No One Here Gets Out Alive (Vengeful Spirits Book 3)

by Val Crowe

  But no one did.

  Alice turned to Rylan. “You’re on board with this? I thought you wanted to stay here and make videos?”

  “Well,” said Rylan, “there’s no internet anymore. Not even over the bridge. So, I can’t upload anything. What’s the point?”

  “Yeah, my phone is dead,” said Kennely. “Jonah’s too. We thought maybe that we’d just drained the batteries and hadn’t been paying attention, but our chargers seem drained too.”

  Everyone pulled out their phones.

  Mine wouldn’t turn on. I held it up. “Mine’s dead too.”

  “Yeah,” said Mundy. “Wow. I was just using it an hour ago.”

  “Look, I’ll go and tell Dominique to pack up,” I said. I nodded at Alice. “You tell Scout and Cat.” I turned and headed over to Dominique’s cabin.

  She met me at the door with a camera. “Tell the camera what’s going on as if it’s me, okay?” she said.

  I furrowed my brow. “How are you using a camera? Does your phone work?”

  “My phone’s gone,” she said. “Along with my car keys.”

  “Really?” I said. So, back at Point Oakes, when I’d been under the influence of spirits, I had taken everyone’s cell phones and smashed them. If Dominique was missing things, it could mean that someone was possessed and had taken the stuff from her. Or, Dominique could be in league with the ghost and she was lying to us. Or it could be that ghosts could affect corporeal things when she was around, like she’d said. Whatever the case, it added up to bad.

  “Really,” said Dominique.

  “Here,” I said. “Try my phone.”

  She took it.

  “Try to turn it on,” I prompted.

  She did, and the phone powered up.

  My eyes lit up. “Shit. You can turn on the phone!”

  “Yeah,” she said. “But so what? There’s no service out here. There’s no internet.”

  I snatched the phone back. It went dead the minute she wasn’t touching it. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. We have to get across the bridge where’d we have service. Then you could call for help.”

  “I guess so,” she said. She picked up the camera again and aimed it at me. “Tell the camera.”

  “Screw filming this,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re leaving.”

  “How come?” said Dominique.

  “Because this is starting to get bad,” I said. “There’s a lot of people here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Hey, wait! If you can use a phone, maybe you can get a car to start. Come with me.”

  Dominique followed me over to Jonah and Kennely. I got Jonah to give her his keys, and she sat down in the car and fitted the key in the ignition.

  When she turned the key, the car coughed a little, sputtered.

  “Come on, come on,” I whispered.

  But it wouldn’t turn over.

  “Damn it,” I said. “Try again, Dominique.”

  She turned the key again, but this time, it didn’t make any noise at all. She had juice. Enough for a cell phone. But not enough for an entire car.

  Alice was running past me.

  I turned to watch her go to the cabin next door and fling open the door.

  Alice yelled, “Scout! Cat! You in there?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Scout and Cat were nowhere to be found.

  All their stuff was still in the cabin. Well, we determined that they’d gone off in their clothes and shoes, and that they’d taken their phones along with them, at least. But other than that, they’d left everything behind. And because Cat had been determined that they were leaving, it was all packed up neatly into their bags and stacked along the wall of the cabin.

  But they weren’t in the cabin.

  And no one had seen them leave.

  It was a little odd trying to talk to the people who’d been at the campground while Rylan and I had been gone. They didn’t seem to be much able to account for their time. We asked what they’d done. They said they’d gone into their cabins. What had they done in the cabins? Just hung out, they said. It was as if something had lured them into their cabins and put them to sleep or something.

  Only Dominique seemed to have any idea what she’d actually done that morning. She’d made herself some breakfast, the oatmeal. She’d made more in case anyone else wanted some, but she said that no one had responded when she’d called out to offer it.

  Thinking nothing of that, Dominique had gone back into her cabin and then realized her phone was missing. She’d turned the place apart, looking everywhere. Then she’d wondered if maybe she’d dropped it in the woods when she’d gone out to pee, even though she hadn’t taken her phone with her when she’d done that. She’d retraced her steps, looked around. It wasn’t there. She’d gone out to look in her car. No phone there either. That was when she realized her car keys were gone. She’d been looking for her car keys when I’d knocked on the door.

  I wasn’t sure if I believed her or not. She could be lying through her teeth.

  Anyway, whatever the case, no one had seen Cat and Scout after the argument this morning. All we could figure was that they had taken off into the woods or something.

  It might have made sense that Cat had wanted to leave so badly that she’d decided they would walk.

  But then, why hadn’t they taken the road, and why hadn’t Rylan and I run into them while we were coming back?

  And why hadn’t they taken anything with them? They both had left behind backpacks that they should have at least loaded up with water.

  It didn’t sound to me as if Cat and Scout were operating under their right minds. It was the ghost. Maybe one of them was the one possessed. Maybe one of them had taken Dominique’s phone and car keys.

  We didn’t know what to do, though.

  We could all pack up to leave and look for them on the way, but then if we found them, they were likely not to be in good shape to come back with us.

  So, we decided to split up. Rylan, Dominique, Alice and me would go out into the woods looking for Scout and Cat. Kennely, Mundy, and Jonah would stay behind and pack everyone up for the long walk down the mountain.

