“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.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Robbins sprinted past the body. Ignoring the shouts from the group of four, he headed toward the tree with the two women. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and dug a hand into his pocket. He pulled out a key.
“We’re getting out of here.”
The woman he wanted stared at him, looking confused.
He stepped to her right side, and unlocked the cuff.
“You’re one of the men from the truck,” she said.
“That’s right. I’m taking you out of here. I’ve got a car off in the trees.” He stepped past her, and started unlocking the cuff on her other wrist. “Are you a good runner?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“What’s your name?”
“Neala.”
“I’m Johnny Robbins.”
“I’m Sherri,” said the bigger woman, appearing from behind the tree. She held out her hands, empty bracelets dangling from the wrists. “Do me a favor, huh?”
Quickly, he removed her cuffs. Unslinging his rifle, he scanned the perimeters of the clearing. Over the shouts of the other captives, he could hear the howling Krulls. No sign of them, though.
“Okay,” he said. “This way.”
“Wait,” Neala said. “We can’t leave
