Beyond Blackjack Woods

By Ashlen Brown

Ever since Jim Thomas found Charlie, he has wanted to help him find his brother and sister. Long shot as it is, he's hopeful, especially with Shawna Pepper and her friends helping. The problem? His siblings are a couple of the most elusive species on the planet. Still, the humans are trying their best to find the hairy duo.

Finally, all of their hard work looks like it's paying off. They've found a promising place, with sightings of two bigfoot—a male and a female. Now they have to get everyone there to investigate—no small feat with a few of the hairy guys. Once there, Jim will have to let go of his worries, and they all will find it more difficult than they ever imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashlen Brown
• Release date: Nov 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781942899624

Ashlen Brown

Ever wonder what's hiding in the woods? Ashlen Brown has. She is the author of the exciting Blackjack Woods series. Her childhood was spent in the deep woods of Southeast Texas, where she was able to let her imagination run as wild as the woods surrounding her. After a strange and exciting encounter her mom and sister had with a hairy being, she developed the idea for The Secret of Blackjack Woods, her debut novel. Its popularity among people of all ages inspired her to continue the story with The Secret of Hoke Farm and Beyond Blackjack Woods.

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Special Smashword Edition

Beyond Blackjack Woods

By

Ashlen Brown

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.

BEYOND BLACKJACK WOODS

Special Smashwords Edition

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you’re reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Copyright © 2015 Ashlen Brown. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Cover designed by Telemachus Press, LLC

Cover art by Paul Manfre

Published by Telemachus Press, LLC at Smashwords

http://www.telemachuspress.com

Visit the author website:

http://www.ashlenbrown.com

ISBN: 978-1-942899-62-4 (eBook)

ISBN: 978-1-942899-63-1 (Paperback)

Version 2015.11.24

Also by Ashlen Brown

Charlie

The Secret of Blackjack Woods

The Secret of Hoke Farm

For my family again because, really, who else?

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

The Search

CHAPTER TWO

A New Hope

CHAPTER THREE

The Calm Before

CHAPTER FOUR

Pearl

CHAPTER FIVE

Details

CHAPTER SIX

After Hours

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Hunt

CHAPTER EIGHT

Family Time

CHAPTER NINE

The Cabin

CHAPTER TEN

Testing the Waters

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A Chill in the Air

CHAPTER TWELVE

Trapped

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ambush

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Pit

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Belle’s Turn

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Captured

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Bait

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Darkness

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Daze

CHAPTER TWENTY

Survival

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Fury

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Hunger

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The Stuff of Nightmares

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Moonlit Meeting

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Shell Shock

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Quiet

Beyond Blackjack Woods

PROLOGUE

Three years ago

Charlie walked along, quietly fuming at his brother. At this time, he wasn’t yet known as Charlie but by another name given to him by his mother years ago. His mind replayed the fight. His older brother had scolded him for teasing his sister, but Charlie didn’t think she was really that upset. It was in her nature to huff around, act upset, and cry. She often got him in trouble, but it usually wasn’t too terrible. This time, his brother had been angrier than ever, yelling at Charlie, throwing things, and slapping the ground. It had shocked Charlie, and he had fought back.

Charlie kicked at a pine cone, sending it flying against a tree trunk. He sat grumpily against a large rock, wishing he hadn’t made his brother angry. His brother loved them both very much and did his best to care for them. It was times like these that he missed his parents. His mother had died when they were very young. Charlie had been too young to know, but he had later been told that it had been an accident with the hairless kind. Once, when he was a little older, his brother had taken him to a smooth path used by the hairless ones. A huge object made of some strange material had practically flown by at an impossible speed. His brother told him how his mother had been hit by that strange object and never risen. It had been a terrible time for their father, who had been crushed by the anguish of losing his mate.

Not too long after, their father had started having trouble breathing. He had coughed constantly and eventually became weak. He had slept more, hunted less often, and had given them more and more of his share of the food. When winter had come, he had resorted to pillaging the food of the hairless ones.

