Forest of Savages - Rookie Burwick (books to read as a couple TXT) 📗

been the quietest of the bunch. Anything that popped out of his mouth was always necessary. He never wasted words.

 

“Alright, I’ve got camping supplies in the back. I brought rifles, as you guys did. I also have some medical stuff in case of. . .”

 

“An animal attack,” Alan interrupted.

 

“No, just any kind of scrape or bruise. Now, Alan, you’ll carry the tents and sleeping bags. Danny,” Nick waited until his best hunting buddy turned to him before he spoke again. “You can carry the cans of soup, and five of the rifles. I’ll carry the other six.”

 

Danny smiled, and nodded. Alan, on the other hand, scowled.

 

“How come he gets the easy job?” Alan asked.

 

Nick shrugged. “No reason. The tents and sleeping bags are the easiest there is.”

 

The truth was, he did have a reason. Between his two friends, Danny was the strongest in all ways. He could easily carry the heavy things without complaint. Nick didn’t want to listen to Alan’s moaning and whining all day.

 

Nick helped Danny and Alan grab the fully-loaded rifles from the back of the van. They were all good Remington Model 7600 rifles, which made Nick relieved.

 

Next, Alan grabbed up the tents and sleeping bags from the back of Nick’s truck. Denny grabbed the backpack and the other rifles. Each man also carried a pistol in a holster on their hip. Each weapon was fully loaded, and ready for action. Denny slung two rifles on his left shoulder, and three onto his right. The backpack straps were right against his neck.

 

Nick slung three rifles on each of his shoulders. That many rifles were going to make it all that harder to walk, but he had managed before.

 

“Now, the sheriff gave me a radio to communicate if we find anything critical, or find what we’re looking for.”

 

“I doubt we’ll find anything,” Danny grumbled.

 

“Who knows? Let’s all at least try.”

 

Nick turned his back to the others, and pulled out the radio. Pushing the button along the side, he spoke.

 

“Come in, this is Nick Gluteere, come in,” he said, then waited.

 

Seconds later, a voice responded. “This is Sheriff Prine. Report.”

 

“We’re beginning the hunt.”

 

“Excellent. Be careful. Please do call in if you need help.”

 

Nick found himself gulping.

 

“Right. Over and out.”

 

Nick let go of the button, and slid it back into his pocket. What if they did find this predator? What if it really was deadly? The thought sent a long shiver down his spine. He twitched a couple times from it, then calmed himself. It was time.

 

He turned to the men whose eyes and focus were both on him.

 

“Alright, do you have everything together?”

 

“Yep,” Alan said.

 

Danny only nodded.

 

“Good. Now let’s go.”

 

The men said nothing further. No idea what to expect, no indication of what danger might await them, the group trudged into the forest.

 

***

 

The hike through the forest wasn’t hard at all. They had gotten into some thick brush in some places, but other than that, they were doing good. The next big challenge would be hiking up the cliff. In the dead center of the forest, the land suddenly came to a slight end, and dropped off in a slope. A path wound around the slope, and soon lead straight down into a small clearing whose edges were topped with pine trees in all directions. From then on, it was thick forest.

They were upon that slope now. No one had spoken since they had begun. Nick took the lead, and kept his eyes glued to the forest around them, and to any muddy spot they passed. He prayed a track would appear. No luck had come their way, yet.

They trudged onto the path, and began rounding the first bend. It wasn’t as much steep as it was just thin. The slope itself wasn’t very steep at all, but the path was narrow. Neither of them looked down. Their eyes were either ahead, or on the ground.

As they neared the down-drop of the path, a small, old cabin came into view. It had been beat up pretty good through weather. Its roof was crack-filled and rotting. The wood that made up the four walls was also rotted. Nick stopped, and stared at it for a second.

“Hey look at that!” Nick called back, pointing to the cabin.

Danny and Alan hurried to his side, and followed his outstretched arm with their eyes.

“Man, that’s one old rest stop,” Danny said.

“Yeah, no kidding man,” Alan chuckled.

“We’ll make that our break point. We’ve been walking for at least two hours.” Alan and Danny said nothing, but kept on going. He followed closely, now bringing up the rear. He couldn’t help but glance back behind him every so often. The feeling of being watched was beginning to hint here and there in his mixture of tired emotions.

The hike downward obviously went much faster. Alan got impatient and sprinted down, nearly losing his footing on the rocks. Danny and Nick were both smarter, and took one step at a time. They rounded another bend in the trail. Now, only a quarter of a mile was left before they would hit the clearing.

The afternoon sun was now beginning to take effect on them all. Sweat made Danny’s shirt stick to his skin. The grey-colored backpack helped, but not enough to sooth the heat. Nick wore a white shirt, so it the heat didn’t get to him much.

But the heat had Alan dropping the gear and hitting his knees when he set foot on the muggy, wet ground of the clearing in the last few minutes of the hike. A shower of rain had poured softly over the forest in the early hours of the morning. The mist leftover, that was now gone, had kept the remnants of the rain fresh.

“Man, that was some walk,” Alan said, exhaust in his voice.

Danny stepped into the clearing next. He took a nice, long whiff of the rain-scented air.

“Save it, Alan,” Danny said. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“Hey, I’m new at this hiking thing. I’ve only been working for Nick for three months.”

