Chasing the Dark: The Demon Inside

by A. P. Texan

  “Copy, I’m enroute,” Charles says back

  “Chase; it’s Nick, I’m enroute. I’ll circle around behind them.” Nick says over comms

  A few minutes later, I hear him again.” Dad, I’m in position”

  “Copy, Standby.”

  Less than a minute later, I see what appears to be four men coming up the road. They are single file walking the road on the opposite side from me.

  When they get about twenty yards away, I take aim through my scope and fire off a round just a few feet in front of the lead guy.

  “Jesus Christ!”, one yells, as they all jump into the trees and I lose sight of them.

  “We have you in a classic pincer ambush! You aren't getting away so come out with your hands above your head!” I yell.

  I wait a minute and no response.” Okay, I am going to count to three, at three if you aren't coming out, then myself and my friends are coming into get you. Which means you have one chance to live. If we come in for you, I promise, you will not leave this property tonight. One... Two..”

  “Alright, we’re coming”

  Out of the brush step three guys, hands above their heads two of them holding what appears to be rifles.

  “You think I'm an idiot.”, I yell “Tell your friend to come out also”

  “There are only three of us, we swear” the one that seems to be their spokesman says.

  “Nick, left leg!” I yell.

  As soon as the words come out of my mouth, a bright light illuminates the road and almost simultaneously an AR-15 barks as the spokesman’s thigh explodes. He collapses, screaming in pain.

  “I'm coming out, don’t shoot.” We hear from the brush.

  “Charles, get their weapons and then go get their side by side. Let’s get loudmouth up to the barn before he bleeds to death.” I instruct, as I climb the barbed wire that’s separating us from them. Nick is already at the man’s side packing his wound with hemostatic gauze to get the bleeding under control.

  “I purposely hit him in the meat of his left thigh. He will be fine we just need to patch him up.” Nick looks at me.

  Soon, the UTV pulls up and Nick and I pick up the wounded man and place him in the backseat.

  “Get him up there, then wake up your mom and Aunt Cynthia. They got work to do.”

  With that, the UTV takes off and Nick and I look at the other three would-be thieves.

  “Okay, start walking.” I command.

  The five of us start the trip up the gravel drive to the barn. The three of them with Nick and I following. “So, gentlemen, what exactly were you thinking?” I ask.

  “I told these dumbasses someone was here, but no one would listen to me. I knew I heard your generator running the other day BUT NOOOO.

  “‘Shut up, dumbass’ ‘The old man is at his house dumbass’. Who’s the dumbasses now? I told you someone was here and now Jimmy has a gunshot wound in his leg.” One of them rants.

  “Dewayne, would you shut up already? Yes, you were right, and we were wrong, okay? Now, can we just try not to piss these guys off more and end up dead.” One of the others says.

  “Did it cross anyone’s mind to stop by Calvin’s house and ask him for some feed?” Nick asks.

  “Of course, we did, but the old bastard said he couldn’t give us any ‘cause he had his own livestock to worry about and couldn’t spare a single bag.”

  “Well, he does have a point. And what you jackasses failed to realize is he has eighteen close friends living on the farm and we don’t mind shooting people. All four of you are lucky you’re still alive. “Nick tells them.

  We are about to the barn when the big overhead door opens filling the night with the illumination from the lights inside.

  “The good news for your friend is, we have medications and some skilled medical personnel to patch him up. Not to mention, Nick is a really good shot and made sure not to kill him or cripple him for life. Let's see how the ladies are doing.”

  We walk in to see Jimmy laid out on a table, Cynthia on one side hitting him in the arm with a shot of something, Elizabeth on the other side packing the wound with more roll gauze with Sandy and Charles holding him down.

  “See, gentlemen he is in good hands. What’s the prognosis ladies?” Nick asks.

  Cynthia fills us in, “Well, the good news is Nick used a full metal jacket and hit him in the fleshy part of the leg so other than a hole through his thigh muscle, there is no real damage. The bad news is we have no way to sew up the muscle so that’s going to have to heal on its own. We are going to get the bleeding under control, clean it out, sew up the entrance and exits, give him some oral antibiotics and send him on his way. Did you have to shoot him?”

