Feral Read online

  Abby reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of small red cylinders. “M-80s. Light ’em up, they go boom. They’ll make a nice diversion.”

  Abby used a piece of twine to extend the wick of one of the M-80s and put the others back in her pocket. She pointed at one of the abandoned vehicles. “I’ll stick it in that car over there, while you two get close to the opening. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Let me do it,” Aiden said. “I’m used to the street, and I know how militiamen operate.”

  Abby nodded and handed him the M-80 and a lighter. Aiden took them and disappeared into the shadows. Darting from one abandoned vehicle to the next, Pippa and Abby sneaked as close to the tunnel as possible. Aiden joined them a few minutes later, and in the next moment a huge explosion rent the air as the unlucky car blew up in a ball of fire. They felt the shock wave and the heat of the blast.

  The guards took off toward the burning wreck, and the three travelers sprinted into the tunnel. “Follow me,” Pippa said. “I can see in the dark.”

  The length of the tunnel surprised them, but they kept running, listening to their pounding footsteps and their own deep breaths. Only Pippa seemed to be unaffected by their exertions.

  “My gosh, how long is this tunnel?” Aiden whispered.

  “I′ll tell you when we’re through,” Abby replied. “I’m counting our steps.”

  Finally, they saw a dim light that signaled the tunnel’s end. They stopped and crouched low, hugging the tunnel wall.

  Pippa peered ahead, then raised three fingers—three guards. They moved forward slowly, at five-yard intervals, Aiden now in the lead. Near the entrance, they stopped behind an old bus flipped on its side. Aiden motioned to Abby, and she gave him the three remaining firecrackers. He headed back into the tunnel and returned five minutes later.

  “I varied the lengths of the wicks and lit them all at once,” Aiden whispered. “As I ran back I dropped one every ten seconds. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  The sound of the first explosion rang through the tunnel. Two of the guards spun around and entered at a cautious jog, their flashlight beams penetrating the darkness. The three teens crouched as low as possible and pressed their backs against the bus. They waited until the two guards swept past them, then took off running. The third guard had his back to them, scanning the approach to the tunnel, but he turned when he heard their footsteps. Aiden barreled into him and sent him sprawling, then delivered a kick to his head that knocked him unconscious.

  As they ran down the approach, another man leaped from the back of a pickup truck to block their path. He wore a set of metal tanks on his back and carried a gun with a nozzle on the end. When he squeezed the trigger, a stream of flame poured out. Aiden tackled Abby to the ground, and they rolled away as a shadow passed overhead. There was a loud hiss, and Aiden scampered to his feet, pulling Abby up with him to dodge the next jet of fire. But the hissing sound was coming from Pippa as she sprang and brought the man down. She banged his head against the concrete, and he went limp. Pippa growled and then turned to her friends. Abby stared into the narrow slits of her sister’s eyes and felt herself shudder. She had never before been face to face with a werecat.

  “Come on,” Aiden yelled as footsteps resounded from the tunnel.

  The three took off down the road, Pippa in the lead. Aiden and Abby kept up as best they could and followed Pippa when she finally darted into a wooded area.

  “We’ve got to get as far from here as possible,” Aiden whispered as they huddled together a few hundred feet from the road. “They’ll get help and come for us. And the noise is likely to attract ferals.”

  “We should continue through these woods,” Pippa said. “I can find a way through. Then we’ll find another road.”

  “Lead on, sister,” Abby said. “I’d follow you anywhere. Oh, and it’s four thousand forty-seven steps,” she added, looking at Aiden.

  “What?” Aiden said.

  “I told you I’d tell you how long the tunnel was. It’s four thousand forty-seven footsteps long. But then again, I have little feet.”

  They walked all night. When the sun finally peeked over the horizon, they looked for a place to rest. They found it under a broken bridge, taking refuge in the shadow of the bridge itself, out of the view of the road.

  “We’ll eat some breakfast and then sleep for a while,” Abby said, as she reached into her pocket for her inhaler.

  “What’s for breakfast, Ab?” Aiden asked.

