WIP Wednesday - On the Edge of Nowhere: Them That's Gotta Eat

 

Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics

Gina and Mattie encounter death in a wheelbarrow and on four legs.

* * * *

Before her friend could answer, movement broke from the black curtain of nothing. They gaped when an old-fashioned wooden wheelbarrow trundled toward them, pushed by a gray-haired woman.

Mattie moaned deep in her throat. Arms and legs draped over the edges of the narrow cart, the bare skin showing claw marks. No, not claw marks. Gouges. Blood dripped from the limp fingers and toes. Scarlet dots trailed the wheelbarrow.

Shocked, Gina brought her gaze to the woman who pushed the cart toward them. She wore a man’s outfit that looked like it might have been new during Dust Bowl days. The shoulders of the coat were too big for her, and the trousers bagged in all the wrong places. The wide-brimmed straw hat was pure hillbilly chic, as were the lace-up work boots she scuffed along. Dust drifted around her ankles.

She neared the girls, her doughy face set in disapproving lines. Not as if she were angry, but tired and put-upon and ready to tell them to buzz off should they dare to speak to her.

“I don’t see a weapon, but watch out,” Mattie whispered to Gina. “Keep your distance while I talk to her.”

“Why don’t we run for the door?” Gina had no intention of conversing with the grim creature. Not when she saw the dead girl’s face. No more than twelve or thirteen, the victim stared blindly at the moon above, her features slack.

“We need to find out how the hell we can get out of this place.” Mattie took a wary step back and called, “Hey! What did you do to that girl?”

The woman snorted and reached a small heap of bodies. She upturned the wheelbarrow and shook it up and down to coax the limp figure into sliding onto the others.

Her mutter reached Gina’s ears. “Another pair of damned fools. They never learn, do they? Nope, they keep on coming every few years. Keep coming and keep dying and old Sally has to clean it up. Payin’ my penance for snitchin’ on the Lady, forevermore.”

“You didn’t kill her?” Mattie’s tenacity impressed Gina, who fought with everything she had to not bolt.

The woman snorted again. The corpse slid bonelessly on top of the rest. “Fools. Sally don’t need to kill, not when ever’thing else doin’ it.” She lowered the now-empty wheelbarrow and wiped her nose on the coat’s sleeve. Without a glance, she turned away.

“Where are we?” Mattie ran to block the woman from leaving. She planted herself in front of the cart and grabbed its rim.

Given the choice of standing alone or challenging Sally, who had just dumped a corpse, Gina came to the unhappy conclusion she couldn’t handle being out of reach of Mattie. She hurried over and crowded close.

Sally glared at them. “Where are you? You’re where you brought yourselves, you stupid girls. Now git. I got clearing to do. Always someone to bring down.”

“We’re still in Hungry House, right? Though we’ve traveled miles by now. It’s not possible.” Mattie showed no sign of letting her pass.

Sally fixed her with a derisive look that said she’d never seen anyone dumber. Her tired gaze slid to Gina. “You wanna tame Ms. High-and-Mighty here. Else, summa those up ahead’s gonna do it for ya.”

Before Mattie could explode, Gina appealed in a conciliatory tone, “Please, ma’am. We want to get out of here. How do we do that?”

Sally regarded her for a long second, and Gina imagined she softened. “Go up. Keep climbing, and don’t give up. Can’t say you’ll escape, but it gets better the higher you go. Basement’s bad. Three more rooms in it. All but this are repeaters.”

Gina wasn’t sure what she meant by “repeaters,” but she had another question she needed answered. “Did you see a blond girl, really pretty and my age, come through just ahead of us? And a younger boy?”

Sally didn’t answer. Instead, she shoved the wheelbarrow. Gina staggered backward. Her arms pinwheeled for balance. Mattie fell, and the wheelbarrow sped past.

Mattie cursed and jumped to her feet, but Sally disappeared into the dark. Her voice carried to them. “Get through the door. Fresh meat’s out, but they like best what still twitches. Them that’s gotta eat will be coming d’rectly.”

“You old…” Mattie sent profane gestures after her. Gina was relieved her hotheaded pal didn’t follow the woman. They’d been lucky Sally hadn’t tried to add them to the bone heaps.

That reminded her of the girl. Gina approached the newest addition to the small mound. She stared at the injuries and hugged herself. “What would have done that?”

Mattie ended her fit of rage and joined her. “Some sort of animal. Geez, must have been a bear to have left gouges that size. Poor baby.” As fast as her ire had woken for Sally, sympathy took hold of Mattie. A tear skated down her cheek. She leaned close and shut the girl’s staring eyes. “May you find a better place, sweetheart. I’m sorry.”

