“No one’s going to die,” Sally said coming from behind the bar and going to her.
“Sheriff,” Mouse intoned, “what are you telling us?” There was fear in his voice that everyone picked up on. All eyes fell to Joe. He looked back at them all one at a time square in the eye.
“I honestly don’t know,” he said gravely. “But I feel we could all be in danger if we don’t stick together.”
“Danger from what? I still don’t understand what’ you’re all talking about,” Jarrod said. Now it was Ava’s turn to grasp his hands in support. Despite her anger at him, she knew he hadn’t led them to this disaster willingly.
“I don’t hold with any of this bullshit about the trees but if Maul is out there and trying to do harm then I think it's about time we did something about him,” Mouse said and then looking to Joe added, “Don’t you think so sheriff?”
“I think we should stick together, sit tight for a while. We can try get the phone lines back working and keep trying the radio,” Joe answered.
“Sit here and wait to be attacked?” Mouse said with disgust. He took his tankard from the bar and drained what was left in it, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said, “I’m not doing that. I’m going to go get him before he comes and gets me.”
“You go out there on your own and you’ll be killed,” Sam said.
“I’m not afraid of Maul Thorndean,” was the sneered reply.
“You should be,” Sally said. “If he is behind this there’s no one man in this town who could stand against him and make it out alive.”
“I’ll change your mind about that quick enough, Sally,” Mouse said.
“It’s not this Maul person,” Ava spoke up. “Didn’t you hear what the sheriff and Sam said?”
“All I heard was a lot of things that don’t make sense then people saying Maul was responsible for what happened to Susan,” Mouse said staring hotly.
“You need to listen to everyone,” Jarrod said stepping in front of Ava as though Mouse were about to attack her.
“I’m getting out of here,” Mouse said shaking his head in disgust. “You going to try stop me sheriff?”
“I got no grounds to stop you, Mouse, you know that, but I will tell you this. You’re not safe out there alone and if you go I can’t say for sure you’ll get any help if you need it.” Ava could see the earnestness in the sheriff’s eyes and how he was trying to make Mouse see sense and find his reason but it was to no avail.
“This town was getting too small for me anyway,” he said as a parting shot. They all watched him go in silence, no one wasting any more words on trying to change the stubborn bear’s mind.
“What are the rest of us going to do?” Sally asked following a long silence once Mouse was gone.
“I’m going to try the radio again and if that doesn’t work I’m going to see if I can rig something up with the phone lines.”
“I know where the problem is,” Sam said. “It’s only out by Alan’s house.”
“You think you’d be of help with the lines Jeff?” Joe asked looking at the mechanic cum grocer. He didn’t answer and when Ava looked to Jeff for a reason why, she saw that he was staring cold and hard at both Jarrod and her. “Jeff?” Joe said.
“It’s them,” Jeff said not looking away from the couple.
“What’s them?” Joe asked. He looked to Jarrod and Ava as though for some explanation as to what Jeff was talking about.
“They brought it here, this thing outside,” Jeff said his voice trembling with anger.
“Don’t be so ridiculous,” Sally said. Jeff spun to look at her.
“You explain it then?” he said. “They arrive here in the dead of night. Their car is mangled — the first thing that's ever happened like this in this town, and then Susan is attacked and all hell is breaking loose all over the place. It’s all since they got to town!” He was pointing at Ava as he spoke and she could feel it so deeply that it could have been the dark barrel of a gun aimed at her waiting to finish her off in judgment.
Everyone in the room was looking at them now and this gave serious credence to what Jeff was saying. There was doubt in all of the eyes levelled their way. They didn't know if it was possible or not, that she and Jarrod had brought this horror down on them.
“We were only passing through,” Ava said looking about for someone to believe her.
“You think we can make trees come down and crush cars?” Jarrod shouted and took a few steps towards Jeff before Joe stepped in his path.
“Everyone settle down,” he said and Ava felt relief in the look he gave her. He didn’t believe this of them. “This has been going on since long before these young people came to town. They are perhaps the unluckiest of us all in that they shouldn’t even be here and yet this is happening while they are.”
“The simple fact, Jeff, is that we don’t have a clue what’s going on. It’s best we just do as the sheriff says and see if we can contact someone down in Emerson,” Sally said. Jeff sat back on his high bar stool and looked at the floor a moment. Then looking to Jarrod and Ava he nodded in what Ava at least thought was his version of an apology.
“I think Sally’s right,” Ava said and then looking to Jarrod, “Do you think you might be able to do something with the phone wires?”
“Maybe,” he said. “I won’t know until I can see the problem, but I’m happy to give it a try.”
“Good,” Joe said.
“I’ll take him over to where the fault is,” Sam said.
“Wait here until I check the radio at the station first,” Joe said. “I want as many people together as we can get for now.”
“Then I better go over to the station with you,” Jeff said. “We don’t want you wandering around on your own either.”
“Fair enough,” Joe said and the two men left for the station.
“Don’t mind Jeff,” Sally said when they were gone. “He’s just scared and his mouth started running.”
