

Scorc Hunters

SMASHWORDS EDITION

By Den Warren

© 2016

Twitter@ D3NWARR3N

denwarren.wordpress.com

This here is a clean-language scary story that don't glorify Satan none.

None of the people mentioned in this book are real. They are all imaginary. No animals were harmed during the writing of this book.
Chapter 1

In the second half of the twenty-first century, a six year old boy was watching an old Tarzan movie on the family wall-sized monitor. The noise of Tarzan's signature call and of various wild animals filled the room. He told his father, "Dad, I want to talk to animals like Tarzan."

His father looked up from his tablet and responded, "Tell you what, Derek, how about if we take you to the zoo tomorrow?"

"Yeah!"

His mother complained, "You had to open your big mouth. I wanted to stay home tomorrow." But she knew that it was too late. Derek always got what Derek wanted.

The next day, Derek was beside himself with anticipation of the trip to the zoo. He was practicing his Tarzan call all morning.

His mother removed the extra pillow from her head and said, "Alright! Alright! I can't stand any more of that! I'm getting up now!"

They arrived at the Zoological Conservatory. Zoos at that point in time were all full of endangered, nearly extinct species. Most of the protected natural habitats were still available to endangered species in the wild, but poachers were wiping so many species out to meet the demand for animal fetish artifacts. The killing also fed the hungry global underground rare meat market.

Derek's mom said, "This place stinks."

Derek did his Tarzan call and his mother became self-conscious over the attention he was drawing from other zoo patrons. "Derek, don't."

"Why?"

"You'll scare the animals."

"No Mom, they will obey me." Then Derek saw the chimpanzees. "Cheetah! Me Tarzan!" He kept yelling louder and louder, trying to get their attention.

His mother said, "Derek, that was just a stupid old movie. People can't talk to animals."

Derek's dad said, "Actually, you can."

"You're not helping," Derek's mom said.

Derek saw the elephants in an undersized sparse exhibit that had a dirty pool of water in the middle, barely big enough for one elephant to bathe. "Dad, can we ride an elephant?" He thought of how Tarzan would ride an elephant with Jane.

"No." His dad chuckled. "Hey, you see that baby elephant? It says here her name is Lisa."

"Lisa! Me Tarzan!" Derek leaned up against the bars that were wide enough for a six-year old to fit his head through. He looked at his dad, who moved along halfway to the Rhino exhibit. His mom was looking at her phone. He realized that he could fit his torso through the bars. Then he slipped through the bars completely and was a little surprised to find himself inside the elephant exhibit. Derek looked around and no one was paying any attention to him. He whipped his shirt off. "Me Tarzan!"

"Hey!" Another Zoo patron shouted. "Your kid is in with the elephants!"

"Wha . . . Derek!" His dad shouted. "Get back here!"

His mom shrieked. She was speechless, barely able to breathe. "Come back here! Now!"

Instead of listening, Derek seized the opportunity to prove to everyone once and for all that he could command the animals like Tarzan. Then they would understand. So he walked around the pool toward Lisa.

People started gathering to view mini-Tarzan Derek. They were using their phones to record the event. The huge mother elephant came toward Derek, unsure about Derek's intentions toward her baby.

"Derek!" His father yelled, "You gotta get back! You'll get killed!"

Derek really had no concept of death, or of any elephant not liking him once they got to know him, or of the need to listen to his parents, who never really enforced their injunctions upon him. So he went up and started touching Lisa, who was not much past a newborn in age. Lisa's mother didn't like Derek there and nudged him with its trunk and trumpeted a call for Derek to back off.

A zookeeper came to the outside of the exhibit and saw Derek. "Oh no! Tell your kid to get back!"

Derek's mom was crying. "He won't listen!"

The zookeeper got on his radio and issued an alert to the zoo staff.

"No! Don't do it!" A visitor said to the zookeeper, as another zoo staff member showed up outside the exhibit with a huge rifle.

People were yelling. "No! Let it kill the kid! He deserves it!"

Derek's mother was screaming hysterically.

The elephant was nudging Derek, who was standing fast and still doing his Tarzan call, then Derek was trying hopelessly to climb on top of Lisa for a ride. Then the mother elephant had enough and picked up Derek with her trunk and made an angry noise.

"No!" Derek's mother cried. "That's my child! It's going to hurt him! Shoot it!"

Derek's dad collapsed to his knees with his hands on the bars. "Derek! Get back here!"

A brave zookeeper entered the exhibit through the service entrance, and the mother elephant, which was still carrying Derek around with its trunk, saw her and clearly became more agitated over the situation. So the zookeeper went back out.

FOOM! The zoo keeper with the rifle shot the elephant in the head with the huge high powered slug from the big rifle. The elephant dropped immediately and Derek fell to the ground.

"No!" The gathering of people was yelling. "Oh my God!"

Some were yelling at Derek's parents right to their faces, "It was your stupid kid's fault! You ought to be in jail! You should pay for this!"

Videos of Tarzan Derek were all over the internet and he became infamously known as "Stupid Little Tarzan". People hated him and his parents so bad that they received constant death threats and they had to leave town. Derek would overhear his parents arguing about him, blaming each other for the problems he caused them. Yet, he didn't care enough about them to modify his constant sense of entitlement. The increasing tension between his parents became so intense that they ended their marriage in divorce.
Chapter 2

Derek spent his entire life in remorse for what had happened at the Zoo. Not a day went by that something did not remind him of so many people hating him and his parents splitting up. Everything that happened to him in the past pushed him toward a lifetime goal. He was determined that he would dedicate his life working to help protect animals and the environment. Then he would he held in esteem by the same people who reviled him.

Over the years, Derek's total dedication led to a doctorate in genetics. But he also liked the idea of having more money than other people, because he believed he deserved to be wealthy as reparation for the miserable life he had led because he suffered for so long as an object of hatred. At the time, it seemed like a natural progression that he found himself making a lot of money for a company creating biological weapons. Yet, working for this company only increased his feelings of guilt and denial, and in turn, hostility toward other people. He had an empty life. He had no wife or girlfriend, or even friends. His isolation and sense of entitlement made him even more peculiar, and the cycle of peculiarity kept him even more isolated and angry. He was alone and he believed that he would remain alone until his death.

Dr. Derek Borgia thought his career was over forever after all of the political and social upheaval during the breakup of the United States after the collapse of the US Dollar. At least the world was too preoccupied with survival to remember anything about "Stupid Little Tarzan". Eventually the Independent States of America started picking up the pieces and in the later years of his revived career, he got another job opportunity as a research scientist at the large UU Research Corporation outside of Omaha. He spent many years with UU Research, but the big breakthrough that he had always sought would always elude him.

Finally, he was assigned to a project of huge importance. He had total support of UU Research and was going to do something that would benefit mankind. He was determined to be successful no matter what the cost. The ISA Agriculture Department was trying to promote organic farming over the practices of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, while the country was plagued by a large weevil that was eating up crops. UU Research was awarded the contract to come up with a natural remedy to the situation, so they turned to Doctor Derek Borgia for an answer.

After several years of research and trials, at the urging of the ISA Agriculture Department, Dr. Borgia was ready to unveil his new product.

Derek spent his life with back trouble ever since the elephant picked him up with its trunk, and now in his advanced age, the ailment had gotten increasingly worse. He hobbled up to the front of the meeting room in front of all of the top UUR corporate managers to present a slideshow unveiling his project.

He showed slides that had close-up pictures of the weevils and the devastation they inflicted upon the crops. Then he showed pictures and charts full of data explaining how chemicals pollute the soil and kill off natural microbes, essentially in agreement with the ISA organic farming philosophy.

Dr. Borgia said, "In a world where famine is commonplace, it is critical that we do whatever is necessary to save lives whenever possible. This solution that we have here today is one that is one hundred percent proven to solve the weevil problem."

There was a hubbub among the listeners.

Before he advanced the presentation to the next slide, Borgia said, "UU Research Corporation will become known as the people who solve impossible problems for the benefit of mankind."

Then he showed the next slide. There were a few gasps among his audience. "Here is a Blue Borneo Vampire Spider. It is capable of killing medium-sized mammals and is very aggressive. Okay . . . Our next slide is of a Golden Reaper Scorpion. If this stings you, you will be dead within a minute, but because of the excruciating pain you will wish your death hastens. Both of these little critters are deadly on their own, but through our diligent efforts of gene splicing and selective breeding, we have been able to combine the maximum attacking capabilities of both of these impressive species into one deadly creature. We call it . . ." Derek changed slides, "Scorpio-arachnid!" This registered trademark creature has a voracious appetite for weevils and is certain to clean them out of any field. They can spin webs to catch their prey and also sting. It has pincers that can snip a weevil in half. This creature is a proprietary asset of UU Research. We will get all of the credit for this breakthrough, and will no doubt have a large return on investment."

No one in the audience applauded.

Borgia said, "Okay, so no one likes the name scorpioarachnid. I get that. I suggested spidion, but no one liked that either. Bertrand started calling them scorcs for short, and it kind of stuck."

The Vice-President of marketing asked, "Doctor Borgia, there is no problem with the name. I think I am speaking for everyone here when I ask, are these scorcs harmful to people?"

"I think most people would have enough sense to stay away from them, wouldn't they? We mind our own business, and they mind theirs. Like anything else, they eat all the weevils; then they run out of food and die off. But we can sell our customers more. You have to remember, we are doing this to help people, right?"

"Yeah, but . . ."

"Any other questions?" Derek continued, "Moving along, now I have a live action demonstration to show you all." He put a cloth covered cubic object on the table and unveiled it.

People gasped.

"Here we have an aquarium with a partition in it. On one side you see about two dozen of our three inch sized scorcs, and on the other, hundreds of our lab-grown pesky weevils. Don't think that we won't be happy when we are done raising these weevils in our lab." He chuckled and pulled up the movable partition. The scorcs immediately started snatching up weevils at an incredible rate. They stung them with their tails, and were grasping them with their front claws and eating them.

Everyone had comments on how incredible and creepy the spectacle was. The dramatic live scorc demonstration made them forget about any possible ill-fated encounters with humans. They were all sold on the scorc proposal and congratulated Dr. Borgia.
Chapter 3

Derek had a deep down feeling of satisfaction with his achievement. His life would be different now. The meaning and trajectory of his past life had become clear now. All the things that happened previously seemed to be working together toward his ultimate career purpose of creating the scorcs. He was daydreaming about the possible rewards and accolades that would soon be coming his way.

Dr. Derek Borgia's nearly skeletal assistant, Bertrand, was with him during all of his UUR years. Bertrand came rushing into his office as able as a scrawny man of almost seventy years can rush. "Derek! Our tests confirm it! The scorcs have an enhanced lung characteristic that permits them to grow to indeterminate size!"

"Certainly not!" Dr. Borgia said.

"I've confirmed it."

"They can't continue to grow indefinitely. What about their exoskeletons?"

Bertrand said, "It's rather remarkable. They aren't molting. The exoskeletons are growing proportionally."

"What?! How is that even possible?!"

"All I can say," Bertrand said, "is that sometimes things just manage to work in favor of a species. Evidently, our engineering was spot on. It's kind of like when you are a kid and another kid challenges you to throw a rock at an impossible target, and you end up hitting it. Of course then you are in trouble."

"All this might be a problem." Borgia paced the floor, staring downward. "The scorcs will grow and seek other prey. They will not die out as we projected, since their increasing larger size will enable them to seize increasingly larger prey. The Government will reject the Scorc project. How is this possible?!" Dr. Borgia held his face in his hands. Nothing had changed for him at all. He was still nothing but a failure, and that was all he would ever be. He said, "This is a curse of unimaginable proportions. The scorcs can grow as big as their protein food supply. That means we're ruined. All the scorcs must be destroyed. Wait a minute! Bertrand, who else knows about your findings?"

"Just us, Doctor."

"Then we must destroy the evidence of your findings! I know no one would ever approve of giant scorcs, but it is for the good of mankind that they live."

Bertrand said, "Doctor, I've worked with you for all these years. I'm just as devastated as you are, but in the name of science, I must refuse such an intellectually dishonest request. I will never do such a thing. I think the only thing letting them survive will serve is your monstrous ego. The scorcs will not only grow to an indeterminate size, but studies have also shown their hybrid vigor will cause them to grow very fast as well. Letting them out in the environment as they are would be irresponsibly devastating. Such an idea is nothing short of sheer madness."

Derek Borgia said, "Then I must take the scorcs and release them before anyone can stop me."

Bertrand said, "I'm afraid I can't let that happen, Derek! I will physically oppose you, and destroy the scorcs, for the good of everyone! Please!"

Dr. Borgia said, "Do you really think you can stop me?"

"I will have no choice, since you are behaving as if you are some sort of mad scientist."

Derek said, "Let's not be overly melodramatic about this. But I totally understand, dear Bertrand. Your opinion means everything to me. I apologize for requesting such an action from you. Instead, why don't you prepare a full report on your findings? Then we will start back at square one and re-engineer the lungs and in several years we will have the result we are seeking."

Bertrand took a deep breath, then a seat at his small desk and started typing scorcs lung capability test results for management. He said, "As I said, I don't like this any more than . . ."

TWAP! Without any warning, Bertrand felt immense pain as Dr. Borgia plunged a pair of scissors into his back.

"No one lectures me on serving science! Science is my religion, and I will kill for it! Ironic, isn't it, Bertrand, you writing a report on lung capacity, while you have none?!"

Bertrand gasped and heaved; he spit blood all over the desktop. Then he collapsed facedown with his lifeblood draining from his mouth and nose all over the keyboard.

"Sorry, chap. But I am not going to let this advancement slip away from me and no one is going to harm my beloved fauna." He paced the floor wondering what to do about the evidence of the murder.

"What to do. What to do. What to do." This was not planned at all. Maybe a lack of premeditation would lessen his punishment if they caught him. He thought about setting the building on fire. Borgia imagined that if he lit up a Bunsen burner and torched a pile of papers, then threw some flammable liquid on it, the fire would spread rapidly. But then the fire alarm would go off and there was a sprinkler system that would douse the fire. He knew that ultimately he would be caught. There were security cameras everywhere. The high tech laboratory building, in a century where few buildings had more than the minimum basic amenities, would be his undoing.

Then Dr. Borgia started grabbing his precious scorcs. He took all of the various strains of them with their multitude of traits, at their various stages of development, including many egg sacs. He knew they wouldn't all survive outside of the lab, but likely a lot of his estimated fifty thousand scorcs would. He packed all of the containers into a large chest which was on a four-wheeled cart. Then he fled to the rooftop with his ark of dread where his quadcopter was parked. He realized that he would soon be caught if he went very far in the quadcopter, since all ISA quadcopters had an onboard GPS, traceable to the owner.

His first order of business was to find a new home for the scorcs. He flew over old I-80 going west for about a half an hour. Then Dr. Borgia noticed an old farm with an old barn not too far off of the main highway surrounded by a large cornfield except for a long driveway. No doubt the corn had weevils in it, and probably also a well-armed farmer nearby. So he slowly descended deep into the middle of the field. The noise of the rotors chopping at the top of the cornstalks was deafening. The copter vibrated like something on it was certainly going to give out. He really didn't care if the rotors were damaged because he was going to ditch the aircraft somewhere anyway. He unloaded the containers from the copter that had all of the scorcs in the world in it and furiously opened them before any hostile farmer showed up. He gently shook the vessels to encourage the scorcs to get out. He watched them pour out and crawl away in all directions. He wanted to stay with them, and watch their daily progress. Protect them. But the world would not let that happen. His brainchildren were mostly helpless, but he loved their chances of thriving at this haphazardly chosen location of origin.

Borgia knew he would be caught for Bertrand's murder. It was more important to him that the scorcs were not destroyed, than it was for him to escape prosecution, so he thought it would help his cause if he moved the copter from the scorc release site and ditch it elsewhere, so there would be less of a chance that anyone would find the starting location for the scorcs.

So after the mass release, he quickly got into the quadcopter and took off. The aircraft had a vibration in it that was not there before, indicating that something was knocked out of balance, but it would still fly. So he left the area. He knew he could not fly too far because his identification signature would be caught by air patrol. So then he flew several miles away and ditched it.
Chapter 4

There was a small minority of those who controlled everything in the ISA. Doctor Borgia was among that class. Not that this period was different from previous times, but now there was not only just a socio-economic divide, but also a vast technological chasm separating the two worlds. The upper class had electricity all the time and many of them flew their families around in quad-copters. The upper class controlled manufacturing, government, politics, and had a huge service economy that catered to their every capricious whim. Their high-tech driven economy ran parallel to the gritty hard-money capitalistic economy that everyone else functioned in. Generally the two groups didn't interact with each other very much, and when they did, it was almost always for a business deal, not a social call.

It was ironic that the hard-money folks called the upper class that were so well connected to each other, "wired", since they walked around totally absorbed by their phones that had no physical wires connecting them to each other.

Raymond Wilkins owned and ran a scavenging company out of the small town of Shanesville, Ohio that scurried about and recovered the abandoned copper wires and wood telephone poles from the obsolete telephone land lines before everyone else got to them. It seemed that the Wilkins Salvage Company was just about ready to go belly up, as the dwindling remnants of the land line telephone technology was being harvested for its reclamation value.

"Back in those days, it was just free money for the taking," Raymond Wilkins said, as he stared at his poker hand through his old eyes. His thick rough hands, missing a couple of fingers, shuffled the cards around, knowingly or unknowingly signaling to those who were paying attention, that maybe he some good cards in his poker hand worth sorting. His opponents tried to read his stoic black face for some kind of hint as to what kind of hand he had drawn. But he was naturally unanimated, not having to make any extra effort to maintain an unexpressive poker face. Maintaining a secretive stone face was natural for him ever since his involvement in the Sharia War during his youth. His brutal war experiences had forever etched their mark on his usual blank countenance. So did the death of the love of his life, Lorraine, who was brutally murdered because of the color of her white skin.

Since Raymond was the boss, he got to hold court when he felt like talking, and everyone else felt obliged to be attentive. He said, "It was work, but all that copper was worth a fortune. At first, nobody wanted to stop and take the time to harvest the lumber. We had a good reputation for cleaning up the whole thing when we worked an area. We weren't stupid with our money. Instead of living like we were rich, we put our money back into the business. So we were the best equipped, and most equipped to get the job done. We worked the hours too, I tell ya. Nowadays, it seems like all I have my men do is clean the place where it don't need cleaned. There was no way we would have sat around in the middle of the day like we do now in my office here and play cards for small money. I'll raise a quarter." He tossed the silver Independent States of America Quarter Dollar bearing the likeness of President Ayanna Thomas into the middle of the table. The coin landed with a ping next to all of the silver dimes that everyone had paid to get into the hand. Raymond was a renowned aggressive bettor, so everyone knew there was a good chance he was bluffing.

A man simply known as "Squirrel" was another fellow Wilkins Company employee in the game. The wiry man sneered at his cards. "I'm out. You can keep my dime." He discarded his cards to the table.

"Me too," said Kyle, a young blonde guy who worked at the struggling corner market in a game with players who were out of his league. He sighed as he tossed his cards. "I keep getting crap cards."

The heavily bearded Kurt Wolfe sat there for a few seconds. Then he rubbed his greasy slicked-back head of thick black hair and said, "I got your quarter." He slapped his coin down with authority next to Raymond's. It was impossible to tell whether Kurt really had something this time or he was just tired of Raymond walking away with so many of their uncontested silver dimes. Kurt was an entrepreneur of sorts, doing anything for a silver dollar. He made his money trading with both the wired elite, and the unwashed masses of hard-money people. He was both respected for his business acumen, and loathed for his socially unacceptable methods.

"Forget it," Dayton Morgan said in frustration, throwing his cards on top of the others in the discard pile. Dayton was the dealer of the hand and another one of the Wilkins Salvage employees. He was not a large man, but had a big frame for his height from all of the physical labor of climbing up and down the telephone poles and cutting them down with a chainsaw during the many years of working with Raymond.

"Gimme one, please," Raymond said, received a single card from Dayton. He could have drawn three, so maybe he was trying for something that only needed one more card, or he was just trying to make it look that way.

"I'll keep what I got," Kurt said, stroking his beard. He said to Raymond, "You gonna raise?"

Raymond sighed, "I'll pass."

Kurt stared at Raymond for five full seconds. Raymond just sat there, fully understanding that Kurt was trying to read his face for some kind of hint about the quality of his hand.

Kurt reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded up paper. He said, "I got this property, it is gentlemen, an actual gold mine claim."

"What?!" Dayton said, "We playing for high stakes now all of a sudden?!"

Kurt said, "What do you care? You folded."

Raymond said, "C'mon Kurt. You trying to chase me out of this hand for my stupid quarter, by bidding more than I can call? Or is that paper worth just a piece of paper?"

