Hairy Man (Zack Tolliver, FBI Book 12), page 11
She was. The trees they drove among were not the largest of the species, but they dwarfed all other trees from Susan's experience. Their massive trunks rose straight as mammoth telephone poles to disappear beyond sight among leaf foliage eighty feet above their heads. It felt like being in a giant's playground, a fitting place to track the huge creature they sought.
At last, they rounded a steep bend and saw a pickup truck parked on the shoulder.
"I think that's Louis’s truck," Zack said. He pulled in behind it and checked the mark on his map. "Has to be it. Let's see where he went."
The forest here had little underbrush, like an English park, the sunlight filtered and re-filtered by huge leaves far above them. Pine cones the size of volleyballs littered the ground, which was padded with piles of pine needles. Shoe scuffs in the forest debris, left by previous searchers, made it easy for Zack to find their way. After an easy walk of about a mile, they heard the sound of water somewhere down a slope and eventually came to a deep draw. Here the great trees gave way to manzanitas and holly bushes. A stream flowed down the heart of the ravine, tumbling over stones under fallen tree limbs. Louis stood next to the stream. He watched their approach.
Zack scrambled down to him.
Louis smiled and extended an arm. "I'm glad you came."
Susan arrived now, catching her breath. Zack made introductions.
"Louis, this is Susan, an old friend who knows a lot about hominids, past and present."
Louis’s smile was shy, his teen face reddening a bit in the presence of such an attractive woman.
"I’ve heard a lot about you from Zack," Susan said. "You are a very impressive young man."
Louis’s flush deepened.
"Where was the body found?" Zack asked, bringing him back to business.
Louis pointed to a patch of flattened grass a few feet upstream. "We've had rain," he said, "There is no blood or other residue left."
Zack studied the compressed grass, which looked much like a deer bed. "By the look of this grass, the body must have lain here a long time. His death must have occurred shortly after his abduction."
Louis nodded his agreement. "My guess is the man was knocked unconscious when he was abducted, was carried here, and then killed."
"Why carry a man all this way just to kill him?" Susan asked.
Louis looked at Zack, then suggested, "Maybe the creature wanted something from the man...or maybe wanted the man to do something?" He shrugged again. "But when the man became conscious, he panicked and fought for his life."
"That's as good a hypothesis as any," Zack said. "You told me the rescuers sighted the creature from here. Who saw what?"
But Louis wasn't looking at Zack. He was looking beyond him at the trees above the draw.
"I saw it," he said. "And I see it right now."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Zack heard Susan gasp. Following her gaze, he stared up the far wall of the ravine to the tall timber beyond, where the bright unfiltered sunlight lighting the unshaded ground where they stood met opaque shadow among the massive tree trunks that speared upward like pilings under a giant pier and saw movement.
Whatever it was, whatever it had been, was gone now, but not before his brain registered the image of a large, hairy shape with a shaggy head and a face, an ape-like face, an almost human face, from which red eyes glared.
"Did you see it?" Susan cried.
Zack heard her, but was already in motion, leaping the stream and running up the brush-scattered ravine wall. His momentum slowed where the gradient steepened, and his heart pounded from effort and adrenalin. Then he was in the shade of the trees, his sun-adapted vision dimmed in their shade, his line of sight interrupted by the massive trees. He realized at once that his hope of catching or even seeing the beast again was hopeless and stopped to search the ground where he had seen it before it vanished. His reward was the discovery of a firm indentation in the earth.
He knelt to study it, traced it with his fingers, feeling the impressions left by huge toes. He could hear the sounds of his companions following him and was turning to call to them when he sensed motion close behind him, the blur of a huge hairy arm flashing toward him. Instinctively, he ducked and rolled away but could not entirely avoid the blow that struck him on his upper rib cage, knocking the breath out of him. He curled into a fetal position as the next blow fell and felt the crack of bone as darkness descended.
=
Zack awoke to the cold splash of water on his face. He gasped for breath which brought searing pain to his ribs.
