Day of the Sasquatch

by Eric S. Brown

  Charles was still struggling to process exactly what was happening. His mind told him that none of it could be real. There was no such thing as monsters and he hadn’t just watched Alex die. Most stores kept a shotgun under the counter in case they were robbed. Mom and Pop’s didn’t. Canton was a small town and its crime rate was low even compared to the towns it neighbored, much less the big cities farther east in the state. Charles always liked to be prepared though. He wasn’t old enough to get a concealed carry permit but often snuck out with one his dad’s pistols when he came to work anyway. He wore a .38 strapped to him in a holster under his pants leg. Unable to stomach watching what the monster was doing to Alex, the thing actually looked to be gnawing on one of the kid’s arms like it was a chicken leg served up at a Sunday cookout, Charles ducked behind the counter. He fumbled the .38 out of its holster and cocked it. The little gun didn’t bring him much comfort. From the looks of the monster that was eating Alex, he wasn’t sure the .38 would do anything more than make it angrier than it already was. What he needed to do was get the heck out of the store and to his car. He didn’t even think about using his cell to call 911. The sound of his voice would surely draw the monster’s attention to him and that was the last thing he wanted to do. Just staying behind the counter wasn’t an option though. The monster had seen him as it came into the store and eventually, it would finish up with Alex and remember he was there.

  Risking a glance over the top of the counter, Charles saw that monster had tossed Alex’s ripped off arm aside and was digging into the kid’s stomach with its fingers as if it were searching for the best bits of the kid to eat next. Crawling as quietly as he could on his hands and knees, Charles made it to the end of the counter near the store’s shattered door. Sharp pain stung him as shards of the broken glass on the floor cut into the palms of his hands. Charles bit his lip to keep from crying out and then hurled himself to his feet. He heard the monster roar as it saw him rise up, but Charles didn’t care. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. His legs pumped under him as Charles dashed through the door and into the parking lot beyond it. The creature followed him, plunging out of the store like some kind of comic book monster.

  Charles was halfway to his car when he realized that reaching it before the monster overtook him was impossible. How something as large as the monster that was chasing him could move as fast it did was unbelievable. Charles did the only thing left he could think of to do in order to try to save his life. He whirled around, bringing the barrel of his .38 up at the monster, and squeezed the trigger. The pistol cracked and bucked in the double-handed grip he held it in. The bullet thudded into the monster’s chest with no effect whatsoever. The monster didn’t even lose its stride as charged at him. Charles managed to fire three more times in rapid succession before the monster was on him. A backhanded swing of its right hand batted the .38 out of the grip he held it in and sent the pistol skidding across the pavement. Charles stood looking up into the monster’s glowing yellow eyes as it towered over him. It was so close to him that he could smell its rancid breath. Whether it was his fear locking his body down again or the speed that the monster moved at, Charles wasn’t even able to cry out before its fingers lashed out to plunge through his ribs into his chest. He felt its fingers close around his heart and watched the monster tear it out of him before his world faded to black.

  ****

  The girls were sitting on the porch of Ashley’s house waiting on them as Robert and the others made it back. They all leaped up out of their seats at the sight of Carolina and the crossbow she carried. That and how the whole group was running towards them, likely scared them half to death.

  “What happened?” Ashley yelled before they were even close to the porch.

  “And what the heck is she doing here?” Rita spat. “No one invited her!”

  “Did you guys find the cat?” Sarah asked as the group made their way onto the porch. Robert and Ed slumped against its banister, exhausted. Lyle marched straight up to Rita.

  “You got a problem with my sister?” Lyle stared Rita down.

  “Lyle, let it go,” Carolina told him.

  “We killed a Sasquatch!” Ed blurted out suddenly as he caught his breath.

  “We?” Carolina cocked an eyebrow at him.

  “Okay, okay,” Ed relented. “Carolina did!”

  “What?” Sarah was looking at them as if they were crazy.

  “There’s no such thing,” Ashley said, grinning at them as if waiting for the joke’s punchline.

  “What’s a Sasquatch?” Rita asked.

  Robert wondered how anyone could be as much of an idiot as Rita acted like.

  Ashley must have realized that they weren’t joking around. “Wait…you really mean it, don’t you?”

  Lyle nodded. “It came at us out of the woods. The thing killed my dogs.”

  There was pain and sadness in Lyle’s voice. Carolina stepped closer to him to rest a hand on his shoulder.

  “I’m so sorry,” Ashley said. “I didn’t—”

  “Wasn’t your fault.” Lyle looked over at Ashley. “You didn’t force me to go out there with them. Besides, even if you had, there’s no way you could have known that thing was out there. Stuff like that isn’t supposed to exist.”

  “Shouldn’t be we calling the cops or something?” Sarah asked.

  “That’s a dang good idea,” Lyle said, whipping his cell out of his pocket.

  “And just what are you going to tell them, Lyle?” Robert said.

  Lyle hesitated, staring at Robert instead of dialing 911.

  “Do you really think they’ll believe you if you tell them the truth?” Robert added.

  “We’ve got to call someone,” Sarah urged. “If you guys really did kill something, you need to report it.”

