Where Nightmares Ride

by R A Baxter

  “Where are we going?” Clara’s words came out slow and slurred.

  “We’re leaving.” Katie stood up, hitting her head on an unseen shelf, and massaged the painful welt near her left ear.

  “Is the sleep study over? Why’s it so dark?”

  “Shush. They’ll hear us.” Katie moved with slow, careful steps. She searched for the stairwell and stopped at a square concrete column, sliding her hand over its surface. She felt a computer monitor and then bounced her hand along a row of them. Moments later, her left knee found the armrest of a leather-clad office chair and she froze at the loudness of it crashing into a metal desk.

  Then she remembered her cellphone had a light. She dug around in her bag but stopped when the beam of a flashlight swung through the room. The light revealed to her that she’d just missed the stairwell. She pulled Clara behind a column next to it.

  “Katie?” It was Damien. “You back here? What’re you doing? This isn’t a good time for games.”

  Katie hushed Clara and pulled her down behind the metal stringer of the stairs.

  “Ouch!” a woman said. The slow drawl could only be Media. “Watch where you’re going! What’s going on?”

  “Media?” Damien flashed a light on her.

  “’Course it’s me. Who’s messing with the lights?”

  “Have you bumped into anyone back here?”

  “I haven’t seen anyone. I’m sure they’d have headed straight for the exit. That’s where I’m going. My head is killing me.”

  Katie peeked through the wire-mesh guardrails, then ducked when a flashlight beam again passed over her head.

  “You’re right. Let’s head out,” Damien said. “The girls are probably out there anyway.”

  Damien and Media left for the sleep lab, and the light faded with them. A door slammed and the room again went dark. Katie pulled her cellphone from her bag. She lit up the stairwell and urged Clara to follow her up.

  “Why’re we hiding from Damien?” Clara grasped hard to the handrail, lacking the energy to climb stairs.

  “Hurry Clara, I’ll explain later. We need to move fast, before the lights turn back on.” Katie found the rows of ladders at the top of the stairs and ran to the one next to her name plaque, the one nearest her cabin’s front door. She waited for Clara to climb up the ladder and followed her into the chamber below her bed. Neither she nor Clara could take their eyes off the glowing jar wiggling at the head of the compartment. The bulbous yellow mass made her feel sick and she had to look away.

  She found the release hook, let the panel fall open into her cabin, and rolled out of the chamber, followed by Clara. They pulled their selves to their feet and Katie scanned the room, finding only Marina remaining, lying motionless on her bed, with her feet on the floor. Katie hefted her legs onto the bed and shook her a few times.

  “Marina! Wake up! We need to get away from here.” The girl didn’t stir.

  Clara stepped up to Katie, her eyes wide with fear. “What is that thing below your bed? Is Marina alright?”

  “She just sleeping. We’re going on a hike, Clara. Put everything you can into your backpack.” Katie grabbed her backpack and scrambled to stuff warm clothes and toiletries into it. Shadows danced around the room from flashlights outside, amidst the eerie glow of the pulsing yellow jar below the bed.

  “How’d you know about that secret compartment?” Clara tossed her pack over her shoulder and rubbed her eyes.

  “I’ll explain later. We need to run.” Katie cracked open the door. The men she’d seen guarding the cabin earlier were no longer there. Three helicopters hovered over the camp, their searchlights scanning the terrain around the lake, the lodge, and the research facility. Guns popped and people shouted, their words muffled by motors and distance. Katie found a shadowy area on the hill to her left and waited for a searchlight to pass.

  “Now, Clara!” She charged up the short hill and ducked into a grove of trees. Clara left the door open and ran up behind her. They heard footsteps to their left, then the slamming of their cabin door to their right. Katie saw shadows moving around inside the cabin but didn’t wait to find out who it was. She urged Clara to follow her and charged southward, in the direction of the south gate.

  Jack hunched low and kept his hands in front of him to catch the branches of low shrubs. He froze when shots fired within a hundred yards of him. Other guns reported from distant locations beyond the lake and back at the research facility. Jack turned to make sure Ming and Travis were still behind him, then flattened himself against a tree trunk to dodge the headlights of two vehicles speeding along the path towards the lake.

