Bitter Cold (5 page)

Dexter’s face went pale. His mouth hung open, but he uttered not a sound. He lay in the snow, jaw gaping like a fish. Jeff elevated the boy’s injured leg. He started to take off his jacket, thinking he could use it as a tourniquet, but then realized something odd. No blood. There was no blood when there should have been pints of the stuff. Severing an appendage like that meant cutting a major artery. And that meant a gushing geyser. He overcame his revulsion and examined the wound. The cut not only looked clean, it also seemed cauterized.

“Jeff! Watch out!” April warned.

Over his shoulder, he saw the black snow coming toward them. It seemed larger, now, the closer it got.

“Get those kids outta here!” he yelled to her, dragging the traumatized boy uphill. The dark creature slowed at the Kawasaki, probing anywhere it could reach. Jeff’s lungs felt on the verge of collapse. His arms were on fire. Still, he pulled Dexter all the way to the top of Dead Man’s Dump.

NINE

“Let me get this straight,” Officer Thomas Jenkins squinted up and down at Jeff. April didn’t like the cop’s attitude already. “You’re saying some kind of animal in the snow bit that kid’s foot off?”

Two emergency medical technicians lifted Dexter’s gurney into the back of the ambulance. It had taken them nearly an hour to get there from Longview, only ten miles away.

“Not an animal,” Jeff adjusted his Mariners cap. “But something. Some kind of…creature.”

“A creature?” the cop leered. “What’re we talkin’ here, Jeff? Some kind of alien or something?”

April announced, “It wasn’t an alien. But it wasn’t anything science has ever seen. Tell me, Officer, have you heard of any other cases like this? Strange occurrences, sightings of dark, amorphous creatures, or weird, unexplained injuries, even deaths?”

Jenkins’s forehead wrinkled under his hat. He looked down and noticed the recorder in April’s hands.

“She’s a reporter,” Jeff said. “Works for The Oregon Daily. April Murray, Tommy Jenkins”

She shook his hand. “I’m interested in whether or not you’ve had any cases like this before. Any at all. Especially since the Trojan tower implosion.”

“Murray,” Jenkins repeated. “That’s right. You’re the one feeding a bunch of hysteria about some non-existent radiation leak caused by the earthquake. You know, you should be ashamed of yourself. You people in the media. You’re all alike. Always trying to create hype so you can make more money.”

“I’m trying to get to the truth,” April returned fire. “What if there
was
a leak? The plant is right there. Three hundred and eighty tons of spent nuclear fuel, just sitting there. Wouldn’t you want to know if it’s safe? Wouldn’t you want to know if it’s set something loose into the environment that’s harming kids?”

Jenkins bristled. “Lady, there’s nothing creeping around in the snow down there. You said the kid was riding a motorcycle. He must have slipped and got his ankle caught in the chain. I’ve seen it happen. When I was a kid, my best friend lost three fingers working on his dirt bike. Dexter was pulling all kinds of stunts, right? Sounds like he’s lucky he only lost a foot.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” April argued. “There’s no way a chain can do that. Mangle him pretty bad, yes. But not cut it off like that.”

“Lady, do you really intend on writing about this? In The Oregon Daily?”

“Maybe.”

Jenkins snorted. “Let me tell you something. This town’s still recovering from that nuclear plant closing down, and it’s not helping with you sniffing around, writing about radiation leaks. Now you want to write about a mutant monster in the snow? I don’t know what kind of tabloid you guys are running down there in Portland, but we don’t go for that shit around here. So do us a favor. Go write about something else, somewhere else.”

“Hold on just a minute,” Jeff stepped in. “We’re not making it up. Why would we?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Jenkins eyed him. “Maybe you wanna blog about it. Is that it? You trying to get hits on your website? Trying to go viral?”

“No!” April raised her voice. “We’re not doing this for any kind of publicity. If I were trying to make a name for myself, I wouldn’t be coming here to Podunk Rainier to do it.”

The cop put up his palms. “Lady, if you could hear yourself, I think you’d agree it’s crazy.”

“I know it sounds crazy, but I saw what I saw. Jeff saw it, too.”

“And Dexter,” Jeff pointed to the kid. The EMT’s were strapping his stretcher down, securing it to the ambulance floor. “He saw it, too.”

“Of course,” April lit up. “He saw it, for Christ’s sake. Ask him.”

“Would if I could,” Jenkins said, writing in his leather-bound notepad. “Kid’s a vegetable. Must be in shock or something. He won’t respond to anyone.”

“What about the other kids?” Jeff searched for his son in the small group, gossiping near the emergency vehicles. “Logan! Come here!”

Logan said something to the Mitchell girl, then hurried over, his bootsteps heavy in the snow. “Yeah, Dad?”

