Made in Mexico: Day One
Written By: A.L. Masopust
For my friends and family:
Thank you for letting me use your names and likenesses.
Special thanks to Speedy and Deedee for giving me permission to use their RV park as the setting. Beacon Lodge is a truly beautiful place.
Staying there really gave me inspiration.
Chapter 1
Beacon Lodge
Zapata, TX
The early morning sun was just starting to rise over Falcon Lake in Zapata TX. Falcon Lake was a slowly shrinking lake that divided Mexico and Southern Texas. It had once been the largest lake in the state, but the lack of rain in the area had dramatically reduced it in size over the years. It was still large enough to swim in, but with large logs and rocks in it, people didn’t. Most mornings, there would be a thick fog blanketing the area that would burn off by mid-morning and today was no exception. The fog permeated every section of the lake and the surrounding land, making vision nearly impossible.
Near the lake was Beacon Lodge, an RV park for sportsmen, construction workers and vacationing families. The park overlooking the lake looked rather desolate now, with most of the nearby construction jobs finishing up and with hunting and fishing dwindling due to the lake dropping a few inches every month. It was once a popular place to stay, back when the lake was high, and the fish were plentiful. Next summer, if the lake was still there and hadn’t completely dried up, more visiting families would come, and the place would revive. It was winter now though. Only a few RV’s occupied any of the spaces. Those that remained there were from the same company staying through the winter to finish a local windmill power job in San Ygnacio. Four RVs resided in the small park.
Amber was almost 40, had dark auburn hair, blue eyes and a great body with both of her arms sleeved in butterfly tattoos. She was the wife of one of the heavy equipment operators on the windmill job in San Ygnacio She was out walking their rottweiler, Caesar, to do his morning business of peeing and rolling in the south Texas dirt when she thought she heard a noise through the dense morning fog.
Since arriving here with her husband and young son a few months ago and experiencing such a dense fog for the first time, Amber thought it was super scary and her imagination would get away from her every time she took him out in the morning and it looked this way. She’d imagine all sorts of creepy things could be in that heavy white mist.
“Did you hear that?” she asked the dog. He had just gotten up from his morning wiggle in the dirt. He just shook the dirt off and looked happily at her. “What a dumb dog,” she thought, but he was hers and she loved him like another son. Having not slept well the night before, she shrugged it off thinking that she must’ve imagined it, but then she heard it again. This time Caesar started a low growling and the hairs on his neck began to stand up.
This made Amber pause and listen again, harder this time and in the direction the dog was looking and growling into the thick, low lying cloud. She had indeed heard what he’d alerted to. It sounded like someone or something slowly tromping through the high grass below the cliff overlooking the lake. Her husband and the rest of the crew were at work in San Ygnacio 15 miles away though, and her son Bobby Jr. (she’d given him the nickname Bobboo when he was a baby to distinguish between him and his dad) was still asleep in their camper. Hell, the office lady didn't even show up until 9:00 a.m. on most mornings, so as far as she knew, it was just her, Caesar and Bobboo there during the day.
Being a ‘crew mom’, she was the only wife to travel with her husband and didn’t work, so therefore she cooked, cleaned and washed the laundry for the whole crew. It was kind of lonely but satisfying in a nurturing way. It gave her something to do while her husband was gone at work all day. As she stood there listening, the sound came again and in from what seemed like every direction below her now. She was officially freaked out. With the dog on edge too, she decided that maybe it was time to head back to their camper. Well, after the dog was done pooping.
The only way up the hill from the lake was an old boat ramp. It was once used as the primary ramp years ago, back when the lake was higher. Now, it was just a way to get down the hill to the new boat ramp at the water's edge about 50 yards away. Connecting the two ramps was a small, winding dirt road for the trucks and their fishing boats. Small mesquite trees with big thorns, high brush, cactus and large rocks lined either side of the little road. Amber and Caesar were at the top of the hill in a turnaround that was once upon a time the lakeshore next to the old boat ramp.
