Ride

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. I admit, when he told me about the candle, I couldn’t speak for a full minute. My throat just closed up.

“You know it’s been abandoned for 400 years, right?” I asked, and Evan nodded. “Do you know why?” I asked, and he shrugged. He couldn’t understand my reaction, I guess. He’d said a candle burned in the window and I’d dropped my mug, spilling my half caf all over. Every word in that statement scared me. Like it scares me every time I think about what happened. Starting with the woods. They were the second reason they’d abandoned the cabin.Well, abandoned it here. In the beginning, terraforming Mars was an idea that appealed to everyone, but creating trees and other vegetation that survive and thrive in the domed surface colonies required a level of genetic manipulation and investment that governments seldom want to sustain for long. So, they left the vegetation to its own devices, and the woods had evolved into something only vaguely related to their Earth native counterparts. And not friendly to humans. Every so often, someone else sweeps in and tries to tame things, but they always give up.

The NAA- North American Alliance had started this. It had been their idea to model the new forest after Yellowstone- the first fully restored National Park on Earth. They’d done a full study of which plants there could survive, then arranged everything according to their plan. Unfortunately, the latter part of their plan included installing the cabin. The main reason they’d abandoned the project.

They’d wanted an authentic Forest Ranger Cabin. If they could have put a bowtie wearing bear in there too, they’d have been happy. They’d located an abandoned cabin they considered authentic enough and in good enough shape to disassemble, transport and reassemble and stuck it in the middle of their newly planted vegetation and furnished it with high-quality reproductions of early 19th century pieces. Perched as it was amid the rust-colored trees and spindly foliage, it loomed in a way that put the final nail in the coffin of the project. It never looked welcoming, at all. The combination of the two made certain that no one would ever want to go inside again. Much like the surrounding forest, they had left the cabin to its own devices for far too long. The structure was intact, but the appearance had fallen victim to neglect, much as it had on Earth. They’d repaired the windows, but it hadn’t mattered. No one who entered the cabin ever wanted to set foot in it again.

“I suppose I should tell you what happened,” I said, and he shrugged. I closed my eyes and nodded, resigning myself to revisit the nightmare, on purpose this time, becauseI knew what was coming.

“You know how the cabin got here, brought over with the first permanent settlers? Hell, you might even know about the care they took in getting it right down to the smallest details. Like the candle. It’s a fat hand molded column of paraffin created using the ancient monlding methods. It sits in a replica lantern on the window ledge as part of-the-art installation with the painting of the lost ranger. Until that night, no one had ever lit it. Or even thought it could be lit. But like everything commissioned as part of the project, the artist contracted to recreate the ancient device had worked for authenticity, so it was a real candle in a real lantern. Or as close as anything on the red planet can come.” I looked at the poor kid whose job it was to make sure no one trespassed in the forest at night. It was fifteen minutes after midnight. With a start, I realized it was around the same time we’d seen the candle the night it happened. We use the same clock on Mars, but our hours are longer to help better sync our time to the homeworld. He was humoring me. I could tell he couldn't care less about anything other than if he would get in trouble because someone had gone in after dark and messed with things.

“It was a night like tonight, around midnight. The candle was lit so the kid on patrol duty, his name was Willard, came here to tell the MOD. The two of them called me and I agreed to meet them there.” I shook my head. “You know how the forest is at night. It gets funny. The things that live there, GM mammals, birds that escaped the aviary, and the muggies all come out to play. The noises they make are enough to make your blood run cold. They assigned me a patrol on the other edge of the forest. You know Gamma quadrant, so I couldn’t see or hear anything until I got closer. When I did, I heard the muggies hum.” I swallowed and skewed my face.

“That’s what that is? I heard the humming, but I couldn’t tell what was making the noise or where it was coming from. Kind of creeped me out the way it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere,” Evan said, sliding into the chair on the other side of my desk. He kept looking down at my spilled drink and broken cup, but I continued to ignore it. It wasn’t important.

“It’s because of the Buhag, but I am getting ahead of myself. See, we all knew about the painting. The painting starts it. They light the candle, then the painting goes blank and the muggies sing to welcome him back.” I wiped a hand over my face. “The guy that sold them the cabin gave them the painting, too. Said they went together and would make it more authentic. I looked him up later. Hung himself six months after the sale. He left a letter saying it came back. Said it wanted to take him for a ride. No one knew what that meant.”

