Rise of the Mudmen

by Thompson, James FW

  Nicole and Kaitlyn pulled at Jared. It did not faze him. In his rage, he mindlessly picked up and threw Alex into the ground, again.

  David was crying, but did not try to scramble away from the violence, leaving his body in harm’s way, trying to protect Alex from the full force of Jared’s assault.

  Jared relented. He looked around with rage and grief and confusion flashing in his eyes. All those emotions were definitely present, but whichever one was in the driver’s seat would determine what Jared did next.

  “What the fuck did you do?” he yelled at Alex once more. “You fucking killed him!” He shoved Alex one last time before allowing himself to be pulled away by Nicole and Kaitlyn. “Is that how this works?” he yelled down at Alex, then at the others. “Is that how this fucking works now? We kill people if we’re scared of them? Huh? Is that what we fucking do now?!”

  No one seemed to know what to say to this. They were unable to move at the force of his words.

  Jared looked down at the body of his friend, wiping his face on his sleeve. He quickly reached down and grabbed something, and just as quickly, straightened. He gave everyone a glassy-eyed look and bolted inside.

  Kaitlyn, Nicole, and David helped Alex to his feet and held him up as he finally found his breath. His head felt wet but he was afraid to touch his hair. Instead, he stared at what lay in his immediate field of vision. Between the flashes of light and spots that spread in front of his eyes, he saw the blood on the ground, and Steve’s twisted body. Sickened, he still saw what was missing from the scene.

  “The knife,” he said in a raspy voice, barely audible to the group. “He took the knife.”

  Nicole bolted when they heard a scream from the second floor. Everyone else stood in shocked silence for just a moment before following. Alex, still dazed by the assault, was the last to go.

  Nicole, David, and Kaitlyn stood at the top of the stairs, over a crumpled Hannah. She was a screaming, crying mess.

  “What happened?” Kaitlyn knelt with her adopted sister, trying to calm the girl.

  “Kyle!” Hannah eventually spat out between screeching sobs. “Kyle! Kyle!”

  Nicole ran down the hall as Kaitlyn tightly hugged Hannah to her, both of them sobbing. David stood frozen, as Alex finally made it to the top of the stairs.

  When Nicole didn’t return from the far end of the hall, the group slowly made their way to Kyle’s room. Alex didn’t know what to expect. The day had been incredibly surreal. The days leading up to it were also surreal, but somehow this day had been the strangest: a member of their group—albeit a recent addition—was now dead. Surely, they all felt responsible in their own way. Alex knew it had been Steve’s life, or his and Kaitlyn’s. It didn’t help. It didn’t erase the image of the boy outside with a bar of sharp metal embedded in his face and blood thrown everywhere. Nothing would.

  Until the sight at the end of the hall.

  Kyle lay lifeless on the floor, his arms over his head, his shirt stained red, darker spots splashed in half a dozen places. A stream of blood dripped from his mouth into the pool that had formed under his small, motionless body.

  Nicole sat on the floor next to him, stroking his damp hair out of his wide-open eyes as she shook, unable to breathe through her sobs.

  Ryan stood next to her, his arms wrapped around her shoulders, shaking along with her. He cried, but without a sound.

  Shadow lay on the other side of Kyle, whimpering.

  Jared was nowhere to be seen.

  “We have to go,” Nicole said to the group later that day.

  Darkness settled early that evening. Thick clouds had formed; bad weather was on its way. The view from the window was the same as the feeling that hung over the group. A storm was coming and they had to take shelter if they could.

  Alex had been in a fog, and Nicole’s words finally brought him out. It was the first real thing that anyone had said since they discovered Kyle’s body hours earlier. Caring glances and hugs were shared, but words were left unspoken. Alex felt the same emotions coming from each of the six remaining survivors. They were full of regret; full of anger; full of worry.

  Alone with their thoughts, everyone seemed terrified to actually be alone. Bloody handprints left on the “hard way” exit showed how Jared had escaped, but it wasn’t definite that he was gone. He could be there. He could be hiding.

