Rise of the Mudmen

by Thompson, James FW

“Okay,” she heard Dave whisper from the hallway. “Here goes.”

  The door slowly opened with a loud creak.

  “Jesus Christ!” With a loud crash, he fell back, sitting on the hallway floor, almost spilling into the living room. He scrambled back up as he looked at something in the doorway.

  Kaitlyn and Hannah bolted off the couch to see what was happening.

  Three of those things loomed in the doorway, trying to get in. One was already in, standing above Dave. It let out a low growl as something oozed out of its mouth. Kaitlyn stared at it, horrified. It looked at her and Hannah. Its eyes were weird: glossy and white and ... is he blind? she wondered. No. He knows we’re here. What does it—?

  “Get back!” Dave yelled. She wasn’t sure if he was yelling at the things that just burst in, or at Hannah and her.

  Dave got to his feet and pushed the drooling man toward the door. “Get out!” he yelled as he struggled.

  The drooling man fought back.

  Kaitlyn stood in shock, uncertain of what to do.

  Dave looked back at the girls. “Go!” he yelled. “Get back!”

  Hannah clung to Kaitlyn, watching her father struggle with the first man as a second one joined the fight. It looked like the woman was going to jump in too.

  They all had the same desperate, hungry look on their faces.

  “Come on,” Kaitlyn said, tugging Hannah. “Let’s go back to the couch, okay?”

  “No!” Dave yelled, as he was shoved further into the hall. “Get back!”

  Kaitlyn was confused. They had to ‘get back,’ but not to the living room? She looked around the house. They couldn’t get upstairs—they were blocked by this struggle; she had no idea where the basement was—it hadn’t been on the tour. She glanced to the kitchen—the back door! That was what he meant!

  “Come on!” she said, pulling Hannah. “We have to go.”

  “Nooo!” Hannah screamed, as she was pulled away. “Daddy!” She tried to get back to her father just as desperately as those other people were trying to get past him. Kaitlyn knew that if Hannah got away from her, she’d run straight into those people, and who knew what they would do to her. They looked more than crazy.

  They looked possessed.

  Hannah screamed and cried as Kaitlyn dragged her through the kitchen. The sounds of the struggle followed them: he yelled, they growled. As she reached for the backdoor, Kaitlyn stopped to hear what was happening. If the fight was over and Dave had forced the intruders back outside—

  SMASH!

  No. They had to leave. Now.

  A consuming darkness faced them as she opened the door. Instinctively, she tried to turn on the outside light to see. When nothing happened, she felt the dark roll in on them. The single candle from the kitchen cast almost no light through the door. However, through the blackness there was a large darker spot: the house behind the Moores’ backyard. They would head there. She wanted to yell to Dave to let him know, but then the intruders would know too. She’d go now and check back later. They would both return soon to wait for her mother.

  A flashlight on the table caught her attention. She grabbed it and shone it out the door. None of the intruders had gone to the backyard. They had a clear path. She opened the door and dragged the nearly hysterical Hannah along with her.

  “Daddy! No!” Hannah screamed, as they left her home and her father behind.

  “He’ll be okay,” Kaitlyn said into the darkness. It took all she had to hold the other girl. Luckily it was a straight line between the door she had just left and the door to which she was headed, with very few obstacles for her to manoeuvre around.

  She pulled open the screen and grabbed the door knob. Locked. Of course it’s locked! she thought, ashamed of herself. Her plan had failed mere moments after she had come up with it. She looked around, hoping to see another way in, but no, there was just one small window on this side. She lowered her head, trying to think of a new plan. Hannah’s loud sobs rang in her ears when she noticed a rock on the step. A fake rock. Oh please. She picked it up and found a key inside. Her plan would work after all. She flung open the door, yanked Hannah through, and slammed it behind them.

  She sat on the floor of the enclosed porch, trying to catch her breath and looking at their new surroundings. This room led to the kitchen. She pointed the flashlight toward it. From what she could see, the layout looked almost the same as the Moores’ house.

  Hannah kept crying as Kaitlyn hugged her closer.

