The Beast in the woods - 1. Chapter 1

“Okay, Scouts, we will be camping at the Scout campground this weekend. Be sure you have your permission slips and your camping gear. If the weather is nice, we will be camping out in the open.”

“If it isn’t?”

“We’ll use the camp’s cabins.”

“Uncle Ted, are we going to have a campfire.”

“Yes, Jim, and we will roast hot dogs and make Smores. You’ll have a lot of fun. “

I am the scoutmaster for a group of boys that belong to our youth club. For some, they had done this before. I had four boys who would be going camping for the first time. My nephew is one of these boys. My brother said that is all he talks about.

I took off early Friday, loaded my truck with my camping equipment,
food, bedrolls, and kindling. I have camped on this campground before, and I knew we would need dry wood to get a fire started if it rained.

I picked up the ten boys. The older boys sat in the back of the truck, and the four younger boys rode in the cab with me.

Arriving at the campground, the older boys took over. They scouted out a spot for a campfire and found stones to sit on. The stones weren’t hard to find. Other scout troops had used them. It was more of a matter of arranging them around the campfire. They gathered wood from the woods that surrounded the campsite. As many times as I have camped here, there always seems to be a lot of broken limbs on the ground.

There were three cabins, and between two of the cabins, there was an outhouse, and there was an old-fashioned water pump. When we built these cabins, I knew that we piped water into the cabins from a spring in the mountain. I had the keys to the cabins in case we needed to retreat from a storm.

A trail through the woods led to the waterfalls, which provided the water for the site. At the base of the waterfall was a natural pond. The boys decided to go swimming. Since they hadn’t brought their bathing suits, it would be au natural. I laughed as the new boys were shy, but they joined in after seeing everyone else having fun. I knew this would happen, so I brought towels in my knapsack.

The boys continued to swim until they were hungry. “Uncle, we’re hungry.” I checked my watch, and it was almost two o’clock. I handed out towels, and as soon as they were dressed, we headed back to camp.

The older boys started the fire. I had hot dog forks for the boys. On one of my campouts, one of the boys got ill from the twig he was using to roast his hot dog. From that time on, I had metal forks for them to use. The boys sat around the fire, roasting hot dogs.

“Do you think there are any wild animals in those woods?”

One of the older boys took up the gauntlet. “The last time we camped here, there was this animal that looked like a wolf, only it was at least three times bigger. At night we could hear it howl. The first night we heard it, we moved into the cabins.”

“I read a story about such a beast. It was called the Beast of Gevaudan. In 1764 in the Margeride Mountains in the south of France, a beast looked like a wolf. Only it was as huge as a bear. They finally killed it with silver bullets. When they went into its lair, they found heads of young boys and girls.”

“Do you think there could be wolves as big as that in those woods?”
“I guess it’s possible.” Just then, we heard a wolf howl.

“Sir, can we sleep in the cabin tonight?”

I didn’t answer. However, the boys agreed among themselves, and before I could answer, they had their bedrolls and headed to one of the large cabins. I just laughed.

It was about 2 am when something was sniffing around the cabin, then the door crashed open and …….