The Awakening

by Pierre C. Arseneault

  “Yes. Exhuming bodies would be something he would know more about than me since I’ve never had to do it before. Although I think when I tell him why, he will tell me I’m crazy, which is not that far off from the truth, you know.”

  Both men had an uncomfortable laugh before ending the call.

  “Fuck!” Burke exclaimed as he jerked his hand as he felt the cigarette burn his fingers. He looked at his hand and the cigarette was gone. He saw it smoldering on the ground and watched it for a brief moment before stepping on it to put it out. He picked up the butt and put it in his pocket with the other one. He’d throw them away later when that wouldn’t mean desecrating a grave to do it. Lord knows, if Jin has his way, he would be desecrating a grave or two soon enough, he thought.

  Jin wiped sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his t-shirt as he pocketed his cell phone and knelt to tie his sneaker. He tugged at them making the bow tight. He locked the Bayview Rental SUV he had used to get to his destination and turned to face the thick forest before him. He took a paper map of Oakwood Island from his back pocket and unfolded it. The map had red dots on it, marking places of significance. Like where the old trailer was where they found all the bodies. Another dot in town noted where they had found the dead body of the young woman they originally thought to be Norah Jenkins. With help from Burke, Jin had made a dot for every place they had found evidence of the fungus he now hunted for on the island.

  The coroner and local law enforcements had dismissed the idea that this spore could have anything to do with the bizarre happenings on Oakwood Island, past or present. Jin needed more evidence to substantiate his theories. Of course, Burke believed him, but the detective’s credibility was on a slippery slope already.

  Jin had theories about Maggie’s supposed suicide, most of which he hadn’t even shared with Burke yet. How could he tell Burke he thought the spores were what had killed Maggie? He had no way to prove she didn’t kill herself like everyone thought she did, by throwing herself off the hospital’s roof. Even though she had the largest number of spores collected than any of the other bodies they had found. Nobody had even considered that her suicide was connected to the spores. Jin needed more to prove his theory that the spores had something to do with everything that was still happening. Perhaps the dead animals would contain proof like Burke suggested, thought Jin. Right now, he knew what he had to do and that was to get strong evidence.

  The first place he wanted to check out was where Danny’s remains had been found. According to the chambermaid, Danny had plastic bags containing what was most likely evidence. Since those samples were thrown out, he didn’t know for sure, but it made sense that Danny had known about the fungus, perhaps the location of his remains would hold additional clues. Why would he have been there to begin with? Perhaps it was the location of more samples of the fungus.

  Many thoughts raced through Jin Hong’s mind as he slipped on a small backpack which contained everything he had picked up for his hike: latex gloves, a dust mask, a box of Ziploc bags, marking pens, bug spray, a small first aid kit, water, and some granola bars. He also had some red fiberglass tape, which would do in a pinch to identify important locations. The clerk at the store also strongly suggested he bring a canister of bear spray. The bear population on Oakwood Island wasn’t very large but enough to warrant bringing a can, just in case, insisted the clerk. Jin had said he didn’t want it at first but eventually reconsidered. He wished he had his work gear, which included a small portable lab, but what he’d managed to gather would have to do. He used an app on his phone to mark his location. Then using a compass app, he got his bearings before beginning his trek into the thick forest of Oakwood Island.

  Hours later, Jin sipped water as he wondered how he had gotten lost. He hadn’t remained lost for very long as Jin was very good at reading maps, plus he had used the app on his phone to trace his route. But he had managed to get lost. He had been too preoccupied in taking in all that he could, looking for anything that might not belong in a temperate deciduous forest. If the zombie ant fungus was found here, maybe something else normally native to the Peruvian Amazon might also be found on Oakwood Island. Danny had made the place sound mystical the week before he had left for his Cousin Gertrude’s wedding. Jin had seen and heard a plethora of critters and birds so far but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Plant life here was typical to the climate, nothing stood out to him at all. Am I on a wild goose chase, he wondered?

