Land of Shadows: Chapter XIII - Trap

The stench was awful. The fire was still burning in the north wing when they pulled into the parking lot. Dotty compared the aroma to that of an outhouse fire back on her grandparents farm. It was obvious that neither Dee or Allison were still here.

If Allison had still been in the school when the fire started Dee would not have left or rested until she had been rescued or recovered. Had she been rescued and still able they would have continued on their way as soon as possible. Had Allison been injured Dee would have returned albeit reluctantly to the lighthouse and they would have met up by now. In the unthinkable even that she would have been killed, Dee would have buried her before carrying on with her quest. And in their brief search of the school grounds they had not seen evidence of a new grave and Dee would have made no effort to hide it, Quite the contrary, it would have been in plain sight so she could easily find it and direct her mother to it as well if asked. Oliver was not the accomplished tracker that Dee was, but the deeply treaded tires of the Volvo left a trail a blind man could follow. They had an advantage over Dee in that regard. Dee was not making any effort to cover her tracks.

* * *

Dee looked back at the ruts they were leaving in the wet spongy ground. They had left highway 151 behind sometime ago following the faint trail of the mountain bike. It was against her nature to leave such an obvious trail, but they had other priorities.

She banged her head on the edge of the roof when the Volvo jolted to a stop without warning.

"Ow! What the fuck! Ally, when I let you drive I said ... " she turned around to see why the sudden stop and began cussing even more. A wall of trees blocked their path. Just at the edge of the woods a muddy patch clearly showed a set of narrow tire tracks following a game trail into the woods.

Dee got out of the Volvo and checked the load on her shotgun and grabbed a few more shells from a box on the dash. Bo and Duke followed her out of the truck.

"I want you to circle around these woods, try to get to the other side ahead of him. You keep in touch on the walkie talkie and let me know if you see anything. I'll try to catch up to him in there. He won't be able to go much faster than a person on foot and when he can't ride he'll have to push that bike around, and that will slow him down."

"I don't think this is a good idea, separating like this ... " Ally protested.

"And it was a good idea when you and Olly left me back there in that garage? This is our best chance to catch up to that thing and end this, now get going!"

Dee headed into the woods without waiting to see if Ally was obeying her instructions. Both dogs sticking close to her. The bike's trail was easy to follow among the twin crescent of deer tracks, the clawed and padded feet of foxes and the almost hand like prints of the occasional raccoon. A couple hundred feet into the woods the bike tracks sank into the soft mud an inch deeper as if the bike had stopped for a minute and sank into the soft soil. A single shoe print was pressed lightly into the ground and there were crushed dry leaves on the other side. The bike tracks moved forward for about five feet and stopped again. There the shoe prints appeared again and the bike tracks became fainter as the terrain grew rougher. He was on foot now. But no evidence that a wraith was with him.

* * *

Deek leaned against a tree near the stream. He and the old man had been running all day and both were beginning to tire. They had so far remained hidden from their captor. The old man seemed to know a great deal about the creature, he was telling him about it while Deek led the way. Deek stepped through the door into his bedroom. He lay down on the bed and pulled the cover up over his head.

"What are you doing boy? This place is too obvious, he'll find us here for sure."

"I gotta rest. Let me sleep old man."

"You give up now and you'll sleep alright, but not before that things eats you alive. Now get up off your lazy ass and get moving. We need to find a safe place!" Jewels pulled the cover off the boy and yanked him to his feet. The room dissolved around them and they found themselves in a room high room high above the ground. The city below was a busy crowded place with cars racing down the streets and dozens of planes flying overhead. Big jumbo jets and Jewels did not have to see inside them to know that they would all be packed with people. But underlying this image was another. This was a city, long abandoned and decaying. Chicago.

The boy had populated if from his imagination. Jewels could feel the memory. Deek's father had taken him up to the top of the Lake Point Tower overlooking the old navy pier amusement park. He had told him of the city teeming with people and cars. The boy, who thought himself stupid, had built an entire city in his mind and filled it with people and cars and planes and brought them all to life, at least in his mind. But his father had either exaggerated or the boy had built on his father's tales himself, but Detroit had never been this crowded. The monster would not think to look for them here and if he did, there were plenty of places to hide. They could rest here.

The boy went to a window, picked up a chair and threw at the window. It should have just bounced back, but evidently the boy did not know better, for the window shattered and they found themselves looking out, not at the crowded/empty city below, but at a forest as the creature used Deek's body to push a bike through a wooded path. Jewels found himself once again looking over this boy and reassessing him.

