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  “Poor bastards,” Max commented quietly.

  Stepping through as quietly as we could, we found the office door. A man’s hand hung from the door knob in a frozen death grip. I was afraid I would have to break a couple fingers to get it off, but Max was able to pry it loose. As he went to lay the severed hand down on a cot, the door slowly creaked open and we both froze. A wave of nauseating odor wafted from the room, carrying the smel of rotting meat.

  “Go!” Max shouted as he shoved me out the double doors. I glimpsed a flash of silver as I fel to the ground. I got up to pul my gun free as the hound came barreling out the doors toward me. Max’s knife was buried to the hilt, deep into its side and it didn’t seem to slow it in the least.

  It swung at me and missed, but got me on the back swing taking my feet out from under me. It sent me tumbling into a shelf sending cans of dog food down on top of me. My shotgun had been knocked free and was too far out of my reach.

  The hound lunged to bite at my leg sending bloody drool flying, but I puled away and kicked it hard in the head. I dazed it only for a second and it lunged at me again.

  I grabbed a can of food and chucked it at its grotesque face as hard as I could, and then another. I dove for my shotgun and my fingers closed around the cool smooth metal.

  As I roled over cocking it, the hound was charging for me. It let out a deep guttural growl as bloody slobber dripped from its mouth.

  I aimed and shoved the barrel of the gun in its mouth and puled the trigger as it bit at me. The hounds head exploded, sending blood and brain matter everywhere.

  The dead weight of its body fel onto me and pinned me to the ground. Hot blood poured onto my chest and neck as it seeped out of the open wound in a sudden rush.

  “Abby!” Carter shouted as he came running down the aisle.

  “Get this demon off me!” I grunted as I pushed.

  “Are you ok? What happened? Where’s Max?” Carter hammered me with questions.

  “Shit Max!” I shouted as we roled the beast off me. “Carter get Max’s knife.” I ordered as I ran for the double doors.

  “I got it!” Carter caled out as he folowed after me. I heard the squeak of his boots as he stepped through the puddle of blood on the tile floor leaving bloody footprints in his wake.

  I found Max slumped on the ground near a far wal and ran for him. Carter stayed by the door and when I heard him vomiting I ordered for him to suck it up and help me. As we lifted Max up to a sitting position, I took the bag from off of his back.

  “Did I get him?” Max asked wearily. A smile crept on my face as I sighed in relief.

  “Yeah,” I lied. “You got ‘em. Are you hurt Max?”

  He began a pat down of himself and located a gash on his leg. “We wil get that fixed up in the Bronco,” I said.

  “He charged at me and slammed me into the wal. I remember shoving my knife into its body, then...then… I must have blacked out.”

  “You’re lucky you didn’t get eaten!” Carter said harshly holding up the broken axe like some kind of evidence. “What the hel were you doing or what the hel weren’t you doing? You almost got Abby kiled!”

  “What?” Max looked at me and his eyes grew wide at the sight of me covered in blood.

  “Shut it Carter! It wasn’t Max’s fault, he shoved me out of the way, but...” then I realized, “it didn’t go after him. It knocked you out of the way.” I pointed to Max,

  “And then it ran out through the doors and saw me.”

  “So…” Carter said with a bit of attitude.

  “I don’t think that it liked being locked up,” I said. “It wanted out more than it wanted to kil Max.”

  “Wel lucky him. Now come on, we got to get the hel out of here,” Carter said as he grabbed the duffel bag and headed out the double doors.

  “Can you walk?” I asked Max and he nodded. I took his hands and balanced our weight while he stood himself up.

  “Abby,” he said as he grabbed my shoulders “I’m sorry. I’m realy sorry. I just keep screwing things up.” He took the rag from out of my hand and started to wipe the blood off my neck.

  “It’s ok Max. I’m ok and you’re ok.” I took the rag back from him and slid my body under his arm and we made our way out of the store as fast as we could.

