CHAPTER SEVEN

“We’ve got to get out of here, ” Neala said.

“Just how do you plan to manage it? ”

“I don’t know! ” Neala’s voice cracked into a sob. She turned her hands, rattling the cuffs that held her prisoner against the tree.

“We’d better think of something quick, ” Sherri said. “That whistle was some kind of a signal. ”

“Maybe we can pull free. ”

“Let’s give it a try. ”

They worked their wrists against the barkless tree behind them.

“Mine are both awfully tight, ” Sherri said.

“My left seems just a bit–”

“Oh Jesus! ” Sherri gasped, her voice dropping to a whisper.

“What’s wrong? ”

“Someone’s in the tree. ”

Neala looked to her right, tipping back her head.

“No, the other way. Beside us. ”

She turned to the left. She raised her eyes up the weathered trunk to the high branches. At first, she saw only jagged limbs, pale in the moonlight like bones stripped of their flesh. Then one of them moved, and she realized it was a leg. A second leg dangled beside it. She followed them upward to a bare hip and torso, a head with shaggy hair. If there were breasts, she couldn’t see them. “Is he alive? ” Neala whispered.

“I can’t tell. Looks dead to me. ”

Neala continued to squint upward. The figure seemed to be straddling a branch, arms at his sides. His head was tilted downward, as if he were watching her. “I think one of the legs moved, ” she said. “Could’ve been the wind, I guess. ”

“I hope so. ”

“You hope he’s dead? ” Neala asked.

“Hell yes. How would you like him to come down for us? ”

“God, don’t say that. ”

“He’s probably one of them whatever the fuck they are. I mean, why else would he be out here? ”

Neala didn’t answer. She stared at the high, motionless figure until the sound of a car engine drew her eyes away. Across the clearing, headlights appeared.

“They’re coming back! ”

As the headlights approached, Neala saw that they were higher than those of the pickup. “It’s someone else, ” she said. “In a van, I think. ”

“Just as well, ” Sherri answered.

It came through the darkness, not stopping where the pickup had stopped. Its beams skittered over the ground as if seeking out Neala. They lit her and stayed, dimming just slightly when the engine shut off.

“What’s going on? ” Sherri asked.

“I can’t see, ” Neala whispered, squinting past the headlights. “Someone just got out. He went to the back, I think. ”

“End of the line, ” said a man’s cheerful voice. “All out that’s getting out. ”

A woman cackled.

“I think we’d better do as they say. ” A man’s voice. Frightened.

“Daddy! ”

“Here, hold on to Ben’s wrist. ”

“What do you want with us? ” a woman demanded.

More raspy chuckles.

“I know what Rose Petal wants, ” said the cheerful man. “She wants to pound out your brains with her hammer. I’ll let her, too, if you don’t make it snappy. ”

“Bastard. ” From the girl. Then she cried out with pain.

“Damn it, leave her alone! ”

“We haven’t got all night. ”

Several figures appeared in the darkness beyond the headlights. As they came forward, Neala saw four in a line, all cuffed together. A woman was at one side, then a man. The person at his other side was down. He and a girl each held a hand of the fallen one, dragging the limp body between them.

“Look, ” said the woman.

“Hi, ” Neala said.

“Step to the right” said the cheerful man. Neala could see him, now, behind the others. He was chubby, and carried a pistol. An old, hunched woman scuttled along at his side, swinging a hammer overhead.

“Hello, young lady, ” said the man with the gun. Walking around the group, he stepped up to Neala. He looked at her, grinning. With the barrel of his pistol he pushed one side of Neala’s blouse out of the way. She felt the cool muzzle stroke her nipple. ure a nice one. Very nice. Little Timmy got at you, I’ll wager. ”

“Leave me alone, ” she said.

