Chapter 4
Deborah screamed. She couldn't take her eyes off the sight in front of her. The world seemed to spiral around her, narrowing and shrinking and all accompanied by the pounding of her own heartbeat. Terror gripped her, locking her frozen where she stood, unable to move or think. Then, her scream was cut short by a hand clamping over her mouth.
The next several moments all blurred together in a haze of movement. It was as if she were no longer the person in control of her body and instead just observing from the sidelines. The moment she'd screamed, Tommy had broken into a solid run, nearly tackling her in his haste. The hand over her mouth was his, and she felt herself lifted off her feet and dragged along the barn wall to an unbarred window. Tommy clumsily forced open the window one-handed, then pushed her through it, hopping through as soon as she was out of the way. Then, he grabbed her arm and dragged her through the barn to the last stall, dropping into the spot where the shadows were deepest and pulling her down into the hay with him, almost onto his lap. He pulled her close, out of sight, and they huddled there in the dark, waiting.
Since climbing inside the barn, Deborah had kept both hands covering her mouth, though the ability to scream or talk at all seemed to have suddenly left. Her breathing was heavy and panicked, but her throat seemed paralyzed. There were only two words in her mind anyway, pounding through her head with her heartbeat. My fault, my fault, my fault. If it wasn't for her, if Buggzy hadn't been trying to help her, trying to save her, then maybe he'd be okay.
Her breath caught in her throat, and it suddenly occurred to her that her hands were wet. Somehow she'd started crying without even noticing it. Hesitantly she reached up and took off her glasses; she didn't have anything to clean them with if they got smudged. She placed them on her lap, her hands shaking so much she nearly dropped her glasses into the hay. It felt like her whole body was shaking, and she sagged against Tommy like a marionette whose strings had all been cut.
Tommy's gaze was fixed on the barn doors and he didn't look down when she rested her head against his chest, but she could feel him stiffen. Even so, he didn't pull away from her. Wordlessly, she clung to the sherpa lapel of his coat, pressing her face against it and sobbing. A few moments later, she felt his hand come to rest against her shoulder. There was an awkwardness to the way he patted her, as if unsure of how to comfort her, but Deborah appreciated the gesture even so.
It couldn't have been more than a minute or two before she felt Tommy move, dropping the hand from her shoulder, and she raised her head. Between the dim light and her own nearsighted, tear-blurred vision, she could barely see anything at all, but Tommy had shifted position just slightly and was craning his neck to see better. Deborah's breath caught in her throat. Was Jason back again? Here to finish them off because she couldn't stop herself from screaming? She'd be no use at all if they had to run right now, and she'd lost her poker somewhere between the barn and, well, what used to be Buggzy. That thought brought a new wave of slick tears to her eyes, and she sniffed heavily through her now very clogged nose.
The sound felt very loud in the silence, but soon another sound followed. Footsteps. Boots probably, from the weight, moving around by the door. She was no expert on it, but Deborah could have sworn they were getting closer too. They didn't really sound like Jason, not the heavy, deliberate footsteps from earlier; more like someone who was in a hurry, but trying not to run. Still, she couldn't be sure, and she tried as hard as she could to breathe as quietly as possible.
Tommy shifted again, and she glanced down to see him unfolding something in his hands- a pocket knife, from the way the blade caught the low light. He felt like a coiled spring beside her, and Deborah leaned away. Really, she didn't know anything about this young man, and if he snapped, who was to say she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. She trusted him, yes, because she had to, but she still barely knew him.
Moments later there was a flurry of motion, made all the more confusing by Deborah's momentary lack of glasses. It started at the stall door, with a blurry, shadowy person lunging towards them, followed by the sound of metal impacting against wood and a shower of splintery fragments raining through the air. Nearly simultaneously, Tommy beside her stood up, drawing back the hand holding the knife, ready to strike (and nearly hitting Deborah herself in the process.) Both of the movements were so sudden, Deborah couldn't stop herself from yelping in surprise. But before Tommy could come to blows with the newcomer, a familiar voice broke the silence.
"Deborah? What the h- are you doing here? You gave me a heart attack!" The voice was familiar, the deep baritone rumble she'd heard just a few hours earlier.
"Adam?" She squinted up at him, focusing as best she could on his long-haired silhouette.
