Read:
And now the finale to Dead Man's Curve
The arm pulled her up and out through the window. Joyce's dad turned and in a flash stood crunching on broken glass.
"Joyce."
The banging started to stop, and he watched as the horde started to head back towards the road with one of the ghouls dragging Joyce by the waist.
"Joyce! I'm coming."
Joyce's dad kick the remaining shards of glass out of the window, but the ghouls were still gathered on the front porch.
“I can't get out.”
Joyce's screams got farther away and soon the knocking stop. Joyce's dad looked out and saw the horde begin to follow Joyce's voice.
“Nows your chance. Go and I'll be right behind you.” Mr. Rob said.
Joyce' dad tightened his jaw and leapt through the window. Mr. Rob and the other troops started pushing the table and books away from the door until it was clear enough to open. David still stood motionless in the middle of the trading post. He watched Mr. Rod run out into the night followed by Freddy, Richie and Will.
“Wait.”
David shuffled across the floor towards the open door. A figured moved outside on the patio and David stopped.
“Mr. Rob?”
He took another step forward before the figure appeared in the doorway. Shivers ran through David’s body as he saw the burned remains of the man's face. The man turned to fit through the door swinging his eyeball back and forth hanging by his chin from the long vein still attached to the socket.
David tried to step back, but fell hard on his backside. The ghoul turned its head to look at him with its good eye half covered by melted skin off its forehead. A shrill scream rang out across the camp. The ghoul pivoted and twisted itself around flinging its eyeball all over the place towards the sound. It stood bobbing back and forth straining to see then limped off towards the scream's direction.
David watched it stumble off towards the hill then gasped for air. He put his hands down to lift himself up, but felt a wet puddle of liquid then looked down over his urine soaked pants. He jumped up and stomped on the puddle before taking off out of the trading post.
Joyce kicked and screamed, scratched and pulled, but the ghoul held her tight under its arm. She looked up to see shards of glass sticking in its face and a long gash across its neck. The ghoul turned its head and she saw a larger piece of glass fall out from behind its ear. Blood began pouring out of the wound splashing onto Joyce. She screamed once more and began her regiment of kicks and punches to break free.
The horde swarmed around them in a tight formation, walking past the hill to the camp site towards the tree line by the camp's entrance that led to the road. They were moving much faster than before, but Joyce's dad was behind them trying to break through.
"Joyce."
She could hear the voice of her father, but they began moaning in a unison chorus, "Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve", squeezing themselves closer and closer towards her until she almost couldn't breath.
They went through the trees trudging through long grass until they stepped onto the road. A small group stayed surrounded around Joyce while the others marched onward in a singe file towards the curve in the road.
"Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve."
Joyce continued fighting to get away as the surrounding ghouls flesh began to peel at the edges, blood bubbled from open sores spurting down on Joyce. She flailed her body to get loose, yet another one of them grabbed her legs to hold her still. She tried to kick it away, but felt her foot get stuck between its exposed organs from a wide rectangle cut across its chest down to the hip.
"Daddy!"
Her father ran through the line of grotesque bodies calling her name when he felt a weight latch onto his leg and cause him to fall on the road. He looked down and saw a child digging its nails into him. Its face sunken in between the nose and eyes with sharp points of cracked skull tearing the skin around its cheeks.
Joyce's dad grabbed the hands and pulled them off, but more ghouls started to surround him. One leaned over and an eyeball hanging out of the socket dangled close to his face.
Mr. Rob came charging in and knocked a number of them down. Joyce's dad stood up still holding the child's hands and let go dropping it to the ground. He took a last look and felt empathy for the child.
"Where's Joyce?" Mr. Rob asked.
"She's up in the front."
"We won't make it going in this mess. Cut through the trees to get around them."
They both climbed up the short hill into the trees.
Joyce pulled at the ghoul's arm until the bone cracked and fell off dropping her to the ground. Her palms skidded across the pavement as the other one still had her legs and dragged her down the road.
"Dead man's curve, dead man's curve."
She kicked her legs back and freed herself from the ghoul. The small horde surrounding her started to close in, but one of them was missing a leg and she darted through the hole on all fours. She stood to run then froze as a bright on coming light came straight at her.
Tires squealed and Joyce jumped to the other side of the road landing hard on her hip. The car swerved, but was traveling too fast around the curve and drove off the road CRASH! Straight into a tree.
Joyce sat up to see the front of the car demolished, yellow blinking lights filling the darkness every half a second, the faint sound of music playing in the air.
"Joyce!"
She looked over and saw her dad followed by Mr. Rob. She got up and limped towards them feeling the pain in her hip where she landed on the hard concrete road.
"Dad."
He ran out to meet her and wrapped his arms around her.
"Are you hurt?"
She tried to speak, but only tears came out. The passenger side door opened and a man fell to the ground.
"Help me."
Mr. Rob rushed forward.
"Sir, don't try to move. We are here, we can help you."
He took one more step and stopped.
"Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve."
The ghouls were all there, swarmed around the man chanting in unison.
"Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve."
The man screamed as they picked him up off the ground.
"No. No. Where are you taking me? Help. Help me!"
"Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve."
They carried the man off into the woods and soon everything went silent except for the faint music coming from the car radio.
"That's the song." Joyce said.
Her dad looked down at her.
"What song?"
"The song I heard, when I woke you up about the car. That's the same car."
"Stay here."
Joyce's dad walked to the end of the car. He waved his hand for Mr. Rob to follow him over. At first he didn't move, but finally took a few steps forward. Joyce followed a little bit behind until she reached the end of the car. The sound of crunching leaves came from behind them.
"Stay back."
The other scouts; Freddy, Will, Richie and David following behind them came out out of the darkness.
"What was that?" Richie asked.
The rest of the scouts followed with questions and stories of what they had just witnessed.
"Everyone quiet. I told you guys to wait under the light. Those things may still be out there." Mr. Rob said.
They all went silent looking around in every direction. Joyce wanted to say something, but couldn't speak until she saw a movement inside the car.
“There.”
Dad and Mr. Rob looked and began to move with caution towards the car. The scouts all watched as they made it to the passenger door and FLOP! They all jumped in fright as the man fell onto the ground.
"What? How did he--"
Joyce's dad squatted down next him and put his hand on his neck.
"He's dead."
Joyce swung around and glanced down the long stretch of dark road past the camp entrance, then back towards the dramatic curve in front of her half lit by a streetlight high in the air. Three square signs with black arrows against a yellow background all pointed in odd directions from their metal posts being bent and re-bent back into position. The line of trees behind them had missing bark, deep scars in the trunk and burns around their trunks. Some smaller ones were broken in the middle with limbs and branches scattered all about. Deep ridges where the grass grew lower than the rest revealed tire tracks that lead straight towards them.
She wrapped her arms around herself, cold from the horrific encounter they had experienced, and a sudden understanding of the events, she whispered under her breath, "Dead man's curve. Dead man's curve."
The End
