51: The Series

51:Monsters Chapter 1

Sheriff Lindsay Gold was in her office, as usual, reading over the reports that had been left on her desk since she had left work the day before. She was getting used to the weirdness that had been taking place in her county since she had taken over as sheriff only months earlier. As she began to read the report in her hand, she heard a knock at her door. She looked up to see Little Bob standing in the doorway.

“What’s up, Bob?” she asked, closing the file in her hand and placing it on her desk.

“Not much,” he said as he sat her coffee cup on her desk and dropped into the chair across from her.

She picked up the coffee and took a sip. “Did you do something different with the coffee this morning?”

“I didn’t spit in your cup this morning,” Little Bob answered, smiling.

Lindsay laughed and asked, “Does that mean you had Viktor spit in it?”

“No, Viktor’s on a call. I got a different brand of coffee, if you must know,” he told her. “Have you finished those reports yet?” he asked, nodding toward the folders on her desk.

“Not yet. I had to make some phone calls before I started, but I did see that Max had another run-in with his little lawn gnome friend. Is there anything else I need to worry about?” Lindsay asked him.

“Maybe. Annie had one last night that she described as a ghost. I don’t remember what Big Bob and Andy had right off. They each had a couple of things, but nothing too bad, and Yuri had one that was some big dog thing on all fours. He was very clear that it was not like what you dealt with on that call with Viktor,” Little Bob told her.

“Good. I don’t want to deal with that thing or anything like it ever again,” Lindsay told him with a shudder as she thought about the creature John Lingerfelt had called Anubis.

Little Bob looked at her, tipping his head to the side a little. “Something wrong?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine. I am a little curious as to how you know what all the calls were last night?” Lindsay asked him.

“I may have superpowers like you, or I may have read the reports. The world will never know,” Little Bob answered.

“You do know that I don’t care if you read these reports or the files in those boxes, and I do not have any superpowers,” Lindsay told him, smiling.

“I know that you don’t care about the reports. I think I have read so many of the files in those boxes I see them in my sleep. I know that I have had a few nightmares because some of those things are terrifying. As for your superpowers, I have known you for enough years to know that you do have some. I’m just glad you use them for good because if you used them for evil, we would all be doomed. Doomed!” Little Bob yelled.

“Who is doomed?” Wren asked as he reached Lindsay’s office door.

“All of us if your lovely wife ever decides to use her superpowers for evil instead of good,” Little Bob told him.

“I can’t argue with that. Are the two of you busy? I need to speak with my lovely wife about something,” Wren grinned.

“Nope, I just brought her coffee and wanted to warn her about what was on her desk. I have done that, so I will leave you two to talk business,” Little Bob told him as he stood and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“What big news do you have for me now?” Lindsay asked Wren as he sat down across from her.

Wren replied, “Not anything, really. I just wanted to check on you. I had the feeling that something was a little off with you this morning.”

“I’m fine, I promise. I woke up with a headache; I promise you, I’m fine now. Does that make you feel better?” Lindsay asked him.

“OK, but I’m not sure if I believe you entirely. What else is going on with you today?” Wren asked her.

“I’m tired. I did my normal thing of falling asleep quickly, then waking up and being awake most of the night,” Lindsay told him.

“Why don’t you wake me up when that happens? You know I would be up with you,” Wren told her with concern in his voice.

“I know you would, but when I finally snap from the lack of sleep, I will need you to take care of me.”

“That’s fair, I guess. I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Wren said, smiling at her. “Do you have a list of the weirdness from last night?”

“I’ve just started going through the reports that were left on my desk. I know that Max had his gnome again, Annie had a ghost-like thing, and Yuri had a big dog thing that walked on all fours. Let me check the others real quick, and I will get your list done for you.”

“That sounds good to me. I am going to check the boxes for a couple of things while you do that,” Wren said as he stood up.

“Have fun,” Lindsay said as she returned to the files on her desk.

