Rise of the Mudmen

by Thompson, James FW

  “Check to see?” Alex repeated, apprehensive.

  David looked to the window. “On them.”

  The new plan was familiar. Nicole would play look-out at the door, though she would have the two weapons she had chosen—one with a screwdriver, the other with a brick—just in case she was needed, or something else got to the door. Alex and David would cross to the mudmen on the pikes, kill one creature each, then—having decided using rock/paper/scissors again—David would take care of the last one.

  David demanded they no longer use rock/paper/scissors to make such important decisions.

  It took even longer for the three to get the door open this time since they knew the things were alive, waiting for them. Plus, their task had become even grislier and more disgusting. David called dibs on the longest of the boards—the one with the sledgehammer at the end. He argued that it had a “better swing and kill-power,” but Alex knew that it was the distance that David wanted; distance away from the dangling mudmen. He wished he’d thought of it first.

  Before they opened the door, they looked out. The three mudmen left “alive” were very still.

  “Maybe they’re—” David started.

  “They’re not,” Nicole answered before he could get the words out. “Now get out there and make them dead.”

  “You mean, dead-dead?” Alex said, trying to get a smile out of anyone, including himself.

  It didn’t work.

  The door opened with a loud cracking noise that none of them anticipated. The mudmen looked in their direction, clawing at the air in front of them, moaning and gurgling.

  The fourth was still dead.

  None of them were any nearer to getting off the pikes, but Alex was still terrified, and he could tell the others were, too. They stood, looking at the clawing group, now aware of how close they were to them, and felt nothing but regret for being in the situation.

  But they had already wasted enough time; this had to be done, and it had to be done soon. The sun was already going down, and they certainly did not want to leave them for another night.

  Alex and David crossed the lot, never taking their eyes off the creatures. They dragged their weapons behind them, opting to take all of them at once. Nicole stood at the door, ready to slam it closed after the two boys got back in, but also keeping watch on the whole area. If she saw any mudmen wander in while they were out there, she would use the signal they agreed on. Though he had been told at least three times what the signal was, Alex couldn’t remember. Doesn’t really matter, he realized. If I hear anything, I am bolting.

  When the boys got within striking distance, they stopped and dropped their weapons at their sides. Alex opted to go with the iron—it looked like it would do the most damage, after David’s sledgehammer, that is.

  The two boys held their weapons, ready to get to their task. The handles that David had carved were almost comfortable. Alex thought it felt almost like the cricket bat he held at last year’s sports day at school.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “I guess so,” David replied, with a gulp.

  “Okay,” Alex said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “Right.”

  Neither boy stepped forward.

  Behind them, Alex could hear Nicole whispering, “What are you waiting for?”

  He turned and glared at her with a look that he hoped conveyed, “If you want, you can do this!”

  She didn’t budge.

  “You go first,” David said.

  “No, you go first,” Alex replied, searching for an excuse. “That way ... we can take turns.”

  “Take turns?”

  “Yeah, you do one, then I do one, then you do one. And that’s it.”

  David paused for a moment, chewing his lip, then shook his head. “No. No. I have to do two of them. That’s awful. I don’t want to take turns. I want you to go first.”

  “Ugh.” Alex sighed. “Okay. We’ll do this together. Same time.”

  David paused again, again grinding away on his lip. Alex wondered if he would chew through it on a particularly challenging thought. “Fine,” he muttered.

  “Okay,” Alex said, taking another deep breath through the moist painter’s mask. He held up his board. “Ready?”

  David said nothing, but held his own board up.

  “Okay,” Alex said, looking at the creature in front of him, lining himself up with him. “One. Two.”

  “Wait!” David exclaimed.

  “What?” Alex said, lowering his board again.

  Behind them, they could both hear Nicole sighing loudly.

  “Can we switch?” David asked.

  “What?” Alex asked, confused. “Switch boards? You picked that—”

  “No,” David said with a look of discomfort. “Switch ... guys.”

