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SUMMARY: The eleventh in a 14 part serial short story- a new one every week. I wrote this to be recorded as an audio story- you can hear it at www.williamhrdina.com- but I think it holds up as a regular short story as well, and its finished so it won't disappear.

Croucher
Part XI- "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."
By William Hrdina


"That's John!" Logan said, looking in horror at the body of their guide lying in a heap in front of them. He'd never seen a real dead body before. It wasn't the same seeing dead people on TV or in movies- even in documentaries. Seeing the emptiness in John's eyes was something no photograph could capture and no make-up could recreate. Only in person is the finality of death apparent- a corpse is an existential object, more terrifying in its mundane-ness than in its profundity. Logan was surprised to find he was crying- and thinking about his mother- thinking she would probably look like this soon if she couldn't clean herself up.
Ryan went to his son, put his arms around him. Then, once he was sure Logan was going to be alright, he went and got Cliff and Dottie. John's body was extremely bruised and broken up- they had no reason to suspect foul play. Instead they spoke briefly amongst themselves and decided if there was ever a time to activate the emergency transponder- they'd hit upon it.
Together the four people went silently back to the cabin they'd slept in, leaving John's body laying in the dirt. They looked, but the emergency transponder was gone- and so was the GPS.
"Frak." Logan muttered.
"He must've taken it with him." Cliff said. "Was he planning on abandoning us here?"
"I always had a strange feeling about that man." Dottie said.
"I could tell he hated me from the first minute, because that candy wrapper fell out of the car and I didn't pick it up." Logan said. "I know I should've grabbed it, but it was just one wrapper."
"Now, now. Everyone is upset, but that's no reason to cast dispersions against the dead." Ryan chided, trying to set a good example for Logan.
"Whatever Dad, I certainly didn't want the guy to die, but he was still a jerk..."
Ryan shot his son a look so harsh it drew nothing but obedience. He took a deep breath and spoke, "We don't know what happened. John might've been trying to send for an emergency rescue squad so we could leave and he could stay- John didn't seem to want to let us in on too much of his plans- and I think he led us out here because he was looking for this place. I hope he found some peace before he died."
"So what do we do now?" Dottie asked. "I, for one, know I don't intend on spending the rest of my life out here."
"The first thing we do is give John a decent burial. Then we'll see if we can't get one of these nice villager folk to show us the way out of here." Ryan said, having now placed himself fully in charge of the situation.
"What about what we saw in the rocks?" Logan asked quietly.
Ryan looked at his son.
"What did you see in the rocks?" Cliff asked.
"I don't know, but it sure seemed like they didn't want us to see what was up there." Logan said.
"Which of course means you want to go straight for it- you teenagers are all the same." Dottie said.
"Then again, that cliff if the highest thing around here. It's a pretty clear day, maybe would could get an idea of which way to go from up there." Cliff countered.
It was decided, they would bury John, and then they would climb.
Standing by John's body Thomas looked at the hikers. He now knew everything about them. It didn't take his people in Washington long to get him a fully summarized dossier on all four- the internet just made things in the modern age so easy. His orders came in just after sunrise. It turned out Dottie and Cliff Angell had three kids, all of them close- they would be missed. Ryan Webb's phone records indicated he was in regular contact with a number of family members- which meant all four were to be spared- as long as they could get them away from Croucher as soon as possible.
This last part was vitally important. They only had 24 hours until the ceremony- and these people needed to be far, far away. The first guests would be arriving at sundown.