Open Roads (15 page)

At once, a whole new thought came to Will. Essentially, he’d instantly become a father. Dylan and Mary Beth were his and Holly’s responsibility now. Sure, the others at the campground would help out, but they were by no means required to. Will and Holly had inherited the liability of the two children the moment that he’d informed Gabriel he was staying at the cabins. Still trying to come to grips with losing his own parents, he wasn’t sure how he would handle this new responsibility. Will did want kids, and perhaps even with Holly, but under a different circumstance than this.

Holly looked up to Will and said, “I’m gonna take him to his cabin and start getting his stuff moved over to ours. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Will looked down, reminding himself of the clothes he was in, still disgusting from the run-in with all the beasts at the camping store. “I’m gonna go clean up and lie down for a while.”

As Holly headed away with Dylan, Mary Beth followed. Will started for his cabin, but was stopped by Charlie.

“You okay?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah,” Will mumbled. “I’m all good. Just tired.”

“Me, too. Let’s both get some rest and catch up in a little while, alright?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Will said.

***

Dylan’s things had already been packed up, as Gabriel had assumed the boy would be leaving with him. This made it fairly simple for Holly to take Dylan back to his cabin to grab his things. Mary Beth had gone to hang out with Reece for a little while, leaving Holly and Dylan alone. While Reece slept each night in the same cabin as Scott, he’d often spend a large part of his day in one of the unoccupied cabins, where they kept some of the board and card games. This particular cabin had become simply known as ‘the game room’.

Holly looked around in the cabinets, seeing if there was anything worth taking. It appeared to have already been cleared out. She saw the cabinet with the hole in it, and Gabriel’s blood still pooled on the counter below it.

“Gabriel took most of that stuff with him,” Dylan said, standing in the middle of the living room with his bag over his shoulder.

Holly shut the cabinet. They had plenty of food among the other cabins, so it wasn’t a big deal. It had started to look as if the only things they’d be able to salvage out of the cabin, aside from the living space itself if they ended up needing it, were blankets, pillows, and some leftover firewood.

“I’m sure he’ll need it,” Holly said.

The pain remained in the boy’s eyes. Holly sighed and walked to the middle of the room, where Dylan stood. She took his hand and led him over to the sofa. Sitting down, she patted the spot next to her and offered him a seat, which he accepted.

Dylan said, “Why did he have to leave? Why couldn’t he have just stayed here with us?”

“You know the answer to that, sweetie,” Holly said. “Gabriel has people he loves back home. He wants to get back to them.” Holly reassured him of this even though she questioned what Gabriel might or might not find when, and
if
, he made it back home.

“We should be his family. After everything we’ve been through together.” Dylan spoke with a type of aggression that Holly hadn’t heard from him before.

“It’s easy to say that when you consider even just the last few days we’ve had,” Holly said. “And I know it feels like we’ve been together for a long time, but it hasn’t been that long. Gabriel has a daughter around your age, and he’s been with his wife much longer than that. One day, when you’re older and you’re married, you’ll have a better understanding of what kind of burden that kind of responsibility bears on you.”

“I’m never getting married,” Dylan said.

Holly laughed. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that anytime soon.” She stood up and grabbed Dylan’s bag for him. “Now, come on, let’s get you over to Reece’s so you can play for a while.”

***

The season’s first chilled night had come, as lights flashed all around. Large speakers amplified the voices of carnies trying to lure children over, all to steal their parents’ hard-earned money by distracting the kids with large plush dolls that could be bought at the store for half the price it would cost to obtain enough tickets to possibly win one. Luckily for Walt Kessler, his eleven-year-old son, Will, was much more interested in experiences and food than prizes, wanting to do nothing but ride the rides and stuff his face with sugary funnel cakes and nachos covered in anything and everything to clog arteries.

Will walked beside his father, eating his second slice of pizza of the evening. Two slices was nothing to Will normally, but after the two hot dogs, a cup of ice cream, funnel cake, and sharing nachos with his father, he was at the point of bursting. Even still, he wanted to ride anything that would twist him sideways or turn him upside down. His stomach ached, but he wouldn’t let that ruin the rest of his night at the state fair with his father, an annual tradition they’d stayed true to for as long as Will had been tall enough to meet the height requirements of most of the rides.

“What you wanna do next?”

Will looked up to see his father smiling down at him. His eyes then shifted forward, gazing upon ‘Starship 5000’, one of those spaceship rides where you’re inside a round, UFO type structure, and it spins fast enough to make you move up and down on the wall you’re strapped to, almost defying gravity. Will remembered one of his friends telling him that, if you spit while inside there, your flem would fly around the ship at the speed of a NASCAR, but he’d never had the guts to try it.

“That!” Will said, pointing to it. “I wanna ride ‘Starship 5000’.”

Walt Kessler laughed. “Son, if you ride that thing, you’re gonna make a lot of people inside very angry when you plaster the walls with pizza and ice cream.”

“Cool!” Will said.

Walt scanned the lay of the land, and he pointed to their left.

“How about you go inside that? Do something a little more laid-back.”

Will looked over to see his father pointing at a fun house. It was one of those really cheesy ones with a bunch of clowns painted on the side, working to try and scare people who are frightened by weird guys in colorful make-up and green wigs. Will wasn’t one of those people.

“Dad, come on, that’s lame.”

He closed his eyes as his father rustled his hair. His dad nodded toward the fun house, and urged his son to follow him.

