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Speaker 1: I started coon hunting with hounds about twenty five years ago.

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I used to hunt in a lot of places I

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had never been to during the daylight. I used to

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hunt by myself, but sometimes I would ride four wheelers

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with a couple of old men who couldn't get around

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too good anymore. Occasionally I would have to leave them

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and walk to the dogs if we couldn't get the

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four wheelers to the tree. On this particular night, the

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dogs treed in an area we didn't usually wind up in.

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We don't have vast tracks of wilderness down here, but

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this place is about two miles from any road, though

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the railroad tracks do run through it. At the time

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this happened, logging had just started, so most of this

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area was still covered in big hardwood timber that's all

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gone now. Me and the old boys went to get

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the dogs, and in the process I got us turned around.

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It was summertime and most of the slews were almost dry.

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They were just heavy and thick mud. I found one

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that was heading in the directions that I wanted to go,

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so I took it. Almost immediately. I noticed a set

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of large barefoot tracks that had been made not too

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long ago. Sunk deep into the ground. I can't say

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one hundred percent for sure that Bigfoot made them, but

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who would be walking barefoot in a cottonmouth infested river bottom.

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After a little while, I knew where I was, and

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I stayed in the old slow bed. We followed the

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tracks right up to the gas line that ran through

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the bottoms, which is about seventy five yards wide. The

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tracks didn't lead into the gas line, which told me

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that whatever had made them had left the slow bed

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and stayed in the woods. When we made it back

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to the truck, I asked one of the old boys

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what he thought of the tracks. He said, it was

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just some dope d during around. I said the hell

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it was, They replied, now, don't you go start bogger

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hunting on me. Well, I never mentioned it again. I

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still hunt and trap in that area, and I haven't

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seen anything else. But I've been hunting a few times

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when what I'll describe is a feeling of dread would

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come over me. Both times I tailed it out of

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there and I left. So I don't know if it

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was my imagination or what. I have some friends who

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used to hunt some hardwood over by the river. One

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day one of them asked me if I'd ever heard

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crows call after dark. I said I hadn't ever heard that.

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He said every time they turned their dogs loose, when

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they would strike and start working in a track, the

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crows would start calling back and forth, pitch black dark.

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Here in Arkansas, timber is a big deal. I can

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tell you lots of coon hunters have had encounters, but

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none of them would ever admit to it. I've known

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guys who refuse to go coon hunting alone. They'll never

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say why, but I have a good idea why they

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don't go. This is a horned house story, and it's

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pretty good. My mother's family has had a farm for

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over two hundred years. In the original will, it states

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that the property can be added to, but it cannot

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be sold. It has passed from family member to family

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member and can only go to those in my mother's bloodline.

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The house was built in eighteen sixty. It's a brick

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structure and it has three stories. Through the front door

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is a large entry way in an oak stairway, and

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past that as a long haul with rooms on each

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side and a kitchen at the end. The second floor

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is full of bedrooms and The third floor used to

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be an old ballroom. Every room has a fireplace, though

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over the years, as electricity and farnesses and plumbing were installed,

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they'd been blocked off with decorative iron plates. There's a

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wrap around porch and a large summer kitchen on the

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back of the house. Six spirits still call this beautiful

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historical house home, and with the exception of two of them,

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they are all relatives. Of the two that are not.

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One was a wagon accident survivor and brought to the

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house where he died, and the other was a visitor

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who had suddenly dropped dead from what was suspected to

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be a heart attack. One of the spirits in this

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house is my maternal grandfather, and although Grandpa chewed tobacco,

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he did not like smoking. He especially disliked it when

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women smoked. He was old fashioned that way. My mother,

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who used to smoke even as an adult, would never

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smoke in front of him, and never did until the

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day he died in this house. After he passed away,

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she decided to keep the place rather than pass a

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along to another relative. Since she and my dad did

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not have any sons, it was mostly me and my mother,

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My dad and a couple of hired hands who worked

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it and kept it in shape. My sisters were not

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interested in staying at the house and could not wait

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until they could leave and move to town. Two thousand

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and five, my dad passed away. My oldest sister decided

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to take mom to her house for a few days,

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and my two younger sisters were all staying with friends,

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so that left me alone. Now, I've never been afraid

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to stay there by myself, even to this day, but

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I decided to call some friends to come and maybe

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play cards and watch movies with me. That night, four

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of us were sitting around the kitchen table, and at

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that time we all smoked. We were playing cards, talking

