The Trail

I wrote this one February 25, 1994, I just thought I would post it to show how my style has or has not changed; you decide. One word of warning though, it is a bit gruesome and contains some foul language. MW

The trail snaked lazily left and right, up and down, more times than I could count. Soft sand swirled in the low spots, deposited by frequent spring rains, while the high areas showed hard packed Oklahoma red dirt, worn smooth by the hikers of the park. Shade, lent from the tall blackjacks, fell across the trail in the late afternoon heat. The trees grew so numerous that visibility only went out ten feet or less into the brush. Seeing down the trail was no better.

Green lizards and horny toads skittered across the trail at its narrow places, eager to return to the safety of the brush. Chicken hawks and crows waited patiently for the four-footed appetizers to make a mistake.

Just ahead of me a lizard dared out into the open, stopping quickly to look up at me and then moved of into the treeline and relative safety. When the lizard caught my attention I saw the first drop hit the sand.

Rain?

Now I looked up to check for danger. On the plains a thunderstorm can turn deadly with little warning. No clouds could be seen, another perfect Oklahoma spring day of 85 degrees.

I moved farther up the trail and around a bend. In the shadows the ground looked wet, like muddy water had been dumped out of a child’s pale.

Looking up again to check for danger froze me to the bone.

A man hung upside down from a branch of a blackjack. His mouth was agape in a silent scream, his eyes rolled back, revealing only the whites. Blood dripped from his gashed throat like an old faucet. The cut continued down from his throat to his waistline.

His shirt was bunched up around his chest, heavy with blood.

My feet moved before my mind reacted. Backwards a few paces, and then suddenly I stopped. I had backed into something, something soft, and wet.

Now my brain caught up.

RUN, run now.

Back down the trail the way I’d came, to run up the trail would have meant going under the hanging-upside-down-all-the-blood-drained-from-his-body-cause-of-the-three-foot-cut-in-his-chest guy back there.

My arms thrashed chaotically in the air as I ran down the trail, my legs slowed in the corners, as sand gave way to my weight.

FASTER, dammit the bogeyman is right behind.

My lungs sucked in fire with each new breath. Cotton coated my mouth.

I can HEAR him coming faster.

Bursting out of the trail was to be my salvation, but I knew he wouldn’t stop now, I was within his reach.  Across the picnic area and up the bank of the pond, — people, Lord let there be people there.

What? Am I going to jump in and swim to safety?

Not only my lungs but now my whole body was on fire.  At the top of the hill, looking out over the small pond, I saw my only hope. A man in denim overalls stood pointing at me.

Help me. I tried to shout.

My breath would not allow for this.  As I raced around the pond, towards the over-alled man, I caught his expression.  Hate, greed, malice, and evil lurked inside his smile. The smile of a madman.  Stealing a look down the hill at my pursuer almost made me stop running and fall over to wait.

A tall man, thick salt and pepper hair cut high on his head, baggy blue denim overalls and the same look on his face, was barreling up the embankment towards me.

RUN — REAL FAST.

Past the dock and onto the open grassland I began to speed up.

They were both behind me now, laughing and chortling to each other as the pursued their prey. Turning to look again my right foot slammed into something and sent me flailing to the ground. Hitting with a thud and jar made my head grow fuzzy.

My left hand came to rest on something hard.

Rock! Grab the rock!

As my hand surrounded the rock my ears exploded, my vision went red, and then darkness engulfed me.

The blue sky was moving in a peculiar way. Bumpy, jolting to and fro. Trees looked as if they stretched into the heavens and beyond. For a moment I felt vertigo and closed my eyes.

When the light returned I lifted my head off the moving ground — two men were dragging me, each had one of my legs. They were laughing at something. The blue sky almost matched their overalls.

Hey guys? What’s the joke?

My eyes opened again when my head scraped across the hard-pack red dirt.

The two guys in front of me looked familiar. I knew them from somewhere!

Darkness.

Sounds of ripping brought me back.

Trail-blood-pond-overalls.

WhereisthatdamnROCK?