by Lee Murphy
Montagna opened a can of beer and shoved it into Norm's hand, spilling beer and foam.
"Hey, take it easy, would ya'? You know Kodiak did this as much to you as he did to me."
Montagna looked out at the woods. "How do you figure?"
"I'm slowing you down. I know you could've offed me, or left me for the wolves, or something. But you didn't. You're a true friend, and you're being made to suffer because of it. Because of Kodiak."
Norm was no sage, but Montagna liked his way of thinking. He no longer felt guilty about being angry at Norm. "Thanks, buddy. What do you say you polish off that cold one and we make tracks?"
For the first time since his injury, Norm managed a chuckle. "Well, actually, it's more like a piss-warm one, but I think I'll manage." He up-ended the can and guzzled the beer.
Montagna was thinking about Kodiak. Kodiak didn't like him, and he should have wanted to kill him for it. But he still had that sick desire to like him, and be like him.
A fly on a leaf next to his face caught his eye. It was a green fly, and green flies were drawn to decaying meat. He looked at Norm whose blindness prevented Montagna from sharing this discovery. "Norm, I think we may have struck pay-dirt."
Norm lowered the beer and belched. "Huh?"
"Look, I gotta check something out. Can I leave you here for a while? I won't be long, I promise."
"Just give me another beer, old buddy."
Montagna hastily shoved the rest of the six pack in Norm's hands and took off.
About twenty yards farther east the green flies began to swarm; the source of decay was nearby. There was no way the Sasquatch's body could have washed this far inland. It must have been dragged up here by some predator. He felt exhilarated. He was going to retrieve the creature's body, and he wouldn't have to drag Norm through the whole canyon after all.
He came to the bottom of a twenty-five-foot slope and stopped cold, staring at huge footprints that went all the way up. This was no juvenile, but rather a beast of monstrous proportions. Montagna's heart sank as he realized this bigger creature must have come across the carcass of the juvenile and carried it away.
Nonetheless, he climbed up the rise and followed the twenty- inch footprints that went farther east. Judging by the length of its stride, he determined that the animal had either been running, or was twenty-seven feet tall.
As he followed the tracks, the swarm of green flies became so heavy he had to constantly wave them away from his face. Then just fifty feet away he saw the source to which the flies were drawn, and where the huge footprints stopped.
There was a body lying before a gigantic nurse log, but it was not the juvenile Sasquatch. It was Dave Bovard. Montagna walked over to the body, fascinated by the unreal gruesomeness of it. His body was literally flattened. His arms and legs were splayed out, but they had no angles, as the bones were pulverized under the flesh, giving him a loose, ragdoll look. He never would have recognized it as Dave except by the clothing; his head was smashed like a hard-boiled egg that had been slammed against a kitchen counter.
The twenty-inch footprints left a very clear indication of where the animal had gone after killing Bovard. Montagna studied the prints, totally disregarding Dave. He tried to conjure up a mental image of what this massive animal must look like so he could get some idea of how he was going to confront it. Taking it alive was a ridiculous idea, especially with blind Norm slowing him up. But all he needed was a couple of pounds of flesh tissue, maybe some marrow from one of its bones. He formulated an idea. And Norm would be of considerable help.
Montagna smiled so broadly his face hurt.
The Twenty-Inch Footprints
The cage had washed two miles downstream from the waterfall, throughout the course of which it had been torn to pieces among the rocks. The largest section remaining was the end piece where the leg chain was bolted. It was entangled in a shrub between some large rocks on the bank, making it inaccessible from the shore. Kodiak waded knee-deep into the icy water and tore the ragged sheet of metal from the bush.
Cyrena was farther downstream searching for any indication of what had become of the juvenile Sasquatch.
"Anything?" He had to holler to be heard above the roaring water.
"No. Whatever happened, it either got away, or the body was washed farther downstream!"
He came over to her, his eyes scanning both sides of the river.
"You think they could have gotten to it first?"
Kodiak shook his head. "No. Even if Norm was feeling up to getting around, which I seriously doubt, there's no indication that anybody else has been around here. There are no footprints, and if they did find the body, there sure as hell would have been some sign of them having dragged it away."
She asked, "You think it could have gotten away?"
He paused for a long time, then said, "That's a tough call. There's no way it could have gotten out of that cage before getting battered on the rocks. Considering the beating it would have been subjected to, it would have to have one hell of a constitution to survive. I hope it did."
"Yeah, well, if you got to see what they grow up to be like, you'd believe they're capable of surviving a pre-emptive nuclear strike," Cyrena said. "You wanna keep looking?"
He took another look around the river. "No. It's definitely not around here. Besides, the sun'll be going down soon, and we still need to find shelter."
"I don't know if I'll be able to sleep after I saw what that big one did to Dave."
Kodiak said, "I can practically guarantee Bovard did something stupid to piss it off. And he paid dearly for his mistake. We don't make those kinds of mistakes."
They made a small lean-to from pine branches, which would give them adequate protection if it should rain. They found blueberries, blackberries, and pine nuts in the area, and gathered them up. Kodiak made a paste from the inside of the bark of a pine tree,
naturally rich in vitamin C. While it wasn't the most substantial or tasty meal either of them had ever eaten, it was sufficient nourishment.
