SODIUM Trilogy Part One

by Stephen Arseneault

  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 toward where Kyle had last been seen. When we arrived back at the creek, Allie took us to where I had fallen in. Within a few minutes she 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 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 signs our friend had emerged from the water, but there were 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 there were four deep scratches running half the length of the large part of the bat. Everyone agreed there had indeed been a fight with the bear.

  Bull began to believe the men's 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 sign anyone had indeed been there.

  We had seen no evidence earlier, other than the broken twig, but the two men were highly experienced trackers. 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, Bull reasoned, 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 next made our way up to below the ledge to recheck 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 turned to Craig and Scott, giving them back their weapons.

  They were told to go on their way, as he had no beef with them other than poaching on national park land. 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 toward where they had first been encountered. I was glad to be rid of them.

  With the men away, Bull and Allie 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 he might have gone over the edge onto the small ledge and then might have either fallen or been pushed or knocked off. He was exactly right, but at the time we were still just guessing.

  Allie picked up the tracks heading down from the ledge. They moved 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 following us that was obviously much tougher and stronger than a six-hundred-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 twenty-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 morning’s events. We took a twenty-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, glowing, demon eyes near Laurel Lake had probably been whatever this was. Again, the chills ran down 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, if I could only make it home, 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 usually be reasoned with. Other than relationships, I was good at convincing others to accept what I wanted. That salesmanship however, would not work on wild animals... or whatever this was.

  We made our way back down Rancheria Creek to where we had camped the previous night. Bull and Allie decided it was a place 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. So I decided I might as well leave any attempts at comforting her up to Allie. Allie understood her.

  Bull went looking for small game for our dinner. I was given the task of catching a fish or two. I almost jumped out of my hiking 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. 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 also 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.

  Before darkness fell, I had gathered a large pile of wood. It was enough to keep a roaring fire going all night. Our fire 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 she 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. It was a reaction 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. That had happened quickly, so he didn’t have time to dwell on what might happen and how defenseless he was at the time. And with Allie by his side he had always felt fearless in every situation that had c
ome 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 and what to do. Those were the same thoughts that had been running through my mind for most of the trip, 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. Until such time as we knew different, we would call them demons because of their red, glowing eyes.

  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 as I urinated, 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 at that moment.

  As I made my final tap, the demon eyes appeared directly in front of me. They were fifty yards away and up on a slight hill, staring in a fixated way. For a moment I was frozen in panic. What was I doing out there by myself? Why had I come on this infernal trip? Once my thoughts from the initial panic 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. Every few seconds I would look back at the girls to make sure they were OK.

  We returned and woke them. We sat around the fire for 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 among the rocks. I went back to grab and move as much of our large pile of firewood as I could. We lifted several 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 it was not her that was responsible for Kyle missing. It was the demon. It was 3 a.m. when the red eyes once again appeared. This time it was Allie who spotted them.

  For an hour they sat at a distance, just seeming to stare at us through the darkness. They stayed in the shadows where all we could see were those two piercing, red, demon eyes. We sat ready for an attack that never came. The eyes blinked once and then disappeared from sight for the rest of the night.

  Only one night earlier, Bull would have brazenly walked over to where the demon was and cut loose with his .45. But Bull had spent much of the day making himself apprehensive. A growing fear was normal given the current circumstance. I had been shaking almost the entire night, and I knew it was not from the cool night air. If Bull was to be labeled as scared, then I would be labeled as terrified.

  First light began to show and I was ever so thankful, as my large bundle of firewood was now down to the last few pieces. I was not about to go out looking for more with the demon on the prowl. The fires remained burning just long enough, until the first bit of sunshine began to show on the upper ridges.

  What was this thing that was following us, and what had it done with Kyle? Those questions looped endlessly through my mind. Were we going to make it back to civilization before it came for us? I really didn’t want to know, because as it currently stood, I knew we at least had a chance of making it out alive.

  I stood lookout while the others made food on the remaining fire. We ate, broke camp, and were once again on the trail out. Every step we took back toward civilization gave me a tiny bit more hope. As far as Kyle went, I tried not to think about it, as any scenario I came up with would just make my outlook and demeanor worsen, and none of us were in need of that. Again, in my thoughts, my ingrained selfishness reared its ugly head.

  The trail going back was downhill, which made our pace faster. If we just went straight around Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, we could be at the dam and get to a telephone by mid-afternoon. The weather had actually turned on us during the course of the early morning. The bright blue skies were now a cloudy, overcast gray, and it looked like they would be bringing heavy rains with them. I felt it was all the more reason for us to get out of the area quickly.

