And he realized something else.
He’d never stand a chance in a fair fight against this guy.
He sat up and jabbed the knife at Chuck.
Zoe fled down the beach in the dark, her long and toned runner’s legs allowing her to put some distance between her and her pursuers. She was somewhat hampered by the sliced-up soles of her feet or it would have been no contest at all. She would simply have run until they could run no more. And then kept on running, until she was far, far away from that house and the horrors inside. But the places where the glass had chewed up her feet were sizzling slashes of white agony. Tears streamed down her face as she focused all her will on the task of keeping her legs pumping in spite of the pain. And it seemed to be working. She glanced over her shoulder and saw them falling farther back, becoming pale, dreamlike figures sliding through the gloom. She began to hope again. She was going to make it. She wouldn’t die. Not tonight. A fierce, exultant joy rippled through her, overriding the pain, and she glanced backward again. She heard a pop and glimpsed a small spark in the darkness.
A gun!
They’re shooting at me!
The knowledge triggered a rush of primal terror. She imagined a piece of flying lead penetrating her body at unbelievable velocity. They weren’t likely to hit a moving target in the dark, especially from this distance, but they might get off a lucky shot.
But it wasn’t a bullet that brought her down.
She hit the sand castle and let out a gasp as she went sprawling in the sand.
Get up! Get up! Get up!
Zoe obeyed the voice in her head. The fall had amped up the pain in her feet, but she ignored it and clawed her way to her feet again. The pale figures behind her had drawn a little closer, gotten a bit more distinct. She saw another spark in the darkness and got moving again. This time her right foot landed square on the metal arm of a folded-up beach chair. She screamed as the pain staggered her and made her fall again.
Get up! Get up! Get up!
She tried, but she just couldn’t. She made it to her knees, but her right foot throbbed mercilessly, as if someone had poured battery acid inside the gashes. The pain was too much. She could go no farther.
And then they were on her.
The bald girl tackled her and drove her to the ground. She cried out in triumph and straddled Zoe, shoving the barrel of the gun into her open mouth. The gun’s sight scraped the roof of her mouth and drew blood. The salty tang stung the back of her throat. The feeling reminded her of having strep as a child. She wished she could be a kid again, safe within the sheltering embrace of her family.
Mommy…
The bald girl, Julie, grinned and leaned close. “End of the line, bitch. I’m gonna watch your brains blow out the top of your head. That’ll be fun. For me. Not so much for you.” She giggled. “You just get to die.”
Missy caught up to them then and stood panting near where the back of Zoe’s head rested in the sand. “Don’t…do…that.”
Julie frowned and glanced up at her. “Why not?”
“Because you’ve damn near emptied that thing. Too much noise.” Missy dropped to her knees and stared down at Zoe. The girl’s smile was weirdly serene. “Boy, you sure fucked yourself there, girl. I was really gonna do it, you know. Let you live if Chuck helped me do the rest of them.”
Zoe swallowed more blood as she struggled to talk around the gun in her mouth…“I…couldn’t let him do that.”
Missy laughed. “Oh, sure.”
Julie eased the gun’s barrel out of her mouth. “Yeah. You’re all noble and shit now. You were singing a different tune a few minutes ago.”
Still smiling, Missy shook her head. “Doesn’t matter now. I’m rescinding the offer. You’re gonna die, just like the rest of them.”
Zoe’s eyes filled with tears as a bleak hopelessness overtook her. “Please…”
Missy leaned closer, her expression more intent now. “Say that again.”
Zoe coughed. “Wh-what?”
“What you just said. Say it again.”
Zoe couldn’t think straight. Her fear was overriding everything. She couldn’t remember what she’d said just a second ago. Then it came to her and she made her mouth form the word again. “Please.”
“Again.”
She whimpered. “Please.”
“Please what?”
Another whimper. “Please don’t kill me.”
Missy made a sensual sound deep in her throat. It was the kind of sound you made when biting into something delicious. “I always dig the begging part.”
Julie looked almost bored now. “So what do we do with her?”
Missy lifted her head and looked out at the ocean. The gentle roar of the incoming tide was louder at night. Zoe remembered how soothing the sound had seemed on previous nights. But now it just struck her as ominous.
Missy sat up, leaned back on her haunches. “I have an idea.”
A corner of Julie’s mouth tipped up. “Yeah?”
“I was just thinking…I don’t think I’ve ever drowned anyone.”
“NO!”
The word erupted from Zoe’s sore throat, that one powerful syllable somehow invested with enough raw anguish and terror to express the entirety of the horror engulfing her. Desperation possessed her and she thrashed with all her might, nearly dislodging the younger girl until Missy got her hands around her throat and began to squeeze. Her hands were strong, surprisingly so, like a band of steel drawing tighter and tighter against her flesh. The pressure only let up when she stopped struggling.
Missy let go of her throat. “Let’s do this.”
They hauled Zoe to her feet again and began to drag her toward the ocean. She was weaker than before and let herself be dragged at first. She felt numb. Defeated. She was about to die horribly and there was nothing she could do about it. Then an inch or so of salt water tide rolled over her feet and reignited the agony in her wounds. She screamed and tried to tear out of the grip of her captors. But it was no good. They held on and steered her deeper into the water. She stepped on a rock invisible beneath the water and screamed again. And she heard the most awful thing. Their laughter. Her misery amused them. Christ, they were barely fucking human. They continued to wade deeper into the water. She stepped on more rocks and shells. By the time they stopped, the water was up to their waists and Zoe had been reduced to a gibbering, insensible mess from all the pain. She couldn’t scream anymore. Couldn’t even plead anymore.
Missy laughed. “Big breath.”
Julie’s hands were at her waist and the small of her back. Missy had one hand at the back of her neck and the other wrapped firmly around a bicep. They were really going to do this. Drown her. How could anyone, no matter how cruel, do this to another human being?
She drew in a breath just before they plunged her into the water. She thrashed against them and tried to break free. If she could break free, she could swim way out there, a mile or more, whatever it took to make them give up. But they clung to her with a maddening tenacity, refusing to let go. They danced around her, shifting positions, pinning her under the water. She twisted her head and could just make out the shapes of their heads and the moonlight-limned clouds above. The surface was so tantalizingly close, but it may as well have been a million miles away. Missy’s grip on her neck tightened and her head was pushed farther under the water. A minute passed. Longer. Her lungs burned with the need to breathe out and breathe back in. She knew it was time to start praying. She didn’t believe the way Annalisa believed, but the possibility of something on the other side, no matter how slim, was the only hope left to her.
They held on to her. Never let up.
And the inevitable happened.
Her mouth opened and the salt water rushed down her throat and into her lungs. Her struggles increased and became more frantic for a few seconds longer. She experienced a sensation like being crushed from within.