They huddled together for added warmth after finishing their meal, and she tiredly laid her head on his shoulder. "You going to sleep soon?"
"In a while. I'd like to take another stab at the river tomorrow. See if we can't find that body. But we're not staying in this canyon another night. We'll hike to the Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center."
She smiled, watching the fire. "Were you ever married?"
She thought he ignored the question. Then he threw another stick into the fire and said, "Nobody in their right mind would have me." There was another pause. "What about you? I can't imagine anyone letting somebody like you get away."
She smiled again, warmed by the compliment and the security she felt by being with him. "Once, but it was a mistake. We were married right out of high school, and that was pretty difficult. What finally did us in was his inability to keep it in his pants whenever he was with other women."
"Idiot."
"Well, like I said, he was young. Not much younger than Dave... was. He had wild oats to sow, I guess, so we went our separate ways. I preferred not to have any hard feelings about it. At least that way I was better equipped to get on with my life."
"Any kids?"
"No."
They sat in silence for several minutes, just listening to the crackling fire. Then she asked, "What did you do after you left the Park Service, and how did you end up a cryptozoologist?"
"I joined up with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. I worked undercover going after poachers. It was probably the most rewarding work I've ever done. You run into a lot of people like Norm, and you get to put them away. Sometimes for a very long time."
"What made you give it up?"
"It seems like a long time ago. I guess it was. Fifteen years now. You ever hear of Hilary Fischer?"
"No."
"Well, he was big in the news after myself and a couple other agents busted him for poaching bald eagles. He would hide the bodies inside mo
unted bears and ship them all over the world. But when the axe fell, he turned us out and killed one of my friends. All hell broke loose, and he took off into the mountains. He was kind of a Claude Dallas; you know, became something of a folk hero on the lam.
"Anyway, after six months we weren't able to get a fix on him, so I got the idea that we spring an old enemy of his. I take it you're familiar with Russell Reid?"
"Oh, yeah," she said. "He was convicted of killing that federal marshal in 1978. Then he escaped, or did he die on the run?"
"He escaped. He and Fischer were bitter enemies back in the early seventies when Reid busted Fischer for poaching on Indian land. I knew Reid could get Fischer given the chance. I had enough clout with the boys in charge, so they let me pull Reid out of prison long enough to track Fischer.
"There was a lot of controversy surrounding the case against Reid. A lot of people believed he was set up by the government, and it looked like things were gonna reach a boiling point within a very few years. This gave the feds a chance to relieve some of the pressure.
"As it went, Fischer fled to Canada. The Northwest Territories. When Reid crossed the border after him, my ass was on the fire. It was up to me to get them both back." He paused, looking deep into the dwindling fire. "Anyway, when I came back, I turned in my badge. It was time to go. I'd seen so much wholesale killing of animals, and people, I was sick of it. There was even more government sanctioned killing going on than anything the poachers were collecting."
"So what happened with that case?"
"Fischer was gone. I could have had Reid, but it turned out old Uncle Sam wasn't through with him, yet. The plan was to set him up and kill him for trying to escape. Rumor was they were even going to take out a few bystanders as fodder."
"You let him go?"
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that. Matter of fact, if he ever saw me again, I'm sure he'd kill me."
They lay back and listened to the ambient sounds of the woods at night; chirruping crickets, mosquitoes, and the distant roar of a waterfall. Kodiak felt the numbing sensation of sleep starting to creep into his body and begin to overtake him. Then he heard another sound: light, gentle snoring against his neck. Cyrena had fallen asleep.
***
Norm was starting to get some of the vision back in his right eye. The images were still badly fogged, but he could make out some shapes and differentiate light from dark.
Montagna tried to get up, but was stiff and sore from sleeping on the hard ground. The urge to urinate came upon him fast, so he ignored his discomfort and got up. Standing upon a boulder and squinting into the morning sun, he could see Mount Olympus rising above the green forest against the blue sky. For most others this sight would have taken their breath away, creating a bond between them and the Creator unlike anything they had known prior. But to Jamie Montagna it was just something to look at while he unzipped his trousers and pissed into a bush.
Norm was elated. The thrill of getting his sight back outweighed the pain from his wounded left eye. "And the best part, Jamie," Norm was saying, "I'm gonna get to see the look on Kodiak's face when I slit his throat with Ruthie's knife!"
Montagna needed to tune Norm out. His persistent rambling about getting his sight back and what he was going to do to Kodiak irritated him almost as much as when Norm was crying. But he needed Norm, because they were still on the track of the Gigantopithecus that killed Dave.
The animal had left a steady trail of prints for nearly three miles along the sandy bank of the Hoh River, about five miles north of the Queets, and they were making great time. Norm was now able to move quicker than before, but Montagna still had to use the rope to guide him along.
They spent much of the morning backtracking to where the prints left off. From there it was guess work, but judging by the terrain, and being this deep into the woods, Montagna surmised that the animal had no fear of running into humans here, so it would take the path of least resistance: a natural path twenty yards inland that was adjacent to the river.
