by Rick Suttle
“You had that woman under the tarp!” shouted Heather, as she approached the heavyset girl. “You had every intention of killing her before I even got here.” Heather caught her breath. “You were going to burn her, weren’t you?” Heather tilted the brim of her cowboy hat up and pointed at the huge girl. “You won’t get away with this.”
“I think someone’s overstayed her welcome,” said the three-hundred-pounder. Heather lowered her arm. She then raised both arms as the girl approached and jumped into a Tae Bo stance. She’d been practicing it for three years at the fitness center.
The huge girl laughed. She waved Heather toward her. “Come on. You think you can take me with that shit? Bring it, bitch!” Heather hesitated a few seconds then threw a side kick, which missed the girl. She hit the girl in the stomach with the next kick, which just bounced off six inches of blubber.
“Piece of paper, bitch. You’re too light to hurt me.”
Heather knew she made an error in judgement when she arced her right arm toward the girl’s face instead of kicking her, which would’ve kept her farther back.
The girl blocked her arm. Heather’s jaw dropped and eyes widened just before the girl slammed her fist into her mouth. The blow rocked her head, knocking her cowboy hat off.
Heather stumbled forward, blood sluicing down the sides of her mouth. She had just looked up and cocked her fist, when the girl socked her with an uppercut to the solar plexus.
“Uhhhhhhh!” Heather dropped to her knees. The girl grabbed the back of her head and slammed her knee into her face. Heather dropped to the pavement like a dead fish.
“Pick up this piece of shit and take her to the horse stable,” the girl told the others. “I’ll decide what we’re going to do with her there.”
“What about the others?” asked the girl who had held Heather captive.
“They’ll be back, I can assure you, unless they’re spineless jellyfish. And we’ll kill ‘em. They’re witnesses to a murder.”
“And the dead woman?”
“I’ll deal with it.”
“ What are you doing?” said Sarah, as the women marched into the woods past the trees where they’d first caught sight of the initiation. They had just seen the girls carry Heather off—probably to the horse stable at the bottom of the hill.
“ What did you expect me to do with a knife at my throat? We’ll get Heather. We just have to figure out how.”
“Those girls look pretty athletic,” said Jill, who was limping around. “And they’re five of them, excluding the rhino.”
“I know,” said Deb. “And you’re not going to be much help with that ankle.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Jill. “Let’s just figure out how to get Heather and get the hell out of here.”
“There’s still the matter of the stalled SUV,” said Sarah.
“We’ll find some gas somewhere,” said Deb.“This place is an armpit but they’ve got to have gasoline somewhere.”
The women huddled about fifty feet back in the woods, out of hearing range in case anyone was lurking around the parking lot. Just as Deb finished talking about the gasoline, a flame shot up. The fire roared in the distance as Deb traipsed up near the edge of the woods. She didn’t want to believe someone could be that evil, but the heavy girl had probably just tossed the dead woman in the fire.
Deb made her way back to the other two women. “I think I have an idea,” she said. “But it’ll require a little reconnoitering first.” The women listened as the trees around them rustled. A coyote howled in the distance.
Heather awakened what seemed like a day later. She had no idea how long she ’d been out. Her nose was broken and she had some difficulty breathing; she could barely see out of her right eye.
She tried to move her arms but they were tied behind her to a wooden chair. As the fogginess and blurred vision wore off, she looked up and saw the six girls near the front door of the stables. They were chatting about something Heather couldn’t make out. The fat girl then looked over at Heather as one of the girl’s apprized her that she’d awakened from her fist-induced coma.
“Well . . . well,” the girl said as she approached Heather. Only the girl who’d held Heather ’s arms accompanied her.
“The cowgirl’s awake,” the fat teen said. She now stood in front of Heather. She
stooped down and said,“How’s the nose feeling?” She chuckled—her fat stomach
bouncing beneath her sleeveless yellow shirt.
