"Burial By Stomach"
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dochermes"Burial By Stomach"
A Trom Girl/Unicorn Team-Up
10/3-10/4/2000
I.
They had been hiking since dawn and, as night fell over the mountains around them, Megan and Ashley were glad to pick a spot for camp. Both girls wore sensible outdoors clothing, sturdy boots and loose trousers and flannel shirts over plain cotton T-shirts. Both were carrying small knapsacks high on their backs. At barely five feet tall and just one hundred pounds, Ashley Whitaker had her platinum blonde hair pulled back in a thick ponytail and was wearing mirrored aviator's sunglasses. She surveyed a round clearing on top of a small hill and made an approving noise.
"It's been an exciting climb so far," she said enigmatically. "At least we know we're in the right area after what happened."
A few inches taller and slightly heavier, Megan Salenger had her tousled black hair tucked up under a baseball cap with the New York Yankees logo on it which she had borrowed from Unicorn. She was wearing polarized glasses which she now pulled up onto her forehead to look around. "This is a suitable site," she agreed in her usual subdued tone. "We passed a stream, so there is potable water at hand."
"Oh, finally!" Unicorn sighed. She shrugged off her knapsack and let it drop to the ground, then sank down on top of it wiggled her feet in relief. "I thought we were going to come out on the other side of the Preserve!"
"That is most unlikely," Megan answered. "The Adirondack Forest Preserve contains more than 2.6 million acres. At the rate we were walking..."
"Trom Girl, stop it!" yelled Unicorn. "It was a figure of speech, okay?"
Megan hesitated before continuing in the same mild voice, "Being raised by the Trom has left me more literal in my reactions than most Humans. I am sorry if that inconveniences you, Ashley."
"Listen, what do you call a dog with no legs?" demanded the blonde with no seeming relevance.
"I do not understand the question."
"The answer is, it doesn't matter, he won't come to you no matter what you call him."
Megan responded with a blank stare.
"Aw, it's not a problem," the blonde girl said as she yanked off her shoes and rubbed her tiny feet. "Come on, Megs, we've been working together for almost a year now. I swear, I will have you cursing and using slang and telling jokes if it's the last thing I do."
The Trom Girl unfastened her own knapsack and lowered it to the ground, herself sitting down to rest beside Ashley. "I will build a small fire. If we are lucky, we will quickly find the killers we are seeking."
"Hah!" Unicorn snorted. "I love your attitude. Deep in the woods on a mountain, hours from any town, we're trying to draw out some no-fooling cannibals. And you say we'll find them right away, 'if we are lucky.'"
Megan Salenger went around collecting rocks of various sizes, arranging them in an open circle and inspecting the results. "It has not rained for at least a week," she said. "We must be careful with a fire, of course, but there is sufficient twigs and dry leaves to serve as tinder."
Tugging her shoes back on so her feet wouldn't swell, Ashley got up and began helping. "I miss my Unicorn horn! I mean, it wouldn't be any use against these creepoids, they don't have gralic powers. But I just don't feel myself without the horn on my back."
"This is acceptable," Megan said, referring to the rocks they had set up with tinder in the center opening. "It would be most expedient to use the thermal beam to start the fire."
"Uh-UH!" Unicorn put in. "No, no, no. Sable said no KDF gadgets, no Trom super-science, none of that stuff. We are supposed to assume we are being watched right now by flesh-eating psychoes. They look at my legs and think, hey that girl has got some nice drumsticks..."
Megan raised one eyebrow at that simile. Unicorn's sense of humor still puzzled her. Taking a mundane cigarette lighter from one pocket, she lit some of the tinder, breathed on it until the fire caught and then started adding larger twigs. Ashley had gathered larger dead branches and stacked them up nearby.
In a low voice, the Trom Girl said, "I do not understand the appeal of this cult we are seeking. Isn't cannibalism one of the strongest taboos in any culture?"
