Rampike

by European P. Douglas

  “Yes, Susan is hurt; we need to call an ambulance!” The look of fear on Sam’s face and the news of someone hurt took the grin from Mouse’s face.

  “It’s inside, I haven’t used it for a few days but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be working,” he said leading the way. In the living room Mouse picked up the phone and put it to his ear and dialled the operator. Nothing. He tried again and the look of surprised confusion on his face was all Sam needed to know that his trip here had been wasted too. He made up his mind in an instant, there was nothing more for it; he was going to have to drive back to get Susan and bring her to the medical centre in Emerson himself, straight away.

  “Thanks, Mouse,” he said, and he ran out of the house.

  “Wait!” Mouse called after him. “What happened to Susan?” Sam was already in his truck by now and his ears heard nothing.

  As had been happening frequently for the last while, new ideas kept coming to his head. Sally would not let him take Susan out of the tavern without a fight and it was possible the others would side with her on the matter. But what else could he do? A sickening sense of urgency came over him and he really felt as though he was racing against time. There was only one thing left to do; he was going to have to drive directly to Emerson himself and bring the ambulance back with him. With this in mind, he started the car and turned back heading for the back road to save time. It was all about time to him now.

  Not long after getting on to the back road he passed Susan’s car, and he looked around at the place where she’d been hurt. He didn’t have time to slow down and take a look but he felt sick that she had been alone in this place when she was hurt. He pressed down on the already fully depressed accelerator in anger hoping his own strength might somehow shove the car faster towards his aim.

  The truck was moving now at a faster speed than Sam had ever driven it and from time to time on the rises and dips of the road, he could feel he was losing control and the vehicle was floating but each time he got it back without really knowing how he’d done it. Everything was a sign to him now; he was meant to get to Emerson in record time and get the people who would make sure Susan was going to be alright.

  The trees on either side of the road were like a blur now and this prevented Sam from seeing what was going on. On either side of him, the trees were turning white faster than he was moving. They came from behind but soon overtook him, like it was some race to a point in the road ahead.

  At last, Sam’s tunnel vision allowed him to see, and he knew there was something in the road ahead blocking his progress. As he got closer, he saw to his amazement that some of the tree limbs had seemed to come and meet across the road, causing a huge tangle of white limbs directly in his path. When he saw the wood, he knew it was the same as that Maul had shown him and he recalled how brittle and weak it was. He was going to go straight through; the spindly limbs would be no match for the weight and power of his truck. Holding firmly onto the wheel, Sam maintained his course.

  The truck slammed into the deep thicket and thousands of snapping noises filled the air, so much so that it painful to hear. Sam screamed at the pain and the realised the truck was slowing down. He couldn't believe it. Pressing hard on the pedal again produced no effect. He could hear the wheels spinning but it didn’t feel as though they were on the ground anymore.

  Then the truck came to a complete standstill, and the engine gave out in a sputtering groan. Sam sat there looking around in disbelief. The car was at least five feet from the ground and now that the engine had died and there was no more forward momentum. The snapping noises had abated too leaving only perfect snow-dulled silence.

  A long gust of exhaled breath escaped Sam’s lungs, and he knew for the first time that he had been holding his breath. He didn’t believe what his eyes were telling him and he started to have fantasies that he had somehow fallen asleep and left the road and had woken up now in a tree filled ditch. Images of what he’d just seen dispelled this notion, however, and he was left with no choice but to believe that what had happened was real.

  There wasn’t long to wonder at this however as things got even worse. A new sound rose, one that pinged and crunched like hard snow but in a way Sam’s ears didn’t recognise. He looked around nervously for the source of the sounds; he couldn’t pinpoint it though. It was as if they were coming from everywhere at once. Outside the car he saw that the limbs were moving now, coiling around like snakes and then he knew what was happening!

  He scrambled from his seat through the back window and into the bed of the truck. At that moment the squeal of bending metal rose, and the headlamps shattered one at a time like a gun going off; pop-pop. The noise grew louder and more sustained like an orchestra pulling together as different parts of the car body dented and crumpled like paper.

  Sam was terrified, and he looked for somewhere to go, but the only option was to jump down to the ground and try to extricate himself from these limbs, which didn’t seem like an easy thing to do. There was no other choice though, so this is what he had to do. He leaped from the bed, hoping to clear as many limbs as possible and landed square on his feet and felt pain at the hard slap on the road. His footing went on the ice with his first step and he went down. Though terrified at this it quickly turned to have been a stroke of luck as he saw some limbs swipe hard at where he had just been standing. From his position on the ground, an escape route suddenly became clear, and he dragged himself as fast as he could through the lower brittle limbs.

  The ground was covered in broken pieces of the white trees and his arms and legs were soon covered in small cuts and abrasions that stung sharply with each movement of his body. At last, he was clear, and he pulled away and looked back into the fold to see his huge metal truck finally collapse into itself like it had been made of newspaper. The noise was huge, and it echoed around the forest and mountainside. It was louder than anything Sam had ever heard in his entire life.

