Hunters: A Trilogy (113 page)

With a wave of his hand, he summoned the others into the trees.

Ken’s hunch about delving deeper into the wood proved to be a good one. They pushed forward, keeping a sharp lookout for somewhere suitable, and were at least five hundred yards into the wood when they heard a low whistle coming from Tori’s direction. Taking cover on their knees, they turned to look at her. She was kneeling behind a tree and was pointing downwards at something, which from their distant positions, they couldn’t quite see.

Ken rose to his feet and walked across to see what it was she had found.

Drawing near, he crouched down next to the tall woman; she looked up and brushed a jewel of sweat from her forehead.

‘What’s up,’ he murmured. ‘Is it them, the enemy?’

Tori shook her head, and then used the muzzle of her rifle to indicate the place of interest she had seen. Ken followed the line of the weapon and then blinked – what a piece of luck! Just over the lip of a small mound there lay an almost hidden ravine, his eyes made out the head of the long scar, it was fairly narrow and then widened as it led away and began to slope downhill.

Ken looked at Tori and grinned, whispering delightedly: ‘That looks to be bloody perfect, absolutely spot on! You did a good job in even seeing it, that would have been more than easy to walk straight past – let’s go and have a better look, shall we?’

She smiled calmly and led off, picking her way down the steep bank that led into the ravine. The place Tori had discovered was the answer to all of Ken’s prayers. Not only was it almost perfectly concealed, but it was also extremely difficult to access, and that was in the daylight – in the darkness of night there would be very little chance of finding this place. The head of the ravine ran gently down for about fifty yards and then steepened viciously, leaving an almost sheer drop of about forty feet that ended in a small pool of dark water.

Ken eyed up the drop and then decided that he would organise a one-off water re-supply later. It would mean having a long walk right around the outside of the ravine and then heading down to the pool from the other direction, but at least they would be able to check out the area whilst they were doing it.

He knew that if they camped up at the head of the ravine then the only way in which they were able to be seen, or attacked, would be by someone coming uphill from the pool’s direction, and that would lead the enemy straight into the teeth of the highly-trained Hunters. Ken realised that this was indeed a gift; he was barely able to see over the sides above him and knew that anyone on top would be having the same problem in trying to see the area where he was currently standing. He turned, and with Tori on his elbow, made his way towards the head of the ravine to find a suitable place for them to rest for the approaching night.

The position of their proposed campsite only improved. Unbelievably, the sheer face of black rock, which marked the end, or beginning, of the ravine, was to hold one last surprise. Sliced into its lichen-covered face was a narrow opening, Ken stood and stared in disbelief at the doorway of what appeared to be a well-hidden cave. He felt Tori give him a dig in the ribs.

She whispered, ‘Come on then, let’s go and see!’

Ken turned to stare at her grinning face, and with a shake of the head, traipsed off towards the beckoning hole in front of him. It was a cave, and a large one at that, the floor was covered with bone-dry sand and must have measured at least ten square yards, stretching out to the glass-smooth walls that rose thirty feet above them to meet in a domed ceiling, which was impregnated with glistening minerals of some sort.

It was absolutely perfect and Ken laughed out loud – the sound echoed off the walls as he turned to Tori. ‘Bloody hell, this is perfect!’ he said, with a grin.

She smiled at him and then nodded at the wall behind.

Ken turned and walked over to where she had indicated. Cut into the wall was a perfectly-formed funnel that ran down from the ceiling above them. Ken fished out his little torch and shone it into where the groove disappeared into the smooth rock above them. By the looks of things it had been a water course of some kind and over the centuries the rush of water had worn away the rock. Then he realised, this whole place must have been an underwater cave – it was no wonder the walls were so smooth, the whole place had been submerged.

He switched his torch off and was just about to leave when another thought crossed his mind. Sliding the torch back into his thigh pocket, he rummaged around in his jacket until he found the old Zippo lighter. He knelt down and leaning across to where the smooth channel met the floor of the cave, flicked the flint wheel, watching as the blue and yellow flame sputtered into life. Seconds later the flame came to attention and then brightened as the unseen draft of air dragged the oxygen upwards and into the hole above.

Ken snapped the lighter shut and rose to his feet.

