The Shadow of the Moon

by Michael Dunn

  She was lying on her side on a blanket in the woods naked next to Tony, enjoying the afterglow of post-coital euphoria.

  Suzie won the lottery last night, and she wanted to celebrate that she got to keep her boyfriend-fiancé-future husband by showing him how grateful she was.

  “I’m glad you got me out of there,” Suzie said, and it was something she often said to Tony. “My dad’s having some VFW friends over tonight from here and a few from Albuquerque. I guess he’s having a barbecue or something. Either way, I don’t want to be home.”

  Tony raised an eyebrow, thinking and feeling she had said that before. “What about your mom?” Tony asked.

  Suzie scoffed. “She’s so absorbed in wedding planning, an army could charge through the living room and she wouldn’t even look up, unless “Dark Shadows” was on.”

  They went to the Silver Dust drive-in that evening and saw Billy Jack and The Omega Man. Tony and Suzie both agreed they liked Billy Jack, but thought The Omega Man was more funny than scary, even though they were too busy making out through most of that movie. After the movies, they headed back to their spot in the woods.

  They laid together watching the moon rise admiring its beauty. The song on the radio was George Harrison’s “What is Life,” and they laughed at the appropriateness of the song.

  “Do you think we should be heading back to the trailer park?” Suzie asked.

  “We don’t have to tonight.”

  “What? But you know what tonight is?”

  Tony nodded. “Yeah, and so does Bordeaux. I got the feeling, it was a little vague, Bordeaux didn’t want us back at the trailer park tonight. He said he trusted me to watch over you and since we were going to the woods anyway, we might as well stay here.”

  “Really?” Suzie raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, surprised me too. Even on a special night like tonight.”

  “What’s tonight?”

  “It’s a total lunar eclipse.”

  “Oh? Does that mean anything for us, or our people?”

  “No, not really, but Bordeaux must think it does.”

  “We can stay here all night?”

  “Uh-huh, after we change tonight, we can fall asleep under the stars on the blanket.”

  Suzie beamed. “Sounds like fun.”

  Suzie stared at the moon and then looked at Tony.

  “We’ve got a while before we turn. Wanna go again?”

  4

  Jack was getting the final preparations ready before the other VFW members arrived. He finished the cage last night and hoped once they got Suzie back, and away from those loathsome people, the cage would hold her.

  Jack was leaving out the front door, carrying his shotgun and told his wife, “I have a few errands to run.” Then, he shut the door behind him.

  “Good-bye, Jack,” Dee whispered.

  Somehow Dee felt that was the last time she was going to see her husband. She wasn’t as clueless as she let her husband believe and dreaded her suspicions about what her husband was up to. Dee went to the cabinet and poured herself a drink, before picking up the phone and called Eunice Brandner. After three rings, Eunice answered the phone in her quiet and mousy voice.

  “Hello?”

  “Eunice, how are you?”

  “Hi, Dee, I’d love to talk about bridesmaids’ dresses, but I’m kind of busy right now, and…”

  “No, we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Is Suzie over there by any chance?”

  “No, she and Tony left a while ago. Can I take a message in case they come back tonight?”

  “Actually, this message is for you too. Jack and his friends are coming to the trailer park tonight to get Suzie and I think they have guns.”

  Eunice stopped cleaning the kitchen and her eyes went wide.

  “How, how many are coming?” Eunice asked.

  “I don’t know. A lot of them.”

  Holding back a scream, Eunice took a deep breath, thanked Dee, and then hung up. She then ran out of her home and headed for Bordeaux’s trailer.

  5

  The “part-timers” from the Bestiavir VFW (minus Clyde Townsend, who never carried a gun before and wasn’t about to start tonight) and the more curious from the Albuquerque VFW, who came to help their hard-luck brethren in Valencia County. Jack told them what had occurred since February up until a couple months ago when three members went into the local woods and only one came out running (and didn’t stop “running” until he got to Phoenix).

