Monsters Are Among Us ...A short sci-fi Halloween story by Chuck Keyes...

Monsters Are Among Us

A short sci-fi Halloween story by Chuck Keyes

          Detective Hogan Carter moaned as he reached for his cell phone. "This better be somebody telling me I won the Texas Lottery!"

          "Afraid not, partner. I'm your bad guy wake up call."

          "What's up besides waking me up at three AM?"

          "Per orders of the chief, I'm on my way over to pick you up. We supposedly have a hush-hush homicide to investigate, and it involves more than one victim."

          Hogan paused to curl his muscular arms while stretching his shoulders. "Damn…I wish this multiple murdering had occurred during daylight hours."

          "Clear your head, Hogan, because I'm about fifteen minutes away."

          "Okay!" Hogan rolled out of bed, grabbed his bottle of Jack Daniels, carried it to the bathroom where he took in a mouthful of the whisky, gargled for moment, and then he spit the fluid in the sink.

          In spite of his hangover, Hogan peed, shaved, showered, and dressed in record time.

          He stepped outside just as his partner pulled into the driveway. After Hogan sat down in the passenger's seat, his partner, Jack Rivers, said, "Hogan, you look like sun baked dog s***."

          "I feel like dog s***!"

          "Don't tell me," Jack voiced as he backed the unmarked cruiser out of the driveway. "Beth won't answer your phone calls, so you spent another lonely night with your buddy, Jack Daniels."

          "That about sums it up!"

          "She's always running home to her mother. Why are you taking it so hard?"

          "Because she's pregnant."

          "Congratulations! Why am I just now learning that you're going to be a daddy?"

          "Because I didn't know about it until she was walking out the damn door to leave me, and you've been on a week's vacation with one of your wild girl friends." 

          "Ouch! Telling you on her way out the door. I bet that was a punch to your brain."

          "No s***!"

          "Give her time to come home. I'm sure Beth will come to her senses when she realizes how much she misses you."

          "Misses me! She's never been gone for over a week!"

          "Yeah, Beth usually leaves you for just a day or two. What the hell did you do to piss her off?"

          "I already told you about it. The Friday night before you left on your Caribbean sex cruise, when we worked late to solve the Hanson murder case, I was  supposed  to take Beth out for her birthday dinner at the Oxen Yoke Steakhouse."

          "S***! I didn't know it was her birthday. You really screwed up this time! She may not come home for a month or two."

          "Thanks for cheering me up…a******!"

          "Hey, that's what partners do, cheer each other up."

          "Where we going?"

          "We're heading to Bailey County, which is located about fifty miles northeast of Tyler."

          "Cattle ranching country."

          "Yup." Jack nodded. "The murders were committed at the Buck Harthwood ranch. A Bailey police officer called it in." He paused to chuckle. "He's probably one of only three nighttime officers in the whole damn county."

          "I hope he has enough intelligence not to mess with our crime scene. Do have any details?"

          "Nothing but a mystery. From what I was told by Chief Carson, the officer did a speedy walkabout through the ranch house, ran outside, and after heaving up the contents of his stomach, he locked himself up in his cruiser to wait for us."

          "Damn, Jack, are we heading to a 'Friday The Thirteenth' slice and dice murder scene?"

          "Perhaps, or perhaps the local officer is overly squeamish, like a frightened little girl."         

          To combat his Jack Daniels' hangover, Hogan partially reclined his seat, and then he closed his eyes to block out the bright headlights of the oncoming vehicles.

          "Hogan, wake your ass up!" loudly snapped Jack.

          "Yeah…yeah…I'm awake."

          "According to the GPS, the Harthwood driveway entrance is up ahead on the right."

          "Damn…I was hoping to see the sun poking its head up over the horizon."

          "While you were snoring like a freight train, I've been cruising up to speeds of ninety miles an hour. The sun won't be poking its head up for another two hours."

          "The way you drive, sleeping was far better than soiling my boxers."

