Slash, p.23
Slash, page 23
“Probably a bird,” Todd said.
“How much farther until we get to the fence?” Heather asked.
“Not far,” Todd said, but he wasn’t so sure. The trees were so tightly packed here, he worried that they’d been turned around. They were definitely taking a circuitous route to the property’s edge. Again, it was as if the woods were alive, working with the killer, keeping them trapped.
“That was one heavy-ass bird,” Jerry said.
“You ever see how big owls can get?” Todd said.
“How the heck would I ever see an owl where we live?”
They resumed walking.
“You never watched a nature show?”
Jerry exhaled loudly when they stepped in a divot and their legs twisted. “Why would I watch nature shows when I have like a hundred other cool things on my watch list? You finish watching Californication yet?”
“Can’t say that I have.” In fact, despite Jerry’s constant insistence, he’d yet to start. He couldn’t get into the idea of watching a show about a boozing, philandering writer. It reminded him too much of his father – everything except the writing.
“You’re missing out on a lot of boobs, man. So many boobs.”
“Is that all you think about?” Todd asked.
“Yeah. Well, that and getting the fuck outta here.”
Such frivolous talk seemed ridiculous in the face of what they were experiencing, but it was also strangely comforting. It helped take Todd’s mind off his increasing anxiety that they were lost. He was sure the break in the fence had been right here. How had he missed it?
Being in pitch dark, hurt and afraid could have something to do with that.
“How you holding up, Heath?” Todd asked.
“Still standing,” she replied, a huge vapor cloud enveloping her head.
They kept walking, each of them clipping their shoulders into a tree or tripping on exposed roots. It was far from easy going, and the longer they roamed within the trees, the surer Todd was that they would end up a bewildering distance from where he’d intended.
There was more rustling overhead.
“Definitely a bird,” Todd said.
Jerry made them stop, his light and gun sweeping the trees again. “Tell those fucking birds to cut the shit before I pop one.”
“I will, as soon as I learn to speak bird.”
“Forget the damn birds,” Sharon said. “Todd, you don’t know where we are, do you?”
He was tempted to say he couldn’t see the fence for the trees. He was beginning to wonder if they should just stay here, hidden in the trees, the dry vegetation giving them ample warning if and when Otto approached. Once dawn broke, it would be easy to find the way out, even if it was a cloudy morning. On the other hand, there was a real concern that they might freeze to death.
“To be honest, no,” Todd said.
“We should just set this all on fire,” Jerry said. “I’m so cold, my ass is numb. Plus, it’ll light the way.”
“I say we do it,” Sharon said without a moment’s hesitation.
“That’s crazy,” Vince said.
“Who cares about a few trees? We have a lunatic that wants to kill us,” Sharon snapped. She searched her pockets. “Dammit, I didn’t bring my lighter.”
“You don’t smoke,” Heather said, her voice sounding as if she weren’t completely with them in the moment. All this walking was taxing her and it would only get worse.
“No, but other people do. I like to be prepared.”
Jerry showed her the Zippo lighter he had in his jacket pocket. “A Girl Scout stripper. Do you get a badge for bedazzling your G-string?”
“Screw you.”
“Sorry, I don’t have any cash on me.” He flicked open the Zippo and thumbed the striker wheel. The tiny flame danced in the wisps of wind wending through the trees but didn’t go out.
“We’re really gonna do this?” Todd said. He ran through his mental files, trying to picture where the nearest houses were. If they started a wildfire, would any of them be in danger, especially with the local F.D. decapitated in the resort?
“It’s either this or we wander for the next forty years,” Sharon said. “And I don’t feel like the chosen people right about now.” She nodded at Jerry. “Do it.”
“Wait!” Todd said.
Jerry didn’t touch the flame to the nearest tree, but he didn’t shut the lighter. “What?”
“You saw what he did when the first responders came to the fire before. Who’s to say the same thing won’t happen again? You think you can live knowing you got more people killed?”
