Behavior Report 21

Dearest Love,

Earl! My dearest friend, returned, no, appeared out of nothing, and was real! I would have hugged him if I could. Instead, I screamed joyfully. I laughed. I cried. I went through every possible emotion. For the first time in forever, I knew happiness.

He lowered his rifle and walked toward me. One of his sleeves was torn to shreds and water soaked his pant legs. Dried blood smattered about his cheeks and stained his shirt. Those big, beautiful ears held up a dented helmet, tilted back slightly.

“Thank God you’re here,” I said.

He didn’t reply. He didn’t react to my voice. He offered no smile or smirk or grin in recognition of our reunion.

“Are you okay?”

His response was to drop the Kraut rifle, pick up the bayonet from my things, and begin cutting the ropes. The knife moved back and forth, slowly, cutting each strand of each braid in a mechanical fashion. Earl smelled of death mixed with that mucky smell mud gets in a swamp.

“Earl. Are you okay? Please, say something.”

Again, he didn’t respond. When the first full braid cut apart, I was able to break free, and jump to hug my friend.

He didn’t return the embrace.

My breaths were short, excited, gasps, as if I had just run for several miles. His kept a normal cadence, long and slow.

“You saved me. Thank you!” I let him go and began to check for wounds or other evidence that would put him in shock. His body was whole, but his clothes showed otherwise. Tearing our uniforms was practically impossible, yet his sleeve was in tatters. His arm was untouched. ‘How could his uniform be torn and his arm whole?’ I rubbed the dried blood from his cheek to find that there were no cuts or any evidence of one.

“What have you gone through?” I turned his head one way and then the other. He didn’t fight back. I grabbed his arm and ran my hands down it to check for anything. “What happened?”

The azure sheen glistening into his pupils illuminated a blank stare, a thousand-yard stare, into nothingness. Earl had been through hell. He stood and moved only through instinct. That smile of his had been wiped clean from some sort of nightmare.

I knew at that moment that the Earl I once knew was gone. My friend, who always held a smile, must have suffered some awful horror in the time we spent apart. There was no telling what he lived through. I assumed that he was taken by the Krauts but maybe that wasn’t the case. How did he come to the Cauchemar Forest? How did he arrive in the cave? I drove for miles and miles in that Kraut car. I walked for many more. I crossed a massive bridge and was led around by Alek. How did he arrive in the middle of this nightmare?

Was he abducted by Krauts and taken here? Why would the Krauts come here? Maybe he was abducted by something or someone else entirely? The only thing I did know is that no amount of azure light would shine on the answers.

“We should go. Find a way out of here.”

Earl cleared his throat. “Where are we?” His voice was weak and faint.

“We’re beneath the Cauchemar Forest.” 

He looked at me as if I were a stranger.

“Are you okay?” I said.

Earl removed his helmet to scratch his head. My friend of old, who reminded me to “Keep my head on straight” and always had a smile was buried inside a shell of himself.

“Frank?” He said with a rising voice.

“Yes?”

“Where are we?”

“We are in hell, Earl. We’re in hell.”

I noticed his hands shaking as if a cold shiver ran through him from an early January morning. “Do you have any food?”

“Yes!”

I helped him sit down, opened a can of pork, and fed him the first bite. He chewed methodically, not like a starved man. We were taught to never gorge if we hadn’t eaten for a long time. The stomach cannot bear massive amounts of food if it had been starved for some time. Whether he was reminded of that training or simply couldn’t process eating quickly, Earl chewed like a machine whose throttle was set to low. After several bites, Earl began to perk up and some color came back to his cheeks.

I collected my things while he ate. My pack was fully intact. All the letters were present and in the same condition as I left them. My rifle was full of the same rounds that I loaded when we first landed on the shore. I also picked up the sword that Alek used to threaten me. It was four and a half to five feet long with a leather-bound grip long enough to fit two large hands, but its size did not equal its weight. I could easily hold the sword with one hand.

 Twisting the steel in the flower light revealed an elaborate design of etchings that started from the guard and ran along the length of the blade. At first, I thought that it was just a design, but on further inspection, I noticed that the guard was shaped like the ground and the etchings in the blade created a tree. Whoever forged the sword must have known how it would protect its wielder in the nightmare forest.

Nearby, I found the sword’s scabbard whose design matched the steel. I took off my pack, looped the scabbard’s harness over my head and shoulder, and then put my pack back on to create a crisscrossing pattern of straps. I took a few practice swings of the sword which felt sharp enough to cut the air as it swung through. This may sound a little strange, but every swing created an audible hum. Swiping left caused the sword’s song to lower while swiping right raised its notes. Someone with more savage creativity than me could compose a symphony while striking down his enemies. The song ended when I sheathed the sword in its scabbard stored between my back and pack.

Earl raised his hand and said, “Do you have any water?”

“Yes. Of course.” I ran over to the underground river to fill my canteen. The plants along the water’s edge looked like the broadleaf weeds that grow back home, but translucent and transparent. I could see right through when I held my hand beneath them.

Earl drank the entire canteen in one continuous drink. This will sound weird, and possibly unbelievable, but as he drank, the shadows around his eyes lessened, and his skin became faintly luminous.

“Thank you,” he said. “Give me a moment and I’ll be ready to go. Just need to catch my breath. Do you have any more of that canned grub?”

“Yes. Take all the time you need. We can leave when you’re good and ready.” I opened another can and handed it to him.

“We don’t have much time.”

“Why not?”

He started eating again. “The monster knows I’m gone. It’s going to start looking for me.”

“Is that Hel?”

“It’s whatever you want to call it. Monster. Hel.” He scooped more pork into his mouth, chewed, and then said, “Let me build up my strength and then we can go.”

