Chapter 7

We were up on Monday morning and ready to make some waves at the schools. Both Sue and Jeff were still supposed to be attending classes, but they were still listed as law officers. With that in mind, they strapped on their pistols, pinned on their badges, and headed for the bus pickup place. They wanted to be the first ones there just in case some of the demons showed up.

They also had their shotguns, so they were ready when a monster bat flew in. The bat had a wingspan of something like 4 feet and looked like it had about a million teeth in an especially wide mouth. As it happened, Sue reacted first, and her experience shooting skeet stood her well as she was able to hit the bat with her first shot from her shotgun. Only moments later, two more bats showed up, and Sue took care of one while Jeff got the other. That was the end of the bats for the moment, but Sue and Jeff were now ready for any monster that showed up.

The bus driver had seen them shoot the last of the bats and saw the three dead monsters lying on the ground, so made no objection to them taking their shotguns onto the bus. Each one sat on opposite sides of the bus with an open window to shoot out of if the situation called for it. The driver and the kids were all glad to see them.

When they got to school, the kids broke the shotguns down and stowed them in their lockers. Fortunately, there was room for them. Unfortunately, a teacher saw them putting the shotguns into the lockers and rushed to the office to report them to the principal. Not two minutes later, they were called to the office over the school’s PA system.

Not suspecting anything, they met at the office door and went in together. The principal was standing at the door and announced in a voice that might well have been heard in Atlanta, “YOU TWO ARE HEREBY EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL! YOU KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT BRING GUNS ONTO THE SCHOOL CAMPUS! NOW GO HOME OR I WILL CALL FOR POLICE TO REMOVE YOU FROM THE BUILDING!”

Neither Jeff nor Sue could keep from laughing, but Jeff was the one to answer her. “Mrs. Stringfellow, you can’t do that because we ARE the police. If you would take the time to look, you would see that we are wearing badges as we are supposed to do when we are on duty. Mr. Adams has sent us here to protect the school from the demons who are threatening us, and you can’t do anything about that. If you doubt me, just call the police station. Sam with give you the straight poop.

“Since we are supposed to attend school, we are going to attend our regular classes, but we will react if any monsters show up anywhere in the school. Now, please step aside so that we may attend our first classes.”

Mrs. Stringfellow sputtered her objections, but the kids just walked around her and headed for their homerooms. There was nothing else she could do, so the principal rushed to make that telephone call.

By this time, the story of the shootings of the three bats at the bus stop was known all over the school, and Sue and Jeff were the heroes of the day. Even the teachers were impressed, especially those who had seen one of the monsters. The kids went through the school day with no further interruptions, but the word went around school after lunch that the president of the Board of Education had called Mrs. Stringfellow and told her to shut up about the kids with guns. The principal threatened to resign, and the president said that he would take her resignation over the phone if she were truly serious about her threat. That was when she backed down.

A call was also made about my situation at the high school, and that was resolved. However, I was asked to continue my efforts to assist the police department for now. Hell, I was in no hurry to go back to school until exam time and graduation, so I stuck with Sam. The word was that I was going to receive an A grade in all of my subjects, no matter what I did when I took the exams. That certainly was fine with me, so I just went with the flow.

Just before classes were ended for the day, I got a call from Sam that a flock of harpies were hanging around the high school. I hurried over there and saw the harpies that were causing the panic. I radioed Sam that I was in position at the high school and asked him to have the kids held in class until I could clear the air. Naturally, this was unpopular with some of the kids, but there are know-it-alls in any bunch of teens. I think that the girls are worse than the boys.

I drove to what I figured was the best compromise position in front of the school and parked. I opened the moon-roof and climbed up on the seats with my AA-12 in hand. As soon as I could get comfortable, I began to shoot. There were several harpies flying very close to me, so they were my first targets. I was not as good a shot as Sue when it came to birds, but those harpies were so big that I had less trouble than I expected. Dammit, how can something that big fly under its own power? There had to be some kind of magic helping them to stay in the air.

I began shooting and quickly knocked down the harpies that were the closest to me. What amazed me was that the rest of the harpies did not fly away as I had expected. Instead, they all decided to attack me, but, luckily for me, not all at once. Those creatures were just plain stupid. They attacked me essentially one at a time, but not always from the same direction.

That meant that I was continually turning around in order to fire at a harpy that had managed to get behind me. Oh, Man, I sure wished that Dan were there to help me. I had a couple of close shaves during that fight, and either one of them could have been fatal if I had not reacted as quickly as I did. Of course, any member of my own family would have been welcome, but they already had jobs, so the best thing for me to do was to recruit Dan Wistkowski.

For what it was worth, I had an appreciative audience during that fight. I think that every person in the school, except maybe the principal and the head football coach was plastered against a window watching me shoot harpies. No, I didn’t need the publicity, but I did appreciate the attention. What teenager would not?

Dan had no interest in going to college—he was going to work in his dad’s store and work his way up to manager. Neither he not his father thought that college was worth the expense. Therefore, I was sure that Dan would be happy to join me in fighting monsters if I could just get everybody else to agree.

There was a quiet period right after my fight with the harpies, so I went by the police station to talk to Sam. I explained the situation, and he agreed with me right away. He phoned the mayor for approval and told me to go find Dan. If he would come with me to the police station, Sam would swear him in.

That was all I needed to hear, so I took off for Dan’s house. I got there as he was getting in from school, and I gave him the sales pitch on joining me. I could tell from the look in Dan’s eyes that he was with me from practically my first word. He checked with his mother, and she gave her approval, so I took Dan downtown to talk with his father. His dad was agreeable, and even agreed to pay for one of the 20-gauge shotguns that we had found so useful.

Our next stop was to sign up with Sam, and then we headed to Jake’s shop to pick up the shotgun promised by Mr. Wistkowski. Fortunately, we were able to pick up the last of those shotguns that Jake had in stock. Jake did part with two 10-round magazines, and made a promise to have at least two, and hopefully three, of the extended magazines ready by tomorrow.

Dan had decided to go with the BB shot, and he took two boxes. Jack said, “Dammit, I am going to have to order more of those shells. Everybody but Jim is using them, and I expect him to switch when he gets his 20-gauge.”

Dan also bought a box of .22 hollowpoint ammunition to use in his target .22 pistol. We also stopped off at the hardware store to buy some more unplated BBs. Dan converted 20 of the bullets to have the BB installed by the time we got to his house. He picked up the pistol and loaded a clip with 12 of the modified bullets. Now he was in business. He was going to convert more of the .22 ammunition tonight after supper.