Immortal Coil: A Novel (Immortal Trilogy Book 1) (22 page)

              “I said, ‘So you knew she would probably retaliate, and you thought it would most likely be with me.’ I was flattered, I think.

              “‘You and I have been friends ever since the third grade when I stopped Tommy Flannery from beating the shit out of you on the playground. If she wanted to hurt me, she knows that sleeping with you was the worst thing she could do to me.’

              “I said, ‘Well, you can give me credit for holding your friendship to a higher standard than sleeping with your hot girlfriend, and you can give her credit because she never went through with it. The kiss was as far as she was willing to take it. She still loves you. And as much as she is hurting over this, she is willing to forgive you. She won’t do anything in retaliation, I’m sure of it. She didn’t. She forgives you. But don’t expect her to forget. She is a woman, after all.’ I made him laugh at that.

              “After a moment of quiet, I said, ‘so…what are we going to do about a paddle.’

              “‘I threw it so you would have to go get it,’ he said.

              “‘And do I have to, you know, go get it?’

              “‘I have something else to show you,’ he said, ignoring my question.

              “I waited. He flattened himself backward on his seat and pulled something out of the pocket of the jean shorts he was wearing. He flipped the small box open and held it out to me.

              “It was an engagement ring. And I can’t speak for a woman, but I thought that was like the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

              “I said, ‘What? Because I saw you cry I have to marry you now?’

              “He snarled at me. ‘If you ever tell anyone what you saw out here on this boat, I swear, they won’t know where to find the pieces of your body.’

“I remember laughing at that. In a few hours, what he said won’t seem so funny, but at the time I laughed.

              “‘She’s going to love it.’ I said to him. ‘She’s going to say yes. And if she doesn’t I’ll marry you.’

              “‘If she says yes; I, of course, want you to be my best man.’

              “‘I’d be offended if you didn’t. And I’ll be honored to be your best man.’

              “‘Great,’ he said. ‘Now that the easy part is over; go get the paddle.’

              “He ended up getting the paddle himself and we returned to camp. Later that night, during the camp fire, he got down on one knee in front of the three of us and proposed. Tearfully she accepted. Julie and Maria went off to examine the ring without the prying eyes of the men looking over their shoulders.

“To my knowledge, she died wearing the ring.

Jack asked Alan who he wanted for his best man. It was a dumb question, really since Jack had only been in the group for a couple of years. Alan and I were practically brothers. He wasn’t upset when he found out, and I agreed that he would help me plan the bachelor party.

              “That night the main tent was rocking so hard the small animals fled in panic as if from an earthquake or something. They were loud about it too: how rude.

              “The next day was our last full day. We would be picking up stakes and heading home the following day. Maria and Alan were inseparable, which left Julie, Jack and I to fend for ourselves. We went for a hike. It was around dusk when we started heading back. By the time we came within spitting distance of our camp, it had turned dark as hell and a fog was beginning to settle in. We hadn’t brought flashlights, but Julie was confident she could get us back to camp by following landmarks.

              “We came to a clearing that allowed the moon to light our way, and we continued toward camp with at least some light to see by. Before making it to camp however, something strange began to happen. The mist that had begun to blanket the land wisped and curled around the trees, moving as if with a purpose. I had the eerie feeling something was about to happen and I shivered. Goose bumps broke out on my skin. In the distance we noticed a pack of wolves that had emerged from the mist like wraiths. There were four.

              “‘Something’s wrong,’ Julie said.

              “‘I know,’ I said. ‘Those wolves look hungry and they are blocking our way.’

              “‘No,’ she said. ‘There’s something wrong with the wolves.’

              “‘What do you mean?’ Jack asked.

              “‘They are the wrong color, and something is wrong with their eyes. The shapes of their heads are all wrong, too. They’re heads are almost…’

              “I finished for her. ‘…human looking,” I said.

              “We started to back away.

              “Julie said, ‘Don’t turn your back on them, and don’t run. Doing so will only invoke their hunting instinct.’

              “I said, being the wise-ass that I am all ways and all situations, ‘Their hunting instinct is already invoked.’

              “We continued to inch our way back and to the left. I studied the wolves very intently, and was interested by their diverse coats. All four animals were a different color. There was a light brown one, a black one, a silvery colored one and a yellow one. As we started to hit the trees again, two more wolves stepped into the clearing. Two of the wolves, a light brown and a red one, were much closer to us.

              “‘We’re being surrounded,’ I heard Jack mutter under his breath.

              “‘We have to run,’ I said. Julie agreed. I grabbed her and pushed her into the darkness of the forest. We ran.

              “Jack was the first to go down. I heard him scream then looked back just in time to see two of the wolves, the red one and the black one, tearing off body parts and eating him—even as he continued to scream.

              “I ran with Julie in front of me. We zigzagged through the trees, and could hear the panting and footfalls of several animals as they rushed through the underbrush. My adrenaline kicked in and I got Julie to the second clearing where our camp could be seen. I saw Alan building his massive fire. Julie found her second wind and pulled ahead of me. She was screaming. Maria came out of the tent to see what was going on.

              “‘We have to get to the cars,’ I managed to puff out of my exhausted lungs.

              “‘Why,’ Alan huffed with an incredulous air. ‘Where is Jack?’

              “‘Dead,’ Julie cried.

              “That was when the animals started breaking from the trees and gathering behind us. I knew by the look on Alan’s face, just what he was seeing.

              “‘They killed Jack,’ I confirmed. ‘They ate him, and he was still alive.’

              “Alan needed no further convincing. We ran for the cars. Julie saw that the wolves had broken formation and were already anticipating our escape plan. She dodged to the right and ran for the car closest to her. Maria, Alan and I made it to his SUV. As we sat in the SUV, and Alan started it up, we knew instinctively something was wrong, terribly wrong.

