Jon and Bill made steady progress northwards. They followed the stream up a gentle slope and were about to begin a steeper climb to higher ground when Jon raised his hand. Both men stopped and Bill waited as Jon listened, turning his head from side to side, trying to pinpoint the position of something. For his part, Bill could see and hear nothing out of the ordinary.
“What is it?” he whispered.
Jon pointed to the lower ground off to their right. Bill scanned the trees, but still could see nothing. Jon signalled for him to crouch down and, as he did so, Bill heard it: a movement, snapping twigs and squeaking footsteps in the snow, somewhere below them. To Bill it sounded like a large animal, a bear perhaps, but Jon knew it for what it was: two people, following a route south that would take them roughly parallel to the path Jon and Bill had just taken. Jon raised his head and peered down the hill. The sloping ground was rocky, with little soil, the trees consequently sparce. Jon could see quite a distance through the well-spaced tree trunks.
“Bill. You them?”
Bill raised his head and looked to where Jon was pointing. There between the trunks, he could see two figures: one tall and one shorter, struggling through the snow.
“I think I know the tall one, maybe. But I can’t be sure from here. Too far away.”
Jon nodded and took Bill’s arm, pulling him to his feet.
“Come.”
Jon began to move across the icy rock face with practised ease and at great speed. He had never encountered anyone this close to his cave; it was unsettling. He wanted Bill to confirm that these strangers were no threat to his unexpected guests sheltering back in the cave, and he wanted that confirmation quickly, before these two strayed any closer to his refuge. Bill tried to keep up with Jon, but it was hopeless. On a narrow ledge of smooth ice, he lost his footing and began to hurtle down the slope. He tried to run, but the slope was too steep and he raced downhill in a series of frantic leaps, tumbles and rolls. At the foot of the hill he collapsed onto the snow in front of Dave and Lou, gulping huge lungfuls of air and quite unable to speak.
At first, Dave and Lou were too shocked to react. They recognised Bill immediately, in spite of the furs that Jon had given him to wear over his own gear but, for several seconds, they simply stood staring at him. Then, with a crash, Jon appeared above them. He was scrambling down the rockface, at a hectic pace, prepared, if necessary, to fight to protect Bill. With a final leap, he landed at the bottom of the slope and crouched, protectively, next to Bill.
Dave started forward, hands outstretched in a pacifying gesture.
“Wait up, man! Take it easy. No need for anyone to get hurt here. Let’s talk, OK?”
Jon looked up at this tall man. He looked even more out of place here in the forest than did Bill. His jacket was the colour of leaves in the fall, but alarmingly bright; it pained Jon’s eyes to look at it. He grimaced.
Dave, taking this to be a worrying sign, backed away a few steps.
“It’s OK man, we don’t want any trouble. I’m sure we can talk this through like reasonable people. You don’t want to hurt this guy. OK? So let’s talk. Let’s just all take a breath, calm down and talk, OK?”
Jon picked up some of the words. Why was this man so keen to talk? Did any of these people ever stop talking? At Jon’s side, Bill was still breathless, winded from his headlong dash down the hillside. Jon put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
Dave wasn’t sure if Jon’s gesture was intended to be threatening to Bill, but he took Jon’s baffled silence for progress of a sort.
“If we’re on your land,” he continued, “if we’re like, trespassing, we can go. We’ll just take our friend here and go.”
Lou had had enough. She pushed past Dave.
“Cut the crap!” she shouted, “Get the hell away from him, right now, you freak, or...”
Lou didn’t spell out the consequences, but she had no need to; as soon as Jon saw her pale face and blond hair, he thought of Suzie. Memories of Suzie’s pitiful death and his guilt at his failure to save her, spilled back into his mind, momentarily drowning out the reality around him. Forgetting any threat to himself or to Bill, he looked into Lou’s wild eyes, seeking some recognition, but he found only hostility. Jon was nonplussed.
Bill, meanwhile, had recovered. Shaking his head and still breathing heavily, he raised his hand.
“Dave, Lou, it’s OK. This is Jon. He saved Annie and me...And three of the kids are safe in his cave, back there.”
“What?” Lou gasped, “Ethan! Is Ethan OK?”
“Yes, Lou, he’s safe.”