  When she felt they had sat long enough, she decided to try to make the younger girl stop crying, or at least distract her. “Hey, Hannah,” she asked, giving her a slight shake. Go with what she knows, she thought, thinking back to her babysitting tips. Find a pattern. “Wanna do a tour of this place? It looks like it’s the same as your house. Maybe it’s a mirror image, or maybe we can look for the differences? Or—”

  Hannah looked up at her and then back down, continuing to sob. “When’s Daddy coming?”

  “I dunno,” Kaitlyn said, unsure of what to say. “Probably soon. If not, we’ll go back.”

  “But ... but ... but ... what about those people that Daddy was ... was ...”

  “They’ll be gone,” Kaitlyn said with some degree of confidence. “Your daddy will make them leave, and then it’ll be safe for us to go back. Okay?”

  Hannah nodded and squeezed Kaitlyn tighter. She looked into the kitchen. “This is Bob and Florence’s house,” she said with the flat-fact tone Kaitlyn was getting used to. “They were at the school, so they’re probably not here.”

  “I didn’t think so,” Kaitlyn said. “You’ve been here before?”

  Hannah nodded.

  “Oh, good. So you know your way around?”

  Hannah nodded again.

  “Okay. So, you’re in charge while we’re here, okay? I’ve never been here, so you have to lead me around, okay?” Kaitlyn said, looking down at her.

  Hannah looked up at her. “Can I hold the flashlight?”

  Kaitlyn smiled; Hannah was, for the moment, distracted with her new task. “Sure.” She handed the flashlight to the smaller girl.

  “Okay,” Hannah said, shining it around the kitchen, “let’s go to the living room.”

  She got up and pulled Kaitlyn up after her. As they passed through the kitchen, she shone the light on the fridge. “Do you think they have any food?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Kaitlyn said with a smile. She hadn’t noticed until she stood up that she was still shaking. Fortunately, Hannah either didn’t notice, or didn’t let it bother her. She couldn’t let her see. There was no one else. The act was over, and now she was all Hannah had, at least until someone came to find them.

  If someone came to find them.

  DAY 6

  KAITLYN

  They sat in the living room, curtains drawn, eating peanut butter sandwiches in front of the TV as if it worked. Their flashlight was the only light source, but they had gotten used to doing things in the dark.

  As she ate her sandwich, Kaitlyn thought about her mother again. If she had tried this house, she would have found so much food, and then come back so long ago! Or we all could have come here! Or—

  “How long has it been?”

  “What?” Kaitlyn said, coming out of her thoughts.

  “How long have we been here?”

  “Um,” Kaitlyn looked for a clock, to no avail. “I don’t know.” She had no idea what time it was when they left the house, although they’d all slept for a while before the creatures came. Kaitlyn thought it must be getting close to morning. “Maybe half an hour?”

  “Can we go back?” Hannah asked, a hint of a whine creeping in.

  “I dunno,” said Kaitlyn. She didn’t have much of a plan. More a ‘run-and-hide’ idea. But she had to work out some kind of answer for Hannah before she fell back into hysterics. “Maybe another half hour,” she said. “That way your dad will have an hour to—”

  SMASH! BANG!

  Bot
h girls jumped and screamed.

  “What was that?!”

  “I don’t know!”

  BANG!

  They jumped and screamed again.

  “The back door!” Hannah moaned. “The backdoor! The backdoor!”

  “It’s okay,” Kaitlyn said, trying to stay calm. “I ... I locked it ... I think.” I must have. I can’t be that stupid.

  BANG!

  “Can ... can you check?” Hannah asked, shaking.

  Kaitlyn swallowed hard. She had hoped Hannah wouldn’t ask that. She thought for a moment, looking at the end of the flashlight beam which vibrated in Hannah’s hands. “Yeah,” she said, eventually. “I can check. Can I have the flashlight?”

  Hannah shook her head.

  “I need it to see if the door is locked.”

