PROLOGUE
THE PATROL CAR
“CAR 2-2-0-4, WHAT’S your status..?”
“Car 2-2-0-4, what’s your status..?”
Brake lights zoomed down the mountain highway and faded into the night as state
patrolman Jed Henson crumbled another Whirly Burger wrapper and sipped his Dizzy
Cola.
“Car 2-2-0-4..?? What’s your status??”
BOONK… BOOOONNK!!
He whipped his mouth from the straw and looked.
Semi truck…
A sports car changed lanes in front of it without blinkers…
The time glowing on the dashboard changed—11:45pm—and seeing this, he turned
the key, glanced over his shoulder and then wheeled out onto the state route picking up
the receiver.
“Dispatch, this is car 2204… I’m heading due east on route two approaching the Blue
River Mountain valley passage… reporting back to base after I…” He squinted at the
rusted highway sign leaning out from the edge of the road. “…after I stop in a local toilet
called Steeple Creek to take a whiz… over.”
“(chuckle) Copy that, 2-2-0-4…”
Halfway up the next mountain, he wheeled a turn onto a forest road shrouded with
so many limbs and branches the sky was no longer visible. The only clouds he could see
were those drifting across the road.
(Pop) “Car 2-2-0-4… Car 2-2-0-4… Do you read me?? This is your sergeant speaking…
over.”
Jeb picked up the receiver. “Sergeant Fletcher… now what can I do for you this
evening?”
“For one thing, you can stop saying ‘whiz’ over the transmitter! And second, maybe if
you’d quit going for cheeseburgers at that truck-stop you wouldn’t need to stop in the
middle of nowhere to relieve yourself.”
Easing off the accelerator, he balled the Whirly Burger bag, rolled down the window
and then flung it into the bushes where a timbered sign leaned out from the trees:
‘Steeple Creek Welcomes You! Population 113’… and spray-painted at the bottom of the
sign within what seemed like a row of teeth read the words ‘…but watch for beasts!!’ Jeb
squeezed the receiver. “I’ll have you know that I am not in the middle of nowhere. I’m
knocking on the door of a town called Steeple Creek and Sarg, I hear that the gals out in
these mountains are something to see…”
(Pop) “Car 2-2-0-4… this is Car 5-1-1-7… Did you say you were near Steeple Creek??”
Jeb sipped the last of his cola and then chucked the cup out the window. “Huey, is
that you?? I didn’t know you were working tonight… How in the heck are ya??”
“I’m just fine, Jeb… (pop) but you won’t be if you don’t get out of there… and soon!”
Jeb steered beneath a low hanging branch. “Or what? Do you think I’m afraid of
these overalls-wearing, hicks? I’ve got a rifle, too… as a matter of fact, I’ve got two! And
anyways, I’m the law around these mountains and what I say goes. And I say: ‘I ain’t
going nowhere till I take my whiz’… over.”
“Jeb!” the sergeant said. “After your shift, we’re going to have a long chat about
radio etiquette!”
(Pop) “Sarg, Jeb won’t even make it back to headquarters unless he turns around
right now… I’ve heard things about the people around that mill town. They say people
move there but they never leave because… because of the beast!”
(Pop) “Officer Huey, I’m shocked at your lack of professionalism— ghost stories over
the radio?? I’d expect this from Jeb, but not from you! Looks like I’ll have to discuss radio
etiquette with you, too… now click off this channel!”
“But sir, it’s not a story… the beast is real!!”
“Now, officer!!”
(Pop… pop…click…)
“Now Jeb, either you come back to headquarters to relieve yourself here,” the
sergeant said. “Or there’s going to be a ‘beast’ waiting for you here at the station!”
“I can’t hold it for 45 miles. Don’t worry, Sarg… there’s no one out here…”
He shifted the gear into park and seized a high-powered flashlight from the glove
compartment. He opened the door and stepped out, shined the light into the trees
crowded all around and then into the canopy of branches and leaves dangling above. A
warm breeze suddenly breathed through the forested passage stirring the fog. He then
aimed the light up the road watching the blacktop slither out of the darkness like a long
black tongue as if the forest itself held its jaws wide.
