When she’d told him the killer was inside the lodge with them, every hair on the end of his back stood on end. Beth predicted that the Hunter would be waiting for them to run out of the front door toward freedom. Instead, she’d convinced him to exit the back and take another path.
“You’re sure this way leads to the dock?” When they first drove into Drifter’s Folly, Zack and the others had made for the campground right away. They hadn’t bothered taking any of the other trails.
Beth nodded. “There’s an old radio tower near the heart of the lake. We can radio for help. Ron and I almost rented a boat when we arrived. We drove down this road a few days ago.” She sighed. “It feels like ages ago now.”
Zack didn’t like the weary look in her eyes. “Everything is going to be okay,” he said reassuringly. “We just have to keep going a little longer.”
The winding gravel road grew steeper in its descent. Zack felt a light mist around him, which was at least better than the rain.
“Would you have killed him?” Beth asked. “Your friend?”
Zack didn’t reply for a few minutes. The sound of his shoes overturning gravel rocks was the only thing breaking the silence.
“No,” he said. “Although in the end, he didn’t turn out to be much of a friend.” Zack wondered briefly if that was the killer’s true goal: to reduce them all to animals willing to do anything to survive.
“You did the right thing.”
Zack looked at Beth for a moment. He didn’t have to say anything. He just nodded and kept on walking.
“Is that the dock down there?” Zack pointed at a shadowy structure looming about a mile downhill. His legs burned with lactic acid buildup.
“I think so,” Beth said. “It’s hard to see in this fog.”
Zack stopped dead in his tracks.
“Zack? What’s wrong?”
A sound echoed in the distance, growing louder with each second. Zack paused and listened closer.
It was the sound of a diesel engine. He cast a glance over his shoulder. A truck was speeding toward them, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake.
“Beth, run!”
The two raced down the hill. They weren’t fast enough to match the speed of the truck, which gained on them with each second.
It’s too far, Zack thought. There’s no way we’ll reach the dock in time.
“Go!” he shouted to Beth, pushing her in the direction of the trees just off the road. Standing his ground, he raised the shotgun into the air and pulled the trigger. The shell landed in the gravel next to the truck and missed by inches. The driver of the truck fired a gun in his direction several times in quick succession.
Zack turned and ran toward the trees. He could see Beth outpacing him near the edge of the forest. The driver floored the gas and wheeled his car off road. Caught in the headlights, Beth slipped over a rock and fell. The truck sped toward her with reckless abandon. The driver was going to run her down.
Zack pulled the trigger on the shotgun again. This time the shell shattered the truck’s windshield. The driver kept going. The next shot missed. He was almost on top of Beth. Zack pulled the trigger one last time. The shell collided with the front left tire, and the driver lost control of the truck. It slid down the gravel road and into the fog. Zack heard a loud crashing sound seconds later.
“Beth!” Zack shouted. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, and he helped her to her feet.
Zack took her by the hand, holding the shotgun in the other. He didn’t know how many shells remained in the weapon. There couldn’t be many. They made their way down the hill amid the thick fog. He kept the gun outstretched, just in case. As they returned to the road, the sound of the whining engine grew louder.
The overturned truck had slammed into a tree. One of the headlights was broken; the other shone weakly into the lake, the beam vanishing into the black waters below.
“Be careful,” Zack whispered as they neared the truck. Visible through the cracked window, the driver’s seat was empty. The truck had been abandoned.
There was a small computer-like device in the front seat. Zack brushed it with the barrel of the shotgun.
“Hand me the lighter,” he muttered.
Satellite Tracking Device, read the silver lettering.
Is that how he’s been tracking us? A GPS device would make sense, but that didn’t explain how the killer could track them all unless each camper was marked somehow or had a corresponding device.
The wind howled above the trees, and Zack looked up quickly. He handed the lighter back to Beth.
He’s out there somewhere, Zack realized. It was just the three of them now, and the Hunter knew it.
“Stay behind me,” he said to Beth. “We need to move quickly.” He led her back into the woods.
“What are you doing?” she whispered. “We have to get to the lake.”
“I know,” Zack replied. “We can’t take the road. We’re too exposed. He could pick us off from the trees.”
Moving toward the dock this way would be slower than on the road, but it was also safer. He held out his hand to Beth and helped her cross a log. Damp leaves attached themselves to his shoes. They were getting closer.
“Zack,” Beth whispered. Her voice was filled with fear. “There’s a man standing below us.”
Zack froze. He followed Beth’s gaze. A dark figure stood in the shadows of a tree below them. The man looked from side to side, as if waiting for them. Zack pulled Beth to the ground.
“Stay here,” he whispered, advancing with the shotgun along the brush. He moved carefully and hoped the figure couldn’t hear him.
The shadowy form turned around and looked back at the hill above. Zack could have sworn the figure looked right at him, but the man gave no sign at having seen him. Slowly, Zack raised the shotgun. There was no guarantee he would hit his target from that distance, but he couldn’t risk getting any closer. As he eased his finger around the trigger, the moon glimmered off the weapon’s barrel, and the figure saw him.
Under the moonlight, Zack recognized the man’s uniform.
