Cold Cat Mountain: The Peak (Cold Cat Mountain Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Rolling her eyes Blaze snorted. “If you don’t have much to tell me then why is he comfortable calling you Pixy?” Matilda shifted and cleared her throat. “If it’s all the same the same to you I’d rather not go into it right now.” She held up her hand when Blaze opened her mouth. “I will later. It’s just that tonight I need to focus-“

  Blaze eased the jeep to a stop in the torrential rain.

  ”Did you hear that?”

  Water streamed down the windshield as they sat on the side of Cold Cat Mountain in the dark.

  Matilda turned down the interior heater. Nothing. She looked around and shrugged.

  “Didn’t hear it. What’d it sound like?”

  With towering trees on all sides it was a surprise sound carried at all.

  “It was maybe like… a high pitched shrill.” Matilda rolled her window down a bit to assess the landscape. A sharp wind picked up, roaring through the pines. The headlights illuminated the mud slicked road and puddles dimpling under falling rain.

  Still nothing.

  “Like a coyote?”

  Blaze shivered and turned the heat back up. “No. It was different. Maybe it was nothing. It’s creepy as hell up here.”

  “Not gonna argue.” Matilda’s voice was distracted.

  Blaze edged forward and maneuvered around a sizable rock in the road. Matilda slammed her hand on the dashboard.

  “Stop!”

  The brakes engaged but Blaze had to work with the momentum of slick mud pulling them toward the edge.

  Pushing her hair out of her face Blaze saw what held Matilda’s attention. Just ahead, in the middle of the road, trees were stacked at an odd angle. Many were bent from the middle, roots exposed, with clumps of mud and dirt attached; evidence they’d been uprooted recently and placed there.

  Matilda rolled up her window. “Can we get around it?”

  “Barely.” Blaze tensed as she took the route closest to the bank. The other side being a long dark fall into timber she tightened her knuckles around the wheel. Slowly, with the windshield wipers going full speed, Blaze pushed past the pile of trees, finally breathing as it disappeared from the rear view around the next bend in the road.

  Matilda sank back into her seat. She was still for a moment, and then began rifling through her leather notebook. Closing it she reached out and locked her door. “If we have to stop again keep your door locked and don’t roll down the window or leave the jeep. For any reason.”

  Blaze’s mind began spinning with the possible things Matilda wasn’t sharing. Clearing her throat Blaze drove a short distance in the dark. Cautiously. Silence hung between them as Blaze focused on keeping the jeep on the road. Dark limbs moved above and around them in the wind. Water rushed across the road, appearing to erode much of the right side that dropped off into the dark.

  “It was a tree arch. It can be used as language. In jungles primates often use it as a warning. The strongest of the males bend bamboo in half, at the center, to draw attention to their strength. This one is not like I’ve ever seen. It’s generally a warning to other wondering males. It acts as a family crest of sorts. The size of the arch in the center dictates the size of the male protecting a specific family. And generally, the direction of the snapped limbs indicate the direction the family is.”

  Both Blaze and Matilda’s eyes searched the trees ahead while pondering the twisted tree limbs, and the large arch at the center just behind them.

  Blaze flexed her fingers around the wheel, trying to get the blood to return.

  “If it’s a language then what are they trying to say? To us, I mean?”

  Matilda took a deep breath. “They’re saying they’re strong. It’s a warning. One ordinarily found in the wilds. Not out on an open road.”

  Blaze eased her foot up off the accelerator.

  “A warning?” Matilda pointed ahead. “Please don’t stop here Blaze. We need to keep moving.” Blaze felt her pulse increase and she pressed on the gas, moving the jeep up the hill. From this height the trees were nothing but a dense cluster of limbs and boughs moving past them in the narrow tract of the headlights.

  Blaze checked her watch as the muscles in her neck tightened. As a burned out social worker, who’d already been exposed to the monsters humans could be, not much else usually phased her. That was the aspect of her nature which most appealed to Matilda; the knowledge it would take a lot to scare Blaze into paralysis after the atrocities she’d already been exposed to. Breathing deeply she reminded herself of that as she maneuvered the jeep upward into the dark.

