Primrose and Brimstone

by Jason Mueller

  Cody, Jessi, and their two daughters had buried Charlie next to his beloved wife Helen on the same windswept hill overlooking the mountains.

  Cody stood looking at the surrounding hills and mountains. Again after a lifetime on the land, he could still sense something was wrong; unseen eyes were still on him. He stood watching, listening and waiting when a wolf’s howl shattered the frozen silence.

  Holy shit that’s close he thought; a bit of panic building as he realized he hadn’t thought to bring a weapon with him on the snowmobile, something he always had in the truck.

  Movement caught his eye. Wolves were cresting a nearby ridge at a full run. Panic overwhelmed him as ran for the snowmobile. The wolves maneuvering in the snow much easier than he could were gaining ground. He scrambled as fast as he could but he could hear the wolves getting closer.

  After what seemed an eternity he reached the snowmobile and jumped on. He prayed that it would start on the first pull. It did! He reached for the handlebar as a wolf reached him. It sank its teeth into his right arm and shook with everything it had. Cody thought for sure that the beast would pull him from the machine.

  He could feel the wolf’s teeth shred his flesh through his heavy denim jacket with its wool lining as he flailed at the wolf with his left hand but was having trouble getting any power behind his blows since he was right handed and having to reach a cross his body to hit the canine. Then with luck Cody hit the wolf right in its nose with his fist. The wolf let go for a split second and Cody hit the gas and shot forward the wolves giving chase. He sped away praying he didn’t wreck and end up in a worse situation than he was before. The last thing he needed was to be thrown off the snow mobile injured and unable to defend himself as the wolves devoured him.

  Cody left the pack behind and slowed down to a safer speed. His arm throbbed and his hand was covered with blood but it seemed to work still even though gripping the handlebar hurt like hell. He didn’t bother to stop and assess the damage he had nothing to bandage the wounds with anyhow and felt that home was a better choice and he wasn’t sure if the wolves were still following him although he didn’t imagine they would be.

  He sped into the yard barely taking the time to shut the machine off as he staggered up the stairs his only thought was to get to Jessi, she would take care of him she always did.

  “Jessi!” He called out as he burst through the door.

  Jessi startled by the commotion and the sound of terror in her husband’s voice came from the kitchen with soap still on her hands from the dishes. Cody stood trembling, blood dripping off his hand onto the wood floor.

  “Oh shit!” Cody what happened Jessi cussed which was rare.

  “I went to check on the cows and we lost seven of them to wolves.”

  “To wolves?” She questioned as she helped him out of his shredded coat.

  “Yep, the damn things came out of nowhere. I barely got away.” He winced as he finally saw his wounds. Several deep puncture marks and lacerations covered his forearm.

  “Oh honey, he got you good!” Let me get the first aid kit. We’ll grab Becca and take you to get checked out, you will need stitches.

  “No, I’m fine, he argued but one look from his wife shut him down. Yes, dear,” He sighed.

  The doctor at Falling Rock Memorial listened and shook his head as Cody explained what had happened to him that afternoon.

  “Well, Mr. Lemay I don’t think you will suffer any permanent damage besides some scarring. You are a very lucky man. In the last twenty-four hours, there have been fatalities from attack by wolves.”

  “Are you serious doctor?” Jessi blurted.

  “I’m afraid so. A young mother and her eight-year-old son and an elderly man, but he was dead before he hit the ground I believe. But still, the wolves chewed on him. I believe God was looking out for him to be honest. Saved him from a horrible death. I believe God was looking out for you too, sir. Pity about the young woman and her boy. I can’t imagine how they suffered. They were in bad shape when they were brought in. Being a small community hospital the ER doctors double duty as medical examiners so I had the unfortunate job of performing the autopsies.”

  The old doctor paused his examination and cleaning of Cody’s wounds and looked at them both with sad eyes. “I don’t think I will ever get those images out of my head.” With a sigh, he reached for the suture tray and went back to work.

  An hour later Cody was released. He was stitched up and had received two different “just in case” shots and had filed a report with the sheriff’s department. The hospital had called them due to the fatal attack by wolves earlier.

  “Cody recounted his story to the deputy but was stonewalled when he tried to ask his own questions. It pissed him off but he understood although he felt like he was due some answers since he was attacked too. The only clue the deputy gave him was that they thought maybe it had started on the reservation but they weren’t sure since the native population had a distrust for whites and the government so no one was forthcoming.”

  On the way home they stopped at a drive through grabbing dinner. They quietly ate their burgers on the twenty-mile trip back home. Becca finished her meal and like any teenager got on her phone as the big Ford F-350 rumbled down the road.

  Jessi insisted on driving even though Cody had thought he was ok to drive. He was sore and a little tired though and was glad to sit in the passenger seat and relax. He imagined the tiredness was from the adrenaline rush from the attack and the subsequent let down afterward.

  “I can’t believe this is happening? His wife broke into his thoughts. That woman and her little boy, can you imagine what they went through? And to think it could have been you too!”

  Cody could hear the quiver in her voice. He hoped she didn’t cry she was a very strong woman and wasn’t given to crying but when she did, it broke his heart.

