Speaker 1: This podcast may not be suitable for young listeners.
Speaker 2: Steve Lily Episode seventeen, The Open Door, Part two. Hook
Johnson woke first six hours of sleep had done him
good after more than twenty four hours without since Christmas Eve.
On the metal roof, he heard the clicking of sleep.
A second front had arrived, dropping the temperature, colliding with
moisture blown north from the Gulf. It would be a
nasty day. He walked to the back porch door and
looked out the window. Sleep bounced at the edge of
the steps like jumping insects. He was not fully awake,
and staring at the sleep was hypnotic. He wondered who
had relieved Steve after they crashed in the bank's living room.
Three men sleeping on sofas and proped back in recliners
because no one had awakened Hook for his shift. Hook
craned his neck to see down the length of the
porch and he saw Steve asleep on the fabric couch
and bundled in a heavy winter parka and covered in
a blanket. Not one of them had gotten up in
the night to give Steve a break. Hook, with his
thoughts making sense from his deep sleep, looked out into
the field beyond the house, thinking they could possibly be
overrun by the creatures. He didn't know how long it
had been since there had been eyes on the field,
but the only thing he saw in the misty and
barely lit landscape of the morning was a brown, muddy
patch of land with soybean stubs three inches tall. The
corpses from the battle of the day before were gone
in the field looked like nothing had happened there at all,
and he began to think this entire episode was a dream.
He wrenched his eyes with his knuckles and ran his
hand down through his long beard, and he opened the door,
and he walked out. Steve. Wake up. Steve rolled under
the blanket, moved his head toward Hook and opened his eyes. Damn,
I'm freezing, he said. I bet you are. It's thirty
three degrees and you're outside sleeping in it. Hook sat
down beside Steve. Apparently nobody relieved you any idea when
you went to sleep, Not a damn clue. Well, I'm
glad you weren't attacked. I'd hate to see your chewed
up corpse out there in that field. Oh that would
be bad, said Steve. All the squatch bodies are gone,
said Hook. He settled back into the porch sofa, while Steve,
suddenly awake at that news, stood up and looked around
the empty field that just a few hours before had
been littered with dead creatures. Well there goes the bounties,
said Steve. Those things came in that close with me
sleeping on this porch. I can't believe it. Well, who
could have predicted that, Hook said. He kicked his long
legs out and reclined further. Obviously not us. You want
some coffee, said Steve. If you'll make it, give me
ten minutes, I'll wake the others, Steve said, and he
walked into the kitchen. The team stood at the porch rail,
looking into the field, each man with a cup of coffee.
Isabel walked to the junk in the backyard and kicked
around the dead weeds. He walked around the rusty equipment, slowly,
looking under and around each piece. They're all gone to Migo,
said Lewis. How did they get this close to the
house and nobody heard them, asked Isabel. I take the
blame for that, said Steve. I know I was up
and awake until one, but I guess I dozed off.
I'm not sure why they didn't drag me away too.
Good news is that hook scoped the trees over there,
and there's still four out there watching us. Shake it off. Steve,
I would have fallen asleep too. Maybe it's our age,
Lewis consoled his friend. Maybe, said Steve. Steve reached into
his pocket and looked at his phone. A message had
come through while he slept the night away. This is
good news. Red sent a message saying for us to
check the SAT feed. I'll go get the laptop hook.
I assume you brought our mobile units. I'll get those two.
Steve walked around the house and was back in a flash.
He unloaded the backpack where he kept those devices. He
handed them out, and then started the laptop. The image
that he saw was the roof of the house and
a quarter mile radius of the land surrounding them. He
toggled the thermal image feature, and directly behind the house
he saw four heat signatures in white, evenly spaced just
a few feet into the trees, exactly what they had
seen with their scope since the afternoon before. I only
see four, he said, Let me pan out and see
what I can see beyond that. When he had an
image up between the house and the Mississippi River, he
saw heat signatures, but after zooming in on a few,
he saw that the hits were only natural wildlife. That's
all there is between us and the river. Steve said, Hook,
you want to use that big gun again. You should
be able to take those down from here. Hook rested
the rifle on the same docher blade he had used
the day before, and he knocked the creature furthest to
the right down. He came back out of the recoil
and looked for the next target, but he couldn't find one.
