Night of the Sasquatch

by Eric S. Brown

  ****

  Joe’s laughter made the men around him even more uneasy than they already were. One stepped forward to take a swing at him with the butt of his rifle. Joe caught the end of the gun before it made contact with his head. The man holding it let out a yelp and tried to back away. Joe released his hold on the rifle so that the man could.

  “Lower your weapons,” Joe growled. “Can’t you see that I’m a human like you?”

  “We don’t have any fragging clue who or what you are,” the lieutenant snapped.

  “My name is Joseph Reynolds. I am just here seeking shelter,” Joe answered.

  “Yeah, right,” a younger man to Joe’s left jeered. “You’re going to tell us that you were surviving out there all by yourself?”

  “Marcus has a point,” the lieutenant said. “How did you get here? Those beasts are everywhere out there. And how many others are with you?”

  “I’m alone,” Joe snarled, holding his temper in check or he would have been up from his knees and tearing into the men around him already. “And as to how I got here, I walked.”

  “Private Felts, disarm this man,” the lieutenant barked.

  Joe’s eyes snapped around to glare at the soldier who had taken a step forward.

  “Don’t even try,” Joe warned. “My weapons are mine and they stay with me.”

  “Look here now, mister,” the lieutenant said when he saw that Private Felts had frozen where he was. “Wherever you come from, you’re in the city of Cedarmark now, and I am ordering you to surrender those weapons you’re carrying. I don’t want trouble any more than you do, but I ain’t letting a stranger packing that kind of firepower loose into this city.”

  Joe sighed. He slowly drew his shotguns and pistols, placing each one of the ground in front of him and then scooting to toward Private Felts who collected them. Then shrugging off the pack he slung onto his back during the battle with the Sasquatch, he put it on the ground too.

  “Sword stays with me,” Joe said, looking up to meet the eyes of the lieutenant.

  “I can live with that,” the lieutenant agreed.

  Some of the men around him had lowered their weapons but not all of them. The youth that had taken a swing at him was one of the few that still had their guns trained on him.

  “This city is under the command of Colonel Samuel Flint,” the lieutenant told him. “He’s going to want to see you, Mister Reynolds, and straight away at that. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to him. Marcus, Herald, you’re with us. Everyone else, get back to your fragging posts!”

  Joe rose slowly to his feet. He felt weak but there was no way in hell he’d let these men catch a glimpse of that. Following after the lieutenant, Joe walked along the main street of Cedarmark with two rifles at his back.

  ****

  Colonel Flint didn’t care for being disturbed. He especially didn’t care for being woken up and rushed to his office to meet some yo-yo that had come wandering in from the woods during the middle of the night. The story that a very frightened Private Riggs told him on their way to his office was simply insane. A lone man had fought his way through the retreating pack of Sasquatch that had attacked the wall and been driven back. Riggs told it like the man was some sort of superhuman and just plowed his way through the monsters to the city’s gates. Colonel Flint found it all impossible to believe until he opened the door to his office and saw the man waiting for him there.

  The man sat in the chair in front of his desk. Private Herald and Marcus from the city militia stood with their guns at the ready, watching the man closely. They both appeared spooked by him. The man was a mass of hardened muscle and scars. It only took that one glance for Colonel Flint to know he was dealing with a killer. He doubted that Herald and Marcus could really stop the man if he chose a course of violence as a means of escape from his present situation.

  Lieutenant Wagner was in his office too. Wagner saluted him.

  “This man entered the city in the wake of tonight’s Sasquatch attack, sir,” Lieutenant Wagner informed him.

  “And how did he manage that?” Colonel Flint asked.

  “The gates were opened for him, sir,” Lieutenant Wagner answered.

  “You authorized that?” Colonel Flint glared at Lieutenant Wagner.

  “No, sir.” Lieutenant Wagner shook his head. “The men assigned to the gates took the course of action that thought best in the heat of things, Colonel. I wasn’t present to stop them.”

  “I see,” Colonel Flint said.

  The man in the chair in front of his desk had kept quiet, not saying a word so far.

