Posted by PK on October 31, 2001 at 17:19:17:
Carol was missing Amanda. She hoped she'd come back soon, her vision was blurry and she
didn't know how much longer she'd be able to stay conscious. She had promised to come
back before the end...she held on, hoping still.
"Shit their pants, yes," Amanda said. "Crudely put but I like the idea. I don't suppose they
stopped to pick up the tapes...?"
"The recordings from the cameras? I don't think so. They're all still here, digital storage I
think. Shit, I don't know. I'm not a tech. They didn't take anything....wait, hang on.." Belinda
tried to remember. "Jerry took something. From there." She pointed.
Amanda examined the equipment. "Zip disc?"
"I don't know....sorry." Belinda wanted desperately to please Amanda.
Amanda patted her on the shoulder reassuringly. "That's okay. I suppose we'd better go and
ask Jerry then, hadn't we? What does he look like? You can talk as we go. Pass me that
videocam. No, better yet, you carry it. Know how to turn it on?"
"I think we should split up," the videotech said again.
"What, and search the basement?" It was an edgy joke. Nobody laughed.
"She can't get us all. It's, what, a mile to the perimeter? If we scatter..."
"We could have just walked to the main road, you know? Straight down the drive. It's only a
mile. Or so. We'd be off the grounds in, what? Fifteen minutes?"
"She'd catch us before we were halfway there."
"If she knows where we're going. How could she know?"
"She tracked Carol through the woods. She can't find us on a path?"
"She doesn't know..."
"Who knows WHAT she knows? The Shadow?"
"This is getting us nowhere," the director said. It had dawned on him that trekking to the edge
of the park was perhaps not the best idea he'd had; whichever way they went Amanda could
cover it faster. Maybe they really should have gone for the easy track. They would have got
out faster if they had time and if Amanda was delayed with Belinda that might have been
enough, at least they'd have known where they were going. Now they were lost and he had
no real doubts that the huntress could catch up to them if she decided to. It was almost
funny, they had made the same idiotic mistake people do in horror films. Blindly fleeing, they
had put themselves at a disadvantage. Don't flee through the woods, the killer will catch you.
No use crying over spilt milk, they were stuck with it. If they backtracked to the drive they'd
be even easier targets. What were their options now? Only a few minutes and most of the
crew were winded. "Any REAL suggestions?"
"Split up," the videotech said again. "She can't get us all."
"She can't get ANY of us," the producer repeated. "It's illegal." He seemed to be trying to
convince himself.
"So why are you still here?"
"Maybe we should stand and fight," Jerry said, surprising himself. "We should pick some...I
don't know..sticks? Stones? We don't have guns, but neither does she. She didn't even take
a bow..." Uh oh. Neither did we. She's at the lodge.
"She's at the lodge," the sound tech said. "She could get one."
Thank you for that, the director thought sardonically. That was all we needed. "Okay," he said
resolutely. "We stay together. We head for the perimeter. If you see something you can use,
pick it up. If she catches us, we mob her. She can't take us all. Move out." He'd always
wanted to say that.
Carol was getting her second wind. It hadn't really been all that long, surely? It just seemed
that way because every minute was one minute of the last hour of her life. The trick was to
keep her eyes closed, especially when she was rotated face down. She had to see Amanda's
face one more time, because that was where she'd be spending eternity. In her. Does
everybody rationalise their own end this way? she wondered. She had no anger in her any
more, no hate. They were irrelevant. Fear scrabbled at the edges of her mind but she shut it
out. Being cooked wasn't a bad way to go, really. The pain wasn't bad, she was almost numb
to it. No worse than sunburn. Some defense mechanism, the oil or the drink, she didn't know
and it didn't matter. All she had to do was let it happen, go with the flow. The ultimate and
justified fatalism, there wasn't anything else she COULD do. She just didn't want to be alone.
Suddenly, she felt herself starting to cry.
"Back soon, Carol," Amanda muttered. "Just one more thing..."
"What?" Belinda gave her a puzzled look.
"I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep," Amanda said
"What? Look, I..."
Amanda shushed her with a hand motion. "If you listen carefully," she whispered in her best
David Attenborough impression, "You will hear a herd of wounded hippopotami crashing
through the underbrush. Tally ho!"
"Wha...." Belinda shut up.
"Follow me," Amanda whispered. "Quietly"
The director was almost beginning to think they'd got away. He was already starting to feel
embarrassed at his panic, imagining how sheepish he'd feel about it tomorrow, how he could
make a joke of it at the pub. A thought nagged at his mind. Belinda. Had they really
sacrificed her? Madness. If this was all a practical joke, how would she take it? She'd be
angry. Very angry, he realised, stomach sinking. Enough to sue?
There was just the slightest noise in the undergrowth. He froze. Left or right? Nerves back on
full alert, the edge of panic, heart rising in his chest. Silly, he told himself.
"Hello," Amanda said, stepping out of the trees directly ahead. "Or should that be 'BOO! Got
you'!?" Everybody tried to get behind somebody else as the huntress walked towards them.
Her hands were empty, she was smiling. "Just thought I'd drop in. Say hello. Oh, by the way,"
she directed her attention to the makeup girl, "Nice job."
"Ah?"
"The camouflage. It works. Should have remembered, Rachel used it. Mud and leaves,
brilliant." A silent pause. "Oh, come on. Hands up, anybody see me coming?"
She was getting closer and nobody was raising a hand, the director realised. "Get her!" he
yelled.
Lying in the undergrowth, Belinda had them all in her sights. She suppressed a snigger.
"Oh, goodie," Amanda said. "An epic finale. The Last Battle. Custer. Oh, DO come on chaps,
make an effort...."