Hominid (15 page)

CHAPTER 43

T
ess stared out the window at the rain. After coming down all day yesterday, it was finally tapering off, but she still hadn’t been able to get out to the camp. She was waiting for a call from Pax regarding the sample. She was so tense. She couldn’t sit still.
What is wrong with me?

Her computer beeped behind her. She crossed the room and answered it. “Hey, Pax.”

“Hey yourself.”

“Any luck running the samples?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

Tess laughed. “Sorry. How are you?”

He grinned. “Wonderful, and no, I haven’t been able to run the samples yet. But everyone is supposed to be out of the office at lunch tomorrow for a department meeting. I’m going to see if I can get in then.”

Tess bit her lip. “I appreciate you doing this, but I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Hey, no risk, no reward, right?” Pax looked around and then slowly unbuttoned his shirt.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“Showing you my commitment.” He flashed his shirt open, and Tess let out a laugh. Underneath his uniform was a red T-shirt. Emblazoned across the front were the words “Team Sasquatch” above a cartoon picture of a waving bigfoot.

Tess laughed. “Far be it for me to dissuade a member of Team Sasquatch.”

“And speaking of meetings, I need to run to one now. Call you later?”

“Okay.”

Pax disappeared from Tess’s screen.

Tess stayed where she was. She
wanted
to know what bigfoot was. She really did. It was why she had sent Pax the sample.

Today though, she had made a decision. She was going to cancel the grant with Hayes. She couldn’t put Charlie and his family at risk.

A weight lifted off her shoulders at the decision, and she felt lighter than she had in days.

And hopefully tomorrow, she would finally be able to classify them. She smiled. Yup, tomorrow was going to be an amazing day.

CHAPTER 44

A
s Tess walked down the path, her thoughts were on Pax and the results he might have later today.
What do I do with them?

She was so lost in thought, she didn’t immediately realize that the woods had gone deathly quiet. When she did finally notice it, she froze and scanned the area. She couldn’t see anything wrong.

It’s nothing
, she thought. But as she continued on toward her camp, she pulled her shotgun out nonetheless. As much as she enjoyed spending time with the bigfoot, they were not the only predators out here. There were mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, and wild pigs to worry about as well.

Arriving at the campsite, she found a few more footprints over by the log.
Damn it
. Tess grabbed a branch and quickly wiped the prints away. It was only after she’d done so that she realized with a shock that she hadn’t even taken photos of them first. She sat back on her heels, bemused.
Well, I really have turned a corner.

Shaking her head, she dropped her pack. A shadow separated from the tree ahead of her, and her head jerked up. When Charlie stepped forward, Tess put a hand to her racing heart. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.” She looked around. “Where’s Sugar and Mary?”

She grabbed an apple from her pack and tossed it at him. Charlie caught it but didn’t take a bite. He just stood, unmoving.

Tess narrowed her eyes and took a step closer to him. “Is everything all right?”

Suddenly, Tess felt a powerful sadness tinged with fear. For a moment it was all she could think about, and then, just as quickly as the feeling had arrived, it disappeared.

She stared at Charlie. “Those were
your
feelings.”

He’d never done that before. Tess had felt Sugar’s and Mary’s feelings, but never Charlie’s. She had begun to think that projecting emotions was an ability that only the females had.

Charlie held out his hand. Tess started. She’d held Sugar’s hand, even Mary’s one time, but never Charlie’s. But she hesitated. Then she stepped forward and placed her hand in his. Gently, Charlie closed his fingers over it.

A sigh rolled through her giant friend. Then he stepped back, giving her hand a gentle tug.

“You want me to go with you?”

Charlie tugged again, a little less gently.

Tess put up her other hand and gestured behind her. “Okay, okay. Let me get my pack.”

She pulled her hand away and quickly grabbed her bag. When she turned back, Charlie had already started walking away. She strapped on her pack and followed.

Charlie walked quickly, and Tess had a tough time keeping up. At one point, she thought she’d lost him. But Charlie almost immediately reappeared and waited, as if making sure she was still following.
This is not our normal game of hide-and-seek.

Tess had the distinct impression Charlie was leading her somewhere specific. He led her off-trail, deep into the forest, to an area she had never been in before. She looked at the dense trees surrounding her with more than a little trepidation. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” she muttered with a sigh.

As they moved through the woods, Tess did her best to orient herself, just in case Charlie decided to take off. She didn’t want to be stranded. At least she had her sat phone in her bag in case of emergency, which she was very thankful for.

