Monster Gauntlet Page 9

  I froze. For several minutes, nothing happened. Then I saw it (or thought I saw it) again. If I had blinked I would have missed it.

  Marine was on the ground, asleep.

  I put my hands on him and shook him.

  He jolted with a shout.

  His hands were on me, and I suddenly realized I had put myself in danger by startling him like that. I never should have let him nod off.

  I saw the panic and confusion in his eyes and I started taking fast.

  “Marine! Marine! It’s me!”

  I saw the recognition return and felt relieved ... a little. Then my own panic was back.

  “Marine,” I said, quieter this time, as if I were afraid somebody or something might hear. “We’ve got to go.”

  “What?”

  “We’ve got to go now.”

  “The castle ...”

  “No,” I said with the confidence that comes from certainty. “We have a situation. There’s a troll or something under the bridge. We’d have a problem before we even got there. The castle’s out. We’ve got to move. Now.”

  Dutifully, Marine got to his feet.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  I looked at the castle. I looked all around me. I looked in the direction we’d come from, seeing the opening to the valley, the tree lines on either side of it, and off to the right, on a hill, the tower.

  I thought quickly.

  “Can you walk?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re going to the tower.”

  Marine gave me a look of disappointment that hurt me more than I thought it would. It didn’t need that, but I wasn’t surprised. I was disappointed enough in myself.

  “It’s about a kilometer back,” I said, guessing.

  Marine looked at the bridge.

  “No,” I said. “It’s a trap.”

  I looked at Marine, soaking wet, shivering, and bleeding.

  “I ... I fucked up. I ... Bear was right. I should have left that thing on the cross. I never should have split up the group. We were safer together.”

  I was almost waiting for Marine to say, “You couldn’t have known about the woman.” Instead, after a moment, he said, “What was that thing?”

  “A kelpie,” I said.

  “What?”

  “A water monster. Lures her victims into the water. Sometimes appears as a horse.”

  Marine simply said, “That’s fucked up.”

  After a moment of reflection I said, “They’re not supposed to be real.”

  “Think there are more?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Marine sighed and said, “It’ll be dark soon. Let’s go to the tower.”

  We started on our way. When our backs were turned, the girl on the cross near us perked up.

  “Hey!” she said. “You’re not really leaving me, are you? Get me down from here!”

  Marine and I looked at each other, then continued on our way.

  “Hey!” she cried out. “Don’t leave me here! Just let me down! I don’t have to go with you! I’ll go my own way! Just give me a chance!”

  Marine and I looked at each other again. Maybe he was thinking the same thing I was.

  We’d been fooled earlier. Nothing in this situation was what it seemed. No one could be trusted. People, things, and invisible controlling forces were out to get us. The kelpie had worn a good human disguise, and she almost killed Marine.

  I didn’t know who or what this new “person” was, but whatever my double over there really was, there was no chance that she was a real person.

  Marine and I wordlessly arrived at the same conclusion. We were leaving. The clone was on her own.

  We started walking. The doppelgänger girl was screaming something behind us. Then, seeing us move further and further away, the screams turned to sobs. Then, just before we moved out of earshot, the screaming seemed to become something else. It sounded like ... laugher.

  I chill ran down my body. I shuddered, purged of any doubts that I had done the right thing.

  Marine shivered as well and said exactly what I was thinking. We picked up the pace and he said, “Let’s get to that tower. Fast.”

  16

  I struggled to support Marine’s weight. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was strong and athletic. I wasn't.

  We limped towards the opening in the tree line. Here at the beginning of the trail, I could look up at the sky. Further down, the path narrowed and the branches of the canopy interlaced, making trail look like tunnel. I could see a patch of light at the far end. That was my goal. That was where the woods ended and the base of the hill began. This was another isthmus between open spaces. On top of that hill was the watchtower. We were close.

