Snowblind (novella) by Michael McBride

Author:Michael McBride [McBride, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Short Fiction, Fiction.Horror
ISBN: 9781937771492
Publisher: Delirium Books
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

“Todd!” Coburn shouted as he burst into the main room and rounded the corner into the bedroom. “We have to get out of here! We’re running out of time! We can’t stay—!”

A hand closed over his mouth and he was bodily pulled into the shadows.

“Shh!” Baumann whispered into his ear. “Not a sound. You hear me? Not a sound.”

Coburn nodded and Baumann released his grip.

The fire was now dead. Only its scent remained, and even that wouldn’t last much longer with as hard as the frigid breeze was blowing straight through the window. Snow had already begun to accumulate on the ring of stones. The flakes hissed when they alighted on the charcoaled logs.

Baumann pantomimed for Coburn to get his rifle, then sighted the outside world through his scope. Coburn retrieved his Remington, aligned his aim with Baumann’s, and zoomed in on the distant forest through the storm. He could barely see the trunks of the trees with all of the snowflakes crossing his field of view. The canopy was buried in white. The detritus was hidden beneath the white. Everything was white, except for the bark on the trunks and the branches in the lee of the wind. And the shadows. Dark shadows that clung to the shrubs and cowered under the lowest branches. He was about to ask Baumann what he was supposed to be seeing when the shadows moved.

Coburn held his breath and struggled to keep his scope steady.

There it was again. Farther to the right this time. Behind the frozen skeleton of a scrub oak. Nearly indistinguishable from its surroundings.

“By my count, there are at least two more out there,” Baumann whispered. “They know we’re here.”

“I’ve got news for you. They’ve been ahead of us the whole time. They always knew that this was where we’d go.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because they’ve done this many, many times before.”

Baumann was silent for a long moment.

“What did you find back there?” he finally asked.

So Coburn told him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.