SODIUM:1 Harbinger (8 page)

Allie took their handguns and then Bull began the questioning. The two men claimed to be hunters, which made them poachers since we were in a national park. I had stayed in the woods during the encounter and had come across their packs. With my good hand I dragged the two packs out into the open where the others were standing. One of the packs had a large bear fur rolled up and strapped to the top of it.

Their names were Craig and Scott and they claimed to know nothing of our friend Kyle. They also claimed to have not been following us the few nights before. They only moved up and down this end of Rancheria Creek looking for bear and fox for the fur.

Craig made note of the bear pelt that they had collected that very morning. He thought it had been strange that the bear looked to have been chopped up a bit and then had fallen over the ledge down to the creek bed below.

He noted that if our friend Kyle had done that then he had hacked the bear up pretty good before sending it over the edge. They had not seen Kyle nor had they seen any evidence that he had fallen over with the bear.

Bull was now confused and turned further interrogation over to Allie. She would be fair, but she would also not have any issue with using advanced methods to get information out of the two. She immediately began the threats and the two could tell how serious she was.

We talked for a good 20 minutes with them telling their story of the past several days. Then one of them mentioned the mutilated animals. Bull immediately took over the questioning once again and listened as the two talked about the number of carcasses they had come across that looked like they had been dissected. They were of the opinion that whoever had been doing that had been wasting a lot of good meat and did not know a thing about acquiring and preserving pelts, most of them had been left unusable.

The two had come across the bear carcass early that morning. They had taken what was left of the fur and the good meat and sent the rest down the creek. They again reiterated the fact that they had not seen our friend or anyone else.

In an attempt to appease his captors Craig volunteered to help look for our friend. Bull did not trust the men, but felt it would be good to have the two of them help. They knew the area well.

Allie hung one of the rifles on my pack and the other on her own. The two poachers donned their own packs and we made our way back towards where Kyle had last been seen. We arrived back at the creek and Allie took us to where I had fallen in. Within a few minutes we had retrieved Kyle’s 9mm from the rushing water.

We then continued on to just below the ledge and began our investigation from the beginning. This time we had the two men who had been there first telling us exactly what they had found and exactly where they had found it.

Since they had claimed to have not seen any sign of Kyle, it was decided to once again look further down the creek. It was possible the rushing water had washed his body downstream. We took our time scouring every last inch along the way for any sign that our friend had emerged from the water, but there was none.

When we came upon my bat, still protruding from the branches stuck between two rocks, Bull had Scott wade in and retrieve it. Upon inspection it was easy to see that there were four deep scratches across the large part of the bat. Everyone agreed that there had indeed been a fight with the bear.

Bull was still suspicious of the two men. In the back of his mind he was looking for any sign that the two had at least come across Kyle’s body. Had they hidden it to get the fur and to leave no evidence of themselves having been there? It was a question that weighed on his mind.

There was one aspect of that scenario that did not fit. The two men had left their campsite where it would be easily found. It was as if they didn’t care that anyone knew they were there, certainly not the behavior of criminals attempting to hide anything big. So as time went on, Bull began to believe their story, even though it did not explain Kyle’s disappearance.

As we stood around the creek the others discussed what we might do next. We turned back up the creek and soon reached the area where I thought I had seen someone moving. Bull, Craig and Scott walked over to look for any signs to see if anyone had indeed been there.

There had been no evidence earlier, other than the broken twig, but these two guys were also trackers, so Bull felt three sets of eyes would be better than one. After only two minutes into their search, Scott came across something odd. There was a small almost undetectable smudge on a flat stone.

Bull looked closely and then determined the same mark could be seen on three other nearby stones. It was not an animal track that any of them had seen before, but someone or something had definitely been there.

The tracks, if that was what they were, went almost straight up a steep incline. Whatever it was it had to have had the balance and skill of a mountain goat to maneuver. Allie followed the tracks the other way back down to the creek.

We then made our way up to below the ledge to re-check the area where Kyle would have fallen. The same little smudges were found around where the poachers had said they had first come upon the bear. Bull then turned to Craig and Scott and gave them back their weapons.

Bull told them to go on their way as he had no beef with them other than poaching on national parkland. He told them he would turn their names over to the park rangers when he got the chance so they had better move their hunting to the proper areas.

The two men assured him they would and made their way back towards where we had first encountered them. I for one was glad to be rid of them. Bull and Allie then did their best to determine which direction the tracks were going in and which way they had come from. The smudges were triangular in shape with a point heading in the direction of their travel.

After this discovery we made our way back up Tilden Creek and up onto the ledge to look for signs of the tracks there. Once we knew what to look for they were not hard to find. There had been a struggle and the bear had lost. What we were unsure of was what had happened to Kyle during the bear’s demise. Bull suggested that he might gone over the edge onto the small ledge and then either fell or was pushed or knocked off of it. He was exactly right, but at the time we were still just guessing.

Allie picked up the tracks heading back down from the ledge and they went right over to a set of rocks beside where we had camped the night before. Whoever or whatever this was had been watching us as we slept.

Chill bumps rose on my arms and the back of my neck when I thought about being stalked. This was exactly what I feared about large animals. Now, here was something that had been eyeballing us that was obviously much tougher or stronger than a 600 pound bear.

Again I longed for the safety and security of my dull boring job back in Atlanta. We continued on with our tracking going back down the creek and across and up onto the steep hillside where I had last seen something. It was a slow tiring 20 minute climb to the top, but we were again able to pick up the trail of triangular smudges.

