Monster in the Mountains

by Peacock, Shane;

  “About here?” asked one of the voices.

  It was Cosmos Greene.

  “Yes,” said another.

  “Yeah, I’d say that’s right,” added a third.

  As we moved cautiously forward we saw them through the trees about thirty metres away. Greene and the two hunters, dressed in their bright orange vests, looking a little scared.

  The old man seemed to sense something and turned to look back in our direction. We ducked down like we’d been shot. He stood very still and listened. When he turned around again, we moved forward on our hands and knees. Soon we could almost hear them breathing.

  “And where was the creature, Mr. Barrett?”

  “That direction.” Barrett pointed.

  “Correct, Mr. Vander Zalm?”

  “Correct.”

  They had come to a slight opening in the woods. Fifty metres away the trees got thicker again. They all stood very still for a while. There was silence.

  “Yeah, it was over there, all right,” mumbled Barrett, his eyes opening wide as he looked out across the clearing.

  “It didn’t see us. I don’t think. We left, really fast.”

  “Maybe we were seeing things? Maybe…maybe we should go?”

  “Let me take a look,” whispered Cosmos, putting a reassuring arm on Barrett. The men were all glancing around now, watching for any movement in the forest, listening for strange sounds. Cosmos examined the trees. Slowly they inched their way in the direction Barrett said the sasquatch had been. As Cosmos got closer, he lowered his head, examining the ground. Then he stopped.

  “Oh…my…God,” we heard him say.

  Alice and I rose a little, straining to see what he was looking down at. The men rushed over to where he was crouching.

  “Here’s another one,” he said, standing up and moving forward. “And another. And another.” He walked bent at the waist, his eyes on the ground, still moving in the direction the creature had been spotted.

  When he was ten metres farther, Alice and I took a chance. We scurried through the brush towards the spot where Cosmos had first bent over and threw ourselves on the ground. We looked down, our faces a toadstool’s height from the dirt.

  The footprint was unmistakable. It was about half a metre long, a lot like the one Cosmos had made his plaster cast of. Most impressively, it was sunk down into the earth.

  “Look at the depth,” we heard Cosmos loudly whisper up ahead of us. I peeked up through the ferns and saw his eyes gazing down, all ablaze.

  I knew what he meant. At his house, he had told us that many sasquatch footprints were hoaxes, just people trying to have a good time with big fake feet, running around making imprints to see if others would believe they were on the trail of a sasquatch. But these passed the test instantly. They sank several centimetres into the ground, ground that wasn’t soft and was scattered with Douglas fir needles and leaves: the men’s feet weren’t even leaving a mark. These tracks had to be made by something big, very big, much bigger than any human being who had ever walked the earth.

  We heard Cosmos click open a little tape measure and stick it into the print.

  “I’d say that whatever made that weighed—about eight or nine hundred pounds.”

  “That’s almost half a ton!” gasped Alice, right beside my ear.

  “We should get out of here,” cried Vander Zalm.

  “And they keep going,” said Cosmos, following the direction the toes were pointed in, “this way.” He moved along in a crouch and we followed. There were more and more prints. Some were on muddy patches and incredibly clear—you could see five toe marks on each—real toes, not claws like a bear’s tracks would have. And each print was separated from the other by more than a metre. That was something else Cosmos had said to look for: a sasquatch’s stride was much greater than a human being’s. Anybody faking these prints would have to be not only heavy, but able to run awfully fast to keep the marks far apart. That would have been virtually impossible.

  “Put the guns away, boys,” we heard Cosmos say quietly. He had stood up and stopped, as if he was readying himself for something.

  The men hesitated. They looked at each other.

  “I’ll put the safety on,” said Barrett, “but that’s it. I’m keeping it in my hands.”

  “You didn’t see this thing!” added Vander Zalm.

  They clicked the safeties into position.

