The pickup truck was flying along at close to fifty miles an hour as they were approaching the end of the street. Any moment now David would turn left, and they would continue for another three hundred yards, then turn right when they hit Main Street. Then they would be on their way, leaving this horrible town behind them. All they had to do now was to survive the next thirty seconds. Then they’d be home safe.
Mary felt the pickup truck slow down. Then she felt herself being pushed sideways against the passenger side door as the vehicle skidded around the corner, the wheels squealing in protest. And that’s when she saw the dozen or so people that were halfway between them and Main Street. She felt the adrenaline hit her system again and fine tune all of her senses. She was no longer afraid, only alert and ready to face them head on.
They were walking in their direction. None of them were wearing any masks, but she saw they were carrying scythes, axes and baseball bats.
David stomped on the brake pedal, and the pickup truck skidded to a halt. Then he turned and looked at Mary with eyes that were filled with terror.
“We have to turn around,” he said.
Mary shook her head forcefully.
“No David, you need to keep going. You need to drive as fast as you can, that is our only chance.”
“But, they ....”
“Drive dammit! If they don’t step out of the way, we’ll have to run them over. It’s the only way. Now go!”
David looked at her with a shocked expression. He had never heard her talking to him like that before.
“And if the car won’t scare them, the gun will. Now come on we don’t have that much time,” she shouted. “Please David, before it’s too late!”
David faced the crowd that were less than a hundred yards away now. There had to be close to twenty people in that group.
He let out a sigh, then he stomped his foot on the gas pedal and the pickup truck lurched back into action again.
Mary put her arms back on the dashboard and immediately began firing the gun. At first she was aiming above their heads, but when that didn’t have the desired effect, she lowered it and started aiming at them.
The first person she hit was an old man wearing an overall over a fleece shirt. The bullet hit him in the shoulder and he spun around and fell down on the ground. The baseball bat he had been carrying did a couple of summersaults before landing next to his feet with a metallic clang.
Mary moved the gun slightly to her left and fired at a man wearing a baseball cap. The way his face contorted, and the horrible screams coming from his lips told her that she had hit her target. But the crowd didn’t slow down or scatter, but kept coming toward them just as determined as ever. It was as if no shots had been fired.
Mary was astonished. She had never seen anything like it before. It was as if the crowd had been given a drug that removed their sense of fear and taken away their self preservation instinct. The gun shots should have dispersed them in no time at all. But they simply ignored to acknowledge the presence of the weapon, and the potential danger that it posed to them. It was like watching Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War Two trying to crash into US naval ships.
They were less than twenty yards away now, and Mary realised with growing horror that they would have to mow them down. The pickup truck would act like a giant bowling ball, ploughing into human bowling pins.
She fired another round and saw the bullet impact in the forehead of a woman that seemed consumed with rage. Then they were out of time, and she threw herself back in the seat, closed her eyes and steeled herself for the inevitable impact.
She heard a loud thump and felt the force when they smashed into the crowd. Then the pickup truck was violently thrown up in the air, as if they had mounted the kerb of the sidewalk at high speed. There was an instant pain in her tummy and her neck flew sideways and hit the window on the passenger side. She could sense the air pressure of something flying through the air, and hear it hitting the windshield frame. But whatever it was, it didn’t hit her.
When she opened her eyes again, the road ahead of them was free of people. She looked down at her tummy, expecting to see blood or a scythe wedged in there, but there was nothing. The pain she was feeling must have been caused from being bounced up and down when they ran over those who didn’t step out of the vehicle’s path.
She managed to turn her head around and see that the crowd had turned too, and was now chasing after them. She could also see the half a dozen people or so that they had injured, and who was now lying motionlessly on the ground.
She heard David shouting that they had made it, but she didn’t pay any attention to him. It was as if she was in some kind of trance. She turned around again and noticed that the gun was no longer in her hand. The realisation caused an icy sensation to form in her gut. Without a gun it would be impossible to get through any potential roadblocks, which were likely to be manned by people armed with baseball bats and scythes. It must have been knocked out of her grip when they ran over the townfolks.
She looked around, desperately trying to locate the missing weapon, and let out a deep sigh when she saw it lying in the foot well between her feet.
She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the pain in her stomach and bent down and snatched it. Then she sat back up again just in time to see the pickup truck turn onto Main Street.
They had to be doing close to forty five miles an hour and her whole body tensed as the vehicle started drifting toward the kerb. But they managed to steer clear of it, and she could hear David gun the engine as he regained control of the vehicle.
At last they were on their way out of town.
She felt the exhilaration rush into her when she discovered there weren’t any barriers or roadblocks up ahead.
“It looks like we made it,” David howled excitedly beside her and slapped the steering wheel with his hand. The shock that had been stamped on his face a few minutes earlier had been replaced by a wide grin.
They were flying up toward the crest about a hundred yards away from the street they had just exited. Once they cleared it, the town would disappear from view and there would only be the road and the forest on either side for the next five miles.