  With that, he turned and ran back towards Mercy. It would be a very long time before he got back there, but he knew that was his only chance of survival. Something unreal was happening out here — he’d been right about the trees watching him — and he had to get back and warn the others. Looking back, he was relieved to find that the squirming mass that had destroyed his truck was not moving and didn’t seem to care that he was getting away — he couldn’t believe he was thinking in this way about trees! But then, all around him, no matter where he looked he saw the other trees with their white posts. What need was there to chase him when no matter where he went on this mountain they would already be there?

  Chapter 18

  By the time Sam had run out of breath and could only walk, Susan’s fever broke as dusk set in. Ava was with her when it happened as she’d offered to help as she waited out her time in Mercy. Jeff hadn’t started on their car yet even though he’d brought back the parts this morning. Jarrod had gone over to try to get him to hurry up and she didn’t know if he was back in the tavern yet. It was the sudden cooling of Susan’s forehead as Ava wiped that was the first indicator she was feeling better.

  “Is it safe?” her low voice suddenly asked, urgent and fearful, Susan’s eyes shooting open and then darting around the room.

  “Oh!” Ava said startled by suddenness. “You’re fine. You’re in the tavern. Do you want me to get Sally?”

  “Is it here?” Susan asked, and she tried to move. The pain shot through her whole body, but it was the sharp one in her ribs that made her cry out. Ava jumped up and held her by the shoulders.

  “You’ve some broken ribs, you need to stay lying down,” she said.

  “Did you see it?” Susan asked after a few moments of adjusting to the pain.

  “See what?” Ava asked. Susan looked at her and then again at her surroundings. This wasn’t anywhere she had ever been before, and it certainly wasn’t the Emerson back road. Her head cleared as the pain subsided.

  “Where am I?” she asked looking at the frightened girl at her bedside
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br />   “You’re in the tavern,” Ava said. “You’re safe.”

  Susan closed her eyes and let her head rest down again on the soft pillow. She was in pain but she was no longer cold and no longer lying on the side of the road; this was all positive stuff.

  “How did I get here?” she asked, her eyes still closed enjoying the restful feeling for the first time.

  “Mr. Sorkin found you out by your car a couple of miles out of town,” Ava said and then after a moments of silence asked, “What happened to you?”

  “I found a deer in the road,” Susan said but didn’t say anymore. Ava looked to see if she had perhaps fallen back to sleep but Susan was not asleep. Images of what had happened were running through her mind. The sounds rushing, snow crunching, the thick smell of blood and the dizziness of being in the air all came together on her and she couldn’t piece it all together into one narrative that made sense. Now she was looking face level with the snow and she was scared, something was coming after her, but what? She didn’t know. She felt herself on the cold snowy slope of a high hill and didn’t know what it meant.

  “I’ll go get Sally,” Ava said worried now in case something was happening with Susan that she did not recognise.

  Susan opened her eyes when she heard the door closing and looked around to find that she was alone. Running her hands along her sides, she felt the constant pain held within and a feeling of claustrophobia at the binding of the sheets around her ribs.

  The room was nice, however, and Susan began to feel safe. She had survived her ordeal and now there were people around who could help look after her and protect her. The bed felt good under her bruised body and she had to admit she was surprised at how pleasant Sally kept the rooms.

  The door opened and Sally popped her smiling head around.

  “You’re awake!” she said. Susan smiled back and nodded, suddenly feeling like she had been a burden without being aware of it.

  “Thanks to you, I hear,” she said sheepishly. “I’ll get out of here as soon as I can and get home,” she added.

  “You won’t be going anywhere until you’re well and rested,” Sally said coming into the room fully. “It’s nice to have a few people around the place, anyway.”

  Sally was at the bedside and Susan could see she was giving the patient a once over with her eyes. Susan felt both uncomfortable and grateful at the same time.

  “Thanks for fixing me up,” she said.

  “No problem,” Sally said finishing her exam. “The sheriff is outside, and he’s hoping to have a word with you?” she said with an eyebrow raised in question. Susan nodded.

  “I don’t really have too much to tell him, but show him in anyway,” Susan said.

  “Come on in Joe,” Sally called. “She’s decent!” she winked at Susan who suddenly looked to make sure that she was in fact decent for a man coming into the room.

  When the sheriff entered the room, he looked even more uncomfortable that she felt. Instantly her last conversation with him came back to her mind, and she blushed deeply. A look of concerned sympathy came over his face and he forced a smile her way.

  “How you feeling, Susan?” he asked.

  “Much better,” she answered, though much better than what she wasn’t sure.

  “Glad to hear it,” Joe said nodding his head as though in approval. He let silence fall a moment and then asked, “Do you know what happened to you?”

  At this Susan’s throat constricted, and the fear came over her once more. Joe looked at her in alarm as she suddenly gulped down breaths and he looked to Sally for a medical explanation.

  “It’s alright,” Sally said going to her and putting her hands on Susan’s shoulders. “It’s alright.”

  “Yes,” Joe said. “You’re out of danger now.” Susan, embarrassed, attempted to regain control of her breathing.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about,” Joe said.