Heather kept her head down as not to make eye contact and piss the girl off. Her
body ached all over and she was afraid of getting beaten even more. Her Tae Bo had
been useless against the girl. She was probably an athlete because she was quick for her
size and stronger than an ox.
“Hey, I’m talking to you cowgirl.” She reached for Heather’s chin and pulled her
head up.
“I’m not a cowgirl,” said Heather. “I was at a rodeo earlier today.”
“Like I said before, I don’t care who you are or what you do. You’re an intruder in
these here parts and got your nose too far in our business. That’s why I busted it.” “I’m sorry,” said Heather. “I didn’t know.”
“Well, you do now,” said the fat girl. “And because of what you witnessed, I can’t let
you go.”
Heather’s throat churned. She tasted blood at the back of her throat, which had
seeped down from her rearranged nose. Her heart rate soared.
“What are you going to do to me?” she said.
“I’m gonna kill you,” the girl said, nodding her head. “Yeah, I may just throw you
over that railing like the other woman I murdered. Then I’m going to go after your
friends and take them out, too.”
“Please,” said Heather, her voice a bit meek.“I swear I won’t say anything about the
woman. Just let me go.”
The girl chuckled. She then mocked Heather, using a meeker voice. “Just let me go.
I swear I won’t tell. Bull shit!”
“I won’t.”
“You’re full of it, cowgirl.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
The girl paced around in front of Heather, pressing her hand to her forehead. She ran
it through her curly black hair. The other girl watched her but didn’t say anything. “Tell you what. I don’t have time for this crap anymore. I’m going to take you to the
fire and burn you now.”
Heather squirmed in her seat. “Let me go! Let me go right this goddamn minute!”
“ Gather up some limbs,” said Deb. “I’m going to head back to the truck and get my roper knife.”
“That’s crazy,” said Sarah. “That’ll take you more than hour roundtrip. Heather will be dead by then.”
“I don’t think so,” said Deb. “We were all witnesses. She’s going to send some of the girls after us first.”
“What about us?” asked Sarah. “Jill can barely walk on her ankle.”
“Just find a place to hide after you gather some limbs. I’ll hurry.”
“ Hey, gather round,” the heavy girl shouted, as she walked back toward the other four girls. They all huddled near the center of the stable, out of earshot from Heather.
“Angie, Jenny and Theresa, I need you to go find those women. They’re probably lingering around out there in the woods. When you see them, kill them.”
“Hasn’t this gone too far already, Sandy?” said Angie, a redhead. “We’ve already killed someone tonight, which wasn’t our intention. Then you had to go all ape shit on us.”
“You listen hear, you little ingrate,” Sandy, the fat girl, said. “I’ve come to your aid in fights, and my family’s taken you in when you had no home.” She approached Angie and pointed at her. “No, I didn’t plan tonight, but that woman saw us kill the last initiation victim accidentally. That’s why I picked her out for ton
ight’s initiation. She would’ve ratted us out over time.”
Angie nodded. “Okay.”
“But we have to get rid of these women because of what they witnessed tonight. Otherwise, we’re going to prison. I’m already on parole from that gang fight last year.”
The three girls left the stable in search of the three women. All had knives. Another girl stood guard by the door.
“ Unfortunately, I have to keep you alive until we kill your three friends,” Sandy told Heather. “But I’ll take care of you soon enough. You can count on it.”
Heather didn’t say anything. She had been working the rope lose and would try to escape on her own.
Deb ran through the first set of woods to the clearing on the opposite side of the valley. Her lungs burned and her legs ached. The rodeo had taken a lot out of her as it was. And now she had to fight off some psycho girls before they all died. But she had to get to the truck and back before the girls came after Jill and Sarah.
She reached the edge of the pasture . . . and made it to the rusty fence. Fifteen minutes later, she reached her SUV. She opened the back to check on Jacko, who was slurping up some water. She knew he’d be hot in the trailer with little air movement. After grabbing the roper knife from her SUV, she locked up and placed the keys back in her jeans. She then opened the back of the trailer to give Jacko more air.