They were going so fast that Mary actually left her seat when the vehicle raced over the top and started on the descent toward the highway. And only then did she allow herself to let out a nervous laugh and slap David’s extended hand.
“Yes, I think we did,” she said. The pain in her stomach had become more bearable, and she was no longer worried that the impact had harmed her baby. “Now we just need to get over to the nearest town and contact the authorities.”
David looked at her with a solemn expression and nodded. Then he shifted his eyes toward the rear view mirror.
“That is provided we can actually make it over there. They are bound to come after us.”
“Do you think they’ll try to chase us down?” Mary asked.
“Well, they can’t afford not to. And just because we didn’t see that many vehicles in town, doesn’t mean that there aren’t any there. We’ll have to really step on it.”
They were approaching a sharp bend and David had to slow down to almost a crawl, something that made Mary very nervous. If there was any section of the road that could be described as dangerous, this was it. Half a dozen armed people lying in wait would have no difficulties ambushing them, and potentially kill them. It was hard to outrun anyone when you were cruising along at ten miles an hour.
Mary lifted the gun and pointed it out of the opening again, ready to fire if there turned out to be a welcoming committee on the other side of the bend.
They were almost at the end of it now, the pickup truck only had a few more yards to cover before they’d hit the straight section where they could once again gun the engine.
Then they were clear of it, and that’s when she saw them.
They were about fifteen yards away, glaring at them with eyes filled with hatred. Mary let in a sharp b
reath and noticed her body twitch. There were four of them, standing to attention in the middle of the road, baring their razor-sharp teeth. And before David was able to accelerate, all four of them started running toward the car.
“They’re god damn pit bulls,” David shouted before he instinctively threw his arms up in front of his face.
Oh my god we’re doomed, we don’t have a windshield was all Mary could think. Then she began firing her weapon.
The shots created a god awful noise, but just like the crowd in town, the dogs didn’t pay any attention to it and kept charging. Mary hit two of them before they managed to reach the car. But the remaining two jumped up on the hood as if it was the easiest thing in the world. And it was only now that Mary fully appreciated the size of the animals. They had to be close to eighty pounds easy. Both of them had started to bark and she could see they were eyeballing David.
Mary readjusted her aim and with a rising sense of dread, realised that at least one of those dogs were going to make it inside the pickup truck. Then she squeezed the trigger and the dog on the right collapsed and fell off the hood.
Half a second later, David started screaming hysterically as the remaining beast leapt at him and sunk its teeth into his arm. David automatically pressed his foot against the brake pedal and the dog slammed against the steering wheel, but it still managed to hang on to the arm.
Mary looked dumbfounded at what was going on less than a foot away. Her mouth was almost touching the top of her chest, and the only thing she could do was to sit there and look at it. Then she finally snapped out of it and realised that if she wasn’t able to stop the dog, it would rip David’s arm off. And after it had done that, it would probably go for his throat. And if he succeeded, it would be game over for David.
She raised the hand holding the gun and aimed at the chest region of the dog. She knew she would have to be extremely careful. One wrong move and she’d hit David.
But it was easier said than done. The dog was throwing itself back and forth and she found it difficult to get a clear shot. She took a deep breath, focused and then she squeezed the trigger and heard a loud dry click. She felt her heart skip a beat and just stared at the gun as if it had spit her in the face. From beside her David was screaming hysterically for her to shoot the dog. It was pulling and jerking at his arm so violently that she was certain that the dog would crunch his bones to pieces. She kept looking around her frantically, trying to find something she could use to subdue the beast with, but she saw nothing.
Then her eyes fell on the glove compartment and she leaned forward and tore it open. It was filled with paperwork and various leaflets, which she grabbed hold of and threw down on the floor. And there at the bottom of the glove compartment, tucked up against the corner, she saw a yellow box cutter.
She let out an excited little cry and wasted no time whatsoever. She snatched the cutting tool, and pushed forward the little metal slider at the top and saw the rhomboid shaped blade pop out of the metal casing. Then she threw herself around, and in one quick motion placed the blade against the dog’s throat and made a deep incision from one side to the other. And judging by the amount of blood that came gushing out, Mary assumed that she had severed the carotid artery.
She dropped the knife and pushed herself across her seat and pressed her back tight up against the passenger door. Then she watched as the dog let go of David’s arm and began to make loud, guttural sounds.
David finally being free of its grip wasted no time and pushed open the driver side door and jumped out. But Mary just sat where she was and watched the dog shake his head violently, trying to figure out what had just happened. It looked down at the seat that David had just exited and saw the blood that had accumulated there. Then it turned its head toward Mary and just stared at her. The blood kept squirting out in a steady rhythm, and Mary wondered how long it would be able to stand upright.
She kept pulling her feet closer to her body, ready to start kicking the beast if it tried to attack her. But it just sat there staring at her, as if it knew that the game was over and it had picked the losing hand.
