FULL MOON COUNTRY (FULL MOON SERIES (vol. 2))

by Terry Yates

  He took another look around the room. Those that were his victims were becoming restless and almost combative with the doctors, nurses, and Candy Stripers, while those that weren’t his victims sat up in their beds, those that could mind you, and drew up their knees, frightened of both doctors and bite victims.

  “Be ye’ warned.”

  CHAPTER 52

  The sign read “Harmonville is OK Too”. Kyler looked around at the landscape. What a pretty, serene looking area. There weren’t any trees, but the landscape looked much nicer than he had expected. Being on the ass-end of the caravan, Kyler and FranAnne couldn’t see anything but the same thing they’d been staring at for the last couple of hours…the back of the truck in front of them. He would forever remember the license plate that wasn’t there and a little black cable that wasn’t hooked up to anything, flying back and forth the whole trip.

  Suddenly, the caravan began to slow down, until finally, it came to a stop.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  “Just making a left,” FranAnne answered.

  Kyler slid over close to FranAnne just in time to see the lead truck turning onto the highway that lead to the town, which he could see…or mostly see, because there wasn’t much to it. He could see a few outlying farms with cows here and there, but not much else.

  “This is what Mt. Airy looked like when my grandfather grew up with Andy Griffith,” FranAnne said, almost boastfully, as they finally got to make their left, not bothering to stop for the stop sign, even though there were other cars already on the highway who were all having to stop for Potts’ Army, and were none to happy about, it seemed, because they all seemed to be letting a tall, young deputy-sheriff have an earful about the Army’s arrogance.

  “That’s right, you’re from Mayberry,” Kyler replied as he waved sheepishly at a lady who was pointing to their truck, while simultaneously poking the young policeman in the chest.

  As the caravan entered the town itself, Kyler saw how tiny it actually was. The road went straight through the middle of the downtown area. The town itself was situated right in the middle of what had once been a mountain. Mountain? Kyler had never been to Oklahoma, but he hadn’t expected mountains. They weren’t very large, but they WERE mountains.

  Kyler looked at the old buildings that made up the small town. It didn’t take a trained eye to see where “The Ol’ Bijou Theater” used to be, or the Rexall Drug Store, which over the years, had probably been used for anything from a dancehall to a skating rink. He saw several American/Indians on the sidewalk here and there, most of them, young men. He saw two or three elderly people, who just sneered at them as if they were space aliens invading their town. Other than that…nobody.

  It didn’t take but a minute for them to drive through the whole downtown area. There had only been one light, and naturally Potts ignored it, as did the rest of them. Kyler saw a blue hospital sign flash by them. Almost there, he thought. Then what, he wondered to himself. What indeed.

  CHAPTER 53

  Kyler heard his spine snap as he stretched for the sky.

  “Was that yours or mine?” FranAnne asked, also stretching.

  “Mine, I recognize the pitch.”

  Kyler stood up just in time to see the kids disembarking from the back, all stretching like he and FranAnne were doing. They had not stopped for two straight hours, and he was pretty sure there were a lot of full bladders, including his own. That was the thing about having to pee. You’re biting your lip just trying to get to a restroom, but once you’re there, you can relax, and it doesn’t seem as bad, because you know you’ll be whizzing soon.

  It was five in the afternoon, still several hours before sunset. What did they have…twenty-six…twenty-seven hours before the next full moon? Man, that’s cutting it close, he thought.

  The front of the two-story hospital stood before them.

  “Look how tiny it is,” Sam Fong said, not noticing that Joe was peeing dangerously close to his leg. “It’s smaller than the one on No Name.”

  “Short work days for both of us if we worked here, huh?” Kyler answered, shielding his eyes from the sun.

  “Yeah, you’d have four patients, and I’d only have an elevator and some generators to deal with, but other than that, I’d have nothing to do.”

  The two stood silent for a moment, still looking at the hospital.

  “You know what, Sam?” Kyler asked, almost wistfully.

  “Yeah, I DO know, Doc,” Sam answered, now shielding his eyes. “That kind of sounds nice right about now, doesn’t it?”

