Maniacs

by Lee Wise

  “Maybe I should say it again?” Luis asked.

  “We heard it perfectly upstairs.” Christian said.

  “Where was everyone when the gunshots happened?” Luis asked.

  “Everywhere.” I stated.

  Luis sighed and rubbed his neck “Okay, so who’s missing?”

  “A lot of people!” Robert said.

  “We have to figure out who.” Luis sighed. Molly began barking outside. “We need everyone on guns.” Luis urged as we all got our guns ready. We heard laughter outside.

  Ben peeked out the window and smiled. “Well, what do you know.”

  The front door opened. “Sorry to not respond!” Angela said holding a walkie-talkie with two fingers. It wasn’t working!”

  “Oh! Nasty! That stinks!” Jill exclaimed.

  “What happened out there?” Liz asked. Angela looked at the others and they all laughed.

  “Well, Mrs. Piggy there…” Angela said pointing at the pig who had run inside chased by Mr. Doggleton. “Was scared by that little dog and ran off. Maya went to tackle her and well now is outside hosing off. This,” she said holding up the walkie-talkie which reeked. “Went down with her!”

  “She’s covered in poop?” Ben asked. Miles, who had been holding back his laughter, burst out laughing.

  “She’s not happy.” Miles said.

  “And I think she may have had her mouth open!” Angela said. “But it wouldn’t be as funny if the story ended there. It doesn’t. Alex, Ethan and Steve went to help her out. Steve stepped on a bee’s nest!”

  “What!” I laughed.

  “Yes.” Miles laughed.

  “Are they okay?” Anne asked.

  At the same time Luis asked, “What were the gunshots?”

  “Two kids shooting at the pig.” Angela said.

  “Oh wow!” I said.

  “Everyone, including the pig and kids are okay. The kids saw us and took off. I tried calling for them, but they left quickly. Then Maya fell in the poop, the guys tried helping her out now Jeremy and Rose are tending to bee stings.” Angela said.

  “The only bad thing was that Ethan is allergic to bees. Luckily, Rose had something on her to help him. He’s recovering outside and those that got poop on themselves are hosing off.” Miles said.

  “And what about Gary, Jacob and Luke?” I asked. “They were at the end of the driveway.”

  Angela’s smile went away. “They aren’t down there?”

  “They didn’t respond.” Luis said.

  “I… we weren’t anywhere near the end of the driveway.” Angela said.

  “Jacob, Gary, Luke?” Luis called again over the walkie-talkie. No response.

  “I’m going to check on them.” Ryan stood up.

  “Wait, we’ll send a group.” Ben said.

  “I agree.” Luis said. “Ben, can you guard up here? I’ll take Robert, Ryan, Chase and Mason.” Ben

  agreed and Luis and his group left. The rest of us went outside. It stank so bad!

  “That is so disgusting!” Cathy said.

  “Tell me about it!” Maya said. “I had my mouth open!” She was standing in a bra and panties. Several of the guys blushed and turned away, including John. Maya smiled. “Sorry guys, I’d rather be naked than have those stinky clothes on me!” Angela came outside with some clothes. “Here you go!” She handed them to Maya who changed right there. She really wasn’t modest!

  “Guys!” Luis said over the walkie-talkie.

  John was holding one and he responded. “What’s up?”

  “First, Mrs. Ford, would you mind bringing your walkie-talkie away from the kids?”

  Mrs. Ford began to say yes, we heard Piper over the walkie-talkie. “Is it my dad? Is he okay?”

  “Ah…” Luis began. About twenty seconds passed.

  “It’s okay.” Mrs. Ford said over the walkie-talkie. Naomi has her granddaughter and I’m out of the room. You can talk now.”

  Luis sighed over the walkie-talkie. “They are not down here.”

  “Who?” Mrs. Ford asked.

  “Jacob, Gary and Luke. They were guarding the end of the driveway, but they aren’t here.” Luis responded.

  Everyone was quiet. Finally, Ben spoke up. “Well they have to be somewhere. Let’s look around.”