Lou stood for a few seconds, speechless and immobile, unable to assimilate what Bill had just said. Then, overwhelmed by the news, she burst into a noisy explosion of emotion, laughing hysterically while tears poured down her cheeks. Her son was alive! The instantaneous release of anxiety made her feel lightheaded. Her legs became weak and began to shake. Reacting quickly, Dave caught her and held her as she fell, sobbing onto his chest.
“It’s OK girlfriend, you cry all you like. Just let it out. Let it all out.”
But the emotion was soon spent and the weeping abruptly subsided. Lou mumbled a brief apology to Dave, pulled herself away from him and briskly dried her eyes. Now that she had regained her self control, she was determined to go to this weird guy’s cave immediately but, looking around, she was irritated to see that no one else seemed to share her sense of urgency. Bill and Jon seemed to be chatting.
“You, she go to cave.”
“No, Jon, we should all stay together.”
She interrupted their conversation.
“What are you talking about?”
“Jon thinks I should lead you back to his cave, but I think we should stick together.”
“OK, so let’s all get back there. Come on, let’s go.”
“No, he’s saying he’ll go on alone.”
“So?”
“Lou, the thing that took the kids is still out there somewhere. It’s got Emma and Dave thinks it’s making for the hotel. Jon’s going to try to stop it before it does any more harm.”
“So?”
“We can’t let him face that alone.”
“Will you please get to the point.”
“Ethan will be safe back in the cave; Annie’s with them and there’s food, drink and shelter.”
“I get it, you want to go after the madman who took the kids. That’s great; you go do whatever you gotta do. Me? I don’t care about him. I don’t care about anything. I have to go get Ethan, and that’s it. Just tell me how to get to the cave and I’m gone. Then you can all go hunt this guy. I don’t care what any of you do. I just have to get to my baby.”
Bill tried once more to persuade her.
“Lou, if you knew what was out there, believe me you’d want us to stick together. Jon can’t face that thing alone.”
Dave, who had been quiet for a few moments, now spoke.
“Bill, you know the way to the cave, right?”
“Yeah, I guess. You follow the stream until-”
“OK man, that’s cool. How about you take Lou back to the kids and I go to the hotel with Jon?”
“You don’t know what we’re up against, Dave. I’ve seen it.”
“It?”
“Yeah: it’s the weirdest looking...Dark eyes, dead-looking and teeth; shit, they’re like, I dunno, like shark teeth, but thinner, really sharp.”
“He’s filed his teeth?”
“No, Dave. You don’t understand. I don’t know what it is,” Bill paused, “but I don’t think it’s human.”
“What? Get outa here!”
Dave’s grin faded. It was obvious that Bill wasn’t sharing the joke.
“Are you for real? Not human, are you kidding me? OK, if it’s not human, what the hell is it?”
“I have absolutely no idea. It’s tall, very tall, and thin and it’s got nails, or claws; they’re like blades.”
“A bear?”
“No Dave. It’s nothing like a bear.”
Bill shivered, feeling the hairs on his arms rise. The memory and the fear were both very real, but he steadied his breathing and forced himself to remember the creature that had lashed out at him and taken Emma away.
“It looks like it could be human, or was human, but it’s deformed; kinda stretched and dried out. But when you see it, there’s something about it makes you think of, I dunno, some huge insect.”
“Shit!”
Lou had heard enough. If something like that was on the loose, she had to have Ethan close. She had to be with him. She would protect him, against anything and to the death.
“I have to get to Ethan. I don’t need a man to protect me. Just give me the directions and I’m gone. The rest of you can do what the hell you want but, with or without you, I’m going now.”
“I’m not saying you need a man to protect you, Lou, and I can’t give you directions,” said Bill, “I can’t explain the route; I’d just know it as I go along.”
Jon was also becoming agitated at the delay.
“Bill. She, you go to cave.”
Bill was torn.
Taking a deep breath, Dave broke the deadlock.
“Bill, it’s OK. You go with Lou. Get her to the cave. She needs to be with her son and you should be with Lisa and Mikey. I’ll go with Jon.”
Again, Dave was amazed to hear himself. What was he thinking? The creature Bill had described sounded like some undiscovered species of carnivore or some nightmarish H.R.Giger creation. What the hell was he doing, volunteering to go after it? His only skill was the ability to run away, very fast, so he’d be useless in a fight. And, despite all his expensively acquired gadgets and equipment, he was completely ill-prepared for survival out here in the wilderness. His own natural environment assumed the basics of heat, comfort and designer label accessories; he simply didn’t belong out here. Yet despite being cold, tired, hungry and frightened, here he was volunteering himself again. He’d heard of snow blindness, maybe he had snow madness!
