Alec Kerley and the Terror of Bigfoot (Book One of the Monster Hunters Series)

by Tanner, Douglas

  It peered at him intently, then leaned forward and raised its arms, spread out its hands wide, and stared up again. “Okk. Ga-ru.”

  It almost looks like he is in church, worshipping.

  The beast looked at him, pointed at its chest, then pointed up. “Okk.”

  Alec narrowed his eyes, focusing. It repeated the movement. “You’re… going up? Going up there?” Alec pointed up.

  The creature grunted and huffed, rocking forward and back repeatedly. It coughed.

  “What does that mean? How can you go up there?”

  It closed its eyes and lowered its head to its chest, as if asleep.

  Or dead.

  A chill coursed through Alec like a lightning bolt. Dead. He gazed at the creature. Is this thing trying to tell me that he’s going to die? Then, after a minute, in a sudden shock, he thought, Is this thing trying to tell me that he’s going up there when he dies? To God?

  He watched it repeat the gesture yet again, pointing to itself, then up at the sky. Then it spread its arms out wide and high, staring up.

  It believes in life after death.

  The face of his mom flashed in Alec’s mind briefly, like a photograph. Then it was gone, and here was this odd, smelly, white, hairy creature sitting there in the moonlight gazing up. And for some reason, his eyes began filling with tears, making the beast and the darkness before him blurry. Alec shook his head. “No.”

  It looked at him.

  “No,” he said again. A tear ran down his cheek. “There is no such thing. I know about death. My mom is dead. Okay? She’s gone.” He sniffed, and wiped his wet eyes. “So, when you’re gone, you’re gone. Sorry.”

  The elderly gray eyes watched the boy closely. It groaned. Leaning forward, it reached its hand toward him. Alec jerked, then held still. The leathery finger stretched out and touched a tear on his face. It raised its hand before its own face, rubbing its fingers together, as if studying the tear. It looked back at him with sad eyes.

  “You’re crazy!” Alec shouted, causing a sudden, surprised growl from somewhere in the darkness. He turned toward it. “Oh, shut up!” He looked back at the white creature. “You think God — if He were real — would accept someone, some-thing like you? You’re a beast! A monster! God wouldn’t want you! No one would want you. You’re all freaks!” The words rolled out of him in a torrent, like a giant ocean wave, crashing down with a pounding ferocity. The creature stared at him in silence.

  “Only saints and perfect people are loved by God. People like my mom. Not you!” He gazed at the thing for a moment, then whispered, “And not me.”

  Alec stood up, and he heard the rustling in the darkness to his left, accompanied by a loud snarl. The old creature tried to stand, struggled, and remained on the ground. The young female slinked into the moonlight and helped the old one stand up, slowly, painfully. She remained next to it, helping it stay erect. Even in its bent and grizzled condition, this ancient monster towered more than three feet above Alec, and it gazed down at him.

  The small male Bigfoot scrabbled out of the darkness and touched Alec’s arm. “Okk.”

  Alec jerked his arm away. “Leave me alone!” He glared up at the beast in front of him, only a few feet away. Tears continued to pour down his cheeks, salty and running into his mouth, dripping off his chin. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, neither making a sound. He could hear it wheezing, struggling for breath.

  “She’s gone,” he whispered, finally, sobbing. “She’s gone. Death is not so great. You don’t come back. You’re gone. You’re gone. Forever.”

  A long, thin arm snaked out from the old creature and it spread its giant hand on Alec’s chest, gently. “Okk. Ga-ru.” It looked up and sighed. Then it peered down at Alec, leaned in close, and said, low and quiet, “Tok-sha.” With that, the ancient creature turned around and, with the young female at its side, tottered silently into the black night.

  Alec stood in silence. The huge male crashed toward him, a growl rumbling low in its chest. The little one grabbed Alec’s arm again and jerked him down to the ground. It turned to the giant and squawked that loud mix of ape screeches and Oriental-sounding chatter. The huge male stopped next to Alec, huffing in anger. Then it turned and slunk back to where it was sitting before.

  Alec settled into the dirt and grass, wiping the wetness from his eyes and face, sniffling. He looked up at the countless, glittering stars. All he could think about was his mom, and the tears started again. He sat in the darkness and wept.

