by Mark Fuson
“Then they came back?” Doctor Giddon asked.
Nancy was still thinking about the death smell as though she was in a form of shock. She had heard the question but was unable to answer. “I wanted to be death,” she mumbled.
“Nancy! Stay with me,” he directed, raising his voice enough to startle her back to talking.
“The smell is death’s phone call. It reminds us that we all have an appointment with him sooner or later.” She grinned at her interviewer.
“Did they come back down the ladder for you?” he again asked, forcing the topic.
“No,” she replied. “They managed to reopen the main entrance. We didn’t even know they had made it in. The lights came back on, that’s how we knew. The light blinded us, too! It was so hard to open our eyes after seeing nothing but darkness for so long. Once the lights were on, it was business as usual. The withdrawals commenced almost right away.”
“Withdrawals?” he asked to clarify.
Nancy nodded. “That’s how it was before. They would come and blow a siren, and then a representative from our camp would surface on level one and be told what they wanted. Tara Bollen had been our rep, but she left with them through the hatch. When they came back and the signal was given for us to send someone to level one, a man volunteered. Men and women had been separated before-but now we lived together. When the lights were off the men would rape us. You couldn’t see who it was. A woman ten feet away, I’m not sure if it was ten feet but it was close, sounded close-she was raped in front of me. I screamed and shouted, I threw rocks but the sound down there confused you. Such savages. When the lights came back…it became gang rape.”
Nancy drifted momentarily from topic before regaining her train of thought. “This man came back a short time later and told us that Tara was up top and wanted twenty adults and ten children. Nothing had changed,” she said, depressed.
“Tell me about this Darwin?”
Nancy sighed and went on. “Just before I got away, everyone’s will to live had more or less been extinguished. People were no longer selected to be handed over to the wolves, people begged for it. I went hoping to die; I could only be gang raped so many times and that’s when he selected me; when I escaped in the woods. He chose me to be the one to entertain him. He gave me ten minutes to run as fast as I could. He had friends with him; three other prisoners went with me. We were blindfolded and driven out into the woods and released. Everyone scattered, but I was the fastest. I could hear him and his goons changing and then killing the other people that had been with me. I made it to McCarran Park. I thought about places to hide but I knew they were animals so I knew their sense of smell would be good. I saw an outhouse and thought that would be a good place to hide; a strong odor to cover my own. I went to the lake and then the river to eliminate my trail and to wash me off. I took a chance and I got out of the water and ran back to the outhouse. I hid inside the shit all night, but it worked. I heard this guy Darwin talking with a woman. They changed and fucked by the picnic area, I could hear them.”
The doctor became excited as he found a hole in Nancy’s story. “I thought Darwin was already a werewolf when he was chasing you in the woods?”
“He was! When he was with the woman it was hours later…I guess he changed back into a human! How the fuck should I know. I heard them change!” Nancy barked.
“So, you never actually saw a werewolf?”
“I killed one. Darwin sent one to find me. He was some young guy named Robbie. I saw him begin to change in front of me.”
“What did you see?”
“I knew he was following me for a day or so, it was as though he didn’t want it to be a secret. He cornered me in a barn just before the highway. I quickly looked around for something I could fight him with but there wasn’t much. I decided to tip over a jerry-can of gasoline. I hoped the puddle would be enough to catch Robbie standing in. I made a quick Molotov cocktail with a jar that was on the work bench and I soaked a rag in contact cement. Robbie entered the barn all smug like he had found his prize. I lit the rag and told him to back off. He just laughed at me and said he was immortal and that he couldn’t die. He approached me and I saw his nails grow into claws. He growled under his breath and his eyes changed-they were so colorful. He smiled and his teeth grew. His body began to expand; I could see he was getting bigger. I smashed the jar in the gas puddle and the barn went up. Robbie ran around howling and changing but he was caught in the flames and was burning quickly. I ran out of the barn and saw his flaming body running towards a pond. He collapsed near it.”
“How do you know he was dead?”
“His body exploded and the fire turned blue. When I went to check, he was gone and there was nothing but a pile of ash left.”
“What about silver?”
“Doctor, I’m not an expert in werewolves. I’m just telling you what I did, what I saw, and what worked.”
“I understand, Nancy,” Doctor Giddon replied continuing to sense the sincerity in his patient’s story. “I was only curious.”
“Do you believe me?” Nancy asked, now calmer and beginning to relax in her jacket.
“I want to believe you. It’s a fantastic story, but even you must realize that it’s a hard one to swallow. How could thousands of people disappear, and no one noticed?” Doctor Giddon posed further, testing her rational thinking.
