Slash, p.24
Slash, page 24
Todd grabbed the belt.
“No tying ourselves up again,” Jerry said. “I’ll walk.”
They followed Vince deeper into the woods, Heather’s wrapped head occasionally bouncing off the side of her husband’s leg.
Chapter Thirty-Two
There was blood everywhere in the beginning, but just as Todd feared, it began to peter out. Still, there was enough to know they were on the right path, if there was such a thing as a right path in the damned resort.
Vince hadn’t once turned around to make sure they were still with him. Todd couldn’t blame him. He knew that hollowed-out feeling all too well. Anger was the only thing animating Vince at the moment.
Jerry limped badly, but he kept the pace.
“I’d have thought we’d hear Sharon by now,” Todd said.
“That’s assuming she’s alive.”
At the moment, that seemed too much to assume.
So many families destroyed by Otto. By the Hayden. Maybe the escaped Nazi was always meant to be here. There was something to this place that must have called out to him, was keeping him alive, or undead, he wasn’t clear what Otto was. He sure as hell wasn’t a zombie, at least not like any he’d ever seen in movies. Even fast zombies didn’t move like that. Otto was a pure killing machine.
“She has to be,” Todd said.
“Just like this Otto guy has to be dead, but he sure as hell ain’t.”
The dwindling blood trail led them out of the trees. They came to the bottom of the bunny ski slope. The gondola had been torn down long ago, but there was still a chalet at the top of the hill. Vince stopped walking, his head bent, light fixed on something on the ground. Todd and Jerry pulled up alongside him.
“Whatcha got there?” Jerry asked.
Vince bent down and lifted a leather bracelet from the grass. Todd knew it was Heather’s. He’d been with them at the Jersey Shore the day Vince had bought it for her. Heather had never been a fan of jewelry. The only thing she ever wore was her wedding ring. But for some reason, she loved that bracelet, the small leather strips braided together.
The bracelet was still tied. Todd’s stomach plummeted.
“How did this fall off?” Vince asked the night wind.
They looked at the chalet at the top of the hill.
Vince crushed the bracelet in his fist and shoved it in his pocket.
Jerry was the first to find the hand. It was just a few paces back from where Vince had found the bracelet. The wristbone and flesh looked mangled. Todd pictured Otto twisting and ripping it free, like unscrewing a bottle top.
The question was, why?
Heather was already dead. Why mutilate her body?
“Breadcrumbs,” Jerry said.
Todd’s head was spinning too much to concentrate. “Huh?”
“He’s just about bled her out, so he has to leave something for us to follow.”
Vince stared at his wife’s hand. “That sick German pig fucker.” He gracefully placed the bundle holding Heather’s head on the bare ground. Slowly untying the sleeves, he put the hand next to her head and sealed it back up, his calm unsettling to watch.
“He’s waiting for us,” Vince said.
“Which is why we need to take a moment and think of the best way to proceed,” Todd said.
Vince spun on him. “You said we need to take it to him. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I really don’t care what you do.”
Todd dared to grab Vince’s arms. He waited for a punch, but Vince merely stiffened. “You saw him. What are you gonna do when you find him?”
“I…I….”
“We have to think this through.”
“Jerry, give me your gun,” Vince said.
Jerry backed away. “No can do. Odds are, you’ll shoot yourself before you clip Otto.”
Vince pointed at Jerry’s ruined leg. “You sure as shit aren’t going to make it up that hill. I’m fine with shooting myself.”
“Yeah, but I’m not.”
“Just give me the gun.”
“No.”
Todd scanned the bunny slope. He looked for signs of life in the chalet, but it was too far and too dark to make out anything. At the very least, he hoped to hear Sharon, even if she was crying out in pain. At least that would mean she was still alive.
He said to Jerry, “I think you should give him the gun.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Yes. I definitely have. Vince, I’ll go up with you, but I think, and I hate to say this, we need to split up.”
“I don’t want you with me,” Vince grumbled.
“You want Heather back?”
Vince balled his fist.
“Then you’ll have to do what I say.”
“See how far that’s gotten us,” Vince snapped.
Todd was close to reminding Vince that he’d ditched them to come up here alone, that it was their decision to follow him. But in the end, it was his fault for bringing it up in the first place. They were worried about him, and they wouldn’t allow him to walk this place of nightmares alone.
“If he’s up there, we may be able to push him out. Once we’re on top of the hill, we’ll have a perfect view of how to get the hell out of here, and we’ll have Heather,” Todd said, quietly hoping they’d find Sharon as well. “The gun, Jerry.”
“And what the hell am I supposed to do?” Jerry said in protest, still holding onto his weapon.
“Hide. Hide as best you can. You’re too injured to run and without the gun, I don’t want you grappling with this Nazi motherfucker.” Jerry opened his mouth and Todd silenced him. “I know it’s against your nature to take a back seat, but you’re going to have to swallow your pride on this one. Besides, we need you to explain all this to the cops when we make it out.”
“If I tell them the truth, we’ll all end up in the nut house.”
“Three hots and a cot, right?” Todd said.