Adam Palomino sighed, lowering his arms from where he'd had them raised for a second attack. "Yeah, it's me. Put your glasses back on and stop squinting at people, wouldja?" He gestured with the weapon in his hand (which Deborah realized with mild shock when she put her glasses back on, was an axe) towards Tommy next to her. "And who's this?"
"My name's Tommy Jarvis, I'm here to help-" Tommy began, before Deborah cut in.
"I put out a distress call on the CB radio and he answered. He's going to help us, Adam!"
Adam lowered the axe and looked Tommy up and down with a frown, not bothering to hide it. It was clear he wasn't pleased with what he saw. Tommy wasn't exactly a schlubby nerd, but neither was he exactly imposing either. Although, Deborah noted silently, he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes. "Just him. One dude with a shotgun against the zombie from the black lagoon that just crawled out of the lake. That's your plan, huh?"
"I brought the shotgun because she asked someone to bring a gun over the radio-" Tommy insisted.
"-So you did what a random stranger asked? Have you ever fired that gun before? Did you even remember to bring more bullets?" The smile that crossed Adam's face was tight and joyless.
"I brought what I had, but even that's not going to do s- against Jason-"
From her spot, still sitting in the hay while the two young man raised their voices at each other, Deborah groaned. This was getting them nowhere and giving her a headache. She stood up, positioning herself between them both and pushing them back from each other. "Adam Louis Palomino and Tommy Zachary Jarvis, this is not helping us! Adam, be grateful we've got another hand to help out as well as a shotgun, however useless it may be. Tommy, you're not helping your case and Adam has a right to be skeptical. Stop fighting, okay? You're both pretty." Both guys looked sheepishly at each other and dropped the argument.
There was something bothering Tommy though, from the way he kept looking back at Deborah. "My middle name isn't even close to Zachary-"
"-She does that," Adam explained. "You get used to it. At least it's a guy's name this time; she called Chad 'Tiffany' earlier and nobody let him forget it for the rest of the day."
"It was supposed to be Timothy," mumbled Deborah from in between them. "N-nevermind, why were you skulking around in the barn in the first place, Adam?"
Adam shrugged. "Looking to see if there were any lost car parts in here. Somebody f-ed up all the cars."
A chill ran down Deborah's spine. "All the cars?" She bit her lip. "Dad's gonna have a fit if something happened to my car..."
"Sorry, I didn't have time to note down how badly each car got messed up," said Adam with a dismissive shrug. "The big thing is, a lot of them? There's no way they're moving in a hurry. A lot of cut fuel lines out there. Chad's car's mostly okay though. Somebody just took out the battery and drained all the gas out onto the ground from what I can tell, and I didn't get enough time to really check but I'll wager they f-ed with the engine a bit too."
Tommy's brows pulled together as he frowned. "That's not Jason's style, it's too fiddly. The cut fuel lines maybe, but I doubt he could remove a battery. Not without tearing the engine to pieces in the process."
Deborah sighed. "I bet it was someone playing pranks before this all started. Probably Vanessa putting someone else up to it, if Chad's car's the only one messed up like that."
Adam nodded. "From the ones I looked at, his is the only one that's remotely fixable. Kenny's checking the north cabins for clues and I offered to check here." He stood up a little straighter, as if something had crossed his mind all of a sudden. He cursed softly under his breath as he unclipped a walkie-talkie from the pocket of his leather jacket. "Yo Kenny, I found Deborah." He paused, listening to the crackly squawk on the other side. "Nah man, she's fine, got all her limbs and no injuries I can see."
Tears pricked at Deborah's eyes again at Adam's choice of words. "Um, we found Buggzy too. He's... um..." Deborah pointed in the direction they'd come and shook her head, her gaze lowered to the ground. She couldn't bear to actually say the words. It was enough, however, as Adam nodded gravely in response.
"Scratch Buggzy off the list of people you're looking for too, sorry Ken," Adam said solemnly into the walkie talkie. Deborah couldn't hear what Kenny said on the other side, but it was louder than the previous squawks. "Look, man, I'm gonna do everything I can, okay? Yeah, keep me posted. Out." Adam shook his head hard as he hooked the walkie talkie back onto his coat. "Should'a known it'd be Buggzy." He swore louder this time, punching the wall of the stall with a loud thud. Deborah jumped at the sound, and to her surprise Tommy did as well
"Keep it down, you're gonna let Jason know where we are," he whispered fiercely. Adam glowered at him, distrust clear on his face. From their postures, Deborah worried it would come to blows again, so she intervened.
