The Not So Great Outdoors - Chilling Tales of Survival, Secrets, and the Supernatural - Weekly Spooky: Scary Halloween Stories | Terrifying Tales to Creep Your Night

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, my spookys. I hope you're doing well on
this first Friday in April, and I hope you're ready
to enjoy quite the monstrous compilation, both figuratively and very literally.
We've gathered some of the finest examples of Weekly Spooky stories,

(00:21):
all about the well not so great outdoors, those things
that lurk in the woods, or maybe it's just in
your mind. Well, the only way to find out is
to give it a listen. So get yourself cozy because
this is a full blown height through the terror of nature.

(00:45):
And remember, if you love what we're doing here at
Weekly Spooky and want to support us, head to Weeklyspooky
dot com, where there's merchandise, a Patreon, and so much more.
But now, my friends, it's time to kick it all
off by heading to the Great White North Stalk by
Mike Eshkewey. I'm bored, lonely, and horny. This is not

(01:11):
exactly a great combination for an exciting reading week. The
exceptional and brilliant life of me Joshua Fox or Foxy
to most of my friends. I wish the nickname suggested
more success with the ladies, but well, let's say it's
been a long, dry summer, and fuck if I'm not thirsty.

(01:37):
Canadian Thanksgiving, the less cool cousin of American Thanksgiving, happens
in October. But hey, it's reading week, so it kind
of works out. I'm coming home to my old stomping
grounds from being away in the big city of Toronto.
It'll be a week of getting together with some friends,

(01:58):
playing some dungeons and drag biggins, and maybe putting on
the skates for a few games of Beer League hockey
with the boys. Maybe I was expecting college to be
like in the movies, and ladies would be throwing themselves
at me. I am somehow getting the idea that the
sexy comedies of the eighties might have lied to me.

(02:19):
There was a distinct lack of pante raids, and it
was more study your ass off and get your homework
done than endless fun. I'm lucky that I got my
college education paid for courtesy of the Ontario government and
a summer of manning a hot dog cart at the
Blue Jays games. The drive home up Highway six was

(02:41):
as always long, boring, and well, if you've never seen
a cow, then hold onto your butts, because you are
in for a treat. I parked my ass at my
parents' house in Owen Sound and hoped that this week
doesn't suck. My mom and dad have taken off to
somewhere warm, sunny and probably filled with conservative nut jobs

(03:05):
like Florida. Come to think of it, maybe Owen Sound
and Florida have a lot in common, just with less
alligators on meth. Then again, I laughed at my own
stupid thoughts and continued driving. Fortunately, Foxy wasn't totally without
a clue or a plan for the week ahead. In

(03:26):
some ways, there is this cool thing called the Internet.
Heard of it? Of course, you have all the debauchery
and raunchy shit you can imagine, and all available at
the click of a mouse. Kind of figured the boys
might blow me off for the week with work, girlfriends,
and kids. So I had to come up with a

(03:48):
plan B. What's plan B? You ask, Internet hookups? Yeah,
I know, fuck sexy MILFs in your area right now.
Just pay nine to ninety nine and enter your major
credit card. Nah fuck that. I tried the sensitive approach
and cast a wide net and tried the college dating
website scene. And I'll see what happens when I cast

(04:11):
a line. Before leaving my dorm, I fired up the
old laptop and sent off a few messages to some
girls up in the area. I knew a few of
them from going to high school, and some I knew
by reputation alone. I kind of had a feeling that
my odds of success weren't great. But hey, as a
great wise man once said, you can't score if you

(04:34):
don't take a shot right now. Wait, you're thinking, am
I really this lonely and desperate? Yes?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
And no.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Before I left for school, I did have a girl
I was going steady with, but well it didn't work out.
Maybe it was her, Maybe it was me. Maybe I
shouldn't have tried to fuck her best friend Courtney. Maybe TLDR.
I'm an idiot and got what I deserved. However, who

(05:05):
says that good guys don't get a second chance? Am
I a good guy?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Well?

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I'm not hitler. That has to count for something. Coming
into Owen Sound was something that I always looked forward to.
The lovely fall colors of the trees and the big
hill coming into the downtown. Sure this place sucked to
grow up, but I'll be damned if it wasn't a
gorgeous place to look at for a little while. I

(05:31):
drove up to my parents' house on the west side
of town by the old Blockbuster and unloaded my backpack
in hockey bags. Walked into the old house that was
clearly built before people knew what HVAC was and half
decent wiring. It's quiet here, even the dog is gone.
They almost never take that yappy thing with them on vacation.

(05:54):
That's pretty weird. Guess the neighbors finally said, fuck you,
your dog will stop shitting on our lawn. So no,
Bob and Linda, I won't look after your mut My
room was just as I left it. It looked like
a bomb went off in it. Dirty clothes, fast food wrappers,
and I'm pretty sure a half empty can of Red

(06:14):
Bull stuffed up under my computer desk. Speaking of my computer,
I fired up the old desktop that I didn't take
with me to school. I logged onto a few of
the college dating sites that I was on before I
left and kind of hoped that i'd find someone to
help take my mind off things for a while. Seems
like more than a few swiped away from yours, truly,

(06:37):
but hey, this is just separating the wheat from the chaff.
The strong survive. Right after sorting through like twenty messages
and getting shot down almost consistently a hit, I've never
been so happy to see a blinking notification on a
website that wasn't only fans click that so fast that

(06:59):
I think I thought the mouse would disintegrate in my hands.
It was from Tracy Kidd, totally out of my league,
totally not into me yet. Hey Josh, glad to hear
your coming back to town for a week. When was
the last time I saw you? Was it the baseball
attorney in Sawble Beach or at jeans party in Chesley?
It's been way too long. I was totally surprised to

(07:23):
hear from you, though, such a pleasant surprise. Sorry to
hear that your friends ditched you for the week or
likely will that totally sucks blah blah, get on with it.
But I kept reading with anticipation, as this could go
my way or I'm spending my week with a jar
of vasileene and pornhub So I'm stuck this week by

(07:44):
myself too, and I was wondering if you'd like to
get together, no pressure or anything. I have to close
my parents' cottage for the winter, and I could totally
use a big strong man to help me out. Well,
more like, I'd rather not be alone in a giant
house by myself for a week. So tell you what,
why don't you come up when you're here and we'll

(08:04):
get together, have a few laughs, go in the hot
tub and drink what's left in the liquor cabinet. Now,
this is what I am talking about. I texted her
so fast, and after literally a few seconds, she replied back,
Holy shit. She gave me a winkie face emoji and
said she'd be available later tonight. I texted back and

(08:27):
asked for the address, but tried to play it cool.
Pretty sure I looked dumb as hell, But it's a
bold move, Cotton. Let's see how it plays out. Got
the address. I had a vague idea on where it
was Sawable Beach. It sounded like it was close to
Soggin First Nation Territory, the Indian Reservation. I'd been there

(08:49):
a few times for hockey and had a few friends
from there. Good guys, deaf, the kind of people you
want backing you in a fight. You don't fuck with
res kids. Had an idea that kid was Ojibway, but
didn't want to ask. It's cool though. Native girls have
the most intense dark eyes and that amazing black hair.

(09:11):
I knew Tracy had a rep, but it was well earned.
She didn't take any crap from any of her boyfriends,
so she had that tough girl air about her. She
was confident, undeniably sexy, but so far out of my league.
It was like a ten year old kid playing in
the NHL with a broken arm. I can't deny that

(09:31):
I'd love to have a face off with her and
jersey her if you catch my drift still, she responded
to me. So if I didn't have a shot, then
she wouldn't have answered me. Maybe this reading week is
gonna work out after all. Get together with a pretty girl,
fuck her brains out, and return back to the dorms

(09:52):
with an awesome story. I could also totally brag to
my buddies Ryan and Dylan how I got laid and
they just I had to ditch me for things like
jobs and beerly losers. I texted her back and said
I'd take a quick shower and grab some supplies and
head up her way within the hour. It was late afternoon,

(10:14):
but I'd still make it up there before it got
too dark, and then the real fun began. I got
in the shower and tried to imagine all the ways
that i'd be all mister super sexy and smooth oper Radar.
Something felt kind of off as I got out of
the bathroom, though it kind of felt like someone was
watching me. It only happened for a few seconds, but

(10:38):
for a moment or two, I swear I saw a
pair of eyes dart by my bedroom window. That would
be crazy because I was up on the third floor.
Maybe cut back on the red bulls before I leave
for her place, got my luggage together, some condoms I
had stashed for just such an occasion, and a six

(10:59):
pack of Canadian from the fridge. I'm sure Dad won't
mind if I take a few beers to entertain a
lady again. Something seemed weird as I was just getting
my keys off the kitchen table and they looked out
towards the back door. I swear I saw the biggest
damn dog I'd ever seen, just peering in at me

(11:20):
and looking at me. Now, who the hell let that
monster off the leash? Should I call the cops or
help someone find their dog. Well, if it's important enough,
then someone will come looking, and I'm sure that Kujo
the giant dog will find his way home. My car
felt like something out of Fast and the Furious as

(11:41):
I hit the gas and hit every single light out
of town and up Highway six towards Soawble Beach. I
cranked up the radio and started singing along badly to
whatever was on it. Frankly didn't matter. Tonight was gonna
be great and I wasn't gonna let anything spoil it.
This fox was on the prowl Baby, passed by a

(12:03):
few small towns along the way to Soble Beach. This
place was world renowned as a tourist destination, huge white
sand beach, thriving beach community, and of course racial tensions
because you know, northern Ontario. I mean, why do people
gotta be shitheads? Everyone shit stinks, so why can't we
all just get along? Right right? Leave it to me.

(12:28):
I'll solve all the world's problems, like the fucking United Nations.
The only part of the ride that wasn't full of
fun and fantasy was still shaking that weird feeling of
those eyes watching me. The main road in disable was quiet,
like so quiet you could hear a mouse fart for miles.

(12:49):
This place rolled up the sidewalks after Labor Day weekend
and it was just the locals left here till the
winter comes for the snowmobile crowd. Everything was closed or
being closed up, and the only thing open was a
convenience store that sold stuff to tourists at inflated prices,
and the locals knew better than to drive to Owen Sound.

(13:11):
I used to spend a lot of summers here with
the boys and even my on and off girlfriends. We'd
hang out by the giant sign at the beach entrance
and walk downtown and not have a care in the world.
Those summers were amazing and I never wanted them to end.
We'd usually rent a cottage a few times a summer
along the beach, and it was nothing but parties, loud music, weed,

(13:35):
and staying up all night playing poker or an old
Nintendo till we passed out. My GPS started droning on
its directions to get to Tracy's place. Where in the
hell was it? Back roads, twists and turns, and I
don't even think I was anywhere near people at this point.
If you lived back here, you either valued your privacy

(13:57):
or had more money than sense to build this far back.
It was dirt roads, trees, dense bush, and even an
occasional swamp. Truly paradise, come to think of it. The
GPS lady sounded kind of hot. Wait, we are not
fantasizing about fucking Skynet before Tracy, are we? We are.

(14:20):
It's a new level of sadness, but that's okay. It'll
be prime time soon enough. Finally I found the address,
and it was tucked back about as far as one
could go without being totally off grid. I think her
neighbors must be easily fifteen or twenty minutes away, and
I haven't seen any cars pass me, and at least

(14:42):
that long. On the plus side, no one will hear
her scream my name when we get down to it.
I drove carefully along the dirt road, trying not to
bottom out my car. I'm still paying this thing off,
and the last thing I need is to take it
in because I knocked off my muff. Her cottage comes
into view and it's way bigger than I expected. Looks

(15:06):
like someone built this place by hand, and they had
amazing taste as well, two stories, big glorious windows, and
a gorgeous wrap around deck and even a little swing set.
This place was like something out of a TV show
or a movie. I pulled up beside her pickup truck
and started to get out when I noticed something as

(15:26):
I opened the car door. What in the hell was
that smell? It smelled like a wet dog mixed with
something else. It almost smelled like rotten meat that had
been left out in the sun for a few hours.
You spend enough time in the woods and you know
what trouble smells like. And this did not exactly scream friendly.

(15:50):
Must be roadkillers. Something died in the woods nearby. I
mean there were bears, coyotes, and foxes around here. Probably
safe to assume that I should get inside quickly. I'd
rather not end up as something's dinner tonight. I probably
taste great. One last thing to prepare, I sprayed a

(16:12):
little bottle of axe body spray on myself before I
went up to the door. Might as well smell like
desperation and a little bit of horniness in a can, right.
I headed up the deck stairs and knocked on the
big wooden door. I waited a moment or two, and
then knocked again and nothing. Did I get the wrong house.

(16:35):
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone
to text her, but of course, no cell service. I'm
pretty sure even if I got a bar of service
out here, it would be a minor technological miracle. Maybe
she was fucking with me. I mean, it's entirely possible.
I started to walk back towards my car and defeat

(16:56):
and shame when I heard a voice call out from
an upstairs window. Josh, hold on a few, I'm just
getting out of the shower doors unlocked. Head into the
living room. I'll be down in a few. That was Tracy.
I opened the door and walked into the cottage, and man,
what a trip. This place was decked out in all

(17:18):
sorts of things. On the walls. There was a gigantic
painting of a pack of wolves above a fireplace, and
pictures of what I presumed were her family. They also
had tons of handmade things that looked like they must
have come from the reservation. I think I had heard
that her brother John was a big shot dancer in
the powwow circuit. It's pretty badass looking, to be honest,

(17:41):
I mean I somehow managed to fuck up coloring books,
so this was way beyond my skill level. I sat
down on her sofa and just kept looking around the place,
half being amazed by all the stuff and the other
time being kind of snoopy and way too curious. After
about ten minutes, I hear footsteps coming down the staircase

(18:04):
behind me. I can't contain my excitement, and I spin
around on the couch and try to look cool. It
didn't work, as I turned around so fast that I
almost fell off the couch. I looked up and saw
Tracy Kidd for the first time since last summer. She
looked gorgeous, long black hair. Her makeup was done just

(18:26):
right to make her eyes pop, and she wore a
pair of gray sweatpants and a crop top black hoodie.
She was beautiful. Hey Foxy, long time, no see have
any trouble finding the place, she said in a playful tone. Yeah,
my GPS tried to take me into Lake Huron, but
I got here all right. Man. Her folks certainly made

(18:49):
sure this place would be the biggest pain in the
ass for a pizza guy or Amazon to find. You'd
be surprised how easily all the cousins find it after
pow Wow and John comes home for a few weeks.
She laughed. I'm glad I was able to come up.
By the way, thanks for messaging me back Trace. I
needed a friendly face or two while I was home.

(19:12):
I'm more than happy to help. I even brought up
a few beers as well. Well, aren't you a fucking gentleman,
she laughed. Don't worry. I'm fully stocked out here as
I got to close this place up for the winter,
and I'm not supposed to leave anything behind. My parents said,
do what you want, but make sure the locks are tight,
the windows closed, and the power is off before Thanksgiving Monday.

(19:35):
I'm just glad to be out of the city for
a few days, so anything you need I got. I'll
admit it took a lot of restraint to not say
anything stupid or push my luck too far before we
even had a chance to get comfortable together. Anything huh, Well,
that remains to be seen. Her voice and demeanor changed

(19:58):
for just a second. And I think if I played
my cards right then I likely would not be sleeping
on the sofa. I'm pretty handy and I can count
to ten without using my fingers, so that asked to
count for something. I joked back with her to see
if I was gauging the room right. She smiled back
at me, and it was the kind of look that

(20:20):
suggested I could lower my defenses and see where things led,
but slowly, and try to play three D chess as
it were. Tracy sat down on the couch next to
me and we just caught up on old times and
what we've been up to since last summer. She was
working for the conservation Authority and doing some stuff for

(20:41):
her brother, like helping him book gigs, so kind of
like Showbiz meets Captain Planet. It did sound pretty cool,
if very busy and time consuming. I told her that
I was at Humber College for photography. I wanted to
live my dream of being a sports photographer, maybe someday
work for the NA or the Canadian Hockey League. As

(21:03):
the night passed, we started developing into deeper topics and
it was actually pretty pleasant. She asked me why we
never hung out more in high school. I always thought
you were too cool for me. You always had a boyfriend,
and let's be real, most of these guys make UFC
fighters seem like cuddly little kittens in comparison, you could

(21:26):
have just asked Fox. You were a good guy, kind
and not too much of an asshole. I didn't care
much for that Dylan friend of yours, but always thought
you were all right. I remember the first time I
saw you and your boyfriend fight at school. You punched
him so hard when he laid his hands on you.
It was like watching wonder Woman come to life. It

(21:49):
was pretty fucking awesome. Funnier when he begged you not
to do it in front of his friends. Yeah, he
had it coming. I dated a lot of jerks back then.
I could handle myself though. My grandmother taught me a
lot of things. She taught me mostly to take shit
from no man and to end it decisively. She looked

(22:09):
at me differently when she said that. To me. The
air in the room seemed to shift, and it wasn't
just idle chit chat anymore. It was something more real.
I'm sorry that you had to go through that trace.
You deserve better, a lot better. Tracy inched closer to

(22:30):
me on the couch and actually started to cuddle into me.
I actually felt all my bravado and all my intent
ooze away as she did I was vulnerable, and so
was she. This was the make it or break it moment.
This is where I either have an amazing night or
I fuck it up completely. I've been lonely for a while, Josh.

(22:55):
Things got different after you left. She almost whispered like
it was a secret she wasn't supposed to tell anyone.
What do you mean, what's wrong? I asked, and genuinely
meant it. The idea of getting laid kind of became
secondary now. I mean, what if this was something else?

(23:16):
What if this was one of those moments where something
becomes really real. I know why you came here, but
I'm not mad. Oh fuck no, No, It's fine. I
wanted you to come. It's more than just a hookup, right.

(23:36):
How do I answer this? Maybe I'll play honestly because
I don't know. She can lay me out cold and
leave me for the bears outside to eat. I'll admit it,
A lot has changed since I came here and actually
started talking with you. It's one thing to have a
hot girl answer you on a dating site, and another

(23:57):
thing to have said hot girl invite you up to
a cottage for a few days. I get the feeling
that you've been really real with me, and I haven't
had that since Melissa, my ex, the one you tried
to cheat on. Yeah, I own that fuck up. I
didn't expect to say that out loud, but it came

(24:19):
so naturally. If I'm going to be present and here
in the moment, then I had better be on my
best behavior. You're not a bad guy, Josh. I can
smell it on you. Okay, that's a weird thing to say,
but sure, that's just the body spray. I nervously laughed.

(24:41):
She sat up and sat on my lap and looked
deep into my eyes. She was a lot heavier than
I expected to be. Honestly, she was built like a tank.
She didn't look this strong, but looks are deceiving. I'm
pretty sure she could bench press me and not even
break a sweat. No, Josh, it's perfectly fine. We all

(25:03):
have needs, and so do I. It's nothing to be
ashamed of. She touched the side of my face and
traced a line from my hairline to my cheek and
cupped my chin in her hand. Normally this is where
I'd get down to business and go to town, but
here I was absolutely in her hands. I was her plaything,

(25:25):
and she knew it. She had this animalistic power over me.
And on one hand, it was kind of scary how
much I knew she could overpower me, but I kinda
wanted it that way. I looked back into her eyes
and there was something in there I didn't expect to see.
I could see this primal hunger and this ferocity you

(25:49):
see in a wild predator like a wolf for a lynx.
This is a weird line between sexy as fuck and scary.
I think I'm turned on, but also so kinda terrified.
What would you say to a little game? You win,
you can have your way with me, and if I win,

(26:10):
then I can do whatever I want to you. Okay,
what do I have to do? Answer me honestly, and
I'll know if you're lying, she said in a flirty
but also serious tone. She pulled her hair back into
a ponytail and didn't take her deep brown eyes off me.

