Another scream cut his planning short. At first it pushed him to run faster. Steve must be back on their trail and could see where they were going. He would know where to look. Alex had screwed up again.
As the scream turned into a sobbing yell, he realized it wasn’t Steve at all. He chanced a glance over his shoulder, as Kaitlyn pushed past him. He pictured Steve’s eyes and knife blazing as he ran them down.
Steve wasn’t behind them.
But ... someone was outside. Nicole. She stood just outside the door, screaming loudly ... at nothing.
They stopped and looked back across the yard, across the parking lot, trying to figure out where Steve went and why Nicole was so upset, screaming at nothing at all.
No, wait, Alex realized. It’s not nothing. It’s ...
“The SPLICER!” he and Kaitlyn said, in a quick exhalation, realizing simultaneously exactly what that meant. For a few seconds, they just stared, then ran back the way they’d come. Before they got there, David and Hannah joined Nicole. Alex saw Nicole grab the young girl and quickly turn her away, shoving her back inside. Then David collapsed to the ground in a dead faint.
When they arrived, Alex saw that David’s fainting was completely justified. The SPLICER! had worked perfectly—almost. It swung down when Steve, so much taller than the rest of them, ran into the trigger rope. The blade had embedded itself far into his face, almost through to the back of his head. There it stuck in his skull, having snapped off its powerful swinging arm.
Steve lay below the still-wobbling spring that had held the blade, his arms and legs twisted beneath him, still clutching his pocket knife, blade pointed down, ready to strike, if his arm had any life left to lift it. The look of shock was still on his face: he had seen the blade, if only for a second. His eye—the one that was not shoved to the back of his head—was wide, and his mouth hung open, either in a stifled scream, or perhaps in the last word of his threat. Blood pooled under his split skull and a splatter of bright red ran up the wall next to the machine and on the pavement leading to the door.
The amount of blood was shocking.
They had all seen a lot of blood in recent days. It came out of the mudmen—many of whom they practically eviscerated—all the time. But this was different. This was from a person. A person they knew and had lived and talked with.
Nicole came back outside, having left Hannah safely at the top of the stairs. She was pale and shaking, just like the rest of them.
“What happened?” she asked, looking to Alex and Kaitlyn.
Alex had never seen such a lost expression on the normally strong, self-assured girl.
“He ... he tried to kill us,” Kaitlyn answered, as she began to cry. Her fingers rose to touch the cut on her neck.
Alex found that he was crying, too.
Nicole managed to hold herself together, apparently distracted by trying to figure things out. “What do you mean, he tried to kill you? Why?”
Alex couldn’t get any words out. Kaitlyn was lost in sobs. David woke up and tried to get to his feet. He put his hand in some of Steve’s splattered blood and promptly vomited.
“All right,” Nicole said, gathering the group together. “Let’s get inside. We’ll figure this out.”
Then they saw Jared standing in the doorway.
“What’s with all the screaming?” he asked, with a grin. He looked at the group, but no one answered. “What?” he asked. “What happened?”
Nicole moved the group aside as Jared pushed his way through the alcove. Alex stood, almost defiantly in the way, between him and Steve, but moved the second Jared shot him a menacing grin. The grin quickly faded as Jared looked down on his dead friend.
“What happened?” he asked so quietly that only Alex could hear him. He stared down at the body for a moment, nudging it with his foot as if Steve might just get up with half a head. “What the fuck happened?!”
Everyone jumped at the sudden explosion of sound.
“It’s ... it’s ...” Nicole started, not sure what to say. “We should all go inside, okay?” She gathered everyone back together. She put a hand on Jared’s shoulder to bring him into the group.
Jared shook her off violently and quickly looked over his shoulder at them. “What the fuck happened to him?!” He turned to the group, his fists clenched ready to strike; to let the rage out. “Somebody better fucking tell me right fucking NOW!”
The force of his words pushed the group together, shoulder to shoulder, as if looking for protection. David moved behind the rest, peering over Alex’s shoulder as Nicole stepped forward. “He ...” She swallowed hard, still not sure what to say. “He was chasing Alex and Kaitlyn. He chased them downstairs. He was screaming. And he pushed me down. Hard. He must have run into that ... thing.” She gestured at the now blade-less SPLICER! Again, she put out a hand, to hold Jared’s shoulder and steady him as he was clearly upset. “Okay. Let’s go upstairs so—”
Jared grabbed her arm and pushed it aside. She stumbled, leaving a clear path between Jared and Alex. “What the fuck did you do?”
Alex felt his heart race and his breath grow shallower.
“What the FUCK did you DO?!” Jared screamed, rushing at Alex, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him to the ground. David fell too, his legs tangled up under Alex. Jared pounded Alex’s body against the asphalt.
Alex could not get a word out to defend himself; the air was knocked out of him when he hit the ground.
Nicole and Kaitlyn pulled at Jared. It did not faze him. In his rage, he mindlessly picked up and threw Alex into the ground, again.
David was crying, but did not
