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Speaker 1: This is a bigfoot story from Alabama. The writer says

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that he grew up deer hunting with his dad in

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Barbara County, Alabama. He says, deer season was a religion

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for us. We hunted a five hundred acre family property

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that was all woods and fields and ponds and swamps.

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Things have changed, but in nineteen ninety eight it was

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some of the most inaccessible land around the south Side

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was all swamp except for one nice little patch of

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land planted for deer. The does would move into that

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field thirty minutes before dark, but the bucks would stay

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in the woods until well after dark. Dad had the

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idea to go fifty yards into the woods toward the

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swamp and put a ladder stand there. He had a

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lot of luck hunting from that stand, but I wasn't

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so fortunate. Finally, I decided to take a portable climbing

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stand and go deeper toward that swamp than Dad's stand,

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and I found a great spot that was close enough

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to the swamp to hear anything moving through the water,

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and a good view of the clearings near the swamp

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where I could get a clean shot. One afternoon in

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early January, I snuck into the stand at one thirty

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in the afternoon. I hunted my way in like Dad

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always taught me, typical of Alabama weather. It was in

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the fifties when I went in, but I knew it

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would drop into the thirties once the sun went down.

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There was no wind. Plus being up twenty feet, I

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didn't have to worry about my scent. I saw birds

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and squirrels, and other than that, everything was quiet. There

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was a tension in the air that seemed to deepen

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as the day went on. The closer it got to dark,

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the fewer animal noise as I heard, and the more

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my emotions began to turn melancholy, and it was as

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if nature itself was sad. At dusk, I heard something

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coming through the swamp. It was forty yards behind and

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to the east of my stand. It was the unmistakable

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sound of walking, or should I say, wading and crying,

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waiting and crying. Was someone lost? Well? I turned to look.

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I didn't see a beam of light of a flashlight.

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A hunter would have had a flashlight right. I was

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certain that I was the only person anywhere near that

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swamp on either side of the property, and who in

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their right mind would be this far out in the woods,

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swishing through the swamp without a flashlight and crying. If

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not a person, what was it. It wasn't a beaver.

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They don't make noise unless they're scared, and they certainly

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don't cry. It wasn't weasels, and it wasn't a deer,

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so it had to be a person. And when a

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human walks through water, our steps make an alternating swishing sound,

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and that's the sound I was hearing. And again it

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was crying. It was very still and quiet that day,

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and there was nothing else to distort the sound. The

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cry I heard was anguish, and it was mixed with

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some kind of unintelligible words. It was like someone who

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could not hear properly, to form their words correctly, but

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who had experienced a great loss. And I felt its

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loss as I heard it, and I didn't want to

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yell out and intrude. I just wanted to shrink away. Finally,

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it was night, and with it an overwhelming sense of dread,

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and except for the creature, all was silent and still,

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and I sat there frozeness, tears of compassion round down

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my face. It passed behind me into my left and

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its steps swished slowly through the water as it continued

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to cry and express its grief in some guttural language

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that I could not understand. It was the funeral procession

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of a single soul. Eventually it moved out of hearing range,

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but I continue to sit there for over an hour.

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I was overwhelmed by my own grief, and slowly fear

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of having been heard began to set in, and I

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wondered what it was, or if I'd actually heard it.

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Could I have been mistaken? How could I turn on

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my flashlight and climb down into that horrible, mournful silence.

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As the sounds of the night began to return, I

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realized it was time for me to go, and I

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somehow made my way back to the truck. I don't

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remember much about the walk back. My mind was on

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what happened. I've been back there to hunt many times,

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although I've never seen a buck of a lifetime that

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I was sure existed back there. And now I'm in

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my late forties and age has brought home to me

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how much grief this creature was truly expressing. I've been

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with family and friends who have lost loved ones, and

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their experience was no greater than what the creature was

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feeling that day. I've often wondered why I've never spoken

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of this to anyone before, and I realized now that

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it is a matter of honor. I shared its grief

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for a few minutes. I felt it disrespectful to talk

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about it. Even now, as I remember and re embrace

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that day, the tears come to my eyes at the memory.

