I have been a Search And Rescue officer my entire life and its been a profession I’ve enjoyed for the whole 25 years of it. However sometimes there will be a call that can break an individuals mind and possibly turn them to madness. Things so horrible that upon 1 spectacle can change everything that person knows.
I am one of these people, I’ve witnessed these things numerous times and the only reason i haven’t gotten up and kill myself was because if i do that means the things i know will never come to light and ill be forgotten to time.
I was sent out on a missing persons case, The boys name was Ryan Johvier. He was 11 years old and he had high functioning cognitive disabilities that prevented him from being able to communicate correctly. His mother said that the boy was with them collecting rocks by a creek when he said he saw something, Of course his mother couldn’t fully understand, She said when she turned around Ryan was gone and there was a tiny trickle of blood where he was, The immediate thought was drowning
but his mother would have heard it and plus the creek was so shallow and still there’s just no way in hell a 12 year old boy drowned in what was essentially a large puddle depth of water.
When i was sent out to the immediate area along with my squadron, Our canines all did something that was immediately off putting and kind of freaked us out.
They whimpered and tried to flee.
For some of you who don’t know, SAR Canines are so fiercely loyal towards there training and overall job they would risk there lives doing things no human would, Like fighting a pack of coyotes or jumping 20 feet over a ridge to another to recover a scent trail, Fuck I’ve even seen one that tried to climb a tree and it almost broke its legs doing it.
So when we saw how every single canine including mine named Alysse, We sort of knew this wasn’t going to turn up anything, To note all of us have been veterans for a while, We are sent out for the type of missing persons case where the caller knows the person is likely to be dead and just wants the experienced ones to deal with it so there’s no quitters. Its very weird and sometimes i wanna quit because of it but.. Alas i could not. Not today.
So as we approached the area we did our usual search rotations, We go quadrant to quadrant investigating every square inch there is to make sure this kid wasn’t hiding somewhere or laying wedged in a rock or something. I was with one of my best friends in the squadron, We will call him M for short because he likely doesn’t want to get doxxed.
M piped up to me as we were walking “Hey man, Don’t you find it weird that the canines are acting this way? It’s like a primal sense is telling them to get out of here, I don’t like this one bit man and i think we sho-“
“WE FOUND SOMETHING!”
We both turned to each other, I had already disregarded his take on the matter and i rushed to the area only to find nobody was there, Then i heard “Over here” Just nearby, It sounded like our squadron leader Bella. She usually lead the searches but sometimes i supervised when she couldn’t.
As i went to go over something stopped me in my tracks, The woods were not just silent but so still i could make out the individual lines of a branch on a tree, There was literally no fucking wind at all, No chirping, No snapping, Silence and only silence. I stood there and i heard it again “Over here” i stared in the direction this noise came from, It was Bella but.. No No something wasn’t right it couldn’t have been. I walked over anyway foolish of me i know but.. I just had to know
As i made it few a bit of brush as quiet as possible i saw Bella sitting on a rock with her hands in her lap and her head leaned back. I thought “Thought i was gonna get fucking killed” But before i could finish this thought i noticed something. Blood.. So much blood from her wrists, She had slit them and she was dead just sitting there. I rushed over screaming “HELP… PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ITS BELLA” As i made it to her feet i knew she had lost so much blood there was no way in hell she was gonna survive regardless if we got her on a chopper and to the ER. There was simply no fucking way she was going to live, But then i shuddered at the realisation, Who called out to me in her voice?
Then it happened again “Over here quick we need you Lachlan”
My name is Lachlan so i knew it was my squadron but everything about that voice was so terribly wrong it sounded off, Like if the tempo of a piano was down only slightly. It was starting to really fucking freak me out. I started to assess my situation as well as possible, As i saw Bella had killed herself and there’s no way for her to live i had to find the others and get out of here, My canine at this point was so scared she was actually pissing herself and was jerking so hard against my arm the cable i use to manage her had basically rope burned me.
Everything was going to shit but i had to manage something so i proceeded to run as fast as i could with alysse by my side, I ran so fucking fast i lost my right shoe but i made it back to.. Forest. I swear i went the way i usually did but all that stood there was forest. That’s when i realised something, Wouldn’t the others have come to my pleads of help by then? The other 6~ Fucking people i was sent out here to find this kid?
Then the sounds of wet cutting, Crunching and snapping emerged from the left of me, I stared down that direction as it was the only sound i could hear, I piped out “M?” but then something else made me stop, ROT.
The smell of putrid rotting meat filled the air as whatever this thing was made itself clear, I couldn’t make it out.. Not because it was far away but because it was blurry and fuzzy, Like it was a glitched out TV, The only features that i could make clear on it was a piece of red and yellow cloth… A shirt, The same one Ryan was wearing when he disappeared. I shuddered so bad i almost collapsed, I reached into my belt to grab my survival knife but not to defend myself.. But to end the suffering i was enduring.
I had a few seconds to glimpse at this thing then i BOOKED it, I ran so fast that i had let go of alysse so she could find her way back easier. I was focused on survival and survival only. I was so dead straight
on surviving i didn’t care if my friends had died, I wasn’t going to be next to whatever that was. I couldn’t imagine being that boy..
As i ran i saw a valley i recognised from the initial walk into the area, I was close to our ops and i was going to be okay. I was basically about to break down from seeing that thing, Everything about it was so wrong. I couldn’t even make out a structure of the thing, Only that it was like 7 feet tall, Skinny and had that boys shirt wrapped around itself like a sick medal or trophy.
It took me about 2 long hours to make it to ops and upon making it i was crying hysterically, I explained to the supervisors what happened and they sent a recovery team to see if they could find any bodies. The only thing they found was each of there survival knives drenched in there own blood.
Thanks for reading lol, Im not a writer so if theres any errors or issues please lmk in comments. Thanks.