Carnival World Boxed Set (Episodes 1-3) (13 page)

Darien froze. It was like the other night, with the demon dogs in the carnival. A combination of fear and confusion made him immobile. His mind just couldn’t accept the reality of what was in front of him. The scene was something from a nightmare.

Sam’s voice, so small, so frightened, broke through to him as he called Darien’s name.

Sam flailed around like a fish on a hook in Mrs. Shank’s grasp. He was fighting hard to keep from being shoved into the gaping black maw of the monstrous oven.

A surge of anger swept away Darien’s distress and shock. He forgot the insanity and the fear. He just wanted to crush those two evil maggots under his foot for hurting little Sam. For striking Summer in the head. For Nicole’s drowning.

“Let him go!” yelled Ryan. He was already well ahead of Darien. He had never slowed down. Ryan held the bar tight in both hands. His eyes were cold, even in the blistering heat.

Although Ryan’s fierce intensity freaked Darien out, he was glad of it right now.

Mrs. Shanks held Sam up in front of her like a shield. Mr. Shanks shrank next to his wife’s side. The old man gazed at Darien and licked his lips.

“Now now, little morsels,” said Mrs. Shanks. “Let’s not be hasty. Wouldn’t want to hurt the dear little one, would we?”

Ryan moved in lightning-quick with his iron weapon. The first strike hit Mrs. Shanks perfectly on the elbow. She howled and dropped Sam in the process.

Darien saw his chance. Just like so many games before. When an opening formed in the opposing line, he took it. Sam dropped to the floor, just in front of Mrs. Shanks. Darien rushed in and scooped him up. The boy was light in his arms and he rushed out with him as if Sam was a football and this was the championship game.

“Burton, watch out!” Ryan yelled.

Mr. Shanks came out from behind his wife with a dark-stained meat cleaver. Darien didn’t need to be told what it was stained with. Blood always dried dark.

Mr. Shanks swung and Darien heard the blade whistle just above his head. He pivoted away, Sam clutched tightly to his chest, his arms up in defensive mode.

Ryan grunted and thrust his iron bar forward. The tip rammed into Mr. Shank’s nose. There was a crunch and he howled in pain. It was the same noise the mutated dogs had made when Ryan pulverized them.

The Shanks staggered back, arm in arm. They stared at Darien and Ryan with animal hate in their eyes and ravenous hunger.

Ryan charged again and swung.

The Shanks jumped back but they came too close to the oven. The flames leapt up and enveloped their greasy clothes. The flames ran up their backs and across their arms in the blink of an eye, eager to burn flesh. The Shanks shrieked and ran around. Mr. Shanks tripped over a pile of firewood and it went up like dry kindling. The flames reached into the corners of the soot-covered room, devouring it whole.

“Get out! This whole place is going to go!” Ryan was already turning to get the hell out.

Darien dashed out after him, still hugging Sam close to him. The Shanks screamed and squealed as they spun around like tops. A sizzling sound filled the room, as did a smell that made Darien sick to his stomach.

The two boys tumbled back into the front room with Sam. Ryan kicked the door closed on the Shanks and their screams. White and gray smoke seeped in through the cracks in the door and flames licked the wooden frame. Finally, they fled the office for the safety outside.

Darien ran back to the pool with Sam in his arms. The second they were in view, Summer jumped up and ran over to take her little brother from him.

“Thank you,” she said to him as she hugged Sam tight to her chest.

Darien looked down at Nicole’s still, unmoving body. Maddie and Justin were still working on her. How long had it been? Too long, he was sure. Even if she was revived, she’d be brain damaged, wouldn’t she?

His shadow moved over her and Maddie glanced up at him. Tears welled in her eyes and she looked to be fighting them back.

A sick void grew inside of him. Time slowed. Every second, every breath, took forever. He could count the nanoseconds it took for his lungs to fill with oxygen, then to exhale the carbon dioxide when he breathed out. Something Nicole couldn’t do.

Then her face twitched, and she made a gurgling noise. Justin quickly turned her over just as pool water came pouring from her mouth. She struggled to cough more up. Justin rubbed at her back to help her.

