Rampike

by European P. Douglas

  “I guess you never really know what’s going in other people’s lives, even in a town as small as Mercy,” Susan smiled.

  Sally pulled her coat on and took a swig from a brandy bottle for warmth and then headed down the corridor to the narrow steep stairs that lay behind one door at the end. To look from either end of this corridor, you would never know this door was any different to the others that led into either bedrooms or a bathroom.

  A draft rushed out at her as she opened the door and she saw snow fall in through the cracks in the boards of the trapdoor at the top of the stars. The brush was on the first step and she grabbed hold of it as she passed on the way up. It clattered noisily on the hollow steps as Sally dragged it behind her.

  At the top, the door was at a forty-five degree angle and she stopped a few steps before it. Bringing the brush past her body she held it by the head and banged four heavy blows on the door from the inside to loosen the snow that would be sitting on it by now. She heard the fall of some snow and then the sliding noise as more fell away moments later. She unhitched the bolt and leaned her shoulder against the cold wood and pushed using the brush against the steps now for extra support.

  The door opened up to a black night sky and her misty breath filled her view for a moment as she stepped through the doorway. She saw at once that the white tree line had come down the mountain by a significant distance and it wouldn’t be long before it was reaching the outskirts of town.

  Just as she was about to start sweeping to clear a space for Joe up here, she heard something in the trees about fifty yards from her. She looked for the source of the sound but couldn't see anything. The noise kept on and she wished now she’d brought her gun up here. Stepping closer to the edge of the roof, she peered into the darkness and listened more carefully.

  “Who’s there?” she called out. “That you, Maul?” The noise stopped, and then she saw something moving in the trees.

  “It’s only me!” Joe called back stepping into a small clearing and waving. “I’ll be back inside in another ten minutes!”

  “Alright,” Sally waved back. “You just be careful.”

  “Don’t worry about me. You just be sure you three are ready to leave when I get back. This thing is getting closer to town by the minute.”

  “I see, that,” Sally said and then realizing she was distracting him said, “Go on, get your job done and get back here to us.” She waved him away as she said this and he made a gesture that he understood and he disappeared once more.

  Sally returned to her own task and swept a mound of snow near the edge and watched with childish delight as it fell and pounded ten feet below. She turned to do more and glanced once again to where Joe had just been and froze in horror. There standing the same clearing as before was that wooden deformed creature that had once been Maul Thorndean!

  Chapter 32

  Joe walked back past the gas can he’d placed against a tree glancing at it and imagining the explosion it would make and trying to estimate how many trees would be in its radius. Along with those he had already placed and what he was planning to throw and spray from the roof of the tavern, he was thinking it was going to be a sizable blaze and one that was very likely to spread quickly through the rest of the dry wood. He smiled at the thought of it; this could work.

  “Joe!” a shrill scream shattered his thoughts, and he stopped cold and looked back, though he couldn't see it anymore, to the tavern. It had been Sally’s voice, not as he’d ever heard it, but he knew it was her. “Maul is right beside you, run!” came the fearful tear-filled voice. Joe spun to look where he’d come from but saw nothing moving. Then a sound like a huge animal thrashing through the underbrush came from the darkness and Joe didn’t wait to see whether or not or not Sally had been right. He fled as fast as he could towards his parked Jeep, a hundred yards away from his starting point.

  As he ran, he did his best to unholster his gun, but something that was so simple and second nature to him was now causing him all sorts of trouble as he bounced and tripped and jumped through the hard terrain to escape.

  “Run!” a deep growling voice came from behind him and seemed so close that Joe actually jumped in startled fear as he heard it. Fortunately, in this leap of sorts, his holster came undone, and he pulled the gun easily from it. Checking the ground in front him for a split second he then looked back over his shoulder and saw branches and bushes getting pushed and pulled as Maul came through after him. It was too hard in that brief glimpse to see what part of the moving was actually the body of Maul but Joe fired away, three shots in a small arc that he knew at least one of them would land home in the creature.

  A roar of angered pain rang out behind him and Joe knew he’d hit it somewhere. The noise from behind didn’t seem to be slowing, however, and Joe decided not to waste any more of his precious lead in distance on trying again.

  “Run!” the deep growl came again. He couldn’t be sure but Joe felt that perhaps the voice sounded farther away now, and this gave him one last surge of hope that pressed down into his legs and he sprinted the last few feet to the jeep. He’d left the key in the ignition and he glad of it as he set the car in motion and sped down the hill to Mercy.

  Pulling up outside the tavern, he jumped out and looked up the road behind him. There was no sign of either Maul or those fearsome tendrils anywhere.

  “Are you alright?” Sally’s concerned voice came from above him. Joe looked up and smiled with relief.

  “I’m fine, thanks for the warning, though.”

  “Did you get what you needed to do done?” she asked.

  “Not all of it, but I think there’s enough to do what I need. I’ll be able to throw the bottles farther down the hill than up it too, so that’s a plus.”

  “About the only plus in all of this,” Sally smiled.

