The Remedy (15 page)

“You mean they’re still there?” Doug sounded as incredulous. “Shit, how do you like that? No way I would’ve stayed out there after they closed the mill and shut down all the power in the area. No friggin’ way.”

An orange blur at the side of the road caught Jake’s eye as they rounded a turn. He turned to look out his window just in time to see a fox retreating into the trees. A baby woodchuck hung limp from its jaws, its small body still bleeding from fresh wounds. Another life claimed by the natural order of the forest.

“Well,” Jake said as the fox vanished in his side mirror, “that makes two of us.”

For a moment, Leigh and Sam could only stare at each other. Sam finally broke their shared trance by quietly asking, “Was that…Eliza?”

Leigh ignored the question as she sprinted past Sam toward the front door of the cabin, the shrill scream still echoing in her ears. All concerns about Dale’s horrible condition instantly vanished, replaced by worry for her friend.

Practically ripping the front door off its hinges, Leigh burst through the threshold, frantically scanning the room for the other girl. Instead, she found Rob sitting on the floor, his back against a bedroom door. His face was bone white.

“Rob?” Leigh asked, bewildered. “What are you doing?”

Rob leaned against the door that shook behind him every time Eliza’s fist connected with it. “It’s Eliza,” he said, gasping. “She’s covered in something.”

Sam stepped forward. “A fungus?”

“Yeah, exactly!” Rob’s eyes instantly narrowed with suspicion. “Wait—how did you know that?”

Before Sam could reply, Leigh said, “There’s a hunter out in the woods. He’s completely covered. We think he’s dying.”

“Rob, you didn’t touch her, did you?” Sam’s words came out fast in a frantic voice.

“No.” Rob patted his arms and neck as if he hadn’t considered this possibility. “At least, I don’t think so. I got out as fast as I could and trapped her inside.”

Leigh looked at the door. It did not appear to have been tampered with. “How did you do that?”

Rob pointed to the space between the doorframe and the handle. “I pennied the door. Thank God I had some change in my pocket.”

Leaning in, Leigh could see the edge of a penny sticking out from the wood. She had seen the trick done many times at school, a common prank to perform on one’s roommate. The coin was used as a wedge that kept the deadbolt in place.

Rob turned toward the door and spoke a little louder. “I don’t want her coming anywhere
near
me!”

A muffled shout of protest came from behind the door. Although it was impossible to decipher what exactly she was saying, there was no doubting the panic in her screams. Eliza was losing it.

“Shut up!” Rob yelled back.

Leigh took a careful step toward him. “Listen, Rob, you need to calm down.”

“Fuck that!” Rob’s eyes bulged. “What we need to do is get help! Right now!”

Leigh was just about to repeat her order for Rob to get his shit together when Sam spoke up behind her. “He’s right. And I think I know who can help us.”

Leigh turned, surprised. “Who?”

Sam alternated between looking at Leigh and Rob as he spoke. “There’s a ranger outpost not far from here. A ranger should be on duty, but if not, we can at least call someone for help.”

Another cry erupted from behind the bedroom door, though this time it was considerably weaker, filled less with anger and more with fear.

Rob clapped his hands. “Sounds good to me! Let’s get out of here.”

A wave of disgust washed over Leigh as she witnessed how easy it was for Rob to tune out Eliza’s helpless wails.

“No.”

The sternness of Leigh’s voice surprised even herself.

Rob stared at her incredulously. “What?”

“You’re going to stay here. Sam and I will go and try to get hold of Marshall and Alex.”

Leigh’s lower back tensed as Rob stepped toward her. His eyes burned like lit matches. “Why should
I
stay here?”

Slightly shaken, Leigh stood her ground.

“Someone has to stay with Eliza,” she said.

“So why can’t that be you?” Rob countered.

“Listen, asshole!” Leigh surprised herself again. “You’re supposed to be her boyfriend. Fucking act like it for once!”

It seemed Leigh was not the only one shocked by the reserves of anger she had stored beneath her timid demeanor. Rob stood speechless, the two of them now staring each other down. For a moment, the only noise was Eliza’s dampened sobbing coming from within the bedroom.

Sam stepped forward. “We really don’t have time for this.”