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and smoking when suddenly the cigarette was slapped out of

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my hand by something unseen. Not a second later, across

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the table, my friend's cigarette went flying from her hand too,

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and an ashtray flew off the table. My friends were

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completely stunned, and the look on their faces was one

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of horror. I jumped up, picked up cigarettes, and I

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put them in the sink, while my friend screamed and

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ran out the door. My friend, who had her cigarette

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slapped away, had a red mark on her cheek. She

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said that she felt the hand slap her. She was

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in hysterics. I got her to calm down and told

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her that we could play cards in the summer kitchen,

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but they wanted nothing to do with that, and they

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got in their cars and left. I walked back into

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the house and said, loudie, thanks like grandpa. I swear

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I heard him laughing. And to this day, no one

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has smoked in this house since. And when those same

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friends stopped by, it's only during the daytime, and they

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refused to come inside. My wife and I started spending

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the weekends with her father after her mother passed away.

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My wife had told me in the past that she

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had experiences with bigfoot on her parents' property, but I

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told her that she was full of it. But the

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more time we spent there, the more I started talking

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to the locals, and it was apparently common knowledge that

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a family of bigfoot was living in the woods, and

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it was a hush hush subject. At night, I sit

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outside on the back porch and listened to the sounds

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of the woods. Between the frogs and the toads and

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crickets and other wildlife, it's pretty noisy. I noticed that

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every night around nine thirty, I hear what sounds like

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a drum roll on the trees, followed by a series

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of tree knockings that comes in threes. As soon as

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the knocking comes, the wildlife goes quiet. It's too quiet.

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I've heard howling and screaming, and one night, right on

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the other side of the tree line, I heard a

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whooping sound and multiple other strains vocalizations. I became curious

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about this because I always listened to your stories. I

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wanted to see a bigfoot. So one weekend, my friend

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Richie and I decided to go camping and see what

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we could find. And as soon as we got into

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the woods, we noticed tree brakes wooden structures, which excited us.

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We set up our camp and decided to explore. We

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followed the directions that the tree breaks pointed to, and

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it led us deep into the woods, farther than I

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had ever been. Eventually we came across the fallen tree

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with a bundle of jagged stems that were about two

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foot long. They were all equal in length, and they

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were lying neatly pointing to the left. There were no

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people out there, so who would put the stems there?

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We went in the direction they pointed, and we ended

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up in a ravine with a stream running through it.

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The next sign we found was a big X. Now

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I don't know what this means, but that's where we

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found the tracks. They were almost human, measuring thirteen inches.

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And as soon as we found the tracks, we started

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hearing crunching in the earth and the branches breaking. We

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didn't see what was making the sound, but it sounded big.

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We picked up our pace, chopping through the thick vegetation

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with our machetes, and eventually we found our camp and

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everything was good, but we felt like we were being watched.

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Forty yards away, we noticed something crouched down in the

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bushes and it was watching us, and we pretended not

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to notice it. Nighttime came and we heard walking in

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the woods around the perimeter of our camp from four

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different positions, and then we heard a loud whoop followed

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by a tree knock. It was too close for comfort.

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I turned on my night vision binoculars and I scanned

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the area and I noticed something was peaking around a

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tree at me. It would look and hide, and then

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look and hide. This went on for an hour and

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then it was gone all night. We heard by Peter

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footsteps all around our camp. As you can guess, we

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didn't sleep that night, and when the sun came up,

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everything was normal again, and we got even more curious.

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We went to the tree where the thing had been

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watching us and found footprints just like the ones we

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saw the day before. There was a little hole where

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it looked like it was digging for some reason, but

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we didn't know why. We jumped into our hammocks when

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it got dark, and we waited, and once again, footsteps

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were all around our camp. And then I heard a

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rabbit scream. I thought maybe an owl had gotten it,

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so I shrugged it off. And then around three thirty am,

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I heard footsteps in the camp and then I heard

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the sound of someone urinating. It was the longest pea

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I'd ever heard. Richie, is that you? I whispered no reply,

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so I asked a little louder, and I heard him

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move into his sleeping bag. He was silent and frozen

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in fear. I turned my night vision on to see

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what scared him, and I couldn't believe my eyes. There

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were five of them right there in our camp, less

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than twenty feet away from us. A female was lying

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on the ground eating the giant millipedes that infested the

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woods there, and the smaller one was crouched down next

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to her, And on the hill were three big males,

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one of whom was holding a rabbit by its head.

