Part 34 (1/2)

Derek didn't answer.

”I'd take it,” Sara said after a minute.

They looked at her.

”I would,” she went on. ”It's not any worse than being out here going round in circles, is it?”

”No,” Ashley said. ”We already lost Phillip today.”

”We lost Phillip because they caught us off guard. Otherwise we wouldn't have been out in the open like that. This is my choice. No one to blame except me if it's the wrong one.”

”We'll be out of gas sooner or later anyway,” Derek said, and Ashley flashed him a look that said Stay out of it.

”See?” Sara asked. ”We'll have to stop eventually, and when we do, it'll just be the gla.s.s between us and them and we've already seen how effective that is.”

”I'm pulling up next to it,” Derek said.

Ashley stared at Sara and Sara stared back, but neither said anything and neither wanted to back down from their position. Finally Ashley spoke.

”I'll do it.”

Derek rounded the corner again and slowed near the vent cover, then backed in against the building. Ashley took the CB and said, ”Millie, back in here beside us, up against that vent cover. You see it?”

”I see it,” Millie came back. Millie pulled the F-100 as close to the Charger as she could, close enough the side-view mirror tapped the chrome against Ashley's door.

”Come on,” Sara said. ”Let me go. It'll be no big deal, I can get through it.”

”It'll be a big deal to me,” Ashley said. ”You're not going. Derek, I expect you to keep her in this car. If I can get in through there, I'll come back and give everyone the all clear and you all beat a.s.s into the truck and out the back into the building. But not until I say. Got it?”

Derek nodded. Sara ignored Ashley, but when Ashley repeated, ”Got it?” she nodded, then looked at the floor.

”That s.p.a.ce is two feet square at most,” Derek said. ”What about all our stuff?”

”We'll worry about ourselves first,” she said. ”From there we'll find a door we can unlock from the inside. We'll come back for the vehicles and our stuff then.”

Ashley turned toward the window, but stopped straight ahead, staring out the front winds.h.i.+eld. Derek noticed her freeze and looked. Sara noticed both of them frozen and looked. She screamed, then clamped a hand over her mouth. A bird perched on the hood of the car, its beak inches from the gla.s.s, it's eyes glowing. Even with the windows rolled up, they could still smell it, like fifty years of rot and blood and h.e.l.l on earth, because that's exactly what it was.

”Get it off there,” Ashley said.

”How?” Derek asked.

”I don't care,” Ashley said, ”just get it off.”

Neither saw it at first, but when the bird moved its head in their direction, they understood why Ashley was so upset. Snagged on a ragged edge of its beak was a sc.r.a.p of cloth, the color of the s.h.i.+rt Phillip had been wearing.

”Rotten piece of s.h.i.+t,” Ashley seethed at it through the gla.s.s.

The bird shrieked back and tapped the gla.s.s with its beak.

Then they were all blinded and deafened and the bird flapped and shrieked at the air, taking off again. Tuck's car was grill to grill with theirs, flas.h.i.+ng the brights and laying on the horn. Tuck gave her a thumbs up from the driver's seat. Ashley tried to spread an appreciative smile across her face, but seeing that piece of Phillip's s.h.i.+rt in the bird's beak made it feel forced.

She looked back at Sara and Derek and saw they knew what to do. Sara would stay put; Derek would make sure of it.

The windows went down simultaneously, Millie shoved herself across to the other side of the cab, and Ashley slithered through and over in a flash. The windows were up again before the birds could dive down to them.

Ashley vanished through the small window into the back of the truck. It was only a matter of waiting now.

The back of the truck contained all their belongings. Food in white plastic coolers, clothes folded into suitcases and paper sacks lined against the back of the truck's cab, and a pile of blankets and sleeping bags. Tucked under this pile was a toolbox. Ashley pulled it out, opened it, grabbed a screwdriver.

She flipped up the camper sh.e.l.l's window and went to work on the screws--had the first two off--when she heard the clatter of talons overhead. She looked up and saw they were wrapped around the rim of the window. The bird lowered its head, twisted it to face her, and glared at her.

Her first instinct was to drive the screwdriver into one of those eyes, but before she could move, it lunged for her and she fell back, her arms covering her face.

Millie yelled, ”s.h.i.+t!” and started the engine, then pulled away from the building.

The bird snapped. Ashley ducked sideways, then lashed out and grabbed it's neck. The flesh was like cold, dimpled, raw meat. And when it shrieked, it felt to Ashley like a thousand crawling beetles moving in her palm.

”What are you doing?” she yelled to Millie.

The bird pulled back, opened its beak, and dove forward again.

”Shove it out the back window,” Millie said. ”Then we'll back over the f.u.c.ker.”

The bird dug its talons into Ashley's stomach, sinking them into the tender flesh.

Blood seeped through her s.h.i.+rt and Ashley screamed. It brought up a foot, scratched at her face, opening a cut on her cheek.

She shoved and it toppled backward, its talons ripping free of her. She scrambled to her knees, one hand out for balance, the other still closed tight around the bird's neck.

She maneuvered it closer to the open back window. It tore free of her grasp, jerked backward, squawked, snapped at her face. She threw herself backward, fell again, hit her head against the tool box, and kicked wildly until she connected with something. She landed a solid blow to the head, then another in its leg. A final kick to the body and the thing went out the window, squawking and flapping its wings.

”Now!” Ashley yelled over her shoulder.

The truck's inertia s.h.i.+fted, then a huge THUMP bounced them as they rolled over the bird. The truck came back down hard and Ashley hit her head on the toolbox again.

”s.h.i.+t!” she yelled, rubbing the newest bruise.

Millie put the truck in drive and ran over the bird again. Another THUMP and crash as everything inside s.h.i.+fted. Ashley sat up and looked out the back window. The bird stumbled to its feet. She lifted her s.h.i.+rt and put a hand to her stomach, wiping away blood. Looking at it, the bird hadn't dug in as far as she'd thought. It still hurt like h.e.l.l, but she'd be fine.

For now she had to concentrate on getting inside the building.

”Now, let's get back to that shaft and get inside.”

”Got it,” Millie said, and swerved the truck in a wide circle to get back to the side of the complex.

Ashley slipped again. She didn't hit her head, but she did get a particular view through the side window.

She saw a second floor window that she thought may save them a lot quicker than a shaft that may or may not lead to safety. The gla.s.s was gone, and normally that would have signaled to them to move on, that this place was no good. But this window was barred. s.p.a.ced wide enough so they could slip through, but close enough to keep the birds out.

”Millie,” she said, ”Look over there.”