Up ahead they could see an old man checking a trap, he straightened and looked back at them. Deek started to yell a warning, but Jewels clamped his hand over the boys mouth.

* * *

Things were going quite well, he felt that he had not seen evidence of his pursuers for some time so he sent the wraiths to scout ahead. One came back to let him know that human had been found in the woods nearby. He got the location from the slave, as always it was a little cumbersome getting any useful information out of it. It was like trying to get navigational directions from a toddler. He then sent it out again to look for food and shelter for the night.

He was surprised to find the man exactly where the slave had told him. It was an older man, but not as frail as his previous host. He was old enough that he would have been taught to read before the humans had sent themselves away and dragged his ancestors to this wonderful place.

"Excuse me sir, can you read?"

* * *

Dee found the bike abandoned at the base of an old oak tree. She quickly picked up his trail again with the help of the dogs, but she found another set of prints too, and these were wearing heavy boots. She hoped the booted stranger would not meet up with her quarry before she did. She quickened her pace, the tracks she had followed in were less than four hours old, but these were just an hour old if that.

She burst into the clearing with her shotgun ready, but it was already too late. The old man had already become the monster's latest victim, his throat was slashed. But before she could fire her first shot, sharp steel jaws bit into her left calf and she dropped the shotgun. The shotgun fired uselessly into the leaves above her only serving to defoliate a portion of the tree. The boy the monster was currently using spun around to see Dee with her leg caught in a steel jawed bear trap. It was anchored to a heavy steel chain attached to a spike driven into the ground. Dee could move no further than five feet without getting the trap off her leg. To do that she would have to give it her full attention and he would surely close for the kill before she could free herself. The weapon was out of her reach having been propelled quite some distance by the powerful kick of the over packed load she was using.

The Beretta was holstered at her left ankle and she could not get it out past the steel jaws of the trap. She pulled out a throwing dart from the leather band on her wrist and threw it, aiming for the boy's eyes, but it passed harmlessly over his head.

She was normally better than this, but she not normally practicing with a steel jawed bear trap on her left leg.

He quickly ducked behind a tree, but not before she threw another. She did not know if it hit or not, but it was not enough to slow him down if it did. Bo and Duke were now after him as well. Bo circled around the tree to attack but a sudden yelp and he was thrown back out into the clearing where he thrashed about for a few minutes before becoming still. He saw him move to another tree and wasted another dart trying to get him. But he made the mistake of trying to cross too much open ground trying to get to something left in the clearing and she pinned his hand to a tree. She thought to finish him with her final dart but found the elastic loop empty. A sudden image came to mind of the dart pinning a bug to the window frame at home.

Realizing that she was now unarmed, the boy yanked the dart out of his hand and attacked. Dee tried her best to fend him off but she was just too hampered by the trap and blood loss. About the fourth, or was it the fourteenth time the little dart jabbed her she blacked out.

© 2010 R. Keith McBride

New Story post going up tomorrow.

I would like to apologize for not getting a story post up in so long. After all the problems I have been having with my computers and not really having a chance to write in sooo long I had a hard time getting back into it when I finally did have a chance. But by the time I got the first paragraph down I was back in the groove. I hope you will all like this next chapter.

Back on Line!!!

To any of my regular readers I may have left, I am now back on line. After weeks of nightmarish computer problems I have finally managed to get things fixed. Ok, not fixed, replaced. After my Toshiba died I tried to use my netbook, but if you own one of these wonderful little machines you know that they are not really suited for use as a full time work station. It was time consuming and left little time for writing. After two weeks of falling further and further behind I gave up and dug an older desktop out of the basement and set it up. It was an original Windows XP machine. I love XP but I have to admit that this machine was not working either. I had to install Service Pack 3 on it (it was still running SP2), clean off the hard drive run a defrag and several virus scans before I realized that I was beating a dead horse.

So broke into our emergency fund and stole $400 from it and purchased a new desktop.

It is about one rung up the ladder from a bare bones entry level machine, but it has a 500Gb hard drive and 3Gb of DDR3 memory.

I just hope the wheels don't fall of the van before our insurance settlement comes through on that, because, oh yeah, some idiot made an illegal left turn in front of us and wrecked our van. The perfect topper to this little chain of events is that while trying to repair a leaking carburetor my riding mower it decided to kick over all on its own. She while gasoline was spraying out of it like a fountain I was trying to get it to shut off. The spark plug set the fuel on fire. Foosh. I am back pushing a damn mower.

