Quality and Quantity Read online

ruined from fire and smoke damage.

  “What luck!” the chief said. “You barely survived. We put the fire out and found you. Hurry, your mother is worried sick.”

  He had to keep Kyra safe. “You got the pit ready?” No answer came back. Worried, he dropped the wood and dived into the cave. “Kyra?” He stopped dead. He almost tripped over Kyra, who was sleeping. “Oh god, what relief.” He sat down and built a warm, relaxing fire.

  On the top of the ridge, Helen persuaded Nate to stop. “Are you all right?” Nate saw that her face was pale and weak. “Here, let’s hide out up in these trees.” Nate hoisted Helen up to the highest branch and sat there with her. They weren’t officially dating, but knew that they liked each other. It wasn’t hard to figure it out. For the last two years, they’ve been close friends. They went out to places together, but not dating. No one had the guts to ask the other one out yet.

  “Nate, if we don’t…you know…”

  Nate was too busy looking down to listen to Helen. He heard feet crunching sticks below them.

  “What is it?” Helen asked.

  Nate answered by pointing up.

  Helen took it as a signal and started to climb higher.

  Nate, however, began to descend as a shadow ran past their hiding tree. Nate jumped down and began stalking the person. “It can’t be a Muroshi, why would they be running?” Nate decided to chase it. Suddenly, it stopped and so did Nate.

  “Christ, you scared me.” Joe’s sweaty, bloody face stared at him. “Cory…Fred…murdered.”

  Nate was only twenty feet from Joe, took a step back, and a masked figure tackled Joe! He let out a groan as Nate dived behind a tree to hide like a coward. He started to cry hysterically as Joe cried for help.

  Helen began to worry. It had been about thirty minutes since Nate left her. “Please be alive. I hope he is ok.” Suddenly, a cold, bloody screamed echoed through her ears. “AH!” Helen screamed, losing her grip, and falling eight feet to the ground. She felt her leg twist and suggested it was broken. She crawled a couple inches, but was too scared to continue. Her whole body felt broken inside. She finally risked lying there until Nate came to help, if he was still alive.

  Nate finally pulled together and peeked. The purple masked figure wiped off the bloody blade and cracked its knuckles. “There’s Amy, given by the purple mask. Maybe I can take her.” Nate whispered. Amy examines Joe’s dead body and noticed Nate’s presence. ‘Ha!” Nate flipped her to her back and tried to find the knife. Amy rolled onto her stomach and reached into her pocket. “No!” Nate body slammed her and she released the blade. He kicked her gut and wrapped his fingers around the blade.

  Amy stared into his eyes, making him turn.

  “I can’t.” he said.

  “You don’t have the sense to kill me.” Nate heard her say from under the mask.

  “Stop it! Get out of my head!” Nate threw the knife, but it missed her head by a foot. It landed on the bank of the stream.

  “Now you’ll join your friends.” Amy walked over to Nate, who was frozen. “So let…” Amy stumbled and grabbed her stomach. Warm blood soaked her hand and she felt the tip of the knife. As she collapsed, she saw Helen’s shaky body leaning against a tree. Amy screamed as Nate removed the knife and slammed it into her throat.

  “I can’t believe…I did that.” Nate moved Helen away from the bodies and backed her up to a tree.

  Dawn. The sun rose over the mountains and started a new day. A breeze rustled the leaves and stirred the birds. Nate awoke to the sweet harmony of robins. “We made it through the night. Hopefully we’re not the only ones.” He gently woke Helen and they stretched.

  “Look.” They looked to where the grass was red, but no bodies were to be seen. “They must have been here. Come on!” Nate took her hand and they walked into a clearing.

  “Look, it’s beautiful. It was the fear away.” Helen was looking at the sunset. The trees looked tall, firm, and gorgeous. They took time to admire it and let fear fade away.

  “We’re in trouble.” Nate spotted a log cabin in the valley and in sight. “We got to search for the others.” They began sliding down the slope.

  Will sat thinking on a stump. The sun was rising and he was watching…waiting. He had woken only two hours earlier to a gunshot. He had left Amanda to rest until it was reasonable to wake her. He was still amazed though. They had gone the whole night without a single disturbance. He just hoped everyone else hadn’t died off. He just needed to get out of the woods and find help.

  “What’s that?” He slowly moved to where he could see the valley clearly. “Who is that?” Will saw someone stumbling down through the trees. “Oh man, he’s heading for the cabin!” He focused in and watched. He saw that it wore a preppy pair of shorts. “Sam! Amanda, get up!”