Kurt said, "Why are you insulting me before you even know what I am offering here?"

Squirrel asked, "Where did you get a gold mine? Indiana?" He started laughing at his own remark.

Kurt said, "This property is out in the Republic of Greater Wyoming. There is a gold rush going on out there right now. Personally, I have not been out there myself, I have my interests here, you know."

Dayton said, "That thing is pure crap. What are you trying to pull here?"

Kurt said, "I can get two hundred dollars for it right now from the wired market. I will buy it back from you for a hundred dollars guaranteed at any time, unless you already start digging there."

Raymond said, "Even if that is a real mine, I don't have two hundred dollars, so I can't call your raise."

Kurt said, "You can call my raise with your tow truck."

"No!" Dayton said, "Don't do it! If you lose this hand you are out of business!"

"And we will be out of a job!" Squirrel added. "That mine is out there where all of the savage tribes are. No way is it worth it, even if there is gold!"

Raymond said, "Boys, this business is done doing what we have been doing all these years. It's time to reinvent it."

"No!" Dayton said, "You gotta think this over! I'll give you a quarter out of my own pocket to get you to drop out of this hand!"

Squirrel said, "No offense Mr. Wolfe, but Raymond, you can't trust this scoundrel!"

"Trust?" Raymond said, "We're in a poker game. We're supposed to make each other think the wrong thing. We don't know what each other's hand is, just like I don't know about this gold mine and he doesn't know if my truck will last a hundred more miles. You all know that the business can't work like it is anymore."

Dayton stood up from the table and said, "Raymond, you don't need that gold claim! Don't make your decision based upon emotion!"

"You boys are the ones doing exactly that." Raymond stood up and walked over to a file cabinet. He went through the files until he found the title to the tow truck. He stared at it. "I paid five hundred and forty two dollars for this thing when it was new. That was back when they finally started making a decent truck again. No frills, just decent. It was so worth it. I have made so much money with that thing." He threw the title out on the table. "I'll call you. I'd raise you ten more dollars, but you would have to call me, and I don't want either one of us to not be able to buy our groceries for a month after this game."

"A lovely sentiment," Kurt said, laying out his cards. "Three Jacks and two aces. Full house." He looked happy but at the same time eagerly anticipated seeing Raymond's cards.

"Whoa!" Kyle said.

"Son of a . . ." Dayton plopped into his chair and slumped back, staring at the ceiling.

Squirrel put his head on the table and rubbed it with both hands.

Raymond stared at Kurt Wolf's cards and was speechless for several seconds. "Full house," Raymond said, "That is a real good hand. I don't have anything better than a full house. All I got is two fours . . . and three kings. Full house."

Squirrel perked up and said, "You won. You won! Your three kings beat his three jacks! You won!"

Dayton slammed the table. "Yes!" Then he got up and paced the floor fist pumping. He walked over to the file cabinet and rested on it, trying to relieve the stress of the moment.

Kurt shook his head. "Okay. You win." He glanced at his opponents and slowly pulled out a pen with just his thumb and forefinger so everyone could see it was not a pistol and signed off the mine claim deed. He got up from his seat. "Until next time, gentlemen." He left.

Kyle said, "I gotta go." He obviously couldn't wait to run back to the Corner Market so he could spread the news of the card game among his co-workers and customers. Soon all of Shanesville would learn of the news.

Raymond gathered up his winnings without saying much.

Squirrel said, "I cannot believe you did that. You have to be the greatest poker player to ever live."

"I don't know about all that. It could have gone either way," Raymond said, "It came out pretty well today though." He started laughing.

Dayton said, "You beat that guy. You beat him good. You are going to be a Shanesville legend now."

"Here's the thing, boys," Raymond said, looking serious. "I could sell this gold mine for a couple of hundred dollars, and you might think I am a little crazy, but why not just use it?"

"Huh?" Dayton said. "You want to go mining for gold out in Wyoming?"

"Gold fetches more than copper. Face the facts, the days of salvaging the phone poles are over. We have to do something new. We need to reinvent the Company. If you want to work with me, you are going to go mine gold for me, and the best time to go is right now. If you want to keep your job, be here tomorrow at the noon bell, 'cuz that's when I'm leaving for Wyoming. I'll give you a day to decide and get ready."

Chapter 5

Dayton Morgan knocked on the screen door to the minimalist Zeckler home of Nathan and Jerri Zeckler. The house was built using old telephone poles. The solid rustic cabin looked like an old fortress.

Their small son, Johnny Zeckler answered the door without due regard to security, like kids do. He recognized Dayton's short, stocky form, but instead of speaking to Dayton, he screamed, "Dad!" at the top of his lungs. He knew when Dayton appeared in the doorway it was time for his Dad to go to work.

Nathan, a physically unremarkable man, who was more valuable for his wits than his physique, came to the door. "Sorry, Dayton. Come on in."

"Thanks, Nate. Just thought I would stop by and let you know that Raymond has decided to change the business."

"Oh yeah?" Nathan was giving his full attention.

"Yeah. He wants to change into a gold mining company, on account that he won a gold mine claim.

Nathan shook his head and stared for a moment. "Yeah? He won . . . I mean; a gold mine? He wants to go . . . No he didn't."

"That's what he said," Dayton said. "So, if you want to keep working for him, you gotta show up at the shop before noon tomorrow, or you will get left."

"You're serious about this, aren't you?"

Nathan's wife Jerri heard the tone of the conversation and showed up in the front room with her arms crossed. "What's going on?"

Nathan said, "Raymond says we are into gold mining now."

"What?" Jerri asked. "Really?"

Nathan said, "That's what Dayton tells me that Raymond said."

Jerri asked Nathan, "Where is it?"

Nathan asked Dayton, "Where is it?"

"Someplace in Wyoming."

"Wyoming?!" Nathan said. "How did this even happen?"

"Raymond won the claim off of Kurt Wolfe in their card game yesterday."

Nathan scoffed, "Card game. There's some real strategic corporate planning right there." Then he paced the floor. "Wyoming is so far away. And we don't know thing one about mining for gold."

Dayton said, "It's in the ground, and it's heavy."

Nathan shrugged his shoulders and threw up his hands. "Okay, so now I'm an expert. I don't really see how such a thing will work out. It just sounds totally wrong."

Nathan's wife, Jerri said, "Nate, we need the money. Me and Johnny can take care of the crops if you want to go."

Nathan looked at John running about carefree with his toys all over the room, and was not picturing him keeping his mind trained on the tedious hard work of harvesting. "I sure don't want to go. I don't know. We don't even know if Raymond is going to be able to pay us. I need to think this over. Noon?"

"Yeah. Noon."

Nathan looked at Dayton. "If I'm not there by noon tomorrow, leave without me."

Dayton said, "I know Raymond is really counting on you to go. He always likes your take on how to handle trouble."

Nathan shook his head and said, "Trouble. I expect there will be a fair amount of it. More than everyone thinks."

"All right. See ya tomorrow."

"Maybe," Nathan said.

After Dayton left, Jerri said, "We better pray about this. It is a big deal for us."

"I know," Nathan said. They sat on the couch and Nathan prayed, "Lord, we trust you in all things. We know that you can work in mysterious ways, even a gold mining claim won in a hedonistic game of cards. We ask that you will give us the wisdom to make whatever decision you would have us make, and guide and protect us as we do your will. We pray in Jesus name, Amen."

*******

The next day it was a few minutes until noon at the Wilkins Salvage Company. Dayton was behind the wheel of the tow truck, which was all gassed up and ready to roll. They were keeping the larger timber hauling truck in the tidy garage at the business.

Dayton was behind the wheel, waiting until the daily noon bell in Shanesville went off before departure. Raymond was riding shotgun with Squirrel in the middle.

Raymond asked Dayton, "Did it seem like he was coming, or not?"

"Hard to say," Dayton said. "He definitely had some reservations, so I wouldn't bet on it. Of course I didn't win a gold mine out in Wyoming in a card game either."

Billy Bromley was Raymond's young adult white nephew, who was only trusted to handle simple chores around the shop, and nothing too heavy. Billy was leaning on a broom outside of the garage and said, "Uncle Ray, I want to go too."

Raymond said, "Billy, you gotta stay here. We need you to watch over the place."

Squirrel saw him. "Aw, look at him Uncle Ray. He can't stay here. He is part of the gang. He still has that Company hat on that Nathan gave him."

Nathan had told Billy a few years earlier that he should always wear that red baseball style hat because that meant he was a salvage expert.

Raymond said, "Don't 'Uncle Ray' me. Not this time. I would love for him to go, but his mother will have my head on a platter if I take him all the way out there." H sighed. "I'll miss the little guy."

"We all will," Squirrel said. "Who will we have to explain what a monkey wrench is, or what an adjustable metric wrench is?"

They all chuckled about their "training" sessions. They liked to prank on him a little, but only if they knew he wouldn't figure out that he was being fooled.

"Yes!" Dayton said, as he saw Nathan in the side mirror walking their way, carrying a large backpack and his rifle with a cover on it.

"Atta boy," Raymond said, in what appeared to be a grin, at least for Raymond.

Dayton started up the engine. "The gas tank is full, Raymond. We got all the extra cans filled in the back."

Raymond said, "I heard gas is high priced out there, who knows?"

Dayton said, "Every single one of the wired folks knows all the prices, all the time."

Nathan threw his backpack into the back with the heap of equipment and supplies from the others, and hopped in. The truck started to pull out. Nathan saw Billy crying and waving goodbye. "Stop the truck!" He tapped on the back window and Raymond opened it.

Dayton stopped the truck.

Nathan said, "You forgot Billy."

"I know. He's not going."

"Why not?"

"He's . . . I don't know why. His Mom might get mad."

"Mad if he doesn't go! Come on, Billy!"

Raymond told Dayton, "Let's go."

Dayton put the truck into gear.

Nathan motioned to Billy and shouted, "Run! Billy, Run!"

Billy immediately threw down the broom and started running toward the truck. The truck was pulling away.

Nathan said, "Dayton! Stop the truck!"

The truck slowed down and Billy started to catch up to it.

Raymond intentionally didn't turn to look at Nathan and said, "No. Keep going."

"You're the boss," Dayton said.

Even though the truck was moving again, Billy was getting closer and closer to it. Then the truck started pulling farther away. Billy's face turned to fear and disappointment, but he kept running as fast as he could. Nathan could see that in a couple of seconds, Billy would face a huge disappointment in his life. Then Nathan got the idea to drop the hook from the back of the tow truck. Billy lunged and got his hand on the hook. His feet were dragging in the dirt and his body was being swung by the cable from side to side.

"Both hands Billy!"

Billy struggled to grip the hook. Seeing that Billy might get hurt, Nathan shouted. "Let go, Billy! Forget it!"

Billy grunted a great grunt and got both hands on the hook. Nathan ran up the hoist, pulling Billy up off of the ground.

The truck was moving much faster now with Billy in tow.

"Stop the truck!" Nathan shouted into the cab, fearing Billy might fall off of a fast moving truck.

Raymond shook his head without turning around and said, "N0, I said."

Nathan was frantic, and turned to Billy, "Hang on!" Then Nathan held onto the boom with one hand and reached and grabbed the cable with the other, almost falling himself, and swung the small man over the truck bed a couple of times and then finally grabbed him with a bear hug and leaned backwards. "I gotcha, Billy! Let go of the cable!"

Billy eventually let go and they both plopped into the truck bed on top of the supplies.

Raymond felt the impact and looked back and saw Billy. His eyes bugged out in amazement. Then he shook his head and put his hands over his eyes. He rubbed his face and hollered out the window, "Zeck, I can't very well tell him he can't go now, can I? But I know his mother will still be plenty sore at me." Then Raymond muttered to himself, "I can hear her now. Not good."
Chapter 6

The amount of traffic on the road during those days was a tiny trickle compared to the days when the roads looked like moving parking lots with masses of vehicles. Back when everyone owned a car and had somewhere to go. Now travelling was more of an event, not part of a daily routine.

The roads were a patchwork of the old pre-collapse highway system. Some were repaired by the States, while others were falling apart more each year. The old US Interstate System was partially repaired by the ISA federal government through tax revenues and tolls. The Wilkins tow truck was on a road they called the I-70 toll road. While the original road was multi-lane, it was now mostly a single lane that meandered across the old road bed, avoiding the places that took the most effort to repair. When you drove on the roads, you had to pay considerable attention that you didn't hit a massive chuckhole that could consume your entire vehicle, or even a small deep one that could break your axle or some other vital suspension part. The Highway Commission did their best to keep the usable part of the road identifiable within white painted lines.

Dayton was a very competent driver, so he was usually behind the wheel. The first day they made it into Indiana. It was customary to park your vehicle along the side of the road just before dark, away from everyone else so the suspicious travelers didn't make each other nervous. The men took turns having one among their party stay awake with their firearm at the ready, watching in all directions for bandits. Not many tried to drive at night because it was too risky to try and see the road hazards in the dark. Many vehicle owners didn't bother to replace burned out headlights since they never used them anyway.

Nathan and Billy were still in the back, bundled up in the cool night air. During one of Nathan's watches, a low-flying aircraft buzzed overhead, following in the same path as I-70. All that could be seen of the aircraft were the lights.

Billy woke up. He asked Nathan, "You ever been in a airplane, Nathan?"

He laughed. "No, Billy. You think I'm one of the wired or something?"

"Do only wired fly in the airplanes?"

"I guess. It probably costs quite a bit of money to fly in an airplane, Billy. Only wired have that kind of money."

"How come?"

Nathan didn't know if Billy was asking about the wired and their money or the airplanes, but either way he was too tired to sort it all out for him. "You better go to sleep, Billy. This is a really long trip and we have to get our sleep whenever we can you know."

"I gotta pee now."

"Go over there."

"Out in the middle of the road? Are you joking on me?"

"No, I'm not joking on you. Go ahead, no one will run over you. That way I can keep my eye on you."

Billy laughed at the idea of peeing on the middle of the road, but he obliged.

Nathan was vigilant, but this seemed like a peaceful enough of an area, so he didn't worry too much. Things were a lot better now than when he was a kid. Whenever he thought back to those days and remembered his dad, he could see in his remembrances the nervous, worried look on his dad's face. His father often said that maybe someday things would be better, and now they were for the most part. But what would it be like out in Wyoming in a gold mining area? It sounded a little too untamed for his liking. If he did hate it out there, would he be able to convince the others to leave?

*******

The next day, they got off of the Interstate and were travelling through Illinois and stopped at a place alongside of the road called Jack's Bazaar. The Bazaar had gasoline at what seemed to be a reasonable price and a store, and also a flea market was set up along side of the store. The flea market had various vendors selling fresh produce; hand-crafted tools of all sorts, and of course, Americana antiquities.

You had to watch it when you bought antique items. It was not important for antiques to be authentic, but only in usable condition. The problem was that you could pay the hefty antique price, only to find out that some new industry had sprung up and started making a new one of the same thing for a lot less money. So, antique vendors had the reputation among many of being price gouging swindlers.

Most of the shoppers and vendors at the Bazaar had firearms. This situation made for a much more polite atmosphere, unlike the hostility that one would find in gun controlling nations such as Homeland.

Nathan, who was toting his rifle, was being shadowed by Billy. What would have been a normally pleasant stroll was disrupted as they passed by a table where a customer was threatening a vendor. The large male customer had his hand up around the older man's neck and was pointing at his face with the other hand while spewing a stream of obscenities.

Nathan told Billy, "Go back to the truck."

"Why?"

"Go right now, Billy."

Billy stood there until he saw Nathan's unyielding expression on his face, then he obliged.

Nathan walked up to the table and looked at the large irate customer. He said, "They say the customer is always right. But we don't settle things that way."

The large intimidator said, "Who are you?!"

"I'm the guy who says stop it. You hear me?"

The customer turned around. "Yeah, I hear you, punk. Why don't you mind your own business?"

Nathan put on his most hardened face, like he was looking right through the belligerent dissatisfied shopper. "Who you calling punk?!"

"I was just leaving anyhow, idiot."

The large bully walked away and the vendor started thanking Nathan and telling his side of the story. Nathan tuned it out because he had no idea who started the trouble.

Dayton, and Raymond walked up. Squirrel was acting as a guard over the tow truck.

Dayton asked, "What was that all about?"

Nathan said, "Oh just some guy threatening this vendor here."

Dayton said, "We saw that much. It didn't really have anything to do with us, right? I wouldn't be meddling with these people. It's not worth our trouble."

Nathan said, "I fully understood what I was doing. I would do it again. It's called making peace. Have you ever taken a stand on anything?"

Dayton shook his head and walked away. Raymond smiled and followed him. The stop at Jack's Bazaar was more of a diversion than it was a necessity. They left without buying very much, although Raymond filled up a couple of his emptied gas cans.
Chapter 7

Neighboring farmers couldn't understand why Dale Fenton's corn crop wasn't as badly hit with weevils as theirs was. They figured it was just his dumb luck. Dale attributed his success to "sound farming practices".

Dale went out to the chicken coop to water and feed the hens and gather eggs. He opened the door and he could see in the dimly lit coop, against the back lighting of a dirty window on the other side, that there was the biggest spider web he had ever seen. He looked on the web to find the web's maker and couldn't find it. The hens were apparently not happy with the presence of the web, as they were all on huddled on the other end of the coop. Dale tore down the web, which felt almost like a sticky elastic fishing line. Then he stepped further into the coop while he tried to pull the webbing material off of his hands. Then he noticed a dead hen in the middle of the coop. He went over to pick it up. Then he distinctly heard the clicky sound of something scurrying away on the old wooden floor. He turned quickly and didn't see anything moving in the shadows. He waited awhile for whatever it was to come out, but still didn't notice anything. So he went and got a broom and started sweeping under the lower roosts in the coop, to see if he could sweep anything out into the open. Dale got closer and put his face near where he thought he heard the noise. It was dark under there, and he couldn't see anything. He figured it was a chipmunk or a rat or something. It wouldn't be the first time a varmint had found its way into the coop. After that he went about gathering eggs and found that there were some broken eggshells without contents. The varmint had gotten into the eggs.

Dale heard his wife, Tina yelling out of the front door of the house, "Dale! Come in to lunch!" He managed to find a few eggs and then he picked up the dead chicken and headed up to the house. He tossed the chicken aside and went into the kitchen and washed his face and hands. Tina was next to the sink, not paying any attention to Dale.

Tina served some stew to Dale and herself and took a seat.

Dale said, "We lost one of our hens today."

Tina looked up at Dale and said, "Aw that's not . . ." She stopped in mid sentence and her eyes doubled in size.

"What?" Dale asked.

She pointed at Dale. She couldn't talk, she didn't know if she should talk, even if she could. A hideous foot-long scorc had crawled from Dale's back over his shoulder, near his neck.

"Tina! What?!"

Tina, still with a terrified look on her face, reached behind her into a drawer without turning away from the creature. She fumbled around and pulled out a butcher knife.

"What is wrong with you? Are you crazy? Calm down." Dale was worried that Tina had snapped and was about to butcher him.

Tina realized she had a butcher knife and put it back into the utensil drawer and pulled out a wooden spoon instead. "D. . . Dale, d . . . do not move."

"Oh, you're just bein' silly." He turned his head to his shoulder that she seemed to be focusing on and caught a glimpse of the moving creature's front legs in his peripheral vision. He immediately reacted and tried to flick it off and jumped up and did a dance, trying to dislodge the startling creature from his back before he could be attacked.

Tina screamed, "It's on the table! It's on the table!"

Dale tried to think of how best to assault the scorc.

"Get it!" Tina screamed. "Kill it!" Tina backed as far away as possible.

Before Dale did anything, the scorc ran off of the table and onto the floor near Tina. She screamed and ran out of the back door. Dale flipped over the table to get at it and their lunch went crashing and splattering across the room. Dale saw the dreadful intruder on the floor. This time he quickly stomped at it with his boot, but he was too slow and it speedily moved to avoid the attack. Dale had it cornered. It was so big that it couldn't get away like a conventional spider by crawling under the baseboard or a crack. It turned on him and raised its front legs like it was going to fight him to the death. Dale did not take more than a split moment to admire its audacity before he landed a foot on it with a solid crunch. He dug his foot into the scorc with a grinding motion until he was satisfied that is was mashed into a thin paste. He lifted his foot and saw a few of the detached legs twitching. Dale tried to catch his breath after the stress of the unexpected battle with the hideous foe. He also felt some exhilaration with his victory. He went out of the back door to report to Tina. He saw her with her hands over her mouth and nodded. She ran to him and he held her. She started shaking and crying uncontrollably.

"Dale, I was never so scared in my life. I thought that . . . thing was going to kill you. I can't believe it. What was that thing? How did it ever get into our house? How do we know we don't have more of them in the house? I will never be able to sleep tonight. I am so scared."

