Monster Nation(21)

'I sure don't.' She stared out at the trees as if by peering hard enough into the murk she could see right through it. Come on, Dick thought. Come on, come on, come on. Any euphoria he had felt earlier was long gone. He just wanted to go home, to get somewhere safe. He studied Bleu's face like a kid waiting for a teacher to dismiss class on the last day of school. Finally she nodded and helped him lower the ladder over the side.

They climbed down as quietly as they could, the pine needles muffling their footfalls. The moon laid down sharp-edged shadows as they made their way between the tree trunks, Dick putting out one hand to slide along the smooth or rugged or rough bark. After the noise and light of the gunshots the world seemed wrapped up in cotton and hidden away somewhere dark. His muscles were jumpy under his skin. He didn't know if there had six or seven either. He just had to get out, all of his excitement turning to cold dread sweat on his back, making the shoulders of his shirt cling to him.

Where the valley turned to hillside and then to the thrust of the ridge Bleu crouched low and put her guns in her belt. The slope came up pretty suddenly and they had to climb their way up instead of walking. It had been easy to get down the track'gravity had helped there'but going up proved far more difficult. Halfway to the top Bleu leaned forward and grabbed at a tree root to steady herself on the broken rock. 'I don't know we should leave yet. What if the police want to'' She stopped and looked down.

'What's wrong?' he asked.

'I just stepped in something sticky.' Dick looked down to see a moldy hand reach up and grab at her ankle. She screamed as the last climber yanked her downward on top of him. She rocked back and forth trying to get free but he got one near-skeletal arm around her throat and pinned her down. 'Walters!' she shrieked.

'Bleu!' He pulled out the ice axe and readied himself to strike but he couldn't see any way to hit the dead man without impaling Bleu too. He danced back and forth looking for an opening'and suddenly his feet were sliding on loose shale. Thin sheets of rocks skittered down the slope, pebbles bouncing and flying as he tried to keep his balance.

'Walters!'

Dick threw out his arms to catch himself, letting go of the axe. He shouted out, half in surprise. 'Bleu, just, just hold on'' His feet fell away from beneath him and the hill rolled over as he fell, colliding with the loose rock, sliding, skidding as Bleu and the dead man fell away from him. He got a good view of the dead climber finally and saw why there'd been so much confusion as to whether there were six or seven of them. The climber who had Bleu was nothing more than a torso, his legs and abdomen torn away leaving a ragged, stringy wound. Dick reached out, trying to grab Bleu's foot, trying to grab tree roots or solid rocks or anything. He had to save her'he had to get back up and save her, but then his head smacked something hard and cold and his vision went all sparkly.

He opened his eyes without remembering ever having closed them. His body rang like a bell. His mouth tasted stale and white'white? Was that a taste? He was pretty sure he'd wet himself. Above him the stars burned hard and cold. He recognized the symptoms of a bad concussion but his thoughts were swimming through him like fishes, no, no, he had to, he had to stop.

Stop.

Yes. Just lay there for a while in the soft snow. It didn't feel cold at all. Something noisy and terrifying had been happening and he was pretty sure he had the details written down somewhere if he wanted to look them up but just then, just then he only wanted to look up at the stars. Such a beautiful night in the mountains. Something furry brushed against his hand and he reached out to pat it, to pet it. A dog? No, too fleecy.

He managed to tilt his head so he could look and found himself staring into an eyeball with a horizontal pupil. A sheep's eye. Even after years of working as a livestock inspection agent he had never gotten used to those eyes with their sideways elongated pupils like something out of Stephen King. Still. A sheep was nothing to worry about. He gave this one a professional once-over. He recognized the breed:Barbados blackbelly. She seemed slightly off, though. Yes' her rear legs were tucked in too tight and there were pink patches in her coat where she'd rubbed herself raw. Scrapie, alright. A damned shame'she looked like a strong animal and she would have to be put down so she didn't infect the rest of the flock. The sheep put out her tongue and licked his hand. He laughed until she nipped him, hard.

'Hey there,' he said, 'come on,' and he sat up so suddenly the blood rushed right out of his head. He groaned and tried to rub at his temples. It didn't work. The sheep still had his fingers clenched in her incisors. She choked up on his hand and started crushing his fingers with her premolars. Her herbivore's teeth couldn't tear his skin very well but she clearly meant to grind him to paste.