  “What are you doing on the roof, anyway?” Joe asked.

  “Cleaning it up a little so you won’t be slipping all over the place when you come up here.”

  “Well, thanks for that, but I think it’s time you lot got going.”

  Sally’s face broke at this and she couldn’t meet his eye any more. She nodded and said,

  “I’ll come down now.” Her voice monotone with sadness.

  Joe took a deep breath, gathered more of the gas cans from the jeep and carried them inside. The three of them were in the main room of the tavern all looking at him when he came in. It was a moment that once more very seriously tested the resolve of Joe Moorefield and he knew he had to get them out of here as quickly as possible — while also keeping himself busy until they were gone — if he was going to get through this without crying.

  “Sam, I need you to help me get the rest of the gas on the roof while Sally gets Susan into the car and gathers some blankets and food for your way down,” he said and as abruptly as he had started talking he pushed through the door into the corridor that led to the stairs to the roof. He’d just made it into the corridor when a tear escaped and rolled down his cheek. He was glad none of them had seen this and as soon as he was on the roof, he put down the cans and wiped his face to obliterate any trace.

  Looking out over the forest, he saw that the white was encroaching on the town from above but below it was still a bit off. It was oddly beautiful and Joe was sure he would have felt it so had he not seen what this white death had been all about. Footsteps on the stairs drew his attention and Sam came out onto the roof with a large heavy box of bottles.

  “Where do you want there?” he asked.

  “Just here in the middle,” Joe said, thinking a little more on the task he would soon carry out. He would use all sides of the building so piling everything in the centre was probably the best idea. Sam put the box down and straightened up.

  “You sure you won’t come with us?” he said. Joe shook his head slowly.

  “I can’t explain it, Sam,” he said, “but I feel that if I’m not here to do this, things could get a whole hell of a lot worse.”

  �
�I don’t feel right leaving you here.”

  “I don’t feel right leaving you to try to get those women off this mountain, but this is what we got to do. The alternative is that we all die in this building tonight and this thing, whatever it is, just goes on existing and killing anyone who sets foot on the mountain afterwards.”

  “Why did you come to Mercy, anyway?” Sam asked after a brief pause.

  “I came here to get away from it all,” Joe sighed. “I’ve enjoyed living here; I think the few years I’ve been in Mercy have been the best few for a long, long time, perhaps my whole life.”

  “It is a great place,” Sam said. “Or was, anyway,” he corrected himself. “I had a whole future mapped out here; it sounds silly when I only managed to ask Susan out on a date a few days ago.”

  “That future can still happen,” Joe assured him. “Just not here.”

  “Maybe.”

  Joe made for the trap door.

  “We better get the rest of the gas up here and the spray cans.”

  They walked down the narrow stairs in silence each thinking of what might have been had life gone on as it always had — up to now. When they came back into the main room of the tavern Susan and Sally turned to them and Sally, with intent said,

  “There has to be some kind of goodbye,” she walked to the counter where there sat open a bottle of champagne and four flutes.

  “I didn’t know you had anything so fancy behind there,” Joe said.

  “There’s never been an event I ever thought worthy of busting it out,” Sally smiled thinly. She poured and handed out the glasses and they all stood there holding them.

  “Well, I suppose first thing we ought to wish each other is luck in what we are about to try,” Joe said holding up his glass.

  “Good luck to all of us,” Sally said raising her glass.

  “Good luck,” both Susan and Sam said at the same time and they all chinked glasses and drank.

  “I really want to say how much I’ve appreciated how easy a job you all gave me here,” Joe said. “I’ve barely done a day’s work since I got started.”

  “Well you’ve more than made up for that in the last couple of days,” Sam said and they all smiled and for a moment. It didn’t feel like the horror of the night was hanging over them.

  “To lazy public servants!” Sally cried, and they all laughed and touched glasses and drank once more.

  “Let’s leave the goodbyes on laughter,” Susan said, and it was an idea they all agreed on wholeheartedly.

  Chapter 33

  Sally pulled Jeff’s truck out of the parking spot slowly and looked at Mercy and her beloved tavern one more time. Tears had been coming and going in her eyes since Joe thought up his plan but fresh ones came now and they felt the worse of all so far. Susan was in the passenger seat and she too was crying as she gazed upon the house she’d called home all of her life. She had the photograph Sam had taken from her bedside clutched against her chest as it heaved with her sobbing.

  Sam in the back of the truck had been through enough this evening that he didn’t care a damn for the town and he was just looking forward to doing as much damage as he could with the fire bombs he had all around him in the bed. The only thing he was worried about was that some of them might break and a fire could start in the truck. He felt better than he had for hours now that they were finally doing something he considered solid. No matter what happened this nightmare would be over in the next half an hour. He glanced up at the roof of the tavern but he wasn’t able to see Joe.

  As they drove out of town down the hill towards the back road to Emerson, Sally looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that the white of the trees was now in Mercy. Joe would be dead very soon, there was no escaping that idea, but for now she had the lives of this young couple to take into consideration as her first priority.

