“Kids,” Roy mumbled. “They throw in the towel so quickly, and then their parents coddle them.”
“Your grandfather didn’t show me how to trance for a good year,” Steven said to Jason. “And then, he just told me a few things and sent me off to practice on my own. Kind of like when he taught me to swim by throwing me into the deep end of the pool.”
“As you’ll recall,” Roy said, attempting to defend himself, “I was in the middle of building a trap to catch your demon.”
“A demon?!” Jason asked excitedly. “Did you catch one?”
“It was sort of the other way around,” Steven said. “It caught me.”
“What happened?” Jason asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it another time,” Steven said, unsure about giving Jason any details regarding his deal with Aka Manah. The demon already knew how to use Roy and Eliza against him; he was hoping to keep Jason out of the mix.
“If we’re gonna do this,” Roy said, “we’d best get a move on. I wanna clear it out tonight.”
“What are you clearing out?” Jason asked. “Can I come along?”
“We’re going to go through Michael’s stuff,” Steven said, “before someone figures out he’s never coming back.”
“How are you going to do that?” Jason asked.
“We broke in the other night,” Roy said. “We’ll go in the same way.”
“You broke in?” Jason asked, incredulous.
“We were trying to find information on where he might have taken you,” Steven said. “He’s got a workshop downstairs, full of things. We’re going to raid it before it all gets thrown away or given to Goodwill.”
“You’re going to steal his stuff?” Jason asked, slightly shocked that his father and grandfather would do such a thing.
“I can see you taught him well,” Roy said to Steven. “Fine moral upbringing.”
“Just to destroy it all now,” Steven answered Roy.
“You are going to steal it,” Jason said.
“Listen,” Steven said to Jason, “some of the stuff in his workshop is dangerous. It needs to be kept in the hands of gifted people who know what it is and how to secure it. Some of Michael’s things look innocent, but aren’t. If they wound up in the wrong hands, they could hurt people.”
Jason mulled this over for a moment. “Can I come?” he asked.
Steven looked up at Roy, who nodded. “Sure,” Steven said. “You can come. As long as you promise to do as you’re told while we’re in there.”
“You’re in charge,” Jason said.
◊
Steven slowed down his Honda Accord as he passed through Olympia, knowing exactly where the speed traps were. He’d been this route more times in the past few months than he’d been in the last several years, going back and forth to Eximere.
In his trunk, safely secured in padded boxes, were the items they’d taken from Michael’s basement. Steven planned on keeping them at Eximere, along with the other items already there. He brought a labeler with him so he could start marking the items and cataloging what he discovered about them.
Aka Manah had not shown up to give him the list of items he wanted Steven to search for. Next trip, Steven thought. Maybe he’s following me this time. He said he wasn’t able to get into Eximere, but maybe he wants to know the general area it’s at.
“COP!!” Roy yelled loudly, scaring Steven to death. Steven instinctually slammed his foot on the brake, then pulled it off and regained speed.
“Jesus Christ, I’m doing the speed limit! We’re fine!” Steven shouted back. “You scared me half to death!”
“Don’t brake like that,” Roy said, “he’ll pull us over for the sudden braking!”
“Then don’t fucking yell like that!” Steven said.
“Calm down,” Roy said, “you’re way too uptight. You were obviously daydreaming back there.”
“I was thinking about Jason,” Steven lied. He didn’t want to talk about the demon with Roy.
“What about him?” Roy asked.
“Just wondering if we should tell him about Eximere, you know,” Steven said.
“Absolutely not,” Roy said. “Not yet.”
“That’s what Eliza said, too,” Steven said. “He’ll know we’re hiding something. He’ll figure it out, eventually.”
“We’ll tell him before that,” Roy said, “but I’m still concerned about him. The way he wandered around Michael’s place, the look on his face at some of the stuff we took – he didn’t seem normal.”
“The further we can distance him from the remnants of Michael, the better,” Steven said. “He’ll balance out. Michael really had his hooks in him. We should probably never speak of Michael again around him, let his memory die away. By the way, I don’t think I’ve told you yet, but nice job with that shovel.”
Roy smiled. “That was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done,” he said.
“I’m guessing his ghost is still there, at Devil’s Throat?” Steven said.
“Probably,” Roy said, “in that hidden room with the other Callers and bodies. What a parade of nightmares that room will be, if anyone ever stumbles upon it.”
“I asked Deem to set up a warning of some kind,” Steven said, “so innocent people don’t get hurt. She said she’d figure something out. She’s a bright girl.”
“And resourceful,” Roy said.
“You get into a little bit of trouble with her in that mine?” Steven asked.
“What makes you ask that?” Roy said.
“She told me she thought you were a goner for a moment,” Steven said, “when you two were in there.”
“Oh, she’s exaggerating,” Roy said. “I was covered in snakes. Dozens of ‘em, all sunk into me with their fangs, hanging on. They got no poison in the River, so I wasn’t worried about that. But there was enough of them on me I couldn’t move. She showed up and pulled ‘em off. Like I said, she’s resourceful.”
“You were covered in snakes?!” Steven asked. “How?”
