by Lee Murphy
Dave Bovard screamed.
It was truly Gigantopithecus. What stood below Dave was a monster with shoulders four feet across and a chest like two concrete slabs. It stood upright like a man, and was covered with dark hair like the juvenile. When the rock smashed into the back of its head, the beast whirled around and looked right at him.
Dave urinated in his pants. Even though he was on a rise twenty-five feet above the Giganto, its expression of rage and total ferocity paralyzed him. The beast rushed up the hill at him, bellowing with a roar like that of an angry baboon-- only much more powerful.
Dave drew in a breath and regained something of his senses. His panic instinct drove him to turn and run. As the Giganto raced after him, it let out another ferocious roar, and its intensity almost made him break into wracking sobs. Even so, he was somewhat heartened by the fact that it sounded a little farther away than when the animal had come within grabbing distance of him at the top of the rise.
His footfalls felt awkward and clumsy, with his torso thrust so far forward he felt like he was going to stumble and fall face-down. There was no trail for him to follow, and the uneven terrain only jarred and slowed his progress. But something kept him going. He knew just by the size of the monster's legs its strides would equal several of his own, but his will to survive compelled him forward.
Behind him the Giganto ran at a pace comparable to a wolf. This animal didn't charge on all fours like the other great apes, but was running similar to a man, with its arms thrust forward, as though pulling at the air. The thick, solid slaps of its feet hitting the ground came up fast and loud behind Dave, and he could hear it panting in vicious grunts as it kept after him.
Dave lost all control and screamed, "Get away from me! Get away! Help! Help! Jamie! Norm! Help me!" As he ran down a minor slope he saw his path was blocked by a nurse log: a fallen tree trunk upon which several newer trees grew feeding off the decay of the deadfall. Normally, it would be a beautiful sight, but to Dave Bovard it might as well have been the electric chair.
He came up against the dead trunk, which was twelve feet high, and he grasped a section of bark that immediately broke loose under his weight as he tried to pull himself up. He heard the thunderous steps of the pursuer coming up fast behind him as he tried to scramble up the side of the deadfall again.
He almost made it halfway up, when his leg was suddenly grabbed by the huge paw.
Cyrena came out from behind her tree and saw the Giganto rush up the twenty-five-foot embankment in four easy bounds, then run after the screaming Dave Bovard. As much as she hated Dave for terrorizing her, she felt greater terror for what would happen if that animal got hold of him.
She couldn't hold back her tears as she ran after them with the futile hope of doing something to prevent the oncoming disaster. By the time she clawed her way up the loose layer of dirt, she had lost sight of them both and could only hear Dave's screams echoing from a good distance away. She got to the top of the rise and continued on, refusing to stop to catch her breath, or wipe her eyes as she followed the animal's twenty-inch footprints through the woods.
Dave never lost consciousness. When the Giganto dragged him off the tree, he lay on the ground looking up at the monstrous ape as it roared. This thing bore little resemblance to the juvenile Sasquatch. True, they were of the same species; both were bipedal, and had the same facial features and conical head. But the sheer size and brutishness of this animal eliminated any connection to the innocent, wide-eyed curiosity of the juvenile.
The Giganto never gave him a chance. Its face was almost a caricature; eyes hideously wide, lips drawn back bearing huge teeth. It held both Dave's feet in one hand and lifted him off the ground...
Cyrena stopped a hundred feet from where the Giganto lifted
Dave off the ground by his feet and... WHAM!!!
She staggered back, all the breath forced from her lungs as if it had been she who was struck. The monstrous ape lifted Dave again and slammed him into the ground like a wet bag of cement. She clenched her eyes shut at the sickening crunch of almost every bone in his body being shattered.
Dave was dead after the first blow, but the Giganto was still far too enraged to have completely vented its anger. It lifted him off the ground a third time and slammed him down again, spraying the surrounding flora, and itself, with his blood.
