Long Pine Forest PRIMUS CONGRESSUS

Characters D = David (me) S = Sebastian A = Ace 

PRIMUS CONGRESSUS
DAVID                  (The first encounter in latin)

You never realize that the words you say to someone might be the last thing you ever say to them. It’s crazy talking to someone only for those few words to be the last thing you say to them. For me it was my dad. Cannot believe that the last thing I said to my dad was “I hate you, all you do is get drunk and go to that stupid ranger job never ever going to my baseball games or parent teacher meetings, only you your job, beer, and you probably started smoking again too.” If only I knew what he did, how much he tried to make it to my games, see me at all. We take people for granted, that’s a fact we never truly know how much we depend on them until they're gone. Far too many sleepless nights I have had crying myself to sleep to get to  fairytale land. Just to wake up to my own wretched story. Waking up from the high of the dream, just to take pills to fall back asleep to get back to that make believe land.

 But before I get ahead of myself my name is David. I am seventeen. My two best friends’ names are Ace and Sebastian. They're both 17. Ace is a smart snotty kid with a good passion for running, and he loves to go camping with his dad. Sebastian is the opposite of Ace. He is fat, slow, and loves to vape, a real fein and he loves anime. It was the three musketeers since kindergarten and we know everything about each other. About a year ago my dad was killed by a bear. At least that’s what the cops said. I overheard my mom talking with the cops, I didn’t hear all of it but the parts I did hear made me think that it was not a bear. The main part that made me know it was not a bear was the rangers that heard my dads voice telling them to come on out to the area where he was killed. 

When my two best friends heard about my dad they wanted to hang out. I disagreed since I wanted  more time to keep lying to myself but after about two weeks I agreed, one to tell them my theories about what really happened to my dad in Long Pine Forest. Two how to make it pay. When I got over to Ace’s house we started talking.

S  “ Wasn’t your dad a park ranger?”

D  “Yeah he knew those woods like the back of his hand he would take me camping at Long Pine almost every weekend, And if he saw a bear he would know what to do.”

While going through my backpack I pull out some files from the police station, my dad’s ranger badge and a few snacks.

A  “In this police report it said that he was running from the bear and was already badly injured with a broken leg.”

S  “That makes no sense why would your dad run from a bear? He knows what to do for bear attacks.”

D ”Maybe it wasn’t a bear.”

While formulating our theories together the flaming ball of gas gets low in the sky and our eyelids start to droop even lower. We all fall asleep in Ace’s house and wake up with a passion to find out what happened.

We wake up with dried mountain dew and pizza crust on our faces. Ace wakes up and goes to the bathroom to clear his nose. He always has bad allergies around this time of year. I get up and take my morning piss. 

S “So what are we going to do about your dad’s “bear attack”?”

D “I don’t know.”

While blowing his nose A “ I think we should kill the fucking thing.”

D  “And how do you figure we do that genius? Bullets don’t kill it. In the police report my dad’s handgun was empty and his extra clips were empty as well. For some reason his radio was gone and other rangers heard his voice on the radio after his time of death” 

A “Keep in mind that the “guns” the rangers use are .22’s barely better than a BB gun.”

S “Still you think that buckshot will kill it?”

A “For sure and we have 10 mm handcannons for bears, and .308 winchester for the “Big game” we will hunt.”

S “So what your saying is that 60 rounds of .22 won’t stop this thing but a 10 mm will?”

A “Precicly.”

D “And those handcannons are for a last resort we will probably mainly use the slugs.”

While digging through my back I only find snack wrappers

D “Sebastian! You fatass, did you eat all of my snacks?”

S “What? Moonpies are really good.”

A “Well if we are going to kill this thing we need to pack up for this trip.”

D “yeah we should start packing.”

Over the next three days we pack up everything we think we might need and shove it into the back of my Honda Civic (God I love that car). We bring a tent, walkie talkies, flashlights, two glocks and a box of ammo. Then a  twelve gauge for the “big game we were hunting” with a box of shells. I grabbed my old radio. I had no idea how long we were going to be out there. Ace grabbed cooking supplies. Sebastian grabbed some cameras and his laptop with a satellite network. After packing the car for three hours we all ate some lunch and talked about the game plan. Ace pulls out a map.

