“Ethan, quit tooting!”
“Alllleeeec!”
“Are you okay?”
“Where are you?”
There were several different voices, some male, some female. There was a whole group of them out there looking for him!
Alec stared up at the creature in shock, unsure of why it had just screamed. It took a step toward him, and reached out. Alec jumped back for a moment, then stopped, watching it carefully. An enormous hand touched his shoulder gently. The Sasquatch grunted, quiet and soft. Alec could now see its face in the shadows. It looked at him with those deep-set, dark, intelligent eyes. Its wide mouth opened slightly as it said, “Okk.”
“Alec! Call out again! Where are you?”
The Bigfoot turned its head and body toward the sounds of the approaching humans, then looked back at Alec and grunted.
It screamed so my friends could find me! Alec realized. He reached up and tentatively touched the great, hairy hand on his shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you for taking me back to my friends,” he murmured.
The gigantic creature, this creature of myth and legend, touched the side of Alec’s cheek like a father with a child. Alec could smell the fresh earth on it from when it dug the grave with its hands. It grunted again, then stepped into the darkness and disappeared into the night.
And just like that, it was gone.
Alec stood alone in silence, trying to understand the conflicting emotions that swirled inside him like a bubbling potion. “Goodbye,” he whispered into the blackness, which now felt hollow and empty.
“Alllleeeec!”
“Where are you?”
Alec turned toward the voices and called out to them. “HELLLLOOOO! I’m here!”
“He’s over there! I heard him!”
Alec began walking in the direction of the sounds of crashing in the underbrush. He pushed branches and leaves aside, waded through bushes and tripped over rocks, until he entered a moonlit clearing, about thirty feet square. He stopped and looked around, then spotted a figure step into the opening on the far side of the clearing. It was too dark to see it well, so he called out to it. “Hello! Who is it?”
The figure ran toward him and crossed the clearing quickly. It stopped before him, a few feet away.
It was Ken.
“Hey, Alec.”
“Ken!” Alec surged toward his best friend and hugged him. “I can’t believe you came out here like this!”
Ken hugged his friend in silence for a moment. Then he said, “I’m always here fer you, you know that.”
The beam of a flashlight broke into the clearing, and more people entered from where Ken had emerged. “There he is!” a female voice called out. They all broke out into a run toward Alec. Ken stepped back and watched with Alec as the other three kids made their way to them.
Sarah was the first there. She didn’t stop running until she had Alec in a tight hug. “Alec! We found you! I can’t believe it! Are you okay? Where did that scream come from?”
“Guys!” Alec shouted, overjoyed to see them all.
“Hi, Alec,” Emily smiled, watching Sarah hug him.
Alec looked at the little one holding the flashlight. “Ethan?”
“Uh, thank ya, thank ya very much!” Ethan replied, imitating Elvis once again. He shot his hip out and raised his arm high in a contorted dance move.
Alec laughed. “I’m so glad to see you guys!”
Emily and Ethan stepped forward and put their arms around Alec and Sarah while Ken watched with satisfaction.
“You okay?” Ken said.
“Yeah, I’m okay!” He looked at Sarah, who had stepped back with the others to give Alec room to breathe and talk. “That scream was a Bigfoot.”
Sarah and Emily gasped. “That close?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah. It brought me here and dropped me off.”
“Why?” said Ken.
“To bring me back. It heard you looking for me and left me here so you could find me.”
“That thing…” Emily shivered. “Why did that thing do that? And why are you okay? I mean, I’m glad you are, but I thought they’d have you for dinner or something.”
“Emily!” Sarah breathed.
“No, it’s okay,” Alec said. He turned to Emily. “These weren’t the same things that attacked our cabin. These were different. Nicer. More friendly.”
“So, they kidnapped you to bring ya over fer a friendly visit?” Ken said.
“It’s a long story. They—”
A twig snapped in the dark, from the portion of woods the kids had just come from. Everyone froze and listened, peering off in that direction.
“There it is again,” Emily whispered.
“Ol’ Red Eyes again!” Ethan said. He jumped into a karate pose, imitating what he’d seen Ken do earlier.
