Suspending Reality (36 page)

“What’s your position?” a voice crackled back.

“I’m a half-mile north of base camp, on my way to Sabrino Cave now. All teams report to Sabrino immediately.” She tapped Adam’s arm. “Let’s go.” Sarah jumped over the logs, ferns, and rocks scattered along the forest floor, her heartbeat thudding in her ears. Just ahead, she squinted at a large black mass of rock; the cave entrance came into view. Sarah stopped and peered into the dark hole. She pinched her nose shut, trying to prevent the pungent smell from penetrating her nostrils. “Pee-yew! I think somebody forgot to take out the garbage…like all week.”

“I saw this thing on the FLIR,” Beth said. “It’s at least eight feet tall. Man, it’s huge! I wonder if it’s still in the cave.”

“Well, let’s track it!” Sarah ordered, inching closer to the jagged opening.

“Or we can just follow the stench,” Beth said. “I say we get out our tranquilizer guns, just in case it charges us.”

Sarah nodded. “Good thinking.” She glanced at her cameraman, Steven, the bright camera light blinding her eyes in the blackness. “Are you getting this? Everything?”

“Yeah, man, but do you think cornering Crypto Guy is such a great idea?”

Sarah shoved her goggles to the top of her head. Glancing around, she took a few steps forward. “Look, you were hired to film this. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen, and we’ll find someone who can. Who knows when we’ll ever get another chance to be this close again? Surely you want to be part of this.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Steven uttered.

Sarah turned to Adam. “Now, did we get those shrieking calls on audio?”

“Sure did,” Adam said.

“Good.”

Frank shook her shoulder. “Are you crazy? Messing around with the local wildlife is beyond dangerous. I’m sure it’s just a bear or a big cat or—”

She brushed his hand off. “Look, Frank, you’ve done nothing but shoot down all my research on television, in your newspaper and magazine articles, and in your new book. If you’re so sure this is fake, some kind of staged crap, or that it’s just some nature show, why don’t you go in and see for yourself?”

Frank took a step back. “All you’ve got here is a trapped wild animal. Sure, I was hoping to get my shirt ripped off when I came looking for you, but not by a bear.”

Sarah ignored him and grabbed a tuft of coarse, dark hair from the cavern entrance. She squinted to get a good look at it in the darkness. “This isn’t from a bear, and whatever it is, I’m going to capture the thing on film. Adam, please bag this.”

“You got it, boss.”

Sarah opened up the lens on her camera and adjusted the settings. “People, we’re about to solve one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the twenty-first century.”

Beth kneeled, her eyes wide. “Look, Sarah. We got prints.”

Large humanoid footprints were clear in the mud, and the sight of them sent a shiver down Sarah’s spine. It wasn’t human, ape, gorilla or chimpanzee unless they came in XXL. “Get measurements of these. Steven, swing that camera over here and get them on film.”

Beth stretched out a tape measure next to one of the fresh tracks indented in the mud.

“Some tracks in the mud? C’mon, Sarah. You know as well as I do that this doesn’t mean anything,” Frank muttered.

Sarah shook her head. “Anyone here wear a Size 20 shoe?” The footprints appeared to be roughly nineteen inches long and eight inches wide with a long stride and five discernible toes.
Who’d go running around barefoot in ice-cold mud?
“No one step on these prints. They’re the evidence we need. I’ll cast them in a minute.” She focused and snapped her camera. “Frank, myths don’t leave tracks,” she spat at him. “Wish me luck, people,” she said, turning her gaze toward the cave entrance. “I’m going in.”

“You’re really gonna risk your life just to prove me wrong?” Frank asked.

“Well, skeptics do tend to piss me off,” Sarah said. “For all these years, you’ve claimed my work is worthless, and that there’s nothing scientific about what we’re doing out here. You said that science needed to validate the existence of Bigfoot with a live or dead specimen. You said I’d need bones, teeth, or blood. But really, this has nothing to do with you. I am willing to risk my life to prove me right, and this is the perfect opportunity to get all the proof I need. I’m not waiting another second.”