Sharon waved him off. “As long as I’m alive, I’ll be fine.”
Jerry sighed and snapped the Zippo lid down. “Shit.”
“Are you crazy?” Sharon said, striding toward them as if she were about to rip the lighter from Jerry’s hands. He must have sensed it too, because he quickly pocketed it.
Heather tugged on Sharon’s arm. “No, Todd’s right. It’s wrong to put other people in danger just to save ourselves.” Vince put his arms around his wife in solidarity.
Sharon threw up her hands and stepped away. “Unlike the rest of you, I’m not cool about joining Bill.” She rummaged through her pockets, searching for her own lighter.
“We need to keep moving,” Todd said. He touched the tip of his nose and found he couldn’t feel it at all. The air within the trees was as cold as a meat locker. He thought his eyeballs would freeze. His toes were tingling, which, for now, was a good sign. When he stopped feeling them at all, it would be time to worry. “Come on, Sharon.”
“You don’t know where the fuck you’re even going,” she snapped at him. “Who appointed you leader anyway?”
Vince stepped in. “Todd and I looked this whole place over last week. I admit he was paying a lot more attention than I was. He’s the only one of us who knows the layout.”
“It sure doesn’t seem like it.” She pulled one of her pockets inside out. Loose change hit the ground.
“Sharon, cut it out,” Heather said. “Fighting isn’t going to help.”
“No, but fire is. And since you’re all too chickenshit to save yourselves, I’ll have to do it myself.” She ripped off her coat and threw it on the ground in frustration. She got on her knees and thoroughly checked each pocket. When that was done, she rocketed back up and went through her jeans pockets, shivering so hard, Todd worried her teeth would chip from clacking together. “Where the fuck is it?”
Jerry started walking, dragging Todd with him. “You’re free to keep looking, but you’ll have to do it while you walk,” he said to Sharon.
She emitted a cross between a grunt and a growl, slipping into her coat and picking up the pipe while still searching her pockets with her free hand.
“I’m glad you didn’t just ditch her,” Todd whispered to Jerry.
“I can’t,” he said, hissing between his clenched teeth when they had to step over a fallen tree. “I’m bringing her ass in no matter what.”
They continued in silence except for the crunching of leaves and expelling of labored breath. They definitely should have come to the fence by now. Todd looked behind them and could see absolutely nothing. It was as if the world ceased to exist, the heavy nothing always one step from their heels.
“We are so lost,” Vince said. He had his arms wrapped around Heather because, with her blood loss, she was probably the coldest of them all. It made for cumbersome progress, but Todd and Jerry, who weren’t walking so well themselves, kept the couple in front right where they could keep an eye on them.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Sharon said.
Jerry flipped the Zippo lid open and closed, each click almost as loud as the chattering of their teeth.
Everyone froze at the crash of something coming up fast behind them.
“Jesus, no,” Vince said.
Jerry drew his gun as he and Todd spun around.
“Give me light,” Jerry barked.
They spun their lights into the pitch. Whatever was out there was just beyond the reach of the light, though from the sound of it, they wouldn’t have long to wait.
Chapter Thirty-One
Todd braced for the inevitable. If he was right, Jerry’s shots would send Otto racing in the other direction and buy them some time. The only problem was, he had no idea where to go from here.
The flashlight beams jittered as nervous hands did their best to find the source of the fast-approaching steps. Todd’s shoulders bunched up so tightly, it felt like the veins in his neck were going to burst.
“I can’t see anything,” Sharon said, swinging her light from left to right, catching nothing but tree trunks and dead leaves.
“Over there,” Vince said, pointing with his light.
“No, I think it’s coming from there,” Todd said, swinging his flashlight in the other direction.
Sound was distorted in the tightly packed trees. Todd recalled summer days in the yard reading the paper and drinking his beer, listening to the sound of jet engines overhead. He’d look up, searching for the plane and more times than most, cast his eyes in the wrong direction. The big difference was, not knowing where the plane was coming from couldn’t get him killed.
