by catt dahman
“Damn,” Cassie helped Meg to her feet. Meg was almost knocked out, and they were shocked at how hard Nelwynn hit her. A cut ran along Meg’s cheek.
Nelwynn dropped the small rock she had in her fist.
“We said no guns, but rocks are okay? It’s supposed to look like we took some licks, but that was a little much,” Cassie complained. “Fine. I’ll do my own because you sure as hell aren’t going to get to hit me like that.”
Cassie gritted her teeth and ran a few steps before dropping to her knees and sliding in the pebbles and sticks, tearing her knees up badly. She rolled on her back and clutched both legs to her chest as she cursed and let the tears come.
They had to look beat up, but this was painful. Cassie was sorry she hadn’t taken a punch to the face.
“Wow. Damn, Cassie,” Tiffany said.
“Yeah. Damn is right. You’re done. You have a black eye, Tiff,” Jill said.
“He back handed me a good one, asshole.” Tiffany looked at the rest. Blood and bruises covered all of them except Jill and Nelwynn. “Next?”
Jill handed Tiffany the knife she had carried since Mike gave it to her. “I pulled this out, and one of them, who knows which one I was fighting off ‘cause it went so fast, got the knife. Randy, I think. That’s why I hit him with the rock,” she told her.
“I can’t.”
“Tiffany, you have to. Make it count, and just do it. I’ll survive,” Jill said as she faced her friend and held out one hand, palm facing Tiffany. “Defense wound. Do it.”
Tiffany began crying, but she raised the knife and shoved it into the fleshy part of Jill’s hand, beneath her thumb. It was painful to see Jill cry out and clasp her hand to her body, but Tiffany had finished her job. She folded the knife and handed it back.
Jill slipped it back into her short’s pocket and wrapped her hand in the piece of tee shirt that Cassie handed her. They ripped their own shirts following Cassie’s lead.
“I can’t do this part,” Nelwynn said. “Please don’t stab or hit me,” she cried.
“You sure as shit hit me,” Meg roared, going for Nelwynn. “No one backs out this time. Not now. Not ever. Never again.”
Jill stepped in between them and held Meg back with her body and one arm. “If she can’t, then she can’t. Maybe she was lucky, right? Let it go.”
“I’m sorry,” Nelwynn said softly.
“Yeah? I’m sorry, too, for my knees,” Cassie said as she leaned on Jill to walk, her skinned knees ached and burned.
Whitney, Samantha, and Tiffany walked together, lamenting their pain.
Angel walked by herself, going over the story again so they understood the version they were going to tell. They walked a few yards around a curve in the path to where the other two men were. Earl’s throat had bled out all over the rocks.
Jill almost dropped Cassie who leaned over her and whirled around several times. “Where’s Randy?”
Cassie’s jaw dropped.
Whitney and Angel walked over to where he had been lying at the edge of the trail and searched the leaves and bushes, not believing their eyes.
“Where is he, Jill?” Tiffany demanded.
“Where? How in the hell do I know? I beat in his head. I had to stop because you dumb shits let Jered get away,” she said as she glared at Angel and Meg.
Fuming, Meg told them, “I took care of him.”
“Yeah, after you let him get away, and after I had to run to help, and thanks to that, he’s gone,” Jill said as she stomped.
They searched the bushes again and found a few broken twigs where he had left the trail. Cassie bellowed curses, and Whitney screamed with fury, but nothing changed; he was still missing, and Jill knew it was her fault.
“I’ll try to find him,” Jill said.
“You can’t. We need to be bandaged, and he’ll jump you,” Tiffany said. “Besides, it isn’t likely he’s going to the cops, right?”
“Of course, he will,” Angel said.
“No, he won’t.” Cassie narrowed her eyes. “If I were him, I wouldn’t. He’s a pervert and has a record. He knows the cops would believe us anyway. Eight against one. But I do think he’ll come looking for us.”
Jill froze. “What? Looking for us?”
“Yep,” Meg agreed, “he will.”
“Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you prefer some payback? I would. He’ll come; trust me. We need to get back, get patched up, and wait for him. It fits the story. We couldn’t drive out because the tires were cut. That’s done. We already did that part. We blame them, of course, according to the plan,” Cassie explained.
