Bigfoot Crank Stomp (17 page)

Pronger shut up after that. Betts followed suit. Gabe considered adding them to the pile. One shot through each of their foreheads. Finish what he should have done long ago. But then he’d have to dig the graves. Nah. He’d make them do it. Then blow their fucking brains out and let them fall into the holes. Gabe didn’t mind filling graves.

He scratched his neck and licked his lips. Could use some water. Water and another hit. Can’t though. Bigfoot could be here any moment.

“Don’t worry yourselves about any of them right now.” Gabe scurried over to the entrance to the cellar and looked down. Maybe there was some more product down there. Some these dipshits missed. “Keep an eye out for Bigfoot. Yell if you hear it coming.”

“Where are you going?” Pronger said.

“Down here real quick. Don’t go running off or I’ll find you and fucking kill you. And pin all this shit on your dead asses. Understand?”

“Sure thing, Sheriff,” Betts said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“Damn straight you’re not.” Gabe took the steps fast. “Because you don’t want the Russell treatment. Ha!”

MANNY

The Sheriff moved in nervous circles. The deputies stood there with hands on hips and heads bowed. Defeated. Unwilling to even attempt a move on their insane leader. No Russell either. Probably finished him off somewhere on the driveway.

Enough of this shit
, Manny thought and lined up the Sheriff’s noggin from fifty feet away and to the right of the cabin, away from one mean drop down the backside hill. There was a body down there with its head smashed in against a tree. Probably one of the meth cookers.

Manny could hear the Sheriff talking about Bigfoot and not going out like a bitch. The rest he blocked out. Blocked out the nervous voices of the deputies. Blocked out Seph’s shallow breathing behind him. It was just him and the target and a bullet. He zeroed in on the Sheriff and decided to put the round through his right eye. There ground was slightly lower than the back of the cabin but he didn’t have to adjust much due to the short range of the shot. Just aim above the right eye and let speed and gravity do the rest.

“Send it.” Chris’s voice. Like he was right next to him. Manny smiled and held his breath and started to squeeze—

The Sheriff tracked away. Fast. Not running but damn close.

Manny adjusted and let the Sheriff lead him. He stopped at the back of the cabin and peered down. A cellar.

Back of the head is as good as the front
, Manny thought.

“Elevation’s still good,” Chris said. “Send it.”

On its way
, he thought and squeezed—

The Sheriff’s head snapped back around to his deputies.

Will you stop fucking moving for one second?

He lined up the right eye again and held his breath and squee—

The Sheriff bolted down the stairs into the cellar.

“Son of a bitch,” Manny said, barely a whisper through clenched teeth.

“What happened?” Seph said.

“Took too long, Sniper,” Chris said. “Can’t hesitate. You know that.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Manny kept the scope trained on the cellar. Next time his head pops up he’s mine.

“Yeah what?”

“Nothing. Just missed an opportunity. I won’t again.”

“You better not,” Chris said.

BIGFOOT

It looked at what was left of the girl. Her sex bled. Her body twitched. It had gotten what it wanted but not what it needed. Still hungry. Needed to feed. Now. Its arms and chest burned around the wounds. Blood flowed here and there.

The woman had distracted it. Needed to move on. Find more food.

A strong gust of wind carried with it the scent of food. Heavy on the air. More than he’d smelled since fleeing.

It didn’t wait. No time. Needed to feed. It sprinted, chasing the scent.

GABE/RUSSELL/MANNY

Gabe didn’t find any more meth in the cellar. Instead, he found a bunch of Bigfoot shit. Piles of it from wall to wall. Flies everywhere. Holy Christ it stank.

In a good way. He chuckled and holstered his gun and clapped his hands together. In an oh so
gooood
way.

Gabe grabbed the top button of his shirt and undid it. Then the next and the next. All the way down. He stripped it off and threw it to the side.

“You ain’t going to come to me?” He dropped his gun belt and pulled off his boots. “Fuck it. I’ll find you.”

His pants and jockeys followed the rest. He stood before a pile of runny shit and nodded. “Oh, yeah. I’m going to find you for sure. And you know what? You ain’t even going to see me coming. Because I’m going to smell just like your hairy ass.”

Gabe knelt and grabbed two handfuls of shit and rubbed it on his chest. “Woo! Just like Arnie in fucking
Predator
…”

***

…Russell sat behind the wheel, exhausted. He’d spent what little energy he had climbing into the truck. Now that he was in, he had a tough time fighting the clawing grasp of dreamland.

I got one shot
, he thought.
It’s them or me
.

He licked dried cracked lips and moved the key toward the ignition. It shook the whole way. When he reached it, he had to grab hold of his wrist with his free hand to ease it into the slot.

One shot.

Russell twisted the ignition and listened as the eight pistons turned and the first batch of injected fuel fired and the engine roared to life. He smiled. The greatest sound he’d ever heard.

He shifted into drive and eased on the gas and accelerated and turned up the drive. He debated for a second how to make his approach.

“Fuck it.”

Russell hit the high beams and floored it. The back tires spun, shooting gravel and dirt into the darkness. Then they bit and he flew…

***

…Manny heard an engine start. Toward the Loop.

“Was that a car?” Seph said.

“Yeah.”

He shifted the scope to the deputies. They’d heard it to, both looking down the driveway.

“Maybe it was a neighbor,” one of them said.

