Corn Patch Ch. 03

Harlen knew someone was about to die, he knew what he had to do.

"Hea! Go! Sika soi Jaha!" He shouted. She instantly jerked her arm loose, squatted down, tugged her long dress up and bunched it at her waist. She was naked under the dress but to Hea that was meaningless. There was a flash of bare legs, then she moved and was gone. None of them had time to respond.

"What the...?" One of them exclaimed.

"Hari! Sika soi Jaha!" Harlen said to his son.

Hari gave a tug and the handcuffs snapped, he took off at a run. Hari wasn't as fast as Hea but he was way faster than they could react to. Both of them were out of sight in seconds.

Harlen heard Hea's long cry, then Hari answered. They chattered back and forth, the sounds blending and then vanishing into the distance quickly.

"What in the fuck?", Harlen heard someone say.

He felt the handcuffs on his wrists, there was nothing he could do. Several of the men headed out into the fields towards the forest, all of them carrying rifles at the ready.

"No! Don't shoot them!" Harlen screamed, struggling with all his strength. But there was too many of them, he was helpless as they loaded him into one of the big vehicles.

At the station in town, Harlen did his best to answer questions, explain. No one believed him.

Sheriff Mendoza stood in the background, the look on his face showed he didn't like the way Harlen was being treated one bit.

"Tell the truth, what are those things?" One of them demanded.

"They are just people, stuck here. They come from outer space, some other planet."

"Bullshit!"

"It's true."

The questioning went on and on.

"You have illegals working for you and you are paying them under the table, tell us where their camp is." One of them demanded.

"Then you explain what you just saw." Harlen told him.

The man just looked at him.

Then some of the men who went out into the woods came back. They all reported monsters jumping out at them, destroying their weapons. One told them the woods were infested with giant Bigfoots, with fangs and huge red eyes, some of them over 10 feet tall.

More than half of the men had just gotten into their rigs and left.

Harlen laughed to himself when he saw the one talking hold up his rifle, the barrel bent into a right angle.

"Good thing they are friendly, they could have shoved that right up your ass!", Harlen growled at him.

They ignored him.

"We gotta get some more men, some choppers." One of them said.

"Shit, we are going to need some tanks!" Another said, his voice tinged with fear.

"I don't think you want to do that." Harlen told them calmly.

"Yea? Why the hell not? They won't stand up to what we can go out there with."

"Yes, they probably can. So why don't you just leave them alone?"

"We can't have monsters out in the woods."

"They aren't monsters, they are just people, leave them alone!" Harlen yelled at them.

"Right. People with tails and fur and claws, sure they are. And you are in on it, we will get to the bottom of this."

Harlen sighed, they led him back to a cell, started to unlock it. The front door opened.

Jaha stood there.

Everyone came to a complete stop, stared.

"Helllo, Harrrlnn." Jaha said. He seemed to have a grin on his face.

"Hi, Jaha. I got a little problem here."

Just then one of the men raised his rifle, Jaha moved and took it away from him, bent the barrel easily, then handed it back. The rest of them just stood there in shock. Here stood a monstrous hairy beast between them and the only way out.

"Leee..a Harrrlnn gooo." Jaha told them.

"What?" The man in charge asked, slowly backing away.

"He told you to let me go. And I think he means it." Harlen told them.

The man in charge stared at Jaha. Jaha held up his hands, the claws snapped out. All five of them, the fingers splayed out, the claws an easy two inches long. He looked extremely fierce, but Jaha was smiling. Nobody moved, they were all in shock.

He aquatted down, they all recognized that motion.

"Leee..a gooo." Jaha said.

Harlen grinned, Jaha looked terrifying, his powerful body covered with fur, poised to attack. Harlen knew the gentle man would not harm a fly, but he could and would stop them, and with ease.

They had all seen the flash of motion as Jaha had taken the weapon and bent it, then simply returned it. No earthbound human eye could even follow the movement.

Harlen held out his handcuffed wrists.

The bossman nodded at one of his men.

That man stepped over to Harlen, unlocked the handcuffs. His face was puffy and red looking, he was frightened but he did what he was told.

Harlen walked through the door, Jaha followed and closed it behind him. Then he picked Harlen up, they were several hundred yards away before any of them could even get the door open.

Harlen wasn't even sure they did open the door, he had noticed the distinctive smell of urine as they left.

Jaha set Harlen down after a mile or so, they walked the rest of the way to where the ship was.

There was no ship in sight, just trees and brush. It had been years since Harlen had been up here, they went past an opening and solid rock turned and sealed the entrance behind them.

They had tunneled out the hillside somehow, built room after room underground. It was now a small but bustling city. Harlen knew that from outside it was just a rock cliff.

Hea and Hari were there, they hugged.

"What do we do?" Harlen asked them.

"We have been found, our people come for us." She told him.

"What? When? I will go with you."

"In a year, but you cannot, the gravity is too much, you would die."

"A year? I can't stay here, they will be all over the place."

"Yes you can, so will we. They will find nothing."

Two days later Jaha stopped at the edge of the forest, waved to Harlen and left. Harlen walked up to his house and went in. It had been thoroughly searched but nothing seemed to be missing. There was no one around.

Harlen walked over to his phone, picked it up and called Sheriff Mendoza, he knew the man well. He hadn't known any of the others. There was a short chat, Harlen told him that a DNA test would prove Hari was his son and Hea was human, so if they didn't want to be sued beyond the point of reason then it might be best to do that and then they would know.

"How can that be, how can he be your son?" Sheriff Mendoza asked.

"Hari is 9 years old." Harlen said flatly.

There was a long drawn out hesitation.

"Damn big for his age." He laughed, finally.

"Sheriff, they are people. Us. Our ancestors, they are just...different."

"What about the monsters, what are those? And that woman, who is she?"

"They aren't monsters, that is them. The way they look, and are. They are people. Hea is my wife, she has a...genetic defect, it's not her fault. Those men embarrassed her for no good reason. You gave the visitors such a damned bad time they decided to hell with you and went home.", He lied.

The sheriff was quiet for a long time.

"Just think, people attacked them, hell, you attacked my family too. The visitors could have killed all of you easily and they didn't, think about that."

"Outer space? Aliens?" Sheriff Mendoza asked.

"Yea. Amazing, huh? We ain't alone, Sheriff."

"Jesus Christ, this is big!"

"No, not now. They are gone, so unless we want to make damned fools out of ourselves...."

Harlen stressed the "we" part, let the question hang.

"I will make some calls, Harlen. We need to keep the peace around here. You are sure they are gone?"

"Yea, nobody will ever see them again."

"All right. Sure is damn funny stuff going on out there. I ain't got time for this crap." He hung up.

Harlen never did know what Sheriff Mendoza told the others, but there was no sign of anyone after that.

He could just imagine what they put in their reports. Very likely just a glossed over report of finding nothing. The truth would have gotten them laughed at, he knew.

Hea and Hari arrived a week later at the house, after things had calmed down. Almost no one ever came out to the farm after that. Harlen went to town a few times, but by himself.

"What was all that fuss out at your place?" The old shopkeeper asked him.

"Bunch of damn drunks." Harlen told him.

The old man just nodded, took his order.

About a year later, there was a flash and a rumbling noise, it shook the entire valley. The papers reported it as an earthquake, it hit 5.5, pretty big one but no damage.

But Harlen knew what that was. He sat up in bed, Hea was awake too.

The people were gone. Gone to their home, wherever that was. He looked at Hea, reached out and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

She smiled and nuzzled his neck.

"Chika yie ke yie?" She asked.

Yes. Things would be all right, he told her.

But Harlen knew he was going to need to hire a crew.