Mike brought the net to the edge of the trees along with the electrified staff. The net was a failsafe. The staff would shock the fallen creature after he went through the trip wire. Reina positioned herself at the edge as well, her bolas in hand ready to toss at the thing’s ankles if the wire failed. The tranquilizer gun was loaded and ready to fire when the creature appeared.

Nathan was on the opposite side of his team after laying out the wire. He hid at the tree line and made sure his teammates were within his field of vision. The silence all around them pressed lower and lower, suffocating them. The anticipation of the creature’s whereabouts only made it worse. Mike wondered how something so large was able to hide so quickly and so well, but then again these were its woods and it was adept at hunting.

Mike saw the creature before Nathan did, and when he started yelling to his comrade to run, Reina saw it, too. The thing was making its way slowly toward Nathan and for something so lumbering it was exceptionally quiet when it wanted to be. Nathan turned when he saw Mike and Reina screaming and gesturing, and there it was, looming over him. Its mouth was wide, drool fell from its maw, saturating its dark fur.

Just as the thing reached to scoop him into its massive grasp, Nathan bolted toward the path back to where Mike and Reina hid. Mike prayed the creature would follow suit and get ensnared in their trap. As if reading Mike’s mind, Nathan turned toward the trip wire, hoping the creature would be too overcome with hunger to notice it along the path.

Nathan leaped over the trap at the last second, looking to Mike and hoping he’d be ready to attack with the electrified staff. The creature hit the wire just as he’d hoped it would, the spikes along the length stabbing into its thick fur and filthy skin. At that moment, Reina released her bolas, the weapon wrapped around its ankles several times. The beast staggered, and Reina gasped, worrying it would fall on top of Nathan, crushing him. Nathan surprisingly had his wits with him as he ran for his life. As he detoured back toward his friends, he saw a man emerge from the tree line where he had been hiding just seconds before. The stranger ran straight for the beast as the creature stumbled forward.