Bigfoot War (7 page)

“
And people say ethics are a good thing.” He chuckled to himself. He stopped the truck outside the fence surrounding the junction, kept the engine running, and turned to Gerald. “Make it fast, man. I am beat.”

Gerald shook his head with a frown, grabbing up the palm pilot-like work pad beside him, and hopped from the vehicle. The older man disappeared into the power junction as Dirk drummed his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel. He was bouncing along to “Spaceman” on the radio when he noticed it. Its massive shape blended into the trees, making it difficult to see. Dirk thought it was a bear until it moved like a man and he saw it stood on two legs and its upper limbs ended in giant hands not paws. He clicked off the radio and sat staring at it, frozen, sweat beading his skin. His instinct told him to kick it in reverse, push the pedal to the floorboard, and not stop until he was home, but Gerald . . . . He couldn’t bring himself to leave the old man regardless of how much he strained his nerves on a daily basis.

Terrified of agitating the beast, Dirk stayed where he was. All he could think of to do was wait for Gerald to return and pray the monster wandered off before then. Refusing to even turn his head, Dirk cut his eyes in the direction of the junction, trying to see what was keeping his friend.

Finally, Gerald came into view, strolling along, focused entirely on making notes on his pad. Dirk wanted to shout at him, to give him some kind of warning of what lurked in the woods. Gerald’s mouth was formed in an O; the old man was no doubt whistling “Back in Black” like he always did when just putzing along. The creature must have heard him, however, because it came tearing from the trees with a deep, bloodcurdling growl. Dirk had no idea what made him do it, but he floored the gas and the power company truck sped forward to meet the beast.
WHAM!
The thing was caught off balance and was knocked from its feet. It went rolling through the dirt, but the impact caused Dirk to lose control of the truck. In his panic, he slammed the gas harder; the vehicle spun in circles. It careened through the fence around the power junction and into the transistor inside. A shower of sparks filled the air as Dirk saw Gerald leaping to safety and the monster limping toward the old man.

The truck took a lot of damage from the crash. The fuel line or something must have been pulled loose because sparks ignited the vehicle into flames. Heat scorched Dirk’s flesh as a scream left his mouth for the last time.

Amanda

The parking lot of the shopping center was fairly crowded for a Monday afternoon. Amanda rolled her cart full of groceries across the hot asphalt to her car and popped the trunk with the remote on her key chain. As she transferred the bags to the trunk, she made a list of things she had left to do today. Days off seemed
long
when you thought about them coming, but once they arrived, they blew by. Harold’s wasn’t the best place in town to shop, but she refused to go into the super center where she worked on her only break after five days straight with four more starting tomorrow. Harold’s was a quaint little local store that had been around almost as long as the town itself. It was the kind of place where everyone knew who you were and asked how you were doing. The service was great, but the prices were terrible if you lived on a budget. Clark, the store’s owner, did his best, but he simply didn’t have the buying power to match the prices of the big chains.

Out of the corner of her eye, Amanda saw someone walking up to her. She turned to see Lewis, a big grin on his face.

“
Give you a hand?” he asked in his too-chipper voice.

“
No thanks. I got it,” she said, hoping he would pick up she wanted nothing to do with him. He’d chased her ever since her husband passed away five years ago. She had remained single much to the shock of everyone who knew her. She was pushing forty, but was one of the most attractive and fetching women in the whole of Babble Creek. She could feel Lewis undressing her with his eyes; she shuddered on the inside.

“
Looks like rain,” he said, apparently trying to strike up a conversation. A mass of gray clouds were on their way in as the sun began its fall from the sky.

She shook a strand of blonde hair from her face. As politely as she could, she said, “I gotta get home, Lewis. I got to work tomorrow.”

“
Sure thing.” He winked at her. “If you want, I could bring you some dinner later, save you from having to cook.”

Someone screamed from inside the store. Both Amanda and Lewis spun around as a string of shoppers came running out of the building.

