“Scare it off.” He raised the branch and smacked it on a nearby tree. It made a sharp report in the quiet forest.
“I can do better than that,” Allison said. She pulled an air horn from her backpack just as there was a loud *CRACK* off to their left. The brush was too dense to see, but it sounded as if it were about a dozen yards off.
Harrison turned toward where the noise had come from. “Don’t wait for my invitation.”
“Hold your ears. This is gonna be loud.” She raised it and pulled the trigger, causing an earsplitting bellow to blare out across the woods. As it subsided, she said, “There. That should scare off any...”
An ungodly roar, even louder than the horn, shattered the stillness around them.
It was followed by a splintering crash. It didn’t take a genius to realize that a tree had just come down.
“What the fuck!?” Greg yelled as another crash came. The look in all of their eyes told the same story: there was something out there, and they had just pissed it off.
“Follow me, and stick together!” Danni ordered, quickly shouldering her pack. The rest of the group didn’t need to be told twice. She checked her GPS and strode off into the woods, the others following closely behind.
“I don’t think that was a bear,” Allison gasped, following Danni’s lead.
“No shit, Sherlock!” Wild Feather snapped, all traces of calm gone from his voice.
♦ ♦ ♦
If he had ever known such rage before, it was lost to memory. He had approached the two-legged things silently, as he knew he could. They were stupid things with poor instincts and couldn’t sense his movement.
He had planned to take one and scatter the rest. It did not matter. They could be hunted down easily enough. However, he had not expected to be challenged. As he neared them, a battle cry unlike any other rose up to meet him. The noise had stopped him in his tracks and shot waves of pain through his head. It was like another of his kind had bitten clean into his skull, so much was the agony. Regardless, the challenge could not go unanswered. To do so would be a show of weakness. Others might challenge his dominance, and that could not be allowed.
He had answered the challenge with a cry of his own, then the rage had taken over. So incensed was he that he unleashed his fury at everything around him. Branches snapped. Trees were felled. Dirt and rocks were thrown. It was minutes before he realized that he was once again alone. The two-legged things had moved off. Their challenge had been a bluff. They were weak after all. He had planned to savor the hunt, to enjoy their screams. Now he would make them all scream at once as he rent them limb from limb. But first he would salt their meat with fear.
He began to lumber in the direction of their scent, giving up all pretense of stealth.
♦ ♦ ♦
Danni checked the GPS again. They were headed in the right direction. As they fled away from the source of the – whatever it had been – Harrison dropped back to make sure there were no stragglers. Danni wanted to protest, but her brother was more than capable. Thus, she was surprised when he caught up to her again.
“How are we doing?” he asked with obvious false calm.
“Maybe another quarter of a mile. Why?”
“You don’t want to know,” he answered in a low voice she could barely hear.
He was right. She really didn’t want to know. Unfortunately, she was long past that state of blissful ignorance. Whatever they were running from was coming after them. “How bad?”
“It’s making a lot of noise, but doesn’t seem to be gaining on us ... yet.”
As if in response to his statement, another roar split the air behind them. It sounded hundreds of yards away, but if it had snuck up on them once, it was probably capable of doing so again.
“Don’t let anyone run off,” she said.
He nodded and again fell back, but he needn’t have bothered. After that last cry, the rest of the group were crowded so close that Danni could have practically piggybacked them all, had she been strong enough.
♦ ♦ ♦
Something was not right. He stopped and sniffed the air. For just a moment, the breeze had stilled and he thought he had smelled another scent from behind. Had one of the two-legged things broken off from its clan and tried to flee?
He sniffed again. The scent was gone. Whatever it had been had been faint, just barely there. Now that the breeze started up again, he could once again smell the two-legged things he was pursuing. He could smell their bodies, but best of all, he could smell their fear.
They knew he was coming. They knew that they were being hunted. If he could have understood the concept of a smile, he might have allowed himself one at that thought. As it was, he screamed again and once more began to stalk his prey.
♦ ♦ ♦
“We are so screwed!”
“You got that right, brother,” Greg replied to Wild Feather as they fled.
“Shouldn’t we be trying to head out of the woods, not deeper into them?” Paula wheezed.
She sounded out of breath, but at least the effort was keeping her from settling into a full-blown panic attack, Danni noted. If they stopped, she was sure that would change.
“The cars are back in the direction of that thing,” Danni replied. “And there’s fifty miles of forest in every other direction. Trust me, this is our best bet.” I hope, she thought.