I should be able to resume regular story posts soon.

Land of Shadows: Chapter XII - Deek

It took more time than Allison really felt they could spare, but Dee insisted that they bury Jewels. The corpse was pitifully lightweight, little more than a collection of bones with a thin leathery skin stretched loosely over it. It probably weighed less than seventy pounds. Neither one of them could bring themselves to look at the pitiful waste he had become. They laid him out on a sheet and wrapped him up. The grave was shallow but concrete paving stones borrowed from the patio laid over the grave insured that Jewels would rest undisturbed by scavengers, For a moment they both stood over the grave in silence. Neither had the words to express how they felt. So without a word they turned the tear streaked faces away to continue their mission.

They managed to track the little Ford to this house, where they found it parked in the front lawn crushing a Lilac bush. The little van was filthy inside and deep gouges in the plastic flooring and interior panels showed that he had been travelling in the company of at least two lesser wraiths. But the van was finished. It really should not have even been able to make it this far.

It was clear that the monster had another host, probably the "big white boy" Ally said Jewels had mentioned. A narrow set of tire tracks leading out of the garage indicated that he liberated a bicycle. He had obviously fallen a couple of times in the street and a double set of wraith tracks trailed alongside the tire tracks. A good mountain bike actually had an advantage over even the Volvo. It could cut directly through woods, taking game trails that a car or truck could never hope to navigate. It would also be far harder to track. If they only knew where the Hell it was going.

* * *

He had no idea where he was going.

He was lost. The boy formerly known as Deek had never been more than twenty miles from home and had in fact been wandering around lost when he had fallen into a nest of wraith bugs.

Bitten several dozen times he had been nearly comatose when the wraiths had found him.

He remembered being prodded and poked by one, its drooling maw hovering over his face, Tendrils that felt like wriggling hacksaw blades probing at his belly. He was sure death was not far off. He was not able to speak, but began praying silently. Suddenly another wraith, much larger than the first swatted it aside. The smaller one crouched and began circling as if it wanted to challenge the larger one but it abruptly changed its mind. He had been carried off to their nest and thrown into an empty tool shed. Half rotten meat was thrown in a couple of times a day and a water bowl was provided.

The possibility of being killed frightened him enough, but the unknown reason they were keeping him alive scared him even more. He knew he was not smart. He never had been. Everybody was always telling him how slow or stupid he was. But he knew that there could be no good reason for them to be keeping him alive.

When the door to the shed was suddenly thrown open and he saw an old black man standing before him with a lantern, he thought he had been rescued. Then he saw the three wraiths standing beside him. He then thought the man had been captured and he would have someone to talk to for a while until his fate was decided. But something about the way the wraiths were standing by the old man caused a little voice to speak up in his mind, telling him to keep his mouth shut and his eyes and ears open.

The old man just stood there for a moment looking in at Deek. He felt like a cow being appraised just before slaughter. The old man started to say something, but never got a chance. An explosion thundered out of the darkness, man and wraith all looked to see what had happened. Deek thought his opportunity to escape had come, but the old man turned his attention back on him before he had take three steps towards the door. He just barely saw the stinger of the near wraith lash out at him. The world fell out from under him but not before he saw the old man pull a gun and shoot the wraith that had stung him. The other wraiths just stared at the suddenly dead wraith, their tiny minds mulling this situation over. For a moment he felt a compassion for them, for they were obviously as confused as he was.

He did not awaken again for several hours. At least he thought he was awake, but he could not move or see. There was a sound more heard really than felt of gnawing. It scared him more than anything else for some reason. But then a voice spoke out to him from the darkness. It was a kind but firm voice and he knew he could trust it.

"Follow me boy, if you want to live." He wanted to tell the voice that he could not move or speak, but he was already moving. Without arms or legs he moved across a rapidly brightening dreamscape of sea and forest valleys he recognized from a storybook his mother had read to him when he was a little boy. He came to a clearing where monstrous wild things happily frolicked. A black man, thin as a sapling but not at all frail, stood in the center of the clearing where Deek landed. His age was impossible to discern for it seemed to change constantly as he stood there.

"Did you make this?" he asked timidly.

"No," said the now old man laughing, "you made this boy, you're God here, not me. I'm just an unwilling intruder."

