Hunting Season - A Halloween tale

As many of you may know hunting season starts, at least for bows, in October in Wisconsin. There are gun hunts for deer that are eating up the farmer crops, but the real gun season is in November. People put out small amounts of corn, apples, and mineral or salt blocks for the deer, and they set up game cameras to see how many are in the area where they plan to hunt. I am one who sets up a camera. And if one is going to set up a ground blind, which essentially is just a tent with a printed camouflage design, it needs to be done about the same time as the game camera so the deer get used to it being there. I, for one, have no use for tree stands or anything up in the air because I hate heights, so I have a large blind. I check the camera frequently to see how many, if any, deer are coming to my mineral block. It's my first year putting one out. The pictures are...let say, creepy sometimes for the infrared night shots. If you look in the picture below you'll see something between the trees just above the deer's ear. There literally is nothing there that should account for that. NOTHING! It gave me the idea for "Hunting Season". Be prepared. It IS Halloween season too after all. Seriously, I may have a hard time going out there before daylight now. Just sayin'.

 

Hunting Season

“Lucas! Do you see that? Randall Slade asked his best friend. He had brought up the pictures from his game camera on his computer in his basement family room.

“Kind of blurry,” Lucas answered. “Maybe if you tell me what I’m looking for I’ll have a clue.”

“It’s a night shot. The infrared isn’t great on this cheap camera, but I can see something weird between the trees.” He pointed.

Lucas looked closer. “Well, it’s not a deer. Could be just the moon shining on a fern leaf. You do have your hunting camera set up in the swampy area of the back forty,” he said, referring the back forty acres of the Slade family farm.

“I made sure to mow all that out while it was still dry and I stomp everything down every time I go check the camera and the salt block. So, that’s not a plant. Besides, it was overcast last night and the moon was only a sliver. It didn’t stand a chance of shining into the woods there,” Randall explained.

“Hmm,” Lucas sighed. “I just don’t know what to tell you then. If there was power out there you could set up some extra lights for the camera. Those daytime shots are awesome. There’s deer all over the place. See if there are any other night shots.”

Randall clicked for the next few. “There are a couple, but they’re running! See how they are in the shots in different locations and heads are up looking around. Something has them alerted.”

“Yeah, but there could be a coyote out there too. You might not ever catch one of those on the camera if it sets it off. They are tall enough to set off the motion sensor but too short to get caught in the shot,” Lucas told him. “That might be why the pictures aren’t showing anything other than the woods.”

“Maybe,” Randall said, “But if it looks like that on the SD card tomorrow, I think we need to take a little overnight camping trip out there to see what’s going on. The blind has been set up for a couple weeks now and they are used to it, so as long as we’re quiet we shouldn’t scare them off too much.”

“As long as you don’t fall asleep!” Lucas said laughing. “You snore loud enough to scare a bear."

“The idea is to stay awake, genius.” Randall said. He stood up and grabbed a can of soda out of the mini-fridge. He handed one to Lucas and popped the top before taking a big gulp. He belched.

“Maybe we ought to pack water. We don’t any of that going on when we’re doing recon,” Lucas suggested.

“I might be nothing, like you said, but I want to check the camera again just be sure before we go out there,” Randall said. “An overnight trip might run all the deer off if we leave too much scent around.”

“Well, I’ll check with my dad, but I’m sure it will be fine to go. Tomorrow is Saturday, so we won’t be missing any school or anything.” Lucas told him. “I’d better get going before my mom calls because I’m late to supper…again.”

“Okay,” Randall said, “I have to get to the chores too or dad will skin me! I’ll call you in the morning after I get the cards switched out.”

The next morning Randall called Lucas. He was still in bed. “How do you think you’re going to get up to go hunting if you can’t even get out of bed before eight in the morning? We have to be out around six before the sun comes up to get set up!”

“Randall? Is that you?” Lucas said, still groggy from sleep.

“Yes! I told you I was going to call when I got the cards switched out. I’ve already helped with morning chores and had breakfast, and I still got out there and got the card.”

“You took the four-wheeler. That doesn’t take long, so it doesn’t count,” Lucas complained.

“Well, get your butt over here. I want to look at this card,” Randall insisted.

“Sure. I’ll grab a Pop Tart or something and be there quick as I can.”

Randall stared at the pictures. His eyes were wide with disbelief. “What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know man. That was creepy. One minute the deer was licking that salt block and the next it was on the ground and then it was just gone. The time stamp had it under two minutes,” Lucas said. His face was white. “Dead of night except for the odd shining, or glowing dots, or whatever it was. I really wish you had a better camera.”

“You still want to go?” Randall asked apprehensively.

“Yeah, but we’re taking guns, and our phones just in case,” Lucas said.

“It’s not gun season yet. It’s not legal. And the cell reception is spotty.”

“I don’t care! I’m not going without a gun in case there is something out there trying to get us. If there’s no reception, at least I can record it. I have one of those phone that records perfectly even in the dark,” Lucas bragged.

“Of course you do. I say about five o’clock we go out. It’s not dark yet so we can find our way into the woods. We’ll take the four-wheeler in case we have to clear out fast, but it won’t be too close, so if I say run you’d better act like your feet are on fire,” Randall told him. “The trail is mowed off but there are still a few stubs from brush so pay attention going in to where they are.”

