‘WE WERE SENT TO CAPTURE BIGFOOT, THEN THE WORST HAPPENED’ 
WE WERE SENT TO CAPTURE BIGFOOT — THEN THE WORST HAPPENED
People ask me why I don’t camp anymore. Why I sleep with lights on. Why I panic when I hear branches snapping outside my house.
I tell them I have my reasons.
But the real truth?
I’m the only man alive who knows what killed my friends in the Cascades.
Three months ago, I was promised $50,000 to hunt the impossible.
We succeeded.
And that’s exactly when the nightmare began.
It started with a call from a stranger claiming to own 12,000 acres in the Oregon mountains. He said something was stalking his survey crews — ripping open coolers, howling at night, leaving footprints two feet long.
He showed me a video: a giant silhouette gliding between trees. Not a bear. Not a man.
Bigfoot.
Capture it alive and we’d get a bonus. Kill it if we had to. I called three friends — Jacob, Ellis, and Diaz — hunters I trusted with my life. We knew the woods, we knew predators, and we were stupid enough to take the job.
We armed ourselves like we were going to war — thermal scanners, high-powered rifles, tranquilizers strong enough to put down a grizzly.
The cabin we used as base camp was isolated, surrounded by ancient pines and thick moss. The forest seemed familiar… until sunset. Then a silence fell. No birds. No crickets. Like the woods were holding their breath.
On our first night, something circled us for hours. We watched it on thermal: tall, upright, stalking just beyond firelight. Not one — two. A howl shook the glass panes in the windows, deep and furious — a warning.
We tried to stay calm.
We failed.
By night three, rocks slammed against the roof. Our shed was ripped apart. The truck tires shredded. We were being hunted.
And something kept tapping the windows… leaving giant handprints in the dust.
We realized the truth too late: We weren’t observing them.
They were studying us.
We set a trap — a clearing, bait, tranquilizers ready. Two of us hidden in trees, two on the ground as bait. Hours passed. Then the forest died again — soundless.
It stepped out.
Eight and a half feet tall. Shoulders like boulders under matted reddish hair. Long arms that could tear a tree from its roots. A face too human to be a beast… too monstrous to be human.
Its eyes locked onto me.
Dark. Intelligent.
Calculating.
“Now,” the radio whispered.
Three darts hit — one in the chest.
The creature roared. Birds exploded from treetops miles away. My bones shook. Then — it came for us.
Rifles cracked. Blood flew. It didn’t slow.
It reached Diaz first — one swipe sent him slamming into a tree like a ragdoll. He dropped, gasping, ribs twisted beneath his shirt.
We kept firing. It kept coming.
Only when it was close enough that I could see pupils — pupils — did its legs buckle. It collapsed like a boulder hitting earth, dirt shaking beneath my knees.
Still breathing. Still conscious.
Dying.
We approached.
Up close, it looked heartbreakingly real — scars, calloused hands, gray skin beneath the fur. This thing had lived a life. It felt wrong pointing a gun at something with emotions in its eyes.
But we took photos anyway. Because we thought we’d won.
We hadn’t.
We dragged the body toward camp, leaving a trail of blood through the brush. Night fell fast. Too fast. The woods… woke up.
Knocks echoed in the distance — three sharp cracks. Answered by two more.
Communicating.
Ellis whispered, “They’re calling for it.” His voice cracked.
Jacob aimed his rifle into the dark.
“What if it’s a family?”
We didn’t have time to answer.
Something howled. Not one — a dozen voices layered into a single agonizing scream. The forest trembled with it. We shoved the corpse against the cabin wall and barricaded the door.
Diaz wheezed in the corner, barely conscious.
The radio beeped — the owner.
“Congratulations, boys! Secure the body — a chopper will be there at dawn. Just stay put!”
The false cheer in his voice made my skin crawl.
He knew.
He knew what would come.
Ellis cursed at him, demanding help, backup — anything. The signal cut. Static. Dead air.
Then — footsteps.
Huge silhouettes drifted through the trees, surrounding us. The thermal scanner showed at least five — maybe more. They didn’t approach. They only watched.
Until midnight.
A log bigger than me smashed into the wall. The roof creaked — something was climbing it. Fingers scraped shingles. Jacob fired through the ceiling. A scream — horrible, furious — answered.
Then the back wall exploded inward.
Ellis disappeared in a blur of fur and claws — snatched screaming into darkness. His rifle clattered to the floor, still warm.
Jacob bolted for the door. He didn’t make it three steps before something grabbed his leg and hurled him into the fire stove. He didn’t get up.
I dragged Diaz, but blood streaked behind us like a signal fire.
A shadow filled the doorway. Eyes glimmered red in the reflection of the dying flames.
It wasn’t the one we killed.
This one was bigger.
It growled — a low rumble full of grief and rage. It stepped inside — stepped over its fallen kin — and bowed its head.
Not to us.
To it.
We weren’t hunters anymore.
We were intruders at a funeral.
I made a choice no hunter ever wants to admit:
I ran.
Diaz screamed my name until his voice cut off.
I never looked back.
I reached the road at dawn. A truck waited. The same landowner stepped out, smiling like this was all according to plan.
He saw the blood, the terror in my eyes.
His smile didn’t waver.
“Thank you for your service,” he said.
No mention of my friends.
No shock.
Just cold approval.
Men in black tactical suits pushed past us and headed into the woods with cages and restraints.
They weren’t there to rescue anyone.
They were there to collect.
The government calls it a bear attack.
The landowner wired me the money.
I haven’t spent a dime.
Because sometimes, late at night, when the house settles…
when wind moves through the trees like breathing…
I hear wood knocking outside.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
The same message we once ignored:
We are many.
We are watching.
We remember.
