Maniacs

by Lee Wise

  “He’s 11. He knows what he’s doing.” Cathy said.

  Sarah barged through the door at that moment crying. “What’s the matter honey?” I asked.

  “Caleb threw a rock at me.” Sarah said.

  Megan came in behind her. “Yeah Mama. He’s a mean boy. I don’t want to play with him.”

  Mrs. Ford came from the kitchen shaking her head. She had heard Sarah and Megan come in and what the girls had said. “I knew they were trouble. So, what are we going to do about it?”

  Cathy looked at me. “Let’s go talk to the others.”

  I said, “Come on Megan and Sarah. You can go with Mama.”

  “I’ll go check to see what Caleb is up to.” Mrs. Ford said.

  “Be careful!” Cathy cautioned.

  We went down the driveway, but I had the girls hide a little in the woods while we talked to all the adults that were still there. We explained the situation and everything that transpired with the two kids.

  “So we kick them to the curb.” Sammie said.

  “We can’t just kick kids out.” Jill said.

  “We have to do something.” Robert sighed. “I don’t want to have to watch our backs with those two. You don’t know how dangerous they are or how much of the truth they actually gave us.”

  I looked up the driveway and Sabrina and Caleb were coming towards us. Sabrina had a big jacket on even though it was summer. I motioned to the others to look their way.

  Sammie’s eyes widened. “Nice jacket.” She commented.

  “Angela said I could have it. We’re leaving. This place is boring.” Sabrina announced.

  “What’s in the jacket?” Mike asked.

  “Boobs. The fuck do you care?” Sabrina said.

  “Language.” Rose cautioned.

  Sabrina laughed. “We’re out of here.”

  “Nope.” Sammie said. “Let’s check what’s in the jacket.”

  “Hands off bitch.” Sabrina pulled out a gun.

  Mike grabbed it from her. “Safety’s on. That’s one of my guns.”

  “You don’t need more than one.” She responded.

  “The jacket.” Sammie demanded. “It’s too hot to be wearing one. You can find another jacket at someone else’s place.”

  Sabrina took off the jacket while swearing loudly. It was full of stolen things. Sabrina had a smile on her face like she found the whole transaction completely hilarious. I was wondering if anyone else wanted to smack the stupid smirk off her face as much as I did. Looking around, I could tell that the others probably had feelings just like me! We had taken this kid into our place and she was disrespecting us in this way. No way was that going to slide with anyone.

  “My necklace?” Rose gasped “Seriously?”

  “What do you need it for anymore anyways?” Sabrina asked.

  Meanwhile, Caleb was laughing at the whole thing. “These people are whack. Let’s go Sabrina.”

  “Give me my gun back!” She demanded.

  “Nah. It’s mine and I’m sure you can find another.” Mike said. Sabrina spit on him and gave him the finger. Then she left with Caleb.

  “Wow!” I exclaimed.

  Mike lifted up his walkie-talkie. “Ben, come in. Over.” No response. He sighed. “Ben, come in. Over.”

  “You think they’re in trouble?” Sammie asked.

  “Well, I’m worried that if they go to the places that Sabrina told them about it could be a set up or that they might meet up with those two punks again.”

  Rose grabbed the walkie-talkie from him “Ben, you answer me right now!”

  “You don’t have to yell! I’m right here.” Ben was there with John and Angela and six more people. Rose ran out of the gate and hugged him.

  “What are you guys hollering about anyways?” Angela asked. We told them everything that had just happened. “I told you they were trouble.” Angela said.

  “Yep.” Ben agreed. “And that’s exactly why we avoided everywhere she told us to go!” We all laughed.

  “We just have to be wary knowing we made two enemies.” John declared.

  “They’re punks!” Mike said. “Anyways, you going to introduce us or what?”

  “Oh shoot! Sorry!” John replied. “This is Bill and Naomi.” He said introducing an older couple who were probably in their late 60s. “Their daughter Allison and her husband Ryan.”

  “We are newlyweds!” Allison exclaimed. She was very pregnant.