Then the door suddenly opened up behind her and she fell backwards, and she felt David’s arms wrap themselves around her chest and start pulling her away. Then when she was out of the vehicle, she saw him slam the door shut with his leg.
“Why didn’t you just shoot it?” he said as he let go of her.
She turned around and saw blood seeping through the section of the sleeve that the dog had ripped into.
She put her hand over her mouth and let out a gasp.
“Oh my god David, look at your arm! We have to stop the bleeding.”
She walked over to him to inspect the wound, but he shook his head and waved her away.
“Not now,” he said. “We need to get that mutt out of the car and get back in again. We can have a look at the arm later on. I’ll be ok.”
He walked over to the passenger side door and looked in through the window.
“It looks like Cujo has finally decided to go to sleep,” he said after having studied the animal for a few seconds.
Then he walked back toward the driver side door, waited another ten seconds before opening it and started pulling out the incapacitated dog by its front legs. Then he climbed back inside again and gestured for Mary to do the same.
A few moments later he pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the pickup truck started moving again. Then they were once again racing down the winding road that would bring them back to the highway and freedom.
“That was the last obstacle,” David said after they had passed the halfway point of the road. “Those dogs were their last line of defence, and we managed to break through it without taking too much of a beating.”
He shook his head and let out a harsh little laugh.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect to make it out of there alive. I was sure we were going to face our maker today.”
Mary nodded and placed her hand over her necklace.
“Yes, I thought so too. But god was looking out for us.”
“Yes, I guess he was,” David answered solemnly.
Mary leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She had no words to describe how grateful she was that god had allowed the three of them to survive. That he had found it in his heart to let them spend some more time on this earth and form a proper family. And if it was his intention, he would let this incident fade from their memories, or at least allow it to be pushed all the way to the back of their consciousness. She thanked him, and then she just relaxed and let the movements of the car calm her down.
She only opened her eyes a couple of seconds before the big truck appeared. And she had just enough time to think that it was funny that it had a snowplough attached to the front, given that there was no snow on the ground yet. It came racing straight at them from the other side of the bend. Then the long steel spears attached to the front of the plough crashed in through the window opening and impaled her body, killing her and the baby she was carrying instantly. Then the pickup truck slammed to a complete stop.
The driver of the other truck sat where he was for almost a full minute before he turned off the engine and jumped outside. He was a big man, almost six feet four and had broad shoulders to go along with his height. He walked around the plough, where he stopped and fished out a cigarette from the package in his breast pocket. Then he lit it with a Zippo lighter and took a few drags before he walked over to the passenger side window of the pickup truck and looked inside.
If he had been a squeamish person, the sight would have made him uncomfortable. But he was no such thing. He was a callous person, who had never cared too much about other people’s feelings and sensitivities, so the sight didn’t disturb him in the slightest.
There were two individuals in there and they had both been impaled by the thick steel rods welded onto the front of the plough. The young woman in the passenger seat had a pole going straight through her hea
d and three others going through her torso. The entire front of her body was covered in blood.
The man next to her had been impaled only in the torso region, and it looked like one of the rods had gone straight through his heart. They had probably died instantly, not that he cared whether they had or not.
Then he turned around and leaned against the side of the pickup truck while finishing his cigarette. After he threw the butt on the ground and crushed it with his boot, he got back in the truck and contacted the office.
“It’s taken care of, they’re both dead,” he said. Then he listened dutifully to the instructions given to him, before hooking the handheld microphone back on the metal bracket attached to the front of the CB radio and started driving toward town.
Timothy Ackerman watched the wooden crosses with the dead bodies being consumed by the flames. It was the only source of light - the heavy cloud layer was blocking out the moon and the stars - and it lit up the backyard of the church and made the faces of the enraptured crowd look like drugged zombies. He was excited, something that the big grin on his face bore testament to. But no one was able to see it. The black hood covering his head disguised his contentment well.
And he had every reason to be excited. The project had been an unequivocal success. In fact it had exceeded their most optimistic expectations. What he was witnessing was the accumulated effort of more than ten years of research and hard work. It was the beginning of a new dawn that over time would see the political landscape in this country shift dramatically. It would grant them a compliant and mouldable populace that would do exactly what they were told. There would be no more attempts at undermining the power of the government, or threaten their ability to govern the plebs. And it was all due to his insistence that the agency allow him to carry out his research, and it had finally started to bear fruits.
Minden, Idaho was the proof that showed that it actually worked. They had managed to turn normal, law abiding and peaceful citizens into brutal murderers. And this would serve as an example of what could be accomplished when the project was implemented on a large scale. It would prove once and for all that the chemical formula he had been working on for the last decade was working. And that when it was added to the local water supply, it would allow the agency to control the population and use them for whatever purposes the agency deemed important. The experiment left no doubts about that whatsoever.
The Bad Country Page 11