  “Tell them it was a bear,” Ed said. “That’s likely what they will tell folks after they cover it up anyway.”

  “Stop it with the conspiracy crap, Ed,” Robert snapped. “Enough’s enough already.”

  “Just call them as I see them,” Ed shot back at him.

  It was clear that the girls were still in shock from the insanity the group had brought back with them. Robert couldn’t tell if they really believed their story or not, but regardless, they were shaken up by it.

  “Where are your parents?” Carolina turned to Ashley.

  “On vacation,” Ashley replied. “They won’t be home until Monday.”

  “Great,” Carolina commented. “Guess they won’t be much help with this mess then.”

  “Just go ahead and call the sheriff,” Ed told Lyle. “It’s not like we did anything wrong and getting him out here would make things a heck of a lot safer for all of us.”

  “You said you killed that…whatever you call it.” Rita glanced around at all of them. “Doesn’t that mean we’re safe already?”

  “If there was just one of them, sure,” Carolina answered her. “But we don’t know how many more are out there.”

  “My sister thinks there’s at least one more of those things up on the mountain,” Lyle said.

  “Better safe than sorry then.” Ed walked toward Lyle as if he was going to take his cell and call the sheriff himself. Lyle jerked the cell away from Ed’s reaching hand.

  “I’ll do it okay. Just back off and give me a moment,” Lyle snapped.

  ****

  Roger let the front door of the sheriff station slam shut behind him. Dealing with the accident had taken all the energy he had for the evening. Sadly, there were still a lot of hours to go before his shift was over and he could go home. On the upside, the sheriff had praised how he had handled the whole mess. He looked up to see Simon standing next to Glenda’s dispatch area. Roger could see that something was going on.

  “Roger!” Glenda yelled at him as he came into her line of sight. “Why haven’t you been answering your radio?”

  Oh man, she’s gonna kill me, Roger thought, looking down at where the radio hung on his belt. He had
turned it off while focused on carrying out the orders the sheriff had given him back at the accident and forgot to turn it back on. He clicked it on now.

  “I’m sorry, Glenda. I messed up,” Roger apologized. “I just—”

  “We’ve got bigger problems, kid,” Simon told him. He was the most hardcore of the town’s deputies. If there was a fight or real trouble, he was the guy Jerry sent to take care of it. Simon was ex-military like the sheriff, and it showed in everything from the manner he carried himself in to the canon of a handgun that hung in the holster on his hip. Simon never carried standard issue, well, anything. The guy was a big believer that an officer could never be packing enough firepower.

  “What’s going on?” Roger stammered, taken aback by Simon.

  “We’ve got three calls that just came in,” Glenda said. “There’s somebody out at Mom and Pop’s. The lady is saying that the store is torn apart and the two kids that were working there are dead.”

  “Frag…” Roger breathed.

  “A call-in right after that one from a bunch of kids out at the Meadows’ place. They claimed to have killed a bear and that there’s another one wandering around outside the house. Truth be told, they sound high or something. Whatever is going on over there… I promise it’s nothing good,” Glenda continued.

  “Is it a full moon?” Roger tried to joke. Neither of them found it funny. Simon glared at him and Glenda huffed.

  “The other call is from some guy who lives out near Higgins’ Point. Claims that he saw a monster in the woods out there. According to Glenda, the nutjob sounds scared out of his mind,” Simon said, shrugging.

  “What kind of monster?” Roger asked.

  “Didn’t exactly say,” Glenda snorted, as if he were accusing her of not getting enough details from the caller.

  “Glenda tried to raise you in route here so you could swing over to Mom and Pop’s. That has to be our priority. If that call is for real, there are folks dead over there. She couldn’t get you though, so I am rolling out there myself. The problem is, it’s just us. John is still stuck watching things over at the Hendriks’ place. Some sicko stuff went down over there this afternoon apparently, and Jerry posted him there to keep an eye on that family as Mr. Hendriks is out of town,” Simon explained. “Glenda’s going to call Jerry back in, but it’ll take him a while to get up and out on the road.”

  “So which call am I taking?” Roger asked.

  It was Glenda who answered him. “You get on over to the Meadows’ place. That family owns the paper mill. They’re not people that you want upset at the department. Find out what those kids are up to and make sure everything’s good. Got it?”

  “On it,” Roger replied. “What about the monster call?”

  “The sheriff can deal with that one when he shows up,” Simon grunted. “Let’s get moving, kid. We’ve got work to do.”

  Both of them walked out of the station into the parking lot together. As they parted, heading for their patrol cars, Simon called out at him, “Be careful, Roger. You never know what’s up when it’s kids involved.”

  “I will,” Roger promised and slid into the driver’s seat of his car, cranking up its engine. Simon’s patrol car was already squealing out of the lot with its sirens blazing. Roger watched it dart out onto the road, making a sharp left turn as it did. Driving slower and not bothering to turn on his car’s sirens, Roger followed him out.

