Harvest Moon

                                                        Harvest Moon
                                   
                                                       


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‘Let’s have a quick drink before we go any further.’ Chris said. ‘I’m freezing.’
‘Blimey mate, we’ve got the whole night ahead of us.’ said Dan, throwing his gun down on the ground and pulling the flask out of his bag before handing it over.
Chris took a deep gulp and felt his throat burn.
‘Thought this was meant to be tea.’ he spluttered. ‘Bloody hell how much whisky have you got in here?’ he said his eyes watering as he passed it across to Charlie.
Dan laughed ‘Just enough to keep the cold off.’ 
Charlie took the flask and sipped a miniscule amount before handing it straight back to Danny.
‘Taking it easy are you mate? ‘Said Danny. ‘Come on have another swig, might put a smile on your face.‘
Charlie looked as if he was about to burst into tears, he was quieter than usual,  something was on his mind. The last thing he needed was Dan picking on him.
‘Leave him alone. ‘Chris said. ‘Not compulsory is it.? We don’t have to be drunk to enjoy ourselves. ‘ 
‘Got another one in here as back up.’ said Dan proudly showing us another  flask tucked away in his bag.
‘Better take it easy mate.’ said Chris ‘You know guns and alcohol . . . not a good mix.’
‘Bloody hell. . We all know how to handle a gun don’t we?’ Danny said screwing the cap back on his flask impatiently as he put it back in his bag. Chris looked closely at Dan .There was recklessness about him tonight that made him feel nervous.
‘Come on then.’ Chris put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder,’ lets get a move on, too cold to be standing around like this.’


    The field dipped steeply to the woods, the flashlight darting and flickering  ahead of them with Dan leading the way.
Dan always leads the way, thought Chris. Since they had been kids they had always held him in a sort of reverence, thinking that he knew best, he was always right. Maybe they’d misjudged him, he realised, now, it was all a sham, the confident swagger, the cruel jibes. Inside he was as scared and unsure of himself as the rest of them.
‘We’ll go through the woods and over the bank to the field on the other side.’ said Daniel ‘That’s where most of the rabbits are.’
Chris wondered what was really going on inside his head. He had been drinking more than usual lately and acting strangely.
‘You know best.’ Chris said sarcastically.
    Charlie was lagging behind. ’You okay Charlie?’ Chris said as he waited for him to catch up.
‘Yeah . . . Just thinking.’ he said, his face looked pinched and white. His Mums death a few years ago had hit him hard, he seemed to have lost his direction in life and followed Dan and Chris round like an abandoned puppy. It brought out Chris’s protective instincts, he felt responsible for him and always fought his corner especially when Dan started picking on him.
‘What about, come on, you can tell me.’ Chris stopped waiting for Charlie to look up from the ground where he was kicking up scuds of earth with his boot.
‘It’s just this bloody war.’ he said looking down at the field. ’In a few months time we could all be gone.’
‘Gone. .  What do you mean?’ Chris said.
‘Well, we’ll all be split up for one thing and we’ll have to leave here . . . ‘he said waving his hands in the general direction of the village. ‘There’s no guarantee is there that we’ll ever come back?’
‘Oh mate, don’t worry about that now, it hasn’t even happened yet. I mean they haven’t declared war yet have they. No point thinking about it. .  Not yet.’ Chris put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder giving him a gentle shake.
‘Come on you two, what’s taking you so long?’ Dan had already reached the top field and was trying to find a good vantage point so he was out of sight.
‘We’re coming, hold on.’ Chris shouted back.
He turned to Charlie. ’Look just live in the moment okay, what happens, happens there is nothing we can do about it.
‘I’m not going though; I’ve already made my mind up.’
‘What do you mean, not going? We have to. … ..’
‘No!’ he said vehemently.’ I am not going to fight in any war.’ he said. ’I am not that sort of person . . . I could never . . . I could never kill anyone. It’s just not in my nature.’
‘Well ‘Chris said noticing the anger in his face, ’There might not be a war yet, so lets just forget about it eh. . ‘He gave him a playful punch on the shoulder. ‘Eh?’
A trace of a smile appeared on Charlie’s face.
’C’mon . . . ‘Chris said ‘bet I shoot more rabbits than you.
Charlie’s face broke into a grin. ‘That won’t be hard. ‘
He put his arm across Charlie’s shoulders as they walked down the hill to join Dan.

