Montauk Mayhem

by Tom Schneider

  Glenn saw a dim flashing red light ahead. The chief’s cruiser rounded the bend. Glenn hurried Michael to the trees. The cruiser slowed to a stop where they left the road. They went as fast as they could with Michael doing his best to stay on his feet and Glenn dragging him along. The sounds from the beast echoed slowly through the thick summer air. They made their way to the shed Glenn came out of earlier. They stopped and watched the beast land on the roof of the chief’s car. It ripped off the flashing lights and threw them into the trees. Glenn pulled Michael through the Bilco doors, down into the tunnel.

  Chapter Twenty

  Saturday, August 15, 1983

  1:45 AM, Robin’s House

  It was a long walk back through the tunnel with the shape Michael was in. They finally made it to the manor and got to the Bronco. He had two Coke’s waiting on ice in a cooler between the seats. He handed one to Michael and downed half a can before ripping a loud burp. Michael did the same. They laughed and Glenn messed-up Michael’s hair before putting the truck in reverse.

  “How’s my mom?”

  “She’s broken up about you.”

  “Does she know you’re getting me?”

  “No. You have to tell her all about it. I got to get out of here.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  “I’m leaving now or I’ll be leaving in cuffs by morning.”

  “You did nothing wrong. You rescued me.”

  “It’s who I rescued you from. It’s another story. Just make sure your mom calls the media and lets them know you’re back. They’ll have to free that other boy. Maybe all of them.”

  “There’s more?”

  Out of nowhere, someone was flashing their headlights in his rearview mirror. He thought about flooring it, but there weren’t enough roads out of there. He slowed and pulled over. The car sped past him, came to a stop, and did a U-turn. It was the chief. He pulled alongside the bronco with the window down.

  “Is he okay?” The chief asked.

  “He’ll be okay.”

  “Then get him home and get the hell out of town.”

  “You got it. Be careful chief.”

  The chief raced toward the camp and Glenn got back on the road to Robin’s. He parked in the driveway, behind her car and went around to the passenger side to get Michael out. He had his arm around him and was helping him up the sidewalk when the lights went on and Robin ran out the door.

  “Oh my God, Michael are you okay?”

  “Glenn, you got him!”

  “He’s exhausted and hasn’t eaten or slept in days.”

  “Michael, can I make you a sandwich? A bowl of cereal?”

  “Where have you been?” She hugged him ferociously. She stepped back and looked at him. He barely stood, with the camouflage shirt hung open over his gray hospital gown and work-boots on his feet.

  “You look awful. What are you wearing?” Then she noticed Glenn was barefoot.

  “I got to lie down.”

  They helped him to his room and onto the bed. His head hit the pillow, and he was asleep. Glenn grabbed some socks from Michael’s drawer and put his boots back on.

  Robin looked at Glenn. “Where was he?”

  “Robin, I’m sorry. It’s a long story and I really have to go.”

  “You can’t leave again. Tell me what is going on.”

  “The men after me are the ones that had him. And they’re going to keep coming for me.”

  “The chief said the feds were after you.”

  “The feds? I guess something like that. Listen, you have to protect yourself. Call the press in the morning. Try to call them now. Let them know he’s back. I’m not sure what he’ll remember or what he can tell you but get the news out early.”

  “Stay with me, Glenn. We’ll go to the police. We’ll deal with it together.”

  “I couldn’t get the other boy. If you get the news out, they’ll return him, too.”

  “Who will?”

  Glenn shook his head unable to even answer the question. Not now. She put her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.

  “Stay.”

  “I wish I could, Robin. I’d love to stay here with you but they’ll never let me be. Not til this is over.”

  “Until what’s over? Tell me what’s going on.”

  “I won’t put you in more danger. I have to go. Call the press, call the police, call everyone.”

  “Tell me you’ll come back,” she said, squeezing his wrist. “Tell me, Glenn. Just lie damn it!” She let go, and he walked to the door. He knew now he’d never stop running. Not until Louis Gray was in the ground.

  “I’ll come back.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Saturday, August 15, 1983

  5:35 AM, Robin’s House

  Someone was banging on the door.

  “Jesus, now what?” She lied down to close her eyes for a couple of hours before dealing with the rest of the world. She waited a week to get her son back now the world could wait for her. The police would come in the morning, but at five o’clock? She got to the door, pulled her robe closed, and slid the curtain. It was two strange men in dark suits. Behind them the police car sat in front of her gate with an officer she didn’t recognize standing beside it. She opened the door and was surprised Chief Lutz wasn’t there.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. We’re with the government. We understand your son is back. You’re a lucky woman. Can we talk to you for a minute?”

  “Yes, of course,” she answered, leading them to the dining room table.

  “I need coffee. Can I get you guys some?”

  “That would be great,” one answered while the other shook his head at him.

  “No, ma’am we’re fine, thank you. How did your son get here? Did someone bring him?”

