Chapter Nine
Mountain and Chance led the way down the stairs to the basement. When they got there they found a short hall. Each of them grabbed their weapons and Mountain led the way.
They passed a door then Mountain tried the handle.
Chance tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the floor.
When Mountain peered down he frowned at the ribbon of red seeping from beneath the door. He stepped back and shook his head. Someone hadn’t survived while losing that much blood. He turned around to head down the hall again. This time he gripped his weapon a little tighter.
Just as he stepped to the end of the hall, Chance stopped up beside him.
Mountain lifted his foot to step into the next room.
A hand could be seen reaching out with another blade to stab whoever stepped through the doorway.
Chance jumped forward to grab the wrist and held it tightly against the doorframe.
Mountain stepped into the other room, going around behind the man then moved swiftly to slam into him.
Chance had been holding him by the arm and now he let go.
The man with the knife, jeered and yelped like some wild animal.
Mountain drew his arm back and punched the guy hard in the face.
The force of the blow loosened his hold on the blade that clattered harmlessly onto the floor. Then his body dropped too.
Mountain stared down at the man on the floor and he had to frown as he studied the thing that used to be a man.
“What the fuck?” Chance growled. “Who the hell is he supposed to be?”
Mountain shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t care. He’s the ... thing that killed Rodney. Let’s drag his ugly-ass carcass upstairs and finally get some fucking answers.”
Chance just shook his head and then he shuddered. “I wonder what the hell happened to this guy? He looks like he went through a meat grinder.”
“Yep, brother. Some people are ugly inside and out.” Mountain picked up the unconscious guy and tossed him over his wide shoulder. Smoothly and without any effort, he turned and walked back up the stairs.
Chance stayed there and had a look around.
Mountain went through the kitchen and finally got to the main room. He flopped the other man down next to Banger.
Banger looked like he was just coming around.
Mountain grunted then he looked up at Deke and Sam.
“Found this guy in the basement. He was waiting for us with a toad sticker in his hand. He was all set to run through the first man who entered his domain.” He shrugged.
“Good thing me and Chance went through first. Chance stopped him from sticking me in the belly and I appreciate that.”
Deke looked down and paused at what he saw.
The guy had a lot of scars on his face and his body, what they could see of it anyway. He looked stick thin and was missing a part of his arm. He was half bald and his skin looked pasty white, like he hadn’t seen any sun in years.
Deke looked at his legs and noted that his right foot seemed to be malformed. “I wonder why the hell he is.”
“Don’t you mean who?” Mountain asked as he shrugged. “Or maybe what? He doesn’t look human.”
“No..” Deke shook his head and explained it, “He looks like a scrap of meat that got chewed up and was spit out, by like a lion or something. So I mean why is he alive?”
Cassie stepped up beside Deke and peered down at the unconscious man. With a huge gasp, she took a step back. Her face went pale. “It’s Robbie.”
Deke snapped his head up and turned slowly around to face her. “Are you sure?”
Mountain nodded. “How can you tell? This thing is hideous and torn to hell.”
Cassie pointed at his belly. His shirt had come up when Mountain tossed him down to the floor.
There were scars on his lower belly.
Deke squatted down and moved his pants down far enough to see more scars all the way down.
Scars were all he had for his manhood too.
He looked up at his dad and Mountain. “How the fucking hell did he get away from those wolves?” Shaking his head he added, “We never thought he’d get away from them. ”
Banger grunted as he struggled to sit up and stared at Robbie.
“He’s been alive all this time?” he muttered.
“How in the fuck did he...” He then seemed to shift gears and said, “Good... Cuz him and I are gonna dance one more time and this time he won’t get away.
” He kicked his feet out and they hit Robbie.
Robbie didn’t notice as he was still unconscious.
Finally, Chance and the others joined them.
Chance entered while shaking his head. “Man, you are not gonna believe the setup this guy has downstairs. He’s got cameras all over the house with both video and sound hooked up. He’s got his entire world set down there. Wires everywhere, man.”
Mountain walked back to the half bathroom he’d busted the door open before and grabbed a takeout box along the way.
He turned on the water and a small trickle of dirty water gushed out.
Mountain caught enough in the styrofoam container and then he shut off the trickle.
Now he walked back to where everyone stood and tossed the dirty water on Robbie.
This brought Robbie back as he sputtered and spit out the slimy liquid.
Looking upward, Robbie noticed everyone around him and he went still for a moment.
When he found Cassie’s face he froze then he noticed how pale she looked, how shocked her expression was and he smiled twistedly.
“Well, well, well. What the hell are you doing here? And you brought a posse with you. To what do I owe this visit? Did you come to rub in my downfall? Or did you come to a final reckoning between us?”
It wasn’t Cassie who answered him... it was Deke, “How the fucking hell did you get away from that tree? You should have died.”
Robbie sneered at him. “I had nothing left to lose, you fucking butcher. I had to be smarter than those wolves and I was. You never checked my pockets before you tied me to that tree. After you ripped me open and left me there to be wolf-bait. I got my hands free by breaking my own wrist and reached into my pocket. I had my trusty knife that day and I used it to go after the pack of wolves. I killed or maimed two of them and the rest stayed away. I cut that fucking rope and I got away from them. But they took parts of me too. They broke my arm off with their teeth and clawed me all to hell. I had to hide for weeks before I could get back to Boston.” He looked around the small house.
“I knew this place could hide me and it did.” He snapped his head to Cassie and snarled, “How did you even know about this place? Did you know I searched the streets for you and Peaches for five long years after you left? I could never find you but then I would hear about your escapades. You were talked about, you know. People looked up to you. I’ll never know why, but they did. ”
He sounded as insane as he looked as everyone simply stared at him.
Robbie looked over at Banger next and laughed. “What the hell are you doing here? You don’t belong here.”
Banger growled and snarled, “You little fucker. I came back for you. You stole something from me and I want it back.”
Robbie sneered. “Yeah? You want it back? Well, you’re about five years too fucking late.
The gold is gone. Yeah, I had it for a while but when I came back here for it, it was no longer here.
I thought I hid it well enough but apparently I didn’t.
Someone else found it and they took it away from me.
I only found a small amount and that’s kept me alive all these years but now we’re both broke. ”