When it lifted his body for the fourth time, he looked like a wet rag. WHAM!!!
***
Norm was crying. When he finally came around, Montagna pulled the card from his eye and saw just how serious the wound really was. His eye was split open and leaking blood mixed with clear vitreous humor. Montagna didn't want to disinfect it, because he was sure that the pain would be excruciating. He barely managed to keep from throwing up as he gently wiped the skin around the eye, and then covered it by wrapping a gauze bandage around Norm's head. The pain was unbearable for Norm, who kept blubbering like a little child.
Montagna paced around, frustrated by his inability to ease his friend's suffering, or to just shut him the hell up. Norm's bawling was really starting to gnaw at him. "For God's sake, Norm! Is it really that bad? I mean, isn't there some way you can just block it out, or something?"
Norm turned on him. "I'm blind! I can't see a damn thing! I am totally blind!" As a reaction to the destruction of his left eye, Norm's right eye went into sympathetic ophthalmia; hysterical blindness. Norm's tone softened and he said, "Please, Jamie, get me out of here. For God's sake, please get me to a doctor. Please!"
This created a dilemma for Montagna. While he felt some pity for Norm, he was totally incapable of feeling any empathy for him. Norm's pleas only made him feel put out. "Norm, what's done is done. Your eye's been cut open. There's no doctor in the world who can save it for you."
Norm burst into louder sobs, sucking in deep breaths between bawls.
Montagna really wanted to beat the crap out of him just to shut him up, but he relented. "And whatever's going on with the other eye, well, it's just gonna have to take care of itself.
"I'm not saying this to be mean, or heartless. I'm just trying to toughen you up, buddy, because our work here isn't finished. What we gotta do is find the kid. We have to find Bovard, because we can still salvage this mess.
"First of all, we can forget about Pittman. He's not interested in a dead Sasquatch. But the rest of the world is. So what I figure we do is, we get Bovard and we cruise on downstream in the raft till we find where the Sasquatch washed up. Then we take the body back, and we make our fortune."
Finally, Norm calmed down enough to listen to what Montagna was saying. "Jamie, I'm hurting something terrible. I don't think I can stand much more of this, and them pain pills ain't kicked in at all."
Montagna knelt beside him, held him by his shoulders and spoke calmly. "And just imagine what the newspapers will say about you. How you continued in the face of physical adversity after what Kodiak did to you. You'll be a hero, Norm. A rich hero."
Norm sat quietly, tears trailing down the right side of his face from his undamaged eye.
Montagna watched him, stifling the urge to kill him, which he was certain he would do if Norm started that bawling again, or if he refused to continue on the hunt. "All right, Norm. I'm gonna give it to you straight, because we're tight and always have been. I'm going after the body. Now, between Bovard and myself, we can help you make it through the woods and we won't mind being slowed up, if that's what it takes. The choice is yours. You can come if you want, or we can leave you here with a load of provisions and firewood so you'll be safe until we get back."
Norm shook his head, bewildered. "You call yourself my friend? Jamie, I'm suffering here! Don't you understand that? I can't go with you. And if you leave me... Even with enough provisions, how the hell am I supposed to defend myself if something comes cruising around looking for a bite to eat? I'm helpless!"
Montagna said nothing.
Norm knew the answer couldn't be any more clear. "All right, Jamie.
You win. But I ain't gonna help you pack."
Montagna smiled and slapped Norm's shoulder. "Good man." He got up and set about packing things for the trip.
Norm started blubbering again.
***
Cyrena was shivering. Not from the morning cold, which had burned off with the fog, revealing the true, vibrant colors of the Olympic Forest in all its majestic glory, but rather she was shaking from what she had seen happen to Dave Bovard only ten minutes ago.
She had fallen on her backside, unable to draw breath as the Gigantopithecus kicked the lifeless sack of Dave's body. Satisfied that there was no fight left in him, it turned its face skyward and roared, its sound carrying on the wind, reverberating throughout the canyon. Then it looked around, a couple of times right in her direction, but the Giganto didn't seem to notice her, and it lumbered off into the woods.
