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The creature had simply vanished. |
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By the time the first faint traces of dawn began to penetrate the long hours of fog and darkness, Jake had parked the four-by-four at what the patrols had been referring to as quadrant W.E. He turned off the ignition, slumped down behind the steering wheel and shoved his hat forward down over his eyes. The look of exhaustion had crept over his lined face. "Well, Researcher, it looks like we're goin' to make it," he sighed. |
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I was still gratefully fondling the arrival of the new day, and it was easy to agree with him. Somehow the threatening combination of darkness and fog and knowing that the foul-smelling thing was still freely roaming around out there in the shadows had made the night seem all the longer. I had already seen the monster muscle his way through one brick wall, and it was a sight I had no desire to witness a second time. So it was symbolic, if nothing else, that the darkness was giving way to the dawn; one of the three obstacles to survival had been, at least temporarily, overcome. |
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Through it all, it occurred to me that I still knew very little about the mountain of a man who sat slumped in the seat beside me. I had developed a great deal of respect for Jake Madden over the past few hours. If he was going to be accurately characterized in whatever this affair turned out to be, I had to know a great deal more about him. |
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