Oakton

  Chapter 8. Spears Flying.

  Sunday 10:08pm.

  "You sure that wasn't Ben you saw?"

  "I know what Ben looks like we're on the football team, remember? Showers, practice, parties, do I gotta spell that out?"

  "Got it. I wonder if this guy is what spooked Bullet?"

  "That's what I was thinking. Maybe he's the same guy that sliced her leg and tied her in the Fricke?"

  "Let me talk to that jerk just once." She said pulling her crossbow over her shoulder to right in front of her chest. In that moment I knew we were like a two-man army. Too bad for him because Beth and me worked well together.

  The lightning was intense and rapid just cloud to cloud stuff now but it was like one or two every second. You could almost see like during the day.

  "Where's the swarm?"

  "Probably inside the barn on their charging platforms."

  "Do they activate on their own or something?"

  "Should, but the power was out for a while I’m not sure what they’re doing right now."

  "Crap. You should put the horse in the barn and lock the door."

  "Good idea, come-on." She motioned for me to follow towards the barn door, she slid her crossbow over her shoulder. I could see a brilliant red + on the ground and the back of her legs as she walked, her finger brushing the trigger activates the spotting laser briefly. I smiled to myself as I followed behind her thinking to myself, 'that's my girl!'

  Beth like me was in long cammo with a baseball cap, hair in a ball on the back of her head. We entered the barn which was dimly lit by one tiny bare bulb in the corner.

  First, she stopped by the computer near the 3D printer and opened what appeared like a settings panel I never seen before. I watched from behind her as she appeared to change a setting that controlled the swarm putting them into full combat ready mode, then clicked on ‘.’ Within a second I heard the sound of many tiny machines coming to life somewhere near us in a dark corner of the barn. Then she headed for the barn door. I followed but stopped short, as she slid the wooden arm across the door and pulled the door inward to let Bullet enter the stalls area. They had room for about four horses in here but seldom kept her inside except for severe weather but they had a covered outdoor area Bullet seemed to prefer.

  I was about five feet behind watching as Beth dressed like a soldier, lit by flashes of lightning from the intense electrical storm overhead suddenly stepped back away from the doorway, ripping the crossbow over her shoulder slamming an arrow in the breach and screamed,

  "Off the horse! Now!" "Off the horse right now or die!" I never seen her this angry before but she raised the crossbow to her shoulder taking aim at something apparently sitting on her horse, taking control of Bullet during the brief moment we walked inside the barn, which meant he was probably watching us the whole time. This guy seems to like spying on us from roof tops. He could have been right above us the whole time!

  "Beth!" I screamed. She never turned as I slowly moved closer. She never lowered her aim and stood frozen about eight feet in from the side paddock doorway about as poised to defend us and Bullet as any woman could be.

  I moved closer. The staccato flashes of light made the scene even more horrific and surreal, she was like steel, a steel soldier right at the very edge of no return. Now only a few feet behind Beth I could see the shape of a man outside. He appeared small, maybe just over five feet tall, totally blackish and slimy like he just escaped from a Texas oil well blow-out.

  He slid off Bullet in one movement to his feet at her side. Now I could clearly see he was a short man, shaved head, white eyes and teeth, but shiny and thin. He looked like the one I saw on the bus shed roof minutes ago.

  There was a brilliant flash and a huge clap of thunder as one lightning bolt must have struck something nearby.

  I saw him lower his head and dash towards us. Time seemed to slow. What must have taken two seconds now seemed to last for twenty or more as everything became like crystal clear slow motion. I noticed a long stone tipped spear in his hand. I could see the light from the storm reflecting off his wet shoulders. During his first big footstep his entire front side was lit up by the brilliant red cross that marked him as a target. Beth's aim was dead on, hyper-accurate as always. The targeting laser shone a large vertical + on this man, it ran from his knees to above the top of his head and across his chest from arm to arm. Luckily for him he probably never felt the stainless steel twin blade broad head arrow tip as it penetrated his left chest wall, probably slicing through two ribs, his heart and aorta, lung chambers and two more ribs as it exited below his shoulder blade.

