Hunters: A Trilogy

by Paul A. Rice

  He switched his torch off and was just about to leave when another thought crossed his mind. Sliding the torch back into his thigh pocket, he rummaged around in his jacket until he found the old Zippo lighter. He knelt down and leaning across to where the smooth channel met the floor of the cave, flicked the flint wheel, watching as the blue and yellow flame sputtered into life. Seconds later the flame came to attention and then brightened as the unseen draft of air dragged the oxygen upwards and into the hole above.

  Ken snapped the lighter shut and rose to his feet.

  Turning to Tori, he said, ‘Well, this just gets better, that is the perfect place for a small fire, the hole obviously goes out somewhere above us. I’ll go and fetch the others, you get a little fire going and I’ll stay on top to see where the smoke comes out, okay?’

  Tori nodded and set about gathering some kindling from outside the cave’s entrance. Ken headed off to try and find the easiest way back out of the ravine.

  Several hours later and they were well and truly ensconced within the perfectly designed, and thoroughly hidden, walls of their temporary fortress. Michael and Junior had been out and laid several traps in the woods surrounding the ravine. Ken and Red had done a thorough reconnaissance of the area; bizarrely, they had been unable to find any trace of the fire, which Tori had even stoked with some green ferns in order to get a decent waft of smoke going. Even though they spent half-an-hour searching, the two big men had been unable to find any smoke exiting from wherever the end of the small hole came to earth above the cave.

  Ken couldn’t detect any smell, either. ‘That’s weird,’ he said, looking at Red in bemusement. ‘It must come out somewhere, but where?’

  Red grinned and then said something that Ken would not have even considered. ‘Yeah, well perhaps it doesn’t even come out in this world, maybe it comes out someplace else…’ he whispered.

  Ken blinked at him in surprise; it was a bloody good point and he realised once more about how little he knew of this situation. Red, on the other hand, seemed to just take everything in his stride, his unfettered acceptance of the situation allowing him a simple clarity of thought, which at times, Ken would have given his right arm for.

  ‘Some other place… yeah, why not?’ he thought. ‘It sure as hell isn’t coming out anywhere around here, why not somewhere else?’ He nodded at the thought and turned away. ‘Come on then,’ he said. ‘Let’s head down to the pool and fill the water bottles. Red grinned and took the lead downhill towards the small pool.

  As it turned out the pool wasn’t as small as they had thought at first. As they approached, Ken guessed that it was at least forty feet wide, and to test how deep the water was he bent down, picked up a small stone and lobbed it into the centre of the pool. The stone plopped into the dark surface and sank without a trace, it was a few seconds before any bubbles surfaced.

  ‘Looks pretty deep to me,’ Ken said, looking at Red, with eyebrows raised.

  The big guy nodded, and then, with a hiss, said, ‘Goddamn it! Look at the size of that!’ Ken spun around and stared at the dark water, his rapidly turning head just giving his eyes a fleeting glimpse of a thick tail slipping beneath the surface of the water. Red grinned, saying: ‘That was one big fish, Ken – look, there’s another one, your stone must have woke ‘em all up!’

  He was right, as the men sat and watched they saw several large fish breaking the surface with their heads and then whipping away into the depths, propelled by the strong thrusts of their thick tails.

  Red grinned again, saying: ‘I guess you’re gonna have to show the boys some fish-catching tricks, too – huh Ken?’ He reached over and slapped Ken’s shoulder. ‘One thang’s for sure, we ain’t gonna starve here, now are we?’ he said, with a huge grin. By the size of his smile, Ken guessed that Red was more than just pleased. As it turned out, he was pretty much bang on the mark with that observation.

  Within an hour, the group of Hunters were sitting around a fairly decent fire, sucking the tantalising white flesh from the bones of four enormous fish which the two boys had caught. Twenty minutes after Ken had shown them how to construct a rudimentary hook and line, from string and sharpened twigs, the two young men had returned, grinning from ear-to-ear. Apparently, a small lump of cheese, stuck onto the end of the sharpened twig, had proved to be irresistible. Once again the younger men had provided yet another fine feast for the ravenous Hunters.

