The Changelings

They first appeared after an avalanche at Mt. Credence. It’s believed that they were somehow trapped under the snow on the mountains and the avalanche uncovered them. They were first spotted by a park ranger on of the trails that many hikers frequented. During this time of year, there weren’t many park visitors because of how cold it gets near the mountain and likelihood of getting lost increased.

The ranger thought that it was some animal that he’d never seen before. Knowing that he shouldn’t engage animals that he wasn’t familiar with, he radioed into base letting them know that he’d spotted a heard and to send someone from Animal Wildlife to his location.

Once Animal Wildlife got to the ranger’s truck, he was gone. It was as if he’d vanished completely. The ranger’s truck had a dashcam that was still recording so they reviewed the footage. It revealed that 10 huge animal-like creatures stood at the beginning of the trail while the ranger stared at them. As he took a step back toward his vehicle, they began taking steps forward. As he took more steps back, while still facing the animals, they kept slowly moving toward him. The ranger turned around to make a run for the truck and the animals pounced on him. They didn’t immediately begin ripping him into pieces. Instead, it looked as if they were absorbing his body into theirs.

After viewing the footage, the wildlife rangers let base camp know that they needed to get the Secretary of Defense on the line as this appeared to be something that was out of their hands. While on the way back to base camp, the wildlife rangers happened upon the animal-like creatures. Although they didn’t look as animal-like as they had on the video. They stood in the middle of the road, almost like they were waiting for the rangers. They appeared to have more human-esque features. Their eyes were more alert as if they were observing the rangers. As if they knew something that the rangers didn’t. They also looked slightly smaller than they had on the video that they had just reviewed.

The wildlife rangers stopped their truck half a mile away from the creatures. While trying to go back the way that they came, looking out of the rearview mirror, the driver saw two more creatures behind them. They were boxed in. The rangers had flares, mountain lion deterrent spray and tranquilizer guns as weapons. They decided that this is what they would have to use to injure the animals long enough that they would be able to get around them.

The plan was to set off two flare guns, in opposite directions to cause a distraction, use the mountain line deterrent to blind them and then shoot them with all the tranquilizer that they had. The only problem was the distance. They would have to coax the creatures toward the truck on both sides or they would have to leave the truck all together to get closer to them so that they would have a better shot at hitting them with the tranq. The rangers all agreed that it would be best if they were able to stay in the truck so as soon as they were knocked out, they could get back to base camp as quick as possible.

The rangers let base camp know what their plan was and switched their dash and bodycams to live record so that they would be able to monitor what was happening from the main station. To coax the animals closer to the truck, they threw out raw meat that they kept in a cooler for certain wildlife rescue trainings that they did. As the animals began moving closer toward the meat, they never took their eyes off the rangers. It’s as if they sensed this was a trap.

Once the animals were in shooting range, two of the rangers set off flares. This seemed to scare the animals for a brief second, as they flinched and turned their heads toward the sky. While they were distracted, the rangers began shooting. To their surprise, the darts simply bounced off their skin. It was almost like they didn’t feel them at all because their concentration on the light from the flares was never broken until they were out of sight. Or so the rangers thought. While the animals never took their eyes off the flares, their ears were focused on what the rangers were doing.

When the flares were out of sight, the arms of the animals extended toward the rangers, and they snatched each one from the truck. While fighting to get away from the animals, they tried spraying the lion deterrent in their eyes and near their nose. The spray didn’t seem to faze the creatures at all. The more the rangers fought to free themselves from their grip, the more their bodies began to meld into one with the creatures. The body cams that they wore fell from the animals as the rangers were absorbed.

At base camp, the national guard had arrived and were making plans on how they would capture and kill these creatures. They had never encountered anything like this, and they weren’t sure of what tactics to take to ensure they would be able to take them down. Their plan was to go to the last spot that the rangers cell location pinged and perform a search and capture there.

While the national guard was on the hunt for the animals, my brother and I were camping near our family cabin with our friends for Christmas. This was our annual tradition and my brother planned on proposing to his girlfriend on this trip. Our cabin was about two miles away from the wildlife base camp and we’d heard chatter on the radio telling campers and anyone in the area to leave as quickly as possible as there was an unknown animal threat in the area. We discussed leaving and the odds of us being in the path of the animals. We wanted to make the most of our trip and besides, most of our activities would be inside because there was a layer of snow that had recently fell and there was snow in the forecast for the next few days.

