Wilders Read online

  Chapter 1

  “No, you can’t go outside.” Renna leaned down to run her hand up her cat’s belly as he stretched his paws up toward the handle of the sliding door. “I know you think it’s more fun out there, but a sweet little guy like you would be Wilder fodder in less than a day.”

  ”Merrrow?” Tim Tam tilted his head at her, insistently pawing at the door. Renna wished her brother had never started taking the cat out to sit in the sun with him on afternoons that he sketched in their backyard. Benjamin insisted that it was harmless. Everyone knew that full sun was the safest you could be these days; safer even than locked doors and shuttered windows.

  Eyeing the dappled golden rays slanting through the tree line Renna sighed, “Fine, Timmy Tammy but only for five minutes, okay?” She held up her hand, all fingers spread and danced it in front of his face as if he would better understand that she would only allow a brief dip outside well before the sun set. When her brother Benjamin, or as he was called by his band groupies, Jammin, took Tim Tam out he usually sat in the garden enclosed with small hole chicken wire, so the fluffy cat couldn’t dart off into the neighboring woods.

  Reaching for the collar and leash, Renna spoke sternly to the cat who stared intently out the door, ignoring her lecture. “Timmy, you cannot possibly think that this will become a habit. It’s bad enough that Jammin,” she rolled her eyes at the nickname, “takes you out almost every day. You used to be such a content house cat before he started doing that. You would watch the birds for hours, then curl up and sleep.” She clicked the collar around his neck, the blue barely visible through the mass of smoke colored fur.

  “And don’t think that just because I am talking to you like you’re a person that you get to make the decisions around here. You are a cat. C-A-T. You should just be grateful we give you wet food and not that dry kibble stuff.” Once she’d clipped the leash in place, she carefully lifted the bar that jammed the sliding glass door shut, then unclicked the flimsy handle lock, and slid the well-oiled door back.

  They’d had a screen door when she was younger, before the change began, but now they had a stronger copper threaded slider. At first, she had loved to look at the shining copper threads in the sunlight, her five year old self pretending it meant she was rich and lived in a castle. Now the slider was oxidized and covered in green, the concrete slab below it stained with a puddle of run off.

  “Yeah, buddy, I can see why you want to go out. You can hardly see the birds anymore through this mess.” The slats in the mesh were only slightly closer together than the chicken wire around the garden, but the crusty green wasn’t a pretty view. Not like the story book view of the woods stretching out behind them. When he was still alive, her father had always said that it was worth being house poor to have a yard that abutted an enormous state owned forest.

  Looking carefully to both sides, Renna stepped out of the house with the large cat at her side, briskly walking over to the garden and unlatching the wire door. Once they were inside she released the handle of the leash, latching the door behind her. She plopped down on a log lining the squash patch to wait the cat out. This garden was the final remnant of her father. She usually avoided it. She hated seeing Benjamin sitting out here for hours. The garden was just another reminder that now all their mother saw when she looked at her was the role Renna had played in her own father’s death. Benjamin swore he understood and that he would have done the same thing. But she knew that some part of him had to resent her. She was the reason he’d grown up without a father. That they both had.

  The distant sound of her cell phone ringing inside snapped her from her forlorn thoughts. She rose, shaking the cobwebs of bad memories from her head and glanced around for the cat. Tim Tam was sitting at the edge of the fencing near the woods, staring intently out.

  “Timmy Tammy, come on! Time to go.” She sing-songed to him. He didn’t even cock an ear in her direction, his gaze never wavering. As Renna studied the alert posture of the cat she began to feel like an idiot for coming out. Everyone knew that only the stupid danced with dusk. Late afternoon sun was nowhere near as safe as mid day sun. Standing a few feet behind the intent cat, Renna stilled and raked her gaze along the tree line. She listened intently for the sound of branches breaking, of pounding foot falls. All she could hear was her pounding heart.

