“Both of you stay right here where I can see you, you understand me?” Roger barked at them.
“Roger that,” Ed answered, either making a joke or not realizing that was his name.
“This is a good start, sir,” Robert assured him, “but the three of us aren’t going to be enough if there is more than one of those things. And I’ve heard at least three distinct cries from the trees already.”
“Just how many of these things do you think there are?” Roger stared at Robert, not really sure that he wanted an answer.
From the rear of the porch, one of the girls screamed. Roger couldn’t really see what was going on, but the other kids came bounding off the porch, running for their lives. He shoved his way through them as they came. As Roger stepped onto the porch, he saw a beast like something out of a nightmare standing to where it could reach over the banister. Its massive hands had a hold on Rita as it dragged her over it towards its mouth. Roger didn’t have a shot. If he fired, there was just as much of a chance of him hitting the girl as the monster. Rita was struggling against it in vain. Roger heard the sound of crunching bone as the monster opened its mouth and closed it again on the top of Rita’s skull. Blood splattered from beneath her hair as Rita’s legs thrashed about madly in the air. Roger took another step towards the monster, its glowing eyes watching him even as it gnawed on Rita’s head. The thing’s eyes burned yellow, glowing in the darkness. Roger could see that Rita was dead. He still didn’t fire at the beast though. Roger knew the other kids were his priority now. Whirling about, he raced down the short steps from the porch onto the drive. Lyle was handing out weapons from the bag that sat on the hood of the patrol car. Roger started to shout for him to stop but thought better of it. As dangerous as Lyle and his buddies having guns was, the thing he had just seen was a far greater danger to them all.
Two more of the beasts came charging out of the woods towards the drive. Their too-human faces were twisted into snarls and their yellow eyes full of violence and hunger. Lyle had plucked a double-barrel shotgun from the bag of weapons. He aimed at the closer of the two creatures. The shotgun boomed as both its barrels exploded, lighting the night with thunderous fury. Roger watched the blast slam into the chest of the lead creature. The thing staggered, losing a step, but kept coming. Roger’s eyes bugged. The shotgun hadn’t even really slowed it down. He opened up with his Glock as he ran to Lyle’s side. Roger’s Glock cracked three times. Two of the rounds he fired hit the creature. One struck its shoulder, the other thudded into the flesh of the arm it jerked upward in an attempt to block the incoming rounds. The speed of the beasts was an unbelievable as the fact that they were real. The long strides of their legs were closing the distance between them and where Lyle’s truck and his patrol car were parked rapidly. Robert had taken charge of the situation with the other kids. He had them all loading up in the truck and car while Lyle, Ed, and Roger did their best to keep the beasts at bay. Roger was proud of the kid and the fact that his hunch about Robert being a good kid was playing out to be true.
Ed emptied the slug in the chamber of his shotgun at the other beast. It smacked into the creature’s stomach as Ed pumped another round ready. “We’ve got to get the heck out of here!” Ed wailed as he fired at the beast again.
Ashely and Sarah had climbed into the bed of Lyle’s pickup as Carolina slid into its driver’s seat. Lyle had left the keys in its ignition and Carolina cranked it up. The truck’s engine roared as it sprang to life and she floored the gas pedal. Rubber burned and tires squealed as Carolina slammed the truck into reverse and it tore out of the drive. She had snatched up her crossbow along the way and it rested in the passenger seat near her.
Roger fired again and again at the beast coming at him. Each round drew blood but didn’t get real penetration through the beast’s thick muscles. They were only ticking the creature off more than it already was. His Glock clicked empty. There was no time to reload. The beast was almost on him. Ed stepped between him and the monster.
“Go!” Ed yelled. “I got this!”
Roger doubted that the big guy did. Nothing was stopping the beasts. Roger ran anyway though. He ejected his Glock’s empty magazine and slapped a fresh one into it as sprinted towards his patrol car. Robert was standing on the other side of it, passenger door already open, and firing over the roof of the car at the approaching monsters.
