by Michael Dunn
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Morning After
August 7th, 1971
“Morning, sunshine,” Suzie said, nudging Tony awake.
Tony rubbed the sleep out of his eyes to a beautiful morning, as Suzie was getting dressed while Tony lay naked on the blanket below her, feeling well-rested and fantastic. He and Suzie had made love several times last night, even in their wolf forms, and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
“What time is it?” Tony asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Suzie said beaming and cleaning herself off. “C’mon, get up. It’s time to go.”
Suzie helped Tony up and she folded the blanket as Tony dressed. Once he was dressed, they headed back to the trailer park, since Tony had to get ready for work while Suzie was expected for Constance’s meditation class. Both were hungry and needed food.
As Tony drove a little further down the familiar dirt road toward the trailer park, he began to slow down. Instead of the place he knew as home, there was now saw a large, burned spot littered with ruined, broken, and burnt trailers and torched pickup trucks. Fearing the worst, Tony pulled the truck off to the side of the road and got out.
The smell of dead, decaying, and burned bodies hit them first and made them both momentarily want to gag. Sometimes having an enhanced sense of smell was a curse in itself.
“Tony, what’s going on?”
He didn’t answer her, instead focusing on the confusing sight in front of him, then walked slowly toward what had been his home, nearly oblivious to Suzie’s presence. After a couple of steps, he started running, anxious to meet the destruction head on, but came to a dead stop at the perimeter and took a moment to survey the damage and still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The trailer park was gone, almost completely destroyed, and what was left was wreckage, a large black spot nearly the size of the trailer park, with extensive fire and water damage. Then, there were the bodies. The non-perfect elliptical community was littered with charred and partially burned bodies.
Suzie came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Tony, what happened?”
“I-I think we were attacked.” He whispered, still surveying the damage.
Squeezing Suzie’s hand tightly, Tony walked through the wreckage hoping there were survivors, but didn’t think there would be and as they walked through the carnage, he noticed some of the bodies, all of which had been burned to some extent, had either bullet holes or were mutilated with deep slash marks. Neither Tony nor Suzie knew if it was better or worse they could identify most of the dead from the trailer park or not. Tony headed toward his home.
The Brandner residence had collapsed with the front end (the kitchen) deep in water from the busted water pipes like a sinking ship. It didn’t look sturdy enough to hold him and could further cave in, but he had to try to see if anything was salvageable.
“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He didn’t wait for a reply, and climbed what was left of his destroyed front steps. Before going inside, he hoped he would not find the blackened skeletons of his parents awaiting him. When he opened the door peaked in and let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the trailer was empty.
The trailer moved, knocking Tony to the floor of the living room, and was soaked from the inch of water on the carpeting when he fell. He saw a small, framed family picture, taken of his parents and him in his basketball uniform when basketball season was over. Tony grabbed it, then crawled slowly to the front door as the trailer began to crash in a nose dive. The trailer groaned some more, and Tony went from a crawl to a slither trying to reach the front door and he rolled out before the ceiling fell to the floor and the aluminum structure crashed in on itself.
Suzie screamed and let out a sigh when she saw Tony had escaped.
“This was all I could get.” He showed her the photo.
Not knowing what to say, Suzie merely nodded.
Tony called out for his parents, but no one answered. Tony feared the worst. Some of the bodies were pretty awful, either slashed open or burnt and Suzie did her best to keep from being sick, but lost that fight after she saw a body with its face ripped off. The remains of the trailer park and the dead bodies lying in the midst looked like villages on the news broadcasts of the war in Vietnam. After minutes of staring agape and a fruitless attempt at finding clues, they finally spoke.
“Do you think anyone survived?” Suzie asked.
“I-I hope so.”
Suzie looked at the small, confined war zone and saw something that looked familiar. There was a partially charred man lying face down, still clutching a rifle. Suzie recognized the man by the shirt, because she had given a shirt like that to her father on his birthday the year before. Her mind begged it was not him when she ran toward the body, knelt down and rolled it over.
“DADDY!” She screamed and began sobbing so hard that breathing was difficult.
Tony ran to her. He saw her cradling a dead body in her arms, crying and screaming. Jack’s body was ripped deeply from the shoulder through the chest, and his non-coagulated blood smeared on Suzie’s clothes. He was burnt from the waist down. Tony put his arm around her as she sobbed, but she wanted to be left here alone for a while. He went to search any survivors.
Tony ventured into the woods behind the trailer park, looking for any clues that could tell him what went wrong when he fell into a deep hole that had been haphazardly cover with dirt. Tony picked himself up and felt something in the hole. He moved away the dirt and found the bodies of his parents lying eternally motionless. He screamed and jumped out. He roared, then punched a young, sapling tree knocking it over.
When Suzie heard Tony scream, she dropped her dead father and ran to him. Tony was shaking and on the verge of hyperventilating. He couldn’t speak, only point. Suzie looked in the makeshift grave and saw Tony’s parents. Suzie wrapped her arms around Tony, and he held her tightly for a few minutes, scared out of their wits. Who buried them?