  “Tim Tam!” She hissed, sweeping an arm down for the end of the leash without removing her gaze from the forest, “let’s go.” As she tugged two quick jerks on the leash the cat skittered over to her feet and waited, all coiled muscles tense and ready to run as she fumbled with the latch holding the fencing closed. After pushing the door open she darted out, sprinting the few feet to the concrete slab. The cat easily outpaced her to the doorstep.

  “Shit! The fencing.” She started to turn back. If she didn’t re-latch the chicken wire, half of Benjamin’s vegetables would be eaten by wildlife before the sun rose high enough for her to return and latch it. An ominous growl curling out of Tim Tam stopped her short. His back was arched and fur puffed out to make him look even larger than his 28lbs. The hairs on her arms and neck were all standing up. “Shit!” She dove into the house, reeling the cat in forcefully by the leash, and slamming the crusty green copper door shut, followed by the glass door. She flicked the flimsy latch down and dove for the bar that kept the door from being able to slide. Panting, she pressed her face to the door, peering through the grating. She swore she could feel eyes looking back at her from the forest.

  The yard was clear and there was no movement in the treeline. Tim Tam slunk slowly away from the door and promptly began licking his paws. “Some help you are.” Renna muttered, still breathing hard and watching carefully out into the yard. “I bet you got me all scared for nothing,” she accused the cat. There was no sign of anything in the yard; not a Wilder, not a neighbor, not even a deer peeking around a tree.

  With a sigh Renna debated the wisdom of going back out to latch the fence. The chances of anything being out there but not being baited into coming after her and the cat were very slim. Wilders weren’t known for stealth or patience. The very name came from the crazy and wild behavior, like the berserkers from lore. They were unstoppable, stronger than a human should be, and unflinching to pain.

  When the changing first began people were terrified. They thought the world was ending and that things would go the way of zombie movies, with only small pockets of survivors. But this wasn’t the same. The spread of the infection was less virulent and more avoidable. Now, almost a decade later, people had done what they did best- adapted. Adapted to a life behind copper or silver screens, a life lived only in the daylight, with all darkened hours spent safely locked away.

  The government had provided each household with one copper screen per window and door after the outbreak. Upgrading from the sickly green and malleable copper to fine silver was the new status symbol for the wealthy. While the American government, and subsequently all other major governments, claimed they were not responsible for the outbreak, they had known how to fend against it awfully quickly. Or at least that’s what Renna’s Mom muttered at least once a month over the newspaper. Three things worked as a barrier to the Wilders. Most of the time. The first was metal with high conductivity, like silver and copper. The second was electricity. The third was sunlight. None of them killed them. It wasn’t like in stories when vampires went into the sun and caught flame. It was more of an aversion. Like when a person stepped into almost scalding water. It hurt. You moved. You did not stay touching it long enough that it could slowly kill you. That’s how Wilders reacted to the three things.

  Renna’s phone chimed again from the arm of the couch, drawing her away from the window and her scrutiny of the yard. She had three new texts from Alyssa: Girl, where are you? Followed by: Rennoodleboo
dle answer your damn phone! And lastly: If you don’t text or call in the next five minutes I’m coming over, sunset or not. Renna snickered, because that was such an Alyssa thing to say. If Renna was a homebody, Alyssa was the closest thing to opposite she could be while still being her best friend.

  Glancing at the time stamp Renna quickly typed back, Better not get in your car – all good here. Was dealing with T.T.

  The typing bubble appeared instantly, That rascally little T.T. he’s lucky he’s so soft. I’ma call you in five – big news!

  To Alyssa, almost everything was big news. It was part of why Renna loved her. She was an all in or all out kind of person. When Renna’s dad died, Alyssa was by Renna’s side, sobbing as if the world had ended for her as well. A few days later, she was wholeheartedly into something new. That might’ve bothered some people, when their best friend stopped being sad over something so big, so quickly, but for Renna, Alyssa was the perfect getaway from real life. When they were together Renna could be swept up in Alyssa’s enthusiasm and step away from her own life. When Alyssa was boy crazy, Renna was her sidekick, analyzing each move in stalker-like detail. When Alyssa wanted to stop brushing her hair and grow dreads, Renna sat for hours trying to roll Alyssa’s baby fine blond hair into locks. When Alyssa defied her parents and drove places just after dawn, or just before dusk, Renna watched from facetime, heart pounding despite how safe their town had been the past three years. Being best friends with Alyssa was the only way Renna felt brave. Like reading a really good book and living the adventure, just a little on the outside.

