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The first time it hit the trailer door, I thought the steel had split.

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The hit was hard enough, it shook dust out of the seams above our heads.

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Ray and I were locked inside a little roadside office, staring at the door handle as it

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moved, rotating back and forth, while something outside kept pushing and pulling on the door.

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We knew a few things for sure by that time.

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First, that wasn't a bear out there.

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And if we stayed in that trailer until the generator died and the lights went out, we weren't

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getting out at all.

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That night it was just me and Ray.

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We were in Washington, finishing up on a washed out section of Mountain Road where half the

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uphill lane had washed away after a stretch of hard rain.

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We'd been on Mountain Road jobs alone after dark before.

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It was never the ideal plan, but sometimes it happened for different reasons.

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We'd been up there for three days, moving Phil, setting pipe and rushing to shore up

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a bad section before a storm was due to roll in that night.

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We drew the short straws, so to speak, among the crew.

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While the rest of the crew was gone, it was just the two of us up there to finish a few things

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up.

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We stayed to move equipment around, park, chain, and cover what needed it, then locking

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sight boxes and closing up the work trailer.

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We were checking along when it was like someone turned up the lights on the mountain.

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It went from dusk to pitch black in about two minutes.

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It was a combination of the sun, just dipping behind the ridge and the dark storm clouds

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beginning to roll in over us.

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But we still had a bit to do, so I walked to the panel and I hit the generator switch to

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light things up.

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The generator light went out over the road, the excavator, the compressor and our stacks

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of orange barrels.

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But beyond that was nothing but timber, steep ground, and darkness.

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I had worked with Ray a long time, and he'd been at this kind of work several more years

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than me.

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It always impressed me with how unimpressed Ray was with everything.

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He was the last to get worked up, mad, or rattled.

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But if he did, you looked out because you knew it was for a good reason.

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Right then Ray was busy with a clipboard in one hand, a flashlight in the other, and he

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was checking off the list, asking me about things as he went along.

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He latched the side box on the compressor, he asked.

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"Yeah," I said.

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The chain on the tamper.

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"Yeah," I said.

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He checked off a few more things and he said, "Well, good, let's get out of here."

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It was the best thing he'd said to me all day.

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The day's end meant going to the motel in town, but it was better than on-site trailers,

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which we've had to do before.

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I was coiling the last of a rope when I heard brush breaking up on the slope.

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It was the sound of something heavy coming through.

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It was loud and fast, then it stopped.

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I looked up hill into the dark.

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Ray looked up too and said, "Ehh, probably a bear."

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I nodded.

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Yeah, that made sense.

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We'd been seeing bear signs all that week.

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Big marks on trees up and down the road.

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A few hundred over-tree saplings found a torn-up coolor at the nearby pull-off.

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I mean, after all, this was mountain country and bears did live here.

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I finished that coil and started another when it happened again.

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A sudden burst and hard movement through brush.

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It didn't sound like something walking steadily.

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There was this big rush again.

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It went longer this time, and it stopped abruptly.

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We both looked up the slope.

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Ray shrugged and he said, "Yeah, okay, let's get this done."

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I picked up the bucket of miscellaneous things I'd been collecting to put up, while Ray picked

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up another clipboard with papers from a folding table outside the work trailer.

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I was on the small porch deck and held the door open for Ray, who had his hands full of

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clipboards and a flashlight.

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I stood back with the door open and let him in.

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As he came in, the generator lights were opposite of us, throwing long shadows over the gravel.

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After that gravel, maybe twenty feet past, was the timber line and the slope up where we

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heard the brush breaking noises.

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I was just about to step in and close the door.

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When I saw something move at the low timber line, just where the generator lights didn't

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light it up.

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I stopped, blinked, squinted, and looked hard again.

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It was dark out there, but there's different kinds of dark, different shades of it.

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Sometimes you can look in the dark and see something move, something of just a different

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shade of dark.

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And that's what happened.

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I saw something a different kind and shade of dark rise up.

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It straightened up and stood dead still.

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I think the hairs on the back of my neck were bristling and poking into my collar.

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I'd looked for another second, and I could almost make out a shape.

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Ray, I said slowly, never taking my eyes off the dark shape.

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"Hmmm?" he said.

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He was inside busy sorting papers into the slots on top of the filing cabinet.

