The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (20 page)

"We're okay," Tamara said. They both got to
their feet and ran toward Steve as the other men caught up from
behind. "It's over now, isn't it." It wasn't a question, it was a
statement. Everyone nodded.

"What happened?" the chief said. "What the fuck
happened to him?"

Steve pointed back toward the town. "That
bastard Tom just made the luckiest shots of his life." He grabbed
the girls in his arms and lifted them both up just as Susie got
there and hugged them all three.

She was nearly breathless. "I was... I was
running up the hill when I heard Tom fire the first shot," she
said. "I saw one of the little ones fall... I was so scared."

Everyone stood around the body and was silent.
He
was
a demon, small and wrinkled, and smelled like sweat
and shit and piss and every other abomination they could think of.
A devil, he was completely removed from everything
human
.
Even though most had not seen what he had done to the young girls
in his cabin, everyone seemed to know just how evil he had been,
none more than Tamara and Kimberly.

"Burn him," Tamara said. "Finish it so he's not
even a memory."

"Charlie?" Steve said.

"I'm a comin'!" he said as he finally caught up
with the group. "I'm a danged old man, ya know! I ain't the climber
I used ta be... why, there was a time I coulda run up an' down here
all day!" He finally noticed the body on the ground and walked
closer. "I told ya you'd git 'im, didn't I."

"Ya got a bottle on ya?" the chief said.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out
a pint of whiskey. "Ya need a drink, chief? Careful there, son,
this here is hundred-and-ten proof."

"Good." The chief took the bottle from his hand,
took a swig, and then poured the contents over the old man's body
and stepped back, struck a match, and dropped it on the corpse. The
fire lit almost immediately, and the flames soon engulfed the body
as everyone stood back and watched.

"Burn in hell, mother fucker!" Steve said. "I
hope you burn for eternity."

"Amen," everyone else said at the same time.

"I reckon we got a lot a healin' ta do now," the
chief said. "We lost some good people." The body started to pop and
snap as the body fat was beginning to cook. "Well, maybe not so
good
, but they was our people, regardless."

"Yep," Jerry said. "Seems like ain't nothin' ta
celebrate over 'ceptin' we stayed alive."

"I'll take that," Steve said. "Y'all got your
property and I got a new family, I reckon." He squeezed the girls
closer and walked away.

"Hey there!" Susie said. "Where ya going with my
girls?!"

"Come on, then," he said without looking back.
"You can give them a bath while I go buy them some new clothes as
soon as Teresa can open up her shop."

"No!" they both yelled together.

"Don't worry," he said. "I know, I know, nothing
flowery. You like plain clothes."

They both looked at Susie and seemed to be
begging for help.

"Don't worry, sweeties, he ain't nearly as
stupid as he seems," she said. "Well, he is, but ya get used to him
after a while."

"Yeah, yeah, I said I got it," he said.
"Anything pink is okay, though, right? Long as it ain't got
flowers."

"Help us," the girls said together.

Allowing for slight differences of opinion, they
all agreed in general that they were royally screwed. Jack's old
wreck of a car had stopped at the very worst of times. All day long
after leaving the senior skip day picnic they had cruised the back
roads and hollows along the border where West Virginia and Kentucky
met up, occasionally finding a bridge to cross across the Big Sandy
River from one state to the other and the car had done fine. It had
been the perfect day, bright sunshine, shirtsleeve weather. But by
evening the sky had changed and heavy rain was moving in from Ohio
and the four of them needed to get home before dark. It was only
then that his car decided it had had enough work for the day and
simply took a break. Whether it had been fortuitous, or even
worse
luck, they happened to roll off the main road and onto
an old dirt driveway, and then the car neatly slid in the mud and
came to rest right on the edge of a stream that was beginning to
flood because of the sudden downpour.

"Dickhead!" Anna yelled. "You got us even deeper
in shit!" She nervously fluffed her short brown hair with her
fingers and stomped her feet on the floorboard.

