Yee Naallooshii

Bonnie trudged through the moonlit New Mexico desert sending up bits of sand with every step of her faded Nikes. She moved steadily in the direction of the casino, even though all she saw in front of her were small, rolling hills. The dark desert sky, bright stars and partial moon made it feel a little spooky. Glancing back, she could only see more hills. Thank goodness that man wasn’t following her. She was pretty sure he hadn’t seen her when she slipped out of his cabin.

Feeling safe enough for some light, she pulled out her cell phone and checked for cell coverage. Her damn phone was still not connected. Her friend, Pam, would never let her hear the end of this. Bonnie’s instincts had kept her alive while hitchhiking around the states, so far.

When Bonnie had met him at the casino playing a one-armed bandit, he had seemed like a nice local native with the promise of a free meal. He had told her to call him Ma’ii and had shared a story about growing up on the rez. He had promised lamb stew and maybe even some elk meat. She had never talked with a Navajo before. She figured he had more interesting stories he might share with her.

The second they turned off the highway toward the remote cabins, she started to get worried. When they walked into his house, the smell was overwhelming. The stench made her nose wrinkle in disgust. 

“Don’t worry about the smell,” Ma’ii said. “I dry a lot of herbs and grasses, they tend to smell a little skunky.”

The cabin looked normal enough. There was a new TV sitting in the corner, it looked out of place with the old wood furniture. The couch was covered in blankets, old and beat up under those layers. And there was that door. Closed so she couldn’t see what was behind it. The dark wood-paneled door looked solid and it had a lock on it from this side. She did a double take at a dark red blotch on the door handle. Rust, certainly, but that’s not where her mind went.

Now she was trying to put as many miles as possible between her and that cabin. In the distance, a coyote bawled and the sound echoed through the hills. She couldn’t tell if it was one or twenty. 

 She had heard plenty of them before, growing up in California, but this one sounded excited. Weird, she thought. Not that coyotes were anything to be afraid of. Her dad had once rescued their dog from a coyote about to pounce, and it had rushed off at the sight of a human. 

But if there was a pack, maybe she should worry. 

She wrapped her blue scarf a little closer to keep out the cool evening air. She tried pulling her jean jacket tighter but it was missing too many buttons to be of use. She didn’t think Ma’ii would come looking for her. If she could make it to the top of the next hill, maybe there would be cell coverage and a call for an Uber, if they had them out here on the outskirts of Farmington.

The coyote called out again. Her feet crunched on something. She looked down into the blank stare of a rabbit’s skull. Stepping over it, she spotted more blank stares. She flipped on the flashlight on her phone and panned the light around. The dry arroyo was filled with tiny skeletons and decaying flesh. The stench of methane and rot assailed her and she covered her nose with her scarf. It was even worse than when she worked in a restaurant and had to throw trash into the alleyway garbage bin. She swallowed hard and let the light from her cell phone fall back to her feet. As her eyes adjusted back to the moonlight, the white bones shone bright. 

It didn’t make sense. So many bones. She had heard of animals going somewhere to die, but rabbits, and whatever the other animals were, that couldn’t be normal. 

Some of the animals were still decomposing. She could make out the remnants of skin and hair on some of the carcasses. 

There was movement in the distance. A coyote was weaving its way between bushes and cactus down the hill.

Coyotes didn’t attack people though. Right? They were too small and scrawny to take down even her. Unless it was rabid. Maybe she should move faster.

She took a step to climb out of the creek bed when she accidentally kicked another skull. It rolled onto the top of her foot and a human skull stared up at the night sky.

She gasped and stepped back. She didn’t want to stay in this creepy place, and couldn’t wait to- the coyote called again.

She scrambled up the side of the arroyo, but her foot slipped back down in the sand. She held onto a scrub bush to keep from sliding more and glanced behind her. She could see the coyote. It was standing on the other hill, silhouetted by the moonlight. Her breath caught in her throat. It was the biggest coyote she had ever seen. 

She saw its eyes reflecting the moonlight as it looked at her. It smiled, showing its long fanged teeth and that one eyebrow lifted. It was moving toward her now. 

She struggled up the hillside, but the sand was giving her no purchase. She had to calm herself, walk to a different hill. The coyote wasn’t going to attack a human. She glanced back at the carcasses and skeletons. Unless it was responsible for all this?

Then the coyote was rushing across the arroyo. She heard it breathing next to her. 

She turned to look at the fierce eyes that looked back at her from the coyote’s face. She gasped as its golden-brown eyes shifted to solid brown, human eyes. Then back to coyote eyes. 

“What the hell.” She should have stayed at the casino.

The coyote curled its lips and exposed long fangs. She screamed as it leaped, its jaws aiming for her throat. 

She grabbed at sand and threw it into its eyes while she jumped back into the middle of the arroyo, among the bones but not before it had nipped at her arm. 

There was no time to look, but she could feel pain and a seeping of blood down her arm.

 The coyote let out a growl. She was making too much noise on the crunching bones. The coyote was scratching at its eyes, but its nose was pointed toward her the whole time.

She timed her leap with its leap, jumping off to her right. “Ahhh!” She landed on her ankle wrong and collapsed. She grabbed at the bones lying around her, trying to find something sharp. The laugh coming from the coyote was definitely not normal. 

The now open and hooded eyes of the coyote belied its intention to continue attacking. 

She grabbed at the first thing she could. She grimaced at the feel of squishy grossness and threw the partially decomposed head of something at the coyote. She choked on the rancid smell. The coyote let it bounce off if its coat and sneezed.

It was toying with her, slowly coming at her. She could feel its enjoyment. 

This thing was out to kill her. She was going to die with these stupid bones. 

If she was going to die, she was going to make this bastard pay. Bonnie found a long bone and raised it as the coyote, eyes open, crept toward her with a smile.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! If you want to order Gamble of the Gods, you can find it here: Gamble of the Gods or you can order it on Amazon.