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 while 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?”
“Andy’s a total spaz, but he’s reliable.” Joe watched him move, feeling guilty for asking so much. “We’re going to need some more men. Some equipment and some guns.”
“That’s not going to be a problem.” Dale nodded, going over a list of potential volunteers. “What are you going to do?”
“There’s someone I have to speak to.” Joe looked off in the distance, off toward the hole. “Someone who might be able to help us.”
32
S
tew couldn’t believe what he had heard. Even now as he was racing back to the Inn, the words still swirling about his head like water in a toilet bowl, none of it seemed real. But he had heard it straight from the prick’s mouth. He’d been seconds away from missing the entire thing. Thank God he’d listened to his anger and not his sleeping foot.
Stew had already been crouching behind the tree for twenty-five minutes, doing nothing but staring at that old ranger. It had been the most uninteresting act of voyeurism of his entire life. The old bastard just stood there, rocking from side to side with his hands in his pockets, pacing nervously. He looked ready to have a nervous breakdown; rising up on his tiptoes, holding it, then lowering back to the ground—anything to pass the time. But then he dropped to his knees and reached toward the hole, taking hold of someone’s hand. Stew was a good distance from Andy, but he didn’t want to risk giving himself up. He couldn’t stand it, not after waiting that long and finally seeing something but not being able to hear it. No way was he going to give up that easy. Stew kept low, running forward with his torso kept horizontal, his hands nearly scraping the forest floor. He dropped and rolled behind a tree just a few feet from where the three men were now sitting.
“Wall to wall, human and animal alike.”
It was that prick ranger hiding under the facemask. Had he really just said what he thought he heard? Stew leaned forward, listening with fascination as they described in gruesome detail what lay beneath them. For a moment he wondered if they knew he was listening, just kidding him, but the look on Andy’s face told him this was no joke. That old fool looked as if he were one hiccup away from crapping his pants, if he hadn’t already. Stew felt bad for the fireman, having lost two of his men, but he couldn’t feel anything but rage toward Joe. Thinking back to that night at the campsite, his complete unwillingness to help. He was a drunk and a loser.
Stew kept low, following them as they began to move, running from tree to tree. He felt like a secret agent, listening to the bad guys’ evil plot. And what a plot it was turning out to be. Something about some underground creature that had escaped into the Inn and was now hunting them. Stew’s heart leapt into his ears as Joe looked up, his eyes starring directly at the tree he was hiding behind. He could hear the silence down by the fireman’s truck and it seemed to go on forever. Thankfully they continued speaking, ignoring what he’d seen as probably some alcohol-induced hallucination. He continued on and laid out their well-formulated scheme. Stew’s smile grew ever wider, shaking his head with all the key plots as if they’d been speaking to him directly. That whiny bitch Andy had almost ruined the whole deal with his yellow spine, but he caved in. Now it was only a matter of time.
Stew pushed off from the tree and looked toward the trailhead as Dale started his engine. Dale waved to Joe and took off. Stew watched Joe walk through the empty cabins, his head slightly cocked as he reviewed something in his mind. Stew ran down the rest of the trail and stayed close, maneuvering between the cabins and finally across the street. He hid behind a large boulder and watched as Joe walked to his truck, taking a moment to run his finger along the scratch that hadn’t been there when he’d left. It was an awesome thing to see someone getting royally pissed and not knowing who to retaliate against. Reluctantly, after slapping the roof and saying a few choice words, the ranger got behind the wheel and took off. Stew waited before his truck reached the main road, a bit surprised to see him turning right when the station was south, but what the hell did he care. Stew just let out a loud laugh of contempt and ran the rest of the way to the Inn.
“Careful!” Gretchen called out from behind the front desk as Stew came running through the main entrance.
Stew didn’t give that uppity bitch the time of day. He sprinted into the ice cream parlor and slapped his hands down on the counter, startling both Sonia and Kelly, who had their backs to him.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kelly asked, pulling back from his panting breath.
“Water please.” Stew wiped the sweat from his brow, surprised he’d broken out from such a quick spurt, but then again he hadn’t really had any fluids today. Plus the elevation had played havoc on him.
Sonia grabbed a glass from beneath the counter and filled it with ice and water from the fountain behind her. It startled her to see him this way, looking slightly panicked. He was usually either very calm, or, lately, extremely grumpy and angry. It was a hard thing to endure when someone you cared for, whether for ten weeks or ten years, fell into a depressed state. Last night he’d looked her right in the eyes and called her a bitch. She knew he’d been drinking and hadn’t truly meant it, but it hurt just the same.