“Well,” David started, then fell silent.
Alex could see him struggling to answer. David didn’t know the answer, but wouldn’t dare say I don’t know again.
“We’re going to have to check to see.”
“Check to see?” Alex repeated, apprehensive.
David looked to the window. “On them.”
The new plan was familiar. Nicole would play look-out at the door, though she would have the two weapons she had chosen—one with a screwdriver, the other with a brick—just in case she was needed, or something else got to the door. Alex and David would cross to the mudmen on the pikes, kill one creature each, then—having decided using rock/paper/scissors again—David would take care of the last one.
David demanded they no longer use rock/paper/scissors to make such important decisions.
It took even longer for the three to get the door open this time since they knew the things were alive, waiting for them. Plus, their task had become even grislier and more disgusting. David called dibs on the longest of the boards—the one with the sledgehammer at the end. He argued that it had a “better swing and kill-power,” but Alex knew that it was the distance that David wanted; distance away from the dangling mudmen. He wished he’d thought of it first.
Before they opened the door, they looked out. The three mudmen left “alive” were very still.
“Maybe they’re—” David started.
“They’re not,” Nicole answered before he could get the words out. “Now get out there and make them dead.”
“You mean, dead-dead?” Alex said, trying to get a smile out of anyone, including himself.
It didn’t work.
The door opened with a loud cracking noise that none of them anticipated. The mudmen looked in their direction, clawing at the air in front of them, moaning and gurgling.
The fourth was still dead.
None of them were any nearer to getting off the pikes, but Alex was still terrified, and he could tell the others were, too. They stood, looking at the clawing group, now aware of how close they were to them, and felt nothing but regret for being in the situation.
But they had already wasted enough time; this had to be done, and it had to be done soon. The sun was already going down, and they certainly did not want to leave them for another night.
Alex and David crossed the lot, never taking their eyes off the creatures. They dragged their weapons behind them, opting to take all of them at once. Nicole stood at the door, ready to slam it closed after the two boys got back in, but also keeping watch on the whole area. If she saw any mudmen wander in while they were out there, she would use the signal they agreed on. Though he had been told at least three times what the signal was, Alex couldn’t remember. Doesn’t really matter, he realized. If I hear anything, I am bolting.
When the boys got within striking distance, they stopped and dropped their weapons at their sides. Alex opted to go with the iron—it looked like it would do the most damage, after David’s sledgehammer, that is.
The two boys held their weapons, ready to get to their task. The handles that David had carved were almost comfortable. Alex thought it felt almost like the cricket bat he held at last year’s sports day at school.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I guess so,” David replied, with a gulp.
“Okay,” Alex said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Right.”
Neither boy stepped forward.
Behind them, Alex could hear Nicole whispering, “What are you waiting for?”
He turned and glared at her with a look that he hoped conveyed, “If you want, you can do this!”
She didn’t budge.
“You go first,” David said.
“No, you go first,” Alex replied, searching for an excuse. “That way ... we can take turns.”
“Take turns?”
“Yeah, you do one, then I do one, then you do one. And that’s it.”
David paused for a moment, chewing his lip, then shook his head. “No. No. I have to do two of them. That’s awful. I don’t want to take turns. I want you to go first.”
“Ugh.” Alex sighed. “Okay. We’ll do this together. Same time.”
David paused again, again grinding away on his lip. Alex wondered if he would chew through it on a particularly challenging thought. “Fine,” he muttered.
“Okay,” Alex said, taking another deep breath through the moist painter’s mask. He held up his board. “Ready?”
David said nothing, but held his own board up.
“Okay,” Alex said, looking at the creature in front of him, lining himself up with him. “One. Two.”
“Wait!” David exclaimed.
“What?” Alex said, lowering his board again.
Behind them, they could both hear Nicole sighing loudly.
“Can we switch?” David asked.
“What?” Alex asked, confused. “Switch boards? You picked that—”
“No,” David said with a look of discomfort. “Switch ... guys.”
“Guys?”
“Yeah,” David said, looking up at the mudmen in front of them. “Mine’s all ... gross and ... stuff ...but he looks ... I dunno ... he looks familiar.”
“You know him?” Alex asked, a bit surprised.
“No, but he ... you know ... has a look.”
Alex glared at David. “And my guy doesn’t have ‘a look’?”
David glanced up at the horrible face of the creature in front of Alex. “No. No, not really. So, can we—?”
Alex sighed. “Fine.”
The two switched places and lined up with their new targets.
“Are you good now?” Alex asked, condescendingly.
“Yes, thank you.”
Alex shook his head. “Okay.” He raised his board over his head. David did the same. “One. Two. Three!”
He brought the iron down into the thing’s head with a sickening crunch. He had pictured it hitting with a thud and the thing would go limp; instead, the iron smashed through, and sunk in a few inches. Red-black blood and grey bits of brain flew out. Alex closed his eyes against the horror and let go of his board. He could get it back later.
Next to him, David was not having such luck. Alex had suspected as soon as David agreed to the “same time” plan, that he would try