All about were items left behind from the previous victims of Alek’s sacrifices. I began to look around to see if there was anything I could use to fulfill one of the boy’s promises. Practically an entire kraut division must have been sacrificed over the past several years. Turtle shell helmets and bolt action rifles littered the ground. Nothing seemed to fit any of the promises in our immediate area, so I circled out further where other items were collected. I ran through the promises in my head as if to remember a list of groceries I needed to pick up, hoping not to forget anything. Treasure. Kraut soil. Pistol and scarf. Pens. Baseball bat. Unmentionables. Kraut flag. Marriage proposal. Roland’s plan to be his own man. Bob’s stories.

Some seemed easy, some were hard. I knew that a promise would present itself at the right time. 

The more Earl ate, the stronger he became. Finishing the second can gave him enough strength to fill the canteen on his own. He washed his hands and face in the water and then picked several large handfuls of the flowers to bunch up into a bundle that he used like a torch.

Earl said, “Looking for something?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

I stopped and smiled. “You seem to be gaining your strength.”

“Why are you looking for anything?”

“Actually, I’m looking for anything that can fulfill one of the boys’ promises.”

Earl walked up to me, plants in hand, and a solemn look upon his face. He spoke quietly. “Promises?”

“Yes.”

“You found the letters!”

“Yes.”

Earl lunged and embraced me. I couldn’t return the gesture as he wrapped his arms about mine. His head was buried into my shoulder. He started to cry.

“It’s okay,” I said trying to console him.

“When I was taken, my only thought was on those letters and you. I just kept thinking about how I failed. I failed in sticking together with you. I failed at keeping everyone’s promises. I failed at everything.” He let go and leaned back. “And now I have you and everyone’s promises? I don’t believe it.”

“What do you mean by “taken”?”

Earl stepped back, took in a deep breath, exhaled, and then said, “They must have thought I was worth keeping.” His voice sank almost to a whisper as he spoke. “They came out of nowhere. I didn’t have any time to react. They just took me.”

“It was a sneak attack.” I said. “I only survived because they didn’t see me where I hid. I hid out until everything was done.”

“You did the right thing. Fight another day.”

“But I didn’t seek you out? I didn’t try to stick together.”

Earl smiled. “But you kept your head on straight. You waited until they were gone and then you collected everyone’s promise.”

“Except yours.”

“That’s because it was in my shirt pocket.”

Earl raised the plants, and something glinted on the ground not far away.

“Move the plants around a little more,” I said.

He followed my request to reveal several things sparkling across the ground. I walked over and found that whatever caught the light was buried under a pile of bones and cloth. 

“What do you see?” Earl said.

“I’m not sure.”

Beneath the bones was a leather pouch, about the size of child’s marble bag, stitched together with thick thread. The top was barely open, but enough to allow the contents inside sparkle. I picked up the pouch and found it full of diamonds and gems and finely polished gold coins. My Love, the diamonds were not like the ones on your wedding band, they were as big as the entire ring! The gold coins were worn thin on their edges and any imprints on the center was flattened through use. Only one coin had a year still partially marked.

“Seventeen fifty-seven,” I said.

“What?”

“Treasure!” I yelled and then laughed. “It’s a treasure for George.”

“For George?”

“Yes.” I walked over to show him. “George promised to bring home a treasure to his father to get him out of the coal mining business. Honestly, I never thought that I’d find a treasure. I was thinking that I’d have to make something up, you know, like find a bunch of sterling silver forks or someone’s wallet.”

Earl smiled, brokenly, and said, “George promised to bring home treasure. Funny guy. Figures he’d come up with something that seems imp–”

Suddenly, we were jolted by a loud crack that ricocheted through the cave. Earl flinched and covered his ears. A second crack broke over the sound of the running river and Earl dropped to a knee and began to moan.

“What is that?” I looked about and then down the long tunnel where Earl appeared earlier.

“We’re out of time,” Earl said as if out of breath.

Just then, a luminous azure glow began to fill the depths of the tunnel and I was reminded of Alek’s words, “The light you see is in her chest. That’s love. Love of the forest. Love of what she’s created. Great love. The best love.” My Love, the words repeated over and over as the light grew brighter. Earl collapsed upon himself. The cave rocked as if an entire army of tanks was pushing through.

I tried to pick up Earl and yelled, “We have to get out of here.” But there were more explosions, more cracks, and more unbelievably loud roars that kept Earl in place. “Let’s go.” Earl held his ears tightly and dropped further to the ground. I tried to pull him up, but he felt like an anchor attached to the rocky floor. There was no budging him.

Deep within the bowels of the tunnel, the light bore shadows that formed into legs and a long snout. Hel or whatever the monster was, ran towards us, breaking stalactites, and stalagmites along the way as if they were made of sand. Light glowed from its skin like the plants along the river and it served as its own light source. Hel had the long snout of an alligator, filled with rows of dull teeth carrying bits of fabric and bones wedged in between. Every footfall showed muscular limbs covered in bloodied scales, moving in a fluid motion, like the mechanical churn of a locomotive’s wheels. As it moved, its snout remained perfectly steady and still as it maintained focus on us. Fragments of fabric blew out from the monster’s teeth as it growled.

I doubled my effort to pick up Earl, but as the light became brighter, I saw something in him that I recognized. Fear. Anxiety. All the things that ravaged me when I was with the boys were present on Earl’s face. I had to become his Lieutenant Talbott in the trenches. I thought about grabbing several grenades and tossing them at the right moment. I also thought about aiming my rifle at the monster’s head. But a tank’s ordinance would bounce off the bloodied scales on the monster, much less a grenade or bullet. I thought about hiding, but the monster had already seen us.

No other ideas came to mind.

So, I did the only thing I could think of in the moment.

I unsheathed the sword, took a few steps toward the charging monster, and readied for battle.