Chapter 12

Most of the ordinary citizens of Blue Point, South Dakota, had already moved away, hopefully to places where there were no demons. That meant that there were a lot of buildings for demons to hide in, and it also meant that the demons were being forced to depend on hunting animals instead of humans. Naturally, any area that had been occupied for very long by humans was going to be bereft of wild animals. Therefore, there were going to be some hungry demons that had to search farther afield for meals. Ed wondered if that was what had happened to the ghost population.

The result was that it was getting harder and harder to find demons, and that began to worry Ed significantly. Most of the National Guard at the original portal site had been demobilized and sent home by this time, and the few NG personnel still around had moved into empty buildings in Blue Point. Blue Point had very nearly been reduced to a ghost town occupied by a few civilians who simply could not afford to move and by some NG personnel. The local armory was entirely adequate to handle the day to day operations of the few NG personnel still there on duty, so there simply were not enough people around to report sightings of demons. Frankly, what scared everybody, was the thought of demons moving into a large city: that would be a disaster!

Most of the civilian population still left in the Black Hills were the independent types who knew how to use a shotgun. They were asked on radio and TV to report any contact or sightings of demons to their police or sheriff’s office. As expected, these reports started to come in as the human population dwindled around Blue Point. A few of the civilians who reported demon contacts had actually killed one or more demons, usually bats, and the state of South Dakota was now paying a bounty for verified demon killings. Most people now had digital cameras and were able to photograph the dead ghost before it disappeared.

The bounty for ghosts, bats, and skeletons was set at $35, and the bounty for Sho-Sho Mamus was set at $50. This seemingly foolish $50 bounty was set in hopes of discouraging Sho-Sho Mamu hunting because of the danger involved. Hopefully, people would go after the $35 bounty, but would think that the $50 was not worth the effort or the danger. So far, that was correct, because there had been three calls for help with Sho-Sho Mamu sightings.

Team #1 had rushed to each of the three reported sightings and had managed to kill two of the reported demons. As a goodwill gesture, the people who had called in the sightings for those two demons had each been paid the $50 bounty. That set the pattern for the next few months in which Team #1 had scurried about chasing calls of Sho-Sho Mamu sightings while Team #2 did the grunt-work of searching near the original summoning site. Team #2 mostly went after the nests and dens that Sue was able to spot with her AD.

By the time the snow came, there were still only two functional hunter-killer teams in operation. By this time, the Blue Point neighborhood was essentially empty of civilians, so that no effort was made at snow removal. The idea was that this would make it easier to track demons, though the powers-that-be did concede that tough hunting in snow was going to drive the demons south. This pissed off the people living in Nebraska, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

The hunter-killer teams were switched to helicopters from Humvees so that they could get around in the deep snow. A contract was put out by the Army to get an estimate on the cost of converting six Apache helicopters to carry a third person. This third person would be an AD operator who would direct the pilot on where to find a demon. Meanwhile, a Huey helicopter gunship was dragged out of moth balls, and Irene rode with it to see if the idea was feasible. Yes, she could detect demons at an altitude of approximately 500 feet. Any higher than that made the traces too indistinct to do any good.