(26:33):
She was sizing me up in a way that I
can't say I've ever seen outside of a nature documentary.
Suddenly I felt like a kitten trapped in a cage
with a lioness. This is either gonna get kinky or weird.
Probably both relax your body and let me guide you.

(26:54):
I need you to trust me, Josh. She took my
hands and placed them on her sides, and she kept
eye contact with me. I relaxed as much as I could.
I was a little hard, because well, I'm a guy.
She smiled at me and winked, and then got serious again.

(27:15):
Do you trust me, Josh? She took my hands and
put them on her breasts and kept her body taut
against mine. Okay, this is going places. I do, I
stammered out. Do you want me, Josh? I do? This
is happening? Would you still want me if I told

(27:37):
you a secret? Sure? I mean it's not like you
killed anybody, right. I could feel her body tense up
as soon as I said that, And what if I did? Okay,
not sure. I like where this is going. I don't
think you're a murderer. Kid, tough as but you're not

(28:01):
a killer. Tracy took my hands and guided them to
her face and held them against the side of her head,
and we just held hands like that for a moment.
There was a tenderness and a longing in this moment.
I could feel my cheeks flush and my heart beating
out of my chest like a jackhammer. What if you're

(28:22):
wrong about me? Would you still want me? She relaxed
our hands and leaned in to kiss me. I could
feel her breath just as our lips were about to touch,
and for a moment, it was like the first time
I was with someone and I totally forgot the peril
I was likely in. Yes, good, she whispered as she

(28:48):
kissed me, long and deep, passionately. This wasn't an I
want to fuck you kiss. This was an I want
you forever kind of kiss. Now you only have to
do one more thing, and it's simple. I want you too,
but you have to prove how strong and clever you are.

(29:12):
Can you do that? At this moment, I'm pretty sure
I would have sold meth to nuns. I can do that.
I want you to play hide and seek with me
for ten minutes, and I'll give you a head start. Seriously,
all I gotta do to sleep with this amazing, enchanting

(29:33):
sexual goddess is play hide and seek for ten minutes.
This is gonna be so awesome. Okay, that's it, I laughed.
That's it. I might suggest you start running now, though,
what run? Why? This seems a little hardcore for for play,

(29:57):
don't you think, I thought to myself. Tracy leaned in
and kissed me again, and this time it almost felt sad,
like a goodbye in a sense. She took herself off,
my body off the couch and stood up to her
full height. If you're going to mate with me, then

(30:17):
I need to know how strong and clever my pupps
will be. As soon as she said that, I thought
I was going to shit my pants. This little five
foot eight, dark skinned girl started to grow in front
of me like something out of a nightmare. Her skin
started to ripple, and a rough, dark brown furry merged

(30:37):
like a wave. Her features twisted and snapped, like muscles
and bone snapping into new shapes. The face of Tracy
Kidd was replaced by a long, wolf like snout filled
with sharp, unforgiving teeth. Those once kind hands shaped into
impossibly long claws that scraped the hardwood floor beneath her.

(31:00):
She towered over me at easily nine feet tall. A rough,
almost unrecognizable voice growled out of her horrifying visage. I'm
going to count to thirty and then if you can
survive for ten minutes, I'm all yours. I screamed and

(31:21):
screamed till my voice was hoarse, and I started to
run in any direction. But where I was, Tracy Kidd
was a fucking werewolf. Fuck, I gotta run, gotta run,
gotta run. I threw open the front door and tripped
down the stairs as I went and landed hard on
the grass out front and felt the wind to get

(31:43):
knocked out of me. I felt my car keys jab
into my leg, and Jesus Christ did that hurt. I
started stumbling towards my car and thought about how the
hell I was going to get out of here when
I didn't even know where here was? In this dark
it was so pitch black, and her porch lights were off.
I struggled to get my car keys in the lock.

(32:05):
They wouldn't turn. I kept turning the keys, but the
door wouldn't open. Shit, I must have bent the key
when I fell. Fuck, I'm gonna die here, aren't I?
I felt beads of sweat run down my face and
start to sting my eyes. Panic had gripped my entire body.
This was it, wasn't it? This is where it all

(32:27):
ends for me? I started running down the dirt laneway
towards what I assumed was the main road that I
had came in on. I didn't even look back, as
I kept focusing on putting one foot in front of
the other and doing my best to keep my forward
momentum going. I just wanted to get with a girl
this week. I just wanted to get laid right now.

(32:50):
I just want to live to see tomorrow. Fuck. I'll
take surviving the next hour if it means I can
keep breathing. I kept running further and further into the darkness,
and eventually the lights from Tracy's cottage could barely be
seen because of the thick mess of pine trees. Looking
around for anywhere to hide, or at least a place

(33:11):
to gather myself for a second and to catch my breath.
I'm not exactly in the worst of shape, but I
could feel my legs start to turn to jelly and
each breath start to burn as I gasped for air.
Peeking off the lane way, I started dashing into the woods,
and when I finally got into an area too dense
to run, I started to slow down and carefully walk

(33:33):
so as not to make too much noise. I couldn't
hear anything except the faint sounds of a distant owl
and the lapping of some nearby body of water. It's
too quiet out here, and all I can truly hear
is the blood pumping in my ears. I have a
lot to be sorry for if this is where it
all ends tonight. I'm sorry Mom and Dad. I know

(33:57):
you wanted me to go off to school like my
sister and because I'm a doctor, but I wasn't smart enough.
I'm mostly sorry to my ex girlfriend Melissa. Hugh didn't
deserve what I tried to do to you. I thought
I was something special because someone else besides you took
a liking to me, and I let it go to

(34:17):
my head. I fucked up, and I made a lot
of people unhappy in my life. Maybe I deserve to
be torn apart by this creature or turned into a
weird breeding thing for her. I probably deserved this. I
leaned back against a tree and let out a sigh

(34:39):
and just looked up at the sky for a second.
I don't know how long it's been since I ran
from the house, maybe five minutes, and that's probably being generous.
I could smell that rotting flesh again. Shit, Suddenly, something
wet and heavy, slammed into my chest and knocked me

(35:00):
hard against the tree. Felt like it cracked a rib
or ten. I crumbled into a heap at the base
of the tree and was instantly dazed. I tried to
keep from passing out from the pane and keep focused
enough to get my wits about me. I opened my eyes,
and I instantly regretted that decision. Once again, I found

(35:22):
myself face to face with something that shouldn't exist yet
here it was, right here in front of me. There
was enough pale light cast from the overhead moon that
I could see the face of the creature looking right
into my soul. Tracy or whatever she was, kept inching
closer to me with her gigantic mouth drooling. Her spit

(35:47):
glistened in the moonlight like dew. Okay, this was really it, Tracy.
If you're gonna kill me, make it quick, and please
don't make my mom and dad have to worry that
I disappeared. Give them something to bury, I croaked out
in a weak voice. The werewolf stood up to its

(36:10):
full height and cocked its head and looked at me.
I looked up into the eyes of the creature and
suddenly They weren't the eyes of a monster. They were
Tracy Kid's eyes. Tracy's lupine form leaned down and moved
closer to my body and nuzzled it like a dog

(36:33):
would to an injured friend or owner. Her big wolf
like head nuzzled up against mine and touched the side
of my face gently. This is not what I expected.
Her form began to shift back into the nineteen year
old Native girl I had a crush on once she

(36:53):
was naked, but at that moment it didn't matter. Josh
are you afraid to die? Yeah? I am. I don't
want my parents to worry or my sister. I'm sorry
for a lot of things in my life. I'm sorry
that I came up here looking to take advantage of you.

(37:16):
I'm sorry for everything. I whispered quietly. I know you are.
I can smell it on you. You're a lot of things,
Joshua Fox. But you're not a bad guy. She reached
out again with her hands and cupped mine in hers
and touched my face. I'm sorry, Tracy. What would you

(37:42):
say if I said I was still interested in you? Okay?
I went from preparing to meet the almighty to whatever
this is I'm confused. What do you mean. I didn't
know how to process what exactly was happening at that moment.

(38:04):
I'm lonely, Josh. I want to be with someone who
can be honest like you are right now. What if
I offered you a chance to be like me, strong, powerful,
and to be a part of something different? What exactly
was Tracy asking me. She took back her left hand

(38:26):
and extended one of her fingernails to an unnatural length
and pointed it at me. Be with me, Josh. When
we mate with another we take on strong spiritual and
personality traits from the partner. I want my pupps to
have that honesty and that vulnerability you showed tonight. You

(38:47):
could have tried to fuck me and then left in
the morning, but instead you chose to talk and open up.
You went with plan B, even though you didn't immediately
mean to. Will I be just like you like a monster?
Yes and no. I'll have to show you how to

(39:08):
control your new life, and you'll be different from everyone else,
but you'll meet others like me. It's not as scary
as it sounds. Trust me. I found out from my
grandmother in high school. How did you think I got
so strong, will it hurt just for a minute. Tracy

(39:29):
leaned in and pressed her naked body against mine, and
I felt her fingernail cut deep across my back. Pain
and fire seared across the wound, and I wanted to
throw up but couldn't. I immediately passed out. The next day,

(39:56):
I woke up next to Tracy in an unfamiliar bed,
and all my wounds had healed. I felt weird, like
everything was moving in slow motion, but I was hyper
aware of everything. I could hear birds and things that
seemed miles away. I felt like I was stronger than

(40:17):
I'd ever been in my life. I got up out
of bed and noticed I was also naked. Oh that's unexpected. Well,
if I had any fun last night, it seems like
I wasn't totally present for that little escapade. I passed

(40:39):
by a mirror and noticed something different about myself. I
had the same animalistic look in my own brown eyes
that Tracy did when we were on the couch last night. Well.
This is going to take some getting used to, isn't it.

(41:07):
I used to work in a fire tower with a
strange set of rules by Michael Kelso it wasn't all
that long ago. When I worked as a park ranger
in a fire tower. You'd think it would be an
easy job.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
You'd be wrong.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Once I found a strange list of rules, it was
all downhill from there. Suffice it to say I was
lucky to get out with my life while still being
a free man. There was an investigation into the matter,
and I was questioned several times by the police, but
they didn't want to hear the truth of the story

(41:46):
that something strange and supernatural happened that night in that
fire tower. Unfortunately, one of my fellow rangers wasn't so lucky,
but that is another story. I never went back to
that tower ever. I searched for a few weeks before

(42:08):
finding a new job. It was just in the nick
of time because I hadn't worked as a park ranger
long enough to make much money at all, and switching
back and forth between peanut butter sandwiches and mac and
cheese wasn't the best way to stave off starvation. But
beggars can't be choosers, so I applied for this job

(42:29):
and went into the office building in town for the interview.
The first question I asked was does it have any
strange rules. The interviewer looked at me like I had
just sprouted a second head. Like what kinds of rules?
She said, I don't know, like don't answer the phone

(42:50):
at a certain time of night, or if you see
a glowing orb, look away for thirty seconds. Are you
planning on seeing any glowing orbs inside our warehouse? She
said hesitantly, I hope not. She held my gaze for
a long moment before answering my question. I started to
wonder if she was going to kick me out of

(43:11):
her office to answer your original question. She said, I
don't know of any strange rules for the warehouse. To
my knowledge, it's a standard night watchman job. You go there,
you make sure no one breaks in and takes anything,
and then you go home. That's a relief, just out
of curiosity. Why did you ask about strange rules. My

(43:36):
last job had some strange rules, and let's just say
it didn't end well. Oh, all right, she said, I
suppose that would be a good question for you to ask.
Then the rest of the interview was standard stuff. Thankfully
I hadn't blown it and got the job. She gave

(43:57):
me my employee packet and the address of the warehouse.
She told me I would be trained on the job,
when to be there for my first shift, and the
name of my supervisor, mister Larson. I thanked her and
went on my merry way, happy to have a job
that was easy and paid decently. The next couple of
days went by slowly as anticipation built for my first shift.

(44:20):
When I got in my car, the gas gage told
me I would be pushing it to make it back
and forth to work before I got my first paycheck.
I drove to the address and found it in what
looked like an abandoned business park. There were other warehouses
along the drive, with weeds growing through the cracks and
the pavement and up the sides of the buildings. There

(44:40):
were street lights, but they looked old and decrepit. Only
two of them were still emanating their putrid yellow light,
fighting a losing battle against the darkness. I came to
the end of the road and looming in front of
me was a massive warehouse. The GPS on my phone
told me I had arrived, but I was isn't sure
I wanted to. It was all by itself, surrounded by

(45:05):
woods on all sides except for the notch that had
been cut out to make the road. I pulled around
to the side where the main door was and was
slightly comforted by the car that was parked in front.
At least there was some other living soul out here.
I got out, taking my bag of supplies with me.
I started toward the door and hit the remote button

(45:26):
to lock the car out of habit. The horns chirp
echoed through the trees, making me even more aware of
their presence. I wasn't looking forward to doing security checks
around the perimeter. There was only one security light that
I had seen when I drove up, and it was
near the entrance. I approached the door and tried to
open it, but it was locked. I looked around for

(45:49):
anything and found a keypad. I opened up my email
on my phone and read the instructions i'd been sent.
Your shift is from nine pm to nine am, it read,
you cannot leave between those hours. The code for the
keypad is your employee code. That way we know it's
you inside. I paused. There was something about that last

(46:11):
sentence that gave me chills. I reread it and decided
it was just a security thing. Your employee code is
two zero, five nine. It should open any doors you
need to access inside. If you have any problems, call
or text the number included in your packet. I didn't
remember getting any number in my packet, but maybe I'd

(46:34):
just skimmed over it. I entered my code on the keypad.
The light above the numbers turned green, and I heard
the lock click. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
When the door shut, I heard the lock click again.
I stared at it as if the sound had some
finality to it, Just out of curiosity. I typed in

(46:56):
my code on the inside keypad, but the light stayed
red and the door stayed locked. I tried to shrug
it off, thinking it was like a time card thing
that it wouldn't open again until nine am. I looked
at my watch and it read nine oh two pm.

(47:17):
I turned toward the inside set of doors and punched
in my code. The green light and click granted me entry.
If I'm going to have to type in my coat
at every door, it's going to be a long night,
I thought. I stepped into what looked like a small
reception area. There was a desk and a couple of
vinyl couches along the wall. It was sparsely decorated and

(47:38):
dimly lit. The only painting I saw on the wall
had a picture of a large gait that was dark
red with words in some other language. I walked through
the first set of doors after inputting my code. They
opened up into a long, dimly lit hallway with doors
on both sides. The first one I came to said security.

(47:59):
It was no surprise when I saw a keypad on
the door lock. I typed in my code and opened
the door. Inside there was a desk with monitors and
a computer. There was also a table with two chairs,
another vinyl couch, a mini fridge, and a small bathroom.
I set my bag down on the couch and got
my water bottle out. I opened the fridge and found

(48:21):
a lunch box with a bottle on the door. I
guess it belongs to the guard I'm supposed to relieve,
I thought, where is he anyway? I put my bottle
in and closed the fridge, then looked around the room
more closely. There were three doors on the far wall
that I hadn't noticed. I opened the first one and
found it was a closet. A light jacket hung there,

(48:44):
and a small duffel bag sat on the shelf. I
sat my bag beside it and closed the door. I
opened the second one to find a weapons locker. Two
handguns and two shotguns, along with tasers and pepper spray
were locked behind a metal mesh door. I tried the
door out of curiosity, but it refused to budge. Surprisingly,

(49:05):
there wasn't a keypad to punch in numbers. It was
an actual lock. I looked around for the keys but
didn't find them. Maybe the other guard had them. I
closed the door and tried to open the third one.
It remained locked. Maybe it's a maintenance closet or something.
I sat at the desk and looked at the computer.

(49:26):
The monitor showed a login screen. I typed in my
code and it came up to an email. I had
three messages. I clicked on the first that read first
log in. I opened it and read welcome to your
first shift. I'm sure by now you have some questions.
First off, you need to log into our Wi Fi.

(49:46):
If you look at your phone, you'll see there's no
cell service inside the building. I looked, and sure enough,
my phone had no service. I followed the directions to
hook up to their Wi Fi. Once I logged in,
a strange symbol flashed on my phone. Then it went
blank for a whole minute. I tried to go back
or go to the home screen, but nothing happened. I

(50:09):
was about to power off when suddenly the screen came back.
Everything seemed normal and I was able to do everything
but make calls. My phone dinged as I received a text,
congratulations on setting up your phone on our corporate WiFi.
Calling will be disabled while you're on shift. If you
have any needs, text this number someone is monitoring twenty

(50:29):
four to seven. I saw the number they sent and
saved it as corporate. I opened the second email and
read the message your duties monitor for any unusual activity.
If there is unusual activity, text corporate immediately check to
make sure all doors are secure. Do green patrols twice

(50:50):
per shift, Do a red patrol once per shift. Do
yellow patrols four times per shift. I was wondering what
that meant when a video started showing the hallway floors
that had different color stripes of paint. There was green, yellow,
and red, and then there seemed to be another color
beside them. Before I could make it out, the video ended,

(51:12):
Take your breaks only in the security room. The email ended.
I looked at the subject for the third one, and
it read open only after the first patrol. I hovered
the arrow over the subject and was tempted to click,
but just then I got a text. Have you done
your first patrol yet? It read great? I thought, just

(51:35):
what I need is to be nagged at work. Not yet,
I texted back, better get to it. I sighed and
stepped to the door when my phone dinged don't forget
your flashlight. I read it and looked at the closet,
realizing I had done just that. I slowly looked back
at the phone, thinking many things I'd like to respond,

(51:56):
but texted thanks. I went to the closet and my
flashlight out of my bag. I looked at my phone
and thought anything else, wondering if it would respond. Thankfully
it didn't. My phone literally reading my thoughts would be
disturbing beyond belief. I opened the door and glanced at
my phone to see if I'd done anything else wrong.

(52:18):
It remained, thankfully silent. I stepped back into the hallway,
where every third light was lit. I assumed it was
the nighttime lighting and started down the hall, looking at
the floor. The lines were just like in the video.
The fourth line was black. I paused at the ramifications
of being guided towards something they didn't want me to

(52:38):
check on. That either meant they didn't care about it
or didn't trust me to check it out. Either one
was disconcerting. I decided to get a yellow patrol out
of the way. I followed the line down the hall,
glancing at each door that was marked with a letter
and a number. The first one said A one, the

(53:00):
next said A two. As I continued, the letter remained
the same as the numbers increased, odd numbers on the
right side doors even on the left. I reached the
end of the hall and the yellow and green lines
turned right down another hallway. The red and black went left.
I glanced left, but stayed right. My curiosity would have

(53:23):
to wait until later. I followed the lines down the
next hall and read the first door. It said B one.
This continued down the entire hall, just like the first.
At the end, the green line turned left, while the
yellow went right. This hall started with C one. The

(53:43):
entire time I'd been walking there was total silence. There
wasn't even the sound of air conditioners or anything It
was eerie. I stopped and looked around the hallway, and
all the doors were pristine. There wasn't a bit of
dirt or dust. It didn't look like a warehouse, at
least not like I thought the inside of a warehouse

(54:05):
would look. This was something else I would have to
make a list of questions to ask when I got
back to the security room. I continued my round and
followed the yellow line as it turned right yet again.
This hall started with D one. When I reached the
end of the hall, the line dead ended at a door.

