They flipped over the top of the back wall, having scaled the sides of the chute. It was parkour at its finest. They landed with a solid thunk on the other side.
“Okay, this guy is really starting to piss me off,” Trey groaned.
*
Prodding every muscle he could find, Trey tried to assess the level of bruising he would encounter next time he found himself without clothes. He came up with something between “a whole freakin’ lot” and “dude, you don’t even want to know.”
Trey stood up, his movements ginger. He brushed himself off and looked around the room as best he could. He had no idea where his flashlight had gone, and he was not about to go back into the fun room of death behind them.
They stood on the other side of the chute system, an area that was less than six feet wide. On the wall facing them, a door awaited them. From the next room, low moans could be heard.
“Any idea what’s on the other side?” Trey asked his partner.
Darc gave a sharp shake of his head. Well, that answered that.
“Great. Just great.” Trey lifted his gun and nodded at Darc to push the door open. One foot in front of the other, right? And if Darc was headed in, Trey had to assume they were going in the right direction.
The room they entered was even darker than the one they had left. They both took a step in toward the moaning. Then another. It was coming from just up ahead of their current position. The moaning got louder, the tone more desperate. Another step.
Trey felt Darc stumble at his side, almost losing his footing. Probing his foot ahead of him, Trey felt it come into contact with something. Something that yielded to the pressure from his foot. The moaning ratcheted up another notch.
“Darc?”
“I know,” his partner answered. “Something is there. A hand or an ankle.”
Trey was doing everything he could not to lose it. “No…not that. Listen.”
Underneath the sound of the moaning, there was something else. A sound of leaves rustling in the wind? A rattling? A slithering…
No. No. This was not happening. Trey pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open, using the light to see what surrounded them.
Snakes.
They were everywhere, sliding and slithering over each other, over the form of the person who lay at their feet, over Trey’s shoes…
Darc hissed, “Don’t move!”
Trey was too busy trying not to scream like a baby to even take offense at how stupid Darc must think he was. He’d stopped moving first. “What. The. Freak. Are. Snakes. Doing. Here.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Trey watched as his partner pulled out his own phone and shone it over where the mass of snakes was the largest. It was from there that the moans were coming.
It was a pile of bodies. Bodies in cop uniforms. From the number of limbs Trey could count, it looked like it was both of the groups that had split off from them.
As he watched, one of the figures twitched and a viper turned toward the movement, fangs flashing in the dim light from the phones. The snake latched on to the officer’s arm, sinking its teeth into his flesh, causing a fresh moan to issue from his mouth.
Darc spoke, his voice inflectionless. “Bolgia sexta.”
“Snakes, dude. Explain the freakin’ snakes. In English.”
“We passed from the fifth circle into the sixth.”
“Oh. That.” Now Trey was wishing that he had paid more attention to the rest of the paintings. Well, from what he could see, he probably wouldn’t have much time to regret it.
Death by snakes. Yep. Trey definitely hadn’t seen that one coming.
CHAPTER 13
From the moment she had heard the screaming from Roberts’s radio, Mala had been waging an internal war of head versus heart. She should stay here. Safe. Her interfering could make things worse. But the idea of sitting here and doing nothing while Trey, Darc, and Janey were in mortal danger? Galling. Excruciating.
Yes, her brain agreed with Officer Roberts. Let the professionals handle it. The problem was, it didn’t sound like they were handling anything right now. And she knew from his frantic calls that any form of backup was over five minutes away. From the sounds over the radio, they didn’t have two minutes.
For better or for worse, Mala was going to do what she could to help those she cared about. And she was going to do it now.
This was the tricky part. She needed to explain her absence without triggering suspicion. Considering how adamant she had been about going after Janey earlier, that might not be so simple. Mala watched as Officer Roberts alternated between speaking into his radio and his cell phone. He was doing his best to manage an unmanageable situation. There was no attention left for Mala.