  “You’ll find freeze-dried packets of food as well as dried fruits and nuts and some jerky in your backpacks. I also put two solar-silver water-purifying bottles in each pack. The filters will purify any water we find so we don’t get sick.”

  As Pippa and Aiden leaned against the concrete bridge support, Abby dug into her pack and pulled out several books. There was the book of maps that Mother Frances had given them, an old Boy Scout handbook, and a book on indigenous wildlife and plant life. She pulled a compass from a side pocket and checked its bearing against the map.

  “Looks like you’ve thought of everything,” Aiden said. “But tell me, if you’ve got a photographic memory, why bring those books?”

  “Duh,” Abby replied, as she handed the books to Aiden. “If something happens to me, these will help keep you alive.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to you,” he replied, shoving the books back toward her. “Besides, I never learned to read all that good.”

  “I’ll take them,” Pippa said. She grabbed the two books and stuck them in her pack, then gave Aiden a friendly wink.

  Aiden smiled at her. “Maybe you’ll teach me to read better some day.”

  “Um, let’s see, what have you ever done for me?” Pippa said. “Oh yeah, you saved my life. Okay, it’s a deal.”

  Abby was scrutinizing a page of the map book. “According to this, it’ll take us months to reach our destination.”

  Pippa sighed. “I wish we had a vehicle.”

  “Keep wishing, kitty cat,” Aiden said. “Only working ones I’ve ever seen were in Alexander’s fleet. Sorry, I forgot you don’t like to be called kitty cat.”

  “Never mind. I think I’m getting used to it.”

  “Here’s to the first day of our great adventure,” Abby said as she chewed on a stick of beef jerky.

  “Abby, I don’t want to kill your happiness buzz, but this isn’t an adventure,” Aiden said. “I’ve been out here, and it’s more like a nightmare. There’s nothing but rough terrain ahead, and I pray we don’t run across a pack of ferals. They’re as nasty as it gets.”

  “Aiden’s right,” Pippa said. “I saw a feral attack about six years ago. It’s even worse than the stories.”

  “Yeah, okay, sorry,” Abby said.

  Pippa put her hand on Abby’s shoulder. “On the other hand, sis, every day with you is an adventure.”

  Abby gave her sister a grin. “Tell me about it.”

  “All right then, adventure it is,” Aiden said. “But before we continue, we need to get some rest. You two go ahead and sleep, I’ll take first watch.”

  Aiden didn’t wake his two companions. He had learned years ago how to rest with his eyes open and keep watch—it had been a useful skill for hunting ferals. Finally, as the sun set, Aiden brought himself out of his near trance. He stood and stretched and was about to rouse his companions when he thought he heard the sound of howls and low cackles in the distance. Pippa was startled awake by the same sounds.

  “Ferals?” Pippa whispered.

  Aiden nodded. “They’re too far off to be tracking us. They must be tracking something else.”

  Pippa closed her eyes and listened. “I hear a motor. It sounds like the vehicle Alexander drives.”

  Abby woke up and yawned. “What’s going on?”

  “Double trouble,” Pippa said. “Ferals nearby, and maybe Alexander.”

  “We have to get going,” Aiden said. “Our scent is all over this place by now. Pray that Alex kills th
e ferals before they find us.”

  “What about him?” Abby asked.

  “I’d rather deal with the militia than the ferals,” Aiden said.

  They packed quickly and climbed the embankment, crouching low to remain hidden among the weeds. They followed the road west but kept just off it, ready to head for the woods at the first sign of trouble. Suddenly they heard the sound of spinning tires, and they dropped into a ditch that paralleled that section of road. There was a slope behind it. If they ran up the slope they’d be exposed. If they stayed in the ditch, their adversaries would command the high ground. They’d have to stand and fight. Abby held Excalibur in front of her. Aiden made ready to wield his fire saw. Pippa crouched, ready to spring.

  A vehicle with the word JEEP on the front grill appeared and sped past. It wasn’t Alexander. There were two occupants, the driver and a youth around Aiden’s age. They weren’t quite human.

