“We heard three shots,” Mitchell said.
“Exactly,” Francis continued. “The damn thing was just too stubborn to die. Was about to club us like baby seals when Chuck suddenly appeared out of nowhere and put a bullet into the side of its head. He’s gonna need help, by the way, Mitch. That thing gouged a couple of good-sized chunks out of him.”
“On my way,” the medic replied, beginning to gather his supplies. “Can you stay with the kids?”
“No problem,” Francis said. “I’ve had enough ugly for one day – although if any of them wanna tag along and check it out, now’s the time to do so.”
“Hell yeah!” Rob exclaimed. “You couldn’t stop me if you tried.”
“I’ll go, too,” Harrison said, stepping next to his friend. He wanted to see for himself that the thing was dead. If so, that meant his sister and Paula were out of immediate danger. They were still lost in the woods, but, oddly enough, that seemed like a minor inconvenience compared to what they had just experienced.
* * *
Unsurprisingly, Greg opted to stay put, the strain on his face still evident. Allison decided to join Harrison and Rob. Although she had no desire to see the creature that would surely haunt her nightmares for years to come, she had even less of a desire to be around Wild Feather ... Phil, she mentally corrected herself. No way was she falling for his crap again. She couldn’t believe that she would have gladly slept with him up until only a short while ago. It disgusted her to no end that it was apparently part of his plan all along. Guys can be such pricks, she thought, following the other two.
As she walked, though, she found her eyes drifting down toward Harrison’s ass. It wasn’t all bad, she mused. Where Phil had turned out to be a major disappointment, Danni’s brother had stepped up to the plate like a true hero. He was cute, too, which definitely didn’t hurt. She had been so enamored of Phil’s bullshit that she hadn’t even given it much consideration. Now she began to entertain those thoughts, a smile crossing her face. Maybe I should give him a hero’s reward.
* * *
The trio followed Mitchell through the forest. Within a few short steps, the party members they had left behind were out of sight. They only needed to walk a couple dozen yards, but in the dense woods, a hundred feet might as well be another planet.
A few minutes later, they stepped past some trees and caught sight of Derek. He waved them over. The scene looked like something out of a bizarre CSI / Tales from the Crypt crossover. Blood and viscera were everywhere. A massive body lay on the forest floor, gaping wounds covering its legs, torso, and head. A few feet away, Chuck sat propped against a tree. He was breathing heavily and holding a bloodied hand over his midsection.
Mitchell immediately unslung his bag and went to check on his companion. He bent down and slowly pried Chuck’s hand away from the still dripping wound. He examined it briefly, then began cutting away the tattered material around it.
“How bad?” the wounded man asked.
“It’s ugly, but I think you’ll live. What happened?” Mitch asked.
“I got sloppy. Fucking monster heard me and charged,” he gasped. “Missed my shot like a newb fresh out of basic training, and then Frankenstein over there caught me a good one in the gut.”
“I’d say you got lucky,” Mitchell replied as he began cleaning the wound. “I don’t think you’ll be impressing the ladies with your washboard abs anytime soon, but it doesn’t look like he got anything major.”
Derek pointed the three campers toward the body. “Look, but don’t touch.” He turned back to Mitchell. “How’s Chuck?”
The medic glanced up from his work. “He’ll need to be stitched up properly once we get back to town. I can field dress him for now, though. I guess we won’t be able to get rid of him just yet.”
Chuck laughed and then winced. “Screw you, man.”
Derek chuckled, too, but then lowered his voice. “Mitch, when you’re done, I need you to check out the squatch.”
“Looks like he’s dead to me,” Mitchell responded in a glib tone.
“No shit. Seriously, though, there’s something majorly wrong with it. Never seen one act the way it did.”
“What do you mean?”
Derek hesitated. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say the damn thing was insane.”
* * *
“Insane?” Mitchell asked, keeping his tone low so the others wouldn’t overhear. “Are we playing sasquatch psychoanalyst now?”
“Fine then, maybe it was sick or poisoned,” Derek countered. “All I know is that something was definitely not right with it.”
“Doubtful. We’ve never even seen one of these things with so much as a case of the sniffles. Then there was that report in the archives. You remember that?”
“The one from that crazy defector?”
“Yeah, well, according to him, the Russians caught one of these things in Siberia about thirty years back. Supposedly, they tested the crap out of it: small pox, malaria, all sorts of nasty stuff. Found that it had an immune system like a battleship.”
“Anecdotal evidence at best,” Derek replied. “Besides, the rest of his account read like a cheap horror novel.”
“They really should have double-checked that cage.”
“Tell me about it,” Derek said, then lightened his tone. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just getting paranoid in my old age.”
“I’ll check it out anyway, just to be sure. Get some blood samples and a brain biopsy ... assuming all of it isn’t splattered against the trees,” Mitchell replied, kneeling so as to continue tending to Chuck.
Derek turned back toward the three campers. No doubt they’d have lots of questions. He might as well field them now before he had to silence them all under a mountain of non-disclosures. They’d all know the truth, but wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. Even if they decided to talk, it’s not like they’d be believed. That was part of what the show was about.
