by A. Eggleston
"I don't know." Harris pointed up to one of the Deadites circling above them. "I thought that flying...whatever-that-is...would've killed him." He looked back at Moore, oddly relieved. "He‘s lucky."
Evelyn stood up and moved closer to the policemen. "What's gonna happen now?" she asked. "I can't wake him up, and those things are getting closer."
Faith interjected. "Yeah. What are we supposed to do? We can't just let him lie here."
"Okay, calm down." said Moore. "This is what you'll do: You three get Ash somewhere safe, and we'll fend off these...what did he call them?" Moore tried to recall what Ash called those hideous creatures. "Deadites?" he said awkwardly.
Steven chimed in. "How're we supposed to wake him up?"
"I'm not sure." said Moore. "Just do what you can."
"But," Faith said. Her tone was dark. "Freddy's gonna kill him."
Evelyn looked out to see the Deadites slowly moving in. By this time, they were a block away from the police station. They were all lined together like an undead army. Their white eyes glowed in the black of night. "No." she rebutted. "He'll want him awake to see this."
Steven bent over to lift Ash from the ground. "Okay, let's get him in the car." he put his arms under Ash's shoulders and tried to lift him.
Officer Harris helped him. "Careful with the neck." he commented while grabbing Ash's feet. "He's badly hurt."
Steven straightened his feet. He secured Ash in his arms, while still hurrying as quickly as he could to the Oldsmobile. "Yes, Sir States-the-obvious." he commented.
Lt. Moore, Evelyn, and Faith walked beside them.
"Will he be okay?" asked Evelyn.
Officer Harris replied. "He'll regain consciousness eventually." he looked at her, his expression lacking optimism. "But, it'll be awhile."
"So we have to face these things by ourselves?" asked Faith. "We're not gonna make it!"
Evelyn turned to her and cut her off. "No!" she protested. "We can do this." From her tone, what she said sounded more like a promise, instead of comforting words for Faith. "I'm not going to let Freddy win. We just have to get Ash somewhere safe, and fend them off until he wakes up."
As Steven and Officer Harris set Ash in the backseat of the car, Lt. Moore called for backup.
"Calling all units for backup." His voice was loud and commanding. "I want roadblocks set up all around town. We need cars, helicopters, every goddamn thing we have, we need out here! Now!"
Moore turned to the girls and spoke less gruff. "Get him someplace safe as quick as you can, alright? We can only handle so much, and once those things start attacking, I don't think Ash'll make it."
"Where do we take him?" asked Faith.
"I don't know." he replied. "The hospital, the schools, they're all in this area. And this place is already dangerous. He needs to get far away from here."
Evelyn mentally tackled the question herself. Somewhere safe. She unlocked her gaze from Moore and Faith, and began mathematically scanning the horizon. And far away. A place with a lot of medical supplies, a lot of hiding places, stuff to barricade the doors, if need be...and a lot of weapons. It was as if her eyes were magnetically attracted to the building on the horizon, and illuminated by a single working streetlamp next to it: S-Mart. Of course. We'll clean him up with bandages, hide in the break room, block the doors with 2x4's, and unlock the display cases to get guns. "Perfect." she said. She looked at Faith and Steven. "I know where to go." she announced. "Get in the car."
Evelyn ran to the driver's side, averting Faith and Steven's shared look of confusion. The three of them opened the doors. Steven sat in the passenger seat, while Faith sat in back, making sure Ash wouldn't sustain any further damage.
After slamming the door shut, Evelyn put the Oldsmobile in Drive, and stomped on the accelerator. The tires squealed and smoke rose from the back tires as she turned the car and sped away from the hoard of Deadites that were getting closer to the police station.
They were now on the same road that led to the station. Only now, they were traveling in the opposite direction.
Steven looked out the window and saw one of the foul things in the air, catching up to them. He watched it open its monstrous mouth and screech. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. "Evelyn." he said nervously.
"What is it?" she said, swerving to avoid the other cars.
