Baker County Bigfoot Chronicle Read online

  BAKER COUNTY BIGFOOT CHRONICLE

  C.G. Mosley

  www.severedpress.com

  Copyright 2018 by C.G. Mosley

  Chapter 1

  Tony Joyner and Kurt Bledsoe had been friends since the first time they’d ever met in Mrs. Wilson’s kindergarten class many moons ago. Tony had been the shy one, quiet and reserved. Kurt was his polar opposite, rambunctious and mischievous. The two had been inseparable and where you found one, the other was close behind. Not surprising, Kurt’s outgoing personality bled over into his confidence level and as it was, he was very sought after by the girls in their high school. With his dark hair, and chiseled good looks, it was no surprise that his girlfriend had been the homecoming queen. June Johnson was blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful—truly a dream girl for all the other boys in the senior class. For this reason, it never made any sense at all to Tony that Kurt frequently cheated on her. He seemed to take her for granted, and although Tony had tried on many occasions to talk sense into him, it was no use. Kurt simply loved girls—even more so than the average teenage boy, Tony thought—and he’d finally come to accept that this trait was just part of who he was.

  “Pass me another one,” Kurt snapped as he tossed the empty beer can aside.

  Tony sighed and shook his head. He already felt his good friend had drunk enough, but it was their last week of school and he could tell Kurt was feeling a bit emotional about the impending end of their childhood and transition into adulthood. Tony could never remember seeing him this down about anything since he’d known him. To make matters worse, he personally looked forward to the drastic change. Tony had been a good student and had many scholarship offers to a lot of the larger schools throughout the southeast. With reluctance, he reached over into the cooler and tossed his friend another ice-cold alcoholic beverage that neither of them had any business drinking.

  They were seated in lawn chairs, placed in the bed of Kurt’s truck, their backs against the back of the cab. It was a beautiful night with a starry sky that seemed to swallow them up from their secluded spot deep inside the forest. This was a spot that they knew well. It was a safe place to go and discuss their futures and secrets that only the two of them knew. Despite some of his character flaws, there was no one Tony trusted more than Kurt. He himself had always had a crush on June Johnson but she’d never learn from him that Kurt ran around on her. Their friendship was much more important than any girl ever would be.

  “There’s another one,” Kurt said suddenly, pointing up at the sky.

  Tony looked up quickly in response but knew it was futile. “Damn—I missed it,” he grumbled.

  “Gotta keep your eyes open,” Kurt replied smugly. “I think I’ve already seen four and you’ve only seen one in the hour and a half we’ve been sitting here.”

  Tony sighed and took another sip of his own alcoholic beverage (the first and only one he’d had for the night). Truthfully, he had been watching the sky and was certain that at least one shooting star had streaked over their heads. With Kurt now on his fifth beer, Tony somehow doubted whether his friend was seeing actual shooting stars or if perhaps his vision was becoming blurry and making him think he was seeing them. It wasn’t, however, worth an argument. If Kurt thought he’d seen four, then so be it.

  “You decided on a college yet?” Tony asked, glancing over at his friend.

  He couldn’t make out Kurt’s facial features in the darkness, only a dim silhouette but there was no mistaking the uneasiness when the question was asked.

  “I told you,” he said flatly. “I’ve got some options but I’m still trying to decide.”

  Tony breathed deeply through his nose and nodded. He knew that Kurt said he’d gotten athletic scholarship offers for his time playing varsity baseball, but he found himself unable to believe it. His gut told him that Kurt had no intentions of going to college and the decision was weighing heavily on him.

  “Well whatever you decide, I’m sure you’ll be successful at it,” Tony said. “You’ve been good at everything you have done so far.”

  “That’s right,” Kurt said, and then he took a long pull from the can. When he finished, he crushed the empty can in his hand and tossed it aside onto the ground beside the truck. Tony shook his head and made a mental note to pick the can up before they left.

  “Give me another,” Kurt said, belching as he said it.