It seemed like several minutes before Cyrena could breathe, and she even thought she was going to die of asphyxia when she suddenly gasped in a breath so loud she thought the giant ape might hear it and come back to kill her. But it didn't.
She sat on the hard ground, feeling the pebbles and pine needles sticking into her backside and legs, but she didn't have the strength to get up. She had to see what was left of Dave; not out of any morbid curiosity, for she didn't have any, but she had to make sure he was dead. She didn't believe he could have survived that thrashing, and he was probably dead after the first strike, but she knew it would be inhumane to leave him there if, by some miracle, he wasn't dead.
She was crying from the terror of what she had witnessed, and the senselessness of it. She knew what Dave had in mind for her if he had caught her and in all reality, the Giganto probably saved her life. But she wasn't capable of the same hate and disregard for life and dignity that the others possessed. Besides, Dave may have been a punk kid who needed to have his butt kicked, but she certainly didn't feel he deserved to die, especially not like this.
Cyrena struggled to her feet, holding onto the nearest tree trunk for support until the rubbery feeling left her legs. She looked over at Dave who lay about thirty yards from where she was standing. He had no form; just a lump about six feet long wrapped in his jacket and pants and covered with blood. She closed her eyes and walked carefully across the small open area between the trees.
She prayed that Kodiak would show up so he could look at the body instead, and she also hoped it would be Kodiak who showed up before Montagna and Norm, as they would surely finish what Dave tried to start.
And what about Norm? She still couldn't believe what Kodiak had done with that simple playing card. She had seen a magician do something similar once. He threw ordinary playing cards across a stage and got them to stick into a plank of wood.
She finally came upon Dave's earthly remains and saw that he was very clearly dead. Cyrena turned away from what was left of him and threw up.
She ran from the place where Dave had been killed. She ran in the opposite direction that the Giganto had gone, and hopefully in a direction away from where Montagna and Norm were camped.
After about a mile she spotted a column of smoke rising above the trees more than a hundred feet ahead, and her heart leaped into her throat from fear. It could only be a campfire, and this far out it could only have belonged to Montagna and Norm. She hated being alone like this in the wilderness and continued her silent prayer that Kodiak would show up.
But for now she only had herself to rely on.
Being this close to the camp she'd have to make a quiet retreat, or they'd hear her and come running. As she turned to leave, a powerful hand reached from behind and pulled her aside. Before she could utter a cry, another hand covered her mouth and turned her around to face-- Kodiak.
When he was sure that she recognized him, he let go of her.
She stepped back just to orient herself to what was happening and got another shock-- Kodiak was naked. "Oh, my God..." She turned her head, embarrassed.
"May I borrow your jacket?"
"Huh?"
"Your jacket. I'd like to cover myself up."
"Oh, my God... yes. Yes, here..." She took off her jacket and handed it to him while still looking away.
He tied it around his waist. "Thanks. You can turn back around."
She did, and her eyes went automatically to his groin, which was covered by her jacket. She then saw the brutal wound on his left pectoral muscle where Montagna had bitten him. "Dear God, what happened to you?"
"Come on." He led her to the fire, and she saw his clothes were all laid out on rocks, drying out. "I went into the river last night and had to get out of my clothes before I caught pneumonia. I'm glad you're okay. How'd you manage to lose Bovard?"
Her expression became twisted with anguish as she sat down beside the fire, her eyes becoming wet again. "He came real close to getting me. He must have followed me for a couple of miles, but just when I thought he had me... he was attacked..."
"Attacked? By what?"
She shook her head, her eyes wide with tears streaming down her face. "A Sasquatch."
"Ours?"
"Oh, nooooooooo. It had to be the biggest thing I've ever seen! It was easily nine feet tall."
