Gutierrez finally started the generator and Wil found a WiFi signal from the station’s office almost at once. It was labeled, “Take my WiFi, Pls,” and Wil found the password on a post-it next to the router. The generator outside chugged and rumbled as Gutierrez stood at the far side of the station looking out the window, radio switching between her mouth and ear, trying different signals for O’Donnell.

Wil ignored her as he tried to send a message to Naomi. He held his breath as the little indicator below his text spun, indicating it was searching or trying to connect. He almost cried out with relief when it finally had a check mark appear next to it.

WIL: Lost power. With forest ranger. OMW to get you. STAY THERE unless 2 dangerous. Leave note if u go

He had considered ending it with “I love you,” but didn’t think that would help. One, Naomi already knew that. Before today, those had been the last words he’d said to her, prefaced by “I’m sorry.” Two, he’d made the text as long as he dared and was terrified he would lose the signal any second and had used as much shorthand as he could.

Wil stared at his phone, hoping she would respond, but none was forthcoming.

It didn’t mean anything.

Maybe she gave up on her phone not working and had set it aside to try later. Maybe she had it on silent and didn’t hear it vibrate. Thinking of that, Wil immediately checked his own phone’s setting and put everything to silent. It didn’t matter much now with the generator rumbling away outside, but if he got caught Out There on foot again, maybe hiding from another monster buck, the last thing he wanted was his phone giving him away.

“Shit!” Gutierrez said as she put the radio back in her belt. “Nothing. Not a single god damned thing.”

“Look, I have to get to Portland,” Wil said. “My…I have to help somebody there.”

“You and me both. My whole family needs help. God, they sent me like a hundred messages and I was just…”

Gutierrez trailed off as she bit her lip and studied her phone.

“Are they responding now?” Wil asked.

“No,” she said. “O’Donnell either went to the park entrance and the ranger lodge or the radio tower. How long ago did the power go out?”

“Uh, a couple hours ago, maybe.”

“All right. We’re gonna lose phones entirely if we go out in the jeep, so text whoever you’re gonna text and get ready. I’m gonna throw some stuff together.”

Wil nodded as Gutierrez left the main living area and entered a smaller side room filled with shelves. He plugged his phone into an outlet nearby and kept glancing at it over his shoulder as he strolled around the station.

The metal cabinet he had glimpsed from outside held guns, judging from a quick peek through some metal slats near the top, and was sealed with a padlock. He wasn’t an expert, but there looked to be a scoped rifle and another shotgun, and some spare handguns along with boxes of ammo.

Wil had last shot a gun with his dad years ago at a target range, just for fun. He’d never owned a gun, but had considered buying one for his own purposes. It would have been faster and less painful than the noose. He’d be dead before he realized he’d finished pulling the trigger.

It would have left a tremendous mess though.

And he didn’t want somebody to have to go about cleaning up his brains off the cabin ceiling after the cops hauled his body away. The noose had been a compromise: relatively quick and painless, very little mess to speak of once the initial removal of the body was handled.

Wil shuddered.

What was that? He thought. Was I just afraid of dying again?

He hadn’t been afraid to die for years. It wasn’t a bravery thing, it was a giving-up thing. He just didn’t give a shit. But seeing that buck coming for him had made the prospect of death a much more frightening conclusion than the noose ever could.

It wasn’t just death, then, it was being killed. Maimed. Brutalized at the whim of something truly strange and unknown. The fact that the buck itself had apparently been physically dead added another layer of unease. Seeing death coming for him like that was something he hadn’t been prepared for.

Wil stepped away from the gun cabinet.

Gutierrez had left some basic medical supplies out for him, and he removed his black t-shirt to clean his wounds. He winced as the rubbing alcohol stung and burned in the shallow hole the buck had bored into him, along with all his other cuts and scrapes. If things were as bad as he thought, then any amount of pain was better than the risk of infection. A quick trip to the doctor didn’t sound like something that would be in the cards for a while.

He finished bandaging himself and putting his shirt on just as Gutierrez re-emerged from the back room. She had a pair of duffel bags in her hands, and set them by the front door of the station.

“What’s in there?” Wil asked and nodded at the bags.

