A Crying Shame (88 page)

With those . . . creatures out there? Man, you must be joking.”

If you attempt to use the phone, Tammy,” Jon said,
I'll break your fingers. One by one. And that is not a joke.”

She nodded her head.
Yeah,” she said slowly.
I don't believe you would have done the . . . snake bit, but I believe the finger bit.”

Please do,” he said. He looked at Linda.
Come to bed.”

Quite unlike her, she obeyed without question, following him out of the room.

Tammy stuck out her tongue at his retreating back. She made a perfectly horrible face at him. It was the first time in her life she'd ever been rejected by a man.

She laughed softly, bitterly.

It was not a feeling she liked very much.

Katie Chapell looked at the woman beside her under a cleverly made overhang of live vines and leaves. She was in a state of shock, but that was rapidly fading. Now her only thought was survival; get away; get out. But how?

She again looked at the woman and the woman seemed to read her thoughts.
Forget it,” she whispered.
You can't get away. If the 'gators or the snakes don't get you, if you don't get lost and drown, then the big alligator gar will chew you up. And believe me, there're some monster gar in this swamp. The beasts caught one one time—must have been ten feet long, probably weighed a hundred and fifty—maybe sixty—pounds. And if the beasts catch you trying to escape—and they will, I promise you—you'll die hard. I've seen women who tried to run away. It's . . . awful what they do ... did to them.”

Maddened yellow eyes looked at the women from across the small clearing. The Link grunted something and looked away.

How long have you been here?” Katie asked.

The woman's short bark of laughter held no humor.
For three . . . children long. If children is what you want to call them.”

At least three years, then?” Katie could not comprehend spending three years with these . . . things. The mere thought shook her with a horror that was almost indefinable in its awfulness.

Closer to five, I'd guess,” the woman said.
Time kind of gets away from you here. I've been unable to get pregnant the last two seasons. I've tried to kill myself two times, but they stopped me before I could really get started. They seem to know . . . sense things. And don't ever think they're stupid. They're not.”

Where are your children?” And what did they look like? Katie could not ask the question. Monsters, surely. She shuddered at birthing a monster from the sperm of one of these . . . creatures.

Only one lived any length of time. They were . . . mutants, I guess you'd call them. The last kid was normal. And I mean like you and me. As soon as they're old enough, they're taken far off somewhere. I think they take them to real people's homes. But sometimes other camps will raid, steal the kids. The good beasts will steal normal kids from the bad beasts. There must be three or four dozen of these small camps. We move all the time.”

Good beasts? Bad beasts? Katie's head spun; too much was happening too swiftly.

I'm not even sure I'd go if someone tried to rescue me now.”

God!”
Katie's one-word exclamation, softly spoken, held more than a note of the unthinkable in it.
Why wouldn't you go?”