Ashley was talking to Tasha while they searched. Every now and then she stopped to take a picture. “So, these vibes you get? What are they telling you now?”
Tasha huffed. “That something lives here and we’re trespassing on its territory.”
“You feel there’s a, um, spirit or something?”
“I don’t know. I just feel like…” She turned and peered around. “Like we’re being watched.”
Ashley nodded. “I feel that too.”
“Hey, guys!” AJ shouted over to them. “I think I’ve found something.”
Ashley and Tasha hurried over, and he pointed to the narrow gap in the wall he had found.
“What is it?” Ashley looked at him, confused.
“I think it’s a fire escape.”
Ashley’s eyes went wide. “Wow, you found an exit?”
AJ ran his fingers over the gap, feeling it widen towards the bottom. “Maybe. When they rebuilt the ride, they made sure to rectify their mistakes by adding several new fire exits. This must be one of them.”
Tasha nodded excitedly. “And it should lead outside?”
“Maybe. I’m going to need your help. It’s probably rusted shut by now.”
“I’m all yours, Bright Lights.”
AJ used his remaining hand to grip the edge of the gap while Tasha and Ashley slid their smaller fingers into the narrower space towards the top. Right away, something began to creak. Behind the cement facade was some kind of steel doorway.
“It’s opening,” said Ashley. “The gap is widening.”
“Pull harder,” AJ told them. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Sis, you need to hurry up.”
Tasha looked back, and then she let go of the opening with a gasp. AJ felt the gap narrow as they lost a third of their strength, and he swore as he was forced to let go. He tried to see why Ben was shouting to them.
Holy shit!
The previously inanimate wolf statues had been replaced by something living. Something flesh. The three emaciated beasts, wide and bony at the shoulders, were closing in on Ben, snarling and growling. Ben shuffled towards his sister, but the siblings were cut off from each other by the largest of the wolves. Despite being starved, the animal stood a full four foot high.
Ashley backed up against AJ, and instinctively he went to grab her with both hands. The pain in his bloody stump was dizzying, and a wave of nausea flooded through his guts. He fell onto one knee.
Ben whirled his arms to keep the wolves at bay, but he was wounded prey at their mercy. His sister was anything but defenceless though. Tasha booted one of the wolves in the flank so hard that it yelped and jumped away, leaving an opening that she used to make it to her brother. She positioned herself over him, shielding him from danger, and when a wolf snapped at her ankle, she swore and managed to kick it away.
AJ was forced to shove Ashley aside in order to go help his other friends. The three wolves were circling Ben and Tasha in an ever-shrinking circle. A noose.
He needed to save them before it was too late.
AJ leapt into the air and delivered an A-Kick. As much as it might have been choreographed in the ring, it was a hard, impactful kick, and this time he didn’t pull it at the end. The kick sent the smallest of the wolves tumbling all the way into the fake river, where it proceeded to splash around in a panic.
Take that, you damn dirty dog.
The largest wolf pounced at AJ, but he threw himself into a forward roll and avoided it. He straightened up beside Ben and said, “Get your arms around my neck.”
Ben wrapped his arms around AJ’s shoulders, allowing him to deadlift his friend. Tasha grabbed his legs, and together the three of them scurried over to the fire exit at the back of the pretend desert.
Ashley swung her heavy camera by its strap, warding off one of the wolves stalking her. With her swollen ankle, it was hard for her to balance and fight. “Bugger off!” she shouted. The wolf snapped at her, baring a pair of rotting brown fangs. AJ dropped Ben and turned to help Ashley, shoving her out of the way just as the wolf pounced. Its jaws came down over his stump.
He bellowed in agony.
Tasha gave the wolf a kick in its undercarriage and it backed off before it could tear into any more of AJ’s flesh. Blood spilled from his stump, the wound reopened, and he had to suck in the pain to keep his mind focused. “G-Get back to the door,” he said. “We need to get it open.”
