The Haunted Forest Tour

by Jeff Strand

  Eddie the tram driver was next. He was sporting a small belt wrapped around one shoulder like a bandolier, but the belt only held two more grenades.

  "That's everything," Eddie said as he looked around. "No more weapons and no backup clips of ammunition. We've got to be careful what we fire at." He was trying to sound commanding, but like everyone else, all he managed was to sound scared.

  "Maybe next time, you dumb asses will remember a tank or two." That was the man with the little girl. He looked less scared and more pissed off. Of course, judging by the way he carried himself, he'd probably seen a decent amount of time in combat, either as a soldier or a cop. There was an air about him that said he'd managed to handle every ugly situation that had ever come his way.

  Several more people poured out of the tram, including a cute little kid whose eyes were currently so wide that Lee feared his eyeballs might roll right out of their sockets. The woman with him kept looking over her shoulder with a deep frown on her face. "Perry? Come on! We have to go!"

  Lee turned away from the woman as something moved off to his right. A careful look showed him that something was sliding in closer. He couldn't quite make it out, but it had large eyes that barely even blinked.

  "We really have to go now," he emphasized.

  Next to him, the man with his daughter in tow took careful aim at the eyes in the distance. "Yeah, bud. I'm with you."

  Lee risked a look over his shoulder and saw that a fair-sized crowd had gathered. The redhead with the little boy was looking back at the tram and chewing nervously on her full, lower lip. "Perry? Come on. Seriously. We have to go."

  A man poked his head out from inside the tram and shook it vigorously. "No fucking way! Get your ass back in here, Jeanie. We're not going out into the woods!"

  "Well, we're not staying here to get eaten!" The boy standing next to Jeanie looked from his mother to his father like an avid fan watching a tennis match.

  Eddie grabbed the woman's arm and shook his head. "Listen. No offense, but we don't have time for this bullshit. If you're coming with us—"

  "Perry, please!" Her voice cracked as she looked back at the man in the tram's entrance. He was pushed aside as Barbara the tour guide climbed down, now wearing a small backpack. Lee could see that at least a few more people were still inside.

  "Don't be an idiot, Jeanie! Get back in here." The man's voice was soft but urgent, a desperate whisper that didn't want to draw too much attention.

  Lee looked out into the woods and saw it was far too late for that. The monsters were coming back, surrounding the area, and it was only a matter of time before they came forward again.

  His thoughts became fact a moment later, when something landed on top of the damaged tram and let out a warbling roar that was almost loud enough to deafen. Before he could bring his weapon around, the tram driver had opened fire. The first bullet bounced off the top of the tram, but the second struck the creature in the chest and sent it sailing backward.

  "That's it. We're outta here." Without another word, Eddie started forward, and the twenty-odd people outside of the tram, Lee included, followed him.

  The woman with her child hesitated for a moment, and her face made it clear how desperately she wanted her husband with her, but in the end, she turned and moved into the woods as well.

  Not far away, the living severed head, larger than the vehicle that hit it, was bleeding out from the wounds it had suffered—collision, gunfire and shrapnel alike—but it looked like it was trying not to laugh.

  They'd only made it a hundred yards from the tram car, tops, when the people who'd remained behind began to scream. Two of those who'd stayed behind had weapons, and the report from their rifles was dulled by the ululations of the dying.

  The sounds were enough to convince even the stragglers to move a bit faster. Unfortunately, running didn't seem to be enough.

  The shadows, the trees, even the air seemed to vibrate with menace, and all around him, Lee could hear the sounds of larger things moving through the Haunted Forest.

  A high-pitched, cackling laugh cut through the air to his left and was answered from high up in a tree. Despite himself, Lee looked up and saw something moving, leaping from the limbs of an ancient-looking (but of course, only four-year-old) pine and into the branches of a tree Lee couldn't hope to identify.

  More of the same insane laughter came from other areas, sending feverish chills running down his spine. He couldn't see what made the sounds, but he had no doubt that they were close and in large quantities.

  Just as unsettlingly, the sounds of the other monsters had stopped. The only other noises besides the laughter were the harsh breathing of the other people around him and an occasional curse or whimper.

  Lee was feeling every last second of his age, with a bonus decade added on top of it. He paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder, puzzled by the fact that none of the younger folks had passed him yet.

  And realized for the first time that there was a good reason for that. Somewhere along the way, he'd stepped away from the others.

  He was by himself. In the woods. Surrounded by laughing things that he still hadn't seen.

  The creatures surrounding him laughed again as they slowly moved in closer.

  * * *

  "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die." A man who was short and pudgy enough to make Christopher feel positively macho was loping along a few feet to his left, speaking the words on everyone's minds as he moved.

  He died ten seconds later, as something with the body of an ape and skin like a snake dropped out of a tree and landed on him, pounding his body into the dirt and forest loam.

  Christopher thought about trying to save him for half a second and then remembered that he only had a few bullets left and his mother to look after.

  The idea had been to run into the woods, but it seemed like some people were taking that to a new extreme. Most of the people around them were at least being semi-cautious, but a few had decided the best way to handle the matter was to try for the hundred-yard dash.

