Beyond Burchell Lake
Ethan awoke to find himself locked in a giant iron cage at the Budapest Zoo. He knew he was at the Budapest Zoo because there was a large sign on his cage reading:
The Budapest Zoo presents the one and only genuine "Counterfeit Canadian Werewolf". Canis lupis lycanthropic canadianius. Ethan Philip Morgan. Aged Sixteen. Whitechapel, Ontario, Canada.
Ethan was wearing his normal clothes (and his normal body), and the inside of his cage was fitted up like his room.
"Let me out" said Ethan, struggling with the bars.
But nobody was around, just a dark, impenetrable mist.
Suddenly, out that gloom stepped Jesse. Jesse had finally changed his clothes, and could mock Ethan from the comfort of a black jacket and jeans.
"Here is he, boss" said Jesse. "Perfect example of a were-whelp."
"Stephanie!" said Ethan.
"No" said Jesse.
"You don't mean . . ." started Ethan.
"No, I don't" said Jesse. "But meet my new buddy!"
An enormous bat flew into view. In a puff of smoke, the creature turned into a pale man with slicked-back black hair, bedecked in cape and a very old-school tuxedo.
"No, it can't be!" Ethan protested.
"It is!" said Jesse. "Isn't it, my lord?"
"I bid you . . . velcome . . . Ethan Phillip Morgan" said the man in a deep voice with a heavy Hungarian accent. "I am . . . Dracula."
"You can't be!" Ethan protested, in something like a sob. "You're just a character in a book. And you look like the famous actor, Bela Lugosi. I mean, there was a historical prince called Dracula, but you're . . . just the vampire from the novel?"
"Such nonsense he speaks, Jesse" said Count Dracula. "And you told me he was very clever . . . for a boy who had not even yet lived a single lifetime. A boy who has not even reached a man's estate."
"He is" said Jesse. "He's a brilliant hacker. Hacked right into Stephanie's account with the Bank of Hamilton."
"He is also a verewolf . . . one of the children of the night" said Count Dracula. "Oh, what music they make! And you say he has a very healthy howl?"
"You won't get him to howl of his own free will" said Jesse.
"Never mind the howling. I have a much more important task, for our young lycanthropic friend. Now, Ethan Philip Morgan. you shall take me to the home of . . . Sa . . .rah. Your beloved . . . Sa. . .rah . . . shall be blood of my blood when I sink my fangs into her neck."
"NEVER you dirty old creep" said Ethan. "NO! NO!"
"Then I shall make you" said the count. "Look into my eyes, Ethan Philip Morgan!"
"NO!" said Ethan, going to the back of the his cage and avoiding the glowing red, not glowing yellow, eyes.
And then Dracula, Jesse, and the Budapest Zoo disappeared as Ethan fell to the floor tangled in his bedsheets.
Fortunately, all Count Dracula had managed to do was wake Ethan from another nightmare.
"It's 2 am!" yelled Benny, from the bed across the room. "You don't want to wake Sarah! It's un-cool to be disturbed by a bad dream."
"Tortured is more like it" complained Ethan as he brushed off his pajamas, and dragged himself and his sheets back into bed. "But why are you up?
"Maybe it's your shouting?" said Benny sarcastically. "Or maybe because I haven't been sleeping as deeply tonight as usual. I had to sneak into the hotel kitchen a few hours ago and swipe some fish heads."
"Fish heads?" asked Ethan.
"Fish heads, fish brains" said Benny.
"Do they work?"
"They're okay.
Ethan remembered uncomfortably his scoffing at Benny's problems the day before.
"I think I'd sooner eat a fish head than rat's blood" volunteered Ethan awkwardly.
"Those fish brains will keep me until the specialty butcher opens, Ethan" said Benny, with a yawn. "I'm as sick as being the brain-eating zombie as you are of being the howling werewolf. I think I"ll snatch myself a normal breakfast first thing."
Benny made a face and dropped back to sleep.
Breakfast in a top hotel meant silver silverware (and, like the night before, some disposable plastic gloves Ethan covertly wore and removed). For Rory, it meant Eggs Benedict with peameal bacon. For Sarah, it meant Eggs Florentine. Erica felt like a spinach and cheese souffle. Benny, maybe liking last night's fish, had Eggs Benjamin with smoked salmon.
