Bitter Cold

by J. Joseph Wright

  “You gotta be kidding me,” April argued. “There’s no way a chain can do that. Mangle him pretty bad, yes. But not cut it off like that.”

  “Lady, do you really intend on writing about this? In The Oregon Daily?”

  “Maybe.”

  Jenkins snorted. “Let me tell you something. This town’s still recovering from that nuclear plant closing down, and it’s not helping with you sniffing around, writing about radiation leaks. Now you want to write about a mutant monster in the snow? I don’t know what kind of tabloid you guys are running down there in Portland, but we don’t go for that shit around here. So do us a favor. Go write about something else, somewhere else.”

  “Hold on just a minute,” Jeff stepped in. “We’re not making it up. Why would we?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Jenkins eyed him. “Maybe you wanna blog about it. Is that it? You trying to get hits on your website? Trying to go viral?”

  “No!” April raised her voice. “We’re not doing this for any kind of publicity. If I were trying to make a name for myself, I wouldn’t be coming here to Podunk Rainier to do it.”

  The cop put up his palms. “Lady, if you could hear yourself, I think you’d agree it’s crazy.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I saw what I saw. Jeff saw it, too.”

  “And Dexter,” Jeff pointed to the kid. The EMT’s were strapping his stretcher down, securing it to the ambulance floor. “He saw it, too.”

  “Of course,” April lit up. “He saw it, for Christ’s sake. Ask him.”

  “Would if I could,” Jenkins said, writing in his leather-bound notepad. “Kid’s a vegetable. Must be in shock or something. He won’t respond to anyone.”

  “What about the other kids?” Jeff searched for his son in the small group, gossiping near the emergency vehicles. “Logan! Come here!”

  Logan said something to the Mitchell girl, then hurried over, his bootsteps heavy in the snow. “Yeah, Dad?”

  “I want you to tell Officer Jenkins everything you saw down there in Dead Man’s Dump. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

  Logan’s eyes darted from his dad to April. Then he glanced at Jenkins. He shrugged. “All I saw was Dexter falling down behind his motorcycle.”

  “Did you at any time see a black spot in the snow attack Dexter?” the cop asked straight out.

  Logan shook his head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Did anyone else see anything strange or out of the ordinary down there?”

  “Just my dad, I guess,” he looked at April. “And her.”

  “What about the other kids? Any of them say they saw something unusual?”

  “You mean besides a kid getting his foot torn off? No.”

  “Don’t be a smartass,” Jeff frowned at him.

  “Hey, guys,” an EMT interrupted. She’d slipped twice getting to them. “Which one of you has the foot? We kinda need it.”

  “That’s right, his foot,” April said. “If it was just caught in the chain, then there’d be a foot. Where’s the foot?”

  Jenkins’s eyes drifted to meet hers. Then his head followed. He stared for a second.

  “I guess I’m gonna hafta retrieve it, aren’t I?” he sighed. “God, they don’t pay me enough for this shit. I guess it beats getting shot at.”

  Jeff intervened. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go down there. Not without some backup or something.”

  “Backup!” he laughed. “You’re looking at my backup. Me. Now, step aside and let me do my job.”

  Jeff led Jenkins toward Dead Man’s Dump. April followed, though she didn’t feel safe at all. With each step in the knee-high powder, she wondered if that thing was hovering just below the surface. When she stepped through to the ground, she imagined it collapsing on her calf, its sharp, snapping jaws taking her leg off, quick and clean, like it did Dexter’s.

  Nothing like that happened. All she saw the whole way was a pristine, cottony-white wonderland. Tall trees bursting with layer after fluffy layer. The ground, the grass, the evergreens, the bare maple and apple and cherry limbs, all painted with the monochrome brush of winter.

  When they reached the hill, April didn’t allow Jeff to go any further.

  “It’s down there,” she told the cop, pointing at the motorcycle, on its side, already dusted heavily by the perpetual snowfall. “We’re staying right here.”

  “That’s all right,” said Jenkins, shaking an oversized Ziploc bag he’d gotten from the medics. “I’ll be right back.”

