Bad Chris Hunting

HELEN

~SMASH!~

Boxes tumbled.

Something had crashed into the row of stacked pallets.

The initial impact was loud enough to distract Chris. He spun around, lowering the gun away from Emma.

Sean had to jump back to avoid getting hit by falling bottles of antidepressants.

As more boxes tumbled from the first pallet, I heard the repetitive beeping of a reversing vehicle.

The boys looked around, trying to figure out where it was coming from. But then the beeping stopped and the sound of an engine roared to life.

Another crash!

This time the impact was powerful enough to tip an entire pallet, stacked high with boxes, onto its side. The shrink wrap exploded, and the boxes, stuffed with Viagra samples, flew across the warehouse floor.

Sean found himself buried under a pile of loose pill bottles. I thought I could see blood streaming down his face.

Chris ran to help Sean.

I turned to see what was happening and gasped in shock.

Brittany was behind the wheel of a forklift.

Her expression was fierce and aggressive, like a banshee on a mission.

I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to see her in Crazy Bitch Mode.

She slammed her foot down on the accelerator and aimed for the mountain of fallen boxes. The forklift slammed into the rubble and, like a snow plow, continued to drive it forward.

Chris, dragging Sean by his shoulders, was trying to get clear of Brittany’s path of destruction.

She slammed on the brakes. Enough boxes littered the space between Brittany and Chris to create a barricade. But it wouldn’t take long for Chris to get through.

Acting quickly, Brittany jumped out of the forklift and began splashing some clear liquid all over the pile of boxes.

Squinting, I recognized the bottle. It was from the art room.

Paint thinner.

~What is she doing?!~

She pulled out a yellow lighter, and that’s when it dawned on me. Paint thinner is flammable. Extremely fucking flammable.

“Brittany! Watch out!!!”

Chris raised his gun and aimed at Brittany, but he was too slow. She'd already set flame to the saturated cardboard.

Fire leapt across the warehouse. The boxes shot up into flames. Whatever was in those boxes must have been flammable as well because within seconds there was a raging wall of fire.

It separated us from Chris and Sean.

I heard a gunshot and saw Brittany ducking. Crouching down, she ran to me and pulled out an X-Acto knife.

“I never thought those art supplies would come in so handy!” she said through rushed breaths as she began to cut away at the plastic ties around my wrist.

“Hurry, Brittany!”

She freed my left hand and went to work on the right. I noticed the flames snaking from the boxes on the floor, reaching up and setting fire to those stacked on the shelves.

“Can you stand?” Brittany asked as she broke through the plastic ties at my wrist.

“Yeah, get Emma,” I said, rubbing my wrists and looking about for any sign of Chris.

Smoke began to fill up the warehouse, making it hard to see across to where Chris and Sean had last been.

The fire was spreading down the entire shelf. Flames reached across the warehouse floor, traveling from row to row.

I rushed to Emma and ripped the tape from her mouth.

“What the fuck’s going on?!” she screamed.

“I’ll explain later!” I said, clutching her face in my hands. “We need to get out of here!”

“This way!” Brittany yelled, finishing up with Emma’s binding and leading us toward an exit. I took Emma’s hand and we followed.

“How did you find us?” I asked once we were outside, running for Brit’s car. The night air was cool compared to the smoky warehouse.

It looked like we were in an industrial park, but I had no idea where we were in Boulder. Or if we were even in Boulder.

Trees lined the perimeter, and it was hard to tell how far we were from civilization.

“And how do you know how to drive a fucking forklift?!” Emma added.

“Chris showed me. He brought me here to make out one time and thought it would impress me. Well, I hope he’s impressed now.”

We ran across the pavement.

“Jesus, how far away did you park?” I asked.

“I didn’t want them to know I’d followed you,” Brittany said.

“Is that what happened?” I asked.

“I was driving a little ways behind when they crashed into you. I was going to stop, then I saw them carrying you off and it looked messed up. So I kept following.”

“I’m so glad you did.”

Brittany glanced at me and I gave her a little smile.

~BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!~

We all turned to see the warehouse explode into the night sky.

Fire erupted through the roof, sending sheet metal and other debris flying.

“Holy shit!”

“Do you think Sean and Chris were still inside?” I asked.

The three of us stood and watched the blaze for a moment. Orange light flickered on our faces.

“So do you want to tell me what the hell a bear shifter is?!” Emma asked without looking at me.

“I…”

~There’s no way I could keep this a secret from her any longer. Not now after everything she’s heard.~

I owed her an explanation…

Brittany too, I guess.

“I’ll tell you everything once we’re outta here.”

“Too bad you won’t get that chance!”

I froze. A shiver ran down my spine.