I'm watching them, said Steve. The others ran when you shot.
Apparently they're wise to your big gun. They only ran
a short distance. Looks like they've taken cover behind the trees.
These things learned fast. If there's only four, let's go
in and get them, said Lewis. We've lost enough money today.
At least we'll make a few bucks. You read my mind,
said Isabel. Each man went into the house, got dressed,
assembled their gear, loaded their weapons, and proceeded across the field.
Angela drove to within sight of the bank's house, and
stopped in the middle of the gravel road. She put
the car in park and let the engine run. What's
going on? Why have you stopped, said Dishman. You see
that house right up there. That's probably where they are,
or they're in the woods hunting. I'm not going any further.
I can't face them. They know what I've done, and
I can't face Steve and his friends. Well, how would
those douchebags know anything? Drive past the house so I
can see. I can't drive the fucking car, Dishman said.
Angela jumped when he yelled at her, and with her
hands shaking, she did as she was told and slowly
crept forward. Dishmand watched out the window while they approached
the house and told her to pull in the drive.
You told me over the phone that they had killed
some of the Savee people close to the house. Show
me where, said Dishman. Angela parked and they both got out,
Dishman with his camera on and recording. Well, there should
be one right here, said Angela, pointing to the place
she had seen Steve dropped the charging squatch the day
before as they drove away, but there was no corpse.
Maybe they moved it. There should be several behind the
house in the field, though I know they killed several
back there yesterday. Show me, said Dishman, still recording everything.
Are the diuchebag salve killers in the house, he added,
I don't know. Angela led Dishman to the junk pile
and pointed her finger into the field. I saw a
bunch of the creatures laying out in this field yesterday. Well,
I don't see anything. Now where are they? I don't
know how am I supposed to know? You're lying about
this whole thing, aren't you. Dishmand had moved into Angela's
face in an intimidating way. She backed away from him
and lowered her head. They were all over this field.
I saw him, That's all I know, she said. Hold
this camera on me, said Dishman, and he began talking
to his audience. He was making a video and Angela
could not believe it. He's acting like I'm his assistant.
The four men had spread out and walked to the woods,
each checking their mobile displays as they walked. Steve Lilly
was on the left side of the group, and before
he went into the trees, he stopped to check everything
around him. And he looked back toward the house. He
wasn't sure at this distance, but he thought he saw
a car in the front yard. He raised his scope
to his eye and confirmed it was Angela's car. Panning
the rifle to the left and behind the house. Angela
stood in the backyard with a camera in her hands
while a man talked. Steve talked into his mic and
told the others what was happening. They had walked far
enough into the trees that they would not be able
to see back to the house. What do you want
to do, asked Lewis. Well, we ain't doing nothing. Let
them do what they're going to do. We're got to
make some money. I'll deal with them later if they're
still here. Roger that, Lewis said, and he kept moving
toward a squatch. They had worked out a plan before
they got to the woods that Steve would take the
squatch on the left, closest to the road, Lewis would
take the middle squatch, and Hook would take the far
right creature. Isabelle would hang back at a short distance
and run to the aid of anyone who needed help.
The creatures were close enough to each other that each
member of the team would be just out of sight
of the others, but close enough to see the additional
threats as well as one of the squatches if it
made a break. It was as good a plan as any.
Steve hurt a car approaching on the road and looked
over to see Angela's car speed by. He began to
jog toward his target. When Dishmond had bragged enough to
his audience about how stupid every other person on the
planet was about sisquatch and inferred that he was a
walking encyclopedia on the Sabe people, as he called them,
he told Angela to hand him back his camera. He
snatched it from her hands. He walked around the side
of the house closest to the woods, and he caught
the last few steps of a man with a rifle
walking into the woods. Where does this road go, he
demanded from Angela. I don't know, she said. I think
it goes into a swampy area, but I can't be sure.
