by Josh Olsen
Clark hurled the case into the fire, the garments and articles smoked and melted, filling the station with a black toxic smoke. Jason backed up, fanning it out the windows. The group coughed, staring intently out into the dark. Any of them ready to jump at any moment and start firing.
“It’s a good precaution,” Jason started, “But I think we’re safe, that case has been in here for a good 3 or 4 hours.” Jason said, still staring out the window, his eyes scanning the darkness at the tree line.
“Eh….Can’t be too sure,” Clark said, his fingers holding open the vinyl blinds that rattled with each shudder. “Best to burn the other one.”
“Look, either way, that thing is gonna find us all sooner or later if we don’t get out there and kill it.” Jason said. Fixing his eyes on the door down the hallway, his brow furrowed at the sound of his children playing.
“Oh my God, Owen.” Nate said, standing up, rushing towards the hall.
“Nate listen to me!” Jason hissed, standing in front of the hallway, blocking Nate. “Owen is safe here. But he won’t be much longer if we don’t get out there. Look, it looks like that thing just got his coat, just missed him. There’s no blood or anything on the coat like there was on Elroy or Wy….” Jason stopped himself dead in his tracks, staring at Nate’s eyes.
Eyes welling up with tears he fought back frantically, Nate spoke. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 41
Even with the thick chains wrapped around the all rubber tires, Jason’s jeep whirred and spun, struggling to get up the snow and ice covered roads. The group sat in the seats, silent. Each bump in the road shook them back and forth. Eyes peered out the fog covered windows, scanning the woods, eyes darting back and forth, clutching their rifles tight.
Pulling up to the turn off on the jeep trail, the group of men sat in silence for a moment, some stared at the floor, the heater droning on, struggling against the vents, a faint whistle blew on as the heat filled the car.
Clark stared out the window, the trail to Silver Creek was near them. Snow was still shifted and piled high on the trail from the avalanche, Clark shook his head as he looked further into the woods.
“God Damn, Deja vu.” He thought to himself. It had only been a week since they had come up here the first time, that boy, Dane, the bear trap, it all seemed like ancient history. The haze of his battle with his addiction blurred the memories he searched for, trying to remember more, but recollections of only days prior were hazy at best as he struggled.
Nate was the first to exit the vehicle, pulling the latch, the door popped open. Swinging open the loud, squeaky door of the Jeep, Nate slid out onto the snow. Crunching underneath his feet, the swirling snow and wind outside found its way inside the warm oasis of the car, chilling the other men to the bone, stirring them from their perches.
“Nate, Anderton, Macklin, you take the left branch off the trail up here,” Jason said, pulling a bandana tight over his mouth and nose, his red, chilled flesh burned at the very touch of the fabric.
“Clark, you, me and Billings are right here,” he said, gesturing to the trail further up, opposite.
Jason hated the fact that he had to work with Billings one second longer, and he didn’t love the idea of sending out two of his most inexperienced officers out with a tourist. But he didn’t trust that bastard Billings to be left alone with anyone besides himself, and he sure as hell didn’t trust him to watch the station.
Not like he could have brought Dane anyway. His leg had healed considerably, but not enough to hike in this shit. He trusted Dane enough to not ensue a panic if one of the tourists at the Casita wandered down to the station asking questions. But Billings was a wild card. He had no idea what that asshole would do.
Reaching the first break in the trail, Jason passed a radio to the 3 men. Looking back at each other, they separated, unsure of what to say, unsure if they would see any of each other again. Clark and Jason stared at the shadows of the men disappearing further into the white flurries. Billings stood behind them, frantically scanning the pines, the shadows, thinking for sure one of them had moved.
Jason kept his eyes peeled on the back of his head. Billings was a coward for damn sure, but a coward could still try something stupid. Onward they fought the snow, their boots filling with the icy chill of the frozen water. As it melted into the fibers of their clothes, the heat of their bodies working against them, soaking their clothes as the cold of the forest froze the boots.
Nate scanned the trees, he walked with the young man…Macklin, he remembered. Close to his side was the other man that he didn’t know. Anderton…he was pretty sure was his name.
He didn’t know Macklin very well, he had only seen him around during the past week. Always around in the shadows, lurking behind someone in authority, loyal.
He smiled, though he didn’t know this man very well, he felt a connection with him, something that rang true inside of himself. A window into the past, into himself as a younger man. Always watching, trying to learn from those he looked up to, desperate to prove himself, to show he could take care of himself.
Startled, his eyes caught a shadow next to him in the tree line, swinging widely to the side, he turned. Pointing his rifle frantically into the woods, he spun too zealously, his rifle nearly pointed at Anderton as he shook.
