by Raylan Kane
The deep ruts in the road beat the hell out of the two trucks as they bounced wildly at top speed. The gargantuan creature kept gaining. The driver of the lead truck kept too much of his focus on the giant bear in his mirrors. He lost control as the road bent slightly to the left. The back end of the pickup spun around and the truck wrapped around a large tree. Gus, with no time to react plowed straight into the lead truck at full speed. A giant yellow fireball exploded outward blowing both trucks and their occupants into a million pieces. The flames shot up into the tree canopies above and lit the tinder dry forest on fire. The huge bear reared up at the sight of the fireball. The flames passed quickly from tree to tree and soon the entire area glowed bright orange. The bear reversed course and bounded off back into the deep woods.
SEVENTEEN
The afternoon rain sent everyone scurrying inside the already crowded Branson Town Council chamber. Mayor Hodges was pleased at the turnout for the impromptu town hall meeting, called only the day before. Bridget Karlsson and her team had set up a screen and a projector at the front of the room. The gallery was packed with locals. In front of the screen the mayor was seated at a long table along with his secretary, the town treasurer, councilor Sherry Brown, Karlsson, her team, Sheriff Lake and Deputy Marsh. The TV and newspaper reporters sat off to one side of the room. The mayor would not grant them permission to film the meeting.
The room was abuzz with fevered chatter. Jen fidgeted in her chair and reached nervously for the pitcher of water just off to her left. A hunk of ice fell awkwardly, missing her glass and landing on the white tablecloth. She wrapped the piece of ice in a napkin and sat it off to the side. She sipped the water and pursed her lips at the strong lemon flavor. She always disliked whenever people would put sliced lemon in water.
“You nervous?” Tom whispered to her.
“Yep.”
“Well, don’t be. You just tell everyone what you saw. It’s all you can do.”
She noted condescension in Tom’s voice. She knew that deep down Tom in no way believed a word of her story. It just wasn’t within him to believe. To reconcile that a creature the likes that Jen had described to him might exist would to turn his worldview upside down. He been a hunter his whole life. He knew the woods as well as anyone in the county. What Jen had described to him was something out of a fairy tale.
Mayor Hodges gave a nod to Bridget and she stood from the table and walked to the podium. She tilted the mic downward and cleared her throat as a test. Someone in the crowd gave her a thumbs up.
“If we may begin,” she said. “I’ve prepared just a brief presentation for everyone, just to layout our recent discovery and to answer any questions you may have. I see there are a few microphones set up out there for you to ask your questions, I would only ask that you wait until I’m finished presenting my material before you begin.”
The room was silent except for a few scattered coughs and a the curious chatter of a toddler. The town had been whipped into a frenzy the last few days with speculation about some of the missing locals and the huge tracks Cain had filmed outside of town. Cain sat in the front row and occasionally made eyes at Jen which she did her best to ignore. Charlie eyed the back of Cain’s head as she sat with her mother. Her boyfriend Corey was not present, he had no interest in sharing the same room with a bunch of cops or anyone else for that matter.
Bridget brought up an image of the huge bone extracted from beneath the service station.
“So, for anyone that wasn’t there, a few days ago this bone was discovered by Deputy Marsh beneath the basement floor of an old service station on 1st Street. After careful analysis, myself along with my team can confirm this is the femur belonging to a previously unknown and undocumented species of brown bear, specifically a grizzly bear.”
The room buzzed with quiet conversation over that revelation. Bridget moved closer in to the mic.
“Now, as you can see, this bone is quite massive. We’ve measured it at 4.12 meters in length.” Bridget paused expecting a reaction from the gallery. She stepped back toward the mic. “That’s just over 13 feet.”
The crowd let out a collective gasp. Mayor Hodges stood from his chair and raised his hand.
“Folks, if we could please. Folks. Let’s give Ms. Karlsson the chance to speak.”
“Thank you, mayor. So, yes, as you can see, this is a significant find. Of course we have more work to do. We’d like to venture out into the field. The bone we’ve pulled out of the ground has been sent back to the university for further study as well.”
The mayor stood again and made his way to the podium.
“I think I speak for all of Branson when I say thank you, Ms. Karlsson, for you and your team for coming here and for providing this valuable information.”
“It’s been my pleasure.”
“Okay, so, does anyone have any questions?”
A man in a green ballcap stood up and shouted, “so just how big was this bear? Are there more out there?”
Someone shouted from the back of the room. Soon others began shouting similar questions from their seats.
Mayor Hodges held out his hands.
“Again, I would ask that people line up in front of the microphones we have placed out there for you to use. If everyone’s shouting out questions, we can’t hold a reasonable discussion.” He pointed to an elderly lady patiently waiting at one of the mics. “Yes, Mrs. Norman, you have the floor.”
“Thank you, Mayor.” The lady said in her frail, quiet voice. “My friend’s husband, Don was out in the woods a week ago. She hasn’t heard from him since. You think a giant bear is what got him?”
The room again grew loud with chatter. The mayor and Sheriff Lake shared an anxious look over the question.