  “It wasn’t that bad babe.” He said doing his best to comfort her but doubted it would work.

  “The hell it wasn’t!” She snapped.

  Nope didn’t work he thought sourly.

  Jessi always the pragmatic one she asked. “What’s the plan? We can’t afford to keep losing cows at a thousand dollars a head and we sure as hell don’t want to be killed by wolves.”

  Cody thought about her questions. She was right they had to do something. He also wanted to make a remark about her language this evening as she’d cussed more in the last couple of hours than she’d cussed in the last five years. Wisely he left that out.

  “Well, tomorrow I will move the cows up closer to the house. They will still be out in the middle of nowhere but hopefully, the wolves will stay away and I will do my best to run the wolves off.”

  “I’d rather you killed them.” She muttered.

  “Now babe they’ve been here longer than we have, they belong here. Sure we lose a cow or a calf a year. Sometimes two or three but that’s just the cost of doing business in a place like this. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I think I’d die if I had to leave here. But I have to admit that I’m stumped by their behavior right now. It isn’t natural. They normally avoid humans not attack them. It’s like they’re possessed or something.”

  “By the devil, that’s what!” Jessi muttered.

  Cody leaned back and wondered why the devil had come to Falling Rock.

  The next morning Cody woke up tired as hell. He’d had trouble falling asleep between the pain in his arm and the replaying of the attack from the day before in his mind. He finally relented and took Jessi’s advice and took one of the pain pills the doctor had given to him to get him through the next couple days. Cody had never taken much in the way of any kind of pills and the pain meds knocked him out. He rolled over and looked at the clock 12:01 p.m. He couldn’t believe he’d slept that late, as he was always an early riser rarely sleeping past 6 a.m. let alone till noon. Cody sat up his arm throbbed with pain and was stiff as hell. He also felt more than a little hung over and vowed he would never take another one o
f those pain pills again no matter how bad he hurt.

  He made his way to the bathroom and stopped in front of the mirror. God, he looked like hell. He did his business and headed down to the kitchen where he found Jessi sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop, ledgers, and notebooks. Jessi was detail oriented and could always tell Cody where every penny went. In seconds she could tell him whom they owed and who owed them, it made them an incredible team.

  Noticing that she didn’t have her books open or her accounting software.

  “What are you up too?” He grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured himself coffee and took a sip. Cody grimaced when he realized it was cold and put the cup in the microwave for ninety seconds.

  He went to look over her shoulder to see what she was so engrossed in. She was reading an article on the Billings Gazette's newspaper website about the wolf attacks. Cody was surprised that the paper 200 miles away would follow the story. Jessi turned the screen so he could sit beside her and read the article.

  Most of the article was about the mother and son. Turned out she was thirty-four and he was only eight. It was only right they be the focus he thought as he continued reading. The old man turned out to be lifelong resident of Falling Rock as Raymond Meyers was mentioned and Cody was briefly mentioned as surviving an attack and finally police and government officials were investigating the attacks at the end of the story.

  Cody sat back taking it all in. He knew most of it already but reading about it made it seem surreal.

  “I will make grilled cheese you want a couple?” Jessi asked as she rummaged in the refrigerator.

  “Yea do we have any ham?” He asked checking his email while sitting at the computer. It was junk mail and invoices for various companies they bought ranch supplies from. These he forwarded to Jessi for her to deal with.

  “Yup, we got ham. So what’s your plan for the day? It’s late to move cows today with the snow and beings as most are about to give birth anytime.”

  “I’m still going to, hopefully, I’ll be home by dark but I doubt it. I can’t leave them out there any longer and we can’t afford to lose any more cows.” Cody hated that he felt apprehensive about going out there but he did. He loved the ranch, loved ranching and loved the mountains in which they lived. “I’ll be taking a rifle with me today, though, and a pistol.”

  “I wish you could get the truck back there it would be so much safer. If you’re not home soon after dark I’m coming to look for you.” The look in her eyes and tone in her voice told Cody she meant it.

  “I’ll be home as soon as I can baby, you stay here at the house. I don’t need to worry about you out there looking for me when I’m fine.” He got up and took her in his arms. She lay her head on his chest, he could feel her shake. She hadn’t come to grips yet with how close to losing him she’d come. The truth was he wasn’t sure what to think of it all either.

  They ate lunch and talked about the girls. Becca was still home with them while Jenny was in Bozeman in her first year of college. They also talked about the ranch, spring time which was right around the corner, calving, and did their best to not bring up wolves and pretend that everything was normal for the moment.

  When he was done, he got dressed skipped the shower so, he didn’t have to re-wrap his arm and besides a hot shower would go a long way to making him feel human again after spending all day out in the freezing temperatures which would be in the teens until the sun went down and then the temperature would plummet into the single digits and the wind would pick up.

  He left the house with a bolt action rifle slung over his shoulder and his .40 caliber pistol strapped to his hip. He filled his coat pockets with extra bullets and magazines for both guns. On his other shoulder, he carried a large backpack filled with various survival items he might need throughout the day and if he were to get trapped out overnight some of these items might literally save his life while other items would be in a sled that he pulled behind the snowmobile.