  Max cursed as we walked past the hound. “They smel worse dead then they do alive don’t they?” Carter asked.

  I could tel his anger had already dissipated and his mind was reeling with the new information we had just discovered. Although I couldn’t understand how that knowledge would be of any use to us. So, the hounds didn’t like being locked up, big deal. I sure as shit wasn’t going to ever try to lock one up myself.

  Seeing the blue Bronco parked out front gave me a smal burst of adrenaline and I ran for it. Carter already had the engine running by the time Max and I had even opened the back door. I tossed the bag in and we jumped in as Carter sped off. I could have sworn I heard the cal of one of those demon birds as we drove away, but I didn’t say anything.

  I crawled into the back of the Bronco and started digging through our things, looking for our first aid kit.

  “Carter, where did you pack the first aid kit?” I asked.

  “It’s in the green bag. Dad’s old A1 bag.”

  I knew that bag wel and found it quickly. I crawled into the seat with Max and tried to assess his wound. He clenched his teeth as I gently to pul away his pants from the wound, pieces of fiber were already sticking to the wound.

  “Take off your pants,” I ordered. Carter must have seen a smile pass Max’s face because the Bronco suddenly jerked to the right. I shouted at Carter to watch it and he apologized while constantly looking back at us through the rear view mirror.

  As I helped pul his pant legs down, being careful not hit the wound, I was relieved to see the cuts weren’t as deep as I had thought. I puled out what tools I needed from our kit and got to work.

  “Ok Max, this is going to hurt. A lot.” I looked in his eyes and held up a bottle of alcohol to show him.

  “Aren’t you suppose to lie to me?"

  I smiled. “Oh yes, ok Max, this isn’t going to hurt a bit. You’re just going to feel a slight tingling sensation and then you’l be right as rain,” I said in my best doctoral tone.

  He started to laugh, so I poured a bit of the alcohol on his wound and he yeled out in agony. The wounds bubbled up and I quickly placed a piece of gauze over it pressing down as hard as I could.

  Max pressed his head back and closed his eyes letting out a moan as I slowly pried the gauze off and placed a couple bandages over the wound trying to close it up the best I could. After placing another piece of gauze on it and securing the bandage, I assured Max I wouldn’t have to take the leg and he laughed.

  Feeling the blood starting to dry on my skin, I quickly wanted to clean myself up. Smal chunks of demon hound were stuck in my hair and I tried to control the bile rising up my throat while I puled them out.

  I crawled into the back again and took off my t-shirt. I roled it into a bal and shoved into a side pocket of my duffel bag, I wanted to try to clean it someday, if I could. After a thorough wipe down using baby wipes we swiped from the store, I puled on a black top with a picture of Eeyore and the words Moody on the front. I let Max take the back seat so he could keep his leg straight as I crawled up front with Carter and grabbed our map.

  “So where are we?” I asked.

  “We are about ten minutes outside of Spokane I think.”

  “Wow already?” I said. “I didn’t think we would hit a bigger city so quickly. What’s the plan?”

  “I think we should just stay on the highway and try to make it through as quickly and quietly as possible. Keep an eye on the map for me though Abby, just in case we have to make a detour.”

  “So what are you thinking Carter?” I asked.

  “What?”

  “Come on,” I said. “I can almost hear the wheels spinning up there,” and I tapped him on the he
ad.

  “Geez Abby,” he said as he took the folded up map and slapped me on the leg with it. “Grab my book from the glove box would ya? Open it to the fifth page.” I turned the pages and found Carter’s almost ilegible handwriting describing the hounds. I wrote down what Carter told me to after I had narrated what happened at the back of the store. He seemed to relax a bit after we had added the information to the book, I’m sure he would read through it a milion times as soon as he got the chance.

  I wanted to tease him every time I saw him with it, but I was starting to understand his need for it. This book was his lifeline to reality, or at least the reality that we once knew. It was his ticket to our old way of life, and whether or not it would realy be of any help in the end didn’t matter right now. What realy mattered was that it was getting him through each day.

