DEUCALION AND THE WEREWOLVES OF OLDCREEK

BY JOHN PARRISH

Chapter 5: VULTURES

Bobby and his partner Ranger Dwight McGee patrolled the woods with their all-terrain four-wheel-drive jeep stopped near a little pool of water and contemplated on whether they should call it a day.

Bobby's hand on the jeep window looked into the horizon blinded by the sunlight got out of his car and called Dwight. “Hey man, come see!” Dwight using his left hand to shield his face from the light reflecting from bobby's watch asked “what is it?” as he moved towards him.

Look over their bobby said 400 meters dead ahead of us as he pointed to the sky. Dwight looking up blinded by the sun dipped his hands into his pocket and got his sunglasses and wore it quickly

“I don’t see anything” said Dwight looking at the sky! Bobby shouted “it's just vultures’ man nothing else.” Bobbie looking at the rookie ranger shook his head saying “when vultures are gathered like that, that many something is amiss, and it's worth a check.”

“Get in!” shouted bobby and he slammed the driver's door as he got in the car. Dwight seeing shit was starting to get real quickly laced his boots properly and jumped into the jeep.

Bobby driving with reckless abandon drove across the pool of water splashing it away instead of using the dry part of the road. He speedily drove into the woods dodging trees narrowly all of which made Dwight fasten his seatbelt and shout good lord at the same time.

“Slow down!” screamed Dwight to bobby. Bobby kept on firing on drifting across trees then he drove up the high road which was a shortcut to bobby as he had mastered the range like the back of his palm.

“Sweet Jesus! Bobby slow down! please!” bobby ignoring him pressed the accelerator down harder while Dwight prayed to god he doesn’t go out this way was interrupted when he saw the road bent and screamed “Bobby curve!”

“I see it!” bobby shouted as he drifted nicely around the curved road like a scene in fast and furious.

Then he slammed his brake hard Dwight who didn’t put on his seatbelt and wasn’t expecting it slammed his head across the dashboard and shouted then pushed open his car door and vomited on the ground.

Bobby looking at him said “are you done?” without waiting for a reply drove to the place where the vultures gathered. They were in the hundreds all trying to get a bite. A bite of what? bobby and Dwight didn’t know the answer to that question.

Bobby taking a big stick off the ground tried scaring the birds away, but they just simply moved away making loud noises. Dwight who was forward quickly shouted! and drew bobby's attention “come see!”

Bobby swinging his stick both ways trying to scare the vultures away saw what made his stomach sick. He looked at the vultures tearing open the body of a disfigured male body. The eyes were both missing. the intestine was in the beaks of two huge black vultures who struggled for it. While the other body was that of a wolf.

Could it be? Impossible! could it be them! thought bobby as thoughts flooded to the last battle in the Irving Clarks house. The area wasn’t that far from here but how come.

Dwight calls Klay while swinging a stick to scare the vultures in order to preserve the evidence scene. Bobby quickly took photographs of the scene because it was almost noon and the night creatures will soon swoop in.

“Here it's Klay!” he is on the line as he threw the phone to bobby. Bobby catching the phone with an outstretched hand shouted “he needed to come down here to see things for himself as soon as possible that’s too bad.”

Klay hearing the seriousness behind bobby's voice quickly ran from the diner where he was having his late lunch and jumped on his patrol car. Blasting through the streets he on his siren to show he was in an official capacity. He ran past a red light and swiftly evaded an incoming car.

Klay radioed in dispatch and requested for more officers to meet him one kilometer north of Irving’s Clark’s house. He also called the coroner and he drove there.

Charlie and Chris going to the barbing salon looked as he sped past them while going out of town. He then turned towards the abandoned missionary church and used the back roads. He was just mere minutes from them now.

While bobby and Dwight were swearing on top of their voices swinging their sticks to scare away the birds, they heard the siren from Klay's car as he drove straight into the flock of birds scaring them away.

Klay using the precious few minutes he bought quickly got down from the car and looked at the scene and was shocked. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Klay then looked at bobby and Dwight as the birds tried to gather again reached for his shotgun at the back of his car and fired two shots into the air.

The vultures flew away and just circled around in the air. Then the other police officers came to the scene and the coroner's van arrived. They quickly jumped into action as they picked the whole place for traces of evidence.

The coroner quickly took pictures of the two corpses that of the human and wolf that were almost disfigured by the vultures before he put them into body bags and loaded them into the coroner's bus.

Klay was now worried about what the hell is going on in this town when bobby walked towards him looked and said “crazy isn’t it?”

Bobby looked at the policemen trying to load up lighted up a cigarette and offered klay one which he accepted and lit, then lit his saying “it is crazy.”

 Few hours later Klay and bobby drove to the coroner's office after he concluded the test late in the night. While waiting for him to come Bobby brought out a small can of whisky from his jacket pocket and sipped a little.

“Klay, do you need a drink?” he gestured  

klay politely declined and saying “I need to be sober for this.”

