He didn’t know if there were survivors, where they would have gone or how long ago they’d started running. What he did know for certain was that the only thing he could do if he found that creature was make it sick by clogging its stomach with his own body.
Hefting the bag over his shoulder, Cole turned from the cabin and ran.
Chapter 5
Cole ran until his legs could no longer carry him. Surrounded by tall trees and with the cabin nowhere in sight, he felt safe. Then he realized the creature was probably more at home in those trees than it had been inside the cabin. Dropping Gerald’s bag, he leaned against the nearest tree and slid down the trunk until he was seated with his legs splayed out in front of him.
“What the hell do I do now, Gerald?” he asked aloud as he laughed and leaned his head back against the tree. “Come on! You wanna guide me? Show up and guide me! What’s the matter? There are monsters, but no ghosts? Of course there aren’t any ghosts! A ghost would be too fucking helpful right now, so heaven forbid one might actually show up to make my life easier!”
Cole was suddenly very conscious of the fact that sweat was freezing onto his forehead. When he tried to touch his brow, he cracked the handle of Brad’s knife against his head. Having forgotten he was even carrying the knife, he set it down so he could open the bag and sift through it. Some of Gerald’s clothes were in there, along with a shaving kit, books, a pair of glasses, and then all the way at the bottom he came upon an object that made him smile.
Recognizing the brand of the satellite phone in his hand, Cole fought the urge to kiss it. “Screw it,” he muttered as he placed his lips upon the plastic cover and gave it some love. He almost gave it some more when he flipped open the cover and saw one bar of signal strength showing up on the display. Sure enough, the phone was connected to a satellite service that had always been too expensive for him to use. He took Gerald’s laminated card from his pocket and read it over so he could be sure to dial the correct number. The last thing he wanted to do was waste battery life on stupid mistakes. After checking the number once more, he pressed the Send button and held the phone up to his ear.
There were a few clicks, followed by a series of beeps. Then, like a song from an angel, there came a ring tone. Finally, someone answered.
“Hello, this is MEG Branch 40,” said the voice on the other end of the connection. It wasn’t an angel and it sure as hell didn’t sound like someone who would be named Meg.
“Uh, hello?” Cole replied.
“This is MEG Branch 40. How can I help you?” The voice on the other end sounded like a man at least ten years his junior, and more than a little perturbed. After sighing heavily, the man asked, “Are you looking for anyone in particular or do you have an instance to report?”
“An instance?” Cole chuckled to himself and let out a breath. “I sure do have an instance, but I don’t think you’d believe it enough to write it down in a report.”
“Try me.”
Using a cell phone and speaking to an annoyed operator had given Cole a small dose of normality. He’d also settled down enough to remember why he’d dialed the number in the first place.
“I need to speak to Paige,” he said.
“Paige who?”
And, with that one simple question, Cole realized an important question he’d forgotten to ask Gerald. “Uhhh, the one in Chicago.”
“Look, I understand you may be a bit confused right now,” the operator said in a surprisingly calm and supportive tone. “If you have someone you need to speak to, I can try to get you in touch with them. We don’t have a Paige who works here, though. You said you had an incident to report. Why don’t you start with that?”
Lowering his voice as if he was afraid a nearby beaver might be eavesdropping, Cole said, “I’m a friend of Gerald’s and he had this phone on him.”
“Gerald, huh? Is this a prank?”
“No. You’ve got to listen.”
The annoyance was back in force within the young man’s tone. When he spoke again, Cole had no trouble picturing one of the skinny little code crunchers from Digital Dreamers rolling his eyes and doodling on whatever paper was in front of him.
“You got some story you want to tell?” the young operator asked. “Then go ahead and tell it. Just make it real funny or real dirty, otherwise I’m sure I’ve heard better from some of the other comedians that call us.”
“There’s a man named Gerald—” Cole started.
“Cool. I’ve never had someone call with a limerick before.”
“Just shut up and let me finish.” Sensing he’d just bought himself no more than a few seconds of the operator’s attention, Cole went for the jugular. “Gerald’s dead.”
Without much of a pause, the operator said, “All right. Have you been seeing this Gerald person or do you just hear his voice? Are you certain the man you’re talking about is Gerald and not some other manifestation?”
Cole stared down at the snow and then at the phone in his hand. Although he wasn’t convinced he was insane just yet, he was getting awfully close. “What in the hell are you talking about? Who are you?”
“This is MEG Branch 40, sir. You dialed us, remember?”
Looking at the same words as they were printed upon Gerald’s card, Cole asked, “Does MEG stand for something?”
“Of course. We’re the Midwestern Ectological Group. Branch 40. Did you need another branch?”
“An ecological group?”
“Ectological,” the operator clarified. “As in spirits and other nonphysical entities.”
“Is ‘ectological’ even a word?” Cole asked.
“If you want to report a manifestation, get to it. The only reason I haven’t hung up on you is because you’re calling from one of our satellite lines. Come to think of it, whose phone is this? Did Walter put you up to this? Goddamn it, he did, didn’t he? Or did you steal this phone? Oh man, you’d be wise to drop it and run right now.”
