The Chase

Late summer happens to be one of my favorite times of the year. The reason being that the temperature starts to drop a little and that makes a big difference when living in the southern United States. My favorite part of that season is when the mosquitos start to disappear, hate the bites. Feels like that if they're allowed, they'll drain you dry of all your vital fluids.

This story takes place in the part of the south between Mississippi and Arkansas on a back road that runs from the main highway into small rural towns that pepper the landscape. Oh, and I forgot to let you know that this is my account of what happened, a very true story, unfortunately.

A while ago, I was in the Navy and worked at the Naval Air Station hospital in Millington Tennessee as a hospital corpsman. On a weekend I had off from work, I was asked by a friend of mine to pick him up from his family's home in backcountry Arkansas and bring him back to his home in Mississippi. Quite often, when not living on the base in barracks, sailors and marines would rent a house or apartment somewhere far enough away from the base but not too expensive. Sometimes that meant moving near the border of a neighboring state.

My friend and I worked together for over a year and knew each other pretty well. Therefore, I didn't mind driving a couple of hours to pick him up. It was always an interesting drive even if it was in the middle of the night. What the hell else did I have to do in my life where work was everything? I worked primarily overnight in the hospital, so I was definitely up and with no girlfriend at the time, I needed to get away from late-night TV and video games. I always enjoyed driving, especially at night. The freedom was intoxicating. I could also easily pick up food and some sort of coffee drink as long as it wasn't too late for the gas station and convenience store to be open.

After picking up my late-night ensemble of disgusting, health-endangering items from the store, typically including an overcooked hot dog, salty chips, and a candy bar with a pre-bottled Starbucks vanilla or cocoa frappe, I hit the road using the directions Dave gave me so I'd find his folk's place in Arkansas.

With my love of the late night air and the freedom of the drive, I of course lowered my old, crank-style windows to take advantage of the cooler night air. Sometimes there are too many bugs on a clear night that could enter the car and really screw up my peaceful, and serene drive, but not this night. Everything was good and clear with an almost full moon and partly cloudy sky. This made a visible, silvery shimmer on most everything under the night sky, including the trees.

About three-quarters of the way on my happy trip, listening to Jimmy Buffet sing Margaritaville, I came to a precarious-looking ninety-degree bend in the road. No street lamps and the turn was littered with branch debris from the trees situated at the bend. Luckily I could see the turn thanks to the light of the moon.

While turning to the left, because there was no other way to go, I noticed what I thought was a rather odd-looking short tree that had some ominous-looking branches just behind the road barrier and just in front of the dark forest that sat just beyond the barrier. I thought it strange but kept driving. I thought to myself that I'm sure that tree wouldn't look so scary in the daylight. As I passed the tree and that bend, I thought I caught a movement of something big in my peripheral vision just after I passed the bend. Thinking that it could be a deer, I checked my side mirror and felt a cold chill down my spine. It looked like that ugly tree was moving just a little distance behind my car. I felt an overwhelming urge to turn my head and get a clearer view. What I saw made me panic a bit and I stepped on the gas to speed up. I looked back again and saw that whatever it was began to speed up while it was following me. I looked back a third time and saw what looked like a very tall dog with long arms and hanging claws instead of front legs with paws. Oh yeah, it was running completely on its hind legs. My mind kept racing to define what I saw and fear kept me trying to escape whatever it was. I couldn't get away from what I saw were glistening red eyes. I sped up more because despite being in my car, it was gaining on me.

I looked in the glove box and on the seat while darting my eyes back and forth between the rearview mirror and the dark road in front of me. The last thing I would need would be to crash into something and then whatever the damn thing was would surely catch me. Whatever it was looked incredibly dangerous and I'm sure, ravenous. I sped up more, only to have my old car sputter and hesitate. Hell, put too much gas down and the carburetor choked a sec. Scared the life out of me so I let up a bit and then gradually pressed on the gas. Finally, I was speeding up and I could still see the thing catching up with me. Suddenly the car picked up momentum and I started to outrun the beast. When I looked back through the side and rearview mirrors, I could no longer see it. Keeping my speed, I scanned the road ahead again and then took a quick look behind me by turning my head. Holy crap! It was still pursuing my car but it had reverted to running on all fours. Then I concentrated on speeding up to my max to get away from it. After about two miles, I looked back again but could no longer see it. Ii had finally escaped the monster.

Upon arriving at my friend's family's home I was visibly nervous and a bit paranoid. I couldn't help but to check in every spot, including under the car. Because my friend's place was in the country, it was quiet, dark, and now very spooky. I saw the monster in every shadow, bent tree, and dark spot around the house. Couldn't help but want to get inside as soon as possible, as if that rickety door would save me or anyone else from some sort of claws or teeth.

After climbing the wide wooden, creaking, single plank steps onto the front porch I approached the door to knock. Before I could my friend opened the door saying "You sure got here fast, what did you do? convince your car she could fly?" I gave a nervous laugh and pushed past him and pulled the door behind me. He then said, "What's up, you look spooked?" I asked him if we could sit a bit before going and he of course said, "Sure bro, whatever you need."

I sat down heavily into the living room couch. I had been sweating and had to wipe my face. Because my friend looked at me so strangely I felt that he wanted to hear what happened. So I explained to him in the best way I could, admitting the improbability of such an occurrence. He said that it must have been a wolf or a coywolf, helping to apply some sort of rationality to the occurrence. He further explained that since it might have been a coy-wolf, the result of coyotes and wolves mating in the odd situation where wolves didn't hunt the coyotes in the area, that might explain the odd appearance. He did tell me that he hadn't heard of anything like that before, except in the movies.

I asked for some water but he was moving way too slow for me and my thirst was now winning over after I spent the last couple of hours breathing in and out of my mouth, more than likely as if I were a prey animal running full speed from a predator, which I feel was the actual case. I got up sharply and headed to the kitchen sink and grabbed one of the drying glasses in the dish bin. As I did so, I was able to look over the sink and into the yard peering through the large picture window above the sink.

Holy SHIT, I whispered to myself. Across the empty one-lane road next to the trailer and into the open farm field, save one bush, on the other side of the road, I see a set of red eyes that appeared to be looking straight at me. I had an overwhelming urge to pee. I flashed back to the time in the car, just a couple of hours ago when I saw those same red eyes in my side-view mirror as the thing chased my car. How the hell could it have tracked me all the way here, could I just be imagining this? I scanned the road to make sure I wasn't just seeing the reflection of brake lights from another car or some other plausible explanation but saw nothing.

I looked back quickly and it couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds, but the eyes were gone. Some deep down part of me was somewhat relieved in that it might have been my imagination. Of course, the feeling of relief would not last.

I heard a wood-breaking snap coming from the other room, sounding like a pressurized pop of a brace breaking under pressure. I dropped my glass and ran clumsily toward the other room where I left my friend, only to find him not there and the door partly open with the knob and deadbolt looking like they were ripped from the frame. My heart sank and my fear welled up inside of me like when you can no longer swallow down your vomit before it explodes to the floor or toilet if you're lucky.

All I could think of now was how to get the hell out of there but first, I needed David's gun if I had any hope of surviving this thing.