Page 142 of Forever Dead
“Sheriff?” the man said.
“Get out of the maze,” Connor told him. “Take your family straight to the parking lot. Don’t stop.”
The man registered the pistol in Connor’s hand.
“What happened?”
“Go. Now.”
He gathered the children and hurried toward the entrance.
A scream came from deeper inside.
Connor turned toward it.
Another followed.
Then several at once.
People began moving through the paths ahead. Teenagers emerged around one turn, saw Connor and changed direction.
“Everybody out!” Connor shouted. “There’s an armed man in the maze. Follow the nearest exit markers and keep moving.”
Panic spread faster than instructions.
Someone screamed that there was a gun. Another voice shouted about a killer. A costumed employee in a burlap sack mask ripped it off and started directing people toward the outer lanes.
Connor pushed deeper.
Corn slapped against his jacket as he took a narrow branch.
Movement flickered through the rows to his right.
“Sheriff’s department!”
The shape vanished.
Connor reached a junction. Three directions.
He listened.
Running footsteps came from the left.
Connor followed them.
Two teenage girls burst around the next corner and almost collided with him.
One screamed.
“Easy,” Connor said. “Get out. Keep heading toward the lights.”
“There’s someone back there,” the taller girl said, pointing behind them. “He came through the corn. He wasn’t on the path.”
“What did he look like?”
“Big. I don’t know. He scared the hell out of us.”
Connor moved past them.
