Condemn (BUNKER 12 Book 2) (5 page)

"Y'all's alone?"

Finn nodded.

"And just wandering about? Got no
place to go?"

Finn didn't answer. He didn't know
these people. They looked kind enough, but he didn't trust them.
Jonah's warning came back to him about being more afraid of the
survivors that had been left behind than of the Wraiths. Of course,
that had been when he believed the Wraiths were all
dead.

Finn wondered briefly how the other
survivors were getting along. He winced at the thought of Bren
being alone, but he was heartened to know that they would have
reached the evacuation center by now.

"Not talkin, eh?"

"No offense," Finn said.
"But . . . ."

"Sure, we get it," the man said,
nodding good-naturedly. "Don't we, Jen, dear?" The woman nodded.
"It's only natural to be 'spicious in a world such as this one done
become. Trustin no one's the best way to stay alive and not taken
with the feral. Course, havin friends helps, too." He
winked.

"We're looking for his brother," Bix
blurted out.

"Bix!"

"Well? Maybe they can
help."

Finn shook his head.

"We'd be happy to," Jen said. "We know
these parts pretty well. Which way did he go?"

Finn pressed his lips tight. How could
he explain what they were doing and where they were going without
giving away too much information? "We think he's upriver, maybe a
hundred or so miles."

"Y'all are talking about Canada," the
man exclaimed. "Or what used to be Canada, anyway. The land gets
pretty rugged up that way, and once you start hittin towns and
such, y'all are gonna start runnin into real trouble with the
ferals."

"We can handle ourselves."

"Not sayin otherwise, son. But like my
Jenny said, we know this part of the country. We know where it's
safe to wander. Well, safer, anyway. And we know where it's not
safe at all."

"You're going north, we can help," Jen
said. "Our home's along the way. Y'all could rest up with us, sleep
in a real bed instead of on this hard ground, while we figure out a
plan and get y'all outfitted proper-like."

"Now, Jen dear, don't go puttin no
pressure on the boys." He turned to them and smiled. "She gets the
strong motherin instinct, even though she's already gots two of her
own at home to look after."

"They're all grown up, Adrian.
Wouldn't call them boys no more. But y'all sure look like you could
use a decent meal."

The man rolled his eyes. "Here it
comes. Y'all better just run away right now, before she gets on a
roll. When she does, she'll start talking about cookin and feedin
and, fore y'all know it, she's tryin to fatten you up with her
deep-fried chicken."

"Fried chicken?" Bix said. He looked
over at Finn with hunger in his eyes. His stomach
growled.

"Ain't the half of it neither, son.
She makes a right sinful apple pie." He patted his ample
belly.

"Apple pie? Oh, man. Finn,
maybe—"

"Wait," Finn said. A part
of him wished where they were going was in the opposite direction
so he'd have a reason to say no. But he also longed for what the
couple were offering: a place to rest, home cooked
food —
fresh
food — a real bed to lie in with real sheets, a house
with windows and fresh air. And someone to tell them what to do and
how to go about doing it. "It's Adrian, right? How far are we
talking about?"

Adrian scratched his chin
thoughtfully. "Hmm. What do y'all think, dear? Sixty, seventy
miles?"

She shrugged. "Only twenty if'n they
take the footbridge."

The man gestured at the horses behind
them. Finn noticed that both animals had a pair of leather
scabbards, one on either side, and each scabbard held a shotgun.
There were also large packs balanced on their rumps. "Cain't take
them across. Wouldn't be possible."

"No, but one of us can ride around
with one of the boys. The other ones can take the bridge. We'll
meet up on the other side. Them boys won't make it walking the
whole way round."

"You know I don't like splittin you
and me up, Jenny, specially not now with all the recent
activity."

"Activity?"

"More ferals lately. Been trying to
figure out where they's comin from."

"Well, we can't just let them go by
themselves, neither, Adrian. They won't last long."

"More Wraiths?" Bix echoed. He looked
worried. "Finn?"

Finn shook his head with indecision.
There was no way he was splitting up. And the proposal to do so
just felt shifty. Besides, if they did, he feared Bix might end up
telling them more than he should. The couple might truly be able to
help them, more so if they knew more details, but he just couldn't
get the feeling out of his head to be careful around
them.

You're just being
paranoid.

Maybe so, but if and when they shared
their story, Finn wanted it to be on his terms, not
theirs.

"We're not splitting up," he told
them. "And I don't think it's fair to expect you two to do so,
either. Nor is it fair for us to slow you down. Show us where this
footbridge is, and we'll take it across. Give us directions and we
can meet you two on the other side."

He paused, before adding, "And thank
you for the invitation. It's very generous of you to offer to help
us, we being complete strangers."

Jennifer nodded. "I think that's best,
don't you, Adrian?"

Adrian slapped his knee. "In that
case, we'll make camp before it gets dark."

Finn looked around. "Somewhere a
little flatter maybe?" He could see himself rolling down the slope
toward the road in his sleep.

Adrian patted Finn's shoulder. "Yer a
natural born leader. Sharp, adaptable."

He leaned over and placed his other
arm around Bix. Speaking in a low voice that they were all
obviously meant to hear, he said, "And I do believe you have just
made my Jenny the happiest woman this side of the
Miss'ippi."

