by Lee Murphy
"You wanna... you wanna hear her scream?" Montagna almost started laughing, but maintained his composure.
Paul was shaking. "What kind of animal are you?"
"Well, Roy, I'm afraid we can't let you have Cyrena. But we do have somebody else here who can show you a good time. Isn't that right, Norm?"
Norm smiled. "Sure do." He cupped his mouth with one hand and called out, "Ruthie! Come on out, gal! We got something for you!"
Ruth's head popped out from her tent like a cat being called for dinner. When Andy Paul got a look at her he knew it was time to start praying.
Dave's skin flushed hot from a rush of testosterone as he got caught up in the excitement and the taste of frenzy. He whacked Paul across the back of his head with the shotgun, and Paul fell on his hands and knees. Norm said, "I think old Roy here could use some tenderizing, don't you, Jamie?"
Montagna kicked Paul in the ribs. Paul cried out and flopped to the ground.
Norm took the shotgun from Dave and, smiling, he said, "What about you, kid?"
Dave, eyes bulging and hands tremulous with vigor, picked the machete up from the ground, knelt down beside Paul, lifted his head by a handful of hair and pressed the blade to Paul's throat.
Norm said, "Whoa, kid, that's for Ruthie..."
Dave looked at Norm, then grudgingly tossed the machete away. Paul was whimpering. His face was covered with dust and some blood from his nose and mouth. Dave jerked Paul's head back hard and hissed, "This is gonna hurt real bad!"
The three men lifted Paul up and proceeded to beat the living hell out of him; something they'd gotten a great deal of practice in lately. They beat him senseless, but not to the point of unconsciousness.
Ruth did not take part in the assault. In fact, she seemed totally oblivious as she knelt down and sharpened her large knife, continually running her thumb along the edge to test its sharpness.
After the beating, they sat Paul on the ground and then tied his hands behind him over the topside of the fallen tree trunk. Then they tied his feet together.
Paul watched the old lady as she finished sharpening her knife and got to her feet, which was a major effort for her. She shoved the knife back in its case and stood in front of him, staring at him with those black-as-coal eyes. He wanted to look away, but couldn't. He saw she had what was supposed to pass for a smile on her face. Then she took her shirt off and dropped it on the ground.
Norm, Montagna, and Dave started laughing, and even Andy Paul couldn't believe the disgusting sight of her flattened, leathery breasts, like hound dog ears with Jujubees on the ends.
He felt like he was going to vomit. She hiked up her dress and was naked underneath. Paul turned his head away, and she came at him.
The others laughed hysterically as Ruth croaked the words, "You are dog. I am stink," and shoved herself into Andy Paul's face.
***
Ben's legs were searing from the workout he was getting on his walk back to camp. He was huffing in great breaths as he moved, but he was so emotionally charged about what was going to happen tonight, he was able to channel his physical pain into energy. He refused to slow down.
He was only a third of a mile from camp, hiking along a ridge above the widest part of the river, when he looked across and saw Ruth. She was crouched down on a large boulder, washing her knife in the water. Ben stopped to watch her, but she didn't look up at him.
Something she had caught his eye and he wanted to get a better look at it. It looked like one of the animal pelts she wore on her belt, except this one had bright, curly red hair. Ben grew cold and felt nauseous when he realized these weren't animal pelts at all, but human scalps!
He couldn't recall having met anyone out here who had curly red hair, and he would have remembered if he did. Had she attacked some other campers? As near as he could tell, there hadn't been anyone else in the canyon.
As Ben tried to figure the mystery out, Norm and Jamie appeared on the opposite side of the river carrying something in a plastic tarpaulin between them. It was big enough to be a human body, and there was blood dripping from one end. They were all involved.
Ben's legs turned to gelatin, and he almost fell down, but he grabbed onto a tree trunk for support and took cover behind it.
Norm and Montagna dropped the body on the ground, and Norm said, "Man, this guy's heavy."
Ruth sniffed the air like a dog and suddenly pointed a bony finger at Ben and screeched.