"Yeah, well, you know what they say. If Nature didn't want us to eat other people, why are they made out of meat?" Seeing the horrified expression on Megan's face, Ashley groaned. "It's a JOKE, honey! I swear, I need to ring a bell before every joke or pun or figure of speech with you."
Megan came over and sat down next to the blonde. "I see why Sable teams us up so frequently, then. She wants me to learn colloquialisms from you."
"Also, you desperately need to loosen up a bit. I know you were brought up by a bunch of deadpan scientists, but honestly. Hey, as long as that fire is going, we should grill some meat. I've got this dried jerky in my pack..." Ashley dug around and came up with a vaccuum-sealed packet of prepared meat. "Come on, let's impale it on some sticks. I'm starving."
The Trom Girl joined her in moistening some of the jerkey with water from their canteens and then holding the meat over the flames. "It smells tempting," she admitted. "I did not realize how hungry I was."
"Not as good as human flesh, of course..."
"You are still making cannibal jokes?" the Trom Girl said. "What do you know of this Shiloh Veele person?"
Ashley paused to nibble a bit on the sizzling meat. "Oh, man, all the salt and preservatives! Love it. Yeah, Shiloh Veele. He's the reason this cult is getting some notoriety. He's actually a Hollywood celebrity, maybe not a genuine superstar but certainly well known. And he has been tied up with cannibal rumors for a year now."
The Trom Girl did not comment, being preoccupied with sampling a bite of the sizzling jerky on a stick. She was normally on a strictly planned diet and often seemed eager to find excuses to break her regimen.
"Now, I don't see where he's so hot," Unicorn went on. "To me, he looks kinda girly. But he had two series on the Disney Channel and some concert tours and stuff, and apparently twelve-year-olds lose their minds over him. Go figure. And then the rumors started."
Megan glanced over curiously. "Is this cannibal cult public knowledge?"
"Not really, just show biz gossip. You know, this producer is a pedophile and that actress snorts Drano, you know, the usual. Everyone thinks it's kind of a publicity riff, maybe he has a new horror movie coming out? But our captain thinks otherwise."
By now, it was getting dark enough that the stars were becoming visible overhead. It was a clear October night without clouds and only a sliver of a crescent moon on the horizon. "We should unroll our blankets and settle in, eh?"
"Yes, I agree," the Trom Girl said absently. "Ashley, you are very brave by Human standards. We are deliberately placing our selves in a dangerous situation which most would find horrifying and you are relaxed enough to wisecrack."
The little blonde started digging in her knapsack and came up with some chewing gum. "Aw, I was raised to be the second Unicorn by my mom. She had me running around in other realms and tangling with all kinds of monsters as soon as I could walk. Want a stick? It's sugarless."
Megan stood up smoothly, head cocked to one side. "Something is approaching from the west. Forty meters away, moving slowly. I judge it is a Human attempting to be stealthy but the dry vegetation makes that difficult."
The Unicorn came over to stand next to her, hiking up her jeans over her narrow hips. "Great. Now remember, we're supposed to be helpless widdle girls and not the world-class fighting machines we are."
With an increasing rustle, a rather short and slightly built young man broke the brush. "Hello! Hi, maybe you ladies can help me?" He was wearing hiking boots, camo pants and a baggy white-shirt. Curly brown hair and a bland, friendly face added to the harmless impression he made.
"Yeah, that's what guys always ask," Ashley scoffed. Then, as the man stepped closer, she grinned. "Shiloh Veele? Really? Out here in the wilderness?" She suddenly grabbed her friend by the arm. "Don't you see the blood on his face? My God, there's blood everywhere!"
II.
As the famous star abruptly whipped a wide-bladed serrated knife up overhead, Unicorn gave a realistic scream and wheeled around to leap away into the darkness. Megan was an inch behind her. The two Tel Shai knights were gone so quickly they seemed to have vanished like a stage magician's trick. Shiloh Veele growled as deeply as he could manage with his distinctly tenor voice and ran after them.
Already some distance ahead, Megan whispered, "Unicorn! Slow down. We don't want to lose him entirely."
