"What's going on?" Cheryl repeated, her first demand having gone unanswered.
Chain links rattled as Annie stood up, her mouth bloody.
Brian stood as well, a hand holding a wound on his arm where Annie had bit him.
"I think you already know," Alice said.
"Know what?" Cheryl asked.
"You already know that Beverly's brother was the one dressed like Bigfoot and behind the attacks, and that Annie here was being held prisoner."
"I didn't know about Annie," Cheryl said.
The statement caught Alice off guard. She had been expecting complete denial, but this…it was a type of denial, but one she didn't know how to take.
"Beverly told me she never showed up to the motel," Cheryl continued, "and then when you showed up, she wanted me to keep you distracted so that you wouldn't find out about the gems that Margaret had found. What I didn't realize was that she was setting me up to take the fall for everything because she wanted the treasure for herself."
"What gems?" Brian asked.
“Margaret’s good luck gems,” Annie said, a bloody grin appearing. “These idiots thought they were real and that they were part of some buried treasure.”
Cheryl shifted her eyes toward Annie. “What?”
Annie began laughing. “I won those stupid gems for her at a county fair last year. They look real, don’t they. We used to trick guys who were hitting on us at the bars that we found them in a cave on the beach and would draw maps for them on napkins.” More laughter. “Drunk frat boys roaming the beach looking for buried treasure.”
“They’re not real?” Cheryl said, voice hollow.
“No!” Annie cried, laughter continuing.
“This was all because you two thought some stupid costume jewelry was part of a buried treasure?” Alice asked.
Cheryl shifted her eyes back toward Alice and steadied her gun hand so that the barrel was square on her chest.
Oh fuck!
She tried to twist away.
Cheryl fired.
Alice felt the impact and crumpled to the ground.
44
An odd satisfaction arrived as she watched Alice fall, one that brought a smile to Cheryl's face as she turned toward Brian, gun now aimed at him.
He was staring at her, shocked.
"I'd apologize for that, but honestly, I don't feel any guilt at all, and since you'll be joining her in a few moments, it's a moot—"
Something to her right moved.
She shifted her eyes while keeping the gun on Brian, disbelief and confusion mixing together as she saw Alice coming at her, rifle raised like a club, a savage cry leaving her lips.
She started to twist but wasn't quick enough and heard a crack as the rifle stock smashed into the side of her head, knocking all sense from her.
Darkness arrived.
It wasn't absolute, not right away, and she was still somewhat aware of her faculties but couldn't control any of them, her body feeling as if it was being jostled around by an ocean-like medium as she fell to the ground.
45
"Alice?" Brian asked, his mind having trouble comprehending what his eyes had just shown him.
She turned toward him, rifle in hand, her chest heaving in and out with the force she had just exerted.
Nothing else was said.
She simply stared at him while he stared at her, her torso looking perfectly fine even though he had seen her get shot.
And then his eyes shifted toward the rifle she was holding.
A large crack was visible in the stock. At first he had thought it was from her using it as a club against Cheryl, but now he could see the bullet imbedded in it.
Cheryl had shot the gun.
Had the gun been shifted an inch in any direction, the bullet would have torn through her upper stomach, but somehow it had been positioned perfectly to take the bullet and slam the rifle into her body.
"I thought I was shot," Alice said, voice off a bit.
"I did too," Brian said.
A gust of wind hit. With it came a considerable amount of smoke.
Something was on fire, but Brian couldn't tell what it was, and once the smoke passed he let it fade from his mind.
"Are you—" Brian started just as the chain dropped in front of his eyes and was pulled taut against his throat.
"Annie! No!"
Brian couldn't breathe and felt his throat being torn as he tried to grab the chain, his fingers unable to get a purchase on it.
"Annie," Alice urged. "It's over. Let him go."
"He's still out there."
More smoke appeared, and this time it was thick enough to sting his eyes.
Annie started coughing, her grip on the chain loosening.
Brian took that moment to slip his fingers beneath it and pulled while dropping down to his knees. He didn't exactly flip her over, but he did sort of force her face-first into the ground while prying the chain from his throat, all while his eyes were clogged with tears.
"Something’s burning," Alice said.
"Yeah," Brian agreed.
"We need to get out of here."
Annie struggled against them, so Brian decided to drag her by the chain, the poor girl falling several times as they descended the treacherous path. At one point she even screamed, thinking Brendon was closing in on them, but it was nothing.
The smoke was really thick as they entered the old lumber camp.
Dread appeared.
Brian knew what was going on.
The forest was on fire.
Alice seemed to come to the same conclusion and said, "We have to get out of here."
Moving quickly, they hurried in the direction of the car, but then came to a stop in the clearing where Marlon Gibbs had been killed, looking down toward the valley. They couldn't see the flames, but they could see the smoke. It was like a wall.