  They hadn’t been the only ones who had been busy. Whilst the boys had been sitting down at the water’s edge, happily casting their string lines into the pool, the others had been busy preparing for their night ahead. Jane and Tori had managed to gather a large pile of ferns and other similar plants for their beds. Ken and Red had moved some thick bunches of brambles and foliage over to the mouth of their cave, after only a few trips they had successfully managed to camouflage the entrance way and it was now almost totally obscured from the outside. They had left just enough room between the wall of plants and the cave’s entrance for whoever was on sentry to stand behind. With the cave’s entrance to their rear and the expanse of the ravine sloping away before them, it was the perfect position to watch from, and one that was very difficult to see from a distance.

  Tori and Jane had also managed to gather a substantial pile of dry wood that now lay handily stacked by the side of the fire. Ken checked their supply of rations and made sure their loads were evenly distributed so that should they lose one pack, then at least they had things spread between the others and would be able to continue the trek unabated. It wasn’t to be long before they were all gathered in the cave, busily tucking into some of the freshly-caught fish. Tori, who had insisted on taking first watch, stood outside stamping her feet whilst the smell of food made her belly rumble.

  All things considered, they would not have been able to ask for a better position in which to spend the night. Ken was determined they should make the most of it, and after ensuring that all the weapons were in good order, he told them to make sure their feet were dry. He made them hang their socks near the fire, checked all of their feet again and took care of those who had any blisters, applying some of his liniments and creams to the soft spots on their feet. The dark coloured fluid that he dabbed onto the inside of Jane’s big toe, where a nasty looking blister had already burst, was so strong that the sting of its fire literally fetched a tear to her eye.

  However, in less than a minute, the fire had subsided and in no time at all the weeping skin had already begun to harden and dry. She never asked what the liquid was, being just grateful that her husband knew about things like this. With the pain in her feet subsiding, she lay back on her comfortable bed of ferns and watched the flickering of the fire, letting the warmth of its glow seep into her bones.

  By now the blackness of the night outside was almost complete, Ken made sure that the fire was kept low and sent Mikey and Junior outside to see if any light was escaping. The young men soon came back inside. ‘You can’t see a thing from out there,’ Junior said. ‘I went all the way down to the bottom and you would have to be right outside before you’d notice this place.’

  He took a seat in front of the fire and reached for the hot water. As Junior poured them a hot drink, Mikey mentioned one other thing. ‘Oh yeah,’ he said, casually. ‘It’s starting to snow down at the bottom of the gulley – I guess that’s weird, because it’s not reached up here yet.’ He looked up and shrugged.

  Ken said, ‘Snowing down there, what do you mean?’

  Mikey grinned and said that they had seen snow falling over the pond, but when they’d returned to the cave there had been no snow, it was like the weather was on the other side of some invisible line, in some other place. Just as Ken was starting to rise to his feet, Red stuck his large head through the door and informed them that Christmas had arrived.

  In curiosity, the men moved over to the cave’s door.

  Sure enough, a thick flurry of snow was now blowing across the whole of the ravine. One glimpse at the size o
f the flakes told Ken everything he needed to know – they would be going nowhere in a hurry if the snow decided to lay, he’d seen this many times before and knew that snow like this was more than capable of reaching ridiculous depths in only a few hours.

  He turned back to the fire, told them all to make sure they wrapped up warm and wore a hat when they did their stint on sentry duty. ‘Right,’ he said, ‘I guess that’s it for the night, make sure your weapons are at hand and wake me up at the first sign of trouble, it looks like we might be here for a bit longer than we thought!’

  Taking his cue, they all headed for their beds. After a small period of rustling space blankets, the cave was soon in deep silence as they fell into a well-earned sleep. Meanwhile, Red stayed outside and cast his eyes over the dark, snow-filled ravine. His only thoughts were of putting his hands around the Demon’s throat, that and the thought of tucking into some more of that tasty fish as soon as his time on duty was finished. Demons and fish, yeah, what more could a man like Red possibly need?