Frank laughed. “Do you really think tomorrow’s headlines are gonna read, ‘I Just Found Bigfoot’? No way! If anything, the papers are gonna say, ‘Bigfoot Researchers Torn to Shreds by Bear’.”

She shrugged. “Well, you can think whatever you want, but at this point, I’ll take whatever fate throws at me. I have to see for myself, one way or the other.”

“All fate’s going to deliver is a million stitches and a trip to the emergency room,” Frank said. “These things don’t exist. I’ve told you that how many times?”

“I don’t care what you told me. Those tracks are real, that fur is real, and that’s solid enough evidence for me to take a closer look.”

Frank cleared his throat. “Evidence? Sure. Everything but the creature itself.”

“Well, Mr. Skeptic, then go in there and prove me wrong.”

He took off his hat and ran a hand through his unruly hair. “If I do this and I’m right, you owe me dinner—even if I’m in a full-body cast when that grizzly in there mauls me half to death.”

“Dinner? Sure. So man up.” She whipped out her tranquilizer gun and handed it to him.

He smiled, pointed the weapon with both hands, and walked through the entrance.

Sarah followed, her smile vanishing. A scream pierced the air, and it took her only a moment to realize it was her own.
 

Chapter 2

Sarah scrambled to her feet, staring straight ahead. Harsh and unexpected light blared through the cavern entrance, forcing her to instinctively cover her eyes. Squinting, she raced outside and looked up: no stars, no moon, no darkness. Instead, the sun shone brightly through the trees, saturating the green leaves with its golden glow. The last time she’d checked, it had been midnight. All she could assume was that she’d hit her head in the fall and passed out for a good eight hours.
Why hasn’t my team come to help me?
She couldn’t help but wonder.
Sure, they’d leave Frank to his own fate, but surely they’d come looking for me.
“What the heck is going on? Where is everybody?” she asked aloud to no one in particular.

Groaning, Frank approached and rubbed his head. “What happened? Did I black out or something?”

Sarah hesitated for a moment, unsure. “I think we both did. It looks like morning.” She nervously fingered the black strap from her hanging 35mm Nikon. Reaching into her pocket, she let out a sigh of relief; the FLIR hadn’t fallen out in whatever skirmish had happened in the dark.

“Are you okay, babe?” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You hurt?”

She swatted his hand away. “Don’t call me ‘babe’! I could use some Motrin, but I needed that the second you showed up. You look like crap, by the way.”

“Thanks for the concern, but I’m fine. I just can’t figure out how we got here and managed to miss a few hours. How’s it daylight already?”

“I have absolutely no idea.”

His eyes darted about nervously. “Well, in any case, let’s get the heck out of here.”

“Yeah, okay. Let me see if I can get a hold of my team first.” She grabbed her radio from her belt and talked into the mouthpiece. “Sarah to base camp.”

The device crackled, but then…nothing.

Sarah shot Frank an inquiring look, then took a deep breath. She spoke louder this time into the mouthpiece, “This is Sarah. If anybody’s around, please respond.”

More static was her only reply.

“Maybe they’re out of range,” Frank speculated.

Letting out a sigh, she attached the radio to her belt. “Probably. Let’s start heading back, and my team better have one heck of an excuse for deserting us like that.”

Frank started walking, crunching dry leaves under his feet. “I’m sure they do. How about some bacon and eggs? My treat.” He smiled over his shoulder.

“Today is your lucky day, mister, ‘cause I’m ready to eat a dozen eggs and an entire pig.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Where’s the closest diner?”

“Hmm. Not sure, but it’s probably a three-hour walk back to our cars. We better make that lunch.”

Startled, Sarah jumped as a shrill cry echoed nearby.

“Tell me that was some kind of bird.” Frank’s gaze settled on her, his eyes wide.

“I could, but I’d be lying. No bird I’ve ever met has made that kind of sound.” She laughed at his expression. “Come on. Please tell me your backyard’s not the only square of nature you’ve ever visited besides this one, city boy.”

