Quality and Quantity

by Wesley Keefer

head. She leaned down and slowly peeked under the bed. “Ah!”

  Will nearly dropped a lamp on the floor. He ran for the bedroom where Amanda had screamed. ‘Where are they?” He barged in and found Amanda curled up in a corner.

  “Look…under the bed.” she struggled out.

  Will peeked under it. “Wow!” Cory, Lewis, and two other bodies were rotting under there. “The stink, the stink, the rotting corpses. They’re all here somewhere.” he whispered.

  “Will, listen.” Amanda heard footsteps from outside.

  “In here Amanda, quickly.” Will led her into a pantry outside the room.

  Outside in the bed, Helen and Nate heard footsteps from behind them. “Listen.” They huddled together, careful not to make a noise. The footsteps got closer. “We’ll sneak in once they’re off guard in the house.” The figures glided past them and the door slid open.

  Behind the chair, Sam started to doze off. Bang! “Ouch!” The door slammed shut, startled Sam, and he hit his head on the wall. “Huh?” He heard people walk from the living room to the kitchen. “Now what?” he said under his breath.

  In the pantry, Will and Amanda heard someone walk past them. “On three, we jump and attack. One, two…” The pantry door opened. “Now!” Will pushed Amanda forward, knocking one of the two over. They wore black cloaks that covered their entire bodies.

  Will jumped on the tallest one’s back. “AH!” He was slammed against a wall and fell to the ground.

  “Will, help me!” Amanda was thrown into the bedroom door, breaking it down! Crash! The front door swung open. Sam huddled further in the corner.

  “Grab them!” Helen helped up Amanda as the cloak figure barged in.

  “You’re alive!” Amanda shouted.

  “Yeah, you….” Helen was knocked onto the bed. Crack! The legs shattered and caved in the bed. She felt something warm on her nose. Blood. “You gave me a bloody nose! You little….” Amanda was thrown on top of her. “Get her down!” The two of them slammed the figure through the wall!

  “You guys ok?” Nate helped them through the hole and down the hall.

  “Where’s Will?” Amanda asked worried.

  “He and the big guy were hurdling down this way.” At the end of the hallway was a shattered window!

  Sam peeked over the chair. No one was around. “I’ll sneak up and hit them from behind.” He climbed over the chair and rolled on the floor. “What a mess.” He saw the hole in the wall and flipped fridge. What he didn’t see was a hole in the floor and hook poking out of it! Sam’s leg was only inches from it. “Anyone…oh.” The hook dug into his leg, tripping him. He saw the hook unlatch itself from the flesh. “Were they under here the whole time?” Blood flowed from his wound. He crawled in search of a first aid. “Help!” He headed down the hall to see Nate, Helen, and Amanda looking at him.

  “Sam, there you are!” Amanda took three steps, but then backed away. Bert was behind him with a bloody hook. “Sam, run!” He turned to watch the hook plunge into his chest. “AH!” Sharp pain shot through his entire body.

  “At least he missed my heart.” he thought. Bert removed the hook and slashed Sam’s throat! Blood flooded the hall as the girls screamed. Bert cleaned the hook and headed for his next kill.

  “Don’t touch them!” The short cloaked person attacked Bert from behind.

  “What?” The three teens and Bert were confused.

  “HA!” Bert threw it off and it landed at Nate’s feet.

  “What?” The cloak was torn off and Kyra got to her feet exhausted. “Why were….”

  “No time, run!”

  At the top of the valley, Will and the tall guy were wrestling around on the ground. “You won’t kill me!” Will claw at his face and ripped off the cloak. “Harold!” Will released Harold, who got to his feet exhausted. “Sorry man, I thought you were a killer.”

  “Of course not! I and Kyra found those in a tree. We were going to track the Muroshis. We saw smoke in the chimney and thought they were here. Instead, we were jumped by you. It was blurry under there.” Harold helped Will to his feet.

  “They’re dead,” Will said, “We found bodies throughout the house. Nate, Helen, Amanda, and Sam are the only ones alive from what I know.” Will quietly said.

  “Kyra and I are the only ones, too.” Harold said quietly as well.

  “They have killed over a dozen of us!” Will’s voice got louder.

  “Amy is dead, though. We found her body in a bush. Late this morning, it was gone”

  “That’s it! We’re going to fight back.” Will told him. They descended down the valley back to the cabin. “Lookout!” Helen, Amanda, Nate, and Kyra ran straight into Will and Harold.”Where’s Sam?”