(54:25):
I hesitated for a moment before opening it into another hall.
I turned and looked at the other side of the door.
It said A one. I looked to the left and
saw the security room. The yellow line had taken me
in a circle, or I suppose it would have been
a square. I shook my head, stepped into the security

(54:46):
room and sat down at the computer. The e mail
sat waiting. I clicked it. Congratulations on your first patrol.
I read the sentence and felt uneasy at the word successful.
Why wouldn't it be successful? I thought, by now you
probably have some questions. Perhaps we can answer them before

(55:07):
you ask. First, the black line do not follow it
under any circumstances. Second, as I'm sure you've already noticed,
you cannot leave until your shift is over. Third, make
sure you close any door you open. These are some
basic rules. There'll be more as your shift commences. I

(55:28):
looked for any more emails, but there were none. Great,
I thought, more rules. At least these ones aren't all
weird and creepy. I opened the mini fridge and took
a drink from my water bottle. As I put it back,
I glanced at the lunch box and wondered where the
other guard was. I checked my watch and it was

(55:50):
almost ten. I figured I should do my first green
line patrol. I went back out into the hallway and
followed the green line to the point where it veered
away from the yellow The silence in the hall was
starting to bother me. Listening to my own footsteps was unnerving.
The green line led to another similar corridor. This one

(56:12):
was e hall. I was starting to wonder just how
big this place was when I heard a sound I
didn't make. I slowly turned and looked back to find
an open door. I knew, beyond a shadow of a
doubt it wasn't open. When I went past it. I
showed my flashlight around, looking for anything and anyone, but

(56:32):
nothing was there. I approached the door and was about
to close it and resume my patrol when I heard
the sound again. My hand hovered over the knob as
my curiosity overwhelmed my fear and common sense. Instead of
shutting the door and moving on, I opened it enough
to look inside. The room was dark. I considered turning

(56:56):
on the light, but instead opted to use my flashlight.
I shown it around the room that looked like a
lab with plenty of workstations. I did a slow lap
around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary,
which was laughable because I had no idea what went
on in this room or this building on a day
to day basis, so how would I know what was

(57:19):
normal for this place. In the middle of my lap,
I noticed a dim light underneath a door at the
far end of the room. I slowly approached it, turned
the knob, and peeked inside. I wish I hadn't. There
was a large glowing glass container that held an entity.

(57:41):
Is the only thing I can think to call it.
I know if I call it what I think it
should be called, I'll go insane. Right on the spot,
it was easily the size of a large human and
then some It was black and covered with what I
could only describe as scales. There were sharp points sticking
out of its elbows and seemingly random spots along its

(58:02):
head and torso. Its face was a nightmare, with horns
sticking out of its forehead and curling up like a rams.
It was hovering inside the container somehow, even though there
was no liquid inside it, and holding its legs, making
it look like it was curled up in the fetal position.
I kept the flashlight down so as not to risk

(58:23):
disturbing this thing. I panned around the room. There seemed
to be controls of some sort near the container that
were making occasional hissing sounds. It was as if the
machine was breathing for it. How I kept from screaming
and running out of the room, I don't know. Through
some miracle, I kept it together and slowly backed away.

(58:46):
I held the doorknob turned, then slowly released it. Once
the door was closed, I breathed a sigh of relief
and started toward the door that led to the hallway.
I was almost there when I heard the soft scuffle
of a foot on the floor. I froze and turned
back to the room, panning slowly with my light. At

(59:10):
first I didn't see anything, and then a tiny, pale
hand reached up and turned the knob that led into
the monster's room. I didn't want to know what was
doing it. I just wanted it to stop. After a
quick rundown of potential outcomes, I settled on getting out
of that room as quietly as possible. I stepped toward

(59:31):
the hallway door, while shooting furtive glances back at the
other door that was slowly opening. I could see the
creature in its container and the thing that had opened
the door. It was small, only a few feet tall,
with gangly legs and arms. But what froze my blood
was seeing its face. It was embedded in its torso.

(59:55):
Two eyes and a mouth full of sharp, grinning teeth
were right there where its belly should have been. It
had no head. It was like someone had smashed all
but a few inches of this creature's torso and left
the face right there. It looked at me, and its
horrific smile grew as it reached the controls in the room.

(01:00:19):
I backed out into the hallway and closed the door quietly,
then ran as I followed the green line to its
ending underneath a door. I hesitated to open that door,
with my new knowledge that there were potentially dangerous creatures
lurking behind every opening. Finally I turned the knob and

(01:00:39):
peeked out into a hallway. The first thing I saw
was four lines on the floor, which told me I
was once again in the first hall. I looked at
the number on the door. It read a two. I
jumped out and slammed the door shut, diving into the
security room and shutting that door as well. I leaned

(01:01:01):
against it for a long moment, wondering how I was
going to do another patrol, knowing that either or both
of those creatures would be stalking the hallways. My attention
was grabbed by one of the monitors. There were over
a dozen images being transmitted onto different sections of a
large TV. I looked at the videos for the first

(01:01:21):
time and noticed there wasn't a single camera aimed at
the outside of the building. They were all inside. My
breath caught in my throat. That means they aren't afraid
of what's outside, but what's inside. I watched the monitors
fortunately they were in color. I focused on the cameras

(01:01:45):
that showed green lines on the floor and waited to
see if any of the doors opened. After thirty minutes,
I hadn't seen any movement. I sat back in my chair,
Feeling a little better. I decided to do another yellow patrol.
I didn't want to. I would have rather stayed in
the security room for the rest of my shift, but
that wasn't an option. I comforted myself with the thought

(01:02:07):
that I had been watching the cameras and nothing had moved.
It wasn't much comfort. I picked up my flashlight, trying
to keep it steady as my shaking hands showed my hesitation.
I stepped through the security room door and out into
the hallway. Somehow it looked different now. Before when I
was just checking a bunch of doors, I convinced myself

(01:02:30):
that nothing of interest was in any of the rooms.
Now I knew better. Now I looked at each room
as if it were about to spring open, and I
shook the thoughts away. I had to or I wouldn't
take another step. I walked down the first hall ears
a tuned to any sound. At my first turn, all
I heard were my own footsteps. Even they gave me

(01:02:53):
pause and had me whipping around to look behind me
from time to time. By the second turn, I was
beginning to feel a little less nervous. By the third turn,
I was almost calm until I saw where the green
line split off from the yellow. I stopped and stared
down the green hall wondering if that thing had slipped out.

(01:03:16):
For an instant I thought I saw a movement. I
shone my light all around, but saw nothing. Even so
I picked up the pace for my last hallway and
quickly opened the security room door, then closed it. Feeling
my heart racing, I looked at my watch and it
was nearly midnight. I'd done three of my seven patrols.

(01:03:37):
My phone dinged. There was a text, it's nearly midnight,
it said. I wanted to reply sarcastically, but thought better
of it. What's special about midnight? Didn't they tell you?
Tell me what the rules? My heart in my chest?

(01:04:01):
Not again. They told me I couldn't leave before my
shift was over, and to do different color patrols. That's
not the rules I'm talking about. I knew it before
the text came. Do I want to know what they are?
I texted, you need to what if I just sit

(01:04:22):
in the security room. There wasn't an immediate text back.
There are things that would happen like what like things
that would destroy you or at least your mind, I sighed,
So send me the list of rules. I shook my

(01:04:44):
head in disbelief that I was doing this crap again.
One at midnight, you must be in the security office
and stay there until twelve thirty am. No matter what
you see or hear, you must stay in the office.
And I don't open the door for any reason. That
doesn't sound ominous at all, I texted. Two. When doing

(01:05:09):
a patrol, if you hear someone calling to you or screaming,
ignore it. Do not attempt to find the source of
the sound. Three, if the doors start changing, follow the
lines back to the security room. That should actually take
care of you for now. Just remember, do not follow

(01:05:30):
the black line and don't go into any rooms. Are
you kidding me with this? I texted, I don't want
to do this again. Let me out. Sorry, not possible.
Nothing can open those doors until your shift is over.
And what did you mean again? I worked in a
fire tower with weird rules. Interesting, I'd like to hear

(01:05:53):
that story someday. Good luck, thanks a lot. By the way,
where's the key the weapons locker? Just in case? Didn't
the guard you relieved give it to you. I haven't
seen him. That's not good news. Is there a spare
key somewhere? No return? Text came, Hello, is there a

(01:06:17):
spare key? No response. I checked my watch and it
was twelve oh one. As if on cue, there was
a knock at the door. I took a step toward
it before I remembered the rules I'd been texted. The
knocking became more insistent. Next, the doorknomb began rattling, as

(01:06:40):
if someone was trying to tear it out of the door.
Who's there, I said, cringing at my own words. The
doorknob stopped rattling. There was a silence that was only
broken by the pounding of my own heartbeat. It's mister Larson,
A voice said, I've missplayed my key. Could you please

(01:07:01):
let me in. I took another step and reached for
the doorknob. When I remembered there's a keypad on the door,
I said, if you are who you say you are,
just punch your coatin and the door'll open. There was
silence on the other side of the door. It lasted
so long that I wondered if whoever it was had

(01:07:23):
gone away. I leaned against the door and put my
ear up to it. That's when I heard the loudest,
most blood curdling inhuman scream I'd ever heard in my life.
I threw myself on the floor, trying to get away
from the door as quickly as possible. The pounding continued.

(01:07:44):
I wondered how long the door would hold up, and
what I would do when whatever it was broke it down.
I held my flashlight like a baseball bat, looking all
around the room for a better weapon, and not finding any.
My eyes fell on the weapons locker, wishing I had
a key. The door started bowing inward with every blow.

(01:08:07):
It was so bad I got one of the chairs
from the brake table and wedged it against the doorknob.
I stepped back and looked at my handiwork. The ludicrousness
of a folding metal chair trying to hold off an
assault that was bowing a solid door was enough to
make me laugh. I knew it wouldn't last long. Sawdust
was raining down on the floor. I considered locking myself

(01:08:29):
in the bathroom, but saved that for a last resort.
And then suddenly the assault stopped. The last few remnants
of sawdust floated to the floor in silence. I gripped
the flashlight tighter, not trusting this respite. Sweat dripped from
my forehead As I waited for the assault to resume.

(01:08:53):
Nothing happened. I stood there staring at the door, dumbfounded,
not knowing what to do next. I glanced at my
watch and it said twelve thirty two am. The text
said to stay in the office from twelve to twelve thirty.
I thought, maybe it's okay to go out now. I

(01:09:15):
grasped the doorknob and slowly turned, taking a deep, cleansing
breath before pulling it open. I'm not sure what I
expected to be there, but what I found was nothing.
The hallway looked the same as it had before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Wait, the lines on the floor, they were wrong. Every
other time I came out of the security office, the
lines stretched down the hallway to the right. Now they
were going to the left. I looked to the right
and saw the doors that went to the reception area
and eventually the outside doors. This is impossible, I thought,

(01:10:00):
my breathing, becoming erratic with panic. I pulled out my
phone and texted, the lines are reversed. It took a
moment for the response. Did you break any rules?

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
I did everything the way you said. Someone was trying
to beat down the office door, but I didn't open it.
Have you gone in any rooms?

Speaker 2 (01:10:21):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
I wait. On my second round, I found an open
door and went inside to check it. Not good. What
did you see? Nothing? I lied? Are you sure I
didn't see anything but an empty room? Then why are
the lines switched? I have no idea. You're the one

(01:10:41):
who's supposed to know this stuff. Okay, do a yellow
line patrol when you get to the end instead of
going through the door. The line ends at open the
first door on your right and go through it, and
that'll fix things. Hopefully. What do you mean hopefully? No
return text came. Come on, man, you've got to be

(01:11:04):
kidding me with this, I texted, but still got no response.
I looked left, then right, then back at the security room.
I sighed and turned left down the hallway, following the lines.
It was shortly after my first turn that I noticed
a difference. The place was still silent except for my footsteps,

(01:11:25):
but something felt off. It was like I was in
a different place, but it looked the same. It was
almost like I was walking through a replica of the warehouse,
but different. Aside from the fact that I was going
in the opposite direction, which defied the laws of physics
because this hallway didn't exist. There was something else. I

(01:11:50):
found out what it was when I stopped my footsteps
kept going. I stood there halfway down the hall, listening
to my own footsteps continue on without me. I looked
down and my shoes were still on my feet, so
that was some comfort. I stomped my shoe on the floor,
but to my surprise, it made no sound. I stared

(01:12:15):
at my shoes as my footsteps rounded the corner and faded.
I rushed to catch up, but the sound was gone.
I looked down the dimly lit hall before me and
saw nothing. My nerves were getting a workout as I
resumed my patrol in total silence. My shoes no longer
made any sound. I tried stomping again, but nothing happened.

(01:12:40):
When I turned the next corner, I was greeted by
the worst sight imaginable. The little thing that had been
in the room on my green patrol was standing in
the middle of the hall, staring at me and smiling
that disturbing grin on its belly. But that wasn't the
worst part. Behind him was the black, scaly creature from

(01:13:00):
the glowing container. It stood at least eight feet high
and was breathing smoke. It looked at me in extended wings.
I didn't know it had. They reached both walls easily.
It was also smiling. Neither smile was comforting. I found

(01:13:20):
my feet rooted to the floor and my knees shaking.
The smaller creature made a chittering sound as it started
toward me, and the larger took its first step. Its
foot landed with the force of a jackhammer. The sound
was debilitating. I covered my ears as they approached. I
turned to run back to where I came from, but somehow, impossibly,

(01:13:43):
the same creatures were approaching from that very hallway. I
glanced back and forth at the mirror images of the
unearthly threats closing in on me from both sides. I
had no choice. I dove into the nearest door and
slammed it shut. The pounding began right away. I backed away,
but my foot stepped into empty air. I turned to

(01:14:05):
find I was at the top step of a stairway,
but only for a moment. Gravity took over and I
tumbled down the stairs. Fortunately there was a landing that
kept me from falling the rest of the way. I
slowly stood and made sure of my balance while looking
around at my new environment. The stairs I had fallen
down looked like concrete and had no railings. I glanced

(01:14:29):
over the side at the darkness that seemed to go
on forever. It reminded me of the Maria Mine staircase
in Lord of the Rings. I looked up the stairs
at the door that was still under assault, then looked
down the stairs that disappeared into darkness. Looking around the room,
I saw no other option. I reached into my pocket

(01:14:51):
and pulled out my phone. I had to go in
a room. Sorry, I texted, no response, come on, don't
be like that. Answer me nothing. I looked at the
phone and it showed no Wi Fi signal. Great, I said,
hearing the word echo back to me, I sighed and

(01:15:13):
started down the stairs. Fortunately, there was a landing every
thirty steps or so. Each landing started the next set
of stairs in a different direction. Looking down through the
middle of the staircase, I could see them disappear in
an elongated square. After a few landings, I found myself
thinking the strangest thought, what about the rest of my rounds?

(01:15:36):
The unending stairs didn't answer. As I continued down my
squared circle, I found myself getting tired. More than once.
I stumbled and nearly rolled down the stairs, only catching
myself in the nick of time to avoid falling into
the abyss. I'd been walking for what felt like hours.
I checked my watch and it said two twenty two am.

(01:16:00):
I was tired and thirsty. I sat down on a
step above a landing and contemplated my non existent options.
I could keep going. I leaned over and looked down
at the continuing endless stairs. I could go back. I
looked up at the seemingly endless stairs above me, knowing
the creatures were somewhere up there waiting. I wondered if

(01:16:25):
I would be fired for not doing my patrols, and
if I truly cared. My first hunger pang ripped through
my stomach. I know, I said, looking at my belly.
The foods somewhere up there. I pointed in some random
upward direction, having no idea where the security office was.

(01:16:53):
Out of sheer boredom, I glanced at my now useless
phone for an instant. The way Wi Fi signal showed up,
then disappeared. A bolt of hope shot through me. I texted,
I got chased into a room by some creatures. I
clicked send and waited. The signal stayed dead. I got

(01:17:17):
a beep saying there was a text, and excitedly read it,
only to find it was the failed to send notification.
I tried again, with the same results over and over.
I kept trying to send. It was my only option
other than continuing down the endless stairway. My phone dinged
again and I prepared to hit rescend when a message

(01:17:40):
showed up. It said, we'll deal with the consequences later,
describe the room to me. I was so overjoyed I
kept misspelling words dark, room, endless stairway. It took five
tries for it to send, and it was a few
minutes until a response got through. Okay, do nothing. Set

(01:18:03):
your phone down and lay perfectly still for five minutes.
I didn't bother to try repeatedly sending okay, I lay
on the platform. I set my phone beside me, and
I closed my eyes. I counted out five minutes, very slowly,
just to be sure I didn't end early. When I

(01:18:24):
opened them, I gasped. I was laying on the floor
in the middle of a square room. The pattern on
the floor looked like the endless staircase. I stood and
walked over to the door. I reached for the doorknob
and opened the door very slowly. The hallway appeared to
be empty. I stepped tentatively out into the hall and

(01:18:47):
started back, following the yellow line. I hoped I was
going in the right direction. At the end of the hall,
the line turned left, the green line separated off to
the right, and I stayed with thello. One more turn
in the yellow line dead ended at a door. I
reached for the knob, then remembered and turned to the right.

(01:19:10):
Opening that door, I peeked through and saw the security
room across the hall. I lunged for it and dove
back into the relative safety of the office. I went
straight to the fridge and grabbed my water bottle, then
opened the closet and pulled out my sandwich. I lay
on the couch and chugged half the bottle while inhaling
my sandwich. It wasn't long until I was asleep. I

(01:19:33):
woke to the sound of my phone dinging. I read
the text, Are you still with us? Yes? Thanks to you,
I texted, take a break before you do any more.
Patrols way ahead of you, and don't break any more rules.
I'll do my absolute best. Trust me a couple more rules. Really,

(01:19:56):
if you see any more creatures, don't go in a room,
stand on the line and be still. As long as
you're on the line, you'll survive. Can they hurt me?
Next rule? Yes? The next text didn't come. I set
down my phone and set a timer for an hour.

(01:20:17):
I thought he would text the rest by then. I
woke an hour later to my phone's alarm, but no text.
I tried again and waited, but got no response. What
do I do now? I looked at my watch and
it said three forty seven am. Okay, let's evaluate, I said,

(01:20:37):
sitting at the desk in front of the cameras and computer.
I have a little over five hours left until I
can leave this madhouse. I've done one green patrol and
three yellows, so I have one ech of red, yellow
and green to do yet. There's some kind of monstrous
creature roaming the hallways with his deform sidekick, and I

(01:21:01):
still don't know where the other guard and the keys
to the weapon locker are. The laws of reality seemed
to be subjective and depend greatly on whether or not
I opened any doors on my patrol. Somehow I decided
to do another patrol. I was more worried that the
building itself wouldn't let me out on time if I

(01:21:21):
didn't do all my patrols. For a fleeting moment, I
wondered if that was what happened to the guard I
was supposed to relieve, if he was sitting on some
endless staircase, trapped forever because he missed one patrol. It
wasn't a comforting thought at this point. It was all
that kept me from laying on the couch and sleeping

(01:21:43):
the rest of my shift away. I took another drink
and went to the bathroom, then stuck my phone in
my pocket, grabbed my flashlight, and headed out the door.
When I looked down, I was surprised to see the
lines going to the right. Maybe I reset things when
I reset the room, I thought. I headed down the hallway,

(01:22:05):
hearing my footsteps. Once again, I stopped, and the sound
of my footsteps stopped as well. It was a comforting
return to some normalcy. As I made the first turn,
I paused and peeked around the corner to see if
any creatures were waiting for me. The hallway seemed empty.
I looked at the doors to make sure none were

(01:22:26):
cracked open waiting for me to pass. They all seemed closed.
I was glad I hadn't run across the creatures, but
every step I took made me wonder if they were
lying in wait for me at the next turn, silently
waiting to jump out and do unspeakable things to me.
I glanced down at the lines where the red and

(01:22:46):
black went left and the green and yellow went right.
There was something on the floor. I'd bent down and
shown my flashlight to get a closer look. There was
a small drop of something red. I touched it with
my finger and it smeared on the floor. Whatever it

(01:23:07):
was wasn't dry yet, it hadn't been there long. I
brought my finger up to my nose and smelled it.
It had a metallic scent. My eyes went wide with
the realization it was blood. I jumped up and looked
all around, searching the floor for where it came from.