  “Just who the frag are you, mister?” Colonel Flint asked, addressing him.

  “I’ve already been through all this with your lieutenant,” the man said.

  “Humor me.” Colonel Flint glared at the man.

  “My name is Joseph Reynolds. I’m a survivor from the city of Whitmire,” the man glared back at him as he spoke. “I made my way here on foot seeking shelter and a safe place to hole up for a bit from the beasts.”

  “You made it all the way here on foot and by yourself?” Colonel Flint blinked, stunned by the man’s answer.

  “I did.” Joseph nodded. “Don’t you and your people understand English? I keep telling you the same thing over and over but no one seems to get it.”

  “If I were you, I would watch my tone,” Colonel Flint warned. “You are in no position to question us or how we run things here.”

  Joseph merely shrugged.

  Upon his desk, out of Joseph’s reach, sat two heavy pistols, two sawed-off, double barrel shotguns that looked to have been recently fired, and a wide assortment of other weapons.

  “We took those off of him when he came into the city,” Lieutenant Wagner piped up.

  “That’s rather a lot of firepower for one man to be carrying, Mr. Reynolds,” Colonel Flint grunted.

  “I had an M82 Barrett as well,” Joseph informed him. “I had to ditch it in order to fight my way through the monsters attacking your wall.”

  Colonel Flint’s eyes bugged at that admission. A rifle like that was worth a fortune. Not even the city of Cedarmark’s armory contained one.

  “You could go out there and get it if you want it.” Joseph grinned.

  “No one goes outside the wall,” Colonel Flint said. “Not without an armored escort.”

  It was Joseph’s turn to be impressed. “You still have functional armor units?”

  “Three of them.” Colonel Flint smiled. “So if you have comrades of yours out there waiting for us to lower our guard and make a move on this city, I’m afraid you’ve picked a very bad target, Mr. Reynolds. We know very well how to deal with raiders and looters here.”

  “I’m neither.” Joseph frowned. “I’ve told you that already.”

  “And I’m not buying it,” Colonel Flint snapped. “It’s impossible that you made it here alone. Lieutenant, double the watch on the wall. If his friends come calling, I want to be ready for them.”

  Joseph shook his head. “You haven’t listened to a single word I’ve said to you.”

  “Oh, I have listened.” Colonel Flint sighed. “I’m just not buying what you’re saying.”

  “You need to make a choice, Colonel: either let me go or kill me. This sitting here going around in circles of words is wasting both our time,” Joseph snarled.

  Colonel Flint could see that Joseph had reached his breaking point. The man hadn’t changed his story any. Intimidating the man was proving impossible. He wasn’t used to that. To the people of Cedarmark, his word was law and people jumped when he told them to. This man was something else altogether. Perhaps it was time to change tactics.

  “What do you want, Mr. Reynolds?” Colonel Flint asked. “That’s the real question here, isn’t it?”

  “Like I said, I just want a place to hole up and rest for a few days,” Joseph said. “That’s all I am asking for, Colonel.”

  “And what guarantee do I have that you’re not he
re to cause trouble?” Colonel Flint took a step closer to Joseph with his hand on the butt of the pistol holstered on his hip.

  “You have my word,” Joseph answered him flatly.

  “And if that’s not good enough?” Colonel Flint pressed.

  “Then you better kill me right now because I won’t allow you to lock me up.” Joseph nodded at the gun Colonel Flint had his hand on.

  “What do you think, Lieutenant?” Colonel Flint turned to Wagner.

  “We have all of his weapons and gear, sir, other than that sword on his back.” Lieutenant Wagner shrugged. “It’s your call to make, sir, but we’ve seen no sign of anyone else there in the woods. I can tell you that much. If he did have friends waiting out there to come at us, surely the beasts would have engaged them by now and we would have heard the battle.”

  Colonel Flint wished for a cup of coffee. He couldn’t remember the last time he had one. It wasn’t possible to grow the plants needed to make it in Cedarmark. He settled for a smoke. Colonel Flint produced one from the pocket of his jacket and lit it up. Taking a long drag from it, he let the smoke fill his lungs and relished in the feeling of it.

