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"He did, yeah," Jack said "But he was half asleep even before we left"

"Cotheunshots, but after that initial awful screa here," Jack whispered

"It’s not the around He was at the head of the staircase now, and turning left along the corridor that led to their roohtened, and he tingled all over Merritt and Jack paused outside the closed door to their room No other doors were open

"Maybe it was just so

"Couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman Could you?"

Jack shook his head

Merritt tapped the barrel of his pistol against the door "Jim?" There was no answer He pressed his ear to the door, listened, glanced at Jack, and shook his head

"Maybe we should--," Jack began, but Merritt stood back and kicked at the door Jack backed away and let the bigopen--it had not been latched or locked, it see theasped, but Jack was through the door within a couple of heartbeats All ht, this is allinvolved But then he realized with a gush of relief that Ji his head to the left and back to the right again Blood was splashed across his pillow, and one hand was raised in a warding-off gesture, his little finger bent backward at an unnatural angle There was a gash above his left eye from which the blood still flowed

Jack looked quickly around the large roo in the shadows, then advanced on the bed "Jiled so His eye ide

Froainst flesh and bone Sorunted, and by the tiainst the open door Archie stood behind hiht the wooden club down on the back of Merritt’s head one h the doorway beside Archie

"Son of a--" Jack pointed his pistol, but already he knew he could not shoot Williaun, only a wooden club, the same as Archie And in the darkened corridor behind them, more shapes shuffled and came closer

Perhaps if he’d knoas to come, he would have fired Shot Williah the ht then all he kneas the present So he dropped the gun on the bed and put up his fists, as ready to fight as he’d ever been before

Archie laughed and dropped his bloodied club, balling his fist Willia as ever Two lint of brutality in their eyes and the scars of their rough existencetheir skin

"Come on, then," Jack said

And so they came

"Come on, then," Jack said

CHAPTER SEVEN

ONLY THE WILD

HE WAS LOST IN ANOTHER terrible storht possible He could feel it pelting his skin, like shards of ice instead of soft flakes, and when he tried to breathe in, snow invaded his throat and lungs It froze him on the inside, while outside he could feel little The smell of muck and horses pervaded the air, but he was motionless in this whiteout, and there was not a sound to be heard This is the true white silence, he thought, and then between gusts of snow he caught sight of a fah snow so deep that the creature all but disappeared with each juh he could not hear it--but it never seemed to draw any closer

A curtain of snow obscured his vision, and he felt so alone

A steady, low buht that he was not certain whether he was feeling or hearing it And though he tried to walk, look around, see his hands, it was only his awareness that acknowledged the blizzard, not his body Dreaht

He caught sight of the wolf again, fighting its way through the snow It seemed closer than before, but still he could not hear it He tried to shout, but it could not hear him, either There was just the snow, and that steady thump…thump…thump…

It was impact, and noise And beneath the noise there were s to the rhyth his body and senses

The snow started to turn brown Itthe blank landscape beyond with it, and the sound and feel of the impacts became more defined

He heard the loud howl of a wolf, so farab hold of it He smelled horse, opened his eyes, and could see threetoward a thickly forested hillside The horse to which Jack had been strapped around; that terrible blizzard remained in his skull

"That sounds close," one of the men said

"Yup, but you’ll never see thelanced across at Jack, and it was Archie "Well now, look who’s awake," Archie said "Stan, wait up! Got another one who can walk"

The horse stopped, sto its feet a few times, and each sto ropes from around his waist and ar into Jack’s ear, "Now’s your time, Jack, now’s your tih you are, how hard, and I look forward to every minute of every day from now on, now that you’re awake Little bastard"