“Let her go!” Faith screamed.
The Ringmaster took another step forward, and as he did Faith took a step back. “Put the gun down,” he said softly.
Faith shook her head, “Don’t come any closer, I’m warning you,” she said softly, her voice wasn’t as strong as The Ringmaster’s, it was shaky and a bit uncertain.
This all just made him smile as The Ringmaster continued to walk down the steps saying, “What are you gonna do shoot me?” But before he could part his lips to let out his chilling laugh, a loud blast was heard, and Faith stumbled back.
She tripped and landed on her ass by the front door. The red haired woman sat there, it was done, the universe’s sick task was done and Faith finally pulled the trigger. Her head rested on the door with her eyes closed, Faith could hear the zombies outside moaning and clawing into the wood of the house. It wouldn’t be long before they were inside moaning and clawing at them. Faith’s eyes shot open as she heard a slow clap start to fill up the room.
The Ringmaster stood there clapping ever so slowly with the bat tucked under his left arm. “Well, I’m impressed!” The Ringmaster said as he leaned down to look at the bullet hole in the step below him. “Had I been a midget, or a fucking ant you might have gotten me.” he laughed as he grabbed handle of the baseball bat once again and calmly made his way down the steps.
“No,” Faith said softly.
“Honestly I was scared for a minute, I almost started praying but then I thought,” The Ringmaster spoke as Faith started getting to her feet.
She held the gun in her hand just watching the clownish monster make his way down the steps laughing at her. Faith could see his lips moving but his words weren’t making it through, all that seemed to keep replaying was the laughing. All she could see was him laughing.
“I’ll leave God out of this, just in case his not too pleased with me. I don’t want him...” The Ringmasters stopped once again as Faith raised the gun. “Not this again. You need me to paint a bullseye on my chest for you?” The Ringmaster’s words came out followed by an echoing laugh that took over the darkness of the room.
Faith’s face started turning red, which just amplified the tears that were falling from her eyes now. She pulled her finger back but all she heard this time was a click. She continued to walk forward pulling back the hammer and pulling the trigger once again, and once again all she heard was a click.
The Ringmaster laughed and shook his head as he pointed the bat at her. “Looks like your out of-”
Before he could finish his words Faith let out a scream running towards the clown. She tossed the gun forward causing The Ringmaster to duck to the side as it zipped past his head. When he started to come up Faith was there wailing on him with her fist. She was fighting, for the first time in her life she was fighting, but it wasn’t against some clowns, or some zombies. At that moment every swing, every well landed balled up first was aimed at her Father, every tear and scream was meant for her husband.
Faith’s fist came down into the jaw of The Ringmaster and the crazed clown shot back with a backhanded fist of his own that set Faith falling down the last two steps. Yet instead of taking the pain and balling up like Faith was so used to, she shot forward grabbing hold of the clown. Faith’s arms wrapped around The Ringmaster. Faith’s head shot forward and the red hair took over the white face of The Ringmaster.
“What the fuck!” The Ringmaster shouted and then the very next moment he let out a scream. The Ringmaster started swinging his body left to right, but Faith’s arms and legs were wrapped around him, making it hard for him to pull her off.
Daniel’s head popped to the side to see what was going on, that gave Catherine the moment that she needed. She shot forward, doing a small roll, and landing at Daniel’s feet where she pulled the throwing knife out of his boot. Daniel started screaming along with his brother, both clowns filling up the darkness with their howls of pain. The event sounded like a dinner bell to the zombies outside as they started pounding harder onto the walls of the farm house. Daniel dropped Tennessee to the ground, but Catherine still jammed the knife into his thigh. She twisted it and pulled it down, ripping open the whole inner half of his thigh.
The large man dropped to the ground screaming, “You bitch! You fucking bitch!”
Daniel’s hands shot down to his thigh as he frantically tried to stop the blood from spilling out. The blood was filling up the floor at the top of the staircase. Tennessee sat there rubbing her throat as she watched the pool of blood quickly making its way towards her knees.
