In the early 2000s, a teenager named Evan and his father would regularly go hunting in the Georgia backcountry. When Evan turned 14 his father befriended a very wealthy landowner in Georgia who offered them access to one of his best private hunting areas. A couple of days later on October 5th, Evan and his father would take him up on the offer.
They woke up super early and they drove out to the edge of this property that was fenced in, and they went to a main gate where they had the combination that this guy had given them. They punched in the combo, opened up the gate, shut the gate, locked it, and then continued down the access road.
They followed this road for about two miles where it came to a stop right outside of this huge forest. They parked their truck, got out, put on their gear, and in the pre-morning darkness they began hiking into the woods. Even though they were there primarily to hunt, Even and his father secretly enjoyed just hiking around the woods, and camping out. Any chance they got to extend their hunting trips, they would, even if the hunting wasn't good.
Since they spent a ton of time in the woods together, they noticed almost immediately when they walked into this particular forest that something was off. There's no birds, no animals, silence. It's dead silent. The only sound they heard that was not them was a single plane that passed overhead. Although they found this very odd, they figured that it was just private property, and not a lot of people were out here. They thought that as soon as they showed up, the animals would've scattered.
They finally make it out to the hunting stand that the owner had told them about. They get all settled in, getting ready to see some animals. And all day long, they don't see a single animal. They don't hear a single animal. It is just completely silent. Frustrated, they began packing up their stuff and making their way down off the stand. They started looking for a place to make camp for the night and Evan's father suggested that there's nothing over here and it's been quiet all day, why don't we walk deeper into the woods a little way, set up camp there so tomorrow we have a better chance of seeing some animals.
They hiked for about an hour farther away from where they parked their truck and they reached this clearing which is perfect for setting up their camp. They set up their tent and Evan's father says, "Hey, you know we still have some daylight, do you want to go try our luck and see if we can see some animals out here now." Even's like yeah, why not so they hike a little way away from their campsite and they set up their blind and once again they don't see any animals, it's totally quiet. So they turn around and they start heading back.
As soon as they could see their campsite, which was just their tent, they noticed that their tent was now collapsed, Evan's father turned to him and said, "Oh, it must have been the wind." and Evan, "No it couldn't have been the wind because all day we have been commenting on how quiet it is." There's no weather, no wind, no anything is heightening the fact that it's completely silent so it could not have been wind. Evan's father then says, "When you set the tent up, did you not put the posts into the eyelets? Did you not build it correctly?" Evan responds, "No' I've made that tent like a thousand times, I know it was set up correctly."
They walk into their campsite, and they look down at their tent and they're really confused at what they see. The two rods that go in at an x over the top of the tent, that thread through nylon loops and then anchor at four different points on the base of the tent had been removed from the four corners. Tents work on tension, so once you have a rod anchored in two points, it doesn't just pop out, it's anchored at two sides, and is difficult to remove each anchor. Once one rod is out, the other rod would come out easily. But the rod would need to break for it to come out of those anchor points or someone would have to come over and remove it. (They didn't remove them and none of the rods were broken.) They conclude with the thought that they failed to set up their tent even though they had distinct and clear memories of setting it up and double-checking it.
While they didn't believe that they had not made their tent, they convinced themselves that that's what happened because the alternative was just too bizarre and frankly terrifying to consider. They build their tent and make a little fire, stay up a little while, chatting before being tired and saying let's just go to bed. They extinguish the fire, get in the tent, and both fall asleep.
A couple of hours later, Evan wakes up suddenly and he's not sure if he's dreaming or not, but he thinks he hears someone laughing a couple hundred meters behind their tent off in the woods. Evan instinctively turns to make sure his dad is still in the tent with him, and he is. Evan starts listening intently to what's happening outside, and all he can hear is silence, just like it's been since they got in the woods. He doesn't hear any more laughter and then thinks to himself, "Okay, I must have just been dreaming and there wasn't any laughter out there." Even eventually falls back asleep.
A little while later, Evan wakes up suddenly again except this time his dad is already awake and looking around anxiously. Even sits up and asks, "What's going on" "SHHH, can you hear that?" Evan listens and to his horror he hears laughing. He wasn't dreaming before. Evan also realizes the laughter is not coming from the same area he heard it. It's now coming from the opposite direction and it's a lot closer to them. He even very quietly and carefully explains to his dad that he heard this laughter a couple of hours earlier. Evan's father turns to Evan and says, "Before we came out here, I asked the owner if we should expect any other hunters, campers, or anybody nearby. The owner said this is private property and it's fenced in. There is no one there but you guys."
After this revelation, they both turned their attention back to just listening because they're hoping this is just going to stop and whatever this is will just leave. But it doesn't. They hear footsteps running toward them from way off in the forest and it's so quiet it's really easy to hear these footsteps. Whatever this is, is charging towards them and then it comes to a complete stop right at the edge of their clearing. At this point, Evan is grabbing onto his father. Evan's father is holding on to his rifle and he's getting ready to open the tent and confront whatever is out there. Right before Evan's dad grabs the zipper, this thing, this person or whatever it is starts laughing again and it's practically right on top of them. It's so loud, that they can hear it clear as day right there, right outside their tent.
Evan's father takes a deep breath, he grabs the zipper and as soon as he begins moving it, the sound the zipper makes causes the laughter to stop. They don't hear footsteps, so they probably know something's still out there, but the laughter stops like it's recognized that they're making noise. Evan's father freezes with his hand on this zipper and he's debating whether he should go outside or not. Before he can make that decision, whatever this thing is turns around and runs back into the woods, and it's just gone. For several minutes they just sit like that in total silence, praying that whatever this is, is gone for good. And after several minutes, there's no more laughing, no more running.
Evan's father re-zips up the tent, puts his rifle back down, and they're both left just sitting there, thinking what the hell just happened? Evan and his father would stay up all night and they would barely speak because whatever this thing was had heard them when they moved the zipper, and so they were really afraid of making any sound. Even little bits of sound because it's so quiet, sound travels far, and they don't know who or what is out there. So in silence, holding their guns, they're just waiting for the sun to come up. As soon as it did, they were up and out of there running out of the forest, checking over their shoulder the whole time back to their truck.
And so, to this day they have no idea who or what the heck was running around out there, and they told the owner of the property about it and the owner just said, "It's not possible. We have a gated private piece of property and cameras are watching the only entrance, you are the only ones that went in or out over that period and before that, we monitored this property. Nobody else was in there.
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