Alice Henderson - Voracious

Madeline struggled to get to her feet, constantly thrown off balance by Stefan’s thrashing. Finally she managed to stand up and began dragging him toward the nearest door. “Help me carry him!” she yelled to George.

He got to his knees, still gripping the creature’s thrashing legs. “I’ll try!”

Both of Stefan’s hands instantly extended to metal spikes.

Madeline choked up her hold and shifted her position, now gripping him under the arms. She managed to heft him up off the ground. With his spikes now free, Stefan stabbed at George repeatedly, but her friend was too quick, dodging from side to side to evade the blows.

Madeline backed into the door and pushed the button with her back. It slid open, and with a struggle they dragged him into the space between the cars. The noise of the train grew to a loud din as they banged into one wall and then were thrown into the opposite.

The door slid closed behind George. To Madeline’s right stood an emergency exit door, a large red button on it. The train went into a turn and she lurched off balance, then regained it as Stefan once more tried to pierce George. Madeline jerked him back, destroying his reach, the spike falling short.

With her hip she hit the red button. The door slid open, and a ringing alarm erupted throughout the train.

“We need to get him closer to the door!” she urged her friend. But in the tiny area, to get Stefan next to the exit would mean they’d have to fold him up, and he’d be in striking range of George. “Drop him!” she yelled over the din of rushing air and clackity clack of the train’s wheels surging along the tracks.

“Are you crazy?”

“Just do it!”

George dropped the creature’s feet. Stefan immediately planted them and bucked his torso upward. Madeline clung to his back, kicking one wall with her boot. They pivoted violently, and she lunged toward the open door. “Don’t let me fall out!” she shouted to George.

When Stefan stood on the lip of the exit, she let go, held on to the walls on both sides, and kicked her feet up, positioning them firmly in the creature’s back. Then she shoved.

He sailed out of the train into the night, landing harshly in scrub bushes on the side of the tracks, then tumbled out of sight down a steep embankment.

George rushed forward and grabbed her as she regained her balance, pulling her back from the door as it closed.

“Damn!” George yelled happily.

Madeline held up a celebratory fist. “Yes!” She turned and hugged her friend. “We did it!”

“Yeah! We kicked its ass right off the train!” They jumped up and down in the tiny space, shouting and hooting. Then George said, “What the hell was that thing?”

The door opposite the observation car opened, and the young security officer appeared. “Was that you guys who opened the emergency door?”

They nodded exuberantly.

“Is everything okay?”

“For now,” Madeline said.

George looked at her nervously. “For now?”

The cop glanced out of the window. “We’re heading into Whitefish now. Going to unload the people who got injured. Ambulance will come for the guy I… killed.” He worked hard to get out the last word. She got the feeling he’d never even shot a person before, much less had to kill one.

Madeline glanced back toward the observation car. “Don’t feel too bad about shooting that creep,” she said. “You didn’t kill him. He got up. In fact, he just got off the train.”

The officer raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

She pushed the button for the door leading to the observation car. It slid open. “See for yourself,” she said.

The train cop pushed by them and entered the observation lounge. He stood there motionless until the door closed again behind him. She heard his muffled “What the hell?” as the door clicked into place.

“Your arm,” George said, gesturing at her blood-soaked sleeve.

In the excitement, she’d totally forgotten about it.

“We should get you to the train’s EMT. She fixed my head up pretty good.”

Madeline smiled, taking in the small bandage. “She sure did.” After a pause, she added, “I’m really sorry about that. I think when I explain it all, you might find it in your heart to forgive me.”

George shook his head and held up his hands. “If you’ve been dealing with this kind of crap lately, I can see why you’d totally flip out.”

She looked out of the window as the train slowed, heading into Whitefish. Huge log cabin-style resort homes lit by dusk-to-dawn lights streaked by outside the window. “I was going to catch a bus to Mothershead from here. But we should go back and get your car. I’m sorry I ditched you.”

“I’d like to get my car, too. I just left it in a gas station parking lot when I saw you get on the train. I hope it hasn’t gotten towed. But first I want to know what’s going on.”

“Well, I hate to tell you this, but that thing we just threw off the train is practically indestructible, and it’ll be back. We’ve just bought a little time, is all.” She thought a minute. “Maybe we’d be safer getting on the bus. It might be looking for your car.”

“It’s that smart?”

She laughed sardonically. “It’s brilliant.” She brought a tired hand to her forehead. “Let me think a minute. It knows where I live, but taking the bus just might buy us enough time to at least get back to Mothershead and get more help. Maybe we can overpower him again somehow. In a more permanent way.”

“You keep calling it ‘him.’ What is it?”

Madeline looked up at George and almost smiled. She had asked Noah the same question that first night on the mountain. Now she was the one in the know, and her poor friend was trying to understand. She put her arms around him. “It’s so good to see you,” she told him. Then, wondering when exactly the bus left Whitefish, and where she should catch it, she pulled away and reached into the back pocket of Noah’s jeans to pull out the slip of paper the train station clerk had given her.

Her fingers closed around a piece of paper, but it wasn’t the clerk’s note. She fished it out. It was the receipt from the cabin they’d stayed in.

Immediately powerful visions hit her.

Noah, distraught, devising a plan to get Madeline to leave the park by acting crazy to get her out of danger…

Noah planning to go to the creature’s cabin to lie in wait, believing that if he ingests more blood, he will be able to manifest his own metallic spikes and kill the creature…

A gasp escaped her lips. He didn’t hate her. It had been an act-all those hateful words he spat at her-just an act to get rid of her, to protect her. Relief flooded over her as the hurt she’d felt so deeply was replaced by hope, and then fear as she thought of the danger he was in. He couldn’t face the creature alone and unarmed. Clutching the receipt, she pushed the door button and ran into the observation car. George followed. Dashing between the seats, she grabbed up the camouflage coveralls the creature had been wearing. She let the visions come.

The creature fantasizing about dragging her back to his rented cabin, slowly tearing her apart and eating all the soft parts, splitting open bones to get at the marrow. Later, after digestion, he’d go outside to test out his new psychometric ability…

Then… revenge. Killing Noah, his annoying hunter of so many years, before moving on to the next victim, reveling in the choices…

But first he’d go back to his cabin, get a chance to really recuperate, completely heal the wounds caused by Noah’s special knife…

She dropped the coveralls. “Oh, no…” she breathed, staring blankly out of the window, not seeing anything but her visions.