As her Camry made its way up the extending incline that led the freeway over the mountains, she noticed how completely alone she was on the road. Not too weird considering the time of night, but it was Labor Day weekend and she thought even at night she would hit more traffic as vacationers tried to chase the warm weather over to the east side of the state. But right now, she saw no headlights in the rear view or coming from up ahead. She felt a shivering tingle run up her arms and she realized that she had never felt so completely alone in her entire life, she was just a little speck of life blazing its way through the blackness.
It wasn't until she made it over the crest of the summit, shortly after she passed the darkened Snoqualmie Ski Resort, which in a few months would be a zoo of winter recreation enthusiasts, on the right, that she finally saw light in her path. Except this light was coming from the right shoulder of the highway, just two shimmering greenish-yellow orbs shining about seven in the air right off the side of the road. When the two glowing spheres jetted out from the shoulder directly into the path of Charlene's headlights she realized she was seconds away from having a sixty-five mile per hour collision with a colossal bull elk.
The massive beast stopped directly in the path of her rocketing Toyota Camry, she literally had less than a second to maneuver the vehicle around the gigantic elk, which would have easily not only totaled her car but would have likely killed her if she had not cranked the steering wheel quickly to the left, then immediately to the right to avoid the seemingly suicidal stag. This caused the car to fish tail erratically across both lanes of the highway until she spun in a complete one-eighty and ended up back in the eastbound lane, only facing the opposite direction.
Charlene's pulse was pounding through the roof as she slowly loosened her death grip on the steering wheel and raised her head to check what was happening outside her windshield. She did not want to survive a near death collision on a mountain pass highway, spared by blind stupid luck to not have oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, just to be crushed by another oncoming car or truck storming up the pass from the eastbound lane.
The elk was still standing there, its massive rack of antlers piercing up into the night sky, just looking down at the Camry. It slowly began walking towards the vehicle, each step seemed to echo off the walls of the towering peaks of the Cascades as it made its way over to Charlene's car. She was torn between the awe inspired feeling of another outlandish interaction with nature in the same night as her strange experience with the murder of crows, and the realization that she was parked facing the wrong direction on a major mountain pass highway, with limited visibility, directly in the path of traffic. The towering animal walked all the way up to the car until its head was stretched over the hood and its legs bumped up against the bumper. It just stared down at Charlene with what she thought looked like the saddest eyes she had ever seen in her life. She felt like she had spent minutes staring up into those huge, sad, brown eyes but it could not have possibly been more than ten seconds. The elk leaned its head down and scraped his antlers back and forth across the hood of the Camry once in each direction then looked back at Charlene with a gaze that overcame her with an uncanny feeling that it was trying to say something to her but just could not figure out how to overcome the inter-species language barrier.
Then the elk just darted off to her right, over the guard rail and forever lost in the vast blackness of the primordial mountain wilderness.
Charlene just sat there, white knuckling the steering wheel, staring at the spot where the huge bull elk had just seconds ago disappeared into the night.
She knew that from here on out she could no longer simply tell herself that the crows, and now this elk, were just random out of the ordinary coincidences. Her skepticism had been stretched to its breaking point and she was now overcome with what could only be described as pure, superstitious dead.
As she was pondering this anomaly of a night she received a terrifying slap in the face by the cold, hard hand of reality. All of the sudden the tiny world of contemplative silence that had sprung up inside of her Camry was shattered to pieces by a glaring light that was bright enough to blind her vision, followed shortly by a blaring sound loud enough to rattle her ear drums.
After the totally bizarre turn of events she had been through her first thought was actually that it was some sort of UFO coming to snatch her up and whisk her away into the cosmos. That thought lasted for maybe a second or two before she saw the reality of her situation; those were not UFO lights, they were headlights, and a huge semi-trailer truck was hurtling up the pass right towards her as its driver laid down on the horn to warn her that she had precious little time to move her dumb ass the fuck out of the way.
She just barely was able to hit the gas from her parked position and veer into the other lane, letting the semi-truck pass by without any tragedy. She spun the car around, smashing her front right corner bumper into the opposite guardrail and shattering her front right headlight, and just fucking floored it. After what she had seen tonight, plus what her own raw, maternal instinct was screaming at her, she was sure as shit not going to let a single god damned thing to stop her from getting out to see her precious little babies tonight.
~
Charlene made it to the dirt road that would lead her the final mile up to the ranch in record time. She checked the time as she made the sudden transition from paved road to gravel. The shift in tread seemed to jar her out of the focused, nearly trance-like state in which she had found herself since she had floored it off the mountain pass where she had the surreal encounter with the bull elk before nearly being pulverized by the oncoming semi-truck. She was surprised to see that it was only 12:45am, nearly a full hour earlier than she had expected.
As she traveled the dark, winding road, leaving a long cloud of dust in her wake, she realized that it was a miracle she had made it here without getting pulled over or flying off the road to meet her end in a mangled mass of twisted metal. After the incident on the pass, she had driven faster than she had ever dared to drive in her entire life. She had not been attentive to exactly how fast she was going, but she now realized that the speedometer more than likely hovered around ninety miles per hour for nearly the entire way, until she reached the back roads where she dangerously sped around sharp turns and blind corners with none of the thoughtfulness of crossing deer or cattle that one would typical exercise on dark country roads such as these.
