Flat Tire - First Encounter

Hi! This is a chapter I have considered for book 2 (or 3 or 4). Yeah, a lot going on in my head for this. But the chaos produced a chapter of…something. Clearly a different case. A new file. A new thing to worry about.

On the outskirts of Coyote Creek, a white Chevy Silverado truck traveled down a newly paved road. It passed by the sign announcing the name of the small town with a population of just over 5,000. It still had four hours before it would reach the turn for Chicago, Illinois. The occupants had spent half the week with family. Well, one did.

Alex had taken every opportunity to spend with his cousins who were two years older than him and knew the bar scene in their little lakeside town. He had gathered a few numbers in their outings, but in the end had struck out with obtaining a female companion during his visit. Nothing he was going to lose sleep over. Unlike the passenger seat he was currently in. The seat could not recline back and he desperately alternated between trying to get comfortable and falling asleep in an uncomfortable position. His ball cap was pulled down over his eyes even though the sun had already set. The black leather jacket that he preferred to his hunting one was zipped halfway up his chest.

His father, Clay, drank his coffee out of the paper cup from the gas station with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel. He had waited too long to let it cool. It was now cold and bitter on his tongue. He swallowed it down but cleared his throat afterwards from the taste it left. He was determined to finish the drink he had spent money on but had to put it back in the cup holder. A younger him would have been able to do that last of it in one quick go.

The older of the two men had the route memorized. Even with some changes to small towns along the way, the trip was no more than a total of four turns. Each distinctly at a stop sign in a small town or at a turn onto a highway across from an adult store. One that was never stopped at but looked to be in the middle of nowhere just outside of Small Town, USA. This always pulled a laugh from John. Both from the randomly picked location for such a store and that it had stayed in business for well over a decade.

On this drive, he could use a laugh. There were cornfields on either side. The stalks stood high enough that you would have had to stand in the back bed of the truck if you wanted to see over them. Everything else would have been hidden by the darkness of the night if it wasn’t for the glowing moon that hung in the sky.

If Alex had been driving, he would have had the music playing a lot louder than Clay did. Loud enough to drown out the thumping that was growing in volume as they drove. He probably would have mentioned, at some point, how the truck started to pull gently to one side. If Alex had been driving, they would have gone farther down the road. Alex wouldn’t have pulled them over on the side of the road where Clay had parked them.

Clay had heard the thumping and felt the slight pull that the flattening tire was causing the truck. Alex stretched after they parked and looked around.

“Got to pee that bad old man you can’t make it to a station?”

“Very funny smart-ass. I think we got a tire going flat. Wanna see what we are working with.” Clay exited the truck while Alex tried to rub the tiredness from his eyes. He grabbed the flashlight he kept in the side of the driver’s door before making his way to the back. If he had been out hunting instead of checking his tire, he would have taken better notes on how the black tar road didn’t make a lot of noise when he walked over it. The crickets softly chirped in the tall grass along the roadside, unfazed by Clay’s presence outside of the vehicle. Instead, he was taking note of how his back driver’s side tire was almost flat. Not so flat he was riding on the rim, but it was heading down that path. “Damn it.”

Clay returned back to his open door and placed the flashlight back in its place. He was halfway in when he looked over to find his son’s door open. He had to lean over to see his son’s back facing him. Alex was up to his waist in the tall grass about fifteen feet away from the truck. From the way he was standing, Clay could only suspect that if he was closer, he would be able to hear the sound of urine hitting the ground.

“Hey!” Clay called to the younger man, “what happen’ to not being able to hold it til the station? Who’s the old man now, huh?” Clay laughed. As he got back out, he thought only to himself. Time to get the tick flicker.

He reached back down to get the flashlight and plastic card that had a wedge cut out of it before making his way to the front of the truck. Keeping his eyes down on the plastic tool he had grabbed, he didn’t catch the other man bouncing gently on the balls of his feet before putting his manhood away. Clay had seen every inch of his son up until he was ten years old. Around that time the boy had stopped taking every opportunity to skinny dip in any body of water he could access when not being supervised. The boy had pooped, puked, and peed on him more times than he could count. But that didn’t change that conscious divergence Clay had to watching another man relieve himself.

Alex was not aware that his dad was back at the truck until he heard him call out. He figured the other man would take longer than a minute to look over the tire. Since he wasn’t asked to help, he figured it was a good excuse to get out and stretch. That stretch turned into a “well if no one is around I am going to make sure I can still last longer than my old man”. After having once seen said ‘old man’ almost knock a relative out cold for pissing too close to his tires, he knew to give the truck a wide berth.

“I wanted to take advantage of the situation.” Now that he was put back together, he turned around to his dad. “What, were you going to drive off without me?”

“Only until your mother would make me come back and get you. Now, if you are done draining the lizard, let’s see how many ticks we’re able to collect.”

“I’ve been in the grass for like, one minute. I should be okay.”

Clay stepped towards his son and reached out a hand. Damn the ticks. At this point, he would have 24 hours to remove one if it did get on him. But whatever was with them in that field, he wanted away from in the next 24 seconds. He had to put more pull than he expected into getting his son to his feet. Both men had grunted as one pulled the other up. When Alex was finally on both feet, he heard more rustling behind him. The thing had moved again.

The part of Clay that wanted to run to the truck and hit the gas was unexpected for a man of his life experience. Catching snapping turtles and other wildlife with your bare hands in your 20s as if it was an Olympic sport could do that. The dumbass part of himself, that he feared his son might take too much of at times, was the part that turned the flashlight towards the corn and clicked it on.

