Faithful Shadow

by Howard, Kevin J.

  31

  Dale tied a piece of thin rope around his belt and tossed the rope to Joe. Joe wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to be tied to Dale. For one thing, if the creature grabbed Dale and pulled him off, guess who’d be tagging along? Plus Dale was down here for revenge, meaning he might get so pissed that he’d end up charging down some small tunnel into the creature’s lair; heaven forbid if there was more than one. But on the plus side, Joe was very happy in knowing he wasn’t going to be left behind to wander these extensive tunnels beneath the earth while the batteries in his flashlight slowly dimmed to nothing until finally, he was engulfed by the darkness.

  “Damn there’s a lot of smoke down here.” Dale had to wipe the front of his faceplate. “The fire probably smoked this baby right out of its home.”

  Joe thought that to be the perfect explanation. They’d infringed on its habitat and forced it to react, just as any animal would do. Maybe this thing wasn’t the ruthless murderer they thought it was, and it could quite possibly be just a frightened, misunderstood beast. But then Joe slipped, stepping onto something that slid out from beneath his foot and sent him falling into three inches of cold water. He paused there a moment, on his knees while the water seeped through his pants, taking a second to regain his footing. He turned his flashlight onto the stick he’d slipped on, shocked to see it wasn’t a stick at all.

  “What did you find?”

  Joe bent down and picked up the bone, waving it between them. “This is a human femur.”

  “How can you be so sure? It’s broken at the end and covered with gunk.”

  “Believe me, there’s no mistaking it. You can tell by the thickness and the width here.” Joe ran his gloved finger over the bone, a bit taken aback that he was holding part of a human. Could be Paul’s for all he knew.

  Joe dropped the bone, letting it splash back into the water without care. He was becoming grossed out. He wiped his wet hands on his coat. The water itself began to work itself into his mind, pushing through the folds and crevices of his brain as it might rush through the blacktop of a road. It smelled putrid, as if it had been sitting on the ground of this cave for hundreds of years; animals and people alike rotting in it until it was no longer water but some kind of slimy muck that was now staining his clothing. The smell, so rank and vile, brought a gurgle to his stomach. Even with the mask on he could smell the stench, radiating off the water in powerful waves.

  “Come on.” Dale turned from Joe and began walking, not wanting to linger as the smell had begun to affect him as well. “Let’s find this bitch so we can get the hell out of here.”

  They walked side by side for some time, stepping lightly on the uneven floor. There were so many bones underfoot, slipping out from beneath their weight or merely crushing into dust from age and wear. The deeper they walked, the more bones there were, moving from scatters to layers, eventually coating the ground like leaves. At times the walls became so narrow they had to squeeze through before the walls opened again after a few feet to another giant cavern. Every few hundred feet they’d see natural streams of light spilling down from above; light casting in perfect circles from holes of different sizes. The beams of light filtered through the heavy smoke of the cave, giving the light particles the illusion of weight. It was oddly beautiful.

  “Which tunnel should we take?” Dale pointed to an opening on their right and another on their left. “They both look like a tight squeeze. Or we can just keep going forward.” Dale looked up at the ray of light, waving his hand in front of his face to disperse the smoke. “Where in the park do you think we are?”

  Joe dug around his pocket until he felt the small round object that could only be his compass. He pulled it out and held it before his face, trying hard to see the little needle through the smoke and the condensation on his facemask. Using the back of his arm, he wiped down his facemask to gain some visibility. “If we’ve been heading solid west, which it looks like we have, then I’d say we’re almost to the West Thumb area of the park.”

  “Right where Paul disappeared,” Dale said to himself, speaking slowly as he began running his eyes over the collection of bones in this cavern.

  Joe knew exactly where he was going with this. Given their miles of wandering in the same direction and now another hole above them, it stood to reason that his missing man had fallen victim to Yellowstone’s “trap door creature.” Dale splashed about the water, seeming to forget there could be something lurking anywhere within the millions of places to hide, watching them. But he needed to know, to satisfy his duties as Paul’s lieutenant. If Paul was here, then he would find him.

  “Fabric,” Joe exclaimed, waving his hand for Dale to see. “Looks like they might have been pants at one time.” Joe pulled them from the water, ripping them clear of the skeleton that had worn them. “Sorry about that.”

  “My God, this thing has killed so many.”

  “You’d be surprised how many people can come here and disappear without a trace. Millions of tourists every year from around the globe, sometimes they come alone to do some solitary fishing or soul seeking, then they’re gone.” Joe couldn’t count all the animal and human remains even if he spent ten years in this hole. It was just overwhelming to see, standing in so much death. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Me too, but wait to throw up until we’re topside.”

  Joe nodded, not wanting to make himself that vulnerable down here in the dark, hunched over while retching loudly. And there was the possibility of having this disgusting water splash back onto his face and potentially into his mouth. The thought alone made his stomach roll. Joe lowered the pants back into the water, but something caught his attention. There was an unnatural weight to them, aside from the water and the femur that was dangling by some loose threads. Joe crumpled the pants into a ball and felt something solid inside. He reached into the pocket and pulled out a wallet.

