Mark and Paul arrived at the campsite. Their daughters giggled and ran around the grounds as they set up the tents. It was their first time taking their girls camping. The air was crisp and cool as dusk approached.
Paul started the campfire and Mark turned on the camp stove so they could have dinner by the fire. They ate and sang silly songs. They were the only campers in the area, so they could make as much noise as they wanted to. It was still light out after dinner, but the girls ran out of steam. They decided to go to bed.
"Hey Mark, do you smell that?"
Mark had smelled it all night. It was a sickly odor, decay. "Yeah, why don't you keep an eye on the girls and I'll go check it out."
Mark started up the hill and saw something moving around, but he couldn’t tell what it was. As he moved closer he saw that it was a golden retriever. The dog had something in its mouth. It looked like a piece of carcass. The dog ignored him as he continued to survey the area. Vomit crawled up Mark’s throat and escaped to the ground as he saw the decapitated carcass on the ground. It was so mangled that he couldn’t tell what it was. Dog? Coyote? Bear?
He had the unpleasant task of wrapping the head in a plastic bag in order to keep predators away from the campsite. He wondered what the Golden Retriever was doing all the way out here. Did some idiot leave their dog? If he had been friendly, he may have taken the dog, but that dog didn’t seem overly excited about people.
Mark made his way back to camp. The fire was out, so he used his phone to light the pathway. His phone was running low on charge. He always forgot to bring his charger because he thought he wouldn’t need his phone when camping, but he always ended up using it in some capacity.
“Hey Paul, this is what I found”
Paul paled and threw up on the ground behind him.
“Was that it, no body?”
“No body” Mark confirmed.
They went into the tents where their daughters were already sleeping. Mark was restless. He couldn’t stop wondering what could have killed what he found. He hoped it wasn’t close by. It was so dark up here and the girls were already asleep, so he didn’t want to drag them out of there. He still heard a voice inside of him that kept telling him to run.
Paul’s eyes opened as he heard a dog yelp in the distance. He tossed and turned as he tried to get back to sleep. The glow from the moonlight on the tent displayed shadows of the trees outside. A new shadow appeared. It looked large. He couldn’t tell what it was, but then he heard footsteps. He also heard a scraping sound.
“Hello?” a voice called.
Paul opened the tent tentatively and an arm reached in holding a machete. The dirty blade was covered in fresh blood. Paul and his daughter were both instantly and fatally sliced before they could make a sound.
Mark had heard the footsteps and he woke up Kelly to try to get her to the car. He had gotten her to the car when he saw Paul and his daughter get attacked. He turned on the engine and the man with the machete came running towards them. The old man had a long beard and white hair sticking out all over his head. His eyes were dark and crazed as he swung at the tires.
Mark peeled out and the dust that kicked up temporarily stopped the man from swinging his weapon. They were able to escape.
As soon as Mark reached town he called 911 for Paul and his daughter, but he knew that he was too late. He cried as he held Kelly, so thankful that she was ok, but also grieving the loss of his friend and his child.
The police and rangers headed to the campsite. They never found the man. They did find hundreds of dogs buried around the property. The man had been mutilating stray dogs and dogs that people had brought camping. Unfortunately, he had recently started to include people in his activities and they had found a few human bodies on the land as well.
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