The Dread - New friend

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For the rest of that day I paced the border. For the next I hunted, glutting myself on the organs of two medium sized deer. As I finished the second one I looked at the leftovers and sighed. My once-glorious idea seemed stupid now. Still, I picked up the two carcasses and threw each of the remaining two hundred pounds over my shoulders. They were heavy. I couldn’t run with them and after a few miles, I found myself breathing hard. Between my full belly and my load, I was not in a pleasant mood.

My only warning was a quick hint of sweat. I spun and squealed in surprised fear. Two muzzles pointed directly at me and the distance was too close for comfort. Even dropping my burden would give them enough time to shoot me dead. Rather than even try I simply stood there with two deer carcasses hanging over my shoulders and stared awkwardly at the pair of hunters.

Wade and the second man watched me for an eternity. Wade sighed and lowered his weapon. The second didn’t hesitate in keeping his cocked straight at me. That’s the point at which I realized they had been hunting me on purpose. Another small pip of fear slipped out and I took a step backward.

“Don’t move.”

I froze.

“What are you doing?”

I stared at him dumbly. Was it wise to say ‘trying to buy your affection with gifts?’ would they even believe it if I tried? Instead, I shrugged awkwardly. Both men cocked their heads as their lips lifted in a unison half smile.

“Jeb!” I suddenly recognized the second man. Jeb, Wade’s oldest brother, had been gone getting his Ph.D. for years. I had been lucky enough to meet him once when he came home for Christmas but other than that all I knew was that he was Wade’s favorite and one of the best men my fiancée had ever known. I felt a thrill of joy that he had survived as well.

Jeb’s eyebrows lowered in confusion. “Did you just say my name?”

Wade looked at me queerly. “That’s what I heard too.”

Carefully I nodded my head and pointed. “Jeb. Wade.”

Both men stepped back and Jeb’s gun locked on my face. He shook his head as if to clear it. “She must have heard someone saying our names. It throws a man for a loop talking to one of these things.”

I shook my head. “Wade. Bertha, Scott, Jeb, Scott, Martha, Kathy, Wade, Denning, Louis, Jean.” I named the entire Hallowag line starting with their parents and ending with their grandmother and grandfather who had come to live with them only a year previous.

This time their guns dropped completely as they both stared at me in wide-eyed wonder.

Wade leaned forward and then gasped. “Lacey?”

My legs gave out on me dropping me heavily to the ground. I had never expected him to make the connection even with my excessive hints.

He watched my reaction and then took a hesitant step forward, “Lacey, is that really you?”

I nodded dumbfounded as the two deer slid from my shoulders. Emotions flooded me. Everything from fear at his reaction to relief at his recognition. The fear was the strongest. It grew as I watched the play of expressions on his face. Disgust, distrust, dismay, pity, relief, anger. . . the list kept growing until I eventually ran. I couldn’t wait to see the final verdict. I felt strangely ashamed that I had even allowed my feelings for him to remain.

For the next week I moped around my little pond and did nothing. I couldn’t even bring myself to return to the deer to see if they had taken them. I knew Wade was a practical man. He would have accepted roadkill if that was his only option, but a gift from a monster wasn’t nearly the same. I doubted it would help anything to tell them that I wouldn’t bother tainting the meat. If I really wanted the humans for my meal, fresh was the only way I could stomach it.

I shook the thought from my head. I was still satiated from my hunting trip but letting such thoughts have a place was unwise. Then I heard a howl and my self-pity disappeared. The sound came from somewhere close to the center of my land.

With a curse for my waste of time, I rushed from my place listening in growing fear as the calls passed back and forth locating first the scent and then the actual human settlement. By the time I tore into the clearing I knew I’d be too late. I choked back a sob and prepared myself to see the slaughter. Instead, the clearing was quiet and empty of beasts. The humans, on the other hand, froze in dumbstruck terror at my sudden appearance. Even those with weapons were stopped in their tracks for just a second. Then I heard the scream and realized my mistake. Human ears had never registered the sounds of the approaching beasts. They’d gone quiet long before, intent on slipping in quietly to take them out. My heart dropped and I started running again sliding to a stop on the far side of the rocks where a pack of four monsters stood waiting for me. The leader of the group, a nasty looking, scarred woman, held the fifteen-year-old girl in her arms. The girl squirmed uselessly.

