CHAPTER 36

They’re Coming

Christie yawned. There was no one to take her place, not without waking kids like Simon, and the few really old, almost infirm, people.

And they all needed sleep so badly.

The woman next to her, Anna, at once fell asleep.

And Christie let her have ten minutes before she gave her a gentle nudge and the woman awoke.

“Must’ve dozed off,” the woman said.

“It happens,” Christie said, smiling.

Wouldn’t mind doing that myself, she thought.

Ten minutes.

Five minutes.

Even one minute. Shut my eyes.

That would be so precious.

But soon the raiding party would be back.

Kate, those kids.

They could take turns guarding the circle.

Soon, she thought. Has to be soon.

But then she saw something out in the black wilderness that stretched from the circle of cars, off to a thick woods of mostly barren trees, but with some conifers looking tall and dark, shadowy in the night.

Headlights. Heading this way.

Instinctively, Christie straightened up.

*

Kate gave the small hand held in hers a little squeeze.

And even though she heard bullets ripping into the wooden planks behind her, she paused to turn to the kids.

Not a line now, still bunched together, but hands locked, a human web of clenched hands, their faces looking empty, eyes wide.

“We’re going to—”

A bunch of bullets flew what felt like inches from Kate’s head, splintering more of the wood boards behind her.

“—crouch down, like this…”

Kate demonstrated.

The woman who had led them in was at the back, tapping kids, pointing down to the ground to get them to get as low as they could.

“Now, fast!” Kate said.

And she had to pull the hand she held hard, hoping that with all those interlocked hands, the group of kids would just get pulled along.

She hit the corner of the building and quickly ran to the back, turning to where the cars were.

For a moment, she couldn’t tell where the cars were. Everything looked different in the darkness.

Were they just ahead, or did she have to cut a bit to the right?

She had slowed, and a few of the kids had actually bumped into her, like toys on wheels that kept rolling even when she stopped.

A moment’s hesitation.

“Keep moving,” the woman at the back of the kids said.

Kate thought she saw the path they took just to the right.

And Kate started running again.

And even as she did, she thought she heard the gunfire, now…

What was the word?

Sporadic.

No longer constant.

And they weren’t even at the cars yet, and with just this one woman helping her herd the kids, Kate thought, That could be either a good thing… or a very bad thing.

*

The car in the dark raced wildly over the empty road, looking like a crazed beast on the narrow strip of pavement that led to the house.

Why is it going so fast? Christie wondered.

It was one of those scout cars.

A fast car.

Now racing back here.

For a moment she didn’t have a clue. It seemed so odd.

Then… she did.

*

Appearing out of the darkness like mysterious shapes from another world, Kate saw the line of cars.

She glanced behind her. The woman urging the kids forward.

She wanted to ask the woman, What about the others. Are they coming?

We have to get out of here.

But Kate kept focused on moving forward until she got to the front car and released the hand she held.

And a small voice went, “No.”

That small hand refusing to be freed.

Kate whispered, “We have to all get in. Bunch of you with me, the rest with…”

She realized that she didn’t know the other woman’s name.

An ally in this strange mission, this attack.

Nameless.

“Some of you come with me,” the woman said.

And Kate watched the woman separating some of the hands and steering three of the kids to her car, farther to the rear, where the barren woods began.

Kate had five of them.

Sam had said, Get the kids. Get back. Don’t wait for anything, anyone.

And that’s what Kate did, the four doors of the car open as the kids scrambled in.

Then Kate got into the driver’s seat.

“We okay?” she said. “Everyone all right?”

No one answered.

Kate started the car.

And with the doors shut, and the engine started, Kate realized she could smell the children.

How long had it been since they’d showered, washed, anything?

With gunfire still sounding all around, she turned the wheel of the car hard.

And now, driving to the road away from this place, she had to turn on the lights.

Hard to see where the damn road was.

She opened her window. Needed some air.

Thinking, what’s been done to these kids? What’s happened to them.

And as the car made its bumpy way over rocks and pits in the ground, she heard a small voice in the back.

Could have been any one of them.

The words so simple, so crazy…

“Thank you.”

*

Christie watched the red car rumble up to the circle as if it might smash its way through protective ring of cars.

But one of the men had gotten into a car, pulled it out of the way, and made an opening.

The scout car stormed through the opening, braked, sending up a dusty cloud of dirt visible even in the darkness.

Then the man—Rob—got out.

And one look at him, and Christie could tell he was way beyond scared.

A group had formed around him, gun barrels pointed down.

For the moment ignoring their defensive positions. No eyes looking out to the deeper darkness away from the farmhouse and barn.

All eyes on Rob, gasping for air.

Rob looked around at the group as if they didn’t get it.

“What? They’re not back yet? The others?”

One of the old men shook his head. “Should be soon. What’s going on?”

Rob shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “They’re coming. Hundreds of them. From back there, like an army. Can Heads, marching here.”

Then he stopped, again taking in the circle of fifteen or so people who had been on guard.

Then he nodded, the truth in his next words so obvious.

“We have to wake everyone. Now. Get everyone up who can shoot. They were moving fast, coming together like they had a plan.”

Christie thought of something Jack always said: Can Heads can’t plan.

They’re not like wolves.

Was that still true?

For a moment, nobody did anything, then he said, “Some of you, get back onto the circle; the rest, wake everyone the hell up now.”

And Christie turned to Anna.

“I’m going to get my son…”

Christie could see that the older woman’s eyes were glistening. She had been crying.

How much horror had she seen? How much more did she think she was about to see?

Tonight…

“You stay here. I’ll be back with him. Okay?”

Just a nod.

And Christie ran as fast she could, joining the others.

To sound the alarm. Get everyone up.

And what she felt… as she ran… went way beyond any fear she had ever felt before.