Chapter 4

“Dad, I’m going to walk around the house and yard, come go with me,” Coop said, as he stood.

“Let me get a gun. I’d feel better too if we walked around to take a look, even if there are deputies out there,” Don Cooper said.

“Coop, y’all be careful out there,” Donna said, as he buckled his holster on.

“We will. Dad and I have always taken a walk around our place at night when the weather wasn’t so bad that we couldn’t. Just a habit, I guess.”

They walked out into the bright, clear, moonlit night and both men took a long deep breath, before exhaling.

“Been quite a hectic first day home this time, Coop. Did you ever think this would come about when you made your plans to come back this time?”

“I never even dreamed it would be like this. I was just hoping to dispel the rumors and find out who or what was behind this. What has happened today is almost too much for a man’s brain to digest. Wonder where that thing came from and how long it’s been here?”

“We’ve been having reports of a creature like that for over sixty years. It makes me wonder if it was the same one, or even if there’s more than one ... and more than one generation of them.”

“Dad?”

“Coop, I don’t know of any animal in North America that can live fifty to sixty years and run amuck through these mountains like the tales that have been told on it. The same tales were told back when I was a kid. Dad and I hunted these forests before the state took them over, but we never saw the likes of this. There has to be more than one, maybe a male and female. I don’t see any other way.”

“I’ve never even thought of that possibility. Maybe that’s why one can be sighted in one place and another sighting happens across the mountains. The law enforcement may have been disclaiming all those multiple sightings, simply because they were thinking like I was, that there’s only one of them.”

“We don’t know that there is more than one. I was just trying to think logically about how there can be so many sightings over the years.”

“We need to set up the rest of those trail cameras Carol brought. I’ll call back down to the publishing office and have more shipped in here. If we can document that we’ve got pictures of more than one at the same time, we’ll know more about what we’re up against.”

“Harker’s has a catalog you can order from, they’ll be here in three days.”

“I’ll call Mr. Harker early tomorrow - he’ll order me a couple of dozen and keep it quiet at the same time. I need to keep him informed about what we’ve seen up here anyway. That way he can put a stop to some of the rumors and tall tales that will be getting out of hand.”

“You need to tell him too that the folks here in the county need to keep this hushed or we’ll have a bunch of outsiders up here traipsing through the forests and messing up any chance of finding where this thing hangs its hat.”

“Good idea. I need to talk to the Chief Deputy about that too when he gets here tomorrow. I know he’ll want to keep the outsider traffic down as well. We’ll probably have some local boys out trying to be heroes and bring this thing down as it is.”

“Let’s hope not. Coop, do you think that .44 magnum of yours would take that creature down?”

“Dad, if it can’t ... God help us up here. The only thing left would be dynamite.”

“We need to be thinking about that, Coop. That thing is half as big as a small elephant in size.”

“You can bet I’d be shooting for the heart - I’m not sure a head shot would stop it.”

“Let’s get some sleep. We’ll have a busy day tomorrow for sure. Son, I’m glad you’re home and I’m proud of you. I don’t reckon I’ve ever told you that before now. I see you as a man now, not the boy I always thought you were when you wanted to be a writer.”

“Thanks, Dad. I guess I never was big enough to do all the things other boys did when I was growing up. All I did was hunt, fish, and play baseball that one year. I’ve always enjoyed our times together though, more than I ever realized until now and probably more than you ever knew.”

“I know the feeling, Coop. I reckon I was the same way ... I took after my dad too. I never was big and bad like a lot of boys my age, but he and I hunted and fished and sometimes just walked and talked. That was enough for him and it was enough for me too. I never felt the need to brag on you to others, to make me more proud of you. I already was.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Coop, tell me what you think about Donna,” Don Cooper said, looking at his son’s reaction in the moonlight.

“Dad, you kind of caught me off guard. I don’t know that I can honestly answer that right now. I know she’s attractive and that little Gina is a doll. I guess I have more than one thing to think about now ... even more so after this is all over.”

“Don’t chase her away like you have the others, Coop. Dad and I like her and I agree, Gina can steal your heart with you looking right at her - and there’s nothing a man can do about it. If you don’t know about that yet, ask Dad. He’s already adopted her in his heart.”

“We’ll have to see what happens, Dad. That’s the best I can tell you right now. I hope she and Gina come out of this alright. I’d like to talk to her alone sometime. I’m afraid both of them are just looking for a kind heart. I’d rather be more than that. Hell, Dad, I’m thirty six years old and I didn’t even know I needed anyone in my life. Now I’m wondering what I’ll do.”

“You’ll be alright, Coop. Just keep your mind on us getting rid of this creature, or creatures. I’m afraid that the Sheriff and the state police will try to sweep this back under a pile of leaves and make it go away. If Dave will keep his word and stay with us, we can put this thing down some way, somehow.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, Dad. Thanks for the walk and talk. I always feel so much better when we do this.”

“You need a son of your own, Coop, to really appreciate what you just said.”

“Now you’re really jumping the gun ... Go get some rest, Dad.”

When Don Cooper opened the front door and walked in, Coop was leaning against a porch post, looking up at the moon. Donna walked out and put her arm around his waist, and he pulled her close. Neither spoke, they just stood looking up at the full moon, feeling the warmth between them.

