LOGINI was halfway through rolling one of the gallons of distilled water toward the door when gunshots cracked outside so suddenly that I nearly dropped it. Another burst followed before I could even process the first, loud enough to make my whole body tense.The front door swung open and Claire rushed inside, eyes wide and breathing hard.“What happened?” I asked immediately. “Are the kids in the minivan already?”“Yeah, but Patty, Art said there are more people closing in on the cabin. We need to drive out now.” My heart started pounding even harder as another shot sounded somewhere beyond the burning gate. I forced myself to breathe and looked down at the gallon still sitting beside my bad foot.“Okay. Okay, fuck. Help me carry this, at least.”“Okay, okay.” Claire grabbed the other end of the gallon, but the moment I tried to move with her, my bad ankle refused to cooperate. Every step sent another pulse of pain up my leg, and I could already feel how much time we were wasting just try
“Patty, stay there. I’m waking up the kids and getting the dogs,” John said hurriedly before disappearing into one of the other rooms.I stayed near the top of the stairs while movement started spreading through the cabin below. Errol was already sitting up on the couch, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and looking around like he was still trying to figure out why everyone was suddenly awake.“Errol, help me get down. Quick, we need to evacuate the cabin!” I called to him.He blinked up at me, still half asleep and clearly needing another second to process what I had just said. “Hurry!”“Shit.” That woke him up. He kicked the blanket away and rushed toward the stairs while I gripped the railing and waited for him to reach me. John still hadn’t come back out with the kids, the dogs, or Mabel, and every second that passed made the perverts' threat even scarier.I hooked my arm around Errol’s shoulders and struggled down the stairs with him taking most of my weight. Every hop still jarr
The lights started appearing sometime around eleven o’clock. Claire had gone back inside to check on her siblings, leaving Art and me alone on the upstairs balcony when he suddenly lowered the binoculars and stared toward the tree line beyond the wooden fence.“What?” I asked.He raised the binoculars again instead of answering right away. From up here, we could see over most of the fence and into the dark stretch of trees surrounding the property. I followed his gaze until a small light appeared between two trunks, disappeared, then showed up again farther to the right.Something was moving through the forest.“Should I wake up John or Errol?”“Wait,” Art finally answered. He handed me the binoculars as he got to his feet. “Keep watching from here. Radio me if you see them getting closer. I’m going down to check the fence.”I nodded immediately and took the binoculars from him. Art disappeared through the balcony doors a second later while I brought them back to my eyes and searched
I reached for the radio myself, fully intending to tell them to fuck off and that I hoped Mr. McMouthface paid them a visit tonight, but Art caught my arm before I could grab it. “I’m just going to tell them to fuck off.” “That’s exactly what they want. You know that, right?” He had a point, but fuck it. They were so fucking annoying. The radio crackled again. “Still there? Damn, tough crowd.” Then it went silent altogether. “Okay, so me and Patty take the night watch. I think that’s settled,” Art said, immediately starting the debate again. “Oh my God.” John slapped a hand over his face. “What?” “You’re grossly clingy.” “She’s my girlfriend.” “And she’s my sister, so what’s your point?” I pushed another forkful of hash browns into my mouth, finishing the small serving I had taken just to taste Mabel’s cooking while the two of them argued over me like I wasn’t sitting right there. “You think I can help you guys with the night watch? I mean, not the whole night,” Claire said b
“Me, John, and Errol will look into it. In the meantime, you barricade yourselves in here. Don’t open the door unless it’s us,” Art said as he retrieved his AR-15 and the golf club we had taken from Mabel’s house.I looked down at my still-swollen ankle and sighed. “Fine.”We watched Art, John, and Errol approach the fortified gate. They stopped a few feet from it while voices carried from the other side, too far away for me to make out anything beyond the occasional rise in volume.Art stood with his AR-15 lowered beside him while John did most of the talking at first. Errol stayed a little behind them, glancing between the two as the conversation dragged on.I leaned against the window, trying uselessly to catch even a single word.Whatever was being said clearly wasn’t improving Art’s mood. His shoulders had gone stiff, and at one point he turned his head toward John before looking back at the gate.A burst of laughter came from the other side.Art didn’t laugh.A few minutes later
I woke up the next morning because nothing was happening.There were no gunshots outside, no screaming downstairs, and no radio calls asking us to rescue somebody trapped in another motel building while getting haunted by another Mr. McMouthface. I stayed in bed for a few seconds listening anyway — for what I was not sure, but I did it anyways, half expecting something horrible to announce itself the moment I relaxed, but all I could hear were voices downstairs and Jumbo King barking like he had been excluded from an important meeting.Everybody was alive, which is a good thing, a very good thing, actually.Art wasn’t beside me anymore, but there was a note on his pillow telling me not to move until he came back upstairs. Naturally, my first thought was that I could probably make it downstairs by myself if I held onto the walls. But then I looked at my ankle as I tried to move it a little. It was still swollen, although not nearly as horrifying as yesterday. I could probably stand if







