Nightwalk 2 Read online

  Mickey surprised me by staring down at the ground again for a moment. Then she turned and looked over at Justin, who had followed the whole conversation in silence.

  “Fuck him, Mickey. Let’s get out of here. We’ll make it.”

  She considered him for a second, then turned back to me. I could see she had reached a decision.

  “Well, I guess that’s it then,” she deadpanned. “We’ll take Timberline. It’s a better route for a two-man team, and if a shitstorm does land on me and Justin, then whatever it is won’t get between the rest of you and the pipe.”

  Having said this, she wasted no time in turning to head for the hole in the fence. I started to try and find some way to thank her when the full import of her words hit home.

  “Wait,” I objected, “I said me and Darla…”

  “No!” she whirled back in my direction and cut me off. “You said they were in the back room of the fabric store and lived until the air force arrived. So ‘history’ isn’t going to be interested in them until after your ‘mission’ is over, one way or the other. By your own story, they are no threat to you. Also, by your own story, they would be a hell of a lot safer with you than us.”

  “Mickey…”

  “This ain’t negotiable.”

  And I could see it wasn’t.

  She had me trumped with my own logic. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t find fault with her reasoning. I just hoped she understood the others were only marginally safer with me, because I had no guarantee I would make it either. I might not have History after me, but being from the future afforded me no protection from the killers roaming the darkness. On top of which, I was a middle-aged writer who was already exhausted, injured, and hurting like hell. Still, it was what it was.

  “So be it,” I conceded. “They go with me.”

  “Great.”

  Mickey turned and stalked back to the hole in the fence. She caught Justin by the arm just as he was about to go through and informed him she would take point. I thought he was about to object, but he seemed to change his mind and stepped back to let her take the lead.

  Then she did a cautious scan of the darkness through the hole before silently slipping through.

  Justin did a quiet count to some number, gave me a last baleful glare, and then followed her into the waiting night.

  I never saw either of them again.

  ###

  I gazed in dejected gloom at the black space between the boards of the fence.

  I had really liked those two. They were good people, not to mention they were probably the two most capable adults of the bunch of us.

  Now I was back to Darla for backup, along with a twelve-year-old kid, a baby, and a young man who seemed determined to tote his probably dead girlfriend around… a young man who didn’t even speak my language.

  And somewhere out there, Jason Hallett struggled ever closer to the salvation I could not let him have.

  “Let’s go, then,” I grumbled, motioning them to follow. “I’ve got a man to murder and not a lot of time left to do it.”

  Chapter Eight: Crossing Coventry

  With the Rex now only a distant threat, we quickly reached the end of the alley and the entrance to Coventry Woods.

  To my utter lack of surprise, things only looked worse.

  The entrance to Coventry Woods is a large, brick, medieval styled affair with an enormous three-tiered fountain that would normally feature running strands of water falling through gaily colored illumination from concealed spotlights. This structure sat on the first of many islands separating the east and west lanes of Coventry Boulevard. Large trees lined both sides of the double street, along with the long islands in the middle as well.

  Of course I couldn’t make much of this out by the feeble light of my glowstick, but unfortunately in this case my glowstick had help.

  Glowing draperies of moss festooned the fountain’s tiers, and lined the top of the medieval brick façade. Multiple others hung from the branches above us. They were not too thick this far west, but as I looked east down Coventry Boulevard it quickly became a glowing cavern of moss-draped trees.

  It made me sick to think Mickey and Justin were somewhere down in there.

  The effects from Chandra’s machine were still spreading and I couldn’t imagine what ground zero must look like now. Did it still remotely resemble our world? My house in Coventry Woods had only been down the block from Chandra’s, and I wondered if I would even be able to recognize it now.

  But it was more than luminescent plant life that was spreading and intensifying.

  Impossible as it seemed, the humidity must have increased as well. The air now felt like hot soup. Water dripped from the trees in a slow but constant rain, and a film of moisture coated every surface. Under other circumstances I suppose getting rained on could have been a relief. We were already drenched from sweat. Yet in this case the water was bathtub warm and I didn’t want to think about what it might have run over before falling down to us.

  So I had that and the problematic visibility to make me uncomfortable.

  While the glowing moss outlined the front façade, and revealed the branches above us, it cast no useful light below. The ground beneath lay just as black as ever. I have a thing about wanting to see where I’m about to put my feet, and I damn sure didn’t plan on walking in there without seeing what lay in front of me.

  I struck a flare alight. As I held it aloft we all gave soft exclamations at the scene revealed before us.

  We had discovered the first police barricade.

  Two years ago, Tommy had told me he spotted the lights of a police line blocking off Coventry Woods up near the entrance. This must have been what he had seen.

  The fountain and entrance façade lay ahead and a bit to our left, but off to our right a staggered line of squad cars stretched across both lanes of Coventry Boulevard. There was even one parked across the island in the middle itself. They glimmered like pale ghosts in the light of my flare, their windows dark and empty.

