Fittingly they arrived at Sunset Valley as the sun gently graced the horizon and faded to dusk. Skyler suggested finding shelter within the local butcher shop. "There'll be lots of hooks, and metal tools we can use to defend ourselves. And the rancid meat should work as a natural repellent against the death creatures." It's good Skyler's focused thought Jeff as he heartily agreed to the plan. He needed to get his head on straight and put Elise and their memories behind him for the time being.
The butcher shop was deserted and the door to the back room was still able to be locked. Jeff and Skyler grinned at their good fortune. No windows and a lockable door, it was almost too good to be true. They decided to both get some much needed rest and be ready for the final leg of their journey to Austin tomorrow.
A crisp February morning ended Jeff's dreamless sleep. Skyler awoke to the sounds of Jeff donning his multiple layers. Skyler and Jeff made one last sweep of the butcher's shop for anything they might use and after grabbing a steel drag hook each, they headed for the door. Jeff led them around Sunset Valley and toward Austin with a clearer head and throbbing left arm. Both Skyler and he knew that the extra time it took to circumvent Sunset Valley was worth the minimized risk of not going straight through town.
Highway 193 was not as quiet leaving Sunset Valley as it was coming. Skyler killed his first death creature of the day with a meat hook through the ear and deep into the brain. Jeff killed the next two with his newly acquired meat saw and butcher's knife. They were stragglers though and didn't raise either man's adrenaline. As the afternoon sun warmed Jeff and Skyler through the biting wind, they were met with a challenge. A small horde of death creatures were milling about an overturned vehicle. Jeff counted twelve after a quick panorama. The vehicle must have crashed recently because it lacked the tell tell signs of corrosion.
As they neared the car, Jeff could see that the death creatures were devouring what was left of the passengers. Once death creature had a half-eaten arm with ligaments dangling from its mouth. Another was haunched over the lifeless corpse of an elderly man. Gruesome barely captured the scene that was unfolding. Skyler and Jeff looked to one another, nodded in understanding and strode forward to do their worst.
Walking parallel they reached the two death creatures making a meal of the crash victims and each put a meat hook through their eyes. Skyler broke left and faced three death creatures at once. He used the rope and ran a quick circle around the three before yanking the rope and felling the lassoed lot. Once on the ground he quickly hacked all three of their heads off before turning back to Jeff. Jeff broke right after hooking the first death creature and faced seven death creatures quickly encroaching.
The first death creature was met with a stiff uppercut and a butcher's knife through the underside of his jaw. Jeff was at a distinct disadvantage having his broken left arm splinted to his side. The next two death creatures were on him as he grabbed his knife. Jeff swiftly stabbed the one to his right through the eye socket. Using the lodged knife as a handle he shoved the death creature in front of the one to the left. This provided him with just enough time to wield his meat saw into they neck of the second death creature.
Skyler came charging past and slung his shovel into two death creatures in a row severing both their heads from their bodies. By this time Jeff had dislodged his knife and he drove the blade deep into the skull of the small of the three remaining death creatures. Skyler slammed the shovel broadside into the second, then third death creature. Jeff and he simultaneously stabbed each creature before meeting back to back and surveying the land. Observation showed that they had killed all of the death creatures. Skyler and Jeff both sighed in relief and went about gathering their weapons and repacking them so they could continue on toward Austin once more.
(to be continued...)
You can read the whole story from the beginning: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
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