Dennis Yates - Minus Tide

She got the rope free and tossed it into the boat. Chad was still inching toward the back. There was no way he was going to make it to the motor in time. He stopped and stared up at her with widening eyes.

Ann felt a hand take hold of her collar and lift her into the air. As she swung her fists to free herself, Cyclops dangled her over the swift water of the bay before tossing her onto the dock. She lifted her head and saw that Chad still didn’t have control over the motor. The side of the dingy was still bumping next to the dock.

“Go!” Ann screamed.

“I’m not leaving you, Ann.”

Still lying on her side, she kicked the boat with her foot and sent it moving away from the dock. Chad stared at her one last time before the dingy spun out into the current and was lost in darkness.

“It’s your time,” Cyclops told her.

Ann ducked as he reached down for her again. She got to her feet and ran up the gangway. Cyclops was fast behind her and she heard the snick of his knife as it sliced off hunks of her hair. The fire in her leg was making her cry.

Halfway up the gangway she spun around and kicked Cyclops in the jaw. He hadn’t seen it coming. He stumbled back and caught the railing with his hand. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth and collected on his filthy beard.

“This is going to be fun, Ann.”

She turned around and ran. When she got to the top landing she noticed an empty steel drum and pulled it over. The drum bounced down the gangway and she heard Cyclops grunt as she cleared the seawall.

She ran across the parking lot in the direction of her car. She thought that if she had enough time she might still be able to get the mace out of the glove compartment but stopped when she realized it wouldn’t work. Her Volkswagen had been flipped over onto the right side. Getting to the glove box would be too time consuming.

Not far from her car she noticed a body lying on the ground. She recognized the uniform and the shape that filled it.

“Sheriff?”

“Help me, Ann…”

When she reached him, his eyes fluttered as if straining to stay open. He was trying to reach for something near his leg but she saw nothing.

“Don’t move. I’m going for help.”

The sheriff shook his head. He raised himself again and stretched his hand toward something near his leg. This time he’d managed to grab his pant cuff and pulled it up far enough so that she could see what he was after.

Strapped to his calf was what looked like a snub-nosed.38 revolver. He nodded at her and she bent down and pulled it free. Just as she was about to stand up she felt his fingers claw into her ankle and she leaped back and briefly pointed the.38 down at him. He stared up at her.

“It’s too late for me, Ann.”

“Don’t say that.”

“He busted me up bad. You’ve got to stop him before he kills anyone else. Before he kills you.”

They both turned to see Cyclops emerging from the opening in the seawall. His face lowered with only his single eye floating behind a greasy curtain of hair. The sheriff began to tremble.

Ann leveled the.38 and fired. A bullet tugged at Cyclops jacket before he dove behind Chad’s car. She was unsure if she’d even hit flesh.

“Run,” the sheriff wheezed.

“No. I’m going to stay here with you. I can keep him away until someone comes.”

“It’s not going to work. Gun’s almost empty…

Ann broke open the chamber and glanced inside. The sheriff was right. There was only one bullet left. How in the hell can I stop him with one bullet?

It made sense that she should leave. If Cyclops followed her, the sheriff might stand a better chance. It was obvious that Cyclops had only gotten started on him.

“I’ll get help…”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m finished.”

She turned and ran toward the highway.

It was as if a hot coal had been shoved into the flesh of her leg. Ann had run some brutal cross country races in the past, but she’d never felt like she was on the verge of blacking out. She wondered how far the scarlet line of infection had traveled. Did running make it rise faster? Would it reach her heart by the time she got to town? I should be feeling cold but I’m burning up inside.

It wasn’t the actual running that concerned her the most. She could do that, even if her leg went numb and she was forced to drag it along behind her. It was her mind that she was worried about-the thoughts that kept coming and going in her head-some times so real that she wondered if she were already blacking out and didn’t even know it.

It’s because you’ve got a fever from your infection. It’s affecting the way you think, altering your perceptions. That’s what’s happening to you. Now concentrate on getting back to Traitor in the little time you’ve got left.

She gritted her teeth and pushed forward. She could still sense Cyclops behind her, although the last few times she’d risked slowing down to look, all she’d seen was an empty highway.

Swift clouds moved across the night sky like silent boxcars. She could smell the vinegary scent of rain moving off the ocean, feel the drop in air pressure. She thought she heard dogs barking and wondered if she was hallucinating.

Not much further up the highway, she remembered to take a shortcut locals often used to get to Traitor-a series of long and sometimes steep switchbacks that eventually led down to a railroad track far below. There were many drop offs you had to be careful of but once you reached the tracks, the rest was an easy distance into town. When she was younger and a lot more foolish she’d taken the trail many times at night with only the moon lighting her way. Tonight the moon wasn’t going to be much help. Whatever light did make it down to her now was too weak. But she still had the flashlight she’d found on the boat. And the.38 she’d taken from the sheriff.

Stepping cautiously down the slippery trail, she thought about the railroad tracks far below. As kids, she and her friends used them often in the summer to pick blackberries, although their parents warned them to keep away. She’d grown up hearing the same stories as everyone else. Of crazy hobos lurching down the tracks, looking to hurt someone. Neither she nor her friends ever encountered anyone like that but sometimes they’d find empty liquor bottles and once James said he watched a crow fly off with a bloody finger someone must have suffered the loss of while hopping a train or getting into a knife fight.

In the spring she’d come down with her friends and pick wildflowers before the berries ripened, set pennies on the rail to see what the train would do to them. James once put a quarter on the rail and after the train flattened it he took it home and drilled a hole in it and made a necklace. Later his father had found out and given him hell for wasting money so he’d given it to Ann. Her mother had seen her wearing it and asked her about it, teased her about James being sweet on her. It must have been only a few days before she disappeared…

You had me pack my pink suitcase. The one I’d covered with animal stickers. You told me I was just going to have to stay with Aunt Kate for a few days, that you’d be back before I knew it.

But it wasn’t true. You didn’t come back. And if you thought you could keep Duane away from me you were wrong. Duane, before he lost his teeth and the words still slid off his tongue as if they’d been buttered… A year later he’d talked Aunt Kate into letting him take me out for a chocolate shake. And on the drive back I broke down and cried and he’d pulled over and tried to hold me but I could tell it made him uncomfortable. I told him I must have done something wrong to make you go away and he hadn’t said anything or didn’t know what to say and he got out of the car and lit a cigarette and leaned against the door and just stared in at me. I think he was scared and didn’t want me to see it.