1
00:00:26,719 --> 00:00:30,719
Speaker 1: They never gave the road a name. On state maps,

2
00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,359
it appeared as a thin gray line that ended without

3
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:40,399
explanation mil marker, stopping at one two, as if the

4
00:00:40,399 --> 00:00:43,719
surveyors had decided there was no reason to go farther.

5
00:00:45,119 --> 00:00:50,799
Locals referred to it indirectly, the closed stretch, the bad

6
00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:56,759
ten miles, the old cut, phrases spoken with a glance

7
00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:05,560
towards the trees. Naming it outright felt unnecessary, almost rude.

8
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,760
The highway ran through a pocket of Pacific Northwest forest

9
00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:17,079
so dense the canopy rationed. Daylight, cedar, fir and hemlock

10
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:23,319
crowded the shoulder. Sword ferns grew waist high in drifting waves.

11
00:01:24,239 --> 00:01:28,599
In the wet months, fog pulled low and turned head

12
00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:34,519
lights into dull colored cones. Even before the barricades went up,

13
00:01:35,239 --> 00:01:40,640
drivers said the place felt tight, as if the forest

14
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:46,599
leaned inward. The land had been intact for thousands of

15
00:01:46,719 --> 00:01:52,719
years before the road arrived. Construction began in nineteen fifty nine,

16
00:01:53,319 --> 00:01:57,400
approved as a practical short cut meant to shave time

17
00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:02,480
and fuel off regional travel to the state. It was

18
00:02:02,519 --> 00:02:09,680
a straightforward project, blasting grating, paving to the men working

19
00:02:09,719 --> 00:02:15,759
it the job changed once the nights set in. When

20
00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,919
the machines shut down, sound carried down the valley in

21
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:26,080
ways no one expected. Men later described cries rising from

22
00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:32,000
the timber after dark, long rough sounds that didn't resemble

23
00:02:32,159 --> 00:02:39,479
any animal they could name, lower than elk, heavier than cougar,

24
00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:45,960
with a straight quality that made conversation stop mid sentence.

25
00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,840
Some called it screaming, others said it sounded like something

26
00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:57,680
being forced to speak against its will. At first, they

27
00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:03,599
laughed it off, proud men don't admit fear easily. But

28
00:03:03,759 --> 00:03:10,560
small things began to stack up. Tools went missing overnight

29
00:03:11,479 --> 00:03:18,080
and reappeared set carefully on rocks or tucked beneath roots.

30
00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:24,159
Fresh saplings were snapped and laid across access tracks, not

31
00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:30,439
blocking equipment outright, just placed where they could not be ignored.

32
00:03:32,039 --> 00:03:36,159
Near a shallow ravine between what would later become mile

33
00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,479
marker one forty one and one forty two, they began

34
00:03:40,639 --> 00:03:46,400
finding what they called calamity smears, broad streaks of blood

35
00:03:46,639 --> 00:03:52,120
pressed flat across soil and rock, sometimes showing the suggestion

36
00:03:52,439 --> 00:03:57,759
of a shoulder dragged sideways. There were no bodies, no

37
00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:03,719
tracks that matched the smear, no scat, just churned mud

38
00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:10,199
and the darkness of the shine to it. Injuries followed.

39
00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:16,240
One worker clearing brush near the ravine was found on

40
00:04:16,319 --> 00:04:20,480
his back an impossible distance from where he'd been standing.

41
00:04:21,800 --> 00:04:27,360
His hard hat was split, his boots were gone. He

42
00:04:27,399 --> 00:04:32,399
couldn't explain how he'd moved, only that something had hid

43
00:04:32,519 --> 00:04:38,279
him from the side with enormous force. Another man swore

44
00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:43,879
he felt hands on his shoulders, hands too large, before

45
00:04:43,959 --> 00:04:48,800
he flew, landing in BlackBerry with bruises blooming across his ribs.

46
00:04:50,319 --> 00:04:56,680
Accident reports blamed uneven ground and fatigue. Privately, the men

47
00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:02,639
believed otherwise. Near the end of the project, fear stopped

48
00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:09,160
being quiet. A construction worker brought a rifle to the site.

