Corwin climbed up the battlement, with the camera lens lodged precariously in the cloth under his arm.On the last rung he swung himself up onto the platform where the rest of the camera and all of Willis McCann sat. Corwin polished the lens with his cloth, more out habit than actual need, and set it into it’s large slot. Willis had his rifle pointed out over the spiked fence that ran along the top of the huge log walls. He greeted Corwin without looking up. “Is that everything?”
“I think so,” answered Corwin, who began to take some vials from the canvas bag at the foot of the camera stand.
“It’s taking an awful long time to put that thing together. You might miss your chance.” Corwin had been hauling the pieces and assembling the camera for 40 minutes now, being very careful at first but rushing the last few parts under pressure from Willis.
“It’s going to take at least another 20 or so minutes to prepare the shot. Night photography needs special preparation, I’ve got to apply the treatments to the film in a very particular way.” He fumbled with the tiny lid of one of the vials. “How about we light that lantern under your stool? I could work a bit faster if I had some light.”
“Can’t. It would ruin my night vision. It’s a clear night, and the moon is on the way to full, and the stars are out. That should be enough for anyone. Besides, doesn’t too much light ruined film?”
“Usually, but with the low-light treatments you can work lit for most of the process except the last few steps.” From the bottom compartment of the canvas he gingerly removed a glass plate from it’s wrappings. There was a thin square of dark-brown film stuck to it, over which he carefully smeared a drop from the vial. It would take about 5 minutes for it to finish. “Doesn’t really matter how long this takes, though. It could come right now, or in 20 minutes, or an hour, or just not at all and leave us sitting up here all night. How do you know the beast is coming tonight? And so sure that you tell me to hurry up?”
“Because I saw it not one hour ago, that’s how! Way off in the distance, a green light. It looked about a mile or so off that way, on the side of the mountain.” He pointed to somewhere off in the darkness, where shapes began to appear as Corwin’s eyes adjusted.
“Well, how do you know it will come here, or if it’s even the same one?”
“I reckon it’s bound to be the same one, unless there’s more in these parts, and I confess I do not know the answer to that, but I’d bet 20 dollars it is. We’ll find out for sure when it comes closer, and see if it has 2 lights or just one. And I do believe it will come, if it can find this fort, for revenge.”
“Revenge? From an animal? From what happened to it most animals would learn to fear people!”
Willis chuckled. “Don’t underestimate animals, city man, they can be smarter than you think! And besides, this is no ordinary animal.”
“Hey now! Don’t just call me a city man, Private. I’ve been out and away for nearly two years now, in one place or another.”
“And I’ve been in the corps for round about 10, stationed at this here fort for a little than a year.Still, I guess that gives you more experience out here than most back East.” He sighed, shifting around on the stool. “Don’t supposed you’ve got a smoke?”
“I don’t usually, it interferes with the plates. Half a moment, I think the Sergeant handed me one of his earlier. Just lean over away from the camera with it.” He searched his coat pocket and brought out a ragged-looking cigarette, and handed it to Willis. Willis lit it and they sat there in silence for a few minutes. It was a warm night for the season, but the insects were not out in force. In their place, the sounds of owls and the frogs of the nearby meadows filled the night. The air was nearly still, as if the breezes were asleep, leaving Willis’ smoke to just trail up uninterrupted. After a minute Corwin applied another chemical to the film, carefully flipping it over with tweezers to apply the first chemical to the other side.
“So, how did you come to be out here in the wilds for that newspaper?” asked Willis.
“Because of this,” he said, tapping on the camera. “I’m a bit of an expert with photography, you see. I’ve worked with cameras for probably 14 years, and doing it for the papers for 6, so when they came up with a new technique for taking photographs at night, I was asked to test it out in the field. Anyway though, the Big Magazine hired me to go out and capture pictures of the wild frontier, especially, if I could, get one of such a beast as we’re watching for tonight. And since I had business out here, I might as well take the special night equipment too.”
Willis brushed the ash of the now very short cigarette off his coat, sighing contentedly. “You know, that there camera could do with being a little bit more like my gun.”
“More accurate?”
“Repeating. I can just pull back the bolt, slide in another bullet, and shoot, but every time you shoot with that camera, you’ve got to set it all up over again. Way I see it, I reckon you’ve only got one shot, unless we’re really lucky.”
Corwin spun the camera around on it’s stand. “I’ve done motion photography before.”
Silence descended again, and they sat, and Corwin worked. The cigarette burned on Willis’ lip until it was just a stub of ash, which he flicked off into the night before them. Corwin twisted the cap off another vial. “Whew! what the hell is that?” coughed Willis. “It smells like a shot deer that’s been out in the sun for 2 weeks!”
“It’s the final treatment,” answered Corwin, holding the cloth over it. “The one that needs darkness.If it doesn’t get exposed now, the shot will be ready in 2 minutes.”
Private Willis nodded. “That’s good, then, because I see a green light out there, and it’s moving!”
Corwin hurriedly propped the cloth over the plate, and got up to look over the ramparts. Off in the gloomy distance, where he could barely make out treetops, there was a bright pinpoint of grass-green light. It was almost but not quite a mile off and moving in their direction in a wild, zigzagging path over the trees. “Why isn’t it flying straight at us?”
“It only showed up 5 weeks ago, and I think that it’d just come here. Doesn’t know the area by night yet, I’d bet, because it’s been licking it’s wounds.”
“If it’s the same one you shot in the eye.”
“If it’s the same one, yeah.”
A roar echoed out in the woods, far off yet too close. “Has it occured to you that you may not live past this night?” asked Willis.
“Well, wouldn’t I be a naive city-boy if I came looking for a great big scaly monster and didn’t fear for my life? Yes, it had occurred to me that I could die doing this, but now that I see the thing I am partly regretful of being up here.” Corwin was very glad that, still facing towards the outside night, Willis couldn’t see him shaking. “Is it true that they breathe fire?”
“I’ve heard stories, and I think it’s likely, but it didn’t last time and I’m not hoping it can.”
It was close enough now that they could make out the huge dark shape of wings against the stars. Suddenly, it’s sweeping gaze passed over them and they saw clearly a bright, burning green eye. Just one. “That’s the one,” said Willis, cocking his rifle. An orange flash flared under the green light, bursting above the trees in anger. Even from 400 yards they could feel the heat.
“Good luck on your shot,” said Corwin, sliding the plate into the camera.
“And you on yours,” replied Willis, raising the gun up to his shoulder.
They watched the eye speeding towards them, seeing now the immense creature outlined in it’s entirety against the stars. They could hear every whoosh of it’s wings and hear it breathing. In it’s gaping mouth with teeth like knives the pilot light for the next jet twinkled. Willis tightened his grip on the trigger. Corwin tightened his grip on the button.
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Topic: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___ (Read 299895 times)