          "That's funnier than reaching down in the heat of passion to learn that my date is a male in drag," Jack voiced while turning the unmarked police car onto a dirt driveway running into a pasture. The cruiser rattled as it rolled over the heavy-duty cattle guard rollers.

          Hogan chuckled. "If picking men in drag is a continuing problem, then maybe you should stop frequenting the gay bars on Cedar Hill Road."

          "I've never been in a gay bar!"

          Six minutes passed by. "Damn, Jack, how long is this driveway?"

           "According to the GPS, the driveway is a little over two miles long. We should be coming upon the ranch house any…" He slammed on the brakes, sliding to a stop within a few feet of the local officer's police truck.

          "What were you saying?"

          "We're here!"

          Hogan removed two flashlights out of the glove box and handed one to Jack. "Well, let's go talk to the local country officer." Hogan pushed open his door, stepped out and headed over to the police truck that Jack almost rear ended.

          Jack followed Hogan.

          "Holy squirrel nuts!" snapped Hogan. "Where the hell is the driver's door?" He shined his flashlight beam into the cab, noticing the driver's seat is covered with a thick layer of blood."

          "Look at this! The door has been ripped right off the hinges," nervously voiced Jack as he removed his gun from his chest holster. "What the hell are we dealing with, a super strong murderer?"

          "I don't know. You'd better call in for some backup. I'll look around for the officer's body." With his flashlight in one hand, and his thirty-eight in the other, Hogan circled around the police truck. He expanded his search circumference on each circular walkabout, and on his fourth trip, he noticed the missing door lying in a tall patch of grass. Sprawled out on top of the door is the local officer's body. Hogan knelt down to examine the corpse. Centered in the middle of the officer's forehead is a perfectly round three inch diameter h***. He shinned his flashlight beam directly into the h*** to see a hollowed out skull with no exit wound. Hogan grimaced at the thought of why a ghoulish killer would alter this man's head into what looks like a morbid birdhouse. Lost in thought, Detective Hogan continued to kneel on the ground while staring at the murdered officer. On this last day in October, the cool morning mist is hovering around Hogan like an evil fog. 

          Jack tapped on Hogan's shoulder and startled him, making him spring up like a Jack in the box clown. 

          "What the hell, Jack! Are you trying to give me a heart attack."

          "Sorry about that. Hey, is that a fifty caliber bullet h*** in his forehead?"

          "That was my first thought too, but there's no exit wound, and his brain is missing."  

          "Missing…missing, who the hell would steal his brain?"

          "I don't know," replied Hogan. "Do we have any backup on the way?"

          "Six officers are being dispatched from Smith County, but they won't be here for nearly an hour."

          Hogan deeply sighed. "Okay, let's go check out the ranch house."

          "Wouldn't it be a better idea to wait for our backup to arrive?"

          Hogan gestured toward the officer's dead body. "Wait around like he waited for us."

          "I see your point."

          They walked across the front yard, climbed the four porch steps, and used a knife to jimmy open the front door. Jack reached in and clicked a light wall switch several times. "There must be no electricity."

          "Come on." Hogan boldly walked along the main hallway, shinning his flashlight beam into each room.

          "Here's our crime scene," announced Hogan as he stepped into a dining room. The first thing he noticed was four bodies lying on the hardwood floor. A cool breeze is flowing into the room through a smashed glass sliding door.

          Jack waved his flashlight beam across the place settings on the large oak table. Each dish contains partially eaten food. "Fried chicken legs, fried okra, fried potato slices, and sliced red beats. Whoever killed the Harthwood family, obviously surprised them while they were seating down for supper."

          "If they hadn't been murdered, they probably would've died from all this fried food." Hogan voiced along with a shake of  his head.

          They both examined the four bodies to learn they too have bored holes through the center of their foreheads, and their brains are missing.

          "We now have five victims who're missing their brains!" grumbled Jack. "These are the weirdest murders I've ever encountered."

