Torrent

CHAPTER 16

Sweat trickled down my ribcage as I gripped the steering wheel at ten and two, my posture and positioning so perfect my driver’s training instructor would have beamed. Zelda tilted and groaned as we maneuvered through the dry riverbed. Pebbles flew up, dinging the bottom of the van, and branches scraped at the exterior. The drive out seemed to be taking even longer than the drive in, or maybe the fading daylight made me extra conscious of the passing of time. I could handle maneuvering down one of the old forest service roads in the dark, but a riverbed?

“Do you guys see that?” Simon pointed ahead and to the right.

With my focus toward the motorcycle tracks in front of our tires, I hadn’t seen anything in the woods. I wholeheartedly wanted there to be nothing out there to see.

“What?” Temi came to stand behind our seats.

“Something big and dark.”

I groaned. “I don’t want to encounter big and dark tonight. Or any night.”

“There it is again.” Simon tapped his finger on the window. “It’s loping along up in the trees, paralleling us.”

“Not chasing us?” Temi bent her head to peer toward the hillside.

“No, it’s ahead. See it?”

I wanted to keep my eyes on our route, but found myself glancing anyway. He was right. Something was running up there, though the trees and gloomy light made it hard to make out.

“Can we go any faster?” Temi asked.

“I’d like to but-” We hit a rock and only my seatbelt kept me from pitching into Simon’s lap. “Yeah, that.”

“Keep driving,” Simon said. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”

Temi pointed. “There’s the road up ahead.”

Good, though I wished it were the highway instead of the first of several winding dirt roads that would eventually lead us to a gravel road and then a paved road and then the highway… if I didn’t make a wrong turn.

“It’s not veering in this direction, is it?” I asked, glancing to the right again when some branches moved.

“I don’t think so,” Simon said. “I bet it’s chasing the riders, but it’s fallen behind. Or maybe it was injured in the fight and lost time.”

With a lurch, the van climbed out of the riverbed and onto the road. Though deep ruts scoured the packed earth, I pressed the gas, wanting to put distance between us and that creature. Even if it wanted to catch the riders, that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happily take a few minutes out to kill us for sport-or dinner.

Too bad the road didn’t run straight. It curved, following the hilly terrain, and I couldn’t help but think that something running straight might catch up with us.

“Can you check the map, Simon? Make sure we’re going the right way?”

Paper rustled, and the overhead light came on. I was debating on turning the headlights from regular to high beam, not because it’d grown that difficult to see the road yet, but because I had a notion that a brighter forest would be a better forest at that moment.

The road straightened for a stretch. I leaned on the accelerator, my eyes on the distant bend.

A dark figure leaped out of the trees in front of us.

“Look out!” Temi barked, even as I swerved.

It wasn’t enough. The front corner of the van struck the creature, and its huge black form smashed against the windshield. Glass snapped and cracks streaked through my line of sight. Then a clawed limb flailed toward me-clawed and webbed. I threw on the brakes. The creature rolled forward and away from us, but we’d come up on the bend. I couldn’t turn the wheel fast enough-our momentum hurled us off the side of the road. The dark form had disappeared, but a huge tree dominated the view through the windshield.

Cursing, I swerved in the other direction, trying to get us back onto the road. The tree almost took off the driver-side mirror, but we missed it by an inch. I manhandled us back into our ruts and expected to see the creature lying in the dirt behind of us. But it was gone.

“It’s over there,” Simon blurted, pointing right again. “Go, go, it’s turning to come back.”

I found the accelerator and we surged forward, my grip on the wheel so fierce nothing would have pried off my hands. In the rearview mirror, the dark figure leaped onto the road, twisting in the air to land in a run-a run headed our way. Those webs didn’t slow it down on land at all. It raced along on four legs, loping like a wolf, albeit a torso-heavy version of one.

“It’s gaining on us.” Simon had twisted in his seat so he could see out the back. “Gotta go faster.”

We were heading toward another bend, and I dared not accelerate. It’d have no trouble catching us if we hurled the van into a ditch. But the image in the rearview mirror had doubled in size. Once we reached the highway, we could outrun it, but here, on these bumpy curving roads?

“Are we getting close to our first turn?” I asked.

When Simon didn’t answer, I risked glancing over at him. The map was on the floor while he leaned halfway out the window, trying to take pictures of our monstrous pursuer.

“Are you kidding? Simon!”

“I’ll look.” Temi grabbed the map.

As soon as we’d cleared the dangerous part of the curve, I leaned on the gas again.

Simon yelped and caught the window frame to keep from falling out. He fumbled his phone and almost lost it.

“I hear riding on the inside of the van is a good idea,” I yelled.

He slithered into the seat, his face ashen.

“Take the left at the fork,” Temi said.

The creature continued to lope along behind us, but it wasn’t gaining ground. I risked a few more glances, trying to get a good view of its head-its face-but it’d grown too dark. It was a shadow moving behind us now, nothing more. I focused on a fresh crack in the windshield for a second. A heavy shadow.

I took the left and Temi directed me through two more turns. We lost sight of the creature after the second turn, but I didn’t let myself relax until we reached the paved blacktop of the highway. When the lights of town came into view, I could scarcely believe we’d made it out without a flat tire-or worse. The cracked windshield seemed a minor price to pay for coming face to face-or fender to face-with that creature again.

“Anyone else think we should stay in the city from now on?” I asked as we drove past the Safeway on the south side of town.

“Yes,” Temi said. “A nice city on the East Coast preferably.”

Simon was busy surfing through his latest photos. Wonderful.