The Darkest Woods

It was just another weekend, just another campout. Like countless weekends before it, my cousins and I loaded up our vehicles and headed out of town. With coolers filled with food, and enough weapons to fend off a small army, we always thought we were safe and secure and ready for anything.
"Where are we going this time?" I asked Marty, the youngest of my three cousins. With a quick glance in the rearview mirror, he looked over at me and with a grin said "I found a new place, right on the old river, not too far from mom's farm." I laughed and said "Good, I've been wanting to go fish..." I was not able to finish my spoken thoughts about our impending campout, as a car horn interrupted our conversation. The car behind us, carrying my other two cousins Randy and Jason, and our old friend Kevin, started to pull up beside us. "How much further do we have to go?" Kevin shouted across the two cars. "It's only about twenty more miles!" Marty yelled back. With that, Randy's green El Camino darted back to it's original position behind us. Marty spurred the gas pedal of his old mustang and we shot down the highway. Only he knew where we were going, I thought to myself.
Ten minutes sped by, as we stopped and turned down an old field road. Hardly suitable for a 4x4 pickup, the road banged the car and us around like tennis shoes in a dryer. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally pulled up to the river. Marty had found a good place to camp allright, it was great. Old cypress and oak trees covered the area, and there was very little brush growth around. The flat spot where we would be setting up camp was perfect for tents, and not ten feet away was the bank of the old river which was clean and ready to be fished from.
As we poured out of the cars and started to unpack our equipment, we all noticed something particularly strange about the surrounding area. It was only about two hours before dark and there wasn't a bird or insect, absolutely any sounds whatsoever. It kinda gave us each a odd feeling in our stomachs, but we all quickly dismissed those feelings and continued to set up camp.
It wasn't long before we had fires going and food on them. As we sat around taking in the solitude of nature, talking about previous camping adventures, I could tell that everyone felt the same way as I did. Although we kept those thoughts in the back of our minds, we were all thinking about how strange this place felt. There are just some places that you just know instinctively that are bad, and with darkness quickly overcoming us, it made us all the more uneasy. Kevin was the first to mention it aloud, "I don't know about thhhe reeeest of yyou, but this ppplace gives me the ccccreeps." Kevin always had a bit of a studder, but it was worse when he was uncomfortable. Feeling just as creeped out as he was, I tried to settle his fears, and maybe mine too. "Aww, don't worry," I said, "it's just because this is the old river. The stagnant water of the river keeps alot of animals away because there is not much foliage and food." Kevin knew I was just blowing that jargon out of my ass, but I think it did make him and I both feel better.
Around 11:00 pm, we were all beginning to get wore down, but it wouldn't be a true camping trip without a midnight trek into the woods. Plus, it was always fun to scare Marty and his brothers. They always were scared of the dark. So we gathered up our weapons and other gear and headed out away from camp. Just out of the Marines, Jason was the only one with a rifle. The rest of us settled for sticks and knives. I myself carried two bowie knifes and a short sword. It was a cheap sword but it was good for chopping weeds and wood.
Now it must be said that we all went camping for one particular reason, Sasquatch. We all believed that it existed, we just never expected to ever see one or find any evidence of its existence. It was just a fun reason to camp and get scared. Besides, we were well armed we thought, just in case...
We had gone only about 200 yards out of camp, when Randy suggested we split up into two groups, circle around and meet back at camp. It was a good suggestion, but everyone wanted to go with Jason, or more appropriately, the gun. When we finally did decide the groups, Marty and I went south while Jason, Randy and Kevin went north, along the river. As Marty and I headed through the field adjacent the camp, we noticed the mist from the river was beginning to head ashore. By the time we reached the edge of the field, fog was starting to fill the valleys around us. Within minutes we could just barely see the fire from the camp.
As we discussed going back to camp, we heard movement in the brush at the edge of the field. Our minds made up at that moment, we headed through the fog back towards camp. When we got about 50 yards from the campsite, we quickly stopped and looked around. There was growling coming from all around us. We both knew what it was, we had walked right into a pack of coyotes that were between us and the camp. The strange thing was they were growling away from, and not at, us. Thinking about it, I don't think they even realized we were there, as they seemed completely focused on the edge of the woods. Just then, five gunshots echoed through the valley. That got our band of furry brothers' attention, as they began running around us back the way we came. One even bumped my leg on his frightened flight away from the woods. Somewhat relieved and excited, Marty and I started to run towards the gunshots. We could hear yelling, but we couldn't tell which way it was coming from. It seemed to be all around. "Damn valleys." I heard Marty say, as we ran. We continued running, for what seemed like eternity, when I tripped over Randy. "What the hell are you doing?" I screamed at him. He didn't appear to be hurt in any way, but was shaking like a leaf and covered in blood. As I continued to check Randy over with my flashlight, Marty searched around for Jason and Kevin in the surrounding thicket. "Over here!" Marty yelled at me. Before I even got there I could see the blood illuminated by Marty's flashight.
Coming up beside him, I saw the source of all the blood. Kevin was lying in a heap in front of us. When Marty turned him over, we saw his stomach and chest cavity was completely ripped out. I remember thinking that it looked like a deer that had been gutted. "I think we need to get the hell outta here, Marty!" I said. We ran back to Randy, who was still in shock. "Where's Jason and what the hell happened here?" Marty screamed, shaking Randy as hard as he could. Just then we heard a couple more gunshots. At least Jason was still alive, for now anyway. "Marty! Wait!" I yelled after Marty, as he took off in the direction of the shots. I knew I should've stayed with Randy, but Marty would need some back-up, so I took off after him. I didn't get very far, when I saw Marty and Jason running toward me. "Go! Go! Go! RUN!!!" Jason screamed. I turned and ran back to Randy, and as soon as Jason and Marty got there, we picked him up and made our way back to camp.
As we poured into one of the cars, I asked Jason "What the hell is going on?" "I shot it!" He stammered back. "Shot what?" Marty asked, as he drove as fast as possible out of there. "Bigfoot! And I killed it!" Jason was obviously in shock, but we had to know what happened... "No, you don't understand," Jason practically screamed, "I shot and killed it, but it wasn't alone! THEY are coming after us, because I killed one of them!" He wasn't making much sense, but after all, Kevin was mutilated awfully bad, so something was definitely out there.
As we arrived in town, we headed straight for the police station. We really didn't know what we were going to tell them, but we had to do something. I remember the cops looking at us as if we were nuts, when we told them what had happened. They did an investigation, but there was nothing to be found. In the end, they believed that one of us had killed Kevin and disposed of the body, being that the only evidence to be had was the blood on Randy's clothes. But since there was nothing to hold us, they had to let us go. Jason and Randy were never the same after that night, and we never went camping again.
My three cousins have all moved to the city now, leaving me the only one left down here. In the years that followed, Jason would call every now and again to check up on me. He always said that I should move up to the city with him, before its too late. I just laugh and tell him, one day maybe.
I sit here tonight, twenty years later, and think back on that evening. I decided to write this story to you, Kevin my son, so you would know why I had to leave. Tell your mother Hi for me. I love you Son. I gotta go, the dogs are raising cain outside. I'll call as soon as...