“If they wanted us harmed, I have the feeling they wouldn’t have to do it in a dark basement.”
“Oh, that’s a good theory. Did you ever hear the nursery rhyme about the spider and her parlor?”
“Come on. It’s either the basement or the dark and stormy night outside.”
“Right now, dark and stormy looks pretty damn good.”
They moved toward the door marked STORAGE.
The lightning erupted outside, and the dark and stormy night became even more so. The story was drawing to a close, and as the famous song said, the still of the night was close at hand for Moreno.
* * *
Freekin’ Rowdy Rhoads was tapped hard on the shoulder as he sat on the edge of the portable table. He shook himself and looked at Roberta, who was starting to rival Freekin’ on the number of shots in disguise she could consume. After only a moment of dead air, Rhoads slid back into his chair and placed the headphones on. One earphone was on; the other momentarily covered his eyes and nose. He angrily adjusted them and then gave Roberta a dirty look, but she simply stared at him. Still, he hesitated again when he saw two small out-of-town girls, maybe five or six years old, slowly sidle up to the remote van and look at them. Their heads were also shaved, and Freekin’ could see the gouges in their scalps where their last hairdresser or barber had viciously cut them. They held hands and stood as if waiting for something. Others walked past with their store-bought costumes on, but after a cursory glance at the children and the radio van, they quickly moved away.
“Man, these kids are really starting to get to me. Did you notice none of them are actually gathering candy?” he asked out of the side of his mouth even as he tried to smile at the smallest girl. She stared back with those disturbing pools of blackness.
“Damn it, Rowdy, you know you’re on the air?” Roberta snapped, pointing at the expandable boom mic.
He shook himself again and forced his eyes away from the two children, wishing their parents would start rounding the little critters up. He quickly drained the last of the coffee-whiskey mixture.
“Okay, that was Chuck Berry, and this is K-Rave. Now let’s go somewhere exotic, maybe head on down to Cuba. This is Frankie Ford and ‘Sea Cruise.’”
Old man rhythm is in my shoes … no use t’sittin’ and a’ singin’ the blues …
Freekin’s hand froze just above the spinning record. The children had moved forward a few steps and had stopped holding hands. Without warning, they turned and attacked anything and anyone near them. Mothers took up their children, and with candy bags flying, they ran from the many children who appeared as if from nowhere.
Freekin’ Rowdy Rhoads fell backward and hit his head on the side of the van. Roberta screamed. The flight on the sidewalk became a stampede. Those who didn’t see the assault start with the small and ragged children panicked because everyone else was. Cars screeched to a halt in the street as they tried to avoid the black shapes of small children jumping in and out of the street. Drivers tried to get by, but they hesitated in fear of running down the trick-or-treaters who were now all on the run. Rowdy even heard someone shout that there must be a fire.
As men and women ran with screaming kids, Freekin’ Rowdy realized that Frankie Ford was still singing, but the volume had skyrocketed just as the streetlights and the illumination from the many buildings lining the street flashed on and off. The nightmare began in a split second. The music raised even higher in volume as Freekin’ covered his ears.
So be my guest, you got nothin’ to lose … won’t ya let me take you on a sea cruise?
* * *
The punch to his belly was so hard that Dean lost his breath. Before he could even get his eyes open, he heard Gloria scream. He felt the movement of the others in the balcony as they were startled out of their heavy necking to see what was happening. Dean felt another blow, this one to his nose, and he felt himself falling backward. He felt his back hit the seat and then three more slams to his face in rapid succession. He was stunned, but still all he could hear was Gloria as she fought with someone.
“Shut up, bitch!” came the familiar voice of his old friend Jimmy Weller. Dean heard a slap, and then in between screams from the silver screen and from the audience, he heard Gloria curse at someone.
“Hey, man, I didn’t sign up to hit on no girls,” said Steve Cole.
