FROSTBITE (8 page)

Brad, who was facing the girls, spoke up. “I wouldn’t lean against the window like that.”

Elaine looked over at the young boy quizzically. “Huh?”

“Remember earlier when those things were sucking on the glass?” Brad asked.

“Yeah,” she responded.

“Well, with it being pretty cold in here and the snow drifts now covering three quarters of the windows,” he said, looking above him. “And if they do indeed hunt from vibrations, you potentially could be ringing the dinner bell for them.”

“Oh,” she replied and leaned forward. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Brad said.

“I found it!” Stephanie said, pulling a mini-flashlight from her purse. She clicked it on, shined it over at Elaine, and screamed as the front window behind Elaine abruptly exploded.

I turned and saw, what seemed like in slow motion at the time, one of the worms lunge through the window. It opened its circular mouth incredibly wide, revealing its dozens of razor sharp teeth and then engulfed the entire back portion of Elaine’s head as she attempted to lean away.

The scream that followed was ear-piercing and it was that scream that broke the stunned trance I had inadvertently been in. I jumped up, scooped up the large butcher knife I had used earlier and jumped into the girls’ booth behind me.

Stephanie was pulling on Elaine’s arms as hard as she could, trying to get her out of the booth. On the other side the worm was pulling on Elaine as well, as if in some macabre tug-of-war contest. The worm was halfway through the window, attempting to back out with its catch. I raised my weapon and brought it down as hard as I could into the body of the creature.

It didn’t even slowdown in its attempt to feed. Then I heard young Brad shout from behind me. “Keep stabbing it, some worms have up to five hearts!” So I ripped the knife out of the worm’s body, spraying its blood across the booth in the process. I then brought it down again. Then again…and again.

I finally thought I heard a painful moan from somewhere inside it and then I saw that it was slowing down. I didn’t however. I kept piercing the worm’s body over and over in different sections until it stopped altogether. Stephanie, who was still pulling on Elaine’s arms, gave one final tug and Elaine came free.

Stephanie toppled backwards out of the booth, with Elaine landing on top of her, their faces only an inch or so away. I gulped as I stared down. The entire back half of Elaine’s cranium was gone, clear up to the ears. I turned and saw the dripping mixture of bone and flesh hanging from the dead creature’s mouth. A second later Stephanie started screaming. “Oh my….She’s dead!
Get her off me!”

I hurried over and started to drag Elaine off of the screaming girl on the floor. I looked up and saw Ted just staring down at me. “A little help Ted?” I asked breathlessly.

Ted stood still a moment longer and then leaned down and helped drag poor Elaine off of Stephanie, who was crying so hard that she started to choke. A moment later she vomited what little dinner she had eaten right there on the floor. I tried to comfort her the way Elaine had earlier, but it was not working.

“This is a nightmare,” she kept repeating over and over. Then, her eyes widened. “I’m gonna get sick again!” she cried and bolted toward the bathroom. I turned and saw that Ted just stood there, wide-eyed, staring down at his former co-worker.

“Ted?” I said. He didn’t respond.

“Ted?” This time he numbly looked over at me.

“Yeah?”

“We need to find something to cover that whole in the window,” I said, nodding toward the shattered window. Cold air and snow was pouring through at a rapid rate. “We don’t want the other one slithering in.”

My last statement seemed to do the trick. “I’ll see what we have,” he said, scooping up a yellow flashlight. He turned and made his way through the swinging door to the back. I turned my attention back to the dead worm that was lying across the silver table top. I hesitantly reached and started to pull the rest of it inside. It was surprisingly heavy and the going was rough.

After a moment, it flopped the rest of the way in. It was then that I heard the sniffling and, to my horror, I realized that I had temporarily forgotten about the boys. I turned and saw that they were both standing by the counter. As dark as what is was, I could still tell that they were both crying.

I got up and made my way over to them. “Brad? Kevin? You guys…okay?”

“Elaine,” Brad muttered.

“I know,” I responded. Upon closer examination, it looked as though little Kevin was about to pass out. “Here, take a seat on these stools.” They both jumped up into the seats. “You boys have seen things tonight that no kids should ever have to see. Heck, no adult should ever have to see something like this,” I said, gesturing over my shoulder. “But I need you boys to stick together and hang in there. Can you do that?”

They both nodded. “We’re okay,” Brad said, trying to sound brave.

“I know you are,” I encouraged. Just then Ted came back from the kitchen, carrying what appeared to be an old tabletop, presumably left over after a renovation.

“I found this,” he muttered. He walked over and slid it in front of the window, covering the hole up nicely. “It’s heavy, should do alright.”

