Chapter 4

Mom had been going through ammunition for her Ruger pretty fast, so I figured that we should loop by for more of the steel balls and more .22 hollowpoint bullets. I took Mom in with me so that she would know exactly what to buy if she had to make the purchase without me. We stepped through the entrance and immediately somebody screamed, “LOOK OUT! OVER YOUR HEAD!”

We both knew enough to duck at that warning. I looked up and saw a thing, I don’t know what else to call it, hanging from the ceiling. It looked, at least at first glance, like a beach ball with dozens of tentacles. I couldn’t see any sign of hair, and the skin was a scrambled mix of splotches of dull green and brown color.

It was trying to reach Mom, and that only helped me to get my gun into action that much more quickly. I fired one shot, and grabbed Mom’s arm to jerk her out of the way as the thing fell to the floor, quite dead. We carefully stepped around the abomination as we walked to where the clerk had been crouching. “Say, aren’t you the new man who was hired to assist Sam?”

I admitted to that fact, and the clerk said, “Thanks for getting here so fast. I just finished talking to Sam on the phone.”

All I said was, “You are welcome,” while frowning at Mom who was about to say that we were not there as a result of his call. She caught the signal and shut up, and that made me happy. “You might have taken care of this all by yourself if you had hit that creature with something made of steel. I shot it with a hollowpoint bullet that had a steel ball wedged into the hollow place. That was what killed it so fast.”

“Damn! You mean anything made of steel is poison to those creatures?”

“Yeah. I suggest that you get a rake or a pitchfork and keep it handy. No matter what it is, just poke it with the tines or points if they are made of steel, and that will kill it right away.

“Say, while we are here, we are running low on the steel balls that work so good. I want to buy some more so that I can convert more ammunition. I think that what we need is the BB size, 0.177 inches in diameter.”

“Hell, Man, you can have anything you want from my store. How much do you need? I think that I have close to 100 pounds of that size in stock.”

I couldn’t help laughing at the thought of that many BBs. “Thank you, but I think that two pounds will hold us for a couple of months.” At that moment, the obscenity on the floor exploded into the black cloud and disappeared.

The clerk was startled by that, but he recovered quickly. “Just take the scoop and pick up as much as you think that you can use. No charge. I just want to show my appreciation for what you did.”

That was when I saw the price posted for the BBs, and saw that two pounds of shot was going to be lost in the decimal points. Nevertheless, it was the principle of the thing, so I used the scoop to weigh out two pounds of BBs and poured them into a paper sack. We got out as quickly as we could and left for Jake’s shop. I wanted to pick up some more .22 and .40 caliber hollowpoint bullets. I planned to spend the evening converting the ammunition to creature killers. I hoped that I could get the rest of the family to help me with the chore.

I stashed the boxes of bullets with the BBs in the glove compartment and tried to call Sam on the radio. “I can’t talk to you right now. I have a problem.”

“Maybe I can help. Where are you?” Sam gave me an address that Mom wrote down for me. For my own amusement, I was keeping a log of my activities against the monsters. That’s where this story is coming from.

I recognized the address as being in the Black section of town, so I figured that Sam might really be in trouble. I drove as fast as I dared to the site and found Sam’s car parked in front of a dilapidated house, and all of the lights on the car were flashing. That meant that he had been in a real rush to get here. Mom and I rushed in, and I called out, “SAM, IT’S JIM! WHERE ARE YOU?”

I had no problem hearing his answer, “I’m in the bedroom on your right. Come on and help me.”

Mom and I rushed to the bedroom and found Sam in the process of trying to deliver a baby. Well, I was completely out of my depth with this sort of job, but Mom rushed over to lend a hand. In only a minute or so, she had pushed Sam out of the way and took over the delivery. Thank God, years ago Mom had helped out with the local clinic’s OB/GYN section doing baby deliveries. She quickly had things under control and sent Sam to wash up and to bring her some towels to use as blankets.

She had delivered a perfectly healthy little girl by the time he returned, and he helped Mom wipe down the baby before she gave her to her mother. The mother said, “Thank you all so much. I don’t know what I would have done without you. I sure didn’t expect such kindness from three White folks to a nigger like me. I wish I could repay you, but I ain’t got any money, and I don’t know what else I could do.”

Mom said, “Don’t you worry about it. We were just doing our Christian duty, and we would have done the same for anybody, just as you would. Will you be alright, now, or do you need more help?”

“I’m okay for now. My sister lives here with me, and she should be home from her cleaning job in an hour or so. She can take care of me just fine. Thank you for asking.”

“Where does your sister work. We can pick her up and deliver her here. That will get you help that much sooner.” We got the directions and left. Sam went back to the station while Mom and I went for the sister. Frankly, we were concerned about a woman walking alone with all of these monsters around.

We were about half-way to pick up the sister, Alandra Waters, and we spotted a woman walking fast toward us. She was on the side walk and behind her were four of the wolves. She had not seen them yet, and they were going to attack in only a few seconds. I jammed my foot down on the accelerator and sped toward her. For the first time, she looked frightened as if she thought I was going to run her down.

I slammed on the brakes and skidded to a halt. Mom yelled, “QUICKLY, GET IN THE BACK SEAT IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! WOLVES ARE ABOUT TO ATTACK YOU!”

I grabbed my AA-12 and opened my door. I stood on the running board and flipped the selector switch to automatic fire. I held the trigger down as I swung the muzzle of the AA-12 from left to right over the wolves. I wound up firing six or seven shells, but I did hit every one of those wolves before they could get to the woman.

Once she realized what was going on, the Black woman moved with amazing speed to climb into the truck. She plopped on the rear seat and slammed the door. When she looked up and out the windshield, she saw the wolves lying on the sidewalk and grass. “Oh, my God! Thank you for saving my life. I don’t know what I would have done if you had not come along when you did.”

Mom said, “You’re welcome. Is your name Alandra Waters?”

“Yes it is. How did you know?”

“We just came from delivering your sister’s baby. You now have a beautiful niece. She needs help, so we came to fetch you. Do you need to go anywhere before you go home?”

“No, there is nothing I need before I get home. Please tell me your names.”

“I am Elizabeth Smalley, and this is my son, James, whom most people call Jim. We’ll have you home very shortly. Listen to me carefully. The only thing that will kill these monsters is steel. Even a scratch by a nail is enough to kill them. Get yourself something to use as a weapon. Even a stick with a nail driven through it so that the point sticks out might be enough to save your life. Whatever you use, keep it with you at all times while you are outdoors. Make sure your sister does the same thing.

“Here we are. Take care of yourself, and be careful. These monsters are out to kill every human that they can find.”

“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll do that. Thank you, again. Goodby.”

We let the woman out and watched for monsters as she went up to her front door. Dammit, I wished that we could help these two women more, but there was nothing that we could do. We didn’t have enough money to help them that way, and I didn’t know what else we could do. Life is a bitch, sometimes.