CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The sound made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Will tightened his grip on my hand. “Stay close!”
He pulled me along through the barrier and the woods, and in a minute we stumbled out into a road that had seen better days. One of the two lanes was choked by weeds and small trees, and the other half was a mess of ruts.
The road wasn’t what caught our attention, however, but the man lying in the shadowed ditch close to where we stood. He was on his back with a shadowy creature looming over him. His face was bloodied and a backpack lay nearby, discarded and somewhat mauled. Another terrified cry came from him as he pushed his hands against the beast’s hairless and blackened chest. The creature pushed against him and tried to snap its jaws around his h
