"I thought I heard footsteps. They stopped when we stopped."
"Let's keep moving," David said. He tugged at Laura's arm and started walking forward.
"I knew they'd do this," Laura said. "They stalk people. I hear it all the time." Her words were short and punctuated and her breath was shallow.
"Just keep moving, honey,” he repeated, gently. He could feel the perspiration sprouting on Laura's arms and hands as he guided her, and he noticed a ring of sweat under her arms that hadn't been there earlier. "We'll be okay," he said. He had no idea whether or not that was true.
They had walked in silence for another several seconds, when David first thought he heard the sounds that Laura had referred to. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but it did seem like he could hear a third set of footsteps from somewhere to his left, and there was an occasional cracking sound of branches breaking in the distance. The footsteps sounded heavy, and bipedal. It could be those guys from the plane, he told himself. They're still out here somewhere.
"Can you hear it?" Laura whispered.
"It's probably that group of guys," he said. "Or a bear. I don't think the—whatever attacked Chaz—would follow us this far." He pulled the gun from his waistline and pulled back on the slide, snapping a bullet into place. "Why would it just stalk us? We're moving back to the South, where they came from." As soon as he finished speaking, he realized that he was referring to the beasts as if they were a reality. It was the first time he'd openly admitted that the existence of an undocumented woodland creature was a possibility.
Ordinarily, the quasi-admission would have thrilled Laura. She seemed unimpressed, under the circumstances. "To toy with us," she said. "Please don't fire that thing unless you really have to. You'll only piss it off with that. And he may have friends nearby."
"You do what you want," he said. "If I see anything I don't recognize, I'm shooting the shit out of it." He was actually getting pretty tired of her defeatist scenarios. All morning, he'd been listening to her explain what a hopeless situation they were in. He knew it wasn’t fair or rational, but the more he entertained the notion that these creatures were real, the more he resented her.
"You won't be able to shoot one, anyway," Laura said, mostly under her breath. "You'll freeze up."
"Listen," David said, as he grabbed her by the crook of the arm and jerked her around to a face to face position. "We don't need to go at each other right now." He could hear his own voice quivering. "Let's please just try to stay calm. We'll get through this. Let's not be at each other's throats."
"What's that sound?" Laura said. She didn't look at him; her gaze was darting from place to place.
David stopped breathing to listen. He could hear it, too. He'd heard a similar sound on his grandfather's farm, plenty of times. Despite his grandfather's many threats, he'd teased the big, Red Angus bull every chance he got, running it to the point of exhaustion, tormenting it until it snorted for air. The heavy in-and-out breathing of the bull was similar to what he was hearing now—but the sound he heard right now had a gurgling, puffing wetness. "What the fuck?" he whispered. He looked to Laura's left side, the direction where the footsteps seemed to have come from.
Laura ignored him. She was gazing over his shoulder. "Be still," she said. Her words barely audible.
He ignored her and wheeled around to look behind him. The vision that met his eyes shattered everything he'd ever known about the world.
In front of him, about thirty feet away, was an enormous animal, humanlike in appearance, standing upright and staring back at him, breathing slowly, making a sound like inflating and deflating a tractor tire. He wanted to believe that this thing was a joke; somebody in a costume, playing the best practical joke ever. But now he understood what he'd heard so many times, from Laura and her friends. He knew that there was no way this living, breathing thing was any kind of trick. The creature's every muscle was visible on the lean body. Its face was twisted into an angry scowl, and his head was sunken into his chest, so there was no visible neck. The shoulders were easily four feet wide, and the beast had the girth of a mini van. It was clearly a male, and its body was covered sparsely with reddish brown hair. It was so tall and so unbelievably strange that it defied everything he knew about science. David couldn't move. Reality was shattered.