"Are you alright?" Susan's face, blurry, distorted, floated above him. As it came into sharper focus, he read the apprehension there. He tried to move to a sitting position but moaned with pain and fell back.
"Don't try to get up," Susan said. "You may have broken something."
"Can you move your legs?" It was Louis’s voice.
Zack wiggled his toes and feeling them, felt relief. He tentatively bent each knee. The effort made him gasp.
He assessed his damage. "My spine is not damaged," he said, "but I may have cracked a rib. It's difficult to breathe."
"What happened?" Louis asked, and Zack realized that they had not witnessed the attack on him. He recognized his dilemma at once; he'd been attacked by Bigfoot, and as in every other Sasquatch story ever told, he had no witness.
"You tell me," he said. He pushed himself to an upright sitting position despite the pain. "It's a cracked rib," he said. "It's certainly not my first, so I know."
Susan was searching the shadows around them.
"Did that creature attack you?" Louis asked.
"I didn't just trip and fall," Zack said. "And I do think we need to get out of here. We have no weapons."
Louis and Susan helped Zack to his feet. Once upright, he could walk, but not without difficulty breathing and a great deal of pain.
It was an interminable walk to the Jeep.
Susan drove, following Louis to the Porterville Hospital emergency room. Once Zack produced his credentials, he was able to receive immediate treatment. His self-diagnosis of a cracked rib was not quite right; an X-ray showed two cracked ribs.
"You are lucky," the doctor told him. "Your lung was not punctured, but it was so compressed by the blow that it collapsed. It reinflated on its own. Your entire back and side are heavily bruised and you will be very sore for a long while. I'll prescribe some pain drugs for you. You must limit your movement for at least three days, preferably a week."
"Oh, sure, that'll work," said Susan.
"How did this happen?" the doctor asked.
Zack glanced at Louis and Susan and said, "A tree limb fell on me."
"Have it your way," the doctor said. He became officious. "We're moving you to a room, just for an hour or two to keep an eye on that lung. I'll come back and check on you. If all seems well, we'll let you go."
Once in the room, Zack called Janice.
"I will not repeat this to anyone else," he told her, "just you. Our problem has become infinitely more difficult." He paused. "Here's the situation. We not only saw the beast, it attacked me."
"I've heard many Bigfoot stories," Janice said, "but never one where a human was physically attacked. Stone throwing, yes. But attacked? No."
"It happened this time, I can assure you. I'm in the Porterville hospital with my ribs wrapped."
"Porterville?" Janice asked. "I thought you were somewhere south of that hermit's cabin in the Los Padres National Forest. What are you doing in the Porterville area?"
Zack explained.
"Why didn't you tell me about the second sighting?" Janice asked.
"I didn't want to..." Zack tried to go on but moaned in pain instead.
"You sound bad," Janice said.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Zack insisted. "I'm resting for an hour or so, and waiting for Eagle Feather. He's searching the area where they found the girl. But the point is, we now have two beasts and both are killers. If I hadn't ducked in time, my head would be pulp."
"Okay," Janice said after a long pause. "You take two days off. That's an order. And call Eagle Feather and tell him to get out of the woods. I'm going to send a team of agents with rifles to both locations with orders to disable or kill if necessary whatever is doing this, man or beast. We can't risk the general population anymore. We need to stop this now."
Zack began to protest but he was speaking into a dead phone.
"So?" Susan asked, as Zack's expression went dark.
"The woods are about to fill with rifle-toting agents," Zack replied. "I have a bad feeling about this. We've got to warn Eagle Feather."
"What was her response to your injury?" Susan asked.
Zack glanced away. "Oh, nothing."
Susan scrutinized his face. "Uh-huh."
Zack called Eagle Feather.
"White Man."
"Where are you?" Zack asked.
"I'm on the trail of the beast, maybe a mile beyond where we found the girl."
"Did Isaac pull a fast one on us?"
"No, I think not. I gave the area a thorough search. I couldn't find any trace of where the beast had gone. But then I had a hunch, and it turned out to be right."