  They had been in the woods now for a long time. Maybe hours. Seeing that Ken wanted to lead the way, Emily had given her flashlight to him to use. She followed close behind him, followed by Ethan, then Sarah. Ken marched on like a man on a mission, shining the flashlight at the curtains of blackness around them as if trying to get the night to reveal its secrets. They stayed close together, banded against the unknown. Mosquitoes buzzed their faces and preyed on their skin like airborne piranhas, and the night echoed with the sounds of annoyed exclamations and hands slapping against skin to try to kill the pests.

  They tripped frequently, usually falling into each other, which kept them from hitting the ground. The thought of the huge creatures from last night suddenly showing up in their flashlight beams and attacking them was terrifying, but they were all determined to find and save their friend, despite the danger. Ethan kept chattering like a chipmunk.

  Trying to forget his fear, Ken thought.

  “— and that’s how my mom and dad met, see, ’cause they were both in the Air Force together. My mom was an officer and my dad wasn’t but he did techie work and so the government recruited them to work for them when they got out and that’s how they started huntin’ for monsters in California but then they decided to take the jobs in Missouri and so we moved here now!”

  “Oh, I see,” Sarah said politely.

  “Didn’t you say you found a werewolf hunting kit in your dad’s stuff?” Emily asked. Her interest in monsters had taken on a whole new and frightful meaning, having now come face to face with real ones.

  “Oh, yeah! Sure! It had silver bullets and a silver knife and some kind of herbs and also some old papers in it that talked about werewolves.”

  “Have you ever seen a werewolf?” Emily asked with a shiver.

  “Um, no… no, these Chewbacca-lookin’ things are the only monsters I’ve ever seen.”

  Ken had been meaning to ask Ethan about all this. “What other monsters do ya know ’bout, that our parents investigate?”

  Ethan furrowed his brow in concentration. “Um, you know, the regular ones: Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires—”

  “VAMPIRES!” Ken and Emily shouted at the same time. Sarah was silent, but her expression, if they could have seen it, would have given away her alarm.

  “Yeah, sure! I bet my good ol’ dad has some kind of vampire-fightin’ kit around somewhere, with—”

  “—with wooden stakes and garlic?” Emily enthused.

  “Prolly!” Ethan said, excited to have all this attention.

  “Oh, come on. Vampires aren’t real. And neither are werewolves. They’re just stuff of movies,” Sarah said quietly.

  “Well, sis, that’s prob’bly what ya thought about Bigfoot, too, an’ look how that turned out!”

  “True,” said Emily.

  Sarah didn’t respond. She just kept walking in worried silence.

  Ken could sympathize with his sister’s concern. His understanding of reality had taken a sudden and violent turn to the macabre recently, and it gave him a headache. Bigfoot, werewolves, vampires… why couldn’t his dad just do something boring, like sell life insurance?

  “What about the Yeti?” he said.

  “The Yeti is just another term for Bigfoot in the Himalayas, Kenneth,” Sarah said. “Remember? Dad said that the other night.”

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Ken said.

  “What about Frankenstein?” Emily asked, eyes wide. “You know, Frankenstein’s monster?�
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  Ethan looked up at her. “Really?”

  “Well, I didn’t know!” Emily said, feeling embarrassed.

  “Um, not that I know of,” he replied.

  Sarah suddenly remembered a question for Emily that she’d been meaning to ask. “Hey, by the way, Emily, what were you getting at the other night, when you were asking my dad about S.T.O.K.E.R.?”

  “Yeah!” said, Ken, “Wha’ was that all about?”

  “Um, Sarah, you don’t know the name Stoker?”

  Sarah shrugged, though Emily couldn’t see her. “Should I?”

  “Wow, I can’t believe that I know something that you don’t! This is so rare! Let me just take this in for a minute, and see what it’s like!” Emily teased.

  “Okay, okay, girl, enough of that! Really, what… wait a minute…”

  “Mmm hmm, here it comes…” Emily said.

  “I think I remember…”

  “Uh-huh…”

  “Dracula!”

  “Oh, snap! That didn’t last long!” Emily sighed.

