Three shops down, we found a shop full of stuff. Boxes with pictures on the front, life-sized pictures of people, small statues of people and animals. Even some weird things with round wobbly heads and big eyes.
We searched the back room but didn’t find anything that would work as a net.
“There has to be something back here. This is where Deeke and Louie were hunting. They wouldn’t have risked it if there was nothing here to find.”
“Yeah, okay, right.” Abbie paused and glanced toward the front entrance. “Think Tonzo has the car open yet?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
The next shop held more clothes, but small, for children. There were two pregnancies at home, and Carrot Jane’s toddler was growing like a weed. We’d have to come back here after we killed the matriarch.
“How are we going to get the dog into the car?” Abbie asked.
“Someone will have to lure her in.”
“Be the bait?”
“Yeah.” In the back room I found some blankets. Not full size, but they might work if we tied them together. “Here, put these in my pack.” I turned around so he could reach.
“Shawna, what if the bait gets bitten?”
“If they run fast enough they won’t.”
“That’s a big if.”
I sighed. “Yeah.” I was trying not to think about that part too much, hoping Tonzo would come up with something. “Maybe we’ll find something to help protect—” I spun.
Abbie jerked up the javelin. “What is it?”
“The coats! Deeke said he found the good leather coats. Leather’s hard to chew through. We have to find that store.”
I hurried along the row, shining my flashlight onto the signs mostly still hanging in front of all the shops. The shops without signs, I paused and pointed my light inside, searching for anything that looked like leather.
We turned down the last row, far enough from the windows now so it was almost pure blackness. The carts weren’t overturned here, and my flashlight beam caught the metallic reflection of cars that looked nothing like the ones outside. Big square grills and round headlights like eyes.
“Those are antiques,” Abbie whispered. “My father told me about them.”
“Why park them in—” Something moved in the shadows.
“I saw it,” he said, javelin ready. “Dog?”
“Don’t know.” Seemed too small, but not every dog had grown big. We’d seen some goat-sized before. The small ones usually ran in bigger packs.
Click click click
Toe nails across concrete. They echoed off the walls, impossible to tell direction. I pulled out my knife.
A snarl to our right. I swung the flashlight. Something tan and furry filled the light.
Abbie thrust the javelin and it sank into the dog’s chest. It yelped, high pitched squeals that reverberated and made my ears hurt something terrible. I plunged the knife down into its throat and it stopped.
We didn’t move at first, just stared at the small dead dog at our feet. Its teats were swollen as its belly. A dog waiting to birth, but nothing like the one outside.
“It’s so little,” Abbie said. “Barely reached my knees.”
“We were lucky.” I wiped off my knife and slipped it back into its sheath. “Come on, Tonzo’s got to have that car open by now.”
We finally found the leather store, tucked back where it felt the darkest. Unlike the other stores, the racks here were empty. I guess I wasn’t the only one who’d thought they’d make good protection. I shined the light at the ceiling, looking for the rotted part Deeke had found.
“There.” In the back was a hole, up where the wall met the ceiling, just big enough for me to wriggle through. “That has to be the vault.”
The door was metal with a sliding bolt lock. The dents and scrapes in the metal said Deeke and Louie had tried smashing it open with the sledges, but the door hadn’t budged.
“Help me drag this over, would you?” I asked, setting down my flashlight and grabbing one end of a metal case. It still had some glass in it, too. “Watch your fingers.”
It wasn’t easy, but we managed to move it under the hole in the wall. Abbie kept the light on the hole and held my hand as I climbed up. I could reach the hole, but barely.
“Is there anything to stack on this?”
“Um…” Abbie’s light flashed around, then he darted over to some cubes in the corner. They looked like bases to something, maybe the racks or mannequins.
He set one on the case and I stepped up onto it. Good enough. I put my hands on the bottom of the hole and jumped, pulling myself forward. I got halfway through and hung there, the broken wall poking into my stomach, my head in the pitch black.
“Hang on,” Abbie called, then I felt his hands on my legs. “I’ll give you a push.”
I pulled as he pushed, and suddenly I was through the hole, dropping into nothingness. My shoulder slammed into something hard.
“Ow!”
“Are you okay?” His flashlight beam poked through the hole, but it wasn’t enough to see by. Only made the darkness I was in seem deeper. I clicked my flashlight back on.
