Wolf Hiding (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book 2) (3 page)

“They finished talking, and Zoe headed back to the vehicles. And then...ok, there was a little light from the fire, and the moon was out too, and I wasn’t that drunk...Isaac looked at the dog, and then the dog...
changed
. One second there was a dog, and then the next second there was a woman.” He looked at Nowen, his confusion evident on his face.

“What did she look like?”

He shrugged awkwardly, tilting his head to the side. “She was naked, and she had long white hair. She and Isaac talked quietly for a few minutes, and I couldn’t hear a thing. Once she glanced over at me, and I did my best to sit as still as a Fluxer. The light hit her face just right, and I could see that one eye was green, and one was blue. Then she and Isaac walked off down the street. I figured I’d either had too much to drink or not enough. I grabbed another beer, just in case, and went inside my house.”

Nowen caught his gaze with her own. The young man stared back guilelessly.
If he’s lying, he’s doing an incredible job.
“And you couldn’t hear any of what they were talking about?”

He shook his head slowly.

Anxious energy swarmed over her. She rose to her feet quickly and Anton flinched away. She ignored him and walked a few feet from the fire pit.
If he’s telling the truth, then I’m not the only one. And if there’s someone out there like me, maybe...maybe they know who I am.

“Where is this place?” she asked without looking back. When there was no answer she glanced over her shoulder at Anton. He was hunched forward, the firelight turning his hair to red-gold.

“Where is this place?” she asked again, placing each word precisely. She turned to look at him.

Anton wouldn’t meet her gaze. He spoke directly to the fire. “I can show you the way.”

“Or you can just tell me.”

“No.”

Nowen crossed back to the fire and squatted next to the young man. Her voice was quiet but her words were colored with her growing anger. “Tell me where this place is.”

Anton looked at her. Rank fear rolled off him in tactile waves, but when he spoke his words were shaky but firm. “No. I’ll show you. I want you to help me get there.”

Nowen blinked, surprised. “Why?”

“Because I doubt I’ll make it there by myself. See,” and he looked earnestly at her, “I have no illusions about my survival skills. I was lucky to survive the initial outbreak because of where I was living. The trip up here...I was terrified the entire time. I ate in my car, I slept in my car, hell - I would have shit in my car if I didn’t think it would have grossed me out. Finding you? Pure luck. Three weeks ago I had just made it to Laramie. I was parked at that big Wal-Mart, trying to decide if I was brave enough to go inside and scrounge for food, when I saw you.”

Less than a month ago? Was that the last time I was human? And I forgot so much of myself in that short span of time?
“What do you mean, you saw me?”

“I saw a big black dog - or what I thought was a dog - go into the store. And then I saw a tall, black-haired woman come out. I’d been there for an hour or so, and never saw the woman go in. And suddenly that crazy story told by that crazy chick made sense.”

Nowen sank from her crouch to sit on the ground. She held her hands out to the warm glow of the fire as she asked, “And how did you find me?”

Anton gave a half-laugh. “I got a pair of binoculars, and I headed in the direction I saw you - the human you- go, and I searched. It was actually easier on my nerves, being up here in the mountains. No Fluxers.” He shrugged. “And then, like most of the good things in my life, happy coincidence. I saw the wolf, and tracked you back here.”

Anton fell silent. Nowen tilted her head back and looked up. A handful of stars were visible, and as she watched one lone streak of light arced across the black sky. She closed her eyes and looked inward. The wolf was awake, amber eyes gleaming like the fire. For once, the wolf looked interested in what the humans had been saying.
Do we go? Do we find others like ourselves?

“You want to travel with me, for protection. How do you know you can trust me?” Nowen opened her eyes and looked at Anton.

He returned her gaze, openness written on his broad face. “No matter how else Zoe felt about you, you saved her life. I don’t think you’re a bad person. And, honestly, I don’t see what you would gain by killing me.”

She stared at him for a few moments, a spare handful of seconds that stretched on into infinity. Finally she sighed. “Fine. We go together.”

Anton grinned widely. “Great! Thanks!”

Nowen rose to her feet and walked away. “Get some sleep. I’ll want to get an early start.”

