"By that time I've pumped four shots into the thing. I can see the slugs ripping into it, but it was almost like shooting into a bowl of Jello. It wasn't affecting it at all. The things just turned and looked at me with those hideous yellow eyes and raised its arms like it had conquered something.
"I could tell Palmer was dead, and when I saw the four shots hadn't slowed the critter down one bit, I hightailed it for the door, slammed it and threw the dead bolt. Even then I could hear it raging around in there, growling, screaming, breaking things, like it was having a tantrum.
"There was a kid peeking in the window, and I started screaming at him to find Madden and Hall. The kid's eyes were as big as saucers, but he got the job done."
I sat through Kendall's breathy dissertation, shaking my head in disbelief. "Wait a minute," I finally interrupted, "do you expect me to believe that the beast that bounced me around in the middle of the street out there is the same one that was stretched out back there in the cooler?"
Madden nodded grimly. "Told you it would be tough to swallow."
B.C. was still holding my hand, nodding right along with Madden and Kendall. "It's not there, E.G. I looked for myself."
"Things don't die and come back to life," I said flatly. "The world doesn't work that way."
Brenda let go of my hand, and with some trepidation I lowered myself down off of the counter. The minute my feet hit the floor I knew the little white-haired man with the paternal look on his face was right; my gyro had been scrambled. I staggered, knees buckling, regained my equilibrium and wobbled toward the cooler.
The door was massive, made of steel and a good six inches thick. It had been ripped right out of its casing, its steel hinges splintered. The dead bolt, a piece of steel rod three quarters of an inch in diameter, had been sheared in half. From its location and condition, the why and how was all too obvious. It had been hammered out from inside the cooler.
I fumbled my way around the door and went in. Palmer's crumpled body was coiled up in the corner with a blanket not too discreetly concealing it.
The creature was gone, all right.
By the time I worked my way, wincing with each step, back up to the front of the store (B.C. had her arm around my waist and my arm over her shoulder), the battery of questions was starting to formulate.
"You must have gotten here in a matter of minutes," I said, looking at Madden.
Jake nodded. "Me and Caleb got here at about the same time. Just as I pulled up, that damn thing come plowin' through the big plate glass window. I started firin' even before I got out of my rig. Kendall was already across the street, emptyin' his rifle at the thing."
"Right about then," Kendall interrupted, "the mercury vapor lights started coming on up and down the street. For some reason the thing tried to shield its eyes and crawled back through the broken window into the store. I reloaded, and every time I saw something move, I started firing."
"And that's when I stumbled in?"
"Exactly," Kendall confirmed.
Madden was shaking his head. "Between us I know we nailed the bastard at least ten times. I don't miss at that range."
"It never even slowed down," Kendall said dejectedly.
"All right," I pushed, "after he got through pounding on me, what happened?"
Jake pointed at the sergeant. "Me and Kendall followed it down toward the pier where Caleb has the Lady Mary tied up."
"Then what?"
"It headed west up the beach into the scrub brush."
"Did you follow?"
Jake looked at me as though I was slightly addled. "In this fog? Are you kiddin'? You saw what happened to Harlan out there in that damn woods, didn't you?"
By ten-thirty, the streets of Chambers Bay were deserted. Word had gotten around, and I could just imagine what was going on behind the shuttered windows and locked doors. The fog had closed in again and even the streetlights were little more than blurry indications of man's age-old feeble attempt to fend off fear of the dark.
Madden had managed to round up 18 or so of the heartier souls in the village to help him conduct a hastily concocted, combination patrol and vigil.
Kendall had succeeded in getting two additional officers down from Waverly post, and the men arrived with a small arsenal of weapons that were promptly passed out to the patrol.
The three Mounties and Madden held a strategy meeting at the back of the store, and when they came out, Kendall assembled the men around him.
"Gentlemen," he began stiffly, "this is Constable Gregory and Constable Hawkins from the Waverly post. These men are here to serve as squad leaders and maintain contact with our detachment headquarters in Thunder Bay.
"We'll organize our patrol network pretty much on the same concept we used to conduct our sweep last evening. Constable Gregory will set up a command center down at the old school house, and Officer Hawkins and I will head up the two patrol shifts. Each patrol will cover four square blocks and report in to Officer Gregory every thirty minutes. The group that goes out now will be replaced at three o'clock, and we'll rotate again just after dawn."
Suddenly an agitated voice rumbled out of the back of the room. "There's a story goin' around that you and Madden shot the thing several times earlier tonight and it didn't even slow it down."
Kendall held up his hand in an attempt to quiet the murmur of voices. "That's true," he admitted.
"Then what the hell good are these rifles you gave us?"
Madden elbowed his way to the front of the circle. "Look, ain't nobody sayin' this is gonna be a cakewalk. We know two things. We know our round of fire knocked him out of the tree last night, and we know we scared him off with gunshots tonight."
Another voice grunted. "Yeah, and we know that we ain't got no one gun that'll stop the damn thing."
Madden was undaunted. "Doc Ferris took a good look at that thing when it was back there in the cooler, and he figures we're dealin' with somethin' altogether different here."
"Like what?" the voice shot back.
"Well… Doc figures this thing has some real low-functioning respiratory system with such a low basal metabolism that it would be virtually impossible to tell what condition it was in. He figures we only stunned it."
"Then how the hell are we gonna stop it?"
"The object," Madden persisted, "is not to kill it, but to keep it away from the community and under control until we can get some help in here. Now, we got most of the folks from the outlying areas rounded up and bedded down here in town. Look at it this way. All we gotta do is keep Chambers Bay secure until sun-up."
Kendall took over again. "We've got a couple of things in our favor. This thing, whatever it is, is slow; its mobility is limited. On the other hand, we know it's strong and that it can climb, so it could be anywhere. But — and I think this is important — it's probably scared and confused, and like any caged animal, it'll attack if it's provoked."
Kendall was still talking when Madden started toward me. "Do you feel good enough to help us?" he asked.
"Like a virtual powerhouse," I lied.
B.C. shook her head. I heard her mumble something about a form of macho insanity.
"Besides, I need to talk to you. Your lady friend here tells me you've learned something else about this critter."
Connecting Lucy's research with the events that were unfolding in Chambers Bay seemed slightly ludicrous even in light of what had just transpired. For some reason I was convinced that the human brain could leapfrog the logic of all those shots only stunning the creature, but I was reluctant to unfold a story that had the thing surviving for centuries and wreaking all this havoc.