“Well, too bad,” Nicole replied, relying on the old argument. “Now, get back to yelling, would ya? We don’t want to lose them!”
“I want to,” David mumbled, as he walked back to the window and continued yelling, though his “HEY!” became far less aggressive.
“You ready?” Alex asked, pulling on the last of his armour.
“Just about,” Nicole replied as she put her helmet on.
They wore the thick, long coats and gloves that Alex and David had worn earlier, with ancient hockey pads and ice hockey helmets. Alex had a couch cushion tied to his chest and back. On his arms, he tied small pieces of wood, with room left at the joints. Nicole used smaller cushions from the karate school and tied as many of them as she could all around her torso. Over her arms, she put dryer hoses.
They each took a long board with sharp screwdrivers on the ends. Anything heavier would slow them down and be too hard to handle. While they hoped all of the mudmen would go for David’s distraction, they knew that they’d have to fight a few.
“What time is it?” Nicole asked.
“It’s 7:09,” he said after tugging back his gloves. “We still have a few minutes, I guess.”
“Yeah,” Nicole said, trying to think of something—anything—to motivate them into moving. Nothing came to her.
“You guys should get going soon!” yelled David from across the hall. “It’s starting to get bright out!”
Alex and Nicole peered out the window. Sure enough, to the east was a faint line of yellowy-orange. The cloud cover stayed, but the light might be enough. They could already see the outlines of the dark mudmen below them more clearly. Fewer than before, but still some. A dozen at least.
They had to get moving.
“Just a sec,” Nicole said, heading for the room David was in.
“HEY!” David yelped as she entered.
“David?”
“What?”
“I just wanted to say ... you know ... be careful.”
“Do I actually have to go down there?”
Nicole joined him and looked down.
At least a dozen mudmen stood at the fence, pushing and moaning.
“Yes, you do,” she replied, still looking down.
“But—”
“If you just make noise, they’ll figure out that’s all you’re doing,” she said, looking into her brother’s eyes. “As dumb as they are, I think they have that figured out. We need them to think you’re actually ...” She let the words hang.
David did not. “Food. They need to think they can actually eat me.”
Nicole nodded at his frankness. “But,” she added, “the fence will hold them. They can’t get you. You know that.”
“No, we just think that,” David said, looking down. “There’s never been that many down there. There’s ...” he quickly counted, “thirteen! Thirteen!”
“Lucky thirteen!” Nicole joked.
“Not funny.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t be thirteen for long,”
“Not funny!”
“It’ll be like thirty soon.”
“Stop it!”
“Maybe forty.”
“I swear to God I’ll push you down there right now!”
Nicole looked at her brother as the moans from outside filled the silence. “Be careful.”
David nodded. “You too.”
She was just about to leave when David gave her a quick hug. When the instant of surprise passed, she hugged him back.
“I’m not getting off the ladder,” David said, sniffling.
“Just as long as you’re down there making noise,” Nicole replied.
They both let go of the hug simultaneously.
“Well,” she said turning to leave, “have fun!”
KAITLYN
“HEY!” the shouting from outside continued. “HE-EEEY!”
“What’s happening?” she asked Hannah, whose face was pressed against the cold window.
“I don’t know,” the younger girl replied, her eyes darting back and forth. “Someone out there is yelling.”
“I know that!” Kaitlyn said, forgetting to whisper. “But who? And why?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see anyone.” She sat back from the window. “Do you think it’s the people from across the street?”
“Why would they be yelling?” Kaitlyn asked, unsure why she doubted the suggestion. Other than her mother and Dave she had seen no other people. It just didn’t make sense for them to be yelling outside.
“HEY!”
“I think they wanted us to stop screaming so that the bad people would stop coming,” Hannah said.
“Exactly,” said Kaitlyn. “Then why would they start—”
Before she could finish, the answer came from outside.
“HEY! HEY! MUDMEN! OVER HERE!”
“They’re calling them,” Kaitlyn answered herself, her voice rising with excitement. “They’re making them leave us alone!” She almost ran to the window in excitement. When the door shoved in a few inches, her excitement faded back into fear.
Right, she thought. Keep your voice down.
“Shh,” Hannah said, back to the window. “Just listen. We’re not alone after all.” She gave Kaitlyn a watery smile.
Kaitlyn focused on the voice, trying to block out the growls. The door remained open, just a crack with four bloody fingers crushed against the frame, getting a better grip on the door.
ALEX
Waiting in the darkness of the front lobby with Nicole, Alex felt terrible at having made the other boy the decoy. He could hear David trying to get the mudmen’s attention, but he was yelling, not screaming. If he started calling their names, that was when they had to turn back. It would mean that the mudmen had gotten through somehow. But it wouldn’t come to that. The whole plan would be over in five minutes, tops. Just that simple.
“How’s it look out there?” Alex asked, to get his mind off the plan’s weak points.
Nicole lifted the board ever so carefully and peered out, a faint line of light shining onto her face. “It actually looks like it’s working. There’s ... well, there’s less of them.”
“Less,” Alex repeated, “but still some?”
Nicole sighed. “Yup.”