“Come on!” Robert shouted at Roger.
To his credit, Ed kept his word and stood his ground. The Sasquatch came barreling at him, but he just leveled his shotgun at it and emptied the weapon’s chamber into the thing’s guts. The Sasquatch grunted as the point-blank blast ripped apart its stomach. Strands of red-slicked intestines burst out of its ruptured flesh and spilled onto the ground at its feet. Ed gave a triumphant cry as he pumped another round ready. His victory was short lived. The beast lunged forward, dragging its intestines as it moved, and grabbed him. Ed screamed as the thing’s thick fingers sunk into the meat of his arms, knocking the shotgun out of his hands, and pinned them to his sides. Roger could see the blood running down from where the thing’s fingers pierced Ed’s arms. He turned away though as the beast jerked Ed closer to it and took a bite out of his face. Its teeth tore away most of Ed’s right cheek.
“Ed!” Robert screamed, but there was nothing either of them could do to help him.
Lyle had engaged the second Sasquatch, having tossed aside his empty double-barrel shotgun to trade it for his .30-06. The powerful rifle cracked and the beast dropped as a bullet reduced the eye in its left socket to pulp before exiting through the rear of its head in a spray of bone fragments, brain matter, and gore. The kid was a good shot. Roger had to admit that. For a fleeting moment, Roger thought about making a stand against the remaining beast, but the cries that were ringing out in the night from the woods on the mountain told him that more of the things were coming.
Jerking the door of his patrol car open, Roger threw himself into it. His fingers fiddled with his keys as he tried to shove them into its ignition and get the car moving. Robert joined him in the car, slamming shut the passenger side door behind him. Lyle still stood between the car and the wounded Sasquatch that was still feasting on Ed as it clutched his corpse so that it could gnaw on the soft meat of his throat. The thing’s lips were smeared red as it chewed upon the piece of Ed in its mouth. Roger saw that Lyle couldn’t let Ed’s death go unavenged. Lyle swung his rifle about to target the beast holding Ed and put a high-powered round into its brain. Both the beast and Ed’s corpse flopped over into the grass.
Lyle started running for the patrol as Roger finally got it cranked up.
“He’s not going to make it,” Robert commented. More of the beasts had emerged from the woods and were gaining on Lyle with each step the kid took. One of them overtook Lyle as it ran towards the patrol car Roger had gotten into motion. The beast shoved Lyle to the pavement of the drive as it passed him. Lyle screamed as a heavy foot from the beast behind it came crashing down onto his back. His body jerked as his spine snapped from the weight of the creature.
“Go! Go! Go!” Robert yelled, thumping one of his hands on the car’s dash. Roger saw why. The faster of the beasts were closing in and almost within reach of the patrol car. Roger slammed his foot onto the gas. The car spun out of the drive. He fought the wheel to whip the car around where it faced and the road and stomped the gas again. It roared down the road away from the Meadows’ house with several of the creatures chasing after it.
****
Carolina wasn’t a great driver. She had her license but preferred to let her parents and Lyle drive her wherever she needed to go. Tonight though, she was a demon on wheels, keeping the gas pressed to the floor. It took everything she had just to keep Lyle’s truck on the road as it streaked towards town. She had instinctively headed for town without thinking about what she was doing.
When she had pulled out of the drive, the guys were still fighting the monsters that were coming out of the woods. Carolina hope
d they were okay with all her heart, but she doubted it. Stealing a glance at the rearview mirror, she didn’t see any of the monsters chasing the truck and let out a sigh of relief. She eased her foot on the gas some. Sarah was pounding at the window behind her. Carolina reached around to release its latch and slid it open.
“Stop the truck!” Sarah was yelling. “We’ve lost Ashley!”
“What?” Carolina squawked.
“She fell off in that last turn!” Sarah shouted.