“Can happen to anyone,” Ava said with a smile of relief. Sally looked at her like a mother to a young child scared of the dark.
“Everything is going to work out fine,” Sally said. “You wait and see.”
Chapter 21
The only sounds that greeted Mouse Allen on his emergence onto the main road of Mercy was that of creaking trees as they swayed in the breeze. He looked up at them with a mocking sneer on his face but he wished it had been something different he’d heard first and there was no hiding in his heart the plump of fear that had coursed through him on this auditory greeting.
The cold outside and the fear had the effect of calming him down and he had to think for the first time about what his plan might be. Maul was his aim, but no one knew where he was or where he had been hiding for the last few weeks. There was always the Thorndean house, perhaps he’d just hidden from Joe the time he was up there looking. Then there was Susan’s attack site, or where Sam said he lost his car, and then finally and what was the most (and very) recent, the road over the mountain out of the town. That’s where he’d been this evening.
“I bet you I find you between there and your house, Maul,” Mouse said with a grin on settling on this idea. He went to his truck checked his gun and got inside placing the weapon on the seat beside him. Before setting off he dropped the glove-box door and took out his hip flask for a swallow to both warm and rev him up for the task ahead.
His vision was a little groggy as he pulled out from the tavern, but it didn’t concern him. He knew the road he was going out on and if everyone was telling the truth, he wasn’t going to be meeting any other vehicles out tonight. He rolled over the meandering road, not traveling at his usual speed so that he could keep an eye out to either side in case Maul was on his way into town through the forest close to the road. Another nip from the flask.
The truck slid on the snowy side of the road as Mouse pulled up at the former driveway of the Thorndean place. Checking his gun one more time, he got out and looked around. The night
seemed ever colder up here, more snow, more white. He walked a few feet and was suddenly taken aback by the same sight that had assailed Joe Moorefield when he came to look for Maul. Everything was bent and white and leaning to the house like it was dried lava having flowed to it. There was so much white that the light didn’t look like night; it was surreal and terrifying and yet strangely beautiful at the same time. There wasn’t far Mouse could go before he would have to start climbing over limbs and bent tree trunks.
“You here, Maul!” he called out. “I’ve come to teach you a lesson once and for all you bastard!” If he was in earshot, Mouse knew that there was no way Maul would be able to hold back at this. He would come crashing from some hiding place and do his best to kill Mouse for talking to him in that way. Silence, however, was all that greeted him. He wasn’t here.
“Fuck,” Mouse muttered. His hands were shaking, and he knew the initial adrenaline rush was gone now and the next one would not be as strong. If Maul wasn’t out where Joe had seen him earlier, Mouse knew it was possible his courage might not hold out for a third look for the man he loathed. He got back in the truck, took another hard swallow from the flask and then sped off towards the crest of the mountain.
It wasn’t long before he came across the blockage in the road that Joe had talked about. The car screeched to a halt, a long way from hitting it and Mouse looked in awe and great fear. Even though he’d seen something so inexplicable at Maul’s place he still somehow had not believed what Joe or Sam had told everyone. It was just too fantastical to be true.
Now as he was presented with the hard evidence of that same refuted truth he knew that he’d made a terrible mistake in leaving the others. He was not safe here; perhaps not back in Mercy either, but certainly not here. His spine tingled as he felt eyes on him, cold and penetrating like those of a hunter. Hunting him.
With no more thought, he pulled the gearstick into reverse and started to speed backwards to turn the car around. The sound was suddenly like a wakeup call and Mouse Allen looked around in horror as all of the trees, white like never before, seemed to shake into life. The car smashed hard into something and Mouse was jarred so hard he cracked his head on the inside of the windshield. Pain blinded him as he slumped back into the seat and then he felt the oily mess of blood running over his face and the hand that had instinctively gone there to suppress the pain.
With his other hand, he fumbled on the passenger seat for his gun but it was no longer there. Now the panic really set in and he shot out his other hand and searched frantically all over and under the seat. Blood ran into his eyes but he ignored it for now, so desperate was he to be able to defend himself with the comforting weight of steel. He went to one knee and leaning over groped at the floor until at last blessedly he touched the cold of the weapon. He slid his congealing bloody hands around the grip and brought it to his chest and then stopped to listen to the horrifying world around him.
The sounds were of creaking wood and shifting snow. Something was moving around but not in the way of a person or an animal. It was large, lumbering and dragging sounds came from it. Using one of his sleeves, Mouse wiped at his eyes as best he could until he was able to see again. There was a flashing spiralling light in his vision and his head throbbed worse than any pain he ever recalled suffering.
His head spun looking for the source of the sound but everything around him seemed to be moving, every tree, bush and limbs were coiling around the truck. At the sound of the first pop of the metal of the car he knew at once if he didn’t get out now he never would. There was no to time to think about what might be out there waiting for him; what waited in the car was the perfect spectre of death.
Mouse kicked the door open and leapt clear of the car. The impact on the ground was hard enough to blur his vision once more, and he lost his footing in the landing and slipped in the snow before falling on his side. He scrambled to his feet and cocked the gun and looked behind at the truck. It was covered in slithering white vines and they closed harder and harder until the pops of metal denting in the car became loud screeching as it was crushed.
