Journey Into Darkness – Chapter 1

He had been casting his fly for a half hour without any real conviction when he heard several shots in the distance. Probably some hunters stealing a march on the opening of the season, he presumed. Experience told him that the shots were far enough away to be confident that he would suffer no disturbance from that source. He could not have been more mistaken. His life was about to change. Forever.

His concentration was on his daughter and her mother, and he was thankful for the lack of distraction until a fish unexpectedly struck. He wasn’t particularly excited, but he played the trout for several minutes and finally netted it without so much as a respectable struggle. Both fish and fisherman were in a lazy mood, which suited the man for now. It was a good-sized trout that would feed him well for two meals, maybe three. He could relax for the rest of the day, and maybe tomorrow as well. After cleaning the fish by the river, he made his way back through the bushes to his truck.

The afternoon was spent collecting firewood and digging a pit. His movements were slow and relaxed and he felt the tension beginning to seep out of his body. It made him feel tired and he set up his hammock to relax and think of Lexi. He didn’t want to try to figure out what time it would be for her, but he knew it would have to be at least early afternoon. ‘She’s probably carving something with the Maori,’ he told himself. Her mother would be in her element, convincing herself that she was discovering something earth-shattering about a culture that was so bastardized by crossbreeding that it was unlikely there was a true, full-blooded Maori still walking this planet.

His half a trout was beginning to sizzle in the pan when he heard what sounded like the crack of a branch breaking. He reached for the pepper spray, hoping it was a black bear, rather than a grizzly or a mountain lion. His rifle was still in the truck. He cursed himself for being so careless. The smell of the frying fish had probably brought half of Montana’s big game sniffing around his campsite. He waited for the animal to show itself. Nothing stirred.

Picking up the fry pan containing the fish he carefully moved to the far side of the fire and placed the pan on the ground. He could have thrown the fish into the brush and let the animal find it, but he was reluctant to part with his dinner. If he could get to his rifle before the bear devoured the fish he could have meat for the rest of his holiday. Slowly he backed up to his truck and took the rifle out of the rack above the back window. Loading six shells into the breach he moved back into the middle of his clearing. He could sense that something was lurking in the bushes, but he saw nothing.

“Come on, you son of a bitch,” he yelled, “show yourself!”

There was a rustling to his right and he leveled his rifle at the spot.

“Don’t shoot, Mister,” the girl’s voice cried. “I’m unarmed.”

“Come out where I can see you.”

A young girl, still in her teens, he guessed, came slowly out of the woods with her hands above her head.

“I’m not armed, Mister,” she repeated. She looked terrified.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Cassie. My name’s Cassidy.”

“What are you doing out here, Cassidy?”

“I’m trying to get away from them.” Her voice was trembling.

“Who are you trying to get away from?”

“Those bastards who shot Robbie.”

“Was that those shots I heard this afternoon?”

“Yes. They shot my brother and they were trying to find me.”

 “Who shot your brother, Cassidy?”

“The man they call Diamond. And two of his cronies. They killed our parents and then they came looking for us. Robbie thought we would be safe out here, but they followed us somehow and shot Robbie. He’s my brother.”

“Is he dead, Cassidy?”

“I don’t know. I was down by the river, cleaning myself up. I had to go, you know, and there was no paper, so I washed in the river. That’s when they shot Robbie and I hid in the woods until I was sure they had gone.”

“How did you find me?”

“I saw your smoke about an hour ago and followed it here.”

“Weren’t you worried I might be Diamond and his cronies?”

“Yes, but I had to find out. I have no way of getting out of here. They’ve got our car keys. I was watching you from the woods and I could see you weren’t one of them.”

“It’s hard to hide in the woods. I heard you break a branch.”

“I know, I nearly peed my pants when that happened. The noise was so loud.”

He cracked a half smile at the levity of her remark, considering her situation.”You’re lucky I didn’t have my rifle with me. I might have shot first and asked questions later.”

“Thanks for not doing that.” She looked close to tears again. He could tell that she was feeling fragile from her two close calls.

“Are you hungry, Cassidy?”

“I’m not sure. I hadn’t thought about eating.”

“No, I’m sure you hadn’t. Grab a stump and make yourself comfortable. That trout is almost done and there’s more than enough for two. I’ll heat up some beans to go with it.”

“Thanks, Mister.” She seemed overwhelmingly relieved to have found an ally out here in the woods. “What do people call you?”

“Many things, Cassidy.”

“Is there a nice one?”

“My name’s Trumper,” he said, putting the fry pan back on the fire.

“That’s an unusual name.”

“It suits me.”

“And Cassie suits me better than Cassidy. Do we have a deal?”

“We have a deal, Cassie. Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes.”