  “Someone?” she asked.

  “I guess your son’s getting some rest now?”

  “Yeah. We all should be at this hour.” she said hesitantly. “Are the police coming in? Why isn’t chief Lutz here?”

  “No, ma’am, he’s not going to make it. It’s better we keep this private.”

  “Private?” she asked.

  “Ma’am, your son may have some out-of-this-world stories about his disappearance.”

  “We haven’t had much time to talk just yet but my boy doesn’t lie to me about anything.”

  “No, I’m sure he doesn’t.”

  “Do you gentlemen have any identification? I’d really like Chief Lutz to be here.”

  “Did Glenn Rogers bring him here?”

  “Is that who you’re looking for? Glenn?”

  One man pulled the curtain in the front window closed. Robin stood and looked at him, puzzled. She turned and saw the other man pulling a taser from his jacket pocket. She picked up the candlestick holder from table, said, “mother-fucker,” and swung with all her might hitting him in the groin. He bent over in pain and stumbled back into the wall. Robin ran yelling for Michael as the second man caught up with her and hit her with a taser from behind. She dropped to the floor sprawled out in the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. He grabbed her from under the armpits and dragged her into the living room. She was unconscious as he sat her in the over-stuffed chair and pulled closed her dressing gown to cover her exposed breast.

  They walked down the hall to Michael’s room. One of them shook Michael’s shoulder, and watched him roll back and forth, dead asleep.

  “Are you going to wake him up to tase him?”

  They looked at each other confused.

  “Get up,” one yelled.

  The other shook him by the shoulders and repeated the message. They lifted him upright and slapped his face. His eyelids fluttered for an instant as he struggled to force them open. He slumped over and landed back on the bed.

  They tased him while he slept and then took him to the couch in the living room. The front door opened and two women entered, followed by two men. One woman carried a suitcase, set it on the
dining room table, and undressed. The other woman photographed every inch of Michael’s bedroom. The two men then emptied the bedroom it of all its contents, went back outside and returned with a dental chair they took to Michael’s room.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Friday, August 21, 1983

  5:45 AM, Traveling Carnival, Greenwich, CT

  Glenn woke up in the reclined passenger seat of the Bronco. He sat up, opened the door, and went to take a leak. He pulled away the branches hiding the truck and got into the driver side. Driving through the woods and onto the road, he headed toward Greenwich, Connecticut. He got off I-95 and drove around town until he spotted the carnival. He circled around it and pulled over to park down the street. He put his Bowie knife and sheath in the back of his pants and pulled his shirt down to hide it. He got out of the Bronco, stretched his legs and walked down the street. As he approached the grounds, he saw Andromeda’s trailer.

  He climbed the steps of the trailer and used his knife to pry open the door. He entered quietly. Lights were off and the place was silent. He bumped into the table and quickly reached out to steady the crystal ball before looking over to where the dog’s cage sat, empty. He headed toward the back.

  Andromeda was asleep in the bed under the sheets. Glenn crept to the bed and lied down behind her, spooning her and pulling his knife, tight against her throat.

  She tried to jerk free until he pulled the blade tighter.

  “I was wondering when I’d see you again,” she said.

  “Yeah?”

  “I knew you’d be back.”

  “My first time here, actually.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  He kept the knife against her throat and sat up as she rolled onto her back and stared up at him. She reached up, put her hand on his head and pulled him down to her until their mouths met. She kissed him passionately and pulled him closer. He straddled her, on his knees, while keeping the knife firmly in place. She continued kissing him while unbuttoning his pants. He used his free hand to find out she wasn’t wearing any panties under her sleep shirt. They made love while he kept the knife firmly lodged against her throat.

  “Can you take that off my throat now?” she asked after they finished.

  He pulled away the blade and wiped a single drop of blood from her neck, with his finger. As he backed off of her and turned his back, she rolled to the side of the bed, reached down beside it and lunged for him with a knife of her own. He dodged the thrust, grabbed her wrist with his left hand, and chopped down on her arm with his right. The break of her bone cracked out loud and she let out a scream as the knife dropped on the floor.

  “You broke my fucking arm!” she yelled.

  He sat her on the bed and set the bone back in place before finding a towel and duct tape to make a temporary cast. Then he used the rest of the roll to tape her to the chair and gag her.

  “So, you set up shop here now. Looking for more kids?”

  “No. I don’t go looking for kids to steal. It’s more like how stray cats seem to find the same people again and again. Some kids are looking for opportunities and sometimes I can help them.”

  “You’re as sick as they are. I tried to think you were better, not really a part of it.”

  “A part of it? A part of what? What you’re a part of?” She looked over to the bar stand. “Get me a drink to kill the pain, will you please? And there're some pills over there, too.”

  He poured two vodkas. The ice bucket was empty. He picked up the pills, looked at the bottle and took one before cutting free her good arm and handing her the pill and drink.

