Report 45903: Camper has nightime intimidation encounter in the Pine Barrens

I was camping one week and I went for a hike say around 12am about 3 miles from my camp site. I had heard some rustling around me and continued walking. I then heard what sounded to be a large animal about 15 yards away but it sounded like it was moving on two legs, not four. I had shown my light all around and did not see any thing. No glowing eyes like a deer, fox or coon. At that point I turned around and started to head back to my camp. I then heard walking again, I started to walk faster. Out where no one is around for miles and sounds like someone is near, it can scare you. The people I was with would not have followed me like that because they knew I had my knife and my flare gun with a .22 sub caliber fitting with me. A tree branch had then landed next to me, it was fairly large, with no other branches on it so it did not fall from a tree. I turned and fired the gun. Something ran away with a very large thud sound as it ran. It sounded like a very, very overweight person running, but it was very fast. I never believed that a bigfoot or anything like that was in this area. I've tried to explain it as something else, but can't find anything native in the area that could sound like that running.