  “Tonight we’re going after a local legend,” Jack said to the former combat soldiers. The prospect of getting famous for bagging the regional abominable snowman, or snowmen in this case, if Gary’s report was accurate, was an attractive prospect. However, their primary reason for this “expedition” was as simple and heart-felt for any one of them to understand – they were retrieving Jack’s daughter from the trailer park. He didn’t use the word “kidnapping,” because technically she wasn’t kidnapped, and if he did, they would wonder why Jack didn’t call the police.

  “Hey, Jack,” one of the guys from Albuquerque asked while looking in the garage. “Why do you have a seven foot steel cage?”

  “For protection,” Jack answered. “Okay, let’s head out.”

  “Jack, are you sure this is enough guys?”

  “We’re meeting others at the old VFW parking lot.”

  6

  Construction of the new VFW would begin in a month or so, and it would be built on the remains of the old VFW and would be ready in early December for a grand re-opening. Jack and the other members of the VFW looked inside the new building with curiosity and longing. Jack saw Ty and his dirty white boy crew (although a couple of them were Mexicans) coming out of the new Burger King. Ty had done his job well. He rounded up the local bad boys, who Jack thought looked more like a pirate crew in modern clothing.

  “Hey Ty,” Jack motioned Ty away from his motley crew, who were scaring the older, and actual combat vets. “What exactly did you tell these guys?”

  Ty shrugged. “I told them what you wanted me to tell them: we need to go in and get Jack’s daughter from those dirty monsters, and if they don’t give her back, we get to shoot them.”

  “Did you tell them not to shoot until we told them too?”

  “Of course. I’ve arrested nearly all of them at one point or another and told them if they fired without my permission, each of them would be going back to the cage where I put them.”

  Jack patted Ty on the shoulder. “Just keep them away from the real warriors. They’re just coming along to scare the trailer trash into thinking we have much greater numbers. Go back and tell them that.”

  Ty nodded obediently. He went to tell the guys and Jack heard the men groan. Jack told his men the ruffians were just there to scare the others and specifically told not to shoot until directly ordered, which made the combat vets feel more comfortable.

  As dusk ended, Jack put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. Everyone there stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

  “Okay, guys, it’s almost time. Remember, and I can’t emphasize this enough, we are going to get my daughter, because those scumbags have her and won’t let her leave. These, um, people might put up a fight and despite what you may have heard, they are surprisingly more… than you could imagine. Once we get my daughter, we’re leaving. If they provide any problems, well, we have the law here.” Jack motioned to Ty. “Hopefully, this will be a very easy, and very bloodless affair. Now, let’s go.”

  Jack hopped in the passenger side of Ty’s civilian truck and they headed out. The other VFW members followed, while Ty’s recruits hollered and hopped in their mostly beat up trucks. Guy Robinson, a propane delivery guy for Leland’s Propane, started his 1959 Ford F-250 truck with some good old boys riding in the back.

  They were coming.

  Chapter Thirty-Three: At the End of the World

  August 6th, 1971

  Once Eunice got off the phone with Dee, she ran out of her home s
creaming, running toward Bordeaux’s trailer. She frantically knocked on the door and shouted to Bordeaux what she had heard.

  JP was shooting hoops with Jenny Roulet under the streetlight, actually more teasing her with the ball than shooting hoops, when he heard what Eunice was telling Bordeaux. He stood there, frozen in a trance and was so aghast at that moment Jenny was able to steal the ball away and finally make a basket. Her distraction awoke JP out of his trance.

  “Jenny hide! Run into the woods!”

  Jenny obeyed and ran. JP ran to Bordeaux’s trailer and beat on the door.

  “I heard they’re coming.” JP told him and by the look on the boy’s face no elaboration was needed.

  “Get the others,” Bordeaux told him and for once JP obeyed without question.

  The boy ran, knocking on everybody’s door like an absurd Paul Revere. Within a minute, Bordeaux had a line of residents waiting at the perimeter. JP stood next to Bordeaux in case he needed any muscle, which he would be more than happy to provide.

  Constance was shouting, “Jenny! Jenny! Anybody seen Jenny!”

  JP nodded. “Yeah, I sent her into the woods to hide.”

  Constance nodded, and said to the children in her meditation class. “C’mon girls, we need to get out of here.” Then she led them to the woods to hide as well.