“We thought about that a lot in the mines. Why didn’t anybody come looking for us? It seemed to us that it was a well thought out plan. Whole families were taken. The occasional visitor from out of town was taken and put into the mine too. I think the werewolves controlled the government and emergency services. No investigations were done because they controlled the investigations. I agree with you, how did thousands just disappear? How did those thousands just hand themselves over when they evacuated the town. I was one of them.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was in December, before Christmas. It was a strange day. Something was wrong with our water and the town officials told people to go get a free vaccine. I didn’t, but that’s when they got the first batch of people. Later that day there was some kind of toxic explosion, or so they said, and the town had to be evacuated. We all just mindlessly went to the train station and boarded box cars. No one questioned why there was a train at an abandoned railway line. Someone said that the nursery at the old mine site owned the train, but the story didn’t make much sense. It didn’t matter; we followed the herd like cattle. When we arrived at the mine armed guards were waiting, and it was too late. Our cell phones hadn’t worked most of the day, and there was no way to call for help. They got us. It was too easy for them. You ask how thousands disappear, my answer is, I don’t know-we just did!” Nancy concluded.
“I want you to think back to December. Was there anything else unusual happening in the town during the month?”
“I think the first werewolves were in town at the beginning of the month. Our search and rescue team was attacked by an animal. It was a full moon. Then there were a few animal-like attacks the next night, some kids were mauled in town. It was more or less quiet after that-until the day they took us away.”
“What happened to the search and rescue?”
“They were looking for Darwin. Some rancher found his clothes in the woods and they thought he was out there lost. It was early in the night and this animal massacred a lot of the team within minutes. I know one survived, Dave Cronin, I think he’s a werewolf now.”
“What about Darwin?”
“Darwin was found at home. I heard a rumor that he claimed he had been mugged and that’s why his clothes were out in the woods. Knowing what I know now, he’s one of the first. I think he killed the search team and I think he’s involved heavily in Special Handling.”
“Would you like to go back to New Haven?” Doctor Giddon asked.
“I can’t go back there, they’ll lock me up!”
“I thought you said you would show me where this Special Handling
is?” Giddon attempted to confuse.
“I’ll show you on a map! I’m not going anywhere near that town!”
Director Kimbel asked through the intercom, “Doctor, could I see you please?”
“Would you excuse me, Nancy? I’ll be back in a while,” Giddon said as he stood up and made his way to the door.
“I might not be around later Doc; I thought I’d check out the pool,” Nancy joked.
“That’s good Nancy; I like to see a sense of humor in my patients,” Giddon laughed as he exited the padded cell.
“Eddie, have you had enough of her story telling?” Sam Kimbel asked sitting alone in the one way glass booth.
Doctor Giddon summarized, “Does she sound crazy to you? Well spoken, but agitated…her rational thinking seems to be fully functional; if she was raped it could explain the delusional story. Other than the werewolves she seems more than normal to me.”
“Other than the werewolves. Too bad that’s a big part of the story! Listen, I called you back in because I thought you might find this interesting. I met this character named Darwin, his name is Darwin Foster. This guy works for the city of New Haven and I also met Tara Bollen, the mayor. Not that I’m playing into your fantasies!”
“Foster,” Giddon said while scanning his memory. “Any relation to Marta Foster?”
Director Kimbel stopped in his tracks realizing he had overlooked a very important piece of the story. “I’ll have to check the file, but he might very well be.”
“Perhaps you and I should take a drive up to New Haven and pay this Darwin fellow a visit,” Edward Giddon suggested.
“Why?”
“The hospital is moving to New Haven within weeks. Don’t we have a duty to ensure that our patients will be looked after? It could give us a chance to snoop around, maybe get a glimpse of this old coal mine.”
“You do believe her!” Kimbel accused.
“Her answers are coherent. Her rationale seems intact. You have to admit there are some strange things going on here. New Haven offers to take the new Riverview with little concern at the lack of doctors in their town, the Marta connection, the Darwin connection…could be interesting to get their side of things,” Edward offered to his friend.
“Look, I have an appointment in New Haven tomorrow to review the new facility. Why don’t you come along and check out the town. Maybe we can do a bit of digging around and find out more about Nancy. Covertly, no direct questioning. Maybe that will help you with another one on one session with Nancy,” Kimbel suggested.
“Good idea. Maybe we can arrange to meet Dave Cronin. He’s not directly related to Foster and Nancy named him as having been attacked in December. That would be a matter of public record. We could question him on that basis…survivor’s guilt might work.”
“Just don’t embarrass us,” Kimbel pleaded.
Chapter Eleven
The black SUV parked outside of the Caprice Theatre around noon. Spilling from its doors was a family that was eager to stretch their legs after a long drive. The children whined of hunger while the wife marveled at the quaintness of the town. Exiting the vehicle last was the large and brooding husband who one could tell was battling a four alarm hangover.
“Oh, Bryan, it’s so nice here! Why couldn’t we have moved to this town?”
Bryan adjusted his mirrored sunglasses before slipping on a worn and dated Minnesota North Stars baseball hat to shield his bald head from the radiating sun. He looked to his adoring wife wanting to lash out, but he held himself in reserve. “The job is in Cransen, we’re moving to Cransen.”
“I know, but I just love the feel this of this town,” she implored.
“Daddy I want McDonald’s!” The oldest daughter begged.
“We’re gonna find something really good! Maybe they’ve got a good sushi place…anyone up for some sushi?” Bryan said to his daughters excitedly, attempting to conceal his pulsating temple.
“No sushi in this town; we’re more meat eaters around here,” Terri Bailey offered as she approached the unsuspecting family.
