Hawg

by Steven L. Shrewsbury

  “I think everyone who knew may be gone. I’ll worry about that tomorrow.”

  “I think they have bigger troubles than you at the plant right now.”

  “Yup.”

  They talked a bit more and told each other they loved each other once again. He swallowed hard as he closed the phone.

  Lynne was his rock and his life, everything to him. She tolerated his silly hobbies and attitude, because she saw under his skin. She was a bright girl, and Andrew was her only lover, ever. She shamed him and never knew it, with her even devotion to God, family and education. No matter how weird life got, she was there to support him, literally and figuratively. He had to protect her, no matter what.

  “Now, for Plan B,” he said quietly and reached into the stone coffin.

  ***

  Micki crawled in the bushes on her belly. The pain to her privates seemed like a natural part of her existence and the scrapes to her small breasts faded fast. Her collarbones were ruined and she couldn’t understand how her arms ever worked as well as they did.

  Her eyes focused on the tall man inside the crypt. He was swearing, walking in and out, and then reaching into the big coffins.

  She studied him for a long time, thinking him a grave robber. Then she watched as he stretched a wire across the entrance to the crypt. Not understanding him, she stared, fascinated.

  Micki shuddered every so often, so tired, so hungry, but overall, she felt good in the graveyard. She was already dead, after all, so this was her place to be. Here in the bushes, with the stone image of Jesus looking over her, arms spread wide, she felt better than she had in days.

  When the stone head turned and then gazed down at her, she couldn’t find the will to breathe any more.

  With a voice to rival any Hollywood over the top actor, the mouth of the stone Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you.”

  Micki coughed, remembering to breath. She wanted to speak, but found no words.

  However, Jesus had more to tell her.

  “What you do not have within you will kill you.”

  The voice was not threatening, forceful nor angry. In the tenor of the words, though, carried authority and kindness. The word swashed over her face as pure as water.

  “Woman, why have you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken in the wind? To see a man dressed in sackcloth, unlike your leaders in soft clothes? They cannot understand truth.” The voice grew stronger and said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is inside you, woman. It is outside you and all over. I am with you always and have never left you. Split a piece of wood and I am there. Lift up a stone, and you will find me there.”

  Micki folded her hands and put her head to the earth.

  ***

  Hawg awoke at the rumble of the Harley’s straight pipes. The sound cut out fast. Hawg wondered if he dreamed it, but soon, the air held a scent, a human odor he recognized.

  The creature pulled from the Solow crypt and started a slow crawl to where the smell originated. Head in the stunted bushes, he peered across the Vermillion River at the biker in the children’s park, deserted save for the longhaired man he sought. Hawg watched him at a picnic table. The biker faced down on the table, held a rolled up dollar to his nostril and inhaled. This man sniffed his nose many times, then repeated his actions with the tube.

  A high-pitched whine cut the air and Hawg flinched. He saw the biker reach in belt pocket and pull out a silver object. This thing opened up and the biker spoke into it.

  “Yeah, Andrew. I’m about ready to go Hawg hunting. Sure, I’ll start a cruise around. It may be hairy as the cops are after me but they don’t scare me none no more. Yeah, questioning and all that. Explosives? Sweet. I knew ya would come through, pal. All right. I ain’t yer pal after all.”

  Hawg saw no more reason to wait. He would cross the river and get after this fool. When he splashed into the river, the biker turned to face him. Eyes wide, the biker said into the phone, “Jesus Christ! It’s here in the park! I gotta go!”

  The man was on his mount by the time Hawg swam the river.

  Still, the biker never fled. He faced Hawg at a distance and sneered, “Never knew pigs could swim. Come get me, you ugly fuck.” The man’s hand rested on the tank of his ride.

  The bike roared to life and the man on it pointed his arm at Hawg. Above the engine sound, Hawg heard three loud pops. But he felt no pain as he charged.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN Quarry and Pursuit

  Andrew wasn’t as mechanically inclined as his siblings, but he understood explosives. It didn’t take genius to light a fuse, but it did require some knowledge to rig up a timer and wire it to an explosive device. This day’s activity didn’t require any sort of timers, but rigging the trip wires to explosives, that would make Andrew sweat a bit. He did his work diligently, double-checking all of his leads.