“Where are you going?” he called after her, as she disappeared into the dark.

“To get something to eat.”

Chapter Four

Nowen and Anton walked down the shaded path that led from the clearing toward where Anton had left his car. She had spent most of the night as the wolf, scavenging off a dead mule deer she’d found the day before, and napping out under the stars. Returning to her den just before dawn, Nowen had changed and dressed, then sat down and waited for Anton to wake.

They reached the tiny parking lot, about a mile from where they had started, and Anton, who had been as silent as Nowen during the walk, grinned and pointed. “There it is! Nice ride, huh? It’s a Cabriolet. Mercedes. I wanted the Roadster but Mom said she didn’t want to spend that much money on something I’d probably wreck in a month.”

Nowen turned her attention on the car. It was a bright metallic silver with a red top. Low-slung, close to the ground, and fragile-looking. Mud was splashed along the sides but the vehicle looked to be in good shape. She walked around it as she asked “How far did you come in this thing?”

Her back was to Anton, but she could hear the slight hitch in his voice as he answered. “About a hundred, hundred-and-fifty miles.”

She ran a finger over the smooth slope of the hood. “Did you run into a lot of Revs?”

“What?”

Nowen glanced at the young man. His cheeks were flushed.”Revs. Uh, the dead.”

His face lightened in comprehension. “Oh! Fluxers. You call them Revs?” At her quick nod he smiled. “I like that better than Fluxers. Or what the Kaminski brothers called them: motherfuckin’ goddamned sons-of-bitches. Well, I started off on the back roads, thinking that would be safer. But at one little farmhouse, where I stopped to siphon some gas from a tractor, a whole family of Revs came staggering out of a barn after me. So, after that I got on the highway. There at least I could see the damned things coming after me if I had to stop.”

Something seemed off to Nowen, something that Anton had said. “How long did it take you to get here?”

“Two days.”

She looked at him fully. “To go a little over one hundred miles.”

Anton slid his hands into his jean pockets. The jacket was tied around his waist again. “Well, yeah. I kept running into road blocks and traffic jams. Once, the highway was completely blocked for half a mile with wrecked and burned cars. I had to backtrack.”

Nowen leaned back against the car and crossed her arms. She fixed him with a steely glare, letting a little of the wolf show through. “Let’s get one thing straight. I don’t like to be lied to or manipulated. You’re already doing one of those; don’t push your luck by lying to me also.”

Anton sighed. “Believe it or not, there are worse things out there than Fluxers - I mean, Revs. Worse things even than women who can change into wolves. And I spent two whole days in Ft. Collins hiding in my car from them.”

“Hiding from whom?”

Anger and something else - she thought it was shame - laced his words when he answered. “People. Bad people. Riding around with guns and doing...things. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Some deeply-hidden part of her wanted to needle the young man. “Well, if there are bad people out there, I’m not sure I want to take this trip.”

Anton looked at her with startled eyes. “You can’t back out now! I won’t let you!” He pulled his right hand out of his jeans and plunged it into a pocket of the jacket tied around his waist. When he drew his hand out again he held a big black gun. He pointed it at Nowen. “You’re going to help me get to this New Heaven!”

With an effort Nowen kept her outside demeanor calm. Inside, however, her nerves thrummed like harp strings. Anton held the gun steadily on her although she could see the slight tremors that ran through his hand. She looked at him,
really
looked at him for the first time, and saw something that made her uncomfortable with the memories it brought. Anton was a person that, for all his good-natured behavior, was stretched to the breaking point, and in that he resembled a woman she had known very briefly a few months ago. That woman, too, was barely hanging on, driven to the edge of insanity by the harsh and unforgiving new reality. She had wanted something from Nowen that Nowen didn’t have to give. It had ended badly for the woman, and Nowen was a little surprised to find that she didn’t want to have it happen again.

She raised her hands slowly, speaking with a sereneness she didn’t entirely feel. There was little chance that Anton could do her serious harm; she was more worried what would happen if she was injured and the wolf came out uncontrolled. “Anton, please. Put the gun down. I was just teasing you, ok? I want to see this ‘New Heaven’ place too.”