  Jin looked at the app on his phone again then put the water back in his pack. He pointed himself in the direction where the location of Danny’s death had been marked on the app and continued his hike. He continued to check the app, trying to not get turned around again, and a while later the app indicated that he was at the spot.

  Jin looked around. The only evidence confirming the location where Danny’s remains had been found, other than the location on the GPS app, was a piece of yellow police tape still wrapped around a tree branch. It fluttered in the slight breeze as Jin reached for it, instinctively wanting to pocket what he thought of as litter, adding it to the half-dozen items he had already collected during his hike. But Jin changed his mind as he thought this marker best remain where it was, for the time being anyway. He looked around but the location where Danny’s remains had been found turned out to be completely bare of any obvious trace of spores and showed no sign of anything abnormal.

  Disappointed at the lack of any spores, Jin used his cell phone to take a picture of the police tape wrapped around the branch. He wanted to document everything, and this would help prove where the spores were located he thought. He looked at the picture to make sure it was good enough and noticed something in the background of the image he’d just taken; an odd shape on a branch behind it. At closer inspection, he thought he saw what resembled a face of some type of animal. The more he zoomed, the more blurred and distorted the subject was. Looking up from his phone, he scanned the trees where the thing would have been and saw nothing. But the shape in the picture was there. Jin held the phone up while examining the trees behind the piece of yellow police tape trying to match the image on the phone. He saw the same branches but the lump that looked like a small animal in the picture wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  From behind him, a sudden rustling sound startled him. He spun around quickly, to see what had made the noise but there was nothing there. He couldn’t help but remember all the town gossip of werewolves and monsters in the shadows as he looked about for any signs of life but saw nothing. A new rustling sound came from behind him yet again. He spun around again, now facing the tree with the yellow police tape. Jin thought about digging out the bear spray when he spotted a pair of squirrels leaping from one tree to the next, as they exploded in loud squirrel chatter in the process. One squirrel chased after the other as they darted up one leafy maple tree only to leap to a branch of another nearby tree. The pair of combative squirrels chased each other out of hearing distance. Jin was relieved to find it was squirrels and not a werewolf stalking him as he looked at his arm to see gooseflesh. With all the stories of werewolves and dead animals being found, Jin found himself more nervous in the forest of Oakwood Island than he had ever been in the Amazon of Peru.

  Old wives’ tales, thought Jin as he saw what looked to be a clearing in the trees up ahead. He made his way towards it with renewed determination, forgetting his paranoia of monsters in the shadows. Stepping through thick brush, Jin emerged in the small clearing only to step into something mushy. He stepped aside, hopping on one leg trying to see what was now under his sneaker. A gooey black slime clung to the shoe. Jin looked at where his foot had landed and saw a puddle of blackened mush. Jin leaned closer to what he now realized were guts. Small animal guts were in a blackened pile on the ground before him.

  The part that struck Jin as strange was that there were no flies. Not a single one. A small pile of entrails like this should be covered in flies and yet it was not. Using his cell p
hone, Jin took a couple of pictures of the strangeness before him. He scrapped his shoe on the root of a tree trying to get the gunk off as he checked the quality of the pictures. Satisfied with the images, Jin turned his attention to the small clearing and froze in his tracks. Just above him, dangling from a tree branch was a decomposing rabbit. Suspended on the branch by its mouth, the dead rabbit dangled with its stomach completely burst open with a few small pieces of entrails still dangling from the gaping hole. Jin quickly assessed that the puddle of blackened guts he had stepped in had once belonged to the dead rabbit dangling above him.

  “No fucking way,” Jin exclaimed as he took a step back while lifting his cell phone to take a picture of the rabbit. As he took the picture, the sole of his gut encrusted sneaker slipped out from under him, making him fall backwards, hitting his head on something hard in the process. Stunned, Jin felt the back of his head and looked at his hand expecting blood but found none. His head hurt but perhaps the blow hadn’t been as harsh as he assumed. Unsure if he just hadn’t felt the correct spot, he propped himself up on one elbow and ran his other hand over the back of his head again and still saw no blood. As he looked at his hand, Jin realized that he had dropped his cell phone when he fell.