  Blaze had asked Matilda recently if she’d ever considered that the bumps in the dark were only trying to avoid humans, not pursue them, adding that the human race could be a surprisingly dark species.

  While Cryptozoology was a fascinating subject, Blaze again reminded herself she’d already seen the real monsters of the world at work. That was enough to convince Matilda she wouldn’t be an alarmist. Feeling her ears pop she wondered if they were closing in on their destination or merely circling the mountain in the rain.

  Matilda pointed ahead, and just then the jeeps headlights reflected off of the lights of their large black motor home.

  “The monsters were never under our bed, but in the forest of our future.” ― Crystal Woods

  ~Seventeen~

  Their large mobile research shelter sat in the dark like a beacon, waiting for the interior lights to be lit, and the generator to begin humming with life. Secretly Blaze was relieved to see it. She’d climbed the remainder of the mountain with a dark unsettled feeling following the high pitched cry she’d heard on the drive up. That, coupled with Matilda’s reluctant admission about her serial killer theory had eradicated any pleasant thoughts Blaze had entertained about their time in Montana. And there was of course the tree fort in the middle of the road…

  While Matilda busied herself with gathering items from the back seat of the jeep Blaze stared out into the dark rainy night through the windshield. Second thoughts aggravated her head pain. If the Sasquatch they were searching for wasn’t an over sized primate then what was it? A hybrid human conjured a thousand different possibilities in Blaze’s imagination. Dark images of monsters she didn’t believe in thrummed inside her head. The problem with her own assessment was logic. People had in fact disappeared from Cold Cat. That was a hard fact. A lot of people had never returned to their families once they’d set foot on the mountain. The exact mountain where they sat in the jeep, idling in the dark. Blaze turned to Matilda. “This feels wrong. We don’t know each other that well. I don’t have the outdoors skills you do. I think this is a huge mistake. What is the plan? What do we do if we happen to find this thing?”

  Matilda stopped gathering her items and threw herself against the back of her seat.

  “Are you serious right now? We have been prepping for this trip for weeks and you’re just now asking those questions?”

  Blaze turned in her seat, facing Matilda. “You lost your right to be agitated with me when I learned you thought this thing was part human, after we’d already arrived here! That’s not how partnerships work Matilda. What else have you kept from me?”

  “You cannot be serious? You’re scared because it might be part human? Do you really think that matters? Where has your head been all this time Blaze? You and I both know something sinister is happening up here. Whether it’s animal or human it’s still systematically taking people and that has to be stopped.”

  Blaze exhaled slowly. Parts of what Matilda said were making sense even if she didn’t like it. What had she been thinking? She’d done her own research, read the books and literature Matilda had provided, mostly. How had it somehow escaped her that this was a real situation? Better yet, why had she let it escape her?

  “I guess somehow I thought this wasn’t real, or…I don’t know. I guess it just hit me. You didn’t hear that screech back there? I like to think I’m tough, but Matilda this is suddenly creepy as hell.”

  The bent and miss
hapen trees on the road hadn’t necessarily scared her, but there was an alarming quality about why broken and mangled limbs were placed on the road.

  Parked just below the embankment where the thirty-five foot motor home sat, Blaze was grateful she and Matilda had requested it be set up at the end of the summer. It felt more permanent somehow, and reassuring in that all the doors and windows were still intact. She turned off the jeep. Matilda retrieved her back pack and handed Blaze hers without commenting on her recent confession. It wasn’t because Matilda was holding anything against Blaze. Blaze knew that. It was something else. It had become real. They were two women alone in what had been referred to as the hive. The implications were alarming. Matilda had been detached since they’d arrived at the airport anyway.

  Making their way up the steps Matilda inserted the key, opening the door. The echo from its impact against the motor homes exterior filled the chill night air. Blaze turned slowly behind Matilda, wary and embarrassed at the same time.

  As Matilda reached out to close the door a cry rang out from the trees at the edge of the clearing, wheezing, intermittent. Slightly gruff.

  And close.

  Matilda raised her eyebrows. “Was that what you heard earlier?” Blaze nodded and turned to face the trees. A fog had settled over the small clearing just below the motor homes roost, dimming the landscape in an already clandestine backdrop.

