"What is it?" he asked. He saw Ben was looking down at the street below them. He followed his gaze. A pack of eight creatures gathered below the helicopter and were staring up at it with feral, angry eyes that glowed yellow and red in the darkness. Several of them roared their displeasure at the copter's presence so loudly they were heard over the spinning of the blades. The sound sent shivers through Zack.

Something thudded off the side of the copter so hard, he knew it had left a dent. The sound was followed by that of two more impacts as a third shattered the window beside him. He ducked as a large rock barely missed him and bounced off the chopper's ceiling. It thudded to the floor on top of the broken gla.s.s.

"They're stoning us!" Ben said. "They're actually b.l.o.o.d.y stoning us!"

"Get us out of here," Zack shouted.

Ben didn't have to be told twice. He hit the throttle as the copter lurched and sprang forward, gaining alt.i.tude as it went. Zack looked at Ben; the pilot glanced back at him. Zack knew Ben was beyond rational thought. He had to get the man to calm down before they ended up tangled in the tall trees ahead of them. "Push it harder," he said.

Ben pulled up more, then they were in the clear, far out of reach of the creatures and the treetops.

"Get a grip, man. They can't get us up here. As long as we stay high enough, we're safe. Got it?" Zack said.

It looked like the words at least partially sunk in as Ben brought the helicopter in the direction of Macon County.

"Uh-uh," Zack said, "not yet. We've got one more place to check."

"With all due respect, sir" a"Ben made the word sound like an insulta" "I'm taking us home."

"Ben . . ."

"No," he said. "Enough's enough, man. I am not getting paid enough for this c.r.a.p. This sure as heck wasn't in the job description either."

Zack drew his Glock and reached over, pressing its barrel into Ben's side. "You can press charges for this later if you want, but right now there may be people still alive in this town that need us. We've got one place left to check and you're going to fly us there or I will kill you as dead as those things in the streets would." Zack hoped Ben couldn't tell he was bluffing, but it had to be done. Bigger things were at stake than Ben's sanity or even self-preservation.

"But if you shoot me, we'll crash."

"I didn't say I'd kill you now, did I?"

"No."

"You can only keep us up here for so long. We touch down, you go down. Got it?"

Ben grunted. "Fine, but then we're going home."

"All right." Zack nodded and holstered his pistol. "Head east and keep us up as high as you can, but not so high that we can't get a decent look at the ground."

They flew toward the eastern outskirts of Babble Creek toward the town's high school. When it came into view, an explosion lit up its parking lot.

"What the devil was that?" Ben asked.

"Somebody that wants to get our attention pretty badly."

"Looks like they got somebody else's attention, too, though."

The woods around the school came to life with movement. A dozen, giant, hairy forms poured from the trees, closing in on what looked to be the school's gym.

Justin "Justin!" Fred screamed. "They're coming!"

He didn't need the warning, however. Justin saw three of the sasquatches bounding toward the poor fools who'd volunteered to keep watch outside the gym. His rifle was still up and ready so he selected a target and opened fire, yelling for the others to do the same. The creatures were moving too fast for any kind of real accuracy. His shot slammed into the lead creature's shoulder, spraying blood into the air. It loosed a whelp of pain, but kept coming without slowing. He heard the cracks of the other defenders' rifles and the rapid fire of a Glock. A shotgun boomed. One of the defenders put a round into the lead sasquatch's stomach. In return it raced toward him, ripped him off the ground with one hand, and gave him a head b.u.t.t that caved his face in and snapped his neck. Another of the door's guards was so frightened he tossed his weapon aside and made a run across the parking lot. The shortest of the three creatures sprinted after him, overtaking him effortlessly. The man's scream was long and loud as its hand plunged into his back and tore out his spine, exposing it to the night air.

Justin moved closer to the roof's edge and changed his angle of fire to get another shot at the things as the unthinkable happened. One of the sasquatches sped toward the school and jumped, throwing itself onto the wall in front of him. The building shook with the impact. The creature positioned itself like an agile mountain climber and began to scale the remaining few feet of the wall. Its red eyes burned; Justin found himself staring into them, both scared yet strangely allured. If the thing had waited a few strides more before taking its leap, the sasquatch's whole upper torso would've cleared the edge and it would've already been on the roof with him.