“Watch out!” Anderton shouted, swatting the barrel of the rifle away, the cold metal bouncing off his palm. “God Dammit!”
“Sorry,” Nate said, shaking his head, his body overrunning with the chill of adrenaline caused him to shake.
Macklin chuckled to himself. He couldn’t help but laugh, this city dweller had no business holding a rifle. The past few days had been hell, but the sight of a full grown man shaking in his boots holding a rifle like a broom made him laugh deeply.
“The hell are you laughing at?” Nate snapped back, embarrassed.“You think its fucking funny-
Nate was cut off, a sickening crunching sound filled the night air, echoing off the inner workings of their eardrums. Both men turned slowly behind them to look, nearly vomiting at what they saw.
An enormous animal-like arm hung from the tree above them, claws hung razor sharp from the bottom. Two of them, were deeply embedded in Anderton’s skull just below the jaw, they held him tight as he thrashed back and forth. Gurgling, the man kicked his legs in the air as blood poured down, painting the snow a dark red. The thing’s paw covered most of his face but they could see just enough to know that the claws had penetrated the soft flesh under his jaw and were protruding from both of his eyes.
“Oh my God.” Macklin whispered to himself, both men stood frozen to the ground with fear holding them tightly in place.
Anderton blindly kicked in the air, his body shaking back and forth. Frantically, he gripped at the claws hooking him up in the mist of the night air. Holding them tight he pulled at them as he kicked and screamed through a mouth filled with blood. The creature hoisted him higher and higher, up into the cover of the snow filled trees.
Snow showered down, knocked off its perch of the long brushes of pine needles. The man’s frantic cries were cut off sharply with a sickening crunch of flesh and bone. With a loud whump against the hard, snowy floor, a pair of legs fell down from the trees, spraying Macklin and Nate with a gut wrenching mixture of saliva and blood.
“Holy Mother of God.” Nate yelled, “Run!”
Turning to run, Macklin far ahead of him, Nate fought the deep snow, his legs screaming, begging him to stop. Branches snapped and cracked high above, the two men frantically scurrying across the snow.
“Radio the others!” Macklin screamed back to Nate in the darkness, “We’ve got to warn them!”
“That poor bastard back there had the only one! We’ve got to get out of these woods!” Nate yelled back.
Macklin thought for a moment, as quickly as he could under the circumstances. Whether out of stupidity, or bravery, he cut around the next tree, doubling back to where they had come from.
&nb
sp; “What the fuck are you doing?” Nate called out, just able to make out Macklin’s silhouette in the black.
“I’ve got to warn them! Keep Going! Get back to the Jeep!” Macklin’s voice could just be heard in the distance.
“God Dammit,” Nate hissed to himself, he had no choice, he kept going.
Macklin cut through the darkness, his flashlight lost back somewhere back in the snow, his only guidance; his faint memory of the direction they had come from. Pine trees and sticks whipped him in the face, stinging his eyes with the sharp bark and cold snow. Faintly, in the dark, he could make out the red that covered the snow, already freezing solid.
Sliding to his knees he came to what he could only imagine in the dark was Anderton's severed legs and torso. Gagging and vomit filling his mouth, he felt around in the night for the radio.
“Shhh…” Billings put his finger up in the air, “Can you hear that?”
Clark and Jason stopped, their ears perked up, stinging from the cold, listening for something, anything.
Out of nowhere, the radio blared, static and panicked yells filled the air.
“Jason! Clark!” Macklin’s familiar voice was distorted by static and terror, “Anderton’s dead. That thing is out here! It can hide in the trees!”
Chills of panic swept over the men. All at once they pointed their rifles into the sky, scanning the trees with their flashlights.
Nothing, quiet. Stillness was all the forest had to offer the men. The groups panicked breaths filled the night sky, silence pressing in on their ears.
Staring into the crosshatched pattern of the trees sparkling in the eerie glow of the flashlights, Billings saw it first. A terrifying creation staring back at him directly into the beam of his light, its eyes afire with the shining light. Viciously, it hissed and growled back at him.
“Kill it!” Billings shouted out.
Rifles popped off into the the snare off trees and branches, snow showered downward onto the group, blinding them.
“Where is it?!” Clark shouted, scanning the sky and surrounding wood.
Jason shook the snow from his rifle, staring into the darkness, his flashlight not reaching more than a few feet outside of the cluster of light it formed.
With a guttural roar, the creature jumped downward, pouncing down on Billings, slashing his arm, its claws gouging deep within his arm. Snow exploded upward all around the creature as it landed on all fours on the snowy ground.
