At this point he stopped walking and faced me.
"I must insist however that you check in with us every two hours on the hour”
‘Relax dad. I will be fine. I will know if the creature is near. As Tessia has revealed, I am something of an enigma. One of the benefits of that is that I somehow seem to know if danger is near. Plus I will be primarily in the MATV so I should be fine. Hennings looked at me intently, not sure what he should do. Finally he relented and we continued to the parked vehicles. The MATV is a amazing vehicle. MATV simply stood for Military All Terrain Vehicle which is an under statement of the vehicle capabilities. First off they were small tanks in their own right. Built to withstand avalanches of stone, snow or mud, and if buried by such could power it's way out from under ten tons of debris. They were also equipped with two class five lasers as weapons or to cut away any debris in its way. They were used for extended recon by the military and could be away on patrol for two to three weeks at a time. One of it’s most amazing attributes was it stealth capability. The MATV’s are coated with a new type of paint which looked basically matte black. When it is charged by a small electrical current provided by circuits under the armor, the MATV would camouflage itself to whatever terrain it was in. So effective was this camouflage that twenty of these vehicle could be parked in a forest near each other, and if you walked as close as ten feet near them, you would not see them. Unless they were parked on a hill or slope where their outline could be seen against the skyline they were undetectable. So being able to hide myself in the woods would be no problem. The vehicle wasn’t quiet, but they were a lot less noisy then an average passenger vehicle on a highway, which gave them good stealth ability in the woods. The interior of the MATV provided all the needs a soldier would need to camp out. The seats reclined to allow easy sleeping, and with the perimeter defense sensors on, nothing could sneak up on them within a quarter mile radius. Under combat or other harsh conditions limited sanitary functions were also available. I had requested a single man unit, which was remarkably small and slim. It was equipped with eight small track wheels, which gave it exceptional traction along with its independent suspension, which allowed them to grab onto virtually any type of terrain. Yolanda had advised me to ask for one to explore the area and told me they could climb a fifty-seven degree vertical incline with no problem. Their top speed however was a slow seventy-five miles an hour on a flat road. She told me there have been rumors that these vehicles could climb a seventy-degree vertical incline, but that has not been proven, and the military did not seem to have a need to prove it one way or the other. I was thoroughly checked out on the MATV's operational use and it's equipment. Establishing my check-in times, I proceeded to drive out of the village. As I turned onto the northward road out of the village, Sessa and Fee were waiting for me. I pulled over to the side and opened the view hatch.
"We would have preferred to accompanied you on your scouting, but I see you only have room for one”
"I work faster and better alone"
Neither one of them looked happy, but relented.
"Please be careful and keep us informed on anything you find. Come back safe”
Fee meanwhile had just stood there and said nothing. Yet Sessa last statement made her frown a little, but she continued to remain quiet. Nodding to both of them I drove out of the village.
The drive up into the forest was both beautiful and relaxing. The forest was almost as magical as the village I had just left. The assortment of birds and animal life was truly fantastic. Fantastic and surprising. I had been in a lot of forests in my pursuit of criminals, and all have been full of animal and insect life. Yet none of them compared to the abundance and variety of life I saw today. It was almost as if this part of the forest north of the village had been specially seeded with life and cared for. On the trip to Woodspirit, I saw a lot of animal life, but nothing compared to what I was seeing now. All in all it was wonderful, but strange. Looking at all the varied assortment of animals I could not shake the feeling I was missing something. I figured with all the life around here, the creature was undoubtedly not in the area. I would drive for a while to see if the amount of animal and insect life dropped down, probably indicating the creature's was close by. My plan was to drive straight out about twenty five miles or so northeast of Woodspirit and then do a one hundred and eighty degree back and forth sweep search of the area staying north of the village while progressively getting closer to it as I searched. The reports I read showed most of the attacks on the soldiers and deputies occurred about eight to fourteen miles northeast of the village. I had not told Hennings or the Sakquains, but I planned to be out here a few days if need be to conduct a very through search. I would check in at a regular basis to keep them informed, but any request or orders from them about me returning to the village at the end of the day was not going to be honored. I would tell them that this is my search, and I intend to carry it out my way. After I reached my turning point I then headed westward. I drove about dozen miles at a time, stopped and got out of the vehicle and hiked a few miles in different directions to see if I picked up any trace of the creature. All reports of the creature during its retreat from the village had it heading north. That was a good start, but a lot of predators when they know they are being tracked will lead you astray from their true direction. I had stopped several times but so far I had found no traces or signs at all of the creature. I had reached the end of my initial one hundred and eighty degree search westward. Getting back in I drove south a few miles then headed east for the second leg of my search. Most searches are carried out in some type of grid pattern to try and ensure