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Dark Valley

Chapter One

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

8th June, 2019

All Rights Reserved.

Rain lashed the surrounding district, a wind a like a cyclone roared and thrashed the leaves off the trees, hurling them and branches around like the tantrum of a wilful child. Trees shivered in the cold winter night thunderstorm, groaning and creaking - some threatening to topple, yet they remained resolute.

Overhead, lightning flashed and seconds later, there come the ear splitting crack of thunder. Its rumble faded into the darkness, consumed and refracted by the distant mountains. It's quavering rumble fading away into the mountainous peaks that surrounded the secluded valley.

Through the valley ran a stretch of twisting black tarmac, the frequent lighting flashes revealing the narrow, white lines marked upon its surface. Eyes gleamed from the side of the road, green and eerie in the brief flashes, then they closed and reappeared, as it ventured out on to the road.

Water dripped from its ears and ran in rivulets down its snout, as it glanced across the dark road to the other side, then shook itself; water spraying from its fur pelt. Dropping to all fours, the creature crawled forwards, and in a brief lighting flash, it was revealed as a young male grey kangaroo.

He recoiled slightly as the thunder once again tore apart the sky - the drawing upon his inner strength, he hopped out in to the middle of the road, then froze as something; something elusive, made rise to his full height; as his long, tubular ears flicked as he tried to distinguish the sound over the frequent deafening peals of thunder. From around the rain swept corner leapt a beast of blazing incandescent lights that held his gaze transfixed. Just as he let forth a shriek, eyes wide and unseeing, as the metal beast bore down on him...

*

Newly married, the young couple drove through the wind-swept night, the wipers on their car beating an almost hypnotic rhythm on the windscreen. Beside the driver, sat his wife Katrina, dressed still in her white wedding gown, her eyes half lidded as she gazed peacefully out through the windscreen. Her husband, Jack, peered through the foggy glass at the dark road before them.

"Not the sort of night we'd had planned - " Katrina whispered softly, as she stifled a yawn.

Jack chuckled quietly, and slipped the car down a gear, as they rounded a sharp corner, then accelerated again. Katrina blinked, then peered out through the glass - and her mouth fell open; the short, sharp gasp if an inhaled breath whistling through her constricting throat.

"Jack - lookout...there's a...." Katrina squealed, as she grabbed his arm.

Jack swore, and then instinctively slammed his foot down on the brake pedal. There was a loud thump, followed by Katrina's scream as Jack wrenched the wheel. Cursing, he felt the car fight against him, as he struggled with the wheel, it sliding between his tense fingers. As he over-corrected, the tires screamed on the slick road, the tail of the vehicle beginning to fishtail. It swerved and skidded, as he desperately tried to regain control, it then skewed wildly across the road.

Wrestling with all his strength, he twisted it one way and the other, then by some miracle, it straightened out.. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the worst was over, as he glanced sideways at Katrina. Without warning, the front tire exploded with a deafening bang. He felt the steering wheel torn from his grasp, as the vehicle twisted and moaned.

It slid sideways, pulled by inertia and gravity, its tires kicking up a spume of gravel, mud and debris. Helpless, they screamed in fear, as the car slid sideways, wrenching itself towards the dark void to the side of the road. Roadside reflectors gleamed in the headlights like eyes of some unspeakable beast, that looked on without care or concern at the fate of the mortals before it.

*

Katrina screamed, as the car tilted, then rolled down the embankment, the sounds of shattering glass and twisting metal mingling with the thunderstorm, that abated in its lashing of the countryside, as if watching the accident in interest.

*

At the bottom of the ravine, lay the overturned car, its indicators blinking haphazardly and the weak headlights illuminating the crushed foliage. Weak, bleeding and shaken, Jack crawled from the mangled wreck - and staggered to his feet.

"Katrina!" Blood filling his throat, his breathing a choking gurgle, Jack gasped for breath before expunging the blood from his mouth and throat, before his frantic eyes flickered too and fro. He swiped his torn suit sleeve over his gashed forehead, smearing the blood and mud that continued to flow like a fine claret.

