Dead Five's Pass Read Free

a cool gray landscape. Dave, aka Brick on account of his muscular build, ignored Michael’s calls and continued shining his light on the ground as if he were looking for something.
    Michael pulled his head back into the tent to regard his other two friends, James and Nate. “Guys, what the hell is Brick doing?”
    James, living up to his nickname of Mouse, burrowed into his sleeping bag and shook his head. His pointed features and blonde, spiky hair only added to the rodent resemblance. “Who knows? But keep an eye on him, will ya, Mike.”
    “Guys, chill out. He’s just gone to check for a GPS signal. He’s making sure we’re on the right path,” Nate said. “If you’re worried, go after him.”
    “Yeah sure, let me take the responsibility—again, not like you two ain’t got anything better to do.” Michael sighed at the lack of help from his fellow climbers. They were all part of a local university climbing group and were out on winter break. They would have been at this new fabled cave by now if they hadn’t misread the map and got lost. And now Dave was off on a trek for no apparent reason.
    Losing his patience with James and Nate, Michael left the tent and followed Dave’s footsteps. He stood unmoving just in front of the huge stones, and his massive frame and wild black hair whipped in the wind.
    “What’s up, Brick?” Had he found something? Why wasn’t he moving? Michael pulled his fur-rimmed hood around his face and continued to tramp through the deep snow.
    A high-pitched keening noise came from the still climber like a dog whining at the door for food. Michael reached out a hand and gripped Dave’s shoulder, pulling him round to face him. Tears streaked down his reddened face, which was twisted into a mask of sheer terror. Dave breathed in short, shallow breaths and pointed his hand beyond the stones. Michael had never seen Brick break down like that. He was the enforcer on the university’s ice hockey team. He didn’t cry easily.
    Michael followed the direction and shone his flashlight.
    He wished he didn’t.
    Bile rose in his throat and he fell to his knees, retching his early meal of campfire beans and sausages onto the snow. Beyond the stones was a gory mess of skin, bones and blood. It was like a scene from a slaughterhouse. The bones were broken; their ends pointed and sharp. The face was no longer on the skull, but lay next to it, twisted and deformed as if it were in pain.
    “Wha…what the fucking hell…” Michael’s words came out in a stuttering fashion between ragged breaths. Dave just stared into the distance, shaking his head. Silent.
    “Bears…it’s gotta be,” Michael said.
    “That ain’t no bear.” Nate’s voice came from behind him. He stood gripping his ice axe in one hand and a flashlight in the other. “Bears don’t skin their victims. And those bones, snapped like that? That takes way more force.”
    Michael knew Nate was right. Nate was a medical student, after all. He’d know about this kind of thing. But that didn’t make it any better. It made it worse.
    Michael turned to Dave and Nate. “We can’t camp here tonight. Not with that…thing…or whatever it is on the loose. We’ve got to carry on and find that cave. It’s far closer than the truck. These are the stones that were on those satellite images.” Michael was referring to the images that were shared that morning on their private climbers online group. They, along with another pair, were competing to discover it first.
    “Guys, you don’t think…this is one of the other climbers?” Michael said.
    Dave shook his head, but the expression on his face remained of abject terror: his eyes wide and his mouth stretched into a tight grimace.
    Nate circled the five stones and disappeared beyond the left side. His flashlight beam flickered between those ancient fangs and danced across the blood. Where once it just looked like dark brown dirt, or maybe oil, now it was wet, glistening crimson. It