  The monsters didn't seem to mind at all. As soon as someone ran away from the main group, they descended, pounced, or flat-out attacked.

  A middle-aged man with wide, panicked eyes let out one small gasp of surprise before a shambling mountain of ivy reached out and pulled him into its depths. Only a few seconds later, the man's clothing spat out onto the ground, torn and bloodied.

  A woman who looked a little bit like a celebrity Christopher couldn't remember at the moment (or possibly a porn star from one of the magazines he hoped his mother never found) let out a scream that probably tore her vocal cords when a dark shape crawled over her, literally. One moment the form was merely watching her and the next it fell into what looked like thousands of smaller forms, which began chewing her flesh in an instant. Hundreds of tiny pieces of her body were torn away and devoured as she fell to her hands and knees, unable to take in a second breath and scream again.

  Christopher had to sling his rifle over his arm and grab at his mother when she started moving to help the woman on the ground.

  "Mom, no!"

  "Christopher, I can't stand by and let them eat her alive!" The face he'd grown up knowing so well was made nearly alien by the pain on her features. She fought back, trying to get away from his hands as he grabbed at her shoulders, but after a moment she realized what he already understood: the woman was ruined, not dead but not alive for much longer. A mercy shot to end her pain might use up a bullet needed to save a life.

  Tina and Brad moved as quickly as they could. Brad's feet seemed to find good placement more by luck than by any deliberate acts on his part. She looked at her husband and saw the sweat streaming down his face. He was in agony, in shock, and mentally he was nowhere near this haunted little forest. He ran, yes, but only because she told him to.

  All around them people ran, and a few of them screamed as the nightmares that lived in the woods became part of their waking wo
rld. It was one thing to see the creatures behind a thick layer of special glass with a long scientific name; it was another to see them up close, to smell them, to hear them.

  Tina no longer had any chance to lie to herself about what she was seeing. Brad had always been a huge fan of monster movies. If he'd had his way, they would have moved to the edge of the forest two days after the place had grown out of the desert floor. She didn't feel that way at all. She was just fine with the idea of not even knowing that the strange creatures existed. In her perfect world, the closest Tina would ever get to a monster was whatever bad guys existed in the animated movies she'd watched as a child. If it was too tough for Winnie the Pooh, she wanted nothing to do with it.

  Up until this trip—paid for by Brad's parents as part of their five-year anniversary gift—-she'd managed to have her way more often than not.

  All she'd wanted to do was let Brad have his monsters for a couple of hours...and now? Now all she wanted to do was somehow survive the experience and get Brad to a hospital.

  A new rush of screams came from the tram behind them, and Tina looked back as something almost as big as the armored tram car forced its way past the damaged doors. Through the trees, she could just barely see people struggling inside, trying to find a way out of the tram, and she could make out the mouth of the dark shape that lunged forward and shook the entire car. A thick tongue caught hold of one of the people inside and yanked the struggling form into its gaping maw with ease.

  She looked away and ran after Brad after she spotted him again, stumbling along in a semi-daze, half-hidden by the trees and the people around them. He'd managed to clear several yards further than she'd expected in only a few moments, and she had to sprint to catch up with him.

  "Brad, be careful, honey!"

  Brad gave no sign that he'd heard her.

  Tina had heard the term hellhound before, though she couldn't remember where. That didn't prepare her for seeing one. The black dog that lunged out from behind a black tree trunk bared its teeth and charged for her husband. Flames boiled from where its eyes should have been, and blasted from its mouth and nostrils as it moved. Powerful legs propelled it forward in large bounds, and the turf under its hind claws was torn asunder with each step it made.

  Tina had exactly enough time to scream her husband's name before the monster dove at him.

  As if suddenly snapping out of his daze for an instant, he ducked. The hellhound's back claws raked against his face, cutting deep. Though the creature could certainly have turned back around and finished off Brad with minimal effort, another man came into view at exactly the wrong time.

  Tina wasn't able to identify the man in the split second before the hellhound bit his head in half. She heard the crunch of his bones shattering, saw his head jerk violently to the side, and watched the hellhound chew the remains of the man's face into a bloody pulp surrounded by flames that roasted the meat as the monster swallowed.

  She was still staring at the bloodied, blackened teeth of the demonic dog when it turned toward her. The man's body slumped forward and twitched.

  Then the hellhound pounced on Brad. He didn't even scream as it finished him off.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  No. Absolutely not. It's not true. I won't let it be true.

  Tina watched Brad's legs shudder in their death throes, refusing to accept that her husband was dead that quickly. Brad wasn't the most powerful man physically, but he could hold his own. He was smart. He made good money at his job, and he encouraged her to finish her college degree because he knew she wanted to. He was protective but not too jealous. He had such a wonderful, amazing face, and his smile made her weak in the knees after three years of dating and five years of marriage. He was the perfect man for her.

