right about that.”

“Keep it down Frodo and Bilbo,” Mia said.

Their guide had stopped up ahead when the brown dirt road turned black.

“The road’s paved,” Austin said.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Chang asked.

“No idea,” Austin said, “But the plan is to head north. And that’s north.” He took his handgun out again. “Let’s just be ready for anything.”

But no one was ready for what they saw upon reaching the blacktop. The pavement began at the crest of a hill that descended into a city surround by miles of suburban sprawl. Thick clouds, alive with heat lightning, hovered over the city, filling the air with a turbulent orange glow. The city itself was in ruins. Most of the buildings lay flattened, all leaning away from a massive impact crater created by a nuclear warhead that detonated a mile outside of town. Some of the buildings on the other side of town looked intact, but most had folded down like card houses.

Their guide shuffled away as they grew near, ever nervous, never trusting. But no one paid him any attention.

“Damn,” Garbarino said at the site. “This place got pancaked.”

“It’s not the last time we’ll see this,” Austin said. “Try not to let it get to you.”

“After the things we’ve seen already,” Paul said, “This is actually easier to swallow.”

“Wholesale destruction has nothing on the living dead,” Mark added.

“What’s wrong with the crater?” Mia asked.

“Other than the fact that the missile that created it killed all the people living in that town?”
Garbarino said.

“
Look
at it,” she insisted. While the rest of the bleak landscape appeared a horribly clear image, the crater looked as though it had been created by a pointillist painter. Stranger than that, the whole thing seemed to be—

“Moving,” Austin said.

“The whole thing,” added Collins. “What the devil? Is the ground melting?”

“Whatever it is,” Mia said, “We’re steering clear of it.”

Austin turned toward their guide, who began heading down the hill. “Where are you taking us?”

The man stopped, looking terrified that he’d been addressed. His whole body shook with each rapid fire breath. “Go,” he said. “Go now!” His voice cracked from fright.

“Where?”
Austin repeated. He didn’t know if he could trust this man anymore than the killer mob. Just because he hadn’t tried killing them yet, didn’t mean he wouldn’t later on, maybe after rejoining others like him.

“Away!”

Austin looked behind them. The dirt road stretched far into the distance, fading into thick forest. “There’s no one back there. We lost them.”

The man hobbled closer, shaking as he pointed back down the road. “They are coming. They are always coming.”

Austin turned to the road again. He saw nothing.
Heard nothing.
“You can see them?”

With a violent shake of his head, the man said, “I can feel them.” He pounded his chest. The impact of his own fist made him flail in anguish. He spun around, as though trying to escape himself, and fell on the ground. As quickly as he fell, the man was back to his bare feet and moving down the hill. “Down is away.
Away.
Always away!”

This time he didn’t look back or wait for them to catch up.

“You’re not going to the crater?” Austin shouted after him.

The man shook his head so hard and nearly fell down the hill.

“C’mon,” Mia said, and followed after the man.

“What if it’s a trap?” Garbarino asked.

“You want to go back?” Mia said.

No one did. They followed the man down the hill. Twenty minutes later, they entered the city. The clouds overhead moved slowly across the sky, pulsing with energy. Beneath them, the temperature felt ten degrees hotter.

Walking through the city streets, Chang began to cry. Businesses, homes and apartment buildings alike had all fallen toward the east, shoved over by the massive explosion.

“You’re crying now?” Garbarino said.

Mia put a hand on his shoulder. “Ease up.”

“I’m not ragging on her,” he said. “I just don’t get it.”

Chang sniffed away her tears. “It’s just sad, you know? People lived here.” She pointed to the sign of a mom and pop bookstore.
“Built their dreams here.
Raised their children.
It wasn’t just their lives that were taken, if was life in general. It’s all just gone now.”

Garbarino stopped in his tracks.

Austin stopped, on edge. “What is it?”

“The bodies,” Garbarino said. “Where are all the bodies?”

He motioned to the empty street. “No one was out walking their dog? Or riding their bike?” He approached the wreck of a car in the middle of the street. The vehicle stood empty. “Or driving to work? The bodies are all gone.”

Mia searched the city around them. He was right. They hadn’t seen a single dead body since stepping off the EEP.

“Where are all the bodies?” he asked again.

A distant roar rolled over them, like a low cord on a cello mixed with a high pitched scratch. The sound had a physical effect on their bodies. Most got goose bumps from head to toe. Liz wet herself. Collins gripped his chest and fell to one knee, breathing in gulps. Chang’s crying became a blubbering mess of tears and whimpers.

Up ahead, their guide, who had continued on without them, screamed as though pierced by a sword. He flailed on the ground, wailing and clawing at the pavement. After bloodying himself, his senses returned enough for him to crawl off the street. Once back on his feet he ran toward a convenience store that still stood.

Mia picked up Liz and instinctively chased after the man. Something else was in the city. Something that made her
feel
a level of dread she didn’t know was possible. The others followed in silence.

“I peed,” Liz whispered.

“It’s okay, baby,” Mia said, holding the girl tight. “It’s okay.”

Though all the windows were blown out, the metal cage that kept burglars out was down and locked in place. They entered through the broken front door and worked quickly to blockade it with a floor display, an ATM machine and a smoothie maker. After finishing, they retreated to the back of the store and sat, hidden behind an aisle of cereal, potatoes chips and beef jerky.

It wasn’t until they were all safely hidden that Austin noticed their guide was tucked in along with them.
Like he was one of them.

But he wasn’t. The man shook with perpetual fear. His nearly naked body was covered in dry blood and grime. And he stunk like something dead. But he could talk, so Austin asked him the only question on his mind right now. “What’s out there?”

A shudder ran through the man’s body. “No name...no...
A hunter.
Delights in pain.
Delights in pain.”

Delights in pain
.

The words triggered a memory in Mia’s mind. She looked at the man anew, seeing past the dirt and blood, really seeing his features for the first time. She imagined a pair of round wire-rimmed glasses on his face. “Shit,” she whispered.