  Before Jin could sit up, something pounced from the shadows and landed on his chest, knocking him down flat again. A large, deformed rat sat on his torso and before he could react, it hissed and sprayed a sticky, slimy substance into his face. Jin ineffectively wiped at his face with a bare forearm and tried to blink away his now blurred vision. The weight on his chest left as quickly as it had come.

  Jin struggled to his feet and stumbled backwards while using the sleeve of his t-shirt to wipe at his eyes, trying to remove the slimy substance. Something rustled in the tree above him. Something else rustled on the ground before him. He looked up, trying to see through the burning pain in his eyes. Jin’s legs began to tremble as bile rose up from the twist in his stomach. More rustling seemed to come from all around him. Jin turned away from the noise and ran as fast as his blurred vision allowed, stumbling through the brush. Jin stumbled in a clumsy run until he tripped over a tree root and crashed forward. Disoriented and panicked, Jin pushed on until a pain in his side made him stop. He felt his pockets for the cell phone until he remembered he had dropped it somewhere back where that thing that sprayed him. Where the dead rabbit hung in the same way the infected ants had hung once affected by the spores. The rat-thing had spit slime in his face, a gooey pus like substance.

  His eyes continued to burn, and he used what little water he had left to try and wash the slime off. He heard more rustling in the forest and he fumbled in his backpack for the bear spray. He pulled it out as he heard a rustling sound, pulling the cap off he tried to spray towards the noise but with slime on his hands, the can slipped from his grasp. Jin panicked as he heard more rustling and ran in the direction he thought his rental car was parked.

  A large black crow swooped down and landed on a maple tree branch, just above the dangling dead rabbit. The bird cawed several times, breaking the stillness of the moment. It fluttered to the ground, landing next to a shiny, black rectangular object. The crow pecked at it, awakening the device, showing the last picture taken on the phone: an image of a dead rabbit hanging in a tree. The crow cawed a few more times before flying away, leaving the lost cell phone where it lay. Moments later, the screen fading to black as it went to sleep.

  Chapter 13

  Hounded

  Jack Whitefeather sat in his truck, parked at the back of the Oakwood Island hospital parking lot, preparing himself before heading inside. With his head bowed down, his long grey hair and brown hat hid his face from any potential passerby, giving the impression that he was asleep. In deep meditation, he struggled to make the connection to the crow. Something that used to be easy for him to do was now getting increasingly difficult. He couldn’t help but wonder if his agitation had something to do with it. Jack was experiencing real stress for the first time in his life. Always a confident man, Jack had done what needed to be done without worrying about the consequences. Most often the things he needed to do could be done in secret. However, this time, the path he felt he had to take involved killing a child, and this was a decision he struggled with even if he had always known that it might eventually come to that.

  Jack left the truck and snuck into the hospital to check on Edwina Quartley, who had been seriously injured just the day before. Jack needed to know if his fears about Edwina’s injury were correct. He headed to one of the upper floors and found Edwina’s room. He saw Pete Quartley at the bedside of his comatose mother, talking to a nurse. Jack slipped into the room to listen in.

  Edwina Quartley had been a teacher until a nervous breakdown had forced her to give it up. She had found a second career as a mail carrier and had served the island for twenty-six years. Edwina had taken her job very seriously and had done it with zeal. She had loved every aspect of her job, except for the mean dogs. She’d been bitten as a child, and after being bit on six different occasions, she would suffer panic attacks before her shifts. Her fear had a hold of her. She’d find any excuse to not deliver the mail to any house with a dog in the yard. She was on the verge of losing her job, and so Edwina had begun carrying a pocket full of dog treats. She used the treats to bribe and befriend all the dogs on her route, and soon after doing this, her fear of dogs had been abated. She’d overcome her fear and gained the loyalty of the dogs on her route, even the ones other carriers said were to be avoided. Any new dogs on her route would be quickly won over with the help of a pocket full of tasty treats.