“I want you to tell Officer Jenkins everything you saw down there in Dead Man’s Dump. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

Logan’s eyes darted from his dad to April. Then he glanced at Jenkins. He shrugged. “All I saw was Dexter falling down behind his motorcycle.”

“Did you at any time see a black spot in the snow attack Dexter?” the cop asked straight out.

Logan shook his head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Did anyone else see anything strange or out of the ordinary down there?”

“Just my dad, I guess,” he looked at April. “And her.”

“What about the other kids? Any of them say they saw something unusual?”

“You mean besides a kid getting his foot torn off? No.”

“Don’t be a smartass,” Jeff frowned at him.

“Hey, guys,” an EMT interrupted. She’d slipped twice getting to them. “Which one of you has the foot? We kinda need it.”

“That’s right, his foot,” April said. “If it was just caught in the chain, then there’d be a foot. Where’s the foot?”

Jenkins’s eyes drifted to meet hers. Then his head followed. He stared for a second.

“I guess I’m gonna hafta retrieve it, aren’t I?” he sighed. “God, they don’t pay me enough for this shit. I guess it beats getting shot at.”

Jeff intervened. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go down there. Not without some backup or something.”

“Backup!” he laughed. “You’re looking at my backup. Me. Now, step aside and let me do my job.”

Jeff led Jenkins toward Dead Man’s Dump. April followed, though she didn’t feel safe at all. With each step in the knee-high powder, she wondered if that thing was hovering just below the surface. When she stepped through to the ground, she imagined it collapsing on her calf, its sharp, snapping jaws taking her leg off, quick and clean, like it did Dexter’s.

Nothing like that happened. All she saw the whole way was a pristine, cottony-white wonderland. Tall trees bursting with layer after fluffy layer. The ground, the grass, the evergreens, the bare maple and apple and cherry limbs, all painted with the monochrome brush of winter.

When they reached the hill, April didn’t allow Jeff to go any further.

“It’s down there,” she told the cop, pointing at the motorcycle, on its side, already dusted heavily by the perpetual snowfall. “We’re staying right here.”

“That’s all right,” said Jenkins, shaking an oversized Ziploc bag he’d gotten from the medics. “I’ll be right back.”

Jeff lowered his head and allowed his eyes to meet April’s. They stared at each other for a few tense moments as Jenkins plodded into the canyon.

“Deputy Jenkins! Wait!” she made him stop near the bottom, a few feet from Dexter’s abandoned bike. “You can’t do it! Come back!”

“There’s nothing down here!” he shouted. His voice mixed with the faint howl of the chilly breeze. “Do you see anything? I don’t! I gotta get this foot to the hospital, quick. So let me do my job!”

He pushed through the snow to the motorcycle. On his knees, he started digging. Of course, April knew he’d find nothing. She saw Dexter’s foot decompose, devoured by that thing down there. Somewhere.

Jeff broke the silence, making her recoil. “I’m going down.”

“What! No! Why?”

“He’s down there all by himself.”

“You saw what it did to that kid! Why would you want to go down there again?”

He lifted both palms in confusion, then started the hike to the bottom.

“Hurry! It’s getting dark!” she called.

April watched Jeff and Officer Jenkins work together to lift the Kawasaki up on its wheels, propping it on the kickstand. The cop kneeled to inspect the heavy drive chain, while Jeff scanned the snow-covered ground in their near vicinity. April studied the rock outcroppings at the base of the steep canyon walls. They looked especially dark, only due to the setting sun. Same with the coppices dotting the bottom of the ravine. They seemed almost unreal, sketched into the background by some sinister hand. The more she studied the area, though, the more she realized it was only her mind playing tricks on her. The trees were just trees. The rocks were only rocks. No foreign shadows. No eerie, darker than dark areas in the snow.

She wondered for a second if the whole thing wasn’t just some freak misunderstanding. Maybe she and Jeff had seen something else. An oil stain? That bike sure looked old and leaky. Maybe they’d just imagined it was crawling toward them when, actually, it was only hot oil melting the snow. That wouldn’t have explained why nobody else saw it but she and Jeff, though. None of the kids said a word about it. None of them. That was odd.

“Get outta my way!” she heard the cop’s voice booming through the small valley. She realized her focus had drifted from the two men, so she didn’t get to see what had happened. The deputy left Jeff behind, scrambling up the miniature mountain, slipping, digging with his hands, and taking most of it on all-fours.

When he reached the top, he met April with wide eyes. “No foot,” he said, and hurried on, headed to his waiting SUV. “Animals must have gotten it already. Oh well.”

“What did you see?” April yelled. “You saw it, didn’t you?”

