Monster Nation(74)

'There's nothing there, facewhore,' the dog's handler said. A teenaged boy in a brown baseball cap and a tan windbreaker. He had his collar up to keep out the night's chill and a lit cigarette dangled from his fingers. 'See? Nothing. Now shut the f*ck up!'

The boy yanked at the dog's chain, viciously. The dog howled in pain but at least it stopped barking. Boy and dog both disappeared behind the rise again and Nilla let go of the death grip on her energy, sinking back into visibility.

In another minute she was at the front entrance of the golf course and she crossed the road with an unbearable feeling that she was being watched, that at any moment the boy would look over and see her running across the deserted blacktop. Her luck held out and she made it to the shadowy side of a house.

She was in. Excitement thrilled through her'or it could have been fear. She crept to edge of the shadow and looked out and down the length of a razor-straight road that intersected the famous Las Vegas Strip. The neon lights were still on. They filled the air around them with an incandescent haze, turning the night into well, not day, but something more like day than it was like night.

Rrright.

Fear. It was fear'it did nothing for her imagination.

Mael had a task for Nilla and she knew the penalty for refusing him now. There were rumors going around that Las Vegas possessed a vaccine against the Epidemic. Certainly the city had fared better than Denver or Sacramento or Salt Lake City. It was still full of the living, for one thing. Someone had to go into the city and find out what was happening. The armless dead man that Mael called Dick couldn't perform this task. He lacked the necessary humanlike appearance. Mael couldn't do it himself because he was merely a psychic projection and had no physical form in Nevada. Nilla had both of those things.

She didn't dare disappoint him again. For hanging out with the kids in the Toyota, she'd been made to pay. Jason Singletary had died because she had disobeyed Mael Mag Och. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

She looked down the street again, this time looking at the shadows. All the places she could hide in the midnight hour. She saw a doorway that had her name written all over it and she stepped into the moonlight, ready to hurry across the street as quickly as she was able. She got about three steps before she heard the dog whimper in pain again. She caught a flash of golden energy out of the corner of her mind's eye and whirled to face whatever had stalked her.

'Excuse me. Excuse me, Miss!'

The teenaged boy stood not ten yards away, one hand barely holding the dog down from jumping on Nilla and tearing her face off.

Nilla froze. Jagged spikes of violence and the possibility of violence tore through her brain.

'It's after curfew, Miss. Do you have ID? A driver's license or something?'

Nilla turned slowly, a big, warm smile on her face. 'I guess I left them in my other pants,' she said, shrugging helplessly. Act stupid, she thought. Not very difficult'she'd just completely blown her cover. She could fairly complain that she had no training in covert operations. 'I'm just on my way home now, I promise.'

The boy moved to stand a few feet away and frowned sympathetically. 'Look, Miss, you're obviously not dead, I mean they don't talk and all. I still have to see some ID, though. It's that or I lose this job.'

'Well, I wouldn't want that,' Nilla said. She stepped closer to him.

Ice filled up her body, ice cubes sloshing around inside of her like a cooler at the end of a long beach party. She felt her skin might just fall off, she was shivering so much. She stared deep into his eyes and saw that playing sexy wouldn't get her out of this one. He had a gun, and the dog, and he was going to kill her in a second when he realized his mistake. He was going to see her dead energy and make the connection.

He was only a foot and a half away. She could make out every pimple on his face, she could see the pulse beating in his jugular vein. He was exactly the same height as her, she realized. She reached up and knocked his hat off, into the street.

'What the f*ck did you do that for, you stupid bitch?' he demanded as he bent to retrieve it.

'I didn't want to get blood on it,' she said, and grabbed him around the neck.





Monster Nation





Chapter Thirteen


From: BIGSkyPILOT (Moderator)

Re: Tips for Keeping Water Clean and Potable

There's so much government spam now, isn't anybody real still posting? I've only got power two hours a day now but I'll keep the server running on generator as long as I can.