The Dog Who Ate The Flintlock

by Edward Coburn

  A few more steps and Amy waved for Jenny to follow her as she headed into the woods continuing in the same direction that the trail was going. “We’ll head back to other trail soon. If he sees where we exited the trail, I want him to think we’re still going the same direction.” They came upon some rocks, and Amy stepped up on the first one. “Follow me on the rocks. He won’t be able to track us on the rocks if he is even on our trail.”

  “How do you know all this about tracking?”

  “You remember my dad was an MP in the army, don’t you?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, he taught me stuff like this when we came up to the cabin. I only went with him and listened to his lectures so I could be with him. He was gone a lot, and I missed him. I really didn’t care about learning to track, but I guess it’s a good thing I listened at least a little.” Amy mused over the fact that her father had been gone for long periods when he was deployed to various countries overseas as a member of the Military Police. Amy’s mother never went with him because she had what she considered an important job with the state government, so Amy never went overseas either. But her father’s travels didn’t end when he retired after putting in twenty years as an MP because he started an import business which took him overseas almost as much as had the military—frequently to the same countries he’d gone to before. The contacts he’d made overseas encouraged him to start his business. His business seemed prosperous. Amy had been to his warehouse several times and had been impressed by the quality of the imports he brought back. Of course, some of his products were the cheap junk tourists buy when on vacation but most of his imports were high-end electronics and occasionally some stylish clothes. He’d even given Amy several dresses that impressed her schoolmates. When she was in high school, she had infrequently traveled with her father when he went to what he considered safe countries.

  “I guess it is good that you listened,” Jenny agreed, leaping to the next rock as Amy had done. “Let’s hope your tricks work because I have a hunch he’s on our trail. I don’t know for sure, I just have this feeling. I haven’t heard him pounding on the door or shouting for quite a while. We might be too far away to hear him, but I doubt it. He was bellowing pretty loudly. Besides, all he had to do was look in one of the windows to see that we weren’t in the cabin.” She couldn’t shake the feeling that the intruder was close. She hoped not too close. She knew they had to lose him or they would probably both end up dead and most likely no one would ever know what happened to them. He’d probably dispose of their bodies somewhere in this remote wilderness, and nobody would find them or, more precisely, their decomposing bodies.

  “I have the same feeling, and I think we’ve stepped on enough rocks. We need to head back to the other trail before we get too far away from it. I wouldn’t want to get lost.”

  “Me either. But if we do, it’ll be your fault since I’m following you.” Jenny grinned. Despite the terror she was feeling, she had to do her best to keep the atmosphere light.

  Carl kept following the trail stopping every once in a while to look for fresh footprints. As long as there were fresh prints he knew he was on the right trail. Besides, he didn’t think they would venture into the forest without being on a trail. He passed right by the branch off the trail because the footprints stayed on the main trail. A few yards farther on he saw no more prints, but he backtracked on the trail and found where they exited the trail. Smart, he thought, but not smart enough. He was on their trail again. He followed their trail to where they began climbing on the rocks. He picked the rocks he thought were close enough together that they could step from one to another and then picked up their trail again when they left the rocks. But trailing them was getting more difficult because the sun had set behind the mountains and it was starting to get dark. He knew it would be a problem for them just as much as it would be for him. He smiled knowing they would have to stick to the trails now. Leaving the trails would be a sure way to get lost. The forest was thick, and every tree looked like every other tree in the fading light. As long as they stayed on the trails tracking them would be a piece of cake. When he reached the trail that had branched off the main trail, he took out his flashlight. Its beam was brighter than he would have liked, but he didn’t know he was going to be tracking someone in the dark, or he’d have brought the other flashlight he had in his car. He turned the flashlight on for the briefest of moments to make sure there were fresh footprints. It was still light enough to see the trail. He’d only need the light every once in a while to be sure they were still on the same trail.

