“So wherever she is, she’s alive,” I said, my voice husky from the smoke and exertion.
“Yes,” he answered, but I could see the look in his eyes, and knew he was as concerned as I was. With good reason. These men could be anyone. They had set fire to our home and kidnapped my sister. They were dangerous. I felt my hands clench up, and I knew that the only way I’d be able to relax was when Skye was safely back home where I could protect her.
“Get your gun
. We’re going to get her back,” I told Michael. My voice came out strangely, ice cold even though the anger I felt was red hot. Without waiting for his response, I discarded my makeshift mask, and dove into the Hilux to find the shotgun. Michael was a second behind me, grabbing his assault rifle out of the back seat. He let out a sharp whistle to call his dog to heel, and then he was a step behind me was I raced off towards the north.
“What are we going to do when we find them?”
Michael’s voice was urgent and concerned. “We don’t know how many there are, or how well armed they are. They could have us outnumbered.”
“First, we find them,” I answered breathlessly, flicking my hair back out of my face, “and when we do, we’ll improvise.”
There was a grunt that told me he didn’t quite care for my plan, but he had no choice. I was going whether he liked it or not, so his only option was whether or not he was going to help me. Adrenaline thrummed through my veins as I picked up the pace, my path illuminated by the glow of the fire, and the moon overhead. It was almost full, and its silvery glow cast our world in a strange mixture of black, white, and flame-orange.
Behind me, I heard Michael’s feet on the asphalt and the panting of his dog beside him
. In just a few minutes, we had passed the run-down old shops that flanked the northern edge of town, and were out in the wild countryside. The noise and smoke from the fire diminished until the only sounds I heard were our own footsteps and harsh breathing. How far had the strangers come? I could only guess – but to my surprise, the dog told us.
Just as we were passing a stand of dense bush, Alfred skidded to a stop and froze, sniffing the air sharply
. Michael halted a second later, and the sound of his change in pace alerted me that something was out of place. By the time I returned to them, Michael was kneeling beside the dog and talking to him in the half-gibberish talk that humans instinctively used when talking to animals.
Taking the hint, I slipped the safety off my shotgun and approached the edge of the forest, examining it as best I could in the dim light of the moon
. Even with my very human senses, I could see that there was an obvious trail leading deeper into the gloom. Several people had come this way; it was too dark to tell how many or how recently.
Suddenly,
a voice pierced the darkness, a female voice raised in a blood-curdling shriek. It wasn’t the sound of my sister in pain, though; it was the sound of an unknown woman screaming in fury. She was too far away for me to make out her words, but her anger gave us a fix on their location. I glanced at Michael and nodded; he returned the gesture, then fell in beside me as we crept deeper into the gloom.
Our stealth was unnecessary
. The woman was still screaming, yelling abuse at someone that we couldn’t see. As we rounded a bend in the narrow pathway, we could see the distant flicker of a camp fire, illuminating a small clearing amongst the trees. I held up a hand to halt Michael, then beckoned for him to follow me as I melted into the shadows beside the path. Together, we inched forward until we crouched between the ferns. Carefully, we parted the fronds so that we could see the scene unfolding in the clearing without being detected.
The woman was starvation thin and furious, with a shock of frizzy brunette hair and weather-worn skin that made it difficult to estimate her age
. I couldn’t make out the details of her face in the semi-darkness, but it was obvious the target of her ire was a man. She smacked him hard and yelled at him incoherently, then turned away holding her head in her hands.
“You were only supposed to trade!” she wailed, tugging at her hair
. The man she’d struck cringed, and backed away. He was tall, but just as skinny as she was, with olive skin and dark hair; his face bore an expression of guilt. A teenage boy stood behind him, looking terrified.
I glanced across the clearing and saw three younger children of different ages huddled together, all looking equally frightened
. Between the children and the adults lay a body slumped unconscious on the grass. Even from afar, I recognised the form as Skylar’s. Her curly blonde hair fanned out across the grass, but she didn’t seem to be restrained in any way.
“I swear, I didn’t mean for this to happen,” the man protested, holding his hands up in defence.
“I sent you up there to trade for food,” the woman yelled, rounding on her husband with fury, “not to set their home on fire and steal their women!”
“It was an accident!”
The man backed away, as though fearing another blow. “We panicked when they said no. We just wanted to grab something and run, but she surprised us and the gas cooker she was using got knocked over. What was I supposed to do? Leave her to burn to death?”
“It’s my fault,” the teenager spoke up suddenly, looking for all the world like he was about to cry
. “I hit the old man. I… I was just so hungry, when he said no… I’m sorry, Mum…”
“Old man?”
The woman spun around to face the teenager. “There was an old man? And you left him in there?”
“We couldn’t find him.”
The man jumped to the teenager’s defence, though the woman looked so weak from starvation that she probably couldn’t have hurt either of them even if she’d wanted to. “We tried, but the smoke was getting too thick and he wasn’t where we’d left him.”
I glanced to my left at Michael, and saw an expression on his face that looked just the way I felt
. This was not what we had expected. These people were not vicious, heartless marauders, but a starving family that had been looking for food. Whether we believed that it was an accident or not, it made sense. Then, suddenly, the dog began to growl.
The fight in the clearing continued unabated, and none of them seemed to have heard the growl
. I glanced at Alfred and then at Michael, lifting a brow to ask the silent question. Michael shrugged, but I could just barely see the tension in his shoulders. The dog had heard or smelt something that it didn’t like. When I reached out to touch the canine, I found his back was up and he was ready for a fight.
