by Tim Miller
Chapter 23
Claudia ducked behind the couch as the second shotgun blast sprayed across the walls and showered around her. The man’s footsteps came around the side of the couch. She started to fire up the chainsaw hoping she could get it started. It was her only prayer from having her head blown off in a few seconds.
Before he came around to face her, the woman Donny had hostage came running out of the room. The cowboy hat guy immediately blew her head off, literally. He shot her with the shotgun from inches away. Blood, brains, and bones sprayed all over the walls and into Claudia. Some pieces of brain and skull got into her mouth as she screamed. She couldn’t spit it out fast enough, and she tried not to throw up. Blood and tissue ran down her chin as cowboy hat took off after Donny.
Before they remembered she was there, she grabbed the chainsaw and ran out the sliding door, around the back side of the house and to her car. As she got outside, cowboy hat was walking in the garage carrying a big trash bag filled with who-knows-what. She got in her car and took off seeing Donny’s car almost a quarter mile ahead. She caught up to him on the access road and followed him onto the freeway.
As they drove, she took out her phone to call the only person she could at the moment.
“Rich! I need your help!”
“What’s going on?” he sounded half asleep as anyone would at almost 5 a.m.
“I’m in a bit of a situation.” She gave him the cliff notes version of everything that had happened so far.
“What? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Look! I got him now; he’s got a fucking dead girl in his fucking car right now! Are you coming or what?”
“Who is the guy with the shotgun?”
“I have no fucking clue!” she said. “He blew some stripper’s head right off. I got parts of her head stuck in my hair for fuck’s sake. Please!”
“All right all right. Text me your location.”
She pulled up the map app on her phone and texted him the current location. No telling where they’d end up. Donny’s car suddenly swerved into her direction. Claudia managed to avoid him as she looked back to see cowboy hat in his pickup ramming Donny’s bumper. He was trying to run Donny clear off the road. Donny sped up and began to pull away before heading off the freeway. She fell back behind Donny and cowboy hat’s truck. They wound around the side streets until Donny crashed his car into someone’s house, after plowing over a fence.
Donny got out of the car as the front door swung open. Cowboy hat pulled in behind him. The homeowner was wearing a wife beater and boxers and holding a handgun. He didn’t get the chance to get the shot off before cowboy hat blasted him in the chest with the shotgun. He pumped another round as a woman came running out of the house and he blasted her as well, hitting her in the neck and side of the face. She grabbed her throat and fell to the ground, kicking and gurgling.
Claudia struggled with the chainsaw as she got out of the car and pulled it free. She gave the cord a single pull, and it roared to life. Cowboy hat, who had been previously unaware of her, spun around, his eyes wide. Claudia charged him with the chainsaw before he could chamber another round. He held up the shotgun, blocking the saw from hitting his face. Sparks flew as the saw teeth ground against the steel barrel.
She took a step back and came at him again, this time, lower, going for his legs, He swung the gun around batting against the saw blade. For the next several minutes, they dueled like two gladiators except one had a shotgun he was using as a staff and the other the chainsaw. He took a swing at her with the butt of the gun, catching her in the side of the face. She almost dropped the saw at the blow, and her eyes watered. The blow was hard enough to stagger her. He swung again, but this time she ducked out of the way.
As the fight wore on, the saw got heavier, making it harder to lift and swing each time. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Donny watching the spectacle before he took off running. She didn’t want to lose him but was in the fight of her life. Cowboy had taken another swing, catching her on the other side of the face. This one knocked her to the ground. She let the saw drop to her side as she landed on her stomach. She closed her eyes, waiting for him to shoot her in the back of the head. The saw lay next to her idling with a low rumble. No blast came as he fumbled with the gun. She rolled onto her back as he pumped the gun again, pointed it at her face and pulled the trigger only to hear the empty click! For a split second, she closed her eyes and expected everything to go black very soon. When she heard the click, she knew she was still in the fight.
She took a deep breath, knowing she should be dead at that very moment. He bent down as he reared back with the shotgun like it were a baseball bat, fully intending to cave her head in with the next blow. Just as he swung forward, she grabbed the saw and squeezed the throttle as she thrust it into his chest. His eyes went wide as he dropped the gun while trying to scream. She had just sawed through his lungs, so no noise came out of his wide open mouth. Claudia screamed as she pushed the saw upward, cutting his whole upper torso in half before splitting his head in two.
She stood and looked down at herself. Her clothes were so soaked in blood you couldn’t even tell what color they had previously been. Her face was streaked with blood, as were her hands and arms. Looking around, she saw there was a crowd of bystanders now watching in horror. Sirens wailed in the distance as they drew closer.
“I’m a police officer!” she called out to the crowd. They just stood looking at her, horrified. “The man who was in that car!” She pointed at Donny’s car. “He is a serial killer! Where is he?”