  At the precise moment, Carl turned on his flashlight Jenny happened to be looking behind them. “Oh, God. He’s right behind us.” Jenny whispered putting her hand on Amy’s arm.

  “How do you know that? Did you hear something?”

  “No. I saw a light.”

  Amy glanced at the trail behind them. “Are you sure? I don’t see anything.”

  “He must have turned it back off. I think it was probably a flashlight.”

  “Probably. It is getting pretty dark.”

  “What are we going to do?” Jenny said.

  “Not to worry. I know these woods well. I’ve been here lots of times, and I know lots of places to hide. I hid from my dad once when he was training me how to track, and he couldn’t find me. And that was during the day. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Okay, I believe you. But I’m still scared.”

  “It’s okay to be scared. I’m scared too. But we can’t let that stop us. We need to keep moving. If you saw a light, he must not be too far behind us.

  Amy started jogging again, and Jenny fell into step. “Watch for a big boulder just off this trail on the right. That’s my landmark for where we’ll exit the trail. I don’t think we’ll be safe if we stay on this trail. But I know where there’s a ravine with a creek at the bottom and several caves in the hillside on the other side. That’s where I lost my dad. I walked in the creek for a while before I climbed to the other side and hid in one of the caves. He searched for me for quite a while before he finally yelled that he’d never give up. He’d find me. Luckily Mom called him on his cell and said we needed to come home for lunch. She called me too. My phone didn’t ring since I was in a cave, but I heard my dad’s ring. He was close. He probably would have found me if Mom hadn’t called. He knew as much about the caves as I did and probably a lot more. But this guy won’t know about the caves, and it is getting dark.”

  “I sure wouldn’t think he’d know anything about caves out here…Wait,” Jenny reached out and grabbed Amy’s arm again. She pointed. “Is that the rock you were talking about?”

  “No. I saw that one. It’s not the right one. The one we’re looking for actually has a tree growing out of the top. I don’t know how it grew out of the top of the rock, but it did. It’s really cool, and it’s close.” She started jogging again and picked up the pace when Jenny started after her.

  Carl had slowed to almost a walk. He didn’t want to lose the girls, and the light was nearly gone. Because they had tried to trick him by doubling back to the branched trail, he had to be careful they didn’t try to trick him again. He couldn’t afford to lose them. He had to find them and do what he’d been paid to do. A branch was broken on a pine tree next to the trail so he had to turn on the flashlight to see if they might have exited the trail. But no, he saw no sign in the weeds near the tree, and there were still footprints on the trail, so he stayed on it.

  Jenny was jogging beside Amy when Amy grabbed her arm. “There it is,” she whispered breathing deeply.

  Jenny saw a large boulder with a tree growing from a flat spot on top of the stone. “You’re right. That is cool.”

  “We can’t stop to admire it, however. We need to keep moving. Follow me.” Amy exited the trail on the far side of the rock. She was walking quickly because she thought jogging to be ill-advised. The terrain there was very rough with numerous small rocks, pine cones, and small animal burrows. Because
it was almost entirely dark, she had to squint to see where she was stepping.

  Jenny did her best to step in Amy’s footprints keeping her eyes down as well.

  “We’re getting close to the ravine. Be careful. The sides of the ravine are pretty steep but I know a place that’s not too bad, and it’s pretty easy to climb down. Stay close.”

  “Yeah, as if I was going to wander off by myself… I don’t think so.”

  Before long Amy stopped. “We’re here. Follow close but stay away from the edge. As I said, it’s pretty steep, and there are rocks at the bottom.”

  Jenny stepped gingerly over to the edge of the ravine and glanced down. Amy was right, the sides were steep, and she could just make out some large rocks strewn across the bottom. “Yeah, I noticed.”

  They followed the edge of the ravine for several hundred yards before Amy stopped. “This is where we’ll climb down. We’ll have to climb because it’s too steep to walk down.” Amy started backward down the slope on all fours.

