Alice Henderson - Voracious

And if she did, would he be waiting some night with jagged claws, eager to tear through her flesh as the creature had longed to do-the hero having become the monster?

MADELINEopened the car door and climbed in, closing it with a soft click. In front of her most of the RVs and other cars had started their engines and driven off.

Instinctively Madeline locked the door. Home. That’s where she would go now.

There was nothing left for her to do here. If the creature came for her now, she may as well be home instead of here. At least there she had friends who could help her.

A couple cars impatiently moved around her, and her attention returned to the present.

Inserting the key into the ignition, she started the car. It roared to life, and she checked the mirror and pulled forward. The car sputtered, jerked, and went dead. She tried to start it again. It tried to turn over but didn’t catch. She let it sit for a moment. The reek of gasoline was still strong, and she rolled down the window in an attempt to get some fresh air.

Instead, a fresh wave of gasoline fumes bloomed into the car. Madeline coughed, tried the engine again. For a moment both car and person sputtered simultaneously. She looked down at the gas gauge. Impossibly, it read empty, even though she’d filled it a few days before and had driven it only thirty miles since.

She turned the key off, opened the door, and climbed out, pulling the neck of her shirt up over her nose to filter out some of the overpowering reek. She walked around the edge of her car and saw a large puddle of gasoline pooling beneath it.

Three cars drove by, no one stopping to see if she needed help, just concerned to be on their own hurried way.

Kneeling down, she peered under the car where the gas tank was. The metal fuel line lay broken and twisted, hanging down to the asphalt. The fuel filter was completely missing, and through a gash on the underside of the tank dripped the last remnants of fuel.

Something had utterly demolished her fuel system, and fear seized Madeline like a plunge into an icy-cold lake. Snapping her head up, she gazed frantically in all directions.

Another car drove by, the passenger giving her an unfriendly look that said, “What are you doing parked in the middle of the road?” No offer of help. No “Are you okay?” Just “Get out of my way.”

She straightened up, heart threatening to beat right out of her chest. The thing must have done it while she was talking to Noah. It was possible Stefan had damaged her car earlier, but the stink of gasoline surely would have tipped her off when she climbed into her car back at the cabin.

No. This was fresh.

He’d done it while everyone was focused on Noah. Which meant Stefan had healed.

The damn creature had snuck up here while she was only yards away and tore up her precious VW. And with Noah hauled off by the rangers, it was her only means of escape.

Frantically she glanced around, feeling more vulnerable than she ever had before. Until now she’d had Noah, and Noah had the knife. Now she was alone, weaponless, with no idea how she’d get away from the creature if it decided to attack. She couldn’t outrun it, couldn’t defeat it in a fight. Safety now lay only in movement and escape.

But for several moments she stood rooted to the spot, listening for any sign of the creature lurking nearby.

Several more cars passed. Mountain chickadees fluttered and sang in the trees nearby. Chee-dee-dee. Chee-dee-dee. A chickaree warbled and darted quickly up a tree, chirping agitatedly as it went.

Forcing her racing mind to slow, she thought logically. Her car needed to be fixed. She would tow it to the repair garage in nearby West Glacier, just outside the west entrance of the park.

Luckily it was Wednesday. Hopefully someone would be at the garage.

A beat-up old Subaru station wagon approached, slowed, and to her amazement stopped. Two women rode in it, both with shoulder-length blonde dreadlocks, braided hemp necklaces, and worn and faded T-shirts. They looked like sisters, both with similar freckled faces and the same sloping, upturned noses.

“Hey,” the passenger said. “You need help?” She was young, somewhere under twenty-five, Madeline guessed.

Madeline nodded quickly, stooping over so she could look at the driver, as well. “Yes. My car sprang a fuel leak. Can you drive me to the garage in West Glacier? The one just up the road?”

“Sure,” said the driver. “Hop in!”

“Thank you!” Madeline said gratefully. “Just let me get my car off the road.”

“You need help?” asked the passenger.

Madeline looked at the level ground and shook her head. “No, thanks. It’ll just take me a sec.” She jogged back to the driver door, stooped in, and inserted the key. Then she put the car in neutral, disengaged the emergency brake, and started pushing the car off the road. The Rabbit was light and easy to push on such level terrain, and in less than a minute, it was safely parked in the short grass along the road.

She locked up her car and moved to the back door of the Subaru.

“Oh, shoot! Carly, can you move some of your stuff?” the driver asked hastily.

As Madeline opened the door, a heap of gear spilled out, including a tent, an unrolled sleeping bag, as well as a bunch of bananas, a well-worn boot, and two unwrapped toaster pastries that looked older than the boot.

“Sure thing,” Carly said, turning around in the passenger seat and helping Madeline pull in the unruly gear and place it back on the seat.

With a small space cleared, Madeline sat down and closed the door behind her. Her fingers touched the vinyl seat of the car.

The two sisters hiking in the high country, backs laden with heavy packs, stopping at a rock pile to watch for pikas…

Carly as a teenager, sitting in the backseat of the Subaru on the way to a piano recital, nervous as never before…

The other sister, crying, ankle broken after a fall on a skateboard, Carly driving her to the hospital…

Their mother, in mid-lecture, warning them of the dangers of not following a more traditional path, wanting them to be lawyers or bookkeepers…

She pushed the myriad images to the back of her mind. The driver took off, and Madeline gave a long, mournful look at her faithful VW. I’ll be back, she mouthed to it. Don’t worry.

It was the only time she’d ever had to leave it somewhere like that. In all the time she’d had it, it had never broken down once. Now ragged holes gaped in its underside.

“I’m Meg,” said the driver.

“And I’m Carly,” added the passenger.

“Madeline,” she answered, smiling at them.

Meg sized her up in the rearview mirror. “You been out here for long?”

“Standing on the side of the road or camping in the park?”

She laughed. “Camping.”

“Not long. Four days. But it’s been one hell of a four days. What about you guys?”

Carly scratched her head, the dreadlocks on that side moving up and down. “We’ve been out for what, three… three and a half years, I think.”

Madeline’s mouth gaped. “Three and a half years?”

Carly nodded, turning to the side in her seat so she could see Madeline. “Yeah… it’s been awesome. We just go from job to job, you know? Meg here’s a cook, and I mostly do housekeeping-you know, changing sheets and that kind of thing.”

Meg nodded. “We just go from park to park, depending on the season, finding odd jobs and room and board.”

The idea of such a carefree life appealed immensely to Madeline. She studied the two women with admiration. “That’s terrific!”

“Yeah, we sure think so. Mom doesn’t so much though.”