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Going For the Juggler
Chapter EIGHT
“Brian!” Steffi was screaming but he was too preoccupied to hear her. The twisted lumbering zombie version of
what had once been Helga the dancing bear, tutu and all, had squeezed her way out of the mangled cage and was silently lumbering
up behind Brian. He was still holding the monkey at bay with a stick and was totally unaware of the pending danger. Brian
had pulled out the car key when he got out and so there was no power to the windows to let Randy and Steffi roll them down
so he could hear them and they were both too afraid to get out of the car.
The bear’s teeth were broken and gnarled and flesh was dangling from them as if she had just made a meal of someone.
Her beady black bear eyes were now white with milky blue veins running through them and she had huge chunks of her furry bear
flesh missing as if she had been mauled by something herself. The lumbering dancing bear was inching her way toward Brian,
when the monkey suddenly freed itself and came flying out of the engine right at Brian’s face. It was actually fortunate
because it was at that very moment that Helga lunged for Brian but missed as a result of him being thrown to the ground by
the weight of the monkey.
Steffi and Randy jumped from the car as Brian wrestled the monkey that was attached to his face, trying to take sizable chunks
out of it but being thwarted by Brian’s fist punches. Randy and Steffi jumped up and down to get the bear’s attention
as it fumbled awkwardly to its feet once more. Seeing the two of them, it set its focus on them and began to follow them around
the big top tent.
Brian wrestled with the stinking rotten monkey as it tried it’s best to bite his head off, but he finally gathered his
wits and pinned the annoying little furry zombie to the ground and pounded it’s rotting putrid skull to mush until it
finally stopped twitching. When he rose to his feet he looked around for Randy and Steffi but they were nowhere in sight.
The car doors were sitting opened and the approaching sound of the dead made it clear they had taken off.
Brian turned to go after them when suddenly a midget zombie clown came lumbering around the corner into the fairway. All around
Brian were various game booths that had been set up for the next days entertainment and this particular little zombie was
working his way through the “Ring the Bell” game right toward where Brian was standing. Brian looked around for
a weapon and the best thing he could find was the mallet that you used to whack the bell. Jake Box the decayed little zombie
from the old Fink and Zimner Circus was glaring at Brian. Grinning at him with his demented little painted on smile that had
long since been charred but was still somewhat visible. One of his chubby little hands was burned down to the bone while the
other was covered with charred leathery sinew.
“I can handle this guy.” Brian thought to himself. “He’s not THAT much bigger than the freaking monkey
I just clobbered.” Jake slowly meandered up as if he had all the time in the world and when he was about three feet
away from Brian he suddenly surprised him with a powerful lunge that propelled him at Brian with great force. Brian caught
his foot right in the little midget clown’s chest and kicked him backward onto the ground, where his head just happened
to come to rest on the “whacking pad” for the bell ringing game.
“Fuck with me will you, you little turd?” Brian lifted the huge rubber sledge hammer-like mallet into the air
and let loose with the heaviest blow to the “whacking pad” he could possible give. Rotten moldy brain matter and
bits of crushed skull with make-up still on them went flying all over the place. Jake Box was dispatched for good and to make
it ever better the little metal washer whizzed its way to the top of the backboard and rang the bell.
“Can you freaking believe that?” Brian snickered under his breath, but just then from behind the booth counter
a disgusting half man half woman zombie rose up. In its hands was a torn blood stained stuffed animal that it was pushing
toward Brian. It was obvious that the monster wasn’t trying to eat him, but give him a prize for ringing the bell.
“Thanks!” Brian took the disgusting plush toy from the zombie and stuffed it under his arm. “Now here’s
something for you.” With that he swung the mallet at the creature and knocked its charred rotting head clean off its
body, sending it sailing through the air. Then as if on cue the opening of the tent they had originally come through burst
open and the horde of zombies from the Big Top began to rush out into the night air. Before they saw Brian, he was able to
run toward the road, where the tree line was. He stood in the shadows out of the creatures’ line of sight and tried
to gather his thoughts. Where had Randy and Steffi gone? Where should he start looking for them? He had no idea what do to
next but he was determined to find them.