  “You can’t just walk away. I can’t, and you can’t either. You need to turn yourself into them. They can re-engage you. You have skills and training they need.”

  “What do you know?”

  “More than you think. I know you’re a Delta. You joined the program while you were in Vietnam. An assassin.”

  “And you’re Louis Gray’s Beta. That’s why the tattoo, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “His whore?”

  “I thought I was yours. Why don’t you cut me loose? I won’t do anything crazy.”

  “You tried to kill me!”

  “Did I? Maybe if I tried to kill you I would have.”

  “Now you’re threatening me and you want me to cut you loose?”

  “No, I’m not. We can be on the same side. The problems you caused back there got the whole camp shut down. Did you know that?”

  He didn’t.

  “What is it you want, Glenn? I can help you.”

  “I want Louis Gray,” he said.

  “I can tell you where he is. I can help you get to him.”

  He didn’t trust her for a second. He knew he should finish what he came there to do. He thought of Daniel, from Silver Lake. He didn’t want to take down others like them–like him. He had empathy for other victims of the program. He pulled out his knife and approached Andromeda when the door burst open behind him. He turned to see a man throw something at him and spin out of the way. Glenn threw his knife at the man, landing it in his throat. The man reached his hands for the knife, stumbled backward into the door, and slid to the floor. The ninja star he threw planted vertically, deep into Andromeda’s eye. Her body convulsed and blood poured out. Her head dropped over and her body went limp.

  Glenn grabbed the ankles of the man and dragged him away from the door. He pulled his knife from the guy’s throat and wiped the blood on his shirt. Then he went to the bar, poured a double and took a pill from the bottle. Then he put the bottle in his pocket.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Friday, August 21, 1983

  9:45 AM, Roadside Diner, NY

  Glenn sat on a stool at the counter, U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, played on the jukeboxes.

  I have spoke with the tongue of angels

  I have held the hand of a devil

  It was warm in, the night

  I was cold as a stone

  But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

  Alice approached, coffee pot in-hand.

  “Welcome back, cowboy. You going to order more eggs and then run out on me again?”

  “Not today, darling.”

  “You sure? I hear he’s got some good deals over there.”

  She poured him a cup of coffee.

  “You remember my order?”

  “How could I forget? I stared at it for at least a half-hour before I gave up your seat.”

  “Thanks for holding out as long as you could.”

  She put the coffeepot on the burner.

  “So your friend must be relieved.”

  “Huh?”

  “Didn’t you say you knew one of the women whose boy went missing?”

  “Oh yeah, I haven’t seen her since but heard he was home.”

  “You think aliens really got them?”

  “What?”

  “That’s what they both said. Both boys tell the same story. It’s all over the news.”

  “Really? Aliens, huh?”

  He wondered if they were paid off or brainwashed into believing it. They no doubt brainwashed the other boy before sending him home. They would have done the same to Michael. He was too young for them to pay him off the rest of his life. He hoped Robin got a good price for going along with it. Something large enough to change their lives.

  “There were a bunch of sightings in the valley earlier in the year. Seven or eight thousand people saw it.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Anyway, it must have been a full moon that night the aliens brought them back. All kinds of craziness struck out there. With whatever happened out on Camp Hero and everything.”

  “What happened?”

  “Don’t you look at the news? There was some kind of electrical thing. Lightening hit the radar antenna or a transformer. It killed the police chief.”

  Glenn looked over at the Daily News sitting on the counter and pulled in
front of him. The headline read, Missing Teens Tortured by Aliens. He knew the chief was headed on a suicide mission trying to take on Gray and the whole program. It was the chief’s town, but it was Gray’s world.

  Alice set the plate of toast in front of him.

  “I think they just ran off for some kind of fun and made up the whole crazy story. I know I dreamt up some real doozies in my day.”

  “I believe it but I’d say it’s still your day.”

  “Aww, you are a sweetie. I knew I liked you.”

  “Maybe you should take me away from all this?”

  “I’d love the company, but I’m not exactly a good luck charm. The best I can do for you is leave.”

  “And maybe leave a good tip,” Alice answered.

  Glenn finished his breakfast and was on his second cup of coffee when Alice yelled at a kid who came in and dropped off a half-dozen phone books on the counter.

  “What am I supposed to do with all of these damn things?” she asked.

  He stood up and dropped a hundred-dollar-bill on the counter.

  “I get the feeling you’re not coming back this time,” she said.

  “You never know, some places just pull you back,” he said and picked up one of the phone books from the stack.

  “Take them all!” she said.

  He gave her a wink.

  Glenn left the diner and drove the bronco across the street to the used car dealer where he got it just days before. He walked out of the owner’s office a half-hour later with a new set of keys. He stopped at a rack of maps by the door. He picked one up and looked back at the dealer.

  “Go ahead,” the dealer said.

  He got in the 1971 black Dodge Charger, pulled out of the lot, and headed west.

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