CH 122
Joan and Allison got home in time for the pig hunt with Derek and Jesse following them. Arriving mid afternoon, Joan had them park in back by the garage.
Getting out of their car, Derek looked around and asked, "That big windmill, is John living near that power plant?"
"Nope, that windmill is ours," Joan told him. "Ever since we turned onto the road around the lake, everything you see belongs to Dad and Moms. Grandpa Martin and Sarah live down on the east end of the lake, our house is a little farther down the road, then Gramma Clair lives on the west end, across the lake is Carol's house. Bob's mother. On the road to the lake was Sonya's furniture factory we passed."
Derek nodded vacantly and said, "Someone has a shit load of money."
Allison ginned and announced, "No feces involved." she then laughed.
Eyeing her, Derek asked, "Sure you're not Cameron?"
"Nope, I'm younger me. Cameron is older me."
Jesse let out a yelp and ducked in front of Derek. He looked where she was staring. A small alligator, about four feet long was nearby, coming towards them. Rather, it was walking towards Joan. Joan stood still as it approached. It came up to her and rubbed it's snout against her leg.
"Hello," Joan said pleasantly and petted it's snout. "We'll be back out shortly," she told it. Seeing Derek and Jesse standing still and eyeing it, Joan said, "Come on in the house, Dad's home."
They went in. Jesse looked back to see the little alligator eyeing them. She also noticed three others coming. One had something furry dangling from it's closed mouth. She was happy to get into the house.
Derek and Jesse had a good reunion with John and his wives and met the Kikumuras. Derek had never seen people before that had small cat-ear looking horns on their heads or had naturally odd colored hair. He could tell right away by her manner that pink haired Kaede was not one for foolishness. Nana with the purple hair was bouncy and happy. Kouta and Yuka were normal looking Japanese. Derek couldn't help but ask Yuka, "Sit on any alligators lately?"
Yuka flushed as everyone else laughed. "That was really frightening!" she cried. "How was I even to think an alligator might be laying on the couch!"
John Junior was no longer a little boy. He was John's height and filled out from doing farm work. His wives (Derek wasn't surprised, seeing his father had two wives,) were pale haired Peggy and Lily. Both were pretty and soft spoken young women. Jackie was a bright blonde like her mother Delilah, and slightly taller than her mother. Daniel was her boyfriend and by the looks of the stars in Daniel's eyes when he gazed at Jackie, he was completely smitten by her.
John and Derek talked. While John was here making houses and taking care of his family here and the lake, Derek and Jesse had been doing investigative work for the Government, travelling here and there. Seeing news Items about Joan being Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, Derek had wandered to Texas to see if Joan knew anything about where John and his family went.
Derek looked out a window at the water. "So what's so special about this alligator infested lake?"
"A couple things," John told him. "These alligators aren't your run-of-the-mill alligators. They are smart. Real smart. Normally, their kind are lone predators, territorial and don't like anything in their territory. Lately, our biologist found them pack hunting. These seven gators stick together, surround their pray and attack it all at once. Some of the alligators here, like that one lying in the yard out there, can recognize individuals, and protect the ones they recognize as belonging here. If they don't recognize you, they will try to run you off. Or, in Willy's case, he tried to keep Joan from going swimming, and it attacked him. On the other hand, any of the kids can go out there and it's doesn't bother them, except to be fed. When we had all those state reps here, Lily and Peggy went out to keep her calm. They slept the night with her, right out there near the porch."
"And no one's gotten bitten?" Derek asked.
"Joan did once, when she was swimming over to Bob's house. She wasn't watching where she was going and one grabbed her arm," John explained. "Being Joan, she punched it and tried to yank her arm out of it's mouth, which ripped all the flesh off that arm. She's more careful now."
"Bet she is," Derek agreed. "So the intelligence of these alligators is why you're here?"
"That, and the mermaids." John said.
"Mermaids?" Derek asked. "You mean like your girls have a swim club like they had up at Canyon Park?"
John shook his head. "No, real biological mermaids. There's a few who stop by now and then. They've done it enough that even the alligator recognizes them. What they were doing here in the middle of Texas was researched. We have a pair of marine biologists that are studying the alligators and these mers that they are calling Homo Aquaticus. They are so genetically close to us, it's a bit scary."
Derek let out a snort. "Damn, so are there any other mythical creatures living around here?"
John laughed. "Well let's see, we do have some immortals, aliens, werewolves, and Diclonius now that the Kikumuras are here. That's all I know about for sure. Oh, can't forget the terminators. Tommy Nader, a T-800 is a teacher at the high school."
