I’m a biologist, and I’m currently on a research trip for the United States federal government. I was told it would be routine, that we were just looking for an endangered species. But last night, about half of the team went on an expedition in the forest and we haven’t seen them since. I’m starting to think there’s much more to this mission than any of us were told.
When I was approached to be a part of this trip, I was told it would be fairly routine. As soon as I agreed to be a part of it, they made me sign a bunch of NDAs and ensured I knew that this was “strictly confidential.” This didn’t raise any red flags for me, I just assumed that’s how the government always worked. When I arrived at the large campsite near a forest edge, I noticed the Army was also present. This did seem odd, but again, I had never worked with the federal government before, so I brushed it off.
We’ve been here for six days so far. The first three were honestly pretty boring, mostly taking shifts day and night, observing the forest from the outside. On day four, our coordinator told us to take the day off, and that we would only be observing the forest at night going forward. I assumed that meant we were searching for a nocturnal animal, but that’s the only specific information we’ve gotten, other than “You’ll know it when you see it.”
On day five, we once again didn’t do much while the sun was up. But about an hour before sunset, we were told that a “select group” of five people would be going on an expedition deep into the forest that night. I was not selected to be a part of it, which was disappointing at the time, because I was eager to learn more. They decided to leave right away so they would have plenty of time to set up a camp in the woods before it got too dark. They also said they would return by sunrise.
That was about 20 hours ago, and I still haven’t seen them. Our coordinator won’t tell us what’s going on, but she looks very concerned. All I know is that the Army is sending a rescue team in a few minutes.
I’m still not sure if I want to post this or not. Again, this is supposed to be a classified mission, which is probably for a good reason even if I don’t understand it. I guess it’ll depend on what happens with the search effort.
-
It’s about 3 in the morning right now. I’m shaking. I was just woken up by screams coming from the woods. I stepped out of my tent to see one of the people from the rescue team. He was sprinting out of the forest, covered in blood, screaming “It got them! It got them!”
“Help!” he continued, running to me. “Giant… thing… forest… killed them…”
He had giant scratch marks on the right side of his face. I walked him to the medical tent, and it was only then that I noticed one of his ears was missing. Before he could get any kind of medical attention though, he got put in a military vehicle and taken away. I don’t know where they took him.
I’m back in my tent now. I know this sounds insane but I think the government is hiding an entire species. The NDAs, the Army presence, the fact that this animal apparently took out five biologists and almost an entire search party… there’s something out there that the government doesn’t want anyone to know about.
I might try to get out of here early, but I’m undecided. Part of me thinks I should try to leave, because I don’t really trust anyone here anymore. But another part of me thinks I should stay and learn more about whatever this creature is so I could tell more people about it.
Should I stay here or should I try to go home? And also, does anybody have any idea of what the creature could be?