  Rylan walked with Alice, leaving me and Dominique trailing behind. Rylan threw me a surreptitious wink as if she was doing me a favor, and I realized that I was going to have to take her aside and explain my intentions for Dominique were not what she thought.

  We had no idea where Cat and Scout had went, so we started out on the road, calling their names.

  When we got no response, there was a long discussion about whether or not we should go into the woods. Personally, I thought it was probably likely that they’d gone into the woods, but I also saw sense in the idea that Dominique brought up, which was that we might go into the woods and get lost. All the tree trunks would start looking the same, after all, once we were out there.

  I was convinced that whatever we did, we were probably in store for something bad, and I didn’t think we should make a bad thing worse.

  Anyway, we were saved from having to make any decisions when Alice spotted Scout’s glasses up in the woods.

  “There!” she said suddenly, pointing. “Something up there is catching the light.”

  We all looked where she was pointing. I didn’t see anything catching the light. All I saw was a bunch of fall foliage and undergrowth, including a bunch of thorn bushes.

  But Alice was already fighting her way up there, and so we followed.

  Suddenly, she came to a stop, letting out a tiny noise of dismay.

  We all crowded up behind her and looked down to see that Scout’s glasses were lying on the ground. One of the lenses was smashed in a star burst pattern. There was blood smeared on the other one. The arm was broken, bent out the wrong way.

  “What does this mean?” said Alice. She looked at me. “When you found him this morning, that was all in his head, right? So, this is the same thing? We can just make it go away if we stop believing?”

  Dominique had
her camera out, filming the glasses. “I don’t think so,” she said.

  I pushed the camera down. “What the hell are you doing?”

  She backed away, swinging her camera up to get me in frame. “Talk to me, Deacon. How are you feeling about this?”

  I turned to Rylan. “Tell her to stop filming. This isn’t cool.”

  Rylan just shrugged. “She can do whatever she wants. I can’t make a video without my laptop, and my laptop is dead now.”

  “You can make a video later,” said Domnique, raising her eyebrows. “You’ll need the raw footage. You’ll thank me. This is what you’re paying me to do.”

  “True,” said Rylan.

  Alice pointed. “Something went through here. Look, there are broken branches and stuff. It looks like someone dragged something. We need to follow it.” She started forward.

  The rest of us hesitated, and then we went after her. We were trying to find Scout after all. Except I was pretty sure that if we found Scout, he wasn’t going to be in good shape.

  Alice charged ahead through the woods, following a semblance of a trail that did indeed look as if something had been dragged through.

  We all struggled to keep up with her.

  As we got further and further into the woods, we were swallowed up by the sounds and smells of it. It was like being cocooned in tree bark and dead leaves and buzzing insects. And it was dark, the tree cover overhead blocking out the sun. I tried to reassure myself that we could get back out of here by following the trail back, but I didn’t feel very reassured.

  I couldn’t make sense of where the trail was taking us. I have a fairly decent sense of direction when I’m driving. But that relies on my being able to see the sun and figure out east and west and rely on a map as well. The trees were now so thick that I couldn’t make out the sun. I was fairly sure that it was overhead, and I was fairly sure that we were heading roughly in the direction of the bridge, that this path was paralleling the road. But I couldn’t be sure, and I began to wonder if I shouldn’t have taken one of those courses where they teach you what side of the trees moss grows on and all that stuff. I really wasn’t a rugged outdoorsman, not as much as would be handy right now.

  I felt a heaviness seem to descend on me from above, and everything seemed to be closing in on us. We moved forward, and it was all I could do to convince myself the forest wasn’t growing back behind us, blocking our way back out.

  Anyway, it turned out I was right. Abruptly, the woods stopped, and we were on the edge of the mountain. Below us—far below us—the stream. To our right, the bridge.

  “What the hell?” said Alice, stepping forward to peer down.

  Rylan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. “Hey, careful.” I got a little déjà vu, thinking about pulling Rylan back from throwing herself out of a window in Thornford.

  Alice took a step back, but she was still looking down at the stream below. “How does the path just end here? Where did Scout go from here?”

  “Maybe the path was for us,” said Dominique quietly.

  Alice rounded on her. “What does that mean?”

  “Do you see that?” Rylan pointed.

  We all looked at the bridge. There was a figure standing on it. We were close to the bridge, probably thirty or forty feet. Getting there from here wouldn’t be easy because of the woods, however. But it was close. We could make out the figure, who looked incredibly solid.

  He was the guy from the woods last night. Broad-shouldered, bearded, dressed in flannel and jeans. He had a serrated knife in one hand, and he lifted that hand to us—a salute.

  I swallowed hard.

  “Is that Josiah?” whispered Rylan.

  “I thought he’d be older,” whispered Alice.

  “Let’s go,” said Dominique, backing into the forest.

  I could see the sense in what she was saying, but I didn’t move. For some reason, I was drawn to the image of that lone figure on the bridge, holding his knife. Something about it seemed to call to me in an awful way. I didn’t want to be close to him. I wanted to run. But I didn’t.