  15

  Memories and Darkness

  Ken had been right – they would be going nowhere in a hurry for at least another day. The snow was still falling when Junior had woken him for his spell on sentry in the early hours of the next morning. Standing in the darkness and sipping on a cup of hot tea, Ken watched the flakes as they swirled around the entrance to the cave, adding to the thick layer that lay right across the whole ravine. He knew it would be much worse in the woods above the protective lea of the steep walls that surrounded his position.

  ‘If this doesn’t let up then we might be stuck here for days!’ The thought alarmed him, although the cave was perfect when it came to sleeping rough. Ken was filled with a sense of unease when it came to thinking about delaying their inevitable encounter with the Dark One. ‘Let’s just get up there and have at it – let’s get this done and dusted, the sooner we get up there the sooner this whole damned thing is gonna be over! God, I don’t want to be stuck in here for days…’ He knew that the thoughts were probably unfair, but, even so. ‘Come on, George! Give us a hand here, will you?’

  George was either not listening or, hopefully, he had another reason for ignoring Ken’s heartfelt plea regarding the weather. Whatever the reason may have been, the snow kept coming and coming. By first light, it was stacked in huge drifts along the ridges at the top of the ravine. Ken and Junior stood in the doorway, looking at the total whiteness of their surroundings in disbelief.

  ‘Where in the hell did all that come from?’ Junior said, looking at the thick rafters of snow lining the branches of the trees above their position. ‘Do you think that we should go and check the traps? We had them hidden well under the trees just over the edge down there,’ he said, pointing towards the bottom of the slope. ‘Maybe they’ll be okay, what do you reckon?’

  What Ken reckoned is that they didn’t have a hope in hell of catching anything in this weather, but the young man’s eagerness was so childlike that he didn’t have the heart to do his early morning, grizzly bear act.

  ‘Yeah, why not?’ he said. ‘If you don’t look then you’ll never know, plus it would be a shame to have something trapped and left up there to die of cold. Reset the traps anyway, just clear some of the snow away and stick some fresh green stuff in there, maybe a handful of pine nuts and some leaves or grass, if you can find any. It has to be worth a try and you never know, we may need it to survive if this doesn’t bugger off in the next twenty four hours!’ He cast his eyes despairingly to the snow-filled heavens above.

  Junior slid into the cave and Ken heard him talking to Mikey in low tones. In a few moments, the young men exited the cave with their rifles in hand. With their hats pulled low and coat collars lifted against the cold, Ken watched as they slipped away down to where the sides of the ravine were at their lowest. It wasn’t long before they had disappeared into the blizzard. Ken stood and stared into the whiteness for a while, the thought of maybe having made a mistake in letting the two men go out in such weather, gently gnawing at his mind.

  His concerns were to prove unfounded – within two hours they had returned, and not in the soggy, down-heartened way in which Ken thought they might come back, having discovered their traps were empty and then struggling against the finger-numbing cold as they tried to forage for more bait, whilst attempting to reset the fiddly traps. No, the two were nothing if not exceedingly proud with their morning’s work, it showed in the way he saw them striding purposefully up the slippery slope towards the cave.

  Ken stood with Red at his side and watched as the boys approached, quickly identifying the dark carcasses that were draped across their shoulders. He smiled inwardly, thinking: ‘These guys are just unreal, un-bloody-believable!’

  He let the thoughts run down to his face and gave the approaching boys a huge, face-cracking smile. He and Red stepped forward and lifted the bodies of one small deer and two overgrown hares from their shoulders. Michael also dumped two more fish into the snow in front of Red’s feet.

  ‘We stopped off at the pond on the way back and it turned out to be worth it!’ the boy said. ‘Pretty good for beginners, huh, Ken?’

  Ken rose to his feet and grabbed both of the younger men in a bear-hug. Telling the boys to get by the warmth of the fire, he turned to Red and between them they dragged the catch into the cave.

