'Nids Part 17

"I agree," she said. "Let's go inside."

Rodney opened the door and got out, went around the front of the car and joined Heidi at the open doorway to the snack bar. He nodded for her to go in first, then followed.

Harker turned to them when they entered. The door opened inward and was propped against the wall inside with a rock the size of a football. Harker kicked the rock aside and closed the old wooden door. Posters for smoothies, curly-fries and Coca Cola decorated the walls on both sides.

"Hey, what're you doing?" the guy behind the counter said.

"I'm closing the door." He turned to the thin, pale guy by the register. "There's a spider out there the size of a Hyundai, and believe me, you do not want it to come in here. If it does, you're dead. I don't suppose you've got a gun in here, do you?"

The guy shook his head. "All I got is this," he said as he produced an aluminum baseball bat from behind the counter.

Rodney turned to Heidi and she stepped in close. He put his arms around her and they both turned to Sheriff Harker.

Harker said to the s.h.a.ggy guy at the counter, "Stop the movie and make an announcement. Tell everyone to get into their cars, roll up their windows, and leave the theater immediately."

"You want me to tell people to leave the theater?" s.h.a.ggy said. "You know how much trouble I'd get into for that?"

"You've got to. Those people are a buffet out there," Rodney said.

"Are you serious about this ... spider?" he said.

"Very serious," Harker said. "Evacuate the theater now."

"Dude," Rodney said, "I've seen the spider. I'm dead serious. Make the announcement or a lot of people are going to die. You want that to happen on your watch? What would the boss think if you let a bunch of people die in the theater?"

s.h.a.ggy thought about that for a moment, frowning as he chewed on his thumbnail. Finally, he nodded once and said, "Okay. I'll be right back."

He came out from behind the counter, walked across the snack bar to a door, and went through it.

"All right," Harker said, "I'm going out there. Stay in here till I come back."

He opened the door and walked out.

Rodney pulled away from Heidi, went to the open doorway, and looked outside. He could hear the ghostly sound of the movie's soundtrack coming from scores of car radios through rolled-down windows. Then it stopped, as did the movie on the screen, which went white. Silence fell over the drive-in for a moment. Then Rodney heard the announcement. It wasn't the counter guy's voice, it was someone older.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you get in your cars, roll up your windows, and leave the theater in an orderly fashion immediately. This is an emergency, and we are evacuating the theater. Please drive out in an orderly fashion. Thank you."

While the announcement was being made, the counter guy came back in, still holding the bat, but he said nothing.

Rodney and Heidi went over to the counter and leaned their hips on it. He took her hand and squeezed it. They waited.

Forty-Two.

Marty Koenig hurried from his car to the small playground set up next to the snack bar. He hadn't been crazy about bringing their seven-year-old boy to a movie called Thrill Killer, but their babysitter had backed out on them at the last minute, so it was either bring little Danny along, or stay home. He and his wife Cathy had needed a night out, and they both liked scary movies. They figured Danny would pay no attention to the screen as long as he was playing in the playground with other kids.

Marty had no idea why it might be necessary to evacuate the drive-in theater, but the use of the word made him very nervous. He automatically thought of terrorists, and dirty bombs, and radiation sickness.

There were a couple tall lights shining over the playground, and Marty did not understand what he was seeing.

There were about half a dozen, maybe eight kids on the playground, but they were all lying on the ground.

Marty broke into a jog and closed the gap between himself and the playground. He stopped and looked down at the small bodies, and tried to process what lay before him.

One of the boys was missing a leg, which lay a few feet away. Another lay beside his severed arm. One child was on her back, clothes torn, abdomen ripped wide open. They were b.l.o.o.d.y and lifeless, the children, and Marty found himself whimpering as he looked for Danny's familiar green sweater.

There he was, right over there by the foot of the slide.

"Oh, Jesus, Danny, oh, Jesus," he whimpered as he went over to his son.

Danny lay face down on the gravel. Marty bent down and gently clasped Danny's forearm and rolled him over onto his back.

The boy's head did not move when the body rolled a it stayed where it was, face-down, the neck b.l.o.o.d.y and jagged.

Marty screamed then. It was high and sounded like a woman's scream. He dropped to his knees and his scream became wailing sobs.

Footsteps approached and he looked up to see Sheriff Harker. He recognized him because he'd seen him on the local news so many times. He had a shotgun tucked under his right arm.

"You okay?" Harker asked.

Marty shook his head and groaned, "No. No no no, I'm not okay."

Harker scanned the small playground and said, "Oh, f.u.c.k."

Forty-Three.

Gary Boyle guzzled beer and smoked one cigarette after another as he watched Thrill Killer with his friends. He was with Ollie Peabo and Matt Parker in the back of Matt's pick-up truck. Gary liked the smell of the popcorn from the snack bar and thought he'd probably get up and go get some pretty soon, but for now, he was content to stay put and watch the movie and drink beer.