Leigh had nearly forgotten Sam. It was nice to finally hear a voice that actually sounded in control.

Rob threw his hands up as he turned away. “Fine! Fuck me, I’ll stay with Eliza. But I’m not letting her out of that room.”

Leigh nodded. “Right, I don’t think you should. Not until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

“And what about this guy who’s creeping around outside?” Rob motioned toward the window. “What are we going to do about him?”

“He didn’t look like he’ll be going anywhere soon,” said Sam. “But just in case, lock the door behind us when we leave. We don’t need him spreading whatever he’s got in here, too.”

“Look, just stay inside and try to keep Eliza calm,” Leigh said, exhaling the last of her anger. She placed a comforting hand on Rob’s bicep. “We’ll be right back.”

Leigh looked sympathetically into Rob’s eyes, and for a second, he looked vulnerable.

He sighed. “All right. Just hurry, please. And for Christ’s sake, be careful.”

With a hand on the knob of the front door, Sam addressed Rob. “We will be. And we’ll be as quick as we can. I don’t know how much time that guy out there has left.”

Sam opened the door and gestured for Leigh to exit.

She took a deep breath. “Right. Let’s go.”

The two exited, Leigh in the lead, but she slowed to let Sam pass. She then immediately knelt down and began fussing with her shoelaces.

“I’m right behind you,” she said. “I just need to tie my shoe.”

“Okay,” Sam said, bounding down the porch steps in a single leap. “I’m going to go check on Dale one last time before we head to the station.”

As he turned and started trudging through the thick ferns in Dale’s direction, Leigh finished tying her shoe and snuck toward the cabin’s window. While she didn’t think Rob would do anything to harm her friend, she had to be certain he was thinking clearly. The last thing any of them needed was for Rob to do something stupid.

Cautiously so as not to be seen from her spying position, Leigh raised her head high enough to see into the cabin’s living room. Rob stood at the bedroom door, his ear pressed against the wood.

“Eliza?” he asked. Leigh was glad to hear a level of gentleness with the question, but was disappointed when he did not receive a reply.

“How you doing in there?”

Silence.

Rob backed away from the door and shrugged.

“All right then,” he said. “I’m gonna get myself a beer.” He walked away and vanished into the kitchen.

While not completely satisfied with what she had seen, it was enough to allow Leigh to sneak away from the window. Rob seemed to have gotten hold of himself, and maybe a little beer would help to further calm his nerves. But knowing Rob, she and Sam would have to hurry before one harmless beer became one too many. She didn’t know if they could handle drunken hostility on top of everything else.

Rushing down the porch steps, Leigh didn’t take long to spot Sam’s back amidst the ferns. He did not turn when he heard Leigh approaching, but kept his hands on his hips while staring out into the surrounding forest.

Leigh slowed as she approached his side.

“Okay, I’m all set. How’s Dale doing?”

Sam did not look at her when he replied, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

Sam pointed to the log they had left the hunter resting upon.

Dale was nowhere to be seen.

Alex was standing on a beach. She didn’t know where the beach was or how she had gotten there. All she knew was that she could see Marshall in the distance on his surfboard, expertly riding the waves. She called out to him and he smiled back, giving a quick wave before falling into the pipe of another rising crest. She wanted him to come to her so she yelled again. But he was too intent on riding the endless waves that were rising and falling around him.

I’ll just have to go to him
.

Alex took her first step into the water, surprised at the warmth of the ocean waters. The temperature of the sea rose as she waded deeper into the foaming waves, but for some reason she was oblivious to the danger of angry torrents.

“Marshall!” she yelled, trying to get her boyfriend’s attention. Finally, he looked in her direction and threw his arms up for her to stop. Despite the deafening crashes of the churning water, Alex could hear his voice as if he was speaking directly into her ear.

“What are you doing, babe?” he whispered. “You shouldn’t be coming out here in your condition.”

My condition?

Alex looked down at her belly and realized she was swollen with pregnancy.

Breathless, she looked up just in time to see Marshall’s smiling face before he was swallowed whole by a gigantic tidal wave.

“No!” Alex cried out as she dived headfirst into the waves. She couldn’t see a thing. The water had become a deep red, thick and heavy. She was floating in an ocean of blood.