Across the Bettenau River, on the other side of the valley, two cousins stood in the shadows of the tall pines. Both wore new, night vision goggles and were anxiously awaiting that big buck to walk out in the small meadow in front of them. They had watched him for weeks now, scouting him, learning his habits. Their night vision goggles arrived by UPS today, and tonight was going to be the night they took this trophy Whitetail buck down. They could care less about the two hundred pounds of venison he carried on his big frame. They wanted to win that annual big buck contest and have their pictures in the papers again.

Chuck Taylor owned the Winchester .300 Magnum rifle and his cousin, Harold Griffis owned the 10X, nine hundred dollar night vision scope that was mounted on it. They took turns shooting at the trophy deer as they drifted from county to county and poached the biggest bucks year after year.

The scope was nice, but it left a lot to be desired when they tried to scan a whole valley with it. They’d each worked, saved, and done without for two years to be able to buy these expensive night vision goggles, similar to the ones the military use.

“He ought to be working good tonight in this full moon. I’m glad we got that bait and salt lick put out over there last week. This is all working out real good,” Chuck whispered, as they hunkered side by side and scanned the small meadow below.

“Yep. You seen anything yet? Damn, I saw a rabbit run past that bush out there near those rocks. These babies are the best on the market.”

“Shhhh, look over there by that big tree. I thought I saw something move. Hell yes it was, see it?”

“I don’t see what your talking about ... OH DAMN, I do now.”

“Hush, dammit, you’re gonna run him off. Can you tell if it’s him or not? Whatever it was, sure is big.”

“It sure is and it must have been him, I could see his old brown hide.”

“DAMN, CHUCK. Do you see what I see over there?”

“Yes I do and we’re getting the hell outta here too. I don’t know what in the hell that thing is, but he can have that damn deer.”

“Look, there comes our buck. Reckon we can take him down and get him loaded on the ATV before that big bear, or whatever it was, gets to him?”

“There goes that big animal, hell, that’s no bear. He’s caught up with that buck and ... OH MAN, he pulled his head right off while he was running. WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT THING?”

“Let’s get the hell out of here NOW, Harold. I got a bad feeling about that thing, whatever it is. I got goose bumps all over me and I’m about to piss on myself.”

“Let’s go then. DAMN, Chuck. Did you shit on yourself? That smells as bad as skunk shit.”

“WHAT IN THE HELL?”

“CHUCK?

“OH DAMNnnnnn...”

Harold looked around with his night vision goggles still on his forehead. He saw a blurry image of some ferocious ape-like animal that had his cousin pulled up to its face. Harold fell back away from them and tried to get the big rifle around to get a shot at the beast. Before he could even get the gun up, the animal reached up and pulled Chuck’s head right off his neck. Harold fell back on the soft pine needles in shock as the beast pulled his cousin’s body up and sucked right where his head had been. He could hear the blood gurgling from his cousin’s body as the thing sucked and swallowed.

Harold crawled his way past the biggest pine trees, then with a quick look back over his shoulder he raised up to a crouch. His new night vision goggles had pulled down over his face and he quickly put them back over his eyes.

The beast had pulled Chuck’s arms off and was eating one while he held Chuck’s body in the other hand. Harold squelched the urge to puke as he saw the beast rip Chuck’s legs apart like the wishbone of a chicken.

‘Oh Lord, just let me get to my truck and get away from here, I’ll never do this again as long as I live’ Harold prayed as he ran in a low crouch as fast as he could toward the spot where they’d parked the truck.

‘If I can just get out of here, I’ll report the ATV stolen and they’ll find it and Chuck’s body at the same time.

‘Hell, Chuck don’t even have a body to find no more.’

Harold’s mind was going wild as he broke out into the open and ran like hell toward his pickup in the distance. He could see the shiny chrome of his grill in the moonlight and felt safer the closer he came to escaping this horror.

Harold was fumbling in his pants pocket for his keys as he neared the pickup. He was crying and his eyes were blurred as he finally pulled his key ring from his pants. He propped his rifle barrel in the gap between the truck cab and bed as he fumbled to get his key in the lock.

He dropped them.

When he stooped to pick them up, he saw something crouching by his rear bumper, it looked like a big monkey as it sat back on its haunches, its arms hanging down and its paws on the ground. It looked just like the big beast that had eaten his cousin ... only smaller.

“Oh, Lord, please help me!”

Harold found the keys and finally opened his door, he forgot about his rifle as he jumped in and started his engine. He looked in his door mirror as he gunned the pickup out of the tall grass and onto the old gravel county road. He didn’t see that creature behind him and looked at the other side mirror. He was kicking up dust, gravel and dry grass, but he saw nothing else back there.

With his engine running wide open on the gravel road, he raced down the long hill toward the wooden bridge over the Bettenau River. He took a deep breath as he saw the bridge in the distance and felt like he had made it. He remembered his rifle and a sinking feeling hit his stomach when he realized he’d left it against his pickup where he’d been parked.

As he approached the one lane wooden bridge, his mind raced, as his truck slowed to cross the old bridge. He remembered seeing the beast as it chased down that big buck and ripped its head off. He remembered him and Chuck scrambling to get out of there and suddenly Chuck was dead. As he drove slowly across the bridge, he realized that there were two of the huge beasts. There was no way one could kill a deer nearly a half mile away and in a matter of seconds, be standing beside him.