Free Slocum 420 by Jake Logan

a doctor nearby. I think someone already went to fetch him.”
    â€œIf you’re not sure, then you go fetch him.” When the man remained frozen in his place, Slocum barked, “Go!”
    Not only that worker but two others bolted away from the cart to race toward town.
    Slocum bent down to get a closer look at the man who was lying on his stomach. That one’s back had been ripped open in several places. Some cuts were too shallow to be concerned about while others went so deep that muscle and bone were exposed to the light of day. The edges of most of the wounds were flayed and tattered. Dirt was stuck to the interior of most of the wounds, making the man look more like he’d been dragged behind the cart instead of riding inside it.
    â€œWhat happened to these men?” Slocum asked.
    â€œThey were attacked.”
    Snapping his head up to look at the driver, Slocum said, “I can see as much for myself! I got eyes. Who attacked them?”
    The driver shook his head. He was already dazed, and the more he looked at the blood-soaked mess in the cart, the farther away he seemed to drift. Slocum stood up and grabbed the front of the driver’s shirt as he spoke in a voice that he hoped would cut through the haze gathering within his spinning head. “You did good to get them here,” he said in the calmest tone he could manage. “There’s more help on the way. Until it gets here, you’ve got to talk to me. Understand?”
    Slowly, the driver nodded.
    â€œStart from the beginning then. Tell me what happened.”
    â€œI was headed out to collect some tools that were left at the spot where the last group of trees were cut down.”
    â€œWhere?” Slocum asked.
    â€œFall Pass.” Now that the driver was looking at something other than the bodies he’d found, his thoughts seemed to come to him with more clarity. “Last time the men were cutting out there, it was getting dark and rain clouds were moving in. We wanted to get the timber moved before it got soaked through.”
    Trying not to lose his patience, Slocum nodded. “All right. The men left their tools and you needed to gather them up.”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œSo you rode out there and . . . what did you see?”
    â€œI heard wailing,” the driver said.
    â€œYou heard these men screaming?”
    â€œNo,” the driver said while shaking his head erratically. “I mean . . . I heard screaming as well, but the wailing caught my attention first. It wasn’t like anything I ever heard before.”
    â€œAn animal,” Slocum said as he shifted his attention down to the man who was lying on his back. Almost immediately, he was pulled up again by the driver.
    â€œIt wasn’t no animal I ever heard before,” the driver said. “And I heard all there is that lives and breathes in them woods. I was a trapper long before this mill was built. I can recognize bears by the sound of their steps and wolves by their scent. This wasn’t nothing like them. The stink in the air was . . . horrible.”
    Stooping down to examine the other wounded man, Slocum peeled away some of the clothing to find a similar terrible story etched into that man’s body. “Did you get a look at whatever it was?”
    â€œNo. I just heard it.”
    â€œWhat about tracks?” Slocum asked. “Bits of fur. Scat in the brush. Anything at all that could tell you what this thing was or where it went. Did you see any of that?”
    The driver blinked as if he’d just been splashed by cold water. Sobered by thinking along more familiar lines, he said, “No. I didn’t take the time to look for any of that. These men were screaming and hurt so badly that I just got them loaded up into this here cart so I could bring ’em back here.”
    â€œYou loaded them up on your own?”
    Blinking some more, the driver looked