Bad idea.
He could see that it was walking with bent knees, apparently flat-footed. The other arm was swinging back and forth as it walked. There was a slight hump to its back, and it was slouched forward. They were moving fast and mostly silent.
“Let me go!”
No response.
Well, what did you expect, Alec, for the Bigfoot to understand and say, oh, sorry, my mistake? He shook his bouncing head derisively.
The ground was covered with thick foliage: bushes, grass, leaves, along with fallen branches and sticks, and rocks. To his right and left were trees — oaks and walnuts and sycamores and a few cedars and pines. Off to his right he thought he saw the shining blue reflection of the lake break through the trees every once in a while.
“HEEEEELLLLLLP!” he screamed, struggling again. The Bigfoot held him tight, grunted, then swung its left arm up and smacked him on the butt! Startled, Alec became silent.
It carried him forever. Eventually, his sightings of the water stopped. It was heading away from the lake now.
Alec began to wonder if he would ever see his dad again.
“Danny, stop!”
It was John Gonzalez. Danny was rushing toward the tree line in a desperate panic, panting. He stopped and glared back at his friend, who was fifteen yards behind him.
“I’m going after him, John!”
His partner huffed up to him and bent over, trying to catch his breath. “You can’t go alone. You’ve got no chance against those things by yourself.”
“That thing has my son! Don’t tell me I can’t go after him. I’m going after him!” He turned to march toward the trees.
John grabbed his arm. “Danny—”
Danny spun around and pushed his face close to John’s. “I’m not gonna lose him like I lost my wife,” he growled. “Let me go.”
John Gonzalez stared into his friend’s blazing eyes. Danny’s face was granite.
“Then I’m going with you.”
“What, with a concussion? You wouldn’t be able to keep up.”
“I’ll keep up.” He turned to the Edgars, who were jogging up to them with the children, followed by Rosa Gonzalez. “Danny and I are going after it. Please call the Alpha Team back and ask them to go ahead and come. They shouldn’t be too far away. When they get here, send them in after us, weapons at the ready. Tell them the Sasquatches took a child captive and to approach them with caution so as not to harm the child.” He was unwrapping the bandage from his head as he barked his words.
Evelyn Edgar nodded. “I’ll call them right now.”
“I’ll go with you,” said Elbert Edgar.
“That’s fine; you’re both welcome, if you can keep up. But I’m not stopping until I get Alec back,” Danny replied.
“No problem,” Mr. Edgar said.
“John!” Rosa Gonzalez wailed.
“Rosa, it’s Alec. We would do the same thing for Ken or Sarah.” Rosa Gonzalez nodded and hugged her husband.
John looked back at Danny. He nodded. “Ready?”
Danny stared at John and Elbert. He nodded his head. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Elbert Edgar embraced his wife, then the three men turned toward the trees and broke into a quick run.
They’ll never find me, Alec thought. The creature had taken him deep into the woods over hills and crooks and crevices, past caves and hundreds, maybe thousands, of trees. It all looked the same to Alec now.
One thing that was odd was the lack of wildlife around them. It was as if the animals in the forest sensed the presence of the beast and stayed away from it. This made the woods deep and shadowy and very, very quiet. Literally, the only sound came from the Bigfoot as it grunted and huffed and coughed, and stepped through the undergrowth. Very creepy.
The creature suddenly whistled, loud. It was a circular sound, rising and falling, twice, up and down, up and down, almost like a Bobwhite quail call. A moment later, something off in the trees answered with a similar whistle.
Then Alec heard a loud popping noise, and he looked around, as best as he could, to try to determine its source.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
It sounded like teeth snapping together. He realized it was the Bigfoot, snapping its teeth as it walked. That can’t be good.
Alec began noticing that some of the twigs and sticks on the ground every so often seemed to be stacked into little fence structures, only a couple of feet high, like a crude version of Lincoln Logs. There would be two long sticks laid against some small, thin trees, then shorter twigs placed crossways over them, about a foot apart. They had definitely not fallen accidentally like that.
