Fear: A Gone Novel

it!”
    Orc did as he was told. He mashed the bloody rag against Jack’s throat. The pulsing stopped but the pressure seemed to make Jack’s breathing raspy and labored.
    Dekka looked around, frantic, like she was expecting to suddenly spot a first-aid kit. “We need needle and thread. Something.” She cursed furiously. “We have to get him back to the lake. At least someone there can sew him up. We have to go fast. Right now.”
    “What about Drake?” Orc demanded.
    “Orc, you have to carry him. I can’t keep him from bleeding out. We get him back there. Then we go after Drake.”
    “It’ll be dark soon.”
    “We can’t let him die, Orc.”
    Orc stared in the direction Drake had gone. For a moment Dekka wondered if he would go off after him. And a part of her—a part she wasn’t proud of—wished Jack would just die, because he was probably going to anyway and Drake was going to get away.
    “I’ll take him,” Orc said. “You go after Drake. Only don’t fight him until I catch up.”
    “Believe me, I’ll be happy to wait for reinforcements,” she said. And silently realized that by herself she could not possibly beat Drake.
    She began trotting after Drake, his footprints—and two other sets—still barely visible in the fading light.
    Sanjit was now part of a growing crowd of frightened, hesitant kids. He fumed at the delay. Nothing was going right. He should have reached the lake by now. And darkness, real, serious, this is it darkness was coming down fast.
    The second coyote pack struck without warning after the noisy, disorganized gaggle had turned off the highway and onto the gravel road that led to the lake.
    There were hills to the right, and in the distance to the west a dark line of trees that someone told Sanjit was probably the edge of the Stefano Rey National Park.
    The two twelve-year-old girls, Keira and Tabitha, and the boy, Mason, were not the immediate targets. Neither was Sanjit. The coyotes came bounding straight down the road as if sent from the lake. Straight down the road, five of them, bypassed a few larger kids, and suddenly converged on a two-year-old girl.
    The first Sanjit knew of it were the screams as the coyotes began their rushing attack. He started running. He drew the pistol Lana had given him but there was no way to get a clear shot. Kids in panic were rushing back toward him. Others scattered left and right, screaming, screaming, calling one another’s names.
    The lead coyote bit the child’s arm. She cried. The coyote dragged her off her feet and started hauling her off the road. He lost his grip and the child was up and running.
    The coyotes, almost casual, formed a semicircle, ready to take her down for good.
    “Get out of the way!” Sanjit yelled. “Get out of the way!”
    Screams were general now. Dust kicked up. Slanting tea-colored light cast lurid shadows of fleeing children and the yellow canines.
    A second coyote grabbed the child by her dress and began hauling her away.
    Sanjit fired in the air.
    The coyotes flinched. A couple trotted away to a safe distance. The one with the little girl in his teeth did not.
    Sanjit was just a few feet away now, could see blood, could see the coyote’s yellow teeth and intelligent eyes.
    He aimed the gun from just a few feet and fired.
    BAM!
    The coyote let go of the girl and ran off. But not far. Not far at all.
    Sanjit reached the girl just as her sister did. The girl was bloody but alive. And screaming, everyone screaming and crying. Kids had their cudgels and blades out, too late, bristling with fearful threat.
    The coyotes danced eagerly, a pistol shot away. But Sanjit knew he had no chance of hitting one.
    “Get moving!” Sanjit yelled harshly. “If we’re still out here, when night comes we’re all dead.”
    The group of maybe two dozen kids, all huddling close together, moved down the road as hungry coyote eyes watched and tongues lolled, waiting for fresh meat.
    Brianna had been down the road as far as the hills. When she saw kids coming toward Perdido Beach she knew Drake hadn’t passed that way.
    Which meant he might have retreated toward the air national guard base. So she ran there and looked around. And found nothing.
    Which left her baffled. Surely she would have seen him if he were close to the lake. Surely he hadn’t come along the road. And he wasn’t at the base or anywhere between those three points.
    She was tired and frustrated. And worried about Sam yelling at her. Which just