An Occurrence in Crazy Bear Valley by Keene Brian

Author:Keene, Brian [Keene, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Deadite Press
Published: 2013-01-02T14:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

When Crystal opened her eyes, she didn’t realize it at first. She couldn’t see anything. Alarmed, she wondered if she’d been struck blind. Then she wondered where the others were. She listened, but it was quiet. She heard something far away that might be a bird, but no frightened voices or groans of the injured. No growls or roars, either.

“H-hello?” Her voice was hoarse, her mouth dry. It came out more like a rasp than a shout. Working up some spit, Crystal tried again. “Hello? Is anybody there?”

No one responded.

“Anyone? I need help.”

Crystal paused, suddenly afraid as the possibility occurred to her that the crazy bears might still be lurking. If so, her cries might attract or alert them. She fell silent, and waited. After a few minutes, she decided to take a chance.

She tensed, expecting pain when she moved, but there was none. Other than her sore throat, she seemed fine. She flexed her fingers and then her feet. Finding her arms and legs unbroken, she wiggled back and forth, and then realized why she couldn’t see. There was something lying atop her face. She reached for it, and her fingers brushed against something soft and sticky. Hair? Fur? Crystal gasped, expecting it to be a crazy bear. But when she yanked it free of her face, she saw that it was nothing more than a bloodied scrap of blanket.

The daylight was so bright that it hurt her head. She sat up, blinking, and shielded her eyes with her hands. Then she looked around her in bewilderment. The entire cabin had collapsed, burying them all in a mound of debris. One of Morgan’s legs stuck out of the wreckage. A shard of bone poked from the swollen flesh. Of the others in the group, there was no sign. Neither was there any sign of their attackers.

Crystal didn’t bother to see if Morgan was alive or not. Instead, she searched amongst the rubble and scavenged what she could—food, a blanket, a knife, and a few other items, along with a bloodstained burlap bag to carry them in. When she was finished, she limped out of the wreckage. The horses all lay where they’d been slaughtered, their torn corpses already drawing a host of flies and other insects. None of the bodies of the creatures remained, although bloodstains marked where many of them had fallen.

The clearing was filled with enormous footprints—dozens, perhaps even hundreds of them, leading in every direction. She stared at the tracks, trying in vain to decipher them—trying to determine where the surviving creatures had gone. Then she decided that it didn’t matter. She knew which direction she was going, and it was a place they couldn’t follow.

Crystal limped down the hill. The forest echoed with birdsongs and other signs of wildlife, but the valley’s beauty had been tainted. The wildflowers and other plants had been trampled beneath many big feet, and what remained was withered and brown. The only color still prominent was the occasional splash of red where blood had been spilled the night before.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.