Mouse didn’t wait to see what the end result would be. He ran as fast as he could into the forest, not thinking at all which way he might be going. All he cared about was getting away from where he was right now. His chest raged with pain as he tried to pull in more and more of the stinging cold air; his heavy body putting a huge strain on his heart as he ran.
“Kill me?” a rasping croaking voice suddenly came from nearby and Mouse stopped dead and spun on his heels almost falling over again.
“Who said that?” he said, not seeing the source of the voice. He knew who it was, was more sure than anything but it had not sounded like Maul — only a little. There was some new quality to the voice like his voice-box had been damaged.
“You better run!” the voice said and Mouse looked to a pile of branches and limbs from where it emitted. As he did, he was shocked to see eyes at the centre of the mess of twigs and white wood. It was hard to comprehend at first, but as the moon shifted from behind a cloud for a moment Mouse could make out the general shape of a man but all around him and even out of his very body grew vines, branches and limbs of the white diseased wood that surrounded the whole of the town of Mercy.
“Maul?” Mouse asked incredulous at what he was seeing. “Is that you?” What answer came from the horror before him was no language Mouse had ever heard. The sentiment was clear, however — anger, fury, rage. It meant to kill him!
Mouse fumbled with his gun and drew it up and fired off two shots in rapid succession as the mass of wood rushed at him. One bullet came home in what would have been the chest were this a man he was facing, but the crack was that of wood splintering and not ribs. The creature grunted and the second bullet seemed to go through the thin twigs on the fringes and off into the distance.
He didn’t wait to see how little impact his shooting had made before turning once more and setting off at a run. His thighs ached on the rise and he knew then he was running up hill and that this would be the last mistake he would ever make. Tears streamed down his cheeks at the pounding shuffling sound of the creature coming up behind him. Mouse screamed — there was nothing else he could do. He only hoped that they would hear him back in Mercy and that it might serve as some warning to the others he had foolishly left behind.
Breath was failing Mouse now, and he could feel his body faltering even as his fear urged it on. Two sharp tearing noises disturbed the horrid sounds of the chase and for a moment he didn’t know what it was. Then, however, as his feet lifted from the ground and he was no longer going forward, he saw.
Two thick sharpened tree limbs prodded from his chest; the fabric of his shirt dangling from then end of one along with the mixed viscera of what had once been his body. The pain didn't come for another half a second but when it did he had no ability to scream. His body shook with violence on those savage pikes and the white below was peppered with red as the last life drained from the deep rends in his flesh.
In his last moment, Mouse managed to look away from the hellish mush of bloody snow and glancing up the hill all he could see was white; the light of the moon helping make the view perhaps the most beautiful he could ever recall.
Chapter 22
“The sheriff said you should stay here until he gets back,” Ava pleaded with Jarrod as he pulled on his gloves.
“It’s only across the street,” Jarrod said. “You hear what Sam said.” Sam nodded and added,
“You can see the house from the tavern door.”
“Still,” Ava said not knowing what else to say. She looked to Sally for support.
“Joe will only be a couple of minutes, guys, surely you can wait that long?” Sally said to Jarrod and Sam.
“We could,” Sam said. “But if the radio isn’t working it’s best we have that phone line back up and running. Every second could count.” Ava could see the wild delirium fear had left him but it was not gone completely. He had the look o
f a man adrift on a piece of driftwood knowing all the time that at some point the wood would break up in the water. Sally was able to see this too and said no more.
“We can tell the sheriff on our way over,” Jarrod said, and he kissed his wife’s forehead.
“Be safe,” she said.
“Aren’t I always?” he answered with a smile.
When the two men stepped outside, they did not go to the sheriff’s office to tell him what they were doing but instead went directly across the road to Alan's house.
Sam opened the front door and went inside. Jarrod followed, only mildly surprised that the door was unlocked. Without looking around Sam went out through a back door that this time he had to unlock with a key sitting in place.
“That’s the break over there,” Sam said pointing. He’d stopped just outside the back door and Jarrod could see the hairs rise on the back of his neck as he looked around at the trees that surrounded the phone pole. Jarrod waited a moment for Sam to walk but it was a long moment and it kept going. Jarrod stepped past him and onto the snow of what served as Alan's backyard, a slope of ten yards and then into the forest.
“Wait,” Sam said putting an arm out to block him. “Let me just check my flashlight is working.” Removing it from his shirt pocket with trembling hands Sam fiddled with it until a thin, bright beam shot from the glass. He flashed it out towards the trees and they could see within a little better.
Jarrod was stunned by the light as Sam arched it round so it shone in Jarrod’s face,
“Listen, I don’t know what you believe or don’t believe,” Sam said, “But you keep an eye on the trees once we go in there and if you see anything moving at all you just run, or if you see or hear me running you just do the same, you got that?” There was such a sternness in his voice that Jarrod nodded in agreement before he knew he was doing it.
They stepped across the lawn, Sam roving the beam in all directions as they went. The only sound was the crumping of the snow beneath their boots.
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