The girls shoved their hands back into the gap while AJ joined them, keeping his eyes on the approaching wolves. The beasts had reformed as a threesome, but they were wary now – unable to get at Ben’s easy meat. They would come, but they would come slowly.
AJ got a grip on the edge of the hidden door. With mortal panic running through him, his muscles were bulging with life, and he managed to pull harder than he had before. Both girls joined in and helped him.
Metal screeched, dragging along the cement floor. “It’s coming!” said AJ. “Keep going.”
“Hurry up, guys,” said Ben. “These bitches look hungry.”
AJ heaved. A growl at his back caused him to glance around. He threw a swift kick at the wolf and sent it away, but it the distraction caused him to lessen his grip on the door. It closed up again.
“We can’t hold it,” said Tasha. “It’s stuck.”
“We have to keep trying.” AJ redoubled his efforts and the door began to open again. He realised that, in addition to the sound of the door scraping across the ground, there was the squealing protest of springs. The hinges were designed to close automatically. A typical fire door. The door hinges had rusted almost solid.
“Don’t stop!” AJ yelled. “Keep pulling.” With only one hand, and having lost a lot of blood, he was struggling to hold on, but he wasn’t about to quit.
“I-I can’t hold on.” Ashley was thrashing her head, thick veins bulging in her slender neck. Her frizzy red hair was in her face and she couldn’t use her hands to move it away. AJ could see her willpower reaching its nadir.
He shook his head at her. “Don’t!”
“I can’t!”
“Guys!” It was Ben. “You have to get out of here, right now.”
AJ chanced a glance at the wolves. They had crept within leaping distance again, and if they coordinated their attack, they would have their jaws around all three of them any second. It was now or never.
“Pull!” AJ locked his jaw.
The gap was now wide enough to pass through, but Ashley was still thrashing her head and gritting her teeth. “I… can’t…”
AJ saw her give up. Saw the spark of defeat in her eyes. Her hands came away and the weight in AJ’s hands increased. He pulled as hard as he could, but the opening started to close. “No! No!”
Their last chance had just disappeared. If Greg hadn’t left, his strength might have saved them. AJ was too weak.
Suddenly the weight in his hands melted away.
The passageway stayed open, barely wide enough to get through. Ashley turned to face the wolves. How was the door still open? Why hadn’t it slammed shut?
Tasha screamed.
Ben looked grim. Not in pain, as anyone else would’ve been, but grim in an emotional way. He knew what he had just done. “G-Get out of here, guys,” he told them.
AJ couldn’t believe what he was seeing. When the passageway had started to close, Ben had shoved both of his legs into the opening. They were now crushed together inside the gap, jamming the passageway open like a giant doorstop.
AJ swallowed a lump in his throat. “B-Ben, we need to free you.”
“Get out of here. Take my sister and get the hell out.”
Ashley kicked at a wolf, and cried out as it managed to nip her bad ankle. She swung her camera, cracking it off the animal’s skull and knocking it for a loop. Ashley went to deliver a killing blow, but one of the other wolves bounded into her mid-swing and the she lost her grip on the strap. The camera went sailing away into the sand. She staggered back, groaning in m
isery. She had started to bleed, and the two other wolves, sensing their prey was desperate, bent down and prepared to launch a joint attack.
AJ did what he had to do. He grabbed Ashley and manhandled her, bundling her through the opening before she had a chance to complain. Next, he grabbed Tasha and moved her behind him. “Get through the gap, T.”
“We need to help Ben.”
AJ kicked the wolf that had nipped Ashley in the snout and managed to daze it, then threw another kick at the largest wolf – but missed. It reared back and snarled. He glanced at Ashley while he had a second. “Go, now!”
Ben repeated the command. “Now, Tasha. Get gone.”
AJ had to turn and shove Tasha as it became clear she wasn’t going to leave her brother’s side. There was no helping Ben, but perhaps AJ was the only one who realised it. His legs were mangled beyond repair, knees crushed together like a pair of cracked eggs. The edge of the opening had cut right into his thigh. Blood was already soaking through his jeans.