She was trying to keep a positive attitude. Wild Feather had already lost it, and Allison was keeping unusually quiet. If either she or Harrison freaked out now, that would be it. The rest would scatter like doves. Fortunately, her big brother seemed to be doing his part. The least she could do was follow suit. “Just another hundred yards,” she said before adding another silent I hope. She quickly checked her GPS again and trudged onward.
♦ ♦ ♦
Near the back of their close-knit group, Harrison was making sure he didn’t lose anyone. It was one hell of an effort on his part. Every instinct he had was telling him to cut loose and make a run for it. Inside of his head, the old hunting joke that ended with “I don’t need to run faster than the bear, I just need to run faster than you” kept replaying itself. Suddenly, it didn’t seem so funny. Still, he couldn’t live with himself if something happened to one of his friends because of his selfishness. He had been raised better than that.
“How are you holding up?” he asked Rob, who had begun to fall back a bit.
“N-not good,” his friend stammered. “You might have to drag me the rest of the way.”
“Don’t worry. I would,” Harrison reassured him before looking back over his shoulder. He could still hear it coming. Whatever it was, it wasn’t making any attempts at stealth anymore. It also didn’t appear to be catching up to them yet.
It was the ‘yet’ part that worried him, though. Harrison wasn’t a betting man, but if he had been he would have put money on it being able to overtake them anytime it damn well pleased.
“What the hell is it?” Paula asked, lagging but still doing better than Rob.
“Has to be a grizzly,” answered Harrison.
Rob coughed. “I didn’t think they were around these parts.”
“Neither did I. But have you got a better answer?”
“I might,” Rob said with a small tired grin.
“Don’t start that shit,” Harrison growled. “Everyone is freaked out enough as it is.”
Rob, for his part, decided to follow that advice and concentrate on running instead of talking.
♦ ♦ ♦
Danni wasn’t a particularly religious girl. However, as they entered the clearing, she could have gladly dropped to her knees and thanked any of a dozen different deities. Her friend’s coordinates had been faithful after all. At the far end of the clearing, partially overgrown but still standing, was the old ranger station she had been seeking. It was a small, one-story structure. Danni was once again reminded of Little House on the Prairie as she spied it, although the forest was about as far from a prairie
as you could get. It appeared to be an old log cabin. It had seen better days, but still looked pretty damn solid to her eyes.
“There!” she pointed. The rest of the group followed her outstretched hand and saw it, too. A small chorus of cheers arose behind her. That was good. She was pretty sure at least a few members of the group were about done for. This would hopefully give them enough of a morale boost to get inside and bar the entrance with whatever the hell they could get their hands on.
Oh crap! What if the doors are locked?
Why would they be? she asked herself. This place hadn’t been used in years, from the look of it. Why lock up an abandoned structure? It’s not like anyone had to worry about looters out here.
“Are you just gonna stand there gawking?” Paula asked from behind her, startling Danni out of her thoughts. She had a point. Getting torn to pieces in sight of their potential salvation, all because she was busy worrying about whether or not the doors were locked, wouldn’t be a particularly grand way to go.
She found the energy for a quick sprint. As she started running, she heard the others following her lead. Within the space of seconds, she made it to the dilapidated front porch and tried the door.
It didn’t budge.
Oh God, it is locked a voice inside of her head screamed. For one small moment, Danni felt panic welling up. It threatened to bubble over until the rational part of her mind realized that the knob had turned when she tried it. Realization hit, and she put her shoulder into the door.
“Help me! It’s stuck,” she pleaded as her friends caught up to her.
Harrison dragged Greg up to the door with him and gently pushed his sister out of the way. A couple good shoves by the muscular young men, and the swollen door began to groan open an inch at a time. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the opening was wide enough to allow access.
“Ladies first,” Greg wheezed in a bad attempt at humor. He stepped aside and gestured toward the entrance.
The others had just started to move when another ungodly scream shattered the silence around them.
As one, the group turned back in the direction whence they had just come. They watched in stunned horror as the creature stepped from the tree line.
For a few seconds, silence once more descended. Then Rob asked Harrison, “So can I start that shit now?”
Chapter 9
At the sight of the creature, Paula’s nerve broke. All thoughts of the potential safety in front of her vanished from her mind, and she did the exact opposite of what she probably should have. She turned toward the other end of the clearing and began running. Most of the group was too frozen at the sight before them to notice. Even Rob was too busy muttering, “Sonofabitch, bigfoot is real,” to himself to pay her much attention.
