Chapter 2: Encounters


~ Day 0 – 5:49PM ~

Remember how I said I wouldn't be able to build a hut in less than a day? I guess I was glad that I ended up fooling myself. Over the course of five hours I had been able to build a small and decent house composing of a few fallen logs and large leaves strewn across the ground. I was more lucky that I was able to keep it held out without any rope to hold the structure into place. Let's just hope it stays like that.

One look at the sky and I could see the sun a good distance above the horizon, the daylight colour slowly turning to a very faint orange of evening. Night was gonna fall and I'd need to eat again before heading to sleep. At the moment, I was currently taking a slow walk just for a bit of exercise, all the while making sure to not stray too far away from the lake to avoid getting lost. The hallway of trees and shrubs just seemed to repeat itself like I was actually walking in circles instead of straight forward. Only very few things stood out in place like the occasional rocks or any wildlife in the area that I managed to get a good look at without scaring them off.

Eventually I stopped in my tracks when I noticed something ahead of me through the foliage in front of me. It was like a wall of dirt but to my left there was a cave-like entrance, bordered with vines. As much of a risky idea as it sounded, it seemed like a more better option for shelter than my makeshift hut that could fall apart at any given moment. Wanting to make sure however that no hostile animal had already made it's home in the cave, I slowly approached the entrance and called out.

"Hello?!"

My call echoed within the cavernous walls inside, no doubt having travelled far enough for anyone inside to hear but I didn't hear anything in response, not even the footsteps of any creature inside. I waited for a minute or so to see if anything would approach the cave entrance but nothing showed up. I slowly started to make my way inside, my footsteps being audible enough to echo a little but not as loud as when I called out. What only filled the silence was the very faint sound of moisture dripping from the ceiling deeper into the dark tunnels. Even with the light from the outside illuminating the first steps inside the cave, I couldn't find any evidence of anyone else having ever even set foot into the caverns. I soon blinked upon realising I had wandered far enough into the cave at the point where the outside light wouldn't be able to reach inside. I reached for my lighter, using the remaining light left and turned it on.

Turning on the lighter would prove to be a mistake as the very first thing I saw was the very last thing you'd want to see alone in a cave.

A rotting human skeleton laid against one of the cave walls. My heart was racing with terror, but not just from seeing the bones of another person who had possibly died much long before I even came here, but the fact that I could see that the skeleton was home to at least a dozen spiders. No, not spiders. Tarantulas. These were probably the biggest arachnids I had seen in my whole life, about the size of an adult hand. Now I wished I never went into this cave. There was no way in hell I was going to share a cave with a corpse swarmed by spiders big enough to devour a small bird. To make matters worse, some of the spiders seemed to had noticed my presence and faced me before rearing their front legs up and hissing, almost as if they were demanding me to get out. I was now hyperventilating at the sight before me, scrambling backwards and ended up tripping backwards on a rock behind me, making me fall on my rear end. I felt the lighter fall out of my grip as it's light went out, putting me in even more of a panic as I rapidly felt around the stone and dirt floor for the metal object, letting out a breath of relief upon feeling the cold steel. I felt around for the small switch and flicked it on, illuminating a horrifying image that will forever be burned in my memory. One of the spiders I had seen on the skeleton had made it's way onto my arm and raised it's legs, revealing it's fangs and there and then I knew what it was about to do. I screamed in sheer terror, loud enough to wake the dead as I swung my arm to fling the arachnid off before it could sink it's fangs into me. I immediately stood up and fled for my dear life, out of the cave within seconds. I will never go back in there, lest I end up in the same fate as whoever those bones belonged to.


I was absolutely shaking, every vein in my body tensing up from the sheer fact that I was just seconds away from death. Trying to calm myself down and keep my composure proved to be almost impossible as my whole body was shivering. God, why did I go into that cave? I continued on walking, making sure to stay as far away from that death trap as possible, my breathing broken in trembles. I really wish I had mentally prepared myself to expect some possible near-death moments with surviving alone in the wilderness. My face was sweating from the amount of adrenaline the experience forced onto me as I finally managed to regulate my breathing with the reassurance that I was still alive and unscathed for the most part. I hadn't noticed that I had ended up wandering into an open creek, the water flowing delicately among the many rocks piercing the river surface. Seeing such a nice view of nature seemed to help with calming my nerves as I knelt down and dunked my hands in, cupping enough water to wash my face with and cool myself off. I slowly breathed in and out as the cool temperature of the H20 relieved any remaining ounces of stress I had in me, my eyes closed as I quietly took in the atmospheric sounds of distant birds tweeting and the rushing water in front of me.

The sudden but recognisable sound of a gasp was what snapped me out of my relaxed posture. I just couldn't believe it and it felt like my mind was playing tricks on me, but the intake of air I heard opposite of me told me one thing. Someone had found me. I wasn't going to be alone in this forest after all, someone who could actually help. My head jolted up to face the source of the gasp but the words I had planned to say when I saw the person opposite of me immediately fell, rendering me completely speechless at what I saw opposite of the creek.