  “No, I think that’s enough,” Tony said firmly. “You’ve already drunk way too many to drive so toss me the keys.”

  Again, Kurt glanced over at him. Tony was unable to see what sort of expression was on his friend’s face, but he sensed that it was something bordering annoyance and anger. He braced himself for an argument but to his pleasant surprise, Kurt reached into his pocket, retrieved the keys, and handed them over with no resistance.

  “One more shooting star and then we can call it a night,” he said, settling back into his lounge chair.

  There was a chill in the air and Tony was getting sleepy, but he didn’t argue. Though he had no idea how long they’d have to wait before they saw another shooting star, he felt he owed it to Kurt since he’d easily handed over the keys. He relaxed, weaved his fingers behind his head, and kept his eyes focused on the starry mural overhead. Before long, his eyelids grew heavy and soon after that, they closed.

  ***

  “Wake up!” Kurt shouted frantically. “Get up! Did you see that? Holy shit!”

  Tony sat up straight and an ominous orange glow to his right gained his immediate attention. “Is that—is that a fire?” he muttered, still trying to figure out if he was awake or still asleep.

  “Yes, it’s a fire,” Kurt said excitedly. He threw his legs off the side of the truck bed and stumbled onto the ground. He moved toward the flames and Tony began to make sense of what he was seeing. Something large had crashed through the forest, leaving a clearly defined path of broken trees and fire in its wake.

  “It crashed over there,” Kurt said, pointing toward the spot where the flames seemed to begin. “Then it kept crashing and rolling through the trees further down.”

  The flames weren’t large and in fact much of them were beginning to extinguish as Kurt approached.

  “Wait,” Tony called after him as he clambered out of the truck “What is it? What crashed?”

  As crazy as it would’ve been, Tony fully expected Kurt to respond that a U.F.O. had just crash landed while he’d been asleep.

  “Meteor,” Kurt answered, still walking between the parallel lines of dying flames that led further into the forest. “I think it was a meteor!”

  The irony of what he’d just heard wasn’t lost on Tony as he considered the last thing Kurt had said before he’d fallen asleep. One more shooting star and we’ll call it a night…

  “Are you sure we should go over there?” he asked, trying to catch up. “We should probably call somebody?”

  Kurt laughed the suggestion off. “We’re not calling anyone until we check this out for ourselves first,” he replied.

  Tony wanted to argue the matter further but knew ultimately his drunken friend would not listen. Initially he was annoyed with the situation and the carelessness Kurt seemed to have regarding the whole thing, but it was short-lived. Tony was also very cognizant of the fact that if he didn’t go after him, Kurt could very well injure himself in his inebriated state.

  “Wait up,” he grumbled as he jogged after him.

  The two young men gingerly walked down the hill, careful to avoid embers that remained on the ground all around them. Tony could feel heat creeping up his leg and in his mind’s eye he pictured the soles of his shoes melting. They walked on for what he estimated to be at least another sixty yards when sudden
ly they came upon a large crater in the ground and in the center of it, a large rock with a crack in the middle of it. The odd object almost resembled some sort of galactic egg, Tony thought, but pushed the silly thought aside.

  “Wow,” Kurt muttered in a voice just above a whisper. “This is badass.”

  He then began to climb down into the crater.

  “Hey, hang on,” Tony called after him, but again, it was no use.

  Kurt tripped as he stepped over a hedge of dirt and tumbled head over heels. Tony chased after him, concerned that he’d hurt—or possibly burn himself. To his relief, instead of a cry of agony, Kurt began to laugh, an obvious product of his drunken state.

  “Are you alright?” Tony called after him. “Get up before you get burned.”

  “That’s the crazy thing,” Kurt said over his shoulder as his laughter subsided. “It’s not hot—hell, it’s cold.”

  “Cold?” Tony asked in disbelief. It was at that moment, he noticed it. The flames that were present only moments before were all but gone now, and as his eyes adjusted, he began to see a strange glow originating from the bottom of the crater. It was blue in color and it began to get brighter with each passing moment. “What the heck is that?” he asked, dumbfounded.

