Day of the Sasquatch

by Eric S. Brown

  Simon sat in his car, keeping its engine running, while he thought through how to handle things. The perp that killed the kid could still be in the store or somewhere close by in the trees just waiting for him to get out. He considered calling for backup before making any kind of move but knew that was pointless. John was still over the Hendriks’ place, Herald was off duty and likely unreachable since Glenda had said today was his wedding anniversary, Roger was on the other side of town dealing with the call that had come in from the Meadows’ kid, and only God knew where the sheriff was. There could be someone alive inside the store that needed him now. There was no time to waste waiting on any of the others to get here even if put out the call. His fingers glided over the butt of his .44 and unsnapped the strap of the holster that held it. Simon eased the gun out and made sure it was ready for action before he opened the patrol car’s door and got out.

  He ignored the mutilated body in the parking lot, leaving it where it lay and headed for the shattered door that led into the store. Glass crunched beneath his boots as he walked in. The place was as torn apart as the guy lying outside it. There were knocked-over shelves everywhere he looked. He spotted another body at the rear of the store. The body was suspended inside one of the cooler. The cooler’s interior shelves were wedged into the kid’s back as if something had impaled the poor bastard on them. Blood pooled in the floor under where it hung. It was seeing that blood that made him look at the rest of the floor. There were footprints of smeared blood that led from the rear of the store back out of it. They were huge, far too large to belong anything human, but they each had five toes and the general shape of a man’s foot. Simon had never seen anything like them before except on TV and in low-budget horror films.

  “What the frag?” Simon mumbled to himself as he stared at the prints. They were so surreal that they left him stunned and his mind fighting to deny their existence. But they were there, right in front of him.

  Knowing he had to do something, Simon yelled, “Anyone in here?”

  No one answered him. His eyes swept over the interior of the store again, double-checking for anything he might have missed before he crept back outside. Simon wasn’t the type to be easily spooked, but this crap had him on edge and he knew it. He made sure to keep as far from the trees as possible as he walked to where he had parked his patrol car. Simon popped its trunk as he holstered his .44 and snatched up the AR-15 he was after. Having the rifle out and ready eased his nerves some, but he still was far from comfortable with the situation he was in.

  The radio on his belt crackled to life as Glenda’s voice came over it. “Simon, come in, Simon. Pick up if you can hear me.”

  “This is Simon. Go,” he ordered her.

  “Rogers put in a call for backup over at the Meadows’ place. He says there’s weird stuff going on there. Those kids are claiming now that they didn’t kill a bear. They say it was a Sasquatch they killed, if you can believe that. Anyway, Roger says the kids have a full-out arsenal with them and he doesn’t know what to do with them,” Glenda told him.

  “Tell him to man up and deal with it, Glenda,” Simon barked. “I’ve got two confirmed dead on scene and no sign of the perp or the lady who called it in out here at Mom and Pop’s. I need Jerry over here, pronto!”

  ****

  The world has gone to hell, Jerry thought as he rolled out of his bed. As if the animal mutilations and the accident weren’t enough, the night had somehow managed to get worse…a lot worse. Two people were dead on his watch, just kids, doing their jobs at Mom and Pop’s. Whoever or whatever had killed them was going to pay. Jerry promised himself that. He had slept in his uniform. Jerry stumbled into the bathroom and clicked on the light. His reflection in the mirror made him feel old. The gray creeping into his hair was more and more visible every day it seemed like. Eyes bloodshot and weary, he splashed his face with water and tried to pull himself together.

  The call about the kids murdered down at Mom and Pop’s wasn’t the only one that had come in while he was away from the station. Another bunch of kids were claiming they had killed a Sasquatch and that there more of the creatures in the woods near the house they were holed up in. There had also been a call from a man who claimed to have seen a monster out at Higgins’ Point. That one hadn’t been checked out yet. It was the lowest priority though. The only thing close to Higgins’ Point was the town’s main power transformer. The closest residential homes to Higgins’ Point were more than a mile away from it.