Maybe it didn’t have to be difficult. Mala pulled a play out of Janey’s handbook.
She waved her hand in front of the officer’s face, getting at least a portion of his attention for a moment. “I can’t take this anymore. I’m going to stay in the cruiser.”
“Yeah, sure. Okay.” He waved at her in dismissal, seeming not to care what she did. Just as well. Mala did her best to act nonchalant as she walked toward the police car, but once there, she hurried to the end of the block and hung a right, circling around to the back of the slaughterhouse.
Mala was on her way to do whatever she could. She only hoped she wasn’t too late.
*
Under different circumstances, Trey might have thought this whole thing was pretty cool. There were more kinds of snakes here than he had ever seen before. Even that last time he had gone to the zoo and managed to work his way up to visiting the Reptile Retreat.
He had always had kind of a sick fascination with reptiles. They had creepy eyes. Their bodies were covered with scales. They were cold blooded.
Oh, and they made Trey want to bed-wet. That too.
Trey figured it was like people that loved horror movies. You wanted to get that vicarious thrill and rush of adrenaline that came from having the crap scared out of you. There was one major difference. Usually when you went to a horror movie, there wasn’t much chance of the killer’s leaping off the screen and chasing you down.
Another snake slithered across Trey’s foot, poking its head up his pant leg. Trey had to bite down on his lip until he tasted blood just to keep from leaping five feet into the air. Probably wasn’t a good idea to make sudden moves with this amount of poisonous venom poised for dispersal around him.
The snake nosed about a bit before changing its mind and sliding off into the writhing mass of reptilian flesh that surrounded Trey and his partner.
Letting his breath out in a big whoosh of air, Trey sighed, “Yeah, this isn’t cool. This isn’t cool at all.”
Darc opened his mouth to speak, probably to tell Trey not to move for the fifteenth time, when Trey’s cell phone went off. “Milkshake,” by Kelis. Maggie’s ringtone.
Trey fumbled with the phone, trying to send the call to voicemail, but slipped and hit “answer” instead. Great. This was not what he wanted right now. On so many different levels.
“Suck,” he spat out, lifting the phone up to his ear.
“What? Trey, are you okay?” Maggie asked, her tone concerned.
Oops. The last thing in the world Trey wanted to do was get Maggie’s radar up and functioning. Once it was on, it was like she had ESP or something. “Totally, babe. Everything’s…cool. We’re totally cool.” Okay. Too much. Time to shut his mouth.
“You sound nervous. You staking out a strip joint again? Look, I told you…”
“No, no, no.” Trey let out a laugh that he hoped didn’t sound as tense as he actually was. “Nothing like that. I just”—he groped for an explanation—”might be home a little late.”
“Aw, really? How late? I’m making stew for us. Got some red wine…”
From the sounds of it, Maggie was feeling bad that she had left him to sleep on the chair last night. Another snake slipped over and around Trey’s ankle. Trey tried to turn
his yelp into a word. “Aaaah. Man. You know how much I love your stew.”
“Yes, I do, lover boy. Just get home as fast as you can. Don’t want the stew to get cold, now do you?”
“No, no. I definitely don’t.” Really? They had to be having this conversation now, right this minute? When there was absolutely no chance that he could actually enjoy it? God truly did have a perverse sense of humor. And Trey’s not being able to cuss about it? The icing on the cake.
“Love you, Trey,” Maggie murmured.
“Yeah. Right back at ya. Ditto. Catch you on the flip side.” Trey did everything he could not to look over at Darc.
“Seriously, Trey? That’s all you’ve got for me? Did I mention what I was wearing? Nothing.”
Wow. She did not fight fair. “Okay, fine.” Trey could feel his face heating up. He was sure Darc would be able to see it, dim light or no. “Love you too.”
Disconnecting the call, Trey held the cell up over his head to see what the snakes were up to now. Still squirming around, looking for someone to bite. Okay, nothing new there.