Still looking at the card, Cole said, “I have a number to give you.”
“Go ahead.”
He rattled off the digits that were printed on the card beneath the phone number. At first he could hear the operator grumbling something about sending Walter a scathing e-mail. But before Cole was halfway through the numbers, the operator was scrambling frantically enough to knock something over on his end of the connection.
“Holy crap,” he said. “That’s a…you’re…”
Hearing the panic and frustration in his voice did Cole a bit of good. It seemed misery truly did love company. “Do you need me to repeat that number?” he asked.
“Hold on a second.”
A series of clicks was followed by a few short bursts of static. Meanwhile, Cole felt his stomach flop again as he thought he’d been disconnected. When the operator’s voice came back, it wasn’t as clear as it had been before, but there was more than enough intensity in it to make up the difference.
“I’m really sorry about all of that before,” he said. “I had to secure the line. Could you give me that number one more time?”
Cole repeated the digits. This time he even included the dashes that were written between a few of them. When he was done, he could hear the unmistakable clacking of fingers on a keyboard.
“Are you still there?” Cole asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Just looking up your ident code.”
“Ident code?”
“Yeah,” the operator replied. “It’s short for identity code.”
“Clever. Who are you?”
Unlike the last time he’d asked questions, the operator responded as if he actually had some interest in helping, rather than just tolerating him. “We’re the Midwest Ectological Group. We cover reports of paranormal activity throughout the U.S. and Canada. Maybe you heard of us?”
“Nope.”
“We’ve been on television a few times. Well, cable television. Are you one of those…you know?”
Guessing it was easier to lie than try to figu
re out the proper response, Cole said, “Yeah. I’m one of those,” and hoped for the best.
“Perfect! This is great! I’ve never actually caught one of these calls before. According to this code, this phone belongs to Gerald Keeler? Oh…you said…”
“Yeah. Gerald’s dead.”
The silence on the other end of the connection was almost thick enough to seep through the device in Cole’s hand. The words that broke it were meek and genuinely regretful. “Right. You mentioned that. What about…Brad Books?”
“Brad too,” Cole replied somberly.
“Jeez, I’m really sorry to hear that,” the operator replied.
Despite the awkward situation, Cole was grateful just to hear someone else’s voice. “What’s your name?” he asked.
Judging by the silence on the phone, the operator wasn’t used to hearing that question. “I’m Stu.”
“Hey, Stu. My name’s Cole Warnecki.”
“Oh…uh…you’re not supposed to use last names on these calls.”
“Really? Why?” Cole asked.
“I don’t know. That’s one of the rules you guys use.”
“Fine. Gerald gave me this phone and this number so I could get in touch with a woman named Paige. She’s supposed to be in Chicago.”
There were more clicks and clacks as Stu’s fingers flew over his keyboard. “That would be Paige…well…yeah. I’ve got a Paige listed in Gerald’s file and she’s in Chicago.”
“I need to talk to her. Actually, I need to see her. The only problem is I’m kind of a long ways from an airport or anything.”
“I know. The phone has a GPS in it and I’ve got your rough position on my screen right now.”
“Nice,” Cole said as he closed his eyes and pictured himself as a brightly colored dot on the display screen of the global positioning system that had recently been installed in Jason’s company car. As much as Cole got lost, he still hadn’t gotten high enough on the Digital Dreamers ladder to warrant such a fancy expense. “You guys have any way to get me out of here before I get ripped to pieces?”
“Oh sweet! You mean you’re on site with one of those creatures?”
“Sure. Maybe I can snap a few pictures for you before I get eaten,” Cole growled. “Why don’t you just tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do to get out of here? Gerald was pretty adamant that I don’t wait for the cops.”
“Yeah, that would be way too messy,” Stu chimed in. “There’s someone in the area that should be able to meet you somewhere within a mile or two of your location. Up for a walk?”
Cole didn’t answer right away because he was distracted by the sound of what might or might not have been distant thunder. When the sound died away, he whispered, “I’m up for a run. Just tell me where I need to go.”
“I’ve already sent word to one of Gerald’s contacts in that area. Head due south until you meet up with a paved highway that’s running from northeast to southwest.”
“Hold on a second. I’m a city boy. We don’t come equipped with compasses.”
“You don’t have a compass on you?” Stu asked.
“Just a minute.” Without waiting for confirmation, Cole set the phone down and started rooting through Gerald’s bag. Sure enough, he found a survival knife complete with a compass in the handle. Just what every boy wanted for Christmas. Picking up the phone, he announced, “Found one.”
“Good. Head south until you hit that highway. It shouldn’t be more than two or three miles.”
“Two or three miles?”
“Yeah,” Stu replied. “Maybe four. No more than five, though. I can’t get an exact fix on your position.”
“Never mind. I’m on my way.”
“Do you need them to bring anything?”
“A division of Marines and a tank would be nice,” Cole replied.
Stu chuckled and capped it off with a snort. “I mean like a medical kit or food or anything.”
Checking the phone’s screen, Cole saw that there was still plenty of life in the batteries. Apparently, Gerald was one of those rare, mythical breeds of men who had a thousand dollar phone and didn’t have it surgically connected to his ear long enough to wear the charge down.
