Chapter 20: "Seriously Shocking" Geoff and Mario made their way to the vehicles. Mario jumped behind the wheel of the truck and tried to start it, but it refused to turn over. Not even the slightest clicking sound as the key was turned in the ignition. Mario tried it a few times before getting so frustrated that he started to slam his hands down on the steering wheel. Geoff got behind the wheel of his Cherokee and turned the key. The truck started up with absolutely no pause. He inched the truck closer to Mario’s and killed the engine. Geoff: Pop it. Mario popped the hood and Geoff went into the hatch of the Jeep and grabbed the cables. Mario got out and walked to the front of his truck and raised the hood. Fumbling for the latch, he finally got the hood up and placed the brace in place. Geoff came walking up behind Mario but evidently in the opposite direction of where Mario was expecting him. As Geoff approached, he stepped on a twig and the cracking noise along with the dried leaves under his foot startled the already rattled Mario who spun around and punched Geoff directly in the chin dropping him to the wood ground. Mario immediately snapped out of the shock trance he seemed to be in and saw it was Geoff laying on the ground. He quickly got down on a knee next to him and reached out to give him a hand. Geoff just laid there for a moment rubbing his chin and looking at Mario with a seriously pissed off look on his face. But he knew Mario had no ill intentions and that he was just on high alert which was the reason for the reactionary chin test. Geoff reached up and took Mario’s hand and Mario started to pull him up, but then at the last second, not only let him go, but almost seemed to shove him down. Geoff: What the…… Quickly Mario covered Geoff’s mouth then looked at him sternly. Then without making a sound, Mario pointed into the trees behind them. Geoff turned his head and leaned up as best he could. There in the distant clearing was one of those…people… walking slow, dragging its feet, and groaning at a low decibel. Behind it, it was dragging the remains of some sort of dead animal. If they didn’t know better, this guy could have just as easily been a hunter out on an afternoon hunt. But after what they experienced earlier, they were taking no chances. Once the man was out of site, Mario made his way into the trees slowly and checked to make sure the creature was long gone. Once he was assured that it definitely was, he made his way back to Geoff. Mario: Dude, I am so sorry about the punch. You just kinda scared the crap out of me. Geoff: Was that you? I thought the bugs were out early this year. Both Mario and Geoff started to laugh just a little bit. Mario latched hands with Geoff and hoisted him back to his feet. Geoff: Let’s get your truck started and get the hell out of here. Geoff reached under his hood and pulled the latch to allow the hood to release and raise up. Once in place, he placed the ends of the cables on the correct terminals, and then did the same thing to Mario’s battery with the opposing ends. Geoff went to the passenger side of his Jeep and got in, sliding inside the truck to the driver’s seat. He slowly turned the key to start it and began to rev it just a little bit. A few moments into it, he motioned for Mario to try and start his truck. The battered and beaten up green pickup had definitely seen better days, but Mario loved the truck and would spend more money over the years in fixing it than it was ever really worth. Getting behind the wheel, Mario looked at the seat next to him. Lipstick. A tube of a pale red lipstick was sitting on the seat causing Mario to reflect for a minute staring at it. Geoff: Yo! The sound of Geoff’s voice snapped Mario out of it and he looked back at Geoff to acknowledge that he had heard him. Mario started to turn the key in the ignition, but still nothing. Geoff saw the frustration building in Mario’s face and started to rev his own engine a few long times. Mario watched as Geoff motioned to try it again and this time, once Mario turned the key to the sounds now of a fast paced clicking noise. A few more tries and the fast paced clicking noise was eventually overcome by the sound of the truck starting up. Mario turned to look at Geoff with a smile and a look of relief, but the look he got back from Geoff was anything but. Geoff was frantically pointing in Mario’s direction, and in doing so saw Mario’s expression go from one of happiness and relief to a look of confusion and bewilderment. Finally Mario got the basic message that Geoff was trying to tell him to turn around and look the other direction. Mario turned his head and when he did, his eyes became the size of baseballs. Coming from out of the trees were half a dozen facially deformed individuals and each of them looked highly enraged. They were on the side of Mario’s truck in seconds and were slamming their hands on the windows, the hood, and even the roof of the truck trying to get at Mario. One of the individuals had his face firmly pressed against the driver’s side window and was smearing some kind of puss and blood like secretions all over the window. The force of the other creatures behind it almost gave it enough pressure to shatter the glass and make its way in. Mario tried to put the truck in reverse, but the truck just spun its wheels and never moved. In fact, all it actually did was burrow a divot that it was getting even more stuck in. Looking in the side view mirror as best he could with the creatures slammed up against the window, he finally managed to spot the reason. When he and Michelle parked in this spot, they had to actually pull in and over to the left to allow for Michelle to get out of the passenger’s side of the truck. Now thanks to that convenience, he was stuck. The creatures were growing more and more agitated in trying to get to Mario without success. They continued to slam and pound into the truck and a few times even managed to rock the truck up slightly onto two wheels before gravity and the fact that they had no coordination brought it back down hard. The last time they did that, the now cracked side window managed to completely spiderweb. It was only a matter of a few more direct hits before that window was good as