Pike Newton knew about the town of Redding. What happened in that town cannot be spoken by people with the exception of being behind closed doors. What happened in Redding is something that shouldn’t be said.
The last person that talked about the happening in Redding is when Roger Murtz was pulled away by a couple of cops that were not from around here. They were not wearing badges when they pushed him in a Chevy Silverado that is all decked out in black. Where were they taking him when Pike tried to intervene, only to be pushed away by a man in black that smelled bad of cologne spray?
“What are you doing with him!?” Pike asked the man in black rather cruel. He can smell the cologne and it is not Old Spice.
“We are just doing a background check on this individual. He will be back after we ask our questions.” The man in black promised. They all promised when Pike knew that they will never come back again.
Then he knew about the happening in Redding that shouldn’t be talked about. What is the government doing there? Pike read the details of Agenda 21 and thought of what they are doing. He couldn’t come up with an answer, none at all. For Pike, he works at the local tractor place, fixing magnetos and making sure that the carbs are not filled with grim to the point that air cannot make it work. One tire is underinflated when Pike knew that they had to be filled with helium gas, not air but helium and nitrogen gas compound. Pike knew about that years ago when he met an old man with a straw cocked hat on the top of his head.
“Yer see here, you got to fill that mother up with Nitro Helium. That’s the ticket.” The old man tapped his wrinkled finger on the description stamp on the tire’s sidewall.
Pike didn’t know. He used to be a car dealer in the town of Redding before the happening began. What did those bastards do? Who are the people up there that cannot be killed with any weapon that any man or woman crafts? Redding. That used to be his hometown is that in the town of Redding. He remembered the Romero Theater on the south side of town, past the textile mill that used to make carpets for the other three warehouse divisions in the county. The grocery store by the name of Dietz made the finest cuts of meats that Pike enjoyed when he remembered the cookouts on the weekend. The beer flowed at those cookouts when Pike smiled at the way Gina looked when he got drunk. She still glowed past the fire when Pike almost feel like crying now.
Where Pike is at now is at the bar with his beer out in front of him. Pike knows he has been drinking more stubbornly now. He has been drinking almost every single day ever since the evacuation in the town of Redding. The bodies and blood, my god; the blood and the bodies were everywhere. A woman came through the door with the hinges squeaking, looking distressed when Pike is working on his forth beer, feeling a little drunk now with his head bopping and beeping. He burped when the woman hurried towards the bar to ask the bartender about her happenings. Pike dropped his head, pulling out a Placard and lighting one up. The woman’s voice rose up when the bartender commenced to waive his hands. The woman turned from the bartender in disgust when she saw Pike sitting there with a cigarette in his hand.
She walked up to him, they always do.
“My husband has been kidnapped. I-I-I-tried to get the sheriff but there is no law around here. Can you help me?” she grabbed the strap on her purse, feeling like she is about to cry.
“Let me guess. He has been kidnapped by the people in the mountain.” Pike Poked the cigarette in his mouth and puffed up the sweetness his body so needs.
“Yes.”
“He’s dead by now.” Pike said with no remorse, dropping the ashes in the ashtray.
“What do you mean by that?” Her sadness is coursing into anger.
“The people up in the mountain are not people. That is for sure.” Pike looked at her square in the eyes before looking at his beer. The beer is starting to sweat on the table
He closed his eyes, feeling hurt on another victim he didn’t know.
“I don’t believe you!” She spoke after a couple seconds of silence. Her voice is starting to break in fear for what is sure to come.
“I’m sorry to burst your bubble but that is what happens to everyone up in the mountain.” Pike dropped the cigarette into the ashtray and coaxed the beer into his hand.
“What I can say to you is something that will be bad for both of us. The ones that live up in the mountain cannot be spoken of.”
The Woman looked at the man with some mix of heartfelt remorse that is mixed with bubbling anger that is getting higher and higher. She stood there with no sense of believing this story. She did believe what she saw though and it was unexplained happenings that she recalled in her mind. She remembered being stopped by seven of them and they were speaking in languages she and her husband didn’t know. Her husband was pulled out of the car when she screamed for him before she too was pulled out of the car. They looked at him like they were salivating when she found a chance to escape. It worked with ease but her heart is confused to the hilt.
“What are the people up upon the hill?” The woman says, entertaining with the story up to the point that she will believe this no more.
“They are people but something happened to them. It’s like their minds were swiped and they started to attack intelligent people. We had to flee town when I worked there being a car dealer. Hell, I even set up the signs into town so no lost people can get around it. So, you two were lost around here. Why?” Pike asked her, knowing that his beer is almost empty.