A “So there is an abandoned building four miles north of the entrance to LPF. This building is about two miles from where that “bear” killed your dad.”

D “Alright how long do we plan to be there and what will we do on the first day?”

A “we should only be there for about a week, that is how much supplies we have packed for, and the first day?”

S “Leave that to me I will set up these trail cams and I can stream the footage from my  ROG three thousand dollar laptop with satellite wifi.”

A “We get it you are insanely fat and you want to play call of duty on our downtime”

S “Shut up we can use these trail cams to triangulate his location with a script being run in the meantime so when the “bear” is within two hundred meters within we will know exactly where it will be”

D ”Any last minute items?”

S “Let me go grab my waifu pillow, can’t sleep without it”

A “Get your vape while your at it butter ball”

S “Shut up Ace!”

Once we got everything loaded into the car we started our 2 hour drive to LPF building then a 20 minute offroad drive to the building. While on the road we listen to my radio.

S “I love this song, it is a part of my favorite anime!”

D “Anime this anime that”

S “Whatever man”

A “Should we get some gas before we get onto the property?”

D “Yeah, pull into this Strips”

S “Holy shit 3 dollars a gallon?”

D “Damn, get like a halftank Ace”

A “Aight”

Sebastian and I walk into the Strips and the stench of nicotine fills the air. 

Cashier Lady “What do you want sweetheart?”

The cashier's raspy voice is from years of death sticks. While I go up to her she blows a big cloud away from me.

D “Have you heard of the story about the ranger that died a little bit ago?”

CL “Oh yeah nice guy would come here once in a while to buy smokes or a candy bar, what you know him or somethin?”

Damn it he told me and my mom he quit 2 years ago.

S “Could you ring this up for me ma'am, and get me a watermelon koolaid geekbar”

Cl “Its double for no ID’s”

S  “I got cash”

CL “ 63.92”

S “Have a good day ma’am”

CL “ You too sweetheart”

CL “You're that ranger's son aren't you?”

D “ How did you know?”

CL “Had a feelin, when he would come into this store he would go on and on about how great his son was and working this hard was to get him into a good college or something, and y’all look alike.“

I tear up at those words not knowing how much he sacrificed to try to get to me.

CL “You kids shouldn't go messin around with things you don’t know about.”

D “What do you mean”

The sweet old woman smoking a coffin nail, her face turns grim and dark as carbon nanotubes.

CL “You know what I mean”

CL “You are going to DIE DIE DIE DIE BURN BURN BLOOD BLOOD RABBIT DEER PAIN ANGER!!!”

I jump back in the lady’s words

D “Excuse me?”

Her bubbly demeanor returns as quickly as it left.

CL “Nothin sweetheart have a fun time in that building”

D “Crazy old hag” - I mutter

I shiver as her smile digs into me deeper than miners into a coal mine. While I walk back to the car I can feel her gaze never breaking away from me.

A  “ You okay David?”

D “Yeah crazy women”

S  “Are you kidding she only charged double for my vape, no ID people from our town charge like triple or even quadruple so I like her”

D “whatever lets just get back onto the road, only about an hour till we get to LPF right?”

A “Yeppers”

I took a turn driving for the last hour and we discussed how vaping is worse than getting diabetes.

D “Okay here’s a thought vaping is worse than type 1 diabetes.”

A “Agree 100%”

S “No way diabetes is wayyyy worse having to monitor you sugar? Aww hell naw.

A “I would rather check my blood sugar and take shots of insulin then buy a vape every week.”

D “Yeah true, I think like it is a hundred dollars for a shot of insulin for emergencies."

A “Yeah emergencies, rather have it not need than need not have it.”

D “Meanwhile vaping you are addicted to it and it costs wayyy more like a hundred dollars a week for vaping”

S “Well with Type 1 diabetes I have to watch what I eat and I can't eat whatever I want.”

