Author's Note: Monster Nation is now listed as "in stock" on Amazon. You might check that out--just click on the link over to the right. While you're there you could help me out by writing a nice reader review (assuming you read it!). Also, if you've preordered it, or if you order it now, email me and tell me you want the new chapbook. Please specify that you want the chapbook for Monster Nation. The chapbook for Monster Island is still available to anyone who bought that book, too. Thanks!--Dave

They were coming down out of Jasper National Park, where her Dad had shown her the glaciers. Just the two of them—she was on holiday from school and he was between jobs but he’d scraped enough together for the trip of a lifetime. They’d ridden in a snowmobile as big as a bus and out of the window she’d seen a herd of deer. They’d had a week in the Park, and though she’d been dreading the trip all spring now that it was over she wished she could stay for a month.

It was July 25th, 1994, and Chey was twelve years old. Her Dad let her put an Ace of Base CD in and he even said it wasn’t half bad. It was that or the radio and there was nothing on that far west but country music and talk radio about ice fishing and hockey.

He was wearing his red Melton jacket that smelled like cigarettes even though he’d quit the year before. He hadn’t shaved in three days and his face was dark with stubble. Afterwards she would not be able to remember much of what they talked about in the car. They had plenty of time—they were nearly a thousand kilometers from home, and had days ahead of them—and most often, she thought, they lapsed into a kind of companionable silence, the two of them sharing a half-breathed laugh now and again, her father occasionally pointing through the windshield at a flight of geese or a particularly stunning stretch of landscape.

She was sure, however, that she was the first one who saw the wolf. “Oh, Dad, look at that,” she exploded, pressing up against her window until her breath fogged on the glass. He stamped on the brakes, maybe thinking she’d seen some obstruction in the road. They hadn’t quite stopped when the wolf leapt onto the highway and smashed into the front side of the car.

Glass shattered and metal crumpled under the impact. The car slid to one side and Chey screamed as the windshield cracked.

“Honey, shh,” her Dad said, “shh,” his big hairy hand across her chin, his eyes fixed on the animal in front of them.

The sun had set but still a trace of orange lingered on the horizon. The moon was up, a narrow crescent. In the distance the mountains were slowly turning black with night. The wolf stood in the road in front of the car with its head turned to one side. Its frosty green eyes were full of undeniable malice.

“Just, don’t scream, okay?” Chey’s Dad said. “Just don’t make any noise, and I’m sure it will leave us alone.”

The wolf tilted its head back and let out a roaring yowl, sounding more like a mountain lion than a dog. Tears jumped out of Chey’s eyes and she pulled her knees up to her chin.

“I’m going—” he stopped as she started to whine for him to not go anywhere, to stay with her. It was a sound that came out of her, not any coherent speech. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m just going to put the car in drive and—”

The wolf bounded up onto the car’s bonnet and smashed through the windshield with its wide face. They both screamed then. A crack clicked and rattled across the glass as the wolf reared back, wrinkling its nose. It brought up it massive paws and slapped them against the glass and it shivered, cracks radiating outward, cobwebs of broken glass emanating from where it struck. It brought its face close again and howled in at them and its breath froze on the windshield, fogged it up. The wolf threw itself at the windshield one last time and the glass just evaporated out of its frame in a winking cascade of light and noise.

The wolf’s giant teeth came inside, inside the car with them, they were white and yellow and the lips were drawn back and then they were red as they sank into her Dad’s neck, she heard her Dad trying to talk, he made a gurgling sound as he tried to talk and tell her something. The wolf yanked backwards and his body strained against his seat belt. Safety glass was everywhere, in the leg wells, on the dashboard, in her hair. The wolf yanked again and her Dad’s throat came out in pieces, his eyes were still on her and she was screaming. She screamed and screamed but the wolf didn’t even seem to hear her.

Her Dad kept trying to speak. Blood came up out of his neck and ran down his shirt. The wolf lunged forward again and got its teeth into his shoulder and his chest. It pulled, and pulled, and finally he slid out of his seatbelt, his arms and legs bobbing, and the wolf dragged him down into the road.

Cool air came in through the hole in the windshield, a breeze that touched the wetness on her face. Chey sat up a little and looked forward.

In the fan of the headlights the wolf was tearing at her Dad’s body. Tearing pieces off of him and swallowing them convulsively. Eating him. The wolf looked up, its face covered in blood except for those wintry eyes. Those hateful eyes. They looked right into Chey and judged her and found her wanting. They despised her.

In a minute, those eyes said, I’ll be done here. Then I’m coming for you.