Hearing those noises, those footsteps through the fog was rather creepy, but not being able to see anything even a few feet away made it worse. “Hello?” she called out, hoping to ease her racing mind. Maybe it was Border Patrol looking for illegal border crossers or a wayward fisherman coming back from trying his luck at the lake, she thought. Border patrol often came here, looking for Mexicans that had decided to swim across the lake in hopes that they’d be able to start a new life in the United States. No one answered her though. No other sounds hit her ears, besides the continued walking, dragging, tromping sounds getting louder.
Being a horror movie fanatic, Amber had seen every manner of scary movie and her mind raced, thinking about who, or even what the owner of the steps had belonged to. Instead of investigating like they do in the movies, she quietly hushed the dog and turned around to take him back to their RV about 200 yards away. Once she reached the rented space where their 25-foot camper sat, she turned around to see if she could see anything through the fog yet. She was curious in nature, but after seeing all those movies, she knew better than to walk towards the creepy sounds.
At first, she couldn’t see anything. Concentrating harder and looking again, she started to recognize the form of a person. At least it looked like the shape of a person. Behind the first shape, she thought maybe she could make out more, but quickly decided that she must be imagining things. “Damn all those scary movies.” she thought.
She turned and hurried into the camper, pushing Caesar inside and locked the flimsy camper door. Shaken, she shut all the window shades, checked on Bobboo to make sure he was still asleep and then grabbed her cellphone to text her husband about the ‘weird shape’ coming out of the fog. Her fear subsided, having let her husband know what she’d seen.
After a moment of waiting for a reply and thinking about the fog, the shape, the noises and how bad it had all freaked her out, she felt silly for being afraid and her curiosity got the best of her. She decided to open the window shade just a bit to see what, if anything, was out there. Raising the shade a couple inches, she peeked out through the glass and into the fog… She immediately became afraid again. She hurriedly speed dialed her husband.
Chapter 2
Windmill Job
San Ygnacio, Tx
Bobby and his crew had just pulled into the parking lot of the windmill job they were working at when his phone chimed with a text from his wife. “Babe I just saw a weird shape coming out of the fog while I was walking Caesar.” was all it said. Getting out of the truck, he thought nothing of it since his wife was always watching those creepy horror movies and getting all worked up. He sent back a quick text of “Oh yeah? XOXO” and then he walked up the stairs of the job trailer for the morning progress meeting.
Bobby was in decent shape both mentally and physically for a 40-year-old man who had smoked a pack a day for 20 years, but he had recently quit. He had been running various pieces of heavy equipment for most of his adult life. He was 6-foot-tall, with dark brown hair and eyes, chiseled jawline and abs that showed all the hard work he’d done throughout the years.
Kirk, an older man who was an actual cowboy back in
his prime, and was also Bobby’s boss and mentor, asked about the notification. “Wifey saying anything good this morning? Did she say what's for supper tonight yet?” he asked. “No, just an update from the Homefront I guess.” Bobby said, and then stepped into the job trailer behind JC, the dozer operator and Justin, the mechanic who were talking together about yesterday’s work and what needed to be fixed on each piece of equipment today.
A few minutes later, Bobby’s phone rang. This was kind of odd since it was still early in the morning and most of the people he knew from other places he had worked wouldn't be up yet, and if any of them were, they wouldn’t call during work hours, they’d just text. Amber didn’t usually call him either since she knew that he would most likely be busy running the excavator or hand digging with a shovel. It was her though. “Must be important,” he thought and answered the phone.
“Oh my God Bobby, there are people outside!” she whispered. “Ummmm so?” he replied, annoyed that she’d called over nothing. “Wet people! They look like Mexicans! They must’ve swum across the lake!” she exclaimed quietly. “And so what? It’s not your job to police the park Honey, that's what Border Patrol is for,” he said. “No, you don't get it,” she replied. “I’ll take a picture… There… It’s sent. Now tell me that’s not weird. I’ve only seen three of them so far, but they look dirty, disheveled and at least one of them is bleeding from his leg and dragging it from what I can see through the fog.”
