The Haunted Forest Tour

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Pestilence was not happy.

He had picked the right human host. Ensured that none of the denizens of the forest would harm the host or allow him to come to harm. Watched him board the vehicle. The host was nervous, anxious, even terrified, but that was understandable. It did not matter. The host had no task to complete except to wait.

But as loath as he was to admit it, Pestilence’s power was not infinite… yet. In fact, it was quite weak. He could send a small piece of himself out as what Lee Burgundy called a Proof Demon (how adorable) but he could not watch everything that happened within the forest.

The demon had grown cocky. Amused himself with childish games of torture and temptation. But that was what it was all about. He was weary of drawing blood and screams from those in his own realm of existence. His spell offered the potential for an entire world, a much larger world, filled with playthings to torment.

But the host was not supposed to leave the forest.

How could he have predicted that a human would interfere? Or that the host would hesitate to kill in order to preserve the integrity of the spell?

If the host had simply shot the one called Edward Turner when he had a chance, Pestilence would be relaxing in a boiling pool of blood right now, gazing upon the mangled bodies that hung above him like a baby’s mobile.

All was not lost. He could persuade the host to return. When he did, Pestilence would complete the spell, and the trees would rise from the earth as one, consuming this entire realm.

If not… well, the sacrifices were enough. His dimension would still completely overtake this one.

It would just take longer.

Tina lay on her back and gazed into the glowing red eyes of the hellhound above her. This could be it. Sweet, merciful death. An end to the heartache and pain.

Or not.

She wasn’t going to die in this forest. It could take Brad from her, transform him into some homicidal mold-man, but it wasn’t going to get her. She might not get out in one piece, and tomorrow morning she might decide that a world without Brad was not worth living in, but for right now, she was getting out of this forest alive. That was all there was to it.

Now she simply had to prevent the hellhound from breathing fire on her head.

The hellhound raked her with its claws, but she barely felt it. She wasn’t even scared… much. She was angry. Pissed. Tina Landry was too close to rescue to let some devil dog end her life. She clenched her fists, extended her thumbs, and thrust them up at the hellhound’s eyes.

Back during her tree-climbing adventure, she’d blinded the panther that chased after Christopher. That was with a branch. This was a little more up-close and personal. Her right thumb missed the target, smacking against the side of the hellhound’s muzzle, but her left thumb punctured the orb.

Thick fluid that felt like boiling grease spilled out onto her hand, making her flesh sizzle. She did feel this particular pain, but it didn’t stop her from slamming her right thumb into the hellhound’s other eye. This time the eyeball splattered onto her face and neck. She immediately wiped the burning goo off her cheek with her untainted fingers, smearing a sizzling path across her skin.

The hellhound yelped like a hurt dog. The yelp was accompanied by a burst of flames that struck Tina in the chest, igniting her shirt and quickly flame-broiling the skin beneath.

In a day that had been filled with pain, this was unquestionably the worst so far.

She could smell her flesh burning. Everything in her mind shut down except for the one piece of advice that had been drilled into her as a little girl.

Stop, drop, and roll.

The stopping and dropping was already taken care of, thanks to the hellhound. She rolled to the left, vaguely aware that the hellhound slashed at her with its huge claws, but not really caring. A small burn, such as accidentally pressing her finger against a hot stove, was bad enough. This was pure agony.

She rolled and rolled. She rolled over something living but took no satisfaction in the loud crunch its body made. When she struck a tree, she rolled back the other way.

The hellhound staggered away from her, fluid still pouring from its punctured eyes. Fire sprayed from its mouth.

Though she didn’t feel any better, Tina’s shirt was no longer on fire. She stood up and kicked the hellhound in the head as hard as she possibly could, trying to break its neck.

It took four kicks before she succeeded.

She was still alive. That’s all that mattered. Her shirt hung in charred scraps, and what was left of the bra beneath seemed to have fused to her skin. She didn’t care. She was alive. She was getting out of this forest.

She ran.

“Why don’t you give me the boy?” Lee asked Barbara.

“You’ll never get out of here with him on your back.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“The hell you will.”

“The monsters are well aware of our presence. And the helicopter isn’t going to be able to get to us from here. So maybe now is a good time to leave behind the people who don’t have much of a shot, huh?”

Barbara looked at him with shock and horror. “I’m not leaving you!”

“Okay. Just throwing that out there to ease my guilt. Grab the boy and let’s go.”

Christopher blinked some blood out of his eye. He could handle the pain; he just wished the dizziness would fade. Part of him wanted to lie against a tree and bleed to death, while another part of him wanted to get onto that helicopter and fly away to a hospital.

The rest of him was determined not to let Pestilence win. He didn’t know how such a feat might be accomplished, but it would kill two birds with one stone: save humanity, and get revenge. His years working at Novellon had taught him the importance of combining goals wherever possible.

