Monster Hunter’s Journal
Day 1
“We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
It’s the worst joke in my Dad’s repertoire. Every vacation, everytime we cross over to visit Grams in Missouri, anytime we go anywhere.
Today we left Kansas behind.
Not in reality. We haven’t gone anywhere. But I don’t think we can call this place Kansas right now. Everything has changed.
Our house is still here, and the barn by the driveway hasn’t moved. But we don’t have a farm anymore. All of the corn? Gone. The fences? Disappeared. The cattle shed and chicken coop? I’d blame rustlers for all the missing livestock, but alien abduction is probably more likely given everything else happening. Only things left are the three horses that were in the barn overnight.
The neighbors have disappeared. They weren’t particularly close, seeing as our farm is pretty decent sized. But you could still see a couple houses on the horizon, plus the old water pumping station down the road. As of this morning, they’re all gone too.
It’s not just what is missing that’s weird. The new stuff is even stranger. My Dad has been farming his whole life, and Grand Pops was farming here before that. Neither of them know what to make of the purple and pink wheat grass that’s taken over the fields for as far as we can see. No trees. Just weird grass as tall as my knees wherever you look.
And then there are the critters. No one else agrees, but I’m a firm believer that Aliens are to blame. I’ve been shooting raccoons and possums and other small game around the barn since I was five. The rodents and smaller animals are running through the grass like crazy this morning, but my BB gun isn’t slowing them down one bit. Dad tried with his .22, but even his Long Rifle didn’t stop a single one.
The whole swarm of them are moving South or South West across the land, like a weird migration. Pops thinks something is chasing them.
I told them it's the Aliens. No one believes me.
None of the electronics are working, which just adds to the strangeness of the day. No phones, no radio, no internet. Nothing. Dad was able to crank up the old truck and one of the tractors was okay, but the new machinery with chips inside are all sitting dead. Dad and Pops siphoned off the gas from the broken ones, so we’d have a backup supply just in case.
I waited for the bus like normal this morning, but it never came. Weird stuff is happening for sure, but at least I didn’t have to go to school. Maybe the Aliens took Mrs. Germaine and I won’t have to go to Math class ever again.
Day 2
I didn’t sleep last night. I was too worried about the Aliens. Not really worried, I guess. More like excited. I crept up to the roof after midnight and stared out with my binoculars. The sky was dancing with bright colored lights and shooting stars. Exactly like you would expect before an Alien invasion.
No Aliens came. What gives?!
I did see some larger animals overnight. They were too far away to make out details in the dark, even with my binoculars, but they looked like some kind of predator. They moved like mountain lions or tigers, like you see on those Discovery channel shows. We don’t usually see a lot of those around Kansas, but then again… Kansas has left the building.
What was most bizzare was the number of them. I thought they usually moved in small packs or hunted solo, but there were easily 50 or more of them. The grass covered up their lower half, but they disrupted some kind of glowing bugs amongst the grass when they moved through the fields. The glow bugs would fly into the air and cast an odd shadow over the sneaking hunters. They were pretty silent, though sometimes you could hear a small squeal or shriek whenever they caught some of the small game amongst the grass.
I watched them for almost an hour before they moved out of sight. I think I fell asleep sometime after that. The sun woke me up pretty early, which was good because Mom would have had a fit if she’d caught me out of bed.
The bus didn’t show up again today, which suits me just fine. Dad and Pops want to saddle up the horses and go for a ride to scout the area today. Mom isn’t happy about it, but she’s got enough to deal with. Jamie and Jason were up crying all night, and Caroline’s fighting her on the potty training. Dad promised I could go with them. I’d give anything to get out of the house and away from the little kids. I love them and everything, but a guy needs a break sometimes.
Update:
We took the horses out after breakfast. I was tired, but I snuck a can of Coke from the garage before helping tack the horses up. Dad let me take my bow, while he and Pops each grabbed a shotgun. Their saddle bags also had some rope, a knife, and some other gear that could be useful if things went sideways.
We rode for almost two hours before stopping. Due East, the whole way. We should have passed through two or three farms in that time, and passed over Highway 77. All we saw was more grass and lots of flat, flat land. No houses, no buildings, no signs of life at all.
We let the horses rest for a bit. Dad didn’t want the horses to eat the weird grass, but it was hard to stop them. They seemed okay, but I guess we’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll wake up tomorrow with a weird Alien third eye or something. That’s assuming they make it to tomorrow.
