Rock Chick Redemption
Page 66

We both skirted Corn Husk Man and ran flat out, giggling and screaming, to the end of the corn maze. We stopped, doubled over, trying to catch our breath, holding on to each other but stil laughing. My ribs ached, just a little bit, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t laughed that hard in years and I didn’t remember the last time I’d had that much fun. We were in an open field, the front of our party was long gone. Al y and Carl would catch up, I was certain.
It couldn’t have been a second or maybe two later before we heard the chainsaw.
And I could say that there was nothing more terrifying, fake haunted trail or no, then being in an open field, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere and hearing the sound of a chainsaw.
Indy and I looked at each other, and, in unison, our heads moved and we looked over our shoulders at the chainsaw man who was coming toward us.
“Run!” I shouted.
At that point, it was every woman for herself.
Indy and I pushed off each other. She went to one side, I went to the other. I was watching her when I felt my feet hit something soft. The edges of the field were made out of foam rubber. I bounced off it and fel to my knees jarring my ribs, my breath stil gone but nevertheless, I was twittering like an idiot. I got up and ran, hel bent, toward Indy.
She’d made it a lot further, but then a monster jumped in front of her. She went sideways to avoid him, hit another patch of rubber and bounced off it, went down rol ing, straight into the monster.
He toppled over her and it looked like they started wrestling. Indy was out of control screaming and struggling, half-terrified, half-laughing. The monster was hindered by a big costume that was a lot of shredded material. They swiftly got al tangled up, a flurry of arms, legs and costume.
I stopped dead and bent over laughing, holding my stomach, giggling so hard I was pretty certain I was going to pee my pants. I should have helped but I couldn’t. It was simply too damned funny watching Indy and the monster rol ing around in the dirt like that.
Then I was tackled.
I went down, hard.
I was stunned and winded, the fal jarred my ribs and it hurt. The arms around me were strong and not messing around. I couldn’t imagine the monsters were al owed to touch you, much less tackle you. Maybe we were in trouble for running around like crazy people. Maybe we were being ejected.
I struggled, turned and stil ed at what I saw.
Bil y had me.
Shit!
I screamed, not a giggly scream, a real one and it pierced the night, fil ed with genuine terror.
“Shut the f**k up,” he got up, yanking me with him.
No way.
No f**king way.
This wasn’t going to happen to me again.
And anyway, he’d screwed my chances with Hank. I wanted Hank. Hank was the best thing that had ever happened to me in my whole, stinking life.
Fuck Bil y.
I reared back and punched him in the face.
It hurt my hand, like a lot but, when he staggered back, I didn’t hesitate.
I turned and ran.
Indy had come untangled with the monster but he was rol ing around, stil tied up in his costume. Indy was on her hands and knees, looking up at me, face pale. She’d heard my scream.
She looked back toward where Bil y was.
I skidded to a halt next to her.
“Bil y!” I yel ed, hauling her up. “Let’s go!” We ran, together, holding hands. We got around a corner, another one, into another scene with some hay bales.
Bil y caught up with us and did another flying tackle. We al went down and rol ed around in bales, both Indy and I fighting, kicking, scratching.
“Hey! What’re you doing?” A monster came up and yanked Bil y off of us.
Bil y whirled around and nailed him in the nose.
“Hey!” the monster shouted again, but it was muffled as his hands went to his nose.
Indy didn’t wait, she tugged me along and I heard a scuffle behind us as the monster kept on Bil y.
We ran through more trail, straight by monsters and entered a house. Bil y caught up with us there. He pul ed Indy away from me, threw her aside and she went flying. He picked me up, starting up some dark stairs, half-carrying me, half-pushing me.
When we were halfway up, Indy attacked him from behind. He took the blow of her body hitting him ful force, his body jerking forward. He dropped me and I fel on the stairs, my lower back crashing against the edge of a stair, my elbows slamming into a stairwel .
Bil y spun around and caught Indy with his arm. She fel back down the stairs and I watched her tumble down.
I got up, clawing at Bil y to get around him to Indy.
“No! ” I shouted.
He kept pushing me up the stairs.
We entered a scene at the top with strobe lights, a surgical table, fake blood everywhere, fake severed hands and legs dangling from the ceiling on chains and a man in a bloody lab coat. He came at us to scare us but stopped when I planted my feet and rushed Bil y, catching him in the bel y with my shoulder and sending him sprawling back against a wal . I pul ed back and started pummel ing him.
“You…” I hit him in the face, “Are…” I hit him with my other hand, “Not…” I hit him again, this time, in the body,
“Gonna…” I hit him again, “Hurt…” I punched him in the jaw,
“My friends! ”
I was wild.
Bil y was cowering to try and protect himself from my raining blows.
The bloody surgeon yanked me off him.
“What the heck…?” he started to say but didn’t finish.
Carl came barreling up the stairs at the same time the head of security came into the room through the exit.
Bil y saw them, pushed off the wal , tore through the bloody surgeon and me and took off, not back to the stairs, not through the doorway at the end, but he threw himself out a window.
The bloody surgeon ran to the window, Carl and the security guy ran to the door, I ran to Indy.
She was halfway up the stairs. Al y was with her.
“Are you okay?” I asked when I got to her.
“Fine,” Indy replied.
I stopped, realizing my body was in ful tremble and I was struggling to catch my breath.
“Are you okay?” I asked again, staring at her.
She took me into her arms. “Honey, I’m fine.” I kept trembling.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked again, tears in my voice, tears burning my eyes, tears crawling up my throat.
Al y’s arms came around us both.
“I’m fine, perfectly fine,” Indy assured me.
I kept trembling.
“Shh, girl. You’re safe,” Al y whispered.