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We were taking four ATV's for this hunt which might last two weeks. Everyone pitched in to load gear onto the two trailers we'd be pulling to our main campsite. Our base camp would serve as the jumping off point for shorter trips deeper into the forest.
With Gracie Layne's help, Chance, our friend Tom, and I had poured over Harry's journals and documented the areas where the out-of-place cryptids had been seen. Some of those sightings were years ago, but it was the only starting point we had.
Rene and Loren Dubois, cryptid hunters from Quebec, were joining the team leaving from Chance's. The two brothers were friends of Harry and Dutch. They helped Chance and I when some of the roque BITES agents from the lab kidnapped Chance. Since they already knew about the lab and were experienced cryptid hunters, BITES agreed to include them. We had a lot of area to cover on this hunt, and we needed the extra hands.
With the ATVs loaded, the six of us went inside to appreciate indoor plumbing one last time and fill thermoses with coffee and hot water to get us through the first few hours. I overheard Rene and Loren thanking Chance for including them in this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. We all had studied the list of our possible targets and researched the cryptids on the list we weren't familiar with. I still hadn't heard how they thought some of the cryptids from other countries ended up at the BITES lab. Maybe someday, I'll get the answers to those questions. For now, we were anxious to get into the woods.
Before we headed out, Jared's radio sounded. He walked off a few feet to talk. "The other team is pulling out now," he said. A second team of cryptid hunters was leaving from the lab. The other members of Jared's BITES team—Auggie, Henry, Matt, and John, were part of that team. John has been taking over some hunts for Chance so we can spend more time together. BITES is closing down their cryptid ops after this hunt, and John will be working for Chance fulltime.
The plan was that the two groups would hunt separately for the first week and then meet up to share information and formulate a plan for the rest of the hunt. A lot depended on what evidence we found as well as any cryptid sightings by the group.
Dark had fallen long before we pulled into the open meadow that was to be our base camp. An hour later our camp was organized with three tents, plus one for storage. The trailers had been disconnected from the ATVs, and we were all seated around a campfire eating fried chicken from Hairy's and discussing the animals we hoped to find.
"Are we looking for specific cryptids on the list or just looking for signs of any of them," I asked.
"We'll start out looking for evidence of any cryptids. Some of these creatures are so rare the only information we have on them is what came from the BITES lab," Jared said.
"There definitely are some of these animals that I could classify as more of a threat to humans than others," Cassie said. "I want to do everything we can to find those, but Jared's right. We need to see what we can find."
"Just remember," Chance said, "Any of those that escaped from the lab could have been altered. We can't be sure that even those were used to dealing with like bigfoot will react as we expect."
"Good point," Cassie agreed.
Everyone retired to their tents early, anxious to start the actual hunt.
I snuggled up with my head on Chance's shoulder. "I know how excited you are about this, but what if we don't find anything?" I asked, tracing my finger over the tattoo on his pec.
He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips for a kiss. "Then we'll have had an incredible adventure together."