Rushed

by Brian Harmon

“I checked out that old lady’s house. What did Karen say her name was? Annette?”

  “What the hell are you doing at Annette’s house? How did you even find it?”

  “Karen said you followed the river and found a path. I went looking for it.”

  Karen apparently hadn’t skimped on the details.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Why not? She wasn’t home. Nobody answered the door.”

  “You’re not missing anything. She kept talking about her husband, how he was probably going to die soon. Then I found out he’s been dead a while already. Not a cheerful chatter. You really don’t want to have a conversation with her. I told you to pick up the car and take it home, not try to follow me. I specifically told you not to try to follow me.”

  “Relax. I’m just having a look.”

  “There’s nothing to see! Things didn’t start getting completely weird until I walked through the barn and by then it was too late to turn around! If you go there, you’ll be stuck. And then we’ll have to find someone to go get your car.”

  “You really think I can’t go back through the barn?”

  “I was told a lot of things I don’t have any reason to doubt. One of them was that if you go back through the barn the other way, you might not come out at all. If you go through the barn like I did…” Eric closed his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t already find the barn.”

  “It was kind of hard to miss once you made it through the corn.”

  “Damn it, Paul…”

  “The things in there were way freakier in person than in your pictures. What the hell was in that boarded-up stall? I couldn’t see in.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “I’m at the end of the driveway in front of that old house. There’s a paved road with no shoulders, no center line. I had to come all the way down here to find a signal so I could call you.”

  “Listen to me,” Eric said. “Do not go back there. Just start walking. Try to figure out where you are. Don’t go back into the barn and sure as hell don’t go into the house.”

  “I wouldn’t know how to get into the farmhouse. In case you forgot, there’s a tractor parked in the door.”

  Well, it was good to know he hadn’t imagined that. Although he found himself wondering why Grant hadn’t moved the tractor. Maybe he busted something when he plowed through the porch.

  “I’m serious. You saw what was in the barn. You know I was telling the truth.”

  “I do. I took some pictures of my own, even. God, those things in the stalls were nasty!”

  “Then you have to believe me when I say you could die out there.”

  “Okay. I get it.”

  “Really? Because you said you got it last time I talked to you and now you’re stranded fifty miles from your car.”

  “Really. Don’t lecture me. I’m just trying to help.”

  “How is you getting yourself killed going to help me?”

  “I’m not going to get myself killed. Did I really go fifty miles?”

  “I don’t know. You need to listen to me. You’re in danger. Inside that farmhouse is an old wardrobe with a monster inside it. If not for Grant and that tractor, I’d be dead right now! That thing will hunt you relentlessly until it kills you unless you can find a distraction big enough to break its focus, which—believe me—is not easy to do when you’re running for your life and scared out of your skull!”

  “Okay. Fine. But what did you do next?”

  “You don’t need to know what I did next! You need to start walking and you need to keep walking! Just leave. And then you can start thinking about how you’re going to get home.”

  “Karen said you made your way to the nudist resort from here.”

  “Seriously? The nudists? Still? There’s no one there, Paul! Get over it!”

  “I know there’s no one there. But Karen said you made your way there from here and all you found along the way was those weird dog-things that you told her were harmless.”

  “Taylor told me they were harmless. I don’t know for sure that he was telling me the truth. And I don’t know that there isn’t something else out there in those woods, something that is dangerous. A big, red, pissed off ape, maybe?”

  “Just calm down and listen to me.”

  “I’m not going to calm down! Like I don’t have enough to deal with out here without worrying that you’re going to go poking around in all the places I was almost killed today because you won’t believe me when I say it’s not safe!”

  “I do believe you! That’s the whole fucking point! I’m not cool with just sitting around all day and waiting for my little brother to call and tell me he’s still alive, okay?”

  Eric ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he remained quiet.

  “This is some really weird shit,” Paul went on. “I needed to check it out for myself, okay? It’s not about me not trusting you. I mean, think about it. All these things you’re seeing… None of it should be possible. But not only is it real, you’re out in the middle of it all. What would you do if you were me? If I was out there and you were just the guy who was picking up the car, what would you do?”

  Eric remained silent. He couldn’t deny that Paul was right. If their positions had been switched, he would have gone through the barn, even if he knew it meant ending up stranded.

  “Well?”

  “Fine. But if you were in my place—”

  “I’d be pretty pissed about you following me. I know.”

  “Good.”

  “But I want to go to the resort.”

  “I’m telling you, you’d make a terrible nudist.”

  “I know, but besides that… I figure that resort… What was it called?”

  “Gold Sunshine Resort.”

  “Gold Sunshine. Stupid name.”

  “I have heard better names.”

  “I don’t have a clue where I am now, but I think Kevin could probably find Gold Sunshine Resort and pick me up.”

  “There’s a monster inside the biggest building there. It almost killed me. Tore up my shoulder pretty bad. I only survived by dumb luck. It’s blocking the only way forward. Even if you did survive, the next stop is the lake. I took the last boat. No going around it unless you want to run into the monkey with the huge teeth. And he doesn’t get over things quickly. Also, I might’ve insulted his parentage.”