  Jeff lowered his head and allowed his eyes to meet April’s. They stared at each other for a few tense moments as Jenkins plodded into the canyon.

  “Deputy Jenkins! Wait!” she made him stop near the bottom, a few feet from Dexter’s abandoned bike. “You can’t do it! Come back!”

  “There’s nothing down here!” he shouted. His voice mixed with the faint howl of the chilly breeze. “Do you see anything? I don’t! I gotta get this foot to the hospital, quick. So let me do my job!”

  He pushed through the snow to the motorcycle. On his knees, he started digging. Of course, April knew he’d find nothing. She saw Dexter’s foot decompose, devoured by that thing down there. Somewhere.

  Jeff broke the silence, making her recoil. “I’m going down.”

  “What! No! Why?”

  “He’s down there all by himself.”

  “You saw what it did to that kid! Why would you want to go down there again?”

  He lifted both palms in confusion, then started the hike to the bottom.

  “Hurry! It’s getting dark!” she called.

  April watched Jeff and Officer Jenkins work together to lift the Kawasaki up on its wheels, propping it on the kickstand. The cop kneeled to inspect the heavy drive chain, while Jeff scanned the snow-covered ground in their near vicinity. April studied the rock outcroppings at the base of the steep canyon walls. They looked especially dark, only due to the setting sun. Same with the coppices dotting the bottom of the ravine. They seemed almost unreal, sketched into the background by some sinister hand. The more she studied the area, though, the more she realized it was only her mind playing tricks on her. The trees were just trees. The rocks were only rocks. No foreign shadows. No eerie, darker than dark areas in the snow.

  She wondered for a second if the whole thing wasn’t just some freak misunderstanding. Maybe she and Jeff had seen something else. An oil stain? That bike sure looked old and leaky. Maybe they’d just imagined it was crawling toward them when, actually, it was only hot oil melting the snow. That wouldn’t have explained why nobody else saw it but she and Jeff, though. None of the kids said a word about it. None of them. That was odd.

  “Get outta my way!” she heard the cop’s voice booming through the small valley. She realized her focus had drifted from the two men, so she didn’t get to see what had happened. The deputy left Jeff behind, scrambling up the miniature mountain, slipping, digging with his hands, and taking most of it on all-fours.

  When he reached the top, he met April with wide eyes. “No foot,” he said, and hurried on, headed to his waiting SUV. “Animals must have gotten it already. Oh well.”

  “What did you see?” April yelled. “You saw it, didn’t you?”

  Jenkins ran, kept running, and didn’t look back. Jeff climbed next to April and pulled her along.

  “Come on. Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

  TEN

  THEY FOLLOWED THEIR OWN tracks to Jeff’s house again, the majestic old Tudor April admired so much. Only now, she didn’t get the same gentle, comfortable feeling as before.

  Logan ran out the front door to meet them as they hurried up the walk. Still in his full outerwear, he seemed apprehensive. “Some kids wanna go back and move Dexter’s bike so we can sled some more. I’m gonna go with them, ‘kay?”

  Jeff’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me! Hell no!”

  “Why! You heard the cop. He said it was an accident. A freak event, t
hat’s all. You’re bugging out over nothing, and it’s making us look like mutants. Everybody’s talking about it. Laughing at you. Laughing at me.”

  “I don’t care if they make a goddam dirty limerick about me living in Nantucket. I’m not letting you go back down into that place. You hear me? And those kids don’t need to be going down there, either. In fact, I’m gonna go warn their parents.”

  “Oh yeah? And what are you gonna tell them?” Logan crossed his arms. “That there’s a monster down there?”

  “I saw something, Logan. I don’t know what it was, but I saw something,” he pointed at April. “She saw it, too.”

  She nodded. “It’s just like your dad described. A dark spot in snow. It attacked that kid, and it’ll get someone else if they go down there. I know it will.”

  “This is just great,” Logan shook off his gloves. “You know what? You two are perfect for each other. Perfect mental cases.”

  Jeff looked mystified. “You’re telling me you didn’t see anything? Nobody? Not one of you kids saw anything? I find that hard to believe.”

