Disclaimer: I don't own The Hills Have Eyes.
Summary: A vacation becomes a nightmare as Brenda Carter and a group of friends are sucked into the depraved world of the mine mutants. Can something be salvaged out of the darkness? ChameleonBrenda, LetchOC, AU
The Brenmeleon plot bunnies have taken over my brain, and I know I have "Sandstorm" but I wanted to write something that was more…concrete in a relationship around Brenmeleon. And, well, this is the result. I know how many projects I have in the works already, but I'm not too worried about them. I believe I can handle everything, if not rushed. There will be updates, so no worries! I also owe a lot to Berry's Ambitions, since she's been a major help with ideas and such and I am very grateful. I just adore the idea of these two together, and well, this is my first time dabbling with a set of original characters in the HHE-verse. Anyway, I hope that y'all enjoy!
Slip to the Void
Chapter One: With Great Prospect
The arid wind of the New Mexico desert blustered against Brenda Carter's face as if personally offended by her presence. And, if she were to be honest, she wasn't that thrilled with the heated breeze, either.
Riding with the windows down had always been one of her favorite things to do. With family, that is. Now, in the middle of a desert that seemed as unforgiving as it was beautiful, she wasn't so sure about the enjoyment she was supposed to be feeling.
Fresh from graduating high school, Brenda had been confronted by her friends, demanding she take a trip with them to celebrate the gaining of diplomas and the oncoming first semester of college. She had accepted, of course. They were all separating to go their different ways in just a few measly months, after all. She figured why not have a last hurrah with some of her closest friends (and a few she considered not-so-close, but that was another story).
The car - an Explorer - was cramped, but not as cramped as it would have been had Odette and Will ridden with them. Will, of course, had his own moped, and hooked up the sidecar so that his girlfriend could ride with him, ahead of the car that Brenda was currently in.
Of course, the car in which they were riding had to have the AC on the fritz. The air had gone out about an hour back, and the only thing that kept them from completely dying was rolling down the windows.
Brenda shared the car with four other individuals, though she had it better than the three that had to share the backseat. Elias, the driver and owner of this vehicle, had allowed her the front seat. Brenda had tried to protest, but Elias had insisted. According to Odette, Elias had the hots for her, which was…well, not something Brenda wanted. The offer of the front seat had felt like a bribe, thick with implications, but no one else would budge - Brenda personally felt that had been arranged to happen - so that left the blonde without any option.
Not that Elias wasn't cute. He was, with blonde hair that seemed constantly windswept, an athletic build, and piercing green eyes. But, well, he was kind of a douche. "Kind of" being an understatement.
There were two other guys in the car with them. Brenda had known Sam her entire life, and that was how she was brought into the group, though how Sam was friends with this cast of characters was beyond her. Sam was sweet, with long dirty blonde hair that was constantly tangled, large chocolate brown eyes that had dark circles underneath them, and an affinity for anything having to do with heavy metal music.
The other was Juan who was dark skinned and polite, hardly saying anything unless spoken to. His black hair that was kept short, and his shockingly light blue eyes always sparked with some kind of intellect. He was short, so short that he only barely beat Brenda in the height department.
Sandwiched between Sam and the car door was Jane. Brenda knew next to nothing about her. She had just shown up without much preamble when they were getting ready to leave Elias' house, which was a surprise for almost everyone except Elias himself, who looked ready to kill when faced with towering, gangly girl.
At school, Jane had always kept to herself, and had few real friends. Her nose was almost always in a book. Her shockingly red hair ended just below her jaw line, was almost always out-of-control, and had a natural wave that Brenda would kill for. Her grey eyes, when not focused on the words of Hemingway or Austen, were always soft and kind.
"I don't see how you can read now," Sam directed the statement towards Jane. "I always get carsick."
Brenda saw Jane look up from her book. "I…I never…ah, really have had that problem."
"She's always been like that, haven't you, Plain Jane?"
Jane visibly winced as Elias' words shot at her.
"Hey, man," Sam started, but Brenda cut him off.