          "There are six place settings on the table, which means we're missing two bodies."

          "Yeah, I already figured that out," said Jack.

          "B*******!"

          They cornered around the hallway into the kitchen where they found the body of a woman lying on the tiled ceramic floor. Hogan placed the beam from his flashlight directly on the gaping h*** in the middle of her forehead. "Here's another morbid birdhouse!"

          "Oh, that's a damn disgusting thought," whined Jack. "Now I'm going to be haunted for the rest of my life with mental images of wild birds popping in and out the victim's bloody forehead holes."

          "Hogan noticed a flipped open cell phone lying next to the woman's body. "Jack, it looks like she was attacked while calling the police."

          "That explains why the local officer responded." 

          The two detectives were about to leave the kitchen when they heard a noise. They spun around while drawing their guns. "I think the sound came from behind the door next to the tall floor cabinets," whispered Jack.

          "It's probably a storage room," voiced Hogan.

          "Like a kitchen pantry?"

          "Yup."

          "Maybe it's a real small bathroom."

          "Let's check it out!" barked Hogan.

          "The door isn't very wide," said Jack.

          "I can easily fit through it! Hogan turned the doorknob and rushed inside the walk-in closet size room. A young blond haired girl screamed. She's curled up in a corner, hiding behind a fifty pound sack of potatoes.

          "Calm down, Miss, I'm a homicide detective. My name is Hogan Carter. He slid the potato sack away from the girl, seeing that she's trembling with fright, and her flushed face is wet with tears. He reached his hand out to her. "Please come out of the pantry and talk to me."

          "Do you have an army to fight the monsters," asked the girl."

          "Backup officers are on their way. They should be arriving at any moment."

          She pointed beyond the doorway at the woman's body lying on the kitchen floor. "One of the monsters killed my mom?"

          Jack heard what the girl said to Hogan, so he quickly removed the patchwork tablecloth off the round kitchen table and used it to cover the girl's mother.

          "Miss, what's your name?" asked Hogan.

          "Lacey Harthwood."

          "Lacey, please take my hand. I need your statement to help me catch these monsters."

          She ignored Hogan's helping hand and stood up on her own.     

          "Come on," demanded Hogan, "let's head to the front of the house to wait for the backup officers. Lacey followed the detectives out of the kitchen and along the central hallway.

          They entered the front parlor. Jack stood by the front window to watch for their backup officers.

          Hogan noticed three decorative oil lanterns placed around the room on antique furniture. He lit each one, thus giving the room an eerie glow. "Lacey, please sit down. I know your emotionally upset, but to catch these monsters, I need you to explain to me what happened."

          "Detective Carter, you don't understand. The monsters that killed my family are not human. They walk on two legs, about seven feet tall, and they look like featherless chickens. Their funneled orange beaks tapper outwards to hollow rods. One of them placed the end of his beak against my mother's forehead, and I think it sucked her brains out of her head. That's when I hid in the pantry."

          "Lacey, your chicken monster story is hard to swallow," said Hogan.

          Jack waved his hand. "Hogan, Lacey's story does explain the holes in the victim's foreheads, their missing brains, and don't forget about the truck's door that was ripped off by something with Superman strength."

          "Yes, the chicken monsters are strong," said Lacey. "They have hands with long claws, similar to chicken feet. When they attacked us, one of them used his fists to smash through the glass sliding door in the dining room."

          Hogan deeply exhaled while shaking his head. "Okay, let's say these chicken monsters really exist. Where the hell did they come from?"

          "Maybe they're aliens from outer space," replied Jack.

          Hogan chuckled. "Yeah, monster chicken aliens from planet Colonel Sanders."