Dale said, "Calm down. I think I know. I didn't think too much about it at the time. I think I might have picked it up in the chicken coop. There was some sort of huge spider web out there, and I thought I might have heard it running around."

"Dale, you thought you heard that thing running around?! That thing was no spider. Oh my God! Can you take it to somebody to have them tell us what it is?!"

"I'm afraid not. There ain't much left of it no more for anyone to look at. You shouldn't worry too much about it though, Babe. It shouldn't be too difficult to make sure another one isn't on me the next time I come in for lunch. That there thing has to be extremely rare. I know 'cuz I ain't never seen one. I ain't never really even heard of one before neither. Now let's go back in and clean up that mess. "

"You first."

Chapter 8

"Look, Billy!" Nathan said. "The big bridge is up ahead!" The bridge crossing from Illinois over the Mississippi river into Iowa was up ahead.

"Whoa!" Billy said. "That's a big river."

Nathan enjoyed watching Billy's smiling face as he experienced the sight.

They travelled into Iowa and onto Interstate 80, which was in about the same condition as I-70 and all the other such roads in the ISA highway system.

Nathan stared at the sky thinking about how much he missed Jerri and John. His last night at home, Jerri said that she would give him a night he wouldn't forget. She made good on her promise. While thinking about Jerri he still had some reservations about going on the trip. There had to be some work he could do back in Ohio. The drone of the truck's engine, the rocking of the truck, and the rush of the wind noise going by made him drowsy.

"What the?!" Nathan hopped up to look when he heard the buzzing noise.

Billy was already standing up to view the loud aircraft. Nathan was startled by the unusual sound of an obviously distressed quadcopter overhead. Usually they flew at a much higher altitude, and this one had a thick black trail of smoke. The copter was making an out of control wide arc while spinning. It looked certain that it was going to make a hard landing on the rolling Iowa hills. It went over the other side of a hill out of view up the road a few tenths.

Nathan tapped on the window to the cab. Raymond opened it.

"Did you see that?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Raymond said.

"Aren't you going to check it out?" Nathan asked.

Dayton said, "That is their problem! Why would we waste our time helping out some wired?!"

Nathan said, "They're people too. You don't care at all?"

Raymond shook his head.

"Fine," Nathan said, and started putting on his backpack.

Billy said, "Where you going, Nathan?"

"I gotta go and help whoever was in that quadcopter."

"But the truck is moving."

"I'm just like you, Billy. I don't worry if the truck is moving."

"Uncle Ray!" Billy said. "Nathan is gonna leave."

Raymond turned around and saw Nathan. He was certain Nathan would hop out whether they stopped or not. Soon the vehicle was slowing and came to a stop. Nathan picked up his rifle and ran toward the copter. Raymond said, "You can leave your backpack Zeck. We'll wait on ya.

Dayton got out and slammed the door shut. "This is stupid!"

Billy started running after Nathan.

Raymond shouted, "Billy! Get back here!"

Billy complied. He couldn't walk back more slowly though.

Dayton said, "Ray, we can't keep getting involved in other people's problems. Sooner or later it will cost us. We have to look out for ourselves."

Raymond said, "I know."

"Well then why are we doing this?!"

Squirrel added, "Honestly, Ray, I would rather we kept going too."

Raymond stretched himself after being cooped up in the truck. "One thing you boys need to understand. Truth be told, Zeck has always been someone we can't get along without, right?"

"I guess," Squirrel said.

Dayton shrugged his shoulders in a half-admission.

After stretching and a yawn, and rubbing his thin head of hair, Raymond continued, "He's one of those Bible believing Christians, right? Well that part of Nathan is part of who he is. I made a choice a long time ago that I had to take the whole package. I don't need to understand why he does what he does. I just go along with it, because it usually works. So I have to go along with it in a time like this, especially if he gathers his stuff and threatens to jump out of a moving truck."

Dayton said, "Nathan is a good guy and all, but this makes no sense. Every time we help someone, it will cost us in supplies, or security, or something."

Raymond shook his head. "We won't find any gold without him. I don't know why, but I already know that. So just leave him be."

Nathan came down over the hill toward the beaten up quadcopter. The smoke was still coming out of the motor compartment where some flames were visible. He looked through the tinted glass and could make out the form of a passenger. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. So he took the butt of his rifle and beat on the glass several times until he could knock the side window out.

There was a tattooed woman with bright red colored hair with streaks of Goth black. She was conscious and cowering on the far side of the vehicle, not looking too healthy. She muttered, "Do . . . you . . . speak . . . Eng-lish?"

Like most other "regular" folk, Nathan had not very often had any interaction with wired folk.

Nathan said, "Woman, you gotta get out of here, your copter is on fire."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Hurry up." He offered his hand through the broken window to her.

She stared at his face, then turned and grabbed a black handbag. Then she unlocked the door and got out in the conventional manner. She was tall and her tight clothes did not conceal much of her athletic form. Her bright blue form fitting outfit was a total opposite of the loose fitting clothing that Nathan's class of people typically saw on women.

Nathan noticed the fire was getting bigger. "Let's get away from here before the fuel explodes."

They walked several steps away. Then the woman stopped. She asked Nathan, "You're a good guy, aren't you?"

Nathan was initially surprised and confused by the forward question and answered, "Very good, actually."

She opened her bag and pulled out an electronic device. She checked the screen. Then she threw the perfectly good device into the burning copter.

Nathan realized now that the woman did not look pale from shock or makeup, her light skin tone was either genetics or maybe just sunlight deprivation. Nathan wasn't sure it was any of his business, but he couldn't help but ask, "Why did you do that? Your gizmo; why did you destroy it?"

"You rescued me in more ways than you realize. My name is Xythia Hammer. Oh, and thank you for rescuing me."

"Glad to help. My name is Nathan Zeckler." He extended his hand.

Xythia stared at his hand as if she didn't trust him or did not know what to do, then shook his hand.

Chapter 9

Nathan came down over the hill with Xythia toward the tow truck.

Raymond declared so Nathan could hear, "Lookie here. I told you that Zeck makes good things happen."

Dayton said, "Yeah, he's a real good luck charm."

Nathan said, "The good thing that happened is that Xythia survived."

Billy's eyeballs nearly popped out of his head as he gawked at Xythia. "Is she going with us?"

Squirrel nodded, "Sure. Why not?"

Dayton said. "We're just going to give her a lift to the next town."

"Of course she can go with us," Raymond walked in front of the other entranced men and said, "Where you heading, darling?"

"I'm not real particular about that right now."

"Fine then," Raymond said, "Let's roll."

The same three; Dayton, Squirrel, and Raymond rode in the cab. Dayton said, "This is getting out of hand."

Raymond said, "Is it really?"

"Yeah kinda, Ray. Are we going to support her while we are giving her free transportation?"

"The Company is, and in case you forget, I own the Company."

In the back of the truck, Nathan asked Xythia, "What did you mean back there when you said that I rescued you in more ways than I realized?"

"I doubt if you would understand."

"Maybe I wouldn't. If you don't want to talk about it, that's your business."

"It's not that. You people are different."

"You mean than you wired?"

"Wired?" she asked.

"Wired. Yeah, that's what people call you."

Xythia said, "Really? We call you dirt sloggers, or salamanders. Because you people are always doing stuff with stuff."

Nathan said, "That's not real flattering. We like to call it work."

Xythia said, "We work too, but it usually is a lot different."

Xythia turned and saw Billy's elevator eyes looking her up and down and all over. She slowly turned away and folded her arms.

"Billy!" Nathan said, "Stop it!"

"Stop what?" Billy asked.

"You know what."

Xythia asked, "Where are you going?"

Nathan said, "We're going to Greater Wyoming to mine for gold."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?

"What good is gold?"

"It's our money."

"You use metal for money?"

"Yeah, of course." He pulled out some silver coins out of his pocket for her to look at. "What do you use?"

"We use credits."

"Credits? Where do those come from?"

"I don't really know. The Machine gives them out when you deserve them."

Nathan said, "With us, you work and earn some metal coins from someone else, or you don't have any money."

"That seems more simple and real. But I'm not surprised. I think I'd like your way better."

"Then maybe you should work with us. Maybe Raymond will hire you."

Xythia said, "I am ready to become a dirt slogger. What do I have to do?"

"I don't know . . . Billy; you think Xythia can work with us?"

Billy nodded energetically, never taking his eyes off of her.

Xythia tried to move away from Billy, but there was not much room in the packed truck bed to move in. She turned back toward Nathan and said, "When you are one of the wired, as you call us, you are connected with everyone all at once. The thing is, you cannot express yourself in whatever way you want, or the machine will block you. The Machine knows better what you should think and do and say. So you end up doing whatever someone else wants; not what you want. That phone was just a leash that I had to cut. So that's what I did. I don't care if I never see any of them again. I am totally done with that life."

Nathan said, "You sound serious. And truth be told, kinda angry."

"I wasted so much of my life being connected that I was not even a real person. I was more like a tiny subroutine in some massive code. I get that someone came up with the name 'wired', although 'chained' works too."

Nathan was dazed by the techno-babble and said, "You were right, I don't know much about what that is like. All we know is that we see you flying around and that you look like you have money. Most people are jealous of the life that you are getting rid of."

Xythia said, "Don't be." She shifted her eyes toward the cab and asked, "Are those men good?"

Nathan said, "I've known and worked with them a long time. They aren't bad people. Sometimes they struggle about being good."

"Got it." She noticed Billy staring again and did a double take. She made bug eyes at him. "What about this one?"

Billy recoiled and said, "What?"

Nathan said, "He's harmless."

Xythia said, "I would really like to see if I can get another outfit. It's cold back here anyway."

Nathan acted serious and asked, "You want a salamander suit?"

Xythia smiled and said, "Yes. If I am going to slog, I may as well dress the part."

Nathan said, "I might have something for you."

Xythia said, "It really is a pity."

"What is?" Nathan asked.

"That the wired and the sloggers are so divided and can't be friends."

Nathan said, "I agree. I hope we can be friends a long time."

"Yeah," Billy said, as he admired Xythia looking skyward as she felt the air rush over her face. There was a certain feeling of freedom that went along with her sudden change to the slogger lifestyle.
Chapter 10

The Wilkins Salvage tow truck was travelling down I-80 in Western Nebraska near Ogallala.

Nathan asked Xythia, "So where are you from?"

"I'm from Homeland. I was on my way to Cascadia. Not that I really care if I ever get there. Cascadia's about as bad as Homeland."

Most of the wired lived in Homeland. Homeland and Cascadia were two of the other nations that split away during the Balkanization of the USA. Homeland was a long-time rival to the ISA, and the two nations had some border skirmishes with each other over the years, but no trouble had erupted recently.

Since Xythia was answering Nathan's more direct questions, she felt emboldened to probe more about Nathan's people. "I see Raymond is a black man, and the boss. I thought black and white sloggers were in a race war with each other."

Billy interrupted, "Raymond is my Uncle. He's a wonderful man."

Xythia looked confused.

Raymond asked the riders in the back of the truck in a voice loud enough so they could hear, "Anybody back there hungry?"

"Yes!" Billy said.

"How 'bout the rest of you?"

"Always," Nathan said.

"Sure," Xythia said. "I have no money though."

"No worries," Raymond said.

They pulled into Fort Ogie Inn. It was a motel and restaurant with a high wall around it. The sign out front said, "Pork Roast Dinner – All You Can Eat – 50 Cents". They all hopped out of the truck and went inside.

The large restaurant, set up with dozens of rough hewn tables, benches, and a bar with stools, was very busy. The smell of the food immediately made them all even hungrier.

Squirrel said, "I am going to tear it up."

Raymond told the hostess, "I got me and these other five."

"Three Dollars, please."

Dayton said, "This looks like a great idea, Ray."

Soon they were seated.

Billy said, "I love this place."

The travelers were all business as they ate until they were stuffed.

Raymond said, "I'm ready for a nap."

Nathan asked Xythia, "You got anything like this in Homeland?"

"Not really. It was great."

Dayton asked Raymond, "You ready to hit the road?"

Raymond was looking in the direction of a woman at the bar who looked to be several years younger than him. "I think I'll see about a little drink." He walked over to the bar and sat at a stool next to the woman.

"What'll you have?" the bartender asked.

"What are my choices?"

"Dark Meade, unless you want to spring for the real expensive stuff."

"Dark Meade it is." He was served and took a taste. "Whoa, that has some strange kind of taste," he told the woman next to him, trying to spur a conversation.

"I hate it," she said, even though she was drinking the same thing. She was clearly agitated by something other than Raymond or the beverage.

Raymond said, "But I have to say, the food was real good."

She said, "It is good. But they have the same stuff all the time." Again, she seemed distracted about something.

"So what's the deal with this being a fort?"

"It was used as an outpost against the clans and the Sino-Mexicans."

"What's your name?"

She said, "Tina. But before you get the wrong idea, I'm not here to meet anyone, like for a date or something. At least not right now."

"Not right now?"

"I'm thinking that the next time I'm here, I'll be a widow. Are you looking for a job?"

"Um . . . sorry, Tina, we're not into that line of work."

"I haven't told you yet what the job is."

"Oh, I thought you wanted us to, you know, kill off your husband."

"What? No. What I mean is that he is going to get killed by monsters. I was wondering if you were interested in hunting monsters."

"Tina, you might have had one too many. . ."

"Look! I was willing to stay at our place after I saw a small one. So I stayed there but things kept getting worse and worse. The Sheriff wouldn't do anything about it. So I told Dale I would be here at the Inn until he got that mess back there all under control. Needless to say, I haven't been back yet. I'm willing to pay hundreds of dollars from our savings to whoever can rid our place of those creatures. You're not the first one I've talked to about it. I know people around here are starting to talk, like I am out of my mind. Okay, I can tell by your face you don't believe me. What if I showed the situation to you and those guys you came in with?"

"You said, 'hundreds of dollars'?"

"It don't do no good to save up money to buy farm equipment for a farm totally infested like that."

"At the risk of making you mad, I have to ask, how do I know this isn't some kind of a scam?"

"If you are so worried, then go up to the hostess over there and tell her that you are going to come out to the Fenton place to do some work. That way there is a witness if you come up missing. I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about monsters though. It's not that far from here, if you want to at least check it out. I'll show you."

Raymond said, "I'm not sure I know what you mean by monsters. When I think of monsters, I think of big . . ."

"Yes."

"Hairy . . ."

"Yes."

"Ugly. . ."

"Yes."

"Dangerous?"

"Yes. They are dangerous."

"Pink with purple polka dots . . ."

She turned away towards the bar. "That is not funny."

"Are you sure you haven't had a couple too many of these meads?" He thought her story sounded way too crazy to be real. He also still worried that she was the front side of some kind of con job set up to swindle travelers. But Raymond, the enterprising man that he was, couldn't put her phrase "I'm willing to pay hundreds of dollars" out of his mind.

Tina asked, "So are you interested?"

"I'm afraid we will have to pass, Tina."

Tina sighed and put five ISA silver Dollars on the bar. "I will give you this if you just come out to the farm and look. That's all you have to do."

Raymond wondered if his love for money was getting him into some kind of a trap set by locals to scam travelers at the Inn. But the lure of the extra bonus silver was too great.

At the table, Billy asked, "What is Uncle Ray doing over there talking to that woman?"

Squirrel said, "It's the call of the wild."

Billy said, "I didn't hear nothing."

Then Raymond brought Tina back to the table with his group.

Raymond said, "This is Tina. She has something out at her farm that I think you will all find very interesting."

Dayton said, "Huh? We are getting close to the Wyoming border, Ray. You want to go visit some petting zoo?"

"Yes. That is exactly what I want to do. So let's go."

Chapter 11

The Wilkins tow truck crew plus Tina drove into the Fenton Farm. The farmhouse, barn and other buildings sat back from the road, surrounded by corn stalks.

Xythia said, "This is creepy."

Nathan asked her, "What's creepy?"

"The way this corn is so high right next to the driveway. What if someone jumped out at us?"

Billy's eyes started shifting back and forth. "I'm not scared."

Nathan said, "I guess we'd have to shoot them. You don't have cornfields in Homeland?"

"I've never seen any this big."

Squirrel had to ride in the back to make room for Tina. "It's just corn. It's nothing to get worried about."

Billy said while looking around, "It's just corn."

They came to an opening at the end of the drive where the farmhouse, barn and other buildings surrounded by the cornfield gave Xythia even more of a feeling of claustrophobia.

Tina got out and walked slowly, looking around.

Dale heard the truck coming down the half-overgrown gravel drive and said, "Babe! You're back!"

Tina said, "I brought these folks over to help with this problem we got."

Dale turned serious and said, "Tina . . . I don't really think . . ."

"Dale! It's high time we got this thing figured out! I'm not staying here until this mess is straightened out once and for all!"

"Tina," Dale pleaded.

"Don't 'Tina' me! Don't you care about my safety?! Or your own safety?! I didn't marry you to come out here and get ate up by monsters!"

Raymond still wondered if their argument was part of the con job act. But if it was, they were pretty good at it.

Dayton said to Raymond, "I'm going to go over this as calmly as I can. Correct me if I am wrong. Okay, we know back at the restaurant you said something about checking something out here, and 'Babe' here told her husband, I guess, something about us helping them out. I don't recall you telling us about helping anyone out. What are we doing, Ray?"

Nathan said, "Yeah, Ray. What precisely are you trying to get us into here?"

Ray said, "Uh, I don't really know for sure."

Tina said, "Well boys, we might as well get this out in the open right now. Dale, you go open the barn door."

Dale said, "Maybe we should go in the house first and visit. These people look real tired."

Tina shook her head. "Dale, open the barn door."

Dale walked up and slid the huge door across on its rail, then quickly backed up several steps, making sure he didn't stumble. The late day sunlight didn't shine inside the barn door to illuminate the interior.

Tina was close and looked in. She said, "Oh my God! Dale this is ten times worse than it was when I left! You folks come on up there and look inside and you tell me."

Everyone walked up to get a look. After their first glance inside, their eyes opened wide and their jaws dropped.

The barn was full of what looked like enormous cobwebs. Some of the strands were more than forty feet across, and as thick as a pencil.

"That there," Tina said, "is what you call, monster webs, and we would like those monsters killed off."

"Seriously?" Xythia asked. "Those are webs?"

Without realizing it, everyone was backing up.

Tina Fenton said, "I will pay each of you five dollars per day to kill them critters that made those webs.

Raymond said, "We will need seven."

"Yes!" Billy said. "Seven dollars a day!"

"No," Dale said.

"Yes," Tina said. "Five dollars and fifty cents, final answer. Sorry Dale, I know it will cost us plenty, but if we don't do something, we won't have anything. So can we count on you people?"

"I'm definitely out," Squirrel said. "That's the scariest thing I have ever seen. Nope. No way. This whole thing is drop dead stupid."

Nathan said, "What happened to the gold mine, Ray? If gold mining is such a great opportunity, why go on this monster safari? I really don't know about all this."

Raymond said, "We can do this job for a couple of days, then after we finish it all up we will head west."

Dayton said, "Before I say 'yes' or 'no', I'd like to see what we are up against here.

"You're crazy. Not happening," Squirrel said.

Dale told Dayton, "You'd be wise to get a rifle first. And if I was you, I wouldn't touch them there monster webs."

Dayton turned and went to the truck.

Nathan said, "I'll go in with you and cover you." He also went to the truck to get his rifle.

Squirrel said, "I'll guard the truck." He went to the truck and looked through their gear and found his rifle.

Dayton and Nathan walked up to the barn and looked at each other and Dayton led the way in, taking little baby steps as they entered.

They contorted their bodies among the large webs which were going in all directions and angles.

Nathan remarked, "Those gaps on these webs are so wide apart. What are these things trying to catch, flying buffaloes?"

Nathan said, "It's dark in here, Dayton. Maybe we should just bring the truck up for some light."

"We're just looking. It will only take a minute," Dayton said. Dayton saw some wrapped up objects in one of the webs twenty feet off of the ground. He said in a hushed tone, "What are those?"

Nathan said, "Maybe some birds, or it looks like there could be bats too."

Dayton bumped his shoulder on one of the webs and it stuck fast. "This crazy thing is super sticky." Then he tried to pull it off with his hand. The web flexed with him rather than pull away from his shoulder. Hey! My hand is stuck!" He started shaking his hand and vibrating the web. Then he dropped his rifle as he tried to rip his stuck hand off with his free hand. "Sonofa! Now my other hand is stuck! Hey! I can feel that something big is moving somewhere on this cobweb!"

"Stop shaking the web!" Nathan said, "That's how it knows it has something in the web!"