“Don’t shoot!” the man shouted. “It’s me!”
Zack recognized the voice.
“It’s Fields,” Beth whispered to him. The pair took off down the hill. The park ranger’s clothes were torn and covered with dirt. “You made it,” Beth said to Fields.
The ranger nodded. “I exchanged fire with someone in the woods, but he stopped shooting and I lost his trail. I’m glad you two are safe,” he added. The park ranger looked at Zack and raised an eyebrow. “What happened to your friend?”
“He didn’t make it,” Zack replied flatly.
The wind picked up, which sent more leaves spilling down from the trees. In the darkness, they were all the same color.
The park ranger tensed. “We’re not alone,” Fields whispered. “There’s someone in the forest with us.”
“I know,” Zack said. “We’re on our way to the dock. If we can reach the radio tower, we should be able to call for help.”
“It’s too bad you don’t have that radio I gave you,” Fields said. “We’re close enough you could probably reach someone that way.”
“The lake is our only option left,” Beth whispered. Her gaze was trained on the water below, less than a quarter-mile away.
“Then let’s go,” Fields said.
Zack was about to nod when he spotted the object exposed under the park ranger’s collar. A layer of dark metal glowed softly in the moonlight. It was a necklace.
Zack remembered where he’d seen the necklace before, and every hair on his body stood on end. He could feel his heart echo within his chest. The truth hit him like a brick. It was Fields. It had been him all along. The park ranger was the one
who told them about the Hunter in the first place.
The radios, he realized. That’s how he was following us. Fields had handed them out to everyone during the day before. Each of the two-way radios had held a GPS unit inside, allowing the killer to track his prey wherever they fled to. It was why the other killer couldn’t find Zack in the cave after Zack dropped his radio and left it behind when he hid. There were two killers from the start.
Fields followed Zack’s gaze to the necklace. His eyes flickered up and met Zack’s. A brief look of recognition flashed between the two men. Before Zack could move, the park ranger knocked him to the ground and grabbed Beth. Zack trained the shotgun on him, but Fields was holding a handgun firmly against Beth’s head.
Chapter Twenty
6:09 am
“It was you,” Zack whispered, somehow finding his feet. “It was you the whole time.”
Fields’ face had morphed into a monstrous visage. Even in the darkness, Zack could see evil in the man’s eyes. Moonlight glinted off the killer’s teeth as his lips curled up in a thin smile. Beth was trembling.
“Clever of you,” Fields whispered. He took a step toward Zack, who held his ground.
“Don’t come any closer!” he shouted.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” Fields laughed. “I don’t think so.”
Zack kept his hands steady. “Who are you?”
The killer’s black eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Not Austin Fields, at any rate. I killed him days ago and hid his body in a cave.”
Zack suddenly realized the significance of the corpse he’d found in the cave, and the uniform it was wearing. ‘Fields’ had murdered the real park ranger and assumed his identity to explore the park without raising suspicion. Then he’d given all the campers two-way radios with GPS units installed so he could track them.
“Why are you doing this?”
Beth was crying now. The Hunter gripped her hair tightly with his free hand and jerked her head back to get her to stop struggling.
“You couldn’t possibly understand.”
“You weren’t the man who followed me into the cave.”
“That was Rodney Crowe,” the killer muttered. “Don’t worry, I finished your dirty work for you. He’s dead now, something he has in common with all your friends. It was a game between us, to see who could kill the most people. A game you ruined.” Contempt etched its way across the man’s face.
“You’re insane,” Zack said.
“Perhaps,” the killer answered. He took another step toward Zack. “What are you going to do about it?” He laughed. “You’re weak. Just like your friends. If you really wanted to stop me, you’d put a bullet in me right now and walk away. But you won’t do that, will you?” He jerked Beth’s hair again. She screamed, and the Hunter grinned.
Zack saw the imposter Fields inching forward second by second, and he knew the killer was about to try something. His hands were shaking. If he pulled the trigger, he might hit Fields—but he might also hit Beth. He wouldn’t get a second shot. The wind howled, hissing like hundreds of whispers. His pulse raced.
Suddenly, Beth tore free of Fields’ grip long enough to sink her teeth into his forearm. The killer relinquished his grasp, and Beth threw herself forward.
Zack only had a split second to react. In that moment, he felt an invisible hand over his, steadying the shotgun. He squeezed the trigger. Fields reacted too slowly. The impact of the shell tearing into his chest drove him back against a tree. As Beth rushed to Zack’s side, Zack pulled the trigger again. The gun didn’t fire.
“It’s empty,” he muttered. He took Beth by the hand. “We have to go. Now.” The two ran back toward the gravel road, out of the forest and into the fog.
***
The imposter Fields’ body hung motionless against the tree for several moments longer. Suddenly, one of the killer’s fingers twitched. Fields’ eyes snapped open. He fell to his knees and let out a growl, ripping his button-up shirt and exposing the bulletproof vest underneath. The killer snarled. The shotgun’s powerful kick had probably bruised—if not broken—at least one of his ribs.
He could still hear the couple running for the water. Fields rose from the ground and retrieved his gun. He would kill them for this. The necklace spilled out of his shirt, glowing faintly in the night. The Hunter didn’t bother tucking it in. He would let them see. The skull would be the last thing they saw before he put the bullets in them.
