Gunfire muffled by the brick walls of the house without windows.
Watching the house, she heard another shot. Then three quick ones.
She started to run. The hanging rifle slapped her leg. Without slowing, she gripped the sling and swung the rifle in front of her. She gripped it solidly with both hands.
She glanced at the Chrysler, far to the right. Sandy’s head was visible. The girl was locked in, safe.
Donna climbed awkwardly over the turnstile. She sprinted across the road. Then up the dirt driveway. She tried to remember if the rifle was cocked. Couldn’t remember. As she ran, she worked the bolt. The ejected cartridge spun up and hit her face, its point jabbing her upper lip. Blinking tears away, she rammed another cartridge into the chamber.
Approaching the front of the dark house, she slowed to a trot. She shifted the rifle to her left hand. Heavy. She propped its butt against her hip and pulled open the screen door. She tried the knob. Locked. The screen door swung back, bumping her shoulder.
Damn!
She aimed at the door crack next to the knob.
It’s getting to be a habit, she thought.
The thought didn’t amuse her. 5.
Cautiously, Jud stepped into the main bedroom. The mirrors exposed every corner. No beast. He looked inside the open closet. Satisfied that nothing would jump out at him, he stepped closer to the bed.
Wick Hapson, naked except for a leather vest, lay facedown on the sheet. Chains anchored his wide-spread arms and legs to the bedposts. His face was turned to the left.
Kneeling, Jud looked into his eyes. They were wide with fear. His lips were trembling. “Don’t kill me,” he said. “Christ, it ain’t my fault. I just gone along. I just gone along!”
As Jud left the room, he heard the blast of a gunshot downstairs. 6.
Donna drew back the bolt. As the shell spun out, she saw that the ammunition clip was empty. Her mind flashed a memory of the live cartridge stabbing her face and falling to the dirt of the driveway. No chance of finding it.
Okay, nobody had to know the rifle was empty.
She shouldered open the door and lurched back at the sight of two hideous beasts lying sprawled near the foot of the stairway. Their shiny flesh looked pale blue. The severed arm of one lay near the wall.
Stepping around them, she glanced into the living room. Two more.
“Jud?” she called.
“Donna? Get out of here!”
His voice came from upstairs. 7.
Damn it! his mind screamed. What was Donna doing here?
He ran toward the last room, the room where he and Larry had heard strange breathing sounds that afternoon. The door was open slightly. Through the gap, he saw a blue light. He kicked the door, lunged into the room, and aimed at a pale figure crouched in a corner.
He held fire.
In the dim light, he saw dark hair hanging to her shoulders. She cradled something in her arms. An infant. Its snout, clamped on her dug, was sucking loudly.
Groaning, Jud backed toward the doorway. 8.
Donna, reaching the top of the stairs, saw the naked, ravaged form of Maggie Kutch limping toward the far end of the hall.
“Mom!”
Her head snapped to the side. Sandy, in tears, stood in the foyer looking up at her.
Donna looked again down the corridor. Maggie glanced back. Donna saw a butcher knife in the old woman’s right hand. Donna shouldered the empty rifle. “Drop it!” she shouted. 9.
Jud turned, faced Maggie, and started to raise his pistol. The knife plunged.
He was astonished.
He couldn’t believe it.
That shiny, wide blade was actually vanishing into his chest.
She can’t do this, he thought.
He tried to pull the trigger.
His hand didn’t work.
She can’t!
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
In the cold darkness of the crawl space beneath the last cabin, Joni lay on her side. She hugged her knees close to her chest. She kept her teeth clenched tight to keep them from chattering.
The man would never find her here.
Never.
A long time ago, when she first got away, he hadn’t even looked under the cabin. Maybe he would come back, though.
She didn’t dare to move.
The dirt and rocks dug into her skin, but she didn’t move. Sometimes, itchy bugs crawled on her. She made believe they were caterpillars and lady bugs, and let them crawl.
The cold was worse than anything. It made her shake. If she shook too much, maybe the man would hear her, and catch her again.
A long time went by.
Then she heard something move nearby. An animal.
She held her breath.
Then she heard a quiet, “Meeeow.”
The cat came up against her legs in the darkness, furry and warm and purring like a motor.
“Kitty,” she whispered.
She stroked its head and back.
The cat let her hold it. She held it lightly against her chest. Its purr was so loud she worried the man would hear it and find her.
Soon she was no longer shaking.
A sound from above startled the cat. It leaped away and disappeared.
Joni listened closely.
Footsteps on the cabin floor.
She heard the door swing open. She saw bare feet on the stairs at the front of the cabin.
“Girl?” she called.
The legs stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
“Girl?”
The legs turned. The girl crouched and looked through the darkness of the crawlspace. “You under there?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“You gonna stay there all night?”
“Is he gone?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s been hours. Took me that long to get untied.”
Getting to her hands and knees, Joni began to crawl through the darkness toward her waiting friend.
EPILOGUE
“When will they take the chains off?”
“When they figure we won’t run away,” Donna said.
“I wouldn’t run away.”
Donna, squinting through dark, could see only a white blur where her daughter sat among the pillows. “I would. I’d run away in a second.”
“Why?”
“We’re prisoners.”
“Don’t you like it?” Sandy asked.
“No.”
“Don’t you like Rosy?”
“I do. Except she’s ugly like Axel.”
“They’re twins, she ought to be.”
“She’s a retard.”
“Yeah.”
“Who do you like better, Seth or Jason?”
“Neither.”
“I like Seth better,” Sandy said.
“Oh.”
“Aren’t you gonna ask me why?”
“No.”
“Come on, Mom. Just ’cause you’re mad they killed Jud. Besides, they didn’t even kill him, Maggie did. And he deserved it, too.”
“Sandy!”
“Look how many of them he murdered. Six! God, he deserved it. He deserved a lot worse.”
“Damn it, shut up!” And then she was ashamed for using such language on her daughter.
“At least he didn’t get Seth and Jason,” Sandy said.
“Too bad he didn’t.”
“You’re just saying that. You’re just saying that to spoil things. You like them. I know you do. I’m not deaf, you know.”
“Well, I don’t like being chained up in the dark. I don’t like that at all. And the food stinks.”
“Maggie might let you start cooking, if you ask her. Wick told me I can drive with him to Santa Rosa, one of these days, and pick up groceries. Once they trust us more, we can do all kinds of stuff.”