The little blonde tried to reduce her speed, glancing behind to where the pursuing cannibal was just coming into view. "All my training is making me run like hell," she admitted.
They were heading steeply downhill in the dark. For some reason, Shiloh Veele dropped to all fours and was loping along with his hands flat on the ground in front of him. Maybe he had found there was less risk of falling that way under these conditions.
Still staying just within sight of their pursuer, the KDF women continued hurtling down through the woods in the dark. Suddenly, Unicorn yelped and fell, rolling over and getting in a seated position. Trom Girl immediately dropped beside her. The blonde had stepped into a bear trap.
"Leave me behind!" Ashley exclaimed dramatically. "I'll have to gnaw my leg off."
"Quiet, quiet," Megan hushed her. "There are no teeth on these blades. I can get it off you. Ashley, it's fortunate you have that weapon strapped to your ankle."
"Yeah, that. Just a sweet little present from my mom. Eeek, act scared. Here he comes." As she spoke, there was a whirring noise and a thunk as the hunting knife spun end over end to dig deeply into a tree trunk about six inches from her head. Ashley fought down her impulse to yank that knife out of the trunk and fling it back twice as fast. Instead, she begged, "What do you want? Please, please, don't hurt us!"
Yanking his blade free, Shiloh Veele said, "You girls are coming to the cabin. Don't bother trying to run. The other members of my warren are out in the woods tonight and I just happened to be the one who found you?"
Megan had pried the trap off Unicorn's ankle and was helping her to stand up. "I don't understand. Why are you are even out here? Aren't you a famous movie star?"
"I am. I'm a millionaire and a real celebrity. But most of all, I'm an actual cannibal. Come on, walk in front of me."
Megan and Ashley obeyed, with the blonde girl limping along in not entirely a convincing way. All the tricks she had used on her mother as a child came into play now. "But we didn't do anything wrong. You should let us go, we won't say anything. I promise!" she wailed in a pitiful voice.
Walking beside her, the Trom Girl asked more calmly, "You said there were others? You belong to a group?"
"A warren," answered Shiloh cheerfully. "Living in the woods. Hunting for sport. None of our prey goes to waste. There's the cabin right there."
Under two immense oak trees stretched a cabin of dark wood planks, well-built and well-maintained. From one corner of the roof, a stovepipe chimney protruded. Two windows glowed with subdued yellow light and there were carved wooden benches flanking the front door.
"You can't be serious," whined Ashley in that six-year-old voice, "You aren't really going to EAT us!"
"Hah! Are you kidding? All we get are tough old survivalists and fat drunk rednecks getting away from their families for a weekend. The warren is going to love you gals. Two sweet, juicy young lambs..."
"You'll be licking your lips next if you don't watch it," Ashley said as her mask of fear slipped for an instant. They were being watched from inside the cabin, because the door swung open from within. Filling the open space was an obese man in khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt that reached almost to his knees.
"Oh, BRAH-vo," he laughed. "Well done, Shiloh."
"We dine like gourmets tonight." The actor pulled down a trumpet that hung beside the door and blasted out four ascending notes, each one longer than the one before it. "Our brethren will come running."
"You ladies get in the corner over there," said the fat man in Hawaiian shirt. His shaved scalp and round face made his head look like a moon. "Ain't but the one door and window on this side, you ain't going nowhere."
Megan Salenger brushed her thick black hair with her fingers and put the baseball cap back on. There were no beds in this cabin, just a long table with sturdy chairs arranged along it. Two oil lamps burned, one on the table and one hanging from the ceiling. An open fireplace sat under the stovepipe chimney. Most of one wall was taken up by a propane-fueled oven with two stove-top burners on top, as well a cabinet filled with plates, bowls and an amazing array of cleavers, knives, chopping boards and eating utensils. She could not hide the stern expression on her face as she took this all in.