“The light went out on me,” Roy said, “and I was trapped. She had to come around the long way to get me. The snakes would strike and latch into me, then hold on. They were all over me. I fought ‘em off for a while, then they got the better of me, and I went down. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of them, really.”
“Jesus Christ!” Steven said, shocked. “And you didn’t think to tell me about this?”
“What’s to tell?” Roy said. “I was shaking like a hound dog trying to shit a peach pit. She showed up with the light, and they slithered off. End of story.”
“Saved by a girl,” Steven said. “That’s it, isn’t it? You didn’t want to tell me because you weren’t the hero, she was.”
“I’ll admit right now she was the hero,” Roy said. “It don’t have nothing to do with that.”
Steven let it drop. He knew it partly did have to do with that, but he suspected Roy didn’t want to alarm Steven that he’d had a brush with death, either. Roy was a stoic. He didn’t like to admit weakness or that he might have been beaten.
“The real problem down there,” Roy said, “is all those fucked up creatures. Deem told me the mutations from the radiation mean everything you run into might be different. You can’t assume anything. At least up here, when we’re dealing with a ghost, we know what we’re dealing with. Down there, anything can happen.”
“I hope they stay safe,” Steven said, turning onto Highway 101. “Both Deem and Winn were great. We owe them. I don’t know if we’d have Jason back if they hadn’t been there to help us.”
“Well,” Roy said, leaning back in his seat, “they’d best keep their wits about them. Things seem crazy up here sometimes, with all the shit we run into. It’s a damn sight more fucked up down there.”
Steven thought about this for a moment, and he silently wished Winn and Deem the best. They need all the help they can get.
Author’s Note
Although Devil’s Throat is a wor
k of fiction, there are real places and events referenced in it. The book takes some liberties with both, but the following are true:
- Mormons settled St. Thomas in 1865 but abandoned it in 1871. Others moved in after them. They were not the first people to live in the area; Anasazi ruins, called the “Lost City,” are nearby.
- St. Thomas was covered over by the waters of Lake Mead when the Hoover Dam went into operation in 1938. All the residents moved, and the graves of the town cemetery were reinterred in Overton.
- Due to drought conditions in 2002, Lake Mead receded. St. Thomas has been uncovered ever since. It can be toured as part of the Lake Mead National Recreational Area. Only foundations remain, but the remnants of the old Gentry Hotel can still be seen.
- From 1951 to 1992, the US government conducted tests of nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Radioactive fallout from the tests blew east, with southern Utah and northern Arizona taking the brunt of the radiation. The mushroom clouds from the testing were visible from St. George, Utah.
- In 1990, the US Congress, recognizing the damage that had been done to “downwinders,” passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The law was meant to reimburse people living in the fallout areas who had suffered “increased incidence of cancers, non-cancerous thyroid diseases, and congenital malformations.”
###
Michael Richan lives in Seattle, Washington. He was born in California and raised in Utah.
You can contact Michael at www.michaelrichan.com.
Receive a FREE Steven and Roy novella when you sign up for Michael’s email list!
◊
The next adventure awaits!
Downwind: the area of the United States that received the brunt of the fallout from nuclear testing. As a result, humans developed cancers and congenital malformations… and so did the creatures in the River, the place where people with “the gift” see things others cannot.
In Blood Oath, Blood River, the River adventure continues, with Deem and Winn battling the twisted ghosts of Southern Nevada and Utah.
Twenty-year-old Deem is gifted, but she is on her own without her mentor, her late father. Deem’s family is tormented by a strange creature that climbs on their roof at night and infects the house with poison. With help from the charismatic Winn, Deem tries to stop the attacks, but this is only the beginning, with more ghosts, Callers, and mutated creatures to come.
Deem met Steven and Roy when she helped save their son from the ghosts at St. Thomas. She was impressed by Roy’s use of their ancestors’ journals to assist with their work. Deem is confident her father left behind a journal for her somewhere, but her dangerous search becomes riddled with menacing secrets and revelations, putting people’s lives at risk.
Deem and Winn are not alone; they are helped by Awan, a handsome Paiute who knows Native American tradition and can explain the strange forces targeting Deem. They also meet Carma, a friendly soul with a fantastic and valuable secret buried in her house.
Blood Oath, Blood River is a fast-paced paranormal adventure where the mysteries of the River continue!
Pick up your copy at Amazon today!
A complimentary first chapter has been included for you to enjoy!
◊
Please leave your review of Devil’s Throat at Amazon!
And don’t forget to pick up the next volume of The River series,
The Diablo Horror!
The River series:
The Bank of the River
Residual
A Haunting in Oregon
Ghosts of Our Fathers
Eximere
The Suicide Forest
Devil’s Throat
The Diablo Horror
The Haunting at Grays Harbor
It Walks At Night
The Downwinders series:
Blood Oath, Blood River
The Impossible Coin
The Graves of Plague Canyon
The Dark River series:
A
All three series are part of The River Universe, and there is crossover of some characters and plots. For a suggested reading order, see the Author’s Website.
