Wildlife - A Dark Thriller

by Menapace, Jeff

  Harlon rammed the butt of the rifle between Russ’ eyes and knocked him cold.

  Chapter 39

  Once again, Liz had a pair of human crutches—Ethan on her right; Noah on her left. Ethan had suggested an idea of where he believed Russ and Vicky might have fled after Harlon’s rifle fire. It would not, Ethan had said while looking at the ground, be the safest of places, but it made the most sense. A straight line.

  So they followed it, a slow, cautious hobble through what most eyes and minds would deem a dark and treacherous land chockfull of nature’s booby traps, with teeth and without.

  “They’ve got to be hiding,” Liz said. “My mother’s wound…they shot off her hand. She’ll have lost too much blood for them to keep going. They’ve got to be hiding.”

  “She’ll lose blood whether they’re moving or not,” Ethan said. “Your daddy’s clever; he’ll know the best bet is to keep moving, lessen they want her to bleed out, or worse yet, have something approach that picked up on the scent of your mama’s wound.”

  Liz closed her eyes for a beat, inhaling deep and then exhaling slow. She eventually glanced up at Ethan. “And what if they approached?”

  Ethan hesitated.

  “My parents don’t know this area like you and your brother do. They might have walked right into them.”

  Ethan shook his head with conviction. “No. Your daddy’s too clever. He—”

  “FRESH FISH!”

  They all stopped at once, as though it were rehearsed.

  The sound of the boat motor started, the flashlights onboard clicking to life and waving beams in their direction.

  “FREEEEEEEESHHH FIIIIISHHHHH!!!”

  Ethan and Noah immediately began to move, yet Liz dropped her weight, insisting they stay put. She knew this wasn’t an attack; it was an invitation.

  “Liz!!!” Ethan yelled. “Come on!”

  Liz remained an anchor. “No—let them come.”

  “Are you insane!? Get up!”

  Liz jerked her arms free from both brothers and flopped to the ground.

  “Suicide!” Noah said to Ethan. “She wants to commit suicide!”

  The sound of the boat motor hummed closer, the waving beams of light growing stronger.

  “They’ve got my parents,” Liz said dejectedly from her seat on the ground. “That’s what this charade is all about.”

  “FREEEEEESSSHHHHH FIIIISSSSHHH!!!!” Harlon called again.

  “Let’s go!” Noah said to Ethan.

  Ethan looked down at Liz. “Liz!?”

  “They want us alive,” she said. “It would be too much work for the two of them if they were to kill us here and now.”

  “So what are you saying?”

  “I’m saying they want to bring us back to their place—where we were before.”

  “What in the Almighty fuck!?” Noah yelled.

  Ethan scowled at his brother. “You watch your mouth!” Then, squatting next to Liz: “Supposing you’re right—they want us alive, back at their place. What then? You think they’re just gonna let us go after a spell? You know what they did to Sam…to your boyfriend…”

  “GOT YOUR MAMA AND DADDY HERE, LITTLE GIRL! I RECKON IT’S IN YOUR BEST INTEREST TO MAKE IT A FAMILY REUNION BEFORE I START GETTIN’ IDEAS…AIN’T THAT RIGHT, DADDY?”

  A slight pause and then:

  “LIZ, RUN!!! RUN AND—”

  The sound of a struggle, a muffled thump, and then silence.

  Liz looked hard at Ethan. “I’m staying.”

  Ethan looked pained.

  “Ethan?” Noah said, looking as if he still preferred to run.

  “Liz, we get on that boat, and we’re as good as dead,” Ethan said.

  “We don’t, and so are my parents. You wanna run, then go. I’m staying.”

  “We can run and bring back help,” Noah said to Ethan.

  “They’ll all be dead by then,” Ethan said.

  “So what are you proposing?” Noah asked. “Just said it yourself; we get on that boat and we’re dead.”

  “Maybe Liz is right. Tucker’s down and there’s been no sign of Travis. One man with a bad leg and an old lady wouldn’t wanna have to drag five bodies back to their place—especially now that their bridge is out. They’d wait until we were all inside to do anything; inside by way of our own two feet.”

  “Or maybe they’re fixing to just dumping us in the river,” Noah said.

