Hearing Lillith's absurd and capricious words, Carrie's blood ran cold.
'Fun...?' she thought, unable to process the girl's psychopathy.
But there was no time to argue or panic.
Dale was a hardened veteran, a trained combat machine, but the math was against him: he had a combat knife against two monsters that surpassed him in reach, weight, and pure animal strength.
"Graaagh!"
The short cannibal let out a growl and brought the ax down with terrifying force.
Swish
The blade passed so close that it cut the air millimeters from his nose when Dale leaned back, a movement he chained immediately, taking advantage of the monster's inertia to pivot on his left leg and land a direct kick to the kneecap, seeking to shatter the joint.
Thump
The blow connected fully, but the cannibal barely flinched, responding with a growl instead of collapsing and using the energy of the rebound to execute a dangerous horizontal sweep with the ax.
Simultaneously, the tall cannibal ditched the bow and lunged at Dale from his blind side, with fingers already curved like claws whose only objective were his eyes and throat.
!
Carrie felt her heart leap into her mouth watching how they were going to kill a man who defended her.
Time seemed to slow down from terror.
'No!'
Involuntarily, her fingers moved at her side.
And an invisible force struck a stone right under the ax cannibal's boot.
?
The cannibal, who had put all his weight into the killing blow, stepped on the stone and his foot slipped violently, breaking the slash and causing the ax to veer wildly, hitting empty air.
Without wasting time questioning his luck, Dale crouched suddenly to dodge the tall cannibal's claws and used his low posture to catapult himself upward like a spring, executing a lethal uppercut with the Ka-Bar knife firm in his right hand.
Schluck
The blade entered cleanly through the soft spot under the cannibal's chin, piercing the tongue and puncturing the brain.
Dale withdrew the knife with a yank and stepped back.
"..."
The cannibal went rigid, before collapsing like a sack of cement.
"ROAAR!"
The other cannibal, seeing this scene, lost any trace of sanity and surrendered to madness. Roaring with pure fury, he raised the ax with both hands, launching a rain of uncontrolled cuts.
Dale retreated step by step, parrying and dodging, but the exhaustion was starting to show.
Sweat was getting into his eyes, and the space to dodge was shrinking.
"This is tedious..." Lillith gently pulled on the sleeve of Carrie's jacket, "That old man is slow. He should have finished by now."
Carrie ignored the girl and her gaze jumped frantically between Dale and the cannibal.
'He is going to fail... he is getting tired,' she thought, noticing Dale's sweat.
The cannibal saw his opportunity and with another scream, raised the ax high above his head, exposing his entire torso for a final blow.
Dale tried to raise his guard, but his boots slipped slightly in the mud... he wouldn't make it in time to dodge.
Carrie's eyes narrowed and the indecision disappeared.
Crack
A thick branch that hung precariously over the monster's head snapped with a crash and fell, hitting the cannibal on the nape of his neck.
!
The movement of the ax stopped dead and the cannibal was thrown forward by the blow.
And for someone like Dale, that one-second lapse was all he needed.
Without hesitation, he sank his knife into the exposed throat, releasing a torrent of blood that forced the cannibal to drop the ax and bring his hands to his neck in a vain attempt, before collapsing to his knees on the ground.
It was over.
Dale braced himself on his knees, panting heavily.
Despite his excellent physical shape, age was taking its toll.
He straightened up slowly and looked toward the branch that had snapped the cannibal's neck, and his eyes then went to Carrie.
"...."
But it wasn't the time for interrogations.
"Are you girls hurt?" he asked wiping the blood from his knife blade on his pants, "Well, it doesn't matter. We can't stay here, the smell of blood will attract more of them."
He knew in which direction Jonesy and Amber had fled, and he had to find the others.
"Stick close to me. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to hit the deck, you eat dirt. Understood? Let's go."
Carrie nodded, still with her heart hammering in her ears and grabbed the hands of the three girls, who seemed bored, and followed him.
...
Meanwhile, deep in the forest...
The wind changed direction and brought with it an unbearable stench.
It was the lair and it was a filthy place.
The ground was strewn with "trophies": human skulls, clothes, and rusted car parts.
In the center of the place, inside an iron cage, was Nina.
The girl, who had disappeared, was curled up in a corner, trembling violently. Her clothes were torn and her face stained with tears.
In front of her, someone had slid a wooden bowl and inside there was a mass of half-cooked meat that was still steaming.
A deformed cannibal hit the bars with the tip of a sort of spear, chuckling.
"Eat! Eat, pig!" he growled, pushing the bowl toward her.
Nina looked at what was inside and a violent retching shook her body.
She could recognize it, that was... human flesh.
But her suffering was silent compared to what was happening a few meters away.
Jack was tied vertically to a post and his screams were so harrowing that they no longer sounded human.
In front of him, a grotesque-looking cannibal woman was licking her lips. The few hairs she had were long and her body was deformed, with a bulging and distended belly that suggested a recent pregnancy or a massive tumor.
She smiled with a mouth full of yellow teeth while another cannibal handed her a bloody and warm lump that he had just severed from Jack's crotch.
Laughing disturbingly the woman grabbed the piece of meat with avid hands and, before Nina's horrified gaze, brought it to her mouth, chewing heartily while blood ran down her chin.
"... n-no…"
Nina closed her eyes, praying to die quickly.
It was then that chaos erupted.
A roar of fury and the sound of flesh being cut.
Dale burst into the place like a freight train. Entering at full speed, and before the two guards at the entrance could raise their weapons, his knife had already found the throat of the first one.
The second tried to scream, but Dale spun and drove his boot into his chest, knocking him down, only to finish him off with a brutal thrust into the eye socket.