“Red Eyes?” Alec murmured, feeling a knot form in his stomach.
“Emily said she saw a pair of red eyes watching us before we found you,” Sarah answered.
“I did see a pair of red eyes! And it’s still following us!” said Emily.
“The Bigfoots that took ya had red eyes, yeah?” Ken asked.
Alec shook his head. “No. They told me the ones with red eyes are dangerous.”
“They told you?” said Sarah doubtfully.
“Well, I think ther right. The soldier back at the cabin is an Indian, an’ he said the same thin’,” Ken said.
Alec thought again about the red-eyed Bigfoots that had attacked the cabin the night before. He felt his neck stiffen with tension. “And you’ve got them following you, do you?”
Ken nodded. “Perty sure.”
“Somethin’ with red eyes is!” Ethan exclaimed.
“Wuh, what else could it be, Ethan?” Ken shot back. “A owl?”
Ethan shrugged.
“Then we’d better get out of here,” Alec said.
“Yep,” Ken replied.
“Definitely,” said Sarah.
“We better circle around where that noise came from,” Alec said, turning toward the woods next to them.
Something hissed.
They all froze in their tracks, listening.
Alec looked at Ken. “My flashlight quit workin’,” Ken whispered. “So did Sarah’s. Ethan!”
The little fellow looked over his shoulder at him.
“Shine yer flashlight over there, where that came from!”
Ethan pointed his flashlight at the far side of the clearing, moving it around like a searchlight, revealing the trunks of trees and bushes. But no sign of any Bigfoot.
Something hissed again, sending electric shocks down Alec’s spine and across his scalp.
“Where is that coming from?” Sarah huffed.
Ethan moved the beam of light around faster, trying to find the source of the sound. As it flew past a tree trunk, the light caught bark falling from above.
“There! Stop! Go back to that tree!” Emily shouted.
Ethan directed the flashlight beam back at the tree.
“Move it up the tree,” Emily continued.
Slowly, the light climbed the tree trunk, and long, wide branches came into view. About ten feet up, the beam passed over a clump of brown on a large branch. Ethan rested the flashlight beam on the clump. “What’s that?” he said.
Alec took a few steps toward the tree, staring, trying to see what the light was showing. “I don’t know…”
“Ethan, lemme see that flashlight fer a second,” Ken said, reaching toward him. Ethan handed it to Ken, and the light shook and jerked around as the flashlight was handed off. It took a few moments for Ken to find the spot again, led by Emily’s prompts. Finally, it landed on the brown bump on the branch. The entire group of kids walked closer to the tree, staring at the branch.
Suddenly, Emily coughed and yelled, “Stop! Those are boots!”
Alec watched the spot for a moment longer, then knew she was right. They look like cowboy boots.
As he stared at the boots, Alec realized that the blac
kness around them was not the night, it was fabric, something long and dark, hanging down past the tree limb. Ken inched the light up higher, revealing a long, black duster jacket, draped over a pair of legs that were bent and squatting on the branch, wearing what looked like brown denim jeans. The light caught the bottom of a black button-up Western shirt, untucked and hanging down. It moved up the body, past arms that were straight down and resting on the branch, probably with hands hanging onto the wood. At the top of the coat collar, the beam flowed up a neck and inched onto a ghostly white face, then to a mouth with red lips.
Alec stared, frozen.
As the light moved up past the nose, it suddenly revealed eyes as red as blood, and a shaggy, brown-haired man in his 20’s with a stubbly face, under a wide-brimmed dark gray cowboy slouch hat. When the light shone in his eyes, the man squinted and hissed, showing his teeth.
He had long, sharp fangs.
Emily screamed, and Sarah fell back. Alec caught her from behind, keeping her from falling to the ground. Ethan turned and ran back to Alec and Ken, who gaped at the vision on the tree branch in mute terror. The man’s hiss turned into a growl.
The group of friends stood staring into the darkness at a vampire.
Danny had listened to the haunting scream in the night with spine-tingling dread. He didn’t know if that was one of those monsters or his son, or one of the other kids, but he was now leading the other fathers and the soldiers in the direction it had come from at a break-neck clip.
