skull.
Everybody screamed. Lance dropped his
stick and jumped back, almost bouncing into Ken, also rushing away
from their dead pal. The girls kept screaming.
After a moment, Ken seemed to get a
hold of himself. “Everybody, shut up!”
The girls stopped their screaming, but
they continued to sniffle as they moved towards the
boys.
“ Holy fuck,” Lance said, his breathing
coming hard. “What are we going to do?”
Ken took charge. He looked around the
clearing, flashing his light. When nothing untoward presented
itself, he turned to Lance.
“ We get the hell out of here is what
we do,” he said, reaching inside his pocket. “I’ve got the keys to
the Explorer. Let’s go.”
Before he could move to the trail back
up to the cabins and the vehicles, Gloria asked, “Where are we
going to go?”
“ And what about Russ and Abby?” Mary
said.
Ken paused, looking back at his
friends. “We’ll go straight to the police. I saw a state troopers’
office just as we got off the highway.”
“ Man, that’s thirty miles away,” Lance
said, shaking his head.
Ken lost his cool. “That’s all I know
to do. Our phones are out, so we’ve got to do something, and the
longer we stand around here in the dark the better our chances are
of being picked off by this psycho.”
Ken grabbed Mary by a hand and pulled
her along as he trudged up the incline leading to the
vehicles.
“ Psycho?” Gloria asked, following
after the other two, Lance right behind.
“ Who else could it be?” Ken said,
huffing slightly from the gentle climb. “Probably that Tucker guy.
He looked like a serial killer to me. Probably has bodies all over
these woods. No wonder nobody has camped here in years.”
“ But Russ?” Gloria asked from
behind.
“ And Abby?” Mary added.
“ There’s nothing we can do for them
now,” Russ said, still moving. “We’ll have to let the cops deal
with that.”
“ Maybe Abby is okay,” Mary
said.
“ I kind of doubt that,” Lance
said.
“ Doesn’t matter.” Ken brought them out
of the woods and off the trail into the area between the cabins and
next to the vehicles. “We’ve got to think of ourselves first. If
Abby is still out there, her best chance is for us to get the
cops.”
“ Then let’s get the hell out of here,”
Gloria said.
They ran forward, separating into two
groups, Gloria and Lance on the passenger side of the Explorer,
Mary and Ken on the other side.
Handing off his flashlight to Mary,
Ken lifted the keys, inserting one into the lock.
Then he caught himself.
“ Wait,” he said.
“ What?” Lance said.
“ For God’s sake, get us out of here,”
Gloria nearly screamed.
Ken pulled out the keys and looked to
the others. “I forgot something.”
“ What the hell is it?” Lance
asked.
“ Come on.” Ken turned and sprinted
towards the counselors’ cabin.
“ Crap!” Lance took off after him, the
girls right behind.
At the entrance, Ken paused only long
enough to throw the door open and to reach inside and flip on a
light switch. A ceiling lamp revealed a comfortable front room, a
thick rug on the floor, comfy furniture made of logs and covered
with plenty of pillows, an old television on a stand against one
wall, and Ken and Mary’s packs resting atop a couch next to another
door.
Ken shot across the room to the
packs.
Right behind him, Lance and Mary and
Gloria entered the room.
“ What are you looking for that’s so
important?” Gloria asked.
“ This.” Ken pulled a hand from his
pack to hold up a large, silvered pistol.
“ Holy jeez, man, where did you get
that?” Lance asked.
“ And why did you bring it with you?”
Gloria asked.
Ken shrugged. “I always take it with
me on trips. My dad gave it to me when I was a teenager.” He
flipped off the safety and pulled on the slide, jacking in a
round.
Lance laughed, but it lacked humor.
“At least I’m glad you’ve got it.”
“ Okay, okay,” Gloria said, near
frantic, “but now