His phone chimed again, so he put her on speakerphone to look at what she had sent him. By now, all the guys were intrigued by the call and crowded around him, wanting to know what was up. “What’s the dill, pickle?” Justin asked as Bobby pulled up the picture on his phone. The photo was kind of blurry, but he could still make out the shapes through the fog and what he saw sent a chill through his body. She was right, something was weird. One of the shapes DID have blood on its leg and its right foot was folded at an angle under its ankle. He showed the guys. JC immediately said, “It must be a hoax, a photoshopped picture meant to try to freak us all out.” Justin looked at it and said “Nah, we all know her, she ain’t that good at stuff like that. It looks real to me.” Kirk just glanced at it and chuckled, saying “Back before cell phones and digital cameras and the lot, we’d have to wait a week for a picture to be developed. Damn hard to photoshop a paper photo.” Amber replied shakily “Dammit guys, this isn’t a joke! I’m scared and I don't know what to do. Bobby, please you guys need to come home.”
Bobby thought about it for a second and then said, “Okay Sweetheart, just calm down.” He looked at Kirk for reassurance. Kirk nodded and the others began to grab their lunchboxes, hard hats and gloves. “We’ll be there as soon as possible, in less than 30 minutes. Just stay inside with the door locked and window shades down and wait for us. Call me back if anything else happens.” She sighed in relief, “Thank you darling, I love you. Please hurry.
Chapter 3
Beacon Lodge
Zapata, TX
Amber hung up with Bobby and went to each of the six small windows in the camper, making sure they were all locked and the shades were down. The metal shades made the camper quite dark and more sound resistant, which she figured was a good thing since she didn’t want anything outside to know that they were inside. She was scared, but knew she had to keep her composure because Bobboo would be awake soon and she didn’t want him to be afraid. Caesar was still on edge too, the hair on his neck still raised. He whined, but Amber quickly shut him up. “Hush!” she hissed, “you’re gonna draw attention to us.” He quieted down, but stayed close to her, sensing her unease.
After a few minutes of the eerie and strange silence, Bobboo awoke from his sleep, yawning loudly. “Ahhhh, what’s for breakfast mom?” he asked. “Shhh!” she said softly, “how about a toaster pastry? No school today, you’ve earned a day off. Now, how about you play your video game quietly for a bit?” “Ok mom,” he replied. He got out of his bed, went to the kitchen area and grabbed a package of his favorite breakfast pastries. Then he hopped into the play area under the top bunk where he slept and started playing his handheld video game.
Still freaked out, she went online to see if the local news said anything about illegal border crossings or anything like that. What she found was a headline that read: Side effects reported due to new Covid-19 vaccine. The article had just been posted a few hours ago. “Glad I didn’t get that shot yet,” she thought. She had been waiting since the virus was still relatively new, and the vaccine had yet to be fully tested on humans, although the FDA had pushed it through. Without proper testing, who knew what would happen, what side effects there would be? No one else in their entourage had gotten it either, for the same reason. It just didn’t seem safe enough yet.
The virus, dubbed Covid-19 was an illness that affected the lungs and heart of people with underlying health conditions and people over the age of 65. Over half a million people had died in the United States alone in the last 10 months or so with a lot more people testing positive every day. The hastily created vaccine, pushed by Big Pharma, was originally meant to keep so many people from overwhelming the hospitals and dying from the virus so quickly. The early versions of the vaccine combined mRNA and a weakened version of the virus. Like the flu shot, it was meant to make the body create antibodies to the virus. Reading through the article, she found it odd that the article didn’t say anything about what the side effects were, just that they had been reported.