“Where the fuck is he?” Jerry said. He sounded more angry than worried. Todd was sure he wanted to put a bullet in Otto’s brain as payback for what he’d done to Bill. If Otto had a brain in the traditional sense. His blood was definitely not the same as theirs.
“I see something!” Sharon shouted. Her light wavered on a spot a little to their right. Todd thought he saw something dart between a pair of trees about forty feet away, but couldn’t be sure.
“Shoot him,” Heather pleaded.
“I can’t shoot him if I can’t see him,” Jerry said calmly.
Todd and Vince joined Sharon’s beam. There was definitely something there. The splash of light gave it pause, but only for a moment.
“Here he comes,” Vince said.
Jerry murmured, “That’s right, you ugly bastard. Follow the light. There are people here to kill.”
Their light fell dead center on a shape emerging from the tangle of trees. Jerry pulled the trigger three times. There was a loud, night-splitting cry, followed by a heavy thump.
“Did he get him?” Heather asked, her view blocked by Todd and Jerry.
The deer lay on its side, gasping. There was a bullet hole in its neck, one in its side, and one of its eyes had been obliterated.
“Crap,” Jerry blurted. Todd knew he was more upset about wasting ammo than felling the deer.
The doe made a wailing, gurgling sound that made Todd’s balls shrivel.
“You have to put it out of its misery,” Todd said.
“It’ll die soon enough. I’m not wasting another bullet.”
“I got it,” Sharon said, striding past them. She drove the pipe into its shattered eye socket. Its back legs kicked wildly for a moment, and then it went mercifully still. Todd’s beam lit upon the blood that had splashed on her jeans. Sharon didn’t seem to notice – or care.
“I couldn’t just leave it like that,” she said.
“We know,” Todd said, though he was taken aback by how quickly and easily she’d dispatched the fallen creature.
He was about to ask Heather if she was all right when there was an explosion of leaves behind them. He’d been lying in wait for them all along, concealed underneath a pile of dead leaves.
Otto burst from his hiding place in the forest.
The Nazi lunatic that shouldn’t exist wrapped a massive arm around Heather. When Vince went to pry her away, the burly killer kicked him in the gut, folding him in half. Todd and Sharon tried to capture him in their light, but he was too quick. Heather yowled in pain and startled fear. Her cries ended in a pained ooofff as Otto tightened his arm hold on her, cutting off her air.
Jerry aimed his gun at Otto, but he couldn’t take the shot, not with Heather pulled in front of him like a shield. Heather fought feebly, her limp arms slapping against the killer’s arm.
Otto started to run.
Sharon threw the pipe at him. It got tangled in his feet and he went down, using Heather to cushion the blow. As he turned to them, scrambling to his feet, Todd saw his face in full and immediately wished he hadn’t.
Otto’s flesh was pale as moonlight and hairless as a newborn’s cheeks. His skull was uneven, half of it sunken in. His cheekbones were equally shattered, leaving the placement of his eyes uneven, unnatural, with a nose that was mashed flat. His lips were split in several places and what teeth he had in his awful mouth were cracked and jagged. He wore the black-and-white checkered pants of a chef, but his torso was wrapped in a moth-eaten gray coat. A tattered red-and-white armband with a swastika was on his left bicep.
He hissed at them like a wild animal.
Heather screamed like a woman gone mad. Her eyes rolled into her head and her body shook as if she were having a seizure.
Otto was on his feet, keeping Heather in front of him.
Vince had also regained his footing. “Put her the fuck down!” He balled his fists and lunged for the Nazi.
Todd could have sworn that Otto smiled. Otto grabbed Heather by the chin and pulled. He yanked her head back until her neck snapped. Sharp bones tore through her flesh until the raw and red inner meat of her neck was exposed, steaming in the cold air. Blood shot from the neck wound, dousing Vince with his wife’s precious fluid. He slipped in the blood and fell on his back.
