Chyna Stone Adventures: The Complete 8-Book Series

by K. T. Tomb

  Julie nodded numbly.

  Lux was tired, but she sat out above her hammock while the others turned in. She wanted to talk to Ben. He was the sane one, the calm one. His face never broke its controlled rigidity, and she needed that.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, folding his long legs up next to her, but not touching her. She appreciated that.

  “What do we call them?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. I was going to leave that to Julie, but I think maybe that will be Stevens now.”

  Lux nodded in the twilight. “They’re like us, aren’t they?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, although she knew that he knew what she meant.

  “They have emotions, thoughts. They took revenge for disturbing their dead. I think it might be some form of religion at play. And they looked after a child for no reason other than it was a child and defenseless. That’s altruism, too.”

  “Yes.”

  Lux felt like a little girl just older than Abbey. But she needed the simplicity of that view to comprehend what she had seen. She needed to be able to categorize in black and white, but the beasts made that impossible.

  “They aren’t all bad. They made sense, actually. Brutal sense, but sense all the same. I can’t say as much for some groups of humans. I can respect that.”

  Lux shivered. “I really thought I’d seen it all.”

  “No one can say that.”

  Lux looked over at his face. She was going to miss him. “I don’t think I like the world anymore.”

  “What do you mean?” Makarios said.

  “The rules have changed. I liked the old ones better. Now, I don’t get to just know what’s real and what isn’t.”

  Ben shrugged.

  “It’s the same rules. You’ll surely die one day. There’s an abominable hand to do it, or a natural one.” He emphasized his bad pun, cracking a genuine smile.

  “Thanks Ben, that makes me feel so much better,” she said sarcastically. But it did. His placid humor was comforting in a way that she was definitely going to miss.

  “I try,” he grinned.

  “I want to start over after this,” she said. “Start a new life. But,” she hesitated, “we should keep in contact.”

  For just a moment, there was a wild and reckless look in his eye, but it was gone before she had the time to process it. Neither of them moved as the night dropped into permanence and the stars began to glow slowly.

  He gave her a sad smile. “We’ll see.”

  Lux looked away.

  The night was alive, and it was calm. The prickly feeling she had been fending off since she entered the woods was gone. She felt like the woods were hers again, like she grew in them just like any of the plants. The trees were no longer keeping secrets.

  “I wanted to go back so desperately,” she said. “Now I just want to stay here.”

  Ben frowned.

  “I was born about fifty miles north of where we are right now.”

  “Really?” he asked, a mixture of curiosity and something else weighting down his tone.

  She nodded and looked up to the sky. The familiar map of the heavens was only visible in patches through the cover of the treetops. With that stellar cartography, she could find her way home from anywhere, go anywhere she wished, and never be lost.

  “I always liked the city,” Ben said, following her wistful gaze.

  “Why?”

  “Everything about the city is taking things too far. It’s free as the woods in a lot of ways. I like it.”

  “I could live in the woods for the rest of my life and never come out,” Lux said. “But maybe not Piney Woods. I think the neighbors might take some getting used to.”

  He snorted a laugh.

  Lux looked back to his face. It was covered in dirt and sun even in the dark. He was like her, but maybe that was too much. But the wild that had only been in his eyes for an instant wouldn’t leave her. She wanted to bring it back, but she had no idea how.

  They broke camp cautiously around Julie. The sight of the flayed body had triggered a near catatonic mania. She refused all food, but was eventually convinced to take on some water before the team left the camp. Makarios took her pack as well as his own, and stuck close to her, whispering gentle words.

  The path back to Belle was a slow one, ambling along at the pace of a Sunday stroll. The sunlight streamed through the trees, which were becoming thinner and thinner. The gaps between the foliage were growing with every step. Lux no longer felt the strange wrongness, but she knew the creatures watched them as they exited the forest. Her old truck was still parked up in the same place she had left it. Looking between the vehicle and the woods, it was as if nothing had happened, no time had passed, that Smith had not died. Only the disheveled appearance of the four adults and the addition of a tiny child gave permanence to the memories of the previous days and nights. Grateful for this link to the safety of civilized humanity, all of them piled into the vehicle, and headed back to Belle, in silence.

