Endless Knight

16

“What the hell?” Selena cried as more booms shook the night.

Then what sounded like machine guns on steroids began blasting.

“I know that sound.” Jack’s expression was grim. “It’s artillery. Just like the Army of the Southeast had.” No longer were men screaming—they were yelling with pleasure, mowing down the zombies.

From the backs of newly arrived pickup trucks, they aimed huge guns, their bullets cutting through the Bagmen, scythes through hay.

Selena narrowed her eyes at Lark. “You couldn’t see that they were sporting that kind of weaponry?” She strapped her bow over her chest, preparing to run.

“I said they had trucks. I didn’t know what was in them!”

“ ‘This is my hood,’ ” Selena said, imitating Lark’s voice. “ ‘I know the Teeth up and down.’ How could you miss that they’re armed like the national guard?”

“They’ll be coming for us.” Jack grabbed my arm and started down the rise.

My legs were already like jelly. I reached for Matthew to hold my hand. The others followed.

As we ran, Lark said, “They must’ve found an arms depot in the last week or something.” By the time we’d reached the ground, her wolves had caught up, flanking her as we wound around charred tree trunks.

Selena snapped, “Or maybe you didn’t miss it—how do we know you’re not working with the Hierophant?”

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed this, Archer, but my happy ass is running right alongside yours, straight into that canyon. And I’ve got twelve paws to be concerned about down there.”

The tree trunks thinned out, the ground turning gravelly. In the distance, gunshots grew sporadic. Truck engines revved as the Teeth began rolling out.

Finn jerked his head around. “They’re coming!” I’d never seen him look so terrified.

“Through there,” Lark called, pointing to the looming canyon.

The rock walls were sheer, about four stories high, the width between them no more than a two-lane highway.

Jack stopped at the entrance, cupping my face. “Stick to me like a shadow, you.” How many times had he told me that?

“I regenerate. I need to go first!”

Dafuq. “You’re goan to stay behind me and step where I step. Same for you, coo-yôn. This ain’t up for discussion!”

“The wolves can go first,” Lark said, concern in her eyes. “They should take the lead.”

Jack raised his brows. “Mais yeah!” For sure. “Send ’em through!”

The trio started forward swiftly. They were difficult to see, blending with the dark. Jack rushed to catch up with them, dragging me behind him, while I yanked on Matthew.

Within the walls, it was even darker. Sound was amplified, the rainfall deafening. I could barely hear the others trailing behind us.

Ten minutes passed, twenty. How much farther could it be? Terror in the rain, Matto? When would it end?

“Hang on, bébé. Not too much longer—”

A scream sounded over the din.

“Ahhh, my leg!”

We whirled around, saw Finn collapsing to his back, a bear trap biting into his right calf. Blood poured.

“Finn!”

As he screamed, his illusions began to flash erratically all around us—day to night, the mountainside he’d created.

Jack rushed back, dropping to his knees, grappling with the metal jaws. The muscles in his neck bulged as he wedged the rusted jaws a couple of inches wider, but they slammed back shut.

Finn screamed again, his eyes rolling back in his head as he passed out.

“I can cut through it!” I called.

“You and coo-yôn doan move a goddamned inch! Look at that boulder, Evie!” He jerked his chin at a nearby rock.

I could see where that trap was attached by a chain to an anchored bolt. I could also see several other bolts and disguised chains leading to still-hidden traps.

We were surrounded by them. Selena, Lark, and Matthew froze. I started sweating in the rain.

Jack used his crossbow to wedge open the jaws, freeing Finn at last. Then he reeled in the chain of the trap, throwing it like a lasso onto the ground between me and him. One trap snapped, leaping off the ground. Another.

He turned behind him, doing the same for Lark and Selena. “There could still be more,” he said as he hefted Finn over his shoulder. “And watch your six for Teeth!”

We’d just started forward when bullets began to rain down.

Lark cried, “They’re above us on the canyon walls!”

“Move your ass, Evie!” Jack yelled as he came storming toward me, Finn secured in a fireman’s carry. The wolves waited until we’d started moving once more.

Bullets pelted the ground around us, but the men were careful not to hit us—

One of the wolves stumbled. Immediately, I heard a thick whizzing sound. A tree trunk hurtled through the air, a battle ram swinging from a height right toward the wolves. Jack lobbed Finn at me, knocking me and Matthew over like dominos—just as the trunk hit a wolf.

Impact. The creature came flying back at us, its great body colliding with Jack. They were both hurled into the air, careening over where we lay. I screamed as they landed, twisting over on my stomach to keep him in sight.

The wolf scrambled up, unharmed, revealing Jack’s limp body, his head bashed against a rock. He was unconscious, blood streaming.

As bullets continued to ping, I untangled myself from Finn and Matthew and crawled to Jack. “Please wake up. Oh, God, please, Jack!”

Behind me, Matthew sat rocking, muttering incoherently. “The three, the three. . . .”

Selena sprinted for me, Lark behind her. “The Teeth are coming down the canyon behind us!”

Fangs bared, Lark’s wolves charged back to attack. Machine-gun fire rang out. Whimpers, howls. Then the wolves went quiet.

The last one limped back to its mistress, falling dead at Lark’s feet, twitching. She stared down with parted lips. Shock.

Selena grabbed my arm. “We need to run, Evie!”

Run? Jack and Finn were unconscious. “Never! I’m not leaving them.”

“You’re going to get them killed! We run and draw the fire.” Though the bastards weren’t aiming at us, bullets were ricocheting right above our heads. “We can break the guys out later, just like J.D. and I did with the militia.”

What she said made sense, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave Jack. “Wake up, Jack! Please wake up!”

Spotlights flared down, blinding us. By the time my eyes adjusted, we were surrounded, armed cannibals spilling out of a nearby trap door in the ground.

Like ants.