“Tennessee!” Catherine shouted, but Tennessee’s eyes didn’t move from the blood as she watched it over take her acid washed blue jeans. “Tennessee!” Catherine screamed once again as she pulled at her.
Tennessee’s head turned towards Catherine slowly, her eyes seemed glazed over. Catherine wasn’t sure if she was in shock or if she was closer to death than Catherine had thought but Catherine got down to her knees,
“You need to get Sue.” The duo looked over at Sue who was still passed out bleeding on the floor.
Catherine looked back down the steps at Faith who was laying on the floor now, with the The Ringmaster on his knees, holding his face.
“I’m gonna deal with that piece of shit,” Catherine said.
She got to her feet and ran down the steps. She picked up the baseball bat as she ran past The Ringmaster.
Catherine got down to her knees and her hand ran over Faith’s red hair, “You alright sweetie?” she asked, and Faith slowly started to sit up.
She started to spit out dark red liquid, that pooled between her two feet. Catherine watched as the blood slowly started to fill up the gap between Faith’s feet, then she saw a large bit of white meat fall into the pool making a splash. Catherine looked at it for a moment then back up at Faith’s blood covered mouth.
Before the two could say anything The Ringmaster shot forward tackling Faith back down to the floor.
“You little shit! Look what you did to my face!” The Ringmaster screamed as he pinned Faith down. “Look what you did to my face!”
He grabbed her light red hair that was spread out along the old wooden floor. He held her hair tightly in his fist and started slamming Faith’s head into the floor over and over again. Blood was raining down onto Faith’s face from the large jagged wound that was on the right side of The Ringmaster’s face. It was an island of red in the sea of white make up.
“Look what you did to my face!” He screamed once again.
Catherine shot to her feet behind The Ringmaster. She sung the bat back, holding it behind her head for a quick moment before sending it flying forward into the side of The Ringmaster’s head. The clown tumbled over to the side, the blood from the side of his head mixed in with the blood pushing from the hole where his cheek once was.
The Ringmaster’s head slowly turned towards Catherine, he put his hand up and softly let out, “pleeease.”
Catherine took a step forward, till she was standing right over The Ringmaster. Staring down into his eyes Catherine smiled and softly said, “Welcome to the greatest show...” She swung the bat down into his face once again, this time smacking into the bottom front row of his teeth. “On Planet Dead!” she screamed.
The Ringmaster put his hand up slowly and was trying to speak but all that seemed to come out was little gargles.
Catherine leaned down cupping her hand over her ear as she whispered, “What was that? I can’t hear you sweetie!” She stood up straight and raised an eyebrow, “You want an encore? Well...” She raised the bat over her head and nodded. “I guess you gotta give the fans what they want, right?”
The bat came flying down into the face of The Ringmaster, then it popped back into the air tossing blood along with it. Then back down it came smashing into his face, his nose crumbled under the pressure. Blood was pouring from The Ringmaster’s head. Catherine swung the bat once again this time cracking his jaw. She swung it again, and again. She was filled wit
h energy now, she could have kept swinging forever but then a hand shot out stopping her.
Catherine’s head turned and she saw Sue standing there. “That’s enough,” Sue said weakly while leaning on Tennessee, “That’s enough.”
CHAPTER 7
Blood and white makeup covered the floor throughout the old house. Bodies were surrounded by bloody footprints as Catherine stood tall among the madness. Looking down at The Ringmaster’s broken face, watching as the blood push it’s way past bone and torn flesh, fighting a battle just to end up part of a large pool of blood on the floor. Looking down at all this, Catherine smiled. Then she spit a mixture of blood and saliva on the clown as she stepped over it. The bat made an echoing sound that would have filled the room if not for the pounding and moans from outside. Catherine walked over to Faith’s hauntingly still body and put her hand on the Faith's cheek.
Faith’s red hair had been overtaken by an even dark red wave, which was spilling from the back of her head. She was blinking slowly, but her eyelids seemed to be the only thing making an effort to move.
