Chapter 84 - Licking Our Wounds

  I let Sue just run for a good distance, leaving the enemy far behind. Kara and I remained silent during the flight. I couldn’t think of anything useful to say, and I suppose neither could she.

  We’d gotten our asses kicked.

  Worse, we’d jeopardized the ratkin who’d come to us for help. I mean, yeah—intellectually I knew they’d asked us to attack the mall undead. We did as they asked. Emotionally, that still left me holding a bag full of guilt at having failed them this badly.

  I’d never expected the zombies to come after us like that, though. Not in such numbers, not right away, anyway. I figured if we poked the bear a few more times, whatever that monster was leading them might come after us. We’d clearly been far more annoying than I’d thought.

  Once Sue hit the edge of the forest, where it met the highway, we went straight to the road. I wanted to leave the fort well behind us, but I also wanted to throw off pursuit, so I had Sue trot along the congested road for a ways. No footprints on asphalt. The going was slower than I liked, but it would mask which way we went well enough.

  After a bit, I moved Sue back to the grass on the roadside. With no cars or other obstructions, we sprinted north at even greater speed. The wind blew my hair all over the place—we were going fast! How fast could a T.rex run? I didn’t remember for sure, just that they could push out a decent pace.

  We weren’t going as fast as a car, but Sue could run faster than anything else I’d seen moving since the Event. Best of all? Most mounts would eventually tire. One advantage of being undead was, this dino never ran out of steam.

  Kara and I would, though. I couldn’t speak for her, but I was exhausted. The fighting during the day had been tiring enough, but then we’d woke up in the middle of the night to another fight. Now that the adrenaline was starting to wear off, I was really feeling it.

  The anger I felt was still strong, though, and still simmering. That kept me focused and on task as we moved quickly up the highway toward the bridge over the Winooski River. I’d told Patches to head to the island there. If they’d made it out, I had hopes we’d find them soon.

  When we reached it, the river wasn’t as much of a barrier as I’d hoped. Late summer was pretty dry, and there hadn’t been enough autumn rain to swell the river. It was only a few feet deep in most places. I doubted it would stop a zombie attack, if they came calling.

  It was also a far enough walk that I doubted they’d make it this far before dawn. Whatever that boss monster was, it seemed to be very light-limited. It was going to want to be back inside the mall before the sun rose, which would only be a few hours away.

  It could still send the horde after us, but I wasn’t afraid of the horde. Sitting on Sue, tied down now, so we couldn’t fall off, we could outrun the zombies without difficulty. Sue, Kara, and I could all take them down at range, while they’d struggle to catch up with us. We could blow through hundreds of zombies an hour that way.

  No, it wouldn’t send the horde. It already knew that Sue and I could solo however many zombies it had. Give us enough runway, and we’d ‘kite’ them all to death. It was only when the leader was around that I was worried enough to flee. Whatever it was, it was still stronger than me, and that alone ought to be frightening. I had multiple tier six stones! But this thing felt so much stronger than me that I knew in my gut I was no match for it.

  There was no easy way down from the bridge to the island, so I had Sue walk down to the river’s edge and wade across. The dinosaur was more than tall enough to keep Kara and I out of the water. Hope dove in too, splashing around in the water like a puppy. That surprised a smile from me, the first genuine one I’d had since I realized we were under attack. It was nice to see her playing.

  Once we were across, we set up a camp on the eastern edge of the island, near the bridge. From there we could see whatever might come our way from almost any direction. Most of the island was covered with forest, and the ratkin could be anywhere in there, hiding out. Or they might not have made it to the island yet at all. Sue was running pretty fast for most of the trip.

  “I’ve got a tent here,” Kara said, fishing through the supplies we’d managed to salvage. She’d tied as many of the bags as she could onto Sue before we ran for it.

  “I can’t thank you enough for saving so much gear,” I told her. “We still have food, water bottles, purification tubes, and now a tent. You’re a literal lifesaver.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  She smiled, looking as exhausted as I felt. “You’re welcome. You can make me breakfast later, if you want to say thank you for real.”

  “Deal.”

  We set up the tent together. It wasn’t much, but it would keep the rain off if it showered. Once it was up, Kara and I both went inside and crashed, leaving Sue and Hope outside, on guard. Anything nasty came calling, Sue was going to launch a Fireball up its tail.

  A few fitful hours of sleep later, I woke. Kara was still snoring, so I let her be and slipped outside the tent. The morning sun was overhead already. I checked my watch—nine in the morning. I gave it a few winds to make sure it didn’t run out. If it did, I had no idea when I’d be able to get an accurate time check again!