Derek shook his head as he chuckled. "They are everywhere now. John, you live in one strange place."
"We do," John agreed. "and between you and me? I think it's one of the best places on Earth. despite all the differences, everyone here gets along. "
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The next day was the pig hunt.
As usual, there was a good crowd that came to the pre-hunt briefing where the Sheriff had a map up on a large board for the area they were going to hunt in. John drove the EV-2 down, Delilah had Christine. Bob had his mother's Jeep with the top taken off. The sheriff got names and noted who was who. This year, he had plenty of drivers. He made sure that each small group that were going to stay in contact had their radios. Once everyone was ready, he had them gather around for their briefing. As always, he assigned a large group as static shooters, placed in a 'V' formation with a chopped off tip to funnel the pigs down to trap them. Duncan, Jackie and Daniel were part of the base of the triangle. Joan, Allison and Bob were the right (South) side drivers for the group. He put the Lupin family to their left, then the EV-2 with John driving, Cameron, Delilah Sonya and Mark in the back of it as them were Joe driving his 4 wheel drive truck and a couple men from town in the back. Delilah, with Kaede and Nana in Christine was on the road to the north as the northern most drivers, coming down the road there. Martin and Sarah were part of the left side wedge.
Once the static shooters left to get to their stations and form up lines, the sheriff called the drivers over to talk to them. "Remember, you want to try to stay as even with each other as possible and watch where you're shooting. Lupins, it's fine, possibly better if you want to go in wolf form. Connors, watch out you don't shoot one of them by accident. George, you and the kids run back and forth between the Connor vehicles, making as much noise as you can. If you can kill some pigs, great, if not, don't worry about it. Your main task is to get them scared and moving into the shooters. If you kill pigs, leave them lay until the hunt's over, then you can go back for them. Do your best to keep any live pigs in front of you. Any questions? OK, let go kill some pigs!"
On the way to their starting point, the Lupins rode in the back turret bed of the EV-2. It was a couple miles west back from where the pigs were spotted. Delilah just turned around on the road, The other vehicles drove off into the countryside.
Bouncing along on their way to the start point, Cameron went into the back of the cab and brought out four big bright lime green cloths. She handed them to George. "Here, wear these around your necks as scarves. That will help identify you so no one shoots at you accidentally."
"Ah, Cameron?" Rachel asked. "If we change, we won't have hands to do that."
"Then we'll put them on for you," Cameron told her.
"That works," George agreed.
Sonya called into the cab. "John, I'm losing sight of the road. we should stop."
John turned east and stopped. Sonya jumped out, followed by Mark, and moved off to the left. Cameron got out the back with the scarves. The kids undressed and changed first into big wolves. Three feet at the shoulder and about six feet long. Cameron put their scarves on, tying them loose enough around their necks not to bother them, but ensuring they were on good. Then George changed and got his scarf. With all their scarves on, the ran off to the right. Once they were barely visible, they stopped and looked east, searching for pigs.
As they got ready, they reported in. Once the last ones reported in, the sheriff got on the radio and told them to start driving.
John drove ahead slow, watching the terrain for movement. They only went about a half mile when Cameron shot. John saw pigs ahead of them run away to the right. Cameron shot two more before they disappeared in the brush. He then heard nasty growling/barking sounds, and caught sight of the pigs shift to run straight away. Far off the the left, a couple more shots sounded out. The drive was on.
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"We're beginning, the drivers are starting out," Martin told Sarah. In the distance, they heard a few shots. Martin could see Allison off to his left she was tucked in behind some cover, searching the ground ahead of her. It wasn't long before the number of shots increased and the sound of squealing pigs grew. "Here they come," he said and aimed.
Pigs appeared racing away from them, then after more gunfire, a mass of pigs ran at them at an angle. Martin, then Sarah shot again and again. Pigs tumbled and others veered away in their frantic flight. A few turned and ran back the way they'd come, meeting the drivers. Sonya got a couple more, as did Cameron and Mark. The now smaller mass of pigs fled straight away from the drivers.
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With gunfire sounding everywhere, Delilah walked the road ahead of Kaede, who was followed by Nana riding on the hood of Christine as the old car idled along. Seeing a pack of pigs heading towards her, Delilah began shooting them one after the other. The now smaller pack dodged behind her. Kaede used her mind powered arms to chop heads off the pigs quickly. A couple smaller pigs in the back of the pack again turned to flee back the way they'd come.