We ultimately decided that we would stay until morning before leaving because the roads would be tricky to drive at night. While preparing dinner, we heard heavy footfall and grunting. Because we were familiar with this area, we assumed that it was a bear. The protocol for bears near the cabin was to remain quiet and to block the doors and windows so that it didn’t try to get in. As we began blocking the doors, we began hearing footsteps on the roof of the cabin.

This was odd, but not uncommon because bears are able to climb and with the ice fridge being butted up against the house, they could have easily climbed on it and gotten on the roof. I peaked out of the window that I was covering and noticed that there was more than one bear outside. But I also noticed that it wasn’t really a bear that I was looking at. It favored a bear in size, but it had human characteristics as well. There was no fur or hair on the creatures, and they didn’t have long claws but human hands.

As if under a spell, I couldn’t take my eyes off the creatures, and I almost felt connected to them. I had the urge to yell out, but I knew that if I did this, I would put myself, my brother, and our friends in danger. I rounded everyone up and let them know that what we heard outside wasn’t bears and that I thought that it was the animals that the wildlife base camp had warned radio listeners about. I described what they looked like and told them the feeling that I got when looking at them.

In our family cabin, there was an underground passage that connected to another cabin a few miles south. There was an old truck at this cabin that we could use to get to the clearing and across the pond. We decided that this would hide in the passage if the animals tried to get into the cabin, but we hoped that they would sniff around a little while longer then leave. My brother and I packed small backpacks with water, food (protein bars, packaged tuna, crackers, chips, and beef jerky) matches, flashlights and our grandfather’s handgun that he kept in the cabin’s safe. We also made a first aid bag if someone was hurt.

While we sat in the living room waiting for the animals to leave, the doorknob to the front door began to turn. Frozen with fear, we all watch as the knob turned back and forth. The footsteps on the roof stopped and we heard a huge crash as the roof in the back bedroom caved in. The crash snapped us back to reality and we scrambled to get to the hole in the floor that led to the underground passage.

I was the last to enter the passage and just as I was about to close the entrance, a hand grabbed my arm. I fought with the creature trying to pull away. While it gripped my arm, it began speaking to me telepathically. It said “We are the Changelings, and we are plenty. Once we’ve absorbed the right hosts, we’ll move on to form others like us. No one has stopped us, and no one ever will. We will let you go only to hunt you as it’s the thrill of the chase that we long for”. After that it let go of my arm and allowed me to close the entrance to the passage.

Once in the passage, I told everyone what it said as we continued walking while looking over our shoulders. Based on what the Changeling had said, we knew that they were going to hunt us. How long this cat and mouse game would last, we had no idea. Anderson estimated that it would take us two hours to get through the passage and to the next cabin. By the time we made it to the cabin it would be nightfall and the snow that was in the forecast had probably already began falling.

The cabin was a wreck when we entered. The Changelings had been there. They destroyed the truck as well. After our break we decided to go ahead and head for the pond to try and cross it before complete darkness took over.

As we made our way across the clearing, the Changelings were following closely behind. They appeared even more human-like. They had encountered the national guards while looking for us. A few were even wearing the army fatigues of the absorbed soldiers. Once we made it to the frozen pond, Emryn took the first step to make sure the pond was frozen solid. On the edges, it was slightly thinner, but we knew that it would be thicker once we moved closer to the center. While crossing the pond, the Changeling that had grabbed my arm, sent a smaller one to cross the pond behind us. The fear that I had earlier seemed to disappear the further we got across the pond. As the smaller Changeling drew closer to me, I turn around and stared it in the eyes. It smiled and kept approaching. Something inside me kept saying “Scream” and I did just that. I screamed, a gut curdling scream that made the snow on the banks tremble and stopped the Changeling in her tracks. The Changeling that spoke to me raised an eyebrow and smiled. The other Changelings looked apprehensive. We crossed the pond and went off into the clearing leaving the Changelings on the other side of the bank to wondering what had just happened.