Free Tumultus by D. W. Ulsterman Page B

pace.  Once we hit the hills, we’ll slow up again – the trail gets steep in some places and there may still be a bit of snow up there in places.  We’ll be going northeast for a while to avoid having to cross a river, and then once we are inside Canada, we’ll start to go more directly east.  If we make good time, we’ll be at the cabin before nightfall.”
     
    Mac followed behind Cooper, and behind him rode Reese and Dublin.  The last to follow was Bear, who leaned forward and whispered quietly into the right ear of his horse Ben.
     
    “How about we make a deal Ben?   You don’t let me fall off and I don’t turn you into glue?”
     
    At the entrance to the Wyse ranch, some two miles away, a lone human-like figure was crawling atop the ground.  It wore no clothing, its sinewy dark body devoid of any indications of it being male or female.   Its thick hairless skin was mottled and dark, almost leather like.  Long fingered hands tapered off into curved, claw like nails - nails that now dug into the pebbled ground that was the narrow drive leading to Cooper Wyse’s home.  It emitted a high pitched, whining growl, growing more excited as it continued to inhale the scent of the four humans who had stopped to rest at this very location just yesterday.
     
    The creature’s face was incredibly narrow, though its mouth was large enough that its thin, black-purple lips nearly touched the lower portions of each of its ears.  The nose that continued to inhale and exhale loudly was short and flat, with massive nostrils flaring outward just above the freakishly wide mouth.  Two large eyes were filled almost completely by massive dilated, midnight black pupils.
     
    Having satisfied itself with confirming the scent of the four humans, the thing stood up to survey the area around it.  Its back was severely humped causing the creature to stoop forward as it attempted to raise its nose into the slight breeze that blew around it.  The humped portion of its back stretched and pulled under its dark skin as it moved toward the fence Mac had leaned on the day before.
     
    The wide mouth grew even wider as the thing seemed to grin, exposing two rows of jagged, deadly-looking teeth that would have been more at home in the mouth of a bat than that of anything remotely human.  Again it began to issue that high pitched, whining growl as it suddenly squatted down against one of the fence posts and loudly regurgitated a black tar like substance that smelled of rotting flesh.  The thing’s head moved quickly from side to side as it inhaled the contents of what it had just thrown up.
     
    The creature returned to its semi-standing crouch position and looked in the direction of the Wyse ranch, its clawed fingers clicking against each other as the thing processed the signals being sent into it by the small electronic transmission device implanted around its brain stem.  Thousands of miles away inside the genetic drone information annex of the New United Nations Military Response Center in Maryland, the scent and visual information being transmitted by the creature was already being reviewed by data operatives to determine the creature’s next response, while yet another set of eyes was watching from within the seeker’s vision as well.
     
    Finally the thing began to run toward the Wyse home with an odd, sideways bent gait where its arms hung loosely in front of it while its legs carried it across the ground with surprising speed that would have proven difficult for even the fastest man to outrun.
     
    As it sped down the long drive, the seeker’s sharp toothed smile and high pitched growl returned.
     
     
    VII.
     
     
    After ten minutes of the horses walking through the high grass fields behind the Wyse ranch, Cooper glanced back to see how the other four were acclimating to being in their respective saddles.  Each one of them appeared more comfortable than they had been just moments before.  Even Bear was no long