  Cosmos turned and started walking faster. We scrambled to keep up, trying to stay low. We were stepping over fallen trunks and veering around stumps, still worried about the sound of leaves crunching beneath our feet. Then, without the men saying anything to each other, their pace picked up. Before long they were jogging. It was as if they could feel the sasquatch getting nearer. We began to move faster too.

  The footprints remained fairly clear. They were on a straight line through the forest. Then we started to smell something very strong. I remembered what Cosmos had said about other people who had encountered the monster.

  Man! Was I about to become a sasquatch witness?

  The smell grew stronger. It was as if a pack of skunks had unloaded near us. Why did it smell like skunks?

  Cosmos held up his hand and they all stopped. We froze too. Everything was silent except for five people breathing heavily. Then we heard a rustling in the forest up ahead.

  THERE!

  Something moved in the trees. It was at least a hundred metres away but we could tell it was big and black. It stood upright as it ran and looked far larger than a bear!

  Vander Zalm and Barrett cried out.

  We straightened up and raced forward, not caring who saw us now. We let loose and began to sprint. A rush of energy exploded inside me. I was scared, but I loved it. I felt like a kid again. Cosmos, who had come to a halt as the others roared forward, looked at us in disbelief as we surged past him. I noticed an old video camera in his hand. We glanced at him and then locked our eyes on the blur way out in front of us.

  My heart was pounding. I felt like slapping myself in the face to see if I was dreaming. Here we were, chasing a sasquatch! Or something. It was so hard to believe it was really the monster itself.

  But whatever was in those trees pulled away from us rapidly. It seemed incredibly athletic, leaping over fallen trunks, dodging through the trees. No bear could move like that. Before long it must have been half a kilometre away.

  Far behind us, Cosmos Greene tore his binoculars off his neck in anger and hurled them into the woods towards us. They landed not far from our feet. I picked them up and turned them in the direction of our rapidly disappearing prey. Nothing. It was gone! But as I swept the lens across the trees, I noticed something else. I whipped them back.

  A huge, dark figure was standing there in the woods! It was about thirty metres away, perfectly camouflaged in the trees, watching. A second one! I blinked my eyes and focused. It vanished.

  I stood there for a moment, frantically adjusting and re-adjusting the lens, unable to believe my eyes, and unable to find the dark figure again. Then I started to run, in the direction I’d seen it.

  “Alice, I think I—”

  She ran after me. And there, on the ground, I saw another footprint, pointed towards the spot I’d seen the creature through the binoculars. It was deeper than the others, much longer, and nearly twice as wide!

  But suddenly a strong hand gripped me by the arm. It was Cosmos. He was out of breath and looked angry.

  “Do your parents know you’re here?” he shouted.

  “But I saw—”

  “Do they?”

  Barrett and Vander Zalm started calling out to him. They had stopped a long distance away, having made better time chasing the creature. But it was obvious now that whatever we were all pursuing wasn’t going to be caught.

  “Mr. Greene!” Vander Zalm was shouting. “It�
��s gone!” He almost seemed relieved. He paced around a bit in the trees, then shouted again. “There’s nothing else we can do now. Our truck is out this way. We’ll meet you back at the road.” They headed off in another direction out of the bush. Cosmos didn’t even look at them.

  “March!” he said, pointing us back where we’d come from.

  “But, Mr. Greene, I—”

  “Silence! March!”

  When we got back out to the road, Cosmos told us to stand next to his car.

  “Wait here.”

  We didn’t dare speak.

  And so we waited, for the longest time. It was hard to figure out what he was doing. He kept looking up the road. Finally, a truck came around the corner and headed towards us. We could see Barrett behind the wheel and Vander Zalm beside him. They slowed and Barrett leaned out the window to speak. But Cosmos ignored him and walked right past. What was he doing? Alice and I looked at each other in bewilderment. Soon an even bigger truck came around the corner. It was moving at a pretty good clip. When the driver saw Barrett’s truck, he swerved to pass.