  “Guys?”

  “Yeah,” David said, looking up at the mudmen in front of them. “Mine’s all ... gross and ... stuff ...but he looks ... I dunno ... he looks familiar.”

  “You know him?” Alex asked, a bit surprised.

  “No, but he ... you know ... has a look.”

  Alex glared at David. “And my guy doesn’t have ‘a look’?”

  David glanced up at the horrible face of the creature in front of Alex. “No. No, not really. So, can we—?”

  Alex sighed. “Fine.”

  The two switched places and lined up with their new targets.

  “Are you good now?” Alex asked, condescendingly.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Alex shook his head. “Okay.” He raised his board over his head. David did the same. “One. Two. Three!”

  He brought the iron down into the thing’s head with a sickening crunch. He had pictured it hitting with a thud and the thing would go limp; instead, the iron smashed through, and sunk in a few inches. Red-black blood and grey bits of brain flew out. Alex closed his eyes against the horror and let go of his board. He could get it back later.

  Next to him, David was not having such luck. Alex had suspected as soon as David agreed to the “same time” plan, that he would try to delay his action, and he was right. Only, it backfired. Instead of just waiting, he had slowed the board as it came down and the mudman grabbed it. David let out a shocked yelp as the thing tried to wrestle the boards from his hands.

  Alex would have laughed at the other boy’s blunder, but the moment was far too dark for that. Plus, something was wrong—even more wrong that it was to begin with. David wasn’t letting go of the board. He was just getting pulled in.

  Alex remembered when he found a loose power line in the street years ago. It jumped around like a fitful python. He asked the power crew when they arrived if they would blow off when they touched it, like in movies. They said no. The shock would hold them until they died. At the time, he thought the guy was just messing with him; teaching a weird lesson about not touching dangerous stuff. Watching David holding the board, unable to let go, he knew it was the truth. David was in shock, and the shock would hold him there until he died.

  Grabbing another board—this one with a screwdriver jutting out the end—Alex took a breath and smashed it through the mudman’s skull. The point went straight through the top—handle and all— and back out its nostril.

  When the thing went limp, David fell back, screaming. Even after Alex pulled him to his feet, he wouldn’t stop screaming.

  Nicole stood in the doorway as Alex dragged her brother through it.

  “What are you doing? Close the door!” he yelled, when he noticed that she too was stiff with shock.

  “What am I doing?” Nicole shouted back. “What are you doing? There’s still one left!”

  “What?” Alex asked, kneeling beside the still-screaming David.

  Nicole’s face tightened, and she spoke very slowly. “You left one out there. Alive.”

  From where they were, Alex couldn’t see the last mudman, but he knew she was right. David hadn’t even killed one, let alone two. “D
avid was supposed to—”

  “Yeah, well, David can’t right now, Alex.” Nicole bent low to put her face very close to his. “He’s wigging out. Now you have to do it.”

  “But—”

  “Now!”

  Alex almost jumped up, fear of Nicole greater than fear of the creature outside. He stopped and looked down at David, writhing on the floor. “I need to take care of him.”

  “I can take care of him,” Nicole said. “You have to—”

  “I just killed two of those things! If you want to get rid of the third one, do it yourself!”

  Nicole started to say something, then stopped. She straightened, still glaring at Alex. She picked up one of her boards—the screwdriver one—never taking her eyes off him. “Make him stop screaming. He’s going to bring more of them.”

  She stomped off without another word.

  Alex was shocked that it had worked. He jumped up and watched Nicole march across the parking lot. She stopped in front of the last mudman, weighed the board in her hands for a few seconds, then lifted it over her head. She left it hanging there for a moment. David must have stopped screaming on his own, because all Alex could hear was the sound of the wind, and the moaning of the last creature.

