by Ted Hill
Hunter stretched out trembling fingers and pulled on the door handle. The wailing stopped. The lantern shook in his other hand, bouncing crazy shadows around the walls. Hunter tried to decide which he preferred—the howling or the silence.
Barbie stepped past him with more determination than Hunter was willing to muster. Wes surprised him by going next, with Carissa so close they could have been attached at the hip.
Hunter waited a heartbeat, took a deep breath, and then he brought in the light.
Four cells stretched down another corridor, with the wall on the right and bars on the left. Six sets of dark pupils stared back. Hands gripped the bars and every one of the cannibal children’s mouths glistened with saliva. They panted like caged animals, and the sound became the next level of terror as Hunter’s feet glued themselves to the floor. The only direction he wanted to go was back. Nothing could be saved in here, especially these tiny creatures of death.
Barbie moved to the first cell, both hands dripping tendrils of white fire, and faced the little girl locked inside. The girl hissed, swatting between the bars at Barbie, who remained unflinchingly out of reach. The girl grew more frantic in her attempts to rip into Barbie, becoming a blur of motion as she raked her black nails through the air and screeched. The others chattered in shrieks and snarls, anxious to be free.
Like a lightning strike, Barbie caught the girl by her wrists. She pulled the child’s arms down and drew her near now that she had control, staring into her face.
Fear broke through the fierceness of the girl’s features, her dark eyes looking around desperately. She buried her teeth into her bottom lip and bright blood trickled down her chin. Barbie’s energy channeled through the child’s arms with a jolt. The girl straightened like a rod and the light shined in her eyes.
Hunter watched, unable to do anything but hold the lantern and the broomstick. Wes and Carissa pressed their bodies against the wall like they were trying to pass through to the other side.
Barbie released the little girl and stepped away. The child hissed and retreated to the shadows at the back of her cell. The others down the corridor screeched defiance.
“What happened?” Hunter asked over the noise.
Barbie shook her head. “She cannot be helped.”
Barbie stepped over to the next cell where two girls had been contained together. They hissed and snarled and swatted out towards her like the first one, but they also frequently traded places, pacing and stalking back and forth in their cage like two young tigers learning how to use their claws.
“This is where I need your help,” Barbie said.
“What? You’re crazy. I’m not going anywhere near those girls.”
“Don’t be scared. I just need you to hold one off while I test the first.”
“I’m not scared.” Hunter’s knees shook so bad he figured she heard them knocking. “I just don’t want to be eaten.”
“I’ll be real quick this time—”
Hunter didn’t catch the last part because the howling rose again. “What’d you say?”
“I know what I’m looking for now.” Barbie turned to finish testing the others.
Eighteen
Hunter
Barbie held the second girl’s wrists through the bars. Hunter concentrated on the free girl in the cell who kept trying to come over the top and around the sides at Barbie. Each time the girl did, she got poked in the face with the stick. Hunter used the blunt end—he wasn’t cruel—but he didn’t discriminate where the stick whacked her either. Her right eye took a beating, which probably made her even with Hunter’s depth perception.
Barbie’s lightning power transferred into the captured girl’s eyes then she released her. The girl whimpered and ran to the back of the cell. Hunter allowed the one with the bad eye into the spot at the bars. Barbie clasped on like before and after thirty seconds the process was over; the girl screeched, running away to join the other.
“Can we save one of them?” Hunter asked.
Barbie tilted her head and peered into the darkened cell at the cowering pair. “Let’s check the boys first.”
The boys were just as feisty, clawing, hissing and screaming guttural nonsense. Two boys were caged together in the third cell. Luckily it was the smaller boys, but they were quick. Hunter worked hard to keep the one off Barbie while she inspected the first. The child ducked and weaved, having learned something from what he could see of Hunter’s treatment of the girl. Instead of a poke, Hunter smacked the kid’s hands every time one crossed the bars.