  ***

  The diner was crowded like the day she had arrived. But this time, she smelled like the petting zoo and probably looked worse. She didn’t care. All she cared about was hot coffee and food that did not come from a can.

  Hal didn’t join them, heading straight down to the police station with Abbey snoring over his shoulder. Julie was still borderline catatonic, her eyes only focusing loosely on anything. Lux hoped desperately that some waffles would help her, but she doubted it. Jane, the same waitress as the first day, sloshed three cups of coffee in their direction.

  “What can I get y’all today?”

  They ordered and a quiet air set over the table no matter how peppy Jane was or how boisterous the other customers were. Julie never looked up, her short hair lank on her head.

  “I’ve never felt like this after a job,” Lux mumbled when Jane was out of earshot. “It’s never been that big of a deal.”

  Ben chugged half his coffee. Lux wasn’t sure how as it was so hot she felt like one sip would burn her throat. “A job is a job. But a person is a person.”

  “We left him there,” Julie whispered, looking up with tear-filled eyes.

  “We didn’t have a choice,” Ben said, “They were communicating with us, you see? Sam broke their laws, and he paid the price. If we had taken him down, I would think they’d do the same to us.”

  Julie frowned and lapsed back into silence, and excused herself to go to the bathroom.

  “What are you going to do with her?” Ben asked, jerking his head in the direction of the ladies toilet.

  “We are going to safely deliver her to Dr. Stevens.” Lux slurped some coffee. “This is his gig, and if nothing else, we need to let him know that Smith is dead. That’s going to be messy. Oh, sorry everyone, he was ritually murdered by a tribe of sasquatches, but they’re not monsters. Oh, you want to napalm Piney Woods? Great. If anyone believes our reports, that is, and we don’t end up arrested on a murder charge ourselves. You know, Ben, I think it’d be in our own interests to get as far away from Texas as possible.”

  They ate in silence. The food tasted like heaven, but anything would have right out of the woods. Lux had nothing to say. She just wanted to revel in the glory of civilized food. No matter how much she loved the woods, she was a loyal Texan to her belly. The bad, greasy food was sometimes just the best thing imaginable. To save money, all four of them ended up sharing a room in the Quiet Cloud Motel. Lux crashed onto the bed, feeling a surplus of snores ready to come out and bother everyone and she didn’t care a single bit. She was exhausted. The food had made her sleepy and warm. She let her eyes close. They were out. They were safe. They were free.

  Chapter Six

  Lux pointed the old truck, now fully outfitted and boasting repaired electrics, northwest and pulled onto the highway. Dr. Stevens had met them in Belle the night before and taken Julie into his custody. She had no more responsibilities. All she had left to do was figure out what she wanted t
o do with the rest of her life. Theoretically, it was easy. But she couldn’t shake the dark form of the creatures in the woods. They had been there for eons, and would continue to be, provided they remained undiscovered and the woods remained unexploited by mankind. Dr. Stevens had said that he had no intention of disturbing them, but whether he could be trusted or not was a debate that she did not wish to have with herself. She had been paid double, with the proviso that she said nothing about the events in Piney Woods. She still had no idea what the purpose of the trip had been, but she was done caring.

  Texas disappeared behind her slowly as the woods turned to flatland. The sun just barely a sliver in her eyes when she crossed the border out of the giant state. She could have gone anywhere.

  No one would find her. Road disappeared forever under her wheels, putting time, distance and humanity in between her and the woods on the edge of Belle, Texas. Eventually she pulled into the parking lot of a motel. Catching, New Mexico. The name had been chipped away, leaving only a handful of letters that made no words. It smelled musty like the Quiet Cloud, but she didn’t care. It was better than her hammock, which was, of course, now in the possession of the creatures. She smiled at the thought of one of them trying it out for size. Maybe they’d like it.