Justin fired point blank. The round went clean through the monster's skull. It released its hold and toppled to the ground with a loud thud. None of the others tried for the roof. They seemed to smell the people barricaded inside the gym and focused on getting inside instead. The man opposite him managed to kill one of the sasquatches as the monsters approached, leaving eight furious beasts tearing the gym's doors asunder.

Justin hoped Becca was ready for them because they were coming in from both sides.

Becca Becca heard the explosion then the barrage of rifle fire. Her reaction was fast and decisive. She ordered the women, who weren't armed, and the children to take cover under the bleachers as she and anyone who had a weapon took up positions blocking the doors at both ends of the gym. Their forces were divided and under-armed. She and three men waited on the left side while Lauren and the other five defenders got ready on the right. No one waited for the monsters to make it inside. They all opened fire as soon as they saw hairy arms pulling the doors from their hinges.

A sasquatch squeezed its way inside just in front of her and shoved aside what was left of the makeshift barricade. Glock 40 rounds peppered its body with tiny dots of deep red, sending it into a berserker rage. One of the men with her carried a 12 gauge and pumped shot after shot into the thing's hairy hide. It staggered and roared its seeming frustration at not being able to catch the bullets mid-air. The thing sprung forward, knocking the man to the floor with a viscous body blow. The man lay motionless with blood leaking from his nose and ears.

A quick glance across the gym told Becca that Lauren's group wasn't faring any better. Retreat was impossible. There were no other exits. As another of the creatures pushed its way inside, one of its large hands took a swipe at the man beside her and turned his face into a pulpy ma.s.s of bloodied meat. The last of the men who stood with her fired point blank into the monster's stomach before he was yanked from his feet and tossed fast and high, screaming across the gym to land hard on the floor with the sound of snapping bone.

On the other side of the gym, Lauren screamed as the beasts burst open the doors and crushed one of the men in the process. His limp and broken body slid to the floor from behind the now-open doors. Darius Luker, a tough-looking redneck, leveled his 12 gauge and put a slug into the first of the creature's face. It lumbered backwards a step and collapsed with a heavy thud. Darius's moment of triumph was short-lived, however. The next of the beasts put a hand completely through his body. He gagged on his own blood racing up his throat as the creature's hand ripped back out of him, carrying a fistful of meat with it. Lauren screeched and turned to flee as the others with her fell to the beasts' fury. She managed two steps before a hand closed over her head. The thing's hairy fingers gouged into Lauren's eyes and pressed them back in the woman's skull. Blood poured down her front as her body struggled and twitched against the creature's hold in her last moments of life. The creature threw her down. All hope was lost, but Becca still refused to give up. She s.n.a.t.c.hed up one of the fallen men's Glocks. Her battle cry echoed across the gym as she fought off her own pain and ignored the blood running down the sides of her head. She charged the second creature with both guns blazing. The 9 mils spat empty sh.e.l.l casings to the gym floor as she moved closer. The creature stood its ground, barely made a sound, and took the bullets as if waiting for her to get closer. When she was within its reach, it grabbed her and enveloped her in a bear hug so tight, she vomited blood into its eyes as her body was crushed against its chest and she left this world behind.

Justin Below, the chorus of gunfire and screams rang from inside the gym. Justin's eyes burned with tears as he thought of all the good people dying below their feet in the gym below. "We have to get down there," he shouted, knowing the only way down was either to jump from the roof or take time to lower the ladder they'd used to reach their position.

Fred's hands locked onto him, holding him tight. "Let me go."

Amanda was in there and she needed him.

The report of a rifle from the helicopter hovering nearby drew his attention. A man who wore the uniform of a Macon County deputy leaned out from the copter, firing on the creatures left outside the gym.

Fred's voice sounded far away even though the man was yelling right into his face.

"We just have to hope some of them make it pa.s.sed those things alive."

