The Mystery Machine Van
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“I can’t believe you’re going to do it!” My brother, Bubba, yelled from the living room as I was packing my stuff in the back of the Mystery Machine. It’s 1969 black and white Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with an aftermarket supercharger, tinted windows (so no one would see him driving that old heap), chrome rims and exhaust pipes, and a custom stereo system inside.
There’s also a secret compartment behind the rear seat where I’ve hidden several boxes of ammo so I’ll have plenty if he comes after me again. As far as I know, Bubba is the only person who knows about this compartment. That might change now but hopefully, he won’t figure out that I’m gone for good.
My father and mother both tried their best to convince me not to go on my own but they knew better than anyone that I wasn’t leaving without them. They were both trying their best just like me to help us make our way through these troubled times.
Both are members of the Order of the Shield—a secretive organization that protects humanity from the paranormal world by fighting monsters, demons, vampires, witches, and all other threats to humanity. Their motto is “For Humanity’s Good,” which pretty much sums up what we’re here for.
We live in New Orleans along with most of my extended family. I’d always heard the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” growing up but in this case, it really does take an entire city to protect the children of New Orleans from the creatures of hell.
Our little town had become a haven for people like us who couldn’t fit into society anymore; those who needed someone who could understand or at least try to understand why they feel the way they do. And while some people still find ways to hurt each other over religion, politics, race, or class—we found ways to come together and help others instead. At least the adults did.
The kids didn’t need all the fancy rules, we knew how to be good. We learned early on to respect authority and follow directions because we were taught by our elders that we should never question things we weren’t supposed to do. But despite all of that, we were always told that there were evil men in our midst who wanted to use us as weapons of mass destruction for their own gain.
Some people don’t understand the difference between right and wrong, especially when the wrong has such tremendous power that it threatens the existence of everyone else around them.
And so I followed in my parents’ footsteps and joined the Shield. I thought I’d made my first kill years ago during a mission to Mexico when I was sixteen, but then I realized that there must have been another kid on the scene and that it was probably some other poor sap.
I felt like shit afterward but I knew there would be more. I’d seen plenty of horror movies and read every Stephen King book ever written so I knew what I signed up for. So far, I’d done nothing wrong and I hadn’t broken any laws.
I mean, technically I did break a law once by having guns in the house but my dad took care of that problem by giving them away and putting all ammunition under lock and key.
“You can’t go off on your own, Jake!” Mom yelled from the kitchen while she was cooking dinner. She’s been crying on and off since I told her about my plan earlier that day but mostly for the past hour, she hasn’t let up. “We’re going to get you back if we have to call the police or even the FBI!”
She was right to worry because the world isn’t as safe as it used to be and we’re in a war zone. It’s hard enough for adults to find jobs, food, and shelter for themselves and their families. Now we’ve got gangs of monsters roaming the streets looking to prey on the weak, homeless, and defenseless.
And there aren’t enough cops left in America to stop them. It’s only gotten worse over the last few months with the monsters getting stronger and more powerful each week. People are scared, starving, sick, and dying all over the country but New Orleans has its share of problems too.
There’s so much garbage everywhere because most people can’t afford to pay for garbage pickup anymore. There’s hardly any public transportation so if people want to get anywhere, they have to rely on the cars they bought before gas prices skyrocketed. We’ve had so many hurricanes that our levees are failing.
Many houses are sinking into the swamp as the water continues to rise. Our hospitals are running on fumes. Most of the grocery stores in town are boarded up and deserted, except for the ones run by the monsters—who don’t sell anything edible anyway. If we were in a zombie apocalypse, we’d be totally screwed.
So, yeah, I knew it would be dangerous but I didn’t realize how bad it had become until I went to visit Uncle Jimmie today. His family had always lived next door to ours and he was like a brother to me. He had two sisters that lived across the street with their husbands and kids.
They all grew up together and were inseparable until Hurricane Katrina hit. Since then, his family moved to Houston and my mom and dad lost touch with them. We tried calling and writing letters and making phone calls but no one answered and nobody sent us messages.
We figured something must have happened, which is probably what happened to a lot of people in New Orleans. We never stopped praying that they’d return someday but after several years we realized it wasn’t going to happen.
The whole neighborhood was pretty much wiped out by the hurricane. It took years to rebuild, and we had to start completely fresh. The people who lived nearby either died during the storm or moved to Houston and beyond.
