the Yukon is a cold and unforgiving land littered mostly by sprawling forests and rolling plains nature is Queen out here and she rules this land with a gracious Iron Fist those who test her rarely live to tell their tales and I'm afraid that proverb is becoming truer by the day for the better part of the last decade I've been a park ranger at two Stone territorial Park it's a massive Nature Reserve sprawling over 2,100 Square km the land boasts a wide array of environments with thick forests rolling Fields icy Lakes glaciers and geysers which allow for some magnificent views and unique experiences it's truly beautiful breathtaking and I don't think I'd trade it for anything else however something truly bizarre is going on out here and I've been forced to rethink everything I've never been much of a writer myself so forgive me if parts of this are not the most vernacularly pleasing truth is I figured I had to write it because the media sure as hell ain't going to cover it what's happening out here is something I believe everyone deserves to know it started about 2 weeks ago when a late night visitor caught me and a fellow Ranger gunny just as we were about to head out for the evening we use call signs for all the Rangers out here so I'll just refer to them by that to protect their real ident identities gunny and I had just locked up the main office cabin when the sounds of a screeching engine emerged in the distance a second or twoo later and we see headlights emerge down the trail it was a skeo and it was coming up fast within moments he was nearing our cabin I almost thought the person wasn't going to stop at all when he suddenly squeezed the handbrake and caused the vehicle to Skid several yards and come to a stop underneath one of the exterior flood lights his orange pleaded jacket was torn up and helmet cracked he killed the engine and I saw his wide eyes beneath his visor he then basically flopped off the vehicle hitting the ground with a thud before jumping back to his feet he tore the helmet from his head using just his right arm while his left dangled freely at his side as if it was injured the man met our confused stare with a wide-eyed clearly frantic stare in a muttering frantic tone he managed to convey to us what had happened he said he and his buddy were on a hunting trip and they'd been out there for 3 days he said they were attacked in their camp and his friend was badly injured and might already be dead we tried calming him down and asking him what had happened but the man just kept shaking his head and begging us to go save his friend we ushered him inside and two of the other rangers began tending to his injuries as Gunny and I mounted up we grabbed our rifles from the lodge and got on our skios to go find the wounded Hunter's Friend the area the man had indicated was a solid 20-minute ride out just outside the Park's recreational trails in a well-known area which was popular with Hunters gunny and I took off riding feeling the cold air dig into our splotches of Exposed Skin like little needles we were never able to get a description from the man of what it was that attacked him I imagined it was a bear pack of wolves or moose which are all fairly common out here attacks from Wildlife are relatively rare out here but they do happen something about the event had left a deep pit of dread in my stomach though and it assisted throughout the entire ride out to the location several minutes later gunny rounded a corner ahead of me and slowed I followed behind and the headlights from my rig Shone on a campsite off to the right side of the trail he and I parked and I saw the remnants of a tent swaying gently in the breeze debris was littered all over the camp and most of their gear had been smashed or torn to shreds it looked like a combination of a tornado and Freddy Krueger had ransacked the site gunny and I cradled our rifles as we searched the camp the night was eerily silent filled only by random gusts of wind that rustled the trees after only a minute or two we found the missing man and he was not nearly as lucky as his partner he was sprawled out in the remnants of his tent face pale and body covered in blood his chest had been absolutely gutted leaving fragments of internal organs scattered throughout the area I felt bile rise in my throat as I observed The Morbid scene and turned away to dry heave as Gunny got a close closer look I've seen my fair share of animal attacks and accidental deaths out here but I've never seen something quite that extreme something had completely eviscerated the guy suddenly I heard the crackling of branches coming from the tree line on the other side of the trail I lifted my rifle and aimed towards it shouting a command for whoever was there to show themselves part of me anticipated a person stepping out of the woods but what actually emerged was far more Curious a quadraped silhouette Rose in the Woods Sporting a decent set of antlers it stepped out revealing itself as a three-point juvenile deer probably just a few years old normally deer are rather skittish but not this one it just stared at me and my heart lurched into my throat its antlers were blooded covered in strands of Flesh and viscera and its eyes appearing as obsidian pools devoid of tint gunny stepped beside me both of us clutching our rifles at our chest time seemed to stand still then as the three of us maintained that silent staring contest for several uncomfortable seconds then without warning it charged gunny and I fired multiple times but the deer trudged onward slamming into gunny and knocking him back several feet he fell on the ground