"Be still," Laura whispered so quietly that David wasn't sure if he'd imagined it. She didn't have to say so, anyway, since he was unable to move. His mind flashed back to a time in his youth when he'd tormented a barn mouse. He'd chased it and chased it until it was trapped in a corner with no way out. Finally, the poor thing just gave up and froze there, and stared back at him with the same gaze that David felt on his own face, at this very moment. Like the mouse, David was waiting for the cruel giant before him to decide its fate.
He tried to whisper back at Laura, but no words would come.
"Uhff." The sound came from the animal.
David couldn't even move his eyes. He wanted to move his gaze away from the menacing, paralyzing eyes of the creature, but he was frozen into place.
And then it stepped away, into the darkness of the woods.
In one graceful movement, the animal disappeared behind a clump of high bushes. David kept staring at the place where it once stood, and neither he nor Laura moved until he was brought back to reality by a pain in his arm. He realized Laura had dug her nails in, deep. Slowly, he was able to pull his arm from her grip. He wrapped both arms around her and they stood in an embrace, both of them trembling.
"Do you believe me now?" Laura whispered.
25
The Search
"Do you believe me now?" Melanie asked, as she twisted Josh's forearm around to show him the small bump resting under his skin, just below his elbow. “I’m positive that's a tracking device. Feel it. It moves around."
"I don't think I'm there, just yet," Josh said, as he poked at the small lump with his finger. "I pulled a tick off my leg yesterday. Ew, what if it's one that's burrowed under my skin?"
"Would you rather it be an alien tracking device or a bug?" Melanie said, in her motherly, chastising voice. Then her face scrunched up to an empathetic frown. "But, honestly, Josh. You should take this more seriously. You need to realize how dangerous your little game is. I'm scared for you."
In truth, Josh had been menaced by thoughts of the weird dream he'd apparently shared with Randy. For the life of him, he couldn't explain how he and Randy both had experienced the dream of being surrounded by little creatures who interrogated Josh about his feelings of empathy. What a weird concept, he thought. He'd concluded, at first, that maybe he'd talked in his sleep, and Randy had either eavesdropped, or picked up on Josh's words, subliminally. Then Josh realized that the notion was impossible. For the past few weeks, Josh had been recording himself as he slept. He'd started strategically placing a recorder in the corner of his tent, so he could record any strange noises that might occur in the night. All he ever got on the recorder were shuffling sounds, faraway muffled noises that were indistinguishable, and a few groans. The odd dream incident was a mystery that Josh couldn't figure out, despite all of his years of studying the mind.
"I'll be okay," he said to Melanie. He was touched that she seemed to care so much. This must be how normal families operate, he thought. He wanted to say more, but he was distracted by the sound of his name being mentioned from somewhere in the distance. Melanie seemed to hear it, too, since they both looked up at the same time. Several yards away, Randy was huddled with Chet. The two men seemed to be engaged in a serious discussion. "Everything okay?" Josh yelled. When they turned to look toward him, Josh could tell that the rancher seemed pretty distraught. He grabbed Melanie by the elbow, and they both approached the pair.
"We're missing another calf," Randy said.
"Oh, man," Josh said. "I'm sorry." He felt bad for Chet, but he thought it was endearing, how Randy said "we," as if he considered himself a part of the homestead.
"Uh oh," Melani
e said. "How can we help?"
"I'd like for us to spread out over the property for a search, if you all don't mind," Chet said. "It could have wandered off, although I doubt it."
"I'm in," Josh said. "Just let me know what you want me to do." He actually looked forward to pitching in. Over the weeks, he'd had a few opportunities to help the old guy feed some of his livestock and run some of the farm equipment. It wasn't like there was a lot to do during the day, so he was interested in learning how the place worked. He'd quickly finished all the books he'd brought along to read, so the occasional chore was welcomed.
"I'd appreciate it if you could cover that area of the woods over there," Chet said, as he pointed toward a patch of trees on the far side of the grazing field. "We're looking for a little brown feller just like them others in the distance. You'll want to walk outside the fence line to avoid the bulls. Randy and Melanie can search the back fields, if they don't mind." The rancher looked around to make sure everyone was in agreement.
