Episode 8
Duress
In keeping with the just-reached agreement with Saigow, the group sent the box back to him and made sure that Arie wasn’t going to do anything stupid and break the treaty (that is, the hunters wouldn’t attack the vampires except in self-defense, and vice versa; if either did, it could lead to war). Afterwards, feeling pretty good about their current situation, they decided the time had come to start looking for other things to focus their attention on besides their own problems. Will had heard about a series of murders and acts of vandalism going on at a small piece of land that some radical environmentalists were trying to keep from being paved over as part of a new highway and thought it might be the work of supernaturals. Everyone else agreed and piled into the cars to go check it out.
At first, the site didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary—a relatively small and unassuming woodsy area with a bunch of environmentalists camping out to defend it and claiming not to know anything about the murders. The only really unusual thing anyone found was a clump of rough brown fur stuck in a tree about eight feet off the ground. It seemed like not very much was going on, and since all the murders had taken place at night the group decided to come back that night and check it out again. However, things turned ugly on the way back when Arie was pulled over by the cops—the group had completely forgotten their status as wanted criminals and were taken into custody for their trouble. (Arie managed to get off scot-free thanks to not having been involved in the massacre at the restaurant—luckily for him, the cops didn’t check his car and find the pound of ‘shrooms and the unlicensed Uzi it contained.)
Melba used her one phone call to leave a message for Saigow telling him what had happened and politely asking him to hurry up with working out his end of the deal. The group only had to wait a few hours until sundown for him to swing into action and arrange for their release. Then, Saigow came to the police station to pick the group up—with Haji driving, apparently as punishment for his rash actions earlier. The group thanked Saigow, and he dropped them off in front of Chino Latino. As Melba walked past the driver’s side door, she leaned in and said sweetly, “Thanks for the ride, Haji.” To say he didn’t take this very well would be an understatement. Haji burst through the door, grew claws and fangs, and attacked her several times before Saigow’s people pulled him away. Saigow said he hoped the group could overlook what had just happened and that his nephew would be punished. They agreed, but everyone was rather shaken up, most of all Melba.
The next day, the story on the front page of the newspaper was a large article exonerating Kai, Marta, Melba, and Will of the murders at the restaurant and stating that the real culprits had not yet been found. The group was delighted but still somewhat wary, knowing that the stains the false accusation had put on their names would never fully be erased. Still, the group decided that although they’d accomplished one of their major goals, there was still more to be done. So that night, Arie and Melba decided to go back to the site posing as activists, while Will worked on his gadgets and Marta tried unsuccessfully to go through her library and learn more about the creatures who’d attacked the group at the Tarbol mine.
At the site, Arie proved to be no help at all, since he was more interested in partying with the hippies than in getting any work done. He brought a substantial supply of ‘shrooms and marijuana-laced brownies and delighted in passing them out to everyone. Soon, the environmentalists’ vigil had degenerated into a drunken orgy and Arie was fooling around in Melba’s tent with a girl named Dana (whose name he wouldn’t be able to remember in the morning). Sexiled from the tent, Melba started wandering around in the woods and came across something rather interesting: a giant (and apparently supernatural) bear moving around in the woods, apparently being helped or guarded by a few of the environmentalists who weren’t participating in the party. She watched as the bear started tearing apart Port-A-Potties and pieces of equipment, then quietly slipped away, planning to return another time with backup to further investigate the bear’s doings.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment building, Will was engrossed in his gadget-making and the odd bit of recreational drinking. He’d already made a flamethrower and a slightly modified “battle chainsaw” and was now beginning to modify the telescoping metal pole he’d been stabbed with at the Tarbol mine, planning to make it into a telescoping noose to capture and hold adversaries. (Marta’s influence on the group was making his weapons progressively less lethal…) This meant Marta was on her own when, late that night, she received an email from Chet and Saria. They said they’d forgotten a few things they wanted to bring on their trip and asked her to meet them near the lock and dam to bring it to them. Not really sure what else to do, Marta gathered up the items and got on the bus, leaving Will a note letting him know what she was doing since he was too wrapped up in his work to notice her leaving.
At the lock and dam, Marta waited for almost an hour without Chet and Saria showing up. She was just about to leave when she noticed a van sitting in a parking lot close to the river and someone who looked vaguely like Chet standing next to it. She walked down into the parking lot, and the man called her by name and introduced himself as Cameron, a “friend” of Chet and Saria’s. He said that Chet and Saria hadn’t been able to make it to the meeting, but that if she’d come with him he could take her to see them and deliver the stuff. Marta thought it sounded kind of suspicious but agreed, hoping that by going with him she could finally figure out what was going on.
Cameron and Marta got in the van, and he drove to the parking lot of a Lund’s on the other side of the city. During the drive, Marta turned on her second sight and noticed that Cameron had a crystal like the others, but that his was red. They waited in the parking lot of Lund’s for another hour, with nothing happening and with Marta feeling vaguely threatened the entire time. She was just about to tell Cameron she was leaving when she heard a noise from behind her and the van quite suddenly began to shake. Marta turned around to see that a giant creature had latched onto the van with its enormous claws and was crushing the back end of it, pulling it closer to its body. The creature looked like a cross between a lobster and a scorpion. It was the same creature she’d seen in her dream.
Cameron panicked and shouted, “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!” He pulled Marta out of the van as the lobster-thing continued destroying it and dragged her through the parking lot and behind the grocery store. Leaning against the wall, she thought she was safe—until she looked up and saw the lobster-thing descending headfirst down the wall, apparently having gotten onto the roof. Marta stood frozen in fear as the creature scooped up Cameron and slammed him into the wall over and over, until he fell to the ground and didn’t get up. Marta was half expecting it to do the same to her, but instead it simply stood there watching her. Terrified, Marta asked it, “Who are you? What do you want?” and it made a motion indicating that it couldn’t speak. Then, it extended one claw toward her. She stepped forward and the creature lifted her up surprisingly gently. Then it carried her across the rooftops of the city and back to the apartment building. Marta thanked the creature, and it left just as mysteriously as it had appeared.
The next morning, everyone told the stories of their respective evenings. Everyone agreed that the events at the site needed to be investigated further, but they were even more interested in Marta’s experience. After reprimanding her for going with Cameron in the first place, they decided that understanding Cameron and the creature could help them unlock the mystery of Chet, Saria, and their “friends” at the Tarbol mine. So Marta began researching and actually turned up some useful information. It seemed creatures such as the lobster-scorpion had a minor role in certain corners of Middle Eastern mythology, where they often played the role of “guardians” for certain tribes. While she worked, someone called the apartment pretending to be Chet, but Melba hung up on him when he seemed not to know crucial bits of information that made her think he was an imposter. Will also played a rather mean-spirited prank on Arie when, after discovering that Arie couldn’t read, he told him that the girl who’d given him her phone number the previous night was named Darla. Fortunately, when Dana came to visit Arie and he called her by the wrong game, she thought it was just an amusing result of too many drugs and told him to call her sometime. He still hasn’t.
At night, the entire group went back to the site to try to solve the problem of the bear once and for all. They saw it again, and this time it was ruining heavy machinery and overturning the trailer where the administration for the construction project took place. Marta and Melba tried to talk to it, and Arie tried to shoot it, but none of those options worked very well. Finally, they agreed to leave the bear alone if it would refrain from harming any more people as it settled its score with the construction company (realizing that if they tried to fight it they stood no chance). Then they left the site and, shortly thereafter, heard that the construction project had been canceled and the woods saved.