Ch 889 - Monsters, Zombies, and Rolling Pins

"I can't take this anymore!" Louis declared, smacking his head against a wall. "My brain is starting to feel fried."

"It's been one day, drama queen," Christopher chided, standing.

He thought he heard the front door slam shut and turned his head to look in its direction.

"What was that?" Louis asked, looking around Christopher.

"I don't know," Christopher said, shrugging. "The wind? I don't think it's anything to worry about."

Louis tented his fingers and gave Christopher a grave look.

"What?" Christopher asked, spreading his hands.

"This is how a lot of horror movies start," Louis warned. "Two people, alone in an otherwise empty house-"

"Alex is literally upstairs."

"Otherwise empty house," Louis repeated dramatically. "In the middle of nowhere. The nearest town or other form of civilization is miles away. Creepy things going on."

"You're reaching," Christopher crossed his arms and stared down at Louis. "Not everything is a horror movie. We're in the middle of the woods. There's an entire forest out there. There's bound to be creepy noises that can be explained rationally."

He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at the door. Absent-mindedly, he ran a hand over the stubble growing on his chin.

"When a zombie attacks us," Louis said sternly, "I'm going to look you in the eye and tell you I was right. Right before it eats our brains!"

"There are no zombies!" Christopher sighed, exasperated.

"No zombies yet," Louis grumbled.

As Christopher brushed his teeth, he found himself checking in the mirror. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw shadows moving. Every time he turned to face them, they were gone. He spat into the sink and rinsed his mouth, then headed to bed, sleeping in his boxers. Though the night was cold, the house was well insulated.

Again, Alex had thought of everything that would make it comfortable for everyone who wasn't him. Although, Christopher supposed that if he owned a cabin in the woods, he'd probably want that insulation for himself. It was wonderful, and Christopher found himself pushing the covers down, exposing his bare chest to the cool night air.

*

A shrill scream broke through the night.

Christopher sat bolt upright. It took a moment for his mind to adjust, for him to remember that he was in his bed, in Alex's house in the woods.

Breathing heavily, Christopher cast his gaze around the room. Static shadows greeted him. The dresser in front of his bed, the door slightly ajar, letting in a thin stream of light, the mirror that hung on the opposite wall, reflecting the wallpaper and the ceiling light.

Then, he heard another scream.

He tumbled out of bed and threw on some clothes. Then, he went downstairs.

Christopher paused at the bottom of the stairs. A silhouette stood in front of the door.

"Hey, you're awake," said the silhouette. It was Louis.

"Bad dream," Christopher said quickly.

"Same," Louis said, his voice quieter. Then, after a pause, he said, "You heard the scream?"

Christopher swallowed his fear, and tried to slow his racing heart.

"Yeah," he said.

"It's a little strange," Louis said. "A scream in the night. In the forest. Almost like…"

"… a horror movie," Christopher agreed. "Do you think they're okay?"

"If I thought they were okay," Louis began, "do you think I'd have come down the stairs, and been about to go out to see what was happening?"

"Bring your key," Christopher said, stepping off the stairs and moving to open the door. "Lock the door behind us. We don't need Alex breathing down our necks if something goes wrong."

"Got it!" Louis said enthusiastically, then hesitated.

"What?" Christopher asked, impatient. "Why aren't you moving?"

The two men slipped out of the house. Louis made sure that the door was locked, then hurried to follow Christopher. They kept an even pace as they walked through the forest in the direction they thought the scream had come from. When they were surrounded by the darkness of the trees, Christopher turned on the flashlight. It was a bright, shining beam of light that instantly gave away their location. He turned a dial by the handle, and the light dimmed to a pale glow.

They came to a small clearing amid a cluster of trees. Above them, the moon and stars hung as if suspended in a deep blue sea. Aside from the chirping of crickets, and the occasional call of a crow, all was quiet. Christopher's pant leg caught on an errant root, and he pulled it free. The root bounced from the force, then went still.

"Did we even go the right way?" Louis whispered. "I mean, we kind of picked a random direction."

