Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (58 page)

Before Samuel could reply, a howl from
the alpha male brought them to their feet as the wolf’s silhouette appeared at
the threshold of the cave.

***

The cloud continued its death march
across the empty sky. The rolling swirls of slate and obsidian pummeled the
air. All but a sliver of the eastern horizon remained untainted by the
reversion. It dropped toward the surface like a heavy curtain. The cloud pushed
down, placing a pillow over the face of the last remaining motion in this
world. The silence overpowered everything, and distant vistas disappeared
within the coming storm of nothingness.

The trees of the locality leaned inward,
exhausted from the continuous pull of the reversion. Some leafless branches
touched the ground in homage to the unstoppable force engulfing the land and
everything in it. Some could not fight any longer, their trunks snapping and
toppling the head of the tree to the forest floor, leaving a ragged trunk
sticking up from the ground like a broken tooth.

The horde remained, most fastened to the
last piece of solid matter. As the reversion continued to churn from the west,
the horde began to revert as well. Clumps of undead flesh fell from their
bodies in silent mounds of rotted bone. Teeth and hair trickled from the
creatures’ heads, followed by limbs no longer strong enough to withstand
gravity, the lone natural force left virtually untouched. Scraps of clothing
long ago turned into dirty, gray remnants floated to the ground in silence.
Some of the creatures standing on the edge of the clearing collapsed on
themselves, leaving a pumping, empty jaw on the ground spewing nothing but
meaningless silence.

The pack suffered along with the horde.
The alpha male’s hunters hunkered down in a clearing not far from the cave, but
several remained motionless and still for far longer than natural. Two of the
hunters lay with their noses nuzzled underneath their tails, the rise and fall
of their chests no longer visible. The alpha male strode amongst the wolves and
noted the change, one he felt within.

It must be now. Nothing will remain.

Of the six hunters with their muzzles in
the dirt, three stood in response to the alpha male.

The horde shall join. There is not
much will left in the dead flesh, but it is His command.

The hunters growled and circled their
leader. They paced back and forth, staring at the black hole in the mountain.
The alpha male trotted forward and circled around. Three dozen members of the
horde shuffled, their legs dragging them toward the entrance to the cave.
Several more attempted to march until their atrophied bones dropped them to the
ground in a pile of dirty fabric and grey flesh. Seeing the movement, the alpha
male looked into the sky as it closed in on the tops of the few trees brave
enough to reach up.

The alpha male brought his ragged army to
the edge of the clearing until he could feel the subtle exhale of the mountain
coming through the mouth of the cave. He paced back and forth, growling and
snapping at the air.

Come out.
We are not done.

***

“We can’t stay here.”

“I know.”

Mara lowered her head and wrapped her
arms around her torso. Samuel moved closer to the entrance, where silent
movement caught his eye.

“The alpha male is calling me out. He
must sense the end of the reversion drawing closer.”

“I’ll come with you. I’ll fight, too.”

Samuel smiled at Mara and nodded, knowing
she would do so regardless of what he said.

The water running down the walls of the
cave intensified, but silently. Samuel turned and paced the edge of the walls,
his eyes searching for anything that could be of use. Mara watched and then did
the same, starting at one end of the main cavern until she worked her way back
to Samuel. Neither gathered anything useful.

“Think, Samuel. Can you reopen the portal
in a different locality than the last one?”

Samuel closed his eyes and let the
nothingness encompass his inner vision. He waited without hope, knowing the
knowledge to open a portal was escaping him, like the old horror movies when
the car wouldn’t start no matter how many times the ignition was turned.

“It’s there, but I can’t access it. I
can’t say if I could open something, and if I could, I’m not sure where we’d
land.”

Mara looked toward the entrance, where
several of the hunters joined the alpha male in his pacing, accentuated with
growls.

“Maybe this is not our last stand. They
don’t seem to want to enter here, the wolves or the horde. Maybe we push
through the cavern and go deeper into the mountain.”

She wrinkled her nose in disgust and
shook her head back and forth. “I’d almost rather have my throat ripped apart
by the wolves.”

Samuel nodded in understanding.
“It could come to that anyway. Let’s try to avoid it, but we may have a last
stand.”

Before Mara could answer, the alpha male
crossed the threshold with a yelp. His cry broke the silence of the reversion
like the crack of a whip. The other hunters followed, all enduring the hurt
caused from crossing over into the cave. The horde came next, slagging forward
and oblivious. They shuffled in single-file, arms dangling and heads cocked to
the side as if held to their shoulder by an impenetrable force.

“C’mon,” Samuel said.

He ran into the labyrinth of tunnels that
led deeper into the mountain, hoping to avoid the dead ends. He heard Mara’s
breathing and her feet slapping against the dry powder on the cavern floor. The
growling of the wolves came too, reverberating through the cave not far behind.

Samuel dashed left and then right until
the tunnel narrowed. He felt it drop downward as gravity helped propel him
forward. Samuel reached out and steadied his gait by using both hands to
guide himself deeper into the cave. Several times, he felt the scree from
Mara’s feet hit the back of his legs, which propelled him faster.

The cavern twisted and turned, the tunnel
clamping down on the two refugees like a slowly closing iris. The utter
darkness kept Samuel from lunging forward faster than he would have liked.

“Wait.”

He stopped, surprised words still carried
through the dying air of the locality. Samuel felt the icy touch of Mara’s
fingers on his back as she came up behind him.

“Listen.”

They stood in the black silence, hearing
nothing but their own exaggerated breathing.