  On the back end of each arrow Beth uses an LED lit nock which effectively turns each one into a tracer round. The red light briefly blinked as the arrow easily passed through his body and out the other side.

  The man stopped mid-stride, now only ten feet from us. He raised his hand to the barn door frame falling forward to the floor with a thud, nose first into the concrete. A tiny exit wound clearly visible on his back. Blood pumped straight up in the air to a beat, as the round fountain-like stream pulsed high-low but got gradually lower and lower as the life blood drained from this odd little man.

  The arrow tip Beth uses is designed for deer hunting. It has horizontal and vertical razor blades that are designed to cut the major arteries exiting from a deer heart thereby dropping its blood pressure nearly immediately causing it to pass out and die rapidly. The trick to using them is to hit the heart or as close as possible to it.

  The spear he held slowly rolled from his hand as his grip relaxed.

  I stared briefly at his body wondering who or what he was. Beth was rigid with fear but had the clarity of mind to quickly reach behind her to grab another arrow identical to the first one.

  Quickly she reloaded as she slowly lowered the crossbow illuminating the dead man on the barn floor at her feet, now the large brilliant red laser + was on the top of the man's head. You could see it jiggle as she shook with the same fear that raised my pulse too.

  "Oh Dear God!" She cried in a soft scream inside her mouth. I slowly stepped up to her side; we touched arm to arm briefly. I stepped ahead and pushed the guy twice in the shoulder with my boot. His body responded by shaking like a large lifeless sack of jello. He looked very dead. I glanced out the barn door to see Bullet standing watching the entire scene, staring at Beth and me while the arrow was stuck in a fence rail on the far side of the paddock.

  The brilliant red LED on the rear tip of her arrow swayed in the air forming a small red circle in the air.

  Leaning my rifle against the wall of the barn I went outside into the rain, grabbed the man's ankles and pulled him back outside into the muddy paddock while Beth stepped out taking Bullet's lead pulling her inside, I rolled the body onto it's back to look at the face. Blood was still oozing from the small chest wound. His wide-open and expressionless eyes stared towards the flashing storm overhead.

  We went inside the barn with the horse and shut the barn door. I picked up my rifle and turned off the safety, making sure I had a round in the chamber. Beth was leaning into Bullet's face hugging and holding her while the animal stood by leaning her head into Beth in a tender cross-species moment of affection. Bullet understood what happened. She probably knew more about who this guy was than we did.

  In that brief moment the war had officially begun. We’d both exchanged fire, blood was now spilled on both sides.

  "Will you explain to me what that was all about?" She still looked terrified but she was still about the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

  "Like I said, we're under attack, I think this is what happened to all the dogs and cats in town too. We have no idea how many of these guys there are?"

  "Oh holy crap, I never done anything like this before, who was that guy? Why's he so small, why didn't he say anything?" Beth nearly shouted almost out of breath.

  "Maybe he couldn't, I have no idea Beth, but we gotta protect our families, they're all in danger
right now!"

  "Oh Hell! We gotta go wake people up. We need Ben. Got your device?"

  "Yep, right here." I pulled it from my pocket; I had one flickering bar signal strength, typical for out in the barns. If only that repeater was another twenty feet higher I'd have three signal bars instead of less than one. I pressed some spots to wake it up, only had a little battery left. I pressed contacts, then Brown, then Ben, and called. It rang and rang so I left it go hoping to raise anyone inside Brown's house. When it went to voice mail I hung up and re-dialed. One time I txt'd Ben trying to get his attention but he'd sleep through almost anything.

  10:12pm.

  We left the barn; she locked the door behind her. I ran as fast as my long legs could carry me to the south towards home, she headed for the back door of their house. I soared across the ditches, one at a time. It must have been the hand of God that got me all the way without falling. That's kind of my confession; I'm not the most coordinated wide receiver on the Varsity Tigers.

  -+-

  I found out later that Beth ran into their house straight for the living room sofa to wake up their dog Daisy. She told me all she needed to do was slap her on her thigh and yell, "Dog! Guard!" Then across the house she ran into her parent's bedroom. Her speech was rapid and hard to understand when she woke both parents to tell them what happened but they refused to believe, nor did they want to go out in the rain to see the body of the alleged tiny dead man laying in the horse dung in the paddock.

