Off Season - Jack Ketchum [49]
Behind him Dan pulled the red-hot poker out of the fire and took Laura by the arm, thrusting her out ahead of him. “Fast!” he said to the others, and then suddenly all four of them were out the door.
The cars stood side by side; Carla’s farthest away with its low beams on, about twenty feet from the house, and Nick’s old Dodge between Carla’s car and the front door. Spaces juggled themselves strangely before them. In the distance they saw the fire. The fire was yards away from them but now it seemed very close by. The cars were only a few feet away, but that seemed very far. And for Nick, who needed to get from the Dodge to Carla’s Pinto with the pistol and cartridges, the two cars seemed separated by a chasm.
He saw Marjie run past him and open the back door of the Pinto and slide in. By that time he was at the trunk of the Dodge and his key was in the lock, his pan of water resting on the hood of the car. He pulled the trunk open quickly and easily. His senses felt incredibly alert now. He could smell something cooking on the fire. He could hear the children running in their direction. He heard Laura protest and struggle as Dan pushed and pulled her toward the car. He heard Marjie throw the locks on the rear car doors. He heard Dan cursing.
Then he had the flight bag open and the gun in his hands. He flipped open the chamber. Empty.
His hands fumbled with the box of shells. Suddenly it seemed to leap from his hands into the trunk. There was no trunk light. My God, he thought. He reached into the darkness and for a moment panic seized him as he felt the broken end of the box. The shells were scattered throughout the trunk. His bowels fluttered. He slipped the gun into his belt and groped for the shells with both hands. He heard Dan curse again and shove Laura into the car and slam the door.
His fingers closed on a pile of cartridges. He heard Dan try the ignition and knew with a sudden sick feeling inside that they had crippled the wiring somehow, knew it even before Dan did with a kind of terrible intuition that came not of knowing cars but of knowing fate when he faced it squarely. And then in an instant he also knew what he needed to do and began to load the pistol.
He had five chambers full when they attacked him.
The first one appeared only as a shadow to his right over the hood of the Pinto. He reached for the water and heaved it in a single startled motion. It splashed over the boy’s face and shoulders and sent him bellowing to the ground, the knife falling beside him. A moment later there were two more of them between him and the house, blocking his retreat and moving toward him. And then a third, a little girl. He raised the pistol.
He fired and saw the first boy’s chest go black and the bullet’s impact slam him hard against the house. There was an incredible, painful roaring in his ears and he remembered what Jim had said about the earplugs. He squeezed the trigger again and hit upon the empty chamber.
Behind him the trunk slammed shut and he whirled, sensing rather than seeing the boy who lunged at his neck over the rear of the car. The boy’s blade whistled past him, missing him by inches. Nick raised the gun again. But before he had a chance to fire the boy screeched and fell, clutching the back of his neck. Nick saw Dan behind him, the poker steaming in his hand. He smelled the scent of burning flesh and hair. Then he felt a knife bite deep into his thigh and he screamed.
He whirled again and pointed the gun directly into the face of the little girl who still tugged downward on the blade that was too big for her, thrusting and turning it inside him, grinning up into his face with an awful inhuman glee. At the same instant he saw another boy beside him raise his knife. The gun exploded in his hands and the girl’s head was suddenly gone and Nick was bathed in flecks of brain and blood and bone. At the same time the boy’s sharp blade descended toward his chest.