  “You rushed us away from the hill so fast, Dad,” Logan became animated, flinging his hands in the air. “The kids waited at the clearing near the Mitchell’s old orchard. Nobody saw any black snow.”

  “Unbelievable!” Jeff sounded infuriated. “Get in the house!”

  “But, Dad! The kids…”

  “I’m not gonna repeat myself!”

  Logan turned, and with a disdainful huff, trudged to the door, ripping off his coat along the way.

  Jeff shrugged. “Sorry about that. Sorry about all of this.”

  “Why should you be sorry?” April said. “You’re not to blame for what happened. But I think I know who is.”

  “NWP?”

  “The more I think about it, the more I’m sure it was a spent fuel leak, and they’re covering it up. That nuclear plant was directly uphill from Dead Man’s Dump. It’s right on the fault line. Hell, Dead Man’s Dump is the fault line.”

  “What about Daniel Applegate? That happened way before the nuclear plant was even built.”

  April sighed at the ground. “I can’t explain everything. I just have this feeling. Maybe the radiation somehow came into contact with a-a thing that already existed down there. And maybe that process did something to it, made it stronger, meaner, hungrier.”

  “You might be right,” Jeff looked uneasy. “There’s something I didn’t tell you. I haven’t even told my son, but, years ago, when my friend died, I did see something. I-I saw the black snow. That’s what killed Eddy, I’m sure of it now.”

  “Tell me something,” she said. “When you saw it back then, did it move?”

  Jeff took off his cap and scratched his head. “If it did, it was slow. But I didn’t stick around to find out.”

  “Don’t you see?” she took his elbows in her hands. “Something’s been down there at the bottom of that canyon for a long, long time. Something deadly. Something that lies dormant until it snows. Then it comes out to feed. It used to be immobile, but now it can move. Pretty damned fast, too. Why all of the sudden is it able to move so fast? Why now?”

  “The radiation,” Jeff nodded. “You really think that has something to do with it?”

  “I’d bet my life on it. They know it, too. I could see it in their eyes. I’m not gonna let them get away with this.”

  “Hold on,” Jeff said, holding her arm. “What are you planning on doing?”

  “The EMTs said the highway’s been de-iced. I should be able to get home, now. Maybe I’ll stop by and give those NWP guys another visit.”

  “I don’t know, April,” his grip tightened. “I’m not sure if that’s such a great idea.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she eased from his grasp. “I’ve gone up against tougher.”

  Jeff smiled and shook his head. “I’m sure you’re a badass chick and all, but you’re not exactly an action hero when it comes to driving in the snow. You sure you wanna risk it? You can stay here,” he raised his palms. “I promise to be a gentleman, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “That’s not it at all,” she saw his eyes roll a little. “I mean it. I would stay. But there’s a huge story here. I can’t sit on it, even for a few hours.”

  April watched the steady snowfall blanket Jeff’s circular driveway.

  “I need another statement from the NWP boys after I confront them about that black snow. Something tells me they already know about it. Now the whole world will know.”

  “You sure you can make it?”

  “I’m sure,” she glanced him. She liked his eyes. She couldn’t decide if they were blue or green. She adored that.

  “Okay. You know where I live,” he chuckled.

  “Yeah,” she joked back. “And you know where I work.”

  ELEVEN

  SHE FIGURED OUT WHY they called it Jack Falls Road. On one shoulder, the embankment gave way to a steep drop-off of at least a hundred feet. Scary enough she had to navigate it during a steady blizzard. On top of that, the sun had gone down, and her headlights only reflected the whiteout back into her face. She turned the lights off and hugged the inside lane, the one with a nice, tall, snow-covered berm she could bump into harmlessly in the event of a spinout.

  She came around a blind corner and noticed a dark patch in the middle of her path. Her heart jumped into her throat. She slammed on the brakes, cranking the wheel, trying to stay ahead of her car’s movements as it slid toward the pitch-black stain.

  She felt stupid for even thinking about leaving Jeff’s house. No time for questioning herself now, though, as her Neon screeched to a halt. Her head banged against the windshield and she screamed. The thought of that hideous thing sliding its black tentacles over her skin made her cry out involuntarily. She held her mouth, not wanting to betray her location in case it could hear.