  “No, not really, but it was the easiest way for us to get our point across. Especially since they had guns, also.” Nick says

  “Okay idiots. Put your hands behind your backs and turn around. Nick, keep me covered please.” I say as I get a handful of heavy-duty zip ties off of a shelf where our gear is. I take the zip ties and form then into handcuffs using two for each man. I then link them together and place one around each wrist. I then have them sit down outside the barn with their backs against their side by side.

  “Dad, what are we going to do with them now? They have seen all of our gear and food. If we let them go, they will come back later to take it from us, we can't just shoot them in cold blood, their families are going to be looking for them.”

  “Yeah, I know bud, I’ve been thinking about that and I’m not sure. Calvin will be here soon and we will see what he thinks.” As I am finishing my sentence, I hear two more side by sides coming up the road. “Speaking of which, that should be them now. We need to get this figured out soon, so we can get on the road.”

  The two UTVs pulled up in front of the barn Calvin and Kerri were in one and Robert drove the other. The beds of both were stacked with aluminum steamer pans covered in foil.

  “Mornin’”I said in greeting, “We had some early morning visitors show up, they friends of yours, Calvin?”

  “Damnit boys, what the hell you doing here? I told you I didn’t have nothin’ to spare!”

  “They’re here getting shot is what they're doing!” Nick says, pointing to what’s going on in the barn.

  We all look that direction and Elizabeth is finishing wrapping up Jimmy’s leg.

  “Looks like you brought breakfast” Charles says, walking over to the rear of the small vehicles.

  “Yeah, Kerri and your Grandma hooked us up good” Robert says, climbing out of his UTV and grabbing a pan.” Pancakes, sausage links, and scrambled eggs. Helen and all the girls stayed at the house to take care of some things there.”

  “Calvin, what do you want to do with your neighbors? They have seen everything and have already proven they don’t mind trying to steal from us.” I ask.

  “Well, the good news is, they have two really good bulls over there and about a half dozen pigs, one hog and several sows, if I remember correctly. Maybe we could do some trading and help all of us out. Let's go have a talk with them.”

  We walk back over to the Fantastic Four’s UTV. Jimmy is now sitting in the back seat with his shot leg propped up.

  “Jimmy, you look like you’ve seen better days.” Calvin says to him.

  “Screw you, old man! You’re the reason I got shot.”

  “Really, he told you to try and come steal his feed knowing we would most likely shoot you? I don’t think so.” I say sarcastically.

  “If he had just given us a bag of feed when we asked, then we wouldn’t have had to come try to steal it and Jimmy wouldn’t have gotten shot” One of the other three said.

  “See, that's where you’re wrong and one of the reasons we are in the mess we are in. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions. He told you he didn’t have anything to spare and he was right. We barely have enough for us, we can’t give anything away. Then, you decided that he was lying, or you just didn’t care, so YOU chose to tr
y to steal it from him.” I say as I walk over and grab Jimmy’s leg causing him to scream out in pain. I let go of his leg and kick the other guy closest to me in the side of his knee. Not hard enough to do any damage, but hard enough to let him know that he is at our mercy.

  Calvin waits until Jimmy’s screaming stops, then addresses him. “Jimmy, I am willing to make a deal with you. Give us your boar and a sow. We keep the sow and when she gets knocked up, you’ll get your hog back. In addition, we get to borrow both your bulls. We need meat and your bulls and hog are our meal ticket, if you will. In return, we will give you some of our food and some of our cattle feed as well. On top of that, once a week you can come over and we will give you some fresh eggs.”

  “The other option...” I say “...is we let you go and wait for you to starve to death then we come over and take all your livestock. Or, you can try to come back and steal from us in which case Nick and I kill you and we go take all your livestock. So, the choice is really all up to you.” I say to him.

