Chapter 8 #3
The second one had aimed lower, so I hadn’t hit it at all, and it latched itself to my right leg and began to claw at me.
Fortunately, my denim jeans were quite thick, and it blocked a lot of the initial damage from the creature’s claws.
Unfortunately, the creature’s claws were apparently made of the sharpest substance in existence because it took the thing a matter of seconds to shred away my protective layer.
“Fuc--” I started to curse before I bit down on my tongue.
The bastard dug one clawed hand into my bare leg, and I felt like I’d just been stabbed by five large needles. My leg buckled at the pain, but I kept myself upright.
The creature reared its head the way a cobra would before the strike, and I knew I needed to act immediately if I didn’t want my leg to end up like Tyler’s arm, or Zade’s… entire body.
I lifted the fireplace poker high above me, angled downward, and as soon as the little demon moved forward to strike, I drove the tip straight down. The length of iron went directly into the creature’s skull and through its body.
The thing stopped moving, and its arms dropped from my leg.
Then I turned just in time to see Zade as he used a nearby soup can to bash the final one in the head. Once the thing was dead, Zade collapsed onto his ass, with his back against a shelving unit.
Most of his body was covered in open wounds, but his face and chest had by far received the most damage.
Entire chunks of his face were missing, and when he turned to face me, I could see a deep scratch that started from the top of his forehead, went down through his eye, and all the way down to his jaw… or what was left of his jaw.
His damaged eye was closed so I couldn’t see the extent of his injuries, but I was sure it was completely gone, if not permanently damaged.
There was so much blood, and I didn’t see how he’d make it through another round with the creatures, let alone find his jewelry piece.
I quickly grabbed as many nearby clothing items I could find, and I began to tear them into strips. A few seconds later, Tyler rushed over to help me.
I would think with all the random shit laying around, I’d be able to locate some actual bandages, but no, I guess not.
“Did you get the necklace?” I asked Tyler as we worked to dress Zade’s wounds.
“No, Kyle got to it first,” Tyler said in a dejected tone.
Normally, I’d try to look on the bright side and assume since Kyle found the necklace, we at least wouldn’t have to worry about his meddling anymore.
But I knew Kyle better than that. He wouldn’t be content with the second place item.
No, he’d try to go for the diamond ring, too, no matter how many people it screwed over.
If it weren’t for the fact that Parker’s fate was currently tied directly to his, I’d hunt him down and skewer him with my poker.
We could’ve been a team and worked together.
The selfish prick.
“We’re running out of time,” I muttered as I worked the bandages along Zade’s injuries. “We need to find a prize so you and Claire don’t have to face the penalty.”
“It’s down to the bracelet or ring now,” Tyler said.
“I think we should focus on the bracelet,” I replied. “Kyle will be going for the ring, and if this is what he does to his friends, I’d hate to see what he does to those he considers his enemies.”
“Go,” Zade groaned as he weakly batted my hands away.
“We can’t just leave you like this,” I protested. “You’re seriously injured.”
“Go,” Zade demanded again. “You can’t win the game by sitting here with me, and there’s no way I’ll be able to move.”
I stared down at the injured man, and I felt bad. I didn’t know him very well, and the few interactions I’d had with him had left me with the impression that he was kind of a tool…
But I didn’t care who the person was, nobody deserved this fate.
However, he was right. Tyler and Claire were counting on us, and there were only two items left out there.
“We’ll try to come back for you,” I promised as I stood up.
“Don’t bother,” Zade grunted, and he sounded resigned to his fate.
I couldn’t blame him because I couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain he was in at that moment.
My right leg was throbbing, and I’d barely gotten touched by those little beasts. Zade had gotten ravaged.
I moved away from the prone figure, and Tyler quietly got up and followed me.
“Are we really going to just leave him?” he whispered, and I heard the same note of regret in his tone that I currently felt myself.
“We don’t have much of a choice,” I pointed out. “Besides, maybe we can find both jewelry pieces and give one of them to him.”
“And if we don’t?” Tyler asked with raised eyebrows.
“I don’t know,” I said after a long pause.
Zade’s injuries had been really bad, and there was still a chance he wouldn’t survive them anyway. And if he did survive, he was looking at a long, painful road to recovery and permanent disfigurement.