  Nothing but the sound of dripping water and alien crickets disturbed the scene.

  “What happened here?” Darla whispered. “Where do you suppose the cops went?”

  Good question.

  “Hard to tell,” I replied. “Once everything went dark they would have lost all contact with their dispatchers. They would have been on their own.”

  “Do you think they’re all dead?” David asked.

  That was the one thing I was pretty sure of. But I could see the boy found the sight of these abandoned symbols of law unnerving, and saw no point in making it worse.

  “I don’t know. They might have decided to go somewhere else. With all the cars dead and no traffic, they might have decided there was no point in hanging around a roadblock. Or maybe they all ran up the street when they heard the firefight starting near my house.”

  I knew my last statement didn’t make sense even as I said it. The firefight had started right after the power failure, but before the second “warp” occurred which knocked out all the cars and electronics. If they had gone to reinforce their fellow officers up the street, they had waited several minutes and then gone in on foot.

  But even as I pondered what the final decisions of the officers may have been, I saw Darla bend and pick something up. She studied it for a second, and then held it toward me to reveal a shell casing. She didn’t say a word.

  I grasped the implication immediately and did a quick scan of the ground around me. Brass littered the asphalt of the street and the end of the alleyway. I could also see a lot more glinting in the island’s grass from the red flare light.

  Something bad had happened here.

  The question was… did that something bad still lurk nearby?

  I gave the others a cautioning gesture to remain where they were. Then I snuck out of the alley and approached the nearest vehicle. It seemed the most prudent move. We had to go through here, and if any nasties were lurking nearby it would probably be in or
behind on of those squad cars.

  I also made it a fast sneak. The situation called for caution, but time remained a factor as well.

  It only took a couple seconds to reach the first squad car. As I closed in I saw the scattering of bullet holes in the front fender. Somebody had been shooting at something either on the hood, or on the other side of the car. The driver’s side window had been shot out as well. As a matter of fact, another glance around revealed bullet holes in the other cars, the tree trunks, and a few in the wall at the end of the strip mall.

  Holding the flare as high as I could, I peered over the car.

  Nothing.

  Then I eased down the length of the vehicle and did a cautious peek through the shattered window. This was the move that worried me. If something had nested inside the car, I would be awfully close when I discovered it. I could have backed up, but doing so might give whatever came out a better chance to get past me and attack the others.

  Only shattered glass rested in the seat within. No monster, no body, and no blood. It was clear. I started to move on, but then something else in the car caught my attention..

  A pump-action 12 gauge lay secured in a shotgun mount near the ceiling, on the barrier separating the front seat from the back.

  Yes!

  Seeing the weapon gave me an idea.

  Of course it had been locked in place, and the officer who had the key was long gone, but I had no intention of trying to take the gun. We already had a shotgun. But it only had one shell and now I had a chance to do something about that.

  Holstering my pistol, I reached in through the window and felt around the shotgun until I found the slot on the bottom where the shells were loaded. I had watched my firearm instructor at the range show another guy how to do this next part. I pushed in the loading ramp… it’s like a little gate covering the hole… and moved my thumb over to the side until I found the little latch holding the shell from being pushed back by the spring in the gun’s magazine. I popped the latch and slid the first shell out from the loading slot of the shotgun.

  I was at a difficult angle and pushed myself farther in through the window to get at the firearm better. I had to hold the flare behind me, and in an awkward way so it stayed outside the car but gave me a little light to work with.

  It was a struggle, but I managed to get two more shells from the gun. It would have to do. I didn’t have a lot of time left. Satisfied with my adventure in foraging, I started to ease myself back out the window.

  And that’s when something landed on the roof of the car.

  ###

  Sometimes in life you only have a split second to realize you are doing something really dumb, and then come up with something smart to do about it before it gets you killed.

  I had the first part down cold. It’s the second part where things with me tend to get a little sketchy.

  In hindsight, I could have just opened the door to the police car and allowed myself a lot more room to maneuver while fishing out the shotgun shells. Heck, I would have even been more comfortable doing it. But alas, no. Since I already had my head in the window, I hadn’t gone to the effort to retract it and open the door. Instead I had wormed myself into a ridiculous position where I was halfway into the window with my butt and legs hanging outside,

  So yeah, when something landed on the roof of the car, I had the sudden realization of my dumb maneuver pretty much covered. Now I only had the instantaneous smart move to check off of my list.

  My answer was to drop the shells, immediately grab the inside passenger door handle, and jerk myself the rest of the way into the car. I wrist-tossed the flare backwards as I did, so it would land outside.

  The result ended up being acceptable, but problematic.

  Strategically, it put a roof between me and the likely predator, and left only one small, window-sized area I would need to defend from attack. This counted as a plus. But unlike two years ago, I now ran against a time limit that was well over half spent, meaning I didn’t have the option of hiding and holding the fort… which made for a big minus. If the thing didn’t immediately come in after me, I would be forced to go on the attack.

