Council of Peacocks (6 page)

“You’re not your father.”

“I don’t know
what
I am. Not anymore.
But I know this scenario. My dad trained me for this. I can get us
out of here as long as you trust me.”

Reluctantly, Jan took her hand away.

They opened four windows before they found
Rebecca. Like Jan, she wore a blue dress and her arms were covered
with strange symbols.

She wasn’t alone.

An elderly blond man held a knife to her
throat. His pants were around his ankles.

“Bugger off, Keith,” the man said over his
shoulder. “You said I could have this one. Leave me be.”

Blood pounded in Josh’s head. He looked at
the gun in his hand. ‘I can’t risk shooting from this angle. I
could miss and hit her.’ He thought over his options. Then he
kicked the door. Jan squealed – instinctive shock. Josh motioned
for her to press against the wall. He knelt down, back on the
opposite wall, and raised his gun.

“What the hell is your problem?” A face
appeared in the window, eyes wide with realization.

Josh fired.

Rebecca screamed. With a thud, the body
collapsed.

He tossed the keys to Jan. “Try them all if
you have to. Get the door open. I’ll keep you covered. He looked up
and down the hallway. Sooner or later someone would investigate the
shots. But that wasn’t what ate at him. It was the look in the
man’s eyes. He’d seen it hundreds of times in horror movies. It was
the look every victim had when he or she confronted the monster in
the darkness. ‘And I’m the monster,’ he thought.

Jan didn’t hesitate. It was one of the things
he loved about her. Most people would collapse in hysterics. But
not her.

“Hold on, Becka,” she said through the
window.

“Get me out of here,” Rebecca moaned. “I’m
not sure he’s dead.”

It took ten minutes before Jan found the
right key. Once the door opened, she stepped over the man’s body
and tried keys on the manacles. Josh watched the hall. When she was
free, Rebecca fell against Jan, crying.

“Move quietly,” he said as he bent down to
take the dead man’s knife. It had smudges of blood on it, blood
that had to be Rebecca’s. He wiped the knife on his jeans and
passed it to Rebecca. “We’re going to find Matt and get out of
here.”

“What about Brian?”

‘
Crap’,
he thought. He turned to face
her, opened his mouth and tried to think of the words to say
it.

Her face went numb.” Oh,” Rebecca said. She
gave several quick, shallow nods, took a quivering breath and let
the tears fall down her face. Then her eyes glazed over as Jan led
her out of the room.

‘She handled it better than me,’ Josh
thought. He searched the dead man’s clothing and found a gun in a
holster attached to his belt on the floor. ‘But then, she didn’t
see the body.’

They found Matt in the next room. Thankfully,
he was alone and unharmed. He still had his pants, but was also
missing his shirt, socks and shoes. Jan unlocked the door with the
same key that had unlocked Rebecca’s cell.

Matt opened his mouth, his eyes asking where
Brian was. Josh shook his head and passed him a gun. Matt took it,
going pale as soon as his fingers touched the metal.

“I’ve never fired a gun.”

“Like I told Jan, don’t worry about being
accurate. Point and squeeze. If nothing else, the noise might scare
them. We have to find the way out of here. But not until we kill
the last two.”

Matt looked over at Jan, eyes wide. Then he
stared down at the gun in his hands. “Josh, we can’t do this.”

Josh didn’t turn around to look at him. He
walked slowly to the open door at the end of the hallway. As he
moved closer, he saw a set of stairs leading upwards.

“Josh,” Matt hurried to get to Josh’s side.
“We can’t kill these people. It’s wrong. We’ve got to get out of
here, get help.”

Josh stopped but did not turn around to look
at him. “That weapon in your hand is the only help we’re going to
get.”

Matt put a hand on Josh’s shoulder. This time
Josh did turn around.

“Listen closely, Matt.” Josh’s voice was a
harsh whisper. “Once we head up those stairs there won’t be time
for me to repeat myself. You’re not an idiot. You know the
situation we’re in. These aren’t the kind of people you just run
from. You run, they follow. And they will catch you. It may take an
hour, a day or a decade. But they will come after you. And when
they do, they’ll kill you. This isn’t civilization. There’s no help
a phone call away. They’ve already killed two of us. I will not let
there be a third. So, if you don’t think you can pull the trigger
when you need to, take the girls and go hide in one of the cells.
I’ll come back for you when it’s over.”

