Clarissa

Me, Ben, and the tall boy all took shelter in a culvert—a big metal pipe that diverts runoff during the spring melt. A trickle of icy water ran along the bottom, and the sides of the pipe were wet and slick from scum.

It was gross but was big enough to fit us all if we crawled on all fours. And hopefully, it was too small for anything else to follow.

I didn’t know what was wrong with Ben. He was awake and didn’t look like he was hurt, but he only moved when I pushed him along. His blue eyes stared straight ahead without focusing like he seeing, but not registering anything. Maybe it was shock. The bite underneath the back of my shoulder stung, but my arm worked okay, and I didn’t feel faint or anything. It could wait.

Once we were in the middle of the culvert, I wrapped my arms around Ben.

Outside, the chaos grew louder. The eagle-headed monsters screeched and shrilled. As if that wasn’t enough, the ground shook with earthquakes, trembling the water and the yuck inside the pipe.

Worst of all was hearing the human screams, sometimes cut short. The voices sounded young, panicked, and so scared.

I covered Ben’s ears and held him against me, trying to shut out the worst of it. If we got out of this alive, he was going to need serious therapy.

I didn’t know how long it went on. An hour or more, maybe. By the time the noise tapered off, the sunlight shining into the end of the culvert had slanted to the west.

I heard shuffling and raised my head. The tall boy had crawled to the edge of the culvert to look out.

Ben’s eyes were closed, so I eased him down to a dryish, mossy patch. Then, quietly as I could, I scooted over to join the tall boy.

“I haven’t heard any sirens, yet,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “Me neither. Maybe the whole area got quarantined.”

That made sense, I guess. People were turning into monsters. I’d seen enough movies to know the authorities would want to contain... whatever this was.

I nodded and said, “I’m Clarissa.” He looked at me in surprise, so I added, “We never really introduced ourselves.”

And I never thanked you for saving my life.

His teeth flashed white in the semi-gloom as he smiled. “Terry.”

“Thanks for, you know, killing that monster.”

He shrugged as if it had been nothing. “I saw you try to fight off that griffin, and I couldn’t stand back and do nothing. Were you hurt?”

Griffin? But those weren’t supposed to be real animals, right? I didn’t want to seem stupid so I shook my head.

Maybe it was the adrenaline or fear, but the hot stripe of pain underneath my shoulder blade had faded to the background. I resisted the urge to touch it, not wanting to get germs into the wound.

“It’s not bad.” My knees ached from kneeling. Carefully avoiding the tiny stream of water, I sat down and drew my legs to my chest. “You really think those were... um, griffins?” Now I thought about it, I vaguely remembered taking a unit on ancient Greek creatures way back in sixth-grade. “Like, from ancient mythology?”

He shrugged again. “Sure, why not? Head of an eagle, body of a lion. Makes sense—I mean, it doesn’t, but I’ve seen drawings of them in Celtic heraldic flags and stuff.”

“And you said you saw people turning into... griffins?”

Terry nodded and looked away. “And other things.”

“What?”

“I saw...” He took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes.

I felt a prickle of guilt. I’d been trying not to think about how that griffin had flown off with the little girl. Who knew what else Terry had seen? I squeezed his upper arm in sympathy.

Wow, he had some muscles. No wonder he dropped that griffin in two hits.

“I was driving when all the cars on the highway just… started spinning out of control. Stopping or running into one another.” Terry ran a jerky hand back through his straight, dark hair. It was long enough to cover the tips of his ears. “I thought there was an accident ahead. But the man in the next lane... It looked like a giant beak was coming out of his mouth. Like something else was growing out from within him, you know?”

No, I didn’t. The thought made my skin crawl.

“Someone else hit my truck. I’m sure it’s totaled.” He scowled and shook his head. “Anyway, the woman who hit me looked like she was covered with moss. It was growing all over, covering her... like, her eyes and nose. She looked like she couldn’t breathe. She kept trying to pull it off, but it kept growing back…”

Behind us, Ben made a small noise. I gripped Terry’s arm. He got the hint and fell quiet.

Closing my eyes, I tried and failed not to picture what he just described. Griffins and killer moss? This was too insane to be real. And what were we supposed to do, now? Just sit and wait for the police?

I hoped my mom was okay, and she wasn’t too worried about me and Ben. Ugh, who was I kidding? She was probably freaking out right now. If I had my cell phone on me, I’d be able to give he a call, but my phone was stashed in the glove box back in the sedan. My mom had made me promise to keep it there when driving so I wouldn’t be tempted to text my friends. I hadn’t even thought about grabbing it on the way out.