Tasha finally passed through the gap to join Ashley on the other side. AJ heard the two girls crying and comforting one another.
“AJ, get out of here, man,” urged Ben. His face had turned pale and sweaty. He might not feel it, but he was losing blood quickly.
“I can’t leave you.” AJ kicked out at the largest wolf and missed again. The two smaller wolves had backed off, as if they wanted to let their leader handle things.
“I’m screwed, man. You need to get my sister out of here. Then you spend the rest of your life keeping her safe. You owe me that.”
AJ backed up towards the exit, wanting to keep the wolves from making it to his defenceless friend. “Why? Why did you stick your legs out?”
Ben shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s about time these useless things did something. Look, I can’t say I was thinking in the moment. I saw the door closing and—” The widening of his eyes was enough of a warning.
AJ turned just in time to see one of the smaller wolves attacking from the side while he was distracted with the one directly ahead. “Clever bitch!”
The wolf knocked AJ to the ground and mounted him. It bit at his neck, but he managed to keep it at bay with a forearm beneath its chest. In the corner of his eye, he saw the other wolves pacing excitedly.
AJ pulled a leg up and around. Using his flexibility honed by years in the ring, he was able to hook his ankle around the back of the wolf’s neck and trap the animal against his chest. He squeezed.
The wolf whimpered and tried to back away, but its fur and ear cartilage bunched up and refused to slide out of the noose AJ had made with his leg and arm. AJ squeezed harder, his entire body crying out in pain. His shoulder felt like it was coming apart.
The other smaller wolf snapped at AJ’s face, but he was able to shimmy out of the way on his back. He wouldn’t be able to avoid those gnashing teeth forever though.
The trapped wolf went limp beneath his leg. If it had been human, AJ might have suspected it was faking, but he had to risk letting go. Thankfully, as soon as he let go, the wolf flopped lifelessly to the ground, unconscious or perhaps even dead. He’d never choked out a dog before.
AJ tried to get up, but the large wolf pounced immediately and knocked him back to the ground before pinning him. Ben cried out, but that was all he could do. “Hey! Hey, Fido! Get your dirty paws off him.”
AJ rolled back and forth, trying to throw the animal off, but it was too heavy – too muscular. Savage.
AJ’s shoulder burned. He was losing all feeling. His upper body strength was faltering and his reserves were almost tapped out. The wolf’s jaws were getting ever closer to his throat.
“Wow, hey, what the hell is going on here?”
AJ turned his head. “Greg?”
Greg was standing on the catwalk at the beginning of the desert scene. He looked shocked. He had every right to be.
“Greg, help!”
To his credit, Greg came running. The smaller wolf tried to stand in his path, but he tackled it to the ground and punched it in the face. AJ almost chuckled at the absurdity of seeing that, but the large wolf finally got its jaws around his throat and suddenly he could feel nothing but mortal terror. His ability to breathe disappeared.
Air stopped making its way into his lungs.
He couldn’t even cry out for help.
Ben called out on his behalf. “Greg, hurry the hell up!”
Greg faltered when he saw Ben’s mangled legs sticking into a gap in the wall, but then he saw AJ was in serious trouble. He grabbed the wolf from behind, like a man hugging his dog, but this dog was refusing to drop its prey. “Let go, you mangy sonofabitch.”
AJ’s vision began to spot with stars and black patches, all twinkling right in front of his nose. Greg beat at the wolf, punching the sides of its head.
“Kick the fucker in the balls,” Ben shouted.
Greg looked back over his shoulder, then shrugged, as if to say, yeah okay, why not? He hopped back, planted his feet squarely, and then swung a kick right between the wolf’s splayed back legs.
The wolf let go of AJ’s throat instantly, and released a howl towards the ceiling. AJ shoved the animal away from him and gasped for breath.