  “So the resort’s as far as I could go. Got it. I’ll call Kevin, see if he can find the address.”

  “The place closed in nineteen-seventy-eight. He might not be able to look up the address on the internet.”

  “He’ll figure it out. If not, I’ll find my way to the highway like I did here and find somewhere to ask for directions.”

  Eric didn’t like the idea of Paul wandering around in the fissure. It simply didn’t seem like a good idea, no matter how he rationalized it.

  “So how do I get there from here?”

  “You swear to me you won’t go any farther than the resort, and you won’t go into the biggest building.”

  “I won’t. I promise.”

  “You better not. I swear to God if you go near that building I’ll see to it you never taste Karen’s chocolate truffle cheesecake again.”

  “You wouldn’t!” Karen’s chocolate truffle cheesecake was Paul’s favorite desert. She made it every holiday. And she made him one every year for his birthday. He couldn’t get enough of it.

  “I would. In a heartbeat. Don’t push me on this. She’ll side with me when I tell her you’re out here with me.”

  “Fine. I swear.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. You already said the way is blocked. I believe you. I’ve been to the barn. Those things in there were scary as hell. Shit, the barn itself was scary as hell. I mean, it just kept going! I’m really not interested in running into anything that’s actually dangerous.”

  “I can’t say for sure there’s not something dangerous waiting for you anyway. Anyth
ing could be hiding out there. You’ll have to be careful.”

  “I will.”

  Eric sighed. “I’d really rather you just walk home from there.”

  “Noted. Just tell me where to go next.”

  “There’s a little tool shed backed up into the woods. The path is behind it. When it gets too overgrown, you’ll have to look carefully to find the next path. It’s hard to see. You’ll have to take the bridge. Hope you like heights.”

  “What kind of heights are we talking about?”

  “You’ll just have to see for yourself, I guess.”

  “Nice. I’m going to get off of here and call Kevin.”

  “Be careful.”

  “I will. Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  Eric pocketed the phone again and continued walking. He didn’t like that Paul was here in the fissure. It worried him. But on the other hand, at least he’d validated his experience in the barn. As crazy as all this was, he would not have been surprised to hear that no such barn existed and that everything he’d experienced today had all been inside his own head.

  It was like Karen finding Isabelle on the missing persons list and connecting her to a real Gold Sunshine Resort. It didn’t prove that someone wasn’t messing with his mind, but at least it was some measure of evidence in favor of his sanity.

  Add to these things the pictures he’d taken and he could at least remain confident about the soundness of his mind.

  He squinted up at the hot sun, wiped the sweat from his face again and continued on toward whatever mysteries awaited him ahead.

  He watched the cows as he walked. He’d never been particularly fond of cattle, or any farm animals for that matter. They smelled terrible. They were filthy. They drew flies. He preferred them fully prepared and placed neatly on his plate with a side of vegetables and a potato. But now he was simply happy that they weren’t throwing stones at him.

  In fact, given all that he’d been through, all that he’d seen, they looked almost majestic standing out there.

  Then the one closest to him lifted its tail and took a crap right in front of him.

  Of course.

  Eric moved on, his eyes fixed on the road before him again.

  He wondered how much farther he’d have to go. For that matter, how far had he actually gone? Grant told him that his trip through the mutant livestock barn had carried him some fifty miles northwest. Taylor later informed him that he’d traveled another eighty-five miles due north after crossing the gorge on that terrifying bridge. Since then, he’d passed through that shadowy otherworld twice, once past the Altrusk house and once through the marsh.

  But as far as he knew, he didn’t jump forward when he passed the stunted corn in Annette’s field. So maybe he hadn’t jumped those last two times, either.

  Or maybe he was all the way in Canada by now.

  Thinking back on it, he recalled Karen’s assertion that it was almost noon when his watch and phone had only read a little later than half-past ten. At some point, it seemed that he’d lost more than an hour.

  Could that be true? If the fissure could distort space in such a way that he was flung forward fifty and eighty-five miles at a stretch, why couldn’t time scrunch down so that the minutes had passed considerably more quickly inside Altrusk’s house?

  He didn’t have time to consider it further. Movement caught his eye to his left and he glanced over in time to see several of the cows running from the far corner of the field as if something had spooked them.

  On an ordinary day, he would not have thought anything about it. On an ordinary day, there simply wouldn’t have been any reason to think anything about it. But today had been no ordinary day by any stretch of the imagination. Today, he would be a fool not to be concerned about what might have spooked the cows.

  Shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand, he scanned the far corner of the field, but he could see nothing more than corn beyond the fence.

  Perhaps the cows were just restless. Or perhaps one of them had stirred up a hornet’s nest or a rattlesnake.

  Or perhaps there was something extremely unpleasant in the corn.

  He remembered the first cornfield, between Annette’s back yard and the mutant barn, the sickly, stunted corn that was his first glimpse of the strange effects of the fissure. He’d heard something moving in the corn, something he couldn’t quite see, something that had filled him with dread that he assumed, stupidly, was senseless.