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Nothing in those woods could wade through the swamp water

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like a person. No person could move through that swamp

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without a flashlight, and nothing in those woods would cry

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like a person. Nothing could bring me to the depths

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of sympathy I felt that day except a person. Well,

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I think something did the House in the woods. It

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was the summer of nineteen eighty five when we found

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the house in the woods. My friend and I decided

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to backpack in near his house in the Missouri countryside.

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We were both armed twelve gate shotgun and rich with

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a Ruger ten twenty two semi auto rifle. We figured

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on shooting a squirrel or two while we were hiking.

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We must have walked a couple of miles when we

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cut across this old, overgrown trail in the woods. It

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was still early in the day and we hadn't had

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any luck with the squirrels, so we thought we might

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explore the trail that was the entire point of the

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expedition anyway, to check out the land in the area.

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Neither of us had ever gone into the woods in

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that chunk of land, since it was pretty tangled up,

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not an easy place to hike, but we figured that

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deer and squirrel would be plentiful. We weren't sure who

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the land belonged to, but everyone that lived in the

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area thought it was government land. There were no conservation

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signs and no signs to warn off trespassers or anything,

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just a four strand barbed wire fence that had seen

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better days. So that was all the invitation that a

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couple of curious country kids needed. We both had backpacks

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with a couple of baloney sandwiches apiece, two canteens of water,

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our army surplus ponchos in case it rained, and a

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first aid kit. Richie's mom insisted on the first aid kit.

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We both had our deer hunting camouflage on and we

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wore booney style military hats. When we first cut the trail,

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I asked rich if he had ever seen a gate

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or road on the land anywhere. He said that he

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couldn't remember seeing anything like that, so we figured it

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might be an old logging trail from the fifties or so.

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We noticed that the trail to the left kind of

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went uphill, so we figured we'd start that way. I

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remember noticing that the place was quiet, but I just

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assumed that rich and I made so much noise that

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we scared the animals off. We'd gone about a half

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a mile on this road when we found an old plow.

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We decided to check it out. It was old. It

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was completely rusted, with wooden handles mostly rided away. The

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left side handle looked like it had been broken off

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about a foot from the end. It was a kind

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of plow you pulled behind a mule or a horse,

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not the kind you pull with a tractor. Other than

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being old, it looked like it was in fairly good

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shape when it was abandoned. Richie said that we should

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come back with his dad's pick up and drag it

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to the house. It wasn't antique and probably worth a

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pretty penny. While we munched down a beloney sandwich and

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drank some water, I noticed that it was still extremely quiet.

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Richie noticed it too, and when we kind of started

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to look around a bit, the woods were thick, with

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a lot of brambles and undergrowth, but the only sound

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besides us was the wind. It was kind of spooky.

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We started on up the trail again when we heard

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sound up ahead in the trees. It was a sort

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of a grunt or a snort. I looked at rich

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and he smiled, that's a buck, he whispered. We weren't

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loaded for deer, so we decided to just look and

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see if it was big enough to come back for

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when the season came around, maybe locate a place to

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put in a couple of deer stands or a blind.

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If this land hadn't been hunted since the nineteen fifties,

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then there should be more deer than we could take

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in a lifetime. We walked another half mile or so

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without seeing the buck when we saw something in the

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tall grass ahead. It looked like a car, and when

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we got closer you could tell that it was an

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old junk car. It was completely rusted, no paint left

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on the thing. The interior was all gone, and there

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wasn't any glass left in it at all. Looks like

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Grandpa's old Chevy. I said, yeah, but older, replied Rich.

