The Uncle Tal Stories (Patreon)

Chapter 9: The Chaperone

As the bus jolted over the roughly graded dirt road, Stella patted Tal on the arm. “I want to thank you for agreeing to come out with me,” she said warmly. “Eddie and his friend Robert had nothing but good things to say after you went camping with them. They said they never felt so safe out in the woods as when you were there.”

Tal shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. “Weren’t nothin’,” he said. “They say anythin’ else about that trip? About the bear we saw?”

“Uh, no.” Stella frowned. “Was there a bear? Eddie said nothing about a bear. Did it come close to the camp?”

“Not so’s you’d notice,” he disclaimed. “We lit th’ fire up a mite an’ it steered clear.” He raised his eyebrows a little. “Figure they didn’t tell you ‘cause you mighta been worried.”

“Hmm,” she said, not thrilled that Edward had held that back from her. While it was clear that no harm had been done, and Tal had apparently known exactly what to do, she was still going to have words with her son when she got home from the school camping trip. “But thank you anyway. For that, and for agreeing to help me watch the kids for this trip.”

That got her a snort of derision. “I been around a little while, an’ if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s boys that age need watchin’. Just as much as girls do, if not more.” He inclined his head toward the terrain passing by the bus. “Goin’ out with Eddie an’ Rob an’ Sally reminded me of how much I useta like bein’ out an’ about. It’s nice ta git back in touch with th’ real world, once in awhile.”

“That’s good to hear.” She smiled warmly, then an idea occurred to her. “The boys did tell me how you knew a lot about the outdoors. If you could pass on anything you know to the children while you’re camping, I’m sure it would make the trip so much more fun for them.”

“Sure,” he said easily. “Ain’t about to promise much. That sorta thing can’t be learned in a day or two. But I can surely see about showin’ ‘em a trick or two.”

Stella beamed.

Tal leaned over and scooped up a stone. He bounced it on his palm a time or two, then scratched it with his thumbnail and eyed it intently. Sliding it into his pocket along with the others already residing there, he pushed his fists into his back and leaned backward, popping a few errant vertebrae back into place. Then he put two fingers to his mouth and let out a whistle so loud and piercing that heads popped out of cabins all around the campsite.

“Gettin’ on ta sunset,” he announced. “Any o’ you know how to light a fire without matches?”

Metallic clicks answered him, and he was faced with half a dozen Zippo lighters, lids flipped open.

“Funny, kids.” He snorted. “How ‘bout when you’re stuck in th’ woods an’ that thing runs outta fuel?”

“Half of us are in the Scouts,” announced one of the smartass little shits. “Be prepared.” He produced a small black case, and flipped a lens out. “We’ve got lighters, magnifying glasses, firelighters and matches. Plus, I know how to make fire with a tension bow.”

Tal glanced sideways at Stella, and raised his eyebrows. Starting a fire would’ve made things nice and easy, but it looked like some kids these days actually got taught the important things in life. It didn’t help when she gave him a helpless look in return. It seemed she hadn’t known, either.

As the kids went back to what they were doing, he went to the edge of the campsite and looked up at the still-bright sky. Flaring his nostrils, he inhaled deeply of the late afternoon air. The strongest precipitation that threatened was a gentle dew in the morning, and the biggest critters that he’d seen sign of were a couple of vagrant coyotes. None of that was anything he could use to teach the kids with.

Still, he was here to be a chaperone and teenage boys were teenage boys whatever the era, so he figured it was time he went and made sure they weren’t perpetrating anything that couldn’t be fixed before Stella found out.

The fire, he had to admit, was a good one. Sure, it had been sparked with a lighter instead of matches or anything more archaic, but it had been built well and would burn long into the night.

Sitting upwind, he sniffed at the air just to make sure there were no errant bears lurking in the darkness. The closest one, he figured, was a few hundred miles away. The wind picked up, bringing new scents to his nostrils and sending sparks flaring into the night; he almost turned back to watch his charges, but something new caught his attention.

He sampled the breeze twice more, just to be sure, then got up from his seat. Moving around behind the ring of seated schoolchildren, he leaned down behind Stella. “What’s out thataway?” he asked, pointing upwind.

Stella frowned. “The State Prison. But it’s twenty miles away.”

“Right.” Stepping to the side, he took another sniff of the scents on the wind. Male body odor wasn’t exactly uncommon, but prison soap was something he wouldn’t have expected to smell out here. Except in one specific circumstance. He heard a stick crack, way out in the darkness. Maybe half a mile away. “Keep an eye on the kids? I need to check something.”

“What—” she began, but he was already moving, into the darkness.

He’d been on the back foot for the whole trip. It was time to go mess with someone.

