CHAPTER 133
A crack of pain in Carrie's right ankle sent her to the ground as she was rounding the back end of a truck. Crying out, she hugged her shin. Gary and Bill skidded to a halt and their eyes darted to the trailer hitch she had just tripped over and then to the blood gushing from between her fingers.
"Damn," Gary said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Seth and the girls had stopped to wait. Gary shot a finger out and said, "Hey kid, you gotta keep moving. Get the hell going."
Bill had already propped himself under one of Carrie's armpits, and Gary scooped under the other one.
"Don't wait for us," he ordered Seth.
Seth grabbed Kyra and Shelly by the sleeves, and they kept running.
"Seth, where are we going?" Kyra said.
"The hell if I know!"
They ran between several more vehicles before pausing.
"Shit, I don't know." Seth leaned his palm against the side of an SUV. They were hiding between two of six identical, army green, Ford Explorers. As Seth's eyes panned the motor pool they froze on a large figure standing against the tree line. By the fullness of its plumage he recognized the clan leader with no trouble. The shape of the beast had a chilling likeness to the grim reaper as it stepped out of the shadows and among the fog laden beams of the flood lamps.
"Holy… shit." Seth yanked open the driver's door of the SUV and shoved Shelly and Kyra in.
"Seth, what?" Kyra was confounded as he shut the door in her face. Then she followed his eye line and spotted the pack leader. "Seth, get in the car. What are you doing?" She saw him backing away from the explorer. "Hey, don't be stupid! Seth!" She slammed her palm against the window, but Seth was already bolting away from the SUV, waving his hands and yelling at the utahraptor.
He didn't look back as he ran, though he knew the pack leader was in pursuit. What sounded like a velociraptor caw filled the air, but the volume and depth of it was akin to a roar from Rebirtha. Seth ran straight for the garage. All the bay doors were shut, but there was a side entrance that he was praying was unlocked.
He reached the door and, to his relief, when he tugged on the latch it flung open. Dashing in he slammed it shut with his shoulder. Leaning against the door Seth searched for a deadbolt to turn, but there was none. The lock was electric and not engaged.
From the outside a powerful force struck, and Seth was thrown six feet back. Shaken and disoriented he sat up and looked at the door. He felt panic as, before his eyes, the latch tilted downward. Still sitting out in the open he didn't know what to do. His eyes hadn't adjusted to the dark of the garage yet. He could scarcely see more than the glowing, red, exit sign above the door he had just come through. A sickening feeling filled the pit of his stomach as a crack of light split open along the edge of the door. The pack leader was coming in, and there was nothing he could do about it.
He was in even more shock however when something grabbed him from behind and dragged him away into the shadows.