  2

  The trucks stopped only a few feet in front of Bordeaux. There were a total of ten trucks, which formed lines of three, four, behind the others like bowling pins. In the middle of the first row, leading the posse was Ty Anderson and his passenger, Jack Keaton. Their truck parked within spitting distance of Robert Bordeaux. There was a line drawn in the dust.

  The dirty posse, which likened themselves to the Twentieth Century’s answer to the Magnificent Seven, stopped their trucks and took ready firing positions waiting for orders to fire. The good-old boys felt relatively safe from prosecution, because their leader was the deputy sheriff.

  “We know what you are and are armed for it.” Ty Anderson sported his shotgun and covered Jack Keaton, who got out of the passenger side. “We are willing to let what happened at the VFW slide for now. We just came here for Jack Keaton’s daughter.”

  “We have no idea what you are talking about. No one here burned the VFW. Can you say the same?” Bordeaux asked, staring at Jack, who looked stunned.

  JP glared at Jack Keaton, who had his sights on Bordeaux. All JP could feel was engulfing rage and hatred for that man.

  If he pulls the trigger, JP thought, I am going to rip him apart.

  “She’s not here!” JP shouted to the deputy sheriff.

  “Quiet you!” Bordeaux snapped at JP, who obeyed.

  “The girl is not here,” Bordeaux explained. “Tony left to pick her up hours ago.”

  “You’re lying!” Jack shouted. He was still squinting through the scope.

  “No, I’m not. When Tony returns, I’ll have him bring the girl home, but until then, I am going to have to ask you to leave. This is private property.”

  “What are you going to do, call the cops?” Guy Robinson motioned toward Ty. “He’s already here.”

  “Then I will call the state police, the district attorney, and have a civil suit pending against Ty Anderson, Jack Keaton, and the rest of you. I have plenty of witnesses, and I know how much the D.A. likes you.” Bordeaux spoke directly to Deputy Anderson for that last part, and hoped Anderson was not as dumb as widely perceived; a call to the D.A. would jeopardize his job and his pension.

  After a few moments of personal deliberation in this battle of wills, Ty waved them back. “Let’s go. Come on, move’em out.”

  “What? Not without my daughter!”

  “Jack, she’s not here. We’ll come back later. Legally, there is nothing we can do about it, Jack. She’s over eighteen, and as an adult, she has to be missing for more than twenty-four hours. On top of which, we have no probable cause to search this place. We have to go. Come on, boys,” Ty waved them off. “We’re going home.”

  Some of the posse was unsure what to do when Ty told them to go home. They were expecting an old-fashioned gunfight like the ones on TV, and hoped to shoot the evil people in the trailer park. Instead, they saw Deputy Anderson wimp out due to politics. Some of the trucks started up and began to drive off disappointed, while others waited to see if he was hopefully going to change his mind. They collectively thought, What about the werewolves or the monster in the woods?

  Robert Bordeaux smiled and turned to JP as the trucks started up. “You see, JP, there are always peaceful ways to end a conflict. You don’t need to resort to…”

  A gun fired and Bordeaux fell. JP and Gard Brandner caught the old man on the way down. He had been hit in the chest and was dead before hitting the ground with the oddest smile on his face.

  JP looked at the blood on his hands and his world stopped for the longest moment. Shock and horror morphed into a blind rage, which would be part of him for the rest of his life. He didn’t know who fired the first shot, but had a fairly good idea. JP stood holding Bordeaux’s fallen body. He began to shake, with his lip quivering tremulously. He was heaving, sweating profusely, and his eyes were blazing yellow for all to see.

  He screamed at the top of lungs and ran at the line of trucks.

  Gard yelled, “No! JP! Don’t!” He tried to grab the boy and missed.

  The men in the trucks were just as shocked, stunned into place as JP began to charge them. He leapt into the air, and changed into the white wolf in mid-air in front of everyone before landing in the bed of Ty Anderson’s truck.

  Jack Keaton witnessed JP’s instantaneous transformation and thought it was the most amazing and horrible thing he had ever seen. In that time, he lost his concentration, and took his face away from the scope of his gun. In his last thoughts, before JP landed and slashed him apart with one swipe of his claw, was that his daughter could do that too.

