Cheerleaders: The New Evil (17 page)

“Corky? It's me, Alex. Corky? Where are you?”

“Corky? The bus is waiting. It's time to go to the arena.” Heather's voice, so close. Was she standing right in front of the double tree trunk?

Holding her breath, Corky sank back against the smooth bark. She shut her eyes and prayed, willing them away.

Go. Please go. Go search somewhere else.

She heard the crackle of leaves. Heard the sharp crack of a twig breaking. Heard their muttered curses as they continued to search.

“Corky—it's Lauren! Ms. Closter wants to see you back at the motel!”

“Hey, Corky—what's the problem?” Jay's voice, somewhere to her left. “Why are you hiding from your friends?”

And then Heather's voice again. “Corky—it's time to go to the game!”

Go. Please go. Please please
please!

Gorky's entire body tensed, every muscle tightened as she prayed for them to leave.

A few seconds passed. Then a few more.

A bird whistled loudly above her head. A shrill whistle, like a warning call. Corky raised her eyes and saw a large bluejay perched above her on a high limb.

A few seconds later she heard the flutter of wings. A shadow rolled over her as the jay took flight.

And then the woods lay silent.

Pressing her back against the hard trunk, Corky held her breath and listened. No footsteps. No voices.

A soft wind off the lake made the bare tree limbs rattle and creak.

She heard a soft
thud.
A nest off a tree limb?

Then only silence.

Is it a trap? Corky wondered, still gripped with fear. Are they waiting on the other side of this tree, waiting to pounce?

Have they left? Or are they all standing there, watching the tree trunk, watching for me to show myself?

The silence grew heavy. Gorky's ears rang.

She had to find out.

She had to know.

Taking a deep breath, Corky kept her back to the tree trunk as she edged to the side—and peeked out.

She gasped in surprise when she saw the lifeless body lying on the ground.

C
orky stared down in shock at the dead bluejay.

Why did they have to kill it? she wondered.

Just because they could?

Its wings spread against the ground, its feet poking straight up in the air, the bird's head tilted at an unnatural angle. One lifeless black eye stared accusingly at Corky.

They will kill everything, she thought. Everyone and everything.

Her eyes darted, making a wide circle of the woods.

No one there. They really had moved their search to another part of the woods.

With a sigh, Corky dropped down heavily onto a
fallen tree trunk and buried her head in her hands. Her entire body convulsed in a sharp tremor of terror. She realized she had never been this frightened in her entire life.

They were gone for now. But they'd be back.

She had to get away, away from the lake and these woods, away from the town. Away.

She had to get help. She had to find a way to stop them.

But right now, she realized, she couldn't move from the fallen tree. Couldn't raise her head from her hands. Couldn't stop her body from trembling.

Paralyzed by her fear, Corky lost track of time.

Had a few seconds passed? Minutes? An hour or two?

The sun's warmth on the back of her head brought her back to full consciousness. She stood up, tossing back her hair, blinking at the bright golden sunlight. The few patches of still white snow glistened as if dotted with a million tiny diamonds.

Corky stretched, raising her hands high above her head, arching her back. Then she started to jog, pushing shrubs out of her way with both hands.

I'll get to the highway and just keep running till a car stops for me or I find a phone, she decided.

But she stopped at the edge of the motel parking lot when she saw the yellow bus. The gray-uniformed driver stood beside the open door as Heather and Lauren, in their cheerleader uniforms, climbed on.

Gary and Jay were shoving each other playfully,
bumping shoulders, laughing as they stumbled through the door.

They're going to the arena for our next game, Corky realized, taking a step closer. She made her way onto the parking lot and ducked low behind a maroon minivan.

Peering out from in front of the hood, Corky saw that on the bus were the Shadyside players and cheerleaders. The driver must have picked up the boys first. Through the windows she could see them laughing and talking excitedly.

As if nothing had happened. As if everything were normal.

As if Kimmy weren't frozen beneath the ice in the lake.

Swallowing hard, Corky searched each window for Debra. But didn't see her.

Doesn't anyone wonder where Kimmy and Debra and I are? Corky wondered.

She quickly answered her own question: No. Of course not. They
know
where we are. They
know
everything isn't normal. They're all putting on an act.

They're having a wonderful time, she thought bitterly. Look at them, laughing and joking with one another!

The sight forced a sob from Corky's throat. She felt all her muscles tighten as a wave of fury swept over her body.

The bus driver climbed onto the bus. A few seconds later, the door closed. The engine sputtered to life.

Corky stepped away from the minivan, her eyes on the smiling faces inside the bus. She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw herself in front of the bus. To stop them. To stop their laughter, their jokes.

To her surprise, the bus door swung open. The driver climbed down. Shaking his head, he made his way toward the motel office, taking long, rapid strides.

He must have left something there, Corky thought. Or maybe he has to make a call.

A sudden flash of inspiration made Corky move quickly.

The idea swept into her mind, fueled by her frustration, her bitter anger.

Staying low behind the parked cars, she hurtled herself toward the bus. Then, gasping in a deep breath and holding it, she grabbed the sides of the bus doorway, pushed herself up the steps, and dove into the driver's seat.

Had anyone seen her?

Corky let out her breath in a loud
whoosh
and listened.

No. The laughing and excited conversations continued without interruption. No one called her name or shouted out to her.

She glanced in the wide rearview mirror. She saw Jay and Alex near the back, slapping each other a high-five, laughing gleefully. She turned the mirror until she couldn't see anyone. Now no one could see her.

