As Real as it Gets

Happy Campers (Chapter 5, Part 5)

Rick and you hurried through the long dark tunnels following the sounds. It was like a whole maze system, many paths and turns intertwining with each other. The growling and the stomping grew louder, the creature was getting too close and Rick turned off his flashlight. There were some tree roots on the wall and the two of you hid behind them. The Bigfoot stood there, a few feet away from you. It started smelling around like something was there, hiding from him. Rick quietly pulled out his gun. You grabbed his hand and lowered the weapon, letting him know that no shooting should take place. As the Bigfoot moved away, Rick put back his gun back in his coat and slowly sneaked out of the hiding place with you close behind him.

You stepped on a root and it broke, the cracking sound echoed through the tunnels. Bigfoot turned around started bolting towards you. Rick grabbed your hand and started running down the tunnel, "You still don't want me to shoot him?!"

"It might make him angrier or it might even attract more of them living in these tunnels!" you addressed.

"RICK! Y/N!" the screams of Summer and Morty were getting louder and louder, but so was the screaming of a pissed Bigfoot right behind you.

You entered a room of sorts, a dead end. It was illuminated by the sun making it through the cracks of the dirt and rocks above it. In the corner were Summer and Morty hugging each other in terror and a slightly smaller Bigfoot than the one that's been chasing you, standing in front of them. Their tent was on the ground, bent and torn.

Rick pulled out his gun and aimed at the creature in front of the kids. "Rick, no!" you took his gun away, "It's not... hurting them."

The Bigfoot extended its arm to touch Summer's pony tail. The kids noticed you and quickly ran to hide behind you and Rick. The Bigfoot wasn't attacking you, it just looked at you.

"I think that's the female and back there was the male." Rick spoke.

The giant, male Bigfoot came into the room, growling and jumping. Rick got tense, "Stay calm." You whispered and placed your hand on his shoulder, "Something happened, but I don't think they want to kill us."

The female made a weird purring sound and the male calmed down slightly and walked over to hug her.

"Okaaay, that's weird... but good." Rick spoke, but saw something on the other corner of the room and started walking over to it.

You turned to Summer and Morty, making sure they were doing okay. They didn't have any major injuries only a couple small cuts or bruises. Summer thanked you when you returned her phone. "I think you should call your mom. But don't tell her about this... adventure."

"Hey, I found something!" Rick called you over, "I think I know why they're acting so weird. This here," the pointed to a pile of neatly arranged leaves and moss, "it's probably a bed for a baby."

"But there's no baby." Summer said.

"Impressive observation skills as always, Summer." Rick continued, "There's no baby here because- "

"The hunter that we saw on camera and the one that was firing his shotgun in Summer's video!" you exclaimed.

Rick nodded, "Exactly. He took their child. They thought we did it, so that's why they kidnapped you two. Now that they see we're innocent, they no longer want to kill us."

"What should we do?" Summer asked.

"My call: just go home. You got your footage and our work here is done." Rick started walking back through the tunnels.

You stopped him, "Whoa, hey! We can't just go home now. We gotta help this poor Bigfoot family. An asshole took an innocent baby animal. How can you just walk away from that? We gotta do the right thing!" The kids agreed with you.

"You're right." Rick turned around, "The fuck was I thinking?"

The four of you got out of the cave and followed Rick back to the bushes the hunter was hiding behind in the motion-capture video. He picked the torn that had a bit of blood on it.

"What are you doing?" Morty asked.

"You'll see." Rick said while you made your way to the space ship. He took out a little drone and turned it on. "This here is a neat little tracker I made a while ago, it scans DNA and then uses that info to- " 

The drone quickly scanned the torn and started flying away. All of you followed it thought the woods. After a solid ten minutes of walking, you came across a dark green Jeep, but no hunter. You came closer to the car and noticed that it was shaking, something was moving inside of it.

Suddenly, the drone was shot and it fell to the ground. Rick took out his gun and told you to get behind him.

"Drop the gun!" yelling was heard from the nearby bushes, "I said drop it!"

"Alright, alright." Rick did as he said, "We just wanna talk, okay?"

The hunter stood up and started walking over to his car, "You tryina steal my catch, huh buddy?"

"Your catch is an infant of an endangered species." Rick spoke, "It would be real nice if you just gave it back to its parents."

"Yeah yeah, give it back so you can steal it and take it for yourself!" he pointed his gun at Rick. You held your breath in panic, "I'm not doin' that, comrade."