Chapter 6

They drifted in and out of sleep, jerking awake when they did nod off. It seemed the night took a week to pass, but the eastern sky turned to a gray light and there was a red glow behind the mountain peaks. They could see the rock they were on and they could see the trees on the mountainside across the deep valley.

Jerry knew that with light, the animal up there could see too if, in fact, it had stayed the night, waiting for them to make a mistake. The stench was gone and the morning breeze was blowing up the mountainside this morning as the light began to cover the deepest parts of the valley. There was a mist between this peak and the one nearest to the east. It was like a cloud, but maybe it was just light fog.

“Jerry, can I straighten my legs? They’re cramping so bad and I have no circulation in my left foot,” Lois whispered.

“Stay close to the face of the bluff. We have a little overhang above us - not much, but it may be enough if something just looks down. If it leans out or tries to climb down, we’ll have to jump or be killed.”

“Jerry, I’m sorry, but I need to pee really bad,” she whispered, trying not to cry as she did.

“Lois, can you just pee right here? If you get up, the animal may still be there and it will see you. We’ll just have to risk the animal smelling our urine. We have no choice.”

“Do you think we need to pee in one of these small pocks in the rock, in case we don’t get out for a day or even two?”

“I can, can you?”

“I think I can. I hope we laugh about this next week, but right now ... I’m so scared.”

“I know, Baby. Just be brave and help me think our way out of this. We made it through the first night, and if we can stay safe and alive, they’ll come looking for us and we’ll be found.”

“What do you think it was up there last night?” She whispered.

They were still afraid something was up there watching and waiting for them to make a move. As long as they were safe, they’d stay here and wait the animal out if they could.

“I’m not sure. The only thing I can think of that would be big enough to break limbs and have claws like that, would be a bear, maybe a really big bear of some kind, not just a black bear, although a black bear can weigh four hundred pounds or more.”

“It’s warming up fast here in the direct sun and it’s not even noon yet. Do you think you need to check things out, or wait a little longer?”

“I wish I had been thinking better, we could have brought a few bottles of water with us last night. I just wasn’t thinking about having to jump like this.”

“Jerry, it was us. Don’t blame yourself. We were both frightened and thought if we could hide, whatever it was, would go away.”

“I know, but it’s still hard to believe I didn’t plan better.”

“We’ll get out of here, I know we will. My husband is a lot smarter than some old animal any day,” she said, and patted his arm as he smiled at her.

“Listen, you hear that?”

“What? I don’t hear anything but the crows.”

“That’s just it ... those crows are right above us on the rocks. They wouldn’t be there if there was a bear or whatever nearby.”

“You’re right. I’m so glad you were a Boy Scout.”

“If we ever get off this mountain, we’re going to have us at least two little Cub Scouts in a hurry...

“I’m going to take a peek. Stay close to the wall in case we’re wrong.”

Jerry leaned out slowly, head first, peeping up the rock wall as he leaned further and further. He saw the wet rocks where the animal had drooled down over the ledge last night and hoped they could climb back up it. They needed to be out of here and down the mountain before dark.

He leaned out all the way and saw nothing but three crows resting on the rocks. They saw him and flew, making their raucous sounds. Jerry knew if there was an animal or a human watching, they would come now, knowing the crows had been frightened all at once. He could have kicked himself for not tossing a small rock up there to make them fly, instead of scaring them.

“What do you see?” Lois asked.

“Nothing so far. I’m hoping whatever it was doesn’t have enough intelligence to come see what scared the crows off.”

“Surely not. Can you see a way for us to get back up there?”

“I think I can make it up the slope, the only bad part is where the ledge swells out and the drool from the animal still has it slickened.”

“Can I help you up past it or do you want to help me and let me go get the ropes?”

“I’ll go, Lois. If there’s something still out there – I’d die trying to get out to help you, but I’d never make it. You stay here, push against my feet as I climb so I won’t slip back. Once I get over that swelled out place, I’ll be fine.”

“Be careful, Jerry. I love you and I want your baby.”

“You just stay safe, we’re going to have that baby and we’re both going to be there to take him camping too.”

“Not up here! Never again!“

Jerry was over the bad part and was almost tempted to tell Lois to come up. He was afraid she couldn’t make over the worst part, and went on toward the top. Just before he reached the top, there was some sand and some tiny pebbles falling on his face and hands. He just knew something was there and about to swipe him with those claws they heard during the night. He almost laughed aloud when a big lizard scurried across the ledge above him, causing more sand and tiny pebbles to fall.