"I gotta get off this thing!" Dayton stopped and turned his head toward a moving dark form that was as large as a big dog. He tried to make out what it was. It scurried across the dirt floor across the back of the dark barn faster than expected. "What the?"

"Look!" Nathan said, without trying to yell. "Up in the rafter!"

At the other end of the web from the barn rafters, a large dark form was coming across and into their view.

"Oh my God!" Dayton said. He saw the top half of a silhouette of a two foot long scorc. "What sort of spawn from the bowels of hell is that thing?!"

"It's sort of like a giant spider," Nathan said as he looked up, aiming his rifle without being able to see the iron sights. "I got it."

"Yeah, take it out. Now."

Nathan immediately fired his rifle, clearly busting the scorc's exoskeleton. The dead scorc curled up its legs and upside fell upside down to the floor. At that instant, they could see there was vibration across all of the industrial-strength cobwebs throughout the barn.

Dayton finally ripped his hand off of the web. "Holy crap," Dayton said, "This place is crawling with them!"

"Let's get out of here," Nathan said.

They ran back out of the barn, into the bright daylight, all the way to the truck.

"Move! Move! Dayton said, "Get back!" They all moved away from the barn door.

Dale casually walked up and closed the door.

Dayton told Ray, "That is the creepiest thing I have ever seen, or imagined in my life. My rifle . . . it's in there."

Squirrel said, "Look at them guys! They are as white as a ghost! Let's just get out of here while we still can!"

Dale said, "I told you that you ought not to touch them there monster webs. Throwin' down yer gun don't do no good neither."

Nathan was panting and looked at Ray and said, "I'm not so sure this is such a great idea."

"Yeah but," Raymond said, "Five fifty a day. Zeck, don't you want to help out the Fentons?"

Nathan said, "Maybe I didn't say it plain enough. Let's get out of here, Ray!"

Dayton was trying to pick the monstrous adhesive off of his hands and said, "Forget my rifle. I went in with an open mind. Now I know that this barn needs burned down."

"No! Dale said, "My barn don't have no such need! It is a perfectly good used barn."

Tina said, "Dale, your barn is full of nasty monsters!" Now come on!"

Raymond sighed, "I'm sorry, Tina, but the boys just don't have their heart into it. You'll have to find someone else."

Tina's eyes welled up and her lip started quivering. "Dale, this is your fault! We have nothing now. Our farm is not worth a thing. We will be wandering around homeless. After we leave this place, I know one of them savage clans will find us and kill us."

At one time, after the collapse of the US, there were clans formed throughout North America that would kill first, and then see what their victims had that could be taken. There were still such clans around, mostly in pockets in the western areas of the former US. These raiding clans were adept at preserving themselves by hiding in the surrounding unwelcome terrain.

Raymond said, "Did you hear that, Nathan? Tina and Dale will be dead unless we help them."

Nathan was frustrated by Raymond baiting his benevolence, and said, "You're such a kind and compassionate man, Raymond. Why don't you offer to buy their farm from them in exchange for your gold mining claim?"

Raymond said, "I . . . I"

Tina said, "We could be talked into that, right Dale?"

"I don't know nothing about mining."

She shook her head. Dale, you dig a hole until you find the gold, then you sell it."

Dale looked at his barn and he looked at Raymond. He stuck out his hand, "My farm for yer gold claim."

Raymond stood there with his hand on his chin. "Hmmm. Maybe we could come up with a counter-proposal."

Nathan said, "What?!" He couldn't believe Raymond was even considering what was originally meant to be a sarcastic proposal.

Billy said, "Nathan has a pretty good idea, Uncle Ray. You should trade."

Nathan rolled his eyes.

Dayton said, "How stupid. We need to leave right now while we still can."
Chapter 12

Out in front of the Fenton's barn, Raymond and Dale continued to haggle over the barn in exchange for the gold mining claim deal. Everyone else was interjecting their own ideas about what should be done.

"Ahhhh!" Billy squealed.

"Billy!" Squirrel yelled. Then he pulled his knife from its belt scabbard and hopped out of the truck and charged at the foot and a half long scorc that had snuck up behind Billy. The scorc had Billy by the leg with its pincers, and was hitting him in rapid succession with its stinger. Squirrel plunged the dagger into the scorc and ripped the stinger and claws off of Billy's leg.

"It hurts," Billy said. "It hurts really bad, Uncle Ray." Billy's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed into Squirrel's arms.

Tina said, "Get him into the house!"

Squirrel and Raymond carried Billy into the house. Everyone else followed.

Tina said, "Over there! On the kitchen table! Dale! For God's sake! Dishes all over!" They knocked several plates off of the table to make room for Billy's pale body.

Nathan checked Billy's pulse. "He's still alive."

Raymond said, "We gotta do something for him."

Dayton said, "Squirrel, where did that monster come from?"

"I dunno. I just happened to see it when it got Billy."

Dale said, "It might have crawled around the barn. There's a few boards missing off of the back of the barn."

Tina said, "I thought you were going to fix that?"

Dale said, "I really didn't think I would need to spend good money to fix the barn just to keep weird monsters inside of the barn, you know. I ain't no fortune teller like you."

Tina shook her head.

Dale said, "A'course, I also noticed some big holes out there in the ground. Prob'ly from them critters."

Tina said, "Why didn't you tell us about that?!"

Dale pointed at his eyes with two fingers. "Anyone with eyes can see them. All you have to do is look. I'm surprised you didn't just fall in one."

Tina said, "Don't be stupid, Dale. Where did you see other holes?"

"I noticed a couple over there."

"Is that so?" she said, "How far exactly from the house?"

"Right up to it."

"Right up to the house?! Did any get in?!"

"I didn't see none."

Tina got in Dale's face, "All this stuff just rolls off you like water on a duck, doesn't it! Oh, by the way, we got monsters next to the house! No big hairy deal! Wake up, Dale!"

Dayton said, "Okay, so you have some monsters in holes and webs? Why would that be?"

Nathan added, "What else about them have you noticed?"

Dale said, "Some like chicken, some like pork."

Nathan said, "I was thinking more about what we, um, you need to know to kill these things."

Xythia was stroking Billy's hair. "Is he going to be okay?"

Raymond was sitting at the bottom of the upstairs staircase sniffling and said, "It's all my fault. We should have left. What can we do for Billy?"

Nathan said, "All we can do is pray."

"Will you?" Raymond said to Nathan. Make it real good."

"You mean pray for Billy?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah. God will listen to you. You got the connection."

"Sure, Ray." Nathan bowed his head. Everyone gathered around Billy. "My Heavenly Father; I pray that you will spare this young man's life, and you will come up with a resolution to this problem these people are having that we don't have the wisdom to handle right now. I also pray that you will use this situation to help those who don't know you personally, to draw them close unto You, and please show them the way to have the same connection I have. Amen."

Raymond said, "That's it? It wasn't very long. You sure it will take?"

Nathan said, "It don't work quite like that. It's up to God now."

Xythia said, "The way you pray; it's like you really know God personally."

"That, I do," Nathan said. "He is faithful to me all the time, even when I don't deserve it."

POW! POW! POW! Tina shrieked at the sudden noise of gunfire in her house. Squirrel shot and killed a two foot long scorc coming down the stairs, heading toward Raymond's back.

Raymond had rolled down onto the floor to get out of the line of the gunfire. "Oh my God!" Raymond said. "Look at that!" He flipped on the light to the stairs.

The three foot long jet black scorc with dark blue streaks had a couple of dozen pure white three-inch scorclings clinging onto its back.

Tina said, "Kill them babies! Don't let any of 'em get away!"

Everyone stood there staring.

Then Dale grabbed a small footstool and turned it upside down and was mashing the helpless scorclings.

Nathan said, "So, some of these are live born, and others possibly are born from eggs? All this makes the situation more confusing."

Dayton said, "Let's get Billy and go."

Dale said, "I wouldn't."

"Why not?" Dayton asked.

"Well, on account that these monsters are mostly nocturnal. You know, that means they come out at night to hunt. I read a lot."

They looked outside and saw that it was dark. There was a sense of fear and disappointment as they looked at each other.

"I'm hungry," Billy muttered.

"Billy!" Nathan said.

Raymond went over to Billy. "Billy, you're alive!"

"Uncle Ray, I'm hungry, and thirsty. Where am I?"

Raymond helped Billy off of the table and into a chair.

Tina got Raymond a glass of tap water, which Raymond helped Billy drink.

Raymond started sniffling. "I thought you were a goner, boy." He wiped his tears. "We gotta get you outta here."

Xythia looked at the scorc on the staircase. She touched the hairy leg. "I wonder," she said.

"Wonder what?" Squirrel asked, appalled with the idea of handling the revolting scorc appendage.

"This looks just like crab legs. Except for all that hair. Crabs are a special delicacy in Homeland."

"Crabs are in water," Raymond said. "These things are on land."

Dayton said, "You're not going to eat that, right?"

Xythia said, "Squirrel, let me see your knife."

Squirrel handed her his knife and she cut off a leg at the body.

Tina asked, "What are you doing with that disgusting thing."

"Dinner."

Tina said, "That's sickening. You are truly going to eat that dreadful monster leg?"

"Why not? You got a big pot?"

Tina got out her biggest pot they had that was used to cook corn on the cob and filled it with water and turned on the stove. "You put it in. I'm not touching that thing."

Xythia chopped the long legs in half with the knife so they would fit into the pot.

After a half hour of boiling, Tina pulled the leg sections of white meat out of the exoskeleton and put them on a platter in front of Xythia next to Billy. The boiled hair on the legs was all curled up.

Dayton said, "That is in actual fact the most disgusting food I have ever seen."

"Bon Appetite," Nathan said, scowling.

"Ewww!" Tina said.

Raymond said, "You better not eat it, girl. Something might happen."

Xythia took her fork and cut off a piece and put it into her mouth. She started chewing. "Oh my God!"

"Spit it out!" Squirrel said. "Quick!"

Xythia said, "No way. This is the best thing I have ever eaten!"

She gave Billy a bite. "You like it?"

He nodded in approval, using the moment as an excuse to move as close to her as he could.

"Let me see," Nathan said.

She cut off a hunk for Nathan. He made a face and put it in his mouth and said, "That really is good. It's a lot better than snake."

One by one, with each endorsement, they all became more brave and ended up trying the scorc leg, and liking it. They kept going back to the scorc and cutting off more legs, then the claws, and even the stinger, which all had the delicious meat within.

Tina said, "Dale, get the rest of that carcass out of here."

Chapter 13

Squirrel said, "Not to cause panic, but how do we know that more of those huge freaks won't come down the stairs again?"

Tina asked Dale, "How did that thing get in here, Dale?"

"That there is one of them there enigmas."

"You're an enigma," Tina countered. "Truth be told, I think your enigma is that you never fixed that place outside the house going into the attic up on that gable end like I asked you to forever ago."

Dale said, "Like when did you ever ask anything? Like I knew there would be crawly monsters trying to get into the house through the attic. There you go, psychic again, like you are some kind of a witch or something."

"Dale! I'm gonna . . ."

Squirrel interrupted by saying, "So there is nothing to stop them from coming in here, right?"

Dayton said in a loud voice while staring at the front window, "Does anybody think that creature can break out the window?" A two-foot long scorc was clinging to the glass on the front window from the outside, exposing its entire hairy underbelly.

Squirrel said, "I feel like shooting it."

Tina said, "I don't think we want our window broke out, hotshot, especially right now."

Dale said, "It would be a good idea if everyone stayed inside now."

"Cover me," Dayton said. He opened the front door partway and reached out and shot his pistol at the scorc. The bullet went through the target and the scorc lopped off of the window.

Tina said, "Everyone needs to stay in this room and keep the door shut. Someone needs to stand guard all night."

"That's right," Raymond said.

Billy said, "I'm too tired."

Squirrel said, "I'll take the first shift. There's no way I can sleep right now."

People were positioning themselves to sleep in chairs, and the sofa and on the floor.

In the quiet, they could hear cannibalistic crunching and slurping of the scorc Dayton had shot off of the front window.

Nathan said, "The darkness is filled with those things, and they eat each other."

"Ow!" Dale shouted. Then he sat up off of the floor and whacked at the floor around himself several times until he hit a small four-inch scorc invader. "That thing stung me on the toe."

Tina said, "Why'd you take your shoes off?! Dale?! You're white as a ghost! You feelin' okay?"

Then Dale flopped back down.

"Dale?!" Tina said. "Dale!"

After a minute or so, Raymond said, "That was just a tiny little one. He won't be out long. Billy was okay after that big one got him."

Nathan said, "He's not breathing." He checked Dale's pulse. "He's dead!"

"What?!" Tina said. "Just like that?! No, that makes no sense. That was just a little one. Billy got stung by a big one, and he's okay now." She checked his pulse. "Come on, Dale. Wake up." She shook her head and started crying. "Dale, what am I going to do now?! I can't believe you left me like this! You gotta wake up!" She totally broke down.

Nathan shook his head. "Sorry, Tina."

Everyone expressed their condolences to Tina for the loss of her husband, except Billy, who looked sad in the corner of the room.

Dale's passing made everyone even more scared of the unpredictable nature of the scorcs.

Squirrel said, "I promise I was watching. That thing had to already be in this room."

Tina said, "It's not your fault, dear."

Dayton said, "We need to move the furniture, everything over to the side of the room so we can see if another one comes after us."

They bounced each piece of furniture around to see if anything was clinging to it or came running away from it, then they moved and all of the furniture to one end of the room and placed Dale's body on the sofa.

Xythia pulled her feet in closer and rubbed them with her hands. "We better keep our shoes on."

Billy told Tina, "I'm sorry I didn't die, Tina."

"What?" Tina held Billy's hand and sobbed, "No, Billy. I didn't want you to die." She stared at Dale's lifeless body. "I should have been nicer to him. Now he's gone. I can't believe all of this has happened to us. We used to be so happy." Then she broke down crying again. She curled up on the floor.

Nathan put his hand on Tina's shoulder, "We are all going to get out of here tomorrow."

Tina nodded with her hands on her face. "Thank you."

"Help!" Squirrel shouted. He smashed a foot-long scorc with the rifle stock. There were dozens of them of similar size that were pouring down the steps and the walls along the stairway. A couple more got on him and he knocked them off.

"Squirrel! Pull back!" Raymond said. "Everyone form a defensive line in the corner of the room! Tina, stay back and you watch our backs!"

Everyone immediately took position without any discussion. Tina was in the extreme corner of the room while the others formed a line in front of her. The scorcs wasted no time in moving towards their intended victims.

Xythia was glad she put her shoes back on as she lunged forward and stomped on one. Then the rest of the scorcs moved back in a wave.

Dayton smashed one on the wall with his fist.

"Hold the line!" Raymond said. If they get to the side or the back of us, we're all dead!"

"Ray!" Tina shouted to Raymond, who was the tallest member of their team. "The ceiling!"

Raymond looked up and there was a scorc crawling on the ceiling. "I can't reach it! Everyone back up!"

The humans were all backed up tightly into the corner and being attacked on four fronts. The wave of scorcs and the one on the ceiling continued to advance.

Squirrel was using the butt of his rifle to strike at the enemy. His action was keeping some of them back.

"Uncle Ray!" Billy said, "Lift me up!"

"Okay!" Raymond and Nathan lifted Billy up enough to reach the ceiling.

Xythia said, "Careful Billy!"

Billy swiped at the scorc on the ceiling and it went flying across to the other side of the room.

Dayton smashed another one trying to outflank them by crawling up the wall. More of them climbed up on the same wall and then turned toward the humans.

Tina screamed, "Dayton, don't let them through!"

Dayton swatted at them, which was effective, but there were too many and they got by him, then on him. Tina smashed one on Dayton's back, then another one fell on the floor and Tina stomped at it a couple of times until she maimed it by smashing some of its legs.

The wave of foot-long scorcs was moving back and forth probing the human defenses.

Raymond commanded, "Everyone advance one step!"

They advanced and the scorcs pulled back.

"Again!" Raymond said.

Squirrel smashed a couple of them on his end of the line and said, "I can close them off on my end!"

Squirrel and Nathan advanced and the scorcs were cornered to the far side of the room with the furniture.

"Skirmish them!" Raymond yelled.

The confusion to the scorcs gave the defenders an opportunity to go on the offense. Dayton grabbed the footstool and started bashing them whenever they appeared from among the home furnishings. Squirrel did the same with his rifle. This game of cat and mouse continued for a half hour. Eventually, the routed scorcs were so diminished that the human force was able to do a search and destroy operation by moving out the furniture one piece at a time.

"Well done!" Raymond said.

They all congratulated each other. Tina had her hand over her mouth and was crying, staring at Dale's body. She was obviously upset that Dale's body had mashed scorcs on it.

Dayton said, "Sorry, Tina. We had to do it."

She nodded.

Billy said, "Did you see me, Uncle Ray?"

"I sure did, Billy boy. You were great."

Billy said, "I helped out, didn't I?"

"Yes you did. If I had a medal, I'd pin it on you. Way to go."

Billy said, "I love killing those things. They hurt when they bite so they all need to die."

Nathan said, "This is ridiculous. Some of them have webs, some don't. Some are deadly poisonous, others not. Some are loners, and other are in packs. None of this is natural."

Chapter 14

At daybreak, with rifle in hand, Squirrel looked out the door and did not see any of the dreaded scorcs. He ran toward the tow truck which was parked closer to the barn than it was the house. He got there without seeing anything. The truck engine cranked, but wouldn't start. "Come on!" he said. He looked at the barn and back at the cornfield and all around, and also at several large holes scattered about. He saw no movement. He tried starting the truck again, and the engine started. "Yes!" So he pulled up the truck to the front door of the farmhouse, so the others would not have to walk across the open area between the barn and the farmhouse. The tall corn surrounding the entire farm made it feel even more like it could turn into an arena of death at any moment.

Nathan and Dayton brought Dale's body out to the truck. Tina agreed that they would bury his remains away from the farm to avoid the risk of another surprise attack. There was no discussion about what Tina would do after the burial, but Tina told the others that she had no family members left in her life.

In just one short trip down the driveway, through what seemed like a cornfield gauntlet, they would be rid of this horror once and for all. Then they could resume their lives.

Xythia, Nathan, Squirrel, and Billy were in the back of the truck, along with farmer Fenton's corpse. They were all wary of a possible attack from the corn. But they made it down the driveway without incident.

Xythia said, "After this experience, I think I will feel like I am living happily ever after."

Nathan said, "All that was so terrible, yet so unnecessary. It was unbelievable. Good riddance."

Billy said, "I'll never forget about this place."

Squirrel said to Billy. "I loved it."

"You did?" Billy asked. "I thought you wanted to leave."

"Oh no. We got great food, we had a lot of fun last night. That was real fun, don't you think?"

Billy said, "Some of it was fun, I guess. I like to kill them bugs."

Squirrel was surprised with Billy's unexpected reaction to his joking around.

They got back on the main road and drove west about a half an hour and pulled off to the side of the road. They were only a few miles from the Greater Wyoming Border, but still a fair distance to the mine claim. The chunky western Nebraska panhandle became part of Greater Wyoming when the region was reorganized.

They never got a decision out of Tina if she wanted to cross the border into Greater Wyoming. Also in the area, they were very close to unorganized territory that was still overrun with clans.

Dayton got out of the truck and walked back to Nathan. "See that hill up there?"

"Uh huh."

"That is where she wants to put Dale."

"That's quite a walk." Nathan stood up and stretched his legs. "Let me look through this stuff and find that mining equipment." He pulled out a shovel for himself and one for Dayton. "You gonna stay here, Squirrel, and help guard the truck?"

"Sounds good to me."

Nathan passed Dale's torso out of the truck to Dayton. Then he hopped out and grabbed the legs. They started the long walk to the top of the hill. They were nearly exhausted just carrying Dale the distance and up the hill. They found a lovely spot on the hill near a tree, but not near enough to have to put up with too many roots as they dug. It was hard work, but they had some shade. They laid Dale's body into the deep hole.

The air was cool, but they sweated from the hard work.

Dayton said, "We're supposed to wave at Tina when we get to this point. So Dayton waved at Tina with both arms. Tina and Raymond got out of the truck and started walking toward the hill. Dayton and Nathan took a long drink of water and sat on the ground.

Nathan said, "At least all the hard work is done. This loose dirt is no trouble."

Dayton walked over and found a twenty pound piece of flagstone and started writing "Dale" on it with another rock that had a bit of an edge on it.

Tina stood there and looked at Dale in the hole. She looked at Nathan. "Can you say something? Something like when you prayed for Billy?"

"Alright," Nathan said. "I'm not a clergyman, but I'll do my best. Let us pray. My Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Great God that you are. You got us through last night. But for Your reasons we don't understand, you decided it was Dale's time. We know that Dale was a hard worker and a brave man. We don't know if he put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation or not, but I ask that you will cause each person in our group to consider the payment that Jesus already made on the Cross for each of our sins if He is only accepted as Savior. Amen."