  Marine and I lumbered along together. Our steps got into a rhythm, sort of, so that gave me hope that we were making progress. I needed that, for most of my hope was fading as quickly as the light. The sun burned orange like the dying candle in a jack-o'-lantern. In minutes, the final smoldering ember would burn out. The light bleeding through the trees trickled away as if it were disappearing down a drain.

  "Hurry, Marine," I grunted. "We've got to move."

  He made an effort to move faster. I didn't have to explain why.

  The sun went down behind the mountains. I felt the temperature drop as we entered the “tunnel.” I felt immediately uneasy, like someone swimming in the ocean. I felt like we were in a whole new level of danger. I was right.

  We made it about halfway when we heard a stick snap behind us. I glanced behind me, and I was so startled I almost shuffled Marine’s weight off of me. About 50 meters behind us, in the middle of the trail, was a dark figure.

  Marine looked up and winced.

  "Oh hell no," he groaned, getting back to his feet.

  "It's ... It’s a man," I managed to say, searching for a word and coming up with one that was close but didn’t quite fit. I called it “a man,” but it wasn't a man. The body was too distorted. It had long spindly limbs. It was so thin it was almost skeletal. The arms were too long. The hands were too big. The fingers were too long, and each tapered into a curved claw. The head was topped with a tangled mane of dark hair. The skin looked gray, and the in shade and under the shag of hair, the face was cloaked in darkness.

  The thing started to slowly move towards us. With my free arm, I reached around my back and felt around for the pistol. Marine's free hand found his flashlight. We pointed our objects at the same time.

  The flashlight beam found the face. There was something immediately wrong. At first, I thought the intruder was wearing dark swim goggles or something like that. The eyes seemed to be covered by soulless black lenses. Then they blinked. The gun in my hand started shaking. The thing wasn't wearing anything over its eyes. Those were its eyes.

  It got worse. It smiled. A grin split between its pointed ears in the hideous mockery of a smile. The obscenely oversized maw was full of fangs, like the mouth of a bull shark.

  Marine had difficulty holding on to the light. The monster's features disappeared into darkness, leaving only its dark inhuman shape.

  The thing started moving towards us.

  My throat gurgled. My voice was trapped in my throat. After a struggle it found its way out of my mouth.

  "Stay away!" I shouted.

  The thing kept moving forward, slowly. I fired my pistol with one hand. I missed. I fired again. Another miss. The monster kept moving and kept smiling (if you could call it that). It wasn't afraid of the firearm at all.

  My survival instinct took over. I let Marine fall to the ground. I controlled the weapon with two hands. I fired twice, like American police officers do. I heard someone say that if a situation has escalated to the point where they have to fire on a suspect, they want to make sure they hit him. That was me now. Once again, I seriously regretted not picking a machine gun.

  I took a double shot. The first missed. The second hit. I saw the monster stagger backwards. A wave of relief and reassurance
washed down my muscles and bones. The target was getting easier to hit the closer it came.

  It took a step forward. I fired two more times.

  I hit it again once. The monster hissed and let out an inhuman howl. Then, with unnatural speed, it sprang into the forest and disappeared. After several long seconds of scanning the darkness, I put the pistol in the back of my belt and helped Marine to his feet.

  "Vampire," he said.

  Vampire? This was a far cry from the Hollywood version. They were often sexy people with superpowers who frequented dark nightclubs or mansions and belonged to secret societies. They had a sense of history and culture and were often rich from wealth accumulated over generations.

  But not this thing. This was a monster that appeared after the sun went down and stalked its prey. It probably smelled Marine's blood. It attacked the living with its teeth. It wasn't afraid of bullets and seemed hard to kill. OK, maybe it was a vampire.

  "We need to make a fire, or sharpen a stick,” Marine said as I wrapped his arm around my shoulder to absorb some of his weight again.

  "We need to go," I said. "Move."

  Marine didn't protest. He handed me his flashlight, which was a good thing. The light at the end of the tunnel had literally disappeared. We started moving down the path.

