Jericho

Chapter One

Joshua

The sun was directly above me as it shined through the trees on a cloudless midsummer day, its rays washing over me as I basked in the warmth of its presence. There was babbling from the brook that laid at my feet, accompanied by the rustling of trees and foliage as a gentle breeze swept in from the east, which created a symphony of peace and tranquility. The smell of cool, gently flowing water, and pine captivated my senses as I shut my eyes and pulled in a deep breath of the fresh air through my nose, letting the breeze wash over me and cool the sweat that accumulated on the nape of my neck from a long day's hike. As I did, I reminisced on the past week my dad and I had spent camping here in the Fremont National Forest.

I had always loved going out with my dad on these trips, foregoing the luxuries of our modern lifestyle for a more simplistic one. Packing only the essentials for survival, which usually consists of little more than sleeping bags, some basic survival tools; and of course, my dad’s tried and true Remington 700 long rifle. That man loved the classics. We would take some emergency food just in case, but food was never really a problem. You see my dad’s an avid outdoorsman, hunter, trapper, and tracker; the man could even charm a fish from a lake with little more than a flashlight in hand.

All-in-all, our camping excursions would have been a living hell for a normal kid my age, what with all the modern-day comforts they are used to, subjecting them to this minimalist, caveman s**t would have been like a slow suicide…But I loved every second of it. “Are you daydreaming over there or what, Kiddo?” My dad called out to me in a deep but gentle voice.

“I’m just taking it all in, Pop, it is beautiful here.” I said as I turned on my heels and began walking back the ten or so feet towards him.

“It is. That old codger from my last job wasn’t lying.” He said with a broad smile on his face as he looked around. His image was one I have long admired and saw as the epitome of manliness. He was tall with a muscular build, medium-length curly brown hair, and a bushy beard to match; standing proud with his head held high and postured as if he could take on the world. Adorned in his trademark black Jericho ball cap, the letters were written in large golden print across the brow, as well as the organization's logo printed on the bill. A large gold eagle with its wings spread wide, its left talon holding a sword, and in its right clutching a Gordian knot.

My dad had long admired the Jericho organization. I grew up hearing stories about the great Jericho; peacekeepers of the world with the authority to intervene in acts of global terrorism given to them by the UN for their intervention in the Second World War, bringing a swift end to the conflict.

My dad bent down to pick up his backpack before looking down at me. “You ready to go, champ? Your mother’s probably missing us right about now.” He said as he tussled my hair and turned to make his way east along the path of the stream.

“Oh, come on, we’ve only been gone for a week. I’m sure she’s fine.” I said before hustling to catch up and tag along beside him.

“You know your mother; she doesn’t like her baby bird to fly away from the nest for too long.” He said, flashing me a quick smirk.

“Hey, don’t put this on me. Admit it, you’re just slowing down old man; missing your bed already?” I teased smugly with a smirk of my own.

He chuckled to himself before replying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m not that old.”

“Then what’s with that grey hair right there?” I replied, pointing to the imaginary strand of grey hair.

“You are so full of s**t; your eyes should be brown.” He said playfully, swatting my hand away before gently shoving my shoulder. I stumbled to the right but swiftly regained my balance and closed the distance once more so that I was back at his side as we continued our trek.

“Besides, everyone knows grey hair doesn’t make you old, it just makes you wise.”

“I’m sure all the folks at the retirement home say that…” I paused, looking up at him with a cheeky grin before finishing. “You know before they go senile with all that ‘wisdom’.” We both laughed as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him as we continued to walk.

“You’re such a little s**t Joshua, but that’s okay, seeing as how you probably got it from me.” He said before letting me go and we exchanged a final smile at one another before walking onwards in silence, enjoying the scenery a little longer before returning to our mundane lives back in the city. It was quite breathtaking here. The forest was a mixture of tall Lodge Pole pines and Juniper Willows standing around us, dense shrubbery and foliage made up most of what would otherwise be vacant. Thankfully, the path we were on was mostly clear from obstructions. And off in the distance, I could see a break in the trees leading to a large open area.

As we made our way past the trees, we found ourselves in a large open field, long grass and weeds coming up to my ankles. The stream on our right started to widen and the pace of the flowing water quickened; its surface shimmered like a field of diamonds as the sun's rays reflected off of it. The surrounding area bustled with invisible life; bird song was the most distinguishable, but as I focused, I could make out the sound of squirrels squeaking and barking as they played, and the buzzing of insects swarming down by the water's edge, almost drowned out by the rushing water. I had even seen deer tracks leading towards this area, so even though I couldn’t see or hear them, I was sure they were around, hiding from the gruff-looking man with the boom-stick.