  He gave Jessi a kiss and headed for the barn. He packed the sled with things he would need if the worst happened and he had to spend the night out. He had a small tent, tarps, ax, bow saw, gas can, and old stainless coffee pot for boiling water, cooking, and coffee and several bundles of fire wood. Last, he threw in a pair of snowshoes just in case he had to walk out of the bush back to the house.

  When he was satisfied with his preparations, he called for Ginger his Blue Heeler. She was an excellent cattle dog and always ready to work. She jumped into the sled and they were off.

  Cody’s arm hurt as he steered the snowmobile over the rough terrain; but not so bad he couldn’t stand it. Working on the ranch he’d suffered worse injuries than this but never anything more terrifying than a wolf attacking him. He made his way to the hay lot. Here is where the preparations would begin for moving the cattle.

  Cody got off the snowmobile, Ginger hopped out of the sled and bounded off in the snow doing what dogs do. He made his way over to the tractor that was parked next to a stack of round hay bales that towered over his head. He was hoping the tractor would start, sometimes the old piece of machinery was bitchy in the cold weather but as long as it started for him more than it didn’t he’d keep it. He climbed up and sat on the old worn seat. It was cold and hard from being frozen but the cab of the tractor offered protection from the biting wind and that helped. He turned the key half way to let the glow plugs heat up. He waited a good two minutes and turned it the rest of the way over. The tractor chugged, finally the engine caught and roared to life belching thick black smoke.

  His first task of the day was to move a couple thousand pound bales to the new area where he wanted to keep the cows until this wolf business got under control. When the tractor was sufficiently warmed up and the hydraulics would move without screaming in protest from the cold, it was time to move the hay.

  Using the bucket with the grapple on top he picked up a bale and headed off to the new grazing area tucked inside a sheltered valley. It had taken about twenty minutes for the tractor to warm up and it would take another twenty minutes to reach the new ground and then twenty minutes back and then he would have to repeat the process.

  An hour and fifteen minutes later Cody set the second hay bale down in the new area. He jumped out of the tractor and cut the nylon netting that kept the bales together with his pocket knife and gathered up as much of the netting as he could. Cody got back into the tractor and headed back, he would miss the heated cab of the tractor later when the sun went down and the winds picked up.

  Back at the hay lot he used the bucket on the tractor to push snow out of the way around the lot so he could get the truck in if need be. Cody would need to bring grain in but the hay would get the herd through the night. As he looked at his watch, damn it was 3 p.m. it would get dark soon as the mountains would block out the sun sooner and darkness would creep across the valley.

  He started up the snowmobile, Ginger materialized from where ever she had wandered off too and hopped into the sled. When he reached the herd five more cows had been slaughtered. Cody felt sick at the senselessness of it. It almost seemed as if they had been slain for the pleasure of it. Cody never liked losing a cow but when wolves, mountain lions and, bears did it for food it didn’t seem so bad. This had him stumped.

  With a sigh, Cody got down to the task at hand using the herds’ instinct to stay in a group and their recognition that Cody was the proverbial hand that fed them, he led them where he wanted them to go. Ginger had jumped out of the sled and had bunched the cows up into a tight group. She happily nipped at their heels yipping nonstop as she pushed them along.

  Cody realized these weren’t all the cows, and that some were missing. They had either wandered off as some always did or else they were dead from wolves. Cody would have to go back tomorrow and see but for now, he concentrated on getting the major part of the herd moved to safer ground.

  The pregnant cows plodded along in the snow which only slowed them down even more but they made prog
ress although daylight was fading fast as the sun set on the west side of the mountains blocking out the what little sun that remained but the moon was bright and full reflecting off the snow casting its own light on the frozen world.

  He kept watching as the sun finally slipped below the edges of the mountains to the west leaving the moon his only source of light beyond the head light of the snowmobile. Oh well, he thought if I can get the main part of the herd moved I can go back tomorrow and search for any strays. Again he had to consider the possibility they might be dead.

  Damn those wolves! He wished his cows could and would move faster but he didn’t want to risk them stressing and going into premature labor and losing the calves they carried. They were his livelihood and his survival depended on them.

  They arrived at the new pasture about an hour after dark. The moon was full and illuminated the landscape brightly as it reflected off the snow. The lead cow made its way to the unrolled hay and contentedly chewed on the dried grass. Cody was relieved to have made it and was eager to get home. He was chilled to the bone, tired and in lots of pain.

  He sat watching the rest of the herd move into the area. Just a few more minutes and he could turn the snow mobile towards the house and warm up. Something at the rear of the herd spooked the cows, and they surged forward bellowing in panic.

  “What the hell?” Cody muttered getting off the snowmobile pulling his pistol from the holster on his hip. The rifle was still hanging by the strap on his shoulder but it was useless in such close quarters.

  He could hear Ginger barking and as she desperately made her way to protect her master and friend. She didn’t make it. Two wolves took her down as the rest of the pack slaughtered the herd. Ginger yelped and cried as the wolves ripped her apart. Cody fired at the wolves that killed his dog as they too moved on to his herd to kill more of his cows, more of his livelihood.