As he stepped out into the dark square, Aden fluttered his t-shirt about so that the cool breeze would race up his back. “Did you see how riled-up they all were? Things were starting to get ugly.”
“No kidding,” Arlisa said strolling up alongside him. “Until Mayor Garrett jumped in.”
Aden wiped the sweat from under his chin and neck. “The only thing I want to jump into is a nice warm shower.” He gave her a wave, turned and stepped out onto the road.
“Wait, where are you going?”
He halted. “Home… my brother doesn’t know where I am.”
“Wait a minute.” she said. “Men with guns and grenades are headed to the mill to stamp out the beast and you’re saying you don’t want to see it?”
“No, I’m saying I don’t want my brother Ethan to rip off my head and feed it to it. Besides, you heard the people; this beast thing is nothing but some big grizzly anyway, right?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know—I’ve never seen it. But we could find out…”
“I don’t know, Arlisa.” Aden said looking down the road. “My brothers—”
“Come on… we’ll run down to the mill for a quick peek and then come back. Piece of cake…”
“Well…”
“Please?” she said, grabbing his hand.
He looked at her hand on his and grinned. “One quick peek won’t hurt.”
***
The lantern lights of the square were far behind now as they click-clacked down the center of the forest road, peering into the shadowy pine trees.
“You see anything on your side?” Aden asked looking up at the swaying branches.
“Nothing…” Arlisa said.
He turned to her. “You’re not even looking!”
“Cause there’s nothing to look at—just a bunch of stupid trees!”
“‘Stupid trees’ is probably what that highway patrolman thought.”
She turned to him. “What highway patrolman?”
“You haven’t heard? A patrol car was found on the side of the entry road. My brother Nathan told me about it. He said there had to have been an accident because the car was crushed into a ball scrap, but the funny thing was, there was no other car.”
Something raced through the bush on the side of the road.
Aden wheeled, bumping into Arlisa. “What was that??”
Arlisa giggled. “Probably a little pink bunny…”
He glared at her. “Anyway, I think the beast got em’… had to. Nathan also told me there weren’t any ambulances or anything on the scene.”
“Maybe the ambulance came and left before he saw it.”
Aden listened to the crickets chirping all around. “Maybe not, so keep your eyes peeled.”
She watched him pan the trees on his side of the road, slowed her pace and then crept up behind him. “Quick! What’s that in the trees!!?”
Aden wheeled. “What??” he said and ran three steps and then collapsed in a bed of gravel.
Arlisa giggled. “You city folk are too easy.”
Aden sneered at her as he sat up, brushing off his pants and shirt. “It’s not funny… are you trying to get us eaten?” He looked around. “And where’s the rest of the road?”
The asphalt had ended where Aden was sitting and had become a dirt road dotted with rocks.
Arlisa stepped into the rocks and helped him up. “We must be close.”
The uneven corridor crunched beneath their feet as they trekked on.
“So what do you do around here when you’re not being so paranoid?” Arlisa said.
Aden shrugged. “I read stuff.”
“Stuff like what?”
“Like the old book I found the other day. I don’t really understand it yet. It’s a book about gen-o-ology… I mean geo-lo-ogies?”
“You mean genealogy.” Arlisa said. “It’s a book about your family tree… must be important.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’d have to be if someone wrote a whole book on your family’s history and saved it for later generations to find… as a matter of fact, where did you find it?”
“Ummm… it’s sort of a long story.” Aden said, rubbing his head. “Well, not that long, you see—”
“Too late,” she said, pointing ahead. “Look!”
The dirt road opened into a dark field, and on the far right end, a series of old wooden store houses of various heights, widths and lengths stood strung together, some with sentinel-like smokestacks piercing out the tops.
Aden peered at all the slanted roofs. “Looks like one long haunted house.”
“Yeah…” Arlisa said. “Let’s go take a peek.”
“I’m not going in there! It’s like a city for ghosts!”
She seized his arm. “Come on.”
They crept down the dirt road along the side of the field. Halfway there, Aden cringed as a cool breeze swept through the trees, over the weedy grass and across their path. Moments after, he couldn’t help but hear the crash of water.
“What is that?” he said. “Do they keep an indoor waterfall in there?”
“No, silly… there is a waterfall but it’s on the other side against the trees. It turns huge paddlewheels which give the mill its power. The current of the river leading here is strong so they also use it to pond huge logs here from the other side of the mountain.”