  “Yeah. Obviously that happened before they got married!” Bill stated.

  “Dad!” Allison laughed. We laughed also.

  “And I’m Luke and this is my daughter Piper. She’s 16.” She gave a shy wave.

  “And every bit teenager!” Allison said.

  “Aunt Allison!” Piper blushed. “I’m almost 17.” She stated.

  “Come on up to the house. We’ll show you around.” John invited.

  “I’ll stay down here with Sammie.” Ben said. “It’s great that you can join us.”

  We started walking up to the house and Megan and Sarah jumped out making us all jump 100 feet in the air they started giggling.

  “We scared you!” They were laughing so hard. They thought that scaring us was the most fun thing to do. They used to do this all the time at home. It was nice to see them having fun. What’s more, I just liked to see them laugh.

  “You definitely did!” Allison remarked. “I almost had my baby right here!” She laughed.

  “You did?” Megan said shocked. “I’m sorry!” Allison smiled.

  “Sorry about that! These are my daughters, Megan and Sarah.” I introduced the girls.

  “Hi!” They said.

  “Where did Sabrina and Caleb go?” Megan asked.

  “Home.” I replied.

  “Good.” Sarah said.

  “I’m glad you took care of them before they got to our house.” Luke said. He introduced his group to the girls.

  “Me too!” John agreed. John got ready to say something and then looked at the girls.

  “We know.” Sarah said rolling her eyes. “Go play! Piper, do you want to see the garden and chickens?”

  “I love gardens!” Piper said and left with the girls.

  “Do you want to tell them what happened last night?” John asked.

  “Ooh, I’ll let someone else tell that story.” Allison said. “Right now, I desperately need a bathroom!” We all laughed.

  “That I can show you.” Mrs. Ford said coming over. “I was heading there with Mary.”

  “Thank you so much!” She said leaving with Mrs. Ford.

  “That was my daughter Mary and with her was Mrs. Ford.” Jill explained.

  “Mrs. Ford? Does she have a first name?” Luke asked.

  “You know, we’ve always called her Mrs. Ford. She’s been the librarian at our town’s school for ages. She was the librarian when I went there and then even before I was there!” John said. We all agreed. I think a majority of us had gone to that school just like our kids and she had always been a smiling face that we saw almost every school day.

  “Wow!” Ryan exclaimed. “Then Mrs. Ford it is.”

  “I think I may ask her what her first name is.” Naomi said.

  “Oh. It’s Helen.” Jill stated. “We have just never called her by it!”

  “I see.” Naomi said. “I may ask her what she prefers if you don’t mind. I feel strange calling someone ‘Mrs.’ when I’m not in school and I’m almost her age.”

  “That’s fine.” John said smiling. “So about what happened last night.”

  “Oh yeah. So last night…” Ryan began.

  “It was the craziest thing.” Bill interrupted. “So, all of a sudden…”

  “Dad, the storyteller!” Ryan laughed.

  “Sorry son. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but you’re right, I am a good storyteller!”

  “Go on dad. Just don’t add on any extras!” Ryan joked.

  “Come on! I never do!” Bill said. His kids laughed. “Anyways, we jus
t laid down for sleep and then all of a sudden, we heard howling all around the house. Spookiest thing you’d ever heard.”

  “Only it wasn’t animals, it was people.” Naomi interrupted.

  “Aww, now that was the best part!” Bill complained.

  “People?” I said. “Are you sure?”

  “Oh yeah. It definitely was. And they were just everywhere, all around the house. I took my shotgun upstairs and shot out the window. I wasn’t aiming at anyone. I just wanted to scare them.” Bill explained.

  “Did they leave?” Rose asked.

  “Oh yeah they did, but you could hear crazy laughter and strange words and sounds.” Ryan said. “It was so creepy. None of us could sleep after that.”

  “Habba de ba?” I said. They all froze.

  “What did you say?” Luke asked.

  “Did they say anything like that?” I asked.

  “Some of them soundedexactly like that! Weird gibberish.” Ryan said.

  “That’s what we’ve seen from them. The news was calling them maniacs, so we have been also.” John stated.