The sun blazed down bright and hot, beginning to sear the landscape, but a thick bank of clouds billowed up bringing relief. "You got strength you don't even realize boy," but even as the flush of youth swept across his face, he looked worried, "We gotta hurry boy, there ain't much time."
Much had to be abandoned for the enemy to use, but the old black man assured him that it could not be helped.

* * *

He was slowly finding what he needed and the bike was getting easier to handle. He was furious that the boy had had never learned to read. Interpreting the maps he had found at the local library was difficult. So much was always lost in transition. He knew what he was looking for, but not where it was. The boy had seemed to completely surrender, which had its advantages and disadvantages. Everything was there for the taking, but there were no reference points. The struggle for control always led him to the best bits, but this was like breaking into vacant house filled with unfamiliar relics. If you don't see what the owner rushes to defend, you don't know what is worth stealing. So much was always lost in transition. He knew what he was looking for, but not where it was.

He would have to find someone to read the journals to him. He would once again dig out the location of the of the miraculous machine these creatures had built and use it. It was just a matter of time. He would remake this world in the image of his own. But with food!

© 2010 R. Keith McBride

Happy Memorial Day?

Today is Memorial Day. And wherever you go you will here people telling you to have a "Happy Memorial Day." Some of them mean well, but many of them are just trying to sell you something.

Happy Memorial Day.

Fuck That!

Memorial Day was not set aside so that we could party or have fun or save big at MegaMart on things we don't need. It's not to give us a nice three day weekend so we can take the boat out or go riding. Not that I begrudge anyone those activities. Memorial day was set aside to remember our fallen soldiers. Men and women who fought and died for our freedom, Most likely their final moments were spent clutching at wounds such as most of us see only on TV or the movie screen. They were in pain more severe than we could ever imagine. They were often in the company of other heroic men and women far from home but many times they were alone in their final moments. They cried out to God, they prayed, wept and longed to be safe at home with their loved ones. They did not set out with the intent to die for their country. Through an involuntary draft or their own need to serve, their country called them to service and they answered. They did this so that we could be safe and free.

So before you head off to that barbecue, out to the lake or to that big Memorial Day Sale, take a moment and think about them. Remember them in your thoughts and prayers.

Future Darwin Award Winners

It seems like every other house in my neighborhood has at least 2 ATVs in the garage. Our street terminates in a dead end and there are no streets leading off the east for a few blocks. This means our street has less traffic than normal. So my neighbors look at this as an open invitation to race their ATVs up and down the street whenever the weather is good. I really have nothing against this but these idiots are going full throttle, rubber burning, front wheels up in the air. Being the father of 3 year old twins I have natural concerns, but I keep my kids inside or behind a fence and keep a somewhat overprotective eye on them. The thing is, these morons are not wearing a scrap of protective gear, no elbow pads, knee pads, goggles, or you guessed it, helmets.

I had decided to take a Darwinian view of the situation and keep in mind that with fewer idiots in the world there are more resources available for the rest of us. But now they are bringing the next generation into their world of stupidity. They happily send their preteen children out riding these ATVs without protection or supervision. And I am not talking about little detuned 50cc jobs either. These are full size machines (250cc and up). And these kids are in turn giving their friends rides, so there are sometimes up to four kids piled on one of these four wheelers tooling up and down the street. An hour ago I saw a Honda loaded with three kids headed down the street and come back thirty minuets later and all the kids were drinking from fresh QT fountain cups with two QT bags laden with various samples of junk food dangling from the handlebars. There are two Quik Trips close enough that they could have got there and back in the allotted time. One would involve getting out on a busy street during rush hour and the other would involve them getting out on an even busier street and crossing a highway.

The police were just out and talked to one of the younger riders and warned him about riding around without a helmet. Kid was bitchin' and moanin' about the cop harassing him when they left. Kid should feel lucky I was not the cop. I would have confiscated the ATV and made the parents and child both sit through a few hours of ER videos before giving it back.

I am not one of these wrap you kids up in bubble-wrap and keep them inside all day parents. I want my kids to be kids, have fun, take a few chances, live their lives. But is it too much to expect parents to take a few moments to make sure you kids aren't taking stupid chances. And if you can afford a brand new ATV you can afford a helmet.

As for the adults riding without helmets (motorcycle or ATV), I say that if you are that stupid, go ahead, just please don't reproduce and don't expect taxpayer money to keep your brain dead ass on life support for the next twenty years after you smash your head open on the pavement. I think we should have special "Idiot Licenses" for those people. They sign that they are aware of the risks involved and waive any and all state and federal aid to pay their medical bills when they end up in the ER. Let them and only them pay the massively huge insurance premiums.