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I didn't know what to say, so I just pointed, and I said his name again.

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From my side view I saw Ray look up, looking kind of annoyed, and he took the few steps

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over to the doorway and looked to where I was pointing.

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He didn't see it at first because, after a second, he asked, "What are you pointing at?"

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Then it moved, taking two big steps, crossing about half the distance up to the gravel,

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well into the ambient cast of light spread from the generator's lights.

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It was still probably thirty feet or more from where we stood, but that was too close

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for me.

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We both knew what was coming at us.

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You see one, you have to be stupid to say you don't know what it is.

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It was a size that's hard to write about, and makes seem real.

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It was eight feet tall at least.

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Just like a big gorilla in terms of size and looking rounded around the ribs, the head

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was large and sat, jetted out on the shoulders, but I didn't see a neck.

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It was like the head was sat down, and flowed out to the edge of the shoulders.

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Ray smacked my shoulder and said, "Inside."

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I was already there, my friend, closing the door behind me through in the bolt.

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The trailer was a small half-size trailer, just meant to be a small, mobile working office.

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There were two small windows on the front, on either side of the door.

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There were no windows on the back.

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But at each end of the trailer there was a small rectangular window that sat high on the

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wall, mostly meant to be used for ventilation.

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Doubtful, a six-year-old could have made it through those windows.

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That's how small they were.

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Other than that, the door had a small diamond shape to paint and glass in it, maybe eight

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inches square.

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It's enough to look through to make sure you weren't going to knock someone out when

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you opened the door.

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And that's the other thing.

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The trailer was so small, the door opened out, not in.

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I looked out.

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The area where I had seen movement was visible if you stood just a little to the side, and

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looked sideways and long ways outside.

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I did that, and it was standing at the gravel, very visible, looking at the trailer.

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It was looking right at me.

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Yeah, we'd both heard the stories, me and Ray, but we'd never believed them.

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That's crazy talk is what we used to say.

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Or we would look at each other and raise our eyebrows and say, "Somebody had too many

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drinks or was imbibing in something else."

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And they clearly imagined it.

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Well, I'm here to tell you, we had not done any of those things, and we were not imagining

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it.

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The other thing I want to say about is the weight of it.

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At least it could have been was 800 pounds.

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Its size is part of that guess, but the other are the muscles.

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Muscles weigh a lot more.

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It might have been closer to the thousand pound mark.

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This was very solidly built, and that's a lot of weight when it's standing eight feet

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or more.

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I looked hard, but couldn't make out any kind of a face, of course I knew it had one.

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And I could tell by the head positioning in the shoulders which way was looking.

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It turned a bit, and I caught a flash of something.

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Let's call it eye shine.

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It was there, then it was gone.

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Just two little flashes, a few inches apart, and almost eight feet up.

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Ray was at the small window on the other side of the door doing what I was, looking down

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long ways outside.

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"Jesus Christ," Ray said, slow and soft.

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It kept standing out there looking like it was waiting for something, or maybe it was thinking.

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Maybe it was making some kind of a decision.

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I don't know.

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Now someone could have offered me millions of dollars, and I wouldn't have stepped one foot

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outside that trailer right then.

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Same time, I didn't exactly feel safe with nothing but thin metal of the trailer between me and

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it.

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I had a scary thing come to me while I watched it.

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I knew it was smart.

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It thinks, and it weighs things up.

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I know that, because while I watched it, I saw it turning and looking around.

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It was looking at the different light locations, the front of the trailer.

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It was looking where the excavator was, down to where our pickup trucks were, which was

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about 50 feet down from the trailer the other way.

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Now that doesn't sound like a lot of distance, but it is when there's a big old big foot outside.

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But it took a few steps down the gravel, and then I couldn't see it anymore.

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Ray ran and stood on a folding chair to look at one of the small, high side windows.

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He said it had walked far enough.

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It could look at the back of the trailer.

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He saw it physically take a look down the back side of the trailer.

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Then it walked back to almost where it had been.

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But now it took a few more steps into the light.

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I knew for a fact there was no cell signal out there.

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If you wanted to signal, you had to go higher up on the ridge.

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We had a radio, but that was really no help.

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It was a small two-way type of radio setup that only went out to a couple miles, so probably

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no one near enough to hear us.