as much of the search area is covered as possible. My search pattern however is completely different. I use regular investigative techniques to locate where the person I am tracking may be in. Once there I unconsciously rely on a type of instinct I have to let me know which direction a perp is probably going. Don’t ask me how it works because to be honest I don’t know. Using this instinct and investigative techniques, I used it to track the perps down. Right now I was using the data from all the reports I read on the areas where the creature was sighted and where the soldiers and sheriffs deputies were attacked in my search pattern. It was looking more and more like I was going to be out here a few days. Which for me was okay. The MATV was an excellent off terrain vehicle. So much so, I planned to see if Yolanda had contacts whereby we could get one for our use. Providing the price was reasonable, which it probably wasn’t. After driving it and checking out the capabilities this vehicle had, I was sure the price would be way beyond what MU's I had much less what I could afford to spend. Yet I now knew it's use would give me a chance to really get to know the area, and help me track down the creature's whereabouts. I had been driving and checking out the area for hours now and decided to change the direction of my search more to the south and proceed southward from there. I estimated I would need at least two more days to cover the area I wanted to search. Making my final check-in of the day, I camped for the night. A few hours into the evening, Hennings had made numerous calls to convince me to return to the village. Even Serona had tried. I finally convinced them both that this is what I do. This is what they hired me for, so they relented. I suspect Hennings was tracking the vehicle, but I convinced him not to sent anyone out there to look for me or to back me up, unless he didn't hear from me for a six-hour stretch. I slept amazingly well in the MATV, although I woke up at least four times during the night as something outside the MATV in the area triggered my senses. The MATV was also set to trigger silent alarms if any animals, or anything else larger than a small black bear approached within fifty yards of the MATV. I was able to also sleep more soundly as I believed the MATV would even withstand an attack by the creature, but I still had my senses on full alert.
Resting through the rest of the night, I was up and taking care of necessary morning duties before the sun had fully arose. Eating a small meal I set out again on my search for the creature continuing southwestward. Using
the same search procedure of driving a few miles, and then doing a search on foot for a few miles, I had covered quite a few miles before I noticed the landscape had started to change. I must admit I was so focused on the search, that I missed the little changes in the landscape. Stopping the MATV, I got out to fully see what the difference was. Most people, except experienced trackers would not have seen the difference. The trees and other plant life was basically the same but there was a perceptible difference. The was also a decrease in the amount of animal life around. More attentive now, I got back in the MATV and drove slowly and for quite a ways, before the difference in the landscape became noticeably different. There was definitely something going on in this area. By now I figured I had traveled just west of Woodspirit. Checking the GPS I found I was twenty point two miles slightly northwest of Woodspirit. Securing the MATV and equipping myself for an extended stay in the woods I set out on a foot search of the area. After a few of hours of searching I still hadn't found any traces of the creature, but the landscape and animal life in the area had positively taken a turn for the worse. The plant life had a somewhat unhealthy look to them and it had been awhile since I had seen any animal life. Something very unhealthy was going on in the area. Searching some more, I found that the worse changes in the landscape appeared to be heading northwestward. I checked the Nav-Comp Hennings had supplied and saw that there was a cliff further southeast about four miles with a river next to it. This river flowed southwest for another seven miles before curving back towards Woodspirit. Continuing northwestward I had been moving slowly as my senses were silently screaming something was not right in the area, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I was convinced however that whatever it was had to be linked to the creature, so I proceeded with extreme caution. I had traveled quite a few miles northward and noticed the signs were now moving southwestward, and the evening was approaching soon. I was starting to feel as if I was being led. I had tracked a lot of criminals in the wood over the years, some in more densely packed woods than these. Yet throughout all of those hunts I never felt a fear of the woods. It was as if I was at peace in them. The area I was in now was a completely different story. I was feeling some trepidation and a great deal of unease now in these woods. My senses was still screaming something was not right. The closest way I can describe the feeling from these woods was as if they were…hell, the woods felt haunted. That's right, haunted. Now how the hell can a forest feel haunted. I don't know as I had never encountered this condition before. The creature's presence here certainly could affect the animal life in the area, but should not affect the woods. Yet there was no denying the feeling. Something a lot more was going on here, and somehow I felt the Ladies knew more than they had told me, which was why I intended to have another talk with them when I got back. My pace slowed considerably as I somehow felt I would miss something critical if I didn't slow down. I was now moving slowly a few hundred feet and then stopping for five to ten minutes at a time as I scanned the woods for signs of the creature. I was now convinced that it was here somewhere and I was close. Unfortunately evening was now fast approaching and