Terror In Mayberry: Chapter Two

Otis Campbell stumbled into the courthouse minutes before Sheriff Andy that morning. He walked as though he were on a small ship being tossed in a violent storm. He rocked and flailed about to his prison cell, which now had a back wall missing, and reached for the set of keys which normally hung on a hook between the two cells. The keys were not there. He said through drunken speech, "I tell you what. The level of service is just dropping in this place." Instead he reached in his jacket pocket and removed his own key, "Good thing Andy had my own key cut."

Otis unlocked the cell door, walked inside, and stammered directly back outside through the crumbled wall in the back of the cell. He turned left and walked out of sight.

Andy walked into the courthouse and was immediately alarmed by the hole in the wall. "Barney! Barn!" Andy raced to the small room where Barney slept, "Barney! Wake up." Andy shook Barney, who said in his sleep with a smile on his face, "Thelma…" and began to make kissing sounds. Andy shook him harder, "Barney, wake up!"

Barney sat up quickly, his night cap falling off, "Whu… what's wrong?"

"Barney, what happened? Are you all right?"

Barney said yes, "What's going on? What's the emergency?"

Andy asked, "What's the emergency? What happened here last night, Barn?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

The two of them walked into the main chamber and Andy said, "Well?"

Barney still had not noticed the hole in the wall as Otis entered the courthouse again and made another circle out through the rear of the prison cell. Andy exclaimed, "The cell Barney! Look at the prison cell!"

Barney looked at the prison cell and leaped with excitement, "Andy! Well… wuh.. Wuh.. Andy! Andy! There's a hole in the wall!"

"I know that Barney, how did it get there?"

"I don't know Andy, I swear. I just don't know."

Otis made yet another circle through courthouse.

Andy asked, "Barney, how could you have slept through something like this?"

"I don't know Andy; I just don't know. Sometimes I sleep pretty hard."

Andy said, "Pretty hard? Barney, the back wall is blown open."

Otis walked back into the courthouse and to the prison cell and unlocked the door once again. Andy yelled, "Otis!" Otis stopped in his tracks and looked drunkenly at Andy. Andy said, "Otis, would you just stop."

Otis asked, "Stop what?"

Andy pointed at the busted wall in the prison. Otis reeled back a step and said, "Andy. The wall is gone."

Andy said, "Thank you, Otis. Use the other cell please."

"Oh, Andy, you know I don't like that other cell."

Barney said, "Otis, you get in that other cell. Your's is the scene of a crime now and we can't have you messing up the evidence."

"Andy?" Otis whined.

Andy said, "Barney's right Otis. You will have to use the other cell this morning."

Otis huffed and unlocked the other cell, "I said it once. The service in this place is going down hill by the second." Otis stepped inside and slammed the cell door, "You could at least call and warn a guy when you make renovations to his room," and Otis fell to the bed.

Andy reached for the phone on his desk and saw that it was turned over and off the hook. Barney was standing by the wrecked cell door and said, "Andy, did you see this?"

"See what?" Andy asked.

"There's puddles of… slime… or ooze, and it sort of looks like it's glowing."

Andy had the phone to his ear and said, "Don't touch it Barney." He focused his attention to the phone, "Hello, Sarah? This is Sheriff Taylor. Sarah, get me the State Office in Raleigh."

"The State Office?" Barney was shocked.

"That's right Barney. A blown out wall, a missing detainee, and green glowing slime, I think we may be a little out of our league here."

Barney shuddered at the thoughts of the mystery on hand, and he knew Andy was right. They would need help, very specialized help.

On the outskirts of Mayberry, highway 52 is the main travel way to arrive. A black sedan was bulleting towards Mayberry, swinging past slower vehicles and making an unknown record time. Behind the driver's wheel was a dark lens wearing man in a black suit. The passenger, an attractive strawberry haired woman was more than a bit nervous. "Mulder, do you think you might slow down a bit?" she asked.

Fox Mulder replied, "What's the matter Scully? Can't take life in the fast lane?"

She was white knuckled on her armrest, "There is no fast lane on this highway and you are going to get us killed."

"Yep. Well, I want to get into 'Poe Donk' and back out again as quickly as I can. I have no desire to linger in a one horse town."

Scully said, "I will be glad to just linger long enough to make it there. Besides, small towns aren't so bad."