Justin broke free of Fred's hold and darted for the roof's edge, slinging his rifle onto his shoulder as he ran. He tossed himself over the side, catching himself on the edge, and started to climb down the wall with his bare hands. Gritting his teeth against the pain of his bleeding hands, he got as far as he could then let go. His left leg snapped as he hit the gra.s.s behind one of the monsters. The beast whirled on him, looking confused. Justin seized the moment, bringing his rifle to bare at the last possible second. G.o.d was with him. The bullet penetrated the thing's sternum, striking its heart. The monster died instantly from the shot and fell on top of him, breaking one of his arms in the process. Justin screamed from the pain. He fought to stay conscious, knowing the sasquatch's weight would crush him if he couldn't worm out from under its corpse. With a heave, he fought with all the strength he could muster and pulled out from under it, collapsing into the growing puddle of its blood. Some got in his mouth, its taste rich and full and coppery. He weakly spat out what he could. His eyes closed as he tried to shout Amanda's name.

Zack It was a ma.s.sacre, Zack knew. So far he'd only seen three people come fleeing through the gym's doors and four of the giant creatures had entered. He stared helplessly as one of the things scaled the wall to the roof of the building. It caved in under the weight of the ma.s.sive beast, taking the men trapped on it with it. Zack snapped himself out of his shock and did the only thing he could: he took aim at one of the last few creatures left outside.

"Hold it steady," he told Ben.

The helicopter wavered as rocks pelted it from the woods where more of the monsters approached. Zack took aim again. The helicopter shifted as he fired. His bullet sparked off the pavement next to the largest of the creatures. Other monsters emerged from the trees. Through the night scope on his rifle as he realigned for another shot, he counted over thirty and recognized most of them from the flight over the town. Zack knew he didn't have the ammo to kill them all but he wasn't about to give up the fight. The few people who'd managed to escape the gym were nowhere to been seen. He prayed they had found somewhere to hide.

He slid back inside the copter, giving Ben the signal to get them moving as a fine mist of rain began to fall from the night sky above.

"What the . . ." Ben rasped.

Zack turned to see a pair of headlights speeding along the road that led to the school. He wondered who in his right mind would be booking it for this inst.i.tution of death.

Powell Powell's gut told him he was too late. Somewhere deep inside, he knew he had failed and the town's blood was on his hands. Being forced to carry out the better part of his quest to retrieve the explosives from the department of transportation on foot had simply taken too long. If help hadn't arrived, the others were surely dead by now unless Becca had pulled off a miracle.

The enormous dump truck wasn't the fastest ride in the world, but it had the strength and ma.s.s to make its way through town without being stopped. He'd run over one of the monsters and smiled as its bones were crushed underneath the vehicle's ma.s.sive wheels after he plowed into it. At first, he had worried about the explosives detonating from collisions like that one, but his life hadn't ended in heat and flames. He realized the explosives could only be triggered by hardcore heat or violence on a level way beyond what he was giving them, or by using their blasting caps. The D.O.T.'s safety protocols were strict in terms of what was allowed to be used for their construction. He thanked G.o.d for it, too.

The rain fell. Heavy drops splashed against the truck's windshield as he approached the school. He reached and flicked on the wipers. There was something in the air above the school's parking lot. He strained his eyes and saw it was the Macon County department's helicopter. Hope swelled in him only to die in a flash when he saw the creatures. They were everywhere around the school. When his truck crested the hill, he turned onto the drive heading into the lot. He hit the brakes hard. The truck's tires squealed and the heavy vehicle ground to a stop as multiple pairs of red eyes fell upon him. Cursing, he kicked the truck into reverse and spun it around toward town. He mentally clocked the fastest of the creatures he had seen before at forty-five miles per hour. The distance between them and the truck had given him a head start or they would have overrun him before he even got moving.

Zack "Poor guy," Zack said as the creatures bounded after the now-fleeing yellow dump truck.

"Better him than us," Ben said. "We couldn't have taken much more anyway. One lucky throw might have brought us down and you know it. This bird's banged up enough already."

"We're going after him," Zack said, reloading his rifle.

"Uh-uh," Ben said. "No way. That wasn't the deal."

"We can't just leave him to die!"

"Watch me. We're heading back." Ben met his eyes with a cold glare. "I've gone way above the call of duty here. You wanna commit suicide, I'll get you low enough for you to jump out and go after him on foot."

