Chapter 13
Zach felt as though they had followed the river for an hour. He knew that couldn’t be so, but their long slog seemed to draw the minutes out along with their search. To him, this felt hopeless. Their earlier delay had allowed the killer to elude them and disappear. Instead of following this trail hoping it was the correct path, Zach felt they should have stopped and formulated a new plan.
Reese disagreed. He had the singular purpose of tracking their guy. Stopping was not an option for him. Any minute wasted now, was another minute given to put Kimberly in danger. And Reese was not going to mourn her as Gunner had his brother. To him, there was no other way for the killer to travel other than through the raw forest. Even Zach conceded the lack of sense in that. Still, he wasn’t going to win any argument with Reese that night, so he followed in silence.
Reese appreciated the quiet. He could keep his ears trained on the sounds from the forest. A couple times he thought he heard the killer’s footsteps resume, but it didn’t last long. The third time the noise persisted enough for him to pause their march.
Zach remained doubtful, but he used the break to explore the area they now occupied. It happened that the sandy bank was particularly wide here, as though the dry summer had been most unkind to this part of the river. And yet a portion of the bank was not as dry as it should have been. The sand was damp, but not just damp, darkened.
He touched the damp spot, then brought his fingers into the light of his flashlight. It was not wet with water. This was red, deep red like blood. Looking ahead, he noticed the normally smooth sand had been disturbed. Had there been a struggle here, he wondered, but before he could ponder on it further, Reese called for him.
“I think it’s him this time!” The footprints Reese focused on remained steady. He was certain he heard someone moving through the forest.
Zach rose from the shore. He heard the footprints too, but they were far off. And behind them. As he feared, they were going the wrong way. He started towards his friend. After one step, his light found an ax leaving the cover of a tree and planting itself into Reese’s back.
“Reese!”
Zach’s hand clutched for the knife he had once held before realizing it was long gone. He had forgotten to retrieve it after Reese scared him back on that trail.
The killer stepped from behind the tree. He ripped the ax from Reese’s body as it crumpled to the ground. Still holding his Bowie knife in the other hand, the killer blocked the way forward, waiting for Zach to make the next move.
Knowing this guy was fast, Zach stood no chance of getting away on the open ground. His best option was to dive into the woods and brave the wild unknown. The killer followed, and Zach’s hope was that the wilderness favored him.
He still had the flashlight, and it helped him to navigate the wild mess, but the growth was thick in this part of the forest. This must have been the one place favored by the briars. They were unusually thick among these trees, and they tore mercilessly into his arms and legs as he ran. With no time to weep, Zach drove on, ignoring the stinging pain and the blood seeping from the pricks and scratches.
He wondered how the killer fared in this gauntlet. Dressed in long sleeves and pant legs, were the briars getting through his armor, or did they catch his clothing and hold him back? If he was lucky, those devils were shredding his clothes and stripping away what protection he wore.
It seemed though, relief would never come for Zach. But just when his arms and legs burned to the point of tears, he broke through to a faintly lit clearing. Somehow he found his way back to the killer’s shack, although now reduced to a glowing pile of embers. The rest of the forest was no worse off for it. Should he survive this, he would be sure to let Gunner know his fire danger was overblown.
For now, he needed a weapon. The killer’s movements placed him not as far behind as Zach would have liked. Best he could find was a thin length of wood from the door’s remnants. Somehow the fire managed to keep away from those scraps. It was not strong nor sturdy enough as a weapon by itself, but it might work. He dropped it so one end rest on the embers, then turned back to the woods.
The killer stepped out from the brush with his ax and his knife. Zach looked down to his would-be weapon, but it simply smoldered. Useless! The killer took a step forward. Then another. Which blade planned to find its way into him, Zach wondered. The killer took his third step, when the end of the stick finally burst into flames. Zach snatched it up and held his new torch out between him and the approaching monster.
The killer swiped at the torch with his ax, but Zach pulled it away. He swiped again, and again, challenging Zach to use it. When he pulled the ax back from his next swing, Zach made his move, striking the killer in the arm. He hoped it might have ignited the ragged shirt, but he would not be so lucky. The killer merely took another swing which Zach once again dodged.
A roar came from the forest, quiet at first, but growing steadily. Neither man could afford to pay it any mind, but the killer should have. It came from Reese, charging from that trail that had taken them to the river. With his head down and his shoulder forward, he caught the killer in the chest, driving him off his feet and crashing him violently to the ground. Then with a jump, he landed each of his feet onto each of the killer’s wrists, forcing him to release his grips on the weapons. Reese took the ax, then the knife and tossed them both away.
“I don’t need a weapon to end you, my friend.”
Reese dropped to his knees – onto the man’s chest – and swung with his fists. The first strike broke the killer’s nose. The second turned his eye into a bloody pool. And Reese was just beginning.
Zach struggled to understand this even though he was glad to see his friend had survived. The gouge at the top of Reese’s back had seeped enough blood to turn the entire back of his shirt a dark red. The pain it must have cause with each swipe of his fists! And yet Reese ignored it. His desire to protect his girlfriend and his friends took over and turned him into the killer he needed to be.