"Sounds good," Josh said. His search area was well in the distance, but he enjoyed the excuse to explore more of the property. And there was nothing better than a walk in the woods to help sort his thoughts. Over the past day or two, Melanie had informed him that he was still being too rigid in his beliefs. He could see her point, because he'd promised her to be completely open minded about what was happening on the ranch, but he just couldn't see any middle ground when it came to belief in aliens. You either embraced the notion, or you thought it was ridiculous, as Josh did. He just couldn't buy into alien talk.
On the other hand, Randy had pretty much convinced Josh that he was in the wrong line of work. He hadn't done it on purpose, though. Josh had spent so many hours listening to Randy's stories of places he'd seen and the freedom he'd enjoyed as a trucker, Josh couldn't help feeling envious. His job sucked. His university was small, and it didn't provide a lot of incentive or opportunity to conduct a lot of research, so he spent his time delivering the same lectures over and over, and grading mediocre papers. Then there was the constant harassment from Crystal. The past few weeks had proven one thing: his old life was pretty joyless.
He made it to the tree line where the brush grew denser, and wandered from place to place, studying the ground. Now that he was up close, he realized that the trees seemed to grow in small patches, with the occasional boulder protruding from the ground. He hadn't encountered any signs of a wayward calf, or a dead one, even, so he decided to sit on a rock and think about life as a trucker. How nice it would be, to witness these wide open spaces and bright stars on a regular basis. He had pretty much made his decision. He was quitting his job.
A movement caught his eye, about twenty yards away. It was a brief glimpse that left an odd impression in his head. Something long and stick-like had been protruding from behind a tree trunk, and it moved quickly out of sight when Josh set eyes on it. It looked more like a walking cane than a calf, but Josh was out here to investigate, so he felt obligated to check out whatever was moving behind the trees.
"Hello?" he said as he stood up, but there was no response. He walked slowly, expecting an animal, or maybe even a person, to come into view. As he moved closer to the tree, he saw a rustling in the bushes further away. Whatever it was must have slipped away. He walked all around the tree where he'd seen the movement, but nothing was there.
He wondered if the long, slender thing he'd glimpsed could have been some part of a cougar—like a tail. It thrilled him a little to think that there could be a mountain lion lurking out here in the trees. He’d never seen one in the wild before. He pictured the stick vision in his head again, to try to match the image in his head to any part of that animal, when a new, menacing thought crept into his mind. He had seen that shape before. It was in his dream, when he was surrounded by the beings who were observing him. The shape—the movement he’d just witnessed was dreadfully familiar; the image resembled the long, twig-like extremities of the creatures who had surrounded him and interrogated him about his emotions. Josh felt his chest tighten, and he struggled to breathe. He needed to get out of these woods and back to a place of safety.
He ran. He kept running until he was in the open field again. His lungs burned, but he kept running until he spotted Melanie, Randy, and Chet on the far side of the ranch house. He fell to his knees once he reached them, exhausted from the run. He could feel the small group staring at him. "Sorry, guys," he said. "I think I just spooked myself.” He laughed in embarrassment. He wondered if they heard the tremor in his voice.
"You gave us a pretty good scare, too," Chet Skylar said. "We've been looking all over for you. Where'd you go?"
"Not too far into the woods," Josh said, trying to catch his breath. "Just beyond the tree line over there."
Randy stared back at him and wrinkled his forehead. "Kid, we looked all over them woods for you. We been searching for two hours."
At first, Josh thought Randy was joking with him. He smiled back at him, but the man returned his look with one of deep concern. As he looked at Melanie and Chet, he could see that they, also, gazed back with expressions of concern, and maybe a bit of annoyance.
"Seriously," Melanie said. "This isn't funny. Where were you?"