49
00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:13,120
He had stopped going home, sleeping in his truck instead.

50
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:18,519
He claimed something paced the tree line at night, just

51
00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,000
outside the floodlights, and that the cries always came from

52
00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:29,279
the ravine. One afternoon, he raised the rifle and shouted

53
00:05:29,319 --> 00:05:35,839
into the woods. Then he fired several rounds, hard and fast.

54
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,839
No one saw what he hit. No body was found,

55
00:05:41,959 --> 00:05:47,959
but the valley changed. The screaming stopped immediately, as if

56
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:53,800
a switch had been thrown. Birds fell silent, even the

57
00:05:53,839 --> 00:06:00,519
wind seemed to hesitate. The rifleman stood shaking, staring at

58
00:06:00,519 --> 00:06:06,120
the trees as if expecting something to step out. He

59
00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:10,120
quit the next morning and left town without collecting his

60
00:06:10,199 --> 00:06:15,120
full pay. Some of the crew believed he had killed

61
00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:20,639
a creature. Others believed he had killed the wrong one,

62
00:06:20,959 --> 00:06:26,560
its mate, its mother, something whose voice had carried through

63
00:06:26,639 --> 00:06:33,319
the valley night after night. No proof ever surfaced. The

64
00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:38,680
state finished the paperwork, paved the last section, and opened

65
00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:46,240
the road. For years, traffic moved through without incident. Then

66
00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:52,560
slowly the pattern returned. Cars did not stop because engines

67
00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:57,560
failed without reason. They stopped because the road forced them to.

68
00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:04,079
A dear cargo left in the lane just beyond a

69
00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:10,439
blind curve, A pine trunk dragged partially into the roadway,

70
00:07:11,399 --> 00:07:17,560
a rock striking glass high and sideways. Sometimes a shape

71
00:07:17,639 --> 00:07:23,199
crossed the road at blinding speed, too tall, too broad,

72
00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:30,759
gone before the mind could frame it. Drivers panicked, some swerved,

73
00:07:31,399 --> 00:07:37,240
some braked hard and stopped, and sometimes people got out

74
00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:42,399
of their vehicles. Those were the ones who fared worst.

75
00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:50,399
Not every encounter ended an injury. Many drivers escaped with

76
00:07:50,519 --> 00:07:58,279
damaged vehicles and no explanation that satisfied insurance adjusters. Windshiels

77
00:07:58,319 --> 00:08:05,360
cracked inward as if punched rather than struck. Doors caved laterally,

78
00:08:06,439 --> 00:08:14,199
not head on head lights broken cleanly, with no corresponding

79
00:08:14,279 --> 00:08:19,519
debris on the road. One pick up was found spun

80
00:08:19,759 --> 00:08:25,519
sideways near the ravine, its tires leaving black marks across

81
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:30,639
the asphalt at a ninety degree angle. There was no

82
00:08:30,839 --> 00:08:36,279
skid leading into the turn, no reason the truck should

83
00:08:36,279 --> 00:08:40,960
have moved that way at all. If a vehicle was

84
00:08:41,039 --> 00:08:46,039
damaged badly enough that it would not start, most people

85
00:08:46,519 --> 00:08:50,320
did not stay with it. The forest pressed close on

86
00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,000
both sides, and realization came quickly. There were no houses,

87
00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:02,080
no lights, no cell service. The nearest place where the

88
00:09:02,159 --> 00:09:06,840
canopy pulled back and the sky opened again was nearly

89
00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:13,320
ten miles in either direction, so people fled. They ran

90
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:18,919
along the pavement, sometimes in shock, sometimes in blind panic,

91
00:09:20,159 --> 00:09:25,799
looking back more often than they looked ahead. Later searchers

92
00:09:25,879 --> 00:09:31,480
found abandoned cars with broken glass, bent frames, and deep

93
00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:38,039
dens that suggested force applied from the side. Drag marks

94
00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:43,480
were rare, more often, there was nothing at all beyond

95
00:09:43,799 --> 00:09:51,399
panic and distance. There was only one confirmed fatality. It

96
00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,799
happened late near the ravine, when a sedan left the

97
00:09:55,919 --> 00:10:01,480
roadway and rolled down an embankment. The driver was killed instantly.