Turning to Tori, he said, ‘Well, this just gets better, that is the perfect place for a small fire, the hole obviously goes out somewhere above us. I’ll go and fetch the others, you get a little fire going and I’ll stay on top to see where the smoke comes out, okay?’

Tori nodded and set about gathering some kindling from outside the cave’s entrance. Ken headed off to try and find the easiest way back out of the ravine.

Several hours later and they were well and truly ensconced within the perfectly designed, and thoroughly hidden, walls of their temporary fortress. Michael and Junior had been out and laid several traps in the woods surrounding the ravine. Ken and Red had done a thorough reconnaissance of the area; bizarrely, they had been unable to find any trace of the fire, which Tori had even stoked with some green ferns in order to get a decent waft of smoke going. Even though they spent half-an-hour searching, the two big men had been unable to find any smoke exiting from wherever the end of the small hole came to earth above the cave.

Ken couldn’t detect any smell, either. ‘That’s weird,’ he said, looking at Red in bemusement. ‘It must come out somewhere, but where?’

Red grinned and then said something that Ken would not have even considered. ‘Yeah, well perhaps it doesn’t even come out in this world, maybe it comes out someplace else…’ he whispered.

Ken blinked at him in surprise; it was a bloody good point and he realised once more about how little he knew of this situation. Red, on the other hand, seemed to just take everything in his stride, his unfettered acceptance of the situation allowing him a simple clarity of thought, which at times, Ken would have given his right arm for.

‘Some other place… yeah, why not?’ he thought. ‘It sure as hell isn’t coming out anywhere around here, why not somewhere else?’ He nodded at the thought and turned away. ‘Come on then,’ he said. ‘Let’s head down to the pool and fill the water bottles. Red grinned and took the lead downhill towards the small pool.

As it turned out the pool wasn’t as small as they had thought at first. As they approached, Ken guessed that it was at least forty feet wide, and to test how deep the water was he bent down, picked up a small stone and lobbed it into the centre of the pool. The stone plopped into the dark surface and sank without a trace, it was a few seconds before any bubbles surfaced.

‘Looks pretty deep to me,’ Ken said, looking at Red, with eyebrows raised.

The big guy nodded, and then, with a hiss, said, ‘Goddamn it! Look at the size of that!’ Ken spun around and stared at the dark water, his rapidly turning head just giving his eyes a fleeting glimpse of a thick tail slipping beneath the surface of the water. Red grinned, saying: ‘That was one big fish, Ken – look, there’s another one, your stone must have woke ‘em all up!’

He was right, as the men sat and watched they saw several large fish breaking the surface with their heads and then whipping away into the depths, propelled by the strong thrusts of their thick tails.

Red grinned again, saying: ‘I guess you’re gonna have to show the boys some fish-catching tricks, too – huh Ken?’ He reached over and slapped Ken’s shoulder. ‘One thang’s for sure, we ain’t gonna starve here, now are we?’ he said, with a huge grin. By the size of his smile, Ken guessed that Red was more than just pleased. As it turned out, he was pretty much bang on the mark with that observation.

Within an hour, the group of Hunters were sitting around a fairly decent fire, sucking the tantalising white flesh from the bones of four enormous fish which the two boys had caught. Twenty minutes after Ken had shown them how to construct a rudimentary hook and line, from string and sharpened twigs, the two young men had returned, grinning from ear-to-ear. Apparently, a small lump of cheese, stuck onto the end of the sharpened twig, had proved to be irresistible. Once again the younger men had provided yet another fine feast for the ravenous Hunters.

They hadn’t been the only ones who had been busy. Whilst the boys had been sitting down at the water’s edge, happily casting their string lines into the pool, the others had been busy preparing for their night ahead. Jane and Tori had managed to gather a large pile of ferns and other similar plants for their beds. Ken and Red had moved some thick bunches of brambles and foliage over to the mouth of their cave, after only a few trips they had successfully managed to camouflage the entrance way and it was now almost totally obscured from the outside. They had left just enough room between the wall of plants and the cave’s entrance for whoever was on sentry to stand behind. With the cave’s entrance to their rear and the expanse of the ravine sloping away before them, it was the perfect position to watch from, and one that was very difficult to see from a distance.