Do you know that feeling your body has when you're in a situation that you can't tell whether it'll end with you in extreme danger or not? You tense up as your mind alternates on many options on what to do but can't decide on even one of them because of the unknown outcome they'll have?

That's the feeling I had when I saw this… creature standing opposite of me, starting directly back at me with the same look of shocked silence as mine.

If it weren't for the noticeably large pointed muzzle or the pointed ears, I would've never guessed that it was some kind of canine animal, maybe a wolf or a dog. It's fur being mainly blue whilst it's paws and belly were a lighter shade of blue. The circles around it's eyes and it's ears being a darker shade. To top it off, it's snout was instead a tan colour, bordered with a streak of light blue. Was such a dog with that kind of fur colour even likely to exist or was I merely hallucinating? I rubbed my eyes vigorously until they were raw to make sure but the dog like figure didn't fade. Other than it being mostly shades of blue, there was one other detail about it that made me stare in silence.

...Since when do dogs walk on two legs?

I was at a complete loss of what to do. One false move could very likely spell disaster for me, especially if the creature turned out to be aggressive. I was never big on cryptozoology or the idea of urban legends, but a part of my mind was close to suggesting that I may have encountered one particular mythical creature I read about, the Michigan Dogman. But as far as I recall, the Dogman was described to have a human body with the head of a dog and what I was seeing before me didn't match that description at all. Both me and the dog creature were frozen in place, not even lifting a finger, almost as if we were both unsure how to react. It wouldn't be until maybe a minute later where I finally decided to make the first move. I very slowly stood up, the animal's eyes following my movement and it was there that I learned that the bipedal canine was shorter than I expected. It's pupils seemed to shrink a little more upon registering my actual height compared to it. Best way I could describe it's height was that of a young child, presumably younger than ten years old. I then slowly started to back away, the leaves faintly crunching under my feet, keeping my eyes locked on the two legged dog thing as it watched me leave the area.


~ Day 0 – 9:12PM ~

I managed to find and return to the lake where I fished earlier today with a good deal of pacing around. The night sky at this point had blanketed the atmosphere in darkness that was only illuminated by the light of the moon and the campfire next to me. I was just unable to focus on anything other than what I had seen back at the creek. No matter how much thought I put into it, I just couldn't figure out a plausible explanation for my encounter with that thing. I couldn't even determine whether it was real or not, a part of me wanted to say it wasn't because there was no recollection of me ever encountering such a creature similar to before this and that I was starting to become delusional. Even when I had to stop thinking so much because of my head hurting from trying to process the situation, all the questions I had about that encounter still remained unanswered and it seemed like I was stuck forever questioning my own sanity. I dreaded to wonder how long it would be before I would end up eventually going fully insane.

Tired, confused and uncertain anymore, I tried to lay down on my makeshift bed of leaves and try to sleep. The leaves were barely comfortable at all, so trying to fall asleep proved to be a real challenge. Especially as I thought about what I had experienced on my first day in these forests which bombarded me with a question that filled me with fear.

Was that two legged creature possibly responsible for the death of whoever the skeleton in the cave was?

There was no chance I'd be able to sleep now. Not with the possibility of that thing stalking the forest and trying to hunt me down. Yet, when I first saw it, it didn't attack at all nor did it look aggressive whatsoever, especially considering that I was taller than it. Maybe it was friendly? Maybe it was scared of me? How could I possibly know? With fear being the only thing that kept me awake, I sat upright on the lake shore and kept my eyes open, looking around for any sign of that dog-thing or any other fauna attracted to the light.

And then I heard it. The very faint sound of a twig snapping, like someone had stepped on it. My head darted around for the source of the noise but I just couldn't see anything beyond the night-time darkness. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to attract any attention as I kept scanning the area, trying to adjust my eyes enough to see more than just black. Eventually, I did see something in the distance behind some bushes in the distance and as I focused in the direction I was looking, my blood ran cold at what I saw.

Shadows in the far distance, or rather silhouettes. I could just about make out two of them, and neither of them looked to be human. In fact, their body shape resembled that of the creature back at the creek. And because I could just about see them in the distance, it was evident that these were larger variants of said creature. My mind was racing with many conclusions, one of which being that there was more than one of the creature who had possibly alerted two others of me and had sent them out to search for me, for reasons that made me pale. I was absolutely frozen in fear, unsure of what to do. If I ran, they might hear me and chase me down but if I stayed, then they might see the fire's light and find me. It was a choice between being possibly dead a minute from right now or the 50/50 chance of either managing to escape or being caught and killed. God knows how fast they could run if I decided on the latter.

The crunching of leaves underfoot slowly began to get louder. They were getting closer. It would only be a matter of time before they saw the fire's light and potentially spit out my bones. I had to act NOW.

