‘Better?’ Ashley asked. Kim just nodded in response, spitting saliva to the floor. ‘Okay,’ Ashley went on, ‘then we need to move again.’
Kim groaned in protest, but got to her feet. Ashley could see her friend’s complexion had paled considerably, and she was drenched with sweat. Ashley considered the idea of shedding layers in order to keep their body temperature down as they ran, but knew they would need their coats and packs if they got clear of the woods. It was still a hell of a hike back through the wilderness, out in the open, where the temperature would drop even further. Chances were, these things would follow them for as long as they could, for as far as they could, but that was something they would just have to deal with. Maybe they would have a better chance of survival out in the open.
Just as they were about to set off again, Ashley realised that the faceless man’s howling had ceased.
‘He’s gone quiet,’ she said.
‘Why?’ Kim asked, still panting.
‘I don’t know. Either he’s just given up, or...’
‘Or he’s alerted whoever he needed to.’
That meant the two Webb’s that were chasing them had made up a hell of a lot of ground. If they were that quick in closing the gap, what chance did the two of them have to make it out?
Not much.
Ashley clenched her jaw. Some hope, no matter how small, was better than none. And until she had breathed her last, she resolved that she wouldn’t give up, that she would keep on trying.
Kim was right, they needed to fight. No matter what.
She grabbed her friend, pulled her forward again, and broke into a run, but Kim quickly fell behind.
‘This is killing me,’ she said.
‘No,’ Ashley replied, ‘this isn’t killing you. But if we stop, then the people chasing us will.’
‘Okay,’ Kim said, ‘I get it. I’m fine. Let’s keep going.’
Despite her words to the contrary, Ashley didn’t know how much more Kim had left.
Chapter 22
Ted and Claudia had followed the trail from the shadows, amongst the trees, right up to the first clearing from the house. In past hunts their prey often stopped there, the thinking being that the small, open area would give them a better chance of seeing their pursuers coming. That might have been the case, but it never made a difference. More often than not, it ended up being the place of their final stand.
So, Ted was a little surprised to find the two girls hadn’t stopped here. Surprised, and, if he was honest, relieved. He didn’t want the chase to be over just yet.
He was having far too much fun.
However, though the girls weren’t here, he and his sister did find someone else. The voice that called to them was unclear and incoherent, but it was Claudia who had recognised it first.
‘That’s David,’ she’d said.
Upon reaching the clearing, Ted found that she was right.
Their older brother was sitting in the clearing, on the dirt floor, screaming up at the moon like a baying wolf. Ted could see that he was still missing his face, though things had slowly started to reform. However, the gory hole in the back of his head would take some healing.
He looked pathetic.
Ted couldn’t help but snort a laugh.
‘David?’ Claudia asked as they approached. The blind man turned, his head following the sound. ‘Everyone’s been looking for you.’
‘And what the hell happened to your face? Did Henry do that to you? You must’ve really pissed him off.’
David got to his feet, grunting angrily, but unable to talk.
‘It looks like it hurts like a mother fucker,’ Ted said with a chuckle. ‘What the hell did you do to piss him off so much?’
‘Think his jaw is out of its socket,’ Claudia said. ‘That’ll take a bit to heal up,’
‘So will the hole in his head. And his face,’ Ted replied. ‘Still, he never was a looker. This might be an improvement.’
David clenched his fists and started to stomp over to them.
‘Oh,’ Ted said, ‘I think he’s angry.’
‘I think he just might be,’ his sister agreed. ‘Come on, David, what are you really gonna do to us like that?’
David drew closer and began swinging his fists in wide arcs, though they weren’t close to hitting either of them. Claudia quickly sidestepped one of his swings and, in one fluid motion, pulled out her gleaming knife and plunged it into David’s gut. He moaned in pain and sunk to a knee. Claudia then, shrieking with laughter, pulled the blade upwards as hard she could, opening him up.
David’s intestines bubbled out from his stomach and, despite trying to catch them and push them back, slipped through his hands like wet, red spaghetti. His insides spilled to the dirt floor, and David slumped forward on top of them, his impact giving off a loud squelch.
Ted doubled over in laughter. ‘Man, I almost feel sorry for you. You’ve had one shitty day, brother. If you don’t get your shit together, you might not even make the feast tonight.’
David just moaned from his position, face down, on the ground.
‘Ah, that’d be a shame,’ Claudia said, kicking him in the head. Ted saw something grey dislodge and roll from the opening. ‘Guess we’ll have to take his share.’
‘Not a bad plan, sis,’ Ted said. ‘Speaking of which, I think we should stop fucking about here and go get us our dinner. What do ya’ say?’
Claudia smiled and licked the smear of blood from her knife. ‘I think that’s a fine idea, brother. But you gotta try and keep up.’
They both set off at full sprint, leaving their other brother behind.
Chapter 23
Kim felt like she was dying.
The exhaustion her body was enduring was at an intensity she’d never experienced. She had never run this fast, for this long, in her life, and her lungs felt like they would give up the ghost at any minute.
Her lack of physical fitness had already slowed their progress twice, forcing them to stop so she could recover. After all her talk of fighting through what lay ahead and not giving up, it looked like she was going to be undone by nothing more than physical exertion.