"One of them's following us." he pointed up to the sky where it remained about ten feet above them.
Evelyn looked in the side mirror and saw it. She quickly looked at the speedometer and noted that she was going about fifty miles per hour. My God, those things are fast. And then she remembered that on the street up to the right, there was an intersection. It gave her an idea.
"We don't have any more bullets left, Evelyn." said Steven. "And that thing's just gonna keep chasing us."
"I know, just..." She went faster and hoped that she would time it just right. "...just trust me, alright?"
"What do you mean? What are you--" Before he knew it, Steven felt himself being hurled to left and almost knocked out of his seat.
The dented, yellow, Delta 88 turned sharply to the other street and went a short distance before crossing the intersection. There were stoplights at each corner, each standing at about ten feet above the car, the same height that the Deadite hovered.
They crossed the intersection. The demon flew right into the stoplight, crashing its entire body against the light and the pole that suspended it. The demon howled and fell right onto the concrete, its wings twitched and convulsed violently. The creature never knew what hit it.
Evelyn stopped the car in front of the entrance to S-Mart. By this time, it was after midnight, so the store had been closed and locked up for a while. Evelyn would have to enter through the back of the building and turn on the power from there. She turned the ignition, shutting the car off. She, Steven, and Faith practically leapt out of the car, and ran to the front of the building.
She grabbed the keys from the back pocket of her jeans, and turned to her friends before leaving them. "I'll turn the power back on," she said, still panting from the run. "You guys stay here and watch my back."
Faith and Steven nodded as they watched Evelyn run to the back of the building. She ran to the corner of the S-Mart building, and turned, fully escaping from their view.
The dark-haired, heroine-in-training was now completely alone. Don't slow down. She reminded herself. Don't look back. Just get inside as quick as you can. There could be some Deadites here already...I hope not...but still. It was pitch black outside. That made her nervous. Every time she brushed against the trunk of a tree she thought, Was that one of them? Just run. Just run.
At times, Evelyn still couldn't believe that her blissfully simple life had taken a hard left turn into demonic possession, killer nightmares, and trying to stop the evil bastard responsible for it. Freddy killed her boyfriend and her best friend. Two of the closest people in her life, he had taken from her. She wasn't going to let him take anymore. Evelyn would do all that she could to make sure of that.
Finally, Evelyn reached the opposite end of the building and found the door that led inside. She poked around in the dark, frantically searching for the doorknob. She ended up stabbing the door a few times before she reached the lock. She turned the key, looking behind and all around her as she entered the building and locked the door behind her.
Steven and Faith stood outside the automatic doors, arms crossed, and eyes locked on the ground.
Faith's eyes started to graze from the ground and her mind started to wander with panicked thoughts. Is Evelyn okay? She's been gone a long time. If Freddy took her too, I'll chop his undead dick off. Then again, what if this whole thing doesn't work out? What if he wins? I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm out here, standing in front of S-Mart, about to drag in Ash, our hero, from the end of the world. And he's unconscious. This whole thing su-- Faith looked up, and to her left to Steven. She brushed her hair away from her brown eyes,
and stared at the side of his face. Oddly mesmerized by his choppy hair, and his dark eyes, all of the danger and disasters that happened earlier seemed to fade away in the back of her mind.
Steven felt Faith's eyes looming on him. Keeping his head still lowered down, he quickly glanced to see Faith looking back. Before, Steven's mind was racing. He was scared beyond belief, but he knew that Ash would come through for them...at least he hoped that he would. As soon as his eyes locked on Faith, all of his worries disappeared. It filled him with a sense of newfound confidence. He saw her smile at him. It wasn't a big smile, but it was reassuring. It automatically made him smile in return. "Everything's gonna be okay." he said, both to Faith and himself.
She chuckled. "You think so?"
He nodded and spoke softly. "Yeah."
Just then, the two of them were overwhelmed with the sound of a swelling electrical surge, and bright florescent lights shining from inside S-Mart. They reacted, squinting their eyes and blinking rapidly, eventually adjusting to the change in light.