“I’m okay.” I’d hit a desk against the back wall, but there was nothing on it but a layer of dust. And maybe now a bit of my skin. I turned around.
Coats. Rows and rows of them, hanging on metal bars stretched across the room. “There are coats here! They’re really here!” My eyes teared. Deeke would have gone nuts if he’d seen this.
Please let me be able to bring him back here.
“Can you get the door open?” Abbie called down.
A forest of coats hung between me and it, but I pushed my way through. I shined the light on the door. Some kind of heavy pull lock, like the self-locking ones on the fences, but more sophisticated. I grabbed it and tugged. Nothing.
“I found the lock, but it doesn’t want to move.”
“Try spitting on it.”
I did, then gave it another tug. It moved a little. I shifted around and pushed on it, leaning into it with my weight. The bar screeched and slid sideways. “I got it!”
Abbie was waiting when I pulled open the door. We flipped through the racks and found more than just coats. Pants, vests, plus gloves and hats in plastic bags.
“Grab what you can.”
We collected armfuls in sizes we thought would fit everyone and headed back out, the beams from our flashlights bobbing while we jogged. Shadows fell away as we drew closer to the windows, the light seeming all the brighter. I squinted as we rounded the corner, stepped through the front entrance, and found ourselves back in the sun.
Barking came from nearby.
“Oh, no.”
We dropped the leather clothes and crept up the stairs, trying to stay behind the protection of the sides. The barking grew louder, followed by thuds of paw against metal.
“It’s the matriarch,” I whispered. She was pacing around the car, jumping at the windows and snarling.
“Are Sarah and Tonzo in the car?”
“I think so.” I didn’t see any bodies, but there was blood. The matriarch came around again, a gash on her front leg. A bloody javelin lay in the street near the car. More blood was smeared on the car handle.
“What do we do now?”
“We trap her, same as before.” I just had to figure out how. I went back inside, looked for someplace strong enough to hold her. Nothing was intact at this end, too many broken windows and kicked open doors. We needed something strong, something…
“We can lure her into the vault,” I said, already dreading the long, dark run between here and there. “She won’t be able to get out.”
Abbie nodded. “We’ll have to slow her down, though. The carts could make good obstacles. Block the way and leave just enough room for me to slip between them.”
“You?”
“Yeah, me. I’m not letting you do it.”
I bristled. I was faster and we both knew it. “You can’t keep making decisions for me you know.”
“I’m not trying to! I just don’t want you to die.”
“I don’t want any of us to die. Abbie, you know it has to be me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ll never get those big shoulders through that hole in the wall.”
He opened his mouth, but snapped it shut. “Fine.”
“Plus, you’re stronger, and you’ll be able to yank the vault door shut faster.”
“I already agreed. Now help me move these carts.”
We dragged them over, leaving just enough room for me to slip through. We piled mannequins and empty racks on top, making it impossible for the matriarch to just jump over. I wasn’t sure how long a head start I’d get, but it had to be enough.
“Okay, you go back and get the door open,” I said, pulling on a pair of leather pants. Baggy, but they didn’t seem to hinder my movement much. I grabbed my knife and sliced off the extra around my ankles. The vest and long coat fit better. I pulled gloves on last. “Stay hidden. If she sees you she might not follow me inside.”
“I don’t like this plan.”
“If you have a better idea, I’ll be happy to try it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t.”
“Be ready.”
“Be careful.” He took my face in both hands, then kissed me. For a heartbeat I was too shocked to do anything, then wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back. Okay, so maybe some of his decisions were good ones.
“Don’t get killed,” he whispered, letting me go.
“I’ll do my best.”
I’d hoped the matriarch might have wandered off while we were preparing the trap, but she was still there trying to get inside the car. I stood at the bottom of the stairs, taking deeps breaths and trying to convince myself to start walking. Just to the top of the stairs, that’s all. Make a noise, get her attention and run like hell.
I took a step, then another. Kept my eyes on her as I climbed the stairs. Stopped at the top.
Now or never.
I whistled, loud and sharp like Deeke had taught me when I was eight.
The matriarch snapped her head around and looked right at me. I turned and ran. Barking came behind me, then the scrape of nails on asphalt. I entered the Underground again and made a beeline for the space between the carts.
