by Russ Watts
It was over. This nightmare wasn’t going to end. He wasn’t going to find any of the children. Melanie was right. There was no way they could have escaped. This aberration, this demon spawn, this thing, a pet of the devil himself, had taken them all. Wiping his face, Norman looked up into the thing’s red eyes. If the creature had any emotions, if it could express anything, then Norman knew it was content. It had eaten, and eaten well. Its mouth was dripping with blood, and there was no more Melanie. She was in its belly now, dissolving in its stomach acid.
Dirt and grime were plastered to the sweat on Norman’s face, and tears finally began to fall as he watched the monster turn to him. He didn’t want to die out in the desert, not like this. He always thought he would simply fade away, perhaps in his sleep, with his wife at his side. As he listened to the monster utter another victorious bellow, he thought of how good it would be to share one last bottle of Chardonnay with Joan. And as the monster began to bend down to him, he knew he had drunk his last.
“I love you, Joan,” he said, and Norman closed his eyes. There was no point in praying. God wasn’t present here. There was nothing left to do now except hope it would be over quickly. Norman shivered as the monster came closer, opening its jaws wide. Their eyes locked together one last time, and Norman braced himself.
This was going to hurt.
CHAPTER 3
“It’s not poisonous is it? Should we kill it?” asked Laurel as she climbed onto the bus quickly. The spider sat motionless on the pavement beneath the wheel arch, yet to Laurel it almost seemed to watch as she hopped past it. Its brown, hairy legs were almost three inches long and its body fat and dark. Laurel half expected it to jump up at her, although its eyes remained fixed on the ground where a tiny ant was passing in front of it.
Akecheta slowly shook his head and brushed his thick, black hair behind his ears. “Nothing to worry about, Mrs. Brown, she’s just a little lost,” he said smiling. “Probably looking for some shade.”
Laurel scurried toward a pair of seats midway back and waited for her husband Mackenzie to follow. Realizing he wasn’t behind her, she looked down the length of the bus and saw he was beside the guide, bent over and studying the spider.
“I’ve never seen one this close,” said Mackenzie slowly, fascinated. “We don’t get anything like this in Milwaukee.”
Akecheta slowly reached out and cupped his hands around the spider. Very carefully, he scooped it up and walked across the pavement away from the bus.
“What type is it?” Mackenzie followed and watched Akecheta release the spider into the grass verge behind the bus stop. He simply let the spider walk off his hands and onto the ground, as if he were doing nothing out of the ordinary at all. Mackenzie’s heart was pounding the whole time.
“Tarantula,” said Akecheta watching the spider disappear under the fallen brown leaves of a Desert Fan. “Didn’t want her to get run over. She was minding her own business, so best to let her get on with it, don’t you think?”
Mackenzie followed Akecheta back to the bus. “I guess so. Say, how’d you know it was a ‘she’?”
Akecheta shrugged as if it was obvious. “She’s pregnant.”
Mackenzie looked amazed and then laughed. “Maybe don’t tell my wife, okay? She’s already had two cups of coffee this morning, and news like that might just push her over the edge.”
Akecheta laughed politely and then introduced Mackenzie to the driver, Mr. Stepper, who was waiting for them.
“You haven’t got any more eight-legged critters on board have you?” asked Mackenzie as he shook hands with the driver.
“Mr. Brown, you have nothing to worry about. Our friends rarely come into town and are very particular. They show very little interest in my tours.”
Mackenzie laughed once more. “Good to know.”
Mr. Stepper got behind the wheel as Mackenzie climbed on board the bus. “Look, seriously, I clean our bus every day. We do have a first-aid kit in case of emergency, but you have nothing to worry about. You and your wife just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. You’ll get plenty of opportunity later to see more of ‘em if you want to. We’ll get on our way although we’ve a couple more stops to make this morning. From there on it’s about an hour’s drive before our first stop.” Mr. Stepper closed the door as Mackenzie went to sit down beside his wife, nodding and saying hello to the others who were already seated. Akecheta sat down right behind the driver.