“This can’t be real, can it?“ I opened my eyes. “What could have—I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

“I have,” Terry said.

I stared at him.

“You know, zombie apocalypse?” He sang, “It’s the end of the world, and I feel fine?” Then he covered my hand with his and offered a small smile. “Sorry. Dumb joke.”

I tried to match his smile, but I felt numb inside.

Glancing out the culvert, I weighed our choices. Find help, or stay put? I didn’t like the idea of doing nothing.

“It’s going to be dark soon, and cold.” All I had on were jeans and a long-sleeve shirt, which was now torn behind one shoulder. Ben wore shorts and a superhero T-shirt.

“If we go out there, we’re dead,” Terry said flatly.

Not that I didn’t agree but that wasn’t helpful. It was only the end of April, and South Lake Tahoe sat at over six-thousand feet in elevation. Alpine country. I’d seen it snow here as late as July. Staying in a cold, wet drainage pipe was out of the question.

Another griffin screech cut through the cooling air. I had a bad feeling it was going to come down to risking hypothermia or being torn apart. Ben still hadn’t moved, either. His breath steamed in the cooling evening.

I came to a decision. “Well, we can't stay here overnight. We'll freeze.”

Terry scowled and said nothing.

I turned away from him to crawl back to my little brother. To my relief, Ben stirred at a touch on his shoulder. He stared up at me with blue eyes that seemed to have aged years in a matter of hours.

“Was it really real?” he rasped.

I nodded. “Yeah, Benny, but I’m here. I’m going to keep you safe.”

“Do you think Mom’s okay?”

My heart clenched. “Of course she is.” Our mom worked as a front desk clerk at one of the large casinos on Stateline, the divide between California and Nevada. “The Sheriff station's only one block away from her. And you know the casino has a huge basement area for shelter during blizzards. She’s probably hiding out until it safe, same as we are. Can you get up?”

Ben’s lips pinched, but he nodded, leveraging himself up on one arm. Then he stopped. And even in the dim light, I could see a blush coloring his cheeks.

“My shorts are wet,” he said in a harsh whisper. “I think I...” He stopped and looked between his legs. There was a definite wet patch there.

“It’s okay. You probably sat in a puddle.” I faked a smile. I didn’t smell urine, but the scum in the pipe smelled pretty bad already. “We’re going to find somewhere safer to hide out, so it will be a little chilly until it we get somewhere warm.”

“What?” He shook his head. “No, no! We can’t go out there.”

“Ben, it’s too cold—”

“No, they’re going to eat us!” His voice rose high and echoed in the pipe.

“We’ll be fine, little man,” Terry said, nearly making me jump out of my skin. I hadn’t realized he’d crawled up behind me. He gave me an apologetic smile and held up the tire iron. I’d forgotten all about it. “We put a beat down on the last one, remember? Besides, me and your sister are too big to be carried off. We’ll protect you.”

I nodded and didn’t point out that the griffin Terry had killed had been smaller than the one I’d seen flying off with the little girl.

The gash under my shoulder blade gave an unexpected throb and settled into a low burn.

Ben looked between the two of us doubtfully. He wasn’t dumb.

“We’re not going far.” Terry gave a winning smile. “My house is only on the other side of this next ridge, on the Nevada side.”

I turned to him. “Really?”

Terry shrugged. “Well, it’s my uncle Richard’s place. I live with him and my cousins, but it’s really not that far as the crow flies. They own a lakeside cabin with their own private beach. Nice and warm, even in the winter,” he added.

I hesitated. Personally, I wanted to hide in the apartment that me and Ben lived in with our mother, but that was at least fifteen miles away across the California side of the lake. It would be tough to get there if the roads were blocked, or if the area was under quarantine or whatever.

Or if the griffins were still hungry.

“What about Mom?” Ben asked.

“I left my cell phone in the car. We’ll call her and let her know everything is okay,” I said, giving in because keeping up a united front would soothe him.

“I think we should wait to move until after sunset,” Terry said.

“Why?”

“I’ve been thinking. You know how the griffins have eagle heads? Well, eagles don’t hunt at night. So maybe griffin’s won’t, either.”

That wasn’t much of a theory. Didn’t lions hunt at night? And I didn’t like the thought of walking around in the dark with those horrors everywhere. But if we stayed out of sight, under the trees... Well. Maybe we'd have a chance?

I cast a glance towards the brightly lit end of the culvert. There was least an hour until full nightfall.