Down Under

Down Under

By

Jamey O’Donnell

The shot Jackson took at the creature cracked the sky, and the reverberation could be heard for miles away, and was definitely heard by his 3 compadres scattered about throughout the lower rim of the forest.

Not knowing for sure if he hit or missed his target, he walked toward the general area of his intent with great trepidation, calling out for any of his team nearby.

They were not looking to capture a living sasquatch, but only wanted proof of its existence, and where better to find this proof than in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State.

In order to settle the age-old question of the existence of Bigfoot, definitive proof had to be provided, especially after years upon years of speculation with little to no evidence thus far.

Jackson thought for sure he had one in his sights, a big male, but wouldn’t know for sure until he got to the killing floor of his spot, but thought it prudent to wait for at least one of his team to join him before going any further.

“Jackson, this is Tom. Was that you who took a shot?” came a voice over the walkie talkie.

“10-4. That was me. I’m up on the north ridge by a big cluster of boulders. I’ll fire a flare up so you can locate me” Jackson responded.

Jackson shot his flare gun directly overhead, giving anyone close by his exact location.

He sat there and waited for two of his team to join him, as they both said they were close by.

After about 15 minutes, Jackson was joined by Randy Shaw, then Tom Whitton shortly thereafter.

“It was a big one and I saw him plain as day. I don’t know if I hit him or not, but he disappeared behind those big boulders up there, and I wanted to wait for you guys before going up there to look” said Jackson.

“Good thinking. Let’s go see” said Tom.

The three men walked silently up the mountain toward the boulder field just up above them, rifles at the ready. This was nothing more than a hunting expedition, and their main objective was to get evidence, the life of their prey be damned.

As soon as they arrived to the supposed kill site, they looked around and could see no evidence of a hit, as there was no blood anywhere to be found.

“You’re sure this is where you think you hit him?” asked Randy.

“Dead sure.” replied Jackson.

The three men sat down, refueling themselves with jerky and water, and talked about what else they had seen that morning, which wasn’t much to relate.

Then Randy saw something curious, which didn’t add up to him.

“You guys notice that there are no other trees up here in this spot, correct? So, tell me how those dead trees at the base of this boulder got here?” he asked.

None of them had a good explanation for his question. Upon further inspection, the trees were laid there, and couldn’t have grown in that spot because there just wasn’t enough earth between the boulders to support them.

What they did find was half a footprint in the little dirt they could find, and it wasn’t human by the looks of it.

The three men were now surrounding the tree pile laid out at the base of the boulder, poking and looking for any sign of entry beneath it, when it was Tom that first saw something askew.

“Look at this.” he said, pointing to a slight opening next to a large branch leaning on the side of one of the gargantuan boulders. He then took his flashlight out and shined inside the small opening.

“It looks like there’s empty space back there. Here, you take a look Jackson.” He said.

Sure enough, it did look like there was a large space underneath the branch, but to be sure, they would have to move the heavy tree branch off of where it was sitting. It took all three men to move the branch, but when they did, they were amazed to find a cavernous opening to something looking more like an entrance than anything else.

“Is it possible you missed this thing, and it went down inside of this hole, and then covered it back up with these branches?” asked Tom.

“Anything’s possible, right? The question is, who’s for going in there to find out?” asked Randy.

"All of us" said Tom “We need to get Kellen up here to join us, wherever he is”.

They tried for the next ten minutes to get Kellen on the walkie talkie, then finally reached him.

“Kellen, what’s your 10-20?” asked Jackson.

“I’m about 100 yards from the monastery rock, just off of the firebreak on the west side of where we started. Fire up a flare so I can see where you are.”

Randy fired his flare gun into the sky above them.

“Ok, I think I’m about 45 minutes away from you. I’ll start heading toward you now.” replied Kellen.

The three men took off their packs and dug in to get comfortable while they waited for Kellen’s arrival. All of them were nervous about what they might find in this entrance to God knows where, but this is what they signed up for, and nothing was going to keep them from exploring this new lead presented to them.

It took Kellen closer to an hour to get to the other three, but when he did, he needed to refuel himself as the other three had already done previously, and this is when they brought him up to speed about the gargantuan hole he had been looking at since his arrival.

Whatever happened from this point forward, the four men were going to experience it together, or none at all. All four agreed that they should go into the hole, so they checked their flashlights to make sure all were operational, and they began their journey, with Tom at the lead and Kellen bringing up the rear.

The first thing they noticed was the size of the first room they encountered, which was massive. It had to be at least the length of a football field in every direction with a ceiling at least 15 feet tall in it’s shortest elevation, and at the other side in the darkness, they could see an opening that led to somewhere else.

They also noticed a heavy musky odor, with the smell of wet hair and rotting flesh, an unusual combination for sure.

Once entering the opening on the other side of the cavernous room, they took notice that this did not seem to be constructed, but was instead a natural passageway. It was a good 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, big enough for a giant being to pass through. The further they went down this corridor, the stronger the smell of the rotting flesh, until they came upon a room to their right, which explained what they were smelling.