Catherine smiled through the tears that were building in her eyes as she said, “We got him Faith.” She took hold of Faith’s hand and held it tightly, then looked over her shoulder at Tennessee and Sue, “We got him,” Catherine said once again.
“That’s beautiful and all. Really it is, I’m sure they’ll make a movie about it someday called ‘Catherine Briggs! Clown Killer!’, but can we get to the more pressing matter at hand?” Tennessee spit the words out like a sharp venom of truth as all the boarded up windows in the living room were shaking. They had been so wrapped up with the evil inside the house that they forgot what was waiting outside. “What the hell are we gonna do now?” Tennessee asked.
Catherine stood up looking around at the windows, the smell of decay started to take over the air. Catherine ran her hands over her face and tried her best to push past the rotten taste that was forming in the back of her throat.
“We get them out of here. We need that van,” she said. Catherine walked over to them and ran her finger through Sue’s hair, “You doing alright kid?” Catherine asked and Sue did her best to put a smile on. It was weak, broken, and as fake as they came, but it caused Catherine to smile just the same.
“Alright, well then hold this,” Tennessee said as she tossed Sue into Catherine's arms.
Tennessee walked over to Adam who had been passed out through most of the events that took place that night. Tennessee smiled and swung her open hand across his face, slapping him as hard as she could before shouting, “Rise and shine princess! We got some questions!”
Adam’s head shook back and forth and he shot up till he was sitting on his ass, he looked up to see Tennessee towering over him.
“What? What happened?” he said as he looked around the room.
“That clown knocked the fuck out of you. Judging by the looks of you, it might have been a lack of food and not so much the ass kicking that made you pass out,” Tennessee said.
Adam’s eyes slowly made their way to Sue and Catherine. He wanted to ask if Sue was okay, if everything was alright but once his eyes found Faith and the blood, he knew nothing was alright. His gaze started to fall when he saw something, something white in the glow of the moonlight. Behind Sue and Catherine’s legs, partly covered in the darkness of the room was his brother, The Ringmaster. Adam started to crawl backwards till his back was against the wall and he used that to slowly lift himself up.
“You killed him,” he said looking over at Tennessee.
Tennessee put her hand over her heart and smiled as she said, “Who me?” She laughed and shook her head. “I wish, but that kill goes to Babe Ruth over there,” she said as she pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Catherine.
“He didn’t need to die! He was messed up in the head, but he couldn’t help it.” Adam said.
Tennessee laughed, “I don’t give two shits about him, you, or the dead giant upstairs. All I wanna know is where’s the van?” Tennessee asked with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Giant? Van?” Adam repeated.
Catherine nodded. “Yes the van that we got into, where is it?” she asked.
Adam shook his head and rested it back on the wall as he said, “It's parked down by the tent, but the engine’s shot. It died halfway back after getting you two. We pushed it the rest of the way.”
Tennessee rolled her eyes and turned around as she said, “He’s useless, I say we kill him.”
Sue shook her head and slowly took her arm off of Catherine. “No! He didn’t do anything, he tried to help me,” she said softly, she started walking slowly towards Tennessee, but stumbled, only for a moment causing Catherine’s arms to go out to brace her, “I’m fine.” Sue said trying to sound stronger than she looked.
She stood upright again and looked at Adam, his head slowly turned towards the top of the steps where his other brother’s body was still bleeding out, sending blood cascading down the staircase. A giant dying in the darkness. Adam hated himself for it, because he couldn’t defend it, he couldn’t explain why it would happen, but tears slowly started to fill his eyes.
You could hear soft moans coming from Daniel at the top of the stairs, nothing to the level of the moans that surrounded the house. Those sounded like they were ripping through the very walls that held up the house.
Sue’s eyes came back to Adam and she said softly, “There’s nothing left here now. You can help us, and we can all leave together.”