  It had taken much longer to get through town. We would occasionaly get out to move a car out of the way and other times we would have to take side streets, which we wanted to avoid as much as possible. There were too many places for things to hide.

  As we neared the center of town, the tal brick buildings loomed over us. I got the feeling that something was watching us, but no matter how many dark windows I looked into I couldn’t find anything. Crossing over the Spokane River, I saw that a car had gone over the side of the bridge. I tried to look down into the car as we drove by but it was too hard to see.

  “Where are we?” Max asked from the backseat.

  “Spokane, but once we get through here and Coeur D’Alene it should be an easier drive for a bit. Hopefuly,” I said. “You feeling better?”

  “Yeah thanks. Damn, this place looks like a war zone,” he commented while looking out the window.

  “Shit, the entrance to the interstate is blocked off,” Carter said as we approached I-90. A huge semi had flipped onto its side across the entrance.

  “I’m sure we can find another ramp to go up,” I said as I pointed to my left. “Looks like that road folows along the interstate, let’s take that until we can get on.” Carter put the Bronco in gear and we started our way down Mission Avenue. Max and I pointed out things along the way. Vandals had written eerie sayings on buildings, announcing that the end of the world was near or that the devil had come to earth. I didn’t want to think that they were probably right.

  After a good number of blocks we found an entrance and made our way onto the interstate.

  “Wow, look at al the smoke,” Max said and we al looked. Towers of black smoke rose up throughout the whole city.

  “Max look over here,” I said as I tapped my finger on the window. He scooted over to the right side of the car and looked out the window.

  “What am I looking for?” he asked.

  “Just above the tree tops,” I said. “There are birds.”

  “Crap.” Carter let out an aggravated groan and stopped the Bronco.

  “What?” Max and I both turned in unison and saw what Carter was looking at. The whole road was barricaded with cars.

  “How are we going to get through that?” I asked.

  “We are going to have to back track, go back on the surface streets until we can find an entrance past this,” Carter said.

  “That doesn’t sound like a good idea,” I said. I punched the dash and stepped out of the car, shutting the door as quietly as I could.

  “What the hel Abby!” Carter tried his hardest to yel at me and whisper at the same time. He ran his fingers through his greasy blonde hair and headed toward me.

  “What do you want me to do, huh?”

  I looked at the Bronco and saw Max sitting up, staring through the windshield at me, giving me his best what the hel are you doing look.

  “I just don’t want to go back on the streets Carter, I have a bad feeling. Can’t we just move these cars like we did the other ones?” I asked.

  “There are too many Abby,” he said with his voice ful of annoyance.

  “No… we just need to make enough room for the Bronco, we don’t have to move them al.” I waved my arm toward the pile of wreckage in a Vanna White type motion and started walking toward the smalest car I could see, a bright yelow beetle near the shoulder. I peered inside and saw the keys were stil in the ignition.

  “Wel?” Carter asked creeping up behind me with his fists resting on his hips, looking very much like how I thought out mother looked.

  “The keys are in the ignition, if we can move this beetle and maybe that truck we can squeeze through, what do you think?” He eyed the space I was proposing and then looked back at the Bronco and then back again. “Maybe… but we got to do this quick Abby. I think we are going to have to move the cars at the same time while Max drives the Bronco through. I’m guessing we have one shot at this,” he said as he jerked his head toward the hil I had seen the birds. “Before they notice.”

  Chapter 3

  I knew Max was up for my idea before we even told him. It took some time to get him into the front seat and I had to move his injured leg for him and place it on the clutch. Max placed his hand on Carter’s shoulder and I let them have some space, while I’m sure Max was vowing not to screw anything up and Carter was being overly technical trying to tel Max what he needed to do.

  Looking at the two of them you would never guess the two were best friends. Carter was six foot, super slender and a geek to his core while Max was the tal, dark and brooding type. The captain of our high school’s footbal team and until everything happened he was on track to join the marines. When they were young, Carter saved Max from drowning at the public pool and they have been inseparable ever since.