“Don’t you get any funny ideas, Mac,” said Laurel. She let her husband slide over to the window seat and then sat back down beside him. “We’re here for the scenery and the history, not the creepy crawlies.”
“Just making friends.” Mackenzie put an arm around his wife.
“Well don’t make friends with anything that bites.” Laurel rested her head on her husband’s shoulder and rubbed her eyes. The coffee was yet to kick in and it had been an early start. Still, she was eager to get going. She had never been to the desert before, in fact never to any desert, and there was something captivating about the Mojave. She had read so much about it, and watched so many documentaries, that being here was a real thrill. She knew she was going to have to put away her dislike for bugs for a while if she was going to get the best out of this trip. She was hoping to see an eagle, ideally a Golden Eagle. Spiders she could take a pass on.
Mackenzie looked around the bus. There were two young men sat at the back who said hello before burying their heads back behind their cellphones. He guessed from their accents they were European, but having only got one word from them, wasn’t sure exactly where yet.
Sat right at the back in one corner Mackenzie noticed a man who had a briefcase on his lap. He looked oddly like an old Indiana Jones, minus the Fedora. The man had combed graying hair and wiry spectacles and was tapping away into a tablet or netbook of some sort. Mackenzie had avoided being caught up in the technology race, settling instead for keeping his battered old Nokia which was still going strong, despite approaching ten years old. He had a desktop computer at work, but that was Laurel’s domain. He kept away from it, and it kept away from him. That was how he liked it. If Laurel wasn’t there to keep an eye on things, the dealership would still be run with pen and paper, and a heap of luck. He would never be able to cope without her. Mackenzie was lucky to have her and he knew it.
The bus lurched onto the road and Mackenzie watched the Wills Fargo Motel slip away quietly. Baker was a small town, very small, and they had arrived yesterday. Mackenzie had driven them over yesterday from Vegas in a cramped rental. With a busted stereo, its only saving grace had been the working air-con. Their vacation had been planned with military precision. It had been years since they had all been away together as they hadn’t wanted to interrupt Amy’s school-work, and in the last couple of years, the business had been struggling. This year, though, things had been going well and it had all just seemed to come together.
After flying over from Milwaukee with Amy, they had spent three days in Vegas soaking up the delights. Laurel had taken Amy to a Celine Dion concert, whilst Mackenzie found a sports bar showing the Brewers playing the Cubs. Mackenzie hadn’t missed a game all season and saw no reason to let a vacation ruin things now. Unfortunately, the Brewers hadn’t been on the same page and had lost in the final innings, going down seven to six. The Brown family had then spent much of their allocated spending money in the huge malls rather than the casinos, despite Mackenzie’s insistence he could handle it. The hotels had sucked up the rest of it. From there, they had headed to Baker, before going their separate ways.
Earlier, they’d said goodbye to Amy, who had mumbled a goodbye through her sleep. Instead of sitting on a bus with them, she was taking a charter across to LA from where she would get a connecting flight to San Diego and spend a week with her biological father, John. Laurel and Mackenzie were to spend two nights in Baker so they could get out to the Mojave and explore, before heading west and staying two nights in LA. The plan was to pick up a rental from there, dr
iving on down to San Diego at a leisurely pace before picking up Amy and then all flying back to Milwaukee together. That was the plan, anyway.
Mackenzie closed his eyes as the bus ponderously wound through Baker, picking up the last of the tourists. They had eaten in Baker last night and there was little to see that they hadn’t already, so it wasn’t long before Mackenzie drifted off. The day was warming up nicely and after yesterday’s long drive, he was tired. They had been up since six making sure Amy was okay, and it was some time later that he woke with a jump.
“What was that?” he said as he awoke and rubbed his eyes.
“You awake now, sleeping beauty? You’re missing out.” Laurel gave her husband a nudge and Mackenzie straightened up.