"Hey, just shut up for a minute, will you?" Jack
said as he pounded his hands on the wheel. He turned the key
several times, each time the starter motor turned slower until it
could only muster enough current from the battery to make a
metallic clicking noise. He glanced over at his girlfriend who was
now so annoyed the windows on her side of the car were steaming
up.

"OK," Brice said from the back seat. "We're
twenty miles from home. We have no food. We have no water. We just
finished the last joint. A raging river is about to get us. We're
going to die."

"I like that," his girlfriend, Jessica, said.
"Well summed up."

"I thought so," he said.

"Even a trace of panic in your voice," she
said.

"Enough!" Jack said. "Look, this is a driveway,
so it leads to a house, right?"

"It's raining like hell out there," Anna
said.

"Well, you can wait here if you want. Maybe the
car will slide the rest of the way into the water, but even if it
doesn't, the way that's rising I'd say we got no more than five
minutes to get out before we all drown." He crawled across her and
opened the door since his door was blocked by the mud the car had
settled against.

"Stupid shit!" she said, and then jumped out and
the other three quickly followed her.

"Run close to the tree line, it's blocking some
of the rain," Brice said as he led the pack. He was the football
star, the all-state, blond haired wonder boy and in situations
where leadership was needed, even if it were motivated more by
stupidity than thoughtful consideration, he could be counted on to
take the lead. They ran in line, and even though the rain made it
hard to see, there was still enough light to illuminate shapes.
"Rock!"

Hearing each other was more difficult, however.
Anna tripped on the rock with such force she actually went sliding
on her stomach and nearly caught up with Brice before coming to a
messy stop. "Shit! Damn!" She yelled so loud that everyone else,
and possibly even people several miles away, heard her clearly.

They all stopped. It didn't matter now, they
were soaked so there was no reason to run anymore.

"Just look at me!"

"The rain will wash you clean by the time we get
to the house," Jack said.

"Idea!" Brice shouted. "Mud wrestling!"

"Idea!" Anna shouted back. "No fucking way!"

Jennifer began singing. "The water is wide, I
can't cross o'er; nor do I have light wings to fly; give me a boat
that can carry two; and both shall row, my love and I."

They were all silent for a moment.

"And you can shut the fuck up, too," Anna
said.

"Come on, teamwork!" Jack said, just as he
happened to look back to see his car slide into the raging flood
water.

Everyone else heard the crash and also looked
back.

"To be honest, it was a piece of shit anyway,"
Brice said. He pointed ahead. "Come on, it's gotta be just around
the bend."

"If we're walking anyway, why don't we just get
back on the road and walk to a town? We passed Fort Gay about
twenty minutes ago," Jennifer said.

"Because, it will be getting dark soon and this
is rural West Virginia," Jack said. "How many ways do you want to
be ass-raped before you die? My answer is
none
!"

"Hey, I was born and raised out here in the
sticks," Brice said. "You're insulting
my
peoples."

"Do
you
want to walk along that road
after dark?" Jack said.

"
Hell
no!" Brice said.

"OK, come on, like Jack said, this has got to
lead to a house," Anna said.

And he was right, as soon as they made it around
the next sweeping curve the old house came into view and as if on
cue, a huge bolt of lightning hit somewhere just behind it and
illuminated the entire structure.

"See," Brice said, "God still writes the best
horror stories."

He picked up his pace and the others followed
him until they all ended up on the large wrap-around porch of the
old farm house. The house was three stories tall and sat on an
older stone foundation. Its wooden siding was painted white at one
time but had darkened to various shades of yellow and brown over
the years and had a rusty red metal roof and a first story covered
porch that wrapped around the front and both sides. It was still a
solid structure, though, not ruins, just run down.

"I don't think there's anyone home," Jack said.
"There's a realtor's
For Sale
sign in the yard."

Anna knocked on the door anyway. "Hello?! Is
anyone home?! We're just trying to get out of the rain!" She pushed
on the door and it opened. "Hey!"

"Great, breaking and entering," Brice said.
"I'll bake you a cake with a file in it."

"Nothing got broke, so it can't be
breaking
and entering," Jennifer said. "It's illegal
trespassing."