“Right,” Samantha said, “and no cell phones work. We’re fine with the plan, and we’re beat up. Some of us are, anyway.”
“We were attacked at their cabin, we ran, and cowardly, we left Angel who was attacked. She fought back. The cabin burned, she caught up, and they attacked us on the trail. We fought and won. The cops will find the backpacks or the shirts from those other hikers and guess that the Watkins clan killed the hikers. They came after us, and we won. We won.”
“Except for being beat all to hell,” Tiffany added.
“Fits perfectly. Randy was okay and escaped. We waited for him while we say we were getting bandages and seeing how badly all of were hurt, and he came after us; we took care of him,” Cassie finished. “We’re fine on the plan. It fits.”
“We can’t do it there. We don’t want anyone to search the cabin as a crime scene,” Meg said. “It won’t work.”
Cassie’s eyes lit up as she said, “It can. After we get him, we move him to the river and toss him in. Blood washes away, and that becomes the crime scene. And really, it’s your father who will care much about a pervert being killed in self defense?”
“It may work,” Meg answered. “It’s awfully convoluted. It’s crazy. But it’s just crazy enough to sound right. That is if he comes after us.”
“He will,” Cassie said, “I’m sure.”
“Then, we’re golden,” Meg said as they walked along the trail a few more yards. “I only have one problem with this whole thing. Well, I have several, but one stands out to me, still.”
“What?” Nelwynn asked.
“That you didn’t take a beating like the rest of us. I mean it’s always been all of us. Why is this okay? Why is it just seven of us and not you?” Meg demanded.
“Because I can’t,” Nelwynn pleaded.
“Good thing that I can,” Meg said. She wanted to make it fast and as easy on Nelwynn as possible. She knew that Nelwynn would be angry, and it would hurt, but they had all run a gauntlet, and Nelwynn had to be a part. It was how the eight worked.
Meg shoved Nelwynn as hard as she could, sending the woman over the edge of a deep gully that ran along the trail. Nelwynn would be bruised and cut, but at least it would be over and done with quickly.
“Meg! What the hell?”
“Jill, she had to take the blows like the rest of us. I made it quick. Nelwynn, I’m sorry, okay? I had to make it all look as real as possible.”
“Why isn’t she moving?” Tiffany looked over the edge where Nelwynn lay a dozen feet below.
“She’s playing games. Nelwynn?” Meg called. She looked down and tossed a pebble at Nelwynn. She felt a nervous chill run up her spine.
Nelwynn didn’t flinch.
“Nelwynn, we’re leaving you,” Angel called. None of them moved, just watched for Nelwynn to get up and follow. She might need help if she were bruised or scraped badly.
Jill took a hitching breath. She swallowed and closed her eyes against hot tears, “I don’t think she’s okay.”
Chapter 9
“You can’t sit down and rest,” Jill said. She pulled Cassie along with her. “Sammie is still bleeding, and so is Whitney. We’re tired and dehydrated, and we have to get back to the cabin.”
“We can’t leave her,” Angel wailed. She had been crying non-stop since she and Tiffany clambered down and checked Nelwynn, called Meg to climb down
, and then told the rest that Nelwynn was dead.
“She can’t be,” said Tiffany as she sniffed, wiped her nose and eyes, and rubbed her hands on her ruined shirt.
“I didn’t mean to. What am I going to do?” Meg cried.
“You? You? What are you going to do? Same as we are. We’re going to lie and blame Randy and get through this shit. You’re going to stick to the plan, and shut the fuck up,” Cassie snapped.
“You’re going to help us finish off Randy,” Tiffany said.
“Meg, you’re going to be sorry for the rest of your life, just like I am,” Samantha said. “She would be alive, and none of us would be hurt if Angel hadn’t done something so stupid like drugging us. And of all people, it was Nelwynn.”
“I didn’t push her into the gully,” Angel said.
“But you drugged us and made this happen. You started the chain of events,” Whitney said quietly. “You shouldn’t have drugged us. And then it’s Meg’s fault for pushing her.”
“As I recall, Jill stabbed John Wisdom and didn’t that start all this?” Meg flared up.