  He could get them.

  If he wasn’t there, he would come back. They all knew the solution; Nicole was just the first one to say it.

  “We can’t stay here,” she continued. “It’s not ... safe.”

  “Nowhere is safe!” David yelled. His body shook. He hadn’t stopped shaking since they had found Steve. “Nowhere!”

  “But here is the least safe,” Nicole replied, keeping calm.

  “Why?” David asked, looking first at his sister, then at the others as they sat in a circle on the floor. “We have food, we have shelter, we have ... we have each other!”

  Kaitlyn nodded, though she looked skeptical.

  “But,” Nicole paused. She looked lost as to what to say.

  “But Jared knows we’re here,” Alex finished for her. “And he’ll come after us.”

  “Why?” Kaitlyn asked. “Why would he come back here? We ... we outnumber him. We have locks on the doors. He can’t just ... he can’t just get in without us knowing!”

  “Kyle got in without us knowing,” Alex said, fighting back tears, remembering how he had found the small boy, lost in his own mind, alone in the basement after suffering only God knows what. Things they, too, might face if they followed Nicole’s proposal.

  “May- maybe ...” David stammered, “maybe Jared’s just gone? He ran away and now he’s gone? Back to his bunker or whatever and he’s just ... I dunno ... done with us?”

  Alex knew that not even David truly believed what he was saying. “He’ll come back,” Alex said, staring at the floor in the middle of all of them. “He doesn’t stop. He won’t stop. He’s ... he’s—”

  “Relentless?” Hannah suggested. Everyone looked at the little girl, reminded of how smart she was.

  “I was going to say ‘crazy’,” Alex said with a smile, “but yeah. That too.” His smile quickly faded as the imposing silence settled back over them.

  It was finally broken when David asked the most reasonable question: “When?”

  Each of them looked at everyone else. Deep down in Alex a voice screamed RIGHT NOW! GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! But the coming weather and encroaching darkness told him to wait. They needed a plan.

  “Alex,” Nicole said, her voice weaker than it had been the entire time he had known her, “you know him best. Do you think Jared would try to come back tonight? In the dark? During a storm?”

  “I ... I barely know him,” Alex admitted. “He’s just a bully to me. You probably know him best, Nicole.”

  “No,” she said, “I know his sister. I haven’t really seen him in a few years. I knew him better when we were little kids. He wasn’t a bully then.” She seemed lost in a memory and her words faded off.

  “What about Jason?”

  Focus came back to Nicole. “What?”

  “Do you ...did you know Jason?”

  “Jason who?”

  “Jason Flemming,” he said, somehow knowing where this was headed. “Jared’s brother?”

  “Jared doesn’t have a brother,” Nicole said, quickly. “He just has a sister.” She looked out the window, her eyes losing focus again. “Had a sister. I don’t know where she is, or if she ...”

  Alex felt so stupid. Of course, Jason wasn’t real. Jared had conned him just like he was conning everyone else! He had seemed so emotional, so genuine about the whole thing, like he was an actual human being and not some monster, that Alex had fallen for it, even when he knew that he shouldn’t. But to make up a person—his own brother—and claim that he died of some disease he was too lazy to even think of a name for? That seemed too far.

  Did Jared let himsel
f get attacked by the mudmen, to see if I’d save him? Was he crazy enough to set that up too?

  “He’s a psychopath,” Alex finally said. After a pause, everything that had happened at the pit poured out of him as the rest of the group listened, speechless He stopped himself before named Hannah’s father as one of the creatures in the hole; she didn’t need to know. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  When he was done, everyone’s eyes were on him, many filled with tears. All filled with fear. They looked to him with their last glimmer of hope and he seriously wished they wouldn’t. He knew they wouldn’t stop. He would have done the same to any of them and not relented; they just did it first.

  “He’s smart,” he continued, ashamed to admit such a thing. “I doubt he’d be stupid enough to come in a storm.” He paused, thinking about it. “He might, though.”