  I estimated that we were right in the middle of the forest isthmus when I heard movement in the bushes nearby.

  "Marine, we've got to go!"

  I suddenly flew forward as if I'd been hit by a car. I was actually airborne for a few seconds. I crashed-landed and slid to a stop on the dirt path, thrashing the heels of my hands. I must have hit my head, for I saw white flashes of light as if people were taking flash photos of my face. I rolled on to my back. Then I heard the sounds.

  A short scream was abruptly cut off with a gurgle. The sounds of shuffling and struggle ended. Then there were noises like lions feeding: wet, ripping sounds, mixed with grunts, growls, breathing and swallowing.

  It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the light. Marine's fallen flashlight barely illuminated the scene. Two figures were bottom-lit as if they were props in a Halloween horror scene. One shape was Marine, or what was left of him. His body lay on its side on the ground facing me. The expression frozen on his face was one of shock. Bony black fingers scuttled and dug into his arms and neck like giant spiders.

  The vampire crouched behind the body, holding it with horrible hands. His enormous mouth clamped over Marine's neck.

  I fumbled around and found the pistol, grateful a little surprised I still had it. I struggled to get to my feet. The vampire looked up and released its bite. It looked at me and let out a sound. It was a hiss of air and a vocal noise that almost sounded like a sigh of pleasure or anticipation, as if the thing were thinking At last! The face, hideous and inhuman as it was, seemed to have an expression. To me, it looked like it was smiling.

  The entire front of the monster was glistening red. I wanted to scream. I wanted to flee.

  Marine was dead. I didn't have to worry about hitting him. I pointed the gun and fired. Two rounds hit the creature. It didn't look hurt and it definitely didn't die. Instead, it slowly got to its feet. I fired another shot that hit the target "center mass." No effect. I fired more and the gun started clicking. I kept pulling the trigger in denial before accepting the painful truth. It was out. I let the useless object fall to the forest floor.

  I needed light. I needed another weapon. I needed something. Anything. I found my lighter and flicked it open. Tiny victory. Then I found my mace. Probably useless, but better than nothing. I doubted it would work when the gun hadn't, but it was all I had, and I knew I wouldn’t get far if I ran.

  The vampire sprang. I fell backwards. I scuttled away on my back, kicking my legs. A powerful hand grabbed my right ankle. I dropped the lighter. I clawed the earth and found it. I flicked it open to see a hideous bat-like face emerge from the darkness.

  I screamed. I pointed the mace and squeezed the trigger, praying the damn can would work.

  A jet of spray spewed out of the canister. By accident, with shaking hands, I crossed the spray and the lighter. The forest briefly lit up as a jet of fire blasted out of the canister and into the vampire’s face.

  The thing shrieked. The forest itself seemed to shrink from it. The grip on my ankle loosened. The monster howled as it fled into the forest.

  My heart pounded against my rib cage like it wanted out. I felt a small jolt of adrenaline for having guessed right and bought myself a little more time to live, but I was still too panicked and in too much danger to enjoy it.

  I don't remember exactly what happened next. I thought about going back to look for Marine's flashlight, but I didn't want to go near the scene of the vampire's feast. Then something spooked me. Maybe I just wanted get as far away from this place as possible. Maybe I heard something. In any case, I ran. I ran with my arms stretched out in front of me. I completely lost the path.

  At some point I fell. I hit the ground hard. I remember waking up in pain. Slowly, I got to my feet. Nothing was broken, but my knees were banged up. They were in better shape than my hands. The weapon and the lighter were gone.

  –––––

  I stumbled around in the woods in the middle of the night like a zombie. I had no idea what time it was. The stormy Scottish sky had partially cleared to reveal a spectacular full moon.

  The forest had taken on a new hue, like it was lit by hazy sunlight through a blue filter. My eyes started adjusting to the twilight. The trees separated themselves from the darkness into foreground and background objects. I had no idea where I was going.