Take me down the road. I think I found the
douchebags I've been looking for. She drove him a half
mile and stopped. When he gave her the order. Dishman
got out, went to the back seat, and extracted a
tripod in two cameras. You stay right here, he said,
and he waded into the cold water to some higher ground.
Angela stood beside the car and waited and watched Dishman
walk to a spot where she could just see him.
She watched as he set up his tripod in camera,
carefully pointing the lens and then turning it on. He
then used the other camera to use a selfie style,
and he began talking to the device. Steve slowed to
a walk and he looked at his mobile device to
check the positions of the squatches that they were after
They hadn't moved and he was within rifle range of
his target. He could also see where Angela's car had parked,
along with two people walking around the car. And then
one stepped off into the woods and stopped. It's everyone
in position, he asked over the radio. Each man reported
that they were hook now farther into the trees than
the others. Call the team on his radio. I'm having
to avoid some massive trouble. Hooks hanging in these woods.
They're dangling from cords on these limbs. Might slow me
down a bit. I don't want to have to dig
one of these hooks out of my arm. Could you,
fellow stop where you are until I get through this
treble hooks, asked Lewis. Looks like somebody baited them with meat.
I'm guessing it was the old man who owns this place.
Hook said. He was breathing a little harder in his mic,
and the team heard him. He was nervous with the
hooks hanging all around him. Ah, I'm sure it was
that old man, said Steve. That's why they came after him.
Hook walked by a tree and blow it. He saw
a young squatch, or what was left of it, dead
and covered in ice. He shivered and he moved past it.
A few feet beyond that, he saw a red fox
dangling from a hook from its mouth. It was dead,
and it had been for a day. He cut it
down and removed the trouble hook, and he ran the
barb into a tree where nothing else would be caught
on it. He looked ahead before moving and was satisfied
that there were no more hooks in front of him.
He spoke into the mic again. That was some redneck
innovation to make a demon throw up, just one more
active inhumanity, giving Rednecks a bad name all over the world,
but I think we should remember it. Mike Work wonders
on a nasty squatch in the future. Okay, I'm clear,
and I think I'm fifty yards from my squatch. Same here,
said Lewis. I'm ready for anything, said Isabelle. I think
one of us will need to take a shot to
get a moving Mine's behind a big ass oak tree.
I can't see him. Can anyone else get a shot?
Steve said, and wait, Hook answered, I can't get a
shot unless I move. Lewis said he had no shot
at all. Hook. Can you move to your right try
to get an angle on yours. I think if you
drive them this way, Lewis and I both can take
ours out when they start running, and if yours gets away,
one of us will see him and we'll take you out.
I'm moving now, said Hook. Steve looked back at his screen.
The squatches were in an almost perfect line perpendicular to
the road. He panned to the left and he saw
Dishman was in that line as well. If the creatures ran,
they would run so that Steve would get a shot,
and they would also be moving straight at Dishman we
wait on you hook Dishman sat on the trunk of
a blown down tree, filming himself. I'm only here to
give you the truth. All the other douchebags who cover
this topic are full of shit, and they're stupid. And
while they're out having camp outs and enjoying each other's company,
making friends and cooking food and sharing their stupid stories
and casting tracks and looking for Sabe shit, I'm bringing
you the real evidence that the government is covering up
the existence of the Sabe people. And you deserve that.
For all the people out there who have had an
encounter with these creatures, this is for you. I'm here
for you and your well being. That's the only reason
I do this. I'm a man of the people. You're
about to watch a team of Sabe assassins shoot down
an innocent sasquatch person for no reason. This is a
team of killers established by the government specifically to kill
the other human species, just to save the logging industry.
Can you believe that I'm filming from two angles so
I get everything recorded. You will not hear this truth
on any other website. All those douchebags care about his
clicks and their bullshit videos. Now, let's wait until the
shooting starts. I'll keep the cameras rolling. Dishman stood back
from the camera he had attached to the tripod, keeping
the camera in his hand, pointed at his face and
he went silent for once in his life. Angela had
gotten back in the car. She was terrified that she
would run into someone from the team. She thought about leaving,
but she was out of money. The tank was on fumes.
