In my line of work, there is always, and I mean always, trash spilled somewhere on campus.
I do groundskeeping for the university in my city. By no means it is a glamorous job, but it pays pretty well and I can turn off my brain for the most part and work on auto-pilot. The winters are pretty grueling due to the early morning shifts but since I’ve transitioned to summer hours things have been much better.
Because I can work my mundane tasks away without much thought, when something strange happens I can actually remember it pretty well. That’s why I’m telling you this. I witnessed something incredibly strange last morning.
Strange, and also terrifying.
There’s a particular dumpster that constantly has the trash inside strewn about the area, leaving the actual dumpster damn near empty. Normally I’d chalk it up to wind, or birds, or even the odd raccoon, but this dumpster has been having its contents emptied and thrown about for over a month. The dumpster was also in a section of campus that bordered on a small wildlife reserve meant for attracting critters like owls, coyotes, deer, things that wouldn’t normally trudge into a city and stick around.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to clean this mess up, but the rotten food, slime, and shredded clothes don’t smell pleasant, and it’s become exceedingly worse.
I was tasked with cleaning it up nearly every day, and I was getting frustrated. I had proposed to my supervisors in the past to set up a camera after a week straight of cleaning the littered area, but due to them being miserly, sorry, I mean due to “budget cuts” they couldn’t be bothered.
I didn’t have a camera myself, and I wasn’t going to buy a camera for one nuisance at my workplace. My colleagues suggested I take it to security. Due to the location, the nearest security cameras weren’t very close, but maybe they’d be more fortunate than my department and have money to set up a camera.
Security seemed to shrug off my request, saying that they’d send extra patrols to the area at night. It was a half-victory, but I still felt a bit unsatisfied. I can imagine what type of bullshit requests they get from the other departments on campus. I’ve seen them dispose of drug bags in the trees, drive away the homeless, and even had to tackle some guy who was clearly high, violent and destructive on campus. Asking to look at dumpsters probably was something they would put near the bottom of their list.
But it should’ve been taken less lightly.
I followed up with the security team a few days later after garbage had begun getting thrown around there again. There was something different about the contents. This time, there was an overturned shopping cart, a bike that looked like the tires had bite marks from a shark, and a bloody smear on the front of the dumpster.
Was the place dealing with a bear? A bike tire seems to me like it’d be hard to pierce as a coyote. It didn’t make sense, bears being spotted in the city make a headline on the news and typically don’t make it near the campus since it’s so central. The smear itself looked dried, but almost as if someone smeared it down the dumpster with five finger-tips.
I did my best to be professional and calm about the situation, but I was scared as hell on the inside. The receptionist for security was wide-eyed and leaned in close when she told me that the last guy they’d sent there quit after he had checked that dumpster. He apparently saw something that made him quit on the spot.
One of the burlier security guards overheard our conversation and laughed. He mocked the former worker, claiming he was getting fed up doing newbie tasks and such. He told me more people would be on it and that I had nothing to worry about. I didn’t feel any victory walking away from security this time around.
What the hell would make someone quit on the spot? I wasn’t going to buy a camera but I did have a less than satisfying idea to see if I could catch whatever person, or animal was making the mess.
My plan was to arrive at work during the winter hours. That’d give me a two hour advantage, but I would have to be discreet and stealthy. I had pre-planned a hiding spot behind an overgrown shrub I was supposed to prune. It gave me a good vantage point to the dumpster. There was even a roomy homeless camp there once.
I also had to be careful not to trip any motion lights around the campus buildings, but I had worked there long enough in the early mornings to find blind spots in the lights and cameras.
I parked my car off of campus and trekked in on foot. It was cool, the beginning of fall. I couldn’t see my breath, which I relished with each little shiver. Winter wasn’t here yet. I creeped through the campus, heading towards my mark.
I heard a bicycle woosh behind me, and I immediately took cover. Security. Not that I was truly trespassing but I knew enough of them that it would be pretty awkward and suspicious for them to see me without my uniform, two hours before my shift.
My cover, another shrub due for pruning, seemed to work. I saw the burly security guard, heavy bags under his sunglasses, pedal on by. I waited for a bit before I made my advance. It wasn’t long before I had made it to my vantage point. I crouched down, then went prone. It was actually quite comfortable despite being near such a disgusting
A motion light tripped left of the dumpster, snapping me out of my comfort. I had figured it was the security guard, but it was not. It was a homeless guy.
He shambled to the dumpster, very clumsily. I figured he was probably drunk or high or something. I’d seen a few on campus, usually harmless towards anyone outside of the security guards.
More motion lights tripped, this time from my right. I heard the familiar whirring of the bike tires from before. I got comfortable again in my hiding spot, knowing that once the security guard took care of business I could finish my stakeout.
“Are you lost, sir?” the security guard called out to the homeless man. He didn’t respond, simply flipping up the lid with a tremendous amount of force. He didn’t even look at the guard calling him out.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to be here,” the guard continued, throwing the kickstand on his bike to park it. I could see the guard reach into his pocket. The homeless man peered into the dumpster and growled. Growled, like an animal. It was unnerving as the guy continued to growl, wildly trying to sift through the trash.
“I’m going to give you a countdown to come with me peacefully, I can get you off the campus and somewhere better for you…” the security guard was losing patience, I could tell by the authoritative tone. This guard was not much taller than the one going through the garbage, but almost three times as wide.
“Three…two…”
In an instant the homeless man dropped on all fours, and stanced like a hound pointing towards prey. The guard choked on his countdown and grabbed the thing in his pocket, a taser. Even with the weapon, my odds that the guard would win weren’t in his favor. Someone, no, something that can drop to the ground that fast, and look that strange doing it was highly unpredictable. I wanted to call out, tell him to run like I wanted to.
I got to a crouching position determined to run away when the homeless man turned around and I saw his face.
His jaw was crooked, and stretched almost two feet wide. His gaping mouth was full of broken, jagged teeth. He let out another growl, then a snarl. The guard lunged to taser the thing, but it dodged to the left at incredible speed.
The guard tried again, but the thing pounced on him clamping down on his throat with those hideous teeth. A faint sigh, and the guard was limp. I was stuck in the crouching position. I knew if I got up, it’d see me. So I stayed put, my body going cold from the shock. This wasn’t meant for security to deal with, it was meant for something else. I watched this thing for about two minutes before it began ripping the clothes off the guard.
With the noise it was making I figured this would be a good time to call for help. I carefully pulled my phone from my pocket and unlocked it.
I called 9-11, shakily and quietly explaining that something attacked and killed a security guard. I heard the sounds of crunching, but I looked away. They took me seriously, and said they’d have people there very soon.
The man was being eaten. God I wish I didn’t see that. The thing had chewed through his face, and flayed his chest. With a quick tug, the man’s arms dislocated, then with another tug, came off. Blood shot from the stubs and I almost puked. The thing swallowed the arms whole, before chuckling to itself.
A glimmer of hope, I heard the sounds of police sirens ripping into campus. The fiend did the point again, before throwing the clothes in the dumpster, and threw out garbage everywhere. It growled, then took off on two legs, dragging the dead man behind him. It left a bloody smear on the ground, and out to the stretch of trees.
I stayed put til the cops showed up. They took one look at the blood and drew their weapons. I was still terrified, but felt safe enough to come out of hiding. I was sobbing with both fear and relief that they showed up. One of the officers escorted me back to my car, and I took the day off.
If you see garbage everywhere, and blood around the waste site, do not go there at night. Better yet, don’t go there ever.