  Hannah looked at the flashlight in her hands and begrudgingly handed it to Kaitlyn. In the dining room, Kaitlyn bent around the corner, but she couldn’t see the porch door. She took a deep breath and took a step in. The linoleum floor was cold under her feet. She hadn’t noticed before that she wasn’t wearing shoes. She didn’t think to grab them before they left Hannah’s house. She shone the light on the porch door.

  “It’s locked,” she said, staring at the door.

  SMASH!

  A hand came through the door’s window, quickly followed by a head and shoulders. Shards of protruding glass gashed open the intruder’s face.

  Frozen in shock, all Kaitlyn could do was look at the face of the intruder—a woman—who was trying very desperately to get into this house.

  “What happened?” Hannah called weakly from the other room.

  Whether it was fear for her own life, or to protect Hannah, Kaitlyn yelled. “Go away! The door is locked! Go away!” She picked up the jar of peanut butter they had left on the counter and threw it. She missed and the intruder snarled.

  “Kaitlyn,” Hannah yelled through sobs. “What’s that noise? I’m scared!”

  “Hannah,” she started, not sure what words would follow.

  She didn’t get the chance.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

  ...

  SMASH!

  BANG!

  The sounds weren’t coming from the kitchen. They came from the living room, or maybe outside. Hannah let out a brief scream, then silence.

  No. Not silence. There was noise, but she couldn’t figure out what. She ran to the living room, tripping over a chair, then bumped into the table in the dining room. “Hannah?” she said, into the darkness. “Hannah, where are you?” She shone the light around the room, searching. She didn’t see her, but she did see the source of the noises she had heard.

  The picture window in the living room was smashed in. Something had splattered the jagged glass. Whatever it was, it was very sticky and thick. Red and black goop.

  “Hannah?!” Kaitlyn screamed. “Where are you?” She went to the window, thinking that the younger girl had jumped through it trying to escape. She did not see her, but she did see the source of the noise she was hearing.

  There were dozens of them. The intruders. They were all over the place. On the street, in the front yard, on the step.

  And now, with a broken window, nothing separated them.

  “Hannah?!” she screamed, backing away from the window. “We have to—” She kicked something soft and heavy on the floor. It was a hand. She grabbed it to pull Hannah up, but no one was attached to it.

  Just a hand with a dangling string of muscles.

  She screamed, as she dropped the hand and the flashlight.

  She stumbled back, the hand sticking to her foot. She fell to the floor in front of the couch, where she had been safely sitting just a few minutes prior.

  The flashlight shone straight ahead by the coffee table, illuminating two heads. One belonged to Hannah, lying unconscious on the floor. The other, Kaitlyn didn’t recognize.

  “H—hello?” Kaitlyn said, hoping it would answer. Or maybe not. She wasn’t sure.

  She looked closer at the stranger and realized that it, too, was not attached to anything else. It was just a head. She would have screamed, but a wave of nausea forced her to vomit. Her head swam. The room was spinning. Over the sounds of her own panicked breathing were the moaning, growling noises from the intruders at the front door.

  SMASH!

  And the back door.

  “No, no, no, no, no,” she rocked back and forth, hoping to wake up from another nightmare.

  SMASH! CRACK!

  She wasn’t going to wake up.

  She scurried to Hannah’s side and felt her forehead. She was hot and soaked and, most importantly, breathing. “Come on!” Kaitlyn muttered, hoping she wouldn’t draw more of those things to the house. “Hannah! Wake up!”

  Hannah didn’t move.

  Kaitlyn doubled over as she fought futilely to get air into her panicked lungs.

  Through the smashed window she saw darker shapes coming closer. Growling, darker shapes.

  Kaitlyn managed to control her breathing enough to croak out, “Hannah! Come on!” Still no reaction. They were out of time. Hannah felt like she barely weighed a thing as Kaitlyn lifted her up. She stood, Hannah’s head dangling limply to her side. Kaitlyn hoped she had just fainted. Maybe she got hit by ... She couldn’t finish the thought. She looked around the room and bolted to the stairs. At the bottom she looked through the front door.

  They were all headed toward the house.

  Soon they were coming through the broken window.

  ALEX

  BANG! BANG! BANG! … BANG!

  The first impact woke them all up with a start.

