of Gabe’s line of sight He heard a sound like a barking shout With the roar of the pounding rain he couldn’t identify it Suddenly Sean’s calm remarks that the Waheela would be out looking for higher ground came back to him Somewhere out there in the darkness a Waheela lurked maybe And maybe the legendary bear-wolf creature that bit off people’s heads was exactly what moved through the shadows in the spot Ben wanted him to jump Gabe Ben bellowed You need to jump so I can lower Tyler down to the hood Gabe considered telling Ben about the movement in the shadows But what could his brother do They were trapped and the floodwater was rising He really had no choice Gabe shucked out of his backpack and heaved it as hard as he could directly toward the spot he’d seen something move Nothing 10
yelped or growled But would he even hear the Waheela over the sound of the rain Jump Gabe jump Ben bellowed Gabe took a deep breath tensed his muscles and jumped flying into the darkness He didn’t land on the hard ground as he expected He didn’t even land in water Instead he hit something that grunted Gabe’s numb fingers sunk into wet tangled hair of some kind Gabe screamed 11
chapter 2 INTO THE CANADIAN WILDS Tyler leaned over the seat of the van looking between Gabe and Sean Why does Canada look so much like all the other places we go to look for cryptids Cryptids are creatures of myth and legend that may exist Sean lectured but no one has yet found proof Logically they’re going to be in wild areas Cryptids don’t hang out at the mall But they do hang out in the United States Tyler said So why are we in Canada Waheelas are more common in Canada than in Michigan I thought we’d have better luck hunting one up here Ben said I vote that we never look for Waheelas again Tyler said We almost died 12
That’s a little dramatic Ben said Gabe shivered as he remembered his jump into the darkness Thankfully he’d landed on a big bearded hunter who wasn’t all that mad about having a kid fly out of the darkness and slam into him The hunter had even used the winch on his truck to pull the van out of the floodwater Ben had told the man about the cryptids they’d hunted He insisted that if they really wanted to see some scary monsters they should go to Canada So they went This may be even more interesting than the Waheela Ben said We are looking for a creature that seems to be waging war on the local population Waging war Tyler yelped You mean eating people Ben laughed No people snacks so far Just a few rough bumps 13
