“Val,” I said, “you’ve gotta wake up!”
She didn’t budge.
Just as I was considering throwing her over my shoulder to carry her out, the door creaked open. The beam from a flashlight poured in, and heavy shoes crunched on grit and rocks, carrying a group of armed men inside.
I quickly shut off the mini-flashlight, lay down, and played dead. There was no way I could take on such a group by myself, so I just remained completely still, not even breathing. When a huge glob of blood dripped onto my forehead, I didn’t dare wipe it off. I opened my eyes just a slit and saw a man in a bloody apron.
“These carcasses aren’t ready,” one of the men said. “They need to hang out for a few weeks before we can butcher ‘em.”
I swallowed hard.
“One of them is ready,” a woman said.
“Okay. Sal, this’ll be your first one. Sure you can handle it?”
“Yeah. I just cut between the ribs with a knife and cut the top from the bottom with the meat saw, right?”
“Exactly. The cross-section of the cuts will look like a proper rib-eye steak.”
A woman cut in, “Or, if you want, you can cut across the top to make round steaks. Even better, cut larger portions. Rita makes an awesome roast with all those fresh veggies we got growing in the blue room.”
“Now you’re makin’ me hungry,” the rookie butcher said and laughed.
“What about the new ones Rita led back here?” a man asked.
“She drugged them pretty good. They’ll be out till morning. Let’s get Sal started, and we’ll come back later and put ‘em outta their misery. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“When did you get a dog?” Sal asked.
“I found it just a little ways north of here. I figured the mutt would make a good lunch tomorrow.”
They chuckled, then took one of the bodies off a meat hook.
“So...what’s it gonna be?” one asked. “Sirloin, porterhouse, T-bone or New York strip?”
“You got hunger on the brain, don’t ya, kid?”
At that point, I knew we were dealing with a whole new kind of sick and twisted; had they had chainsaws, they would have given Leatherface a run for his money, and that made me want to puke.
The barn door clicked shut as they left, and when I was sure they were gone, I started shaking Val.
“Dean?” she said.
“Nick’s dead,” I whispered, barely able to get the words out of my mouth.
“What?” she said, her voice trembling. “Nick?”
“Yeah. He’s dead,” I repeated. “I think she overdosed him, probably those two pills she gave him, and he died and turned into a zombie. He went after me, and Rita shot him dead in his tracks.”
“Why’d she save you?”
“It wasn’t personal. It was...territorial, like a dog fighting over a bone. As far as that old bat was concerned, Nick was going after her food.”
Val let out a long sob.
I could say nothing else and only embraced my heartbroken sister in a tight hug. Nothing had ever hurt so badly in my life. I felt shock, disbelief, numbness, sadness, and anger wash over me at the same time. A few moments later, when she asked for more details, I told her everything I knew, then helped her up.
“We gotta stay strong for Lucas and Kate,” she said. “Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?” she asked.
“I-I don’t know,” I nervously stuttered, as I had no idea if they were dead or alive.
“Rita led us to the barn, but they passed out, and they’re too heavy for her to carry.”
“Wow. How nice of her to help us out, getting us to the barn before we passed out.”
“I’m sure her plan was to get everyone out here, but it didn’t work out that way.”
“They think were down for the count till morning,” I said.
“Dean, you didn’t eat much,” she said. “That’s probably what ultimately saved your life. I ate a ton, but maybe I’m immune to drugs or something, or else they left my system pretty quick. I mean, I can heal from zombie bites, so my system can take a lot.”
“Do you think they’ll bring the others out here, now that the men are back?”
“I’m not sure, but should we just sit around and wait? I mean, what if they decide to kill them in the house first. Lucas and Kate are completely defenseless. We’re their only hope of survival.”
“If they do bring ‘em out here, we’ll all be together. We can easily sneak out and take the truck. If we hurry to the apartment, they’ll never find us.”