~Chris!~

Slowly, I turned around. Chris was standing between us and the car.

His face was smeared with soot, and there was blood on his clothes. He’d replaced the meager 9mm with a double-barreled shotgun. Sean was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re a fucking psycho!” Brittany screamed.

“And you’re a pain in my ass!”

“You told me you liked having things in your ass,” Brittany shot back, giving Chris the finger.

~What a bad bitch!~

Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop thinking about the gun in Chris’s hand.

He lifted the barrel and pointed it at Brittany.

“Now I understand why your father left you!”

He pulled the trigger.

~BANG!~

Brittany flew backward, and I felt the shock wave from the bullet ripple past me. Chris was already reloading—and fast.

Just as Chris flipped the barrel back into place, Emma charged.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

She ran at him—

And just as he aimed for her, she tackled him to the ground.

They rolled over on the concrete, wrestling for the gun.

I was about to jump into the fray, but a pair of arms slipped around me, holding me tight.

~That smell.~

“I’ve got you now, my little honeytrap,” Sean hissed in my ear.

I struggled against his grip but couldn’t get free.

“Get off me you smelly shithead!”

My arms stung from where he’d tied me up, and the pain in my shoulder was almost unbearable.

Sean held me in place as I watched Chris overpower Emma.

~Crack!~

I heard the impact as Emma’s head hit the ground. Chris held her down, his legs straddling her as he pressed the rifle down across her throat.

“Don’t you fucking touch her!!” I screamed and tried to kick backwards at Sean.

Chris looked at me, his face covered in shadow.

~Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.~

My eyes drifted to Emma as I pleaded with her to hang on. I noticed her breathing and was overcome with relief.

But my relief was premature.

Chris saw the look on my face and turned his attention back toward Emma.

“Completely expendable,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

With both hands, he pushed the shaft of his weapon down on her throat.

She struggled against his strength, but it was no use.

“Emma!”

Chris was grinding his teeth, using the force of his weight to hold Emma in place.

~This is it. I'm going to lose her. Emma's going to die, and I have to watch.~

“AH!”

Sean yelped, and his grip around me loosened. His arms fell away, and I turned to find Brittany holding her X-Acto knife in Sean’s neck.

Her left arm was limp at her side and drenched in blood. It looked like the bullet had hit her shoulder.

With pain on her face, she pulled the knife out and stabbed Sean again.

And again.

And again.

“Go!” she yelled at me.

I ran and lunged at Chris, kicking him in the side of his head. He rolled off and curled up, holding his temple.

Quickly, I grabbed Emma and we ran for it.

“Brittany! Come on!”

I turned to see Brittany, her eyes wild like a feral animal, stab the X-Acto knife into Sean’s neck one last time. She left the knife in him and ran to catch up.

~BANG!~

The first bullet ricocheted off the road to our right.

“Shit!” I yelled, glancing back quickly. “Chris still has the gun!”

The car was just ahead, but one of us would have been shot dead by the time we reached it.

Just to our right, the trees lining the parking lot could give us cover.

Grabbing Emma and Brit by their arms, eliciting an agonized scream from Brittany, I dragged them toward the trees.

More gunshots followed, but somehow none of us were hit.

We ran into the trees and kept running.

We ran farther and farther into the dense forest. So little moonlight managed to sneak through the branches overhead that it became hard to see.

Our progress slowed but we couldn’t stop.

I could hear Brittany on my right wheezing through the pain of the bullet wound in her arm and Emma on my left huffing, but we were all together.

Every now and then another gunshot would erupt from somewhere behind us. We all knew that no matter what, we couldn’t stop running.

“Stop!” Emma screamed, and we all skidded to a halt.

A foot in front of us, the forest floor fell away. Roots stuck out along the cliff’s edge. The moon shone down brightly and lit our pale, sweat-covered faces.

We looked out at the treetops poking up level with our eye line. Below was a steep drop of what had to be fifty feet or more.

There was nowhere else to go.

We were trapped.

Laughter—the chuckle of a smug hyena—crept through the trees.

Emma, Brittany, and I turned to watch as Chris emerged from the forest’s edge, moonlight illuminating his deranged expression.

“You bitches think you can make a fool outta me? Huh?!”

His eyes bore into mine.

“You think you can HUMILIATE ME in front of my father!?”

Saliva dripped from his bottom lips and his body shook with rage.

“Not tonight.”

Chris raised the gun, holding it in both hands, this time pointing it squarely in my direction. I reached out and joined hands with Emma and Brittany.

“They say live bait is better, but sometimes a hunter has to make do with what he’s got.”

Chris’s finger hovered over the trigger.

I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut.

I waited for the bang…

~ROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!~