The mass of pigs had nowhere to run to. They were boxed in on all sides, but continued to flee desperately to find and escape route.
"Here they come!" Jackie announced and took aim at the lead pig in the charging mass. She shot quickly, one shot after another as did Duncan and Daniel. To their sides, the line opened up, dropping pigs as fast as they appeared. In no time, Jackie was out and reloading a new clip in, as was Duncan. Daniel waited until Jackie was aiming again, then put in his new clip. In front of them was a near carpet of dead pigs.
The pigs again ran screaming out from the noise and death that was in front of them. Soon, only smaller individuals were left, trying to escape. None did. Carefully, everyone back up on vehicles, the driving line got within sight of the hunters at the base of the trap.
Jackie stood up. "Mom! Did we get them all?" she yelled.
"We did!" Cameron yelled back.
Duncan scanned the scene of dead pigs that seemed to be everywhere. Some of them were big ones too. "That's a lot of pork," he said vacantly.
The hunt took up until noon. Going around and collecting all the dead pigs to gut, then load them into transport back to town took until nightfall. Sonya, Cameron and Delilah had some help hanging the carcasses up, Joan, Allison, Bob and Jackie helped them get them up on the hooks as Kaede, Nana and some men brought them in.
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At the fairgrounds, Yuka helped Carol and some other women put the charcoal and wood into the bottom of the six roasting pits that were five feet deep. A couple others scrubbed the heavy grating that was going over the pit that the pigs were going to lay on.
Yuka asked, "Why bury them into the ground to cook them?"
Carol pointed to the pipes that poked up from the pit covers that lay to the side. "Those pigs are going to roast for 14 hours when they go in, burying them ensures even heat. The fires will not be real hot, the pigs will cook at an even heat for that whole time. That's to ensure they are cooked all the way through so there is no chance of any disease or parasites surviving. Remember, these are wild pigs we're cooking. We don't want people getting sick."
Looking down into the hole in the ground Yuka wondered, "Who goes down there to light the fire?"
"Mr. Nader takes care of that. He's got a flame thrower. Dump part of a can if lighter fluid down there, and he walks by and sets it off."
Yuka frowned. "You people really are strange here."
"Yeah, but it's a good strange," Carol replied with a smile.
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The group that was searching for John Connor activated the tracker they put on Joan's Bronco. With a few beeps, they used GPS and found it was near a lake that was close to the town of Driftwood. Once they had the location, they turned their tracker off so the signal wouldn't be noticed.
"That is a popular lake for water sports," one man said.
"Joan does have a mermaid tail. I bet she has a house there. That car has been there all day," a woman agreed.
"It not on the lake, but close. Since she's making bucks as a football player, I bet she's got her house on a good sized piece of land."
The middle aged man with the ark slicked back hair said, "We'll head there in the morning. Since it's a resort lake, we go in as tourists. We walk around, sight see and look for her Bronco, then make our plan on how to corral her and get her to tell us where her dad lives."
In the morning, the four men and two women got into their cars, three in each and drove to Driftwood. They passed through the town and headed to the GPS coordinates where they had seen the Bronco. They took the road that lead them towards the lake. Getting there, they couldn't find a road thet lead them to where they'd found the Bronco.
"It has to be here someplace!" the blonde in the back said. "We're all but on top of it!"
The man driving the lead car let out a snort and stopped the car. "Were is it, point me in a direction. The woman said, "On this road go back slow, then it will be off to the left."
He turned the car around and signaled to the other driver to do the same. Going slow, they went back until she said, "Here!" and pointed to the left.
The man stopped again. "How far away?"
"Ah, about hundred, hundred fifty yards."
He looked and didn't see any tracks. "OK, Danielle, out, lead me to it."
They all got out. Danielle led the way, watching the GPS tracker. They walked down in incline, then up a hill. On the other side of the hill was a steep drop off to a field that had battered down grass full of tire tracks.
"It was right down there." she said, pointing.
The man snorted. "Well at least we found out where she partied. Now, activate the tracker and tell me where she is now."
Danielle did. She frowned. "It's on the other side of Driftwood. By a small lake."
"Let's go see if she's there."
.
Since Joan and Allison were home now, Jackie wanted to go see their house and help pick out the wallpaper they were going to use for the kitchen. Of course, Daniel went with her to see the house. The girls were looking on line for the right pattern. Bob and Daniel weren't as interested, so they just looked on.
"How about this floral pattern with the green vines and white background," Allison said. "We get the half wall wood for the bottom of the walls, say, counter height, and paint it to match, and get matching curtains for the windows."