  By the time we reached the reservoir, the temperature had dropped a few degrees and a light drizzle was beginning to fall. Within a half hour, the drizzle turned into an all-out heavy downpour, which slowed our progress considerably.

  The dirt turned to mud, and along with the rocks it became a slippery mess. In the span of several hundred yards I had fallen three times. I now sported a bloody elbow and a few extra bruises. I was miserable, and the cold rain was soaking me to the bone.

  We kept looking behind us and up on the ridges for any sign of the demon. The heavy rains had reduced our visibility to tens of yards. It was quite possible the demon was near to us, but we just could not see it. My teeth had been chattering for an hour when Bull put out his hand for us to stop.

  I looked in every direction but could not see a threat. Bull was in deep thought about something. I waited for him to finish before asking what it was. After almost a full minute of us standing there silently in the miserable, pouring rain, he finally turned and told us his thoughts.

  He reasoned that instead of us going to the dam, we should retrace our steps to where I had first spotted the meteor. I thought it was a terrible idea, as we were getting fairly close to the dam... and possibly a phone. With a phone, we could call and get the real help needed to find Kyle.

  In my mind I reasoned it was not good for me to be running myself ragged out there when there were much more qualified people who could be summoned. But I was not about to let that little thought out in that way, so I tried to convince Bull it was best to go directly for help.

  My excellent salesmanship was not working that day. Bull had decided we needed to try to find Kyle as quickly as possible. He reasoned the longer it took, the less likely it was there would be a good outcome for Kyle, if he was even still alive. And his final point sold his position. Who would believe our story? We were just as likely to get ourselves locked up as we were to get a team out to hunt for Kyle. After less than a minute of deep thought, I had come to the same conclusion.

  We reached Wapama Falls about noon. We pulled out one of the tarps and stretched it out on a rope tied between four trees. It was angled to allow the rain to run off the down-sloped end. I desperately wanted the warmth of a raging fire, but we were stuck with having to be happy with not having the rain fall on our heads. We were also now without any fishing or hunting to help out our food supplies. It was dry rations for lunch, of which we had very little.

  We had several crackers and some cheese, and we opened a can of Spam. For an energy boost, I shared a chocolate bar I had been saving for myself. With selfishness generally dominating my reasoning, it was an unusual move for me. I believe that was the first moment I began to care more about the others than myself. The move brought with it a strangely satisfying feeling.

  As the rain fell, we each filled our canteens from the rainwater as it ran off the edge of the tarp. Despite my new loathing for anything wet, I managed several gulps of the water b
efore refilling the canteen. We would rest for twenty minutes and then get back on the trail. I wanted desperately to stay under the tarp, but I knew the sooner we moved, the sooner we would find Kyle, and the sooner our misadventure would be over.

  As we sat in the wet and cold, I began to reflect on the trip. My first day at Yosemite, while riding in the jeep, had been a disaster. But each new day had brought with it a new appreciation for the beauty of the area.

  I had more than a few moments where I imagined how great it would be to have a house on this or that big ridge. The fatigue of the hiking would quickly change my mind, but then the next wonder would appear and I would imagine it all over again. That all ended with Kyle's disappearance. I could not wait to be away from the miserable place that Yosemite was.

  Just after lunch, we hit the trail head that would take us back up to Laurel Lake. I was dreading it, as it was once again an uphill climb. If we had continued on to the dam, which was only another hour in the cold, heavy rain, we would have been out of the dreadful place for good.

  The climb up the trail away from Hetch Hetchy was awful. My boots slid with almost every step and the cold rain continued to fall, occasionally sending a torrent of rushing, frigid water across our path. As we reached the first crest, the rain let up for several minutes, so we stopped for a moment’s rest. We now had visibility of a half mile.

  It was then when we got our first real look at the demon. It was standing on a rock on the next ridge, looking directly at us. I don't think it had expected the slack in the rain, as it had been caught out in the open. It was like nothing I had seen before. It was silvery metallic in color and stood on three spindly legs. It was also not an animal but instead... a machine.

  Since the suspected Roswell crash in 1947, I had been fascinated with the possibility of alien life being out there. It was just a curiosity, and I never dreamed I would one day be looking at something from another world. This thing being from just that was something I was certain of. The fantasy stories of aliens visiting Earth... had become all too real.