This story is the ninth chapter of a fictional series by SRI’s Mark Banta. We are also honored that SRI associate Pat Barker has contributed her talents to illustrate the series. We ask that you respect both the author’s and the illustrator’s copyrights and do not download or post these works on other sites.

Mark and Pat return with this month’s exciting installment of A New Reality. John is determined to track the bigfoot with or without help from the group from Midsouth Bigfoot Research Center. Grady is in grave danger as we learn more about the group that has kidnapped him.

If you haven’t already, read Chapter 8 of A New Reality or start at the beginning.

Chapter IX

Psycho was kneeling submissively before the dominant male. A high-pitched moan escaped the youngster’s throat, as if in anticipation of what might come next. With arms bowed and chest puffing out accentuating his bulk, Rhino was aggressively standing directly over Psycho. A steady, low growl rumbled from the alpha male’s deep barrel chest. He stared down at Psycho’s prostrate form as though deciding the best way to squash him.

A hundred thoughts were swirling through Grady’s mind. He’s going to kill him! Aren’t any of the others going to do anything? Maybe he’s just bluffing. This could be my chance to escape!

However, one thought overshadowed all the others. I have to do something to stop this! He couldn’t shake the overwhelming need to help the pathetic looking adolescent. Why do I care, he demanded of himself. These beasts have kidnapped me!

Scanning the scene around him, Grady turned to his right. The other sasquatch were shifting their weight around nervously. Their eyes were locked in morbid fascination on the scene unfolding before them. Grady realized that something was out of place. Where is Doc, Grady wondered to himself?

Grady felt something furry brush against his left arm and turned to see the curly red-haired youngster. Doc was crouched low in a submissive position and looked up at Grady with frightened eyes. The look nearly broke Grady’s heart.

Grady felt a flood of emotions as Doc reached out and grabbed his hand for comfort. Doc was afraid, Grady realized, but not for his own life. He was afraid for Psycho, and he was looking to Grady for help.

THUD! Grady turned towards the sound, already knowing what it was. Psycho let out a small, terrified scream and then went silent. Rhino raised his fists high over his head as he prepared to rain down his next blow on the young victim.

Grady released Doc’s hand and started forward. As he took his first step, he realized that he wasn’t afraid. It’s a good day to die, he repeated to himself as he often had in his Vietnam years. His fists tightened as he moved forward. Rhino’s back was to him, so he couldn’t see him coming. Grady knew it was a kamikaze mission. He couldn’t win, but it didn’t matter. At that moment…in the middle of nowhere…in the dark of night…it didn’t matter. He’d rather die, than escape knowing he hadn’t tried to help Psycho.

Grady stutter-stepped, like a field goal kicker lining up for the goal, so he could deliver the hardest blow possible. He was almost at the point of no return when a female sasquatch stepped into his field of view. She was only slightly taller than Grady, but outweighed him by well over a hundred pounds. With her left hand, the female shoved Grady squarely in the chest. It was a gentle blow, but the force was enough to lift Grady from his feet and onto his back.

As Grady hit the ground, he heard another THUD! Looking up, he saw that Rhino had delivered a second blow to Psycho. The female who had shoved Grady to the ground was stepping around the alpha male. Rhino turned and stared at her in disgust, a menacing growl escaping his throat. The female knelt before him and placed her body protectively over Psycho. She made no move against Rhino. She simply lay prone over the young sasquatch in a protective manner and awaited her fate.

Rhino roared in outrage, but did not strike the female. Instead, he turned to look back at the group of observers witnessing the scene. A large female, the tallest and bulkiest of the females, stepped from the group and approached him. When she reached his side, Rhino started back towards Grady, as though being relieved of his duty. As if they’d planned the maneuver in advance, the large female began raining down wild blows on the smaller female, as Rhino grabbed Grady by the shoulder.

Grady was pulled roughly ahead. Rhino walked straight ahead and past the scene of brutality. The others followed without protest as they began making their way down the hill, leaving Psycho and the prone female to their fate.