"Enough drama, already. What was your hunch?"
The Navajo's chuckled. "My hunch was to look up, not down," he said. "That was the answer. The beast took to the trees."
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
"Took to the trees? What do you mean?"
"It jumped up and grabbed a branch, swung up, walked out on a big, long limb, and swung or leaped to the next one, and so on."
"Like a big ape," Zack said. "Jesus." After he'd digested that, he said, "Well, I called because we have another problem."
"A SNAFU," Eagle Feather said.
"Practicing your Navy, I see. But yeah, that pretty much covers it. We now have two beasts."
"Two?"
"Yes, unless the one you are tracking suddenly sprouted wings and flew 150 miles to the eastern slopes of the Sierras," Zack told the Navajo about the beast's attack.
“What am I chasing?" Eagle Feather asked.
"That's a good question. but it is something potentially very dangerous. We must consider the new evidence which suggests there are two of these things, whether human or beast, and they are not afraid to attack humans, even kill them, contrary to all known Bigfoot mythology."
"What are your orders, White Man?"
"Frankly, I'd like you to get out of those woods, or at the very least wait for the team of hunters Janice is sending to track and kill the beast. But knowing you won't do either of those things, I would like you to be supremely careful and not attempt to approach the beast."
"Interesting," the Navajo said.
"And Eagle Feather...Eagle Feather? Damn."
"What?" Susan asked.
"Everybody hangs up on me. That pig-headed Navajo is going to ignore me."
"Oh," Susan said. "I thought it might be something new."
Zack sent her a baleful glance.
"You intend to ignore Janice, don't you?" Susan argued. "Why shouldn't Eagle Feather ignore you?"
Zack frowned. "Well, for once, believe it or not, I'm going to obey Janice. I'm going to leave that beast that attacked me to Janice's team of sharpshooters. I doubt they'll find it anyway."
Zack turned to Louis. "I’d like you to go back to your command center, check your gossip threads, and see what's being reported about all this. This sudden proliferation of Bigfoots and their new tendency to attack humans rather than hide from them is baffling and concerning. I have a feeling we're not done yet."
He turned back to Susan.: "I'd like you to do a deep dive into research on the development of hominids around the world, current and past. See if you can find a species or a combination of species closest to what we've been seeing."
Susan saluted. "Jawohl, mein Kapitän!" She looked at him through narrowed eyes. "What about you? Are you going to rest, for once?"
"I'll be in touch," Zack said.
=
Eagle Feather glanced up at the spreading branches of the oak tree above him. He was in a large hollow formed by folds of sand ridges carved by the draining of an ancient salt lake that had once covered everything between the coastal mountains and the Sierra Mountains, leaving outsized dunes that nature later cloaked with sage and coyote brush. White oak trees, protected from foul weather within the hollow and from humans by their inaccessibility, had thrived here, their thick, trunk-like branches stretching like giant arms toward each other two meters above the Navajo's head, nearly touching like reaching fingers, a natural pathway for a creature agile and strong enough to traverse it. The Navajo followed this timber pathway almost a mile from where they'd found the terrified and exhausted girl. He had discovered the creature's route when looking up, he'd noticed strange abrasions on the tree bark. He realized it marked where the giant grasped the branch after leaping up to it. The Navajo climbed the tree and searched for similar markings on the nearest limbs of each subsequent tree, and so tracked the beast to the spot where he now stood. It had been exhausting, slow work, but he was now where the oak forest ended and the swell of a treeless grass-covered slope began.
Here at the forest's edge, just before the slope began, in a sand bed left by water draining down a shallow arroyo, Eagle Feather found the deep indentations of two massive feet where the beast had dropped down from the last oak tree. There were more footprints beyond them where the beast had ascended the next slope.
It had made no attempt to hide its tracks, and Eagle Feather realized the beast must have assumed no one could have followed its tree journey and was now safe from discovery. The Navajo was impressed by the cognitive abilities the creature exhibited. However, the tracking from here forward would be easier. But the beast had a head start of several hours and Eagle Feather needed to pick up his pace.
