Carver Pike - Scalp

Grant remembered the scene at the end of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre when the woman made it into the bed of the truck and looked maniacally back at Leatherface swinging his chainsaw around in the middle of the street. He thought Hal wore the same expression as they both watched the crowd of asshole monsters running toward them, none of them standing a chance at actually reaching them. Clementine was driving too damn fast.

Sally. Wow. Sally pulled the trigger and saved his rump.

The spray bottle hadn’t worked. They’d risked their lives for something so damn dumb.

It couldn’t hurt to try.

It almost hurt, but it didn’t. They’d all made it out of there alive.

No thanks to you, you jackass. You almost got Sally killed and yourself along with her.

Clementine drove around Clydesville with seemingly no purpose. She drove past the bingo hall, which Hal said was already infested. Sure enough, those things were bumbling around inside, smacking into the glass window.

“They sure are stupid,” Grant said.

“Yeah, but they’re vicious too,” Hal replied. “Kind of like hair piranhas. They don’t know what to do until they find somebody to chase.”

“Think they’re aliens?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“Think that’s what got Andre Pete?”

Hal thought about it for a second and nodded. “I suppose so.”

Grant hadn’t known Andre, but he’d seen the news, and he knew the story of the man whose truck flipped off the side of the highway, and his body had gone missing.

“I guess he could have been wandering out in the woods and nobody would have found him,” Grant said. “If they did… they would have wished they didn’t. He might have been one of the first infected.”

Clementine pulled into the police station parking lot. The window was shattered and inside looked to be void of life.

“They got the cops too?” Clementine called out from the front seat. “That’s impossible.”

“Not in a town where the cops aren’t used to anything but drunk drivers,” Hal replied.

That was true, he supposed, but then again, who would be prepared for something of this magnitude? Grant was never much of a conspiracy theorist, but he’d heard a few things on the news and on some of the YouTube videos he saw on his phone.

“It’s the chemtrails,” Grant declared. “It has to be. Those bastards flying overhead, spraying God-knows-what down over us. They could have been dropping these parasitic head lice bastards all along. Maybe it only took this long for it to reach people.”

“And animals,” Hal told him. “I’ve seen dogs with it too.”

“The damn chemtrails,” Grant repeated.

“You think the government did this?”

“Don’t you? They do all kinds of other shady shit.”

“Nah, Grant. Not the U.S., man. We take care of ours.”

“Population control, Hal.”

“No. We didn’t do this. I’d say it’s either alien, or this is something that’s been around for a long time, maybe buried in the soil, and someone dug it up. Someone or some thing . Could be a damn animal was digging a hole in the ground out in the woods and stumbled on a nest of these things.”

“That would be one hell of a find. Can you imagine? Sitting there, maybe having a picnic out in the woods. Your family’s enjoying their food, but the damn dog won’t stop barking at something it found. It keeps yapping until you get up to take a look. There’s a hole in the ground. The dog’s been picking at it. You lean over to see what’s in it and BAM!”

Hal jumped, shook his head, and closed his eyes. Grant had spooked him, and he knew Hal was ready to slap the hell out of him.

“Sorry, bud,” Grant said, “but can’t you imagine it?”

Hal was quiet for a moment. Grant realized Hal was quiet most of the time. He was too, he supposed, in regular day to day life. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that he talked quite a bit when he was nervous. He wondered how Sally was doing with all this. A quick glance through the small window between the bed and the cab of the truck showed Sally was focused on the road ahead of them. She was quiet. After tonight, she would never be the same. None of them would. Nightmares were sure to come.

Sally glanced back at him and smiled.

God, she’s an angel.

He vowed to himself to do anything it took to keep her safe. With a nod of his head, he returned her smile, and she turned around in her seat to face the windshield once again.

Clementine drove slowly, and for the first time since leaving the store, Grant was calm. In truth, the town was always quiet, but knowing those creatures were everywhere made things different. The silence wasn’t peaceful like it once was. Now, it was eerie.

The truck rolled slowly through the hospital parking lot. The infection couldn’t have spread to here. Surely, the hospital would be a safe place with doctors ready to wipe out this head lice virus tearing through Clydesville.

They didn’t need to get out of the vehicle to realize something was wrong. The hospital’s large, automatic doors were wedged open. A wheelchair blocked the door to the left and a prone body caused the right door to bounce open every time it bumped against the man’s thigh. He was dead, in a pool of his own blood, and beyond him, the lights were on, but nobody was at the reception desk. Someone was always at that desk.

Grant thought the night secretary’s name was Brenda. He’d come in once complaining of chest pains, and it had been Brenda in that seat. He was sure of it now. She was a sweet woman who spent the quiet evening hours weaving at that desk. That or reading one of her romance novels. He’d had to spend a couple of nights here while the doctor ran tests and returned him to normal.

Clementine stepped on the gas, and the truck lurched forward and picked up speed. She drove them up onto Maker’s Hill, a spot that was usually used by teenagers as a make-out point. Tonight, it was empty. No cars filled the bald spot where the grass had been rubbed free from constant tires rolling over it.

Grant hopped out of the truck and moved to Sally’s side, taking her hand and intertwining his fingers through hers. Hal stood to his right and Clementine off to their left. They all stood staring down at the town they knew so well. From here, they could see the entire shopping area. Downtown was too far away, but the bingo hall, the restaurants, the car dealership, and across the street were quite clear.

The dental clinic was dark and quiet, but across the parking lot the two-story, ten-screen movie theater was on fire. Grant wondered how it had happened. Were there people in there when it went up in flames? Or had it happened during some kind of battle with the creatures? He imagined people inside watching whatever movie was hot right now when one of the creatures walked into the auditorium. That’s all it would take. One of them. Only one and then the entire theater would be stark raving mad.

You’re one of the lucky ones, Grant.

As unlucky as he felt, he had to admit things could have been worse. If he hadn’t gone to the diner that morning at that exact time and sat at the counter, who knew how things would have turned out. Sally could be dead too.

He probably would have been at home, but that didn’t mean he was safe. All it would take was for one of those things to come marching up to his doorstep. He would have probably assumed it was someone trying to sell him something or one of the people from the church there to convert him. If he’d even opened the front door, he would be one of them .

Things definitely could have been worse.

Down in the parking lot near the movie theater, figures moved around. Wanderers in search of something. They could have been humans searching for a safe place, but he doubted it. The slow pace at which they walked and the mindless roaming told him they were probably the infected, searching for another scalp to jump to.