  The terror in their eyes grew. He had to say something with some level of confidence, even if he didn’t really feel any.

  “But,” he said, “if we go out now, in the dark, he could be waiting for us.” He paused again, thinking about that statement. “He probably is.”

  Again, the fear in the room grew. Breathing became more audible. More rapid.

  “He’d have an advantage,” David said, continuing Alex’s point.

  “Exactly,” Alex said. “If we wait until daylight, then we’ll at least be able to see him coming.”

  “Okay,” Nicole said, looking around the circle, “so we wait for tomorrow?”

  Each of them paused to let it sink in, then silently nodded in unison.

  “We’ll get ready tonight, though,” Nicole continued. “We’ll fill up bags with food and supplies. As much as we can carry. We can’t take everything, but we can take a lot.” She crossed to the door, then turned back. “This is gonna be hard, guys, but it needs to be done, and we can do it. I know we can.”

  She left the room. Alex and Kaitlyn got up to follow her to the supply room to get ready, but they saw she wasn’t in there. David came out with a flashlight and shone it down the darkened hallway.

  Nicole was at the end of the hall, facing the room that had been Kyle’s. Grieving him. This whole time Alex had thought she was so cold, so hard. She was just the same as him—the same as all of them.

  No one knew him. Even Hannah, who had known him from class, couldn’t remember his last name. He would get no proper memorial. No tombstone.

  Nicole simply took a step forward in silence and pulled the door closed. She sat on the floor, weeping, her head pressed against his door: the only grave marker he would ever get.

  David went to her, put his arm around her shoulder and rocked her back and forth. The two Rudderham kids wept in the near-darkness.

  Alex and Kaitlyn waited. They would give Nicole all the time she needed.

  “Thanks,” Kaitlyn said quietly to Alex.

  “For what?” Alex said, after a brief pause, his mind lost in what was unfolding at the end of the hallway.

  “For saving my life,” Kaitlyn said, as she squeezed his hand.

  “Oh,” Alex said, suddenly quite flustered. “Well ... you saved mine, too ... so ... thanks.”

  He looked at her, and in the faint light they smiled at one another before heading into the supply room to wait for Nicole.

  NICOLE

  “It’s my fault,” Nicole said quietly to her brother. She wished she could be stronger, but she knew she couldn’t—not at that moment. David would have to be her strength for now.

  But she would have to tell him everything. That Aunt Carol had seen her; that she had led those creatures through the tunnel to kill everyone inside; that she—

  “No.” David cut off her thoughts.

  Nicole looked up. Through her tears she could see that he was crying almost as hard as she was. She tried to protest.

  “No,” David said, again. “None of this is your fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It just … happened. All of it. The only thing you did was keep us alive.” He tried to smile at her; she had to admit, it helped. “Do you think I would be anywhere near as alive as I am right now if you hadn’t saved me?”

  She sniffed back more tears; tears of gratitude toward her brother mixing with her tears of sorrow. But still, she had to tell him the truth. “Back in the tunnel—”

  “You got us out. Just like you’ll get us out of this. I know it. I believe in you.”

  She would have to be the strong one after all. David deserved it. They all deserved it. She deserved it. All she had to do was hold back her guilt, and they would all believe she could save them.

  She hoped she could.

  DAY 11: THE LAST NIGHT

  ALEX

  That night was their coldest in the community centre, though it might have been fear that made them shiver. But they stayed huddled together under the blankets they had found in Bob and Florence’s house. They had to get a good sleep before heading out in the morning. Alex and Nicole had volunteered to take shifts staying awake—keeping watch in case someone or something came for them during the storm. Despite their sentry-like vigil and the barricaded doors downstairs, no one slept.

  The autumn wind howled, making the building creak and moan. Leaves, twigs, and branches flew up and hit their windows, making them jump each time. Debris rolled down the street and hit the building, causing even more noise. At one point, after a loud creak from the roof above them, Alex wondered how much wind it would take to drop the SMASHER! If it fell now, the recoil could throw it through the wall below them, making their barricades and locks pointless. No one could do anything about it now, so he said nothing.