Tennessee’s head turned towards Catherine and Catherine nodded, causing Tennessee to throw her hands up in the air shouting, “Whatever!”
Tennessee stormed up to Adam, pushing Sue to the side. The girl stumbled but braced herself with the nearby wall. Tennessee and Adam were eye to eye, Tennessee spoke her words slowly like she was talking to a child.
“We need a ride out of this shit hole, but before that, we need some weapons. Where are they?”
Adam mutely stared at Tennessee, the woman’s eyes were cold and steely. They made him feel uneasy, which was rare feeling, something only created by his brothers. Yet, in this moment even with living with psychotic cannibals on a daily basis, Adam felt afraid. So he decided to leave out the bag of guns they had collected over their travels out of his reply.
Adam leaned his head to the side, looking at Sue he said, “Whatever weapons we have, are outside in the shed and as for a ride.” He looked down closing his eyes for a moment debating whether or not he wanted to tell them he could fix the van. Adam looked over at Tennessee’s grin and decided he would leave out that fact as well, before looking back up at Tennessee. “There’s a truck on the other side of the tent. I don’t know if it runs. We never needed to use it. It was too small, we used the van to get everything we needed.” The moment the words lift his lips Adam regretted them.
Tennessee shoved Adam back into the wall. “I bet you did get everything you needed. How many times did you need a little sugar, huh shitbag!” she screamed.
Sue leaped towards Tennessee grabbing her arm. “Leave him alone,” she said
Adam screamed back, “I didn’t mean it like that!”
Tennessee pull her arm out of Sue’s grasp causing the girl to fall forward into Adam’s arms. Tennessee’s finger shot out towards Sue, who was wrapped in Adam’s arms.
Tennessee softly said, “Let me give you some advice. Not everyone is your friend. There isn’t gonna be someone to come save you all the fucking time.” Tennessee started walking closer to the two of them, she looked at Adam then looked over into Sue’s weak eyes as she continued, “One day you’ll realize no matter how big the world is, no matter how many people smile your way, they’re always gonna let you down, and you’re always gonna be alone.”
The two of them stared at each other for what felt like forever, there was no sound, the moaning outside was still going on, but between the two of them it was just those words hanging in the air until they heard Catherine shout out, “Tennessee!”<
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Tennessee’s head slowly turned towards Catherine keeping Sue and Adam in her peripheral view. “What?” Tennessee sharply let out.
Catherine was now holding her baseball bat firmly in her right hand, she pointed the bat at the door, “Get the damn door! We’re going to the shed,” Catherine said.
Tennessee looked back at Sue and Adam, she leaned forward and grabbed a handful of Adam’s shirt, the young man pulled back slapping her hand away.
“What the fuck? I don’t know anything else.” he screamed.
Tennessee smiled, “I know that, but if we’re going out there, best believe your bitch ass is going out there too,” she said.
Catherine started walking towards the door, “Sue watch over Faith, make sure she’s ready to move when we get back.”
Sue broke free of Adam’s arms and slowly made her way towards Catherine, “You’re just gonna leave me here?” she asked
Catherine turned her head back to look at Sue. Catherine saw the tears in Sue’s eyes and Catherine smiled.
“Sue if I was just gonna leave you, I wouldn’t have came in the first place. I’ll be right back, you're in no condition to pull this off.” Catherine looked over at Tennessee and then Adam, “No bullshitting, if you can’t do it, stay your ass back here,” she said as she turned to the door.
Tennessee looked over at Adam and softly whispered into his ear, “She’s talking to you Olive Oyl.”
Adam watched as Tennessee turned and started walking towards the door, he saw her get ready to open the door for Catherine who was braced by the doorway with her bat held tightly.
“Bitch,” Adam said softly to himself, his eyes went over to Sue who was standing there looking at the door. He walked up to Sue and stood next to her for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry.”
Sue’s head turned towards Adam, she stared at him and then looked back at Catherine who was standing there waiting for the war to start.
Planet Dead (Book 1): Bloodthirsty Page 10
