A pair of owls hooted a call-and-response to each other back in the pines. The shadows were lengthening; it was getting dark up here, and the denizens of the night were taking over.

Jace Morgan gripped his shotgun tightly, nervously glancing around the forest. He'd been coming up here since he'd been a little kid; he knew every rock, every tree in these woods, as if they were part of his backyard.

Now, however, he felt as if he were marooned on a deadly alien planet.

Somewhere out there lurked a murderous beast that had savagely killed six people in less than twenty four hours.

"Colonel Morgan? We're about finished...