Free Carnival of Death by Carnival of Death (v5.0) (mobi) Page B

as good as dead already, puppets of Mr. Dark now. They’d lost any humanity they’d once possessed.
    Earl’s attention turned from the Ferris wheel back to Matt and Gloria. It was as if he knew that Matt was about to make a move. If he did, he wasn’t bothered. Instead of killing Gloria, he started to fire his pistol at random into the crowd.
    Matt charged forward. He felt rather than saw Gloria move too. He didn’t know what she was up to, and he didn’t have time to worry about it.
    Earl had saved one bullet for him, but as his finger tightened on the trigger, Matt swung the ax in a short arc and knocked the pistol from his hand.
    Earl smiled and raised his arms. The Ferris wheel spun so fast that it was almost a blur. Still smiling, Earl lowered his arms and started to say something to Matt.
    Whatever it might have been, he didn’t get it out. Matt swung the ax again and took Earl’s head right off his shoulders.
    The head bounced across the ground and stopped near the carousel. Because of the confusion and destruction there, no one even noticed it.
    Earl’s torso fell forward and lay still. Matt looked around for Sue Jean.
    She was struggling across the muddy ground, reaching for the pistol. Her progress was slowed by the fact that Gloria was on her back, pulling her head up by the hair.
    It was a convenient pose, and Matt didn’t waste it. Sue Jean looked up as Matt reached her. He swung the ax like a baseball bat, hitting her in the center of her forehead with the butt. Her forehead caved in like cardboard, shoving splinters of bone into her brain.
    Gloria jumped aside and stood up, a horrified look on her face as she brushed brain matter off her robes.
    Matt kept right on going. Earl’s death hadn’t changed anything as far as the rides were concerned. They still spun wildly out of control, and Matt had to stop them. All four were connected to one large generator, which was now howling with the strain. Matt’s plan was to cut the cables.
    The cables were as thick as Matt’s arm, but he knew his ax would cut them, dull though it might be when the job was done.
    He chopped through the first cable. Sparks flew and the carousel music died. The smell of burning insulation filled the air. The second stroke stopped the Ferris wheel, the third stopped the airplanes, and the fourth took care of the bumper cars. Most people rushed to rescue their children and to help with the injured. A few yelled into their cell phones.
    Matt threw the switch on the generator, and the noise level decreased further.
    It was over.
    He looked at Gloria for confirmation of what he was feeling and she nodded. He trusted her senses.
    Matt could now hear the sirens of police cars in the distance, drawing near. He wasn’t inclined to stick around and see what happened when the police arrived. There would be too much explaining to do, too many corpses.
    He took her hand and headed for the trailers.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    When they got inside his trailer, he closed the door and grabbed his duffel bag.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “Changing out of these bloody clothes, getting what little I’ve got, and leaving,” he said, and stripped off his shirt.
    “You saved the carnival, Matt, and countless lives. You’re a hero. You don’t have to run.”
    “You don’t get it,” he said, tossing the bloody shirt and putting on a new one from his duffel bag. “When I’m around, people die. And they don’t die easy. If I stay, this is only the beginning. There will be more death. It’s better if I leave and draw Mr. Dark away from here before that happens.”
    “What if he wants you to leave?”
    Matt looked at her and thought about what Mr. Dark had said to him in that short, frozen moment.
    It’d be no fun without you, Matt.
    He hadn’t had time to stop and think about it before.
    But now…he got the message.
    It was Matt being there that had brought the carnage upon the carnival.
    And Mr. Dark was offering to go if Matt would