Alec studied some of the little structures that were next to a tree stump as the creature carried him past. Maybe the stick things are there to mark territory? Maybe— wait! What was that?
The tree stump moved.
Alec stared, transfixed, as the tree stump unfolded into a hairy, four foot tall beast. It stood up and stared at him with deep black eyes set under a small brow ridge, in an over-sized head. It was like a mini Bigfoot — in fact, that’s exactly what it was. It must be a kid!
It began to follow them, staring directly at Alec.
To his left, Alec saw the rocky outcroppings of a large hillside, some that stuck out from the mountain like broken bones. It appeared that they were approaching these outcroppings.
There were lots of fallen rocks close to the side of the sheer cliff, and Alec noticed what appeared to be some stacks of large stones, nice and orderly and as tall as him. How weird, he thought. Stick structures and stacks of rocks. The Bigfoots must have made them.
And still the young creature followed.
The huge monster that carried Alec abruptly halted and pushed him off the side of its shoulder to the ground. Alec landed with a thump on thick, soft grass, but it still hurt his left arm and shoulder. “Ow!”
Distracted by the pain momentarily, Alec suddenly remembered himself and shot a look of terror up at the huge Sasquatch, which stood staring down at him with dark brown eyes that were glossy and wet. They were completely dark, like a dog, except when it turned its eyes far to the right or left, then there was some yellowish white on the edges. Alec could barely make out black pupils in the midst of the sea of very dark brown.
Its jaw was wide and huge, with a large mouth, and its head sloped back from where the heavy eyebrow area jutted out, the head tapering into a kind of point toward the back. The ears were small in comparison to the head size, but they were oddly shaped — almost a little pointed. The fur was more like hair, maybe three inches long, reddish brown, except for the mammoth barrel chest, where it had a silvery cast to it. This creature was built like a weight lifter: heavy, super-wide shoulders, arms with enormous biceps, a lean midsection with hints of stomach muscles like a six pack. It had a distinct v-shape to its torso. The hands were huge, with a kind of cup to their shape, hollow-like, a long hand with shorter fingers in proportion; they had hair on the back but were bare on the palm, and they looked dark and leathery. The fingers, with nails that were thick and dirty and brownish, were cupped closed. The thighs were massive, with large calves and gigantic feet. Its head was low on its shoulders, so it must not have had much of a neck. To turn its head very far, it had to turn its entire torso the way it wanted to look, because the massive shoulders only allowed it to turn its head partially, before the wide shoulders blocked its view.
It looked almost human in a way, but those eyes… those dark eyes. They still had The Wild in them. Those eyes weren’t human. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t human — at least not the way Alec understood ‘human’. It wouldn’t have fit in as your next door neighbor. But it also wasn’t any kind of ape that he’d ever seen. It certainly was not a gorilla or an orangutan or a chimpanzee. Maybe it was something new — or something very, very old.
It just stood there staring at him, studying him, almost thoughtfully. Yes, it seemed to be considering him with a kind of intelligence. That cree
ped Alec out more than if it would have looked like just a dumb animal.
The smaller young creature joined the large one and stood next it, peering at Alec curiously. “Okk,” it grunted. It looked up at the giant.
“No-ka,” the giant replied, low and rough.
What is going on? Are they… talking?
Hearing a rustling behind him, Alec jerked and skittered around in the grass to see what the noise was from. He stared anxiously up at two other large Bigfoot creatures, which silently approached him, cat-like.
Alec was now cowering on the ground, encircled by a group of Bigfoots.
Ken watched through the middle cabin’s front window as the two black SUV’s with dark tinted windows crunched onto the gravel entrance and pulled up in front of the cabins. Eight paramilitary soldiers jumped out, all dressed in black, complete with bulletproof vests and laced up boots, with automatic pistols in holsters at their waists and holding sleek black machine gun-looking things with long scopes on the top. They all had clear earpieces in one ear with a small cord that attached to a thin black strap around their necks, dark matte black sunglasses on, and black t-shirts under their bulletproof vests.
