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  EARTH MANPART 1

  THE DOORWAY TO THE UNIVERSE

  Whose woods these are I think I know.

  His house is in the village, though;

  He will not see me stopping here

  To watch his woods fill up with snow.

  - Robert Frost

  KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. Two young male bucks darted through the trees, the white plumes of their breath the only sign of their silent passing. The two men hunting them had no sense of the change that was happening around them, but the deer felt it. Trees seemed to shift and whisper as invisible electricity danced over their leaves. The setting sun sliced the forest into pieces creating shafts of light and shadow that the deer used to their advantage. When they thought they had lost the scent of the hunters, the two deer slowed down. A massive fallen log blocked their way and the deer decided to jump over it rather than turn back and go around. As the second buck’s back hoofs hit the soft soil on the other side a shot rang out. The older deer never even saw it coming; its back hooves had barely touched the fallen leaves when the bullet tore through its heart. It dropped to the forest floor, its legs kicking out as it went through its final convulsions. In a flash the second deer was off and running but another bullet bore through the air, hitting it in the neck. For a moment its legs buckled and it dropped but the deer recovered quickly. It ran off, clipping the nearest tree with its small antlers in anger, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

  Phil Morrison ran up to the deer’s corpse, breathing heavily, his rifle bouncing off his shoulder. The extra pounds he carried were making it hard for him, but he managed to stay ahead of Danny, who was dragging his feet reluctantly behind him.

  “You got it Danny! Hurry up!” Phil said, waving to his companion.

  As Danny reached the dead deer he suddenly felt remorse.

  “That was too easy.” Danny said, disgusted with himself.

  “I told ya it would be! These woods are flush with animals, man.” Phil said enthusiastically.

  Phil was too dense to pick up on Danny’s moral dilemma, so he grabbed his rifle with both hands and followed the second deer’s trail.

  “No I meant it was way too easy to kill.”

  Phil ignored him. “We’ve got to keep on the other one. I know I wounded him and if we lose him, we’ll never find him again in the dark.”

  “Phil why don’t we let him go? This is not cool. I’ll buy the beer, let’s just call it a day, okay?”

  “I think I’ve had enough beer, Danny Boy.”

  Phil smiled and grabbed Danny by the arm, pulling him along.

  “I wounded it Danny. It’s out there somewhere dying. It would be inhumane to leave it to suffer now. You might not be a hunter yourself, but we have a code you know. I shot it; I have to take responsibility for it. Now come on.”

  Danny nodded and pulled away from Phil, spreading out to cover more area. The deer was in great pain, it was attacking the trees and kicking up dirt as it ran, even Phil with his amateur hunting skills could follow it. Phil liked to shoot, but he rarely ever hit anything. Danny kept up with Phil, keeping him in site for as long as he could but as night fell the forest suddenly seemed to grow thicker. One moment there was light peeking over the horizon and the next it blinked out like someone turned off a switch and darkness dropped over the forest like a cloak.

  Danny quickly found himself lost in the dark. Turning in circles, he could not make sense of any direction and so he lunged forward, breaking through the trees and tumbling down the side of a steep hill. Sliding fast down the incline Danny tries to grab onto the roots and bushes but he crashed into them instead, rolling over top of them painfully. The ground dropped away as he fell over the ledge, dropping twenty feet down into a cluster of trees. He managed to let out a scream before he hit the ground and passed out.

  Hearing Danny’s scream Phil stopped in his tracks.

  “Danny? Where are you, man? DANNY?”

  Phil headed back in the direction he’d come but the forest looked different now. Something seemed to move through the shadows, darting away whenever he looked at it. Phil was not a spiritual man but when a breeze crept up the back of his neck he could swear it was the forest breathing a sigh of relief.

  “Shit Danny COME ON. Helen is going to KILL ME! DANNY!?”

  Phil turned in circles, shouting his friend’s name. As quickly as it had come, the presence left and a cold chill wrapped itself around him.

