I don’t know how I managed to lose the Squatch but I did. I sat there on the hillside, not moving, for hours waiting for them to pick up my trail and come out into the open. I finally headed back to the cave. I got to the cave just before sun up. I was exhausted. I checked the trap for signs it had been messed with and then retreated into the cave to rest. A shrill scream woke me from my sleep. It was a scream of sheer terror. I had never heard a Squatch scream like that. Where was it coming from? I grabbed the Winchester and crept to the cave mouth. I looked out across the valley and the big male was there. He was looking at the cave. Lying on the ground in front of him was another person. Where did that guy come from? The Squatch kicked his hostage and the man screamed again. He was too far out for a shot with the Winchester, but I thought that if I could at least get a bullet close enough i could get the Squatch to run off into the brush and give the guy a chance to get away. I moved to the opening to get a good rest to try a shot. The Squatch saw the movement and reached down and grabbed the hostage around the midsection and ran off over the edge of the ridge with him.
I could not believe my eyes. They had actually gone and captured another human to use as bait. This was a standard practice of these creatures in the future I came from, but all of what we thought we knew about them in this time line said they were not capable of this type behavior. It would take me several hours to get over to where the Squatch had been and pick up his tracks. He would have plenty of time to set up his traps for me. It is looking like this is all going to come to an end soon. As I turned to go back into the cave I heard the man scream again. I got extra ammo for the Winchester and the Ruger out of my pack and put it in my pocket. I would not be taking the back pack with me this time. I would need to move fast today and did not need the extra weight to slow me down, or restrict my movement. I headed out of the cave to go find the Squatch and there hostage.
Once I got to the spot I had seen them disappear over the ridge I easily found their tracks. I would hear the man scream every so often. I guess they were making sure I did not forget they had him. I knew there were a lot of places that you could set a trap for someone along the trail they were on so I moved off the trail and continued on parallel to the trail. When the trail turned to run along the base of a shale slide I climbed up the hill to the top of the slide. I checked closely to make sure there were no Squatch on top of the slide and then looked down over the valley. There at the base of the slide was the man. There were no squatch around him that I could see. It was not the best place to set a trap. the only spot where they could hide close enough to attack me when I came in to rescue the man was a small spit of timber that stretched out on a small bench just above him. If they were hiding in there I would be able to sneak up on them and take them out. If they were not in there they would be over 30 yards away. I would be able to easily shoot them as they charged out of the brush from that far away.
I backed into the timber and climbed down the hill. When I got to the timbered bench I started towards the shale slide.
I stalked slowly deeper into the timber examining every bush, stump, windfall and root wad to make sure there were no Beasts lurking there. When I reached the shale slide I could see no signs of the beasts. What the hell are these buggers up to? I could see the man sitting there and could not figure out why he did not run away. Why did they just leave him there? I slowly moved out of the edge of the timber to a game trail that led down off the bench to where the man was. As I started around a rock into his view he screamed “NO! RUN AWAY” at me. I felt the slightest give under my boots. The sudden crushing, cutting sound of the jaws of that big bear trap snapping shut on my legs told me the mistake I had made. The pain was intense. My vision was blurred. I could see movement across the clearing as the Squatch swarmed out of the timber and ran towards me. I went to raise the rifle only to realize I had dropped it. I pulled the Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum from the holster. i aimed as well as I could and fired. I saw one of the beast stumble and then I felt something hit the back of my head.
I don’t know how long I was out. As the light started to return to my eyes and my hearing went from a loud ringing to a almost chanting sound. I heard the man moan and cry. As the focus returned to my eyes I could see the large male squatting in front of us and the three females were sitting off to the side. The male looked at me and then grunted.
The three females suddenly lunged at the man. He began to scream and flop around as the beasts ripped his clothes off. Once his clothes were off they began to rip his flesh from him. He tried to fight back but was no match for the three Squatch. As they were ripping pieces off of him they were eating them. There were pieces of flesh and blood all over the place. The three Squatch were covered in the aftermath of their feeding frenzy and looked even more evil than they normally looked.
When they had finished there was not much more than bones left. While all of this was going on the big male had stood towering over me staring at me. He never moved. He never made a sound. He just stood there staring. as the females sat there picking pieces of the man’s flesh off of each other and eating it the male walked over to me. He reached down and grabbed onto my ankle. My eyes blurred again as the pain that was already nearly unbearable increased even more. He twisted and yanked and my leg just below the knee where the trap had broken the bone came off. As he stood there looking at me holding my leg in his hand he began to eat the flesh off of the bones. I looked on in horror as he slowly ate my leg down to the bone.
The pain and the blood loss were starting to take there toll. I was having trouble breathing. My head was beginning to spin. I could tell that I was getting very close to passing out. The male, having finished eating my leg threw the bone that still had my foot still in the boot attached behind him. He reached down and grabbed me by the chin pulling my head up and looking into my eyes. He grunted softly and I saw all three or the females jump and lunge towards me.

The End