“Drop her. She’s mine.” I growled low in my throat and dropped forward onto all fours. “You’ve crossed my lines. This is my herd. Drop her.”

“Not anymore. Don’t be greedy.” The leader lumbered forward and I noted a small limp in her step. It reminded me of my old group. The extra growth spurt had left her joints uneven and in pain. She hid it well though and took another haughty step. “If you move aside we’ll split the herd in half and only take a part of it. That should still be plenty for you to breed more.”

“No. They’re all mine.”

Behind me, the humans ran straight toward the danger. I grimaced at their stupidity and stood back up on my feet. “I challenge you for the right to lead your group. Drop the human and face me.”

Her brows rose. “Challenge accepted, but I only play to the death.”

I sneered back. “That’s fine with me. I would have killed you either way.”

The squirming teen sagged as the older Beast snapped her arm and then the scarred woman flung the child like a ragdoll toward the rocks. She flashed across the distance between us at top speed. Only my reflexes saved me. When I rolled back to my feet she’d spun to face me again. I didn’t wait, shooting forward with a burst of speed and my arms flying. This time I aimed for the joints. Two hits later I could see I had guessed right. Each hit to the joint made her wobble and grimace. Each time, she backed away and took longer to recoup before coming at me again. With a mad grin, I came at her again swiping low toward her ankles and catching her awkwardly. Her ankle twisted and she howled in pain as she dropped to the ground. Their leader tried to recover but it was too late. I was on her, smashing my fist into her face. Then I stood and bellowed loudly toward the remaining group. Unanimously they dropped on all fours to acknowledge me.

I took a moment to catch my breath, trying very hard to keep my composure. “Get off my land. Don’t ever come back here. Spread the word. Come back and you’re dead. All of you belong to me. Obey me and don’t ever return.” I knew it sounded stupid but they grasped my point and turned tail. It might have helped that the humans finally came to their sense and started shooting.

I dove for cover as well. I had no delusions that they would avoid me given the circumstances. Then I heard the mother’s wail and stopped, sliding heavily into a nearby tree and cracking it in half. Her pitiful human voice lifted into the evening air crying for the loss of her daughter. The wail was more than pitiful and I found myself pacing closer and closer to their camp so that I could mourn with them. It was my fault. I had let down my guard.

Other woman joined her around the girl’s body and carefully pulled her away. “Come away Lila, come away. Let the men handle this.”

“No. My baby. Not my baby. She was the only one I had left. My baby.” The woman pushed at her companions fighting to stay with the girl. “No, someone do something! Cut off her arm. Do something. Keep it from getting her.”

My head cocked in confusion and then I took a big whiff and growled low. The girl wasn’t dead, she was infected. The change in smell became obvious now that I looked for it. Even cutting off her arm would mean nothing, it was too late. The men moved forward looking warily at the young woman as if she might rise up and rip out their throats at any second. The older man led the charge, stepping forward even as he sweat fear. He lifted the girl’s injured limb and stared at the gash with a horrified expression. “I can try cutting off her arm but if the infection isn’t already through this may kill her anyway. We don’t have what we need to stop the bleeding very well.”

“Cut it off. I’d rather take the chance that she might live without a limb than to watch her become a monster.”

I could understand the sentiment but it felt like such a waste. The pain the girl would endure just to turn anyway and then be killed by them set my teeth on edge. Having to watch the mother endure that wasn’t a pleasant thought either. Something compelled me and I stepped forward grunting loudly as I came to announce myself.

They screamed, scattered, and shouted their rage, but Wade and his brother were the only two with guns at the moment and neither raised them. I stopped well away from the group and then stood up on my legs and pointed toward the girl.