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Grandpa's Chevy was a fifth ffty three and was still

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in really good shape. Rich was right, though this one

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did look older. The doors were still in place and

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the engine was still in it. When we lifted the

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old hood, all the old hoses and stuff were long

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since gone, though it was just an old rust heap.

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We heard that grunt or snort again, only this time

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it was behind us and closer. I grabbed up the

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shotgun and turned around to look, but we couldn't see

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a dang thing. The tangles were so thick it could

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have been fifty feet away and we would have never

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seen it gone get Rich yelled. We figured we'd hear

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a deer running off through the woods, but we only

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heard the wind. This place is starting to give me

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the creeps, Rich, I said, this place is really quiet. Ah,

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come on, he replied, let's just go on a little

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further and see what we find. We found the ply on,

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now the car. Maybe there's an old homestead around here.

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I shrugged and started on up the trail. Neither of

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us was talking. Now by unspoken agreement, I watched one

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side of the road while he watched the other. We

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hadn't gone more than a quarter of a mile when

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we saw a house through the trees ahead. It was

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an old two story place. The paint was gone and

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there wasn't a piece of glass left in any of

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the windows. The front porch was half collapsed and the

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front door hung off at an angle. There was another old,

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rusted out car in the tall grass near the house.

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It was an old ford by the look of it.

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The barn had fallen in on itself years ago. There

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weren't any telephone poles anywhere around here, so the place

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had to have been built back before there was electricity

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in the area, and that was in the forties. According

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to my dad, the place looked like it could have

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been older than that. Though. Rich started towards the house

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and I grabbed his arm. You aren't planning on goe

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in there, are you sure? He replied, Lord only knows

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what we might find in there. They left behind a

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plow in two cars. There's no telling what else might

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be in that house. Reluctantly I followed him. The porch

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was rotten and we had to watch our footing to

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get in the door. The place was a wreck. One

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of those old wood fired cook stoves was in the kitchen.

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There was a porcelain basin, but no faucet. There must

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be an old well with a pump on it around

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here somewhere, I said quietly. Rich nodded and kept poking around.

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There were a few pieces of old furniture, but nothing

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that was in any kind of shape. The old cook

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stove was in surprisingly good shape, but I bet it

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weighed four or five hundred pounds. It was cast iron.

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We weren't going to be able to move it without

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a truck and several strong men. In one room with

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some animal scat, it was big and in piles. What

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kind of animal dropped that, I asked. That's way too

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big for a coon or a coyote. Must be a

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cow or something. Rich said, maybe a horse. Well I

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wasn't convinced, but I didn't argue. I couldn't think of

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a thing that could do that and still fit in

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the door of the house. It also smelled funny, not

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like deer scatter horse apples. I took out my hunting

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knife and poked into one of the piles, and in

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the scat was some hair and what looked to be

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a tooth. Rich, this was a meat eater. See this tooth,

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and there's hair in it too. I heard there were

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bears in the woods around here, He replied. That must

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be it. Shotgun or no shotgun. A bear was not

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something I wanted to run into. I only had squirrel shot,

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not slugs. All I could do would be to make

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one mad, and the twenty two wasn't much better. My

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dad always said you couldn't out run a bear, and

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that then I had to outrun Rich and he was fast.

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Come on, Rich, let's get out of here. I think

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we best head towards home. Not yet, he replied, let's

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check upstairs first. I don't think that's a good idea,

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I said, this place looks like it could collapse. We

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00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:20,759
might fall through the floor. Na, he insisted, this old

242
00:14:20,799 --> 00:14:24,000
place is pretty solid. The porch is about shot, but

243
00:14:24,039 --> 00:14:30,200
the floors feel solid enough. Besides, it'll only take a minute. Slowly,

244
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:34,919
I followed him up the old steps. Unfortunately, he was right,

245
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,919
they did feel solid. Once upstairs, we both started looking around.