  I left Sue on guard over Kara and took Hope on a quick jaunt around the island, looking for any sign of the ratkin. While they might not have made it there before us, a few hours had passed. They ought to have arrived by then.

  A full circuit around the whole island took a while. It was bigger than I’d expected it to be. The Winooski wasn’t that large a river, but this was one heck of an island. I was guessing over half a mile around the outside edge, but under a mile.

  As much as I searched, I saw no sign of the ratkin. By the time I got back to camp, I was wearing a full-on frown from worrying about the little guys.

  “You okay?” Kara asked, seeing me come in. She’d started a fire while I was out.

  “Yeah, just went looking for the ratkin. No sign of them. I don’t think they made it to the island.”

  “Damn. I hoped they’d be here when we woke up. I hope they’re okay.”

  “Me, too,” I replied. “There’s a few more islands around. Maybe they went to a different one.”

  “Well, the smoke from the fire ought to draw them, if they’re anywhere near. I figured we could risk a small fire, now that it’s daylight?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. I don’t think whatever it was is out there anymore. It went back to hide in the mall hours ago.”

  “Because daylight.”

  “Yes. Also, because the zombies didn’t show up on the riverfront two hours ago.” If they had, we’d have mounted up on Sue again and run for it, then kept running for a ways. If that boss undead thing ever stopped fearing the sun, it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. Or Burlington.

  I made a quick breakfast for both of us from our stores—powdered eggs with some cheese melted into them. Not the fanciest food, but it would do. By the time we’d eaten there was still no sign of the ratkin, and it was cruising on toward eleven in the morning. We only had so many hours of daylight left, and I was loathe to sit here wasting them.

  “What’s next?” Kara asked, after we ate.

  “I think we need to go scout the fort. See what happened there after we left.”

  She agreed, so we repacked our gear and got ready to move out. I had no idea if the Ratkin could read, so it wasn’t like we could leave them a note. Sue’s footprints were everywhere around the camp site, so if they came, they’d know we had come. Would they wait for us to return? I didn’t know, but there was a limit to what I could control.

  We struck out across the river, backtracking our trail toward the fort. During the daylight, travel was a lot easier, and we rocketed down the greenway alongside the highway at high speed.

  This time, though, the highway wasn’t empty.

  “Holy shit, what is that?” The cry came from somewhere ahead, from people tucked down between a few cars out on the road. Someone else in the group made shushing sounds.

  Whoever they were, they were a good distance away. I considered just running on past, but I did want to make connections with people, and running into other humans had mostly worked out well for me so far. I brought Sue to a stop.

  “Hey over there! Don’t worry. The dino only eats things that piss me off<“ I called out.

  “Well, I’m sure that will reassure them,” Kara cracked, rolling her eyes.

  One of the people called out again. “Who are you?”

  “Selena. I was a med student at UVM when…all of this happened,” I replied. “You folks okay? We can spare a little food if you need it.”

  “No, we’re good. Heading north to relatives. The city is getting very dangerous, miss. Although with that thing you’re riding, I guess maybe there’s not too much you need to worry about?” A man stood up from behind an SUV, gesturing at Sue.

  “Not usually, but there’s something at the mall. Came after us last night, and we ran,” I replied. “We didn’t even see it, just knew—“

  “That it was bad news,” the man finished for me. “Yeah. We know. I’m Jerome. Good to meet you, but if you know about the thing killing folks, you’re headed the wrong direction.”

  “No, I’m not,” I replied. “Because I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.”

  He looked taken aback at that. I wasn’t sure if it was my language or the statement itself, but he had to think about his next words before responding. “You know, dino-girl, maybe you could. Best of luck with it. I’ve got my family to take care of. But that thing has been reaping one neighborhood after another every night for days now. Killing people, making zombies out of them. We tried to help others, but there wasn’t much we could do.”

  “So we’re running now,” a woman beside him added. “You should too, girls. This isn’t a safe place anymore.”

  Where was? I was pretty convinced the entire planet was like this now. Nowhere was going to be safe. Monsters would be everywhere, and while having more humans around made things riskier in some ways, it added value in others as well.

  So I shook my head. “Someone has to stop that thing, or it’ll be everywhere, eventually. Might as well be me.”

  “Best of luck,” Jerome said again. Then he and his family set off north again. I spotted a bunch of kids and an older couple in the collection, along with Jerome and the woman I assumed was his partner.

  “Dino girl, huh?” Kara asked, smirking.

  It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I liked Lady Death better.”

  We set off toward the fort again, Sue’s powerful legs eating up the distance.