Council of Peacocks (3 page)

Matt knelt down and inspected the front tires
on the passenger side. “Crap. There’s some over here, too.”

Jan stared at the daggers still stuck in the
passenger-side tire. “It's possible they were just lying in the
road.”

Josh gave her a very steady look. Then he
turned to study the woods.

“Crap.” Brian’s eyes went wide. “Rebecca,
stay in the car.” He surveyed the woods on the other side of the
road.

Matt looked at Tonia and just shook his
head.

“Pull those things out,” Josh said. “You're
going to need them.”

“Stop, Josh. You're freaking me out.” Brian’s
eyes were red.

“Good. We need to be scared. They've done
this before. If we don't think straight, we're as good as
dead.”

“What about you, Josh?” Matt asked. “You’re
smaller than either of us.”

“There’s not enough for all of us,” Josh
said. “I can take care of myself.”

“But…?” Matt said.

“Let it go.” Brian took one of the daggers,
all the while staring at Josh.

“Oh? Had many encounters with crazed woodmen
who trap tourists?”

“Not exactly. Let’s just say I have a few
secrets. We don’t have time for this. This is the point in the
movies when the disposable teens split up.”

“And the body count starts.” Matt went pale
as soon as he realized what he had just said. He backed up until
his shoulders were firmly against the side of the SUV. Tonia
knocked on the window and he whirled around. Opening the side door,
he passed a shard to each of the women. “We probably won’t need
these. Just to be safe.” Matt smiled. It was thin and
unconvincing.

“Safe?” Tonia pressed a hand against her
stomach, repulsed as she took the blade.

“We can’t stay here,” Jan walked over to Josh
and grabbed his arm. “We’re sitting ducks. They’re probably
watching us right now. What if they have guns?”

Josh kissed her on the cheek. “If they had
guns they probably would’ve shot the tires out.”

“You’d have to be a pretty good shot to hit
the tires of a moving car.” Jan studied the metal in her hands.
“Sharp objects on the road make for better odds.”

Rebecca stepped out of the car, blade in
hand. “Don’t you think we’re, like, overreacting or something?
Maybe these things just fell off a truck or something.”

“Shut up.” Josh held up his hand and
whispered the word. It was enough to quiet everyone. He walked up
the road, eyes down.

“Wait up!” Jan raced after him. “Where are
you going? You know we shouldn’t split up.”

“They shouldn’t have gone into the tires like
that.”

“What do you mean?”

Josh stopped and turned to her. “Sharp pieces
of metal lying in the road would tear a hole in the tread. They
wouldn’t get stuck in like that.”

Jan shook her head for a moment. Then she
nodded and folded her arms across her chest. “They went in the side
of the tires.”

Josh nodded. “I doubt they’d be in the sides
if we ran over them. Help me look. If someone threw them, there
could be others lying around.”

Brian walked over from the SUV. “What’s going
on here, Josh?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is this like the last time?”

Josh stopped. “What last time? What are you
talking about?”

Brian opened his mouth, then sighed and
looked at the ground. “Never mind.”

“No sign of any others,” Jan said.

Josh wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Means they must be really good shots. Didn’t miss once.”

Brian stiffened and his eyes went wide.
“Either that or they ran up to the road and got them back
already.”

Josh looked at his best friend and his
girlfriend.

Jan started to back up. “We should get
back.”

Josh nodded.

They all walked quickly back to the SUV.

“Are we going?” Rebecca asked.

“We stay,” Brian took her in his arms and
kissed the top of her head. “It’s not much, but the vehicle is the
only cover we have. That and the trees. Besides, it’s not
impossible that another car could drive by. I’m not holding my
breath, but it could happen. In theory.”

Josh reached into the car to grab his
sunglasses. “Why did we take this way again?”

Jan rolled her eyes. “You wanted to try a
different route than last year. See new scenery.”

“Looks like you got your wish.” Rebecca shook
her dagger at Josh.

“Yikes.” Josh bit his lip and winced. “Sorry.
Let’s try to get this off the tree.” He opened the front passenger
door, stepped inside and reached over the wheel. He turned the key
a quarter turn until he heard the steering wheel unlock. Then he
put the gear in neutral and slid back out. “Tonia, take the wheel.
Everyone else, come help. The way it’s lodged, we’re going to need
you.”