  Now he wondered again what it was that had moved in the corn back in that field. And he wondered if it was here, too.

  He turned and scanned the field behind him, listening.

  Suddenly, it felt like something was watching him. Was that simple paranoia? His imagination running away from him just because he’d begun to think about these things?

  He needed to get a hold of himself.

  If there was something truly dangerous in this area, would a farmer be able to keep his cows here? It didn’t seem likely. And a quick glance at his phone revealed that he still had a signal. He wasn’t in that other world right now.

  He stood in the middle of the road, as still as possible, forcing himself to breathe slowly and listen.

  Seconds ticked away. Nothing moved in the nearby corn. The cows settled across the field and returned to their grazing.

  It was okay.

  He was fine.

  He looked back out across the field and saw a dark shape standing by the fence, watching him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  His eyes fixed on the shape at the far side of the pasture, Eric began to move again.

  It wasn’t fair. He was still in Wisconsin. (Or at least on Earth.) The corn was tall and healthy, not at all stunted, the shadows beneath them still soft and shallow. Nothing should be here.

  But of course, he knew no such thing. He was likely only a short distance from the fissure, as he’d been since he first arrived at Annette’s house. And those curious coyote-deer creatures had followed him right up to the abandoned cabins of Gold Sunshine Resort, where a clear signal allowed him to send their picture to Karen.

  The shadowy thing moved along the far fence, keeping pace with him.

  It was difficult to make out. It was a solid shape against the corn, but was the same shades of green. It walked on two feet, upright like a man, but was at least seven feet tall. It dwarfed the fence posts in front of it and stood an entire head above the tops of the corn stalks behind it.

  Eric swore under his breath. He was tired. He didn’t want to keep running. He needed a break.

  But he wasn’t going to get one.

  Something moved behind him. He turned, startled, and glimpsed a green head ducking back down into the corn.

  Another one.

  He swore again. Glancing forward quickly, he saw that the pasture came to an end a short distance ahead and he would soon have the blinding corn on both sides, his vision further reduced.

  Across the field, the first figure was now moving faster toward the corner of the pasture.

  He heard the one on his right moving through the corn, creeping closer.

  He decided to run for it.

  Immediately, the shape across the field broke into a run as well and the corn rustled violently as another rushed between the stalks somewhere behind it.

  Scanning the fields around him, he saw several more green shapes rise up and peer over the corn at him, some of them already moving to track him.

  From every direction, crows took frenzied flight as the corn came alive with predators. He was surrounded.

  Stringing together a few of his favorite obscenities, Eric ran as fast as his legs would carry him, which, it seemed, was not all that fast in comparison to the things that would happily chase him down and devour him.

  The creature on the other side of the pasture reached the end of the fence and passed into the corn. Its head and shoulders remained visible over the stalks for only a moment before it lowered itself out of sight, vanishing like a divin
g submarine.

  A few seconds later the pasture was behind him. Tall corn obscured his view on both sides. He could hear large things moving among the leaves.

  He recalled passing through here in his dream. He also recalled hearing things in the corn. He recalled being afraid. But he did not remember seeing the creature across the pasture. He did not remember being surrounded and chased.

  He tried to recall what was different between then and now. The conversation with his brother… He’d raised his voice a little, angered and afraid to hear that Paul had wandered into this mess against his wishes. Had that extra noise drawn them?

  Ahead of him, a tall shape streaked with shades of green to match the colors of the summer corn darted into his path and he came to an abrupt halt only a few paces away.

  Feet apart, long, sinewy arms held tensely out at its sides, its body lean, but powerful, it was at least as terrifying as the resort monster. It had no neck, only a muscular bulge attaching the lower half of the head directly to the torso. An insect-like mass of glistening eyes took up most of its face and a huge, gaping maw extended almost to its swollen belly. He saw no teeth. Instead, it seemed to have row after row of fine, bony ridges, as if this thing did not tear and chew its food, but rather shaved meaty morsels from its victims, all the better to leave its prey alive and squirming while it feasted.

  Eric didn’t know for certain that this was true, but it came easily enough to his maddeningly vivid imagination in the split second before he cried out in a shrill and embarrassingly un-masculine voice and bolted into the field.

  This seemed like a stupid move, even as he shoved blindly through the first of the leafy stalks. Clearly, the cornfield was their domain. They used its cover for stealth, careful to keep their heads down whenever they moved. It was a dangerous gamble, but he was sure he couldn’t outrun these things on the road. His only chance was to hope that the corn would allow him the same cover it lent them, evening the playing field a little.

  Of course, these creatures probably had a much better sense of direction than he did. After only a few seconds of pushing through the stiff cornstalks, he was already uncertain which way was which.

  Leaves rustled all around him. He could hear heavy footfalls on the dry soil. Once, he even saw something green and black streak by in a nearby row. But for now, he seemed to have bought himself another moment of life, though he had absolutely no idea how he was going to make the most of it.