  So, really, he couldn't possibly be dead. It was too stupid, too random. He couldn't be dead because they were getting ready to finally have a baby. They'd discussed it for a long time, and at the first of the next year she'd be off the birth control and ready for a new addition to their family. It was time. They'd been patient. They deserved to be happy. So he could not be dead.

  All of those thoughts flashed through her head along with a thousand others, even as the hellhound shook its bloody muzzle and started coming for her.

  Tina wanted to move. Part of her understood that the monster was going to rip her apart if she stayed where she was, but the bigger part was still trying to deal with the fact that Brad wasn't just playing possum. He was still in the same spot, and his blood was blackening the already dark earth.

  She wanted to move so desperately that she could hear a high keening whine coming from her throat as the monstrous thing walked closer.

  Her feet wouldn't lift from the ground. Her arms refused to budge. She couldn't even get her stupid mouth to close.

  The hellhound jumped at her.

  The bullets that tore holes through its side made it shudder and threw it off course, even as flames blasted from its open wounds. The hellhound fell short of actually hitting Tina, but the flames from its mouth licked across her shins. The flames quickly died, and the hellhound stopped moving.

  A man and a girl came toward her. The man reached for Tina's arm. "Move! We have to get out of this area!" The young teenager wrapped around his waist was looking at the dead hound with shocked fascination.

  "I—Brad's dead." She tried to explain herself, but the words didn't want to come out right.

  "And that sucks, now go!" He stepped in closer and slapped her lightly on the face. Not hard enough to knock her down, but enough to make her focus on the here and now instead of what would never be.

  The not-quite-dead hellhound reared up and sank its massive teeth into his left thigh and his crotch, biting down almost hard enough to sever his leg.

  The little girl with him staggered back and shrieked as her father's blood spilled over her lower body. Tina didn't even think about what she was doing, she merely reached for the girl and pulled her away from the dying man and dying monster.

  The man dropped his rifle on the ground and followed it a second later, his eyes bulging and his mouth working uselessly.

  She turned to the girl, her thoughts of Brad momentarily pushed aside by the newest horror, and as she turned she saw the hopping thing coming their way.

  It almost looked human, with tattered clothing on its emaciated body. The face was skeletal and the body was as thin as that of an anorexic supermodel. Whatever it was, it seemed incapable of standing still. The thick mane of black hair that ran from its head cracked in the air every time it moved, jumping in leaps that would have made a cricket jealous. Jump, and it was five feet closer. Jump, and it was only seven feet away. Jump, and it was next to the body of the man who'd saved her and the beast that killed him. Jump, and the little girl was screaming again as the dead-thing caught her in its bony arms and carried her away, still screaming. Jump, and it was on a tree above her head, its mouth opening impossibly wide and then sinking into the girl's neck.

  The little girl stopped screaming as the thing that had her tore away a thick strand of bloodied meat and swallowed greedily, the skeletal face seeming to grin at Tina even as it sank its teeth into the girl again.

  Tina looked around, once again lost in shock, and her eyes found the spot where Brad had fallen. She couldn't see him under the things that were feasting on his remains. Or were they? She only saw the hellhound and its first victim.

  What on earth—?

  An older woman with tears running down her face caught Tina's left hand and pulled. The man beside her looked her way for only an instant before bringing his rifle up and scouting around them again. When one of the things feeding on the victim who wasn't Brad looked up and hissed through a mouth full of bloodstained teeth, the man shot it in the head.

  "Mom, where are we going?" Christopher looked at his mother, who was still holding Tina by the wrist.

  Mindy shook her head and spoke in a strained voice. "Anywhere away from the monsters!"

&nbs
p; Eddie and Barbara were catching up fast. Christopher looked at the tram's driver and gritted his teeth. He wanted to make a sarcastic comment about their situation not having seen notable improvement after leaving the tram, but it was hardly a good time for that. The creatures were everywhere and they all seemed to think human meat was well worth killing for.

  Eddie looked his way and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Hit the dirt!"

  And then Eddie pulled another grenade.

  * * *

  Brad honestly wasn't sure if he was alive or dead. He was concentrating on running, not knowing or caring where he was going. He closed his eyes a few times and then opened them again when he ran into a tree hard enough to rattle his already numbed senses. His arms were screaming obscenities at him and seemed to have no desire to stop any time soon. Tina, whose voice had been his sole beacon for the last few minutes, suddenly wasn't speaking to him anymore.

  He hurt in lots of places, but wasn't sure where they were.

  When the lack of her cried warnings finally sank in, Brad stopped and looked around. There was nothing to see but trees and more trees.

  "Oh brother." He wasn't entirely sure that he'd actually said Oh brother, and it certainly didn't seem like the kind of thing he'd say in this situation, but that was his best guess regarding the words he'd panted out. He carefully spun himself in a full circle. "Tina?" He'd definitely said that. He said it again. "Tina?"

  Nothing. The closest thing he got to an answer was the sound of laughter up ahead. Brad—that was his name, right? Brad?—moved toward the high-pitched cackling, hoping someone up ahead would tell him where he was and what was so gosh-darn funny.

  Also, maybe a doctor would be useful.