Silas: A Supernatural Thriller (18 page)

“Um,” said the boy, his voice small and insignificant. “Do you know where you’re going?”

I stopped in my tracks and replied without turning around. “Of course not. I just woke up here yesterday. And I had to spend the night out in the woods, which isn’t my idea of a good time. So excuse me if I’m a bit cranky.”

“You were outside all night?” I peeked over my shoulder and saw the amazed expression on the kid’s face.

“Yup,” I said, “and like I said, it wasn’t fun. And this isn’t fun, either. So excuse me, but we gotta go.”

“You shouldn’t go off on your own. Even with your new
gi-faht
to protect you, it isn’t safe.”

“You got a better idea?”

“Well, where do you
want
to go?”

I sighed, swung my body around, and approached the kid again. “I don’t know. I’m tired and freaking starving. My dog and I need to eat.” I chewed my lip for a moment and added, “If you can get us somewhere that we can sit down and chow, maybe I’ll stick around.”

The boy cracked a smile once more. “I can do that,” he said. “Follow me.”

He ushered us onward with a wave of his hand, leading us into the forest. I glanced at Silas, who of course was oblivious of any strangeness, and followed the youngster’s lead.

When we reached the darkened area beneath the canopy the boy swept aside a thickly-packed thatch of ferns and dead limbs, revealing a beaten path on the other side. He stepped through the makeshift gateway, holding back the brush for us. Once my sore feet landed on the soft dirt, I decided it best to try and make nice with our new guide.

“Sorry for being bitchy, kid,” I said. “Didn’t mean any disrespect. My name’s Ken, by the way Ken Lowery. How about you?”

The kid nodded. “Kaiser.”

“Just Kaiser? Nothing else?”

Again he nodded. “Never needed more of a name than that.”

“Oh.”

We kept on walking in silence after that. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but didn’t. Somehow I knew that whatever answers I’d be given would be unsatisfactory, but after a little while I reconsidered. There was one thing that I simply had to know.

“So, Kaiser,” I said. “That wolf back there – the lupine, you called him – what
was
it?”

Kaiser chuckled and spoke while keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead. “
It’s
a
he
. He’s the protector of this territory, appointed so by his master.”

“And who would his master be?”

The kid stared at me as if he was afraid to answer. “You,” he finally replied. “Wait. No, not you. Paul.”

“And who’s Paul?”

“My friend. Our father. The one who found us and gave us a home, a purpose. The greatest man I’ve ever met.” Kaiser gazed up at me with tears in his eyes. “I’ve missed you…him so much since he’s been gone. I’m sorry I keep slipping, Mr. Ken. It’s just that you look so much like him.”

“That’s okay,” I said, trying to be understanding though I couldn’t come to grips with anything that was going on. “What happened to him, to Paul? Why did he go away?”

“He died. A little over a cycle ago.”

“And so this lupine was, what, Paul’s soldier or something?”

“Oh, no,” said Kaiser with a shake of his head. “The lupine was Paul’s
gi-faht
. His life companion.” He looked down at Silas. “Much like yours.”

“Oh.”

“And lupine isn’t really his name. It is simply a title given his race by the
borderfolk
. I simply don’t feel comfortable using the name you gave him.” The kid didn’t seem to realize his slip of the tongue, but I let him carry on without correcting him. “You gave him a proper name, he being your
gi-faht
and fated to you for life.”

“Oh yeah? And what name would that be?”

“Nicholas. Nicholas Goodman.”

The only word that I could say next was, “Oh.”

26

S
o I’ve fallen into some rift in the space time continuum. That’s gotta be it. In one reality Nick Goodman’s a murdering pedophile electrician, and in the other he’s a giant wolf that parallel me kept as a pet. So now I’m here to…to what? Does Nick want me to come back and be his poppa? Is that why Silas acted so weird around him?

These were my thoughts as the boy Kaiser led Silas and me through the forest of gigantic trees. We climbed up the mountain until the land leveled out, and that’s when I saw the first bastion of normalcy, of home. It was a decayed wood-and-brick building, overgrown with weeds. A tree sprouted from the center of the roof, whose shingles had rotted into a thin layer of sludge. As we drew closer I could see through the smashed windowpanes and into the interior. I hoped to see some sign of civilization, but instead there was only more foliage. It looked like the place had been deserted for hundreds of years.

When we passed the shack by, we came upon a tall pole that sprouted a pair of steel arms fixed with pulleys at the top. I’d never been much of a skier, but Wendy had convinced me to come out more than once to experience the exhilaration of constantly falling on my ass. There was no doubt I was staring at part of a chairlift.

“So, you know what that is?” I asked Kaiser.

“A leftover from the old world,” the kid replied. “Paul told us it used to be a shrine to the
Forgotten Ways
.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. People would strap planks of wood to their feet and glide down the slope. It was a ritual of self-discovery, Paul used to say. Back in the time before the Rising, back when ice fell from the sky and turned the mountain white.”

“It’s called skiing,” I said.

