WHERE LEGENDS ROAM

by Lee Murphy

  On the front porch Norm used a dish towel to beat the C02 dust off of Ruth, while holding a cold can of beer to the bruise on his head.

  ***

  By six-thirty the next morning Ben had slept fitfully for hours. He felt a little sick after first waking up, but as the effects of the Ketamine wore off he felt good enough to get some food down and prepare for the trek into the woods. Dave professed sorrow for what happened, and Ben forgave him. He said he understood how, in all the excitement, such an accident could happen. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of malevolence he had experienced last night as Dave stared down at him from the telephone pole.

  Everyone got into Norm's wagon and left to get the horses. Kodiak decided to stay behind and wait for Cyrena to come back from the vet.

  An hour later Cyrena and Mildred pulled up in Ben's jeep. They were both exhausted from the long drive. The cat had to be left with the vet for observation.

  The house looked even worse in the light of day than it did the previous night. The cat's spewed blood had dried on the floor, and the cabinet was ruined; the glass was broken and the intricate woodwork had been smashed to pieces. Mildred sounded defeated. "I think I'm going to be sick."

  Cyrena put a comforting arm around her and helped her to the couch.

  "I hate those horrible people. Those pigs."

  Kodiak and Cyrena both felt like dirt and wanted to leave out of shame.

  Mildred looked at Kodiak with red, bleary eyes. "I guess I'm lucky they didn't kill me when I ruined their attempt to catch it."

  Kodiak said, "I wouldn't have let them touch you."

  Mildred smiled. "They've gone after it, haven't they?"

  Kodiak said, "Yeah."

  "I would never wish for you to be alone with them, but... do you think you can stop them?" Mildred implored him.

  Kodiak said, "Yeah, I can stop them."

  "Besides," Cyrena said, "he won't be alone."

  Kodiak turned to Cyrena and said, "Like hell."

  Having been a school teacher much of her adult life, Cyrena was not prone to giving in. "You can't rely on Dave, and even with Ben you'd be outnumbered."

  Kodiak said, "Which is exactly why you're staying here. Look, I didn't realize just how dangerous Jamie Montagna is."

  "He's right." Mildred said to Cyrena. "Those men are evil. And that old woman..." She shuddered.

  "It'll be a few days before they know for sure if they're gonna catch that animal. If they don't, they're likely to swing back this way to take their frustrations out on Mildred. I'd feel a whole lot better if you and she went into Red Fern and stayed close to the ranger station."

  Cyrena leaned toward Mildred. "Do you have a friend who can drive you into town?"

  Kodiak said, "Of course she does. You."

  Cyrena turned to Kodiak. "You have two choices. You can stay here with us and let them go their merry way. Or you can go after them with me at your side."

  "You forgot door number three. I'm going alone."

  "So, you'll go after them while I wait here, wondering if you're in trouble? What about Ben? He's my friend, too, and I'm not going to sit back and let him be victimized by those slobs. No, George. There is no door number three."

  ***

  Two horses were left at the clearing when Kodiak pulled Ben's jeep alongside Norm's wagon. Cyrena untethered the horses, and they mounted up. Kodiak hadn't said much to Cyrena since they left Mildred's house. She was adamant about joining him, and while he was extremely concerned about her safety, he was secretly glad to have her company. Mildred had agreed to go to Red Fern. She didn't believe Montagna and the others would come back, but she didn't want to be on the receiving end of such a surprise.

  Kodiak looked at the fresh hoofprints that covered the ground, and on the opposite side of the road they found the medium-sized footprints left by the Sasquatch. "Looks like he's been through here. They'll be following his path," he said.

  The way the tracks were laid, it appeared that the creature had come back to the horses and llamas after the incident at Mildred's before proceeding into the canyon.

  Cyrena said, "He seems awfully curious, when you consider how cautious these animals usually are."