Dizziness overwhelmed him. He stumbled and almost collapsed on top of her. Instead, he dropped to his knees and wrapped Nicole in his arms as she heaved and coughed and then cried. Summer was crying too. And so was Sam. He saw Maddie wipe away a tear, as did her brother. Ryan had disappeared for the moment.

“I got you,” he said to Nicole in a soft voice. “I got you.” He stroked her wet hair.

But he didn’t cry.

Ryan leaned against the wall and sucked in air. He was going to vomit, but he fought it back. Ravioli and crackers wasn’t much but it was all the sustenance he had in his stomach and he didn’t want to lose it right now.

He’d always hated throwing up. It made him feel worse than whatever it was that was making him retch. Since junior high he had managed to keep from vomiting. It hadn’t been easy. Teenagers could be very creative when it came to gross stuff, and he’d eaten something rotten once. But this was different.

He’d just killed a person. He’d just killed two people.

That wasn’t something he could just swallow back down and hope for the best.

Maddie came up behind him and rubbed his back. “You all right?”

Ryan took a few more deep breaths. He focused on his Sensei, the man who had taught him kendo. The man wasn’t even Japanese but Scots Irish. But Sean Deleon was as Zen as any man on the planet. He’d lived in Japan for half his life before coming back to his hometown to teach the art of the sword. Back in the Shanks house of horrors, Ryan could hear Sean’s words in his head.

Ignore all else. Focus on what must be done.

And that’s what Ryan had done. He hadn’t thought about it. It was either those two murdering bastards or Sam. No choice. Not even close.

“Yeah,” he answered. “I’m good.”

Maddie smiled. There was a look of pride in her eyes. “You’re a hero, second day in a row.”

“You and your brother did okay too,” Ryan replied.

He looked back at the motel office. The room was filled with gray smoke. Flames were shooting out the back. The heat was already too intense to stand too close.

“We should get out of here,” Maddie said.

“Not yet,” said Ryan.

“Why?”

Ignore all else. Focus on what must be done
.

Ryan said, “We cleared the level, we have to collect our prize.”

Maddie’s face scrunched up and took a step away from him. “What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Clearly, she liked Ryan’s bad boy persona more than his geeky undercurrent. But ignoring his inner nerd had nearly proven fatal before. He wasn’t going to do it again.

Ryan wandered over to one of the motel rooms, which were detached from the office. The fire would probably spread but they had some time yet. There was something to the Shanks that deeply concerned Ryan. Their act seemed a little too practiced; as if they’d known strangers would be walking down the road looking for answers.

He tried the first door he came to and it swung open.

“Damn, I hate being right.”

Inside was a hoard. Mostly clothing. But there were bags and other small items. He doubted there would be much food. The Shanks would have been thorough about that.

“Get the others. We need to scavenge what we can before the fire takes it.”

“Where did this come from?” She looked around the room with her eyes wide.

Ryan jerked his head back to the pool. He wondered what other lethal surprises the Shanks had sprung on the unwary.

“Others weren’t so lucky.”

“Others?”

Ryan shrugged. “It’s not a pretty picture.”

From the amount of stuff crammed inside the room, Ryan guessed the Shanks must have waylaid hundreds of people. How long had they been doing this? Ryan couldn’t even guess the answer. Because he had no idea how long here had even existed. Decades. Centuries. Eons.

Before Maddie turned to gather the others, she touched Ryan’s arm and searched his face with a kind of desperation. “Will we ever get home?”

Ryan matched her gaze. He wanted to tell her yes, they’d make it back. But the truth was, that was just another question Ryan couldn’t answer.

––––––––

S
ummer wrapped a wool sweater around her body and shivered. She was still a little damp but she shook more from nerves and fear. For the second time in as many days they had just avoided death. Just three days ago, she and her brother Sam had been back home with their mom and their normal boring life. A visit to the carnival had sent them, and five others, somehow to a place which looked like their hometown Crooks but it wasn’t.

The other day they had fought off monster dogs in a ruined and desolate carnival. Less than an hour ago Summer had nearly died in a motel swimming pool along with the others and Sam had almost been roasted alive. It had all been a sick trap laid out by the Shanks, the old couple whom had greeted them with open arms, promising them refuge and rescue. The motel had seemed at first normal, or at least close to it. But it proved to be anything but normal.