No one spoke or moved until finally one woman in front of her stepped aside and pointed behind one of the houses. She picked up the saw and headed that way. The crowd moved aside as she took off at a dead run, holding the saw at the ready in search of Donny.
Chapter 24
Rich raced to the location Claudia had texted him, but by the time he was almost there a dozen police cars were headed the same direction. He had no doubt it was because of her. Turning on his radio, he heard the call go out of a shooting at a man’s house, a dead body in a car and a woman with a chainsaw. What in the actual fuck, Claudia?
His red dash light rotated around as he hung back just behind the marked units, following them off the freeway and toward the residential neighborhood. When they arrived, Rich got out of the car, drawing his gun as he ran up to the scene. It looked like something out of a Tarantino film. A car was wrecked into the side of the house. A dead woman was hanging halfway out of the driver’s seat, but her head was dangling from her neck by a thread. Like literally dangling by a set of threads from where it had been stitched on but was now coming undone.
Next to the car, near the front of the house, were a dead man and woman soaked in blood, lying next to each other. In the front yard was a man wearing a big leather duster lying next to a cowboy hat. He had been sawed almost completely in half. Rich looked around as a patrol officer was putting up crime scene tape around the yard. Neither Claudia nor Donny was anywhere in site. Shit.
He walked over to a few bystanders looking on.
“Did you see what happened? Or if there was anyone else here?” he asked.
“Yeah, some skinny guy was running from the lady with the chainsaw. They went that way.” The man pointed behind some houses across the street. Rich took off in that direction hoping to catch up before anyone else got killed. He picked up his pace until he heard the revving of the chainsaw. More sirens sounded as additional units approached. Just ahead he saw Claudia running with Donny Spanks about a dozen feet ahead of her.
* * * *
Claudia ran as hard as she could as the sirens grew louder and louder. They’d jumped several fences into and out of yards. Donny was a little guy, but he was fast and had stamina. Her lungs burned as she lugged the saw with her, trying to close the gap between Donny and herself. In front of the houses, she saw several police cars screech to a halt. She wished Donny would just give up already. There was a
helicopter circling overhead and even a news helicopter flying nearby. The guy had nowhere to go.
They ran for almost another half block before Donny veered to his left, headed right for a wave of police cars. By this point, she was barely ten feet behind him. She turned following as they made it to the front of the house; there were several officers getting out of their cars with their guns drawn.
“Help!” Donny yelled. “She’s trying to kill me!”
Oh fuck, was Claudia’s final thought before the police who only saw an unarmed man running away from a woman in plainclothes with a chainsaw opened fire. She never felt a thing as dozens of rounds pierced her chest. The third round to hit her went through her heart, ending her life instantly. All the while, Donny kept on running.
Chapter 25
Hollywood, California. Three months later
Donny Spanks sat outside the coffee shop in his rental car watching, waiting on her to walk out. He had his camera in his lap ready to snap any pictures of Candi Murphy that he could. Thinking back, he still couldn’t believe he’d escaped that day. When he’d come around the corner of the house and seen the police, he’d thrown his hands in the air and screamed for help while he kept running. They’d seen their own officer as the immediate threat and opened fire on her.
He’d kept running across the street and ducked into a vacant home. With all the commotion of the shooting and then realizing they had an officer down, he’d been able to catch a cab to the airport and buy a ticket to Los Angeles immediately. By the time the police figured out who they were looking for, or why, he was long gone. He’d bought some fake I.D. cards and changed his name frequently as well as dyed his hair and grew a beard. So far, no one out here noticed or cared if he was wanted by police.
So now he spent his days watching his love, his real Candi Murphy in the flesh. No more cheap imitations. Under the guise of a paparazzi, he drove around with his camera, snapping photos of her every chance he got. He was also planning. He knew where she lived, knew the layout of her home. It was easy enough to get a copy of the blueprints from the county building commissioner. He’d continue to watch until the time was right. Soon, she would be his.
About the Author
Tim began writing at a very young age. Even in grade school he'd sit around with his notebook, writing stories for himself and his friends.
As an adult, Tim's writings have evolved into darker realms. He released his first horror novel, "The Hand of God" in 2011. Since then his books have become progressively more violent and gory. With the release of "Family Night" in 2013, Tim had moved into the world of extreme horror where he continues to push the boundaries of human suffering.
Tim is now an international best seller as well. His book, "Hell, Texas" has recently ranked high on Amazon sales charts since its release in Germany under German publisher, Festa-Verlag.
Tim is very active on social media and loves interacting with his readers. You can find him at his website at http://timmiller.org
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Also by Tim Miller
Psychoville
Dollhouse
Curse of the Gut Ripper
Hell, Texas
Family Night
My Brother’s Keeper
Fertile Fields