He tried to stretch out his aching legs, but only succeeded in knocking his knee against the metal seat in front of him and he winced. The rattling bus was small and hot, and he was feeling the need for a cigarette. He looked at his watch. They had only been traveling for forty minutes, yet it had felt like hours. Through the dusty window next to him, he saw the sky was a perfect deep blue and the sun illuminated the desert road, lighting it up like a landing strip. It was probably pushing ninety degrees out there and it wasn’t even nine a.m. The dry land was heating up with every minute and so was the bus. It had been an early start, but Mackenzie knew it was best to avoid the sun in the middle of the day out here. The brochure had promised a long lunch in a shady Joshua tree forest and he was already looking forward to a cold beer. He could feel the power of the sun beaming in through the windows and wondered if they’d made the right decision to visit in early summer. Winter might have been better. He looked over at his wife, Laurel, who was gently waving a tour pamphlet in front of her face. A faint sheen of sweat covered her skin, but she was smiling. Her upper body was leaning out into the aisle so she could see forward. She had been talking about this trip for months and to see her happy face now meant he forgot all about the cramped seat, the sweat trickling down his back and the jarring pain in his knee every time they went over a bump in the road.
As they continued south, he looked around the tour bus. There had been three other people on board when they had been picked up in Baker, but there were not many spare seats left now. Mackenzie counted eight in all, excluding the driver and guide. Mr. Stepper seemed pleasant enough and Mackenzie estimated he was in his fifties, but he looked like he kept in shape. His head was shaved and he wore a loose-fitting blue-collar shirt, crisply ironed over neat slacks. Mr. Stepper was probably a retired postman or something, filling in his retirement years as a local bus driver. As Mackenzie looked around the bus, he tried to work out who else he was going to be spending the day with.
The guide, Akecheta Locklear, had introduced himself and shaken hands warmly with a spry grin on his face as he did so. Mackenzie had almost wanted to go up and give the man a hug. He had a big, kind face shrouded by long black hair, and Mackenzie had warmed to him immediately. Akecheta was from the local Fort Mojave tribe and lived on the Reservation there, according to the brochure. Mackenzie saw no reason why they should lie. One of the reasons Laurel had picked this tour was because of the ‘expert local guide’ who would be able to tell them all about ‘the fascinating wildlife and rich cultural history of the area.’
Mackenzie noticed the two men, who had been on the bus first, were whispering to each other and sniggering. They were young, skinny, fair-haired and pale-skinned. He couldn’t tell what they were laughing at, but they were huddled low down in their seats and sat very close together, even closer than he and Laurel were now. Something told him they weren’t just friends. Despite being first on the bus, they had chosen to sit at the back and Mackenzie wondered why they were on the trip. If they had come all the way over from Europe to see the Mojave, then sitting at the back of the bus was by far the worst place to be right now.
Of the others on the bus, there was a young black couple at the front with a child. They must have been picked up in Baker too. More tourists, like him and Laurel, probably passing through on their way to or from LA. Whilst the couple were pointing out of the window and chatting, the young girl was sat opposite her parents and very calmly stroking a golden Labrador puppy on her lap. Mackenzie was a little surprised it had been allowed on the bus, but as long as it was kept controlled and on a leash, there shouldn’t be a problem. He had never seen the point in getting a pet, and thankfully Laurel agreed with him. He had enough going on at work to keep him busy and didn’t want to have to walk a dog when he came home.
Laurel turned her face to Mackenzie and whispered in his ear. “I hope those boys at the back aren’t going to giggle their way through the whole day. They’re starting to get on my nerves.”
“I’m sure they’ll settle down once we get there. They’re just excited,” he said, not thinking anything of the sort. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw one of them holding up a cellphone and frowning. Mackenzie turned back to his wife. “Should get quieter now. I think they just lost reception.”
Laurel smiled. “No more Instagram? Shame. Now they’ll have to learn something.” She put her lips on Mackenzie’s cheek and gave him a damp kiss.
