“What if I find someone?” Mason asked.
“Kill them,” Landon replied casually. “We only have couple hours of daylight left so you better start tracking.”
“You sure you don’t want me to go with you, Mason?” Jacob asked.
“No, you go ahead with Landon. I’ll catch you all later.”
With that said, the two brothers headed up the trail while the other one set out through the brush.
36
After Ethan had tended to the gash across his chest—which after swabbing off the blood he realized his wound really could use some stitching and would no doubt leave a ghastly scar—he’d made himself comfortable in a small nook in the rock, and before he knew it, he and Blu had fallen fast asleep.
When he finally opened his eyes, he had no idea how long he had been asleep. He looked up and gauged where the sun was positioned in the sky and figured it for late afternoon. His body felt bruised and his muscles ached from tangling with the bigfoot.
He’d been foolish thinking that he would be an equal match up against such a strong creature. Next time, he would have to play it safe, and kill the damn thing from a safe distance with his rifle. There was no point in further endangering their lives when the whole reason for even being up on this godforsaken mountain was to find Clay and Mia’s son.
Ethan heard a sound coming up the trail.
“Hear that, boy? They’re finally here,” Ethan said to Blu, glad that the others were arriving.
But then, as he started to get to his feet, he saw that it wasn’t Clay or Mia, or even Alden for that matter.
It was Micah, hobbling up the trail on his peg leg with the help of a y-shaped crutch tucked under his armpit. His face and beard were smudged with soot and his clothes were black from smoke. He was packing his Schofield revolver on his hip and had the Henry rifle strapped to his back.
“What in God’s name are you doing here?” Ethan asked bewildered.
“Some yokels burned me out,” Micah replied sourly.
“What in the world for?”
“Hell, I don’t know. They shot up my place, then tossed in a firebomb.”
“Any idea who they were?”
“Nope. But I did wing one of the bastards.”
“How’d you get away?” Ethan asked.
“Went out through the mine.”
“How many were they?”
“I’m pretty sure there were three. One of them called out the name Mason.”
“Mason.”
“That’s right.”
“If there were three of them that would probably mean that they were the Payne brothers. That would be Mason, Landon, and Jacob. There were four, but the youngest one’s dead. We found his body down the mountain. Right where these boys have their pot field.”
“So how did he die?” Micah asked.
“Don’t rightly know for sure, but we think it was one of the bigfoot we’ve been after.”
“You don’t think those Payne boys think you had anything to do with it?”
“I don’t see why.”
“Well, I’m thinking they do. You don’t go shooting someone’s place up then burn it down for nothing.”
“They’re not exactly a friendly bunch,” Ethan said.
“I don’t think we should be wasting any more time just standing around,” Micah said. “We need to go.”
“Can’t, I’m waiting for Clay, Mia, and Alden.”
“Well, we can’t go back there. Not with those boys hunting you. I know a place we can hold up. Not far,” Micah said, leaning on his crutch but antsy to get going.
“All right. But then I’m going to have to come back.”
“Hopefully, they don’t meet up with those scoundrels. I’d hate if one of them was to shoot Alden.”
“How far is it?” Ethan asked, grabbing his gear while Blu waited at his side.
“About a mile. It’s this way,” Micah said, diverting from the trail but still heading up the mountain.
37
Mason was probably the best one-eyed tracker in the entire state. But then there wasn’t a contest for such an event, so there was no way of proving it. Just something that Landon always liked to say, boasting about one of his younger brothers. Even though Landon was always stern-like and had a mean streak, Mason knew that his brother loved him. Perhaps even more than Jacob and poor James on account of what their father had done.
It was back when Mason was only twelve. His father had always been a cruel son-of-a-bitch, taking out his frustration on the boys after their mother finally got sick of all the drinking and the constant beatings and packed up her things and caught the next available bus out of town.
The old man always like whaling on Mason and Jacob because he could never tell the two apart. Just looking at the twins infuriated him as he swore he was always seeing double, even when he wasn’t drunk.
So one night, consumed with booze and the demon, their father came into their room, and said he was sick and tired of not knowing who was which, and with the end of a broken whiskey bottle, he plunged the tip into Mason’s face.
Mason never forgot that pain, waking up, and only being able to see out of one eye. But as much as it hurt, Mason never once screamed or cried.
Payne brothers were too tough for that.
And then the torment ended after Landon threatened to kill the old man unless he left.
Mason shrugged it off and went back to what he did best: tracking. He’d scoured the area and came up with what he thought had transpired to create such footprints. The smaller impressions were of the woman. Judging by the way she had come, she must have left the group on her own, perhaps to take a squat.
Then the man had followed but on a different path.
Mason walked through a berry patch and stopped. The ground was churned up in one spot as if an animal had been rolling around in the dirt. He saw a splattering here and there of purplish pools, but after dipping his finger, discovered that it was berry juice and not blood as he first suspected.