“
What the devil?” he said.

“
Run!” somebody shouted at them.

Lewis darted into the panicked crowd, grabbing a teenage boy by the arm, stopping him short. “What is it?” he demanded, yelling into the kid’s face.

“
There’s a dang ape loose in there. It came in through the rear loading area and killed Mr. Clark. It yanked his heart out of his chest and just started eating it like an apple!” The kid, clearly terrified out of his mind, wriggled his way free of Lewis’s hold and sprinted on.

Amanda watched Lewis as he muttered a litany of curse words and took off for his truck. In North Carolina, a lot of hunters kept their weapons proudly on display in their vehicles’ rear windows and Lewis was as southern as they came. He opened its door and leaned inside, taking down one of the rifles that hung inside the truck’s cab. He chambered a round as he started to march up to the store’s entrance. His face wore a mask of smug, good old boy arrogance that said he wasn’t about to stand for this kind of crap happening in
his
town.

“
Lewis!” she shouted. The man was a fool and was going to get himself killed, too.

“
Get out of here, Amanda,” he said. “This is man’s work.”

The store’s main door flew outward into the lot, hitting the ground with a metallic thump along with the sound of shattering glass as shards of it bounced along the pavement. A huge, nine-foot-tall ape-like creature came swaggering out. Its fur was slick with blood.

Lewis paused, clearly taken aback by the thing, his earlier bravado fading as quickly as it had been aroused. Amanda ducked into the driver’s seat of her car and cranked the engine as the ape-thing bounded forward. Lewis’s rifle cracked and was followed by a roar filled with pain and anger. She slipped the car into gear and floored the gas. The car jerked as she ran over the curb in her flight for the main road.

Amanda couldn’t bring herself to look back, and kept driving.

Lauren

Lauren emerged from the autopsy room to find Becca and Powell asleep in her office. Powell sat in a chair in front of her desk, his head leaning against his shoulder, snoring. Becca’s head was on her crossed arms atop the desk.

Lauren cleared her throat as loudly as she could. Powell sprang from his chair, drawing his gun from his holster.

“
Whoa there, slick,” Lauren said, waving his gun down as Becca stirred.

“
So what is it?” Becca asked, her voice thick with sleep.

Lauren laughed. “You mean aside from being the greatest discovery of our lives? It’s the real deal. That thing is a sasquatch. I would stake my career on it. We’re sitting on a goldmine of fame and fortune.”

“
No, we’re not,” Becca said. “That thing is going to be cremated and we’re never going to speak of it again.”

“
Becca . . .” Lauren started, but the look in Becca’s eyes told her it was pointless. “Then why did you have me look at it?”

“
I didn’t. There was nowhere else to hide the blasted thing until it could be disposed of.”

“
And you knew I’d never forgive you if you didn’t,” Lauren said with a smile, and meant it.

“
Did you find out anything else about it?” Powell asked as he holstered his gun and reached for the steaming coffee Lauren kept fresh on the counter across from her desk. She recently got a new pot and the best thing about the purchase was that she made a constant effort to keep it filled.

“
Lots, but nothing that would help you, really.”

“
Help us?” Becca asked.

“
Yeah,” Lauren said, confused. She thought about it for a second. “Oh no, surely you didn’t think it was the only one out there. Sasquatch 101: they travel and live in small family groups. Of course, there have been reports of tribe-like packs as well.”

Powell dropped his freshly-poured coffee. The mug shattered and coffee went everywhere. They both stared at her, eyes wide, mouths partly slack.

She blushed and shrugged. “Didn’t you know that?”

“
Jeff Taylor is a self-taught expert on the things. He didn’t mention anything about packs,” Powell said, “but then again, he’s also a nut.”

“
Taylor was obsessed with this guy in particular. He might not have thought beyond the corpse in there on that table we made.”