Bill remained undecided, but Jon could waste no more time.
“Come.”
He signalled for Dave to follow and led him away into the trees.
“Take care of yourselves,” Bill called out after them, “and keep a lookout for Laura.”
Dave waved an acknowledgment and then disappeared into the forest.
Rita had been thorough and systematic. She had searched from room to room, but found no sign of an intruder or of anything that would explain the damage to the front doors.
Now only one bedroom remained to be searched. She reached for the door handle but, before she could open it, there was a noise downstairs. Rita stood absolutely still, the handle half-turned in her hand. There it was again. Someone or something was moving about in the rooms below her. Holding her breath, Rita turned the handle through the final half turn and opened the door just wide enough to allow her to sidle into the room. Not daring to switch on the light, she stood, waiting in the darkness, as the noises came closer.
The intruder was on the stairs.
Now he was just outside, in the corridor and Rita’s heart was beating so loud that it seemed to fill the room. Could he hear it from out there? She knew that he could not, yet she automatically began to back away from the door. Suddenly she was falling; her feet slipping from beneath her. As she fell, the door slammed open and the light snapped on.
Jeff was standing in the doorway, knife in hand. He looked down at her, but not with relief or recognition. His face was drained of colour and he looked horrified.
Rita recovered quickly.
“Jeff,” she said, trying to reassure him, “It’s OK, Honey, it’s me.”
Jeff still looked appalled. He bent forward and spoke hurriedly.
“Ree, give me your hand. Just keep looking at me!”
Naturally, as soon as he said this, Rita immediately looked away from him. All around her she saw crazy patterns, splatters of deep red, crisscrossing the walls and ceiling. What the hell had happened here? Rita’s hands, flung out in an attempt to break her fall, now lay at her side in some cool, tacky liquid. She raised her right hand to her face. It was slowly dripping crimson; the floor around her was covered in a slick of blood. That explained why she had fallen. And she had fallen onto something soft.
She turned her head, and her own cheek touched the cold of Neil’s torn, lifeless face, his bulging eyes lolling towards her own. With an incoherent shriek, Rita leapt up. Panicking, flailing about for support, sliding on the pool of blood, she grabbed for Jeff’s hand. He pulled her to him and steadied her as she looked back. She had been lying on Neil’s bloodied body. He had been ripped apart and the room around him wrecked; the closet doors wrenched apart, the bed upturned and slashed.
“Holy shit!” Rita gasped, “What could have done this?”
Jeff could do no more than stare about him in silence. Rita squeezed his hand.
“Let’s get out of here.”
They backed out of the room, closed the door and leant against the wall, both blankly staring at nothing. Gradually, Rita became aware of the cold. Her back felt particularly chill. She reached down to rub her legs and touched the saturated cloth; she was completely covered in Neil’s blood, slimy with the spilled contents of his guts. She fell forward onto her knees and retched.
She could not vomit because her stomach was empty, but she remained hunched on the floor of the corridor, staring blankly ahead, at the golden grain of the polished floor boards. Her mind was furiously turning and she now saw her meeting with Jon in an very different light. He had known Neil’s name and said that Neil hit him, but maybe that gash to Jon’s head had been Neil’s dying attempt to save himself. Had she been all that time in the presence of a killer? Jon was certainly powerfully built and was probably physically capable of having caused the destruction in the room and of tearing Neil to pieces. However, against these propositions was the look that Jon had given her, she couldn’t forget it, surely it was too intelligent and humane to be that of a ruthless killer? Doubt also rested in Rita’s nagging belief that whatever had caused Neil’s death would have been drenched in blood himself and Jon had not been.
Looking down at Rita, Jeff could do no more than gently touch her head, as waves of nausea washed over him too. Having seen the mayhem in the bedroom, he was plagued with thoughts of what Em must have seen and endured while she was being held captive. But what completely overwhelmed him was the knowledge that what had happened to Neil could so easily have happened to his little girl.
Rita was the first to recover.
“Are you OK?”
“I guess. You?”
“Yeah,” she sighed, “Jeez, poor Neil. Even he didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that. I just hope it was quick.”
Jeff nodded.
