Endurance - Jack Kilborn [90]
Maria checked the far door. “There’s a ladder. Come on!”
The trio ran to the ladder. It was made of metal bars, old and rusty, ascending into darkness. Mal went up first, moving damn quick for a man with only one hand. Maria followed.
The door to the statue room burst open, and a bleeding, pissed-off George Washington stumbled through. He was followed by a large, stout woman wearing a pillbox hat.
“You can’t get away, Loretta,” Eleanor said. “No guests ever leave.”
Letti considered running at the woman, perhaps taking her as some kind of hostage. But four of her large brood filed out of the room behind her, so Letti turned and climbed up the ladder. At each rung, she expected someone to grab her ankles, pull her back down. But it didn’t happen. No one even seemed to be chasing her.
When she reached the top, she understood why. The ladder led to another doorway, which opened up into the main floor of the Rushmore Inn, where there were more than a dozen freaks waiting for her.
Felix didn’t move. He didn’t dare breathe. The mountain lion was less than a foot away, its golden eyes staring Felix right in the face. The cat’s ears flattened against its head and the beast roared in unmistakeable wildcat style, baring its sharp, thick fangs.
I’m about to die, and there’s not a thing I can do about it.
But Ronald wasn’t ready to kill Felix. Not yet.
Ronald wanted to play with his food first.
A paw shot out, clipping Felix in the head, the blow dizzying. Felix rolled, crying out, not caring anymore if he was heard or not. He had no idea how much punishment a man could take and still survive, but he knew he was near his limit.
The cougar pounced, landing next to Felix, and gave him another swat. It tore Felix’s shirt, and the skin underneath.
Felix tried to feebly scramble away, and Ronald’s claw hooked into his leg, pulling him back. He tried once more, and the cat did the same thing.
Enough. I’m done. It’s finished.
Felix rolled onto his back, staring up at the full moon peeking through the trees. He realized it would be the last thing he ever saw.
Such a shame. He wanted his last sight to be the woman he’d fought so desperately to save.
I love you, Maria.
And then Ronald’s warm mouth closed around Felix’s neck.
The first thing Deb saw when she opened her eyes was a swirling, spinning jumble of motes. They danced in her vision, making it hard to focus.
She shook her head, trying to get her bearings, and realized four things in rapid succession.
I fell on top of Calvin, and he’s bloody and completely still, and I think he’s dead.
My nose hurts, and I have a headache, but I don’t think I sustained any major damage.
I lost my knife, but I still have my prosthetic leg bag around my shoulder.
I’m surrounded by freaks.
The last thought jolted her back to the here and now. Deb pushed herself up off of Calvin, struggling to get her Cheetahs under her. The bottom skids kept slipping on the widening spread of blood.
Coming at her from the left side were; a man with one long arm and a very short arm, his skull so misshapen and massive he wore a neck brace to support it; a set of parasitic twins, the smaller, deformed brother’s head and hands sticking out of the hip of his host; a morbidly obese man with two extra hands jutting from his chest; and a man without a shirt, exposing lumpy growths all over his body that looked a lot like pink coral.
On her right side, Deb was confronted by; a man with a spine so twisted he walked on all fours; a tall, long-limbed teenager whose eyes were too close together, bloody acne covering his face like a crust, two more men like Grover, with flippers for hands and deformed skulls, and a gigantic, muscular hulk who didn’t appear to have any neck.
Deb grabbed her dropped mountain climbing leg, which was lying next to her. Then she crawled out of the blood pool. Her prosthetics were still too slippery to stand up. She assumed