Chapter 48
The net was established and for the first day nothing much happened. On the second day, a forest ranger happened upon the hunting lodge with Jake inside. Ranger Bob drove up to the cabin in his 4 by 4 and could hardly believe what he was seeing. A wolf was laying part way into the cabin with its head apparently stuck in the door. He approached cautiously and called out to see if any one was about. At first he heard nothing but then he thought he heard what sounded like a child’s voice coming from inside.
The wolf was definitely dead and the smell emanating from it was almost unbearable. Flies buzzed about his ears as he tried moving the corpse from the doorway so that he could get inside to investigate what was making the noise from within.
He called out again, but all that he heard was the muffled gibberish that a baby would make. He tried pushing on the door to force it open, but something on the inside was stopping it from moving. He attempted to pull the wolf away from the door once more, but its head seemed to be wedged solidly in the opening and it didn’t budge at all. The body was bloated from gases having formed after the animal had died, causing the carcass to form a solid block stopping entry inside.
Bob looked around, and after a moment, noticed the boarded up window. He thought that if he could pry the wood off, he could crawl through and determine what or who might be seemingly trapped within.
He went back to his vehicle and got a pry bar from the tool box. Working in this forested area required each ranger to be fully equipped with a well stocked kit, because you never knew what may arise and if a hiker or someone else ran into trouble, it was the ranger’s responsibility to help out until aid arrived, which could be several hours because the forest around here was so thick that not many vehicles came by.
He took the lever over and started to pry on the wood. It held fast at first, and he didn’t think that he was going to have any success in removing the pieces, but after a few moments, a loud creaking sound could be heard and the first board came away and clattered to the ground. After that, the going got a little easier. Whoever had put these boards on wanted to make sure that they stayed in place in case a storm came up. By the time he had removed them all, he was soaked in sweat and his shoulder muscles screamed in agony.
Within a few moments, the pain subsided and he peered through the open window. It was like night time inside and at first nothing could be seen. As his eyes became accustomed to the light, he could see something in the corner and the same strange noise was coming from there.
He took his flash light from his belt and shone it in that direction. At first, it didn’t register what he was looking at, whether it was human or animal. In a few moments he realized that what he was looking at was indeed a man, or at least he thought it was a man. The person was curled up in a ball, and appeared to be talking to himself or to someone that only he could see. The fact of the matter was that he didn’t seem to be saying anything comprehensible. In a moment or two, Bob realized that he sounded like a small child who was talking to perhaps his mother who seemed to be comforting him.
"Momma, Jakie feels happy. I love you momma.” Jake spoke to the unseen person. “Jakie is tired momma. I want to sleep.” At this Jake closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.
A chill went up Bob’s spine. How could someone with such a low level of intelligence be out here all by himself? He sounded like a child of no more than two or three. At further examination, he saw that there were multiple lacerations all over the poor person’s body, and he was covered in blood and Bob was sure, excrement as well.
Bob leaned away and broke the window to gain entry into the cabin. After cleaning the remaining glass from the frame he crawled inside. Even though Bob was about fifteen feet away from Jake, he could smell him from across the room. He did in fact smell like he had fouled himself and his body odor almost made the ranger sick.
Bob didn’t think that this could possibly be the villain that everyone was so desperate to catch, but he had to call it in. This was more than he could handle himself. He went back to his vehicle, made the call and then went back into the room to see if he could offer any help to this poor soul trapped inside.
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