  Something scraped on the roof above and the car shifted a little on its springs. Whatever sat up there, it wasn’t tiny. Not huge, but at least as big as me.

  I decided right then a little intel would be nice. After all, I had come with a group of intelligent beings who were all capable of language and communication. Might as well use every advantage I had.

  “Darla!” I called, my gun now pointing at the ceiling, “What the hell is on the roof of this car!?”

  No answer.

  Why didn’t that surprise me?

  I guess she didn’t feel inclined to risk getting the attention of our new arrival by answering. This was one of those situations where I suppose it was borderline whether I could blame her or not. I guess it didn’t matter since I had already accepted this partnership with my eyes open. Regardless, it meant I was effectively on my own.

  Something scraped on the roof again, and I knew I needed to get on with things.

  Time for plan B.

  “Okay then,” I whispered, and aimed the Coonan a little to the right of the ceiling light, “Eenie…”

  I fired, and winced at the blast of the .357 in such a confined area.

  “Meenie…” I aimed to the other side of the light, and fired again.

  If I didn’t die here, my ears were going to be ringing for weeks.

  “Miney…”

  I aimed forward of the light, and the Coonan thundered again.

  This time I hit paydirt.

  Something gave a loud “Chirrrrr!!!”, and the car gave a hard shift as if the mystery beast had leapt straight off the roof. At least it didn’t seem to like getting shot. I took that as good news, although its vigorous departure suggested it hadn’t been badly hurt.

  A second later the car bounced again, and I could tell from the way it did the monster had landed on the hood. Not good. It meant I was still trapped and would only be able to shoot at it by blasting through the windshield and destroying the barrier between me and it. On the other hand, now I might be in a position to get a glimpse of what I would be shooting at.

  I sat up sideways in the front seat and turned my head to face the creature staring back in at me.

  It appeared about my size, and insectile in nature. I guess body-wise it most resembled a locust. But its whole underside hung with some kind of tendrils or cilia writhing in slow, wavelike motions, and its entire head seemed to be a single, enormous eye.

  That was its most striking feature. Its torso simply seemed to terminate in a huge, golden eye with a catlike slit for a pupil. It stared in through the glass with such intensity it almost seemed to glow. I could easily make out the striations in the large iris, and how the pupil had started to contract.

  After another few seconds of study, I realized the creature’s eye actually did glow. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be glowing brighter by the second…

  And then it went off like a flash bulb.

  I had just started to grow alarmed and suspect something was up when the whole world vanished in a golden explosion of light.

  I was blind!

  I grabbed my face and fell over in the seat, fearing a second blast. The thing had been so bright I swear I physically felt it through the windshield. What the hell kind of attack was that? Yet even as the question occurred, the heart-stopping answer sprang to mind.

  It was the kind of attack a nocturnal predator could use to close with its disoriented prey. Which meant it would be closing right now!

  Even as I grasped this, I felt its foot on my leg down by the shattered driver’s side window.

  The damn thing was already crawling into the car and on top of me! And I couldn’t see or hear a thing!

  I twisted, kicked and swung my gun up in blind search of a target. As I did, I felt the wriggling touch of the cilia on the creature’s underbelly against my arm.
The damn thing had moved over my body and started to pull itself down on top of me. As it did, I started to feel those tendrils attaching themselves wherever they encountered my body.

  That’s when I realized how this thing devoured its victims. It didn’t have a mouth. It had thousands of them.

  And now it had settled in for a nice lunch.

  We fought in tight quarters, and I screamed and twisted in the seat with the monster while more tendrils attached all over me. Putting my gun against its carapace, I started pulling the trigger wildly.

  Pieces of exoskeleton and bug insides splattered all over the ceiling and started raining back down on the pair of us. Even so, the thing’s legs contracted and pulled me tighter against it. Pain flared anew as I discovered the insides of the creature’s limbs had hooks on them for that very purpose.

  I was in bad trouble.

  The skin on my left arm burned as I slowly ripped it free of the tendrils and grabbed the Marine Corps survival knife in my belt.

  Another blast of light filled the cab. But I had my head twisted away so the only affect was to give me some hope I wasn’t totally blind since I could still see flashes of light.

  Having exhausted the magazine in my pistol, I started slamming the survival knife into the monster from the side. This achieved mixed results. Sometimes the blade skipped off the gore-soaked shell, yet other times it would punch through.

  At the same time, I could feel the cilia start to worm and chew their way through my clothes to get to the skin they hadn’t already reached. I had to get away from this thing!

  Now we were both slipping and sliding in the thing’s guts, and probably some of my blood. The smell was ghastly. Then I managed to brace a leg under the steering wheel and twist us over to where my butt pressed against the back of the seat, which put it partially in the floorboard.

  All this time I had continued to slam the survival knife into the thing. There were no more glancing shots as the creature’s exoskeleton on that side had become nothing but shell chips and mush.