Peter sped up and pulled even with Dill. He held enough rope in his hands that the remaining slack between them jostled in the air instead of dragging on the ground.
“Run for the cliff!” he screamed at Dill.
“Are you crazy?!”
“I have a plan!”
“What?”
“Trust me!”
Behind them, there were no longer any sounds of cornstalks being trampled underfoot. The dead men were out in the field, right behind them.
Up ahead in the distance, Peter could make out the silhouette of the tree on the cliff.
“What’s your plan?” Dill yelled again.
“We’re going to jump!”
“WHAT?!”
Dill unconsciously slowed down.
Peter looked back. The dead men were only twenty feet behind them and gaining ground.
“DILL!”
Dill looked over his shoulder, and shot forward with a sudden burst of adrenalin. His lips stretched tight over his face in a mask of fear.
“ARE YOU FREAKIN’ CRAZY?”
“Just go to the right of the tree!” Peter screamed. “And really jump!”
The tree was a hundred feet ahead.
Two dozen dead men’s feet thudded on the grass behind them.
“Peter, we’ll die! It’s too high! And there are rocks – ”
Peter felt the scrape of burned bone across his shoulders.
The dead men were almost on top of them.
The tree was ten feet away.
“BREAK RIGHT!” Peter screamed, and immediately turned left.
As he did, he let go of the rope in his arms.
A hand clamped down on his shoulder.
But he was already at the edge of the cliff.
“JUMP!”
Now he was soaring into space, into blackness, his feet and legs still kicking, but with nothing beneath them. Swimming in air.
He was dimly aware of Dill screaming beside him.
Far beneath him, he could see the glinting of moonlight on the water and waves, outlining the sharp rocks a hundred feet below.
He had time for one last thought.
Oh crap…I hope Dill tied the knots tight.
There was a horrible wrenching pain around his waist, and it felt like all his guts were smushed from his belly up into his ribcage.
“HCKKKKK,” Dill gagged off to his right.
Peter was no longer falling. He was swinging.
Right past Dill, as a matter of fact.
His friend’s face was beyond surprised as it whooshed by.
The rope had held. Peter had gone on one side of the giant tree, and Dill had jumped on the other. The rope had caught on the tree trunk, and now Peter and Dill were dangling midair, swinging back and forth like two pendulums.
And all around Peter, the dead men were tumbling through the darkness.
Copyright © 2008 Darren Pillsbury. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
Very nice!
That;s one way to get rid of them
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