"Jessie," the brunette introduced herself succinctly.
"Are you guys college students?" Jack asked, driving slowly and keeping an eye on the road.
Jessie nodded. "We're all from New Mexico Highlands University. We just finished our finals. How about you?"
"I'm from LA," Jack answered truthfully.
Jessie's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, a city guy! What brings you to this backwater?"
"I'm in between jobs. I have a couple of weeks off and decided to explore. To be honest, I haven't really been to many other cities before this."
Jessie seemed envious. "I'd love to go on a solo road trip too, just driving around freely."
"You'll get the chance, but you should carry a gun. It's a bit dangerous for a pretty girl to travel alone."
Jack's advice, which also doubled as a compliment, eased the previously awkward tension between them. As they chatted, Jessie introduced her friends, giving Jack a rundown of their names.
The red-haired girl was named Fran. Her boyfriend, the guy with the glasses and a penchant for smoking "herbal" cigarettes, was Evan. The curly-haired guy in the yellow shirt was Scott, and his girlfriend was named Carly. They were all close friends and Jessie's confidants.
"We're here."
The run-down gas station from earlier came into view. The dirty old man was still there, sitting on the porch, grinning toothlessly at them.
Both Jack and Jessie got out of the car. Jessie's eyes lit up as she spotted a dilapidated payphone. She hurried over, picked up the receiver, and then dejectedly put it down.
"Sir, this phone is broken. Is there another phone I could use?" she asked.
The old man shook his head slowly, as if even speaking took great effort. "That's the only phone around here."
Jack, meanwhile, scanned their surroundings. The tin shack made him uneasy. The last time he felt like this was in the derelict zoo where a serial killer had once hidden.
His gaze settled on a row of jerky hanging from a wooden rack by the side of the house, and his expression turned cold.
"Sir, do you live here alone?" Jack inquired.
The old man's head wobbled as he spoke in a thick southern drawl. "My kids come by now and then. They bring me food."
"Like those jerky strips?" Jack pointed to the rack.
Jessie looked at him, puzzled, not understanding why he was engaging the old man in conversation.
"Yes, there are lots of deer around here. My kids are good at dealing with those timid creatures," the old man slurred.
Jack squinted, his body tensing up.
"Then tell me, do the deer around here have tattoos?"
"You nosy bastard, you ask too many questions."
Suddenly, the old man struggled to his feet from the rocking chair and staggered into the shack.
"What's happening?" Jessie barely had time to react before Jack pulled her behind him.
"Die, you beachcomber!"
The old man re-emerged, trembling and holding an old double-barreled shotgun.
Bang! Jack had already drawn his FK7.5 from his shoulder holster and fired a single shot that struck the man in the forehead, blowing off a large part of his head.
"Ahh!" Jessie screamed as the old man's body crumpled at the doorway.
"What's going on? Why did he try to kill us? And why do you have a gun?"
Jessie, on the verge of hysteria, tried to pull away from Jack's grip on her left hand.
"Shut up. It's because only people get tattoos."
Jack, his head throbbing from her screams, forcefully quieted her. Though the meat rack was more than ten meters away, Jack's heightened perception, bolstered by his 26-point mental strength, clearly showed him a tattoo of a rose on one of the strips, despite it being faded from exposure.
"You mean... that's human meat?"
Jack pulled her across the old man's corpse and into the shack. A faint smell of decay wafted from inside, where an ancient-looking freezer sat by the window.
With a creak, Jack lifted the slightly ajar lid. "See for yourself."
"Ugh!" Jessie rushed out of the shack, gagging, after seeing the freezer stuffed with neatly cut human body parts.
"Don't leave me."
As Jack exited the shack, gun in hand, and headed towards the back, Jessie screamed and hurried after him. The next second, she froze in shock at the sight before her.
Around the old, rusted tow truck, hidden behind it, was a large pit filled with various vehicle wrecks. There were small buses, vans, pickups, and mostly a variety of sedans and SUVs—nearly a hundred vehicles in total.
Some of the wrecks were rusted and weather-beaten, but many appeared to have been dragged into the pit within the last couple of years.
"Oh my God, could these all be..." Jessie, with tears in her eyes, covered her mouth in horror.
"I'm afraid so. Now I'm really worried about your friends." Jack's face was grim. He wasn't familiar with the specifics of horror films featuring cannibalistic killers, but the sheer scale of this operation was overwhelming.
Jessie seemed to snap back to reality. "You mean the ones who set up the barbed wire might be..."
She quickly wiped her tears and headed towards Jack's Firebird parked by the roadside. "We need to go back and save them."
"Calm down. We need to think this through." Jack grabbed her and pulled her back.
"My car can barely fit four people even if we throw out all the stuff."
He climbed onto the old tow truck and checked it. Luck was on their side; the keys were still in the ignition.
"Listen to me. We don't know how many of them there are or what weapons they have. I only have one gun and can't protect all of you. Understand?"
Jack motioned for Jessie to get in the tow truck. "We'll take this to get them."
"But what about your car? Why don't we take both?" Jessie asked, confused.
Jack sighed, wishing his Firebird were like KITT from Knight Rider—bulletproof and indestructible.
His eyes fell on a large, dirty tarp draped over the back of the tow truck. He got an idea.
"Help me pull this tarp off," he said to Jessie.
Jack moved the Firebird to the back of the pit, parking it nose-to-nose with a wrecked car, then covered it with the tarp. Standing back to look, the camouflage worked well; at a glance, it blended right in.
"My car is hidden here. If the tow truck fails, we just need to make it back here."
He was willing to help save people, but he wasn't about to let his beloved car get shot up.
"Thank you, really," Jessie said sincerely as Jack started the tow truck. She seemed calmer, finally expressing her gratitude.
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