  Ming and Travis dived to the ground and rolled into a row of ferns for cover. After the trucks passed by, Jack started off, but stopped again to avoid a flashlight courtesy of someone down by the main offices. A helicopter hovered above him, its searchlights playing through the leaves for several seconds before it flew away.

  Ming and Travis stood and ran to Jack.

  “Did you see that?” Travis pointed at the trees ahead of them.

  “I know. There are people everywhere. This place is in chaos,” Jack said.

  “I don’t mean that,” Travis said. “In those trees ahead. I saw something jump between those branches. It didn’t look human.”

  “I saw it, too,” Ming said. “I thought I was seeing things.”

  “I’ve never been this scared in my life.” Travis held up the rifle he’d taken and presented it to Jack.

  “Don’t give it me,” Jack said. “I’ve never used a gun.”

  “Me neither,” Travis said.

  “Don’t look at me,” Ming said.

  Shots sounded from somewhere near the lake. Travis ducked and slapped a hand to the side of his head. He looked up at Jack, terror in his eyes. “A bullet just whizzed by my head!” He took off at a dead run.

  Jack charged after him, slapping aside branches and tripping over tree roots. He ran past one of the cabins and around a low hill behind the amphitheater, nothing on his mind but the fear that someone could be behind them with a gun aimed at his back. He slammed into Travis who’d stopped to ease around three guards lying on the ground, groaning in fetal position. Whatever the attacking creatures were, they had a knack for pounding people hard in the gut.

  Ming caught up with them moments later. Jack motioned them to follow him behind three pine trees and leaned over to catch his breath. His throat burned from the overexertion.

  “You know we’re going to die, don’t you?” Travis’s lip quivered and he looked away.

  Ming nodded. “He may be right, Jack. This can’t possibly be any better than what they were going to do to us in that lab. Those are real bullets. I’m so scared, I’m shaking.” He held out a trembling hand.

  Jack looked away and tried to think, to weigh the risks. Maybe it was too late; the cards had already been dealt. Then he remembered Alison. “Alison died in that lab. The risk is the same no matter what we do. I doubt they mean to shoot at us. They’re after those creatures we’ve been seeing. We just need to stay calm and get to the south gate.”

  Travis began to speak when Ming put up a hand and motioned for Jack and Travis to move into the pines. They heard the cracking of twigs and approaching footfalls. Barbara stepped into the small clearing in front of them. She started when Jack stepped out of the shadows.

  “Oh man, I thought I’d never catch up to you guys.” Barbara breathed heavily and looked at Jack, then frowned. “This is Twilight Zone stuff. I swear I saw flying ape people on the roof of the research facility. People are shooting at us. I could just keel over right now, I’m so scared.”

  “You’re not alone,” Jack said. “Where’s Marina?”

  Barbara shook her head. “I couldn’t wake her. Derek must’ve drugged the brownies he gave us. I’ve never been so glad I was on a diet. I thought they said they were going to pipe sleeping gas into our cabins?”

  “Who knows what these maniacs are going to do from minute
to the next,” Ming said.

  “They piped in enough gas to tire me out,” Barbara said. “I’m already exhausted.”

  “We all are. We’d better keep moving.” Jack waved the others to follow him and wove through the trees along the palisade wall. He passed the last grove of trees and the south gate came into view. A meadow of low yellow grass stood between him and the gate, and he saw no place to hide other than a smattering of low scrub oaks and a wooden sign nailed between two white posts that displayed information about Farley Trail.

  Jack squinted in the dark and smiled.

  Katie pulled Clara around the corner of a cabin near the lake and pressed back against the cedar logs. Three guards stood along the amphitheater seats, and she hoped they couldn’t see her and Clara standing in the shadows.

  “There’s one over there,” a guard said. She leveled her M16 and fired four shots into the trees far away from Katie. The other two guards stood ready to fire. “Come on,” the woman said. The three guards ran within twenty yards of Katie before disappearing into the trees.