Brad-Z stared at the glow in the darkness. He wasn’t sure who had a fire built out here, but they had to have a vehicle, and he was going to take it away from them. The authorities had to know about the prison break by now, though they were more likely to bring in choppers and roadblocks than bloodhounds. With a set of wheels, him and the guys could be well outside the search radius before the pigs realized what had happened.

“That way,” he said to the others, just shadows in the darkness, and pointed at the glare of light from the fire. “We go in, get the keys to whatever they’re driving, and burn rubber out of there.”

“Yeah.”

Sure.”

“Fuckin’ A.”

“Let’s do this.”

“Yo.”

He moved off, stumbling in the darkness, feeling for stable footing. After going ass over teakettle ten or twenty times already, he’d learned to walk carefully. Just as hesitantly, the others followed on.

Nobody saw the seventh shadow detach itself from a pile of rocks and slide after them.

Neither did anyone hear the strangled, “Urk!”

Tal lowered the guy to the ground. With quick, efficient motions, he pulled the escaped prisoner’s shirt off and used it to tie his arms up hard behind his back. By the time he woke up and started yelling, it would be too late for the rest of them.

Up ahead, he could hear them blundering through the rough terrain. His eyes weren’t as good as they’d once been, but even blindfolded he’d still be able to find his way faster than they were with full use of their senses. The trick was to go barefoot; his toes could read the path far more readily than anyone could do wearing shoes.

Ghosting up behind the new last person in line, he waited until the second last one tripped, then pounced. His victim tried to struggle, but his arm was locked across the man’s neck, cutting off his blood supply. The man scrabbled at his arm, then reached out imploringly to his disappearing comrades, all to no avail.

This was getting a little problematic; he was having no problems dealing with the escaped convicts, but they were moving closer to the campsite a little too quickly for his taste. If they got in among the kids, things would get way too complicated, way too fast. Someone might get hurt. And he wasn’t about to let that happen.

Nobody saw him moving past them, low to the ground and sticking to what cover he could find. Though he had his doubts that they would’ve seen him if he’d strolled past humming the latest pop tune, whatever that was. Once he was ahead of them, he cleared his throat silently and prepared his larynx. He was the only one on Earth who had ever heard the sound that was going to come next.

Brad-Z stopped dead when he heard the deep, rough sound. He frowned; it sounded too deep, too savage to be a person coughing in the darkness. Then he heard the growl. It started low, then gathered timbre, depth and strength. And sounded way too big for something he wanted to stumble onto in the dark.

“What the hell’s that?” asked the guy behind him. “Mountain lion? Bear?”

“Do I fuckin’ look like National Geographic?” Brad-Z shot back.

“It’s between us and the fire,” someone else said.

And then they heard the roar. The sound was dark, primeval, and promised bloodshed and pain. It went straight to their hindbrains and jolted life into their spinal cords.

“R-really closebetween us and the fire,” a fourth person quavered.

Brad-Z found himself backing up, step by step. “Back the other way, guys,” he said. “Whatever the fuck that is, we don’t want to piss it off.”

A barely seen shadow flitted past. “Too late for that,” rumbled a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. There was a movement, a lunge, a solid sound of bone against flesh, and someone went down without a sound.

And then whoever or whatever it was had gotten in among them. Brad-Z swung wildly and missed, his fist whiffing nothing but air. More solid thumps sounded, each one followed by the noise of a body hitting the ground. He backed away. “Get away from me!” he blurted. “Fuck off!” Spinning around, he ran, heedless of the fact that he could barely see his way. All he wanted to do was get away.

The impact to the back of his head sent him tumbling forward, unconscious before he ever hit the ground.

Tal finished tying up the last of them and dusted his hands off. Picking up the rock that lay nearby, he slipped it back into his pocket. It normally wouldn’t have been an easy throw in the dark against a moving target, but the idiot had chosen to run in a straight line. He may as well have been wearing a neon sign, for all the good the darkness had done him.

Stella looked around as he slipped out from behind one of the cabins and moved up alongside her. “Where have you been?” she demanded. “You just disappeared there!”

“Went for a walk, got a li’l lost,” Tal said insincerely. “Anythin’ happen while I was gone?”

“We heard something roaring,” Stella said. “So I loaded everyone on the bus, just in case. Didn’t you hear it?”

“Some kinda big cat, yeah,” Tal said. “Wouldn’t worry, though. Wind just shifted. Soon as they get a face full of smoke, they leave th’ area. Ain’t gonna see or hear it around these parts anymore, I bet.”

“Oh. Okay.” Stella looked around. “Do you hear helicopters?”

“Huh. You’re right.” Tal shaded his eyes and looked into the night sky. “Gonna go check on the kids.”

As the last Neandertal headed over to the bus, he couldn’t help letting a smile cross his face. It had been a very long time since he’d had reason to air his saber-tooth imitation, but the reaction had been well worth it.

Chapter 10