The Curse of 1977 (Book 2)

Chapter 45

And the rain continued to fall:

It was like his body was an ancient, rusted and forgotten vehicle that was being brought back to life after so many years of inactivity.

Ever so gently, twitching and twisting, Jeremiah's fingers moved before his two hands became animated once more.

The rain funneled into the man's wide open mouth nearly chocking him in the process. Jeremiah coughed and hacked before rolling over onto the muddy grass that he was lying on.

He opened his stinging eyes to see nothing but blackness above. Jeremiah opened his eyes wider before shielding his face from the rain and looking from side to side.

The man attempted to get up but his body was entirely too frail and broken to accomplish such a feat. Jeremiah then cried out in agony before crawling about on the grass like a wounded animal. His legs and arms felt like they could all snap in half at any moment. His head felt like someone were still cracking him with a branch. The inside of his mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Absolutely nothing was right as far as he was concerned.

He kept on crawling before he eventually stopped and gazed all around at what looked to be a spacious field. He expected to see the Cummins house or at least a road, but there was nothing in sight but grass for as far as his frail eyes could see in the rain.

"Hell...hello," his weak voice tried to call out.

Jeremiah collapsed to the ground and just laid there for a minute in the hopes of catching his breath. When a spurt of energy returned the man once more endeavored to get to his feet. With just about

every last ounce of vitality he could gather in his busted body Jeremiah rose to his feet only to fall back to the ground.

His hands were shaking and his head was spinning, but he was bound and determined to get back up. Slipping along the way, Jeremiah struggled and fought before at last standing up, albeit hunched over. With the heavy rain weighing down his hair even more than it already was, Jeremiah scanned around the open range before limping and staggering off in no particular direction. His right wrist was broken, as was his left arm. It felt as if his left kneecap wanted to dislodge from its joint. His entire face felt like it was going to fall off. With his numb hands he touched all over his face that felt like putty. There were pieces of flesh that were falling off and onto the ground. The last thing Jeremiah wanted was to look into a mirror of all things.

The more he lumbered on, the harder the rain seemed to fall causing his already blurred vision to fail all the more. Soon, there came a feeling, the feeling was then followed by a sound.

Jeremiah stopped walking to look behind him and from left to right. But there was nothing but grass and the night surrounding him.

Jeremiah, resuming his trek towards God knows where, made sure to keep a watchful eye on his whereabouts until the sound that he had heard came into earshot once more. The man kept hobbling on while gawking back and forth. By then his heart rate increased simply because it was a sound that he wasn't all too familiar with. He knew he was in a rural area and that it could have possibly been anything from an animal to a farm machine, but the sound was too close by and coming from all directions.

Just then, the sound that Jeremiah was hearing became clearer and more familiar. It was an animal, and it wasn't a small one; in Jeremiah's ears it sounded big and mad.

"Hell...hello," he began shivering out of fear.

Jeremiah kept on but the animal seemed to be following him. He could hear it behind him, but every time he looked back there was nothing in sight to see.

He kept on before the angry sounding beast began growling directly in front of him just a few yards ahead. Jeremiah suddenly stopped before spinning all around like a top. He could see nothing in the blinding rain, and yet, there was something there in his midst, and that same something was closing in on him. The thought of going to his left crossed his mind, but just as soon as he attempted to do so the animal somehow made it there first, which in turn caused Jeremiah to believe that there was more than one surrounding him.

"Please...please, I'm lost!" He stuttered uncontrollably.

But the animal or animals kept on growling. By then, he was seemingly surrounded by the creatures. Jeremiah contemplated whether or not it was all real. He had been beaten within an inch of his life and left for dead, hallucinations were bound to occur. But even his college educated rationale couldn't soothe his bothered nerves at that stage.

"God...help me please!" His jaws shuddered. "Please, whoever you are, I'm lost!"

