Skinwalkers (26 page)

I was close
. Tears
began to leak from her eyes.
I was so close. So close
! Maxine’s alter ego had no response. It seemed Max shared her despair.

Maxine held still for several minutes. The
skinwalker
didn’t move. Maxine couldn’t even see its chest rising and falling in order to draw breath.
 
Maybe it doesn’t know I see him, and it’s waiting to pounce
?

Or maybe…or maybe it’s dead
.

Max chimed in.
No way. We couldn’t be that lucky
.

Maxine wiped the last of the tears from her eyes as she stared at the unmoving
skinwalker
.
Only one way to find out
. Maxine began to crawl forward.

What the hell are you doing, girl
? Max thought.
Are you crazy?

Maxine huffed a laugh.
I’m talking to you,
ain’t
I
?

Maxine crawled to within a few feet of the
skinwalker
and halted. Its bloody mouth was agape
. A
wooden board
sprouted from
its chest
like a sapling
.

Well, I’ll be
. Max thought.
Skewered like a hog.

The
skinwalker
moved. Maxine screamed as she
scrambled
backward like a crab
, trying
to
place
distance between herself and the
skinwalker
. Her screams halted when the
skinwalker
fell over onto its side to reveal Farnsworth. The writer’s
squirming
had caused the dead monster’s torso to shift and drop.

Maxine saw Farnsworth was injured. Like the
skinwalker
, a shard of blood-soaked wood was impaled through J.T.’s body. Luckily for Farnsworth, the stake was merely lodged through the meaty part of his thigh.

Maxine turned her gaze upward.
Light cascaded in from an
opening
high above
. A wooden ladder climbed from tunnel floor to meet the opening. Farnsworth and the
skinwalker
lay slumped against it. It appeared to Maxine as though both man and beast had fallen through a false floor of boards and dirt intended to serve as the tunnel’s secondary entrance.

Maxine twisted back onto her belly and crawled forward, grimacing as she passed over the dead
skinwalker
to reach Farnsworth.

“Farnsworth,“ Maxine said
.
“It’s me. Maxine.“

Farnsworth moaned unintelligibly.

“You’re hurt,“ Maxine continued
. “But
I think you’ll be okay. I
—!“
Maxine heard wet, fleshy sounds behind her and terror’s cold fist seized her heart. She whirled, ready to see the gaping jaws of the
skinwalker
bulleting through the air toward her. What she actually saw was the corpse of the monster changing, reverting to the dead Navajo it truly was.

She exhaled in relief and turned back to Farnsworth. The writer was in a delirium, only half awake and mumbling incoherently.

“Don’t try to talk,“ Maxine said. “Just rest. I think we’re safe now. I’ve got to leave. I’m going to try to get help. Do you understand me?“ A pause, then, “Nod if you understand me.“

Farnsworth swallowed hard and gave a slight nod.

“Good,“ Maxine said. “Okay. I’ll be back as quick as I can.“

Maxine rose to her feet and began scaling the ladder leading to the tunnel exit. She reached the top and screamed
as a huge black silhouette appeared above her
. She lost her grip and began to fall. Before she could plummet to her death,
Dewayne
caught her by the wrist from where he stood crouched above the opening.

“Dewayne! Thank God!

“You scared the shit out of me!“ Maxine said, the relief in her voice outweighing the agitation.

“You gave me quite a fright there yourself
.“
Dewayne smiled and took her other hand in his. “Welcome back to the land of the living.“

D
ewayne heaved Maxine out of the tunnel and onto the ground beside him. Maxine squinted, the predawn twilight too much for her eyes to bear so soon out of the tunnel. She caught the scent of smoke on the wind and glanced over her shoulder to see that the mission was ablaze.

Maxine
turned
to the bounty hunter. “
Farnsworth’s in the hole.
He’s hurt. He’ll need a tourniquet and a crutch. Maybe a splint.“

“Anybody else?“

Maxine shook her head
,
and Dewayne nodded in understanding.

“What about Pablo?“ Maxine asked, hopeful. “And Wilson
?“

Dewayne sighed, his massive body deflating with the sound. “No sign of your boy, but we came across Arrington back in town. The bastard killed Wilson
. Almost
killed me before I could do him in.

“But I’ll keep looking. If Pablo’s out here and alive, I’ll find him.

“But right now, let’s head into town and see if can’t find some stuff for a tourniquet. You look like you could use some ointment for those burns, yourself.“

Her eyes finally adjusting to the light of the coming sun, Maxine looked at the small blisters that had formed along the back of her arms and legs. She was filthy and bloodied from head to toe. The realization of the shape she was in brought all the night’s pain flooding back to her anew.

“It should be safe,“ Dewayne said. “I
ain’t
seen hide nor hair of them things since we left the church.“

“I think they’re gone
.“
Maxine gestured toward the blazing mission
.
“I’ll bet the last of them are cooking as we speak.“

“Good,“ Dewayne said, his voice even. “Damn good.“

The two of them began to stroll down the hill, their movements slow and laboring, each exhausted from the night of horrors.

