Read Online The Wildman by Rick Hautala - Free Book Online Page B

boat glided up onto the beach with a soft crunching whisper of sand and pebbles against the keel. It came to a sudden stop that jolted Jeff and would have thrown him forward if he hadn’t been keeping a grip with his left hand on the gunwales.
    The thin, dark-haired man waded out into the water and grabbed the bow of the boat. Leaning back, he dragged the boat further up onto the sand.
    “ Well I’ll be a son of a bitch,” the man said, smiling as he regarded Jeff. “I never thought in a million years you’d really make it.”
    “ And here I am.” Jeff said as he stood up, caught his balance, and then took the man’s proffered hand and shook it. “How’s it going, Tyler?”
    Tyler had a good grip, firm and dry.
    “’ S gonna be one helluva weekend,” Tyler said, his smile widening as he stood back and let Jeff clamber out of the boat and onto the beach.
    Jeff didn’t realize how tense he had been on the boat ride over until he was on solid land again and stretched to his full height. Hard knots tightened in his back and between his shoulder blades. He groaned as he leaned back and pressed his fist into the small of his back.
    “ Apparently I’m getting old just like the rest of you reprobates.”
    Everyone laughed at that as Fred and Mike approached the boat. Jeff’s assumption had been right. The fat guy was Fred. The scrawny kid he had once been was all but unrecognizable beneath his fleshy adult features, but there was a youthful glint in his eye that indicated the old Fred was still in there somewhere. Mike had gained considerable weight, too, but his bulk looked more muscular than fat. He had a crushing grip when he and Jeff shook hands.
    “ Jesus H Christ,” Mike said. “I hardly recognize yah.”
    Jeff sniffed with laughter, knowing if he had passed any of these men on the street, he would have walked past them without giving them a second glance. It was strange to think how these men—total strangers now—had once been his best friends, at least for two weeks every summer.
    “ Looks like you brought enough shit to last a week,” Fred said, glancing at Evan, who was already unloading the boat, piling Jeff’s things up on the sand.
    “ You never know,” Jeff said with a chuckle. “We might get stranded here for days, if the weather forecast is right.”
    “ How’s that?” Fred asked, a look of concern in his eyes. “What’d you hear?”
    “ Storm might be moving in later this weekend,” Jeff said. Realizing he didn’t want to start the weekend off on a bad note, he added, “But I doubt it’ll be much. If it is, you’ll be grateful I brought as much stuff as I did.”
    “ Long as you got plenty of beer,” Mike said.
    The bag Evan had just put down on the sand made a loud clinking sound, obviously bottles, and Mike’s face brightened.
    “ Come on, you slugs,” Evan said once the boat was empty. “Let’s get this up into the dining hall.”
    “ So that’s where we’re staying?” Jeff asked.
    “ Unless you want to sleep out under the stars.”
    “ We got here early,” Tyler said, “so we’re already set up. I hope you brought a pad like one of them egg shell thingies or something for your sleeping bag, because that floor’s gonna be hard as hell otherwise.”
    “ It sure hasn’t gotten any softer over the years,” Mike said with a chuckle. He made a point of grabbing more stuff than anyone else and started back to the dining hall.
    “ Remember that night we missed the overnight because it was raining?” Fred said. “’N we ‘camped out’ in the dining hall and cooked S’mores?”
    “ How could I forget?” Jeff said.
    With everyone helping, it only took them one trip to get all of Jeff’s stuff and supplies off the beach. They deposited it in the semi-circle of everyone else’s luggage and supplies. As he went about organizing his things, Jeff couldn’t get past the sense of total unreality that was gripping him.
    Who are these people … and what the