Wendigo

Chapter 2

Sara lay in her tent, listening to the tapping of rain dripping from the trees and landing on the tent’s rain fly. Waves of thunderstorms had rolled through during the night, making sleep nearly impossible. She was exhausted, yet she knew she needed to push on to the next location now that the rain had dwindled to a fine mist.

After stretching as much as she could in her two-person tent, Sara rolled over and unzipped the tent just enough to peak out. Instead of the view of the valley she had the night before, now it was a wall of white due to fog and rain. Sara did not mind hiking in the rain; at times, she even found it almost meditative. Hiking in the fog was something she hated. The mist kept her from seeing her surroundings, and that made her on guard and jumpy.

Sara flopped back into her sleeping bag and sighed. She was contemplating breakfast and when or if she should start hiking when a twig snapped right behind her tent.

She called out, “Ted? Is that you?” She was almost immediately answered with a snort from the deer that had started following her the day before. “Well, Ted, if the weather is good enough for you to be out, I guess it’s good enough for me too.”

Sara sat up and began to rummage in her pack for her breakfast. It would be protein bars and trail mix because she did not want to set up her small camp stove in the rain, and starting a fire would be almost impossible. Sara studied her map while she ate. The trail she wanted to take would be treacherous and slow going, thanks to the weather. She resigned herself to that and decided, if needed, she would power through other sections instead of lingering as she had planned.

Sara quickly finished her breakfast and dressed in her rain gear before hesitantly unzipping her tent and climbing out. The only thing left for her to do before heading out for the day was to break down her tent and pack it. Within minutes, she had her tent tightly packed in a waterproof bag and strapped to her backpack, ready to get back on the trail.

-

Sara had been hiking for almost three hours when a sudden flash of lightning and a nearly simultaneous clap of thunder made her jump. That was when the heavens opened, and pouring rain began to fall. She looked around quickly to see if there was somewhere she could take shelter from the violent storm, but to no avail. She started trying to jog to find cover, only to be met with a familiar presence after a few steps.

The enormous white-tail buck came running out of the underbrush and crashed into Sara. The impact sent her off the path she was on and tumbling down the embankment. The only thing Sara could do was try to protect her head and neck as she careened down the hillside, bouncing off trees and rocks. She was nearly in the fetal position with her arms covering her head and neck when she felt her backpack snag on something and spin her around. She was sliding in a near freefall when she slammed back first into a fallen tree trunk at the bottom of the hill.

Sara opened her eyes to see flashes of light in her field of vision. Her head throbbed, her body ached from the impact, and there was a sharp pain in her lower leg. She carefully glanced at her leg to see a tear in her rain pants and blood seeping out of it. She lay still in the pouring rain, trying to catch her breath after having the wind knocked out of her by the impact of the deer.

When her vision cleared and she was no longer struggling to breathe, Sara sat up and began taking stock of her injuries. Her leg was first, and from what she could see, it was a deep laceration from something she had hit while falling. Her leg was not broken, and to her, that was the important thing. She struggled to her feet, leaning on the tree that had stopped her.

Sara heard a familiar snort to the side of where she stood. She turned to see the same deer that had been following her from the moment she got out of her car. A wave of anger washed over her.

“What is wrong with you?” Sara screamed at the deer. “I should have called you Charles Manson, you freaking psycho!”

The deer let out another snort and slowly walked around Sara, keeping the tree trunk between them. Sara watched him move without a sound in the pouring rain and stop on the opposite side of her. It gave a leap and disappeared behind something that, at first, she thought was brush and debris. After a moment of focusing on it, she could make out that it was a building.

“Okay, I’ll stick with Ted for now,” Sara murmured. “If that thing is dry inside, I am buying you the biggest bag of deer treats they make. If they even make deer treats.”

Sara limped her way to the building the deer had disappeared behind. When she reached it, she could see it was a small cabin built of heavy logs. She pushed the door open and gingerly stepped in. There were no windows or sources of light other than the door she had entered.

Sara reached into one of her pack pouches and grabbed a flashlight. She flicked it on and was surprised at what she saw. The cabin was small, with only one room. Heavy cedar logs made up the entire structure, including the roof. A small cast iron stove was sitting toward the back of the cabin, and it looked like there had been two beds, one on each side of the stove. Rusted steel traps hung on one wall. The only other things in the cabin were some shelves containing wooden boxes, a small table, and two simple wooden chairs.

Sara left the door open as she went further to get a better look at what was inside. She worried that an animal was living in the cabin and would not take kindly to her invading its territory. To her surprise, the cabin was relatively clean. There were at least several decades of dust and dirt but no signs of animals or pests. She didn’t even see any water leaking in due to the torrential rain.

