The Mad and the MacAbre (20 page)

He rose to his feet, careful to place his
tread lightly enough so as not to make the floorboards squeak, and
took the hot dog he had set aside in a plastic baggie from the
counter. Two stealthy steps and he was at the door, knob in hand.
He turned it slowly, soundlessly, and drew the door inward.

Snowflakes swatted him in the face and
something raced toward his feet. It was only one of the Styrofoam
bowls, but that meant—

He whirled to his left. The yellow plastic
ties were still bound to the nail, but the bottom of the trash bag
had been ripped open. Its contents were scattered all over the
ground. Bowls and trash had blown up against the building, while
more garbage tumbled across the accumulation. This would never work
now. He had thought for sure the bag would be strong enough to
withstand the wind. Grabbing the useless tatter of white plastic,
he inspected the bottom, then looked quickly back to the snow.

The wind hadn’t beaten the bag open against
the cabin. Something with sharp claws had torn it open right along
the seam.

There. To his right, at the very edge of the
building, was a fuzzy orange face, eating out of a bowl pinned by a
small paw. Oscar glanced up and Gabriel caught a flash of gold from
his eyes.

Gabriel held perfectly still and the cat
again resumed its meal of crusted oats.

Quietly, he eased out the door into the snow
and removed the hot dog from the Ziploc. He split it in half and
approached Oscar until the cat bristled and turned his attention
from the bowl to the back door.

Gabriel froze. He expected Oscar to dash off
for the safety of the forest at any second, but after a while, the
cat stuffed his face back into his meal.

As slowly as he possibly could, Gabriel
knelt in the accumulation, extended his arm, and held out the
offering of processed meat.

Oscar appeared not to notice at first, but
after a few eternal minutes, he raised his head and turned toward
the smell. His face was scarred over his left eye and across his
nose, and his right ear had been all but torn away. There were
tangles and briars in his thick fur, and Lord only knew what
crawled on his skin beneath. Cautiously, Oscar eased around the
corner of the cabin and started in Gabriel’s direction.

The cold from the snow bit into his legs,
but Gabriel knew if he so much as flinched, the cat would be
gone.

Oscar approached a single step at a time,
pausing and watching him between each, until in a streak of orange,
the cat darted at him and nipped the hot dog out of his grasp. All
Gabriel had felt was fur on his fingertips. Again, Oscar crouched
at the far end of the wall, where he gnawed on his meal from the
side with his back teeth.

Gabriel watched with a growing sense of
disappointment. There was no way he was going to be able to grab
the cat. Oscar had moved so fast he hadn’t even had time to think,
let alone reach down and snatch the cat by the scruff of its
neck.

He retracted his arm slowly, took the other
half of the hot dog from his left hand, and held it out for the cat
again.

Oscar had finished the first portion and now
crouched on his belly, haunches flexed, prepared to pounce. He
watched Gabriel closely for several more minutes before venturing
out from behind the side of the building. Once he was again close
enough, Oscar sprung at Gabriel’s hand and relieved him of the
food. In a blur of orange, Oscar fled in the direction of the woods
and vanished.

Gabriel stared into the darkness beneath the
snow-covered pines for a long time before he finally stood and
headed back into the cabin.

November 15th, 2010

Monday

Gabriel had barely fallen asleep when Cavenaugh’s
alarm woke him. The crushing feeling of dread followed within
seconds. Today would potentially be one of the worst days of his
life, and as much as he hated to begin it, the sooner he did, the
sooner it would be over.

The bed shook as Cavenaugh climbed out, and
Gabriel could hear rustling from the adjacent room as Jess slipped
out from under the covers. After a long moment of hesitation,
Gabriel finally followed suit. He dressed in a fog, adding layer
after layer of clothing until he felt as though he were
smothering.

Cavenaugh passed him and exited the room as
he donned his coat and snowcap.

