Derek heard the sound of another engine approaching. Though he was groggy from blood loss and pretty certain he was on the verge of passing out again, the noise perked him up.
They had to be close to Shilough by now, even moving as slowly as they had been. He needed to get back, make a plan, and return in force – a concentrated effort by the police to comb these woods and weed out the Lesterfields, wherever they were holed up.
The sound of the approaching ATV grew closer and Julia applied the brakes, gently bringing them to a halt as they spied headlights closing in on them.
She was helping Derek to the ground when Mitchell parked and came racing over to them. “What the hell happened?”
“He’s hurt,” she replied.
“I can see that. And you are?”
“She’s a friend, Mitch,” Derek said, every part of him hurting. Pain was good, though. It was when everything went numb that he’d have to worry.
Mitchell unshouldered his pack and began to pull out supplies. While doing so, he glanced back up at Julia. “Thank you for helping him.”
“I did my best.”
“That’s all anyone can ever ask.” Mitchell pulled back the gauze of the field dressings to inspect Derek’s wounds. He grimaced as he examined them. “Call me crazy, but it looks like you were shot.”
“Give that man a prize,” Derek wheezed.
“You trip and fall on your own gun again?”
“Not quite.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Julia asked.
“Yeah. Keep that flashlight on us.”
“You got it.” She did as asked, then added, “They were ambushed.”
“Ambushed?” Mitchell turned toward her, eliciting a grunt of pain from his patient as his hand slipped. “Sorry about that.”
Derek let out a tired sigh. “No problem.”
“So who did this? I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume the devil was fake after all.”
Derek shrugged. “Nope, he’s real.”
“You got ambushed by a monster with a gun?”
“More like ... his family.”
“Okay, this is starting to get weird. Where’s Danni and Frank?”
“Don’t know.” Mitchell moved to take something from his pack, but Derek grabbed him by the jacket. “We need to regroup.”
“You need a hospital.”
“That too.”
Mitchell turned to Julia. “You’re going to need to get him back. I’ll go after the others.”
“No,” Derek said, putting as much authority into his voice as he could. “You don’t get it. There’s too many. Can’t ... go alone.”
“But...”
“You won’t be helping them if they get you, too.”
Mitchell looked torn. Derek completely understood the sentiment. He wanted nothing more than to rearm himself and go hunting these monstrosities, but he couldn’t help anyone if he dropped dead of his injuries first.
“Fine,” Mitchell said after several seconds, kneeling down and starting to work on bandaging Derek up again. “I’m going to give you something for the pain and you’ll ride back with me. Don’t die in the meantime.”
“No promises, but I’ll try.”
“I won’t lie and say it’s going to be a comfortable trip, but we’ll take it slow.” He turned to Julia. “You got a name?”
“Julia Wilhelm,” she replied.
Mitchell made a face as if he wanted to say something, but then apparently thought better of it. “You follow right behind us. Keep an eye on him from the rear.”
She nodded.
Mitchell glanced at the ATVs, then back to Derek. “And you ... next time I tell you we should ask for a couple of Side by Sides in the budget, I want you to remember this moment.”
♦ ♦ ♦
One eternity later, or at least it felt that way, the ATVs rolled out of the forest and into the outskirts of Shilough. Derek tensed up as they left the tree line. Ezekiel’s museum was close by. There was no telling how many in this town were members of the Lesterfield family or whether they were driving into another ambush.
He couldn’t help but envision worst-case scenarios: returning to find Zeist’s people dead, or their SUVs gone and them surrounded.
A few minutes later, though, found him nearly overjoyed to be proven wrong. Over Mitchell’s shoulder he saw the lights from their small caravan of vehicles, right where they’d left them.
“Son of a bitch!” the medic cried.
“Huh? What?” Derek asked, suddenly wishing he had a gun in his hand.
Mitchell ignored him and continued onward until they saw Eric Zeist and his men waiting for them.
“I thought I told you to call 9-1-1,” Mitchell said as he killed the engine.
“I alerted the governor. He said no ambulances.”
“Are you a freaking...? No. Hold that thought.” He pointed to two of Eric’s men, then at the closest of the SUVs. “Clear the back of that one and put the seats down. We need to get him in there.”
The men hesitated for a moment, but then their boss nodded and they got to work.
“Help me with him.” Mitchell got off the ATV, careful to not dislodge Derek.
Eric, however, stepped past him toward Julia. “Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She looked him defiantly in the eye. “If you’re not going to call an ambulance, then I will.”
“No, you’re not.” With a quick movement, he snatched the phone from her hand and tossed it away. “You’re under arrest.”
“What? You can’t do that,” she and Mitchell said simultaneously.
“Watch me.” He dragged her off the ATV, leaving the medic to help Derek by himself.
“What should we do?” Mitchell asked in a low voice.
“Keep ... an eye ... on things,” Derek whispered. “If he does ... anything but ... detain her, shoot him.”
“I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.”
“Neither ... can I,” Derek replied before promptly passing out.
♦ ♦ ♦
Derek awoke again when the SUV hit a pothole, stirring him from a troubled sleep in which he’d been surrounded by those things, helpless to save his friends.
His eyes opened and he saw Mitchell leaning over him, with Julia on the other side. She was holding a saline bag attached to an IV in his right arm.
“Why don’t you try driving on the road,” Mitchell growled at whoever was upfront.
“Sorry,” Eric replied. “That’s your New Jersey tax dollars at work.”
“Wh-where...?” Derek asked.
“Don’t talk,” Mitchell ordered. “I’m doing what I can while we head back.”
“Back?”
“To Rutgers,” he said, a grimace of distaste on his face as he produced a large syringe. “Now hold still.”
“What’s that?”
“A cocktail of antibiotics designed to stave off flesh-eating bacteria. You aren’t going to be much help if I have to saw your arms off.”
“Lovely.”
“It’s not exactly FDA approved, so apologies if you start hallucinating ... or grow a second head.”
Derek raised an eyebrow, then turned to Julia. “How ... are you doing?”
She glowered down at him. “These bastards are looking at the biggest lawsuit I can throw at them. I’m going to own the governor’s mansion once this shit is finished.”
Derek smiled, but said no more. He was too tired, not to mention he didn’t have the heart to tell her there would be no lawsuit. Though he would have loved to see the governor try to explain his actions in court, he knew she’d be stifled by the same mountain of paperwork they had to give to everyone they rescued in the course of their jobs, the irony being that she’d been the one to rescue him. Regardless, his superiors weren’t about to let a reporter shine a flashlight on this. If she tried, they’d do whatever they could to discredit her, whether it was true or not.
That was a concern for later, though. Once they got back and his body was no longer being bounced around like a basketball, he needed to call Norah and request backup. Try as Yarlberg might to keep a lid on this, there wasn’t much he was going to be able to do once a unit of armed ATF agents were out in the woods.
The thought brought a smile to his lips as he once again closed his eyes and waited for them to reach their destination.