    His bag was already unpacked; sandwiches, cigarettes and the two flasks lay on the ground alongside his loaded rifle. Dan was leaning against a tree rolling a cigarette.
It was late august but as soon as the sun  had set the temperature had plummeted.
‘You alright Charlie, warm enough?’ Chris said.
‘He’s fine, aren’t you?’ said Daniel as he looked over to Charlie who mutely nodded in agreement. ’Stop molly coddling him will you?’
Chris looked back at Dan and said nothing, the mood Dan was in it was better to keep quiet. It was as if he was crackling with some sort of nervous energy.
I guess we all deal with our fears in different ways. Chris thought.
‘Look, if you stand over there Charlie, and you there Chris.’ Dan said standing and pointing to a spot  twenty yards away. ’ then we’ve got the whole field covered.’ his cigarette hung precariously on his lower lip. 
‘Whatever you say.’ Chris shrugged his shoulders looked over at Charlie and walked over to his designated spot.

    They stood waiting and looking across the expanse of field in front of them. Together but not together, each isolated in their own private thoughts. The last straggle of crows were heading home for the night, sweeping and ducking over the quarry that lay beyond the field. An eerie calm had settled over the landscape in front of them.
‘You know it’s meant to be haunted round here don’t you?’ said Dan.
‘What. .’ said Charlie looking across at him.
‘Yeah, no lies, someone told me in the pub.’
‘Well that’s a really reliable source.’ Chris said glaring across at Dan. Charlie was on edge enough as it was without hearing a ghost story.
‘No, honest, he told me we must be crazy to come up here at this time of night.’
‘So why are you up here then?’ Chris said.
‘Never believed in that sort of stuff. Take more than a few ghosts to scare me’ he said concentrating on his aim. ‘Anyway,’ he laughed. ‘Whoever heard of a haunted field.’


There was a full moon illuminating the sky and fields below, a golden harvest moon and the light was good as Dan fired the first shot.
‘Yay….’ he shouted, the sound echoing across the quarry.
‘Shhh.’ Chris said ‘Don’t want the gamekeeper catching us, keep the noise down.’
‘Hah, not much chance of that.’ said Dan.’ He was in the pub earlier;  could hardly stand up, he’ll be too inebriated to care by now.’
‘Even so, we’re not really meant to be here you know. You did notice that ‘No Trespassing’ sign on the gate we just jumped over didn’t you.’ Chris said trying not to show the annoyance in his voice.
‘Who cares.’ said Dan, ‘What’s it going to matter in a few months. We’ll be long gone.’
Chris looked over towards Charlie who was standing motionless his gun raised and saw him flinch..
‘Well I’m still planning to come back here whatever happens.’ I said. ‘So just try and keep the volume down yeah . . .’
‘Okay boss.’ said Dan as he fired his next shot and another rabbit fell ‘Two to me.’ he said smugly.
He cocked his gun and sat down, taking the flask from his bag he took steady gulps of the neat whisky laced with tea.
A quiet descended, the only noise came from an owl hooting in the woodland behind us.
Charlie fired his gun breaking the silence and another rabbit slumped on the ground.
‘Well done mate.’ Chris said. ‘I’ve got some catching up to do now.’ He looked across at Dan; he was unusually quiet, motionless his head cocked to one side as if listening to something.
‘You retired for the night then?’
‘Sshhh . . .  Can you hear that.’  He said.
Charlie looked across to me as if for reassurance then back to Dan, ‘Come on, you are not going to scare me like that.’ he said laughing apprehensively.
‘No, quiet, just listen.’ said Dan.
‘There’s nothing Dan. Why don’t you just shut up!’ Chris said.
‘That, hear it?  .. What the hell is that?’ Dan whispered.
Charlie and Chris looked at each other in confusion; The only sound  was the rushing of the wind through the trees and what sounded like a distant rumble of thunder from somewhere miles off.
‘Thunder?’ said Charlie in a whisper. ’But it’s a long way off.’
‘That’s not thunder.’ said Dan. ’Cant you feel it, look put your hand to the ground.’
They all crouched and placed the palms of our hands on the damp grass. Nothing at first then a small rhythmic tremor began to pulsate through their hands like a heartbeat. .
‘What is it . . . What can it be?’ Chris said looking from Dan to Charlie. ‘An earthquake, a tremor?’
‘Could be cattle . . . Horses bolting, maybe something’s spooked them. Whatever it is.’ said Danny, ’It is getting nearer and it’s moving fast. I have never heard of an earthquake round here before . . . And one that moves closer? I sure as hell don’t want to stop and find out what it is, do you?’
The sound was audible now, a terrible pounding and the ground we stood on  trembled and shook with the force of whatever it was that was coming towards us.