"Adam, have you been using your walkie all evening? I haven't heard a peep out of mine." His expression softened as he turned to look at her, and he held out a hand to her.
"Lemme look at it," he said. She unclipped the walkie talkie and handed it over to him. Adam turned it over in his hands, clicked the talk button, raised it to his ear with a frown, then shook it. He looked at it again and raised an eyebrow. Then, eyebrow still raised, he looked up at Deborah and rubbed his thumb along the volume control wheel at the side. The wheel clicked and the crackle of static filled the barn, before he lowered the volume back to a reasonable level.
"It helps if you turn it on, Deb." Deborah scowled and took the walkie talkie back, clipping it to the top of her pants. In her rush to gather supplies that might save her life, she'd neglected to even turn her radio on. If they weren't fighting for their lives, she knew she'd never live this down.
"You said you were looking for car parts," she said frostily, over-enunciating every word. Anything to get the focus off her mistake.
"AJ just found the battery stuffed under a couch in the lodge before I ran into you," Adam explained. "But there's no gas in the tank; Kenny said there were cans around to fuel the boats, but I'm guessing our prankster moved those too."
"Cans like those?" Tommy said, pointing out of the stall and down the aisle to the door. Sure enough, tucked behind a set of heavy barrels and only just visible from where they were at was the red metal corner of a gas canister.
"If Vanessa lives through this, I'm going to kill her myself," Adam muttered darkly, stalking over and picking up the heavy container with one hand. "C'mon, safety in numbers. We'll regroup at the car."
Tommy instead ducked into the stall they'd entered from. "You go on ahead, I'll be there in a minute." Deborah frowned as he climbed out of the window, but didn't ask what he was doing. Beside her, Adam made a disgruntled sound deep in his throat, but likewise said nothing to stop Tommy from leaving.
"Let's go, Deb," he said, walking to the doors with the expectation that she'd follow. Follow she did, albeit reluctantly with a glance over her shoulder after Tommy. As she went to leave the barn, however, Adam held out his arm to stop her.
"We've got to move fast across here, it's too well lit," he whispered. The barnyard in front of them was lit up with two very bright lights, casting long shadows from the fences leading to the road. If Jason was in the area, it would be like stepping into a spotlight. "Follow my lead. The car's not far, just out in front of the lodge." With that, Adam charged out into the open, dashing across the pools of light as fast as he could with the heavy gas can.
Deborah poked her head out of the barn doors, glancing from side to side just to be certain that there was nobody watching from the shadows, before darting after Adam. He was hard to miss out there; even if he wasn't running he wasn't exactly stealthy. It wasn't his style from what Deborah had noticed. He was always a bit up close and personal, and with his long hair and decorated leather jacket, it was clear Adam wasn't trying to blend into any crowds. Which was fine, when survival didn't depend on blending in. But just following him made Deborah feel as obvious as a tomato stain on a white shirt.
It took less than a minute to get to the road across from the barn, but each step was an agony of uncertainty. Even running as fast as she could, the fear of being seen made time feel like wading through quicksand. Thankfully the lights didn't reach the main road through camp, and the two paused for a second in the relative gloom of moonlight. "Don't run so fast," Deborah whispered as loudly as she dared. "I can't keep up."
"Sorry," Adam responded. He didn't seem to take it to heart very well, however, for a moment later he took off again, almost as fast as he'd been running before. With a small groan, Deborah took off after him and doing her best to keep up. By the time she caught up to him, they were almost at the car. The hood of the car was up, and a dark clad figure was bent over the engine.
"How's it going, AJ? You got that battery in?" Adam asked, stopping beside the person repairing the car. AJ straightened up, shaking her head to toss her purple-streaked hair out of her eyes.
"Piece of cake, it was easy to get back in. That's probably why it was missing in the first place." Her voice was soft with a wry edge of sarcasm underneath. "It's still not gonna start, though."
"Why not?" Adam said, nearly raising his voice. AJ beckoned him closer, and Adam handed the gas can to Deborah before joining AJ in leaning over the engine. The red metal can weighed far more than Deborah was expecting, and she nearly toppled over on her face. She struggled to slide over to one side where she could see better, still lugging the can, and reached the car in time to see AJ pointing at something.
Adam sighed. "Well, we're gonna need a screwdriver. Do you think Kenny has one stashed in the house?"