"Are you kidding me? Everyone knows everyone else, sometimes almost intimately, and is nosing in everyone else's business. Filled with people of little ambition…"

Scully cackled, "Little ambition? That's a little unfair. How can you be so judgmental?"

"Come on Scully, if they had ambition they would not still be in the small town. Small ambition leads to poorly educated, which leads to this simple minded mass of back wood imbeciles who believe catching the largest fish is a milestone in a person's existence."

Scully was silent for only a moment, "Wow. You got some kind of chip there on your shoulder?"

"I am really surprised at you Scully. I always took you for a high rolling, ambitious city girl who grabbed life by the horns and tamed her own destiny. I never thought you would be the one to run to the defense of 'small town charm'."

Scully glared out the window and said softly, "Well, maybe I could use a little small town charm."

The black sedan came to a dusty halt in front of the Mayberry Courthouse. The two agents exited the car and Mulder knocked on the courthouse door. Barney opened and answered, "Can I help you?"

Mulder flashed his badge, "Hello, I'm special agent Mulder and this is special agent Scully of the F.B.I. It's been reported that you encountered a strange phenomenon leading to the disappearance of one person, damage to city property, and the findings of some sort of unknown residue left behind from the incident?"

Barney smiled wildly and grabbed Mulder's hand, shaking it rapidly, "The F.B.I.! Wow. A G-man, true an blue." Barney gave Mulder a slant eyed wink, "You know, I've often thought about signing up for the F.B.I. myself."

Mulder asked, "Is that right?"

"Oh sure. I try to stay apprised and up to current on the latest in detectiving."

"Really? What sources do you use?"

"Ah, you know," Barney was still gripping Mulder's hand, "'True Crime' magazine and all the latest 'Agent Thriller' paperbacks."

Mulder forced a smile and pried his hand from Barney's, "Well, it's hard to beat those."

There was an uncomfortable silence for Mulder as Barney stood and smiled, so Mulder nodded forward beyond Barney. "OH," Barney exclaimed and backed from the entrance, "come in. Come in. Make yourselves at home, you know, me casa you casa."

As Scully and Mulder stepped inside, Mulder looked back over his shoulder to Scully with a mocking smile. She cleared her throat to remind Mulder to watch his manners.

Andy stepped forward and put out his hand to Mulder, "Howdy there, I'm Sheriff Taylor, and I see you've met Deputy Fife."

Mulder kept his straight forward demeanor, "Agent Mulder and agent Scully."

Andy took Scully's hand gently and softly said, "Well. I declare. I never knew the F.B.I. enlisted such nice looking agents. Must be hard for a head turner like you to work undercover and not be noticed."

Scully blushed and looked away shyly, "Sheriff… nice to meet you."

Andy released her hand and stood admiring her while tried to hide her apparent reciprocation. Mulder was amazed that such a line could have such an effect on his partner. Through crooked mouth he said, "Yes… Sheriff Taylor do you think you could show us scene of the incident?"

Barney leaped in front of Mulder's face, "Come right this way agent Mulder. I'll show you the crime scene."

Andy never took his eyes off of Scully, and she did not follow Mulder.

Barney grasped his belt loops and tugged up his pants, arching his back and pursing his lips he said in a high nasally tone, "Here in the Mayberry maximum security facility, we have two of the most advanced holding cells known to forensic science." Barney patted the bars, "Yessiry, no one could bust out of this baby."

Mulder pointed to the hole in the back side of the cell, "Only if they decide to make their own back door."

Barney cleared his throat and said, "Yeah, well, sure," and he patted the bars again, "But you can take note the bars are still in tact. Just as strong as ever."

Mulder asked, "May I step inside?"

Barney unlocked the door and opened it, then gave the door a little tug, "See that. Space age steel."

Mulder stooped to the floor and scooped some of the glowing ooze into a sample tube. He stood back up and let the fluid prism in the sun, casting a green aura in the pupils of his eyes.

Barney asked, "What do you think it is?"

Mulder said, "Clearly, some sort of extra terrestrial secretion."

Scully heard this and stepped by Andy to the cell, "Based on what assumption?"

Mulder said, "I think it's pretty straight forward. This is the scene of an abduction."

Barney was bursting with curiosity, "What sort of an abduction?"

"This is a basic close encounter of the fourth kind, Deputy. What happens is an intelligence from space comes to Earth and takes a person aboard their vessel."

