Chapter 20
Treycore kept his foot firmly on the gas as the sun fell over the horizon. He hadn’t seen another vehicle for miles—something that made him increasingly uneasy, especially as night gained on them.
After they’d managed to get far enough from the scene at the gas station, they stole a new van and kept on their way to their meet-up point with Kinzer and Aerysn’s ally. Fortunately, they hadn’t run into any other grundars on the way, but now that dusk had arrived, Treycore knew the night put them at greater risk. There could be one or fifty of the beasts, and they wouldn’t even see them coming.
“Are we going to be okay?” Kid asked. He sat in the passenger seat, studying Treycore’s expression, surely sensing his worry.
“You’ll be fine as long as I’m here,” Treycore said, setting his hand on Kid’s leg and squeezing gently. Kid’s lips curled upward, but Treycore knew it was forced, that he was only trying to soothe Treycore, make him feel better.
Treycore checked the rearview mirror, seeing Aerysn in the back seat, jotting something down on a sheet of paper he’d grabbed at the abandoned—attacked—gas station they’d looted when they’d stopped for fuel a couple of miles back.
“I told you we should have gotten a motel at that last town,” Treycore said.
“We only have a few minutes until we reach the next, and we can find a place to hide there,” Aerysn insisted. “Relax. We’re fine.”
“We haven’t seen a car in miles. What if it’s because those things have already reached the next town?”
As he said that, he spotted something in the distance—a car speeding toward them. It approached and flew on by. Treycore checked the rearview mirror, spotting a conceited expression on Aerysn’s face.
“Don’t get cocky on me now,” Treycore said. “I swear to the Leader I’ll pull over now and kick your fucking ass.”
Seeing the car gave Treycore some relief, which was short-lived because soon they were surrounded by darkness. Treycore tensed up, his senses hyperaware of any sound—even if it was just Aerysn or Kid stirring in their seats. He waited, listened, annoyed by the hum of the engine and the wind passing the car. They prevented him from knowing if an enemy was drawing near, smelling them, coming for them, especially if there were a lot of those things.
When Treycore came to an exit on the side of the road, he took it. They needed to find somewhere to hide out for the night. Couldn’t keep wandering aimlessly, waiting for the next attack, one where they would not be so lucky.
He wasn’t very far down the road before he saw the debris, shattered glass from windows, and cars crowding the parking lots of the buildings on either side of the street. Corpses were scattered about, their limbs and heads severed from their bodies, some of which had been torn in half. The grundars had apparently shredded these people apart like wolves fighting over pieces of meat.
Treycore dodged a few corpses in the street.
This was a new Earth—a postapocalyptic Earth. It reminded Treycore that they had failed. Their mission was to prevent all this, but now it was upon them.
“Should we keep moving?” Kid asked.
“No. We need to stay here,” Aerysn replied. “Better to hide than be potentially targeted in the dark by seven…twenty…or a hundred of those things.”
“Aerysn’s right, Kid,” Treycore said. “Nothing’s safe anymore. They’ve already been here, and it seems like they’ve moved on. Better to find somewhere to camp out than drive around in this noise-maker, not even being able to see where they’re coming from.”
No sooner had the words escaped his lips than Kid shouted, “Trey!”
Treycore looked to Kid, whose eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open. Treycore followed his gaze to the driver’s side mirror. He saw something come at him, but it was too close, and all he could make out was the black silhouette before it slammed against the side of the car. The window shattered before the sound of screeching tires filled the air. Treycore could feel the car tilting onto its side, and he felt another serious impact that sent the car rolling until it capsized. The belt was tight against Treycore’s chest as gravity made a vain attempt at pulling him to the ground.
“Fuck,” Treycore groaned.
A claw reached through the shattered window and grabbed around frantically, like it was looking for something to tear the fuck apart.
“Trey,” a whisper came from the back of the van.
Treycore turned to see Aerysn in the back seat, ducked low, his feet planted on the van’s roof. He held a sword out, the hilt facing Treycore. Treycore seized it and brought it around as the grundar’s claw grabbed his chest. He stabbed at the creature’s bicep, and it withdrew its arm before Treycore stabbed again, this time pushing the blade out the van’s window. He felt the blade pierce through something as a shrill cry filled the air. The claw reached in again and scratched at Trey, nicking him across the cheek. But Treycore continued driving the sword into the beast, unwilling to cease his attack.
When he felt the creature go limp, he pulled the sword back into the van and looked to the passenger’s side to make sure Kid was safe. Another claw was wrapped around Kid’s leg, feeling its way up Kid’s body. Kid didn’t move, didn’t even seem to breathe, like he was holding his breath to keep the creature from noticing any movement.
Despite Kid’s attempts, he started to tremble when a set of teeth moved close to the window beside him, gnashing, fangs exposed and dripping with saliva. Another grundar pushed beside it, exposing its own teeth as they moved toward the window together, like they were trying to smell Kid, decide if he’d be a good meal.
Treycore had to act fast, but considering there could have been as many as a dozen, if not hundreds of these things outside the car, he didn’t feel their chances of surviving were very good.
The creatures pulled back from the window before one grabbed the window frame and pried the door off. It moved close to Kid until its open mouth was right beside his face as it took a sniff.
A loud sound came from outside the car before a bright white light shone through the windshield. The lights stung Treycore’s eyes as they reminded him of that bright light from Heaven, one that used to be so familiar to him.