  “Like what you were telling us about when we were walking here?” Bill asked.

  “Why were you guys walking anyways?” Mike asked. “What happened to the car?”

  “There were nails in the road a couple roads down.” John replied.

  “Really?” I asked.

  John nodded. “We were talking and probably the way to make this place the safest is to go out and hunt these things.”

  “Okay Mary, go play with the others.” Mrs. Ford said coming outside. “You think hunting them is really necessary?”

  “See how dangerous they are.” Mike replied. “We have to keep this place safe.”

  “Where’s the government in all of this?” Jill asked.

  “Ha ha ha, government!” Bill sneered. “They’re either hiding or dead.”

  “Dad!” Allison groaned.

  “What? It’s true.” He said.

  Mike laughed. “Well, I don’t really know what’s happened with them, but we are on our own so we need to deal with it proactively.”

  “I agree.” Ryan said. Luke nodded his head.

  “You go have a man meeting then.” I said. “And we’ll go show Allison and Naomi around.”

  “Well, man meeting with Sammie and I.” Angela said.

  “That’s true! Sorry!” I really wasn’t feeling like talking about those things right now. I just wanted a few minutes of normalcy – just playing with my girls, working in the garden. The guys and Angela went down the driveway to join Ben and Sammie, while we made a little small talk.

  All of a sudden the kids were shouting for us and we all took off running towards the garden area where the sound was coming from. So much for normalcy. I don’t think I had run that fast in a very long time! We got to the garden and noticed that Jenny was crying. We went over to her.

  “What’s the matter?” Cathy asked.

  She showed us a hat. “Greg’s hat. He never goes anywhere without it.”

  “I’m sure he just dropped it.” I suggested.

  “No! You don’t understand.” Jenny said showing the inside of the hat. There was a lot of blood. Cathy and I exchanged glances and Jenny saw us. “See I knew it. He’s dead!” She began bawling. Megan joined in.

  I picked up the walkie-talkie to call the guys. My mind was frantic. “Wait!” I said. “Jenny, where did you find the hat?” I asked.

  “We were playing hide and seek.” She looked worried. “I was watching the others with Mrs. Ford. I didn’t go too far away!”

  I looked around quickly. All the kids were there luckily. I pressed the button on the walkie-talkie. “John come in. Over.”

  It took a second but he responded. “You miss me already? What’s up?”

  “We need a couple of you up here right away. It’s an emergency.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “We’re on the way.”

  “Mama? What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

  “Here children.” Mrs. Ford said. “See these? Those are weeds. Let’s pull those out.” She was able to sidetrack the kids. Luke, John, Ben and Angela came running up.

  “What’s going on?” Ben asked. I took the hat from Jenny and motioned for the guys to move away from the kids. I had Jenny join us. I showed them the hat and explained that it was Greg’s hat.

  “Jenny, where exactly did you find this?” Ben asked. Jenny brought the guys to the location. It wasn’t too far away because I could still hear their voices. They all came back.

  “Jenny? Can you and Piper watch the kids for a minute? We are just going a few feet away. Make sure no one leaves the area.” John said pointing at the area where the kids were weeding. Jenny and Piper nodded.

  “Ladies?” Ben asked and motioned to an area for all of us to speak where we could still get to the kids quickly. Ben sighed. He started speaking quietly. “There was a lot of blood not far from where she found his hat. He was most likely killed.”

  “Obviously!” Cathy said. We all looked at her. “Sorry. I’m just so upset. So what now?”

  “Angela? Where do these woods lead?” Luke asked.

  “The Bayer property. But it’s abandoned now.”

  “Probably not anymore.” Ben said and sighed.

  “Why was Greg behind the house anyways?” I asked.

  Mrs. Ford sighed and shook her head. “He asked me about the vegetables back here and a few questions about what vegetables would last for a few days if they weren’t refrigerated. I didn’t think about why he was asking those questions for.”

  “So, he came back here to grab vegetables and someone or something got him.” Ben said.