“Dell, can I get another one here?” Pike raised his voice.
The woman jumped in her shoes. She felt like she is about to pass out.
“I think this a town prank.” She spoke with her voice raising a hair. Her eyes started to look crazy, pointing her finger around at the entire bar.
“This is a prank and everyone is involved. My hubby is okay and you people are keeping him somewhere. I’m going to find him. I will!” She stormed out towards the door of the bar before turning her head.
“I will get the police down here and we will see what in the hell is really going on in this crazy place!” She slammed the door behind her.
Pike looked at Dell that is halfway across the bar floor.
“What do you think will happen to her Pike?” Dell asked Pike who is still sitting in his seat.
“She will get caught by the men in black.” Pike shrugged.
“She will wind up missing. I’m telling you it is that Agenda 21. The government is buying up casket. Why? I know they are buying all the caskets and the price of funerals is going up through the roof.”
“Pike, shut up. You’ll be carted out of here too?” Dell landed a hand on Pike when Pike jiggled it off of him.
“Ever since the height of World War III, people have been getting edgy about the government. There is a school shooting four times a week. It always happens in the south and east parts of the United States. Adults are starting to walk into police stations and kill people. The sickest part about all of it is that there is a count about how many cops they kill in each shooting. It’s like a scoreboard for murder. That’s what it is!”
“Pike, shut the hell up.” Dell whispered to him.
“They are putting something in the water. It is some barbaric way to control people. It has to be. It has too!”
“Okay Pike,” Dell started to sound official, grabbing his last beer off of the table.
“You’re cut off. Go home and sleep it off.”
“Fuck you, Dell. Give me my beer. I’m preaching the sermon.” Pike whipped around him like a dog off the leash to grab the beer from Dell. Dell reared the beer back and grabbed Pike on the collar.
“Okay, Pike. Out you go!”
“Give me my fucking beer, you candy ass fucker!” Pike is starting to become belligerent when Dell pulled him towards the door.
“You’re out of here. Go sleep it off!” Dell pulled him to the door. Pike started to thrash and jive like a kid not getting a second meal.
“You son of a bitch; I’m going to kick your ass!” Pike started to grab Dell when Dell opened the door and threw him out of the bar.
Pike landed on a couple of trash cans that is outside. Dell closed the door when Pike got back up on his feet. He ran back into the bar when a gun cocked.
“Go sleep it off, Pike!” Dell warned him. Pike raised his hands and slowly backed out of the bar as the door closed in front of him.
The sun is shining outside with no clouds in the sky. The temperature is in the lower seventies when Pike can see a light haze coming off of the asphalt in the street. The factory is running the midday oil and the post office is busy collecting the coming and goings of tomorrow. The flag in front of the town house is blowing steadily with the breeze as Pike laughed at all of it.
Soon this place will be mire, protected by the order of the bastards that are fat and happy. They will own all of it. They will become the order that will be the warden of the meek upon us all. Agenda 21, I know what they are doing.
Pike started to stagger down the street with his drool coming out of his mouth. He is looking crazy when he staggered, straightened up and staggered again. By the time he staggered halfway home, he met the woman that is at the restaurant, asking for a phone when he saw her through the window. He opened his one eye and stood straight before stumbling over to the front door of the restaurant and opened it.
Rhonda the waitress saw him when her face turned down at the sight of him.
“How drunk are you Pike? I don’t want any of your crazy talk in here.” Rhona tugged her curly hair, warning him with that stare that burned right through him.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut, darling. I just want to talk to this woman here.” The woman looked at Pike then looked at Rhona like they were about to do something. She waited for the phone that should be coming for her soon.
“You want to see something?” Pike asked the woman that is in front of the restaurant bar. She looked at the serving window the place before looking at Pike with no evasiveness in her eyes anymore.
She nodded her head ever so slowly.
“Okay. We have to wait near the end of the day to do it. Make sure you have some shoes that fit for the mountain trek. Don’t talk to anyone about what happened until you see what is going on in Redding.” Pike turned and went his way out of the restaurant, not knowing that his shirt is pulled from the top of his pants.
The girl blinked her eyes before jogging out of the restaurant. She caught up with him.
“Where will I meet you?” She asked the man who is in bad need of a shave.
“At the parkland common;” Pike pointed east towards town.
“You will know where it is. There is a statue of Stonewall Jackson in the center of the damn thing.” Pike shrugged before turning away.
The hours ticked by and Pike met the woman that is sitting upon one of the rusty benches. She was looking around, waiting before he felt the hangover come over him like a painful blanket in his mind. He walked towards her, asking what her name is.