  Katie turned to Clara and found her frowning, her eyes wide with fear.

  “Katie, tell me what’s going on! Who are they shooting at?” Clara wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her flannel pajamas.

  “I don’t know, but we can’t stop to talk about it yet. I promise I’ll explain everything when we’re safe.” Katie scanned the area and searched for the shadiest path. She figured they’d be safest close to the cabins of other campers. She tightened her grip on Clara’s hand and pulled her along as fast as she dared move. She squinted at the ground to watch for tripping hazards, but the absence of moonlight blinded her to a short clump of grass and she fell, pulling Clara with her. She’d barely pulled herself up again when she stepped on a gnarled stick and scratched her leg on a low branch. She breathed hard in relief when she arrived at the outer wall of the next cabin.

  Katie caught sight of two soldiers keeping watch at the south end of the amphitheater seating. She turned and headed deeper up an incline and into the cover of the trees. She hadn’t gone far when an eerie chill crept up her left arm. The darkness played with her mind. She could’ve sworn someone was there, breathing next to her ear.

  “Avoid the clearing.”

  Katie jumped at the airy voice, but when she looked behind her, she found only Clara. “I don’t know what was in those tubes, but it’s messing with my head.” Katie led her cousin to an area where the density of trees tapered off and a wide, cloudy sky opened to her eyes.

  “This way.” Katie grabbed Clara’s arm, determined to avoid the clearing. She hiked amidst the trees, and the tips of the palisade wall came into view. She’d not gone fifty yards before she saw an all-terrain vehicle crouching on a low hill between two clusters of pine trees. She squinted and recognized Avard, with his cropped military haircut, sitting on the hood between two other men, each with guns at the ready and aimed into the clearing.

  Blood rushed from Katie’s face and she fought an urge to faint. She realized those men might’ve shot her if she’d not listened to that voice. Then it happened again, a frosty sensation, this time brushing past her right shoulder.

  “Run! Straight ahead.”

  Katie looked back and then turned to Clara. “Did you hear that?”

  “What?” Clara shook her head.

  “Never mind. Come on. We need to run. Lift your feet so you don’t trip.” Katie rushed forward and brushed past pine trees, concentrating on her footfalls. She looked back to make sure Clara was still behind her. More footfalls joined theirs.

  “Someone’s chasing us.” Clara’s voice trembled. Katie picked up her pace.

  “Turn left.”

  “We need to go left.” Katie pulled Clara’s along to the left, up a shallow hill.

  “I heard the voice that time,” Clara said.

  They ran to a long row of pine trees and Katie squeezed between the boughs, pulling Clara in with her. The stomping of feet passed by her and moved on, but someone stopped and began shining a flashlight in random directions. The light stopped abruptly, and the flashlight thudded against the ground. A man cried out and Katie heard him rolling down a nearby hill, the trees quaking as he passed them.

  “Can we rest now? I’m so tired.” Clara took a deep breath.

  “You must keep moving.”

  Katie tensed up at the ethereal voice and emerged from the trees with Clara. “Who are you? I can’t see you.” She looked all around but saw nobody. A cold sensation spread around the right side of her neck and she turned and put out her hand. “Why won’t you show yourself?”

  “Do not fear. Leave now. The pathway to your friends is cleared for you.”

  Katie perceived a faint shadow moving among the trees and then there was silence. “Come on. Let’s find the others.” Katie eased down the hill to level ground and spotted a flashlight and two rifles among the pine needles. Clara took the flashlight and aimed it forward. A meadow stretched through the remaining trees and beyond that, four people stood by a broken gate hanging in an opening in the palisade wall.

  Jack stared at the demolished gate, wondering what could’ve torn it from its hinges and tossed it so forcefully against the palisade wall. “This is our chance, guys.” He rushed out the gate, grinning at their good luck.

  Travis, Barbara, and Ming ran up behind him.

