FicWad

Hank Morrison woke up to the sound of his dog growling and barking. Rolling out of bed he grabbed his rifle from next to the door.
“What’s wrong?” His wife Hannah asked groggily.
“Hobo is out there making a racket,” he explained, “I think it’s that coyote, bothering the sheep again.”
He quickly left the bedroom and walked down the hall toward the living room. Crossing the living room in a few long strides, he yanked open the front door. He could hear Hobo out there, still growling and barking, then suddenly he heard a yelp. Hank leapt of the front porch and ran to where he had heard the dog last, Hobo lay there in a pool of his own blood, his entrails hanging out of his slit belly, steaming in the early morning cold. Suddenly Hank heard the frightened bleats of his sheep, he cursed and ran toward the paddock. Nearing the paddock he saw a large hairy shape come out of the darkness at him. He fumbled with the gun, but the creature knocked it out of his hand. Turning Hank ran, toward the house and safety, but the creature caught him. He was able to scream one short scream of pain and terror before the creature disemboweled him with its bare hands.
Hannah sat up when she heard her husband scream, shaking in fear she slowly got out of bed and walked out to the front door. For a moment she paused, hand on the knob, afraid of what she would see. Then she opened the door and stepped out on the porch. She saw nothing at first, then noticed a slight movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she stared at the body of her husband, hanging from the branches of a tree, by his own entrails. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, in mute horror. Then sinking to her knees, she screamed shrilly.

Sheriff Jeff Horner looked up from some paperwork he had been struggling to complete when Marla Thompson, one of his deputies’ opened up his door and stuck her head in.
“Jeff I just got a call from Mary Lou Marson,” she said when he looked up at her questioningly. “There’s trouble down at the Morrison’s, bad trouble.”
“What’s going on?” He asked, standing up and grabbing his hat.
Marla shook her head, “I can’t even explain what Mary Lou said. I think we better go down and look for ourselves.”
They drove quickly to the Morrison’s and found Mary Lou standing out next to the long driveway that led to their house.
Jeff got out and walked to her, noticing that she was pale and shaking with fear.
“What seems to be the problem, Mrs. Marson,” he asked and she grabbed his arm.
“Oh, Sheriff, it’s awful!” She wailed, “they’re dead, they’re all dead!”
Gently Jeff pried her hands from his arm.
“Who’s dead?” Marla asked and Mary Lou stared at her as if she hadn’t realized she was there.
“Hannah and Hank are dead,” she cried and covered her face with shaking hands.
Jeff looked at Marla, “maybe you should stay here with Mrs. Marson while I go take a look,” he said.
Marla nodded and unhooking his gun from his belt, Jeff slowly walked down the driveway. The first thing he noticed was the sweet smell of death. He saw that Hank was hanging from a tree and at first he didn’t understand why someone would hang him that way. Then he realized in horror that he was strung up in the tree by his entrails. Hank dropped to his knees and vomited out his breakfast, then he carefully stood up on shaking legs. He saw Hannah laying in a heap on the porch and he went over, automatically checking for a pulse, there was none. He walked back toward where Marla and Mary Lou waited, careful not to look at Hank’s body again. Marla walked over to him when she saw him come back down the driveway.
“I think we need to call in the forensics for this one,” he told her after briefly explaining to her what he had found. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my ten years of being a sheriff of this town.

Jeff walked quickly down the hallway of the hospital, toward the morgue. The forensic team had gone over the site throughly, finding the Morrison’s dog tore up in the same way Hank was, but nothing else. They had carefully taken Hank’s body out of the tree and transported him to the morgue along with Hannah. Now Jeff was hoping that the autopsy the doctor had performed would give him the answers he was seeking.
“I hope you have good news for me Peter,” Jeff said when he had pushed the door open and entered the morgue.
“Well Mrs. Morrison died from a heart attack,” Peter said, “most likely from the shock of finding her husband. But Mr. Morrison is a puzzle, he looks like someone gutted him. But there isn’t any evidence of a knife being used, in fact if I didn’t know better, I’d say someone literally tore his guts out.”
“Are you telling me that I have some madman out there gutting people and you have no clue how he did it?” Jeff asked angrily.
“I’m sorry Jeff, but that’s all I can tell you. I wish I had more information.”
Jeff shook his head, “it’s all right Peter, I’m just frustrated. I’d say a wild animal did it, but no wild animal I know of hangs their prey in a tree. It’s a puzzle, and one that I have no clues to help me solve.”
He thanked Peter and strode out of the morgue, and back down the hallway. He walked out into the sun, and got into his car. He sat there for a moment thinking, then started his car and drove toward the Morrison’s. He got out and looked almost involuntarily looked toward the tree where Hank had hung a few hours before. Shuddering, Jeff began to look around, sure that they had missed something. Just when he was about to give up he saw a strange looking hair, it was brown and he could smell an almost musty odor coming from it. Jeff reached into this jacket pocket and pulled out a small baggie he kept in there. Carefully he placed the hair inside, then walking back to the car he got in and backed out of the driveway.