searching at night even with my enhanced vision was not a good idea, especially under the present circumstances. I figured it was time to find a suitable campsite for the night. I was checking out a large clearing about sixty yards around with a quite a few tall and sturdy trees in it as my campsite for the night. Since I didn't have the MATV with me I intended to sleep in a tall tree with a three hundred and sixty degree view of the area around it. If something approached in the night I wanted to see it coming. The interlocking branches of the surrounding trees would provide me with a possible escape route if I couldn't get out on the ground, although I did not think escape through the trees would be feasible. If the creature managed to sneak up on me while I was sleeping in the tree, it would probably have no problem tracking me if I tried to use the branches from tree to tree as an escape route. This brought to mind a story I had heard once when I was very small about some guy raised in the woods who used vines to travel swiftly through the woods from tree to tree. Well there were no vines here in these woods, and travel from tree to tree using the branches would not be fast, if feasible at all. I would have preferred a cliff face ledge around fifty feet off the ground as a campsite with a backdoor if attacked, but there were none in this area. Traveling back to the MATV would also take more time than I now felt was safe to travel at night. The MATV would have been more secure, but it would have been very slow going getting the MATV in this area as the trees although unhealthy looking had grown very thick in this area for miles. I had alerted Hennings about the area of the woods I was in and my direction of travel since I was no longer in the MATV.
I finally found and picked out a very large tree that had a series of large overlapping branches that would make a good platform base for my camp. By now night was rapidly falling. As I prepared to start climbing, I suddenly froze. I didn't hear or see anything, but felt a very strong and decidedly vile presence around me. Breathing very shallowly, I turned around slowly and then froze in place for a few minutes, feeling with all my senses as to where the possible threat could be. Nothing happened, but the feeling of a presence was still there. Moving slowly I rotated and looked all around me for some sign of anything. I saw nothing, but the feeling of the vile presence was getting stronger. I was at a loss because I could not determine from where the threat was going to appear, and I was sure this was a threat. My weapons was ready for use, but I didn't draw them yet. I continued to wait as the presence got oppressively stronger. I then slowly turned and looked over my right shoulder into the woods on the edge of the clearing about twenty yards away. In the darkness, most people would not see anything. With my enhanced vision, I would be able to see anything that moved, but amazingly I saw nothing out of the usual trees and surrounding grass and rocks. Nothing moved, yet I felt whatever was out there was in the direction I was looking. Turning fully around to face the direction of the perceived threat, I drew my 44C. Staring intently at the trees I didn't see the creature make his move. When he did, it was abrupt and very fast. One minute there was nothing in among the trees, the next the creature was bursting out of the trees moving very fast towards me releasing that horrific scream of his as it did so. Even with my enhanced reflexes, so fast was it moving, it was halfway to me before I opened fire. My previous experience with the creature had taught me regular rounds had very little to no effect on the creature. The rounds I had with me this time were different. High Density Explosive (HDE) rounds, designed to penetrate all but military grade armor. My first two rounds went into its left leg blowing away large pieces of the knee and lower leg. The creature stumbled and fell to its one good knee screaming that horrible sound of his louder. There was definitely a sub-sonic quality to it, as my ears started to hurt. As the creature braced itself on both arms and looked at me, I put my next three rounds into his head, with the first hitting right above the upper lip tearing away it's mouth and that horrific scream. The other two rounds completely disintegrated his head. There was only a chunk of flesh left on its shoulders. The creature shuttered and then fell flat to the ground less than a dozen feet from me. Holstering my weapon and breathing a sign of relief, I slowly approached the creature. As I got close, the creature even without it's head was still massive. The smell from the creature was appalling. I could not figure out why I had not smelled it way before it attacked. Then again with my vision, I should have seen it also before its attack. Somehow it was able to mask itself and it's smell before it attacked. If it hadn't have been for the vile presence I felt, it would have caught me completely unaware, and that was a very chilling thought. Taking out my data-comp I took a series of pictures for later analysis, and some DNA and other scans. As I circled the creature, and took pictures, for a few seconds I thought I heard something. Stopping and looking around I neither saw nor heard anything. Pulling out my comm. I was preparing to call Hennings to notify him of the kill when I heard very faintly a sizzling sound a
lmost like bacon frying that was slowing getting louder. Looking around I found the sound was coming from the creature. As I got closer, the sound got definitely louder. As I looked I saw the sound was coming primarily from the neck of the creature. Unbelievably as I watched the flesh of the blown away head was bubbling as if it was being cooked, but the flesh around it was slowly growing back. Looking at the knee I saw the same unbelievable occurrence happening there also. Then the creature shuddered and as I looked on with my mouth hanging open, the creature appeared to start breathing again. How can this be? I completely blew its head off. How is it coming back to life?