‘I’ve got to believe. I know it’s not my time to go - or I wouldn’t have made it through the night. I have to believe, I have to be strong for Lois. I have to get her safely off this mountain. I can’t let her die like this up here’

His hand felt the flat surface of the very top ledge and his heart pumped faster as he pulled himself up to look around. He could see the entire bowl of the small valley and the trees across on the other side. He saw their tent and sleeping bags ripped and shredded to pieces, scattered all over the near side of the small lake. There was only one place he couldn’t see and that was to his left. There were big boulders there and he’d have to be out in the open before he could look back to see over there. That was just a chance he’d have to take, he was this far and he was going to get their rope and get Lois up here.

Jerry pulled himself to the top and knelt for a few seconds to get his wind, flexing his aching legs. He took a deep breath and slowly walked out to look back to his left. His heart skipped a beat as he saw movement and he almost ran back to the ledge. He saw two, doe deer run from the shadows of the rocks. He knew they were safe for the time being, the deer wouldn’t have been here if there was danger.

His legs were skinned, aching and stiff, but he ran as hard as he could toward the campsite. There was nothing left in one piece worth carrying back. He gathered up the nylon rope, sliding it through his hands to make sure there weren’t any weak places as he coiled it. He was looking around the camp and saw the deep, slashing claw marks on the ground and the sides of the tent. Chills ran up and down his back as he thought of what may have been out there. This was no bear he’d ever seen or heard of in Tennessee. Taking one more look around, he ran back to the ledge.

“Lois,” he called softly, as if there was a still a need to be quiet.

“Jerry, I was so afraid for you. Hurry and get me out of here so we can get off this mountain.”

“Loop this rope around you under your arms. Tie the knife and hatchet on the loose end of the rope, I’m going to tie it off up here, then help you pull yourself up the slope. When you get past the part where it’s swelled out, the climbing is easier.”

Lois had the rope securely tied around her so that it wouldn’t cut into her, as she climbed. With Jerry pulling her, she was quickly to the top and hugging him as they moved away from the ledge.

When they had walked slowly, far enough to loosen her cramping leg muscles, they hurried past the tattered and shredded tent and bedrolls. They grabbed two plastic bottles of water apiece; this was all they could find that weren’t ripped open on the sides.

“Let’s go, Jerry ... my legs will loosen up more as we walk. We need to be down off this mountain as soon as we can,” she said as they walked as fast as their legs would let them.

The first hour, they had to stop and rest their legs as they walked down the trail. The walking was easy, but their legs were still cramping from lying on the rocks during the night and not moving.

When the sun was directly overhead, they were past the halfway point down the mountain and stopped at a small spring to drink the cool fresh water. They heard noises as they crouched to drink and whirled to see two squirrels scurrying across the pine needles. They looked at one another and managed a quick smile. Lois leaned over and quickly gave him a peck on his lips.

By late afternoon, they were down toward the base of the mountain, but still had at least three hours yet to go, to get back where they’d parked their vehicle at the remote ranger’s station. The sun was behind them and would soon be blocked by the mountain. Dark would come quickly after sundown.

Coop, James, and Don were almost back to Doolin’s house. They were all happy to be back after what they’d seen and been through this morning.

When they came to the spot where the attacks had occurred the first night, James got out and talked to two of his men. The Coroner and the state police had finished their investigation and declared the site open. The two remaining deputies were taking down the police tape and loading their equipment.

“I told my deputies to post up along the county road in pairs and use extreme caution if they heard any sound. We’ll stay close by until we know the creatures have moved out of this area.”

“Do you think they were staying here for the food supply or maybe passing through while scrounging for food?” Coop asked.

“Coop, I’m not sure about anything we’ve found out about them yet. We’ll just assume they’ll be back since there are humans and animals close by.”

“James, let’s stop and check on the others, then if everything is alright there, let’s head over to my place and check it out. Coop and Carol have a game camera over there we need to check on too,” Don said, as they cut back around the campground and hit the old back road to Doolin’s place.

“Yes, I’d like to check that camera out too. If there hasn’t been any activity on it, we need to bring it back over here somewhere, or maybe take it over across that bridge where we left the ATV,” Coop said.

“Coop, I’d say take that one and another one over there, if you have enough to go around,” James agreed.