with a groan and the deer swiveled in my direction I fired another round which struck Square in its torso the deer wobbled on its feet for a moment as the 38 bullet tore through its heart causing blood to spurt from inside and stain the snow it collapsed in a heap a moment later I rushed to gny and helped him to his feet he had been gored in the shoulder and was bleeding but thankfully it was mostly a glancing blow the two of us stared down bewildered at the Apparently bloodthirsty deer it was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen normally the only time deer become aggressive like that is when they're cornered which this one clearly wasn't not only had it killed the other Hunter but it had stuck around and tried attacking us as well it was very unusual behavior for a deer to put it mildly gunny then pointed out its eyes and the Mystery grew deeper its eyes were entirely black like little pools of obsidian normally deer's eyes are pretty dark anyways with Amber or dark brown irises gunny shined the light on them and we saw no trace of that whatsoever we thought then that maybe the deer was sick rabies or some other disease gunny joked that maybe it was the start of a zombie apocalypse but I didn't find it as funny as he did with that notion in mind the two of us fled because if the creature was rabid then gunny needed medical assistance ASAP we sped back to camp and found EMTs on the scene as well as a police car when we got there the other man was unconscious and strapped onto the gurnie in the back of the ambulance one of the EMTs began tending to guny but luckily it didn't appear as though he'd been tooo badly injured rabies is spread normally through bodily fluid and since gunny had been struck by its antas contraction of the disease seemed unlikely regardless gunny loaded into the ambulance as well and the team drove off soon after I stayed behind and the sheriff shot me a peculiar glance buddy said his friend was still out there you guys find him I nodded and swallowed as I tried to devise a way to explain what we'd seen the sheriff's eyes grew wide as I explained what we had witnessed and you're sure it was a deer I nodded both of us confused the sheriff shot a foror glance into the distance and seemed to ponder the implications for a moment you ever heard of anything like that happening I asked and he scoffed not unless it was cornered or rabid that is some seriously strange Behavior he met my stare once more and you're sure the guy was dead I nodded again as there was no doubt in my mind the sheriff pondered the situation for a moment and then sighed well we better go find him before the critters do the trail was too narrow to drive the trucks down so we loaned the sheriff and his three officers our skus to go have a look gunny was whisked away to the hospital and I stayed behind to wait for the sheriff it was well past midnight when headlights finally emerged on the trail I exited the cabin and met with the sheriff and his team all of them appeared exhausted and woree Confused grimac on their faces the sheriff too looked perplexed you guys find the camp I asked the sheriff nodded but his confusion didn't diminish we found it but there ain't no body out there ain't no sign of that buck you two shot either that didn't make any sense to me and I didn't know how to respond they weren't breathing the sheriff nodded and pulled out a smoke from his pocket he sparked it up and took a deep inhale allowing the smoke to pour from his gullet and spiral into the breeze something probably dragged them off I'll get a search team together but it'll have to wait till morning he tipped his cap and he and his team departed I left soon after but I think anyone got a good night's sleep the next morning the sheriff kept his promise and by 9:00 a. m. he had amassed a search team consisting of five cops Six Rangers including myself and about two dozen volunteers from the town the sheriff gave us all the rundown on the situation and soon after we entered the woods scouring in Grid formation we did that until the sun went down and never found anything just snowy Vistas and silent woods with no trace of the hunter or the buck some of the search team especially the guy's family held out hope that he was still alive and just lost I didn't have the heart to tell them the truth that he had no pulse but I found no way of explaining how the corpses had just vanished from their Camp there are cougars Bears wolves and a few other other smaller carnivores and scavengers in these woods but none of them typically dragg their food away at least not too far we searched their Camp top to bottom and found a trail in the snow where the unfortunate Hunter had been dragged off something had dragged his body through the snow for about 50 m but the trail was a dead end it just ended with several sets of animal tracks carrying on further into the woods but no trace of the corpse some of the footprints even appeared human but we weren't able to confirm that nevertheless that brought forth two very concerning possibilities either this was Foul Play and someone else was out there that carried off the body or the body carried off itself the former explanation was the main Theory as the latter was obviously ridiculous I've been on dozens of search and rescue missions out here and it happens several times a year usually the person is found without incident but every once in a while we do find a corpse what is really strange is when you never find anything at all we returned to Camp as the night began to swallow the trees feeling disheartened and exhausted the missing Hunter's