Prophecy by David Seltzer Read Free Book Online Page A

they were unwilling to slow the
     
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    dogs for fear of their losing the scent. Behind the two leashmen, each tied to a dog, ran a third man, struggling beneath the weight of a two-way radio strapped to his back.
    “Slow them down!” he gasped.
    “They’re hot!” one of the leashmen shouted back. “It’s got to be close!”
    The dogs came to an incline and their movement slowed. But when they reached the crest and started down, gravity abetted their eagerness, pulling them with the speed of roller coasters. The men were now running full-tilt, swept with a momentum they were helpless to stop. And then they saw it. An angular path of white water roaring through the forest and coming to an abrupt end in the darkness just ahead.
    “Water. It’s a waterfall!”
    “It’s a drop-off!”
    “Stop them!”
    The leashmen heaved backwards, digging their heels into earth. But the dogs refused to be stopped, pulling even harder against the resistance, coming closer with each moment to the gaping chasm that loomed in the moonlight ahead.
    “JESUS … !”
    “I can’t … I”
    “Help me!”
    One of the men grabbed a tree trunk and managed to hold firm, snapping his bloodhound backwards, jolting it into a daze. But the other leashman stumbled and fell, clinging to the leash as he was dragged forward, helpless to do anything but cry out as his dog hurtled toward the ledge.
    In a sudden, breathless moment, the radioman took flight, leaping directly atop the dragged man. At the same moment, the bloodhound sailed off the edge of the cliff.
    His flight lasted but an instant before it was halted. On top of the cliff, the human anchor had held.
    Just five feet from the cliffs edge, the radioman
     
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    clung tightly to the man beneath him. The dog swung silently in midair.
    “Help us!” the radioman shouted. They were slipping, inch by inch, toward the ledge, the leash vibrating as the dog beneath them struggled in fear. The second leashman fumbled with his belt, quickly unhitching it and tying it to a tree. His dog was lying on the ground, dazed from the jolt, its eyes staring upward at the moon.
    “Help us, goddammit!”
    The second leashman ran from the trees, falling across his companions and grabbing the taut leash, heaving back on it with all his weight. Clinging desperately to one another, they inched back like a six-legged crab, until they had put ten feet between themselves and the cliff, and stabilized themselves behind the stump of tree. The man who had been dragged was cut and bruised; the other two clung tightly to him, for the two-hundred-pound dog was still suspended from the end of the leash that was connected to his belt.
    They gazed at each other with frightened eyes, numbed by the near fatality.
    “You all right?”
    “I couldn’t get the release …”
    “I’ve never seen them do that… .”
    “Whatever they’re after is down in that gully.”
    “If it’s down there, it’s a dead man.”
    “They don’t bay like that for a dead man.”
    “Let’s get the dog up.”
    With shaking arms, they grabbed the taut leash, snaking their hands through it to get a firm grip.
    “Heave!”
    They pulled in unison, gaining three feet of slack. Then they grabbed hold again.
    “Heave!”
    They pulled again. But this time, to no avail. It was as though the dog’s weight had suddenly increased beyond their strength. Digging their heels into the dirt, they continued to pull, their teeth gritted with exer-
     
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    tion, their eyes meeting in confusion. It was becoming a struggle, a test of strength, as though something were pulling from the other end.
    “Oh, God …” one of them moaned as they were abruptly dragged forward.
    “Hold me!” cried the leashman who was tied to it. “Help me!”
    One of them thrust an arm into the dragged man’s belt, locking himself into the combat. The other man let go, but the dragged man grabbed onto him, clinging to him like a drowning man going