"What if the road is blocked?" Brian asked, fear present in his voice.
"Is the one we took the only way up?"
"I think so, and it heads straight into all that."
"What about the ATVs?" Alice asked. "You think we could use the old logging road and get away from it?"
"I don't know," Brian said.
Indecision gripped them, and then, without warning, Annie tore herself away from them and hurried toward the trees.
"Annie, no!" Brian shouted and started after her.
"Brian!" Alice called. "It's no use."
Brian realized she was right and came to a stop, watching as Annie disappeared into the trees.
Several seconds passed, the smoke growing thicker and thicker.
"I say we try the car, and if we can't get through we turn around and hit the gas to get back up here to try the logging road," Alice said.
Brian nodded.
With that, they hurried toward where the car was waiting.
46
Beverly screamed at the top of her lungs, not in pain, though that was a constant as well, but in an attempt to wake Cheryl up so that she could help her.
Smoke engulfed her.
She closed her eyes and mouth against it, hoping it would pass quickly.
It didn't.
Lungs panicking, she couldn't help but take a breath.
It didn't help.
She started coughing, body trying to expel everything it had just taken in, her throat making noises she had never heard before.
And then, without warning, the air cleared.
It took several painful attempts, but soon she had a breath within her, and then another and another.
Relief arrived.
Unfortunately, she knew it wouldn't last.
The forest was on fire, and given how thick the smoke was when it came this way, she knew the flames would be unstoppable and eventually engulf this area and the tree she was tied to.
She needed to get free.
"Cheryl!" she screamed.
Cheryl moved but didn't get up.
"Cheryl! Please!"
>
Still nothing, and then another blanket of smoke came upon the area, choking her.
47
"Jesus Christ!" Brian shouted. "I can't see a fucking thing!"
"Are the headlights on?" Alice asked.
"Yeah."
"Shit."
Once they hit the smoke, looking through the windshield had become almost pointless, the visibility down to a few inches. Brian couldn't even see the front end of the car, and the road itself was completely gone.
"Maybe we should turn back," Alice suggested.
"I don't know," Brian replied, leaning forward toward the windshield as if it would help him see the road, his foot barely pressing the gas as he tried to keep them from going into the unseen trees. "I haven't seen any flames, so maybe pushing through will be better?"
"Maybe," Alice said, voice edged with doubt.
Neither one of them knew a thing about forest fires, let alone what one was supposed to do in situations like this.
One thing Brian did know, getting stuck up on the mountain would probably be a death sentence. After all, the fire was likely going to climb up it, and given how rural this area was, it would probably take quite some time for any type of firefighting force to be mobilized. In fact, they would probably need to bring in the National Guard.
Just keep going, he told himself.
Treat it like a blizzard.
Slow and steady.
All he had to do was get through the areas of smoke and around the flames, wherever they were, and things would be fine.
"Brian," Alice said about ten minutes later, caution in her voice.
"I see it."
The “it” was the orange glow they were starting to glimpse up ahead. At first, it was fairly insignificant, but then, as they got closer and closer, the glow grew bigger and bigger until…
"Oh God!" Alice cried, the car emerging from the smoke into a tunnel of fire.
Flames had engulfed the trees on both sides of the road, the intense heat already starting to cook them within the car.
"Go! Go! Go!"
Brian pressed the gas all the way to the floor, but didn't feel the car responding. It did speed up a bit, but it took quite some time, all while they felt as if they were being broiled in an oven.
Alice cranked the AC.
It didn't do much to alleviate the heat.
And then—
"What's that smell?" she asked.
"The tires," Brian said. "They're melting.
48
Cheryl felt like she was going to be sick, and then she was sick, her body spewing out smoke-filled stomach juices all over the ground, the acidic mess pooling right by her nose and lips.
Something’s wrong…
She didn't know what it was, but knew that it was serious enough that she needed to act.
Doing so was easier said than done, but then, once the world stopped spinning and she was on her feet, she felt okay enough to move around and focus on extracting herself from whatever mess she was in.
"Help me!"
Cheryl jumped and then twisted, startled to see Beverly tied to a tree.
Memories raced back.
She saw Alice coming at her with the rifle, swinging it like a club.
The woman had been shot, but somehow had managed to still get the better of her.
It didn't make any sense.
And then she saw the rifle on the ground, a bullet lodged in the stock.
"Cheryl! Please! Help me!"
Cheryl looked at Beverly, eyes squinted against the heavy smoke that was filling the air, and then turned toward the direction of the smoke, understanding dawning. The fire at Chief Parker's house. It had ignited the forest.
She would have been amused had the situation not been so grim.
A blanket of smoke came upon the area.
Cheryl dropped to her knees to get to the fresh air, lungs taking in several gulps.
To her left, Beverly started choking, her body unable to get beneath the smoke.