Joan looked at the walls and tried to visualize how it would look. "Hmm, I can see that, if we can find curtains to match it. I'll save this page and see what we can find for curtains."
A knock sounded from the front door. "I'll get it," Bob offered. He went out to see who it was. A blonde woman he didn't know was at the door. He opened it and asked, "Yes?"
"Is Joan Connor here?" she asked.
"Who are you?" Bob asked in return.
The woman pulled a pistol and pointed it at him. "Tell me if Joan Connor is here, NOW!"
Bob let out a huff and loudly said, "Oh great! We got scumbags!"
"Back up!" the woman snapped and pushed her gun in his face.
Bob snapped his arm up, grabbed her wrist as he dodged to the side and threw her on the floor, her gun hand behind her back. "That was very rude." he told her.
Bob then felt a hard poke on the back of his head. A voice behind him barked, "Let her go and get up, slowly." He turned his head to see a man holding a gun on him. Not moving Bob asked, "So, how many low lifes came with you?"
"Get up or you're DEAD!" the man snapped.
"What do we have here?" Jackie asked as she appeared. "Fella, do you have any idea how much shit you're in?"
The man glanced at her. "On the floor, face down of I kill him!"
Jackie shook her hands and cooed, "Oh! I'm soooo scared. How about this?" she asked and formed her plasma canon to point it at him. "You kill him, I obliterate you."
Another man appeared in the doorway to point his gun at Jackie. "Down, NOW!"
Jackie chuckled and shot. The plasma bolt flew over Bob's head to obliterate the men's gun arms, shoulders and heads. Their guns and hands dropped to the floor. "Assholes," she grumbled as the bodies fell. "Bob, drag her out of the doorway. I hate stepping on people's heads."
.
Upon hearing Bob announced they had scumbags, Joan and Allison went out the back to circle around by the driveway. They met two men and a woman standing by their cars. All three pulled guns.
"STOP, get on your knees!" the man with the slicked back hair announced.
"Who are you?" Joan asked.
They heard the man demanded Jackie to get on the floor, or he'd kill Bob. "OK, so you are scumbags," she concluded.
Allison opened up her phone and took a picture of them. "I'm sending this to big sister."
"Put that down now or I'll kneecap you!" Mr. slicked back hair said.
They then heard the plasma shot, and saw a streak of light race out and off across the lake.
"Someone just died. Don't you want to go see who?" Joan asked.
"One of the men opened a back door to the car in the back. "You are Joan Connor, get in, NOW!"
"So forceful," Joan noted dryly. She walked towards the car. "You know, you are all about to hurt really bad."
"Shut up and get in!" he barked.
Approaching the car and him, she asked, "Who sent you?"
"Shut up and get in before we kill your friend!" he growled.
"This I gotta see" Jackie said from the front corner of the house.
All three turned to her. Joan took the distraction and moved. She grabbed the man's gun hand by the wrist, pulled hard and twisted. As he fell with a look of shock on his face, she kicked the woman hard in the side, knocking her into the other man as blood spouted from her mouth. He stumbled and Allison was on hm. She kicked him in the head, which hit the driver's window and broke it. He fell limp. She then turned and looked down on the man screaming in pain. He went to put his gun in his left hand, and Joan stomped on his arm, breaking it. He wailed out again.
Jackie laughed.
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The terrified blonde, the screaming man with one dislocated arm and the other arm broken, as well as the four dead ones were dragged by their ankles to a dirt area beside the barn. This caught the big alligator's attention. He ambled up to see what was going on.
"Well, at least we got gator food," Joan said as she watched him approach.
Seeing the huge alligator coming, the blonde screamed and jumped up. Joan caught her by the throat and slammed her back to the ground. "You will tell me who sent you, or HE is going to eat you!" Joan stated, pointing at the alligator.
"You wouldn't DARE!" Mr. Broken arms spat.
Joan grabbed him and threw him at the alligator. The alligator caught him in the middle, snapping his mouth shut hard. The man wailed out in agony. The alligator shook his head and rolled. As the alligator rolled, the snap of bones sounded out. The man went silent. The alligator dragged the limp body hanging out of his mouth towards the lake.
"I wouldn't what?" Joan asked the horrified looking woman.
Jackie glanced at the alligator. "Joan, you shouldn't have done that. He's going to want more."
Joan looked at the woman. "So, does he get more, or do you speak?"
"Please, no!" the woman begged with tears in her eyes. Her arms were pimpled up in fear and her crotch was wet.
