Husk by Hults Matt

Author:Hults, Matt [Hults, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Books of the Dead Press
Published: 2011-01-14T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 37

The train engine’s roaring power vibrated through Tim’s body when he passed in front of it—crossing the tracks—but paled in comparison to the jolt that shook his bones when the mechanical juggernaut clipped the bicycle’s rear wheel.

Time didn’t freeze for this encounter. Just the opposite. Everything seemed to happen with the swiftness of a camera flash.

The engine swiped the bicycle out from under him like a huge hand shooing away a bothersome insect. The bike’s handlebars tore out of his grasp; he flew off the seat. The world turned into a blur as he tumbled through the air. Through some miracle of high-tension awareness, his ears picked out the grotesque impact of the dead deer when it caught the full force of the train’s unstoppable energy, and the sound reminded him of the noise made when biting into a ripe apple: crunchy, but wet. Then the ground slammed into his back just when he thought he was flying skyward.

The blacktop bit into his skin on impact, scraping it raw in spots. His left arm ended up in front of his face during the fall, saving his head from hitting the ground. Consciousness blinked like an old light bulb but didn’t go out.

He rolled to a rest with the sharp squeal of the train’s brakes cutting into the night.

Tim flopped on his back and winced in pain. His right leg ached to the bone. The wounds on his palms, forearms, elbows, and knees burned with a fiery sting that grew worse with each passing second.

Striving to postpone the thought of discomfort, he lifted his head and looked around, assessing the scene. To one side of him sat the partially mangled mountain bike; to the other, lay the severed head of the deer.

Tim stiffened at his proximity to it, but relaxed again when his brain processed the extent of the damage. Dead or not, the train had finished the animal for sure.

The train continued to move past him, the deafening keen of its wheels like an incessant scream for attention. He knew it was only a matter of time before people from the surrounding houses came to investigate.

No one would believe what he’d been through tonight. How could they? No doubt the train’s operator was furious, probably thinking that he’d been attempting some kind of dumb stunt. In fact, now that he thought about it, Tim realized the man was probably already on a cell phone or radio, calling the police. With his luck, they’d assume Tim fabricated the whole chase story simply to draw focus off his failed train-dodge. Someone might even suggest he’d positioned the deer carcass on the tracks himself, like some morbid joke. It was certainly a more plausible explanation than the story Tim had to tell.

All this after being rejected by Mallory.

Talk about a crappy evening.

And what about tomorrow? He was pretty sure if he wasn’t in jail for what had happened with the train, someone would eventually find Brad—or one of his friends; or maybe all three of them—dead in the woods, and he’d be the main suspect in their murders.

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