Excerpt

At the sight of the creature, Paula's nerve broke. All thoughts of the potential safety in front of her vanished from her mind, and she did the exact opposite of what she probably should have. She turned toward the other end of the clearing and began running. Most of the group was too frozen at the sight before them to notice. Even Rob was too busy muttering, "Sonofabitch, bigfoot is real," to himself to pay her much attention.

Fortunately, Danni still had her wits about her. "I'll get her," she barked before taking off after Paula.

That snapped Harrison out of it. He yelled, "Danni!" before noticing that the creature's eyes were tracking the two fleeing females. It bared its teeth, and long foamy ropes of drool began to spill over its lips.

Oh shit. It's gonna charge them!

Thinking fast, he cried out to his sister, "Don't stop! Keep going!" and started waving his arms at the beast. "Hey! Yeah you, you ugly fucker!" He bent and found a good-sized stone which he whipped in the monstrosity's direction. The projectile fell far short of its mark, but it had the desired effect. The creature once more turned its head toward them. For a moment, it seemed confused, then it tilted back its head and let loose with another scream.

Uh oh. I think I pissed it off.

The beast charged forward. He turned back to the remaining group and yelled, "In the cabin – NOW!"

♦ ♦ ♦

He had been right. One of the two-legged things had issued a challenge for dominance earlier. He had been distracted by the sight of two of them fleeing before him. Females, from the smell of it, but then the alpha of their group had begun screaming and jumping. It even had the nerve to try to attack him. The females must have belonged to it.

The two-legged thing was stupid. He did not want its females for mating. He had no interest in that, not anymore since the rage had descended. Still, he would allow no quarter for such a small, weak thing to challenge his domain. He had planned to kill them all. This one, though, would die badly.

He returned the challenge with a cry of his own and sprang to meet the upstart.

♦ ♦ ♦

Most of the others didn't need to be told twice. They piled into the old ranger station as quickly as they could. The lone holdout was Rob, who was just now beginning to notice the rest of them. "Where's Pau..." he managed to get out before Harrison dragged him into the cabin.

"Grab whatever you can and barricade the entrance with it. That thing's coming," Harrison said, putting his shoulder against the door and pushing it shut. He had been hoping to find braces for barring the door. Aren't log cabins supposed to have those things? All he spied, though, was an old slide lock at the top. It would be better than nothing, but just barely.

He slid it home, then turned around. In the dim light of the cabin, he saw Greg and Allison pushing an old rotted desk across the floor. He quickly got out of their way so they could shove it against the door.

"Windows!" he shouted.

"On it," Whereas before, during the chase, Alison had seemed utterly stunned, Harrison was grateful to see her on the ball now. Whatever her shock had been, her survival instinct was apparently kicking in.

Greg, hungover or not, was in the game too, grabbing more dilapidated furniture to pile against the door. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said of the rest. Rob just stood there, looking confused. Between his exhaustion, the creature outside, and his girlfriend running off, he had reached a point where he just couldn't process it all. He wasn't the worst off, though. Wild Feather had retreated to a corner of the dark room, where he huddled in the fetal position.

They were in luck in that there was only one small window facing the front. Even better, it had an intact wooden shutter. Allison swung it closed, but not before muttering, "Oh shit."

"What?" Harrison asked.

"I'd get away from the door, if I were you."

In response, the entire cabin shuddered as the creature impacted with the heavy door. Their makeshift barricade held, if just barely. Unfortunately, a heavy splintering noise came from the door itself. Harrison put his back into the meager fortifications to give it a little more strength. Seeing his lead, Greg did the same.

Again, the beast hit the door. More wood splintered, and they felt the barricade start to move. It was like trying to hold back a Mack truck. Another second, and the two young men were going to be flung like rag dolls, but then it stopped.

A few moments went by, and then there was another roar – close, but not quite at the cabin's door. It was followed by several low thuds against the side of the structure.

"What the hell?" Greg gasped.

Allison chanced a peek through a gap in the shutters.

"What's going on out there?" Harrison asked.

"It's going nuts," she replied, a tone of disbelief in her voice. "It's pacing back and forth, beating its hands against the ground." She paused then added, "Now it's throwing mud at us ... oh wait. I don't think that's mud."

