Wolf Canyon: Cold Cat Mountain Book II (Cold Cat Mountain Trilogy 2)

by Kimberly Goss-Kearney

  Turning, with her weapon still extended, she caught and locked eyes with Cindy. A look of sorrow passed between them. Blaze had developed a fondness for Cindy, and in the moment they connected, she sensed Cindy was a reluctant member of the wrong team. Ren turned too, grimly acknowledged the situation.

  Turning back she searched the dark again, waiting with the others. She felt something pushing into her back from behind. She tried to move away, but she turned in time to register that Randall had a handgun in her back while he held fast to her shoulders. He hissed in her ear, Walker and the others all turned.

  “Get out there!” He shoved at her, bruising her back. “GET OUT THERE!” Shoving at her again, he navigated around the others and propelled Blaze out away from the fire, forcing her out toward the dark edges of the camp while keeping an eye on the others behind him.

  Blaze tried to twist away. Pulling her back against him, he spoke close. His hot, moist breath was foul. His cheek bumped hers. “Lead them away. You did it once. Do it again. I swear I’ll shoot if you try and circle back. We all know they want you. Pull them away for your loved ones, your comrades.”

  Blaze closed her eyes, swallowing. As her heart lurched erratically within her chest, she heard the screams moving in closer.

  “I thought you wanted to sedate and relocate them,” the steady thrum of her voice surprised her. Randall snarled in her ear, “That was never the plan. Matilda pulled you out of some sort of line-up and brought you up here to agitate them, draw them out. As if we could sedate them. We'd have to burn whole forests to eradicate these things. They're an evil vermin. They want you. We only planned on giving them you.” Blaze inhaled slowly, closing her hand around the hand gun she'd tucked in her pocket.

  “I'm not going.”

  He laughed harshly. “Yes; oh yes you are. It’s you or all of us. Is that what you want? Do you want everyone dead because of you?”

  Trying to jerk away from him Blaze struggled, their feet tangling in the snow beneath them.

  “Ok! I'll go! Let me go on my own!” Her scream echoed into the cold night. Pausing, Randall searched her eyes. Suspicious she would try to run back to the fire, he waited, handgun trained on her, until she willingly approached the edge of the darkness.

  “Blaze!” Walker’s raspy voice called out from behind her as Randall held her in his sites. Inching closer to the edge of the tree line, she reminded herself the situation was the same as before, she was only diverting attention away from the team. A scream just ahead caused her to stop. She clamped her hands over her ears. Bent at the knees, shaking, she peered up. A dark figure moved through the trees ahead of her.

  Recalling the previous day, when she hadn't experienced fear but faced the Croatoan on instinct, she stood up straight and removed her hands from her ears. Something stirred inside her. Her own monster woke, lunged forward and she took in a deep, fortifying breath; for once glad it dwelt within. She felt her scalp tightening. A claw tapped at the back of her skull.

  As her adrenaline increased, she stepped further into the trees. Walker screamed her name from behind her. When she was invisible, shrouded within the branches, she looked up.

  Alone, she relaxed her shoulders, knowing she had ability to push back. She wasn't certain how much of that push back the Dark Sasquatch would tolerate, but she knew she felt the monster within her rising to the challenge.

  A movement caught her eyes and she grasped a low branch, swinging upward until she could see the camp from several feet above ground. Just as she prepared to crouch and await her own fate, a dark crippled figure swept through the camp, dragging Randall behind it as it surged back to the trees. Blaze felt her heart hammer in her chest as she heard Randall's screaming. Pleading for help, he fired off two rounds from his gun into the dark, and the night again fell silent. Scurrying down the tree, Blaze sprinted back into the camp where chaos had erupted. The smaller fires had dwindled down to almost nothing as Max and his family maintained their own vigil before the large fire, refusing to participate in an effort to survive. Screams resounded from all around.

  Gordon and John moved to the horses.

  Walker grabbed Blaze by the hand, half pulling, half dragging her behind him.

  Plan B.

