Chapter 5

Meeting the Unknown

Ellen Steiber

Jim Parker had felt the storm coming all day. The cattle had been restless that afternoon. The sun had set with a strange greenish tint. Now darkness had fallen, and the wind was howling like a man in pain. For the past hour, thunder had been rolling through the Montana skies. The rain wasn’t here yet. But it was coming.

Parker and his son, Lyle, stood inside by the door of the ranch house. They didn’t speak. Instead they listened to the sounds of the storm. They were waiting for something. The thing that neither of them ever talked about: This thing that came to the ranch to kill.

Outside, lightening turned the black night sky into a silver white. Rain began to fall and then the house went dark.

Parker wasn’t bothered by the blackout. There was fire in the stone fireplace. It lit the room with an orange glow, reflecting in the glass eyes of the hunting trophies on the walls. To Parker, the trophies were a comfort. The grizzly bear, the mountain lion, the timber wolf, the rattlesnake – they were all proof of times he’d met danger and won. He was going to win again tonight.

And then Parker heard it. The same as he’d heard  it the other times. A low, angry growl. Animal and yet not animal. There were times when Parker thought it sounded like an echo coming down from the mountains. The sound was closer now. Parker had hunted all his life. And though he didn’t know exactly what was out there, he knew it was another hunter. Something that was hunting his cattle.

Tonight he wasn’t taking any chances. Quickly he loaded cartridges into his Winchester 1300 Defender shotgun.

Parker’s eyes met his son’s. Lyle got his own shotgun ready. This time they were ready for it.

Suddenly, from outside, the growl became a roar over the noise from the storm. Lyle’s head  turned quickly toward the sound. He looked back at his father. But Jim Parker was no longer aware of his son. He was totally focused on whatever waited on the other side of the door.

Outside, storm winds swept across the ranch and the leafless trees. A small group of cattle moved nervously about in the corral. They were afraid.

Guided by flashlight beams, Jim Parker and his son went toward the corral. The ground was a pool of mud. Parker stayed dry in a long cowboy-style duster raincoat. But Lyle, who wore jeans and a down vest, was soaked through. He shivered a little, not sure if it was from the cold or from fear of meeting whatever it was they’d come out there to meet.

Parker signaled to Lyle that he’d take the left side of the barn. Lyle nodded, going to the right. Then he tensed as he heard it. Something in the dark was growling.

The sound seemed to be coming from the barn. Slowly Lyle approached the doorway. His heart was beating hard. Gripping the shotgun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, he stepped inside the barn. He felt a little calmer as he met the familiar sweet smell of hay and the sounds of the horses. He checked the stalls. The horses were nervous but unharmed.

Carefully Lyle searched the rest of the barn. He felt himself taking deep breaths, trying to slow his heart.

In the darkness, a creature crept up behind him. It seemed human in shape. But it moved with an animal’s power. And in the lightening, its claws shone like ivory razors.

The barn was clear, Lyle decided. He walked back outside and stopped when he saw something on the ground. A dark heap. He started toward it, unaware that the animal eyes were following him, their irises bloodred.

Lyle shone his flashlight on the heap. Too late. It was another cow. Dead, its hide ripped to pieces. He stood over it, sad and frightened. What kind of animal would do this to a cow? And how were they ever going to stop it?

He heard the sound again. This time right behind him. Lyle turned quickly with the flashlight and caught the eyes of the beast in its light. Inhuman red eyes.

He didn’t have time to raise his weapon before the creature attacked. It slammed him to the ground. Then he felt his body being lifted into the air. Thrown like a rag doll by something unseen in the darkness.

The last thing Lyle Parker remembered was the sound of his own screams mixed with the roar of the creature – as he crashed through the corral fence.

Jim Parker heard a struggle in the barn area and he ran toward it, hoping he’d get to his cattle before the predator did.

His eyes widened with terror when he saw a huge two-legged creature  its back covered with thick hide. It was attacking his son.

Parker didn’t hesitate. He raised his gun and fired. The animal twisted from the impact, then fell to the ground. Parker knelt by Lyle’s side. The boy was bloody and shaking, but alive.

Then Lyle did something he hadn’t done since he was ten years old. He put his arms around his father and clung to him as if he’d never let him go.

Parker held him for a moment but his mind was on the creature. It was lying perfectly still, not ten feet across the corral. But he didn’t trust it to be dead. Just to be sure, Parker turned and pumped once more into its body.

Lightening flashed again. To his horror, Parker saw just what it was he’d killed. Not an animal, but a man. A young Native American man, bare-chested, with long, black hair. He looked to be about twenty-five years old. About the same age as Lyle.

Parker started to tremble with shock. He’d been sure he was shooting an animal. But he’d just killed a man.