A “Yeah but I don’t have to feed an addiction because diabetes is like genetic I think”

A “What channel should we use for the radios?”

D “Channel 8, channel 9 is the park rangers channel so if we need help we can just turn the knob once”

A “Okay”

While we drive I start to talk more about the cashier lady.

D “That lady was weird man”

A “How so?”

D “She was talking to me like a regular person and about my dad and stuff.”

A “Go on”

D “Then her face got like all dark and shit and she said “Don’t go messin around things you don’t know about”

While expelling giant clouds of nicotine S “She’s probably just off her rocker”

D “Probably”

The rest of the drive was in silence with only the radio to fill the void. After about 20 minutes of silence we stop at the gate of the park.

D “It is still going to be about a 20 minute drive to the abandoned building

We arrive at the abandoned building and I wonder how deep we are in. The old building is two stories, well only one room is above the first floor and it would be on the third floor if there were more rooms. I park the car and pull out my compass as I take a deep breath and my alveoli fill with the sweet scent of pine and earthy mud. It had rained on the way here, the dew on the long grass sparkled like diamonds in the sun.

D “My dad was killed about two miles north of us.”

S “Okay, me and Ace will go set up these trail cams”

D “How many did you bring?”

S “I think, like 17”

A “that should cover the way to our sleeping area and a few other areas”

D “and while y’all are doing that I will get that room ready” 

I make my way up the decaying stairs and the oxidized iron railing clings to my hands. The taste of lead paint and steel leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I arrive at the top and get a feeling for what we were working with. Surprisingly there was a made bed. The sheets were very old. I then remembered that this building was built in the 80’s. I peeled the sheets of the bed to reveal an even older mattress.  “This will do” I start to set up the room placing the radio on a shelf, then unpack the cans of food. I make my way back to the car to see the trunk open and the camera's gone. I grab our arms and ammo, and walk back to the room to keep setting it up. I walk around the building “Some sort of research facility” bloody hands run down walls. “Creepy” 

SEBASTION

S “Lets go Ace we only got so many minutes of daylight left lets get these trail cams up.”

A “Then we should start with the ones outside first then go inside to set them up”

S “Good idea.”

A “So, how far can you get the feed from all of these cameras?”

S “Well these ones without modification about none since you need the SD card, I made them wireless so like 250 feet maybe.”

A “This tree looks good”

S “Nice spot I should be able to watch the entrance of the building with that one”

A “I will go deeper to have more view of the building.”

S “And I will put cameras watching the building's entrances.”

I watch as Ace walks away deeper into the woods.

“Man this is some adventure” (I hit my vape and blow out smoke like a smokestack.) I slowly walk to the other side of the building and start to set up the cameras when I notice blood on the ground. “What the hell?” I follow the blood and wind up staring at a skinned rabbit or at least that is what it used to be. I ran away fast. Well as fast as my chubby legs allow me. The image of the rabbit with no fur and legs torn off like a human would to a grasshopper. I stop to huff and puff and hit my vape. 

A “What happened? See a healthy meal with no desert?” Ace chuckles.

S “SHUT THE FUCK UP I saw some THING it was SKINNED MAN I.. I .. I..”

A “Wait slow down skinned thing what are you talking about”

S “It was some animal I think a rabbit but it’s legs were torn off like what we would do to grasshoppers”

A “Holy shit”

I walk over slowly not wanting to see that thing again. I point to the blood trail.

S “Follow that trail of blood to see that THING”

A “Whatever, it is probably just a red plant or something.”

Ace goes in quickly and comes out quicker

A “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?” Ace yells

S “I know right, and whatever did that to that animal is still out there.”

Ace and I finish putting up the cameras in silence listening for what could be out there. We then walk back to the aged building to see what David has done while we set up the cameras. 

DAVID

While getting the last of the supplies up to the tower, I hear a blood curdling scream, I see Sebastian running for his life and Ace’s confused look on his face. Ace turns to Sebastian and starts to talk and I go back to setting up my radio, turning the dials to get the right frequency for my favorite broadcast 90.1 FM. But only crunchy static plays “Strange”. I turned the dial to another good music station 89.4 FM. The vibrant upbeat of the 2010’s best makes me forget the anomaly of the other music station being nothing but tasteless static. 

