Page 20 of Massacre Monday
Sobs interrupt the silence as a few of the women weave through bodies to make their exits from the event. The cluster of people is thick where we stand and, because of it, I’ve gotten myself turned around. Everything I can see looks different in the dead of night with so many people surrounding me.
“Sisters, get ready! On go, you have a two-minute head start this year.”
There’s a surge of shuffling feet, all of us women trying to shove the men out of our way. Why didn’t I plan to stand in the front? Is this my first huge mistake?
“Set!”
I’m not going to make it! My fingers snatch hair and push shoulders to the side while Gwen scratches my skin, her nails digging into my hand as she tries to keep up.
“Go!” The gunshot spurs me to take off in a seasoned sprint that I’ve practiced many times over the course of my life.
We make it to the edge of the crowd as screams erupt from some of the women, all of us darting in a wide circle in all directions. It really doesn’t matter which way everyone goes since we started in the middle of the woods.
However, I want to go south, where the path is the easiest to traverse, so I glance up at the moon and scan the sky for the North Star. It’s too dusky to see where it is. Using my bearings, I sprint toward the tree line to gain some distance so I can decide my next move. Gwen huffs loud breaths and eventually catches up to me.
“I-I didn’t think it’d be soscary, Pippi! I don’t think I can do this! If…if I get caught, just leave me and save yourself.” Once we approach a coppice of ash, I crouch and pull her down with me.
Holding up one finger to my lips, I urge her to be quiet. “Shh! It’s okay. We’re on the south side of the woods. It’s easiest here. Less hills to climb, though the trees are farther apart. Can you try to keep up behind me?”
She swipes at some tears that must have fallen over her cheeks and nods.
A high-pitched horn blares a haunting tune, alerting us that the men have started their hunt, but louder than the wailing howls of their calls is the sound of hundreds of feet pounding the ground, fists hitting flesh, cries of anguish piercing the sky as well as shouts of triumph.
The Massacre has begun.
I nod at Gwen and take off. Through the cover of trees, it’s fairly easy for me to flee without much detection. Gwen’s slowersteps shuffle behind me, and she occasionally whimpers about stepping on a branch or upturned stone.
Another woman races nearby, on the same path we’re heading. She’s not as fast as me, but I’m not giving my all so that Gwen can still see me. As I glance over my shoulder, two men catch the other sister by diving for her legs, yanking her to the ground as she screams and scratches at their faces.
“Hold her down! Grab her hands,” one man says to the other as the sound of tearing fabric cuts like a knife in the night.
We push forward another quarter of a mile through the soft dirt and over some downed logs. Louder steps crack the twigs behind us, and I know we’re about to face our first battle. With as deft a maneuver as I can, I slide into a low embankment as Gwen stumbles over some rocks.
A hooded figure jumps out and grabs her while another glances around for me, his arms flailing out to his sides. Like a snake, I pounce from my hiding spot and snag first one hand, then the other. With a leap, I shove both knees into his back as he goes down swiftly with a groan. He tries to dig his feet in to gain leverage, to no avail.
I tug so hard, one of his wrists snaps. He screams as loud as Gwen, who’s struggling underneath the other man pulling her jeans down around her thighs.
While my opponent wallows on the ground, I jerk his sleeves down his arms, tie them in a knot, and secure them as best I can before catapulting to a stand. My thick boot comes in handy when I deliver a roundhouse kick straight to the temple of Gwen’s foe, quickly resuming my stance to make sure he’s down. Given that the blow was unexpected, it’s an immediate knockout, and his body seizes on a pile of pine needles.
Two more brothers emerge from the fog as Gwen shimmies out of her pants. “These will just slow me down!” she cries. Asshe hops on one foot, I think about leaving. My calves tense for a take-off, but I wait to see if she can make it.
Just as they reach us, one of the men grabs the other from behind and the two grapple on the forest floor. A third joins in delivering punch after punch and kick after kick to various body parts, the blood flying in spurts like inky black geysers.
I snag Gwen’s hand and point to where we’re going, leaving the three to fight their own battle. Over the next hill, I calculate we may have made it one mile. Maybe slightly more.
“You should go. I have to rest. Thank you, Pippi… I-I need to hide.” A hoarse cry escapes as she says, “I didn’t think it would be like this. I-I thought it would befun, you know?”
At the approaching sound of footsteps, I shove her under a bush, shimmy up a small tree, and squat in a low-hanging branch while holding my breath. A man with a billowing black cloak stops just beneath me and searches around the area, his head turning left and right. If only I could take a deep inhale, I think my heart could stop beating so loudly, but my nose only takes a few sips of the moist air, so I don’t make a sound.
A second brother, with wide shoulders and blond hair that gleams in the dim light, comes upon the cloaked man, rushing him with full force. The first steps aside as the big man trips over something and tumbles to the ground. He rolls over and the other man jumps on top of his waist, the fabric from his mantle flowing in the breeze.
Shimmering silver dazzles my eyes, and I bite my hand to keep from squealing when the dark figure brandishes a large knife, an illegal weapon. He lifts it high above his head and plunges it straight into the heart of the brother in a swift downward motion.
My teeth dig into my skin until it hurts to hold back my gasp. Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is the cloaked man digging into the chest of the corpse lying beneath him? The thoughtalone makes me gag into my palm, and I hurry to snort in some fresh air to quiet my rolling stomach.
A woman screams in the distance, her sobs echoing through the broad base of the trees, and the man pauses his work. He stands, then skirts behind a large oak, disappearing into the void beyond.
I clutch the bark of the branch under me and hang on with a quick look at where Gwen was hiding. She must still be well hidden, and I can’t see anything around her. Hopefully, she stays in that same spot.