Mackenzie rolled his head around, feeling the muscles in his neck stretch out. He tried to sit upright, but his legs felt stiff and his lower back was cramping up. “We should be there soon, right? I don’t think they planned for people my size when they designed these seats.”
Laurel smirked and put a hand on her husband’s leg, clenching her fingers together and softly kneading his thigh. “Oh, poor Mac, are your legs aching? Do you need a massage?” She leaned in closer and ran her hand up to the top of his thigh. Her warm breath flowed over his ear and a tingle went down his neck. “When we get back to the hotel, I’ll give you a good rub down.”
“You gonna start that now? Like I’m not hot and sweaty enough?” Mackenzie gave his wife a wink and they laughed.
It was going to be a good day. Mackenzie had made solid figures this year at the dealership and sold well over a hundred cars in the last six months. He couldn’t remember how long they had been planning this vacation for. Now they could actually afford it and were here it was unreal. He wished Amy were with them, but one of the problems of inheriting a child meant having to share them with the other half. She only got to visit her real father a couple of times a year, so he couldn’t complain. Still, he missed her. He had helped raise Amy and felt like he was her true father, not like the part-timer from San Diego.
Laurel resumed looking forward at the road stretching ahead, and Mackenzie held her hand as he looked out of the side window. The desert was flat and seemed to be devoid of any life. He knew it wasn’t really and that the desert was full of life if you looked in the right places. There were probably a dozen deadly animals only feet away, but they weren’t visible from the bus. God, he was looking forward to getting off the bus.
There was little to see beyond the barren land, other than the blinding white sun and hazy sky above. Only colorless scrub and cacti decorated the arid plains. Mackenzie suddenly saw a shooting flash of black as a snake or lizard darted off the road under a rock, away from the deadly wheels of the bus to find cooler sanctuary. It left a jagged line behind in the sand, an indentation of where it had been just seconds before, and Mackenzie remembered how they had to be careful in the desert. They hadn’t been before, but he had read up on the creatures that lived here: bobcats, scorpions, sidewinders and even coyotes. None of which he intended to take back home to Milwaukee. He thought of telling Laurel about what he’d just seen and then stopped himself. She didn’t need to know.
Mr. Stepper turned the radio off as the signal began to fade into a buzzing static. Instead of a fresh silence, Mackenzie heard somebody loudly singing the last phrase of the song that had been playing.
“California, rest in peace.” The man at the front sheepishly turned around and smiled as his wife gave him a disapproving stare. “Sorry everyone, what can I say? Karaoke’s my thing.” The man shr
ugged and his wife rolled her eyes but laughed sweetly.
Akecheta let out a deep laugh. “Okay, we’re going to stop for just a moment. If you haven’t seen a Joshua tree before, you’re about to see your first one. We’ll just pull up for five minutes and then be on our way to the Kelso Depot.”
“Yes,” said Mackenzie. “Sweet freedom beckons!”
Laurel nudged him again. “Shut up, loser.”
“Do you think I’ve time for a quick smoke too?”
The look on Laurel’s face told him the answer was no.
“You didn’t even move your lips. You’re getting good at this game.” Mackenzie let Laurel stand up as the bus pulled onto a clear strip of land at the side of the road.
Everyone filed off the bus, stretching and yawning. The warmth of the sun hit them as they got out. There was no other traffic around and Mackenzie found the stillness and quietness of the desert strange. He was aching for a coffee and a smoke, but intrigued as to what they were going to see. “There’s never a Denny’s when you want one,” he said to Laurel before marching off behind Akecheta.
“Mac, honestly.” Laurel sighed as her husband walked down the path behind the guide and the others.
“Yours too, huh? Mine’s been bitching about missing the Dodgers game at the weekend. I told him, they’ll still be around next year, and the year after that. We get one vacation a year. It’s only one game, but you’d think he’d missed a front row seat for the end of the world.”
Laurel shook hands briefly with the woman who was holding a knapsack over her shoulder.
