Chapter 70: S#12. Texas Top Shark Massacre (2)
by fnovelpia
“…I smell blood.”
The man who got out of the old truck was an elderly man in overalls.
He was the epitome of a country bumpkin, and his Texas accent was thick and distinctive.
Ellen Strode spoke cautiously.
“Excuse me… we had an accident.”
“Looks like it.”
The old man kicked the half-burned convertible.
The dangling license plate fell off.
He spat a thick glob of saliva and opened the truck door. He jerked his chin at us.
“Get in!”
We arrived at a gas station.
The rusty sign was distinctive. The single gas pump looked like it would spew rust instead of fuel.
As we got out of the truck, the smell of barbecue wafted through the air. I wondered if they were grilling human meat somewhere nearby.
The owner of the gas station was the same old man who had rescued us from the desert.
We followed him into the gas station building.
The first floor was a shop, but the second floor was a cozy home.
The old man took off his coat and spoke to Nancy.
“Missy, bandage up that forehead!”
“What?”
“You can’t be bleeding in here.”
Nancy’s forehead wound was tiny, and the bandage had already stopped the bleeding.
Despite that, the old man insisted she bandage it.
No bleeding… It seemed suspicious.
I looked around the living room. There was an elderly woman sitting in an armchair.
She had so little presence that I had mistaken her for a large potted plant.
When she saw me, she gave a wrinkled smile.
“Hoh, hoh, hoh, w-w-we have guests?”
The old man snapped at her stuttering.
“Shut up, you old hag!”
“Make yourselves at home and r-r-relax. Unless the shark gang comes, then you won’t be able to relax.”
“Don’t pay any mind to that old woman. She’s senile.”
The old man made a circling motion with his finger at his head.
But I wanted to hear what she had to say.
In horror movies, the advice of crazy old women often turns out to be more accurate than that of sane people.
Plus, the word “shark gang” sparked my imagination.
“What do you mean by shark gang?”
“On nights like this, the sh-sh-shark gang comes.”
The old woman raised her bony finger from her armchair.
“They’re vicious thugs with s-s-saw blades on their heads. If they smell blood, they come running and swallow you whole with their big, big mouths.”
“Stop spouting nonsense, old hag!”
I wanted to hear more, but the old man cut her off.
Just then, a door in the hallway opened.
A cute little girl in pajamas came out.
She looked at Ellen and Nancy with wide eyes, then let out a squeak when she saw me and quickly closed the door.
It was as if she had seen a monster. It hurt my feelings.
Soon after, a woman with a pale complexion came out. The girl hid behind her.
“That’s my daughter-in-law and granddaughter,” the old man introduced.
The mother and daughter did not greet us.
They didn’t seem pleased to have unexpected visitors in the middle of the night. Especially the way they glared at me with hostility.
The old man gestured with his eyes, and the woman and child went back into the room, closing the door.
The old woman rocked in her chair, laughing like a sick seagull.
It was a strange family. Ellen spoke to the old man.
“Excuse me… would it be possible for us to stay here for the night?”
“Go ahead. It’s too late to call anyone now.”
A night in a strange rural house… My PTSD flared up.
The old man served us a simple meal and then led us to a small room.
There were two old beds in the room, covered in dust.
“This is the only spare room. There’s a basement, but you don’t want to sleep there. It’s a dreadful place.”
We had to be grateful for even this room.
It was better than sleeping with a cactus in the desert.
After the old man left the room, it was just Ellen, Nancy, and me in the cramped space.
“This place… feels a bit suspicious,” I said.
“Suspicious, Summer?” Ellen tilted her head.
Based on my horror movie knowledge, the situation seemed a bit obvious.
“Maybe these people are a family of mutants or killers.”
“How could they be? They look like simple country folk.”
The elderly couple seemed mentally unwell. And the woman and the child didn’t fit the profile of a family of mutants or killers.
“What do you think the shark gang that the grandma mentioned is?” Nancy suddenly asked.
I took out the broken saw blade I had pocketed.
It was something left behind by whatever had damaged Ellen’s car. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the saw from a sawfish.
But there was no sea, not even a puddle, in this arid wasteland.
And, of course, sharks can’t live out of water.
