She wheeled around, and Benny saw that she was about to fry the flesh from Chong’s bones with an acid comment, but then she saw the look of complete despair on his face. Her own expression softened and she left her comment unspoken. Instead she turned back to Tom and reinforced her earlier comment. “I do not want to go back.”
“We’ll talk about that in a minute,” Tom said gently. “Let’s catch our breath first.”
“The animal?” asked Lilah, accepting her spear back from Tom. There was no blood on it. “Didn’t even pierce the skin.”
“Yeah, well, for what it’s worth, my bullets didn’t seem to do her much harm either.”
“You could have shot it in the eye,” said Benny.
“I would have if I couldn’t get Chong and the rest of you out of there. Otherwise it would have been wrong to kill her.”
Lilah grunted and then nodded. Nix was less certain. “Will it come after us?”
“It won’t. This is her territory. She has a calf hidden back beyond the clearing.”
“A calf?” Benny asked. “That thing’s a mother rhino?”
“So she was just protecting her baby?” asked Nix.
“Seems so.”
“And you never saw it before? I thought you were up in these mountains all the time.”
“I haven’t been in this particular pass for a while. That calf can’t be more than three or four months old. I don’t know much about rhinos, but my guess is that Big Mama came looking for a quiet place to have her baby and settled here. Nobody else lives on this side of the mountain.”
“Where’d she come from?” asked Benny.
“A zoo, I guess, or a circus. People used to have private collections, too. And animals were used in the film industry. Must be a lot of wild animals out in the Ruin. My friend Solomon Jones saw a dead bear over in Yosemite that looked like it had been mauled by something that had big teeth and claws. And there’s that guy lives out at Wawona-Preacher Jack-who swears he’s seen tigers. If the zoo animals got out, it could have been anything. Lion or tiger…”
“Maybe they’ll be cowardly lions,” said Lilah under her breath.
Benny laughed. It was the first time he’d ever heard her make any kind of joke.
Tom nodded back the way he’d come. “Before First Night, there were more tigers in America-in zoos, circuses, and private collections-than in all of Asia. As for Big Mama, she was simply doing what any mother does. Protecting her young.”
“Not just from us,” said Nix.
Tom nodded. “I know. I saw all the zoms. Bottom line… don’t mess with Big Mama.”
Benny nodded and told the others about it. “It was really weird,” he concluded. “All those crawling zoms. Scarier than the walking ones.”
“No,” said Lilah, “it’s not. You haven’t faced enough of the walkers.”
Benny thought back to Zak and Big Zak, and to the zoms he’d faced last year while looking for Nix. “I’ve had my moments.”
Chong cleared his throat. “Zoms couldn’t hurt that rhino, could they?”
“Not a chance.” Tom laughed. “Maybe the baby, though. I didn’t get a good look at it, but if it is still vulnerable, it won’t be for long. Those things are like tanks.”
He saw the blood on Nix’s face and brushed her hair back to examine her. She nodded and pulled her face away from his touch.
“That looks nasty. It needs to be cleaned off.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“That isn’t a request, Nix. Out here we don’t have Doc Gurijala and we don’t have antibiotics. Infection is as much our enemy as the zoms. So, you’ll clean that off now, and then I’ll take a closer look at it. You might even need stitches. If so, either I’ll do it or we’ll go back to town. Either way, all wounds will be tended to with the utmost care. End of discussion.”
Nix heaved a great sigh, made a big show of pulling out her first aid kit and canteen, and trudged away to sit on a fallen tree and do as she was told.
“I’ll help,” Benny said, and limped after her, but Tom snaked out a hand and caught his shoulder.
“Whoa, hold on, sport… you’re limping and there’s blood on your shoe. Where are you hurt?”
Benny swallowed, shooting a wary look at Lilah, whose attention had sharpened and was now focused on him. Her fingers tightened on the haft of her spear.
“Hey-don’t even think about it,” Benny said, pointing a finger at her. “One of the zoms tried to bite through my sneaker, but he-”
“Take your shoe off.” Lilah and Tom said it at the same time.
“I-”
“Now,” said Tom. His voice was heavy with quiet command. Benny looked at Nix, who had paused in the act of sponging blood from her face. Her eyes flashed with sudden concern.
“Crap,” Benny said acidly, and sat down on the grass to pull his shoe off. His sock was soaked with blood.
“Oh no,” breathed Chong. “This is all my fault.”
Benny made a face. “Oh, please. You didn’t bite me.”
“The rhino chased us because I startled it. Then I ran the wrong way and made everything worse.”
Tom started to say something but Lilah cut in. “Yes. You were stupid.”
“She’s got your number,” said Benny with a grin.
Chong gave him an evil stare. “You’re the one whose toe got bitten off by a zom.”
Benny muttered under his breath as he pulled his sock off. His big toenail was cracked and bleeding, and the toe was swollen, but there was no bite. Lilah snatched up his shoe to examine it, but Tom took it out of her hands and peered at the toe.
“It’s a pressure injury.” He blew out his cheeks and handed the shoe back to Benny. “That’s twice you dodged the bullet.”
“That’s a metaphor, right?”
Tom’s smile was less reassuring than it could have been.
“Right?” insisted Benny.
“Rinse your sock out,” said Tom as he turned away.
“Hey… right?”
FROM NIX’S JOURNAL
Some of the traders and bounty hunters claim that the zoms on the other side of the Rocky Mountains are faster than the zoms we have here. There’s a girl in my grade-Carmen-who says that her uncle, who is a trader, saw zombies running after people during First Night in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A couple of other people from back east said the same thing, but most people don’t believe them.
I hope this is not true!!!
22
“WELL… GO AHEAD AND SAY IT,” NIX DEMANDED.
Tom squatted in front of her, gently touching the edges of the long gash on her face. His lips were pursed, and he made a small downbeat grunting noise. “You’re going to need stitches.”
“I know. Go ahead.”
He shook his head. “No… I can stitch a wound well enough, but this needs fine work. Otherwise-”
“I’ll look like a hag.”
“I wouldn’t go that far… but a deft hand with a needle will reduce the scar to a pencil-thin line. Doc Gara-”