It had all been a lie. A terrible heart rendering lie.

Her little brother sat between her and Nicole. Nicole Pratt, formerly one of the most popular girls at Crooks High and the bane of Summer’s existence looked like a small drowned rat. Summer had been partly responsible for the girl’s condition. Guilt squeezed her hard.

She dug through the growing pile of clothes and found jackets that looked like they would fit Sam and Nicole. Summer laid one on her brother’s shoulders. As if on autopilot, he slid his arms into the sleeves and zipped it up.

Nicole shrugged hers off. “No thanks,” she said weakly.

She was so pathetic Summer wanted to apologize. But she didn’t think the time was right. Everyone still reeled from what had just happened.

Ryan Mulvaney appeared and dumped another bundle of clothes to the pile. Ryan was a hard character to figure out. He was smart and apparently had been a big nerd back in junior high. But for as long as Summer had known him he’d been this angry, brooding, black clad loner. There had been times Summer had thought it had all been an act, but since they’d arrived in this “parallel dimension” as Ryan called it, he’d proven his dangerous side was real enough.

Ryan had killed one of the monster dogs and both the Shanks. His makeshift sword, really just an iron bar with a cloth wrapped around the handle, lay on its side near Summer. Blood still stained its tip. Her stomach roiled just looking at it.

“That’s quite a bounty.” Ryan eyed the pile.

Ryan, Darien, Maddie and her brother Justin worked on salvaging as much from the Shanks’ motel before the fire in the office spread and destroyed it. The rooms were stuffed with clothes and other articles. Obviously, all of it had belonged to previous victims of the old cannibalistic couple. The thought made Summer shiver some more, especially since she wore some dead girl’s sweater.

“Any food?” Summer asked.

“No, but we didn’t expect to find any considering what these creepers ate.”

“Even if we only find old clothes it will be worth it.”

Summer nodded. They didn’t know how long they’d be here. They might need something warmer to wear. They would definitely need to change if they didn’t return home or find a laundromat soon. Dirty clothes weren’t just gross they could cause rashes and infections. And they could always use the ones that didn’t fit for rags or even bandages.

Justin had used his shirt to doctor up Nicole’s torn up knees when she’d fallen off the picnic table, trying to outrun the mutated dogs.

Summer’s heart did a little somersault when Darien arrived with an armful of items. She’d always been madly in love with him but had never worked up the courage to even say hello back in school. Since they had arrived here though they had talked and it had been wonderful. Summer couldn’t help giving him a smile. Darien nodded.

“What have you got Burton?” Ryan asked, the tension still palpable between the two boys.

Summer hoped they resolved things soon. It would be horrible if they got into it the way she and Nicole had. It might be really damaging for everyone. If the group wanted to survive, they would have to stop fighting amongst themselves.

Darien grumbled but he answered. “Backpacks. Lots of them. Some water bottles we can fill up.”

“Good, we can totally use those.”

Darien stuck his hands in his pockets. “And these!”

He pulled out several small metal objects. It took Summer a moment before she realized what they were.

“Swiss army knives!”

“Awesome find.” It sounded like Ryan was genuinely impressed.

Summer counted them. One for each of them. “Now we all can have a weapon.”

“Maybe not so much.” Darien pushed up one of the “knives” but it had no blade.

Then Summer quickly saw that three of them had nothing pointier than a nail file.

“Still a good haul,” Ryan said. “Files. Scissors. And can openers.”

“Now all we have to do is find some cans,” Sam said enthusiastically.

She wished she could share his enthusiasm, but it proved difficult considering that so far they’ve had very little to eat. And nothing nutritious.

“What did you find Maddie?” Summer asked.

The olive skinned girl had her bounty wrapped up in a few towels. “I found the old housekeeping closet.” She dumped her goodies out on the ground.

She had with her more towels, a few face clothes, several soaps and shampoos, and the most glorious thing Summer had ever seen.

“T.P!” There were several rolls still packed in paper. She jumped on the girl and hugged her hard. “You’re a lifesaver!”

“I was so excited when I spied it, I nearly cried.” She looked around.  “Where’s Justin, he’ll laugh when he sees what I got.”