Matt dragged nails down his cheek and then
bit them. He turned to look back at the others. Jan lifted her gun,
resolve written clearly on her face. Matt took a deep breath and
nodded. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

Josh raised his lips in the hint of a smile,
then started up the stairs. Matt followed him with the two women
close behind.

The air reeked of cigars and roast chicken.
Josh held his hand up, motioning the others to stay put. Back
against the left wall, Josh crept up the stairs. He kept his gun
pointed at the top of the stairs. The unpainted metal door reminded
him of the large walk-in freezers he had seen at the restaurant
that Brian’s family owned.

‘Maybe that’s why they didn’t hear the
gunshots,’ he thought. ‘Either that or they’re just so used to
hearing shots they no longer pay attention.’

He put a hand on the door. It was cool to the
touch. When he took his fingers away, there was a thin layer of
grime on them, like oil. He reached for the large handle, turning
it slowly.

When the click came it was soft, like an
inhalation.

Josh held the handle down for a moment,
listening.

When there was no hint of movement or noise
on the other side, he pushed the door open. It led to a room lined
with unfinished wood shelves filled with metal cans of food. He
looked behind him and motioned for Matt to lead the others up.

Josh moved into the pantry. There was another
metal door with a large window near the top. Peering through it,
Josh took in details of a bright, cheerful kitchen. An old woman
stood at the stove stirring a pot. Her gray hair was up in a bun.
She wore a sleeveless floral summer dress.

Josh cocked his gun and threw open the
door.

The woman turned. Her smile turned to shock,
then slid into disbelief and pain. She looked down at her chest,
her fingers touching blood as it spilled out over her dress.

Josh realized he was holding his breath. He
fought to breathe again. He couldn’t remember pulling the trigger.
He had not even heard the gunshot. He looked down at the gun in his
hands. It was warm. He looked back up at the woman and watched her
fall to the floor. The wooden spoon she held clattered against the
floor.

“Jesus!” Matt rushed past him and knelt
beside the woman on the floor. “Was the old woman such a threat?
You’re losing it.”

Jan walked over to the woman, bent over and
spat on her face.

“Have you all gone mad?” Matt stood up and
led Jan away from the body.

“She has to be in on it.” Jan stared down,
unable to meet Matt’s eyes. “There’s no way she didn’t know what
was going on down there.”

“Still, you don’t know…”

With fast, large steps, Josh walked over and
put a hand over Matt’s mouth. He put a finger against his own lips,
the sign for silence, and looked around the room.

It was a pleasant kitchen. There were two
other doors, one leading outside and the other into the guts of the
house. The walls, painted yellow with white trim, were lined with
glass-covered cabinets. Inside, cups and dishes reflected the light
that shone through the large window embedded in the western wall.
Looking through the window, Josh saw the sun setting behind a
distant row of trees. In between the house and the woods was a
large red barn. Two brown horses ate hay in a pen. Josh saw
movement. A man in overalls, with large arms and a pitchfork, ran
toward the house.

Before Josh could react, something smashed
into his head. Everything spun, the world blurring. It stopped when
he hit the floor.

He saw a thin, black-haired man hitting Matt
in the knees with a hammer. An olive-skinned man in a white
ceremonial robe pointed a shotgun at Rebecca and Jan. Two redheaded
men, who looked to be identical twins, stared down at Josh. Like
the men below, they bore an uncanny resemblance to Robert
Redford.

‘Brothers,’ Josh thought. ‘What kind of
family is this?’

“Damn maggot,” one of the twins said. “You
killed me mumsy.”

The other twin kicked Josh in the ribs. Josh
felt something crack. He coughed up blood. Then both twins began to
kick him repeatedly.

He heard a door open. The beating
stopped.

“What the hell happened?”

Josh looked up from the floor. It was the
large man with the pitchfork.

“They killed Mumsy, Sasha,” one of the
Redford twins said. “Shot her like a bleeding animal. Let me skin
him alive.”

Sasha, the man with the pitchfork, stepped
forward and looked down at Josh. “You know we can’t. Otto will have
our heads if he dies. Go check on the others.”