  “Okay, Mr. Reynolds,” he relented. “I am willing to allow you to stay here for a few days provisionally. If you so much as look at one of my people in the wrong though, I will personally put a bullet into your skull. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal.” Joseph nodded.

  “But before I release you, you’ve got a lot more questions to answer about what happened to the city of Whitmire and what the world out there is like,” Colonel Flint added.

  “Fine by me.” Joseph leaned back in the chair he was in. “Hit me with them.”

  “You say Whitmire fell to the beasts…” Colonel Flint commented and waited for Joseph to start talking.

  Joseph nodded. “Whitmire held on for a long time, Colonel. A lot longer than the place had any right to. Disease and famine took a heavy toll on the people behind its walls. Those killed more people than the monsters out there did. The Sasquatch broke through the city’s walls a few weeks ago. There just weren’t enough able-bodied men and ammo to drive them out. The beasts rampaged through Whitmire, killing everyone in their path.”

  “Yet you survived,” Colonel Flint pointed out.

  Joseph’s voice was cold and hard as he answered. “It’s what I do.”

  Colonel Flint snorted at Joseph’s arrogant tone.

  “How did you come to be in Whitmire?” Lieutenant Wagner asked. “Are you from there?”

  “Not originally,” Joseph admitted. “I made my way there just like I made my way here.”

  “How did you even know we were here?” Colonel Flint was curious as to what Joseph’s answer to that was going to be.

  “The leaders of Whitmire had been in contact with you over the radio.” Joseph shrugged. “I was helping them defend their city so they shared what information they had about this place with me.”

  “You were helping them?” Lieutenant Wagner smirked. “What does that even mean?”

  “Gentlemen, there aren’t many things in this life that I am good at but killing … that comes naturally to me,” Joseph answered. “They needed someone to step up and organize their defense against the beasts when the ranking officer in charge of their militia died. I was there. They knew what I could do. They asked me. End of story.”

  Colonel Flint noticed Lieutenant Wagner shoot a glance in his direction.

  “What is it, Wagner?” Colonel Flint took another drag from his cigarette while he waited on the lieutenant to reply.

  “According to the men on the wall, sir, Mr. Reynolds here took on several Sasquatch in melee combat by himself as he made his way across the field out there. Supposedly he went through the retreating Sasquatch like they were nothing,” Lieutenant Wagner said.

  “One gets used to fighting those things,” Joseph spoke up before Colonel Flint could ask him anything else. “We’re a lot smarter than they are. If you know what you’re doing and you’ve got the skills, you can fight them head on and live through it.”

  “With just that sword?” Lieutenant Wagner blurted out. “Because that’s what our people say you did.”

  “Yes. With just my sword.” Joseph smiled.

  “Exactly how many beasts have you killed since the Fall, Mr. Reynolds?” Colonel Flint asked.

  Joseph shrugged again and sighed. “Not enough, Colonel. Not nearly enough.”

  “That’s a good answer.” Colonel Flint grinned. He finished up his cigarette and dropped it onto the office’s floor, grinding it out with the sole of his right boot.

  “Is there anyone else alive out there?” Lieutenant Wagner finally asked what everyone else in the room had been wanting to. “Are there other cities still holding on?”

  Joseph shook his head sadly. “Not that I know of. Cedarmark might well be the last.”

  ****

  Colonel Flint allowed Joseph to leave with the promise that he would keep his nose clean and cause no trouble in the city. The man wasn’t happy about leaving his weapons behind as he left the office, but Lieutenant Wagner assured him that he would get them back when the time came for him to leave the city.

  Lieutenant Wagner remained after Joseph, Marcus, and Private Herald had departed.

  “Are you sure letting that man loose in the city is a good idea?” he asked.

  “What other choice do we have, Wagner?” Colonel Flint sighed. “Put a bullet in his head and toss him out with the trash? There are too few of us humans left as it is.”

  “I understand that, sir,” Lieutenant Wagner frowned, “but that man is dangerous.”

