Page 2 of Secrets Within Us

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Lying in bed, I tried to sleep off yet another alcohol-induced stupor when a piercing scream woke me out of a dead sleep. I froze, staying as still as possible, trying to quiet any noise as I strained my ears to hear it again from my bedroom.

I stopped breathing completely, waiting for it to prove to myself that it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. Living in silence and solitude like I did, could make a man second guess his gut after long enough. Even someone like me with the particular set of skills I possessed.

But then, on the next gust of wind, that shrill scream found me again through the walls of my cabin.

I swung my feet from my bed and into my boots in one swift motion, one that came from muscle memory after years of repetition. Even though hours ago I’d hardly been able to crawl up the stairs to my bed. Crossing the room, I pulled my flannel on as I headed towards the stairs. When my boots hit the wood floor downstairs, Endeavor, my giant Cane Corso dog, stood by the door waiting for me already.

I quickly had my sidearm holstered and my jacket on, as I grabbed my rifle and threw the door open.

Dev shot off the porch with his nose to the ground as I paused at the edge, listening again for that pained wail.

I was confident it was a human scream, not an animal, though I could have been wrong. The wind was whipping around me, covering me with snow rapidly as the storm raged on overhead.

Dev stopped sniffing and tuned his ears in as he looked around. He was trying frantically to figure out the direction it came from. Once more, the echoed pain pierced the air, but it reverberated off all the trees around me as I tried to pinpoint a direction or even a distance.

But it was impossible.

The storm was too strong to be sure of anything. I looked over at Endeavor as he stared back at me, but even his ears couldn’t pinpoint where the noise came from.

“We can’t chance it boy, we could both get killed in the storm and we don’t even know which way to go.” I sighed, slumping back into the house, leaving the front door open for him to follow when he was ready.

I shucked off my now completely covered outer clothes and walked over to the large fireplace to throw a few more logs on as the fog of the whiskey fell back over my mind and the adrenaline slowed down in my veins.

Who would be out in the storm so strong? There were no other houses or even camps within a twenty-mile radius, which was why I chose the property to isolate myself from the world and avoid interacting with anyone. Yet someone had tried to face off with Mother Nature. And by the time I got out there at first light, they’d be a popsicle.

If the bears and wolves didn’t get to them first.

Dev came back in shortly after me and curled up by the fire as I shut and locked the front door once more before leaning back in my recliner. I stayed out of bed in case something else happened before morning. I wanted to be ready in case there was a chance to help the poor soul.

After laying there for hours, listening for more screams, sleep pulled me under aided by the liquor I drank. Because the night was silent, and the screams had stopped.

There was one thing I’d learned in my disastrous life; the silence could be more deafening than a scream.

I woke again before the first light as I always did and readied myself and Endeavor for the hike to find what made those awful screams. The snow had stopped sometime around five and as we crossed the buried ground, Endeavor quickly put his nose to work, trying to differentiate any of the surrounding scents. The wind was blowing in from the east all night and given that I heard the screams when the wind blew; I figured that was the direction they came from.

So we headed east, Endeavor and I were on a mission like the old days. The days before my entire world had imploded and ended.

We walked in silence for about two miles, Dev in the lead, both of our heads on a swivel. At one point, he stopped dead in his tracks before quickly turning back to look at me and he took off to his right at a full run, with his nose to the ground still.

“Dev! Slow down!” When he showed no sign of stopping, I took off after him as carefully as I could while still trying to keep my eyes peeled on the horizon. Predators lurked throughout the woods, and given the time of year, the cold starvation would make them do anything for their next meal.

I watched as my best friend ran down a dip in the terrain and grimaced as it took him out of my line of sight. “Dev!”

I sprinted up over the knoll, skidding to a stop when I came across him again, frozen in place. Almost completely invisible to the untrained eye, a pile of snow laid out of place against the flat ground. I knew the storm did not create the pile as it was in the exact spot where I had set up a snare a couple of days ago, between two logs.

Whatever kind of animal got stuck in it was big enough that it should have been able to muscle its way out, but it hadn’t. And now, it lay dead on the ground where the storm had buried it with snow overnight.

I quietly squared my body off to the pile as I took the safety off my rifle. If it wasn’t dead yet, me coming up on it may spook it enough to make it attack, and while it was smaller than me, it was still probably dangerous. Perhaps a large bobcat, or wolf. If it was a bear, it was a yearling, but even then, it could still do serious damage to me if it got the chance.

“Dev, heel.” I quietly commanded, trying my best to keep my voice low. But for the first time since he was just a puppy, my faithful companion disobeyed me and edged closer to the pile. “Endeavor, no. Come!” I gritted out authoritatively, while also praying he would listen.

But of course, he didn’t.

He looked back at me quickly before sniffing and walking even closer to the pile. He cautiously sniffed it, gently touching the new snow with the tip of his nose before emitting a pained whimper as he raised his paw to uncover the creature.

I drew my rifle level with the pile, anticipating it to jump up and lunge for my dog, but it didn’t move. Endeavor cleared some snow off his side of the pile before letting out a loud bark and looking up at me expectantly. He dug at the animal earnestly, using both his paws and gigantic body to push the snow off it.

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