  A voice seemed to call out to Danny, coming not from the ears but from the back of his head to the front of his brain. Danny opened his eyes to the faces of strange white aliens peering down at him.

  YEEE-AH. EARTH MAN. IT’S TIME.

  He tried to scream but his chest was restrained and his voice would not come. Their large inhuman eyes blinked and they looked from one another and back and him as if he were a strange curiosity. Pulling with all his strength he broke the straps that restrained him and opened his eyes, shattering the fantastic image before him and revealing the real world. He was on his back in a pile of dried branches, surrounded by old, shrivelled trees. The aliens were gone but their presence seemed to linger, he could still feel something out there in the darkened woods. Even though he suspected what he was feeling was not real, just an overactive imagination, he could not shake the idea that he was being watched.

  “Phil? Phil?” Danny shouted.

  Danny got to his feet and stretched his sore and bruised back. He checked himself for any blood or injuries. Although he was covered in dirt and leaves nothing was broken, everything was still intact. Brushing the dirt off his plaid jacket, he began walking, avoiding bushes and trees as much as possible. It made no difference which direction he headed; he had no sense at all of where he was. There were no stars overhead to guide him as most of the sky that was visible was overcast with dark clouds. He had no way of knowing north from south so he simply walked, pushing through the thick underbrush when he could not go around it, more cautious than the first time. The last thing he wanted was to fall again. The forest was so silent and still that every step he took seemed far too loud, every breaking branch and crunching leaves made him jump out of his skin.

  A red light flashed ahead of him and Danny froze. The light was so bright it was impossible to tell if it was close or farther out. When it flashed it blinded him and it was impossible to see anything in the surrounding dark. It was small and intense, like a high powered laser pointer. When it did not move, Danny assumed it was some sort of beacon.

  “Phil is that you?” Danny asked.

  As he stood in place he timed the light; it was blinking at four second intervals. The pattern made no sense; it was not recognizable to him at all. Looking back over his shoulder, Danny realized there was nowhere else to go but forward. Reluctantly he took a step closer but the light felt invasive and it was beginning to hurt his head. He took a second step anyway, determined to overcome his fear.

  “Phil?”

  ALLAH JESUS MUHAMMAD, GOD YAHWEH SATAN. SHIVA, RESPECTED PERCEPTOR.

  “Who is that? Who’s out there?” Danny shouted, holding his rifle tight in his hands.

  There was no answer, just the silence of the trees and the repeating pulse of the light.

  “Alright, relax. It’s probably just a car alarm light blinking, no reason for me to piss my pants.”

  Strangely the light itself was red but the light it gave off with each pulse was white. It was like a flash of a camera, coming from a red point of light that did not seem to get any closer nor move farther away.

  There was a noise like thunder as a massive moose suddenly came out of nowhere. Danny had no time to escape out of the way and it tossed him aside like a child with its massive antlers. Up in the air, feet over face he flew until landing on the ground,
the air knocked from his lungs. The moose circled him and he moved out of the way of its huge stomping legs. Danny rolled over, desperately searching for his rifle as the moose continued its fearful retreat. It turned away from Danny and ran; whatever was out there was scary enough to chase the massive male bull out of his own territory. The animal was frightened of something out there, something Danny could not see. Danny dusted himself off a second time and looked around. When the moose had flipped him he’d landed hard on his ankle, he gritted his teeth as soon as he put weight on it. With the ankle swelling up and his heart pounding in his chest he headed toward the light again. Even though the fear in him was growing ever larger he could not bring himself to run away. Beat, beat, beat, and flash, the same repetitive pattern, over and over to the point where it began hypnotic. It was pulling him in, even though all his senses told him to run the opposite way.

  As he came to a clearing he saw the injured deer lying on the ground. It was breathing heavy, a wet wheezing sound that tore at Danny’s heart. Walking closer to it, he could feel its life ebbing away. The life force within it called to him, pushing away the creeping uneasiness he was feeling. He’d shot the deer, the bullet-hole was his doing; the creature was dying because of his actions.