  “Right behind you,” Jenny said after letting Amy get far enough ahead so she wouldn’t step on her hand.

  It took only a couple of minutes until they were at the bottom.

  Carl grinned to himself when he noticed that the footprints on the trail ended again. I knew they wouldn’t stay on the trail forever, he thought. They probably think they can hide from me. If that’s the case, they’re in for a big surprise. Unfortunately, he had to turn on his flashlight to see where their trail led after they were past the rock. He didn’t like to turn it on, but he had no choice. It was simply too dark. He found their trail easily and started after them. He turned off the light figuring they would probably go relatively straight. They had to have someplace to hide in mind because they had steadily been moving away from the cabin. Before long he reached the edge of the ravine. Fortunately for him, he had just turned his flashlight on to be sure he was still on their trail. He examined the side of the ravine and realized he was lucky he turned on his flashlight. The side of the gorge was almost a cliff, and there were large rocks at the bottom. If he’d have fallen…

  He saw tracks next to the chasm that he continued to follow.

  “He’s still behind us,” Amy whispered. “Look. He’s using his flashlight again.” She pointed at the top of the ravine.

  Jenny didn’t see her point, but the flashlight wasn’t hard to pick out in the darkness. “I just knew he was still following us. I just knew it.”

  “Who is this guy,” Amy whispered fiercely.

  “Please don’t be mad at me. I said I don’t know him.”

  “All right. I’m sorry. But we need to get into the creek so we can get to the caves to hide. He’s a ways back, but it won’t take him that long to get to the slope.”

  “Let’s go then,” Jenny said as she stepped into the creek. “Geeze this is cold.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Amy said as she took a few steps on the shore until she was in front of Jenny and stepped into the water too.

  A sudden noise startled Carl. He turned the light in the direction of the sound. Could it be them? he wondered. He doubted it, but there was no way to know unless he checked. He shinned the light around but saw nothing although he smelled something horrendous. He didn’t immediately recognize the scent. Growing up in the city he had never smelled a skunk. But as he waved his light back and forth, he caught sight of a small animal. Though he had never smelled a skunk, he had seen skunks in the zoo and in books and on TV. It was hard to miss the black and white fur. Carl reached into his pocket to pull out his gun, but in his hurry, the gun caught on the edge of his jacket and fell from his grasp.

  The skunk was startled by the light and immediately turned into a defensive position.

  Carl was bending to retrieve his gun when the skunk let loose with the only weapon it had. The spray caught Carl directly in his face and shot into his eyes. Carl had been pepper sprayed once but this burned even worse. He unconsciously stepped back into nothingness and plunged over the edge of the ravine. He screamed, but the rocks at the bottom cut his scream short. His flashlight fell beside him with the light shining directly into his face. But he was beyond caring.

  Chapter 33

  Amy and Jenny heard Carl’s scream as they topped the slope out of the ravine and turned toward where they heard the cry. “What was that?” Jenny asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I think it was a scream.”

  “Was it him?”

  “I’d think it must have been. We’re so remote I seldom see anybody else around here, especially at night.”

  The wind was blowing in their direction, and a rather large gust brought the distinctive odor of skunk to their nostrils. “Whew,” Amy said. “Skunk!” She glanced around. “I don’t think it’s here. I didn’t smell it until the gust of wind. It must be up that way where we heard the scream.” She pointed in the direction of the body.

  “Probably. I didn’t smell it before either.”

  Amy noticed the light at the bottom of the ravine. “Is that someone lying at the bottom of the ravine?” She asked still pointing.

  Because their eyes had become accustomed to the dark, Jenny saw Amy point this time though she didn’t need Amy’s help to see the light and the body it was illuminating. “Looks like it to me.”

  “Should we go see if he’s all right? Maybe he fell.”