  The pieces were all falling into place and connecting everything together in a manner that made Jerry wished he had never accepted his badge in the first place. The only rational, deductive leap that could be made based on the evidence was totally whacked. Jerry refused to think about it as he headed to his gun safe and opened its lock. Sliding its door back, he stared at its contents. Inside were mostly shotguns. Jerry selected an AR-15 from the cabinet, grabbing up a couple of additional magazines for it. He slung the weapon onto his shoulder by its strap and shoved the magazines into the pockets of his jacket.

  Jerry locked up the cabinet and the front door of his house behind him as he headed to his patrol car. He tossed the AR-15 into the car’s passenger seat and then moved around to pop the trunk. He kept a pump-action shotgun there. It was standard issue to all the officers in his department. Jerry checked the shotgun and traded out its ammo, making sure it was loaded with heavy slugs. He carried the shotgun to the front of the car with him and set it next to the AR. Jerry felt like he was going to war and in a sense he was… If he was right about what was happening in Canton.

  Sliding his key into the patrol car’s ignition, Jerry cranked it up then reached over for the car’s radio. “Glenda, tell Roger and Simon to stay put where they are then get in touch with John. I want him over to Mom and Pop’s ASAP.”

  “Simon asked for you, sir,” Glenda reminded him.

  “He’ll have to wait,” Jerry told her. “Simon and John can handle things over there until I can get there. I’m going to check out the call about the monster at Higgins’ Point on my way.”

  He could tell that she wanted to tell him that he was doing the wrong thing, but Glenda knew him well enough to keep her mouth shut. He figured that she knew if he was going to Higgins’ Point first, there was a reason for it.

  “Understood,” Glenda said at last and then added, “You be careful out there sir. This is one hell of a night.”

  “Trust me, I know,” Jerry grumbled and then placed the radio back on its rest.

  Jerry didn’t bother to turn on his sirens. This time of night, there wouldn’t be much traffic anywhere in town. He peeled out of the driveway in front of his house and took the shortest route towards Higgins’ Point from where he lived. The trip took less than fifteen minutes. He parked his car at the end of the gravel road that led up to the town’s main power transformer. It seemed as good a place to start his hunt as any. Kicking open his patrol car’s door, Jerry climbed out of the vehicle. He re-slung the AR-15 onto his shoulder and carried the shotgun in his hands, pumping a round into its chamber as he walked up the narrow, gravel road. Jerry wasn’t a tracker, but he didn’t need to be one to follow the gigantic footprints he spotted almost instantly. They confirmed his fears and suspicions. Simply finding them where he thought they would be might have been enough if his prey were anything other than what he believed it to be. In this case though, he wanted, no needed, more proof if he was going to let his deputies in on what he suspected. Without it, they would like just think the stress of the past twenty-four hours had gotten to him and he had snapped.

  The moon was high in the sky above him. Its rays lit up the path he was taking up to the power transformer more than enough for him to see clearly by. Jerry realized that he was sweating. Sweat glistened on his skin as he hoofed it up the path, keeping an eye on the trees around it. He figured that if he just kept following the tracks that eventually they would lead him to the creature he so desperately didn’t want to find but needed to.<
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  A low growl from somewhere up ahead of him on the path brought him to a halt. The growl didn’t sound like that of a dog’s or any other animal Jerry had ever heard before. It had an almost human edge to it. He couldn’t tell exactly where it had come from as it stopped as suddenly as it began. Jerry stood his ground and waited on the animal to show itself and make the first move. The wait was a short one.

  The creature that emerged from the trees onto the path ahead of him was easily nine feet tall. Brown hair covered it from head to toe. The thing wore no clothes though it moved on two legs like a man. Its arms were longer than those of a human’s and they ended in hands with fingers that were tipped with long, curved claws. For a moment, Jerry and the beast stared at each other. Its glowing, yellow eyes burned into his soul. He felt the small hairs on the back of his neck stand up as if in some sort of primal reaction to the alpha predator in front of him. Cryptozoologists and scientists could talk all day long about how Sasquatch was a peaceful giant that just wanted to be left alone, but seeing this beast in real life, Jerry knew they were wrong. This thing was a monster, and it clearly was up for the challenge of taking him down.