Norm and Montagna spotted him. Norm hollered, "Tyler!" and fired at Ben with the shotgun.
Montagna grabbed the shotgun from him. "Stupid idiot! We only have three shells left. Besides, he probably knows where Kodiak and Cyrena are hiding." Montagna waded into the waist-deep water, fighting the strong current and started making his way across the river.
Ben ran like hell, forgetting all pain and previous discomfort. In his mind he was a gazelle and there was no way they were going to catch up with him, even if it meant running all the way back to Red Fern. Of course he knew that was totally unrealistic, and his plan was to make it to the gully where Kodiak and Cyrena were still hiding. At the very least he had to warn them that Montagna and Norm were armed with a shotgun and they would have to change their plan considerably, or abandon it altogether.
Ben visualized Montagna coming out of the water and resuming the hunt. Depending on the strength of the current, the added weight of his wet clothes, and the fact that Ben had cold white fear in his favor, the odds were strong he'd make it to the gully before Montagna could catch up with him. God, he was scared.
His lungs burned and he needed to stop if only to catch his breath, but there was no way he was going to do that. If he was going to die today it would be from exhaustion and not a shotgun blast to the head.
In his panic he must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because he suddenly found himself up against a wall of giant boulders at least seventy feet high. They weren't insurmountable, but they were covered with thick, wet moss and grass, making the task of climbing arduous, especially for a man of Ben's size and physical condition.
Ben looked around, debating whether he had time to backtrack, but decided against it. At least this area was well covered by a dense growth of trees, and he didn't think he had left any tracks between the ground cover and the rocks that surfaced the last two hundred yards. He was going to scale the rocks.
Montagna and Norm both set out after Ben. After Norm shot at him everyone knew there was no way they could let him live. When they took off across the river they left Dave with Ruth, ordering him to dispose of Paul's body.
Dave had no idea what they were planning to do with the body when they suddenly went after Ben, so he asked Ruth, "I don't suppose you know what they were gonna do with him?"
Ruth ignored him.
"Thanks." He looked down at the bloodied tarpaulin. It was so strange. He thought he should feel sick, or scared. Something. The picture in his head of Andy Paul's face, pleading with his eyes for Dave to do something to help him, while Montagna and Norm held him down as Ruth peeled back the top of his head, was titillating. Even now. Still.
Norm, Montagna and Ruth killed him. At least that's what Dave convinced himself was the truth. He didn't know why he hated the guy. He didn't even know him, except for meeting him at the stable. But Paul's boorish flirtation with Cyrena had made Dave feel jealous. And seeing him now prance into their camp thinking he was her knight in shining flannel just whitened Dave's mind with rage.
Paul was so big there was no way Dave could lift the body by himself, and it was obvious Ruth would be of no help. He could drag the body to some gorge and dump it there for the animals to finish off, but that left way too much risk of being discovered. He could bury him. But where? He would have to dig a pretty big hole, because there was no way Dave could stomach chopping him up. But then, maybe he wouldn't have to... "Hey, Ruth..."
***
Ben was halfway up the boulder wall. He found he could tear away sections of slippery moss wi
th his rock-climbing boots and lose very little footing. He lay face down against one of the boulders, and the wet grass soaked into his shirt, feeling wonderful. He was getting his second wind and had not seen hide nor hair of Montagna and Norm in the whole half hour since the incident at the river.
But he was still far from home-free, and he wasn't worried just for himself. It would be dark soon and he had to get to the gully before Kodiak and Cyrena left for the camp. Of course, if he didn't make it, there was always the hope that with Norm and Montagna after him, they could free the Sasquatch unhindered. He looked up and saw that he still had at least thirty feet to climb, and the sky was growing dark. The storm clouds had gone, so at least he wouldn't get rained on.
***
Dave went back to camp while Ruth took care of bundling the last of Andy Paul for disposal. He thought the old battle axe was disgusting, but she did have her uses. He was surprised that he didn't feel particularly bad about watching that big idiot cowpoke die the way he did. After all, he told himself again that he didn't actually take part in the killing. But he knew that, on some level, somewhere, sometime, there would be payback. Possibly jail time-- if it were ever found out.