Suddenly a hawk screeched, making its presence known. My focus was immediately drawn to it, and I stopped to try to scan the skies for the feathered beast. It didn’t take me long to notice it circling overhead more than likely on the hunt. Luckily enough for me, it was close enough that I could get a decent look at it as it cut through the air effortlessly. I could make out all of its features. It was a blend of red, white, and black; its belly was mostly white with notes of red, its wingtips painted black, with black spots leading from wing to wing with no discernable pattern. “Red-tailed hawk, what a beautiful bird. Looks like he might have found his next meal.” My dad said, a smile painted on his face.

And as if on cue, the Red-tailed hawk closed its wings and dove towards the ground at breakneck speed and I couldn’t help but exclaim. “Wow!”

I could see my dad's gaze shift towards me out of my peripheral vision, his smile widened. “Not every day you get to see Mother Nature at work like that, eh, Kiddo?” He said before I turned my gaze towards him, returning his smile.

“No kidding, I’ve been coming out with you for years and I can honestly say that’s one thing I haven’t seen yet; guess I can cross it off the bucket list, huh?”

My dad chuckled to himself before slapping his hands down on my shoulders. “It's crazy how much you take after me, you know that?” He said before sighing, a slight look of disappointment washed over his face.

“What?” I asked with a puzzled look on my face.

“If only you didn’t have your mother’s chicken legs.” He said, glancing down at my legs and shaking his head in mock disapproval.

I playfully shoved him back with both hands. “Well screw you too, old man! They wouldn’t feel like chicken legs if I stuck them up, you’re a*s, now, would they?”

My dad took a few steps back, holding his hands up in defeat. “I suppose you’ve got a point there.” He said before returning to stand in front of me, putting his hands back on my shoulders, and gazed down at me with a warm, loving smile before speaking. “I love you, Joshua. I never want you to forget that, and never forget what I told you, okay?” He knelt in front of me, so we were eye level with each other, and stared at me for a moment in silence before his loving gaze transformed into a much colder one. The life drained from his once vibrant blue eyes. “They’re coming.” He whispered gruffly.

“What? Who’s coming?” I asked, taken aback by the strange and sudden remark, he continued to look at me with a dead-eyed stare unaware of my question. “What are you talking about, Dad?”

Suddenly I heard the hawk from before again, its once-proud vocalization of dominance over its territory, now a pitiful and agonized cry as it plummets to the ground behind my dad. For the first time since my dad’s previous remark, his gaze on me was broken and he turned his head to see the hawk painfully writhing on the ground, desperately flapping its wings. My eyes locked on the once majestic bird of prey, now crumbled into a broken heap no more than twenty feet from me.

“What happened to it?” I asked fruitlessly as I shot my dad a glance, his emotionless expression not fazed by the events that unfolded in front of us. Suddenly, he stood up and turned to face the hawk; as he did, I stared up at him for a moment before focusing my full attention on the hawk and stepping forward to get a better look. As I approached, the hawk’s thrashing slowed before ceasing altogether, its body coated in reddish black ooze that seemed to bubble. The substance moved slowly as if it were sentient, devouring the flesh of the poor creature, exposing bone on its wings and body. It made its way down to the ground leaving behind a residue that liquefied the bones, transforming them into even more of an insidious sludge.

“What the hell is that smell?” I muttered under my breath before covering my nose with my shirt, as my sense of smell was assaulted by an odor resembling putrid, rotting flesh; the once fresh-smelling air now stagnated as a miasma washed over the field. The once-bustling wildlife all but snuffed out at the arrival of this malignant slime; the sun itself even seemed to shy away from its presence as dark clouds quickly rolled in to hide its gaze from the sight.

By the time this strange substance had hit the forest floor, nothing remained of the hawk, and the ooze even devoured the earth around it as well, forming a small pool, thick bubbles erupting from the surface of the pool. “Are you seeing this Pop?” I asked only to be met by the same near deafening silence, the whole field consumed by an eerie stillness. “Pop?” I asked again before turning around to scan the area only to find my dad had vanished into thin air, all traces of him erased from existence.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of gurgling coming from behind me; turning back towards the pool, I saw that the bubbling from within had gotten more violent as if something were thrashing just beneath the surface. As I stared at the thick, putrid liquid, I was filled with both a sense of uneasiness and inexplicable captivation at the sight. As if bewitched, I began to walk closer to it despite the fact every sensible part of my being screamed for me to run as fast and as far as I could in the opposite direction.