While online, a notification came through. Someone had posted a video on social media and it was gaining popularity. She clicked over to the app and pulled it up. The video featured a shaky cellphone image of a woman laying on top of a man on a busy sidewalk while other people stepped around them. It looked like she was kissing his neck at first, but they were both covered in bright red splotches that looked a lot like blood. Focusing on the woman, Amber saw what looked like bites on her arm. She also seemed very pale. The video maker, a man, screamed “SHE’S EATING HIM! OH LORD! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!” After that, the video cut off. The comments about the video ranged from ‘nice trick bro’ to outrage at the fact that someone would joke about the state of the nation right now. Amber didn't want to believe it, but with what she’d seen this morning already, it made her even more afraid. “Come on Bobby, get here soon.” she thought desperately.
Chapter 4
Highway 83
Outside San Ygnacio TX
Bobby was in the passenger seat of the work truck beside Kirk, who was driving. They were heading back to Beacon Lodge with Justin and JC in the backseat. They were about halfway to the RV park and were all talking about what they’d seen in the picture Amber had sent and how scared she’d sounded when Kirk’s phone started ringing, making them all jump. It was the head boss from Wisconsin calling to ask about what the crew was going to accomplish today and what progress had been made the week before. “We’re not at work right now, we all need a personal day off,” Kirk said, and he explained what had transpired.
The boss wasn’t happy, but being so far away, he couldn’t really say no. Especially since they all had personal days built up and the job wasn’t behind in completion. He told them to be safe and to let him know if they weren’t going to be onsite tomorrow morning. Kirk hung up his phone and in doing so, dropped it into the floorboard of the work truck. He looked down to pick it up and just as he grabbed it, Bobby yelled “Watch it Pawpaw!” and grabbed the wheel, turning it just enough to avoid hitting a man that was standing in the middle of the lane. “Whew, that was a close one cowboy! What the hell was he doing just standing there? We could’ve hit him!” Kirk exclaimed wildly as they drove around the man.
In the backseat, Justin examined the man as they passed by him. He was a Mexican man, wearing loose clothing and no shoes. He resembled a homeless person except there was what looked like blood all over his face, neck and down the front of his tattered shirt. Justin noticed that the man had bites on his arms when he raised them, trying to grab the
vehicle as it passed. Justin pointed it out to the men in the truck saying “Y’all that’s blood! This ain’t right! Something is very wrong here. We gotta hurry up and get back.” They all agreed, and Kirk stepped a little harder on the gas while Bobby called to check on Amber and Bobboo.
Chapter 5
Beacon Lodge
Zapata TX
Amber’s phone vibrated, alerting her to a call from her husband. She’d turned the ringer off to stay as quiet as possible, although the vibration seemed loud to her now too. She answered quickly “Hey babe, you’re almost, back right? I’m really scared. It’s hard to stay calm and not let Bobboo know that something is wrong.” “We’ll be there in a few more minutes my love,” he replied. She sighed quietly, “Okay good. Bobboo is awake now. He’s playing his game and he’s had something to eat. I’ve got the door locked, the shades are down, and we haven't made any loud noises. The dog keeps whining, but I’ve managed to calm him down whenever he does. I was gonna look out the window again, but I got caught up with an article about side effects of the new Covid-19 vaccine, although it didn’t say what side effects, and a strange video on social media. Now I'm even more freaked out. I’m gonna send it to you so you can see it too, hold on.” She found the video on social media again, shared it to his messages and waited for him to acknowledge it. “Got it,” he said through the phone. “We’ll be there in a few more minutes. It’ll be okay, just stay calm.” “Show the rest of guys the video too, ok babe? She asked. “They need to know what’s going on too.” “Sure, thing my darling, we’ll be there soon,” he said and hung up. Amber sat on the bed and waited eagerly for the men to get back, silently willing time to speed up. She didn’t think she had never wished harder for anything in her life.
Made In Mexico | Book 1 | Day 1 Page 1