  She left the room for upstairs to get the rest of her arrows and her flashlight from her room. Then she ran downstairs to watch my house from their kitchen window after making sure all the outside doors were locked. At least her parents were up and talking but still not believing what she said. Her mom said later on it reminded her of when Beth had nightmares. It was just like when she was a child and came running in their room at night in a panic.

  -+-

  In my home I went to my parent's room and tried waking them but Mom was too groggy from her sleeping pill to respond much, Dad was missing from the bed which panicked me worse than anything.

  I grabbed the phone on the kitchen wall to call 911 and yelled at the dispatcher that we were under attack in Oakton but left the phone dangle on the wall refusing to waste the time to explain anything to the stupid dispatcher.

  10:16pm.

  I ran to the barn, which was dark now but the tractor doors were wide open. I pulled out my flashlight aiming it all around and saw my father lying on the floor with a small puddle of blood by his arm. I ran up to him, his eyes were closed, he looked dead. So I ran back in the house to the kitchen and picked up the phone. The dispatcher was still there trying to get someone to talk to her.

  I explained we were under attack by an unknown number of strange people, small stature, armed, that they had killed my dad in the barn, we needed EMS and armed police back-up. She asked me who was attacking.

  "Listen please! I just told you everything I know. The whole town is under attack, we need EMS and we need armed help right now!" I screamed into the phone then let it drop back to the wall so she could listen and identify where the call was coming from.

  An odd colored light coming in the kitchen from the living room windows caught my attention. I ran into the living room looking out the front windows to see Patton's barn fully engulfed in fire. "Oh dear Jesus!" I spoke out-loud. They keep an old tractor in there and some hay but that's it really. I could see the top of the concrete foundation of their old house visible by the light from the rapidly growing barn fire. The tops of some flames went way above the tree tops.

  Back into the kitchen I picked up the dangling phone, "better send the fire department too, Patton's barn’s on fire now." She responded by asking, "Did you set the fire?"

  I made my voice really calm and low now. “Look, I know you're struggling with all this. Just send everything you got to Oakton and forget all the dumb terrorism crap. We need the national guard or something." I spoke into the phone receiver then dropped it to the wall again.

  The light from the fire was getting brighter and brighter. No matter how much it rained, the barn fire was too intense to be doused by the rain now.

  Sprinting back upstairs, I opened Mel’s door turned the lock button and pulled it shut quietly. She’d be safe for now so I went back downstairs.

  Crossing the living room into Mom's room she was back asleep, not able to overcome the effects of her sleeping pills. I looked out their window at Beth's place, pulled my bat signal out and shone it in every window of their house on this side. She fired her laser back at me when I hit the right window. We both flashed green at each other as if to say 'affirmative.' On the way out their room I pushed the button locking her bedroom door behind me.

  I turned for the kitchen, then back outside, along the back wall to the corner where the leaky rain gutter was. I saw Beth emerge from her back door, make her way to the corner of the house, then like twins, without speaking we both ran to the bus shed. Again I cleared the ditch in one leap landing firmly footed in the street. Beth did likewise but she looks much nicer doing it.

  10:19pm.

  "What'd you get?" I asked in a low but upset voice.

  "Folks are up but not subscribing. Dog's awake and ready."

  "Ready for what? Watching TV?" I asked thinking any time spent on the Daisy was a total waste of effort.

  "Will you stop hating my dog please?"

  "Sorry. I found Dad on the floor in the barn, I think he’s dead. I didn't have time to stop and pay my respects. Mom's too gorked on meds to wake up. I think our best bet now is to wake Ben. Gotny ideas?"

  "I got one. But we gotta run for it. Then I think we should come back here."

  "I called 911 but I think I sounded too much like a drunk or something, I don't think she believed me. I think being inside here is not a good tactical idea, we're trapped and this shed would burn as easily as Patton's barn." Beth sat there across from me looking deep in panic and thought. She was breathing fast and chewing on the corner of her lower lip. She was still cute as hell, with little flashes of lightning and fire across her face.