  “Wait here a minute, I’ll see if Taylor’s here.” Jack ran a hundred yards to the corner of the south palisade wall and peered around it. Ming ran up to him and shone his flashlight down the narrow asphalt path that ran along the south fence, and they each searched for any sign of Taylor or Jack’s car.

  “You sure you understood him, right?” Ming flicked off the flashlight. “His message was pretty cryptic.”

  “I’ve known Taylor a long time. We understand each other without speaking half the time. He’d have been here if he could have. I guarantee you; he’ll be waiting for us by that old house in Silverton.”

  A searchlight from the main road brightened a swath of meadow grass south of camp. Jack waved for Ming to follow him back to Travis and the others.

  “He wasn’t there?” Travis chewed on a blade of meadow grass.

  Jack shook his head.

  “We might as well start walking,” Barbara said.

  “The note said to be here at dusk,” Travis said. “I can’t tell if it’s dusk, with all these clouds, but my watch says it’s almost ten o’clock.”

  “We’re too late,” Ming said.

  “Someone’s coming!” Barbara ducked into a cluster of pines.

  Jack squeezed behind the boulders next to Ming and Travis, and ducked down. The lights in the camp flickered on and bathed the treetops in light, casting spike-tipped shadows from the palisade wall against the forest trees. The thumping of footfalls grew louder, and two human shadows imprinted on the ground.

  Jack grabbed two rocks and handed one to Ming, then looked up. His jaw dropped at the sight of two familiar faces staring down at him. He looked to see if they were alone, then smiled and let the rock drop from his hand. “You’re here.”

  Everyone stood up.

  “Katie! Clara!” Barbara ran from the trees, shoved the boys aside, and wrapped her arms around the girls.

  “Wait. I saw you go to the lab with Damien,” Jack said.

  “How do we know they didn’t assimilate you?” Ming still gripped his rock.

  Katie at first looked hurt by the accusation, then pursed her lips and searched for something in her bag. She pulled out a cellphone wrapped in a paper napkin and slapped it in Jack’s hand.

  “You really think I’d be here, in my pajamas, if I’d been brainwashed? I watched Jack’s video.”

  “Then why did you go to the lab?” Jack slid the phone into his pocket, ecstatic to have his evidence back.

  Katie looked away. “What does it matter? We’re here now and I want to get as far away from this place as possible.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Travis
said.

  Jack nodded and panned the area. “If everyone agrees, I say we head up Farley Trail until we’re out of view of the camp, then cut across the mountain and make our way toward Silverton.”

  “Maybe we should wait for whoever tore down that gate for us,” Barbara said.

  “I’m not waiting,” Travis said. “Somebody shot at me. Jack has a good plan. Whoever’s helping us should know where to find us.”

  “They’re already here,” Clara said.

  “What do you mean?” Ming stared at her.

  “Someone helped Katie and me escape, but we couldn’t see them.”

  “Are you saying they’re invisible?” Travis grinned and shook his head.

  “They just didn’t want us to see them,” Katie said.

  The chopping of a helicopter sounded nearby.

  “We need to move.” Barbara watched the sky and walked toward the trailhead. Travis and Ming ran to catch up to her.

  Clara leaned against a boulder and shut her eyes.

  Jack leaned toward Katie, his eyes fixed on Clara. “Will she be able to keep up? I’ve heard parts of the trail get steep.”

  “She’ll have to.” Katie put an arm around Clara and urged her to stand up. They headed up the trail, Jack following behind them.

  The trail narrowed and became sandwiched between a low embankment on Jack’s left and a sharp drop off on his right. A searchlight leaped through the treetops, followed by the sound of rotors.

  “Find cover!” Jack lifted himself up, rolled over the embankment, and dived below a pine tree. The aircraft breached the trees and hovered over the trail for half a minute before moving on up the trail. Jack laid still until he could hear crickets chirruping again. He rolled back down onto the trail. Ming jumped down from the embankment ahead of him, and they rushed to catch up with the others.

  They soon found Travis and the girls standing in a clearing around a demolished light post at their feet, its bulbs crushed into the dust.