Disclaimer: I don't own The Hills Have Eyes.

Thanks so much to Berry's Ambitions, Guest, The-hardest-part, and Skelegirl for their reviews! I really appreciate it! My goodness, I wasn't expecting it. Haha. Hopefully everyone enjoys this latest chapter. Sorry for the delay in updates. School and everything has been crazy, but hey, at least it's posted! Please enjoy!


Slip to the Void
Chapter Three: Without Mercy


Her mind blank, all Brenda could do was stare.

In the initial moment of terror, she stared as hands reached for purchase on anything near. Finding nothing, they retreated, only to appear seconds later, shattering another window. Blood seeped from cuts made on skin that had obviously seen better days. The skin, mottled and bumpy, had an appearance that lodged a strange pit of fear in her stomach.

Screaming erupted all around her, deafening her. Brenda felt her muscles tighten, her legs ready to run, fists ready to knock down anything that came her way.

Despite trying to scramble away from the shattered window, Odette was pulled from her seat first, shrieking something horrid and clawing at whatever came near. The figure that grabbed her was grotesque, now that she had a look at him. The face of the creature was just as mottled as his hands, and in his teeth he braced the blade of a butcher knife. Kicking and screaming and cursing, the brunette was pulled from the Explorer first, her arms scraping on the broken glass and leaving trails of blood behind.

"Odette!" Brenda shouted. Terror gripped her, but she couldn't let whatever that thing was take her friend. "Come on! We have to go get her!"

The vehicle gave another sickening lurch.

Jane yelped as she lost her balance, slamming against the side of the car. Sam fell to the wayside as well. Brenda gripped the leather of the head of the seat, and tried not to focus on the fact that Elias was gripping her arm as tightly as a tourniquet would. Juan moaned in the background.

Will, however, leapt from his seat and raced into the desert.

"Will!" Brenda shouted, throwing open the door and rushing out. She heard Sam cry out after her, but she didn't stop. "Will!"

Her feet seemed to sink into the sand as she chased after him. If Will was anything, it was athletic, and he was already leaving her behind as he chased after his girlfriend. Brenda shouted his name, as if her words would be enough to restrain him. She stumbled a bit, losing one of her flip-flops in the process, but paid it no attention.

"Odette!" came Will's desperate cry. There was screaming, and even though it sounded muffled, it was enough to rattle Brenda's bones.

She was getting closer to them, she could feel it. The sun was scorching on her neck, loose tendrils of hair escaping her ponytail and fluttering around her face. She was able to make out Will and the attacker, conversing something, if that was indeed what they were doing. An unconscious Odette was still in the arms of the mutant, looking like an awful rag doll, now slung over his shoulder like a sack of flour. The...thing, if she could be so kind as to call it that, then reached up and pulled the knife from between his teeth, brandishing it threateningly. Will didn't back down, and Brenda credited him for that. She wasn't even facing the thing and her legs were wobbling.

Gasping in shock, she tried to move forward. To do what, she wasn't sure, but the urge to help was overwhelming. Rushing down the hill, she almost tripped several times, but was able to right herself before the worst happened.

But, came that pesky voice again, didn't the worst already happen?

"Will!" she choked out, gasping as she made her way closer.

In one swift motion, one that she couldn't even comprehend, the mutant threw his cleaver. As if in slow motion, Will fell down, the large knife embedded in the upper left of his chest, directly where his heart was located. Brenda let out a gasp and stumbled over to him.

She fell to her knees, her heart thudding in her chest. She hadn't the faintest idea of what to do in a situation like this, but she couldn't help but try. Tears pricked the sides of her eyes, but she stamped them back. She couldn't afford to lose it now.

"Will," she said, stopping his hands from where they tried desperately to remove the weapon from his chest. He tried to fight against her grip, but his arms were barely able to push against hers. Blood was starting to pool beneath him, getting lost in the sand.

"O..." he rasped.

Brenda wasn't sure what to do. She placed her hands against his face, which had become the color of ash, and pressed her forehead to his. She wasn't Odette, but she could at least offer comfort.

His breaths rattled in and out, and then ceased altogether.

A few tears escaped from her eyes, which she wiped away furiously with the palms of her hands. Her mind was a flurry of incoherent thoughts, each one more nonsensical than the last.

The faint swishing of the sand caught her attention and pulled her from her grief. Brenda's frame became stiff when she saw the figure approaching her.

The figure was long and lean, barechested, and mottled looking. A pair of ragged pants hung off of his slim hips. His feet were bare, and he walked to her with a sense of purpose. In no rush. Slow and menacing.

Brenda looked down at the body before her. His eyes were still open, staring at nothing at all. She reached down and ran her fingers over his gaping stare, shutting the lids, before whispering an apology to the shell of her friend.

The creature was approaching, taking his time, but purposeful with his movements. Brenda inhaled sharply and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the butcher knife that had been the cause of Will's untimely death. Her heart was thundering in a desperate manner in her chest, and she felt the urge to be sick, but she had to do this. Had to do this to save herself.

She clenched the hilt tightly, her fingers pressing violently into the ridges of its surface, and gave a yank. A sucking sound as well as the creaking of bone filled her ears, causing her skin to crawl. She looked up frantically, seeing that the creature was moving closer, still. Brenda tried again, yanking and receiving the same result. She fought the urge to be sick as she saw Will's body actually arc from the ground as a result of her efforts.

The creature was feet away now, and Brenda gave a shriek that sounded more primal than anything she had ever heard as, with one last tug, the cleaver was freed from Will's chest, splattering her clothing with blood.