  That was when Cosmos Greene stepped into the centre of the road. The truck was speeding towards him. And he stood as still as a statue, right in its path!

  Alice screamed.

  10

  The Truth

  The truck came grinding to a halt, gravel flying everywhere. When it finally stopped, its licence plate was snug against Cosmos’s knees. The driver leapt out of the truck and made for him, his face turning an interesting shade of purple.

  Down the road ahead of us, Barrett and Vander Zalm stepped on the gas and tore off, clearing out. As they did, they passed another car coming towards us. It slowed and pulled over. What was going on here?

  Out of the front doors of the car came Lance Bennett and Carol Lewis. Behind them four reporters who had been at the boardwalk shoehorned themselves out of the back seat. Bennett glanced back at Barrett’s disappearing car a few times, looking a bit unsure, but soon fixed his eyes and a big smile on the scene in front of him.

  This was getting even more confusing.

  “Ah, there he is!” Lance shouted, eyeing Cosmos. He intercepted the purple-faced driver, handed him something, and sent him back towards his big truck. “Here’s your expert!” he called out to the reporters. “Talk to him. Cosmos Greene is his name. I hear he was just out there, in the forest!”

  As the reporters rushed towards Cosmos, Lance moved up close to him and whispered in his ear.

  “Word leaked out. Small town, I guess. Thought I’d bring the media for you. It was perfect: they were still here! I’m wining and dining them for a few days. It’s wonderful news! I know you’ve always hoped for this.”

  Then Lance looked our way, a little surprised to see us.

  But Carol didn’t even notice Alice.

  “Mr. Greene, let me introduce you.” She smiled. “This is Ms. Kim, Vancouver Province; Ms. Campbell, Vancouver Sun; Mr. David, Kamloops Daily News; and Mr. Foster, Kelowna Daily Courier.” She turned to the reporters. “Why don’t you ask your questions in that order?” She was really turning on the charm, like she had a switch she could flick or something.

  “What did you see out there?” asked Kim in a demanding voice.

  “Did you film it?” interrupted Campbell.

  “Please,” insisted Carol, “one at a time.”

  “None at a time!” shouted Cosmos. “I’m not answering questions!”

  With that he turned back towards the big truck.

  “Mr. Greene?” asked Lance, sounding a little nervous.

  “Open the back of this truck!” Cosmos demanded, pointing a finger at it.

  The back of the truck?

  The driver didn’t move. Cosmos turned to Lance. “Mr. Bennett?” he barked, as if it were Lance’s vehicle.

  “Why would I have anything to do with that truck?” Lance snapped, looking a little guilty.

  “For the same reason that you brought these reporters out here.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “All right, have it your way.”

  Cosmos stomped over to the truck.

  “Carol,” hissed Lance between his teeth, “get the reporters back to the car. Now!”

  She ushered them away. When one resisted, she gently pushed him, then smiled pleasantly. As she herded them back, she finally noticed her daughter. “Alice?” she said. “What are you doing here?”

  But Alice ignored her as we moved towards the rear of the truck. What was it that Cosmos was after? What was inside? Cosmos reached down and pulled the big back door up. It snapped to the top with a clang.

  “This isn’t necessary” seethed Lance.

  But he was too late. Sitting in the back of the truck were the two huge sumo wrestlers. One was wearing a purple kimono, the other scarlet red. They looked a little startled, though I had the feeling these guys were pretty hard to startle.

  “I WANT TO KNOW,” screamed Cosmos, looking a little crazy now, “HOW MUCH YOU GUYS WEIGH!”

  Now they really did look startled. Or maybe just confused. They stared back at Cosmos, who seemed to have lost it.

  “They’re Japanese,” said Lance, trying to regain his smoothness, “they don’t speak much English. They were likely just visiting the park.”

  “In the back of a truck?” asked Alice.

  Lance glowered at her.

  “How much do they WEIGH?” repeated Cosmos.

