Moments later, another thunderous blast shook the house, then all was quiet ... this time for good.
Some might have called it the coward’s way out, while to others it would have been a good death. Regardless, Elmer Gentry checked out on his own terms. He was the only one in Bonanza Creek that night who could make such a claim.
♦ ♦ ♦
Many such events played out across the small town that night. People, both young and old, died. Some went quickly. Others weren’t granted that mercy. A few died knowing what had come for them, but more went to the grave with no understanding of what had killed them. A handful of lucky souls even managed to fight back before being laid low. Regardless of how its occupants died, though, as the night wore on, Bonanza Creek became less of a town and more a graveyard.
Chapter 26
Kurt Bachowski didn’t like being yelled at. He didn’t like being yelled at by women. He really didn’t like being yelled at by foreigners. And he especially didn’t like being yelled at by niggers. That he was being bawled out by one now was just icing on the cake, as far as he was concerned.
The disappointing hunt that morning had been just the start of a big dump that life decided to take on his head. His brother’s death had been awful, but that seemed like almost a lifetime ago now. The bitch ape that killed Stan had charged him, and he’d emptied his rifle at it. Had he been given time, he might have been able to put one through its eye and end it right there. He hadn’t been nearly so lucky, though. All of the low caliber bullets had struck home, but they’d barely slowed the thing down. But barely was better than not at all.
The creature had paused to put a hand over one of the small bullet wounds in its stomach, and Kurt had used the opportunity to throw the now empty rifle at it – hitting it in the face with a satisfying thud. He then turned tail and ran like hell.
It had been close. The damn thing was fast, and it apparently knew the woods as well as he did, maybe better. At one point, he’d practically felt it breathing down his neck. He had turned his head and looked straight into its hellish red eyes. He was sure he was a goner, but then the creature had made a mad lunge for him and stumbled over a tree root instead. It went down, and he hadn’t waited around for it to get back up.
Since then, Kurt had been trying every trick he knew to make sure it didn’t pick up his trail again, all while making his way toward town. Though he and his brother kept plenty of firepower in their cabin – his cabin now, he mentally corrected himself – he didn’t want to risk doubling back. Animal or not, the thing was smart, and that made it all the more dangerous.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, he had come within inches of being gutted by the loud-mouthed spook in front of him. Now the son of a bitch was barking orders like this was the goddamned military.
“When did you see the squatch!?”
Kurt spat on the ground. “I don’t know what the hell a squatch is. All I know is that there’s a fucking gorilla loose out there, a goddamned big one.”
“Not a gorilla ... sasquatch.”
“What?”
“Sasquatch. You know, bigfoot? When did you see it?”
Under normal circumstances, Kurt would have laughed at that shit and continued walking. Under slightly less than normal circumstances, he might have decked the asshole for getting in his face. Unfortunately, the circumstances were so far from normal right now as to be in a whole other state. Kurt considered this for a moment.
“Left my Rolex in my other suit,” he answered snidely, “but I guess it started chasing me a couple hours ago.”
The man grabbed him by the shoulders. “Are you sure?”
Kurt shoved him away. He didn’t like being touched either. “Yeah, I’m sure!”
The bastard pulled out his knife again. Kurt eyed him warily, but the man started scanning the area instead.
“Damn,” he said to himself. “More than one.”
“More than one?” Kurt asked. “You mean there are others?”
“It would seem so. I think we should get back to town. There are people who need to know this.”
Kurt spat again. “Shit. That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said.”
♦ ♦ ♦
If the screaming hadn’t told the group that something was wrong, then the primal roar coming from the rear of the structure certainly did. Derek didn’t hesitate for more than a moment. He stood and turned to his cameraman. “Stay with them, Frank.” He then strode toward the backroom as the bartender had done.
Francis started to address the others. “Okay, let’s all stay calm. He knows what he’s...”
Derek returned just as quickly as he’d left. “Scratch that! Get them out of here.”
“Why? What’s going on?” Kate asked as Derek leaped over the bar. “Hey! This isn’t your place.”
Derek spoke while grabbing bottles from the back shelf. “Somehow, I don’t think the owner is going to mind. Get them moving, Frank!”
The big cameraman stood and tried to usher the others toward the front door. Harrison didn’t need to be told twice. However, Kate wasn’t about to be dismissed so easily.
“Ben’s back there. If he’s hurt, we have to help him.”