  Matilda grabbed her other arm as they rushed through the camp. Climbing into the ATV, Blaze and Matilda waited for Walker to start the engine; Blaze on guard with her handgun, eyes searching. Ren, Cindy and Rick waited by the fire, backing up as close as possible to it. Blaze screamed for them to join her and Walker. Firing up the small vehicle, Walker swerved it across the camp over to Gordon and John, who were swinging into their saddles.

  Looking back to the fire, Blaze watched as Max's family began allowing themselves to be pulled outward, into the darkness, one by one. Max alone remained silent, awaiting his fate as his relatives screamed out in fear, reaching back for him while they were swept across the camps frozen grounds and into the trees.

  Following Gordon, the small group navigated their way through the thick underbrush and moss-ridden limbs as they pushed down the North Ridge. The horses were fairly silent in their attempts to flee the scene, but the ATV was loud, giving away the party’s location. The proximity of the screaming from behind their group caused Blaze to momentarily close her eyes.

  The sacrificial way in which Max's family had responded to the camp’s intrusion left her mind grasping for reasons why they would accept a fate that allowed them to be drug away without a fight.

  Hearing the hoof beats of the horses as the ATV navigated clumsily, incurring damages, Blaze worried it would leave them stranded. Gripping the dashboard as trees whipped past the headlights, she choked back her own scream.

  Above them, hanging lifelessly, were bodies of the slain, dangling from limbs in the night air. Pressing her hand to her mouth, Blaze squeezed her eyes shut as Walker increased their speed. One of those bodies could have been Matilda's, and the knowledge made her numb to the horror that they fled. Two of those bodies would be Skid's, and Hoyd's. Rage swelled up within her and she turned to look behind.

  Just as she did, the ATV skidded, hitting a snow-covered rock. Blaze grabbed for Matilda as the vehicle rolled onto its side. Momentum pushed the small ATV until it slid to a stop in the cold. Blaze lifted herself upright, checking on Walker and Matilda.

  The vehicle had landed on Walker’s side, his unconscious body sprawled from under the small door. Scrambling to her hands and knees, Blaze scurried through the snow, screaming his name. Someone helped her turn him upright. Carefully, Gordon situated Walker until his face was visible. Blood ran from a wound on his head. Meeting her eyes Gordon shook his head.

  “He's in bad shape.” He looked around the area, taking aim into the dark with Bixley and Shelby. John loaded Walker across the front of Pat’s mare, which Bixley was riding.

  Helping Blaze up behind his saddle, John mounted his mare, and Matilda climbed onto Storm, behind Shelby and Gordon. The Frisian was large enough to accommodate the three, although Matilda had to fight to hold on. Terrified, she locked her arms around Shelby, closing her eyes, and the group turned the horses back toward camp. Hanging on for dear life as John’s horse sped through the trees, Blaze raised her voice.

  “Why are we going back?”

  John leaned over the saddle horn, moving his mare at high speed behind Bixley’s, shouting back.

  “Plan C!”

  “Look into my eyes, it's where my demons hide, it's where my demons hide...” Imagine Dragons

  ~Thirty~

  Riding back into the camp, the small group of riders tried to avoid taking in the devastation around them. The large fire had burned down to nothing but embers and coals. Freshly fallen snow was marred by crimson tracks covering the scene, all moving different in directions. Max alone remained, standing with his back to once large fire. His family was gone.

  Judy stood alone at the edge of camp, pointing out into the dark like a mannequin with her mouth wide open- not speaking. The goat ha
d fallen silent.

  Max Looked up, eyes devoid of hope, he observed passively as their three horses galloped through camp, throwing up snow tinged with blood in their wake. Cindy, Rick and Ren were nowhere to be found. Blaze uttered a silent prayer her group would find their way through the debris and violence. Soon the horses approached the mouth of the ice stair cave they'd descended into upon their arrival.

  Blaze shook her head, realizing Plan C was staring back at her.

  “We can’t go back up this way. They told us it wouldn't work!”

  Jumping down from his horse with a grim expression, John pulled her down next to him.

  “It has to work. It’s our only way to get Walker the help he needs.” Working quickly to fashion a makeshift sled from a saddle blanket, John worked to attach lead ropes to each side. When it appeared secure, he and Gordon rolled Walker’s body onto it, folding the saddle blanket in half with him inside. It would prevent him from rolling off during their ascent up through the ice tunnel. Bixley and Shelby stood guard as the men worked swiftly.