  The apartment she ended up in was clean and tidy and overlooked the desert. It was beautiful and she loved it. Open skies as far as the eye could see, and not a tree in sight. Maybe she could become a desert girl instead of a forest girl. Maybe she could find peace here, and lay all ghosts to rest.

  ***

  Ben stepped out of the airport and breathed in his first breath of real Australian air. It tasted wild like the woods and like the dirt and like Lux. He slung his small bag over his shoulder and started down the sidewalk. He was ready to leave everything about the past month behind, Lux included. He double-checked the address in his pocket and looked at the little restaurant that looked more like a pottery studio than a place that dealt in food. But it was the correct address, so he pushed the door open. The warm smell of pasta and vegetables and roasting meat greeted him and he was instantly pleased with the decision.

  “Ben?” a voice asked.

  He looked around and made eye contact with a thin man in a worn tee-shirt.

  “Tyler?”

  The boy he remembered from his childhood was gone. Tyler the boy had been a squirrel, all ADHD and wide-eyed. Tyler the man was a snake; thin, pointy faced, and sly looking.

  “Come, sit, let’s eat,” Tyler said, waving his hand around.

  Ben followed him, but he was wary. He eyed the other customers, looking for any familiar faces or markings. There were none, but he did not feel at ease.

  They sat at a corner table.

  “So,” Ben said, not wanting to bother with chit-chat, “what’s this job you have?”

  “Straight to business then,” Tyler said. “Very well. I have a small operation up in the Northern Territory, and I really need someone to help manage it.”

  Ben suppressed his irritation.

  “You told me this was a tracking assignment.”

  “Well, it is of sorts.”

  “Well?”

  “I need you to figure out which of my employees is skimming from funds they shouldn’t be.”

  Ben could do that.

  “That’s fair,” he said.

  “Good,” Tyler said, with a smile that disturbed Ben. He decided to do the job for Tyler and then he was going back to America and finding Lux. She was like him. He would track down one more person; Lux Branson. Then, maybe, he too could perhaps retire from this game. He, too, could have peace.

  ***

  Officer John Rutledge was having a bad day. His wife of ten years had told him that morning that she was leaving him for the mailman. The mailman of all people! His mood only worsened when he entered his small office. Paperwork stacked taller than him up the sides of his desk, leaving only the smallest of cubby holes to poke his head through, so when they received an anonymous tip that there was a body in Piney Woods, Rutledge was eager to go. He leapt up, papers going everywhere, and rushed out the door before anyone could comment on the paperwork. But when he reached the crime scene, he regretted his decision as his lunch landed with a splat on the hard packed dirt.

  Thick, bloated ropes of intestines spilled over the ground, dangling grotesquely from a swollen and disfigured... thing. John Rutledge was in no way convinced that the thing dripped all over the ground was even human. Maybe there were clothes, but the flesh had oozed over everything, leaving behind a stench that definitely put a skunk to shame.

  Rutledge turned to his partner, O’Leary.

  “Sometimes I hate this job.”

  But O’Leary wasn’t there. In his place was a creature that went above and beyond Rutledge’s worst nightmare. Certainly he was dreaming, because creatures like that simply did not exist. With exaggerated movements, it smiled, the thick lips spreading thin over a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. This wasn’t happening, Rutledge told himself. It just… well, it wasn’t.

  But the creature had other ideas. It reached out a well-muscled hand tipped in claws and closed it around Rutledge’s throat. His last thoughts were of his soon to be ex-wife. How she would cry to know he was missing. At least he wouldn’t die in vain. Missing cops always brought the full force of humanity down on the perpetrator, human or monster like this. Oh, they’d pay. He was crying with fear, and soiled himself. There was a strange popping noise in his neck, and he couldn’t get enough air. Blackness.

  The End

  Also available:

  Sasquatch Found

  Sasquatch Series #2

  by K.T. Tomb

  Amazon Kindle * Amazon UK

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  About the author:

  K.T. Tomb enjoys traveling the world when not writing adventure thrillers. She lives in Portland, OR. Please find her at:

  Please visit her at www.kttomb.com.

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