Tina stood there sobbing as Dayton and Nathan started shoveling the dirt back into the hole. When they got done, Dayton put his simple grave marker at the head of the heaped up loose soil.

"Thank you, so much," Tina said. She put her hand on the mound of dirt and shook her head. Then she got up and they all walked back to the truck.

Just as they were getting to the truck, a police car pulled up behind them with the emergency lights on. The slow-moving tall and heavy policeman with dark glasses got out of his car. Squirrel automatically put his hands on his head which was customary in those days when police faced suspects. Xythia and Billy did the same after Squirrel told them to. The others in the group did the same thing.

The Deputy said, "I need someone to answer some questions for me."

Raymond stepped forward. "What can we do for you?"

"What are you people from Ohio doing here?"

"We are passing through, on our way to Wyoming."

"Why would you want to go there? Just curious."

"Business, Officer. Is there a problem?"

"Yes, there is a problem. The Sheriff would like to speak with you."

Dayton said, "We didn't do anything wrong, so we should be allowed to leave."

The Deputy said, "Don't get excited. I can impound this truck and do a complete search, which would take a few days if you want."

Raymond said, "We'll cooperate fully, Deputy, but we don't know of any reason why your Sheriff would want to talk to us."

The Deputy said, "First, I am going to need you to follow me back to the Sheriff's Department." He pointed at Dayton, Raymond, and Xythia. "You, you and you go ahead and get into the back of the squad car. The rest of you can follow me."

Squirrel drove the truck, with Tina in the cab. Billy and Nathan were in the back.

Billy asked, "Are we going to jail?"

"No, we didn't do anything wrong, did we?" Nathan said.

"I don't think so." Billy looked at the terrible marks on his leg from the stings and rubbed them.

The entire group was locked up together into a holding room. Each of them told their name and other information to the Deputy, who was at his desk. Then Sheriff Hernandez, who was unexpectedly young, came to talk to them. "We were wondering where all of you were going in such a hurry after there have been some missing people in the area."

Tina said, "Now you hold it, Sheriff! My husband, Dale Fenton came to you twice about the problem we were having with strange predators, and you didn't do a dang thing! Well the predators killed Dale and I suppose they killed other farmers around the area and now you decide you better do something! The only reason these people are here with me is because I hired them with money out of my own pocket to help with the predators. Again, because you wouldn't do nothing! Well, this trouble was more than we could handle, so we all left! Then your big fat Deputy, no offense, comes and stops us from leaving! I'm so upset with you right now I can't see straight!"

Dayton said, "Yeah, and if you want some evidence, go on into their barn and you will see my rifle in there. That place is crawling with those things so bad out in that barn that I couldn't go back and get it."

Hernandez said, "I am not saying that your claims are false, but you have to admit, your story is a little difficult to believe. You can rest assured that whatever predators you are having trouble with, we can handle it."

Tina shouted, "Then you should have listened in the first place!"

Hernandez said, "Before I can let any of you go, I need to confirm your story. So I need one or more of you to ride over to the farm with me in the squad car."

Squirrel said, "I'd rather have life in prison!"

Raymond said, "We can all guarantee that you won't need any of us to confirm our story. All you have to do is go out there and find out for yourself."

"No," Billy said, "I'll go."

Raymond said, "No Billy, you are not going."

"Uncle Ray; I have to go with the Sheriff, because if none of us goes with him, it is too dangerous and he won't be careful enough and he might get hurt."

"Thank you," The Sheriff said, clearly moved by Billy's sentiment.

Raymond said, "No, Billy."

"Uncle Ray; I was old enough a couple of years ago to do what I want. I am not a baby."

Xythia said, "I'm proud of you, Billy. You just make sure you come back in one piece."

Raymond sighed. He said to the Sheriff, "You better not let nothing happen to him! I mean it!"

Nathan said, "I'll go. Somebody has to watch out for Mr. Adult Grownup Billy here."

"Anyone else?" The Sheriff asked.

Raymond said, "I got you all in this never ending mess, so I'll go." He muttered what was certainly a string of vulgarities under his breath. "We want to leave for Wyoming after this little side trip as soon as possible."
Chapter 15

On the way out to the Fenton Farm, the Sheriff asked, "So what is this predator? Wolves? Coyotes? What?"

"It's bugs," Billy said.

The Sheriff said, "Bugs? That does make more sense now. I would run too. That would make them a pestilence."

Nathan said, "No, they are predators. These huge bugs, or whatever they are, can kill people, and eat them if they get the chance."

"Okay," Sheriff Hernandez said, "So, technically they may be a predator."

Raymond said, "Dale Fenton was technically killed because you didn't help him. But I guess you wired people take care of yourselves and forget everyone else."

Hernandez looked in the rear view mirror. "You know, we get pretty tired of everyone not appreciating the fact that we use whatever technology is available to do our jobs the best way we can. We can discuss all that later, Wilkins. First, let's verify your story, which sounds like a total fantasy."

They pulled into the Fenton Farm.

Raymond said, "I can't believe we are back to this hell hole again."

Billy said, "Squirrel likes it here."

Raymond said, "Huh? No, Billy, he was just fooling around. He was being sarcastic."

"What?"

"Never mind."

They pulled the squad car to a stop next to the farmhouse front door.

Hernandez said, "Okay, so what can you tell me about this situation?"

Nathan said, "Probably the best thing would be to just go look in the front window. The house is probably overrun by now, just like all of the buildings."

"Come on, Drew," Hernandez said to the Deputy. They walked up to the front window. Hernandez saw the mangled remains of the large scorc that Squirrel shot off of the window and had been picked apart by scavengers. He kicked the picked over mess around with his foot. "What do you make of this?"

The Deputy stared at it. Then he made a face of confusion and shook his head. "I can't really make out what it is. Except that it's plenty disgusting."

Hernandez said, "Get a bag."

The Deputy went to the trunk of the car to fetch the evidence bag.

Then the Sheriff took his large flashlight out of its holster and shone it into the window. "Drew! Come here!"

Drew shut the trunk to the car and walked over with the large plastic evidence bag.

The Sheriff said, "Look at this mess in there. Is this some kind of a weird cult?"

Drew said, "It looks like they piled all the furniture up on the other side of the room so they could set up all these torture cables."

Hernandez says, "Kind of like traction in the hospital or something. Looks like we might be busting up some kind of deviant cult here. Maybe they tie up their victims and sacrifice them to their gods."

Drew got out his camera. It took a flash picture. A two-foot long scorc leaped onto the glass from the inside. The Deputy was so startled that he fell over backwards onto the ground. "What the?!"

The Sheriff stared. "That's incredible. Get back here and get a picture of this."

The Scorc never moved from the glass. Drew took several pictures. "No one is going to believe these pictures are real."

Hernandez said, "Better send those images to Central."

Drew asked, "What do I call them?"

Sheriff said, "How about Need Info?"

"Sending."

Seemingly out of nowhere a three foot long scorc leaped onto the Deputy and hit him with its stinger and was biting him with its long teeth in the back of the Deputy's neck. Hernandez pulled out his pistol and fired at the attacking scorc, blowing it into pieces. He checked on Drew and found that he was already dead. Then he heard a thumping on the patrol car window. Raymond was trying to get the Sheriff's attention by banging his fist on the car window. Raymond pointed to the far side of the house where a half dozen large scorcs were charging. Hernandez shut the car door, crushing some scorc legs. The door wouldn't shut, so he had to open it more to get some momentum for a good slamming. When he did that, another one of the scorcs tried to force its way into the car. The Sheriff turned and used his boot to kick it back. It tried to sting him just as he got the door shut. Hernandez was breathing heavily and looking around as he sat behind the wheel.

"They're all over the car!" Billy said.

Hernandez put the car in gear and spun around in the gravel. But the scorcs hung on. He went down to the end of the driveway and stopped suddenly trying to make them fall off of the car.

Raymond asked, "Why are you stopping?"

Hernandez said, "I'm calling for backup. I'm not giving these things rides to spots all over the countryside! And before you say anything, yes, everything you boys said was true. I have never seen or heard of anything like this!"

Raymond said, "Sorry about your partner, Sheriff."

Hernandez looked at him laying on the ground, still being devoured by his killer. "Yeah. That was a shame. I'll have to take part of the blame on that one too. We should have listened to Tina Fenton in the first place."

One of the scorcs was partway on the car's roof and partway on the driver's side window. Hernandez ran the window down a couple of inches and shot it. The sound of gunfire confined within the car was extremely loud. Yellow-green scorc vital fluids splashed all over the inside the front of the car and streaks slowly ran down the window. Before another police car could arrive, the other scorcs had slinked off into the cornfield. Hernandez took shots at them and did manage to kill another one of them.

Hernandez said, "We're going to need whatever expertise you can give us on this situation. Learning the hard way will result in more casualties."

Raymond said, "We'll do what we can, but I don't know how much help we can be."

By the time the squad car got back to the Station, the picture sent by the Deputy had gone viral over all of the wired's communication hubs.

Chapter 16

Sheriff Hernandez apologized profusely and released the Wilkins team. Then he requested they come to a strategy meeting that evening at the Sheriff's Department in Ogallala. The team, including Tina Fenton, was introduced to Inspector Donaldson, Special ISA Investigator, and Agriculture Under-Secretary Jose Gonzalez, who was coincidentally in Nebraska checking on some research.

Hernandez told Inspector Donaldson, this situation is totally out of control. We do not have the manpower at my level to stop this menace that is getting worse by the day. So I am requesting you contact Des Moines and declare this situation a national emergency and send in the Army to get rid of this threat before it gets any worse. Des Moines was the capital of the ISA.

Under Secretary Gonzalez said, "I believe this situation warrants immediate intervention. This has the potential to become a continental, if not world, environmental disaster."

Inspector Donaldson said, "Well then, I'll get into contact with the President. Is there anything we can do right now?"

Hernandez said, "I need some more men, right now."

Donaldson said, "So what is stopping you?"

"Umm. My thinking was that you could help with that."

Donaldson said, "Didn't all of you just get done telling me the world was going to fall apart if we don't do something right now? Alright, then we, those of us right here, better do something right now, right?"

"Yes, Inspector," Gonzalez said.

Donaldson said, "We have to use any and all help available. I'd say some of them are in this room right now, and there are a lot more right in this area. And now is not the time to worry about the money. You will all get all the aid you need."

Hernandez told Raymond, "I would like to deputize you and your people."

Raymond said, "I can't answer for them. You'll have to ask them, but remember, you are taking away people from my business. That will cost me a lot of money."

"Again," the Inspector said, "Now is not the time to worry about money. You have my word you will receive a modest payment in exchange for whatever this costs you. However, your country needs you to focus entirely on winning this war on these scorcs so we will not have to fight them ever again."

Raymond looked around the room and sighed. "Fine, I won't turn down my Country in a time of need. I didn't before, and I won't now."

Nathan said, "Where else can I go?"

Dayton said, "I'll have to think about it."

The others were quiet as well.

Squirrel said, "I'll sit this one out."

Billy said, "I'm in!"

"No, Billy," Raymond said. "You are out."

"Uncle Ray, remember, I'm not a kid."

Raymond said, "Tell that to your mother."

Billy said, "She's not here, so I can't."

After the meeting, Billy, Nathan, and Raymond were sworn in as Deputy Sheriffs. They were each given a Deputy's shirt and a badge. At Billy's insistence, he got a matching cowboy style Deputy's hat. It was Billy's proudest moment.

After their induction, Nathan told Raymond, "You know it is taking us forever to get to Wyoming."

"Yeah, I know. There has to be a quicker way to get there."

Reporters were out in front of the police station trying to pump information out of whomever they could, about the scorc story.

Nathan looked out the window at total strangers talking to the media and said, "I don't know what those people are talking about, since they have never been out to the Farm."

Under-Secretary Gonzalez said, "UU Research and a lot of other people are blaming the government for this whole thing. We deserve our fair share of criticism, but this one is not our fault whatsoever."

Sheriff Hernandez said, "They have all kinds of people spouting off on their news outlets, and giving their expert opinions about what everyone ought to be doing while they just sit there. The news keeps showing the same pictures Drew took out at the farm. That Company, UU Research says that someone stole the creatures from their labs and released them at the Farm. Here's a picture of the guy, some wacked out guy named Doctor Derek Borgia. He looks like a real nutcase. He is a suspected murderer and he developed these bugs. They call them "Scorcs", a cross between a spider and a scorpion."

Dayton said, "That scientist made those things on purpose and turned them loose?! He ought to be shot."

Raymond said, "So this was all caused by a wired guy. Why? And I don't really understand any of that wired talk."

"Me neither," Billy said.

Hernandez said, "You deputies better get over some of your technophobia, because you will need this old radio, among other things."

"Technowhat?" Raymond asked.

Nathan looked at the radio and said, "I have never used one."

The Sheriff pointed at the features on the radio and said, "It is so simple, anyone can use it. Channel two is the channel to call the Station. Push the button to talk. Don't talk when someone else is trying to talk. Think you can handle that?"

Billy asked, "What's a channel?"

Hernandez said, "Let Nathan run the radio. You men know how to shoot?"

They started laughing at the question.

"Okay. You can shoot. Let's go."

"Now?" Raymond asked.

"Yes. Now."

Sheriff Hernandez took them by patrol car out to a north-south road that was on the east side of the Fenton Farm's eastern cornfield. "Your job is to kill any scorcs that cross the road. All we are trying to do right now is contain them as much as possible. Don't go into the cornfield. I'll be back later."

Billy said, "This is kind of like our battle in the living room."

The Sheriff looked at him and shook his head.

*******

Xythia, Squirrel and Tina got interviewed by the news media, as did an animal rights activist who contended that the scorcs were an endangered species and should be protected. Xythia was the only one who was coherent enough while on camera to produce a meaningful news interview. The comments Xythia made about cooking and eating scorcs soon became household knowledge among the wired. Many of among the wired population had a lot of money and were willing to pay a considerable sum to be one of the first to experience a scorc dinner.
Chapter 17

Dr. Derek Borgia was paying a premium in hard money for a simple room. He was hiding in a tiny room in a tiny watering hole in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska. He was still connected to the wired grid using the old woman landlord's accounts as his proxy. The woman was gullible, but mostly lonely and would take in anyone who was willing to offer her some attention, including a weird sociopath like Borgia. Derek had no problem exploiting her vulnerability in any way that benefitted him.

The room was cramped and untidy. The Doctor was becoming increasingly despondent and hostile over the way his life had turned out. He started getting reports about the discovery of the scorcs, and it took a few weeks before UU Research had admitted that they had a problem with missing specimens. The Company's hope, without a basis, was that the scorcs would all be dead and forgotten by then. Listening to the reports, he realized that there was going to be a major effort at mass extermination of his precious scorcs. How could that be? He had done so much to provide an all-natural solution to a serious agricultural problem. He should be getting awards. Now, thanks to that disloyal lab assistant of his, he was wanted for murder. Borgia always had thought of himself as a man of action. He was willing to take risks to strive for success. Perhaps he was not ready to give up yet. Maybe there was something he could do . . .

*******

Even though they were not inmates, the Wilkins group was staying in the jailhouse in lieu of a hotel room. Xythia was surprised to look up and see her father, a slim man with thick, all white hair. She greeted her father in a lukewarm manner and led him outside. Xythia knew her conversation with her dad would not be one that she would want anyone else to hear, so she went outside and he followed.

Her father said, "You do know we all thought you were dead, right?

"That's the way I wanted it."

"What have we done to you that you should be so cruel to us?"

"Why are you the victims?"

"Because you thought it was okay if we thought you were dead! You don't see a problem with that?! Why?! Why did you do it?!"

Xythia Hammer became tearful with frustration. She said, "The copter malfunctioned. It crash landed and burned up. I used that moment to reset my life. You know, one of my new friends here has some sort of mental limitations, and he gets to make more decisions on his own than I did!"

"We only wanted what is best for you!"

"Well, it wasn't. What I have now is a whole lot better. And I have helped out. I feel good that I helped these people, these sloggers, who we just fly over all the time, as if they are nobody. They are people just like us, if not more so. They are not computer controlled robots like us. They can choose their own work and their own mates without a million tests. If I can do something to help destroy these scorcs, their country, and the whole world will be a better place, and that will make my life worthwhile."

The senior Hammer did not know how to respond. He didn't want to give up on bringing his daughter back with him to Homeland. He looked away, staring at nothing in particular. He said, "I respect your right to choose your own path, and your commitment to help here, but you have to know that we were only doing what we thought was in your own best interest."

She said, "You mean you're not going to force me to go back with you?"

"No, of course not. You're an adult. You can live how you want." He got a little teary eyed. "I always figured you for an ISA type," he said with a slight chuckle.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing bad, I just know that you are too independent to tie yourself down with the tedious Homeland lifestyle."

"You mean a dog kennel."

Max Hammer said, "I don't totally agree with you, but I really am proud of you, to tell you the truth."

Xythia said, "I always thought that you were against me. I always thought you liked Kianna better."

Max said, "No, that's not true. I didn't have to worry as much about your sister. I mean, yeah, it would have been a lot easier on us if you were more of a conformist, but it is plain now as ever that conformity is not what you are about. I have no interest in crushing your spirit. But I'll always worry about your safety."

She hugged her father who held her tightly. "Thank you, Dad. It makes me feel really good knowing you at least kind of support me. I can imagine the hard time Mom will give you when you tell her what happened."

"Never mind that. I'll handle it."

On his way out, Max Hammer introduced himself to Dayton and Squirrel. He said, "It seems that we are in the same line of work."

"Oh really?" Squirrel asked. "You're a fellow unwilling exterminator of over-sized bugs?"

"No, I own an element stratification plant. You know, salvage."

Dayton laughed. "Yeah, that's us all right, stratifyin' elements."

Then Max said, "Please watch out for my daughter."

Squirrel said, "She's a fine young woman, Max. Don't underestimate her."

Hammer said, "To be honest, my concern is that I wouldn't want any of you men to take advantage of her."

Dayton frowned. "Listen, Hammer. None of us have any problems getting our own women without taking advantage of 'em. She is one of us now, and anyone who does something to anyone of us, does it to all of us."

"Got it," Max said. "I was just. . ."

"Don't sweat it," Squirrel said.

The truth was that neither Dayton nor Squirrel had anyone waiting at home for their return, and they seldom had any interaction with the opposite gender on a personal level.
Chapter 18

The next morning, the first military unit to arrive in the area was a small combat engineer detachment of twenty troops, led by Captain Marvin, an all-business soldier with a bald head. Like everyone else, the Captain knew he was unprepared to lead his men against such an unknown foe. So he tried to get as much information as he could from Xythia, Dayton, and Squirrel. The Captain brought with his company of combat engineer sappers a desert tan troop transport truck, a couple of other smaller vehicles and a flatbed truck with an old refurbished bulldozer.

Xythia was surprised to see a few women troops among the company. She told one of them, a petite private named Lynne, "I'm kind of envious of you."

Lynne said, "Why? I'm nothing special. If you want to join the force, you can."

Xythia said, "I might think about doing that."

Lynne said, "Wouldn't that be a little odd for you? I mean, you look as wired as they come."

"I do?" She wondered if it was time for a makeover. Or was it that her mind was drifting back into the wired mentality with its emphasis on image? Was she trying too hard to be someone different now?

*******

CRACK! Billy shot from the neighboring farm's cornfield out at a black, foot and a half long scorc that was readily visible on the white gravel.

Nathan asked, "Get him?"

Billy said, "Maybe I knocked some gravel into it, but it ain't moving."

Raymond said, "A kill is a kill, Billy boy. That is one less person who will get bit, or maybe more. Or who knows, what if it would have hatched babies?"

Nathan said, "We have been in this position for a week, and we have not shot very many scorcs. This makes no sense. When are we going to take the fight to them and just wipe them out?"

Raymond said, "You have to understand the nature of war, which is exactly what we are in. Every day those other bugs don't come creepy crawling across that road, is another day we are getting more people and equipment closer to do the job right. War is mostly just boredom, with a little stark terror mixed in."

Nathan said, "All I can think of is how fast those bugs are growing."

"Patience," Raymond said. "They will make big easy targets."

That night, the sky was overcast, and there was not much moonlight to survey the road. They felt sprinkles of rain from time to time.

Nathan said, "Ray. It's so dark out. Usually we can see fine out here at night, but with this overcast sky . . . This is about as scary as being in the Barn or something. It's like we have absolutely no control over what happens to us. They can come kill us whenever they want."

Billy said, "Why don't we ask for some light?"

"Huh?" Nathan said.

"Uncle Ray, you can call them on the radio, and then tell them that we need some light."

