Chapter VIII
Joe Tyler brought the cursor over the email from "The Predator Hunter". It bore the title "Your Little Problem". Upon clicking on the email, the computer flashed briefly in a strange manner, and shortly after it happened, another email came in. On examining the first email, he found that it was blank. On the second, however, there was a small amount of text addressed to Tyler directly, despite the fact that Tyler did not give his name.
Dear Mr. Joseph Tyler,
Through the miracles of technology and computer programming, my people have traced your home address down and I shall be coming with a research team to your fair town. It is my hope, that if indeed a "Predator" is lurking about in your area of Kansas, that we may capture and study it. I apologize for my shifty means of finding you, but it was necessary if I am to capture one of these creatures. My people and I swear to you that we will try our hardest not to hinder upon your lawful duties. I look forward to meeting you.
Terrance B. Walker, Ph.D.
Tyler got up from the computer in shock. If ever paranoia about a sheriff were to run through this town, it would be now. Everyone would find out about the research maniacs somehow, and then the whole town would think he was crazy for calling in cryptozoologists. He found he couldn't sleep that night, and luckily he was not on duty the next day. He would however, have to take one of his bulls to the fairgrounds for the livestock exhibits for the county fair.
* * *
It was not uncommon for people to stay the night with their cattle when bringing them to a strange place. And young Jay Anderson was sleeping with his beloved cow, Mary, to help ease her before seeing visitors for the county fair. He was the only person in the barn at the time, mainly because it was near midnight. He couldn't sleep, most likely due to the foul stench of the various animals that had made their temporary residence in the barn on the county fairgrounds. The night itself was oddly quiet; the normal sounds of crickets and locusts seemed far off and distant, as if all sounds around him had suddenly switched off. And then something came. First a rustling sound, as if something large was moving through the nearby brush.
And then, it appeared. A silhouette, or maybe just a shadow, nevertheless, it had form but was not solid. A humanoid transparent thing appeared before him. Everything behind it was distorted and blurred. The silhouette seemed to stop and examine him briefly, and then proceeded to attack Mary. What seemed to be arms quickly found a point in the cow and slowly were inserted. What young Jay found the most odd was that no blood was spilled, the cow just toppled over, dead. At this point, Jay was so profoundly afraid, that he couldn't run, let alone scream.
All he could do was watch.
Soon the ordeal was over, whatever had attacked Mary, had dragged her body away. Meanwhile, the young boy of twelve years sat in the corner of the stable, curled in a ball and clutching his calves so hard that the blood circulation was being cut off. His breathing was labored, likely due to the shock combined with his asthma. If he didn't get to his inhaler soon, his lungs would fail and he would die. But he was too afraid to move. Soon he started to see spots and things started to darken. But he had to move. His inhaler was in his bag, only a few feet away…
* * *
The next day, Tyler came into the barn after receiving a call. He had slept like a rock the night before, much to his pleasure, and was awoken by a call from the dispatcher. Apparently, a young resident of the rural area of the county (what wasn't rural area in the county, though?), Jay Anderson, had gone comatose from shock combined with asthma. He had blacked out, yet somehow managed to stay alive. He was being loaded into the ambulance as Tyler arrived, alongside May Peterson, one of the local vets. Apparently the cow that the boy had been with had been mutilated in the same fashion as the Coopers' livestock had been killed.
Oh crap, Tyler thought to himself, this thing is moving in on the town now.
The thought did not settle well with him. If he was right about the connection he had made about it only killing people if they were armed, then there was going to be trouble, since most of the citizens of his town had firearms in their homes. Once again, however, he decided not to say anything to anyone, for fear of a local rebellion. He eventually did, however, decide to ask someone he thought he could trust. He waited until May was done with examining the carcass and then cornered her into a private spot.
"May, how likely do you think it is that this is an intelligent creature that is killing the cattle?" he asked, discreetly.
She looked around to make sure no one was listening, "Truthfully, there is no doubt in my mind that something with incredible anatomical knowledge is killing these cows."
Tyler nodded, me too. And I have a few ideas. Meet me at my house tonight. Get James too," he said, referring to the coroner, Dr. James Larry.
* * *
The doorbell rang at the Tyler home at approximately 6:45 PM. Joe had sent his wife and son off to nearby Manhattan to do some errands and to see a movie (being as it took several weeks for new movies to get to the Rex theater). He opened the front door to see May Peterson and James Larry standing at the door. "Come on in," the sheriff told the coroner and the veterinarian. He closed the door and entered the living room.
"I think you both know what I wanted to talk to you about," Tyler started off, "There is something out there."
May and James both nodded, grimly.
"I saw it," Tyler said.
The other two were both surprised. May's eyes were as wide as half dollars and Larry cocked up an eyebrow.
"I haven't told anyone. I was responding to a call about a bunch of teenagers just messing around at the construction site near Wakefield. I was up in a tree looking at a snapped branch, and there it was, moving away from me," Joe told them.
"Was it like what Pete said he saw?" May asked.
"Man-like. Tall. Transparent except that everything behind it was distorted," Tyler said, nodding. "A couple things surprised me though. After Pete and Blake died, I noticed a couple things. For one, they were both armed when they died. And they both had strange things happening. Pete saw the same thing I did the night before he died, in the same place that he was murdered."
"Pete was murdered?" May asked, astonished. She was one of the many that were told he had heart failure.
"Yes. She wasn't mauled by animals either," James told her, "He was decapitated and mutilated. His spine was ripped out and his face was skinned from his skull.
May gasped and held her hands to her mouth.
"Don't tell anyone," Tyler said, "We kept it quiet to avoid there being a panic."
The vet merely nodded, her eyes were wide once again.
"Another thing," Tyler said, "Mary Cooper told me that when she was looking out the window before the tractor Blake was on exploded, a blue light came at him from the trees." James gave him a questioning look at this. "It came from the trees. What Pete saw was moving around in the trees for a short time. What I saw was moving around in the trees."
May looked at him puzzled, "What does this all mean?"
"We're dealing with a hunter," Tyler replied.
Suddenly the door swung open and a man who was middle-aged, fairly tall, had brown hair and a square face with a large nose walked in. "And he is right, my good lady," said the man, "And of course, he probably derived that assumption a bit off of my own genius." He walked in and shook Tyler's hand. "T.B. Walker, pleasure to meet you Mr. Tyler."