“And all the zombie meds you’d ever need,” Jerry said, his stance softening.
Vince held out his hand. “Please. Let me avenge Heather.”
Jerry’s sigh created a wall of dragon’s breath that clouded his face. He put the gun in Vince’s hand. “You know how to use it?”
“Any idiot can shoot. You forget I was in the army.”
Jerry said, “The safety is already off. You don’t have to pull the trigger so much as you squeeze it. And always aim for the center mass. Don’t try to be fancy and go for a head shot. You’ll miss.”
“Hit or miss, it doesn’t make a difference,” Vince reminded him. “I just need him to get away from Heather.”
Todd looked for a place for Jerry to hunker down. He found a boulder with two trees sprouting from either side. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best they were going to get. “Jerry, you lay low over there. If this works, we’re going to lead Otto this way. I need you to stay out of sight, no matter what. If he sees you, we’re not going to be able to help.”
Jerry spit and wiped his mouth. “I feel like a goddamn coward.”
“It takes a hero to just survive this place, man,” Todd said.
They looked at one another for a moment, and Jerry finally clapped them on the arms. “Go. I’ll hobble my ass over there and keep a low profile. Vince, you’re going to get Heather back.”
Vince’s eyes clouded over and he nodded quickly.
“I’ll go with you halfway,” Todd said. “Then I’m going over there.” He pointed to a cleft in the hillside. It looked like the ground had sunken or something had been removed. He could slip into the cleft and be invisible to anyone – or in Otto’s case, anything – looking down from the chalet. What he’d spotted were coiled ropes of what looked to be cable wire.
“You hide while I go in the chalet?” Vince said, his tone mocking Todd’s perceived cowardice.
He told Vince his plan.
His best friend who now hated him listened and said, “It’s never going to work.”
“That’s the thing, the Hayden doesn’t believe in never. We just need time, and if this works, it’ll give us just that. “
Vince looked down at the shirt in his hand. “I love her so much. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me after tonight.”
“We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it. Until then, let’s fuck Otto up and make him regret what he did to Heather. You with me?”
Vince gave a resigned nod. Todd knew if they lived to make it out of the Hayden, he and Vince would never be the same. He’d already lost him. They just needed to be on the same page this one last time.
“Good luck,” Todd said.
Vince’s eyes were cold and flat. “I don’t need luck. I just need my wife.”
They trudged up the hill, Todd feeling the dead Nazi’s gaze lingering on them.
As they came to the cleft, Todd peeled off as fast as he could. Vince forged ahead without so much as flicking a quick glance his way. Todd made it to the cleft and pushed his back against the dirt lean-to. He nearly wept when he saw that there were steel cables and not frayed rope. Lifting the smallest coil was no easy feat. The bitter cold steel burned his palms and was heavy as hell. He hoisted it onto his shoulder and stayed in a crouch, barely popping his head over the lip of the cleft to see where Vince was in his ascent.
He should be at the chalet in a less than a minute. Todd would have to run as if the devil were stabbing at his thighs with a pitchfork if he was going to make it to the chalet in time. Right now, his legs felt like overcooked spaghetti.
Ash, if you can hear me, I need your strength. Only you were bold enough to make it out of here, and I honestly don’t know how you did it. I’m not asking you to save me. Just help me help Vince. Help us get Heather away from him. It’s strange how I feel so close to you here. I keep expecting to see you behind every tree and broken building. If something happens to me, I know you’ll be here to take me with you. I actually can’t wait for that moment. But I need this one thing to happen before it does. Show me how to beat this monster, Ash. Please…show me.
Vince stepped under the awning over the chalet door.
Todd looked at the onyx sky, hefted the heavy cable, and ran for his life.
* * *
“No. No. Nonononononononononono!”
Vince’s keening nearly stopped Todd, the weight of his sorrow like a gut punch.
But Todd had to keep running. He had to make it to the chalet. Every second was crucial and he had none to spare.
He scrabbled up the hillside, his heart thudding in his ears, each frenetic breath stinging like needles.
To the right of the chalet, under the big bay window that faced the slope, was a metal pole sticking from the frozen ground. It looked like it might have been the base of a flagpole.
Vince continued to wail inside the chalet, freezing Todd’s blood. Todd made it to the pole and looped the cable over it. Numb hands gripping the ends of the cable, he scooted under the window, careful not to be seen.
“What did you do? What did you do to her?”
Todd planted his ass on the ground and pulled the cable tight.
“Why? Why?”
His spirits, which weren’t high to begin with, flagged as he began to suspect that Otto wasn’t in the chalet. If he was, wouldn’t he have approached Vince by now? Todd desperately wanted to peek inside the window, but if Otto was inside, he couldn’t risk being seen and ruin the whole thing.
More than anything, he wanted to be beside his friend, who sounded like he was on the brink of a complete mental and emotional breakdown.
Grasping the cable felt like holding liquid nitrogen. Todd’s gloves were in his pocket, but he didn’t trust his ability to feel for them and get them on in time.