family was obviously devastated by the lack of progress as were the rest of us the odds of anyone surviving these Sub-Zero Woods for over 24 hours are slim especially if they're injured the sheriff took a head count when we got back and before he even finished I realized we were missing someone one of the senior Rangers who goes by eagle was not accounted for I tried radioing him but got no response myself and three other rangers Mazda penguin and whiskey set off to locate him already fearing the worst Eagle is an expert on these Woods if there ever was one and he's been out here for over three decades he basically wrote the handbook on search team etiquette and procedure and leaving the group alone is probably number one on the list of things not to do the woods were silent then appearing much more sinister than they had when the light illuminated them the gnarled leafless trees seemed to reach out for us with skeleton fingers the hair stood on the back of my neck and froze every time a slight breeze rolled through a sudden shout from behind caused me to turn back and gawk at an unusual sight Mazda was on the ground rolling back and forth as something small appeared to be attacking him get it off get it off penguin rushed to Mazda's Aid and grabbed hold of the creature which had assaulted him he then tossed it away revealing it as a squirrel which quickly darted back into the woods Mazda's coat was torn but he wasn't hurt thankfully penguin helped him up and he tried catching his breath you steal his acorns or something whiskey asked with a chuckle but masda was clearly rattled needless to say squirrel attacks are not exactly common here or anywhere as far as I know the hells going on over here a fifth voice then called from the left an out stepped eagle with a confused used expression where you been we were looking for you why' you break off I questioned him somewhat annoyed by his neglect sorry I I thought I heard something he didn't say anymore and just walked right by me to head back to Camp the other rangers followed him but something made me pause silence the type of Silence only found in a cold Winter's Night it's something I know quite well but that night was different and as I stared out out into the dark murky trees I could have sworn something was staring back we all rended back at the cabin and the sheriff stood in the center to speak he basically just thanked everyone for coming out and that the search would resume the following day I gave gunny a call on my ride home and he seemed to be doing well probably from the plethora of pain meds that were apparent in his slur unusually chipper tone I told him he we still hadn't found either of those corpses and that Mazda had been attacked by a squirrel after he finally stopped laughing about that he said something I found interesting damn first the buck now squirrels are attacking people someone must have really pissed off Mother Nature thankfully his rabies test came back negative and just needed some time for the stitches to heal he and I shared a few jokes and I playfully told him to rest up so he could hurry back and gather firewood for the cabin I didn't sleep well that night and didn't manage it at all until about 1:00 a.
m. when I finally did fall asleep I didn't get much rest I don't remember the details but I had some very intense dreams I hesitate to use the word nightmare because it's kind of cliche to me but I think that's the best word to describe it like I said I don't remember the details only me waking up with a frantic gasp and drenched in a cold sweat it might have just been the stress of everything Weighing on my subconscious but the anxiety refused to subside since sleep didn't seem like an activity I was going to experience that night I decided to just wake up early and head into work I figured I could get a head start on everyone and hopefully find the missing Hunter it didn't really seem likely by that point and as my headlights beamed into the parking lot of the cabin I found I wasn't even the first one there that day Eagle's beat up Ford F-150 sat in the lot Gathering snow I pulled up beside it and stepped out into the frigid morning shivering as a cold gust caressed the back of my neck Eagle wasn't in his truck so I figured must already be inside I had hoped he had the courtesy of putting on a fresh cup of coffee but the cabin was still locked and unlit after unlocking it I stepped inside and called out for him but got no response I then begrudgingly took on the duty of making coffee myself since without it I'm about as useful as a pair of lead underwear as it began to simmer I took a more extensive look around the cabin I thought maybe Eagle had just fallen asleep in one of the offices but I didn't didn't find him anywhere on a hunch I checked the key cabinet and my heart sunk one of the sets of keys was missing after checking the shed I realized its counterpart skido was also gone I stared out down the trail but heard and saw no sign of eagle on the Skidoo I couldn't imagine what possessed him to go out there alone and it really left me in an uncomfortable spot all I wanted was to sit my coffee and wait for the others but I knew I had to go find him with an annoyed sigh I washed out a thermos from the cupboard filled it to the brim with coffee and snagged another one of the keys I fired the skido up burnt the out of my lips taking a sip of coffee and hit the throttle in just a few seconds I was on the trail out to the hunting grounds as it was the only place I could figure that eagle would have gone it's winter here now and the sun doesn't rise until well past 9:00 a. m.
