The Tribe

Hello, my name is Alan. I am withholding my full name to sustain anonymity. Now, onto the point.

About three years ago I had a friend named Gavin. We were friends in high school and kept in touch when we went our separate ways to different colleges. We'd usually play games together, talk on Skype, and other things. One evening I had nothing to do and was sitting in my apartment, so I decided to get on Skype to see if Gavin was on, but he wasn't, and I was met with a file pending for download from him. I decided to go ahead and download the file. It wasn't too big, about 50 or so megabytes. I looked at the file and realized it was a 7Zip file, and remembered that I didn't have 7Zip as I had recently reset my computer. Once I had 7Zip and opened it there were two folders. One was a random assortment of letters and numbers. And the other was named "The Tribe". I was curious and bored, so I decided to open the one named with a random assortment of letters and numbers, only to find an empty text file with a random name. I opened the folder named "The Tribe" to find an mp4 file named "thetribe01". I know that isn't much but I'll explain later why I can't simply show you the video.

I opened the mp4 with VLC media player and found the video to be many hours long, but I had nothing to do so I proceeded to watch.

The first few seconds showed the text in arial font saying "The Tribe - Run 01 - 2013". At this point I assumed it was some kind of film Gavin was working on, as he always wanted to take a career in movie making, so I proceeded to watch. The video cut to Gavin tapping and looking into the camera saying, "Is this thing on?". Then proceeded to tap it a few more times. I figured this was part of the acting because in real life you don't look into the camera and tap it to see if it's on. He turned the camera to show two people, a guy and a girl, in the front seats of the car they were in, with him in the back. I didn't recognize the people there, probably some of his new friends. Anyways, they were driving on a dirt road in a jungle-like area. Gavin was holding the camera close to the girls face and proceeded to say, "Smile, Ashley." She then pushed him and the camera away saying, "Get that thing away from me". Gavin laughed a bit and pulled the camera back.

The camera quickly switched to them walking into an old looking motel and into separate rooms. The audio at this point was garbled and sounded as if something was covering the cameras microphone. The camera jumped to the next morning, it showed Gaving getting ready for something. He put on some boots and was packing a hiking pack. After packing his bag he walked outside to meet with the other two and proceeded to get in the car and start driving.

The video made another jump-cut to them driving down a very narrow path. Gavin referred to the other guy as David and said, "Are we almost there? I can't wait to get some epic shots of the 'scary' jungle.". Davind responded with, "Hey, the only reason I'm out here is because you promised me money." I assumed they were still acting at this point but that sentence couldn't have sounded any more sincere than it did.

The video made a jump cut to them setting up a tent and it was getting dark. Gavin was recording Ashley's backside as she bent over to pick up some firewood. As she turned around he quickly turned to david who was looking at him smirking and shaking his head.

The video jump cut yet again to Gavin holding the camera but in the middle of the night in his tent. He whispered, "What the hell is that?" Then proceeded to hold the camera still while what sounds like footsteps outside can be heard. The footsteps didn't sound normal and were weirdly spaced close together. Almost like multiple people were walking outside. Gavin yelled, "David... ashley, what are you guys doing out there?"

Then what can be described as a grunting sound and many footsteps running away can be heard. Gavin proceeded to freak out, and I don't think this part was acting. He waited for the footsteps to go far away then quickly opened his tent and walked out. He shined his flash light around to see nothing. He saw that David and Ashley's tents were both closed and proceed to yell at them to wake up. David and Ashley both asked what was happening in a tired and aggravated tone. He told them what had happened only to be told to shut up and go back to sleep. After the other two went back to bed Gavin stayed outside for a bit, restarting the camp fire and watching the surrounding area. After nothing had happened for about 30 minutes, Gavin threw some more firewood into the fire and went back into his tent.

The camera was left running on the ground right outside his tent. For about two hours the camera sat there. Of course I skimmed through the two hours by speeding up the video, until I saw some movement behind the dying fire. There was alot of movement in the background, but I couldn't make out what it was. After the fire was completely out footsteps could be heard really close to the camera. My thoughts at this point was that there was a group of animals walking around the camp site, which isn't uncommon, but these footsteps sounded like they had meaning to them. They moved in an almost rhythmic way. After about 15 minutes of this I saw something block the view of the embers of the fire in the background. I then heard the zipper to the tent and rustling inside, and then silence. After hearing the zipper open, I could only assume it to be a person or maybe some species of primate. After a few minutes of silence the zipper could be heard closing and footsteps walking away.

For a few more hours the nothing happened. At dawn Gavin picked up the camera and sat down. The video cut to him looking into the camera. He looked in distress and frightened. He proceeded to say, "Ok, I just watched the video from last night... and..... oh my god..... there was something. Something came into my tent. Probably all of our tents and..." As Gavin said that he glanced over to the side then looked back again with a shocked face. He ran over to Ashley's tent and pointed the camera at it to show it was open. He sat the camera down outside the tent and entered it. He started hollering for Ashley, but there was no response. David exited his tent and asked what Gavin was doing. He said ashley was gone and told him about what he saw in the video from the previous night.

The video jump cut to gavin holding the camera towards david's shocked face. I assume during that cut he showed David the video. They both started to search for Ashley, hollering her name. For hours they walked around, but couldnt find her. When it was approaching evening they thought of returning to the motel to call the police, but decided they couldnt walk around in the jungle at night.

When they returned to the camp site they found their tents had been destroyed, and the things there had been stolen. They started to freak out and David pulled out his hunting knife. They talked a bit about getting to the car, and said it was a mile hike, but could quickly get there if they ran without their hiking backpacks. They started to run through the jungle and footsteps could be heard from behind. Gavin stopped and looked back for a second to see leaves rustling in the dark but couldn't make out what was causing them. They both started to run faster, but the footsteps were getting closer. After about 20 minutes they arrived at the car, only to see its tires slashed and the windows broken. David tried to start the car, but it only made a grinding sound. The footsteps could be heard approaching fast. They got so loud they sounded as if they were right beside the two. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped.

Gavin and david looked around for a few minutes. As Gavin was looking around he heard David holler and turned. David was gone. Gavin got into the car and tried to start it a few more times. After a few minutes of trying it finally started. He sat the camera in the passenger seat. The camera fell onto the floorboard after gavin made a turn then the video went black and VLC media player crashed. I tried to open the video again but only resulted in VLC giving an error.

After watching that video I didn't know what to think. I couldn't tell if it was real or if it was part of the film. I decided to check the folders again for anything and opened the text document again. This time the file read:

"Listen i dont have much time the footsteps are coming. I can only send you this video. Thats the only thing i can think to do. Please i want you to remember that you were one of my best friends. I cant thank you enough for everything youve done for me. The footsteps are getting louder. Once they come for me youll be the only one who knows what happened. The police probably wont do anything. goodbye."

That was the last I ever heard of Gavin. I did go to the police and as he predicted, they didn't believe me, and the fact that the video wouldn't work made the situation worse.

I don't know what happened out there. If any of you know anything about what happened, I ask you to please respond. I need to know what happened.