Chapter 67: Attackers in the Night

Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Attackers in the Night

Chapter 67: Attackers in the Night

Big Bob Carter had clearly regained some of his confidence after Axel Vance agreed to camp at the gas station. He enthusiastically hauled a portable grill from the back of the family vehicle, followed by several bags of sausages and hamburger patties. "Come on, everybody. Desert barbecue in the middle of nowhere. How many people get to say they’ve done that?"

Bob struggled with the charcoal for a moment before Ethel Carter sighed and stepped forward to help him. Lynn and Doug Bukowski stayed closer to Brenda, Bobby, and baby Catherine, none of whom seemed particularly interested in turning the creepy abandoned gas station into a family picnic. After getting lost in the desert and returning to find the station deserted, the younger Carters were far more interested in staying near the vehicles.

The only person genuinely excited about the food was Lionel Cosgrove. He rubbed his hands together, stared at the raw meat as though Bob had just revealed buried treasure, and volunteered to take over the grill. "Good idea. Move over, I know exactly what I’m doing."

Lionel quickly laid the patties and sausages across the hot grill. Grease dripped onto the charcoal with a steady hiss, and the smell of cooking meat spread through the desert air. Seeing at least one person enthusiastically participating in his improvised party, Bob’s embarrassed expression finally relaxed.

Bob returned to the vehicle and came back carrying beer. He offered bottles to Axel and Dr. Seth Brundle, smiling awkwardly as he said, "Sorry again for dragging you guys all the way out here. At least have a drink."

Axel waved him off. His attention stayed on the darkness beyond the firelight, where the desert stretched far beyond what the headlights could illuminate. They were already near an old nuclear-testing region and possibly close to the cult network they had been chasing, so relaxing completely seemed like an excellent way to get murdered.

Seth accepted one bottle but never opened it. Instead, he walked toward the convenience-store window and used a small flashlight to study the abandoned interior again. The more he thought about the station, the less sense its existence made.

"There’s almost no traffic out here," Seth muttered. "We drove for hours without seeing another house or business. How does this place make enough money to stay open?" The question only strengthened Axel’s suspicion that the gas station might serve some purpose beyond selling fuel to lost travelers.

A faint scraping noise suddenly came from somewhere outside the firelight. Conversations stopped almost immediately as everyone turned toward the darkness. A short, hunched figure wrapped in a ragged cloak slowly emerged from beyond the gas station.

"Good people," the stranger called in a thin, unpleasant voice. "Please have mercy. I haven’t eaten in days."

Brenda instinctively shifted forward, but Axel immediately raised one hand to stop her. He looked toward Lionel instead and gave him a slight nod. Lionel understood the message, picked up a freshly cooked sausage, and walked toward the stranger with an easy smile.

"Rough night to be wandering around hungry," Lionel said. "Where’d you come from?" The cloaked figure kept his face hidden and only repeated that he was a starving drifter who had been walking through the desert for days.

Lionel held out the sausage. "Then today’s your lucky day. Fresh off the grill, so don’t burn yourself." For a moment, the figure simply stared at the food without moving.

Then one withered hand slowly emerged from beneath the cloak.

The fingers came within inches of the sausage before suddenly snapping toward Lionel’s throat. At the same time, the stranger’s other hand flashed out holding a rusty ice pick aimed directly at Lionel’s chest. The speed of the attack had nothing in common with the weak, starving act from a few seconds earlier.

Several members of the Carter family screamed.

Lionel reacted almost immediately.

The friendly smile had barely left his face when he turned his wrist and slapped the blazing-hot sausage directly against the hand reaching for his throat. A sharp hiss came from beneath the cloak as the attacker jerked his burned fingers away.

The second attack still landed.

The ice pick plunged deep into Lionel’s chest beside the still-healing wound left by Leatherface’s chainsaw. Ethel covered her mouth in horror, while Bob and Doug stared at the weapon buried almost to the handle.

Lionel looked down.

He frowned.

"That shirt was new."

Before anyone could understand why he was still standing, the attacker lunged again and wrapped one hand around Lionel’s throat. The sudden movement knocked the hood backward, exposing a horribly distorted face beneath it.

The man’s features were malformed and scarred, his body twisted beneath the ragged clothing. He looked past Lionel toward the Carter family and broke into a cruel grin. "Look at all this food."

Then he raised his voice toward the darkness.

"Brothers! Come get some!"

Movement erupted around the gas station.

Several enormous figures charged from the darkness almost simultaneously, their bodies thick with muscle and their faces twisted by severe deformities. Under the vehicle headlights they looked even worse, like human beings reshaped by generations of radiation, isolation, and violence.

The short mutant holding Lionel’s throat smiled wider when he saw the panic spreading across the Carter family.

A gunshot cracked through the desert.

The mutant leading the charge suddenly screamed and collapsed when his lower leg was violently struck. The shot was so abrupt that even the cloaked attacker turned instinctively toward the sound.

His smile disappeared.

Lionel’s expression changed at the same moment.

He grabbed the mutant by the head with his left hand.

"Interrupting somebody while he’s eating is really rude."

Lionel slammed him headfirst into the ground.

The mutant went limp for several seconds, stunned badly enough that his grip finally released Lionel’s throat. Lionel then caught the handle of the ice pick still buried in his chest and pulled it free with casual irritation.

Blood ran down his shirt.

Lionel looked at the new hole in the fabric and sighed. "Seriously. I liked this one."

Then he drove the same ice pick into the mutant sprawled beneath him.

The attacker stopped moving.

For several seconds, the Carter family remained completely frozen.

Their minds were still trying to process the fact that Lionel had just been stabbed through the chest, complained about his shirt, and then killed the attacker with the same weapon.

"What are you all standing there for?" Axel shouted.

The command finally snapped everyone out of their shock.

At some point during the confusion, Axel had already moved to Seth’s truck and retrieved the enchanted chainsaw. He fed a trace of Psionic Power into the artifact, and the engine roared to life without his hand ever touching a starter cord.

Seth had also moved.

He used the truck as partial cover and fired toward the charging mutants, forcing several of them backward. Even when struck, however, some of the attackers continued advancing with an abnormal resistance to trauma.

Seth’s eyes actually brightened.

"Their durability is way beyond normal human limits!" he shouted. "And their skeletal structure has to be denser too."

Axel glanced toward him. "Can you analyze them after they stop trying to kill us?"

"I can do both!"

Another mutant staggered under fire and kept coming.

Seth grinned despite the situation. "We didn’t take the wrong road. This has to be the right region."

One particularly large mutant forced his way through the chaos and reached the side of the truck. He lunged toward Seth and grabbed for the rifle in his hands. Seth reacted quickly, pulling back and striking at the attacker to create distance, but the mutant barely moved.

The huge man grinned.

His free hand reached toward Seth’s face.

A dark shape suddenly crossed between them.

The enchanted chainsaw roared louder.

Axel appeared beside the mutant and swept the weapon across his upper body in one brutal motion. The spinning chain passed through the attacker’s shoulder before he could react.

The mutant’s grin froze.

He slowly looked down.

His arm was lying on the ground.

[Power Stone Goal: 500 = +1 Chapter]

[Review Goal: 10 = +1 Chapter]

If you liked it, feel free to leave a review.

20+Chapters ahead on P1treon Soulforger