“Um. Next move?” he asked Darc.
Before his partner could answer, a loud bang came from above. It was followed by a metallic squeaking noise. Trey glanced up at the ceiling.
“Oh, what the freak now? Attacking birds?”
Darc shone his cell phone light up toward the direction of the sound. There, perched in an opening in the ventilation shaft, was Janey. The grate swung below where she must have kicked it open, accounting for the bang and the squeaking. She squinted against the sudden light, her face pale. She clutched her ratty teddy bear close to her chest.
Trey blinked. That could not be what he was seeing. How had the kid gotten in here? Did she not understand a pile of snakes was bad—really, really, really, bad? She was young, but come on.
Darc spoke to her, his tone without inflection. “Listen carefully. I need you to back up to the last junction, then take—”
Janey had started moving back into the shaft as soon as Darc began his directions, but the metal underneath her gave a huge pop. A bulge formed a few feet to the right of Trey’s head.
“Oh, no. Oh, man.” Trey tried to lean toward the bulge without moving his feet. He was several feet off. There was no way to get any closer without disturbing the vipers below.
Slowly, almost as if the metal relished ripping open, rivets burst and ricocheted off the walls of the room. Janey slid toward the opening, despite her scrambling to climb the vent. Her feet dangled directly over one of the largest piles of snakes.
Without thinking, Trey lunged forward, catching Janey right as she fell. Her weight dragged him down to his knees, her body blocking his vision. But his ears? His ears weren’t blocked at all. Perhaps that was why he could hear the hissing of the snake so well. The one that sounded like it was right in front of them both.
Trey spoke in what he felt was a remarkably controlled tone of voice. “Please tell me there isn’t a snake reared up, flicking his tongue at me.”
Darc drew in a breath to reply, but Trey rushed in. “Just lie. Just tell me there isn’t one there.”
But really, Trey should have known better. He could see Darc assessing the situation, his phone held high, casting harsh shadows across his face. His partner’s cheekbones turned to razor blades in that light, his mouth a grim slash as he spoke the words that made Trey’s heart sink into his feet.
“I think you have enough time to throw her to me,” his partner stated flatly.
Okay. Okay. He could do this. He hadn’t really believed he was getting out of this alive anyway. Trey nodded once, to let Darc know he understood. He didn’t quite trust his voice right at this moment.
Darc began counting down. “On the count of three. Three…Two…”
Trey tensed every muscle, trying to prepare for the most important throw he had ever made in his life. This was not one he could afford to screw up. Humiliation on the playground was nothing. He held a life in his hands.
The hissing on the other side of Janey intensified.
“Now!” Darc yelled.
Heaving, Trey felt the girl’s body leave his hands and watched as she sailed across the empty space separating her from Darc’s waiting hands. Snakes snapped their fangs, closing on the empty air left in Janey’s wake.
And then Trey felt a sharp stabbing in his left arm. He looked down to see the twin ivory needles of a viper piercing the flesh of his forearm. He couldn’t identify the type of snake that was dangling off him like some sort of extra appendage. Trey had to think that wasn’t a good thing.
As his vision started to tunnel inward, Trey could see the shadowy form of his partner as Darc raced away, Janey in his arms. Snakes poured after them, refusing to let these two prey disappear into the concrete tundra.
Trey was pretty sure this was one time he wasn’t going to be chasing after his partner’s retreating back. Strangely enough, he wasn’t that bummed about it.
*
Rounding the corner that led from the side alley to the back of the slaughterhouse, Mala stopped abruptly. This was not right. There should be police officers back here, guarding the rear exits. But the back alley sat empty, devoid of human life.
It did not take a genius to realize that this entire operation had gone awry, but it was no more obvious than right here, right now. Something bad had gone down, and not just inside the building.
Moving to a large metal door on the back side of the abattoir, Mala looked around, hoping against hope that her growing sense of dread was all in her own mind. Maybe the cops had stepped around the corner for a smoke or something? Right. In a middle of a slaughter, they were taking a break.