Kodiak searched her face for the source of the anguish that wrenched her. "Tell me exactly what happened."
"Oh, God. It was... it was enraged. I don't know what he did, but it went after him like a mad dog. And he kept screaming. He sounded almost like an animal himself, that terrible screaming...
"I followed them. I thought if I could help him get away from it, but... When I got there it had him by his feet and was slamming him into the ground.
"I went over to make sure he wasn't... It's stupid, but I had to make sure he wasn't still alive, or something."
"He was dead," Kodiak said, as if he had seen it for himself.
Cyrena nodded, closing her eyes and letting out a weak cry. Kodiak sat beside her and took her in his arms, holding her close to him. For the first time since this nightmare began, she felt safe. His powerful arms and thick chest gave her tremendous comfort. She revelled in it like a little girl and let her tears flow freely.
Kodiak just held her, taking the same kind of pleasure he knew all too little of in his own life.
An hour later he put his clothes on. They were warm and dry, but felt stiff the way clothes always do after being left to sun-dry on a flat surface. As he pulled on his T-shirt she admired the shape and definition of his muscular frame. He was not a young man, but he hardly looked his age; about fifteen years younger, closer to her own age. He put on his flannel shirt and rolled up the sleeves. He turned to face her and a shadow of cold anger altered his features. "You interested in doing something that'll screw those guys good?"
She stared at him, clearly undecided. The things that had happened out here were so far beyond her own scope she felt sick. She sat down on the ground and all she could say was, "I don't want anyone else to die."
Kodiak hadn't realized until now how hard this was for Cyrena. He knelt down before her and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking at her with as much compassion as he could muster. "I'm not talking about that. Last night the cage went into the river with the Sasquatch. I went in after it, but I lost it before I could get it out of the cage. Chances are it drowned."
She said, "If that's true, then isn't it useless to them?"
"A dead one's just as valuable as a live one. I want to find the body and bury it somewhere Montagna can't get his useless hands on it to exploit it."
She considered this, a shadow of sadness clouding her gentle face. "That's what it's all about with these guys, isn't it? Exploitation."
"For Montagna it is. And right now he's looking just as hard for that body as we should be."
"But even if he doesn't find it, won't he just go after another one?"
"If he does, the only one he's likely to run into is the one that killed Dave. And I can't say I'd feel real bad about that."
***
They could only take one backpack, so Montagna was especially selective about the items he chose. Dehydrated food packs and canteens were obvious, as were the first aid kit, and a flashlight. He packed a tent, their sleeping bags, a nylon rope, a can of lighter fluid, a butane torch, the machete, and the last two six packs of beer.
The radio was too cumbersome to bring along, so Montagna destroyed it.
He placed the backpack on Norm and the bundled CO2 raft on himself, along with two aluminum oars. He used the nylon rope to tie around each of their waists so he could guide Norm. Their plan was to take the Queets River downstream until they found the place where the cage and the juvenile Sasquatch had washed up. Montagna put out the campfire, and they headed for the river. But first they would have to find Dave.
Norm whimpered most of the time, and openly cried on some occasions, but what really infuriated Montagna was Norm's incessant whining for Montagna to slow down. The rugged and totally unfamiliar terrain caused him to continually lose his footing, and every time he stumbled the rope would cut into Montagna's waist and bring him down, too. "Please, Jamie, this is killing me. We gotta take a breather. Please."
"We are only a mile and a half from camp! All right. All right." Montagna untied the rope from his waist, and they both sat down. They had to move inland, because the river's edge had proven impossible for Norm to make in his present condition. While they no longer had visual contact with the river, Montagna wasn't concerned about missing the body. His plan was to go down to the river and backtrack what they had passed while Norm rested.
As Norm sat on a rock, pulling burrs from his hands, he continued to moan. "Hey, Jamie?"
Montagna was curt. "What?"
"How's about one of them beers? And you think maybe we should change this bandage?"