“So you’re quitting?” Max spat.
“Yeah. You’ve taken things a little too far. I think you might end up killing someone.”
Max pounded a fist into his palm. “Hey, I think you may be right.”
“I don’t want to be a part of that,” Carl told him.
“And you think we’re just going to let you go?” Max said. “Johnny ran off, and now you. At least you had the guts to come back and tell me. That was very honorable.” He made no attempt at disguising his sarcasm.
Carl gulped.
“Tough luck.” Max pulled out a chain from his belt loop, and started twirling it in the air. “Let’s get ‘em boys!”
Eddie took out his knife.
“Yeah!” Farris exclaimed, “Let’s pound his ass!”
Carl ran.
5
“This does not look good,” Myron said.
“No shit,” Johnny commented.
There was the distinct rumble of motorcycles in the background, gunning their engines. They came to a stop sign as Carl ran up the street toward them. The car behind them beeped for them to move, the lane was clear.
Johnny turned and yelled, “Shut your pie hole! We got a situation!”
The man behind the wheel cringed and crouched down at his voice. The motorcycles sped around the corner, onto the street Carl Napier was currently fleeing.
“Shit!” John said, “Five of them! GO!”
Tony floored it. Carl panicked as the Thunderbird screeched to a halt on the street beside him. He looked around, confused. For a moment it looked as if he was actually going to run toward the motorcycles.
“Get in!” Tony screamed.
“Open the door Myron!” Johnny shouted. Myron did, and Carl jumped in, just as the Harleys skidded to a stop.
Max looked at Carl as he slammed the door shut. His eyes shifted to Johnny.
“You!” he said it like a curse.
Johnny smiled. “Yeah, me.”
“Go!” Myron yelled at Tony. The man in the car behind them watched this, mouth agape.
Tony took off. Max swung his chain, missing the car’s taillight by about an inch.
“I knew we should have stuck to the group of five rule,” Tony said.
6
The sun set early. By then the chase was over, but for the rest of Max’s crew- the one’s that stayed with the Dragons, the real nightmare had just begun.
Whoever or whatever had been waiting for them in the warehouse when they came looking for Max didn’t leave much of them behind. Nothing but pieces, a newspaper reported. Jim Jensen, Rick Morris, Samuel Leroy, and Richard Beck looked as if they had been torn apart by wild animals. A homeless man, wandering in the next morning found them. Morris’s head had been separated from his body, as were his limbs. Jim’s innards were ripped out. Sam was missing several organs. Richard Beck just seemed to be pulverized. The violence and grotesqueness of it was enough, until it was found that they’d also been partially devoured. Jim’s intestines had been chewed on. Rick Morris’s decapitated head was missing its eyes, and the nose had a mashed and gnawed look to it. There was no question what had happened to Samuel Leroy’s organs. Beck was almost an afterthought. He’d been smashed repeatedly into the ground with such force his face had flattened. His body lay in a tangled heap that was really only loose skin covering broken bones. Nothing was in place. His was a thrill kill.
Sadly, this was already the second casualty in what would be known as the New Year’s Day massacre at Mercy Falls. One reporter, in an obvious cheap publicity stunt would comment on camera, that “No mercy falls on this town today.” You could almost make out the groans in the crowd.
7
“Screw this!” Farris said, “Let’s get ‘em!”
They turned their motorcycles around. Most of the snow had melted, leaving only slush, and in this bright blue, if still cold day, their bikes left clear impressions where they’d skidded to a stop and changed course. It was fortunate that not a lot of people were walking that day, because it was also apparent at which point their motorcycles had actually gone up onto the sidewalk in their pursuit of Carl.
Now they weaved in and out of traffic, which thankfully wasn’t at a high peak at sunset today. Most people were where they wanted to be this New Year’s Eve, even at twilight, preparing dinner at home, or waiting in crowds for festivities to begin. They maneuvered their Harleys with the precision only years of riding could teach them; expertly switching lanes, swerving just inches from the back ends of cars, even running a stop light at the moment it turned red, speeding across the intersection, and narrowly avoiding collision.
The Dragons were only about a block away from their intended target now, and there was nothing else between them.
8
Myron turned around, pointing. “Um, guys?”
“Wha…?” Johnny began, and saw. “Shit! They’re tailing us!”
“Great!” Tony said, “How far are they?” He looked in the rearview, hoping it was wrong, reading the warning Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.
“Close,” Myron said. “Too close!”
“Where do I go?” Tony said, “What do I do?!”
“Turn here!” Johnny urged him.
The Thunderbird’s tires squealed as he took the turn wide.
“Let me out!” Carl shouted. “It’s me they want!”
“No fucking way!” Johnny said. “Besides, they want all of us, trust me.”
“They’re gaining on us!” Myron cried. They didn’t notice it now, but they would later, that Myron talked differently when under stress.
The Harleys took the turn in a way no car could, leaning into it, the sides almost touching ground. Tony had turned onto a side street; to either side of them the backs of factories and condemned buildings. Max’s cycle came up alongside the back of the car. They could see his grinning face in the rearview, swinging his chain.
“Aw fuck!” Johnny said.