Within seconds, Tonia was craning her neck to
look out the rear window while the other five pushed on the front
of the car.

She never saw what hit her.

“Jesus Christ!” Brian screamed as the
driver’s side window exploded. Glass fragments blasted everywhere.
Instinctively, everyone covered their faces and closed their
eyes.

Josh dropped to the ground. He pulled the
others by their shorts and beltlines until all were lying flat in
the underbrush. Matt wheezed, an asthmatic sound. His body went
through a steady string of spasms. As he stared into nothing, his
lips worked their way around Tonia’s name.

“Stay.” Josh gripped Jan’s shoulder, making
it an order rather than a plea. He crawled on his stomach toward
the road; each breath was hot and painful. “Please don’t be dead,”
he whispered to himself. He hoped it’d been a rock, a bird,
anything but another of those shards. A shard would mean blood and
death. He got off his stomach when he reached the road, using the
SUV for protection. He opened the passenger door as quietly as he
could and peeked inside at Tonia’s body.

“Blood and death.” Her neck was twisted at an
unnatural angle. The impact had snapped her spine. A six-inch black
blade – identical to the ones in the tires – had slammed into the
lower left section of her skull. A part of him, a dark part that
spoke to him more often than he wanted to admit, told him to take
the shard out of her head. It was a weapon and he was going to need
it. One thought of Matt and he knew he couldn’t do it.

He climbed into the SUV and pushed Tonia’s
body back up in the driver’s seat. He crouched down near the floor
and used her body as cover. He wasn’t a big man. Her body wouldn’t
have been much protection for Matt or Brian.

Josh moved to roll down the driver’s side
window. When his fingers touched glass fragments on the window
control, he realized what he was doing. There was no window
anymore.

“Brian,” he said as calmly as he could.

After a moment he heard a very quiet answer.
“Is she…?”

“Not now. Keep Matt down. Don’t let him see
this. I want you all to stay on your knees but try to push the van
backwards. I’ll steer.”

“Are you crazy?” Jan said. “You’ll be
killed.”

“Not. Now. I’m okay. Don’t think about what
I’m doing. Just focus on pushing this thing backwards. Do it
now.”

He didn’t expect it to work. The four of
them, even Matt, were on their knees pushing the vehicle off the
tree. The SUV shuddered, then, unexpectedly, pushed forcefully off
the tree.

“Stay down,” he said out the window. “Use the
trees for protection. We know where they are now.” He lied for
their peace of mind more than anything. Panic would get someone
else killed. He turned the key in the ignition. The engine
sputtered and complained. “I need a miracle now. Right now. Come
on.”

The engine sparked into life. He was in the
middle of breathing a sigh of relief when he saw movement out of
the corner of his eye. He looked into the woods. Three dark shadows
raced toward them.

Josh yelled out the window. “Get in! Now!”
Maybe it was something in his voice or some sound they heard from
the woods, but they all followed his lead. Still crouched over,
they raced through the side doors. Josh didn’t wait for the doors
to close before he drove off.

Chapter Three

For several minutes they drove in silence.
Jan sat behind the driver’s seat constantly watching the woods.
Brian sat beside her drinking vodka from the bottle. In the back
row Matt sobbed, head in hands. Rebecca sat beside him, her hand on
his knees.

“Please,” Matt said. “You’re hurting her.
Stop for a second. Let me get her.”

Jan touched Josh’s back. “Let them move the
body, Josh. You can drive better if you’re the only body in the
seat.”

It was difficult for Josh to drive with
Tonia’s body in the driver’s seat. He had to twist his own body at
awkward angles to reach the gas pedal. His instinct told him to
keep driving. Eventually they would hit a town or something. Still,
he gave in to the pleas from Matt and the others.

“I’ll stop up ahead at the crossroads,” he
said. It was the safest place he’d seen so far. There was a hundred
yards of clearing between the vehicle and the edge of the woods.
Once he reached it, he hit the brakes. He put it in park but kept
the motor running.

He got out as Brian and Matt moved Tonia’s
body to the back seat. Jan went to him and they embraced.

“How are you so calm?” Jan pulled back and
looked into his eyes.