“I think that’s a question best left to the Sheriff,” Hodges said, “and now isn’t really the time. We’re here to discuss-”
“We just wanna know what the hell is going on?” The guy in the green ball cap shouted. “We know about the big damn bone. We wanna know if there’s any more of those things out there? Is that why there’s been so many people missing lately?”
The entire gallery erupted in approval of the man just said. Tom looked at Jen and gave her a nod of support and she stood and walked to the podium. The mayor intervened and put his hand on her arm.
“Now’s not really the time for your story,” Hodges said to her.
“When is?” Jen looked at him defiantly.
“We’re trying to keep control of the room here,” the mayor said.
“You’re not doing a very good job of it.”
Jen stood squarely in front of the podium and the crowd died down in anticipation of hearing her. She glanced around the room nervously. She saw Cain smiling and David near the back of the room looking uncomfortable. The reporters and camera crew sat in their chairs glaring back at her. Hodges gave her a dirty look.
“I just want to say,” she began, “first, Mrs. Norman, it is true, Mr. McNeese has been declared missing. And it’s also true we are actively searching for him. Matter of fact, Deputy Sivers is planning a trip out to Hiller Canyon shortly. I was out there yesterday searching, and unfortunately, I didn’t find him. But, I am also here to tell you about what I did see.”
She turned and looked behind her. Hodges couldn’t hide the contempt on his face.
“What I’m about to tell you is going to sound like a lie. But you know me, and you know I have always done my job with the utmost of integrity. I don’t make up stories.”
“Spit it out!” Someone shouted from the crowd.
Jen continued, “the truth is, I was in Hiller Canyon yesterday, and what I saw-” She looked at Cain and he smiled.
“What I saw,” Jen said, her voice shaking, “was the biggest damned bear I’ve ever seen.”
She waited for the room to calm down. The television reporter stood up.
“As big as that bone that Ms. Karlsson and her team identified?” The reporter asked.
“Well, I couldn’t really say, that bone is just one part.”
Bridget stepped forward. “Based on the femur’s measurements, the animal that it belonged to would have been about 50 feet at the shoulder, that’s on all fours.”
“A fifty-foot tall grizzly bear?” The reporter said looking at Jen. “Is that what you’re saying you saw?”
Jen sheepishly looked to her feet and nodded her head.
The townsfolk in the gallery were fit to be tied and near riotous at this point.
“You expect us to believe that?” Someone shouted.
“Keep in mind folks, this is just one person’s eye-witness account,” Mayor Hodges said.
“I know what I saw,” Jen said, annoyed.
The man with the green hat had commandeered one of the floor mics. “So, just so we have this straight. You’re tellin’ us there’s a massive grizzly bear out there. Big as or bigger than a house. And we’ve got all these missing people out near the canyon. I mean, what the hell are we supposed to do?”
“I’m telling you what I saw,” Jen said. “You can all choose to believe me or not. I don’t have any reason to lie about this. I’m telling you what I saw. And what I saw scared the hell out of me. This thing when it was up on its hind legs was taller than the rest of the forest. Way taller. You’re asking me what we’re going to do about it? I don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough!”
Sheriff Lake walked over and took command of the podium.
“Look, obviously emotions are running high in here. Clearly, we’re dealing with a large predator out in these woods. Now I want to caution everyone here in this room, and you can pass this on to your family and friends, we don’t want any more people venturing out to Hiller Canyon at this point and that goes for most of the surrounding woods around Branson for that matter.”
The crowd acted with disgust at the notion.
“I realize that’s not a popular thing, given how good the weather’s been lately. I get it. But we’re just trying to keep everyone safe.”
“How are you gonna keep anyone safe with that monster out there running around?” Green ball said. “What’s your plan?”
A woman with a child at her hip stood at one of the other floor mics. “Sheriff, I want to know what to tell my family. My husband and my sons love to fish in them woods. What about those tracks that fella on the internet was talkin’ about?”
“Given what we know about the bear that Deputy Marsh saw, I’d say those other tracks are unrelated,” Tom said, “they’re much smaller than what we’re talking about now. And as for your husband and your boys, well, they’ll just have to stay put for now. It’s the best I got at this point.”
“So what’s your plan?” Green ball cap kept prodding.
“Our plan is to keep everyone home, safe here in town. And for those of you living on the outskirts, stay vigilant and call us if you hear anything.”
“But how you gonna catch that thing?” Green ball cap said. “Shoot, a fifty-foot tall bear? How you gonna deal with that?”
A young man screamed from the crowd, “we call got guns, let’s get out there and take the thing down!”
That comment was met with a lot of support from the gallery. Tom raised his hands over his head.
“Nobody is going out and shooting anything,” Tom said. “The last thing we need is more people going out there and getting themselves hurt. Now, I know Deputy Marsh has injured the animal, isn’t that right, Deputy?”
Jen nodded.
“She put quite a few rounds in the thing, for all we know it might be laying out there dead already.”
“Yeah? And what if it ain’t?”
Bridget stepped beside the Sheriff, “if I may, my team and I would be interested in trying to capture this animal, alive.”
“Lady, you must be out of your damned mind.”
“With enough tranquilizer, I believe we could do it, from the safety of a helicopter, of course,” Bridget said.