246
00:14:40,639 --> 00:14:43,559
The furniture up there was all gone. There was more

247
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:46,639
scat up here. It looked about the same as the

248
00:14:46,679 --> 00:14:53,039
stuff downstairs. Hey, come check this out, called rich. In

249
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:56,039
The next room was what looked like a nest, only

250
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:59,120
it was bigger. It was made of long grass and

251
00:14:59,279 --> 00:15:04,120
leaves woven together with tree branches. There was more scat

252
00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,960
in this room, but none in the nest. There were

253
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,399
a few bones in the nest. It looked like a

254
00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:13,519
rabbit or a squirrel. It was easy to see that

255
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:17,360
it was a small game. As I was kneeling to

256
00:15:17,399 --> 00:15:20,679
look at the bones, we heard that grunt or snort again.

257
00:15:21,399 --> 00:15:23,639
This time it was right outside the house and it

258
00:15:23,679 --> 00:15:27,440
was very loud, sounded angry, and then something hit the

259
00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:29,759
side of the house hard enough that we felt the

260
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:33,759
floor shape. What the hell was that, I yelled, I

261
00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:37,440
don't know, but it don't sound friendly. I pointed the

262
00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:41,799
shotgun out the window and let fly around. The loud

263
00:15:41,879 --> 00:15:45,360
boom of the twelve gage was immediately followed by another

264
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:49,480
grunt and a growl, and we heard something crashing off

265
00:15:49,559 --> 00:15:53,600
through the tall grass and into the trees. We both

266
00:15:53,639 --> 00:15:55,879
took the stairs as fast as we could, and we

267
00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:58,840
jumped out the window in the living room. We ran

268
00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:01,879
down the road, passed the cars, and didn't stop until

269
00:16:01,919 --> 00:16:05,440
we reached the old plow. When we reached the plow,

270
00:16:05,639 --> 00:16:09,000
we stopped to catch our breath. What the hell was that,

271
00:16:09,279 --> 00:16:13,879
I asked, gulping down air. God only knows, man rich replied,

272
00:16:14,159 --> 00:16:16,360
but whatever it was, I'm sure it didn't take too

273
00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:19,720
kindly to us being in that old house. I was

274
00:16:19,919 --> 00:16:22,399
just about to open my mouth to reply when a

275
00:16:22,519 --> 00:16:25,480
rock the size of a bowling ball came flying out

276
00:16:25,519 --> 00:16:28,879
of the trees and slammed into the plow blade right

277
00:16:28,919 --> 00:16:32,919
next to us. It bounced up knocked Richie off the

278
00:16:32,919 --> 00:16:36,799
plow where he was sitting on the handle. Right then

279
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:41,000
came the most horrendous roar from the trees. It sounded

280
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:43,799
like a line or something, but it was just inside

281
00:16:43,879 --> 00:16:48,159
the tree line. The roarer lasted for a good ten seconds.

282
00:16:48,799 --> 00:16:51,399
While it was roaring. I couldn't do anything but stare

283
00:16:51,399 --> 00:16:54,080
at the tree line where the sound was coming from,

284
00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:57,840
and when it stopped, I grabbed rich and pulled him

285
00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:02,559
to his feet. Can you walk? Ask hell, No, he replied,

286
00:17:02,879 --> 00:17:06,640
I can run. Though About that time, there came a

287
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:10,279
noise in the trees like something was tearing up the brush.

288
00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:14,759
Limbs were breaking and cracking. Rich leveled IS twenty two

289
00:17:14,799 --> 00:17:18,839
at the area and fired off three rounds. The sharp

290
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,400
crack of the rounds going off must have scared it,

291
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:24,559
because the sound stopped and we could hear something tearing

292
00:17:24,599 --> 00:17:28,839
off through the trees. We took off like rabbits, heading

293
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:31,680
for the spot where we could cut the trail. It

294
00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:35,000
didn't take long to make it. We stopped there because

295
00:17:35,039 --> 00:17:37,359
neither of us was in any hurry to go into

296
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:39,799
the trees. We were going to have to go through

297
00:17:39,839 --> 00:17:42,440
the woods for a couple of miles to get back home.

