Part 31 (2/2)

Dejah brushed the hair away from Selah's sunken eyes and tried to push the thoughts of the horrors her daughter had experienced into the dark recesses of her mind to deal with at another time and place. Thoughts of Thomas, the mixed emotions surrounding him and their failed marriage, threatened to invade her mind, but she willed them away. She didn't have time to fall apart. They still had to survive.

David watched the fires on the other side of the trees, and then looked in all directions around their little bobbing boat. ”I bet in some other time this was a good fis.h.i.+ng hole.”

”Yep. Lake's called the Catfish Capital of Texas. Catfish, ba.s.s, c.r.a.ppie, and these pesky critters we call alligator gars that look like some sort of dinosaur - all kinds of fish out here.” Robbins positioned his oar in his hand, preparing to row. ”Don't think we'll have time for fis.h.i.+ng today though.” He chuckled.

”Yeah, don't imagine so.” David moved his oar into the water, pus.h.i.+ng them toward the sh.o.r.e. ”What's on the other side of the lake?”

”Straight over there,” Robbins nodded as he rowed, ”is a park. Next city over is Lone Oak.”

”Still Hunt County?”

”Yeah. But, here's the good part. We cross through Hunt County, and on up through Fannin County, and then we cross the Oklahoma border. Couple hours by car,” Robbins said, as the boat b.u.mped something hard and jumped on the water.

”d.a.m.n it!” David said.

”What was that?” Dejah grabbed Selah, pulling her close, panic spreading through her body.

”I'm sure it was just a tree,” Robbins said, and laughed to ease the tension.

They rowed the boat and it glided forward on the water. ”We don't seem to be hung up on anything,” David said, relief easing his voice.

”I told you, probably just a tree.” Dr. Robbins leaned over, bracing himself with his oar, and peered into the murky water.

A spray of cold water drenched the boat's occupants as a ma.s.sive alligator gar leapt from the icy lake and latched onto Dr. Robbins's arm and shoulder. With his free arm, he bashed the behemoth fish with his oar.

”Holy s.h.i.+t!” David tried to maintain the balance of the boat by s.h.i.+fting his weight to the other side, compensating for the struggle with the fish. He was stunned, trying to process what he was seeing. The fish was at least six-feet-long, its awful head and tooth-lined jaws very much indeed like those of an alligator, clamping the doctor's arm. David searched the bottom of the boat for something to fight it with, but there was nothing. And if he walked with his oar to the back of the boat, the uneven weight would tip the craft and dump them all into the water.

”It's infected!” Dejah shouted above the noise of the splas.h.i.+ng water and the screams of Dr. Robbins. Selah began to scream, too, covering her face with her hands and crumpling into a fetal position on the boat's bottom.

”d.a.m.n you!” Robbins managed to get his oar under the jagged teeth of the monstrosity, but the gar's bite was too tight to break free. It ground through the muscle of his arm with its saw-tooth jaws.

”Use this!” David hurriedly pa.s.sed his oar to Dejah who began beating the fish, but more than once hit the doctor by mistake as it deflected off slick scales.

Slipping on the slick boat floor, Robbins tried to latch onto a seat with his free hand, but couldn't get his fingers wrapped around anything that could serve as an anchor. Dejah took another whack at the ma.s.sive beast of a fish, and then the doctor lost his footing, fell backward in the air, and went over the side of the boat, dunked beneath the waters, clutched in the razored jaws of the gar.

Bubbles burst on the water's surface, and the ripples slowly faded to calm.

They sat there, frozen in the boat.

”He's gone,” Dejah said, after some time.

”I think so,” David replied, sorrow and exhaustion slowing his words.

Selah's soft sobs floated over the acrid wind, the scent of burning trees and fuel stinging their nostrils. ”Everyone keeps dying. Everyone's going to be dead!”

”No. No, we're going to make it. For now, just think about something else, baby girl. You think about Christmas and Santa Claus, and new school clothes, and strawberry scented lip gloss and anything else that makes you happy.” Dejah picked up the fallen oar of Dr. Robbins and began rowing in his stead. ”We're going to be okay. You tell yourself that. Over and over again.”

”Everything will be okay...once we're on the other side of the lake.” David sounded confident. ”We'll go to Oklahoma. Get out of Texas. You'll see, Selah; we'll be okay.”

Dejah felt tears coursing over her dirty cheeks, blurring her vision, turning visions of crisp water and trees into a watercolor painting of earth tones. The hues of nature blended with the blackness engulfing her mind, and she heaved the oar in and out of the water, propelling the small boat toward the sh.o.r.eline of the promised park, and presumed safety.

”We're gonna be okay, baby girl,” she cooed to Selah. ”We're gonna be okay.”

THE END.

About the Authors.

Christopher Fulbright is a former reporter turned technical writer whose stories have received honorable mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror and Best Horror of the Year.

Angeline Hawkes is a Bram Stoker award-nominated author with a B.A. in Composite English Language Arts with works published by Chaosium, Dark Regions Press, and others.

Their individual and collaborative books have been published by Delirium Books, Dark Regions Press, Bad Moon Books, and many more. Scavengers is also available in trade paper back from Elder Signs Press.

More on their individual and collaborative works can be found at their website . Follow on Twitter @FulbrightHawkes.

Other eBooks by this Author.

Then Comes the Child (Horror novella).

Blood Coven (Horror novella).

Black Mercy Falls (Horror novella).

Sorrow Creek (Horror novella).

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