“My name is Alice.” She replied rather dull; Alice, like in Alice in Wonderland?
He chuckled at the thought.
“What is so funny? My goddam husband is missing so what is so funny?” She almost came up from the bench with her lips in a snarl. She didn’t look so pretty when she did that.
“Nothing connected to what is going on. Did you talk to anyone about Redding?” Pike foreword this again.
Alive only shook her head, shagging her blonde hair from side to side.
“Okay. What we are going to do is get in my car and drive past the west side of town.”
Her eyes widened, knowing in her mind of the sick tragedy that this is going to play out.
“I’m not going to try anything; scout’s honor.” Pike rose his hand up in a scout salute. Personally he was never a scout in his life. He was more of a football jock by standards when he was younger.
“That was where we we’re – the drive where I came from is not too far?” she skipped over in the middle, shaking her head before finishing up.
“Yeah, I know. I haven’t been there in over three weeks. I’ve been scouting the place, telling no one. I kept my head under the happening that are going on up there. What I been seeing is ghost faces in a ghost town.” Pike felt the tears starting to draw up before looking down at Alice, still sitting there with her purse on her lap.
“You have to see the madness for yourself.” He told Alice when it took her a long time to get up from that seat. She had seen the faces that are probably either alive or dead as well.
“Okay, let’s see if I can get my darling Wally back.”
Pike almost felt like laughing at the name of Wally. What in the hell kind of name is Wally anyway? He tried not to laugh in front of her. They walked towards his Dodge Ram that is near the end of the street. There is no sign of life around them. In the minutes that passed as well, they rode up the road that turned into a dirt pit in a matter of seconds. Alice braced herself when the scene when from the fields of corn to the fields of trees in just that instance of meeting the dirt road.
There are no houses around to where they are going.
“Wally was driving when we went down this road. The last time we had a road this rocky is when we drove to Johnny Cash’s home place in Dyess, Arkansas. I didn’t know they call those villages, ‘colonies’. I didn’t know that whole place is a museum; A colony, not a village.”
Pike turned this down when he continued to drive. She is only calming her nerves. That is all right with Pike. He didn’t want a woman who is about to go hysterically crazy in a moment’s notice. The pops in the road got less and less as the rocks got bigger and bigger.
“They put rocks in the road on purpose.” Pike told himself. Alice stopped and turned her head.
“What?” She asked.
“They put rocks in the road to keep people off of here.” Pike remembered the operation when they were driving three dozers up here, along with the dump trucks that were about four in total. They put a lot of work to keep people out of the town of Redding. He wondered how the government got up here in their own circumstances. That is the wonder of what they are doing.
Further on the road, they see the animals scurry of from the divots that got wider over the years. The Dodge Ram did its duty when Alice started to whimper at the feel of the bumps under the wheels.
“It’s okay.” Pike Assured her.
“I placed new shocks in this baby last year.” Pike tapped the door cover. It is a strong baby if that.
“How can you be so sure?” Alice asked him with her eyes all puckered in worry.
“It’s a Dodge. It never fails.” Pike winked at her.
They continued to drive up the road. Pike waiting for the lights to flash in the distance ahead of him as he felt tired, hung over from the amount of beers that he had at the bar. Alice on the other hand kept silent when they are met by a drive on the side of the road.
“What is that?” Alice asked Pike.
“That is the drive up to old Wilma’s place. The place burned down under unknown circumstances over ten years ago and before the incident in Redding. Wilma died in the fire. They didn’t figure out the cause with that of being some sort of combustion in the basement. The water heater was electric and the stove in the kitchen was gas but they couldn’t rule out that the fridge did it as the pilot lights were out on the stove. They didn’t understand what happened.” Pike looked at Alice that is still fiddling around with her purse. She looked like a lost girl in the middle of an unknown world.
“We’re almost there.” Pike told her when they drove down the long and straight road.
The road turned from the rocks back to a steady dirt path in under two minutes. The trees around them started to turn color for some obscure reason. The leaves on the trees are not the color of green but they started to change in the color of purple for some reason. The purple is what struck Pike odd when Alice commenced to look at the leaves.
“I never saw these kinds of tree leaves before.” She said stupefied.
Pike looked at the purplish odd color of the leaves when something buzzed outside his window. It was not the sound of an insect when something else grabbed him that burned pain through his eardrum. He grabbed the side of his head to relish the pain in the center of his head when the wheel of the Dodge lost control. Alice did the same process with both of her hands when the Dodge started to pull towards the side of the road. Pike regained control of the wheel with weaker grasp now.
“What in the hell was that?” Pike moved his jaw around, trying to pop that pressure when Alice lost consciousness with the pain that she endured.
