Animal Nature

Chapter 1

"David! DAVID!"

Shyanne Brown stretched her voice and still the trees muffled it.

Her brother Billy's voice echoed in the sky. "Dave! Can you hear me?" A rifle slung over one shoulder, Billy strode through the forest sending up a thunder of cracking twigs and dry leaves. Everyone could hear Billy.

But where was David?

Shy drifted to the left of the search party, her eyes scanning the endless forest. She didn't know how they would ever find him. No signs of civilization. No signs of anything human. No signs of David.

"Shy! Stay with the group!"

The voice of her father. Shy trudged back to the search party. "We don't need you getting lost, too."

"I know," Shy said.

The group of about thirty people moved in a long line, sweeping through the forest. Darkness crept into the spaces between the trees. "We're going to have to head in," said one of the officers. Shy couldn't tell from his tan uniform whether he was a police officer or a forest ranger. "It's getting too dark."

"My son's out there!"

When Shy finally located Mrs. Lupien in the dark, she had her head buried in the shoulder of the man Dave had resented so much. "We'll find him," Dave's stepfather told her.

"Ma'am, it's getting too dark to see anything, and I think we're all exhausted. There's already another search party waiting with flashlights. It'll be more helpful if you get some rest and begin searching again in the morning. If your son's still alive, he can survive the night."

"If he's still alive?" Mrs. Lupien gave a half-strangled cry.

Shy glanced at Jeff and Greg. The two boys watched her with wide eyes. It had been Jeff and Greg who had been emerged from the forest earlier that morning, pale and shaking, telling tales of a wild animal that had attacked their campsite. Jeff and Greg who had last seen David, running from this animal. Yet they couldn't even identify the animal.

"It was big, and gray, like a wolf," Jeff said.

"It wasn't a wolf," Greg scorned his friend. "You ever hear of a wolf that big? I don't know what it was. A bear or a mountain lion or something."

"No, it was definitely some kind of dog. Maybe a coyote. Are those bigger than wolves?"

"It jumped through the campfire. What kind of animal does that? I think it had rabies or something. You saw the campsite."

The search party had met at the campsite. Shy had stared at the destruction strewn about the clearing. The tent shredded, sleeping bags torn apart and fluff balls of cotton scattered. The coolers stocked with a two-day supply of organic vegetarian food left untouched. And an ominous trail of blood leading northeast.

The blood trail had ended about seven miles back, less than a mile from the campsite. There, amid clumps of gray fur, lay a torn pair of David's boxer shorts.

"Yeah, that's what he was wearing," Jeff had explained. "He was changing in the tent right when that thing attacked."

"What does this mean?" Her quiet voice hadn't reached the ears of the other search party members, or so she gathered, because no one answered her. Everyone had stared silently at the flimsy plaid fabric. Even the search dogs had fallen quiet, unable to pick up a scent.

Now, as the sunlight faded behind the trees, Shy felt that same dread again. Like maybe David was dead out there in the forest.

"Are you okay?"

Shy jumped at Billy's sudden hand on her shoulder. "I... I'm fine," she said.

"Hey, sis, I understand. I'm sure your boyfriend's not dead. We'll find him tomorrow. Or if not, the next day."

"David's not my boyfriend."

"Right, sure." Billy chuckled and hefted his rifle to the other shoulder. "Anyway, the ranger said most missing persons are found in the first three days. After that, they're most likely dead."

Shy's throat closed up. She struggled to breathe.

Billy pounded her on the back. "I'm gonna go catch up with Dad."

As her brother loped off, Shy felt her arms shaking, but luckily Jeff was there at her elbow. "It's okay," Jeff said. "I'm worried, too."

And as long as Jeff was crying, Shy let her own tears fall too.

* * *

Elsie Adams cast the tiny beam from her flashlight in every direction. Panic was beginning to set in. She wasn't sure how she had lost the rest of the rescue group, but she had. Not ten minutes ago she'd called out, "Bill! I saw something!" She'd thought her husband and daughter Ashley were right behind her. But now, she couldn't even hear the group. "Bill? Bill! Ashley! Where are you?"

Light from the full moon filtered through the thick pines, casting a ghostly bluish glow over the forest. The flashlight didn't penetrate more than thirty feet into the darkness.

After a good five minutes of walking back in the direction she thought she'd come, Elsie saw a fallen tree and decided to rest. Her middle-aged body didn't have the stamina it used to, although Elsie was fairly active. She coached her other daughter Jamie's softball team, and went for long walks with her husband almost every evening. Still, forty-five was too old for midnight hikes in the woods.

From deep in the forest came a cracking of twigs. Elsie strained her eyes in the direction of the sound, but even with the flashlight she could see nothing. "Bill! I'm over here!" she yelled. Silence responded to her calls.

Another crackling, but closer. Suddenly Elsie thought of that campsite. Everything ripped apart, and blood trailing off. She shivered. It was September now, though it had felt like summer early in the day. Elsie wore only a T-shirt covered by a light hooded sweatshirt. Most animals didn't attack humans, right? Maybe bears, but Elsie didn't have a campsite full of food to attract any of those. And the other two boys on the camping trip had described the animal as more wolf-like.

Somewhere back in her mind a wealth of knowledge about wolves came forth. Small villages in Poland and Germany had been plagued by wolf attacks in the 1500s. Livestock, as well as the stray villager, were brutally killed by wolves. People had even been tortured and burned under suspicion of being werewolves.

Now where had she read that? Must have been one of the silly horror novels she used to read in her twenties. "The Howling" was still one of her favorite movies, despite how cheesy it was.

A snap, from right behind her.

Elsie jumped up and swung her flashlight in the direction of the noise, but her middle-aged movements were too slow. Fur and fangs were all she saw of the thing that attacked her.