Nick slammed against Julie's back, knocking her forward off the stump. She flung up an arm to protect her head. It rammed the fireplace stones, caving them in. The weight left her back. Raising her head, she saw Nick tumble through the fire in a shower of sparks, a filthy naked man clinging to his back. They were only in the flames for an instant before they rolled through the other low wall. Julie shoved herself up. Nick was on his hands and knees, the man straddling his back, choking him with a forearm just as Fish had choked him.
Julie grabbed a rock. It seared her fingers and fell.
Nick rolled onto his side. She glimpsed the face of the man, and gasped as she recognized it. He was the man who had raped Karen, who had tried to rape her. He was the man Nick had killed nearly a week ago.
Behind her, a twig snapped. She spun around. A teen-aged girl was lurching toward her. The girl's tangled hair was full of dirt. Soil clung to her gray skin. Bite marks marred her shoulders and breasts.
Julie leaped away from the reaching hands. The girl turned and kept coming. 'Get away!' Julie cried out.
And then she saw a man staggering out of the darkness behind the girl. His head was down, hanging loosely, swaying and wobbling with each step.
She heard herself whimpering as she backed away. Her heel came down on a rock, and she nearly fell. Catching her balance, she crouched and grabbed the rock. It was warm from the fire, heavy, with jagged edges. She hurled it at the girl. It struck her nose and wide-open mouth. Her head was knocked back by the impact, but she didn't cry out or wince or even blink her eyes. The rock bounced off her face. It left her nose torn, her upper lip mashed, her teeth broken. There was no bleeding.
Silently, she bent over and picked up the rock.
The man was at her side.
Julie thrust her hand into the fire. She grabbed a stick by its unburnt end and yanked it out. The other end blazed like a torch. She swung it back and forth in front of the two, but they kept coming as if they didn't care. She backed away. Lurching to the side, she shoved the torch hard against the back of the man on top of Nick. It had no effect. She jabbed his head with it. His tangled hair caught fire. It blazed. But he stayed on Nick's squirming body and kept on choking him.
She flung her burning stick at the others. It missed the man's hanging head as he ducked to pick up a rock. Julie glimpsed the wound at the back of his neck — as if a wedge had been chopped out.
She grabbed a foot of the man on Nick. She wrapped both hands around its cold ankle and pulled, straining backward, dragging him. Nick pried the arm away and shoved the man off him.
Julie yelped as a rock hammered her bandaged shoulder. She dropped the foot and whirled around. The girl swung again. The rock slammed the side of Julie's face. Her head burst with pain. She stumbled backward, stepped on a leg of the man sprawled behind her, and fell on him. His arms latched around her waist. They squeezed her breath out. She felt the heat of his charred scalp against her back. I
The girl bent over her with the rock. Julie kicked at her. The man with the drooping head shoved her aside and threw himself onto Julie. She thrust her hands at him, but her arms folded. He smashed down on her, forehead pounding her face. Through her daze, she heard a yell. She felt a crushing weight for a moment. Then it was gone. She opened her eyes. The man was still on her but his head was gone. Nick had it hugged to his chest as he rolled. He flung it away and got to his hands and knees. His terrified eyes met Julie's. Then the girl pounced on his back, driving him down.
He threw his arms behind his head, and they took the blow.
Something hit Julie's ear. She cried out and held it, and pain erupted in her fingers as the headless man pounded her again with his rock. The arms around her middle let go. With a burst of hope, she thrust at the man's shoulders, forcing him up a bit. He dropped the rock. He clenched her throat with both hands. She gazed at the pulpy stump of his neck as he forced her down.
She felt a tug at her chest. Heard ripping cloth. Felt icy hands.
The corpse under Julie fondled and squeezed her breasts while the one on top strangled her.
The hand snatching Benny's wrist had caught him off balance. Numb with horror, he tried to jerk loose. The fingers held him tight. They yanked, and he fell forward onto the witch. He screamed as his face shoved against a breast. His broken arm burst with pain.
As he lay across her, kneeing the ground, she forced his left arm up behind his back. She grabbed the wrist with her other hand. There was a sudden tug, a thrust at his elbow. He heard a ripping, popping sound as his arm was wrenched out of its shoulder socket. He shrieked and passed out.
Karen was wading backward, chest-deep in the lake, dragging both packs by their straps when she heard an outcry from shore. She swung around. She stared. The straps slid from fingers suddenly gone numb.
She didn't know, couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Silhouettes of tangled bodies squirming on the ground near the scattered campfire.
A moonlit struggle near the shore.
She lunged forward and swam, clawing the water, kicking with all her strength. Her mind reeled as she raced for shore. What the hell was going on? Where had all those people come from? What if she couldn't help? What if she got there only to find the others dead? Oh, God, no. Please!
Her plunging hand raked the rocky bottom. She shoved herself to her feet and dashed, splashing the water high. She glanced toward the fire. What's happening? Then she fixed her gaze on the strange shapes just ahead of her. She felt dry ground under her feet.
It was the woman — the witch — sprawled on her back. Motionless legs stuck out from her side. Benny? The hands were on his head, pushing his face to her torn belly, smothering him.
Karen grabbed Benny by the hips and yanked him back. As she dragged him clear, the woman rolled, snarling, clutched the hatchet, and crawled toward them. Karen leaped over Benny. She stomped the hatchet flat against the ground and slammed her other foot into the woman's face. The head snapped backward. Karen grabbed the chin, the base of the skull. She twisted hard. The body flipped onto its back. As the head lifted, she drove her heel down, crashing the head against the rocky earth, smashing the nose. The body went limp.
Grabbing the hatchet, she whirled around. Benny raised his head. 'Hang in there,' she gasped. 'Gotta… the others… all hell…' She started toward the fire.
'Karen!' the boy yelled.
She looked back at him as she ran. He had turned himself onto his back, was sitting up.
'Come back!' he shouted. 'Listen to me! I know!'
Karen raced back to him.
'Kill the witch!' he blurted. 'Quick!'
'She can't — '
'She's not dead!'
If we'd listened to him before.
Karen ran, dropped to her knees. The woman below her was mumbling, staring up at the sky.
'Quick!' Benny yelled.
Nick had thrust himself up to his hands and knees, but the girl stayed on his back. The rock pounded his head. He threw himself over, rolled onto her. Her legs encircled his hips. An arm crossed his throat. A hand reached up over his face holding the jagged rock and he knew he couldn't get his arms up in time to block the blow.
Karen swung the hatchet down. It broke through the woman's forehead. The body jumped and twitched. She raised the hatchet, and chopped again.
The rock fell. It bounced off Nick's forehead. The arm at his throat went limp. The legs dropped away from his sides.
He flung himself clear of the girl. She was motionless on the ground. He pushed himself to his feet. As he staggered over to her, Julie, pressed between the two naked men, tore the clutching hands of the headless one away from her throat. She was gasping and sobbing. Nick grabbed the man's shoulder and hip, and rolled him