  The creature roared as it sprang at him. Jerry swept up the barrel of his shotgun, aiming for the thing’s chest as he fired. The shotgun kicked in his hands as it thundered. The heavy slug that exploded from it thudded into the creature. The impact jarred the beast and ripped a nasty wound in the left side of its body. The beast grunted but kept coming at him. Jerry pumped another round into the shotgun’s chamber as the beast got close enough to take a swing at him with one of its long arms. He was a big man. Jerry knew that he didn’t have any chance of dodging the swing, so he tried to block it with the shotgun. It worked…sort of. The weapon took the brunt of the blow, though he still felt the force of it ripple through his arms and shoulders as it broke the shotgun in half. Jerry stumbled backward, barely able to keep his footing on the gravel path. He swung one half of the shotgun at the beast in an attempt to force it away from him. The piece of the weapon finished smashing to bits over the beast’s arm. The unexpected blow saved Jerry’s butt. He dove sideways, putting some distance between him and the beast as he yanked the AR off his shoulder.

  The weapon had been converted into a fully automatic one for the department’s use. He opened up with it point blank into the beast as came at him again. The barrage of bullets hammered into the creature, ripping away at its arms, shoulders, and chest. It cried out and reeled about, turning to make a run for the trees as blood poured from its numerous wounds. Jerry kept the AR’s trigger squeezed tight, emptying its full magazine at the beast as it ran. More bullets sliced a path of carnage up its back along its spine. It still wasn’t enough to bring the beast down though. Jerry popped his spent magazine, fishing a fresh one from the pocket of his jacket, and slammed it home. He charged after the creature, firing as he ran. As the AR clicked empty a second time, the beast finally collapsed.

  Panting, Jerry came to a stop a few feet from where the beast was lying. Holding his AR in one hand, he drew his pistol with the other. Taking careful aim, he fired once, twice, three times in rapid succession. Each bullet punctured a ragged hole in the beast’s forehead. Given that the thing had taken a shotgun blast and two AR magazines to drop, Jerry wanted to make dang sure it was dead before he approached. He holstered his pistol as he listened closely to the woods around him. When he was as sure as he could that there weren’t any more of the beasts close by, Jerry took out his cell phone. After snapping some pics of the dead beast, he knelt beside it to collect a sample of its hair. He figured that would be enough for Harley to prove that the pics weren’t fakes. Jerry would like to have taken more proof back with him, but the thing had to weight half a ton or more. As strong as he was, Jerry knew he couldn’t drag the corpse out of the wood. He wasn’t going to cut off part of it either. There were some lines he just couldn’t bring himself to cross. Besides, if the things tracked by scent, carrying part of this one with him might be a death sentence. As content with what he had in terms of proof as he was going to be, Jerry took one last, long at the dead creature. Even standing over it somehow it didn’t seem real.

  Not wanting to risk staying in the woods any longer than he had to, Jerry double-timed it back to where he had parked. Tossing his AR inside first, he slid into the driver’s seat. A war was coming, and he needed to make sure his people were ready for it.

  ****

  Roger stood next to his patrol car, his pistol drawn and in his hand. He had placed the bag of weapons and the .30-06 rifle the kid had brought on its hood. The crossbow he had taken from the girl rested on the pavement of the driveway at his feet. This situation was so far outside of the norm that Roger was spooked and unsure of himself. For now, he had the kids all rounded up on the porch of the Meadows’ house. He figured he could keep an eye on them there while he waited on the sheriff to arrive. Nearly half an hour had passed since Roger had called for backup and the kids were getting antsy.

  “Hey, Deputy,” Ed called to him. “Are we just going to sit here all night or what?”