Sara unbuckled her pack and dropped it by the door. She dug out a small battery-powered lantern, turned it on, and placed it on the table. Sara looked at the open door and contemplated leaving it open. Ultimately, she opted to close it and further secure it with one of the wooden chairs. Something shiny on the floor caught Sara’s attention. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was blood from her leg.

“Oh, that’s not good,” Sara muttered to herself.

Sara grabbed her backpack and placed it beside the table. She tested the second chair to ensure it was sturdy enough to hold her weight. She removed her rain gear and sat on the chair before pulling her first aid kit from her bag. Sara exhaled through her teeth as she began to care for the wound in her calf. From the amount of bark and shape of the injury, she was guessing that her leg had been impaled on a small tree branch as she tumbled down the hill.

Sara treated the injury to her leg and took a couple of acetaminophen tablets. She checked her phone for a signal and found she had no service. She sat quietly, her foot propped on the table, waiting for the pain medication to take effect, and took advantage of the time to study her new home until the storms abated. The sharp cracks of thunder and the distant rumbles were all dampened by the little building's thick log construction. Sara was finding it quite cozy and comfortable under the circumstances.

Sara felt herself begin to drift off as she sat listening to the storm raging outside. After not sleeping well the previous night, she decided to give in. She unrolled her pad and sleeping bag on the floor, crawled in, and checked her phone for service one last time before she lay down, falling asleep within moments.

-

Sara was jolted awake by a notification on her cell phone. She was briefly disoriented to where she was when she awoke. The memory of the trapper cabin and her fall down the embankment quickly came back to her as she started to move and felt pain. Sara picked up her phone and saw a text message from her husband, Kevin, saying he hoped she was having fun.

Sara laughed and said out loud, “Sure, I’m having fun. A homicidal deer almost killed me, and I’m trapped in a cabin of death. I’m just freaking dandy!”

She sent a message back to her husband saying she was good and would call him shortly if she had a signal. Sara saw the time on her phone when she sent the message and was in disbelief. She had been asleep for hours. According to the time, the sun was getting ready to set. That meant she would be in the cabin for the night whether she wanted to be or not.

Sara let out a long groan of pain as she slowly got out of her sleeping bag and stood. Soreness had crept into her entire body on a level she had never experienced before. She lowered herself into the chair at the table and began to plan what to do and what she would tell her husband.

Sara knew if she told him what happened, he would try to organize a search party and utterly lose his mind until she returned home. She also knew that not telling him would be wrong and the same as lying to him. Ultimately, Sara had to tell him and do her best to keep him calm. She was a trauma nurse, and she was sure her injuries were not serious. They were only painful and inconveniently timed. Sara sighed as she dialed her husband and hoped the two bars of signal held out.

“Babe! Are you alright?” Kevin asked Sara as soon as he answered his phone.

“I am, but I need to tell you something,” Sara said hesitantly.

“What?”

“Okay, you have to promise me not to panic when I tell you this.”

“Uh, why?” Kevin asked with considerable concern in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“I had a little accident, but I’m fine,” Sara told him. “I have some bumps and bruises and a cut on my lower leg, but nothing serious. I promise I’m alright.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound alright,” Kevin said. “Send me your GPS location, and I will send people to you.”

“No,” Sara told him flatly. “Kevin, I am fine. I’m in an old trapper cabin that is warm, dry, and, to be honest, really freaking cool. I’m safer where I am than I would be if a team came to me and we all had to hike out. I’m not leaving, and you are not going to organize a rescue party because I fell down and got a cut and some bruises. This isn’t the first time I have fallen while hiking, and it won’t be the last.”

Sara was met with silence on the other end of the line. She pulled her phone away from her ear to make sure the call had not dropped. She was opening her mouth to say something when Kevin responded.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Kevin told her softly. “You have been doing this since long before we ever met. That is one of the things that I love about you. The fearlessness and self-reliance you have. I trust you, and if you say your injuries aren’t serious and you are alright, I believe you.”

“Thank you. I promise I’m okay. I fell down an embankment, so I’m banged up, but nothing that will last. And don’t worry; it was more of a slide than a fall. There just happened to be rocks that I hit on the way down. They weren’t boulders or anything, just small ones buried in the hillside. And I should probably stop talking because I am not helping my case,” Sara said with a laugh.

“You’re fine,” Kevin said with a laugh. “Tell me about this cabin you’re stuck in. How did you find it?”

“Well, I found it because I fell,” Sara told him, leaving out that the deer had caused her fall and had led her to the cabin. “The place is tiny, but it is really amazing. It’s made of cedar logs, and it’s in good shape. The inside of it is completely dry. There is a little table, a couple of wooden chairs, an old cast iron stove, and something that looks like they used to be beds or sleeping areas. Whoever was here left behind traps and a bunch of stuff over on some shelves that I haven’t looked at yet. After I get my camp stove set up and dinner cooking, I will be exploring and see what they left behind.”

