On Tenterhooks (53 page)

He felt Abby’s nodding head rub up and down
beneath
his
chin
.

“That means it can be done.
You’ve got to believe
—
in us, in yourself, in God
.
We’ll get there. I promise.”

She sniffed.
“Okay.”
She broke the embrace and looked at Steve
.
She sniffed again and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
“Sorry I lost it.”

“Don’t
be sorry, Abby
.
We’re all scared.
”

“Well,” she smiled, “
I think I
just
snotted
on
your shoulder a bit.”

He looked down at his shirt and saw the spot where she’d been crying.
“Yeah, well,
I just barfed on myself a minute ago, so I think I can handle a
little
snot
.”

She laughed
.
Steve leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

“Keep an eye on Martin. I’ve got some ibuprofen in the side pocket of my bag
.
He might have some stronger stuff in his
.
Just stay with him
. I am
getting
us out of this room.”

Abby nodded and turned back toward the couch.

Chapter
4
6

Steve surveyed the room
.
There
were
three ways
out – the front door, the door to the hallway and the kitchen. The kitchen wasn’t an option; there was still an ursataur somewhere back there, close by.  The two doors
were heavily
barricaded
.
They could exit
through one of them
, but it would
n’t
be quick, especially without Martin’s help moving the furniture.
If Preacher was anywhere nearby, he would know where they planned to go, long before they got there.
That left one other way out.
Steve padded
toward
the window opening.

“Steve!” hissed
Veronica
from behind him.

He held a finger to his lips, asking for silence
.
As he returned to the window, he was fascinated and repulsed by the
scene
.
The demon’s blood surrounded the frame with wayward splatters from
its
thrashing. Gobbets of its flesh and skin still stuck to the few remaining bits of glass
in the window frame
.
More s
hards of glass were protruding from a dozen streaming gashes in its paw and arm.
Its mottled fur was
shaven to the elbow. T
he tattooed symbols
of bizarre shapes
had been gouged
deep into the skin beneat
h. He could smell the creature
.
It was a powerful, pungent scent of
musk
and
rot
.

Staying out of reach, he nudged
the creature’s arm
with the head of his rusty axe. It lolled in the window frame
.
He pushed harder and it fell out, landing with a dull thud on the
floor planks
of the wooden porch
.
Nothing happened. He turned and look
ed
back
.
Abby and
Veronica
watched him fearfully
.
Veronica
shook her head. He stared back and nodded
.

“Don’t worry,” he said in a fierce whisper, “it’s dead.”

He crept forward again
and
extended the head of the axe out of the window, ready to let go and jump back
.
Nothing happened. He waved it around, banging against the sides of the window frame
.
Nothing happened
—
no
ursataurs
, no Preacher, no sound aside from his rapid breathing and the blood pounding in his ears
.
He moved closer still, and stepped to the side of the window
,
looking toward the corner of the house
.
Nothing visible
.
He jumped to the other side, looking
toward
the rest of the lawn
.
Still nothing. The porch and the front yard were empty
.

He stood in the window straining eyes and ears for anything beyond, any clue of their
assailants’
whereabouts
.
He heard nothing
.
The noises of the forest were beginning to return, as if someone
were
adjusting the volume on a surround sound movie
.
Taking one last long look around, he back
ed away from the window and rejoined
to the group.

“I can’t see
anything out there.
No sign of Preacher or any more of those things,” he jerked his head
toward
the dead demon. “But I’d say that one is definitely dead.”

Veronica
shook her head.
“Yeah well,
by my count, there are at least
two
more of them out there with him
.
And I’ve only got
four
bullets left
,
Steve.”

“I know
.
And
we’ve got to make them count.”

Martin, still lying on
the couch
, opened his eyes
slowly
.

“Only two
of them left
?” he said, shifting to look up at them with a groan. “Damn hell, our odds are getting better!”

He smiled
weakly
.
Abby had applied a makeshift bandage to his back using one of the
bed sheets
.
It appeared
to have stopped
the
bleeding.

Veronica
smiled
and knelt down beside him.

Martin
smiled back.

“Martin,”
Steve
said
,
“
c
an you move?”

“Yes, I think so
.”

“No,” said Abby
.
“He can’t. I
think
he’s stopped bleeding, but if he moves, it’ll probably just get worse.”

“Abby
dear
, t
rust me when I say this
.
If I
don’t
move, it will
definitely
get worse
. . .
for all of us.”

“He’s right, Abby,”
said
Veronica
.
“We have to move.”

Steve didn’t wait for Abby to argue
.
“Okay,” he said. “I am going first
.
I am gonna crawl through the window. When I give the signal, Abby, I want you to follow me, and bring your knife.
”

“What?” said
Veronica
. “Are you crazy Steve?  Let me go first! I’ve got the gun!”

