This Deep Panic Page 29

  “What?” Ethan asked.

  “Well, according to myth, they hibernate for hundreds of years and when they wake up, they gather humans to bring back to their lair and eat. Some tales say they keep their victim alive for years, letting them heal between feasting.”

  “Who cares?” Spike said. “Let’s talk some place else.”

  Ethan nodded once in agreement then turned to Anya. “You can’t go back yet. You can’t kill it with the rifle, or your dog. You won’t be safe.”

  “Anya’s grizzly, though,” Nathaniel said.

  Curtis’s eyes widened. “You have a grizzly?”

  “Talk while we walk!” Spike shouted. He put his hands on Nathaniel and Lucy’s backs, nudging them toward the trail Curtis and Michael had come up.

  Ethan held a hand up, stopping Spike. “You’re right, we need to go. But we’re not leaving without Anya.”

  Rowan caught Anya’s arm. “Please. Come with us. Another day or two. We can figure this out. Your cabin will still be there.”

  There were tears in Anya’s eyes. But when Spike headed for the trail, she nodded to Ethan in defeat and followed.

  Curtis trailed behind Nathaniel, stumbling over the rough ground. His thoughts raced, remembering textbooks and anecdotes, fairy tales and mythology. It felt like the old days when he’d been working on his thesis, his mind so full of information that he felt separated from the real world around him. His imagination flowed between the facts, racing to illuminate the bare bones of research.

  His knee hit a downed cedar and he toppled over the log. He barely noticed when Spike grabbed him by the backpack and hauled him to his feet. He barely felt the pain of the split skin on his knee.

  “What is that?” Jennifer asked, pointing through the trees at the huge crack in the earth.

  “Fault line,” Curtis said, his voice feeling like it was an echo, belonging to someone else. “Opened with the quake. Runs all the way to Index.”

  The others talked around him, voices low and fearful, but he didn’t hear their words, or join in. There was too much to think about.

  If the Windigo shadowed these people, hunted them, everyone in Index would have to be warned. No one would be safe. They’d need to stick together. Not just campfires, but maybe one big bonfire. Had the quake disturbed the thing in its lair? Had it always been here, deep in the granite mountains, hibernating, waiting?

  “We need to talk,” Curtis said abruptly to Ethan. “Compare notes. What we’ve each seen. Create a working hypothesis.”

  “Later,” Ethan said. “Once we’re out of the woods.”

  Curtis nodded vaguely, attention turned inward to theories and possibilities, causes and effects.

  Seeing nightmares.

  13

  It was definitely faster going back than it had been climbing uphill. They moved in a tight line with Ethan leading this time and Anya bringing up the rear. Curtis noticed Payton stayed on Ethan’s heels, frequently gasping out and stumbling, reaching for Ethan’s help each time. She slowed them all down with her helplessness, her neediness. He saw the frustration in Ethan’s eyes each time he had to catch her. He understood the teacher’s frustration, but he also understood what Payton was doing.

  When she glanced at him, Curtis smiled in commiseration. She was just doing what they all were, after all, clustering close to the ones most likely to keep them alive.

  “Where were you when the quake hit?” Ethan asked over his shoulder.

  “In Index.” Warmth heated Curtis’s cheeks. “I drove into the telephone booth at the general store.”

  “Kind of hard to drive when the earth is buckling.”

  Curtis was oddly relieved, as if he’d just been absolved of being a bad driver. “Michael said you were at Silver Creek.”

  “Yep.” Ethan helped Payton around a boulder. “The field trip from hell.”

  Curtis laughed, but then sobered as Ethan told them what had happened since the quake. As he talked about the students, Curtis looked back over his shoulder at them.

  Spike herded Nathaniel and Lucy along, lifting the small girl over obstacles.

  Michael wheezed loudly and struggled to keep up. Jennifer, behind him, walked silently, watching their surroundings with banked terror in her eyes. Curtis noticed that Michael didn’t hold tree branches to keep them from slapping back on her. The kid wasn’t winning any points there.

