I swung my legs up, bracing them against the retention wall as I reached a hand over the top of the bridge and took a moment to ensure I had a secure grip before swinging my legs up over the top and locking them into place between the wooden planks lining the track. From there, I pulled myself up onto the bridge by my legs.

All of this took less than five seconds and I bet it was pretty badass to watch, but at the time I was barely even aware of what I’d just done. At that moment, all I was worried about was not getting my brain skewered via my ear, or really any comparable organ/orifice combination featuring the thing coming out of that guy’s head.

“Joel, wait! PLEASE!” This was Richie screaming to me as I stood up on the tracks. His voice managed to snap me out of my tunnel vision and I glanced down to see him standing on the milk crate I had left propped there.

I bent down and he took my hand just as the man shouted in a strange distorted voice, “Really?! No goodbye?! You two are SO RUDE!”

The man lunged out from beneath the bridge and attempted to grab Richie’s leg just as I pulled him out of reach. We hurried over to our bikes and started to pedal away as the man, his eyes still closed and the giant tarantula leg thing still protruding from his skull.

I started down the tracks, heading back the way we had come but then Richie pointed at the woods and shouted, “We should take the path! It goes all the way back to Lakeview!”

The man started to chase after me as I swerved to follow Richie into the woods. This guy was incredibly fast, especially considering his closed eyes and fractured skull. No matter how rapidly we pedaled, it seemed like he was always right behind us.

As I glanced back to make sure he wasn’t about to snatch me off my bike, I heard Richie scream and turned just in time to see what I assumed was the dead hooker Dwayne had “found” in the woods earlier that day (the boots were a dead giveaway.)