Rambler, Third Time Unlucky! (Part 3)

Image: Spooky forest by Aslakthaman on DeviantArt https://www.deviantart.com/aslakthama...

Way, way too late.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a whitish sphere hurling through the air, like a snowball, aimed straight for my face; instinctively, I ducked and waited for the impact.

Nothing happened.

I looked up and saw a pair of beady red eyes staring directly into mine.

The eyes were attached to a bobbing head with a pale, consumptive face and flowing black hair. The head opened its mouth, revealing strong yellow teeth and almost choking me with incredibly foul breath. It made a sudden movement forward and I realized with a shock that he –it – whatever, was trying to bite me.

I raised my hand, palm outward, which saved me from injury, as it had nothing to chomp when the jaw came down with a snap. Instinctively, I pushed the head away and heard:

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I realized I must have poked one of its red eyes – and I wouldn’t have been sorry if I’d put one of them out!

Not that I’d stopped to think, but ran (and ran into trees), waving my arms madly for protection.

Off to the sides I could hear yelling and swearing, but I was too terrified to even think about helping the other guys; I just wanted to make it to the road alive. As I ran, or tried to run, I kept colliding and caroming off tree trucks but after an eternity (of perhaps 15 seconds), I saw the Fourth Line through a gap in the foliage and decided to take a quick, very quick, look behind me:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

NNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!

The head was upon me in a flash, diving straight at me; I didn’t have time to raise my hands, but did manage to lower my head:

CRR-ACKK!

I saw stars and would have fallen on my ass if I hadn’t crashed into a tree trunk, which succeeded in holding me up. As for the head, it lay upon the ground; the floated obviously knocked out. Seized by a sudden fit of anger, I booted it like a soccer ball and it bashed into side of a thick Maple – and lay there.

“Jesus Christ,” I thought to myself, “I’ve killed it!”

I might have stood on the spot until I took root when Wimp came blundering through the underbrush and barged into me, head down, hands waving in the air as if he was trying to swat something.

He was – a female head.

I found myself thinking, Wimp finally gets a girl interested I him and he pushes her away,  which made me laugh uproariously but I shut up when…

“RUN,” Wimp yelled and he began slamming the palm of his hand into my shoulder, forcing me backwards until my brain caught up to the action and I realized what he was doing – and I turned around and began to stagger, wind milling my arms, towards the road – which seemed a little too far away.

Wimp and I exploded out of the trees, our momentum almost landing us in the draining ditches along Fourth. Wimp jumped over the culvert, but I indulged in the luxury of looking over my shoulder.

None of the heads were there.

Neither was Peter.

And he had the car keys.

“Where the hell…” I started to ask, but was cut off by Wimp’s “I don’t know.”

“We’ve got to go back for him!” I yelled, but Wimp was already charging back into the tree line; I followed.

We found Peter on the ground, head down, ass in air, trying to cover the back of his neck with his arms; two female heads, ugly skanks with lank, stringy hair flowing out behind them as they swooped to the attack. Wimp grabbed a large branch and, using it as a cudgel, swung at them as they scooted just out of range.

“Help me, asshole!” he roared.

Darting forward, I grabbed Peter by the collar of his windbreaker and pulled; fortunately, he was conscious and scrambled up and began running without any further encouragement from me.

“Wimp!” I yelled, and, throwing away the cudgel (which I wasn’t sure was a good idea), came racing after us.

On the other side of the road, we all turned at the same instant and looked back towards the woods: no Floaters in sight.

“Are you all right,” I gasped, grabbing Peter’s arm as if to steady him

“I think so.”

“She bite you?”

“I don’t think so, but the bitch tore my jacket.”

“Let’s haul ass!”

And so we did.