They had graduated last year, but sometimes they still hung around the high school at the end of the day to talk to girls. Ollie looked the oldest a he was the oldest, having been held back two years in school a and had bought the beer. They went to a small liquor store in Newbury where a doddering old man ran the register in the evenings. He hardly looked at his customers as he sold them liquor, and he'd paid no attention to Ollie as he sold him a twelve-pack.

They had a boombox in the truck bed with them and listened to the movie on it as they drank their beer. They cheered on the movie's nudity and killings.

Somewhere in the drive-in, someone screamed.

Ollie laughed and said, "Somebody's gettin' off."

Matt pointed at the topless woman on the screen and said, "That girl's got t.i.ts just like Maryanne Trent."

"You never seen Maryanne Trent's t.i.ts," Gary said with a chuckle.

"Wanna bet?" Matt said. "Winter Festival, in the ball closets in the gym."

"You're so fulla s.h.i.t," Ollie said.

"I am not!" Matt said. "She's got them really big ... whattaya call *em? Oreos? Oreolas? Somethin' like that."

"Where'd the movie go?" Ollie said, frowning at the white screen.

Gary said, "Hey, didn't you guys hear what they just said over the radio? They're *vacuating the theater."

"What?" Ollie said.

"Some guy just said they're *vacuating the theater," Gary said again. "Look, people are leaving."

Matt turned and looked at the snack bar. "There's a buncha cop cars here, too," he said.

"What the h.e.l.l's goin' on?" Ollie said.

"Well, I want popcorn before we leave," Gary said. "I been cravin' some, I just didn't wanna miss any of the movie." He got to his feet and went to the tailgate, jumped off. "I'll be right back."

"Get me some Red Vines," Ollie called.

Gary looked around on his way to the snack bar. Headlights were coming on and cars were heading for the front gate. He wondered what was going on. If he saw one of the cops, he'd ask.

He noticed the snack bar's door was closed. That seemed odd. There were also four Sheriff's Department cars parked around the small building, but he didn't see any deputies. Two deputies stood with a group of people, most of whom were crying, over in the small playground next to the snack bar.

He entered the snack bar and stood in the open doorway a moment.

Gary recognized Rodney Lepke, but he didn't know the girl. Pretty f.u.c.kin' nice, he thought as he quickly looked her over. Rodney and his friend stood against the counter. Behind them stood the guy who worked there at the counter. All three of them stared at him with big eyes.

He stood there and stared back a moment. Why were the looking at him like that? He waited, thinking they were going to say something to him, but they did not speak.

"What?" Gary said.

Something jumped on Gary from behind. He heard the girl scream as he was knocked hard to the floor on his face. He struggled to get up, but couldn't, then pain exploded in his back, deep burning pain, and he felt blood rise up in his throat, tasted it.

Gary was dead before he could utter a sound.

Forty-Four.

Rodney and Heidi wasted no time in jumping over the orange counter. There was an open doorway behind the counter and Rodney went to it, pulling Heidi behind him by the hand. s.h.a.ggy headed there, too. The three of them collided outside the doorway.

The counter guy went in first, then Rodney and Heidi followed. Rodney turned and closed the door, but it wouldn't catch.

He looked down at the k.n.o.b, but there was no k.n.o.b. There was a hole in the door where the k.n.o.b should be. The door would not close.

"s.h.i.t," Rodney said. He turned around and pressed his back to the door, holding it closed.

They were in a small storage room. A couple of brooms and a mop in a bucket leaned against the wall. There were big plastic bags of unpopped popcorn, packages of paper towels, stacked boxes of candy, boxes of napkins and straws. A bare bulb hung from the ceiling with a small chain attached.

"Let's hope it doesn't try to get in here," Rodney said, "because I don't know if I'll be able to hold it off for long."

Forty-Five.

Harker heard the scream. As he followed the sound, he realized it had come from the snack bar. He looked over there and saw the door was open.

He'd been walking along rows of cars looking for the spider. Other deputies searched on foot, while some drove around the lot in their cruisers, which wasn't easy with everyone leaving all at once.

As he neared the snack bar, Harker saw a pair of feet sticking out of the doorway, toes down. He jogged the rest of the way.

A teenage boy lay in the doorway, a b.l.o.o.d.y hole in his back. Harker lifted his head and looked into the building.

The spider was on the other side of the snack bar, it's back to him.

Harker stepped over the body into the snack bar, raised his shotgun, and called, "Rodney?"

A door behind the counter pulled open a bit and Rodney's face looked out.

"We're in here, Sheriff!" he shouted.

The spider turned around.

Harker fired and two of the spider's legs shattered. It charged forward unsteadily.

Harker racked the gun to fire again, but it was on him. He fell backward on top of the teenager's body.

"Rodney!" Harker shouted, his voice high with panic. He fired the gun and a hole appeared in the wall to Harker's left.

He felt the spider's fangs enter his abdomen. He thought of Rodney, and he threw the shotgun through the air, over the spider, and onto the floor across the room.

His last thought was of Anna, of kissing her.

Death came shortly after he heard the spider begin to eat him.