The young girl watched in silence as he finished frying the fish and heating the beans. Trumper boiled water he gathered from the stream and made a strong coffee in the pot. He had no milk for the girl so she drank it black. She looked better after devouring her half portion of the trout and the lion’s share of the beans, but she was still visibly shaken. She put her plate down and looked at him. The nourishment seemed to have done her good. There was a look of strength about her.

“Are you going to help me, Mister?”

“Not if you insist on calling me Mister.”

“I’m sorry, I forgot your name.”

“It’s Trumper.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s a hard name to remember.”

“Not if you think about it.”

She thought about it for a moment. When she spoke, it was more a challenge than a question.

“Well, Trumper, are you going to help me?”

“You’ve just eaten half my trout dinner and most of my beans; what do you think?”

“I think I’d like to get away from here as fast as possible,” she said, looking at his truck.

“We have to go back and look for your brother, Cassie.”

“We’ll never find him in the dark.” Dusk was fast relinquishing dominion to the night.

“You’re right. We’ll look for him in the morning.”

“I don’t want to go back there, Trumper. They might be waiting for me.”

“It might be better for you if they are.”

“What are you talking about, man? I don’t want to ever see them again.”

“I’m sure you don’t, Cassie, but I would suggest that the choice is not going to be yours to make.”

“You’re going to force me to go back?”

“No, that choice will be yours. But I will be going to look for your brother in the morning. You can stay here with the truck, if you prefer.”

“I’m not staying out here on my own.”

“A wise decision, Cassie. You’ll be much safer with me.” The girl had obviously come to that conclusion herself.

“What did you mean that the choice would not be mine about seeing those men again?”

“You saw them kill your parents, right?” The girl nodded. “And they know you saw them?” She nodded again. “Then you’re going to see them again, Cassie, dead or alive.”

She thought about what he was saying. She knew he was right.

“Let’s make it dead, then, Trumper.”

Trumper looked at the girl. Her response seemed surprisingly cold.

“I’ll need to know a few facts before I agree to that.”

“What sort of facts?”

“For starters, that they killed your brother.”

“That shouldn’t be hard to establish. He should be getting stiff by the morning.”

The coldness again.

“I thought you weren’t sure if your brother was dead or not?”

“I wasn’t sure, then. But they came out here to kill us both, so I imagine Robbie is done for by now.”

Trumper observed the coolness of the girl once more. It seemed that she now thought herself to be relatively safe with him and there was a resignation about her towards the demise of her family.

“Why did they kill your parents, Cassie?”

“My dad owed them money. A lot of money.”

“And he thought he could get away without paying up?”

“He thought he was smarter than they were.”

“Not an uncommon thing in that business. Did you and your brother help your dad in the business, Cassie?”

“What do you mean?” She looked uncomfortable. Trumper studied her up and down.

“I’d like to look at your arms, Cassie.”

“I don’t do drugs, Mister.”

“Show me.”

She rolled her sleeves up and thrust her arms out towards him with an air of defiance. She looked as clean as the driven snow.

“Satisfied?”

“Yes, Cassie, I’m satisfied that you’re clean. But you did do drops for your father, didn’t you? You and your brother, Robbie?”

“Are you with the Law?”

“Everything out here is off the record, Cassie.”

“So, you are a cop?”

“Not anymore. But that doesn’t concern you. Right now I think you need some sleep. You can take the camper, there’s a single bed made up in there.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to have a look around for a while, then I’ll bunk down in the truck.”

“I’d feel safer if you were with me in the camper.”

“You can lock the door from the inside. If anyone tries to break in I’ll hear them from the truck.”

“They’ll shoot you before they try to get to me.”

“That’s why I’m going to take a look around.”

“I want to come with you.”

“I don’t think so. I’d like to be alive to see the morning.”

“What do you mean?”

“You make too much noise.”

“Oh.” She looked worried.

“It’s alright, Cassie, I won’t be far away. I just want to get a few things set up. Now, you lock the camper door and bunk down, and don’t answer to anyone, unless it’s me. Okay?”

“Okay. And Trumper, thanks.”

It was around one in the morning when he heard them coming. They were making enough noise in the brush to wake a drunken sailor. He watched them as they checked the campsite. He had left the two sets of dishes that he and the girl had used by the fire, which was still smoldering. He wanted to make sure that they would know the girl was with him, if they decided to come looking. They both had flashlights.

Trumper watched them search the cabin of his truck. Satisfied that it was empty, one man motioned to the other to check the camper door. The second man tried the door and shook his head. Trumper smiled. ‘They must think everyone is as dumb as they are.’

