The Uncanny Tales of Crush & Pound
1
by Christopher D. Carter
© 2012
Text and Illustration Copyright © 2012 Christopher D. Carter
Published by Christopher D. Carter
All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Next Issue
About the Author
Chapter 1
*
Dandelions and Crows
*
“Don’t tell me you ain’t never heard of the Devil’s Tramping Ground,” the old coot said as he spit a mouthful of tobacco of the front porch of the country store. The scraggly fellow wiped the droppings off of his stained overalls and onto his leg as he offered S. S. Crush his hand in one smooth motion as he continued, “Name’s Lemuel Green.”
Crush surveyed the hand carefully and opted to place his own hands behind his back before speaking.
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s right down the road a piece,” Lemuel said as he pointed toward the road from the porch of the store. “If you’re going that way, then I recommend you take some boiled peanuts with you.”
“Boiled peanuts?”
“Course. What fool would go trampin’ ‘round there without boiled peanuts!” Green exclaimed, then leaned back in the rocker, looking Crush over again. “You can buy a bag inside, and when you finish, come back out here and sit with me a spell.”
Not wanting to miss his chance to break the awkward meeting, Crush pushed open the door to the old country store and entered. The store was dark inside with two dingy yellow bulbs lighting the two dank aisles to the left and the register behind the counter to the right.
“You aren’t from around here, are you?” a voice spoke in the dark. Then a hand reached out from beneath the counter and a head popped up surrounded by a ring of thick cigarette smoke and disappeared again beneath the counter just as quickly. “I could see it in your eyes when Green mentioned the Grounds,” the voice added from beneath the counter.
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Crush answered as he leaned over to get a look at the attendant. “What’s he talking about?”
No head came up for air, but a bag of peanuts came out this time with the hand, then the voice spoke again, “You’ll want these.”
“This has to be the gimmick for using the public restrooms,” thought Crush. “How much?” he asked.
“Three bucks per bag,” the hand said with the palm now turned up followed by a smoke ring. Crush paid the hand and slipped the peanuts in his coat.
“Got a restroom?” he asked.
“Out back,” said the voice as another cloud of smoke poured out from beneath.
“Weird,” he said to himself as he pushed the door out, ringing the bell as he went. Turning left and walking past Green again, Crush looked straight ahead trying not to make eye contact with the local. Around the back of the store there were two white wooden doors with rusty brass knobs labeled “Men” and “Women”, and Crush went to turn the handle on the Men’s room, only to find that it was locked.
“Crap,” he said as he jiggled the handle, hoping to jar it loose but to no avail. Glancing over at the Women’s room, he noticed that the door was cracked open and the lights were turned off. “I doubt anyone else is coming,” he thought as he looked around to see if anyone else was watching, then he entered the Women’s room.
Around front Lemuel sat with his elbows resting on his knees, looking anxious as Crush returned. “I thought you wuz a guy. What you doin’ in the Women’s room? Hope you wiped the seat.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Now about the Devil’s Tramping Ground, are you going with me or not?”
Crush thought about it carefully before he answered. He had been sent to the middle of North Carolina to find one of the DAM’s agents, Seth Hogan, who had gone missing on a trip home, but for the last week, he had found no clues in the disappearance. In fact, Green was the first person to offer up anything at all of interest since he had started.
“How long will this take, fella?”
“It will take as long as it takes. You didn’t come out here just to use the Women’s room, Crush. I heard you been searching for Seth, and I know where he went,” Green whispered behind his hand. “You got the peanuts?”
“Yeah, the hand sold me these,” he said as he showed the bag in his overcoat.
“Good! Now take me down the road a piece. That way,” Green said as he pointed right along the highway.
“You don’t by chance know Seth Hogan personally, do you?”
“Course I do! Now let’s ride if you want to find him.”
Crush unlocked the agency’s four-wheel drive truck (the Hybrid cars were not his style) with the remote, and they headed toward the Devil’s Tramping Ground.
**********
“How do you drive with those claws?” Green asked while staring at the long catlike claws on the stick.
“Very carefully, but I cut corners well,” Crush grunted back.
“Hmm. Take this next turn to the left,” said Green as he pointed ahead.
“Why do they call it the ‘Devil’s Tramping Ground’, anyway?”
Green stared into Crush’s eyes and replied, “Same reason they call you ‘Crush’. Call it for what it is. A while back a local university did some studies and found nothing, just burnt out places on the ground and trash, but the legends go back further than some study by a bunch of youngsters. The place is pure evil, and Seth was testing it out, or so he said.”
“He told you this? When?”
“Before he disappeared. He said he would be back by when he finished. But I never saw him again.”
Crush breathed in a deep breath and turned as if to ask a question of the haggard local, but then spiraled his attention back to the road. They had travelled many miles back into the rural countryside, and the pavement had changed to red clay and gravel. A crow flew past the hood and settled on the branch of a nearby elm tree.
“Park right here. We gotta walk the rest of the way.”