“Hold on!” Carolina warned as she hit the brakes. The truck skidded to a stop as Sarah was slammed into the backside of its cab. Carolina heard Sarah give a pained grunt from the impact and then Sarah vanished from her sight, sinking below her limited line of sight through the window.
Carolina kicked the driver’s door open, grabbing up her crossbow. She drew a bolt from the quiver that hung at her side and started working the weapon’s crank as she walked to peer into the bed of the truck.
“You okay?” Carolina asked as she saw Sarah clutching her right arm to her chest.
“I don’t think it’s broken,” Sarah growled. “No thanks to you!”
“Hey!” Carolina yelled and decided against getting in it with Sarah. There was no point to it. If Sarah thought she could do any better, she could drive after they found Ashley. Carolina was more than happy to give her a shot at it.
Carolina reached into the truck’s bed to help Sarah get to her feet as Sarah was hauling herself up by grasping its side with the hand of her good arm.
“You sure you’re okay?” Carolina asked as Sarah gritted her teeth but made it to her feet.
“Let’s just find Ashley and get out of here,” Sarah rasped.
Sarah got down out of the truck and pointed up the road behind them. “She fell out back there somewhere, I think.”
“Dang, that’s a long way back,” Carolina commented.
“Maybe we should let the guys pick her up,” Sarah said as if she had suddenly lost her nerve.
“No,” Carolina replied. “This is my fault. I need to make it right.”
Carolina was barely able to take a step forward before Roger’s patrol car came speeding up the road. She threw herself out of its path as whoever was driving laid down on the car’s horn. Carolina landed roughly on the bank to the left of the road. Sarah and ducked back on the opposite of the truck from the car as it blew by them. The patrol car’s tires screeched as it swung hard to narrowly avoid plowing into their vehicle which sat in the middle of the road. The driver got control of it back just in time to save the patrol from careening into a tree. Its path righted, and the patrol car kept going.
Sarah heard the snarls and growls of the creatures chasing it before they came into view. “Carolina!” she screamed.
Carolina was already moving, running full out towards the truck. If Ashley was out there somewhere, she would just have to hold on. Sarah had gotten into the truck behind its wheel. The truck had started moving as Carolina hopped onto its tailgate and clung onto it for dear life. Her fingers hurt from the intensity of her grip as Sarah poured on the gas. She looked back to see three of the Sasquatch bounding along the road after the vehicle. There was no hope of getting a shot at them. She had been forced to fling her crossbow into the truck’s bed just to keep from losing it. All she could do was keeping holding on as tight as she could and pray. As the truck gained speed, the Sasquatch began to get smaller in the distance. The moment they were out of sight entirely, Carolina started screaming for Sarah to slow the truck. If Sarah could hear her, she gave no sign of it. Carolina knew she was going to have to help herself out of the mess she was in if she wanted to live. Using all her strength, she threw her body up and over the truck’s tailgate. Carolina flopped into the truck’s bed. The impact shook her and she rolled about as the truck took a sharp turn. Managing to catch a hold of the truck’s side, she pulled herself up to peer over it. The Sasquatch were still out of view and hopefully far behind them by now. Her crossbow lay near her and she grabbed it to prevent the weapon from continuing to bounce around the truck’s bed.
****
John and Simon had the area around Mom and Pop’s blocked off when Jerry arrived. The brakes of his patrol car squealed in protest as he slammed them on coming to a sudden stop. Jerry was out of the car in a heartbeat and running towards where his two deputies stood at the front of the store. The two of them gawked at him seeing the blood of the Sasquatch he had killed on his uniform.
“What the…?” John started.
“You okay?” Simon blurted out. “What happened to you?”
Jerry yanked his cell from his pocket and keyed up the pics he had taken of the dead Sasquatch. “That! That’s what happened to me!”
“Holy…” Simon muttered.
“What is that thing?” John asked, sounding like he didn’t believe his own eyes and was wondering if Jerry was playing some sort of joke on them.
“I think it was a Sasquatch,” Jerry answered. “Dang well close enough to call it that anyway.”
