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The sun dropped low on the horizon, threatening to abandon Rose Valley and offering the last of its rays to illuminate the dying brown fields. Three vehicles pulled up to the schoolhouse, filled with a sheriff, a one-handed deputy, a reporter, a rancher, a quarterback, a cryptozoologist, and Jake. Though he spent the morning in a hospital room, Jake insisted that he be released. The superficial wound already felt better.
Cam shared everything he knew from Deirdre, leaving Jake wondering whether his arm owed its rapid recovery to the serum. He found it strangely unsettling to have an increased healing capacity; he worried that it would mean that he would live longer than those he loved and he would watch them all die. Dying of old age seemed incredibly far away at the moment, but death seemed to be increasingly common in Rose Valley of late.
The manhunt teetered on the edge of becoming a runaway train. Either they found the beast tonight, or someone else in town would. Jake didn’t know if he could summon Billy again. The first time had been under duress and desperation in a last-ditch effort to save himself from Deirdre. Now the mission turned to saving Billy from himself. Shandi seemed certain that they could. Jake was doubtful.
The Sheriff had ordered some of his deputies to erect a cage in front of the schoolhouse. Shandi had convinced Karen and her father to act as bait. It seemed a reckless thing to do to Jake, but the cage provided at least some protection. It certainly wouldn’t stop the beast, but it might buy them the time they needed to fill him full of tranquilizer darts.
Skylar boasted unearned confidence in his darts, but Miriam disagreed with his assessments of their efficacy. Through few words, it became clear that Miriam and Tanner would rather kill the beast as revenge for Cornelius. Both refused to participate in trying to turn the beast back to humanity without a backup plan of heavy weaponry.
Shandi and Jake insisted that Steve be armed with something more heavy duty than tranquilizers, but Skylar flatly refused. He controlled the good weapons, leaving them little recourse but to obey.
As they stepped out of the yellow jeep, Dub approached Steve and Jake with hushed tones. “Hey. I wanna show you something in the back.”
Steve and Jake followed, as Cam insisted that Skylar inspect the workmanship of the cage. Pretending to need Skylar’s approval provided a guaranteed way to ensure his cooperation. Jake sensed what Dub intended to show them. When they got to the back of the jeep, Dub opened the back and slid a large wooden crate towards them.
Dub popped the top as he spoke. “This is a CZ-550 with a .585 Gehringer cartridge. It’ll shoot through a tank or bring down an elephant. Strongest weapon Mr. Brooks brought as far as I can tell. I don’t care what that nutbag says. Take it. Now. Before he comes back.”
Steve didn’t ask any questions. Jake vaguely knew that Steve possessed no experience with a gun like that. Steve might be unable to hit his mark—especially on the first try. If he missed and riled up the beast, it might do more harm than good. Jake couldn’t worry about that, though. His responsibility centered only on getting Billy there.
Steve took the gun and scurried off. Jake didn’t know where Steve intended to set up shop, but the plan called for him choosing somewhere far enough away that the beast wouldn’t immediately see him. Jake made a point of not paying attention to Steve’s direction. The less he knew about Steve’s location, the less likely he would be to accidentally draw the beast to Steve.
Dub put the top back on the box and made a show of shoving it into the very back of the cargo area, behind all the tranquilizer guns and other gear. Jake helped. Dub impressively piloted with just one hand, but it also slowed him down.
The two of them managed to get it situated just as Skylar came around the corner, his face beaming with excitement. “Ready to be a part of history? You will only be a footnote next to me, but being a footnote is better than not being part of it at all, right?”
Cam, Wes, and Shandi joined them. It seemed especially silly to bring Wes along, but he hunted Cam down and insisted in a foolish display of chivalry and pride. It displayed a sweet, grand gesture of devotion to Macy, but that didn’t make it smart. Wes boasted a strong, able body, though, and he had been toying with guns his whole life. His acumen with a firearm would far out-class Jake’s.
Skylar started unloading the tranquilizer guns, and Jake cringed every time he got near the empty rifle box. Even the mere movement of it might have alerted him that the gun no longer lived within. Luckily, Skylar never touched it.
Earlier in the day, Skylar held target practice for the townsfolk. Jake skipped because of his hospital stay, but presumably Dub, Cam, and Wes all took turns firing this weapon. There would be no room for mistakes. If Karen and her father could not calm the beast, the situation might get violent very quickly.
As each person took their weapon, Jake felt a warm brush of Shandi’s hand against his. He took it as she leaned her head on his good shoulder. Always so full of confidence and surety, Jake sensed fear behind her bravado now. He admired her insistence that they try to find Billy in that creature.