“Even before the fog began to clear up,“ Dewayne said, “I could see the mission burning. I’d lost hope
of
ever
seeing
any of you again.“ Dewayne dropped his gaze
.
“Hell, I’d lost hope of anything.“

Dewayne straightened. “But here you are. Maybe we can
find
Pablo, too
. Maybe
my luck’s changing?“

Maxine smiled and winked at Dewayne. “Maybe luck’s changing for both
—!“
Maxine’s eyes grew wide in terror as a bloody claw burst out of Dewayne’s chest. In the last fleeting moments of his life, Dewayne looked down, blooding pouring from his mouth, to see his still
-
beating heart clenched tight within the clawed fist of a
skinwalker
.

The claw sank back inside Dewayne
,
and his eyes rolled back in his head
as
the life went out of him. Maxine screamed in horror as the white-furred
skinwalker
that was now
truly
Coyote smashed Dewayne’s body to the earth.

Coyote flipped Dewayne’s heart into its jaws, the act appearing like a dog snatching a piece of meat tossed to it by its master. Coyote swallowed the organ in one tremendous gulp. Then the beast tore open the corpse’s throat and began lapping the blood that poured from the wound. Coyote was moving its blood-smeared
muzzle
in the direction of the body’s guts when Maxine turned and ran.

Despite the heavy weariness that seconds ago had filled her, Maxine moved faster than she ever had in her entire life. The beating of her heart was like a
hummingbird
in her chest
,
and the rushing wind created by her sprint
chilled tears from her eyes. Her twin personas chanted like frightened girls within her head.

Idon’twanttodieIdon’twanttodieIdon’twantodie
!

With the fog removed, Maxine was able to make a
beeline
for town. She closed the distance in seconds. As Maxine reached the ruined fence of the slaughterhouse, she heard Coyote give a shrill howl from its perch on the hill.

Oh God! He’s coming! He’s coming
!

Maxine climbed through the fence and sprinted across the hog pen to burst through the
slaughterhouse’s battered
chute. Unable to control her
velocity
, Maxine tripped and fell, just missing a collision with the gutted hog suspended on one of the many meat hooks that dangled from the slaughterhouse’s ceiling.
The animal appeared to have been torn open, rather than sliced.

Maxine’s momentum sent her crashing into the pile of guts that lay on the floor
beneath the hog.
She shrieked in horror as she scrambled to free herself of innards. For the most part, all she succeeded in doing was to further smear the stench of death over her body.

Finally, Maxine kicked her way free. She clumsily ascended the rails of the interior hog pen and dropped to the floor with a hard
thud
on its other side.

Coyote burst inside through the
slaughterhouse
chute, knocking
its already-dangling door off its last hinge
.
 
The beast collided with the hog. In a fury, Coyote ripped the carcass from the hook and took several
,
generous bites out of its flesh. Something about the dead hog, perhaps the fur of its skin or its lack of
fight
, must have displeased Coyote, for the monster tossed it aside. The
skinwalker’s
bloody
muzzle peeled back into a snarl
,
and
its
snow
-
white fur bristled on the back of its hunched shoulders. Coyote growled low in its throat as it sniffed the air in search of its true prey.

Maxine felt a scream sear up her throat and explode from her mouth. Coyote’s head snapped in her direction. The
skinwalker
roared as it lunged forward. The beast struck the inside
of the
hog pen and rebounded. The
monster
landed on its posterior and shook its head, trying to
clear
away the daze that had momentarily taken it.

He ran right into them
, Maxine thought.
The hog and the pen
.

Those clouded eyes
, Max thought.
The son of a bitch is blind
!

He seems stupid now, too
. Maxine thought in reply.
Just like the rest of them were.

Maxine rolled onto her belly and loped forward on her hands and knees. Behind her, she heard Coyote howl as it vaulted over the hog pen and crashed to
the
floor. Maxine spared a backward glance and saw that one of Coyote’s massive legs had broken through the
floorboards
. The beast struggled to free itself.

Maxine scurried for the
other
side of the room. She reached
a
butcher table
positioned
against the
far
wall. She crawled beneath and crouched into a fetal ball. Maxine watched as Coyote yanked its foot out of the floor. It
roared
in triumph and then began sniffing the air.

God, please don’t let him find me
.

Coyote howled and began making his way toward Maxine’s side of the room. As it advanced, the
skinwalker
sniffed the
blood-drenched
floor,
overturned
butcher tables, dangling meat hooks, and anything else it encountered, methodically going over its surroundings. Maxine began to shudder as Coyote
closed in.

Be still, girl
, Max chided.
Our life depends on it
!

Maxine obeyed, though it took
considerable effort
.

Then
Coyote stood
over her,
a giant
silver
demon
looming above
the table
under
which she
huddled. She could smell its musk. Could feel the heat radiating off of it.

The beast scattered knives and sharpening stones with its muzzle as it sniffed the table top. The
skinwalker
knocked one of the blades to the floor. Maxine eyed it.

Don’t you even think about it
! Max warned.

We need a weapon
,
Maxine thought.

You’re going to get us killed, is what you’re going to do
!

We need that knife
!

Keeping her eyes glued on Coyote, Maxine slowly snaked her hand toward the butcher knife.
She
reached it
and
closed her hand around its handle. She froze that way when, above her,
the monster
halted its sniffing. Eon-long seconds passed. Coyote began to sniff the table once more and Maxine gave a silent sigh of relief. She lifted the knife from the floor and cradled it against her chest.

Coyote’s head dropped beneath the table, a snarl on its wrinkled lips.