“We’ve gotta get out of here, Ree,” he whispered.
“You think it’s still in here, in the hotel?”
“Don’t know. I’ve only been into the lobby and the lounge. They look OK, but the front doors are smashed to hell.”
“Yeah. They were like that when I got here. I searched the attic and all of this floor. This room is the only one where anything’s out of place.”
“Out of place? I call that more than being ‘out of place’.”
“You know what I mean: in all the other rooms everything looks normal.”
“So, whoever or whatever did this came straight to this room? Why? What’s so special about this room?” he shrugged, “It was in here and Neil disturbed it when he came in to search the room. It killed Neil and then what, disappeared?”
Rita shook her head.
“I don’t know...but I met a man out in the forest.”
“What! When?”
“Just before I came back in here. He looked kinda wild, like a mountain man, y’know, wearing animal skins.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. He was hurt himself. He was bleeding from a nasty cut on the back of his head. Said Neil did it.”
“So you think he came back in here and killed Neil in revenge?”
Rita thought for a moment.
“No. When I left to come back here, he went off in the opposite direction, south I think. I came straight here and the doors were already smashed. And whatever it was caused the chaos in there, must have been real loud, but I didn’t hear a thing while I was searching the rooms, not till I heard you downstairs.”
“So he’d attacked Neil before you met him and Neil hit him in self-defence.”
“I thought of that, but he’d been hit on the back of the head. If he was attacking Neil he wouldn’t have been looking the other way, would he? And look at me,” she turned to show him her blood-soaked clothes, “Whoever did this to Neil would have been drenched in his blood and Jon only had blood around his head wound.”
“Jon?”
“Yeah, that’s his name?”
“You spoke to him? Jeez, how close were you? Are you OK?”
“Yeah Honey, I’m fine. And y’know, the more I think about it, the more I’m sure Jon couldn’t have done this.”
Jeff looked baffled.
“If you’re right about this guy, and he didn’t kill Neil, then who did? And where’s the killer now?”
“I don’t know, but the only place I haven’t checked out is the basement. We should do that.”
“Are you insane? We should get the hell out of here. Where’s Phil?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? Wasn’t he with you and Neil?”
“No. The path divided and we had to split up. Then Neil hurt his foot and he and Phil must have come back here.”
“They left you out there alone?”
Rita shrugged.
“Sonofabitch!”
“Let it go. It happened, it’s over and it looks like they paid a high price. They both might still be alive if they’d stayed out there with me.”
“You think Phil’s dead too? Where’s his body?”
“Like I said, I haven’t checked out the basement. He could be down there. Jeff, we’ve got to search it.”
“No way! We’re getting out of here, right now.”
“Jeff, think about it; the others will be coming back here, to the hotel, and we have no clue where they are now, so we can’t intercept them and stop them. We have to make sure the hotel’s safe. If the killer’s here and we don’t stop him now, he could pick everyone off, one by one, when they come back. We have to do this.”
“Ree, you saw what it did to Neil, right?”
“Yeah, that’s why we have to stop him. Besides, Neil was maybe taken by surprise and plus there are two of us...Jeff, we have to do this.”
“Shit!”
“Jeff?”
“Shit! Alright we do this,” he sighed, “But first, in case I don’t make it-”
“We’ll make it.”
“Ree, this is important. I have to tell you.”
“What Honey?”
“Bill’s dead.”
“What? No!”
“Yeah. Em said-”
“Em?”
“Yeah, she’s OK. She’s with Spielman in his trailer. I came on ahead to check out the hotel before I brought her here.”
“She’s safe? Oh Honey, that’s wonderful.”
“Yeah. But she said she was with this guy in the forest when Bill found her.”
“Did she say what the guy looked like?”
“I dunno’ I think she said he was tall, thin and weird-looking. Does that sound like your mountain man?”
Rita shook her head.
“Anyhow, Em said Bill tried to free her and he was killed. And she saw it all, poor kid.”
“You think it’s the same guy as did this?”
“Seems likely. We’re talking a serial killer here.”
“Poor Bill,” Rita whispered, “And poor Annie.”
She felt another wave of nausea, but quelled it. She had to think.
“Jeff, we have to check out the basement. If it’s clear, it would be the easiest part of the building to secure. We could use the reception desk as a barricade and we’d only have one door to guard.”
“That’s because there’s no other way out.”