  “I don’t think he’ll mind,” Joe told Dale as he joined him, looking down at the tattered remains in Joe’s hands. Joe flipped it open, pulling out business cards and pieces of paper that may have once been money, but now nothing but a wad of faded paper. “Here’s something.” Joe pulled a small ticket from an inside pouch, surprised it had remained mostly dry. “Oh my dear Lord.” Joe looked up with wide eyes, drowning in the wake of such a startling discovery.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a raffle ticket for the Fourth of July Extravaganza, 1904.”

  They both stared at the ticket with a shared expression of disbelief and amazement, and a strong sense of dread. It had become quite apparent from the bones and the date on the ticket stub that this wasn’t your average everyday woodland creature. It was old. As old as the forest for all they knew. Either that or there were far more than one, and that thought was too horrific to dwell on.

  “Look!” Joe pointed to a dim reflection in the water to their left, catching a brief moment of light before fading back into the darkness.

  Dale rushed over with a glimmer of hope, his flashlight highlighting the unmistakable yellow of a fireman’s coat. He stood above it and lingered a moment, shining his light down on the back of Paul’s coat, his name faded in black ink. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to reach down and turn him over. If he were face down, then he was dead, but it could just be an empty coat for all he knew, laying over some ancient corpse while Paul ran and hid through this endless series of tunnels. But he had to. Dale bent down with shaking knees and gripped the back of the coat, pulling hard to roll the man beneath it onto his back. Dale and Joe both pulled back, shielding their eyes from the twisted remains of Paul’s face. His nose had been torn clean off. Both eye sockets were bare, seeping the foul fluid like tears. The skin about his cheeks and neck had been pulled free of the face, hanging loosely about his chin, like a mannequin made of wax that had been left out in the sun on a hot day. Dale hunched over an
d pulled off his mask just in time. He vomited loudly, spilling his guts on a pile of bones. The sound of his despair echoed madly all around them, mocking their pain.

  Dale wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and felt instantly sick again, his nose filling with the rotten water now staining the skin above his top lip. “I’m going to kill you!” Dale screamed, his voice filling every compartment with its booming rage.

  Joe turned and headed back the way they’d come, using his compass to ensure they too didn’t end up face down in this sewage. Joe glanced back over his shoulder every so often, confirming Dale was on his way despite the thin rope connecting them. He felt sorry for him, walking in silence with his head down, the look on his face hidden behind a mask of plastic and condensation. Joe didn’t need to see his expression to know how he felt; his sunken head, shoulders drawn down, each step shuffling forward said it all. Dale’s body language screamed out to him, begging for comfort or some kind of absolution.

  It took them over an hour and a half to make it back to the rope, standing under the small hole in the ground while the light spilled down on them, bathing them in security. Joe took hold of the rope, struggling with the wetness of his gloves for a good grip. After ten minutes of grinding his teeth and forcing the most he could from every muscle, he collapsed on the soft grass of the forest. Joe sat up to help Dale out of the hole, surprised to see him pulling himself up and out. Joe let out a release of air and fell backward onto the grass and leaves, wanting to lie there more than anything. Just being down there had taken so much out of him, as if the hole itself was alive, sucking the energy from all those who entered like a leech made of water and earth.

  “You guys had me so damn worried I almost went in after you.” Andy crouched beside them, fearful that they might collapse at any moment. His hands were shaking.

  “That’s total bullshit, but I do appreciate it.” Joe gave him a small smile as he pulled off his oxygen mask, thankful to have the cool air run over his moist face.

  “What happened down there?”

  “It’s massive. Probably extends to all corners of the park. This creature’s own little subway system.”

  “Did you find anything?” Andy wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but he had to ask.

  “Bones.” Dale said numbly, gazing off into the forest as he caught his breath.

  “Bones?”

  “Wall to wall, human and animal alike.” Joe was overcome with the urge to laugh, seeing the almost comic look of surprise on Andy’s old, wrinkled face. He rolled onto his side and disguised the sound as a deep cough, knowing it was not the appropriate time to lose his sanity. A laugh right now might rub Dale the wrong way, especially after finding the mutilated remains of his man.

  “But you didn’t see the thing down there?”

  “No.” Dale pulled himself back from the darkness of his own mind, replacing bewilderment with rage. “I want this thing caught.”

  “So do I.” Joe nodded, knowing this carnage would never stop unless someone stepped in. “Dale, tell me again about your man falling in the hole.”

  “We were walking down the trail. He fell in and we carried him out.”

  “What happened while he was down there?”

  Dale thought for a moment, replaying the event in his mind as if watching an old projector. “At first we’d lost communication with him. He wouldn’t answer us back when we called down to him, which worried the hell out of me since he should’ve been just around the hole there. So we sent one of our men down there, Bob. First he couldn’t locate him, but then he saw him twenty feet or so away. He said he was wheezing, looking as if he were struggling to breathe.”

  “What did you think when you saw him? What did you notice?”