After another moment of dark silence, Nicole took a deep breath. “Okay.” Alex saw that she was shaking. So was he. “Five minutes?” she asked, as if looking for reassurance. Reassurance that it would work. Reassurance that they would not die.
“Five minutes,” Alex said firmly, looking for the same. Even as he said it, his watch alarm beeped: 7:15 a.m.
“Okay,” Nicole replied, “let’s go.”
Nicole slowly cracked the door open, letting in faint light. Thankfully, there were no mudmen around. They headed into the parking lot, which had quickly become so unknown and foreign.
Six mudmen remained. Of those six, one had impaled itself on the pikes with the previous four. No wonder the rest of them showed up ... with the smell out here, Alex thought, realizing they had forgotten to clean them up.
Only five were left who could get at them.
They were ready to swing and bash some skulls.
The mudmen ignored them.
“Are ... are they scared of us?” Alex whispered, as he and Nicole stood in the parking lot. “Like, are they scared ‘cause of what we did to the other ones?” He pointed at the dead-dead group on the pikes.
Nicole looked at the five wandering mudmen. “Maybe they can’t see us because we’re not moving?”
“Oh, okay,” Alex said. “So ... how do we move if we can’t move?”
“We just have to move really, really slow,” Nicole said as she took a single, small step.
“Right,” Alex whispered and did the same.
They inched their way across the parking lot, keeping an eye on the wandering mudmen, who were seemingly unaware of the food source so nearby.
Suddenly Nicole stopped.
“What?” as
ked Alex, as he approached.
“I think,” she started, looking at the nearest mudman, “they’re just stupid.”
“They’re not attacking us ... because they’re stupid?” Alex asked, confused. “So, it has nothing to do with us moving fast or slow?”
“No, I wouldn’t say—” Nicole started. She stopped when Alex ran a few steps.
At the sound of his feet hitting the pavement, the mudmen all turned to them. Both kids froze.
“Nice job, moron!” Nicole yelled.
Alex said nothing as he tried to figure a way out of the situation. Nothing came to him.
“Well, keep running!” Nicole yelled as she ran by. “Pretty much have to, now!”
He made it two more steps before he tripped—one of his pads came loose. He rolled, coming to a halt when he hit the curb. He extended his hand when he heard footsteps coming, hoping for some help to his feet, but it wasn’t Nicole who stood above him. It was one of them.
He screamed once, very briefly, stopping when the mudmen went limp and blood splattered out of his face. It crumpled to the ground, between Alex and Nicole.
“You are ridiculous,” she said, shaking her head as she continued to the house.
Alex lay in the street, dazed, with his hand still extended as mudmen continued toward him; more since he had screamed.
“Come on!” Nicole yelled. “I’m not going to save you again!”
He scrambled to his feet, pulled the loosened pad off, and bolted for the house. When he got to the front lawn, and had a moment to breathe, he turned back to the street. They had been noticed. A few more came around the corner of the community centre, moving much faster than before. They were on the hunt.
“Dammit!” Nicole yelled behind him. “I should have known! The door is locked! Now what are we going to do?”
Alex, somewhat calmly, approached the window that had been smashed open. “How about this?” he asked, with a smirk, knowing that he was not the dumb one for the moment.
The smirk faded when his arm was grabbed from inside the house.
The hand holding him was bloody. Shards of glass stuck out of it, up the arm, across its chest, and face. He pictured it slithering through the broken window instead of climbing. Red-black ooze poured from its wounds as it snarled and growled, pulling Alex closer to its hideously mangled mouth.
Alex whimpered as he raised his weapon and smashed it down on the creature’s head. Its grip loosened and it fell limp inside the house. Alex, panting, stared at the thing he had just killed even as Nicole went through the window.
“Thanks for clearing the way,” she said, looking back through the opening. “Moron.”
The living room was destroyed. Bloody red glass covered everything.
“Come on!” Nicole said urgently, over her crunching footsteps. Alex could barely see her across the dark room. “We’re taking way longer than five minutes!”
“Yeah” was all he could say. He was trembling and sweating. For the first time since he was rescued from the woods, he thought he might be in shock. He found himself at the stairs, Nicole standing in front of him with the flashlight. He did not remember walking there or her taking out the flashlight, or anything since he entered the house.
“What happened?” he asked, confused.
“Be quiet!” Nicole whispered. “I think I hear more of them upstairs!”
Slowly and quietly they worked their way to the top of the stairs. They could see down the hall in the faint light from the doorways. If not for that trickle of light, they would not have seen the monster that stepped out of the room to their right.
It clumsily attacked them, almost falling over, snarling. Shreds of bloody flesh hung from its face and arms, evidence of its gruesome entrance through the smashed window. A large wound gaped in its gut.
Alex took all of this in after they had both swung their weapons at the mudman’s—mudwoman’s—head, practically crushing it to a red and black mush between the two boards.
The hallway seemed clear, though they were learning that the mudmen, despite their apparent lack of intelligence, were great at appearing when you least expected them. Alex and Nicole walked very slowly down the hall, checking each room they passed by. They were all empty.