  He took a few guns out of the crypt before he started plotting the destruction of his collection. Two converted machine guns and two sawed off shotguns, replete with ammo, along with a couple automatic pistols with laser sights lay in a case outside the tomb. Several grenades, both the kind to stun, flash, and eviscerate, joined the guns. These would be for Hawg’s welcoming if need be. He planned to rig a couple of aged claymore mines up in the pit as well. He handled these plate-shaped devices with great care as he tilted them against the crypt next door to his own.

  He returned to his task, wiping his brow as he assembled the explosive charges in neat rows. Andrew carried the lids of the caskets outside. He’d want maximum effect, that’s why he started stacking the charges away from the stone side where they’d make their initial blast. The bricks of plastic explosives would more than tear the crypt to kingdom come. Every so often, his fingers trembled and Andrew told himself this was only a just in case scenario. If he went to jail for his illegal weapons now, he reasoned, that’d be a chump change charge compared with destroying the giant pig man.

  “Wish you could see it, Jordan,” he said with a grin, then wiped sweat from his eyebrows. “But better you don’t, I suppose.”

  Andrew stepped outside and called his brother again. He got the answering line, but never left a voice mail. Andrew hated to do that. Impersonal or no, he wouldn’t beg his brother for his approval. This was all on Hux and him. That idea sounded bad in Andrew’s head. He hated the alliance they’d struck up so fast, but there was nothing else to do at the time. Hux could deliver the beast. Sure, there was a chance Hux would never show and this exercise would be for naught. Andrew decided to worry on that later.

  Mouth dry, Andrew walked in a circle, hoping he and Hux weren’t morons for trying this. He then thought of calling Lucas Ellington, inviting him over for the festivities. No, this had to work this way, for them alone. If he died, well, there was no reason to make Cassidy fatherless, too.

  Andrew looked into the crypt at the limp wire over the entrance. He’d set it secure once he was ready, Andrew reckoned. Suddenly, the image of Hawg missing the wire altogether or seeing it, struck him.

  “Need a remote,” he said, and started to search for wire to rig up a hand held back up to the trip wire. “Damn, not enough wire. Wonder if I got time to get home and back here?”

  Andrew turned his head up at the sky, and his eyes rested on the crypt next to his. The styled name SOLOW rested in his mind. While he knew that Mr. Solow’s parents were buried in town at South Side Cemetery, this crypt stood for his grandparents and him, yet there were two empty slots. He never noted it before, but they were for Solow and someone named SISTER.

  “Solow,” Andrew mumbled, staring at his truck. ***

  Micki watched the tall man, could even hear him swear as he climbed back into his truck. The engine came to life and the vehicle jerked as it sped from the cemetery. Her heart fell as he went. She saw his guns and felt safer with him around. Surely, Micki thought, he’d not take her like the beast had done. She glanced down at her ruined sex and sobbed, thinking no man would want her again a
fter this was over.

  Slowly, she crawled from her hiding place with Jesus. After a few attempts to stand upright failed, Micki was content to take steps hunched over. Like something semihuman, she made her way to the crypt where the tall man had worked. Aside from the coffin lids outside on the ground, and the ruined gate to the sepulcher, nothing seemed amiss. Her bleary eyes snapped into focus, seeing the wire on the floor of the crypt entrance. She couldn’t see inside the small spot from where Micki stood, nor was she about to enter such a place guarded by the wire.

  She gazed at the lawn around the area and saw no evidence of the man being there. Micki recalled him removing a great deal of materials from the crypt, but these must’ve gone with him into his truck.

  Micki walked away from the crypt, steadied herself on the brown edifice labeled SOLOW and then started across the yard again. Her route different, she became disoriented, only wanting to return to the hiding place where Jesus loomed to protect her.

  Suddenly, the ground opened up to swallow her. She teetered on the brink of a gaping black void, then slipped, but fell to her bare buttocks on the edge. Her feet dangled into oblivion…no, there was a bottom. On closer inspection, she saw the jagged edges of death that were the pit’s teeth.