Pike looked at her before looking back at the side of the road where all the odd colors is coming from.
“Alice?” He shook her a little when her head did a dance on her neck.
“Alice?” He said again, touching her artery in her neck to make sure that she is still alive. He felt the beeps when Pike nodded his head.
I didn’t remember the leaves being oddly colored before. What in the hell is going on now? Pike thought with disturbing wonder.
He kept the gas pedal at a comfortable twenty miles per hour when the road met up with the faded paint road signs. The lights upon them are dead and bashed out from a volley of rocks when Pike could barely read out the paint that is upon the saw horse planks. What the signs read is this: Do not enter without guaranteed approval. Pike stopped the Dodge Ram and turned off the engine, looking around for anyone watching him. There is none when he got out of the Dodge and locked the doors behind him for Alice’s sake.
Upon the side of the road is a little pushed down path that is so narrow that it would be single-file for a group of people. Pike went down this trek many times before when Pike looked right and then left, going down the trek that took a long time for him to meet the embankment that he has been many times before. When he got there is when the sun was going down. The west is calming out the many colors of gold dust, turning over to a spectacular red, and enfolding over into the purple haze that edge to black. Pike didn’t commence to look at this when he hobbled towards the embankment and hunkered down. He kept on the tips of his boots when beside him there is a box that is covered with thick brush. He removed the brush and opened the box upon its hinges, pulling out a pair of binoculars with other items inside of the box that Pike almost forgot he put them in there in the first place. What was inside of the box is a folding knife, an emergency first-aid kit, one .45 semi-automatic and two magazines filled with hollow points. He closed the box and steadied the binoculars to his eyes.
The town of Redding lies under the embankment. The only lights that are upon the town are the flicker of candle flame. The town looks somewhat restored as Pike looked at the town that is once his town, his place to live, and his place to work when times were simple. Now it is a ghost town with dead faces. Pike turned the binoculars towards the south end of town when he can see the playground. What was going on there is some odd machinery planted in the playground and Pike had never seen before. Is it the functionality of some government work? Pike didn’t know when he slowly scanned the town with his binoculars. By the time he blurred past the playground, he sees the antenna that he didn’t see before on top of the office structure. The office structure has not been in operation since the 1980’s when he also wondered if the government has placed it there.
Pike shook his head when he continued his work, moving down the line before meeting the old town common. What is going on right now is some sermon with the last of the dead faces. They sat in front of a man that they had never seen before. Pike continued to eye the man through the binoculars with no words coming from the man that Pike can hear. What is the man saying? Pike didn’t know when he took the binoculars and placed them back into the box. He closed the box and covered it back up with the brush, moving down the narrow path as the word got darker and darker with each passing minute. By the time he got back to the truck is when he felt the broken glass that is under his feet.
He grabbed the flare that is in his back pocket and lit it up when he saw. What was a window on the side of his truck is not a window anymore. It is a gaping hole where inside there is supposed to be a woman riding shotgun. His mouth dropped when he stealth further towards the gaping hole. What is inside of the truck is notebook sheet with Sharpie scrawl on the lines of the paper. It is faced down when Pike kept the flare out of the cab of his Dodge Ram. He grabbed the paper and unfolded it with his one hand when he read the language that is nowhere near acquainted with him.
When he dropped the paper back onto the bench seat, he heard the sound of screaming through the bushes of the many trees that leads towards town. He turned his body and started to haul ass down the path, getting to the box that is dug into the ground when he opened it and grabbed the .45 in the bottom of the box. He slammed the magazine into the gun and racked a load into the chamber of the gun. He got up from the box and covered it back up as he scurried into the woods that is straddled to where he is standing. He floated over the low branches, pushing them out of his coming when he ran faster and faster towards the mere unknown abyss of the woods. The screaming got louder and louder as he heard the language of unknown unintelligence raising a hair on the back of his neck. He raised the gun up in front of his head when he heard the scraping of feet upon the dense ground. As he rode around a large tree trunk is when he met the three assailants that have kidnapped Alice in their dirt covered grasp.
He threw the flare down in between them as he raised the gun at the three that turned Alice around like a human shield.
“Okay, guys. Fun’s over. Give me back the girl and make tracks!” Pike commanded with his sight pointed down the iron sights.
The three assailants whom Pike has never seen before stood in the shadows of the flare. The one that is behind Alice looked at the both of them, speaking their alien tongues when the one to Alice’s left pointed at Pike with warranting disgust.
“Do you understand what I said!? Let go of the girl!” Pike ordered them when the one behind him spoke in English rather cruel.
