Sho-sho Mamu, Inc
Chapter 6

Copyright© 2017 by aubie56

Angie had once had some nurse’s training as a Girl Scout, so she dismounted from the Humvee and checked on the girl. Besides one broken arm and one broken leg, the girl might have a concussion. Furthermore, she was covered by bruises and abrasions. Well, she was certainly punished adequately for her foolishness! They waited around until the EMS showed up before leaving to investigate the toad-lizard.

By the time the team reached the house where the toad-lizard had broken in, there was no doubt of what had happened. One section of wall was bashed in near the exterior doorway to the cellar, and the hole was certainly large enough for the offending demon to get through.

At least, they knew that no humans were hurt by the demon because they had been staying with friends across the street and reported to the team when they showed up. Certainly, finding the demon would be no problem. The cellar was not partitioned into separate rooms, so they should be able to see the whole thing once they got inside.

This time they put on their hearing protection before they entered the enclosed space. Even with their special goggles, it was difficult to see what was in the cellar because of the mess the demon had made when it went inside. Apparently, the toad-lizard had tried to make itself a nest by breaking up whatever it found in the cellar. The place was a mess with shards of wood and cloth scattered about. This made it impossible to pick out the demon among the strewed jetsam. Jetsam was a good choice of term because the cellar was beginning to flood from the broken water lines. The incoming water was going to have to be cut off pretty damned soon to prevent a flooding disaster.

It appeared that the only way to find the demon was to search foot-by-foot through the mess on the floor. Suddenly, a thick rope appeared to whip out and grab Hank around the waist. Everybody looked just in time to see Hank disappear into the mouth of the demon. Only moments later, the booming explosions of a shotgun being fired as fast as the pump could be jacked was heard. A fountain appeared in the top of the head of the toad-lizard and the beast seemed to deflate onto the floor.

As fast as he could move, Ed was on top of the demon’s head sawing with his large knife trying to enlarge the hole that was barely visible there. It really did not take him long to cut a long slit in the toad-lizard’s head and to pull Hank out through the slit by one arm. Hank’s other arm was still hanging on to his shotgun.

Hank was laid out in a puddle of the accumulated water to wash off the slop that was covering his body. Angie worked feverishly to get his clothes off and to wash his skin before it was attacked by whatever was in the toad-lizard’s mouth. That only took a minute or so, and Hank was lying naked in the puddle of water. Ed looked for another puddle to move him to while Irene looked around for some clothes to put on him. The weather was a little cool that day, and she did not want him to catch a cold.

Ed found what looked like a clean puddle of water and they moved Hank there to give him a final rinse before drying him and getting him into the clothes that Irene had found. It could not be said that the pants fit very well, but they did provide a bit of covering to protect his modesty. They helped him out of the cellar and into the Humvee. Irene reported to the homeowners what had happened and recommended that they get the water cut off as soon as possible. Ed used the radio to report the killing of the toad-lizard to the NG and to say that they were transporting Hank to the hospital ER (Emergency Room) for a precautionary check. Ed said that he would call back when they were ready to resume the hunt.

It turned out that Hank only had minor bruises as a result of his gobbling by the toad-lizard. Hank reported that he had acted without conscious thought. “As soon as I felt the tongue wrap around me, I began preparing to shoot my way out of the toad-lizard’s mouth. I didn’t want to be swallowed and have to fight whatever digestive juices the beast might have. As soon as it got dark, I pointed my shotgun up and started shooting as fast as I could work the pump and the trigger.”

Everything happened so fast that he never even had a problem with breathing. Hank didn’t know if he even tried to breathe while he was inside the toad-lizard, but it wouldn’t surprise him if he had not. Frankly, he was just as happy to be outside the toad-lizard, and he was not looking forward to a repeat performance. Hank did say that the sight of Ed’s knife poking through to him was one of the best things that he had ever seen!

By now, it was late in the day, and they all wanted some supper and a break. They headed back to the hotel for some new clothes for Hank, and they followed that with a visit to a steak house. Hank admitted that he did not know why he was so hungry, but he ate nearly as much as the other three team members combined.

They were all so tired that they went to bed early, but Angie insisted on celebrating the fact that her husband was still alive so that those two were a little later in getting to sleep.

The next morning, Ed checked in with the NG and was informed that they had killed three ghosts and shot one Sho-Sho Mamu trying to come through the portal during the night. Apparently, it was possible to make a significant impression on even the largest demon if enough shotguns were fired at it at one time. In this case, an entire platoon had fired their shotguns at the Sho-Sho Mamu as fast as they could pump and pull the trigger. That was 27 men and that constituted a Hell of a lot of buckshot traveling in one direction, if you will pardon the pun. However, it did prove that the portal had to be sealed as soon as possible.

Of course, they still had the problem of not knowing how to seal the portal. The eggheads at several universities agreed to start working on the problem. What that really meant was that their graduate students would do the work and the professors would get the credit. At the moment, nobody cared about that nicety, they just wanted a solution to the problem.

Mostly, the researchers were anthropologists, archaeologists, and philosophers. Other people might be called in as the situation warranted. The important point was to start working on the problem. That Navajo shaman who had contacted them back when they had the problem with the original Sho-Sho Mamu was contacted about leading a group of anthropologists. He laughed and agreed.

Meanwhile, the South Dakota NG was madly searching the world for available AA-12 automatic shotguns. There are some variations to the basic design, but it can be described as a virtually recoilless 12-gauge automatic shotgun that uses a 2¾ shell. Several ammunition suppliers agreed to supply both buckshot shells and slug shells for it in which the pellet or slug was steel. The buckshot load was basically the military load with the titanium balls replaced by steel ones. That was a minimal problem, except for the added wear to the barrel from the steel balls.

The slug shells were a special run because the military normally had no call for them. However, experiments were planned whereby the HE (High Explosive) version of the slug might be used to replace Ed’s design. The only way to know was to try it out, so the team was at the top of the list for the AA-12s with the steel bullets. Ed was told to expect them by the end of the week. The first shells were going to be the military load with the steel balls directly replacing the titanium balls, and to hell with the barrel wear.

While all of this was going on, the team was diligently searching for more of the demons. Many people wondered why there was only one aura detector in use, but that was because it would not work for anyone but Irene. There was something about her brainwaves that interacted with the machine to indicate demons. A number of electronic laboratories were working on modifications to the gadget’s design to get it to work for other people, but for now Irene was the only person able to use the device, and she was sticking with the current team! So, there!

Hot Dog!!! Four AA-12 shotguns were delivered two days early, along with 400 rounds of the steel buckshot and 50 rounds of the HE ammunition. The timing was nearly perfect because they had just gotten a hot lead on a Sho-Sho Mamu. The demon had attacked a herd of prized dairy cows, and the farmer was legitimately hopping mad about the loss of six of this dearly loved cows. They grabbed up their recently issued AA-12s with the 20-round drum magazines and rushed to the farm in their Humvee.

 
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