Josh tried to make sense of the situation. He couldn't figure out why everyone was making such odd claims, but he didn't have an opportunity to respond. Before he could say anything, he felt the vice-like pressure of Randy's fingers gripping his upper arm. The man's face was contorted, and his eyes were staring back toward the woods where Josh had just emerged. Josh turned around to follow Randy's gaze, and the sight was so strange that Josh was almost amused, at first. He thought he might be looking at some kind of strange, makeshift, skinny scarecrows. Then the reality set in. It dawned on him, that standing on the edge of the wood line, were three, grey-white beings with huge black eyes. Their stick-like arms and legs were exactly like those that Josh had seen many times before, he realized. These were the creatures that Josh had seen hunkered in the corner of his tent when he opened his eyes in the middle of the night. One of the creatures raised its twig-like arm and held up a spidery, white hand. It was the last sight that Josh could remember before complete blackness.
26
Knowledge
He was back in the woods again. He walked around the bush, to see what the strange, stick-like image was, and he saw them. He knew, at that moment, that he's seen them many times before. There were three of them, and they stood there, where they had been waiting for him. One of them grabbed his hand, and through telepathy of some kind, it showed him a memory, of his first night on the ranch. That night, they had taken him to a place, and tied him down on a table. There was another table beside him, and something else was on that table. He turned to look closer. It was one of the gargoyle things that he'd seen in the tree, only now Josh realized that it was much larger than he'd thought before. It was the size of a large child. It noticed that Josh was looking its way, and it began to rise up. It wasn't tied down, like Josh. It started coming closer, and it was standing beside him, now, just a few inches away. The thing seemed to be curious about Josh. Its face hovered over him, looking down. Looking closer now, getting so close to Josh's face that he could smell what must have been its breath, as the hideous face hovered inches from his own. It had the sickly, wrinkled skin of a dead lab rat and the bulging eyes of a house fly. Josh tried to scream, but the only sound he could make was a low squeal that came from deep in his throat. Josh heard the sound of something else approaching. The creature must have heard it, too, because it scrambled back to its place on the other table. One of the stick-like humanoids approached. It was holding a small cage, and inside the cage was a small, winged creature. But, at the same time, Josh felt like he was inside the cage, like he was the creature. Then he realized. These creatures had taken a part of him and mixed it with the gargoyle. They used parts of him and mixed it with that flying creature—they used his DNA to grow a new monster.
"You can't leave like
this," Melanie said. Her voice sounded frantic, but Josh didn't care. He had to get off the ranch, away from this insanity. Melanie tugged at his arm as he stuffed his final belongings into his duffel bag. "I felt this way, too," she said, "when I first realized they were real. You need to stay with us, Josh, at least for tonight. You're in no shape to drive."
He didn't give a shit what she thought at the moment. Ever since he'd laid eyes on those—things—earlier, he'd had flashbacks. He suddenly remembered all the things they'd been doing to him while he thought he was sleeping in the tent. Horrible things, that no human should ever have to endure. They were downloading images into his head, and they were things Josh didn't want to see or know.
They showed him something horrible about David. Josh had no idea if the terrible scenes they showed him were real or not, but he knew that he needed to get to David, to make him call off his own experiment, before it was too late. There were things in the woods with David. Josh had to get to him, to warn him.
Melanie was following Josh to his car, now. He knew she meant well, but there was just no way he was going to spend another night in this godforsaken place. He couldn't risk seeing them again, not even for one night.
"I'll be fine," Josh said as he tossed his duffle bag into the back of his car.
"But, honey," she said. "If you stay one more night I'll sit up with you, I promise. I don't think you're in any shape to make a long drive."
Josh turned around and wrapped his arms around Melanie. "I'll be in touch," he said. "I promise." He waved at Randy, who was staring from a distance, and climbed into his car. He'd never been so happy to leave a place, but he wasn't sure where he was headed. He'd just drive until he found a place to stay, then try to track down David and convince him to go home. The last he heard, David was heading out West somewhere with the Bigfoot lady, but Josh wasn't sure where. Jerry might know. He'd call Jerry.
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