Chapter 9: Revisiting The Dead Lake
The grandma’s tires skidded to a stop, bumping the wallowing pinned down sea lion in the face. She turned her head quickly towards the blood-bathed beach and to her surprise discovered one of the most deformed sea lions she had seen yet was towering right beside her.
Its foaming mouth was torn open at the side, giving it the appearance that it was giving an evil smirk. Bubbly drool flowed down to the ground in long stretches of slime, making an ever changing pool of white liquid that leaked out of the gapping face injury. It’s jaw was shifting compulsively back and forth, supporting some jagged cracked teeth that were stained crimson with blood. Its stark red eyes stared down at her with eerie determination and a lust for killing. It had gashes all over its mangled body and its muscles were contorted from the awkward unnatural movements it had made while fighting. Bone was being disgustingly exposed from the left flipper, looking like slender toes belonging to a different mammal. Altogether this mutilated being that stood before her with crooked posture was very much alive and intensely psychotic in its terrifying display of behaviour.
It cocked back its bruised head with its remaining teeth barred and struck the old ladies scooters steering column with enough force to send her flying to the ground with the overturned scooter pinning her in the dirt.
There was only a moment of unconsciousness when she awoke to those soul piercing eyes hovering above her, the shattered teeth followed behind them, ready to finish her off. She let out a blood curdling scream as she pictured what she was certain to happen next. Luckily for her it didn’t.
Her husband dutifully came to the rescue by smashing his scooter right into the monsters already damaged ribs, propelling Ben over the scene and behind the log of safety. The sea lion swung its head backwards wildly, just barely missing the old man’s face by a centimetre, and accidentally smacked another sea lion that was waiting to join in on the fun. The echoing thump of the two beasts’ bony heads colliding sent crawling sensations down the humans’ bodies. The second sea lion growled in outrage, a daring invitation to fight for their scrumptious human prize. In spontaneously they locked jaws, trying to twist each other’s necks to the point of breakage.
John saw the opportunity while the closest sea lions were distracted and threw the old woman’s scooter over to Ben on the other side of the fallen tree. He then attended to the elderly woman, lifting her up to a standing position but, she crippled over to her right side in agonizing pain. Her fragile leg had been broken when she was thrown off her scooter. In order to save her, John knew he had to carry her out of there. He glance up to see the two sea lions were still duelling maliciously, he shifted his eyes to the right to see the squished sea lion was intently nipping at one of the other creatures tails, and when he turned his head to his left he knew instantly they had to make their escape for dozens of demonic sea lions were barrelling down the path right towards them.
John threw the old woman over his shoulder and bolted towards the log of safety were he passed the grandma over to Jimmy. Just before jumping over himself, he was slapped by a fin of the squashed sea lion sending him toppling over the top of its exposed back. John did not hesitate for half a millisecond before leaping back up and rolling over the log escaping the dangerous situation a second before it became fatal.
Finally he had reached the safe zone, now stumbling over to the rest of the celebratory group. At least, what he thought was the rest of the group. There was still one person who hadn’t made it over the log yet, and that person was Angus.
John spun around to witness thirteen sea lions surrounding the elderly man. They were snarling and inching closer to the seemingly defenceless old man ready to split the kill unevenly between one another. The tension was growing and time’s humorous side was beginning to show as the world spun in slow motion.
Suddenly, slashing through the air was the hilt of a cane, heroically shining in the midst of evil. It swooped down and began knocking the heads of the sea lions with incredible force for such a slim object. The surprise made some of the sea lions abruptly stop dazed and confused creating the perfect opportunity for the old man to flee the scene. The scooter bumped into the log and helpful hands began dragging up the grandpa and his scooter just in time for the haze of shock to wear off on the demented creatures.
The fortunate humans were officially regrouped but, their celebration was quite short. They now rushed to the plateau they had visited earlier when the island was peaceful and the animals weren’t trying to kill them, to completely get away from the chaos that covered the beach.