“Let’s go look at the trucks,” Tony said.
Suzie nodded. They walked together and Tony looked down at Suzie’s newly deceased father. He wasn’t sorry to see the old man lying dead in the dirt, but he would never tell that to Suzie. Tony inspected Jack’s shotgun and took out a shell. It had silver pellets in the shell. It was starting to make sense.
Tony went to inspect where several burned up pickup trucks served as boundaries. Deputy Sheriff Ty Anderson was lying on the ground behind a truck, or at least it was the partially charred and slashed throat of Ty Anderson. Tony was not surprised. Everybody who lived here wanted to take a swipe at Deputy Anderson.
“Who else do you think is here?” She asked him.
“I think everybody who missed the last V.F.W. meeting.” Tony said, and he knew what he had to do. He didn’t want to do it, but he had to. It was going to get dirty and ugly.
“Uh, Tony?” Suzie asked, wondering if it was okay to speak to him. “Who do you think buried them? Do you think it was the Indians?”
“I highly doubt it. Although I don’t think they were too sorry to see it happen, to tell you the truth. Let’s get out of here. What do you want to do now?” Tony asked as they walked back to the truck glad to be away from the smell.
“I want to see my mom,” Suzie said wiping her eyes.
Tony nodded, too numb to disagree with anything she suggested. He and Suzie headed back to the truck hand-in-hand.
As they began walking back to the truck, another car was heading very fast down the dirt road. They watched as the speeding car came toward them, which was kicking up a lot of dust behind them, so Tony could not see the driver. Tony stayed in front of Suzie as the car raced toward them.
The car stopped at a skid several feet from Tony. When the dust cleared, JP, Larry, Constance, and the young girls stepped out of the car, and Tony had never been happier to see them, relieved that someone had survived. The girls ran to Suzie, who embraced them all. Even Jenny Roulet was grateful to see Suzie.
“Wha-what t
he hell happened here?” Tony asked, wiping his eyes.
When JP walked closer, Tony could not tell exactly what it was, but there was something wrong with John-Paul Grenier. He looked meaner, more feral, and even crazier than usual. There was something in his eyes that made Tony a little cautious.
“They came for us, just like we always feared they would. They came for you and her and… and looked what happened!” JP pointed to the large, black spot that was once their home. “You guys weren’t even here, but that didn’t stop them. They wanted revenge for the VFW! They didn’t care who they killed!”
“I know I saw the bodies.” Suzie said, standing slightly behind Tony, almost hiding from JP.
“And I tripped in a hole looking for anything that would lead to an explanation. I found your mother, and…” Tony trailed off. “And my parents too.”
“They said they wanted her!” JP pointed to Suzie. “Her dad came with a shotgun, the deputy sheriff, and their redneck friends and demanded Suzie back. After dusk, they started shooting and Jack Keaton started the fucking attack!”
“You liar!” Suzie charged JP. “You sonofabitch! How dare you say that about my father when he is lying on the ground dead in your yard!”
“Because he did! I was here! I saw it! I was here protecting this community while you were busy getting laid!”
Suzie marched toward JP, pointing her finger at him. “I bet it was you! I bet it was you who killed my father!” Suzie shoved her finger into his chest.
John-Paul, never again JP, wanted to brag he had killed her father, but then looked at Tony, and then looked at the dirt under him.
“No, I don’t know who did it.”
“You fucking liar!”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Tony stepped in between them. “Both of you stop it now!”
Tony turned to John-Paul. “What happened after the attack?”
“We defended ourselves, the best we could, but there were too many, and the fire happened so quickly. Larry and me were the only survivors who fought, but we got all of them! We were winning before they set the whole place on fire. I, I mean, we,” motioning to Larry, “started burying our people since last night.”
Yep, there was definitely something very different and very wrong with him, Tony thought.
“What about the police?” Suzie innocently asked. “There’s bound to be an investigation.”
John-Paul looked down to the ground. “A couple of state cops came by and so did the coroner, a couple of ambulances and fire trucks, and the mayor of this shit town, while the rest of us watched from the woods. They said there was nothing to report. So, like all things involving this place, they swept it under the rug even when they found Ty Anderson, one of their own, lying dead. They will be coming soon for the rest of the bodies. I heard Clyde Townsend say he would come back to clean up the mess.”
“I don’t believe it. No one could be that cruel.”
“Yeah, they could,” Tony said, arms crossed and staring at the ground.
John-Paul began to snicker to himself. “You know what makes me laugh? They came to take Suzie away, ha-ha, and you weren’t even here. You guys are like Romeo and Juliet backwards. Isn’t that just funny?”
Tony looked at Suzie and clasped her hand, then turned back to John-Paul. “What are you going to do now?”
“We’re going to clean up here,” Larry said. “Then we’re all heading to Bisclavret to regroup with the others, after that then I don’t know. Try to survive the best we can.”
“What about you, Tony?” John-Paul asked. “What are you going to do?”
Tony looked at Suzie, and put his arm around her. “We’re going to start a life together.”