Soon, he had died too. That had left Charlie’s brother in charge of his two younger siblings. All of them had matured with the loss of their parents. They had been forced to grow up early. However, Charlie still liked teasing his sister.

Today, they had been watching some hairless ones that were trying to live in the woods. They had noticed that every so often, hairless ones would spend a few days in their woods doing strange things. Charlie had always wondered how they didn’t die out there.

He had tried to talk his sister into sneaking up close to the small hairless ones and throwing pebbles near them. When she didn’t, he had told her that she wasn’t brave. Her large eyes had filled with tears, and she had gone to cry to their brother. It had been a disaster, and he felt terrible about it.

A sharp scent brought Charlie back to the present. He lifted his nose, breathing in deeply. It was familiar but stronger than he had ever encountered it before. It was the smell of fire. He took off in the direction of the smell, hoping that it was only more hairless ones burning their food, but with each step he took, he knew it was more than that. As he raced, he became more aware of the wind. It was stronger than usual, pulling the burned smell toward him and his siblings.

Toward their home.

Finally, he was there. The trees thinned and just ahead was a small clearing where the hairless ones liked to gather. Only, Charlie didn’t make it that far. Instead, what Charlie saw scared him to the core. He had never seen anything like it before. From the direction of the clearing came a wall of orange flames, greedily reaching for anything that would burn and fuel its progress. He watched flames lick the leaves above and heard the crackle as the leaves and branches were turned into kindling.

There was a strange, ominous sound to it too. It roared like some living beast hellbent on death and destruction. Charlie wanted to run, but he was transfixed by its power.

He watched for only a few moments, but it felt like longer. The heat grew until Charlie could no longer bear it, and he turned to run. As quickly as he could, he raced to his home, with other animals beginning to scurry all around him. All the way, he could feel the heat of the fire on his back as he led his new, fleeing charges through the woods. It felt as though it were chasing him, trying to wrap him in its heat and make him part of the black, barren landscape that it left in its wake.

Running faster than ever before, Charlie felt like his feet were barely touching the ground. He recognized the area and knew he was close. Just as he made it to their home, the wind kicked up, bringing forth a horrible heat, and Charlie knew he was too late. He looked all around himself, seeing nobody. Quickly, he called out to his siblings, desperately hoping to catch one word.

Nothing.

The heat became unbearable again, so he ran. He cut off in another direction, hoping to clear the wall of fire and to get to a safe place where he could figure out where his siblings had gone. It was just happening so quickly. He had never seen a fire this great or spread this fast. Charlie felt a trickle of sweat run down his face. He realized just how hot he was and put on more speed. Calling out again and again, he heard no response. He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hear them above the deafening roar of the fire as it consumed everything in its path.

Thinking hard, he realized there was one place they might have gone. Angling slightly, he pumped his legs even harder, hoping to get there before the flames. It took only minutes before he could see the outline of the smooth path the hairless ones often took. It was an unnatural path—the same one where his mother had died. On the other side of it, there was no fire. It was safe. He skidded to a stop just inside the trees. Looking left and right, he saw nothing. His siblings weren’t there.

A gust of wind blew hard into his back, bringing more heat and thick, black smoke. He coughed hard and his eyes watered. Turning in a circle, he saw no other way. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he darted into the roadway. With only a couple of bounds, he was across.

A sense of relief washed over him. He had crossed the very path that had killed his mother and lived. For years he had stayed away from the path, but he had survived it now.

A yip broke through his surprise. He looked up and saw his brother and sister standing on the other side of the road. His brother looked like he was trying to corral a spooked horse, because his sister was going crazy. She was pulling away from him, her eyes wild with fear, but she obviously didn’t know where to go. On one side was the fire, but on the other was the place of her mother’s death.

Charlie knew then that she wouldn’t cross. Their mother’s death had affected her too much to allow her to cross the road, even in a life-or-death situation. He started to step into the road again, but his brother yelled at him to stop. He met his brother’s eyes, and he could see that he was calculating. He was smart. Finally, he called out to Charlie and told him he would travel along the road, and they would find a safe spot to meet.

