CANADENSIS – There is no escaping the manhunt for Eric Frein. For 21 days and counting now, hundreds of Pennsylvania State Police have fanned out in the forests, lined the two-lane roads and traipsed around in body armor and toting high-powered rifles outfitted with far-reaching scopes.

Ironically, the only one who has eluded all this is Eric Frein, himself. The self-described survivalist remains out there, somewhere. But the rest of those in the idyllic hunting and tourist towns of Monroe County are being held hostage in a sense.

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The streets are eerily quiet, save for the convoy of state police cruisers sweeping in and out of the search area on a daily basis.

Stores normally bustling with leaf-peeping tourists are all but empty. Hunting season has been suspended in the search area. Some restaurants are closing early. Popular bars are barren on once-busy Saturday nights.

And no matter where they turn, residents accustomed to mental escape in this wide-open, rustic setting are starting to climb the walls.

Reminders of Eric Frein, the trooper killing and the massive manhunt are everywhere here. There are the blue ribbons of remembrance for the fallen officers. And there are wanted posters featuring Eric Frein's seemingly smug face.

By the end of the day, beset business people brooding over dwindling sales have had enough.

"I'm a little on edge," confesses Justine Knipe, co-owner of Moutainhome Candle, a quaint shop heavily dependent on fall foliage-driven tourism that hasn't materialized this season.

"By the end of the day, I just need to turn it off," she said. "There is just so much going on. Even the people in town aren't going out. I see the helicopters. I see the police. And I just want to go home. I want to shut it off. I'm overwhelmed, over-saturated."

Only, there is no off switch. Earlier this week, police were searching for Frein in her backyard.

Worse, there is no sense when this will all be over.

"I don't feel like they are going to find anything," Knipe said of the ongoing search, which keeps sifting in the forests southeast of here. "There are some people who believe he is long gone. I believe he is still here. But we want to understand why it is taking this long and we don't All we can do is speculate."

Could it be that the woods are just that deep and thick, providing ample hiding places for someone like Frein who knows how to turn the harsh landscape to his advantage?

"I don't know," Knipe answers. "I don't go into the woods."

Resident Mike Fordham does go into the woods and knows it as an unforgiving place to all but those familiar with its underbrush and rocky ground. Someone like Eric Frein.

"When will it end?" he asks of the search. "It could go on forever. He had a plan. He could live out there. But they'll get him sooner or later."

Until then, people here are left to look over their shoulders and double-check the doors at night.

"The thing is," Fordham says, "you don't know who he is going to shoot at next."

It's but another aspect of the siege mentality here. Rural residents who once gave security hardly a second thought are now watching their backs.

Others are seeing Eric Frein everywhere they turn. More than a few are packing heat. All the while, some believe the fugitive is having fun and playing a game.

"He's the best Monopoly player I've ever seen," mused Roger Smith, owner of Smitty's Camping & Sporting Goods, where Smith claims Frein once shopped for survival gear.

"He is in a very dense and thick area of forest," Smith added. "He's playing a game, and he's good at it."

For others in town, there is only monotony over the manhunt that won't end. From this, there appears to be no escape.

Last Saturday night, Knipe and her husband, Chuck, needed to blow off a little steam and get out of the house that recently feels like a prison. Cabin fever has begun and it isn't even winter yet.

They went out to one of the most popular spots in town. But the Pour House was practically empty. And one of the best restaurants in the area, the Italian-theme Basso, closed its doors early due to all of the canceled reservations, Knipe noted.

Even going out for a drink was no escape from Eric Frein. The siege mentality that appears to be settling in all around this area most directly affected by the search showed itself again in the empty bar and the deserted restaurant.

"There was hardly anybody in the place," Knipe says, shaking her head at the Saturday night anomaly.

Then again, nothing is normal here.

It won't be until fugitive Eric Frein is finally found, one way or another.