  Renna clutched her phone in her hand and peaked out the window again. There was still a wide swatch of buttery sunlight cutting across the yard, encompassing the garden and the short walk to it. Maybe she should just dart out quickly and latch it. She studied the edges of the yard in each direction as far as the doorway would allow. All was still. There was nothing out of place, and no movement aside from the gentle swaying of pine boughs in the late summer breeze. Renna reached one hand out to the bar locking the door in place and froze midway. She couldn’t do this. No, she could. She just didn’t want to. But she should. Benjamin spent hours in that garden every spring. Even her mom spent time out there weeding on the rare day she got home during daylight hours or didn’t sleep at work if she couldn’t beat the sunset home. Her phone rang, making her jump and swat the bar out of place. The clang as it hit the ground made her jump a second time.

  “Jeepers, Renna, get yourself together.” She muttered to herself before sliding a thumb across her phone to accept the call from Alyssa.

  Before Renna even greeted her Alyssa was chattering away, “Renna, you won’t believe it! Finally, somebody is doing it. I can’t believe it’s taken almost a year since the last attack for somebody to do it!” she squealed into Renna’s ear, barely pausing to breathe. “It’s my number one high school dream, and it’s actually happening at the start of our senior year! Ah! I can’t even contain myself! It’s just like the movies before the change happened!”

  “Lyss, Lyss, wait a second. Calm it down. What’s happening?” Renna slowly inched the door open, feeling braver just having her best friend on the other end of the phone.

  “A real life honest-to-God high school party!”

  “We’ve been to plenty of parties already.” Renna inched the copper screen to the side, ducking her head out to peer around to the corners of the house.

  “No Renna. You don’t get it.” Alyssa’s voice dropped low and serious, “Rennoodle it’s a night time party. A real night time party. A Saturday night party! The kind where we sneak out and there’s booze and it’s so secret that no parents will ever know.”

  Renna dodged to the chicken coop, fingers dancing along the wires and latching the door. She darted back toward the house before the words registered. A real party. Like before. When movies showed kids staying out, having huge parties. She slid the copper door back in place and rested her head briefly on the inside, feeling the last of the sun as it cooled and dipped below the tree line.

  “Did you hear me? Earth to Renna! You better not even start making excuses. Just stop whatever you are thinking and just say yes.”

  Wedging the rod back in place, Renna pulled the blinds and breathed out a sigh. One down, one dragon of a best friend to face now. “Lyss, we are not sneaking out after dark.”

  She laughed in delight, “That’s the best part. We all arrive just before sunset, and the doors and screens are all locked before the sun is down. We stay all night, and leave in the morning when the sun rises!”

  “That might actually work.” Renna felt a kernel of excitement building in her gut. “But where's it at?”

  “Just say yes. Don’t even worry about the details. I’ll pick you up. Come on Rennoodle-doodle-bgoodle I swear to you that it will be safe. It’s a once in a lifetime chance. You don’t want to be eighty and wishing you’d lived when you still had wrinkle free skin.”

  “Might be better than seventeen and skin that’s half ripped off my body.” Renna made the gruesome threat half-heartedly, already aware she’d say yes. Just this once, she wanted to actually be brave, not pretend to be while watching through her friend.

  Alyssa knew her voice too well, “Oh my gosh! Be ready by this time tomorrow. Be ready like, ten minutes before this. Just be ready by 6:30pm. And Renna – look hot. Actually. I’ll bring you a dress. Jess is calling, gotta go! See you at six!”