"Quick! Nina, move!" he bellowed with his voice resonating over Jack's screams, "If you want to live, look for a weapon! Anything!"
He kicked the guard's corpse away from the cage, looking for the keys or something to break the padlock.
But the element of surprise vanished quickly.
Out of nowhere more cannibals came out. They were at least half a dozen, and they converged on Dale with a hungry look, surrounding him completely.
Dale got into a guard stance, turning the knife in his hand.
"Carrie!" he shouted without looking back, "Keep those girls safe! Don't let them get close!"
Carrie nodded frantically, pushing the three behind her back. The smell and the sight of Jack's mutilation had her on the verge of vomiting.
However, the three girls behind her back did not share her terror.
Lillith peeked out from behind Carrie, her eyes shining as she focused on the cannibal woman with the bulging belly, who had stayed out of the fight, chewing something.
"Oh, look at that..." she whispered, pointing with her finger, "That one with the big belly is unique."
"Her body has changed due to the pregnancy," analyzed Emma coldly, "Her mobility is reduced."
Esther didn't say a word, she simply bent down and picked up a human femur from the ground that had been gnawed down to a sharp point.
The three girls exchanged a quick look.
While Carrie was paralyzed, with all her attention focused on protecting them, the three silently slipped to one side.
With no one stopping them, they circled the fight and began walking toward the cannibal woman.
She was so absorbed in the feast of flesh and viscera that she didn't even register the movement around her.
"Your laugh is truly horrible," said a childish voice, devoid of fear.
Lillith appeared out of nowhere, standing right in front of her.
!
The woman stopped and looked down confused. Her eyes blinked upon seeing the small girl with the clean dress in the middle of this.
She was about to let out a growl, showing her teeth.
But the sound died in her throat.
Emma emerged on her left flank and Esther appeared on the right, weighing the sharpened bone in her hand with an empty gaze.
The cannibal, despite her primitive brain, felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold.
She was not looking at three lost girls.
...
A few meters away, Dale's situation was becoming critical.
The ex-Marine was a killing machine, but age and numbers were against him.
He blocked a machete swing with his knife, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge a club that struck his side, followed by a superficial cut on his back that ripped a grunt of pain from him.
"Dale! Up!" Carrie screamed.
Her eyes had caught the movement of a cannibal who had climbed a tower and had a bow drawn and the arrow pointed directly at Dale.
Swish
The arrow shot out. And without hesitation Carrie moved her fingers.
The arrow shook in mid-flight, deviating barely a few centimeters from its lethal trajectory and zoomed past Dale's ear, cutting a lock of hair, but not touching skin.
He felt the wake of death grazing him and, without stopping to think, Dale turned on his heels, and with a roar of effort, launched his knife toward the tower with the force of a catapult.
Thunk
The steel sank up to the handle right between the cannibal's eyes, collapsing forward and falling from above.
Unarmed but not defenseless, Dale turned around just as another cannibal was charging with a bone as a club.
Carrie, with her nose bleeding from the effort, intervened again. A push that swept the cannibal's legs, causing him to stumble, falling face-first at Dale's feet.
And he didn't hesitate, stepping on his neck hard, breaking it with a crunch, and snatched the bone club from him to use as a weapon.
Thanks to Carrie's cover, the balance shifted.
With the path momentarily clear, Dale ran toward the cage.
"Get away!"
He struck the padlock with the club once, twice, until the mechanism gave way.
He kicked the door open and grabbed Nina, who was curled up in a fetal position.
"Get up, girl! Move or you die!" he bellowed, dragging her out.
Nina stumbled out, her legs failing her from terror. But then, her eyes crossed with something.
A couple of meters away, a wounded cannibal dragged himself along the ground.
It was the one Dale had stabbed in the thigh upon entering.
The cannibal tried to stand up, leaning on the edge of a huge wood chipper that they used.
And seeing him, something broke inside Nina. Seeing the monster that had tortured Jack, the fear evaporated, replaced by a volcanic fury.
"AHHHHHHH!"
With a scream that tore at her throat, she broke free from Dale and charged at the wounded cannibal.
Before he could react, she rammed him with all her weight, pushing his head and torso directly into the open hopper of the wood chipper.
"Gyaaaah—!"
The cannibal's scream was instantly silenced by the roar of the engine, while a red rain shot out of the machine's chute.
"Fuck!" exclaimed Dale, impressed. He grabbed Nina by the arm before she fell in too, "That's it! Let's go! Everyone out!"
Covered in blood, sweat, and dust, the group guided by Dale ran toward the exit.
Carrie was in the rear, making sure the three girls didn't get left behind.
They ran with burning lungs and finally, saw the exit.
Salvation was right there.
But fate had one last cruel joke.
A massive shadow rose in front of them, blocking their path.
Carrie stopped dead, almost crashing into Dale.
It was him!
It was the Boil Monster from the cabin.
He had survived the collapse, and his trembling body seemed to represent his fury.
Dale paled and although exhausted, gripped the bone in his hand.
Carrie tried to raise her hand, but the world spun and her vision blurred.
She had reached her limit.
The monster raised its arms and then...
Bang
The monster's deformed head simply disappeared.
It exploded like a watermelon, spraying the place with a rain of blood.
Boom
The massive headless body stood swaying for a second, before collapsing forward with a crash that made the ground shake.
"..."
Covered in blood, the group stood paralyzed looking at the corpse with disbelief.
But behind the mountain of fallen flesh, a figure emerged.
Walking slowly, Lief made his appearance having his left hand in his pocket while holding his right hand up high with the index finger extended like a pistol, revealing the fine thread of smoke that drifted from its tip.
His eyes scanned those present before blowing the smoke from his finger and smiling.
"I only took a twenty-minute nap," he said shaking his head, "And you've already made all this mess?"
________
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