Chapter 6

Mom and her crew made it to the park without any distractions. She found a good place to park the car so that they could see all of the park. This park was set up as a meadow surrounded by trees, except where there were streets. That usually made it an ideal place for kids to play, either on the meadow or among the trees. However, the recent monster scare was keeping the kids out of the trees and in the open area where they could be seen.

Also, there were more adults in evidence than usual for a Saturday morning. The normal thing was for parents to drop off the kids and then go shopping, but many mothers were forgoing shopping in an effort to protect their kids by keeping them in sight. None of the women appeared to be armed with any useful weapon except for one woman who was carrying a steel fireplace poker. Apparently, she did not realize that she was already practically dead by the time a monster got close enough for her to swat or poke it with the poker. Certainly, she was not going to be able to protect her child with that poker.

Jeff and Sue were sitting on the car’s front fenders with their shotguns handy. Jeff was using one of my hunting shotguns with a load already in the chamber, so he was good for nine shots. Sue had her new shotgun with the extended magazine, so she was prepared for 23 shots—one shell was already in the chamber. That made for a total of 32 shotgun rounds, which should be enough for any attack by monsters.

Mom was sitting in the car with her legs out the door so that she could stand up if it was appropriate. Sue and Jeff were concentrating on the kids at play in the park, and Mom was trying to keep a lookout to either side and to the rear.

Nothing happened for the first 45 minutes or so, but then Mom detected some movement among the trees over to her left. She brought her shotgun to the ready and was prepared to push the button to release the safety just in case this did represent a threat. A few moments later, she relaxed as a girl of about 10 ran out from among the trees. Was this child unsupervised, or was she allowed to play where she could not be seen? Mom was relieved to see a woman jump up from a bench and rush to the girl and proceed to give her a vigorous spanking on the spot. The girl cried, but probably more from embarrassment than from pain.

Uh-oh, no more than five minutes later, there was more motion detected among the trees very close to where the girl had been. This time, there was no doubt what had caused the disturbance because a pair of wolves exited the covering trees.

Mom said, “Jeff, to your left. Two wolves at the tree line. You take the one fartherest from the trees. I’ll take the other one.” In only a couple of seconds, two shotguns were fired, and two dead wolves were lying in plain sight. This caused a general panic on the playground as the kids ran to parents and friends.

Mom looked around before she waved to the crowd what she hoped would be interpreted as an all-clear signal. Some people got the message, but most of the people rushed to cars and left. A few kids were left behind, so Mom walked out to ask why these kids were still there. In general, the answer was that an adult was scheduled to pick them up at some time before noon. Well, that meant that Mom and crew were stuck with staying at the park because they could not very well abandon these kids to whatever Fate had to offer.

The whole situation became moot about 20 minutes later when a King Kong and six wolves showed up. The King Kong was not going to move fast under any circumstances, but the wolves were definitely a different story. There were 16 kids left at the park, and Mom felt responsible for all of them, so she called them to the car to offer what protection she could. The youngest kids were put inside the car and the doors were closed. She just hoped that the older kids would follow orders if and when the time came, but she knew that the youngest ones could not be depended upon to do that.

Mom sent Sue to the roof of the car to shoot from there. Jeff was sent to the other side of the car while she covered the driver’s side. Sue was to concentrate on protecting the front and rear and not to be distracted by what was going on to her right or left. Jeff was given the same kind of order, and Mom hoped that she could take her own orders. The kids outside the car were bunched against it behind Mom as they waited to see what the wolves would do.

At first, the wolves stayed with the King Kong, but they seemed to receive some kind of order because they began to trot toward the people and the car. The monsters were approaching on Jeff’s side, so Mom ordered, “Jeff, try to take out the King Kong. It seems to be telling the wolves what to do.”

The range was still a little long for a standard shotgun, about 75 yards, so Jeff switched to his pistol. He leaned his back against the car and used two hands to steady his aim at the King Kong. His first shot must have missed, but that was not surprising when one considered the range, but his second shot was accurate enough to hit the King Kong and kill it.

This triggered an all-out charge by the six wolves, so Jeff went back to his shotgun. When the wolves got to a range of about 50 yards, Jeff began to shoot. Mom shouted, “SUE, HELP HIM!” That was all of the encouragement that Sue needed, and she began to pour fire at the wolves. It was impossible to tell how many wolves each one killed, but the pack did not last long with two people shooting shotguns at them.

About this time, four more wolves appeared on Mom’s side of the car. Now, she had her own fight to wage. Fortunately, Mom was able to control herself so that she did not panic. She needed five shots to kill the four wolves, and that was a very acceptable kill ratio for anyone. There was a break at this point, so Mom ordered, “JEFF, RELOAD! SUE, COVER HIM!” This reloading took an awfully long time, and Jeff could hardly wait to get his new shotgun. However, he did have time to load nine shells into the chamber and the magazine.

When he finished, Mom ordered, “SUE, REFILL YOUR MAGAZINE! JEFF, COVER HER!” Sue did the sensible thing and swapped magazines. Then she took the time to reload the magazine that she had been using. As soon as Sue was ready, Mom ordered, “SUE, COVER ME WHILE I RELOAD!” Mom followed Sue’s lead and was back in full fighting condition in less than two minutes. In a more normal tone of voice, Mom said, “Kids, you did great. I am very proud of you.”

It took almost 90 minutes, but the last child was finally picked up. Jeff returned to the back seat and the two women sat in front. With the doors closed and the windows almost fully closed, they felt reasonably safe. Mom said, “Kids, it looks to me to be time for lunch. Let’s go home and fix ourselves some sandwiches.”

When they got home, Mom used the telephone to report to Sam what had happened at the park. She recommended that the park be closed for the duration because they had been lucky today, but she could not promise that for the future. Sam agreed and called the mayor for him to order that and to have signs put up announcing the fact that the park was closed because of the current danger.

Dad and I showed up at home for lunch before they had finished eating, and Mom fixed us some sandwiches, too. That was greatly appreciated by Dad and me, and we said so. Mom smiled and acknowledged our thanks.

After lunch, Mom and Dad took the car with Dad driving and Mom riding “shotgun.” Sue and Jeff came with me in the pickup. This time, we tried a variation that I thought would be more efficient. Both Sue and Jeff sat in the rear seat, and each one covered only one side of the pickup. We figured that would give them more freedom of movement to shoot.

This was somewhat disappointing for both groups because we did not spot a single monster for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe we had killed the day’s supply that morning. It would be nice to think that we had stopped the demon invasion of Lookout Ridge, but I sure was not going to bet on it.

Sunday showed us how wrong we would have been if we had assumed that the demons were eliminated. Bocks Peak, about 7 miles down the road from us was hit on Sunday by a mass of the demonic creatures, including some that we had never seen before. The little town of about 400 people was virtually wiped out as they headed for church. We got the word because somebody at the Bocks Peak police station called Sam on the radio to warn him of what was going on just before he was killed by who knows what.