Chapter Seven: Survival

The kids ran out of the living room and down the hallway back toward the cellar door. They were all in panic, hearts thumping fast in their chests and breathing heavily. They ran past the door to the end of the hallway where it branched off to the right in an L-shaped pattern. The entrance there was covered with spider webs, but all five of them ran through them. Compared to getting killed by an un-dead zombie spirit, the prospect of getting spider bitten was far less important.

The hallway there was also smaller and there were three doors to the left and an old, not very safe-looking stairway to the right. Gerald, who was in the lead, ran to the second doorway on the left and opened it. All of them entered and closed the door quickly behind them.

The room looked like a guest room. There was no furniture in the room, except for the frame of an old wooden canopy bed with no mattresses on them, or curtains. There was a doorway on the far right wall, probably an adjoining room. It had three rotten boards nailed across the door frame.

"Where all going to die!" Helga whispered anxiously. She sat down against the wall and wrapping her arms around her legs shaking badly. "I do believe in haunted houses! I do! I do! I swear I'll never question the supernatural again!"

Eugene was backed up against the wall on the other side of the room between two boarded up windows. He looked as pale white as a ghost himself and his eyes never seemed to leave the door, as if he half expected it to burst open and Old Man Wylie come in with his bloody hook and finish them off. He probably was.

Phoebe meanwhile was holding onto Gerald again shivering and crying against his arm. Gerald hugged her and patted her back, all the while shaking and close to hysterics himself.

Arnold was still by the door, doing his best to get a grip on himself after his brush with death. He was leaning over and holding onto his knees and trying to calm down. 'I could have been killed back there,' he though and almost wet himself. 'If Helga hadn't rushed forward and Gerald hadn't joined in, I could have been cleaved open by Old Man Wylie's hook!' He looked over at Gerald, who was comforting Phoebe and nodded at him when their eyes meet.

Then he looked over at Helga, who was rocking back and forth in panic, muttering to herself, eyes wide and far away. Arnold walked over to her, suddenly feeling an impulse to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. She looked up at him when he knelt down in front of her. "Helga, we all have to calm down and think if we're all going to get out of this alive." He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "I need you. We all need you. OK?"

Helga blinked as she looked up at Arnold, who was looking at her very seriously. His words registered in her mind. 'He said he needed me! Arnold said that! To me!' Outwardly, she just nodded and took a deep breath, then stood up. Inside, she felt herself calming and growing stronger. Even if she were to die in this place, at least she would be with her one and only, Arnold, who needed her.

Arnold smiled and stood up also looking around at everyone else. "We have to stay calm."

"Calm?! Arnold there's an insane ghost outside that's trying to kill us and you want us to be calm?!" Gerald asked, looking at Arnold anxiously.

"We have to keep our heads if we want to survive and get off this island." Arnold said looking at all of them. "I know all of you are scared, so am I. But if we panic then all of us, they we won't be able to think rationally and get out of this."

Eugene was still scared, though he was trying to push aside the panic that kept threatening to come back. Gerald was still holding Phoebe and trying to reassure her, even though he himself looked less than assured. Finally Phoebe pulled back. Gerald removed her glasses and she wiped her eyes nodding. He handed them back to her and smiled reassuringly. She smiled back.

Helga looked at Arnold and seemed to be back to her old self. "So, how do you propose we get out of this run down shack?" Arnold noticed that she didn't add 'football-head' or 'Arnold-o' this time.

"Yeah, Arnold," Gerald said walking over. "What's the plan?"

Arnold thought for a moment, then he said, "There's only one ghost out there. Maybe if we split up, he can't follow us all?"

Gerald blinked, "Split up! Arnold how many horror movies have you ever seen? Don't you know what happens when the people being stalked by a killer splits up? They get picked off one at a time!"

"That's right," Eugene said walking over.

"Well, maybe if we – "Arnold trailed off as the sound of heavy footsteps could be heard just outside the doorway in the hall. His eyes widened and everyone paused, looking at the doorway anxiously. They waited for what seemed like the longest moments of their young lives, then the footsteps trailed off and the sound of a door being opened could be heard next door.