The first Wraith found the bus shortly after Jonah and Danny left
to check the garage.

The light had failed much more quickly
than any of them had expected, and the passengers had gathered near
the front to watch for their return. They strained their eyes into
the gloom and silently implored them to hurry up. When the
scratching came at the back door, one of the Rollins boys wondered
if that might be Jonah and Danny. He was reaching for the handle to
open it when Hannah started to scream.

Harrison Blakeley was
there, and he pulled her tight against him, his hand clamped over
her mouth.
"Be still!"
he whispered.

The creature pawed again at the
door.

More soon followed, appearing out of
the shadows stretching across the road behind them. Bren let out a
stifled yelp and jumped out of her seat when a hand appeared at the
window beside her. She stumbled across the aisle, pointing and
whimpering. Skeletal fingers, the skin pale and shiny, curled over
the half-pane, leaving greasy streaks on the glass. The nails
clacked against the metal, sounding like rattling bones.

"What do we do?"
Fran Rollins hissed.
"Harry— Oh my god! There's more coming! What do we
do?"

He pushed her and the boys into a seat
on the right side of the bus, where the windows were mostly intact,
and told them to get down out of sight.

Harrison Blakeley made his way up the
aisle at a crouch and urged everyone to keep absolutely silent.
"Get down. Don't let them see you. No lights. No
noises."

A Wraith scratched at the front door,
as if it knew this was where it might get in. Nami sat near the
front. He watched it in frozen horror, though he couldn't see it
very well because of the shadows. It appeared to have caught the
Flense recently. Its skin showed minimal sag, and its arms weren't
as emaciated as he'd seen before.

Maybe it's been eating
well.

It pressed its cheek against the
glass. The skin was a pale shade of gray. It still had most of its
hair.

The creature stepped back, giving him
a clearer view of its body, and he shuddered. Most of its clothes
had fallen or been torn off. Dark brown blood covered it from chin
to genitals. Its eyes glistened like obsidian pools.

A second joined it, this one
significantly more emaciated. With hands that were more claws than
fingers, its nails twisted and yellow, this one was made of the
stuff of nightmares. Flayed ribbons of flesh, whatever had been its
last meal, clung to its lips.

"Be quiet," Kari whispered to the
girls, Hannah and Bren. They'd squeezed into one of the seats and
were hugging one another. "Get down on the floor and
hush."

She passed them to help with Jasmina
and the baby. The poor woman had not let go of Jorge since they'd
left the bunker, and the child's silence now troubled her. But she
saw him give a weak kick. He seemed to sense the group's need for
silence.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling
down next to them.

Jasmina nodded. Her body was visibly
shaking.

Something scratched the side of the
bus just below their window, eliciting a chirrup of fear from the
woman. Kari gestured for her to get down onto the floor, urging her
to move slowly. Then she got up and went back to check on the
girls, keeping as low a profile as possible.

"We need to warn Jonah and Danny,"
Nami told her, meeting her halfway up the aisle.

"How?"

He shook his head. "I don't know, but
there are more coming. There must be seven or eight out there now.
And it's dark enough that they might not see them until it's too
late."

"No!" Harry said urgently. "We need to
go!"

"We can't just leave them out
there."

"That's exactly what we need to do,
Kari!" He gestured about them, accidentally rapping his knuckles on
one of the seat support posts. The sound drew a fearful hiss from
several people. "We're endangering ourselves and them by not doing
anything. You heard what Jonah said. He told us to leave, to draw
them away."

Nami nodded. "If they hear the bus
start up, they'll know. They'll find someplace to hide until we can
come back."

"We can honk," Kari tried. "Warn them.
Then we pick them up as we pass the garage."

"They may no longer be there!" Harry
shook his head. "They've had more than enough time to check the
place out and come back. Something happened and either they're in
trouble, they're holed up, or they know we're in trouble. Either
way, we have to leave—"

The silence was suddenly broken by an
explosion of coughs. The noise swept through the bus, which shook
from the force of Jonathan's fit.

"Dear lord," Fran whimpered. "Someone
help him! Make him stop."

But it was too late. Drawn by the
noise, the Wraiths at the front door began to move along the side
of the bus, at first slowly, then with increasing speed. Their
movements went from passive curiosity to a sort of frantic
excitement. They patted and scratched at the metal.

Then, all at once, they began to
growl.

"It's happening!" Harrison said. He
stood up then, not bothering to stay hidden anymore. "We need to
leave now!"

"The roof!" Susan said. "We can go up
onto the roof!"

"There's no time!" Harry shouted. Both
of his boys were moaning in terror, and Fran was crying. Hannah and
Bren were babbling on the floor. "They'll climb up
there!"

"Give me the keys!" Harrison snapped.
"Who has the keys?"

"Danny had them! He drove
last!"

"What the fu—"

"No no! I've got them!" Kari yelled,
pushing her way past them and diving into the driver's seat. The
Wraiths tracked the noise and rushed to the front. They tried to
climb onto the hood. From the cries behind her inside the bus, Kari
knew that more were trying to climb up into the broken
windows.