“She’s already infected.” I put space between each word hoping that they would better understand.

“How do you know?” Wade’s face remained intent, devoid of the sentiments I’d seen earlier.

The mother screamed hysterically. “No, she’s lying.”

I watched her scream for a minute and then turned back to answer the question. “I can smell it. The blood moves too quickly. It’s already working on her body. She’ll start to turn in a few hours.”

Again the mother broke into hysterics. It took a lot to speak slowly and in a high enough pitch to be understandable. Rather than try, I kept quiet while she screeched. An eternal five minutes passed before she passed out, to everyone’s relief, and I began to speak again.

“Please don’t kill her.”

That surprised them. The old man rose to his offended feet and his young supporter stepped forward as well. “Why would we let her live? Do you think we’re fools enough to sit here and wait for you to eat us?”

I looked around slowly making it obvious. “You are fools. I can’t protect you well alone. They come in large groups and I’m too slow. Let her live and two will protect you.” My tongue felt heavy; tongue-tied. Making such a long speech left me winded and tired.

Jeb took a step forward and lifted his weapon so that my attention riveted to him. “Why should we trust you?”

“If I wanted to eat you, why would I say to keep her alive? That takes food from me.” I spoke impatiently this time and the difference was obvious. Only two seemed to understand the gist of my words. After seeing the confusion of the rest, they translated and I grunted acknowledgment that they’d gotten it right.

Wade was one of the two. “Why did your speech suddenly change?”

With a growl, I knelt, “Speaking to understand is hard. You hear different.”

“Speak normally.”

“That would be a lot easier for me but I would imagine that you can’t understand a single thing I would say if I tried.”

Wade smiled. “I understood about half.”

I grinned back and then looked again at the girl. “Please don’t kill her. I’ll teach her how to be humane. I’ll show her how to protect you.”

“You want to take her and teach her?” I could see that he was spelling it out for the rest of the group.

“We won’t hurt you.” This time I spoke so they could all understand.

“It’s a trick. It’s got to be a trick.”

“Lacey,” Jeb’s voice was cold and hard, it reminded me of his father’s voice when he was about to lay down the law. “You came here tonight because you knew they were coming, didn’t you? What did you tell them? Where did the rest go?”

“I said to leave and never come back. I won to lead the pack. I kill them if they come.” I hated the feeling of chopping my sentences up but the effort was starting to make my mouth tired.

He nodded, “Did you hear her say any of that Wade?”

Wade looked at his brother in surprise. “I wasn’t listening for words at the time. To be honest all I heard was some really loud roaring and scary growls.”

I couldn’t help but smile again. Wade tended to tell it how he saw it. It was nice to see that his terrifying experiences hadn’t taken that from him.

Jeb watched my expression shift and looked again at his brother and then at the rest of the group. “I trust her. I say we allow the girl to go with her.”

“That’s crazy talk.” The old man’s eyes widened and I could see his hand moving toward the infected girl’s throat. He was close enough that he could end her before the rest could stop him. I growled low in my throat and everyone looked at me in astonishment and then followed my gaze back to him. The old man pulled his hand away. “Crazy talk. She’s a beast and you’re actually considering making more of them.”

“She’s right though. We’re trying to defend ourselves here but how long can we really do that. How long before we need to get food and supplies and stuff we can’t make anymore. If she’s willing and able to protect us then our odds increase significantly.”

“What is her reasoning?” The younger man joined the conversation. “Why would she protect us at the cost of her life. Why should we trust her?”

Jeb looked at me and held my gaze. “Love.” Wade turned beet red beside him. I assume it was out of embarrassment and disgust. I immediately looked away and shook my head.

“No love. I became a monster outside, but I will not be a monster inside.”

“No love?” Jeb pushed again dropping off the rocks so that he stood only a dozen or so feet from me.

I couldn’t help but glance toward Wade before shaking my head. “No sense in love.” Clearing my throat I stood again. “Please don’t kill her. Bring her to the end of the rocks in a few hours and I will take her.”

“What if we do kill her? Will you be angry?”

