My Night

[Ron Caliburn]

I know it sounds silly, but I bring my cat with me whenever I do this sort of thing.

On the logical side of things, a cat’s just better for the job. It’s just as sensitive as a dog, but it doesn’t get all stupid and loud and aggressive. When a cat knows there’s a spook about, it’ll arch its back and puff up some, maybe let out a quiet growl, but it won’t start barkin’ and howlin’ and raisign a real rukus. Well it will get noisey when the damned critter is in the same room as you, but by then it knows you’re there anyway.

Besides, I’m a cat person.

Anyway, my friend with the GIS program found a cluster of child disappearances over the last 8 months. Lookin’ over the maps it looked like a bunch of the kids that had disappeared had all traveled through a particular 4 block area. Needless to say, that’s where I headed.

I didn’t know enough about what I was up against to tell you what it was before I saw it. A bogeyman was my leadin’ bet, but in truth, I don’t care so much about what it is. I just want the kids to be safe.

Of course even if it was goin’ to be a bogeyman, I’ve never faced one before. But as Grandpa used to say, ain’t nuthin’ that can’t die.

Of course Grandpa would tell me that whenever I did somethin’ dangerous and stupid too.

Anyway, I loaded up my gear in the trunk and put Mr. Fluffers’ cushion in the shotgun seat and went for a drive.

I cruised the area I suspected a few times. I’m not sure what I was lookin’ for, but I knew between me and Mr. Fluffers we’d find it.

It took about half a dozen passes before I saw it. It might seem strange when I say it, but it will make sense. When I describe it. It was a sewer grate.

Yeah, yeah, a sewer grate, big deal.

But parts of it were shiney, worn down.

Somethin’ had regularly moved the grate.

I pulled my car over about half a block away and got my gear out of the trunk. Then I let Mr Fluffers out. Immediately he starts talkin’, and soon a half dozen other cats came out to say hi.

If I knew what they were sayin’, I’d check myself back into the clinic, but it was pretty obvious the grate was the centre of their attention.

Anyway, by the time I was finished dressin’ for the party, it was obvious it weren’t just the cats about. On the roofs, telephone wires and benches were probably a couple dozen black birds. Ravens or crows, I don’t know, but there were plenty of them.

Safe to say I was certain this was the spot as I went over to the grate.

You know, those things are heavier than they look.

I clambered down the ladder and turned on my goggles. I also flicked on the IR pointer I carry. It lets my goggles work in total darkness, but it doesn’t seem to tip off the freaky things.

After a deep breath I also slapped on my air filter . . . don’t ever let anybody tell you stinks like a sewer is only a sayin’.

Mr Fluffers wouldn’t even follow me down.

Stupid cats, can’t depend on them for anythin’. I need to get me a dog.

Fortunately I wouldn’t need him to track the creature, it was easy to tell that something got regularly dragged through the muck down here. I followed the slime-encrusted-brick road to the south.

It wasn’t long before I found a makeshift ladder. Seein’ as the trail stopped at the base, I figured that up was the way to go. After adjusting my chest plate, I started up.

Now it’s only a stupid, stupid man who would charge in where I was going, and I moved as soft and silent as any cat on my way up the stairs. The door I found at the top wasn’t locked, but the hinges were rusty.

Fortunately they were on my side of the door. A little finickin’ and the hinges were of and I could take the door off and quietly put it aside. I hope you all remember that trick.

I also hope you all remember the next trick too, I have a laptop computer security alarm. I use a couple of simple adhesive hooks, a bit of fishing line and the alarm to make a simple trip alarm. Something comes through the door and a 90 decibel siren will greet it.

Now I started to search the place. I was back up at street level, in a boarded up abandoned toy store. All these old dusty toys staring at me from the shelves . . . creepy stuff there.

I finished with the front room without finding anything, so I moved back into the store room.

I hate it when they keep trophies. . .

There were about two dozen little skulls sittin’ on the counter top. More than had gone missing in the area, so either this thing had a bigger huntin’ gound than I figured, or it has moved from a previous lair and brought its souveniers with it.

Fortunately the skulls weren’t looking at me when I came in. I stepped a bit further into the room and looked where the skulls were looking.

A cage.

With something moving in it.

Whatever was in the cage didn’t know I was there. The streetlights outside weren’t shining strong enough to get through the boards over the windows. So I crept over closer to the cage, ready to rumble if I didn’t like what I found.

Fortunately it was a couple of kids. They weren’t in good shape, but they were alive. The oldest, a girl, was about 8. The younger one, a boy, was probably 4.

Searching my memory I took a chance and tried what I thought was the name of the last girl to disappear.

Ashley?

The girl gave a little yelp and I shushed her down.

I’m here to get you out, but you need to be quiet, okay?

Nod.

Wake up your friend, quietly, I’m going to open the cage. When the cage is open I want the two of you to stay next to me until I tell you otherwise. Okay?

Nod. Smart girl.

Popping the lock wasn’t hard, I have a gift with locks.

The kids were nice and quiet, but they often are in these situations. They seem to understand what it takes to survive when monsters are about. I moved back into the front section of the store and loosened a couple of boards next in the window.

