All the while, the sounds of the Skulls grew louder.
“Renee, are you there?” Dom asked. “Come on, Renee!”
Then a gasping voice sounded over the comm link. “Here, Captain.”
“Renee, where are you?” Meredith yelled.
A voice answered from her left. She started to run toward it, but more bullets sprayed into the forest. Twigs and dried leaves fell from overhead. Dirt and sod kicked up. But the rounds were more sporadic, more random. The shelter of the woods was on her side. Meredith listened for the footfalls between the chatter of the machine guns.
Then she heard them. Just a little south from her position.
“I’m headed to you, Renee!” she called. She dashed between the tree trunks and leapt over a fallen log. Her boots caught in a snarl of roots. Momentum carried her forward, and her arms pinwheeled. She lost her grip on her rifle. It flew and landed amid a pile of dead underbrush.
The footfalls grew louder, and Meredith righted herself. “Renee!”
The footfalls picked up, swifter now.
“Coming!” Renee’s voice called—from a completely different direction. Whoever was running towards her, it wasn’t Renee.
Meredith twisted in time to see a figure in fatigues. But these weren’t the black fatigues of a Hunter. They were the muted greens and browns of a standard-issue infantryman’s ACUs. And the thing wearing them was no longer a man. His fingers ended in knifelike talons. Long, protruding skeletal wings burst from his shoulder blades. Spikes and fins bristled from his spine. Like a demon, he opened a mouth full of crooked teeth and let out a haunting wail. The Skull’s flightless wings spread as it sprang at Meredith.
––––––––
K
ara tore across the lawn toward the sound of Sadie’s scream. Navid ran behind her, struggling to keep up. She heard Maggie’s bark and then the wail of a Skull.
“Sadie!” she yelled. “I’m coming!”
Adrenaline surged through her veins, and she flew through a doorway into the building where the screaming seemed to be coming from. Darkness swallowed her, but her pupils slowly adjusted. She strained to make sense of the echoing screams and click of claws on tile. Green runners along the floors lit the way, so at least the emergency lighting system was still functioning on its batteries. But it wasn’t enough. Footsteps sounded behind her. She spun, ready to defend herself.
“Here!” Navid said. A flashlight flicked on. He held out another for her, and she took it with a nod of thanks.
The sound of breaking glass sounded nearby. Maggie barked and growled. Then Kara heard a loud thud, and Maggie let out a pained whine.
Kara shone the light over the walls. There were mannequins wearing George Washington’s Revolutionary War uniforms and various dresses that had been worn by Martha Washington. Portraits lined the walls alongside cases full of artifacts. The flashlight beam probed the darkness of the museum, bouncing as Kara ran. It fell on an old-fashioned musket in one of the cases. It was a harsh reminder that she’d left her gun back at the gift shop in their rush, and so had Navid. It had been a dumb move—or maybe it had been because Kara hadn’t actually expected to find her sister with a Skull. “Sadie! Where the hell are you?”
In response came another crash that sounded like breaking china. Then a scream and more hurried footsteps. Her flashlight beam reflected off something metallic, and Kara’s heart beat faster as she recognized what it was. She sprinted to the case and delivered a heavy strike with her elbow. Glass cracked in a series of spider webs. She yelled in fury as she slammed into it again. The glass fell away in tiny shards.
Inside the case was a sword. Two, in fact. She gave one to Navid, hilt first. Wordlessly they charged into the shadows toward the sounds of a scuffle.
Something shattered. More screams.
There, there!
Maggie was lying on the floor, her tongue lolling out of her mouth, but the dog scrambled to her feet when she saw Kara. Her fur was wet with blood.
God, no
, Kara thought. But she had no time to attend to the golden retriever. A bloodcurdling roar assaulted her eardrums.
Sadie screamed her name.
Kara turned in time to shine the flashlight into the bloodshot eyes of a Skull. Rotten, soiled clothes hung off its lanky frame, and it wore mismatched shoes. This monster had been homeless long before the Oni Agent had taken it. The creature swung a claw through the air. She ducked and attempted to blind the thing by directing the light into its eyes. The bright light only enraged it more. It growled and whipped about, bearing down on Kara like a rabid mutt. Saliva flew from its mouth.
Then a blade struck the monster’s head. Navid delivered another downward strike. But the flimsy weapon had been meant for show, not combat, and the blade bent over the monster’s reinforced bony plates.