  Ty Anderson, standing by the driver’s side door, raised his rifle to JP, but was not fast enough. JP pushed the gun away and cut Anderson’s throat with his claw. It was only seconds before it became a full moon massacre with both sides taking heavy casualties. Gard and Eunice were shot.

  Ten people dead in less than a minute.

  After JP’s berserker rage attack began, both sides tore open at each other, knowing this was total war. They had to follow their leaders or get killed now that chaos reigned supreme. Unfortunately for the residents of the trailer park, JP was now their leader in this fight.

  The dirty posse (and the retired combat vets) fired out of a near panic stricken fear they were being attacked by honest-to-God werewolves and they were still awake. This wasn’t the next step in cheesy 3-D B-movies. This was real and difficult to accept. At the end of the day, they found out what the Beast of Bestiavir really was, and they didn’t like the answer, but they were unlikely to survive long enough to contemplate this new knowledge.

  JP, along with Larry behind him, tore through the front lines in seconds. It was the attack of the VFW all over again, except this took place outdoors and on their home turf, and there were more of them. However, the additional numbers didn’t matter much since many were too scared and too stunned to shoot – easy as slaughtering sheep. Others, however, didn’t let fear petrify them and started aiming before shooting.

  This was too much for Guy Robinson, and not what he had signed up for. Seeing his side was quickly being slaughtered by those… things, whatever they were. Werewolves? Possibly, since there was a full moon in the sky. Ty neglected to mention that they might attack. Thanks a lot, asshole.

  Guy hid in the back of his Ford pickup, but he couldn’t hide forever. In the back of his truck were three propane tanks he was supposed to deliver early tomorrow morning, but if he didn’t do something now, he wouldn’t be alive by tomorrow morning.

  Guy turned the knobs to start letting propane out, essentially setting two of the highly flammable propane tanks as bombs, and took the third propane tank and placed it on the
front seat. Guy started the truck, put it in drive, set the last tank on the gas pedal, and let it go forward toward the trailers. If he couldn’t stop them, he could definitely hurt them. Moments after he let his truck go, a hazel-haired werewolf ripped him apart.

  Guy’s truck became like a flaming tank, cutting through the ranks. It exploded before hitting the Wagner trailer killing Larry’s parents and Roxanne Grenier. The flames from the truck and the Wagner trailer spread rapidly throughout the trailer park.

  In a couple of minutes, the entire trailer park was nearly engulfed in flames, surrounding the combatants and non-combatants alike and not discriminating between human and werewolf. Up until that point, the trailer park was winning.

  The aluminum lined homes burned faster and easier than imagined, and since the mobile homes were in an elliptical shape, the fire spread rapidly, coming full circle so that even the dirty posse who hadn’t (yet) been ripped apart were also in fear of being roasted.

  Four minutes and more than thirty dead.

  3

  JP stopped only when he and Larry were the last ones standing, and then, only when his rage and anger had subsided, and his sanity and rationalization returned, did he see what he had done and what he had become.

  The trailer park was gone, burning itself out until only a hollow shell remained lighting the already lighted full moon sky. JP had won the battle, and lost everything, everything he had ever loved had been destroyed, and was left with the remains of a battle of attrition on his soul. In those moments after Bordeaux died, JP had become a force of nature, the approaching storm that ripped through everything it touched. He started shaking, lips trembling, and knees giving out landing him on his rear. Much like when he had scared Lammy’s dog, Attila, years before with his new found roar, JP was just as afraid of himself now as he was that night. After all the promises he had made to himself to the contrary, JP realized he was the monster in the woods.

  Larry wanted to kill JP for this, because of him, Larry had lost his parents, but he still had family, his little sister was hiding in the woods, and his big sister was safe in New York. He wanted to run to his ruins of a trailer and grab the gun he took from Albert Mullins to ensure JP would never do anything like this again. However, when he saw his decimated home, with his parents undoubtedly inside (he never saw them come out), Larry’s bloodlust was alleviated, realizing if he killed JP, he would be no better than him. There were too few of their kind left and he, like Bordeaux almost a century ago, wondered how much time their kind had left. He would take his little sister, and head to Bisclavret to live with his big sister Christy tomorrow.