“I know the circumstances of you being there are not the best, but that sounds amazing,” Kevin said. “Please, please, mark that location on your map. I need to see that cabin for myself.”

“I will, and I will send you pictures of it if I can.”

“Perfect! Hey, I am going to get off here so you can get things set up for the night and rest,” Kevin told her. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Bye, Babe,” Sara replied

“Bye,” Kevin said before he hung up.

Sara held her phone for a moment before placing it on the table and carefully stood. She picked up her backpack and hefted it onto the table, feeling every bruise as she did. Sara took everything out of it and spread it across the dusty surface. This was the first time she had checked her gear since the fall, and, until that point, had no idea what had been damaged or destroyed. As she looked through her things, the only sign of damage seemed to be a small dent in her cooking pot.

“At least Ted didn’t destroy all of my stuff along with trying to kill me,” Sara said to herself as she began to set up her camp stove on top of the old cast iron wood stove.

Sara limped back to the table and sorted through her stash of freeze-dried meals to find one that looked appetizing. She settled on lasagna, and after putting it on the stove to cook, she dropped back into the chair. She swallowed a couple of acetaminophen tablets and nibbled on trail mix while the pot began to simmer.

Sara began to study the small, one-room cabin. She was using her flashlight from where she sat to look at each part of it and what was left behind by the trapper who had once lived there. The steel traps hanging on the wall sent a shiver down her spine each time she saw them. The shelves, which contained what looked like random items and a few small wooden boxes, were at the farthest point possible from where she sat, so those would have to wait until after she ate or at least until the pain medication took effect.

Sara picked up her camera bag and took the camera out. She began to take pictures of the inside of the cabin and to zoom in on the shelves to investigate as much as she could. She was trying to take her mind off of being irritated because of the weather and getting hurt. There were things she wanted to do, and sitting in a creepy little abandoned cabin in the woods during thunderstorms was not one of them. Sara had planned on keeping a steady pace and making her way through much of the state forest. Now, she would have to change all of her plans and the schedule she had laid out. She sighed as she put her camera down.

Sara looked at her battery lantern and quickly assessed that she needed to find another light source before the batteries went dead. The lantern batteries were rechargeable, but her solar charger and inverter would be useless with the storms. She glanced toward one of the boxes on the shelves and wondered if she might be lucky enough to find a candle or two in one of them.

Groaning again as she pulled herself to her feet, Sara slowly made her way to the stove to check on her dinner. After a quick stir, she went to the shelves and began to search. Peaking in the first wooden box, Sara felt like she had hit the jackpot. She found several old candles and a simple brass candle holder. As she continued to search in box after box, she also found oil lamps that contained small amounts of oil and some personal belongings, including clothing, a comb, and an old straight razor.

Sara looked in the last wooden crate and found a small metal box within it. She took out the metal box and carefully opened it. In it, she found a delicately embroidered handkerchief that had almost certainly belonged to a woman. When she picked up the handkerchief, under it, she discovered a bottle of perfume and an old photo of a young woman in a wedding dress. From the style of clothing and look of the picture, it had to have been from the 1800s.

Sara quickly and carefully put everything back in the metal box and reclosed it. She felt like looking in it was wrong and intrusive. It was as if she had invaded the privacy of the woman in the photo and the person who had placed it in that box. She quickly gathered the candles, candle holder, and oil lamps she had found and took them to the still cluttered table. A sudden clap of thunder made her jump as she lit one of the candles.

“Dinner by candlelight tonight isn’t that romantic,” Sara said sarcastically.

Sara threw some of her things on the table back into her backpack. She wanted to clear the table a little and change the bandage on her throbbing leg before she ate dinner. Sara held her small flashlight in her mouth for added light as she placed clean gauze and antibiotic ointment on her leg wound. When she was done, she packed her first aid kit in her backpack. Sara was drained from the day's events and really only wanted to go back to sleep but she knew she should eat some of the meal that was cooking on the stove.

Sara stood to take her dinner off her camp stove and, in doing so, bumped the table. That caused something underneath it to fall to the floor. Sara cautiously picked it up and examined it. A small book, yellowed with age and well-worn, had dropped to the floor. Sara opened the cover and saw something handwritten.

“Herschel Allen, 1879,” Sara mused as she flipped through the pages. “Well, Mr. Allen, it looks like I will be learning a lot about you while I’m here.”

Sara placed the small journal on the table. All thoughts of being an intruder left her mind as she looked at the book before her. She felt an overwhelming need to know what was in those pages and about who had lived in the cabin she was inhabiting.

Sara quickly took care of her dinner and began to eat. With every bite, she stared at the journal. As much as she wanted to start reading it, her eyelids were growing heavy, which meant the reading would have to wait. She left her pot, which still contained food, on the table. She broke a lightstick and tossed it into a corner by the door for light during the night. After blowing out the candle and turning off her lantern, she crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep as soon as she lay her head down.