  “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

  The two men stared at the tiny hospital as if it were a beautiful, captivating young lady. Kyler let out a sigh. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he might’ve heard Sam doing the same thing.

  “Kyler!” came Potts’ voice, not just breaking the spell, but crushing it, and spitting on it as well.

  Kyler turned to see Potts, helmet on now, approaching him at a quick pace.

  “Yes, Colonel?” he answered, a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

  “Come on. Get your shit and let’s get in there,” Potts ordered, jerking his thumb toward the hospital.

  “First of all. Colonel, I’ve got to see to this bunch.”

  “You! What’s your name again, Sir?” Potts asked loudly, now pointing past Kyler.

  Kyler turned as Potts passed by him, to see that he was addressing the very massive Peter Valkenberg. This all seemed to be lost on Potts, because he didn’t slow down one bit until he reached the man. Potts’ head barely rose above the man’s chest.

  “Peter Valkenberg,” the man answered, looking into Potts’ one eye.

  “Well, Mr. Wahlberg, would you mind tending to these young people, please, Sir? Dr. Kyler there will not rest until he knows they’re in good hands, and you’ve got the biggest goddamn hands I’ve ever seen, so would you mind? It won’t be that big a deal. Half of ‘em are grown. If you could see that they get to use the restrooms, and maybe taking them to the cafeteria, I would be eternally grateful. Cpl. Williams will assist you. Corporal, get over here!”

  Potts nodded his head in gratitude, managed a semi-smile, then spun on his heels back toward Kyler.

  “Can we go now?” he asked Kyler.

  “Let me get my bag,” Kyler answered, moving toward the truck, before stopping in mid-stride, and putting his hand to his forehead.

  “What is it, Kyler?” Potts asked, gruffly.

  “I…uh…ha…” Kyler looked up to see Potts rotating his hands in exasperation, his blue eye glaring at him. “I…the thing is…I forgot where I put it.”

  “Goddamn you, Kyler,” Potts spat angrily, now looking at the ground and shaking his head.

  “I know it’s here somewhere. It’s just…”

  “Is it in your truck?”

  “No.”

  “Well, it’s not in mine either. You have eight trucks to search, so will you get a move on!”

  Potts turned to the front of the caravan, where the small unit of soldiers stood, some stretching, some making sure that their gear was in order. He let out a high, shrill whistle, which caused everyone in the group to look over at him.

  “Find Dr. Kyler’s medical bag on the double! Move it!” he yelled to the soldiers, who didn’t dare grumble in front of Potts as they moved slowly toward the trucks, but instead glowered at Kyler, who could only stand there with the old cartoon donkey smile on his face.

  The group split up and began to quickly search the trucks. Kyler noticed that the whole time, Potts stood there, arms at his sides, both fists clenched, each glowing a shade of purple/crimson.

  “Found it!” a young private named Jordan yelled from truck number three. In a flash, he was out of the truck and sprinting toward them, carrying the black bag from the handle.

  “Here you are, Sir,” the young redhead who couldn’t have been over eighteen, said cheerily, as he handed the bag to Kyler.”

  “Thank you,�
� Kyler told him, taking the bag and nodding his head.

  “Can we go now?” Potts inquired softly.

  “Uh…sure.”

  “Good.”

  The group walked into the hospital much the same way that Capt. Baine had done earlier, but Baine was no George Patton Potts, who stormed into the building, Kyler and FranAnne on each side of him, both trying to keep up with the little man, while Jefferson and Joe walked right behind Potts. Behind them, walked a dozen rifle-carrying soldiers, each, to Kyler anyway, looking like someone had made snide remarks about either their mothers or their home states. Potts had posted the other soldiers, two apiece, at all entrances and exits.

  They were immediately met by Capt. Baine, who was accompanied by an Army doctor, who looked to be in his early forties. Neither had expected a man with half a face and an eye-patch to be in charge. After Potts let them have their initial shock, the men slowly saluted.

  “You Capt. Baine?” Potts asked, returning the salute.

