There had been an invasion. Some
foreign country had placed sleeper agents in the White House who had slowly
weakened our defense systems. Strategically placed clusters of Electromagnetic pulse bombs had disrupted
the entire infrastructure wiping out all of our defensive capability. Telecommunication
problems had forced our military to hunker down in place until word from other
commands would coordinate a defense. Trains came to a stop. Airplanes sat on runways
unable to take off. Navy ships lay adrift in the oceans unable to get under
way. The ground attack devastated the country and foreign troops were
systematically taking control of towns and cities with remarkable speed. Not,
however, in more rural areas that existed mostly on their own efforts.
For the first month our town,
Wolf Crossing, remained untouched. The EM Pulses had occurred many miles away
which left the community unscathed and functioning. Everything remained the
same as before. There were school buses roaming the streets every morning and
afternoon. The movie theater changed its line-up on Tuesdays and the basketball
teams from the schools all played games on the weekends. The Daily Special at
Mabel’s Café still had meat loaf on Monday, Chicken and Dumplings on Wednesday
and All-you-can-eat Catfish every Friday.
The Mayor was walking around
shaking hands and kissing babies and his opponent in the upcoming election was
busily knocking on every door in the town to campaign for his “Need for Change”
platform. There were some high school kids walking around with sandwich signs
for the candidate they supported while passing out red or blue balloons with
the appropriate name on them. The Whole Earth Party was set up in the little
park on the Town Square and was attempting to get people to commit to vote for
them and plant a tree. They had a pick-up on the lawn next to them with a for
sale sign on the side. They raised a ruckus when the police chief came and told
them to move on because the park was city property and ordinance did not allow
campaigning without a permit. They argued and tried to stage a sit-in until the
lead candidate sat down and was not, being eighty years old and three hundred
pounds, able to get back up. The local ambulance had to come put her on a
stretcher and haul her to the hospital because her heart began to palpitate and
it would not look too good for her to die while trying to get elected mayor.
In reality, due to the
distance from the rest of the country, very few folks in town even had the
least clue that there had been anything of real importance happening in the
world outside the city limits of their small hamlet. They had no idea
that there had been a major invasion from another country. Come the first of
the month that all changed.
The first of the military vehicles rolled in about 8:00 AM
with a detachment of infantry soldiers. They had strange uniforms and had a
look about them that seemed to suggest that they were not from around there.
They all spoke a sort of broken English and began spreading out around town in
strategic spots. The commander of the group walked around asking for the leader
of the town and the mayor came and held his hand out to shakes hands, as he had
been doing all day and the entire month before. The commander took his hand
and, holding it firmly, took out a pistol, and shot the mayor between the eyes.
He ordered his men to drag the body to the park and leave it there.
The force of men then began to round up people and usher
them into the movie theater. They went from street to street and stopped when
the theater got full. They moved to the school and rounded up all the kids and
made them sit in the assembly theater and the gym at the high school. This was
not a difficult task overall. The town only had around six hundred residents
including the kids. There were some difficulties. The police chief and his three
patrol officers were all shot and deposited in the park. Then there was the
elderly Post Commander of the local VFW who got shot when he came after the
invaders with a German Lugar and a pineapple grenade. The grenade turned out to
be a cigarette light and the German Luger fired caps. A few farmers with
shotgun racks in their pickups were added to the growing pile of bodies in the
park. The raiders sustained several casualties along the way before the town
was properly incarcerated and the violence curtailed.
The commander had a bullhorn he used to address the adults
in the theater and his second in command went to the school and gave the same
speech to the kids. There would be safe and secure treatment for those who
cooperated and helped the occupiers set up a defensive perimeter around the
town. There would be rewards of food and privileges to those who voluntarily
cooperated. There would be harsh consequences for those who did not. Up to and
including being deposited, dead, at the park.
No one spoke a word. Neither did any of them volunteer nor
show the least bit of interest in cooperating. There were three more deaths
when the owner of the theater, the school principal, and the gym teacher acted
as leader in their respective location and informed the marauders that they
should go to hell. The pile of bodies in the park had reached a dozen by the
time the sun set. The commander told his men to lock everyone in where they
were and walked into the command tent that had been set up in the park with the
dead bodies. He had the dead men moved to the edge of the park furthest from
the tent and set about developing a night perimeter of men to guard things
until the morning. He figured when the townsfolks got thirsty, hungry, or
needed the restroom the level of collaboration would vastly increase.
He ordered his men to get Mabel’s Café open and to cook a
meal for the invaders. He thought about forcing Mabel to do it, but chose to
just use the café and have his men do the cooking. The food was there even if
the cooperation was not. He went to the back of the tent to lie down for a while
detailing for his aide to wake him when the food was ready. He lay down and
went to sleep.
It was sometime later when he woke. The tent was dark except
for a small kerosene lamp in the front. He stood up and found a washing station
that had been set up with water, soap, and a towel for him. He cleansed
himself, put on a fresh shirt, and inspected his pistol. He took it apart,
cleaned it, placed a fresh clip in it, worked the slide to cock it, and let the
hammer down with his thumb. He walked out of the tent with the intention of
getting something to eat…maybe a steak.
Once outside he noticed that the street lights were not glowing
but that it was still bright enough to see even though it was late enough for
stars to be shining. He looked up and saw the largest, brightest full moon he
had ever imagined. He turned to look for the bodies wondering if they had
started to smell. They were not there. He walked all the way around the park
and found nothing. He walked around the square finding nothing, not even his
own men. He went to the theater which was to his shock and surprise, empty. He
went back to the tent and tried the radio only to get nothing but static. He
walked outside and found the mayor and the police chief waiting for him. They
were alive and had no injuries showing where they had been shot. There was
blood on their clothes, but no marks of any sign that, several hours earlier,
each of these men had been shot in the face with a military issue 9mm pistol.
He reached for his sidearm and the police chief; moving
faster than he could see, grabbed him, and relieved him of his gun. They proceeded
to march/drag him to the high school where the rest of his men were sitting
back to back on the ground and tied up at the fifty yard line. The mayor
explained that he had either chose, or was ordered to invade the wrong town.
Behind him walked up the remaining group of people who, also had been shot
earlier that day.
The commander watched the mayor begin to shake and tremble.
He started to swirl his head around and wave his arms about. The police chief
and the rest of the recently dead all began to do the same thing. Their bodies
grew and their clothes ripped off their chests and arms. They grew huge fangs
and claws at their hands. Not werewolf like, but something much more
horrifying. Something grotesque and hideous When the transformation was
complete, the commander could see others flowing in from all the exits on the
football field. It seemed to be the townspeople with their children. All of
them looked the same as the dead men. All of them were grotesque and ghastly.
There was no snarling or roaring or howling. They were all dreadfully quiet.
The mayor looked back at the crowd of his neighbors, and then at the commander
before shouting:
“Soup’s up!”
