| |
Stacie’s monstrous albatross drew closer and closer. She laughed when she realized how funny it was when she realized that she was literally ‘petrified’ with fear.
Then she saw it. A powerful beam of light was directed at its face, which immediately immobilized its movements.
She heard Jack call out to her from the trees. “Stacie! Come on. He’s not moving. Let’s go!”
She looked around, unsure of where he might be. Jack yelled out. “Over here. Run towards the light.” He flashed the light a few times, a few quick times.
She saw the direction from where it had come and made her way over to where Jack was positioned. She was relieved he was ok. “You ok, now? You got tossed you pretty hard back there.” She asked.
“Yeah, luckily for me, some of the low-lying branches cushioned the force of the impact. Do you know it was Cole that grabbed and tossed me?!”
“That bastard. I wasn’t sure how badly you had been knocked out.”
“Luckily, I came out of it, just in time to see old Stone Boy moving towards you. Jack tapped Stacie’s shoulder and pointed to Cole’s belongings lying by the shrubbery. “I saw Cole’s backpack and this light sticking out of it. I knew I had only seconds to use it.”
Stacie let out a sigh of relief. “Well, it worked.” She squeezed his arm, “You sure you’re ok?”
Jack continued projecting the light on the Creature’s face as it remained immobilized.
“I’m fine. I just don’t understand why Cole would do that to me! One day someone’s going to point out he can’t go around doing shit like that to people.”
“Oh, I think he’s gotten the point on that.”
“You mean...?”
“Yeah, Stone Boy, the Creature turned him into a shish-kabob...ironically with his own arrows.”
“Ahh, I see now what you meant by him getting the point.” Stacie noticed the Creature was beginning to exhibit signs of reawakening.
“I’d love to lament the account of Cole getting his just rewards, but we really don’t have time for that. We-“
Jack interrupted. “I know, I know. We have to keep moving. But... which direction?”
Stacie noticed the light was beginning to lose its effect on their prisoner. They had very little time left before it would resume its pursuit of them. She turned to pick a direction for them to start running. “How about we go that way?”
Jack chuckled. “You don’t have to twist my arms.”
“Uh, let’s not talk about twisting arms, shall we?” Jack nodded in agreement.
“Gotcha!”
He displayed Savoir-Vivre and graciously pointed the way.
“Shall we?” Jack then attached the light to his belt as they ran off. As they were running, Stacie turned to Jack.
“We have to be careful. I remember overhearing Curtiss tell Eric not to wander out too far as there were cliffs to the east.” She suddenly stopped and stuck her arm out to impede Jack’s movements. She got up close to him.
“You know what?”
“What?” Jack asked.
“I think maybe we’re headed east.”
A nervous smile flashed across his face. “Something tells me you know something I don’t.”
“Maybe? Especially if I’m right about what I think it is.” She reached over and removed the light from Jack’s belt, then shined it about ten feet in front of them. They saw the ground ahead, but it suddenly dropped and disappeared into darkness.
Jack’s eyes opened wide. “Holy shit! Another ten feet, and we might have fallen to our deaths. What do we do now?”
Stacie was not to be deterred.
“We haven’t a choice. We must go back the way we came.”
Jack was not enthused with the prospects of that scenario. “But, Stone Boy’s that way.” He reminded her. “We still don’t have a choice.” Jack pondered for a few seconds. “Maybe he’s still partially immobilized?”
They heard thrashing, and it was getting closer. “No such luck.” She exclaimed.
Jack looked around and saw a good size tree. He ran up to it and started to climb. Stacie was dumbfounded. “What are you doing?”
Jack stopped and jumped back down. “Definitely climbable.” He said.
Stacie shook her head skeptically, “If we climb it - we’re stuck.”
Jack shook his head. “We won’t be stuck. I’ll be stuck.”
Stacie was confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I propose to climb this tree to distract our persistent friend long enough for you to get away.”
She immediately dismissed his plan. “No! Absolutely not! Strength in numbers, remember?”
There were several large rocks scattered about. Jack picked up one of the smaller ones and slipped it into his vest pocket. Although it was cumbersome, he determined he could still climb with it.
“We’ll have to come up with another plan.” She said.
Jack disregarded her words and began to climb the tree. He patted the light that was clipped to his belt. “It’ll be fine. When Stone Boy gets here, I’ll shine the light on his face and immobilize however many times as necessary for you to get as far away as needed.”
Stacie was as skeptical as she had been before. She told Jack she was not convinced his plan would work.
“Come on; you know it makes sense. Now, you just get ready to run.” Jack removed the rock and started hitting the trunk and a branch. He yelled out. “All right, you son of a bitch! Come and get me!”
He looked down at Stacie, who was adamant about leaving him alone to face the monstrous demon.
Stacie, go! You’re the only person who’s capable of getting help! Not just for me but for anyone else that might still be alive. Please!”
She refused to go. “No! I’m not leaving you behind!”
