“You stay with her.” Reese handed Grayson the pistol, then raced into the hall and down the stairs after us. We piled into the SUV and took off toward Eli’s camp on the eastern edge of the small, abandoned town.
Three miles later Reese slammed on the brakes and the car slid to a dusty stop ten feet from a grimy four-person tent. Two horses neighed and rose onto their hind legs, startled by our sudden appearance, but they were prevented from bolting by the ropes securing their bits to the bumper of a dented white camper.
We piled out of the car and ran toward two distinct plumes of smoke rising from the center of the makeshift camp. I kept my eyes open for degenerates, or anyone moving too fast to be human, but could see no visible threat.
“Eli!” Maddock shouted as we ran. We rounded the end of a short line of campers, and he came to a halt so suddenly that Devi nearly slammed into his back.
“What—” I demanded, but the rest of the question was ripped from my tongue by surprise when I found several dozen people staring at us in shock, most holding dusty cowboy hats in their hands out of respect for the dead.
Eli’s entire community was gathered around the source of the smoke: two flaming pyres built of scraps of wood scavenged from the abandoned town. Many of the faces studying us were flushed and still wet with tears, and near the center, his wrinkled face flickering in the light from the flames, stood an elderly man with a head full of tight white curls, still speaking softly with his eyes closed, as if he hadn’t noticed our arrival.
He was praying.
We’d just interrupted a funeral.
“Again, we’resosorry,” I whispered as Eli led us around one of the campers. “We thought you guys were under attack. We were trying to help.”
Eli’s jaw remained clenched until we were out of sight of the mourners, where he pulled up sharply and turned on us, anger flashing in his golden-brown eyes. “Have you never seen a funeral before?” he demanded.
Reese’s brows rose. “More than I care to count, actually.”
“But in civilization, weburyour dead,” Devi added.
Eli’s expression hardened. “Your ‘civilization’ is led by demons in church robes.”
“Fair enough.” Devi shrugged. “But burials don’t usually attract hordes of degenerates. Huge columns of flameswill.If you’re not careful, you’re going to wind up with several more bodies to bury.”
“This isn’t our first rodeo,” Eli snapped. “There are never more than a handful of degenerates in any one area, and by the time they get close, we’ll be ready for them.”
“Wrong.” Reese spun and glanced toward the south, scanning the horizon for whatever he could hear. He had the best ears in our group by far. “Grayson’s in transition. Every degenerate within range wasalreadyheaded this way, and that smoke is like shooting up a flare, so they know exactly where you are.”
“We didn’t…This has never…” Eli gripped his crowbar and glared at all of us at once. “This isyourfault. You brought them here!”
Reese nodded. “Which we tried to tell you.”
“How many?” Maddock squinted at the southern horizon.
“Ten or twelve, by my best guess. It’s hard to get a good count with no buildings to funnel the sound of their approach.”
Finn turned to Eli. “Go finish your funeral. We’ll keep them off you.”
“Five of you against a dozen? You sure you can handle it?” Eli asked, already backing toward his gathered community.
“Even if we were half-asleep and hungover.” Devi held up her hand, already glowing with the flames ready to burst from her palm in response to the approaching horde.
“Let’s confront them before they get into town,” I said. “That way we can retreat if we need to without drawing them toward either the funeral or the courthouse.” If there was one thing I’d learned from several months of training with Anathema, it was that she who chooses the venue has the advantage.
We piled back into the SUV, then drove directly south, ignoring the cracked and crumbling streets for the more direct, off-road route. But we were too late to stop the horde from entering town. We found them barreling down a residential street in a neighborhood near the edge of the long-abandoned suburb.
Adrenaline fired through my veins as Maddy slammed on the brakes and the SUV skidded to a crooked stop in an overgrown field just outside the neighborhood. We poured from the vehicle and took off toward the degenerates. I’d never run faster in my life. I didn’t gasp for air and my lungs didn’t burn. Ibecamespeed and strength, and every bit of both was aimed at the monsters galloping toward us, most on all fours.
There weren’t twelve. There were fifteen.
Their arms were too long, their legs too thin and knobby. Torn clothing flapped in the wind as they ran. Dirt streaked their grayish faces. Grime matted their hair.
I could smell them almost as soon as I could hear them, panting like dogs on the scent of prey, misshapen feet and hands pounding against the ground, heedless of abuse from grass burrs and rocks. Several of the degenerates drooled, spittle flying from loose lips and rotten teeth.
Maddock got to them first, his left hand blazing and ready. Devi and I were still several feet away when the first of the demons lunged at Maddy and Reese. Reese caught one by the throat, and while it tore at his sleeves, hissing and screeching, he shoved his glowing left hand at the chest of a second. The frying demon seemed suspended there, arms seizing, jaw opening and closing, knees bent as if they’d no longer hold him up.