“Good,” I said, walking over to him. “I suggest that we put Elaine back with Billy.”

“Yeah,” Ted answered, this time without an argument. “Sure.”

“We’ll be right back boys,” I said, hesitant to leave them by themselves. Just then Stephanie emerged from the bathroom and joined them. “Let’s go,” I motioned to Ted and we carefully picked her up. I grabbed hold of her legs the best that I could and Ted lifted poor Elaine from her armpits. I groaned under the weight, but we managed to walk around the counter and into the back.

I thought the front of the diner was dark, but the back was like walking into ink. I trusted Ted’s direction and we soon reached the freezer door. We had to temporarily set her down in order to get the door open. After it was open, we gently laid her down next to Billy. We then closed the door and quickly made our way back out to the diner portion of the building.

Stephanie was seated on a stool next to Brad. “How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“Not so good,” she replied. She held her little flashlight tightly in her hand, as if it was some kind of weapon. The candles that Elaine lit earlier still shined dimly throughout the room. It wasn’t much, but it was sufficient enough to see.

“No,” I sighed. “I guess not.”

“I want to go home,” she whispered. “I want to see my parents.”

“I know.”

“I want to see my grand pop.”

“I know,” I repeated. I silently wondered whether Henry Adams was even aware that his granddaughter wasn’t at home. Was the electricity out all over town or just on Main Street? Moreover, what about the phone lines?

“We can’t stay here,” Ted sounded from behind me. “They are just gonna keep on picking us off.” At the sound of this, Stephanie started crying again.

“Ted,” I groaned, nodding toward the seventeen year old girl.

“What?” he asked defensively.

“I don’t see how we can leave,” I answered. “Every time we open the door, they are right on top of us.”

“And the longer we stay here,” Ted countered, “the colder it gets. The whole front of this place is windows.”

“I know.”

“Well, what is to stop them from coming through another one?” he asked, agitated.

“Staying away from them,” I replied. “Make as little noise as possible.”

“You think that is good enough?” he scoffed.

“I don’t know,” I honestly responded. “But the one thing I do know is that we don’t have any idea how many of those…worms are out there. I’ve killed one and we know that there is at least one more slithering around out there somewhere.”

Ted was about to respond when he shifted his gaze behind me. “Hey kid, what are you doing?”

I quickly turned to see Brad, now holding Stephanie’s mini flashlight, examining the creature’s corpse. “Hey Brad,” I said, walking over. “Be careful.”

“I am,” he replied. He shone the light up and down the carcass. The body was pure white and glistening, whether it was from being in the snow or them just being slimy was anybody’s guess. From the tail of the thing to the large, eyeless head, it was about four and a half feet long.

There were a dozen stab wounds covering the body, from where I unsuccessfully tried to save Elaine’s life. I noted that the worm’s blood was red, which in my mind, ruled out Ted’s ridiculous alien theory.

“Let me see that,” I said, gently taking the light from the young boy.

“Now what are you doing?” Ted barked.

Ignoring him, I leaned down to within a few inches of the creature’s gigantic mouth. Spotting a spoon, I fetched it from the table and, grimacing, started to use the spoon to dislodge Elaine’s remains from the spherical orifice.

It took some doing, but the back of our waitress’ head finally came out, landing on the floor with a sickening plop. The teeth were about three, maybe four inches long and they went completely around the mouth in a perfect circle. Then I noticed that one of the teeth on the upper part of the mouth was chipped. This worm was most likely the one that killed Larry’s best friend Spike and, to a certain extent, Larry himself.

“What are you doing?” Ted repeated.

“Trying to see what we are up against,” I answered over my shoulder.

“Huh?”

Against my better judgment, I ran my hand across a small section of the creature’s flesh. “It seems to have something on its surface, almost like extremely tiny hairs of some kind.”

Before I could stop him, Brad quickly followed suit and reached out and pet the worm as well. “You’re right,” he agreed. “It might be how it pushes itself.”

“Excuse me,” Ted yapped loudly. “Who cares? The only important question is how many more are there and can we get outta here.”

“I’m cold,” Kevin whimpered from behind us.

“I know,” I said, walking over to the young boy and Stephanie. “We have to wait until morning. I am positive by then the sheriff and others will be able to track us down.”

“We’ll be dead by then,” Ted mumbled.

“Come on,” I said, coaxing Kevin. “Let’s all sit down over here.” I ushered them to the furthest booths at the backend of the diner – Sarah and I’s special booth. “Just sit at the end of the booth, away from the window.” Brad and Kevin sat on opposite sides of each other in one booth, Stephanie and I in another. “Now if we are quiet, maybe we can make it till morning. Try putting your heads down, maybe you can try and sleep.”