The Thing in Parcel 314

Three grizzly accidents along the same stretch of service road have ground forestry workers to a veritable stand-still in the North Woods. A stretch of logging road nearly 30 miles long and isolated from any but the most basic civilization has claimed fifteen lives since Parcel 314, an old growth parcel, has been allotted by the Department of The Interior.

The first incident was a logging truck, full of newly cut timber, that overturned and rolled down an embankment killing the driver and the two loggers that rode with him.

The next was a truck which mysteriously caught on fire while transporting replacement crew to the new parcel.

Then there was incident number three. A forest ranger, using the old logging road to get up country to check rumors of poachers, disappeared without a trace. All that was found was his SUV parked on the side of the road. About 100 yard away from that, his hat and shotgun, unfired.

A series of worksite accidents have claimed several lives closer to the parcel itself. Men found tangled in chains or crushed by fallen logs. One man was found, braced inside a portable toilet a look of abject terror across his deadened features.

With enough of a mystery looming over the newly accessible piece of forest the site has been temporarily shut down -- but not without protests from the local forestry concerns. A tense energy hangs over the local town while authorities try to sort things out.

Possibilities

1 Something long undisturbed has been awakened with the incursion into Parcel 314. Whatever it is, it does not appreciate the intrusion and has set upon the local workers and authorities as well as any others who might make their way through that stretch of woods. What’s worse is that the incidents seem to be spreading away from the site, down the service road and toward town.

2 The parcel was opened for a dark purpose. The very same corporate types who are salivating to get back into the woods to continue harvesting are looking for something there. Little do they realize that that something is also looking for them, bent on vengeance for the desecration of its resting place.

3 There is something in Parcel 314, something that wishes to be released from the prison of the woods. As more of the area is cut clear, its evil grows, sowing madness and fear as well as its own evil lusts further and further until it is free to roam the darkness of the North Woods.

©  Eli Arndt