  She rolled down the window and peered out. Then she stood on her seat and pulled herself up to the roof, stepping on the doorframe. She had to sweep a thick layer of slush before she felt confident enough to even consider a leap to safety. But she knew she had no time.

  Three, two, one… JUMP! She sprang as hard as she could. Her boots slipped, forcing her right leg out and putting her on a completely different trajectory than she’d hoped. Instead of hurdling over the blackness, she fell straight down, rolling over the back fender and landing near the rear wheel.

  Horrified, she didn’t move. She swallowed and heard the hollow gulp inside her head. She kept her face forward, away from the black blemish lurking in the snow mere inches from her. Then she let her gaze wander to the right.

  In peripheral vision, she saw the murky area. It seemed to lie still, as if waiting for her to fall into the trap. She pulled away, using her elbows as fulcrums, holding her breath, keeping her stunted groans to herself. Finally, at a good distance, she stood, though finding traction in the icy pavement proved difficult.

  She stepped back. The dark snow just sat there, motionless, not at all like before, when it seemed so willing to chase after that boy on the motorcycle. Now it looked sluggish. Maybe it had a plan to lure her in by playing dead.

  Headlights from the top of a mountainous driveway startled her. A neighbor had the bright idea of actually driving in the arctic storm. Someone beside her, of course. She hurried to the well-shoveled, gravel drive.

  A forest green Land Rover with tinted windows met her at the bottom, deep bass thumping, signaling the presence of teenagers. When the window rolled down and a puff of pot smoke rolled out, she knew her hunch was spot on. A boy wearing a loose stocking cap stared at her. He didn’t even look old enough to drive. He leaned his head out and let his eyes slide down April’s thighs, then up to her breasts.

  “You havin’ troubles?” he asked, still staring at her chest.

  She wanted to slap him, but she still couldn’t stop the mental image of that creature, prowling, ready to attack them at any moment.

  “Listen to me,”
she said. “There’s something in the snow. It’s already hurt one kid, and it tried to get me, too. Down there in the road.”

  “Who is it?” a teenage girl leaned over the driver’s lap and glared. April realized she knew these kids. It was Amy and her friends, the ones from Dead Man’s Dump. “It’s you,” the girl must have recognized her, too. “Can’t you drive? Get that piece of crap out of the way.”

  April slapped her thigh. “I’m not kidding around! Something’s down there!” she pointed to the road.

  “Where?” asked the driver, peering through the windshield. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Neither do I,” added Amy. “What’s wrong with you, lady? Why are you guys making this shit up?”

  “This isn’t a joke, goddammit!” she raised her voice. “That thing down there can kill! If it can take off a kid’s foot, then I know it can do worse!”

  “What the hell are you talking about, lady!” Amy shouted at the same volume.

  “I’m talking about that black thing in the road. Right under my car. Don’t tell me you can’t see it.”

  “You’re fuckin’ nuts, you know that?” answered Amy. “There’s nothing under your car. My dad salts the driveway. It’s just the pavement, that’s all. Asphalt.”

  April blinked, tilting her head and staring closer. A few steps nearer gave her a better view, allowing her to recognize the rough, rocky texture of the road’s bare surface. Black asphalt. Her stomach felt afire with cramps again.

  She heard a round of laughter from the Land Rover as the power window rolled back up. All four tires spun in unison, sending the vehicle sideways on the frosty, hard surface before it grabbed traction and righted itself, maneuvering past the Neon and down Jack Fall’s toward Highway 30.

  Looking at the naked blacktop, April could see how someone else in her circumstance might have made the exact same mistake. The pavement was dark, a stark contrast to the immaculate whiteness surrounding it.

  Just to be sure, she approached her vehicle cautiously, tiptoeing to the edge of the snow, where the tarmac began to peek through. With one foot, she probed, pressing once, then again. Then, with her full weight, she stepped down. No black pool enveloping her boot, no toes bitten off by a hungry monster, creeping under the ice.