“Exactly!
And that’s why you need to be in here until we are sure it is clear
.
I need you to have some cover
.
We can’t afford to lose that dead aim of yours
Veronica
.”

“Steve
—”

“
Veronica
,” said Martin. “He’s right
.
You know he’s right.”

Abby helped Martin sit up on the couch.
Then she
grabbed her discarded
hunting
knife
,
walked to Steve
, squared her shoulders and
nodded
her head
.
He was proud, seeing her fear so blatant
,
yet she was just as determined as he was to see this through
—
they all were.

“When Abby and I say it’s clear, Martin, you’ll have to make it through
the window
.
You think you can do it?
”

Martin was
exhausted, b
ut he gave Steve a wan smile.
“No pr
oblem.”
Then he turned to
Veronica
.
“And you ma’am, do not even think of putting down that sidearm to help
me out
.”

Veronica
turned back to Steve.
“This sucks
.
You know that, right
?”

“Yep
.”

He stared at her
.
She stared back
.
She looked to Abby and then Martin
, trying to find an ally for her
argument
.
“Fine,” she said, eyes brimming with hot tears
.
“Fine! Go! Go! Let’s get this thing done then!”

“Thanks
,
Veronica
,” said Steve, squeezing her shoulder.

“Blah, blah, blah
.
Just go!”

Steve turned to Abby.
“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be
,
”
she replied, with a slow smile.

They crossed the small room again
,
and Steve once more checked the window from both sides
.
Seeing no change, he put one foot up on the window ledge
,
pulled himself up with his free hand and
squeezed himself into the small opening. With a quick jump, he disappeared from sight.

Chapter
4
7

For a
moment,
he was gone, and then
they could see him
, back to the window.

“It’s clear as far as I can tell,” he whispered over his shoulder.
He kept his eyes
toward
the lawn, scanning left and right for a danger he knew was imminent.

Abby was next
.
She jumped
onto the window ledge
, her tiny frame easily fitting into the space
.
She paused, looking
first
over Steve’s shoulder at the lawn beyond
and then
down at the dead demon below
her.
H
er nose
filled with
its beastly smell
.
She
dropped down onto the porch with a near silent landing
,
and then
turned back toward the room.
“C’mon Martin.
We’ll give you a hand.
”

Martin nodded at her from the couch.
“Roger that,” he replied, gritting his teeth.
Shakin
g off
Veronica
’s attempts at help
,
he
pushed himself up off the couch.
“Don’
t worry about me girl,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
“Just a scratch.”

Veronica
moved to the side of the window frame, trying to see as much as possible of the yard beyond. Martin shuffled to the window, as Steve and Abby kept a close eye on the surrounding landscape
.
The bottom of the
window
frame was lower than his waist, but he knew he could
n’t
even
move that much with his back so tender
.

Veronica
saw it
,
too
.
“Wait Martin,” she said, surveying the room. Martin obeyed.

“Here,” she said, placing a
wooden
rack of musty magazines
against the wall beneath
the
window
frame. “This
’ll help.”

“You’re a doll
.
”
 

He put one foot up on the rack and tested the stability. It groaned, but held. He breathed deep, grabbed the frame with both hands and stepped up on the rack
.
More groaning, but the rack held together. He lifted his right foot up to the frame of the window and without warning, the rack collapsed
.
Martin fell forward into the window frame, screaming once again in agony
,
as his wounds tore open on impact.
Steve saw Martin’s  pocketwatch slip from his  pocket and bounce once as it shattered on the floorboards of the porch, next to the dead ursataur.
Veronica
dropped her gun and tried to get
hi
s foot out of the ruined magazine rack
, and at the same
time,
Steve leaned in to lift
him
back up.

“Steve!” screamed Abby.

Steve turned
toward
her and followed her gaze
to
the end of the porch
.
O
n the
corner,
he saw one of Preacher’
s
ursataurs
.
It
was bleeding from the shoulder, but as
its
nostrils flared with rage, there was no other sign that
Veronica
’s bullets had even slowed
it
down.
Its
massive eyes surveyed them with absolute malevolence.
It
looked down
and saw
one of
its
fallen
brethren
at their feet
.
They heard the deep thunder of
its
growl
,
and Steve knew
that their immediate situation had just gone from dire to deadly
.

“Sorry
,
Martin!” he said
,
as he
yanked
his injured friend
through the window onto the porch. Martin howled and collapsed in a heap with Steve on top of the dead
ursataur’s
body. Steve scrambled to his feet, keeping eyes on the
beast
at the end of the porch.