“So you have been here before.”
“Once, a really long time ago…”
When they reached the main entrance, Aden crept to the door and tried the knob.
Click, click…
He snapped his finger. “Well, she’s locked. It’s best we head back now.”
Arlisa grabbed his shoulder. “Not so fast. There’s a stairway around here somewhere.” She backed away and peered down the row of buildings. “Yeah, it’s down there.” she said, pointing at one of the first structures near the foot of a hill.
Breathing charred scents of wood, they crept from structure to shadowy structure until they’d reached a long flat building with a staircase in the alley. They began to climb the stairs but halfway up, Arlisa seized Aden’s arm.
“The door is just there,” he said pointing up the stairs. “Are we going in or not?”
“That door is locked.” She pointed at a window. “Here’s our way in.”
Arlisa climbed atop of the railing and pushed upward on the glass.
Aden placed his hands on his hips. “You’re wasting your time.”
She pushed harder, this time bending her knees, and the window creaked open and when it did, sounds of crashing water echoed out. She looked down at Aden and smiled. She slid the window further and hopped onto the sill and wiggled through.
Aden looked back at the field from which they’d come.
“Come on, Aden…” the voice whispered from above. “Crawl through the window.”
He climbed upon the railing, hopped into the window and slid in. He crawled over a pile of soggy logs to the edge where Arlisa helped him drop to the floor. He brushed his damp pants, panned the dark room. Bales of logs were stacked around the perimeter, and a long conveyer belt with rollers ran in from an opening high on the left wall, slanted down into the center of the room and then fed itself through a hole in the wall on the right. Aden tapped her. “What is that?” he said over the rushing sound of water.
“That’s where the logs come in off the river just before the falls.”
They walked to the conveyer.
“The logs come down this belt then feed into the primary saws on the other end.”
They followed the belt to the opposite side of the room where large circular saw disks rested just above the belt.
Aden’s jaw dropped. “This is amazing.”
“Oh, that’s nothing. Check this out.” She crawled beneath the conveyor belt, stood up on the other side and waved him over. “Come on, crawl beneath.”
He did, and then they both raced to a window between the shadowy stacks of logs.
“Look out there!”
Aden looked and saw the tops of the tall pine trees looming on the opposite bank of a rushing river. He looked straight down. He figured a part of the mill must be hanging over the water. He looked to his left and saw the gigantic paddle wheels turning.
Suddenly, barking dogs echoed in the distance.
They glanced at each other and then raced alongside the conveyer, through a doorway and onto an indoor balcony overseeing a larger room where they ducked, peering through the lofty windows mounted high on the far wall. Aden counted eight or nine men approaching—some of them carrying a flashlight, but each one armed with a rifle.
“Will they shut those dogs up?” Aden said. “They’re loud enough to wake the dead.”
“Shhh… look, they’re coming in.”
The conveyer stretched from the balcony down to another line of cutting machines on the first level. They slinked to the edge, and through the wooden railing, they peered over the slanted conveyer and bundled rows of lumber at a shadowy corner where a faint sound of keys jiggled just outside. Suddenly, a door opened and several silhouettes slinked through, rifle cradled in their arms.
“Yall keep them dogs outside for now.” one of them said. “I don’t want the boys coming in for work tomorrow morning stepping in dog junk.” Just as he finished, small taps on the roof began, sounding at first like a bag of pebbles being poured out, and then seconds later, like thousands of rocks being spilled all over the roof. Aden peeked out the window… it had begun to rain.
The first man turned around to a guy standing in the door and nodded. “Tie em’ up in the corner then.”
The men tied up the dogs and then slinked to the opposite wall of the room where the wind was blowing a large fabric sheet off the section of wall it covered. “It tried to come in over here, boys…” They crept to the sheet and kicked away the bricks which held the sheet at the bottom. They then snatched the sheet from the tacks that mounted it high on the wall thereby uncovering a great hole ripped into the wall and floorboards.
Aden gasped, and leaned over the balcony’s edge. Through the hole, he could see the line of trees flailing in the rain on the opposite bank and the river itself crashing and tossing about before the men.
Arlisa tapped his shoulder, pointed toward the stairwell down to the floor along a nearby wall. They crept to the bottom and slipped behind a lofty stack of two by fours.