  Rowan followed them, her beautiful face oddly peaceful as if she either didn’t realize the danger they were in, or had found some way to remove herself from it. Curtis envied her. He saw how she watched the trees and the wind in the leaves, how she turned to see pale light coming through clouds that hid mountaintops. It was like she was daydreaming or had found a way to completely disassociate from the real world.

  Anya, by contrast, also watched the woods around them, but her light blue eyes were intent as she scanned their surroundings for threats. Bird stayed close to her side. It comforted Curtis that she was back there, aware and on guard.

  Ethan paused to heave a shattered chunk of fir out of their path. He waited while it rolled a few feet to the side then gestured for Curtis to come closer. But when he spoke, he kept his face turned from Curtis.

  “We lost Zack last night.” He coughed as if something lodged in his throat and quickly swiped at his eyes.

  Curtis didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to offer comfort. He certainly couldn’t tell Ethan that everything was going to be okay.

  Ethan turned back to the trail and Curtis fell in step with him, leaving Payton to follow.

  “Can you tell me what happened?” Curtis asked hesitatingly, not sure if Ethan wanted to share details.

  “He went to use the outhouse and that…thing took him.”

  Curtis thought of Michael. “Are you sure he didn’t just wander off into the woods and get lost?”

  Ethan swung around to grip the sleeve of Curtis’s coat in his fist. “Anya found his leg.”

  Curtis froze, eyes wide with horror.

  Anya and the students came up around them and Curtis saw tears and helplessness, anger and fear.

  “It might have been any of us,” Payton said. “I’d been out to the outhouse earlier, too, but I didn’t go alone.”

  Anya suddenly gasped and bent slightly as if she’d been hit. Ethan reached for her, but she was already straightening, her face bone-white.

  “What is it?” Spike asked, looking wildly around them. “What is it?”

  Curtis saw the sudden spiked fear in their tension and the way they quickly huddled in tight together, circling to peer into the forest. But he kept his eyes on Anya, not sure he wanted to hear what was coming.

  “No, it’s not the monster,” Anya said. “What you just said, about the outhouse. There’s something…something I didn’t pay attention to. Something about Zack.”

  Ethan caught her arm. “What?”

  Anya gripped Bird’s ruff, sinking her fingers into his fur. “Zack and Jennifer went to the outhouse,” she said slowly, as if thinking something through.

  “Yeah?” Ethan asked, eyebrows up in confusion.

  “We had barred the door.”

  “Right, to keep the monster out,” Spike said. “So what? Let’s go, man.”

  Anya held her hand up. “Wait. Jennifer came back on her own.”

  “Yeah? So?” Michael stepped up beside Jennifer, chest out and shoulders back. “She was too scared to wait out there by herself. What’s wrong with that?”

  Jennifer stared at the ground, hands gripping the straps of her backpack so tightly that her knuckles whitened. But then she raised her chin and Curtis saw tears pooling in the girl’s eyes. Anya’s face suddenly flushed and she shoved through the others to grab Jennifer’s arm, shaking her.

  “Hey!” Michael reached for Anya but Ethan stopped him.

  “Tell us,” Ethan said.

  “I woke up.” Anya pushed Jennifer away from her. The girl stumbled back into Michael. “I heard someone come in fro
m the outhouse. I heard the bar come back down on the door.”

  “I don’t understand,” Lucy said.

  “I knew whoever had gone outside had come back in and relocked the door,” Anya took a step toward Jennifer. “That everyone was safe. It’s why I went back to sleep. Everyone was inside and safe.”

  Ethan’s eyes met hers. “Did anyone else use the outhouse that night?” His voice was cold, his words clipped and terse. “Anyone?”

  The only answer was the wind in the trees.

  Anya grabbed Jennifer again, shook her violently, and then shoved her so hard she slammed into Michael and tumbled backward, coming down hard on the ground. “You fucking bitch.”

  “What the hell!” Michael shouted, bending to help the girl up.

  Jennifer stood and shook off Michael’s hand.

  “You locked him out,” Anya said. “You left him out there. He had no chance. No chance!”