"Maybe. Wanna get that gas in the car first? That'll take some time anyway." AJ wiped off her hands on her denim skirt as she straightened up again, glancing to one side as she did so. "Hey, Deb."
"Hi, AJ," Deborah said automatically. She and AJ hadn't exactly been close during the past week, though Deborah had tried to be friendly. AJ just wasn't the most open person, she figured, but it had worried her constantly that conversations between them felt stilted and awkward. "I can look in the house if you want? There's something else I wanted to look for, too."
"What are you looking for?" All three jumped and turned around at the voice behind them, Deborah nearly falling over again under the weight of the gas canister. A wave of relief washed over her as she realized it was just Tommy, though with the shadows from the nearby trees it was hard to tell at first.
"A screwdriver-" Deborah began, but Adam started speaking at the same time, drowning her out.
"-Got some loose parts in the engine. AJ and I agreed we need a screwdriver to fix it."
Tommy fished around in his pocket, coming up with the same pocket knife he'd nearly attacked Adam with. He opened the blade out, then flipped out an attachment from inside the case, before folding the blade back in. "Like this?" he asked, handing the knife-turned-screwdriver over to Adam. After a momentary hesitation, Adam took the screwdriver and Tommy leaned over the engine to check for himself. "Over here, right?" he asked, pointing out the same spot AJ had.
"Yeah," Adam said with a nod. "You know your way around an engine, huh?"
"You could say that," said Tommy, straightening up. "I'll put the gas in while you fix the engine." With only a glance at Deborah, he reached out to take the heavy can from her, giving her the wooden baseball bat he'd been carrying to hold in its place. Gladly she accepted the bat, her shoulders sagging with relief now that they no longer had to strain to keep the can off the ground. Despite the weight, Tommy didn't seem to struggle at all as he walked quickly around the back of the car and set about filling the tank.
As the engine repair was simply tightening a few loose screws, Adam was done before Tommy had finished filling the gas. He pulled the hood of the car closed, then leaned to one side to check on Tommy's progress. "Y'know, I thought you looked familiar. You work at the gas station, right? Weren't you working the pumps the other day?" Tommy looked up at him, his expression nearly completely blank, save for one slightly raised eyebrow. His lack of response seemed to indicate that Adam was completely right.
Before Adam could continue pursuing that thought, the front door to the lodge opened. Deborah turned at the sound of running feet and found herself nearly tackled in a hug from Jenny. "Debbie! You're safe! I was worried when nobody knew where you'd gone!" For once, Deborah didn't even mind the sudden hug. Out of all the counselors during the prep week, Jenny had been the closest to being an actual friend, always giving out advice and smiles and big bear hugs.
"I'm sorry, I would have radioed but my walkie-talkie wasn't working," Deborah said, leaving out how it wasn't working because she hadn't turned it on by accident.
"It's okay, you're safe now, that's what matters. Now we've just got to find Eric, Tiff and Vanessa-" Jenny stopped speaking abruptly as Tommy finished putting the gas in on the other side of the car and straightened up. "-Who is that?" A worried, distrustful note crept into her voice. She let go of Deborah, stepping in front of her.
"Don't look at me, I don't know," AJ replied, glaring across the car at Tommy.
"My name's Tommy Jarvis. I answered a distress call, I'm here to help." Already he'd had to introduce himself several times and to Deborah's ears it sounded as if he was getting a touch irritated. He looked over at Adam as he set down the gas cannister on the ground. "The tank's filled, you should be ready to go."
Adam unclipped his walkie-talkie from his jacket. "Any luck with getting the keys, Jen?" he asked, shooting her a glance. Jenny shook her head.
"Chad can't remember where he had them, and I can't get him out from under the bed."
"Typical," AJ muttered. Adam groaned from the other side of the car and raised the walkie-talkie to his ear.
"Hey Ken, we got the car back together. Have you found the keys yet? Chad still can't remember where they are." Deborah unclipped her own walkie talkie so she could hear what was said.
From the other end of the connection she could hear Kenny sigh. "I haven't found any signs of them yet, and I kept tabs on him all day. There's no way he lost them somewhere outside of the main camp."
"Unless Vanessa moved them..." Adam muttered.
"We don't know she did anything, so we have to err on the side of Chad being a scatterbrained idiot," Kenny said curtly. "I haven't searched the second cabin up here, so it's possible he dropped them inside someplace."
"I'm gonna go back in the lodge to check again, maybe they got kicked under a couch or something," Jenny said with a shrug.