  “I know.” Colonel Flint rose from his seat and walked around his desk. He stared out the office’s only window, hands clasped behind his back. “But if he does cause trouble, there are over a hundred of us between our men and the militia. He might kill some of us but that guy’s still just flesh and blood. We can handle him if that’s what it comes down to.”

  “But you’re hoping it won’t,” Lieutenant Wagner ventured.

  “If the stories the men on the wall claim they witnessed are true, Wagner … imagine what we could do with someone like him on our side. We need all the people in this fight that we can get. That man is worth ten of our best men or more. Did you notice the way he moved?”

  “Sir?” Lieutenant Wagner said.

  “We’ve been looking for someone capable of leading an expedition beyond the wall, Wagner. That man is just the person we need to do. Our supplies are running out here. It just gets worse every day. I would much rather this Joseph come around, start working for us, and take a risk on him leading a party out there than gamble trying to evacuate everyone in this city when the food finally runs out.”

  “You know we can’t trust him. We don’t even really know who he is,” Lieutenant Wagner argued.

  “Sure there are parts of his story that I don’t buy, Wagner. Most of it, though, I would wager is true or true enough at least. He’s in the same mess we’re in. No matter how good he is, he can’t survive forever out there alone and we can’t accomplish what we need to in order to continue to hold this city without him either,” Colonel Flint explained. “Let’s give it a few days and see how he settles in. We can decide the rest then.”

  “Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Wagner had no choice but to agree. “I still don’t like it, but you’re right in that we don’t have much other choice.”

  “Keep an eye on him, Lieutenant,” Colonel Flint ordered.

  “You can count on it, sir.” Lieutenant Wagner nodded. “Will there be anything tonight, sir?”

  “You tell me.” Colonel Flint laughed. “You’re the one that had me dragged out of bed for this crap.”

  “Sorry about that, sir, I…” Lieutenant Wagner stammered.

  “You made the right call, Wagner.” Colonel Flint flashed a wry grin. “I’m going back to bed now. See to it that our new friend finds somewhere comfortable to sleep, would you?”
r />   Colonel Flint left Lieutenant Wagner staring after him as he left his office and headed back to his quarters.

  ****

  Cedarmark was an odd place. It wasn’t a complete city left over from the old world but rather a jagged piece of one. The side of the city he had come in through faced the open woods while its other three sides faced the rest of the city that had been abandoned and walled off. The portion of the city that was left wasn’t huge. From where he stood on the street outside Colonel Flint’s office, he could see two of its walls. There was no way more than a few hundred people lived behind those walls unless they were packed together like sardines. And there was no sign of that kind of crowding. The battle on the wall hadn’t drawn out of any of the civilian populace from their beds. Joe wagered they were used to hearing the nightly battles and had long grown accustomed to them.

  Lieutenant Wagner emerged from the office behind him to find Joe waiting in the street.

  “You waited for me?” the lieutenant asked, clearly surprised.

  “This is your city not mine, LT,” Joe grunted. “I figured your colonel would get around to ordering you to find me a place to stay sooner or later.”

  “He just did.” Lieutenant Wagner smirked. “You for sure called that one.”

  Joe shrugged. “So where are off to, Lieutenant?”

  “There are plenty of vacant apartments all throughout the section of the city that we control, Mr. Reynolds. I suppose you could just pick one to your liking but for right now…”

  “Your colonel wants you and your men to keep an eye on me,” Joe finished for him.

  “That’s about the size of things,” Lieutenant Wagner confessed. “I figure for tonight anyway you can stay in the barracks with my men.”

  “Sounds fine to me,” Joe answered without arguing. “It’s been a very long time since I have been able to sleep in a real bed.”

  “Then you’re in for a treat, Mr. Reynolds.” Lieutenant Wagner chuckled. “A five-star hotel it’s not, but it’s likely a lot better than what you are used to.”

  “Call me Joe,” Joe said.

  “Okay then, Joe, if you’ll follow me one more time, I’ll take you to the barracks.” Lieutenant Wagner smiled.