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One of the males saw me looking at them and

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made a come on motion with his arm, as if

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he was rushing the female to leave. I turned around

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in my hammock, and I hoped that they would not

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kill us. They hung around the camp until sun came up.

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I stayed in fear all night. Richie crapped on himself.

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I'm going to go back again and offer them some

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food to see if they're peace or not. I know

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I'm taking a chance in doing this, but I'm a

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thrill seeker. I served six years in the seventh Special Forces,

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in three and a half years in Afghanistan. I've never

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felt the sensation I felt in those woods, not even

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in a firefight. I have to go back, oh man.

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I think it's a pretty good conclusion that they're not

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They're not aggressive or violent. They were right there besides you,

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and they didn't do anything to you. I hear you.

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If you want to go back, go back. If You're

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a thrill seeker and adrenaline junkie, and if that was

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more excitement than an actual firefight and combat, dude, you

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have a high threshold for excitement. But I thought this

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was a great story. And I know it may sound strange,

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but there are you know, there's only about twenty percent

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of the stories I get where people actually see them

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have an encounter, a visual encounter. It's like they're within

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eyesight and they can see. So's It's very interesting. It's

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a unique story, and I appreciate the writer for sending it.

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This story was told to me in a smoky little

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bar in Nashville, Tennessee, by an old man. His name

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was Samuel, and he appreciated the beer that I bought him.

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I could tell by his old, worn hat and tattered

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flannel shirt scuffed up shoes that he was barely getting by.

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I left him sitting at the bar and found a

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table in the back. I was hungry and I wanted

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to get something to eat, maybe a burger, since there

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weren't a lot of choices in that type of place.

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The waitress soon came over to take my order. She

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was a portly but pleasant woman with a great smile.

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Before I ordered, I asked her what the story was

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on the old gent sitting at the bar. She told

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me that Samuel was a once a month regular, coming

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in a few days after he had gotten a Social

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Security check and had paid his bills. She explained that

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he lived in a rooming house up the road a

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piece and didn't have a pot to piss in. When

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Samuel came in each month, he would only order one

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beer and snack on the free peanuts if they were

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out on the bar. Ill ordered some burgers and fries

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and another beer. Now she was turning to walk away,

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I asked her to get Samuel whatever he wanted to

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eat and another beer. She smiled and then turned and

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went to the bar, where she talked softly to the

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old man. After she left to go to the kitchen,

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Samuel got off his stool and walked back to my

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table to thank me again. I told him it was

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no problem, and I asked him to join me. He

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nodded and smiled. I noticed that he had a sparkle

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in his eyes, unlike most his age. My guess was

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that he was as hungry as I was, because we

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both sat eating in silence. After whard. We sipped on

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our beers, and I told him that my name was

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Jim and that I was from Louisville. I had just

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returned from Florida after working six months on hurricane damaged houses.

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Samuel told me that he was born and raised in

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the hills of North Carolina until he was twenty one.

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He said that he would love those mountains until his

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last breath. The most beautiful wild place on earth, he said.

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I had to ask him, if he loved it so much,

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why he left off to war. Maybe no work there.

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His posture changed. He bowed his head slightly and slowly

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shook it. No. I saw his new demeanor, and I

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knew I should have left the subject alone, but I

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didn't ask him why. Samuel laid his hands down on

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the table to stop them from shaking. As he began

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to speak. He said he had not told anyone the

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reason he left, but since he was old now and

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I had been kind to him, he would share a

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story with me. His words came softly, well thought out.

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I could tell that there was something that weighed deeply

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on his mind, if not also in his heart. His

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family had a farm at the bottom of the hollow,

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about ten miles out of Greenville. There were three kids.

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They were all boys who worked alongside mom and pop

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in the fields and gardens and with the livestock. They

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never had a lot, but they didn't know it. They

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hardly ever missed church or twice a month visit to

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their grandparents several ridges over. They hunted and fished and

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trapped to help put food on the table. Jobs were

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scarce back then, so when a neighbor boy from two

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hollows over told Samuel that an out of town logging

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company was hiring, he was all for it. So he

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told his family of his plans, and he promised to

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send money if they hired him. He was hired on

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and jumped onto the old flatbed truck with a couple

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of other fellas. He was no experienced logger, but he

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was good with firearms. One day, the foreman was target

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practicing with his twelve gauge double barrel he had. Samuel

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tossed short sticks in the air as far as he could,

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and then he tried to blow them apart. The foreman

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caught Samuel with his head turned slightly snickering, and raised

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his voice and asked him if he thought he could

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do better. The foreman reloaded handed Samuel the gun after

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five blown apart sticks. He had had enough of Samuel

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not missing, and he told him to be at his

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office in the morning, that he had another job waiting

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for him, because he was definitely not a logger. It

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turned out that the new job was as deputy for

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the company, essentially providing armed security when needed. Samuel was

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happy with the new position, but he was also gullible.

