Untitled Sighting

I was part of 30 person 3-day hike on the Batona trail. The first night we made camp at an isolated spot two miles off the trail. The camp ground has only a dirt road for access and is very remote. It was also the off season so presumably no one had been there for quite some time. The group split up and was strung out over 100 or so yards for the night. I slept outside at the very fringe of the camp. It was 1:30 in the morning and i was awoken by a terrible scream. I've heard racoons fighting before and I'm familiar with the cries of local wounded animals and this was nothing I had ever heard before. I also heard it moving rather smoothly through the brush, it was large and was within twenty yards of us. I was too scared to look up. I buried my head in my sleeping bag and tried to look as unappetizing as possible. Later it passed by again (about an hour or two). A few of the other hikers also heard it but we kept it quiet. Also some of the people who heard it had heard it before, I was informed that screams are heard quite often in that neck of the woods.