  Carter and I crawled into the cars and we gave each other a final glance before we started the engines. He was going to have to move the truck first before I could move because the front end of the beetle was wedged underneath the bed of the truck. As Carter started to pul away he dragged me with him making a loud scrapping sound as the weak metal of the beetle scrapped against the pavement. He looked back at me, a flash of panic playing on his face and I saw him try to peer over at the birds on the hil.

  Then we heard their low shrieks as the four birds formed together and shot down the hilside toward us. I put the beetle in gear and slammed my foot on the gas trying to pry myself free of the truck. My wheels spun sending white smoke flying behind me and the smel of burning rubber into the air. We were stuck and I was starting to worry, knowing this was my bad idea.

  I looked over to the Bronco, wondering if I should make a run for it when I saw Max signaling Carter. Max was hurtling toward us and aimed the Bronco for the side of the truck. I braced myself for the impact as it came crashing into me.

  Max then drove the Bronco into reverse and Carter took off in the truck squealing its tires. I shook off the shock of what had happened and moved the smashed up beetle as fast as it would go. I jumped out and ran for the Bronco as fast as I could. I heard Carter yel my name and I looked at him as he pointed a handgun at me.

  “Down!” he shouted.

  I dropped to the pavement, scraping up my arms as I tried to break the fal and heard Carter let out four bulets, folowed by the loud shriek of a demon bird and an explosion of black feathers. The beating of their huge wings was terrifying and I felt strong arms grab me by my shoulders and pul me up toward the back of the Bronco.

  “You ok?” Carter asked giving me a quick look over then shooting back at a bird that dove at us. “Get in the car!” he shouted.

  I crawled in through the back window and grabbed my shotgun as Carter jumped in the front seat. Max took off through the gap as fast as he could, clipping the side view mirror on another car, but we made it. Three of the birds folowed after us and I shot at them through the back window. After a few miles they gave up their pursuit.

  “Holy crap!” Max cheered once we were sure they had gone. “That was damn close.”

  “Too close,” I said. “We should probably stop soon Max and get you out of that driver’s seat. You need to rest up that leg.”

 
“I’m fine,” he said as he waved me off.

  “Next time wil you go with my idea Abby?” Carter asked as he turned around to face me.

  “Hopefuly there won’t be a next time,” I said.

  We decided that we would wait until after the next city to pul over for a break. Making it through the rest of the city was quicker than we had thought as the roads were more open, but the tal pine trees lining the roads seemed to tower eerily over us.

  It was afternoon now, but the sky was overcast and a light drizzle of rain started to fal. As we drove along lake Coeur D’Alene I watched a fog rol in and silently prayed that the rest of the journey would go more smoothly. About twenty miles outside of Missoula we puled off the road to go to the bathroom. I was stil shook up from earlier, so I wasn’t too fond of the idea of going very far into the woods to pee, so I found a nearby tree not caring about privacy at the moment.

  Walking back up the embankment I saw Max leaning against the front of the Bronco. He had changed into a clean flannel shirt and was cleaning his fingers nails with the tip of his knife. I looked at him for a moment before approaching him, admiring how handsome he was.

  “How’s the leg?” I asked as I rested my back on the front of the Bronco beside him.

  “Fine. You hungry?”

  “Starving.” I hadn’t realized it until he had asked. “Let me see what we got.”

  I walked over to the back of the Bronco and found some canned peaches and beef jerky. With three cans and a bag of jerky in hand I walked back up to Max and deposited the items on the hood.

  Max opened a can for me and one for himself and we both ate in silence until Carter joined us.

  “So I was thinking, there is a summer camp not far from here, we should hold up for the night there,” Carter said while wiping peach syrup from his chin.

  “You don’t think we should try to drive through the night?” I asked yanking a big chunk of jerky off with my teeth and handing it to Max.