by Deb Stratton
Fate? I do not know. There must be a reason for everything. I thank Stem and walk bag over to my big bag of coolness. I think I will just sit here and dig through the clothing and little pockets. Maybe there are some little treasures I have not located yet.
Sure enough there it was. A small zip pocket with a necklace and a watch. A watch! It says 9:00. I know that it is morning and I have a watch! Whew! I threw my hands in the air with happiness. I can tell time in this crazy time free under the woods zone.
I am ready to put this on and I hope that it last forever. It is not a dainty watch. It looks like a man’s watch for hunting and it has a lot of buttons. I am tempted to press all of them and the smart part of my brain tells me to make the battery last. However long that could be.
I wrap it around my wrist and put it on the last hole. I look through the back of the bag and find some energy bars. And also a chocolate bar. I feel faint. The happiness is now overwhelming and I make a decision to stop until later in the day to simmer down and get my day started.
As Stem warms some meat, he extends his hand out with some for me. I am goofy and standing in front of him with my cup and new bag of coffee. I hand him the foil bag and he smells it. The aroma is wonderful. I take my water bottle and search around for a way to heat the water. I am thinking that a piece of fabric may make a filter. I will work on that another time. It seems that he
121
is tired and needs rest. I wave him over to his area and touch the stone on the necklace that I made for him. He touches my hair and turns to go and lay down.
“I will just rest for a while, and you can do what you like. Please do not go too far I must be sure you are safe.” He said.
I grin and say, “I will stay close.” and run back to my bag to start sorting out the items. What a great morning at home. My new home. My underground Bigfoot filled home.
ChapterEleven
I had never felt so happy in the past few weeks as the moment that this big old duffel bag appeared to me as a gift. I was thrilled to have the treasures that I had found. Just the first few items were such a thrill and then to discover there was even more in small pockets and zipper bags was a wonderful surprise. I was looking forward to my swim tonight and was waiting patiently for Stem to wake up.
I lay back down on my cot with my new items and thought about what kind of person owned all of this. I wonder if it was a married couple and they spent their weekends camping. Maybe they were Sasquatch hunting? Were they spending their time looking for this bag? I envision Stem trolling the area and taking the bag when no one was looking. I bet they believe in Bigfoot now if they got a glimpse of him in the area. People will think they are crazy if they tell the story.
I laid out my warm comfortable clothes and the soap I wanted to take with me. I even have a beach towel now. Counting the hours or minutes on my new watch until he opens his eyes. The comforts of life were certainly right before me.
123
I lie quietly for a few minutes and hear Stem wake up. He smells like fall leaves from his trip. I would love to smell fresh air and see sunshine again.
Suddenly I hear commotion from the common area and he jumps to his feet with a loud landing and tells me to stay still. A group of large hairy men stand at the doorway and he uses his arms to keep them from coming into our area. I hear them talk but cannot make out the words.
They look angry and he walks towards them gathering them to try to get them to walk down the pathway to talk to him away from where I am. I take this opportunity to go to the crate and plan to stay in there as long as I can.
I am feeling nervous and I am not sure what is happening. I hear crying and screaming. It sounds female. It sounds like a female human. I hear her voice.
Then, there is nothing. Just silence. I hear no sounds. I look at my watch and it says 3pm. It is time for nothing because nothing ever happens around here. There is nothing to plan and we just eat when we are hungry and sleep when we want. I am undecided on whether I should go back out to my cot. I know Stem will try to keep me safe and keep me out of the trouble that has brewed out there. It just seems odd.
I feel a large hand reach around the corner and grab my neck. It is squeezing and I am gasping for air while trying to stand up to get away. I am screaming for Stem with the little voice that I have left and something is stuffed into my mouth. I feel a large cloth or sack placed over my head and my hands are held behind my back. I am in danger and he promised to protect me.
The large Bigfoot man picks me up and I feel the hair of his arm on mine. I am thrown over his shoulder and held tight. I am running out of air and I feel dizzy. I feel a panic attack. I am scared.
We are running. Running a long way and he has me on his shoulder. I am getting the breath knocked out me and am too far gone to try to fight and run. I cannot see where I am or where we are going. Slam. I land on the ground and lay still Crying. I get my hand on the sack enough to pull out what was in my mouth and stay silent.
The man that has done this to me places my hands together once again and wraps the familiar earthy vines around my wrists. I now sit with my back in a corner. I feel the dirt through the back of my shirt. It is cold and chills me. He leaves me behind and I sit alone and taken. I am away from my area and this is not a kind act. My watch is hurting me and the vines are tight.