The Camry continued to make its way through a darkness that made Charlene feel as though she had somehow crossed though a rip in time and space and was now the one and only soul left on the planet. She focused her vision steadfastly on the narrow sliver of yellow light the Camry's headlights tore into the blackness. Only the oncoming gravel and dirt of the road ahead of her and the faint image of the sage brush illuminated by the outer sphere of the headlights were visible, that and the occasional moths fluttering in and out of lights’ beams. An unlucky few of them not quite quick enough to dodge the speeding windshield were beginning to leave their marks. She noticed the spots of splattered insects were starting to spread across her field of vision until she needed to run the wipers.
Not as bad as the fucking crow shit, she thought.
Almost as soon as that though crossed her mind the small flicker of moths became a tempest of tiny wings and splattering bug guts. The cloud of moths had, in seemingly an instant, become so immense that Charlene could no longer see more than a foot, at most, in front of her. She hit the brakes and skidded to stop, nearly sliding into the cattle fence to her right, and peered out into the veil of moths that now seemed to blanket the entire world outside of the tiny refuge of her Camry.
It literally had to be millions of them! They swarmed like a typhoon, circling her car while filling the air with what was now a thunderous flapping of wings that even rivaled that caused by the crows earlier tonight.
Nearly completely blind to the road ahead of her, Charlene moved the Camry along at a slow creep. She was no longer
even questioning herself about what was going on. Between the crows, the elk, and now these moths, it was impossible to brush any of this off as mere coincidence. She knew it was somehow related to the intense, primal anxiety she had been feeling ever since she heard Bradley's frightened voice, "...save us", and it was more than just a mother's intuition. She knew the animals, powered by forces far beyond her comprehension, were trying desperately to tell her something.
They're telling me that my babies are in danger! As crazy as it seems it feels right!
"I'm coming for you, don't you worry!" She was startled by her own voice, and how after she spoke aloud she had a feeling that she was not one hundred percent convinced by her own words. She stepped harder on the gas, but not too hard, she did not want run into one the fences that lined either side of the old dirt road if it suddenly turned and she was not able to see the bend coming in time. As she slowly increased her speed, she was relieved to see that the giant swarm of moths seemed to be slowly dissipating and little pockets of night were beginning to poke through the massive cloud of insects.
I suppose it's not too out of the ordinary for bugs to swarm around the only light around in the dark.
She found little comfort in this thought, as rational as it was, it was also just too strange an occurrence considering how her night had played out thus far. She was slowing picking up speed, a little more each time the moths dispersed enough to allow a bit more visibility.
The anxiety of being this close to her children, but having to make such slow progress on these final few miles, was building in her like a shaken can of soda pop about to burst with tension. Her heart was pounding and her mouth had gone terribly dry. Her breathing had become short and panicked again. She had to get there now and she was not going to lose the time she had gained by speeding all the way here because of some stupid-ass bugs. She hit the gas much harder than she meant too, her anxiousness getting the best of her, and the Camry lurched ahead through the last of the giant cloud of insects. Just as the car had burst through the last of the insect cloud like a ship breaking through a thick sea fog, she saw something right in the middle of the road, directly in her path. All she could tell was that it was a fairly large, black haired animal and that she had but a split second before she rammed right into it. When she hit the brakes this time, the car skidded in the gravely dirt so dramatically that the car spun around in a complete three-sixty before crashing into a wooden fence pole on her right and coming to a complete stop. Now, instead of moths, a huge cloud of kicked up dust made it impossible to see more than a short distance.
"What the hell is with you fucking animals running out in front of my god damn car!?" She shouted into the night.
The dust began to clear and Charlene was slowly able to make out the strange, hairy form in the road. It was a huge black goat, just standing in the road staring at her, seemingly unfazed by the fact that it had nearly become road kill.
Charlene figured that it was one of the many wandering farm animals that grazed the acreage out in these parts, and by its large size she assumed it was a male billy goat. It was simply looking at her, she could not help but think there was something going on behind its eyes, like it harbored an intelligence far beyond anything its species naturally possessed. It did not seem dangerous, not that it was not capable of danger, it did have two fairly large antlers pointing up in a backwards facing curve and they looked as though they could definitely cause serious harm if need be.
The goat cocked its head and bleated out a long call. “Mmmehhehehehe! “
Charlene moved the car forward a few feet, relieved that it was able to move after her collision with the fence post. She thought that if she just slowly drove forward, the goat would eventually just move to avoid the car. It moved, just not the way she was expecting. Instead of moving out of the way when she drove toward it, the goat lowered its head and rammed the front of her car. She let out a startled yelp at the sound of the goat's antlers clanging against the car's bumper. The thing has butted the front end hard enough cause the whole vehicle to shake.
