Faithful Shadow

by Howard, Kevin J.

  Joe led the way, heading across the parking lot with his head down. He kept his focus on his feet, one after the other, nothing to worry about but his two feet. If he looked up and saw the woods, the vastness of them, he might find a reason ever so small to call this all off. But he didn’t want to postpone the inevitable, or to call in help. Although it might have been smarter to do so, he couldn’t risk more people being hurt or dying under his command. He’d been around too much death lately, far more than a park ranger should ever see.

  Joe crossed the highway and began walking through the cabins, all of them deserted. What a bad season for the park. He took a moment to look into Dale’s truck, pressing his forehead to the glass; nothing in the backseat but a roadmap, some fast food bags, and a blanket. Joe figured he’d probably gotten a ride with one of his own men back to wherever they were staying.

  “Did you happen to overhear where exactly this hole in the ground was?” Joe asked over his shoulder as he headed up the trail.

  “All I heard was it had taken them about fifteen minutes to walk back after he fell in. And that it was right off this here main trail.”

  Joe figured this might be a wild goose chase after all. Without an exact location, it was nearly impossible to locate one little hole within three million acres of wilderness. Dale’s own man had disappeared while standing right beside him. The forest had a way of turning you around, tricking you with it similarities. One tree looks like another, then another, and pretty soon you’re lost. Joe could only hope this damn hole was off the trail. He kept his eye out, looking left to right and moving slowly, knowing how easy it would be to simply walk by it. But then Joe saw something, something that wasn’t part of nature; a bright yellow among the normal greens and browns.

  “What the hell are you doing out here?” Dale asked, startled.

  “We could ask you the same question.”

  “Look, my man died from whatever happened to him down in this hole. Now I don’t know what hell could have done that to him, but whatever it is came from here.” Dale pointed down into the hole on his right. “Now I owe it to my men to find their killer. So don’t try and stop me.”

  “I was just asking.”

  “So what are you two doing here then?”

  “Same as you.” Joe looked from the tree the rope was tied to and followed it down into the hole. “We’re going to fix this problem before it gets out of hand.”

  “So you knew about this?” Dale looked at the shotguns in their hands. “You knew all along and you didn’t do anything?”

  “What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t know shit, okay?” Joe set his rifle against the tree. “Look, I’m here same as you. This thing, whatever it may be, has killed its last person in my park. So if you’re willing, why don’t we do this together? I’d feel a whole lot better going down there with someone else.” Joe gave a nervous smile, taking hold of the rope.

  “Wait.” Dale got to his knees and searched his bag. “Here, you’ll need one of these then.” Dale handed Joe a facemask. “One of my men said there was a lot of smoke down there.”

  “Thanks.” Joe slipped the mask over his face and looked at Andy. “Don’t leave. I might need you to get help.”

  Andy nodded. “Just don’t take too long.”

  Joe smiled, gripping the rope tightly as he rappelled into the darkness. Two things instantly came to him; how dark it had gotten and how very cold, as if he were lowering himself into an icebox. He slid down the rope slowly, careful not to burn his hands or let go and drop to some unknown distance. The last thing in the world he wanted was to fall and break his ankle. He let out a sigh of relief as his feet hit the ground. Joe pulled a flashlight from his belt and turned it on, pushing back the darkness a few feet.

  “Okay, I’m on the ground.” Joe yelled up, stepping aside as Dale’s feet came into view.

  “It’s so damn cold down here.” Dale let go of the rope and rubbed his arms, shivering. He turned on his flashlight. “My God, it’s so big.”

  They moved their flashlights from left to right, seeing no end to this cavern. Dale pulled some duct tape from his bag and taped the flashlight to the barrel of his shotgun. He tossed the tape to Joe so he could do the same. With their weapons loaded and their lights pointed ahead of them, they began their search.