The automatic twin doors slid open. Striding outside to meet them was Evelyn, holding an axe in her left hand and a pistol in her right. She smiled confidently at them. She spoke in a tone that, to them, made her sound like a total badass. "Shop smart. Shop S-Mart."
The three of them carried Ash inside the store. Their arms strained the longer they held him up.
They managed to carry him past the registers, and slowly trudged their way to the garden department so they could sit him down on one of the chairs.
Ash started to groan and murmur. "Hmm...hmm...argh..." He began clenching his fists and shaking his head.
Faith, who was supporting the top half, along with Steven, asked, "What's happening to him?"
Evelyn, who held Ash's legs, answered, "He's having a nightmare."
"What do you think Freddy's doing to him?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
Evelyn thought about what had happened in her nightmare. How Freddy used every dark detail of her life against her. How he humiliated her, scared her senseless, and nearly beat her to death. "He's trying to kill him." she said cryptically. "Inside and out."
The three of them set Ash down on a display lawn chair. Evelyn propped his feet on the chair.
Steven hunched over and lifted one of his eyelids, examining the whites of Ash's eyes, which were now bloodshot at the corners. He assumed that it was from the prolonged lack of sleep, but after seeing Ash murmur and jerk up and down on his seat, it made him wonder if maybe it was mostly from the trauma of having Freddy beat the living hell out of him. Steven straightened up and stepped back beside Faith, worried that he would get hit as a result of Ash's spasms.
He pitied Ash. "He looks like he's having some kind of episode."
They all looked down at Ash, watching him suffer, collectively feeling their hearts sink because there was nothing they could do. Upon further examination, they started to see cuts and lacerations appearing on Ash's skin. They were small ones at first. A slice here and there on his forearms. They noticed Ash wincing as the cuts appeared. And then, a long, steak knife-sized cut traced along Ash's right shoulder to his collar bone.
"Aaaah!" screamed Ash. Tiny drops of blood escaped from his wound and seeped into his button-up shirt.
Faith winced as she looked at Ash writhing in pain. She whispered to herself. "Oh my God."
Steven felt queasy having to see Ash get tortured like this. He averted his eyes, and tried not to hear Ash's cries of pain.
While everyone else was trying not to indulge in Ash's pain, Evelyn couldn't look away. She began to feel restless. She was aching to do something to bring him back, but she didn't know what. "We can't just watch Freddy do this to him." she said anxiously. "We have to try to wake him up somehow."
"Like what?" asked Faith. "He's knocked out, it's not like a little shove is gonna bring him out of it."
Evelyn closed her eyes for a moment, desperately thinking back to her encounter with Freddy. The same thing that happened to her was now happening to Ash. All of the slices and bruises that he inflicted in the dream manifested outside of it. Maybe the opposite would work too. Evelyn turned to Faith once again. "Whatever Freddy does to us in our dreams, happens in real life too."
Faith interrupted her. "Yeah, no shit."
Evelyn continued. "What I'm saying is," she spoke snidely. "maybe it can work the other way around."
Faith looked confused and dropped the sarcastic tone. "Explain that to me."
"Look," she said. "we're in this huge warehouse store. There's medical supplies everywhere, I know there's something we can use to bring him back."
Faith begrudgingly agreed, nodding her head. "Okay." she exhaled. "What should I go look for, then?"
Evelyn gave her a mental list of supplies. "Smelling salts, stuff like that." she looked back at Ash. "And it looks like we'll need a lot of bandages."
Faith nodded again. "Okay. I'll get right on it." She turned around and jogged through the wide aisles of S-Mart.
Evelyn turned back to Steven, who was still facing in the same direction, his face was frozen. He looked paralyzed from fear. Evelyn stepped closer to him. "Steven, what is it?"
The fear that Steven conveyed at that moment made his brown eyes even darker. The tone in his voice made him sound like what he said next would be his last words. "They're here." he said. "The Deadites are already here."