And then it passed.
She had to get to the ATV. Once on it, she could follow the old logging roads all the way to Clearwater. It would take hours, and the terrain was rough and would jolt her all over the place, but better that than staying here waiting to suffocate.
"Cheryl?" Beverly called as she started into the woods, body hunched against the lingering clouds of smoke. "Cheryl!"
Cheryl ignored her.
"Don't leave me!" Beverly continued. "Please! Please!"
Another heavy cloud of smoke arrived, cutting off the pleas.
Cheryl ducked under it and then, once it had cleared, started down the trail, one hand out for balance, another holding the side of her head, which had a huge goose egg protruding from it.
Blood was present.
She had not realized this until she started down the trail, the hair on the side of her head completely matted where the blood had crusted over. Feeling this, and noting how crusty it was, she wondered how long she had been unconscious.
What time is it?
Has the fire spread all the way to my place?
If it had, then there was no way she would ever be able to get the bodies.
Would it even matter?
With Brian and Alice out there, the authorities were going to know she was involved.
It wouldn't really matter that she hadn't known about Annie or been a part of whatever horror had unfolded with her, or that she had not been responsible for the deaths of Marlon Gibbs and Margaret. Her connection to all of it would damn her in everyone’s eyes, and without anyone living to level their lust for justice upon, she would become the focus.
And on top of it all, the gems had been fake.
This thought plagued her as she made it down to where she had parked the ATV, at which point her focus shifted because the ATV was gone. Her other one was there, the one that Beverly had taken, but unlike the one she had left behind, the key was not in the ignition.
Panic arrived.
As did a new heavy cloud of smoke.
She dropped down, waiting for it to pass, which it did, but then once she stood, she saw a new horror. Flames. They were crawling up the mountain with the wind, moving quickly given how dry everything was.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
She twisted toward the camp, thinking of simply running down the old logging road as fast as she could.
Would it work?
Would she be able to escape the flames?
If she had an ATV she would have, but on foot?
No.
Her only hope was waiting out the fire while in the cave up above.
Once she was inside, the flames would not be able to reach her through the rock.
It was her only chance.
Head spinning, she started back up the trail, a silent wish that she had simply gone into the cave in the first place unfolding.
She also wanted water, her throat feeling scorched from the vomiting and all the smoke she was inhaling.
You can do it, she told herself, her body somehow putting one foot in front of the other as she slowly but surely made her way back up the trail.
"Cheryl!" Beverly said once she was back near the cave, her voice raw from the smoke. "Thank God! I knew you wouldn't leave me." Cheryl ignored her as she made her way to the cave, body twisting a bit to squeeze itself through the initial part, arms out for balance in the darkness as she threaded her way along the narrow tunnel-like path toward the rear caverns, her mind once again wondering how in the world Brendon had ever found this place and then summoned up the courage to explore it.
49
The front left tire was the first to go, the car literally dropping once it unraveled. Had they been going faster, they might have skidded into the burning trees or even flipped, but all the particles from the smoke were clogging the engine filters and making it impossible for them to go more than fifteen miles per hour.
"It's okay," Brian said, fingers white on the wheel, his voice mostly respo
nding to the terror within his own mind since Alice had not spoken at all.
The left rear went a few minutes later.
"Jesus," he said, car now riding at a horrible angle, one that the road seemed to be protesting, their max speed now only a whopping eight miles an hours.
Around them trees continued to burn, the fire seemingly stretching for miles.
"Brian," Alice said, her voice somehow calm.
"What?" he asked, sweat stinging his eyes.
"The road up ahead is bubbling."
His eyes saw it just as her words registered, an oh fuck echoing within his mind.
He pressed the gas as hard as he could, his thinking being they had to plow through this if possible.
"Hold on!" he cried, though he wasn't sure why since it would make no difference at this speed.
Alice braced herself.
And then they were in the bubbling mess, the sounds of the road protesting beneath them unlike anything they had ever heard before. It sounded as if it were alive and screaming.
The car started to slow, the rims on the left adding to the screams from the road.
"Come on!" Brian pleaded.
If they got stuck, they would die, of that he was certain.
The tires started to spin, spewing up a mess of boiling tar.
And then they lurched forward, all while the rear left tire blew.
Neither said anything as they continued on the firmer road ahead.
They went about half a mile without incident, the fire starting to thin out, and then came to a bend in the road, the rims squealing as Brian forced them to turn with the wheel, the car making the turn with agonizing slowness.
"Brian!" Alice screamed.
The burning tree came down right in front of them, hitting the road with an explosion of fiery limbs mere seconds before they smashed into it. Had they taken the turn any faster or been a few feet farther, the tree would have come down on top of them, crushing them. As it was now, they were entangled in it, the flames already starting to taste the car.
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