  When she pulled her legs from the pit, Micki pulled her knees to her breasts and tried to cry, yet no tears would come.

  ***

  Hux sped across town as fast as he could open up the bike. Hawg was in pursuit, and he half laughed at the contest. There wasn’t any way the beast would catch him, he reasoned. Then again, he couldn’t get over how he’d fired at the thing point blank and managed to miss. The other projection knife under his light had failed to launch as well.

  The beast showed great determination, its gait comical in his rear mirrors, but steady. When they traveled down an old brick side street, Hawg grew closer, getting better traction off the small cracks. However, in the open blacktop, the monster slipped often, much to Hux’s glee. He wondered how far the thing would go before it tired.

  Hux took the route out of the south side of town, intending to loop around and make Route 66 out beyond the REC PLEX diamonds. He planned to start the progression back to the graveyard, but never knew if the beast would follow him that far. He had to play for time and make sure the beast stayed with him.

  Once in the open country, Hux swore Hawg moved faster. Still, the thing couldn’t catch him on the Harley. He navigated the straight section of the rural area and suddenly realized, one more section over was the quarry where he left Roberts.

  Hux slowed and came to a full stop at the stop sign. He turned and looked at Hawg and let it get close to him. The creature slowed, unsure of the biker’s intent. Hawg stopped full, took many breaths and glared at Hux.

  “C’mon, big boy,” Hux said. “You got rid of one problem for me. Let’s see how ya do this time.”

  ***

  Doug White had experienced better days. His life as a small town Sheriff was never boring, but what happened in Miller’s Fork would’ve challenged the mayor of a metropolis.

  “Gotta hand it to the staff, Porter,” he told the old Medical Examiner as they loaded the last of the bodies from the massacre. “Everyone kept it together and did their job.”

  Porter’s brow furrowed. “I expected no less, Sheriff. We’ve seen highway accidents before and these young ones here are trained well. My task is easy, taking care of the dead. Lots of margin for error there. However, your job, that is one I wouldn’t desire.”

  Doug nodded, taking his hat off and running his left hand through his hair. “You’re right there, Porter.”

  Hand to his hip, the older man asked, “No word on this monstrosity yet?”

  “This area is vast, Porter. All the cops, troopers and hunters that are out looking around, still nothing. There’s a fourteen point buck that eluded our hunts last winter, so anything is possible.”

  “Do you think this monster is moving on, leaving our area?”

  Doug scratched his neck. “No. I hadn’t counted on that. See, this thing chased Hux through here for a reason. I reckon it has a beef with some locals, after the attack on the bikers. Whatever the answer, it is just out of my reach.”

  “Odd that it appeared out of nowhere,” Porter noted, index finger tapping his lips. “Surely it is a deranged person of some sort.”

  “That I have no doubt.”

  Porter folded his hands and smirked. “One wearing steel horns?”

  “Lots of crazy folks out there, sir. It may be a helmet of some kind.”

  “Crazy? Don’t I know it. Usually, they kill themselves on drugs and end up on my table. This is a new factor. I’d hate to have your task of figuring out where a pig man would come from around here.”

  Doug watched the old man walk to his car and then turned his head to the east. The Sheriff’s mind was on the victims, on backcountry roads, spots no one traveled really. He thought of where Genesis died, the trail of where he ate Buddy, vomited on Jack Sullivan’s Buick…went to the cemetery and slept in the crypt that belonged to their family…next to the Solow crypt. The creature killed the bikers and not Elias, he pondered, and his own man Alex, not Mr. Solow.

  “Good God,” he breathed, not wanting to accept the obvious.

  ***

  When Andrew pulled into his driveway, he glanced toward the Solow place. Never a nervous man, he felt icy tingles across his shoulders. Swift to shrug off these feelings, Andrew focused on matters at hand. He climbed out of his truck and tried Hux on the phone. No answer. He stopped for a moment, wondering if this was a fool’s errand, but something inside drove him on. Andrew could feel it coming closer. He could feel the beast nearby as surely as if it breathed on his neck.