He could see them clearly enough as they flashed their torches around. They were carrying handguns, which was probably the only sensible thing they had done. Carrying a rifle and a flashlight through the woods would have been asking for trouble.

The two men began whispering to each other. It was apparent they were deliberating over how they would get inside the camper before the inhabitants could react. One man seemed to suggest they try breaking the door down. The other was favoring shooting through the windows. Trumper decided it was time to act.

“Why don’t you just knock on the door,” he called out.

The two men wheeled around, looking for a target. They flashed their lights in the direction of his voice, but saw nothing.

“Just drop the guns, boys.”

One of them started firing and the other tried to dart behind the truck. Trumper took him down with a single shot of his rifle.

“Drop the gun!” he ordered the man still standing. The response was a barrage of gunfire in his direction. Trumper remained silent and the man stopped firing and stood still, listening to see if there was any sign of life from Trumper’s position. He was an easy target and Trumper blew the gun and half his hand away with his first shot and then put a bullet in each of his legs. The man screamed as he lay writhing on the ground. The light from his flashlight, which he had dropped, illuminated his body.

Trumper made his way slowly to the fallen men. The first was dead, with blood seeping from the wound in his chest. The second man now seemed to be in shock. He was moaning quietly and bleeding heavily from his shattered hand and both legs. Trumper knocked on the door of the camper.

“Cassidy, it’s Trumper. It’s safe to come out now.”

The girl slowly opened the door and looked out at the carnage. Trumper had the men’s flashlights pointing in their direction.

“There’s only two of them. There should be a third.”

“Is either of these two the man called Diamond?”

She came down from the camper and walked over to the first man, picking up his gun from beside the body.

“He’s dead.” Then she walked over to the other man, who was still conscious, but barely so. She pointed the gun at his head and fired. “So is this one,” and she dropped the gun by his body.

“That was not a wise thing to do, Cassie.”

“They murdered my family.”

“It was not wise to use his gun. Now we’re going to have to dispose of the bodies.”

“Why don’t we leave them for the bears? I’m sure they’ll appreciate them.”

“There’s a shovel in the truck. Get it and I’ll find a spot in the underbrush.”

It took them nearly two hours to bury the bodies. Trumper wiped the first man’s gun clean of fingerprints before placing both weapons and the flashlights in the grave.

“We’ll look for your brother as soon as it gets light. I don’t think that man Diamond is going to bother us tonight. See if you can get some sleep. I’ll be in the truck.”

“It’ll be safe for you to sleep in the camper now.”

“No, it won’t,” and he ushered her back to the camper before locking himself in his truck.

The young girl couldn’t remember which direction she had come from when they tried to re-trace her steps to where her brother had been shot. Trumper had a rough idea from the sound of the shots from the previous afternoon, but he couldn’t judge how far off the shots were. Just a degree or two off course and they would miss the spot altogether.

“Does anything look familiar, Cassie?” They had been searching a wide area for nearly an hour.

“It all looks the same to me. I’m sorry, Trumper. At first I just crawled through the brush until I was out of sight, then I ran until I was exhausted. I stayed hidden until I saw the smoke from your fire.”

“And it took you an hour to find me?”

“No, it was less than that.”

“I thought you said it was an hour?”

“It was an hour until you heard me tread on that branch. I had been watching you for a good twenty minutes to make sure you were alone.”

“That was smart, but it would have been helpful if you had told me that before we started looking for your brother. We’re going to have to back-track to find him.”

“There was a little stream just down an embankment from the car. That’s where I was washing myself when they shot Robbie.”

“Okay, we’ll start with that.”

They had been re-tracing their steps for half an hour when they heard moving water off to their right. Suddenly the girl saw something.

“That’s our car!” she cried excitedly. There, thirty feet away, was a pale blue sedan that had been poorly hidden in the trees. Trumper could see part of a body a short distance beyond the vehicle.

“You’d better stay here, Cassie. Keep this gun with you, but don’t use it unless you have to. I want you to keep out of sight.”

“You think Diamond may have come back?”

“I don’t want you to take any chances.”

“What about you?”

“I’m just a hunter looking for game. There’s no need for anyone to suspect that I’m helping you.”

The explanation seemed to satisfy the girl and she shrank back into the woods, out of sight of the car. Trumper made his way slowly to the vehicle, watching for any movement in the trees. As he approached the car he saw what he was expecting. A large grizzly was standing over the boy’s body.

Trumper yelled at the beast and it turned to confront the intruder. When it saw him it stood up to make itself tall and snarled menacingly. Trumper put a .33 caliber bullet in its heart. The monstrous beast took two steps toward him and collapsed. When he was sure the bear was no longer a threat Trumper moved forward to look at the body.

It was, indeed, the remains of a young man. Most of the clothing had been torn away and part of the upper body had been devoured.