“So, what are we then,” Green ball cap said, “just sitting here like bait? I say we kill the bastard.”
Mayor Hodges moved to the podium. “These are all options we’re still discussing.”
Cain, who’d remained seated throughout, stood up in the front row. He put his fingers in the corner of his mouth and let out a loud whistle that silenced the room.
“I’ll kill it,” he said with a grin. “For a price. Might even give you a discount too, if you let me keep the hide.”
Bridget scoffed at the cocky big game hunter. “With all due respect, it’s my and the university’s preference to capture this creature alive. We’re dealing with a completely new subspecies of ursus arctos. This is unprecedented, this is history. This animal should be studied and observed while it’s living, not treated as some giant new trophy to put in your mansion.”
“All due respect to you, lady, if that thing’s anywhere near as big as you’re saying it is, you’re not gettin’ anywhere near it in a helicopter.”
“That’s your opinion.”
“Ms. Karlsson, is it?” Cain said. “How many bear hunts you been on? How many times have you observed grizzlies face-to-face in the wild?”
Bridget’s face went red. “Never, but that doesn’t mean that-”
She’d lost the room. Many howled in protest as she tried to speak.
“Mr. Mayor,” Cain said. “This is an easy decision. You’ve got a giant bear, I mean an absolute monster stalking these woods. And it just so happens you have an expert killer standing right in front of you. You’ve got a problem that needs taking care of, and I’m just the man for the job. So let me help you.”
Mayor Hodges and the Sheriff huddled behind the podium whispering to one another.
Bridget spoke into the mic, looking past Cain. “Does anyone else have any questions?”
“Yeah, what about that forest fire I keep hearing about?” One of the locals hollered. Tom heard the question and burst to the mic.
“Uh, that’s all the time we have no folks. No more questions. Please remember what I said. Stay home for now, and wait to hear from us before venturing out into the forests. Thank you for coming.”
The crowds slowly and loudly shuffled for the exit.
“What the hell was that about the fire?” Hodges barked at Tom. “You said far as you knew no one else knew about it.”
“That forestry crew had family here in town, Fred. What the hell was I supposed to do? Let ‘em know their loved ones are dead and put a gag order on them all at the same time?”
The newspaper reporter approached Hodges. “What was that question about a forest fire? Is there a fire that we should know about?”
Hodges smiled at the reporter in the disingenuous way politicians often do. “Now, now,” he said. “People get excited and they exaggerate things and make things up. I haven’t heard anything about a fire.”
This seemed to placate the reporter and she shuffled out behind the rest of the crowd. Cain walked up and greeted Jen. She was genuinely happy to see him, but she stifled a smile as she saw David lingering at the back of the room, watching her with Cain like a hawk. The mayor and Sheriff approached Cain.
“Mr. Falstaff,” Hodges said. “We’d just been speaking about it just now, and Sheriff Lake and I would like to take you up on your offer.”
Bridget was livid. “Mr. Mayor, don’t do this!”
“Amazing,” Cain said. “How’s tomorrow sound?”
“Just how do you plan on doing this?” Tom said. “It’ll take more than a rifle to take an animal that size down.”
“I’m telling you, this isn’t the way to do it,” Bridget said.
“I wouldn’t worry about, Sheriff,” Cain said, cocky as ever. “It’s what I do. I do have one request though.”
“What’s that?”
“I want Deputy Marsh here to come with me.”
Jen looked at Cain with wide eyes. “Are you out of your mind?” She said. “I’m not going back out there.”
“Out of the question,” Tom said.
“I’m afraid I have to insist.”
“You expect me to go out there, after what I’ve been through already?”
“Don’t do it, Deputy,” Bridget gasped in desperation. “This creature may be the only of its kind.”
“I hope to hell it is,” Tom said.
“Who better than you, Marsh?” Cain said. “You already know those woods inside out. And you’ve faced this beast and lived to tell the tale. You’re smart, you’re resourceful and you know exactly what we’re dealing with. I can’t think of anyone better. Other than me of course.”
Tom looked at Jen expectantly.
“Why are you looking at me that way, boss?” Jen said.
“It’s up to you,” Tom said. “What do you think?”
Jen nodded reluctantly.
“No!” Bridget cried.
“Great,” Cain said. “Now about my fee.”
“How much?” Mayor Hodges said nervously.
“For a job like this?” Cain said. “I think 50 thousand ought to cover it.”
“Mr. Mayor, the university’s prepared to cover the costs of tranquilizing this bear.”
“50 thousand dollars? Branson’s a small town, Mr. Falstaff, we don’t have that kind of money,” Hodges said.
“Maybe there’s some other arrangement we could make,” Tom said.
“I think the best maybe I could get the council to approve might be half that amount,” Hodges added.
“Look, you want this thing gone or what? I’m being serious here and the way I see it, you don’t exactly have a lot of options. I’m asking a more than fair price given what it is you’re dealing with out there. Now what’s it gonna be?”
Hodges looked at Tom realizing the brash hunter had him over a barrel. Tom returned a look of resignation at the mayor.
“Okay, Mr. Falstaff,” Hodges said extending his hand, “you’ve got yourself a deal.”