  Ethan shook his head. “They went through too much trouble in getting rid of Sam. They’re crazy, but they ain’t dumb. Dumping us in the river would be asking to get caught.”

  “LOSING PATIENCE OUT HERE, KIDS!”

  Liz started to rise. Ethan helped her to her feet. Liz gave both brothers a final glance, and then started hobbling towards the river.

  Ethan looked at Noah. “They killed Mama and Daddy.”

  “And so, what?” Noah began, “we gonna kill them?”

  “I’d like to,” Ethan said.

  Chapter 40

  Ethan and Noah assisted Liz to the river’s edge. The silhouette of the boat was there, waiting, maybe twenty feet out. The high-powered flashlights stopped them just as they reached the shoreline and caused all three to raise a hand to shield the blinding light.

  “Ethan’ll be first,” Harlon called from the boat.

  “What do you mean, first?” Ethan asked, squinting, still trying to shield the light with his free hand.

  “It comes before second, ya stupid boy,” Ida said.

  Ethan frowned. “I know what it means—I’m asking why are you telling us to come one at a time? Liz here is injured badly, thanks to you. She’ll need our help swimming out to the boat.”

  “Who says she’s coming onboard?” Harlon asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Huh?” Ida mocked. “Just how stupid are you, boy?”

  Ethan frowned into the light again. “Just what is it you’re proposing, Harlon Roy? Us standing here by the edge of the river isn’t the safest of spots. Suppose a gator comes?”

  “Don’t you worry, son—right now I got you locked between the eyes. A gator comes and grabs ya and I promise I’ll shoot you dead before he gets carried away. How’s that?”

  Ethan’s frown melted. His face, no less blind from the light, now bore a look of exceptional vulnerability. He even touched the spot between his eyes.

  “So, come on, Ethan,” Harlon called. “Lessen you want those gators to come calling, forcing me to give you a third eye…”

  “I ask again,” Ethan said, scraping the bottom of the barrel for a show at bravado, “just what is it you’re proposing?”

  “He’s proposing you get in the fucking boat!” Ida screamed.

  “Mama…” Harlon said, followed by the sound of placating whispers. Then: “Here’s how it’s gonna be, Ethan—you swim out to us; we take you back to the house; Noah takes the girl back to the house on foot; and we all meet up in exactly one half of an hour. Noah and the girl don’t show, and her folks go the way of her boyfriend.”

  “What!?” Liz blurted.

  “Couldn’t have made it any clearer than that, missy,” Harlon said.

  “I just told you her leg’s in a bad way,” Ethan said. “If anyone should be going aboard that boat, it should be her. Let me and Noah make it back to your place on foot.”

  “Sorry, son,” Harlon said, “but you’re the only real threat between the three of you. I wanna keep my eye on you the whole time. Plus, who’s to say you and your brother don’t just run off and leave the poor old Burks, hmmm?”

  “MOM!?” Liz shouted. “DAD!?”

  “They’re fine,” Harlon said. “Just got ’em tied up so they won’t hurt nobody.”

  “Let me see them!” Liz shielded her eyes with a grimace. “Get that damn light out of our eyes!”

  “You’re not holding any cards here, miss,” Harlon said, the blinding light going nowhere. “Now you heard your daddy screaming earlier—you know that I got him. You gonna cause trouble when al
l I gotta do is take my rifle off of Ethan’s head and point it at your daddy’s? Your mama’s?”

  “We’re not running off,” Ethan called. “We’d have done so awhile back if we were fixin’ to. Believe me, we had our chance.”

  “I don’t have to believe you, son. I just know what’s what and what’s now. And I’m telling you, if you don’t swim on out here, and if your little brother and that girl don’t start heading back to our place on foot—and quickly—then there’s gonna be some shootin’, and a hell of a lot of breakfast for my babies. Your call, son.”

  All three exchanged looks.

  “What do you reckon?” Noah asked.

  “I reckon we don’t have much to reckon,” Ethan said. “We chose to come down here—to back Liz. We gotta see it through.”

  “You get on that boat, and I’ll never see you again,” Noah said, fighting back tears. “Not alive, anyway.”