  "Okay, I got it. Let's make my barn base of operations for now. But first we haul ass up the street to Brown's and wake up Ben." Beth commanded with a tone of anger in her voice and on her face.

  "How you gonna do that?" I asked.

  "Watch me." She stood up pulling her arrows from their tube on her back over her left shoulder, that's when I saw it. One of them had a blunt lead tip, like getting shot by a bean bag round or something. 'Good thinking' I thought to myself.

  We took off, Beth in the lead, me behind, heading east on the county road towards Brown's house. We didn't know at the time that about three hundred feet behind me was another tiny man with a stone tipped wooden spear in his hand, crouching as he silently approached from behind us.

  We ran as fast as we could, stopping in the street half-way between Brown's house and the barn fire. I flashed my bat signal in the window of Ben's room while Beth loaded the blunt tip arrow onto the crossbow. The red + appeared on the wall of their house and moved directly to the second story bedroom windows. She raised the stock to her shoulder, tilted her head to the sights and squeezed the trigger, instantly re-loading with a real arrow.

  With a loud crash Ben's upper storm window exploded into shards falling two stories to the ground. We stood huddled in the street watching in anticipation for what seemed like a long time, then Ben appeared shaken and pale at his window, I yelled, "We're under attack!” He lifted open the lower window all the way up. “Get out here with your stuff now!"

  I could see him glance at the barn fire directly behind us, then the shirtless Ben disappeared, then reappeared wearing camouflage in his shattered bedroom window. He pointed to our left and shouted, "What’s that?"

  We turned to look down the county road to the west further than the bus shed to see a tiny man lurking in the shadows lit only by the lightning and barn fire slinking slowly towards us.
Just like the first one, this guy was short, holding a spear or something in his hands, also totally blackened like the other ones. It was impossible to tell if he even had any clothes on.

  In a commanding and deliberate move, Beth took one large step sideways to clear me, raised her weapon placing a large red + on the slowly approaching man. I grabbed my flashlight turning it on in his face then down his body. He was about too far for my flashlight to make a big improvement but you could see he was black and slimy like he just crawled out of a barrel of used tractor oil. He had a bowl haircut and weird markings on his face and chest, his pace slowed when he recognized the crossbow in Beth's arms.

  I could see out of the corner of my eyes as she lowered her head to sight him with the scope in addition to the large laser + all over his front. I pulled my rifle to my hip and tapped the trigger slightly activating the laser pointer placing a red dot on his belly as he very slowly approached, now only about one hundred twenty feet from us in the middle of the intersection walking at a steady pace still right towards us.

  I heard running feet behind us. I prayed it was Ben and not a sneak attack from behind while the decoy attacked from the front.

  10:27pm.

  "Guys! I'm here." He shouted from his yard as he ran to join us. You could see lights coming on in his house. At the same time lights were coming on in Beth's house too. I heard her father's truck starting up in the driveway. Way off in the distance beyond the approaching tiny man I could see fire truck lights as our first rescue turned off Highway 73 towards Oakton.

  That was a couple miles away yet and they had no idea they were entering a war zone unless that stupid dispatcher conveyed all the information I gave her. Ben joined us from behind putting his hands on our shoulders as he took stock of what was unfolding on this wet gravel road.

  I glanced to look at him, like us he was cammo from head to toe but only had one rifle and a flashlight. He turned his on aiming at the still approaching man now only eighty feet away and closing.

  "Better stop asshole!" Ben yelled from behind us but the little man kept coming.

  "Ben, keep an eye out for attack from behind." "Got it!" he replied turning his flashlight all around, but with all the light from the barn fire there was little need.

  Just then we all heard a click and buzz over by Beth's house. Their front door opened out as some huge black thing escaped from the house racing towards us standing side by side in the middle of the street.

  The sky flashed and in the light from the barn fire I could see some huge animal running so fast it was just a blur heading right towards us. My heart started racing as I got a glimpse of death heading right at us.

  I saw Beth suddenly raise her crossbow and fully extend her left arm pointing right at our approaching attacker. The dog must have seen her gesture.