She tethered him to a long rope by securing one end to a steel handle near the trough. That would enable him to walk around and get more air. Deb didn’t know how long she’d be gone—and even if she would return. But she’d surely give the girls the fight of their lives if that’s what they wanted—anything to free her best friend.
Just before she left her vehicle, she spotted an old softball bat on the floor of the trailer. It was partially hidden beneath some hay. The three girls climbed the hill behind the stable and made their way across the corner of the parking lot.
“Spread out,” said Angie. “Flanking them will put us in a better position to attack.”
Angie took the far right part of the woods. Jenny covered the far left, while Teresa, one of two black girls among the remaining group of girls, hiked through the middle.
“ They’re coming,” said Jill. She was hunched under a row of bushes which lay hidden behind a thicket of trees. Water burbled along a small stream directly below. Sarah walked along the trees to get a closer look. She spotted a black girl a hundred feet away.
‘ Where was Deb,’ she wondered, as the girl strolled along a path, looking in both directions.
“What do you see?” said Jill, as Sandy reappeared five minutes later.
“One girl,” said Sarah. “That means they’ve spread out because we heard at least three voices earlier.
“Yeah.”
Jill sat with a tree limb across her lap. She had tried sharpening the tip with a rock but couldn’t quite create a spear. Sarah held her stick in her right hand. A half dozen were scattered to the right of Jill.
“I’m going to try something,” said Sarah.
“Let’s wait for Deb. She should be back in a few minutes.”
Deb reached the valley across from the farmhouse and entered the final stretch of woods. When she got to section alongside the stable, she looked down and spotted a girl guarding the front. She could barely make out a couple figures through the side window, but didn’t see Heather. She turned just as the redhead, Angie, charged with a knife in her hand.
Deb recognized the girl as the one who ’d held that knife to her throat. She caught the girl’s arm and parried the knife away, but the momentum carried both of them down the side of the hill. She lost her grip on the bat.
The two tumbled heels over head down the embankment, over weeds and scree. Deb’s back hit a tree near the bottom of the declivity, which spun her legs around. As she stood, dizzy and disoriented, the girl punched her in the jaw. Deb landed on her ass. The girl kicked her in the stomach.
“ Uhhhhhh!” Deb fell to her right side. When the girl advanced again, she shot her legs out, scissored them around Angie’s ankles and brought her to the ground. Deb jumped on top her.
They both wrestled and rolled on the ground. Deb got on top of her and tried to hit her but got thrown off. She flew back against a tree, whacking her back on the thick trunk.
Angie stood and sashayed over to Deb, who was now leaning against the tree. “You’re mine now,” she said. Angie had lost the knife but located a rock the size of a football just to the right of Deb’s outstretched legs. Deb kicked her leg at Angie as she tried to pull it loose. She missed.
The girl picked up the rock and lifted it over her head. She then dropped to her knees and swung both arms toward Deb’s head.
Deb flipped on her back and kicked the girl as her momentum carried her forward. The rock flew out of her hand and landed a foot from Deb’s head.
Angie landed on her stomach to the left of Deb. Deb reached into the back pocket of her jeans and fished out the roper knife. She tugged on the handle a couple times just as Angie pushed herself to her knees.
“I guess I’ll have to kill you with my bare hands,” she shouted, as she dove on top of Deb. She started choking her. Deb gagged and tried to push her off. Angie then raised her fist up. She swung at Deb’s face but Deb blocked her right arm. She then plunged the knife into Angie’s stomach.
The girl’s eyes widened as she fell on top of Deb. Deb pushed her off just before she vomited up blood. Angie died moments later.
Deb felt like vomiting herself as she’d never killed anyone. But she fought off the nausea, got to her feet and headed back through the woods toward her friends.
Heather twisted her thin wrists behind her and worked her way out of the ropes. She scooted forward in the chair and placed both boots on the ground. She watched the girl standing outside the stable door as she paced back and forth. She was facing away from the stable. Sandy and the other girl were on the far side of the stable chatting. Neither were looking her way.
