Alaina Urquhart

But after a few days, it became kind of impossible to ignore the increasingly credible tales.

He said all the old caravan leaders had disliked this camp for one reason or another.

And it was a noted place for desertions.

And in fact, very few of the caravans seemed to make it through the area without losing one or two of their porters.

To the other men, the leaders of the caravan would usually provide, you know, some kind of like whatever answer.

Something about how the men had simply deserted them in the night and joined an easier route.

That's why they're not here.

But few of the remaining members of the caravan found that to be reasonable at all.

Because who's going to work hard for several weeks only to abandon their camp and their belongings in the middle of the night?

Like you're busting your ass for weeks at a time just to like peace out and leave everything?

Yeah.

So a few weeks into the construction project, the crew had finally reached the west side of the Sava River when Patterson first heard that one of his crew had disappeared the night before.

Uh-oh.

Several others on the crew cited the stories of the other men who'd gone missing and insisted the missing worker had been carried off in the night by a lion.

So Patterson said, But nevertheless, workmen were a valuable resource, so Patterson immediately assembled a group of people to go search for him.

It didn't take long before his mind was changed.

In speaking with the other men who shared a tent with the missing man, Patterson found one worker who witnessed the attack.

Oh, fuck.

It was around midnight, this guy said.

And he said when a large maneless lion poked its head through the flaps of the fucking tent.