  Kodiak nodded. "That's what worries me." He turned his horse in the direction of the footprints, and they followed the mixed tracks of the Sasquatch and the other horses into the woods of Olympic National Park.

  ***

  The going was much slower than Montagna had anticipated, and his patience was wearing thin. The ground cover was thick with ferns three feet high that were so dense along the route they were traveling they only made three-quarters of a mile in two hours. Another problem was Ruth. She was leading the pack, following the Sasquatch's path through some animal sixth-sense that took them off the main trail and slowed their progress considerably. She would ride ahead about a hundred feet, stop, dismount her horse and spend the next ten minutes scrutinizing some minuscule detail among the plants or on the ground that would probably evade even the most experienced bloodhound.

  But he had to admit, although her manner was highly peculiar, she had a talent for uncovering evidence of the creature's passing that he and Norm-- who were both experienced trackers-- couldn't hold a candle to.

  They were traveling under a canopy of three hundred-foot-tall western hemlocks that blocked out the daylight save for a scattering of light shafts that penetrated the forest like swords driven by a magician into a wicker basket. They were insignificant as ants in a primeval world virtually unchanged from the dawn of time. A world of greens and browns, daubed with minute patches of red and yellow, orange and blue, all enveloped in an otherworldly mist. The forest was alive with the cries of birds and the smell of pine that was heavy on the air. Their eyes weren't wide enough to take it all in.

  The air at this level was pure, and it managed to clear Ben of the hungover feeling he had been unable to shake off since waking up. His leg still hurt, and there was a severe bruise where the dart had struck him, but he was feeling so good, so alive, that none of the previous night's activities bothered him.

  He was still savoring the image of the Sasquatch in his mind. It was real. After more than twenty years of searching, putting up with people and their idiotic jokes and accusations of fakery, he finally saw one. He finally saw the face. And it was a beautiful face. Its skin was gray, lighter than its black fur, although Ben only saw it through green-tinted goggles. Its eyes were the most captivating. They were wide, and held the innocent curiosity of a juvenile animal. He would reflect on the image of that face every day for the rest of his life, even if they never caught up with that animal again.

  Dave was sullen and still feeling dejected. He felt that he now must look like a fool in Cyrena's eyes for what he had done to Ben, and he knew everyone else thought he was a loser, too. Nothing about this heaven on earth could ease the badly distorted persecution complex he bore all his life.

  ***

  Kodiak and Cyrena were three miles behind Montagna and the others, but they rode at a leisurely pace, since they were not in any great hurry to catch up with them. Their path was easy enough to follow, as the horses and llamas trampled a passage through the ground ferns and often left their calling cards behind in steaming piles.

  Kodiak asked her, "How long have you been a teacher?"

  "Eighteen years." Cyrena's mind was on the conversation, but she couldn't take her eyes from the wilderness that not only surrounded, but enveloped them.

  Kodiak said, "The world's toughest profession. Some of the greatest loves of my life were teachers. Although they never knew it. Their ignorance of my affections also reflected in my report cards."

  She laughed, then said, "It is a tough job. Believe me, we earn these three month vacations. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love my students."

  "So, how did a nice girl like you get caught up in all this Sasquatch stuff, anyway? You just don't seem the type."

  "I saw one of Ben's ads in a Seattle pape
r about six years ago. I called out of curiosity and managed to get him to give a talk on cryptozoology for my class. They ate up his every word. I have to admit, I was fascinated, too."

  Kodiak said, "What got you to join his group?"

  "He gave me a copy of your Hunt for the Living Gigantopithecus. He called it the bible."

  Kodiak shook his head, embarrassed by the overzealous description of his book.

  Cyrena continued, "Anyway, I read it and the whole thing seemed entirely plausible. I think it was when you took it out of the realm of being a monster and simply explained that it's a perfectly normal animal that I was sold."

  They rode in silence for a short while. Then Cyrena asked, "Why did you leave the Park Service?"