In a few minutes, three more men and one woman entered. They were surprisingly normal and unremarkable in appearance and clothing. All white Americans in their thirties and forties, all smiling and obviously delighted. The sole woman was a brawny specimen hitting fifty, and she unslung a Remington 30-30 from her back and leaned it beside the door where she stood.
"You done good tonight, Shiloh," she said. "Not as tender as actual children, but young enough to be prime. Now, all we need is for Damozar to arrive."
Standing in the corner, arms folded across her chest, Megan Salenger did not seem at all uneasy. "I have one question before you begin. Let me get this clear. You are each guilty of first-degree premeditated murder? Is that right?"
"What the hell stupid question is that?" roared the fat man. "Yes! Yes, of course. We believe in burial by stomach. We believe it's more respectful than tossing a person into a hole in the ground. Their spirits live on in us. Got it? You understand, missy?"
Unicorn bent over and fiddled with something at her ankle. "Oh, sure. We just wanted a confession from you guys," she grunted, "It justifies THIS." She straightened up with a small flat Ruger LCP 380 in her hand and opened fire.
III.
First, Unicorn nailed the woman by the door, who was already reaching for her rifle. Two slugs punched into her chest and threw her back so hard her elbow broke the window behind her. Even before that cannibal's body had started to sag, Ashley was swinging around to send a bullet tunneling through the face of the fat man in the Hawaiian shirt. His mouth dropped open and a spout of garishly bright blood splashed all over the already loud shirt.
Four more shots cracked out in pairs and the two remaining cultists fell over backwards, one of them landing upright in a chair by some fluke of timing. His head sagged and his limp body slid, but he remained in the chair.
That left only Shiloh Veele. He had jumped to the cabinet and jerked a meat cleaver from its hook, whirling around to face the two young women.
"Forget it," Unicorn informed him in a voice very different from her usual flippant tone. "You saw me in action just now. You'll be dead so fast you won't even know it."
Stepping closer, the Trom Girl yanked the cleaver from the actor's grip and shoved him down into a chair. "Who is this Damozar who was mentioned?"
The actor showed no sign he was able to answer. His eyes were bulging painfully as they darted from one bloody corpse to another. The man's breathing became quick and shallow, his arms were visibly trembling.
Megan roughly swung his chair around so that Shiloh was facing the corner where the stove and a garbage bin sat. He couldn't see the carnage behind him now.
Coming up behind them, Ashley calmly reloaded her Ruger from a shell box in her back pocket. "For someone who has hacked up and eaten so many innocent people, he's sure rattled when they're his friends."
Glancing back over at her friend, Megan said, "That gun is what kept you from being injured by the trap."
"Yep. Oh, my ankle is still sore on the other side but I'm okay. Is he over his hysterics yet?"
"Another few minutes." The Trom Girl took the actor's pulse with no resistance from him, then came around to examine his pupils. "He's settling down," she said.
"You.. you don't understand," Shiloh abruptly blurted. "You get drawn into it. Burial By Stomach. It's an ancient cult, older than this country, older than civilization. First, a friends lures you out here and pretends it's a morbid game for thrills. Like a Halloween party. Then..."
"Go on," Megan said softly.
"Then you find out it's all real. It's not roast pork you're eating. The gruesome sights in the back are not fake props from a store. It's all real. And once you get a taste for human flesh, you crave it. It's addictive." He took a few deep shuddering breaths. "I'm going to Hell when I die, I know it, there's no hope for me now."
The Trom Girl came around and bent over to stare him in the eyes. "Who else is in your cult?"
"Just our leader... wait until you meet HIM." Veele gave a feeble attempt at a laugh. "Damozar is not someone you forget seeing."
From the other side of the cabin, Ashley asked, "Is he a tall skinny geek in a black coat? Starting to look like a real Ghoul with big ol' teeth and a muzzle?"
"Yes! Yes. How do you know that?" demanded the trembling actor.
Unicorn twirled her Ruger like an Old West gunfighter and grinned. "Aw, we plugged him hours ago. He was stalking us all afternoon."