Charlie nodded tensely, but he was afraid for them. They ran along the road together, away from the fire. Charlie kept stealing glances at them as they raced along, hoping they would go ahead and cross, but his sister wasn’t budging. Once, she locked eyes with him, and Charlie’s heart broke at the depth of fear and pain he saw. He called out some reassuring words to her, but they didn’t seem to quell her fear.

The fire kept raging toward them. Charlie looked ahead several yards and saw that the woods swallowed up the side of the road that his siblings were on, leaving them nowhere safe to run. He wouldn’t be able to see them well, if at all, once they hit that stretch. Unsure of what to do, he slowed.

Noticing his slowing, his brother stopped and called out to him. He told him they would meet him as soon as they could, as long as they kept going straight ahead, following the road. Charlie nodded, but his stomach tightened. He didn’t want to lose sight of them.

The last thing Charlie saw was his sister’s face. She turned to him, locked onto his eyes with her own, and mouthed that she loved him.

He trotted along for a moment, his breath catching in his chest with the sudden panic of not being able to see them. His instant of slowing hadn’t been good. A gust of wind blew forth and sent the fire raging toward them again. It had caught up to them. So far, it hadn’t jumped the road, but Charlie could see it was just a matter of time. He ran hard, but it was no use. He watched ahead as the fire overtook the trees his siblings had been in. He hoped they had escaped, but he wasn’t so sure. He ran, watching, hoping for a glimpse, but nothing.

Another gust of wind swirled around him and sent an ember his way. Then another, and another, until they caught the dry grass on his side just behind him, and he watched as it took hold, like a gleeful monster, and began ravaging his side of the road. He ran harder, and finally, he veered away from the road. He had no choice. It was like ripping his heart out and leaving it for the fire. As long as he left the road, he had no way of meeting his brother and sister, if they had escaped the heat of the blaze.

With one last, heartbreaking look, Charlie took off, away from his siblings, away from his home. He ran until he could no longer run and could no longer feel the sizzling heat on his back. Tears fell freely, and he felt hopeless and alone. He felt the greatest sense of loss he had ever felt, even with the deaths of his parents. With the loss of his siblings, he had lost his entire family, his reason for carrying on. He had lost the last home he had shared with his siblings and parents. He had lost himself.

Running for hours, Charlie finally felt safe from the fire. Looking around, everything was different, strange, dark. He collapsed from sheer exhaustion—physical and emotional. Too tired to feel scared or take any precautions, he rested his head on the forest floor and passed out.

Hours later, a bird’s chirping seeped into Charlie’s unconscious mind and demanded that he wake up. After a lonely night in a strange place, Charlie awoke to a new sense of hope. Something inside him told him they were alive and searching for him too. All he had to do was find them.

Charlie had no idea just how big the fire would become or just how far away he would have to travel, but nothing would stop him. He stood, inhaled deeply, and took his first step toward putting his family back together.

CHAPTER ONE

The Search

Present day

The sounds of a wrestling match floated up from the back yard. Grunts, growls, and bodies slamming to the ground were making it hard for Jim Thomas to concentrate. He was working on some more research that Shawna had sent him, now that he had some time over the weekend. Sifting through the stories she had e-mailed him was fun, but it grew tedious. It didn’t help that his room was feeling overly warm, but he was being lazy and hadn’t wanted to walk downstairs to turn the heater down. It was an unusually cold winter day in Texas, and people in Southeast Texas just weren’t used to such weather, but Jim thought his family was adapting better than in years past. It probably had to do with the fact that they spent more time outside with Charlie and the bigfoot family.

Yep, Jim thought, the bigfoot family. Because doesn’t everyone know a bigfoot family? Doesn’t every fourteen-year-old have a Charlie the Bigfoot? Ha.