The darkness created by the shadows dissipated. The safety the darkness by creating an unknown was taken away in a moment. Within the stalks, the light eliminated the massive head. The gray fur was lit up by the artificial light. It’s eyes closed at first. Before shaking it’s head and opening its eyes to reveal a set of pale blue eyes. So memorable that both men would still see them in their nightmares for months to come. The piercing blue eyes that adjusted quickly to the light. After its eyes adjusted, its lips pealed back to show two rows of sharp canine teeth.

“Sh-sh-shit.” Alex stammered. “W-wolf.”

Clay knew better. Something was off. His friend had a taxidermy wolf in his basement for years. That taxidermy one was big by normal standards. But what he was looking at, even at this distance, looked like it could be twice the size. Or even bigger.

“Alex,” Clay’s voice was a whisper. “Get back in the truck. Don’t run. Just walk calmly back to your door and get in.” His voice managed to stay steady. Even though he had never felt like a hunk of meat thrown into the ocean with one massive shark.

Alex swallowed before nodding slowly. His mouth stayed open in awe as he stepped sideways. His right hand was starting to visibly shake as it searched for the truck. His eyes stayed locked on the ones watching him from the corn.

Not watching where he stepped, his foot stepped into the edge of the dip into the ditch. Putting him off balance when he shifted his weight. “Oh sh-” escaped his lips before he caught himself on the truck. Hitting his back, pushing the air out of him.

Clay had been startled by Alex’s misstep. The flashlight in his hand turned down at an angle into the ditch. He had taken a step forward to help his son. Once he was stable, he realized his mistake. He looked back at the corn. It had gone dark.

Alex continued to look, never taking his eyes off the spot even after almost falling. His heart started beating faster when he could no longer see the blue eyes.

Neither man moved. Waiting to see what they could no longer see. Looking for movement.

“I-is it still t-there?” Alex’s voice had cracked twice.

“We need to go.” Clay’s voice was still a whisper.

“O-okay.” Alex responded in the same low tone.

Each man had only taken a step when the corn tassels moved. Not in a violent way. Just enough to know the movement was not caused by the wind. A loud ‘pop’ of a joint came from within the movement. Not a stick, or a stalk, but a clear joint. The tassels touched as tall as seven feet high. In the shadows of the stalks, just where the moonlight could no longer reach, the beast moved.

Clay brought the light back up. Up to where he had shown it before. The head was not there. In its place, was a thin stomach and waist covered in gray and white fur.

Its on two legs. Clay thought, a new level of fear dawning on him. Dear God, its on two legs! The light continued up the lean frame. The flashlight seemed to move on its own up the frame of the beast. Finding the head again with the ears that touched the height of the stalks. This time the eyes didn’t blink before the lips pulled back. Its teeth were already bared.

The men and the beast stood there. The men finding it hard to breathe and the beast finding their presence increasingly a problem.

The beast leaned down with its eyes still fixed on the men. Clay recognized the hunch.

“Run!” The older man shouted. He was no longer trying to keep the beast from wanting to attack. He was now hoping to survive it.

It was a race. Both men put everything they had into running back to their seats in the truck. Behind them, a howl ripped through the air. Clay rounded his door and jumped in, thanking his luck he had left the vehicle running. He slammed the door hard behind him. Alex dove in, looking more like he was trying to perform a cannonball. His passenger door slammed shut. The beast had darted towards the son, running into the door after the son had jumped in. There was an audible ‘thud’ of heavy animal-like body hitting the door. Leaving a massive dent into the side of the door and shattering the window from the force applied to it.

“Ah!” both men shouted. Clay had brought his hand up from the steering wheel to shield from the broken glass. Alex stayed curled in the fetal position across his seat and the middle divider.

“Dammit.” Clay mumbled under his breath. In his panic, he had shifted the truck into neutral before putting it into drive. He hit the gas hard, so hard he would have handed his son his ass if he had ever driven his vehicle that way. The tires squealed on the road below them. The adrenaline pumping through him almost made him over correct as they took off.

Clay had struggled to keep the vehicle on the road. Once he got it under control, he did something worse than when he first shined the light into the corn. He looked into the rear-view mirror. The moonlight shone unobstructed onto the road. It showed the perfect outline of the massive beast that walked out into the road where the truck once was. Its chest and shoulders moved as it breathed. It was indeed walking on its hind legs like a person with flexing fingers on the end of long arms by its side. The dog-like feet it stood on adjusted as the beast shifted its weight from one paw to the other. The outline of a canine head and ears pointed to the stars were burned into Clay’s memory. His memory and soul were branded by the outline of the beast.

Alex was visibly shaken and would not unravel from his position until they reached the next gas station. His imagination playing out every scenario that he could think of if he had been a few seconds slower getting back to the truck. Him being ripped to shreds. His father escaping to live in guilt of the son he couldn’t save. Or being the next meal once the beast was done with him. He had never had his mortality questioned more than he had that night.

The vehicle sped down the road. Clay finally looked away from the mirror. In time to keep from one tire going off the road. As he corrected for a second time, another howl cut through the air after them. Goosebumps spread over his body. An involuntary shiver shook his shoulders.

Wolf. Clay’s mind tried desperately to make sense of what no reasonable person could believe. Something him and his son would know but never talk about for years. It was just a wolf. A very, very big wolf. A wolf that- Clay felt sick to his stomach. We were attacked by a Dogman. A were-man. A goddamn fucking werewolf.

Clay would later puke his guts out in his bathroom. Choosing a trash can lined with grocery bags over the toilet. It would take him years before he would walk outside at night. He would never leave a door unlocked again. And he would always keep a weapon within arm’s reach. Alex on the other hand, would be seeing a therapist within three years.