“Sure. But the basement is concrete, even the ceiling, so no one could break through or burn us out and the windows are tiny; much too small for a man to get through. And any shelter has to be better than being out, unprotected, in the snow and the dark, am I right?”
“What about Spielman’s trailer? We could go there.”
“No trailer’s going to be as strong or easy to defend. The basement would be like a bomb shelter. We could all stay there until someone sends help.”
“That’s assuming help comes.”
“Yeah, but that would be true wherever we were.”
Much as he wished that he could persuade Rita to abandon the hotel, Jeff couldn’t fault her reasoning so he had to agree to search the basement, albeit reluctantly.
“OK. Let’s get this over with; after what you’ve just said, I don’t want to leave Em out in that trailer any longer than I have to.”
Hand in hand, they crept down the stairs. The lobby was as eerily undisturbed as before and they both struggled to reconcile the normality here with the horror they had just witnessed upstairs. They eased behind the reception desk as quietly as possible. First they peered into the office, then Jeff stood guard at the door while Rita made a more thorough search of the room.
“It’s OK it’s clear,” she whispered, “Here’s hoping the rest of the basement is too.”
“Amen to that.”
They edged down into the basement and stood, back to back, at the foot of the stairs. It was very dark in the kitchen. They would have to turn on the light. With Rita nodding in agreement, Jeff reached out and clicked the light on.
They blinked in the sudden brightness. The large room was empty and its pristine brushed metal surfaces gleamed. There was no indication of anything having been disturbed. Jeff and Rita checked the oven, the cupboards, the store rooms and the walk-in larder in quick succession. There remained only the utility room to be searched. Phil’s body had to be in there.
Both Rita and Jeff felt the need to dry their palms and tighten their grips on their knives before Jeff, his hand on the door handle, mouthed a silent three, two, one. They burst through the door, and were confronted with an entirely ordinary room. Boxes of soap powder, fabric softener and general cleaners were ordered neatly on the shelves, while the washing baskets containing carefully folded clothes had been placed tidily on top of the large washing machines.
Where was Phil?
Rita nodded towards the machines. Jeff frowned, then shrugged agreement. With Rita standing at his side, knife at the ready, he opened each door with a flourish. There was nothing inside.
Jeff was baffled.
“If Phil’s not down here, where the hell is he?”
“Maybe he’s not dead after all. Maybe he escaped, or maybe he went back out to look for me.”
“I doubt that. It’s not Phil’s style. It’s far more likely that he just ran away when he heard Neil screaming.”
“Who could blame him?”
“I could. He was supposed to be staying with you.”
“Don’t worry. I’m OK now; I’ve got you.”
“And I’ve got you, Babe.”
Rita managed a smile and squeezed Jeff’s hand, but her mind was busily considering their options.
“It looks like whatever attacked Neil has gone,” she said, in a quietly matter of fact tone, “So now, how are we going to make this basement safe and keep it that way while we go get Emma and Spielman?”
“You still think this is the safest place to be?”
“I’m sure of it. There’s no other stone or concrete-built building for miles and, like I said before, the others must be heading back here as we speak.”
“OK, I agree; no need to go through all that again,” Jeff paused, “So we’ll do like you suggested and barricade the door into the lobby. Then you stay here and I’ll go get Em.”
“No way. You’re not going out there alone. We’ll both go.”
“We can’t. What if he comes back while we’re out? We’ll have to search the whole place all over again.”
“Just the basement.”
“Yeah, but -”
“It’s unlikely either of us could defend this place alone, so there’s no point in one of us staying behind. We’ll both go, but first we’ll put something behind the reception desk, to block the door, and if that’s been moved when we get back, then we’ll know someone’s been down into the basement. OK?”
“OK, OK. Let’s get moving.”
They wedged the reception desk chair in front of the door so that it would not move accidentally, but only if someone applied a good deal of force to push it clear. Then, with a final look around the deserted lobby, they pulled their collars up and clambered out through the broken front doors.
The skies were clear again and, with the benefit of both the flashlight and bright moonlight, Jeff found his way back to Spielman’s trailer with relative ease. The old man watched their approach. He was alert, standing next to a small fire, gun in hand. As they came closer, his face fell.
“Jeepers lady, what happened?”
“Someone killed Neil, back at the hotel. I found his body. There was a blood everywhere and I fell in it.”
