Chapter 3

The only solution I could think of was to have her come with me on my afternoon patrol. Hopefully, once she saw the monsters for herself, she might get some sense of self preservation. Dammit, maybe even a trip to Jake’s shop might help.

“Mom, please come with me this afternoon while I patrol for monsters. You need to see how dangerous they are and what they can do to people they encounter. You obviously don’t understand what the town of Lookout Ridge and the rest of the country is facing.”

“Oh, all right, if it means that much to you, I’ll go, but I expect to be bored to death!”

“Okay, you change clothes, and I will get a gun for you to use.”

“Oh, no, I’m not carrying a gun! That’s not ladylike.”

“Mom, don’t be foolish. Being ladylike is not letting yourself or somebody else be killed because you don’t want to look out of fashion. I know that you are smarter than that. Now, do as you keep after me about: ACT YOUR AGE!”

“It will take me about 15 minutes to change into jeans. Can you wait that long?”

“Yeah, that’s okay. I’ll watch the TV news if you take longer than expected.” While she was changing, I picked up an old Ruger .22 automatic that was my first pistol. I was lucky and still had some hollowpoint bullets for it. I used my knife to scrape the copper off some BBs and used them to convert the .22 bullets to have a steel core. Mom had once been pretty good with the Ruger, and I hoped that she retained her skill after seven years.

“Okay, here I am. I’m as ready to go as I ever will be.”

I handed her the Ruger with a belt and holster. “Here, wear this around your waist in the crossdraw position. Nobody will see it while you are sitting in the truck.”

She didn’t really need the help, but I was the courteous gentleman and helped her into the truck cab. “Well, Jim, this is the first time that I have ridden in your truck since you fixed it up. You did a really nice job. It looks good enough to use as a ride to church.”

I thanked Mom for the compliment, but I wondered if this was a more-than-gentle hint about returning to church. I kept on the safe side by ignoring that part of the remark.

We headed back to town and I went by the police station to see if Sam had any special orders for me. Dammit, we needed radio communication before this deal would work out as well as it could. I wondered if he could get me a police radio added to my truck at the town’s expense. That would make things a whole lot simpler for me.

Sam was not at the station judging from the fact that his patrol car was gone from its usual place. That boded ill, so I headed toward the center of town. Uh-oh, as we got closer, we heard gunfire. “Mom, that sounds like Sam’s gun, so be prepared to help in the fight. You know how to use that Ruger, so do it when the time comes.”

I didn’t know if she was being sarcastic or not, but Mom said, “Yes, Sir. I’ll do my best to kill monsters.”

That was all she had time for because we had reached the site of the shooting. There were a dozen or so harpies and four dogs lying dead on the street, but there were even more harpies tearing at the body of some no longer recognizable woman lying on the sidewalk. Sam was shooting at the harpies from inside his car, so he had a limited field of fire. I hoped that he was still using the bullets with the steel balls. Obviously, he had started shooting with them and had used two or more clips, so he might be running out about now.

I parked so that the harpies were on Mom’s side of the truck and she could shoot through the open truck window. I grabbed the AA-12 and opened the door on my side of the truck. I stood on the running board (thank God that those things were back in fashion) and shot over the roof of the truck cab. I had switched to automatic fire and simply swept the feeding harpies with one continuous run of fire.

The harpies were literally blasted to pieces, and that ended the fight. That was also when we saw the remains of a child that had been with the woman. Mom gasped and said, “I know that woman. That’s Hester Owens and her son Greg. Oh, dear Lord, what a horrible fate.” At that point, Mom began to cry in sympathy for her friend.

I couldn’t blame Mom for crying. There was a terrible feeling of sadness and desolation all around those dead harpies. Suddenly, the bodies of the harpies that had been killed by Sam before we showed up began to burst and disappear in a puff of black smoke.

I asked Sam about calling for the county coroner, but was told to forget it. Sam had already radioed a call and had been told that he could forget it. The coroner’s office was already overloaded, and we were going to have to handle this locally. Now that it was a bit safer, Sam called the local funeral home to come pick up the bodies. By the time they got there, the last of the harpies had vanished in the cloud of black smoke.

The pall of depression engulfing us had disappeared with the last of the dead harpies, so Mom was able to get hold of herself. “Jim, thank you for letting me see this terrible horror. I would never have believed it if I had not seen it, and I would have been a victim by the end of the week. Let’s go by Jake’s place. I want my own shotgun and one for Joe, Jeff, and Sue.”

“Don’t worry about Dad and Jeff, Mom. They can have the two shotguns that I used for hunting wild hogs. I have this AA-12 that Sam gave me to use for the duration. We’ll just get guns for you and Sue.”

“Okay, Jim, whatever you say. As far as I am concerned, you are in charge of family security. What about pistols for Joe, Jeff, and Sue?”

“I don’t know about that. We’ll have to discuss that at supper tonight. Here we are at Jake’s. You go inside, and I will find a place to park. I see a place, so I should only be a minute.” Mom went into Jake’s shop, and I showed up pretty close behind her. I was taking no chances and was carrying the AA-12 with me.

“Hello, Jake. Did Mom tell you about her latest adventure?”

“Oh, Jim, I was just getting to that. Jake, you wouldn’t believe what just happened to us.” She then went into excruciating detail, as women are given to do, in describing the action of only a few minutes ago. There was so much extraneous detail that even included the clothes that Mrs. Owens had been wearing, that Jake probably quit listening about half-way through what mom had to say. I would summarize the important points for him later.

Mom finally wound down and said, “I want to buy two shotguns, one for me and one for Sue. These will be purely for self protection, we are not going monster hunting like Jim does.”

Jake said, “It seems to me that you only need a light auto-loading shotgun instead of one of those heavy 12-gauge monsters like Jim loves. I suggest a 20-gauge with the box magazine. The advantage of the box magazine is the greatly increased reloading speed. That could be needed if you run into a flock of the harpies like you did today. I can even fit it with a sling so that it will not be too big a problem for you to carry. Here, give this one a try to see how it feels.”

“Oh, Jake, that seems perfect. How many shells go in the magazine?”

“You know that federal law says that you can only have three shells in the magazine at one time, but these magazines have what amounts to a removable plug that gives you room for eight rounds. I can remove the plug for you before you leave the shop.”

“What ammunition do you recommend?”

“I suggest that you start out with unplated BB-size steel ammunition. If I remember right, you get more than 20 shot in a shell, so you should have good luck at hitting your target somewhere. From what Jim has demonstrated with the steel ball in a hollowpoint bullet, you only need a hit with one shot to kill the monsters.”

“Okay, I’ll start out with this shotgun, two extra magazines, and two boxes of BB shells.” Mom looked at me for my opinion, and I nodded my head. “Jake, can you fit the sling this afternoon? If you can, I’ll be back late this afternoon to pick all of that up. Sue will be with me so that you can fit her with a shotgun, too.”