One man scanned the hole from top to bottom. “Suppose a bolt of lightning did it?”
“Then how come the whole darn mill ain’t burnt up?” another said.
“Suppose one of the men crashed a forklift into wall and ain’t report it?”
“Do you see the size of that hole, you nut?” a man walking in said, shaking off the rain. “Whatever did it did it from the outside.” He walked through the circle of men and peered through the hole. “Anybody hear anything?”
They all shook their heads.
“No, Carlson…” one of them said. “We only been here—”
Suddenly, the floor shook.
Aden looked at Arlisa. “You feel that?” He felt it again and then looked over at the men who were all turning and looking at each other.
One of the men crept toward the wall a few feet from the large hole. He waved for the men to come over. “You all hear that?”
None of the others moved.
“Wilbur!” Carlson said. “Get back over here… now!”
“Oh shut up.” Wilbur said. “Everybody else may listen to you because they borrow their rifle out your cellar, but this here is my gun!”
“Wilbur!”
“I said shut up, Carlson!” Wilbur pressed his ear against the wall. “Yall hear that??” He turned to the men and then pressed it to the wall again. “Sort of sounds like a darn—”
Crrrrrraaaash!!
At that moment, a thick oak tree smashed through the wall on top of Wilbur and then crashed through the floor taking the townsman with it… The top of the tree fell only a few feet away from where Aden and Arlisa were standing. Arlisa screamed, staring down at the whitewater roaring by beneath the floorboards.
Aden seized her arm and slammed their backs against the lumber stack. The men then opened fire, blasting chips of wood from the floor, pricking the youngsters’ legs and arms. Aden covered Arlisa’s face, glanced to his left and saw that the lumber pile wasn’t flush against the wall. He guided her into the space between the tall bundles and was trapped.
“Hold your fire!!!” Carlson said.
A long, deep growl reverberated in from outside the hole.
Aden and Arlisa uncovered their faces and listened to footsteps clunking toward the hole in the floor. One of the men walked over and bent over the hole. His back was turned to them. The man had another look, backed away toward them. “All clear.” he said and then fell through floorboards which had given way beneath his feet!
“Fire!!” they heard Carlson say and more shots rang out, this time ever closer as the new hole was gaping just before them.
Arlisa screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Arlisa, no!!” Aden said, clapping his hand over her mouth. “Quick… climb!!”
They turned and climbed and as their feet stepped off the floor it too gave way! The entire tower of bundled wood dropped a foot and tilted toward the hole. Aden made it to the top and then reached down for Arlisa. “Take my hand!” he said.
Her grip slipped but Aden grabbed her arm. “No!!!” Suddenly, beyond Arlisa’s flailing body, he caught a glimpse of the hole. Unlike the other two holes where he could see the water flowing by, this hole was pitch-black. Heat rose up from it with a smell worse than sardines. Aden’s eyes widened a second and then he dove for her hand. “Arlisa, don’t look down. Look at me, take my hand!” A deep growl shook the boards and some of them fell into the dark pit and ripped apart.
Arlisa took Aden’s hand and climbed to the top. Aden looked back down into the pit and saw whitewater raging by.
“What was that??” Arlisa said.
“You don’t want to know.”
They crawled to the edge of the stack and jumped down onto the floor. After they slipped past the barking dogs and dashed out the door, they heard grumbling as they darted up the dirt road and followed it around back into the trees. They reached the asphalt road and fell onto it on all fours panting like dogs.
Aden held his hand over his heart holding his mouth open as if he could not get enough air. “Are you… alright?”
Arlisa sat there shivering, trembling, and peering into space.
“What gives?” he said, crawling to her, putting his arm on her shoulder. “We made it out okay…”
She shook her head. “Aden, what was that??”
He looked into the trees. “I don’t know, but whatever it was, we’re perfectly safe now.”
Suddenly, a hand seized the rear of his neck and dragged him up on his feet.
“Hey, let me go!!” Aden turned around… Ethan.
Arlisa gasped, sitting upright.
“Let you go?” Ethan said. “You’re lucky if I don’t strangle you before you get back to the house. Now go, Nathan will be home in a few minutes.”
“What about my friend?” Aden said. Ethan pushed Aden ahead, glanced at the teary eyed girl. “On your feet… let’s go.”