I felt Dex straighten up. “What is it? Do you need help?”
“I should be OK, it’s probably just stuck. It’s an old tent.”
Suddenly the rocks hissed loudly, louder than it had ever been. I turned to look at them. They glowed brighter until every single rock in the pit was a fiery piece of hot scarlet. They hissed and steamed as if someone was pouring buckets of water on them. They hissed and steamed as if they were angry at us.
“What’s going on?” I cried. I leaned back and felt Dex put his hands on my arms, pulling me up slightly so I was back on my heels.
Rudy started chanting very loudly in Navajo. The rocks were now giving off enough light that I could see his hazy, grainy figure off to the side. He was facing the fire and waving his arms at it, yelling unrecognizable words.
The rocks only hissed louder and the heat that came off of them felt like an invisible hand coming to choke me. Sweat piled off my forehead and stung my eyes.
Then the walls of the tent started shaking violently. The willow branches overhead creaked and groaned.
Rudy crawled for his bag and his bucket of water. He took the bucket of water and turned it over the stones in hopes to put them out. Only no water came out of the bucket. No, it wasn’t water at all.
Hundreds of small scorpions came tumbling out of it, landing on the stones and making a dash towards us.
I have never moved so fast in my life. We screamed bloody murder and jumped to our feet. My head collided with the low ceiling and I heard more branches crack. I didn’t care. We had to get out of there, even if we took the whole tent down with me.
“Don’t panic!” Rudy yelled at us.
Too fucking late. I couldn’t breathe, I could barely see. We were trapped. I blindly tried to run into the walls to escape. I could feel the scorpions pinching at my feet with their little claws, aware that those venom-tinged hooks were waiting to jab me at any second.
Dex started breaking the branches off the walls, as eager to get out of the tent as I. I joined him, hoping from one foot to another, and concentrating on getting out of there, futilely grabbing at the walls in the darkness.
“Do you have a knife?” I cried at him.
“Does it look like I have a knife on me?!” he yelled.
“Hold on, I will get rid of them,” Rudy said, his voice high and tight. I didn’t believe him.
I heard him reach for the sage branches behind us. Then he gasped. Something dropped to the ground with a thunk. Too heavy to be a branch. I was scared to turn around and look, so I called out, “Rudy?!”
Nothing. Nothing but the distinct rattle of a rattlesnake’s tail amongst the hiss of the rocks. I started to think it wasn’t the rocks hissing at all. I wanted to cry.
Instead I propelled my energy into getting the tent down. I ripped a branch down with Dex and there was enough support gone that the side of the tent started to cave in.
“Now we run, ready?” Dex yelled, grabbing my hand. Was I ever. It was pitch black, I was so hot that I didn’t think I could manage another breath and we were surrounded by scorpions and perhaps a snake or two. If I didn’t get out in three seconds, I would lose my mind forever.
We took a few steps backwards, careful not to step on the stones but unfortunately unable to miss the sting and crush of the scorpions beneath us. I ignored the pain and together we ran straight into the wall of the tent.
As hoped, it started to give and we could feel the rest of the twigs and branches snapping as the tarps came loose under our force. We ran feebly, awkwardly, for a few seconds, going nowhere, until it finally gave away. We plunged forward. I almost lost my footing as the sheet covered me like a heavy blanket and weighed me down but Dex pulled me along and soon we were free. The tarp fell behind us and we were running into a supernova of bright sunshine.
We ran for a few feet before collapsing on the ground on our knees. Our hearts could not take a moment more. I rolled over, trying to catch my breath and take in the comfort of the open world. Dex got on his fours and had a coughing fit.
When I felt well enough, I looked behind me at the tent. It was completely flattened. Bird was nowhere around but Rudy was still under that tarp. As much as I didn’t want to go back, we had to help him.
Dex had the same idea. We got up and approached the tent, our senses heightened.
“Rudy!” he cried out. We stopped above a shape in the tarp. It looked like a body lay under it. I was afraid to look but we both picked up the tarp, expecting the worst.
There was nothing under there. The bucket was there, but the bag was gone. There were no scorpions, no snakes, and no Rudy.
“What the fuck?” I swore and put my hand to my head. I looked over at his pile of clothes, neatly stacked next to ours. Where was he?
Dex was just as perplexed.
“I don’t like this,” he said.
“What? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know but it’s not good. Not good.” He looked behind him at the house and nodded at it. “Come on, let’s see if they are inside.”
I followed him into the house. The backdoor was still open so we let ourselves in.
I gasped as we turned into the kitchen.
Boy Boy was standing on top of the kitchen table, growling at us. The raised, tough hairs on his back gave him a porcupine effect, and his teeth snarled into vicious points. His eyes were as wild as I’ve ever seen on a dog before.
“Hey Boy Boy,” I said softly but didn’t make any movements.
“We can’t even be sure that’s a dog anymore,” Dex whispered into my ear. It sent a chill down my spine. What if it never was a dog? Oh god. What if that was a skinwalker the whole time and he offed Bird and then did something to Rudy?