His psychotic mind began to waver. Maybe he should have done something to avoid being involved in this, like run away. But now he had crossed a line, and it couldn't have been any more real if it had been painted on the ground.
Again, Andy Paul's final, terrified gaze haunted his brain. But it still didn't repulse Dave. It made his testicles tingle in anticipation of danger-- like having done something that could put you on death row. It was almost a thrill, if it weren't for that other sensation: the feeling of creeping depression rising from the cold depths of his belly.
He had the camp all to himself. Norm and Montagna were still out trying to track Ben down, and Ruth was chopping Andy Paul into little bitty pieces. He figured he'd give Ruth a couple hours to do her dirty work, then he'd go check up on her.
***
Ben made it to the top. He was just about to pull himself over the last boulder when he suddenly heard Montagna below. "Wrong time, wrong place, Ben. Nothing personal."
Ben turned around and looked down at them. He was a sitting duck.
Norm was pointing the shotgun right at him.
Ben's fear was suddenly replaced with a deep sense of peace. He knew he was going to die. He rested his head on the rock and closed his eyes, preparing himself for what was about to happen. "May I have a minute to pray?"
Norm laughed. "Does he really think praying's gonna save him?"
"Shut up, Norm." Montagna was subdued. Almost respectful. "One minute, Ben."
"Thank you. And Jamie?"
"Yes, Ben?"
"I forgive you."
The Sentinel Of The Woods
Kodiak and Cyrena heard the shotgun blast, but from the considerable distance she thought it was thunder. Kodiak knew it wasn't, but saw no point in frightening her any more than she had already been. "The sun'll be down in a few minutes. When do you want to go?" She asked.
He was looking up at the sky, wondering about the shotgun blast. Who had shot at whom? Or who had killed whom? "No need to hurry. I want to give them time to settle in."
***
Norm and Montagna came back to camp exhausted, emotionally as well as physically. All they wanted to do was eat dinner, drink some beer and go to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be an even more taxing day.
Dave was waiting for them, and they knew something was wrong. He was pale and nervous and looked like he was going to be sick. "I got something I got to tell you..."
Montagna was bushed and not in the mood to deal with another problem. "So, what is it?"
"It wasn't my fault..."
Montagna was fed up, and he reacted with anger, "Listen, punk, I'm not in the mood to deal with your fidgety little--"
Norm cut in. He liked Dave and didn't want to see Montagna berate him. "Jamie, take it easy. Can't you see the kid's freaked out about something?" He addressed Dave. "What is it, kid?"
"Ruth. It's Ruth. She's... Ruth's dead..."
Norm freaked. He grabbed Dave by the shirt and Dave started crying. "What are you talking about? She's dead? How? HOW!"
Dave just sobbed like a baby and would have dropped to the ground if Norm hadn't held so tightly to his shirt, screaming in his face. "I'm gonna kick your ass if you don't explain to me--"
Montagna was back in control. He wrenched Norm off of Dave and worked on calming Dave down. "Now take it easy. We need to know what happened. Where is she now?"
"I took her... She's in... she's in... she's in her tent..."
Norm ran to the tent and went in.
Montagna sat down beside Dave. "Take it easy, kid. Just take a few deep breaths and fill me in on what happened. Was it Kodiak?"
Dave stopped crying and inhaled several deep breaths. Finally he could speak coherently. "I left her by the river after you and Norm went after Ben. I didn't know what you wanted me to do with the cowboy's body, so I asked her to chop him up and then I was gonna bury the pieces. I thought that's what you'd want..."
Montagna nodded. "That's fine. So what went wrong?"
"I couldn't take watching her do it, so I came back here till I figured she'd had enough time to finish. Then I went back to check on her..." A sob escaped him, then he calmed himself again. "She was in the water, face down. I went to her and saw she was dead. She was all stiff and white... Anyway, I guess she'd had a heart attack, or something. It looked like natural causes."