“
How many?” Becca asked. Her voice cut into Lauren like a knife. “How many more could we be dealing with?”

Lauren raised her hands, gesturing ignorance. “Depends on if it’s a family or a real tribe. I’d say anywhere from three up, given how rural this area is. We’re pretty secluded here and there’s so much untamed forest out there. There’s got to be at least a family, if not a lot more Taking into consideration the ritualistic scarring on our boy in the other room, though, I’d wager we’re facing a whole tribe.”

“
Whoa, hold up, ladies,” Powell said. “What makes you think we need to deal with the others even if they are out there? I mean, this guy was a freak, right? Most of them are peaceful from what I have heard.”

Becca gave him a look that told him to shut up. “We just killed one of them. If they’re anything like humans at all, that’s going to tick them off a bit.”

“
Yes,” Lauren said. “Even the most peaceful stereotypes of the creatures suggest they do attack if they feel they’re threatened. Beyond that, I would say the markings on the one we killed made him special somehow, maybe their leader.”

“
Markings?” Becca growled.

Lauren nodded. “Dense scar tissue like another of the creatures marked this one for some reason. You know, like Native Americans used to do with the folks they exiled. Some shamans wore similar disfigurations as a sign of their status in the tribe.”

“
So you think our guy was either an outcast or a holy man? I thought the things were animals.” Powell bent over with a handful of paper towels, mopping at the hot coffee on the floor, trying to clean it up.

“
They’ve been growing and adapting just like we have, I would imagine, and since there hasn’t been any real documentation they even exist, much less a study on them, it’s impossible to say what they’re capable of and what they’re not.” Lauren took a breath. “If they do have the kind of social structure like what I’m guessing, you better pray this guy was an outcast.”

“
Why?” Becca got up from behind the desk.

“
Because if he was a holy man, you’ve just started a war.”

The lights in the office suddenly went off. A fraction of a second later the morgue’s backup generator kicked on, turning the room an eerie shade of red as the emergency lights mixed with the fading light that came into the room from the window.

“
Oh, this can’t be good,” Powell said.

“
God help us,” Becca added.

Brent

Brent dropped Rita off at her house. The thick bandages on his mangled hands where he’d tried to stop his impact with the tree made it hard to drive, but he managed. He wasn’t ready for what he found waiting on him as he drove into the sheriff department’s parking area. Over a dozen people stood around outside, arguing amongst themselves. He got out of the car as the people swarmed him, barking questions and begging for answers.

“
Calm down!” he shouted over the voices. “One at a time.”

Cindy pushed and shoved herself a path right to him through the small crowd. It was obvious she was relieved to see an officer back. “Brent, everyone in town has gone wild. The phones have been ringing off the hook. I can’t catch a breath without somebody telling me there’s a monster running loose.”

A kid who played football at the high school that Brent thought might be named Alan spoke. “My friends are missing, Officer Hyatt. I can’t get in touch with any of them.”

Another man complained about the town-wide power outage and telling a tale of someone saying they saw a fire burning up near where the power station junction was.

Pastor Ensley stepped forward. His face was white like he’d seen a ghost. “Officer Hyatt, there’s an ape at the grocery store on 110. I saw it kill Mr. Clark with my own eyes. Lewis Greenwall was trying to shoot it when I left. I came straight here. I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get through on my cell.”

Cindy stuck out her ample bosom, and crossed her arms over it as she gave Brent a look that made him realize what she’d said about the phone lines was true. It was all too much for him to take in. Brent wished Becca was here. She’d know how to handle this mess. He’d always been the department’s muscle. Dealing with people wasn’t his strong suit.

“
The sheriff is on her way. Don’t you folks worry. Everything is going to be dealt with as fast we can do it.” He fought past the crowd, with Cindy trailing after him, and went into the sheriff’s office, leaving the others frazzled, confused, and angry. As soon as he got the door closed, he grabbed Cindy by the arm. “Get Becca down here now!”