They instinctively moved toward the end of the hall. As they approached, Alex took in two facts about the last door. First, deep red and brown claw marks ran along the wood. Something dripped to the floor, pooling into a thick smear.
Second, the door was open.
Two dark red hand prints marked the edge of the door where it had been pried open.
They tried, thought Alex, feeling sick. They tried, and we tried, but ... I guess we’re too late.
A dread-filled silence passed between them as they stood, both too afraid to go any farther. Afraid to see what carnage lay inside.
As if sensing each other’s apprehension, they simultaneously nodded at one another. Each took a deep breath and headed for the room, just a few short feet away.
The dark red smears continued into the room, glistening in the faint light.
One more step.
Then there were feet. Two feet lying on the floor. No shoes. One had a sock, the other was bare. On the bare one, the toenails were painted light blue. The sock had a stitch pattern of a unicorn on it.
One more step.
The legs were covered in blood. Thick, red blood, like what was all over the floor, but redder. Fresher.
One more step.
She was wearing a long shirt. At one point, it had been light blue. Now it was so covered in blood that it was almost unrecognizable as a colour at all.
One final step.
They were in the room.
The little girl lay on the floor, her hands reaching out, trying to stop whatever was coming at her. Above her head was a splatter of blood and what seemed to be brains oozing out of a fresh wound. Next to her was a large bed, splattered with more gore.
“Oh no,” Alex gasped before turning away and throwing up what he had eaten the previous night.
NICOLE
Nicole just stared, listening.
She heard Alex’s retching, and his shoes sticking to the stuff on the floor as he turned out of the room. She heard the things outside—maybe even in the house again by now. Their moaning. Their dragging. Ragged breaths.
Ragged breaths in the room.
Slowly, she moved around the bed, keeping her eyes on the floor as she avoided stepping in anything that had come out of the dead little girl’s head. At the end of the bed, something scurried away. She raised her board, ready to bring it down into the skull of whatever it was.
She stopped.
Curled up between the bed and the wall were the two girls.
“Oh my God!” she yelled, forgetting to keep her voice down. “Are you ... are you guys okay?”
The smaller girl sobbed, her body shaking.
Oh great, another baby, Nicole thought.
“I hit her with a lamp,” said the older girl, to no one in particular. “I hit her with a lamp. Twice. I think I killed her.” She wrapped her arms around the smaller girl, and slowly rocked her back and forth.
“This is …” Nicole didn’t bother finishing, but thought weird.
“Nicole? What’s happening?” Alex said, as he ran back into the room with his own board raised, ready to strike.
Nicole looked at him, then back down at the two huddled girls.
“Oh my God!” Alex exclaimed. He looked back at the dead girl lying on the floor. “Then who is—?” He stopped himself. “Oh.”
“What time is it?” Nicole asked. She knew they were way off schedule, and there was no time to dwell on this situation. Plus, guilt. She’d just remembered David, still outside creating a distraction for them.
Alex held his board as he fumbled with his gloves, panting. “7:20,” he said with a look of surprise.
Nicole thought about it, looking out through the window. “Has it really been—?”
<
br /> “Five minutes?” Alex finished.
Nicole was exasperated. “How has it been—never mind. Never mind. We have to get back. David is still out there.”
Alex nodded as he came around the bed, making gross squishy noises as he crossed. He looked at the two girls: one crying, one just staring. “Are they—?”
“They’ll be fine,” Nicole said, pushing him back. “They just need to get out of here, okay?” The last part was directed at the two girls. She hoped that they were paying attention and had enough sense to follow directions.
More smashing, crunching noises from downstairs made her push them.
“Hey!” she said, a little sharper this time. There was no time to baby these girls, even if they needed it just then. “We have to go. You coming?”
Both girls looked at her. The younger one stopped crying for just a second, but then slipped back into it. The older one looked at Nicole and nodded. “I’m Kaitlyn. She’s—”
“Good, okay,” Nicole said, cutting her off. As if your names matter right now. Jesus. This is not going to be easy. “Can you help her up? And then help her out and across the street?”
Kaitlyn looked down at the younger girl. “I think so.”
“Well,” Nicole started, very slowly, “you’re going to have to, okay? Me and Alex will make sure none of those things get at you, so you’re in charge of her, okay?”
KAITLYN
Kaitlyn nodded. It was the first time that someone had actually acknowledged that she was in charge of Hannah. Feeling seeped back to her body.
“Good,” the girl—Nicole, the boy called her Nicole—said, helping her up. “Let’s go then.” She looked down at the girls’ feet. “You don’t have shoes?”
Kaitlyn shook her head. “We didn’t—”
“Okay,” Nicole said, cutting her off, looking around the floor at the mess that had come out of the little dead girl. “Um ... I’m pretty sure spaz found some shoes in the Lost and Found. You might get some there. Just watch where you step, I guess. In here, and outside. But, mostly keep an eye on me, okay?”
Kaitlyn nodded as she helped Hannah to her feet. It was not a simple task; Hannah had gone completely limp. Kaitlyn would have to carry her most of the way until the younger girl snapped out of it. Hopefully, she’d snap out of it.
Rise of the Mudmen Page 20