He followed the prints through a thicket of brush to the edge of a ravine. He looked down at the steep drop off, which if he was right, meant that the man and woman had fallen down there, but he didn’t see anyone.
If he shimmied down, there was a good chance that he wouldn’t be able to climb back up. He looked to his left and saw that the gorge came to a dead end as if there had been an avalanche long ago that had blocked it off. They could have only gone one way.
He could walk along the top of the ridge, but as the canyon took a bend farther up, he decided that it would be better to just cut across and shorten the distance and possibly catch up to them at the other side of the gorge.
***
Mason strode through the woods figuring that he if he kept it up, he would soon be at the rim of the ridge, and if he were lucky, would spot the couple down below.
In his heart, he wanted them to be James’ killers, because what was the point of shooting them, if they weren’t? Even though he had done some killing, he didn’t really enjoy seeing others die.
But then he never wanted to disappoint Landon, no matter what his brother told him to do. If he wanted these two killed, well, that was what he was going to do.
With that in mind, he quickened his pace.
His foot came down on nothing, not dirt, not ground, nothing.
Mason fell straight down into a tubular shaft.
And kept falling.
38
The setting sun dipped behind the tall trees on the ridge, casting eerie shadows down into the gorge.
“It’s getting cold,” Mia said, wrapping her arms around her chest to keep warm.
“We need to find somewhere to hold up for the night,” Clay said.
They were approaching a large boulder and had lost sight of Alden who was a fair distance in front of them.
“I wish he’d slow down,” Mia said.
“Yeah, we surely don’t want to lose him. It’ll be dark soon. We be
tter find him,” Clay said, walking a little faster.
Mia picked up her stride as well to keep up.
They were just rounding the boulder when they saw Alden standing on a ledge atop a sloping embankment twenty feet up from the basin. The bigfoot was pacing and looked impatient, like he had been waiting there for days when in reality it couldn’t have been more that a couple of minutes.
“We’re coming,” Mia said, reading his body language.
It was a fairly easy climb.
Clay and Mia were quite surprised when they reached the ledge where Alden was standing and saw the five cave entrances. Only the one in the middle was high enough for them to enter walking upright as the other four caves were only three or four feet in diameter.
“What do you make of that?” Mia asked.
“Look like burrows,” Clay said. He approached one of the smaller holes, got down on his hands and knees, and peered inside. “It seems to go back a ways.”
Alden had already ventured into the largest cave.
“Maybe we can spend the night in there,” Mia said.
Clay got to his feet and followed Mia.
Upon entering the cave, they saw that there was a long tunnel that stretched for a considerable distance. Normally, it should have been pitch black at the far side of the passage, but for some reason, there was light filtering down from the ceiling in various spots.
As they walked in, Clay stopped at the first light source and looked up. He had to crane his neck all the way back so that he could look straight up the narrow shaft that went all the way up to the surface—more than fifty feet up—where he could just make out a pinprick of purple sky.
“What do you think caused that?” Clay said after Mia had taken a look up the shaft.
“Some natural erosion, I suppose.”
They saw that Alden was getting ahead of them.
“There he goes again,” Mia said.
“Alden!” Clay shouted. “Hold up!”
Clay and Mia hurried after the bigfoot, and had almost caught up to him, when suddenly, there was a loud crash up ahead.
“What the hell was that?” Clay said.
Clay pointed the muzzle of his rifle at the ground, ready to fire if need be.
Alden was standing to one side, staring down at a large black mass in the middle of the passageway.
“What is it? A bear?” Mia asked, as she got closer.
“No, it’s a man,” Clay said. The unconscious man had a grisly black beard and an eye-patch. He wore a thick black coat, black jeans, and dark-colored boots.
“He kind of looks like a cross between a pirate and a mountain man,” Mia quipped.
Clay gazed up the shaft that the man had just fallen down. “Well, now we know what a swallow hole is.”
Alden began to growl when he saw the man’s hand move.
“Clay, he’s waking up. His guns,” Mia warned.
Clay reached down and grabbed the machinegun. He also took away the man’s handgun and hunting knife.
“Wha…just…happened…?” the man said, pushing himself up into a sitting position. As soon as he saw Clay and Mia, he immediately reached for his weapons. “Hey, what the hell!”
Clay pointed his rifle at the man’s chest. “Just relax, and stay right where you are.”
When the man turned, he saw Alden, and for a moment, Clay thought the man might scream out with alarm, even though that seemed unlikely, as the man and Alden were pretty close to the same size.
“Give me my gun so I can shoot this thing,” the man snarled.
“You’ll do not such thing,” Mia said. “Alden’s our friend.”
“Friend? Are you two out of your mind? This monster killed my brother.”
“Where was this?” Clay asked.
“Down the mountain.”
“Was it by a pot field?”
“Yeah, how the hell did you know that?”
“We went through there looking for a band of bigfoot,” Clay said.
“They stole our baby,” Mia added.
“And this bigfoot’s not one of them?” the man said, still glaring at Alden.