  The next hour, search parties were sent out, but there was no luck. The three were just not

  around. Piper was inconsolable, which was completely understandable. We were all kind of in shock.

  “How many shots did the kids take at the pig?” I asked when a group of us were standing outside. I couldn’t shake that question. It seemed like I’d heard a lot of shots.

  “Just two.” Angela said.

  “And that was after the shots we went looking for. But we just assumed that it was the kids.” Maya said.

  “What if they didn’t make the original shots?” Cathy said.

  “But we checked on the three guys and they were there earlier.” Luis said.

  “So, sometime in between the original shots and when we came here the three guys went missing?” Jill said.

  “Exactly.” I said.

  “The question is…” Luis began.

  “There’s a ton of questions.” Ryan said. “The big thing is that we find them.”

  A group was sent out in town to search. Ryan had wanted to go but Allison, Naomi and Piper needed him so he opted to work in the shed with Ethan and Chase. John, Mason and Angela went to guard the driveway. Anne and I were nervous to have our husbands down there.

  Luis, Maya, Robert, Mike and Steve went out to search. Alex stayed to protect Liz and Ben stayed just in case something happened to the others. The reasoning was at least Alex, Ben, Ryan, Ethan and Chase would be here for us. I don’t think many of us were reassured though.

  The group returned when it began to get dark. John, Mason and Angela came up with them. Ethan, Chase and Ryan were already inside with the rest of us eating supper which was once again made by Jeremy. I think he felt like he wasn’t doing much so was trying to make up for that.

  We looked at them when they entered. The three missing men were not with them. “We looked everywhere.” Luis sighed. “They just vanished.”

  “Was there any sign of the teens?” Angela asked. Luis looked confused.

  “She means the ones who were trying to shoot the pig.” Maya responded. “No, we didn’t see them.”

  “So, then if they can be hidden so can our guys.” Angela answered. A few people just shrugged their shoulders.

  “But why would they leave?” I asked. People agreed with me.

  “Maybe they changed?” Ethan said.

  “All of them?” Robert argued.

  “This is crazy!” Ryan said. “Where the hell are they?” And as if on cue, we heard the animals getting loud outside.

  I glanced out the window and there was Jenny. I gasped and the others noticed her.

  “She’s holding something!” Cathy said.

  “It might be a trap!” Anne said.

  “That… That looks like a walkie-talkie!” Ben said. We all gasped.

  “I have to go find out!” Ryan said. Before any of us could stop him, he ran outside. Luis, Maya, Angela and Ethan followed outside. Mrs. Ford brought the kids back upstairs with Naomi, Leah and Christian. Dylan began to cry, so Allison went up too. I opened the window so I could hear what was being said outside. Nobody complained that I did that.

  “What do you want?” Ryan asked Jenny. She was alone. She moved her head as if trying to get the guys to follow. “You want us to follow you? Seriously?” Jenny began to walk.

  “What do you think?” Ethan asked, but Ryan began following Jenny. “Ryan!” Ethan sighed and he followed also.

  “Does anyone else think this a bad idea?” Angela asked but the others just followed her.

  “We have to know why she has a walkie-talkie.” Ethan said towards Angela.

  Angela sighed and looked towards the house. She had her walkie-talkie on her. Sh
e pointed at it. Robert raised his up meaning if she needed us, we could respond. They all went down the driveway.

  “We are just going to let them go?” Anne asked.

  “We need to know what happened to the three guys.” Ben said.

  “But she’s a maniac!” Steve exclaimed.

  “A leader. But she’s different from the others.” Liz reflected.

  Steve shook his head. “This is crazy.”

  We waited an hour. It was a very tense hour! Finally, we heard a noise outside. It was people talking. I looked out the window and could see the five who had left with the three missing guys. They all came inside. Ryan hugged Luke. “I always knew I was your favorite brother-in-law!” Luke joked.

  “I don’t believe it!” Steve said.

  “Okay, spill it!” John demanded. “What happened and how are you guys okay?”

  Luke shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “What?” Robert said.