“Duck!” Carl screamed, and both he and Myron crouched down. Max wailed into the back windshield, and it shattered over their heads. Carl and Myron covered their heads with their hands, pebbles of glass pelting their backs.
“Jesus!” Tony said.
“Floor it!” John shouted.
Tony hit the accelerator and went from sixty to seventy-five. Oh God, he thought. I can’t drive this fast for long, on these streets.
“I’ve got to get on the highway! It’s the only way!”
He got off, onto a main street, ignoring his stop sign. A car’s horn blared, and they heard a lady scream as it passed in front of them.
“Sorry!” Tony yelled; not that she could hear him.
“On ramp, there!” Carl said.
“I can’t take the ramp at this speed! I’ll kill us all!”
“Well, they’re going to have to slow down too,” Johnny said.
Tony looked at the thirty-five mile per hour speed limit sign with dread. He slowed back down to sixty, hugging the curve precariously, veering into what little shoulder the ramp provided. The car shuddered and he had to bring it down to fifty-five to make it the rest of the way safely. The Dragons were only about five feet from their tail now, although the bikes were beginning to swerve uncontrollably.
As soon as Tony reached the merging highway he slammed on the accelerator, taking it to eighty-five, cutting in front of the car in the right lane. There was a long indignant blast from the driver’s horn, followed by a string of obscenities.
The traffic was much denser here and the motorcycles couldn’t safely, or even semi-safely, cut in at this time. And at their current speed they were forced to screech to a halt on the shoulder, or else risk getting smacked into by passing vehicles.
“Fuck!” Max screamed, shaking uncontrollably, “God damn it! We had them!!”
“Forget it,” Eddie said, “We’ll get ‘em next time. They got lucky.”
“Next time,” Phil and Jake chimed in.
Max ground his teeth
. “Yesss, next time.”
9
“We lost ‘em,” Johnny said.
Carl and Myron turned.
“I guess we did,” Myron said, letting out a heavy breath.
“Why…?” Carl said. It was all he could get out at the moment.
“Why what?” Tony asked.
“Why’d you help me?”
Tony and Johnny remained speechless. It was Myron that fielded that one.
“Because, unlike you, we actually do not like to see people get hurt,” he said. “Asshole,” he added, almost as an afterthought.
Carl looked at him strangely. Johnny smiled. He’d never heard Myron curse before.
“Yeah,” Carl said, bowing his head down. “I guess I deserved that.”
“Damn straight,” Johnny said.
“Hey, you were with them once too, remember?” Carl said.
“Yes, but I knew when it was time to leave. Long before you realized it, if that’s what this is.”
“Yeah, it is,” Carl said. “I’d be screwed anyway, if I had stayed.”
He left, not because of any wrong doing, but because of the ongoing threat to his own personal safety, Myron thought. They wouldn’t have put it that way, but it was essentially the same thing John and Tony were thinking.
“I’ll drive past a few exits,” Tony said, “Then I’ll circle back
around, just to be sure it’s safe.”
Johnny nodded and turned to Myron. “So, you still feel like that ice cream?”
10
“Are you coming tonight?” Jeremy asked. He’d decided to call Staci from the pizzeria’s payphone on his break.
“Yeah, definitely!” Staci said. “I talked to Tony already. Um…”
“What?” Jeremy said.
“I don’t know if I should tell you just now.”
“Tell me what?”
“They had a little problem. An incident.”
“What?” Jeremy said, suddenly alert.
“They ran into the Dragons while they were driving,” Staci said.
“Oh God.”
“Don’t worry. They’re all right, they got away. They took out Tony’s back windshield, but he’s still coming.”
“Who was with him?” Jeremy asked.
“Myron, Johnny, and Carl.”
“Carl?” he said, confused. “Isn’t he one of them?”
“The Dragons?” Staci said. “Yeah, he’s the reason it all happened. We’ll explain later.”
“Okay. But they are all right?”
“Yes, they are. Don’t worry,” she said. “See you tonight.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you.”
Staci looked out her window as she hung up the phone, watching the sunset, and wondering why it filled her with dread.
11
The doorbell rang.
“I got it,” Myron said. Johnny was at the door.
“Hey man, you ready? Tony’s here and we’re getting ready to pick up Staci.”
“Yes,” Myron said. “I suppose so. How is the car?”
“Same. We cleaned out the glass, and put a clear plastic sheet over the back so he could see.”
“Makes sense.”
“So come on, let’s go.” He noticed Myron was looking at him strangely. “What?” Johnny said, nervously, although John Winter was not one to get nervous often. But it was as though Myron was looking right through him, and it was kind of creepy.
“Nothing,” Myron said, but he wasn’t budging.
“Listen, you’re freaking me out dude. Are we going to go or what?”
“Why are you so sad?” Myron asked. It appeared to come out of the blue.
“What?” Johnny said. “Why the hell would you say something like that?” He was clearly rattled.
Myron shook his head, as if shaking something off. “I don’t know,” he said truthfully. “I just got this feeling, like you were sad.”
“Well, I’m not. Can we go?” Johnny said; a tad too testily.
“Yes. Sure.”