There was a grunt, and then Dean felt the pressure come off him. He managed to get to his feet to see an amazing sight. Harvey Leach had come from nowhere and had managed to attach himself to the back of Jimmy Weller. He was trying desperately to hang on, but Jimmy was too strong and easily tossed him.
“Get help!” Dean shouted over the terrified screams of the teens watching the movie. On screen, a skeleton was rising from a vat of acid. It was the climax to House on Haunted Hill.
Dean managed to get a strike in when Jimmy grabbed for a fleeing Harvey Leach, missing by mere inches. Dean swung downward and caught Weller on the side of his head and then drew back to hit him again when a fist slammed into the side of his own head. He shook and tried to clear his thoughts when he heard a grunt of pain and then another, and then he was slammed in the head again. This time, he figured out the culprit.
“Oh, my God, are you all right? I thought you were someone else!” Gloria yelled when she recognized Dean’s protest of pain. She stood there in the dark with her hands once more over her mouth.
Dean used the light from the screen to look around. He wiped blood from his nose and then saw Gloria. She was standing there with everyone else in the balcony looking at them. He quickly grabbed her hand, and then with a swift kick into the ass of a struggling Jimmy Weller, he pushed by a startled Steve Cole and an equally bruised Sam Manachi, and they ran for the aisle and the stairs.
“Don’t just stand there like Martin and Lewis! Go get ’em!” Jimmy shouted as he picked his battered body and bruised ego off the sticky floor of the balcony.
The chase was on.
* * *
As the three boys gave chase, the children charged from the stairways leading to the balcony. Most kids attending thought it was one of those Hollywood gags that seemed to be popular these days—the buzzing chairs, the flying silk over the heads of audiences—real con tactics used to attract the younger crowds. Girls and guys alike from the main floor to the balcony began screaming as some of these character actors actually bit and scratched. Soon, they realized something was very wrong when most got a smell of the children. The panic began, and the aisles became unpassable.
* * *
Teenagers disgorged from the Grenada Theater like in the famous scene in the Steve McQueen horror flick The Blob. Freekin’s eyes widened as he saw the rush. Girls were tripping, and boys thinking they were brave tried to help but then remembered what was in the theater and thought better of their chance at valor and ran. Roberta screamed as one of the children started toward her. She quickly rolled backward, and because she was drunk, she would never remember the brilliant maneuver as she slid right into the van and then quickly closed the sliding door.
With Frankie Ford screaming loudly about a sea cruise, Freekin’ Rowdy Rhoads pushed his way past the running trick-or-treaters and their fleeing parents. He entered the theater to see what he could do.
Inside, Vincent Price was heard. He was laughing that deep, dark, disturbing sound as the world went to free flight and the first feature of the spook fest called the Moreno Monster Mash, House on Haunted Hill, ended.
There wouldn’t ever be a second feature.
* * *
Robert saw the children close-up for the first time, and now he realized what he had done. The town would never recover from this if he didn’t get the entity back into containment. He looked at the two extinguishers and knew that they would be useless if he didn’t have a way to get them back to the vault at the winery. He needed the steel enclosure for a trap. Unfortunately, the vault was two miles away on a hillside. He fought his way past the fleeing kids. He stopped just
inside the lobby, not even sure if Dean was there, but then he spied him. He cursed when he saw he was still with Gloria Perry. He made his mind up and charged into the crowd.
“Dean!”
The boy stopped so suddenly that everyone behind him on the stairs slammed into him and Gloria. They both lost their footing, and down they came. Kids jumped over them as they ran by. The creepy children weren’t even part of the plot of the Vincent Price vehicle.
“Dad!” Dean called as he tried in vain to gain his feet. He grew angry and frustrated when he heard Gloria shout out in pain several times. Finally, strong arms lifted him to his feet, and Dean watched as his father assisted Gloria up. Robert pulled them both aside and then thrust one of the fire extinguishers into Dean’s hand.
Dean looked at his father as if he gone nuts. “It’s not a fire, it’s—”
“I know what it is; I’m responsible for bringing it here. We have to head them back to the winery; that’s the only place they can be contained.”
