Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (16 page)

Nowen turned away from the window and thought.
Where did he come from? Could be a back door in this place. But where?
She examined the layout of the house that she could see. The kitchen didn’t seem likely, and the living room and bedroom were out. The hallway, dark and cluttered, extended past the bedroom. She headed that way.

A muffled thump stopped her in her tracks as she passed the stairs. Nowen looked up the gloomy passage. She listened; the house was dead quiet. She laid a hand on the scuffed banister and took a breath.
What are you doing? Trying to prove that you’re not afraid?
“No,” she whispered. “I am afraid.”
Then what? What is the point of this?
“To prove that I don’t need the wolf to be brave.”

The first step onto the worn green stairs was the hardest. Her hand held the banister in a death grip, and she had to concentrate on making each finger relax before she could move up to the next step. She kept her gaze on her bare feet as each tread slipped underneath until she reached the landing. She raised her head and looked at the door.

It opened easily at her touch, swinging inward on silent hinges. This room, another bedroom, was immaculate. The paint and the curtains were faded but clean. There was no clutter, no junk. Just a vanity with a mirror, an old wooden dresser, a nightstand with a simple lamp on it, and the Rev standing next to the bed.

Nowen’s heart slammed in her chest. She groped behind her with one hand, terrified that the door might have closed and she would be trapped in this room. She heard a slight metallic sound, and then she saw the chain that led from the bed to the Rev’s waist. Her heartbeat slowed and she looked more closely at the Rev.

The Rev was an old woman. She swayed where she stood, turned three-quarters away from the open door. Her hair was long and silver-white, neatly brushed. A bright pink bow perched atop her head. She wore a clean floral-patterned housedress, and her bare feet and arms were a mottled, moldy, green-grey color.

The Rev twitched violently. A muted moan, hardly more than the breath of a whisper, came from the undead woman. Her head jerked to the side, and Nowen took a step back. The Rev didn’t see her, but Nowen could see more of the Rev’s face. The wrinkled visage was the same unnatural color as her limbs, but unlike all the other Revs Nowen had seen, the old woman’s face was clean of blood, bile, - all the nastiness that normally accumulated on a Rev.
She’s cared for.

The creak of a footstep on the stairs behind her brushed across her ears.

She could feel the presence, hear the soft breathing. There was a sound of metal on metal, like a trigger being eased back. She didn’t know what to say.

And then, simply, she did.

“What’s her name?” she whispered.

“Lillian.” Eli said.

Nowen nodded. “How long have you been married?”

The old man moved up next to her. “Fifty-seven years last month. Oh, she was the most beautiful gal in three states. And when I asked her to marry me, and she said yes...” His creaky voice trailed off.

Nowen watched as Lillian snapped absently at nothing, her sunken lips flapping over bare gums. She looked down at Eli. The shogun drooped in his hands as he watched his wife. “I’m sorry.” Nowen said.

Eli sniffled. He stepped back from the door and Nowen followed. He eased the door shut and then stood for a moment with one hand flat against the wood surface.

When he faced Nowen defiance was in every line of his face. “I ain’t crazy,” he said, “and I know that Lillian ain’t alive. But she’s my wife, and I love her. And I aim to take care of her as long I’m able. Any questions?” His sky-blue eyes defied her to say something.

Nowen looked at him. She nodded. “Where’s the bathroom?”

Nowen’s attempt to get more rest was fitful and full of dreams that were memories of the wolf. After Nowen jerked awake for the fourth time in two hours, violently kicked out of sleep by a hazy remembrance of something horrible Vuk had done to the wolf, she gave up and climbed out of bed. The wind had picked up, rattling under the eaves and driving chill wind into the room. The smell of cooking food led her down the hall. Eli was hunched over a propane camping stove, stirring a pot of something. He looked up at her footsteps and grinned, flashing his bare gums. “Hungry?” he said, and ladled what turned out to be a surprisingly-good chicken soup into a bowl that was only a little dusty. By the time the scent of food drew Suzannah and Sage out of sleep and into the kitchen. Nowen was on her second bowl.

Lunch passed in a companionable silence, broken only by murmurs of enjoyment and thanks. The muffled thumping came from above a couple of times. On the second occurrence Suzannah opened her mouth to say something and Nowen kicked her under the table, shaking her head slightly when the red-haired woman looked at her angrily. Suzannah returned to her meal, and Nowen glanced at Sage. The girl returned her gaze calmly, seemingly unperturbed.

The meal over, Nowen asked Eli if he minded if she searched through the clothes in the bedroom for something else to wear. He nodded yes, and Nowen, with a quick look at Suzannah and Sage, went back to the bedroom. The girl and the woman soon followed.