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We tried it anyway.

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We got nothing back.

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When it came back from looking down the back side of the trailer, it walked closer, and

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it came right up under the generator lights.

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It was now maybe 15 feet from the door.

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In the light the hair on it looked uneven and messy and clumpy.

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The arms looked like logs hanging from its shoulders, and I saw the hands hanging low

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and open.

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They looked like they could grip a watermelon and crush it the way we would crumple up a

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piece of paper.

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I could make out the face a little more now, but not much other than I could see the darker

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eye area and the light where it hit the jaw and the lip line.

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I could see the very end of the nose, which looked flat and big on the face.

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It took another slow look around again, and then it looked right at the trailer.

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I want to say a couple strange things here.

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Ray and I agree on a couple things.

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First, it was definitely doing like a reconnaissance mission around the trailer, making sure we were

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alone or that nothing else was going to interfere, that there wasn't another exit for us.

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That was really what we believe.

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The second thing is, when it stepped around and it started to look at the trailer from

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15 feet, Ray and I are both absolutely convinced it was looking at us.

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I mean, I felt that it was staring solely at me, and Ray thought it was staring only at

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him.

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I will say, either way, that stare had the hair standing up all over me.

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There was something intimidating in its posture, and you could think I'm crazy, but I think

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there was something else and it stared us.

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Ray rummaged a ground and grabbed a road flare from one of the shells, and he popped open

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the cap.

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"What are you doing?" I asked him.

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If that thing comes through the door, it's getting a mouthful of this," he said.

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"I looked around, and I thought about it."

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"Yeah, sure.

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We had some tools in the trailer."

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"But none of the heavy ones that might have helped us."

205
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Those were outside in the tools trailer down the way.

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I'd hick-felt safer in that big caged excavator, but for all I knew, it could rip the cage

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right off from the seating area.

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But I felt maybe I might have been able to battle it with the big equipment.

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"Yeah, crazy thoughts."

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"But it was a crazy moment."

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I grabbed a flare too, because, well, maybe it was a stupid idea, but it was the only one

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we had.

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We boasted back, waiting.

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This lasted maybe five or six seconds, and I had to look.

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I had to know where it was.

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I looked out the window that Ray had been looking out earlier.

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I just pulled two blind pieces apart to look out, and I didn't see anything at first.

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It was just pitch black out there.

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But no, no, it wasn't.

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That danged thing was standing right at the window, looking in at us, blocking all the

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light.

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I thought those blind snapped back quick.

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I jumped about ten feet in the air.

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Ray was asking, "What?

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What?"

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I told him it was right there at the window.

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We quickly turned off all the lights inside the trailer.

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Yeah, we should have done that first, but for some reason it just didn't occur to us to

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do that.

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We got the lights out, and then we felt the trailer sort of tilt, maybe an inch or two.

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The metal steps in the little square porch outside creaked.

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It was pushing on the trailer.

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That trailer was on wheels, and everything had been blocked and secured, so it didn't

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move, but it wasn't permanent.

235
00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:31,880
It was pushing on it, broadside.

236
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:37,080
I don't mean some kind of a hard shove, but it was gently pushing, just testing, seeing

237
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:38,920
if it could.

238
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:43,720
All I could think of was the trailer being shoved over on its side.

239
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:49,680
Now sometimes in stressful situations, your mind will throw up something funny or weird,

240
00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:51,800
and that happened to me right then.

241
00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:57,120
The funny thought I had was, if it was on the other side, pushing the other way, in the

242
00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:02,200
way the wheels would have moved, and it managed to break the locks, the straps, and the wheel

243
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:03,200
locks.

244
00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,760
Well, we'd probably go rolling right on down quite a ways.

245
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:11,840
Then we'd go right off the side where it slopes down in the road curves around the mountain.

246
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:12,840
My funny thought?

247
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:18,880
Well, I remembered suddenly the kids in the old movie, the Apple Dumbling Gang, where they

248
00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:24,320
were in an old mine cart that cut loose and went down the side of a mountain.

249
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:30,080
But this wasn't some funny kids' movie from the 1970s, and I didn't think I would survive

250
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:33,080
it unscathed, quite like they did.

251
00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:34,080
I know.