“Oh please.”

Nick was last to hit the clearing.

“Alan, seriously, get the camping stuff out of the mud,” Nick said as calmly as possible. “Take a break here for a few. We’ll continue on when you guys feel like it.”

“Okay, sounds fantastic,” Alan snapped back to normal energy, but his expression still reeked of disappointment.

“What’s your problem?” Nick raised an eyebrow.

Alan shrugged.

“I guess I expected to find something useful by now.”

Danny, without a word, turned and trudged slowly toward the center of the clearing.

Alan jumped to his feet and brushed the mud from his jeans. Waiting until after Alan had collected the tents and sleeping bags again, Nick and the lazy hippie followed Danny. Nick kept his eyes glued to the forest off to his right, walking slowly. There wasn’t any movement that he could see. Fear had slowed him the entire hike. It was fear that he’d never make it alive out of this hunt. He’d never been on such a dangerous mission before.

Suddenly, he bumped into Alan, who stood staring down at the ground. Danny stood next to him, the look frozen on his face on of pure terror.

Nick moved around both men, and took a look for himself. His eyes widened.

“What the frag is that, man?” Alan asked.

“I. . .I don’t know. . .” Nick blurted out.

All eyes rested on the large footprint. It looked exactly like a man’s, but much bigger. Another thing that made it so spine-chilling was the fact that it wasn’t just a single track. There was a set of the footprints, leading up a small ledge that rose into thick, never-ending forest.

“Those are awfully big for a human track,” Danny spoke. “What’s weird is, whoever made these was barefoot.”

“It’s probably just a prank,” Nick replied.

“I don’t know, Nick. If it is just a prank, whoevers behind it has some dang big feet. I just don’t think these are human.”

“Then what the hell could it be? There’s nothing else with a footprint like that!” Alan’s tone grew dark.

Danny shifted into a helpless mode. “What I’m saying is, these are fakes. They weren’t made by anything but plastic.”

“So, you think these were made by some Bigfoot nerd?”

“That could. . .” Nick began to say, but a noise interrupted him.

Something large was growling down at them from up the slope behind them.

 

***

 

Alan spun around toward the noise. He aimed his gun carefully at the ledge, and calmed himself the best he could. Slow, deep breath after breath he took until he at a normal pace inside. He was now ready for anything. The growl had gone silent, and so had the forest. Whatever was out there was waiting for the right opportunity to come along.

 

Nick and Danny aimed their guns to the South and West. Alan figured he was the closest to the thing with the barrels of his rifle. They all silenced themselves, and waited. The eerie silence that followed nearly killed Nick with impatient eagerness.

 

Sweat trickled down Alan’s face like drops of rain. Was the thing moving around out there the creature they had been hired to hunt? He wished the thing would show itself. It was obviously large enough to be a target of their wanting.

 

He took in a deep breath, and held it.

 

Snap.

 

Alan’s muscles tensed. He tightened his grip on his rifle, and looked up from the scope. The thing in the trees went silent.

 

“Do you think it’s gone?” he heard Danny whisper.

 

“Shut up,” Nick whispered back.

 

Then, they all realized it was still there.

 

Crack. A branch broke, somewhere close to the ledge. . .

 

“That’s pretty weird,” Danny said quietly, and suddenly.

 

“Most predators, like bears, wolves, an cats, you know, they sleep a lot during the day. . .”

 

“Shut up, Danny!” Nick replied in a stern whisper.

 

Danny silenced himself.

 

Another snap of a twig.

 

Nick glanced left and right. Every inch of the forest that he could lay eyes on, he did. But the beast in hiding wasn’t going to make this easy.

 

“Dang it, why doesn’t it show itself?” he whispered.

 

No one could say a word in reply before the creature emerged from the trees, tearing through a group of thick brush as it passed. All eyes widened with terror when they saw it.

The creature stopped at the edge and stared down at him with its small eyes that were too far away for him to see.

 

The creature, monster, Bigfoot, whatever it was, looked like a half man, half monster mutation. It was covered from head to toe in hair except for its chest, which was nothing but oily skin down into until its abdomen. The rest of its body was nothing but matted black hair. Hair dangled down into its face, and covered its head. Its legs were long and slender. Its yellow teeth glimmered in the early afternoon sun as it snarled at him.

 

“Holy frag!” Danny cried. “What is that thing?”

 

“I don’t know, just shut up and shoot!” Alan called back.

 

Six shots rang out, four from Danny’s rifle, and two from Alan’s. The creature dodged each of the bullets.

 

Nick’s throat was glued shut in utter shock. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. Nick couldn’t even move. His face was as white as a ghost.

 

Alan didn’t waste much time. Two more loud shots rang out as he finally banged two red hot bullets into the creature’s lower chest. The beast howled in pain, then jumped to the ground from the top of the ledge. He backed up a step as he watched the creature’s quick movements.

 

The second it hit the ground, it broke into a full run, headed straight for him.

 

“Look out!” Danny cried.

 

He tried to back out of its way, but the creature still managed to charge toward him. It lifted its man-like hand, and sliced into the brim of his shoulder as it ran by. The blow knocked Alan to the ground. The soft mud felt good on his wound.

 

“Dear god! Alan, are you alright?” Nick asked in a shout.

 

The wound prevented him from speaking clearly, so he nodded. He