Yet Ashley ploughed on, unwavering, like a machine.
So, Kim forced herself to keep going, to dig deeper. She couldn’t be the reason they were caught.
She had been given a great incentive when they’d both heard a horrible belly laugh in the distance. Their pursuers weren’t far behind.
That spurred her on a little, and the extra adrenaline helped her fight through the pain, despite every deep, wheezing breath feeling like she was drawing fire into her lungs.
The trail then started up a gentle incline, causing her legs and muscles to strain in protest. Then, to top it off, she felt a sudden, severe pain erupt in her calf, almost like she had been stabbed.
‘Ow,’ she said, reducing her run to a hop. Then she realised what it was; she hadn’t been stabbed, it was simply a cramp. She could feel her calf knotting up, causing the sharp sting to trickle out through her muscle.
‘What happened?’ Ashley asked as she stopped and turned around. Kim set off again, trying to ignore the pain. It was more of a shuffle and a hop than a run.
‘Just a cramp,’ she said, ‘keep going.’
And they did, but it took Kim a while to get into full flow again and, even when the worst of the cramp finally abated, her leg still felt sore as hell. Every footfall was painful.
‘Keep going,’ Ashley called back to her, encouraging her on.
She was about to answer and assure her friend she had no intention of stopping, when something to her left caught her eye.
Some kind of movement, from deep within the trees. Instinctively, she flashed her torch over in that direction, hoping to see what it was. It seemed the movement also caught Ashley’s attention as well, and she, too, pointed her beam in the same direction.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘I thought I saw something,’ Kim replie
d.
Then their beams picked up what it was, illuminating it fully, and Kim’s blood ran cold.
It was the thin man, the one who had been chasing them.
The one known as Ted.
He moved through the trees with such speed and fluidity it was scary. And the fact he could do so without looking ahead, only looking directly at them like a wolf eyeing its prey, unnerved her even more. His giddy, deranged smile was almost enough to tip her over the edge.
Realising he had been seen, the man’s response was to simply laugh.
‘Run,’ Kim screamed, and Ashley sped up.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck,’ Ashley said again and again, panic in her voice.
‘Found em, sis,’ the man shouted. ‘Time to take em down.’
He laughed again, a high-pitched cackle.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Kim couldn’t see the girl he was talking to, despite flicking her torch around. She would have expected his sister to be close to him, but could see nothing.
Too late, Kim realised where she was.
‘On it,’ she heard a female voice say from the other side of the trail. A blur of movement sprung from those trees ahead and crashed into Ashley.
Kim heard her friend yell in shock. Ashley was lifted from her feet and thrown to the ground by the girl, who fell on top of her, cackling like an excited witch.
In that instant, Kim knew she had a choice to make. An idea popped into her head, one she wasn’t proud of.
While Ashley struggled with the wild woman, who began punching and striking, Kim saw an opportunity. If she were to keep going, then maybe both of the pursuers would focus on Ashley, giving her chance to escape. It was a shameful thought, and worse, one that was realised as Kim continued on past her friend.
‘Kim,’ Ashley yelled. After a few strides, Kim stopped and turned back.
What the hell am I doing?
The wild woman had pinned Ashley’s arms to her sides, and Ashley looked over to Kim with unbelieving, pleading eyes, astounded that her friend was about to abandon her.
‘I’m sorry,’ Kim said, still not certain of what she would do. Was this an apology for a past action, or for one yet to come?
As it turned out, she didn’t get the chance to decide. The man leapt from the trees, shoulder first, and knocked Kim painfully to the floor. She cried out as the torch slipped from her grasp and rolled away. She felt the man’s heavy weight drop onto her and could smell his putrid, sour stench.
‘Made that easy for us,’ he said as he overpowered her. ‘One day, one of you people will give us a good hunt.’
Kim writhed and fought, trying to pull her arms free to lash out, but it was no good, she was completely outmatched. The man held something up, just below her chin, and Kim felt a hard, cold point press into her skin.
She knew what it was.
The blade then moved lower and angled itself to lie across her throat. The man raised his eyebrows in expectation. Kim understood the order and fully believed he would carry out his implied threat and slice open her throat, so she stopped her struggling.
Keeping the long knife in place, the man unraveled something from around his waist with his free hand. He held up a length of rope.
‘Fucking bitch,’ Kim heard. The voice was that of the woman wrestling with Ashley, who still hadn’t given up. Looking over, Kim saw the girl was holding her nose, which was dripping with blood. Some of it had smeared on Ashley’s forehead.
Had Ashley head-butted her?
‘Having trouble, sis?’ the man called over, his tone more amused than concerned.
‘I got it,’ the girl snapped angrily. She then began punching Ashley, again and again, and clawing at her face. ‘You keep still or I’ll claw your fucking eyes out!’
But Ashley didn’t listen.
The man sighed and pressed the blade harder against Kim’s throat, drawing her attention back to him. ‘You,’ he said, ‘be good. And roll over.’