Crush placed his left foot on the ground and as he went to get out of the vehicle, his eyes met the crow’s glance, and just faintly Crush sensed a glimmer of something, intelligence or curiosity, that he had not noticed before. The crow stood still and then glanced in another direction, as if acknowledging Crush and something else as well. Crush gazed out into the woods where the crow was glowering, and caught the slightest glance of a leaf moving, then nothing.
With a start, the crow bounded from the elm in the direction of its gaze, and with a malevolent caw, swooped through the dense brush and disappeared.
“Got the peanuts, do ya?”
“Freakin’ circus,” Crush thought to himself as he pulled the bag out and handed it to Green.
“No, you keep ‘em ‘til I give you the signal.”
“Signal to what?”
“Throw ‘em at the devil.”
“What!”
“Just trust me, Crush. Fallen angels are funny.”
Crush trailed Green to the edge of a round field where no grass or other vegetation was growing, Green stepped to what appeared to be the center of the circular area and motioned for Crush to do the same.
“Now stand still, look up in the sky and raise your hands to Heaven, then slam your fists to the ground.” Reluctantly, Crush did as he was instructed, and when his fists struck the ground, a crack of thunder sounded in the distance. When Crush rose to his feet, the field began to spin and everything went dark.
**********
On the driv
e home, the colors of the leaves were beautiful in the Fall, and though he did not have a current hunting license, Seth longed to sit in his tree stand and enjoy the outdoors. He was an outdoorsman at heart, and unfortunately, he had spent the last six months at the DAM stuck in a cubicle, analyzing World War II Nazi era occult findings.
“Whoo-hoo,” he thought to himself in sarcasm. Circumstances at the Department definitely had not turned out like he had hoped, or even been promised. As an expert in archaeology, the Department had guaranteed that he would be working with Crush and Pound in the field on a regular basis, but no excavations were on the horizon as far as the work schedule showed. Worst of all, the mountain of old material requiring dispositioning had grown out of control, and budget cuts had wiped out all non-essential travel for the year. Seth’s best chance for adventure was the frequent 1:59 a.m. drive-thru trips to the burger joint where some of the menu items could have been classified as artifacts.
On this trip, Seth had decided to spend his vacation outdoors, and if he could, maybe he would have an adventure. He knew just where to start. After a couple of hours visiting the folks, he asked his dad if he could borrow a tent and a sleeping bag, headed for the nearest country store, and then pressed on to the Devil’s Tramping Ground.
**********
At the edge of the field, Seth made a campsite and as the sun was setting in the west, he started a fire and listened to the crackle of the embers as he roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. He leaned back against an elm tree and closed his eyes, and all he could feel around him was tranquility.
When he opened his eyes from the meditation, a crow was standing not three feet away, looking at him with one cold eye. A shiver went down his spine as it turned its head to examine him more closely with both eyes. The stare was intense, and not knowing what else to do, Seth tossed the last of his half-eaten hot dog to the crow. The black omen tilted over and clamped down on the morsel with its beak, and flew away, satisfied with the offering.
“And what would you give me,” a voice rang out in Seth’s mind. Looking side to side, he saw that there was no one else around. Out of the corner of his eye, Seth caught a strange glimpse of a figure in the center of the field, but as the next instant passed, the figure was gone.
“This may not have been the best choice tonight,” he thought to himself. “I’ll pack up and stay with the folks tonight.” With great haste Seth disassembled the tent, gathered his supplies, and turned to hike back up the road toward home. To Seth’s dismay, the lone figure was once again standing center field, wrapped in darkness and silhouetted by the moonlight. Then with one hand outstretched as if beckoning to Seth, the dark figure spoke.
“Come. Adventure awaits.”
Inexplicably compelled by the darkness, Seth began striding the radius to the center of the field, and enveloped in darkness, the archaeologist and the figure disappeared as one.
**********
There was a light in the darkness, as of a meteor or shooting star perhaps. The light struck the earth as it were, and a faint but audible voice spoke from the darkness.
“Crush.”
The light in the distance began to grow, and a lone figure appeared within the glow. The figure was travelling away from the light and toward Crush. Closer and closer the being strode to him, speaking in a soft voice.
“Crush. Is that you?”
“Yes,” the words crossed his lips, and Crush realized that he was awake, that this was no dream. “Is that you, Seth?”
“Yes, it’s me. How did you find me?”
Crush blinked to clear his eyes, but the darkness was all encompassing, and he could only just make out vague outlines of his surroundings. “Blame it on Green. He brought me here.” Then Crush sat up and rubbed his catlike ears. “Where is Green, anyways?”
“There is no one else here . . . wherever here is.”
“Best that I can tell, we’re in some shadowy version of earth,” replied Crush. He could just make out the frameworks of the trees and the field. “Green!” he called, but no answer.
“Caw!” came a response, and a crow whizzed by his head. Then another, and another.
“What the crap! That was the crow I saw earlier. How did he follow us?”
“I don’t know, Crush. I’ve been in here for a while now, and the crows have been here, too. I think that they were in both places. The same with the stranger, the one in the shadows who brought me here. Maybe he knows a way out.”