  With a yell that harkened to a battle cry, Nicole brought the board down into the mudman’s head. It fell limp against the pike, then with a crack, fell to the ground, half of the pike still protruding from its chest, the screwdriver poking out from one side of its caved-in head.

  Both Alex and David watched Nicole as she stared at the thing and then turned back and slowly walked to the door. When she got there, she sped past the boys, with tears in her eyes.

  Later, Alex, Nicole, and David sat in silence in the hallway outside their bedroom.

  In the faint, remaining light, Alex looked at his new friends. “Did ... did we do that?”

  David didn’t look up. “Oh my God. Oh my God. We did. Oh my God.”

  Nicole looked up. At first Alex thought she was going to burst into tears, but then she said, “We did it! Holy crap, we totally did that!”

  For a moment, Alex and David sat in silence, unsure how to react or what to say next, but soon the three laughed and cheered, celebrating their accomplishments. Part of them, deep down, was ashamed of what they had done. The things outside that they had “made dead-dead” were once people. Very recently. The three of them had ended their lives. But the feeling they celebrated was not the fact that they had killed the things, but that they had taken control of something. They had succeeded. Those things could be stopped. They could take care of themselves, and knowing that made them confident that others would be doing the same. They saw a chance to live through this situation. People in the world were fine. People were hiding, just as they were in the community centre. They could take care of themselves, and they were just four kids! When this was all over in a few days, everyone would come out and everything would be okay.

  That is what they celebrated.

  Shadow joined them as they discussed the things outside, ideas for more traps they could set, and what they could do while they waited for the situation to end. None of them noticed Ryan come out of his fort to watch them, nor did they see him slip back when they entered the room.

  When they went to bed, they continued talking and joking and laughing. One by one, they all fell asleep knowing that it would all be over soon.

  Everything was going to be okay.

  KAITLYN

  Knock, knock, knock.

  Kaitlyn lifted her head from her folded arms.

  “Anybody home?” came the cheerful voice from the other side of the door. Her mother’s voice.

  She grinned and looked at Dave and Hannah, who smiled back, though neither of them moved from Dave’s comfy chair. They would let her answer the door.

  She twisted open the locks and pulled the chain free, throwing the door open to darkness.

  Her mother stood in the door, arms open waiting for a hug from her daughter. Kaitlyn embraced her, squeezing as tight as she could. Her mother’s coat felt warm against her face.

  Then she heard a noise.

  A strange but familiar noise.

  Metal scraping. As if it was being dragged.

  Her face felt cold. Cold and damp.

  Her mother felt ... strange in her arms.

  She opened her eyes and backed away.

  It wasn’t her mother.

  It was the woman she had seen in the window, the mailbox still dragging behind her as she moved into the house. Kaitlyn backed away, confused. How could she mistake that woman for her mother?

  But it was her mother. It was her mother’s face, only distorted. It looked older; saggy and grey. She was one of them now.

  Kaitlyn ran back into the living room. Dave and Hannah were gone. They, too, had left her.

  “Help!” she screamed to the empty house. “Something happened to—”

  She stopped abruptly when a hand squeezed her shoulder. She turned and the mother-monster was standing beside her. It had taken hold of her. It bent down, face to face. Kaitlyn screamed as her mother opened her mouth; her teeth, now grey and sparse, moved closer to take a bite out of her daughter’s cheek.

  Kaitlyn snapped awake.

  Her cheek ached where she had been digging her nails into it.

  “You okay?” Dave asked, as she rubbed her face.

  “Yeah,” she said, looking around.

  It was nighttime.

  They had candles and a lantern, but it was still very dark in the living room.

  “Did my mom—”

  Dave cut her off. “Not yet. But, it just got dark a little while ago. Earlier than it should have—it got really cloudy around six and—”

  “Six?” Kaitlyn yelled.

  Dave stared at her and swallowed.

  “It’s 8:42,” Hannah said. “Exactly.”