I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but I had a feeling whatever the aliens had in store for the disqualified contestants would feel like a mercy compared to that particular fate.
Suddenly, I heard more scuttling in the distance, and I knew it was more of those alien creature-things.
We had made a ton of noise with our fight over here, so why hadn’t all of them been drawn to the noise?
Whatever the reason was, I was grateful for it because we’d barely been able to handle the six that had appeared.
But at what cost?
Tyler and I started moving through the store again, and I hoped the other creatures wouldn’t smell all the blood and be attracted to Zade. He’d suffered enough.
The creatures had spread out again, because I could hear them all around as they shuffled through the store in search of us.
Tyler and I remained perfectly silent as we crept and wove our way down the aisles, and I kept my eyes in constant motion, both in search for the feral creatures, and in search of either of the final pieces of jewelry.
We eventually came to another open space on the other side of the store. This section of the store looked like it might have been the sports or toys section, since there were several square, roped off spaces where balls might’ve gone.
Of course, there weren’t any balls in sight because they were scattered all over the rest of the store. I noticed that one of the ball pits was stacked with pots, pans, stuffed animals, and various toiletries. The other ball pit was completely empty except for a small velvet jewelry box.
With a shiny, purple bracelet inside.
“The bracelet!” I hissed over my shoulder to Tyler.
We both hurried forward, but there wasn’t enough time to claim it, because Martin seemingly appeared out of nowhere, reached through the ropes, and grabbed the box before he turned and ran off.
Damn it.
I had half a mind to chase Martin down and claim the bracelet regardless, but I knew it wasn’t right, and I couldn’t actually bring myself to do it.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Tyler asked, and his voice was filled with worry.
“We’re just going to have to find the diamond ring,” I said in an even tone. “Before Kyle does.”
The only issue was this: the ball pit area was the last section of the store we hadn’t explored. We’d officially been everywhere, and not once had we so much as found a clue as to where the ring could be located.
“Where else could we possibly look?” Tyler asked as he anxiously twirled the bat in his uninjured hand. “We’ve searched everywhere.”
“We must have missed something,” I insisted.
I thought back to each of the locations we’d found the other jewelry pieces in, and all of them had been in fairly obvious spots.
What were we missing here?
I thought of each location and, though the hiding places had been obvious, they’d also been different, too. So, maybe that was some sort of clue…
The amethyst bracelet had been at the bottom of the ball pit, the sapphire earrings had been on top of a clothing pile, the emerald necklace had been up on a shelf…
What was the pattern?
I ran each location through my head again, then again.
Then it clicked.
“The prizes are ranked, right?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah?” Tyler said in a confused tone. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
“I think their ranking corresponds with their hiding place,” I explained. “Think about it, we found the bracelet at the bottom of the ball pit. I found the earrings on top of a laundry mound, and we found the emerald necklace high up on one of the shelves.”
“So, you think the higher tier the object is, it’ll actually be physically hidden higher up in the store?” Tyler clarified, and his eyebrows shot up like he finally got it.
I nodded.
It sort of made sense, in a weird way. But if that was the case, then where was the highest point in the supermarket?
I scanned the line of tall shelves, and an idea niggled at the back of my mind.
“What if the jewelry pieces’ locations inside the store were also chosen by level of importance?” I asked. “We found the earrings and bracelet closer to the outskirts of the arena, while the emerald necklace had been placed more central.”
“If that’s the case, then the diamond ring would more than likely be dead center,” Tyler replied, and I could see as his eyes scanned the store as well.
I continued to look toward the center of the store to see if there might be a shelf that seemed taller than the others or something, but I found nothing.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that we found the prizes where we had. Maybe there wasn’t a pattern to it after all.
But a small voice at the back of my mind told me that wasn’t true. I didn’t believe in coincidences, and I scanned the center of the store harder to find what I was missing.
Then I froze.
Oh, my god.
“I know where the ring is,” I whispered to Tyler as I stared hard at the singular light that hung above the middle shelf. “And it isn’t going to be easy to get. At least not quietly.”
Tyler’s eyes followed the direction mine were pointed in until they landed on the same thing.