Jack decided to rationalize the situation with her. “Stacie, doesn’t logic say you can use this situation to your advantage?” His comment piqued her interest.
“What does that mean?” She asked.
“It means you’re going to need time to get away. I’m giving you that time.” Jack begged Stacie. “You need to survive to get help!”
“But...”
He cut her off words. “No buts! It’s ‘your’ only chance!... It’s ‘our’ only chance.”
Stacie realized his logic was sound. “Damn! You had to use logic on me!” She took in a deep breath and looked up at him. “All right, I’m going, but I’ll be back with help!”
Jack smiled confidently.
“I’m counting on it. Get ready to circle past him as he approaches, but remember, quietly.” Jack continued to strike at the branches to ensure the Creature would come for him.
As he did, he saw she had gone past it without giving away her position.
“Hey, You - you dim-witted slab of stone! I’m here. Come get me!”
Stacie began to run as fast as she could. Jack cried out, “Remember - keep as quiet as you can. I’ll do my best to make sure he hears me.”
Jack continued to beat the branches as Stacie ran as quietly as she could. “Come on, Mr. Stone Man! It’s me, Jack San Miguel! Come get me! Jack felt a firm thud hit the tree.
He looked down and saw Carl.
“There you are, you big dummy.” Jack removed the light from his belt. “Get ready for ‘lights out’ time.” He began to position the light on its monstrous face. “Get ready to....” His words were cut short by the destructive force brought on by an even more powerful strike. So powerful, it dislodged the light from Jack’s hand. “Oh, shit!” He yelled out. He looked down. Fortunately, it had landed on the branch next to his foot which miraculously kept it from falling. He slowly lowered his arm and cautiously tried to snare it, but another strike to the tree caused it to slip from his grip. “Noooo!” He cried. He watched in horror as it bounced through several branches and descended to the ground.
Jack let out a huge gulp as he saw the light hit the behemoth’s head just before it landed on the ground.
It looked up at Jack. He swore it smiled at him just before raising its foot to smash it.
The Creature continued to look up at Jack who swore it smiled again. Then, a horrible thought entered Jack’s mind.
“Oh, please don’t be able to climb. Please, please, please don’t be able to climb, you big chunk of walking granite!”
But that’s precisely what the goliath was about to attempt- to climb the tree. It stood at the base of the trunk, reached out, and grabbed hold of a branch. But as it pulled down on it, its massive weight caused the limb to break off. Frustrated, it tried to climb using another branch, but with the same results.
Jack laughed loudly. “What’s the matter? Don’t feel like climbing today? Too bad, I would have loved to hang around with you.”
Jack began to rationalize the situation. “All right, Jack boy. Old Stone Boy can’t climb, so all I gotta do is keep him occupied long enough for Stacie to return with help.”
The Beast intensified its pounding on the tree, trying to get Jack to fall, but with no luck as he continued to hold on for dear life.
“Jack, boy. You’re all right. He can do that all night. He’s not going to dislodge me from up here. No sir.” He looked beyond where Stacie had run. He wanted to be assured that she was ok. He decided to send her a message.
“If you can hear me out there, I’m ok. I won’t be leaving this tree, so don’t look back! Keep going!”
The Creature continued to pound away at the trunk until a piece sheared off. It looked upwards and started to pound away at that particular spot. Several more pieces of the tree were dislodged.
“Uh, oh! Stone Boy’s smarter than I thought.” Jack said out loud. He pulled the rock from his vest and threw it as hard as he could at his head. It struck dead center and by the monster’s reaction, told Jack it was none too pleased. It picked up the rock from the ground and threw it back at Jack.
“Man, do you have a bad temper.” He yelled back.
The Creature continued to pound away at the tree until it started to lean to one side.
“Oh, Shit! I’m going down.” Jack exclaimed. He looked at where the tree would fall. “Double shit! Right over the side of the cliff!”
The Monstrous entity continued its barrage on the tree until it started to break and fall.
Jack laughed as he went over the edge with the upper branches of the tree. All he could do to release his fear was to yell out, “Look out below!”
The lower part of the tree trunk hit the ground with the upper part, and the branch Jack was holding onto, hanging high above the ravine below.
“All right, Jack boy. You just need to wiggle your way back to the side of the cliff.” He began to move slowly, methodically, until he saw it - the Stone Man was waiting at the cliff’s edge. Jack swore the behemoth was urging him to come to him.
“How does that old saying go? Out of the fire and into the frying pan.” The branch began to snap. “Gotta get closer to the trunk, Jack boy. Gotta get-”
He heard the cracking of the branch until it snapped. As it fell, it swung towards the cliff wall, Jack along with it, then over the side and into the darkness below.
The Stone Man looked down, turned, and picked up the rest of the tree. It tossed it over the edge, and it crashed below. It saw nothing of Jack. Convinced he was eliminated, it turned and walked away to continue its pursuit of Stacie.