  “Bert slashed him.” Amanda said in tears. The six survivors sprinted out of the valley and continued for miles. After three hours, the sun was a little past high point. The time was somewhere around one in the afternoon. The survivors decided to chow down on the bank of Lake Erie. They scavenged together barriers, fish, and a few hotdogs from camp.

  “We haven’t eaten since yesterday evening. Now all we have is scraps.” Harold said with a mouthful of berries.

  Will hadn’t touched any food yet. He sat on the dock with Nate. Amanda and Helen had stripped down to their bikinis and had a refreshing, relaxing swim.

  “Have you told her yet?” Nate asked while eating a hotdog.

  “I don’t think I officially did. We had a talk last night about it. She knows, I know, they know, and you know. We’ll just see about it in the end.”

  Nate watched Helen bounce in the water. “That’s the first time I think any of us had smiled all weekend. All we can do is stick together. Divided we fail.”

  “We need a strategy. So far all we know is that their supplies are in the cabin.” Harold explained. Will had eaten the leftovers and the girls were all in the lake. He continued, “There is also a tunnel or something under the house. That’s how Bert ambushed Sam. Poor guy.”

  “Don’t forget Helen and I took down Amy.” Nate added.

  “That leaves four killers who are still searching for us as we speak.” Will finished. “We’re lost here. All we know is the lake, valley, and log house.”

  Nate was finally shaken by an idea. “The house! We need to sneak up into the cabin for supplies. We’ll find food, a map, clothes, and gear. We’ll need a vehicle too.” No one wanted to volunteer though. “We can’t let the girls know. They’ll freak out and worry. They need to keep calm until we get the heck out of here.’’

  “Then we all go.” Will said. “We’ll get more faster. One group will find the tunnel, the other group will get supplies, and the last group will find a working vehicle.” No one disagreed. He had a point, however.

  Nate knew it would be easier with more people. They would be easier to pick off as well. If one got caught, they all fail.

  Around five, according to the sun, the boys saw the girls return. For once they had hope. They were alone, but with the ones they cared about most.

  Harold thought about the first he met Kyra.

  The firehouse had just returned from an urgent, fatal accident. Everyone was in a gloomy mood. Then a junior, Zane, arrived. With him was his girlfriend, Kyra. She had blonde hair then, unlike her dark hair now. Harold saw her and forgot about the earlier events. She made his pulse rise and his heart race. Zane separated them though. Hey became close friends, of course. Kyra sort of felt for him the same way. A month later, Zane and her got into a fight. She caught him cheating on her and that ended them. Three days later, Harold was happily dating Kyra. Now, as she returned wet and beautiful, Harold felt safe. She wore her two piece blue and white flowered bikini Harold bought her especially for this trip. He would die for her.

  Nate was also feeling the same thing. As Helen walked toward him in her two piece lime green and white stripped bikini Nate got for her birthday, he visualized when he met her.

  They had been friends for
over two years. Nate obviously fell for her. He admired her blonde hair and humor. She had a boyfriend, though. He was a redneck who went to technical school named Lance. They had ups and downs, but it wasn’t too bad. One day, Lance caught Nate and Helen joking around. He and his pals accused her of cheating. They got into a big fight that lasted two weeks before it was over. It took a long time and a lot of guts for Nate to ask her out. He’s glad he did though. He felt it was his fault that they were in this situation. He had to keep her safe by all means.

  Will was getting the hard end. He and Amanda had just hooked up officially. This made him think of their first meeting.

  Will had just ended his first real relationship, even though it lasted two months. Family matters broke them apart, but it didn’t hurt him much. His cousin, Zade, had hooked them up. In his 9th grade year, he met Amanda. They became close friends and near the end of the year, he had fallen for her. She was dating her boyfriend, Brent that had been hers for two years. He was a chump. He was the kind who acted cool, but was really a failure. Amanda loved the goof, but not enough. Out of the blue, it ended. Will started to close in, but not too fast. He wanted it to work. It was long and difficult. Before Helen, Nate was moving on Amanda quicker! Lola and others persuaded him to date her. Thankfully, Helen won him over. Then Will took a chance, but chickened out.

  Now seeing his new girlfriend in her hot pink two piece bikini, which she had bought for Will to see, he was given courage. He loved her and