Nowen sat on the bed with Sage beside her and Suzannah back by the door. The red-haired woman crossed her arms and glared. “What the hell was that at the table?” she asked.

How much do I tell them? The truth?
Nowen chewed on her bottom lip.
Well, why not?
“I saw Eli’s wife earlier.” she said. “She’s a Rev.” Next to her Sage drew in a quick breath but said nothing. Suzannah’s eyes grew bigger and bigger and her jaw dropped. Nowen continued, quickly. “She’s not a threat. Eli has her chained to the bed.”

Sage tugged on Nowen’s hand. “What’s her name?”

“Lillian. Eli takes care of her; he keeps her clean, brushes her hair, changes her clothes...”

“How does he do all that without Lillian biting him?” The girl’s dark eyes shimmered with interest, like a child at the zoo.

Nowen found herself smiling. “She has no teeth. You’ve noticed that Eli doesn’t have teeth, right? Well, neither does Lillian. I think she tries to attack him, but he manages to avoid any serious injury. See, they were married a long time, and he still loves her-”

“Loves her!” Suzannah’s words exploded into the room. “What the fuck is this shit?! That crazy old man has a CZ, or Rev, or fuckin’ zombie - whatever the hell you want to call it - upstairs, and you two sit there smiling and acting like you’re watching a Hallmark movie!”

Nowen frowned. “Hallmark movie?” she asked, puzzled at the reference, but Suzannah was on a roll and ignored her.

“Jesus H. Christ, you’re all as nuts as that old man.Stay here with the zombie and be a happy family - I’m getting out of here!” The red-haired woman rose and reached for the door knob.

“Suzannah, no! Don’t go!” Sage cried, launching herself from the bed and racing over to the woman.

She’s bluffing. She’s scared, and doesn’t know what to do.
“Suzannah. Please, listen to me.” Nowen said. Suzannah slowly turned around, one arm around the girl, one arm tucked behind her. The woman’s pale green eyes were blank and far away. “Lillian is old, and thin, and toothless. She’s chained up, behind a closed door. She’s no threat, really.”

Suzannah looked at Nowen, and for a second, no more, there was a well of deep and lasting loss in her eyes. Then the red-haired woman blinked and the brash, confrontational look was back. She pulled her other arm from behind her and wrapped it around Sage. “Look,” she sighed, “I’m not a coward. But neither am I dumb. I...lost some people last year, when the Flux spread and the CZs started walking.” Suzannah paused, looking down at Sage’s russet curls. She laid one hand gently on the girl’s head. “They’re dangerous, and I don’t want to spend any more time near one, no matter how “unthreatening” they may be. I’ll stick around a little more.” Now she raised her eyes and speared Nowen with her gaze. “But not much more.”

Nowen nodded slowly. “I agree. We need to move on; we’re too close to New Heaven. But I need some time to get back on my feet.”
And wasn’t that surprisingly hard to admit.
“I think we can trust Eli.”

“ ‘Think’ ?” Suzannah pounced on the word.

Nowen shrugged. “Yeah. ‘Think’. That’s the best I can do. I think - I
believe
this is the best option for us. I need to rest, and we need to plan our next step.”

Suzannah gave her a troubled glance but finally moved away from the door. This time she sat on the floor, pulling Sage down with her. “Ok,” she said, after a few moments’ silence, “what is our plan?”

Nowen leaned forward on the bed’s edge, planting her palms on the quilt to keep from sliding off. “First, I have to know something.”

Now it was Suzannah’s turn to look puzzled, and it was Sage that spoke. “You want to know what’s going on at New Heaven.”

Nowen nodded.

Sage pulled on a tangled russet curl and looked up at Suzannah. The red-haired woman shrugged. “Sure, why not. What do you want to know first?”

A thousand questions ran through Nowen’s mind. Some of them ran too close to things she didn’t want to
couldn’t not now not yet
think about. Too raw, like a fresh wound that couldn’t bear the touch of a bandage. But she needed information.
Why? Why do you need information, Nowen?
There was an idea germinating in the back of her mind where the wolf would normally be. The idea was fragile and she turned away from it for the time being. She latched on to a safe question and looked at Suzannah. “How big is New Heaven?”

“Big. And getting bigger - at least during the time we were there.”

“Are they organized?”