We rode North after that for about an hour. Then stopped for lunch near a small stream. Dad talked through his theories on what was going on. Pops mostly stared into the distance and carved up pieces of apple with his hunting knife. He’s a man of few words. Pops is getting pretty old, but he is still one tough cookie. He served in Vietnam and has that look in his eyes like he’d seen stuff over there. If you ever got into a staring match with him, you would absolutely lose.
We started to make our way back after lunch, meandering West to South West along the way as we followed close to the stream. There hadn’t been a stream or creek or anything similar near our farm a few days ago. We followed it back almost all the way to the house. It turned further West about 20 minutes before we got home, but Dad was glad to know that there was fresh water somewhere nearby.
It was a weird day. Days, I guess. Something changed in Dad while we were out on the ride. He seemed concerned but curious in the morning. By the time we got home, he had switched into “Survivalist” mode. I know some kids from school who had parents like that— apocalypse plans and a basement full of canned meat in case of nuclear war. Dad and Pops always have a stockpile of food for the animals and our big barn freezer has slabs of meat from last year’s slaughter, but I wouldn’t call us “Preppers” or anything like that. Whatever he was thinking about while we rode, Dad was making plans. I think that he thinks we’re on our own for now.
He and Pops started making lists and sent me out to do a bunch of chores when we got back. Counting everything in the pantry, checking the water lines, rounding up all of the spare lanterns and blankets and stuff like that.
I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay up to watch for Aliens tonight. Hopefully they come and get Mrs. Germaine, if they haven’t abducted her already.
Day 4
We haven’t seen as many critters recently, and the big hunter cats haven’t shown up in the daytime, but Dad and Pops think something is coming.
They went on another ride yesterday and left me behind to help mom with more house stuff. When they got back, Dad started immediately barking orders to me about fencing and barricades. We spent the afternoon pushing pieces of equipment around with the old tractor, forming a makeshift wall of machinery. We hauled out water troughs, barrels, and whatever else we could find to fill in the gaps between the machinery. In the end, we created a wide circle of stuff that looked more like a wall of junk than a fortification. It only covered about 1/3 of the way around the barn and the house, but I guess it was better than nothing?
Dad wouldn’t tell me exactly what had spooked him, but he kept his shotgun slung on his back all day. When it was time for bed, Pops took up watch on the back porch. He and Dad were talking over dinner about taking shifts. They even mentioned having me help at one point, but Mom squashed that plan and said that a 12 year old needed to sleep, especially on a school night.
She still won’t admit that the school is gone at this point. And hopefully so is Ms. Thomas too. Maybe the Aliens got a two for one special and took my reading teacher AND math teacher last night.
Pops and I set up a target behind the barn this morning and have been practicing with our compound bows. He is a strict instructor and kept having me run crazy drills. Shooting from different distances, around barriers he’d set up. He even made me practice drawing my bow while running around the house and aiming whenever the target came back into view.
Dad scared the twins at dinner. Mom seems nervous about whatever they found and Dad is taking it very seriously. I was making faces at Caroline and didn’t hear what they were talking about, but Dad slammed the table with his fist before walking outside. The twins started crying, then Mom started crying… it was a whole thing. I helped Pops clear the table and then Mom made us all go up to our rooms to bed.
Whatever they are preparing for, whatever has Dad all worked up, I hope we’ll be okay.
Day 7
Today was the strangest day yet.
It’s been one week since the Aliens took the livestock and turned our corn crop into purple grass. I’ve been alternating between chores, helping Mom with the little kids, and bow practice with Pops. Still no school, and thankfully Mom has stopped making me go to the bus stop every morning. We still have no power and no internet.
It was a mostly normal morning, or whatever normal is these days. Just before lunch, some kind of animal gave out a big roar from out in the fields. Dad and Pops were working on something in the barn and came out running. Dad has been carrying his big hunting rifle on his back the past few days, and immediately raised it up to look through the scope.
He yelled for me to go inside and get the rest of the family into the basement. Pops turned and gave me the coldest stare I’ve ever seen. I didn’t try to protest and just ran inside to get Caroline and the twins. Mom was doing laundry and I yelled for her to meet us in the basement.