They had to be at least 100 feet below where they had started, but to their right was a gigantic, cavernous room, much bigger than the room they walked through upon their entrance, and what they saw in there sent fear and trepidation coursing through their veins, as if they had stumbled upon something not meant for their eyes, not ever.

This was a room for the sasquatch's dead.

There were rows and rows of dead sasquatch in various states of decay.

Some were nothing more than huge skeletons, where next to them were bodies that were rotting flesh, in various stages, and all were covered with tree branches that had obviously been drug down there from up above.

All four men were now questioning themselves as to the intelligence of their being down there, wondering how far down they would go before actually running into the live versions of what they were all looking at now.

All the evidence they needed was right here in this room. They could just as easily load up their packs with artifacts from this room, and this was discussed, but they decided they should press on, because they or anyone else may never get this chance again to actually see a living bigfoot. The question was, would they live to tell the tale.

Not all four were equally as enthusiastic about pressing on, with Kellen being the least eager among them.

He wasn't invested as much as the other four, doing this type of research for a lesser amount of time. He wanted to know if they were real for sure, but unlike the other three, he had not devoted the biggest portion of his life to answering the question of sasquatch’s existence.

He knew he wanted to live a full long life and wasn’t sure how willing he was prepared to go in his search for the truth, so he was playing it adventure to adventure, seeing where it all emptied out for him at the end of the day.

Now he was at the apex of his adventure scale and quite unsure how much more he was willing to invest, but for the time being, he was taking every step the other three were taking, and hoping for the best, not saying uncle just yet, nor ready to cut bait and run.

Tom had been joined by Jackson, leading the four men down the passageway, with flashlights illuminating their walk. Both men were silent, as were the other two, with all wondering what this would lead to, hoping that their lives were not short lived.

First Tom stopped, then Jackson.

Tom motioned for everyone to be super quiet, listening for something only Tom had heard thus far.

With the faintest of sound, they all could hear a resounding chatter in the distance, but could not make out a language. It sounded to be hundreds, if not thousands of voices in the distance, and then Tom asked everyone to turn off their flashlights, leaving them in stone pitch blackness.

After their eyes acclimated to the dark, they could see a very faint light coming from the passageway in front of them, in proportion to the voices they were hearing, which sounded more like a cacophonous din more than anything else.

Tom then turned his flashlight back on, instructing the others to do the same.

“We should keep these on until we can see a source of light where we don’t need them anymore.” said Tom, and everyone agreed as they turned their flashlights back on.

Kellen had turned to look behind him, then turned his flashlight around that shined on a hideous figure following them quietly in the dark, about 30 feet back, not making a sound. It was a very large bigfoot that had been tracking them from the very beginning of their descent.

Kellen was so frightened by what he saw, he couldn't speak and was barely able to grab the shirt of Randy to take a look behind him, and when Randy did look back, Kellen shined the light back there and there was nothing to see this time, making Kellen look stupid, nervous, and scared.

Maybe it was the darkness, or the sheer terror of the moment, but now Kellen was beginning to question his sanity, wondering if he really did see what he thought he saw, or was his paranoia starting to run away with him.

Up ahead, they all started to see the passageway become brighter, so Tom instructed everyone to turn off their flashlights. The passageway was now illuminated enough for them to see where they were walking, but the point was moot now.

Before them appeared two very large sasquatch, approximately 8 foot tall, with one behind them, the one that Kellen had seen. As terrifying a sight as this was, the beasts did not seem threatening in the least, but instead calm and understanding, as if they knew the four men had no chance of hurting them, nor did they have any chance of making an escape.

Then something happened that made all four men drop their weapons.

One of the sasquatch's spoke.

“Come with us and do not be afraid. We will not bring harm to you, as long as you reciprocate in kind. Drop your weapons and leave them where you stand.” said one of the sasquatches in a very deep guttural tone.

The sasquatches then turned back from where they came, with the four men following suit, followed by the sasquatch bringing up the rear.

Once they turned a corner, the light became much more magnificent, and they could see off to their left side a room as far as the eye could see, with hundred-foot ceilings. Down below they could see thousands of sasquatch, in all shapes, hues, and sizes.

Some were darker, some lighter, some brown, and some blond. Some were full size creatures, where others were teenage like, and others were even babies and infants, and as the four men following the two sasquatches traversed the passageway, the group below could now see them come into view and were fascinated by the human beings, and an eerie silence took over from the hustle and bustle sounds of this underground civilization moments before.

Finally, they came out of the passageway into the main hall, and the four men were instructed to take a seat at a very long table up against the cavern wall, and as they sat down on a large bench seat made from a tree, they began to be surrounded by curious sasquatches, not getting close enough to be touched by them, but definitely close enough to be seen and smelled.

What the men also took notice of was their eyes. They didn’t seem to be like the eyes of a wild animal, but instead more human, with intellectual thought and feeling behind them, as if they could empathize with the fear and distrust the humans must be feeling, and understanding their unease and trepidation, and this helped to calm the men, especially Kellen, who was close to tears.