(01:23:29):
The yellow and green hallway looked clean, but the red
and black hallway I saw another drop three feet down
the hall. I shone my flashlight at the yellow and green,
longing to do a quiet patrol. Then I looked over
at the red and black lines that were punctuated with
drops of blood every few feet. I sighed and turned left,

(01:23:54):
following the blood and the foreboding red and black lines.
My senses went on high alair. I could hear my breathing,
I could smell my perspiration as my stress level rose.
Every step sounded louder than the one before. Even the
doors seemed to somehow menace me. When a light in
the ceiling flickered, I froze nothing, jumped out of a

(01:24:17):
room and dragged me to hell. I paused and took
a deep, cleansing breath, then continued my patrol, keeping an
eye on the blood on the floor. I came to
another turn and checked carefully before stepping into the new hallway.
The problem was it was a fork. The red line
went right and the black line went left. The blood

(01:24:43):
followed the black line. I thought back to the repeated
warnings not to follow the black line. I remembered being
trapped for hours when I disobeyed a rule and went
into a room. I stood there at the fork, looking
at each line in turn back and fourth. It came
down to a choice. Obey the rules, follow the red

(01:25:05):
line and play it safe. Disobey the rules, follow the
blood and see if the other guard is hurt. One
choice was selfless and the other was selfish. Another thought
pushed to the front of the line. I've already broken
the rules. True. I was trapped on the stairway to

(01:25:26):
hell for a while and wasn't sure if I'd make
it out, But I did. This thought tipped the scales,
and I stepped off the red line and onto the
black one. The moment I did, I felt a chill.
I looked around, but nothing else seemed different. I kept
following the trail of blood. When the hall got darker,

(01:25:47):
I looked up and every third light was still lit.
It was like something was snuffing out the lights. The
chill got more intense, to the point where I could
see my breath. The doors in this hall were fewer
and farther apart, and there were no turns I looked
at the doors to try to figure out how far

(01:26:09):
I'd gone. When I noticed they were blank. I shone
my light at the half dozen doors. Not one of
them had a letter number or any markings on it.
I decided my selflessness had reached its limit. I turned
and started back towards the fork where the red line was.

(01:26:29):
I walked for five minutes, and the red line was
still nowhere in sight. In fact, the chill hadn't gone
away either. The drops of blood were still there, though.
I broke into a light jog for a few minutes,
which soon became a flat out run. After a few
more minutes, I stopped to catch my breath. That's impossible,

(01:26:51):
I thought, realizing even as I thought it that I
had already seen impossible things tonight. Once I was breathing
normally again, I decided to break out of this loop.
I reached for one of the doors, but it was locked.
I tried another, and another, all locked. I pulled out

(01:27:13):
my phone and texted, I'm stuck again. We told you
not to follow the black line. The return text said,
it sent chills down my spine. How did you know
I was following the black line? I only said I
was in trouble. We know exactly what you're doing the
entire time you've been in the building. Then why didn't

(01:27:35):
you tell me not to follow the black line? We did?
You ignored it? So what do I do now? A
single word came back, making me wish I'd never come
to this place die. As I was still staring at

(01:27:59):
the three horrid letters on my phone, I heard a
noise behind me. It was just the shuffle of a foot,
and I knew I wasn't moving. I looked up and
there stood the hideous creature with no head and its
face on its belly. It was staring at me and grinning.

(01:28:19):
I turned to escape the other way, but the massive,
scaly creature was standing there, blocking my path. They had
me boxed in and none of the doors would open.
I was out of options. The only thing I could
think of was the text that told me to stay
on the line. I stepped away from the door and

(01:28:40):
out to the middle of the hallway and stood on
the black line. As they approached, I could see smiles
on each of their grotesque faces. The big one was
flexing its claws, and the small one's arms were outstretched
as if wanting to give me a hug, but I
knew better. They had me, and they knew it. With

(01:29:04):
nothing to lose, I ran towards the smaller one, and
right before I got to him, I swung my flashlight
with everything I had it smacked him right in the teeth.
I dove over his falling body as he crumpled to
the floor. I kept running as hopes sprung up in
my chest and fueled my escape. It was short lived,

(01:29:26):
as I heard massive wings flapping behind me, and the
next thing I knew, claws grabbed my shoulders, tearing through
my uniform and into my sides. I tried to escape
its grasp, but its grip was like iron. I stumbled
and fell to the floor. With the weight of that
thing landing on top of me, I felt and heard
pops in my back as pain raced down my spine.

(01:29:50):
It matched the pain in my face as my skull
bounced off the concrete floor on impact, I knew instantly
my nose was broken. It released it it's grasp so
its claws could stand on the floor, but it still
kept me pinned down. I heard it cackling as it
relished in my helplessness. I felt hot liquid run down

(01:30:11):
my back that I hoped wasn't my blood. I tried
to break free and squirm my way out of its grip,
but it was too strong, and all I ended up
doing was causing myself more pain. I felt its claws
tearing at my back, ripping cloth and skin. There was
nothing I could do. It was digging into my spine.

(01:30:32):
Once there, I was just a piece of meat. Whoever
had texted me was right. I was about to die.
The rules had finally been my undoing. There was a
flash of light and an explosion from behind me. I
felt the pressure release as the creature's weight lifted off
of me. I wondered at this new development, feeling grateful

(01:30:55):
but cautious as I painfully rolled to my side and
attempted to get out up. I got as far as
my knees when I felt and then heard a presence.
I looked, and there stood a man with a uniform
on similar to mine, only not as destroyed. He was
older than me and looked like he had been through
a rough time as well. He had several scratches on

(01:31:19):
his cheek and his uniform was ripped in several places.
He also had a bandage on his hand that was
red and dripping. I tried to get to my feet
but struggled. He helped me up, and we stared at
each other for a moment. Mister Larson, I presume, I said. Finally,
he looked surprised when I said his name. Do I

(01:31:40):
know you? He said, I'm your new trainee. I just
started tonight. What are you doing out here on the
black line? I saw the blood and followed it to
make sure someone was all right. He looked at his hand. Yeah,
got into a bit of a scrap. He said, I
should probably head back before Ugly decides to show up again.

(01:32:04):
I agree, I said, starting to walk away, but my
left leg didn't want to cooperate. I started to fall,
but he caught me. You all right there, son, my
leg seems to be having a bit of a problem.
He grabbed my arm and pulled it over his shoulder.
Let's get you back to the security office and take
a look at that. We started back down the hall,

(01:32:26):
and within a few minutes came to see the fork
where the red line split off. I was never so
glad to see anything in my life as that line
of paint on the floor. We started to turn back
towards the yellow and green lines, but I stopped. Do
you mind if we do a red line patrol? I said?

(01:32:47):
He looked at me, puzzled. I'd rather have someone with
me anyways, and we do have to go all the
way back? Sure thing, kid, he said. We kept going
straight on the red line. The farther we went, the
more my back seemed to hurt. Do you mind if
I ask you some questions? I said, keep my mind

(01:33:08):
off the pane? Shoot, what is this place? Well, now
you asked one hell of a question to start out with,
he said. It's hard to explain. Let's just say it's
a form of a testing facility, testing what. He seemed
to struggle with that for a moment and was silent

(01:33:30):
as we walked, testing all sorts of things. Obviously you've
seen some of the more incredible subjects, but there are
also simpler tests going on, like what mostly dealing with reactions?
How different subjects deal with stimuli. How do you know
so much about this place, he chuckled, When you've been

(01:33:54):
here as long as I have, you learn things. Just
then a door burst open and three ugly trees looking
creatures lumbered toward us. He stopped and tapped his watch,
then fiddled with controls for a moment as the trolls
advanced on us. Suddenly there was a wave of light
and they froze in place, right as they were reaching us.

(01:34:15):
I looked from him to the trolls and back. That's
a handy gadget you have, I said, When do I
get one of those? He smiled? Can you keep a secret? Sure,
I'm technically not supposed to have it, but I find
it makes patrols a lot easier nice. Maybe I could

(01:34:37):
borrow it once in a while, if you don't quit
after tonight, he said, that's a mighty big if, I said,
feeling the pain getting worse. We continued past the frozen
trolls until the red line dead ended at a door.
I reached for it, but he pulled me back. I'm
guessing you didn't get all the rules yet. Apparently not.

(01:35:01):
He touched his watch and a light shone from it
onto the door. It had a red X on it.
He shown it on the door beside it, and it
also showed a red X. The third door showed a
green circle. It's this one, he said, opening the door
and helping me through it to my surprise. We came
out in the main hallway. I looked at the number

(01:35:22):
on the door and it said a five. We walked
down to the security room and I reached for the
number pad to enter my code. I stopped and withdrew
my hand. Why don't you enter the code? I said, what?
Because I'm holding you up so you don't collapse. I
painfully reached over and leaned against the wall. I'm good,

(01:35:45):
Go ahead. He looked at me for a very long moment.
This isn't a very polite way to treat someone who
helped you out. No, it isn't. But I'd still like
to see you enter your code. He glared at me
with fiery in tents. Is this the way you're going
to treat your superiors? Not if they really are my superiors?

(01:36:07):
What are you saying? I'm saying I'd like to see
you punch in your employee code to show me you
are who you say you are. Who else would I be?
I don't know, let's find out. He stood there, looking
every bit like he wanted to deck me, and then
suddenly his expression softened. Good job, kid, he said, then

(01:36:32):
faded away to nothingness. I let out of breath. I
didn't realize I'd been holding and punched in my code.
The door opened, and I found myself once again looking
at this room as my place of refuge. I limped
into the bathroom and painfully peeled off what was left
of my shirt. I wetted some paper towels and tried

(01:36:54):
to pat down the gouges and scrapes on my back.
I looked in the mirror at my broken nose and
patted it with wet paper towels to get as much
of the dried blood as possible. I wasn't looking forward
to getting it set if I ever got out of
here alive. That is, as I stepped out of the bathroom,
something was different about the room. The weapons locker was open.

(01:37:18):
I stepped over to it and found the metal door
hanging wide open. There was a shotgun and a handgun missing.
I didn't want to think about the ramifications of some
one being in what should have been the most secure
room in the building, not only that, but taking weapons
as well, and the fact that they thought there was

(01:37:38):
enough danger to need the weapons in the first place.
I'll admit it would have been nice to have the
shotgun on the last patrol. But I grabbed a shotgun
and loaded it, then threw some extra rounds in my
pants pocket. Then I took a holster and put it
on my belt, loading a handgun to put in it.
I grabbed a taser and pepper spray as well. It

(01:38:00):
was strange, but being armed didn't make me feel more secure.
Maybe it was the fact that I had no idea
who had the other guns. I hoped it was my supervisor,
but this place had taught me to expect the unexpected.
The other difference in the room was the locked door
that I had assumed was a maintenance closet. It was open.

(01:38:23):
I chambered around in the shotgun and peeked around the
corner into the open door. It was dark. I was
tempted to close the door and walk away, but my
curiosity wouldn't let me. I turned on the shotgun's flashlight
and started through the door. I jumped as my phone dinged,
saying I had a text, don't go in that room,

(01:38:44):
it read. I stuck the phone in my pocket and
continued into the room. The light wasn't much help against
the total darkness. I could only see a few feet
in front of me. The passageway was cramped. I had
to walk a little sideways. TuS for phobia crept up
on me and had me fighting off panic. As I
continued down the tiny corridor, the light from the shotgun

(01:39:07):
didn't do much to stave off the darkness. There was
little to see, but it would have been nicer to
see it much more brightly. Suddenly the corridor opened up
into a large room. I made sure there weren't any
steps to stumble down like before. I flashed the light around,
but didn't see much. The room was empty except for

(01:39:28):
something small in the corner. I cautiously started towards it,
shooting glances all around as I went. When I got close,
I could see it was a small box. There were
bars on the front of the small door, and fingers
were sticking out. Hello, said a raspy voice, barely loud

(01:39:48):
enough to hear. Who are you? I said, my name
is Kevin Larson. Who are you? And why aren't you
wearing a shirt? I looked down, and sure enough, I
forgot to put my shirt back on when I was
tending to my wounds. That's not important. I need to
get you out of here. You can't. They're waiting for

(01:40:12):
someone to rescue me so they can capture them. I'm
nothing more than bait, and I fell for it, I said,
looking at the lock that prevented his escape. Go back
and report that I'm missing. The other security guard said,
I did that several hours ago, and they haven't sent

(01:40:32):
me one unless they're invisible, which for this place that
might not be much of a stretch. Who are you again?
I started last night. I'm your new trainee. You say
you started last night, Yes, and you called in that
I was missing. Yes, you're not my trainee, you're my replacement.

(01:40:59):
What do you mean If they haven't come looking for
me yet, that means they think I'm gone. Wow, talk
about job security. I kept fiddling with the lock, but
it refused to open. Step back, I said, what are
you going to? I fired the shotgun at the lock.
It hit but didn't break it. Stop, he yelled as

(01:41:22):
I chambered and fired another round. This time the lock
broke and came free. I opened the door in time
to receive a punch to the jaw. You idiot, you
could have killed me. He came out of the box
and wrapped his hands around my neck. Get off me,
I yelled, twisting out of his grip. He knocked me
to the floor and we rolled around trading punches. You're welcome, asshole,

(01:41:46):
I said, for what? Trying to give me a buckshot milkshake.
I stopped rolling when I heard the sound. It was
like a rushing wind coming toward us.

Speaker 2 (01:41:58):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (01:41:59):
I said. He jumped up and ran toward the corridor.
What is it? I said to his rapidly disappearing back
as I ran as best I could behind him. It
didn't take long for me to find out the large
creature i'd met last in the back hallway must have
had a lot of family, because they were all flying
toward me. I kicked into high adrenaline gear, running faster

(01:42:23):
than my injured body wanted to. The wave of black
wings was almost on me. I turned around long enough
to fire a shot at the closest one. I was
rewarded by seeing him not only fall, but take a
couple of his brothers with him. Encouraged, I fired again,
watching three more go down. I fired again and again,

(01:42:44):
feeling like I could take them on. As I squeezed
into the corridor, I aimed one more time, but the
gun only clicked. I had fired my last shot and
needed to reload. The problem was I was running backward
in a corridor that had no room, and my arms
were nearly pinned to my sides. I started hacking at

(01:43:05):
them with the butt of the gun when they got
close enough. It wasn't as effective as a buckshot blast,
but it still worked. They were almost on me. I
felt claws scratch at my head and face. Suddenly I
fell backward onto the floor of the security room. Help me,
Larson said, as he tried to slam the door shut.

(01:43:26):
I had the wind knocked out of me. I stumbled
to get up and rolled over to press my weight
against the door. They were still holding it open enough
that it wouldn't latch. I reached into my pocket and
pulled out a shotgunshell. I loaded it and stuck the
barrel into the opening. Before I could do anything, it
was nearly ripped out of my hands. By some miracle,
my finger was already on the trigger. It went off,

(01:43:48):
knocking them back just enough to close the door. He
collapsed beside me, breathing hard, and offered his hand. Now,
I'll thank you for the rescue. You're well, I said,
sitting there trying to catch my breath, not to sound ungrateful,
But how did you get in there? Anyway? I pointed

(01:44:09):
my thumb over my shoulder. Door was open. He fixed
a hard stare at me. That's impossible, I shrugged. I
don't know what to tell you. I walked in after
my last patrol. The door was open, and so was
the weapons locker. Was anything missing? He said, suddenly, alarmed
a shotgun and a handgun. He grabbed my arm and

(01:44:32):
yanked We have to go right now. Why The word
was barely out of my mouth when the floor erupted
beside me. I jumped up and followed him toward the door.
A shotgun blast hit the wall behind me. A chunk
of the door blasted out in front of us just
before we reached it, causing us to duck. Who the
hell's doing that? I said, Oh, come on, A voice

(01:44:55):
said from the other side of the room. You've forgotten
your rescuer all ready, Heddy. I glanced around the corner
and saw the fake Larsen aiming a shot at my head.
I ducked back just in time as the blast tore
a hole in the wall. Does this kind of thing
happen often on night shift? I said? Loading more shells
into my shotgun. Only when you break the rules, he said,

(01:45:19):
fixing me with a pointed glare. If I would have
known this place had all these freaky rules, I never
would have taken the job. Neither would anyone else, he said,
peeking around the corner and being rewarded with a shotgun blast,
nearly hitting him in the face. I don't get it,
I said, all these rules are stupid. Maybe we could
discuss it when we're safe. I fired off a blast

(01:45:42):
when I saw fake Larsen peek around the corner. And
when will that be? I shouted over the return shot.
His eyes darted around the room, as if searching for something.
He grabbed the shotgun from me and fired the buckshot
pierced the fire extinguisher, instantly filling the room with a
cloud of white powder. He grabbed me and dragged me
toward the door as the other Larsen fired blindly. We

(01:46:06):
fell into the hallway, barely staying upright, coughing powder out
of her lungs. I turned and slammed the door shut.
Will that hold him? I said? How many more patrols
do you have to do? He said, looking at his watch.
Are you nuts? Why would I do any more patrols
with that psycho running around? Believe me, he said, looking

(01:46:26):
me in the eyes. There are worse things than him
in this place. I thought for a moment, I still
need to do one yellow and one green. Do you
have any more shells for this thing? I felt in
my pocket and pulled out two more shotgun shells, then
handed them over. I pulled out the handgun and chambered around,
then turned on the safety. Let's go, he said, heading

(01:46:50):
down the hallway. I was still shirtless and feeling the
effects of the attack in the black holl but I
did my best to hide the pain and let the
adrenaline carry me a long. We walked side by side,
each alert for anything that might pop out at us. Surprisingly,
we made it all the way through a yellow patrol
without a problem. I looked at my watch as we

(01:47:11):
emerged back into the main hall near the security room
eight eleven, I said, we'd better get that last patrol
in quick. The first hallway was no problem. When we
turned the corner, however, my large, scaly friend made an appearance.
I didn't even hesitate. I shot him in the torso,
then in the head. He screamed, an inhuman shriek and

(01:47:33):
ran the other way. His little buddy took one look
at me, pointing the gun at him, and followed suit.
Larsen grinned and nodded at me. When he turned the
second corner. I couldn't believe my eyes. The floor was
suddenly made of lava. You've gotta be kidding me, I said, Okay,

(01:47:54):
I know it looks bad, but stay single file, and
whatever you do, stay on the line. He started walking,
keeping his feet on the line like a tightrope walker.
I followed after him. The heat from the floor was tremendous.
I was sweating buckets and didn't even want to think
about the consequences of toppling over without a shirt on.

(01:48:14):
We continued as quickly as possible, looking every bit like
two kids trying to walk the yellow curb on a
sidewalk right in the middle. I stumbled and lost my balance.
I stepped one foot into the lava to regain my
balance and was instantly rewarded with pain. I screamed in
shock and agony. It felt like my foot was literally

(01:48:35):
on fire. I got it back on the line, sucking
wind through my teeth, trying to stay on limping with
one foot you o K Larson said, define okay, I said,
I'm in some madhouse of a not warehouse with demons
and ghostly employees chasing me, and I literally just burned

(01:48:55):
my foot on lava. I know it's a lot to process,
he said, but we need to keep going, focus on
the job and save going crazy for later. I took
a deep breath and immediately began coughing from the fumes.
I hopped along, staying on the line as best I could.
I was ecstatic when we turned the corner and left

(01:49:17):
the lava behind. I nearly ran over Larson, who had
stopped and was staring down the hallway. I was about
to ask why he'd stopped when I saw for myself.
At the end of the hall stood his doppelganger, and
he wasn't alone. There were five of them. What do

(01:49:37):
we do? I said quietly in his ear. He jumped
at the sound of my voice. So close I don't know.
I looked at my watch and it said eight fifty one.
We only have nine minutes. I said, just go straight
at him. I ran ahead as fast as I could hobble.