  When Roger arrived at the Meadows’ house, there were a bunch of kids sitting around on its porch. One of them was smoking and didn’t even try to hide it as Roger got out of his car. He recognized the kid as the ones at the high school called Spaceknight. Roger had read his work. Canton wasn’t exactly known for its “geek culture,” but that kid was a legend in it. He wrote for the high school paper, the town’s real newspaper with a biweekly column about comics and sci-fi/horror movies, and wrote fiction too. Roger remembered reading an article in the paper about the kid and how he had sold a book to Simon and Schuster earlier in the year. Impressive for a kid who looked every inch a punk and hadn’t even gotten his diploma yet. Roger forgot about him in a heartbeat though as saw that one of the girls was holding a loaded crossbow.

  “Ma’am,” he called to her. “I need you to put that weapon down before I come up there. Do I make myself clear?”

  The girl nodded and laid the crossbow on the porch, taking several steps away from it. Roger made his way onto the porch. It was the Meadows’ daughter that came to meet him as he approached the group of kids. Her eyes were red and looked like she had been crying.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her cautiously.

  “Yes, sir,” she answered, wiping at her eyes. “I guess I must look pretty bad though. I lost my cat a couple of days ago and it stills hits me from time to time that Jinx might never be coming back.”

  Roger didn’t really know what to say to that. He focused on getting to the heart of why he had been called out here. “So uh…who killed the bear and where is it?”

  “I did,” the tan girl with midnight black hair and brown eyes who had been holding the crossbow answered him. “Only it wasn’t a bear I killed. It was a Sasquatch.”

  Roger blinked. Surely, he hadn’t heard her right. “Come again. You killed a what?”

  “She killed a Sasquatch,” Robert assured him.

  “Is this some kind of a joke?” Roger was trying his best to keep a cool head, but what these kids were claiming was insane.

  “No joke, sir,” a big guy said who was with the kids and so close to their age in his looks that Roger hadn’t realized he was an adult. The Ghostbusters shirt and loose shorts he wore certainly didn’t scream ‘I’m a grown-up, treat me like one.’ “I was there when she did it.”

  “And just who are you?” Roger growled, getting frustrated.

  “My name is Ed. I’m the IT guy for the county school system,” Ed answered.

  “I was there when she killed it too,” Robert added. “And so was Lyle. If she hadn’t shown up, the three of us would likely be torn apart and rotting up the mountain instead of here talking to you.”

  “Who’s Lyle?” Roger demanded to buy himself a moment to process the fact that maybe these kids were telling the truth or that at least they believed they were.

  “He’s my brother,” crossbow girl chimed in. “I sent him home to get our guns. That’s him now.”

  “Guns?” Roger stammered. He turned to see a pickup truck pulling into the drive behind his patrol car blocking it in. His guts told him that they could very well be in some real trouble if these kids were as crazy as they were acting.

  The kid who was crossbow girl’s brother got out of the truck with a .30-06 in his hand and reached back inside its cab to drag out a carry bag that was clearly filled with more guns. Instinct took as Roger drew his gun and aimed it at the kid. “Put those down now!”

  Dropping the bag and the rifle onto the pavement of the drive, the kid’s hand shot up above his head like he was scared to death. Roger dashed from the porch to secure the weapons, grabbing up the crossbow in one hand as he went while keeping his gun aimed at the kid with his other. The rest of the kids were calling out to him, yelling that he had things all wrong. Roger didn’t think he did.

  “Back away, son,” Roger ordered the kid in front of him as he moved to stand over the rifle and the discarded bag of weapons. “Now somebody better tell me what in the holy devil is really going on here before I haul of you and toss you behind bars.”

  “We have told you,” Robert said in a calm voice, walking down from the porch towards him. “This isn’t a joke, sir, and we’re not trying to cause trouble. There’s a dead Sasquatch up the mountain over,” Robert pointed to the west, “and we think there’s more of them. That’s why Lyle went to get the guns. We didn’t want to be unarmed if another of those things showed up.”

  Robert spoke with such sincerity and matureness that Roger found himself starting to believe the kid.

  “If you don’t believe us, go loo
k for yourself,” another of the girls said.

  “Sarah…” the Meadows’ daughter, Ashley, cautioned her.

  “Uh yeah, that would be a really bad idea,” the guy named Ed warned him. “If there’s another of those things hanging around up there, you’re going to want to get some backup and a lot bigger gun before you do that.”

  “This is crazy,” Roger muttered.

  “Tell me about it,” Robert said, smiling at him. “Doesn’t mean that it isn’t real though.”

  Roger took a moment to collect his thoughts. “All of you back up onto the porch where I can see you. I don’t want any of you to even think about coming near these weapons,” he ordered them. He disarmed the crossbow and set it down to scoop up the rifle and the bag of guns then started for his patrol car, keeping his eyes glued on the kids to make sure none of them tried anything stupid.

  ****

  The parking lot of Mom and Pop’s was deserted. There was only a single car in it when Simon arrived. Whoever the lady was that had called in what happened here was long gone and he could see why. Near the sole car parked in the lot lay the body of a young man. At least he was pretty sure it was a young man. As mangled as the body was, it was difficult to say for sure without a closer look. The glass door leading into the store had been shattered and there were shards of glass that glittered from the light spilling out from inside on the pavement in front of it.