  “Yessir, Col. Potts,” Baine replied, “and this is Lt. Wilson, Army surgeon.

  “I should probably take a look at that,” the doctor said, stepping up close to Potts and looking down at his bandage. Before he could move, Dr. Wilson’s eyes moved from Potts to Kyler, whom he hadn’t noticed was carrying a medical bag. The medical bag was the first thing the man noticed. The second, was Kyler slowly shaking his head in warning.

  “Maybe later,” the doctor said softly, stepping back cautiously.

  “Where are the patients?”

  “This way, Colonel,” Baine answered, turning around.

  As the group began to move, Mary Sue Carter stepped up and broke through the group.

  “Excuse me, Sir,” Mary Sue addressed Potts.

  “What can I do for you, Deputy?”

  “It’s Sheriff, Sir,” she came back, pointing to her badge.

  “What can I do for you, Sheriff?”

  “I want to know what’s going on here,” she replied. Mary Sue couldn’t believe that this short, disfigured man was in charge. The Army doctors have been pushing Dr. Pritchard there and the other doctors out of the way, and won’t tell us what’s going on.” She saw nothing in Potts’ blue eye. “Now, Sir, I’m the sheriff of Harmonville whether you or the rest of the Army care or not, and I want to know what’s going on around here, and I will find out what’s going on around here, if I have to start shooting my gun.”

  She couldn’t believe that she’d stood up to this man, even though she was pretty sure that her voice quivered toward the end. Kyler wasn’t sure, not being on Potts’ good side, but he though he might’ve seen the corners of Potts’ mouth turn up as if he were going to smile.

  “Well then,” Potts said slowly. “Someone fill in the sheriff on what’s going on around here. Fulton!”

  “Ma’am,” FranAnne greeted Mary Sue, stepping up and gently taking her arm and pulling her back as Potts began to move forward, before Dr. Pritchard timidly stepped up.

  “Eh…excuse me…Sir…” he started timidly.

  “Yes…” Potts sighed ominously, not looking at the doctor, but continuing to stare ahead.

  The doctor was at least seven inches taller than the colonel, yet Potts seemed taller by a clear foot.

  “It’s about the dog, Sir,” Pritchard started, looking down at Joe, who was licking his crotch at that particular moment. “We don’t allow dogs in the hospital.”

  “This one you do allow.”

  “Is he your dog?”

  “No, he’s his own dog.”

  “We don’t allow animals in the hospital.”

  Potts exhaled loudly, with a grunt or two mixed in, before finally looking up at the doctor.

  “Doctor…Pritchard,” he softly spoke, staring at the man’s nametag. “If what I think is going on here, is going on here, you might just want the mutt around. Coppice? See Dr. Kyler there?” he asked the doctor, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

  “Yes,” Pritchard answered, nodding to Kyler, who smiled and returned the nod.

  “Well, he’s dealt with this kind of thing before, so I’m putting him in charge of you and every doctor in this hospital, military included.”

  Kyler was stunned. He knew that he would be assisting and giving advice, but he had no idea he was in charge.

  “Dr. Kyler,” Potts continued, “is a very likeable and affable gentleman, so if you’ll be kind enough to speak to him…”

  “Yessir,” Pritchard answered, almost bowing before he dropped in next to Kyler.

  “Capt. Baine, take me to the patients.”

  “Yes sir”

  Baine's lead the group down the hallway. As they passed the ER, Kyler and even Potts slowed down, thinking that they would be entering there, but Blaine kept walking. Neither Kyler nor Potts said anything, but continued down the hall. They rounded two corners, and found themselves headed for the back exit.

  “Where the hell are we going, Captain?” Potts demanded.

  “Colonel, we received orders to separate the animal victims from the rest of the patients, and there were just too many of them, so we had to do what we had to do, until you got here,” Baine answered, still walking toward the exit.

  The exit doors automatically opened as the group approached it. Kyler saw one of the soldiers that Potts had sent to cover the exit, looking back at them extremely nervous.