Ethan had a rare steak and eggs. A bull moose only lasted so long.
Team Sabre plus Erica were in and out of the butcher shop in less than fifteen minutes. Ethan stood quietly by the shop door with his sunglasses firmly on eyes that were, in spite of his best efforts, glowing furiously yellow from the overwhelming fragrance of raw meat. As for everybody else, they didn't find any chicken heads for sale, but Benny left with a cooler full of sausages made from cow's brains.
"I'm happy that's over . . . for now" said Ethan, looking in the side-view mirror at his natural brown eyes, and smiling back at Sarah. "Now, on to Leeblaine."
Sarah had won a coin toss with Erica, settling the question of who'd do the last day's driving. As for Ethan, past experiences meant that, finally, Erica conceded that Ethan had to ride shotgun.
Erica occupied the seat behind Sarah (and listened to Dusk through headphones). Benny had the seat behind Ethan. Rory was in the back middle. And wishing he had a better spot, especially as Erica crammed a suitcase next to her so Rory wouldn't brush against her.
Most traffic disappeared with Thunder Bay, as the Highway 11 and 17 condominium continued northwest for several miles out of town. Finally, 17 went north as the uncontested route of the Trans-Canada Highway. It would wander through another four hundred miles of tree and rock before reaching Manitoba, the fertile prairies, and the City of Winnipeg. The "Gateway to the West".
Highway 11 now travelled directly to the east, parallelling the old fur trader's portage route. Four hours away was the extreme northwest of Ontario, the Rainy River District. Here one would find the small town of Fort Frances, and the agricultural lands along Rainy Lake and the south-eastern end of the Lake of the Woods. At Fort Frances, one could travel back to Highway 17 by way of the cottage community at Sioux Narrows. Or one could cross the border at Fort Frances to International Falls, Minnesota; or again where Highway 11 itself ended as it crossed the Rainy River into the United States.
But this time of year, there were few people on Highway 11 as it went through 250 miles of almost uninterrupted forest. The only event of note was Ethan determinedly adjusting the car's clock when they crossed the boundary from Eastern to Central time.
Ethan was relieved he had his space riding shotgun beside Sarah. The soup bone stayed in his backpack. Yet, it still wasn't an easy trip. There was nothing like travelling through nearly deserted woods on a cloudy day to make him feel as much a werewolf as ever.
Near the hamlet of Kashabowie, the Challenger turned off onto the little used Highway 802. This highway, a joke on the word "highway", was only seven miles long and gravel until near the end. The final two miles were paved, as it led up to abruptly ended at a locked gate. This was Burchell Lake.
Until recently, an abandoned mining town had lain just beyond the gate. Built in the nineteen fifties and abandoned ten years later, most of the town stood silently in the woods, a time capsule. But the long, silent town had been torn down the year before, and all that was left was a pile of rubble and signs saying "No Trespassing" and "Private Property".
But before the fence, and immediately to their right, was a small roadway covered knee-deep in snow.
"We go down that way" said Ethan, looking at a map of the trails in the area. "It's a private road to some summer cottages around here. And when we reach the end, we take an old logging road. That turns into a trail. Then we'll finally reach what's left of the old rail line, which will take us to Leeblaine . . . Benny, do you swear that this car can't get stuck?"
"Or fall through an old rail bridge?" Sarah added.
"On my honour as a Jedi" said Benny. "That reminds me, we've got to gear up."
The next several minutes were spent as Ethan, Benny and Rory left the car. The three "Jedi" retrieved their scabbards and retractable UV light sabres from the trunk. And then, acting as if he had raided an armoury, Benny handed out water pistols carefully filled with holy water.
Erica and Sarah had also left the car, mostly to stretch. Sarah took her water gun with a brief thanks, but Erica looked at the one Benny handed her skeptically.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" asked Erica skeptically. "Water guns?"
"On a witch who sold her soul to the devil for magical powers!" said Benny bluntly. "Hit by holy water she'll be as powerless as when we last blasted her last soul-stealing scheme. Remember how . . . ."
Benny opened his mouth to remind Erica how holy water had melted Jesse's entire gang of vampires, but on looking at her deadly expression clamped his teeth shut.