She rested her ear against the door, hoping to be able to get a sense of what might be happening on the other side. It worked almost too well. The door was steel, and appeared to be hollow on the inside. The effect was similar to a drum, where the slightest vibration would be picked up and amplified.
What was going on inside sounded like her idea of the end of the world. Shrieks, thuds, hissing, crying out…it was a medley fit for All Hallows’ Eve.
The visions those sounds conjured in her head were going to drive her into madness. Every image that formed was one of terror and bloodshed, and every single one included little Janey. How could Mala have allowed this to happen? The girl never should have been within miles of this hideous place.
She pulled on the handle of the door, but it didn’t budge. Locked. Examining the door more closely, Mala could see that there was a deadbolt that went directly into the mortar of the brick wall. The very old mortar. The very old, very crumbly mortar.
Grabbing up a small length of old, rusty rebar lying in the alley, Mala started to chip away at the mortar, seeking release for the bolt that held the door in place. As much as she didn’t want to see what lay on the other side, she had to get this door open. Besides, it couldn’t be as bad as what she was already imagining, right?
She thought back to the bodies at the skydiving place. Blake’s depictions of Aristotle’s circles of hell.
No, it couldn’t be as bad. It could be far, far worse.
*
Darc surged into the next room, holding the girl almost as he would a football. She was tucked into the crook of his arm, her face pressed into the lapel of his sport coat.
The snakes slashed behind them, lessening Darc’s lead with every moment that passed. Their scales moving across the concrete floor created a cascade of whispering echoes, filling the air with the sound of rustling leaves. Deadly leaves that could strike them down in a single heartbeat.
The shape and outline of the vipers’ speed married itself to the glowing form that was Darc’s pace. The blankness between formed into a patch of glowing red. He was not moving fast enough. The snakes would catch them quickly if something was not done.
Darc burst through a set of swinging doors. The room he entered was another large and cavernous space filled with hanging carcasses. Darc bumped i
nto one of them, causing it to swing back and forth wildly. As he sprinted past, the form of the hanging animal traced itself in bright lines along the borders of Darc’s inner vision. The ribs were far too close together to be beef. And they weren’t close enough for it to be pork. Exactly twelve pairs on each carcass they passed.
As he bumped into the next hanging body, Darc’s burgeoning suspicions were confirmed. The head was attached on this one, the skin removed, exposing the muscle structure underneath.
The room was filled with human corpses.
Darc pulled the girl against his chest more firmly and spoke into her one ear that pointed upward. “Keep your eyes shut. Tight.”
She nestled into him even further, her face contorted with the effort she put into keeping her eyelids closed. Darc scanned the room, looking for a solution to the glowing red problem of the reptiles’ velocity. No solutions presented themselves. The swinging door had slowed but not stopped the snakes’ pursuit. There was nowhere he could go to get away from the vipers before they came within striking range. The gap was closing.
Putting on an additional burst of speed, Darc banged into corpse after corpse, setting them swinging on their hooks. On the floor off to one side, a mallet lay, propped up against the ankle of one of the human remains. Next to it rested a meat hook, left over from the grisly task that had been performed here earlier.
Darc stopped abruptly as he found the only option for a positive resolution to their dilemma. Shifting the girl in his arms, Darc spoke with firmness, squeezing her arms for added emphasis.
“Eyes shut. Fingers in your ears.”
Approaching the nearest cadaver, Darc pushed the tiny form of the girl into its chest cavity. She winced at the wet coldness of the flesh around her but kept her eyes tightly closed, her fingers shoved as far into her outer ear canals as they could possibly go. She swung there inside the corpse, safe from the menace that stalked them along the floor.
Darc spun to scoop up the mallet and the hook, turning to face the approaching swarm of hissing serpents. There were three that had advanced ahead of the main group, apparently faster or quicker to follow than their companions.
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