All These Monsters by Amy Tintera

Author:Amy Tintera
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780358011705
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2020-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

24

I darted forward and yanked the scrab by the arm, slashing my blade across its neck. It made a horrible choked noise and toppled to the ground.

Edan looked from me to the scrab. He was still on the ground, gasping for breath.

“Holy hell, Clara. Thank you.”

I nodded, switching my machete to my left hand as I offered him my other one. He got to his feet, wincing as he peered down at his leg. A bloody claw stuck out from his pants.

“Ew, is that lodged in your skin?” I asked.

“It sure is.” He grimaced as he limped forward. Something behind me made his eyes widen. He stopped.

I quickly turned. Scrabs. Dozens of them in the field behind the house. They were climbing out of several holes in the ground, one after the other. Several were on their feet, faces pointed in the direction we’d come from. Distantly, I heard someone call my name. Tires screeched. It sounded like more than one car. Someone stopped to help, maybe.

Edan grabbed my arm. He was pressed against the wall, and I did the same.

“What do we do?” I breathed. I looked down at the claw protruding from his skin. I wasn’t sure how fast he could run with that in his leg.

It didn’t matter, anyway. We couldn’t outrun dozens of scrabs, even at full strength.

“Did they see us?” Edan whispered.

I leaned forward a tiny bit and dared a glance at the scrabs. A few took off in the direction of the yell we’d just heard. At least fifty remained.

“I don’t think so.” I leaned back against the wall, my eyes darting around the room.

“Hide?” Edan guessed.

I nodded. “Until they leave.” With any luck, everyone else in the SUV was still alive and would come with reinforcements. I reached for my pocket.

“Shit.”

“What?” Edan asked.

“I left my phone in the car. Do you have yours?”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t have cell service. I just use it with Wi-Fi.” He looked at the broken chair in the corner. “I get the feeling they don’t have Wi-Fi here.”

“Can’t you call nine-one-one even without service?” I asked.

His face lit up, then fell. “I don’t know what the French equivalent of nine-one-one is. They really should have covered that in one of our sessions.”

I heard a rumbling noise suddenly, different than the one I was used to. This was more like a stampede. Edan went pale.

On the other side of the house, a group of at least fifty more scrabs were coming over the hill. They ran aboveground on all fours.

I searched desperately for a hiding spot.

There was a door open a few feet to my left, and I edged closer to it and turned the doorknob. I braced myself as it opened, waiting for a creak or for a mouse to scurry out, but it was quiet. It was a small closet, empty except for a few hangers dangling from the rack. I jerked my head at it. Edan nodded.

The scrabs were getting closer.

I darted inside the closet as quietly as I could and sank to the ground.

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