Jeb crept to an oak tree just off the road to relieve himself but as he stepped near
the roots something streaked through the bushes and then he stumbled backward onto
the pavement dropping the flashlight. He sat up, froze and—with only his peeled eyes—
followed the movement in the bush until a hare sprang out across the road and dove into
shrubbery on the opposite side.
Fixing his pants, he clambered onto his feet, snatched the flashlight, aimed it all
around. “Couldn’t imagine who’d even live in this hole…”
The trees suddenly began to sway and he scampered back inside the car, slammed
the door. He then stirred about in his seat, glancing through the front and back windows,
seeing nothing but tree limbs bobbing just outside the glass… and in that moment, he
realized the road was much too narrow to turn the car around. “I’d end up in a freakin’
ditch…”
He sighed, squinted up the road. “Maybe there’s a roundabout or something ahead…”
He shifted the car into drive and maneuvered it through the tunnel of swaying
branches and bushes and—after a few moments—saw another sign just off the road: ‘Mill
Ahead…’
Realizing the fog was thickening just beyond, he threw the car into reverse and
mashed the gas. The engine howled as he peered over the backseat steering back
through the tunnel of trees.
(Pop) “Car 2-2-0-4, what’s your status?”
He backed the car through the trees but the forest road behind him seemed like it
would never end.
“Come on…” he said searching the rearview mirror. “Where’s that highway??”
“Car 2-2-0-4, what’s your status?”
“Car 2-2-0-4, what’s your sta—??”
He snatched the receiver. “Will ya give me a second?? I’m trying to—”
Suddenly, he mashed the brake… URRRRRRT!
The car jolted to a halt, and Jeb tussled back and forth in the seat. For a moment
thereafter, he sat, head pressed to the steering wheel, chest expanding and collapsing,
but once he’d calmed, he peered through the side view mirror and saw—just behind the
rear tire—a bulky mound of fur sprawled across the middle of the road.
“What the..?” he murmured. “I just drove down this road…”
“Jeb,” the sergeant said. “What was all that? What the heck’s gotten into you??”
“Sarg, there’s a dead deer lying out in the middle of the road blocking me… over.”
“You’re just all surprises tonight.”
He shifted the car to park, clutched the flashlight, threw open the door. Outside, he
shined the light on the heap of fur and then panned the surrounding trees, listening to
the rustle of branches and leaves dangling above. He then aimed the light back at the
animal holding it steady as he crept forward. Only a few steps away, he saw how one of
the long sturdy antlers protruded out from the furry head in perfect condition but how the
other antler however was nowhere to be seen. He crept closer. The deer’s eyes were
wide and glassy as if someone—or something—had scared it to death.
The buck was indeed bulky, but Jeb was sure he could drag it out of the road as he
had so many on his stretches of interstate throughout the mountains. But as he circled
around the opposite side, his eyes flew open.
“What… in…god’s… name??”
He scanned the body with the light. The entire stomach and chest cavities were
hocked clean away as if a giant had taken one large bite out the middle and tossed the
remainder in the road.
Jeb placed the flashlight under his arm, held his breath, grabbed the antler and
began heaving the carcass toward the ditch alongside the road and after a moment, the
deer lay on the edge where it, with one final tug, would be pulled off the road into the
ditch. Jeb stepped down into the soggy leaves and heaved and as the deer slid, he
stumbled on a root and plummeted backward into the bushes.
“Dag-nabbit!!”
He rolled onto all fours and then crawled out of the bush to the edge of the
pavement where his face met two booted feet. He turned his eyes upward. Someone
shrouded in a hood and cloak towered above him wearing a long, narrow casing affixed
to the hip. The dark figure extended its hand. Jeb peered at the casing and after a
moment, glanced up at the figure whose eyes were veiled beneath the hood… but on its
lips however, Jeb saw a thin grin beginning to grow.
