He stepped forward and grabbed the tree, his huge arms wrapping around almost two thirds of the trunk.

Her head still spinning from nausea, Halo briefly wondered whether he was going to try and shake her out of it. Surely he couldn’t be that strong? This trunk had to be at least four feet wide.

   Chapter 13

The tree shook as Jason’s blade took another bite out of it. Halo held on all the more tightly. When she dared look down, she saw him leaning back, swinging the machete in a terrifyingly wide arc and slamming it into the tree trunk. Having destroyed another few inches of wood, he tugged the weapon loose and continued the process without so much as a pause for breath. The whole act was tireless. Robotic.

She wanted to scream, but feared that it might encourage him to chop faster.

If this was the movies, she told herself, someone would arrive seconds before the tree was set to topple. It would be a cop. The father from the family campsite, seeking revenge for his slaughtered brood. Or even Trey, who miraculously hadn’t been burnt to ash at all. Whoever it was, they would kill Jason and sweep her off into the sunset. The End.

But this wasn’t a movie and Halo knew that no one would come.

Still, she realized, there might be no harm in trying.

The first time she attempted to call out into the thick night, her dry and bitter throat betrayed her. Then necessity took hold and she became the classic damsel in distress, practically deafened by her own foghorn voice.

“Help me! For God’s sake, help! He’s going to kill me!”

The only answer was another loud thunk, from below.

“Anyone, help me! Please, help me.”

Her yells melted into a despairing sob, as another thunk made the whole tree shake. Jason had to be nearly halfway through already.

As she looked around at the other trees, an idea struck. Wiping her eyes, she tentatively reached up and sought purchase from a higher branch. When it didn’t bend, she stretched and grabbed it with commitment, heaving herself up. By her reckoning, - there was at least another ten feet of tree to climb. And if she could get up there...

Thunk. Everything trembled again, more so this time.

Halo continued to scale the tree, aware of the need for speed but equally wary of losing her footing and plunging to the ground. She wouldn’t last long, dazed in the dirt, looking up at the business end of that machete.

Thunk. Halo gasped as the whole tree shifted, bending to one side. She glanced desperately around her.

The trunk steadied and centralized once again. Yet Halo knew it would begin to topple at any moment.

At least fifteen feet above the ground, she looked up again, searching for the next viable move.

Thunk. Next, a loud crack. Halo knew the trunk had finally given in. Time to move.

Issuing something like a battle cry, she ran along the nearest bough, moving in the opposite direction to the tree itself. Her escape route rose as the tree fell. Her foot landed on a thick knot toward its outer extremity, before launching her away from the tree and upward.

Chapter 13, Friday the 13th: Hate Kill Repeat