“Come on,” Walt said.

Will let out a long sigh and followed his father, chewing his way down to the crust of his pizza
—
his favorite part, especially when it had a touch of cinnamon added to it like this slice did. He wiped his hands and then disposed of the napkin in a trash can.

Leaning down and handing Will three tickets, Walt patted his son on the back and said, “I’ll be out here, alright?”

“You’re really gonna make me go in there?” Will asked.

“Look, there’s not even a line,” his father said. “Come on, you might have fun. Who knows?”

Of course there’s not a line, Will thought. ‘Cause it’s lame. He let out a deep breath and said, “Fine.”

His father smiled. “I’ll be right here.” He urged Will toward the funhouse, then leaned back against a guard rail, withdrawing a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

Will was the fifth kid in line for ‘Clown Town’, standing behind kids who were all younger than he was. He glanced back to his father, who blew a cloud of smoke in the air, smiling at his son and waving.

When he reached the front of the line, the carney said, “Three tickets, please,” which Will reluctantly handed over to the guy with slicked-back hair, who smelled like a combination of every fried food stand that he’d passed, and the disgusting aftershave that Principal Crossley always wore.

“Go on in,” the carney said.

It was just as lame as Will had known it would be. He had to enter the funhouse on a bridge that quaked in a way that tried to make you think you wouldn’t make it across. In truth, his friend Hunter’s two-legged dog could have made it across. Once on the other side, repeated laughter came from speakers which sounded like they were part of the first stereo system ever made. He could hear every pop and click from the tired audio. Will wanted to get out of the funhouse as fast as possible and go ride something fun. That spaceship, the Tilt-A-Whirl… something, anything, else.

Moments after a cardboard clown jumped out at him, the power inside of the funhouse faltered, and everything went black. Will stood still, waiting for power to be restored. At first, he thought it was part of the experience, but then he noticed through a window in the next room that it was dark outside. He held onto the wall and moved to the next area, looking out the window. Outside, it was pitch black. Stranger, none of the young brats in front of him were screaming. It was quiet all around him.

“Hello?” Will called out.

No answer.

He used the walls to guide himself out, the lack of power leaving the chance of some prop jumping out at him as nonexistent. Somehow, he made it to the exit of the funhouse without falling down.

When he walked outside, he stopped dead in his path.

Not only was his father gone, but the entire park was vacant.

Will stood, stunned, and said, “Dad?”

No answer.

“Dad!”

His voice echoed off the steel of the dead rides.

Off in the distance, he heard a laugh.

Will followed the sound, hearing the sound of a man laughing every ten seconds or so.

He stopped when he came to a gate. A large sign above it read: Emergency Exit. A banner covered the opposite side of the rod-iron fence, making it impossible to see the other side.

The lock on the gate popped, and it started to swing open, the creak echoing into Will’s ears. He stepped toward the fence with caution, curious as to what lay on the other side. The laugh faded, and now he heard something else.

Growls.

Snarling.

Will’s eyes widened, and he tripped over the untied shoelaces of his Chucks.

A horde of undead monsters lumbered toward him. Their faces were pale, their hair matted and dry. They looked like creatures he’d fought in video games and seen in movies.

He gasped for air as he stumbled back to his feet, and started to run the other way without looking. But he hit something, knocking him back down onto the concrete.

And when he looked up, he saw a familiar face.

“Dad?”

But it wasn’t his dad at all. Not anymore. Walt Kessler had turned into one of the monsters. Using his father’s eyes, the thing looked down at Will, moving its tongue over its dry lips and snarling. Will used his hands to crawl backward, turning around to see the hundreds of others approaching closer. He was trapped.

The laugh returned, and Will cocked his head. It sounded so familiar. Not to pre-teen Will Kessler, but to adult Will Kessler.

It was unmistakable.

The sky opened, revealing the face of David Ellis. Will’s eyes widened, and the sky laughed again just as his father lunged toward his face.

***

Will woke up screaming. It echoed through the entire cabin. He rolled onto his side from his back to confirm he was no longer dreaming. It had felt so real.

The door swung open and Holly appeared in the doorway. She darted to the side of the bed.

Will kicked off the sheets, which had become damp, the intensity of the dream lunging him into a cold sweat. He sat up, pushing himself back against the headboard, and rubbed his forehead.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Just another bad dream.”

Holly grabbed his hand, but he jerked it away. She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes in surprise and frustration.

“I’m sorry. I’m just not in the mood to be touched right now.”

“I understand,” Holly said.

Will kicked the covers the rest of the way off of him, and massaged his temples. His head had begun to ache.

“What was it about?” Holly asked. “David? Your parents?”

Will thought back to his vivid memory of that trip to the state fair with his father. They’d gone every year until he’d turned sixteen and been old enough to drive there with his buddies. The time he’d dreamed about was one of the most vivid memories because, unlike in the dream, he had gone on the ‘Starship 5000’ and he’d gotten very ill, vomiting during the ride. Just before jumping on that ride, Will’s father had joked with him about going into ‘Clown Town’ instead, knowing his son had no interest in that.

“Yeah,” Will mumbled.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

Will rubbed his eyes, then looked to her and said, “I just need some time to wake up. Can you give me a few minutes? Maybe see if you can find any aspirin?”

“Of course,” Holly said. “I’ll see what I can find and I’ll meet you out in the living room.”

”Thanks,” Will said, and he leaned in, then kissed her.