Zack knew he wasn't going to win against him this time even if he threatened to shoot him again. Ben would likely call his bluff and things could get uglier than they already were.

"All right," Zack said. "Take us down."

"You're freaking crazy, man, you know that?"

Zack didn't answer. The helicopter descended closer to the lot below.

"Just make sure the help we called in gets here," he said before he leaped the final few feet to the ground. He landed with his rifle in hand, ready to blast anything that came his way, but all of the creatures were gone, chasing after the unfortunate soul in the truck.

He raced for the bushes near the gym as the helicopter rose and sped away into the coming storm. Zack took cover, squatting behind the bushes as he studied his surroundings from his new vantage point. Movement in his peripheral vision drew his attention. A man laying in the gra.s.s next to the corpse of one of the monsters stirred then groaned. One of his arms was snapped back at an awkward angle, plainly broken.

Zack ran over to him. He fell on his knees beside him. "Take it easy, buddy. You're hurt pretty bad." He the noticed one of the man's legs was broken in several places as well. "What's your name?"

"Justin," the man said hoa.r.s.ely.

"I'm Zack." The man eyed his uniform. "I'm a deputy from over in Macon."

Justin was clearly in a great deal of pain. Zack was impressed he could endure it as he wasn't sure he could have had the positions been reversed.

"Are you here to save us?"

"That was the plan. Didn't quite work out. Those things ambushed the real help. They're all dead, I'm sorry to say. It's just me for the moment." Zack helped him up and got a strong hold on him while Justin put his good arm around his shoulders for support. "What happened here?"

"You really wanna know?"

"I think I can figure it out," Zack said, "but what are those creatures? Where did they even come from?"

"Ever heard of the legend of Bigfoot?"

Zack nodded.

"Well, you've just met his family."

Zack didn't respond and just let it sink in. Bigfoot's family. So many of them. "Come on," he finally said, helping Justin toward the gym. "We can't stay here in the open."

"No." Justin stopped, holding Zack in place with the weight of his injured body. "I ain't going in there. Get us to my car."

Zack looked at the blood-smeared entrance to the gym. "Okay, good idea."

Justin pointed him to his SUV and they got in the vehicle.

"Justin," Zack said, "there's other people alive. I saw a few folks make it out of the gym and somebody freaking drove up in a dump truck. Whoever it was led the things away or I wouldn't have reached you. You up for seeing if we can return the favor and save that idiot's b.u.t.t?"

"Was he wearing a deputy uniform?"

Zack shrugged. "Could've been. I didn't exactly get a good look at him." Justin grinned despite the pain evident in his eyes. "You think you know him?"

"Everyone I know who was still alive in this town was in that gym except for one of our deputies. I'd say it's a safe bet the man's name was Powell." Justin handed him the keys.

"Good," Zack said as he fired up the SUV. "If he's trained maybe the idiot can keep himself alive long enough for us to get to him."

Powell Powell took the curve leading into Babble Creek too hard. The truck's tires squealed under the stress. For a terrifying moment, he thought the big truck might flip over, but he narrowly rounded the curve and kept on gunning it for town. The sasquatches were still after him. The side mirror was filled with a sea of dark hair and ticked off red eyes. The speedometer read forty-five miles per hour. One lucky break and they'd be swarming all over him.

The truck shook as the fastest of the monsters managed to fling itself onto its bed. Its roar was deafening as it pounded on the back of the truck's cab with ma.s.sive fists. He jerked the wheel sharply to the right. G.o.d was with him because the creature lost its balance and went flying from the truck bed into the trees at the side on the road. Powell spun the wheel left, keeping the truck from tipping and on the road.

He raked his mind for options. Simply stopping or even slowing down meant death. The open road ahead of him was running out and he knew it. Soon he would be reaching the wreckage of the town and its cluttered streets.

He spotted the Quick Mart in the distance and knew what he had to do. He fumbled in his shirt pocket for his smokes. His trembling fingers found a cigarette and he placed it between his lips. He lit up and inhaled deeply as the gas station drew closer. He just hoped that in the panic of the Bigfoot attack the attendants hadn't shut the pumps off.

