Chapter One of The Encounter
As they hiked through the secluded mountain forest, the longtime friends reflected on some of their favorite memories from the past.
“Remember that time Smitty drank so many beers that he passed out in Mrs. Johnson’s flower bed?”
“Oh man, she was pissed.”
As the men rounded a bend and entered a small clearing in the forest, they heard what sounded like an animal running through the woods. They heard the snow crushed beneath heavy, rapid footfalls and branches scraping as a large body moved quickly through the underbrush.
“What is that? You think it’s a deer?” Daniel questioned his friend, his senses on full alert.
“Sounds bigger. Maybe a bear,” Jim responded. This was not the response that Daniel was hoping for.
The men could tell that the sound was coming toward them, but the forest was thick, and they still couldn’t see the source of the sound. Suddenly, a man crashed through the underbrush, running full speed toward them. Their eyes locked onto his and the man stopped in his tracks.
“Help,” the man said, out of breath. “You’ve got to help me. He’s right behind me.” His face held a frantic, pleading look.
“Who’s chasing you?” Asked Daniel.
“Or what,” added Jim.
When the man had stopped running, the forest had become eerily quiet. No bird or animal dared to make a sound and disturb the silence. Just as the man opened his mouth to answer the question, a gunshot rang out like an explosion, shattering the stillness around them. The frantic look on the man’s face turned instantly to fear. He clutched both hands to his chest and looked down as blood started to ooze from between his fingers. When he looked back up at the two men, his face was ghost-white, and his eyes were distant. He fell forward to his knees, then to the snowy ground, and once again everything was quiet around them.
“What. The. Fuck.” That was all that Jim could manage to say. He looked at Daniel, but Daniel hadn’t taken his eyes off the dead man in front of them in the blood-stained snow. “Holy shit. Holy shit. What the fuck, man? He’s dead.”
Daniel finally looked at Jim, as if he could provide some explanation for what just happened. Then, at the same time, the two men heard soft footsteps coming toward them from the same direction the man was just running. These steps weren’t rushed. They were slow and deliberate; a hunter tracking its prey.
The men exchanged a fearful glance when they realized what the sound was. Before they could react, they saw the underbrush begin to move and a man walk slowly into the small clearing where they stood. He was a tall man, with grizzled features. He had a short, dark beard and dark eyes. He looked more like a cowboy than a hunter, with jeans and boots and a long black duster jacket that was worn open. The rifle in his hands still had a trail of gray smoke coming from the barrel.
Daniel was the first to react to the sight of the mysterious man.
“Wait, wait, wait, just hold on a minute. We didn’t see anything. We don’t know you and we don’t know this guy,” he said, his hands held out in front of him in a pleading motion.
The mysterious man said nothing for a long time, just stared at the two strangers. Finally, he said,
“This here man raped my 10-year-old daughter. ’Round these parts, we don’t wait for a judge to try a man. A man pays for what he done. Either ’a you think I was wrong?”
“No,” they said in unison.
He stared at them for another long pause.
“You got a decision to make. You walk back the way you came and forget you ever been here, or you fill a hole with this piece of shit here.”
Daniel and Jim took a quick glance at each other. Without a word, they began slowly walking backward, not taking their eyes off the mysterious man with the rifle. He never blinked as he watched them go. When they reached the edge of the forest behind them, they turned and ran as fast as they could and never looked back.