(01:49:58):
They came at me in a crowd, fired and hit
the first one in the knee, taking him out of
the fight. I fired again, hitting another in the shoulder,
then again hitting his knee. Foe. Larsen had fired his
shotgun at me and thankfully missed, although I did feel
a burning in my leg. I would worry about that later.
Another shot, another Larsen down. I was nearly halfway when

(01:50:19):
his shot hit me in the shoulder. It erupted in pain,
but I kept going, shooting down the last of his twins.
I fired a shot at Larsen and somehow hit him
in the chest. He was wobbly, but still raised his
shotgun and aimed at me. We were close enough now
I could tell he would hit me. Suddenly a blast
came from behind me. It passed so close I could

(01:50:42):
feel the heat from the buckshot. It hit him in
the neck and he stumbled back. I added my last
round into his chest before he could pull the trigger again.
He collapsed in a heap, his hand reaching out toward us.
As we stumbled past through the door and out into
the main hall. I paused to catch my breath and

(01:51:02):
leaned against the door, checking my watch. Eight fifty eight,
I announced. We hobbled up to the reception door and
stood silently like two people waiting for an elevator. The
daytime staff began arriving and punching in through the door,
throwing furtive looks our way as they entered. The last
one was the security guard for the day. What the

(01:51:25):
hell happened to you two? He said. We looked at
each other and laughed as we punched in our numbers
and walked out. He stood next to his car, and
I stood next to mine. Will I see you at
work tonight? He said, absolutely, No way in hell, I said.
He smiled and nodded, understandable. He got in his car

(01:51:50):
and drove away. I took an extra moment to look
around at the building, which looked completely normal from the
outside in the clean forest air, and listen to the
birds singing their merry oblivious song. I got in my car,
slowly and gingerly, knowing there was no way I could

(01:52:11):
afford to go to the hospital. I hoped I had
some gauze and some antibiotic ointment at my dingy apartment.
I started my car and hoped I had enough gas
to make it home. Driving away from that building was
the best feeling. I started wondering if there was any
place around here that didn't have some strange rules to

(01:52:32):
protect their weird secrets, I knew I would have to
find a job in quickly. Maybe I could do fast food.
There's no way anyone could have dark secrets in a
burger joint, right. Camping alone can be terrified, especially when

(01:52:58):
something's hunting you. By Michael Kelso. The screams echoed through
the trees. I couldn't tell if they were human or animal.
All I knew was they were loud, which meant they
were close. As I listened to the high pitched shrieks,

(01:53:21):
it almost sounded like a couple of people having a
shouting match. If I had been at my apartment in town,
That's exactly what I would have thought the sound was.
But then the pitch changed and it took on a
feral quality. I knew whoever or whatever was making the sound,

(01:53:42):
I wanted nothing to do with them. Thinking you're alone
in the wilderness is one thing. It gives a certain
freeing feeling like you're so close to nature. But knowing
you're alone and hearing the terrifying, nearly indescribable sound sent
chills down my spot. I quickly questioned how much longer

(01:54:03):
I would be alone or alive. Did those things know
I was here? Were they planning their attack or was
it just a gathering of something like a harmless chill
session in the woods in the dead of night. Survival
instinct was screaming for me to get out of there

(01:54:25):
as quickly as possible, to hell with the tent in
my supplies, just leave. For a brief moment, I nearly listened. Later,
I would wish I had. Fortunately, I hadn't made a
fire yet and decided against one.

Speaker 2 (01:54:42):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
If by some miracle, those things didn't know I was here,
a fire would draw them in like flies to well
something I didn't want to be in. Even though the
screaming was all going at a fever pitch, I quietly
knuck into my tent and zipped it shut, as if

(01:55:04):
some flimsy material would magically keep at bay whatever beasts
were raging out there. Searching through my pack, I found
my Swiss army knife and kept it firm in my
grasp as I lay down on my sleeping bag. I
didn't dare settle in for the night, sleeping through being
attacked by wild whatevers and torn to shreds can be

(01:55:27):
bad for my health. As I lay there, eyes wide,
listening to the horrible shrieks that seemed to come from everywhere,
they suddenly stopped. At first, this was a relief, but
when the sound stopped, so did all other noises in
the forest. It was as if someone had hit the

(01:55:49):
mute button on all of nature. I heard a loud,
thumping sound that sounded like drums beating faster and faster,
until I realized it was my heart. Trying to calm
myself so I didn't have a heart attack on the
spot was a challenge. I tried to think of calm,

(01:56:09):
blue oceans and sunrises, of beautiful things that had nothing
to do with the situation I was in. Apparently I
did my job too well. I don't remember falling asleep,
but I do remember waking up in a panic. Jumping up,
I looked all around for the beasts that were coming

(01:56:30):
to get me. When all that stared back at me
were the contents of my backpack and the four walls
of the tent. I allowed myself to take a few
deep breaths. It was morning, the sun was up, and
the birds were singing. I took both of those as
good signs. Being alive was a bonus as well. It

(01:56:54):
was decision time. Do I pack up and cut my
trip short by two days, or do I write off
last night's incident as a rare occurrence and not worry
about it Today In the daylight, as the sun's rays
bathed me in warmth, It's funny how fear manifests itself
so much stronger at night. Last night, the forest seemed

(01:57:17):
like the most horrifying place I'd ever been. Today, it
looks like all the beauty of nature is spread out
before me. I couldn't imagine anything bad happening in such
a picturesque place. As I looked out over the clearing
in the woods, I saw a large dark spot that
was moving towards me. I dove into my tent and

(01:57:39):
emerged with a pair of binoculars. Peering through them, I
saw the spot was a bear and it was headed
my way. So much for nothing bad happening in nature,
My plan of action was to hide and hope it
went away or turned down another path before it got here.

(01:58:01):
That plan didn't work out so well. Within fifteen minutes,
I could hear it snuffling around the campsite looking for
something to eat. I hoped it wouldn't be eating a
fresh camper. The can of bear spray was firmly in
my hand, with my white knuckles clenching it. Having it
was one thing, Using it was another. That was my

(01:58:22):
last resort, spray and run. The sniffing got louder, and
I could see the bottom edges of tent being pushed
in by a large nose. My knuckles grew a little
wider as I followed its progress along the edge and
around the tent. And then there was a pause, a

(01:58:44):
dreadful pause, the kind of pause that horrible decisions are
born from. I was contemplating my own horrible decision when
the sniffing started again, this time leading away from the tent.
Breathing a cautiously optimistic sigh of relief, I opened the
tent flap just enough to see the bear lumbering off

(01:59:06):
into the woods again. I held a silent vote, just
like the song said, should I stay or should I go?
I'd only been camping up here once before, but I
didn't remember it being this dangerous. Maybe I just got
lucky last time. Not wanting my luck to run out,

(01:59:29):
I packed up my tent and got ready to leave.
The sun was already high in the sky, leaving me
just a few hours to hike out what took me
a full day to hike in. I looked for bear
tracks to see which way it had left, but the
ground was so dry there was nothing to see. Crossing
my fingers, I had it out on the trail, hoping

(01:59:51):
it had gone some other way. It was easy going,
making the terror of last night fade even more. I
still kept a way wary eye for the bear, though
no use in getting so caught up in nature that
I ignore her dangers. After around an hour of walking,
I found a large rock on the side of the

(02:00:11):
trail and decided to take a break, Pulling out a
granola bar in a bottle of water, I looked around
as I snacked. There was a clearing in the woods
and a rough path leading to it. It wasn't any
official path, just one that happens when a lot of
feet go the same way and tramp down the foliage.

(02:00:31):
There was a faint whiff of smoke coming from the clearing,
but I couldn't see exactly what was causing it. My
curiosity wanted to see what was there but my common
sense said no way. In the end, curiosity fought dirty
and said the smoke meant there had been a fire,
and the ashes could blow into the trees if the

(02:00:52):
wind picked up and cause a wildfire. It was a
good point, even though the wind was uncannily still at
that moment. I took a quick look around to make
sure the bear wasn't sneaking up on me, then started
down the narrow path. The trees blocked out some of
the light as I headed down the path toward the clearing,

(02:01:14):
making me literally descend into darkness. It wasn't a good feeling.
My eyes darted around, looking for anything out of the ordinary,
and I slowed my pace. Then suddenly the trees opened
up in daylight shone brightly on the clearing, and the
remnants of a fire with a wisp of smoke still rising.

(02:01:38):
Whoever had made it had been dangerously uncaring about the
safety of the woods. The fire sat right in the
middle of a patch of grass, with no ring of
stones surrounding it. My eye rose at the carelessness of
this person. I found myself wishing very bad things on them.
When I noticed something else. There were splotches of red

(02:02:00):
all around the fire. It was like someone had spilled
red paint all around. It was strange. Why would someone
bring paint out here in the middle of the woods.
I stalked around the other side of the fire, looking
for the answer to this mystery. Unfortunately I found it.

(02:02:21):
There was something pale sitting just outside the burnt grass
of the fire. It was next to a splotch of red.
I bent down and moved the grass to see more clearly.
Picking it up, I saw it was a severed human toe.
I dropped it and stood up like a shot. The

(02:02:41):
red splotches made sense to me now they weren't paint,
they were blood. A chill ran down my spine. I
suddenly felt very alone and surrounded. My eyes darted all
around the clearing and into the trees as I did
a slow circle, searching for whatever was about to attack.

(02:03:04):
As I searched, I saw the red splotches led off
into the woods in the opposite direction of the trail.
Curiosity tried to get me to follow, but I told
it to shut the hell up and high tailed it
out of there, my head on a swivel, searching for threats.
Just as I was about to reach the main trail.

(02:03:25):
I literally ran into the bear. I'd been so busy
watching behind me for whatever might be chasing me that
I didn't see what was right in front of me.
It turned to face me, showing its red teeth. Then
it stood on its hind legs, dwarfing me and roared.
I wish I'd worn brown pants, because I soiled myself

(02:03:48):
in fear. I was so terrified. I didn't move. I couldn't.
I was paralyzed. It dropped back down on to its
front legs and approached me, teeth bared. I knew right
then it was responsible for the screams and the dismembered tow.
The only thing I couldn't figure out was the fire.
I'd never heard of bears being able to start a fire.

(02:04:12):
This was, unfortunately, the last thought going through my head
before being eaten. It sniffed and took a step back.
If I'd known dropping a load in my pants would
save me, I would have done it last night. As
I looked into the eyes of my death, it wasn't
looking back at me. It was looking past me. I

(02:04:35):
wasn't sure what kind of trick this bear was pulling.
It wasn't like it had to fool me or anything.
It had me dead to rights. Curiosity made me turn
and follow the bear's gaze. I instantly regretted it. Standing
near the clearing was a monster. It was like nothing

(02:04:56):
I'd ever seen before. It stood on hind legs at
least eight feet tall. It had the horns of a deer,
but the face looked like a deer's skull with no
skin on it. Its shoulders were covered in what looked
like a cloak made of another animal's skin. The bear
let out a deep growl full of menace. I took

(02:05:19):
the opportunity to back away and allow the bear a
clear path to its adversary. It glanced at me for
a moment, then started toward the monster. As soon as
it was past me, I dropped my pack and ran
down the trail with every ounce of speed I could muster.
It didn't matter that my car was miles away. It

(02:05:41):
didn't matter that there was no way I could sprint
all the way there without collapsing and having a heart attack.
Just then I heard the fight, the growling, roaring, slashing,
knocking trees down. Fight that would have been awesome to
watch from his a bunker with two foot thick concrete walls,

(02:06:03):
just me alone, without a rocket launcher to defend myself.
There was no way I was sticking around. I ran
for a solid ten minutes before the stitch in my
side told me I had to at least slow to
a walk. I didn't dare stop. I knew I had
to keep moving. It was my only chance of surviving
by some miracle. The sounds of the fight echoed throughout

(02:06:27):
the trees, making it seem surreal to hear it, then
hear it echo back again. It sounded like the fight
was slowing down. I hoped it would last a little
while longer, maybe whichever one would forget about me or
be too tired to track me down. My walk had
become a limp. I was nearly out of energy and

(02:06:49):
had a mile to go to the relative safety of
my car. Surely, by now I could take it easy.
As the thought rolled through my brain, the sounds of
the fight ceased. The fading echo was all that remained.
I wondered which one had been victorious, and comforted myself

(02:07:09):
that the victor was surely enjoying the spoils by feasting
on the fallen adversary. But in the back of my mind.
Unease grew. What if it didn't forget me, What if
it was following me? Right now? I found myself walking
a little faster, much to the pain and chagrin of

(02:07:31):
my legs. The silence that fell in the aftermath of
the fight was disconcerting. The animals around me had been
chattering away. Suddenly falling silent was alarming. I started jogging,
each step a new exercise and pain. There was no
doubt I was being followed. The footsteps behind me were

(02:07:51):
getting louder. By the moment my car was in sight,
I was almost free. The footsteps behind me were very loud.
Now I knew it was right behind me, but I
didn't dare look back. Run, don't think, just run, my
thoughts screamed at me. Even my curiosity had no desire

(02:08:12):
to look back. Ten steps from the car, I dug
in my pocket, looking for my keys. For a brief,
terrifying moment, I couldn't find them. Then I dug a
little deeper and came away with my prize. I hit
the remote to unlock the car and dove into the
driver's seat. The engine had just roared to life when

(02:08:34):
the monster appeared. I threw the car in reverse and
stomped on the gas, whipping around and making the Monster
miss crashing through the windshield. I jammed it into drive
and flooredd as the monster recovered and started after me.
For a long, horrid moment, it seemed to be catching
up to me. The road was gravel and had several

(02:08:55):
potholes in it. I found myself swerving to miss the
biggest ones so my car wouldn't bottom out, but by
doing so, the Monster gained ground. It was almost within
reach of my rear bumper when I slid sideways onto
the main road. Once on the pavement, I floored it
and watched with satisfaction as the Monster fell behind. I

(02:09:18):
breathed a sigh of relief as I relaxed and settled
in for the ride home. It wasn't long until I
was pulling into my driveway and parking. My head fell
back against the headrest, and I was tempted to take
a nap right there, when my nose reminded me of
the state of my pants. Walking in empty handed was

(02:09:40):
a mixed blessing. I'd left hundreds of dollars in equipment behind,
but at least I was alive. My shower called to me.
I stripped through my pants and underwear in the trash,
then settled into the longest, most rewarding shower of my life.
After dry eying, I threw on a Metallica T shirt

(02:10:02):
and a pair of shorts. I came back out to
the living room and settled in to watch a movie.
Horror was Out. I knew I'd have nightmares for weeks
about my ordeal. I decided to watch an episode of Wipeout.
Three episodes later, I found my eyelids fighting gravity and exhaustion.
Heading to bed, I turned out the lights and stepped

(02:10:23):
up to the living room window, looking out over the
lights of the town. I sighed, seeing the trees of
the park far in the distance and knowing I'd never
visit there again. Before I turned toward my bedroom, something
caught my eye. It was impossible. I rubbed my eyes

(02:10:44):
to be sure. The monster was creeping out of the
woods and coming straight toward my house. As I watched,
it looked up and saw me. Our eyes locked mine
full of fear. It's full of menace. I ran through
the house, making sure every door and window was locked.

(02:11:05):
After that, I went to my bed stand and pulled
out my snub nose thirty eight, checking to make sure
it was loaded, and grabbing a handful of extra bullets,
shoving them in my pocket. Running back out to the
living room, I looked out my window, but it was gone.
Pressing my face against the glass, I searched the front yard,

(02:11:26):
but it wasn't there. For an instant, I wondered if
my imagination had been playing tricks on me. I went
to the kitchen window and looked into the back yard.
It was dark and I couldn't see much. Reaching for
the light switch, I hesitated, not wanting to see it
suddenly appear in front of me. But I had to

(02:11:47):
know if this thing was real or not. I would
rather that I was going crazy than ever see that
thing again. Flicking on the light, I took a half
step back. Nothing was there. I scanned the entire back yard,
all the way to the woods that bordered my property. Nothing.

(02:12:09):
I shrugged and was about to go to bed when
I heard it. My foot stopped on the first step
and I turned back toward the door. Some one or
some thing was scraping against the front door. Feeling like
I was in a trance, I was drawn to the door.
Leaning up to the people, I closed my eyes and

(02:12:31):
breathed a silent prayer that nothing would be there. My
prayers were answered. There was nothing out there. As tempted
as I was to just accept this audible hallucination, my
shaking hand reached for the door knob. The distance between
my hand and the door seemed to fade, like one

(02:12:54):
of those scenes in a horror movie where the camera
zooms in while going backward. I turned the knob and
held my breath while opening the door. Nothing was there.
I released a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
Looking around, the yard was empty, just the evening mist

(02:13:15):
clinging to the lawn. My imagination had gotten the best
of me. I turned to go back inside and saw
the door and door frame had long scratches on it.
My blood froze. It was real. It was here. It

(02:13:36):
had tracked me down. As terror gripped me, I saw
a flash of brown fur an instant before it charged me.
In sheer desperation, I fell back into the door just
as it hit the door frame. Its antlers slammed into
the frame, sending splinters flying as it struggled to get
loose from the destroyed wood. I lay on the door,

(02:13:59):
watching in grim fascination, stunned by the fact that it
had missed gouging my eyes by a mere fraction of
an inch. The doorway had saved me, the same doorway
that was rapidly disappearing under the monster's onslaught, I regained
myself and ran. As I darted through the living room.

(02:14:19):
Somehow I had the presence of mind to grab the
house phone and dial nine one one as I headed
down the basement steps, slamming the door behind me.

Speaker 2 (02:14:29):
Nine one one, what's your emergency?

Speaker 1 (02:14:31):
Came the lady operator's voice. I'm being chased by a
monster who's trying to kill me, I said, vaulting down
the stairs.

Speaker 2 (02:14:39):
I'm sorry, Could you repeat that.

Speaker 1 (02:14:42):
I'm being chased by a monster who is trying to
kill me?

Speaker 2 (02:14:47):
Are you talking about a person?

Speaker 1 (02:14:50):
No? What do you not understand about the word monster?
I shouted?

Speaker 2 (02:14:55):
All right, it's my duty to inform you that prank
calls will be reported to the police and you could
face charges.

Speaker 1 (02:15:02):
Fine, send the cops. Maybe they can fight off the
monster long enough to put me in cuffs. The line disconnected.
Son of them, I said, as I heard the monster
stalking around inside the house, I squeezed myself into the
far corner between the wall and the oil tank and
tried to be as quiet as possible, barely breathing. I

(02:15:26):
listened to its measured steps as it crept from room
to room. The floorboards complained with loud creaks, telling me
this thing weighed considerably more than me. I heard it
turn toward the stairs and thought about making a run
for the cellar door that led outside. When my phone
rang Hello, I whisper, screamed, trying to be as quiet

(02:15:50):
as possible.

Speaker 2 (02:15:52):
Is this the person who just dialed nine one one
about a monster?

Speaker 1 (02:15:56):
Yes? Who is this? There was a pause as I
heard the footsteps change direction.

Speaker 2 (02:16:02):
I'm from another agency, he said, Could you describe the
monster for me? So you're from one of those three
letter agencies that always say they don't spy on our
phone calls. Could you describe the monster for me?

Speaker 1 (02:16:18):
It's huge, I whispered, at least eight feet tall, covered
in fur and wearing the fur of another animal over
its shoulders. Oh, and it has antlers like a deer.
I heard a sharp intake of air.

Speaker 2 (02:16:33):
Where is it?

Speaker 1 (02:16:35):
I gave him my address?

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
I mean, where is it in the house.

