Ride the Nightmare

down and lifted Connie onto her lap, pressing her close, brushing at her hair with short, trembling strokes. “Shhh, baby, shhh. It’s all right.”

Outside, she heard the two men talking and she raised her face from where she’d had it buried in Connie’s hair,

“—doctor,” she heard the wounded man finish.

“Use your head,” Adam answered stiffly and the wounded man said something she didn’t hear except for the curse of pain.

Suddenly, there was a sliding, scraping sound.

Unaware of it, Helen pressed back slowly against the chair, the old wood creaking in the silence of the shack. She hardly heard Connie’s sobbing. All she could hear was the raking noise outside that was drawing closer and closer. She felt a chilling tingle up the back of her neck and her gaze, unblinking, held on the doorway.

Abruptly, Adam appeared dragging Chris into the cabin, one hand twisted around the collar of Chris’s jacket. Her mouth opened as if to breathe but there was no breath in her. Air seemed to stifle in her lungs and in the heavy length of her body. it seemed the only thing that lived was her heart.

“Is he dead?” she heard the other man ask as he stumbled into the shack after Adam.

“I don’t know,” Adam answered carelessly. He released his fingers and Chris’s head and shoulders thumped down on the floor. Helen couldn’t restrain the faint gagging sound in her throat. Adam glanced over at her, then turned to the wounded man.

“Let’s see,” he said, drawing Steve’s hand off the wound. Helen twisted her gaze from the sight of the man’s blood-pulsing shoulder. She pressed her eyes to Connie’s head again, her arms tightening convulsively around her daughter’s body.

“I gotta have a doctor,” she heard Steve insist.

“And end up in the gas chamber?” Adam snapped.

“I’m bleeding, damn it!”

“Hold still.”

There was a moment’s silence, then the sound of cloth being torn. Blotted out, in an instant, by Steve’s hoarse cry of pain. Helen glanced up instinctively and saw the torn, blood-pumping hole in his shoulder.

“I need a doctor,” said Steve. There was a shakiness beneath the hard sound of his voice. Helen looked at Chris again. He didn’t move.

“Come here. Sit down while I bandage it,” said Adam.

Helen looked up, startled, and saw him leading Steve toward her. She shuddered as his eyes met hers and, hastily, she struggled to her feet, holding Connie against her. Connie started to look around but Helen pressed her head down to keep her from seeing.

“It’s all right, baby,” she said. She edged away, watching Steve sink down heavily onto the chair, his face ashen, his teeth clenched together so rabidly she could see the bulge of his jawbone beneath his ears.

“For Christ’s sake, hurry up,” he said.

Turning, Helen moved over to where Chris was lying. She felt numb, almost dreamlike. The entire situation had such an air of unreality about it that, somehow, the dread in her could rise no higher. Simply, the mind would not accept more. She looked down intently at Chris’s pain-twisted face. There was an ugly, purplish welt across his forehead. She bit her lip and looked at his chest. At first she couldn’t see any movement and the horror she had repressed seemed to flood through her body like a cold slime.

Then she saw a hitching rise to his chest and heard a faint, liquid groaning in his throat. Catching her breath, she put Connie down.

“Mommy.”

“I have to help Daddy, sweetheart.”

Connie turned and looked down at her father. Her breath seemed to stop. She stood motionless, lips parted, staring at him. Helen kneeled beside him quickly and ran a trembling hand over his cheek.

“Chris?” she murmured.

He didn’t move. Helen looked around and saw a bottle of water on the table. She pushed up and started for it. Connie caught onto her.

“I have to get some water,” Helen told her, “Daddy needs—”

“Mommy, don’t—”

“Stand by Daddy,” Helen told her. “Be my brave girl now.” She backed off slowly, raising her hand as Connie started after her. “Just stay there,” she said. She glanced across her shoulder at Adam who was pressing a handkerchief against Steve’s shoulder.

“Your slip,” he said.

Helen twitched and stared at him.

“Your slip,” he repeated. He started to turn and she drew back. Connie made a frightened sound.

“All right, all right,” Helen said. Shivering, she turned away and bent over. Drawing up her skirt, she pulled quickly at her half slip until it fell around her ankles. She stepped out of it and picked it up. Adam grabbed it from her outstretched fingers and, turning back, started tearing it into strips. Quickly, Helen moved to the table and picked up the bottle of water. She carried it back to Chris and kneeled beside him again. Opening the bottle, she pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and poured some water over it. She began patting it against Chris’s temples and cheeks.

“That’ll hold it,” she heard Adam say behind her.

“No, it’s still bleeding too much.” Steve sounded a little frightened. “I gotta have a doctor, Adam.”

”Damn it, use your head!” snapped Adam, “We’ve wasted enough time. We have money now. We’ve got to clear out.”

“You wouldn’t be so damn sure if it was you,” said Steve. There was almost a whining in his voice now.

“Look you want a doctor, go get one. I’m going to Mexico.”

Helen glanced across her shoulder and saw the two men looking at each other.

“What about—?” She saw Steve’s head jerk slightly toward her and she felt a sudden, cold depression in her stomach.

“There’s no room,” said Adam, flatly.

Helen stared at him, her heartbeat suddenly jolting. She couldn’t take her eyes off Adam’s expressionless face. When he turned to look at her, she kept gaping at him.

“No,” she whispered. She couldn’t hear herself. She reached out and pulled Connie against her. “No, please.” Her fingers clamped on Connie’s arm. “Please.”

Steve groaned. “I’ve gotta have a doctor,” he muttered.

“Later.” said Adam, his eyes on Helen. He reached into his coat pocket. Helen felt a scream rising in her throat. The room seemed to wheel around her.

Chapter Eleven

“No, not later!”

It was as if Steve’s voice came from miles away. Cringing back, Connie tight against her, Helen looked dumbly at him, at the pistol he was pointing at Adam’s back.

Adam looked around. “What are you—?” He stared at Steve incredulously.

“Get your hand out of your pocket,” Steve told him.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m getting a doctor.”

“Sure you’ll get a doctor—but later!” said Adam, “We have to get out of here! Don’t you understand? We’ve been—”

“I want him now!” Steve’s chest rose and fell unsteadily. He blinked and leaned back dizzily against the chair. “Don’t move,” he ordered, “Don’t move or I’ll—”

“You’re a fool,” Adam said.