* * *
“Ugly bastard, isn’t it?” Derek asked, stepping up next to the body. Harrison and the girl, Allison, were staring at it in awe. The geeky kid, Rob, seemed like he practically wanted to jump onto the corpse and hug it. Ah, our core demographic, thought Derek.
“It’s freaking amazing!” Rob exclaimed. “You hear stories about how big they are, but damn. This thing makes Andre the Giant look like a midget.”
“I’m just glad it’s dead,” Allison said, a look of disgust on her face.
“Don’t be,” Derek replied. “I’m not entirely sure it was his fault.”
“His?”
“Well, yeah.” He gestured toward the creature’s groin.
“Oh.” A blush rose in her cheeks.
“What do you mean that it’s not his fault?” Harrison asked.
Derek shrugged. “We’re not sure yet. We need to run a few tests.”
“Who cares what was wrong with it?” Allison commented. “Like I said, I’m just happy that it’s dead and that there aren’t any more of them around.”
Derek raised an eyebrow in bemusement. “I agree that this one needed to be put down, but I wouldn’t be too sure about that second part.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, her eyes opening wide.
“It’s nothing to worry about,” he said. “These creatures are social animals, much like gorillas – or even humans.”
Rob asked, “You think there’s a pack of them out there?”
“Considering how close they are to us, we tend to think of them more as tribes or clans. But yeah, I don’t doubt there’s a small population in the area.”
“Oh God!” Allison gasped.
“As I said, don’t worry about it. These things are mostly peaceful. They want to avoid us as much as we want to avoid them.”
“This one sure didn’t.”
“It was an aberration. Now that it’s gone, the woods will quiet down again...”
The sound of mo
vement off in the brush interrupted him. Branches broke and leaves crunched as something approached.
All of their heads snapped toward the direction of the disturbance. “You call that quieting down?” Allison asked, her eyes wide with fear.
* * *
“I hear voices!” Danni whispered as they made their way through the foliage. That cemented in her mind the outcome of the battle, for a battle it surely must have been.
After the first volley of gunfire, she had managed to convince Paula to follow her. It was a calculated risk, a very large one ... a potentially very large hairy one. Nonetheless, she felt their chances of survival were still better than continuing to lead the monster on a merry chase through the woods, a chase that they would eventually lose.
At first, she had been nearly as petrified as Paula. The thought of turning around and walking straight into that thing was utterly terrifying. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to keep running.
Then the shooting had begun in earnest, followed by the thing’s enraged cries. That erased any doubt about it. The hunters had come across the monster. The only question was: who would win? She desperately prayed it was the guys with the guns. If not, she hoped that they were at least able to badly wound the beast before going down. If that didn’t happen, she and Paula were toast.
It was only after the gunfire ceased and silence once more returned to the forest that she dared hope for the best. Although not entirely convinced herself, she had reassured Paula that the creature was either dead or driven off. It had made no attempts at stealth during its pursuit of them. The fact that she couldn’t hear it raging through the forest now was a good sign ... or so she hoped.
As they continued onward, she thought she heard voices; however, she kept silent about it until she was certain. The woods could play tricks on one’s ears. The chattering of squirrels could sound like a conversation as the sound bounced around. Now, though, she was certain as to what she was hearing. Those were definitely voices, and she could tell Paula had heard them, too.
She opened her mouth to let out a warning. The possibility of being shot was still a concern. However, before she could do so, the other girl bolted, the hope of being rescued far outweighing any caution. Danni muttered a curse and went after her, chasing Paula for several yards in an attempt to slow her down.
She had just managed to grab hold of her jacket when they burst through some bushes and found themselves staring down the barrel of a very large gun.
* * *
Derek silently cursed. He had been only a few ounces of pressure away from blowing the girl’s head off. It was only his instincts that had saved her. A jumpier man would have perforated her – them, he saw now there were two – full of holes.
“Jesus Christ!” he spat. “You have no idea how close you just came to a face full of .44’s.”
The girls paid him no mind, though. Their eyes immediately went to the enormous corpse lying on the ground before them. Before they could do more, they were practically knocked over by Harrison, Rob, and Allison.
“Danni!” Harrison yelled, grabbing his sister and lifting her off her feet. Allison joined in, too, putting her arms around them both.
Rob’s greeting for Paula was a bit more subdued. He gave her a quick hug before turning and dragging her over to the dead monster. “You gotta see this,” he said excitedly. Paula, for her part, was too stunned to do much in the way of protest. The girl’s mind had finally reached overload. The lights were on, but nobody was home.
Danni finally pulled away from the embrace. She looked around, first at the body, then at the others. A look of horror crossed her face. “What about Wild Feather and Greg? Did this thing...”
“They’re both fine,” Harrison reassured her.
“Well, Greg is,” Allison countered. “Phil’s kind of a basket case.”
“Phil?” Danni asked.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Let’s just say we’ve both been a little stupid lately.”
Danni had no idea what she was talking about, but she didn’t care right then. All she knew was that she, her brother, and their friends were all still alive. That was what mattered.
