I took a seasonal ranger job in the Cascades.

Mostly isolation stuff, watching fire lines, logging trail damage, monitoring wildlife.

A few radio check-ins a day, and the rest of the time is mine.

Perfect gig for someone trying to get away.

The cabin I was assigned sits about 12 miles from the nearest road.

Old place, nothing fancy, radio tower, generator, propane stove.

No internet.

No cell service.

Just me?

The trees.

A whole lot of quiet.

I like it.

Until the third week.

That's where the noise has started.

Not animals, not weather, footsteps.

They were subtle at first, slow, heavy.

Always at night, I hear them circling the cabin four or five paces at a time, then nothing for hours.

I set up trail cams, eight of them, motion triggered, infrared, I nailed them to trees

in a perimeter pattern.

The next morning I found all eight on the ground.

Not broken, not chewed, just unscrewed from the trees and placed neatly in a pile beside

the front steps. Like a message.

...