The wolf loped away, yowling miserably. The smaller wolf headed after it, nuzzling at its neck. The third wolf was still unconscious on the ground.
Tasha put her head through the gap in the wall. “Come on! Quickly, before they come back.”
AJ couldn’t get up. His shoulder was molten lead, and his bloody stump was spitting fire. His throat felt like it had been ringed with hot ashes. Greg seemed to realise this because he got AJ’s arm around his neck and hoisted him upwards before dragging him over to the gap.
“Come on, mate, I got you.” Greg shoved AJ forward into the gap. It was a tight squeeze, and Tasha had to pull him from the other side, but eventually he made it through, collapsing to the ground at Ashley and Tasha’s feet. He lay there on his side, panting. His mind flashed with memories of Dillon, and he wished he could revisit that moment. Everything had started going wrong then.
Greg already had one leg through the gap, but he was struggling to fit the rest of his large body. “I-I don’t think I can make it.”
“Yes, you can,” said Ashley, and she hobbled forward and grabbed him by his bulbous arm. Obviously, she couldn’t overpower him – not even close – but the added impetus allowed Greg to push himself harder into the gap. He managed to get his hips through, and then he dragged his trailing leg.
All of this he did right over Ben’s prone form. He was still lying half in and half out of the gap. “Don’t mind me,” he said, although it lacked the usual zest his wisecracks typically contained.
“Sorry,” said Greg, and then he started angling his wide back and shoulders. It was the hardest part of the manoeuvre, and it took both Tasha and Ashley to help him defeat the laws of geometry.
Finally, Greg’s massive frame slid through the opening. He crumpled to the floor in relief beside AJ and started to say something. “You lot want to tell me what the hell is hap—”
Ben yelled.
It jolted AJ enough for him to make it back up to his knees. He crawled over to the opening with Tasha right beside him and the two of them stared back out into the desert scene.
The wolf that AJ had choked unconscious was starting to recover. It rose gingerly to its feet, malicious eyes fixated on Ben – trapped prey. Ben flailed his arms and tried to scare it away. It didn’t work.
The wolf pounced.
Tasha screamed. So did Ben.
The wolf cut off Ben’s voice as it tore into his throat and thrashed its head back and forth. Tasha started to climb back through the opening, but Greg pulled her back. “Let me! Ben, hold on.”
Ben let out a gurgle, and AJ saw blood soaking the wolf’s muzzle. He rubbed his own aching throat and realised just how lucky he’d been not to have had his jugular opened. The larger wolf had been toying with him – savouring the kill.
AJ threw himself into Greg, knocking him away from the opening just in time to keep it from slamming shut on him as Ben’s legs removed themselves. He hit the ground and gasped. “That was close!”
Before AJ could say anything in reply, Tasha started beating him, screaming in his face that she wished he was dead. “You should be the one out there. You should be the dead one.”
AJ couldn’t say anything, because in his head he was agreeing. It should be me.
Chapter Twenty
Greg and Ashley pulled Tasha away, but she kicked and clawed, trying to get another shot in at AJ. “You fucking brought us here. Ben is dead because of you!”
“Easy,” said Greg. “How could he have known?”
“I told him! I told you all. We should’ve turned back as soon as that deer blocked our way.”
AJ lay on his back, bleeding. “You’re right. If I had…” He sighed. “You’re right.”
She turned away in disgust, sobbing into Ashley’s chest. AJ stared at the narrow gap in the wall. The sound of their friend – Tasha’s brother – being eaten alive on the other side by wolves was soul-destroying. Crunching bones and wet splatter.
Greg knelt and examined AJ’s stump. He seemed concerned but didn’t express it. He just recinched the belt and said, “We need to get some fluids in you or you’re going to keel over from dehydration. How do you feel?”
AJ huffed. “Are you really asking me that? I’m not sure how I’m still breathing to be honest. Adrenaline, I suppose. We need to find Sam.”
Greg looked down at his hands as if something AJ said had upset him.
“What is it?” AJ asked.
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