"It's just we'll have trouble taking her by surprise" said Ethan.
"No problemo, Ethan. Stephanie's going to be so pawned" said Rory, as he posed like he was in a video game. "We'll just have to rush her Winnebago!"
"If she's not expecting us" Sarah warned glumly.
"We'll just have to deal with it when we get there" said Ethan glumly. "But anyone notice something? Did it snow here last night?"
"How the heck should I know?" said Benny. "Why?"
"How did Stephanie get a Winnebago on this road, without leaving tracks? Even an off-road Winnebago?"
"Magic" shrugged Benny. "She's a witch."
"Maybe" said Ethan, uncertainly.
"Your ears twitch when you're worried" Erica interrupted mockingly. "You can see it, even though you've combed your hair over the points.
Ethan looked awkward and covered his ears with his hands.
"I didn't notice" lied Sarah, looking at Ethan and putting her hand on his shoulder.
"I just don't see why there isn't any recent tracks" continued Ethan, as he gave her a thankful grin. "Stephanie could also have gone another way?"
"What are the chances of Stephanie setting all this up, just to plant another false trail?" Rory objected.
"Thanks" said Ethan. "I wasn't even thinking of that Rory!"
"Don't shoot the messenger" said Rory edgily.
"Stephanie just confuses me" Ethan admitted. "I don't just understand what she's doing and why she's doing it. It's not only that she's hiding up north. She's hiding near the ruins of an old hotel in the middle of the bush. It makes no sense!"
"You've got to expect that with a girl who sells her soul just because she wasn't cool in high school" said Benny. "Sells her soul twice . . . somehow."
"Ethan, you're not the best at understanding people" said Sarah. "Being a seer gave you the advantage."
"It's still not too late to see being a werewolf an upgrade than reading people's minds" said Erica pointedly.
Erica was met by angry stares from everyone. She shrugged and went back into the car to listen to Dusk.
"After two and a half years of this, I'm good with understanding evil plans" Ethan said defensively. "Normal people . . . I guess not."
"Well, one of the reasons she wants to be up here, is you" Benny explained. "She really likes you acting the werewolf. Even more than me being a zombie."
"I get that" complained Ethan, before adding irritably, "I really want to see her a lunch lady again. If she's here."
"Look guys" said Sarah impatiently. "If she did go here or she didn't, we still need to go to Leeblain. You can't just abandon the trail and wait for her to use her credit card again."
"That's right" Ethan agreed, cheering up a little. "She could have always gone by way of the US. The Superior National Forest is south of Leeblaine. But she'd still have to use her magical powers to drive a Winnebago up through there. And she's have to have a GPS to find her way."
"Good thing Malcolm has a GPS" Benny pointed out. "We lost our cell phone reception when we left the Trans-Canada. We'll be able to find Nowherevilles okay."
"I'd double check with the map" said Sarah. "You someone hear about people following GPS directions directly into a lake."
"Sounds like you three" said Erica.
"Well, Nowherevilles here we come" said Ethan wryly.
The major change after Burchell Lake was they had left good roads behind and were now travelling over what were really a rough, snow-covered track. The rear-wheel drive car, after a second of spinning its wheels in the knee-deep snow, unexpectedly floated atop it as if it were wearing four snowshoes.
Just because the Challenger couldn't get stuck, didn't mean it travelled well on the cottagers' road. And it was even worse when they passed the few rustic homes (closed for the winter), and left that glorified track for the stump-ridden logger's road.
Quickly it became a roller-coaster ride over uneven ground, and a lot of throwing and bouncing about. Rory enjoyed it, but nobody else but Rory.
Benny might have on a better day, but being un-dead took the fun out of everything. It unsettled his stomach. And, being tired almost all the time, he just wanted to lie against his window and sleep.
There was also the fact that Rory was only held in his middle seat by the centre-belt. Although Rory actually did try to stay in place (as much as he enjoyed the ride), he bounced against Benny or Erica on particularly steep grades. Erica, of course, hated this. Especially as once, while Rory was chewing on his stock of garlic cloves, a bounce sent a rogue clove flying from the paper bag into Erica's mouth.
And Erica didn't like garlic; partly because of the smell, partly because of the strong taste, and partly on general principles.
