Endurance

The lights were on, but the room was empty. Maria looked for the voices, which hadn’t abated, and quickly focused on the nightstand next to the bed. Setting on top was an old reel-to-reel tape recorder. The voices of the arguing men droned through its speakers in an endless loop.

A trick. To distract her. Make her feel like she wasn’t alone.

Or maybe the purpose of the recording was to lure her into this room.

Then the tape recorder, and the lights, abruptly went off.

Maria froze. She heard someone crying, and with no small surprise realized the sound was coming from her. Dropping onto all fours, she crawled toward the bed. This room was laid out the same way as the Lincoln room, and she quickly bumped against the dust ruffle, brought her legs in front of her, and eased underneath on her belly, feet first, keeping her head poking out so she could listen.

At first she couldn’t hear anything above her heart hammering in her ears and her own shallow panting. She forced her breathing to slow down, sucking in air through her nose, blowing it out softly through her puffed cheeks.

Then she heard the footsteps. From the hallway. Getting closer. First one set, slow and deliberate, each footfall sounding like a thunderclap. Then another set, equally heavy, running up fast.

Both of them stopped at the door.

“I think the girly is in here.”

“That’s Teddy’s room. We can’t go in.”

“But she’s in there. It’s bleedin’ time.”

Maria heard the doorknob turn. She scooted further under the bed, the dust ruffle covering her hair.

“You shouldn’t do that. You really shouldn’t do that.”

The door creaked, inching open. Maria saw a beam of light sliver through the crack. It widened until she could see two huge figures silhouetted in the doorway. They each held flashlights.

“The one that catches her, bleeds her first. Them’s the rules.”

“I ain’t goin’ in. You shouldn’t neither.”

“Shuddup. This girlie is mine.”

“It’s Teddy’s room.”

“Shuddup!”

The man dressed in the George Washington outfit shone his light on the other man’s face. Maria put her hand in her mouth and bit down so she didn’t scream. His face was... dear God... it was...

“Watch my eyes!”

“I said shuddup!”

“I’m tellin’ on you!”

“Hey! Don’t!”

The door abruptly closed, and both sets of footsteps retreated up the hall, down the stairs.

Maria’s whole body shivered like she was freezing to death. Terror locked her muscles and she couldn’t move. But she had to move. She had to find some kind of way out of there.

Were all the windows bricked-over? Maybe some of them weren’t. Maybe she could get out of a window, climb down somehow. Or get up on the roof. The roof sounded a lot better than waiting around for those freaks to come back.

Maria heard something soft. Faint. Nearby.

Some kind of scratching sound.

She concentrated on listening, but couldn’t hear anything above her own labored gasping. She took a deep breath, held it in.

And could still hear the breathing.

Raspy, wet breathing.

Right next to her.

Someone else is under the bed.

“I’m Teddy.”

His voice was deep, rough, and hearing it that close scared Maria so badly her bladder let loose.

“I’m gonna bleed you, girly girl. Bleed you nice and long.”

Then something grabbed Maria’s legs, and she screamed louder than she’d ever screamed in her life, screamed louder than she’d ever thought possible, kicking and clawing as she was dragged down through the trap- door in the floor.

One Year Later

“Why don’t you go with your grandmother,” Mom said, wiping the sweat from her forehead and replacing it with a streak of grime. “Take JD for a walk.”

Kelly Pillsbury frowned at her mother, who’d been trying to change the flat tire for more than ten minutes now. The last nut refused to come off. Each of the women had taken a turn with the tire iron, but it was rusted on tight. Grandma was the one who suggested a squirt of WD-40. Now they were all waiting around for the lubricant to soak in, loosen the nut up, so they could get back on the road.

“I’m cool,” Kelly said.

She took a furtive glance at the wilderness around her. More trees than she’d ever seen, covering the hills and mountains in every direction. It was gorgeous, and being out here made Kelly forget her established role as a sullen tween. Make that teen. She was turning thirteen in only three days.

Something caught her eye at the tree line, alongside the winding road. A quick streak that looked like a man.

A man darting behind some bushes.

But it had been too big for a man. A bear, maybe?

No. Bears don’t wear overalls.

Kelly squinted into the woods, but the figure didn’t reappear. She listened for a moment, and heard only the faint click click click of the wind spinning the rear wheels of their three bikes, bolted to the rack on the Audi’s roof. After a moment, Kelly believed she’d imagined the figure, that her eyes were playing tricks on her after such a long road trip.

Who would be way out here in the middle of nowhere anyway? We left modern civilization two hours ago, the last time we stopped for gas.

She looked back at her iPod and unpaused her game, Zombie Apocalypse, on level 64, with only ? of her health left. Kelly had never beaten level 65, and she’d been playing the game for more than a month.