Suddenly, something squeezed her ankle and began to pull. Alex assumed a shark had latched its jaws around her foot, but then realized rather than being pulled downward, she was flying up and out of the bloody sea until she hung upside down above the crimson waves, suspended by a rope that reached forever upward into the sky.

“Well, look at that.” The voice came from the shore, which seemed miles and miles away. Standing on the black sands was the creature from her worst nightmares: a man dressed in dirty overalls and a baseball cap. In his arms, a newborn boy cried for his mother.

“He looks just like his daddy.”

Helplessly dangling by a rope from the heavens, Alex watched in horror as Bugger lifted the child by one stubby leg and raised it above his mouth. His jaw unhinged like that of a snake, stretching far beyond the capacity of a normal human being. Bugger let go of the baby’s ankle and it disappeared into the black hole of his maw, sliding down his throat in one powerful motion.

Bugger slapped his belly and belched. His black eyes looked right into Alex’s and he said, “Tastes just like his daddy, too.”

Before Alex could scream, the rope holding her leg snapped, and she plunged into the sea of blood.

* * *

Alex jolted awake just as she was about to hit the surface, screaming through something that had been jammed in her mouth. From the taste alone, she could tell it was a dry, filthy rag, its sour material stretching across her mouth. The open forest where she had lost consciousness no longer surrounded her, though she was still suspended in the air. Only now, she hung by her hands, which were tied together above her head. The other end of the rope was fastened around a dangling meat hook.

The darkness enveloping her in this new environment made it difficult to see, but she could tell she was in some kind of basement. A single lantern burned atop a nearby table, casting light onto the floor, which was merely pungent, dark soil, surrounded by four stone walls. A staircase along the opposite wall led up to first floor, dim light seeping through the cracks between the planks of the wooden ceiling. Strapped to or hanging from the walls were various hunting tools: rifles, bear traps, snares, and shotguns. But even more disturbing than the firearms and traps were the numerous cutting instruments strewn about the room—a cleaver, a hacksaw, a bowie knife, and a mammoth chainsaw.

And that smell…

The air was thick and hot, filled with the scent of rotten meat and mildew. Rancid humidity entered her nostrils and threatened to induce vomiting. Alex resisted the urge to throw up and concentrated on one aspect of the room she had failed to notice at first:

A narrow, vertical strip of light shone through the space between the doors of a storm cellar entrance to her immediate right. If Alex could wriggle her wrists free from the metal talon above her, freedom would only be a few steps away.

She looked up at the rope, balling her hands into fists. She took a deep breath—

Thrack!

Alex startled at the sound, her whole body twitching like a hooked worm. A door had been thrown open on the floor above.

Thump. Thump. Thump
.

Someone, or something, was coming down the stairs.

Something big.

Quakes of fear racked her entire body as she trembled and watched a looming shape slowly descend the creaky, wooden steps. Hot tears rolled their way down her cheeks. Even after everything she had been through, Alex found herself more afraid than ever before when the unknown behemoth stepped into the dim light of the low-burning lantern.

A face that had once belonged to an auburn-colored bear concealed its own. She could hear him breathing under the mask, heavy breaths escaping between the bear’s yellowed teeth. The headdress must have been treated by a master taxidermist, as the bear’s fur was in perfect condition. So were its teeth, frozen in a snarl baring lengthy, sharp incisors.

Alex tried to ask her captor what she was doing here but through the filthy cloth in her mouth, she was only able to emit a muffled, garbled moan. The stranger seemed intrigued with Alex’s form and cocked his head to one side like a curious puppy. As she began to sob, the masked man strode toward her, unsheathing a large tanning knife from his belt.

Her sobs turned to frantic squeals at the sight of the blade. As the man came closer, she desperately tried to shake the knot loose from the meat hook above her, but the rope wouldn’t budge. Her leg connected with the brute’s thick thigh as she flailed, and the man grunted in response. When Alex tried to kick him again, the giant caught her by the ankle and squeezed. The incredible strength of his grasp squeezed the breath from her lungs, her eyes widening at the intense pain from his grip. He released her leg, relieving her of the pressure, but he was now approaching her exposed neck.