TORMENT (32 page)

Austin glanced to the far shore and caught a glimpse of movement. He looked the other direction and saw the same thing. He put all his weight into the next paddle. “Garbarino!” he shouted. “Faster!”

Both men fought against the water, pushing as hard as they could while keeping them on a straight course for the shoreline opposite the burning church. They would reach shore long before the horde circuiting the lake did, but once on foot again, their advantage was lost. And staying in the water wasn’t an option. If the drowning victims didn’t pull them under, the killers and Henry Masters could just encircle the lake and wait them out.

It was now or never. Run or die.

38

“Start running as soon as we hit the sand,” Austin said, digging his paddle deep into the lake water. A few times he thought he’d struck one of the bodies below, but he paid little attention to what lay beneath now. He
need
to focus more on what was ahead, and to the sides.

They could hear the voices of the horde growing closer. As disturbing as the shouts of horror were, Austin was thankful for them. If the killers were silent, he had no doubt they would have been caught long ago.

“Run where?” Mia asked. Her hands had gone tingly and her legs felt heavy. She noticed her breaths coming quick and shallow. She forced herself to take a deep breath, hold it, and let it out slowly.

“Straight ahead,” Austin replied. “Any other direction will take us closer to them.”

“Right,” she said, looking at the beach ahead. The sandy shore rose up slowly for twenty feet, most of it sand. The beach and woods beyond were separated by a small dirt road. Beyond that, a series of paths, picnic tables and mobile homes were scattered throughout the tall pine trees. The campground would have been an inviting sight under different circumstances and Mia could imagine children enjoying the beach, family picnics and lines of people fishing along the shore.

When Garbarino’s paddle struck bottom, he stood and prepared to jump.

A voice called out behind them.
“Help!”

“It’s happening again!” Collins shouted, pointing back behind them. White bodies bobbed on the surface of the lake, many of them reviving already.

Ten feet from shore, Austin gave one final paddle and prepared to leap from the boat. “Do not slow down. Do not stop to catch your breath. If you do, I won’t
—
”

A loud splash followed by a hoarse intake of air burst out behind the canoe. Mia turned around in time to see white arms wrap around Austin and pull him over the back. He disappeared into the water. They struck shore a moment later.

“Austin!” she shouted, standing and moving to the back of the boat.

“Mia, move!” Garbarino shouted.

She turned and saw Collins already running up the beach.

Garbarino plucked Liz from the boat.

Shrieking voices grew louder all around them.

“Now!”
Garbarino shouted and then ran up the beach with Liz in his arms.

Beneath the water, Austin fought against the hands gripping his clothes. For a moment, he became a child again, struggling to save his father in the pool. He took hold of the arm around his chest and felt the same cool, slippery skin. He felt the same desperation. But the man holding him down couldn’t be saved. He was already dead. He just didn’t know it.

Austin pulled the man’s arms away and slipped down, out of his grasp. His feet struck bottom.

He looked for his brother, ready to count to three. Instead he saw corpses. Dozens of them, glowing white beneath the water. He pushed off the bottom, aiming at an angle while desperate hands reached out for his feet.

Mia stood knee deep in the water, torn between diving in after Austin and fleeing up the beach. The choice was made for her a moment later when a body rose from the waters and reached out for her. Hands wrapped around her shoulders. Deep breathing filled her ears. She nearly fell over under his weight, but managed to keep herself, and Austin, upright.

Austin shoved her toward the shore. “Go!”

She ran. The lake water clung to her as though trying to pull her back, but she reached the shore a moment later, and with a surge of adrenaline, she pounded up the beach. Collins, Garbarino and Liz were already across the road, climbing the hill into the maze of camper trailers and brown pine trees.

“Shit,” Austin shouted.

She looked back at him as they crossed the road. “What?”

He lunged up the hill next to her.
“Lost my weapons underwater.”

As they reached the first camper, a voice shot out of the woods to their side. “I don’t want to!”

“Austin,” Mia shouted. When he turned to her, she tossed him her handgun. Having it made her feel safer, but Austin would put every round in the gun to good use while she might miss every shot.

He caught the weapon and pulled the trigger once. The shot clapped loud in Mia’s ears. A man stumbled out of the woods and fell.

The hill’s grade grew less steep as they neared the top, allowing them to run faster. But as they crested the hill, they found Garbarino facing them with a gun raised. He pulled the trigger three times. Bullets buzzed between them. A thud followed.
Neither looked back.
They knew he’d dropped at least one of the killers.

Atop the hill was a field of short brown grass. A paved road cut through the middle of the field, leading downhill to a chained exit. Beyond the exit, the hill continued down, further down than anyone could see.

Henry Masters roared from somewhere behind them.

“We’re not...going to...make it,” Collins said, out of breath.