“Steve!” screamed Abby again, clutching his arm.
Her nails dug into his
flesh
with a terrified grip.

He turned and looked
toward
the other end of the porch as another of the
ursataurs
rounded the corner, massive eyes filled with the same
burning
hatred. Despite his pain, Martin saw
the beast,
too
,
and did his best to stifle his own cries.
Veronica
was silent in the house
,
and Steve could not see her
.
Both of the
beasts
stamped the
deck planks
and pawed again, raging bulls ready to strike
.
They raised their heads in unison to the sky.

“SCREE!”

“Martin!
Play dead! They might not be
very
smart!”
Martin didn’t answer, but he found his broken pocketwatch and clutched it close to his body, closing his eyes.

“SCRUM
!
”

Steve knew they had no time left
.
As both of the demons launched at them, h
e grabbed Abby’s arm and jumped with her off the front porch
.
The fall was short
,
and they both rolled.
Two shots rang out above them as Steve turned, prepared to fight.
From the corner of his eye,
he
s
aw one of the shag
gy beasts crumple
near its dead companion underneath the window
.
Veronica
’s shot had once again found its mark.

WUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

The
end of Preacher’s whip rocketed
toward
Abby and wrapped around
her head. She gasped. He stood
on the
roof above
the porch,
smiling gleefully.

“NO!” screamed Steve
.
He dropped his axe and launched him
self, trying to grab the length
of the whip, but Preacher was ready for it
.
He yanked his arm back, uncoiling the whip from around Abby’s face
.
Its momentum set her spinning like a
top-heavy
child’s toy, screaming in pain as the barbs of the whip raked her face
.
She spun down to the ground
,
and Steve fell awkwardly over her, trying to regain his balance and keep an eye on the scene above.

On the porch, a single
ursataur
stood at the broken railing staring down, only feet from Steve on the ground below
.
Steve stood
over Abby. S
he was sobbing at his feet, face down in the grass
, hands covering her face
.
He was defenseless. He had dropped his axe
,
and he knew there was no way he could
get
to it
.
The
ursataur
could pounce on him before he took his second step
.
Preacher had
the
advantage
of
high ground and the length of his whip.
Steve
couldn’t see Abby’s knife anywhere a
round him.

Preacher hovered over them all, near the lip of the porch
roof
.
He smiled, shaking his head
.
The midday sun gleamed on the roof and showed through his pale yellow skin, exp
osing the soft pink hue beneath,
which only served to
heighten his skeletal appearance. As he coiled
the
massive
whip
, the barbs screeched and clacked across the tin roof
.
When he reached the end of the whip, he examined the barbs
.
Abby’s blood was
a fresh
stain. He raised the whip to his nose and
inhaled
before he
opened his mouth and flicked his to
ngue over the barbs
,
like a reptile hunting its prey
. His rancorous laugh filled Steve with a greater hate than he had ever know before.

Rut rut rut rut rut rut

“The lifeblood of this
hatchling
runs sweet
.
It shall be a delicious treat for my Lord and Master.”

Abby sobbed at
Steve’s
feet
, and he
knew she
could hear
what was going on, even without being able to see it for herself
.
H
e was
defenseless, yet he vowed to remain defiant until the end, however soon it
might
be.

He had no words to
counteract Pr
eacher’s taunts
. His throat was dry
,
and his muscles were beginning to strain under the extended state of excitement
.
His adrenaline and blood pumped, but he couldn’t see a way out
.
Martin and
Veronica
were dead for all he knew. Abby was blinded at his feet. He had no
plan and
weapons
except for
his fists
.
It had been fight or flight
,
and they had chosen to stand their ground. Now Steve
saw the full folly of
their decision
and his leadership.
Preacher had picked them
clean
,
and he now stood alone against
a powerful
foe and
one of
his demonic
ursataurs
.

Preacher continued to smile down at him from the rooftop
.
Steve wanted to break his gaze, to scan the area for a possible way out
—
a weapon, a diversion, a
n
escape route
,
anything that would forego an ending like this
.
The demon beast continued to breath
e
heavily, growling from the edge of the porch
.
Steve could see its shaggy head and glistening antlers
out of the corner of his eye.

“And so, my misguided son, i
n which manner would you care to
be
dispatched from your mortal coil?” 

From behind Preacher, Steve saw a window
open slowly
.
Veronica
appeared gun first, trying to climb out of the window onto the roof.
Steve knew he had to keep Preacher distracted
.

I hope she’s worked it out.

Biker had drill
ed it into each of them that they would not be able to kill Preacher
by any traditional means
.
Perhaps
Veronica
had worked it out
,
and she had a plan
.
Any idea was better than what Steve was coming up with, so he played the
part of the distraction
as best he could.