  The rapidly approaching animal changed course, sideways to us right towards the slowly approaching man, now only sixty five feet away. We could see his brilliant white eyes and teeth; we could see lots of details of his body as he approached.

  In a flash of lightning I think I saw it was Beth's worthless dog Daisy in the street running full speed in a lateral course at our attacker. She must be doing forty miles an hour (60kph) in a dead out, pedal to the floor dash. In the final second she let loose a combination screaming growl and bark. The dog seemed to leap-up in the air in order to smash her mouth into the side of our attacker’s head.

  "Daisy no!" Beth screamed at the horrific sight as her best friend, companion, protector, brutally attacked the man in the street. We saw him jerk sideways. He never saw it coming.

  Beth raised her crossbow at the trees above the road.

  We watched in horror as the one hundred eighty pound dog attacked the man in the street, going mostly after his head. She first impacted the side of his head, I think we all heard a crack. It looked like he got hit in the side of his head with a large mallet and probably severed his spinal cord in the process. His ear about slammed into his shoulder then splashed down onto the wet roadway, then in a flash he was on his back as the dog leaned down grabbing his throat with her teeth, shook side to side with a few quick snaps and in one movement removed a huge chunk of flesh from the front of his neck. Blood sprayed towards the clouds as the sky flashed again and again. The man's legs jerked with a seizure as Daisy dropped the mouth full of fleshy meat onto the tiny man's chest.

  Way off in the distance, under Daisy's belly you could see the red lights of the fire truck slowly closing in on our location.

  "Daisy go home!" Beth yelled down the street, but the dog was having none of that just yet, this was her moment.

  Daisy stood like a giant dog statue staring at the twitching corpse in the street maybe fifty feet from us. Her fur color changed from black to grey depending on what lit her up, the barn fire or the electrical storm above Oakton.

  "Ben, how's it look behind us?" I said over my shoulder. I could see him turn his head towards us and towards the east, his front was facing the barn fire, he turned his head side to side as fast as he could.

  Beth's father backed his truck down the driveway in a fast maneuver, then lurched forward towards Daisy near the intersection. All of us were on the east-west county road, just east of the intersection.

  I watched as Harvey rounded the corner in his big diesel Ford truck heading towards Highway 73 and the approaching fire department truck, yelling out the window, "I'm gonna intercept the fire department!" Beth again yelled at Daisy to go home, but the animal looked to be deliberately ignoring her, insisting on doing what she was born to do, be a pack animal with Beth being the other member of the pack. This is what she was born to do.

  "Oh crap John, I got another one on your six!" Ben screamed backing up into us with another small man approaching from the east; this one had two things in his hands, like wooden spears or some kind of weapon.

  Beth spun around slamming another arrow onto her crossbow as she mightily pulled back the line to prepare it to fire again. I raised my rifle taking aim. The man raised his arm throwing one spear towards the sky which I immediately lost sight of.

  In a flash I shoved Beth sideways towards Ben's house and jumped back towards the barn fire a few feet. Ben turned to run but took the spear in his left thigh. He crumpled over then fell face first onto the muddy road and laid there groaning loudly in pain, both hands holding his leg in agony. I glanced at Beth, then back at Ben who was already trying to yank the spear from his thigh and was starting to look angrier than in pain.

  “GO! Just go get ‘em John!” He mumbled with agony stressing his voice as he was slowly wiggling the spear from the side of his thigh lying in a bent heap on the drenched dirt road.

  Beth regained control. The small man like the other two was running in a moderate trot towards us with his other spear poised to throw. I re-aimed, fired one shot, which spun the man around, stopping him briefly, he lowered his arm to his side, then raised it with the left arm pointing right at Beth. I fired again, but missed. "Those that live by the sword get shot by those that don't." I mumbled out loud to myself.

  "Let me!" she screamed. "Daisy!" She called, the dog looked up but stayed by the first man.

  A large red + appeared on the approaching man's silhouette and like the first one, Beth fired about the same moment as he loosed his last spear. Just then I turned to look at the dog just in time to see a different spear fly into her back leg from a yet-unseen attacker who must be in the shadows in Ben's front yard or maybe out in the street.