  “That sounds like a fair deal, how do you want to do it? We can load them up in a trailer and bring them over or we could just let them through the back fence.” Jimmy says.

  “Wait a second, Calvin is this the douche that has been giving you problems on the south fence line? Didn’t he shoot one of your deer? The one that didn’t even take the meat just cut the antlers off and left him there?”

  “Yep, same guy.”

  “I did no such thing! I told you then that wasn’t me. Yes, my boys were throwing beer cans and bottles over your fence, but we didn’t shoot no damn deer!”

  “If I even think you’re shooting anything on our property, you know I will come over there and I will not be merciful do you understand?!” I say with venom in my voice.

  “Man, we ain’t gonna do nothin’, I swear.”

  “Calvin” Robert speaks up “How about we cut out a section of the back fence and let the two herds intermingle.”

  “We can’t, we need to separate the bulls and the cattle. That way we can keep genetic purity as long as possible. I’m sure sooner or later we will have to let them inbreed but I would like to put that off as long as possible”

  “Makes perfect sense, I hadn’t thought of that”, Robert replies.

  “Calvin, use the Chevy. For today, load up the bulls and pigs then pull the trailer over here. You’re our resident livestock guy, so you handle that however you need to. In the meantime, we need to eat and get on the road. We are already behind schedule.” I tell them.

  While we were talking to the Fantastic Four, getting that deal worked out, the rest of the family was getting breakfast laid out. We went inside and we all dove in. We even let Jimmy’s marauders join us. While we were sitting around eating, we filled the marauders in on what we believed was going on in the world and that we were dealing with the blackout from hell. We explained to them that we weren’t recovering from this any time soon. After we had all eaten, we sent Jimmy and his crew on their way with the leftovers to give to their families. Apparently, they weren’t fairing as well as we were and had already gone through their food supply in the previous days. Which wasn’t surprising, as most households usually only keep a week or two worth of food in their house. Since the attack took place in the middle of the month, most people had not gone to the store yet to replenish what they had eaten since the first of the month.

  After we saw them off and made plans for Calvin and Kerri to go over later in the day with the trailer, the rest of us got started on our tasks for the day. Robert and Nick loaded up in the Hummer and headed for Decatur, Charles and I left for Ft. Worth in the Ford, Cynthia and her girls started building a pig pen and chicken coop, Elizabeth, Rusty and Barbra left to help Calvin and Kerri; Sandy stayed back to clean up the barn and cabin some more.

  0800 14 September 2021

  I35 North of Guthrie Oklahoma

  Two full days of walking averaging fifteen miles a day puts Stephanie and Jeremiah are at the intersection of Hwy 33 and Interstate 35. What this means is it is now a straight shot down 35 to get to Texas.

  Last night they camped out under the overpass of the intersection along with about twenty other people all traveling the I-35 Corridor. Some of them traveling north some traveling south the same direction as them. The Ozark Trails four person tent they picked up at the Wal-Mart, is working great to give them overnight cover and at less than eight pounds, it isn’t too much additional weight for them. Also, when they left Academy Sports + Outdoors they grabbed a shopping cart. Their plan is to travel along the main highways and by doing that it allows them to push the shopping cart with the majority of their gear in it. They both agreed, however, to keep a backpack on with a change of clothes, a couple freeze dried meals, a water bottle, a water filter, and a good knife. In addition, Jeremiah is carrying the shotgun and Stephanie has the Revolver in a hip holster she found at Academy. They have also agreed to limit their food to one freeze dried Mountain House meal each per day. They want their food to last as long as possible and they only have twenty meals. However, Jeremiah also knows he can afford less calories than Stephanie can, so he is also letting her eat part of his. In addition to the meals, they are snacking on some trail mix and some Clif Bars. The first ten days of their trip, they should be okay on food after that, they will have to start hunting and scavenging for whatever they can find, for food.