  “Cool it!” Roger ordered more harshly than he meant to. None of the kids had really broken any laws aside from having the guns and the one named Lyle was really behind all that if you got technical. He had no grounds to arrest the others. They claimed to have run into a Sasquatch in the woods above the house and killed it. There was no proof that the kids could show him though unless he ventured into the woods to where they told him the Sasquatch’s body was. Roger wasn’t willing to that. The kids outnumbered him seven to one, and he knew watching them all on such a hike would be impossible. If they were up to something, their numbers would give them an edge that might be too great to deal with if he let them loose. No, the porch was where they were going to stay for now.

  “Didn’t you call for backup?” Robert asked from the porch. “What’s taking them so long?”

  Roger sighed and shook his head. Robert was the one kid he at least knew something about and respected. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I’m sure they’ll get here as soon as they can.”

  “And in the meantime, we’re just supposed to sit here?” the one named Lyle who had brought all the guns challenged him. “That doesn’t seem too smart to me, sir. Not if there are more of those things out there in the woods. They could come down here any minute and we’d be sitting ducks just waiting to be slaughtered!”

  The kids really believed what they were telling him, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was true. Roger had seen and heard some crazy stuff since he became a deputy, but killer Sasquatch? That was pushing things a bit too far.

  “I’m right here if something shows up, kid,” Roger assured Lyle. “If it does, I’ll handle it.”

  “Or it will handle you,” Lyle told him. “I don’t think you really understand what you’re dealing with, sir.”

  Roger wiped at the beads of sweat on his forehead with the backside of his hand. Where in the devil was the sheriff? Someone should have shown up by now. Roger knew the sheriff was dealing with a lot and had gone home for the night and Simon likely had his hands full over at Mom and Pop’s if he had really found people dead over there. But John was just watching the Hendriks’ house. Surely Glenda could send him over, so where was he?

  Something cried out in the night. Roger’s head whipped around to look up into the trees of the mountain beyond the Meadows’ house. He had never heard anything like the cry that echoed in the darkness up there.

  “You hear that, Deputy sir?” Lyle shouted at him. “That’s a Sasquatch! You need to give us those guns!”

  “You ain’t getting these guns, kid,” Roger said and noticed that his hands were shaking.

  Another cry answered the first. It came from somewhere in the woods above the other side of the house. Roger plucked his handheld radio from his belt and raised it to his mouth. “Glenda! This is Roger. I’ve got a real situation developing over here!”

  “I’ve let the she
riff know about what you’re dealing with, Roger,” Glenda’s voice answered him. “Jerry says he’ll get someone over there as soon as he can. Everything’s going crazy all over town right now though. It might be a while. Just hold tight.”

  Roger wanted to curse her out and throw a fit, but he knew that wouldn’t do any good. He knew Jerry wouldn’t leave him hanging like this without a good reason.

  Still another cry rang out from the shadows of the woods. Was it closer than the others had been or were his nerves just getting the best of him? Roger wasn’t sure. Giving the kids the guns was a very bad idea, but right now, he was really beginning to consider doing just that. He tried to ask himself what Jerry would do in this mess, but Roger knew that he didn’t really have a clue.

  “You need to give us those guns,” Robert said calmly, moving to the edge of the porch. “Those cries are getting closer, sir.”

  “We’re all going to die if you don’t,” one of the girls yelled at him. It was the Meadows’ daughter, Ashley. Her father owned the town’s paper mill and wasn’t the sort of fellow you wanted mad at you. He had the political power in the town to make and break careers. That fact only added to the pressure that Roger was feeling. If anything happened to her, Ashley’s father would have his badge and maybe his head with it.

  Roger caught a glimpse of movement in the trees up on the mountain. He couldn’t see exactly what was moving about up there but whatever it was, it was big. A chill shuddered along his spine as something cried out in the woods again.

  “Robert, Ed, get down here!” Roger caved in. The two of them came scampering down from the porch to join him in the drive. He picked them because Ed was older and he somewhat trusted Robert based on what he knew of the kid. “I want each of you to get a weapon out of this bag. Make sure it’s one you know how to handle.”

  Ed took a pump-action 12 gauge from the bag while Robert went for one of the handguns. Roger felt sick letting them arm up but given the alternative, if the monsters the kids were all so scared of turned out to be real, there was nothing else he could do.