Forest of Savages, Rookie Burwick [the giving tree read aloud TXT] 📗

Forest of Savages

 

          By

   Rookie Burwick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2017 by Rookie Burwick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, quoted, or resold without full permission of the author.

 

ISBN: 9781549533310

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONE

A loud howl pierced the silence of the dark forest beyond. Whatever was making it was somewhere off to the West of the clearing. The horrible noise nearly made the pine trees shake. It started in a low growl. Then, after a little while, it rose to a high-pitched morn.

 

Jed tossed and turned in his sleep. The howls were so close he could practically hear them shaking the walls of the cabin. Sweat from his nerve-racked body soaked the sheets from all the nightmarish images flying through his head. The noises were joined by throaty snarls and shrieks. Wail after wail echoed through the night sky, almost like battle cries.

 

Jed sat up in a flash. Panic made his head spin. He tried to get it under control. His mouth opened to draw in a few deep breaths. It only took a few breaths, and everything started to turn to normal. His heart race slowed, his mind cleared from its lingering fog. He took one last breath, and the nightmares were over. But the noises kept on.

 

He silenced his breathing, and listened. Seconds ticked by. He knew it couldn’t be over. But the silence told him otherwise. The night was suddenly calm again. He could now hear the peaceful aftermath of rain thudding very faintly on the roof. He could hear every noise that he wanted to hear. Like anything great, it only lasted for so long. A howl coming from somewhere in the fading darkness of the night ended it all.

 

It was a warm spring night. Everything had been very silent until now, except for the rain. There wasn’t any form of wind, not even a breeze. He had prayed mercilessly the previous night for a wind of some kind to block it all out. He wanted just one night of sleep. But the demons of the forest weren’t going to have that.

 

He jumped to his feet and rushed to the window. Peering out, all he saw was darkness. The howl was like nothing he’d heard before. Being a hunter and woodcutter, he’d heard a lot. The sun was beginning to rise. A light blue gaze hung in the sky.

 

His eyes glanced around the fading darkness a few more seconds. The howls seemed to have stopped. Something told him they couldn’t be over, just yet. A few more minutes of listening, more long minutes of silence.

 

He let out a sigh of relief, and hurried back to the lumpy bed awaiting him. The springs squeaked as he sat back down, wiping his face with his white handkerchief.

 

Right outside his window, crickets began playing their sweet song. He could only pray they would keep it up. It was lucky enough he lived in an area with crickets at all.

 

Jed had just moved from Colorado to the steep mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It was the perfect place for a former hunter turned woodchopper. He’d done both jobs in his younger days, but hunting had quit providing pay. No one in Colorado wanted already dead deer that illegal poachers had snagged, and then left. So, he had made the long journey to the mountain ridge just above the small town of Wallace, Idaho. Life was good. He had good pay, good friends, and a perfect little cabin up in the mountains, where he loved to be.

 

Everything was so peaceful. Until night came.

 

The horrible noises had sounded off his first night in the little cabin. At first, he’d written them off as wolves, until one of the things had come right near his cabin. Then, he’d heard the thing up close.

 

Whatever was making the noises was very large, and powerful. It had a deep, throaty tone that couldn’t be matched with any other living creature. He hadn’t been lucky enough to see what the thing actually was.

 

Jed looked down at the clock. It was a little after six. He was never getting back to sleep now. He stood up and stretched a bit. He’d beaten up his body so much in his days, hiking, lifting things. Rough stuff. He had smoked a little in his twenties, but he didn’t care about that. He loved the smoking. It was the drinking that filled him with guilt. The guys at the bar called him “ol’crackleback”. It was pretty much his nickname anymore, at least to the guys who didn’t care to hang out with him. He didn’t care to hang out with them, either. Even the guys at the clinic had pitched in and told him to lay off the coffee. But that was flat out impossible.

 

The sun was beginning to rise above the tops of the peaks. As he groped into the kitchen, its light stung his eyes. He stopped and blinked a few times, adjusting to the newness of it all. No matter how much he blinked, his eyes were still a little cloudy.

 

The floor squeaked beneath his feet as he charged toward the small refrigerator. He wrapped his fingers around the handle and jerked it open. Inside was two cartons of eggs, three beers, some left-over steak, and a package of beef jerky. He grabbed the beef jerky, slammed the door, and ripped it open.

 

Taking a bite of a piece he’d pulled out, he tossed the package on the counter, and turned to pour some coffee out of the pot that had been simmering all night. He slurped some down. It tasted like heaven, as always. He hurried to throw his usual clothes on, and his warm jacket, and then he hurried for the door.