  Amanda woke up, startled, but calmed as Will came into view.

  “Get up and hurry. Sam is in danger!”

  “He’s alive!” she shouted. She got up, brushed herself off, and put her tank top over her bikini. “Will, we can’t go down there. The Muroshis are home!”

  Will knew she wasn’t lying. Smoke was rising from the chimney, but Sam was running toward it. “We have to hurry before….” Will couldn’t force it out. So many had already died, but he was going to save the survivors. Sam was nearing the lawn, but the coast was clear.

  “Why are we going toward the killers?” Amanda whimpered.

  Will wasn’t thinking. He just needed, or wanted, to save Sam.

  Crash! Sam rolled over a rusty, old truck on flat tires. He stumbled and rested behind it.

  Will stopped. “They’re not home.” He thought to himself. “Anyone around would have heard that metal bang. They aren’t home.” Amanda caught up with him. Obviously, she hadn’t caught on yet. Fear of getting caught was the only thing in her mind.

  “Where did he go?” Amanda was on her tiptoes looking when she lost balance.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” She collided with Will, sending them both rolling down the incline.

  Sam spotted them and headed for the house door!

  Dust began to stir as they crashed into old burn barrels. They heard a click. The door closed.

  Across the valley, Nate and Helen had thoughts of heading toward the people who wanted them dead. Once Helen saw the smoke, she thought “They’re there. They are waiting. We’re suicidal!” Helen wondered if her death would be quick or slow and painful. She was sure Nate would last longer. She is a girl after all. Nate was well rested, stronger, and faster. “Once we get down, we go in?’ she asked dying to know.

  “We can’t just run around lost. They’ll easily trap us.” They were creeping up on the lawn of junkyard cars. Crack! “Hide!” snapped Nate. A noise echoed in the valley making it hard to find the source hard to locate.

  Helen had dived into a bed of a truck that had a tarp over the top. The tailgate was closed, but small chunks were missing she could still see. They went silent as something scurried behind a van.

  “Hello?” Without thinking, Sam had run into the house. A lamp crashed and shattered on the floor. Then he decided to see if any occupants were there. Thankfully, Sam found it empty. “What’s that rank?” Suddenly, a stank flooded his nostrils and he puked. It stained a sofa that looked like it was from the 60s. He clung to consciousness while slamming against a moldy wall. The moisture soaked his shirt and stained his shorts. He entered the kitchen and found surprises. Old, murky jars filled counters, cabinets, and tables. Its contents were even more surprising. “Is that an eye?” Inside several jars were eyeballs in blood red water. Maybe it was pure blood, he couldn’t tell. He turned to the fridge. “Wonder what is stored in there?” He reached for the handle. Click! He swung it open. “Ah! Oh my god, it smells awful!” He fell backwards and tipped a table. Jars spilt eyes and fingers on the floor. A stink slammed into Sam by surprise. Inside, he saw three lumps. “No, no, it can’t be.” He moved a rack away and saw a face! Fred’s head
stared him in the face!

  Chey and Lola’s bodies were squeezed inside too. He tripped over a jar and landed on the deep freeze. Crack! The latch snapped and the door slid off. “Ah!” Inside were the bodies of Eden, Joe, Kristen, Tom, and three unknown bodies. He heard footsteps outside the house. “I’m dead.”

  he thought. “They’ll kill me.” Quickly, he jumped behind the recliner in the corner as the door creaked open.

  “Shut the door and lock it!” Will told Amanda as they walked into the cabin. Amanda shut the door and bolted it. She was too fond of the style of the interior design.

  “Looks like it was built in the 50s.” She tried cheering up Will, but he was busy searching for weapons. “Someone must have put up a fight.” They nearly fell in the flooded kitchen of eyes and blood.

  “Don’t look.” Will turned her away.

  “What?”

  Will turned back to the fridge of bodies and locked it. “Watch your step.” They maneuvered around the mess into a bedroom in the back. “This place looks smaller from outside.” The room was bare, but had the rancid smell like the rest of the house. A blood stained bed was in a corner and a closet door with a broken mirror on it.

  Amanda started for the closet door. She picked up a blood tipped shard. “There was definitely a fight. Someone was hurt.”She followed a trail of blood on the hardwood floor to under the bed. She pictured looking under the bed and seeing a killer with a gun to her