He moved off her and turned Kim over himself, not giving her a chance to disobey. She then felt him go to work, wrapping her hands tightly together as her face was pressed into the ground. Once her hands were secured, the length of rope was pulled down, and her legs pulled up. Soon, she was completely hog-tied. Then the man got to his feet and walked over to help his sister, who was still struggling with Ashley.
Ashley’s face was heavily bloodied, but that didn’t seem to slow her. Hell, given the way she was fighting, Kim thought she might just have a chance at escape, if it weren’t for the man walking over to aid his sister, doubling the odds against Ashley.
Together, the siblings were able to completely overpower her, roll her over, and tie her up the same as Kim. When they were done, the young woman let loose with a fierce kick to Ashley’s ribs.
‘Some fight in this one,’ the man said, looking down at Ashley. ‘Gotta say, that’s a surprise. I heard them call her the mouse and thought she would be the easiest to break.’
The woman held her nose, which was still dribbling blood. ‘She will fucking break. I’m gonna see to that. Bitch fucked my nose.’
She kicked Ashley again, who let out a groan.
As the woman lashed out at her, Ashley never once looked up to her captors, she just stared angrily back at Kim. Despite being terrified for her life, Kim couldn’t help but feel absolutely ashamed with herself.
Would she really have left her friend, given the chance? They’d both abandoned Craig quickly enough. Would she have done the same thing again, had she not been stopped?
It was a question she didn’t know the answer to.
The man approached her again. ‘Right, little girl, time to get going. We have somewhere to be. You and your friend are the guests of honour.’
He reached down and heaved her up, first pulling her to sitting position, then lifting her up onto his shoulder. Kim heard him strain a little, but his hold seemed strong. She found herself looking down the length of his back, where she could see his knobbly spine poke through the thin, dirty cotton of his tank top. She could also see that, under the top, his skin was littered with small, weeping sores. It was a disgusting sight, but rather that than having to face Ashley’s accusing eyes.
‘Can you carry that one, sis?’ the man asked. ‘Or do you wanna take mine? She’s a bit smaller?’
‘I got her,’ the woman called back angrily. Kim heard her strain and heave. ‘See,’ the girl said, her voice shaking with exertion.
‘Don’t look like you got her,’ the man said. ‘Here, let’s swap.’
‘I said I got it,’ the girl snapped. ‘Now come on, let’s go.’
‘If you say so,’ the man said, and they began walking.
Kim knew they were on their way back to the house, back to that horrible family, and she knew they would end up like all those other people who hung from the ceiling of the basement: desecrated, feasted upon, and quite dead. The thought of her body hanging there, in that room, as her final resting place, was terrifying. She would be forever trapped in that place of evil, and her family would never know what had become of her.
Though maybe that was a good thing.
Regardless, Kim began to weep.
The man carrying her heard her sobs and began to chuckle. ‘There, there,’ he whispered. ‘I know it’s scary. But try to look on the bright side. You get to see your friend again, back at the house. You know, the one you left behind. The family will have him ready by now and he’ll be waiting for you. I’m sure he’s eager to see you both again. Isn’t that nice?’
‘Let me go,’ Kim whispered.
‘And when we’re back,’ he went on, ignoring her, ‘and you see your friend again, and you’re all reunited as one happy family, you two girls get to watch. You get to watch as we eat him. As we cut him up while he’s still alive and squirming. Fair warning though, the family all have big appetites, so it tends to get a little... messy.’
‘Please,’ Kim pleaded, but still he ignored her.
‘And
then,’ he said, ‘then it’ll be your turn. We’ll strap you down and decide which piece of you we want to cut off first. It’ll hurt, and you’ll be helpless to do anything, only watch as we start to eat you alive. Oh, and I think Henry has a bit a soft spot for you as well, so he might want first go. You have nice eyes, you see, and that’s Henry’s thing. He finds eyes delicious. I’m not much of a fan, myself, they’re surprisingly hard, and the juice from them when they pop doesn’t have much flavour. So, I’ll let my little brother have them. I’m more of a leg man, myself.’
It was all too much. His cruel description of the events to come finally pushed Kim over the edge.
She began to scream hysterically.
The man just laughed, clearly pleased with himself.
Chapter 24
Craig’s shoulder still ran with blood and felt like it was on fire. He kept looking at the open wound, at the chunk of flesh that had been taken from him.
A small taste of what was to come.
He could see the exposed shoulder bone poking through the wet meat, and the pain of the wound, coupled with that of his back and ribs, was unbearable. There was no way to find even a moment’s respite from its constant torment.
He heard footsteps return. Not just the heavy stomps of Henry, but others too. And voices as well, murmurs, that increased in volume the closer they got, until the family revealed themselves to him once again.
The man with the beard was first, followed by the woman Craig presumed was his wife, then Tim, who had changed from his hiking gear into dirtied jeans and a loose shirt, and finally Henry. The large freak pushed his bulbous frame through the door opening.
Tim waved at Craig. ‘How you doing?’
‘Tim,’ Craig begged, ‘please help.’
Tim just laughed, then ignored him and turned back to the others. ‘You know,’ he said to them, ‘Ted and Claudia won’t be happy with us starting without them. Neither will David.’
The Extreme Horror Collection Page 11