Heather ’s heart pounded as she put a little weight on her legs to test her steadiness. She slowly got to her feet, glanced at the two girls and took off running toward the door.
“She’s getting away,” the girl near Sandy shouted. Sandy turned and took off after her. Heather shoved the girl outside and knocked her down. But she lost her footing. She fell on her shoulder and rolled over a couple times. She got to her feet then fell to her stomach in exhaustion. She had just pushed herself up to her knees when the fat girl rammed her foot into her ass from behind and knocked her down.
Sandy pulled Heather to her feet by her arms and marched her toward the stable.
“Try that again and I’ll slit your throat,” said Sandy. She grabbed hold of Heather’s hair in back just as the two reached the stable door. Heather screamed just before Sandy slammed her face into the wide door and knocked her out.
“ Look out,” cried Jill, as the black girl came running at Sarah. She tackled Sarah from behind, knocking her off a dirt path into the grass. Jill heard the girl punch her friend a couple times—like fist hitting flesh with thuds. But she suddenly got pulled to her feet by Jenny, the third girl, who’d just hunted her down.
Jenny, who outweighed her by twenty pounds, grabbed Jill by both arms and tossed her down the small hill into the stream. Jill tried to stand but Jenny punt-kicked her and knocked her back into the water. She then jumped on Jill and dunked her head under the stream.
Jill sank to the bottom as the girl placed both of her hands on the back of her head and sat on her. She felt her life slipping away as she closed her eyes. It was nearly two minutes later when Deb pulled Jill out of the water.
“ You okay?”
“Yeah,” said Jill. She gasped as she spit water from her mouth. She then spotted the blonde girl lying face down in the stream. Deb had clobbered her with the bat she’d found after her fight with Angie.
“Is she dead?”
“I’ll check,” said Deb.
Deb walked over and
pulled the girl’s head up. The girl’s body had stiffened and her face was swollen.
“She must’ve drowned after I hit her.”
“Sarah needs our help?”
“I didn’t see her,” said Deb.
“She was fighting some black girl who was fairly muscular,” Jill said. “She must’ve taken Sarah to the stable.”
“ Sharpen a few of these limbs,” said Deb, as she pulled out her roper knife and handed it to her. “I want to run back to see if they have Sarah. We’ll meet back here in ten minutes.”
“What’s the plan?”
“All of these girls have knives,” said Deb. “We can fend them off better with the spears and bat.” Deb ran back through the woods to get a better view of the stable. She swatted fronds of bushes aside as she made her way to the side of the hill. That’s where she saw the black girl shove Sarah’s stooped-over form through the open stable door.
Deb ’s heart suddenly sank as she thought about the two girls she’d killed. But they would’ve killed her if she hadn’t. Her melancholy dissipated as she grew angry about her two captured friends. There was no rational explanation for this night. It’s as if they had just walked into hell after a long hike through the woods.
The black girl shoved Sarah to the ground. The woman’s nose and mouth were bloodied. Sandy walked over, pulled her to her feet and dragged her over toward Heather. She tied her up in a second chair that she pulled from the opposite end of the stable.
“ You women have caused me a lot of grief tonight,” said Sandy. “Once I kill your friends, I’m going to dispose of you two out back.”
Heather’s head lolled near her chest as she sat on the chair with her arms tied. Sarah saw her spit up blood and gasp. Blood flowed from Heather’s eyebrow. The rest of her face was caked in dry blood down to her chin. At that juncture, she was really sorry she’d argued with the woman. She felt bad for her.
“ Let’s go,” said Deb, as Jill gathered up the three spears she’d sharpened. The woman strolled back through the woods—Deb with the bat in hand and knife in her jeans, and Jill with the three spears. Jill’s ankle was getting worse as she could barely keep up. Deb led the way to where she’d seen Sarah and the black girl enter the stables.