Simon looked around. “That thing… How did it get from here to all the way to Higgins’ Point so fast? Based on the prints that are inside the store here, that thing had to be what killed the two kids working the night shift.”
“It didn’t,” Jerry said. “There’s more than one of them.”
John rubbed at his cheeks with the fingers of his right hand looking pale. “Sasquatch… I mean, come on. Everybody knows those things aren’t real.”
Simon whopped him on the shoulder. “You saw those prints in the store just like I did. Not to mention the pics on Jerry’s phone! You an idiot or something?”
“I think he’s in shock.” Jerry shook his head sadly. “Heck, I think I still am too.”
“How many of those things are we talking about?” Simon asked.
Jerry shrugged. “I’m guessing too many of them! This town is pretty isolated, and I am betting those things are in the woods all around it. God only knows just how many there are. We could be looking an entire tribe of them…maybe an army.”
“From how you’re talking, I am guessing that bugger in the pic wasn’t easy to kill?” Simon asked.
“Nearly tore me apart,” Jerry said. “It took a shotgun blast and nearly two full AR mags to bring the thing down.”
“Frag,” Simon muttered.
“So wait.” John held up a hand. “You’re saying these things are behind everything that’s been going on in town, from the animal stuff to the kids that were killed in this store?”
“I’d wager good money on it.” Jerry looked over at Simon. He could see that Simon was beginning to understand just how deep in the crap they were.
“There’s not exactly a protocol for dealing with something like this,” Simon said. “How are we going to handle this, Jerry?”
“I don’t know,” Jerry admitted. “I just don’t know.”
“You guys are freaking out on me.” John was starting to sound worried. “I guess I still don’t get it.”
“Jerry is saying that there may be a freaking army of monsters like the one he showed us and for whatever reason, they’re not staying in the woods anymore. That means they’ll be coming into town all over the place…”
“And we don’t have the manpower to stop them,” Jerry finished for him. “Counting Herald, who we haven’t heard from since he clocked out yesterday afternoon, there’s five of us and God knows how many of those things.”
“What about Erikson?” John asked.
“He’s still out on medical leave,” Simon answered. “He wouldn’t be any use even if we called him in.”
“We’re going to need to deputize some folks,” Jerry said. “Heck, we need to get everyone who knows how to handle a gun in on this if my gut feeling about what’s coming is right.”
“We need to call in help from Buncombe and Jackson. Get those boys over here pronto,” Simon suggested. “Asheville alone has the kind of PD that could give us the men we’re going to need.”
“Good point,” Simon said, “but we’re calling them anyway. We have to try. Even if they laugh at us, they’ll send someone just to make sure there’s not something in the water over here driving us all mad.”
Simon whipped out his cell and frowned. “I got no signal.”
John and Jerry tried their phones too.
“What the fragging…?” Jerry flung his cell onto the pavement, unable to contain his anger. It shattered into pieces.
“Boss, that’s not going to help anything,” John told him. “It’s likely just some issue with the carrier.”
“No,” Jerry growled at him. “It isn’t. I should have realized earlier when I killed that thing at Higgins’ Point. I don’t think it was just coincidence that the thing was spotted near the town’s main power transformer. That thing was on its way there to take it out.”
“And you think they’ve already taken out the cell towers?” Simon asked.
“That would be my guess,” Jerry said.
John was backing away from the two of them. “This is all… It’s just crazy. First, you’re telling me that Bigfoot is not only real, but there’s a bunch of them coming for us and now…you’re saying that these Bigfeet or whatever are smart enough to target our communications? No way.”
“You have a better explanation?” Jerry snapped.
“Look, John, everything we’ve dealt with tonight and in the last week points to Jerry being right.” Simon took a step towards John. “I know it’s hard to take in, but we have to accept what’s going on if we’re going to have a chance in hell of saving this town and everyone in it.”
Day of the Sasquatch Page 7