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Miriam scrambled up a log that had fallen to form a ramp. Eager to gain ground, she stopped at the highest point and listened. Somewhere ahead of them, she heard the most amazing sounds, guttural and rumbling, with a mix of high-pitched clicks, almost as if it had all been mixed together in a sound studio.
“Do you hear that?” she asked Kim.
Kim nodded.
Miriam dug through her backpack until she found her cell phone. She hit the record button on her audio app in plenty of time to catch a significant sample of the calls. These would be invaluable in her report.
Then—a loud pop. A gunshot.
“No,” Kim whispered, bringing her hand up to her mouth. Her face had gone pale, her eyes moist. Her hand visibly trembled.
Seeing Kim’s reaction, brief panic for Macy’s safety blurred through Miriam’s head, but she quickly dismissed the concern once she ascertained the direction of the commotion. Macy sat safely in the parking lot, which stood in the complete opposite direction. No, Macy was fine; just derelict in her duties as the operations specialist. Still, the gunshot might have frightened her. Miriam made a mental note to check in as soon as she got the chance.
Miriam rushed back down to ground level and squeezed Kim’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. One shot isn’t going to kill that thing.”
As if to confirm her point, the sounds of the devil echoed again through the trees.
“See.”
Miriam was less concerned about the safety of the devil and more interested in who held the gun. They hadn’t seen another soul since they’d arrived. Odds were that whoever fired that shot was just a random hiker, spooked by a giant monster. That meant an eyewitness, and a trail to follow.
She took off without even a thought to whether Kim would follow, but of course she did. Pretty quickly, actually, and a little less reticent than before. The distance between them and the vocalizations proved to be further than Miriam expected, but it didn’t surprise her. A creature that big could certainly project its voice great distances, and gunshots tended to be much the same.
For the first time on the expedition, it was Miriam who led the charge with Kim trailing behind. Though considerably less adept at pushing through the foliage, Miriam couldn’t afford to trade positions. She moved on the memory of a sound, and her mind wouldn’t be able to hold the information forever. She worried that every time she cut around a tree, she’d lost her vector on their destination.
Of course, the bigger problem with the greater distance was that they would have no way to know they’d arrived. If the shooter or the devil weren’t still there, then Miriam would have to rely on other evidence to stop her track. And she couldn’t be sure what she’d even look for. Not everywhere was as muddy as the trap, so footprints weren’t guaranteed. If the shooter had missed, there wouldn’t be blood. If they’d been a random hiker, they’d surely have run away. Unless...
She pushed the grislier possibilities out of her head and focused on staying alert, her perception on overdrive.
After a while, her ears slowed her down at the possibility of a sound. When she confirmed it, she stopped entirely. It was faint, but unmistakable. Almost the same sound they’d heard the night before, from the mewing otter that had lost its life to the devil. She re-vectored towards the sound and soon stopped at a small growth of underbrush.
Kneeling, she quickly saw the source of the sounds. Laying on its side, she saw another otter, similar to the one they’d seen earlier. This one was injured, a jagged cut across its abdomen. Blood oozed from the wound, but it hadn’t been gutted.
Kim appeared beside Miriam in an instant, a soft coo in her voice as she suggested saving the animal. Maybe, but Miriam didn’t like the odds. Neither of them were veterinarians.
Nonetheless, she felt enough empathy to help Kim fish the otter out for a more thorough examination. The injuries were bad enough that the creature didn’t protest or fight them off. Certainly not a good sign. The cut didn’t look particularly deep, but it was long, almost the full length of the otter’s body.
Kim fished a handkerchief out of her pack. Why she had that, Miriam had no idea, but it worked well as a bandage to staunch the bleeding. The white cloth didn’t turn red immediately, which Miriam took as a good sign. Extensive blood loss would surely spell doom for this little thing.
“You stay here,” Miriam said. “Take care of him... her... it. I’m going to look around.”
Kim nodded and offered a half-smile.
Miriam moved away, looking for the direction the otter was likeliest to have come from. Maybe this had something to do with the devil, or maybe it didn’t, but she knew from the previous night that the devil ate otters, so it stood to reason that this might have been a meal that got away.
