Johnny Henderson

Starting their trucks, Jacob and Kenny both raced to Jacob's house as though they were driving on the NASCAR circuit.

Arriving at home, Jacob, with his gun in hand, ran inside to get a phone book so that they could call the game warden and the police and maybe get some kind of animal control out there to get rid of this thing.

Jacob had just stepped out on his front porch when they heard gunfire coming from over at William's place.

Dropping the phone book and running back inside, Jacob grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun and some shells and handed them to Kenny,

who took little time in loading it.

Jacob and Kenny, now locked and loaded, walked together to Kenny's truck, preparing to mount up a rescue for their neighbor William.

Simultaneously, both of them stopped in their tracks as an uneasy but familiar feeling crept over them.

Jacob's Rottweiler and his two German shepherds began to whimper, and they ran under the front porch to hide.

Kenny, whose throat had suddenly gone dry as bone, whispered to Jacob and said, I have a really bad feeling about this.

No sooner had the words escaped his lips, they heard a deafening scream erupt from the forest off to their right.

and then the creature exploded from the trees right in front of them.

Until now, neither man had been able to fully appreciate the colossal size and scope of the beast, but standing less than 30 feet away, they were almost overcome by the sheer magnitude of it.

Jacob had seen it up close earlier from his truck while sitting down, and had guessed the height at maybe eight feet, but now standing there looking up, he could tell that this fella was eight and a half, nine feet tall, and would tip the scale at eight hundred to about a thousand pounds.

It had inhumanly long arms that bulged with thick, ropey muscle, ones that were easily seen beneath its long, shaggy black hair, which it was covered with from head to toe.

The chest was larger than a 55-gallon drum, and there was little doubt that it could have pulled the arms off of an ape, and it now glared at the both of them with malevolent intent.

Jacob and Kenny both opened fire without hesitation.

The creature screamed with rage as the bullets tore into its massive body, knocking it to the ground, but not killing or seriously injuring it.

Jacob and Kenny watched speechless as it crawled in through the treeline, struggled to its feet, and limped away.

Jacob ran back to the porch, grabbed the phone book, and called the local game warden.

Nearly two hours later, Gene Trauber, the local warden, showed up to take their statements and told them that he had been called out to answer numerous such reports in the area.