Lindsay began to read the report that Max had written. This time instead of the lawn gnome just jumping on the car, it had charged him and grabbed onto his leg. When it had done that, Max had instinctively kicked, sent it flying into the bushes, and as soon as that happened, Max left the area. Lindsay began to laugh and wrote down the information for Wren.

“What’s so funny?” Wren asked as he rummaged through one of the boxes stacked in Lindsay’s office.

“Max,” she answered.

“What did he do now?” Wren asked, laughing and shaking his head.

“Well, according to his report, the lawn gnome attacked him, and he kicked it like a football into some bushes, then came back here. I think we need to have a camera crew follow him. We could make a fortune if we turned it into a movie,” Lindsay told him.

“I wonder if any of that was caught on the dash camera?” Wren asked.

“I was just wondering about myself,” Lindsay said, picking up her phone and dialing the extension to Little Bob’s desk. She watched him pick up the phone on his desk.

“Deputy Smith,” Little Bob answered.

“Bob, can you please come to my office for a moment?” Lindsay asked him.

“Yes, ma’am,” Little Bob answered and hung up. Lindsay saw him stand and come toward her office. “What do you need, boss lady?” Little Bob asked when he walked in.

“Boss lady?” Wren asked himself quietly as he continued to look in one of the boxes.

“Bob, I know you read all the weirdness files before I arrived this morning, so you know what happened to Max. Do you happen to know if any of that was caught on his dash camera?” Lindsay asked him.

Little Bob smiled broadly. “I don’t know, but I am about to find out for you. I will run out to his house and switch out the memory cards so we can check,” Little Bob told her. “Viktor is out on a trespassing call right now and should be back soon. Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, Cat is a little cranky right now. It seems as though she and Viktor got into a big fight this morning, so you and Wren have fun with that.” Little Bob said to Lindsay, then turned and left her office, leaving her door open.

Just as Little Bob went out of the department doors, Viktor came in. When Viktor walked past where Cat was working, Lindsay heard Cat yell something at him in Russian, and in turn, Viktor yelled back at her, also in Russian. Lindsay had the feeling that whatever they said to each other was not very nice and most likely curse words.

“I wonder how long they will be at that,” Wren pondered as he put the lid on the box he had been searching in.

“I’m not worried about it unless it affects the operation of this department or makes our little poltergeist friend start throwing things again,” Lindsay answered him, looking up from the report she was reviewing. “I guess I had better speak with them about this before it gets out of hand.”

“Cat, Viktor, can the two of you please come in here?” Lindsay called out to them from her office.

Lindsay watched them both stand and walk toward her office, glaring at each other. As soon as they were close to each other, they began another exchange in Russian and continued until they were standing in front of Lindsay’s desk.

“Before I say anything to you, do either of you want Agent Gold to leave the room?” Lindsay asked them.

Cat and Viktor both shook their heads, signaling they did not object to Wren staying in the room.

“OK, fine. You two can fight all you want at home, but at this point, Viktor, I think you might want to find a place of your own before she kills you. Cat, you can fight all you want with your brothers, but NOT inside this building. Viktor, are you and Cat forgetting about what happened when you got into that argument with Little Bob? I do not want a repeat of the poltergeist demolishing this department and everything in it. Do you both understand me?”

Cat and Viktor silently nodded as they stood before Lindsay’s desk.

“Good. Go back to work,” Lindsay told them.

They both turned and left the sheriff’s office without saying another word. Lindsay was beginning to wonder about her decision to hire Cat’s brothers, Viktor and Yuri, to work as deputies in the department. However, this was the first problem there had been, and they were all very good at what they did.

“I’m just wondering, do you ever feel like you are the parent of everyone who works here?” Wren asked her with a big smile on his face.

“Only every day, several times a day. Why do you ask?” Lindsay asked him in a somber tone.

Wren laughed, “I say next time, you just let those two fight it out. I am pretty sure that Cat could take him.”

