Slash, p.21
Slash, page 21
Glass and grit crunched under his boots. He kept the light trained on the ground, sweeping the floor.
It has to be here somewhere.
If he’d done what he thought he had, it would be hard to miss.
His attention was caught by skittering paws to his left. His boot squelched into a puddle on the floor. He shined the light down.
Black ichor fanned out on the floor, some of it pooling into thick ringlets of gore. In the corner of his eye, he spied a rat scampering away from Bill’s body.
“Must be the light,” he said, crouching down to run his finger through the substance. He brought his finger into the flashlight’s narrow beam.
The runny liquid was ice-cold to the touch. It was gritty. And it wasn’t red. It was black – as black as the gloom in the unlit corridors and corners of the Hayden. Todd looked around the room. Yes, this was where the Wraith had been standing when Todd shot him.
But this couldn’t be blood. What in the name of all that was holy could it be?
Whatever it was, there was a lot of it.
Had he hit the Wraith, or had the Wraith been carrying something, a bag of old oil perhaps? Had he been planning on using it to set the hotel on fire?
Todd sniffed the liquid on his finger.
It didn’t smell anything like oil. Between his construction job and working in an auto repair shop in his teens, he knew oil when he smelled it.
This reeked of earth and mold and tangy minerals and something gone foul.
“How the fuck?”
He frantically wiped it off on his pants, nauseated by the thought he’d even touched it.
There was more to be found, a trail of it leading to the lounge.
He had his answer, and it only gave birth to more questions.
He ran back to the pool. Vince was on his feet with Heather in his arms. “You find what you were looking for?”
“I think. Did Sharon find a way out?”
Vince nodded. “She’s waiting for us.”
Todd found a hollow metal pipe and picked it up. Vince gave him a wondering look, as if asking why Todd would need a pipe when he had a gun. Todd said, “We better hurry.”
Sharon stood at the entrance to the tunnel she’d cleared. “I’m not sure how sturdy it is or how long it’ll hold, so you all better haul ass.”
Vince went first, and Todd told Sharon to follow. The uneven detritus above and around them made disturbing shifting noises. It felt and sounded like it could topple onto them at any second. Sharon practically pushed Vince forward.
“Just a little farther,” she said.
A blunt object clipped Todd in the head as the ceiling of debris tilted. He dropped to a walking crouch, massaging his head. “Hurry!”
The rumbling started at his back.
Crap!
It was all coming down.
The crash of wreckage sent his heart into overdrive. The thought of being buried alive under all of this waste nearly had him running over Sharon. Dust floated through the cracks, stabbing into his already tender lungs.
“I see it!” Vince exclaimed.
“Run!” Sharon barked.
They hustled through the mass of debris, shoulders and legs clipping on exposed brick, sticks of furniture and ceiling tile.
A gust of wind propelled Todd forward as the tunnel collapsed a few feet behind him. Something sharp pelted his legs. Dust roiled like smoke, blinding them.
Todd lost his footing and fell.
The tunnel groaned, the ceiling dropping lower, ready to break.
Hands grabbed his wrists and pulled. His belly slid along the littered pool floor. His shoulders ached, the bones feeling like they were about to pop free from their sockets.
He felt the impact of everything crashing down in his marrow, heard the deafening roar of destruction. Todd knew he was dead. It all happened so fast, he didn’t have time to lament the snuffing of his life.
And then he was coughing. Someone rolled him onto his side. He took a sharp breath, his lungs recoiling from the bitter cold air that felt like sharpened icicles.
He looked up and saw the pool’s edge. A ladder was still affixed to the wall.
“You see your life flash before your eyes?”
Todd blinked away the dirt and confusion.
“Huh?”
Sharon dusted him off. “You know. The whole near-death thing.”
He got on his hands and knees, and with her help, managed to stand. “Um, no, I didn’t see anything. I was too busy being blinded and waiting to be crushed to death.”
Sharon twisted her lip. “Huh..”
“Maybe this wasn’t really a near-death experience then.” Todd’s legs felt like rubber. He couldn’t imagine climbing the ladder to get out. “I mean, don’t you have to die to have a near death experience?”
“Not necessarily. A brush with death can dig up all kinds of things. I was caught in the middle of a drive-by one night when I left this club I was working down in Charlotte. A bullet just missed my head by like two inches. I saw a lot of shit about myself I’d rather not relive in that second between the sound of the gun and the bullet whizzing by my head. It should have changed me, but it didn’t.”
Todd’s head hurt from trying to follow the conversation. Who the hell cared about near-death visions? They had much bigger fish to fry. And he’d lost the pipe he’d found for protection. No matter. There were enough sharp, heavy and dangerous things scattered everywhere to use for defense or offense, if needed.
“Who knows,” he said, weaving his way to the ladder. “Are Vince and Heather up there?”
“I sure hope so.”
He looked back at the tremendous mass of garbage that had almost squashed them. It was still settling, the noise echoing in the silent night.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?” she asked.