Without turning to face her, Derek replied, “He’s beyond our help right now.” He threw the bottles toward the rear of the room, shattering them against the door frame.
“What the hell are you doing!?”
“Having a fire sale,” he answered, tossing one of the lit candles from the bar. Within seconds, the back of the room was engulfed in flames.
He hopped back over the bar and joined the group. Grabbing Kate by the arm, he began to drag her toward the front door.
She struggled against him. “We can’t leave Ben.”
Harrison turned to face her, unable to believe she could be so thick. “He’s dead, lady. Get the hint.” He didn’t like being so blunt, but he was at the end of his rope. The creature’s roar a few seconds earlier had gone a long way toward unnerving him.
“All right, enough,” Derek barked. “Outside now! There’s a lot of alcohol in this place, and we really don’t want to be here when the fire reaches it.”
“Do you think that’ll stop it?” Francis asked, pushing the front door open.
“Not really.” Derek stepped out into the night air, the rest following him. He took no more than three steps before stopping dead in his tracks.
“What is it?” asked Harrison, although as the sounds reached his ears, he understood.
The darkness around them was anything but quiet. Roars, screams, and hoots filled the air. They seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.
“Offhand,” said Derek with a sigh, “I’d say this job just got a bit more complicated.”
♦ ♦ ♦
“Mitch ... Mitchell!” Rob called out. With all of the equipment that had been packed into it, the van had barely enough extra room for the two of them. In the dark, though, the toppled space seemed nearly cavernous.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. He was lying on his back against something smooth. It felt like a monitor. Reaching out to either side, he began feeling around.
Again, the van shuddered. There was a hollow boom against the side, now the roof from Rob’s perspective, and then any questions he might have had as to the reason were answered. A shrill scream pierced the night, disturbingly loud even in the enclosed space.
But we killed it, his mind childishly insisted. Well, okay, ‘we’ might be a tad generous. However, then logic took over, and he remembered what they’d been discussing before things went all topsy-turvy. Rabies! Mitchell was right to be afraid.
A low moan to his right caught his attention. He reached over as the van lurched again. Whatever was out there was angry and apparently not taking no for an answer.
A part of Rob wanted to curl up into a little ball, but then he remembered who he was in town with. Would the Crypto Hunter crawl into a corner and cry? Of course not, and neither woul
d he.
He groped around until he found Mitchell’s shoulder. He gave it a shake, and the moan came again. “Mitch! Are you okay?”
“Ugh! What the hell?” a slurred voice responded from the darkness.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I think one of the damn printers fell on my head. Hurts like hell, but I’ll live. You?”
“I’m as okay as I can probably be right now.”
“What happened?”
“I’m thinking that you were right about the rabies,” Rob answered.
The entire vehicle shook. In the small confined space, it felt like an earthquake. Metal began to groan, and the equipment that was now above them sparked. In the intermittent light, they saw that the side of the van was starting to cave in, as if a great weight were standing on it. Upon consideration, Rob realized that was exactly what was happening.
♦ ♦ ♦
Neither Danni nor Allison needed any further answers from Paula, not that she had any left to give. The loud growl coming from the hallway told them everything they needed to know.
Before either of the other two girls could react, though, Paula let loose with a frightened squeal and bolted for the bathroom. She closed the door, and Danni heard a click from the inside.
She ran over and tried turning the knob – locked. “Paula? Paula, open the door,” she said in a voice that she hoped was loud enough to be heard, but low enough so as not to alert the thing that was outside the room.
All she heard in reply was a whimper.
“Paula! Come on, open the door. You’re not safe in there.”
“Danni,” Allison said, “I don’t think there’s time for that.”
She turned back toward her friend. In the glow of the flashlight, she could see Allison backing away from the door. Then she heard it: heavy footsteps that stopped right outside. They were followed by a snuffling sound.
There was a moment of silence, then Allison said, “Come on!” She dashed to the opposite end of the room and threw open the window, the flashlight tumbling from her hands in the process.
“We can’t leave Paula,” Danni pleaded, even as she followed her friend.
“I don’t think we have a choice.” Allison looked out of the second-floor window in the direction of their cars. There was only a quarter-crescent moon that night, but it cast just enough light for her to know there was nothing out there to improve her mood. From her vantage point, it appeared as if all the vehicles had been beaten to hell, but the van was by far the worst. It was now on its side, and she could see another of those things leaping up and down upon it, trying to get in. Even from where she stood, the beast looked huge.