Speaker 1 (02:16:39):
It's on the first floor and I'm in the basement,
I whispered, but I think it's coming down here. Just
then I heard the basement door open. Gotta go, I whispered,
then hung up the phone. The basement stairs groaned under
the weight. I hoped that the wood would collapse under
the weight and it would fall, snapping its neck. No

(02:17:01):
such luck. The stairs creaked as it continued to the bottom.
I had to duck in this basement so I was
sure it was on all fours to keep from getting
tangled in the rafters. My heart pounded. I struggled to
keep my breathing quiet so I wouldn't give away my position.
The chuffing of the monster's breathing was getting closer. I

(02:17:22):
wanted to close my eyes, but had to know when
it came close enough. Instead, I reached into my pocket
and pulled out the gun, aiming it at the corner.
I waited. The skeletal snout appeared, but I didn't shoot.
The shot would just bounce off the bone. I wanted

(02:17:43):
to hit something more vital and hope that I might
somehow survive. The rest of the bony skull made its
appearance and went by without noticing me. Next came the
neck and the rest of the body. I wasn't sure
where this thing's vital organs were, so I held off,
hoping that it might not notice me at all. Those

(02:18:06):
hopes were dashed when it sniffed, then whipped around and
stared right at me. I took that as a sign
to shoot it in the chest. The gunshot was deafening,
especially in such a closed space. My ears were ringing
so loud. I could barely hear the monster screaming and
tearing my oil tank limb from limb, trying to get

(02:18:28):
to me. I fired again, trying to hit any part
of its body as oil flew from its thrashing. We
were both covered in heating oil, and yet it still
kept coming. Three more shots didn't even slow it down.
It was so close the muzzle of the gun was
nearly touching it. I shoved the barrel into one of

(02:18:48):
its eye sockets and pulled the trigger. The flame from
the exploding gunpowder set the oil on fire. I don't
know if it was that or the bullet bouncing around
in its skull that made did it shriek even louder.
Flame engulfed its screaming form, making it look like a
demon straight from hell. It ran out of the basement

(02:19:09):
through the outside doors, bursting out into the open air,
and disappearing into the night. I was so relieved I
didn't notice right away that I was on fire. The
oil had splashed on me and had ignited when the
monster caught on fire. I tried to push my way
out quickly, but the monster had shoved the tank closer
to the wall, pinning me. The fire devoured the oil

(02:19:33):
on my clothes and my bare skin, making me scream
an agony as I tried in vain to get away
from the fire. This was it. I would die, this horrible,
agonizing death, trapped in an inferno. The monster would get
its revenge and not even know it. Maybe, once it

(02:19:55):
extinguished its own fire, it would come back and devour
what was left of me like a well done steak.
I must have been hallucinating, could have sworn a cloud
enveloped me. Just before I died, I woke in a
white room with an annoying beeping sound that wouldn't stop.

(02:20:18):
There was a smiling face in the corner staring back
at me, attached to a man I'd never met, How
are you feeling, he said, stepping over to the hospital bed.
Am I dead? I rasped, Not yet, he chuckled. It
was close, though. If we hadn't gotten to you when
we did, you'd have been a shish kebab. I tried

(02:20:40):
to lean up, but pain put me back in the bed. Yeah,
you're not going to be taking any hiking trips for
a while, he said. You've got burns all over your
legs that'll need some time to heal. I'm never going
hiking again, I said, Are you the guy I talked
to on the phone? Yeah? Do you mind telling me

(02:21:02):
the rest of what happened? He said, pulling out a
pen and notepad. Sure, I said, shrugging. Since you saved
my life, it's the least I can do. He pulled
his chair over and got comfortable. What happened to the
monster anyway, I said, He hesitated. It got away, didn't it? Yeah,

(02:21:26):
he said, lowering his head a little. We lost the
trail after it extinguished itself, but don't worry, we'll find it.
I didn't comment on my opinion of the competency of
government agencies out of respect for the man who saved
my life, but suffice it to say, I wouldn't be
sleeping very deeply once I got home. Where would you

(02:21:48):
like me to start? I said, The beginning is always
a good place. Bite me by David O'Hanlon. The rabbit

(02:22:09):
exited the log he'd taken shelter in and kicked at
the fleas that had done much the same inside his ear.
The bunny stretched then hopped onto the log. His nose
twitched in the adorable way that rabbit noses dew. The
air was cool and smelled of the previous night's storm.
The morning sun caught in the dewdrops bedazzling the high

(02:22:32):
grass of the meadow. His beady eyes surveyed the land.
Parasites be damned. It was a beautiful morning in the Ozarks.
Just across the field there was a downward slope that
led to a narrow holler rife with tight caves. Berry
bushes grew plentifully, and rainwater pulled in the various porous stones.

(02:22:54):
For the small fur bearers of the forest, it was
like hanging out at the mall. The rabbit was only
halfway across the field and could already smell the females.
He was late to the party, but it was better
to be late than belated. A persistent eagle had chased
him for over an hour the day before, forcing him

(02:23:15):
out of his normal foraging range. He finally managed to
escape at the expense of a squirrel that had been
distracted by an acorn. Even in the woods, shit happens.
The storm rolled in before the rabbit could get back
to the warren, necessitating a night in the log motel.

(02:23:36):
The rabbit knew arriving late wasn't going to hurt his
chances any Aside from the fleas, he was the perfect
specimen of rabbit masculinity. He was almost to the safety
of the trees when a shadow cast over him from above.
Before he could react, the flaming mass struck in front

(02:23:57):
of him. The earth erupted, and the rabbit disappeared, his
body becoming indistinguishable from the explosion. His head bounced when
it finally came back down and rolled to a stop
next to the smoldering crater left by the falling object.
His dead eyes stared at the scorched metal and the

(02:24:20):
strange glow of the otherworldly power source that had taken
it across the galaxy and inside the rabbit's ears. The
fleas enjoyed their meal next to a romantic radioactive fire.
Several months later, Lilah's nails tore through the tense nylon

(02:24:42):
bottom as she climaxed yet again. Rocco was a terrible
boyfriend and a miserable human being, but he was a
great lay. With that in mind, she'd suggested they camp
in the woods the night before the big reunion, in
hopes they could fuck away away any relationship tensions that
might boil over during the weekend with their former high

(02:25:05):
school click. Rocco groaned and collapsed on top of her,
signaling the end of round three without taking any of
his weight off. He reached from the nearby pack of
camels and pulled one out with his teeth. Got a spare,
She asked, about ten of them, he replied, tossing the

(02:25:26):
pack into the corner of the tent. Rocco crawled over
Lilah and unzipped the entrance, freeing the accumulated body heat
and pheromones of the last hour. He lit his smoke
and discarded the lighter before shuffling out into the humid
Arkansas evening. Twenty yards away. Antenna twitched to life and

(02:25:46):
rose out of the protection of the fossie to take
in the chemical stench of sex and co two. The
combination hit the creature's sensory organs, bringing it out of
its torpor like a fresh cup of folgers. Rocco, the
last true gentleman, wiped his cock on the tent flap
and then walked to the tree line to relieve himself.

(02:26:09):
He took a long pull from the cigarette and thought
about the others as his bladder let loose. Every year
since high school, they'd gotten together at Hawk's family cabin
to brag about their accomplishments, and every year Rocco had
nothing to add to the conversation. He hated those assholes.

(02:26:29):
They wasted their lives being overachievers, and every reunion they
tried to make him feel bad, like he was wasting
so much potential, as if he did everything he wanted
to without the burden of success. Successful people set expectations
that they have to live up to, whereas Roco just

(02:26:51):
had to live to exceed expectations. Piss spattered his feet,
breaking him out of his self congratulations. He looked down
at his bare toes and something shuffling through the fallen
leaves toward him. Roco redirected the stream in its direction.
Whatever it was stopped, but didn't retreat. Kinky, little son

(02:27:14):
of a bitch, aren't you, he chuckled. The warm fluid
rolled down the armored plates to the still stiff limbs
of the creature. Its simple eyes zeroed in on the
source of the heat. The glowing end of the cigarette
could have been an ice cube compared to the bright
glow of Rocko's shrinking erection. The creature sprang for cover.

(02:27:40):
Lilah scuttled out of the tent in a panic. Roco's
shrill screams drew nearer, and she spun on her hands
and knees, trying to find out where they were coming from.
She finally spotted him. He stumbled wildly with a large
dark object obscuring his crotch Like an over zealous sensor.
The thing fell between his legs, bloated with its first meal.

(02:28:05):
Blood erupted from the swollen, torn flesh volcano that had
once been Rocco's penis and showered the foot long insect.
It rolled onto all six feet and turned its gaze
to the hot terrified exhalations of Lilah. She started to scream,
but the creature was too fast. In a single bound,

(02:28:28):
it covered the distance between them and impacted her face
with the force of a baseball bat. Teeth flew into
the darkness, and the giant flea turned its attention to
the blood pooling in the young woman's mouth. The serrated
stylets of its mouth plunged into the puddle and threw

(02:28:48):
the back of her skull. The next afternoon, That fucking
losers probably in jail again, Hawks said, as he navigated
down the steep slope of the holler. Roco keeps getting older,
but he's never gonna grow up. Kara and I are

(02:29:09):
about to open our second dealership. Rocco's still passing around
his first demo. The world needs musicians as much as
it needs car salesman Danny replied. His bands called Thundercock.
Hawk snorted, let's not pretend he's Beethoven. I meant we

(02:29:29):
shouldn't downplay the value of art, not that he was
making any Thundercock is dog shit. Brian chimed in, but
I gotta admit they're just as good as a lot
of mainstream bands. White Snake, Danny said, curiously, Yeah, they're
on that list, Brian replied, before noticing his wife had

(02:29:53):
stopped to inspect something in the foliage. Wait, you mean
you saw a snake, Ryan shivered. The woods are just
a part of life when you grow up in Arkansas,
but that doesn't mean you have to like everything about them.
Ever since an incident in the Scouts, when he first
came face to face with a copper head nesting on

(02:30:14):
the side of a tree trunk, Brian had a lurking
fear that the scheming serpents constantly surrounded him. Next to
that log, Danny told him, a solid white snake, that's
no log, Hawk said, pushing past her for a better look.
Would it kill y'all to slow down? Kara's thick twang

(02:30:36):
called from the top of the embankment. Take your time, honey,
Frank said, dismissively. The opaque things slithered under the log.
When the humans got too close. Danny circled the object
and put a hand on her stomach. Revulsion churned her,
still digesting breakfast like a queason art. The desiccated skin

(02:30:59):
had trunk back, making the terrifying teeth look even more menacing.
There was no blood anywhere stranger. Still no bugs chewed
on the dehydrated flesh. It's a bear, Hawk nearly whispered,
Why does it look like that? Danny asked, dehydration Brian

(02:31:24):
said as he approached. It's been shit. It's mummified. Revenge
of the mummy bear. Wah, Hawk teased, Come on, man, mummified,
that's why nothing's eating it. Brian informed him. He's bear jerky.

(02:31:46):
Sucks to be him. Hawk shrugged. The lake is calling
the fuck. Something just touched my ankle. The leaves shuffled
around them, and something long and white in along beneath
their cover. Then more, something's moved. Brian kicked at the
detritus and saw the six inch larvae crawling hurriedly toward

(02:32:12):
the shelter of the bear's corpse. Well that's enough outside
for me, he grumbled. Ditto, Danny whispered, What are y'all
looking at? Down there? Kara called as she tried to
ease down the decline, but only managed a semi controlled
slide instead. Gosh, did y'all see that? I almost fell

(02:32:33):
right on my keyster. Ain't this where we saw them
squirrels last year? The other three looked around at the
still trees. The dingbat was right. It had been like
a Disney scene when they last visited, with every variety
of woodland critter having a block party. Despite the encroachment
of the nuisance of humans. Even Roco's boombox and his

(02:32:56):
metallica tape hadn't been enough to disturb them. But this time,
where are all the fucking animals? Brian asked. Danny knelt
beside a strangely shaped stone and flipped it over, revealing
the bucked teeth. Just like the bear, the jack rabbit
had been completely dried out by something. Snap it to

(02:33:20):
a slim Jim Hawk said, holding up the dehydrated remains
of a raccoon by its tail. What the hell could
have done this? Though? Those Danny finally managed to get out,
She pointed unsteadily toward Kara. The dark sclaertes that armored
their bodies blended in with the rocks jutting from the

(02:33:43):
hillside almost perfectly. One of the insects launched itself at Kara,
so quickly that it appeared to teleport from its moss
covered perch to the pale skin beneath the ragged hem
of Kara's cutoffs. The impact sent her to the ground
with a muted square wheel. Two more fleas pounced on her.

(02:34:03):
The cracking of her rib cage sent the others running
Like a starter pistol. A flea jumped, covering twenty feet
in the blink of an eye. It landed between Hawk's
broad shoulders and pierced his back, scraping against the scapula
with its mouth parts. The former football star tumbled forward

(02:34:24):
and rolled back to his feet. The fall shook the
bug loose, but the armored body had protected it from
the weight of the human crashing down on top of it.
Another flea landed on his chest. Hawk pulled it away
before it could bite. He tried to squash it in
between his hands, and when that didn't work, opted for
headbutting it. The exoskeleton ruptured with a spray of hemolymph

(02:34:48):
a Crosshawk's face. The flea's forelimbs grappled with the human's wrists.
Its hooked feet latched into the muscles and ripped them
free from the bone. Hawk dropped the bug in stumbled away.
He stared helplessly at the mauled tissue and exposed arteries
within the Two fleas leapt at the wounds. Their voracious

(02:35:10):
appetites overpowered the giant human. In seconds, Hawk's world spun,
his knees wobbled, and his vision blurred. He hit the
ground hard, but it did not disturb the buffet. Long
after everything went dark, he could still hear them slurping

(02:35:31):
noisily at the last drops of his life. Danny didn't
know where the hell she was running to, but knew
that wherever it was would be better than where they'd been.
They'd stumbled into the monster bug's nest. Once they were
far enough away, they'd be safe. At least, she hoped

(02:35:55):
that was how it worked. She didn't know much about
regular insects, let alone twelve venched demon flees left. Brian gasped.
He slowed to a jog go left. Danny was breathing
too hard to speak. Her legs were on fire. She
wanted to stop running to gather her thoughts to formulate

(02:36:15):
a plan, but she was convinced every stone and massive
leaves she saw was another one of those damned things.
She banked left, jumping over a fallen log, and veered
towards something resembling a trail. It is a trail, she
realized two years before, they'd ridden hawks three wheelers along

(02:36:37):
the path to an abandoned summer camp on the north
end of the lake. They weren't far from the cabin.
More importantly, they weren't far from their jeep. Danny's energy
levels surged with her new hopefulness. She ignored the pain
and pushed onward faster than before. After several minutes, the
path grew steeper. Her legs couldn't hold up any longer,

(02:37:00):
and she fell forward, but didn't allow it to stop her.
She dug her fingers into the earth, crawling along until
she could run again, then falling and repeating the process
all the way to safety. She didn't stop until she'd
clambered up the steps and onto the front porch. Spots
filled Danny's vision as she lay there, choking on the

(02:37:23):
breaths she tried desperately to inhale. It took several minutes
until she gained some control over herself and finally sat up.
She was alone. Fear flooded her with another burst of adrenaline.
Brian Brian. Danny looked around frantically. Brian answer me, he didn't.

(02:37:46):
The woods were as still and dead as that bear
had been, as her friends were as Brian probably was too.
Danny climbed to her feet, taking only a few seconds
to scan the path forward him Once more, no one
was coming. She threw open the cabin door and ran
to their room for the car keys. He'll be there

(02:38:09):
when you get outside, she told herself. He's never been
a strong runner. He'll catch up by the time you
find the keys. He's probably waiting at the jeep already.
She grabbed the rabbit's foot keychain from the nightstand and
rolled the soft ornament in her palm. Her dad gave
it to her the first day of college for good luck.

(02:38:32):
Good luck, she laughed softly. Hugh had four of them,
and look what happened to you? Glass broke in the kitchen.
Danny stuffed the keys into her shorts and crept stealthily
into the hallway. A pan clattered to the floor. She
looked around for a weapon, though she wasn't sure exactly

(02:38:52):
what she could use to fight a giant flea. She
eased along the wall to the kitchen door. A cab
it banged open. More things crashed, Another cabinet slammed. She
took a deep breath and momentarily forgot how to exhale.
The bugs didn't have a reason to trash the place,

(02:39:13):
which meant someone or something else was inside. She finally
managed to let go of the captive breath and rounded
the jam. The scream was unintentional. Kara leaned on the counter, wheezing.
Sweat plastered her hair to her face. Bug bites the

(02:39:34):
size of hubcaps oozed from their gaping centers. Kara scratched
violently at them, chris crossing the deep furrows she'd left
with earlier attempts. Vomits stained her gory shirt. Her eyes
were milky PUFs filled orbs tinged with pink swirls from
the internal hemorrhaging Convulsions racked her body, bringing her to

(02:39:59):
her knees. Danny started toward her, kicking something across the floor.
She followed the noise as it rolled it bumped against
the leg of the dining room table. Danny smiled at
the yellow can of six twelve, the insect repellent that
had been banned the year before, but Kara insisted it

(02:40:19):
was the only thing that worked against the beefy mosquitoes
of bull shoals. Apparently it worked on mutant fleas as well,
that must have been what Kara was searching for in
the ah. Kara moaned and clawed at the bite on
her chest. She coughed, hacking up crimson phlegm.

Speaker 2 (02:40:38):
Stop make it stop.

Speaker 1 (02:40:41):
Kara banged the inside of her head against the counter.
Stop it, she hissed. The banging grew harder faster. The
trim cracked spatter decorated the cabinet doors. Kara continued shrieking
and moaning like one of the undead, for the can
of repellent. Kara's screams were punctuated by the frantic strikes

(02:41:05):
of her head against the counter. Then she collapsed. Gray
matter pushed through the shards of broken skull to mingle
with the other fluids in Kara's matted hair. Danny stretched
her sweat drenched T shirt over her nose. Fleas carried plagus.
She didn't want to believe that's what the bugs were,

(02:41:28):
but there was no denying it. The way they jumped,
the way they ate. Giant fleas had attacked them, and
if the insects had mutated, then maybe the viruses they
carried had as well. She backed out of the kitchen,
rubbing the repellent across her exposed areas. She blasted through
the front door, then slid to a sudden halt. Everything

(02:41:52):
was quiet, save for the ticking of the tin roof
expanding in the afternoon. Sunchildhood memory scratched at the back
of her mind, as persistent as any flea bite. She
thought about the stray that had wandered into their yard
when she was five. The pup rolled over onto his

(02:42:13):
back for belly rubs, and little Danny had been scarred
for life. The fleas were clustered together, turning the dog
into their own personal bonanza buffet. She hadn't understood what
the little dark specks all over the animal were. Some
crawled freely between his stiff, tawny hairs. She probed at

(02:42:35):
a suckling swarm of the parasites. Detecting new prey, they
leapt onto Danny's hands. They'd bitten her dozens of times
before she managed to get them all off. She had
nightmares for months, which had only been quelled once her
father explained to her that fleas couldn't survive without an

(02:42:55):
animal to live on. That's why everything was silent. She
realized the sparse populations of black bears and elk were
the largest animals in the Ozarks. It wouldn't have taken
the monsters long to exhaust those options. There were no
viable hosts, so they'd turned to attacking everything they could

(02:43:17):
for even a few drops of warm blood. Danny started
off the porch and the first step squeaked under her weight.
It reminded her of a dying animal. In the silence
surrounding the cabin, she paused. One of the rocks in
the yard seemed to move. She blinked the sweat away

(02:43:39):
from her eyes as best she could and watched it
for a moment. It was just a rock. She took
another step and the stairs gave a relieved groan. She
wondered if fleas even had ears. The popping of the
roof grew more rapid. She glanced over her shoulder and

(02:44:00):
started running. The encroaching humans had been enough to awaken
the entire scratch of super fleas after months of dormancy.
They were desperate for a meal, any meal. The hot
roof made the cabin look like a giant animal to
their simplified heat sensing eyes. They'd forgotten entirely about the

(02:44:24):
humans that had led them there, and attached themselves to
the first hope they'd had for a suitable host. Their
piercing stylets punched fruitlessly into the unnatural skin of the house.
Starvation was taking its toll on them. One of the
weakest slid off the roof and into the yard. Its
legs curled up to its abdomen as it died without

(02:44:47):
a sound. The others continued working away at the cabin's
metal flesh. Danny was almost to the jeep when the
windshield of Hawk's Toyota shattered. The malnourished flea had misjudged
its jump and smashed face first into the safety glass.
Its lanky hind legs kicked for another go. The sickle

(02:45:09):
like claws scraped divots into the truck's hood. Another famished
flea launched itself from the roof, landing a foot from Danny.
She squeezed the bottle of six twelve, blasting the bugs
in the face. It hopped in a circle, toppling wildly
over itself, and then bounded into the woods. The incessant

(02:45:30):
pecking of the parasites on the roof stopped in near unison.
One after another, they sprang from their perch. Danny stumbled
backwards and fell to the ground. She scrambled on all fours,
finally getting to her feet just in time to grab
the jeep's door handle. She threw open the red door,

(02:45:51):
inadvertently batting down an attacking creature. Another landed on her arm.
She grabbed its head, mashed her thumb into the thing's eye,
and slung it away so quickly that its clawed feet
tore through her skin. Danny screamed and fell backwards into
the vehicle. The insects swarmed around her. She pulled the

(02:46:11):
door shut, catching one in the jam. Its armored exoskeleton cracked,
but it didn't break. The monster tried to bite. It
squirmed and swung its head around. The lancing mouthparts stabbed
into the seat repeatedly. Danny leaned back, pulling the door
with all her weight. It never made a sound, and

(02:46:34):
somehow that terrified her more than anything else. It should
have roared or hissed or made some other horrifying noise
like the monster it was, but the thing was completely silent.
As the two combatants tried to murder one another, Danny
reached for the keys and found the pocket empty. The

(02:46:56):
flea inched inside. She quickly pulled the door with both hands. Again,
the windshield cracked in tiny snowflakes. The fleas were striking
at her heat signature, fracturing the barrier between themselves and
their feast. She was dead, and she knew it. Either

(02:47:16):
her arms were going to tie her out or the
windshield was going to shatter, but sooner rather than later,
the fleas would be inside the jeep with her. Her
muscles burned. Danny wondered which would be more painful, a
single flea or the entire scratch latching on at once.