Where would she go? A gunshot shook the woods around them.
Angela jumped and then it went silent, and she heard
Dishmond in the woods talking to the camera again. All right,
you heard that shot. That's possibly a save down for
no reason at all. Now, if you want to support
this calls, you can donate to the new fund that
I've started to reveal these clandestine kill missions and teams
and also reveal how the government has lied to you.
Nothing but the truth here. I'm a no BS sort
of guy. My PayPal account is on the screen. Now
give all you can now, because this is the most
important mission. Give now. Because the rest of his speech
was cut short by more shots, and it broke Dishman's concentration,
and he looked away from the camera, a man running
full speed straight at him, water splashing, jumping over vines,
and dodging cypress sneeze a rifle hill to his shoulder.
While Dishman's attention was on the man, he missed the
raging squatch running at him at ninety degrees until the
last minute, and he turned his head and saw the
massive beast in mid air only ten feet to his left.
He dropped the camera and he tried to drop to
the ground, but he knew it was too late, and
he screamed. Two shots rang out, the muzzle flash lit
the ground below him. The hooking beast hit Dishmand, collapsing
him into the mud. Steve knew that once Hook fired
his weapon, the creatures would move, and that's exactly what happened.
Seconds later, Lewis took the top off of his target's
head with one shot, dropping it instantly. Hook's target was
still running with a shredded shoulder. It had turned toward
the river, running away from the rifle fire. Hook and
Isabelle moved together and found solid ground, lined up on
the fleeing monster and began walking rounds in behind it,
kicking up mud with each shot and finally driving home
the lethal thirty caliber rounds into the beast's back. It
fell face first dead in the water. Target down, said Lewis.
Number two down, said Hook over the radio. Steve watched
his target run toward the road, brushing saplings obscured his
view somewhat ran straight at the squatch, trying to break
free from the undergrowth and get a shot. He had
waited too long in the hopes that the squatch would
run at Dishman and ruin his ideas of these things
being like people. But things were what they were, and
he would do the best he could. He wanted Dishman
to get scare of his life, but he didn't give
a damn if this monster killed him or not. However,
Angela was there with Dishman. He couldn't let her get hurt.
Steve finally got an angle to shoot, and he ripped
off two rounds that he knew were hits. The animal
was in mid air and about to pounce on Dishman,
and all he could do was hope that the two
rounds were enough, but they weren't. The creature was down.
It had overshot its dive and blood spurted from a
wound to an artery and it would bleed out soon,
but it still had some fight in it. Steve raised
his rifle again and was lining up his shot when
Isabelle darted past asked him, and he felt the wind
in the wake of the crazy Mexicans charge. He released
the pressure on the trigger, still holding on the creature's head,
and he watched Isabel jump onto the animal's back, force
its head upward, and run the big blade of the
bowie knife across its neck. The monster's head slumped back
and it fell over dead. What the fuck, Steve shouted.
Isabel jumped up and looked down at the skanky creature,
and he said, I've been wanting to use this knife
that hook gave me. Works pretty good, eh. If what
the fuck is all Steve could think to say, Dishmand
gathered his wits a bit and then he ran through
the water to the car, leaving both cameras still recording
in the mud. He slammed the passenger door and he
told Angela to get him back to the airports. On empty,
she said. Steve walked to Angela's side, she rolled her
window down. I'm sorry, Steve, I'm so sorry. I needed
the money well, it's okay. Sometimes you gotta do what
you gotta do. I don't want to talk about it
any further than that. Now you need to get going.
We aren't sure we got all these things, and it's
still dangerous here for you. I'll leave if this asshole
will give me some gas money. I'm broke and this
car has just enough gas to get to the gas station.
Give her the money, Steve said, leaning into the car
across Angela. All will as soon as we get to
a pump, said Dishman. Give it to her now. I
want to watch you hand her the money. Everything in
your pocket. Dishman wiped the mud and squatch blood from
his face and his hands, and he stretched out in
the seat and pulled out a water of bills and
peeled off a hundred and handed it to Angela. All
of it, said Steve. Dishman look up at Lily douchebag.