Seeing a break in the conversation, Deborah jumped in. "Kenny, is there a spare fuse for the phone box up at the lodge?" The words seemed to tumble out of her mouth in a clump. Kenny was a really good guy, honestly, but with his intense stares and scraggly black beard, sometimes he made Deborah nervous. But now that she had to talk to him, all those nerves made it hard to speak normally.
"Deb! Uh-" Kenny said, sounding surprised to hear from her. "Yeah, there should be one over there. Upstairs in the storage room, I think? Not sure where though, I'm a little busy." There was a pause on the line, before he spoke again. "Did something happen to the fuse that's in there now?"
"It's kind of, um, broken," said Deborah, chewing on her lip. "Jason got there first, but it's repairable. I just need the spare."
"Roger that," Kenny said. Deborah was just about to put her walkie-talkie back on her belt, when the line crackled again. "Alright, did someone build a fire in the fireplace up here and then leave it burning? Because that's definitely an infraction, you could burn the house dow-"
Kenny's voice cut off with abruptly, and the faint sounds of someone gasping for air came through the speakers of Deborah's walkie talkie. Then, nothing. Cold, blank silence. A sense of dread spread through Deborah, clamping around her heart like a frozen fist as she turned to look at the others with her. She saw the same uneasy expression mirrored on their faces as they lowered the walkie-talkies they'd been listening in on. Even Tommy, who seemed to have picked up a walkie-talkie of his own somewhere after he'd left them in the barn, had a deep frown on his face.
Then the screaming started.
It was a good distance away, up north of the main lodge, but the night was quiet and it carried surprisingly well. And Deborah knew she'd never be able to forget it. This was a scream of the most agonizing pain, rough and raw. Even as far away as it was, the intensity was palpable and every muscle in Deborah's body began to shake in sheer terror. There was not a doubt in her mind about who was making that noise.
As abruptly as it started, the screaming ended, leaving silence once again in its wake. AJ made a strangled sound and clamped her hands to her mouth. Roughly, Adam pulled her close, letting her bury her face against his shoulder. None of them were capable of speech at that moment. It was as if time itself had stopped, leaving them stranded in an empty, colorless bubble.
Like all things do, however, the feeling of frozen time was not to last. The first thing that broke the silence was the front door of the lodge bursting open and Jenny sprinting the short distance to the car. There were clearly tears in her eyes as she approached, but her mouth was a grim, determined line. In her outstretched hand glimmered the silvery shape of a set of car keys, and she held them out to Adam.
"They were under the couch," she said shortly, her voice choked with emotion. "I told Chad to get his butt out from under the bed but-" Before she could finish, the lights around them blinked out, plunging them into darkness. Moments later, the door again opened and Chad shot out, racing for the car with long, clumsy strides. He made a desperate dive for the keys Jenny was holding as he approached, but ended up grasping her hand as well when she didn't immediately let go of them.
"I've got to get out of here," he sobbed, his normally good-looking face blotchy and soaked with tears. Deborah had harbored a crush on him from the moment she arrived at the camp earlier in the week, but seeing him like this shattered the shiny illusion she'd crafted for herself. Somewhere deep down she'd figured there was more to the lazy, self-indulgent rich boy with the charming smile than she'd seen, and that with a little push he'd turn into someone incredible. Now that there was actual stress in his life, Chad went to pieces like wet paper, hiding under a bed and sobbing until there was a chance to get to safety.
She'd certainly misjudged him.
Chad was still tugging on Jenny's hand, angling for the keys while everyone stared at him. Reluctantly, Jenny shrugged, a small apologetic smile on her face as she let go. "Well, it is his car," she admitted. Chad lunged for the drivers side door and flung himself into the seat. He fumbled to put the key into the ignition, but Jenny was faster and dove forward to grab his hand. "You're taking someone out with you, Chad." There was no bargaining with that statement, even though she made it while practically flung across his chest, only keeping her balance by holding onto the open door.
Nobody made a move for the other door, despite how much everyone wanted to be anywhere but here, but it took a moment for Deborah to fully realize why. Chad's little sports car was a lovely, shiny yellow and almost certainly new... and it had only two seats. With five people currently standing near the car, it was inevitable that the majority of them would have to stay behind.
