Posted on March 20, 2008

The Hole: Part 64

They’d covered half the distance when the creatures returned. One must have been hiding behind the truck, its body flattened impossibly thin, because it now rose up, huge mouth opening and contracting with the sound of lips smacking. Melvin screamed, falling backwards away from it, but Evajean reached out and grabbed him, pulling him towards the truck. The creature vanished again, sinking low, and then rolled, coming out behind the cab and rearing up again.

On the other side of them, around the corner of the church, the second creature appeared, calling out to its companion in a deep moan. Melvin dropped his duffle bag, turning to look at it, and Evajean shouted at him. Elliot ran the rest of he way to the truck and opened the door. He had the rifle in his hand and, as soon as he was inside, turned around in the seat and fired out. The first shot went wide, but the second bullet clipped the creature by the church in the soft grey flesh of its belly. It moaned again, a sharper sound than before, and rolled away.

The one by the side of the truck twisted around and lowered its head until it was only feet from Elliot. Behind it, Elliot saw Evajean trying to pull Melvin up while he scrambled for the bag, grasping for the straps but missing. The creature Elliot had shot was writhing, its head high, several sets of legs suspended and kicking in the air.

The one in front of him hissed, pulling back, its muscles tensing beneath its skin. Elliot swung the rifle up and aimed at the half open mouth. He fired and the creature jumped back, lifting its face to the sky. Elliot didn’t know if he’d hit it or just scared it, but he took the opportunity to take another shot at the one by the church, and missed again.

Melvin and Evajean were up, having recovered the bag, and now ran to the truck. Elliot hopped over into the driver’s seat, leaving the passenger door open for them. They’d almost made it, Evajean’s hands reaching out to find purchase on the door’s rim, when the creature by the truck recovered. Faster than Elliot would’ve imagined it capable, it lashed forward, bypassing Evajean and going directly for Melvin.

The man screamed and held his arms up as the mouth closed over him. It stopped its fall with just his legs still visible and then that lip smacking sound game again. Evajean turned, starting to go back to help him, but Elliot leaned out of the truck and grabbed her, pulling her inside. She fell backwards across the seat just as the creature lifted its head up and away from Melvin. His body stopped at the shoulders, arms and head gone, but from the waste up was only a saliva slick knob of muscle and bone and organs. He tottered and fell, hitting the ground, his top half flatting noticeably with the impact. Evajean coughed and retched, but managed to recover enough to yank the truck’s door closed after Hope had jumped inside.

Elliot started the truck. The creature not occupied with Melvin’s remains twisted at the sound to look in their direction. It hissed and started forward, slower than before, cautious of the gun. Elliot slammed down the gas, Evajean shouting at him to “go, go!” and he pulled the truck away. The monster that had devoured Melvin looked up now, following the vehicle’s progress. But, just as quickly, it returned to its prize and its companion, after a final screech, snaked its head in and made a grab for Melvin’s legs. The two began fighting then and Elliot kept his foot down, accelerating the truck away from the horror behind.

“Jesus–” Evajean said. “Did you see that? I can’t believe I saw that.” Her voice was small and she looked out the window while she spoke. The church had fallen out of view some time ago. Somehow, through outright luck, Evajean had Melvin’s map with her and she’d silently handed it to Elliot shortly after they were back on the highway and the threat of the creatures was, at least momentarily, gone. Now he drove in the direction indicated, hoping that it meant a way through the barrier–or anything that would help them do what the book had told them must be done.

“That was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” Elliot said.

Evajean nodded. She was crying.

“I hate all of this,” he said. But he didn’t, not all of it. The truth was that he felt driven now. The words in the book, the story Melvin had translated, resonated with him. The quest laid out was right and everything he’d been able to think since their escape only made him more sure. It was like discovering you could paint and becoming immediately convinced that the only course of action left to take was to put brush to canvas, abandoning all else. If it’s true, he thought, if that book is right that we’re these mighty and strong people, then it only makes sense that that’s what I need to do. It’s what I was meant to do.

“But we have to keep going,” Evajean said. “We can’t stop–we know what we have to do now.”

Elliot looked at her, startled by the repetition of his own thoughts. It’s true. All of it. “We do,” he said. “We’ll follow the map and hope it can find us a way through to Salt Lake City. And then we’ll find museum–or whatever place it is we’re supposed to find–and… I guess we’ll just take it from there.”

“We don’t have a choice,” she said. “But, you know what, Elliot? I don’t think I want a choice. I mean, even if I had one, if I could maybe just walk away from all this, turn around and go back to Charlottesville, I wouldn’t. I have to see this through.”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “Me, too.”

“It didn’t say anything about Hope,” she said. “The book, it didn’t say anything about dogs.”

Elliot laughed. “He’s in there,” he said. “I’m sure of it.”