“I don’t wanna just sit out here and wait. It’s too much of a gamble with our friends’ lives. Besides, what if they shoot us as soon as they come out here again? They have guns, but that old witch took ours.”
“You’re right, sis. We need the element of surprise on our side. They think we’re completely drugged, so we’ll just have to ambush them. Let’s sneak in and find the others. I just hope they don’t come back too soon and discover that we’re missing.”
“That’s why we need to move fast.”
I opened the barn door, and it creaked loudly. My heart jumped. The dog ran outside to freedom, and I was thankful for that; I just hoped it was smart enough not to stick around the freak farm, because if they saw the dog, they would suspect that we’d gotten out. Just as I was considering putting him back in the barn, he darted off. I glanced around but didn’t see anyone. There were no guards on duty, and that gave us an advantage.
“We can’t go in the front door,” Val whispered. She pondered, then pointed to a high window. “Look! Somebody is trying to break out.”
A boot smashed through the wooden boards and I wondered if it was Lucas. I called his name but he didn’t answer. I didn’t want to alert Rita or her cohorts to my presence so I didn’t try to call again. Somebody was trying to escape and it was the perfect way in.
“C’mon!” I shimmied up a nearby tree, then clambered from branch to branch. Whoever was kicking out the window had stopped. I called to them, but they didn’t answer. I climbed quietly into the open window, then helped Val in behind me. When I saw Nick there, looking at me half dazed and alive, it was as if lightning had struck me, and I was speechless.
“Nick’s not dead!” Val said.
“Of course not,” he slurred. “But Rita came back in and gave me an injection. She said it was Valium. I heard her tell some man that Val and Dean were in the barn dead. She locked my door, so I had to break out of here and see if it was true.”
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Val said, shooting me a glare for delivering the news that he was dead.
“I-I was drugged,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. I must have been in the wrong room.”
“This is the east wing.”
“I went west, I guess, but why’d she have a zombie in any of the rooms?” I asked.
“Who knows? It’s impossible to figure out a lunatic.”
I’d never been so happy to see Nick alive. I wanted to hug him and never let go. Nick and I had our differences, but we were family and loved each other.
Nick swayed and lost his balance, crashing onto the bed. Val tried to gently wake him up, and he groggily opened his eyes.
“Get up!” I whispered. “We gotta go.”
“Is it morning?” he asked, slurring and yawning.
“Get up!” I said.
He stood and swayed to the side, and Val caught him. It had to be one of the most intense moments of my life. I knew if we were caught or overtaken, we’d be killed for slaughter. I loved my friends and family, and I refused to let our lives end in that vile way. No matter what, I would make sure my siblings got out alive.
Nick was too loopy to climb down a tree though, and he didn’t even know what was going on. His coordination was off and I was afraid he’d fall and break his neck.
“Nick can’t climb a tree,” I whispered. “We can try carr
ying him down.”
“We could, but what about Kate and Lucas? We have to go get them. And we’re in the house undetected. We take the drunk with us. And go look for the others.”
“I’m not drunk,” Nick slurred.
“Shhh,” Val said.
She walked to the closet and got a metal clothes hangar. She threw the pants off that were hanging from it and straightened it out.
“Ready to break out, boys?” she asked.
“I’d just rather go back to bed,” Nick said.
Sticking the pointy part of the hangar straight into the little hole in the middle of the door knob, it clicked and popped open. I opened the door as softly as I could and peeked down the hallway, relieved to see that it was all clear. My heart was pounding a million miles a minute, the floor creaked with every step I took, and every second seemed like an eternity. I could feel the droplets of sweat beading down my back and face. I tried to keep my breathing even and unlabored, but that was easier said than done. When I heard someone stomping up the stairs, terror flooded through me.
“This way,” Val whispered, pointing to a room filled with glass aquariums of what looked like spiders and snakes. Whether they were pets or food, I didn’t want to know.
Val and Nick went into the closet, and Val whispered to Nick not to say a word.
He stopped mumbling.