Took long enough. It’s already after noon.
The soldiers approached Mrs. Edgar, who was standing outside on the front porch. The one who was apparently in command was tall, at maybe six and a half feet, with medium length straight black hair, pushed back from his face, lean and well muscled. He was the one who climbed the stairs of the porch to talk to Mrs. Edgar while the others waited on the ground behind him. Ken noticed the guy had some sort of tribal tattoo on his right arm, around the bicep, just visible below the arm of the t-shirt. It consisted of circles and half circles and crescent moon shapes, encircling his arm.
Normally Ken would have thought the tattoo was cool, and been excited to see the soldiers, considering his love of all things action. But not now. Not like this. He was uncharacteristically somber and quiet, staring out the window.
Alec.
That monster had scooped up his best friend and run off into the trees like a phantom, a nightmare out of a horror movie. And what did it do with him? Kill him? Eat him? Was Alec even still alive? Ken shook his head, refusing to think like that.
He’s still out there, alive. He’s gotta be. He breathed deeply, heavily. But how am I going to help him, to save him, this time?
He thought about the dog-faced kid — Ricky — who had picked on Alec at school. Alec had just lost his mom, and this kid was giving him a hard time? Really? Show the guy some respect for his loss, seriously! So Ken had given the kid a good karate flip, right into the dirt. Not my friend. No way.
This one other time, Ken and Alec were out hiking along a creek in a woodsy area behind Ken’s house in a Kansas City suburb, and Alec had gotten too close to the side, staring down into the clear water, trying to see a sunfish. Ken had yelled at him to back up, but too late. Alec had slipped right into the water, about five feet deep. Alec had panicked, and Ken fell onto his chest, reaching down and grabbing for Alec’s hand. But he couldn’t reach him, and Alec went under. Ken, of course, jumped in, fished him from under the water, and pulled him out to the muddy bank, with Alec choking and gasping.
But now… what was he going to do?
Now the soldiers were hiking through the field, toward the far tree line, weapons at the ready, all but one, who was probably left behind to protect the people in the cabin. Mrs. Edgar stood on the porch with the lone soldier, watching.
Somewhere behind him, Ken knew the other kids were huddled in the living room like scared mice. Further back, he could hear his mom keeping herself busy in the kitchen, making something for them to eat, no doubt, trying to keep the horror at bay.
And still, Ken stood at the window, with his shaggy black hair, in his black Batman t-shirt, jean shorts, and white Nike’s, brown eyes staring out in silence.
Don’t go where I can’t follow you, Alec.
Danny Kerley stomped through the bushes and undergrowth under a canopy of tree limbs that blocked out a large part of the sun, making it shadowy. He didn’t know where he was going, but kept rushing forward in a panic. John Gonzalez was off somewhere to his right, and Elbert Edgar to his left, the three of them making their way through the trees looking for any signs or tracks to follow. But signs and tracks were hard to find. Frequently there was so much debris on the ground, thick grass, bushes, dead foliage, rocks and boulders, pine needles and pinecones, that the floor of the forest was too thick to give anything away. He wasn’t even sure if this was the way that creature went.
But he had to try. What else could he do?
They should have retrieved the walkie-talkies out of the back of the Explorer, he knew. But they had been two acres away from the truck when they decided to hunt for Alec together, and he wasn’t going to take the time to go back for the walkie-talkies before heading into the woods for his son. Time was of the essence. He had to follow that beast, to find Alec and save him, as quickly as possible, before the trail was too cold.
What trail? he thought bitterly.
He wondered if the Alpha Team had arrived yet. They should have, so they were probably somewhere behind him, moving through the forest like stealthy cats, armed to the teeth with .45 caliber M1911 pistols and the new DTA SRS Covert Sniper rifles, pointed straight in his direction. He swallowed hard.
I hope their training is good enough that they won’t confuse me or John or Elbert with a Bigfoot and shoot at us!
