One more aside... We were told to mention any ideas we had for monsters, aye?

I started thinking about monsters in the world, especially in relation to real-world mythology. I dreamt up these two thingies. 

[hider=Chupacabra]Chupacabras look much like humans whose backs and limbs have been bent so they run on all fours, except their skin is gray and covered in thick chitin that can deflect bullets. They thankfully do not grow very large, perhaps stunted by the heavy chitin that sprouts from their bodies, and are comparable in size to wolves. They can use their hands to pick things up, but they only grab such things as clubs and metal pipes for use in clubbing other life to death. The most dangerous things about them, though, are their human-like cunning and the large insectoid horns jutting from their skulls.

Perhaps Chupacabras were once human, but these monsters don't think like people do anymore. Whatever brought life to these depraved human-rhinoceros beetle hybrids has made them utterly mad. They are cannibals that seem to prefer to eat humans and large mammals. They typically creep after their prey in silence, set up ambushes, and then charge at them before they can react. They have also been known to dig tunnels somehow and can be found throughout the deserts of the western United States.[/hider]

[hider=Thunderbird]These massive birds of the northern United States are most likely some form of mutated eagle. While not inherently aggressive towards humans, these creatures are both very territorial and more than eager to devour an unsuspecting rancher's cattle. They are dangerous not just for their size (accounts suggest they could have a wingspan of up to 20 feet), but because freakish events seem to happen near them. More than one story talks of how a man about to shoot down a Thunderbird found himself struck by lightning, or how a hunter about to finish one off with a knife was electrocuted to death as soon as the blade touched the beast. Needless to say, Thunderbirds are best dealt with from a very, very long distance.[/hider]

EDIT:

[quote]I've certainly known radios to last a long-ass time. I got an early transistor one hanging around at the kitchen bar.[/quote]

...Nice.