Give her the fucking money. He handed over the wad,
the money, clip and all. Angela. I don't know where
you go from here, but I wish you the best.
Thanks for the meals over the last year, and thanks
for looking after Lily. But I don't think we're going
to be doing things together. After this, Steve walked into
the woods. Angela started the car and she found a
place to turn around and headed toward town. And when
she got to the gas station, she told Dishman to
get out and fill her tank, and he obeyed. And
when she heard the nozzle click and Dishman place it
back in the cradle of the gas pump, she started
the car and she drove away, dropping one hundred dollar
bill onto the ice covered parking lot for him to
pay for the gas. She watched Dishman in her rear
view mirror standing in the road, and then he turned
to walking to the station to pay for the gas.
Angela headed back home to Memphis. Isabel stood next to
the creature he had finished off, its head hanging from
his left hand. His bowie knife was gripped in his right.
The knife, his hands, and his arms were covered in
squatch blood and hair. You're a scary motherfucker, Isabel said Steve.
Isabel contorted his face to look like a monster, and
then he held a knife a little higher, and Steve laughed,
and Isabelle laughed. Hook and Lewis walked up, each with
a burlap sack hanging from their belts and blood dripping
through the fabric. I think we got them all now,
said Hook. I hope, so said Steve. It's getting colder
and shit, let's get back to the house and warm up.
It was almost dark. The woods around them took on
the mood of a monster flick, that time between day
in full night when everything looks creepy. In the woods,
sleek continued to fall. The trees and its limbs, and
the grass and the vines and everything had a thick
coating of ice that crunched and cracked with each step.
They took. The light of the back of the porch
of the bank's house had been left on, giving them
a beacon to shelter from the weather. They would stay
the night head back to Memphis the next morning, or so,
they thought. Hook led the way into the kitchen of
the bank's house, and he had his straight for the
food pantry and began digging for something to eat. The
rest of the team filed in after taking off their
muddy boots and gear. Four men stood in the kitchen
in socks, hoping Hook would find something good to eat.
I'm starving and there's not much here to eat, said Hook.
I saw a taco bell when we came this way.
What's the name of that little town just up the
road anyway, asked Lewis. No one answered, nobody knows what
the name of the town is. Lewis asked again. Nope,
said Steve. Y'all are some non observant people, said Lewis.
Apparently you aren't, either, said Hook. But I'm glad you
noticed the taco bell. Kind of shows your priorities. Do
you ever not think about food? Lewis? What are you
thinking about right now? Hook asked Lewis. Food, nuff said.
Lewis walked into the living area to get jerky out
of his bag. He sat on the bank sofa and
he started chewing. Steve unloaded everything in his pockets onto
the counter, and then he removed the cameras a dishman
had left behind from his vest. They were expensive cameras,
and Steve wondered how much he could get for them
at a pawn shop. But then he thought that Blue
and the agency might want him. He didn't know what
images dishman had gotten, but maybe there was something on
there his handlers could use. He stuffed them back in
his and walked outside on the porch and left it
there beside the muddy boots and the squatch heads. I'll
go to Taco Bell. Don't tell me what you want.
It's going to be a sack full of tacos, Steve said.
I don't eat Taco Bell, said isabel. Everybody eats Taco Bell,
said Lewis from the living room. I'm Mexican Voto. We
don't eat that shit, Steve. I'll go with you, said Louis.
Maybe we'll see something else that Isabelle will eat. Let's go.
I'm starving. Hook had sat down at the table and
fixed the bowl of kids cereal. He poured milk over it,
and he started shoveling the technicolored bits in his mouth.
Milk ran down his beard, and he tried to keep
up with the mess with a napkin. But he was hungry.
Is that going to do you, asked Steve. Nope. I'll
eat anything from Taco Bell or any other place you find.