  “Do you really think we should? He’s been chasing us all this time. Maybe this is just a ploy to get us close so he can grab me and take me back to California.” She really didn’t think he’d come to take her back, but she still couldn’t bring herself to tell Amy the truth about why the guy was so insistent on finding her. “Let’s just wait here for a few minutes to see if he moves.

  “But he might be hurt.”

  “He might be. But at this point, I think that’s his problem.”

  “Jenny! And you a nurse wannabe. How can you be so callous?”

  Jenny was fighting an internal battle with her instinct to help someone in need and her instinct for survival. She shook her head. “I’m not callous, just practical. I don’t want to back to California or the life I led there.” That was definitely the truth, but she couldn’t afford to go back for reasons beyond what Amy knew about. And she didn’t think taking her back was what their pursuer had in mind.

  “I guess I can’t blame you for that. Okay, then. We’ll wait here for a while to see if he moves. If he gets up, we can go hide in the caves.” Amy sat down on a rock beside the slope they had climbed. She also had to fight her natural inclination to help someone in need, but she didn’t want to see Jenny return to the life she had been leading in California. And if that was what this guy had in mind, helping him didn’t seem to be a wise choice.

  “Thank you,” Jenny breathed heavily sitting on another rock. “I hoped you wouldn’t insist we go now. I’m still scared even though it looks like our pursuer may be finished chasing us.”

  “Okay. I agreed to wait. But let’s talk about something else now.”

  “I can’t think about anything with that stench on the air. Whew,” Jenny said fanning her hand in front of her nose.

  “It is pretty ripe. I hope the skunk moves on before we go to the body.”

  They waited five minutes with no movement at the bottom of the ravine before they felt it might be safe to check on the stranger. The wind had diminished a bit, and they didn’t smell the skunk quite as much. “Are you all right,” Amy yelled in the direction of the body although she couldn’t be sure he would hear since the wind had suddenly picked up again and probably blew her voice back at her as well as more of the intense odor. The body didn’t move. “He probably can’t hear me with the wind blowing so much. We’ll have to go down to the bottom of the ravine and hope that’s not where the skunk is. We’ll have to keep on the lookout lest we stumble upon it. But, I’ve heard that once a skunk sprays, it takes a while for his spray to replenish. So we’ll probably be okay if we run into the same skunk.” She also knew that skunks ar
e generally solitary animals, so there was probably only one.

  Not for the first time Jenny wished they had a flashlight though they probably wouldn’t have used it before now. They wouldn’t have wanted to give the stranger a beacon with which to find them. “I wish we had a flashlight to look for the skunk.”

  “Not to worry. I’m sure we’ll smell it if we’re getting closer to it. We’d better go down.”

  “Oh…okay,” Jenny said reluctantly. “Can we at least stay on our side of the creek?”

  “Agreed. Let’s go.”

  They climbed down the slope with Amy leading the way. Once Jenny dislodged a rock, and it hit Amy on the shoulder. “Ouch,” Amy said as if it had actually hurt her.

  “Cut it out. I know that didn’t hurt,” Jenny said. “That rock only fell a foot or two.

  “Oh, okay, but stop throwing rocks at me.”

  “I didn’t throw it. My foot dislodged it.”

  “I know that,” Amy said with a grin and then became serious as she reached the bottom and stared in the direction of the body. The odor was more pronounced now. She couldn’t see the body as well now since they were on the same level but thought it was in the same position as before. “I don’t think he’s moved yet.”

  “No. I don’t think so. I was watching as we climbed down. I didn’t see him move and I didn’t see a skunk either not that I’d have seen one since they’re mostly black.”

  “There is the white stripe.”

  “I said mostly black. Let’s just go.”

  “You don’t suppose he’s dead, do you?” Amy had never seen a dead body in person except once when she went to a friend’s funeral. She didn’t really want to start now though she didn’t want the stranger to stand up menacingly either. She wasn’t sure what she wanted but guessed it wasn’t up to her. That part of their reality was already settled.