“They won’t go back,” Gloria said as she looked upon Hadley with hatred. “They’ll never follow you or my father. You helped do this to them!”
Hadley looked up and saw the children as they once more gathered near the top of the stairs. “We’ll discuss the right and wrong of it later, young lady. For now, we have to get them back into that vault you’re responsible for letting them out of.”
“Gloria didn’t do anything but try to make friends with children that you had a hand in killing!” Dean countered, getting in between his father and the girl he had fallen for.
“Of course we didn’t. But I cannot explain now. This is—”
“Mercury, we know—your little Nazi pal explained it to us. That won’t work; the vault is too far and you’ll never be able to get them in there again!”
“We have to try!” Hadley countered.
“Where is my father?” Gloria screamed above the din of shouts and panic.
“He’s holding the doctor up at the factory. He wanted me to help get you out of here, but we can’t unless we corral these damnable things. We need that vault!”
Frankie Ford was still going on a sea cruise as boys and girls ran by for no other reason than others were doing the same, screaming, “The Russians finally did it!” and “The damn government lied to us!” Most thought the missiles of that October had made their appearance just as Huntley and Brinkley had feared. The Cold War must have just turned hot.
“The old vault from the Moreno Savings and Loan!” Gloria shouted as she faced the two Hadleys.
“What vault?” Dean asked, taking Gloria by the hand and giving his father a defiant, challenging look. But Hadley Sr. played his role well; he nodded, indicating that he understood.
“When the new bank was built, they moved the old vault here. Remember, everyone was there to watch it being moved. My father described it to me.”
Hadley wanted to kick himself as he remembered the fortuitous move of the old Savings and Loan vault to the only space in town large enough to hold it at the time—right there in the basement of the Grenada.
“Will they follow you, Gloria?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know!”
Hadley pushed and pulled the two teens to the curtain-covered twin doors, and all three started down the wooden stairs. Suddenly, Hadley stopped.
“The extinguishers!”
“I’ll get them!” Dean called out as he quickly leaned in and kissed Gloria on the mouth. Even during this horrid time, the girl smiled as they parted. “I love you!” Dean said as his words echoed in the half dark of the stairwell.
Robert watched as his son parted with Gloria. His eyes followed him until he had vanished through the door.
“Gloria, can you make it down the stairs to the vault without getting hurt?”
“Yes. Mr. Gallagher, the manager, and I used to practice music down there with the old organ that used to be installed upstairs.”
“Good. I need to leave word for your father to join us down there; I’ll only be a minute. The vault door is unlocked; just pull the dust cover off and open it with the latch.”
Gloria nodded, frightened beyond measure without Dean by her side. She felt horrible for her new dependence on Dean, but she liked the feeling for the first time in her life. She started down the stairs and into the dark world of the basement.
Hadley watched her go step by step and then with a scowl he reserved for anything that disgusted him, he turned and exited the stairwell.
He met Dean a few steps outside the door. He was running in a panic as the children were walking toward him, struggling with the two heavy fire extinguishers as he ran. Robert saw his father, and then he doubled his efforts when he realized that Gloria wasn’t with him.
“She’s right in there waiting; we have to get something from the manager’s office. Come on.”
Dean followed his father, and instead of taking the left door and the stairwell, he opened the right. Robert was about to run in when he stopped and cried out a warning to his son.
“Look out!”
Dean turned and felt the sharp blow to the back of his head. He went down in a heap on the carpeted floor just inside the office. Robert stood over him with the barrel of a gun. He looked around quickly and then checked Dean. He was breathing as he lay there. Hadley moved some of his hair out of his face and then shook his head.
“What I have to do, you don’t have the strength for, son,” Hadley said and then stood. He looked up and saw a familiar face as the boy ran to the stairwell with two other boys. They were running from a few of the children.
“Harvey Leach!” Hadley called out loudly over the music.
Harvey came to a halt before hitting the bottom step with two of his friends from Newberry’s.