  Ethan placed a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “I don’t get on that boat, and you’ll watch me drop right here. Says he’s got a lock between my eyes—seeing as what he done to Liz’s mama’s hand, I reckon it’s not a bluff.” Ethan paused, as if trying to convince himself of his own shaky logic. “Besides, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to try anything with me until we were back at the house. Remember, an old lady and a one-legged man don’t wanna be dragging bodies far, especially now that they don’t have a working bridge.”

  “So they’ll get you back at the house then,” Noah said. “What’s the difference?”

  “The difference is we’re buying us some time.”

  “Like waiting on death row is all it is,” Noah said, succumbing to tears now, yet refusing to cry.

  “Well maybe the governor will call; see fit to giving us a pardon,” Ethan said, squeezing his brother’s shoulder and forcing a smile, fumbling for levity at a time when it had no place.

  Noah angrily wiped away tears with his forearm. “You still fixin’ to kill them?”

  “Yes I am,” Ethan said.

  “How?” Liz asked.

  “We shoulda never made it this far,” Ethan said. “Maybe we can make it a little further.”

  “Maybe Mama and Daddy are looking out for us from above,” Noah said.

  Ethan squeezed his brother’s shoulder again. “Damn right, Noah Daigle.” Ethan turned to the river and into the blinding light. “I’m coming out!” He started wading into the water.

  The sudden explosion of a rifle echoed in the forest and a bullet cut into the water a few feet from where Ethan stood. Ethan’s hands shot into the air. “What!? What!?”

  “Noah and the girl have a longer journey,” Harlon said. “Them two will get going first.”

  “You could have just said!” Ethan yelled.

  Harlon could be heard laughing. “I just did, son.”

  Ethan stayed put in ankle-deep water, hands still in the air. He glanced back at Noah and Liz. From the water, his back to the light, he could make them out quite well. His little brother and a wounded stranger, forced to move together throughout a treacherous land made all the more treacherous by the psychotics that pulled their strings. His mother and father were dead. Murdered. It was not empty boasting when Ethan said he had every intention of killing Harlon and Ida Roy. He wanted to…dearly. And if Noah was right, if Mama and Daddy were looking out for them from above, it would happen. He would find a way to make it happen.

  “Go on,” Ethan called to Noah and Liz. “I will see you there.”

  Noah helped Liz up the embankment and away from the river. Soon, even the boat’s powerful lights could not find them in the dense forest beyond.

  Ethan turned back to the boat. “I reckon they’re on their way now—may I continue?”

  He could hear Harlon laughing again. “You may.”

  Ethan swam out to the boat. When he reached the boat’s edge, Harlon and Ida clicked off their flashlights and Harlon placed the point of his rifle to Ethan’s head.

  “Slowly now,” Harlon said.

  Ethan climbed gingerly into the boat as if he feared tipping it over. When he was completely in, he immediately spotted Russ and Vicky Burk. Russ was bound and gagged, his eyes his only conduit for a distress neither Ethan, nor Mr. Burk, Ethan guessed, could ever articulate.

  As for Mrs. Burk? She was dead. Her pallor, the way her body lay all crooked and wrong; it did not require more than Ethan’s fifteen years to know this, and he immediately stood to shout to Noah and Liz, only to have Harlon ram the butt of his rifle into Ethan’s gut, doubling him over and gasping for breath. Harlon then brought the butt down onto the back of Ethan’s head, pitching him forward into Russ where he crumbled next to him in an unconscious heap, rocking the boat, and causing Ida Roy to both laugh and grip the side of the boat for fear of going over.

  Once her legs were steady, Ida made her way over to Ethan’s sleeping body, squatted close, and spat brown phlegm into his face. The swelling around her mouth and nose from Ethan’s knuckles contradicted her delighted tone as she sang: “I’m going to have such fun with yoooouuuu…”

  Chapter 41

  Noah hurried Liz along as fast as he could. It was not easy without Ethan’s help—Liz lost her balance on more than one occasion, toppling over into mud or a shallow pool of water or thorny vegetation. This was always accompanied by a painful cry and then a string of expletives…the last one aimed at Noah.

  “You need to slow down!” she yelled from the ground, an aching grimace on her face as both hands clutched her wounded calf. “Without your brother, I can’t move as fast.”

  “I’m sorry,” Noah said. “It’s just…we need to get there first.”