Jeb snatched his nightstick. “Now, you just back up stranger—I don’t need no help!
Go on, I said… get!!”
The stranger glanced back at the patrol car and backed toward it while Jeb climbed
to his feet and shined his flashlight. “Now answer me straight: What are you doing out
here this time of night?? I bet you dragged that carcass out here in the road, didn’t you??”
The stranger’s mouth opened. “Be on your way, sir, or—”
“Or else what??” Jeb said, poking him with the nightstick.
The wind picked up and the branches and limbs above began to tussle, and in the
distance… a groaning echoed.
“Answer me straight, son: Or else what??”
Cloak fluttering and flapping, the stranger turned his head upward toward the canopy
trembling above.
“What?” Jeb said smiling. “You scared of a little wind? Boy, you hicks are
superstitious bastards…”
The stranger came face to face with Jeb as if he was looking into Jeb’s eyes through
the hood.
“Go ahead,” Jeb said raising the nightstick to his face. “I dare ya…”
Stock-still, the stranger stood there and after a moment, shook his head, turned and
began walking down the center of the road toward the fog.
Jeb forced a laugh. “I was only kidding, man…” he said. But the stranger kept pace,
silhouette fading into the fog.
“Hey, wait!” He jogged to the edge of the fog clouds but no longer heard the
stranger’s footsteps. “I was only kiddin’…”
He sighed and then turned around to a man standing right behind him wearing red
overalls.
Jeb hopped backward. “Gees man, you scared me… you a friend of his?”
The man didn’t answer. He merely gazed at Jeb’s blood-riddled wrist and after a
moment, took it into his hands, rotating the cuts and scrapes.
Jeb glared at the wounds, shook his head. “Damn it… must have done it in that
stupid ditch.” he said focused on the depth of the scrapes as though the pale hands
examining his wrist belonged to that of a doctor. And then, as he watched his wrist rise
toward the man’s face, he noticed the man’s now outstretched jaw, mouth crammed with
rows of spiny teeth:
“Ahhh!!”
He turned to snatch away but teeth were already sinking into his wrist.
“AHHHH!”
Jeb struck the man in the face with the nightstick but the man did not release him…
therefore, he snatched his pistol.
Pooow!!!
The man staggered backward and fell to the pavement, lying still with a hole in his
chest.
Jeb grit his teeth as he sank to one knee, clutching his bleeding wrist. But suddenly,
in the center of the road, he saw the silhouette of three men emerging from the fog.
Hearing a sound of crunching leaves, he snapped his eyes left and there, two others
rustled out of the bushes, and to the right, the silhouette of a crowd immerged.
Jeb snatched his pistol and began firing all around:
Pooow!
Pooow!
Pooow… pooow… pooow!!!
“You stupid hicks, why don’t you die..?”
The man lying next to him in red overalls opened his eyes and tried to wrestle the
gun away and just then, another came and bit him on the arm.
“Ahhh!!”
But suddenly, a deep grumble thundered from the woods, and each of the
surrounding beings froze. Low and deep, the grumble boomed once more but this time
the pavement trembled, the trees began to sway and after staring all around, the horde
scattered, scampering into the trees away from the road.
Jeb clambered onto his feet and meandered away from the fog holding his bloody
arms, scanning the trees trembling all around, but after a moment, he stopped and
realized something was missing…
The patrol car… it was no longer on the road… no longer in plain sight… it was
gone… yet somehow, he could still hear the scrambling static of the transmitter…
“…2-2-0-4!! 2-2-0-4!! Come in, 2-2-0-4!!”
“Jeb, get out of there!!”
Suddenly, his patrol car crashed down on the pavement just behind him from a large
hole in branches above.
GGGGRRRRR!!!
The wind of the sound blew Jeb backward. He spun and ran for it— limping,
sputtering up the road. “Somebody, help me! Please, somebody… help me!! Ahhh!!”
And suddenly, his feet no longer felt the pavement… he was air born… sucked
upward into the branches above.