Gerald walked slowly over to the wall and put his ear against it. He seemed to be concentrating. Then his eyes widened and he pointed whispering, "He's in the next room."

The panic began to set in again among all of them.

Just then, the same creepy voice spoke boomed all around them. "ARNOLD . . . GERALD . . . EUGENE . . . HELGA . . . PHOEBE . . ." All of their eyes widened in horror as he mentioned their names. Phoebe covered her mouth shaking in fear. They all huddled together in the middle of the room.

Arnold looked up and spoke up boldly, "How do you know our names?!"

There was a sound like thumping footsteps above their heads. Then the voice spoke up again, "I CAN SEE INTO ALL OF YER THOUGHTS! I CAN SMELL YER FEAR! THERE'S NO PLACE FOR YE TO RUN! NO PLACE FOR YE TO HIDE! I BE EVERYWHERE!"

At that moment, the door on the far side of the wall opened up from the other side and Old Man Wylie stood there, hook gleaming and trying to break through the planks. Red eyes flashing in the darkness beneath his fisherman's hat.

"AHHHH!" The kids opened the door and ran out of the room. They all ran up the stairs, except for Eugene, who ran right back for the living room. They were halfway up the staircase, when they saw Eugene run around the corner.

"Eugene! NO! WAIT!" Arnold shouted. He started back down the steps past Helga after the geek, when a pale, grimy hand popped up from a missing stair and grabbed Helga's ankle. She screamed out in horror. "ARNOLD! HELP ME!"

"Oh my gosh! Helga!" Phoebe shouted out. She tried to go to her friend's aid, but she slipped on one of the stairs and fell backwards, grabbing Gerald and taking him tumbling back down the stairs after her. They both landed at the bottom, kicking up dust when they landed.

Arnold turned and actually stomped on the hand around Helga's ankle. "Get off her!" He shouted out, half angry and half afraid. The hand retreated into the hole. A moment later, the third door burst open and Old Man Wylie's ghost came after them. Gerald and Phoebe stood up and took off back down the hallway toward the living room and then off to the doorway on the left into an old dining room.

Arnold and Helga took off upstairs screaming, with Old Man Wylie's ghost walking up the stairs behind them.

Meanwhile, back outside, Curly and "Wilson" were wandering around the shore of the small island in the rain looking for anything at all they could use to get off the island. Curly came up with the idea of making a raft. Already he'd found a length of rope under the porch and some sturdy-looking (meaning slightly less rotten) planks of wood. He set them up along the shore with the remains of the porch swing and two rain barrels he managed to roll over from the end of the porch. He used a brick he found and took some of the rusty nails out of the more rotten planks on the nearby windows to seal up the holes in the rain barrels.

"Don't you worry, Wilson," Curly said as he worked on his getaway raft. "It's going to take more than this hurricane to stop us from escaping this deserted island!" He laughed his slightly insane laugh in the crashing lightning - and then banged the brick he was using as a hammer into his left thumb. "OW!"

He looked at the painted smiley face on the ball and frowned, "What are you laughing at? Go find us something to use as a sail!" He swatted the ball with his hand - making his thumb hurt again - and the ball went rolling and came to a rest near the turbulent shore. Curly ran after it and then smiled when he saw that "Wilson" came to rest right by the remains of what looked like the walls of a port-o-potty.

"Good job, Wilson!" He nodded approvingly. "Now help me get this things ashore. Come on you lazy thing, it's like I'm always carrying you around."

To Be Continued . . .

It looks like everything is coming to a head. The action is reaching it's climax, only two more exciting chapters to go, and then this story will be completed at last! AHAHAHAHAHAH! Oops sorry, got a bit carried away there! LOL! Stay Tuned! Read and Review!
Oh and Jae B, I believe you may be onto something, but you'll have to read the next chapter to find out. (Wink wink) -D.R.