=
Louis almost missed an article hidden among other columns on an inside page of the Bakersfield Californian. As he read it, he had difficulty containing his excitement for to his mind it validated his theory of the "beast corridor" across the Central Valley. The article was short, obviously intended as a space filler and a human interest piece. It read:
Bigfoot Sighting Near Wildlife Refuge
An animal described as a Bigfoot-like creature was seen this morning by a farmer in a pasture near the Kern National Wildlife Refuge. The farmer, who wished to remain anonymous, had spotted the beast just after dawn walking toward a tree grove on the west side of his property. He described it as "tall, thick-shouldered, slightly hunched, with a large head" and "covered with hair from head to toe". At first, he mistook it for a Gorilla, but its "erect posture" and "human-like stride" soon convinced him otherwise. The local police investigated but found nothing. It is assumed to be a hoax perpetrated by a person or persons unknown.
Louis called Zack. "I have found another sighting," he said. "The cops are spoofing it, but the creature was right smack dab in the middle of the Beast Corridor." His voice rose higher in triumph with each word.
"Hold on. When did this sighting occur?"
"Ten years ago."
"What direction was the creature headed?"
"West."
Silence. Then, "How does that line up with your other sightings?"
"My file shows almost simultaneous sightings in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains." Louis couldn't contain his excitement. "Zack, do you realize what this means, if true? My theory of the Beast Corridor is proven!"
"Do you realize what this means, if true?" Zack replied. "It means there are not one, not two, but three of these beasts out there."
It hit Louis. "Oh, yeah! Jesus!"
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The full caloric load of a post-meridian sun lay upon Eagle Feather's shoulders as he stood on the ridgetop and studied the oak-flecked savannah spread wide in the valley below him. The long slope of thick grass leading down to it, patched with sage clumps like a coyote losing its winter coat, descended gently at first, then steepened. He traced a dirt road across the valley with his eyes from its first appearance at the far end to where it disappeared under a tree canopy within a gully burrowing into the hills nearer him. The beast the Navajo tracked had traveled down this slope toward the valley, its passage through the tall grass evident.
Eagle Feather sipped water as he studied every detail of the land below, then pocketed his bottle and followed the creature's path. Where the slope leveled at the valley plain, a new story unfolded in the grass, bent in a single swathe where the giant's passage had led to an area of flattened vegetation near the road, as if it had decided on a moment's notice to lie down and take a nap. Just beyond, the Navajo saw the parallel tire impressions of a vehicle.
The vehicle had come along the forest track from the northeast, circled into the grass, and parked next to the creature's resting place, then circled back onto the forest road, returning whence it had come. In the matted grass, Eagle Feather found splotches of blood. Had it attacked the occupants of the vehicle, he wondered?
He searched the soil across the forest road for any indication that the beast had gone there, but after a fruitless hour, gave it up. Puzzled, Eagle Feather returned to the grass bed and sat, cross-legged, pondering the evidence. After several minutes, he took out his phone.
=
Susan limited her research of ancient giant hominids to North America, and immediately found references to the Si-Te-Cah, meaning tule-eaters, legendary red-haired giants that according to the Paiute had lived in the region that is now western Nevada. The Paiute stories told of the giants crossing the ocean on rafts made of tule and described them as barbaric and savage people who attacked and cannibalized the local Indians. It required the unified efforts of all the Indian tribes to eventually subdue them. They drove the last of these giants into a cave and destroyed them with fire. When early European explorers were shown the cave, they found it was full of bat guano, a rich discovery at the time, which they subsequently mined. They uncovered many artifacts in the cave (later known as Lovelock Cave) including duck decoys made from tule and the mummified remains of a man six feet six inches tall. Other human bones from humans reported to be of unusual size were discovered in the locality. Red hair still clung to the skulls, which caused great excitement at the time. However, archaeologists pointed out that the hair had probably turned that color from an interaction with the environment in which they were found. Over time, these remains had disappeared.