  “They’re werecats,” Pippa hissed.

  “They look like hyenas,” Abby said.

  They heard a screech as the driver slammed on the brakes to avoid a pile of rubble in the middle of the road. Then they heard two car doors slam.

  The three teens peeked out of the weeds to stare at the two hyenas, who were side by side facing back the way they’d come. There was a shrieking sound, and suddenly a pack of ferals appeared, charging toward the hyenas.

  “I’ve got to help them,” Aiden whispered. “You two stay here. Abby, get your weapon ready. Pippa, follow your instincts. If we start losing, you’ll have to attack and kill as many as you can. Best to attack them from behind.”

  Aiden started up his fire saw and bolted out of the grass. He let out a war whoop, and the ferals turned toward him. When they did, the initiative switched to the hyenas, who went on the attack as Aiden cut down a feral with his saw. Aiden struck again, and another feral went down. He swung backhand and sliced a third feral cleanly in two. The rest of the ferals backed away from the red laser lights spinning out from his arm, but Aiden kept marching toward them. The hyenas cried out, the sound like a barking laugh, and their features continued to morph. They struck at the two ferals closest to them, sinking their teeth into the creatures’ throats. Pippa and Abby heard the sickening sound of the ferals’ bones being crushed.

  There was a sound from behind them, and they spun around to see a feral that had sniffed out their position. Pippa leaped at the thing, and Abby saw her sister change form in midair. Pippa struck and tore out the feral’s throat, but three more appeared and made to surround her. Abby rushed forward with Excalibur in hand, slicing through a feral as it went for her sister. Pippa turned and clawed off the face off another. The third feral tried to flee, but Pippa leaped again and brought it down. Abby sliced through its neck with Excalibur.

  Pippa and Abby ran back to the road to join the fight there, but it was over. A dozen ferals lay dead. The hyenas were eyeing Aiden curiously. When Abby and Pippa appeared, they were even more surprised to recognize one of their own kind. The three werecats slowly returned to their human forms as the two groups gazed at one another.

  “Thank you for coming to our aid,” the younger hyena said.

  “You’re welcome,” Aiden said.

  The young hyena hesitated for a moment and then said, “We’ve never seen a werecat in the company of humans before.”

  “We don’t fear werecats,” Abby said.

  “We’re glad to hear it. You humans fought well. Have you come from the city?”

  “Yes,” Pippa replied. “They don’t care much for our kind there, so my friends left with me.”

  “We, too, recently left our home. We lived north of the city, with a pack of hyenas, but the pack was beginning to lose itself.”

  “What do you mean?” Abby asked.

  “It was becoming as insane as the ferals. We stole this vehicle yesterday and plan to take it as far as we can.”

  “I heard there were werecats that resembled hyenas but I’ve never seen one before,” Abby said.

  “Hyenas are a rare breed of werecat. But not as rare as your friend here. I’ve heard about snow leopards, but I’ve never seen one. And we’ve never seen a werecat change back into a real human before.”

  Pippa looked at Abby. “Snow leopard?”

  “It’s your spots,” Abby said. “Your fangs and markings are similar to a snow leopard’s. Even your pupils are different when you morph. More like an alley cat, though you looked much scarier than a regular cat.”

  “Yes, I’d say you’re very rare indeed,” the young hyena said. “Snow leopard, alley cat, and perhaps something more.”

  Abby glanced at Pippa and then took a breath and looked at the hyenas. “Okay, since we seem to have become allies, I’ll tell you. Our friend is a hybrid. She’s more than just rare. We think she’s unique.”

  “We’re honored,” the young hyena said.

  “I’m called Abby, and my friends are Pippa and Aiden.”

  “We don’t have names,” the young hyena replied. “Our pack alpha refuses his tribe the luxury of being named. We know each other by scent. My companion here has been my mentor since I was a pup. Unfortunately, he can’t talk, but we nearly read each other’s thoughts. We heard there was a home out west for our own kind. We aim to find it.”