“okay, dokey” replied bobby as he gulped another and sighed shaking the can trying to know the level of the remaining whisky in it.

Then the coroner briskly walked toward them and apologized for coming late. The coroner a man in his late 60s walked briskly and fast despite having a tall old frame. He walked towards the end of the hall, while klay followed in second and bobby.

All Bobby could see was Mr. white bald hair and Klay in front of him.

Then Mr. white opened the lock on the door and they all went in. He opened the drawer in which the body was kept and laid it on a table in front of them and positioned the overhead lamp closely.

Mr. White looked at them while pointing to the body which was tagged as John Doe by a small tag at his ankles. Mr white stretching his hands out gave the two of them hand gloves which they quickly put on before they proceeded.

Klay noticed some distinct markings on the body behind its ear and pointed to it.

Mr white adjusted the body and pointed at the mark saying “this was made by a ring and it’s a premortem injury.”

Klay in surprise asked inquisitively “does it mean he was murdered and dumped in the woods?”

Mr white looked at Bobby who haven’t said a thing all this while asked if he knew the victim?

Bobby simply shrugged saying “no he didn’t”.

Then Mr white proceeded to tell the two of them that the man's cause of death was caused by bite marks caused by a wolf and his body has lots of claw marks which prove it and the wolf was seen half-eaten by vultures.

“Does it mean he and the wolf fought and killed each other?” asked Bobby

“I don’t know” said Mr white as he zipped back the body bag Mr john doe was in, then brought out the wolf's body to show them his findings.

“Well,” he said pointing to the half-remaining body of the wolf looking at the body. Pointing to a few bites and scratch marks he said these were defensive wounds but it’s a wild animal it could be with another wolf or cougar so it doesn’t mean a thing.

Bobby moving around the table placed his left hand around its jaw and use his right hand to move the head carefully pointing at a large crack on its head.

Klay now looking inspected it more carefully as he ran his fingers through it and said “this was done by a missile to be precise, this is not a gunshot wound.”

Mr white tossing them a file said “this was done by a rock.”

Bobby and klay were now surprised looking at him with a face that required explanation.

“Well, boys,” he said he ran tests and saw trace elements of various minerals found in a few objects but all were consistent with that of a rock.

He then proceeded by saying “the rock had a rough surface which left traces on the wolf's body.”

Seeing how the boys were impressed by his skills he smiled to himself and chuckled “I still got it.”

  “So, we have a fist fight behind a wolf and a man great!” Said klay mockingly as he walked away muttering what the hell is going on in this town.

Bobby rushing behind tapped his shoulder “hey, it might not be much of a case you know.”

Klay looking at bobby now “well you might be right; all the pieces are connected now the claw and bites mark from the Ethan and Dorathy murders pointed to a wild animal which also led to here.”

Bobby looked back and waved Mr white goodbye as they walked away from the building into the squad car.

Klay dipped his hands into his pocket and brought out a Mentos and tossed it into his mouth, then brought out his keys and unlocked the car and they both stepped in.

Klay started the ignition and lowered his window a bit and drove away from the coroner's office. For the first time, Bobby looked at the back seat of the sedan and saw pieces of paper, food leftovers, and plastic cups from different coffee shops. For the first time, he felt pity for his friend klay because this was not the man he was or knew him to be.

Klay barely concentrating on his driving mind drifted back to a time his wife and son died in a car accident that he caused when they were arguing what he couldn’t even remember didn’t see the oncoming car until it was too late.

Bobby in the passenger seat was reading a newspaper and dropped the paper to see if they were close to his wife's restaurant quickly grabbed the steering and swerved dodging the oncoming car as they slammed into a street light.

Bobby, unhurt quickly came out of the car and went around to check Klay he noticed the back tire had spun out of the wheel. Klay bleeding from his forehead was unconscious.

Bobbie suspecting, he had a concussion quickly used the police car to radio in for an ambulance yelling “officer down! I repeat officer down! Sergeant klay is down! Badge number Alpha Sierra Zulu Charlie 920!”

The dispatch responder squawked in saying “what is your location?”  

Bobby who didn’t know where they were exactly scuffled his feet looking around till, he saw a led lighted signpost of the unity bakery.

He squawked the car radio and said “5th Brunson and avenue opposite the unity bakery.”

Dispatch replied “copy! Emergency services ETA three minutes.”

Bobby positioned klay on his back and lifted his head while his body was in an outstretched position and watched klay regain consciousness. He gestured out his fingers in front of klay and asked “how many fingers am I holding out?”

Klay's vision though regaining was still all blurry and said “he is seeing 4 fingers.”

Then the ambulance got there and he was put on a stretcher while the EMT Angelina Cortez checked his pupils with a mini torch which she shone on his eyes seeing his pupils were still responding, she checked his pulse and saw that he hit his head really hard, and loaded him into the stretcher and into the ambulance with the help of Bobby who for some reason refused medical attention.

Bobby looked on as the ambulance drove away to the hospital while he walked to a nearby bar. while in the bar he ordered a beer which he nursed with his hand and drank silently alone.