The First

Chapter 20

Ross parked behind two sheriff deputies' cars and a bundle of state troopers' vehicles. Flashlights bounced as the men hauled ass down the embankment. Tracer rounds zipped across the river from the automatic AR-15's being fired from this side.

The officer had spoken in broken jargon, most likely into a hand-held radio while running. He'd said, "Little...g...jump...river...lost her." Ross thought he'd said a little girl jumped into the river and they lost her. From what he'd heard on the news and his debriefing, the creatures could take a licking and keep on ticking, like a damn Timex Watch.

He pulled the riot shotgun from its case on his back seat. A little something he'd snaked from headquarters in Portland. He'd be damned if he was going up against one of these things with his government-issued Glock 9mm. That would be like whipping out his dick in a knife fight. No way in hell. With resolve, he snapped the flashlight into position under the barrel. When he stepped out from the vehicle, he checked his sidearm and ammunition.

On his way down the hill, not twenty feet from the car, his right shoe stuck in the mud and came off.

"Shit."

He wobbled on his left leg. Probably could have used a change of shoes. Then he reached his foot back into the murk behind him, slipped it into his shoe and yanked.

After he tied his shoe he pulled his handheld radio from its belt clip. "This is Harris. I'm on my way down. Where are you guys?"

"Down the hill," the same deputy crackled.

"No shit, Sherlock. Where are you in relation to the cars?"

"That would be southwest. I'm staying put, the rest are tracking the girl from this side of the river."

Why had he said this side of the river? Maybe she swam across? Damn. He'd hoped she couldn't swim.

After working his way through another thicket, he saw the bobbing flashlight of the officer.

"I'm right here." Ross clicked his flashlight on and off.

"Hey, secret agent man." The deputy, who looked no wider than a bus stop pole, was startled, but he laughed as Ross busted through the last set of bushes. "Uh ... the trail's right there." He pointed his flashlight about seven feet to the left of where Ross stood.

"Son of a ..." He grimaced at the kid. "Tell me everything."

"Not much to tell other than we saw a suspicious person hiding in the bushes and stopped to check it out. That's when we noticed the little girl."

"How little?"

"Maybe eleven, twelve at the most, but she was stark raving necked."

"Did she look deformed?"

"Other than a set of halogen-like glowing eyes, she looked like any other girl her age, rose buds and everything."

Ross ignored the remark. "Then what happened?"

"She took off. Faster than I ever seen anyone move in my life; a blur of flesh. When I came around the corner ..." He shined his flashlight on the trail again. "... she'd already jumped."

"Into the water." Ross mused.

"No, Sir. Across the damn river."

Ross whipped his light over the swift water of the Willamette River and shook his head. "No way, that's at least fifty yards, if not more." He scratched his chin as if it would help him judge the distance between the shore he stood on and the embankment where the deputy said the girl landed.

"I ain't shittin' you, Agent. She jumped the entire thing. Where do you think she's heading?"

Ross put his hand on the deputy's shoulder. "Not sure. Looks like she's headed toward Independence or Monmouth."

"I don't know man, but these fuckin' things are startin' to give me the heebie-jeebies. If she has the power in her legs to clear the river, how strong are her arms? And from what I've seen of the carnage they leave behind, they have wolverine sharp claws. Like Wolverine's claws in the X-men."

"No." Ross outlined a chunk of a tree she'd taken out. "Like in wildlife, claws sharp enough to tear through a bear. A real wolverine can tear through a bear like butter that's sat out all night in a warm house."

"Shit." The deputy kneeled and examined a footprint in the mud. "Look how small."

"I know." Ross pulled out his cell phone and dialed his boss. This news had to become public.

"Ya gonna call them wolverines?"

"Nope. They have a name. They're called, tri-alleles."

"Well, that's a stupid name."

"Tell that to my scientist. She might tear your heart out herself. I've shortened the name to Trills. That easier for you?"

"Yup, much easier than the ter-allie name." The two men shared a laugh as the phone rang at the other end.

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