Two

two

Zhen

My lovely wife informed me she was done with people for the day and wanted nothing more than a book, a bath, and no people for an hour. Which was fair; she was an introvert who needed her alone time. I tried to give her at least one break every day so I didn’t drive her completely crazy. The pattern seemed to be working well, so I wasn’t going to buck the system just because we weren’t at home.

I got her situated in the hotel room—the cute little B it all seemed to be in good shape, just small. If the population was over a thousand people, I’d shave my head bald.

“What’s your range?” Jake abruptly asked. “How far can you get away from each other?”

“We don’t know.”

“What the fuck you mean, you don’t know? You’re the type to poke a stick into a hole until something bites you.”

“Rude. True, but rude.”

“You can’t tell me you’ve not tested this. You’ve been like this for weeks, right?”

“Right. And we keep experimenting but the answer’s different each time. I have a feeling it’s a combination of not only distance, but time apart. I will say, I think as long as we stay near the town and I’m not gone more than an hour, we’ll be fine.”

“Tell me if that’s not the case, okay?”

“You bet. Oh, is this it?” I could spy a pond in between the trees.

“It is.”

Jake put the Jeep in park as frankly, there was no more road, only a hunting trail that led farther in.

I grabbed a shotgun and dao from the back seat, putting both on before even thinking of moving closer to the pond. Bloody Bones preferred dim lighting, and I was not testing my luck. If the scent of food was strong enough, they might well come out into daylight.

Jake similarly armed himself with a machete and a gun before leading the way in.

“I haven’t gotten details from the kids yet,” he said, machete in hand, “but I was shown the location. It’s been extremely hot here, so I bet they came here to splash around a little.”

“Makes sense.”

It wasn’t a big pond, from what I could see. At the widest section, it was maybe fifteen feet across, and it was oddly shaped. Almost square? The corners of it were rounded, though. The trees around it didn’t look as big—like they were maybe twenty or thirty years old—not matching the rest of the woods.

Pursing my lips, I looked around harder. Instinct was stirring. “Jake. Was this a miner’s hole?”

“Uh…possibly?” Jake panned his head to take in the whole area, then nodded slowly. “Yeah, that’s a good possibility.”

I wasn’t a huge history buff, but I’d worked in this general area enough to pick up on some things. Coal mining was huge in the Virginias, and there were many a person who would mine in their own backyard. Especially in the olden days. I’d thought the town was a coal miner’s town from the beginning, so seeing something that could very well be an abandoned shaft made all sorts of sense to me.

Although that begged the question… “How deep does this go, then?”

“Probably really deep.” Jake’s shoulders drooped for a second. “Oh god, if it goes deep, then the Bloody Bones is probably tucked into the deepest part and sleeping right now.”

“Probably, yeah.”

“Which means we’ll have to bait it out.”

“Also likely.”

“Who was bait last time?”

“You. Which is why you had to fight the thing underwater.”

“Oh, yeah.” Jake brightened perceptibly. “So, it’s your turn.”

“I invite you to tell my wife.”

“Hell no. She’ll beat me up.”

“Good you know this.”

I honestly wasn’t happy about this either. Shallow ponds made our lives easier when fighting a Bloody Bones, but of course my luck never ran that good. Dammit. We really had to come up with some other method of baiting this thing out. It had been pretty hairy scary last time, and I didn’t relish the idea of going in after my friend because he got sucked into the water. Again.

I sank back onto my heels and looked the situation over some more. There was very little room on the banks of the pond. It wasn’t a big pond to begin with, and frankly, I didn’t like what I saw. “I can see why the kids were tempted. The water looks good. But it’s tight quarters in here, man. We got trees growing right on the banks.”

“Yeah.” Jake looked about as thrilled as I did. “Uh, those Chinese firehounds, they willing to fight?”

“In the water? They’re firehounds. Of course they won’t.”

“Figures.” Jake sighed some more.

“I mean, they’ll fight to protect Kris, but I don’t know how much else we can count on them for. We can ask?”

“I don’t know, man, we need to come up with some sort of plan. I wonder if they’d get mad if we threw dynamite in there.”

“Probably. The EPA would be all over our asses.”

I kept looking, like there was some good way to approach this, but to be honest there weren’t many clear spots. There was one right here, at the end of the trail, and it wasn’t wide—maybe six feet altogether. Then another spot opened up toward the parking area, which was barely feasible to fight in if it called for it. I did spot one tree nearby with sturdy limbs and an aging deer blind in it. I could park Kris there so she would have a good vantage point. That made me feel a little better.

A little.

I swatted at a mosquito and grimaced. “Let’s get some bug spray and head back.”

“Yeah, before we’re eaten alive.”

Jake fell in behind me as we walked back to the Jeep. Yes, the trail was so narrow that we couldn’t walk side by side.

My foot gave a mild twinge as I navigated tree roots popping out of the ground. Hmm, I knew the leg was a little weak after being in a cast for so long, but I had definitely lost some strength. I was supposed to be wearing a boot, or at least a brace, but hadn’t bothered because it hadn’t been that ouchy. In retrospect, maybe a dumb thing to do. Maybe I should buy a foot brace while getting that Off! spray. Just in case. With the Bloody Bones being basically gridlocked in the pond, I didn’t anticipate needing to run around a lot, which was definitely in my favor. Still, better safe than sorry. Last thing I needed or wanted was to be laid up AGAIN. No siree, Bob, I’d like to avoid injury if at all possible.

We got back into the cooler interior of the Jeep, Jake starting it up so we could get the A/C going.

“Bond still okay?” he asked.

“Yup, still good. I didn’t think this distance would do anything.”

“Cool. Uh, there’s a mini mart, like, two miles down the road, I think. We passed it coming in. Let’s try there for supplies. And snacks.”

I nodded firmly. Snacks were a vital part of life. “Sounds good. Oh, let me text Kris, see if she wants something.”

I pulled my phone out and texted, Lǎo pó, going to store, want anything ? It took a minute for her to respond. Chocolate, Gatorade, and bug spray

You got it

It was late in the evening at this point, so I had a feeling I couldn’t do what I wanted right away. Still, I threw the thought out there. “Tomorrow, let’s see if we can’t interview the kids. I want to know how mature this Bloody Bones is. Maybe they can give us a sense of size.”

“Smart. I’ll text the sheriff once we hit the store.”

If luck was with us, it would be a baby Bloody Bones. Which would make sense, seeing as a kid and a dog were able to fight it off. Please oh please let that be the case. If so, this whole thing would be much easier.