Barbie finished in a hurry then switched partners and inspected the second. They went to the last cell together. Hunter whistled at Wes and motioned him to move closer with the lantern. Wes and Carissa hugged the wall as they came after them. The girls leapt at the bars as they passed, smashing against the iron. Wes and Carissa focused on Hunter. When the light rounded the corner of the last cell, they found a solitary boy sitting peacefully on the bench in the back.
He gazed up at them with signature large pupils, pointy teeth and spittle. His hands rested on his knees.
“He doesn’t seem that bad.” Hunter knocked on the bar of the cell like he was delivering a pizza. “Think he’s worth saving?”
Barbie punched him in the shoulder and Hunter winced. “’They’re all worth saving. The question is can we save him?” She gazed into the cell.
The boy smiled.
“No. He’s too far gone to be saved.” She stepped up to the bars and hung her hands over the center rail, tempting the child to come try a bite.
He didn’t move.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Hunter said.
Barbie stood back and dug her hand in her pocket. She pulled out the keys to the cell. She selected one and nodded. “Follow me and be ready.” Without further discussion, Barbie stepped down the cell corridor.
Hunter jumped after her. “Wait a minute! What are we doing?”
“I have to make a choice and I’ve made it. I can only save one of these kids.”
They stopped in front of the cell with the two girls. The girls rushed forward and hissed a warning at them, but they didn’t cross the bars this time.
“Which one?” Hunter asked.
“I’ll grab the one I’m going to save. You hold the other one back until I’m done.” Barbie bowed her head for a brief moment then she brought up her fist with a ball of circling electricity. The two girls backed away, staring at the white energy.
“That’s not much of a fucking plan,” Hunter said.
The girls fell silent inside the cell. Barbie jammed the key in the lock and there was an audible click when she turned. “I told you to stop using that word.” She slid the cell door aside and entered the tiger den. Both girls leapt at her, but she quickly selected the one she wanted, grabbing her wrists, and spun away. Hunter charged through the door with his stick and pinned the unoccupied girl to the wall. The small cell exploded with white light and popping energy fused the air, making it hard to breath. The girl Hunter had trapped stared at Barbie, petrified at the display of power. She shifted her non-swollen eye back to Hunter.
“Don’t try it,” Hunter told her.
“Steven’s going after the keys!” Wesley yelled.
One of the smaller cannibal boys in the next cell had squeezed between the bars as far as he could, stretching his fingers toward the keys still hanging in the lock. Wesley swung the lantern back and forth at him.
Hunter’s moment of distraction ended with the girl snapping her teeth at him and clawing his arms. He shoved the stick harder and higher. With her bare feet scrambling, she climbed Hunter like a stepladder, but he pushed the stick even higher until it was against her throat. He feared pushing too hard and breaking her neck. Instead he hoped she would choke out.
Now that the stick had moved up, her arms were free to lash out with her claws. She gouged her nails into Hunter’s arms then his cheeks. Hunter extended his arms, scared he might lose sight in his remaining eye
. The girl’s attacks lessened and he stepped back. She flopped to the floor, letting Hunter catch his breath in darkness.
“Where’s the light?” he asked with panic rising in his chest.
There was a jangling and Hunter froze.
“They have the keys,” Wes said from nearby. “I dropped the lantern.”
“We got to go! We got to go!” Carissa said.
“Barbie?”
She did not respond. Barbie’s electrical power had winked out, leaving black unknown shapes in the fearful cell block
“Wes, get your sister out of here, now!”
Hunter held his hand out in front and shuffled until he touched Wes’s head. The boy yelped and shook with terror. He grabbed Wes and found Carissa shivering next to him. Hunter guided them from the cell and faced them toward the hall. “Run, and get everyone out of here. I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
A pair of howls rang out like they were inside Hunter’s ears, and the door to the next cell crashed open. Hunter turned, swinging his broomstick wildly, determined to buy Wes and his sister some time.