gone. Geoff knew he had to do something to help Mario out of this situation. Reaching into the back seat area, Geoff managed to pull the lever to drop the back seat and give him access to the hatch area of the Jeep. In the utility strap on wall of pouches that he kept his sports gear in, he managed to pull out his large hunting knife, and lying on the hatch floor under a bunch of camping gear and Dani’s bags, he pulled in his hockey stick. In extremely quick fashion, he managed to tear into the blade bringing the end of it into a point. Then he rolled down the driver’s side window of the Cherokee which was still right up along the passenger side of the green pickup with no room whatsoever for the stalkers to make their way near it. Seeing that they were nowhere near his passenger side, Geoff climbed out the window and pulled himself on to the roof of the Jeep. He maneuvered his way onto the roof of the pickup and without reservation or hesitation, immediately started to swing that stick in a downward motion impaling the creatures with each swing. Mario figured out Geoff’s plan and made his way into the passenger seat of the pickup, and rolled down the window. He moved pretty quick for a big man, and climbed out of the pickup and started to pull himself into the Jeep. Before he was completely out of the pickup, he heard the driver’s side window finally crash and crumble, and the once somewhat muffled sound of the stalkers moans and groans were now very audible. Mario grabbed the window frame of the Jeep to pull himself in but all of a sudden he felt his ankle being grabbed and pulled. One of the stalkers managed to get a grip on his pants leg and was pulling him backwards in an attempt to sink its venomous teeth into its meaty flesh. Mario managed to turn over just enough to see what was happening around his foot and started to kick back at the creatures face and head. In a last ditch effort he pulled his free leg back and was about to lunge forward to boot the stalker, but before he did, it became highly un-necessary as he watched a sharpened hockey stick blade come blasting out from the creatures face. The last swing down from Geoff entered the back of the stalkers skull, and the creature fell to the ground impaled on the end of a hockey stick. Geoff dropped down into the bed of the pickup and stepped over the liftgate, onto the back bumper and then dropped to the ground. He made his way around the truck and then the Jeep before standing by the opened passenger door. Mario: Sorry about the hockey stick man, but quick thinking. I appreciate it. Geoff: Don’t worry about it. No biggie. Mario: Yeah right, I know I’ll hear about this one forever. Geoff: Nope not at all….it was yours. Mario looked out the window at the creature laying there with the stick still embedded in its skull, looked back at Geoff, and started to laugh. Geoff: We need to get back to the city. I have to tell my dad about these things. Maybe he’ll know what’s going on. Mario: What do you think it is? Some kind of virus? Maybe one of those Anthrax bio-chemical things? Geoff: Who knows. Let’s just get the hell out of here. Geoff slammed the door shut on the Jeep and headed to the front of the two trucks. Leaning under the hood of the green pickup, he unclamped the jumper cables from the battery. He started to gather the excess length in his hand as he started to make his way to the Jeep. Just as he reached the front of the Jeep he heard rustling leaves behind him and cracking branches. He spun around and there, less than 10 feet away was the original creature they saw dragging the animal carcass behind it. Now here it was right in front of him still dragging that same carcass but staring and snapping its jaws at Geoff. With no weapon in hand Geoff needed to think quickly. And that’s exactly what he did. Just as the stalker got right up in front of Geoff, he jammed the positive cable directly into the stalkers mouth. He spun sideways and took the negative cable, looked back at the stalker and then hooked it onto the metal rod holding the hood open. The current ran through the creature who managed to drop the animal carcass and just shake uncontrollably in one spot. Within seconds, the creatures head exploded and its body fell limp to the ground. Geoff sat directly down on the bumper and stared at the body. It was then that he noticed, this entire time that the body of the deer that this creature was dragging around with him, was twitching and trying to get to a standing position, only it was missing one and a half of it’s legs. The deer fell to the ground, and then it turned its head towards Geoff. Its eyes were bloodshot and yellowish much like the stalkers they had been dealing with. Its mouth was covered in blood and drooling that same nasty looking puss-like liquid. Geoff didn’t say a word, he walked over to the last stalker he had taken down with the hockey stick and pulled it out of the creatures head. He made his way over to the deer who was now trying to spin around and bite, and with a deep breath, just jammed the stick right through the head of the deer, it’s body also going limp and falling lifeless to the ground. Geoff turned towards the truck just in time for Mario to stick his head out of the window. Geoff: What the hell is taking you so long? How hard is it to take jumper cables off a truck? Come on men, let’s go! Geoff didn’t say a word. He yanked the cables off the battery, rolled them up and tossed them into the back of the Jeep. Mario backed the Jeep up onto the road and opened the driver’s door and hopped out. Geoff walked right past Mario and pulled himself into the Jeep, slamming the door shut. Mario: What’s wrong with you? Geoff didn’t say a word. He just sat there with the window rolled up and stared at Mario who looked confused. Mario made his way to the pickup, looked around for any more surprises, hopped into the driver’s seat and pulled backwards around the driveway and onto the street behind Geoff. Geoff put the Jeep into drive and peeled off, Mario right behind them and they went down the road putting the cabin area in their rear view mirrors and then gone.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:10:20 +0000
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