"Seriously, Elias? Stop being such a dick."
"I'll show you a dick, Princess."
With anger set deep in his normally friendly eyes, Sam kicked the back of Elias' seat at the same time Brenda punched him hard in the shoulder. "Jackass. I don't even know why we hang with you."
"Because Will is my bro," he said cockily.
"Turn up the music so we don't have to listen to you," Brenda insisted, backing Sam up.
"Anything for you," he replied, moving his hand to the stereo and twisting the volume dial upward.
Brenda fought the urge to vomit, both at Elias' tone of voice when directed at her as well as the string of curse words that came immediately out of the speakers.
"Ew," Sam complained, struggling to get his voice heard over the noise. "This sucks. Don't you have any Mastodon or something?"
Brenda found herself fighting a smile. Rap music was Sam's kryptonite. Some things never changed. Of course, his plea was overlooked, and the beats of Kanye West penetrated the quiet desert around them.
"Why would I want to listen to an extinct furry elephant, dude?" Elias asked condescendingly. "And your music is the one that sucks. Long live Jay-Z."
Sam, hating anything rap - including the infamous rap-metal mash (Anthrax and Run DMC's collab aside) - decided to give Elias the finger and then shoved his earbuds in his ears.
In the backseat, Jane closed her book and looked out the window, leaning her face against the window frame as the wind blew against her cheeks. Brenda looked back at her with an apology in her eyes, and Jane just lifted a hand, understanding in the set of her features.
Brenda turned back around and exhaled deeply, leaning her head against the seat and watching the desert pass. Elias was nodding his head to the music, something that Brenda found annoying on him but charming on Sam, who was doing the exact same thing in the backseat.
"I am so ready to get to the rocks," Elias said, trying to make conversation with the tension-filled car. "I heard these are a great site for climbing."
Brenda smoothed her ponytail-bound hair and decided then to put her shades over her eyes. Will and Elias had wanted to take this shortcut to climb some cliffs that were supposedly "the shit" as referred to by Will. Odette had been down for anything involving her boyfriend, and Juan, being a secret lover of anything extreme in nature, had seemed up for it as well. Brenda and Sam didn't really care, and Jane was new to the trip - an involvement that Brenda would have to ask her about later - so that means even if there was a vote, they would have been outvoted anyway.
The car rolled along, bumping every now and then. They had long since traveled off the main road, after stopping at a gas station that seemed unoccupied. They had filled up the tank and left the money on the counter inside before moving on. Brenda couldn't help but feel kind of wary about the desert after that. If anything happened to them, there was no one they could turn to for help.
She supposed she jinxed them.
In a sudden, unexpected movement, the back of Will's bike started to skid back and forth, as if out of control. Brenda could make out the frenzied movements of Will's bike as he tried to control its movements. It took a while, but thankfully he was able to pull the bike safely to a stop.
"What's wrong?" came Juan's calm, collected voice from the backseat. He, too, had registered the problem.
"I don't know," Elias ventured, stopping the car. "Hold on a second."
They all filed out of the car and headed in the direction of their other two friends.
Brenda always thought of Will as one of those weird breeds of human being - half jerk, half decent guy. It was the decent parts of him that kept her from outright despising him, like she did with Elias. They approached the couple just as Will took his helmet off, revealing that his dark brown hair was plastered to his neck and the rest of it was a mess. His hazel eyes were annoyed. "I don't know what the hell happened," he said as he rolled his broad shoulders.
Odette managed to get out of the sidecar, looking impeccable as always. She was the type that would wear heels with a t-shirt. She took off her own helmet, revealing long light brown hair that tumbled down to her mid-back. She was slender, with the body of a supermodel, and green eyes that always had an air of superiority about them, though Brenda knew that Odette herself wasn't always like that.
"Well, fix it," Odette said, her voice an octave higher than it usually was.
Before she had finished her sentence, Will made his way around the bike to check the offending item. The tire was slowly deflating, but that wasn't the most jarring thing.
The back tire had been puncture by, of all things, an arrow.