Jill yelled over her shoulder, “Me? It was when we were kids. We had a stupid plan for vengeance then, too, and it went wrong because of whom? Yeah, Angel. You had to sneak out and meet up with Rex. That was what started this.”
“I didn’t ask to be raped.”
“I wonder. I’ve seen the way you slut around. I mean you screwed that disgusting piece of crap, Eben, for no reason. It’s always you and your sexual needs, Angel,” Jill fired back.
“What was up with Eben?” Samantha asked.
Jill quickly related the details, trying to shame Angel. She left out none of the nasty details of the cabin, the cot, or the filthy man on the cot. “It’s always Angel and her sex shit.”
“It wasn’t me who pushed and killed Nelwynn,” Angel said, crying harder.
The cabin was deserted, which was a relief. That was the best part of the day, seeing that they had been granted some time to get patched up and await Randy.
“Don’t hit Angel, please?” Samantha begged.
Jill huffed, “I’m not. I’m just as pissed off at Meg as you are. And myself. We’re all stupid,” she said as she ground her jaw. “But we’re going to finish this. Now.”
Jill took over and found that for once, her friends did as she ordered. She first checked Samantha and found that the cut was long, all the way across her belly, and despite the bleeding, the cut wasn’t deep. Jill only had to disinfect the wound with alcohol, apply antibiotic cream, and tape the gauze across the cut. Jill was a veterinarian but as close to a doctor as they had.
Samantha bravely let herself be treated, drank the huge glass of water that Jill demanded she drink, and then took an icy lime daiquiri, the one type of drink they agreed upon, hating the taste of margaritas and bloody Marys now that they had bad experiences with both.
Tiffany and Angel went around giving them glasses of water to hydrate them and then the alcohol to calm their nerves. Both left the others and went inside to cook hamburgers, afraid to be caught outside by Randy in an ambush.
Cassie’s knees were badly bruised, as were her kneecaps, and most of the skin on her knees was scraped away. Cassie winced as Jill cleaned away dirt and tiny pebbles from the open wounds. “I’m sorry,” Jill said. Cassie moaned, but Jill patiently painted the scraped flesh with a covering liquid that would protect against infection and make the injuries less sensitive.
“I’m an idiot,” Cassie said.
After wrapping Cassie’s knees with gauze, Jill sat back. “I can’t believe you did this to yourself.”
“I didn’t mean to. I meant to get a few cuts. Stupid.”
“It’ll hurt, but you have to walk and keep your skin from getting too tight. Besides, you’re my tough girl, and I depend on you,” Jill told Cassie.
“You were always my best friend, Jill. You were always everyone’s bestie. I won’t leave you hanging.”
Once the defense cuts along Whitney’s forearms were clean, she looked much better. Jill used glue to close the edges and wrapped Whitey’s arms and said that other than scars, Whitney should be okay.
“They’re okay. It could have been worse,” Whitney said.
“You were great when you fought him even when he cut you,” Jill told her.
“Meh. It was shock, you know. My arm kind of hurts now,” Whitney managed a laugh.
Tiffany was okay, but her eye had turned purple. Meg’s cheek was bruised a dusky plum color, and although she was cut as well, she was fine, also. Jill worried most that Meg did not talk , cast hateful looks at Angel, and gulped her daiquiri. “Go easy and drink some water, too, okay?”
Meg nodded absently. “Angel, why did you do that with Eben? For the plan? Really?”
Angel refused to look at Meg. “I did what I did. It was a role I played.”
“Isn’t it always?” Meg asked.
Jill allowed Tiffany to clean her palm, yelping when the alcohol hit the stab wounds’ deepest area, but she urged Tiffany to scrub the blood away, pack it with gauze, and then wrap her wounds well. “Can we handle Randy?”
“Sure we can,” Cassie said. “I may ache and hurt, but I can grit my teeth and fight through some pain to nail the bastard good. Besides, he’s got to be hurting as well, right?”
Jill said, “I got in two hard licks. He’s at least got a headache and maybe a slight concussion at the least. He’s hurting for sure.”
“Good,” Tiffany said, “and about Nelwynn?”
