John Henry had tried to find his way back to Mike in the dark but kept getting turned around. He contacted others and waited for daybreak to begin his search anew. This time, he carried the one thing he had forgotten during his nightly ordeal: his radio.
Mike Chambers was still in his deer stand hidden by tree branches high up in a tree when he heard static on his radio and then the voice of John Henry calling him. “Mike, it’s me, are you awake up there, Mike?”
Mike picked up his radio and pushed the speak button. “Yeah, John Henry, I am here. Where are you?”
“Coming toward you from the south so don’t shoot me. Get down here we have to go into town for a meeting. We have a lead and you are not going to believe who it is.”
“All right, I am coming down.” Mike turned off the radio, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and lowered his rope ladder. He climbed down the ladder and met John Henry at the base of the tree. The two men walked toward the parked truck and John Henry explained on the way. John Henry drove them by the house and they got out so he could have a look for himself. They were looking through the rubble as the school bus drove by. All the men left and went to the community center for a town meeting.
The Mayor called the meeting to order by banging his gavel on top of the large wooden desk he set behind with three other council members and Doctor Carter. “Order, please come to order.” Those talking set down and gave the Mayor their undivided attention. “Yesterday at three o’clock in the afternoon, I took a helicopter ride with John Henry piloted by Leo Stone. We flew over the forest area that we had previously searched on foot and again we came up with nothing. However on our way back, we noticed an image similar to a family crest on the roofs of several of our buildings here in town. John Henry and I saw this image on the roof of the Johnson family on Main Street and we went by there last night to check it out. Mrs. Johnson was the only one in the home and she invited us into her home to discuss the matter. She had no idea why there was an image on her roof and we heard a noise from the basement as we were leaving.
“We went downstairs to check it out and that is when we discovered the Johnsons had a secret room in their basement that led to an underground tunnel. John chased Mrs. Johnson down the tunnel when she fired on him. She turned around and just like the boy Mike Chambers found, she had large teeth and fangs. She fired several shots at him and then hissed at him and tried to run away. John Henry then . . . and let me be delicate here . . . he had no choice but to fire on the woman. Even wounded, she still managed to run to the end of the tunnel where we saw a large door. Before going through the door, she pushed a button and the tunnel collapsed in the middle. I am a witness to all that I say and I am telling you honestly that I picked John up and helped him back out of the house before it exploded.
“Now each and every one of you went to the house and has seen what is left of the house. There is nothing but rubble where once a house stood. How could that house have been destroyed so fast? What about the collapsed ground behind the house leading towards the woods? I tell you people, we have got something strange going on in this town and the Johnson family is at the center, right along with those school kids. We have to take action and hunt these people down and bring safety back to our town.”
The townspeople began talking over one another, shouting questions to the Mayor as well as to one another. They shouted at John Henry for answers and he backed the Mayor’s version of the events.
The people were at a fever pitch. Only one thing could silence them and that was the sound of a gunshot fired into the ceiling. Everyone stopped talking and looked around. In a corner of the room stood the smoking gun and at the end of it was the arm that belonged to Sheriff Monroe. “Do I have your attention? Now let me put a stop to all this nonsense. Those few people who claim they saw a boy with fangs and long fingernails have no proof of it. And now to get you to buy into their story they come up with this nonsense about the Johnson family. Most of you in here know the Johnsons. They are decent hard working people like the rest of you. Are we going after them simply because they are black people, a different race? I am the law in this town and I have seen no evidence of what the Mayor is saying here today.”
George Carter was new in town and did not want to take the lead or seem as if he controlled the group so he chose to keep silent and listen to everyone. He was happy when the Mayor stood with fire in his eyes and responded to the Sheriff’s tone.
“What about the Johnson house Sheriff?” Mayor Benaford asked the man. “Are you telling us that that is a bunch of nonsense created by frightened children?”
The Sheriff laughed at the absurd question. “Easily explained, we see this sort of thing on television all the time, it was an explosion of course. What kind is the determining factor. I examined the ruble and I say it was a gas leak explosion, all these theories will only lead us to dead ends and I am not going to waste time chasing a hoax. If we want definitive proof then we have to wait for the county investigation team to get here and evaluate the debris and make their ruling. Until we get a ruling from them, our hands are tied.”