1/29/2017
A Trom Girl/Unicorn Team-Up
10/3-10/4/2000
I.
They had been hiking since dawn and, as night fell over the mountains around them, Megan and Ashley were glad to pick a spot for camp. Both girls wore sensible outdoors clothing, sturdy boots and loose trousers and flannel shirts over plain cotton T-shirts. Both were carrying small knapsacks high on their backs. At barely five feet tall and just one hundred pounds, Ashley Whitaker had her platinum blonde hair pulled back in a thick ponytail and was wearing mirrored aviator's sunglasses. She surveyed a round clearing on top of a small hill and made an approving noise.
"It's been an exciting climb so far," she said enigmatically. "At least we know we're in the right area after what happened."
A few inches taller and slightly heavier, Megan Salenger had her tousled black hair tucked up under a baseball cap with the New York Yankees logo on it which she had borrowed from Unicorn. She was wearing polarized glasses which she now pulled up onto her forehead to look around. "This is a suitable site," she agreed in her usual subdued tone. "We passed a stream, so there is potable water at hand."
"Oh, finally!" Unicorn sighed. She shrugged off her knapsack and let it drop to the ground, then sank down on top of it wiggled her feet in relief. "I thought we were going to come out on the other side of the Preserve!"
"That is most unlikely," Megan answered. "The Adirondack Forest Preserve contains more than 2.6 million acres. At the rate we were walking..."
"Trom Girl, stop it!" yelled Unicorn. "It was a figure of speech, okay?"
Megan hesitated before continuing in the same mild voice, "Being raised by the Trom has left me more literal in my reactions than most Humans. I am sorry if that inconveniences you, Ashley."
"Listen, what do you call a dog with no legs?" demanded the blonde with no seeming relevance.
"I do not understand the question."
"The answer is, it doesn't matter, he won't come to you no matter what you call him."
Megan responded with a blank stare.
"Aw, it's not a problem," the blonde girl said as she yanked off her shoes and rubbed her tiny feet. "Come on, Megs, we've been working together for almost a year now. I swear, I will have you cursing and using slang and telling jokes if it's the last thing I do."
The Trom Girl unfastened her own knapsack and lowered it to the ground, herself sitting down to rest beside Ashley. "I will build a small fire. If we are lucky, we will quickly find the killers we are seeking."
"Hah!" Unicorn snorted. "I love your attitude. Deep in the woods on a mountain, hours from any town, we're trying to draw out some no-fooling cannibals. And you say we'll find them right away, 'if we are lucky.'"
Megan Salenger went around collecting rocks of various sizes, arranging them in an open circle and inspecting the results. "It has not rained for at least a week," she said. "We must be careful with a fire, of course, but there is sufficient twigs and dry leaves to serve as tinder."
Tugging her shoes back on so her feet wouldn't swell, Ashley got up and began helping. "I miss my Unicorn horn! I mean, it wouldn't be any use against these creepoids, they don't have gralic powers. But I just don't feel myself without the horn on my back."
"This is acceptable," Megan said, referring to the rocks they had set up with tinder in the center opening. "It would be most expedient to use the thermal beam to start the fire."
"Uh-UH!" Unicorn put in. "No, no, no. Sable said no KDF gadgets, no Trom super-science, none of that stuff. We are supposed to assume we are being watched right now by flesh-eating psychoes. They look at my legs and think, hey that girl has got some nice drumsticks..."
Megan raised one eyebrow at that simile. Unicorn's sense of humor still puzzled her. Taking a mundane cigarette lighter from one pocket, she lit some of the tinder, breathed on it until the fire caught and then started adding larger twigs. Ashley had gathered larger dead branches and stacked them up nearby.
In a low voice, the Trom Girl said, "I do not understand the appeal of this cult we are seeking. Isn't cannibalism one of the strongest taboos in any culture?"