A short while later, I stood mere inches from the pool, peering down into it as if I stared at it long and hard enough the mystery of this strange phenomenon would be miraculously unraveled. Suddenly, I was startled by the sound of a thud from behind me. Turning to the side, I saw a buck had wandered in from the trees and now lay on the ground being consumed by a similar ooze as the one that lay at my feet, as if this poor creature sparked a chain reaction. I began to hear thuds all around me, the wildlife I had thought long gone began to be consumed, birds falling from the skies, squirrels falling out of trees, all coated in the ooze and slowly turned into more of the strange pools, the stench of death and decay became almost unbearable.

“Joshua.” I heard a strange man’s garbled voice emanating softly from within the pool at my feet. I turned back towards it, I knelt to inspect it more closely. As I did, I started to see the shape of something moving. For a moment, I was almost tempted to reach into the pool, but just as the thought crossed my mind, an arm shot out from the pool trying to grab me. As it did, the trance I'd been under seemed to break, and I fell back just in time for it to miss me entirely. I crawled backward as it flailed around, desperately searching for something to grab hold of as its mangled hand grasps at thin air.

Moments later, the hand slaps down with a sickening wet thud; it dug its fingers into the earth. The once lush grass began to wither and decay under its touch as it struggled to pull itself from the viscous liquid. Paralyzed by fear, I couldn’t help but sit and stare as its head breaks the surface. Its face was a grotesque and twisted mess; its left eye popped from the socket dangling loosely, its lower jaw crudely ripped off, leaving its tongue to hang down from its gaping maw as the abomination croaked and made a gurgling noise as a steady stream of the ooze poured from its mouth.

As it pulled itself from the pool and began to stand up, I noticed its right arm was crudely cut below the elbow, bits of gnarled skin and flesh swayed at the slightest movement. Its intestines were pulled from a jagged gash in its abdomen and dragged on the floor behind him, lifeless milky eyes locked onto mine as it began shambling towards me. Upon seeing it make it's way slowly towards me, my flight response was sent into overdrive, and I shot up to my feet to turn tail and run. But to my horror, when I turned, I noticed my grand escape had been cut short as I saw what awaited me. From six additional pools that had formed around me, similar aberrations were in various stages of departure from their horrific prisons.

The pool left by the buck had already spat out its misshapen prisoner who had already begun making its way towards me. A blood-stained, blond-haired woman whose legs were cut off at the knees, swiftly closed the distance between us as she crawled with determination and unknown purpose, leaving behind a trail of dark brown ooze and decaying earth. As if instinctually knowing that I noticed her, she stopped for a moment and gazed up at me, the eyes ripped from her skull, red ooze pouring from the empty sockets that streamed down her face and dripped to the forest floor. She growled menacingly at me before she unleashed a blood-curdling scream and continued to violently crawl towards me.

The way behind me was blocked by the first mutilated creature that I could hear getting closer. So, I attempted to keep pushing forward, leaping over the fast-approaching woman, but as I did, she swiped at my leg, catching my boot and knocking me off balance, causing me to stumble on my landing, and hit the ground with a tumble.

“Joshua!” She screamed in a shrill voice before beginning to turn herself back around to face me. And as if her call made my presence known to the rest of the creatures, I noticed the rest of the creatures lock on to me; like hungry wolves, the pack moves in for the kill. Their mutilated and deformed visages closed in at an alarming rate, they joined in their chaotic companion's symphony of misery and woe, pained screams erupted from them mixed with a demonic chant of a single word, “Joshua.”

As quickly as I could, I scrambled to my feet and made a break for the tree line. But before I could get too far, I noticed a searing pain in the leg that was touched by the woman and an increased difficulty running. Before too long, I find myself barely able to walk. I clutched my left leg and looked down to see my boot was coated in the same bronze ooze that had consumed the creatures’ hauntingly twisted forms. The thick, tacky substance was simultaneously sticking my foot to the ground and spreading higher up my leg; everywhere the putrid slime had touched was engulfed in a burning sensation that shot its way through my whole body and caused a mind-numbing pain as it began to devour my flesh.

The pain had been interrupted abruptly by a new sensation, as I felt a hand slap around my ankle, it gripped tight enough I thought it would shatter under the tremendous pressure. I threw my head back to see the legless woman who had pulled herself up onto my back by my clothes; her screams had filled my core with terror as she did so. As she perched herself on my back, her arms wrapped around my neck, I could feel her form beginning to fuse with mine.

As the rest of the horrible abominations surrounded me, grasping at any exposed part they could reach, I slowly began to assimilate into the mass of rotting meat. The last thing I heard was the sound of my screams joining the hellacious orchestra as I was completely absorbed into the mass. Surrounded by darkness, before all sound seemed to cease existing.

Weightless, I float in an abyss of nothingness and as all my senses begin to abandon me, even time itself seems to fade from existence. “I’m sorry.” I heard my dad whisper from within my mind, the words echoing inside my skull.