As time wore on, Tess could tell that Charlie was getting frustrated with Tess’s slower pace. When he turned around and gave her yet another impatient look, she muttered, “Yeah, well not all of us have a five-foot gait, you know.”

Finally, Charlie stopped and Tess caught up with him. She slumped against a tree trying to catch her breath. They’d been walking for at least three hours already, and Tess had a feeling they weren’t done yet. She pulled out her water and took a swig.

She looked behind her, trying to memorize the trail from this perspective as well. She knew it was easy to get confused on the return leg. A path in one direction often looked very different when traversed from the other direction.

Charlie let out a howl, and Tess spilled water down the front of her shirt. Her heart pounding, she wiped her chin and looked up at him. But Charlie wasn’t looking at her. In fact, the howl wasn’t even meant for her; despite her pounding heart, Tess could make out a return howl in the distance—in the direction they were heading.

Charlie gave himself a nod and set off again without a word. Tess hastily tucked her water back in her pack and took off after him.

They were starting to lose the light when Tess realized the trees had thinned out. She looked up and saw a mountain peak ahead. Dread filled her.
Please tell me Charlie
doesn’t think I’m climbing that thing.

Not that she couldn’t—exactly. But seeing as how Charlie seemed a little annoyed at how slow her hiking pace was, she was pretty sure he was not going to be thrilled about her climbing speed.

Charlie stopped at the tree line, and Tess stepped up next to him, trying to figure out a way to explain that it was going to take her a lot longer to climb than him. But before she could speak, she caught sight of the figure stepping out of the trees beyond him.

It was another bigfoot, at least ten feet tall.

And he did not look happy.

CHAPTER 45

T
ess took an involuntary step back from the new arrival. But then a calm feeling began to spread through her. She looked at the other bigfoot and felt only trust. Charlie gave her a small smile, and Tess realized that once again he was sharing his feelings.

Tess let out a breath. “Okay. Charlie trusts you, so I guess I do too.”

Charlie walked up to the other bigfoot. He was two feet taller than Charlie and his appearance was more apelike. His chest was broader, his body more muscular. His head was still pointed, but it was rounder than Charlie’s. His face was wider, his nose flatter, and a scar ran from just below his eye to halfway down his cheek.

I really hope that scar wasn’t put there by a human.

She glanced down at the other bigfoot’s feet, and she was surprised to see a divergent big toe. That was something seen in apes, and a Yeti print found in Asia had shown that characteristic as well, but Charlie didn’t have a divergent big toe, and neither did Mary or Sugar.

Was it possible there were two species of bigfoot? Was this one more closely related to
Gigantopithecus
?

Charlie spoke with the other bigfoot, chattering away in the language she had heard Charlie, Mary, and Sugar use occasionally. And the more she heard them, the more complex she realized it was. It was a combination of a series of growls, whistles, and grunts in different tones.

The other bigfoot listened to Charlie quietly, only occasionally making a sound. Finally, he nodded, and Charlie gestured for Tess to walk forward.

Tess looked between the two of them. “Um, something I should know?”

The feeling of trust washed through her again. She looked into Charlie’s eyes and sensed the intelligence and compassion there. And also… fear. But not of this other bigfoot. Something else was worrying Charlie.

The other bigfoot stepped up to Tess. He was almost five feet taller than her. Tess felt like Fay Wray in
King Kong
. She forced herself to stay calm—or at least not run screaming back into the woods.

“Okay, Kong,” she said. “What’s the plan?”

Tess could almost swear she saw him raise an eyebrow. The action looked so human, it stole away some of her fear. Very gently, Kong reached down, picked her up, and slung her onto his back.

Tess’s eyes went wide and she grabbed on to his hair. “Oookay.”

Kong turned and began to scale the rock face. Tess tried to shove all the images of her plunging to her death from her mind. She only partially succeeded. One hundred feet up, she buried her face into Kong’s back. She was holding on so tightly, her hands cramped. And although she hadn’t been to church in a while, she began praying.
Hail Mary Full of Grace…

Halfway up the rock face, Kong stepped onto a ledge. When he moved away from the edge, Tess realized the ledge was actually the entrance to a cave midway up the rock face. She hadn’t been able to see it from the ground. Inside, Kong knelt down, and Tess slipped off his back. Her feet hit the ground, followed quickly by her butt.

Kong looked back at her and gave a snort.