  Still clutching her calf, still looking annoyed, Liz glanced up at Noah. “I thought this was an unwinnable race on foot. That was the whole point of us getting a head start, wasn’t it?”

  “It is unwinnable,” Noah said. “But we’re not going straight to the Roy home. We’re stopping somewhere along the way.”

  “What? Where? We don’t get there soon—”

  “Ma’am,” Noah began, looking and sounding older than his thirteen years, “we can’t be kidding ourselves. We step in the Roy home without any kind of advantage and we’re as good as dead. They got no plans to let us go. Ethan was right about buying us some time. So now we gotta use that time and get us an advantage.”

  “So, what are you saying? We go to the police?”

  “No—we’d never make it back in time.” Noah’s hands curled into fists. “We need to find Travis.”

  Liz shot Noah an incredulous look. “What do you mean find him? He’s probably at the house! Probably tending to his father…”

  Noah shook his head. “No…he’s a coward…a coward and a liar.” Noah’s fists clenched tighter. “All of this is his doing, and he knows that. He’s weak and stupid and he’ll be worried his guilt will make him say something he don’t wanna say. So he’ll hide until it’s all over, avoiding any kind of confrontation.” Tears now rimmed Noah’s eyes but he refused to blink them away. “My daddy used to say a coward only offers to help after the real work is done.”

  “You think he’s hiding somewhere?” Liz said. “With his father as hurt as he is?”

  Noah nodded, fists still clenched, refusing to wipe away the tears that now streamed down his cheeks after the mention of his father. “I know he is. And I know where.”

  “So, what’s your plan then?” Liz said. “We find Travis and use him as collateral? Exchange him for your brother and my parents?”

  Noah nodded again, finally wiping away his tears and sniffling hard. “Something like that.”

  “Can we do that? I mean, I’m not exactly in the best of shape…” She pointed at her calf.

  “I beat that boy’s ass all by myself, with no trouble at all—and that was when I held no grudge.” His hands curled back into fists. “I’m sure as hell holding a grudge now.”

  Chapter 42

  Ethan had been correct about a one-legged man and an old lady not want
ing to drag five bodies, especially now that they no longer had a working bridge. Dragging only one had not been without its complaints. And so when Vicky’s ankles had finally proven too laborious for Harlon to drag up the embankment and around back, he opted for a simpler, cruder handle: her scalp.

  Russ had objected as best he could through his gag, but Harlon offered an alternate view: “At least her head’s not banging all over the ground anymore,” he’d said as if this truth should have been self-evident, and perhaps Russ should be showing a little more gratitude, thank you very much.

  Vicky’s body was placed in the cooler along with pieces of Sam, and Ron and Adelyn Daigle. Once again, Russ moaned an objection through his gag, and once again Harlon was quick with a response. “You reckon I should leave her out here to spoil? Have a little more consideration for your missus, Russ.”

  Once inside, Harlon went to work in tying up Russ and Ethan on the floor in the den. No bedroom this time; he wanted eyes on them constantly. Besides, Tucker was still in his bedroom.

  “I’m gonna go see about Tucker,” Ida said. “You see to making sure they can’t so much as wiggle a toe, you hear?”

  Harlon grunted a reply. Ida went into the bedroom, and Harlon went to work on Ethan first. It wasn’t a tedious job; both Ethan and Russ had been secured on the boat when they were unconscious. Only their ankles had been cut free to allow them temporary mobility, and so now needed rebinding. Their wrists had remained tight behind their backs throughout. Still, Harlon checked their slack anyway, and when it was Russ’ turn, he noticed Russ grimace from something more than mild discomfort. He then noticed Russ’ disfigured thumb. He grinned.

  “Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch,” he said. “That’s how y’all did it, isn’t it? That’s how y’all got free.” He took hold of Russ’ thumb and jerked it back and forth like a joystick. Russ screamed. Harlon kept a firm grip on the thumb as he continued. “Got a buddy of mine who did the same thing to get free of some cuffs. Can do it anytime he wants now. Seems once you pop it the first time, it gets looser and easier every time after. Kinda like a woman, I reckon.” He laughed at his own wit, and then his smile faded into mock sorrow. “Aw hell, I’m sorry, Russ. It’s too soon to talk about women, ain’t it?”