Steve Tem - Excavation

You got to look at me, Reed. Look at what I… you’ve become…

“No!”

Reed! It wasn’t a whispering this time, but a thunderstorm inside the cramped rooms and hallways. Reed had never heard such anger, not even in his father’s voice. Reed! The wall to his left suddenly exploded. Roaches poured out and did a mad dance around his feet. Reed! The lamp in front of him rose into the air rapidly, smashing into the ceiling. Reed! A long spider-webbing of cracks appeared in the floorboards under his feet. He could hear the teeth grinding behind him. He could feel the hate like an intense heat, an electrical storm in the making.

When Joe Manors woke up, he thought at first he was back in bed at Inez’s, and this had all been a dream. There was sunlight here, and he heard birds singing. He struggled to his feet and looked up: the sky was clear overhead. He looked around him.

He was standing on the detached boarding house roof. He was alone; the rest must have been swept away. Except for a white-sheeted form tied securely to two lightning rods: Hector Pierce’s body.

The roof had run aground. And all around him… a calm lake, like one he might have liked going fishing on some time. There was no sign of Simpson Creeks, and none of the landmarks seemed at all familiar. He had no idea where he might be.

But there… a few miles away… he thought he recognized part of Big Andy’s flank. It was dark there, darker than any sky had a right to be. Thunder in the clouds. Bright lightning flashes.

Like the mountain was tearing itself apart in rage.

Reed! The floor buckled in front of him, throwing him headfirst into the wall. At the last moment he turned his shoulder and drove into the soft, moldy plaster. He looked behind him. Dark hands were gripping the door frame. Glistening, knifelike nails. Then they were splintering it.

Ben pulled the truck right up to the edge of the water, fishtailing slightly on the wet rock that capped the cliff there. He jumped out and stared across the expanse of water separating them from Audra. A good twenty-five yards. There was no way they could get to her.

He looked at Charlie. Charlie suddenly scowled. “We got to do something for her!” he shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

“Charlie…” Inez gripped his arm tightly, using his shoulder to shield her face from the spray. “There’s nothing we can do!”

Ben’s face grew hot with shame. Even now he was thinking of leaving the young woman, driving down there and getting his nephew out of that house before the flood let loose. But who could blame him? There was nothing, nothing they could do.

Audra screamed. They looked out through the flying mist. The tree was bending toward the water. One of her legs was already covered over.

“Dammit all to hell!” Charlie shouted, and jumped. Inez screamed. Ben started to jump in after his friend, but just stared, dumbfounded, as Charlie stood up on the water and began walking toward Audra… small, unsteady steps in that high wind, but progress just the same.

Then he saw what Charlie was standing on. Large sections of a house were floating just under the surface of the flood. Matt O’Riley’s house, if Ben wasn’t mistaken, swept away in that flood ten years ago. None of the O’Rileys had made it out alive.

The pieces were rocking; at any moment Ben knew Charlie’d be stepping on a rotten piece, or the whole thing would flip over on him.

But he’d made it almost to the tree. Audra was reaching out to him.

Reed bounded up the stairs to the attic, his shadow self chewing up the steps a few seconds behind him. Reed, you must talk to me… The anger and rage had gone out of the voice. There was just this coldness now, as if the whispered words might freeze his skin.

Charlie grabbed Audra and pushed her onto the floating slab of house. There seemed to be shapes in the water here, too… interested in her or him, he didn’t know. He pulled her to him—barely conscious, she seemed to weigh a ton—and they stumbled across the slippery surface of the boards.

Ben had backed his truck up so that the rear bumper faced the falls. He grabbed the bumper and stepped out into the edge of the flood, holding out his hand, coaxing Charlie closer. His friend looked dazed, ready to pass out. Ben slipped as the force of the flood pulling out to the falls increased slightly. Inez grabbed him for additional support.

Charlie and Audra were only a few yards away.

But Ben could see that the pieces of the O’Riley house were beginning to separate, leaving wide areas of dark water between them. Some of the sections were breaking apart and sinking.

It was dark in the attic, and Reed felt like a little boy again.

The sounds had been going on for a long time: scratchings, chitterings, creakings, that were so soft you wouldn’t know they were there unless you listened real hard. He hated it here. He was sick with terror.

Maybe it was a rat, a bat; or maybe a snake, or maybe one of those furry things Jim Leeman told him about that had the poisonous bite but usually chewed your head off before you could die of the poison—Reed had had nightmares for a week after Jim had told him about that one. Jim said they were all over this hollow, those furry things.

But he had to stay. It was the best hiding place he knew. And if Daddy caught him today…

Reed thought he could hear him bellowing down below, but no, no… that was just the blood beating in his own ears. He was so scared this time; he couldn’t remember ever being this scared.

The scratching continued… softly, softly. Then the whimpering started.

Reed listened closely, holding his breath. There was another kid up here with him. Crying.

The whimpering grew louder. Maybe his daddy had beaten this little kid too.

Louder. Louder. A sound like an animal… a calf, mewling. They’d had one hit by a truck one time and it had sounded just like this before Uncle Ben had took out his gun and shot the poor thing to put it out of its misery.

Suddenly Reed wished he had a gun right then. He’d help it; he’d put the poor thing out of its misery.

Then there was a change. The mewling became a growling. And Reed got real scared.

The house sections were separating, and Charlie could see it now, and that desperate look in Ben’s and Inez’s faces over there on the bank.

“Jump!” he shouted in Audra’s ear. She looked up at him uncomprehendingly. “Jump, girl, if you want to live!”

She jumped, and he gave her an extra push with all his might to help her on her way. He was satisfied that she had landed on some floating wood right in front of Ben’s outstretched hand when the momentum of his push carried him backwards and into the water.

He grabbed the tree Audra had been clinging to as he drifted past. That stopped him for a moment, but then the top of the tree broke off completely and he was suddenly rushing for the falls.

He still held on to the tree top. He wasn’t sure why.

The teeth were right in front of Reed, virtually glowing in the dark. The dark silhouette started breaking up the attic, throwing things around, sinking his teeth into things, chewing them apart, savaging them as Reed watched in fascination and horror.

Reed had never seen anyone so angry before, even angrier than his father. It both scared and thrilled him. Daddy shouldn’t have hit the little boy so hard. See what happened?

But the dark eyes, the bright teeth, were looking at Reed now. Reed jumped up and fumbled with the door that led to the roof. The dark little boy with the big teeth was almost on him when he got it open.