As for Sarah, she just found it embarrassing that she couldn't drive better. Even though a sports car shouldn't have been able to travel there in the first place.
As for Ethan, he felt his eyes start to glow . . . even with Sarah at his side. He started to swallow growls, and finally couldn't help but growl. After over an hour of the bone-shaking drive, Ethan reluctantly stuck the soup bone in his mouth.
"I'll lose it again, if I don't have anything to chew on" Ethan said tersely, red in the face.
"You can try garlic?" suggested Rory.
"I don't think that'll work as well as a bone" said Ethan. "I wish it could."
Ethan placed the soup bone back in his mouth and chewed furiously.
"It's better than growling" volunteered Benny.
After another hours' driving, the teens reached the point where the logging road crossed the old railroad right-of-way. The rail-bed had been levelled off, and there was a recent set of parallel marks travelling through the snow.
"Snowmobile tracks!" said Ethan, removing the soup bone from his mouth.
"We should really have taken snowmobiles" said Benny.
"How awesome would that be?" said Rory.
"Unstuckable . . . unstickable . . . whatever . . . cars are warmer" said Sarah, with a shrug.
"Cars that can't be stuck" joked Ethan, with a wide grin.
"Maybe Stephanie gave up the Winnebago and took a snowmobile?" suggested Rory.
"Then she should have gone our way" said Ethan. "It's shorter."
"Stephanie's not the type of geek who studies road maps all day" Erica said.
"Better a geek than not knowing where you're going" Ethan replied.
"I just don't see Stephanie detouring by way of the scenic snowmobile route" said Benny.
"Scenic snowmobile route" repeated Sarah dryly, looking at the old railroad right-of-way. "This isn't even wide enough for the Challenger."
"Sarah!" Rory exclaimed. "Magic . . . unstoppable . . . car! Remember? "
"This is going to suck" said Erica.
"Do you want to drive?" asked Sarah cooly.
"On that?" laughed Erica.
"I would" volunteered Rory.
"I'd be the natural one" said Benny. "Being a once and future spell master."
"If you didn't drive us into a tree" said Sarah. "I may as well try to get us there alive."
"Zombie Benny excepted" added Erica, cruelly.
Sarah started along the old railroad. It wasn't too bad, by driving the "magic unstoppable car" with the driver's side tires balanced on the edge of each side of the partly eroded, railroad embankments. It shouldn't have been wide enough to drive along. But somehow, it just was.
But the rail-bed being long eroded, it was still a bumpy ride and the bed very even. So this meant that, from time to time, everybody slid to one side or another, as the car, unnaturally, perched atop the rail-bed with two tires floating over thin air.
Sarah was naturally brave, but turned pale as she tried to control the car. Erica was a screamer; it was too much for her to have Benny and Rory slide over and pin her down. Ethan furiously chewed his soup bone.
The worst was the old wooden railroad trestles. They had been planked for the snowmobiles and hikers who occasionally travelled this way, but they were still too narrow for the car.
"I promise" said Benny, "we can't fall off the side."
Ethan winced travelling across. Erica as well. Sarah took a deep breath. But Benny figured that you didn't get to break the Law of Gravity everyday. So, in spite of the bouncing, Benny, like Rory, started to enjoy himself.
The road became worse about a half hour from Leeblaine. Although it was the early afternoon, after crossing yet another trestle and passing through a narrow cut between two rocky hills, the teens drove into a thick fog. So thick and so dark, they could barely see the trees at the side of them and the rail-bed and snowmobile tracks ahead.
"Is this natural?" asked Rory, amazed.
"Can Stephanie put up a fog?" Ethan asked Benny, as he again removed the soup bone from his teeth.
"I . . . don't know" Benny admitted sheepishly. "I think . . . I'm hungry."
Ethan sniffed, and growled as he again took in the smell of sulphur mixed with rotting, putrid flesh.
"Not that!" said Ethan, to no one in particular. "Please!"
Ethan tried to get his sense of smell under control again, but couldn't do it before everybody was suddenly thrown forward as Sarah slammed the brakes.