Pine needles still stung their bodies as emaciated trees shed their last branches. The wind was less harsh than before but, it still was knocking them over. Timothy stopped abruptly, noticing the stump he sat on once before to watch the deer cross the channel. It was buried beneath dozens of sticks and about a billion pine needles but, it’s reddish bark still glowed beneath the tree products. This sighting brought everyone’s attention to how different the landscape looks compared to just a few hours ago. Bushes and trees had been uprooted and blown to a variety of places, the colourful fungus lay squashed and ripped to shreds around the pathway, the luscious green colour had transformed into a dark blackish shade and, the most eye catching change was the increased amount of animal prints that surrounded everything.
Fumbling the entire way up the path, the group eventually reached their destination of the plateau’s deadly high cliffs. They all stayed far away in fear the wind would sweep them off the jagged cliff but, John felt a controlling yearning to see what monstrosities were lingering below at the rocky bottom of the plateau.
About fifty feet down where the ground was usually found, an insane scene had taken over the once brown shattered rocks. Instead, painted red water vigorously splashed against the rocks in a symphony of terror. The blood from the beach had drained into the bay causing this disturbing spectrum that will be cemented into John’s brain forever. Even the cliffs where the waves were hitting were stained a dark red colour that reeked of the salty smell of blood.
Without warning, a firm hand pushed back upon John’s chest, stopping him from moving forward. The group had come to a standstill as they were blocked by four white balls of fur standing across the trail in a line. Four albino raccoons sat calmly in a row staring up at the humans with their little innocent beady red eyes.
“I’ll be damned.” Ben gasped for he had only ever seen one of the island’s strangely skin-pigmented racoons in his whole touring career.
He began lowering to one knee while making supposedly soothing, clicking noises with his mouth as he tried to attract one of them. The human group just watched quietly as these harmless, small critters analyzed whether or not they should go greet the old sailor or not.
John suddenly became distracted by the unique tapping of raccoon feet in the trees to their left. Another raccoon sat up in a tree but, this one was not the same as the other ones. It’s white fur was raised and dirty, it’s eyes were squinted at the nose line and drool drizzled out its mouth as it caught sight of the tasty human chew toys.
John immediately looked down at Ben, who had one of the other raccoons approaching his out stretched hand when John belted out.
“Rabies!”
As if on cue, the racoon nearest to Ben began contorting with the others into disturbing, snarling, ugly creatures. Ben didn’t have a sufficient period of time to get up before the snarling raccoon leaped onto him, beginning to attack. Ben started to roll towards the edge of the plateau trying to contain the racoon, preventing it from scratching and biting him.
The raccoon in the tree lunged its puffed up body at the grandparents and their grandson with its flesh ripping teeth exposed, craving to bite into anything. It’s attempt was stopped by a mighty fist to the cheek thrown by Jimmy causing it to tumble to the ground. Without taking time to recover it proceeded to attack alongside the others.
Ben was about to plummet off the cliff with
the evil gremlin locked in his arms when John jumped on his back. The extra weight squished the racoon into the ground leaving only a shifting growling mouth exposed under Ben’s left shoulder close to John’s face. The white bubbling foam was being splattered all over them as the creature summoned for reinforcements. Padded feet were felt clawing into John’s back as an ally racoon tried to clamp down on the nape of John’s neck. John spun around and hit the racoon’s whole body with one strong swing of his arm. The racoon went flying off the edge of the plateau, no longer a problem in this terrifying equation.
Now they had to expose of the one beneath them so they could help the others. With little discussion, they both rolled over to their right so the racoon could be shoved off the cliff and it did exactly that with very little force. The two men sat still watching the plateaus rim intently to be certain the raccoon fell all the way when suddenly its red eyes reappeared onto the scene more vibrant than ever. Ben retracted out his peg leg, dangling the evil creature by its teeth over the edge of the plateau as it fought to nibble on his skin. It rapidly chewed on the end of his peg leg and wiggled frantically as it tried to save itself from the extraordinary fall it was about to experience.
Ben looked up at John for assistance but, John did not come to his aid for he could not reach the beast who was about to pounce. Ben held his breath knowing what he had to do. With a few eerie clicks his beloved silver peg leg detached, tumbling down with the sick racoon still clinging for life to it. Ben’s heart throbbed at the loss, a moment that was cut short when more raccoons joined the fight.