Evelyn looked across the front entrance to see what looked like fifty or so Deadites, making their way to the store.
They weren't that close yet. By this time, they were crossing the street and heading towards the parking lot.
Her heart instantly began to race, and every bone in her body started to shake. Her breathing was erratic. She heard Steven mutter under his breath.
"I'm pretty sure we're gonna die."
Evelyn whipped around and grabbed Steven by both shoulders. She yelled at him, angry and nervous at the same time. "No, Steven, we're not!" she looked deep into his eyes. "If we block the front entrance, we can keep them out for a while." She let go of Steven and pointed to the Housewares department. "Run over there and get some stuff to barricade the door."
Just like Faith, Steven nodded. He agreed, but wasn't fully confident that it would work. Steven ran over to the Housewares department.
Evelyn spoke to him, raising her voice so he could hear. "I'll be with you in a second!" She turned her head to look at Ash. By now, he was sweating profusely and was streaked with his own blood. Evelyn walked over to him, kneeled down and grasped his left hand in both of her hands. She whispered to him. "Hang in there, Ash." and then, she added, "It's not over yet."
Evelyn let go of Ash's hand. She ran to join Steven like she promised, all the while hoping and praying that what she said to Ash would prove to be true.
Chapter Twenty Seven
He was in the boiler room. His body was wet with blood. The remnants that didn't seep into his clothing dripped onto the floor. His arms, his chest, and his shoulders, burned and stung from the cuts that Freddy left on his body.
Ash had to escape, but he didn't know how to. After Freddy had subdued him and slashed him all over his upper body, Ash managed to run away. He didn't know how long he had been in the hellish boiler room, or how long he would continue to be trapped there, but Ash was going to do all that he could to keep Freddy from doing any further damage to him.
Ash's black work boots stomped against the metal walkway as he wandered aimlessly. He could feel his strength fleeting with every drop of blood that escaped from his body.
Ash looked at the floor the entire time he walked. Looking past the grated walkway, he noticed the incredible height he had reached. It was so dark, he couldn't even see the ground. Ash wasn't afraid of heights, but for some reason, the unsettling, grand scale of the boiler room had given him vertigo. He was starting to grow dizzy, and nauseous. No, I can't give up now. Ash told himself. I've made it this far, I'm not gonna let Freddy win.
Looking around, he saw boilers and steaming pipes everywhere. The lighting was odd. It made the entire area look gloomy, and disturbingly surreal. Everything appeared to look red for some reason. He looked up at the few florescent light fixtures above him, and saw that all of them had been splattered with bright red blood.
The more he looked, he saw that the place was enormous. Even though it was dimly lit, he couldn't help but notice the tiny corners and the multiple walkways everywhere. It's like a maze. He tried to find his way out of the narrow pathway he was walking in. To his left, he was bombarded with large boilers as tall as he was, and thick, rusted chains hanging from the ceiling. To his right was the railing, guarding Ash from falling to the ground.
The sound of hissing pipes and creaking metal filled the air. It was loud, boisterous. It started to give Ash a hell of a headache. He looked up, taking in the boiler room as he guided himself through its maze-like corners. The ceiling was another two stories above where Ash was standing. God, how big is this place?
Ash continued to wander around the room. He placed his hand on one of the boilers for support as he turned to the corner on his left. The blazing hot metal burned his palm, and a sharp tsssss! Was heard as his hand contacted the boiler's exterior. Clamping his mouth shut, Ash groaned as he quickly retreated his hand and shook it, hoping to cool it off.
He cursed under his breath. "Damn it."
Ash stopped beside edge of the walkway to catch his breath. He placed his hands on the guardrail for support. He took a moment to breathe, letting his heart rate go down, and his dizziness subside. He looked around, baffled by rooms appearance. There were metal stairways everywhere, seemingly going in all directions. It's like an M.C. Escher painting. For now, he just felt the streams of blood race down his skin.