  “That’s where we’re heading,” Abby said and immediately regretted it. They couldn’t be sure that their new allies would always remain so.

  “Perhaps we should ride together. There’s strength and safety in numbers.”

  Abby looked at Pippa and Aiden, and they both nodded their approval. Yet they all knew they would have to remain on their guard.

  “We better get started before more ferals show up,” the young man said. “But with the bridge out, we’ll have to take our vehicle down the slope and across that field to reach the other side.”

  They made their way slowly down the slope and across the field up to the other side. The driver stopped and cut the engine so they could listen to the night.

  “Something is coming,” the young hyena said.

  Listening close, Pippa once again heard the sound of motors. All at once, beams of light appeared on the other side of the broken bridge, brightening the cloudy night. Two vehicles stopped at the edge of the drop-off. A man exited the lead car.

  “Alexander,” Pippa said, as she sniffed the air.

  “Come on,” Aiden whispered to the young hyena. “Let’s go.”

  “Better to wait, lest they hear our motor,” the hyena said. “Perhaps they won’t see us.”

  But a powerful spotlight mounted atop one of Alexander’s vehicles split the night and soon revealed the fugitives. Alexander raised a bullhorn and addressed his niece and daughter.

  “Come back to me, Abby, Pippa. You’re my kin. Don’t make me chase you, or Aiden will suffer for it.”

  The older hyena man grumbled something barely audible, and Abby caught sight of the scar across his throat. He climbed out of the Jeep and pulled off a tarp covering the back of it, revealing a crossbow mounted to the rear. He lit something attached to an arrow and sent it sailing across the bridge. It hit the spotlight and exploded, scattering men and shards of glass.

  The hyena leaped back into the Jeep and started the ignition, and they fled into the night.

  “That was amazing,” Abby yelled, as they tore down the two-lane road. “Hey, what are we supposed to call you? Hyena Boy or what?”

  “I’ve never had a name. Hyena Boy will serve.”

  “Hyena Boy it is,” she replied. “And we’ll call your friend Driver. If he doesn’t mind.”

  “He won’t mind,” Hyena Boy said. “Do any of you have any idea how to reach the werecat safehold?”

  This time Abby was more circumspect. “Only that it’s on the other side of the continent.”

  “Over the years, we’ve scouted hundreds of miles to the west, so we can safely get us started in the right direction. After that….”

  “After that, all we have to do is
avoid ferals and keep moving until we find it,” Aiden said.

  With that, the five fell silent, watching for ferals and other dangers as Driver put distance between them and the militia, each group hoping the other would prove trustworthy.

  They drove all night. As the early morning sky brightened behind them, they crossed a bridge that took them from West Virginia into Ohio. Soon after they crossed, they saw a sign that read, “Welcome to Marietta, Ohio.”

  Driver pulled the vehicle into a park underneath the bridge. “Time for breakfast,” Hyena Boy said as he got out of the Jeep. He grabbed a couple of poles from the rear of the Jeep. “Any of you know how to fish?”

  “I do,” Abby said. “Well, I’ve never actually been fishing, but I’ve read up on it extensively.”

  The young man smiled. “You can be my fishing partner while my mentor—while Driver builds a fire. We’ll catch our meal.”

  “Is it safe here?” Aiden asked.

  “We’ve camped here many times over the years,” Hyena Boy replied. “Ferals in this area stay more inland, away from the river. They like to make camp closer to the bigger safeholds to catch anyone who ventures out.”

  “What about the fish?”

  “We’ve eaten fish from this river many times. The fish may be safely eaten.”

  Aiden nodded and helped Driver gather wood for a cooking fire, while Pippa stayed close to her sister. The catch was abundant, and they ate their fill. They engaged in conversation, each dropping his or her guard just enough to invite a degree of familiarity, hoping to establish a basis for confidence, if not yet full trust. Someone noted that the nearby river might be their last chance at a bath for days. One by one, each member of the team worked their way down to the water’s edge for a dip. It was mid-afternoon when Hyena Boy beckoned them back to the Jeep.