“Oh, darn girls. Could you recommend a place that these little monsters would like?” the wife asked.
“Of course. Me-So-Fatso is down the road, just your typical burger place though. Or you might try Concordia Pizza. They just opened, but I hear they are pretty good,” Terri sold to the family.
“What’ll it be girls…burgers or pizza?” Mom asked.
“Pizza!” the girls shouted in unison.
“Thank you miss…”
“Bailey, Terri Bailey, soon to be Bonner. I own the thrift store here in New Haven. We’ve got the best deals on all the quality pre-owned items you could ever need. Stop by after your lunch!”
“I’m Frankie and this is my husband, Bryan. I wish we had more time. My husband just got a job in Cransen with the Sheriff’s department; he starts tomorrow and we still have a long drive ahead of us,” Frankie said.
“Oh, my, that is a long drive! You folks should stay here in New Haven; we’re always looking for good family types-especially ones with sweet, sweet children.” Terri grinned while running her fingers along the cheek of the youngest.
“Frankie!” Bryan bellowed, already halfway across the street on his way to the pizza place.
“You’ll have to excuse us Terri,” Frankie replied politely.
“I understand, love. You take care of that dear family of yours and maybe one day you can move to New Haven,” Terri again suggested.
“If only!” Frankie said while taking her girls’ hands before dashing across the street to catch up with her husband who had already disappeared into the pizzeria.
Terri stood on the sidewalk waving to the girls who kept looking back at the old woman, as though they could sense something wrong. Terri licked her chops showing a bit of fang, but only for a moment. It was long enough for the youngest to catch a glimpse.
“Mommy, look!” the girl said in shock as her mother dragged her across the street by her arm.
“I know, aren’t the hanging baskets beautiful!” Frankie replied, paying no attention to what her daughter was really pointing to.
“Playing ambassador, are we?” Tim Waters asked, catching Terri slightly off-guard.
“It’s so nice to see the children, the sweet, sweet children.” Terri smirked still looking in the direction of Concordia Pizza.
“The tourist children sure help make the town feel real; it brings back some of our innocence—I think so anyways,” Tim said, making conversation.
Snapped out of her lustful daze Terri shot back, “It’s a fucking tease is what it is!”
Tim bellowed out laughing, having never heard Terri use foul language before. “There is such thing as too much of a good thing. We all love the youthful taste but we can’t have it all the time. It would be like having turkey more than once a year. Sure it’s good and you look forward to it-but you get sick of it if you eat it too often.”
“Waters, you’re so full of shit,” Terri replied, rolling her eyes and continuing her walk up the street.
Tim laughed to himself, remembering the old woman that she had been. Terri was now a killer who could go on a murderous rampage if left to her own devices. Contained in New Haven, Terri would follow the rules, outside of their sanctuary she could be ruthless; her potential was there.
“What’s the name of those hospital guys?” The question was asked from behind Tim.
“What?” Tim asked, swinging around to find Dave Cronin approaching him holding an iced coffee.
“The nut house guys. What were their names?” Dave asked again.
“Riverview? Giddon and Kimbel…why?” Tim asked.
“Doctor Gagnon called me and said one of the Riverview guys wants to meet me. She says he has some questions with one of his old cases and he thought I might be able to help.”
“You? Are you sure?” Tim asked.
“Yeah! They asked specially for me, Dave Cronin.”
“Didn’t they say why?�
� Tim pressed.
“All they told her was that they had some questions about survivor guilt. I guess they want to know how it feels to be the sole survivor of a werewolf attack!” Dave joked.
“Dave! Too many tourists around, keep it down,” Tim demanded. “I still don’t know why they’d want you. How do they even know about you? We kept the whole thing pretty quiet. Just watch what you say around them, okay?”
“Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do? I’ll tell them whatever I damn well please!” Dave said.
“I’m the number two man around here and our chief priority is maintaining the secret, so I can and will tell you what to do when it comes to the secret!” Tim answered in authority.
“That reminds me! Why the hell are you number two? I was second made-it should be me,” Dave asked with an emerging vein on his neck.
“You were an accident! I know that’s hard for you to wrap your brain around, but you weren’t meant to be. The fact that Darwin has allowed you to even exist should command your unwavering loyalty and respect,” Tim lectured.
“But I’m number two.”
“Number two! Darwin is likely not the first werewolf, therefore you aren’t the second. You might be his first made, but that’s all. What the hell do you care, you’ve got a good thing going in New Haven. Trust me, being the number two man isn’t all that fun.”
Dave attempted to stir up the hornets’ nest. “You’re not even number two; everyone knows you’re doing most everything now. Aren’t you replacing Darwin?”
Tim answered, “Darwin is still in charge. I am the right hand man and I make decisions based upon our agreed ideology, that’s what the vice does.”
“Darwin is too fucking distracted by that Cardwen bitch,” Dave huffed.
“Is it the fact he found love or that you haven’t that bothers you?” Tim asked, cutting to the heart of the issue.
“She’s human. He hasn’t turned her, he hasn’t killed her and the moon is coming. If we’re so worried about the goddamned secret how come he gets to walk around with his loose end?” Dave asked.