He pulled into the parking lot of the college and got out, he walked quickly toward the crypto zoology department building. Looking around after he entered, he saw a young woman sitting behind a desk.
“Excuse me,” he said walking up to her. “I need to talk to a professor, is there any around.”
The woman squinted up at him before saying, “sure, Dr. Glennie’s office is right down that hallway. She has about forty-five minutes left before her next class.”
Jeff thanked her, and walked down the hallway. He stopped in front of Dr. Glennie’s office door and knocked.
“Come in,” a woman’s voice said, and Jeff pushed the door open.
A surprisingly young and attractive woman sat behind the desk, typing on a computer.
“Dr. Glennie?” Jeff asked in a surprised tone.
She looked up and smiled, getting up out of her chair and holding out her hand. “You can call me Chase.” She said, “how can I help you?”
“Chase,” Jeff said, “my name is Sheriff Jeff Horner, I’m investigating a strange murder that happened last night.” He pulled the plastic bag out of his pocket, “I found this hair at the scene and I was wondering if you could help me identify it.”
Chase took the bag and opened it, taking the hair out. “It looks like the hair of a bigfoot,” she said, then she peered up at him. “ You say you found this at the scene of a murder?”
Jeff nodded, “I’m not sure if whatever left this hair is the murderer, but what I do know is someone or something was strong enough to gut the victim with their bare hands.”
“Well I’d have to do some tests on it,” Chase said, but from the appearance and smell of it, I would say it’s a bigfoot.”
Jeff nodded, “here’s my number,” he said writing it down and handing it to Chase. “Call me as soon as you find out what it is.”
Chase took the piece of paper and smiled at Jeff, “I’ll get on it as soon as classes are over.” She promised, walking Jeff to the door. He turned and smiled at her, “thank you, “he said. Then he walked down the hall and out of the building.

The creature stood in the woods, listening. Up ahead it heard the sounds of cattle lowing and it ran quickly toward the sound. The cattle sensing a predator in their midst, began to run toward the other side of the pen, but the creature easily vaulted over the fence and grabbed one of the slower cows. It tore into the cow’s neck, severing its jugular and lapping the blood that spurted out eagerly. Suddenly it heard someone coming and it dropped the cow, before going over the fence and running back into the woods.
Michael Burton, looked down in horror and anger at the mutilated cow. Turning quickly he walked toward the house, to call the Sheriff and report what happened.

Jeff knelt beside the body of the cow, “I’m not sure if it was killed by whatever killed Hank,” he told Marla. “It hasn’t been gutted, like Hank and his dog were. But that may be because Mike disturbed it before it could. That’s another thing that puzzles me, why didn’t the creature kill Mike. It just doesn’t add up,” he stood up and brushed off his pants. “I’ve called Dr. Glennie. She should be here soon.”
Suddenly a car pulled into the driveway and Chase got out, she waved when she saw Marla and Jeff standing by the pen.
“Thank you for getting here so fast,” Jeff said to her.
“Show me what we have,” she said.
Jeff led her to the pen and she stared at the mutilated body in disgust.
“Oh my God,” she breathed, then took some rubber gloves out of her pocket and climbed into the pen. She knelt beside the animal, shooing away the flies that were buzzing around its neck. After examining it she looked up at Jeff, “this wasn’t done by a Bigfoot,” she told him. “Look at these bite marks. The teeth pattern is all wrong for a Bigfoot bite.” She stood up and climbed out of the pen, taking her gloves off. “The results for the hair you found should be done by now,” she said “I think we need to go to the lab and find out what exactly we’re dealing with.”
Jeff nodded, before turning to Marla, “call someone to take this away please.”
She nodded and Jeff followed Chase back to her car, getting into the passenger seat. They backed down the driveway and drove quickly toward the college.

