Trekking through the snow, I walk all around the area with my arm up, hoping I can catch a signal if I just turn the right way. The snow has stopped falling for the time being, and the evening sky is peeking out from the clouds. Maybe it will warm up some, and the snow will start to melt tomorrow. I can’t even see where I hiked up, so I’d have to carve a new path for us, which I’m prepared to do.
Giving up on the phone, I pocket it and head toward the barn that is holding the firewood. When I make my way in that direction, I hear a rustling in the dense forest to my left. I freeze, wishing I had brought a weapon with me so I could hunt whatever animal is nearby. But when I steal a glance, I swear it’s not an animal I see. It’s human.
Whoever it is quickly scurries away, but I know without a doubt it isn’t a deer or a bobcat or any other woodland creature.
It’s them.
It has to be them.
They are watching. Waiting. Planning.
I run toward the edge of the forest, not truly thinking my actions through. I have absolutely nothing to defend myself with, but if it’s Richard or Scarecrow, I’ll kill them with my bare hands if I have to.
“Richard!” I shout toward the forest. “You fucking coward. Come out and face me! I know it’s you. Scarecrow? Can you hear me? I’m here with your wives! They’re mine now. Mine. Do you hear me? How does that make you feel? Get your one-legged shithead self out here and fight for what’s yours!”
Silence.
“Fucking cowards!”
Silence.
I run toward the exact location I saw the movement and don’t see any footsteps in the snow. But I do see disruption. They’re covering their tracks behind them as they run away. I know I can follow the tracks… and I may, but first I need to get back to the chapel and prepare the women. I also need to grab my gun that I packed. I didn’t plan on using it unless necessary, but if those assholes are here… it’s necessary.
Ember must have heard me shouting, because she comes running out of the chapel, wide-eyed and calling my name.
“Go back inside,” I say as I run toward her.
She doesn’t do as I ask until I reach her, but we both run inside together as I slam the door behind me.
“Richard and Scarecrow are here. They’re in the forest,” I say, winded from my run in the deep snow.
Holly and Violet both stand up quickly, panic on their faces.
“What? You saw them?” Ember asks, her hand over her mouth, terror in her eyes.
“No,” I say. “I didn’t get a good look, but I know there was someone.”
Holly and Violet look at each other and then back at me. “It could be an animal,” Holly suggests.
I charge toward my pack and pull out my gun, turning off the safety and preparing to use it. “It was a man. I know it was.”
“I swear I saw someone watching us too,” Ember says. “I worried it was them as well.”
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Violet says. “If it’s Richard and Scarecrow, why wouldn’t they come inside? Why would they stay in the woods with no shelter? Especially all night in a storm.”
“Because they’re insane! They’re sick motherfuckers with no rhyme or reason to what they do!” My voice booms throughout the chapel, and I realize I’m losing control.
I have to keep my control and wits about me to defeat them. I can’t let them get inside my head so that I make poor decisions. They’re playing a game of cat and mouse, but this time the mouse will tear the cat to shreds.
Violet runs to the window by the door and peers out. “I don’t see anything.”
Ember joins her to look. “I don’t think you should go out there. What if that’s what they want you to do? They might have guns too.”
“If they wanted to shoot me, they had the opportunity,” I say, marching to the door. “And if they were wise men, they would have. I’m not going to be afraid of those men and hide in this chapel. If they want a fight, I’m ready to give it to them.”
I run back toward the forest’s edge. My trek is easier this time with the adrenaline as well as running back across packed snow from where I was before. I run into the forest and follow the trail for as far as I can. I’m getting farther and farther into the thickness of the trees until I reach a creek, and then just like that, the trail is gone. I can’t tell where they went.
Gone.
The motherfuckers are gone.
I spin around and call out, “Are you watching me? Get a good look, fuckers. Look at the man who is going to bring you down. You can hide like the rats you are. But I’ll find you. I’ll find you!”