Tommy broke the silence. "I'm not leaving until Jason's back where he belongs," he said with a grim determination. His words stirred a flutter of courage in Deborah's heart. It would be so easy to just dive for the seat next to Chad and earlier in the week she would have gladly done so, but now she had a much more important job to do.
"I've gotta stay too," she insisted, tightening her grip on the bat in her hands. "Somebody's got to get that phone fixed."
"Jenny-" AJ started, but Jenny shook her head.
"I'm not leaving either. I should really stay here and run things now that Kenny... can't." She was doing her darndest to hold herself together, but there was a hitch in her throat when she mentioned Kenny.
At last Adam spoke, his voice so low Deborah could barely hear it. "Get in the car, AJ." AJ stared up at him, looking for a moment like she was going to protest, but Adam grabbed her by the shoulders and gently (but firmly) steered her over to the passenger's side door. "Get in the car," he repeated. Still staring up at him, AJ fumbled for the door and climbed into the seat, but didn't close the door right away.
"Adam-" He shook his head at her, stepping over to the car to lean his arm on the roof over the door and rest his forehead against his arm.
"I'm sorry, AJ," he said softly. "I should have just swallowed my pride and told you how I felt sooner. Just, get out of here and live your life, okay?" The brightness of his eyes didn't escape AJ's notice, nor the way he'd suddenly started blinking a lot more. She reached a hand out of the car and grabbed onto the lapel of his leather jacket, tugging on it a little and pulling him down closer to her. Then, she rose out of her seat a little and pressed a warm, soft kiss onto his lips.
"I like you too, Adam," she whispered as she sank back into her seat, tears already welling in her eyes. With a conspicuous sniff, Adam straightened up to press the heels of his hands against his eyes. He sighed heavily, staring up at the starry sky over his head before tugging off his jacket and bending down to toss it onto AJ's lap, then leaning in to kiss her in return.
It seemed almost physically painful for Adam to pull away, but he closed the car door and crossed around the front to the drivers side, his face a twisted confusion of sadness and anger. "You get her out of here, you hear me, Chad? If anything happens to AJ, I swear I'll make you regret everything you ever did." He turned to face the others once he got a nervous nod from Chad. "Jenny, Deborah... uh, Tommy? Get in the house, do whatever you've got to. I'm gonna make sure they get out."
It was certainly clear to Tommy what Adam was planning, and his brows furrowed deeper still. "Jason's gonna hear the car when they start it..."
"Yeah, I figured." Adam matched Tommy glare for glare, and Tommy was the first to break eye contact. He stepped over to Jenny and Deborah, placing a hand on each of their backs and steering them towards the house.
"Good luck. Wait 'til we get to the house before you start the car," he cautioned. Jenny shot one last lingering glance at the car before jogging back to the house. Deborah, however, stayed close to Tommy, reluctant to leave her friends behind but at the same time wanting to stick close to her new companion. With Tommy's hand on her elbow, she let him guide her up onto the porch and into the big main room of the lodge. The exterior doors were not very sturdy honestly, and the flimsy locking mechanism would certainly not keep Jason out so Deborah didn't even bother trying to lock them.
The sound of the car trying to start outside caught Deborah's ear. Slowly, she walked over to the window nearest the door, trying to look out and watch the car get away. "You should go upstairs and find that fuse," Tommy said from behind her, a note of urgency in his voice, but she didn't turn to look at him. "I'll keep an eye out down here; I don't know where to start looking." He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a red pocket knife, different from the one he'd used to fix the car, before pressing it into her hand. "If something happens and Jason tries to grab you, stab him. It might buy you a few seconds to get away."
She looked up at his face in horror. "But I could never-"
"You might have to," Tommy insisted. "You just have to do it and not think about it." Deborah pressed her lips together in a frown and walked over to the twisting staircase up to the second floor. She glanced at the windows in front as she stepped on the stairs and froze. Somehow, in the seconds that she'd looked away, Jason had shown up by the car. It had only just started driving away but Jason's attention wasn't on the car at the moment- it was on Adam who was wielding the firewood axe he'd had earlier in the barn.
As she watched, Adam swung the axe at Jason, catching him in the side. A chunk of cloth and something else that Deborah realized with a swell of nausea must be flesh fell off onto the ground, but the axe stuck fast in Jason's side. With a twist of his torso, Jason yanked the axe handle out of Adam's grasp, then wrenched the whole thing from his side and flung it away. Adam staggered back a few steps but Jason lunged forward, grabbing a hold of him and hoisting him into the air over his head.