“Ah, little Timmy. He ’knows where it’s at, ’ so to speak. ” The man laughed, and used his hand on her other breast, cupping it, squeezing as if to test its firmness, flicking the nipple. “Mmmm. Sometimes I do envy those Krulls. Yes I do. Give me a little taste. ” Crouching, he licked her nipple. Neala kicked. He grunted at the impact and danced away, clutchmg his thigh. “Oh ho! Lucky for you, lucky for you! ” He almost whirled toward the four chained onlookers. “Almost got me in the ’nads! ”

Neala cried, “No! ” as he spun around, raised his pistol, and aimed toward her face. He fired. The slug smacked into the tree above her head. He lowered his aim, fired again. The bullet ripped through the crotch of her corduroys, just missing Neala.

“Ha ha! Owed you one. ” He turned away. “Okay folks, show’s over. Make a circle around that tree. ”

As they followed instructions, the old woman started hobbling toward Neala.

“Get away! ” Neala shrieked.

Rose Petal swung the hammer as if to show off her form. Tilting her head sideways, she laughed. She limped around to the back of the tree.

“You touch me, ” Sherri snapped, “and I’ll kill you. ”

More laughter from the old woman.

“Get away! Damn you! I’ll kill you, you… OW! Goddamn you! ”

The cuffs cut into Neala’s wrists as Sherri twisted and kicked.

The old woman squealed, and Neala saw her skipping sideways out of Sherri’s range. Neala kicked and missed. Prancing forward, Rose Petal swung the hammer. It pounded Neala’s shoulder.

A high‑ pitched whistle made the hag turn away.

“Let’s be off, Mother, ” said the chubby man.

Side by side, they hurried to the van. The doors shut. The engine turned over and the van backed up. It didn’t turn around; it rolled backward across the clearing and disappeared into the woods.

“Now what? ” asked the girl beneath the other tree. All four were in a circle around it, hands joined as if playing ring‑ around‑ the‑ rosy.

“Young ladies, ” the man called. “Do you know what’s going on? ”

Neala shook her head.

“They just–kidnapped us! ” he said. “Right out of the motel. ”

“We were at the coffee shop, ” Sherri told him.

“Do you know why they brought us here? ” asked the woman.

“For the Krulls, ” Sherri said.

“The what? ”

“Krulls. I don’t know. Krulls? We’re sacrifices or something. ”

“That’s crazy, ” the man said.

“Don’t I know it” Sherri muttered.

“It’s crazy, ” the man repeated.

“You’re damn right, ” Sherri said. “Look, we’ve gotta get out of here. These things are gonna come for us. One’s already here. ” She pointed at the tree high above the four strangers.

Neala looked, along with the others, and saw the pale figure suddenly swing downward, dropping from branch to branch.

“Oh my God! ”

Screams and shouts of panic erupted from those beneath the tree as it scurried down the trunk. They threw themselves outward, trying to get away, and yelled in pain as the cuffs tore into their wrists. The unconscious one, arms jerked by those at his sides, raised his head. The others didn’t seem to notice. They leaped and squirmed as the naked man dropped into their circle.

He pounced on the woman’s back, his weight knocking her forward until the ring of arms stopped her. She recoiled backward. The whole circle fell.

The strange, bony man was pinned beneath her. Neala saw his legs wrap the woman’s hips. His hands appeared beneath her outstretched arms and wildly tore her blouse as she thrashed above him. He jerked the blouse off her shoulders. His mouth clamped down on her left shoulder, and she screamed.

Then he was writhing out from under her. He crawled to her kicking feet. Kneeling over her, he grabbed one. His mouth gaped. The woman shrieked as he ripped flesh from her calf.

“Hey! ”

He raised his head, chewing, and looked toward the woods behind him.

Neala looked, too.

A man was running toward them.

The naked man stood. His shaggy head jerked from side to side, as if he hoped to find help. Then, with a bellow that made Neala’s skin shrivel, he raced toward the intruder.

The other man stopped. He raised a rifle. Its detonation slammed through the night and the naked man pitched forward.

Through the ringing in her ears, Neala heard the woods erupt with other roars like a hundred echoes of the dead man’s final cry.