Johnny looked at him oddly in the rearview mirror. Tony took a quick look at both of them as Myron got into the car.
“What’s up?” Tony said. “You guys okay?”
“Yeah,” Johnny said.
“You aren’t still nervous about what happened earlier?” he taunted Johnny.
Johnny laughed. “Hell no! I’m used to dealing with those guys.”
“I am,” Myron said.
“You know, it’s not very attractive letting everyone know what a pussy you are,” Johnny said.
Tony laughed, despite the harshness of the comment. He was about to drive off, when Myron responded, “I guess that comes from personal experience.”
Tony shifted the car back into park, and totally lost it. “Oh man, that was excellent!”
Johnny turned. “I give you props man, good comeback!” He high-fived Myron. “Totally burned me on that one.”
“Burn,” Tony agreed.
Myron smiled. “Yes, well. You had it coming.”
The awkwardness they’d had at the door was quickly forgotten.
12
“Are you going to come out with us tonight?” Staci asked her brother.
“No,” Joey said, “I appreciate it, but I actually made plans.”
“Really, with?”
“Lana.”
“Your ex Lana?”
“Yes, that Lana,” he grinned.
“Are you guys…” she waved her hands excitedly, “back together?”
“Well, I just got here a few days ago, so I would say no. But who knows, we’re going to hang.”
“I think you guys were great together.” Staci hugged him. “God, I can’t believe my big brother’s visiting. I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” he said.
“Things have been really stressful around here.”
“Yes, I heard. Me and Mom talked.”
“That’s Mom and I,” Staci corrected.
“Hey, who’s the one in college?” Joey said.
“I know the one who shouldn’t be in college,” she replied.
“Here, I think you need another hug,” he said, intentionally crushing her.
“Ow!” Staci squealed, “All right, all right! I give up!”
“Thought so.” Joey was a big guy, not just in height, but build.
He used to play football when he was in high school. Now he was into body building and fraternity keggers, two things that should cancel each other out. He wasn’t massive, mostly because of his height, but made up of solid lean muscle. “So the new stepdad is gone?”
“Yeah, Lord, don’t even call him that. I don’t want to think of him as any kind of dad,” she said.
“Understandable. Things are going to be all right Staci, I promise.” He hugged her again, softly this time.
“I hope so.”
13
It was a quarter to eleven when Tony arrived at the Pizza Palace. Jeremy was mopping the floor.
“Hey!” Jeremy said.
“How’s it going bud?”
“Well, you know… mopping the floor.” There were only three customers left, and they were finishing up their meals. “So, how is it, the Club?” He saw Tony was wearing a white bracelet for re-admission.
“Excellent!” Tony said. “You’ll love it.” He looked at his watch. “So, are you staying to exactly eleven? I’ve got John, Staci, and Myron in the car.”
“Yeah,” Jeremy shrugged.
“Hey kid!” his boss Mike called, “Get out of here!” he said, speaking to Jeremy. He’d apparently overheard. He walked up to Tony, shook his hand. “Nice to see you again.”
Jeremy was unsure he heard right. “Go on kid,” Mike confirmed, “You did a good job. Have fun, I’ll take it from here.”
“Really?” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, I’ll see you on the second. Now don’t abuse my generosity, this is a one-time deal.”
“Okay, thanks. I really appreciate it.”
“I know you do.” He made shooing gestures.
“Right,” Jeremy said, “See ya.”
14
He’d taken a back pack full of clothes with him to work, and he changed at Tony’s place, so he wouldn’t have to go back to his house. This was a night for Jeremy and his friends. He didn’t want to be reminded of parents or school, or the Dragons. He just wanted to have fun for once in his life. That lasted about an hour.
15
He arrived early in the morning the following day, scared out of his mind, and bone weary. His mother wouldn’t notice. Jeremy would sleep, and several hours later she would be up making breakfast. As Roberta Daniels scrambled eggs and set aside the milk, she would fail to notice the picture on the milk carton, of a missing little girl, seen wandering the woods not too long ago; a girl by the name of Betty Leesburg, wearing her favorite red dress.
III
1
The Rock Spot was emblazoned across the top of the club in red and orange neon. Two massive, wooden, double doors leading in to the club were now open. The bouncers at the door were welcoming; not there to kick people out, or deny them entry, but let them in, and keep them safe. The music blared, the unmistakable strains of Jessie’s Girl. The crowd was bobbing their heads to it as they entered.
“Hey look!” Tony said. They did, and for one crazy instant Jeremy thought it was the Dragons. Funny thing is, they were, except these particular ones were the good guys now. Lou, Mike, Mary, Pete, Julia, and Bill were huddled in a circle on the dance floor, drinking their non-alcoholic drinks. This was one of the last few clubs even remotely in the area that still catered to teens, the average age of persons frequenting it was fourteen to twenty-one. Normally you wouldn’t find Johnny dead in a place like this, but damn it, it was rock and roll. And if it was good enough for other ex-Dragons, well then, it was good enough for him.
“Wow, this place is cool,” Myron said.
The others turned and gave him an odd look.
“Could you be any nerdier?” Johnny said.
The Pit in the Woods: A Mercy Falls Mythos Page 18