Raymond exhaled and shook his head and said, "Um, yeah, Billy. I think we should do that, on account that it is like magic." He picked up the radio and called, "Watch, Billy. I am ordering some light right now. Then they will carry it here in a bag, or something." Raymond pushed the "transmit" button on the radio. "Station, this is Patrol Two, requesting more light. Over."

"Roger that. We'll bring it out for patrols one and two."

Nathan said, "What? They are bringing light?"

"Evidently," Raymond froze in place trying to consider what was meant and said. "They must have a generator and a couple of racks of lights."

Nathan asked, "Won't that make a lot of noise?"

Billy said, "Why does that guy keep calling you 'Roger'?"

Raymond was still a little snippy and said, "That's my secret agent name."

Billy said, "One time I put some brown ants in a jar and some black ants in the same jar and they started making a war. Even though the brown ants were smaller they won the war."

Nathan asked, "What does that have to do with us?"

"Nothing. I never said it did."

Raymond was muttering under his breath.

About an hour later a truck pulled up three pair of light intensifier goggles.

"Whoa!" Nathan said as he looked through them, "That's a lot of light."

"Thanks," Billy said to the Army support person who looked ghostly green through the goggles.

"Yeah, thanks," Raymond chimed in.

"Glad I could make you boys so happy. You need anything else?"

"Not right now," Billy said. "We'll give you a call."

The soldier said, "Okay, I gotta run some goggles over to the other side, to Patrol One."

Raymond said, "Who's over there?"

"A sapper fire team and a couple of your Deputy goobers named Clem and Virgil. Those two aren't the best at following orders, but they love this kind of stuff. They would pay money to do it."

"Be careful," Raymond told the soldier.

"Roger that."

Raymond and Nathan glanced at Billy.

Chapter 19

Dr. Borgia took the westbound train from his nearest station to the station at the Wyoming border. He got off with a full backpack and went on foot due south.

One of the personnel with the railroad told him, "Hey! Where you going? That way's nothing but clan territory!"

"Don't worry about it," Derek sniped.

Borgia hobbled less than five miles before he caught a glimpse of someone watching him from behind a rock formation. He kept going. Soon he realized he was surrounded by several clansmen armed with bows, spears and some ancient rifles. They wore loincloths and had tattoos of snakeskin on their bodies from head to toe.

"Ai stupido!" One of them said in their Spanglish. "What are you, stupid?! Don't you know that you are on Serpiente Clan land? The penalty for trespassing is death."

Borgia said, "I came here to talk to your leader."

"Que?!" They started laughing. "Vato, you really are stupider than you look, and that is real stupid, for real. We don't want you here."

Derek sighed. "Look, you should tell your leader that I need to see him because I have some valuable information for him."

"You tell Leader. Leader standing next to you."

"My name is Borgia." Derek extended his hand.

The leader was bald with his head covered with snakeskin tattoos and an actual snakeskin headband. The sides of his mouth had large fang tattoos. He did not shake hands. "My name is Camino Serpiente Jones. You will call me Camino. You must speak now."

"Fine, Camino. I created a food supply called scorcs. If the scorcs grow and spread from the farm I started them at, there will be plenty of food for everyone to eat. The ISA became very angry with me because they said I was creating food that the clans could use, and they wanted to starve you all out. So they want to wipe out all of the scorcs before they can become established."

Camino said, "You not making sense. What is scorcs?"

Derek said, "They are like mucho grande insectos. You must stop the small ISA army before it kills off all the scorcs."

Camino said, "I must speak with other clans."

Doctor Borgia said, "Time is of the essence!"

"No comprende tu Ingles."

Borgia said, "Undele, Camino. We must hurry before they get help, and then it will be too late. It must be today."

Camino punched Derek in the face and knocked him backwards. "I Camino! Tu nada!"

Borgia looked up at Camino Jones and wiped his cut lip in contempt. "You are angry with the wrong man. The ISA is who you should be angry with."

Camino Jones said, "I think you maybe liar, but we attack ISA no problem because we hate ISA. We attack today. If Borgia mentido, no good speaking, muerte." He made a slashing motion across his throat, which drove home the point of the threat he was trying to make in his Spanglish tongue if he concluded Borgia was lying to him.

Derek Borgia wondered if the savages would kill him anyway, but he was satisfied that he was stirring up a war against those trying to kill his scorcs.

*******

It was another long afternoon sitting along an old dusty road with no traffic or scorcs looking to cross the road.

Billy said, "Uncle Ray, did you figure that being a Deputy would be so boring? It reminds me of when I had to pick all those green beans, then I had to snip the ends, then I had to . . . "

"Quiet!" Raymond said. "Everyone listen!"

Nathan pointed in an area across the road, then another area. He whispered, "There's some movement out in that corn. Something big. Hear it?"

They could see the tops of the corn moving a few rows from the road.

"Oh my God!" Billy said, rubbing his leg. "What do we do Uncle Ray?"

"Calm, Billy boy." Raymond pulled out his radio, "This is Patrol Two, over."

"Go ahead, Two."

"We are active. Possible multiple large scorcs at OPLP. Calling for backup. Just about dead center of patrol area."

"Forwarding request. . ." After another minute, Headquarters came back, "Control says thirty minutes ETA."

Raymond said, "Back up into the corn." They slowly backed into the cornfield on the side of the road opposite of the suspicious noise. They continued back in a couple of rows so they could still see what was happening on the road, yet have some cover.

Billy whispered, "Uncle Ray, I'm real scared. Thirty minutes is a long time."

"Billy," he said quietly, "you got the badge, right?"

"I got the badge."

"You can shoot straight, right?"

"I can shoot straight."

"Big ones are easier to hit, right?"

"Right. Lots easier."

"It's good to be scared, Billy Boy. Your fear will help protect you long enough for you to kill what's scaring you."Almost as if he were hypnotizing Billy, Raymond said, "We want to kill them. So we want them to come out."

"Yeah, Roger."

Then three four foot long scorcs came out of the corn across the road. The Patrol unleashed a salvo at them, destroying all three in the middle of the road. Then, a swarm of foot-long scorcs came rushing out of the corn and started feasting on the dead larger ones.

Billy said, "What do we do now?"

Nathan said, "Those are harder to hit, and they might scatter our way if we disrupt their meal."

Raymond said, "Let's wait and see what our reinforcements come up with."

The smaller scorcs had no intention of leaving because of the availability of the food.

Raymond said, "All of that shell cracking and slurping out there is disgusting."

Billy said, "I don't mind it, as long as they are not eating us."

"Good point, Billy boy," Raymond said.

"Listen," Nathan said, "I hear a truck."

The Army vehicle pulled up within twenty feet of the scorc feeding frenzy and a man with a machine gun hopped out and started firing from the hip at the quivering mass. He hit several of the creatures, and as expected, but the rest of them scattered. Most of them headed back from where they came. A few of them entered the corn on the side of the road where the Patrol was hiding. Nathan was able to squash one of them, and Raymond chopped frantically at one until there was not much left of its quivering body. Billy was knocking down cornstalks trying to get at the remaining one which was trying to get away, but he couldn't get at it. Then it ended up falling on the side of his head. Billy flailed at it, but his arms were tangled in the corn. The scorc used its claw to attach itself to Billy's earlobe and was hanging from the side of his head. Billy screamed in fear and pain and took off running and jumping and spinning out of the corn onto the road, trying to keep the scorc off balance so it didn't sting him in the head or neck. He swatted at it with his hat. The scorc came off of his ear and ended up in his hat, so he threw it. The scorc never came out of the hat. Then Billy stood and shot his own hat several times in rapid succession, hitting it with every shot as it jumped around the road.

The driver of the Army vehicle walked up and picked up the hat that was riddled with bullet holes. He held it so scorc goo dripped out of it. Then he shook the hat and the disfigured body finally lost its slimy grip and plopped onto the road.

"That was some pretty good shooting, there, Deputy," the machine gunner said.

Raymond said, "Yeah, and your dancing wasn't bad either, William Billiam."

Billy was holding onto his sore earlobe. "Don't call me that, Roger."

The soldier said, "You want your hat?"

"Not really."
Chapter 20

Inspector Donaldson called for an emergency meeting of the team. Everyone took their seats. Donaldson said, "There is an infantry company being redeployed here by CentCom from the southeastern frontier. There are also talks going on with our closest ally, the Republic of Texas. They are interested in what is going on here and are sending an expeditionary force, but I don't think we can wait that long for either of those options before we act. We have enough assets right now, all we have to do is put them in place and go. Given the activity at Patrol Two, it would be prudent to fully deploy now before that small contingent gets overrun and we lose containment."

Under Secretary Gonzalez said, "How are we going to approach this situation?"

"That is what we are all here for. We need to put our heads together and come up with a strategy right now."

Sheriff Hernandez said, "With due respect Inspector. I remind you that I have seen these scorcs in action. If we deploy now without proper support, I think we will take heavy casualties, and then the scorcs may scatter all over the countryside. I don't want to be left with a mess like that."

The Inspector said, "Likewise, if we wait, we will still fail to contain the scorcs."

Dayton said, "Either way, it looks bad for my coworkers. If you attack now without the proper force, Ray's Patrol may get overrun by the scattering scorcs. If you wait, they may get picked off by scorcs that have grown in size."

Hernandez said, "We have sent backup to Patrol Two. We won't leave anyone vulnerable and isolated."

Captain Marvin said, "I have a suggestion."

The Inspector said, "Let's hear it, Captain."

Captain Marvin pointed at the map they were drawing on the whiteboard. "Right now there is a steady breeze coming from the west, where Patrol One is. I suggest we use our flamethrower team to light up the cornfield right there where Patrol One is along this whole west side of the cornfield. The corn stalks are all dried up enough right now and should burn easily. The wind will make the fire go to the east. We burn up the corn on the west side of the farm, all the way up here north to Skunk Creek, and south to the neighbor's wheat field. That will drive all of the creatures out of the corn, assuming they don't like smoke and fire, eastward, and burn up any young ones. Then as it burns up to the farmhouse and buildings, we torch all the buildings and shoot anything that is running around, then burn the corn all the way over to the road where Patrol Two is guarding. That way we have burned the entire property, scorched earth style, toasting and shooting all the scorcs along the way."

The Inspector said, "I like it."

Xythia noticed Tina's reaction.

Tina whispered, "I'm not in love with it."

Xythia patted Tina on the shoulder.

The Undersecretary said, "I like it pretty well. I wish we knew more about this life form. I tried to get information out of UU Research, but they act like they don't really know much about their own creation. We have other issues with them, but we'll sort all that out later."

The Captain said, "Let's not take any chances and bring in all the assets we possibly can. We're going to need as big of an irregular militia as we can muster, on both sides of the farm. We don't want anyone to get hurt. But this operation is critical if we intend to exterminate this threat once and for all time." Marvin marked new positions on the whiteboard. "We will have to move Patrol Two up here to the north of their present position, shooting south-southeast, and we will need an third Patrol due south of Patrol Two shooting north-northeast. That way no one gets hit by friendly fire. No one on Patrol One will be able to shoot or skirmish to the northeast or southeast. Everyone must understand that. This is a critical concern, with untrained irregulars."

The Inspector said, "The militia, and everyone involved will report to the Captain. He will be running his operation."

"Thank you, Sir," the Captain said.

The Inspector said, "I need everyone here to help, no excuses, and to get as many armed volunteers out to Fenton's Farm as we can. We deploy in two hours. Any questions?"

Captain Marvin said, "That is all."

The group broke up and Dayton looked at Squirrel. Dayton said, "Looks like we're in the Army now."

Squirrel said, "You know, I could really learn to hate Wilkes right now."

*******

The warriors of the Serpiente Clan were sitting around a communal campfire. Women and children were in an outer circle. The clan girls and women did not receive tattoos. The boys had their bodies covered by more of the snakeskin tattooing the older they got, including their heads which were all shaved. By the time they were adults, they were completely covered with the body ink.

Camino Serpiente Jones was taking his turn on a large communal pipe with snakes carved on it. He told Doctor Derek Borgia, "You must smoke."

"I'm good," Borgia said.

"You smoke," Camino said.

Derek looked at the Clan leader with suspicion, and inhaled from the pipe. He started hacking and coughing. "That's terrible."

The warriors looked at Borgia with hostility.

Camino laughed and said, "You will be strong for battle. Smoke."

Borgia realized that the unknown substance in the pipe was making him a little high already. He didn't see too much advantage in being wasted before going into battle, so he held it away from his face to keep from breathing in the second hand smoke.

Then several men with spiky hair and covered with death themed tattoos came into the campfire circle.

"El Lobo. Smoke," Camino said to the leader of the group.

El Lobo and the others sat down. Borgia handed the newcomer to the party the pipe.

El Lobo inhaled the smoke. "Muy bueno."

Camino told Derek, "This is El Lobo Perez. He is Clan Lobo Chief. Clan Lobo will be in battle with us."

Derek said, "I'm thrilled to meet you, El Lobo."

"Why?" El Lobo asked.

"Umm . . . because you are a great warrior who is helping save the scorcs."

"El Lobo Perez said, "I don't care about scorcs. I only fight for Camino because he marry ugly sister."

Borgia said, "How noble. Going to war over a woman."

Camino said, "Yes. She ugly and much talking. Lobo must help. Clan Serpiente take fifty warriors. Clan Lobo take fifty warriors. Together we stop ISA to save food. If much trouble, Borgia die."
Chapter 21

To the west of Fenton Farm, there was a serene section of grass with a herd of grazing wild horses and mules. The nation of Greater Wyoming could be seen in the distance.

About twenty of the local militia joined Patrol One, along with several of the Army combat engineers known as sappers or pioneers, on the west side of Fenton Farm.

The soldier with the flamethrower reached over his back and opened the valve to the napalm tank and the propane propellant tank, and then ignited the fuel at the exit of the gun assembly, then squeezed the trigger. A whooshing hot stream of incendiary death came pouring out of the gun and into the cornfield. It caught on fire and started to spread eastward with the breeze. The smoldering corn was green enough to produce a thick smoke. The flamethrower bearing soldier walked along the edge of the cornfield and periodically administered the liquid fire.

After the flames consumed some of the corn, Sergeant Green said, "Okay, let's spread out and start an incremental advance!" The militia and Army took positions along the edge of the field and each soldier advanced as the corn became consumed and the ground was cool enough to walk on. It was going to be an all-day process.

Deputy Virgil was sporting his iconic do-rag and was well armed and highly motivated. He revealed his horrible teeth when he said, "This is gonna be easy."

Virgil's friend, Deputy Clem was a scruffy looking man who had long hair under a dirty baseball style cap. He also had hair growing almost everywhere on his face, including a full unibrow. He said, "Yeah, boring. Over on the other side of this field; now that is where all the action will be."

*******

A couple of Clan Serpiente scouts reported to Camino. One told him that there was a force of ISA soldiers and others to the west of the farm, burning the crops. Another scout said there was a smaller group to the east of the farm. A third scout was sent out through the middle of the cornfield and never returned.

Camino told Doctor Borgia, "I will tell El Lobo to attack the larger group on the west, and we will attack the small group on the east."

Borgia said, "Excellent strategy, El Camino."

*******

Back on the west side of the Farm, a horrible screech was heard in the corn. A foot-long scorc, small for the sound it made, was engulfed in flames as it crawled out of the fire and came to a stop.

Clem laughed. "Look at that dang thing! It's cookin' right in its shell!"

Virgil laughed. "This is gonna be a real hoot!"

A farmer standing nearby said, "I really don't think this is so funny. That's a shame that all this . . . Aaaaaah!" The farmer fell to the ground with a bullet wound in his back.

Clem said, "What?!"

Virgil pointed to the south and said, "Look over yonder! Clansmen!"

Clem said, "Those weirdoes shot that guy!"

Virgil said, "You're a dang Deputy! Shoot back!"

Gunfire exchanged between Clan Lobo and Patrol One. The frequency of the shooting caught the attention of more of the nearby ISA troops.

The fifty Lobos screamed a battle cry and started charging at the few troops who were on the southwest corner of the field.

Clem exclaimed, "I got one!"

Virgil said, "They're coming! We better run!"

Clem and Virgil ran northward, yelling "Clan! Clan!" trying to let the line know they were under attack from the southern flank.

The wolf clan chased them. Those clansmen with firearms stopped sporadically to shoot at long range. When the Lobos got up to the original injured farmer, one of the wolf clan spearmen stared into the farmer's fearful eyes. The farmer put down his rifle and pleaded with the warrior. The warrior ran his spear into the farmer's chest. Then he picked up the rifle. The Lobos continued the yelling and routing of the spread out militiamen.

Sergeant Green tried to rally the troops by shooting his rifle and advancing. A few of the clan warriors fell to the ground and the rest of them advanced at a more deliberate pace. Another soldier joined him and started firing, but was shot dead on the spot. Then another one joined him and started screaming. A two foot long scorc had survived the fire by hiding in its hole in the cornfield and crawled out to sting the soldier in the back of the leg. Sergeant Green shot the scorc, and out of shock and surprise had to stop and look at the scorc and his dead comrade for an instant, before focusing on the attacking Clan.

The Clansmen had similar problems with the scorcs as a couple of foot long scorcs came charging in their direction from the burning cornfield. Even though clansmen managed to avoid getting stung by them, the distraction caused a couple of the Lobos to be easier targets for the militia.

One of the charging clansmen accidently stepped into a scorc hole while running, breaking his ankle. Then he started flailing and screaming as a scorc in the hole latched onto his ankle and was clawing and biting it, and in effect, eating it. A fellow warrior tried to pull him out, but he was having difficulty, so he left the screaming victim there to be chewed on to avoid being shot by the ISA.

Woooosh! The flamethrower operator toasted a clan member who screamed and ran aimlessly like a human torch with thousand degree napalm sticking to him until he collapsed dead into a smoldering heap.

Virgil got hit in the front of the lower leg by an arrow that bounced off of his shin bone. "Dang nab it!" He targeted the archer and shot him in the head.

Clem got into hand to hand combat with a wild-eyed clansman with a tomahawk who was particularly jacked up on their fear inhibiting substance. During the struggle, Clem was able to pull his knife from his belt and slash the enemy combatant's throat.

A soldier was firing his rifle at a spearman and hit him, but even with a mortal wound the Lobo managed to plunge his spear deep into his killer's belly.

Another soldier decided to break away to retreat and as she turned, and was hit in the back with an arrow. She squirmed on the ground, trying to reach it, but couldn't. One of the local people pulled her back behind the shifting battle line.

A clansman with a machete made a vicious slashing attack at Sergeant Green, who parried it with his rifle, then clocked the attacker in the head with the gunstock. Then Green shot another Lobo who was preparing to knife a soldier who he had shoved onto his back. Green wanted to call for reinforcements, but knew there were none that were held in reserve for this type of operation. He got on his radio, "This is Patrol One calling all elements; we are under attack from a clan. I repeat, we are under attack from a clan and taking casualties."

*******

Sergeant Westbrook, was leading Patrol 3, a mixed force of ten on the southeast corner of Fenton Farm said, "What?! Patrol One is under attack by Clansmen?! Where was the Intel on that?!"

Squirrel asked, "Are they going to come here?"

Westbrook said, "If they are smart, they will!" Then he heard Patrol Two asking the Station if there were new orders.

Sheriff Henderson from the Station came back, "Still assessing threat levels. New orders pending, stay put, Two."

Dayton said, "Great. We can go into the cornfield and get stung to death by scorcs, or we can go somewhere else, and walk right into a bunch of knife wielding cutthroat clansmen. Let's just wait here and fight them both."

They waited for several minutes but there was no more chatter on the radio, except for a status check. There was no answer from Patrol One.

Sergeant Westbrook said, "I don't like it."

"Whoa!" Xythia said. That arrow came down out of the sky and almost hit me!"

Westbrook said, "Which way did it come from?"

"I don't know."

Another arrow fell.

Then there was the popping of gunfire and the sound of bullets whizzing by.

Squirrel pointed east into the Fenton's cornfield across the road and said, "It's coming from over there!"

Westbrook commanded, "Get in the truck!"

Before the Patrol could make their move to get into the truck, the Clan Serpiente swarmed out of the cornfield. Clearly they were not interested in taking prisoners. A snake clan warrior pounced on Sergeant Westbrook and plunged a knife into his chest. A militiaman and a soldier were also both run through by clan spears.

Dayton fired his rifle and hit a clansman in the torso, dropping him and said, "Into the corn!"

Xythia screamed, "The bugs!"

Dayton said, "We got no choice! Move!"

Squirrel, Xythia and a couple of the other Patrol Three members followed Dayton west into the corn and some of the clan chased them. Dayton knew it could be dangerous going west through the scorcs, but they would be fleeing toward Patrol One and he hoped the clan would fear chasing them. The other remaining Patrol Three members ran north on the road toward Patrol Two while other Snake clan members also chased them. They immediately caught one of the slower soldiers and started hacking him.