  “Oh my God,” Kaitlyn said. She body started to shake. Her mind went fuzzy and she couldn’t focus. “Oh my God! She’s been gone for ... for twelve hours?! She said ... she said ...”

  “It just got dark a little while ago,” Dave said, reassuringly. “She’s probably on her way back now. She’ll be back soon. You’ll see.”

  Kaitlyn shook her head as the rest of her body trembled.

  Hannah looked at her dad. Dave looked back at her and smiled, half-heartedly. She smiled at him then walked to Kaitlyn and hugged her.

  “It’ll be okay,” she said, trying to sound reassuring, but mostly trying to not sound afraid. “Your mom will be right back. My daddy said so!”

  Kaitlyn looked to the little girl, tears filling her eyes and streaming down her face. “Oh, what do you know? You have no idea what’s going on! Neither does your dad! You don’t know at all! You don’t even have a mom! You don’t know what it’s ... what it’s like …” She felt the little hug from Hannah tighten around her. Her mind cleared and she realized what she had said. She hugged Hannah back. “I’m sorry! I didn’t ...”

  “It’s okay,” Hannah said, now speaking through her own tears.

  After a long, hug and sniffle-filled silence, Dave said, “Hannah, why don’t you take Kaitlyn upstairs and help her get ready for bed?”

  Hannah let go of her hug and nodded.

  “Is it all right if I stay down here for a little bit, Dave?” Kaitlyn asked, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “I want to watch for my mom. Just for a little while.”

  Dave thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. But come away from the window.”

  Kaitlyn looked back through the boards, into the total blackness, and realized it wasn’t helping, anyway. She moved to the Moores’ couch. Hannah curled up with her dad in his chair.

  All three looked toward the windows, listening for any sound.

  BANG!

  In the living room, Dave, Hannah and Kaitlyn all awoke with a jerk.

  “What was that?” Hannah asked, looking around the room.

  Some of the candles had gone out.
Kaitlyn didn’t know how long they had been asleep. Even Dave seemed to have slept, something he had not done much of in the past few days.

  BANG!

  “It’s coming from the front door,” said Dave, as he craned his neck to see out the covered windows. “I can’t see what it is.”

  BANG!

  “It’s Mom!” Kaitlyn exclaimed, as she jumped up and ran to the door. This was no dream. This time her mother would not turn into a monster, and everything would be okay again.

  “Stop!” yelled Dave, catching up to her. “It might not be your mom. We don’t know who it is.”

  BANG! BANG!

  Kaitlyn stood looking at Dave, panicked. She had to find out. “What if it is her? We have to—”

  Dave put a hand on her shoulder and silently shushed her. He slowly walked to the door. He listened at it for a moment.

  BANG!

  He jumped back with a start, which made Kaitlyn and Hannah jump as well.

  “Hello?” Dave yelled through the door. “Who’s there? Joanne?” He stood, listening. “Why isn’t she saying anything?” Dave asked, trying to see through the board over the window. He hadn’t thought to leave a space there.

  Kaitlyn thought for a moment, then said, “Maybe she’s hurt.” She took a step toward the door, but Dave put his hand up, stopping her.

  He listened again. There was no bang this time. Whoever had been hitting the door had stopped. He looked back at the girls. “Both of you, go back into the living room. I’m going to open the door just a crack to see who it is, okay?”

  “But Daddy,” Hannah whined, “what if it’s a trap?”

  Dave smiled at the girl. “Just a crack, Boo. It’ll be okay. Now, go into the living room.”

  Hannah nodded and grabbed Kaitlyn’s hand. Kaitlyn looked up at Dave, knowing that he’d tell them what was happening after he checked. She hoped it was her mother and she had only stopped knocking because she heard them answering.

  Both girls sat on the couch, straining to hear who was at the door.

  After a short silence, the door-locks clicked open. A few more seconds of silence. It was killing Kaitlyn how long it was taking.

  What if she stopped knocking because she fell down unconscious? He needs to—