“Cole!” he heard Stella scream at him.

He turned and saw Stella in front of the couch where David slept, but David had his arms raised up in the air and his hands were moving. But to Cole it didn’t seem like his hands were drawing an ancient language in the air, to Cole it looked more like David was a puppeteer pulling on imaginary strings.

Cole saw Stella’s eyes dart to the kitchen.

He followed her stare and saw Tom Gordon by the freezer, he watched him take a step away from the freezer, a step towards them.

“Where’d you go, Cole?” Stella asked in a cracking voice; she seemed close to tears.

Cole ran to Stella. “I’ve got us a way out of here,” he told her. “Get David! We need to go!”

Just then something slammed into the front door – an ax. Cole snapped his eyes to the front door and he could see the tip of the ax poking through the wood of the front door. The ax blade wiggled out and it left a gash in the wood. A few seconds later the ax slammed into the door again.

Stella was watching the door as Cole grabbed her. “Get David up!”

“I’ve tried! He’s not waking up!”

“I’ll carry David,” he told her. He saw that she had Jose’s gun in her hand. “You need to put that gun down. You can’t shoot that gun in here no matter what happens.”

She nodded; she knew what the gas smell in the cabin meant. She dropped her gun on the floor, it landed with a thud.

Cole turned to bend down and scoop David up off the couch, but he never got the chance to pick him up.

“Where are we going?” Stella asked him

“We’ll go out the back,” he said, but even as Cole uttered the words he could hear the splintering of wood from down the hall, like something incredibly strong was tearing the back door off of its hinges.

They were trapped. They were surrounded.

It was never going to let you get out, Cole’s mind whispered. It knew about your plans all along and it was always a step ahead of you. You were never going to outsmart it – it has been around a long, long time.

Tom Gordon stumbled towards them and he nearly fell on his unsteady legs, but he kept on coming, he kept stumbling towards them, impossibly seeing through the black holes where his eyes used to be. And he opened his mouth and bared his teeth in a rictus smile.

The ax hit the front door again and again. It had already nearly split the door right down the middle; the door was barely hanging in the doorway by the door handle and the hinges.

From the hallway, behind the flimsy barricade of the dining room table, Cole could hear two more bodies stumbling forward through the darkness.

Needles and Trevor, his mind whispered at him. Needles with his eyeless face and the gory exit wound in his forehead that was now like another hole where a giant eye used to be.

And Trevor. Cole didn’t want to think about seeing Trevor again.

Stella shook David again and again. She screamed at him to wake up. But he wouldn’t wake up.

Jose split the front door apart with one last powerful strike from his ax. He stepped through into the cabin, into the light, and Cole could see Jose now.

The flesh from Jose’s neck and throat were nearly gone; only a thin shaft of spine and a few spindly tendons held his head up, like some kind of flesh balloon being held aloft by a string of bone.

Jose’s face had been peeled away in many places, revealing shiny white bone. On one side of his face, a large section of his teeth were visible now that the flesh was gone; his tongue flicked over the white teeth like a giant red slug.

Jose took a step towards Cole and Stella; he held the ax in hands that were skeletal, nearly all of the flesh had been torn away from his hands.

Cole and Stella huddled together.

Frank stood in the doorway and watched them. The thing out there was seeing through Frank’s eyes, and it spoke through Frank’s mouth. “Last chance,” it said through Frank’s mouth. “Kill the boy and we’ll let you go.”

Cole knew that he needed to get Stella and David out of the cabin now, in a few minutes the microwave was going to count down to zero and turn on. The can of soda was going to heat up and then it was going to spark and explode. And that was going to ignite the gas from the stove. And that was going to spread to the gas-soaked logs of the cabin outside. This place was going to become an inferno. He had to get David out of here; he couldn’t let David die or all of his preparations would be for nothing. David would die. He and Stella would die. And maybe this thing wouldn’t die – maybe it would go on living. David would be dead and that creature, that thing out there, whatever it was, would have won.

Cole couldn’t let that happen.

Cole aimed his gun at Tom Gordon, then at Jose. But then he lowered his gun – it wouldn’t do any good, one shot could ignite this whole cabin. Instead, he pointed his gun at himself; he shoved the barrel under his chin and laid his finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. He smiled at Frank.

“Move aside, Frank,” Cole said. “You let Stella and David go or I’ll kill myself.”

There was a crashing noise from the hallway. Stella looked over and saw the dining room table thrown aside from the doorway to the hall. She saw Needles and Trevor stumble out from the darkness.

Cole wouldn’t allow himself to look at Trevor or Needles – he kept his eyes on Frank. “Last chance, Frank,” he said.

No answer from Frank for a moment, and then he cocked his head the other way and smiled at Cole. “Pull the trigger, Cole. Die. And then we’ll all tear Stella apart with our fingers and teeth right in front of the boy. And you will help us.”

Cole hesitated. He knew if he pulled the trigger there might be enough gas lingering in the room to cause an explosion. He couldn’t risk it.

Something bumped into Stella from the couch behind her. She whirled around and saw that David was still asleep, but his body was levitating, floating up into the air; his body was already up to her shoulders. His legs hung down in the air, but his arms were still straight up, his hands were still moving frantically, still frantically writing.

Then the microwave dinged – the timer had counted down to zero. The microwave turned on and began heating the can of soda.

It was too late.

All of the dead men rushed towards Cole and Stella, even Frank. Their mouths were wide open; their hands were like claws now. Whatever parts the thing out there had taken from the bodies, it had always left their teeth – their gnashing teeth that could bite and tear at flesh.

Stella kept her eyes on David’s levitating body as the tears rolled out of her eyes. “David,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I tried my best to protect you.”

David’s eyes popped open. His mouth opened wide, and he screamed.

“NOOO!! YOU CAN’T HAVE THEM!!!”

Sparks shot off the can of soda inside the microwave.

The dead men ran across the wooden floor of the cabin, they were almost on top of Cole and Stella. Cole kept his gun pointed under his chin, his finger still on the trigger. He’d rather die in the explosion than from their teeth.

There was a blinding flash of light.

A rushing of wind …

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Cole’s eyes opened up and he could see a dark blue sky above him that was just beginning to lighten up from a rising sun somewhere still on the horizon in the east. But there was a light coming from somewhere else, a flickering light, a reddish-orange light. And the light was warm. A lovely warmth in the freezing cold.

But he couldn’t hear anything except a high-pitched whine in his ears. Everything else seemed to be muffled.

He felt confused, unsure for a moment where he was, where he had been. He realized he was looking up at the early morning sky. He realized he was lying in the snow. And he realized that something near him was on fire.