Load me up. Hook went back to his cereal. Isabel
crashed out on the recliner. Steve and Lewis went to
Hook's excursion and left after Taco Bell. They stopped at
a pit barbecue and they picked up ribs for isabelle
Lewis thought it was crazy to make a special trip
for one man, but after they walked into the store,
Lewis ordered ribs for himself too, And then Steve told
Louis about Isabel's crazy attack on the creature that was
about to kill dishman. That dude is scary with a knife,
said Louis. But I'm glad he's on this team. I
haven't been on a hunt where if we didn't have him,
things would have gone wrong. But I think that day's coming.
I think it's a good move inviting him to join us.
I think he loves this stuff. Lewis reached into the
taco bell bag and pulled out a taco and ate
it in two bites. They eate burritos and tacos and
nachos like kings at the kitchen table, and Isabel and
Lewis gnawed on rib bones, and after supper they walked
out on the back porch and cigarettes were lit and
they enjoyed the silence. Steve phone bust in his pocket.
It was someone with the agency, Steve Lelly, squatch Hunter.
How can I help you? He answered Steve, this is
red We have you on a conference call. There are
several of us in here, and we need to show
you what we're seeing in the area. By the way,
good job on those last three creatures. We don't think
Dishman will show his face anywhere near you, Fellas again,
that is, if he can get back home. What do
you mean get home, Steve said, Well, we tracked Angela
when she left and they stopped it by a guess,
and she drove off, leaving him in the parking lot,
and she's headed back to Memphis. Now. Dishman has a
return flight tonight, but we're taking bets on if he'll
catch that flight or not, said Red. Others in the
room laughed, well, okay, well what's new. You said you
were seeing something in the area. Can you fill us in.
Steve and his team walked into the kitchen and they
sat down at the table and Steve laid the phone
next to the pile of taco wrappers and turned the
speaker on. We have you on speaker, Steve said, fire
away agent read, but first, we had no less than
twenty creatures lying dead in this field last night, and
we woke up and they're all gone. Now I know
the imaging system has been down, but did you catch
anything last night when the system came back online. That's
a lot of damn money someone took from us. It
was Blue who answered Steve, I wasn't there, but I
read the report this morning, saying, the folks manning the
monitors watch the creatures take the last few corpses from
the field closest to the house. We think they spent
all night working their way closer until they removed every corpse.
If you'll look at your phone, you'll see a couple
of calls from them trying to warn you, but no
one answered. You got lucky. There were only three to collect.
They're dead. I can't help you with the bounty on these.
You know, our deal heads for money. That's what it
takes for you to get paid. Steve looked at the
other guys at the table with a sheepish expression. They
looked pissed at him, but their attention was directed back
to Blue's voice when he said, now, Agent Brown is
going to fill you in on this strange phenomenon we
were talking about. He oversees the intel that we gather
from the satellites. Good morning, men, said Brown. We're seeing
another creature close to the river. You couldn't see him
on your end because we think he crawled into a
covert pipe. The minute you engage the creatures, though that
you just took out, he started moving away from you.
Right now he stopped and has found shelter under a
barge tied to the river bank. Now we don't know
why he stopped, and we obviously don't know where he's going.
This ice storm seems to be something they're not used to.
Steve interrupted, how about we just had that way and
kill it. Let him finish, Steve, you don't want to
hear this, said Red Brown continued Across the river is
Davis Island. Now we know you and Hook are familiar
with the area. Steve looked at Hook across the table.
Their expressions never changed, but they knew what the other
was thinking. We are familiar with it, said Hook. We're
seeing something on Davis Island that we can't identify. No
matter where we look. With this technology, we get the
same image. Now we can read a license plate, we
can identify faces and animals, and we can increase the
resolution to degrees that you would find amazing. But you
can't see what we can see. On your monitors. But
trust me, even for a tech like me, who is
looking at this stuff for hours each day, this technology
still blows me away. For unknown reasons. There is a
point on the island that we can't get a good image.
One of the tear found it on a routine scan yesterday.