“Help me!” came a distant voice from somewhere within the forest. It was faint but obviously human and in need
of help. Brian could tell it wasn’t Randy or Steffi but somehow it sounded familiar to him.
********
Randy and Steffi had followed the row of smaller tents to the back section just outside the Big Top. They had stuck to the
narrow corridor between tents so they could lay low form what ever living dead circus freaks might see them, but Helga was
still hot on their trail. Randy pointed up ahead where there was a big circus banner held up by two long poles stuck in the
ground. He motioned for Steffi to follow his lead and they led the gnarly bear right up the middle into the banner where they
pulled it down on top of it covering it and trapping it so it was unable to move. Taking the quick opportunity, Randy grabbed
one of the poles, snapped it off and used the business end of it to whack the creature over and over until it finally stopped
moving, but even then Randy continued to give it a poke and a whack as he huffed and puffed and cussed.
“Hey, I think its dead Randy. You can stop now.” Steffi took the broken piece of pole out of Randy’s hands
as he stood there staring into space.
“If we get out of this… I’m never going anywhere with Brian again.” Randy hugged Steffi and started
to softly cry. It was all way too much for him. “Oh my god,” Randy talked into Steffi’s shoulder in a muffled
voice. “You’re the girl and I’m the one crying…. Can you believe that?” Randy squeezed her
tight and Steffi smiled.
“Randy, you’re more of a girl than I’ll ever be.” They both laughed softly, keeping in mind it wasn’t
a good idea to make noise, when suddenly that’s exactly what they heard… the strange eerie sound of an organ grinder
suddenly broke the silence. It was eerie in deed to hear such eerie music in this setting with the full moon splashing everything
with a melancholy bluish light.
Randy and Steffi slowly made their way in the direction the music seemed to come from. The sound appeared to come from a large
tent just at the back of the Big Top. It looked like the kind of tent where performers would prepare their acts before a performance,
but they were hoping that who ever was making the music was still alive and maybe unaware of what was going on. A survivor
of this crazy zombie circus would be a great find at a time like this, but if that was the case they knew they better find
them quick and get them to shut off the music before they too attracted the wrong attention. Steffi led Randy closer to the
tent and then suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Randy whispered.
Steffi didn’t say a word but just pointed in the distance not very far from the tent’s opening. There in the shadows,
along the edge of the distant tree-line were what appeared to be three corpses eating something rather large. Randy squeezed
Steffi’s hand as they both inched their way toward the tent door as quietly as they possibly could. As they got closer
they could see that it was that horrible pair of Siamese twins that had attacked and killed Master Pong in the tent earlier.
The demented twins were devouring what appeared to be the circus fat lady because there was a lot of her to go around. They
watched in horror as the third zombie raised his head. He was pulling a long strand of intestines free from the open carcass
with his teeth. In the bright moonlight they could see that this third zombie looked very familiar. It was none other than
the twins’ earlier victim Master Pong himself. Looking much worse for wear he had a huge portion of both sides of his
throat torn out and his bottom lip was gone, exposing his bony bloody lower jaw where the fat lady’s intestines were
dangling. The gruesome trio didn’t see Randy and Steffi, who were well hidden in the shadows and thank god the sound
of the organ grinder was covering up any breathing noises or sounds of movement they were making.
The distant ghouls weren’t looking. They were focused on their enormous kill and they were savoring every mouthful.
Now was the time…. The time to make their move into the tent and find the other survivor before it was too late for
him or her too.
********
Brian followed the distant yells into the woods near the road where the circus grounds were. He held tightly to his mallet
and made his way deeper into the trees. In the distant moonlight in a small clearing up ahead, Brian could see movement. As
he got closer he could see what appeared to be a group of circus clowns. It was obvious as he approached that four of the
clowns were trying to attack the clown in the middle, who was fending them off with a set of plastic juggling pins.
“Hurry, help me. I can’t hold them off any longer.” The clown with the pins had seen Brian approaching and
he looked like he was on his last leg.