Careful examination uncovered the trail of blood left behind, which she followed to a small clearing. Her breath caught in her chest when she looked over the scene. A lot more blood littered the leaves of the ground. Two rifles and two backpacks were scattered nearby. She had no way to be sure, but the amount of blood either meant the devil had been grievously wounded, or a human had. Given the odds, she’d bet on the human. Few people would be prepared to fight something like this monster.
She surveyed the scene again, looking for clues other than the blood, and noticed a hole in the ground, relatively wide. Clearly a den of some sort. She peered inside and saw nothing moving. Best guess was that the wounded otter lived here, and the devil had come to fish it out. And...
Some campers happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? A closer inspection of the nearby packs suggested they weren’t campers, though. The rifles were intended to kill big game. The tightly bound packs were built to survive any encounter. These backpacks weren’t those of day hikers. These people, whoever they were, had meant business. They came to kill.
And there could only be one thing someone would come out here to kill.
They weren’t alone.
Though, maybe that problem had taken care of itself. The blood and the gear left behind hinted that maybe they hadn’t survived their encounter with the devil.
Miriam’s heart pounded as she heard a noise behind her. She spun to see Kim break into the clearing, cradling the injured otter in her arms. When she looked up, her eyes went wide.
“Is this the place?” she asked.
Miriam nodded. “Looks like it. I’m not sure the shooters survived the encounter.”
Kim’s chest exhaled. Weird thing to be relieved about, but clearly Kim loved animals more than people.
“So, what now?” Kim said, with a glance at the dying animal in her arms.
Miriam considered the question. Her preference would have been to follow the trail. The devil had left a lot of smashed shrubbery in its wake, and she felt confident that she could follow. Now, though, they had an injured otter, as well as new information that implied the devil might be more dangerous than they first believed.
“Back to camp. It’s gonna get dark soon. We need to check in with Macy,” Miriam said, her heart falling as she admitted defeat for the day. “I’m not quite sure what to do with all this gear.”
“We’ve already got our stuff. It’d slow us down to carry this, too.”
“True. But maybe the rifles. We didn’t bring anything with this much firepower, and it might protect us if things go south.”
“Those rifles are meant to kill it, aren’t they?” Kim asked, not really seeming to want an answer. “That’s not what we’re here for. We don’t need them.”
Miriam looked longingly at one of the rifles. “I know, but...”
Kim’s nostrils flared. “Look. I was hired to guide you through these woods. To help you find it and prove its existence. I wasn’t hired to help you kill it, and that’s not what the University wants.”
Miriam’s gaze drifted up to Kim’s. Damn that passion and conviction. Miriam recognized it. Respected it. But, unlike Kim, Miriam had never been a dreamer, never had that luxury. She had to look at things realistically, for both her safety and Kim’s. Still, she could see that pressing the issue would cause a rift between them that Miriam wouldn’t be able to mend.
Without a word, she took off towards camp, leaving the gear and guns behind. If Kim reveled in her win, she showed no signs.
On the way, Miriam dug the radio out of her backpack. It seemed as good a time as any to catch up with Macy and fill her in on the many developments. She pressed the button, “Hey, Macy. Miriam here. Checking in. Lots to report. Over.”
No answer. Miriam turned the radio over in her hand, checked the dials and the battery and cycled the power, ensuring that the small indicator light flashed when she did. Everything seemed to be in order.
“Macy. Are you there? It’s been a while. Starting to get worried. Over.”
Still no answer.
“Maybe something in the van broke,” Kim offered.
“Maybe.”
They moved on in silence, Miriam keeping the radio in her hand just in case Macy checked in. Miriam’s mind felt jumbled and confused. The variables only kept increasing, when she’d hoped the equation would have moved towards a solution. She had more to worry about now than before.
Was the devil deadly?
Could they save this otter?
Was Macy okay?
Miriam started to entertain a possibility that she could barely stomach.
Her first high-profile expedition was proving to be far more difficult than she’d imagined.
