Chapter 8: Red Death
Max and Rich had been waiting several days now for the Red Death. They had all the explosives and spikes set up, as well as enough food and water in the barn for a week. They would trade off looking guard over the horizon, watching and waiting. Tonight it was Rich’s turn to look out. He had grown exhausted and tired after several hours and had almost fallen asleep. Suddenly, he heard what sounded like a loud snap, possibly a twig or stick breaking.
“Max, get up boy! It’s time, light the torches for vision around the barn like we practiced.”
Max did as he was told and tossed Rich his shotgun. With the light from the torches, what they saw scared the living daylights out of them. There were more than one-thousand Red Death beings, all skinny, bright red with white cloths over their chests. Max’s heart started to race and he broke out in a sweat as he looked at what he could only describe as truly disgusting creatures.
“Max, remember our plan. Keep them in the ditch for as long as possible. You take the right side, and I’ll take the left!” Rich shouted aloud.
The creatures screamed and hollered insanely and jumped into the ditch. Max pressed the trigger as fast as he could on his plasma ray gun, lighting up and destroying as many Red Death as he could. But more and more Red Death kept coming.
“Watch out Rich one’s coming in right behind you!” Rich turned around, aimed, and shot it straight in the face, but unfortunately it had already scratched his left arm. Max ran over to Rich, he was lying down, still trying to shoot. "It’s too late for me now boy. Give me some of the explosives, I’ll bait them and blow them all to hell,” Rich shouted to Max. “No, Rich, there has to be a way, you can’t leave me. I need you Rich!” Max said tears flowing down his face.
Rich smiled at Max grabbing all the explosives he could hold onto. “You control your destiny boy, no one else does. Thanks for putting me at ease with my life, I owe you for that.” He shook Max’s hand tightly and ran out of the barn. Rich yelled out to the Red Death climbing up the ditch, “Come and get me you ugly abominations!”
They swarmed on him and the second they made contact he threw all the explosives to the ground, instantly blowing up hundreds of Red Death.
Max ran back outside saying to himself, “This one’s for you Rich.” He pulled out his plasma ray gun and shot as many Red Death as he could, not missing one target. More bodies fell to the ground like rain from the clouds. But scores of Red Death were still running toward him, coming up the ditch now. Max ran back into the barn and he bolted the door shut. He knew they would break in soon, so he put all the explosives and the last of the spikes right behind the barn door. It was Max’s last stand. Max sprinted about thirty yards away from the door and stood shaking, more afraid then he had ever been. The door burst open, but no one came through. Max held the detonator in his hand waiting for the Red Death to come through. Every second felt like hours, and his heart pounded so loud he thought everyone could hear him. Then heard a voice yell from outside, “It’s time to give up boy. We have you surrounded, tell us where your people are and we will let you go.”
Max was trying to think of something to say to the mysterious voice, but he was freaked out of his mind. He finally yelled back, “Take one step in here, and I’ll blow your damn brains out, or whatever you ugly creatures have.” It was silent for quite some time, and Max wanted to look outside. But he knew if he went outside they would catch him. Even though Max was terrified, he wasn’t about to give up, so he decided to try to trick them. “I’ll tell you what you want if you promise I’ll be free!” It was still completely silent. He looked at the entrance of the barn, the spikes and explosives were still hidden. Max ran up about ten feet away from the entrance. “Ahh” he yelled out taking tons of shots through the opening of the barn door. “Please, I just want to go, I’ll tell you everything you want!” he lied. Finally their leader approached the front of the barn just like Max wanted. “Come out child,” it smirked at Max, “we don’t have all…”
“Bam!” Max shot the leader in the head before it could even finish his sentence. He heard loud screams from outside of the barn and then quickly ran back to the end of the building about one-hundred yards back. Immediately hundreds of Red Death were trying to flood into the barn. “A little more, just a little bit more” Max thought to himself as he waited for more of the Red Death to come in.
“Kaboom!” Max clicked the detonator at the perfect moment. Instantaneously hundreds of Red Death were blown into smithereens. The rest were stopped by the spikes and lay screaming on the ground howling in pain. After the smoke rose up from the explosions he saw four or five Red Death waiting at the front of the barn. Max pulled out his plasma ray gun eying down all of them warning, “come any closer and you’ll end up like your friends.”
There were two torches lit in the barn giving Max just enough vision, he knew if the Red Death took out the lights he would have no chance. As if they could read his mind, one Red Death member announced to Max in an evil voice, “Better protect your torches boy, or else you’re dead.”
After it said that three of the Red Death ran to the right, and the other ran to the left. Max shot furiously hitting two on the right and one on the left, but it was already too late. The Red Death took down the torches and stomped out the fires. The barn was completely dark. Max heard an evil cackle coming from the entrance. He ran into a small corner of the barn, and put his back against the wall with his gun pointed forward.
“Foolish child, now we shall eat your remains and find your town,” the Red Death mocked. Max then remembered the plasma ray gun had a small flashlight attached to the end of the gun. He flashed the light forward, able to see only to the end of the corner. But it would leave him just enough room to get a shot off before they could attack him. Max heard more cackling and evil remarks. He was pinned in a corner like a rat. “Come out you bastards, you can’t wait all night can you?” As he finished his sentence one the Red Death ran at him and Max aimed his gun and fired.
“Bam!” It fell down falling forward, just a couple feet away from Max. Max laughed out loud and yelled, “You’re next, you coward. Who’s the foolish one now? You killed my friend, and I’ve killed a thousand of you.” Max slowly crept out of the corner trying not to step on the body. He pointed his light at the entrance of the barn. There he saw the last of the Red Death sitting, and not moving.
“What do you think you’re doing? Guess I’ll have to kill you the easy way.” Max walked up holding his plasma ray gun close, making sure the Red Death didn’t move. “Kill me child,” the Red Death screamed, “I do not want to live anymore!”
“You’re lying!” Max replied, “You all want the same thing, to infect the normal people.” It stood up and faced Max, only ten yards away, smiling and flashing its yellow teeth, “you are foolish.” Out from the corner of the barn where Max was hiding the Red Death he thought he had killed was standing. “Now you won’t have enough time to kill both of us boy. The only way us Red Death die is if we’re shot in the head or chest. You were stupid enough to believe I was dead.”
Max became filled with rage, “This is for killing my friend you bastards!” He turned around pulling the trigger and nailed one Red Death in the face. The Red Death on the other side sprinted at Max and leaped only inches away from him. Max turned, feeling the Red Death behind him. He felt as if time had slowed down and he watched as the Red Death’s body was in full extension, its arm about to strike him. Max fired and shot, nailing the Red Death in the face, blowing its body in the other direction. Max stood in the barn pointing the light all around the barn looking at all the motionless bodies. He walked to the entrance of the barn, facing Rich’s house. “Sorry I let you die Rich, but I didn’t let you down. I beat the Red Death at their own game.”
Max walked out of Rich’s barn and saw the sun start to come up in the west. He saw the body of the Red Death leader next to Rich’s barn and he yelled, “That’s for killing my friend.”
Max went to the house and slowly crept up the stairs, feeling completely exhausted. He went into Rich's shower, the hot water felt amazing on his cold sweaty skin. “I know what I have to do now," Max whispered to himself, "I have to go back to The Town."