Josh looked away. “I’m just in survival mode.
We shouldn’t stay here long. They have vehicles.”

“We can’t be far from the cabin.” Jan took
out her cell again and tapped the screen. “This is really weird.
There are cell towers everywhere. I’ve never had service
interruption up here.”

“They could be jamming it.”

“Are you serious? Is that possible?”

“We need to get going.” Josh put an arm
around her and pushed her back toward the van. “We’ll call my dad
from the cabin.”

“Your dad? Shouldn’t we call the police?”

Josh spat and smacked his head. “I’ll explain
later.”

As soon as the front seat was clear he
started driving again. He did not wait until Tonia’s body was
secure. No one complained. From the wide-eyed expressions on their
faces, Josh suspected his level of composure scared them as much as
anything else. He wanted to explain to them why he was handling
this so well, but knew he couldn’t. His dad had sworn him to
secrecy.

He was tempted to go as fast as the SUV could
take him, but the flat tires made steering unpredictable. The sound
of rims scraping against the road was eerie and deafening. They
needed to move quickly; no one would have a problem tracking
them.

Brian came forward and spoke to Jan. “Can we
switch spots?”

Jan looked at Brian curiously then slipped
past him to sit beside Rebecca. He drank more vodka and stared
openly at Josh.

The longer the stare continued, the more
uncomfortable Josh became.

“What’s up, Bri?”

“Did you catch a look at them?”

Josh nodded. “Just shadows. Three of them.
They look big.”

“Did they look human?”

“What?” Josh glared at his friend. “Of course
they looked human. What are you talking about?”

“I remember, Josh. We’ve never talked about
it but I do. Remember the bush party?”

“There were a lot of bush parties.” A series
of images flashed through his mind, but Josh couldn’t place any of
them.

“Not like this one.” Brian stared out the
window. “Grade 10, after the football game. A gang crashed it and
beat the hell out of Tommy Delonki. Remember? He died a few days
later?”

Josh nodded slowly. “Sorta. What does that
have to do with me?”

Brian let out a snort. He coughed a little
and then let out a long slow breath. “Either you think I’m a moron
or you honestly don’t remember. I’ve struggled for years with those
memories. They can’t be real but I remember them. I guess if you
found a way to block it all out you’re the lucky one.”

Josh shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He
looked in the rear-view mirror to see if anyone else was listening.
Matt was staring straight ahead; Jan still held his hand. Rebecca
was draping a blanket over Tonia’s body.

“Bri, I’m not really sure what you’re talking
about. I barely knew Tommy Delonki. I think we had a few classes
together but that’s it.”

“You really don’t remember?” Brian turned in
his chair to face him. “Tommy was your next-door neighbor. You were
best friends until high school. Ring a bell? That night, at the
party, you and I were doing shots when Tommy came racing out of the
dark. He was all cut up and bruised wearing only a pair of jogging
pants. No shoes or socks.”

“How drunk are you, man? Are you taking those
pills again?” Josh was beyond uncomfortable now. None of this was
even vaguely familiar. How could he forget someone who’d been his
best friend?

Brian hit him in the arm. Hard. “No! I’m not
drunk and I haven’t used those pills for years. I’ll have you know
the only reason I was ever on those pills is because of that night.
If you don’t believe me, ask Matt. He was there, too. He can also
vouch for Tommy being your neighbor. You’re the one with amnesia,
so don’t talk down to me!”

Everyone stared at them now. Brian’s voice
became increasingly louder as he went on. Josh looked over at him.
Brian’s face was red and his veins were bulging, but the redness
had gone from his eyes. Whatever else he was, Brian was not
drunk.

“I’m sorry,” Josh said as he rubbed the back
of his neck. “I don’t remember him being my neighbor, or my friend.
What happened?”

“How can you not remember that party?”
Rebecca slid forward and handed Brian a Diet Pepsi. “I wasn’t even
there and I’ve heard about it. Weren’t there, like, twenty or
thirty black guys in green tracksuits or something?”

“I heard they brought guns,” Matt said. Josh
was surprised to hear him speak. His voice sounded far away, like
he was talking in his sleep. “I remember seeing them. Sort of. They
looked eight feet tall. And he was your friend, Josh. You used to
skateboard with him until he had that knee surgery.”