“You’re making this sound all melodramatic. Get to the point. This is the 22nd century man. No one believes in monsters and fairytales anymore.” The kid blinked rapidly as he said this. I stared at him and nodded at his statement before waving it off.

“True. But don’t you wonder why those kinds of tales persist? Even with our advances in science and technology? Because every story has a grain of truth. Like the story about the lost ranger. He really existed.” Evan blinked again and nodded carefully. I stood, motioning for him to follow me.

“Come on, we’d better go see if it’s still burning. I tell you the rest as we go.” I picked up my kit and tightened my holster, making sure I had everything I needed. Evan followed me silently outside, then came up close behind me so he could hear me talk. Outside the air was close and humid, typical for the dome and the ground was slightly spongy as if the red planet didn't know what to do with all the moisture after being dry for so long.

“That night, I made a wide circle around the outside of the forest so I could complete my circuit and still meet up with them near the entrance to the forest. The humming got louder the closer I got to the area they’d told me to meet them in. It had a kind of rhythm. A low buzz hum that repeated like a beacon or a drum. But it wasn’t a sound made by anything man made. I saw clusters of muggies in the grass.”

“They seem to be everywhere tonight,” Evan agreed and pushed one of the six-legged insects out of the way with his foot. No one stepped on muggies. Besides being a protected species, as the first naturally evolved insect in Mars colony, if you crushed their hard exoskeletons, their insides let off a smell that brought tears to your eyes whilst simultaneously making you sick to your stomach. And it lasted for days. Something the early colonists discovered the hard way.

“When I got to where they’d told me to meet them, no one was around. I saw something moving in the shadows and I turned on my torch so I could peer inside the treeline. A trio of Capybaras were just inside the forest. Their dark red fur was slicked around their face and much darker, as if they’d dipped them into slime or mud. When I turned the light on them, they hissed and ran away. Not unusual, but it added to my growing trepidation. Looking down I saw footprints leading into the forest. I'd thought the MOD and Willard had made them and followed.” I pulled out my torch and turned it on, shining it on the ground and then over Evan, who blinked at the light and moved a couple of steps away so he was out of the beam.

“You make those?” I asked, shining my torch on the footprints in the soft dirt leading into the forest.

“What? No. I came from the other direction, east of here, and left the same way. Well, a little closer, but still not here. Not on this path.”

I lifted the torch, angling the shaft of light deeper into the trees. The line of footprints was clear. Then I looked at Evan and nodded, motioning for him to follow.

“The deeper I went into the forest, the louder the buzz hum became. It creeped me out. Creeped me out more, that is. I remembered what they’d said about the Lost Ranger.” I trudged on. The only lights were the small shaft from my torch. The woods were thick, too thick for any light to penetrate this deep into the forest at night. Once they got to the clearing that held the cabin, they’d be able to see the moons again, and the candle if it was still lit.

“Careful, you don’t want to step on a muggie. You should walk closer to me so you have more light.” I said, looking over my shoulder at Evan. He nodded, but did not close the gap.

“What did they say about the lost ranger? How did he get lost?” Evan asked, and I slowed my steps, in no hurry to reach the cabin.

“It was around 400 or 500 years ago. Had to be a long time, these things are weak at first. He wasn’t a ranger, but a trapper. Part of a dying breed as factories were just invented and edging out the mom and pop operations as the industrial age got rolling. He’d built the cabin for his wife and hunted game in the forest, and fished in the lake that was nearby. Every day she’d light a candle and set it in the window in case he came home after dark. A regiment of soldiers on their way to someplace called Texas territory were passing through the forest and came into the cabin.” I looked back at Evan. He was breathing heavily, even though I’d slowed my pace. “They broke in and had their way with the wife. Her husband walked in on them near the end. He killed a couple outright, and two more trying to get his wife away, but it was too late. She was dead. Then they chased him into the woods. Every time they caught up, they’d cut him. At first he moved quickly, but as the night wore on he slowed until he was walking, then crawling. They left his body in the woods.” I turned to look at Evan, shining the light on him and then down at the ground again. He was moving slower now, almost stumbling along behind me. I sighed and picked up the tale.

“Ten years later, someone found the cabin. Started living there but left because of all the weirdness. They’d come home and their lantern would be lit. They’d hear a man’s voice shouting at them to leave. Or they’d hear someone following them in the woods. Over the years, others would try to live there, but they’d all leave until finally they found an old doctor of some sort. Who told them that the lost man had become a Buhag.” I didn’t turn around when I said it. We were almost to the clearing and I could see the candle was indeed still lit.

