Chapter One: Letters
To: Maggie_
Subject: The Hunt is ON
Sent: June 12th, 2012
Mags,
Well I made it out to Montana in one piece. Knowing that you have probably been worrying non stop since I departed two days ago I decided the first thing I would do once I had internet again was send you this email. I know you think I'm crazy but he is out there. Bigfoot is out there and I am going to find him. I know I have said that a thousand times and you are probably rolling your eyes as this reaches you on your Blackberry. Doubt me if you will but I have an entire crew of people behind me and if he is anywhere within a hundred miles of my base camp in the Bitteroot National Forest. Right now I am in Missoula at an internet cafe. I will be leaving here and heading to my aforementioned base camp within the next week or so it all depends on when I can have all my gear here and ready. I am living out my childhood fantasy and finally all my research is paying off. It is so beautiful here Maggie I wish you could see it! So many trees and the sky is so big! This is so different from Arizona its almost unreal.
My guide knows what he is doing so no need to fear me getting eaten by a bear so something. I know you are wondering how a boy from the valley of the sun has an obsession with Bigfoot, a creature that lives in the great white north. I really can't explain it. After that story on the news a month ago about there being multiple sightings in Montana I just had to get out here and see for myself.
Since the last time I wrote you I have been doing some training and conditioning for my expedition. I am the star student in the local survival class but you really shouldn't be surprised because you know how I get when I set my mind to something. That's where I meet my guide and my crew. They are a local group of college students looking for something exciting to do so I talked them into coming with me and filming our experiences for their film class.
As I said before I am planning to leave for my base camp within a week so I will probably will be able to get one or two more emails out before I set off on my wild adventure. I love you Maggie and try not to worry to much about me. I will hopefully see you by then end of summer but you never know I might get eaten by a mountain lion and you will never hear from me again! I'm kidding of course but still. Alright I bet you have had enough of my mad ravings so I'm signing off now.
Bobby Walton, your brother.
To: Maggie_
Subject: Loneliness
Sent: June 21st 2012
Mags,
Well I bet you are shocked you are hearing from me right now. You thought I would be trekking through the woods with a camera crew in tow and raving like a lunatic about how "that mark on that tree could be a territory marker for Bigfoot". And that is exactly what I have been doing for the past three days. But one of my crew members had a run in with some poison ivy so we had to high tail it to the rangers' station that is about four miles from my base camp. And while he was being treated I asked if I could used their computer to send my dear sister an email.
As you may have guessed I am not really relating well to my comrades. As you know my love of all things Bigfoot and scifi can be a little hard to stomach at times for those who aren't true believers like myself. Truth be told Mags, I like these kids but I need someone who understands what its like to be completely invested in the hunt or something of a similar nature. I miss my online support group out here and I really wish they were out here with me instead of these amateur film students from the local community college. I need a friend Mags surely you of all people understand that. Although these kids don't make terrible conversationalists I want someone to be able to keep up wit me intellectually. I mean I am one of the top experts on Bigfoot in the nation and teach an online course they barely graduated high school and looking at careers in the food service industry. That is my one wish for this expedition besides the obvious, a friend to come and join me. That's all for now Mr. Poison Ivy has is ointment and is ready to rock again. I don't know if I will be able to get to write again unless something happens to one of my charges again. Love you Maggie and think of me with love if you are never to hear from me again if some sort of tragic incident were to take my life.
Bobby Walton, your annoyingly brilliant older brother
To: Maggie_
Subject: SURPRISE
Sent: July 25th 2012
Mags,
Well even I didn't think I would have the chance to write to you again. You will be relieved to know that I have sustained little bodily harm and no permanent damage since the last time that I wrote you. But I do have a very strange story that to tell you that I couldn't just keep to myself. And seeing as that you are the only person outside of my career that I talk to on a regular basis you get to hear it. Let me warn you right off that this story isn't one of my brilliant works of fiction, it is completely true. But for you to understand this story I have to give you a recap of the past couple days out here in the big sky state. Things have been down right weird. And I'm not talking my brand of strange. I'm talking like out of a book by Stephen King odd and somewhat frightening.
