Blood in the Pines

“Bobby, stop playing with the camera.”
“Calm down, Karen, I’m just checking the settings.”
“Don’t start,” Cheryl interjected. “We are out here to study the Pygmy Short-Horned Lizard, not fight over a camera.”
“But-” Karen started, but was shut down by Cheryl.
“Stop! We have a long hike and I don’t want to hear y’all going back and forth this whole trip. Give me the camera.”
“Yes, mom.”
Cheryl shot him a stern look.
“Sorry.”
The trio continued their way down a small trail off the main pathway. The trees consumed the sky, leaving the group in shadow. A humid wind rolled through the trees, damp and earthy, chilling the biologists. Moss covered trees cut into the path they walked for several hours. They climbed a steep hill, void of any man-made route.
“How much longer?” Bobby asked.
“Check the GPS,” Cheryl replied, scanning their surroundings.
Bobby pulled the small electronic device from one of his loaded pockets.
There was a small beep and the screen lit up. After pressing a few buttons, Bobby looked concerned.
“It’s not working. It’s glitchy.”
“What does it show?” Karen asked.
“It shows us almost on top of the coordinates.”
“Great. How is it glitching?” Curious, Karen walked over to look.
Without hesitating, Bobby gave her the device. She looked at the screen, frowning, then to Cheryl.
“What?”
“He broke it,” Karen replied, handing it to Cheryl.
“No I didn’t.”
Cheryl took it and pressed some buttons on the side. She gave Bobby a disappointed look.
“Sorry,” he said with a shrug.
“How long since it broke?”
“How would I know?” He looked defensive.
“When did you last check it?”
“Uh, I…“
“Bobby! You were supposed to check every fifteen minutes.” Karen’s raised voice echoed through the canopy.
“We need to get to the top of this hill and find a place to set up camp.”
Bobby’s shoulders slumped and he stared at the ground. They made their way to the top of the steep hill, stopping on a flat area to set up their base of operations. Bobby set up the tents while Karen got the fire going and Cheryl checked the gear. They sat beside the fire to eat, the shadows growing longer as the sun set. A strange noise floated in the wind, and Bobby paused in the middle of a joke he was telling before disregarding it and continuing on.
Bobby’s joke fell flat with his companions, but the noise amplified. They all turned to the source of the sound to see a pair of eyes glowing in the firelight. Eyes that stood well over six feet tall. Then they spotted the two palmate antlers and the flat back ears of an angry bull moose.
“Um, what should we do?” Karen said.
“We need to keep our distance,” Cheryl replied. “Everyone get up slowly and walk away.”
“That thing doesn’t look very happy.” Bobby’s voice cracked.
“That’s why we are going to slowly stand up and move away.”
The group got up, trying to keep their movements slow and nonthreatening. The moose didn’t move, only stood watching as they moved in the opposite direction. Then it snorted and took a few steps toward them. Bobby panicked and went into a sprint, which made the animal charge, its blazing eyes focused on Bobby’s bright orange jacket.
“Climb a tree!” Karen yelled, as she and Cheryl cowered behind another nearby tree.
Bobby veered toward a tree to his right, but the moose was faster. Its antlers swung into Bobby’s left side as he jumped for a limb and flung him into the rocks a few feet away. The moose then walked towards the dazed man and brought its front leg down, breaking the bones in the forearm Bobby raised to shield his face.
“HELP ME!” Bobby screamed as the moose swiped him again with its antlers, slicing his flesh open.
The women turned away from the sight, looking at each other in horror as they heard Bobby scream and cry. A sudden crack, like a breaking branch, echoed through the trees, along with Bobby’s muffled cries. Tears filled their eyes and the women covered their mouths as another cry jumped between the trees, followed by a sickening crunch. Bobby screamed, shouting incoherently before a loud squelch heralded an eerie silence.
“What just happened?” Karen quavered.
In response, the massive moose snorted and stomped.
“Run!” Cheryl tried to shout but the words came out as a terrified croak.
Both women took off, each fumbling to find a flashlight in one of their many pockets at the sound of the moose crashing through the woods behind them. Their run through the forest, with their flashlight beams bouncing along in front of them. was as surreal as it was frantic, but finally the grunts of the moose were gone.
“I think we lost him,” Karen whispered, grabbing at Cheryl. “Should we go back?”
“That moose could be waiting for us.”
“I don’t … what’s that smell?” Karen’s eyes followed her beam of light, which illuminated the ground and the savaged torso of a man. “Oh my God. Is that a dead body?”
“Where?” Cheryl’s eyes followed the same beam and she gasped as her eyes fell on the decomposing body. “Oh my God! We need to get out of here!”
The beams of light desperately searched for the easiest way around the torso, only to uncover more desecrated bodies. The horror continued as their flashlights brought more random corpses into view. Exploring the ransacked tents and baggage showed them they were standing in another campsite.
A deep, guttural moan rang out behind them and, without looking back, they both bolted away from the noise. It was soon clear that the moose had zeroed in on Karen. She yelled for help but Cheryl didn’t slow as the screams for help turned to just screams and were quickly cut off completely.
Panting, Cheryl knew she couldn’t stop. Her lungs burned, her legs ached, and her heart was beating like a hummingbird. She glanced behind her as she ran and tripped, knocking the wind out of her. The flashlight flew from her hand, lighting up a hill in front of her when it landed.
There was a dark indention, perhaps a hole, and Cheryl retrieved her light and ran to it, the heavy hoofs of the moose sounding behind her. It was a hole, and looked rather deep, but also narrower than her. She scurried into it headfirst, and after substantial squirming was completely inside. She instantly regretted going in that way.
As she laid there she started feeling something crawling on her. As a biologist she turned to try and see what was on her. She immediately knew what was in the hole with her as its small snout and grayish brown scales were revealed. It was a Pygmy Short-Horned Lizard.
“Hey, little guy.” Her worry faded for a moment.
That was until she dislodged an important root and was now sliding further into the hole. Soon she saw light at the end of the tunnel and braced for a possible long drop since she couldn’t do anything to slow or stop her descent. The loose earth broke away from the hole as she neared the opening. She fell for half a second and the wind got knocked out again.
As her eyes adjusted to the now bright cavernous room she was in she noticed something strange. There was a shining stream in the middle of the cave with dozens of female and baby moose lining both sides. They were all in different phases of falling asleep when she fell in and were now alert. The air filled with concerned moans from the animals, but Cheryl did her best to soothe them from a distance.
She slowly skirted the wall that was farthest from the most moose, but she was forced to come within spitting distance to several. Thankfully, they just echoed an urgent moan and moved away. As she neared the opening to the cave she remembered she still had the camera from earlier. After she took a few pictures a familiar guttural moan erupted over her head and hot oppressive breath poured down onto her shoulders.