“What about Mrs. Johnson, where is she if this is all a hoax? What about the Vampire boy in the jail cell, was he a hoax?”
“Wait, wait, wait. Let’s not spread rumors of a vampire boy, Mayor. If it was anything at all it was a wild boy raised in the woods. Now as for the rest, I didn’t say it was a hoax, Mayor, I said it is explainable and there is no need to jump to some wild accusations about fangs and vampires and nonsense of that sort. Come on people, this is real life, not some fantasy world. Do any of you seriously think we are invaded by vampires?”
The Sheriff became a calming influence and with his cool demeanor, along with his good looks and tall stature, were enough to convince many of the people to wait for a ruling from the county. If the man charged with authority was not afraid, why should they be? Many of them thanked the Sheriff for his reasoning and left the room and went home to await the results. The rest, whom he could not persuade with simple logic, he came up with a plan to deal with.
Mike Chambers saw the crowd turning and he was the first to make his feelings known. “I am beginning to wonder whose side you are on Sheriff. We have got the Mayor of the town telling us a firsthand account of what he saw this woman doing. We all saw her house, where is she and the rest of her family? I don’t believe in little green men, Martians, or Vampires and I was the one who brought that wild boy into this town from the forest. We don’t live out in those woods, but who is to say who does live out there? There could be a tribe of cannibals hiding out there, or maybe just a wild pack of folks passing through the area. I say we go back out there and tear those woods apart until we come up with something.”
“Tearing up something is your answer to everything isn’t it, Mike? How many times have I had you in my jail this year alone? Going off half-cocked is no solution. We need to be smart about whatever action we take. These men are family men. If they go out there and never come back, how are you going to explain that to their families?”
Many of the men still there began to tremble in fear at the thought of going into the darkened woods and not returning. Many began to back away and look for a more reasonable explanation as to what was going on in their town and find a way to stay home. Going into the woods was becoming more and more unlikely as time went on and the day passed.
John Henry, seeing some people starting to weaken and follow the Sheriff, had a solution. “All right Sheriff, you win. We are going to do things the right and safe way. There is no need for any of these family men to take chances with their safety. Here is a solution that we can try. I say we assume that I and the Mayor are right about the explosion, all right? That means that Mrs. Johnson is dead or trapped beneath the wreckage. Why don’t we call the school and see if her kid is in school today? If the kid’s there then nothing is wrong, but if not, then that will be proof the family does have something to hide. That is step number one, step number two, we look on the rooftops of the build
ings we saw and photograph the images for everyone to see, that gives us proof of another part of the story.”
Mike chimed in, “Yeah! Then we dig down and find the tunnel and follow it. If she isn’t dead then she got away and she is somewhere out there doing god knows what in our town.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. You two screwups are not in charge of anything,” said the Sheriff.
“Maybe not, but that sounds like a solid plan to me. What do you other men say?” Mayor Benaford inquired of the men still there.
The men all nodded their heads in agreement, it sounded like a safer plan than going into the woods themselves.
“Then it is settled, we will go with John Henry’s plan. Sheriff you will contact the county and get a crew over to the Johnson’s house and you can stay there and take charge of that part of the plan. I will call the school and see if the Johnson child is in class today and John Henry, you, Mike Chambers, and the rest of you men can get started checking the rooftops. All right folks, let’s get going and get a move on it before night fall.” The Mayor dismissed the men and they went about their various assignments.
The Sheriff went back to the police station and phoned the county to arrange for a team to investigate the house explosion. He took out his private phone after hanging up with the state, and called Bethany.
“Hello?”
“Hello Bethany, it’s me. I tried to delay as best I could but trouble is on the way. The townspeople are checking roofs, checking for the Johnson kid in school, and they will be looking for tunnels. Mrs. Johnson was by a tunnel door when the explosion occurred so they have every reason to believe she is still alive causing mischief.”
“Join the men on search teams, we will prepare here and if all goes to plan we will need a cover story that will sound believable to all.”
“I obey, my Queen.” He ended his conversation by turning his phone off. Mike Chambers and John Henry would be the hardest to convince so he decided he had better join their team.
Chapter 26
Cavers: A Vampire Tale Page 36
