He wanted to scream a warning, but why?
There was nothing he could do.
They were already running.
It was up to the wolf if they would outlive the day.
He ran and felt a kind of bleak gratitude for the branches that stung his face and the briars that bit his hands, because those were pains he could comprehend. Those things were real and in front of him and held no secret malice that might threaten him in ways deeper than physical harm.
They made it to Alf’s truck.
Green slid down the embankment on his back, fighting for breath.
Valentina climbed inside.
He kicked up a spray of gravel rounding the hood and threw himself into the driver’s seat.
He knew what the horned wolf made of modern obstacles like steel doors and windshields.
Valentina caught her breath with dignified precision.
Green turned the key and stomped the accelerator, spinning thetires and leaving a rooster tail of dirt and stones spraying up behind them.
Then, they were away, fishtailing onto the road. Yet even speed and distance felt like empty comforts. Paper armor.
“Mr. Green, slow down.”
He hadn’t even seen the wolf run. It wasn’t there. Then it was.
“Mr. Green, slow down.”
He was hyperventilating.
If Valentina would admit that a word like “sacred” existed for a reason, then how could she deny words like “monster”? Words like “evil”?
She placed a hand on his forearm.
“Mr. Green…”
He glanced at the odometer. She was right. They were approaching sixty miles per hour on curving mountain roads. He eased off the gas and hated every ounce of speed he surrendered.
His hands were shaking.
He tried to grip the wheel tighter to steady himself.
“Would you like to hear about my favorite comfort food?”
“What?”
Forty miles an hour had never felt so slow.
“My favorite comfort food. I want to tell you about it.”
It was too slow. It was far too slow. Did it matter? What was speed to a thing that could appear out of nowhere?
“Shouldn’t you be preparing one of those contingencies you mentioned? Where’s that log thing?”
“Listen to my voice, Mr. Green. Nothing is chasing us. If something did, we would handle it. Now, I would like to tell you about my favorite comfort food for autumn.”