          "No!" cried Lacey. "Early yesterday morning while I was on my way to the barn to feed the horses, I heard a commotion in my chicken coop, so I went to investigate. First, I noticed the morning sunlight shining through a round h*** in the roof, and then I found a reddish glowing cylinder partly sticking out of the dirt floor. All the chickens were in distress, and they were avoiding the cylinder as if it were a coyote. I tried to pull it out of the ground, but I wasn't strong enough. I was going to return with a pick and shovel, but my chores kept me busy for the  rest of the day. Crashing through the chicken coop's roof means the cylinder fell from the sky like an alien spaceship. I think it somehow turned my chickens into monsters."

          "That makes sense," chimed Jack. "The cylinder was probably filled with pods, like 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers', but these pods grow into chicken monsters."

          "Jack, I hate to say it, but you're an idiot."

          "Before you judge me as an idiot, let's go check out the damn chicken coop!"

          "Okay…let's go do it," sputtered Hogan. "Lacey, are you up to leading us to your chicken coop?"

          "I'm scared." She paused while her forehead wrinkled in thought. "Okay." She picked up one of the oil lanterns and headed toward the front door.

          Hogan and Jack followed Lacey outside. They walked about a hundred yards beyond the right side of the house. Hogan shined his flashlight beam at the face of the chicken coop. It's much larger than he had imagined. "Lacey, how many chickens live in your coop."

          "We raise them for frying and laying fresh eggs. My last count was sixty-seven and one rooster."

          "Lucky rooster," chimed Jack.

          Expecting to find nothing but squawking hens, Hogan unlatched the coop's door and stepped right in. He was surprised to see that the rear wall has been knocked out and all the chickens are missing. He pointed his flashlight beam up to view the round h*** in the roof.

          Jack followed Hogan into the coop. He shined his flashlight beam down at the cylinder. "Hogan, look, a purple alien worm just crawled out a round hatchway on the side of the cylinder."

          Hogan shined his light beam down to see almost a dozen four inch long worms crawling towards him. "Oh S***!" He began to stomp on the creatures with his western boots, crushing each one into a purple pulp.

          "Hogan, more of those ugly worms are crawling out the cylinder."

          "Yeah, I see the buggers. About fifty feet back, I saw a gas can sitting next to an old John Deere Tractor."

          "Yeah, I saw it."

          "I'll keep killing these ugly worms while you fetch the gas can."

          "You want me to go by myself?"     

          "Your welcome to stay here to do the stomping."

          "I'll go fetch the can."

          Jack exited the coop and Lacey entered. After looking around for a moment, she said, "the monster chickens escaped by knocking down the wall."

          Hogan crushed another worm.

          "Those alien worms are deliberately heading toward you."

          "Maybe they like me."

          "I suppose to a chicken,  a worm is a worm no matter what planet it may have come from."

          "What do mean?" asked Hogan.

          "The chickens would've eaten them."

          "Are you saying these worms magically altered your chickens into seven foot tall monsters?" He asked while stomping on two more slithering purple worms.

          "Detective, like jerking a fish line, I think those alien worms want to be eaten."            

          "Well I'm certainly not going to eat them. The only thing I'm giving them is the bottom of my boot."

          Jack returned and sat the gas can down next to Hogan "This can is full of diesel fuel."

          "It'll do the job." After crushing two more worms, Hogan inserted the cans nozzle into the round hatchway and then he filled the cylinder. He used the rest of the diesel fuel to create a liquid fuse running twenty feet out the chicken coop's doorway. Lacey and Jack backed away while Hogan ignited the fuse. When the line of flames reached the cylinder, there was loud air popping rupture of flames, and then the chicken coop started to rapidly burn. For nearly fifteen minutes, they stood there in silence, watching the bright flames rise toward the heavens.

          "Those slimy purple worms are dead," Hogan said along with a satisfied expression.

          "Do you now believe lacey's chicken monster story?" asked Jack.

          "I'm not saying one way or the other! It's near time for the sun to start poking its head up. Let's head back to the parlor to wait for our backup officers."

          They entered the parlor and Jack again took his  watchful position at the front window.

          "Where the hell is our backup?" sputtered Hogan.

          "They're late."