“You…are…enemy!” The ghost face growled when out of the darkness brandished the knife that Pike saw. The bullets fired in succession and Pike is skilled from the many firing ranges that he trained upon.
The first one grazed the right of the ghost face’s head when another bullet exploded his skull, sending brain matter all over the ground. The center one dropped the knife faster to Alice’s neck when Pike blurred the gun to him and shot him in the hand. The center one screamed in howling agony when Pike blurred the gun to the third one, shooting him in the torso two times when he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Alice dropped on the ground, pissing her pants when the one with the knife spoke something in its alien tongue when Pike straddled over him and spent the last round into his head, ceasing his existence into eternity.
“Get up and start moving!” Pike brought his hand down as Alice collected it. He pulled her up and they ran back to the trek as the last of the light came out of the west. They ran like there asses are on fire as they met the truck on the side of the road. Pike opened the door and raised Alice up like a rag doll. Alice sat down in the seat when a muzzle flash came from the woods. Pike jumped up against her when something flowed on her right thigh. Pike started to heave breath when he pushed the magazine release button on the gun.
The magazine dropped to the floor when he grabbed another full one from his front pocket and slammed that into the gun. He turned the gun around and started to shoot wildly when another flash splattered Pike’s head all over the cab of the truck.
Alice screamed at the sight of the brain matter splotched all over her, looking like a Syria refugee after an IED blast when she pulled away from the dead to meet the driver’s side. She saw the keys of the truck and started the engine, ramming the stick shift on the column down as the body of Pike rolled out of the truck and slammed onto the ground. She turned the truck around and flicked on the lights of the truck when a bullet stuck into the back window. She jumped and screamed as the bullet traveled through that back window and into the front window of the truck as she roared the truck back into town.
She sees the body of Pike getting more distant when she also saw the rustle of bushes that arrived a few people all clothed out in savage rags. They didn’t look civilized, none at all when she rocked the Dodge Ram over the rocks that is putting the suspension to work. The way back is faster when she got back to town, crying for dear sweet sakes when her hands shook so bad that she stopped the truck in the center of Main Street. She got out of the truck with the blood all over her and her hands shaking and jumbling. The motor of the truck kept rumbling when she walked towards the restaurant where she wanted to make that call so many years ago in her mind.
She looked at the front of the restaurant with no sign of business, walking up the steps of the restaurant when she opened the door to the establishment. She noticed that one of her shoes is missing when it came to that she is looking ahead to the dark part of the restaurant where there is a man in black on the other side of the bar. He is smoking a cigar when he raised a .357 revolver towards her and cocked the hammer.
“No offense, love.” The man spoke in an Aussie accent as he pulled the trigger, shooting Alice in the heart when she jumped back through the door that is still open behind her. She fell down the steps when her eyes looked into the stars of the Big Dipper and Orion above. She died looking at them when the man in a black uniform casually walked down the steps with the cigar in his hand.
“We are paying good money in this hick down to keep everything quiet.” He spoke to the dead body that is sprawled on the bottom of the steps. He shook his head before pulling the mike out of his side pocket.
“We got the second mark. Gather and put them in the straw for the fire lights, over.” The man with the Aussie accent ordered when he shook his head again. He turned his head and roared into the restaurant.
“You can come out Rhona in ten minutes. I’ll clean up the mess.” The Aussie man knelt down at the dead body of Alice.
“She is a saucer, I can tell. She is a saucer indeed.”
What happens in the town of Redding stays in the town of Redding. Some reports say that something happened there that shouldn’t happen there. One person said to three people after he venture there later before that one person and the three disappeared is that the government screwed up in a secret laboratory that is based in the mountain. The tales are all speculation. No answer to what happened in the secret town of Redding where people go missing on a daily basis. They sent an FBI investigation squad up here when the report got to the national circuit when they all went missing as well. The town of Redding held the promise of ghost where people who are mind swiped are trained to the beginnings of ultimate control. They are trained to be control by the government when one day they will be forced to fight the existence of humanity so there is no free will but the powers of the rich and powerful. They are the zombies of the living that will be control by them and nothing else, forming a new world order that started in the backwoods of Southern America.
It is control and population control by merits. It is what the government has been working for many decades before the deaths of Pike and Alice. This is the end of this tale before it will be censored by the government, found in an archive somewhere in a blue folder with the tape that will not be broken with the exception of orders by the brass of Washington D.C. This is probably snaked out and placed on a website so people can read this when the writer of this story will fade into the darkness for the protection of that said writer. That is the conclusion of the events that happened in the town of Redding where the government will say, “It’s pure lies, nothing more.” as Redding still sits in a secluded part of a world that is not like our world.
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