  29

  This was an all-time first; someone waking her up in the wee hours of the morning. Kelly sat up, startled by the early morning knock at her door. She first rolled onto her side and looked at her roommate’s bed, remembering she hadn’t come home last night. Hopefully the knock was Sonia after another long night keeping Stew company; and not about another missing employee. Maybe she’d gotten into an argument with him and decided to come home, but that couldn’t be true. Sonia had a key and wouldn’t need to knock. Besides, she’d probably never been up this early in all her life.

  “Who is it?” Kelly’s voice was heavy with sleep, her eyes barely open.

  “It’s Gretchen Urban, manager of the Inn. May I speak with you please?”

  “Oh no,” Kelly said to herself, looking over at her friend’s empty bed with dread in her heart. She’d gone missing, just like the others. Why else would a snooty bitch like Gretchen come calling at her door so bloody early? She didn’t want to answer. Maybe if she were to lay her head back down and close her eyes, she could open them to find there was no one at the door; just a bad dream.

  “Hello?” Gretchen was impatient, knocking hard.

  “Coming.” Kelly rolled her bare feet over the side of the bed, grimacing at the coldness of the floor. She grabbed her pajama pants and slipped them on before hurrying across the floor to open the door.

  “Oh good.” Gretchen smiled, her face pale from exhaustion, but there was no happiness in her smile. Her eyes were bloodshot and heavy with woe. “I’m sorry to be coming by so early, but I’ve been ordered by the rangers to take a headcount of all employees and inform you of the six o’clock curfew that is now in effect. Anyone caught outside after dark will fall subject to termination of their contract.”

  “Wow, sounds pretty serious.” Kelly gripped the doorframe and leaned forward. “Has something happened?”

  “Oh no, everything’s fine. They just want to make sure that everyone is taking the proper precautions with the fire and all.” Gretchen’s smile never reached her eyes. “Is your roommate here?”

  “No, she’s staying with a friend tonight. I just saw her last night.”

  Gretchen checked Kelly’s name off the list on her clip board. She gave a single nod and moved on to the next cabin. Kelly watched her for a moment, knocking on the door, waking up the next employee to inform him of something she herself didn’t understand. Kelly quickly got dressed and left the cabin, going down the trail toward the dining room for some breakfast, but she stopped outside Janice’s cabin. It looked like every other cabin she’d passed on her way down the trail, but there was a darkness to it. She couldn’t resist the urge. Kelly stepped off the path and knocked on the door, waiting impatiently before knocking again, and receiving no answer.

  It was quite obvious that Janice had not been home. The same pair of pants was folded on the bed, same pair of shoes waiting on the floor for someone to wear them. All her belongings were in exactly the same place they’d been the last time Kelly had pressed her face to the small window. It had been two days since anyone had seen her or Marco, making it official that they had gone missing. Kelly took a deep breath and continued on down the path, telling herself to keep the tears inside, not to lose it; nothing wrong had happened here, no evidence of foul play. As far as any of them had known, Doug and Rowena may have developed some kind of secret romance. They’d made love and gone off together…walking without her glasses? Maybe. It wasn’t completely impossible.

  “Thank you,” Kelly said to a man as he held
open the door to the dining room.

  The line for breakfast was the longest she’d seen it in days; twelve people—eight boys and four girls, most of them restaurant staff. Sadly most of them would go in only to be told to leave, that there wasn’t enough business to sustain them today. Kelly wondered how much longer the park would be open. With the fire threatening their business and all, they couldn’t keep paying them for doing nothing. Then again this was a federal park, and who better to throw money away than the government? Kelly took a plate of scrambled eggs, some bacon and toast, setting them on her plastic tray. She turned and smiled, seeing Stew sitting at a table in the back of the room, all alone with his head down.

  “Hey.” Kelly was cheerful, hoping to set the mood, but the look on Stew’s face told her the mood had already been set to shitty. “Are you okay?”

  “No.” Stew wiped some eggs from his mouth with the back of his hand. “I just have this headache that won’t go away. Like the back of my head is going to blow off or something.”