          "No s***!" snapped Hogan.

          "The sun is coming up," said Jack. "I can see the outline of our cruiser."

          "Detective, you're going to need an army to defeat all the chicken monsters," voiced Lacey.

          "Lacey, we were outside for almost an hour, and no chicken monsters attacked us."

          "Hogan, our backup is here," announced Jack.

          "It's about time." Hogan ran over to the window. The sun is up enough to give him a lighted view. He watched the three police trucks park in the front yard. Six officers jumped out the truck cabs and headed toward the ranch house. He was about to go meet them when he saw more than a dozen tall ugly creatures running towards the officers. The speedy chicken monsters were on top of the officers before they could draw their guns. Hogan and Jack watched in horror as the police officer's brains were sucked out their heads.

          "Hogan, they must've seen us, they're heading toward the house!"

          The two homicide detectives drew their guns. Hogan ran over to Lacey, bravely positioning himself in front of her like a protective wall.

          "Detective Carter, I warned you," chimed Lacey, "but you were too damn pigheaded to believe me, and now a chicken monster is going to suck your brains out of your head."

          With a loud shattering crash, one the monsters smashed the window with its fists, and then it used its large clawed hands to rip out sections of the wall surrounding the window. Jack repeatedly fired his thirty-eight, but the rounds bounced off the screeching monster's chest. It poked its ugly chicken head under the top window frame as it stepped into the parlor. Jack threw his empty gun at the creature, but it only made it screech louder. "I hope you choke on my brains you fry pan reject!" The creature grabbed hold of Jack and placed its beak against his forehead, and with a swishing vacuum sound, it swallowed his brains.

          Lacey screamed, "you're on your own, Detective Carter. "I'm leaving you to hide in my mother's pantry."

          Hogan desperately fired his gun at the approaching chicken monster. He aimed at its hideous head, but the bullets couldn't penetrate the monster's skull. With its head cocked to one side so it can gaze at Hogan's terrified expression with its right eyeball. The chicken monster grabbed hold of him, scratching his trembling body with its sharp claws. As the monster placed its beak against his forehead, Hogan closed his eyes to form a lovely vision of Beth…

          "Hogan, wakeup, I'm home!"

          "Oh, Beth, I've missed so much. He wrapped his trembling arms around her, pulling her down onto the bed. After a long passionate tongue waltzing kiss, Hogan said, "Beth, I love you so much. I promise that I'll never stand you up again. I'm going to learn how to balance my job around my family life, thus making you top priority. In fact, I'm going to call the chief and use up one of my many personal days, so we can have a wonderful lunch at the Oxen Yoke Steakhouse, and we'll celebrate your pregnancy. I'm so excited to be alive. I'm excited about becoming a father. Today is your day. Whatever you want to do, we'll do it!"

          "I know what we can do this morning," Beth said along with a loving smile. When you return to the bedroom after calling the chief, all my clothes will be on the chair, and I'll be here in bed waiting for you."

          "Yeah! I'll be back quicker than you can say bronco rider."

          That evening, Hogan answered the front door every time the trick or treaters rang the bell. He's wearing his father's old gorilla outfit, and he's been having fun growling at the neighborhood kids.

          Beth snuck in the spare bedroom and telepathically connected with her mother. After showing her mother mental visions of  the wonderful Halloween day she had with Hogan, she said, "Mom, I want to thank you very much for giving me your nightmare spell. Hogan is a changed man. I don't think he'll ever again put his job before me and our future children."

          "Dear, it's an old nightmare spell," said Esmeralda. "The spell was first used on Ebenezer Scrooge. I'm delighted it worked so well for you. The spell does have warning labels about not using it on mortals with weak hearts or weak minds."

          "So what are you and Dad planning to do for the rest of our hollowed night?"

          "We're planning to leave our bodies at home and haunt a few mortal Halloween parties."

          "Have fun, Mom. I need to go before my mortal husband misses me."        

The End!

© October 2011