One of the snake people was hot onto Xythia's heels and she screamed, "Help!" She desperately turned and tried shooting her rifle. The Serpiente jumped and ducked for a moment. Xythia's shot was nowhere near her target. She threw her rifle down to run faster.

Dayton heard the movement in the corn behind Xythia and turned and shot a warrior who was chasing her at almost point blank range. Then they resumed their flight. They ran into another clansman who had a shotgun pointed at Xythia and a sinister grin on his face. Suddenly a massive claw came from out of the smoke and pinched the clansman's neck, popping the head off of his shoulders. Pulsing blood splattered as the warrior fell. Dayton and Xythia ran while trying to cough the smoke out of their lungs with renewed vigor.

Camino and his men continued chasing Patrol Three through the smoky cornfield when they encountered a four-foot scorc. A clansman with a machete charged the monster and leaped up over its claws, anticipating the scorc stinger attack. As expected, the scorc's stinger sprung to action and was met with the slashing machete that severed the end of the stinger from the rest of the squealing scorc as the appendage came towards him. The stump of the non-toxic stinger struck the Serpiente sending yellow-green ooze in all directions, and the foolhardy attacker was battered backwards and rolled into the corn. Two more spearmen ran their spears deep into the side of the scorc's thorax.

It is difficult to see what is ahead in a cornfield, but even worse when it is smoky. Squirrel ran full speed right into a scorc web full of dead crows, and was bogged down trying to get out. Tension on the webbing was pulling cornstalks down and into the sticky, tangled mess. A snake warrior tried to attack Squirrel but he also got his feet caught in the same web and soon found that he also couldn't do anything to help himself get out.

Squirrel screamed, "Get me out of here!"

Dayton and Xythia turned and saw Squirrel's arm sticking out of the web. They looked at him into his eyes.

"Pull me out!" Squirrel pleaded. "Please! Please pull me out! I don't want to die here!"

Dayton and Xythia both tried to pull his arm, but Dayton had to stop to shoot a snake warrior who was wielding a hatchet.

Squirrel knew it was too late. He said, "Forget it! Go! Get out of here!"

Then Xythia screamed bloody murder when they saw a three foot scorc climb over to Squirrel and saw it's stinger stabbing him over and over again in the back with its deadly poison, while more cult warriors moved towards them. They slowly started backing up, not wanting to give up on Squirrel but knew his fate was sealed.

"No!" Dayton said, as he looked into Squirrel's lifeless eyes.

"Run!" Xythia screamed.

They ran a few steps and they realized they were cut off and surrounded by clansmen. But then there was a buzzing noise in the sky. It was a quadcopter. Then shots came down on the clansmen. One of the clan warriors dropped under the gunfire and a couple more fled, but the numbers were still stacked against Dayton and Xythia.

"Daddy!" Xythia shouted as she saw her father's quadcopter hovering and descending.

The door to the quadcopter was wide open and Inspector Donaldson was kneeling there with two pistols firing and Captain Marvin shooting a rifle. Then Donaldson paused and said, "Get in!"

Bullets were hitting the quadcopter as Dayton lifted Xythia up into the hovering copter door. A charging clansman ran a spear into Dayton's back that went all the way through him just as he was lifting her in. He collapsed to the ground holding the spear. Donaldson fired both pistols at the assailant, landing mortal wounds that raked downward through his body.

Bullets continued to hit the copter and Max Hammer said, "We gotta climb right now!"

"Go!" the Inspector said.

Max Hammer took the copter to the sky.

"Daddy!" Xythia collapsed in the copter crying. "No! No! This isn't happening!"

The Captain got onto the radio and said, "This is Air One. Again, this is Air One. Patrol Three is overrun by clan elements.

Then communication with the other patrols came over the radio.

"Air One, this is Patrol Two. Situation nominal. Waiting for orders."

"Air One, this is Patrol One. Clan is retreating. Request permission to pursue."

"Negative. Denied, Patrol One." The inspector looked down to try and gather more battlefield information. There was so much smoke he could not see what was going on at ground level with Patrol Two. He saw scorcs crossing the road, heading east from the smoke. He said, "Scorc status is . . . zero containment."
Chapter 22

Raymond said, "I can't believe what happened to those poor souls on Patrol Three."

Raymond and the others of Patrol Two had no idea that some of his own crew members were among those who had been killed in action.

Nathan said, "We couldn't have done much about it. In order to reach them we would have had to go through a no visibility path crawling with scorcs. Look! Some more!" They started firing down on the scorcs that were trying to cross out in the open. Nathan said, "I know we are not seeing all of them. There are a lot of them getting away."

Billy said, "Yeah, but we're getting quite a pile of them down there. This is the best day of my life."

Nathan looked at him and shook his head. He started coughing with all of the smoke that shifted in and out of their position.

Raymond said, "Whew! My eyes are all dried out. I can't see nothing." He blew his nose and focused his eyes. He saw a farmer reloading his rifle, and a swarm of a hundred mostly foot-long scorcs was right behind him. "Look out!"

The farmer looked up at Raymond. "Huh?"

By the time the farmer knew what was going on, several of the freakish foot long bugs were upon him and attacking.

Sergeant Messer shouted, "Run! Everyone run to the creek!"

The Army machine gunner laid down a great deal of lead at the charging scorcs, but it was the wrong weapon for such an onslaught. So he also took off toward the creek with his heavy gun and ammo.

Their position was almost entirely cut off. The creek was the only direction that they could go to without crossing paths with angry displaced scorcs. Raymond told Sgt. Messer as they ran, "I hope they don't like water!

Skunk Creek at this location was only a few feet deep and although the creek bed was around twelve feet across, the actual surface of the water was only several feet wide.

Billy stopped to swipe one of the crawling scorcs off of him, and more of them took the opportunity to climb on him. A big soldier grabbed Billy with one hand by the back of his Deputy shirt and they both flew off of the top of the creek bank into the ice cold water. The soldier made sure he pulled Billy underwater, which dislodged the scorcs. All of the other scorcs did not even attempt to run down the creek bank toward the edge of the water. The scorcs that fell off of Billy into the water did not come back to the surface.

The men of Patrol Two all started cheering, but it was too bad for the farmer who was originally caught by surprise.

Billy got up to the top of the north bank of Skunk Creek, sputtering and coughing. "Did you see that, Uncle Ray?" Billy started laughing. "That was so . . . cool!"

Nathan said, "Praise God almighty!" He started firing at the scorcs on the other side where they were and they dispersed.

Sergeant Messer said, "We can follow the creek and cross it at the barn. They should have about all of the corn down by then. He said on the radio, "This is Patrol Two, Copy?"

"Patrol Two, this is Air One, Go ahead."

"We were overrun by scorcs. Request permission to move west along north bank of creek to barn."

"Permission granted, Two."

*******

Doctor Borgia grabbed a dead scorc leg and took his knife and cut some meat out. He handed it to Camino and said, "Eat."

Camino ate it. "Good taste. Better than man."

"Did you just say 'tastes better than man'? You eat man?"

"We not like you people. We waste nothing. You bury food in ground."

A shouting clansman came running out of the cornfield laughing and holding a two foot long scorc by the claw. The scorc stung its foolhardy captor on the forearm, who was dead before he hit the ground. Warriors played a cat and mouse game, attacking the deadly scorc with their spears.

Doctor Borgia said, "Make them stop!"

"Why?" Camino asked. "You say scorc is food for people. It is good food. We want food now. Now you say stop. Why?"

Borgia didn't answer, remembering the threat Camino made if he found out Borgia was lying.

The playful Serpientes finally got a spear into the scorc, then another one. Then they cracked it open and started feasting on it before the legs stopped moving.

Camino continued eating. He held up a piece of meat toward Borgia and said, "Scorc very good. More than only eating. ISA very afraid of scorcs. If scorcs here, ISA will leave. More land for Camino. We win battle. So scorcs are free."

Borgia said, "No! We must keep fighting and save more!"

"No! Camino has spoken! We win battle! Battle finish! Vamanos!"

All the Serpiente warriors were happy with that command. They started heading southwest toward their homelands. Borgia stood sulking and watched them as they walked away. Then he saw a swarm of smaller scorcs surrounding Camino and several of the warriors. He found himself cheering for the scorcs. The snake clansmen all froze in place, as did the scorcs assessing their situation. Then Camino stabbed one of his own men in the back and pushed him toward the largest contingent of the surrounding scorcs. The wounded warrior was overtaken by the ravenous scorcs. Then Camino and the others ran and hopped over some of the other surrounding scorcs and left the scene.

Borgia started limping northward up the road. He hobbled and coughed. He could hear gunfire up ahead. He could only think of how his scorcs were further being reduced in number by the second. Although the smoke was extra thick, there was enough of a clearing up ahead that Borgia could see the silhouette of a very large figure. It was a six-foot scorc.

The enzymes from the scorpio-arachnids's external digestive system were slobbering onto the road from its other-worldly mouth full of teeth, as if to demonstrate that Borgia was already half eaten, so why resist? If only he could collect the scorc saliva and chemically analyze it. There was so much that he wanted to learn, but these ignorant ISA police and soldiers were killing the beautiful creatures off as if they were a mob of emotional fools in some sort of tacky B-movie.

Borgia was terrified, yet so proud of his creation. They were an elegant looking beast with their sleek lines and black angular shape with dark blue streaks. He loved the way they looked, the way they projected power. He could see the towering stinger erect into the air with so much instantaneous killing potential. An intimidating power towards others he wished he could have felt in his own life. The monster had two large blue-green iridescent eyes, with a smaller eye of the same color on each side. The four eyes of this large specimen were so much more impressive than the scorclings. Their gaze looked like death incarnate. Even the hair on their legs had an irrational intimidation factor that brought fear into every heart. Such terror demanded respect. As long as there were scorcs walked the earth, Doctor Borgia believed that he would somehow live on through them, gaining the respect that he never got when he was alive. It was like he would forever be superior to those people who were terrified by the magnificent monsters. And the scorpioarachnids were indeed such amazing killers, justifying the worst of all fears that people had of them. Even if the scorcs killed him now, he was still immeasurably proud of them.

Borgia worried that there might be too many substandard traits of the many thousands of specimens which he released into the environment. He could only trust that evolution, his blind god of a godless science, would select strains that would help the scorcs endure throughout the ages by happenstance.

Borgia remembered what his father said so many years ago. "You can talk to animals." He wasn't sure of the reasoning power of non-mammals, but he decided to try and speak to this mature specimen. He said in as loud and firm of a voice that he could, "Do you understand me? My name is Borgia." He raised his arm. "Borgia."

The scorc raised its arm, but Borgia didn't know if it was a response or a coincident. Then the scorc hissed a loud vicious hiss that erased all thoughts of attempting any further communication. Borgia slowly backed into the smoke hoping to conceal himself. He glanced behind him and he saw another scorc of the same size climbing across the ditch as if the transverse gradient alongside of the road was not even there. Borgia was trapped by the creatures that he understood better than anyone else in the world; at least when the scorcs were small. He knew that if he made the move to run in either direction he would immediately be caught by one of them like a helpless weevil. Perhaps now was the time to do a little proof of concept. So he decided to lay down face up on the road. The scorcs both slowly crawled towards him until they were both almost touching him. There was nowhere for him to go. But he believed he knew what was in their minds. It was no surprise to Borgia when the north scorc leaped on top of the south one and was trying to sting it, but it did not have a good vantage point. Then the south one retaliated with its claws, causing the north scorc to screech a screech that would be audible for a mile. The north scorc locked claws with its enemy and they were at a stalemate. Borgia rolled away from them as they pushed back and forth, trying to get leverage with each other. Borgia slipped away from the titanic conflict and continued north on the road. He thought it was a shame that the world would lose one or both of the magnificent specimens as he witnessed them dismantle each other. The impact of the dramatic situation somehow reminded him of the life-altering Elephant exhibit.
Chapter 23

Max Hammer's quadcopter, designated as "Air One" landed at the Farm. By then, Patrol One, who were victorious over Clan Lobo were there getting a breather before their next action.

Xythia felt the heavy grief over the loss of Dayton and Squirrel, but now was not the time to lose focus. Other lives depended upon her. She found the Captain and said, "I can guarantee you that the barn over there is the worst thing in this whole mess. I recommend you take it seriously."

Captain Marvin said, "Let not your heart be troubled. We are going to torch these buildings right now and whatever is inside there will be toast. Soon our part of this battle will be over. I feel a little better about what I requested from Central Command now that Patrol Two has moved out of the way, even though in this situation they would have amounted to collateral damage."

"What?" Xythia asked. "My friends in Patrol Two would have been collateral damage?"

The Captain said, "As many of those scorcs as possible must be wiped out at all cost."

"What exactly did you request?"

"You'll see," Marvin said. "Sergeant Green!"

"Sir!"

"Let's pull all troops out of the field and go ahead and take care of that house and then the out buildings. Nothing escapes the buildings."

Even though she had no desire whatsoever to live in their old house anymore, Tina did not want to see the proceedings. Yet she had nowhere else to go while the destruction was taking place. She knew that this whole experience was doing something significant and permanent to her psyche. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Captain Marvin threw a cinder block through the front window on the east side of the house and the flame thrower soldier sent a stream of the burning gelatinous fire inside. There were scorc screams emanating from the room. The house was going up rapidly. Then there were gunshots coming from the south side of the house. Then the frequency of the shooting increased. The Captain ran around to see what was going on and saw large scorcs emerging from the opening out of the smoky attic of the house. Scorcs were being shot like ducks at shooting gallery and dropping down to the ground in a heap. Then some little ones also found their way out of the hole. The wall to the house was so hot that they scorcs started jumping and were being stomped by militiamen as they tried to crawl away.

"There's too many of them!" an irregular militia farmer member said.

A six-inch scorc came crawling right at the farmer and he ran. Clem ran up and stomped on it. The rest of the tiny swarm curled up and died because their small legs could not take them away from the heat of the fire fast enough.

Then the chicken coop was torched. It went up in a foul smell. Nothing came out of it alive. There was a grain storage bin, a tool shed, and a chicken brooder house, all burned without further incidence.

Xythia saw that the Captain was planning on using the bulldozer to knock down the barn by breaking the four corners to help it burn. She approached him and said, "I wouldn't do that."

"Why is that?"

"If the barn buckles or something while it is falling and leaves a big gaping hole, something big inside, or a large number of smaller scorcs could get out. I guarantee you wouldn't want that."

Inspector Donaldson said to his men, "Pull that 'dozer back. Do not open the door to that barn. Let's just burn it up in place from the outside." The Captain looked at Xythia and said, "That will work." Then he said. "Okay, soldiers! Everyone get into position and be ready for anything!"

Xythia felt gratified that the Captain listened to her warnings about the dreaded barn.

The flamethrower soldier said, "Captain, I might be out of juice here."

"If you have any, make sure it counts."

"Yes sir." He walked around to the side of the barn and saw where there was a piece of siding missing. He shot the flame into the hole, assured to catch something dry on fire. Then the canister hissed and was out of fuel. The soldier ran back to the rest of the group in front of the barn.

There was still smoke in the air from the burning barn and as the wind shifted there was no visual contact between Patrols One and Two. The two patrols were separated by the creek and about two hundred yards of smoldering cornfield.

As they continued westward, Billy told Raymond, "Did you see that?! There was a guy; it looked like he sprayed fire into the side of the barn!"

"Hmm. I suppose that's a flamethrower. I imagine that is how they burned all this corn."

"That was so cool! I wish I could use it!"

Raymond said, "Sure, Billy. That would be fantastic seeing you running around spraying that thing."

As the barn burned, Patrol Two got closer. Then Sergeant Messer told his team to take position so they could watch the back of the barn.

Nathan said, "I'm glad that creek is there right now. I've had enough of these bugs chasing us."

Smoke was rolling out of the missing pieces of siding throughout the barn. The fire was clearly at the point of no return. A loud creaking noise came from the barn.

The big soldier said, "Sounds like it's getting ready to give out."

"Already?" Raymond asked.

Then there was a loud crash as a big section of the barn siding came flying off of it. Sparks flew and smoke came rolling out.

"Oh no!" Nathan said, "No!"

There was a huge twenty foot long scorc came crawling out of the smoky back of the barn.

"Fire!" Sergeant Messer said. The entire Patrol was firing at the enormous beast. It stopped.

"Cease fire!" Messer said, worried about hitting friendly troops on the other side of the barn.

"We got it!" a soldier said.

Then it started moving again.

Messer said, "Get that fitty over here!" A fitty is slang for a fifty caliber M2 Machine gun.

The machine gunner shot the gun from the hip while Messer fed the ammunition belt into it. Sparks flew as the rounds hit the behemoth. The large caliber rounds didn't penetrate the thick exoskeleton of the giant scorc.

It was obvious that for a time, really big scorcs had been going out of the back barn through large holes to the pigpen and got their fill of pork, as evidenced by all of the hog skeletons. Eventually, the scorcs were too big to fit through any of the holes to get outside. So those in the barn attacked each other. The scorc that was motivated to break out of the barn was the eventual winner of a cannibalistic battle royal within the closed environment. This enabled the single specimen to become titanic in size. After the gargantuan beast was able to adjust its four gigantic rainbow-colored shimmering eyes to the outside world, it saw food in the form of Patrol Two. The colossal scorc stepped over the pigpen and crumbled one of the skeletons. It kept crawling toward the creek.

Messer said, "Nobody move!"

"I don't like it. It's coming our way."

Then they saw it straddle the creek with its gargantuan stride.

"Really?!" Nathan said, "That thing is coming over the creek!"

One of the militia members screamed, "Run!"

Raymond said, "So much for hiding." He started running.

Then the enormous scorc started lumbering towards them.

Messer said, "It's time for a tactical retrograde!"

"Huh?" Nathan said.

"Run! Move! Move!"

The men followed Messer, who was going north towards a distant small section of trees.

While running, Raymond looked back and saw the scorc complete the crossing of the creek without any effort. He easily imagined the hideous terror was going to feed upon all of them. But then the mammoth scorc stopped. It had a screaming farmer in its grip, and was mashing him with its claw and stuffing him into its mouth.

At the front of the barn, the gunshots coming from the other side of the creek were dismissed by the rest of the force as timbers cracking in the fire. Everyone watched the barn going up in flames with satisfaction.

Xythia told the Captain, "I know something has to go wrong. I can feel it. I would have thought I would hear some terrible screaming in there by now."

"Something is going to go very wrong, for those bugs." Captain Marvin looked at his watch. He could hear some rolling thunder. He said in a commanding tone, "Could I have everyone's attention here?! I invite you to observe the happy stuff your ISA Army Air Corps is doing to make the world a better place! They will be administering an incendiary ordnance bombing run. The napalm bombs burn at one thousand degrees and the fiery substance sticks to everything, killing by heat, asphyxiation and carbon monoxide poisoning. Behold!"

The rolling thunder got louder and louder. Then an ISA Army fighter-bomber screamed directly overhead, heading east at extremely low altitude. Even though they knew it was coming, it still startled everyone. It dropped a couple of large napalm firebombs that exploded into a wide mushroom of fire that skipped along the ground with their momentum. The bombs seemed to never get done splashing and igniting. In all, the attack left a half mile long trail of flames that covered a large part of the scorcs' exodus route from the farm. It seemed to be the perfect weapon for the situation. The ground shook and an intense hot wind blew over the whole farm. Everyone except the Captain, who knew what to expect, was shaken up by the blast. Even Patrol Two across the river was startled by the blast and could feel some heat.

Even the colossal scorc was taken aback, but then it grabbed another Patrol member and resumed its feeding upon the scrambling humans.

Raymond stopped running. He was doubling over, trying to catch his breath and looking back.

Billy turned back and tried to help him. He shouted, "Uncle Ray! You gotta run! We can make it!"

Raymond could hardly talk. He shook his head. "Go Billy! Run!"

"I'm not going without you!"

Raymond tried to continue running but he was to the point of barely moving. One of the scorcs front legs landed next to Billy, who then stopped to shoot at the scorc in the face. The scorc grabbed Billy with its claw and was bringing him toward its mouth.

Some staccato loud popping and zipping of some seriously large caliber shooting could be heard, then fountains of sod started springing up in dual parallel lines toward the scorc. The huge scorc was cut in half as the fighter plane completed a strafing run on the monster with its twenty millimeter cannons. The claw that was grasping Billy fell to the ground with him.

Nathan saw the plane tip its wing as it pulled up from the close air support strafing run. "Praise God Almighty."

Raymond ran toward Billy. Billy was not moving, and he was pale and staring into nothingness. The squad members gathered around and quietly looked at him.