  “I’m so sorry. What a stupid thing to do,” he said, kneeling down next to the bleeding deer.

  The deer craned its head, trying to look at him as its antlers dug into the soft dirt. He stroked its neck to comfort it but it just stared at him with large wide eyes. All the fear he felt washed away, replaced with a deep heartbreaking guilt. The creature could only stare at him with wet eyes, unable to communicate its frustration as its life drained away. Danny felt pulled in by it, into its darkness. The deer did not seem to want to leave the world alone, something connected them both and pulled Danny in. Down and down, everything seemed to get darker around him; he was falling into the deer somehow. He fought with all his might to break away. Finally he fell back, or perhaps the deer had released him. Danny scrambled backwards in the dirt to get away from the dead creature. The young deer closed its eyes and the forest became quiet again.

  Danny tried to contain the fear that came crashing down on him. When he had been close to the animal the fear had been pushed away, but now the red light was blinking again and the horror he’d felt was back. Soaked in sweat he considered taking off his plaid jacket but it was giving him at least a little bit of comfort and security. This time as he walked toward the light he held his hands up, hoping it would scare away whatever was out there. The rifle lay discarded on the ground, forgotten and useless.

  “I can see you God damn it!” Danny shouted at the light, waving his arms at it. Still the light continued to flash, the same pulsing rhythm over and over. It was beginning to make a noise, a dull throbbing like a deep bass drum.

  WHOOMB.WHOOMB. WHOOMB.

  Danny could feel it in his chest. The entire forest seemed to pulse with the noise, expanding and contracting around the central red light. Danny swept his medium length blonde hair back out of his face and rubbed his eyes.

  “Please. Stop. Please.” Danny begged quietly. His eyes darted back and forth from one shadowy tree to the next, the paranoia overwhelming him.

  THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

  The light disappeared and suddenly reappeared overhead. Danny looks up, covering his eyes. The light seems to circle above him, a red flaming ring of light. Small particles of dirt and grass were lifted off the ground and float upwards. The light seemed to pull everything around him into the air. He watched the rifle fly past toward the light and disappear. Small stones and bits of the forest begin to float free of gravity, spiralling around him and moving into the center of the light. Danny fought with all his might but he is soon pulled off his feet, lifted gently onto the tips of his toes. He frantically kicked his feet as his chest thrusts forward and a scream bursts out of him and echoes across the forest. The world seems to contract toward him as trees bend inwards and upwards at the same time. Reality shifts and distorts and for a moment a shape moves inside the light, almost as if they were standing behind it. Danny’s scream continued for a long time, long after the light vanished. Whoever stood on the other side of the red light did nothing to help him. Danny continued to scream into the darkness, passing in and out of consciousness. Even unconscious his body remained floating in the air. The light and noise pulled him back to consciousness even as it painfully overwhelmed him.

  WHOOMB.WHOOMB.WHOOMB.

  Suddenly he is released and he falls to the ground. Wracked with pain and seized by fierce convulsions, Danny could not stand or move. There was a presence in the light, a presence that reached out somehow and touched him. The beam of light stayed on him, even as he tried to crawl away. Alien, yet more than human, the beam seemed to transfer information to him. It was beyond his comprehension and his brain could not handle the influx of new information. His fear was too overwhelming, his panic too frantic for his will to sort through what was really happening to him. When the strange presence finally released its hold on him Danny could only lie on the ground on his side, holding his knees tight to his chin until he blacked out. This time he did not awaken again for a very long time. The light disappeared and the forest remained silence, only the night creatures would ever know the truth of what happened in the forest that night.

  The deer, its wounds healed, stood over Danny and licked his face. It remained by his side until it caught Phil’s scent. Phil’s flashlight beam cut through the trees just as the deer disappeared. Danny’s body was so hot in the cold air it seemed to be steaming. As Phil turned him over, he took a step back in shock. Danny’s face no longer looked human, his eyes were too wide and his mouth stretched open in a way that Phil had never seen before and would never forget for the rest of his life.