Gina’s heart squeezed tight at the caring gesture. Mattie had her failings, but a lack of compassion wasn’t among them.

Her friend sniffled and turned from the dead girl. “Let’s get to the door. If I see Sally again, I’ll end up punching—”

Gina grabbed her arm. “Did you hear that?”

Mattie blinked and glanced at their surroundings, which hadn’t changed. “I don’t hear—”

“Hush! There it is again.”

Gina strained to listen. For a moment, silence wound about them. Mattie opened her mouth to speak, and it came again. A low, sliding sound, as if a snake slithered over the dry ground.

Or a monster sneaking close after it left the underside of Gina’s childhood bed. Or her closet. It came from the void where Sally had disappeared with her wheelbarrow.

Them that’s gotta eat will be coming d’rectly. The statement rang loud in her head. The noise repeated, joined by the whisper of pattering, as if rain had come to the arid waste.

The noise doubled. Trebled. The sliding and pattering grew loud and constant. Movement appeared at the edge of the darkness, and Gina grabbed Mattie’s hand. Smallish figures darted along the cracked ground. Mattie cried out in disgust.

“Rats!”

That was Gina’s first impression too. For a moment, she was relieved to be faced with such mundane creatures, though there were a couple dozen. When they came closer, horror returned.

Perhaps they had once been normal rats, but something had happened to them. The creatures’ fur was sparse and revealed scaly skin. Their eyes were whited over, so they appeared blind. Perhaps they were. Their elongated noses waved in the air over sharp, bared teeth. They raced on oversized clawed feet. Their tails, long and leprous, dragged behind bloated bodies.

The girls backed away. They nearly tripped over their own feet. The rats paid them no mind. They continued straight for the girl on top of the bone heap. More of the awful creatures came out, a tide that swallowed the earth beneath them.

Them’s gotta eat…

“No.” Gina lunged.

Mattie caught her and yanked her close to hiss in her ear. “There’s not enough of her for all of them, and I don’t want to find out if live meat is acceptable.”

Fresh meat’s out, but they like what still twitches.

Mattie yanked Gina and plowed for the rectangle of light once more. “Stay quiet. The less attention we draw to ourselves, the better.”

Gina knew she was right, but it hurt to turn from the dead child. Even when the rats kept emerging, when the first to reach the body began squirming under her blouse to get to the soft belly, it took every ounce of strength to not to fend them off.

No kid deserved that.

She heeded insistent tugs, listened to Mattie’s desperate pleas. Their sneakers patted as they hurried toward the distant rectangle. They gained on that hint of sanity little by little. Gina concentrated on it. She did her best to shut out the sounds of growing squeaks and rustling behind her.

She judged they were halfway between the rats and the floating door when the overwhelming urge to look back overcame her. As if responding to a signal, she and Mattie both did so.

The girl and the bone heap she’d been left on were nowhere to be seen. In their place, a seething mass of gray-scaled bodies writhed, a landscape of mutated rats tumbling over one another. They fought to reach the middle where the fresh meat had no doubt already been devoured.

Gina inhaled sharply, and Mattie’s grip tightened to warn her against screaming. She clutched her mouth in horror. Though she’d never been afraid of rats, the multitudes swarming over the scorched earth shriveled her courage. It was the nightmare of nightmares come to life.

Her terrified gaze swept over the gruesome tableau. She stumbled along, guided by Mattie’s resolute pace. She riveted on the long-tailed rodent that separated itself from the nearest edge of the ocean of wriggling bodies.

It froze, its quivering scabrous nose searching the air. It sat up on its haunches. Its sightless face turned in her direction. Another ran to its side and stopped, also sniffing. Then another. And more.

“Mattie, they know we’re here.” Still watching the rats, Gina began to trot and urged her friend faster. More rats left the main group and adopted searching poses.

Several dropped to all fours. They raced toward the girls. Then a tide of them. They were coming fast.

“Run!” Gina faced the light in the distance and stretched her legs long. “For God’s sake, run Mattie, run!”

* * * *

Those who step inside Hungry House never return. But when the abandoned house on the edge of town is ready to feed, it won’t be denied. 

Inquisitive Gina and her impulsive best friend Mattie know better than to enter the abandoned Victorian. The mansion on the edge of Nowhere, Georgia, has a reputation for ‘eating’ those who dare to step inside. Yet when another friend and her younger brother disappear after last being seen heading toward Hungry House, Gina and Mattie have no choice but to follow.

Inside, they find every door is a gateway to a new nightmare. Even death is no escape—it only sends the unlucky trespassers back to the start of Hungry House’s gauntlet. Their only hope is to survive long enough to confront the house’s mistress, an inhuman being whose lust for vengeance is as immortal as she.

Releasing October 25. Pre-order now: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Smashwords.

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