“Maybe we lost
—
”

Before Samuel could finish, a howl
penetrated the air and rang in his head with the force of a thunderous church
bell. He knew it was the alpha male and the pack was closing the distance.

Mara pushed him, and Samuel picked up the
pace. He felt an aching in his lower back from running in a crouched position
and wondered how long it would take for the muscle cramps to drop him to the
ground in agony. The chasm continued ever downward and became more of a pipe
than a tunnel. Samuel bounced his head off the cavern’s ceiling of the rock
above, and he was forced to draw his arms in closer to his body as the walls
crept inward. He felt Mara behind him, and he also felt her impatience. Samuel
imagined her thin frame navigating through the space faster than his, and the
frustration she must be feeling as their pursuers would come upon her first. He
pushed on as the jagged edges of the rock drew blood from his battered
knuckles. Samuel led them down another passage that widened enough to allow him
to run again, but
—
still
crouched. He heard Mara breathing hard a
few feet behind.

The tunnel dumped them into another open
cavern, although it wasn’t as expansive as the one inside the entrance to the
cave. Samuel ran to the center and spun in time to see the tunnel toss Mara
out. She scrambled and stopped next to him, the space illuminated by an eerie
glow coming from the walls. Samuel thought he could feel the stone lowering in
an attempt to snuff him and Mara from the locality.

The alpha male’s cry came again, this
time closer. Samuel swept Mara behind himself with one arm as he readied for
the onrush of attackers.

Now we finish and He releases us from
our duty.

The alpha male picked through the passage
until his head appeared in the darkness, like a newborn entering the world. The
rest of the animal came next, along with three more wolves. Samuel could not
see the horde, but figured they were on their way as well.

“I don’t know what you want from me,”
Samuel said.

Mara craned her neck forward, unsure if
he was talking to her or not. When she saw the alpha male and Samuel’s
gaze directed at the wolf, she stepped back and listened.

But you do. We are hunters, and you
are our prey.

“And the horde? What role does the undead
play in your hunt?”

Samuel felt a mental chuckle come from
the leader of the pack.

Beacons. Markers of our prey. They
follow the misery and consume what is left behind by the hunters. The horde
will fight for the scraps.

The alpha male stood seven feet from
Samuel, his hunters forming a semicircle, blocking the passage leading back
toward the surface. Samuel looked over his shoulder and saw two tunnels on the
opposite wall.

You may enter those, but we will find
you.

“The reversion is coming and it will
destroy you, too.”

There is nothing the sky will bring
that will cause us more pain.

“Back in the cabin, you attacked. . .”

Samuel let his words hang, unsure
whether or not it was a question the alpha male could answer.

It only delayed this meeting.

“So you expect us to lie down while you
tear out our throats?” He felt Mara’s hands on his hips as she moved closer to
him.

No, but it shall come to that.

Samuel shifted, his muscles tensing and
adrenaline flooding his system.

What have you done with the scarface?

Samuel smiled, sensing what could be a
slight crack in the wolf’s stone will. “Banished. Opened a portal and sent him
through it.”

He will return. He has unfinished
business with you as well.

“Not without me, he won’t.”

You will go to him, whether you desire
it or not.

Samuel caught motion beyond the wolves.
He looked at the black velvet curtain of darkness and saw a humanoid shape
breaking through. The first of the horde appeared, one arm missing and another
dangling by a strand of ligament. The creature’s head sat askew, with the top
portion missing as if one of the pack had torn it away.

Mara came closer. Samuel could feel her
nervous fingers gripping the back of his shirt.

I am sure you are not.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning and pulling
Mara with him.

They sprinted for the tunnel on the left
and dashed through the darkness.

You will tire.

Samuel ignored the alpha male and pushed
through the passage until it narrowed to a place where he was forced to drop to
his knees. He imagined the pack coming upon them, lunging with full force while
they supplicated.

“What did he say?” Mara asked.

“More of the same,” Samuel said.

The passage emptied into another natural
space. This one, however, appeared to be circular, without another corridor or
passage springing from it. Mara and Samuel stood, his back creaking with
the motion. They spun all the way around until they realized there was no way
out. The alpha male padded around several smaller rocks and stopped, waiting
for the rest of the hunters to flank him again.

Now?

Samuel shook and balled his fists at his
sides. Mara walked backward until she felt the frigid stone on her back like
the breath of the dead.

Within moments, the first members of the
horde entered the space and remained behind the alpha male and his hunters. The
subterranean tunnels continued to glow with an ambient light that allowed
Samuel and Mara to see the shapes, but it dimmed significantly from the aura
cast closer to the surface.

“I would rather try to slip anywhere than
let you taste our blood.”

Go ahead.

Samuel closed his eyes, unsure what
mental capacities he used to open the portal for Major. He felt the
frustration mount as if he were a diligent pupil disappointing his teacher.
Mara began to cry softly, holding the sobs to her chest with both arms.

The alpha male turned his nose to the
ceiling and barked at the hunters. They stepped forward and pressed closer to
Samuel and Mara.

Enough. It is time to finish.

Samuel bent at the waist and crouched,
his feet and shoulders spread. He raised his fists into position and stepped
toward the alpha male. The two warriors moved to the center of the space while
the rest watched.

“Wait,” Mara said, stepping from
the wall. “Wait, Samuel.”

He turned to face her and the alpha male
cocked his head sideways.

“Come here.”

She extended her hand, palm up. Samuel
looked at the alpha male, the hunters and the horde. He looked back at her and
saw the conviction in her eyes.

“Please, Samuel. Come here.”

He reached out and felt the power pulse
through his body as their hands locked.