The Blood Mesa

'I don't believe it!'

'You can see it for yourself, damn it! Look what they did to Astrid!'

'Something must have caused this. We have to help them—'

'We can't,' Matt said. 'All we can do is try to keep them from killing us.'

Ronnie shook her head stubbornly as she backed away beside him. 'That's not possible. It's some sort of disease. We need to get them to a hospital—'

Matt wouldn't have expected any other reaction from a rational, highly educated person. To people like Ronnie, there was always a scientific explanation for every problem, and there was always a way to fix it, too.

Matt knew better. 'Rational' had nothing to do with it. He was looking at pure chaos in human form, and so he wasn't surprised when the circle suddenly broke apart and Chuck screamed and charged at him, waving his blood-smeared shovel.

'I'm gonna bash y'all's fuckin' heads in!' he yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.

The others followed his lead, dashing toward Matt and Ronnie as they screeched obscenities.

'Run!'

Matt sprinted toward the truck, keeping his hand clamped on Ronnie's arm so he dragged her along with him. Terror soon had her running just as fast as he was. What she was seeing might baffle and offend the scientist part of her, but the human part was smart enough to be scared shitless.

Jerry, Rich, Ginger, Maggie, and Stephanie had disappeared into the ruins of the ancient pueblo. Matt didn't see any of them, and he was glad of that. Night was coming on, and they might be able to hide.

On the other hand, the darkness would make it more difficult to see the things that were stalking them.

And that was the way Matt thought of them—as things. The people they had been were gone. He wondered if Andrew Hammond had been human at all, the whole time they had been up here.

Their feet pounding on the hard-packed ground, Matt and Ronnie reached the truck. Matt yanked the driver's side door open and boosted Ronnie into the cab with one hand while digging in his jeans pocket for the keys with the other. As Ronnie slid across the seat, Matt vaulted into the cab after her. He pulled the door shut just in time for it to stop the shovel blade that Chuck swung at him. Metal clanged against metal. Matt used his left elbow to push down the lock button while he jammed the key into the ignition with his right hand.

'Lock your door!' he yelled.

'Got it!' Ronnie said. She flinched away from the window as Sierra climbed onto that side of the cab and started slapping at the glass while yelling frenziedly.

Chuck was trying to pull himself high enough on the side of the cab to get a good swing at the window with the shovel. Matt twisted the key and tromped the gas, hoping he wouldn't flood the engine. It caught with a rumbling growl as Hammond, Varley, Scott, and April threw themselves in front of the truck.

Matt slammed the truck into gear and sent it lurching forward. Ronnie screamed as the people caught in the vehicle's path scrambled to get out of the way. Hammond, Scott, and April made it, but Varley just wasn't fast enough.

The old man threw up his arms and shrieked as the truck ran him down. Matt felt the bump as the heavy wheels passed over Varley's body. Nothing could survive that.

'My God, my God!' Ronnie cried. 'You killed him!'

'You saw what they did to Astrid,' Matt said. 'I wish I'd gotten a couple of the others, too.'

'You're crazy! You're as crazy as they are!'

He kept his left hand on the wheel as the truck bumped around several partially collapsed walls. With his right hand, he grabbed her shoulder and shook it.

'Look at me!' he told her. 'Look at me, damn it! You saw their eyes. You saw their faces. Look at mine!'

He turned his head to look over at her. Ronnie stared at him with wide, panic-stricken eyes for a moment, then drew in a deep, shuddery breath.

'All right, maybe you're not quite as crazy,' she said. 'But did you have to kill Dr. Varley?'

'Yes,' Matt said. 'I'm sorry. I know they're your friends, Ronnie. But there's no way we can help them. All we can do is try to save ourselves and the others who haven't gone mad.'

'We can get the others and drive away! As long as we're in the truck and moving, Dr. Hammond and the others can't stop us.'

Matt nodded as he clutched the wheel and tried to keep the truck under control. 'That's what I'm hoping. We need to get off this mesa.'

But at the back of his mind lurked another thought. That altar was uncovered now, and its evil had already begun to spread. How far would it go? And if Hammond and the others who were affected by it were left to venture out into the world, what damage would they do?

Matt didn't know the answers to those questions, but he was pretty sure they wouldn't be good. He wanted to save Ronnie and the unaffected students, but ultimately the most important thing he could do here was stop the others and somehow destroy that altar, which might, just might, reverse the effect and keep him from having to kill them.

Yeah, he thought. That was all he had to do.

CHAPTER NINE

Matt switched on the truck's headlights and leaned on the horn, sending a long, strident blare over the top of the mesa.

That would help the crazed ones track them, but it couldn't be helped. He wanted to draw the unaffected students to the truck. It would be better for all of them to be together.

He had to come up with a plan, and he thought it would be a good idea, too, to get Ronnie's brain working, to distract her from all the confusion and horror she had to be feeling. Besides, she was a highly intelligent woman. He could use her help.

'Listen to me,' he said as he sent the truck bucking and bouncing through the ruins. 'It's too long a story to tell you how I know this, but believe me, it's true. The reason this is happening is because Dr. Varley and his group uncovered a sacrifical altar in their excavation.'

'A sacrificial— What are you talking about? The Anasazi didn't practice human sacrifice.'

'April said the same thing . . . just before she started trying to kill me. They changed right before my eyes, Ronnie. I swear it.'

He didn't tell her that Hammond had been evil all along. That detail would just complicate things unnecessarily. Let her think Hammond had been affected along with the others. In the end, it didn't matter.

'You're saying this is some sort of supernatural thing? That they've been . . . possessed, for want of a better word?'

'Corrupted might actually be a better word. They've been changed.'

'And they can't be changed back?'

'If there's a way to do that, I don't know it,' Matt said. 'And I've tried.'

She looked over at him sharply. 'This isn't the first time you've seen something like this?'

'No. I know it sounds nuts, but it's true.'

'You aren't here by accident, are you?'

Even under these circumstances, he couldn't hold back a laugh. 'No. I'm not.'

'You sound like one of those people who wear aluminum foil on their heads to keep the government or the aliens from controlling their thoughts.'

'I know. But ask yourself this: how long have you known Dr. Varley?'

'Seven years,' Ronnie replied, her voice catching a little.

'In all that time, he never tried to kill you or hurt anybody else, did he? He never danced around with a dead girl's head in his hand.'

Ronnie gave a little moan and choked out, 'Of course not.'

'Then it's obvious something changed.'