Christopher shrugged, sweeping the flashlight in a broad circle. "I guess the better question is, how do we get back to the house?"

He watched as terror filled Louis's face. Neither of them had considered that. They had just started walking without thinking about where they were going. Christopher scolded himself for not thinking that far ahead.

"We can't just camp out here!" Louis panicked. "There are wolves! And bears! And-"

"Zombies!" Christopher screamed, turning his flashlight to a sudden shadow that appeared at the edge of the clearing. It was huge, twice as wide as a linebacker, and as towering as the trees. It stepped forward, the force of its ginormous foot sending a palpable tremor through the ground. When it came into the light, its skin was stretched tightly over its face, making the jagged bones beneath even more prominent. Thin blue lips opened in a snarl, and the thing raced toward Christopher and Louis.

"Run!" Louis cried, and the two men sped off into the night, pursued by a hulking

*

Louis ran as fast as he could. Trees flew by him as he forced his legs to move. Christopher was a couple of feet behind, but otherwise they were outpacing the monster-zombie-giant-thing that pursued them. Barely.

Louis's lungs began to burn from the effort. He hadn't run this fast or this long in a very long time. He kept his legs pumping despite the agony.

"What the hell is that thing?" he cried.

"I wish I knew!" Christopher answered. "Keep running!"

Christopher passed Ethan, and the two men turned into a clump of trees, trying to lose the giant-zombie-monster thing. They hid behind the trunk of a massive tree to catch their breath, and peeked out from the side.

They saw the massive shadow pause just a few feet away from where they stood. It sniffed the air like a hungry wolf, and turned about in a circle with its arms stretched wide. A few minutes of sniffing later, and the giant-zombie-monster-thing lumbered away.

"What the hell?" whispered Christopher, between gasps of breath. "What the hell is that thing?"

"It's not human," Louis said, wiping sweat off his forehead. He took deep breaths, but his head was beginning to swim from the effort of running. The fresh forest air had a soothing effect on his chest, but he was growing wary. That thing was bound to end them again eventually. It seemed smarter than a regular animal, but not as intelligent as your average human.

"No," Christopher said. "It looks human. Just a really jacked one."

"I wonder how much gym time those muscles require," Louis said. "If I had biceps like that, I'd feel a whole lot more confident right about now."

"You don't want biceps like that," Christopher said, shaking his head. "You'd never be able to wear a shirt the right way."

Louis didn't respond. He was too focused on where the monster had been.

Louis had gotten into horror movies recently. There was something about them that made fear seem so simple. They always had an underlying theme that was easily understood, and after everything that they had been through, a good horror binge was wonderfully cathartic. In movies, the monster could always be defeated. It could be an ancient incantation, or a weapon as mundane as a rolling pin or kitchen knife. Whatever it was, the monster could be defeated.

Unfortunately for Louis, monsters in real life were never that easy to defeat.

The two men took turns keeping watch. One would go on watch for an hour while the other tried to get some sleep. Louis had an analog watch, which he used to keep track of time. When it was his turn to watch for the monster, he couldn't sleep. He was too pumped from the adrenaline to even think about sleeping, and something inside him told him that he had to stay awake.

They waited behind the trunk of the tree and enclosed by the surrounding forestry, until the night sky began to lighten. It wasn't quite dawn, but sunrise was on the horizon.

"Think it's light enough to go?" Christopher asked, standing up. He had been trying to nap against the tree, but the dark circles under his eyes indicated that he hadn't been able to fall asleep. They were still beneath tree cover, so it was darker than it would be in a clearing.

Louis looked at the flashlight. Its beam was beginning to wane.

"Batteries running out," he said, tapping the hot glass in front of the flashlight.

Christopher swore under his breath and turned it off. They were left in darkness for a few tense moments as Christopher fumbled to change the batteries.

Louis pressed himself against the damp tree trunk, its acidic scent filling his nostrils. They hadn't seen the monster for hours.

When Christopher turned on the flashlight again, the faint beam was a little brighter than it had been.

"That'll do," Louis said. He looked around. "We should make our way back to the house."

Christopher nodded in agreement. "If we can find our way back."