“Alec!” he called out, over and over.
“Ken! Sarah! Emily!” John howled.
“Ethan! Oh, Ethan!” Elbert said.
“Gentlemen! It might be best to remain quiet, to maintain the advantage of surprise!” Captain Chaney hissed.
Danny ignored him. He’d decided that he didn’t like Captain Chaney very much. There was something about him that didn’t sit well with Danny… but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Anyway, this was his son and these men’s children who were missing, and they’d just heard a shriek a few minutes ago, and he was going to keep calling out until they found them.
“Alec!” he shouted. His voice was hoarse, almost gone. He felt drained, like the walking dead.
John grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. “Ssshhh!” Danny listened intently.
It was another scream.
This one was higher pitched and weaker. Danny’s stomach dropped out. He fell to one knee, grasping John’s arm for support. Two strong hands squeezed Danny’s shoulders and pulled him up. It was Captain Chaney. “That direction, Mr. Kerley,” he said, pointing.
Danny nodded at Captain Chaney, then took off running in the direction the scream had come from. John and Elbert ran behind him, with John shining the flashlight ahead, followed by the soldiers.
“ALLLLEEEEEC!”
The thing was motionless. It growled at them, crouching on the branch like a cat. Alec was frozen in fear, speechless. This was beyond what he was able to process at this point, after such an eventful night. His heart pounded so hard that he could barely hear his friends speak.
“Wha’ is it?” Ken asked Ethan, already knowing the answer.
“Vampire!” Ethan squeaked.
Emily screamed again, terrified. “What do you want???”
The vampire cocked its head far to the right quizzically, staring at them. All at once, it dropped to the ground like a great bat, and landed on its feet. Ken followed it with the flashlight. Emily turned and ran behind the boys, still screeching.
It stood silent for a moment, gloating. It seemed to enjoy the terror emanating from the kids. Then, slowly, it took a step toward them.
Sarah screamed and stepped behind Alec and Ken, joining Ethan and Emily. “Do something!” she shouted.
Alec and Ken were statues, unmoving and quiet. They honestly didn’t know what to do. This was too bizarre to mentally process.
The vampire took slow, deliberate steps toward them, watching them closely. The blood red eyes were horrifying. It glared at Ken. “Sssssson of Gonzalezzzz,” it said in a coarse voice, hissing like a snake.
Alec saw Ken gulp. “Yeah?” Ken managed.
The vampire focused its crimson eyes on Alec, still walking toward them. It stared at the boy for a long minute, causing Alec to fidget. “And you must be… sssssssssson of Kerley,” it finally hissed.
Alec nodded, silent and wide-eyed.
“And you must be ‘son of a biscuit-eater’!” Ken shouted.
The vampire stopped and looked at Ken, surprised by the outburst. It smiled malevolently. The long fangs shone bright and menacing in the glare of the flashlight.
Ethan belched out a toot like a bullfrog. The vampire eyed him with a scowl.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” Sarah shrieked over Alec’s shoulder.
The vampire stared at her. “What do I want?” it growled. “Why, to know my enemy, daughter of Gonzalezzzz.” It cocked its head again. “But now I find myself a treat, I sssssurely do: five young dumplin’ssss, all alone in the night! What a treat! What a treat! What a treat!” Its red eyes gleamed wide and excited. The vampire was now within fifteen feet of the group of kids, who stood as one, frozen in fear.
Emily screamed again. The vampire’s eyes grew wider as it smiled in a fiendish glee. It raised its long-nailed hands up like claws and began to advance toward them quickly.
The kids yelled and screamed in a panic, terrified.
“There they are again!” John Gonzalez shouted.
The screams emanating from the night grated on Danny’s mind like nails on a chalkboard. He tore through the underbrush, panic-stricken. His heart was beating nearly out of his chest and he wondered faintly if he might have a heart attack. His breaths came in gulps. No longer watching where he was going, long tree branches slapped him in the face as he rushed headlong toward the sounds of the screams. Warmth trickled down his cheeks and he knew it was blood from scratches. He didn’t care. At least the night vision goggles protected his eyes.