A “DAVID!”

D “What Ace?”

A “WE SAW A SKINNED RABIT WITH IT”S LEGS TORN OFF LIKE SEBASTIAN WOULD DO TO A GRASSHOPPER”

While vaping S “ It will haunt me forever”

D “I go the radio working”

A “There was blood everywhere”

D “Man I love this song”

A “Dude, I think we are in over our heads”

D “What do you mean?”

A “Whatever the beast is, it is a ruthless killer and there was not even a bite taken out of the rabbit so it just kills for the love of the game.”

D “And we will kill it.”

A “Why do you need this so badly?”

I turn around with my eyes bloodshot D "Because I need closure.”

D “Do you know how many nights I was up wanting to know what truly happened? Hmm?”

A “uhh”

D “EVERY NIGHT SINCE THE DAY HE DIED! SO MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS WONDERING, PONDERING ABOUT WHAT WHO THING TOOK MY DAD AND RIPPED HIM TO SHREDS! I READ THE POLICE REPORT THEY ONLY KNEW IT WAS HIM BECAUSE OF HIS EYES! HIS EYES! THE OTHER RANGERS ONLY RECOGNIZED THOSE DARK BLUE EYES!”

Softly A “Onlyhis eyes were able to be recognized?”

D “YES!”

D “OTHER RANGER RETIRED OR QUIT ON THE SPOT DUE TO HIS DEATH”
While sobbing “I ne- ne- e- eeed this” 

A “Go to bed we can start the hunt in the morning”

ACE

S “Okay now that David is asleep can you connect to the cameras?”

A “yeah I will spend the first part of the night on the cameras we have to know what we are up against.”

S “Wake me up in four hours”

A “Got it”

When Sebastian closes his crusty eyes for the final time. I go get the police report from David's backpack and start to read. And what I find is shocking. David’s dad was not the first to be mutilated to this degree. The police reports date back to the 70’s. “Body number five to be discovered this week 1981 September 12th” Scientists say that the bear population is coming back. But I think that is a coverup. While deep into the report I hear beeping. Motion had been detected. I move over to see the laptop and all I see is a pair of bucks. Nothing out of the ordinary. I go back to the reports and read that the owners of LPF had to close a trail down permanently because no amount of cleanup could remove the human stain on the rocks.

Before I knew it two hours had passed. About five other false alarms go. It was odd though because it was always the same two bucks. The camera they were by could be seen from the window. I looked over to see two halves of the same buck facing the camera while two hellish red eyes stared at me. I grip the 12 gauge a little tighter as I look, but it was so dark I could not even make out what the figure was. How long were those bucks there for? At least forty five minutes. I looked back at the camera to see blood dripping from the bucks hooves. I rub my eyes. Surely I must be hallucinating and when I looked back at the camera they were still there now their legs starting to contort and bend like spaghetti. I sit there frozen with fear unable to comprehend the horrors I am seeing right now.The legs are now curled up like a muscle lifting a dumbbell. The antlers start to melt like ice cream into the ground. It keeps staring at me. I look away back to the cameras and the antlers have fully melted off and the skin and fur starts to peel like the paint in this building. “What the fuck what the FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK!!” The skin now fully melted reveals an almost to white skull with empty eye sockets. But my blood turns to liquid nitrogen when I hear tapping on the window. “Tap, tap, tap” I turn slowly, heart beating as fast as the SR-71. When I look at the window I see the liquefied skull of the buck showing its brains and the cranium being a bowl of pink stew with eyes for eggs looking at me. I scream wake up sebastian 

A “DUDE WAKE THE FUCK UP NOW!”

Groggily Sebastian says “What dude? What do you need?”

A “There is fucking demented thing come look at it!”   

But all there was were two does acting like regular deer, eating grass and walking. I looked through the window and a doe stared back with red eyes. That only Ace saw

A “You see that? The doe has red eyes!

