romance is what she’s read in books.”
“Maybe, but why not just cowboy up and ask her? Worst she can do is say no.”
Chong gave him a withering stare. “Really? That’s the worst you think she can do?” He sighed. “Besides, it doesn’t much matter anymore. You guys are leaving tomorrow and I’ll never see her again.”
“Yeah,” Benny said softly. “Sorry, man.”
They looked covertly over their shoulders to where Lilah padded along like a fierce hunting cat. She caught them looking at her and growled, “Pay attention to the woods before something bites you!”
They snapped their heads around forward, but Benny was laughing quietly. Chong made a pained face.
“You see what I mean? She lived with us. You should see her before she’s had her morning coffee.”
“Mmm… does that mean that if you two crazy kids had managed to make a go of it, you’d have been the girl in the relationship?”
“How about you go stick a baseball bat up your-”
“Freeze!”
Tom’s sharp whisper cut through the air and rooted everyone in place.
Thirty yards up the path Tom stood in a half crouch, his right hand raised to grip the handle of his
“What is it?” Benny whispered, but Tom held up a finger, cautioning him to be silent. On either side of them trees rose in dark columns to form a canopy that obscured most of the sunlight, allowing only stray beams to slant down. At ground level the shrubs and wild plant life clustered so densely around the tree trunks that they formed an impenetrable wall; Benny could see nothing of what might be coming toward them. He and Chong drew their bokkens and shifted to stand with their backs to each other, just as Tom had taught them.
Lilah came running along the path on silent cat feet, with Nix a few yards behind. The Lost Girl had a fierce light in her eyes as she slowed to a stop beside Tom, making sure to stand well clear of his sword arm.
“What is it?” she hissed. “The dead?”
Tom shook his head but said nothing.
Nix joined Benny and Chong, and the three of them shifted into a three-sided combat formation.
“You see anything?” Nix whispered.
“No,” said Chong. “Don’t hear anything either.”
It was true; the forest was as silent as the grave, an image that did not make Benny feel very good. He sniffed the air. The forest offered up a thousand scents. Flowers and tree bark and rich soil and…
And what?
There was a smell on the air. Faint but getting stronger.
“Can you guys smell that?” Benny murmured.
“Uh-huh,” said Nix. “Smells weird. Kind of familiar… but not really.”
Lilah raised her spear and pointed into the woods with the gleaming blade. “There,” she said. “It’s coming toward us.”
“What is it?” Nix asked in a frightened whisper.
Tom drew his
“To do what?” demanded Benny. “Fight or run?”
“We’re about to find out,” said Tom.
“Please,” murmured Chong, “don’t let it be zoms. Don’t let it be zoms.”
“No,” said Tom, “it’s not the dead. Whatever’s coming is very much alive.”
Benny and the others heard it then. A crunch as something heavy stepped down on fallen twigs, the sound muffled by the nearly decayed carpet of last year’s leaves. A moment later there was another sound, different, low and strange. Benny and Nix exchanged a look. She raised her eyebrows.
“Sounds like a bull,” she said.
Benny frowned. “Out here?”
“Lots of animals running wild out here,” said Tom. “This was farm country before First Night.”
The sound came again, deeper and louder.
“Awful big bull,” Chong said.
There was more of the twig crunching, and each time the sound was louder and closer.
“Shouldn’t we, um… run?” suggested Chong.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Benny.
Lilah hissed at them to be quiet, adding, “Running makes you prey. It’s better to fight than be hunted.”
Tom opened his mouth to say something, possibly to counter her absolute viewpoint, but then there was a loud snort and grunt as something gigantic crashed through the wall of shrubs and vines. Creeper vines snapped like spider-webs as it shouldered its way out of the forest and onto the road. It lumbered into the middle of the path not thirty feet from where Benny, Nix, and Chong stood, and it paused, sniffing the air.
It was a monster. Slate gray and black-eyed, standing on four short legs, each with a three-toed foot that was bigger than Benny’s head. Immense, with a massive chest and shoulders that were unlike anything Benny had seen in the flesh. In books, sure, but he had thought that creatures like this belonged to a different age of the world.
“Oh my God!” whispered Nix, then immediately clapped a hand to her mouth as the creature turned its enormous head toward her.
This was easily three times bigger than the largest bull in Mountainside. Benny remembered reading about it. The second largest land mammal in the world after the elephant. The whole thing had to be fourteen feet long and over six feet at the shoulders. Thick humps of muscle stood out on its neck to support the long head with a vast snout, from which sprouted two deadly horns, the longer of which was a thirty-inch spike that could have punched right through Benny’s body.
It stood its ground, ears swiveling independently to catch all sound, nostrils huffing to gather the smells of the five people crouched in the road.
Benny stared, eyes goggled wide, mouth open.
“Is that a… a… a…?” Nix tried to ask.
“Uh-huh,” said Chong.
The creature turned its head sharply toward them.
“I’m dreaming this, right?” asked Benny.
“Not a dream,” Lilah whispered, but even she looked rattled.
“It’s a white rhinoceros,” declared Chong, a little too loudly. “But how?”
“Shut up!” warned Tom, but it was too late.
The huge animal suddenly gave a loud, wet snort and took a challenging step toward Chong. The massive rhinoceros grunted, a deep sound that was full of meaning and menace. It pawed the ground and blew out its nostrils.
“Okay,” said Tom. “Run.”
There was a beat where they all looked at him.
“NOW!”
The rhino tilted its wicked horns toward them, bunched the gigantic muscles of its back and hindquarters… and charged.
19
“Go! Go… GO!” BELLOWED TOM AS HE GRABBED NIX AND BENNY and Chong and shoved them toward the forest wall. “Into the trees!”
“I’m sorry!” yelled Chong.
“Shut up and run!”
The ground shook as seven thousand pounds of furious muscle rumbled toward them. Despite its size, the
