Billy: A Tale Of Unrelenting Terror Read Online Free PDF

heading toward civilization, but thought better of it, so he impatiently waited. At least a half-an-hour passed before he rethought his position. It was beginning to get dark, and he knew it would be difficult driving out on the narrow dirt road once night fell.
    Manny decided that he would put a safety cone in the middle of the road and another one as close to the body as he could so that the authorities could retrieve it and do whatever it was that they did when unpleasant things like this occurred. Climbing out of his truck, he grabbed two of the orange cones from the back and walked back to where he made the gruesome discovery. He set the first cone down unceremoniously in the middle of the shell road and carefully walked over to the edge of the marsh.
    Manny scanned the brackish water, but couldn’t see the offending object in the failing light.
    "Just perfect," he muttered in frustration.
    He briefly considered trekking back to the truck and grabbing his flashlight, but changed his mind. Instead, he carefully set the second cone down at his feet and began to turn around when he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Startled, he jumped and turned his head quickly to the side, but nothing moved. Relieved, Manny let out a breath and chuckled nervously to himself. It was then that he spotted the object floating just under the surface of the murky water at his feet.
     
     

Chapter Six
    Prey
    " T en-four, on my way," Dean uttered into his radio before returning the receiver to its perch along the dashboard.
    Deputy Arceneaux drew the lucky straw on this assignment since he was closest to the reported location. He figured it was more than likely to be yet another bullshit call about a floating body that didn’t pan out. At least, he hoped it would be. Every once in awhile, an occasional carcass would materialize out of the swamp, although the majority of these cases tended to be an accidental drowning devoid of criminal mischief. The end result was always the same for the first officer at the scene – endless paperwork.
    There was no telling how many people disappeared in the swamp over the years. The Atchafalaya Basin is comprised of over a million acres of sparsely populated marshland prone to flooding and home to a vast array of wildlife, much of which is considerably inhospitable to human beings. People came up missing from time to time throughout the area, so it was only natural that one would be found every now and then.
    The deputy hoped that it would turn out to be a false alarm. Many times, people found ‘things’ in the swamp they couldn’t recognize. Much in the way one attributes unexplained lights in the sky to unidentified flying objects; floating objects in the dark, scary swamp are seen as dead human bodies. Sometimes these are indeed bodies, though rarely human. Of course, there are always the exceptions, thought Dean.
    The deputy drove cautiously down Bayou Pigeon Road, keeping his eyes peeled. It was almost completely dark outside and, even with his headlights shining down the narrow road in front of him, the way was treacherous. He occasionally stopped and swung his spotlight around to get a glimpse into the wetlands on either side of the road, but only the gloomy darkness greeted him.
    A green, glowing fog made his surroundings surreal, like something out of a bad horror movie. Even after a lifetime of living near the swamp, Dean always felt a chill run up his spine at the strange phenomenon. He learned long ago that it was a by-product of the large amount of methane gas produced by the decaying vegetation and putrid waters of which the swamp was comprised. Scientific explanations did little to quell the feelings of dread the spectacle caused in him, particularly when the explanations involved rotting dead things.
    After inching his car around a deceased alligator, the deputy spotted a Louisiana Gas truck up the road. Just past the abandoned vehicle, he saw a solitary orange traffic cone