252
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:37,480
What a weird thing to flash through my head in that nanosecond.

253
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:44,400
But I remember thinking that I have no idea why, to this day I couldn't tell you.

254
00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,920
Now when it started pushing on the trailer, we were both starting to yell out things like,

255
00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,360
hey, stop!

256
00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:54,040
Then it really was rocking the trailer.

257
00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:59,320
Just like it was trying to figure something out, how best to get at us.

258
00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:04,200
Then it started pushing on the window, whether by design or accident, just as it was pushing

259
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:05,880
on the trailer.

260
00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,560
But it didn't take much, and that window popped.

261
00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:13,520
It didn't break so much as kind of bow inward.

262
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:18,480
The plexiglass or lexan or whatever, just bowed and popped right out of the frame onto

263
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,040
the floor.

264
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:22,160
Talk about cheap construction.

265
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:27,240
That trailer was nothing more than aluminum foil and some plastic bits.

266
00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:30,280
Now that seemed to surprise the big foot.

267
00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:35,800
But in maybe a second or two, it put its arm in there and started to reach around.

268
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,440
It was grabbing papers, the edge of the desk, anything it could touch.

269
00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:44,920
Now we had backed up away from it all the way to the opposite wall, and we didn't have

270
00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:49,160
much that we could hit it with, and still keep our distance.

271
00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:53,560
Ray scooted over and got the folding metal chair that he had been standing on previously

272
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:55,320
to look out the window.

273
00:17:55,320 --> 00:18:01,720
He folded it back up, and he started whacking at the long arm with that hard metal chair.

274
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:04,720
He was whacking with everything he had.

275
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:09,160
He was actually jumping up a bit to come down harder with each hit.

276
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:14,160
He got three or four good hits on it, and then the hand or the arm was pulled back

277
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:16,360
outside.

278
00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:18,200
Then it was mad.

279
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:23,000
It slammed the whole trailer, and it made an awful sound while doing it.

280
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:27,680
You could tell it was mad, frustrated, and maybe a bit hurt.

281
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,920
The trailer was rocking now for sure.

282
00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:38,160
Then it was going around the entire trailer, hitting, shoving, grunting, making weird noises.

283
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:39,880
It circled the trailer.

284
00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,680
I guess maybe looking for another way to get it us.

285
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:48,800
It must have learned some kind of lesson about windows, because it didn't go for another

286
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:50,200
one.

287
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:53,600
But the trailer inside was trashed.

288
00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:55,760
Everything had been knocked off the walls.

289
00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:57,280
Things had been thrown around.

290
00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:58,280
Papers everywhere.

291
00:18:58,280 --> 00:19:02,080
Now this craziness went on for a while.

292
00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,480
It would circle the trailer, sometimes hitting and pushing.

293
00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,160
Then it would stop for several minutes, kind of a retreat.

294
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,400
You would go and be quiet.

295
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:17,480
And if we dared look out, it would be right there, and it would start all over again.

296
00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:23,920
And the whole time, if I looked down the other way, there sat our trucks at the larger gravel

297
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:26,720
area, there sat freedom.

298
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:31,680
Now me and Ray, we were both thinking the exact same thing.

299
00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:33,880
We had to get to a truck.

300
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:34,880
Fifty feet.

301
00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:40,160
Fifty feet, I kept saying to myself, maybe less, maybe more.

302
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:46,080
If we don't hear anything for a good half hour, I'm making a run from my truck, Ray said.

303
00:19:46,080 --> 00:19:49,640
I nodded because I was thinking the same thing.

304
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:50,480
And you know what?

305
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:54,520
I feel even worse than terrible for saying what I'm about to say.

306
00:19:54,520 --> 00:20:03,080
But my follow-up thought was, if we both went, at least one of us should make it to a truck,

307
00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:04,080
unless…

308
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,800
And a thought struck me.

309
00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:12,080
"Hey, there's only one of them, right?" I whispered.

310
00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:13,480
Ray looked at me.

311
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,640
And in that look I could tell, he was having the exact same thoughts.

312
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:23,560
We weren't positive, there was only one, but we were hoping.

313
00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:28,240
Ray unfolded the metal chair again and stood at the end window to look out, ready to jump

314
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,800
down if the thing was too close.

315
00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,520
"There's nothing out there," he said.