"Billy!" Raymond used his arms to pull Billy's body away from the claw, which he kicked at with his foot.

Raymond pulled Billy up into a sitting position and hugged him. "Billy boy, you okay?! I know you are okay, right?! Billy! What have I done?!" Tears rolled down his cheek as he held his nephew. "No," he whimpered, squeezing the motionless body ever tighter.

Billy coughed, "Don't . . . squeeze . . . me, Uncle Ray. I got squeezed *cough* enough already."

"Billy!"

Billy took a few breaths and then a deep one and exhaled. "Okay, that was a close call Uncle Ray. Can we take a break now?"

Sergeant Messer said, "I need a medic over here for this hero!"

The machine gunner said, "The medic's dead, Sergeant."

Billy was coughing and said, "I'm okay. Just leave me alone for a minute."

After several minutes, Patrol Two made its way across the creek and to the front of the barn with the others. They all watched the barn collapse on itself. It was a fire that would burn for over a week. The Captain was informed and came over to the scene of the broken up colossal scorc and took pictures.
Chapter 24

Raymond and others asked Xythia, "Where's Dayton and Squirrel?"

Xythia shook her head. She could barely speak. "Ray, we were all in Patrol Three. I think I'm the only one who made it out."

Raymond's eyes narrowed as he felt the sting of the news, and immediately blamed the deadly outcome on his own choice to get involved with Tina and the monsters on her farm in spite of their constant insistence not to. His face showed that he would have given anything to have gone back in time and never met Tina Fenton but instead went straight on to Wyoming.

Soon the Captain stood and spoke to the entire group, who were resting on the ground, "Thank you, everyone for your service to your country. You all did a great job here and it will long be remembered. Many of you stepped up to try and eliminate this scourge when we requested your help on behalf of the Country. Many of your great fellow citizens did not make it. Unfortunately, although we did degrade the scorc numbers drastically, I think it is correct to say that we did not exterminate them all. For that, I assume full responsibility. And as far as those clans go, I promise you we will make them regret what they did here today. You saw what one of our airstrikes is like. I'm sure the President won't mind using up a few more napalm bombs from our arsenal in retaliation for what the clan did. Any questions? "

A physically unimpressive figure walked slowly toward the side of the Captain with his arms crossed and his head down. He got close to the Captain and looked up and swung a knife at him and plunged it deep into the front of his neck. People screamed. Xythia got up and pulled the man back. The Captain fell backwards to the ground pulling his assailant down to his knees.

Inspector Donaldson said, "That's Borgia! Get him!" He pulled his pistols from their holsters. "We need him alive!"

Raymond was near Borgia and tried to subdue him. Borgia spun around and slashed Raymond deep into the inner thigh. Clem shot Borgia in the back several times to the point of mutilation and he dropped dead, face down with steam from the hot lead shots wafting up from his back.

Raymond held his the wound on his leg and he went down.

Xythia went to Raymond's aid and screamed, "Help! I need some help here!"

Billy ran toward Raymond. "Uncle Ray!"

A couple of soldiers tried to help Raymond.

One of those tending to Raymond said, "I can't stop the bleeding! We need transport to the hospital, stat!"

Max Hammer said, "I'll take him in my copter!" He ran toward his quadcopter.

Inspector Donaldson told Clem, "You shot Borgia!"

"You're welcome," Clem said.

Nathan went to be at Raymond's side. He started praying silently for Raymond as they tried to pick him up without a gurney while desperately trying to slow the bleeding.

Raymond grimaced as he spoke. "Boys, he got me a good one. I'm going to bleed out."

Nathan said, "No way, Ray. You just have a small cut on your leg."

"No," Raymond said, "it's a lot worse than that. Nathan, promise me you will take care of Billy."

Nathan said, "Ray. . . I."

"Promise."

"Yeah, okay, I promise."

Raymond said, "Billy, there's a paper in my pocket, here. I want you to have it."

Billy pulled the paper out and unfolded it. "It's the gold mine. Why Uncle Ray?" Billy started getting teary eyed.

Raymond said, "I want Billy to have my business. All of it."

"No!" Billy said. "I don't want it! You gotta live!"

Raymond spoke between short breaths, "I'm . . . not gonna . . . make it."

People all made way for the quadcopter to land next to Raymond, who already looked unconscious.

Xythia said, "I'm going with him." She hopped onboard.

One of the two soldiers helping Raymond looked at Nathan and Billy, said, "Sorry, Deputies, this man is dead."

They all hung their heads.

"Uncle Ray," Billy said, "I can't hardly believe it. Just a little bit ago he was making sure I wasn't dead. It's like every time I'm supposed to die, someone else does instead."

Nathan said, "You're wrong, Billy. That is not how it works at all."

"It sure seems like it."

Xythia came back from the quadcopter to see what the holdup was. She said, "I was just . . ."

"You don't need to go for medical help anymore," Nathan said in a way that removed all sense of urgency.

They were all stunned by yet another component to a bizarre situation that seemed to get continually more surreal.

Nathan said, "This was what it was like when I was a kid before the reconstruction. We lost so many people that we would lose another one before we could finish grieving for the last one."

Xythia sobbed and said, "Dayton died because he helped me get away. Squirrel . . . it was . . ." she shook her head and was unable to speak. She did not want to relive the horror or share it with the others.

Max Hammer came to Xythia's side and hugged her.

Billy said, "I remember a lot of things that Uncle Ray taught me. When somebody teaches you things, they are giving you something because they want you to do good things for yourself. If they teach you stuff, and they don't get nothing back, they must truthfully care about you. Now Uncle Ray is not here no more so I have to be smarter without him."

Nathan recalled with some regret about so many times when he was perturbed with Billy and didn't want to take the time explain things. "You are so right, Billy. But we will get along somehow. We will get past this."

Nathan also thought about his past relationships with Raymond, Dayton and Squirrel. During their time on earth together, was he ever able to help them understand God's Plan of Salvation? Did he say enough? Could he have said more without them turning totally against him? Did he pray earnestly enough for them? He truly did care for their souls. Why must people be so rigid, so deceived, and not want to listen? All he could think about going over and over in his mind was a scripture verse; "It is appointed unto Man once to die, then after that the Judgment." Whatever was done was done. There would be no do-overs. The thought of his friends in a Godless eternity sent chills down his spine. At this point he could only hope. He thought of another scripture; "By their fruits you shall know them." There was evidence in each of their lives of a possibility of conversion, but they never; "Confessed with their mouths the Lord Jesus," as another verse reads. The bottom line was that Nathan was determined that in the future, he would make sure whoever he could share Jesus with that he would faithfully, even if they caused him discomfort.
Chapter 25

Xythia said, "I really can't believe all this. What are you guys going to do now? Are we still going gold mining?"

Nathan said, "Maybe he's not ready to decide right now, but you'll have to ask your new boss, if you are staying with us."

Billy said, "I have to think about this right now. Where's Tina?"

Xythia said, "Billy, will you just let me know later then?"

"Okay. Give me a minute and maybe I will know."

Nathan pointed in Tina's direction and they walked over to her direction.

Then a news outlet quadcopter landed nearby. Reporters disembarked and were taking pictures. They seemed thrilled with being able to get the scoop on the wild story.

A military detail was assigned to pick up the bodies of those who were killed in action and load them onto a truck. Mourners were following them looking for answers.

Sheriff Henderson stopped Billy and Nathan to talk to them. "I want to thank you men for doing such a great job. I hate to do it, but I'm going to have to ask for your badges back now." He saw the disappointment on Billy's face. "It's not that you didn't do a fantastic job as Deputies, we just can't afford to keep so many Deputies permanently on the payroll."

Nathan readily handed his badge back to the Sheriff. Billy looked disgruntled at Nathan, and then back at the Sheriff. He grudgingly took off the badge and slapped it into Henderson's hand, then walked away. Sheriff Henderson shrugged his shoulders, bewildered at the response.

Nathan said, "We're going mining anyhow, Billy."

Billy shook his head. Then he walked up to Tina with Nathan following. Billy held out the mine claim and said, "I'll give you this for this farm. I know it is just a piece of paper.

Nathan said, "Billy! You might want to think this through. That paper is a gold mine!" Nathan thought he saw something was different in Billy's eyes now. Did he lose his innocence? Did this scorc experience ruin him?

Billy asked Nathan, "How much gold did anybody get out of this here mine claim so far?"

"Uhhh, none, but it may have a good income potential," Nathan said.

"Does this burned up farm have any income potential?"

Nathan said, "Yeah I guess it has potential to make money. Not as much money. Normally, a farm would be less risky than a mine. Of course, this farm was the scene of a battle that involved deadly poisonous, giant, man-eating creatures while being attacked by two death clans and needed a major fire bombing. You were here today while this was going on, right Billy? Remember when you almost got eaten?"

Billy ignored the comment and said, "Tina, I don't want to give you a bad deal, on account that this paper was got from a guy who is pretty shady. I don't mean Uncle Ray, but another guy. How about it?"

Tina looked at the paper and said, "I hate this farm now. I can always sell your mining claim, I guess for something. I might know some people. I could take the money and the money we saved to buy a nice house somewhere far away from here. Sure. You got a deal. Looks like you have to sign it here." Tina pulls a pen out of her handbag. "Sign here and I'll go to the Land Office to turn the deed to the farm over to you."

Nathan rolled his eyes and threw up his hands and said, "Billy! What are you thinking? The mine is going to be our work!"

Billy looked at Nathan in the eyes. "You know what Uncle Ray told me one time? He was a wonderful man. He said that you men have no idea what it is like to be the boss. The men who work for you complain all of the time, but they are not responsible for anything. And if you do the wrong thing, you will hurt not only just yourself, but also all the men working for you and their families. I am trying my best, even though I don't want to even be the boss, to keep you and Xythia in a job, Okay?" Then Billy signed the paper and handed it to Tina. "This is the only farm with some 'income potential' that anyone is going to give me for a gold mine paper. Now I need to go talk to the Inspector." He started walking toward Inspector Donaldson.

Nathan followed him. "Billy! I don't get what you are doing here!" He asked, "What if one of your men get killed?! You know; like me?!"

Billy answered the question with one of his own, "Do men ever get killed when they are digging in the mines and the dirt comes down on them?"

Nathan sighed. "Okay, all I am saying is that you just need to slow down a little. We don't want to make a mistake here."

Billy said without looking. "You know what Uncle Ray said? My Uncle Raymond was a wonder man, just a wonderful man. He taught me to shoot and he . . .

"What did he say?" Nathan asked.

"He said that sometimes you have to make a decision right away. If you think about it too long, you won't make any decision and you will wish all the time later on that you did. You know Uncle Ray, him and me used to talk a lot. He was a really smart guy."

Nathan said, "Billy, I don't think that . . ."

Billy stopped and looked at Nathan. "Raymond said you are supposed to help me. You said you would. So now you have to stay here and help me with the farm."

Nathan tells Billy, "I can't stay here. Jerri and Johnny are back home in Ohio."

"They can come here. They got a train that will get them here, you know. Sell your house and we can make one for you here. Right over there. Or prob'ly we can move your house here." Billy was surveying his land.

"No, they can't come here. I won't let them! Aren't you afraid the scorcs will come back into the corn?!"

"No, on account that I'll grow wheat instead of corn. Or maybe I'll make it all water around the farm so monsters will stay out. Nathan, people don't listen to me because sometimes I'm not as smart as them. But they don't listen so many times I think it's just a bad habit. They don't even want to stop and think that I might be right sometimes. I figure I am smart enough to do what I want, so I am going to do things people say I can't do, but I know for sure I really can."

Nathan was starting to think that at times perhaps Billy's simple reasoning was the best. It was like Billy had some other kind of intelligence. Or perhaps the more a person knows, or thinks they know, the more they will imagine so many negative outcomes to the point of not trying anything.

Billy saw the Inspector. He walked up to Donaldson and said abruptly without preamble, "Remember, you are supposed to give Uncle Ray's salvage business some payment now, and now I own the business. I heard you tell him that."

"Um, okay, what do you need, some gas? Food? That's true I said I would take care of expenses, and I am a man of my word."

"No, I need a lot more. On account that I lost my Uncle Ray, Dayton, and Squirrel. They were all wonderful men. I need a lot more."

The Inspector looked at Nathan, "Hey, what exactly is going on here? I feel bad for your loss, but what can I do about it?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "They were wonderful men. Our business and livelihood is crippled now."

Billy said. "Remember when my Uncle Ray said that he was not going to turn down his country when they needed the help? If you don't help me out now, I'll tell."

Donaldson looked a little miffed. He lost his composure and said, "Tell who, your mommy?"

"Hey!" Nathan said.

"No, she's not coming here," Billy said, "on account that she won't let me do anything. She says I'm not careful. She says I'm accident prone."

Nathan thought to himself; where would she get that idea?

Billy told Donaldson, "I'm not trying to be mean or anything like that, but you promised my Uncle Ray something and if you don't keep your promise I am going to go tell those news people over there that you lied and you are a liar."

Nathan said, "Billy! You can't talk to the inspector that! Sorry, Inspector. Everyone just needs to calm down right now."

Billy said, "I'm not sorry. I never said he was a liar. I just said I will say he is one. I can say he is a liar if he lies. But he won't turn out to be a liar. I think he's a pretty okay guy. Maybe he just forgot he made a promise, right Inspector?"

The Inspector chuckled, "Okay, Billy, you seem to be exaggerating a little, but let's see if I can help you out here."

"I need a flamethrower, and a fitty, and some night goggles . . . and also a badge."

"Huh?" Donaldson said, "You want a job? You want all that stuff to fight scorcs? Even after everything that happened today?"

Billy stared blankly. "My Uncle Ray says you have to find your passion. You don't just do a job all the time you don't have the passion for. I ain't got the passion for digging and trying to find yellow rocks. What if we don't find any? That would be boring. And that salvage expert hat Nathan gave me was nice and all, but I don't have the passion for sweeping out the garage all the time. After today I know my passion is to kill stinking scorcs. I just want the badge. The Sheriff took my badge."

Nathan said, "Billy, the Inspector is saying that if you have a badge, that means you have a job."

"Okay. Yes please," Billy said. "I want the job killing scorcs."

The Inspector said, "Billy, you are just dreaming here. We all know none of that is realistic. Come on, how am I supposed to take you seriously?"

"Simple," Billy said. "I am seriously going over to talk to the news people now and tell them you know what. Uncle Ray says that government people hate it when you make them look bad to the news people. You're a government people, right?"

Nathan scowled at Billy, wondering exactly what Billy's Uncle Ray doing that he would have to explain such a tactic."

Billy stared down the Inspector.

The Inspector's eyes shifted around and he held up his hands, shook his head and said, "Tell you what I can do. If you want to continue to hunt scorcs, I can hire you and a crew as special contractors. You know; special agents for hunting down scorcs. We need to kill as many of them as we can, right?"

Billy asked, "Is special agent as big as sheriff?

Nathan said, "Sure, Billy. They're about the same, I guess. You almost got killed fighting scorcs. I still don't understand why you would want to do it, because I sure don't."

Billy asked Donaldson, "Does special agent have good income potential?"

The Inspector said, "I'm only going to pay you a hundred a month."

"I get a hundred dollars a month?!"

"Okay, a hundred and twenty. That's it. Take it or leave it."

"A hundred and twenty?!"

Nathan said, "You just got took, Inspector, he was thrilled with the hundred."

Billy said, "I need Nathan to be my Deputy."

The Inspector said, "Of course you do. Billy, I said you could have a crew. I'll pay them the crew also, but we need results, or I pull the plug."

"You got yourself a Special Agent!" Billy offered his hand to shake on it.

The Inspector offered a limp handshake in return. "I will need weekly reports on what is going on around here."

Nathan scowled, "Did I just get hired for a job that I didn't apply for?"

"Yes," the Inspector sighed and said, "Is that all?"

Billy said, "We already got a truck. We got the tow truck and some more stuff in Ohio. Can I get one of those jet airplanes with some bombs?"

"Sorry. No jet. I do have a budget, Billy. If you are going to get all this, like I said, we need results. Is that understood?"

"I almost forgot. Glad you asked. I need some radios."

Donaldson said, "I better write all this down. I'm going to leave right now while I'm still wearing underwear."

Nathan told Billy, "So you are going to hunt scorcs and raise wheat, huh?"

Billy said, "Yes we are. But also I am going to get a lawyer and take that UU Research place to court. Maybe we can make a scorc museum here. And don't forget about all the cash we will get from Ogie Inn when we sell them scorc meat. We gotta start picking up some meat now while it is fresh. It's like free money lying around out there."

Nathan was taken aback by the capitalistic fiend Billy was becoming. "You are going to be the worst boss ever. Ray would be really proud."

Xythia found Billy and Nathan picking up some large scorc legs. She locked her arm with Billy's. She asked in the most upbeat way she could, given that the day ended in the loss of their friends, "Well Boss, did you make up your mind yet? We still going to work together?"

Billy said, "Yeah, don't worry about that right now. Will you marry me?"

Nathan's jaw dropped open and stayed open as he looked back and forth at both of them.

"What?!" Xythia said. She pulled her arm away from Billy. "No way!"

Billy said, "It just seemed like things were going good and it would be a good time to ask."

THE END

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Other Books from this Publisher:

3 Short Sci-fi Stories: by Den Warren includes; The Culling: A freely conceived individual decides he can no longer stand idly by while imperfect clone children are exterminated. Cowboys vs. Subterrans: A hunter in the old west and his partner are forced to confront a mysterious menace. Space Pearl: A maintenance technician finds a strange object. At the end of the story, roll the dice to determine the ending.

K-Tron by A. Random Guy

The story, as told by a young, not so smart lackey, works for an eccentric supervillain. He has numerous physical problems with the hard to manage super powers that are inflicted upon him. He is torn between the temptation of readily available, evil gotten gain to help his poor family, or doing the right thing. To his surprise, many self-proclaimed superheroes find him through social media. The protagonist becomes entangled in web of allies and adversaries, all producing intense mayhem.

Metahuman Wars by Den Warren

This is an action-packed humorous superhero novel set in the Unbelievable Universe by Den Warren. Follow new characters from their super powered origins to the many battles among the numerous colorful factions in Neogothic City. Supervillains from all over the country and beyond flock to Neogothic City after all metahumans are banned from the City. They know that without superhero opposition, they can openly wreak death and mayhem. The true superheroes must decide if the City is worth trying to save. Some will not come to their aid. Some will leave. Yet a brave team, called the Pain Posse, continues the fight to erase the scourge controlling the City, known as the Tolerance Consortium.

KINGS and CLANS of the Midwest by Den Warren; This is a near future novel set in the Midwestern United States. This is the story of how the Scorc setting came about. The Characters watch the Dollar quickly become worthless before their very eyes. Without a viable currency, the economy, and the Country, quickly slides into an apocalyptic collapse.

Characters from various backgrounds are desperate to survive in a situation where resources are diminishing rapidly, and many resort to the worst kinds of evil to get their "fair share".

Very few of the characters at the beginning of this dystopian apocalyptic setting have a clue about how to provide and protect for themselves. In order to survive, characters are forced to join one of the colorful and often violent factions. Some seek to rebuild a better civilization, while others can only try to survive.

Those who oversaw the ruin of the Country, led by the US President, are desperate to cling to whatever power they can. The POTUS illegally invites the United Nations to help Homeland Security disarm its citizens and restore order to the nation. But many of the independent minded souls of the Midwest see things differently. . .

Ayanna by Den Warren is the second book in the KINGS and CLANS Series. In a world where many people kill for their daily needs, a young girl, who spent her formative years among a murderous clan of cannibals, is now under the guidance of a militaristic community, where she learns the ways of war.

Independent States of America, by Den Warren is the third novel in the Kings and Clans Trilogy ©, and includes many of the same characters found in the previous two novels.

Long after the financial collapse, the last thing the rebuilding former United States nations wanted, or needed, was a major war. Yet, events kept dragging the ISA, the Independent States of America toward an all-out conflict with their ideological rival, Homeland.

Kings and Clans of the Midwest, Ayanna, and Independent States of America, are all available in paperback or the entire Trilogy is also available in a single paperback or E-book.

Kings and Clans of the Midwest is also available in an audio edition.

Supervision; A Leadership Mindset by Richard Warren: Non-fiction training book for supervisors and would-be supervisors. Definitely worthwhile for anyone who works, or maybe as a gift for a sucky boss who could use some brutally honest advice.

This Must Read Collection of Books:

The Bible, King James Version: There are many fantastic stories in the world that people enjoy reading. Marvel at the origin of the universe! Follow amazing people through impossible situations! Learn how Jesus miraculously sent his Son to defeat sin itself, and how he will defeat the original supervillain in the future! A story which you are personally involved!!!