Fumbling almost blindly, overcome with shock, Jack staggered as a deafening crack of thunder split the sky and in the accompanying flash, he saw Katrina's body lying face down on the ground, half in, half out of the mangled car.

He screamed hoarsely, as he stumbled towards her, wiping mud and rainwater from his face, feeling his eyes sting from the warm blood from a gash in his forehead. Clambering across the muddied, torn ground - he fumbled his way to her side and gently cradled her head in his lap

His tears streaked down his cheeks as he looked down at her pallid face - but his fears turned to surprise and elation as her eyelids flickered and she weakly looked up at him, a low gurgling groan escaping her, as she fought to remain conscious.

"Stay with me honey - come on..." Jack wept unashamedly, as he eased her from the wreckage and propped her up against the side of the overturned vehicle.

"What - " Katrina groaned, her head lolling as she moaned.

A loud braying cry began up somewhere on the road, an almost primal scream of pain and terror, and both Katrina and Jack winced as the sound lanced their nerves.

"Oh dear god - " Katrina gasped. "That poor creature - it's still alive...."

Jack nodded and his face grew grim, as he picked up a large stone and glanced at Katrina, who looked away, her tears coursing down her face. Struggling up the steep incline, Jack used small shrubs and trees to pull himself up onto the road, with the intention of putting the suffering animal out of its misery.

Katrina shuddered as the screams were mercifully cut short, then there came the whispering sigh of the wind through the sodden leaves, as if they were crying for the death that they had just witnessed.

*

Crawling to a fallen log, Katrina clutched her broken arm against her chest, the tears mixing with the rain water that sluiced down her face, her gown spattered with blood and debris,

"Jack - " Katrina's voice croaked, as she coughed and squinted up the hillside, the rain blinding her.

Leaves rustled and whispered, almost as if in some alien voice, as there come a twig snap and Katrina staggered to her feet and peered into the darkness. A flash of lightning struck, and momentarily blinded her, as Katrina spun about and dropped to her knees, as another branch snapped.

"Jack...is that you?" Katrina cried out in fear, eyes like dinner plates.

A loud thud come from the direction of the wrecked car, then Katrina turned back, using her fingers to wipe rainwater from her eyes, before she screamed as Jack's body crashed onto the upturned car, his throat gaping and life blood spurting, as he raised a blood smeared hand imploringly at her, before he choked his last, the limp hand falling.

"NO!" Katrina shrieked, her mind unable to conceive of the horrific scene before her.

Another crash of thunder, then Katrina wailed as something heavy slammed into her back, knocking her into the wrecked car. Katrina shrieked and felt the intense pain in her lower back, then the sticky sensation as something soaked through the torn gown.

Claws, sharp and cruel, grabbed her by the shoulders and something strong - stronger than a human - threw her backwards, so she landed on the wet, muddied ground with a loud squelch. Tears filling her eyes, Katrina couldn't see her attacker - but it growled at her, a low, menacing snarl, before it leapt and Katrina's overwhelmed mind drove her body into unconsciousness...

*

Sparking another bright phosphorous flare, the young constable dropped it to the ground and sighed, as she pushed back her cap and raised her face to the sky, letting the misty breeze caress her face like a spectres touch. With a sigh, she began walking towards the patrol car, its red and blue lights strobing into the darkness.

Her first shift at her new station, and she gets called out to an accident – an accident that looks and feels like a fatality.

“Wonderful way to welcome me to the district -” Constable Selene sighed to herself, as she sparks another road flare and drops it. “Just, wonderful – all I needed.”

Carefully, mindful of the slippery conditions, Constable Selene approached the second flare. Traffic was non-existent, thankfully, she didn't need the stress of onlookers and rubber necked idiots impeding her work. Something glistened on the road, and she crouched down, touching her fingers to the tacky liquid, before he lifted them up, the glare of the nearby road flare giving her enough illumination to see.

"Blood here Sargent - " Constable Selene called out.

