Big Cypress Skunk Ape Story part 3

Skunk Ape Continued:
Now everyone has pretty much settled in and has everything ready for the morning. Each guy one at a time turns in. The Coleman lantern in the other building is turned out and the last guy to get into his bunk turns off the lantern in the sleeping building. The lantern when it was on makes a hissing sound as the fuel burns and it emits light. As the lantern goes out the sound of the swamp in the night time can be heard. Hundreds of insects and frogs are clicking, creaking and croaking. To those of us that are used to it, it is a soothing sound. A sound that we miss in the big city. Occasionally an owl hoots and you can hear soft splashing in the swamp as the occupants try to eat each other or move from food source to food source. Mark is not used to this sound and every splashing sound is the Skunk Ape moving around outside. It is pitch black, no moon at all, which makes good sleeping for us. We are soon a sleep.

We are startled awake by screaming and yelling! We look over at Mark, the source of the commotion. He is sitting up in his bunk, with a flashlight shining outside in one hand and his pistol in the other. Jon softly calls over to Mark, but he doesn't seem the hear him, the rest of us are afraid to move. Mark doesn't respond, his flashlight is wildly shining around outside, the reflection on the screen lighting up his area, so we can clearly see the pistol in his hand. Jon getting no response, just lays there quietly. Mark is yelling "GET AWAY SKUNK APE", so we all quickly figured out what was scaring him so badly. None of us wanted to be mistaken for the Skunk Ape, so we just lay in our bunks quietly. After what seemed like forever, Mark turned off his flashlight, laid his pistol down on the window sill and laid back down. After a while, Jon called over to him and got no response. Jon quietly got up and slipped over to Mark. Jon picked up Mark's pistol and unloaded it, much to our relief. It seems the only one that was asleep at this point was Mark. It was 4:30 in the morning and everyone was now wide awake, but Mark.

We started talking to one another and begin to put together what had caused Mark to be so scared. It was soon time to get up for the hunt, so the lantern was lit and we started to get dressed and someone started coffee in the kitchen. Jon woke Mark up and said it was time to go hunting. Mark got up and got dressed with the rest of us. Over morning coffee we asked Mark what he was yelling at during the night. He didn't know what we were talking about. Apparently he was sound asleep, what we didn't know was that he was a sleep walker and wasn't aware of anything he was doing. Now that's scarier then any Skunk Ape! The next night all the guns were unloaded and put away when we hit the bunk. No repeats!, No thank you!

Now here is a scarier thought, Mark is now a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper, out patrolling the highways at night, that should make you feel safe as you drive the highways at night.

The End