It was only then she realized exactly how weary she was. She leaned against a tree to try and catch her breath. Harrison stepped forward, a look of concern on his face, but she waved him away. “I’m fine. Check on Paula. I’m more worried about her.”
He hesitated for a moment. Physically, she looked okay, but mentally ... well, it would be a long time before any of them were totally fine again. Now, though, was probably not the time for them to all start talking through their troubles.
Finally, he nodded and turned to find Rob – noticing him still talking to his nonresponsive girlfriend. Harrison sighed, noting his roommate was utterly clueless, then walked over to the couple. “Rob, why don’t you let the doc check on her?” he said, motioning to Mitchell.
“Medic,” Mitchell corrected, still tending to Chuck. “I’m a registered nurse. Never got around to that doctorate, unlike our esteemed host over there. Anyway, I’m just about finished here. Bring her over.”
Mitchell stood from where Chuck still rested. He had bandaged up the injured man as best as he could. The tracker didn’t appear to be in immediate danger, so Harrison walked Paula away from her overly excited boyfriend and toward the medic.
* * *
Rob, for his part, didn’t really notice. He was still studying the corpse. After a moment, his brow furrowed as a thought popped into his head. “Hey, I just realized we never smelled it coming.” He took a deep breath through his nose. “This thing doesn’t smell great, but it doesn’t reek either. Aren’t they supposed to stink?”
“That’s the skunk apes down in Florida,” Derek said conversationally, as if discussing the weather. “Same species, but their fur is usually matted down with stagnant swamp water. Makes them smell like month-old rotten eggs.”
“But everyone says...”
“That’s just media hype and hysteria, kid. People assume they’re supposed to stink, so when they see one their mind fills in the gaps after the fact. Suddenly, they’re sure they smelled it coming a mile away.”
“Either that, or they’re getting a whiff of the load they just dropped in their pants,” Chuck replied from where he lay. He laughed at his own joke, then groaned in pain.
“That, too,” Derek replied.
* * *
A few minutes later, Derek walked back over to his medic. “How’s the girl, Mitch?”
Mitchell pulled something out of his pack. “She’s in a bit of a fugue right now. Scared beyond the capacity for rational thought, would be my guess. Go figure.” He turned his head and shouted, “Hey kid! You might wanna drag yourself away from the squatch and get your butt over here.” Then to the rest, he announced, “Everybody, hold your ears ... this could get loud.”
Rob walked over, a sheepish look on his face, and put an arm around Paula.
Mitchell cracked open the smelling salts and waved them under her nose. For a few seconds, there was no reaction, then her eyes began blinking rapidly. A moment later, a high-pitched scream of “OH GOD!” came bubbling out of her throat. Despite Rob’s efforts to comfort her, several more shrieks escaped her lips before she finally broke down in pitiful sobbing.
* * *
Sound can carry far in the woods if it bounces just right, especially if things were as deathly quiet as they currently were. Paula’s screams echoed through the forest for quite some distance.
Eventually, they reverberated through a small hollow, within which was a crude bed of leaves and moss. Something stirred within as the sound hit its newly sensitive ears. The fever had gripped it only hours earlier. It had lain down to sleep, hoping the bad feeling would pass. It hadn’t. It had instead worked its way further into the creature’s brain, slowly eating away at its peaceful nature.
Its eyes opened. The noise was causing it pain. For some reas
on it couldn’t understand, the only thing it wanted to do was find the source of the sound and kill it.
PART 2
Chapter 16
Derek instructed Chuck to take the kids to where they had left Francis and the others. He wanted them all back together – no stragglers this time.
Chuck, unsurprisingly, balked when Harrison tried to help him up for the journey. He still had an Army mentality and didn’t like the thought of relying on civilians, despite being one ever since retiring from active duty. However, that mindset also meant that Derek, as his commanding officer, was easily able to overrule him.
Derek and Mitchell hung back, crouched over the corpse, examining it. It was the unglamorous part of the job, one that others were usually surprised to see him doing. Whenever Derek introduced himself in conjunction with the show, people usually assumed he had some bogus mail-order PhD in cryptozoology. The truth, though, was somewhat more mundane – if still a bit surprising to some.
Derek had a doctorate in zoology and had begun his career as a researcher, studying the habitat of endangered howler monkeys in the Amazon. His aspirations hadn’t been any more grandiose than finding a way to save a harmless creature whose home was slowly being destroyed. Ironically, he was now tasked with killing other endangered, albeit far less harmless, species. Funny what fate and a chance one-in-a-million meeting can do to a person’s life, he often thought.
Now was not the time for a stroll down memory lane, however. He shook his head and got back to the task at hand. “What do you think, Mitch?”
“The big fellow was definitely not feeling at the top of his game.”
“That’s probably a good thing.”
“Not arguing.”
“I’m telling you, though, it looked sick to me.”
“I know that, Derek. We’ve already been over this.”
“Great apes can get a lot of the same diseases that humans do, you know that.”
“Yes, and if this thing were a gorilla, I’d be all over that theory. But it’s not.”
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