Hunger

unreal. The battle on the steps of town hall. Orc and Drake, the hammering fist of the gravel boy, and the slashing whip of the true monster.
    Sam had been busy with Caine. He’d barely survived. But he could have, should have, destroyed the psychopath Drake then and there. Put him down like the rabid animal he was.
    Reality was wobbly as Sam crossed the parking lot. No one there, now. Dekka gone to…gone to do what? His mind was foggy.
    Gone to destroy the mine shaft. Her and Edilio.
    Lana. If Lana was in there…If she…
    Sam’s step faltered. Lana was his only hope. Without her, he would not survive. She could heal him. She could end the pain. Renew him.
    So that he could…
    He sagged into a car. For a while, he couldn’t know how long, his mind went away. Consciousness failed. Not quite sleep, though, just a waking nightmare of memories and images and always the pain in his belly, the pain of his scarred flesh.
    Keep moving, he told himself. Which way? The town wasten miles away. But that’s not where Caine was heading.
    The side of the hill behind the power plant was glowing. Like it was burning in patches. A hallucination.
    He would never be able to walk that far. The drug would never last that long. Faster. He needed to move faster.
    He needed help. Someone…
    “Someone help me,” he whispered.
    He began the long, wearying walk up the sloping road toward the security gate. No way he could move overland. Not a chance. And even…
    Even…
    Sam’s head was playing tricks on him now. He saw a light. Like a flashlight. But coming from the ocean.
    He sat down hard. The light swept slowly over the parking lot, like someone out at sea was car shopping.
    The light crawled over the side of the power plant. It climbed the hill, then came back down. Someone was searching.
    But he was just a crumpled form on a road, too small to be spotted. The light would never land on him. It was like some sick game. The light would come his way and then veer off.
    He was invisible.
    “No, Sam,” he told himself as the realization dawned with ridiculous slowness on his addled brain. “Stupid moron. The one thing you have is light.”
    Sam raised his hands high. A pillar of pure green light pierced the night sky.
    The searchlight zoomed instantly toward him.
    “Yeah, here I am,” Sam said.
    It took Quinn a few minutes to beach the boat and climb up the rocks to reach Sam.
    “Brah,” Quinn said.
    Sam nodded. “Yeah. I look pretty bad. How…”
    “I was fishing. I saw the fire.” Quinn knelt beside him, obviously unsure what he could do to ease his friend’s suffering.
    “I look bad, and my head isn’t exactly on straight,” Sam slurred.
    “I’ll get you back to town,” Quinn said.
    “No, brah. Get a car.”
    “Sam, you can’t…”
    “Quinn.” Sam took Quinn’s arm and gripped it tight. “Get a car.”

    “Back off, doggies,” Dekka growled.
    The coyotes moved closer, circling, always circling. Each circuit just a little closer.
    “Which one of you is Pack Leader?” Dekka demanded. Desperate. How could she stop them circling closer and closer? “I have an offer. I…I can help you. I want to talk to Pack Leader.”
    One of the coyotes stopped moving and turned his intelligent face to her. “Pack Leader me.”
    The voice was high-pitched, strained, as though the act of attempting speech was painful.
    Dekka had only seen Pack Leader from a distance, but sheknew this wasn’t him. Pack Leader had a nasty-looking face, a scar on his muzzle. He was old and mangy. This coyote was obviously younger.
    “You’re not Pack Leader,” Dekka said.
    The coyote tilted his head quizzically. “Pack Leader die. Pack Leader now.”
    Pack Leader dead? Maybe this was an opportunity. “If you hurt me,” Dekka warned, “my people will kill coyotes.”
    Pack Leader—the new Pack Leader—seemed to consider this. His eyes were bright and focused, but almost seemed to contain a trace of humor.
    “Pack eat dead human,” Pack Leader said in the eerie, grating voice of the mutated coyotes.
    “He’s not dead,” Dekka said.
    “Pack eat,” Pack Leader said.
    “No,” Dekka said. “If you try, we will—”
    There was a flash of tan and gray fur and something bowled Dekka over. She rolled and came up into a squat. Three coyotes were on Edilio. Blood was pumping freely from his chest.
    “No!” Dekka cried.
    She raised her hands and suddenly Edilio was floating up off the ground, along with three panicked,