A solid body flew into him, and he shoved it back then jabbed the air with one end of the stick, hoping it was the pointy end. He slid his right foot forward as keys jangled, followed by the heavy breathing of the three cannibal boys. Two for sure were out, but Hunter wanted to keep the third locked up. One more slide of his feet and he kicked the lantern. He bent over and his hand wrapped around the base of the lamp, on top of the fuel cap. The keys jingled at the end of the cell block. He unscrewed the cap and found a full tank of white gas sloshing over his nervous hand.
Hunter hurled the lantern down the corridor. A shriek followed as it smashed into someone then clattered to the ground. Hunter hustled forward, swinging the broomstick up and down, side to side, with big sweeping chops, trying to make contact. He didn’t want any of them getting past him.
His stick met resistance and was turned away. He pulled it back hard and made a series of quick jabs, hoping to stab something soft. His boot kicked a lumpy shape lying on the floor—the lantern had taken out one of the boys. The fumes burned his nose and made him dizzy.
An attack came from the side, ramming him against the bars of the last cell. The caged boy reached through and held him tight with his nails piercing his chest.
“We’re going to kill you for our master,” the boy said close to Hunter’s ear.
Hunter gripped the shirt of the child outside in the corridor with him, holding the kid back. The little terror threw a fit trying to break loose: biting, scratching and kicking every accessible part of Hunter like a six-year-old melting down after a very long day.
“Henry?” a small, confused voice drifted in the darkness. “Henry, where are you? I’m scared.”
The caged boy hissed at the back of Hunter’s neck. “I’ve got this one. Kill her. She’s no longer one of us.”
Hunter’s boots slipped on the wet floor as he struggled to hold the boy from running off. The caged one squeezed harder, tearing into Hunter. The other struck him in the face, trying to pull free. Hunter’s stick was gone. He had both hands tied up in the kid’s shirt. He worked one loose and dug into his pocket. He pulled out his lock blade that he kept oiled, polished and sharp. He flicked his wrist and the blade sprung open. One swing and he stabbed the side of the boy with him in the hall. The child screamed and swiveled away. Hunter swung once more, but the kid twisted out of the way and tripped, then smacked hard against the wall.
Hunter raised the knife. His shoulder protesting in agony, he arched down, bringing the knife towards the last boy, who released him and jumped out of the way.
Quickly, Hunter stepped out of the gas on the floor. He closed his knife, still unable to penetrate the thick darkness, and unnerved by the harsh breathing of the last boy.
“My master and I will hunt you down and everyone you try to save,” the boy said from behind bars.
Hunter slipped the knife into his pocket and pulled out his Zippo. He flicked the starter and found the end of the puddle of gas, making sure he wasn’t standing in it. The two boys who had shared a cell lay silent and still on the wet floor at the end. The last boy squinted hard at Hunter through the cell bars. Then realization struck and he rattled the cage in desperation.
Hunter released a long steady breath, determined to do what was necessary, and hating it. “Tommy can bring it anytime. I’m sorry about this, but you’re not going to be there.”
Hunter ignited the white gas and a blue flame curled across the floor and quickly climbed the wall to the ceiling. He turned around, now able to see the little girl with her normal eyes staring at him in fear, as if he were the bad guy. Hunter smiled, unsure of what it really looked like, considering the screams and spreading fire.
“It’s all right. I know your brother, Henry.”
Hunter ran past her into the cell and found Barbie unconscious. He kept his sight from straying to the body of the girl he grappled with while Barbie performed her magic. Hunter scooped Barbie up and met Henry’s sister by the cell door.
“Let’s get out of here,” he told her. “That way, but stay close to the wall.”
He carried Barbie down the hallway leading to the light outside. All the other kids were still hanging around the lobby until Hunter walked in and led them out. The sun was high overhead and the heat hammered him as his energy faded. He stumbled across and down the street to the building where the Cozad kids had been trapped before his arrival.