  "I didn't care for their schizophrenic policies. On the public side, they talk a good deal about preservation and the like. But behind the scenes, they're motivated by greed.

  "I used to work in Yosemite. There was a time it was two separate valleys. After the earthquake that decimated San Francisco in 1906, one of the geniuses that headed the Forest Service made it his personal project to secure a water source in Yosemite National Park by flooding the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Due to that act of supreme stupidity, the public was so outraged that private citizen organizations ultimately got this place established. Because the Park Service tried so hard to sell out these forests, it was one of the most heated and drawn-out battles of all time. And it's been fought over and over for more than fifty years. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if all these old growth forests vanish within our own lifetimes."

  After a short, thoughtful silence, Cyrena brought up the subject of their Sasquatch. "So, did you see it last night?"

  ***

  "No, I didn't see it," Montagna was obviously irritated as he rode alongside Dave. They were thirty feet behind Ruth who was leading them up a trail near the top of Tshletshy Ridge. "What did you see?"

  Dave shrugged. "I saw something dark. I thought it was the Sasquatch and ended up hitting Ben."

  They had been riding for six hours now and had made considerably better time once they cleared the Montane forests of the lower Queets Valley. None of them had slept at all the previous night (except Ben), and the ride was beginning to wear them down. Montagna decided once they were on the opposite side of the ridge they would set up camp beside the first river, lake, or creek that would be adequate for fishing, as well as a source of water for the animals.

  Dave was still feeling low, thinking about Cyrena. After she had talked to him the other day he had grown very fond of her, although he wasn't ready to admit being in love. Then she seemed to snub him whenever that damn Kodiak was around. He didn't want to see Norm and Jamie hurt her, but if it came to that, he might take what he felt was his due.

  The trees had thinned out along the spine of the ridge. The air was thinner and the sun was hot, draining them of stamina. Ben looked haggard again, having not fully rid himself of the effects of the Ketamine hydrochloride. Ruth popped another pill under her tongue. As they reached the vista, they looked down upon the great canopy of an even bigger rainforest that filled the canyon below like a massive green punchbowl encircled by a giant crown of gray mountains.

  ***

  "And where in the hell have you been?" Montagna watched Kodiak and Cyrena ride into camp. It was a little past five o'clock, and camp had been set up in a clearing beneath the cover of two gigantic silver firs, just off the Queets River, one hundred feet from a multi-tiered waterfall. There were four igloo tents, and the boxes of supplies were set off to one side, with the most pertinent ones opened up.

  Kodiak smiled at Montagna and asked, "What's for supper?"

  Montagna was irritable, and his whiney voice made him sound petulant. "Ben, Norm and Dave went fishing. If they don't catch anything, then it's powdered chili and peanut butter sandwiches."

  Dave was in better spirits after they set up camp, and hiked half a mile upstream with Ben and Norm, where they found a deep pool that had been dammed off by some beavers. They saw several good-sized trout swimming in the crystal water.

  Ben filled his canteen and after capping it off, got down on his belly and started drinking with deep, wonderful gulps. He was suddenly distracted by Dave's and Norm's laughter, and when he looked upstream he saw Norm standing on a large boulder, urinating into the river.

  They caught plenty of fish, so much so that everyone could eat their fill. Ben fried it up, and everyone just helped themselves as it came off the pan.

  Earlier that evening Ruth had taken off on her own and returned with the carcass of some poor animal she tracked down and clubbed to death. The thing was unrecognizable after she butchered it and shoved it onto a spit over the fire. It looked so grotesque, that nobody was interested in asking her to share.

  After dinner the sleeping assignments were passed out. Montagna announced that Cyrena would share a tent with him, and after the obligatory laughter, he admitted that he was kidding. He would share a tent with Dave. Ben would share with Kodiak, and Norm would share with Ruth (since nobody else could actually manage to sleep in her company). Cyrena would have a tent all to herself, and everyone accepted this arrangement.