Charlie was Jim’s best friend, who just happened to be a bigfoot. He had found his way to the Thomas family’s twenty-one acres of thick Texas woods, which they called Blackjack Woods, more than two years ago and made himself at home. Jim had discovered him, and the two were now practically inseparable. Jim smiled as he remembered their first meeting.

A beep came from his phone. Eva Walker had sent him a message. She wanted to know how Scar was. Scar was the dad of the bigfoot family Jim and his family had found the year before. Jilly had named the family after careful consideration. Belle was Scar’s mate, Bili was his very young son, and Lulu was his toddler daughter.

Jim really liked Eva, but he didn’t want to answer while he was doing his research. Feeling bad, he promised himself he would wait and talk to her for a good while later that evening. He knew she wanted to talk to him about her thirteenth birthday coming up. It was still weeks away, but she was excited.

Finally, the sounds from outside hammered their way completely into Jim’s mind, and he could no longer ignore them. He looked out his cracked window to see who was winning.

Charlie actually had the upper hand right now. Scar usually won these types of fights, but lately Charlie had been gaining ground. Currently, Charlie had Scar in a sort of headlock, and Scar did not look happy about it. Finally, Scar slapped the ground in anger, and Charlie let him free. Scar popped up, breathing hard, his breath coming out in large clouds on the bitterly cold day. He definitely was not pleased with the outcome. But he did look funny with his long, dark hair all mussed up.

Charlie, on the other hand, was thrilled. He was actually doing some sort of happy dance and whooping in delight. Jim had to laugh.

A cold nose touched his hand, and he looked down at Banjo. The Catahoula dog was wagging his tail so hard his whole body was rocking from side to side.

Okay, boy. We’ll go see them. Come on, boy. Come on.

Banjo danced in place as Jim spoke, then practically bowled him over as they both squeezed out the door and down the hallway to the stairs. Jim wisely let Banjo go down the steps first.

Jim, Jilly called. Jim! They’re fighting out there.

I know. They’re okay. They’re just wrestling for practice.

Jim descended the last of the stairs and saw the back of Jilly, his ten-year-old sister, as she pressed her face against the sliding glass back door to better watch Charlie and Scar’s wrestling match. Her long, red hair made her look a little bit like Cousin It from The Addams Family from behind. Her petite body just wasn’t any match for all of that hair.

Jim was the opposite, with skin that tanned golden in the summer, brown hair, and gray eyes. He was tall and muscular. They really didn’t look that much alike, but there were subtle similarities. Their noses were the most similar. They both had the Thomas nose.

Walking up behind her, Jim could just make out the two giant beings as they moved about. They were circling each other, taking stock of their adversaries. Scar actually looked a little more winded than Charlie. He was very strong and healthy, but he was obviously older than Charlie and didn’t have the same boundless energy that Charlie had. Jim had thought Charlie to be very laid back, but compared to Scar, and when he was with Scar, Charlie had a certain spring in his step.

Let’s go see what’s up. Opening the door, Jim braced himself against the blustery day. He could now hear Charlie making a little clicking noise with his tongue. Scar was squinting his eyes, obviously annoyed at Charlie’s taunting noise. Jim noticed how the scar on his cheek crinkled when he squinted.

Hey, guys, Jilly called. She squealed as the wind threatened to blow her away. It lifted her long hair and made it dance through the air in thick strands.

Despite the tense practice situation, both straightened immediately at the sound of her voice. Both hairy guys loved Jilly, and she really had them wrapped around her little finger. They would do anything for her.

Jim smiled as she climbed over the railing of the deck and launched herself into the air. Charlie sprang forward, quick as a rabbit, and snatched her out of the air and into a great, big hug. She giggled and wriggled around in his arms, trying to get to the ground. He set her down, and she sprang forward to greet Scar, who patted her head lightly.

It had taken Scar a little while to warm up to Jilly—to all of them, in fact—but once he had, he was fiercely loyal and protective of the Thomas family. The loyalty might have something to do with the fact that the family saved Scar’s family and gave them a place to live.

Jim smiled as he thought about how all of this came to be.

A bit more than