“Pull me out. I’m not exactly light.”
“I can hold my body completely perpendicular from a pole. Weak bitches can’t hack what I do.”
“Never thought stripper muscles would save my life.”
“They’re dancer muscles, not stripper muscles. Tell your friend, Jerry.”
He motioned for her to climb up ahead of him. She bumped into him as she slipped her hands and feet into the rungs. “It’s a fucked-up world, isn’t it?”
There was no arguing that.
Vince was sitting on the ground waiting for them. “I thought you were dead.”
“Not yet,” Todd said.
But for how much longer? he thought.
Heather hadn’t woken up despite the crazy scramble to get out of the pool and the ensuing carnage. That was a very bad sign. Todd checked her pulse again. It was soft and thready. There was no time to waste.
“Okay, if we go that way, we’ll come to the main drive that leads to the front gate. That’s where Jerry and I saw the lights before.”
The lights that were still nowhere to be seen. He looked to the west and caught the last burning embers of the bungalows. The fire had made quick work of two of them, stopping short of gorging on the rest. If the fire department had made it inside, he would have seen the shadows of bodies against the flames, working to put them out. Something had happened to them. He felt it down in the marrow of his bones. No one emerged from the Hayden unscathed when the Wraith was around. The only way to survive was to save yourself. Now able to fully grasp Ash’s nightmare, his eyes started to tear. He wiped them roughly. Ash hadn’t given up and neither would he.
Todd wanted to run like hell, but his legs could barely stumble. Thankfully, Vince was in better shape than him, trotting with Heather tight in his arms. They turned the corner, coming to the front of the hotel.
They were about to skirt the fountain when they were stopped by the whup, whup, whup of gunfire within the hotel.
“Jerry!” Todd shouted.
He couldn’t tell where the shots had come from within the rotting edifice. There was movement inside, footsteps pounding on the weak floorboards.
“Why the hell aren’t the cops and fireman coming in here?” Vince asked. “I mean, we’ve been shooting up the place and nothing.”
“I don’t think you’ll like to hear what I’m thinking,” Sharon said.
Todd had been wondering that too, and he was sure he and Sharon were in synch. He couldn’t shake the feeling that despite their brief elation at the sights and sounds of the first responder vehicles, they were out here on their own, trapped with a maniac.
“The rest of you go,” Todd said. “I have to find Jerry.”
“But shouldn’t we stick together?” Sharon said.
“We’re already split up. Go.” Before they could take a step, one of the boarded windows on the third floor burst apart. A man came flying through the open window.
Oh no!
Instead of splattering on the pavement below, the man landed on his feet. Todd expected to hear the snap and crunch of Jerry’s legs and hips shattering on impact. He forced his weary legs to run to his friend.
Someone snatched the collar of his coat.
“Don’t. Look!”
The man, who was enveloped in shadow, turned his head to them and ran. Todd realized he was much too big to have been Jerry. He ran like a cheetah, heading toward the front gate, as if knowing that was their plan as well, daring them to try to leave.
Todd looked into the vacant window. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called for Jerry.
Jerry cautiously popped his head out the window, his fingers wrapping around the frame. “Where is he?”
Todd pointed to the resort’s entrance. “He went that way.”
“How the fuck is that even possible?” Jerry couldn’t take his eyes from the spot on the ground where the Wraith should be lying, bleeding and broken.
“He just took off running,” Sharon said.
“That can’t be,” Jerry said.
“I don’t know how he did it either,” Todd said.
Now Jerry looked to him. “No. I shot him in the chest. When he kept coming, I shot him in the goddamn face. He was only about two feet away. I may as well have been pelting him with rocks.”
He shot him in the face.
Todd stared into the shadows of the night.
What the hell had they fallen into?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
While they waited for Jerry to make his way down, Todd pulled Sharon aside and asked, “You have any more bullets?”
“Nope. I didn’t think I’d need more than one or two.”
And why would she?
By Todd’s estimation, the Wraith had taken at least a half dozen bullets. They hadn’t slowed him down one bit. If he tried to puzzle out the how and why, he’d be too distracted to stay alive.
For now, he had to accept that the Wraith was something more than a man – a giant possessing tremendous strength, speed and agility who might not be able to be killed. If he was impervious to brute force, they would have to find a way to outsmart him.
And there was Heather to consider. How much time did she have until they passed the critical juncture? How the hell could they strategize if they had no time?
Sharon went inside the hotel to see if Jerry needed any help. It was dangerous in there, even without the Wraith lurking about. She was the most physically capable of them all at this point, so he didn’t stop her.
“I believe Jerry shot him,” Vince said.
Their heads swiveled back and forth between the hotel’s facade and the deep darkness at their backs.
“Yeah. I shot him before too. He just kept going. I know I hit him though. I went back and found something. I thought it was blood, but it was thick and black. At first, I wondered if it was some kind of chemical he’d been carrying and hoped to use to burn us out. Now, I know what it was. It was blood. His blood, or what passes for blood in his veins. It’s cold too. Cold as death.”