With a sigh, Gabriel joined the others in
the main room and waited while Jess bundled into her massive coat,
pulled the hood over her head, and cinched the ties tight to hold
it in place.

Cavenaugh left through the back door without
a word.

“
Are you ready to do this?”
Gabriel asked.

Jess looked him squarely in the eyes.

“
No.”

***

Jess shouldered the backpack while Gabriel
slung the rifle over his back. He was surprised by how light it
was. Between the two of them, he was the only one who had ever
fired a gun, and not since his father had died. Even then, he had
only ever shot on a range. What were the odds that he would have to
use it though?

The others appeared ready, but none of them
were in a hurry to head out into the storm. All wore matching
expressions of apprehension, save Cavenaugh, whose mouth was a
tight line of determination. Gabriel couldn’t remember seeing him
blink.

Will and Maura had been assigned the spring
on the northern slope of Mount Isolation. It was the farthest trek,
but the trail looked to be the easiest. Cavenaugh and Kelsey had
chosen the northern slope of Mount Haverstam based on the spring’s
proximity to the mountain lion’s charted range. Considering his
police experience, it made the most sense to gamble that Cavenaugh
would make the discovery so it could be handled by the book. Jess
and Gabriel had been relegated to the southwestern slope of Mount
Isolation, which meant they would follow the stream through the
bottom of the valley before scaling the heavily-forested hillside.
That placed them in a position to be the second party to reach
either of the other sites should problems arise or if they found
the bodies.

“
Are there any final
questions?” Cavenaugh asked. He paused just long enough to slide
his Project 25-capable, digital walkie-talkie into his outer jacket
pocket. “Good. Now let’s get a move on before—”

“
Who’s carrying the
emergency transceiver?” Jess interrupted.

Cavenaugh flashed her an angry glance, but
it quickly disappeared.

“
It’s in Kelsey’s
backpack.”

“
I want to carry
it.”

“
It’s most logical to bring
it with us based on the probability of our destination.”

“
We’ll be in constant radio
communication. Any one of us can use it just as well as
another.”

“
If I give you the
goddamned transceiver, will you let us leave now?” Cavenaugh’s face
grew bright red.

Jess nodded.

Cavenaugh stomped over to Kelsey, spun him
around, and unzipped the backpack. After some digging, he extracted
the transceiver, which looked like a long walkie-talkie with a
small digital readout and a miniature keypad, and threw it to Jess.
She caught it and shoved it into her jacket pocket.

“
Can we go now?” Cavenaugh
asked through bared teeth.

“
After you,” Jess said,
gesturing to the door.

Without a backwards glance, Cavenaugh opened
the door and stepped out into the storm with Kelsey right behind
him. Will and Maura followed, leaving Jess and Gabriel to close up
behind.

The snow had slowed noticeably. The flakes
were smaller and more sporadic, and the wind only rose in
occasional gusts. There was still no sign of the night sky through
the thick cloud cover, but at least it no longer felt as though the
storm was sitting right on top of their heads. Maybe there was
actually a chance they might see the sun at some point during the
day. Gabriel couldn’t help but think of that as a good omen.

He and Jess stood on the porch and watched
Will and Maura disappear down the driveway behind the island of
evergreens. They were to head north once they reached the road
before finally branching from it at the designated trail.

Cavenaugh and Kelsey had already disappeared
to the south.

“
Ready?” Gabriel
asked.

“
Just a minute,” Jess
whispered. She walked away from the cabin and looked around before
returning. Gabriel was just about to ask her what she was doing
when she pulled the emergency transceiver out of her pocket. She
switched on the power and there was a hiss of static.

“
Try a different
frequency.”

She turned dials and pressed buttons, but
the quality of the static never changed. When the steady hiss began
to grate on her nerves, she clicked it off and shoved it back into
her coat.

“
It should be working,” she
said.

“
We’ll try again at a
higher altitude. I’ll bet it’s a combination of the storm and this
location.”

“
You’re probably right,”
she said, forcing a smile. “Just interference.”