The other replied but Manny couldn’t make it out. Too low.

Bright light illuminated the driveway from below. The engine screamed. The shadows of trees seemed to dance as the light grew closer and shifted with the contours of the drive.

“Someone’s coming,” Seph said.

“Yep, and fast.”

The deputies still stood there, guns held out in front of them…

***

…Gabe finished smearing shit on his feet when he heard the engine. Muffled by the depth and walls of the cellar, it still sounded loud. Ferocious. Angry.

“Come get some, bitch.”

Gabe slapped on his gun belt and grabbed the .38 and sprinted for the stairs…

***

…Manny shifted back to the cellar. A moment later a naked man, except for a gun belt and covered in mud, sprinted up into his crosshairs. It only took a split second for Manny to identify him as the Sheriff.

“Send it,” Chris said.

Manny squeezed the trigger.

And closed his eyes.

The rifle kicked as the bullet exploded out of the barrel…

…A mule kicked Gabe’s right shoulder. Then he heard the report and knew the truth. As he fell, he dropped his gun and pressed his hand against the wound. Blood met his palm.

He hit the ground and screamed as the pain registered…

***

…Manny opened his eyes and glassed the scene. The Sheriff was on the ground.

Fucking chickened out, Manny said. But you still managed to hit him.

A pang of intense guilt burned his gut until he noticed the Sheriff pawing at his shoulder and screaming. Both deputies had dropped into squats and pointed their guns toward the tree line. Eyes wide, panicked.

And the headlights and roaring engine completely forgotten.

“Holy shit,” Seph said.

A Ford F-150 screamed around the back of the cabin and turned hard and painted the deputies with its high beams…

***

…Russell almost lost control of the truck. The back fishtailed but he managed to right it. The high beams lit up Betts and Pronger, crouched and turned toward the trees.

Wonder if they heard Bigfoot
, he thought and laughed.

Their heads snapped in unison toward the truck. Their eyes caught the light like two deer on a country highway. Russell laughed some more…

***

…Manny watched as both deputies’ heads snapped left in time to see the grill before the truck hit them and sucked them under. The driver slammed on the brakes before plowing into the berm. One body was caught up under the back tire and bumper. The other had cleared the truck, a pile of mangled bone and flesh bleeding out.

“Oh my God,” Seph said. “He killed them. He killed them.”

“Yes he did whoever he is.” Manny lowered the scope. “Keep your voice down. We can’t give our position away until we know—”

“It was Russell.”

“What?”

“I saw him through the driver’s window as he…ran over them.”

Manny glanced over his shoulder at the idling truck. A white male with short hair behind the wheel, slumped to the side, his head leaning against the window. Yeah, it did look like Russell.

The Sheriff belted another scream. Manny glassed him. He rolled side-to-side on his back, left hand clenching his right shoulder. Based on the audible pain, Manny figured the bullet destroyed the Sheriff’s collar bone and part of his shoulder blade.

“What do we do now?” Seph said.

Manny lowered the rifle and looked around the woods. “I don’t think we have to worry about Bigfoot.”

“You don’t?”

“No. After all this, he probably went as far away in the opposite direction as he could.”

“It’s hooked on meth though.”

“I think it’ll be okay.”

Seph looked over Manny’s shoulder at the truck. “You think he’s dead?”

“Maybe. We should go check.”

The Sheriff screamed again. About half as loud as the others. Succumbing to shock and blood loss.

“And the Sheriff?”

Manny frowned. “We’ll check on him, too.”

BIGFOOT

It found the food. Twisting up through the wood. One after another, scattered on the ground. In the bushes. Leading toward home. It fed and walked and fed and walked. It paid no attention to the sounds of pain and ruin. It didn’t care. It only wanted to eat.

MANNY

The Sheriffs screams faded to whimpers. Manny was amazed the son of a bitch hadn’t lost consciousness by now based on the shock and amount of blood lost. Then again, crazy fuckers tended to be surprisingly resilient.

Maybe I’ll get lucky and the bastard will bleed to death
, he thought.

Manny and Seph stepped out of the trees into the backyard of the cabin. She stayed close to him, hand cupped in the crook of his left elbow. They moved past the cruiser and the deputies who had been shot in the head. Past the mangled body. Manny was surprised Seph didn’t choke or vomit. He didn’t know the scope of death she’d been exposed to in her life but this scene would make hardened combat vets check their guts. She gave no indication it bothered her in the least. Just determined to reach Russell.

They reached the back of the truck and the last body, folded in half under the tire and bumper. Seph let go of his arm then and hurried to the driver’s door. She tapped on the glass and said Russell’s name several times.

Manny checked the Sheriff again to make sure he wasn’t all of the sudden up and moving like the crazy fucker he was. Satisfied he wasn’t going anywhere probably ever again, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and moved over to Seph’s side.

“You open the door and I’ll catch him,” he said. “Then we’ll pull him out together.”

“Okay.”

Seph gripped the handle and lifted and pulled. Manny stepped forward and caught the slouching body in his arms. He hooked both hands under the armpits and held fast until Seph was able to get her arms around Russell’s calves.

“One, two, three, lift,” Manny said.

He pulled and she lifted and they managed to maneuver Russell out of the truck without any trouble. They carried him a few feet away and eased him to the ground. Once there, Manny pressed two fingers against Russell’s carotid artery.