“What the hell, Todd? Is this what Ash went through?”
“She was stronger than I even thought before.”
What Vince didn’t need to say was that it was a miracle she’d held on for as long as she had. How could anyone cope with coming across a supernatural monster? It was no wonder her brain had willfully buried it all too deep for her to find. This was beyond witnessing a series of murders. It was coming face to face with the unthinkable.
“If we can’t shoot him, how the hell do we stop him?” Vince asked. He brushed the hair from Heather’s pale forehead.
“I’m thinking, Vince. I’m thinking.”
“I know, buddy. I’m just scared. And not for me.”
They looked down at Heather. Her face was so soft and serene. In the end, Todd considered, she might be the luckiest of them all.
“One thing I’ve realized,” Todd said, “is that he doesn’t like it when you come at him. He’s a hunter. Hunters don’t know what the hell to do when the prey turns on them. He’s used to stalking his victims and scaring them to the point where they can’t even think straight.”
“If you’re telling me not to be afraid of a…a thing like that, it’s not going to happen. Just thinking about him makes me want to shit myself.”
Todd clapped his best friend on the shoulder and started walking toward the entrance when he heard footsteps. “You and me both.”
Jerry and Sharon emerged from the shadows. Jerry was limping worse than before. His hair was gray from dust and dirt.
“You believe I shot him now?” Todd said.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“You have any more rounds for your gun?” Sharon asked.
Jerry patted his coat pocket. “I do, not that it seems to make much of a difference.”
“It won’t stop him, but it does get him running in the other direction,” Todd said. “Even if it just buys us a little time, it’s good to know we’re not out of ammo yet.”
“So where do we go now?” Sharon said.
“Exactly where we need to go,” Todd replied, giving a quick nod to the resort entrance in the distance.
Sharon kicked a crushed can into the dilapidated carport. “But he’s probably there now, waiting for us.”
“I may be wrong, but I think that’s what he wants us to believe so we try to get out someplace else. That’s where he’ll be waiting.”
“And how will he know where we’ll go?”
Todd found another pipe, this one thicker and heavier. His boot pushed around the rocks and construction debris until he found a shard that was closely shaped like an arrowhead. He pushed the rock into one end of the pipe. “Huh. Perfect fit.” He looked to Jerry and Sharon. “He doesn’t have to know. He’ll find a way to lead us to him.”
Jerry loaded his gun. “So your big plan is that we zig when he wants us to zag?”
“That and if he confronts us, we don’t run. We take it to him and make him run.”
“I’m not gonna lie, it sounds like a suicide mission,” Jerry said.
“We’re dead if we do what’s been done before.” Sharon caught his eye and looked away. He didn’t want to sound insensitive, but there was no time to worry about feelings being hurt. “Forensics showed that when he came upon Ash and her friends, they scattered. He spent the rest of the night hunting them down. We can’t let that happen to us. We stand our ground and we stay together.”
Vince had laid Heather on the ground, using Ash’s backpack to cradle her head. Todd hadn’t heard him approach. “And what if the Wraith doesn’t run the next time? Are you going to take him down with your fake spear?”
Todd shrugged. “I’ll sure as hell try. At that point, what’s there to lose?”
“How about our lives?” Vince said irritably.
“We’re already dead,” Sharon said. She angled her face into the cold wind that swept through the barren resort. It carried the pungent scent of burning wood. “Maybe that is Otto out there. Hate and anger are a powerful combination. Maybe with enough of both, you can come back. If that’s the case, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon.”
* * *
They found the winding driveway choked with waist-high weeds as brittle as ancient skeletons. Todd kept hoping to see the return of the flashing red and blue lights, but so far, the pitch of night still reigned.
“It’s fucking freezing,” Jerry said. He was shivering, which, Todd knew, wouldn’t make for a good shot if he needed to take one.
Every breath hurt Todd’s lungs, but it was better than the alternative.
“We could have always stayed by the fire, toasted some marshmallows.”
“Right now, I’ll take a warm hospital bed with a hot nurse checking my vitals.”
“Among other things,” Todd said.
“Naturally.”
“Pig,” Sharon muttered.
Jerry stumbled for a second, and then righted himself. “Hey, maybe a lap dance will warm me up. You know, one last dance before lockup.”
“You couldn’t afford me.”
“Lay off her,” Todd said.
Sharon quickened her pace to get ahead of them, but not before giving Jerry a look that could slay thousands.
“Nothing sexier than an angry stripper,” Jerry said.
“We don’t need this shit now.”
“Yeah, Jer, knock it off,” Vince said. Todd could tell his friend was struggling by the steady clouds of air he was exhaling.
“You want me to take Heather?” Todd asked.
“I’ve got her. You look like you couldn’t carry my boots.”
Todd had no doubt he looked like forty shades of hell. If he looked half as bad as he felt, he’d make a great Halloween mask.
“You guys want to bang Sharon?” Jerry said after a stretch of silence.