  Curtis stared from one to the other, his heart pounding as he realized what Anya was saying. He didn’t want it to be true, but realization was dawning on the others, too. Lucy gripped Spike, tears coursing down her cheeks. Nathaniel choked on a sob and dropped to his knees. Rowan, back in reality, staggered away from them. Spike pulled Nathaniel to his feet, put his arm around the boy’s shoulders, and drew both him and Lucy close. His face was flushed, his eyes bright with anger. Michael stood, mouth hanging open.

  Payton clutched at Ethan but he pushed her off and grabbed Jennifer’s arm. “Is that true?”

  Jennifer pulled away and crossed her arms tightly over her chest like a self-contained hug. She was pale but her tears were gone. “It was Paul. His death showed me.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Ethan asked.

  “How to keep us safe,” Jennifer said. “I realized we needed to keep the thing fed. Curtis said the same thing. Right? It takes food back to its lair and feeds slowly. So if it’s feeding, or full, or whatever, then the rest of us have a chance to get someplace safe.”

  “Are you fucking insane?” Spike pulled Nathaniel and Lucy back from her. “You sacrificed Zack?”

  Michael was breathing short and rapid as if hyperventilating. “Is that…is that why you agreed we’d be safer at the cabin? Told me…told me I should go?”

  “Of course,” Jennifer said. “I thought Zack would be enough. That I’d only have to do it once. But the thing followed us. So I had to feed it again. And you’re big. You could feed it for a long time.”

  “You said you’d join me.” Michael’s eyes filled.

  “I was scared, okay?” Jennifer shouted, eyes going from one face to another. “I don’t want to die! I told you all that in the bus when I was stuck! This is the only way to keep us safe, to give us a chance. I did it for all of us.”

  “But, that wouldn’t work,” Curtis said, his voice shaky. “Don’t you understand? All you did was show it that this group was a regular food source.”

  “We need to get out of here,” Spike said.

  Ethan pulled his gun and started down the path. “Come on. All of you. Now.”

  Curtis immediately followed, glancing back over his shoulder. The students clustered in behind him, Michael wiping a hand across his eyes. Jennifer stepped forward, but Anya caught her arm and pushed her back.

  “You don’t get our protection,” she said. “You can follow or you can stay here, but you aren’t with us. You weren’t thinking of keeping us safe. You were willing to sacrifice all of us to save yourself. So do it. Save yourself.”

  Anya passed her and took up position behind the others again. Bird growled low as he followed Anya.

  Curtis stared back at Jennifer until he stumbled over a rock and almost knocked Ethan over. She stood in the devastated landscape, face pale but oddly resolved, as if she’d done nothing wrong. He apologized to Ethan and then couldn’t help but look back one more time. Jennifer was several yards behind them, but she followed.

  Curtis had always believed disasters pulled people together. How could it not? Life was precious and even more so when it was threatened. They needed to help each other. Not…whatever this was. Kill another in order to survive? What kind of survival was that? Warm tears trickled down his cold cheeks. He wiped them away with equally cold hands. Things would never be okay again.

  Behind him, Rowan spoke. Her voice was low, but the words carried clearly.

  “See? The monsters are always there no matter where we are.”

  14

  It was late afternoon when Curtis and the others reached Index. Rain was headed their way but still high in the mountaintops, the sheeting curtain slowly hiding the trees as the wind pushed rain down the Wall. He shivered in the chill, damp air, even through his layers of fleece and rain gear. Hopefully the fires were still going.

  He saw exhaustion in the eyes of the others around him. The final leg of the journey, crossing all those downed trees blocking the road, had taken it out of the kids. Cold, wet, exhausted, and scared, they barely stumbled along. But the thought of someplace safe, someplace like home, kept them pushing forward.

  But all of that was like a thin layer of ice over the deeper betrayal. No one had spoken during the hike. But Curtis saw how all of them watched Jennifer as she followed them. He was the same, continuously glancing back. She stayed within a few yards of them, and several times he caught her with tears on her face.

  But he doubted those tears were for Zack.

  He wasn’t sure if what lodged in his heart was anger at the girl, or betrayal that she had sent that poor boy to his death.