"Just keep an eye out and let me know if it's gonna try again," Harrison said as another roar split the air. "Greg, brace the door with anything you can find. Use the packs, too. They're not much, but they'll give it some weight. Rob..."

"Paula's out there," Rob replied in a dazed voice.

"I need you to concentrate," said Harrison, stepping up to him. "Danni's with her. They're probably a mile away by now. She's okay as long as that thing is here with us. For right now, we need to worry about ourselves. Now I need you to pay attention. You're the one who's into this shit. What do you know about this thing?"

The question brought Rob back to his senses. He thought for a second, then answered, "Not much. Nobody really knows anything about it. It's not supposed to even exist. Why don't we ask him?" He pointed toward Wild Feather, still huddled in the corner.

They walked over to where he crouched. "Hey, man, are you still with us?" Harrison asked. He received no answer to his question. After another moment, he sighed then added, "Sorry, but we don't have time for this crap." He reached down, grabbed Wild Feather by his jacket, and hauled him to his feet. That seemed to snap him back to reality a bit.

"Is it gone?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"No," replied Harrison. "I need to know what else your people know about this thing," he said while more thuds sounded from the front of the cabin. The shit's really hitting the fan now.

"What do you mean?" Wild Feather asked, his eyes darting between Harrison and the door.

"That story you told yesterday," Rob said. "What else do your people know about sasquatch?"

"That!? I made that shit up."

"What do you mean 'made it up?'"

"Exactly that!" Wild Feather mewled. "I don't know anything about that fucking monster."

"What was all that crap about spirits and hairy men of the forest?"

Wild Feather seemed on the verge of losing it again. He started sputtering, "H-how the hell am I supposed to know? I grew up in Chicago. My name is Phil. I just do this shit to get laid."

For a moment, there was silence in the cabin, save for what filtered in from outside.

"Well, that's just great, Phil," Harrison replied at last, releasing his grip and turning toward his roommate.

"I am so gonna kick your ass when this is over," Allison growled from the window.

"Save it for later," Harrison barked. "Rob, let's see if there's a back door to this place."

"Uh oh! I don't think there's time, guys. It's coming back," she said, catching their attention.

"Oh crap!" muttered Harrison. He quickly dragged Rob over to where Greg was trying to reinforce the miniscule barricade.

They braced for impact. None came. Instead, Allison jumped back from the window with a shout. Glass shattered, and the shutters blew off their hinges as a huge hairy arm came plowing through it. Allison fell to the floor as debris rained down. However, the grasping claws of the creature managed to miss snagging her.

A chorus of screams broke out from the group as the muscular arm began reaching around, searching as the creature snarled outside. Allison backed up to where Wild Feather once more cowered. He didn't even acknowledge her in his panicked state.

Amidst the chaos, an idea popped into Harrison's head. He pulled his backpack from the barricade and began rummaging through it.

He found what he was looking for just as Rob muttered, "Oh crap."

Harrison turned and saw that the creature had grabbed onto the window sill and ripped it, along with a chunk of wall, out. If it couldn't get in through the door, it was apparently going to try making its own.

Not on my watch, he thought, momentarily curious as to where this clearly insane bravery was coming from. He pushed those thoughts aside, though, as he pulled the machete from his pack. In an instant, he had stepped to the side of the window, still out of sight of the creature. The next time it started pulling at a piece of wall, he swung with everything he had.

He caught the creature flush on the wrist. The blow would have been enough to lop a man's hand clean off; however, Harrison watched in horror as the blade sank an inch at most into muscle and bone before stopping. There was a horrific scream of pain from right outside. In this close proximity, it was loud enough to leave a ringing in all of their ears. The arm pulled back, almost wrenching the weapon from Harrison's grasp, but he held true and yanked it free with a spray of blood.

There was another roar, then an oversized fist burst through the wood not a foot from Harrison's head. He had succeeded all right ... succeeded in pissing it off again, he grimly noted to himself. This wasn't good. If that thing could smash straight through the walls whenever it wanted to, then they didn't stand a chance. Their barricade at the door was little more than a joke.

"Allison!" he yelled, ducking out of reach of the grasping hand. "Find a back door, now!"

To her credit, she only hesitated for a moment before running toward the rear of the cabin. Harrison wished her luck. Unlike the monstrous ape at the front door, they had little chance of knocking down a wall. If it turned out there was no other exit from this building, it might very well become their tomb.