We still hoped against hope that maybe they would make it here and we could see them again, but eventually we accepted that we might never know. It broke my heart to hear Uncle Jimmie tell me that everyone in his family was dead; even his wife and son who he loved so dearly.
And then I got a knock on the front door. My father and brothers jumped into action because I couldn’t answer the door myself. When I opened the peephole, there was a man standing outside holding an envelope. As soon as I saw his eyes staring at me through the peephole, I recognized him immediately as Uncle Jimmie’s son-in-law and my favorite nephew, Justin.
After he handed me the letter, he ran towards the corner of our block and vanished into the night.
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it! But it wasn’t long until my mom burst out of the house. “Jake, you have to come with me!”
“What?”
She started crying as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the backyard. “Justin’s been asking about you and your family for years. He came home early from work to find his wife, daughter, and mother dead. Then, he found his dad lying unconscious on the floor with a knife sticking out of his chest.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered in shock. I felt numb.
“Don’t worry, Jake, we’re not leaving him behind. This place will be crawling with monsters within the hour. Even if you do somehow manage to survive, Justin is going to need someone to look after him when he wakes up.
Your parents are already worried sick about you. It’s best if you stay inside until morning. You can call the cops to pick us up tomorrow after we get some sleep. Don’t worry; they’ll bring Justin back alive.”
“No, Mom!” My voice sounded desperate and fearful. “You’re going to leave us? How can I help my little sister if I’m stuck in here? It’s going to take days for the police to get to us—if they can at all—and then weeks before they can send reinforcements to search for survivors. You’re going to die alone down there while Justin and I are safe here.”
My mom turned to face me. She seemed exhausted, scared, and overwhelmed.
“We’ll go out tonight,” I said in a firm tone. “If there’s anything left of the world by this time tomorrow, we’ll be long gone. We might have to fight our way through the monsters but it beats being alone, right?”
It was late afternoon when we made it out of the city and into the bayou near Lake Pontchartrain. The sky was darkening as the sun sank beneath the horizon—it hadn’t been a particularly nice day in Louisiana today.
We were tired, hungry, thirsty, and filthy but we kept ourselves strong knowing Justin needed us. As soon as we entered the water, the current tugged us down below the surface where the creatures were lurking, waiting for their chance to attack.
“Watch out!” I screamed as a shark approached and swam toward us.
“Get away, damn it!” my mother yelled. “You’re not helping anyone if you’re dead.”
I grabbed her arm, forcing her underwater until we were safe. Moments later, the sharks disappeared and we swam as fast as we could in the opposite direction, heading for a large cypress tree in the middle of the river. I heard a deep growl and I knew we had only moments to hide or else it would be too late.
I scrambled over a log onto the trunk and climbed to the top with my family closes behind me.
“This is a good spot to make camp,” I said as we sat on a branch overlooking the river. “I’ll light some candles and try to scare off the monsters for now. Once it gets dark, we’ll move along deeper into the swamp.”
After a few minutes, I noticed a small flame flickering in the distance, growing larger with each passing moment. It was like something was calling us in. My mother had been watching it from across the river, and she suddenly pointed to a large group of creatures swimming in our direction.
“They’ve caught our scent,” I whispered. “They must know that the humans are here because the smell is getting stronger. They’re coming straight for us.”
There were so many of them. Hundreds of huge crocodiles were splashing in the water, snapping and spitting, trying to get closer. As one of them came ashore on the opposite bank, I jumped from the log and landed right in its mouth, causing it to spit me out again. My mother dove underneath the water and grabbed me just before I got swallowed whole.
The other crocodile followed her, and she pushed me under its belly as it tried to eat us both. My brother did the same thing to another crocodile that came near us, and my mom pulled him into the safety of the water.
“Run!” my father shouted as the rest of the creatures swam past. “Go to the trees! We’ll catch up once we’ve fought these bastards off.”
We didn’t stop moving until we reached the edge of the woods. It took a couple of hours but we managed to escape the monsters. My mother and I went ahead, while my dad stayed behind to watch over Justin.
We had lost our shoes, socks, underwear, and even Justin’s glasses and wallet during our trek through the marsh but none of it mattered. Justin needed us; there was no question about it.
As the first rays of dawn filtered through the leaves above, we made our way back to the river where we’d made camp. We stopped just shy of the shoreline where the creatures had attacked the night before, and I used my lighter to ignite the last candle that I had found among the branches of a nearby cypress tree.
With a sigh, I lit a second candle and placed it next to the first. Then, we sat in silence as we watched the flames slowly fade, and the darkness returned.
The End