I turned and looked back at the pack of humans. They were so tiny and frail. They oozed terror. “I will be sad.”

Rather than prolong the agony I turned and sprinted off into the woods. My heart hurt and so did my mouth. It had been a long time since I had spoken, much less tried to be understood by humans. To give me something to fill the time I traced the scents of the four members of the woman’s, no my pack to the edge of my area and then howled out a last warning before loping back to the edge of their camp. The girl’s cold body lay bound and gagged at the edge.  I dropped to her side and she shrank from me in terror.

Moving the gag out of the way I tried to speak softly, “Do you know you’re infected?”

Her eyes teared instantly and after a moment she nodded.

“What do you fear?”

“I don’t want to be a monster. I don’t want to hurt my family.”

I nodded. “Good. Hold on to that. Make that choice and your body will adapt.” I lifted her to a sitting position and tried to undo the knots they had tied. They were tiny and tight. With a grunt of frustration, I finally picked her up and carried her from the area. “We need a knife.”

Her voice trembled, “Please don’t hurt me.”

Laughter rumbled low in my chest, “I’m not your enemy. I hope we can be friends.”

“But you’re a monster. Monsters kill each other.”

This time I shook my head and spoke quietly, more to myself than to her. “I only kill to protect.”

She remained quiet after that and within minutes we arrived at my pool. As gently as I could, I cut her bonds and set her arm where the woman had broken it. I couldn’t be sure, of course, but I had a feeling that the incredible growth she would soon experience would include mending a broken bone as long as it was set right.

After a while, we both dropped off to sleep and within a few hours the changes began.

Over the course of the next several days, I tried to remember what my own change had felt like. I wanted to be sympathetic and helpful but in reality, there was little I could do. I turned out to be right about the mending bone, but it didn’t make the process any less painful.

I searched for and found food while she slept, I ran the perimeter of our area near the end of the third day when the pain was finally slowing down. On the fourth day, she stopped sweating and rolled over to look at me. “Is it over?”

I had been faking sleep for the last several hours but I opened my eyes to face her. “Not yet, but the worst is gone.”

“I don’t look like you.”

At this, I smiled. “Aren’t you lucky. You will though. You will have red fur, I imagine, since your hair is red but other than that we will be the same.”

“I feel like myself.” She looked confused, saddened, and scared.

”Good. Then you’ve managed to hold on. You’re not done yet though. I have no idea why others completely change into monsters and lose all regard for what they were, but I didn’t and so far you haven’t. Just keep remembering what’s important.”

“My mom.”

I nodded and then she burst into tears and all I could do was wrapped my arms around her. I knew what she was feeling. The intense loneliness of realizing that everything you were and everyone you had is gone. Even though you haven’t changed they can never look at you the same way. “It will be okay. You’ll be okay.”

“Why is this happening?” She clung harder to my arms pulling herself into my chest.

In one of those odd moments where the mind suddenly thinks of something unrelated, I was grateful that I had taken the time to wash my clothes the day before. I remembered the change from being able to smell almost nothing to suddenly being able to tell the difference between animals. I would still probably stink to her, but at least the stench was reduced.

I didn’t bother trying to respond to her question. I was two years older; I had no additional answers. Instead, I just held on to her and continued to promise that this too would pass. Eventually, her tears slowed and her breathing followed. Her death grip on my shirt softened and she breathed deep in exhausted sleep. I rolled her back onto the small mat I had woven together for her then stood and moved away to my small reflection pool. Comforting her had taken a lot out of me. My own walls had been crushed and I knew that I needed to close some doors if I wanted to move forward.

I stared hard into the water and tried to compartmentalize everything that I was still mourning. The loss of my family, my friends. The loss of my goals and future. The loss of love. That one hurt the worst because the others were irrevocably gone while he remained close enough to touch.

Taking a breath, I pushed the feelings away and tried to clear my head. The nearby snuffling stopped me dead and I swirled up into a defensive pose. “Who’s there?”

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Chapter 5 - Defenses