Brian ran up to help and it dawned on him that the clown in the middle was Smiley, whom he had met earlier that day. He quickly
ran to Smiley’s aid and began to use his mallet on the demented zombie clowns that were trying to rip Smiley to shreds.
The first clown to come at Brian got his neck broken by Brian’s heavy swing of the mallet, causing his head to swing
awkwardly sideways making attacking anything unfeasible. Then Brian grabbed the second clown to attack and pushed him hard,
head first into a tree so that his skull splintered and exploded throwing brain matter all over the place. Smiley struggled
with the third clown, as it had his throat and was trying to take a bite out of him. Taking an opportunity between lunges,
Smiley crammed one of his plastic juggling pins handle first, into the clown’s toothy mouth making biting impossible.
Brian then hammered the thick end of the pin with his mallet, literally forcing the pin down the zombie clown’s throat
like a nail being forced into a piece of wood. The clown just gurgled blood and sputtered a bit and collapsed to the ground.
Finally Brian and Smiley turned together to face the final zombie clown. The poor thing didn’t have a chance as Brian
swept its legs out from under it with his mallet, knocking it face-first to the ground. Then Smiley took his last juggling
pin, screwed the knob off the end of the handle, making it less blunt and quite a bit sharper and then, taking a deep breath,
he rammed the handle through the zombies head and into the ground, pinning it in place until it wiggled it’s way into
it’s final rest.
“Hells Kitchen I’m glad you came along boy.” Smiley put his gloved hand on a nearby tree and leaned into
it. He was breathing heavy and looked like he was about to pass out. “You know if you hadn’t come along I would
be dead… well sort of dead…”
“Walking dead you mean?” Brian finished his thought.
“Yeah, one of those,” Smiley pulled a cigar out of his huge clown jacket and put it in his teeth.
Suddenly Smiley’s eyes got big and he looked at Brian with concern. “You ain’t bit are you kid?” the
larger than life clown began to shuffle Brian’s clothes and pat him down as if he was frisking him.
“Hey don’t’ worry I’m fine… I don’t’ have a scratch on me, why do you ask?”
“Cause once you get bit by one of those sons of bitches, that’s it. You turn into one. I’ve seen it happen
with my own eyes.”
“Oh my god, are you serious?” Brian’s mouth hung open.
“Hell yeah I’m serious.”
“Well tell me, what happened?”
“Well,” Smiley started. “Earlier tonight I was coming out of my trailer to go to rehearsal and I heard screaming.
When I ran to see what was going on, I saw Goliath the midget clown attacking Isabella one of the showgirls. He had her pinned
on the ground and he had ripped into her stomach and he was cramming her intestines in his mouth like sausages.”
“Oh my god that’s disgusting.” Brian gagged at the thought.
“You’re telling me…. But then just as I went to help Isabella, Carson the circus manager came around the
corner and he had been ripped to shreds. He was walking around like some sort of demented rag doll. Then Isabella, who had
just been killed right in front of my eyes gets up and comes after me like she wants to bite my head of or something…
that’s when I got the hell out of there.”
“Well I’m going back in. My two friends Randy and Steffi are in there and I have to get them out.
“Pal you are crazy. Going back in there is suicide.”
“Well I have to do it… I have no choice.” Brian picked his mallet up off the ground where he had let it
fall moments before. “You coming with me, or what?”
“I must be crazy for saying this, but yeah I’ll help you…. Hell it’s the least I can do since you
saved my ass.”
“Well you would have done the same for me…. Now let’s get back over there and find my friends.” Brian
and Smiley started making their way through the woods back toward the circus when suddenly a disheveled figure stepped out
from behind a tree. It was the old hag in the red dress with the black veil over her face.
“It’s started again… The Apa Vie” She said as she grabbed Smiley by the lapel of his big clown jacket.
“You must leave here now or you will die a gruesome death, only to raise to life again.” The old woman that everyone
in town knew was crazy was very persistent in her warning. She didn’t want to let go of Smiley as he drug her along
beside him.
