Wes Coffey
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
The footsteps were wrong.
I've heard people walk in the woods my entire life.
I've heard them in boots, in sneakers, in bare feet.
I've heard people walk fast and slow, drunk and sober, healthy and injured.
A person walking through dry oak leaves makes a specific sound.
It's a crunch and drag pattern.
Heel strikes, toe pushes off, the next foot swings forward.
It's rhythmic, predictable.
Even someone trying to walk quietly in dry leaves makes that pattern.
They just make it slower.
What I heard was not that pattern.
The footsteps were evenly spaced, but the timing was wrong.
The interval between each step was too long, like something was taking strides that covered five or six feet at a time, and the sound each foot made when it hit the ground was too heavy.
Not louder.
Heavier.
Like the weight behind each step was more than a person should weigh.
The leaves didn't just crunch.
They compressed.
I could hear the dirt beneath them take the impact.
The footsteps moved south for about thirty yards.