              “Julie was in Jack’s car. She had no keys. The wolves were surrounding her. The yellow one jumped up onto the roof of the car, and Julie screamed so loud we could hear her in the SUV. Two other wolves buffeted the side of the car as if in an attempt to knock it over.

              “‘We have to get her out of there,’ I said desperately.

              “‘No shit, Captain Obvious,’ Alan said. ‘How?’

              “I didn’t know. But as the night wore on, we started to think we were okay as long as we stayed in the cars. Shit, maybe they would get bored and leave. No such luck. Alan shut off his engine to prevent the waste of gas. Once we were all safely in the SUV and could leave we would need that precious gas. We watched as the wolves seemed to get bored and took to tearing our campsite down. Alan’s fire burned bright, keeping the area visible even after the moon was gone behind the clouds. In the car, Julie seemed to be resting since the wolves had stopped attacking. As dawn steadily approached, the wolves as a group decided to attack the cars again, focusing mainly on Julie. All six wolves started pummeling her car as if she, above all, could not be allowed to see the coming day. A window in the car cracked and Julie screamed so loud our SUV vibrated with the sound. Alan had had enough. He climbed out of the SUV and ran for the fire pit. He picked up a burning log and held it out at the wolves. The light brown wolf took up the challenge and raced after him. Alan swung the fiery log at the animal’s head. The log connected and the wolf yelped, falling onto its side. The black wolf raced to the scene and leapt at Alan. Alan fended the wolf off, but a third wolf joined in the fight.

              “I don’t know if she thought she had a plan, or if she was just hoping to buy Alan some time, but this was when Maria climbed out of the SUV.

              “Julie took the opportunity to get out of her car while it seemed all the animals were looking at Maria and Alan.

              “I opened the back seat of the SUV to allow Julie access, but neither of us saw the silver wolf as it came around the front of the car until it was too late. The silver wolf knocked Julie onto her back and then proceeded to tear her stomach open with its teeth. She screamed and struggled, but I knew it was too late for her when I saw the wolf pulling her intestines out of her like gory Christmas decorations. I closed the door to the SUV, drowning out her screams as they faded and then stopped all together.

              “Maria and Alan were in the middle of a crowd of wolves now. The silver wolf, having finished eating the choicest parts of Julie, entered the ring around them. I noted, as did Alan and Maria I’m sure, that the ring was slowly getting smaller.

              “Damn! I thought. This can’t happen. I can’t lose all my friends in a single night like this. I looked in the glove compartment for some kind of weapon: nothing. I looked under the seat. I looked in the console between the driver’s and passenger’s seat, and there I found the knife. It was a red-hilted switchblade with the emblem for the Fire Department on it. The blade was only about four inches long, but it was better than nothing.

              “I got out of the car. Alan said, ‘Get back into the car, Dylan. I got this.’

              “‘You have the keys, dumbass!’ I said. I rushed the closest wolf with the knife: it was the blonde wolf. I drove the knife into its back with all the force I could muster.

              “The wolf howled; a mournful sound.

              “Now all the wolves were focusing on me. Or so we thought. Maria used her only chance to get away and broke for the car. From my angle, this is what I saw: Maria was running toward me, toward the car behind me. The red wolf gave chase. Then Maria just stopped running, her eyes were so wide they looked to be like boiled eggs wedged into her eye sockets. Then she just crumpled. The red wolf had bitten her spine in half. The wolf continued chewing until Maria was separated into two halves. Maria never screamed. The red wolf dragged her legs away.

              “Alan was lost in grief. He attacked the two wolves that were eating at the top half of Maria. I helped him, stabbing with the knife, but it had little effect.

              “Then a wolf had me. It bit down on my leg, and I screamed. Blood poured from the wound. It was the silver wolf. Alan jumped onto its back and twisted its head violently to the side. There was an audible crack as the wolf’s neck snapped. It collapsed in a heap on my legs, dead. Alan helped me to my feet. I limped, holding onto his shoulder as we inched our way back to the SUV.

              “Just as we reached the driver’s side door, Alan stopped moving. Behind him I could see the hulking shape of a brown wolf rising up on its back legs. Alan took my hand in his and laid his keys into my palm. Just as I opened the door to the SUV, Alan’s head fell from his shoulders and rolled, thumping against my chest, leaving a red splotch on my shirt. For a split second, I had the absurd vision of Alan’s body with a wolf’s head on it. Then the body collapsed and the wolf behind it was all I could see. I climbed into the SUV and locked the door. I turned the key and the vehicle started up on the first try. I looked back and saw a naked old man with white hair lying dead where, just a moment ago, I had seen a silver wolf.

              “On the passenger side, Blondie was bashing at the window trying to break the glass. I put the car into gear and sped away, spitting stones out the back as I went. As I drove down the long dirt path, I looked back to see the blonde wolf chasing me. As I eased the SUV into a steady forty miles per hour, the sun finally started to tickle the tops of the trees with its light. I looked back only once more, and what I saw was a naked blonde man running after me. He gave up the chase and slowed his run to a jog then stopped. He turned and headed back toward the camp.

              “When I got back to civilization, I told the authorities of what I had witnessed. I left nothing out. There was an investigation, and body parts were found, but no proof of anything I had seen. It was determined that bears—not wolves—had attacked our camp. They concluded that the events I related to them were delusions caused from shock.

              “I lost every friend I ever had that night. I have no family. Ever since that trip I’ve been a loner. I’ve met people in the years since, but I couldn’t risk endangering them, so I always moved on.”