Slowly standing up but making sure I was crouched down so they'd have a lesser chance of spotting me through the overgrowth, I padded over into the forestry and ran as fast as my legs could carry me. The fallen leaves and twigs crunching under me loud enough for them to hear, but all I cared about was running as far away as possible and hopefully try to outrun them. The fear instilled within me hardened when I could just about hear crunching footsteps not too far behind me. They were onto me. The overwhelming terror of what those things would do to me if they caught me pushed my legs to sprint much faster in dire hope of outrunning the pursuers. Ahead of me, I was able to see a broken tree log leaning upright in between two boulders. With my hand stretched out, I raced for the dead chunk of wood and gripped it, pulling it down behind me to block the pathway in between the boulders and hopefully slow down whatever was chasing me.

Fortunately, it seemed to work as the footsteps behind me started to get quieter but they were still faintly audible so I was not out of their sights yet. With the help of the moonlight, I managed to spot a burrow in the ground large enough to fit me in the distance. I rushed straight for the hole and jumped in, clambering deep inside as quickly as possible so that no part of me was visible in the light. I held my breath as I soon heard the quick footsteps get closer and closer to the burrow as I carefully manoeuvred deeper into the hole to avoid making any noise. The footsteps slowed as I heard them nearby and around the burrow but I didn't dare to look through the hole. All I could do was listen carefully and pray to god that the sources of the footsteps would give up and leave.

The footsteps stopped just outside the burrow and then I heard something else. Voices. Both in an accent that whilst I couldn't remember what it was, sounded familiar to me.

"Damn. No sign of them. I told you we should've approached cautiously!"

"And then what? How would we explain to them what's going on without them freaking out at the sight of us?! We should just tell the public that one of them is here!"

"Are you insane?! You KNOW why we can't do that! Do you really want to cause a nationwide panic?! Just shut up and keep looking!"

After the argument, footsteps were heard once more, but they eventually went faint in volume until I could no longer hear them from within the hole in the ground. Who was it that was talking? They sounded human. ...Did this mean that there really was humans in the area? And what of the two large dog-like creatures that chased me? Did the humans manage to scare them off somehow?

I lingered in the hole for a little longer before swallowing and peeking out from the burrow, looking around to find the area completely devoid of any other living creature. Whatever was chasing me and whoever the voices belonged to were no doubt long gone at this point. But I still had to remain cautious in the event that I should encounter those two legged canines again, dragging my feet slowly across the ground. I was lost once again, I no doubt had run very far from the lake and had no idea on how to get back. All I could do now was walk and hope that I'd encounter nothing malevolent in my way.


Tiredness started to overtake me once more as I kept walking. It just felt like I was going absolutely nowhere and the possibility of finding anywhere safe to stay for the night was becoming lesser and lesser, especially now that I knew that two legged dog creatures that I didn't even know if they were harmful or not roamed the forests. But through some trees, my eyes widened when I caught sight of something I did not expect to see.

An opening among the forest with the ground being a circle of soil devoid of grass. In the middle, an old RV was parked. Desk chairs and a box pack of what I assume was beer cans, some of them leaking drops of the alcohol onto the ground hinted that someone was living there. With relief washing over me, I rushed over to the vehicle and knocked on the side door, oblivious to the possible idea of the owner already being asleep. But a few seconds or so later after I knocked, one of the windows turned yellow from the light inside out of the corner of my eye. This was followed by the accompanying window nearest to the door turning yellow from indoor light as well. Faint but audible footsteps approached the door as it finally opened.

My face fell in alarm when I found that the person who opened the door was another one of those large dog-like creatures. Because of the light from inside the door, I could actually see what it looked like. Long wide ears with a rounded edge, wrinkles around the eyes and short legs. My best bet was that it was some kind of basset hound and judging by the amount of wrinkles on it's face, it was probably an elder.

"GAH, WHAT THE HELL?!" The hound suddenly yelled out in panic upon registering what was looking at it. It's voice whilst old sounded masculine, possibly meaning the dog was a male as he reached for something inside the RV and my breathing went broken when I saw what he was holding.

A shotgun rested in both his front paws- No… Not his front paws. His hands. Unlike his feet that resembled actual dog paws, his front paws were shaped exactly like human hands. The look of terror on his face now mixed with a hostile glare as he cocked the firearm and aimed it directly at me.

I turned and ran. Didn't know or didn't care which direction I'd end up in, all I cared about was getting the hell away from the dog with the gun as the first bang of it firing sounded, the shells hitting the ground, just barely missing me, driving me to run even faster. Even when I didn't hear any footsteps or any more fired rounds behind me, I still kept running, completely terrified as I now knew what these creatures were capable of.

Not only did they walk on two legs, they could talk, use firearms and even drive vehicles. They practically had the same intelligence as humans. Worst of all, they really were aggressive, particularly to humans like myself and if I ever did come across one of them once again, I was good as dead. It ultimately answered one of the many questions I had. Those… things were responsible for whoever died in that cave, and now that they knew I was in what I could assume was their territory, they were no doubt going to hunt me down.

Overwhelmed by fear, I hadn't noticed the cliff I was rushing towards and I slipped, tumbling down the hill, hitting several plants along the way before finally hitting my back against what I assumed was a tree. Several parts of my body were now aching but none of them hurt as most as the hard trauma on my back. And unable to handle the combined pain of it all…

...I blacked out.