Redhouse V
The greenhouse employee reached for his belt and withdrew his walkie talkie. “Jan, it’s Karl. Call an ambulance. We have some people bleeding in house six.”
Lydia stared for a moment, surprised that he hadn’t been murdered yet. Karl didn’t even seem to register the killer’s presence. Didn’t see him, which meant– “Oh God,” she whispered. Her primal instincts kicked in and her head swiveled, searching and almost too late.
The maniac stalked toward them from house four, having circled back around, driven by whatever hunter’s instinct such a mind possessed. “Jan?” Her fevered senses picked up on Karl’s struggle to pierce the white noise on the other end of his line.
Lydia saw a bloody forearm stretched into the aisle, and the killer crunched onto it without interest as he passed the threshold into the main corridor. She shoved the bystander that had been comforting her almost far enough to the side to save him. The momentum had her moving toward the front of the store as a length of sharp blade emerged near the man’s left shoulder with a scream.
“What the–” Karl shouted as he stumbled onto the scene.
Lydia had the presence of mind to shove a trellis display down onto the stabbing man as she bolted toward safety, but her mind was bent on nothing but flight. She was so focused on putting distance between her and that blade, that she failed to notice two other bodies in side aisles or the trail of dragged blood which lead behind the checkout counter. She only wanted to make it to the parking lot and the relative safety of her car, not understanding what awaited her there.