  As usual lately, they are up early. They have a quick breakfast of Clif Bar and coffee, tear down the tent and have packed up and back on the road. They are walking the outside, southbound lane of I-35 and although hungry, they are energized from their night’s sleep and the realization they are now heading south. The two days of walking that it took to get them to I35 was starting to take a toll on their morale, but now they are regaining their motivation.

  “Today we should be able to make it to Guthrie. Hopefully, when we get there, we might be able to find some more food.” Stephanie says, “I’m so hungry I could eat skunk butt right now. It doesn’t help that we don’t have much coffee left, either.”

  “I know how you feel. I haven’t had this much activity with so little food in my life. I feel like I'm starving myself. My pants are already starting to feel a little too big.”

  “We are going to have to eat more or we won’t be able to make it all the way to Daddy. I say we up our intake by one meal each. We will try to restock in Guthrie, Oklahoma City and Norman. We need to check every building we see, snack machines, breakrooms, everything has the potential for food. Once we are outside the city, we will have to start trying to hunt for food.”

  “Okay, well let’s stop around noon and eat. Then when we stop tonight, we can eat again. After we eat, we need a place to stash our stuff, so we can go try to scavenge some more.” Jeremiah responds.

  As they walk along the Highway, pushing their shopping cart of supplies, they have to dodge the occasional car or 18-wheelers. There are also occasional travelers right now. For the most part, everyone seems friendly and is going about their own business, however many have eyed their shopping cart and turned and whispered to their traveling companions.

  “I think we need to ditch the cart and try to carry everything we can in our bags. With the cart we are drawing way too much attention to what we have. Even though it isn’t much, it is still more than most other people I’ve seen.” Jeremiah says.

  “I agree, I’ve seen way too many people watching us.”

  As the day goes on and the sun rises in the sky, the temperature starts to rise. It is getting unusually hot, probably in the mid to upper nineties hot. It’s strange because this time of year the temperatures should be in the high seventies and low eighties. Also, at night it seems to be getting colder much faster. The pair are starting to notice that they are drinking a lot more water and the cases of bottles they had, are almost gone. Once that happens, most likely today, they are going to need to start looking for a source of water.

  0800 14 September 2021

  On the road to th
e Armory

  The drive to Shoreview Armory shouldn’t take us more than an hour. Since the attack happened at such an early hour, not very many cars will be on the road, and the ones that are will most likely be on the shoulder or at least easy to get around. I’m driving and Charles is riding shotgun. He has his AR and a Springfield Range Officer 1911. The idea being, that if we both carry 1911s, we can share mags and ammo in one of our weapons. He is also wearing two extra AR mags on his belt and four extra 1911 mags. In his day bag, he has an additional six AR magazines. We both have basic survival supplies in our bags as well as two MREs. In my bag, I am also carrying a laser range finder, a spotting scope at twenty power and a small set of ten power binoculars. He has a sketch pad and several pencils so we can map the area.

  “So here is the plan, when we get there we will drive past the front of the armory, it's in a residential area, so someone driving by shouldn’t ring any alarms. Sure, it will be strange having a vehicle on the road but shouldn’t look too strange. When we drive by, make notes of everything, cars in the parking lot, people, uniforms or civilian clothes, anything and everything you see. Second, we will find a good place to hide the truck and then walk into towards the back-parking lot. From there, we should be able to get good eyes on the building parking lot and motor pool. We will watch from there for four to five hours taking turns. Then we will pull out and go to where we can see the front motor pool gate as well as, the front of the storage building in the back corner. Again, four or five hours, taking turns and we make notes of everything and try to map it out as best we can. After that, we will pull back to the truck make one more pass in front of the facility and then head back to the farm.”

  “Okay, sounds easy enough. What are contingencies?” He asks.

  “Good question, hopefully we won’t be seen but if we are, we try not to engage. I don’t want to get in a shootout with the National Guard. If we are discovered, we pull out and high tail it back to the truck and get out of dodge as quickly as possible. If we get separated, the first person to get to the truck drives to the lake worth bridge and waits. Wait for no more than three hours then head back to the farm. The other person has enough supplies in his bag to get home.”