298
00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:47,160
We listened for any sounds or signs of whatever the

299
00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:50,880
hell we'd heard back at the plow. After a couple

300
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:53,599
of minutes, when we hadn't heard anything, we decided to

301
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:56,960
go for it. Just as we were entering the trees,

302
00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,400
we heard a sound from back towards the plow, like

303
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:06,200
someone banging on wood against wood, not three times. After

304
00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,599
a couple of seconds, we heard it again, only from

305
00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:12,480
the other side of us, deeper in the trees, and

306
00:18:12,519 --> 00:18:14,960
by this point we were so scared out of our

307
00:18:15,039 --> 00:18:18,240
minds that we couldn't even talk to each other. I've

308
00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:20,640
been in and out of the woods of my entire life,

309
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:24,839
and I'd never experienced anything like this, and neither had Rich.

310
00:18:26,319 --> 00:18:28,759
We kept up as quick a pace as we could

311
00:18:28,799 --> 00:18:32,319
in the thick underbrush. We hadn't gone far when we

312
00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:37,119
heard that roar again, and it was close appointing my

313
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,960
twelve gage in that direction, and I fired off around.

314
00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,480
The boom of the shotgun was almost deafening in the

315
00:18:43,559 --> 00:18:47,440
thick woods. Instead of it running off like before, it

316
00:18:47,559 --> 00:18:52,480
roared again and started throwing tree branches at us. Rich

317
00:18:52,559 --> 00:18:54,680
and I got a good look at it, but just

318
00:18:54,759 --> 00:18:57,799
for a few seconds. It was about thirty yards away,

319
00:18:57,839 --> 00:19:00,640
and it looked like a big man. He was covered

320
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,960
in black hair from head to foot. The face looked

321
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:06,839
more like a gorilla than a man. We had black

322
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:09,079
skin and not much of a neck to speak of.

323
00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:13,039
The head looked kind of pointed, not like a cone

324
00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:15,759
or anything, just like it sloped back towards the back

325
00:19:15,799 --> 00:19:18,440
of the head, kind of like the hood on a poncho.

326
00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:21,519
And it was big too. It had to have been

327
00:19:21,559 --> 00:19:24,880
close to seven feet tall and had a huge chest

328
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:29,480
in arms, like a bodybuilder or something. Rich fired at

329
00:19:29,519 --> 00:19:32,119
it with the twenty two, and we're sure he hit

330
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:35,799
it because it grunted and disappeared into the trees. But

331
00:19:35,839 --> 00:19:38,480
there wasn't any sound of it running off, so we

332
00:19:38,559 --> 00:19:42,920
knew it had just taken cover. About that time, we

333
00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,279
started getting branches tossed at us from the other side.

334
00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:49,880
Without even looking. I fired off the shotgun that way

335
00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,440
and we heard whatever it was crashing into the thicker trees.

336
00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:56,680
Rich and I decided that it would be a good

337
00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,400
idea to move a little faster. This went on for

338
00:20:01,519 --> 00:20:04,920
quite a bit, with one side tossing rocks or sticks,

339
00:20:05,039 --> 00:20:08,000
until we fired off our guns, and then it would

340
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:11,279
come from the other side. They're trying to get us

341
00:20:11,279 --> 00:20:14,559
to run out of ammo, Rich yelled. I knew he

342
00:20:14,759 --> 00:20:17,480
was right, and it was working. I was down to

343
00:20:17,559 --> 00:20:20,920
about five rounds left for the shotgun, and Rich had

344
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:23,920
two more magazines for the twenty two, and we were

345
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,440
close to panicking. We knew we had to be close

346
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:29,400
to the fence where we had come on to the

347
00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,599
property in the first place, and we decided to make

348
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:36,319
a break for it. I fired one way and he

349
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,880
fired the other way, and we started running. Instead of

350
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,680
them running away, it sounded like they were running after us.