I handed Ashley the keys and told her In the back seat of the big black car there’s a couple of blankets and some candy. Go there, get under the blankets and have something to eat. Lock the door behind you. I’ll knock 3 times when it’s safe. My friend Mr. Fluffers will be there to take care of you.

She nodded, took the keys and lead the boy straight across the road. Smart girl.

Mr. Fluffers met them halfway and escorted them to the car. He’s great like that.

You can always count on a cat.

As soon as I saw the car door was closed I set about taking care of the other half of the job. Whatever this thing is, it had to die.

I spent a little while setting up and putting the door back together. I knew which way the thing was going to come, so it wasn’t hard to set up a strategy.

Of course my strategies usually aren’t that complicated, not many monsters have discovered a solution for superior firepower.

It was getting near dawn when I heard the cats and birds outside start up. Damn noisey racket. Probably a dozen cats and a score or more of the birds just howlin’ for all they were worth.

I guess they don’t like this thing neither.

Now I admit I had been pretty lucky up to this point. I’d had the run of the creature’s lair and I had what I thought was a good ambush set up.

I ain’t no expert on what’s what, but I was figuring by now this thing was a bogeyman. When I heard the door open and close I hunkered down in my hide. I had a few games I wanted to play first.

I heard it walk past me. It was a slow walk. Everything it did was slow and noisey. It wanted the kids to know it was coming. It wanted them to be terrified.

The thing smelled, not just of the sewer, but of raw alcohol.

I haven’t had a drink in about three years, but I was really wishin’ I’d kept my old flask.

It was chuckling . . . I hate it when these things laugh. They don’t really know how. It always grates on my neves.

Of course putting up with the laugh was a small price to play when I heard the startled grunt when it saw what had happened to the skulls.

Call it a hunch, but I thought that maybe replacing the skulls with a pile of plush cats and birds might distress it.

I was right.
While the thing was smashin’ an’ crashin’ around I slipped out of my hide and crept towards the noise. Normally I’d just stand up and blast away with a gun, but this time I wanted something more. Instead I got out my blade and got ready to stick it.

This was when my luck ran out.

The thing came back around the corner just as I was about to step through the door.

I wasn’t expecting something so big.

It wasn’t expecting me either.

I drove my blade at the big broad chest at the same time as it went for a big back hand.

We both struck home.

I left my blade in his chest and he launched me back over two rows of shelves and through two more. When my vision cleared I was at the bottom of a pile of broken toys and the brute was charging forward, smashin’ his way through the shelves.

This was not a part of my plan.

It brought a big two-handed axe handle chop down on where I was laying, fortunately I wasn’t there no more. It lashed out a few more times as I rolled to my feet and ducked and dodged. Fortunately I was just a half step ahead each time, but the thing was fast and I was rapidly runnin’ out of room to take cover. All I needed was two steps and I could take him, but I had wall on one side and him on the other three.

Then he lost focus.

Outside the birds and the cat’s were a wailin’ like it was Judgement Day. For some reason the noise bothered the thing. It turned and yelled at them through the boards on the window. What it said, I can’t repeat, but I understood most of it.

Diddums gots a potty mouth.

Anyway, while it was distracted I took the only route out I could see and ducked and rolled between the brutes legs.

Like I said, he was fast, but by the time he turned around I’d taken my two steps and brought out my Saiga. Nice weapon the Saiga, based on the AK-47, my particular number is chambered for 12 guage shotgun rounds.

I emptied the clip.

Now like a lot of these creatures, this brute was able to shake off a couple of gunshots, but seven rounds of magnum 00 buck in the space of a couple of seconds was more than enough to knock him back off his feet and through the boarded up window.

I switched around the clips as I went to the window. The sun had just peaked over the horizon and was shining onto the street. The creature really did look human. Big and ugly, but it looked human.

Of course if it were a human the blade sticking out of his chest or the shotgun wounds would have kept him down, but instead he was rising to his feet.

I brought the Saiga up, but suddenly something zipped in between me and it. Then another. Next thing I knew dozens of birds and cats were pouncing on the brute.

I don’t usually have sympathy for these things, but that’s not a death I’d wish on any thing that lived. Being ripped apart by those sharp beaks and claws, it took a couple of moments but out from under the cats and birds scurried a couple of hundred rats that melted away into the sewers.

I quickly cleaned up my shell casings and went to the car. I knocked 3 times and Ashley popped the lock.

I heard the sirens coming so I got her and the little boy out of the car and told them to wait there for the police to come. The police would make sure they got home safe.

Of course they started crying, but they were safe and I had to leave so I stowed my stuff, slid in beside Mr. Fluffers and started for home.

I passed the cruisers as they were heading to the scene and headed for home.

So, how was your night?

[Silhouette]

Yours sounds better than mine. Before coming back to see what Lazlo has to say about the Ankou and the missing body parts, I was running around crazy.

First I went to meet this guy called Bill Long who is an ex-employee of that RPG company I mentioned earlier. We set up a meeting at this local club with security that I trust.