Just don’t keel over, he told himself. Lee is a really nice guy, but he’s not going to carry you. You keel over, you’re fish food.

“I think they’re circling us,” Lee said. “The way they did when the tram first stopped.”

Barbara nodded. “I think you’re right.”

Christopher looked around. Glowing eyes on all sides of them. “Guys, I hate to be whiny, but I’m not sure we have any place to go.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said the pilot. “Dragons, remember?”

The reporter ignored him and continued filming the ground below. “You should be brave. Everything you say is being recorded.”

When Eddie proposed that the news crew, which was there to cover the Halloween tour, help him rescue the survivors, the cameraman had shoved his video camera into the reporter’s hands and told him good luck.

“Yeah, well, you can record me saying we should get out of here, or you can record me screaming as the dragon knocks off our propeller. Nobody’s down there.”

“They would’ve come out of the building by now, if they were still in there,” Eddie said. Or at least if they were still alive in there. “Can we just fly around and search?”

“What would we be able to see down there? Do they have a flare gun?”

“No.”

“Then no, we cannot just fly around and search. I’m done.” The pilot adjusted the controls, and the helicopter began to rise.

“No! No, no, no! I see somebody!” Eddie shouted, pointing at the ground. Somebody came out of the woods next to the building and waved her arms over her head. It looked like the lady with the hurt husband.

“You’re right! Drop the ladder! Drop the ladder!” shouted the reporter.

Eddie kicked the rope ladder over the side. It fell to the ground and the lady, Tina, quickly rushed over to it and started to climb.

Something flew out of the woods and made a beeline for her.

It was a giant bat. These days, Eddie was not impressed by a giant bat. He took careful aim with the semi-automatic rifle and opened fire. It took a few shots, but he struck the bat’s wing and sent it spiraling down to the ground.

Several dozen bats emerged from the woods to take its place.

“Oh yeah. This ain’t good,” Lee noted. He stopped walking, as did the others.

“They probably smell blood,” said Christopher.

Lee held up his bloody half-finger. “Probably.”

“Maybe… maybe I could distract them.” Christopher bit his lip. “If I run the opposite direction, wave my arms and make a lot of noise and stuff, they might all go after me.”

“And then they’ll kill you,” Barbara said.

“I’m not saying the plan is in my best interest. But my mom’s sacrifice was for nothing. Mine wouldn’t be. Unless you all got eaten seconds after me. You wouldn’t, right?”

“Can’t go for that idea, sorry,” said Lee. “No more sacrifices.”

“Not your call.”

Christopher raised his hands over his head and turned to run. Then a wave of dizziness struck him and he promptly pitched forward, landing on his face.

Tina tried to climb faster as she saw the swarm of bats coming right at her. Above, Eddie was shooting at them, but she was pretty sure he wouldn’t be wiping out a whole swarm of bats before they got her.

Which was going to be in three… two… one…

The bats struck her like baseballs. They weren’t even trying to bite her; the damn things were just bashing into her at full speed. Her left hand slipped off the ladder. She was about halfway up, meaning she had a nice hundred-foot fall to look forward to if she lost her grip.

She slammed her left hand back on the rope and tried to pull herself up another rung, as the bats slammed into her again and again. Several of them struck her burnt flesh, sending almost unbearable bolts of pain through her body.

As she screamed, a bat pushed into her open mouth.

Christopher was in a wonderful dreamland, where elves danced and fairies flew and leprechauns spoke in charming accents about their pots of gold, and where old men nudged him very hard with their foot against his bloody—

He looked up.

“Get up!” Lee said, extending a hand.

Christopher couldn’t possibly have been out of it for more than a second or two, but the glowing eyes and shadows were definitely getting closer.

“Up! Up! Up!” Eddie shouted.

“Why?”

“The bats may not follow us up! Go higher! Hurry!” He set down the gun and picked up the megaphone. “Hold on!”

Tina crushed her teeth down on the bat’s head.

She spat it out as the helicopter did such an abrupt rise that she nearly lost her grip with both hands. But she held on. She vomited over the front of her shirt, a reaction sparked by both the sudden upward acceleration and the whole “biting off the head of a bat” incident from a couple of seconds ago.

More bats bashed into her. But fewer than before.

She resumed climbing as quickly as she could as the helicopter continued rising. A couple more bats hit her, but she could handle that, no problem.

Eddie reached down for her. Tina grabbed his hand and let him pull her up into the helicopter, letting out one last yelp from the pain in her burnt fingers.

“Anybody else alive down there?” Eddie asked, shoving her into a seat.

Tina nodded frantically.

“Bring her down,” Eddie told the pilot, as he began to pull up the rope ladder.

“Why are you doing that?” Tina asked.

Eddie grinned. “I’m no longer out of grenades. I don’t want to damage the ladder when I damage the bats.”

Despite everything she’d been through, Tina managed to grin as well.