Tori and Jane had also managed to gather a substantial pile of dry wood that now lay handily stacked by the side of the fire. Ken checked their supply of rations and made sure their loads were evenly distributed so that should they lose one pack, then at least they had things spread between the others and would be able to continue the trek unabated. It wasn’t to be long before they were all gathered in the cave, busily tucking into some of the freshly-caught fish. Tori, who had insisted on taking first watch, stood outside stamping her feet whilst the smell of food made her belly rumble.

All things considered, they would not have been able to ask for a better position in which to spend the night. Ken was determined they should make the most of it, and after ensuring that all the weapons were in good order, he told them to make sure their feet were dry. He made them hang their socks near the fire, checked all of their feet again and took care of those who had any blisters, applying some of his liniments and creams to the soft spots on their feet. The dark coloured fluid that he dabbed onto the inside of Jane’s big toe, where a nasty looking blister had already burst, was so strong that the sting of its fire literally fetched a tear to her eye.

However, in less than a minute, the fire had subsided and in no time at all the weeping skin had already begun to harden and dry. She never asked what the liquid was, being just grateful that her husband knew about things like this. With the pain in her feet subsiding, she lay back on her comfortable bed of ferns and watched the flickering of the fire, letting the warmth of its glow seep into her bones.

By now the blackness of the night outside was almost complete, Ken made sure that the fire was kept low and sent Mikey and Junior outside to see if any light was escaping. The young men soon came back inside. ‘You can’t see a thing from out there,’ Junior said. ‘I went all the way down to the bottom and you would have to be right outside before you’d notice this place.’

He took a seat in front of the fire and reached for the hot water. As Junior poured them a hot drink, Mikey mentioned one other thing. ‘Oh yeah,’ he said, casually. ‘It’s starting to snow down at the bottom of the gulley – I guess that’s weird, because it’s not reached up here yet.’ He looked up and shrugged.

Ken said, ‘Snowing down there, what do you mean?’

Mikey grinned and said that they had seen snow falling over the pond, but when they’d returned to the cave there had been no snow, it was like the weather was on the other side of some invisible line, in some other place. Just as Ken was starting to rise to his feet, Red stuck his large head through the door and informed them that Christmas had arrived.

In curiosity, the men moved over to the cave’s door.

Sure enough, a thick flurry of snow was now blowing across the whole of the ravine. One glimpse at the size of the flakes told Ken everything he needed to know – they would be going nowhere in a hurry if the snow decided to lay, he’d seen this many times before and knew that snow like this was more than capable of reaching ridiculous depths in only a few hours.

He turned back to the fire, told them all to make sure they wrapped up warm and wore a hat when they did their stint on sentry duty. ‘Right,’ he said, ‘I guess that’s it for the night, make sure your weapons are at hand and wake me up at the first sign of trouble, it looks like we might be here for a bit longer than we thought!’

Taking his cue, they all headed for their beds. After a small period of rustling space blankets, the cave was soon in deep silence as they fell into a well-earned sleep. Meanwhile, Red stayed outside and cast his eyes over the dark, snow-filled ravine. His only thoughts were of putting his hands around the Demon’s throat, that and the thought of tucking into some more of that tasty fish as soon as his time on duty was finished. Demons and fish, yeah, what more could a man like Red possibly need?

Ken had been right – they would be going nowhere in a hurry for at least another day. The snow was still falling when Junior had woken him for his spell on sentry in the early hours of the next morning. Standing in the darkness and sipping on a cup of hot tea, Ken watched the flakes as they swirled around the entrance to the cave, adding to the thick layer that lay right across the whole ravine. He knew it would be much worse in the woods above the protective lea of the steep walls that surrounded his position.

‘If this doesn’t let up then we might be stuck here for days!’ The thought alarmed him, although the cave was perfect when it came to sleeping rough. Ken was filled with a sense of unease when it came to thinking about delaying their inevitable encounter with the Dark One. ‘Let’s just get up there and have at it – let’s get this done and dusted, the sooner we get up there the sooner this whole damned thing is gonna be over! God, I don’t want to be stuck in here for days…’ He knew that the thoughts were probably unfair, but, even so. ‘Come on, George! Give us a hand here, will you?’