Flesh-&-Bone(40)

She never saw the shape that stepped out of the woods behind her.

It, however, saw her, and its lips peeled back from jagged teeth as it charged at her. Not in a slow, shambling gait—death raced at Lilah at incredible speed.





23

“DO AS SHE SAYS,” GROWLED A VOICE BEHIND THEM, AND BENNY, NIX, and Chong wheeled around to see a man come stalking out of the woods beyond the bristlecone tree. He was tall and middle-aged, with black hair tied back in a ponytail and bloody bandages around one thigh and his forehead.

He stopped forty yards away and raised a shotgun to his shoulder, the barrel pointed at Benny’s head.

“Riot,” barked the man, “take their weapons and gear.”

The slingshot girl—Riot—gave a short, harsh laugh. “Y’all heard the man. Drop all the goodies and maybe y’all will still be sucking air come sundown.”

Benny did not drop his sword, but instead moved to stand in front of Eve.

“Ry-Ry!” cried the little girl.

Riot looked past Benny. “You okay, squirt?”

“Ry-Ry . . . where’s—?” Then the little girl saw the man and shrieked with joy. “Daddy!”

Chong said, “‘Daddy’?”

The man’s face went white, but his eyes hardened. “Take your filthy hands off my daughter!”

“Whoa, mister!” said Benny. “Everything’s cool here and—”

“I won’t tell you a second time,” growled the man as he took a threatening step forward.

Nix swung the pistol toward him and met his eyes with her own uncompromising stare. “You pull that trigger, mister, and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

The man snorted. “You’re at a long range for a pistol, girl.”

“And you’re at a long range for a shotgun. Let’s see who’s left standing to take the next shot.”

Benny said, “And you really want to fire a shotgun with a kid here?”

They were all in bad positions. Benny felt the moment becoming incredibly fragile. If someone pulled a trigger, probably everyone would die.

The man’s face was flushed, and fury seethed in his eyes as he looked from them to Eve and back again. “Why can’t you freaks just let us be?”

“What are you talking about?” barked Nix. “How are we bothering you?”

A third stranger came hurrying out of the woods behind the clearing, and once more Benny realized that he and his friends were boxed in.

The newcomer was a woman wearing a hooded sweatshirt that was smeared with bright blood. She held an ax in her hands, and its blade glistened with red.

Blood, whispered Tom inside Benny’s mind. Zoms don’t bleed.

I know, Benny told him. So who’d she chop with that thing?

Behind Benny, Eve cried, “Mommmeeeee!”

Chong tried to hold Eve, but Riot shot a stone at Chong, missing his nose by half an inch. Eve broke free and ran like lightning across the clearing toward the woman.

The woman fairly shrieked. “EVE! Oh my God . . . Evie!”

She dropped her ax and swept Eve into her arms.

“Okay,” said Chong, “this is heartwarming and all that, but if they’re here, then where’s Lilah?”

Benny cut a cautious look around, but there was no sign of the Lost Girl.

The man with the shotgun grinned at the reunion between his daughter and wife, but he kept his shotgun pointed at Benny. They were thirty yards away, and Benny took a step toward him, raising his hand.

“Hey, mister, we’re glad to—”

“You freeze right where you are, boy,” barked the man in a voice that was hard and flat. An uncompromising voice. “If you reaper scum harmed a hair on my little girl’s head, I’ll see you dead—and it won’t be no ticket to paradise. No sir, it’ll be slow and ugly. Tell me I’m lying.”

Benny froze, and his smile flaked away like peeling paint in a stiff wind. “No,” he said neutrally, “I think you’re telling the absolute truth. But you aren’t making any sense. I think we need to—”

“I got nothing more to say to you.”

“‘Reaper scum’?” echoed Chong. “I’m real certain I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Benny—?” began Nix, but Benny cut in.

Under his breath he said, “Keep your gun on him.”