Jackie leaned closer to Joan, "We don't want his bones in the lake. I'll go take care of it." She walked away.
"We have plenty of alligators around here. Tell me who you are, who sent you, and where they are. Or, you can be gator food. You won't be dead when it carries you off to eat you."
In a blast the woman cried, "I'm Danielle Hubert, Mr. Rogan sent us to find you and make you tell us where your father, John Connor is!"
Hearing a car, Allison looked and waved. "Joan, your Moms are here."
Joan smiled a malicious smile at the women. "You will tell everything to Mom, if you lie, you feed the gators. Understood?"
.
Cameron agreed with Jackie, they didn't want alligators eating people, Jackie was right killing the alligator and dragging the mutilated corpse back up to lay with the others.
Danielle answered every question Cameron had as well as she could, flicking her eyes at Joan. They had everything, how they had followed Joan, Their plan to torture out of her where John was, including the plot to find John, burn his house down, and torture him before they killed him. Once Cameron had asked her questions a different way each time, and was sure this woman was telling the truth, including the place John was to be taken to, Cameron held out a hand to Danielle. "Up," she said.
"I told you the truth," Danielle said, still shaking in fear.
"You did," Cameron agreed, then grabbed her by the head, broke her neck, then tossed the body down. Turning to Joan, she said, "Bury them, and don't feed anyone else to the alligators!"
Bob itched his head. "What about the cars?"
"I doubt the alligators will eat cars," Allison said and giggled. Bob shook his head.
"We drive them to where they were suppose to go." Cameron told him. "Don't forget to grab the car keys before you bury the bodies."
.
The ex-vice president wanted to be there when John Connor was brought in. For the grief he caused to her and her friends, she wanted to hear him screaming in pain. The place he was to be brought to was an old abandoned farm house. When the cars of the people who grabbed him were seen coming up the road, she joined the others wanting to see their revenge in the large room in the basement. It was nasty down here, with stuff packed in the corners, but the satisfaction was worth it.
Sitting in a line, they faced the walls where he was going to be chained up to. Very soon, they would get to see what happened to people who dared defy them. A man came down the stair and said, "They are pulling into the driveway."
"No sign of police?" the man on the end asked.
"No, no one followed them. No one else on the road at all."
"Good, we get to hear his screams and pleas for his life for a while," the ex-vice president said with a smile.
A man got up and peeking out one of the low windows. He smile dimmed. "John Connor, and his wives are here!" he cried.
"Being dragged I hope?" the ex-vice president asked.
"No, they are walking, just them... shit" he cried and ducked.
The house rumbled and a bright flash came down the stairs. Then another, and another. One after another, the bright flashes hit the house. The people in the basement ducked, some screamed as wood blasted apart over their heads. They dove to the floor and cowered from the assault, and burning chunks fell on them. A plasma bolt hit the top of the stairs, what was left crashed down burning. The ex-vice president screamed and looked for a way out. There wasn't one. Burning lumber fell down on them in chunks, then and old stove crashed down on top of a man.
"This can't happen to ME!" the ex-vice president roared out just before a burning couch landed on her. Her wail of pain and injustice was ignored as the burning house collapsed down into the basement with them.
.
Outside, John watched Cameron, Delilah and Jackie plasma the house into burning rubble. Screams were wafting out from within. When there was nothing but a square hole filled with a roaring fire of the house remains, the last scream died out.
"Now for the man watching from the roadside?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah, on our way back on foot." Cameron agreed.
Heading off in the tree and brush, John said, "That was almost too much."
"They wanted to kill us all, John. They got what they deserved," Cameron stated.
"They did," Delilah agreed. "No one hurts our family. "They wanted to torture and kill our kids too. we can't have that."
Coming from the woods, the man by the road didn't notice them until Delilah was right behind him. She broke his neck, tossed his body over her shoulder and took him back to the house to toss him into the fire. They then walked back to the last intersection where Sonya was waiting in her new Excursion.
"We good?" Sonya asked as they got in.
"Mission complete," Cameron agreed.
They were long gone by the time anyone noticed that old farmhouse had burned to the ground. By the time firefighters got there, there was only small fires left and smoldering ash. Only when they put it out to wet down the ashes so no drifting embers would start a forest fire, did they notice some blackened bone.
It would take the police detectives months to figure out who all had been in that house when it burned down and over a year to figure out they'd all been in the basement when it happened. Why it happened, they could only conclude since the car's owners were not identified in the skulls they uncovered, those had to be the perpetrators. Those arsonists were never found.
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