We've analyzed it in every possible way and we don't
know what it is. Well, what does that have to
do with us, asked Lewis. We think it's a portal. Now,
before you write this off, I need you to hear
us out. There are only a few here who believe
that this could be happening, but there are enough of
us open to the idea that a portal through time
is possible. I won't get into the history and the
science and the theory behind it, but the numbers bear
it out. All we need you to do is to
first kill that last creature and then go to Davids
Island and take a look. If it's nothing, myself and
the others will gladly admit that we're wrong. But if
it is something, and something is able to pass through,
we think this may be how the creatures got in
this world in the first place. Steve thought back to
his conversation with Agatha. What did she said something about
a door opening and staying open too long. Someone else
has brought this possibility up lately, said Steve. I don't
know if it's true or if it can even happen,
and I don't want to go any deeper into specifics.
My brain can't handle it. No shit, Isabelle interrupted. Steve continued,
we'll kill that squatch and then go to the island
and we'll check it out. I'm looking at my monitor
now and everything looks fine to me on the island.
But you said your resolution is better, so I'm going
to take your word for it. Steve slid the laptop
over to Lewis. See if you can see it, Lewis
and give hook and Isbelle a peek? Steve turned his
attention back to the conference call. Now, I have a question.
If we do get over there and find this as
a time portal, what are we supposed to do. We
don't know yet, Steve. I wish we had rigged your
team with camera so we could see what you see
and then make it determined. Name, said Brown live cameras
Dishmand left them in the mud. I can take a
video if we find something unusual, but it won't be
in real time. There was chatter, chair squeaking, and paper
shuffling in the conference room. Steve waited until they had
something to say. Lewis had looked at the monitor and
shook his head, indicating that he saw nothing, but that
it was a big island and maybe he had missed it.
Hook's face was now lit from the glow of the screen,
and he leaned into the screen and moved the image
around and said, Hey, that big one that was hiding
under the barge, it's moving. Can you all see this?
Where you are hushed, voices could be heard over the speaker.
We see it, Hook, looks like it's headed toward the water.
Stephen Lewis got up and walked around behind Hook, and
they watched the creature, a bright white image against the
grays and blacks of the screen, stood out from the
cold ice that had formed on everything in the air.
They all watched in silence while the beast moved around
a pile of dead trees and passed the barge and
stepped into the water and then submerged and reappeared a
few feet ahead. It was swimming he's headed for the island,
said Steve. I think we can track him overnight and
get over there tomorrow and take them out. This ice
storm should end tonight and the forecast tomorrow sunny skies
and cold weather. We'll go in and kill that squatch
and then we'll check out this blurry thing. Now. I'm
going to need a location so we can find it,
Roger that said Brown. Also, we can get our tech
guys to see if they can find a way to
wire those cameras so it gives us a live feed.
When you get over there, I'll be in touch with
the coordinates and we'll get you on the phone and
show you how to connect the cameras. If we can
figure it out, it'll go to your communication gear so
that we get a video signal. Okay, said Steve. I
mean ten to four. Roger will go that they heard
laughter through the speaker from the conference room and the
connection ended. Hook. Can you look at that screen and
find us a place to put the boat in the
water tomorrow. Yeah, there's a ramp right here. It's not
too far from us, right there in that WMA. All right,
let's get some sleep. Maybe we can wrap this up tomorrow.
Stephen Hook had not been back to this area in years.
Memories played in his mind like a fast forwarded VHS tape,
but then he relaxed. All that had happened forty years ago.
He had survived the real thing. To survive. The memories
was nothing at all to him. The female coyote came
back to her den after a successful hunt. With the
danger now apparently gone, hunting was less stressful, and she
easily found mice out on my searching for food. One
squirrel had made the mistake of jumping from the ground
to grab a hold of a low branch when she
had approached, but its claws could not hold the ice
coated limb and it slipped to the ground, giving her
the half a second advantage, and she caught it. She
had eaten the hindquarters and carried the rest back to
the den. The pups ate the flesh left on the squirrel,
and after it was gone, they chewed on its bones.
She did her usual circles around the cozy den, scraping
her paws and the dry straw on the floor until
she was comfortable that she could accommodate the pups at
her belly, and she flopped down and fell asleep while
the pups ate. The sleet and ice had stopped falling,
there were no sounds in the woods outside of the den.
Stay tuned for part three of the Open Door in
Steve Lily episode eighteens and Sloman