(02:47:37):
She'd probably lose enough blood to pass out in a
second or two if all of them got to her.
The canvas roof sagged suddenly, hooks tore through the top
as others searched for another way in. She tried to
weigh her options, only to find herself without any The
lacerations on her arms leaked down the door panel, the

(02:47:58):
handle started slipping through her grass. Danny swung the appendage
over the entrapped flea and flexed the muscles to speed
up the flow. Droplets pelted the monster like crimson rain.
It twitched and twisted, trying to find the source of
the smell. Driven mad by hunger, it stabbed into its
own thorax, chasing a drop of the precious fluid. Danny

(02:48:23):
released enough pressure to kick it to the ground. While
it was distracted. Before she could slam the door, she
saw other fleas descend on it. They ferociously bit into
their brethren, trying to get their share of the blood.
Danny hit the door locks out of instinct. She crawled
into the back of the vehicle to find a weapon.

(02:48:44):
A nylon bag caught her eye. While she wrestled the
tire iron free. She looked out the plastic back window
behind the extra gas can. The driveway was a steep
hill that banked hard to the right. The fabric tore
overhead as more fleas congregated. She could see them through
the widening gashes and knew she was almost out of time.

(02:49:07):
They were going to get in through sheer dumb luck.
When the weight brought the canvas top down. A plan
was starting to formulate, but she needed just a little
longer to put it into motion. She clamored back to
the front and rolled the passenger window down an inch.
Pressing her wounded arm against the opening, she mashed at

(02:49:28):
the cuts blood trickled down the glass in tiny rivulets,
but it was more than enough to draw the attention
of the ravenous fleas. She cranked the window almost closed,
but left enough gap to give them false hope. As
she smeared the fluid over the upholstery, the parasites fought
for space, knocking each other aside and clawing away the

(02:49:51):
more persistent ones for their chance to get into the jeep.
Danny toppled into the back once more. She grabbed the
bag and wrestled out an emergency flare. A flea dropped
through the roof and scurried onto the back seat. Danny
brought the tire iron up, running it through. She swung
the spiked end, bug and all toward the back window

(02:50:14):
and slashed the plastic. She discarded the weapon, watching the
flea suckling desperately at its own bodily fluids oozing down
the metal, Danny struck the flare and wedged it into
the gas can's handle. She flipped over the back seat
and released the parking brake. As she moved to the
driver's seat, she rubbed her arm across the dashboard. The

(02:50:37):
roof collapsed and Danny opened the door, letting herself drop
backwards out of the rolling vehicle. Fleas sprang onto the
fresh blood trail she'd left for them. The jeep gained
speed as it descended the driveway. The starving fleas were
too busy stabbing at the instruments and radio in hopes
of finding more blood within to notice their predicament. The

(02:51:00):
jeep missed the turn and jumped a stump, careening into
the woods before slamming into a tree. The impact ruptured
the gas can. The flare ignited the wave of fuel
as it washed over the vehicle. The fleas became fireballs,
shooting out of the wreckage. Others were trapped inside the
mangled jeep, their internal fluids boiled until they exploded from

(02:51:24):
the pressure inside their armored bodies. Danny laughed at the
sound of the parasitic popcorn bursting. She'd survived. She'd won.
The jeep's gas tank exploded, rumbling the ground beneath her.
She watched the pillar of fire and smoke rise above
the tree tops. Danny laid back. She'd find the keys

(02:51:48):
to Hawk's truck later. Maybe Rocco and Lila would finally
show up and she wouldn't have to or maybe the
fire would attract a game warden. That part could wait
five minutes before she was sure she was going to die.
She was safe, and she just wanted to spend some
time relishing in that. She closed her eyes. Her heart

(02:52:13):
rate was starting to slow down when she heard branches
in the trees above. She opened her eyes slowly, looking
for the source. A fat squirrel eased out onto a branch,
looking down curiously at the human. Danny smiled at the
critter and brought her wounded arm up and waved at it.

(02:52:38):
It chittered in response. Hey there, she said, fighting back
the urge to cry. We made it, little fella. It
chittered again. A shadow fell across its furry form. Danny
barely processed it before the flea dropped onto the rodent.

(02:52:59):
The stolets punctured the squirrel's neck, effectively decapitating it. The
flea drank greedily from the stump, and Danny watched in
horror as the plump body shriveled. The slurping let her
know the parasite had finished the appetizer. The flea jumped
from the branch straight for Danny's prone body. Something boomed

(02:53:21):
and bits of exoskeleton pelted Danny's body. She rolled over
and saw Brian limping toward her with one of hawk'skeet
guns over his shoulder kills on contact, he said, Oh
my god. Tears welled up in her eyes. You're alive.

(02:53:42):
Danny ran to him, throwing her arms around his plump
waist and burying her face into his chest. He kissed
the top of her head and forced himself to let
out a manly chuckle that was harder to believe than
giant mutated flies. Wheezed him harder, and they both sank
to the ground. I thought they got you, Danny sniffled,

(02:54:08):
almost he whispered. They wouldn't follow Kara because of all
the bugspray she had on, so I followed her back.
It was like they couldn't find me in her trail.
Then I saw them gathering on the roof, so I hid.
I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, I don't care. I'm just

(02:54:31):
glad you made it. Danny squeezed his chubby face between
her hands, that we made it. Yeah, me too. Brian
stood and helped her up. I appreciate the romantic fire, honey,
but I wish you'd blown up someone else's car. The
ground trembled beneath them again, but there hadn't been another explosion.

(02:54:56):
Danny looked around at the rocks dotting the yard, wondering
which of them might be hidden bugs. Her eyes flicked
to the trees. Nothing was moving. Her hand moved from
Brian's side to the double barreled shotgun. She snatched it
from his hand, passing it behind her back to her

(02:55:19):
dominant hand like a majorrette. The ground began to pulse
and crack. Hey, babe, she said quietly, I think it's
time we flee. We were hunted by something terrifying in

(02:55:46):
the woods by Michael Kelson. His shoulder was broken, the
arm hanging limply at his side like a loose bag
of sand. Sweat forced itself out of the pores on
his face and peeled off the burns on his hands.
It wasn't a good position to be in under the circumstances,

(02:56:06):
and the situation didn't seem likely to improve, but he
did have one thing working in his favor. He didn't
care if he survived. Are you all right? I asked,
cringing at the ludicrousness of the question. He looked up
at me, his eye swollen nearly shut. Yeah, I'm just peachy,

(02:56:28):
he said, sarcasm dripping from every word. Sorry, I just
don't know what else to say. Isn't much to say,
is there? Unless you want to talk about no, I said,
before he could finish the sentence. Let's talk about how
we're gonna get you down from here. He leaned over,
wincing as he did, and peeked over the side of

(02:56:49):
the cliff. How about you give me a little shove.
That should do the trick. Very funny. You know I'm
not gonna do that, he glared at me. Then maybe
I should give you a shove and make things quicker.
How about we focus on the positive. You know this

(02:57:10):
only ends one way. If you try to save me,
you get killed in the process, especially with we don't
know that for sure, okay, I said, packing up the
supplies we had and trying to form some kind of
plan to keep us alive long enough to get to safety. Besides,
we've been best friends since what grade school? If I

(02:57:30):
haven't already been tempted to toss you off a cliff,
I'm not going to start now. I stepped over to
the edge and glanced down. The wind whipped me in
the face, sending a chill through me. Even though it
was spring, there was still enough chill in the air
to make me shiver. I watched as the sun headed
toward the horizon. It would be dark before we got
out if I didn't hurry up. My right knee collapsed

(02:57:53):
as he kicked me in the back of the leg.
I stumbled, my knees, hitting the ground hard, rolling me
toward the edge. My hand shot out and grabbed the log,
saving me from a horrible death hundreds of feet below.
What the hell is wrong with you? I said, lying
on the ground and breathing hard. I told you this
only ends one way. Might as well get it over with.

(02:58:17):
I stared at him, not believing what I was hearing.
You're serious, I said, I thought you were just being you.
Look at me. I'm an excruciating pain. My shoulders a mess,
I have burns on my hands, and I'm not going
to be able to climb down. And even if I could,
there's there's no safety from We have to try, I said,

(02:58:41):
I didn't bring you here to die. I wish you
wouldn't have brought me here at all. There was no
way to know this was going to happen. He stared
at me, doubt filled his eyes. I turned away and
focused on filling my pack with what I hoped was
the right combination of supplies. I could make the pack
too heavy because I needed to lower him down and

(02:59:03):
possibly carry him too. I tied together all the rope
we had and double checked the knots. I clipped the
carabiner to his climbing rig, checking to make sure it
was still intact and the fire hadn't damaged it. I
stepped back to admire my handiwork. He was doing the same. Really,
he said, this is your big plan, sure, I said, smiling,

(02:59:29):
proud of myself and my ingenuity. Why not just ring
the dinner bell for every predator as you dangle me
like a carrot? You know what, You're right, I said,
It's not worth all this trouble. I raised my foot
and shoved his good arm, sending him toppling over the
edge of the cliff. I heard him scream as he fell.

(02:59:50):
Then silence. Thank god, I said, sighing. I was getting
so tired of listening to his whining. I heard that,
he said from over the edge. I stepped up and
peered over. He was dangling there ten feet from the
top of the ledge. Oh, dang, I thought I killed you,

(03:00:13):
I said, chuckling. He looked up and saw me peeking
over you, bastard, He said, well, isn't that what you wanted?
For me? To throw you off the cliff? How's that
working out for you? He glared, daggers at me. Makes
you appreciate life when you think you're about to die,
doesn't it. I said, you'll pay for this for saving

(03:00:37):
your life. Okay, I'll take full responsibility for that. I
began the long, arduous process of lowering him down. I
only hoped I had enough rope. After a while, the
strain took its toll. I was exhausted and sweaty. My
hands slipped and I had to quickly recover to keep
him from smashing into the ground. I managed to slow

(03:01:00):
the rope at the cost of my hands getting severe
rope burn. I tied it off to a tree and
leaned over to check on him. You okay, I yelled.
I couldn't see exactly what he was doing. It looked
like he raised his arm, but I couldn't tell. I
grabbed my binoculars and peered down, only to see he

(03:01:21):
was giving me the finger same to you, I yelled,
I need to take a breather. Will you be all
right for a few minutes. His answer was to slump
his head. I guessed he was taking a nap. I
sat next to the log and got out a bottle
of water, taking a long drink. After a few minutes,
I pulled out my knife and cut some strips off

(03:01:43):
the bottom of my shirt, wrapped them around the palms
of my hands, and tied them off. Why didn't I
think of that before I started lowering him. I thought
I was about to start another session of lowering when
I saw the rope vibrating. That's weird, I thought, What
are you doing down there? I yelled, stepping to the

(03:02:04):
edge and looking down. My spine turned to ice when
I saw nothing. He wasn't there, Adrian, I yelled. No response, Adrian,
I yelled again, quickly pushing away thoughts of the rocky movies.
I pulled the rope and it came up with no resistance.

(03:02:27):
I reeled in the entire length and at the end
there was no sign of Adrian. The rope didn't look
like it had been cut. It looked like it had
been torn or chewed. I stared at it for a
long time. Memories of the horrible events that led up
to this moment overwhelmed me. I collapsed to the ground

(03:02:48):
in fear. My eyes darted around like my head was
on a swivel. Every tree became a hiding place for
that thing. I could feel it lurking behind every bush.
My mind started replaying when the trouble first started. We
made it up to the top of the cliff and
celebrated by starting a campfire and making some coffee while

(03:03:10):
we set up our tents. Adrian was actually in a
good mood, if you can imagine, and we stayed up
by the fire until well after midnight the following morning.
His mood changed way to keep me up all night, ahole,
he said, pouring a fresh cup of coffee and looking
like he needed it. What are you talking about, Don't

(03:03:31):
play innocent, he said. You know you were hanging around
my tent, circling it late last night, growling and pawing
at the ground, trying to scare me. My eyes went
wide as he talked, I swear I was in my
tent the whole time. I fell asleep as soon as
my head hit the pillow. Then what was making all

(03:03:52):
that racket? He said, with doubt creeping into his eyes.
Maybe I was snoring and you heard that. Trust me,
this wasn't a snore. Well, if it wasn't me. Then
I narrowed my eyes at him. Wait a minute, I
know what you're doing. What am I doing? He said,

(03:04:14):
looking at his coffee cup. You're trying to scare me
with some campfire ghost story, hoping i'll wig out. I'm
telling you it's not some campfire story. It really happened. Yeah, okay,
I said, making it clear that I didn't believe a
single word. I mean it, he said, starting to get angry. Okay, okay,

(03:04:37):
I said, don't get your panties in a bunch. You better,
he started saying, and then stopped. His eyes were focused
on something behind me. I'm not falling for that, I said,
refusing to look until I heard a branch snap behind me.
I turned around and saw. I shook my head to

(03:05:03):
clear the memory. I don't want to think about that
right now, I told myself. I need to focus on
finding out what happened to Adrian. I stood and checked
my supplies, then double checked to be sure the rope
was securely tied to the tree, I avoided looking around
for fear of what might be lurking. Then, once everything

(03:05:24):
was set, I stared down at the deadly ground that
waited for me to make a mistake, muttered a quick prayer,
then jumped off the cliff. Repelling down was more difficult.
With a pack on my back and rags wrapped around
my already rope burned hands, I took it slow, working
my way down the same way Adrian had gone. I

(03:05:46):
also went slow for fear of finding what I didn't
want to find. I knew it was possible, so I
made sure to be as quiet as I could. The
rock face was rough, and I did my best not
to knock loose any pebbles or do anything that would
announce my presence. In a best case scenario, his rope

(03:06:06):
got frayed on the rocks and broke. I hoped I
would find him laying on an outcropping nearby, unconscious but alive.
As I descended, I noticed an opening in the rock wall.
My rope was in a straight line with it. I
imagined Adrian's rope was too. I stopped and swung myself
over to the rock face, grabbing a bigger rock and

(03:06:28):
pulling myself to it. I pulled my rope up and
stashed it, then climbed down the side of the opening.
There was a small ledge in front of it that
I landed on and peered inside. It was dark as pitch.
Even though the sun had just set. It seemed like
daylight couldn't penetrate the darkness. I pulled out my flashlight

(03:06:49):
and slowly explored the opening with it. It turned out
to be a large cave. I stepped inside, and walking upright,
my head easily cleared the ceiling by a good three feet.
Curiosity overtook me as I shined the light around this
newfound hall of mysteries. There were no markings on the walls,
and the floor was rough, like the cave had formed

(03:07:10):
naturally instead of by someone making it. But then again,
why would someone make a cave halfway up a cliff
face where it's nearly impossible to get to? I wasn't
sure I really wanted to know the answer. As I
continued inside, the air became cooler. I hugged myself and
fought off a chill. This cave was much bigger than

(03:07:33):
I had originally thought. I walked a short distance before
I noticed the smell. Actually, it was two smells that
intertwined with each other. The first was the smell of fire,
not like a rushing wildfire coming to burn me to
a crisp more like a campfire. The second smell was

(03:07:55):
less encouraging. It was the smell of decay. Some animal
had died in here, There was no doubt about it.
I hesitated for a moment, wondering if perhaps I had
explored far enough. My wondering ceased when I remembered why
I was here in the first place. Adrian was still missing.

(03:08:17):
If he had come down here, it didn't seem like
he was coerced, At least. I didn't see any sign
of drag marks on the ground or a struggle, but
then again, it was hard to tell on the rough
rock floor. I suddenly stopped, unsure of what to do.
The passageway split in two. I shone my light at

(03:08:37):
the right one and then the left. Neither seemed to
show any clue of which was the correct path. I
stared at each for a long moment, then mentally flipped
a coin and went right. As soon as I took
a few steps, I could feel a strong wind blowing
in my face, carrying the smells of fire and rot
with it. I nearly backed up and took the other path,

(03:09:00):
but this was where I was most likely to find Adrian,
at least I hoped I would. As I walked, I
noticed a slight glow ahead. I turned off my flashlight
and followed the ever increasing light. When I turned the corner,
I saw Adrian lying on the ground in front of
the fire. He didn't seem to be injured, well, at

(03:09:23):
least not any more than he already was. I didn't
see any blood near him. I did, however, see a
pile of bones tossed in the corner behind him. It
disturbed me to see the pile and think about my
friend's bones eventually laying there. I took a step forward
to go check on him, then suddenly stopped. The huge

(03:09:46):
rock that had been sitting by the fire suddenly moved.
I recognized it right away from the size and the
color of the hair that covered it. I stepped back
out of view and began shaking. I knew I only
had two options, kill this thing or hide from it.

(03:10:06):
There was nothing in my bag that would kill it.
I didn't have a gun with me, and I doubted
a pocket knife would do the trick. I had to
find somewhere to hide until it left. My mind ran
in circles trying to think of a hiding place. When
it dawned on me, I turned and went back to
the other passageway as quietly as I could. Once there,

(03:10:29):
I stepped inside, thinking it would be a long cavern
like its counterpart. However, it was almost immediately blocked. I
shone my flashlight on the blockage and was horrified to
find it was piled up with clothes, shirts, pants, shoes,
and even the occasional backpack. It was all piled nearly

(03:10:51):
to the ceiling of the cave, and more disturbingly, each
article had blood on it. There didn't seem to be
any that escaped damage either. Most were ripped or chewed,
probably like their unfortunate owners. I remember hearing about hikers
going missing in this very park, but I thought it
was just the normal stuff. Like in any other park,

(03:11:14):
people get lost or fall into some hidden crevasse or ravine.
I guess not. My mind screamed for me to get
out of there fast, but I needed to know Adrian
was okay and somehow try to rescue him, although at
the moment that seemed impossible. The longer I stared at

(03:11:35):
the clothes of these poor, helpless victims, the more it
formed into an idea. I grabbed some of the clothes
and pushed them aside, digging my way toward the bottom
of the seemingly endless pile. I wondered how many missing
people it took before a major investigation started. I reached
the bottom and took my pack off, setting it beside me.