“What’s the matter?” Stu asked intently. “You sound hurt.”
“Not hurt,” Cole gasped as he zipped up the bag, then hefted it over his shoulder and started running. “Just moving faster than I have for months. I really need to start going back to the gym again.”
“You’re pretty high up and it must be cold there. Let’s see…yep. I just checked the weather in your area.”
“And?”
“It’s cold,” Stu reported.
Now it was Cole’s turn to laugh. With his legs churning through the snow and his feet already tingling within his boots, he didn’t exactly have breath to spare. It did, however, feel good to take action rather than just try and piece together what was going on. “What about Paige?” Cole asked. “I still need to get ahold of her.”
“I can try to connect you if you don’t mind holding.”
“I’ve got nothing else to do right now. If it sounds like I’m dying, just ignore it.”
As Stu clicked away at his keyboard, he said, “You gotta tell me more about that creature sometime, dude. I’ll bet it was awesome.”
Now that he’d cleared the trees, Cole was dashing through a wide-open field of snow. He could still hear the occasional roar in the distance, but it sounded like it was getting farther away rather than closer. When he thought he heard another animal’s growl mixed in with the first, he put some more steam into his strides and kept running. The compass in the knife handle rattled noisily within its plastic casing, but indicated that he was more or less southward bound.
“Awesome isn’t really…the word…that comes to mind,” Cole wheezed.
Gerald’s bag was strapped across his back, and the knife stuck out from one of his jacket pockets like a mutated pen. Having seen a few models similar to the old man’s satellite phone, Cole quickly found the earpiece in one of the carrying case’s little pockets. Once the piece was plugged into the phone and his ear, Cole gasped, “Hello? Can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” Stu replied instantly. “What’s wrong?”
“Just checking the equipment.”
“You sound a little rough, but I can hear you.”
“That’s not surprising,” Cole said. “If my legs don’t freeze, they may just fall off in protest. Not to mention…the very distinct…possibility of a heart attack.”
“Eh, don’t be so hard on yourself. So is something chasing you? What is it?”
Before Cole was forced to make up a story that didn’t end with him being slapped around and tossed aside, Stu interrupted.
“Just a sec, Cole. I’ve got Paige ready to join in. Here she is.”
The next voice that filled Cole’s ear was sharp and concise. Compared to Stu’s easy rambling, this woman sounded more like something stabbing him through the eardrum.
“Who is this?” she snapped.
“My name’s Cole. I’m a friend of Gerald.”
“Never heard of you. How’d you get this phone number?”
“Gerald gave it to me.” He had to stop so he could catch his breath. Thankfully, the terrain was kind enough to slope downward and give him a few tall trees on either side for cover, so he wasn’t charging like a dark dot in the middle of a white field. The cold air must have been doing him some good, because his breath was coming easier and his limbs weren’t killing him. Either that or his body was just numb enough to keep working through the agony that he’d earned from years of sitting on his ass with a video-game controller in his hand.
“Gerald is…he’s…” Wincing even though he didn’t know this woman, Cole forced himself to spit out the truth before he was cut off by any number of flukes that could interrupt a phone signal from the middle of nowhere. “He’s dead.”
Instead of crying or expressing the shock he’d been expecting,
the woman asked, “Was there anyone else with him?”
“Yes. Brad was there.”
“Is he dead too?”
Cole felt a bit of relief since he didn’t have to spell it all out. “Afraid so.”
When she spoke again, Paige’s voice was considerably less severe. “And who are you, Cole?”
“I met Brad and Gerald on a hunting trip. Gerald told me to tell you what happened before you heard it from anyone else. I know you may not believe this but…he told me to tell you that it took a…it was…” Gritting his teeth, Cole struggled to cut through everything else that had happened so he could focus upon one particular moment. Finally, he remembered the exact words Gerald had used. “He said to tell you…only a Full Blood could take Brad down. I don’t know what that means. I may have gotten it wrong, but—”
“You didn’t get it wrong,” Paige said with a touch of sadness in her voice. “So they’re both really dead.”
Now that he picked up on the sorrow he’d been expecting from the woman, Cole felt like an ass for wanting to hear it. “Yeah,” he said as he slowed to a stop and pulled in a few more breaths. “We were attacked by some sort of animal. I think it’s still chasing me.”
“You saw it?” Paige asked. “You saw the Full Blood?”
“If a Full Blood is a big, ugly monster that can tear through a room full of hunters and shake off automatic fire, then I saw it.”
“Are you the only one who survived?”
“I think so,” Cole replied as he looked around. There was a surprising amount of distance already between him and the cabin. Other than a few trees, he didn’t see much else. “A few others made it out, but I’ve been hearing that thing prowling around. It might be after them.”
“Have the MEG guys arranged for someone to pick you up?”
“Yeah. I’m headed there now.”
“Good. I’ll find out who’s picking you up and get in touch with them. This is very important, Cole. Did Gerald or Brad give you anything to take back?”
“Yes. I’ve got a knife. Or maybe it’s a sword.”
“Perfect. Does it have anything on it?”
Skinners: Blood Blade Page 6