Slither - Edward Lee [22]
She screamed hard when two clammy hands landed on her bare back and shoved at her. Instinct made her grab the spatula for a weapon but just as she would take a swipe-
"Howie?"
Howie collapsed against a tree.
My God! When her own shock wore off, she was seized again merely by the look of him. Hair pasted to his brow by sweat, and more sweat drenching his shirt. There was something else on the shirt, too ...
Did he. . . puke on himself?
He stared up openmouthed for a moment, silent, shaking.
"Howie! What happened to you? And where's Carol and Alan?"
"Carol, Carol," he stuttered, "out in the woods, I had to leave her. She had these-these-these things on her, and-"
"What things?"
"Ticks or something, I don't know-"
Leona didn't process the information very well. "You left her in the woods!"
"I-I-I-I had to, 'cause-'cause she passed out, and these ticks, er, well, I don't know what they were, but they were this really disgusting yellow color with red spots on them and I think they were poisonous or something-"
Leona fell to her knees and shook him by the collar. "And you left her? You asshole!"
He yammered on, eyes wide open and bloodshot. "Had to come to get Alan, I couldn't carry her by myself but then-then-then I found a dead body-"
"What!" Leona bellowed.
"I got lost trying to find you and Alan, and there was another inlet with a boat, not Alan's boat, but just a little boat, and that's where I saw the body floating in the water. It was some chick just floating there, her eyes out of her head, and-and-and there was a really long snake wrapped around her, and oh Jesus God, I think it was one of those girls who disappeared a few weeks ago!" And then Howie's torment-twisted face fell into his hands, and he sobbed aloud.
Dead bodies. Ticks. Missing persons.
This ... was too much for a girl like Leona.
"Howie! You're on drugs! Look, I know lots of peo ple at school are doing the Ecstasy and crystal and this Oxycontin stuff-"
"No, no, no," he blubbered. He hadn't even seemed to notice that Leona was topless as she leaned over to talk to him, the orbs of her breasts practically bumping his face. "Do you remember?" he stated more declaratively. "A couple, three weeks ago. It was in the local papers and the paper at school-"
"What?"
"Robb White." He cleared his throat, rested his head back against the tree. "Do you remember that name?"
Do I remember him? Shit, she thought, embarrassed. I fucked him. Robb White was one of the classier jocks at school, nice guy for a jock, and, yes, Leona had hooked up with him at the Easton dorm mixer several months ago, after Alan had petered out after too much tequila.
"The papers said ... he was officially missing," she recounted. "He and a bunch of other kids from school disappeared."
Howie shoved a piece of paper in her face.
What? It was a -credit card receipt, for gas at the marina.
"I found that in the boat," Howie declared.
"In our boat?"
"No, no, no, in his boat. A little skiff anchored at one of the other inlets on this island. It's here now, Leona. And that receipt is from three weeks ago, when he and his pals disappeared. I think that corpse I saw with the snake around it was one of the girls he was fooling around with."
Leona's mind ticked further ... rather slowly, but at least it was functioning. Corpse, she thought stonily. Snake.
"And-and ... what about Carol?" she asked. What had he said? Ticks?
She had ticks on her tits. Yellow ticks ..."
The idea, the very image, made Leona swoon in disgust.
.But that's not all. After I found that body, I saw ... this guy-"
Leona's anger rose. She was too confused. "What guy? Robb White, you mean?"
"No. A guy in a gas mask and hood. Military."
Yes, this was much too much .. .
"I don't know what the hell's going on..." Howie's shock was finally wearing off; he was getting his reason back, and this was a good thing for Leona. "We have to start somewhere."
"We have to get off this island!" she blurted back.
"I know. But first we have to find Alan and we have to find Carol, and we need to