“That’s what you call it,” answered Kaiser, “We call it History.”

Silas yelped as if he didn’t like the matter-of-fact tone of the kid’s voice. I wished I could join him in that irritation, but I was too flabbergasted by everything that’d happened to feel anything but wonder.

The sun reached its zenith, turning the day into another scorcher. We started heading down the other side of the mountain, which was a good thing. Hungry and parched as we were, I didn’t think either Silas or I would’ve lasted much longer climbing in that heat.

The stroll downhill was amazing yet frightening. The trees thinned out until there were none to be found. Tall grasses surrounded us, three feet tall and swaying. With no trees, the horizon opened up. It was a desolate, prairie-like landscape, with those tall grasses, small shrubs, and strange, cactus-like plants. It was a vast, wide, and downward sloping land, and at the base sat a great lake of shimmering topaz. I could see steam rise all around me as the huge sun baked the earth. The setting seemed prehistoric. I imagined a pack of
Velociraptors
sprinting across the fields of tall grasses ala
Jurassic
Park
, and my stomach tied in knots.

Sure, it was a nonsensical fear, but given the circumstances I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

After two hours of hiking through the blistering heat, our journey came to an end at the water’s edge. I stood on the bank with Silas at my side. The lake itself was huge, stretching out as far as the eye could see in either direction. The water which had looked so crystalline from above now had a murky, grayish tint. It looked polluted.

“Where do we go now?” I asked.

“There,” replied Kaiser, pointing at a thin smudge of land on the other side of the lake, barely noticeable through a thick layer of fog that cut the horizon in half.

“Of course,” I sighed.

The boy smiled. “It’s not so bad, Mister Ken.”

That’s one hell of a swim
, I thought. I glanced at Silas, thankful he was both young and a natural swimmer. I’d brought him to the lake back home on numerous occasions and knew that, with the energy he had, he’d have a much easier time getting across than I would. Judging by the distance, it would probably take an hour or more to traverse – if exhaustion and hunger didn’t drag me under first. I rolled my eyes. At least my clothes wouldn’t get wet, seeing as I wasn’t wearing any.

“Here’s goes nothing,” I muttered. “Let’s go, boy.”

I stepped one foot into the water. It was warmer than a spa. “Damn, that’s hot,” I said. I thought I heard someone scream behind me, but I had the other foot in before I could reply.

The water rippled a few feet in front of me. I stared at the undulation, and soon more swells joined the first, creating a battalion of circular billows, until the entire lake was a giant boiling pot. A giant form burst through the surface, dark green and thickly cylindrical, its hide shimmering with moisture. The thing lifted farther out of the water until it hovered four feet over my head. The creature then bent like a pipe cleaner in my direction, revealing a circular mouth as wide as its body. Spirals of teeth lined the orifice and a proboscis jutted forth from the center, affixed with a spike dripping green fluid.

More of these same creatures emerged, hundreds of them, all facing my direction. I couldn’t move, only stare wide-eyed at these unbelievable and frightening things as they closed in on me, gliding slowly but with purpose across the water.

Teeth dug into my shin. My locked state shattered and I fought against the invader, knowing that one of those things was trying to pull me in and devour me. Then a slimy, surprisingly strong arm wrapped around my neck and yanked me backward. I fell hard, landing on the lake’s rocky bank with a thud. Though I was on dry land, the teeth digging into my leg didn’t let up.

I rolled to my back and lifted my head. Kaiser stood above me, hunched over and panting. His unkempt hair dangled in front of his eyes. Silas saw me looking up and released my poor lower leg from his jaws. He leapt onto my chest and licked my face. His weight knocked the breath out of me, but in my condition I had no choice but to take it.

When Silas finished his love fest, I offered Kaiser a weak salute and mumbled, “Thanks.”

Kaiser sat down beside me, crossed his legs, and sighed. He brushed his hair aside, revealing a morose grin. “No problem,” he said. “But please don’t do that again.”

I propped myself up on my elbows and stared at the lake. The creatures were gone, and the water no longer rippled. It was as if the strange, worm-like monstrosities had been figments of my obviously overworked imagination. I looked at the frazzled boy. “What happened?” I asked him.

Kaiser gazed out at the tranquil water. “The blood larva can’t see or feel on their own. They rely on the water to live, to guide them. They can sense an animal’s essence the instant its body breaks the surface…no matter how small.”

“But what
are
they?” I implored.

He shrugged. “Predators. You…Paul said they arrived soon after the Rising. All I know is they’ve owned the inland waters for as long as I’ve been alive.”

I petted Silas’s matted fur, troubled by the fact the kid kept calling me someone else. There I was, in a screwed-up world in which the sun was as big as a gong, there was beachfront property in Vermont, wolves the size of grizzly bears who were actually serial killers in another world stalked me, and man-eating worms who could smell blood from miles away lived in the waters, and yet the thing that bothered me most was the fact this Mad Max refugee kept calling me “Paul?” As misplaced priorities went, I guess that one topped the list.

I shook my head.
Let’s just get on with this.