“Leave us alone, you old whack job! let go of me…. I may be a clown but I’ll knock your block off if you
don’t get the hell out of here.” Smiley was angry because she wouldn’t let go.
Brian grabbed her and pulled her hands loose from Smiley’s coat. “Hey lady… what are you talking about?”
“It's the curse…” She just continued to mumble something inaudible to them as she disappeared into the dark
woods. ”Thanks for the warning, lady, but we’ve got to go back in there and get my friends!” Brian yelled
in her direction as if to humor her insanity and continued to lead Smiley back toward the circus.
********
“Thanks for letting me tag along, Deputy. It's a nice change of pace.” The nervous pastor was sitting in the front
passengers seat of the police car wringing his hands. He knew Tarra Wood was a strong woman and she had made it clear she
was very interested in him romantically and that made him a bit uncomfortable. ”Oh call me Tarra… and it's
my pleasure… It's not often I have such a cute date to the Circus.” She laughed and gently slapped him on the
leg and then left her hand there. “Besides… it gets a bit lonely driving around the county by yourself…
and old sheriff Tucker is too much of a tight ass to hire another officer.
“You mean there's only the two of you?” Pastor Fred adjusted himself in his seat in such a way that his leg slid
out from under her hand in a way that was not obvious he didn’t want it there. Tarra began to fiddle with the radio
knobs with her hand that had just been freed up. She too didn’t want to make it obvious that she was disappointed that
he had moved his leg. ”Yep, that's right, two officers and a dispatcher, but Ethel is only part time.”
“Wow he is a bit tight with the payroll.” The new topic was starting to relax the pastor a bit. ”Yeah
I only took this job for the experience. I really want to move to the city someday and become a real cop. Working for Tucker
is pretty tough sometimes. He can be a hard headed SOB.” Tarra pulled a pack of juicy fruit out from the visor and offered
a piece to Fred.
”Yeah,” He smiled and took the gum. “I've noticed that he can be a little rough around the edges.”
”Yeah he's got a nickname… Something the other officers in the county call him behind his back.”
“Really… what is it? ”They call him “Sheriff Tucker, the Mother Fucker”
”Oh…” He is surprised at how easily it rolled off her tongue.
”So how about you, rev… you got any nicknames? Something cute… maybe your girlfriend calls you? Maybe Sugar
Dumpling or Stud Muffin? Tarra laughed again and did the thing with the hand on his leg… and again she left it there.
”Um… I don't have a girlfriend.” Pastor Fred felt Tarra’s hand move.
”You're shitting me! A handsome guy like you… no girlfriend? It's not some kind of religious thing, is it?”
”No, nothing like that...” Fred adjusted himself a bit sideways in his seat and again Tarra’s hand was dispatched.
“I just don't have one.”
”So good then… all hope is not lost.” She let out a tiny chuckle and patted his leg again but this time
she didn’t leave her hand there.
Changing the subject, Fred awkwardly cleared his throat. “So where is this circus anyway?”
”It's not far up the road here at old Saunders's field.”
”I believe I've heard rumors about that place. Didn't a circus burn down there in the 40's or something?” Having
a love for urban legend, Pastor Fred was very curious to hear her version of the rumor.
”Yeah, I've heard that story too…They say the only person who survived was that crazy old woman Madame Zadora.
You might have seen her around town in her old red dress and veil. She was the fortune teller or something. And you know what…
she's stuck around this dusty little town for 60 years; she must be a hundred years old or something.”
”That woman in the tattered red dress and black veil? A Hundred? Are you serious?” Fred sat up straight in his
seat.
”Something like that… do you like the circus, Reverend?”
”Between you and me… I always loved them as a kid. But I'm only coming out here with you; because my congregation
has expressed some concerns about them coming to town and I promised I'd go and take a look… make sure they're not spreading
too much sin around.”
Tarra turned and looked at him surprised at what he had said. Then he smiled a cheeky grin and they both laughed. ”You
and me both… old sheriff Tucker is convinced that they are all a bunch of drug addicts and prostitutes…”
”Maybe you can bring him back some cotton candy.” Tarra slapped him on the leg again and they both laughed.
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