There were a couple of times they had to climb over some large rocks, and Norm had to be especially careful. Once, he dislodged the gauze bandage that covered his eye, and Montagna caught a glimpse of it. All the blood had been washed away when he cleaned the wound. Now the eye was closed, leaking a steady stream of clear plasma. As Norm reattached the bandage, Montagna shuddered at the thought of what such an injury must feel like-- and Kodiak had done it with a simple playing card! After Kodiak had gotten away, Montagna plucked the card from his own knuckle and tried to throw it. It simply drifted to the ground, spinning aimlessly.
"Why'd you stop?" Norm couldn't see that Montagna was looking up at a ragged cliff-face that they would have to scale in order to continue along their way.
"How are you for climbing, buddy?"
Norm shrugged. "Obviously nothing too rigorous, but I think I'm good for it. You still haven't told me what we're going all this way for, Jamie."
"We're following the river to find out where the Squatch's body washed up."
Norm was still confused. His right eye was directed at Montagna, but was unable to make visual contact, so it drifted about the perimeters of his face. "None of this terrain seems familiar to me."
"That's because you're blind. How's the eye?"
"The left one's throbbing real bad, but I think I can make out shapes with the other."
This wasn't what Montagna wanted to hear. The plan he was considering would work a lot better if Norm was still totally blind. But he could also tell Norm was still a long way from getting any useful sight back, so he decided to go ahead.
***
Kodiak and Cyrena made breakfast from the last of the berries and pine nuts leftover from the previous night.
"It's about a twelve-mile hike to the Hoh Rainforest Visitor Center. You sure you're up for it?"
She smiled, looking angelic with the sun shining on her hair and into her green eyes. "For the chance to sleep in a real bed tonight, I'd hike a hundred miles."
"By the time we're through, it just might seem like it."
"You think we'll run into Jamie and Norm?"
"We won't be that lucky. You ready?"
They gathered up what few belongings they had and started on their way.
***
Montagna and Norm made it to the cliff-top in an hour. Norm's agility had improved greatly, and the rocks they scaled were all solid and fairly easy to climb. At the top a small scattering of trees were twisted into spirals from years of growing totally unprotected from the constant winds that buffeted them. Norm found a shady spot under one of the trees and laid back on the cool, smooth surface of rock.
Montagna looked down at a lake at the bottom of the cliff. It was a large body of turquoise water that turned indigo as the shallows disappeared to greater depths. In the water Montagna could make out a school of trout that swam parallel to the shore, then in unison turned sharply toward the deep water.
In the middle of the lake was an island; not a large one, but bigger than a mere sandbar. There was a beach directly across from where Montagna stood, but the rest of the island was made up of large granite boulders that rose from the dark blue water of the lake. The island boasted dense forestation, and was peaked by the three hundred-year-old cedar and spruce pines that were so common out here.
As his eyes followed the school of trout, he saw something else in the water: the Gigantopithecus was swimming toward the island. Montagna rubbed his eyes and leaned forward for as clear a view of the animal as was possible. It was huge, just as its footprints attested, about nine feet long and dark. It was swimming like a frog, propelling itself forward with powerful sweeps of its long legs, while it held its arms out before it. This was unusual for an ape, as known species are incapable of swimming, yet this animal was clearly well-adapted to the water. This was a common phenomenon associated with Sasquatch activity by witnesses all over the world, for as long as people have reported seeing these animals. But Montagna was amazed n
onetheless.
Montagna looked at Norm, who was sleeping. When he looked back at the Giganto it reached the island and was wading up the beach like a walking totem pole. In another couple of seconds it vanished into the woods.
Montagna went over to his backpack and starting grabbing the things he could use as weapons. The machete, the butane torch and the can of lighter fluid. Having seen the beast first-hand, he could understand the terror that must have filled Dave just before it got him. But Montagna's fears were overwhelmed by his desire to bring it, or at least a piece of it, out of the canyon. Naturally he'd have preferred it alive, but he wasn't an idiot.
Looking at these meager items, he wasn't sure what the exact steps would be, but he knew he had the most important element for his plan to work: Norm.
He woke Norm up, his voice quavering with barely contained excitement. "Norm! Norm, I found it! I found the body!"
Norm sat up, yawning and pressing his hand against the bandage over his wounded eye. "Where?"
"Get up." Montagna helped Norm to his feet, and they walked to the edge of the cliff. "Can you see that island? It's directly ahead, in the middle of the lake."
Norm sounded startled. "That's a lake?"
"Then you can see it? The island?"
"Yeah..."
"The body's lying on the beach. It washed up on that island."
"Oh, Jamie, we're screwed."
"What do you mean?"
"It's on an island, in the middle of a lake? How are we supposed to get over there?"
"I brought the raft with us--"
"Oh, no. You can count me out."
"Norm..."
"I mean it, Jamie."
"Norm, we're there. I'm looking at the body right now! Are you telling me after all the crap we've gone through, we're just gonna give it up?"
"Well, then leave me here. I'll wait while you get it."