Free Ghost Hunters by Sam Witt Page A

it to the cavern floor and were edging toward the light, shielding their eyes with their hands and ticktickticking. The chanters were building up for their attack, too, edging forward and stamping their feet. Their raised voices grated on Dick’s ears. They still avoided the gun as he moved it from side to side, and none were willing to step into the white glare of the camera, but that was all about to change. Rage was replacing their fear. Time was up. “Okay,” he said, licking his lips. “There’s only one way we can make this work.”
    Amy and Randall gathered closer and Dick felt sick to his stomach. After all they’d been through, they still saw him as the boss, as the man who’d get them through this. He started laying out his plan. “When I say the word, I want the two of you to run for that ledge over there. Just go, don’t wait for me. I’m going after Mickey.”
    Amy looked at him, studied his face. “There’s no way that works.”
    Dick shrugged. “I don’t have any other ideas. It’s the only chance Mickey has. This shit is all my fault anyway, right? I’ll be the one to try and get her.”
    Randall turned the light on Dick for a moment. “Good luck, boss.”
    “Yeah,” Dick muttered to himself, “sure.”
    Then to his crew, “We’re only going to have one shot at this. On three.”
    Amy took off on two, head down, arms and legs pumping for all she was worth. Dick had counted on her trying to get a head start. Randall started to run, and Dick reached out and ripped the camera from his shoulder.
    The cameraman lost his footing, and Dick heard Randall’s knee give out with a liquid pop. Randall shouted for Amy, but she was almost to the ledge. Her sudden break for it had sent the chanting mutants into a frenzy and the whole pack of them were on her tail.
    Dick shone the light on the mutants that had been following the crew, startling them with the sudden blast of light. “Sorry, Randy,” he said then broke into a run.
    He kept the light trained on the nearest freaks, using it to give him the slight edge he needed. He hit the slope running, and once he reached the top of the slope, he paused to train the still-shooting camera on the action behind him. The horde of mutants chased Amy, pouring up the ledge after her in a white tide of flailing limbs and snapping teeth. She had a lead on them, but Dick didn’t think it would last long. This was the monsters’ home, after all, and they were mad as hell that anyone had intruded on their territory. “It didn’t have to be this way,” he muttered. Then, “Fuck you, Amy.”
    He aim the camera at Randall, who struggled across the cavern floor toward Dick. His bad leg trailed behind him, and tears streamed down Randall’s face, leaving his cheeks pink and shiny. Dick focused the camera on Randall, soaking in the scene’s hopelessness and fear. There’d never been anything like this on television before. Lonny was going to lose his fucking mind. Sure, they’d have to make some edits, clean up some things so Dick didn’t end up in jail, but this was all gold. Dick felt a weight lifting off his shoulders. The nightmare was over.
    Something slammed into the camera, twisting it off Dick’s shoulder and driving him back into the tunnel. A fist grazed his forehead, and he backpedaled, struggling to keep the camera from falling to the floor. If he didn’t get out of here with the footage, then all of this really would be for nothing.
    The girl he’d shot surged after him, her wounded arm flopping at her side. “Kill ya,” she grunted and slashed at his face with her fingernails.
    Dick wasn’t fast enough to dodge the attack, and her nails ripped bloody furrows down his cheek. The pain was electrifying, a raw, animal reminder that he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
    The wounded girl came at him again, ropes of saliva dangling from her gnashing, bloody teeth. She scratched his camera arm, drawing more blood then lunged at him with her mouth