  As they moved through the door, the whole group stopped, causing Kyler to almost run into the back of Baine. When he looked up, he saw exactly why the group had stopped, and exactly why the young soldier that Potts had sent to back of the building looked nervous. What he saw made him sick. Past the back parking lot, sat a once empty field, with a vast wooded area behind it, that now housed what looked like either a small civil war POW camp, or a small concentration camp. The place was completely enclosed with a huge chain-link fence, complete with barbed wire going across the top. It looked as if Allied Fencing had been out there and thrown up a fairly capable enclosure. Inside the chain-link fence were bars that someone must’ve used from a portable jail. The enclosure was divided into two parts, by a large grassy, enclosed chain link hallway. The left side was broken down into three smaller enclosures. They didn’t have doors, just openings with three sides of fence. The first two rooms were equipped with several hospital gurneys, complete with bed and IVs and three patients in each. The last room on the left held only one patient. The right side of the enclosure was one large pen, completely enclosed, except for a twenty-foot opening in the middle. It contained several dozen men, women, and children inside it, most wandering aimlessly around as if everything were new to them. There were blacks, whites, and Indians…well, he thought that they were black, white, or Indian, because some of them had already started showing the bat face, and if it weren’t for skin color, he’d have no idea what race they were.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Kyler asked furiously, stepping to the front of the group.

  “What do you mean?” Baine asked, innocently.

  “I think what Dr. Kyler is asking, Captain, is what the hell have you done to these people?” Potts answered for Kyler, still trying to take it all in. Before Baine could answer, Joe started to growl, lowly at first, his hackles starting to stand up.

  “Easy boy,” FranAnne told the dog softly, as she reached down and held him by the collar.

  “Col. Potts,” Baine started, we were given orders and we didn’t have much to work with, so we did what we thought was best with what we had.”

  “So you came up with this,” Kyler snarled as he moved past Potts and Baine, and began walking toward the pen, followed by Dr’s. Pritchard and Wilson. When they reached the fence, they were met by a doctor who Kyler was guessing was a native-American, or an American Indian. He’d known Indians when he’d lived in New Mexico and Arizona, so he was pretty sure about the ethnicity of the man who looked to be in his mid-forties, wearing a drab looking lab-coat.

  “Dr. Kyler,” Dr. Pritchard spoke moving past him,
“this is Leo Proudfoot, County Coroner. He came over from OKC to give us a hand.

  The men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dr. Proudfoot told Kyler as the four men looked through the fence at the patients, who seemed to be almost agitated about something.

  “Unfortunately, I have,” Kyler responded, never taking his eyes off a young bat-faced girl.

  “What are we looking at here?” Lt. Wilson asked, in an almost condescending tone.

  Kyler ignored the man and his tone, and nodded to a soldier to unlock the gate. As he was about to walk through, he turned around just in time to see Potts and the rest of the group, who had just made it across the parking lot and onto the field. Kyler wasn’t sure why he stopped or even why he was looking at Potts. He was pretty sure it was because…this was it. This was where it was all going to start. Everything since the island had been playing up to this. Here. Now. All through the trip to Harmonville, the thought of what he was about to face had stayed in the distance, always down the road that was full of traffic and potholes, and craters from all of the shit that had been happening in the last few months. Four months ago, he was graduating from Medical school. He had been offered jobs all throughout California. Had he not met Dr. Millard at a general practitioners convention, he would be there now. Millard had convinced him that No Name Island was a tropical paradise, just off the coast of sunny Florida. He took the bait, thinking that maybe he had lived in the big city too long, and a change of venue would be nice. It would be like a working holiday. Vacation AND vocation! He should have paid more attention to the name of the island. He’d thought No Name Island had meant that it was a hidden paradise, but he couldn’t have been further from wrong. He arrived on the tiny island to find it filled with three hundred and fifty civilians and several hundred military personnel, or so they had first thought. There’d only been a few businesses and not much else other than the large white military building that very few were allowed into, including military. When he met up with Millard, he had wanted to punch him in the face, but instead, found himself thanking him for choosing him personally.