351
00:20:45,839 --> 00:20:48,559
Looking back at it now, I think they knew we

352
00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:52,400
were close to getting away. The undergrowth was thick, and

353
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:54,400
we knew that they could be right on top of

354
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,599
us before we could see them, so we just started

355
00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:02,039
firing blind. He emptied the magazine of the twenty two

356
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,720
and I was pumping in my fourth round into the

357
00:21:04,839 --> 00:21:08,759
chamber when we saw the fence. Rich dove over it

358
00:21:08,839 --> 00:21:11,680
and came up to his feet. I wasn't much of

359
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,839
a jumper, so I got ready to climb through or over.

360
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:19,559
The crashing was right behind us. I tossed the shotgun

361
00:21:19,599 --> 00:21:22,240
over the fence to Rich, and he shouldered it and

362
00:21:22,279 --> 00:21:25,799
aimed behind me. I could see the look of terror

363
00:21:26,079 --> 00:21:30,119
on his face. I grabbed the fence and started over,

364
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,680
and that's when I felt something tug at the back

365
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:36,119
of my shirt. It only tugged for a second, and

366
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:40,279
Rich fired the shotgun right over my shoulder. I planted

367
00:21:40,319 --> 00:21:43,640
my foot and I flipped over the fence. I grabbed

368
00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:46,000
the twenty two off the ground and got to my feet.

369
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:49,640
Rich fired off my last round and the shotgun, and

370
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,480
we took off the gravel road as fast as we could.

371
00:21:53,559 --> 00:21:57,039
We could still hear them crashing through the trees alongside

372
00:21:57,079 --> 00:22:01,599
the road. Rich and Ice witch guns while we ran,

373
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,559
and he loaded his last magazine in the twenty two.

374
00:22:05,759 --> 00:22:08,640
The things in the trees were getting closer. We were

375
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,599
still more than a mile from Rich's house, and we

376
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:14,160
knew that there was no way that we would make it.

377
00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:19,799
We were already exhausted and almost out of AMMO, and

378
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:23,640
then we heard a horn. One of Rich's neighbors was

379
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,079
coming up the road in his pickup. The sounds in

380
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,880
the tree stopped as the truck caught up with us.

381
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,039
Mister Bridges leaned out his window and he smiled at us.

382
00:22:33,559 --> 00:22:37,359
You boys want to ride? He asked, yes. We shouted

383
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:41,480
and jumped into the bed of his pickup. Mister Bridges

384
00:22:41,559 --> 00:22:44,079
dropped us off in front of Rich's house, and we

385
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:48,039
thanked him profusely. He waved at us and drove off.

386
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:52,319
The woods stopped down the road from Riches's house, so

387
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:57,039
we were safe. We didn't hear or see anything. Both

388
00:22:57,039 --> 00:22:59,680
of Rich's parents were gone to town, so we went

389
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,440
in and cleaned the guns. We were both still shaking.

390
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,920
I went to the refrigerator to get a coke and

391
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:12,000
Rich gasped. I spun around and I said, what is it, man,

392
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,839
Look at your back. I pulled off my shirt and

393
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:20,079
I looked across the back were four slashes, side by

394
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:23,400
side that had been the tug I felt before I

395
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,200
crossed the fence. My shirt was slashed, but it hadn't

396
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,119
reached my skin. We locked all the doors and reloaded

397
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,799
the guns. Rich went and got the Marland thirty thirty

398
00:23:34,839 --> 00:23:40,279
and he loaded it. I loaded slugs into the twelve gage.

399
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,079
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the tree

400
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:46,559
line through the windows. For the next two weeks, every

401
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:50,400
night you could hear strange screams coming from the woods.