  “Sounds like the people that were at our house last night. We live right on the other side of the Bayer property.” Luke said.

  “So you were the ones that bought that property. I was wondering who moved in there!” Angela said.

  “Guess that doesn’t matter now.” Luke said.

  “So, first things first. Let’s get the kids to the front of the house. We’ll go inside, search the house and make sure there are no maniacs inside. Then the kids and women will remain inside while a majority of us check the property.” Ben said.

  “Yeah, I’m not staying inside.” Angela declared. “Those who want to stay with the kids, whether they are women or men can and those who want to search the property, once again woman or men can.”

  “Of course.” Ben agreed. “I wasn’t meaning to be sexist. I apologize.” Angela nodded.

  “Kids!” I shouted. “Come here.” We went to the front of the house and waited. Angela and Cathy went down the driveway to update the others on what was happening while Luke, Ben and John went in the house. Soon the guys came back out of the house.

  “Okay. The house is safe. We’ll post a couple guards on each side of the house at both doors. A few people will stay at the end of the driveway while the others spread out across the property.” Ben said.

  Luke made a sound. “What?” Ben asked.

  “Is that not spreading us too thin? How many people are there?” Luke questioned.

  “There are seven men and two woman who are going to be doing this.” He sighed. “I see what you mean.”

  “Well,” Jill began. “I don’t mind protecting either the front or the back of the house and Cathy said she didn’t either.”

  “I’d rather help in the house. I will make extra sure I’m near the kids.” I said. Just then Angela, Sammie, Cathy, and Bill walked up to us.

  “Okay.” Angela said. “So Robert, Mike and Ryan are watching the end of the driveway.”

  “Cathy, are you willing to guard the front of the house?” Ben asked.

  “Definitely!” Cathy said.

  “I can help guard with her.” Bill said limping over.

  “Bill, what happened to your leg?” Naomi asked.

  “It’s no big deal. I just twisted it in a hole. But I can
easily cover the front of the house. I won’t have to do a lot of walking.” Bill replied.

  “Perfect.” Ben said. “Jill will guard the back with…” Ben thought for a moment.

  “Me.” Rose said.

  “Rose…” Ben began.

  “Come on Ben. You know that I can handle a gun.”

  Ben sighed. “Okay… Okay that leaves us with a good amount for the woods. Mrs. Ford, Naomi, Aleisha and Allison are you guys all set in the house?”

  We agreed that we were. “In a little while, I might start making lunch and have the kids help.” I announced.

  “Good idea. All that hiking will make us hungry.” Ben said. “John and Sammie, are you okay to be paired together?” They nodded. “Luke, you can go with Angela and I’ll go with…”

  “Me.” We looked towards the sound of the voice.

  “Jacob?” A few of us said.

  “What’s going on? Why are you back?” Ben asked.

  “I didn’t make it far when some thugs jumped out. They came out of nowhere! I shot a couple of them, but used up all my bullets. I managed to get away, after hiding for a while. They chased me most of the way back here. Figured I’d come back, get a change of clothes, see if I could find some bullets and a little food and then leave again. They told me what Jenny found.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair and grimaced.

  “What is that smell?” Angela asked plugging her nose.

  “It was how I got away from them. I hid in a pile of manure down the road.”

  “Wow!” Sammie said.

  “Hey, I’m safe aren’t I?” Jacob said.

  “Exactly! That’s all that matters. If you want to change quickly, we can wait a few minutes.” John said.

  “Maybe I should. I don’t want them to smell me coming towards them.” Robert told Jacob that he could wear some of his clothes. Jacob went inside to change.

  “Well, this was surprising!” Ben exclaimed. We all agreed. “So, now does everyone know where their assignments are?” We nodded. “And each group has a walkie-talkie?” We all nodded. Jacob came running out wearing Robert’s clothes which were a little big on him.

  “Let’s do this.” Jacob said.

  I went inside. I felt kind of guilty for not doing any guarding, but I just really wanted to see my girls a little bit. Mrs. Ford looked at me. “Don’t worry. There are enough of them running around out there. We have a very important job in here.” I nodded.