Accidental Evil (34 page)

As their trajectories intersected, Mary planted her feet and swung. She took out one of the bugs in the middle of the line easily. She turned towards the arm that was closing on George and Lori. Ignoring the bugs that were pulling up behind, Mary overtook the line, smashing the one in the rear with a couple of good hits. Before long, she was panting like a sprinter and ignoring the heat in her ankle. She took the next one and moved up the line. Behind her, the little claws of the cockroach robots scrabbled through the leaves.
 

She heard the buzz of another flying robot and scanned the tree canopy to try to spot it.

George and Lori were easily outpacing her and the robots. Mary saw the end of the formation. She only had another four or five of the things to kill and then they could swing back on course.
 

Mary took out one more before she called to her son. “George! Veer left!”

Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that she was putting some distance between herself and the back half of the line. That was good—it meant that she could keep ahead of them. Mary took out another one.

She didn’t see the rusty coil of barbed wire that was poking up over the leaves. It caught Mary’s bad ankle and she toppled like a tree. Compounding her clumsiness, Mary tried to yank her foot free. The wire bit into her skin, tearing a hot gash in her swollen ankle. She bit down on the scream that rose to her lips.

The machines were making up time behind her.
 

She pushed herself up, spat out a leaf, and released her foot from the wire.

George and Lori were running back to the left. She spotted their shapes between the trees in the distance. There were still a few of the robots between her and her son. She had to bash them so she wouldn’t be fighting on two fronts.
 

Mary struggled to her feet, practically dragging her bad leg behind herself. The ankle was worse than ever. It would barely hold her weight. It wasn’t a matter of pain, the whole leg just felt mechanically unstable. She tugged herself forward, leaning on the stick and holding onto trees as she limped. It took a few strides, but she caught the machine in the rear and destroyed it with one blow. She stepped over the carcass and hunted down the next one.

In the distance, she heard George grunt and leaves fly as he contended with another one of the cockroach robots.
 

Her ankle rolled and her knee tried to bend the wrong way. Mary clamped her jaw shut so she wouldn’t scream.
 

“Ha!” George yelled. He must have taken one out.

“That’s it, monkey!” she yelled. George swung his stick like a little ape.

Mary managed to catch another of the things and crush it with her stick.

George and Lori weren’t moving fast enough. Even at her limping pace, Mary was catching them.

“Faster!” she yelled.
 

“Hurry up,” George yelled back.

Mary stole a glance over her shoulder. She was only marginally faster than the robots.
 

“Of course,” she whispered. It made sense—she was struggling to catch up with the last robot ahead of her, so of course the ones behind her must be keeping up. She dug deep and limped as fast as she could. Finally, she got within reach of the last one between her and the kids. Mary beat the life out of the robot until its legs stopped twitching.

“Go to the cemetery!” she yelled.

“You come with us,” George yelled back.

It sounded like he was just on the other side of the little rise.

“Cemetery. Now!” she said. She turned back to the remaining robots. She had managed to get them all lined up so they would be coming one at a time. It was ideal. Even if she couldn’t kill them all, she would be able to delay them enough so the kids could get away.
 

Mary swung at the first. She stopped it. It was still clawing at the forest floor, but it wasn’t moving forward. The stick slipped from her hand. Mary let out a groan as she tried to lower herself down to pick it up again. Her leg was worse than useless. It was an anchor of pain.

The next robot got a claw on her hand before she managed to get up. It tore skin as she batted it away. Mary tried to stab the stick downwards. Her blow didn’t have enough force to disable it. Another of the bugs was closing the distance.

Mary swung the stick and crushed one of the robots against her good ankle. She almost lost her balance. She caught herself against a tree and stayed upright. One of the robots was trying to climb up her bad foot. Mary couldn’t swing the stick at that one—her foot would probably break off. She focused on one of the other approaching bugs and let the painful bastard climb her skin with its tiny claws.

Mary let out a triumphant scream as she killed another one.
 