  Someone’s stomach growled loudly and Curtis suddenly remembered the turkey and Havarti in his backpack. It had been hours since he ate and yet he’d somehow forgotten the food he’d bartered for. When they finally got to a fire, he’d pull that food out and divide it. Even a mouthful would be better than nothing for these kids. Maybe he could get Betty to feed them.

  They crossed the railroad tracks in a straggly line, passing a sheriff’s truck that looked like it had been driven into a house. Curtis wondered briefly which deputy had been driving and hoped it wasn’t the one who’d helped him when he smooshed the phone box. He wondered suddenly if Jennifer had committed an actual crime. If there were some way to lock her up so she no one else would be sacrificed to her fear.

  The town seemed almost in control. Small groups of people moved as if with purpose. A backhoe headed toward Alley Oop, with the firefighter, Samuel, walking behind it. Two men carried a body toward the makeshift morgue behind the town hall, and Curtis wondered briefly what they would do with all those who had died. They’d have to find a burial ground, and soon.

  In the park someone had built a large fire with debris from downed trees. It smoked from the wet wood, but still looked wonderful. He saw someone adding a round of wood, and heard the sound of chainsaws in the distance. He veered toward the fire and the others followed.

  “Stay here and warm up,” Curtis said, when they reached the wonderful heat of flames. “I’ll go see if I can find some food.”

  “We have food,” Spike said. “We packed a bunch of crap from Anya’s place.”

  “We just didn’t take time to eat,” Lucy said. “You know, with that thing after us.”

  “But we’ll eat now,” Ethan said, dropping his backpack. “And then we’ll figure out what to do next.”

  “I’ll find the deputy then,” Curtis said. “I have to tell them about the cell tower anyway. I’ll see if there’s someplace you can shelter when the rain gets here. Maybe get some rest.”

  He started to walk away and then realized if they all had food, he didn’t have to share his sandwich. He lowered his pack, rummaged around, slapped turkey and cheese between stale bread, and took a huge, ravenous bite as he stood. Slinging the pack over one shoulder, he left the tiny park and crossed 5th Street toward the store.

  The little parking lot in front of the store was destroyed. Huge chunks of pavement had been lifted and strewn about like they were pebbles. Water ran
slowly from underneath, creating pools in the low spots that he jumped over. It looked like the water main had blown while he was gone.

  He turned the knob of the door and then stared at it, startled, when the door wouldn’t open. Betty had locked it. He cupped his hands around his eyes and tried to peer through the dimness inside, but saw nothing.

  “She’s not letting anyone in,” a man’s voice said behind him.

  Turning, Curtis saw the deputy. “No one?”

  “Nope. She’s locked the inner door so it doesn’t matter that the back wall is collapsed. No one goes in. You’re Curtis, right?”

  He nodded.

  “You went up the Wall trail?”

  Curtis nodded again. “Max? Your name, right? The cell tower’s a mangled mess. No way to fix it. And I didn’t find Henry either. But I did find a group of people. They’re at the fire in the park. They’ll need shelter and we’ll need to talk to you about one of the girls. And I think I know-”

  Max put his hand on Curtis’s shoulder. “Good work. Talk to Louis about a place for them. He’s organizing shelters. I’ll check in with them as soon as I can.”

  “Right. Okay.” Curtis caught Max’s sleeve. “But we should have some sort of town meeting. There was this monster-”

  Max patted Curtis’s hand. “I know. We chased it into the river. It’s gone.”

  Confusion flustered Curtis for a moment. But then he realized the Windigo must have flanked them, passed them somehow, come into town. Maybe drawn by a larger group of people.

  “That is absolutely the best news we’ve had in days. The kids are going to be so, so relieved.” Curtis grinned broadly feeling almost airless with relief.

  “Yeah, we were happy to see it go, too.”

  Curtis raised his bread. “Want a turkey sandwich? I have enough here for a second one.”

  Max looked as if he was going to say no, but then paused before nodding. “Sure. Thanks. We haven’t got a handle yet on what food supplies are like so Louis has been handing out granola bars.”