“There’s water heating here on the fire. Yuh can wash some of that off, if you’ve a mind to.”
“Thanks, but there’s no time. We’ve got to get back to the hotel.”
The old man looked askance.
“Yuh got a killer there and yuh wanna go back?”
“It’s OK: we searched the whole building. He’s gone now and the basement is strong enough for us to defend if he comes back.”
Jeff was content to leave Rita to convince the old man. His prime concern was his daughter.
“How’s Emma?”
“She’s asleep. Poor little lady was all tuckered out.”
As Jeff climbed into the trailer to check on his sleeping daughter, Spielman turned his attention back to Rita. He looked carefully into her face.
“Tell me, did yuh see it?”
“What?”
“The thing that’s doin’ the killin’. What the little lady in there calls the ‘Shadowman’?”
“I’m not sure.”
“What d’yuh mean? Did yuh see it or didn’t yuh?”
“Neil was already dead and the...Shadowman was gone when I got back, but I did see a man in the forest just before that.”
“A man?”
“Yeah. He was powerfully built and he had long, wild hair...And he was wearing animal skins and furs.”
“Yuh saw him up close?”
“Yeah. I spoke to him.”
“Then yuh lucky to be alive. Your dead friend told me it attacked him.”
“Neil?
“Yeah. He came back to the hotel like a scalded cat. Kept lookin’ out to see if it was followin’ him.”
“And was it? Did you see it?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t know it’s the same person.”
“He described him like yuh did just now: wild lookin’, long hair, animal skins. And, like I said, he said it attacked him and some other guy for no reason. Then it chased him through the forest. He had a fight with it and he thought he’d killed it.”
“Neil? Are we still talking about Neil?”
“Yeah.”
“Well I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but Neil was no fighter. It wasn’t his scene.”
“He said he led it away from yuh, t’ protect yuh.”
“And that’s definitely not Neil. No way.”
“Well that’s what he told me. And now he’s dead. So who killed him?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think the man I met was dangerous. He didn’t threaten me at all and his eyes were so intelligent and gentle. I’m really not convinced he could have killed Neil, or Bill.”
“So yuh know about yuh friend Bill? The little lady told us he died; a bad business,” he shook his head, “So don’t be lettin’ no big eyes fool yuh; he’s the killer alright.”
“Did Emma say that?”
“That little lady’s said nothin’ more. She’s bin asleep since her pa left.”
Rita wasn’t convinced of Jon’s guilt; Emma’s description to Jeff of the tall, thin ‘Shadowman’ didn’t sound much like Jon. But she decided not to argue the point with Spielman and, instead, changed the direction of the conversation.
“Will you come back to the hotel with us?”
“No. I’ve bin safe here all these years. Reckon I’ll be safe a few years more.”
“Mr Spielman, I saw the devastation Emma’s Shadowman caused when he killed Neil. Your trailer won’t protect you if he comes here.”
Spielman was thoughtful for a few moments.
“I know the hotel’s stronger than this here trailer of mine, but I don’t believe this Shadowman will come here if there ain’t no kiddies here. It’s them that he wants.”
At that moment, Jeff stepped down from the trailer, carrying Emma. He had heard the old man’s words.
“If that’s true, Spielman, then we’ll need all the help we can get back at the hotel.”
Spielman looked embarrassed. Truth was: he was an old man and he was feeling the strain of this awful night. Raw courage and his anger at the killings long ago, had sustained him through hours of searching the forest for the killer, despite having himself been stabbed. The worst, however, had been spending the last hour or so, frightened and alone, watching over a young girl whose very presence in his trailer made Spielman a target for the killer. Now, Spielman was exhausted. He dearly hoped these people would be able to save their children, but he also wished they would go now and leave him to rest.
Spielman wallowed in this fashion for a few moments, until the memory of Suzie’s poor, dead face came back to him. His dismay turned back to anger. He couldn’t let the monster that had killed her and all those children get away again. Decades from now it would come back to kill again and, next time, he would be too old to do anything to stop it. His mind was made up: no matter how tired his old body, determination would somehow carry him through. He had to try to end this.
“Wait up there, son. I’ll get ma ammunition.”
He re-emerged from the trailer moments later, carrying blankets which he passed to Rita, and several boxes of bullets. He shut the trailer door and kicked some dirt over the fire. Then together, they made their way back to the hotel.