Hunter laid Barbie in the shade next to the building and dropped beside her. He rested her head in his lap then stared across the street. The fire spread throughout the building then leapt to the next.
His mind numbed to everything. The kids all settled near him and watched the fire consume the building like a giant funeral pyre. Hunter barely noticed Henry’s sister. The other kids kept a wary eye on her, as if she would go stark raving mad any second. Quietly, she sat next to Barbie’s feet.
Hunter waited and watched. His thoughts turned over the horrible events that took place in the dark cell. Spasms fed through his arms and legs as his body released his terror-filled adrenaline. His good eye blurred with tears because of the violence he’d been forced into using to save Barbie and Henry’s sister, and every kid in this town. It was one thing to fight for something. Hunter never wanted to have to kill for it. Even if the ones he had to kill were demonic cannibals, they had been ordinary kids not so long ago. He lowered his head and cried, covering his face so the others couldn’t watch his despair.
Hunter jumped when someone touched his neck. Barbie stared up at him.
“It’s not your fault.”
Hunter looked away. The bus turned down the street and came roaring toward them, followed by Henry pushing Hunter’s motorbike. Barbie sat up and Hunter wiped his face with rough swipes. He stood and helped her to her feet.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Nineteen
Scout
Scout barged into his apartment, crossed the living room, and punched his bedroom door. Pain shot through his wrist. He punched the door again with the other fist.
Mark followed inside. “Stop it, Scout. You’re just going to hurt the door.”
“Where were you, man? Raven and I were attacked in the middle of town and the sheriff was nowhere to be found.”
Samuel guided Raven through the door. Her hand was pressed to her forehead trying to stanch the bleeding. Scout hurried to the kitchen and wet a washcloth from their clean water bucket. He wrung out the excess and brought it over to her. She took it from him without meeting his eyes and held it against her wound.
“Look what Billy did.”
“Billy?” Samuel and Mark said together.
“He’s the one telling everybody I got Jimmy killed. I’m sure of it.”
Mark shook his head. “But Billy is a nice little kid. Why would he do that?”
“Why don’t you ask him? He’s been feeding Dylan with that story, getting him
all fired up, and half the town too. Then he threw that rock at Raven. Where were you, Mark?”
Mark looked at Samuel then back at Scout. “We were having lunch. It’s been a long morning with the delivery and all. Not to mention the demon dogs.”
“Hellhounds,” Samuel said.
Mark frowned, agitated. “Whatever.”
Catherine knocked on the open door. “May we come in?”
Scout waved her inside. “Come over here and take a look at Raven. She got hit in the head with a rock.”
Molly followed Catherine inside. Catherine grabbed a wooden chair as she passed the table and scooted it over next to Raven. “Have a seat so I can examine the damage.”
Raven removed the towel. Molly came up beside Catherine and they both inspected the small cut like they were about to perform major surgery.
“Doesn’t look that bad,” Molly told Catherine. “Closing the wound shouldn’t take too much out of you.”
Catherine focused on Raven. “Do you want me to take care of it for you, Raven? Otherwise, you’ll probably have a little scar.”
Raven returned the damp washcloth to her forehead and reapplied pressure. “No, I’ll just put a Band-Aid on it.”
Catherine patted her knee. “It will be just fine. The scar will be tiny anyways, and that’s only if it does scar.” She shifted her gaze over to Scout. “So what’s going on around here? You had the whole town in an uproar. Why on earth were you screaming obscenities?”
Scout opened his mouth. He closed it again and stared at Catherine until her return stare made him uncomfortable. “Everybody thinks I got Jimmy killed.”
“Where would anyone get that idea?” Molly laid a hand on Scout’s arm. “You did everything you could.” Her eyes shifted and she nodded to an empty space in the apartment. “Jimmy made the choice. No one could have stopped him.”
“Billy is telling Dylan that Jimmy died because I snuck off to save Raven.”