Within moments about seventy percent of the creature's head had grown back. Then the head turned in my direction and one eye had been regrown. The creature looked at me with that one eye with what can only be described as the look of hell. I doubt the devil if he existed could look more evil at me in that moment. Then the creature's arms moved and the creature was attempting to push itself up. Drawing my 44C again I blew away the elbows of both arms and again blew away the creature's head emptying my gun, but to my amazement all of the damaged body parts immediately started to grow back and at an accelerated rate. Within seconds the creature was back up on one arm and pushing itself up.
Okay, time to GO!
Somehow this creature had the ability to regenerate damaged body tissue, including its blown away head making it virtually unkillable by conventional means. I would have to find another way to kill it. First though, I had to get the hell out of here. Not knowing the creature's stamina or abilities, trying to make it back to the MATV would not be a good idea. It was a good dozen plus miles away and judging from the creature's speed before I thought I had killed it, it could move very fast. How long it could sustain that speed was an unknown, and made a race back to the MATV a very unwise choice. Plus if I did reach it, it speed getting out of these dense woods would have been slower than the creature's and at this point I had no idea of the damage it could do to a slow moving vehicle no matter how tough it is supposed to be. Moving quickly I took off to the south running fast but not flat out as I did not know if the creature would follow me or not. A few seconds later I got my answer as I could clearly hear the noise it was making as it took off after me. By now night had fully settled and it was pitch black in the forest. It was a cloudy night and very little moonlight was getting through the clouds and trees. Even with my night vision, running through the woods at night was not a good idea, but it was not like I had a choice. Glancing back once to see where the creature was, I spotted it around thirty yards or so behind me, and it's head had fully grown back. It's eyes made spotting it easy as they now glowed a dull red in color. It did not scream after me, but instead just ran after me sometimes crashing into small trees and scrubs and tearing through them as if they were paper. That put me at a disadvantage as I had to go around, over or under everything in my path. My original plan was to try and reach one of the patrols positioned on the roads around Woodspirit, I had passed on my trip up here. I estimated the circular route I had taken in my search in the MATV had brought me a few miles closer to them than the MATV. They had high speed Road Rangers that would get us all the hell out of here in a hurry. Seeing that the creature had no need to go around obstacles, I probably would be winded well before I got to them. Soldiers also had a tendency to fight first, so convincing them we had to leave would be speculative at best. Knowing what I now knew about the creature, and a soldier's stubbornness to combat, going to them was not a good idea. Shifting my direction I raced as fast I could go to put some distance between the creature and I. Then I slowed a little as I had to run around three miles to reach the cliffs. After a few minutes the creature may have figured out where I was going or was getting impatient. In any event, I could hear it getting closer to me and it was really making a racket as it was running through virtually everything in it's path, and it was gaining on me. The next few minutes was the most terrible moments of my life. Running through pitch-black woods with a horrific creature that can tear you limb from limb chasing you is not a pleasurable experience. Bursting into a small clearing, I ran to the other side, stopped, turned, and drew my 44C, and reloaded just as the creature burst out of the woods on the other side. Firing rapidly I put four rounds into each leg blowing them both off completely. Making his horrific scream the creature went down. Not waiting around to see what happened, I turned and continued my race to the cliffs. Almost a minute later I heard the creature back on my trail. A few moments later I burst out into another clearing, this one around sixty yards across. There were a few small trees growing in the clearing, but mostly it was clear grassland. I started sprinting across it, continuing in the direction of the cliffs. I was almost three quarters of the way across when I heard a terrific tearing sound. Thinking the noise was the creature bursting through the woods into the clearing I glance back to see and had a split second to throw myself wildly to the side landing roughly on my left side looking up. Just as I hit the ground a large log some six to seven feet long and maybe a foot thick sailed over me where I had just been running. If I hadn’t glanced behind me when I did that log would have slammed into my back snapping it like a twig. Looking back at the creature who was standing just inside the clearing, I could see where it had torn up the dead log out of the ground. If I hadn’t been impressed with the stories of it’s apparent strength before, I was now. That log had to had to have been a couple of hundred pounds at least and the creature had just thrown it like a spear. Lying there like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered was not a good idea, so telling myself it was time to get the hell out of there,
Manhunter Revelations Page 13