  After he slid the door to his shed open, he carefully navigated the path to his toolboxes through kid’s bikes, toddler push cars and weed whackers. He grabbed more wire and a pair of handgrips to act as triggers for his plan. A fresh wave of shivers flooded his body again and he swore.

  “Damn, I need a drink.” Halfway to the house, he stopped and headed for his truck. “Naw, fuck that. All I need is to get a DUI on top of transporting weapons grade nitrates.”

  Once out to the road, he again pondered Solow’s house. It was suddenly so obvious to him. If he confronted the old man, what would he say? Andrew shook his head, thinking himself a fool.

  But as he turned out and headed back across the roads leading to the cemetery, he saw a police cruiser heading toward the Solow farm.

  ***

  Hux’s mind worked fast, spurred forward by the drug in his system. Part of him said to head back to the cemetery, but another piece of his heart refused to let the problem of Mr. Roberts go.

  “That seedy fucker will never let this one die now,” Hux said. Sure, the dealer was very upset which is why he let Hux bring him out here. Roberts was a snake and would soon shed the skin of fear. He’d go back to his slithery ways and Hux would be screwed.

  A plan was born, a risky one, a drug soaked one, but a sketch Hux thought he could execute.

  Still, the beast pursued him, seemingly relentless in its hunt. It followed Hux all the way down the pastoral road that led to the quarry entrance. Hux saw a few trucks pass them and their break lights pop on once they figured out they couldn’t identify what ran behind him. None of these vehicles turned to go after them, though.

  Hux gauged Hawg’s speed, never letting him get too close, and sped up to cede himself time for his plan. He placed a large gap between them before he reached the edge of the waters that aimed toward the abandoned cabins. As he pulled up and killed his bike, Hux drew out his cell phone, noted a call from Andrew, and then hit the button for Roberts as he got in the boat.

  Eyes back as he started the engine, he saw Hawg run into view, pause, suck air in and stare at the man in the boat.

  The boat went forward and Hux feigned terror as Roberts answered. “Christ it’s after me! Get ready!”

  “What? Where have you
been, you shitter? I…what is going on?”

  “The monster, Hawg, it’s on my ass!”

  The sound of ruffled curtains came over the line. “Damn, you led it here?”

  “I don’t think it can cross the open water…oh God, I think it can!”

  Hux still had a huge lead on the beast as Hawg slipped into the water. He was nearly to the other side as Hawg floundered at first, but then started swimming. Roberts emerged from the cabin, cell to his ear. He slowly dropped his hand as his mouth popped open.

  Roberts drew his pistol, stared at Hawg and remarked, “Look at that sonofabitch go. My word…”

  Hux docked his boat and pulled it to the rocky shore. He leapt out, gun in hand and joined Roberts. For a few moments, he too was transfixed at the sight of Hawg. The beast had no problem swimming across the deep waters of the quarry. Like a weird variation of a dog paddle, the thing carried on, eyes on them.

  Roberts face still registered astonishment as he said, “We better get inside.”

  Hux looked down at Robert’s hand, gun pointed in Hawg’s general direction.

  As he reached out and plucked the weapon from Roberts’ hand, Hux shot him in the foot. Roberts cried out and Hux shoulder blocked him, sending him rolling on the rocky shore.

  “Damn you…I…” Roberts wailed in confusion as Hawg drew close to the shore.

  Hux stood in the open door. “He’s run a long way, man. He’s hungry. Hawg wants me, but blood is in the air now.”

  Roberts grabbed at his wounded foot, but started to scramble back toward the cabin door. Up on his feet, he soon collapsed, unable to run.

  Hawg rose up out of the water. He appeared cleaner than before to Hux, pinker than he recalled. Water drizzled from Hawg’s tusks as he roared, looking at the biker over the bloody man at his hooves. Muscles flexing, the beast meant business and was ready to spring forward.

  Hux leveled both guns at him.

  Hawg hesitated, his red eyes widening.

  “You comprehend just fine, don’t ya?” Hux said in a loud voice. “I won’t miss so close.” Then again, he mused to himself, he thought that in the park the distance was sufficient.