  The emergency medical staff did everything they could for Danny Boyle. By the time the paramedics had found him and Phil in the woods Danny’s face had returned to normal. The paramedics took them both to Mills Memorial Hospital but once they realized Danny’s vital signs were normal and his injuries appeared to be superficial, they had him air-lifted to Kelowna General. They suspected it was a brain injury and if so the people at Kelowna would be better equipped to deal with it, or at least that is what they told Phil. Phil did not call Helen until the helicopter was in the air and she responded better than he’d expected. Unfortunately things got worse at Mills Memorial; Danny suffered a cardiac arrest minutes before the helicopter touched down. As they rushed Danny to the second emergency room of the night, Phil was forbidden from seeing him. Phil used the time to talk to Helen and explain most of what had happened. When she finally arrived she was beautifully frazzled and obviously worried. Her short cut red hair was pinned back with black clips and her dark brown eyes bore into Phil accusingly, even while her full lips faked a smile around her perfect white teeth. Helen wasn’t very tall, no more than five and a half feet, but she was full figured and strong. Phil had seen her hold her own against men and he certainly feared her more than he’d ever feared Danny. They often exaggerated her temper, making her seem worse than she actually was. She really wasn’t a tough person to deal with; she just didn’t tolerate a lot of bullshit. Phil wasn’t scared she’d overreact; he was scared she’d give him exactly what he deserved. After all, wasn’t it his fault Danny was hurt?

  After a brief hug, Helen started hitting Phil with the questions.

  “What happened to him?” Helen asked.

  “I’m not sure. I’m guessing he fell, maybe hit his head. We got separated and when I found him he was just lying on the ground. There was no blood or anything, so I think he’s okay, but I don’t know.” Phil replied.

  “Fuck!” Helen said, falling against the wall. “Can I see him?”

  “No. He’s in the emergency room right now. I am sure he’ll be fine. Danny’s tough and takes care of himself.”

  Phil said the words but he did not believe them. He’d seen Danny’s face; whatever had happened t
o him was not normal. Phil had felt something in the woods and although he couldn’t say what it was or how it had made him feel, there was something.

  Phil hugged Helen again, trying to reassure her.

  “It’ll be okay Helen. Trust me this isn’t how Danny Boyle’s going to die, falling down a hill on a hunting trip. At least you were wrong.”

  “I was wrong? What about?” Helen asked.

  “You said we’d probably end up shooting each other. So let’s be happy nobody got shot.”

  Helen laughed and wiped her eyes, turning away so Phil couldn’t see her cry.

  “Danny will pull through, Helen, don’t worry. He’ll be good as new.”

  Danny lay in the emergency room hooked up to a breathing mask. He suddenly jolted awake, sitting upright and looking around with a dazed expression in his eyes. He startled the Doctor and all three nurses in the room, who tried to lay him back down on the stretcher. Nobody was wearing face masks but the doctor had on a pair of latex gloves. Using one hand the doctor tried to push Danny back down. As he lay back, they all quickly pulled their masks on over their faces.

  “Please lie down sir. You had an accident and suffered a minor heart attack. The EKG is running now and your heart seems to be okay, but we need you to relax and let us run a few tests.”

  Danny laid down and breathed in oxygen through the mask. He tried to remember what had happened but his memory seemed fuzzy, like he was hung-over. All he could recall was a deer, perhaps two. It was dead now, because of him and yet for some reason he thought perhaps it was not dead after all. Confused he closed his eyes and listened to the beeping machine and the sound of his breathing, letting it lull him asleep. Just before he passed into the realm of dreams he heard a quiet skittering noise like the sound of a thousand tiny little feet.

  “This hospital is falling apart! Ugh!” shouted one of the nurses as she backed away from the sink. A variety of bugs began to climb up out of the sink drain, spreading out into the washbasin. A second nurse saw them and quickly turned the water up as high as it would go. The two women splashed water on the insects, forcing them back down the drain.