Jenkins ran, kept running, and didn’t look back. Jeff climbed next to April and pulled her along.

TEN

THEY FOLLOWED THEIR OWN tracks to Jeff’s house again, the majestic old Tudor April admired so much. Only now, she didn’t get the same gentle, comfortable feeling as before.

Logan ran out the front door to meet them as they hurried up the walk. Still in his full outerwear, he seemed apprehensive. “Some kids wanna go back and move Dexter’s bike so we can sled some more. I’m gonna go with them, ‘kay?”

Jeff’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me! Hell no!”

“Why! You heard the cop. He said it was an accident. A freak event, that’s all. You’re bugging out over nothing, and it’s making us look like mutants. Everybody’s talking about it. Laughing at you. Laughing at me.”

“I don’t care if they make a goddam dirty limerick about me living in Nantucket. I’m not letting you go back down into that place. You hear me? And those kids don’t need to be going down there, either. In fact, I’m gonna go warn their parents.”

“Oh yeah? And what are you gonna tell them?” Logan crossed his arms. “That there’s a monster down there?”

“I saw something, Logan. I don’t know what it was, but I saw something,” he pointed at April. “She saw it, too.”

She nodded. “It’s just like your dad described. A dark spot in snow. It attacked that kid, and it’ll get someone else if they go down there. I know it will.”

“This is just great,” Logan shook off his gloves. “You know what? You two are perfect for each other. Perfect mental cases.”

Jeff looked mystified. “You’re telling me you didn’t see anything? Nobody? Not one of you kids saw anything? I find that hard to believe.”

“You rushed us away from the hill so fast, Dad,” Logan became animated, flinging his hands in the air. “The kids waited at the clearing near the Mitchell’s old orchard. Nobody saw any black snow.”

“Unbelievable!” Jeff sounded infuriated. “Get in the house!”

“But, Dad! The kids…”

“I’m not gonna repeat myself!”

Logan turned, and with a disdainful huff, trudged to the door, ripping off his coat along the way.

Jeff shrugged. “Sorry about that. Sorry about all of this.”

“Why should you be sorry?” April said. “You’re not to blame for what happened. But I think I know who is.”

“NWP?”

“The more I think about it, the more I’m sure it was a spent fuel leak, and they’re covering it up. That nuclear plant was directly uphill from Dead Man’s Dump. It’s right on the fault line. Hell, Dead Man’s Dump
is
the fault line.”

“What about Daniel Applegate? That happened way before the nuclear plant was even built.”

April sighed at the ground. “I can’t explain everything. I just have this feeling. Maybe the radiation somehow came into contact with a-a
thing
that already existed down there. And maybe that process did something to it, made it stronger, meaner, hungrier.”

“You might be right,” Jeff looked uneasy. “There’s something I didn’t tell you. I haven’t even told my son, but, years ago, when my friend died, I did see something. I-I saw the black snow. That’s what killed Eddy, I’m sure of it now.”

“Tell me something,” she said. “When you saw it back then, did it move?”

Jeff took off his cap and scratched his head. “If it did, it was slow. But I didn’t stick around to find out.”

“Don’t you see?” she took his elbows in her hands. “Something’s been down there at the bottom of that canyon for a long, long time. Something deadly. Something that lies dormant until it snows. Then it comes out to feed. It used to be immobile, but now it can move. Pretty damned fast, too. Why all of the sudden is it able to move so fast? Why now?”

“The radiation,” Jeff nodded. “You really think that has something to do with it?”

“I’d bet my life on it. They know it, too. I could see it in their eyes. I’m not gonna let them get away with this.”

“Hold on,” Jeff said, holding her arm. “What are you planning on doing?”

“The EMTs said the highway’s been de-iced. I should be able to get home, now. Maybe I’ll stop by and give those NWP guys another visit.”

“I don’t know, April,” his grip tightened. “I’m not sure if that’s such a great idea.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she eased from his grasp. “I’ve gone up against tougher.”

Jeff smiled and shook his head. “I’m sure you’re a badass chick and all, but you’re not exactly an action hero when it comes to driving in the snow. You sure you wanna risk it? You can stay here,” he raised his palms. “I promise to be a gentleman, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s not it at all,” she saw his eyes roll a little. “I mean it. I would stay. But there’s a huge story here. I can’t sit on it, even for a few hours.”

April watched the steady snowfall blanket Jeff’s circular driveway.

“I need another statement from the NWP boys after I confront them about that black snow. Something tells me they already know about it. Now the whole world will know.”

“You sure you can make it?”

“I’m sure,” she glanced him. She liked his eyes. She couldn’t decide if they were blue or green. She adored that.

“Okay. You know where I live,” he chuckled.