“I’ll call down to Harker’s tomorrow and see if the new ones have arrived. He said he’d put a ‘next day air’ on them to speed up delivery. We know those creatures go to that little valley, there were at least three there last night.”

“There’s Carol and Dave over there. I see all of them out here now, sitting under the shade letting the little dog run and play with Gina,” Don said, as they drove out of the forest into the open field behind Doolin’s.

When they got out of the patrol car, Gina saw Coop and ran to him with her arms up. He picked her up and tossed her in the air. She was laughing as he caught her and hugged her.

“Do it again, Coop,” she said, and pointing up as she wiggled in his arms.

He kept walking with her, tossing her up and catching her as the little fuzzy dog ran and barked at his feet, wanting to play too.

“Play with your puppy, Gina, and let me talk with the others. We’ll play some more when we get back.”

He walked over to where they were sitting. Donna moved over to put her hand on his arm, then stood beside him as he talked with Carol, Dave, and his granddad.

They’d gotten all the cameras set up at different places, and had loaded the pictures off the two that had pictures on them here in the yard.

“Coop, all of you, come take a look at this,” Carol said, as she turned her laptop on and let it warm up.

She showed them the pictures of more creatures moving about last night. There were more of the smaller ones back inside the trees, but clearly visible.

“There’s smaller ones here, which means offspring,” Dave said.

“Take the card out of this camera and check it if you want to see some wild pictures. Be careful of Gina, there’s a lot of blood and gore in these,” Coop said, as he handed her the camera.

They all stood looking at the screen as Carol reviewed the digital photos. No one spoke as the slide-show played the pictures of the wreckage and the interior and exterior of the truck. They all gasped as they watched the pictures in sequence that Coop had taken in the boat as the young creature burst out of the body bag and looked around, not three feet from the camera lens. They watched as it jumped from the boat and tried in vain to swim.

“That thing is afraid of water! Back that up and watch its reaction when it hits the water. No wonder they smell so bad,” Dave Hartman said, as they replayed that series over and over.

“I believe you’re right, Dave. Look at the shock and the look of fright as it tries to swim, then sinks,” Floyd said, as they watched the stunning events.

“You may not want to look at the rest of them. We went back across the old bridge that leads to the hiking trail up the mountain. Hardly anyone ever goes up there now. You have to park at the remote ranger station and walk close to ten miles up the mountain,” Don told them.

“Dad’s right, I took some pictures of another decapitated head we found. The scene looked like the one back over here in the forest,” Coop told them.

“This then confirms that we have more than one generation of those creatures. How in the world will we ever stop them?” Dave asked.

“Well, we know they can’t swim, we’ll drive them in the water,” Floyd Cooper spoke up.

“Dad, you may have a good point there. I’m not sure how we can do it, but that is one way to thin them out,” Don told him.

“What about fire?” Dave asked.

“You mean are they afraid of fire?” Coop asked.

“Yes, if we can determine they are, and I don’t know an animal that isn’t, we can drive them into the reservoir with fire,” Dave Hartman said

“Dave, that sounds almost farfetched, but under the right circumstances, it might work. If we can just get most of them, we can thin them out, then hopefully pick the rest off. That is, if we can find a gun that will kill them,” Coop said.

“Coop, I wonder if they live in a group, like herd animals? If they do, we could really mop up if we found that place,” Floyd spoke again.

“Granddad, you’ve opened our eyes to some of this. You may well be on to something there. Here we have pictures of grown creatures behind Doolin’s last night, and there’s the smaller ones hanging back in the bushes. We go across the river and find where there were as many as three, at least, and we know one was a smaller one there. We’ll just assume they all do live in a sort of compound. We just need to find that place. I hope these trail cameras will help us do that too,” Coop said.

“Coop?” Donna spoke up for the first time.

“Yes, Donna. I’m sorry ... we were all talking and left you out of the conversation.”

“That’s not a problem. What I wanted to tell you was, when I was in school, I did a paper on Mountain Gorillas and I learned a lot about them. You were talking about the creatures being afraid of water; well, the Mountain Gorillas are too, deathly afraid of water. They’re also afraid of reptiles, any size, any shape.”

“So, we have some similarities, even though these aren’t Mountain Gorillas, they are apelike and we know the one we had in the boat was afraid of water. We need to concentrate on that and check into the reptile and fire ideas.”

“What if we got rubber snakes and put them on the trail near the cameras? I know it’s a wild idea, but it may work,” Carol said.