My aim was a little off and I banged my ribs, but I couldn’t let that slow me down. I risked a glance behind. The matriarch hit the carts, but she didn’t break through. She snarled and clawed at them, forcing the carts slowly apart.
I kept running. My feet slapped against the floor, my breath just as fast. Light dimmed as I ran farther into the Underground. I clicked on my flashlight and plunged into the darkness.
Barking grew louder behind me as the matriarch got closer. She couldn’t be far behind but I wasn’t going to chance a fall to look.
I flew through the leather shop door and ran past the empty cases, the light flashing off the metal edges. Abbie’s flashlight beam lit the open vault door and I sprinted toward it. He gasped softly as the matriarch burst in right behind. She went for my leg and tripped me, but didn’t get through the leather. I stumbled right, off balance and falling. I grabbed a coat to stop my fall and it ripped off the hanger.
I threw the coat at the matriarch, her massive head silhouetted in Abbie’s flashlight beam. She skidded on the tile floor, her teeth missing my arm by inches. I scrambled up and leapt for the bar above my head, swinging myself up and over like the exercise bars in the hotel gym. My flashlight fell out of my hands and vanished.
The matriarch jumped for me from the eerie shadows below, but the coats kept getting in her way, blocking her teeth and claws.
“Shut the door, Abbie!”
The door slammed and I was in near-solid blackness again, the glow from my flashlight shining on one wall, but not providing enough light to see much more than stretched shadows. The matriarch lunged for me, the coats swaying under her. I crawled over the coats, reaching for the next bar, then the next, dragging myself over the hangers and feeling my way toward the wall.
“Shawna!” Abbie appeared by the hole, lighting my way again. I headed for him, warm dog breath blowing against my stomach, my face. I reached the last bar.
Teeth snapped at my face.
I jerked back, almost fell. The matriarch was on the desk right in front of me.
“Abbie!”
The light disappeared. My heart stopped. He didn’t leave me, I know he didn’t leave me.
Banging on the vault door. The matriarch jumped off the desk, drawn by the sudden sound. I lunged for the hole. My fingers grabbed the rough edge. I kicked off the bar and pushed myself through.
I got only halfway, my legs dangling like fruit. Snarling echoed behind me, then I felt teeth scrape my pants, jaws trying to clamp down on me.
“Help!”
Abbie grabbed my hands and yanked as the matriarch caught the edge of my pants in her teeth. I slid through the hole, scraping my chest and stomach. For a heartbeat I grew taut, pulled between Abbie and the matriarch, then my pants leg tore free. I shot forward and through, dropped to the case and rolled off, Abbie toppling down with me. We lay on the floor between the wall and case, wrapped around each other while the matriarch clawed and snarled and barked.
Abbie shined the light at the hole. My pants vanished, snatched back in. A muzzle popped up next, teeth bared, but it fell away.
“She can’t get to it,” he said, sighing. “We got her.”
“We got her!” I yelled, then started laughing. Abbie laughed with me, then quieted me with another kiss.
The matriarch kept barking, but we ignored her. She’d calm down eventually.
Flashlights cut the dark.
“Shawna?” Tonzo called. He sounded scared and out of breath.
“Down here.”
Faces peeked over the edge of the case, knives and javelins right beside them. “Thank god,” he said. “We saw you come out and the dog went after you.”
“We were afraid we wouldn’t get to you in time,” Sarah added.
The matriarch barked and they both swung their javelins toward the sound
“She’s trapped,” I said. “Can’t hurt anyone now.”
Tonzo looked at me in wonder. “You’re the craziest girl I ever met.”
“Hunters have to be crazy,” Abbie said. He looked a little sad when he said it, but he’d come around. And I was glad about that.
Besides, sixteen was a ways off still. A lot could happen in seventeen months.
Sarah chuckled and offered us her hands. We took them and hauled ourselves to our feet. “Your Mama’ll be proud. Deeke, too.”
My grin vanished. “Deeke.” We may have gotten the juvie and a matriarch, but killing them wouldn’t save my brother.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“What about the yippers?” Abbie asked as we left the Underground. He stopped with me and grabbed the coats and leathers we’d dropped on the front steps.
“They’re not much of a threat without their mama around. We’ll come back with more and deal with them tomorrow.”