>>1220281The thing with the Smokies is once the sun goes down, your eyes start to fuck with you. I've seen people standing by a trail watching me, I've seen a man walking along a ridge parallel to me, I've seen shit that looked like wolves or coyotes move through the trees and not make a fucking sound. You feel like you're being watched, like someone's following you, like the damn thing is in your ear shouting at you to get the fuck out. "The sun's down, fucker, and this forest is mine". Even during the day, you think something's watching, like you're being stalked, waiting for the perfect time to pounce.
So we set up our campsite. I've been up there a few times, one had been camping a lot around Johnson City and Cherokee, and the other two aren't very familiar with the woods. So faggot decides he wants to check out the houses and grounds (the ones with the massive "Do not enter buildings or grounds" signs all around. They don't fuck around, you couldn't get off the trail there for the longest time. Even now, only in some places).
He wants to walk back (only a few miles) but we talk him out of it. We spend the night, enjoy ourselves, and go to bed. I'm in a little cocoon tent by myself, two guys are sharing one and the ghost guy in the last alone.
I wake up a few hours into the night. Hearing shit around the tent. Movement, I'm sure. But it doesn't flow, you know? It's not like footsteps, there wasn't a direction or order to it. you'd hear one step at 5 o'clock, the next at 9, then one at 12, then six. It felt like we were being surrounded but barely anything moved. And not heavy steps like a bear.
Little did I know the other guys were awake too. Heard footsteps all night. Rustling in the woods and even, at one point, heard a fucking grown right by my face at one of my air vents near my head.