  “Dracula? What about Dracula?” said Ken.

  Sarah gasped and grabbed Emily’s arm. “Bram Stoker wrote Dracula! That’s probably where they got their little acronym.”

  “Oooohhh…” Ethan cooed.

  “Yep. You got it,” Emily replied. “And your dad didn’t want me putting that together, because it would give away what other kinds of monsters they hunt.”

  “So ther def-nitely an equal oppurtunity monster-huntin’ outfit!” said Ken.

  The girls laughed. Emily grinned at Ken. “Yeah, you could say tha—”

  A stick broke somewhere in the darkness off to their right. Everyone stopped in their tracks.

  “What was that?” Emily whispered.

  The kids all peered toward the sound, shining their flashlights. They remained still, but the night was quiet, except for the locusts wheezing and buzzing their odd song.

  “Who knows?” Ken said. “Let’s keep goin’.”

  They began walking again, and sounds of rustling accompanied them, again off to the right. They stopped walking, and the rustling stopped. They moved again, and the rustling began again.

  Something was walking next to them, keeping pace.

  Ken’s neck stiffened, and his headache grew worse.

  They stopped once again, listening. This time, when they began walking, the unknown thing rustled next to them and another stick snapped, echoing in the night.

  This was too much for Ethan. All at once, he tooted and began leaping around with his arms in the air, shouting, “OFF WITH YOU, DEMON! BACK! BACK, I SAY!”

  Ken jumped into his best Karate pose, ready for action. He stared out at the blackness, his heart racing. This is it, he thought, time for action! “LET’S DO THIS!” he shouted.

  Sarah and Emily raised their eyebrows and cocked their heads, studying the boys. “That’s probably not going to help,” Sarah observed.

  Emily screamed. Ethan screamed in response. Ken jumped, yelled, then fell back into his Karate pose again, this time facing Emily.

  “Emily, what’s wrong?” Sarah huffed.

  Emily was staring, wide-eyed, at the area where the rustling noise had come from, pointing with a straight arm. “Sarah, I just saw red eyes reflect in the light from your flashlight.”

  Following Captain Chaney was difficult, since his clothing was all black and he moved through the night like a wolf, fast and alert. Danny struggled to keep up. Finally, they joined a group of soldiers who were staring down at the ground. One looked up at Danny’s flashlight beam and recoiled, the light overpowering the man’s night vision goggles and blinding him.

  “Sorry,” Danny mumbled, and lowered the flashlight toward the grass.

  “Danny?” a voice said.

  “Yeah. Who’s that?”

  “It’s John. I’ve got Elbert here, too. We lost you!”

  “Yeah, it’s easy to get separated in this forest. Glad you two are here.”

  “You ever seen anything like this, captain?” a soldier said.

  “Mmm, it’s a Sasquatch, and a big one,” Captain Chaney replied, peering at the ground.

  “Where?” Danny said, staring down.

  Captain Chaney touched his arm and pointed at a large imprint in the grass and soft dirt underneath. Danny saw it and shivered. His mind flashed with memories of the beasts attacking the cabin, the long hairy arm reaching through the window to grab his son.

  “How old is it?” said John Gonzalez.

  Captain Chaney squatted and studied the print closely. He reached out and touched it. “It’s recent. Very, very recent.” He glanced around at the surrounding darkness.

  “Are there any other prints?” Danny asked.

  Captain Chaney shook his head. “This is the only one.”

  Danny sighed.

  “These hairy beasts are smart, good at hiding their tracks,” said Elbert Edgar.

  Captain Chaney, still in his squatting position, looked at Elbert and smiled. “Smart?”

  Elbert nodded. “Yeah. That’s how they’ve stayed hidden for so long.”

  Captain Chaney stood up, tall and square. Peering down at Mr. Edgar, he said, “These hairy beasts are just that: beasts. Just dumb monkeys, hiding in the woods.”

  Elbert studied him in silence with a curious expression.

  “I don’t think you’re giving these things enough credit, captain,” said John.

  Captain Chaney wiped his hands together to brush off the dirt and shrugged. “There are creatures in the night who are a lot smarter than Sasquatches,” he growled.