But really, just ride safe, wear a helmet and make sure your kids do too.

Land of Shadows - Chapter XI: Sister Irene

The air was hot and dry. Within a matter of moments her mouth was parched and her throat was raw. Breathing was painful as each draw of air took more precious moisture from her body. Her nasal passages were dry and cracked. She had a brief nose bleed. It stopped only because the arid climate quickly sucked the water from her blood, leaving a dry crust. The valley was deep and steep sided and the air was as still and quiet as a Pharaoh's tomb. The sides were as far apart as the tallest mountain and it stretched as far as the eye could see in either direction. The floor of the valley was littered with what at first glance one would have assumed to be stones and dead wood. But Sister Irene knew them for what they were. Dry dead bones. Long leg bones, flat curved ribs, stony looking vertebrae, tiny little finger bones and large vacant eyed skulls that stared blankly at her. Bones so dry they would crumble at a touch. The grave of the world. The place where all the missing people had gone.

She climbed up to the top of a a large flat rock that has sheared off from the wall of the valley thousands of years before she was born. It alone was clear of bones. The sharp edges of the rock cut at her hands and feet and the sun baked stone burned her flesh.

As the lord commanded her, she stretched out her hand over the valley while His words flowed from her lips. "Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring flesh upon you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

And as she spoke these words a great noise began to rise up from the valley. A rattling and scraping, a grating and grinding as millions of bones began to seek out their mates and assemble themselves into complete skeletons. Sinew and muscle, blood vessels and nerves all began to stitch themselves around the skeletons covering the once dead and dry bones. Skin began to knit around the writhing bodies until at last, once again they rested, whole and perfect as God had made them. Millions of lifeless bodies lay about the valley. The eyes still stared just as blankly as when they were bare skulls. Nothing stirred in the valley except Sister Irene as she watched in awe and horror.

And again God spoke through her lips. "Come from the four winds O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

As the last word echoed through the valley a sighing of wind began to sweep through the valley. It rose from a sigh to a roar from all directions as if a thousand tornadoes lay siege upon the valley. As with a tornado, the telling of it last longer than the actual event and it was soon passed. Silence once again reigned in the valley. For a few seconds at least. As one the bodies all took a first breath and that sigh was as the birth pangs of some unseen beast.

The bodies began to rise and and mill about. People clasped at one another to reassure themselves that they were indeed real. They walked and talked in hushed, fearful voices. At first they milled about aimlessly, but a panic quickly spread through them like a fire in dry leaves. The whispers rose to screams and hands that had just gently greeted and held neighbors began to pummel and tear at one another. They beat at each other and clawed and bit like animals. The atrocities committed against each other were beyond description. Men beat and raped the women and even the children. Women tore at the faces of their once beloved husbands and strangled infants they once cradled. Children swarmed on their elders like packs of wild dogs before turning on one another. But not all of those with the fresh breath of life in them had gone insane. A few sane faces showed themselves in the masses. Some tried to stop the madness around them and save who they could, but most simply tried to separate themselves from the seething madness around them. Soon only those calm few and some tattered remnants were standing. The insanity had consumed itself.

One final time God spoke to them, but though He spoke through her, His words were not for her ears. But those that heard His words fell to their knees and wept and she was glad she had not heard them.

She awoke with a cold sweat on her. She knew that there was an important task for her to do. She didn't know what it was, but whatever it was, God would guide her through, He always had before. She rose early knowing from experience that she would not be able to sleep anymore this night. She looked at the Baby Ben windup clock by her nightstand. By the faintly glowing hands of the old clock she could see it was three in the morning. She sighed and lit the lantern by her bed.

She hated when God cast her in the role of a prophet or saint from the Bible. It felt self-righteous and blasphemous, though she knew it could be neither, not if it came from Him. She opened her Bible and turned to Ezekiel 37, The Parable of Dry Bones. She stayed up till sunrise hoping to make sense of the dreams. She knew he was trying to tell her something important. Finally as she was fixing herself breakfast it came to her. She dropped her bowl and left it unheeded as she ran to the sanctuary to cry or pray or both.

They were coming back.

She didn't know when, but she knew this. As they were when they left, so would they return. All the billions of people that had disappeared.

© 2010 R. Keith McBride