Complimentary first chapter of the first book in The Downwinders series,
Blood Oath, Blood River
Deem pressed herself tightly to the cold stone wall. She looked up – she couldn’t see the top of the winze, which was good – it meant the ghosts up there couldn’t see her, looking down. She could hear the moaning of more ghosts down the adit to her left from where she’d just come. They’d be on her soon. She only had moments.
Trapped! she thought. How’d I let myself get into this?
“Whatever you do, don’t get cornered in here,” she remembered her father saying when they’d enter a cave or an abandoned mine together. He’d been gone for a couple of years now, but the things he used to say were still vivid in her mind. He’d be pissed at me right now, Deem thought, letting myself get caught like this.
She thought she was being nice. It was Erin’s birthday next week, and she thought she’d get her good friend a rare and exotic birthday present – iridium. And not just any iridium, but the stuff from the Tillburton mine near the Utah-Arizona border. The Tillburton had seen some of the most intense radiation fallout from the nuclear testing years ago, and everything in it was fucked up, including the iridium. It was also one of the most haunted abandoned mines in the area.
Erin’s worth it, Deem thought as she started into the mine a half-hour ago. Won’t she be surprised? Iridium was rare, and this fucked up iridium was a dream: special attributes that exhibited themselves only in the River. The perfect birthday present for someone who’s gifted, like Erin.
Yeah, right, Deem thought now, as she pressed herself against the rock. Getting in had been a breeze, and thanks to a device she’d borrowed from Winn, she was able to locate and remove a small piece of iridium easily enough – but getting out was now a nightmare. She carefully removed her canteen and took three large gulps. The concoction stung as it passed the delicate linings of her throat and made its way to her stomach, where it would radiate out and hopefully provide some additional protection for the next few minutes.
The moaning was close now, and she knew the ghosts would be upon her within seconds. She reached up, turned off her headlight, and tried to take shallow breaths.
Total darkness surrounded her. Her ears pricked up, attempting to compensate for her lack of sight. She badly wanted to drop into the River, that flowing, invisible stream of knowledge that most people couldn’t see, but “gifted” people like herself could enter. She knew if she did it would only give her away. Downwind, in the wake of the nuclear testing, the radiation from the fallout changed the things in the River, the same way it changed people. The humans developed cancers and mutations, but the ghosts mutated in bizarre, stranger ways. She couldn’t take the risk that these ghosts might be the kind that get angry if they see someone in the River, or worse, could become corporeal and attack. Not all ghosts downwind could do it, but if these could, she’d be fucked. You had to assume the worst. Best to try and hide.
The moaning increased, and Deem knew they entered the part of the tunnel she was in. Several voices arrived and slowly moved past her, their moaning sending a chill down her spine as they drifted next to her.
“Darla?” one said, calling into the dark.
“You’re a dark horse,” another said, passing by her face.
The room slowly filled with voices and moans. She tried to ignore them. The voices were easier to ignore; the moans were not.
“Mouth to ear!” one kept saying.
She felt their coldness brush her face as they passed by. She wanted to whimper, but she knew better. The voices swirled around her, different timbres and tones, an old woman, a young man, everything in between.
“Darla, is that you?”
“I’ll rip you open!”
“Hand to back…mouth to ear…”
The room reached a peak of noise, and Deem was unable to make sense of anything. She pressed her eyes closed and wished she could close her ears too.
After several painful minutes the sounds began to diminish. Some were going up the winze, some were returning back down the adit.
After all the sounds had left, Deem let herself exhale and step away from the rock wall. She could still hear the moaning above her in the passageway the winze led to – but it was diminishing. She turned on her headlamp.
The adit she was in was empty and silent. She looked up the winze. Silence up there, too.
Time to move, she thought.
She grabbed the wooden ladder and began climbing up the winze. It was a twenty foot climb, and she emerged onto the rock floor of another adit running in two directions.
Let’s hope they went deeper into the mine and not the way I need to go! she thought as she took the route that led to the exit.
She had been trapped by ghosts in mines before. Her father showed her how to hide from them, but he was insistent she not put herself in harm’s way by making sure they were distracted or not active when she went into a mine. Deem thought she had followed his advice, and she grabbed the pulsebox from the floor of the passage as she passed it, heading out. All the good this thing did me, she thought.
The pulsebox was something she and her father developed. It sent out a signal that could be used to either attract or repel ghosts in a mine. This time she placed it near the top of the winze before she descended, hoping it would keep the ghosts away from this junction, an area she knew she had to return through in order to get out of the mine. They must have mutated again, she thought. She would have to fine-tune the box to work against their new state.
Mutations were a constant problem in the River. The congenital malformations humans suffered from the fallout of the testing seemed to diminish after several generations, but in the River, they were still happening, as though the half-life of the radiation didn’t matter. It was one of the reasons she never felt the need to carry one of Winn’s EM guns, although he was constantly offering one to her. She felt carrying one was a waste of time, since there was a good chance the ghost you attempted to use it on might have mutated to the point where the gun wouldn’t work on them. Winn was forever adjusting the guns, trying to make them effective on the widest range of ghosts they were likely to encounter. But what good are they if they’ll fail ten percent of the time? Deem thought. Not good enough odds for me to carry one.
Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) Page 17