A second later, we heard the shriek.
It was a terrible, blood-curdling screech that froze me to the core, and halted the argument in a heartbeat. It was a noise both Michael and I had heard before, and we both knew very well what it meant. This was a moment that we had dreaded, but now it was here. The predatory dead had come south.
In a split second, we were presented with a choice
. We could either grab my sister and run, leaving these people as a human sacrifice to buy us time, or we could try to save the very same people that had almost burnt our home to the ground. None of them had anything that even remotely resembled a weapon. They were completely helpless.
I glanced at the three tiny children, the youngest no older than four
. The look on those little faces made the decision for me. If I wanted to save my species, it had to begin with the very thing that makes us human: our ability to cooperate and work together.
Michael was right beside me as I surged to my feet and lunged into the clearing, just as a second and third screech reverberated all around us
. The teenager shouted in surprise when he saw us coming, but the noise only attracted the creatures to him. I saw a flicker of movement in the bushes on the opposite side of the clearing; a moment later, I levelled my shotgun and fired from the hip into the brush. A terrible howl told me that the buckshot had struck home.
“Get the kids behind us,” I ordered sharply, catching the woman’s eye
. Without hesitation, she grabbed her son and husband, dragging them over to protect the children. I leapt over my sister’s prone form and crouched on the far side of her, staring into the bushes, waiting for the creatures to come.
They didn’t come
. In fact, they did something far worse. They stayed hidden, screeching their horrifying noises, without exposing themselves. It was too dark for us to spot them in the undergrowth, unless we got lucky. They could flank us from any direction and our only warning would be if they howled.
“We need to retreat before they get behind us,” I told the family
. “Grab anything you can’t live without – and I expect one of you to carry my sister if you want to live out the night. Do you understand?”
There was a chorus of agreement, followed by a flurry of activity
. The people had almost nothing except a couple of small bags of things for the children. I heard a grunt as someone lifted Skye up, but I didn’t dare to look away from the forest’s edge.
“Michael,” I called, waiting until I heard his response before I issued another command
. “I want you to lead off. I’ll cover the rear. Take them back to town. We’ll work things out there.”
There was another noise of agreement, and then I heard the sound of his footsteps retreating
. I waited until I heard the others hurry off as well, then I back-pedalled after them, keeping an eye on the trees all around us and my ears alert for danger. As soon as I was out of the clearing, I turned and ran as hard as I could.
I caught up with the group a few moments later
. With the children slowing them down, they had barely reached the road. There was another shriek, but it was further away now, which gave me a brief flash of hope. In the glow of the moonlight, I dimly saw the man carrying my sister just in front of me, casting fearful glances over his shoulder. I saw the woman stoop and pick up the smallest child. Michael shouldered his rifle and gathered up the next youngest.
We ran as hard as we could, with me in the rear to make sure no one got lost
. The sound of harsh breathing and footsteps pounding over the asphalt drowned out everything else. For all our differences, there was one thing that united us, and it was the pure, animal terror of the beast we couldn’t see, waiting to devour us if we stopped for a moment to catch our breath. Even the children seemed to understand that to lag behind was to die a horrible death.
Somehow, we made it back to the township
. The screeches had faded further and further away, moving off in another direction. By some freak of fate, we had been spared to fight another day. Eventually, we drew to a ragged halt near the Hilux, where the raging fire lit our faces in a devilish glow.
Only then did I have a second to think about what we’d done, and who we had just saved
. A heartbeat later, I made up my mind about what to do. The next step to going beyond survival was to find a way to forgive those who had wronged against us. Now was the time to practice what I hoped to one day preach.
“Put the little ones in the truck where we can protect them,” I told Michael
. He nodded and hurried to obey, opening the door to the rear cab so he could place the little child he was carrying safely inside. The woman hesitated for a moment, and then passed the toddler to him as well. Soon, all five children, including Priyanka and Maddy, were safely inside.
I looked at the man who carried my unconscious sister, and tilted my head towards the truck
. Understanding my gesture, he carried her over and placed her gently in the passenger seat, and then stood back, looking at me with uncertainty. All of them were looking at me, I realised suddenly: the two strangers, their teenage son, Michael, Doc, and even the dog. They were waiting for me to say something, to make some monumental decision that would somehow make everything okay.
I drew a deep breath and fumbled with my thoughts for a moment, then looked at the strangers and carefully set an expression on my face that was both firm and kind at the same time
. At least, I hoped it was; this whole leadership thing was kind of new to me.
“I don’t think I need to tell you what you’ve done to us here,” I gestured behind me, to the building wreathed in flame
. Frantic figures ran back and forth, silhouetted against the fire: Hemi and his team, hard at work trying to extinguish the damage these strangers had done. The man and the teenager looked down, guilt clearly written across their faces. The woman glared at them, then looked back at me.
“They weren’t meant to do that,” she explained, obvious
ly trying hard to keep her anger under control. “I only sent them to trade for food.”
“I know
. We heard everything.” I shook my head and gave her the faintest of smiles. “Accidents happen, unfortunately. This was an accident. As such, I’m willing to offer you a choice. You can either leave now and take your chances on the road, or we can work out an alternative.”
“What kind of alternative?”
The woman’s expression flickered; the firelight playing across her features made it hard to work out exactly what she was thinking. I took another deep breath and plunged ahead anyway.