  Blaze turned as another scream emanated from within the camp. Having agreed Walker was secure, John and Gordon began pulling Walker up the sloped ice stairs behind them. Whoever had insisted the stairs would be impossible to navigate back up had obviously not met John. His steely eyed expression left no doubt in Blaze's mind he would problem solve his way to the stop while utilizing his considerable strength. Bixley and Shelby stood guard in the mouth of the cave to allow them time to navigate upwards. Realizing what was at stake, Blaze pulled her own hand gun out and waved for Bixley, Matilda and Shelby to follow the men up the ice stairs.

  Nodding, Bixley reached out, waving her arms at the horses. Storm tossed his dark head, pivoting on his hind hooves, leading the other two horses in a dash back across the camp. They disappeared into the tree line of the North Ridge.

  Matilda remained next to Blaze who raised her voice, “Get going!”

  Shaking her head, Matilda stood her ground. “I can't. I can't leave you, I won't.”

  The sounds of the Croatoan grew closer. Turning to her friend, Blaze licked her lips, thinking. “Matilda, you thrive on reason, right?”

  Nodding, Matilda looked in fear over Blaze's shoulder. Blaze shook her arm.

  “Then listen to me! There is something that helps me. It's this stupid, debilitating disease- it helps me fight back against these things somehow. Do you have it?” Matilda, crying, shook her head.

  “That's right, you don't. I do. But I can't protect the both of us. I just can't.” Dropping her voice to a whisper, Blaze pulled Matilda in close, embracing her the way she had wanted to when she had thought she'd lost her.

  “Go.”

  Weeping, Matilda nodded and turned, pausing at the entrance of the cave.

  “Please be right behind me, Blaze.”

  She ducked into the ice cave, then was gone.

  Alone, at the mouth of the cave, Blaze waited. Screams from the camp burned her ears and she resisted the urge to run behind Matilda. Instead, she closed her eyes, praying as the rest of her team pushed onward; waiting for the moment she would have to confront what moved toward her in the dark. Leveling her gun, she prepared to fire on whatever approached. Aside from the occasional sounds drifting down to her from the team as they worked toward the surface, she heard nothing.

  The air became still, thick with the scent of death. A metallic taste rose to the back of her throat as a low gurgle caught her by surprise. Squinting into the dark, she watched as a Croatoan moved past the mouth of the cave where she stood. Lifting and its head, it breathed in the night air, searching.

  Unable to breathe, Blaze waited. Another joined the first, standing straight, extending the long line of its massive body upward, smelling, and watching. As the clouds began to part, a silver moon peaked out. Blaze prayed under her breath. A rock slipped from somewhere to her left and another Croatoan joined the search. They moved brokenly through the snow and rocks, up toward the mouth of the cave. Remaining still, she waited for the moment she would be forced to fire, measuring the seconds.

  Sliding along the rocks toward the mouth of the cave, one Sasquatch raised up to almost its full height, inches from Blaze. Steadying her breathing, she waited. It gurgled deep in its throat, cocking its head from side to side, with only the outline of it visible in the dark. The moon was to its massive back. The scent of blood hung upon its breath as it exhaled near her.

  Lowering itself on disjointed knees, it came face to face with Blaze. Frozen, she stared at her handgun pointing to its chest; pausing a brief moment before looking it directly in the eyes. Dark and unreadable, those eyes were searching. The creature paused only a moment, seemingly staring Blaze in the face before shifting to look behind her, then turned away. As it moved in its broken gait back down the side of the hill leading up the mouth of the ice stairs, Blaze exhaled slowly, shaking.

  It hadn't seen her. She had looked right into its eyes and the creature had not recognized her presence. As the others clamored down the rocks behind one another, Blaze turned, peering up into the ice tunnel that led to the rock face of Cold Cat Mountain. Backing in slowly, handgun ready, one step at a time, she navigated the steep terrain by sheer will and terror.