"Yeah, well, you know what they say. If Nature didn't want us to eat other people, why are they made out of meat?" Seeing the horrified expression on Megan's face, Ashley groaned. "It's a JOKE, honey! I swear, I need to ring a bell before every joke or pun or figure of speech with you."
Megan came over and sat down next to the blonde. "I see why Sable teams us up so frequently, then. She wants me to learn colloquialisms from you."
"Also, you desperately need to loosen up a bit. I know you were brought up by a bunch of deadpan scientists, but honestly. Hey, as long as that fire is going, we should grill some meat. I've got this dried jerky in my pack..." Ashley dug around and came up with a vaccuum-sealed packet of prepared meat. "Come on, let's impale it on some sticks. I'm starving."
The Trom Girl joined her in moistening some of the jerkey with water from their canteens and then holding the meat over the flames. "It smells tempting," she admitted. "I did not realize how hungry I was."
"Not as good as human flesh, of course..."
"You are still making cannibal jokes?" the Trom Girl said. "What do you know of this Shiloh Veele person?"
Ashley paused to nibble a bit on the sizzling meat. "Oh, man, all the salt and preservatives! Love it. Yeah, Shiloh Veele. He's the reason this cult is getting some notoriety. He's actually a Hollywood celebrity, maybe not a genuine superstar but certainly well known. And he has been tied up with cannibal rumors for a year now."
The Trom Girl did not comment, being preoccupied with sampling a bite of the sizzling jerky on a stick. She was normally on a strictly planned diet and often seemed eager to find excuses to break her regimen.
"Now, I don't see where he's so hot," Unicorn went on. "To me, he looks kinda girly. But he had two series on the Disney Channel and some concert tours and stuff, and apparently twelve-year-olds lose their minds over him. Go figure. And then the rumors started."
Megan glanced over curiously. "Is this cannibal cult public knowledge?"
"Not really, just show biz gossip. You know, this producer is a pedophile and that actress snorts Drano, you know, the usual. Everyone thinks it's kind of a publicity riff, maybe he has a new horror movie coming out? But our captain thinks otherwise."
By now, it was getting dark enough that the stars were becoming visible overhead. It was a clear October night without clouds and only a sliver of a crescent moon on the horizon. "We should unroll our blankets and settle in, eh?"
"Yes, I agree," the Trom Girl said absently. "Ashley, you are very brave by Human standards. We are deliberately placing our selves in a dangerous situation which most would find horrifying and you are relaxed enough to wisecrack."
The little blonde started digging in her knapsack and came up with some chewing gum. "Aw, I was raised to be the second Unicorn by my mom. She had me running around in other realms and tangling with all kinds of monsters as soon as I could walk. Want a stick? It's sugarless."
Megan stood up smoothly, head cocked to one side. "Something is approaching from the west. Forty meters away, moving slowly. I judge it is a Human attempting to be stealthy but the dry vegetation makes that difficult."
The Unicorn came over to stand next to her, hiking up her jeans over her narrow hips. "Great. Now remember, we're supposed to be helpless widdle girls and not the world-class fighting machines we are."
With an increasing rustle, a rather short and slightly built young man broke the brush. "Hello! Hi, maybe you ladies can help me?" He was wearing hiking boots, camo pants and a baggy white-shirt. Curly brown hair and a bland, friendly face added to the harmless impression he made.
"Yeah, that's what guys always ask," Ashley scoffed. Then, as the man stepped closer, she grinned. "Shiloh Veele? Really? Out here in the wilderness?" She suddenly grabbed her friend by the arm. "Don't you see the blood on his face? My God, there's blood everywhere!"
II.
As the famous star abruptly whipped a wide-bladed serrated knife up overhead, Unicorn gave a realistic scream and wheeled around to leap away into the darkness. Megan was an inch behind her. The two Tel Shai knights were gone so quickly they seemed to have vanished like a stage magician's trick. Shiloh Veele growled as deeply as he could manage with his distinctly tenor voice and ran after them.
Already some distance ahead, Megan whispered, "Unicorn! Slow down. We don't want to lose him entirely."
