CHAPTER 98 SHERIFF ELLIE

98

Sheriff Ellie

"ROBBY! GET BACK HERE!" Ellie forced out between clenched teeth. If the boy heard her, he ignored her. He followed the steps to the porch and disappeared behind the partially open door into the house. "Well, damn it all," Ellie muttered, rising from the bushes to go after him. "You all stay here."

"The hell we are," Evelyn replied, ready to chase after her brother, but the moment she stepped into the clearing, the birds filled the space between her and the house.

"Sheriff …"

This came from Mason Ridler. He was facing the opposite direction, back the way they'd come. The narrow footpath was buried under the bodies of a thousand more crows, moving slowly toward them as one. They uttered not a single sound, there was only the slight ruffle of feathers and the crinkle of dry leaves beneath them. They were in the trees at their backs, too, and more were coming—black bodies raining down from the sky, filling every branch, somehow finding space among already impossible numbers.

Mason swung his bat, but the birds didn't flinch, only kept moving forward.

Buck pointed his shotgun at the sky and pulled the trigger.

Intensified by the night, the loud boom echoed off the mountain, rattled through the trees, but did nothing to discourage the birds from closing ranks around them.

Mason swung again, and this time he connected, catching one of the incoming birds. The blow sent it sailing off to the right, and it vanished somewhere in the underbrush. He hit another, and another, but they kept coming.

Evelyn screamed as two crows swooped down, clawed at her arm, and shot back into the sky, leaving two bloody streaks on the girl's skin.

Ellie pulled out her gun and yelped as another landed in her hair.

Buck swatted the bird away, but more were coming. Too many more. They were swarming around their feet, pecking at their ankles, attacking all but …

They weren't attacking Riley.

None of the birds were near Riley.

The ground at her feet was empty, the air; they didn't touch her.

Riley turned and started toward the house. The carpet of birds shuffled away from her, cleared a path, like they were allowing her to pass, like they wanted her to go inside. Her, but no one else.

"Everyone in the house!" Ellie shouted. "Now! Follow Riley!"

The birds left the trees, the branches, the bushes. They came at them all at once, like a thick black cloud of feathers frantically beating the air.

Ellie and the others broke into a run, arms flailing, charging through the birds in an attempt to catch up with Riley before the crows could close ranks behind her. Ellie felt her shoes crunching down on soft bodies, thin bones breaking underfoot, but she dared not look. Something told her if she paused, even for a second, she'd go down. And if they got her on the ground, she wouldn't get back up.

Riley reached the porch, quickly entered the house. Mason behind her.

Evelyn tripped on the first porch step, and Buck scooped her up with his free arm as if she weighed nothing. He carried her up and through the door; by the time Ellie reached them, there was no sky, there was no forest, there was no mountain. There was only the birds, a blanket of seething black choking them from all sides.

Inside the house, Ellie grabbed the edge of the old wooden door, felt it scrape against the floor, and managed to slam it shut.

The silence was deafening, broken a moment later as someone let out a sharp gasp.