A new pain flared in her leg and she looked down to see that one of the bugs was inserting a metal probe into her skin. When she hit it with her hand, it was stuck there, like a burrowing tick. The blow only hurt herself.
 

She swung her stick again as she prayed that the kids would be safe. Hopefully, they were halfway to the cemetery.

[ Joined ]

V
ERNON
TURNED
AT
THE
sound of footsteps. He recognized the man, but didn’t put a name to the face. He hated that feeling.

“He’s marked,” April whispered.

Vernon saw Katrina Prescott behind the guy. She was jogging to catch up.

“Stay back,” Vernon warned the young man.

“Marked,” April whispered again.

The guy kept coming. Vernon’s brain clicked on the name—Gerard Dingus. Still, having a name didn’t make Vernon any less wary.
 

“You stay back,” Vernon said. He pointed his finger.

“Vernon,” Trina said.
 

“We’ve got our own troubles,” Vernon said. He put up his hands in an attempt to stop Gerard and Trina from approaching.
 

“Vernon,” Trina said. Her tone was all business. “There is some strange stuff going on here. We need to tell you about it. It might affect your plans.”

Vernon walked backwards and put out his arms to shepherd Ricky and April away from Trina and Gerard.

“I’m sure there is,” he said. “But we’re going to continue on our merry way and we sincerely hope to avoid whatever mess you’ve encountered. Thank you, much.” He gave another warning look to Gerard. The young man stopped and went back to his cousin.

The two of them conferred while Vernon kept his group moving down the street.

“Vernon,” Trina said. “We’re better off together.”

He kept moving.

“Vernon,” she called. She was nearly yelling to be heard over the growing distance. Vernon didn’t like how much attention she was potentially drawing to his trio. “You owe me, Vernon Dunn.”

He slowed just a little and turned his head.
 

“You want to walk with us?” he asked with a growl. “Nobody is stopping you.”

The idea that he owed her, after all these years, was preposterous. He had paid for his transgression with the loss of two friends and a certain amount of shame. He had worn those proudly for the opportunity to find his Mary. Sometimes important things were worth a high price. But as far as Katrina was concerned, his conscience was clear. He owed her nothing.

Vernon looked down at his son and then over to the crazy woman who used to be his son’s teacher. Somewhere down the road, his Mary and their other precious son were on their own. Vernon was going to reunite his family come hell or high water.
 

Behind himself, he heard Trina and Gerard trot up. They had the good sense to stay several paces back.
 

April leaned in towards Vernon as they walked. He hunched over to hear her.

“He’s marked,” April whispered.

“What does that mean?” Vernon asked. Despite the weird thing she kept saying, she seemed pretty lucid.

“They’re got plans for him,” she said.
 

“Who does?”

“The intelligent machines,” April said. “They’re verbs when they should just be nouns.”

“Okay,” Vernon said. He worked hard to keep his disappointment from showing on his face. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

[ Fear ]

Vernon saw the Hazard girl first. She was hunched over and concentrating on her furious pedaling. As she skidded to a halt and put her feet down, Vernon saw the Cormier girl behind.

“Mr. Dunn,” she said, panting, “you can’t go this way. He’s right behind us.”
 

Lily Hazard smeared the tears away from her eyes with her hands.
 

She whipped around and put her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. He saw what she was looking for—her parents were coming down the road at a much slower pace. They were riding one of those big, ridiculous bikes built for two.

“Who is? Your father?”

“What is that abomination?” April asked, pointing down the road. Vernon put out his hand to hush her up. Sarah Cormier was rolling up now and she looked even more upset than Lily. Something had really put a scare into the girls and he didn’t need April adding to the hysteria.

“Mr. Dunn,” Sarah said. “You have to stop that man.”

“I see it, but what…” Gerard said from behind him.

“Dad? I think I made a mistake,” Ricky said.

Vernon put out both of his hands. “Everybody hush,” he bellowed.
 

“One at a time,” Vernon said, turning to Lily. She seemed like she would have the best information. “What are we scared of, Lily?”