  The last one shook the whole building.

  “What the hell was that?!” yelled Nicole.

  “I dunno. I dunno. I dunno!” David babbled.

  No light shone in from outside. Shadow, who at first was very silent, now ran around the room, barking in every direction as she went.

  “Is everyone here?” Nicole asked.

  “I’m here,” Alex said, squinting into the darkness hoping to see anyone else. “And so is Shadow,” he added when the dog kept barking.

  “Clearly,” said Nicole. “Where’s David?”

  “I’m ... here,” David said, gasping to catch his breath. “What was that?”

  “Where’s Ryan?” Nicole asked, even more fear seeping into her voice. “Ryan, where are you?” Alex heard her quickly drop to the floor and dig through the mats that were Ryan’s fort. “Where’s Ryan?”

  “I dunno,” Alex called back.

  From the other side of the room, Alex heard more rummaging, then a sharp crack as something hit the ground. He screamed. “What was that? Is something in here?”

  “Flashlight!” David exclaimed, as a cone of light suddenly appeared in the room. “It was the flashlight. I dropped it. It’s okay. Nothing else is in here, I don’t think.”

  Alex sat on the floor hugging Shadow, watching the flashlight beam sweep the room.

  “David, use that thing to find Ryan!” Nicole ordered.

  The light swung shakily around the room. Alex felt a surge of panic as it went. Only the world inside the beam of light really existed. Everything else might as well not even be there. When the flashlight dropped again, all three yelped.

  “David!” Nicole shouted into the darkness.

  Shadow scrambled again as the flashlight clattered and rolled to bump Alex’s foot. Alex picked up the light. Swinging it around the room, he found David curled up on the floor, trying to catch his breath. He pointed it at Nicole and saw something standing behind her. Its hand reached for her.

  “Behind you!” he said, just as the light went out.

  Nicole screamed.

  “Ryan!”

  Alex shook the flashlight. Nothing. He banged it off his palm, and it flickered, then went on solidly. He pointed the beam where Nicole had been. She knelt, holding Ryan in her arms. Ryan just stared into the light. Tears streamed down his face, but he was not making a noise.
Just shallow breaths.

  “Is he okay?” Alex asked.

  Nicole held on to the boy. “He’s fine. He’s scared. He’s okay.”

  “What ... what was that?” David asked as he sat up.

  Alex saw a weird look on David’s face; a look of realization mixed with pleasure and terror. It gave him the same idea. “The ... SMASHER?”

  David nodded. “I think so.”

  They both ran to the window, but was so dark outside, they couldn’t see a thing.

  “Jesus!” Nicole yelled from across the room. “That thing scared the crap out of me! Did it just fall?”

  “I don’t know,” David said, squinting and maneuvering to get a better view. “It might have been triggered, but I can’t—” He cut himself off. “Give me the flashlight, Alex.”

  Alex handed it to him, and he shone it at the glass. The beam bounced back, temporarily blinding them. “Aah!” they both yelled in surprise.

  “Open the window first,” Alex said.

  David slid the window open. The ropes that held up the SMASHER! were pulled taut just past the window. That answers that question, Alex thought, though seeing it made him come up with a few new ones: what made it fall, and what effect did it have?

  In answer to Alex’s unspoken questions, David pointed the beam straight down where the SMASHER! hung just a few feet away from the building. The wall behind it was heavily damaged. Pieces of siding lay around it. In front of it was more destruction, but not pieces of siding or brick. Standing upright several feet from the slightly swaying device was a leg. Still wearing a shoe and a sock.

  He almost couldn’t understand it, it was so strange. Just a leg.

  KAITLYN

  Kaitlyn ran up the stairs, trying not to bump Hannah’s head against the wall. She remembered the layout of the Moores’ house and, hoping for the best, ran into the room that mirrored Hannah’s, slamming the door behind her. She placed Hannah on the bed and tried to drag a dresser in front of the door. The top-heavy piece of furniture tumbled over with a loud crash, but she wouldn’t stop. She dragged it to the door and pushed it against the frame. The intruders surely had to be inside the house—but they were not getting into this room.