Hamelyn's Curse
Prologue
In long green robes and crimson clad
The piper plays his polished fife
Upon the hill a pretty lass and handsome lad
Dance away bereft of life.
Chapter 14
Colby glanced around as they walked across the campground. Towards the nearby mountain trail. He noted there were a lot of caravans and tents. Implying a sizable contingent of people enjoying the long summer holiday. The notion worried him. Should the piper ever play his music off the Plateau. He would find plenty of readily available prey. The party turned down a narrow path. That led away from the main campersite. Through some trees to the base of the hiking trail. Shukr snuffled about in some bushes. Obviously enticed by some exotic smell. Only he could detect. Colby paused and waited for him to catch up. Don glanced around and sighed in annoyance.
"Colby keep moving we cannot afford to become separated." Fortunately Shukr had got bored of the scent and was already running back to Colby. His long bushy tail wagging excitedly. David grinned as the man and his happy dog jogged back to the main hiking party.
"Agent Hedger is setting quite a pace," he murmured low. Colby nodded like David. He preferred a more leisurely walk and Shukr definitely did. He had once again disappeared into the brush. Seeking another exciting aroma. Don growled another exasperated sigh. Then forgave the dog. For slowing them down. As he heard running feet and around a bend in the trail behind them. Came three members of the Dallas Field office. Don gave a rare smile as he greeted the trio.
"I thought you'd followed Agent Fuller?" The senior of the newcomers shook his head. "No we just had a flat on the way to the Campsite. Another camper told us. You'd headed in up this track. When we arrived too late for your briefing At the Agent Granger's RV." Don was about to bring the pair up to speed as they walked. When from across the brush - he heard Colby's weird dog barking. Colby looked alarmed at David. Then leapt across the dirt track and disappeared into the bushes. In the direction of the discordant dog howls. David was a mere Nano-Second behind followed by the rest of the party.
"Oh my god!" Colby cried out in horror. As he came out on the summit of a small bare hill.
"Oh my God!" David echoed his horrified cry. As he also stepped out onto the hilltop." Don managed to contain his shock as he arrived. Liz couldn't. In fact she and one of the Dallas crew threw up. The hillside was strewn with bodies. The bodies of children and young teenagers.
Colby swallowed hard in an effort not to lose his breakfast as well. Then he looked around. Shukr was still whining. But he also seemed to be trying. To drag one of the smaller bodies. From under a bigger heavier boy. Colby moved closer to see what was so important. About this particular child. Then his eyes widened in hope. "Boss I think we have a survivor." Everyone turned to look. Colby and David were already running to aid the hound. Colby's hope grew as the child groaned. David steeling himself against the ghastly scene. Shoved the larger teenager off the live child. Don had reached them and with his help.
They were able to get the lone survivor free. Although the rest of the squad were checking the other children. In the hopes of more survivors, sadly there were none.
Don used his Cell Phone to summon an Air-Ambulance. To get the single survivor straight to hospital Then he called headquarters and over-ruling Agent Fuller (who he considered an incompetent moron) demanded a proper investigation team and full swat back up. By now other hikers had come upon the massacre. David and Colby taped off the site and tried to prevent them getting too close. Unfortunately one of the newcomers was a journalist She called her news-station. Even before the Air-Ambulance had arrived. The path from the campsite below was swarming with newsmen and photographers. Don in an attempt to keep a lid on the extent of the horror. Held an impromptu press conference. He gave only the barest details. Only saying that there was a serial killer at large. He made no mention of the Pied Piper connection or how many children lay dead on the hilltop. Behind the shielding trees. Luckily a swat team from a nearby police precinct arrived soon after. They shooed all the onlookers back down the path. Then roped it off to prevent further incursions. The only people allowed up were Megan the local Corner and two members of his staff. Don out of politeness. Did finally put a call through to Agent Fuller But she was so full of her own imagined importance That before he could explain she snapped.
"Stop bothering me! Just because you're an Oeration's Cheif? You think you know it all.
Well you don't! So go play at being investigator with your pathetic squad of Wannabes and leave the real Crime Work.
To the professionals." She then cut the call. Don gave a sly grin the woman was heading for an almighty reprimand Before the day was out and probably a demotion in rank. (But apart from laying a formal complaint about her conduct against her name.) He decided to leave that task to her immediate ADIC. He'd tried to give her the information. But she'd effectively told him to F- Off. So now he left her to face her fate.
He had more immediate concerns. Already the three CSUs had divided the crime scene into a grid. Their senior was allotting areas To his team and Don's. He was content to follow their lead as they were trained. Don simply took a section and began photographing all the evidence. Megan walked at his side. She'd already examined and determined. That all the cadavers had the familiar circular scar. On their necks Even the child air lifted to hospital had it. The Bodies all appeared to be in the same advanced state of decay. As the corpses recovered from Edward's Plateau.
Colby softly voiced the possibility. That the only reason the kid had survived was because. He'd been smothered and perhaps in some-way. Protected by the older boy falling on top of him. Megan agreed with this assessment. Soon after more medics and staff. From the town morgue began arriving. Worse still the parents of the missing children had been alerted. By the news channels and were now congregating. In the campsite below Demanding answers. But their hope turned to horror and despair as the medics. Began carrying down stretchers, each covered with a white sheet. Even the normally ebullient press fell silent as the long procession descended. Body after body was loaded into waiting Ambulances.
David and Colby with Shukr at his heel. Came down the path together. They were heading back to town to help compile a report. David suddenly shivered and Shukr began to growl. David turned to look to his left. His blood ran cold. For one second. Just a fleeting moment he saw a face in the crowd. It was the face of the night time Clown. Then it was gone. Swallowed up by the shifting crowd of onlookers.
TBC