 

***

Jed bounced up and down as he drove the old, red Ford pickup over the rough dirt road. He kept his eyes on the road the best he could, but sometimes they would bounce out of line. The road was made up of stages. One stage would be the worst ride of bumps you would ever encounter. The other stage would be flat roads, with smaller bumps. The daylight was now shining brightly over the array of pine trees that never seemed to end. The hot sun now beat down on him through the windows. He guessed it had to be about eight o’ clock.

 

When he hit flat road, he reached up and felt his unshaved chin. He didn’t care if he remembered to shave or not. That was one of the benefits of working alone. You could show up looking like crap. He took a deep breath, and let it out just before hitting another big bump. He swerved from side-to-side this time. He must have hit on an angle.

 

Thankfully, his woodcutting area was just around the next corner. He rounded it, and smiled at the sight. He brought the pickup to a stop along the opposite side the clearing, and killed the engine.

 

The sounds of nature flooded in. Birds sang loudly in the branches of the trees. A slight breeze flew through the pines, making them shake just a bit. He got out and took a deep breath before shutting the door hard. The air was fresh and cold, just the way he liked it. The birds silenced at the loud clang of the door. He silenced as well, waiting for them to continue on.

 

Seconds went by, feeling like minutes. The birds never sang. It made him shrug, but it was still pretty obvious the noise of the door slamming had just scared them off.

 

He charged into the green grass. The fresh smell of rain still lingered among it. The smell hit his nostrils, and made him stop. He took in a long, deep breath of the stuff, and let it out slowly. This was what made his job worth the trouble. He thanked the good lord the trees still existed.

 

Local contractors had made sure a lot of beautiful forest was ravaged by chainsaws and axes, just for the sake of new condos that no one even bought. It wasn’t that he despised contractors, he just didn’t like their motive. It was all about “modernization”. That steamed him. Maybe modernization just wasn’t the best thing for all places, especially the forest.

 

As he walked closer and closer to the piles of chopped wood he’d massacred, he still listened for the birds. They did this every morning when he slammed the door to the truck, but usually they were back by now, singing away. An eerie silence surrounded him. The breeze had even quit. He couldn’t help but glance around for a couple of minutes, and then pulled his axe from a large tree stump he always kept it stuck in. Another tree stump, just across the clearing, held the wood he split in place. He had it all set up to where he could just pick right up from where he left off.

 

A piece of thick redwood still sat on the tree stump. He trudged over to it, spinning the axe around in his hand. Spreading his legs out, he positioned himself just right, with his back to the forest. He lifted the axe, loosened his muscles. . .

 

Snap.

 

He froze in place. The axe fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. In the total silence of the moment, a noise had at last came out. But it was a noise he honestly didn’t like.

 

Jed swallowed as he glanced nervously around. His eyes swept across the forest beyond.

 

There was nothing there.

 

He bent down and picked up the axe again. With the sharp object in hand, he swung it around his shoulder as he did before. He tightened his grip, took proper aim, and swung down onto the wood.

 

A loud crack, and the wood split perfectly. A smile spread across his face. If only he could stay focused enough to repeat the same split all day. Then, he’d have something to brag about.

 

More noises echoed off the trees. He froze in place with fear.

 

Another snap. The crack of a breaking branch.

 

He lowered the axe to his side and listened. The noises were definitely close by, echoing off the trees from somewhere to the left. He raised the axe high, ready for anything, as he strode slowly into the thick forest of thick tree trunks the eventually outstretched into branches full of pine needles.

 

Something made a rustling noise, just off to his left. He spun toward the noise, but saw only a quick flash of dark brown, and then nothing. Globs of sweat raked down his face, even despite the cold air. This thing that was following him, stalking him, watching his every move, was obviously able to move quickly. It almost had the color of a bear, almost. But its speed outweighed the possibility.

 

Another noise came from the unseen menace. It rustled through the tall grass behind him. He didn’t dare turn to look. His muscles didn’t dare ease. The eerie feeling of being watched flooded in. It told him he wasn’t alone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up, and stayed that way. His eyes glanced uncontrollably now back and forth across the silent trees.

 

He thought of running as fast as he could to his truck, but that may draw the thing to him. His fear began to vanish when he remembered the axe he clutched. It was razor sharp, and could cut through just about anything. Even flesh.

 

The silence was suddenly cut short by the sound of rapid footfalls that were so loud he swore the thing was running toward him. He risked a glance to his right, and his fears were confirmed. The flash of brown hair ran past him, knocking the axe from his very hand.

 

The blow was hard enough to even knock Jed onto