316
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:39,240
"Between us, we were hatching plans where we would run with all the road flares, lighting

317
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:44,640
them as we ran, throwing them at the big foot to slow it down if it came near."

318
00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:51,440
The big issue was, we knew the generator powering the lights, would run out of fuel, probably

319
00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:54,240
in an hour, maybe two tops.

320
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:58,080
We weren't exactly sure how much diesel it had.

321
00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:02,960
We only had so much time to have light to help us get to our trucks.

322
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,080
So it was kind of urgent.

323
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:09,240
We're whispering about that in those kinds of plans.

324
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:13,320
When a hit on the door shook everything, me included.

325
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:18,200
I thought for sure the door would have crashed in, but it didn't.

326
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,200
All we could do was stand back, pray, and watch.

327
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:25,520
We both had the flares ready.

328
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,040
We were staring at the door when the door handle started moving.

329
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:34,560
Slow it first, back and forth, then it started jiggling and moving faster, while something

330
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,640
was pulling and pushing on the door.

331
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:43,800
Now this is where I will always say, "Rae has got some really big balls.

332
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,640
I mean huge."

333
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:48,080
"Rae cracked a flare."

334
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,600
Red fire exploded in his hand, filling the trailer with a savage crimson light and thick

335
00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,760
chemical smoke.

336
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,680
Rae stepped up to the door window and held it up.

337
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:03,400
I saw part of the bigfoot's face and the red light outside.

338
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:06,760
Only part of its face fit in the window.

339
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:12,880
One eye, a big brow, and I caught the nose and just the top edge of the mouth.

340
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:17,520
I saw it for a split second, then it backed away from the door.

341
00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:22,920
I all know about Rae, but I was pretty shook up, no lie.

342
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:27,480
Rae edged to the window that had been pushed in a few moments before and tossed the flare

343
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:29,840
outside.

344
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:30,840
We waited.

345
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:33,400
There was nothing but silence.

346
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,280
This went on for maybe twenty minutes.

347
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:42,040
Our window of light with the generators was getting shorter and we both knew it.

348
00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:47,560
Rae went to the window and looked out, then to the door, then to the skinny windows at each

349
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:48,880
end of the trailer.

350
00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,640
"I don't see it," he said.

351
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,680
But neither of us trusted that it wasn't right out there.

352
00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,840
I looked out everywhere, but I couldn't see it either.

353
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,920
"I say we just go," Rae said.

354
00:23:03,920 --> 00:23:07,760
We looked at each other, and I nodded in agreement.

355
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:11,800
I lit flares for both of us as Rae tried to open the door.

356
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,160
But I say try and it took a bit of heaving.

357
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:19,040
It was now pretty warped in the frame, and the lock was now misaligned.

358
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,160
It took some effort, but we got it open.

359
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:26,640
I gave Rae a flare, and with the last look we both took off running out of the trailer.

360
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:32,800
All I could think of was, "Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall, don't skit on the gravel,

361
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,240
stay upright, stay focused on the truck."

362
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:41,800
Fifty or sixty feet really isn't far, but I will tell you, it might as well have been

363
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,880
a couple miles away.

364
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:46,160
That's what it felt like.

365
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:52,600
Both of our trucks flashed as we hit our key fobs, and then my heart hit the gravel,

366
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,280
because I heard gravel behind me crunching.

367
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:58,480
It was coming right after us.

368
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,240
I turned and threw my road flare.

369
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:06,440
For just half a second, I saw the big foot lit up by the red light as it went backwards,

370
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,840
and smacked the big foot right in the chest.

371
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,000
The flare bounced off and fell to the ground.

372
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,760
I kept running, and I'm going to tell you something else truthful.

373
00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:23,480
I haven't peed myself since I was a tiny kid, but I just about did when I turned, and

374
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:27,560
saw just how close that big foot was.

375
00:24:27,560 --> 00:24:30,220
Rays truck was closer than mine.

376
00:24:30,220 --> 00:24:35,120
He threw his flare, and he got his door open, and was inside the truck while I was going

377
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:40,480
around the back trying to slide in between the two to get into mine.

378
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:45,480
I was opening my door when two things happened at once.

379
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:51,040
Rays truck started up, and his whole truck slid sideways then on the gravel, almost pinning

380
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,320
me to my truck.