  Just another thought to keep him awake.

  Their bags were all packed with as many supplies as they could take, ready at the door of the supply room. After suiting up—they found enough pieces of armour so that they’d each have something to wear for protection. They would make one last check out the front door and from each of the upstairs windows. There would be no chance of an ambush, either from Jared or from mudmen. Once they were certain the coast was clear, they would quickly move to Bob and Florence’s house.

  This would only be a decoy, in case anyone was watching or following them. Once inside, they would dart through to Hannah’s house. After a quick search for any more vital supplies, they would head out from there. Their goals were simple: head one-by-one to their own houses and search others for more supplies as they went. Though none of their homes were that far away—a quick walk on any normal day—they were no longer working with normal days and decided to make the trips slowly and carefully. One destination each day, resting somewhere safe at night.

  All of that seemed so distant as the night slowly ticked by.

  Alex checked his watch frequently. His look-out shift was supposed to last two hours, so he wanted to make sure he stuck to the plan. He would duck his head under the blanket to check the time almost every three minutes. Noises became regular as the storm progressed. They almost became comforting.

  PLINK—drip hitting the window.

  TAP, TAP, TAP—a branch stuck in the fence hitting the side of the building.

  PLINK—drip hitting the window.

  CREEEEAK—the roof getting a tug from the wind.

  BUMP, BUMP, CLANK—the SMASHER! rolling away, then back against its guard.

  PLINK, PLINK—two big drips hitting the window.

  Over and over. He started making a rhythm of it in his head.

  PLINK; TAP, TAP, TAP; PLINK; CREEEEAK; BUMP, BUMP, CLANK; PLINK, PLINK.

  PLINK; TAP, TAP, TAP; PLINK; CREEEEAK; BUMP, BUMP, CLANK; PLINK, PLINK.

  PLINK; TAP, TAP, TAP; PLINK; CREEEEAK; BUMP, BUMP, CLANK; PLINK, PLINK.

  SMASH!

  Though it was a muffled smash, he almost jumped to his feet; he would have if he weren’t pinned down by those who were pretending to sleep around him. Two gasps erupted in unison from Hannah and David, and everyone’s breathing became very loud. Someone needed to say something comforting.

  “It’s probably
just the wind,” David finally said.

  “David!” Alex said. “Why would you say that? You’re never supposed to say that!”

  “Why not?”

  Alex could not believe he had to explain this to someone his own age. “Because, it’s from every horror—”

  He was cut off suddenly by a more disturbing noise.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG-BOOM!

  It came from downstairs.

  “Hey, everybody!” a voice called, from the downstairs door that had just been smashed open.

  Jared was back.

  “Be quiet!” Nicole whispered, jumping to her feet. “Just ... stay quiet!”

  Everyone had started to scramble up, but then slowed, despite their instinct to run out screaming. Nicole was right. They might be okay if they were quiet. Maybe he wouldn’t find them.

  His footsteps came, walking up the stairs. Wind howled through the open door that he had somehow smashed inward, through the frame and locks. It banged limply against the wall in rhythm with his loud steps.

  He stopped at the top of the stairs and began jumping loudly and screaming. Evidently, since he couldn’t use stealth, he’d decided to scare them as much as he could.

  It was working. They piled into one another, throwing themselves into the arms of whoever they could find in the dark, wrapping their own arms around the others and squeezing tightly.

  Jared called again, as loudly as he could “Why didn’t you just leave? Are you all scared of the outside, or are you all just fucking retarded?”

  The sound of his footsteps intensified. A flicker of light shone under the door. Then: a splashing noise.

  “Doesn’t matter now!” he yelled, answering his own question as he began kicking the bedroom door, throwing his weight behind his boot each time it made contact.

  The thick wooden door wouldn’t last forever. In the dark, Alex pictured its frame buckling with each kick, bulging around the lock until it finally snapped, sending splinters and chunks of wood flying into the room.

  NICOLE