125
He has left and I am sitting in the dirt without one of my shoes and my hands tied behind my back. I close my eyes and am grateful that the sack on my head is easy to breathe through and is keeping my face warm from the air I am breathing in and out. I will just drift off in my thoughts and ease my mind. I am worried about Stem.
I am afraid that those hairy men hurt him. What went wrong? Why would they do this? Who was that woman that I heard screaming?
I see the woods in my dream. I reenact my walk through the paths that led me here. I had been there many times and I believe I have been here about a month or so. I see the woods filled with police crime tape and a sign that has been put up to keep others from using the area.
The news stories on TV are updated every night with my photo. I am missing. I have been searched for by hundreds of local volunteers and my family. There has been no hope left for them to find me alive. But I am. I am here. I have been bred. I have been kidnapped. I have been bound and tied from the only place I felt safe while I was here.
It has been a few hours and I still hear nothing. I see no light. I see no signs of life around me at all. I have no water or food. I have no crate. No shoe.
I drift away to sleep because I do not know what else to do. I cannot get warm. So I just rest.
In the morning hours I hear noise and there is the feeling of someone in the room with me.
“Is someone there? Please tell me if you are?”
A voice that is familiar to me says, “I am here and I did not bring you to this place. How did you get this far away from Stem?”
“Please help me, I was taken here and I need air. I need water. If you know Stem can you take this sack off of my head and take me back to him?” I said crying. “Please!”
“I cannot take you back. I can take the sack off and get you water. I can find Stem and I can tell him that I had seen you. It may help him to befriend me again.” He said. “Let me help get those off of your hands.” The vines were untightened and I wiggled my hands out of them after they were loose enough.
I looked at him when I removed the sack with my free hands and it was Broken! The same Bigfoot that Stem had to club down is the same one that is trying to save me.
127
“Will you take me with you, to find Stem?” I said.
“I cannot take you if someone was to see me with you it would cause a bigger problem. I am not sure who brought you here. I will be careful to get back the message of where you are.” He said, as he handed me a small bag of water. It was similar to a metal flask only leather. It was a pouch of some sort. It really made me sick to stomach to think that he drank o
ut of it also. I looked around the room to make some type of plan to escape.
I was relieved to have water and as he left I felt the warm sensation of my own urine coming. I had nowhere to go.
My sensitivity kept me proving to myself that I was alive. I had given my all to satisfy my new life and was left with no other options. The mess I was in was so horrifying that I did not know if I could make it another day like this. I had to find a way to leave. I wish he would have taken me with him. With the sack off it was easy to see what was around me and that was nothing. There was nothing around me. It was just an empty room.
The light was starting to peek in a little as the day started. I had spent the entire night dozing on and off. I
was not tired physically but mentally exhausted. There was no law or order here that I could see. I was fine and then not fine. The men that were angry and that were involved in my kidnapping would be high on my list of who I would want to never see again. I do however want to see Stem. I really missed the feeling of being taken care of. I thought about his eyes and the sadness that must be in them.
As I sat in the corner with wet pants and tears on my face I knew I must face my fear of what could be out there and at least look. Just once. I scooted across the room about 8 feet to look outside. I had seen an empty common area. It all looked unused and abandoned. Almost like it had not been touched for many years. I also had seen what looked like a door. A real square of stone and wood planks that could open up. Maybe into a fire pit or maybe it was to the outside.
As I took off the last of the vine on my wrist I grabbed it and put it in the sack that was over my head before. I also put in my water. I had nothing else. Except my watch and it was dirty and cloudy under the glass.
I must have damaged the watch when I fell onto the floor. Maybe it was when I was taken. I continued to look around and back and forth as quickly as I could.
129
It was almost like crossing a busy road.
My head was just paranoid and I could not take a stop without listening for a noise. I made it over to the hatch door and was able to open it. It slid right open. It was filled with leaves and sticks. It was filled with spiders and water. It looked like the bottom of a well. It was very similar to the well that I had fallen into but older. I knew it was not the same one because I was captured near the medical area. There were cots and other humans where I was before.
Here there was no sign of anyone. Bigfoot or human. No noise, any smoke or fire areas. There was not one thing to recognize. I tried to move some of the leafage away from the doorway carefully without letting it all spill out. I was sure I could fit through the hatch and I wanted to see if there was light up above. Sure enough I could see a ray of sun. Not a lot of light or sun but enough to know that this may be a way out.