Skylar asked, “Did the rancher already take his?”
Dub replied coolly, “Steve is his name. And yes. He’s already setting up his position. Thought he should get a head start.”
Skylar didn’t seem to question it or even take a count of the guns that remained. Jake breathed a sigh of relief.
“Comms check. This is Steve,” buzzed in Jake’s ear. Cam had provided radios for each of them, tuned to a channel specifically for their party. Many of the townsfolk carried radios on various channels across Rose Valley. With any luck, none of them would tune to their channel.
Cam held the button on the black radio attached to his shoulder before speaking. “Coming in loud and clear. Over.”
“All righty. I’m in position. Keep me posted,” Steve’s voice echoed again.
This time Jake smiled and pressed his button. “Ten-four, good buddy.”
Cam gave him a stern look as he crossed past them and made his way to the front of the jeep. Shandi let out a soft giggle as she took the last tranquilizer gun from Skylar. Though Cam made it clear that shenanigans would not be tolerated tonight, Jake searched for anything to keep his mind light and loose. He worried that if he couldn’t stay calm, he wouldn’t be able to deliver.
In front of the jeeps and Suburban sat a single chair. Jake expected makeshift barricades, but none existed. Previous experience suggested they wouldn’t stop the beast anyway, so Jake presumed that Cam decided that they would be pointless. It would have made Jake feel better, nonetheless.
To Jake, just sitting there felt cowardly compared to the heroics that the others geared up for, but he understood the importance. He didn’t know how to shoot a gun with any accuracy, anyway, and some part of him didn’t want to be responsible for hurting Billy. It felt like they barreled towards an incomplete solution. Was there another way?
Jake took his seat. Shandi walked up beside him and surveyed the scene. She waited for Cam to walk away, then leaned over to give Jake a deep, passionate kiss. She looked into his eyes.
“You’ve got this, Jake. We’ll keep you safe.” She lifted the gun up on her shoulder as she stood back up. “You’ve got action Barbie protecting you now.”
Jake smiled as Shandi walked away. She laid her gun gently on the ground and walked towards the door of the schoolhouse. It seemed impossibly unlikely that Karen didn’t already know of their arrival, but she still hid inside her house. Karen answered the door almost immediately, and though she stood too far away for Jake to see her face, her body language exuded fear.
He hadn’t been there when Shandi told them all about Billy Hargrove. He wondered if Karen or her father had cried. He wondered if they even believed it. They must have, he supposed, or they wouldn’t have played along. It seemed insane that they would have agreed to participate, but they resolutely strode out of their house anyway. People in Rose Valley tended to trust the sheriff’s promises of safety.
Shandi took them to the cage and got them situated within. While Karen looked fearful, Jake noticed that her father did not. He looked proud and resolute.
Shandi returned to the line and picked up her gun again. Skylar and Cam exchanged looks, as a ringtone echoed into the night air. Cam fished his cell phone out of his pocket.
“Sheriff Donner here.”
Jake could hear yelling on the other end before Cam responded, “Calm down, Ralph. What?”
Cam went silent for a few seconds, then his eyes went wide. He hung up the phone and turned towards Jake. “One of the teams ran into the beast. You gotta call him here, Jake. Now.”
No pressure, though, Jake thought to himself. He closed his eyes and tried to recreate the steps he used at Shandi’s house. He thought of the schoolhouse. He had seen it thousands of times in his life. He recalled every corner. Every rock. Every color. He thought of the door and the windows. He thought of the chimney that had once served as a bell tower in a former century.
He felt nothing as he thought about the schoolhouse. He recommitted himself and switched focus. He thought of Karen’s kind face. He thought of Cam. Skylar. Wes. Dub. He thought of Shandi. He could picture her most vividly of all. He thought of the cage. Visualized its makeshift strength. He thought of the two yellow jeeps and Cam’s ridiculous Suburban.
Still nothing. He turned his focus to Karen’s father. He thought of the pride that the old man seemed to have at the prospect of seeing his father again. Jake thought of the emotions that must have been flooding through the old man’s body as he waited patiently for a reunion that he thought would never come. Jake had no children, but he thought of his own strange protectiveness that he felt for Macy. He thought of the burgeoning love that he held for Shandi.
Then they hit him. The same gnarly, foreign emotions from before, but this time he expected it.
Billy drew near. Jake felt the overwhelming fear from last time, but the feelings grew into some deeper, more exotic emotion, perhaps one wholly uncommon to the human species. An emotion that could only be felt by someone who had been through the atrocities that Billy had seen.