Fortunately, Danni still had her wits about her. “I’ll get her,” she barked before taking off after Paula.
That snapped Harrison out of it. He yelled, “Danni!” before noticing that the creature’s eyes were tracking the two fleeing females. It bared its teeth, and long foamy ropes of drool began to spill over its lips.
Oh shit. It’s gonna charge them!
Thinking fast, he cried out to his sister, “Don’t stop! Keep going!” and started waving his arms at the beast. “Hey! Yeah you, you ugly fucker!” He bent and found a good-sized stone which he whipped in the monstrosity’s direction. The projectile fell far short of its mark, but it had the desired effect. The creature once more turned its head toward them. For a moment, it seemed confused, then it tilted back its head and let loose with another scream.
Uh oh. I think I pissed it off.
The beast charged forward. He turned back to the remaining group and yelled, “In the cabin – NOW!”
♦ ♦ ♦
He had been right. One of the two-legged things had issued a challenge for dominance earlier. He had been distracted by the sight of two of them fleeing before him. Females, from the smell of it, but then the alpha of their group had begun screaming and jumping. It even had the nerve to try to attack him. The females must have belonged to it.
The two-legged thing was stupid. He did not want its females for mating. He had no interest in that, not anymore since the rage had descended. Still, he would allow no quarter for such a small, weak thing to challenge his domain. He had planned to kill them all. This one, though, would die badly.
He returned the challenge with a cry of his own and sprang to meet the upstart.
♦ ♦ ♦
Most of the others didn’t need to be told twice. They piled into the old ranger station as quickly as they could. The lone holdout was Rob, who was just now beginning to notice the rest of them. “Where’s Pau...” he managed to get out before Harrison dragged him into the cabin.
“Grab whatever you can and barricade the entrance with it. That thing’s coming,” Harrison said, putting his shoulder against the door and pushing it shut. He had been hoping to find braces for barring the door. Aren’t log cabins supposed to have those things? All he spied, though, was an old slide lock at the top. It would be better than nothing, but just barely.
He slid it home, then turned around. In the dim light of the cabin, he saw Greg and Allison pushing an old rotted desk across the floor. He quickly got out of their way so they could shove it against the door.
“Windows!” he shouted.
“On it,” Whereas before, during the chase, Alison had seemed utterly stunned, Harrison was grateful to see her on the ball now. Whatever her shock had been, her survival instinct was apparently kicking in.
Greg, hungover or not, was in the game too, grabbing more dilapidated furniture to pile against the door. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of the rest. Rob just stood there, looking confused. Between his exhaustion, the creature outside, and his girlfriend running off, he had reached a point where he just couldn’t process it all. He wasn’t the worst off, though. Wild Feather had retreated to a corner of the dark room, where he huddled in the fetal position.
They were in luck in that there was only one small window facing the front. Even better, it had an intact wooden shutter. Allison swung it closed, but not before muttering, “Oh shit.”
“What?” Harrison asked.
“I’d get away from the door, if I were you.”
In response, the entire cabin shuddered as the creature impacted with the heavy door. Their makeshift barricade held, if just barely. Unfortunately, a heavy splintering noise came from the door itself. Harrison put his back into the meager fortifications to give it a little more strength. Seeing his lead, Greg did the same.
Again, the beast hit the door. More wood splintered, and they felt the barricade start to move. It was like trying to hold back a Mack truck. Another second, and the two young men were going to be flung like rag dolls, but then it stopped.
A few moments went by, and then there was another roar – close, but not quite at the cabin’s door. It was followed by several low thuds against the side of the structure.
“What the hell?” Greg gasped.
Allison chanced a peek through a gap in the shutters.
“What’s going on out there?” Harrison asked.
“It’s going nuts,” she replied, a tone of disbelief in her voice. “It’s pacing back and forth, beating its hands against the ground.” She paused then added, “Now it’s throwing mud at us ... oh wait. I don’t think that’s mud.”
“Just keep an eye out and let me know if it’s gonna try again,” Harrison said as another roar split the air. “Greg, brace the door with anything you can find. Use the packs, too. They’re not much, but they’ll give it some weight. Rob...”
Bigfoot Hunters (Tales of the Crypto-Hunter Book 1) Page 7