She turned and spoke quickly. “We jump and hit the ground running. Turn left, and just go. Trust me on this.”
Danni shook her head. “But Paula...”
Whatever she had started to say, though, was answered by the door splintering into pieces – as if someone had driven a truck through it. A large shape growled at them from just inside the now open portal.
Neither girl said anything; they didn’t need to. Allison was the first through the window. Danni followed less than a second later. Through some minor miracle, neither of them broke or sprained anything in the landing. By the time the creature reached the window, they were both running at an all-out sprint.
♦ ♦ ♦
Paula didn’t hear it come through the door. She had huddled in the bathtub and closed the curtain as if it were some magic talisman instead of just a cheap shower liner. She curled herself into as small of a ball as she could and began to make a low keening noise.
Outside, Danni and Allison made their escape. Furniture was overturned and glass broke, all combined with the creature’s guttural snarls, but none of this registered in her mind. She was too far gone by then. Though she looked fine on the outside, the pursuit through the woods earlier in the day had damaged her mind. Her grasp on reality had been tenuous, at best, for the past several hours. Given time, she might have mended. Perhaps she might have even been able to eventually patch things up with Rob and move on. Sadly, her mind wasn’t equipped to handle two such events in such a short time.
This last one had been even worse. She had been in high emotion when the attack came. She hadn’t seen all of what had happened to Wild Feather, but she’d heard everything with excruciating clarity. She had heard his screams, followed by the awful sounds of his bones breaking and flesh tearing. Somehow, that had made it worse than actually seeing because it forced her mind to fill in the blanks, which it did with painful detail. Even had she been able to help him, she wouldn’t have. Within the space of no more than a few seconds, the only part of her mind that was still functioning was the part that commanded her to flee. The excitement of the sex and the adrenaline of the attack had given her brain a little extra jolt of chemicals, just enough to allow her legs to run and her mouth to scream.
However, even that was now gone. She whimpered, neither knowing nor caring if the girls outside lived or died, not even really aware of it happening. She didn’t even have enough sense left to hope that the creature would just pass by, leaving her undiscovered. Her eyes began to glaze over as she retreated deep within herself.
Wet snuffling could be heard in the bedroom outside. She didn’t know – nor was she capable of understanding at that point – that the creature that had killed her lover was a male in the prime of its life. Under different circumstances, it might have passed by the locked door without even noticing her. However, Paula had just been recently deflowered. She smelled of blood and absolutely reeked of sex. Within moments, the sniffing noises took on an earnest, almost excited quality. She didn’t notice this, either, for she was locked away in a safe fantasy.
She was six, and her parents had taken her and her brothers on a picnic one Sunday following church. What a fine day that had been, sunny with just enough breeze to keep the bugs at bay.
As the flimsy bathroom door was torn from its frame, she was in the middle of a game of badminton – her and mother on one side, her brothers on the other, while father cheered them all on. Her brothers had eventually won the game, but it had been close. Afterwards, they had all laughed and hugged.
As the creature advanced on her, its breathing turning to frenzied grunts, she was enjoying a sandwich and a glass of her mother’s wonderful home brewed tea.
Paula died badly. However, fate paid her one small kindness in that: by the time she drew her last breath, she was too far gone to notice.
♦ ♦ ♦
The Alpha’s screams conveyed both triumph and frustration. He had killed one of the two-legged things’ stupid beasts – had toppled it and was now attempting to get at the two-legged things that were still inside. That was proving to be infuriatingly difficult. He smashed it with his massive fists, leapt upon it, and even bit it – gouging the armored sides of the beast, but painfully chipping his teeth in the process. Though he had damaged it greatly, its shell proved to be formidable.
Driven into a rage by his inability to tear into the two-legged things inside, he redoubled his efforts. He climbed onto the beast’s side and began to pound and jump, bringing all of his size and strength to bear. The beast’s shell groaned in protest. Soon it would shatter, and he would drag the two-legged things from it, piece by piece if need be.
Before that could happen, though, movement caught his attention. Was one of the clan coming to challenge him? If so, they would be dealt with accordingly. He turned his head, foam flying from his jaws as he did so. No, it wasn’t one of the clan, although he could smell one of them nearby. A pair of the two-legged things leaped down from one of their dwellings. They landed clumsily but appeared unhurt by the fall. They both turned and began to run.
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