“Oh, for fuck’s sake don’t look in there,” I told him.
“I need to check it out.”
“Check what out? You’re smelling something rank and it’s coming from a bathroom. It doesn’t take fucking Sherlock Holmes to figure out what the cause is.” I shook my head. “The cashier had one of those chronic diarrhea faces.”
Daggett pressed his ear to the door and said, “It’s not crap I’m smelling.”
“Is it drugs? I could see this place pushing some seedy stuff behind the scenes.”
Daggett ignored me and tapped his knuckles against the door in a weak attempt at knocking. I moaned. “Eww, don’t bother him.” I really had no interest in this nasty cashier rushing to pull his pants up over his shitty ass just so he could run out and put his hands all over my Cheetos.
Just as I thought Daggett was going to give up knocking on the door, the weirdo actually put his hand on the germ-infested doorknob and began to twist it. I was sure he’d be locked out, but after one jiggle the door popped open. I threw my hands up, ready to protect myself from a view of the dude’s underwear around his ankles and his bare hairy knees.
Daggett pulled back the door and something heavy thrusted against it, forcing it to burst wide open. I flinched and covered my face, but through my fingers I could see an object as big as a person had fallen to the floor in front of us.
My eyes drifted downwards and I screamed. It wasn’t something as big as a person, it was an actual fucking person, dead and oozing blood all over the linoleum. I stepped backward, still shrieking, and I collided into the chip and Combos stand.
Nearly gagging, Daggett said, “That’s what I smelled.”
Chapter Nine
MAX
We’d been out in the snowy forest for a good fifteen minutes, maybe even longer, and I felt no closer to finding Cora than I did when we left the gas station. Worse yet, it would be getting dark soon because of the winter season, which would make finding her on sight even more difficult. I could feel the frustration brewing inside of me, and I had to stop several times on our walk to catch my breath. Just so I wouldn’t lose it. But, God, the doubt that we’d never find her was taking over.
In the thick of my worries, Dana knelt down to the musty forest ground, touched the soil with her fingertips, raised them to her nose, and inhaled deeply. “What is it?” I asked. “You onto something?”
“It’s faint, but I think she was here,” she replied.
I should have been relieved at her words, but they didn’t necessarily mean much. After all, Cora had been at the church too, and we still didn’t know where she was. I wondered why she was all over the city like this and, more importantly, why her scent was so weak even Dana was struggling to find her.
She shook her head and said, “Dang.”
“What?” I tried to keep my voice steady even though I was squirming inside.
“I keep losing her,” she said. “It’s like I get a whiff of something, and then the wind blows it away. This is insane.”
“Take your time. Focus. She had to leave a trail.”
Aaaaaaaaghhhhh!
Dana and I both jumped at the distant sound of a woman screaming. It echoed through the forest once and then was immediately followed by another yell. I was almost positive it was Priscilla. My instinct was to run and help her, but I didn’t want to leave this spot and risk losing any trail of Cora. Even if it was faint.
“What was that?” Dana asked as she rose to her feet. “Is that…?”
“Shit,” I grumbled. Priscilla was in danger, I knew it. I reached into my back pocket for my cell to call and check in on her and Daggett, but before I could even dial, I saw there was no signal. “Fuck,” I said under my breath.
“What’s going on?” I don’t think Dana was asking me specifically, but the universe. We knew that scream wasn’t good, and we knew Priscilla and Daggett were out there with no real defense.
Cora’s scent felt fragile and easily lost and I didn’t want to leave it behind, but fuck, no way was I letting something happen to them. “We gotta go back,” I said as I stuffed my phone back into my pocket.
“We’ll lose her smell,” Dana said with a shaky voice. “I’m so close to picking up something concrete, I know it.” She and I were on the same wavelength but, unfortunately, it didn’t matter. Lives were in danger.
I hated to say it but did so anyway. “We’ll come back. We’ll start over.”
With determination, she shook her head. “No. You go and find out what’s happening, I’ll stay here.”
“Are you nuts? No. I’m not leaving you here.”
“This might be our only shot of finding her.”
“Dana.”
“I can protect myself, Max. You know this. Just go.”
I danced back and forth in place, torn on what to do. If Priscilla’s screams were a false alarm, I was leaving Dana out in the middle of the woods to be preyed on by whatever was lurking in the shadows. It didn’t matter how abandoned Lunar City looked, I knew there were beasts still inhabiting it. They only got better at hiding.
I had no choice, though. Between the two, Priscilla was the one who needed me more. It was easy to forget that underneath the shy, small frame of Dana’s that a beast could be unleashed at any moment.