After an hour of walking the ridge I was worn out and asked for a break. We were all getting hungry as it was now almost noon and we had yet to eat anything after the mornings events. We took a 20 minute rest before Bull insisted on continuing. The tracks crossed back down the ridge to along the creek at the exact point where I thought I had seen rocks falling the day before.

We looked closely and there was evidence of a second set of tracks moving up the ridge at the same point. It was decided that whatever it was, it had been following us since at least that point in time. It did not take long before we had pieced together that the red devil glowing eyes near Lake Eleanor had probably been from whatever this was. Again, the chills ran up my spine.

I knew finding Kyle was our most important task, but with the current set of events and the way my brain worked I was once again on the verge of a panic attack. I swore I would never leave the city again.

Maybe back in Atlanta I would get robbed and murdered in an alleyway, but at least I would know why it was happening and by whom. I was not scared of humans as they could at least sometimes be reasoned with. I was good at convincing others to accept what I wanted. That salesmanship however, would not work on wild animals… or on the women in my life for that matter. And who knew what this red eyed beast was. For all I knew it was female too.

We made our way back down Rancheria Creek to where we had camped the previous night. Bull and Allie decided it was a place that we could defend. We once again made camp while there was still a small amount of daylight.

I was exhausted and I knew Susi was hurting too. She however, would not show her pain and had not talked since early that morning. I tried to ask her if she was OK, but all I got back was an empty stare. She was off in her own world, no doubt torturing herself about her last conversation with Kyle.

I knew there was nothing I could do or say to make it better. I decided I might as well leave any attempts at comforting her up to Allie. Allie understood her and was far better at relationships than I.

Bull went looking for small game for our dinner and I was given the task of catching a fish or two. I almost jumped out of my boots when I heard several shots about ten minutes later. Bull returned right after with two rabbits. I on the other hand had no fish.

We cooked up the rabbits and then discussed how we might defend our campsite for the night. We would have to take shifts again. This time there would only be three of us since Susi was not in the mental condition to be left on guard duty on her own.

I wanted the first shift up until midnight as it seemed to be just after that when the visitor was on the prowl. It was again a selfish cowardly act, an act that seemed to be in my nature. I hoped the others might be a bit restless and stay up through a good part of my shift. My hopes were soon fulfilled as Bull was not able to sleep, even though he needed it as much as anyone.

I had gathered a large pile of wood, enough to keep a roaring fire going all night. It would stay well lit at least through my time on guard, I was determined of that. As the last light of day disappeared the girls got into their sleeping bags while Bull and I sat by the fire discussing the day’s events. I could hear Susi lightly sobbing as her and Allie talked quietly for a short time before they dozed off. It had been a difficult day for the group, a day that could not end soon enough.

Chapter 7

As we sat by the fire Bull had a worried look on his face and it was something that I had never seen him have before. Since being a kid he had been bigger and stronger than anyone else, always confident, always in control. He had not been threatened by anything other than the one bear encounter where Allie had saved him. And that had happened quickly where he didn’t have time to dwell on what might happen and how defenseless he was at the time.

With Allie by his side he had always felt fearless in every situation that had come his way. Allie was with us, but Bull did not have that invincible feeling anymore. He was having trouble with not knowing what we were up against. Those were the same thoughts that I had most of the time in my daily life, so I welcomed him to my terrifying little world. He was not happy to be there.

We speculated for several hours about what we were up against and came up with everything from some wild unknown Yosemite monster to aliens like those that had supposedly crashed in Roswell New Mexico ten years before. We settled in on calling them demons because of their red glowing eyes, until such time as we knew different.

The hours sitting on guard and awake at the campfire seemed to drag on forever. When my shift was finally up and before settling in I decided to go relieve myself. I walked over to the closest large boulder and stepped to where I was still in the light, but out of sight of the others. At this point in my life I didn’t really care if the girls were sitting in front of me with a spotlight, but in 1957 it was the modest thing to do.

As I stood there, letting loose a stream, I scanned the surrounding darkness for any signs of the demon. The night was once again extremely dark with only the barest sliver of a moon showing. I had never wished for a full moon before, but I was wishing for one then.

As I made my final tap the demon eyes appeared directly in front of me. They were 50 yards away and up on a slight hill, staring in a fixated way. For a moment I was frozen in panic. Once my reaction from the initial fear subsided I turned and hurried back to Bull and the safety of the campfire.

Bull drew his .45 and walked over to the rock. I followed closely behind with my bat. I pointed to where I had seen the demon, but there was now nothing there. We stood quietly looking into the darkness and every few seconds I would look back at the girls to make sure they were OK.

We returned and woke the girls. We sat around the fire for a several minutes discussing what we might do. There was a small outcropping of rocks by the creek that offered an open area of defense in front and the creek behind with another open area on the other side. We grabbed our packs and set up our mini fortress amongst the rocks. I went back, grabbed and moved as much of our large pile of firewood as I could. We grabbed a few of the larger currently burning tree limbs and brought them over to light another fire on top of a large rock beside us.

We set up a pile of wood to our left and started another small fire going there. This gave us visibility full circle around our rock fortress. Nothing was going to come out of the darkness and be upon us without first crossing into our firelight.

We sat quietly for hours peering out of our fortress looking for any sign of the demon. Susi had come back to life after coming to the conclusion that it was not her that was responsible for Kyle missing. It was the demon.

I was glad to see her back with us as that increased our chances of not only defending ourselves, but of seeing the demon first before it was upon us. It was 3AM when the red eyes once again appeared. This time it was Allie who spotted them.