Corky slammed the door shut.

A solid partition closed her off from the rest of the bus and hid her. She released the emergency brake and slid both hands around the big steering wheel.

Slipping the bus into gear, Corky leaned forward and lowered her foot on the large gas pedal. Corky pressed harder on the gas, and the bus rumbled out of the parking lot, bumped over a curb, and onto the highway. Behind her, Corky heard kids laugh and cheer as the bus hit the bump and bounced hard.

Leaning over the wheel, Corky listened to their conversations. They hadn't heard the driver shout at the bus.

And none of them seemed to realize that the bus was heading
away
from the New Foster Arena.

Behind her, loud cheers erupted as the bus bounced into a deep pothole. Without slowing, Corky turned off the highway and onto a narrow road called Cliffview.

She didn't know the town or the roads. But she took a guess that the road had to lead to where she wanted to go. As the road curved up through the thick woods, Corky wondered if she'd made the right choice.

I can't really do this—can I? she asked herself.

She began to feel more doubts. She lightened her foot on the gas pedal.

I can't do this. It seemed like a good plan—the only plan. But I can't carry it out.

Kimmy's face forced her forward.

The big steering wheel bounced under her hands as Corky pressed all the way down on the gas. The bus
rumbled and roared, tires spinning on the slick, icy surface as it climbed higher through the glistening woods.

Her features set, her eyes staring straight ahead, Corky pictured Kimmy's eyes peering up so blankly, so sadly at her from under the frozen lake. She saw Kimmy's black hair billowing in the water.

And she pictured Kimmy's mouth, the lips opening slowly, forming the words, “Keep going.”

“Keep going.”

The bloated purple lips. The eyes pleading.

“Keep going.”

Corky imagined Kimmy's last request. Poor, drowned Kimmy. Kimmy under the ice in her watery grave. Drowned by the evil. Drowned by the evil on board this bus.

Kimmy's face, so clear in Corky's mind, urged Corky forward.

Stayed with her. Rode with her.

Kimmy is here with me, Corky thought. Sitting beside me, guiding me. Telling me that what I am about to do is right. Telling me that I have no choice.

Corky realized that she was doing the only thing she could. These weren't really her friends. They were the evil. Corky knew that she had to drown the evil—push it out of her friends' bodies. It was their only chance of survival. If she didn't drown the evil, her friends would die for sure.

Corky could only hope that—once the evil had left them—her friends would survive. Just as she had when she forced the evil from her own body.

Gripping the wheel tightly in both hands, Corky leaned over it, staring out the windshield, watching the blur of trees bounce past.

She slowed as the cliff edge came into view.

A low metal railing had been placed along the side of the road. It was more of a warning than a fence, Corky thought. A warning that the ground ended sharply in a steep drop, a steep drop all the way down to the frozen lake.

The low divider wouldn't stop a car from plunging over the side.

Or a bus.

She grabbed the door control. The bus bounced near the low metal railing. Then back to the center of the road.

Peering down, Corky saw the lake far below. It gleamed under the late-morning sun like a vast shiny mirror.

“Corky? Corky, what are you doing?”

Corky heard a voice call out behind her. Someone had recognized her. Too late. Nothing could stop her now. She had to go through with her plan. It was the only chance she had of saving her friends.

“Ohhhh.” A frightened moan escaped her throat.

Am I doing this?

Am I?

Kimmy's dead face appealed to her one last time: “Keep going.”

Corky eased her foot down on the brake. Slowed the bus.

Slower. Slower.

She opened the bus door.

Slower. Slower.

Can I do it? Can I do it now?

Yes!

She turned the wheel hard toward the cliff edge. Then, holding the wheel with one hand, Corky pushed herself up from the seat, ran to the open doorway—and jumped.

She hit the pavement hard, landing on her right shoulder. Then she rolled into the metal railing. It clanged loudly, and held her.

Ignoring the pain that shot out from her shoulder, Corky pulled herself to a sitting position—in time to see the yellow bus plunge through the divider and over the cliff.

Raising her hands to her face, she watched it tilt straight down and then plummet out of view, its tires spinning in air.

She heard the terrified squeals and shrieks of the players and three cheerleaders. The cries ended in a loud
crack
and then
splash
that brought Corky to her feet.

Peering over the side of the cliff, Corky saw the rear of the bus sticking straight up, sinking rapidly into a wide blue pool of water.

Silvery sheets of ice had been split away by the impact. The ice sheets bobbed and tilted over the water like fallen walls of a house. The bus dropped between them.

In the distance Corky saw several men in parkas out on the ice. Ice fishermen. They dropped their poles
and shouted. Running over the ice toward the sinking bus.

Too late.

A large air bubble rose up in the blue water as the back of the bus sank below the surface.

The screams and shrieks vanished. Cut off, like someone clicking off a radio.

The only sounds now were the rough scraping of the broken ice sheets as they splashed against one another and the distressed cries of the ice fishermen.

Sobbing loudly, both hands still pressed against her cheeks, Corky stared down into the blue hole in the ice. She watched as the water started to bubble and boil. Watched as the thick steam poured up from the hole.

Corky knew that this was the evil drowning. Being forced from her friends' bodies.

Corky watched as the steam continued to billow up from the ice.

No one came up.

No one swam to the surface.

Corky drowned the evil.

But had she drowned all her friends too?