"It must have been. She's had a bad ticker for years. I can guess what happened. It takes a lot of physical strength to cut apart a body. The strain probably wore her heart out. Norm's an idiot for bringing her along, anyway. What about the other body, the cowboy?"
Dave shook his head and wiped his eyes. "Gone. The tarp was tangled in some rocks like he'd fallen into the river and got separated from it. I couldn't find him."
"All right. That sounds okay. You didn't do anything wrong. Don't worry about Norm. I'll deal with him."
"Thanks, Jamie."
Norm walked into the tent, saw Ruth's stiff, curled body and gagged back a sob. "Oh, Ruthie... Ruthie..." She looked like one of those mummified bodies found in peat bogs after two thousand years. He knelt down beside her and looked her over, searching for any signs of foul play, even though he had to admit her death was probably from natural causes, and long overdue. It didn't make him feel any less saddened. Nor did it stop him from taking her Bowie knife and tying it to his boot. After all, she wasn't going to need it anymore.
He looked her body over for anything else he might want when he noticed the flattened nickel still lying on the rock. There was something engraved on it: a name. He liked this because she used to write the names of her victims on these coins when she scalped them. Apparently she was planning to do someone else after Andy Paul.
He picked the nickel up and held it close to his eyes so he could read the scratchy letters.
Montagna and Dave heard Norm scream, then pounding violently on something inside the tent. They both stood up, but only Montagna ran inside.
Norm was kicking Ruth's body as hard as he could, attacking her much worse than he had Kodiak, or the Sasquatch. This sudden change of attitude surprised Montagna, to say the least. He screamed at Norm to stop. Norm finally stopped and looked at Montagna, his face flushed with rage.
"Norm, what the hell's going on?"
"Look at this!" He tossed the flattened nickel to Montagna, who looked at it. "Read it!"
Montagna shook his head, not really surprised by what he was seeing.
"She was gonna do me! She was gonna do me!"
Montagna held the nickel in his hand, looking at the words scrawled upon its hammered surface: NORM COCKE.
***
The camp was eerily silent well into the night. Norm had been completely freaked out by the revelation about what Ruth-less was going to do to him and was now sullen and self-pitying. Montagna l
eft him alone to stew in his own juices, and Dave stayed by Montagna, still scared from Norm's reaction to Ruth's death.
Montagna whipped up a light meal of canned stew that he and Dave ate while Norm just drank beer after beer, staying by himself and cuddling the shotgun.
Breaking the silence, Dave spoke just above a whisper.
"You think he'll be all right?"
Montagna sighed. "I suppose. I think he's more pissed off about Ruth planning to scalp him than he is about her dropping dead."
"So, how are you planning to get the Sasquatch out of here?"
"Huh? Oh. We'll hook one end of the cage to the horse like a travois till we reach the Winnebago." Montagna got up and went over to Norm who was sitting on the fallen tree trunk in front of the fire. "Norm, I wanna call it a night, but somebody has to stay up and guard the Squatch."
"I'll do it." Norm barely muttered.
"I want to get an early start tomorrow..."
"I said I'd do it. Leave me alone."
Montagna understood Norm's anger, but he still felt hurt by his attitude. "All right. Just be sure to call for help if something happens."
Norm held up the shotgun. "Got all the help I need right here. Go to bed."
Norm let the fire dwindle until it extinguished itself. After the storm clouds had passed, the air was cool and the moon was three-quarters full, bathing everything in a pleasant blue glow.
But he wasn't thinking about the dark. His mind was on Ruth.
That evil, sadistic, useless old hag was going to do him. Him. Had their relationship for the past fifteen years been a joke? Was she planning to do him the entire time, or did she know she was dying and decided to take him on a whim? And how was she planning to do him? He'd seen old Ruthie take some big dudes, and all by herself. She may have been a little too old to handle that guy Paul completely on her own, but in years past, Norm had seen her do it. And she always took their scalps.