  “So,” Gary began. “We were at the end of the driveway when we heard gunshots. Jenny came along, did her little hypnotizing thing. Next thing we know we woke up or came to or whatever it’s called…”

  “Came out of our trance!” Jacob interrupted.

  “Exactly. Jenny was there and she did the ‘be quiet’ sign and pointed. We quietly got on our hands and knees and looked at what she was pointing at.” Gary sighed. “It was the people you described.” He motioned to the neighbors. Jenny’s group had them all circled and got them in this big hole. Like… like a trap type thing. That group had killed two teenagers.…”

  “The ones we saw earlier…” Angela interrupted.

  “Jenny seemed upset about that. She looked like she was punishing them.” Gary said.

  “But how is that possible? She’s bad herself!” Mason argued.

  “Maybe her group isn’t really that bad…” Cathy began.

  “They tried to hang me!” Alex said.

  “What were you planning on doing to them though?” Robert asked.

  “I…” He shrugged.

  “Exactly.” Cathy said.

  “So, she didn’t harm you?” I asked.

  “Not at all. Her group came and stood around us when she left. We thought that we were goners then, but they started saying their weird things and walked off when Jenny showed up with our group. Then Jenny left with her group.” Luke said.

  “What about the bad maniacs?” I asked.

  “They’re still in the hole except for the leader that was in charge of the group and one of the maniacs. They’re in the cells. Luis and Gary are in there with them, so we need others to guard them.” Ryan said.

  “I will!” Steve said a little too eagerly.

  “We need to study them, not kill them.” Mason said. “Look, I know they killed Marie, but this is our best chance of saving us all.”

  Steve sighed. “Okay, just keep them away from me.”

  “I’ll go guard.” Robert said. John also went outside.

  After a couple minutes, Cathy asked. “What about the mind control?”

  Gary sighed. “We’re not sure that leader has it.”

  “What if he does?” Anne asked. “He might kill us all.”

  CHAPTER 19

  “I…” Angela looked outside and Jenny was out there again. “She’s back!” We all looked out.

  Cathy gasped. “I can hear her voice!”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Everyone quiet!” Cathy demanded. “I can hear her.” Some of the guys hands went on their guns just in case something bad was about to happen. “She said manure…”

  “What? That’s crazy!” Chase said.

  “Wait! The teenagers left like they were being called, not like they were scared of us. We were all covered in pig shit.” Angela said.

  “So, what we cover those in the shed with poop so there’s no mind control?” Ethan laughed.

  “Exactly.” Cathy said. We saw Jenny nod outside and then walk off.

  “That’s crazy!” Mason laughed.

  “Can we trust her?” Alex asked.

  Liz went outside and headed towards the cows.

  “Liz!” Alex shouted and followed. Liz was covering herself up in poop.

  I started laughing. “Wow!” I said.

  “You’re her assistant.” Cathy said smiling at me. I was shocked. Did I really have to cover myself in poop to study these things?

  “Ah, I will let her test out her theory first.” I laughed.

  Cathy laughed also. “That’s what I would do!” She agreed. We all went outside. Liz went into the shed.

  “What the hell?” I heard Robert say from inside.

  Ben got ready to go in, but we heard John say, “What are you covered in? Is that shit?” We all were laughing so hard. Alex went in while John and Luis came out. Alex had reluctantly covered himself in poop so he could go in with Liz. “You are covered in shit too? That’s disgusting!” John declared coming out.

  Robert followed closely behind John and Luis. “I’m not staying in there! That stench is horrible!” We were all laughing so hard.

  Gary lasted a couple seconds longer but soon said, “You guys are on your own!” And left the building also. “Why the hell is she covered in shit?”

  “She has a theory…” I began.

  “That’s one hell of a theory!” Robert said.

  “Jenny spoke to me!” Cathy said.

  Robert looked at her. “What?”

  “I heard her say manure.” Cathy responded.

  “Manure? Did anyone else hear that?” Robert asked.

  “No, but we saw the leader that’s in there when we were covered in manure and they just ignored us.” Angela said.