Jake opened his eyes.
Billy remained silent as he approached. He walked slowly, hunched over and cautious. He glanced towards the five people with guns, but ignored them. He stopped a few feet from the cage and stared into it, clearly assessing the people inside. Jake wondered whether Billy had the wherewithal to detect a trap.
Billy took a few more steps. The old man started to visibly cry, causing Karen to kneel beside him and wrap her arms around his frail frame. Billy stood directly outside of the cage now. The old man pried Karen’s arms off. He summoned all the strength left in his 78-year-old body, stood and walked to the side of the cage. He leaned against it opposite the beast, using the crisscrossed steel to support his weight.
“Dad?” he said, his voice labored with heavy breathing.
Billy cocked his head as if trying to understand what he heard. He reached out and brushed his fingers against the old man’s, with a lighter touch than Jake would have thought possible. Jake felt Billy’s confusion. He felt him trying to solve the enigma before him, trying to make sense of what surely felt impossible to him.
“Jun... ior,” Billy forced out strenuously, as if he discovered talking for the first time. Jake heard gasps from the front line.
Shandi whispered, “It’s working.”
Jake steeled himself, preparing to use his mind to direct the beast away if he had to.
William Hargrove, Jr. sobbed now. Billy seemed confused by it at first, but then forced out, “Don’t... cry.”
The moment shattered as the beast howled unexpectedly. Jake jumped. Someone had shot the beast. A tranquilizer dart hung loosely in one of Billy’s massive arms. Jake surveyed the scene. All eyes trained on Skylar, the idiot who’d pulled the trigger.
Billy charged them, eliciting a flurry of curse words and yelling. Jake closed his eyes and tried to force Billy away, but he could tell immediately that it wouldn’t work. For the first time since he learned to feel Billy’s emotions, he felt an overwhelming sense of anger. This is what Deirdre warned them about. Jake wouldn’t be able to control him in this state.
Tranquilizer darts peppered Billy’s chest now. Each shooter fired in turn as quickly as they could. Billy did not falter. He reached Wes first, as Wes scrambled up to run. The beast caught him by back of the shoulder and pushed him to the ground. Wes screamed in pain as he caught his weight with his hands.
Billy stood over Wes, breathing hard, and Cam suddenly appeared, hitting Billy in the neck with the butt of his gun. Billy shrugged it off and hit Cam in the chest hard, sending him flying backward, landing a few feet away with a thud. Miraculously, Cam held on to his gun.
The beast turned his eyes on the next closest target—Deputy Dub Higgins. Dub dropped his firearm. Jake stood as Skylar ran and jumped into the jeep. Shandi sprinted back to Karen and Junior.
Billy bent down and picked up Dub’s gun. He snapped it in two, threw each half in a different direction and growled in Dub’s face.
“Cam! No!” Jake heard Shandi scream.
Jake looked towards Cam who leveled the tranquilizer gun, prepared to fire again. As Jake’s eyes followed the trajectory of the muzzle, however, he realized that the dart wouldn’t hit Billy—Cam meant to shoot Jake.
“He can take it, Shandi. It won’t kill him.”
Shandi took off towards Cam. Jake froze, suddenly very tired. He didn’t know what he should be doing or how to defuse the situation. Dub’s life hung in imminent danger. Wes laid on the ground in pain. Would Jake being tranquilized have any effect on Billy? Jake decided that he needed to take the risk. In all likelihood, Jake could survive. The serum would provide him the extra boost he would need.
Jake nodded towards Cam. “Do it!”
Cam fired. Jake felt the dart pierce his chest. It stung a little, but the pain proved bearable. The effect of the tranquilizer went to work immediately. Jake dropped down to his knees. Shandi changed directions to intercept him, as Jake struggled to focus. Dub backed up slowly, but the beast did not pursue him.
As Jake fought to keep his eyes open, he witnessed Billy stumbling and scratching at his head. This wouldn’t bring him down, but it confused him. Slowed him down. Maybe it would give them the time they needed to get away. Jake could do this last thing to save them.
Jake couldn’t distinguish between his own emotions and that of Billy anymore. They became one and the same. He felt an overwhelming love for Junior that he vaguely knew emanated from elsewhere. He felt responsibility those who would die, and the fear that he would never wake up. That he would never see Shandi again.
She made it to him just before he lost consciousness, tears streaming down her red face. He detected both sadness and anger.
“I’m sorry” was all he could think to say before losing track of everything around him.
