Thing That Attacked the Spud Hut Truck¶
The Thing That Attacked the Spud Hut Truck is the unidentified creature that climbed into the cab of a Spud Hut delivery truck near Dahlonega, Georgia, killed the driver, and carried off what was left of him.
| Type | Unidentified creature (presumed escaped ape-man) |
| Aliases | The attacker |
| Status | Unknown |
| First appearance | Appalachia 07 (cold open) |
Description¶
The creature is never seen. The cold open of Appalachia 07 follows a heavyset driver in a gray Spud Hut jumpsuit, driving at sunset to "Radar Love". He hears a clang and ripping behind the cab, then breaking glass and a growl from the rear of the cab. He reaches for a Glock under his seat and misses; there is a blur of motion and he screams. The truck swerves through a barricade and stops among trees with the song still playing quietly (Appalachia 07).
History¶
At the crash site on the freeway, the sheriff showed the cab: blood on every surface including the photo of a blonde taped to the dash, no body and no face, no direction to the spatter, far too much blood to survive, broken instruments and eight gunshots through the cabin. The back window broke inward, while the windshield broke outward after the crash. The vinyl roof was ripped as if by fingers. Kurt reasoned that something crawled in through the rear window, mauled the driver, and left through the front with what remained. Kurt called the scene "weirdly meticulous for what a mess it was" (Appalachia 07). See Freeway Crash Site and Spud Hut Truck.
In the next session the team's visit to the Spud Hut plant turned up the five ape-men on the Special Projects floor. Spud Hut's manager called the death a "tragic accident", and the sheriff talked the receptionist into opening the door by telling her "a man exploded today" (Appalachia 08). When the team later told Clive about the missing children, truck driver and Spud Hut workers, he was dismayed; the team tied the disappearances to the ape-men escaping through the unguarded mine ladder (Appalachia 09). The attacker was never specifically identified.
What remains unknown¶
- Whether the attacker was an escaped ape-man, one of the "rejects", or something else.
- Why the driver was killed, and what link there is to the SHA tag found in the bear's vomit (see Half-faced Bear).
- Where the driver's body went.