Lily took a breath, swallowed, and looked him right in the eye. “There’s a very scary man following us. I think he means us harm, and I think we need to get out of here before he gets here.”

Vernon had to make a decision quickly. He didn’t know what to make of Lily’s information, but he knew that her parents were closing fast on their ridiculous bike. Making a decision and sticking to it wasn’t going to get any easier once they were in the mix. Those two seemed to be allergic to decisiveness.

He turned to his son.

“Ricky, we’re going this way. We still need her?” he asked. He pointed down the left-hand road and then tilted his head at April.

Ricky nodded. He didn’t take his eyes off the road. Vernon figured that his son was watching the approach of Lily’s parents. Vernon was wrong.

“Okay,” Vernon said. “Ricky and April, we’re going this way. Girls, feel free to ride ahead if you’re frightened. I’ll tell your parents where to find you.” He looked back at Trina and Gerard. “You two keep quiet.”

Vernon guided his son and April. He took another glance at Lily’s father and wondered why everyone would be so afraid of the man. It didn’t make much sense. Bruce Hazard seemed nice enough. There was something Vernon had glossed over—something that everyone else seemed to know. His brain turned it over as they moved forward. They would have gone left anyway. It wasn’t a sacrifice to have made the turn. The road they were on was the fastest way to 270, which they would take all the way to the cemetery.
 

Lily and Sarah weren’t riding ahead. They had moved to the other side of Vernon’s group, using them like a shield, but they weren’t going ahead. Meanwhile, Lily’s parents were almost there. Vernon saw something beyond them—a shadow moving down the road.

“Dad?” Ricky asked, distracting him.

Vernon raised his eyebrows and looked down at Ricky as they walked. He waited for his son to finish formulating his question.
 

It wasn’t a question.

“Maybe we should run,” Ricky said.

“Why’s that?” Vernon asked. Half-an-hour earlier, Ricky hadn’t even looked capable of running. It was good news if Ricky was now feeling up to it.

“I think he’s getting stronger,” Ricky said. He looked down the road again. They were just about to move far enough down Hulin Road that they wouldn’t even be able to see Lily’s parents. There was going to be a house in the way. Vernon slowed as he realized something—Ricky wasn’t referring to Lily’s father. That dark shadow was a man. Everything made sense as his eyes locked in. There was inherent menace in the way the shape moved. Vernon understood why Lily was crying and Sarah seemed barely able to function. He understood the awe and fear in Gerard’s voice.
 

He understood why his son wanted to run.

“You go ahead, Ricky,” Vernon said. “Run ahead and meet your mother. I’m right behind you.” Vernon stopped in his tracks. He was going to cross the corner lot and find out what that thing was. He
 
was going to put himself between it and his family. There was a simple truth represented in that dark form—it was the evil that they had been running from all day. Vernon didn’t have any doubt. If that evil was coming for his family, then he would stop it.

“Dad,” Ricky said, tugging on his shirt.

“What did I say?” Vernon asked.

“Dad, what are you doing?” Ricky asked.

“Go find your mother,” Vernon said. He kept talking to his son but he didn’t take his eyes off that shadow. Vernon’s lips were numb, but he was still able to work them enough to form words. “Go find your mother and keep going south until you find more people. I want you to put as much distance between yourselves and this place as you can. I’ll find you.”

“Dad, listen,” Ricky said.

Vernon was listening, but barely. Most of his attention was on the way the thing moved. It was walking, he supposed, but even at a great distance Vernon could tell that the walk wasn’t natural. It looked more like a set of still images being projected on the summer day. The shape was here and then there. It was flowing from one position to the next in a parody of movement.

“I made a mistake,” Ricky said.

The Hazards were within shouting distance now, but they weren’t saying anything. Every now and again, Bruce would whip his head around to look at their pursuer. Every time he did, the bike would wobble until Wendy could find the balance again. Even at their slow pace, they should have been able to easily put distance between themselves and the shadow-figure on foot. But they didn’t. The Hazards pedaled, and the thing walked. It seemed to stay the same distance from them.