"Let's just get out of the trees," Louis said. "If we can find the road that brought us up here, we can follow it. Maybe the car left tracks in the mud, and we can follow those."

Christopher stared at him blankly for a few moments, then nodded. Louis tried to put on a brave face, but the truth was that it was a long shot. Without a map, or even knowing how far they had come into the forest, there was no way they'd be able to find their way back.

So, they picked a direction, and started walking.

Louis's sense of ease was quickly tarnished when he felt a presence behind them.

He and Christopher stopped in their tracks, the flashlight beam pointing directly in front of them.

"I don't want to turn around," said Louis in a high-pitched voice.

"Neither do I," Christopher agreed.

"Count of three?" Louis suggested.

Christopher nodded.

"One," said Louis.

"Two," said Christopher.

"Three!"

The two men spun around, and the flashlight landed on a monstrously deformed humanoid face.

Seeing it up close, and the glaring hatred in those terrible eyes, they knew the monster they had come to fear.

Louis's jaw dropped.

Christopher swiped at Ethan's giant hand with it, causing the monstrous man to pull his hand back in surprise.

Ethan regarded the thin stream of sparkly blood that poured out of the wound with little interest.

"It will take more than that to hurt me," he said proudly.

But Louis and Christopher weren't listening. They were running, and they kept running with the monster trailing them. They kept running until the trees thinned out, and they saw the silhouette of Alex's house on the horizon.

They were going to make it!

Louis pumped his arms, careful not to catch himself or Christopher with the knife. From the thundering footsteps behind them, Louis could feel that Ethan was closing the space.

"Faster!" Christopher cried, echoing Louis's thoughts.

"I'm trying!"

Something struck Louis from behind, and he fell to his knees, the knife flying out of his grip.

Ethan's bulky frame appeared above him. He put his massive hands on his hips and laughed proudly.

"So this is where Alex Ambrose is holing up," said Ethan. "I thought he was somewhere remote." Then, he looked down at Louis. "Thank you so much for leading me to him. What a great friend you are."

He disappeared from view as he ran toward the house.

*

Yvonne leaped to her feet as the monstrous Ethan tore through the front door, screaming like thunder.

Ethan took a hulking step forward, arms outstretched as he grabbed Yvonne's neck. Pain broke out across her head. The monster tossed her to one side, then started to move toward Alex.

"Come at me," Yvonne taunted, dancing backward into the kitchen. "I'm right here!"

"Yvonne!" Alex cried.

The monster looked at her, then at Alex, and darted toward him.

Yvonne screamed, grabbing the coffee pot and tossing it at Ethan.

[SFX: glass smashing]

The pot smashed over Ethan's face, and more sparkly blood poured out in a web across Ethan's monstrous features.

Ethan lunged and grabbed Yvonne by the shoulders, lifting him off the ground. Terrified, Alex began kicking. Only a few kicks landed. Ethan pinned Alex against the wall, and grabbed him by the neck, cutting off his air supply.

Yvonne choked as Ethan closed his giant hand around her delicate neck. Her vision dimmed at the edges, and all she could see was the twisted satisfaction on Ethan's blood-stained face.

*

"Get away from her!" Alex cried, as valiantly as a warrior.

Louis and Christopher appeared from the hallway. Louis brandished a kitchen knife, slicing the supersoldier as easily as a side of beef. More sparkling blood poured out of the wounds, and splattered across everything, staining the plaid sofa and pooling on the hardwood floors.

I have to do something, though Alex, but what?

His eyes landed on a fire extinguisher. He grabbed it and stormed forward.

Alex pressed down on the lever, aiming straight for Ethan's monstrous face. The thick white carbon dioxide poured out of the fire extinguisher, freezing the supersoldier's airways, and choking him.

Finally, Ethan fell to the ground, a heavy lump of muscle, blood, and frozen flesh.

The fire extinguisher ran out of foam, and Alex stood for a moment, holding it aloft, still pressing on the lever and aiming where Ethan's face had been.

Alex let go, and the fire extinguisher fell to the floor, rocked a few times, then lay as still as a dead body.