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He found himself, along with other armed deputies, assisting the

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bosses with the removal of folks from the mountains who

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refused to move, even though the company held the deeds

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to their land. Word had a way of soaring through

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the ridges and hollows like a swift winged sparrow, and

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people quit talking to Samuel. His own family asked him

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to not return to the farm. If he saw someone

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he knew, they would cross to the other side of

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the road. It was shunning mountain style. Way up in

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the mountains. In a very secluded hollow about five miles

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from his parents lived the Praders. The clan was run

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by an elderly woman known as Mammy Prader. There were

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no roads to their cabin only mule trails. People guessed

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that there were fourteen or more of them living in

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that one big cabin that hardly came down off the

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mountain except to get things that they could not make

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or hunt things like cloth and salt and snuff for

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old Mammy. The Praders had owned those eighteen hundred acres

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since before the Civil War, was uncut forest with trees

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so tall, some six or seven feet through the trunks.

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It was the boss's third attempt to evict them. The

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last two attempts ended with deputies taking fire from all directions,

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but that day the Boss came with a big crew.

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They had an ace in the hole. Riding in front

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on the mule with the deputy was a six year

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old girl in a plain flower sack dress. Jenny Prater

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had been kidnapped from the ant that she was staying

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with for a few days, right out of the front yard,

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and Jenny was Mammy's great grandchild. This bothered Samuel using

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a child as leverage, but the company was all that

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he had then and speaking up about it could cost

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him his job. He and his team rode their mules

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right up to the front porch of the cabin. The

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whole family was either sitting on the steps and wooden

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barrels or stumps. Samuel counted twelve people that he could

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see nodding, including Mammy, who sat in a big homemade

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rocking chair on the front porch. The boss pulled up

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some papers and waved them in front of the old lady.

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He told her this was company land now and that

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they had to leave. He reached over and rubbed little

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Jenny's head. She began to cry. Piercing anger shot from

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the old lady's eyes. She told the boss that they

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would leave, but he had to let them pray together

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once more. He told her to have at it, but

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don't be all damn day, he said. Before they prayed,

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he had the deputies collect the prader's guns and put

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them in a pile. The odd thing was there was

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no resistance. Some were even smiling. Some of them helped

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Mammy off the porch, and all of them stood in

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a half circle in unison. They tilted their heads back

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and the most god awful, strange cry came out of

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their mouths. It was a high pitched noise made using

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their tongue. It was almost a fast paced chant, and

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as quickly as it started it ended. They all sat down,

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each of them smiling. Out of nowhere, a pumpkin sized

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boulder flew into the boss's mule, and then another crashed

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through the tree tops and hit the officer on the

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far right. Samuel couldn't shoot, couldn't see anything in the

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dark forest. A mule braid as two large hairy arms

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twisted its head and broke its neck. Shots rang out

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from the bosses and deputies, but to no effect. Huge

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hairy beasts were everywhere, ripping apart men and mules. Samuel

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turned to look at his boss and watched as a

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hairy ape beast wrapped its hues hands around his neck,

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squeezing his head. Fell to the ground, and Samuel vomited

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onto the bloody earth. Samuel's turn came. He saw a

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beast reaching for him that stopped in its tracks, growl,

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and then there were clicking noises. It was coming from

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Old Mammy. The yard was soaked with blood. Everyone was dead,

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man and mule. The family had moved to the porch,

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and Samuel counted eleven creatures as they started carrying or

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dragging body parts back into the deep woods. Mammy Praterer

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stood up and told Samuel that he was a token.

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They always had to leave a token. He was to

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leave that country and never return or speak of what

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had happened. Samuel had tears in his eyes by the

380
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time he finished his story. I sat there for a time,

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silent and nodding. I wasn't sure what to say, but

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I didn't dare be respectful toward him. After a while,

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I thanked him for his company, and I stood up

384
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and shook his hand and left him fifty dollars. I

385
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couldn't drive fast enough to get back home to Louisville.

386
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I'm not sure if I believed a story or not,

387
00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:02,119
but that night, and for many nights after, I had

388
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nightmares about it.