“Mr. Hadley, Dean and Gloria are in trouble up there!”
“No, they’re here.” He stepped aside and gestured wildly. “Get him out of here! He’s hurt pretty badly!”
Harvey’s two friends ran over and got Dean to his feet.
“Where’s Gloria Perry?” Harvey asked.
“She’s safe with her father. Now get him out of here; I have to get these other kids to safety!”
Harvey did what he was told and assisted Dean out of the theater. Hadley turned, grabbed the mercury-filled extinguishers, and ran down the stairs to the basement. As he ran, taking the steps two at a time and almost falling several times, he turned and saw the progression of children as they started down the same stairs. This time, he stopped counting after twenty-two. He figured the rest would be close behind. They were sensing that Gloria Perry was in trouble.
* * *
The dynamite Fromm had planted underneath the largest of the mercury containment vessels detonated. The explosion ripped through the vats of heavy metal and then through the main gas lines. The resulting fireball pressurized into a gaseous sphere that expanded like a nuclear detonation, small but compact. Cars were blown out of the parking lot, and the guard shack flew high into the sky. The largest containment vessel blew skyward with most of the Hadley Corp roof. The roof went six hundred feet into the air and killed all the second-shift employees on the first floor. The walls then came down, leaving only two of the cornerstones standing. The fireball reached up into the overcast sky and reflected brightly off the dampened hillsides. Then the main gas line leading into the factory from the town below exploded in a chain reaction that started a run for Moreno a mile below.
Ten billion fireflies erupt from the sky and settled onto the town. Mercury covered the area like silvery snow.
Moreno was now a dead zone in more ways than one.
* * *
Robert made it down the stairs and then dropped the heavy extinguishers to the floor. He saw Gloria standing in front of the vault, with his son’s jacket on. A fury filled him when he saw the way she stood. She had always been Perry’s prized little girl. She could never become a true asset to anyone, much less the son he had such plans for. He started forward with
determination.
Gloria tilted her head up. “Where’s Dean?” she asked when she didn’t recognize the footfalls.
“He thought it better not to be here. He said you can keep the jacket; he won’t be needing it anymore.”
“Where is Dean?” she repeated as if she hadn’t heard him.
Hadley looked back and saw that the children were on the second landing; one more and they would be there with them. Hadley didn’t expect a warm reception for one of their captors. He stepped up to Gloria, and she shied away.
“Get in the vault,” he said.
“I want Dean.” She stepped back until her foot hit the frame of the open steel door.
“I know what you want—to latch yourself onto my boy for a meal ticket. That isn’t happening.” He shoved her farther into the vault. “Dean doesn’t have the guts to say what he needed to—you aren’t good enough for him.” He stepped inside with her. He felt the children behind him gathering now at the foot of the stairs.
The vault was much smaller than the original. It had no vents other than spots where old braces used to secure it to the wall of the old Savings and Loan. They had been sealed for the transport of the vault to the theater.
Gloria felt the tears well up and spill out from under her glasses. “Daddy,” she said.
Angrily, Hadley reached out and removed her dark glasses. She flinched and cried out. He backed away. Hadley tossed the glasses out of the vault, where they shattered.
“Dean!” Gloria screamed.
Hadley hit her hard, and she went down, striking her head on the steel floor. She stirred a moment and then was still. Robert ran from the vault, took one of the fire extinguishers, and ran to one of the many storage lockers. On his way, he kicked Gloria’s dark glasses away, where they slid under one of the cabinets. Hadley opened one of the taller ones, pulled out the old movie posters, and then squeezed inside, only closing the door partially.
Then the children were there. Hadley watched from the locker, his eyes roving from child to child as they remained motionless. Then in the silence of the basement, he heard the soft moan escape the vault. The children froze. With their black, gleaming eyes fixed on the vault, it seemed they were hesitant to move toward it. Then Hadley caught a lucky break. Gloria cried out loudly.
In the Still of the Night--The Supernaturals II Page 41