  “Thank you Joe,” she whispered unheard by Susan over the roar of the truck’s rattling engine.

  She didn’t drive with any haste and didn’t see any point in doing so. If this was going to work, it was going to work, and getting to the point where they were likely to be attacked — wherever that might be — faster would not have any bearing on the outcome.

  Three bangs on the roof of the cabin rang out and startled both Susan and her until Sam’s voice came over the noise.

  “The trees are all white on both sides of the road just ahead,” he shouted. “Take it as steady as you can from there unless something happens.”

  “Alright,” Sally shouted back looking at the road ahead. It was as Sam saw, the white death as Joe had called it spread out on both sides of the road not three hundred yards from Mercy now.

  “I didn’t think it would be so close yet,” Susan said staring out as they passed the first white trees.

  “Keep you gun aimed out the window, Susan,” Sam shouted. Susan looked to Sally and then to the gun in her own hand.

  “Better do it,” Sally said. “Maul is the only thing probably worth shooting at and if he doesn’t help us like we hope you might have to shoot him.” Susan nodded and getting a firm grip on the handle rested the barrel on the open window.

  “I’m going to start throwing these bottles in,” Sam called out. Sally watched the road closely as she tried to maintain as smooth a pass as possible for Sam to launch from.

  Moments later she heard a smash and turning to her right saw the trunk of a tree light up in flames.

  “Is it working!” Sally asked turning her attention back to the road. Susan leaned her head out the window and looked back and saw with joy that there was a fire going.

  “It looks like it!” she said just as another explosion and a fire started off to their left.

  “Woo-hoo; they’re burning!” Sam’s triumphant voice came from behind them.. Sally smiled and glanced out as fires began on either side of the surrounding road. It looked like Joe’s plan was working and that even if none of them were to get off this mountain alive tonight, they might at least be taking this thing along with them.

  “Do you think it will spread?” she called out the window to Sam.

  “I do,” he called back. “The ones that have been hit are burning much better than I would have hoped!”

  “I hope the whole forest burns to the ground!” Susan said, getting caught up in their excitement and feeling the sharp pain in her ribs tear through her once more. She cried out in pain and Sally looked at her,

  “What is it?” she asked thinking something new had happened that she hadn’t seen.

  “Nothing,” Susan assured her. “Just the pain from earlier. I was just getting used to it and it flared up again there.”

  They continued on at this pace with Sam tossing out the bottles at intervals he thought would best suit their purpose. It really was looking good for the forest fire part of the plan at least, but the real danger to them would come very soon.

  “We’re not far from where my truck was crushed,” Sam called down. “I don’t know if the trees will still be across the road the way they were earlier.”

  “That’s where we have to hope Maul comes in,” Sally said. She was nervous now and very happy that she was the one driving so she had something to occupy both her body and her mind.

  “This is where it attacked me,” Susan said, looking out the window at the spot where she thought her life had come to an end. It was odd how long ago that seemed when in fact in had been no time at all. Sally reached out and squeezed the younger woman’s leg.

  “Now it’s our turn to attack it back,” she said.

  “The road’s still blocked!” Sam shouted in dismay and Sally looked back to the road and saw the white wall of tendrils and branches that spread from either side of the road and met in intricate tangles in the middle.

  “What’s that at the side of the road?” Sally said, seeing something large but unidentifiable teetering at the edge of the ditch. Susan squinted and then knew what it was.

  “It used to be Sam’s truck,” she said.


  “Holy shit!” Sally said, unable to contain it. Though she’d heard both Sam and Joe tell of the damage these trees had done to the vehicles earlier, it was a whole other thing to see the carnage with your own eyes. How on earth had it been possible that Sam was still alive?

  “I know,” Susan murmured in awe at the wreckage.

  Sally was looking ahead at the blockage and it didn’t look like there was any life or movement in it. The idea crossed her mind of trying to simply drive through it but she thought she better ask Sam what he thought first.

  “Sam!” she called out the window. “What do you think we should do here?”

  “I’ve been thinking all the way down here that if it was still blocked when we got here the only choice is to get out and start a fire and hope we can push through when it weakens the wall.”

  “You want me to pull up close to it?” she asked just to clarify.

  “I suppose so, just far back enough that you will be able to get a bit of a running start for crashing through when the time comes.”

  “What if we get attacked while the fire is starting, or while we are waiting?” Susan asked.

  “We just have to hope that doesn’t happen,” Sally said as she eased down the gears and stopped the car. The headlights beamed on the blockage, it looked almost like a giant wicker basket had been placed in their way. The both felt and heard Sam move to the side of the bed and jump down crumping heavily into the snow. He came to Susan’s window.

  “I’m going to go start a couple of fires,” he said. “If anything happens you get out of here without hesitation, don’t worry about me, just go.”

  “Just get going and get back here as fast as you can,” Sally said nervously. She had the feeling that something was most probably going to happen while they were here and she felt bad that she half hoped Maul would not come to her aid like everyone else thought he would. She couldn’t explain even to herself why she felt this way, but it was there all the same.