As he was pulled and dragged forward, unable to resist the will of his captor, Grady’s mind ran wild. It was a humbling experience that threatened to break his spirit with the scene he’d just witnessed playing relentlessly in his mind. He’d never felt so hopeless. He’d never felt more helpless. The sickening sounds of the beating drifted further and further behind until he was no longer able to hear them. But distance could not fade the images burned into his mind.

Grady was unsure how much time had passed. It could have been more than an hour. Or perhaps it was only a few minutes. Whatever the timeframe, Grady’s mind finally began to clear and the nightmare that had been replaying ruthlessly in his mind began to slowly fade.

Gaining some control of his mind and emotions, Grady strained to put his problems aside and focus on a solution. Think, he demanded of himself. Think!

As he was pulled ever deeper into the darkness, a small light of comprehension began to emerge in his thoughts. It started as an idea he could not quite capture, but slowly the pieces began to fall into place, and for a single moment, he thought he understood it all.

Grady’s mind flashed back to the very beginning…the call from John…crossing the Swine on horseback…tracking the lone sasquatch into the bottoms…the large beast crashing from the treetops. That latter image stopped and froze in place in his mind. There was now something familiar about the sasquatch they had killed that was only now beginning to come clear to him. There was something in its posture, its facial features - something that Grady now recognized. And then he knew the answer. It still didn’t make perfect sense, but he at least had gained part of the picture. The sasquatch he and John had killed was Psycho’s father.

A story began to form in Grady’s mind. He couldn’t be sure it was accurate, but he sensed it was somewhere close to the truth. Psycho’s father was large and had no doubt been part of the clan that now held him captive. He was certain by Rhino’s tree shaking, encircling behavior with Sniper, that the alpha male would have felt threatened by such a large adversary. If Rhino was aware that such an adversary had successfully mated with a female in his clan and produced a child, it made sense that Rhino would hold deep resentments against Psycho, his mother and his father.

Grady could almost picture Rhino’s displays of aggression against this threat to his dominance. Perhaps he ran him out of the clan, Grady conjectured, leaving Psycho without a father. That’s got to be close to the truth, Grady told himself, and explains some of Psycho’s erratic behavior.

Grady’s imagination helped him to fill in the blanks. Psycho’s father had become a liability to Rhino’s dominance. The alpha male had decided he must be killed to maintain his power. But somehow, the lesser male had managed to escape.

Rhino had pursued him, Grady determined, and when he and the clan had caught up to him, they found him dead. Rhino then must have realized that Grady and John had killed his enemy before he got the chance. Desperate to save face, Rhino had acted in the only way that made sense to him. He had dominated John and Grady in battle and taken Grady as captive.

Grady’s mind drifted back to the day he had awoken on the edge of the bluff with Rhino standing guard over him. The giant had sat for hours staring at him, as if contemplating what to do next. Grady thought he now had an idea what Rhino had decided. He’s keeping me alive for a while so he can show the others his dominance over me. He thinks that since I killed his rival, he must now show his power over me to show his dominance. Grady realized at that moment that his time was limited. Once Rhino felt his dominance had been clearly demonstrated, Grady’s life would be over.

Grady pushed the thoughts of his own mortality aside for the moment. He went back to the moment when Psycho had stood his ground against Rhino, remembering the alpha male’s vicious reaction. Psycho and his mother were outcasts in the group. To Rhino, they represented a threat to his dominance over the clan.

Reluctantly, Grady’s mind came back to the present and remembered the scene again that had just transpired this evening. Rhino finally had his reason to kill Psycho, the son of his greatest rival, but the female, Psycho’s mother, had interfered. It must be some type of taboo for the alpha male to kill the females, Grady reasoned. So, he sent in the matriarch of the group to do his dirty work.

Grady could not be sure that his reasoning was completely accurate, but he sensed in his gut that he was on the right track. If these assumptions were correct, it meant two things. First, Grady’s time was limited. Once Rhino had adequately demonstrated his dominance over him, he would kill him. Second, the lives of Psycho and his mother were in great danger as well. As far as Grady knew, they could already be dead.