  Kurt shook his head as he too began to notice it. The luminescent substance was all over his clothes and hands—an obvious result of the fall he’d had. Overcome with his own sense of disbelief, Kurt placed two fingers on the ground and scooped up a dollop of the strange stuff. He held it up so that Tony could see.

  “It’s freezing cold—feels like some kind of slime,” he said in awe.

  Tony looked on as Kurt studied the substance on his fingers, all the while the glow became more intense. Suddenly, with a cadence of panic seemingly coming over him, Kurt began to rapidly thrash his hand wildly as if he was trying to sling the blue goop off his fingers.

  “What’s wrong?” Tony asked, sensing his panic.

  “It’s starting to hurt,” Kurt replied, his tone worried. “This shit won’t come off.” Desperate, he then began to wipe the stuff off on his shirt, but to no avail. Whatever it was, it clung tightly to his skin.

  “Ow—OWW!” Kurt shouted suddenly, dropping to his knees.

  “What?!?” Tony asked, his own voice now stricken with panic. “What is it?”

  The blue substance began to spread over the rest of Kurt’s hand and continued onward up his arm. It then reached his neck and began to encompass his head. “Oh my god!” he screamed painfully. “Tony! Help me!”

  Tony felt his heart rate increase ten-fold but forced himself to stand. “St-stay there,” he stammered. “I’m going to get help!”

  Without considering the matter any further, Tony ran back to the truck, never looking back. Had he spent just a moment longer surveying the landscape around Kurt, he’d have realized his friend was not the only victim of the strange occurrence in the forest that night.

  Chapter 2

  The wood ape had been watching the two humans for quite some time with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. They’d been seated in the back of the large metal contraption staring at the sky as if they’d never seen the stars before. One of them had been drinking a great deal of liquid from a can and it seemed the more he drank, the stupider he became. The wood ape had seen these two male humans before as this was a spot that the two of them seemed to frequent. He’d lived in the forest with the rest of his tribe for at least twenty winters and, as all wood apes practiced, made sure to keep himself hidden away. He knew that if he was found to have been spotted by a human, it would mean banishment from the rest of the tribe. He’d been warned on more than one occasion by the tribe leader that he was getting too close and becoming careless.

  Alas, the warnings he’d been given repeatedly fell on deaf ears. These particular two humans had educated him a great deal, though they had no knowledge that they’d done so. He’d listened in on their many conversations in the forest and had even begun to pick up and understand bits and pieces of their language. He’d picked up, for instance, that most of their conversations revolved around the females of their species. He’d learned that they had names…Tony and Kurt…and a particular female they’d both discussed with regularity was called June.

  On this night, one of the male humans—the one called Kurt—seemed upset and almost belligerent about something. The other—Tony—as per usual did his best to encourage his counterpart, but it seemed the more he tried, the more liquid Kurt consumed from the small metal containers he constantly retrieved from the small blue box between them.

  The wood ape yawned and glanced up at the stars above, just as the two humans had been doing, though his reason for doing so was quite different. He studied the stars carefully, taking note of their current position as it was his way of getting a good grasp for how late in the night it was getting. It was late enough, he knew, that if he didn’t head back to camp the tribe leader would become angry and suspect that he was doing something careless that could endanger them all. He would think this because all members of the tribe were expected to settle in by the mid-point of the night. If a member wasn’t there, then others would be forced to look for them. The wood ape knew that if he was found and it was determined that he’d been late because of his infatuation with the two humans he’d been watching, then the consequences for him would be quite severe.

  With a bit of reluctance, the wood ape turned and began the trek down the hill that would lead him back to the camp. He hadn’t walked far when suddenly a bright light enveloped him from somewhere behind. He’d had only a brief moment to turn and see what appeared to be a ball of fire hurtling toward him. Using his powerful legs to propel himself forward, the wood ape moved swiftly further down the hillside and just as the ball of fire bore down upon him, he managed to roll out of the way. The impact, however, created a bit of an explosion that hurtled the large beast through the air, causing him to crash painfully against a tree. The collision with the tree in turn threw him right back toward the object that had just crashed into the soil. He then determined that the object was actually some sort of large boulder.