  She never paused to wonder why she had survived the close encounter. Unable to see, Blaze held fast to the ice covered walls of the stair formation. She felt warm blood from the cuts she incurred as she ran her hands across the shards of ice lining the ancient canyon walls. As she climbed she prayed, counted her steps and cursed the tunnel through the darkness. Only fear could propel people back up a route intended as a one-way access point. Breathing heavily while climbing the ice tunnel, she neared the top where the team waited.

  ~*~

  Norma had refused to leave the hangar. The town itself was falling into chaos, and she watched as the National Guard pulled through the “illegal” road block the citizens of Stryker had erected. One by one, dark green jeeps filled with uniformed men drove past where she waited, positioning themselves on the hill at the mouth of the dirt road leading up the mountainside. Up to Cold Cat.

  Several news crews filtered in behind the convoy. They set up camps and reporters tried without success to gain the cooperation of Stryker’s citizens. No one would speak to them. Sipping her coffee, Norma leaned against the SUV she'd driven into town earlier, and dialed her grandson's number. Dusty answered his phone without preamble.

  “Grandma? You alright?”

  Smiling at the sound of his voice, she nodded while holding her own phone.

  “Get the boys and come on down here, Dusty.”

  He shifted the phone, creating static in the receiver. “What’s wrong?”

  Sighing, she shook her head. “I don't know, but I'd feel better if you boys were down here with me, in case we need to go.” Hanging up, Norma could hear him yelling for his brothers.

  As she watched from her vantage point in town, the commotion increased. Knowing the National Guard could cause more trouble for her family who were in the canyon, she pursed her lips and eyed the helicopter. It was fueled and ready.

  Sipping her coffee, she waved back to Chrissy, who stood watching the commotion from the doorway of her cafe, refusing to let the news crews inside. Gene and his men had simply followed orders and relinquished the road block; instead setting up guards at the entries of locally owned businesses. Not being allowed access, the news crews began trying to push back. The deputy Sheriff Walker left in charge had deputized two other men but was having trouble keeping up.

  As another early winter storm blew in, Norma tossed out the last of her coffee and turned away from the scene unfolding before her. She had been eyeing up the town, nursing a peculiar suspicion all night. Her body felt it. Turning to her helicopter to check on an item, she stopped.

  Through the main street of Stryker, running wide open, were Gordon, Pat and John’s horses. Clouds of white flew out from behind their hooves as they made their way through the fallin
g snow, throwing their manes, riderless.

  With her heart in her throat, Norma turned to see her grandsons pulling into the hangar driveway. Motioning for them to hurry, she rushed to the helicopter and started the blades. With it humming, the horses ran past her and up the draw toward the home she'd shared with her husband for over fifteen years. Seeing the animals without riders navigating their breakneck pace, she waved to her grandsons, who ran, bent at the waist, to jump into the rescue helicopter with her. Buckling in, with Dillon in the front, Dusty and Wyatt secured the doors.

  Over the blades- before their headphones were in place, Norma yelled out. “Plan C!”

  Nodding, the young men secured their positions and held fast as Norma navigated the rescue copter into the air, hovering over the snow in slow motion before moving up the face of the mountain.

  With the blades churning, all three young men searched the terrain with their eyes for their family, or a survivor who might indicate what was happening. Moving low over the tree tops, Norma gritted her teeth, knowing Gordon had promised to bring Shelby back. Safe. He wouldn't have sent the horses back down the mountain though unless he had been forced to.

  Pushing aside her panic, she raced up into the predawn sky, knowing she likely had one shot at getting her husband, daughter and granddaughter off the face of Cold Cat.

  Slowing, with the blades moving in rapid, tension-filled circles overhead, she finally crested the peak and hovered over the face of the sinister mountain. Five small figures in the snow below waved frantically.

  One was Shelby. Screaming into her headset Norma, whirled the helicopter around and brought it in low. Without being told, the boys scrambled to lower the ladder and a rescue bed to raise an injured party up.

  “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase...” Martin Luther King

  ~Thirty-one~

  Cindy ran alongside Ren, pushing her way through the snow and the dark until they were at the mouth of the cave. Behind them, screams followed.