There wasn’t enough room for me, so I opted for the spot under the bed.
And of course, out of all the rooms in the place, they decided to wander right into the one where we were hiding.
Just our luck, I thought, none too happy of being surrounded by snakes of the animal and human kind.
Chapter 11
From my vantage point under the box-spring, I saw black, scruffy boots and tattered jeans, four legs in all, indicating two men. Whoever they were, they seemed pretty upset about something. The one with the shinier boots cursed, and the other one lunged at him.
“I want that blonde,” he said. “You got that brunette last week.”
“There’s another brunette out in the barn.”
“Yeah? Well I don’t want her. I want the blonde.”
Blonde? They’re fighting over Kate.
“Sorry, buddy, but it ain’t gonna happen!”
Then, just like that, a fight ensued.
If Nick hadn’t been so drugged, I was sure we could have taken the two down, but as it was, we had to wait it out.
Glass shattered with a loud boom, spraying out in glistening arcs and crashing to the ground. I covered my eyes as little shards flew toward me.
“Don’t do this!” the man yelled. “You can have her.”
“No, that ain’t good enough. You’ll just keep butting in, trying to take what’s rightfully mine.”
As they argued, something slid over my legs. I knew instantly that it was one of the snakes I’d seen earlier. I sucked in a deep breath, hoping the thing wasn’t poisonous or ready to strangle me like those giant anacondas I’d seen on Animal Planet so long ago.
As I stared straight ahead, I saw a handful of hairy, black and brown tarantulas, as big as my fists, skittering creepily toward me. Go the other way! I thought, but the overgrown arachnids didn’t seem to care what I thought and just kept coming, staring at me with their beady little eyes. I didn’t know spiders could move that fast. Dread washed over me, and I wanted to run. I’d faced zombies in battle, but these natural predators were something entirely different. A scream swelled in my throat. I pushed one away, then another. Some went to the left of me, and others went to the right. It took everything in me not to run out of my hiding spot. I felt like bugs were crawling all over me, but I was sure it was just my imagination getting the best of me. Then I felt something on top of my head, then all over my body. I felt a tickle on my neck and about freaked. I could have sworn one crawled up my back, and it was all I could do to keep from screaming when I was so very unnerved.
As the men fought, a shot fired, and one of them dropped to the ground. He fell forward, facing me, while blood gushed from the bullet wound in his head. The other man, the hot-tempered shooter, paced the room, as if pondering what to do. As he thought out his plan, a big, hairy tarantula crawled on top of the dead man’s face, then sat on his head.
I stared at the dead man’s face. As if the zombies aren’t bad enough. This whole thing is turning usually normal people into monsters, some as murderous as the zombies themselves. How could anyone ever resort to butchering and eating humans? I mean, there was that rugby team in the Andes or something, and that psycho serial killer in Milwaukee all those years ago, but still... The violence was almost unbelievable, but I’d witnessed it with my own eyes.
As I was pondering the sad state of humanity, the man’s eyes opened—the milky, filmy orbs of a newly turned zombie. I scooted back, but he reached out with his still-warm hand and grabbed my arm. I was just glad I was far enough under the bed that the gun-toting idiot couldn’t see me unless he peeked under the bed.
“What are you flailing around for?” the shooter asked. “I thought you were dead, buddy. But we can’t have you runnin’ around here tryin’ to eat everyone’s brains, now can we? I’m afraid it’s time for you to go into eternal slumber, Ricky.” With that, he pulled the trigger again, and the headshot caused the zombie to loosen his grip on my arm. The man spat on the dead guy, then turned off the lantern.
Surrounded by complete darkness, with hairy bugs and slithering snakes crawling all over me, I was frozen in terror. It didn’t help matters that there was a dead guy lying just inches from me. Still, I knew I couldn’t stay there forever.
Just as I was about to ease out from under the bed to escape the madness, the door opened, and someone burst in and turned on the lantern again. “What did you do, Tommy?” Rita asked.