“Trumper?” The girl sounded anxious after hearing the shot. “Are you alright?”

“Stay there, Cassie. Your brother’s dead.”

“I’m coming to make sure it’s him.”

“It’s him, Cassie. Stay where you are. We’re going back to my truck to get the shovel to bury him.” He made his way quickly back to the girl before she could approach her brother’s body, what was left of it.

“Can’t we take him back with us? I don’t want to leave him out here.”

“There’ll be more bears around, and probably mountain lions. We can’t carry his body out of here.”

“Let’s at least put him in the car to keep him safe.”

“He’s dead, Cassie. There’s nothing to keep safe. We have to get away from here before our lives are in danger as well.”

“We’re going to come back to bury him, though?” Her eyes were pleading with him. He had to get her away from there before she saw what the bear had done to her brother’s body.

“Yes, Cassie, we’ll come back to bury him.”

It took them less than half an hour to make it back to his truck. He knew the way and he guided her expertly through the trees and undergrowth.

“You stay here,” he told her, taking the shovel from the truck. “I should be back in a couple of hours.”

“I don’t want to stay here on my own.”

“I’m not taking you back there, Cassie. It’s too dangerous.”

“Because of the bears?”

“And possibly mountain lions.”

“Then it’s going to be just as dangerous for you. You’ll need me to cover you while you bury Robbie.”

“I’ll take my chances, but I want you to stay here.”

“I’m not staying here on my own. If anything happens to you I’ll never find my way out of here.”

“If I’m not back in three hours you take my truck and drive back along this path. Eventually you’ll find your way back to a road.”

“No, Trumper, I’m not going to let you leave me.”

“I’m not taking you back there, Cassie.”

“Then we’ll leave him and get out of here right now. You’re sure he’s dead?”

“He’s dead, Cassie.”

“What was that grizzly doing out there?”

“Checking to make sure your brother was dead.”

“Then what was it going to do?”

“It doesn’t matter what it was going to do. The bear is dead.”

“There’ll be other bears. You said that.”

“That’s why I need to go back and bury him.”

“No, Trumper, let’s leave him. I want to get out of here, right now.”

They drove in silence along the rough path which had been hewn out of the underbrush by hundreds of vehicles carrying fishermen and hunters to the stream where Trumper had camped. As they came to a bend another vehicle came in the opposite direction. Trumper pulled quickly off the path on the wrong side, to the right of the oncoming vehicle. The other driver did not react and there was nearly a collision. Trumper looked back and saw the vehicle’s brake lights illuminate.

“Now he decides to brake.”

“That was him, Trumper!”

“Who was it, Cassie?”

“It was him! The man they call Diamond!”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Of course I’m sure about it! I’ll never forget his face. He was looking straight at me.”

“Does he know you to look at?”

“What do you mean?”

“Would he recognize you as a member of the family he has murdered?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t want to find out.”

“I’m with you there. Let’s get out of here.”

He drove as fast as the trail would permit, but not as fast, he imagined, as a desperate man would be willing to risk. He saw his opportunity and pulled sharply off the rough path and into the trees.

“What are you doing?”

“Waiting.”                      

“This is not a good time to be waiting. What if he did recognize me and turns around to follow us?”

“That’s why I’m waiting.”

“What are you going to do if he is following us?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not he notices where we pulled off the path.”

“Are you going to shoot him if he does?”

“If I have to.”

“You do have to, Trumper. You have to kill him. Please, or he’ll kill me.”

“I’m not going to let him kill you, Cassie.”

She looked at him. She was making a decision.

“You can have me, Trumper, if you kill him for me.”

“And what would that make me?”

“Very happy.” He didn’t respond. “I’ll let you do whatever you want, Trumper. Anything. I promise. I won’t mind what you do. Just kill that bastard before he gets me.”

He looked past her to the trail through the trees. Her hand reached out to his leg and moved up his thigh. He pushed it away.

“Don’t be stupid. Do you want to get us both killed?”

“Kill him for me, Trumper. Then we won’t have to worry about him anymore. It’ll only be you and me.”

Just then they heard a vehicle approaching from behind them. Trumper leaned back and took the rifle down from the rack They looked through the trees to see the SUV roar past them. The driver had obviously not expected them to turn off the path.

“I won’t have to kill him, the way he’s driving.” “What are you going to do now?” The SUV had disappeared. “He might be waiting for us further on.” “There’s another way out of here. It’s about two miles down the trail. It’s rough and hilly. That SUV would never make it out that way. We’ll be safe, Cassie, I promise you.” Trumper felt uncomfortable. For possibly the first time in his adult life he did not feel confident that he would be able to keep his promise.