Just as I had moved enough to climb in I heard voices. I heard pounding. Maybe it was my heart. It was a group of men. They were very loud. I slid into the rock well and pulled the trap door closed behind me. I was panicking at the thought of insects and the unknown touching me or biting me. I listened carefully and heard yelling. I know that the man who had taken
me was out there. He had seen that I was gone. He was angry.
He was with others and they must be some type of group that is out of control or not a part of the good community down here. It was some sort of bad boy club. I stayed put. I was careful not to move. I was not leaving this hatch unless I heard Stems voice. I knew that it was a long shot that Broken could get a message back to him.
It was possible though. If he was trying to get back in the good graces of Stem that this may be the best way to do it. I wanted to dig through this mess of forest trash and stand up but was afraid to move. I decided to move over away from the hatch and cover myself with the leaves in case I was discovered. I felt safe.
I laid there just breathing and looking up at the sun beam. The hole was mostly covered and about 6 foot wide. There was just enough to see the outside.
I could wait all day and try at dark to climb this rock wall. There was not much texture to it. Very much like the other one with moss and very slick. I am not sure that night would be better considering that is when I know that they hunt. It may be best to just wait until the end of the day before dark and see what I am
131
capable of coming up with. I have no idea what I am doing. I am really just a mess at this point. I have no real plan. I have really just had enough. I felt depressed and sad. I felt like maybe this well was the last time I would see sunlight. Maybe it would be the last time that I breathe.
I felt bugs crawling. I had seen a mosquito. Please keep me safe. I thought to myself over and over. Please let this end well. I could not hear anything outside of the small door. The sound was gone. It was barricaded by the wood planks. If something was going on I could not hear it.
I stayed still. I wanted to move and test the rock wall to see if I would be able to climb. The sticks were not big enough to stand on or escape with. I could not yell for help with the hopes of someone passing by. I had no idea where I was even located. I did not even know if it was the same wooded area I fell into originally.
I checked my watch. It said 11am. It would be a long day. Sleeping was always my cure because it passes time and helps me think. I had to think. I had to find a way to do something or just give up.
Hours passed by and still nothing. There was nothing at the hatch. There was nothing at the top. I was getting covered in bug bites. Small bugs were biting my ankles
and legs. I noticed a tick on my arm and flicked it off. I pulled the sack up to chest level and took out my water. There was not a lot in there but it was enough to keep me going for a few more hours. I drank about an inch of it and decided to save what was left.
I pulled my sleeves down over my hands and tried to cover any exposed skin that I could. My body hurt. I had changed my physical routine and felt stiff and
sore. I became a breeder and let my body become physically used by a Bigfoot. I was taken and thrown by another and now lay in the raw mess of this new life that was given to me.
The hatch opens. I start to shake a little. I have no tears left. I am hungry and dehydrated. I lay as still as possible while I feel a hand near my feet checking the leaves. I heard no voice and there was no way to tell who it was without speaking out. So I continued to lay motionless. Go away. Please. Go away. And then I heard out in the room a voice. While the hatch was still open I heard it again. It was Broken’s voice. He was telling someone that he had seen me.
“She was right here, in this room over here. She was there and I helped her.” he said.
And then I heard the sweetest grumble. It was Stem.
133
He was there and I was undecided what to do. I could announce myself. I could have a chance to go back safely with him. Or I could lay here and try to get out. I was torn. I was making bad decisions. I was questioning myself.
I decided to do what I thought was best and with tears in my eyes I sat up and said, “I am here, please help me.”
Stem ran to the opening and cleared the leaves so quickly with his big arms. He took hold of my feet and pulled me to the hatch. He then picked me up while I cried hysterically and he held me. He held me tight. He rocked me and let me cry. I was so grateful for his kind spirit and the feeling of his kindness filled me with warmness. I could not let go. I grabbed hold of the stone necklace and held it tightly in my hand. I thanked Broken and told Stem that without him I would not have been ok.
They walked together down the pathways and we never encountered anyone. No noises and no other Bigfoot. We walked quickly and Stem thanked Broken as we arrived at our area.
He then left while Stem carried me to the fire area. He sat down with me and did not let me go. I did not want him to. I was itchy and scratched up. I was dirty
and covered in insect bites. I needed water and food. I told him everything and he said that we would be leaving to stay now with his family in
our own area. It was an area that would always feel safe.
I was ok with that and hoped that we would be leaving soon. He moved my hair away from my face and said it was time to go. At that moment his father was in the doorway. He helped me pack my duffel and treasures. I made one last trip to my crate room before we left and recovered my shoe. With everything ready to go Stem picked me up once more to help me stand and we went together to the right. Towards his family home. We were going home.