“I wish you luck. I hope you two live a long, happy life together.” John-Paul hugged the closest thing he had to a brother. JP realized he would probably never see Tony again and that softened his heart briefly.
“Yeah, you too. I-I’ll see you around.” Tony knew he wouldn’t, but it was nice thing to say under the circumstances.
“Good-bye, Tony,” Larry hugged him. “I wish you two the best.”
“Thank you, Larry. You guys be good.” Tony waved and got back in the car. Suzie started up the car and they drove away. Tony and Suzie would never see Larry again.
2
Suzie led Tony in the front door, and Dee gasped as they came in, already on eggshells. Dee grabbed her daughter and pulled her close before she started sobbing. Suzie could smell her mother had been drinking.
“Do you know what happened? Did they tell you?”
Suzie nodded. “Tony and I went to the trailer park when we got back from, uh… everything was destroyed. Dad was there… dead, and, and so were Tony’s parents.”
Dee fought hard the oncoming tears and lost. “When your father… when he left last night with his shotgun, I-I-I just knew he was not coming back. It was like he regretted not dying at the VFW when he had his chance. I’m glad you kids are safe.”
Suzie stepped back, standing an equal distance between her mother and her fiancé.
“Mom, do you know why dad and his friends were going to attack the trailer park?”
“No, he never said, but I suspected it was because of the stories that Tony’s people protected some monster in the woods behind them and he was so worried about you getting mixed up in whatever he thought was going on.”
“Which monster is that, mom?”
“The one we all heard growing up. Yes, I heard those stories about that trailer park when I was growing up.”
Tony said nothing. He was too numb to feel anything.
“Did you believe those stories, mom?”
“Of course not. I think your dad and his friends thought they were being soldiers again and went to look for the monster the trailer park protected. Tony, your people didn’t protect any monster, did they?”
Before Tony could answer, Suzie felt her mother had insulted Tony and answered for him.
“No, mother, they weren’t protecting a monster in the woods. We are the monsters.” Suzie looked at her mother with her yellow eyes.
Dee gasped, took a couple steps back, and fell on the Ottoman. “Suzie, how, how did you do that?”
This time Tony spoke before Suzie could answer. “I did that. That was my fault.”
“You? Why?”
“I-I had to. It was at the accident. She was dying. She was lying in my lap dying. I-I had to do something… so I bit her, and because I did, she changed. I’m, I’m sorry.”
“So, you’re not pregnant? What are you now?”
“We’re werewolves, mother.”
This was too much for Dee and she walked, fast enough she was almost sprinting, to the kitchen. She poured herself a shot of vodka, this time a double. Dee had never been much of a drinker after she got married, but after the last few months, she feared she could get used to it. The drink was gone in seconds. She poured herself another, but consumed it much slower.
“What are you kids going to do now?” Dee asked, the glass still shaking in her hand.
Tony said, “We’re going to survive.”
Epilogue: Feeding Time
September 16th, 1972
Suzie Brandner groaned as she opened her eyes to the sound of the baby crying and the smell of rancid diaper. It was 11:30 and Suzie had been praying for a full night’s sleep. She had heard God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer was “No.”
Suzie rolled over to find she was alone in the bed, and although she was alone she knew where her husband was – he was in the garage.
She got up, changed the baby, fed him, and lullabied him to back to sleep with an early Beatles’ song. She heard Tony banging around his new car and singing along to the radio. It was best to leave him alone, and get Scott Anthony Brandner back to sleep.
Dee came downstairs in her fuzzy, pink bathrobe.
“You have school tomorrow. Let me take him.”
Dee extended her arms to take the baby.
“You sure?”
Dee nodded. “ Yeah, it’s all right. You go back to bed. You have school tomorrow.”
Suzie handed her the baby, and kissed her mom on the cheek. “Thanks mom.”
Dee loved her grandson, but was simultaneously apprehensive about the boy, like she was bouncing a ticking time-bomb on her knee. She had never really accepted Tony and Suzie’s condition and chose to ignore it, never questioning why they left during certain times of the month, leaving Dee with the baby. “Date night” was what they called it, and that was all right with her since she loved being with the baby. Denial worked well for Dee. Her drinking had been replaced by being a grandma.
At Jack’s funeral, the women who had shunned her months before embraced her as one of their own again, and she was fully accepted into the VFW widow’s club, where the entrance fee was the hefty price of the death of her husband.
Over time, each of the women took turns holding her grandson whenever they saw him with Dee around town, specifically at the produce section of the grocery store.
“Oh, he looks so much like Jack,” they would say.
Dee didn’t think so. She thought the boy looked like his father, with Suzie’s nose, but Dee smiled nonetheless and thanked them.
With the destruction of the trailer park, it was believed the Beast of Bestiavir was also destroyed in the process, but that was if the belief was ever really there. However, of late, tales of a large, red haired monster had been spotted roaming the woods, spotted by campers photographing it in dark, grainy pictures, claiming the monster had returned, if it ever left at all, proving you can’t keep a good monster down.