  “Did you take anything for it?” What Kelly had wanted to tell him was to lay off the sauce and maybe he wouldn’t have such painful headaches, but it wasn’t her place to say. She knew Stew was a very proud guy with a great heart, but it looked as if showing emotions was difficult for him. Booze may be his only means of comfort. “Where’s Sonia?”

  “On her side, snoring very loudly.” Stew cracked a smile. “Sounds like a damn bear.”

  “You don’t have to tell me.” Kelly felt better, using this polite conversation to distract her mind from the impending doom she felt for her friends. But it was always there, lingering like an ingrown hair you just can’t pull; irritating.

  “Did Gretchen wake you up too?”

  “Yes, just a few minutes ago. Kind of scary, huh?”

  Stew nodded, closing his eyes. “Janice and Marco are missing,” Stew said matter-of-factly. He looked up from his breakfast and looked her right in the eyes, pleading with his deflated expression to be told he was wrong; that maybe they’d come back last night.

  “I know. No one has heard from them since we last saw them by the cabins a few days ago.”

  “What the hell is happening here?”

  “Might be nothing. I mean, with the fire and all, maybe they just up and left?”

  “Doubtful. Marco’s roommate said all his shit is still there. No one goes off and leaves all their stuff behind; not even a dumbass like Marco.”

  “There’s no evidence that anything had happened to them.”

  “You sound just like that dick ranger.” Stew stood up from the table, gripping his tray. “I’ve lost my appetite.” He turned and headed off, dumping his trash and then dropping his tray in the bin by the door.

  Kelly sighed, knowing full well how he felt. She herself wasn’t furious with the rangers. That one in particular, Joe, may have been a drunken dick, but he had still believed them enough to follow them to the campsite. Best not to completely hate the only person who could really help them. Out here in the woods they didn’t have any other resource. Can’t just call up the cops and expect to hear sirens anytime soon.

  Kelly looked down to her tray, poking a fork into the watery eggs and the dry bacon. For the first time since she’d stepped foot in the park, Kelly gave serious thought to the fact that maybe it was time for her to leave. It would have been the last thing on her mind five days ago, but things had changed so quickly. Life had a way of pulling the rug out from under you, what mattered in those moments is what you chose to do next. Kelly was torn, knowing it was better to leave before her name ended up on some report, but also wanting to stay and wait this out. Once the fire was out she’d have her park back. She shook her head, wishing Richard hadn’t had to go to work this morning.

  30

  Stew stood on the trail outside the dining room, looking to his right at Janice’s cabin. He didn’t much care for Janice, thought she was kind of a whiny bimbo, but that didn’t mean he wanted anything to happen to her. Now Marco was a completely different story. He was a rude, pompous, sexual deviant and Stew loved him for it. He was everything Stew secretly wished he could be. Stew walked the trail a few more feet and then turned to his right, passing the few employees that were left, a few rather attractive women doing some stretches before heading out for a run. He had a beautiful woman still asleep in his bed, but that didn’t mean he was blind. He watched them run off in their little shorts and smiled, replacing the rage he’d been feeling for a few days with good old-fashioned horniness, something he knew how to handle and could even be cured with a quick trip to his cabin and a friendly wakeup call to his bunkmate. But on his way he saw Marco’s cabin, standing there, looking lonely and empty.

  Stew took the sensation as an omen, telling him he needed to get away, far away from this reminder of why he’d been down in the first place. He turned from the cabins and headed past the Inn, pausing as he came around the front of the building. Parked in front of the Inn was that asshole’s truck. He’d recognize it anywhere with the dented front fender and the sticker of Smokey the Bear on the rear window.

  “Eat this, shithead.” Stew took his Swiss army knife from his pocket and pulled the largest blade, running it along the passenger side of the truck. “That’s what you get,” he told the truck with a wicked smile as he tucked the knife back into his pocket.