S “Just you man”

S “Man some crazy hallucination” 

A “What the fuck? No, I am not crazy, I saw SOMETHING I AM NOT CRAZY!” 

S “Just go to sleep man”

A “Fine”

A “Goodnight”

S “Goodnight”

SEBASTIAN

This sucks. I hate having to watch on the cameras. Looks like Ace was taking a peek at the police reports. I am good. I will just watch Pokemon until the morning. A motion is detected on the cameras. Just two bucks. They are walking out of sight, around to the east side of the building and we are on the west side right now.

Before I know it Helium and Hydrogen Plasma rises from the horizon. David wakes up first, and goes outside to piss. Still watching the cameras David heads towards the north side of the building. Our portable solar generator sparks to life, beginning to charge my laptop and our phones. The radio crackles to life as David turns the knobs, finally finding a suitable station for the day. Ace wakes and goes to piss as well. 

D “When he gets back I want to plan out today and what we are going to do.”

S “Got it.”

David fidgets while waiting for Ace to return. 

S “Nervous?”

D “A little”

A “Morning guys”

S,D “Morning”

D “I have a plan for today and we will hopefully see what “big game” we will be working with”

S “So what is the plan?”

D “ we are going to go to the area my dad got killed and explore the surrounding woods so we can get a better understanding of the area around us”

S “So a lot of walking today”

David sighs “yes we will have a lot  of walking today, I wanna see the areas where other bodies were mangled.”

D “Then when it starts to get hotter in the Idaho heat, we head back to camp and start to plan out the kill mission. I will explain more after we eat.”

S “Good because I’m starvinnnn.”

A “Why don’t we go to the car and grab the last of the canned food and MRE’s?”

S “Sure”

As the three of us make it down the two flights of stairs I look at the two cameras Ace and I put in this stairwell. When we get to the car there is a horrible feeling that I think was mutual between us three. THE CAR’S TRIES WERE SLASHED. The tires looked as if they had been cut by antlers, with little residue of melted calcium?

S “What the fuck?”

Eyes wide A “Holy shit”

D “What happened?”

They both look at me with a quizzical look in their eyes.

S “Don’t look at me!”

D “But you were the one that was watching the cameras”

S “When me and Ace set up the cameras we did not have any on the east side since there was no entrance”

D “It’s fine we can just make detour on our way to the place of my dad’s death, to a utility shack”

A “How long is this “detour”?”

D “About a mile west of us right now”

S “Can we just eat”

D,A “Yes”

The three of us eat relative silence until David breaks it. 

D “So I was thinking,Sebastion”

S “yeah?”

D “Do you have your go pro?”

S “Yeah”

D “Perfect so the plan was that me or Ace wears the go pro with the extender on our backs, while we hunt for the thing at night”

A “Are you insane?”

D “No”

D “We have better arms than the rangers handcannons and slugs.”

A “Still you want to go out AT NIGHT to an area where people WERE MUTILATED BEYOND RECOGNITION!”

D “Yes, and if you don’t come I will go alone”

A “You better be happy I care for you as a friend and won’t let you go alone”

D “Lets head out and start out trek”

DAVID

We pack our bags with Radios, maps and light snacks. I get out my compass and map and start to head to the shack’s direction. 

D “We got about a mile until we get to the shack then about two and a half till my dad’s death area.”

A “Okay”

With the route I picked we would hit a trail then take it all the way to the shack which should have a few items most importantly the tires. The only downside about this route is that we would have a possibility of getting hit by poison ivy.

D “Hey guys watch where you step, you don’t want to get poison ivy right now.”
 
A “Okay”

While wheezing S “Can we take a break?”

D “We can stop when we get to the shack it should have a crappy AC unit”

S “Perfect”

After twenty minutes of walking we finally make it to the shack.

A “Here it is”

D “It is probably locked, but Sebastion you got your lockpicking tools right?”

S “Yeah give Ludwig Dieter time to work his magic”

While chuckling A “Shut the fuck”

Sebastion gets the door open and there are various gardening equipment, rakes, and tires.