“I know she could take him, but I don’t want Viktor to get hurt. If he did, I would have to find someone to cover his shifts,” Lindsay told him. “What are you looking for, anyway?”

“I have had teams busy with training exercises, and I am trying to get information on a few things they found that weren’t on my official list,” Wren answered as he began looking through another box of files.

“You have fun with that while I keep putting together your list of things that your training exercises haven’t found yet,” Lindsay told him as he returned to the reports on her desk.

Lindsay was glad her husband had trusted her and her department enough to bring the files to her office and share what they contained. On the other hand, the thought of what had been stored and researched on the military base both frightened and angered her. It made her wonder if the incident that had occurred was an accident or if someone had intentionally sabotaged the containments. If it had been an accident, how could there not have been some safety measures in place to prevent what had happened? Moreover, if safety measures were in place, how could they have all failed unless someone made them fail?

Lindsay was finishing with the reports, and Wren had just pulled another box from the stack when Little Bob came back from switching the memory card in the dash camera of Max’s patrol car. He walked into Lindsay’s office and started to laugh, closing the door behind him.

“What’s so funny?” Lindsay asked him curiously.

“Max,” Little Bob answered.

Wren started to laugh, too, “What now?”

“Well, he left something out of his report. Actually, he left several things out of his report. You’ll have to watch this. I think we should sell it and make some money off it,” Little Bob told them as he handed the memory card to Lindsay.

She put the card into the computer and began navigating to the correct file she needed. She started the video several minutes before Max arrived at the area where he had encountered what they were calling a lawn gnome. She carefully began to fast-forward until they reached the point where Max arrived.

By the time Lindsay had reached that part of the video, Little Bob and Wren had made their way behind her desk and were both watching over her shoulder.

When they began to watch the video, they saw Max get out of his patrol car, and nothing else appeared to be in the area. Suddenly, as he walked to the front of his patrol car, the little gnome-like creature came running out of some bushes straight toward him. It jumped on Max, climbed up his leg, and latched onto the back of his head. Max had begun to slap at it as his head shook violently. As they watched, they could not tell if he was shaking it or if the gnome was. He spun in a circle to try to dislodge it from his head. It finally let go and moved down to his arm, which Max began frantically waving around, trying to get it off him. The gnome finally came off his arm and landed on the ground nearby. It was almost instantly up on its feet, running back toward Max again, but this time he was ready for it. When it was close enough, he kicked it like a soccer ball, causing it to land in the bushes from where it had come. At that point, Max wasted no time getting into his car and leaving. As he put the car in gear and began to back up, the gnome had come out of the bushes again and had started to chase the car. To top off everything that had happened to Max, the entire time he had been fighting with it, he had been letting out high-pitched screams, which sounded like a five-year-old girl who had seen a spider.

“Well, that explains why he didn’t want to talk about it,” Little Bob said as they finished the video.

“Yeah, he got his butt kicked by a lawn gnome. Maybe I should go to the store and see if I can find one for his desk,” Wren said, laughing.

“Don’t do that,” Lindsay told him as she laughed a little, shaking her head.

“She’s right; you shouldn’t do that. I have one in my shed at home that will work,” Little Bob told Wren, laughing.

“OK, I know that neither of you will probably listen to me when I tell you this. I know you are going to mess with Max about this, and it will probably result in a prank war going through this office, but please try to keep it under control. Don’t break anything, don’t hurt anyone, and above all else, don’t make anyone quit this department,” Lindsay instructed Little Bob and Wren.

“Of course, there are rules for these things. They might be unwritten, but they are there, and I will follow them. I can’t speak for your husband, but I always follow the rules,” Little Bob told her seriously.

“No, you don’t. That is why I am telling you this,” Lindsay said, looking at Little Bob. “And you,” she said, turning to Wren, “Please, I’m begging you, don’t make him quit. I don’t have anyone else to fill his spot.”

“I would never do anything to him that he would not do to me,” Wren said with a smile.

“Yeah, I know, and that is what worries me,” Lindsay told him.