Regardless, I decided it was best to stay cautious.
Night deepened.
Like a gentleman, I gave the two beds to Ellen and Nancy.
As I prepared to lie on the floor, Nancy stopped me.
“The bed is big, Summer. You can sleep next to me.”
Ellen looked astonished.
“Nancy, are you out of your mind?”
“What’s wrong with friends sharing a bed?”
“Don’t you know there’s no such thing as just friends between men and women?”
Ellen pulled me towards her.
“Summer, come sleep next to me.”
“No, I’ll just sleep on the floor…”
“No, you won’t,” Nancy said, grabbing my side.
“Summer, you’re not planning to sleep with my mom, are you? We’ve already slept together once!”
“Slept together? Is that true, Summer?!” Ellen asked, shocked.
All we did was spend a night in a cult village in the woods. Nothing happened that night…
Misunderstanding the situation, Ellen grabbed my side. Nancy did the same, not letting go.
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” I screamed.
In the end, we pushed the two beds together.
Nancy lay on the left bed, Ellen on the right, and I was in the middle.
Nancy on my left, Ellen on my right.
This was the legendary mother-daughter sandwich…?
Soft, warm skin touched my arms.
Nancy turned slightly towards me. I could feel her soft chest and hear her heartbeat clearly.
I tried not to think about it, but I couldn’t help but notice Nancy’s sweet, fruity scent.
I turned my head to the right to avoid temptation.
Ellen’s scent filled my nose.
Unlike her daughter, it was a rich, sticky aroma. Almost like a seductive pheromone.
My head spun. It was still a long while until morning, and it seemed like trouble was brewing.
Whether I looked left or right, there were beautiful faces and voluptuous bodies. It was hard to endure as a man.
I desperately tried to hold onto my sanity.
“Mmm…”
Nancy and Ellen hugged my thick arms like teddy bears and fell asleep.
Each of them had a leg draped over me, creating a sense of pressure.
The sound of their soft breathing filled the dark room.
Of course, I couldn’t sleep at all.
I quietly opened the door and slipped out. It seemed better to sleep leaning against the gas pump outside.
As I stepped out, I saw the old man.
He was cleaning a shotgun.
“Can’t sleep?” he asked without turning around.
I said yes.
His wrinkled hands were wiping the barrel with a cloth.
“What you hit with your car was a shark.”
“A shark?”
“Sharks live in this area.”
“What do you mean? There’s no sea anywhere in sight.”
The old man leaned the shotgun against the porch post. The pale moonlight cast long shadows.
“During World War II, the Nazis developed all sorts of heinous weapons to win the war.”
“…”
“One of those weapons was transforming sawfish into biological weapons.”
The sawfish created in Nazi laboratories were said to swim not in the sea but in the sand.
When they detected prey on land, they would rush at it with incredible speed and slaughter it.
It sounded like a mix of <Killer Fish> and <Tremors>.
“This is Texas. How did sawfish from Germany get all the way here?”
“I don’t know. But I do know that this is their territory now.”
“And yet you run a gas station here. That’s brave.”
“Running away is not an option. You saw my granddaughter, didn’t you?”
“Yes. She seemed a bit scared of me.”
“She probably mistook you for a bear. Anyway, she’s a smart girl. Where do you think her father, my son, is now?”
How would I know? At a bar, maybe?
The old man’s eyes grew misty.
“My son… was killed by a sawfish.”
“……”
“He was drawing water from the well when he got a cut on his hand. Exactly three seconds later, his body was sliced in half. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter lost their breadwinner, and my wife went mad. Until I kill the creature that took my son’s life, I can never leave this place.”
I fell silent.
Fresh blood was an irresistible lure for sawfish. That explained why he had told Nancy to bandage her forehead.
I took the broken saw blade out of my pocket.
It was the one stuck in front of Ellen’s car.
“Wait, that’s a sawfish blade… and you brought it here…?”
The old man’s wrinkles trembled.
He suddenly stood up and grabbed me by the collar.
“What, what are you doing?”
“Do you know what you’ve done…?!”
At that moment, something shot out of the ground.
Amid the rising sand particles, a long saw blade appeared.
The old man’s leg was cleanly severed.
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