“So, the giant monster that lives in the woods, the one that’s five times the size of us—it took Griffin and Jen because it knew they wouldn’t hurt it?”
“I know it sounds strange. But there were four of us. Five, if you count William. It had to have thought that its odds were better if it removed us one at a time.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Why did we come here in the first place? Stupid, stupid, stupid. We didn’t think we would really find anything, you know. We never do. Sometimes we find prints or fur or something like that, or we listen to people tell stories of their sightings, but we never actually expect to find a cryptid. At least, I don’t. I like the idea that there’s something unexplained out there but I don’t think it actually exists, you know? But Griffin and Jen love this stuff and I just want to hang out with my friends. And now my friends are gone, taken by a monster that I still barely believe in, even though I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“What did you see?” Mattie asked. “I only saw its arm, and the paw.”
“That’s all I saw, too. But it wasn’t any bear paw, that’s for sure. And it moved so fast—almost faster than I could see. Like an alien or something in a movie.”
Mattie had very little memory of aliens, but the picture that immediately came to mind was of a little man-shaped being with a round head and large eyes.
“It’s not an alien,” she said.
“I didn’t say it was. I just said it was superfast like an alien in a movie, like a computer-generated effect.”
Mattie didn’t know what a computer-generated effect was, but she didn’t think they should stand around arguing about it any longer. C.P. seemed less dazed than he had a few moments before.
“We have to keep moving,” she said. “It could come after us.”
She said “could,” but what she really meant was “it will.” She didn’t doubt that the creature would harry them until they died or were off the mountain.
“Right,” C.P. said, rubbing his face. “Right. We have to get the packs. At least, we have to get mine. And Griffin’s camera, too.”
“I don’t think we should waste time going back for things,” Mattie said. “We’re at the stream now, and we know that the stream leads to the river and the river will take us the way we need to go.”
C.P. looked at the stream. “It goes more or less straight east right here, like the cliffs that were near the place we stashed the packs. That means the stream turns southeast at some point but right now its running parallel to the path we took yesterday. If we collect the packs and then keep going along the cliffside, we’ll run into the stream again at some point.”
“Maybe,” Mattie said. She understood his reasoning, but she didn’t want to risk being away from the only landmark they had.
“Look, I have the compass,” he said. “If it seems like we’re going off track for whatever reason, I’ll get us back to the stream, OK? I’ve got to get Griffin’s camera. It has evidence on it. I don’t want him to have died for nothing. And my pack has a tent, food, warm clothes—things we might need if we have to stay out here tonight. It makes sense.”
It made a kind of sense, but Mattie was starting to feel the press of urgency. The creature could return at any moment. And if they went back into the woods then they would be in its territory again. It could cross the stream behind them and hide in the trees. It could stalk them until night, and no tent or bedroll would be protection.
“I think we should just go,” she said. “As fast as we can, and not worry about the things.”
“Then go,” he said. “I’ll follow our footprints in the snow. They’re here, just like you said. Maybe I’ll catch up to you.”
“No,” Mattie said. “That’s crazy. If we’re alone then the creature could pick us off easily.”
“I’m not leaving without Griffin’s camera,” he said, and started toward the woods.
This wasn’t about an object, Mattie realized. This was about his friend, and his need to honor that friend. It was about trying to make sense of something senseless. She glanced back the way they came. The forest was silent there, no birds twittering. The creature was still there. It hadn’t followed them yet.
She ran after C.P., her stomach churning with anxiety. “Fine, but let’s hurry. Please.”
Hurry, hurry, the monster’s in the woods and it’s coming for you.
Their tracks were clear and easy to follow. Mattie saw the cluster of their footprints—her own, C.P.’s, Jen’s—and just beside them she recognized William’s boots, one of them dragging in the snow.
They were at the cluster of boulders where they’d stashed the bags sooner than Mattie thought. The walk had seemed terribly long in the dark, all three of them afraid and huddled together.
“Awesome,” C.P. said. “That only took like fifteen minutes. Just give me a few minutes to transfer some stuff from Griffin’s bag and we can go.”
They climbed down the boulders and stood in the same place where they’d stood the night before—a lifetime ago, Mattie thought, when they were four instead of two and she ate a Hershey’s bar that had tasted like a miracle.
C.P. rummaged in Griffin’s pack, digging out the camera and a notebook, then transferred the items to his own pack. He slung the bag on his back, adjusting the straps.
“Ugh, I forgot how heavy this thing is,” he said. “Okay, let’s go.”
One moment he was smiling at her and the next moment he was on the ground, and only then did she register the sound of the rifle that