  The figure strolled up the bridge, running his knife up against the slats of the fence on the bridge’s side. He looked casual, just a knife-wielding maniac out for an afternoon walk.

  “Now,” said Dominique, her voice urgent.

  But I wasn’t moving, and neither were Rylan or Alice.

  At the end of the bridge, the figured halted. He slid the knife into a sheath that hung on his belt. Now he was close enough to us that we could see him grinning under his whiskers. Also, his forehead and chin were spattered with rust-colored stains. So were his clothes. He strode up to a tree next to the bridge and he wrapped his arms around it.

  “What is he doing?” whispered Rylan. “Get up here, Dominique. Film this.”

  Dominique came back up next to me. “He’s not coming after us?”

  “Camera,” said Rylan.

  Dominique lifted the camera, furrowing her brow.

  The figure’s arms couldn’t reach around the tree trunk. He looked vaguely ridiculous, hugging it that like that. He seemed to be straining, trying to accomplish something.

  Dominique stepped out in front of everyone, leading with her camera.

  Suddenly, the tree burst up out of the ground, roots scattering dirt everywhere.

  We all stepped back, stunned.

  The figure staggered back, holding the tree.

  “Can he do that?” Alice’s voice was breathy.

  “We made him strong,” said Dominique, looking over her shoulder at me. Then she went back to the camera.

  The figure hurled the uprooted tree at the bridge.

  The tree landed and the bridge sagged against its weight. It swung back and forth for a moment and then pieces of the bridge came loose. The fence on one side fell off, tumbling down into the stream below.

  It splashed, but it was so far away that it was soundless.

  A huge crack appeared in the bridge. Large pieces of the bridge tumbled down into the stream as well.

  Now, there was a tree on the bridge, so no cars could drive over it. And there was also an enormous crack, so we wouldn’t be able to walk across. The bridge was completely impassable.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  We were all staring at the bridge. I was trying to calculate how big that hole really was. Was it something that we could get around if we were on foot, maybe if one person at a time went across it?

  The bearded figure was right in front of us, brandishing his knife.

  Alice screamed.

  The bearded figure slashed with his knife.

  She backed up.

  Rylan grabbed her by the arm.

  We all ran.

  I tried to keep the others in my sight as we went back up the path we’d come down. I brought up the rear, with Rylan and Alice in front and Dominique in the middle.

  It wasn’t easy going. Now that we were running, the woods seemed to want to send out vines and roots to trip us, but even as we stumbled and staggered, we never fell.

  I looked behind me, and the figure was always there. His teeth were bared under his mustache, and they were yellow. His eyes were bloodshot. He looked insane. He looked eager.

  “You guys!” said a voice, not one of us.

  Disoriented, I looked around.

  There. Above us, on a raised hill between two tall trees. It was Cat. Her hair was pasted to her forehead with sweat, and there was blood all over her shirt. She looked exhausted and terrified.

  I looked behind us.

  The figure was gone.

  “Cat, come on,” yelled Rylan, who was still running.

  “No, no, you have to help Scout,” said Cat, her voice raw.

  “We have to get away from him first,” said Alice.

  They were getting further and further away from Cat.

  “From who?” said Cat.

  “He’s gone!” I called. I slowed to a walk.

  Dominique turned to look as well.


  “Where’d he go?” said Rylan.

  “He’s still here,” said Dominique, turning in a circle. “He’s playing games with us. Now that he’s got us trapped, there’s nowhere to go.”

  “There’s the other bridge,” I said. “We’ll go there. Let’s get Scout, and then we can head out right away.”

  “Yes,” said Cat, who was crying now. “Help Scout. Help him, please.”

  We climbed up the hill to where she was, and she led us through the woods, telling us what had happened as we walked.

  “Scout took me out to the woods to show me that everything was fine,” Cat said, sniffling. “I didn’t want to go, but he was going, and I couldn’t let him go alone. It wasn’t long until someone showed up. It was a man with a knife, and he started to chase us. We ran, and we got turned around, but he would just appear. Sometimes in front of us. Sometimes on the side. No matter what we did, he found us. And then he… he got Scout.”

  Cat pushed aside a big bush with small green leaves and there was Scout, lying on the forest floor.

  His head was propped up on Cat’s jacket, which had been folded into a makeshift pillow. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t moving. There was blood on his lips, but otherwise, there was no color in his face. His chest was a mess of wounds, but it was hard to see what was what because of his bloody shirt and jacket in the way. But there were places where there were holes in the fabric, where the skin beneath was nothing but raw meat. He was in a bad way.

  Rylan was on her knees next to him, her hand at his neck. “Oh, he’s not… he’s not warm.”

  Cat let out a an awful sobbing sound. It barely sounded human.

  “I don’t know,” said Rylan, looking up at me. “Maybe that doesn’t mean anything.”

  Why was she looking at me? I didn’t know about this stuff.

  “We tried what you had us do before,” said Cat, looking at me pleadingly. “We tried to think it away. Scout tried and tried, and it didn’t work, and all he could talk about was how much it hurt and how thirsty he was, and we didn’t have any water and…” She dissolved in ugly sobs, digging her fingers into her cheeks.