“Supplies. If O’Donnell isn’t answering, I gotta find him, and like I said, there’s only a couple of places he would be. I’m going to the main entrance and the ranger lodge to check in with the other rangers. They’re not answering the radio either. From there, I dunno, but I don’t like the idea of going out there unprepared if things are as fucked up as the news made it sound like. If half the shit my family texted me about is true…I can’t even think about that right now. I’m gonna fill up a couple canteens with water and then I’m out. You coming?”

“Well since my car is still upside-down, yes, I think so.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Good, I’m gonna load the jeep. Fill those up,” Gutierrez said and nodded at a pair of steel canteens. She stomped out of the station with the bags and Wil took the two canteens over to a metal sink in a tiny bathroom. He turned the tap and the faucet squeaked loudly, sputtered a few gushes of water, and then stopped.

“Yeah, that seems about right,” Wil said. His stomach was tightening like a closed fist with every second he stayed here. This was just another delay. He hurried outside with the empty canteens and Gutierrez glanced up at him as she closed the back of the jeep, hands now empty.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Water’s not working,” Wil replied. Gutierrez grumbled.

“Resupply is tomorrow. We can check the lodge for water but they’ve probably already rationed it out or moved it if they had any brains.”

“I saw what was happening a few hours ago before the power went out and filled up my tub and a few other things. We can just use that and be on our way.”

“Smart guy. That works for me. Get in the jeep. I’ll be right back out,” she said and jogged past him. Wil wanted to tell her to move her ass, that it was important, but she already knew that. She had family, and O’Donnell, and probably the other rangers she was worried about too. So Wil sat in the jeep and studied his phone. He was still getting a signal from the cabin’s WiFi, but nothing yet from Naomi.

His phone suddenly buzzed as soon as he thought of her name and his heart beat a quick tattoo inside of his ribs. It immediately settled down when he saw who it was from.

Dr. Carroll.

Wil liked the doctor fine, but he hated him in that moment for raising his hopes.

CARROLL: Wil, are you okay? I’m checking on all my patients.

WIL: Fine. I’m up at my parents’ cabin. You in Portland?

CARROLL: Yes. Very dangerous here. Police and maybe National guard fighting people in the streets.

Wil raised his eyebrows. That could have been good or bad, depending.

WIL: Fighting people?

CARROLL: Not sure. Riots or an invasion or something. Lots of screaming and shooting, explosions. If you’re out of the city, best to stay that way.

WIL: Naomi is still there.

CARROLL: I understand. Do what you have to do. I’m just glad you’re still okay. If we don’t talk again, I wish you the best.

WIL: You too Doc. And thanks.

CARROLL: Always my pleasure.

Wil left the chat and put his phone in his shirt pocket. It wasn’t the person he’d been hoping for, but it was good to know the cops and the Guard were still there. As for the people being shot, Wil wasn’t sure if he was hoping for a riot or invasion. If it was an invasion, that was pretty straightforward. Enemy combatants. Get rid of them and the problem was over. But if it was a riot, then it would be more complicated.

But then where did all the natural disasters fit into it? And the monster buck? And that thing that had been outside Ralph’s house and the disturbing phone call after? What about the thing on the building Naomi had mentioned?

The sound of the ranger station door slamming open brought Wil’s eyes up to see Gutierrez hurrying out with another bag. This one had the stocks of the rifle and shotgun poking out, and was heavy with what Wil assumed was ammunition. Gutierrez threw it into the back of the jeep, then jogged around the side of the ranger station to shut of the generator. She all but leapt into the driver’s seat when she came back and started the vehicle before the door was closed.

“Buckle,” she said.

“I am,” Wil replied as Gutierrez simultaneously buckled herself in as she put the jeep in reverse and headed back up towards Wil’s cabin.

“Can you shoot a gun?” she asked.

“Uh, sort of,” Wil replied.

“Nevermind then. Likely to shoot me or yourself if you’re not familiar with them.”

Wil just shrugged and nodded.

“Ah, shit. I left my axe on the porch,” he said.