  In the blue gloom, I saw an area up ahead that looked lighter between the trees. I headed in that direction. As I approached, I thought I could see glowing orbs floating in the fields. In the distance they looked like Chinese lanterns or something similar. The lights faded in and out of view between the trees. They glowed with an eerie bioluminescence.

  I was struck more by curiosity than by fear. The light show was more beautiful than it was menacing. I was too exhausted to be afraid. I knew I'd rather be in the well-lit area than in the dark. Plus, I remembered that I still had the amulet that gave protection from ghosts.

  I stepped boldly into the area. It was a small meadow in the middle of the forest. In the center was a grassy knoll. Fireflies of various colors flitted and darted around it. I found myself thinking of the hill behind my house in Skye. The thought of home made me smile faintly.

  I staggered towards the hill. The lights vanished. Maybe I was hallucinating. I fact, I was sure I was. I was bleeding. My hands hurt. My legs hurt. My head hurt. Remember, I’d been hit in the head by my first attacker too.

  Instead of taking cover in the trees, I wanted to be as far away from them as possible. I wanted to be out in the open. I wanted to be the middle of the field, on top of the hill, as high up and as far away from the surrounding trees as possible.

  I made it to the hill and climbed up it. It wasn't big at all. It was more like a grassy mound manufactured for a golf course. Still, I liked being high up, even if only by a few meters. My legs were giving out, and this was as good a place as any to crash.

  I collapsed on top of the mound and rolled on to my back. I stared at the sky. The moon was so full it lit up the sky and washed out most of the stars. Still, some were visible in the dark side of the sky.

  I lay still and stared at the sky. Giant moonlit clouds floated in space like islands in the sky. A shooting star streaked by. I gazed at everything and at nothing. The moon looked close and unnaturally large, as if it were part of a movie poster or storybook cover.

  I saw another comet go by, then another. The last one seemed to hover in space in front of me for a moment, then continue on its way. My impression was that it passed in front of the clouds.

  Glowing orbs and strange flashes of light seemed to be moving in and out my field of vision. As soon as I turned to my head to get a closer look, they were gone.

/>   So that's it, I thought. I'm seeing things. My brain is fried.

  I lay on the mound as the weird light show buzzed around me. I thought about how I got there. I thought back to how my day started. Breakfast was a distant memory. The helicopter transport and the ejection into the arena seemed so long ago it was like it happened to somebody else. I reflected on how long I had lasted. I felt the corners of my lips twitch into the faintest trace of a smile.

  We had done well. We survived the beast of the marsh. I survived the psychopath. Marine killed the kelpie. The vampire killed Marine, but not me. I got lucky.

  I sensed (or maybe just hoped) that the encounter with vampire was the final confrontation. It was the "boss" at the end of a video game level. He was the big guy you had to beat before you could clear the level and advance to the next one. The monster was almost invulnerable, but I had torched it by accident by creating a flamethrower. I didn't know if it was dead, but I doubted it would return after I melted off its face.

  I thought about the rest of the Runners. I hoped they were still alive. I imagined them huddling around a campfire, surrounded by the protective walls of the watchtower, fearfully riding out the night and waiting for the sunrise that would ensure their safety and freedom. They would wonder what happened to Marine and me.

  Marine. He didn't deserve what happened to him. None of us did. I thought about his fate (and probably all of our fates): torn apart by monsters for the amusement of the masses. Why did I ever agree to this? Whatever the reason was, it wasn't good enough.

  As I lay there on the mound, I watched the weird lights zooming around. I remember hearing somewhere that the "white light" some people report seeing during near-death experiences is just a form of hallucination caused by a dying brain.

  Near death. Was that where I was now? How many people were watching me now? How many were rooting for me to survive? How many were waiting for me to die? Probably a lot. After all, most people probably tuned in to watch me get killed. And killed violently, not by a concussion or bleeding to death.