Wes Coffey

They were telling us they'd been in our gear.

They were telling us they wanted us to walk across that clearing and onto that game trail.

Cole figured it out at the same time I did.

He said, we go left.

I said, okay.

We turned 90 degrees and started walking, not on any trail, straight through the timber.

We were heading east, I think, away from the trailhead, away from everything, but away from the clearing and the pack and the game trail.

We walked for about six minutes before they hit us.

I never saw it.

I want to tell you I did."

I want to tell you I got a good look and I can describe it to you, and you'll know what it was.

But I didn't.

It came from my right side, from behind a deadfall I had walked past a second before, and it hit Cole.

Cole was maybe four feet in front of me.

He went down hard.

His rifle went flying.

He made a sound I have never heard a human being make before or since.

It wasn't a scream.

It was a grunt, like the air had been punched out of him, and then it kept going.

A rising, breathy noise that didn't stop.