"What in the world for?" asked Barney.

"Popular consensus in the scientific community is the other world travelers are studying us."

"You don't say…"

Scully barked, "Here we go again. You think everything is an abduction or has some connection to sentient beings from outer space."

"What do you think happened?" asked Mulder.

Scully answered, "Without a serious investigation, less an immediate dose of wishful thinking, I'm sure it's difficult to know. But I would say this vagrant stranger passing through town may have had enemies or allies who decided to pull the wall down from the outside and… either free this prisoner or place him in an even worse type of captivity. Possibly to do him harm or even kill him."

Mulder flashed the vile of green ooze at her, "Then how do you explain this?"

"I don't at the present. I don't think we should make guesses with concrete evidence. The best course of action would be to let me take this sample and analyze it."

Mulder looked to Andy, "What do you think Sheriff?"

Andy smiled and gently scratched the back of his head, "Well… you two are the experts, and I don't mean to take any sides here, but you have to admit the sound of flying saucers and such is a bit far fetched."

Barney said, "Oh Andy, they're dropping out of the sky like flies all the time."

Mulder placed the sample of gook in Scully's hands, "Then I leave this in your charge. I eagerly await when you concede to my judgment of the incident."

Scully pierced Mulder with her eyes, "Not everything is an alien attack on humanity."

Mulder smiled, "And not everything isn't."

A growing ruckus of voices could be heard outside the courthouse. Andy opened the front door and saw a mass of upset towns people. Andy spoke over them, "Here now. What's this all about."

One of the local farmers stepped forward with a newspaper in his hand, "Andy, what are you going to do about this?"

Andy took the paper and read the headline, "Terror in Mayberry?" He continued to read, "Mayberry resident has made quite a claim… monstrous beast lurking in the night… turned his tractor over…" Andy looked into the crowd, "Who reported this?"

The local farmer said, "I heard rumor is was Luke Jenson. We all know Luke. Sober minded, serious, honest to a fault. He wouldn't make something like this up. What are you going to do to protect us?"

"First of all," Andy said, "Luke should have notified us instead of running to the newspaper first. Second of all, I will speak with Luke and get to the bottom of this. Until then, don't panic. As far as I know, no one has been injured or reported anything of the likes. Now you all just go home and go about a normal day."

Someone else from the crowd said, "We also heard the F.B.I. was here. Is that true? If there is nothing to worry about, what are they doing here?"

Mulder whispered in Scully's ear, "See, small town, news travels fast."

Andy said to the crowd, "Look, I'm in no position to give away any official details…"

Mulder stepped forward and addressed the group of people, "Folks, may I have your attention. My name Fox Mulder, I am a special agent with the F.B.I., and while it is true we are leading an investigation, we have no present evidence to alarm you of any creatures lurking about."

Someone shouted, "Then why are you here?"

"We are here to investigate a simple prison break."

A man in a brown suit made his way through the crowd to the front and faced Andy and Mulder, "I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the claims made in this article."

Andy did not recognize the man in the suit, "I don't think I know you."

The man said, "No. We haven't met. My name is Jack McGee. I am a reporter with the 'National Register'." The man showed his reporter's license to the two officials. "I happen to believe the report made in your paper."

The crowd began to roar again and Andy addressed them, "Simmer down everyone. Simmer down. Now I want you all to go home while we get to the bottom of things here. I promise you all, we will let you know something as soon as we possibly can. Until then, go home and go about your normal day." Andy looked at the reporter and said quietly, "You mind not starting another riot?"

McGee replied, "Don't you think these people have a right to protect themselves?"

Andy asked, "Do you know something we don't know?"

"Maybe we should step inside and speak in private, Sheriff."

Andy nodded and led the way back indoors. Once everyone was inside, Jack McGee saw the prison cell with the busted wall and he smiled. "Looks like you might know something as well, Sheriff."

Andy asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look at that wall. What do you think did that? You think some normal man pushed that wall over?"

Andy said, "We are working on theories…"

"Theories," McGee laughed. "What sort of theories, Sheriff?"

Barney spoke up, "Aliens. This was the work of space aliens."

Andy reprimanded Barney, "Barney! You're not supposed to give away investigation details to a stranger."

McGee laughed again, "Don't worry, Sheriff. You're secret is safe with me. And as for that busted wall, I don't think little green men is what you have to worry about; it's one large green man you need to be concerned with."