“Damn it!” Navid cried as he pulled the bent blade back. He kicked the Skull hard in its chest. The creature swiveled and pounced. Scuttling out of range, Navid tripped when he hit a display case. The Skull’s claws connected with the glass, and shards sprayed Navid’s face.
“Hey, you ugly bastard!” Kara yelled. The monster spun, and she stabbed with the sword. The blade glanced off the plates along the monster’s shoulder. Its claws deftly knocked the sword away, and Kara ducked to avoid another swipe.
The creature leapt. She rolled. In one fluid motion, she recovered the sword and delivered another blow. It caught the soft flesh behind the creature’s knee. Blood trickled from the wound, and the Skull staggered but didn’t fall. It stomped the blade.
Kara tried to free her sword. But the decorative weapon broke under the Skull’s foot. She pulled away the hilt, now wielding only a jagged, short piece of steel. She didn’t drop it. It was still better than nothing.
“Kara!” Sadie cried. “Look out!”
Sadie shone her own flashlight on the monster. For a moment, the Skull looked between the two girls. Navid raised his bent blade, ready to strike again. A sudden flash of fur burst past all of them. Ferocious growling filled the exhibit room. Her fur standing on end, Maggie tore into the Skull’s wrist. Blood spurted as she sank her teeth into the monster, chewing bone.
It wailed as it shook in Maggie’s relentless grip. Then one of its taloned feet hit the dog. She yelped and slid against the wall. Kara lunged before the Skull got up. She buried the broken sword into the monster’s eye up to the hilt. More hot blood poured from the wound. She tried to twist the blade out, but the Skull knocked her back.
The shattered blade hadn’t been long enough to deliver a fatal blow, and now Kara was weaponless. Sadie stood next to her, holding her flashlight. Navid wielded the bent fencing blade ferociously. His face was wrought in determination. But Kara didn’t think it mattered how brave he was. They were near defenseless against the monster. There was only one option.
“Run!” Kara yelled.
“But Maggie!”
“Run, Sadie!”
Finally, she stopped protesting and fled.
Kara started to follow but paused when Navid didn’t move right away.
“I’ll keep him busy!” he said, brandishing the blade. He circled around the Skull.
“Come with us,” Kara said.
“Go!” he boomed.
She glanced between Sadie and Navid. Sadie was running toward the museum’s entrance. She’d be safe. But Kara couldn’t let Navid sacrifice his life so foolishly for hers. She searched for another weapon. Metal scraping against bone caught her ears. She ran to the first display case she’d seen earlier. Nearby she found a heavy dining chair from a mockup of Washington’s dining room. She heaved the chair at the case. Glass clattered, and she reached in for her new weapon. The burnished wood felt cold in her hands. She wielded the musket in one hand and used the flashlight to guide her path back to Navid and the Skull. She certainly wouldn’t be able to use the gun for its intended purpose, but it was heavy and thick enough to do some damage as a club.
“Kara,” Navid said. He jumped as claws narrowly missed his stomach. “I told you to leave!”
“You’re not my goddamned dad!” She swung the musket at the Skull. The monster reeled and fell sideways. She delivered another debilitating blow that sent fragments of its bony horns skittering across the floor.
The Skull seemed dazed but forced itself to its feet. It caught Navid’s sword in its claws and bent the blade backward until it snapped. Kara used the opportunity to slam the stock of the musket into the Skull’s snapping maw.
Teeth cracked. Blood sprayed. The creature went wild. It came at her like a tornado, whipping and slicing. She parried blow after blow until she was backed against the wall. Sweat trickled down her face and stung her eyes. Blood—hers or the Skull’s, she couldn’t be sure—dripped over her skin. She couldn’t keep up with the pace of the onslaught. Her strength flagged. Her resolve started to waver.
A vase cracked over the Skull’s head. It stared straight ahead for a second before swiveling on Navid.
“Shit!” Navid cried, defenseless before the beast.
Kara swung the musket again and hit the Skull. It stumbled but still did not fall.
A loud blast exploded against her eardrums, and the Skull’s head turned to a pile of mush and bones. Its lifeless body slumped against the floor as a new beam of light flooded the room.
“Navid, Kara!” Adam’s voice boomed. “Are you okay?”
Sadie followed behind him. She was shivering, and her skin was white as moonlight. “Kara!” She threw her arms around her sister. Kara returned the hug. Her heart still raced, but she felt a sense of relief at her sister’s touch.
