The Monster Book. Nick Redfern

Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу The Monster Book - Nick Redfern страница 25

The Monster Book - Nick  Redfern

Скачать книгу

trunk etc. His eye followed it one way and then the other—seems it was very extensive, like 10 to 15 ft. either way. Then he noticed the spider itself, only a foot or so away from his face. It was a real horror—the body, i.e. thorax + abdomen, he described as the ‘size of a small dog or puppy,’ it was colored jet black, the legs were thick and hairy but not as long as the classic ‘dinner plate tarantula’ type spider that owes its size to the spread of its legs. This thing had more body bulk than spread. Needless to say he backed out of there very slowly and carefully.”

      In this c. 1890s illustration from The Strand a spider attacks a man in the jungle (part of a short fiction story). People have long had nightmares about large spiders, and fiction writers take advantage of that fear.

      Dr. Karl Shuker says of this particularly creepy phenomenon:

      “This is not the only report of a giant mystery spider encountered in Papua New Guinea during World War II. During an interview with cryptozoologist Rob Morphy of AmericanMonsters.com on the U.S. radio show ‘Coast to Coast AM’ a couple of years ago, a telephone caller named Craig recounted how his grandfather, while serving in Papua New Guinea during WW2, encountered a monstrous spider in a web that scared him so much he hacked it to death with his machete. According to Craig’s grandfather, the spider measured an immense 3 ft. from tip to tip, and, unexpectedly, was not hairy like many big spiders are. Instead, it was shiny, and was emerald green in color. This nightmarish arachnid was encountered near Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea.”

images

      GIGANTIC INSECTS

      Is it possible that the southwest region of the United States is home to giant-sized insects that feed upon us, the human race? Such a thing sounds not just unlikely and incredible, but just like the kind of scenario presented in the classic 1954 sci-fi movie Them! It’s a movie in which massive, radioactive ants terrorize and slaughter the people of a small New Mexico town and threaten to do likewise to not just the rest of the country, but to the entire planet, too. Which brings us to an important question: might truth be stranger than fiction? Yes, just possibly.

      Danielle B. is a woman who, for a number of years, lived in the New Mexican town of Aztec—which, just like the far more famous New Mexican town of Roswell, has a crashed UFO legend attached to it. It’s a legend that dates back to March 1948, when, reportedly, a near-intact flying saucer and its crew of diminutive dead pilots were found. But, according to Danielle, she encountered something far stranger at Aztec than deceased extraterrestrial dwarfs and a wrecked flying saucer.

      It was on one particular day in May 2004 that Danielle decided to spend a few hours hanging out in Aztec’s Hart Canyon—which, curiously enough, is exactly where the alleged UFO is said to have fallen to earth, back in the 1940s. It was also where Danielle had an encounter with something far worse than aliens. On what was a warm and sunny day, Danielle found a place to sit, where she could read a book and have her snacks and drinks at hand. It was a perfect way to spend a day off work. Or, for a while it was, at least.

      Gigantic ants menace humans in the 1954 sci-fi horror movie Them!

      All was normal for a couple of hours. That is, until Danielle noticed a small, black helicopter approaching her in the distance. Far more correctly, she assumed that it was a helicopter. Certainly, at a distance that’s what it appeared to be. But it was no normal helicopter: there was no “thud-thud” sound that one associates with the fast-moving blades of a helicopter. And, on top of that, it appeared to be carrying below it a small calf, held tightly in place by thick ropes! Most definitely not the kind of thing you see every day. When the helicopter got close to Hart Canyon, however, Danielle could see that the helicopter was actually nothing of the sort. It was a large, obscene-looking insect of around four meters in length. The presumed rotor-blades of the helicopter were actually the fast-beating wings of the monster-creature. As for those ropes, they were nothing less than powerful-looking black limbs.

images

      Danielle could see that the helicopter was actually nothing of the sort. It was a large, obscene-looking insect of around four meters in length.

      Danielle could only stare—in a mixture of awe, fascination, fear, and horror—as the huge creature flew overhead, dropped the poor calf on a nearby peak, and then swooped to the ground with frightening speed, pounced on the animal, and viciously tore into it. In less than half an hour the giant insect was done with its feasting and took to the skies. Danielle had been too shocked to flee the area at the time, the result of which was that the terrible event was forever embedded in her memory, even though she clearly wished this was not the case. Suspecting—probably correctly—that if she told local law enforcement officials of what she saw, she would likely be booked for wasting police time, Danielle finally made her shaky way home. She stayed silent on the matter until she confided in me, roughly three years later.

      Even I have to admit that Danielle’s story stretches credibility to the max—despite the fact that she came across as nothing less than absolutely credible, down-to-earth, and normal. And while many might be inclined to dismiss such a bizarre account, I don’t. Not because, in X-Files-style, “I want to believe,” but because of something very different. It may come as a surprise to a lot of people to learn that, in the distant past, huge insects—not unlike the one described by Danielle—really did exist.

      For example, in the Jurassic Period there existed in what today is the United States a dragonfly called Meganeura monyi. This was no regular dragonfly, however. It had a wingspan in excess of three feet. As another example, in 2001 Ohio State University geologists discovered the fossilized remains of a centipede in an old mine. It was a centipede five feet long. Then there were the ancient remains of a sea scorpion unearthed from a German quarry in 2007; an arthropod, the sea scorpion is of the same group as insects and spiders. There was something very notable about this particular sea scorpion, however: it was slightly more than eight feet in length.

      A fossil of a Meganeura monyi, a species of huge dragonfly that lived during the Jurassic Period. They could have wingspans over 25 inches (65 centimeters) wide.

      Of course, none of these oversized things were alive at the time of their discovery. Indeed, they lived, walked, and flew millions of years ago. But, is it feasible that in certain parts of the United States—and amid a great deal of stealth and, perhaps, underground caves and caverns—certain similar things exist, today? Most people might say “no.” But try asking Danielle and you will get a very different response. To this very day she has no doubt that these things are all too real. At the time of this writing, she is working on her own book; it’s a book that ties in the predations of these hideous things with the so-called “cattle mutilation” phenomenon, which has plagued and puzzled ranchers, police officers, and even the FBI for decades. And particularly so in the southwest. In Danielle’s scenario, the cattle-mutilators are not satanic cults, aliens, or covert military units conducting biological warfare operations. No. The mutilators are giant creatures from eras long gone that are feeding on the nation’s cattle herds late at night.

      Perhaps, one day, Danielle’s story will finally

Скачать книгу