But the animals kept growling in all directions. Jeremiah stood in the pouring twilight rain not quite sure as to what to do. He was dead in all directions, he assumed. His wife and soon to be born baby had taken a backseat to his current tribulation. He wanted to see them, but first Jeremiah desired freedom.

In all four directions he was encased, but there was always one small pocket of space that was free. If North, South, East and West were occupied, Northwest would be all clear, and that was exactly the route he pursued.

Without taking a breath the man bolted off. His mind had forgotten that his legs were crippled; it was raw adrenaline that possessed his every move. A sheet of rain was all he could see in front of him as the angry animals behind him kept growling and roaring while chasing him down.

"God...please help me!" He squealed for all he was worth.

Within the fraught marathon Jeremiah collapsed face first to the ground only to jump right back up and continue forward as though his legs had never given out at all. His face was covered in mud and grass, but all the young man had to do was wipe it off and just keep on running forward while trying to shut out the awful roars of the animals that were hunting him down.

Before him in the distance were two bright, shining beams of light. Jeremiah couldn't make the beams out in all the rain but he knew that something had to give. The beams were coming at him just as fast as he was at it, and all that seemed to do was make Jeremiah run even harder.

Behind him, however, he could feel the animals breaths nip at his partially naked heels. Jeremiah nearly tripped and fell all over again. He was too petrified to turn and look behind him, all he could do was keep sprinting forward towards the two bright beams until his feet shockingly met what felt like pavement.

In front of the man were the two beams that were immediately followed by a loud horn and the screeching of tires. Jeremiah jumped out of the way before landing back first on the road.

"What in the blue hell are you doing?" A man's irate voice shouted.

Clamoring to get to his feet, Jeremiah ran to the man. "Get into your truck!" He implored.

"Are you okay?"

"Just get in!" Jeremiah pushed the man along. "They're coming," he yelled.

Jeremiah climbed into the passenger's side of the rig while the driver got back into his side. Jeremiah gawked and gazed all out the wet windows to see just what was chasing him.

"What the hell is going on, man?" The older, white man looked confounded.

With shaking hands, Jeremiah hysterically motioned, "Go, go, go!" © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

The white bearded driver put his truck back in gear and resumed his drive down the road with Fleetwood Mac's, 'Go your own way' playing in the eight-track player.

"Holy Jesus, brother, you look like someone's done kicked the crap out of you!"

Jeremiah stared at the rearview mirror at the darkness behind him. He was still shaking like a leaf. He should have been in a world of hurt and pain, but he was numb from fright. He couldn't feel a single thing from his head all the way down to his bloody feet.

"Do you need me to take you to the hospital, buddy?"

Jeremiah looked over at the man and said, "Yeah...yes, please. I have a wife."

The driver kept a worried eye on Jeremiah while steadily driving. "How did you get all the way out here, if you don't mind me asking?"

Jeremiah couldn't recollect upon such a question. All he could still hear in his ears were the beasts that were chasing him down like fresh meat. They were sounds that harkened back to certain conversations with certain individuals. He couldn't explain why he out of nowhere thought of such people, they just happened to materialize in his head

"How long have you been out here?" The driver asked.

Jeremiah heard the man's inquiry, but he just sat and remembered discussions while his mouth hung wide open.

His right eye happened to catch a glimpse of his bloody face in the rearview mirror, and that was all he wanted to see, just a glimpse.

"There was something out there." Jeremiah mumbled.

"Something, huh," the driver snickered. "Brother, you're something could have ranged from a cow all the way to a coyote."

"There's coyotes out here?" Jeremiah looked over.

"Sure." The man spoke up in a confident manner.

Jeremiah closed his mouth and looked back outside the window. "What about...wolves," he hesitated.

"Wolves?" the driver sounded surprised. "It's a possibility, but I can guarantee that what you were running from were coyotes. Those rascals probably haven't eaten in days, that's why they had you on the run. Nope, I've never seen a wolf in my life, and I was raised in and around these parts."

Jeremiah kept his drowsy eyes on the passing road beside him and just pondered on the conversations from the past.

Particularly one...