“But…”

Sasha slammed the butt of the pitchfork
against the hardwood floor. “Check on them now! Remember why we’re
doing this.”

One of the Redford twins kicked Josh in the
head before stomping off downstairs.

From the floor, Josh looked around the room.
It hurt to move his head, so his view was limited. Matt held up
hands covered in blood as he screamed in pain. One leg twisted at
an unnatural angle. Josh couldn’t see much of the women from where
he was, only their legs and the man who held the gun on them.

‘If ever there was a time for a miracle, this
is it.’ he thought. Nothing happened. ‘Oh well. Guess I’ll have to
make my own luck this time.’ He closed his eyes and focused past
the pain, numbing it.

Then, he opened his eyes and sprung.

With his right hand he grabbed the remaining
Redford twin by the crotch. He pulled down and twisted as hard as
he could. The man fell to his knees. Josh slammed his elbow into
the man’s nose. The man holding the shotgun pivoted, pointing the
gun at him. Josh spun behind the Redford twin. He lifted him back
up to his feet by the hair. Josh had another human shield.

The man with the shotgun cocked it, readying
it for fire.

‘Don’t know if this will protect me or not,’
he thought. ‘Better not chance it.’ He twisted the twin’s head with
a sharp jerk. There was a wet crunch and the neck broke.

“You mother….” The man with the shotgun
fired, the sound drowning out his curse. Josh dropped, rolling away
from the blast. He yelped as the movement brought sharp pain to his
ribs.

“Josh!” Jan cried out for him. She curled her
fist and punched the man with the shotgun in the back of the head.
His head flew forward and Jan hammered her hands down on his skull.
He fell.

The man with the hammer left Matt and slammed
the hammer into Jan’s side. At the same time Sasha raised his
pitchfork and jabbed it like a spear at Josh.

“No!” Josh screamed.

The weapon stopped midair.

Sasha struggled, leaning forward into the
pitchfork. No matter how hard he pushed, the pitchfork did not get
any closer. Josh clenched his fists, his full attention on the
pitchfork.

Then something clicked.

A grating hum filled his ears, like dozens of
flies buzzing inside his head.

He reached out with his hands and grabbed the
pitchfork.

His whole weight resting on the pitchfork,
Sasha collapsed. Josh spun the pitchfork like a quarterstaff and
brought the tines down into Sasha’s chest. As the body twitched,
dying, Josh pulled out the pitchfork. He jabbed it into the throat
of the remaining Redford twin. Blood spewed everywhere. Then he
yanked it loose again and walked toward the black-haired man.

“Stay right there, punk.” The black-haired
man stood behind Jan, one arm wrapped around her throat, the other
held a hammer above her head. “None of your tricks or she’s dead.
You’re off limits but she’s not. Put the weapon down.”

Footsteps came up from the basement. Josh
focused his attention on the open door. Again, his head buzzed and
the door slammed shut. The other Redford twin’s face appeared in
the window. The door rattled but, no matter what the Redford twin
did, would not open.

“Listen, thin man.” Josh walked toward him,
pitchfork in front of him. He noticed that Rebecca had gone over to
Matt and was trying to help him to his feet. “Here’s what’s going
to happen. Run away or I’m going to run this pitchfork right
through you.”

“You’ll have to stab through her first.”

Josh took another step forward. “Yes, I will.
I’ll put the pitchfork through her. Then it’s going through you.
Afterwards, I’ll bandage her up and watch while you bleed to
death.” Josh shrugged as if it didn’t matter which choice he made.
“Run or die. Those are your choices.”

“You won’t do that.” The man took a step
back, dragging Jan back with him. “You can’t do that.”

Josh put the pitchfork up against Jan’s bared
stomach.

“You have no idea what I’m capable of
doing.”

Suddenly, the room went dark. At first Josh
thought it was just the sun going behind the clouds outside. Then,
shadows turned pitch black, nearly opaque. Josh looked around. The
shadows moved like liquid, rippling and swirling.

“Josh, what is this?” Jan asked.

“I… I don’t know.” Josh shook his head.

One corner was significantly darker than the
rest of the room. Josh held the pitchfork toward it. He sensed
movement, like an army of eels thrashing in a pool of ink.