Suzannah gave a short laugh. “Oh yeah. The place is like a small city run by hyperactive ants. They have tons of supplies. I, uh...” and here a quick glance at Sage, “ ‘cozied up’ to a couple of the guards and got free rein of most of the place. They’re knocking down the woods at a fast clip. Lots of storage buildings, and not just for canned goods, shit like that. They got guns. They got tools. They got gas. They got seeds, and planters, and tractors - hell, it looks like they raided every Home Depot and Wal-Mart in the entire state.” Suzannah’s face grew puzzled. “In fact, they’ve got an awful lot of stuff. It’s almost, like...”

“They started collecting supplies long before the Flux.” Nowen said. Suzannah nodded thoughtfully.

“But did you notice what they didn’t have?” Sage said, and then answered her own question. “Houses. Or cabins, or tents. For people.”

Nowen looked at the girl; intensity burned in her dark eyes. “What do you mean? I saw some cabins when we first got to New Heaven.”

“Sure.” Sage nodded. “But it’s like a...fa-kade?”

“Facade?”

“Right! Like a mask. After they took you away, Anton went off with some of the New Heaven people, and I was put in a big house that had other kids who didn’t have parents.” Sage stared at Nowen. “I tried to go after you, but a white-haired woman held me back. And then, whenever I asked about you, whoever I talked to got mad and told me to shut up. I was with a bunch of other kids. There were three or four yellow-shirts with us most of the time, getting us to do chores or lessons-”

“Wait, what’s a yellow-shirt?” Nowen interjected, looking from Sage to Suzannah.

“Oh, yeah! I told you they were organized. Every New Heaven jackass wore colored shirts, depending on what they did around the compound. Like they were all on an episode of Star Trek or something.” Suzannah snorted and shook her head. “White-shirts are the people in charge. Black-shirts are the police - total bunch of hard-asses. If they told you to jump, you didn’t even ask ‘How high?’. You just
jumped
. Blue is doctors, nurses, vets. Green is labor, workers, farmers. So, yellow would be...?” She looked at Sage.

“Teachers and babysitters. And red-shirts took care of the bodies.”

Nowen and Suzannah stared at the girl. Finally, Suzannah spoke. “What red-shirts?”

Sage blinked. “You never saw them?” At the young woman’s slow head-shake Sage looked even more astonished. “Oh. I didn’t say anything to you ‘cause I thought you knew.”

“Sage, just tell us what you know.” Nowen said.

“Ok. A couple of the other kids, who had been there longer, showed me how to sneak out at night. The yellow-shirt who watched us most nights was Valerie and she always fell asleep on one of the cots by midnight. So, me and Terry and Jake and sometimes Kai would climb out one of the windows and go exploring. Kai was the youngest, like about seven, and the smallest, so he’d sneak into the storage buildings and get us stuff, like candy. I love chocolate, but all the stuff he brought us was old and tasted kinda bleh. Oh, and Terry and Jake were the biggest, and I think they were in love ‘cause sometimes I’d see them kissing-”

“Sage, sweetie, this is real interesting, but you gotta stick to the important stuff right now, ok?”

The girl smiled, embarrassed. “Sorry, Suzannah. So I explored a lot of New Heaven. And some of the things I noticed are this: New people keep coming into the camp every week, right? Either they come in themselves or come in like we did, picked up by black-shirts. But where are they? Further back in the woods are long buildings, like strip malls, but no windows and only a couple of doors. Black-shirts with big guns guard the doors. I never got real close, but sometimes I heard people screaming. And the houses where they put some of the new people never got real crowded. One night a guard chased us away from the storage warehouse and I got separated from Terry and Jake. I ran into the woods and got really lost. And then...” Sage looked up at Suzannah. “Did you ever see the fire?”

“Yeah.” The red-haired woman looked at Nowen. “Back off in the forest a ways there’s a big-ass fire pit that the green-shirts keep going all day and night. I saw it once, when I was given the official tour.” She turned to Sage. “It’s for burning garbage, branches, leaves - junk.”

“And bodies.” Sage’s words fell into the silent room like stones in a pond. “That’s what I saw that night. I saw the light from the fire, and when I got close I saw people in red-colored shirts throwing bodies into the fire. A lot of the bodies were old people. Some of the dead people looked all torn up, like Revs had gotten to them, but there aren’t any Revs that can get into New Heaven. And then, right before I ran away, I thought I saw someone I knew being put in the fire.” Sage paused, her eyes focused on something far away. “And the next day, Kai was gone. The yellow-shirts said that Kai’s mother had shown up and taken him away. But that was a lie! Kai had told us that his parents had died a long time ago, and he was living with his grand-father when the Flux killed everyone.” She fell silent. Her chest hitched with silent sobs.