“No. Like I said, he’s our friend, and his helping us find our boy.”
“So, what, your boy was kidnapped?”
“That’s right. They broke into our cabin a few nights ago and took him. I have no idea why.”
“I might. While we were burying James, he’s the one that was killed, we found a dead bigfoot baby in the field.”
“Was it gray?”
“Yep. We reckon James must have shot it.”
“Oh my God,” Mia said and clamped her hand over her mouth.
“Who are you?” Clay asked.
“Mason Payne. My brothers and I have been dogging your trail.”
“Why?”
“Landon thinks you killed our brother, James.”
“Landon’s your other brother.”
“Yeah, there’s him and Jacob.”
“But we’re telling you that it wasn’t us,” Clay said.
“Then, I guess I’m inclined to believe you. Didn’t feel much like killing you anyway.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Mia said sarcastically.
“So, can I have my guns back?”
“Can we trust you?”
“You mean, am I a man of my word? I guess you’ll just have to find out and see.”
Clay and Mia looked at each other thinking they would be able to make a collaborative decision, but they were stymied. Either Mason was going to join them, or he was going to turn on them. There was no way of really knowing.
“Here,” Clay said, and placed Mason’s guns and knife on the ground within reach.
“So, what is this place?” Mason asked as he got to his feet.
“We’re not really sure. Leads somewhere into the mountain,” Clay said.
Mia looked up and noticed that the passageway was beginning to get dark as it was close to sundown.
Mason pulled out a flashlight out of his rucksack and led the way.
39
They hadn’t traveled more than a quarter of a mile through the tunnel when they came across a side passage, which was only waist high. Mason ducked down and shined the flashlight down the narrow corridor.
“It looks like it connects to another tunnel.”
“Probably one of those smaller caves we saw,” Clay said.
“Let’s keep going,” Mia said.
Mason panned the flashlight in front of him and started following the beam.
While they walked, Mason noted two more side routes but didn’t stop.
“There must be tunnels all through this mountain,” Clay said.
“There’s a large cavern up ahead,” Manson said.
The antechamber was dome-shaped and enormous, the highest point on the concaved ceiling well over thirty feet up.
Thousands of bleached-white bones—from apparent years of accumulation—were scattered in large six-foot tall heaps.
“What is this place?” Mia said.
“Some animal’s lair,” Mason replied.
Clay stepped over to a mound of bones littered with shredded animal hides. “What do you think, Mason? You’re the hunter.”
Mason walked over and inspected the bones. “Looks like small animals mostly, rabbits and rodents, a lot of birds.”
Alden was pacing again, definitely agitated being surrounded by so much death.
“You better see this,” Mia said, staring down at a mound of more skeletal remains.
Clay and Mason came over and looked at the pile made up of larger-sized bones.
Mason leaned down and picked up a skull.
It looked almost human but with a flat, broader forehead and a low-hanging jawbone and was twice the size of any person.
“Is that what I think it is?” Clay asked.
“Yeah, it’s a bigfoot skull,” Mason confirmed.
Alden bellowed as though he were suddenly being subjected to a torturous pai
n.
Mia could see that Alden was clearly upset. “Alden, it’s all right.”
Clay glanced around at the other stacks of bones. “My God, there’re more of them. What could it possibly be?”
“Whatever it is, it’s big enough to hunt bigfoot,” Mason said.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this place,” Mia said. “We really need to leave.”
“I agree, but there’s really no point going back the way we came,” Clay said.
“Maybe we don’t have to.” Mia pointed to a section of wall where actual steps had been chiseled out of the porous rock, leading up to what appeared a hole in the ceiling.
“Let’s get out of here,” Manson said with a sense of urgency.
40
By the time Clay scaled up, and joined the others standing amongst the trees, it was pitch-dark with only a sliver of moonlight illuminating the forest.
“Do you think you’ll be able to pick up their tracks?” Clay asked.
“Not until morning,” Mason replied.
“I think we should get as far away from here as we can before we decide to camp anywhere,” Mia said.
“I agree,” Mason said.
Alden turned and headed for a break in the brush.
“Does he know where he’s going?” Mason asked.
“Well, he’s gotten us this far,” Mia said.
“Let’s go before we lose him in the dark,” Clay said.
They made their way through the forest, partly guided by Mason’s flashlight, but mostly by Alden’s keen nose.
Satisfied that they had distanced themselves far enough away from the bizarre boneyard back in the cavern, Mason soon spotted a recessed area between some boulders that was protected on three sides and would be the perfect place to spend the rest of the night.
Mason elected to stand first watch.
Even though it was chilly, they decided against having a campfire, as they didn’t want to give their position away.
Clay and Mia cuddled up to stay warm while Alden sat on his side with his head lulled on his chest, fast asleep. Soon, he began to snore, loudly.
“That is so annoying,” Clay said. He leaned over and elbowed Alden in the ribs, but the bigfoot continued to snuffle and snort.
The Beasts Of Stoneclad Mountain Page 11