Austin ran past him, toward a large RV parked on the side of the road, pointed downhill. The giant vehicle was dirty, but looked new enough and sported a turquoise swipe of paint along its side.

“Get in!” Austin shouted.

“What are we going to do,” Garbarino said, “push it?”

Mia and Liz entered, followed by Collins.

“Won’t need to,” Austin said, pointing to the hillcrest. Henry Masters rose up, scanned the area and upon seeing them, charged.

Garbarino climbed into the RV’s passenger seat. “Hold on!” he shouted back to Mia, Liz and Collins, who were sitting around the small dining area, clutching the small table.

Austin jumped inside and threw himself into the driver’s seat. He grabbed the shift and threw the RV into neutral. “Brace yourself!”

The impact felt like a large truck had struck them from behind. Mia fell to the floor, striking her head hard on the side of the mini-fridge. She shook her head, stunned, and looked toward the back of the RV. The rear end beneath the large window was dented in.

“We’re moving!” Garbarino shouted from the front. The impact coupled with their downward pointing front end pushed them onto the smooth road and gravity took care of the rest.

Mia felt a tug on her shoulder and turned to find Liz standing above her. “Auntie Mia?”

Movement behind them caught Mia’s attention. Henry Masters was charging again. “Liz, get—”

The force of Masters’s fresh assault dwarfed that of the first. The back end imploded. Glass and fragments of metal shot toward the front of the RV like confetti from a compressed air popper.

Liz dropped down, silent. She hit the floor at Mia’s feet.

Mia reached for her. “Liz!” But the sudden increase in speed kept her pinned to the floor.

The back shook again, drawing Mia’s attention. A gaping hole in the back was filled with Masters’s body. His stripped face and evil eyes stared at her. The “peace” tattoo wept blood from several lacerations.

“Help!”
Mia shouted. “Someone help!”

Masters took hold of the ruined rear wall and pulled, tearing a larger opening to accommodate his body. In a moment he would be inside with them.

“I need a gun!” Mia shouted.

Collins slid out of the dining area and pumped his shotgun. He stepped over Mia and just as Master’s opened his mouth to roar, he pulled the trigger. Masters’s head snapped back. But the injury didn’t stop him. A portion of his skull was missing, but the monster didn’t seem to notice. He simply shook his head, scattering blood, and turned his ruined face back toward them.

Mia expected Masters to let out a roar now, but Collins screamed a battle cry and ran toward the back, pulling the trigger seven more times until the weapon was empty and Masters had no head.

The headless body fell limp and dropped backwards onto the road. It tumbled off the road and snapped to a stop against the side of a thick tree.

Looking beyond Masters, Collins and Mia could see that they’d already broken through the chain-locked campground exit. But then the view changed. One moment they were looking back at the campground behind them, the next, they saw the turbulent, heat lightning-filled sky.

“Oh shit!” Garbarino shouted.

Austin’s voice came next, full of dread. “Hold on!”

Mia glanced forward and saw a steep, curvy hill dropping down before them. The RV accelerated rapidly, once again pinning Mia to the floor. She reached out for Liz and found the girl’s hand.

It felt slick with warm, thick liquid. Mia drew her hand back and looked at it, hoping to see anything other than what she saw.

Blood.

39

“Auntie!”
Elizabeth shouted before running across the front yard and leaping into Mia’s arms. The first warm air of spring filled them with energy as the pair spun and fell onto the damp lawn. Mia had just announced her engagement to Matt and the six year old Elizabeth, who had always dreamed of being a flower girl, was overjoyed.

“I’m so proud of you, Auntie Mia,” Elizabeth whispered into her ear.

At first Mia laughed, surprised by the girl’s mature reply. But after the words sunk in, Mia found herself tearing up. Her sister had somehow raised an intelligent and sensitive daughter—two attributes she wouldn’t have used to describe her sister—and the girl had said exactly what Mia needed to hear. Mia’s parents never expressed pride in their daughters. Not for graduating college, nor landing a good job, nor getting married. Instead they critiqued and questioned the legitimacy of things. They were glass-half-empty naysayers. Anything good in life was probably too good to be true.

So when Elizabeth said those few words, Mia found the girl had cut deep and exposed a potent mixture of pain and longing.

They lay in the damp grass, ignoring the wetness and looking up at the sky.

“What’s it like?” Elizabeth asked.
“To love someone not in our family?”

Mia smiled. “He’ll be in our family soon.”

“I know, but...he wasn’t always. Some people you love because they’re there when you’re born. But even then, not all the time.”

Mia saw what the little girl was getting at. Her father was an asshole. The girl adored Matt, but was probably confused about how he differed from her deadbeat dad. “I think that some people were made to be together.”

“Like made by God? We’re all puzzle pieces that fit together?”

“Something
like
that, sure.” She turned toward Elizabeth, their faces inches apart. “Like you and me.”