At least, that was what it looked like to Brenda. She cocked her head to the side and studied it. "Is that…what I think it is?"
"Yeah," Elias said, "a stick."
Brenda punched him in the arm, unconcerned that she might just break it one of these days. He looked pleased just by the contact, but she ignored the creepy smile he gave her in return. "No. Look."
Will bent over to pluck the thing from the tire, and as soon as he did so, the entire thing deflated in one foul sweep. He gazed at the item curiously, his eyes widening when he saw the sharpened rock fastened to the tip, obviously done by someone's hands. "What…what the hell?"
Odette sauntered over closer to her boyfriend, her heels making dull thuds on the dirt road. "That's odd," she observed.
"No shit, girly," Elias said, walking up to the two of them. Brenda had the urge to pummel him.
Juan was just behind Elias, his light eyes serious in his face. He took the arrow in his thin hands and stared at it for a moment. "I don't like the looks of this."
Brenda felt her stomach drop. "What do you mean?"
"This was purposeful," he said, and Brenda felt a chill go down her spine and make its way to the tips of her toes.
"How do you think?" Elias asked, skepticism evident in his voice. "We're the only ones out here. There's no one here for miles!" He stretched his arms out as far as they would go, as if encompassing the whole desert with just that one gesture.
"It's a fucking arrow," Juan snapped. "There's someone shooting at us, loco!"
Brenda swallowed, finding that she felt a lot more claustrophobic than she should, out in the vast expanse of desert. "We should go back," she suggested. "We can leave Will's bike here - "
"We are not leaving my bike - "
"Let me finish!" she snapped, feeling desperate, and a lot like there were eyes on her. "We could all pile into Elias' car, go back to the gas station, and see if they have a spare tire."
Elias immediately found protest with this. "But what about the rock climbing - "
"I don't think that would be - " Jane started.
"Shut up, Jane!" Elias shouted at the redhead. She flinched, and he continued, "You're only here because my mom is friends with your mom, and she forced me to bring you! No one wants you here!"
Brenda felt anger pit in her stomach, a deep-seated history slapping her in the face. Except, this time the cruel words weren't directed at her, but at another person. "Elias, you - "
Jane straightened up, putting her fists at her sides, her words cutting through Brenda's rant. "That makes no difference. There is something bad here. Juan and Brenda are right."
It was the strongest voice Brenda had ever heard Jane use. It would have been something that she would have been visibly shocked by if they were in any other situation.
"Ugh, whatever, you're not even worth it." Elias threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. Let's do what they say, just to placate them. The women are overreacting." Juan gave an irritated humph. He turned with an aura of someone with something better to do, and started to walk away.
A shucking sound was made, like something being thrust into a solid substance. There was a beat, and then Elias started screaming. Brenda rushed over to him - him being an ass was not in the question right now - and was followed by the stampeding footsteps of her friends.
"Elias! Are you - oh my God." Her hands reached out to help, but it was in a blind effort to feel like she was doing something.
Another arrow, this one somehow managing to puncture Elias' calf, had come seemingly out of nowhere. Brenda stared at the grotesque sight. The arrow had gone in one side and out the other, and Elias had collapsed, holding his leg.
"Get to the car!" Juan shouted, darting forward and grasping Elias' arm. He pulled him along, and it would have been almost comical due to the size difference had they been in any other situation. Will darted forward to help, and the three girls brought up the rear.
With the van in sight, Sam stopped short. "Guys!"
"What is it?" Will snapped. He and Juan were trying to shove Elias into the backseat. "We have to get the fuck out of here!"
"That's going to be a trick worthy of Criss Angel, then," he said, his dry humor harsh.
Brenda caught up to where her friend was standing and followed his gaze to the car's tires, and a bitter, sardonic laugh escaped her throat when she saw that they had been slashed to ribbons.
Words escaped her, but it turned out that Sam had plenty, as he summed it all up in one bitingly bitter phrase.
"How's this for a fucking vacation, huh?"
End Chapter One.