“I think we’re all right,” Navid said. He knelt next to Maggie. “But I’m not sure about her.”
Kara joined him. “Sadie, hold this.” Her sister grabbed the other flashlight. She and Adam shone their lights over Maggie. The dog looked up, and her tail wagged slowly. She tried to stand.
“Hold up, girl,” Kara cooed. Maggie lay still. Kara combed her fingers through the long, wavy fur, sticky with blood. She probed at the dog’s skin. Maggie didn’t yelp or try to snap. Even the front leg Maggie had injured back in Frederick seemed to be okay.
The dog wagged her tail and let Kara help her stand. Maggie made no show of favoring one limb over another, and she didn’t seem to be in too much pain. In fact, she seemed her normal, cheerful self. Most of the blood must’ve been the Skull’s.
“Thank God,” Sadie said.
Kara nodded with her lips pressed tight. She still wanted to give Maggie a more thorough examination, but it would be easier and safer with better lighting—and their guns nearby. The group trudged in silence back to the gift shop. Once they were inside, Adam ensured all the doors were locked, and Kara turned to her sister.
“What the hell were you thinking, going off on your own?”
“I thought it was safe,” Sadie said. “And I had Maggie with me. I wanted to see the museum.”
“You can’t do anything like that again,” Adam said. “Just because we haven’t seen Skulls around doesn’t mean they aren’t hiding somewhere.”
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Sadie said. “I’m sorry.”
“Looks like the one you met snuck in here long before the outbreak decimated the city,” Adam said.
“Probably got scratched or something and turned in there when he was hiding,” Navid added.
Kara still felt angry, but she tried not to let it show. At least Sadie was with her now. Alive. Safe.
“Speaking of scratches, everybody okay?” Adam asked.
The group checked themselves over now that the adrenaline had faded. Everyone reported they were clean. But there was one group member who couldn’t report. Kara examined Maggie again. She used a souvenir dish towel to clean Skull blood out of the dog’s matted fur. She wiped the fur and the towel turned red. One spot on Maggie’s drenched fur gave Kara extra trouble until she realized the blood was seeping back into the dog’s fur from a cut. Maggie had been wounded.
Kara paused, and Sadie looked up at her with a frightened expression. “Can dogs turn, too?”
––––––––
S
hepherd woke to a soft scratching sound. Something was scraping against the general store’s wooden siding. Maybe it was just tree branches. The wind howled around the walls and whooshed through the broken window. The bag wasn’t meant for cold weather, and a shiver crawled through his skin. He tried to close his eyes and go back to sleep.
The scraping continued.
“It’s noisy out there, huh?” Rachel asked in a low whisper. She slowly brought herself up to a sitting position and cocked her head to the side. Even in the pale moonlight, he could see the slight creases form in her brow. “What do you think it is?”
“The wind and the trees,” Shepherd said. But he doubted those words immediately. Rachel’s alertness sparked his own. He recalled the only trees near the general store had been yards away. There might’ve been one, at most, with branches close enough.
The scraping grew louder. The sounds were coming from the front entrance.
“Wake him,” Shepherd said. “Get under the counter.”
“Rory, Rory,” Rachel whispered, gently waking the midshipman. She clamped a hand over his mouth when he shot awake and started to ask something. “Shhh. Quiet.”
Rory’s eyes widened. He relaxed and then nodded.
“Behind the counter,” Rachel said.
Shepherd watched the two crawling over the wooden floorboards. They scooted slowly on their bellies until they made it to the checkout. It was the darkest and most hidden spot in the store—the only place concealed from the windows. But it was too small for all three of them.
Shepherd needed to find his own place to hide. He inched forward on his hands and knees. There was a shelf near the counter filled with dust-covered magazines, trail guides, and books documenting the local wildlife. He started to duck behind it. A shape moved in front of the broken window, and he froze.
Silhouetted against the starlit sky were the characteristic spikes and protrusions he had grown to know all too well. The creature paused at the doorway. Its nose twitched, and its head cocked to the side. Shepherd held his breath as he watched the Skull. His pulse thudded in his eardrums, and he prayed the monster couldn’t hear the rapid rhythm. Time dragged on for what felt like an eternity. His fingers and limbs started to tremble from staying still for so long. But eventually the Skull carried on, lethargic and slow once again.