381
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,160
But thankfully I had just gotten in.

382
00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,600
I fired up my truck, and was trying to put it in reverse.

383
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:05,680
When I saw Rays was trying to do the same, the problem was that the big foot had now pushed

384
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,920
Rays truck sideways right onto mine.

385
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:15,800
I laid on my truck horn and so did Rays, and I tell you the big foot did not like that.

386
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:20,920
He laid off Rays truck just enough so we could back up and floor it out of there.

387
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:26,400
I was in the lead, and Rays told me later he saw gravel pepper that big foot when he peeled

388
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,000
out of there.

389
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,980
Must have hurt bad, he said, because the big foot held up his arms, was turning away, and

390
00:25:32,980 --> 00:25:35,240
he made a horrible screaming sound.

391
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:39,440
Now that made sense, because I heard that scream as we drove away.

392
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:44,760
I didn't know till later that it wasn't from frustration at losing us, but at getting

393
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:49,120
a face and body full of gravel spray.

394
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:52,760
Our contractor had booked us all in at the same motel.

395
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:54,360
Let me tell you.

396
00:25:54,360 --> 00:25:57,440
We were both shook up when we got there.

397
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:02,120
There were a few of the guys doing their own little bit of tailgating we'll call it when

398
00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:03,960
we pulled up.

399
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,400
I had already decided I wasn't going to say anything, at least not that night, and I was

400
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,160
pretty sure Rays was of the same mind.

401
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:13,680
I just wanted to go to my room.

402
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:18,280
But then one of those guys piped up and made some wise cracks about how lazy we are and

403
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:22,360
how long it took, and it's a good thing the rain had held off.

404
00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:25,800
Well, a few more jokes followed.

405
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:31,160
Rays wheeled back on those guys, the one in particular, and he dragged him out of that truck

406
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:32,920
and told him what's what.

407
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:38,600
Now the thing is, if I had done that, those guys would have bombed me with jokes and they

408
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,480
would have bullied me forever.

409
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:45,840
But not Rays, because Rays is another story.

410
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:52,000
Every crew of guys has that one old salty guy that's part rot wiler and part pit bull.

411
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,280
He's the one you don't mess with.

412
00:26:54,280 --> 00:27:00,800
And what he says goes, even if he isn't the boss, that was Rays.

413
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:05,840
Rays had serious, let's call it, street cred on our crew and several others we've worked

414
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:07,000
on.

415
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:12,920
So when Rays said what happened, I'm not going to say they believed us, but they believed

416
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,880
him a lot more than they ever would have believed me.

417
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:22,800
Groups of men really do run on higher arches, and I don't care what the pay slips around

418
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:29,640
there said, everyone's position might have been this or that, but Rays was top dog.

419
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:34,880
But I don't think anyone really believed anything until the next morning when they saw

420
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:40,280
the warp door and all the other things just as we had described.

421
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:45,400
This was nowhere to be had, of course, nothing concrete, nothing identifiable as a print

422
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,120
in the gravel.

423
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:52,960
But most of the dirt all around had been compacted too hard for prints there too.

424
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:57,840
And for all the big talk from some of those guys, not a single one of them was wanting

425
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:04,080
to go up into the timbers to look for prints or anything else that might be up there.

426
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:07,240
Me and Rays took our time getting there that morning.

427
00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,400
We didn't want to show up there as the first ones for a lot of reasons.

428
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:17,400
Yeah, truth be told, there was a lot of fallout from that, but it doesn't matter.

429
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:20,440
We both still have our jobs.

430
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,080
What last thing?

431
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,720
Rays truck had some huge dents on the driver's side where the big foot had been pushing and

432
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:28,480
ramming his truck.

433
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:33,240
Luckily, a body guy was able to pop most of them right out.

434
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:36,520
You'd have trouble finding those spots now.

435
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,080
Anyway, just call me Stu.

436
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:43,120
Or better yet, call me Rays' good friend.

437
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,880
You've been listening to the Buckeye Bigfoot podcast.

438
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:50,440
Find more stories, hundreds more, over on our YouTube channel.

439
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,280
Just look for Buckeye Bigfoot.

440
00:28:52,280 --> 00:29:11,060
Thanks for watching.