The Night Of The Cryptids

The Second Night

That night the group continued trying to decide what to do.  After eating they discussed the layout of their camp.  

"So I think we should just all sleep in one tent and have it right by the fire" said Mark.  

Ruth responded "I'm sure you would love that.  I think we'll be fine keeping separate tents, but I think we need to move them so they are right next to each other, with the openings facing each other, and have them both right next to the fire pit."  

"Agreed."  said Matthew curtly.  

After moving the tents so that they were both next to the fire pit, and each other, the group gathered on the logs around the fire pit.  

"So, what do we do now?" asked Mary.  

"Um, just continue our trip as planned I guess" replied Matthew.  "I mean, if we're going to stay up here, we might as well still try to enjoy ourselves."  

"That's true" responded Jane.  "This isn't an ideal situation, but we did want to have some fun this weekend, so let's try to do that!"

Just as they had all decided to make the most of their weekend, a smell wafted into camp.  

"Oh God!"  Mark exclaimed.  "There must be a skunk near camp.  Just what we needed for the night"  

"Hey guys, do any of the rest of you feel like we're being watched?"  Matthew asked.  

"I sure do" Mary said.  

"Let's make the fire nice and big tonight so it will be burning all night long" Matthew suggested.  

"I think that's a great idea"  Ruth replied.  

After talking a little while longer, they all retired to the tents for the night.  All five had considerable difficulty sleeping.  Between the encounter earlier in the day which still had all of them rattled, the weird circumstances they had encountered before, and now the smell of skunk wafting into camp more and more often.  By about 1 a.m. they had all dozed off.  That was until Mark and Matthew sat upright in their tent after swearing they heard something scratching the outside of the tent.  Unbeknownst to them, the girls did the same, for the same reason, less than a minute later.

Matthew crawled towards the front of the boys tent and unzipped the opening a few inches and peeked out.  He didn't see anything.  Not at first anyways.  After his eyes started to become accustomed to the dark and things started to appear more clearly, he swore he saw a creature crouching just beside the girls' tent.  He quickly pulled his head back into the tent, then motioned for Mark to come over and take a look.  Mark poked his head out of the opening of the tent.  He scanned the camp site, but froze when he looked at the girls' tent.  He saw something there.  Some sort of creature.  It looked ape like.  He pulled his head back in the tent.

"Is that Bigfoot?!" Mark whisper yelled.  

"I don't think so" Matthew replied.  It looks like its a different color, plus I've never heard any stories about Bigfoot smelling so bad.  I'm pretty sure I would have remembered something like that."  

"Wait, so you think the skunk smell is coming from whatever that thing is?"  Mark asked.  

"Well, stick your head back out and you'll notice the smell is coming from that direction, so unless the thing is carrying a skunk around with it, then yes, I think the smell is coming from it" Matthew said.

"Well if that's true, I've heard of something kind of like that.  It's called the Skunk Ape.  It's a creature that some people claim to have seen.  The only problem is that it's never been quote, unquote seen outside of Florida." Mark said.  

Matthew thought for a second, "Yeah, but if what we saw earlier today really is what we thought it was, they aren't supposed to live around here either!"  

"We should probably do something about it.  What though?"  asked Mark.  

"Um, maybe just rush it and make as much noise as possible..." Matthew said, completely unsure of his idea.  

"I guess that's as good a plan as any" Mark replied.

Matthew unzipped the tent and he and Mark ran out of it towards the girls tent yelling and jumping.  They made as much noise as they could, and tried to look as threatening as possible.  Apparently it worked.  As they neared it, the creature got up and ran off into the woods.  They continued chasing after it for a short while.  Then they returned to camp and went to the girls' tent.  

"You guys can come out now, it's gone" Matthew said.  The opening unzipped slowly.  

Ruth peaked her head out "Are you sure?"  

"Pretty sure, yeah"  responded Matthew.