  “Okay, guys, my son’s out there with these monsters, so let’s can this discussion till another time, alright?” Danny said, annoyed.

  “Yes, sir,” Captain Chaney said quickly.

  “I agree,” said John. He weaved slightly, then lost his balance and fell into Danny.

  “John! You okay?” Danny said.

  “Uh… I feel dizzy…” he muttered.

  “I’m with ya on that, pardner,” Elbert said. “I’m feeling it, too.”

  Danny realized that he had a headache. He glanced at John Gonzalez, who stared back.

  John nodded his head. “Disoriented.”

  Captain Chaney looked at another soldier. “Lieutenant Glass, let’s spread out and— wwwwhhhhoooooooaaaaaaa!”

  Chaney suddenly levitated off the ground four feet. Danny stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. A hideous roar blanketed the woods and caused the soldiers to raise their weapons in unison, all aimed at Captain Chaney.

  “Holy smokes!” Elbert Edgar said.

  “Captain!” Lieutenant Glass shouted.

  Danny flicked on the flashlight and directed it at the captain. He choked. Dark gray, leathery fingers were grasped around Chaney’s neck, and directly behind him was the head of the gigantic Bigfoot with the damaged eye. Its other eye glared directly at Danny, reflecting bright red in the light. The beast seethed with hatred and snarled savagely when Lieutenant Glass stepped toward it.

  “Lieutenant, stop!” Danny hissed. He moved the light beam to Captain Chaney’s face, which was a mask of surprise.

  The monster abruptly shook the man back and forth like a ragdoll. Then it paused for a moment, and Danny saw Captain Chaney grit his teeth and glance up at the starry sky. His eyes locked on the half-moon. For a moment, it almost looked like his eyes reflected a yellow gleam at the flashlight. Chaney reached back and clutched the creature’s extended arm with both hands. He looked at the soldier next to Danny. “Get ready, Lieutenant,” he growled.

  Lieutenant Glass raised his rifle and pointed it at the Sasquatch. All at once, Captain Chaney kicked his boots back directly at the creature’s knees and twisted its arm so that it lost its grip on his neck. The Bigfoot howled in pain, dropped the man, and Lieutenant Glass fired his rifle three times. The shots exploded and echoed in the trees.

  For a moment, the hideous beast stood still, its one good eye wide with shock. It locke
d that eye on Danny again, growled, and shot out one grasping hand toward him. Danny stumbled backward. His heart raced in his chest, staring at the thing in fascinated horror.

  Finally, the brute fell straight back and tumbled to the ground like a great fallen oak tree. The ground seemed to shake when it landed.

  The sounds of exasperated huffs and ape-like grunts surrounded the group of tense soldiers, who swung around and stared out at the invisible night, weapons still at the ready.

  John Gonzalez and Elbert Edgar rushed to Captain Chaney to help him stand up. He pulled his arms from them. “I’m alright! I’m alright!” he snapped as he straightened up and wiped himself off, scowling. He glared around at the sounds in the darkness. “Filthy, stupid beasts!” he barked.

  Something whooped in the trees, long and loud and haunting, like an eerie scream, and it made Danny’s blood run cold. A soldier suddenly fired his rifle at the forest. Three others followed suit.

  “Hold your fire! Hold your fire! HOLD YOUR FIRE!” Captain Chaney shouted.

  Danny heard the sounds of animals scrambling away in the darkness. The group waited in silence for a few moments.

  “I think they’re gone, Captain,” whispered Lieutenant Glass.

  “Yeah, but gone where?” John Gonzalez muttered.

  Why are they keeping me here? What do they want from me? It’s been hours… but it seems like forever.

  Alec peered into the blackness of the night toward where he knew the monsters were. My mom always told me there was no such things as monsters. She was wrong.

  Only, these monsters seemed oddly more like… a family. A mom, dad, son, and daughter. And an old grandfather.

  The grandfather…

  He seemed friendly enough. So he wanted the humans to know that it wasn’t his crew who had attacked the cabin, fine. Thanks for the useless information.

  Only… was it useless? Maybe these things know that humans have guns, and are dangerous. Maybe they wanted us to know that they were not the guilty parties.

  The old fella had seemed pretty adamant about it. Why?