They started their journey to the north,
prepared to intercept the path that would lead them northeast into
the valley.

***

The sun rose somewhere above the rocky peaks
to the east, but did little more than cast a gray pall over the
forest. At least it was now light enough to watch their footing
more carefully. Neither of them could afford to so much as sprain
an ankle or their journey would be over. The maze of pines
protected them from the majority of the snow and wind, and the
accumulation was only half of what it was in the thin meadow lining
the stream, which was nearly invisible beneath a rugged sheet of
ice. Soon, even that would vanish until spring.

Gabriel had known his physical prime was
well behind him, but he hadn’t been remotely prepared for this kind
of exertion, especially in the thin air so high into the mountains.
His lungs burned and his legs ached. It felt as though he were
trudging through peanut butter. Whether Jess was any better off or
not, she did a better job of hiding it. Her cheeks and nose were
scarlet, and clouds of steam burst past her lips in a panting
rhythm, but she waited for him to call the breaks, which he had
begun to do with increasing frequency.

They sat on a fallen tree in a small enclave
beneath the protective canopy, momentarily shielded from the wind.
Jess slipped out of the backpack and set it on the ground beside
her. She removed one of the bottles of water and passed it to
Gabriel, who tipped it back and took two long swigs, savoring the
second. He debated taking off his jacket for a few minutes as he
was dripping with sweat beneath, but he knew he needed to preserve
his body heat. His best guess was that they were roughly halfway
there, and the going on the easy leg had been even more challenging
than he had speculated. He was dreading the prospect of scaling the
hillside on the opposite side of the stream, which appeared to grow
even steeper farther to the east. If they could barely maintain
their traction on level ground, how were they supposed to do so on
the sharp incline?

The radio crackled before Cavenaugh’s voice
emerged from the static.

“
How’s everybody doing out
there?”

“
We’ve reached the trail
that leads away from the road,” Maura said. “With all the snow, it
took us a while to find it, but we can see timberline from where we
are now. Will thinks we should reach our destination within the
next two to three hours, barring anything unexpected.”

“
Good. Gabriel?
Jess?”

“
We’re still down in the
valley and the mountain looks a lot steeper than it did on the map,
but I’d imagine we should reach the spring around the same time
Will and Maura reach theirs. So long as neither of us fall and
break our necks,” Jess said. “How about you guys?”

Gabriel heard something rustle in the scrub
oak behind him and turned toward the sound.

“
Same here,” Cavenaugh
said. “We would have been there already if it weren’t for the
blasted accumulation. Now that we’re into the forest where it’s not
as deep, we’re making decent progress.”

There was only the gentle swaying of the
disturbed branches.

“
I’ll check in on you guys
again in an hour,” Cavenaugh said. “Out.”

Gabriel reached into the bag and removed a
granola bar. He unwrapped it, took a bite, and climbed over the log
toward the bushes.

“
We should probably get
moving again,” Jess said. “The worst is still to come.”

Gabriel looked back at her and pressed his
forefinger to his lips, then crouched in front of the tangle of
branches, beneath which the fallen leaves were merely dusted with
snow. A crunch of the detritus drew his attention to the right,
where a pair of green eyes stared directly at him. There was Oscar,
body pressed flat against the ground, partially concealed by a
cluster of thin trunks. His one good ear stood erect.

Gabriel broke off a section of the granola
bar and slowly held it out for the cat, which visibly tensed at the
movement. He reached deep into the brush. Oscar licked his scarred
nose, but held his position.

There was the sound of footsteps approaching
from behind.

Gabriel saw the cat’s eyes tick upward, and
in one swift motion, Oscar dashed away into the forest.

“
Damn it,” Gabriel
whispered. He scooted back out of the branches and rose to his
feet.

“
Is that cat following us?”
Jess asked.

“
I managed to get him to
eat a hot dog out of my hand last night. I thought maybe he’d take
some granola bar, but…”