  There was soon a decent pile of fresh meat and fish piled on the deerskin. Ken separated the meat into piles and then wrapped it in the skin, making several neat parcels that Red took outside and buried in the snow. Ken looked up at Junior and Mikey, the nod of his head followed by and exaggerated ‘A-OK’ hand signal was all the boys needed to see. Ken was really pleased and that was more than enough for them. They grinned at each other and ‘chinked’ their plastic mugs together in mock celebration.

  Later that morning, as they sat and watched Red doing his magic with some of the venison, the mouth-watering smell drifting away up their magical chimney, Mikey told Ken that three of their four traps had been sprung and that there were also lots of animal footprints throughout the snow-covered floor of the woods outside. He said that he and Junior had spent some time carrying out a sweep of the area, which is why they had been gone for such a long time, and during their scouting they had not seen one sign of any human activity.

  ‘There’s not a soul out there,’ he said, seriously. ‘And I couldn’t feel them either, there’s nothing here – I’m pretty sure that it’s just us, and them,’ he paused, looking down at the sizzling pieces of meat that Red was preparing. He remained quiet for a moment and sat looking out of the door as the snow began to fall again in sheets. The visibility was now almost zero and the snow was starting to stack itself against the wall of brambles which hid the entrance to their cave.

  Turning his eyes away from the entrance and after staring into the flames of their little fire for a while longer, Mikey looked up and said, ‘I think that we should all come inside now, I think that it’s him who’s doing this – he knows we’re here, he doesn’t know where we are, but he is looking!’ He nodded uphill, behind the cave, to where their destination lay. ‘He’s up there and he’s watching – I can feel him in my head. He thinks we’re in the open and he thinks that he can sap our power with the cold, we must wait, stay hidden and wait!’ He looked into the flames once more, blue eyes shining and cheek muscles clenched in anger.

  Then, almost as though he was talking to himself, he said, ‘The storm will end after a while and then we should move and move quickly! We should get to the top as fast as we possibly can, because he won’t be expecting us so soon! Then we will see who it is that has the real power – then we’ll see!’ The veins stood out on his neck, knuckles white as he balled his fists in anger.

  It was the first time they had seen his true spirit. Yes, he had fought like the very devil himself during the battle at the farm, but they had all been doing that at the time and his rage had been only one part of an incredible event. However, here in the silence of t
he cave with only the moaning wind to interrupt their thoughts, the inner strength and pure power of his spirit jumped out of the young man. They were almost able to see the light of his being erupting from his half-whispered words. Michael was indeed a fearsome sight. Ken sat back on his haunches and looked around the others; they all remained silent as they stared at young Mikey.

  After a while, Ken rose to his feet and went outside to tell Tori to come back into the cave. She stamped her way in and spent a while shaking the snow from her woolly hat and jacket shoulders, before laying both hat and jacket across her pack to dry in front of the fire. Taking the cup of hot tea from Jane’s outstretched hand, she squatted by the flames.

  After warming herself for a while, she asked: ‘So, what’s the plan, should we stay or should we go?’ Michael looked at her and then repeated what he had told the others. Tori nodded, saying: ‘I was wondering how long it would be before you felt him. I’ve just begun to see him myself, but only within the last two hours…how long have you felt him, Mikey?’

  When the young man told her that he’d been ‘watching the watcher’ from the first moment they had arrived, Tori blinked in shock. She stared at him for a moment and the others all felt the unseen force that flowed between them. Tori nodded and then looked away from the piercing gaze of her compatriot, letting her gaze fall upon the flickering light of the flames.

  Finally, she drew a deep breath and rose to her feet. Brushing some droplets of melted snow from her arms, she said, ‘Mikey is correct, we should stay inside now – he cannot see us in here, and as long as that happens we will be safe, there’s no need for any more sentry stuff, either.’ She looked at Ken and winked, saying: ‘We should conserve our strength and get as much sleep as we can; I think we’re going to need it!’

  She reached out with her left hand and stroked her husband’s neck; Red looked up at her and grinned. Tori smiled down at him, saying: ‘And you, my love, must not venture anywhere near the outside of this cave, he’s started using you again, you and Junior, he’s trying to see through you, both of you must stay inside!’