“So you have found us. Lucky you.” said the larger of the two sasquatch. “My name is Lukor.”

What was also amazing was they spoke English, perfect English, and their annunciation was incredible.

“You are not the first humans to come down here. There have been others. Your obsession with us has been a painful process for a very long time, and no matter how much we continue to avoid you, your people seem to press on in search of evidence of our existence. We are not only all over this continent, but all over the Earth. We have been here since before you, and we are of some of the same DNA.” Said Lukor.

“I don’t understand” said Tom. “Why are you hiding from us? We all want to know about you?”

“Yes, but to what end? What is it your government wants from us? To eradicate us off the face of the Earth? There are those among your race that see us as a threat, and they know of our existence, but choose not to seek us out because we remain in hiding, not posing a threat to them or mankind. What you are doing is pushing the envelope, so to speak, and creating a hazardous situation for our species.

Let me tell you who we are, and who you are.

We were created by the Anunnaki, a civilization that came here many hundreds of thousands of years ago. These were beings from another planet that wanted to colonize the earth, and to do this, they set out to make a slave race, combining their own DNA with the DNA of primitive man indigenous to Earth.

Our race of beings were the pre cursor to humans, except we were tall like the Anunnaki, possessed the same intellect as they, but we were intellectually inferior to them, more like the primitive man here before us.

We were eventually discarded and left to make our way here on Earth, while they went back to the drawing board and eventually created the human race, and unlike us, you were created as perfect human beings in their eyes, but you were abandoned as well by them. They were summoned back to where they came from, leaving you here to evolve the best way you could, but we comprised an immediate threat to mankind because we were so different than you, so instead of us joining together to make a perfect world, your fear led you to hunt us in the beginning, forcing us to go underground for our survival.

So, now the question is, what do we do with you?” asked Lukor.

The four men looked at each other for a moment, then Jackson turned to Lukor and asked “What would you have us do? If you allow us to go free, do you expect us to keep your secret? Why would you trust that we would do that? Why wouldn’t we come back here with an army of men to destroy you?”

“And what purpose would that serve?” asked Lukor.

“It would answer the questions about Bigfoot, or sasquatch, whatever you call yourselves. It would answer the questions millions of people around the world have about you.“ said Tom..

“And if our race were destroyed, how would that make you feel on a personal level? Would you feel any responsibility for that? Look around you. Look at us. Do we seem a threat to you?” asked Lukor.

That was the heart of the matter, and Lukor was hoping that these 4 men were like the other human beings he had encountered, who thought that was too big a price to pay for their discovery, and decided to instead spend the rest of their lives downplaying the existence of sasquatch in order to protect this benevolent and peaceful species, to protect them instead of reveal them to the world, where our government would seek to destroy them.

All four men sat at the table stunned and humbled by this magnificent creature before them, and could see in him the true nature of him and his species, a nature of peace and tranquility.

Tom spoke first.

"Our intent was to kill one of you. I, for one, cannot imagine doing something like that now. Before you were beasts to me, but all that has changed. I had no idea that you are the intelligent, loving, and peaceful creatures we can all see before us, not wishing any harm to anyone or anything, but instead wanting to be left alone to exist the best way you know how. I’d like to believe that our government, or any other of the world’s governments, would embrace you and want to learn from you, but knowing what I know about the ways of the world, your reticence of self-revelation is well deserved and prudent.

I think I speak for all of us when I tell you we have no intentions of revealing you to the world. What say you men?” asked Tom of the other three.

All men nodded in agreement and assured Lukor of the solemn promise not to expose the sasquatch to mankind.

Lukor sat silent for a moment after taking a seat on the bench next to Tom, and then he asked all the men to touch his gargantuan hand in the center of the table. One by one, the men placed their hands on top of Lukor’s, all touching him in some way.

One of the gifts the sasquatch had was to know what was in the hearts of those around them, and it was by this method that Lukor could know the truthfulness of the four men before him.

Lukor lifted his head and then smiled.

“You speak the truth, and for this we will let you return to your society. I believe you are all good men that want to do us no harm. You are free to go” said Lukor.

“I have a request of you” said Tom. “ Can we come back to visit you?”

After a long pause, Lukor replied.

“It would not be wise. Our people are very hesitant of human beings, and justly so. We can never let our guard down, not even with you. I hope you understand, but know you will be in our hearts” said Lukor as he stood up from the table, motioning the other two sasquatches to lead them out of the cavern and through the passageway, up to where they started.

“Goodbye Lukor. We will never forget you, and we all promise to keep our word to you” said Jackson.

And with that said, the men followed the other two sasquatch’s into the passageway and out of the grand chamber, and as they walked out of the chamber, they noticed a few of the sasquatch raise their hands to their visitors, as if they were saying goodbye for the first and last time, and the men understood what Lukor had said to them.

They could never return to this place again.