  Another low growl emanated from somewhere below them. Blaze felt the moment freeze as her blood turned cold. The vibration of the growl was low, it moved up her back until she felt the impact in her chest.

  They both hurried inside the relative safety of the research rig and Matilda swung the door shut, locking it.

  Standing in the dark Blaze placed her hand to her chest.

  “What about the generator?” Her whisper felt loud. With a steely determination Matilda reached for the door, flashlight in hand. “You’re right. Annie, get your gun.” She was smiling but Blaze knew fear when she saw it. She seated the butt of the .38 they’d had stashed on board the RV firmly in her palm, nodding. She knew it had to have been a bear, possibly grizzly, but she’d never known a grizzly could emanate that kind of growl. She chastised herself for having spent too much time in the city watching Friends on Netflix instead of Survivor Man.

  The door swung open. Matilda tripped over the threshold, falling to the ground into the dark, with Blaze standing over her pointing her handgun above Matilda’s head into the woods.

  Rising to her feet, Matilda made her way through the mud toward the generator.

  “Come on!” Blaze was on her heels, and after a few seconds both relished the sound of the generator motor starting up, rising in pitch until it reached a steady hum. They sloshed hurriedly back through the mud and paused inside, where Blaze looked behind her from the doorway, searching the dark trees.

  “Shut the door!” Matilda pushed past her to take matters into her own hands. The slam of the door echoed against the trees.

  Matilda and Blaze stood dripping for a moment, facing each other. Blaze reached out and meticulously moved the tiny door lock into place. A delicate and disappointing sound.

  Clink. Taking off her mud soaked shoes Matilda began flicking on the lights, illuminating the large interior. She pushed her hair behind her ear studying the heating system, and pressed a button. Warm air began flooding through the vents. Shortly after a faux fire place in the living room area sprang to life.

  Rooted to her spot by the door Blaze lifted one of the blinds, peeking out into the dark.

  “Did you hear anything outside? You heard that, right?”

  She turned and found Matilda foraging through the well-stocked cupboards for cups and tea.

  She nodded absently as she started the stove top and placed a shiny black tea kettle over the burner. Blaze carefully placed the .38 on the top shelf by the door. Climbing the three steps up into the motor home, she blinked at the size and sheer comfort of the Vacationer.

  All black, gray and creme colored, with a high ceiling, it boasted rounded sofas, a desk area, and a flat screen over the imitation fireplace.

  Removing her shoes she flopped down onto an overstuffed sofa, moving a pillow.

  “Shouldn’t the bears be hibernating at this time of year?” She asked, frowning.

  Matilda turned and leaned against the counter, considering Blaze.

  “Yes. They are.”

  Blaze inclined her head. “Then what was that?”

  When the tea pot began a low whistle Matilda turned her back to Blaze to tend to it.

  “That my dear friend is why we are up here.” She was trying to veil the impatience in her voice. Blaze stared around the sunken living room, banked on all sides by low windows. As the fire danced in a hearth just under the vast flat screen she thought she should have felt safer. She didn’t. The semi round couches were placed near the fireplace with a scattering of magazines and outdoors books. In any other setting the room would have been inviting. As it was it resembled a fishbowl for predators.

  Matilda chuckled, low in her throat as she added lemon and honey to their tea. She’d observed the wide eyed expression Blaze was wearing as she scanned the RV.

  “You didn’t hear a noise?” Blaze repeated.

  Matilda handed Blaze a black mug and sat down cross legged on the sofa across from her, pushing her hair behind her ears.

  “Of course I heard it silly. We both did.” Blowing softly on the surface of her tea Matilda shifted her position, leaning back.

  A soft amber lamp glowed between two large chairs which were empty.

  Blaze strained, but could hear nothing over the steady hum of the generator. Gaping back at Matilda a slow smile crept over her face. “Oh, the snow leopard. That makes sense.” She shook her head. Grateful the mystery was resolved she cradled her mug, sipping the tea. Sweet logic. Blaze welcomed it, relaxing.