Angus’ cane whipped the sick racoons across their deformed faces as the old man defended his family. Jimmy got a good grip on the scruff of one of their necks and dropped kicked the racoon like a football, deep into the dangerous depths of the forest. And my mother said football skills would never come in handy, Jimmy chuckled to himself. Onka, who was tired of watching the men fight, gunned her scooter and ran over two of the creatures in one go. The life threatening racoons were either gone or unconscious so the group continued moving again at a faster pace.
The trees still rocked wickedly, dropping branches as if they were giant chunks of hail. The needles were no longer a concern since most the trees had been stripped bare but, with every step they took, more and more flew up into their faces. The humans could no longer follow the trail for it was nowhere to be seen. Fallen debris had created a blanket over their only guiding path back to the building and also the only way they would know if they were going in circles.
Ben, who had hopped back on the old man’s scooter, scanned the area frantically trying to figure out where they were but, most geographical features had been destroyed or dramatically tampered with. Timothy thought about how much the situation seemed like a video game: dodging trees and jumping over fallen logs to stay alive. Jimmy was carrying Timothy on his back giving Timothy a full view of what might lie ahead. Spotting a peculiar object in the distance, Timothy tried to point and yell but, the roar of the wind was muffling his high pitched voice. The object closed in on them and finally showed its true identity when it was just a few meters away. Timothy recognized it immediately and leaped off Jimmy’s back without informing anyone of his actions. Jimmy spun around quickly, trying in vain to catch Timothy thinking he had fallen off. With this motion, Jimmy lost balance and fell head over heels into the object that Timothy had spotted…the lake.
All of them skidded to a halt at the outskirts of the murky lake. It was as if they had entered a different realm. It was quiet here. The wind was a lot gentler but, still made the trees sway a little. The mauve sky glistened off the water’s shaky surface giving the lake a purple hue. All the lily pads that floated daintily upon the lake bobbed repetitively as they were pushed by the waves Jimmy had created when he fell in. He was waist deep in the polluted water, soaked head to toe in nasty growths that floated unseen in the depths wearing the caution tape around his shoulder like a sash. He tried to move his dread locks that were covering his face in a soggy mess making him look like a slasher movie character. It was here, in the midst of all the horror that surrounded the lake that humor shone brightly as the entire group chuckled at the sight of their wrecked up friend. John extended his hand to Jimmy and helped him out of the muck.
The humans stood in a circle awkwardly; seeing each other’s faces reminded them of the terrible predicament they were in.
“What do we do now?” asked one-legged Ben. “We’re surrounded by the forest and who knows how long we have before some new terror will appear out of the darkness.”
“We could go back to the building. We’re at the lake now so we should just be able to cut straight through the forest.” said Jimmy hoping it would help.
“No, we would get separated in the forest. It’s unsafe without the trail. Besides why would we need to go back to the building; it’s more safe here than over there.” John stated defiantly shutting down Jimmy’s idea.
“Well, we can’t stay here.” Ben pointed out as he looked outward into the forest. “The wind’s coming back; I can see it from here.” Not one person thought it was a good time to complement him on his incredible eye sight.
Suddenly, the bushes began to rustle. Paws could be heard stepping on the branches that littered the ground and growls began arising from all around them. The group backed away, pinned against the muddy shoreline, as a bright white creature stepped out of the bushes in front of them. A Vancouver Island wolf with a fresh kill still on his lips sauntered out of the forest with his piercing blue eyes set upon all of them. His fluorescent white fur seemed to brighten up everything around him giving the animal an angelic appearance. However, this wolf was no angel.
Odds were presently looking favorable for the humans, considering it was only one wolf and Vancouver Island wolves aren’t very big. The only thing that could go wrong would be someone jinxing the situation by saying the obvious out loud.
“You guys, I think we’ll be okay, it’s just one wolf.” said Jimmy in high spirits, which were crushed as twelve more wolves lurked out of the darkness…