The little blonde tried to reduce her speed, glancing behind to where the pursuing cannibal was just coming into view. "All my training is making me run like hell," she admitted.
They were heading steeply downhill in the dark. For some reason, Shiloh Veele dropped to all fours and was loping along with his hands flat on the ground in front of him. Maybe he had found there was less risk of falling that way under these conditions.
Still staying just within sight of their pursuer, the KDF women continued hurtling down through the woods in the dark. Suddenly, Unicorn yelped and fell, rolling over and getting in a seated position. Trom Girl immediately dropped beside her. The blonde had stepped into a bear trap.
"Leave me behind!" Ashley exclaimed dramatically. "I'll have to gnaw my leg off."
"Quiet, quiet," Megan hushed her. "There are no teeth on these blades. I can get it off you. Ashley, it's fortunate you have that weapon strapped to your ankle."
"Yeah, that. Just a sweet little present from my mom. Eeek, act scared. Here he comes." As she spoke, there was a whirring noise and a thunk as the hunting knife spun end over end to dig deeply into a tree trunk about six inches from her head. Ashley fought down her impulse to yank that knife out of the trunk and fling it back twice as fast. Instead, she begged, "What do you want? Please, please, don't hurt us!"
Yanking his blade free, Shiloh Veele said, "You girls are coming to the cabin. Don't bother trying to run. The other members of my warren are out in the woods tonight and I just happened to be the one who found you?"
Megan had pried the trap off Unicorn's ankle and was helping her to stand up. "I don't understand. Why are you are even out here? Aren't you a famous movie star?"
"I am. I'm a millionaire and a real celebrity. But most of all, I'm an actual cannibal. Come on, walk in front of me."
Megan and Ashley obeyed, with the blonde girl limping along in not entirely a convincing way. All the tricks she had used on her mother as a child came into play now. "But we didn't do anything wrong. You should let us go, we won't say anything. I promise!" she wailed in a pitiful voice.
Walking beside her, the Trom Girl asked more calmly, "You said there were others? You belong to a group?"
"A warren," answered Shiloh cheerfully. "Living in the woods. Hunting for sport. None of our prey goes to waste. There's the cabin right there."
Under two immense oak trees stretched a cabin of dark wood planks, well-built and well-maintained. From one corner of the roof, a stovepipe chimney protruded. Two windows glowed with subdued yellow light and there were carved wooden benches flanking the front door.
"You can't be serious," whined Ashley in that six-year-old voice, "You aren't really going to EAT us!"
"Hah! Are you kidding? All we get are tough old survivalists and fat drunk rednecks getting away from their families for a weekend. The warren is going to love you gals. Two sweet, juicy young lambs..."
"You'll be licking your lips next if you don't watch it," Ashley said as her mask of fear slipped for an instant. They were being watched from inside the cabin, because the door swung open from within. Filling the open space was an obese man in khaki shorts and a Hawaiian shirt that reached almost to his knees.
"Oh, BRAH-vo," he laughed. "Well done, Shiloh."
"We dine like gourmets tonight." The actor pulled down a trumpet that hung beside the door and blasted out four ascending notes, each one longer than the one before it. "Our brethren will come running."
"You ladies get in the corner over there," said the fat man in Hawaiian shirt. His shaved scalp and round face made his head look like a moon. "Ain't but the one door and window on this side, you ain't going nowhere."
Megan Salenger brushed her thick black hair with her fingers and put the baseball cap back on. There were no beds in this cabin, just a long table with sturdy chairs arranged along it. Two oil lamps burned, one on the table and one hanging from the ceiling. An open fireplace sat under the stovepipe chimney. Most of one wall was taken up by a propane-fueled oven with two stove-top burners on top, as well a cabinet filled with plates, bowls and an amazing array of cleavers, knives, chopping boards and eating utensils. She could not hide the stern expression on her face as she took this all in.