"Oh, sorry," he said. "I defer to the legal
knowledge of the cute band majorette with a C average."

"As you should," Jennifer said. She stood on her
tiptoes and kissed him. "In all matters."

They all shuffled through the door and into the
darkened front room. It was still fully furnished and looked as if
someone were still living there. Suddenly, the whole room seemed to
explode with light and everyone literally jumped. Except Brice, he
had found the light switch.

"Realtor's always have the electricity turned
back on so they can show the house," he said.

Everyone took a deep breath. "Again, your
knowledge of all things
worthless
comes in handy," Jennifer
said.

"My best friend in middle school had a mom who
was a realtor," he said. "They probably just shopped some junk
shops and thrift stores and bought a lot of this more modern
seventies shit to make the house look more country." He looked
around. "I bet no one has lived here in fifty years or more."
Everyone stared at him. "What? I watch a lot of antiques shows on
TV."

"OK, I guess we can just stay here until
morning, and then start walking until we can get cell service,"
Jack said.

The room was decorated in a mixture of older
styles with printed wallpaper that had faded over the years and
peeled in places. The floor was dark hardwood with a large Persian
area rug under the old walnut coffee table and wood-framed maroon
velvet sofa and chair. A few other tables and chairs were peppered
about, all seemed to be from different time periods. One wall was
filled with shelves holding various smaller items: glass animals,
plates, ceramics, photographs of different families and children...
and mixed in was the usual bric-a-brac that older rural people
would collect and cherish.

"Wow!" Brice said. "Floor model TV!" He looked
around the back. "Still got a price tag on it: fifteen bucks. Well
worth every penny... and probably thirty-five or forty more."

Anna walked toward the high-arched doorway that
led into the rest of the house. "I'm hungry. Maybe there's some
food in the kitchen."

"Hey, should we just barge in like this?" Jack
said. "I think we should just stay here in this room and not bother
anything."

"Screw that," Anna said. "If there's food, I
want it. Oh, I know, let's call a pizza place. Oh wait, we can't
because we're in the
middle of fucking nowhere
!"

"You can go ahead and look around," Brice said.
"You might find a bag you can stuff full of valuables, too. Might
as well rob them blind while you're at it."

Anna held up her middle finger as she walked out
of the room.

"How'd you hook up with that bitch, anyway,"
Brice said to Jack.

"She's your twin sister; you introduced us,"
Jack said.

"Oh yeah. Sorry, dude."

"Hey, wonder if they got cable?" Jennifer said.
"I'm missing
America's Not Got Talent
." She looked around.
"There's no remote for the TV."

"For you, the world didn't exist before 1994,
did it?" Brice said.

"Hey guys!" Anna's voice came from somewhere
else in the house. "Come upstairs! There are dry clothes up
here!"

"Oh, why not," Brice said. "The extra time
served can't be that much more than what we're going to get
already."

They made their way through the large doorway
and into the main living room and saw the stairs on the left.
Nothing grand or sweeping, they were simply stairs to the second
story like most old farm houses had, with simple lathe-turned
balusters and slightly more ornate posts and finials, barely wide
enough to walk up side-by-side.

"Anna?" Jack yelled. "Which way?"

"Left at the top," she said as she appeared at
the railing above them. She was already dressed in a long flowery
cotton dress.

"Hey, I always thought you'd make a good
farmer's daughter," Brice said.

"Ha ha," she said. "At least I'm dry." She
started rubbing her hair with another dress.

"Actually, you look pretty hot, baby," Jack
said. "It suits you."

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Come on, follow me."
She passed a couple of open doors, and then pointed. "In here."

The room had been a bedroom, but not the master
bedroom. It had dolls and several books on shelves and the whole
atmosphere of a younger girl with bed coverings in pinks and pale
blues and a writing desk with a notebook, pencils, and a few
schoolbooks. There were a few pictures tacked to the wall of people
none of them recognized but who seemed to be pop idols or singers
from a long time ago. Anna pointed to an open wardrobe full of
dresses.