“It’s in the back. I threw it in there while you were patching yourself up.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“Mm,” Gutierrez said. They sped past Wil’s Toyota and up the hill. He glanced out the passenger window at the lake. The empty boat was still there, lazily floating across the surface of the wide lake. There was still no sign of whoever had taken it out onto the water.

That was when Wil saw something in the water move. A vast, dark shape briefly emerged from the surface, its gentle breaching causing the boat to tilt to one side. Wil only saw it for a second, only a brief glimpse of a sleek, black arch of organic mass before it dipped back below the water. It displaced enough water to cause broad ripples to expand out, rock the boat, and lap at the shore. Just the tiny bit Wil saw was as big as a mini-van.

“Holy shit,” Wil breathed.

“Huh?” Gutierrez asked.

“Nothing. Sorry,” he said. He didn’t want to risk distracting Gutierrez and having her investigate the lake. There was nothing down there for them anyhow. Maybe it was nerves making him see things, maybe it was just a big fish reflected strangely in the water, or maybe it was real. But going down there or the possibility of going down there wasn't something Wil wanted to do. They drove past and Wil let out a sigh.

“Cabin 106, right?”

“Yeah,” Wil said as the ranger swung the jeep tight around the next corner and pulled to a hard stop in front of 106 Pine Hill.

“You got any bottles or anything in there too?” Gutierrez asked as she got out of the jeep with him, shotgun in hand. She looked around the woods as Wil hopped onto the porch and opened the front door.

“Yeah, I got—” Wil started to say and then paused.

He had left the noose hanging from the central beam.

It hung there, dark and obvious in the dim light, stark evidence to his suicidal intent.

“What’s wrong?” Gutierrez asked and shouldered past him, shotgun at the ready. She clicked a flashlight at the end of the shotgun on and swept it across the living room, then paused in the center. The light moved upward and centered on the rope.

“Oooookay,” Gutierrez said and then looked at Wil. His brain scrambled for a rationalization. Anything except the honest and obvious truth.

Yeah I came up here to maybe hang myself because I just kinda didn’t see the point of it all anymore, you know? He thought to himself. That wouldn’t go over very well, and it would only delay further.

“Look,” he said after taking a breath. “I-I saw the news. And it was like the world was ending. And I got scared and thought about just doing myself in instead of dealing with whatever was going on out there. I changed my mind, obviously,” Wil said.

“Huh,” Gutierrez said and lowered the shotgun. “I get it. Kinda shitty, but yeah, people do that sometimes when bad shit goes down. Good for you for toughing it out, I guess.”

“Yeah, good for me,” Wil said with a weak smile. Gutierrez gave him a wry look and then pointed at the rope.

“That might come in handy too. I’ll fill up the canteens. You get the rope and bottles and any food that’ll travel well,” she said and then vanished into the back room of the cabin. Wil did as she asked, filling up a reusable grocery bag from beneath the sink with the rope, bottles of water, and a few tins of spam and tuna and a couple packets of instant ramen he had left over in the cupboard. He did a brief sweep of the kitchen, and also put a pair of scissors, a couple knives, and a few heavy-duty black garbage bags in with everything else.

Gutierrez emerged from the back room just as he finished and nodded at the door, and they left the cabin together. This time, Wil locked it behind him. He didn’t know if he’d be back, or if locking it was even worth a damn, but he wanted to be thorough.

He and Gutierrez put the supplies in the back and then climbed back into the front of the jeep together. Gutierrez put the key in the ignition, but didn’t start it. She turned to face Wil, her face stony.

“Uh,” Wil said and leaned away from her. “What?”

“Look. Finding my partner, finding my family, that’s what matters. If you got some kinda death wish or something that’s gonna be a problem, I will leave you on the side of the road. Got it?”

“I don’t have a death wish,” Wil lied.

Is it a lie? Wil thought as he recalled the black eyes of the buck, the darkness of its tooth-filled maw, the stench of death and rot that hung over it like a veil. He knew he didn’t want to die like that, at least. And even if he did, not before Naomi. Not before he knew about her.

Gutierrez stared him in the eye, unblinking, then grunted and started the jeep.

“Just don’t make me regret this,” she said and peeled out of the driveway of the cabin.