“Alright. I’m going to go gear up and show my dad on the map where we’ll be in case he needs to find us and the phones don’t work.”

“Good idea! I’ll let dad know too. Mom will just freak out. They know we might go out there, but they don’t know why. If I take a gun, dad definitely needs to know why,” Randall said.

The boys lit out at five. The sun was setting pretty far by the time they got to the hunting blind and it was harder to see than they anticipated. Using flashlights they set up camp inside the blind, lowering the zippered windows only partially so they could see out through small sections rather than opening the window fully so as not to scare the deer themselves. They sat quietly for several hours communicating only through whispers or hand signals used by flashlight under a blanket.

Around ten they started hearing noises. Peering out through their peep holes, they watched deer wander past as the game camera’s motion sensor flashed for the photo. After about a half an hour they saw the strange glow. There were two about the same level at all times, but moving. The game camera flashed and Lucas gasped, covering his mouth. The eyes moved and the camera flashed. There was the sound of a low growl.

Lucas slowly put his phone into position to record as Randall got a gun ready. As the game camera flashed the boys could see it was some sort of creature. Randall quickly typed an SOS on his phone with another word and sent the text to his dad. As it got closer their hearts beat hard enough they were sure one another could hear it and if they could the creature could surely hear them.

Suddenly Randall’s phone chimed as his father sent a reply that he was on his way. His eyes grew wide as the creature turned their direction. It only took what seemed like a second for it to reach their blind.

“Run!” Randall whispered, nearly falling over Lucas on the way to the door they had left unzipped in case they needed a quick exit. He looked long enough to see Lucas right on his heels.

The creature growled more fiercely as it ripped the blind apart, collapsing it in its wake. It was after the boys once it tore through the thin nylon as they ran for their lives.

Mike Slade called William Tucker, Lucas’s father, on his way to the camp. He told him to bring a gun and meet him there. It only took ten minutes for them to meet up as William Tucker was as familiar with the hunting area as boys were since he and Mike were friends as well. They found no signs of the boys at the four-wheeler so they went on down to the campsite with bright lanterns. The tent was tattered and they found a shredded hiking boot that had been Randall’s.

After calling for twenty minutes they decided they needed to get the sheriff’s department involved and possibly the DNR. They called their wives and told them to hold up at Mike’s house and wait for the sheriff’s deputies to arrive to give them directions, but whatever they did, stay at the house and stay inside except to give the directions.

Deputies arrived and a DNR game warden. Everyone used high powered search lights to search for the boys and then radioed for search dogs. Some drag marks were found but they just as quickly disappeared. Photographs were taken of the campsite and the destroyed blind. The SD card was removed from the game camera.

At daylight the dogs were turned loose and they hit a scent right away. First Randall’s phone was found and then a short while later Lucas’s phone was found. There was blood on them both and more drag marks. They searched all day and found no further sign of the boys. The dogs had lost the trail.

Finally the sheriff’s deputy asked if he could use Randall’s computer to read the SD card since he didn’t have an adapter handy to use the one in his SUV. The pictures were benign at first with a few deer and the boys and more deer. Then the shots started with the glowing dots that kept moving around and then it looked in the direction of the blind and then it moved fast in its direction. A few minutes later it showed the boys being dragged off into the woods by the creature, Randall without his boot. They looked to be already dead.

Tears ran down the parents’ faces and the deputy and game warden stared blankly at the screen in disbelief.

William Tucker finally asked to see his son’s phone. He was sure his son had taken footage because he was always recording something. They gave it to him and he pressed the button on the side and swiped at the screen, tapping on the app for the photo gallery. It showed he had indeed recorded several minutes of footage. He wept openly as the sound of their scared boys whispering to one another not to breathe so loud so it wouldn’t hear them.

“Dad, if you ever get this,” Lucas whispered. “I don’t know how we’ll get out of this. Randall is loading a gun but I don’t think there is time to get it. It looks like a hodag. I know they aren’t supposed to exist, but it is here.” Suddenly Randall told him to shut the hell up before it heard them. There was the sound of Randall’s phone chiming and a panicked, ‘oh no,” whispered low by Randall.

The creature growled and turned toward the boys. Its full ugly and horrifying features were caught as with lightning speed it moved up on the blind and was reaching for it when the sound of Randall saying to run could be heard and the camera turned catching their fumbling escape from the blind. It recorded the boys running pointing at the ground up until Lucas was pulled to the ground, screaming and seconds later Randall screaming as he too was brought down.

“I didn’t really believe him when he said it was a hodag!” Mike Slade said. “I believed they were in trouble but I thought maybe it was just a bear,” he said, crying into his wife’s hair.

Everyone was horrified. The footage was uploaded to the deputy’s computer for a copy of the evidence of what had happened to the boys. No traces of them existed outside of the few that led them to the phones. They simply vanished.

No one hunts those woods anymore. No deer are seen in the vicinity. Occasionally helicopters fly over with sharp shooters in search of the evasive creature. No one dares to go on foot.

Everyone in Wisconsin knows hodags are just myth made up in the eighteen hundreds as a hoax. They don’t really exist. OR DO THEY???  

I uploaded a picture someone drew of the hodag from Instagram. Looks creepy enough to me!