Jerry pulled the trigger. The shot punched through Heather’s lifeless body, making it flinch as it left her meat and flesh and buried into Otto’s stomach.
Otto twisted her head until it came free and threw it at Jerry and Todd. It hit Jerry in the chest and they both went down.
As he was falling, Todd saw Otto sprint away, not letting go of Heather’s body, while Sharon ran after him, cursing him with every step. They disappeared into the darkness, the echo of their flight dying in the wilds of the Hayden.
Todd undid the belt around his and Jerry’s legs so he could get to Vince quickly.
“Heather! Heather!”
Todd had to tackle Vince to keep him from running after Otto.
“Get the fuck off me!” Vince said, squirming to get free.
“I can’t let you go,” Todd said, his throat raw and eyes burning with tears. “She’s gone, Vince. I can’t let you go.”
“You don’t know that!” Vince raged.
“Yes, I do.”
“No!”
Jerry limped to them and helped Todd keep Vince down.
“You killed her,” Vince said, whirling on Todd. “This is all your fault! First you killed Bill, now Heather!”
“Todd didn’t kill anyone and you know that,” Jerry said.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” He almost made it out of their grasp. “Heather!”
Vince’s body shuddered with deep, moaning sobs. Todd was inches away from breaking down himself. He loved Heather to no end. No one had been a more steadying hand for him and Ash than Heather.
And Vince was right. He repaid her love and kindness by luring her to the very same place that had wasted Ash and her friends. It was happening again, all because he wanted that one last bit of Ash, no matter the cost.
Todd said, “Look, Vince—”
“Don’t fucking talk to me! Don’t you dare,” Vince blurted between his pained blubbering.
“I’m sorry.”
“Fuck your sorry.”
There was nothing Todd or Jerry could say or do to ease their friend’s suffering. Todd swept his flashlight over the copious amount of blood on the leaf-littered ground. He wondered how long the trail would last before there was nothing left in her body. And how long would Otto allow himself to be chased by Sharon before he decided to do the same to her?
Once Vince no longer felt like he was going to fight them, Todd and Jerry gave him some space. Every time he tried to get up, he dropped to his knees again, overwhelmed by his grief.
“What do we do now?” Todd asked Jerry. He had some of Heather’s blood on his hands and jacket sleeves.
“I’m not leaving here without my wife,” Vince said.
Todd felt his gorge rocket up his throat when he spied Heather’s head on the ground. Her mouth was closed tightly, but her eyes bulged to the very edge of their sockets. He stepped to the side to hide it from Vince. He didn’t need to see that now…if ever.
“Then we stay,” Todd said.
He expected some pushback from Jerry, but his friend nodded instead. “We’re not going anywhere without her, buddy,” he said to Vince.
Todd tugged Jerry’s jacket and motioned toward Heather’s head. “Do we take it with us?” he said, soft enough so as not to be heard above Vince’s sobs.
“With what? It’s too cold to take our jackets off and wrap it up.”
A quick glance at Heather’s face had Todd tasting hot bile as it splashed onto his tongue. He covered his mouth with his cold fist.
“We can’t just leave her here,” Todd said, careful to say her and not it. “If Vince isn’t leaving until he has her body, he sure as hell isn’t going anywhere without…without all of her.”
“No, I won’t,” Vince said, surprising them by being back on his feet. He sniffed back a wave of tears and took off his coat.
“Vince, you’ll freeze to death,” Jerry said.
Vince slid a look their way that stopped them from moving or speaking. He unbuttoned his flannel shirt, let that fall to the ground, and pulled a gray thermal shirt over his head. Wearing just an undershirt, he knelt beside his wife’s head and averted his eyes, hands fumbling until he was able to roll it into his shirt. He tied the sleeves, carried it to where he’d left his shirt and coat and put them back on. Without saying a word, he turned away from them and started walking in the direction Otto and Sharon had left.
