November
Small town in California
The leader, Clint, was pulling off his gloves as he walked up to the old
wrought iron gate with its rusted filigree. He was carefully pulling off
the gloves one finger at a time to bring the glove off slowly. He tucked
them in his pocket and continued to walk. With a sigh the tips of his
fingers elongated into long sharp claws with barbed hooks on the end. He
walked to the gate and with a flick of his index finger hooked the chain
that held it closed with one claw and the chain fell apart as if it had been
made of chocolate and not iron at all. It clanked loudly as it fell to the
ground demonstrating its steadfastly ferrous nature. With a nudge of his
boot, Clint pushed the gate open. Squealing loudly on it hinges it swung
wide and Clint strode into the dark graveyard.
�I hope you don�t mind Rebecca, but I need to stop for some reinforcements.
My men here tell me that Stan has got himself a nice little chainsaw. I
want to make sure that when he shows up with Davies, he doesn�t try anything
he�ll regret. Then I�ll kill Davies, Stan, You, and your little brat.
It�ll be just like high school again.� Clint sighed with mock nostalgia.
Chuckling to himself he began to move among the graves, some with simple
headstones, some older and more ornate with statuary of angels and cherubs.
Occasionally Clint would stop, feeling the ground over various plots. Becky
couldn�t say any thing through her gag. Her son however looked over at her.
�Don�t be afraid mommy. Tree-tree and Aunt Prefefy and Ryan and Daddy will
come. It�ll be all right mommy. And then the man from the radio will be
there too. Don�t touch the radio man mommy, don�t touch him. He�s very bad
mommy, don�t touch him.�
Clint paused over a grave and said to himself, �At last. Amazing how few
people in this town were ever truly bad. Pathetic really.� With a hacking
noise like a cat with a hairball or dry heaves, he spat on the grave and
black goo the consistency of dandruff shampoo plopped onto the ground and
glistened moistly in the moonlight. It began to ooze down into the ground
burrowing downward and drawing its goo-ee mass with it. He moved about the
graves and found another, and repeated the procedure. His two servants had
set their captives down and began to dig with their bare hands where their
master had spat. They began to pull corpses from the ground in various
states of decay, but all with black glistening eyes. In one case a skeleton
was unearthed, stringy sinews of black goo held it together at its joints as
it stood up shakily with black spheres glistening in its eye sockets.
Lil� Stan watched the entire thing with avid curiosity, and not a hint of
fear. His mother�s eyes had rolled back in her head and she�d fainted when
the first corpse had struggled up out of the ground. �It�ll be ok mommy,�
her son assured her in a quiet voice, his face serious. He was certain that
it would be, as certain as most folks are that the sun would rise the next
day. It would probably surprise many of those people to learn that, were it
not for their collective certainty of the rising of the sun, that it became
a considerably less reliable event. But most of those people would also
have fainted dead away, if like Becky, they were forced to confront the
forced zombification of long dead bodies by a deformed devil worshiper.
Life�s like that; the best thing to do is to get on with it.
**********************
In the middle of the field stood a single Oak Tree. The field was
once a pasture but no animals had grazed there in fifty years. Long yellow
grass moved like waves across the hills. Below the old pasture was a
farmhouse, the windows flickered with the blue light of a television.
Further down were the scraggly bushes and short trees that grew along the
coast. The lights of the small town twinkled with the black waters of the
pacific with the silvery sparkle of a gibbous moon reflected off the foaming
surf. Beneath the spreading limbs of the Oak a group of people had
gathered.
They were a mixed group, and some brought a variety of instruments.
There were giant conga drums, A trumpet, a sitar, several flutes of
different shape and composition, and several clay ocarinas of various
shapes. They were performing a peculiar sort of jig as the other revelers
danced around the tree. The men were bare chested, as were many of the
women. Their pale white skin reflected golden in the flickering light of
the six fires built in pits around the tree. Marijuana added its unique
scent to the smell of beer, wood smoke, and sweat that combined with the
brisk onshore breeze that had helped whip up the evening surf. A winter
storm threatened in the air and the dancers engaged in their mad dance to
stay warm as much as to reach that high that came with physical exhaustion.
A sedan crossed the field, its lights blazing in the darkness. It bounced
over the uneven ground. It pulled up and the door opened. Clad in a dirty
and now gore spattered white lab coat Chainsaw emerged. He looked around,
his dark eyes glowing under his dark brows like coals in the firelight. He
stomped hastily up the hill. �Trinity!� he barked out. His eyes searched
the revelers.
�Why have you disturbed us?� she asked appearing from around the trunk of
the tree against which the musicians leaned. Her black hair was drooping
with sweat and her black and silver dress clung to her body despite the
coolness of the breeze. Her chest heaved as she walked forward. Laughing,
Persephoney spun away from the dancers to join her. She had on a black
shawl wrapped around her and over one shoulder like a toga, but her breast
hung out and Chainsaw had to struggle not to stare openly at the pink nipple
that seemed to be staring unblinking back at him. Now was not the time to
get into a staring contest with a nipple, and with the Grace of St. Fury he
was able to pull his eyes and mind back to the point that had brought him up
here.
�Clint has Becky and Lil� Stan. He�s taken them to some pirate�s cave. I
was looking for it when I ran into Ecks in the surf. I thought he was
supposed to be up here with you.�
Trinity made a disgusted face. �Surfing is like a religious experience for
some people. There�s a big storm out at sea kicking up some big waves.� She
paused looking thoughtful, �That makes the cave a better hide out actually,
the big waves make it hard to get in there and even brave kids avoid it in
rough weather. The waves go right up inside the mouth of the cave. I hope
the tide�s not come in; I didn�t check the times today. Where is Ryan then
if you found him?�
�Ecks said he knew where it was but was going back to the shop to get
some old-timey pistols, so I came up here to get you two. Since we don�t
got this Davies to give him, I figure we have to go get him ourselves. But
I don�t want his palls sneaking up on me, so I came to get you two. She�s
your friend too, and so was Eugene. Come on then, if your coming, or was I
just wasting time.� Chainsaw turned around and went back to the sedan.
Trinity sat down beside him pulling a pair of tall black boots with
thick soles and rough treads over her bare feet while they waited for
Persephoney. Persephony had pulled on what looked to be a black lace teddy
to Chainsaw under her shawl and had a big velvet bag over her shoulder as
she got in the back seat. Chainsaw moved the shift into reverse and stomped
on the gas, spinning the wheel as he did looping the car violently around so
its back was towards the tree. Persephoney was flung around with her feet
ending up above her head on the broad back seat. She sat up and glowered at
him in the mirror. Trinity had grabbed the door handle and was quickly
attaching the seatbelt.
Chainsaw grinned back at her maniacally. Then his face took on a
steely expression as he leaned forward, moved the car�s gear into drive and
stomped again on the gas. The car jolted across the uneven ground as he
powered back down the road from the top of the old pasture. The long grass
hissed as it scraped against the doors of the car punctuated by short
rumblings as the bottom of the car scraped the uneven ground. He hit the
road and slammed down on the pettle again managing to make the wheels spin
on loose gravel as the car accelerated.
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