  “You saw the leader? In the woods?” John asked.

  “We think so. He was looking at the teens I believe.” Maya explained.

  “We didn’t know you saw them before.” Ben said.

  “At least we think it was him.”

  “So, there’s a chance that you didn’t see him but they are in there covered in poop because you think you may have seen him?” Robert questioned.

  “Well, I…” Angela began.

  We heard a scream inside the shed. Luis, Ben and John ran in. They dragged Alex out. Liz was following, holding her neck. “Alex just attacked me!” She rasped.

  Alex looked dazed between John and Luis. “What… What just happened?”

  “You just attacked Liz. You don’t remember?” John explained.

  “What? No! I would never attack her. Last thing I remember doing is Liz asked me to check the pocket of the groupie because she saw something shiny. That’s all I remember.” Alex asserted.

  “Wait! Is the groupie out of the cell?” Jill asked.

  “No. He was near the bar so I reached in to pull that out of his pocket and he touched my hand.” Alex said holding a gum container. “Wait, I remember that happening when Jenny was hanging me. She touched my hand and then I could hear her voice and it was just like a trance.”

  “So, Liz wasn’t touched by them so she couldn’t be controlled. It’s not the manure that stops them from controlling you, it’s lack of touch I bet.” I said.

  “I agree.” Liz announced hoarsely.

  “So, I’m covered in shit now also!” John complained. “I’m going to clean up.” A few of us laughed despite what had just happened. Liz actually joined in also.

  “Whoops!” Liz smiled. “Well, everything needs to be tested! You never know what might work!”

  “I’m glad I wasn’t involved in that test!” I joked.

  “Great!” Alex muttered. “I’m going to get cleaned also!” We all laughed as those who had been covered in poop walked off.

  “So much for the kids getting cleaned up tonight!” I announced. “Tomorrow morning they will definitely get washed up.”

  “I hope she comes up with better theories than that!” Anne said.

  “When Luis and Ben get back, we can talk about guarding them.” Maya said gesturi
ng to the maniac and groupie inside.

  “Why did she say manure to me?” Cathy asked.

  “She’s probably pulling your leg.” Mason replied. “Why do we have to wait for Luis and Ben? Are we not allowed to make any decisions?”

  “Mason.” Steve sighed.

  “What? It’s true. Who elected them leaders?” Mason argued.

  Luis came outside. “Where are the kids?” He asked.

  “What?” I yelled.

  “John went upstairs to ask Mrs. Ford if she could sew a button…” Luis began.

  “Why didn’t he ask me?” Cathy pondered aloud.

  “I don’t know. Anyways, she wasn't there. Neither was Christian, Leah, Naomi or the kids.”

  “What about Dylan?” Allison gasped.

  “He wasn’t there either!”

  “No!” All of us ran inside except for Angela, who went to check the garden and Gary and Jacob who went to the tree house. We checked everywhere in the house (although John and Robert said they already did) including the tunnel, but there was no sign of them.

  “It was a trick!” Steve gasped.

  “What?” Maya asked.

  “The girl tricked us with the manure and took all the kids.” Steve reported. Mason nodded in agreement.

  “We don’t know that.” Luis sighed.

  “I know that I never should’ve trusted any of you…” Steve began and stopped looking in the direction of the driveway. “Did you hear that? I heard giggling.”

  “I only heard you yelling.” Jacob hissed. Steve glared at Jacob. We all listened closely and I heard the giggling. It sounded like Sarah’s giggling. I took off running. I could hear John saying my name and others running after me, but I just wanted to get to my kids. No one was going to stop me! Except Robert was faster. He manhandled me back to the house while those who had guns went to check out the source.

  “Robert!” I yelled. “Let go of me!”

  Robert looked to Cathy for help. “Aleisha!” Cathy said right in my face. “You don’t know what’s out there. You can’t just run to them.”

  “I heard Sarah!” I exclaimed.

  “How?” She asked.

  “I heard her giggle.” I replied.

  “That was Jenny’s giggle.” Cathy said.

  “I heard Mary’s giggle.” Jill announced.