‘What do we do?’ said Charlie, wide eyed with fear. ’ There’s no where to go.’ he said looking desperately around him.
‘It’s probably cattle.’ Chris said. ’that’s what it is; they’ve probably started to keep cattle in this field to stop people like us getting in.’
‘Have you ever heard cattle make a noise like that, because I haven’t.’ said Danny. ‘Come on we’ve got to make a run for it. If we get to the hedge by the quarry we can hide the other side of it, you know tuck ourselves underneath out of the way.’
‘Well there no time to get back to the gate, ‘said Chris. ‘It’s our only option’ The noise was getting louder but as they scanned the horizon in every direction there was still nothing in sight.
‘Quick. . ‘Said Chris, ‘let’s go, but watch out for the quarry.’
As they ran the noise seemed to be directly behind them. Chris glanced back and saw nothing but sods of grass and mud flying into the air. Chris, gasping for  breath, his lungs burning, looked round to check on Charlie who’d been behind him, but he’d vanished, was nowhere in sight. He stopped ,calling out to Dan.
‘Dan. . . . Dan wait.’ Chris said’ Where’s Charlie, is he with you?’
Dan was in front and looked back with panic in his eyes. ’He’s not, no’ he gasped. ’Must have run somewhere else, he’ll be okay. Come on quick, get a move on we’re nearly there.’ he said his breath coming in painful sounding rasps.
    All Chris could see was the darkness and the churned up grass behind him and something . . . Something he couldn‘t quite make out, shapes, shadows, something making huge indentations in the ground that was heading towards them.


Chris carried on running. ‘I should turn back. ‘He thought. ‘I should try and find him. ‘He thought of the fear in Charlie’s eyes when they’d discussed the war earlier and of how scared he would be now, but there was no time, he had to keep going.  Chris reached the hedge just as Dan was scrambling over the top. Just before he threw himself over the stone walled hedge, he felt the breath of something on the back of his neck, something hot and fetid,  scorching the hair at the nape of his neck. Chris gasped as he landed on the other side of the hedge, winded his breath pushed out of his lungs . He huddled next to Dan in the shelter of the lea of the hedge and they looked up, saw the whiteness of bone and rotting sinew and shadows of thrashing hooves  clearing the hedge, and galloping away.
‘Horses?’ Chris said turning to Danny, as he held his hand against his nose, the smell of sulphur and burning flesh was overpowering.
Danny coughed and retched on the grass. ‘Not like any horses I’ve ever seen.’ he said as they sat  watching the shadows twisting and turning, tails thrashing as they galloped out of sight.
‘Oh my God!’ Chris said. ‘Charlie, where is he?’
They jumped over the hedge back into the field and started wading through the the stinking quagmire of churned up mud, shouting his name.
‘Danny, your flash light, where is it?’ Chris said.
‘It’s gone!’ he said, ‘dropped it somewhere when we were running.’
Chris turned back exasperated. ‘Charlie.’ he shouted. ‘Where the hell are you?’


    There was silence as they covered every square inch of the field, retracing their steps until they were exhausted. The sun was starting to rise as they began to wonder whether they had imagined the whole thing.  Would Charlie be safely back at home?


    They never saw Charlie again. He was never found. The police were contacted and they began a formal search helped by some of the people from the village. They found their discarded flasks and accused them of being drunk. They’d imagined it all, the police told them. Alcohol could do funny things.
The owner of the land confirmed that no cattle had ever been kept in that field, nor ever would as they didn’t seem to settle there. Probably the noise from the road and young lads like them.
A week passed,  then another, but Charlie didn‘t turn up. The police and everyone in the village assumed that he had run away. They said it was quite common; faced with the prospect of joining up many men choose to take the cowards way out and just disappear. He would turn up when the war was over, they said.
But Dan and I thought different.


                                                              THE END