“What stranger, kid?” Crush asked. This was the first that he had heard of the stranger.
“Toward the light,” Seth pointed, and there was a shape in the distance now, though it could not be deciphered from where they were.
“Green will just have to find us. Come on, kid.”
“You want to go to him? Now that he’s here, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Seth said apprehensively.
“I don’t think we have much choice,” replied Crush. Seeing the fear in the young man’s eyes, Crush motioned for Seth to follow in behind. Crush took the shortest, straightest route to the light with Seth in tow. Within a few minutes, they were only a stone’s throw away from the dark stranger. Oddly enough, the stranger also had a captive who had been bound in ropes of shadow.
“Who are you, and what have you done with Green?” asked Crush as Seth peered over his shoulder.
“I am the Devil, and Green is my captive as payment for Seth.”
Crush hesitated before he spoke again, and as he gathered his thoughts, the crow appeared again from the gloom and lit on his shoulder, as if in anticipation of the coming confrontation. Then Crush surveyed Green and noticed that his fingers were free and pointing to the ‘Devil’.
“Two things, Devil. One, at best you’re a fallen angel. Two, you’re going to let Green and Seth go back with me before things get rowdy.”
The crow cawed its approval.
“Crush, you and I could disagree on this forever . . . or at least until both of our friends die of thirst, and what would that gain? No, I think that disagreement is in no one’s best interest.” The demon paused and continued. “There is something that you could do for me, and we would all be free, hmm. If you will take me out of here into your world, I will release your friends as well. Deal?”
From Crush’s perspective, setting loose a fallen angel was out of the question, but letting his friends die here in the darkness of this realm was inconceivable as well.
Then an unexpected thing happened. Several more crows landed, and with a few minutes, the group was surrounded entirely by a drove of crows.
“Looks like we have an audience, here ‘Devil’. What do you think about that?” Crush asked the demon as he brought out the bag of peanuts, slowly opening the top seal.
“What . . . what are you doing?” the demon asked with a quaking voice.
“You see, it just occurred to me. There are countless fallen angels, and some fell from heaven for no better reason than gluttony. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that some of them would work for peanuts,” Crush said as he flung the bag of peanuts into the darkness of the demon.
Without hesitation, the black eyed crows tore into the shadow, and piece-by-piece the flock ripped the shadow apart as the demon wailed in fury. With every piece of shadow torn away, a new bit of light appeared until the demon was consumed entirely and replaced by daylight. Then the lead crow flapped his wings into the air and rested on Crush’s outstretched right hand, and with a final wink, the crow flew off into the horizon, never to return.
Meanwhile, Green, who had been freed from the shadow, stepped through the outline of daylight followed closely behind by Crush and Seth. As Crush laid his hand on the soft morning dew, he noticed that a dandelion had sprung up in the middle of the barren field. He plucked it up gently with his clawed hand, inhaled the fresh morning air, and blew the feathery seeds across the sky.
“Seth, I came a long way down here t
o visit. Is there anywhere to get milk and tuna salad?”
“Yeah, we could hit a diner in Siler City, if you want.”
“Good. Kickin’ ass makes me hungry. Green, I owe you some peanuts.”
Chapter 2
*
Body Island
*
Isaac Maxwell Pound stared at the lady from across the oak desk with a look of disbelief. Then he replied flatly.
“You want me to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to investigate a light show. Why me?”
The lady, Theresa Tatum, a young African-American field manager for the Department of Adventures and Mysteries, held her hands up to explain her decision with her best body language, and then calmly placed them back down on the desk as she drew in a deep breath to relax before answering. “Pound, you are the best agent available. In fact, you are the only agent available, and this assignment cannot afford to wait. If you look at this growing stack of folders already waiting, you will note that we must keep the cases rolling so that our customers are satisfied.”
“Crush would be ideal for this, you know. If you had sent me to look for Seth instead of him, both of your top agents would be in their ideal settings. Plant life is my specialty, and freaky light shows are probably best left to Crush,” retorted Pound.
“And the Greensboro area is covered in forests, right? I see your point; maybe you would have been more suited to finding Seth, but look, decisions are made as the folders come in. And this is where we are right now,” replied Theresa in a forced calm as she relaxed back in her chair. “Will you accept the case, or should I tell my director that I don’t believe my group is capable of handling the tasks they were hired for?”
“A challenge,” Pound thought to himself before he ventured an answer. “You’re right, Dr. Tatum. Am I an agent or not? And the answer is I am,” he replied as he slid the file into his lap and opened the case.
“Thanks, Pound. If it makes you feel any better, I know that you can handle the case.”
“Me, too,” he fired back sarcastically at the suggestion that he needed her approval, and then hastily left the office before he said anything that he might regret. Theresa had been with the Department for a year, and having been hired fresh out of the university with a PhD., she had never actually participated on any cases prior to becoming the field manager of the east coast division of the DAM. But what irked Pound the most was her obvious reluctance to participate in the field with her agents so that she could gain an appreciation for each member’s talents and skills.