In a few minutes, three more men and one woman entered. They were surprisingly normal and unremarkable in appearance and clothing. All white Americans in their thirties and forties, all smiling and obviously delighted. The sole woman was a brawny specimen hitting fifty, and she unslung a Remington 30-30 from her back and leaned it beside the door where she stood.
"You done good tonight, Shiloh," she said. "Not as tender as actual children, but young enough to be prime. Now, all we need is for Damozar to arrive."
Standing in the corner, arms folded across her chest, Megan Salenger did not seem at all uneasy. "I have one question before you begin. Let me get this clear. You are each guilty of first-degree premeditated murder? Is that right?"
"What the hell stupid question is that?" roared the fat man. "Yes! Yes, of course. We believe in burial by stomach. We believe it's more respectful than tossing a person into a hole in the ground. Their spirits live on in us. Got it? You understand, missy?"
Unicorn bent over and fiddled with something at her ankle. "Oh, sure. We just wanted a confession from you guys," she grunted, "It justifies THIS." She straightened up with a small flat Ruger LCP 380 in her hand and opened fire.
III.
First, Unicorn nailed the woman by the door, who was already reaching for her rifle. Two slugs punched into her chest and threw her back so hard her elbow broke the window behind her. Even before that cannibal's body had started to sag, Ashley was swinging around to send a bullet tunneling through the face of the fat man in the Hawaiian shirt. His mouth dropped open and a spout of garishly bright blood splashed all over the already loud shirt.
Four more shots cracked out in pairs and the two remaining cultists fell over backwards, one of them landing upright in a chair by some fluke of timing. His head sagged and his limp body slid, but he remained in the chair.
That left only Shiloh Veele. He had jumped to the cabinet and jerked a meat cleaver from its hook, whirling around to face the two young women.
"Forget it," Unicorn informed him in a voice very different from her usual flippant tone. "You saw me in action just now. You'll be dead so fast you won't even know it."
Stepping closer, the Trom Girl yanked the cleaver from the actor's grip and shoved him down into a chair. "Who is this Damozar who was mentioned?"
The actor showed no sign he was able to answer. His eyes were bulging painfully as they darted from one bloody corpse to another. The man's breathing became quick and shallow, his arms were visibly trembling.
Megan roughly swung his chair around so that Shiloh was facing the corner where the stove and a garbage bin sat. He couldn't see the carnage behind him now.
Coming up behind them, Ashley calmly reloaded her Ruger from a shell box in her back pocket. "For someone who has hacked up and eaten so many innocent people, he's sure rattled when they're his friends."
Glancing back over at her friend, Megan said, "That gun is what kept you from being injured by the trap."
"Yep. Oh, my ankle is still sore on the other side but I'm okay. Is he over his hysterics yet?"
"Another few minutes." The Trom Girl took the actor's pulse with no resistance from him, then came around to examine his pupils. "He's settling down," she said.
"You.. you don't understand," Shiloh abruptly blurted. "You get drawn into it. Burial By Stomach. It's an ancient cult, older than this country, older than civilization. First, a friends lures you out here and pretends it's a morbid game for thrills. Like a Halloween party. Then..."
"Go on," Megan said softly.
"Then you find out it's all real. It's not roast pork you're eating. The gruesome sights in the back are not fake props from a store. It's all real. And once you get a taste for human flesh, you crave it. It's addictive." He took a few deep shuddering breaths. "I'm going to Hell when I die, I know it, there's no hope for me now."
The Trom Girl came around and bent over to stare him in the eyes. "Who else is in your cult?"
"Just our leader... wait until you meet HIM." Veele gave a feeble attempt at a laugh. "Damozar is not someone you forget seeing."
From the other side of the cabin, Ashley asked, "Is he a tall skinny geek in a black coat? Starting to look like a real Ghoul with big ol' teeth and a muzzle?"
"Yes! Yes. How do you know that?" demanded the trembling actor.
Unicorn twirled her Ruger like an Old West gunfighter and grinned. "Aw, we plugged him hours ago. He was stalking us all afternoon."
1/29/2017