He heard Vince stomping around the chalet. Any second now, he would call out to him and tell him to come inside, that his great plan had failed.
Todd tried to steady his breath. He pulled back tighter on the cable to keep blood flowing to the muscles in his arms and back.
And then it came.
“You! You motherfucker!”
Todd eyed the window.
“You sick son of a bitch. Go back to hell!”
Gunfire erupted in the chalet. The whine of a bullet punching through the wall zinged over Todd’s head. He reflexively ducked, loosening his hold on the cable.
The remaining glass in the window exploded, raining down on him like sleet.
Todd pulled the cable as hard as he could.
The shadow of a man burst from the window and hit the ground. Todd knew in an instant it was Otto just by the sheer size. The dead Nazi went to take a step to his left, but his ankle smashed into the taut cable. Otto flipped over the cable, hitting the slope hard. For a brief moment, it looked as if he was going to keep his balance. Todd tossed his heavy backpack, hitting him in the center of his chest. Otto’s arms flailed and he went tumbling end over end down the hill. Todd watched him spin out of sight, heading in a direction that would deposit him on the opposite side of where Jerry was hiding. His backpack, another piece of Ash, rolled away and out of sight, down where Otto had slipped from view.
Todd dropped the cable. His frozen knees protested mightily when he jumped to his feet and ran into the chalet. It was like slamming into a cement wall. Vince was sitting on the ground with the gun in his lap and his flashlight pointing toward the ceiling. Todd struggled for air.
“Sweet Jesus…no!”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Vince.”
Todd remained in the open doorway, unable to step inside the chalet. What had once been a place where happy people gathered to warm up, maybe drink some hot chocolate before hitting the slopes, was now a charnel house.
Bits of Heather were everywhere. It looked as if Otto had torn her to pieces with his bare hands. Flesh was ripped, bones snapped, her innards looped around beams or stuck to exposed nails in the walls. She’d been dismantled into hundreds of pieces.
Todd had to look away.
On the chalet’s doorstep was the shirt that held her head and hand.
“Vince.”
He had to get Vince out of there, but his body was openly rebelling against his brain and refusing to let him enter the chalet.
His friend stared at the wall where ragged hunks of flesh and splintered bone had been dumped in a pile.
“Vince!”
The stench permeating the chalet was too much. Todd stepped away, bent over, his hands grasping his knees. He let his spit fall from his mouth in a long, ropy line, his stomach clenching and unclenching.
When he looked up, he saw past the Hayden’s perimeter to the town below. He knew exactly where they needed to go to get out of this hell on earth.
But would he be able to get Vince to leave?
He had to go inside.
Steeling himself, Todd locked his eyes on Vince, trying hard not to look at Otto’s version of modern art, and strode into the center of the chalet.
“Vince. Can you hear me?”
Without taking his eyes off the grisly tableau in front of him, Vince replied, “Leave me alone.”
“Come on. We have to get out of here.” When he bent to touch Vince’s shoulder, he was met with the barrel of Jerry’s gun. Vince still wouldn’t look at him, but the gun was aimed straight at his heart.
“I never wanted to come here,” Vince said. “But Heather, she convinced all of us that you shouldn’t – no, couldn’t – be alone. She worried about you, about Ash, all the time.”
“Vince, I—”
“Say one word and I’ll kill you.” A line of drool clung to Vince’s lower lip. “I told her not to come. At the very least, it should have been my job to follow you up here. And I didn’t want to. You understand? The last place I wanted to be was here. But she loved you, and she wouldn’t change her mind.”
The words hit Todd harder than the horrid smell of death.
What came next was even worse.
Vince finally turned to him with eyes as red as raw steak. “Why does everyone who loves you have to die?”
Todd’s jaw locked while his head swam. Vince’s bitter question washed over him, leaving a cancerous caul that enveloped Todd’s body and soul.
“I know you hate me,” he said, his mouth filled with sand. “And you should hate me. I hate myself.” Todd pointed out the broken window. “But I hate that thing more than anything that’s ever walked the earth. And I’m not going to let it kill anyone else I love. That means you. Jerry’s down there right now. We have to get him and get the fuck out of here. You can come outside and see for yourself that the fence isn’t far from here. Please, Vince.”
His friend slid his eyes away from him and back to Heather’s remains. “How can I leave her?”
“We’re coming back for her. And for Bill. But we need help. We’re in no condition to fight him.”
Vince stood up so suddenly, Todd backpedaled a bit.
“No one can fight him. Todd, I did just what Jerry said. I shot him right in the center of the chest. The gunshots didn’t knock him out that window. He did that all on his own, as if I’d been hitting him with peanuts. He can’t be killed.”
Todd took a chance and grabbed hold of Vince’s arm. “At least in the light of day, he can’t take us by surprise. For some reason, I don’t think he likes the daylight.”
“Are you saying he’s a vampire?”
“No. But maybe there have been others like him that people base the vampire myth on. I don’t know. When Ash got away, they estimated that she made it out just as dawn broke. He’d stopped chasing her by then. It’s not much to go on, but it’s all I’ve got at the moment.”