“So? What do yo expect me to do about it?” Snarled the Sargent, as he walked back towards her. “Its a car crash, what did you expect? Fairies and rainbows? I don't want to be out here any longer than I have to be, now, do your damn job Constable! Why they assigned you to this godless district, I'll never know, You were demoted, sent to this hillbilly backwater...”

Selene listened to his diatribe in silence, but her mind rapidly grew to hate and despise this callous, cruel man. Anger built within her like a steam kettle, and only through great will did she force herself to stoically endure his tirade – but it was a close thing.

Only when they heard the wailing of sirens and lights strobing, did he reign in his apathy and dislike for this new, young constable. As an Ambulance rushed towards them, he walked away, still bitter and resentful about this thankless job, and what he thought was a constable who was about as useful as teats on a bullock.

Coming to a halt, the Ambulance turned diagonally to the highway, its lights strobing and two Ambulance crew climbed out, before retrieving their emergency kits. As the Sargent began speaking with them, Selene took a moment to centre herself, before she sighed inwardly and began dropping more road flares onto the road.

“Hell of a situation, isn't it?” Asked one of the Ambulance officers.

"I don't know if anyone's alive - " Constable Selene admitted. "From the tire marks...I just don't know!"

Nodding, the paramedic's turned their mag-lite flashlights on and between the four of them, they spread out and quickly found the wrecked vehicle at the bottom of the ravine.

"We're going to need the NSW RFS, looks like a hell of a mess to me!" Grunted the Sargent, as he looked down, their powerful mag-lite torches flickering over the wreckage.

"Is anyone down there, can you hear me?" Called one of the Paramedic's.

They waited with baited breath, but only the distant rumble of the thunder answered them.

"What do you think Sargent, double fatality?" Constable Selene asked, as she tipped her cap back.

"Constable, I don't have time or patience to play twenty questions with some ingrate who is already a pain in my arse. Now, get on the radio and get NSW RFS on station, we need their expertise to get down there and see if there's any survivors."

"Right away sir - " Constable Selene nodded, as she hurried back to the police car.

"Hell of a night," Grunted the Sargent. "Rain, storms the likes of which we've never seen, now this..."

"Think anyone's alive down there?" One of the paramedic's asked.

"Hell if I know, from what we can see here, the car's a wreck, I'll be surprised if anyone survived that, its what - forty metres at least? Look at all those snapped branches, the way its crumpled..."

"Might be a blessing if they didn't - "

*

Katrina's eyes fluttered open, before she gasped and squeezed them tightly closed, tears squeezed from the corners, as the bright overhead fluorescent light seared them.

"Easy there - " Come a quiet, feminine voice. "It's alright, you're safe and in hospital, can you tell me your name?"

"Katrina...Blackwood - " Katrina croaked, then winced as sharp, lancing pain tore through her body.

There was a sharp sting in her upper right arm, then a warmth began to spread through her body as the anaesthetic spread.

"Ms. - " Began the voice, then it paused. "Forgive, Mrs. Blackwood, I'm Constable Selene, I know this is difficult, but can you tell me what happened?"

"Wheres - " Katrina stammered, then her eyes opened a crack and she looked around, before she sighed and lapsed back unconscious.

Constable Selene sighed deeply, folding her black notebook and pocketing her pen.

"Poor lady, I wonder what happened to her? Those - what were they, were they caused by the crash?"

Checking the machines, the male nurse shook his head.

"Constable? I wish I knew, when she was brought into the emergency room, gods, it looked like she had been shoved into a shredder. Her gown was ripped and torn to pieces, more wounds than we could count - it was touch and go for a while apparently. She has lost a lot of blood, but the doctor knows more than I do, I'm only a nurse, wish I could do more to answer your questions, but it's best we let her rest now, come back tomorrow, hopefully you'll get the answers then...

Nodding, Constable Selene thanked the nurse and made her way back to the hospital entrance, her mind filled with more questions than she had answers. Hopefully, some of those questions would be answered tomorrow...

To Be Continued...