The Howling Valley

As the monster barreled up the pass toward them, its’ predatory gaze locked onto his, reflecting a heartfelt desire to rip him apart limb from limb. Fuck you, Scotty thought, find another morsel, you big ugly fuck. With an underhanded toss, he pitched the grenade toward the approaching terror and pulled Thanh behind a large, plant-covered rock next to him.

They only caught the tail end of the thing’s scream as it detonated, the sound discernible even over the ringing in their ears. Scotty peeked around the rock to see the thing tumbling end over end back toward the valley floor.

“Go, go, it’s gonna come back! I have a plan, though!”

“What-?”

“Just GO!”

They turned and ran further into the pass, slipping and sliding on the thick plant life and dirt that covered the stone beneath. After about thirty seconds, they came to a more leveled-out spot that was considerably narrower than before-there was only about eight feet of clearance total; this was perfect. Scotty set down his pack down and reached into it, removing the two claymores he'd pulled from the chopper. Looking around frantically, he separated them and planted each on opposite sides of the narrow canyon, ensuring that they faced upwards at a forty-five degree angle. After some frenetic adjustments, he heard the thing roar from down below; it was not, as part of him had hoped it would be, down for the count just yet.

"How is it still alive?!" Thanh cried out in frustration and terror as he concentrated on the task at hand. He'd wired the claymores up the previous night in case something like this happened, whether in the pass or the jungle; these mines would do the trick. Had to, he corrected himself, they HAD to do the trick, because if not...well, they wouldn't have much choice about crossing that bridge when they came to it.

All he had to do now was attach the denotator. He inserted the blasting caps into the detonator wells of each mine, and checked to make sure that the safety on the detonator itself was engaged. He'd been smart in giving himself plenty of wire between the mines themselves; if he hadn't, he thought, this might have been more difficult. He hastily began unspooling the wire as he heard the telltale sounds of a massive form staggering up the pass below. God, the thing just did not ever quit! Well that's okay, Scotty thought, we've got somethin' for you, you gangly son of a bitch. You're hungry, so come eat fourteen hundred steel balls, you cunt, because the two of us won't be enough for you.

"Back up, back up!" He shouted as he came back toward Thanh, her face a mask of fear and apprehension.

"Oh my God, Scotty-"

"Thanh, move! Back, back!"

She screamed, and he turned to see the bloodied, battered and extremely angry form of the valley's resident asshole coming over the threshold, its' long vicious teeth bared. Its' tongue flicked out, nearly two feet long and almost reptilian in appearance. It howled and began to stumble forward, its' claws scoring and splintering the walls as it came. As the passage narrowed, it had to lean and adjust itself, snarling and gibbering the whole time. Its' massive, clawed hands lashed out, swiping and grabbing at them, making the duo jump back. It was so close now, so close, just a few more feet, Scotty thought...

"COVER YOUR EARS!"

He disengaged the safety on the detonator. Time to see if these things still worked...fuck, I hope they still work, he thought, as the thing passed directly above and over the claymores. Scotty could not hear the click of the button as he pushed it, as the creature's vocalizations were almost deafening.

What was truly deafening, at least for Scotty, was the sound of two claymores packed with hundreds of steel balls and several pounds of plastic explosive detonating simultaneously. He couldn't even hear the thing's screams of sheer agony as blood poured from countless new and older wounds, as some were newly made and some were torn open. It reared back and fell to the ground, screaming and howling in agony, scrambling and scratching at the pass' walls and floor like mad. Scotty shouldered his rifle and trained it on the beast, waiting to see if it would still attack, but there was no need. It crawled to the threshold and slipped over, tumbling back down into the valley from whence it came for the second time in mere minutes. Its' cries and lamentations echoed throughout the region: it had been soundly and definitively beaten.

Scotty and Thanh looked at each other, each panting and terrified. Scotty nodded, his helmet bobbing slightly. She returned the nod, her own helmet doing the same. He took her hand and turned away from the valley and back toward the remainder of the pass, and floundered their way toward freedom.

*****

Scott McKinley did not receive any commendations for his actions during the ambush or the events that he and Nguyen Thanh experienced afterwards, but after they managed to make it through the mountains and flag down another patrol that happened to be passing by, he was given an honorable mention in the magazine that Thanh had been working for, praising his bravery and willingness to save the live of one of their own. Scotty was fine with that. And, after finding out that her subjects had been victims of a Viet Cong ambush, her editor hadn't even made her pay to replace the camera she'd lost. And, frankly, Thanh herself was fine with that.

Scotty survived Vietnam, despite many close calls and tense, violent moments. After his conscription was up, he took his papers and walked; he'd had enough of war and bloodshed to last multiple lifetimes. Thanh remained in Saigon, remaining in regular mail contact with Scotty and relishing the moments she could spend with him when he was on R&R. Their love blossomed and grew stronger all the time, and when he asked her to move to the States with him and consider being his wife, she tearfully accepted and they made passionate love for the rest of that night.

Scotty reconnected with his platoon, and all of them even made it home too (though Kanafka nearly died after losing his lower right leg to a grenade, and O'Hara took a Tokarev round to the shoulder), and none of them could believe their eyes when they saw their friend again. That didn't mean that they weren't overjoyed to know that he was still alive, however-they threw him a party on base to celebrate his "rise from the dead" as they called it.

Officially, the line was that Scotty and Miss Nguyen had hidden out in a cave for several days, trying to avoid the Viet Cong and moving when they could. This was gladly accepted by the brass, and everyone moved on, a fact that Scotty and Thanh were grateful for. Neither of them ever spoke of it to one another, but they both knew that no one would have believed a story about an isolated valley that was stalked by a freakish monstrosity that he could not begin to explain the origin of. He did, though, sometimes find himself wishing that Thanh's camera hadn't been lost and that they could have taken some pictures of it...that would have REALLY been something to talk about, he had mused to himself. National Geographic and Scientific American would have been ramming down his and Thanh's door.

Ultimately, Scotty and Thanh married after moving back to the United States. They settled together outside Tampa, Florida, where they would eventually raise two children. They remained together until their respective passings, never wavering in their loyalty and devotion to one another-if you'd asked them how they stayed so strong, both would tell you that quite literally surviving together in enemy territory would do that. Everyone marveled at this explanation, and thought them a worthy example to follow.

But for the rest of their lives, every so often, one of them would wake from a terrible nightmare that involved being stalked by a huge, lean shadow with claws that could gut a water buffalo, reaching out from the shadows to finish a job that had started in the dark, shadowy clutches of a mysterious land so long ago.

********************

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope this gave you a few chills. I had so much fun writing this, and I hope you'll consider voting for me! Happy Halloween!