We were doing a routine grid sweep that we do everyday from nine in the morning until lunch. It was still a little foggy as the camera crew and I were making our way toward the first boundary marker and for the obvious reasons, we were having trouble seeing where we were heading even with flashlights and the camera lighting equipment. So we are stumbling though the thick underbrush when we heard some sticks breaking close to us. I reacted just the way the way you would expect and dragged the crew toward the sound. As we approached the thick blanket of leaves that carpets the floor were crunching as though something or someone extremely large were walking on them. I only caught a glimpse of the thing that was making the noise but let me tell you that was all I ever want to see. It towered over my six foot three inches at least a good two feet. It had long wild hair that went down to its shoulders and looked as though it had never cut or brushed it. While it walked on two legs it had a very animal like quality to it's movements and mannerisms. I honestly don't know how to define it and I am a registered expert on weird and the supernatural. No where in all of my studies of creatures that aren't suppose to exist have I ever come across something that comes close to what I saw that morning. To be completely honest it has me spooked and that is not an easy thing to do considering my field of expertise. But that is only the beginning of this tale.
Not even two hours after the brief encounter with "the Thing" (I didn't come up with the name but it is quite fitting for the situation.) We ran into something a little more human, a man trekking through the woods with nothing more than a small backpack. Now as you well know I am in the middle of nowhere literally. The closest building to me is a good four miles away from base camp and it is little more than a shack. The poor guy looked like he hadn't slept in days and was sickly pale and weak looking on top of it. One of the students yelled out to him and he collapsed on the spot. We ran over and he was breathing but very very shallowly. One of the guy s picked him up ( he couldn't have weighed more than a hundred ten pounds) and we rushed back to base camp where we at least had limited medical supplies.
We made it back to camp and he still hadn't come around. I was beginning to worry a little more now that he had been out for a good half hour. I sent one of the girls to get the first aid bin from the common tent and we began to try to get him to wake. We propped him up on one of the cots and I got some water thinking he may be dehydrated since we had no idea how long he had been stumbling through the woods. As I returned to the tent one of the students gave a shout that he was waking. I ran back to the tent just as he opened his eyes. He asked who were and where he was. So I told him my name and that I was a Bigfoot hunter here in Montana to track down the elusive monster. And he laughed and laughed which at the time made me think he was absolutely mad. He asked if he could stay here with us for a while and when I asked if he wanted to go to the ranger station he said there was nothing that they could do for him. He introduced himself as Victor Franks and immediately passed out again.
Over the next couple of days our visitor was still very weak and did not speak again. Even I could tell that the extent of his medical issues went beyond dehydration and exhaustion. I told the entire crew to leave him be but they had thousands of questions for the stranger that was staying with us. I too had questions but I thought it best to let him at least get some strength back before bombarding him with inquires about his past and how he ended up here in the middle of no where. I kept watch over him as much as I could but I still continued my search for Bigfoot. After three days of just sitting at his bed side he began to engage me in conversation. We learned a lot about each other over the next few days. We are both science fiction enthusiasts and enjoy learning and expanding our knowledge. He likes stories of mad scientists and creating something from nothing while I of course enjoy more monsters and aliens but we still relate on many levels. We are both outsiders in life, as far as I can tell he isn't one of those people that has a bazillion Facebook friends or Twitter followers. In fact I even doubt that he has a profile at all. He seemed like a tortured soul and I couldn't figure out why. He had interests that he really enjoyed as far as I could tell but at the same time it appeared to me that the same things that made him happiest had caused him to become this sickly and troubled man. And this made me even more confused. So I let it go for the time being and waited for him to approach me as a confidant.
By day seven of his visit we were on our way to being best friends. I got my wish Mags! Although we are getting closer everyday, he still doesn't talk very much about his past especially why he was in the woods. I hadn't flat out asked him about it at that point but I was preparing too. About a day later I finally figured out exactly how I was going to go about asking him. So I said:
"Victor? What brought you out here to Montana with such a lack of supplies? You could have died." He sat and thought for a moment before responding. It was though he was pondering the right wording to express whatever was troubling him.
"I was chasing the thing that has evaded me." His response was not what I was expecting.
"What do you mean? Why are you chasing this person though the woods? Don't you think that is a little crazy, especially since it's wearing you into the ground?"
"First of all you must understand that there is more to this story than me chasing something through the woods because I want to. To really understand why I have become this weak but determined person you need to know what I am pursuing is not something you have or hopefully ever encounter again. If you have the time I can tell you the full story, but I must warn you ahead of time that it will be very difficult for you to believe and you will assume that it is fiction. I assure you that it is not though I wish with all my heart that it was." And with that he began.