402
00:23:51,079 --> 00:23:54,599
Rich's dog went nuts one night, barking at something, and

403
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,920
then they heard it yelp. Rich's dad went out to

404
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,079
see what had happened, but there was nothing there and

405
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:05,880
they never found the dog. Two nights later, one of

406
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,279
their cows got attacked and killed. They found it the

407
00:24:09,319 --> 00:24:13,680
next day, partially eaten and torn apart. Whatever had killed

408
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:16,400
it had broken one of its legs and its neck.

409
00:24:17,319 --> 00:24:19,799
A couple of times. Something even tried to get into

410
00:24:19,799 --> 00:24:22,519
the house, but ran off when Rich's dad turned on

411
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:26,359
the lights and grabbed his rifle. By the end of

412
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,839
two weeks, everything returned to normal and they didn't hear

413
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,119
the screams anymore. We told Rich's dad what happened in

414
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,319
the woods, and he just laughed at us. He thought

415
00:24:37,319 --> 00:24:41,039
that our imaginations had run away with us, and since

416
00:24:41,079 --> 00:24:44,200
he didn't believe us, we never told anyone else, at

417
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,920
least until I decided to write this. Rich and I

418
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:51,440
didn't talk about it much, and if I brought it up,

419
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:55,319
he would change the subject. Later, after both of us

420
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:59,440
joined the army, we drifted apart. Last I heard, Rich

421
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:02,240
was living out of state with his wife and kids,

422
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,559
and I'm not sure where I know. His mom and

423
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,200
dad sold their farm and they moved to New Mexico

424
00:25:08,279 --> 00:25:14,119
in nineteen ninety six. As crazy as this all sounds,

425
00:25:14,279 --> 00:25:17,599
it is all true. The only thing I changed was

426
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,119
the names of the people involved, because I don't want

427
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:24,000
to reveal their real names without permission. I have no

428
00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:28,079
idea how to find them to ask. I never went

429
00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:31,720
back into those woods again, not even with Rich and

430
00:25:31,759 --> 00:25:34,799
with better weapons. I'm not sure that I would go

431
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:38,359
back there even now. It scared me that bad, and

432
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,759
I don't scare easily. Even though that was almost thirty

433
00:25:42,759 --> 00:25:46,039
five years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday.

434
00:25:46,559 --> 00:25:48,920
If I lived to be one hundred, I will never

435
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,160
forget it. Whatever those things were, they lived in that

436
00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:55,680
old house, I honestly feel that they were trying to

437
00:25:55,799 --> 00:25:59,079
kill us. Often wonder if they didn't kill the people

438
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,759
who lived in that all those years ago. One of

439
00:26:02,799 --> 00:26:06,160
those old cast iron stoves wasn't something people in those

440
00:26:06,279 --> 00:26:10,200
days just tossed aside. They were expensive to buy, and

441
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,759
that one was in good shape even in nineteen eighty five.

442
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,559
If we hadn't been armed, I think that neither of

443
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:19,640
us would have made it out of the woods alive.

444
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,680
That thing I saw that day was no bear. Bears

445
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,440
don't have hands and don't walk like that on two legs.

446
00:26:28,079 --> 00:26:31,519
Whatever it was, it damn sure wasn't friendly. I've read

447
00:26:31,519 --> 00:26:34,559
about the legends of Bigfoot, and that is the only

448
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,920
thing that fits the thing we saw. If it was

449
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,119
a Bigfoot, then it sure wasn't some gentle giant of

450
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:44,480
the woods like some people try to make it out

451
00:26:44,559 --> 00:26:48,359
to be. This thing was dangerous. I think that the

452
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:51,160
only thing that kept it at bay was our guns.

453
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:53,920
And I still say that they were trying to make

454
00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,720
us run out of Ammo that day. If mister Bridges

455
00:26:57,759 --> 00:27:01,079
hadn't come along, we wouldn't have made it home, and

456
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,119
we were lucky. I guess that's why I don't want

457
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,240
to go back Why would I push my luck