Page 14 of The Last True Hero
Five
THE FIRST SHOUTbarely woke Mia. She drifted in the realms of exhaustion, trying to run after her sister, but never quite catching her. A boot in the side did the trick, however, as someone tripped over her.
The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by chaos. It took far longer than it should have for her to snap out of it. Screams filled the air, and people tackled each other to the ground, and then a lurching shadow straight out of her nightmares staggered toward her, and Mia finally realized what was happening.
"Sweet Jesus," she cursed, scrambling out of her blankets. It had been cold, and she was knotted up good and tight.
Her gun... where was her gun? She found it, kicked out of the way by someone—perhaps even her—and scrambled toward it. A revenant staggered over it, blocking her path, and Mia found she was all alone with not a single weapon to her name, and only her blanket still snagged on the toe of her boot.
Blood pumped through her veins, bringing with it a surge of adrenaline. Mia grabbed her blanket and didn't think, just attacked. She threw it over the revenant's head, snagging its ragged hands in tight, and then tackling it. Teeth gnashed beneath the blanket, far too close to her cheek as they rolled. There was a strength in its wiry body that she hadn't expected, and she found herself beneath it, trying to fight it off.
"Help!" she screamed, but there was no one to help her. Everyone else was either fleeing or under similar assault.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another filthy shape lurch toward her. Desperation forced her legs up between her and the figure pinning her down, and then she kicked it back, toward the fire.
Its arms flung free of the blanket as it fell, its face with its drawn-back lips and stained teeth turning toward her. Then the smoldering blanket finally caught fire. The creature jerked, throwing its head back in a silent scream as green flames engulfed its entire body.
Mia dove and snatched at her shotgun. She rolled onto her back, staring up at her new assailant, and pumped two rounds straight through its chest.Jesus.Nothing happened. The revenant lurched and black ichor splashed from the holes there, but it kept coming at her.
How...? No time, no time....
Swinging the shotgun's barrel into her hands, she flinched at the heat of it, then swung the butt round and took the revenant's legs out from beneath it. Ground... on the ground was dangerous. Had to get up.
Shadows darkened her vision. They were everywhere. Circling her, their eerie sightless eyes seeming to track her. Mia had a moment where she simply froze, her blood seemingly sluggish in her veins. Time slowed down. There was no way out. No. There had to be a way—
"Head or legs," someone bellowed.
And thenhewas there, leaping over the burning revenant behind her and sailing through the night. McClain landed in front of her, spinning with a sharp axe in his hands and decapitating one of the revenants. He stepped back, crouching low long enough to haul her to her feet. "You're not bitten?" His eyes were a little wild, sweat tracking runnels down his dirty face.
"N-no," Mia managed to croak. Was she? She knew what happened if someone was bitten, but patting herself down showed she was whole. She felt so disembodied that she wasn't certain she'd have felt it.
"Good." McClain stepped forward, swinging the axe again and burying it with a meaty thunk in the back of the nearest revenant's knee. It went down, but he spun, and then another head was soaring through the darkness. "Head or legs, Mia! Take them down, and then finish the job." Lifting his head, he caught sight of someone beyond the revenant. "Here! To me!"
It was a nightmare. Mia found her feet, smashing the butt of her shotgun into a lifeless face, then whirling and sending another sprawling. McClain barely paused to decapitate them both, before grabbing her arm and hauling her through the sudden gap in front of them.
"To me!" he yelled.
"Here!" Mia screamed. "To us!"
She grabbed a flaming branch out of a nearby fire, and set a revenant aflame. It lit up like a Christmas bonfire and kept shambling forward, staggering into a pile of dry sagebrush. The flames surged, lighting up the night.
"That's the way," McClain said. "Over here!"
A younger boy suddenly found them, shaking with fear. There was blood splashed up his arms, and his eyes showed so much white that she thought it was a miracle he'd made it to them.
Mia let go of McClain and grabbed his wrist. "I've got you, Joe. Keep an eye out, and let's keep moving."
"Where did they come from?" the boy bleated. "They've got my dad."
She caught a glimpse of Wayne Erris on his back, his body twitching, and his abdomen spilling viscera across his jeans. Too late. "This way," she said, turning Joe away from the sight and hauling him after McClain.
McClain made it feel all right. He cut through revenants as if they were cows to be slaughtered, drawing survivors toward them and leaving her to sort them out. There was no fear in him, nothing but brutal focus, and everyone felt it. Suddenly the nightmare was less compelling, less real, against the sheer magnetism of the man leading them. If McClain didn't fear them, then why should they?
And then it was over.
Mia started trembling as their small group was absorbed by the larger one surrounding her Aunt Jenny and Thwaites. Jenny hauled her in for a hug, her chest shaking against Mia's.
"My God," her aunt whispered. "I didn't think I'd see you again, my girl."
