In the light of the security checkpoint, the others filtered through and Shannon helped to carry Greg.
“Hey,” Reid grabbed Ashley’s hand and turned her to him. “You with me?”
Her eyes remained distant a moment, her fingers shaking in his grasp. As he squeezed her, she swallowed, blinked, and it was as though she was coming back to herself. With a slight nod, she pulled free from his grasp and followed the others.
They ended up not too far from where they entered the terminal. It was a secondary security point, smaller for a select few airlines that no longer existed, their logos meaningless against the cascading beams of light that filtered through the glass. On the lower level, they slowed their pace but kept inside the terminal lest they gain attention by breaking through another automatic sliding door. Behind them, muffled shots sounded from within the belly of the airport. Reid was more than happy to put as much space between him and those shots as possible.
“How far are we?” Shannon asked as Reid and Ashley caught up. “I thought it was closer.”
“Not sure,” Reid said as he scanned the gate directions. “I think it was—“
“Over here!” Brendan shouted from ahead and Ashley, Shannon, and Reid started after him. Reid couldn’t see what Brendan saw, but took the chance to keep moving
That is until a sound cut through the din of distant gunshots. The distinct chirp of a walkie-talkie echoed against the glass walls from somewhere behind them.
Reid turned and above, on the second level of the departure terminal, men clad in black lined up across a narrow bridge, their barrels pointed down.
“Run!” Ashley shouted back. She and Reid ducked behind a kiosk for cover and they didn’t wait for what Lancaster called the Outreach to fire shots first. Ashley was first to open fire and the deafening booms pounded in Reid’s ears.
Behind them, Gabriel, Greg, Shannon, and Brendan passed over the broken glass and escaped the terminal.
“Go, get outside,” Reid said to Ashley. “I’ll cover.” He expected her to hesitate, to argue even, but Ashley nodded and fired a few more shots before running to the gap in the glass wall.
The Outreach members moved to reposition and it gave Reid a sliver of a chance to run. Shots pinged off the walls and floor, little dimples in tile and steel, while others cracked the glass beside him. Seeing a better chance to get out of their way, he launched through the nearest pane and rolled onto the concrete walkway outside the terminal.
On the road ahead of him, the small school bus was gone. Shannon hurried everyone towards the Wheel-Trans vehicle but overheard the others arguing.
“Monte has the keys!” Gabriel said.
More shots popped through glass and Reid rushed behind a concrete pillar, but not a one came his way. Instead, he looked through the shattered glass to see wendigos. A few a first, then dozens. More and more spilled from the security checkpoint. They erupted from doors he hadn’t noticed. They staggered in varying degrees of decay and clamoured towards the pounding gunfire.
It was a distraction, a brief one. The moment those things noticed the rest of them…
Reid ran for the Wheel-Trans vehicle. “Where is the bus?” he said, not minding his volume.
“What are we gonna do?” Greg moaned. “We’ve got no car, no keys for this, and those things—“
“They wouldn’t leave us,” Shannon said confidently. “No way in fuckin’ hell would Tish leave.”
Reid would have agreed but the bus was gone. He looked to the parking structure across the road and thought maybe, just maybe, there would be another vehicle with some gas. They’d have to hot-wire it. Hope for the best. And with wendigos.…Time was not on their side.
Glass shattered and Reid turned with Ashley.
The creatures swarmed like a tide, spilling over one another. They weren’t fast like those on the highway, but their numbers were unbelievable. They roiled towards the gunfire, away from the Wheel-Trans vehicle at first, but a strangler here and there turned.
They see us, Reid thought with a shiver.
“Get on top,” Ashley ordered. She reached for Reid’s belt and pulled free his knife and shoved the gun in his hand. At that moment, he knew what she would try to do. Just as she had below the bridge by the river all those weeks ago, she’d stay. She’d fight. She’d rip into them more ferociously than any wendigo he’d seen. It’d seemed impossible that she could have survived then, on the edge of the river. There had been two dozen creatures to just her and her hatchet. But now…
She won’t survive. There’s no way.
The others clamoured onto the vehicle but Reid raised the rifle.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, his shoulder next to hers. He dared to look to her and caught the corner of a smile as she stared down the horde.
But a squeal of tires sounded. Reid turned as the small school bus come around the bend. With Tish at the wheel, she drove it fast and swung in beside the Wheel-Trans vehicle. As the door opened, Helena and Eric stepped out.
“Get in!” Eric yelled and they got to work. The others slid down the Wheel-Trans hood and hobbled into the bus. Eric stepped up to Reid and Ashley watching the wendigos swell. They didn’t shoot though, not yet. Not while the Outreach’s gunfire peppered the air.
“Are you hurt?” Helena rushed to Ashley’s side, wiping the blood from her.
“I’m fine,” Ashley said as she started to back towards the small bus. “Let’s get the hell out of here before—“
Shots. More shots. The only reason Reid flinched was that they bounced off the bus. They sailed past his head, skidded across the pavement. They even nailed a few of the wendigos in front of them in a hail of rotten flesh and blood. From the upper balcony of the terminal, a few of the Outreach’s men had made a stand and one had their sights on the bus.
“Hurry!” Reid shouted but as he turned no one stood beside him. Ashley had dropped to all fours, a hand holding her thigh. Blood pooled steadily.
Artery, Reid thought it as he pressed a hand to her thigh.
“I’ll be fine,” she groaned.
“Helena!” Eric’s voice called out in a way Reid had never heard. Pained and panicked.
She stood still with her back to the bus. The shirt she wore, dark grey, looked wet around her gut. The spot swelled. A tremble started in her hands as she touched her belly. Red stained her fingers.
Reid froze. His eyes locked on the spot as it grew and dripped and trailed down her thigh. He could stare at nothing else and the world’s sound drained from his ears. Distant. Muffled. Like messages on a tin can phone.
Eric interrupted his view, picked Helena up, and took her on the bus. In her place, a splash of red painted the side of the bus.
Helena’s shot. The thought didn’t make sense. She’d been behind them. She’d stayed behind to be safe. She wasn’t supposed to be out there in the first place.
“Reid!” Ashley had stood, but when he couldn’t know. “REID!” she shouted again, dragging him to his feet.
He went with his body as it was pulled on the bus. He watched the door close and the commotion came back to him in a swelling volume that burned his ears.
[MAD Wendigo - Prologue Narration]
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