Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Almost there.
One step at a time. Almost made it.
Just a little further.
The little cave gaped in front of us. It was a nearly circular depression in the rock, about thirty feet across, its walls smooth, its floor empty.
I tried to set Bear down, but my legs gave out, and we both collapsed. I pulled myself upright and unhooked Bear’s leash from around my neck. Three stalker hearts tumbled to the ground. I had cut them out along the way, strung them onto the leash like fish, and then I put that grisly necklace around my neck. It was the only way I could carry it.
I chopped one heart into small pieces. My hands felt so heavy and clumsy. I scooped a handful of stalker stew meat and shoved it in my mouth.
It burned like battery acid.
I swallowed. Fire sliding down my throat. I chopped the meat smaller. The last thing I needed was to die choking on stalker’s heart.
The pieces of raw flesh landed in my stomach like rocks. My hands trembled. I retched and forced it back down.
I’d managed to down one and a half hearts before the shivers came. Cold clutched at me. My teeth chattered, my knees shook, and I could not get warm. I slumped against the cave wall, shuddering. Bear trembled, turned, and crawled to me.
Tears wet my eyes.
Bear slumped against me and rested her head on my thigh. I petted her. We shivered together. Time stretched, each moment sticky and viscous.
The shivers attacked in waves now. They washed over me, broke into stabbing pains, faded, and came again.
I had to stay awake. Something told me that to sleep was to die.
I shook Bear. She looked at me with her warm eyes.
I forced my quivering lips to move. “You have to stay awake.”
The shepherd looked at me.
“Stay with me. I’ll tell you a story. You were born into this new age. Your parents were probably born into it as well. You don’t know, but it didn’t use to be like this. It used to be… nice.”
I stroked her fur with trembling fingers.
“I remember when the first gates opened. The government called them anomalies back then. One of them was right downtown. The military cordoned it off. Shut down half of the business district.
“At first, everyone was alarmed. There was news coverage, and theories, and the markets crashed. But the gate just sat there, not doing anything. Roger and I drove by to look at it. It was huge. This high-rise-sized, massive hole in the middle of the city, swirling with orange sparks, strange roots and branches twisting along its boundary, just out of reach. I remember feeling this overwhelming anxiety. Like looking at the tornado coming your way and not being able to do anything about it.
“I asked Roger if we should move. He said, ‘Let’s talk about it.’ Roger was my husband and my best friend. Neither of us got along with our parents. I have no siblings, and he didn’t talk to his brother, so it was the two of us against the world. We discussed it on the way home. Our jobs were here. We’d just bought the house two years before. Tia was doing well in school. Roger’s company was twenty minutes from the site, and I was north of it, so if something happened, we’d have time to get out. We decided to stay.
“For two months the gate just sat there. People stopped talking about it, except to complain about the traffic. Then one day – it was a Monday. I don’t know why crap like this always happens on Mondays – one day, I had this long Zoom meeting with the San Diego office, trying to sort out the new advertising campaign. I kept hearing raised voices and then San Diego went offline.
“I came out of my office. Imagine the conference room crammed with terrified people, and they are all staring at the screen, glassy-eyed and completely quiet. There was a newscast on tv, and the journalist sounded so high-pitched, she was squeaking like a terrified mouse. The anomaly had burst and vomited a torrent of monsters into the city. Downtown was a warzone. Bodies torn apart, cars upside down, and creatures that had popped straight out of a nightmare streaming across the screen…”
I remembered the burst of hot electric panic that shot through me. I knew in that moment that whatever plans we made and the future we thought was coming had just died, smashed to pieces with the hammer of an existential threat.
“I stumbled away from the room and called Roger. He answered right away. He said, ‘Pick up the kids and go home. Straight home, Ada, no stops. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’”
My eyes had grown hot. I swiped the tears off with the back of my forearm. My fingers were stained with stalker blood, and I didn’t want it in my eyes.