The Last She (Books 1-3, the Last She Series)

Ch. 9, The True Monster

Ara

I flattened against the wall and tried to still my racing heart as I strained to listen. I couldn't make out individual words, just laughter and the clashing of metal. Were they allies? Somehow, I doubted it. Why wouldn't Kaden have told me?

There were enough of them that they weren't worried about being quiet. Again, I glanced back over my shoulder. It wasn't too late to leave. I could disappear now, and nobody would ever know. What did I really owe Kaden? I had to think of myself, of my family. An image of my father came to me. He wore a red cap, his skin tanned as a nut. But he wasn't smiling. Instead, he stared at me, face heavy with disappointment. Shame filled me.

Would Father have wanted me to leave a man to die?

Because I had no doubt. If I left Kaden, he would die. I pictured him in a growing pool of blood. His curly hair limp, his strange, green eyes closed forever. I held my breath and leaned around the corner.

A cold wind blew down the corridor, rustling leaves and trash. I saw movement in the food court and counted five men. I pulled back, my heart thundering. 

Five men. Maybe more that I couldn't see. I'd never get past them all. I needed to find another way.

A low snarl came from behind me and the hair on my neck stood on end.
I turned.

The black wolf-dog stalked forward. If not for his dead white eyes and bared teeth, I might not have seen him. 

Behind him, the milky eyes of the other dogs lit the darkness. 

I knew what I needed to do, the same moment a flash of lightning lit the air. 

I spun and surged towards the food court and the men. The dogs howled and raced after me, the sound of pursuit pushing me faster. The first drops of rain began to fall. It was as if a dam had broken open, chaos unleashed.

I barreled through the food court. Two men stopped and watched me in surprise. One leveled a rifle at me, but I only yelled, "They're coming!" and streaked past him. I wove a trail of destruction, pulling over chairs and tables behind me, hindering any pursuit. Shouts of surprise were replaced with shouts of horror as the dogs came upon them. Screams, snarls, shots, and howls echoed behind me.

For a moment, I wondered who the true monster was: the men, the wolves, or me?

It felt like only seconds before I burst through the doors of the room we had slept in. Jeb, Sam, and Issac all turned to look at me in shock.

"Dogs... infected... chased... Kaden... hurt... other men... in food-court... " I bent over and clutched my knees. My arms were stained red to the elbows.

"Sam, stay with Ara and barricade the door." Issac commanded, using more words than I'd ever heard him say. "Jeb, with me." I stood stunned, as if I had spent all my energy and could only watch as they rotated like planets around me.

Issac stretched a map out on the ground, and I pointed to where I had left Kaden, the men, and the wolves.

Sam took my hand as he pulled me away, but before we could barricade the door, Issac turned to me again. "Are you hurt?"

The gentle way he asked was somehow disarming. Maybe because I wasn't used to anyone caring anymore. I looked down at my hands, covered in blood, and then met his eyes. "I'm fine."

Sam and I barricaded the doors as soon as they left. Then he packed equipment and bags into three shopping carts. Inside one, he placed a sleeping bag and draped a tarp over it. Then he cleaned my hands with a bottle of alcohol and wrapped them in white cloth.

After that, we sat and waited. There was something peaceful about Sam, like the eye of a hurricane. Despite the destruction around us, as long as I stayed here, beside him, I felt safe. He talked to me, soothing and quiet, as if I were a wild animal, and though I couldn't concentrate on his actual words, his voice calmed me. Finally, we heard heavy footsteps and moans outside the door.

"Open up! It's Jeb!"

Sam and I pushed aside the desk, and Jeb and Issac carried in Kaden. His shoulder was bandaged, a much better job than I had done, but already blood soaked through. Kaden's eyes were closed, and he moaned as Sam lifted the tarp on the shopping cart, and the other two men placed him inside. Kaden had to fold up to fit, despite Sam's attempts to make it comfortable. He was too tall and masculine to look anything but comical inside. 

Issac shrugged off a backpack and held it out to me. I was surprised to find it was the one I had dropped. I reached into it, pulling out the coat I'd found this morning. It still had the tags. My sweatshirt and shirt were lost now, but for the first time in months, I had extras.

Issac motioned for Sam to push Kaden's cart, while he and Jeb took the other two carts heavy with supplies. I followed a pace behind them. We took a hallway leading out the back of the mall. The wheels of the carts squeaked in the musty corridor, and the oddness of the moment struck me.

We were the strangest shoppers to ever leave this mall.

Issac led the group and kept a careful watch, but we saw neither men nor wolves. A hatchet was now strapped to his waist. 

Issac rammed his cart into the last set of double doors, and they swung open into a night filled with rain. The dark clouds gathering earlier had grown into a gale. The downpour came in sheets, and even without stepping into it, I felt the first breath of winter. The cool, fresh scent swept into the hallway.

We stepped out into the unrelenting rain and began to walk. It wasn't long before I was soaked, even with the new jacket. But I didn't mind. It washed away the numbness. It washed away the blood. The rain awoke something in me. I looked up from underneath my hood at the three figures with a sudden burst of understanding.

I needed to leave.

First Kaden, then the dogs, then the men. Circumstances would only continue to force us together. What was next? 

I remembered my father's last words to me, whispered and broken, "Ara... I made a mistake, we all did... go back to the beginning... go back... it's not too late." Go back where? I had asked myself that question again and again, only to decide I needed to go back home. Back to the first mistake we made, when we had left my mother and sister.

The figures of the men wavered in the downpour, as Issac pushed us onward, relentless. A few hours passed like this, and still the rain came down, still I fought a silent battle in my head.

 Kaden was invisible, hunkered under a bit of tarp. He would live. Probably.

And Sam? The thought cut a bit more deeply. I had grown up a big sister, and Sam looked at me with the same sort of trust. I brushed this thought away less easily. I was no one's sister now. No one's daughter. No one's friend. There wasn't room in this world for those things. I was nothing but the promise of making it home and honoring the last words of my father.

Suddenly, I could take it no longer. My father had been the planner, not me. I was always the one who moved quickly, boldly. Before anyone could discover what had happened, I was gone.

I had given these men everything I could. My father would understand that. So I took several breaths and pushed away my hood. The rain coursed down my face; I saw everything around me unhindered. Sam, his white hands clenching the cart, his red hair now dark with the rain, his face bent against the wind. Jeb and Issac both hunkered down against the storm.

The faded, yellow stripes of the road centered me. I tightened the straps of my backpack. Then, as a lightning crack cut through the night, I took off. The night air hit my throat, and my legs were sure on the wet cement. I was strong and fast, and my heart pounded with the thrill of wild freedom.

I heard a cry behind me, but I didn't stop or look back. I knew they couldn't catch me.

I didn't know we were already there.