98
00:10:02,639 --> 00:10:10,440
Investigations ruled it an accident, speed over correction, poor visibility,

99
00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:18,759
but the reconstruction raised quiet questions. Tire marks indicated lateral

100
00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:24,000
movement before the vehicle left the pavement. The car had

101
00:10:24,039 --> 00:10:33,240
shifted sideways, not spun. No one could explain how law

102
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:39,960
enforcement never suggested a mysterious cause. They couldn't. Instead, they

103
00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,799
searched for vandals, delinquents, thrill seekers. Investigators debated whether fear

104
00:10:47,879 --> 00:10:53,480
itself was driving the incidents, whether rumor and suggestion were

105
00:10:53,600 --> 00:11:02,080
causing drivers to panic. Outreach programs were discussed. Statements emphasized

106
00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:07,120
rational thinking. The law was very good at small things.

107
00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:13,840
They were statutes left over from agricultural disputes that protected

108
00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:20,320
against the defamation of milk. There were ordinances allowing citations

109
00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:25,519
for criminal negligence if someone threw a candy wrapper from

110
00:11:25,519 --> 00:11:32,279
a moving car. The legal system could punish litter, rumor carelessness.

111
00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:39,039
It had no language for a car pushed sideways. Privately,

112
00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:45,360
some officers understood exactly what they were seeing. Rocks were thrown,

113
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:52,559
not fallen. Logs were placed, not washed in. Trees appeared

114
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:58,320
in lanes where gravity alone could not explain them. Damage

115
00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:05,120
repeated at the same heights, the same angles. It was vandalism,

116
00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:13,519
undeniable vandalism, but vandalism without a person to charge. They

117
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:19,360
kept it on record. Cracked windows, dented doors, broken head lights,

118
00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:27,200
vehicles shoved just far enough to terrify, not destroy. Every

119
00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:35,120
report ended the same way. Cause undetermined, incident considered accidental.

120
00:12:36,519 --> 00:12:41,720
The language was deliberate. To write anything else would have

121
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:48,159
meant admitting intent without a suspect, warning without a statute,

122
00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:54,440
forcing without a name. So the truth stayed where it

123
00:12:54,639 --> 00:13:03,159
was safest, unspoken. In the early nineteen eighties, after too

124
00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:08,919
many damaged vehicles, too many frightened drivers, and one death

125
00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:16,399
no one liked thinking about, the state closed the road officially,

126
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:24,080
erosion and cost made it unsafe. Unofficially, deputies refused to

127
00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:31,600
patrol it after dark. Concrete barriers went up, signs were removed.

128
00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:37,080
The ten mile cut was left to weather. The forest

129
00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:45,360
reclaimed it patiently, and the incidents stopped, mostly because fewer

130
00:13:45,399 --> 00:13:52,399
people tested the route. He had been there before. The road.

131
00:13:53,039 --> 00:13:57,399
The valley was not sacred in human way. It was

132
00:13:57,559 --> 00:14:03,440
useful cover pass it a place where paths overlapped, and

133
00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:09,559
life moved quietly. Elk used it, Bear used it. Others

134
00:14:09,879 --> 00:14:14,879
like him moved through it in seasons, following memory older

135
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:21,879
than speech. When the machines arrived, he watched from shadow.

136
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:29,519
Humans moved predictably. Their lights created blindness as much as vision.

137
00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:36,159
Their noise made them careless. They cut trees with intent,

138
00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:43,399
and intent mattered. The ground shook when they blasted. The

139
00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:49,639
smell of hot metal replaced rain and cedar. The scream

140
00:14:50,279 --> 00:14:56,120
came from deeper timber. At first, another of his kind,

141
00:14:56,399 --> 00:15:01,679
answering the destruction, The voice mated, uttered, it spoke for

142
00:15:01,759 --> 00:15:07,759
the valley, then it ended, the scream that never returned.

143
00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:14,399
He felt the absence immediately, a silence that did not belong.

144
00:15:15,759 --> 00:15:23,279
Something had been taken, not moved, not chased away, ended.