They walked into the lab where a young man was hunched over a microscope. “Ever since the bigfoot was discovered to be a real animal, we’ve been carefully tracking the ones we know live in this area.” Chase told Jeff, “I really hope this isn’t a Bigfoot, because a rogue one could cause a panic.”
She turned to the young man, “what did you find Jeremy?”
He turned and looked at her and Jeff, “this isn’t a Bigfoot,” he said. “In fact I’ve never seen a hair like this before, I think we might be dealing with a whole new species.”
Chase looked at Jeff, “from the evidence I saw today, I’d say we’re dealing with an unknown creature that is hostile.”
“What do you think we should do?”
Chase walked over to a cabinet and opened it up revealing a rack of high-powered rifles.” We need to treat it like we would a rabid dog,” she said grimly.

They stood outside the Morrison house, where the first attack had occurred.
“We need to split up,” Chase told them. “Jeff will come with me, and Jeremy you’ll stay with Marla. Remember if you see it, shoot to kill because whatever it is won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Jeff said quietly as they pushed deeper into the woods.
“Sure,” Chase said, stopping and looking around.
“What got you into Crypto zoology?”
Chase smiled at him, “ever since I was a kid and found out that fabulous creatures like Bigfoot did exist I wanted to study them. There’s a lot of new creatures out there just waiting to be discovered and I want to be the one to do it.”
Jeff began to speak when a branch cracked in the woods like something had stepped on it.
Quietly they snuck toward the sound. Rifles ready just in case. Suddenly out of nowhere a large hairy figure rose out of the bushes, Jeff moved like her was going to fire but Chase held out her hand.
“She’s not the one,” she said quietly, “the hair is wrong.”
Jeff looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “she?”
Chase pointed at the spot behind the creature. Two little ones were standing there staring at them.
“She isn’t a bigfoot, but she also didn’t kill Mr. Morrison. Although I think, she is the one who killed the cow, probably to get food for her young.”
Suddenly a roar sounded behind them, Jeff turned just as another one of the creatures leapt out of the bushes and hit him hard. Jeff’s rifle flew into the bushes and he smacked against a tree, falling to the ground in a heap. The creature came at Chase and she shot it with the rifle, killing it. With tears in her eyes, she realized she had killed the other creature’s mate. She turned and stared at the female who was still standing there, protecting her young. Their eyes met and she saw the glistening tears in the female’s eyes. Suddenly the female nodded her head and made a nosie almost like a grunt, before turning and ushering her young away. Chase realized that the female knew what had to be done and had accepted it.
Chase knelt beside Jeff, realizing he was unconscious and hurt badly, with shaking hands she unclipped the radio from his belt and called for help. She gently cradled his head in her lap, with tears streaming down her face. Crying not only for Jeff, but also for the female, who was now without a mate.

Chase knocked on the hospital door softly, she heard Jeff say weakly “come in,” and she pushed the door open.
“How are you feeling?” She asked him, walking over to the bed and gently pushing the hair out of his face.
“I feel like I was knocked into a tree,” Jeff said laughing softly, then wincing in pain. “The doctor said that I would be up and about in a few weeks. Luckily nothing was seriously damaged or broken, just a bunch of scrapes and bruises.”
“We finished the autopsy on the creature that attacked you,” Chase said, “it’s definitely not a Bigfoot. We don’t have much information on it yet, but after I do some field work we should.”
“Do you have any idea why the male went rogue?”
“We think it might have to do with the encroaching humans on its territory. Basically they didn’t have enough food to feed their young, so they ventured into civilization.”
She looked at Jeff, “I leave tomorrow to go out in the woods and try to track the female. We need to find out as much information on them as we can, if we’re going to get them on the crypto-endangered list.”
“You know I do get out of the hospital tomorrow, and will be having some time off,” Jeff said innocently.
Chase looked at him and smiled, “are you saying that you want to go with me?”
Jeff gently pulled grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him, “what do you think?” He said against her lips before kissing her hard.

The female creature ran through the woods, her two young following her. Suddenly a bellow sounded and she froze, sniffing the air. Whimpering she cowered on the ground as three males identical to the one Chase had killed crashed out of the trees. The lead male growled something at the female and she cowered even further, lowering her eyes in submission, before whimpering out an answer. The male threw his head back and howled in anger, the other males following suit, until the woods almost shook with the force of their cries.