The snowmobile tracks had abruptly ended. Just ahead was a warmly-dressed man slumped beside his Ski-do with his gloved hand frozen upwards as if warding someone or something off. His face was invisible, hidden in a balaclava. His snowmobile was well loaded with supplies, if the full duffel bag was indicative of anything.
And the snowmobile had barely had time to get cold. Ethan recognized the smell of gasoline and motor oil in the forest air.
Ethan and Sarah, in the front seats, rushed out. Rory and Erica followed. Benny was going to leave the car as well, but decided he'd eat his "brain food" instead.
"Are you okay?" said Ethan. "Uh . . . Sir?"
"Dude?" asked Rory.
"I . . . don't think he's breathing" said Sarah looking closely.
"Look at the build on that guy" said Erica cooly.
"Sir?" tried Ethan again, in a voice that was both desperate and awkward. "You . . . can't have frozen to death? You knew what you're doing out here?"
Something in Ethan's mind; some unbidden werewolf instinct; told Ethan he was smelling the scent of a corpse.
Ethan, with a shaking hand, took off the man's balaclava to see if he could do anything.
Ethan yelped in fear. Rory just yelled. Sarah and Erica stepped back and looked horrified.
The man couldn't have lain there very long. But all that was behind the ski-mask was a man whose stiff, paper-coloured skin was drawn tightly over the skull . . . without any flesh between the skin and the bone.
And the man had died with a look of horror on his emaciated face.
Ethan wandered over to the duffel bag, which was well supplied with food.
"He . . . starved to death?" said Ethan.
"How?" said Sarah. "He must have been on a snowmobiling trip. He . . . knew what he was doing. How could he starve to death?"
Ethan took a deep breath, coughed because of the smell around him, and then . . . and then Ethan realized what had happened.
"I'll tell you!" said Ethan angrily. "I can't believe how stupid I am! It's what happens from being turned into a darned dog! Last night, when I was howling at the moon like an idiot I forgot all about what I going to say! Look there! See those giant prints?"
In the snow . . . off to the side . . . there were a couple of giant three-toed footprints. Like those Erica and Sarah had seen by the bull moose Ethan had slaughtered two nights before.
"Like the tracks we saw in the woods" said Erica.
"Huh?" said Ethan.
"You weren't the only one who was an idiot" said Sarah. "We saw a few of those the morning after you were a werewolf."
"Oh" said Ethan, awkwardly. "Well, I didn't mean you were . . . ."
"Forget it" ordered Sarah. "What is it?"
"It's not a Winnebago we should be worried about" said Ethan. "We've been thinking about an RV? Stephanie enlisted the Wendigo."
"I've heard of it" said Rory. "He was one of Vampire Sasquatch's mortal enemies."
"There's nothing mortal about him" Ethan snapped. "He . . . it's a demon of the north. There's stories about how it lures people away, drives them crazy with hunger and starvation. Kills people, like this poor guy here."
"Stephanie murdered him because he was too close to her hideout" said Rory. "What a . . . fracking witch!"
"Well, she had the Wendigo murder him" observed Sarah. "Still, same difference."
"Smart" said Erica.
Ethan was so angry at the remark in front of the murdered man, and annoyed with the smell, he didn't bother to stop the loud snarl that even scared Erica.
"Ethan . . . you're human" Sarah reminded Ethan bluntly. "Think."
"Yeah . . . uh . . . where was I? Yeah . . . there's something called Wendigo syndrome. The Wendigo even turns people into hungry cannibals . . . cannibals . . . Benny?"
"What's that geek doing?" asked Erica.
Benny had cast off his sunglasses, and white-faced and black-eyes was now stumbling toward them. Muttering to himself.
"Benny?" said Rory. "What's the matter with him?"
"He's turned complete zombie" said Ethan, with a growl. "Benny . . . keep it together . . . Benny, dude . . . buddy . . . please?"
Benny being a counterfeit zombie, had been especially vulnerable to the spell of the Wendigo. He had in short order eaten his entire supply of brain sausages. He had left the car to warn Ethan, Sarah, Rory and Erica that he desperately needed more "brain food".
But by the time Benny reached his friends (and Erica), he couldn't remember why he had left the car. He couldn't even remember who Ethan, Rory or Sarah were. In fact, Benny couldn't even remember his own name.
All he knew was that he needed to some raw, juicy, "BRAINS".