The soldiers had now moved parallel to the three fathers and Captain Chaney and were closing in on the area quickly, rifles at the ready.
“Don’t shoot!” Danny called out to them. “DO NOT SHOOT!”
As the vampire approached the kids, something rustled in the woods off to their left. The creature stopped and peered in that direction carefully. Alec followed the monster’s line of sight toward the black trees.
All at once, the bushes exploded like a bomb. Leaves and twigs flew through the air, followed by a horrendous shriek. The vampire screeched and stepped back in shock.
Ken swung the flashlight to the spot. It was the gigantic Bigfoot that had carried Alec to his friends! It had broken through the brush on all fours like a monstrous bear, rushing at full speed toward the surprised vampire. It smashed into the fiend and knocked it to the ground.
“That’s my friend!” Alec shouted at the others, pointing. His eyes were wide, flabbergasted. In an odd twist of events, the astounded kids all began yelling and cheering for the Bigfoot.
Framed by darkness and the shaky yellow light, the two monsters rolled around on the ground, the Bigfoot bellowing, and the vampire growling and screeching like a cheetah. The vampire kicked the Sasquatch off it, jumped up, and turned to run, but the giant beast reached out and grabbed the back of the hissing creature’s neck before it could get away.
In an awesome display of strength, the Bigfoot raised the vampire off the ground by the neck and turned it around to face it. The Bigfoot opened its monstrous jaws into a hideous, earth-shaking roar. The vampire, now hatless, dangled in midair with the hairy creature’s hand clamped around its neck, and roared back. Then it went berserk. It swung its arms and kicked its legs wildly, snarling and snapping its fanged teeth at the beast repeatedly, trying to bite it.
The Sasquatch tried to throw the undead monster at a nearby tree trunk but the vampire clung onto the beast’s hairy wrist and pulled it down to the ground with it. The two rolled around again
in a fury of hair and teeth. Suddenly the vampire was on top of the Bigfoot and quickly leaned down to bite the behemoth on the neck.
“Nooooooo!” Sarah screamed.
The Bigfoot shoved the vampire off before it could bite and jumped up, just as the vampire rushed at it. The Sasquatch swiped a huge backhand at the hissing fiend, knocking it into the air. The vampire crashed to the ground only a few feet from the group of children and leaped up. Its soulless red eyes glared at them in a fiery rage. The vampire screeched and rushed at the children.
It snatched up Ethan, fast as lightning.
“Ethan!” Emily wailed.
“STOP!” Alec shouted, aghast at the site of the boy in the monster’s arms.
The vampire ran toward the trees, carrying its wide-eyed victim off to certain death. Ethan tooted, then reached into the front of his button-up short-sleeved shirt. He pulled out a golden cross on a necklace and held it in the creature’s face. The vampire stopped in its tracks, staring at the cross, and hissed loudly.
“The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!” Ethan squeaked.
The vampire snarled and threw him down. Immediately, the Bigfoot tackled the vampire from behind and the two fell to the ground again, rolling around, growling and roaring. The Sasquatch grabbed the fiend’s neck from the front and stood up, once more holding the kicking and screaming vampire out at arm’s length. Ethan scurried back to his friends.
“ALEC!”
Alec turned around in the dark, trying to see where the voice came from. Ken moved the flashlight beam toward the voice and Alec watched where it went. All at once, there he was: Dad.
“Freeze!” someone yelled. A row of black-clad soldiers broke through the tree line with rifles trained on the giant hairy brute that was holding a human-looking man like a doll.
They’re gonna shoot it.
Not knowing that the man it was holding was one of the living dead, those soldiers were going to kill the Bigfoot.
Time stopped.
Alec surveyed the dark forms holding the weapons. Face after face flashed before him, and trigger finger after trigger finger. The face of the tall one in charge was twisted into a visage of disdain. But it was the one who had shouted freeze that was ready to fire first.
Alec Kerley and the Terror of Bigfoot (Book One of the Monster Hunters Series) Page 15