  Stew instantly felt guilty, knowing he shouldn’t sink to petty violence. Besides, his mother would rip him a new one if he got sent home for vandalizing a federal vehicle; probably throw him in jail with murderers and rapists. Stew quickly took off across the parking lot, keeping his jog slow and steady so as not to look suspicious. He headed toward the cabins, running past them. There was an odd eerie silence. It felt like running through a ghost town, all those deserted windows staring back at him as he passed. Stew stopped moving and stood in the middle of the road. He expected to see something hiding among the cabins, waiting for him like in some classic horror film, but they were just the same old cabins. He turned back toward the trail to continue with a nice, relaxing jog, but there was a truck parked at the trailhead. He’d seen this truck before. It belonged to one of the firemen. Stew peeked in through the glass, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He thought back to the ranger’s truck and figured maybe they were both in the Inn, doing some kind of systems check on the sprinkler system or some shit. He shrugged it off and headed up the trail, again at a soft jog.

  Unlike Kelly, Stew felt it was a complete waste of time to go running with your MP3 player, using music to cover up what nature was willing to provide you free of charge. None of his friends, even Sonia, took the time to observe him closely. They had come to the conclusion right away that he was a tall, athletic black man and was therefore not very deep or spiritual; just another hotheaded black guy in the woods looking for a little ass. Stew couldn’t deny that getting some ass was a large part of his reason for being here, but the rest was pure idiotic speculation. Stew was a very deep and intellectual individual. Someone who often saw beyond the trees to the beauty that lay within. He enjoyed reading, writing, and especially painting. More than anything, he loved nature. Camping beneath the stars, running through the constellations in his mind. Even Oregon had too much light pollution to see more than a few stars. Back home it was either Orion’s Belt or Polaris, nothing else but an unnatural orange glow to the clouds. Here he could see them all. If his friends wanted to lump him into some stereotype, that was fine with him. He knew who he was. One compliment his mother was willing to provide, although it was on rare occasions, was that he had a very grounded head on his shoulders; college material. Stew smiled, thinking back to when she’d told him that over the breakfast he’d made. Her smile had been genuine and her eyes honest. But as always, she turned and began yelling at his youngest sister, leaving the moment on the table to get cold with the eggs and toast.

  Stew’s moment of
peace and serenity faded as he thought back to the ranger’s truck, revisiting his growing guilt. What if the prick had come by the Inn to tell them some good news about Doug and Rowena? Maybe he’d found them hitchhiking out by Jackson Hole. Who’d look like the asshole then? Stew tripped over a rock embedded in the path while lost in his moral dilemma, falling forward on his stomach. He slid a few feet along the loose gravel and occasional patches of grass, scratching the hell out of his palms and knees. As he came to a stop, Stew pushed himself up into a sitting position, taking a moment to catch his breath. Tiny pebbles and grains of sand had embedded themselves into the small cuts along his hands. Stew swept them away with an agitated growl.

  “What the hell is taking so goddamn long?”

  Stew froze, instantly lowering his shoulders as he ducked beneath the bush. He crawled off the trail and pulled himself behind the nearest tree, taking a deep breath and holding it as he peeked around the trunk. The voice had been so close it had startled him, making him jump. He saw that elderly ranger he’d seen walking around the Inn just a few days ago leaning against a tree no more than ten yards away, with his hands shoved into his pockets. His body language read impatient, nervous, and even fearful.

  Andy would take a deep breath, push off from the tree and look down into a hole in the ground. He’d wait there a moment, turning his head from side to side, give a heavy sigh and return to the tree. Stew wondered what a man could possibly be so nervous about. He looked at the tree Andy was leaning on and saw a rope tied around the trunk. The rope disappeared into the ground, down into the hole. Stew became very interested, wondering why a ranger would be keeping watch at the top of some hole. Maybe to keep someone from falling in? But the rope told Stew that someone had already gone in. But who? And why?