“It was an accident,” Tommy said, sobbing as if he really cared. “What am I gonna do, Mama? The other guys are gonna hang me!”
“We’ll tell them the blonde got the gun and shot him.”
“But they’ll kill her then...and I want her.”
“Well, you’re just gonna have to do without, son. This is the only way to keep the peace. If Marvin finds out that you shot Ricky in cold blood, he’ll kill us all.”
I could feel spiders crawling on my back, legs, neck, and head, and it was creeping me out. I tried to jerk my body so they’d fall off.
“Get this mess cleaned up,” she said, “and get all these spiders and snakes back in their pens. Marvin won’t be happy that his pets are loose.”
“We could eat them,” Tommy suggested.
“Son, do you have a death wish? They’re off limits! You know that. Now get this cleaned up.” With that, she turned and left.
Tommy grabbed a tall laundry hamper to gather up the spiders. As soon as he bent over to pick up the first one, Val burst out of the closet and kicked him, causing him to stumble back a few feet. When he lunged for my sister, that was my cue to get out from under the bed and give her a hand.
Before I could even get close enough to help, Val cold-cocked him. “And that’s how I take care of flesh-munching monsters,” she said.
Tommy fell backward, right on top of the dead man.
She shook her fist and looked at me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine. How’s Nick?”
“Asleep again.”
“Let’s wake his lazy butt up,” I said, shaking Nick. “He’s had enough beauty sleep.”
She knocked a spider off my shoulder.
I shuddered. “Whoever Marvin is, he’s lucky I didn’t smash his creepy pets.”
Finally, our brother opened his eyes.
“Get up,” Val demanded.
We helped him up, and he stared off into the distance.
Val opened the door and looked both ways. “All clear,” she whispered.
Nick was still out of it, but we were lucky that he was at least able to walk.
Val went down the stairs first, with the catlike precision of the average ni
nja, then waved us forward when she saw that the coast was clear.
I guided Nick down the stairs as carefully as I could, but his feet were still half-asleep, and he missed a step and tumbled all the way down, groaning all the way.
At the bottom of the stairs, I tried to get him to open his eyes and get back on his feet, but he was out cold. “C’mon, Nick!” I said, patting his cheeks. “Wake up, man! We don’t have time for you to keep going narcoleptic on us.”
Val ran to the dining room, then rushed back in and glanced at me. “Kate and Lucas are out cold too,” she said.
“Where are Rita and her evil offspring?” I asked.
“Probably out back, chopping up that body they were talking about earlier. Poor guy, whoever he was.”
“Poor us if they realize we’re not in the barn. C’mon. We gotta get Nick and the others outta here fast.”
“I hope they don’t see us.”
“Rita parked her truck out front,” I reminded her.
“I know, but so are they.”
I opened the front door and peered out, then walked outside and did a quick sweep. I didn’t see anybody, much to my relief. First, we carried Nick outside. The cold air blew in my face as we hoisted our brother into the back and covered him with an itchy wool Army blanket Val found.
“One down, two to go,” Val said.
I let out a long breath. I was exhausted, terrified, and dreaded going back in that house, but we couldn’t leave our friends behind. I bolted for the porch and took two steps at a time, with my sister keeping up an impressive pace right behind me. We hurried straight to the dining room, and worked to throw Lucas over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry, so his weight would be balanced. He was heavy, but I managed, and Val carried Kate the same way.
I’d never left a house so fast, but as soon as we were to the truck, I heaved Lucas in, then helped Val roll Kate into the truck bed. While Val covered them up and quietly closed the tailgate, I searched for the keys. When I realized Rita was too smart to leave them above the visor or in the glovebox or under the driver’s seat, we began looking for a screwdriver or a similar tool so we could hotwire the thing. We were about to commit grand theft auto again, but that was a lot less dangerous than going back into that nightmarish house where we’d almost become the main course for a bunch of cannibalistic lunatics.
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