But he knew better. Those guys were the best of the best, highly trained. The definition of covert military professionals. They would never fire at anyone unless they knew exactly who it was and that the person posed a threat.
Danny kept replaying in his mind the movie of that monster tugging his son out of the lake and throwing him over its shoulder, then running off into the trees.
Why? What did it want with Alec?
If that thing hurts my son, I’ll never forgive myself. Never.
They must be a family, Alec thought.
He sat on the ground with his back to a tree, watching the Bigfoots. He was facing the craggy, broken side of the mountain. There was a huge gouge in the rock and a shelf of stone stuck out of the mountain side, forming a sort of half cave that went maybe ten or fifteen feet back into the hill and was probably thirty feet wide and ten feet high. It looked like there was debris under there, dried moss and dead leaves. The creatures apparently lived under that shelf of rock and slept on top of the soft debris. They had been coming in and out of there since he’d been there.
There were four of them: the big guy who had kidnapped him, the little young one who was probably a boy and had followed him with curiosity, a big female who was maybe seven and half feet tall and heavy set, and another young one that was older than the boy, probably a girl, who was about six feet tall. The younger ones were not as heavy as the older ones, and their heads were more round than the others, not as pointed at the top. Also, the ridges over their eyes were not as prominent. The girl had a little more of a peak on her head and ridge over her eyes than the boy, but not as much as the adults.
The young ones were very curious about Alec, much more so than the mother, who appeared kind of annoyed that he was there. She and the father kept jabbering with each other in some sort of loud and fast series of noises that sounded like a mix of ape squawks and fast Chinese-like chatter. Alec had never heard anything like it, and it was kind of unnerving. It sounded curious and savage and threatening. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Alec wanted to leave, but every time he tried to stand up, the big male would growl and step over toward him, holding its hand out in a gesture obviously meant to say, Stay where you are. So, considering that this thing could tear him in two pretty easily if it wanted to, Alec had no choice but to comply.
The girl creature disappeared into the trees while the adults continued their incessant chatter. Meanwhile, the little one stood staring at Alec, with b
lack eyes, from only about seven feet away.
Alec realized that he felt hungry and remembered the Fig Newton in his shorts pocket. He fished it out and took a bite, while the boy Bigfoot watched. Alec paused for a moment, then held the half-eaten cookie out toward the creature. Slowly and carefully, the thing crept closer, slouched over and knees bent, staring at the cookie, until it was only a couple of feet away, then it shot its hand out and snatched the Fig Newton out of Alec’s hand like a snake. Alec jerked in surprise, his heart pounding. The thing jumped back to where it was before and raised the cookie to its mouth, taking a tentative bite. It chewed it for a moment, then its eyes grew wide.
“Oooohhh,” it said, obviously delighted.
It stepped over to the older male and offered the rest of the cookie to it. The large Bigfoot grabbed the cookie and ate it, then grunted in approval.
The young one walked back to Alec, close, and held its empty hand out to him. “Okk.”
Alec shook his head. “No more. I don’t have any more.”
The little one watched Alec for a moment, then turned and hiked over a ridge and disappeared. Guess I made him mad.
There was a splashing sound, and Alec figured that there must be a stream or creek nearby. A few minutes later, the young creature loped back over the hill and approached Alec. It opened its hand and proudly offered him a crayfish, which Alec and his friends always called crawdads. The crawdad angrily raised its claws high at Alec, daring him to touch it. Alec looked up at the Bigfoot. It gawked at him with what appeared to be a sense of delight. Alec knew how to pick up a crawdad — index finger and thumb directly behind those pinchers so they can’t reach you — but he hesitated to take it. Still, the Bigfoot was insistent, maybe offering Alec something to eat in return for the tasty cookie, and Alec decided it was best not to offend it. So he reached out and picked up the defiant crawdad, which tried its best to pinch his hand. Alec held it out in front of himself, not sure what to do with it.
Alec Kerley and the Terror of Bigfoot (Book One of the Monster Hunters Series) Page 10