Getting to her feet, Tess dusted off her pants. “Yeah, well, you try riding something about double your size and we’ll see how well
you
do.”

Charlie appeared at her side and looked into her eyes.

“I’m okay,” Tess said, sensing her friend’s worry.

Ahead, Tess could see that the cave narrowed to a tunnel, through which she could see sunlight. Kong had already disappeared through it. Charlie nudged her gently forward before stepping into the tunnel himself. Tess took a steeling breath, and with one last glance behind her, she followed him.

CHAPTER 46

T
ess made her way along the tunnel, her nerves stretched tight. At the other end of the tunnel, all she could make out was blue sky. She really hoped it wasn’t another cliff, because she was going to need a minute before embarking on another climb.

Anticipation and fear rolled over her. She had no idea where she was heading, and she knew she had gone way over the edge with this little trip.
What are you doing, Tess Brannick? No one even knows you’re here.
At the same time, she knew it was an illusion that she had ever had any control here. If she had resisted… well, Charlie could have just brought her anyway.

And the truth was, she really wanted to know what Charlie wanted. She remembered Madge’s words:
I’m betting he’ll let you know sooner rather than later.

So she followed Charlie through the tunnel, accompanied by equal measures of curiosity and fear. After about a hundred yards, the tunnel ended and Charlie stepped out.

Well, here goes nothing.
With a deep breath, Tess stepped out behind him.

They stood on a ledge that was only a few feet above the ground. A giant valley was spread out before her, dotted with clusters of trees and with a lake on the far end.

And there were families of bigfoot everywhere.

Tess stared, her mouth hanging open. There had to be at least seventy of them. A group of juveniles, already five feet tall, played tag in one spot. A gathering of females sat nearby, keeping an eye on the juveniles while they chatted. In another area, she spotted two adult bigfoot carrying a child—a small one, perhaps only three feet tall. To his right was an adult female, carrying another small child.
They must be mates.
In fact, as she looked around, Tess could see more and more evidence of family. Men walked with women, and adults carried children or babies.

Charlie hopped off the low ledge and then gave Tess a hand to help her down after him. As she stepped down, a young bigfoot extracted herself from the juveniles and ran over to her. The bigfoot grabbed Tess in her arms and twirled her around. Tess had to swallow a yell.

Then she looked into the bigfoot’s face and recognized the deep brown eyes. “Sugar?”

Sugar chattered happily back at her. She had grown at least four inches since Tess had last seen her.
Must be some sort of growth spurt.
“You’ve gotten so big, I barely recognized you.”

Sugar crushed her in a hug, and Tess let out a yelp. Sugar immediately placed her gently on the ground, her eyes worried. Tess smiled. “It’s okay. I’m not hurt.”

Four of the juveniles Sugar had been playing with had followed her over. One of them chattered at Sugar, and she answered them. They moved forward slowly, the way you would if you were approaching an animal you didn’t want to scare.

Talk about role reversals
, Tess thought.

Four pairs of eyes studied Tess, and she looked back at them, not sure what to do. One reached out and touched the arm of her jacket. Keeping her voice calm, Tess said, “Go ahead, it’s okay.”

Another touched her hair. Soon they crowded around her, each touching a different part of her. Tess tried to remain calm, but when they moved in close, she lost sight of Sugar and Charlie. Her heart began to pound. They were pushing and poking at her.

“Stop it.” She slapped one’s hand away. One pushed her from the back, and she fell forward, catching herself on another. A hand tugged on her hair, and tears sprang to her eyes. She let out a gasp.

A howl sounded. Sugar yanked away the bigfoot who had grabbed Tess’s hair. She bared her teeth and warned the others with a growl. They all quickly stepped away from Tess. Sugar then pulled Tess in to her chest. She held her with one arm and ran a hand over her hair with the other.

She’s comforting me
, Tess thought with shock
.

Charlie chattered angrily at the juveniles, and they slunk away. Tess tried to calm her heart. What was she thinking coming here? She was so in over her head.

Charlie gestured toward the far valley wall. Tess could make out little alcoves, where more bigfoot congregated. She looked back at the tunnel. Part of her wanted to leave, to escape back to the safety of her camp. But part of her wasn’t ready to go yet. And a smaller part, a part she was trying to ignore, wondered whether she was free to go at all.

Tess looked up into Charlie’s eyes, and once again the sadness flowed from him. Something was wrong. And Tess was pretty sure Charlie wanted her help. Swallowing her fear, she nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go.”