Charlene laid down hard on the horn, hoping to startle the animal away. Instead, the goat raised itself up on its rear legs before bringing his two front hooves crashing down on the hood of the Camry, leaving two deep dents in the metal. Again, it just looked at her with that inquisitive look and bleated out at her, “Mmmehhehehehe!"
At least the giant elk didn't get this aggressive, my car would have been totaled! She thought as she honked again on the horn, and again the goat paid the sound no mind.
She did not have time for this, not when her children might be in need of her. She had to assume that this huge goat, just like the bugs and the birds and the giant elk, was some sort of sign. And the only way she was able to interpret that sign was to make it up to the ranch to check on her children, quite possibly not to just check on them, but to save them. She would take the time to interpret the meaning of all that had happened tonight only after she knew the kids were safe. That was the one and only thing in this insane universe that mattered tonight. She wrestled with the thought that her kids were safe with their aunts and uncle, as well as grandma and sweet old Clarence. Dennis had assured her that they were fine, but he also made it clear that they needed her to come be with them.
Still, and for reasons she could not really explain to herself, she felt very deeply that it was more serious than all that. She had no idea what her children might need saving from or why the other adults could not handle it, but she just knew that she was going to get there as soon as possible and she did not have time to be playing cryptic games with strange goats.
Since the goat refused to be pushed out of the way, Charlene decided that the best thing to do was to back up so that the animal would have to remove its front legs from the hood, then try to quickly swerve the car around the goat and drive past it. She put the Camry into reverse and looked behind her as she backed up. She did not hear the sound of hooves on steel she expected to hear as it backed off. In fact, she did not hear any sound from ahead as she backed up. When she returned her gaze forward, she saw that the large, black billy goat was gone.
It must have just darted off, she thought.
But she knew she would have heard something, at least the light scrape of its hooves sliding off the metal hood, and the sound of it running off in the gravel. She also knew that she only had her head turned for maybe a couple of seconds, not enough time for the goat to silently run off into the night with no sign of it to be seen.
But there was nothing to be seen but the deepest blackness of the night ahead. Not even a single moth could now be seen fluttering around now. She looked around one more time, then drove on.
She was much wearier now to pick up too much speed after her close call avoiding the goat. She fetched her phone from the passenger seat and dialed Dennis' number. This time there was no answer, after a few rings the voice mail message came on and Charlene hung up. She tried one more time, but it went straight to voice mail, no rings this time.
Why would Dennis not answer?
She told herself that it was more than likely just the shoddy cell phone service out here, it was always hit or miss trying to get a signal. But something was eating at her, slowly building into an un-nerving feeling of eminent danger.
Charlene was suddenly overcome with an unquestionable feeling of terror. Chill bumps ran up her arms as she gripped the wheel and her heart felt like it was going to leap into her throat. Every animalistic instinct was screaming at her to turn around and drive away as fast as she could. She tried her best to swallow this feeling, but it refused to relent. The only reason she did not succumb was the fact that her motherly instinct to protect the two beautiful lives that she had brought into this world and sacrificed so much for was even stronger than her instinct of self-preservation.
She hit the gas again and brought the car back up to an almost deadly speed. She was only a few miles from her children and she was not going to slow down, could not
slow down. Her rational side was telling her that the kids were with the adults and she had no reason to risk her own safety to get there just a few minutes sooner, but her primal side was frothing at the bit to get to her babies without the slightest delay. Again, she would have plenty of time to question all this once she knew the children were safe.
The Camry began to sputter and lurch.
"What the fuck?!" Charlene shouted.
The engine died and the car slowly came to a stop once more on the deserted, dusty road.
"No, no, no! NO!"
She looked at the dash and noticed her gas gauge light was glowing orange as the dial rested all the way past the empty mark. Charlene knew it was absolutely impossible that she had ran out of gas. She had nearly half a tank left when she pulled off the freeway and there was no way she had burned through it all in the short distance since then. She noticed that the smell of gasoline was starting to rise though the car now that the vehicle had stopped moving. She yanked open her glove box so hard that she thought for a second that she had broken the plastic handle. She retrieved the small flashlight that she kept in there for just such an emergency.
When she got out from the car she took notice of the night air. There was an eerie stillness to everything around her, it was accompanied by an almost dreadful silence, not even crickets were chirping out in the fields. Her footsteps seemed to make a deafening crunching sound as she walked through the gravel and dirt in a circle around her vehicle, carefully inspecting the ground around the car with the flashlight. She came to the rear and saw what she what she had feared she would see; a trail of liquid streaming out behind the Camry, a quick sniff of the ground near the stream confirmed that it was gasoline. She got on her hands and knees and pointed the narrow beam of light under the car, she noticed the gas was dripping from a fuel line somewhere in the under carriage. Something had to have hit it just right when she had spun and crashed trying to avoid the goat in the road, maybe a large rock or a perfectly planted sharp stick. Whatever it was, it had to be in precisely the right position to get flung up into the car's underside to cause the leak. Another crazy fucking coincidence? Her astonishment was broken by another, much more bothersome thought, that longing plea in that scared, little voice..."save us!”
Becoming the Gateway Page 13