“I said I didn’t mean to,” Meg said.
Tiffany held up her hand. “I didn’t mean that. I mean that it sucks she’s out there. It sucks that she’s dead. It’s Nelwynn. We’ve been friends a long time. How do we get over this?”
“We just do,” Cassie said. “It hurts, but we can’t take it back, same as everything else we’ve done. I wish we’d never done anything. Ever.”
Angel threw her hands in the air and said, “It was all me; I get it. But it wasn’t just me all the time. I didn’t hurt Jenny Jacobs or Jill’s aunt or Mr. Griffin. That’s on you. And Meg pushed Nelwynn. Not me.”
“After this is over, just don’t call me. If you see me on the street, walk away. I’m done with all of it,” Samantha said. “I want to live with Cindy and be happy. I want all this to be over. I’m sorry we ever came here. I’m sorry we turned into this.”
“Why did we? Think about it. Mike used to talk about paybacks and justice. I started thinking that we were the good guys and were helping the world by what we did, but then Jenny Jacobs…and it felt good to shut her up and make her pay for what she did. I told Mike, but I never told all of you that. Afterwards, I went to him crying because I felt bad,” Meg talked and stared into space.
“What did he say?” Jill asked as she sucked on a lime.
“He said that I did what was right and that no one would miss her. He said that in the end, only the best, strongest, and cleverest people survive life.”
He asked me if I was a survivor,” Cassie said. “I was feeling pretty rough and talked to him about Jill’s aunt.”
“You told him?” Jill asked.
“Yeah, I had to get it out, Jill. I told him, and he asked me if I was a survivor and could make it in the world. The talk made me feel better, but it also scared me,” Cassie admitted.
“Did you tell Mike anything?” Jill asked Angel, Samantha, Whitney, and Tiffany. Each nodded. “And you got the same speech?” Each nodded again.
“What are you saying?” Tiffany asked.
“That he groomed us for this,” Meg said, interrupting Jill. “He listened, and he accepted what we did when we should have been in big trouble for things. He knew what we were going to do with Rex and John. He knew it might go wrong, but he still gave Jill a knife. He prepared us and urged us, didn’t he?”
Before anyone could speak, Meg went on. “He was an adult we admired and loved, but he condoned everything. He talked to me a lot about Mr. Griffin and wha
t he deserved. He said the man would never pay, and he put the idea out there in a sly way.”
“He made us this way? I don’t buy that,” Angel said.
Meg asked, “Whom did you want to please? Whom did you make proud when you went vigilante? Do you realize how many people we have killed? My God, think about it. That’s why we’re here this week. He wanted us to understand what we’ve done and either accept it and let the nightmares go or fail and fall apart. The strongest will make it out, right? He said that.”
“Nelwynn was always reluctant, wasn’t she?” Cassie mused. “We all took the pounding; look at my knees or Jill’s hand or Sammie’s stomach. We dealt with the rough parts, and she refused. She couldn’t make the next leap like we did.”
“That doesn’t make it right, what Meg did,” Tiffany said.
Jill’s face was strangely pale as she understood. “We thought it was only about other people. It’s us, as well, isn’t it? Which of us will make it out alive and sane?” she laughed bitterly as she asked that. “And Randy is coming for us, so we’re not finished yet. We have to survive him.”
Samantha frowned and said, “Like I said, I’m done after this. I’m tired of the games.”
“You’re with us, or you’re against us. Isn’t that the real nature of the beast?” Jill asked.
Samantha glared back. Angel turned away. Meg curled up again in the fetal position in her chair and sipped her drink.
The discussion was over, and they ate silently, barely able to swallow the food, despite that they were starving. The chilled potato salad and microwaved baked beans were slightly easier to swallow.
“The hikers,” Cassie added.
Jill looked up and around the room, panicked. “What? Where?”
Cassie waved her hands and said, “We need to be sure they are buried.”
After everything was cleaned up, Jill asked Cassie and Samantha, the two most injured, to guard the upstairs and watch for Randy.
Hesitantly, Meg handed over her pistol to Cassie, and they made sure both women had knives and were prepared in case they were attacked. They turned off the lights, leaving the cabin in the darkness.