  Chapter 2

  “Jeremy’s house? C’mon, Lyss. You couldn’t have at least warned me?” Renna flipped down the passenger side visor to check her make-up one more time as Alyssa swung the car into the long driveway leading up to Jeremy Bennett’s single story ranch house. Renna used her ring finger to smudge at the smoky eyeliner rimming her eyes just a little more as they parked on the grass along-side the other cars behind the fringe of trees hiding the yard from the road.

  “What? I knew if I told you where we were going you’d say no.” Alyssa tilted her sepia toned eyes up at her from beneath her lashes. “I told you to look hot. And You do. No harm no foul.” She flashed her a cheeky grin and scanned the yard before swinging her long legs out of the car.

  Renna checked the mirror on her side and looked around carefully before opening her own door. The sun was still hovering above the treetops, casting the world in a sheen of gold. She tugged self consciously on the hemline of the too-short dress Alyssa had shoved her into before hustling her out the door. As she rounded the car she couldn’t help but burst out laughing at her friend staggering one step at a time across the lush lawn, each long knife-thin heel sinking into the ground, only to be carefully pulled back out with her next step.

  “Stop laughing and help me walk. We gotta scope out who’s here on the way in.” Alyssa held her left arm out like a queen awaiting her escort as Renna reached her side.

  “Now do you see why I think heels are an outdated invention for people who didn’t have to worry about being prey?” She tucked her should under Alyssa’s arm and looped an arm around her waist.

  “Yeah, but girl, nobody’s going to kill somebody with killer legs.” Alyssa giggled and shimmied her hips. “I see Jess’s car, and Joe’s already. Evan parked at the end over there,” Alyssa bounced her chin toward a lifted truck that couldn’t be fully hidden by the young trees lining the quiet road the Bennett’s lived on.

  “I don’t even know half of the cars here. Are you sure it’s just people from our school?” Cupboard Lake High was a small school set in the forests of the Adirondack. With a town population of only six thousand, the class size was small enough that you had to try really hard not to know everything about everybody.

  Alyssa leaned her head against the top of Renna’s and squeezed her closer, “I’m pretty sure I never told you it would be our classmates only. I said it would be a party. And it is. A big party! It’s time you met somebody who didn’t grow up in Cupboard Lake. Show Jeremy he’s an idiot.” She lifted her head and started toward the house, dragging R
enna along by her waist. “And a loser. He’s definitely a loser.”

  The girls crossed the wide porch and let themselves into the house, music already blasting so loud they knew knocking would be pointless. Renna automatically toed off her ballet style flats and looked pointedly at Alyssa.

  “Oh no, girl. I did not wear these shoes just to take them off. His parents aren’t even home. Margaret is not going to come out of the kitchen to praise you for being polite.”

  Renna was about to scold Alyssa for calling Mrs. Bennett by her first name, a habit she had never liked in her friend, when Jeremy waltzed out of the living room at the end of the hall, a red solo cup in hand. The sight of him simultaneously made her stomach drop and her heart jump into her throat. She’d gotten pretty good at avoiding him in the school hallways for the last few weeks of the school year, and had only run into him once this summer thanks to Alyssa’s spying and warnings about what he and his friends were up to. She had resumed her avoidance again fairly easily at the start of the school year since they seemed to have nothing in common now that he’d broken her heart and started seeing girls from other schools.

  “Ladies!” Jeremy sauntered closer, both arms held out like he thought he was going to get a hug from each of them. “So glad you could make it.”

  Alyssa leaned close to Renna’s ear to give her a soft pep talk as her neared, “Stop tugging at your dress. You’re hot. He’s an idiot. Remind him.”

  Renna immediately unclenched the hands she hadn’t even felt drifting to the dress hem, straightening her shoulders. “Thanks for having us.”

  Jeremy’s gaze ran up her legs slowly, then along the tiny hot pink dress, until his eyes met hers. “Renna.” He reached his free hand out and rolled one of her brown curls around his finger, like he’d done a million times before. “Why don’t you ever come around anymore? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages. My Mom misses you at dinner.”