“What’s a Buhag?” Evan rasped, and I spared a quick glance over my shoulder, wondering if I would have time to finish the tale.

“Some people believe that folks who are die through violence and left unburied come back as evil spirits. Monsters, if you will, the kind that suck the life from your body and take your skin so they can have flesh again. For a little while.” I said, walking into the clearing and standing to wait for Evan to join me.

“You don’t believe that, do you?”

“I have to. Because that night, the night the candle was lit, the muggies called, and he came. He came and took Willard for a ride. Then he tried to take Bain, the MOD. But he passed out from fright and then ran back to the station while I was still walking out towards the cabin. They have to be awake for it to take them. Awake and unaware.” Evan got to the clearing and blinked rapidly at the change in lighting. The moons of Mars shone their dull reflection of the sun’s light in the clearing, casting wavy shadows all around. In the cabin's window the candle’s flame danced merrily and I knew if I was dumb enough to go inside the painting, that damn painting would be blank.

“What happened?” Evan asked, and I shook my head.

“You know. It’s time to come out now. Go blow out the candle and let Evan rest.”

“What are you saying?” Evan said and took a step backward. I turned and took a step towards the cabin.

“Or I can go burn the painting and set the place on fire. I have everything I need to do it right here. You should let me do it. Then you’ll be free.” I reached slowly into my holster and pulled out my pistol, holding it by my side.

“You’re talking crazy. Don’t go in there. You can see the candle is burning. We need to search the woods to see if we can find who lit it.”

“So we can get lost. That’s what you want, right? Company? Revenge? That’s why you tricked him into lighting the candle. That’s why you came to tell me about it. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. Come out.” I said, bracing myself.

“You’re talking crazy. We should go. You know what? We don’t need to search, I don’t care who lit it. You’re scaring me.”

“You've said that before. No one can see the candle from outside of the forest, Evan. Go inside. Blow out the candle, let him rest. You remember what happened last time? How we fought, how you tried to take me and failed because I wasn’t unaware and guarded myself against you. Do you remember how you pulled off Willard’s skin and tried to strangle me with it?” I said in a low voice and Evan shook his head, his breathing picking up again as if he were gearing up to do something hard.

“I just want…” Evan began, and I lifted the pistol and shot him in his right shoulder so he could see I meant what I was saying.

“There’s a third way. Do you remember what happened that night? Evan won’t, he wasn’t there. But then again, he’s not here either, is he?” I pulled the trigger again and shot him in his other shoulder. Like the first time, he didn’t cry out, just shielded his eyes from the light of the laser beam.

“I’ll go, I just want…” Evan began, then his face contorted and he lunged at me. I fell backwards to evade him and lost my balence falling to the spongy ground then rolled and leaped to my feet, putting several feet between us as not Evan took several clumsy steps in my direction, arms outstretched. That's when the smell hit me. The smell of blood, the smell of decay lingering in the night air and making my heart race. I dodged his grasping hands and feinted towards him, circling and moving, so he moved closer and closer to the cabin. He just needed to be on the step.

“I beat you before. I beat you before.” I chanted, as he caught a hold of me and we struggled. Even though I knew it was coming, it still sickened me as Evan’s flesh peeled away, leaving bloody bones behind. “Off me! Off me! Off me!” I grunted, slipping out from its grasp and rolling toward the stairs. Can’t touch them. Has to be him. I thought and jumped away again as not Evan lunged for me and missed, flailing and stumbled backward onto the bottom step of the cabin’s porch. It was the moment I was waiting for. I raised the pistol again and shot him in the chest. The force of it knocked him off his feet, and he crawled backward trying to regain his feet towards the door of the cabin. I shot out his knee and he let out what sounded like a cry before standing and stumbling back into the open doorway of the cabin. He stood swaying in the doorway, blood and ichor dripping from his wounds and the places where his skin had peeled away. It wasn't a sight I would forget soon if ever. I clamped my lips together, let him see the resolution in my eyes. Let him see it coming. He was used to that after all, had to have been after all this time.

“Ride is over, mister. That kid should have had a long life.” I said bitterly and put a blast between not Evan’s eyes. The shot knocked him backward into the doorway of the cabin.

And the candle went out.