145
00:15:24,879 --> 00:15:29,639
He searched the ravine afterward and found blood, but little else,

146
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:36,279
no body, no clear trail, only the knowledge that the

147
00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:44,080
voice was gone. After that, the boundary hardened. When the

148
00:15:44,159 --> 00:15:49,600
road opened, the metal beasts rushed through the valley. Most

149
00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:55,759
passed without issue. That was tolerable. That corridor was scarred,

150
00:15:56,759 --> 00:16:01,960
but not constantly violated. He stayed hidden and let the

151
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:08,919
forest work, moss creeping over stone, roots, splitting rocks, alder,

152
00:16:09,159 --> 00:16:15,960
reaching back for ground. Trouble came when humans lingered, They stopped,

153
00:16:17,039 --> 00:16:22,960
they stepped out, They wandered toward the ravine. Some carried fire,

154
00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:29,879
some carried pointed sticks. Some laughed to prove they were

155
00:16:29,919 --> 00:16:35,440
not afraid. He did not hurt them. Most nights, he

156
00:16:35,519 --> 00:16:42,320
did nothing. When action was needed, he escalated carefully. A

157
00:16:42,399 --> 00:16:48,159
log rolled from higher ground, A rock thrown near not

158
00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:54,879
at a crossing, timed at a blind curve, so fear

159
00:16:55,519 --> 00:17:03,279
bloomed before contact. Panic usually saw the problem. When vehicles

160
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,599
stopped and people stayed inside, they were allowed to leave.

161
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:13,960
When people fled on foot, the forest swallowed them, and

162
00:17:14,079 --> 00:17:19,240
he did not pursue. Only when someone advanced toward the

163
00:17:19,319 --> 00:17:25,319
ravine did force become necessary. He did not ram vehicles.

164
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,319
He braced and leaned, driving weight through legs and shoulder

165
00:17:31,119 --> 00:17:38,079
using ground and momentum. Cars moved sideways because physics allowed it.

166
00:17:39,119 --> 00:17:44,640
Because mass beat traction, the marks curved where they should not,

167
00:17:45,799 --> 00:17:52,759
metal bent inward without impact scars. Death was never the goal.

168
00:17:54,599 --> 00:17:59,920
When one happened, it happened because humans panicked, because speed

169
00:18:00,319 --> 00:18:04,960
and terrain aligned badly. He did not follow the fallen

170
00:18:06,079 --> 00:18:09,480
he did not take what the forest did not claim.

171
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:15,319
He left prince rarely, and only where the ground demanded it.

172
00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:23,000
When they appeared, they were warnings written in weight. The

173
00:18:23,039 --> 00:18:28,599
boundary was not held by one alone. Paths were watched,

174
00:18:29,599 --> 00:18:35,240
lessons repeated. What the road had taken was remembered by

175
00:18:35,319 --> 00:18:40,640
more than a single mind. When the state finally closed

176
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:47,039
the road, relief came, but not forgiveness. The scar remained,

177
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:54,000
and scars remember. Pressure. Silence returned in layers, and the

178
00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:01,359
boundary held. Years later, curiosity reopened it in small ways.

179
00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:07,960
An explorer seeking a legend, a hunter who believed he

180
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:14,559
could outwalk anything. A driver convinced the stories were exaggeration,

181
00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:22,119
He still warned them first. Most turned back. The ones

182
00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:26,079
who did not because part of the valley not out

183
00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:31,319
of cruelty, but because the scream that ended would never

184
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:36,079
be answered, and the road that took it could not

185
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:41,680
be allowed to take anything else. He remained because someone

186
00:19:41,759 --> 00:19:48,440
had to. And that's the end of tonight's story, The

187
00:19:48,559 --> 00:19:54,240
road that took a scream. Remember not every road wants company,

188
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,759
and not every sound in the woods is just the wind.

189
00:20:00,079 --> 00:20:05,759
Thanks for listening, explorers, keep your eyes open, your imagination

190
00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,960
wide and if you hear something strange on the trail,

191
00:20:10,759 --> 00:20:15,400
remember it's just Bigfoot saying good night, sleep tight, and

192
00:20:15,519 --> 00:20:21,799
we'll see you next time in Bigfoot's wilderness,