A hysterical little cry emitted from her throat as she stood up, wobbling knees banging together as she straightened her back. She stared ahead, seeing the man now striding toward her faster. He was less than a foot away when she let out a scream and launched forward.

Brenda knew just how hopeless this was. She knew how tiny her frame was, how she was lacking in muscle and everything that could go in her favor here. The only thing in her corner was her nerve - and her speed.

The man looked at her with a growing question on his face. He cocked his head to the side, as if in curiosity, as she ran towards him. She was incensed, disturbed. She wanted to cause this creature pain, wanted to make him feel what she was feeling at this very moment.

The images of her friends raced across her mind, each in various stages of terror. She imagined what poor Odette was going through right now, remembered Will's final moments. Thought of Jane's reaction to the injured Juan, and pondered how she could have missed just how much Jane cared about him. She thought of Elias, his face twisted into a grimace as the arrow was removed from him. And she thought of Sam, his kind eyes grimly informing them of the hopelessness of their situation.

The creature reached out just as Brenda got to him, grasped her hand with little difficulty and wrenched it behind her back. She kept her grip steadfast on the cleaver, itching to drive it into his back. Somehow, somehow, she would do this one action. If it was the last action on this earth, she would injure him.

Somehow, somehow...

She struggled against him, kicking and screaming, trying to put some kind of mark on him, needing to make him feel what she was feeling - pain, horror, sadness, desperation.

Though, that might have been wishful thinking. This was obviously the creature's element. He was confident and smooth in his movements as he countered each of her frantic blows.

Brenda was too small in normal circumstances, but when faced with this...this mutant, it was almost comical. He was dodging her attempts rather easily. The difference in their reach was too great. She cried out in frustration as she finally landed a blow to his shin.

Surprised, the mutant gave a barely audible grunt as his fingers slipped from her arm.

"Son of a bitch!" Brenda cursed, seeing an opening. Her fingers twitched around the hilt of the cleaver just before she brought it down. It didn't do much damage, only open a rather deep cut on the mutant's forearm. "You fucker!"

The mutant hissed and threw Brenda to the sand below. She landed with a hard thump, looking at him from her position. He glared down at her, and now she noticed his eyes were the clearest blue she had ever seen. It sent a chill down her spine.

"Brenda!" came a voice from over the hill. The creature's head snapped in the direction of the sound.

"Sam!" she gasped underneath her breath. He's still alive?

It was only then she noticed the sound of chaos coming from over the hill. Brenda sat clearly at the base of it, sand swirling around her as a violent breeze kicked up. She coughed as she rose, shakily, her hand still gripping the cleaver in a viselike grip.

"Sam!" she called again as she saw the monster turn to follow the sound. Brenda's adrenaline kicked in full force as she scampered up the side of the hill, her feet sinking in the sand as she did so. "Sam!"

She could hear screams, the shuffling of feet. Brenda had paid it no mind before, as busy as she was with hopelessly fighting - she couldn't even call that fighting, actually - the creature. Brenda pulled herself up the hill, finally breaching the top. She rose, her back hunched under what seemed like an infinite amount of weight, and gasped at what she saw.

Their car, up in flames. Clouds of black smoke rising upward and staining the bright blue sky. Blood - pools of it - on the sand, almost as if it had rained the stuff. There was a dismembered hand in one of the puddles.

Brenda felt the urge to be sick.

There was a roaring sound; animalistic and brutal, it grated against her ears. It might have been saying words, it might have not been, but the command was there regardless: there was a person who wasn't dead or incapacitated and it was not supposed to be that way.

The blonde turned to look at the sound and saw something that terrified her to the core. A large and menacing mutant, out of breath and looking rather tired, but still horrifying nonetheless, had slung Sam's slender frame over one shoulder. His hair was covering his face and was caked with blood.

Brenda skittered backward, almost falling back down the hill. She turned her gaze and saw another creature with Jane in his grasp, pressing horrible fingers against her jaw. She was unconscious as well.

She tried to take everything in, tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. That hand, if she were to look closer, had the same skin tone as Juan. And, if she squinted, she could see the bloodied legs of Elias peeking out from the edge of the burning car.

Whether they were attached or not was something Brenda didn't want to contemplate.

The large man started to approach her, his eyes menacing, and yet, almost dead in his face. Sam was on his shoulder, but he looked as if he could hold five Sams and not be phased. Brenda had no doubt that he could take her, even with his bundle.

She backed up, slightly sliding down the edge of the hill. Her eyes took in the rest of her surroundings. She saw that there were two other mutants talking to each other, laughing and cackling. The mutant she had an encounter with earlier was talking to the one that was clearly the leader. Then there was a mutant conversing with the one that had Jane.

Six, she thought. Six.

They had all seen her, yet they made no move to stop her, to claim her.

Because they're confident, Brenda thought. They know that, if I run, they will catch me.

She met the eyes of each of the creatures.

Maybe that's what they're waiting for.

Brenda backed up, uncertain of what to do. She couldn't just run and leave them. Not when Sam and Jane were still alive. Her feet slid down the side of the hill, but only for a fraction, because then they hit something solid.

The blonde gasped, turning around and finding that she had underestimated them. S-Seven...

A woman, unnaturally tall and thin, glared at her with malicious intent before slamming a rock against the side of her head.

Brenda fell to the hot sand, a mass of tangled limbs and hopeless thoughts.

At that point, unconsciousness was a gift.


End Chapter Three.