S “Jackpot”

A “Lets get the tires and head to the area where will hunt the beast”

D “how are we feeling, everybody stop and check your feet for blisters”

A “I’m good nothing here”

S “oooh. . .”

D “What is it?”

Sebastian shows his foot and he has a giant blister on it.

D “Holy moly”

S “So that's why my foot hurts”

D “Lets clean it up and make this trip short”

The bright plasma is hovering above our heads as we arrive at the area we will hunt later.

D “So this is it the area where my dad was killed”

S “Can I sit down?”

A “Sure”

As Ace and I get a feeling for the surroundings Sebastion points to an area in a tree. A tree stand! 

 D “Wow!”

A “It’s like a mini treehouse!”

The tree stand sits about thirty feet up on the trunk of the pine tree.

A “I’m going to check it out.”

D “Let me look around the area a little more”

From the ladder A “OKAY!”

While I look around in the area I look up to see Ace having a blast in the hunting blind.

A “This fucking awsome!”

After me and Ace finished taking acknowledgement of the area and decided to head back (mainly due to Sebastian's bitching but I would too with a fat blister)

S “Can we goooo nowwww?”

A “Yeah I guess so and I am hungry lets go home and eat then gear up for our high stakes adventure”

D “lets start heading back”

The walk back was not very grueling. We had a pretty good time making it back at about two thirty Post Meridiem. 

S “Home sweet home”

D “lets eat”

I grab ramon and some oatmeal and head back to the room

S “Nice pick”

D “Thanks”

After a good sized lunch Ace and I gear up for our mission.

S “So you want to wear my go pro with thermal so you can get an idea what you're working with?

D “Exactly”

S “Y’all are bat shit crazy”

A “ I know”

After spending the afternoon preparing for our endeavor Sol gets lower in the sky turning shadows longer than trees. 

A “We should head out.”

D “Yeah you're right.”

We wave goodbye to Sebastian as he heads back into the building. I can’t shake this feeling of absolute dread.

A “You really think we will kill it?”

D “Certain”

A “I some fucked up shit last night”

D “What was it?”

A “A buck was split down the middle cut in half and it started to melt into its skull”

D “Damn”

We walked mostly in silence with the buzzing of the cicadas to keep away the monster that is silence. The sun starts to set as we make it to the site.

On radio S “Nothing yet”

We both jump out of our skin when we hear Sebastian's breaking the cicada's symphony.

D “You scared the shit out of us.”

A “Well now that you are watching tell me what you are seeing.”

S “Nothing much right now, only a few squirrels and like a rabbit or something.”

 A “I am going to climb into the blind and set up the Go Pro there.”

D “Okay and I will set the traps.”

D “The traps should hurt the beast mildly then we come in with the finishing blow.”

A “The go pro is set up”

D “Alright then come down and then we wait”

The sun now completely gone gives away to a blackness and our night vision starts to kick in.

A “Anything?”

S “Nothing”

While sitting out of sight from the trap of meat we hear heavy footsteps.

Quietly A “What the hell is that?”

D “shut up!”

S “Guys it is right behind you about twenty feet.”

We turn quickly only to be face to face with an eight foot tall monster covered with parts of different animals, a face with bear teeth, an arm with raw flesh, malleable antlers for fingers. The creature lets out a guttural cry and charges at us

A “HOLY SHIT!!”

D “RUN!”

We run and fire at it “BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG” We have no idea where we are going. The shots do basically nothing to the beast. We shoot at it and the flesh starts to tear like fabric.

A “SHOOT ITS LEGS IMMOBILIZE IT!”

The creature now only inches away swipes at Ace’s leg and takes a chunk with it back. He falls like a sack of potatoes. Unloading shell after shell of buckshot. The face getting more and more mangled finally stops. And slowly approaches there taking shot after shot. 

A “GO! LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

The echo of the last shell being ejected sends shockwaves into my soul. After the last shot it starts to run away howling in pain. When I see it leave I run towards Ace and start to get him out of there. His leg is pulp. I have no idea where we are going, which way is north and I am running out of strength.

END OF PART I