  Kodiak and Montagna were standing beside the fire looking at the scraps of food on the ground: fish bones, scatterings of the Hostess cupcakes they had for dessert, and what was left of the thing Ruth ate. "Don't you think we should get some of this stuff cleaned up? It may attract bears," Kodiak said.

  "Yeah, it might. And it might also attract our elusive friend. And right now, that's all we have to hope for, because until he shows up, we're screwed," Montagna stated.

  "That animal's long gone, Montagna."

  "Not according to Ruth. And Norm swears by her. He says she can smell a rat's fart from twenty miles away."

  "That's one on old Norm," Kodiak said. "Rats don't fart."

  "I'm being facetious." After a long, uncomfortable silence, Montagna said, "I know you don't like me. I know I haven't given you much reason to. But we are on the verge of making the greatest scientific discovery since the Coelacanth. Doesn't that mean anything to you? Are you that jealous of not being the only one to bring it in?"

  Kodiak shot him a sidelong glance. "Where do you get off calling this travesty a scientific expedition? You're in this for the money and nothing more."

  Montagna seemed troubled. He paced back and forth, contemplating something, then said, "You remember I said something about working for the State Department, a liaison of sorts? Well, that's not entirely true."

  Kodiak said, "Now why doesn't that surprise me?"

  "I work for the National Security Agency. The branch I operate is funded by people in the private sector, like Emory Pittman. You'll also recall I told you that I have a personal interest in things cryptozoological. That is true, but it goes well beyond a personal fascination.

  "A few years ago, when the Soviet Union fell apart, some of my contacts within the KGB sold me information that documented an experiment that was carried out by their scientists involving the Russian equivalent of the Sasquatch..."

  Kodiak said, "The Almas."

  Montagna nodded. "That's right, the Almas. What they had done was to create a hybrid species: part Almas, part Homo sapien..." Montagna let this information sink in.

  Kodiak slowly turned on him. "Wait a minute. Is this what you were talking about on the ride out here, that business with Zana?"

  "That's right."

  "Montagna, if Zana existed at all, I guarantee she was, at most, a relic species of Homo sapien. Cro-magnon, at most. Not even Neandertal. Any so-called hybrid children she may have born were strictly human."

  Montagna's eyes became wide, almost manic, as he said, "That's what I thought, too! But back in the late seventies and eighties, the Russians were finding the bodies of these dead Almas out in their forests. They had died from radiation poisoning, because the stupid Russians had been dumping all their radioactive waste into rivers and lakes throughout the mountains. T
hese creatures had either been drinking the water, or eating the fish they found dead on the river banks.

  "But I saw the film of these things they had laid out in their laboratories. They were apes, Kodiak, just like the Sasquatch!"

  "Okay, even if they did have these dead Almas in their labs, how did they manage to create a hybrid species?"

  Montagna explained. "The Russians discovered that sperm cells are still viable even after they have died. Through test tube fertilization and gene splicing, they bred twenty-two of these hybrids to experiment with a new type of soldier. A soldier with the physical strength, agility, and the instincts of an animal, but with the cognitive abilities of a human being.

  "When the Soviet Union faded out, the new government wanted the project stopped, and they ordered the extermination of these hybrids. A Russian General named Belikov was brought out of retirement to hunt them down and kill them.

  "Last year I went to Russia and smuggled the last surviving member of this species into the United States. He's everything they set out to create!"

  Kodiak had no doubt in his mind that Montagna was psychotic. He was starting to fear that Montagna was actually becoming unglued right before his eyes. He said, "And where is this hybrid now, Jamie?"

  Montagna shook his head. "I don't know. He has to remain hidden, because he doesn't look normal, you know, like a human being looks. Emory Pittman was going to let us use his Sasquatch for genetic material so we can breed one of these hybrids for ourselves. And according to your own research, you said the North American species would appear to be the largest of all of them reported throughout the world."