Our conversation was going well, and he was about to dump something about his former employer that seemed like it might be incriminating, if not exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Unfortunatly he had a bit much to drink and needed the bathroom. I didn't think this was a big deal given the extent to which I trust this enviroment. The owner wasn't exactly going to let him slip out on me. The guy took a bit long, I went to check on him, and when I got to the bathroom he was standing there looking sick and wild eyed and pulled a gun on me that I'm sure he didn't have when he went in. I'm sure he didn't have it when he went in because the gun was a Galil Assault rifle that looked like it just came out of a packing crate yesterday.

At any rate, he's off balance and a bit drunk, not to mention in his right mind. He points the gun at point blank when I walk in and prepares to unload. I grab the barrel and force it up, and the plaster on the celling takes half a clip of ammo before I wrestle it out of his hands.

I wind up chasing the guy out of the club and through the parking lot when I lose sight of the guy in a shadow and suddenly he's got a full sized M-10 which I'm positive wouldn't have been concealable in the shorts and T-shirt this guy was wearing. There is some gunplay, a lot of ammo is expended, a few cars receive holes, I chase the guy down the street, more ammo is expended on both sides, and finally he just up and vanishes by stepping into another bloody shadow, leaving me with a bunch of cops to deal with and less than a full magazine.

To compound this issue a nutty aquaintence of mine decides to make an apperance at this point. This native american whack job who wears a funky mask and feathers and thinks he's some kind of spiritual super-hero called "The Kachina Spirit Dancer" or whatever. On the positive side, he does help me avoid the cops (never mind how, that's his secret to tell), on the not so positive side he convinces me that since he saved me I should go slogging through swampy storm drain run off with him. After an hour long stinking trek we find the lair of some creature which had been decorated with newborn babies hanging from meathooks. Fortunatly for us the critter was laying dead on the floor when we got there. Unfortunatly the so-called 'Ghost Hunter' who did the job was a 15 year old girl who was trigger happy and decided to pump about four of those glowing TK bolt-things this paticular brand of American ghost-hunting fetishist likes to shoot from guns into my chest. Thankfully I was wearing enough body armor tonight where I merely busted a few ribs, although there is a nice crack in the wall where I impacted.

All told a really bad night. No rescues, no creatures down (at least at my hands), lots of expended ammo, apologies to be made to contacts, and of course the news that there is a trigger-happy 15 year old brimming with supernatural power and eager to prove that she's cooler than "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" operating in my back yard.

[PSC27]

That's nice...Ours was tame. We learned not to mix genetic magick with a creature that can destroy the world. And got taken off the case very quickly. Then again, we were sent to assess...not to fight.

[Ron Caliburn]

Nasty luck for both of you.

PSC, does anything need to happen about eliminatin' those critters before they spread?

S, didn't your momma ever tell you that those RPG things would warp your mind?

[Contact_21]

Ron,

You revived some bad memories of my early days as a Lazlo Agent. But you did some really good work there. You also know how to tell your story in an entertaining fashion which my more literary side can relate to.


Contact_21
Lazlo Agent

[Ron Caliburn]

Thanks for your praise C21.

I was begining to get worried that the people 'round here didn't take to kindly to those who prefer ta get rid of the monsters.

Perhaps sometime we can here some of your old stories.

[Ron Caliburn]

Any new stories guys? Me and Debunker are stymied with this Lucifer thing and I need to take my mind off for a little bit.

[Kolya]

I just wrapped up the case in Kamchatka. We got to kick in a some doors and have a few gun battles with some deranged chemists. No time for the details at the moment, but it was intense. They were much more prepared for the fight than we had anticipated.

I also got to work with some Americans in Alaska. I could not take part in the action, but I was there. Next time I get R&R, I want to visit the States... maybe see the Grand Canyon or something. Maybe go on a hunting trip, too.

Good luck in Vegas.

[Ron Caliburn]

I know some good hunting grounds I'd be happy to show you. I'd be even happier to show them if you brought over some of those new 9 mm rifles and ammunition for me to experiment with.

[Kolya]

Place an order and I will see what I can do. Looks like we are getting some R&R in a couple of months.

[Ron Caliburn]

Sounds promising.

[Ron Caliburn]

Update:

My friend in the college has said he's still pickign up a higher than normal dissapearance rate for the area, something's still there.

When I'm done this buisness out in La La land I'll come back to finsih this one off.

[Ron Caliburn]

So much unfinished buisness.

I should wrap this one up to take my mind off of what's been going on lately.

[Ron Caliburn]

Two years gone and I still haven't managed to wrap this one up.

I need to take the fight back out to the streets isntead of just staring at the walls

[Natasha]

Write me or write Kolya, if we can help you.

[Ron Caliburn]

It was Karl who lead me to this monster to let me save those two kids. So just remember those of us who are still warriors, even if they haven't faced blade, bullet, claw or fang.

Rest in peace Karl.

[Razor]

Here here... Not everybody in the fight uses a gun. The mind, and clear thought is one's best weapon. Karl, I am willing to bet you were more valuable an allie than one would guess.

[KonThaak]

Ron... I didn't know Karl, but I can let him know you're thinking of him, if you want.

[Ron Caliburn]

Thanks - but I believe the dead should be left alone - they earned their rest in life.

[KonThaak]

I understand.