  Matilda’s husky laugh filled the small space between them. “That was no snow leopard. Snow leopards can make sounds similar to the sounds of other cats, yes, including a mew, hiss, moan or yowl. But they cannot do that. They cannot achieve that level of volume due to the physiology of their vocal cords.”

  Blaze raised her eyebrows up over the rim of her mug, swallowing.

  “Alright…”

  Matilda countered her unspoken question. “What do you think it was?”

  Blaze laughed nervously but it wasn’t funny. Not really.

  “No way. No way, Matilda. I’m here, I’ve helped you research and prepare, and I’m here with you for the next six months, but you know how I feel about that.”

  Matilda rose, carrying her tea into the back bedroom. Sitting at the end of one of the twin beds, she stretched and yawned.

  “Oh yes, I do know how you feel about it.” Facing the living room area each twin bed was covered with a white down comforter. Matilda fell backwards onto hers, stretching her legs and wriggling her toes.

  Blaze stood, making sure all the blinds had been closed. Rubbing her neck she wondered in and sat on the end of her own bed. Matilda didn’t move.

  The false fire crackled in the background as the rain slapped at their windows. Blaze pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin. She must have dozed in the quiet because she woke, startled to hear Matilda’s voice, mid-sentence. The stress was making her sleepy and she remembered to take her medication.

  Matilda was speaking into a hand held recorder. “…encounters may be prevalent at night. Driving a vehicle does not seem to be a deterrent for warning calls, which one would think, specifically when the public has built in remote locations. Recorded documentation of a predatory male circling is not unusual. We will be listening for bipedal movements. Heavy breathing may also accompany proximity…”

  Sitting up straight on her bed Blaze rubbed her eyes. Matilda had turned over onto her stomach and was looking through thick text books while she spoke. Items were strewn across the top of her bed and around her on the floor. Her deep thought driven monotone c
ontinued, as if she was standing before a gathering of college students.

  “We will be cognizant of scent; rotten eggs, sulfur. Urine and feces. We’ll start a fire if we end up outside after dark. We will be at our most vulnerable when we find a footprint and need to make a cast, which takes time.”

  “Wait, we’re still going out there?”

  Matilda nodded. She laid a compass on the small table between the two beds. “Yes.” She looked irritated, turning back to her reading material. “That’s why we are here.”

  Blaze felt an unease she wasn’t accustomed to. She laughed half-heartedly to cover the awkward silence. “Maybe I could be a look out? I am grasping here- but I will only slow you down. Is there freeze dried lasagna? I could prepare meals.” Evidently being funny/serious wasn’t a welcome approach. Matilda rolled her eyes.

  Matilda took a deep breath and rolled off the twin bed, her back was to Blaze. She stood and placed her hands on her hips as she stared into a small closet of supplies.

  “I can’t do this alone Blaze. I need assistance.”

  She turned and dropped back onto her bed, facing Blaze. Hugging a pillow to her chest she dropped her head in thought for a moment. “Blaze, Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience. You know some of this. It’s the search for animals whose existence lacks evidence. We refer to them as cryptids. Animals whose existence has been called into question despite the limited physical evidence brought forward.”

  “Like the tooth you found. And the skull.” Blaze’s voice was small. “Yes. But if we can track one, a cryptid, and apprehend it, Sasquatch would be removed from the shadows of legends, anecdotal evidence and alleged sightings. The scientific community would have to confront that which my colleagues have known existed for centuries.”

  “Matilda, to prove you’re right is a dangerous undertaking. You realize people will not leave the woods alone if you produce what you’re talking about? Sasquatch will be hunted into extinction, a lot like sharks have nearly been. Also, suddenly, I am having a difficult time with this. It is apparently a killer. Honestly I know how ridiculous I sound, but I thought maybe the numbers were exaggerated or that Bigfoot would turn out to be some benign fluffy monkey. This is taking a turn I didn’t anticipate. And before you ask why I didn’t anticipate it – the answer is I don’t know. I don’t believe in monsters. Or, at least not mythical ones. If this thing is a hybrid of humans then we’re dealing with something that I have been trying to avoid all along, human monsters. That scares the hell outta me.”