He didn’t look convinced.

She tried again. “Anton, think. You can’t keep a gun on me the entire time we’re traveling, right? And I swear, I was only teasing. Just put the gun down, before I get hurt. Or you.”

The mention of getting hurt seemed to draw Anton out of his crazed state. He blinked rapidly and looked down at the gun, almost as if seeing it for the first time. Slowly he lowered it and when the barrel was pointing at the ground Nowen allowed herself to relax. Awkwardly he slipped the weapon back into his jacket. When he looked at her again a blush of shame bloomed in his face.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I did that.”

“It’s ok.”

He shook his head, his fine white-blonde hair waving with the motion. “No. No, I’m not like that. But...but after what I saw in Ft. Collins, I realized...it seems you can’t trust anyone. So I got some protection.”

Nowen nodded.
But can I trust you?
“I understand. I do. But let’s not point that at me again, ok?”

Anton grinned, his good humor seeming to return as fast as it left. “Gotcha. ‘You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry!’, right?”

She looked at him blankly. “What?”

“Uh, never mind.” Anton glanced around the parking lot. “So. Wanna get going?”

In response she walked to the passenger side of the silver car and opened the door. With a little effort she managed to fold her long length into the small black seat and watched as Anton took the driver’s side. The engine started up smoothly and he gunned it a couple of times, smiling widely at the roar, before he put it into gear and they pulled out of the parking lot.

The sleek silver car hummed along Highway 80, leaving Laramie and the Medicine Bow National Forest behind. They were heading east into a beautiful morning with an endless high blue sky overhead, stretching as far as could be seen. Anton put the top down and the wind of their passing whipped Nowen’s long black hair around her head. The tendrils snapped at her skin like snakes, and she drew the mass back into a ponytail and looked for something to hold it together. Anton pointed at the glove compartment. “Check in there.”

She opened the small compartment. Inside was a jumble of pens, papers, coins, and a couple of small plastic bags. She pulled one out and held it up. It had a small amount of dark green leaves in it. From beside her Anton gave a nervous chuckle. “Oh, wow, I forgot I had those. That could have made the trip up here a little easier. Uh, you can take the rubber band off that baggie for your hair. And just put the bag back in there.”

Nowen secured her ponytail and then leaned back in her seat. She watched the rich green summer prairie stream by as they drove. A large highway sign ticked by and she noticed the name on it. “So, we’re going to Cheyenne?” she called to Anton, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of the wind.

“To begin with.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, leaning as close to the young blonde man as her seatbelt allowed.

“The New Heaven people said they were going to set up outposts along the way to New Heaven. Cheyenne was one of the places they mentioned.”

“And you need my protection for this short of a trip?” She looked at him as she said this. At her words he clenched the steering wheel tighter and leaned forward in his seat. A mulish look came over his face, and his only response was a sharp nod.

She looked back out her window again.
There’s something he’s not telling me. But what?
Another thought occurred to her, something she’d missed when Anton was telling his story. She kept her gaze on the landscape as she asked, “Why didn’t you go with the New Heaven people when they left your neighborhood?”

He cleared his throat before he answered. “My mother was dying. I didn’t want her to die alone.”

Perhaps because the wolf’s hearing was more acute than hers, or perhaps because she wasn’t distracted by trying to read the emotions on his face, but to Nowen Anton’s grief-ridden words rang hollow.
What the hell is he up to? I believe he’s telling the truth about Zoe, and the other wolf/woman he saw. But everything else?
The wolf shifted uneasily.
No, we’ll stay with him a little longer. Maybe we can get the location of this ‘New Heaven’ out of him.
The wolf bared her teeth in a feral grin.
Let’s try the human way, first.

Chapter Five

They reached the outskirts of Cheyenne without trouble, passing only the occasional abandoned car or truck. Once they were stopped for half an hour as a huge herd of cattle crossed the highway. Fencing along both sides of the road had either been torn down or fallen down at some point in the past, and the placid bovines made their leisurely way from one pasture to the next. Herds of horses and pronghorn antelope could be seen dotting the vibrant green prairie and birds were everywhere.