“Holy Shit!” Jason screamed, unloading a close range shot from his rifle into the creature.
The creature shrieked loudly, hissing, it batted Jason’s rifle out of his hands.
Disappearing into the night, Clark popped off a few fruitless shots at the creature, its movements quick, inhuman.
“God Dammit” Billings spat out, clutching his arm. Blood seeped out between his filthy fingers, blood dripping upon the ground. Each drop audible, scratching every man’s ears with its noise in the silent forest.
Pulling his revolver from his side, Billings winced, letting go of his arm and cocked back the hammer, pointing it at his head, ready to pull the trigger.
“The fuck?!” Jason yelled, swatting the pistol out of the way just as Billings fired, the shot echoed out in the desolate woods, narrowly missing both the men’s heads. The shot rang out loudly, causing their ears to ring.
“Get off me! I’m not letting that thing get me! Not me!” Billings writhed and squirmed on the ground desperate to break free of the hold that Clark and Jason held him fast in.
“Billings you dumb son of a bitch!” Jason shouted, wrenching the gun free of his grip tossing it into the distance. “Your the only chance we’ve got now, if that thing does come back for you, we kill it alright?” Jason screamed into Billings hysteric face, just inches from it. “Clark help me stop the bleeding!”
Clark jumped to the side of Billings, sliding to his knees. Pulling a pocketknife from his coat, he cut the torn garment, wrenching and ripping it free from the long flannel coat now soaked in blood.
Billings screamed loudly, his voice frantic and pleading, pitiful. “Oh God it burns!”
Jason and Clark stared at the wound preparing to dress it, but the slash seemed to heal before their eyes, disappearing almost instantly.
Both men shot up to their feet, staring at where the ghastly injury had once been.
“What in God’s name….” Clark said, whispering it out to himself.
Billings had stopped writhing, he too now stared at the arm, magically healed.
All men stood silent in shock. Clark scanned the trees staring, Jason leaned against a tree, watching the woods.
“Jason what in the hell are we dealing with here?” Clark asked, staring at the ground where Billings now lay, quivering and cowering in fear.
“I don’t know Clark, I just don’t know.” Jason said, stooping to the snow, his hand running through the stiff, frozen flakes.
“But its hurt, and if we hurt it, made it bleed, we can sure as hell kill it.” Jason said, gesturing to a sickly green and red mixture on the ground, a trail of flecked patches leading out into the woods.
“What are you suggesting? That we go out searching in the dark?” Clark asked, annoyed.
“No.” Jason said simply, turning around, staring back at Clark,
“We’ve got Billings now, we bring this thing here, we bring it to our court. And we kill the fucker.” Jason said, pounding the snow hard with his fist, standing up.
Helping Billings to his feet, Jason grabbed the radio from the ground, covered in frozen snow, he dusted it off, adjusting the knobs. “Macklin, come in.”
Macklin had reached the Jeep finally. His few and patchy whiskers were stuck together with clusters of frozen snow. Panting, he opened the door. Inside the cab, he gently set Anderton’s wallet and gun. His wife deserved something of his, and it was all he could find quickly enough.
Resting one arm against the side of the jeep, and taking a deep breath, he covered the ground in his dinner.
A snap of a twig in the distance caused him to spin around gasping, choking on remnants of his own sick. He pointed his rifle at the source of the noise when he heard a familiar voice call out.
“Don’t shoot Goddammit!” Nate’s voice could be heard in the darkness, pulling his flashlight from his pocket. He shone it into the forest, searching. Nate limped back to the jeep from the woods, his strides slow and shaky.
“Are you alright?” Macklin asked, lowering his rifle. Staring at Nate puzzled, noticing the man limping. Carefully, he watched the trees out of the corner of his eyes.
“Tripped on a log, I’ll be fine” Nate coughed back, inching closer to the truck. “You gonna help me or not?”
Macklin slung the rifle over his shoulder, jogging up to join him, he helped brace Nate up against himself, slowly moving towards the Jeep.
A sound behind them startled them both. Macklin spun around quickly causing Nate to lose his balance and fall on the hard, cold snow.
“Macklin! Don’t shoot God Dammit!” Jason’s voice called out, the 3 men stumbled out of the tree line, lucky to be alive.
Chapter 42
Billings hands shook as he gripped his coffee, struggling to bring to his lips. Nate sat in the back room, staring blankly as Owen talked with the other children.
The rest talked in the next room, trying to bring Billings back to normal consciousness, the once proud, vicious man sat in the corner of the room sipping his coffee quietly, whimpering pitifully.
