The Last of the Twenty: The Setting of the Board

Chapter 19

“My God…” Daniel muttered to himself, looking at the gruesome scene before him.

He was standing next to the district wildlife manager, both doing what they could to stay out of the way of the police working the scene and trying to hold down their breakfast at the same time. The morning had quickly heated up and the area was buzzing with a mixture of swarms of insects and people, mostly police.

 Daniel had seen a lot in his life, done a lot of hunting, seen the messy results of animals taking on large moving vehicles and even seen a crash or two on his own. This was something else entirely. The smell was unlike anything he had ever encountered, sickeningly sweet and rotten at the same time. The body was on the ground about thirty feet in front of him, or at least most of it was. He had been torn apart and scattered, the biggest piece left intact was his torso and head, the rest had been ripped off and scattered. Only half of the boy’s face remained attached to the skull, the rest had been torn, or chewed off. In fact, it was hard for Daniel to imagine that he had been human at all.

 One of the photographers working the scene turned pale and ran off somewhere behind Daniel and vomited just outside the taped off area. Apparently that spot had become the official site to relieve oneself of his breakfast, as another officer soon repeated the photographer’s actions. After he was finished he walked over to them wiping his mouth and looking very pale himself. “What could have done something like this? I’ve seen animal attacks before but nothing like this, nothing this brutal,” the officer asked.

“I really don’t know,” the wildlife manager said, “this isn’t the behavior of any animal I’ve ever heard of around here, we can’t find any tracks either.” He looked over to Daniel for help, his face showing little hope of a positive answer. “You’ve lived here your entire life, right? You ever see anything like this?”

“Never,” he said shaking his head, “not here and not up north either. Tell the truth I can’t think of anyplace that something like this has happened, at least that I know of. I just don’t see why someone would be ripped apart and left out like this instead of dragged off. Look at where we are, it almost feels like he was meant to be found.” He gestured over to the hiking trail about fifty feet to their left.

“You’re right about that, I was thinking the same thing. The problem is, who would possibly be strong enough to tear someone apart like that? It has to be a pack of wolves or maybe a bear gone rabid. I’ve never seen anything so brutal in my life,” the officer admitted.

The three stood in silence for a few minutes looking at the scene. The only sounds were that of other officers softly talking quietly and cameras going off, mixed with the buzzing of the clouds of insects flying around the woods. With nothing more to do than look at the grisly mess, Daniel tried to think of some reason to get out of there, thankfully the wildlife manager spoke up for them both.

“Well, we’re going to get out of here and get some people organized. No need for us to stay here and screw up your crime scene. We’ll close the trails down and get some search parties out and try to find what did this so we can track it down and kill it. We’ll let you know what’s going on every step of the way. What are you going to tell the papers about this?”

“Animal attack under investigation I guess, but honestly I have no idea. That’s above my pay grade. This is a first for me, and hopefully a last. I never want to see anything like this again. Makes some of the car accidents I’ve seen in my nightmares look tame.” He shook his head and they shook hands, then the wildlife manager looked at Daniel and nodded. Both of them headed back to their trucks in silence, neither wanting to talk about what they just saw.

“I just don’t know, never seen anything like it….” Daniel said to him just before getting into his own truck.

He turned to Daniel and shook his head. “All I know is it’s going to be a long summer. And just between you and me, what I saw back there has me scared to death.”