  This ritual had recently failed her with one particular dog, a mix of some sort of pit-bull and Rottweiler. It was a large and particularly mean dog that seemed immune to her treats. She had been forced to log a complaint about the dog that she simply hadn’t been capable of bribing.

  When Scott Cudmore had gotten the call from the post office about his dog, he had been confounded. He had argued with the post office manager, explaining that there had to be a mix up as he had no dog. But the manager had insisted that the mail carrier had seen the dog on the front porch of the Cudmore home with a little girl. She had only seen the girl at first but as she had approached the steps, the dog had appeared at the girl’s side. It had barked at the letter carrier with such ferocious intensity that Edwina’s bladder had reacted without her knowing it at first. Her fear of dogs had been abated but apparently not cured.

  A few days later, Edwina had issued a second complaint; the dog had been outside, unattended and untied when she had seen it. It hadn’t barked but had growled and stalked her. She had thrown four treats its way, hoping to win over this beast of a dog. She had slowly started to back away as the canine stared at her with an intensity that made Edwina leave with the Cudmore’s mail still in her hand. The treats she had thrown at the dog had been completely ignored as it had watched her with a disturbing glare.

  A third and last complaint was logged in with her manager and another call to the Cudmore residence made. She had been relieved to see that nobody appeared to be home and no dog was in sight on this particular day. She had approached the house, looking at the front porch, her ears waiting for the slightest hint of sound. When none came, she went up the steps, and looked into her mailbag for the Cudmore’s letters. She dropped several envelopes in the mailbox that was mounted near the front door. She smiled as she heard the wind chimes in the breeze. Looking up at them, she saw an open window upstairs. She noticed a flutter of light brown hair and movement and heard a little girl’s giggles. Stepping down the front porch steps, she kept her eyes on the upstairs window, wondering if it was the same little girl she had seen on the porch the other day. She had thought nobody was home, but maybe she’d been wrong.

  As she took a few more steps, her eyes never leaving the upstairs window, she heard movement coming from the right corner of the house. A quick rustle came in the grass, fast movement r
ushing towards her. She knew before she looked. Her worse fear was rushing towards her at full speed. As soon as she set eyes on the dog, she could have sworn its eyes glowed bright red. The dog barked loud as she started to run down the front walkway. She hurried as best she could with the large mailbag she carried. She ran all the way down the Cudmore’s yard, looking back once. She saw the dog gaining ground and behind it, the little girl stood on the porch, laughing.

  As Jack sat unnoticed behind the divider curtain in Edwina’s room, the nurse told Pete Quartley that witnesses saw Edwina running from the Cudmore house as if she was being chased. Edwina had been looking behind her as she ran, as if something was nipping at her heels but the witness said there was nothing chasing after the mail carrier. In her haste, Edwina had run into the road and stumbled into the path of an oncoming vehicle which struck her, sending the mail carrier rolling off the hood and into the opposing lane only to be run over by a second passing car. The driver of the second car, who had been distracted by his cell phone, had run over Edwina’s legs pinning them to the road. Edwina had screamed at the top of her lungs, blood spraying as she shouted. The witness said she had been shouting “Get it off me!” repeatedly until she had succumbed to her injuries and passed out.

  Everyone now thought the comatose Edwina Quartley had lost her mind. Everyone except Jack Whitefeather. Before coming to the hospital he’d found out from one of the Cudmore’s neighbours that the little girl had been watching from the porch and laughing at the woman as she ran away, just before she was struck by both cars. Jack was sure the Cudmore girl was the reason behind the mail carrier’s critical injuries. Evil had a grip on the little girl and Jack was the only one who knew about it. He was the only one who had a chance to stop it, to prevent things like what happened to Edwina from happening to anyone else. He had to stop this madness for everyone on this island who called it home, for the greater good; he had to do what was necessary.