Carver Pike - Scalp

“How many do you think are in there?” she asked Robbie.

“A million,” he said, and he wasn’t joking.

“There can’t be that many, right?”

“I’ve lost count eight times already. I counted well over a thousand and I was still at that bush over there.”

“I’d say there are about seven hundred fifty-five thousand of them,” Thomas said from behind, making them both jump. Nitsy hadn’t even seen him there.

“Damn, that’s a random ass number,” Robbie said.

Thomas only shrugged.

Hal and Grant made it to the other side of the tent and carefully crept through the Velcro seal. Nitsy could see them move to the ladder. Hal was out front. He seemed like a brave man.

“Andre!” Hal yelled. “You okay, buddy?”

At least that’s what it looked like he was yelling. Nitsy couldn’t hear him over the sound of the siren. It really didn’t matter what he yelled. Nitsy knew he wouldn’t get an answer. If Andre were still alive, he would have returned by now. The siren had been going on for several minutes already.

“I don’t like this,” she said, turning toward Sally.

“Me neither,” she said.

“If something’s wrong, I mean if he’s alive, they can’t leave him,” Robbie argued.

“I don’t know,” Nitsy said.

“He could have slipped or tripped. What if he broke his leg? It could have nothing to do with what’s going on out there? It sounds unlikely but people still get hurt.”

She knew he was right, but she doubted it was a slip and fall or a sprained ankle. Andre was dead. Or worse.

Hal yelled something else up the ladder. It was clear there was no reply because he turned toward Grant and they discussed it. Grant shrugged his shoulders. Hal took a deep breath then gripped the ladder, clutching a pistol in his hand as he started to climb.

“Don’t!” Nitsy yelled through the tent.

Hal turned toward her and stepped off the ladder. He motioned with his hand over his ear to say he couldn’t hear her.

“Don’t climb the ladder!” she yelled.

He still couldn’t hear her. Nitsy opened the tent and stepped inside. Right away, a ladybug landed on her arm. Another touched down on her nose and another on her head.

Hal and Grant stepped through the other side.

“What did you say?” Hal asked her.

The ladybug on her nose walked around and it tickled. She giggled.

“I said don’t go up there,” Nitsy said. “Please.”

“We have to check on Andre,” Hal said.

“And close that hatch,” Grant added.

Both men were barely inside the tent when something fell through the hatch behind them. It was heavy and hit the ground with a thud. Nitsy watched in horror as Hal and Grant both turned to see Andre rising on the other side of the tent flap.

There, they stared face to face with what remained of their friend. His scalp hung loosely from the top of his head, like tattered clothes ripped apart by razorblades. Blood ran down his face. His eyes were beet red and drool dripped from his lips. His left leg was broken, most likely from the fall, and he dragged it as he stepped closer to the tent.

“Nitsy, get to the other side,” Hal ordered.

She was frozen in fear, and she could only watch as Andre, with one quick jerk, reached through the tent, grabbed hold of Grant’s shirt, and yanked him out through the other side. Grant screamed and thrashed around wildly, but Andre bit down on Grant’s neck and ripped his head to the side, tearing off a huge chunk of flesh.

Andre’s hair shifted, and Grant cried out in terror and pain.

Sally screamed. So did the others behind Nitsy.

The flap was open slightly, and the ladybugs didn’t react.

“Why aren’t they doing anything?” Nitsy asked.

Before she got an answer, Robbie was pulling her out of the tent by her arm.

Hal took aim and fired at Andre, shooting him through the plastic wall and hitting him in the middle of the forehead. Grant was flipping around on the ground, writhing in pain, and Hal went to work quickly. He pulled on his friend’s feet, yanking him into the tent. Then he backed away and watched. Still, the ladybugs didn’t react.

A few moved closer to his body, seeming to be interested in him, but they didn’t jump on him the way Andre seemed to think they would.

“Grant!” Sally screamed from behind.

“Shoot him, Hal!” Nitsy begged. “Put him out of his misery.”

Hal pointed at him and pulled the trigger.

They didn’t react. They didn’t do shit . Andre had brought them all the way up here to this building, and now they were going to be stuck here. Hal covered his ears for a second to block out the sounds of the siren and the creatures trying to burst through the door. He thought he was going to lose his mind.

We’re fucking trapped!

“It won’t work,” Nitsy said as she slid back down to her ass on the floor.

Hal didn’t want to hear any of them. Andre was dead, Grant was dead, and they were trapped.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he repeated under his breath.

“Grant,” Sally cried into Phyllis’s shoulder.

“It’s not going to work,” Nitsy repeated.

“We need to close that hatch,” Thomas, the big ol’ country boy said.

“Everybody shut up,” Hal begged. “Please, be quiet for a second.”

They didn’t get any quieter. The siren wailed, the creatures pounded and shrieked, Nitsy said things that were blatantly obvious, her boyfriend reassured her of things he couldn’t be sure of, Sally cried for a man Hal was sure she didn’t love, the caretaker’s boy kept volunteering to close the hatch when he had no business with it, and the other two whispered encouraging words to whoever would listen. Hal was going to lose his damn mind.

“Maybe the ladybugs couldn’t see them,” Robbie said. “I mean… look at them now.”

“They’re chowing down, now,” Thomas agreed.

Hal lifted his gaze and turned to stare through the tent. The boys were right. The ladybugs were practically covering Grant’s head now. Hal, who’d been sitting on the ground, slid closer to the tent flap, and stuck his head in.

He couldn’t fucking believe it.

“Do you hear that?” he asked.

Nitsy looked at him like he’d lost his mind. He wasn’t crazy. He knew what he was hearing.

“Hear what?” Nitsy asked.

“Squealing,” Hal said with a soft chuckle. “They’re fucking squealing. I think the ladybugs are eating them right off his fucking head.”

Robbie moved closer and soon after Nitsy, Phyllis, Bradley, Thomas, and Sally too. They all heard it.

“It’s because they didn’t jump,” Hal suggested. He wasn’t sure about it, but it seemed to make sense. “When Andre pulled Grant out of the tent, they didn’t see the things jump from Andre to Grant. They were already on Grant when I pulled him into the tent. So, maybe it only took the bugs a minute to sense out the little fuckers.”

“That’s not great,” Robbie said. “These things are going to come through that door any second, and when they do, we won’t have a minute for the ladybugs to sense them out as you put it.”

He was right. They’d all be dead if it took that long.

And they kept on pounding from outside. Hal stood and moved closer to the door. The frame was starting to crack. They were pushing right through the damn wall. If he had to guess, they had maybe ten minutes, tops, before these creatures shoved the door right through the frame. If that didn’t happen first, the walls would come tumbling down.

They were in a death trap. They could risk climbing up to the roof and trying to get down that way. Maybe most of the creatures were over here by the door and they could hop down on the other side. It was a tall building though and the chances of them getting hurt on the way down were high. That was if whatever had gotten to Andre wasn’t still up there waiting for them.