  The wood ape was bleeding profusely from an injury to his head, and then felt something cool enveloping his legs. He clumsily climbed from the crater and rolled to the earth on the other side, frantically trying to put distance between himself and the strange rock. When he finally rested at the base of a tree, the wood ape noticed a strange glowing substance covering the lower half of his body. He quickly determined that, whatever the substance was, it had evidently come from the large rock. A sensation of panic began to set in and the wood ape began to try to remove the glowing substance from his lower appendages. He tried to use dirt as a means to remove it and when that didn’t work, he used a pinecone. Neither seemed to do any good and the wood ape soon came to realize he had a new problem.

  The two humans had climbed down the hill to investigate as they too had apparently noticed the burning rock. For the briefest moment the wood ape wondered if they’d spotted him too, but their attention seemed to be fully on the rock. This was a relief to him, but he was cognizant of the fact that if he was to remain unseen, his skills of stealth that all wood apes possessed would be put to the ultimate test. He’d never been so close to humans before. The wood ape was so close he could smell them, and he wondered if they could smell him too.

  As he watched the one called Kurt climb into the crater, he began to feel an odd sensation on his legs. The glowing substance began to somehow bore its way through the thick hair and ultimately penetrate his skin. The pain was intense, and it was all the wood ape could do not to howl. As the large beast struggled to keep his composure, he suddenly noticed that Kurt had gotten the substance on his own appendages and he too was evidently beginning to feel a similar pain. The human however, made no attempt to hide the torment he was now feeling. Kurt began to scream.

  The other human—Tony, seemed concerned and frightened all at once. He tried to mutter something comf
orting to Kurt, but the tormented human continued to scream and thrash on the ground. The wood ape then noticed that the glowing substance began to cover more and more of the human’s body, until finally his entire arm and neck was enveloped. Tony turned and fled. It was then that the wood ape noticed that he too was becoming covered by more of the strange glowing substance. It moved up his legs and then began to constrict his waist.

  With Tony now gone, and the other human seemingly drawing his last breaths, the wood ape could no longer fight off the urge to howl in pain. It did so, and it moved back toward the crater, finally collapsing beside the human. The wood ape caught a glimpse of the human looking at him, his eyes filled with fear and amazement. However, the screaming continued and the two of them—species that were never meant to mingle - thrashed and rolled wildly on the ground as the glowing substance soon consumed their entire bodies.

  Chapter 3

  The middle of the night in Dunn, Mississippi, was much like you’d expect in any other small town located in America. The streets were for the most part barren and almost every business was closed for the night, save the two gas stations that bookended the town limits. Probably the liveliest spectacle to be found in the dead of night was the lone traffic light in the town square that blinked red until 7 a.m. the next morning.

  Sheriff Ray Cochran, a burly mammoth of a man in his mid-fifties, pulled up to that very traffic light and killed the engine of his patrol car. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he’d sent his deputy home for the night and decided that he’d spend an hour or so in the middle of town to keep an eye out for drunks and speeders. It was a Friday night in early November and with the Baker County Bearcat football season in the books, the young folks in town had little else to do besides drive down every country road in the county. And as bored young people ventured out on their own into the night, it was never a shock to Cochran when he occasionally caught them partaking in the use of alcohol. He’d noticed the problem getting worse in recent years and he was unable to put his finger on exactly why. He wondered if perhaps the parents of today’s kids cared less than they did when he was that age. As he considered that possibility, he quickly pushed the thought aside, refusing to accept such a horrendous explanation. It was much more likely that the parents of the late ’80s were simply busier. Just about every pair of parents he knew in Baker County both worked—a stark difference in how things worked when he was younger. The days of the man being the breadwinner and the woman being the homemaker were apparently over.