Читать книгу Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside - Brad Steiger - Страница 33

On April 10, 1970, Mike Busby of Cairo, Illinois, was traveling on Route 3 to Olive Branch to pick up his wife.

About a mile south of Olive Branch on the dark, deserted road that parallels the edge of the Shawnee National Forest, Busby experienced car trouble. Grumbling his frustration, Busby got out of his car and popped open the hood.

He had not even had time to glance at the motor when he was distracted by a noise to his left. An incredible form, over six feet tall, moved in on Mike and hit him in the face.

Busby and his monstrous attacker fell to the highway. Dull claws ripped at his clothing, and Busby sought desperately to hold the thing’s mouth open and at arm’s length so its teeth could not tear his throat.

Busby was unable to clearly identify what it was that had seized him but he said later that he could feel something fuzzy around its mouth and that the thing’s body hair was as short and wiry as steel wool.

“The thing kept letting out these deep, soft growls,” Busby remarked. “Those sounds were unlike anything that I had ever heard.”

After what must have seemed like an eternity locked in a death struggle, a diesel truck approached with bright headlights and the roar of a powerful motor—a combination of factors that frightened Busby’s attacker back into the forest.

“It was a sleek, shiny black color,” Busby said, “and it ran away with heavy, thudding feet.”

John Hartsworth, the truck driver, reported that the thing that he had seen in his headlamps looked like some kind of “giant cat” until it had jumped off Busby and run into the forest on its hind legs.