  “If you don’t feel up to talking now, I’m sure the sheriff could call back later when you’re feeling up to it?” Sally suggested, and she looked to Joe. He nodded agreement but Susan could see his reluctance in doing it; she felt there was something he suspected, and the information she had might help him. This is what made her agree to go on now rather than later.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said. “Just a little wobble.” Now it was her turn to force the smile, and it felt even less convincing than Joe’s had been.

  “Take your time and tell me what happened?” Joe said softly.

  Susan lay back in her bed and looked at the ceiling while trying to order her memories in a way that might make sense to someone else.

  “I was coming towards town on the old back road,” she started. “I came across a stag lying in the road.” Joe nodded at this like it confirmed something for him. “I thought it was dead, so I got out and went over to look at it. At first it really did look dead; there were really bad cuts at the top of its hind legs and bits of wood were jutting out it like it had run through a splintered tree or something.”

  “Wood?” Joe asked, and this surprised Susan. She had expected him to ask why she had gotten out to look at the dead animal but he let this pass without so much as a blink.

  “Yes, wood,” she answered not sure what else to say about it.

  “What did it look like?”

  “The wood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I don’t know,” she said thinking on it. She didn’t recall noticing anything unusual about it.

  “What colour was it?” Joe prompted, but this only confused her more.

  “Colour? Why, wood coloured,” she said and then looked to Sally as if she might have the right answer.

  “It definitely wasn’t white?” Joe asked, and he was looking very seriously into her face. Susan thought back again and now she was not sure at all what colour it had been.

  “It could have been,” she heard herself say. “But there was so much snow around I suppose everything could have looked white.” Joe looked deep in thought on this for a moment and then said,

  “What happened next?”

  “Well, as I was looking at it, I heard something in the trees...”

  “The trees?” Joe asked, and he had an excited look in his eyes and an eagerness in his voice.

  “Yes,” Susan said and then waited for him to ask more about this but he didn’t. “I asked if anyone was there but there was no answer. Next thing I knew something was coming at me and I was running for my life.”

  “What was it?” Joe asked. “What did it look like?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It happened so fast, as first it looked like it was something coming from the bushes at me, but the next second it looked like it was the whole bush that was moving my way.”

  “Was it a person or an animal?” Sally asked from the doorway. Susan looked to her and shook her head slowly.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “At first I thought it was an animal, but then as I ran I thought — no feel is more close to the truth — feel that it was a person. It felt almost familiar somehow.” Joe and Sally exchange glances at this and Susan went red on hearing how this must sound to them.

  “You don’t know who it was?” Joe asked but something in his question didn’t feel true to her.

  “If it was a person,” she said, “I don’t know who it was.”

  “And then what happened?” Joe asked.

  “It hit me from behind, hard, and I went flying into the ditch.”

  “You were unconscious then?”

  “No, not straight away. I was winded and hurt but I was still awake and I could hear it moving around on the road, breathing hard and growling.

  “So it was an animal?” Joe asked now. “That sounds like a wolf you’re describing.”

  “It wasn’t a wolf,” she said dismissively. “We all know what wolves look like around here.” Joe nodded in agreement and held his hand up to the ill-advised question.

 
; “Was it still there when you passed out?” he asked.

  “I think I heard it dragging the stag away before I went out,” she said. “And then, when I woke up I knew I couldn’t hear anything for a long time. I knew I wouldn’t make it lying in the cold ditch so I did my best to get back up to the roadside.”

  “You did more than well in that,” Joe said with a genuine smile this time. “With your injuries, I doubt many others would have been able to do that.”

  “She’s a tough one,” Sally said. “Comes from good stock.” Susan smiled at her and nodded thinking of her father.

  “That she certainly is,” Joe agreed standing up. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Susan. I’ve been out to the site and so far I can’t make sense of it but rest assured I’m working on it and I won’t stop until I figure it out.”

  “Thanks sheriff, I appreciate that,” she smiled.

  “If you think of anything else, no matter how small, just let me know.”

  “I will, sheriff, thank you.”

  Chapter 19

  Dusk was rolling over Mercy once more and along with it a growing mist. Joe Moorefield stood at the door of the sheriff’s office and looked out into the road. The radio was still down, and this was becoming a major worry to him. Mouse Allen had come into town earlier telling about Sam coming to his house and trying to use the phone and that had put paid to the hopes of communicating with Emerson.

  Mouse had also told how Sam had gone off rushing towards the Emerson back road and Joe had an idea he was going to get help in person; the old-fashioned way. Susan seemed to be doing fine, but it wouldn't do any harm to have her looked over by the doctors just in case.

  The other side of his brain kicked in then and he wondered about the wisdom of bringing more people here when something very odd was happening. Would he be putting them in danger letting them come for Susan? Perhaps, but from what? That was something he was not able to answer, and it was the crux of everything. What had attacked Susan? What had damaged the young couple’s car? Where was Maul? What was this thing growing on the trees? What happened to the phone lines and the radio signal? All these things unanswered in every way. It was not a pleasant feeling.