  Lance tried to smile. “Their names are Akekariya and Takanosakic, that’s all I know. They were here doing publicity for Sony Pictures when I engaged them. They have a flight to catch to Tokyo. We should let them go.” He tried to pull the door down again, but Cosmos grabbed his arm.

  “I’d put their weight at eight or nine hundred pounds combined,” he snarled.

  Bennett looked uneasy.

  “And they aren’t slow, are they? They’re lightning in the ring and many of the good ones can actually run like the wind. Isn’t that right, Mr. Bennett?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Isn’t their strength…legendary?”

  “If you say so, Mr. Greene.”

  “In fact, I’d say one of these guys could easily CARRY THE OTHER ON HIS BACK…AND RUN AT TOP SPEED!”

  There was dead silence.

  Lance Bennett had been about to say something else, probably repeat that it was time for the wrestlers to go. But he had stopped with his mouth wide open. I looked over and saw an expression a bit like fear growing on his face.

  Cosmos put a foot up on the back of the truck, raised himself into it, and walked towards the biggest sumo wrestler. Akekariya stood up, towering over the old man, looking as regal as a king. He bowed. Cosmos plucked something off his kimono and held it up. It was a pine needle.

  “Been out in the forest, champ?”

  Akekariya bowed again, a slight smile on his face.

  Cosmos bowed back, then turned to us.

  “The best way to simulate a sasquatch’s footprints is to put on a hairy monster suit with a giant pair of shoes and…carry someone else on your back. That will press the footprints down into the earth and make, shall we say, a very deep impression. Eight or nine hundred pounds would do the job quite nicely. Don’t you think, Mr. Bennett?”

  “You have no proof that they did any such thing,” said Lance, who was sounding like a real human being. There was nothing fake or smiley about him now. He looked like someone had just smashed his piggy bank.

  “I’d say a sasquatch suit would fit these guys quite nicely,” continued Cosmos. He eased himself back out of the truck, then motioned down the road in the direction that Barrett and Vander Zalm had fled. “And the acting talent in Vancouver is wonderful, isn’t it?”

  Cosmos paused for effect. Then he reached into the truck and pulled a blanket off somethin
g. It was a cage. Seven skunks were lying in it, looking fast asleep, drugged into a stupor.

  Lance snatched the blanket from him, threw it back into the truck, and slammed down the door. “Drive!” he shouted, and the truck pulled away.

  “You’re going to have to get up much earlier in the morning to fool me, Mr. Bennett. The footprints were good, but not good enough. The odour is like rotting meat, not skunk spray. And your sasquatch? It didn’t run anything like an ape.”

  Bennett shuffled his feet. “Why don’t we keep this between ourselves,” he suggested in a whisper. “A little publicity wouldn’t hurt the town, you know. That’s all I was after. It was harmless. Good for business. You want new businesses, don’t you?” It almost sounded like a threat. But Cosmos wasn’t buying it. So, Lance turned and scurried towards his car. The reporters had been kept there, far away from the action. I noticed one of them trying to open a door. Carol had locked them in.

  But something still didn’t make sense.

  I rushed after Lance.

  “Why’d you get them both to dress like sasquatches?” I asked him.

  “Both?” responded Lance as he got behind the wheel and slammed the door. “Only one wore a suit.” He started making a U-turn.

  One sasquatch? So what had I seen in the trees? What made that huge footprint? Its face was suddenly in my mind. And it scared me.

  Alice had moved up beside me. When Lance pulled his U-turn, he circled around us and ended up right behind Cosmos’s car. For a second he was blocked. He was within a few metres of us.

  “Alice,” I said, “I saw another one.”

  “What?”

  “In the woods. There was another one…I know it. And a footprint. A giant one.”

  I glanced up and noticed that Lance Bennett’s window was wide open. Our eyes met, then he backed up in a hurry and roared off down the road. Through the back windshield, I could see Carol quickly handing him his cellphone.

  11

  Confession in the Forest