The Serpent and the Crow

Book 1: Chapter Four

The search party couldn't rely on air support as the ponderosa pines had a thick canopy. The men grew tired. However, they were family men driven to seek hope for the Harding family, as they would've wanted if it was their own child in the wilderness.

Wade saw Doug stumbling through the brush. A heavy foot bred a heavy casualty. Wade knew this all too well.

"You should rest. You're done."

"I'll tell you when I'm done, Wade."

"I ain't hauling your ass back to base camp if you collapse. It's a long way, and you're too big for the stretcher these folks are carrying."

Douglas laughed, "I doubt you could lift anything."

He was right. Wade could hula-hoop through a mini doughnut.

The thicket was growing troublesome as if it wanted the men to stop pursuing their unknown quarry. It was a place that was hard to traverse, and pack-animals couldn't make the journey.

A few of the younger lads thrashed through the brush with their machetes. A cacophony of barking resounded through the valley farther ahead. Men were screaming. They had found something.

Douglas and Wade pushed on up the steep incline that got more vertical with each step. At one point, it felt like the team were climbing on all fours up the hill.

Douglas noticed a murder of crows circling in a familiar flying pattern. A sure sign that death was close. They reached the peak of the summit. Wade's eyes opened wide in shock and disbelief. Men were swatting away crows feasting on remains.

The morbid scene captivated Wade. The pair looked up. High up was a loft made of pine branches, bound by twine and rope. Blood seeping through the packed wooden platform. The crows descended in swarms to feast on whatever laid on top.

Douglas clicked his walkie. He said, "We've found the girl, two miles north past the boundaries of quadrant ten. I will set flares-Mark my position. Send forensics and men with crampons. Over."

"It might take a long time before they're able to get here. I can get up there just fine."

"Don't be a fucking fool; that's a long way up, and you'll contaminate the scene."

"What if she's still alive?"

Douglas never thought of that. He assumed she was already carrion food. But he knew it would look bad if the girl was alive but died in transit because no one bothered to check.

Douglas nodded, and Wade took off his high visibility clothing and his shirt. He grabbed a man's axe. He splintered a few makeshift boards from the stretcher.

He asked if any of the men had any experience in tree felling. Wade chose the fittest of the bunch, a kid by the name of Kit Coulson. Seventeen. Wire-framed. He was made for hard labour. Plus, everyone wore boots. Kit wore red converse shoes which would make it easier to climb.

Wade and Kit ascended the tree as far as they could by branches. A man in a black hooded trench coat watched, but in the darkness of the tree canopy.

Once it became impossible to climb without aid, Wade asked for the axe to be thrown up the tree. He caught the axe. Wade spat in the palms of his hands and hacked at the trunk.

Wade made a hacked slit where he jammed a board from the stretcher into it. Wade examined to see if it was secure.

Douglas' heart skipped a beat when Wade leapt and ascended the board he just jammed into the tree. It held Wade's weight.

Kit passed up more splintered boards to Wade. Wade balanced on the stepping platform he stood upon and repeated the process.

Wade helped Kit up to the loft. Wade used the sweaty bandana he wore on his forehead and wrapped it around his face to block out the putrid smell.

Kit looked at the macabre crime scene and threw up his breakfast burrito. Wade couldn't blame the kid, for what they both saw was horrendous.

Katie's wrists and ankles were shackled to each corner of the loft. The other hand was on the ground. The killer had cut her open with Y shaped incisions and sewn her shut again. Her flesh hung by sinew and bone, a likely contribution to the crows wheeling in the sky above.

Douglas said, "Is it her?"

"Yeah, I don't know... I can't tell."

Kit said, "Good God-almighty, who would do this?"

Wade said, "More like how? It's a long way up."

"Oh God, detective. I think I'm going to hurl again."

And, sure enough, Kit Coulson hurled the lunch burrito given out at check-point Charlie.

Wade saw the dead girl's jaw opening. A hissing noise reverberating through the girl's vocal cords. The crows fled in synchrony. Black crow feathers littered the air around Wade and the Kit.

A Diamondback slid out and over Katie's swollen tongue. The black diamond scales brushed against Katie's teeth. Her little jaw widened at the girth of the snake. The snake's mandible revealed fangs and its forked tongue.

Kit passed out. He fell and hit a few branches on the way down. Men at ground level scattered as a horrific thud echoed through the valley.

Wade drew and shot his Colt. The hallow-point exploded the serpent's head into strings of confetti. One half of the snake's body writhed inside Katie's mouth, in its final death throes. Derringer waited for his heart to stop beating so hard.

Wade saw Douglas and a few men trying to revive Kit. But Kit's converse shoes were now touching his head. Folded like a discarded marionette. He's dead. The same look Kit had was the same Katie had. It was clear that both died in sheer terror.