  “He just looked sick, is all. Not what I really expected to see after a long fall. No injuries, just sick. Like his skin had gone this pale gray.” Dale thought for a moment, remembering something that had bothered him at the time but he’d forgotten, put away among the numerous other oddities over past few days. “His uniform looked swollen, like someone had filled it with air. I remember now, because Bob commented on how his coat kept shifting. That and the smell.”

  A light bulb went on over Joe’s head. A sudden epiphany struck him, ripping through him as if he’d been hit with a bolt of lightning. That smell, always that damn putrid smell, had followed him everywhere he’d gone in the past few days, hanging about as if it were his body emitting it.

  “The creature’s hiding in the Inn.” Joe spoke quickly, hopping to his feet and heading back down the trail without bothering to wait for Dale and Andy. “The damn thing is hiding in the Inn,” he yelled back over his shoulder.

  “How can you be so sure?” Dale broke out in a speed walk to catch up.

  “It all makes perfect sense now. The missing kids in the woods; the fireman; then that giant leech was carried into the Inn while hiding in Cameron’s suit. It drank out all his fluids and then hid in the closet. That’s what that poor girl saw.”

  “You mean she really saw something looking at her?” Andy felt like a royal prick for treating her like a crazy fool when she’d honestly been terrified. “So last night was also this thing attacking someone?”

  “You bet. I think it must like the darkness.” Joe did a mental recap of all the facts, startled at how much he was able to process while not under the influence. “The campers disappeared at night, same with whoever the thing ate last night.”

  “Paul fell into the hole around dusk, but Cameron was carried out in broad daylight.” Dale shook his head, finding a flaw in Joe’s presentation.

  “True, but the creature was safely tucked away within his coat.”

  “Okay, but why now? We found trousers back there from over a hundred years ago and no one’s ever seen this bitch, so why mess with us now?”

  Joe snapped his fingers. “The fire! All that damn smoke filling its’ cavern. It drove it out to find game.”

  “Okay, fine, but what are we going to do about it?”

  “We need to call in the feds or something.” Andy threw his two cents in, finding the best way to pass the buck. Andy had become all too troubled with the facts Joe had laid out for them. Before, it had been nothing more than a wild theory spewing from a man he respected but didn’t believe due to the booze, but now there was proof. Apparently over a hundred years worth of proof, if not more. Andy wasn’t really clear what trousers they were speaking of, but thinking of something so vicious hiding beneath his legs all these years made his knees weak.

  “No way in hell are we calling in the feds or any other government agency. This is our park, our problem, and we’ll take care of it.” Joe lowered his voice as they reached the end of the trail. He turned and looked behind them, craning his neck to see over Andy’s shoulder.

  Andy turned and eyed the woods, nervous something was now creeping up on them. “What? What do you see?”

  “Nothing. I thought I saw someone back there.” Joe turned and headed back down the trail, stopping beside Dale’s truck. “Listen, I don’t want any outsiders in here.”

  “I agree.” Dale pulled out his keys and unlocked the truck, tossing his bag on the backseat. “I don’t want to have a dozen men spending ten hours debating whether or not they even believe us. Then have them tromping all over the place while it just sneaks out and runs off back into the woods. My men deserve justice.”

  “Then what are we talking about here?” Andy held out his hands, growing angry to mask his fear.

  Joe looked Dale in the eyes and knew they were on the same page. “What’s the status on the fire?”

  “It’s still raging, but there’s no longer a threat to the Inn, at this time anyway.”

  “Maybe there is.” Joe gave a sly smile. “The only flaw in this plan is how we’re going to get everyone out whil
e we search for the damn thing. Well, Mother Nature has given us the perfect answer. Call whoever you have to and tell them the Inn is now in a direct path of the fire. Make something up if you have to.” Joe turned from Dale to Andy. “I need you to go to the park’s human resources, have them get in contact with the National Park Service to declare a state of emergency and issue an evacuation.”

  “You want me to lie?”

  “Wake up.” Joe grabbed Andy by the shoulders. “If you don’t want to go in there with me, fine, but I need you on this. Please, for the park’s sake.” Joe gave Andy a hard look, pleading with his eyes. He felt corny as hell, but this was his life. These trees, the Inn, they’re as much a part of him as his lungs or heart.

  “Okay.”

  “When are we talking?” Dale asked, running the process through his mind, running through the lies he’d have to tell and the appropriate people he’d have to convince. Having the rangers on his side would make this run a whole lot smoother, but still, quite a challenge lay ahead of him.

  “We need everyone out tomorrow morning. Andy, contact the Gardiner school district and get your hands on as many buses as possible. We can have the Old Faithful employees and guests set up temporarily in Canyon or Mammoth.” Joe smiled, energized with the formation of a workable plan. “We can do this.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “For once Andy, grow a pair and get on the ball.” Joe gave him a hard slap on the shoulder. “You’re my right hand man here, now let’s get moving. We have a lot to do.”

  “Fine,” Andy reluctantly agreed, heading out in a slow jog.

  Dale got into his truck and shut the door, rolling down the window. They both turned and watched Andy run. “Do you think he’s going to come through?”