We were only downstairs for a few minutes before we heard the gunshots. First was the loud crack of the hunting rifle, then a second crack, followed by a deeper boom. That must have been Pops’ shotgun. There was another roar from some kind of animal, even louder and clearly close to the house. I heard Dad’s voice scream out in pain.
Jamie and Jason started screaming at each other and Caroline was clinging to Mom. They all looked panicked. Something in me started to swell and I knew I needed to go help. Before Mom could stop me, I took off up the stairs. I grabbed my bow off the kitchen table where I had left it after my morning training. Glancing outside the window, I could see something big and brown running through the yard. It was headed towards the barn.
I only had a second to think. I dashed up the stairs to my room, opened my front window and climbed out onto the roof of the front porch. I had a clear view of the barn. The doors were shut now, but I knew they had been opened just a little while ago. I couldn’t see Dad or Pops anywhere outside, so I guessed they had barricaded themselves in the barn.
The big brown animal let out another roar, this time from the backside of the barn. I slowly stepped to the far end of the porch roof, so I could get a better view of the side of the barn. A few seconds later, the biggest thing I had ever seen came lumbering out. It was huge, bigger than our tractor. It was covered in brown fur and was ambling along on four legs. It kind of reminded me of a gorilla, but with curly hair and the head like one of those yeti monsters in Star Wars. It had two curly horns on either side of its head.
As it came to the side of the barn, it raised its two front legs and hammered onto the side of the building. I think they were more like arms than legs, but you get the idea. It made a few cracks in the siding, but wasn’t immediately able to get in.
Watching it beat away at the barn, my mind suddenly cleared and hyper focused. My breathing slowed and I raised my hunting bow up to my eyeline. I drew one of my carbon arrows with a sharp broadhead to the string. I wasn’t sure if this would even pierce through whatever tough skin this beast clearly had, but I just knew I had to try.
I pulled back with all of my might and took a deep breath. I lined up with the head of the beast and let the arrow fly.
I’m telling you now: that arrow had magic. It was like watching the Avengers and the special arrows that Hawkeye shoots. It flew so fast and had way more power behind it than anything I’ve ever shot at a target or at deer when Pops took me hunting. The arrow shot straight through the neck of the giant brown gorilla beast, causing it to let out a blood curdling roar in anger.
It turned to face me, clawing away at the arrow sticking out one end of its neck. I grabbed a second arrow, notched it, and sent it chasing the first. This time, instead of flying with extra power, the thing split in two. Not like it broke, but like it was cloned in mid air from one arrow into two arrows. Both arrows struck the gorilla square in the chest, penetrating a solid few inches into its hulking body. The beast flailed around for another few seconds before collapsing down to the ground. Blood was seeping out of all three wounds and started to gurgle out of its mouth, too. Another minute later and it was dead on the ground.
I stared at the beast from my spot on the roof. It was like there was nothing else going on around me, just an extreme focus on the fight at hand.
Slowly, the rest of the world around me started to filter back into my senses.
I could hear my Mom and my siblings inside, all crying and screaming. Pops opened the barn door and slowly crept out with his shotgun drawn, surprised to find the creature dead on the ground. He noticed the arrows and looked up at me on the roof. I climbed back through the window and made my way to the barn.
Dad had his shirt off and had a big bruise across his left shoulder. It looked like he had been hit by a car and broken his arm, but I’m guessing it was a wallop from the gorilla thing. Pops had made him a makeshift sling, and they were both standing over the beast by the time I came around the corner. He was holding a small brown marble looking thing in his good hand, while Pops was cutting into the throat of the beast with his big hunting knife.
We didn’t say much as we stood over the monstrous thing, just watched Pops as he broke down the monster and started dragging sections of it away from the house. We were all in a silent agreement that this thing shouldn’t be left out in the open where the little kids would see it. It would 100% give Caroline nightmares.
Dad gave me a pat on the back while we stood there. Pops gave me a nod and a smile, then told me to stop standing around like a useless idiot in his gravelly voice. It took us an hour to break down and move the whole monster away from the house and out into the field. By the time we moved the last of it, some carrion birds were starting to circle overhead, hoping for a free dinner.
I didn’t tell either of them about what happened with my arrows.
None of us told the rest of the family what happened as we sat down for dinner. Mom and Dad spoke quietly in the kitchen while the rest of us ate. It has been the strangest day of my life for sure: superhero archery powers, crazy beasts attacking our farm…
We aren’t in Kansas anymore.