"See you soon, Becca," he said as he slowed the truck by a hair.

Several of the monsters were on it in an instant. He let them get a good hold then floored the gas. With five of the things attached to the truck and the rest trailing close behind it, Powell drove the vehicle into the station's pumps. Gasoline sprayed into the air, soaking the truck and the closest creatures alike. As a ma.s.sive hand ripped him through the driver's window his lit cigarette fell to the ground and a bright ball of flame erupted, reaching for the sky followed by a series of secondary explosions larger than the first. The last thing he heard was the explosives he'd been hauling detonate.

Zack Zack and Justin saw the explosion from the distance as they drove toward Babble Creek. Suddenly ahead of them was a ten-foot-tall giant covered in flames, running at the SUV headlong as it wailed an ear-piercing cry. About to strike the monster, Zack flung himself from the vehicle. As he rolled onto the dirt, the thing's body flew into the SUV's windshield, shattering it. Justin screamed. The inside of the SUV burst into flames as the Bigfoot's corpse flopped from the mangled hood while the SUV swerved along the road until it finally reached the bank on the right side of the highway. It climbed it with two wheels and tipped over onto its top. It skidded forward a few more feet, sending sparks into the air before it came to a halt. Zack grimaced as he stood. He knew from the pain he had dislocated his shoulder. He reached around with his left hand, drawing his Glock 40 from the holster on his belt. He started toward the SUV, which was now entirely in flames, hoping that somehow Justin was still alive, but it quickly exploded, knocking him from his feet once more.

When Zack woke up, a National Guardsman was kneeling above him.

"He's alive, sir," the man said to someone behind him.

Zack sat behind the desk in his office looking over the initial report from the Babble Creek event one more time. The entire town of Babble Creek was gone. No other survivors had been found yet. He knew the government was blaming the whole incident on a lethal chemical spill that caused the town's populace to go crazy and turn on each other. The Feds forced him to sign a nondisclosure agreement in regards to the events of that night under penalty of treason. He guessed they'd rather take the heat of a supposed accident than admit creatures like Bigfoot were real and send all the rural towns into a panic. The National Guardsmen had been called and had taken things over. The explosion at the gas station might have scared them back into the woods, but Zack knew the monsters were still out there. He just hoped the National Guard and army would be able to handle them.

Epilogue.

Three days ago, the town of Babble Creek was wiped from the face of the Earth. The soul survivor of the unexplainable ma.s.sacre was a deputy sheriff from a neighboring county who had been called in as support for the local law enforcement during what the media was calling "The Attack." The reporters were told it had been a bio-chemical terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Lieutenant West knew better. The ma.s.sive canon he carried in place of a standard issue weapon was proof that the a.s.signment wasn't a joke. He and his squad of five highly-trained operatives had been airlifted into the woods surrounding the former town. Their orders were simple: Find the monsters that had murdered every single resident of the town down to the last child and eliminate them.

West had always loved Bigfoot stories as a kid. Growing up on a reservation before joining the army, tales of the beast hadn't been in short supply. His grandfather was well-versed in the beliefs of their ancestors and the sasquatch was very much a part of their legends and myths. Only now, it turned out, the things were real and here he was leading a hunt for the monsters. His people had lived in peace with them for centuries before the white man camea"or so the stories went. As the world became the high-tech and sprawling sea of cities and towns it was today, the creatures simply vanished. Many believed they went into hiding. It was as good an explanation as any, West supposed. A good number of people believed the beast had died out and even more didn't believe in them at all, but now he was presented with hard evidence they were not only real, but feral killers. It all felt so surreal. He had a job to do, though, and there was a whole town to be avenged. If these things struck again before they could be found, who knew how many more innocents would die. Yet the beasts must have a weakness of some kind. If they truly were near-invincible, surely they would have taken over the planet long ago and eliminated Man from the top of the food chain.

He was on point as his squad hiked up the steep mountainside. From the reports on the attack he'd read, the things were even more ma.s.sive than in the legends. Faster, too. The weapon he carried could put a hole in the side of an APC, but it brought him little comfort.

"Hey, boss!" Patrick called. "You should see this!"