The whispers echoed louder than ever. They were everywhere, behind every tree and in the wind itself. He put his hands to his head, fighting to get the voices to be quiet. This time it was harder to get them to obey. The blood he’d spilled had only given them an appetite for more. They were hungry, and so was he.
***
It remained too dark to tell if night was nearing its end, but Zack could feel it in his soul. A reckoning was coming. One way or the other, this was about to end.
The dock loomed just a few yards away. He could hardly see the dock in the thick fog, rising from the lake like a corpse from its slumber. Zack caught a brief glimpse of Beth out of the corner of his eye. She looked even more tired than he felt. They were both running on fumes.
“Just a little farther,” he said softly. It seemed like he’d been saying that all night.
The mist clung to them, transiently caressing the two campers with ethereal tendrils. Zack’s foot stepped off the gravel and landed on a hard surface. Beth took out the lighter and handed it to him. The ‘dock’ was a long splintered pier jutting out into the lake’s black waters. A narrow roof mounted on rusted metal posts cloaked the first half of the pier in shadow. He took a few steps forward and almost tripped over a pile of faded rooftop tiles.
In the full light of the moon, Zack could see the dock for what it actually was: a graveyard. Planks of wood were missing or rotten. Several areas were closed off with ropes, presumably where boats could no longer dock. Most of the spaces for boats were empty. The boats that remained looked like they’d been left abandoned for years.
After spotting a boat that looked seaworthy, he ran over to it and tried to get it working.
“No keys,” he muttered.
As he searched for keys, Beth began checking other boats. Zack’s heart tightened in his chest. There weren’t that many boats docked at the pier, period. He didn’t want to dwell on what would happen if they ran out of likely candidates. Fields knew they were heading to the dock. With Fields in one direction and their backs against the lake, they were trapped. Hopefully, his gunshot had bought them enough time to find an alternate solution.
“Find anything yet?” he called. He tried to keep the panic from his voice. Beth didn’t reply for a moment.
“Zack, I think we’re in trouble.”
He followed her gaze to an empty patch of fog on the hill leading to the dock, where a shadow moved through the mist along the gravel road. Zack’s eyes grew wide. He ran farther down the pier, scanning the husks at either side for a usable vessel. Fields had almost reached the dock.
Zack was nearing the end of the pier when he spotted a small boat covered by a green tarp. He jumped next to the boat and pulled the tarp back. It was a small fishing boat with a crank-motor. The boat was covered in nets, coolers, and containers of gasoline.
“Beth!” he shouted. She rushed over to his side. “We have to try to start this thing.” He jumped into the boat and yanked on the cord. Nothing happened.
Fields had reached the dock. Zack saw a gun in his hand.
He pulled the cord again with as much force as he could muster. This time, the engine made a sound.
“It’s working!” Beth said. “Don’t stop!” She was trying desperately to untie the boat from the dock.
Fields was advancing toward them, handgun raised. He pulled the trigger. The first bullet missed.<
br />
The engine roared to life, but Beth still hadn’t freed the boat from the dock. Her hands slipped, and the killer drew nearer, seconds away from being within range. At the last moment, the knot came untied.
“Jump!” Zack hollered to Beth. When she started to jump into the boat, her injured leg fell through a rotten plank.
“Beth!” Zack shouted. He bounded off the boat and pulled her free. Fields was close enough that Zack could see his eyes shining in the moonlight. Without looking back, he helped Beth into the boat and jumped in after her.
The boat slowly sailed into the water. The vessel gained speed with each second, but it felt too slow to Zack. The imposter Fields was sprinting now, firing repeatedly. The gunshots echoed through the night sky as bullets sailed into the water, vanishing into the eerie depths of the lake.
Before they slipped under the cover of fog, Zack saw Fields watching them from the dock, a strange calm on his face. The Hunter let his empty handgun fall to the ground while he continued staring at them until they were out of sight.
They sailed in silence for several minutes. Zack tried to follow the pathway he thought would take them to the heart of the lake, but he had no idea if they were traveling in the right direction.
“What if he finds another boat?” Beth said after several minutes. She sat close to him; there wasn’t much space on the small vessel that wasn’t covered in nets and rope or junk.
“We have to focus on getting to the radio tower,” Zack answered.
It wasn’t long before a shimmering green light appeared through the fog. The light shone intermittently, blinking on and off every few seconds. As Zack guided the boat toward the light, a large tower emerged across the face of the dark, perched atop a small island randomly placed in the lake.
“That’s it,” Beth said. “That’s the tower.”
The structure took her breath away. They were almost there. The fog thinned the closer they got to the island. Zack spotted a dock near the shore and steered the boat in its direction. He tied the rope to the dock and helped Beth onto the shore. Together, they took the path leading to the tower. Situated on a rocky ledge, the tower looked down at Dire Lake like a silent guardian. The metal was twisted and covered with rust, yet another remnant of a forgotten time in the history of Drifter’s Folly. The tower was covered in large windows shielding the dark contents within.
A Sound In The Dark Page 19