All of a sudden, Deborah realized she didn't actually want to see anymore, and ran upstairs as fast as she could. No matter how fast she moved, however, she could still hear Adam's faint swearing from outside... and then the moment when his voice went quiet with a sickening crunch and a heavy thud. Fighting the urge to cry again, she fled down the upstairs hall to the storage room in the back and flung the door open.
Inside the storage closet was an array of shelves that sent a tendril of dread curling around her heart. There were so many boxes and containers here, she'd never be able to look through all of them fast enough. After all, it was only a matter of time before Jason decided to come check out the house. The flashlight on her belt made the shelves cast huge, daunting shadows as she began to look. Boxes of cleaning supplies, stationery and office supplies, and enough rolls of toilet paper to cover the front porch in white greeted her. She pushed a box labelled "staples" to one side, reaching for a box behind it, but her eye fell on the label for a moment and a jolt passed through her.
Of course Kenny labelled everything. Why wouldn't he? Everything had to be easily findable in case they couldn't ask him for help! Quickly Deborah scanned the labels, hunting for any box labeled "phone."
Nothing.
Next she scanned the area where the "F's" should be for "fuse" but again came up with nothing. Deborah frowned. There were no other storage closets in the upstairs, so this had to be the right spot. Phone, fuse... Telephone! She hadn't even looked for the word "telephone" and of course there was a box right in plain sight labelled "Telephone Fuses."
Deborah could have kicked herself, but she settled instead with grabbing one of the precious fuses from the box and running back down the hall to the main room. She stopped at the top of the stairs to hold the fuse over her head, waving it like a flag in an attempt to catch Tommy's attention, but Tommy wasn't paying attention.
He was standing at the door of the lodge, the shotgun no longer slung across his back, but pointed out at something in front of him. "C'mon, I'm waiting! I'm waiting for ya!" he shouted, and Deborah started to call out in response, but Tommy hissed a sharp warning to be quiet. His words clearly hadn't been meant for her. Moments ticked by, with both of them standing as still as if they'd been turned to stone. She could just barely hear Tommy whispering, "Closer, closer-" under his breath.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the porch steps, and Tommy fired, the sound of the gunshot echoing along the porch and shattering the silence of the night. The heavy thud of a body slamming into the ground followed.
Tommy whirled, stepping back inside and slamming the door shut in one fluid motion, pausing for a second to lock it behind him. He swung the shotgun back over his shoulder and bounded for the steps, taking them two at a time with his long strides. Tommy reached for her arm as he approached, steering her back down the hall she'd just left, and she caught a glimpse of his eyes for just a moment as he passed. They'd been pale greyish blue before, like a cloudy day that promised rain, but now there was something intense and frightening deep within them.
Deborah was stunned by his behavior long enough to let him drag her down the hall and into one of the back bedrooms before she spoke. "Tommy, I have the fuse! We can leave!" The distant, focused look on his face faded with a blink, and he looked at her in mild confusion.
"Oh, yeah," he said slowly, then looked at the closed door in front of them. From somewhere down below them, came heavy, deliberate footsteps. They were trapped up in a second-story room with a killer below them and only a single staircase between them. Tommy gestured for her to hand him the bat. Reluctantly, Deborah gave it to him, glancing up to look at him with a concerned frown. "I knew the shotgun wouldn't stop him, but I've got a plan." He walked over to the large double bed and pulled up the dust ruffle.
"I am not going under the bed," Deborah hissed. "It's- there could be- I just can't-" She clutched the fuse to her chest as she spoke, feeling a rising swell of panic. But Tommy didn't move, just stared at her expectantly, and there was really nowhere else to go. With an anxious whimper, she dropped to the floor and proceeded to slide under the bed.
"Just trust me, I've got a plan," Tommy whispered as she disappeared under the bed. Honestly, at that point Deborah wasn't entirely sure how much she actually trusted him. The look in his eyes after he shot Jason was stuck in her mind and something about that gaze was deeply unsettling. From across the room she heard the door to the large wardrobe open and shut, and she assumed Tommy must have hidden inside it. Whatever his plan was, she couldn't figure it out at all.
From down the hall, the spiraling staircase creaked and groaned. There was no doubt at all now that Jason was on his way to their location. Deborah closed her eyes and tried not to move or breathe as much as possible. Whatever Tommy's plan was, she hoped it worked. It was their only way out of this.