Frank opened his mouth to reply when a growl cut through the silence. “You sure that’s not a bird? Some kind of eagle or vulture or something?”

She shook her head as a shiver ran down her spine. “When’s the last time you heard a bird howl like that?” The cry sounded like the Bigfoot calls she’d captured on audio six months earlier. She could have kept quiet about that so as not to worry her ill-equipped Tarzan companion, but she knew there’d be no fun in that. “Nothing like seeing your research up close and personal. On the bright side, it’ll be worth watching you crap your pants.”

A twig snapped in the trees, and Frank instinctively reached for her hand like a lost little boy wanting his mother. “We need to find cover. A bear stalking us isn’t good.”

She scanned the trees and vegetation as she whispered, “How many times do I have to tell you it’s not a freaking bear, Frank?”

“How can you know that?” He shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s just get outta here.”

“No.” She planted her feet into the ground, just in case he decided to drag her away. “You can go wherever you want, but I’m staying right here. I’m not out here for some nature hike. I want proof, and I’m going to get it.”

He glared at her. “Can’t you forget about your research for one minute? I’d prefer to live.”

No way, she thought. I’ve waited years for this moment, this one confrontation, this proof that I’m not crazy. If only my team was here to back me up, but I need to do this with or without them—for me.
“I have to see this for myself.”

A dark, hairy outline rustled in the tall bushes.

Chills rushed over Sarah. “Whoa! That thing is less than 200 feet away. You still have the tranquilizer gun?”

Frank pulled it from the back of his hip and cocked it. “Yep, right here, but if we get arrested by Ranger Smith for giving Yogi a death sentence, don’t be surprised when I say I told you so.”

“I’m not gonna
kill
anything. Maybe you should Google ‘tranquilizer’ sometime, Mr. Investigator.”

Suddenly, an ape-like creature emerged from the foliage. It stood eight feet tall and was covered from head to toe with long brown hair, matted in places. Its powerful build, broad shoulders, and thick chest cast a shadow on the grass, making Sarah shudder. For years, she’d studied the elusive monster, and finally, she was getting her first real encounter since that fateful day when she’d lost her sister.

“No! It just…it can’t be,” Frank whispered. “No way! Should I admit myself into the psyche ward now or later?”

“It exists! I knew it all along,” she said. “One picture, that’s all I need.” With shaking hands, she brought the camera into focus.

The creature simply stared at her.

She zoomed in on its face, still wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. It looked like an ape with a flat, wide nose, deep-set green eyes, and a full set of lips. The lips and chin protruded into somewhat of a snout, but nothing like a bear. She snapped the photo, knowing the proof on that film would change the way the world looked at Bigfoot—and at her.
I’ll never be a laughingstock again.
Zooming out, she took another photo.

“You got your picture. Now let’s go!”

“Frank! Calm down. Don’t make any sudden movements, or it might—” Sarah tried to warn, but the creature had already become uneasy.

Taking slow, measured steps, the primate moved in their direction.

“Crap!” Frank aimed the tranquilizer gun and fired, striking his target.

The creature jumped back and let out a long, pained howl, then lurched forward.

Sarah gasped as Frank tugged her hand. “Move it!”

Without waiting for him, she sprinted, her heart thumping like a jackhammer.
If Frank knows what’s best for him, he’ll follow me.
As they darted between trees and splashed through a tiny stream, the air behind them filled with blood-chilling howls. She glanced over her shoulder and screamed when she realized they were being pursued by not one beast, but multiple hairy figures gathering in the distance, darting behind them.

Suddenly, Sarah’s hiking boot caught on a fallen log, and she tripped and fell with a solid thud on the forest floor. Crawling through the ferns, she peeked out. She didn’t see Frank anywhere. “Frank! Frank?” she whispered. “Where are you?”

She yanked off her camera and threw it next to her, then lay flat on the ground as the howls grew closer. Loud neighs and the sound of hooves echoed in the air, growing louder by the second. She took a deep breath and peeked through the ferns.