Dex pulled me back towards the door. “We need to leave now.”
I nodded and slowly walked backward. The dog continued to stand on the table top, growling like a lawn mower. Drool dripped off of its fangs and fell to the table top with a sinister splash.
We stepped outside and closed the door gently until it latched with a click.
WOOF!
Boy Boy jumped up at the window, inches from my face, snarling and snapping. I screamed in surprise. Dex ran for the side of the house and pulled me away.
We rounded the corner and saw Bird’s truck still in the driveway. Both their cars were there.
We hopped in the red truck but of course he hadn’t left his keys in the ignition. If this were a movie it would have been a different story.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I said hitting the dashboard.
“Calm down,” Dex said and started ripping wires out of the area beneath the wheel.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. How did he know how to hotwire a car? Oh, nevermind. Probably took auto-theft classes along with his years of theater school.
“It’s an old truck,” he mumbled and concentrated. I looked out the windshield. I saw Boy Boy standing by the side of the house, staring us down. He must have gotten out somehow. I pictured him getting on two legs and physically opening that door, paws on the handle.
“Um,” I squeaked to Dex, “could you do that any faster?”
Dex paused, then kept going. “The dog’s out there isn’t he?”
“Uh huh,” I said through clenched teeth, not wanting to make a single movement. I realize it wasn’t like Jurassic Park, and just because I was still that didn’t mean he couldn’t see me, but it still felt better to be on the safe side.
“Okay, I think-”
“Dex!” I cried. Boy Boy made a sudden dash for us and leaped onto the hood of the truck, its nails screaming across the paint job.
“-I got it!” he yelled and the car suddenly vroomed to life. Dex slammed the truck into reverse and the dog went flying off the hood. He kept the truck going backwards all the way down the driveway until we reached the end and then he spun the truck around as soon as the smooth blacktop was felt underneath the wheels. Dex popped the car in gear and we were zooming down the road.
“Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God,” I whimpered. “What the fuck happened?”
He didn’t say anything but gave my body a quick look.“Do you have any bites on you from those scorpions?”
I looked down at my feet. They were caked in dirt but they looked fine, no pain and no swelling. The sight of my bare thighs, though, made me wish I had put on my jeans before I left. Now they were gone forever, along with my boots.
“I’m fine,” I told him. “You?”
“No, nothing,” he said.
“But you saw them, didn’t you? You felt them?” I asked, hoping he did.
“Yes, I saw them. But that doesn’t mean they were really there.”
“How could we both imagine that?”
“I don’t think it’s that simple,” he said but didn’t offer anymore.
It didn’t matter. The fact was Bird and Rudy were gone and Rudy’s happy dog just tried to kill us.
“Do you think Boy Boy killed Bird or Rudy?” I asked softly though I didn’t want to hear his answer.
“I don’t know,” Dex said grimly. “Fuck, I wish I could think properly.”
“So what do we do?” I repeated.
“I guess the only thing we can do is go back to the Lancasters and explain to Will what happened.”
“But what if they are in on it?”
“I don’t know who is in on it anymore. For all we know, Rudy and Bird could be in on it.”
I didn’t want to believe that but I’d be lying if that thought hadn’t crossed my mind, especially when Bird failed to open the tent door. It did almost have that set-up feeling. But the idea that we had no one to trust was too much to handle.
“Too bad you didn’t get any of that on camera,” I said to him. I knew we left the equipment at home because it would have been inappropriate to film a sweat ceremony.
“Oh, it’ll be coming out as soon as we get back. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen next but whatever it is, we are getting that shit down. If anything should happen to us, we should at least get the truth out.”
I didn’t like the idea of more stuff happening to us but I knew it was just going to get worse.
We sped down the road until Red Fox came into view again. We drove down the main street and saw a blur of people up ahead. We slowed down. There was a crowd gathered in the middle of road, their backs to us, staring at something in front of them.
We brought the car to crawl. I was tempted to get out and ask what was going on but I still wasn’t wearing any pants. I was also worried that people would notice we were in Bird’s truck, with no Bird in sight. But no one turned to look at us. We put the car in park.
Dex stuck his head out the window and yelled, “What’s the hold up?” to no one in particular.
A scrawny Mexican teenager in skate shoes turned around to see us and sauntered over.
“It’s crazy,” he said.
“What is?” Dex asked.
The teen pointed at the crowd. “I don’t know what caused it. There are five dead cattle on the road. They’ve all been turned inside out. It’s fucking sick.”
“Excuse me?” I said feeling a chill go down my back. The teenager noticed me and gave me a funny look. I forgot I was covered in a lot of dirt.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “It’s like science fiction or something. Their skin and muscles are gone. It’s only bones and organs. Fucked up.”
He sounded disgusted but there was a hint of excitement in his voice.
“When did this happen?” Dex asked. They hadn’t been there when we drove through town.
The boy shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Do you know another way to the La-get out of town, heading west?” Dex asked, almost asking for the Lancasters.