(03:11:58):
Then I pulled clothes down on top of me, leaving
a small space for me to peek through. There was
just a hint of light coming from the mouth of
the cave, but it was rapidly dwindling. I slowly unzipped
all the zippers on my pack so I had easy
access without making a sound. When I needed something, I

(03:12:19):
settled in and tried to make a comfortable seat out
of the clothes. My conscience was not happy using the
clothes of murder victims for comfort, but I saw no alternative.
If I ran, that thing would hunt me down. It
already found us once. I must have been more tired
than I thought. Once I settled in, I fell asleep

(03:12:43):
almost immediately. I turned and it was there. I wasn't
even sure what it was. It was dark and hairy.
It stood on its back legs, but hunched over as
if readying for an attack. I was petrified, Adrian, I said,

(03:13:08):
what he hissed? Is that what you heard? Yeah, I'm
thinking so, he said, quietly, barely moving his mouth, as
if the monster wouldn't attack if you didn't speak. What
do we do? I said, through clenched teeth. How the
hell should I know? It was circling us and moving closer.

(03:13:30):
At the same time, its sharp teeth dripped with drool.
Did you bring a gun? I said, no, did you?
I slowly shook my head. It stopped and looked at
me as though it understood the whole conversation. It stopped
lurching and stood to its full height. It must have

(03:13:51):
been at least eight feet tall. It lunged at me
with incredible speed. I screamed and tried to run, but
my foot got caught on the log and I fell
over backwards, knocking the wind out of me. In the end,
that was a good thing. The monster lunged at my torso,
but since I fell, my torso was laying on the
ground with the rest of me. It flew through the air,

(03:14:13):
sailing right over me. I looked over at Adrian and
saw his pocket knife in his hand. The monster saw
it too. It narrowed its eyes at him and snapped
its jaws. I was surprised by how much its head
and snout reminded me of a dog. This was my
thought as I lay there on my back, helpless, unable

(03:14:33):
to breathe, I watched as it lunged at Adrian. I
saw him plunge the knife into its chest, and it
howled in pain. It never slowed even as he stabbed it.
It merely twisted in the air as it grabbed his arms,
pinning them to his side. I heard the crunch as
they both landed together on top of Adrian's shoulder. He

(03:14:56):
screamed as they continued to roll right into the fire.
Adrian tried to push his way out of the flames,
severely burning his hand, by grabbing a piece of wood
and swinging it in a huge arc, smashing into the
face of the monster. It whimpered and growled, then disappeared
as quickly and silently as it came. It took me

(03:15:17):
a while to be able to move. When I could.
I crawled over to Adrian, who was laying still beside
the fire. Are you okay, I said, rolling him on
his back. He screamed in pain as I rolled him
onto his injured shoulder. Sorry, I said, get away from me,

(03:15:38):
he said, as I helped him to a sitting position
and looked at his burned hand. Are you all right?
I said, yeah, I'm just peachy. I woke with a start,
but didn't know why. I reached for my flashlight and
was about to turn it on when I heard the

(03:15:59):
sound of sniffing. I froze. Every ounce of concentration was
on being as still as possible. The sniffing got louder.
I didn't dare even open my eyes for fear it
would somehow see them and that would be it. I
could feel its presence getting closer. I fought back the

(03:16:19):
panic that would make me do something stupid like try
to run. I just closed my eyes and thought about
the last sunrise I had seen, hoping it wouldn't be
the last one I would ever see. I felt the
snout touch the layer of clothes right in front of me,
and then it paused, as if it was deciding if
it wanted to eat me now, or save me for

(03:16:41):
a snack later on. The monster withdrew so silently I
barely knew it was gone. I waited for it to return.
I knew it was waiting for me to make a
move so it could catch me, but I didn't. I
sat still as a statue for what seemed like hours.
Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I had to move.

(03:17:02):
I had to stretch. I stood and stretched my arms
and legs, still quiet. When I sat back down and
made sure I was covered by clothes, I risked a
little bit of light through my hand to get a
bite to eat. Opening a granola bar without making noise
as a tedious job at best. It took me a
half hour, and after I ate, my only reward was thirst.

(03:17:27):
I sipped on my bottle of water, avoiding the temptation
to gulp it down. I didn't know when I would
be able to fill it. I checked my watch. It
was one in the morning, at the same time Adrian
had heard the growling. I took a chance that this
thing would be out hunting at night. I pushed my
layer of clothes off me, grabbed my flashlight, and went

(03:17:48):
to check on Adrian. I stepped carefully and kept my
light pointed at the ground, just in case. My eyes
strained to hear any sounds. Of course, there were the
echoes of my own footsteps, making me whip around, thinking
the monster was right behind me. I made it to
the main cave without having a full panic attack. The

(03:18:09):
fire had burned low, and a dull orange glow lit
the walls. I found Adrian lying in the same spot
as before. He didn't seem to be moving. I leaned
down and listened for breathing. I could hear a faint
breath Adrian, I whispered, shaking him. Come on, man, we

(03:18:31):
gotta go. He moved a little, Adrian, I said, looking
to be sure it wasn't sneaking up on me. Adrian,
come on. He opened his eyes just a slit, and
put his hand up to shade his eyes from the light.
He's still with me, buddy, I said. He tried to speak,
but nothing came out. Here. Drink a little water. I

(03:18:56):
gave him a few SIPs and he perked up a little. Why,
he rasped, Why what, buddy, Why are you here? I
came to rescue you.

Speaker 2 (03:19:11):
Leave me.

Speaker 1 (03:19:13):
I'm not going to do that. In the distance, I
heard a howl. It chilled me to the bone. I
wondered how far away it was and if it was
celebrating another victim. Okay, listen, I'm gonna go, but i'll
be back when i'm sure it's out of the cave.
I gave him another drink. You hang on, Okay. He

(03:19:36):
closed his eyes and laid back his head. I stared
at him for a moment, then jumped up and ran
out of the cave. I turned at the fork and
buried myself back under the clothes, turning off the light
as soon as I was set. It wasn't five minutes
later I heard something lumber by in the cave. I
had cut it too close. I needed to make mental

(03:19:59):
notes of when it went out out. I stole a
glance at my watch. It was one thirty seven in
the morning. I drank the last swallow of water and
lay down in my nest of clothes. I woke up
some time later. The cave was dimly lit. I could

(03:20:21):
see a bright light coming from the opening, but it
didn't penetrate all the way to my nest. I could
see the walls near the opening, but not much else.
As I watched a massive shadow block my view. It
was standing right in front of me. I became still
as a stone. What was it doing? Didn't know I

(03:20:42):
was there? Was it toying with me? Sweat poured off
my brow. I knew I was about to die. I
gripped my flashlight tight, knowing that it wouldn't do much
to the monster, but at least i'd go down fighting.
Something fell on top of me. It wasn't very heavy,
so I knew it wasn't the monster. I waited for

(03:21:05):
a long moment until I heard it walk away before
I used the flashlight to see what was on top
of me. I shone the light on the pile and
found new clothes. There was a shirt, shorts, underwear, and
a bra. I knew it was from the monster's latest victim.

(03:21:26):
My heart went out to that poor woman. I wished
there was something I could do to help her, but
there wasn't. I was barely surviving myself. My water was gone.
I had three granola bars left, and that was the
last of my food. I had to do something before
I didn't have the energy to escape. This was my chance.

(03:21:48):
Usually the monster kept to a schedule. I assumed governed
by hunger and thirst. I knew it wouldn't go out
again for hours. I could leave. I could sneak out
and be gone without it knowing I was here. But
I couldn't. I had to rescue Adrian. But why, my
mind said, because he's my friend? I thought, would he

(03:22:13):
leave you behind? Of course not. He'd be doing exactly
what I'm doing now. Really, that's why he tried to
trip you and throw you off the cliff. That wasn't real.
He was just joking around. He didn't seem like he
was joking. He seemed like he wanted to die and

(03:22:34):
to take you with him. He was just upset. How
upset do you think he'd be waiting here in this
cave to rescue you? Very He'd probably be wigging out.
He never was much for small spaces. Do you think
he would have left you by now? Maybe? But the
important thing is I'm not him. You could leave right now. No,

(03:22:59):
who cares if you save your friend and die in
the process. I do. Do you really think that thing
doesn't know you're here? What that thing is playing you?
It's stalking you, waiting for you to make a mistake. No,
I've outsmarted it. I've learned its routine. Keep thinking that

(03:23:19):
maybe you can outsmart its teeth as it's chewing you
to pieces. I'm not leaving yet. End of conversation. I
waited for a response that never came. Even though I
had decided to wait, there were things that still bothered me.
Was it toying with me? Did it really not know
I was here? Why hadn't it killed Adrian yet? Was

(03:23:42):
it leaving him alive to bait me in. The more
I thought about such things, the more I felt panic
rising inside me. I pushed the clothes aside, and the
dull glow shone from the mouth of the cave. It
called to me. It told me the coast was clear,
that I needed to go right now. I felt my

(03:24:04):
muscles tighten, getting ready to rise and run out of
the cave. I pushed the clothes over more, clearing a path.
When suddenly I heard something. I quickly and quietly buried
myself under the clothes. I had barely stopped moving when
I heard the monster lumber through. It paused in front
of the clothes, sniffing the air, then turned back toward

(03:24:27):
the mouth of the cave and disappeared. I waited for
a full minute before I breathed a sigh of relief.
My own ingenuity had nearly gotten me killed. I was
sure that thing wouldn't be going back outside for hours,
and yet it had left within minutes. I began to
doubt myself and my own intelligence for taking such a risk.

(03:24:51):
It was time to leave. I dug out from under
the clothes and started for the mouth of the cave.
Then I stopped and turned back. I had to try
one more time to get Adrian out. I went deeper
into the cave to the main room with the fire pit.
There was a freshly made fire, which told me I

(03:25:13):
didn't have much time. Adrian was still lying there beside
the fire. I went to him and leaned down. Time
to go, buddy, I whispered. He didn't answer me back.
I know it's going to be tough, but you need
to try. I grabbed his shoulders and gently shook him.
Come on, man, you gotta wake up. His eyes didn't open.

(03:25:37):
Something about his shoulders felt wrong. Aside from the fact
that one of them was either dislocated or broken and
should have caused him excruciating pain, he didn't twitch. The
other thing was the shoulders felt cold. Not just a
little chilly, they were stone cold. Adrian. I pressed my

(03:26:00):
fingers against his neck and felt for a pulse. There
was nothing. His neck felt cold as well. I pushed him,
and his body clumsily rolled over onto his back. I
tried to move his arms and legs, but couldn't rigor
mortis had already set in. I stared in disbelief. My

(03:26:22):
friend was gone. Not only was my friend gone, but
I had wasted all this time trying to rescue him.
Maybe I had killed myself in the process. I wiped
the tears from my cheeks and pulled Adrian's body back

(03:26:45):
into the same position. My only chance was for this
horrible monster not to know I was here. I stood
next to the fire, letting the smoke wash over me,
in the hope that it might somehow cover my scent.
After a couple of minutes, I looked back over at
my friend, said a silent goodbye, and walked back out

(03:27:07):
of the cave. I stopped at my hiding place and
climbed inside, hoping this would be the last time I
waited for death to pass by. I settled in and
took a nap to prepare for my escape. A short
while later, I woke up hearing the monster passed by.
I waited. When I thought it was time, I slowly

(03:27:31):
and silently packed my backpack, then stood to leave. As
strange as it sounds, I knew I would miss this place.
It had been a refuge of safety for the last
two days, even though it was also a constant reminder
of death. I stood at the edge of the pile
and tried to rearrange them so that nothing looked amiss.

(03:27:54):
Then I turned toward the mouth of the cave and
started making my way out. It was late afternoon and
the sun shone brightly in my face, blinding me. I
hadn't realized how bright the sun was until I was
without it for a couple of days. As I stood
at the mouth of the cave, my first problem presented itself.

(03:28:15):
I looked over the edge and it was a good
fifty to eighty feet to the ground. That would be
why people left the cave alone. They couldn't get to it.
I searched the surroundings looking for a solution, when one
presented itself. There were vines hanging from the trees that
looked like they might support me. The problem was they

(03:28:38):
weren't in reach. My arm would need to be a
foot or so longer. They sat so tantalizingly close that
I had to try leaning out to grab one. That
ended when I nearly stumbled off the ledge and fell
to my death. I searched for any other way, but
there was none. I just had to go for it.

(03:29:00):
I backed up a few steps, then took a deep,
cleansing breath, and ran. I jumped at the last minute
and grabbed for the vines. My hands wrapped around them,
but I was already falling, and I had to wrap
my legs around them too and squeeze for all I
was worth to slow my descent. My hands and legs
were burning as they slowed me, but I didn't dare scream.

(03:29:24):
The cave was still too close. Even sliding down the
vines may have been too loud. My hands were failing.
I didn't know how much longer I could hang on
My fingers let go one by one, and I fell.
I landed on my back, and the backpack cushioned my fall. Fortunately,

(03:29:45):
I had only been around ten feet from the ground
when I did. It still knocked the wind out of
me and left me laying there helpless as I looked
back up at the cave opening, only I could no
longer see it. It must have been invisible from ground level.
Once I could breathe again, I focused on getting out
of here. I stood and tried to get my bearings.

(03:30:07):
The sun was setting, so I knew which way was west.
It was around two miles to the south, where the
trailhead was. My car. My salvation waited there for me.
I made my way through the trees and headed south.
When there was an opening. Before I knew it, I
had run across a trail. I stepped onto it, feeling

(03:30:28):
more relieved than I had in days. Then I heard
something in the brush behind me. I froze. I turned
toward the sound and saw the predator. It was a
mountain lion, not the horrible monster I had just escaped.
But it didn't matter. If this cat was hungry, I'd

(03:30:49):
be just as dead. I tried to nonchalantly continue walking
on the trail, hoping it would lose interest. My walk
turned into a power walk, and still the lion followed.
It seemed to be closing the distance between us without
breaking into a run. Yet I tried to remember what

(03:31:10):
to do in case of a mountain lion attack, but
all I remembered was don't run. I thought of this
as I power walked away from the pursuing cat that
was getting closer by the minute. Suddenly I was hit
from behind. The lion had jumped on me. Fortunately it
had jumped on my pack. Its weight held me down,
making me helpless. As it climbed up my pack, heading

(03:31:33):
for my neck. I covered my head and neck, hoping
to survive. I could feel its hot breath against my fingers.
I knew an attack was imminent, and then it stopped.
It lifted its head and I could hear it sniffing
the air. In an instant, it leaped off of me
and was gone. I sat up and looked around, not

(03:31:56):
believing my luck when I noticed the forest had gone silent.
The only reason a predator runs away like that is
there's a bigger predator in the area, my mind reminded me.
I had a very good idea which predator had scared
it off. This was it fight or flight. I jumped

(03:32:21):
up and ran at a full sprint down the trail.
I didn't know I had that much energy left after
the last two days, but death is a great motivator,
and I knew this thing wasn't coming to congratulate me
for escaping its layer. My legs burned, I had a
stitch in my side. My backpack was throwing off my balance,
and I nearly fell. But I could see the trailhead.

(03:32:45):
There was a glint of metal that was on the
front bumper of my car. All I had to do
was keep going. I could hear panting behind me. My
footsteps weren't the only ones running on the trail. It
sounds more like a gallop behind me. For a fleeting moment,
I almost stopped to see if I was being chased
by a horse, but I knew that that would be

(03:33:07):
a fatal mistake. I reached into my pocket and pulled
out my keys, pressing the button and unlocking the doors.
I didn't want to make the same mistake I'd seen
in dozens of horror movies. I was one of the
ones screaming the loudest when the victim dropped their keys.
I ripped open the driver's door and dove inside. I
had just shut it when a nightmare landed on the hood.

(03:33:30):
I stared at it for a moment, transfixed by this
horrific apparition, it looked like someone had taken a dog
and turned it into a horrible beast. It was massive,
at least eight feet tall. Its fangs were sharp and red.
They drooled onto the windshield as the red eyes stared
at me. It reached back with its paw and smashed

(03:33:52):
into my windshield, nearly breaking through. I woke from my
stupor and started the car as it smashed the windshield again,
this time breaking through. It shoved it snout inside and
snapped at me. As I put the car in reverse
and floored it, turning hard and making the beast tumble
off to the ground, I threw it into drive and
stomped the pedal to the floor. The car looched forward,

(03:34:15):
with rubbers screeching in protest. I gained momentum when the
monster landed on the roof with a crash. It began
pounding over and over. I saw claw marks coming through
the metal and into the cloth on the ceiling. In desperation,
I began swerving back and forth, trying to shake the monster. Loose.
Metal and rubber protested at the maneuvers. With the extra

(03:34:36):
weight on top, I wondered if the car would flip
and end my escape in a bloody fashion. So far,
the road had been a park drive that was never
meant for such speeds. I knew there was a hard
turn coming up and I wouldn't make it as fast
as I was driving, I slammed on the brake, sending
the monster flying. I stomped on the gas and swerved

(03:34:57):
around it, continuing to gain speed. As it was I
knew if I had tried to run it over, my
car would never survive, and right now, survival was all
that mattered. I looked into the rearview mirror, and impossibly,
it was catching up to me. I saw it leap,
trying to land on the car again, but I swerved

(03:35:18):
in time, leaving it only asphalt to land on. I
made another hard turn and I was on a state road.
The monster followed me, but I was able to get
up enough speed to finally escape. I breathed a sigh
of relief as I sped toward town. I didn't bother

(03:35:41):
going home. I went straight to the police department. After
waiting half an hour to make it to the front desk,
I was finally interviewed by an officer. When I started
my story, he seemed to be only mildly interested. By
the time I was done, there were six officers standing
around listening. That was one hell of a story, the

(03:36:02):
officer said, looking around at the other officers smirking. It's true,
I said, The officer sighed. As the others dispersed. I'm sorry, Son.
As entertaining as that was, I'm too busy to go
chasing around the woods hunting after some urban legend. I
took a piece of paper off his notepad and wrote

(03:36:22):
down a series of numbers. What's this, he said when
I handed it to him. I had my GPS with me,
I said, those numbers are the location of the cave
that has all the evidence you need. Listen, Son, Without
something concrete, there's no one who's going out to the
middle of the woods chasing a fairy tale. Well maybe

(03:36:43):
this'll help, I said, getting up and setting up my
backpack on his desk. I opened the zippers and dumped
clothes out of them. WHOA, whoa, whoa. What's this concrete?
I said? These are the clothes of the thing's victims.
If you take DNA samples from the sweat and blood
on them, you might find matches to some people who've
gone missing recently. You're serious, he said, looking from the

(03:37:07):
clothes to me as if just waking up. Yes, I said,
as I got up and started toward the door. If
it's not too much trouble, I walked out, leaving several
officers staring at the pile of clothes. I got into
my destroyed car, hoping it would start, and headed home.
The entire way I kept glancing in the rear view mirror.

(03:37:31):
After all this, there were two things that captured my thoughts.
One I would be barricading my house as soon as
I got home, and two I wouldn't be sleeping soundly ever. Again,

(03:37:52):
I hope you all enjoyed that monstrous march through the
wooded lands of your mind's eye as much as I did.
Make sure you're subscribed because we have a brand new
terror tale coming this Wednesday, and of course, a terrifying
and true episode all about the Bennington Triangle this Monday.

(03:38:16):
So go to your favorite podcasting app click subscribe, and
while you're at it, leave us a five star rating.
It really does make a big difference. I've been Enrique Kuto,
your host and narrator, and I'll be talking to you
very very soon and until then. If you're going to
go camping, maybe by a very sturdy tent. Until next time,

(03:38:42):
my spookies,

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Not So Great Outdoors - Chilling Tales of Survival, Secrets, and the Supernatural