Not to be confused with 'The Eminem Show'........Voyages of the Chosen One
The first thing that I noticed as we strolled into Modoc was that the town seemed to be dead. There were a few people wandering freely around, but they all looked depressed and discouraged about life, as if they wished it would just end. This wasn’t the town that Vic had described so eloquently during our journey.
I glanced over at my companions; they seemed to be in as much awe as I was over the situation. I stared into Vic’s eyes, and could tell that the town had changed greatly since his last stay. Instantly, my thoughts fluttered to my home, Arroyo. Modoc could be a precedent for the fate of my own tribe. I realized then more than ever the urgency of my quest to retrieve the G.E.C.K.
“I don’t know what happened here,” Vic said, interrupting my thoughts, “but I know someone who might be able to shine some light on the mystery.” He paused and glanced around the town, as if trying to think about where the man he was referring to could be found. After a brief silence, he said, “follow me.”
“Where are we going?” I questioned as I followed Vic.
“To see Sheriff Jo,” came the response. That made perfect sense; the Sheriff would know what happened to Modoc. Without any further questions, I followed Vic as he led me and Sulik to the General Store. “Jo runs this store as well,” Vic informed me.
As we entered through the front door, we found the first room empty. I glanced back at Sulik, and then looked ahead at Vic. The old man just shrugged at the vacancy, and proceeded to walk to the next room.
“Hey, what the hell!” someone exclaimed as Vic entered the next room. A quick chill ran down my spine as I rushed to join my companion, fearing that a battle was about to break out. However, I was quickly relieved when the man continued talking. “Ah, damn it, Vic! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
When I entered the room, I saw a scrawny looking man ahead of me. He was old, and had probably seen more years than even Vic. His skin looked like leather, as if it had been exposed to a lot of desert heat. The man’s face seemed friendly and kind, though, and I knew then that he posed no threat. He smiled at me, and then looked back at Vic.
“Ha!” Vic said. “I’m the last thing that will give you a heart attack!” I wasn’t sure what was meant by this, but I wasn’t about to inquire. I just assumed it was an inside joke of some sort. “Allow me to introduce my companions. This is Scotty; I met him back at the Den and decided to join up with him for one more adventure. Actually, he saved my ass from Metzger and I figured I owed him one, but that’s a long story. The other one with the bone in his nose is Sulik. He was traveling with Scotty since Klamath.”
“Well, nice to meet you all,” the man replied. “Allow me to introduce myself; I’m Sheriff Jo. Any friend of Vic’s is gladly welcomed to this town,” he said, smiling. I began to wonder how a man of his stature could possibly uphold the law; he appeared harmless and an easy target for any raiders.
Vic laughed back at the Sheriff. “Yeah, me and Jo, we go way back. There’s a lot of history there.” Vic paused and his expression turned serious. “Speaking of history and such, what happened to this place?”
“Ah, yes, yes,” Jo began. His expression turned serious and his eyes looked sad. He seemed to be reminiscing about a time that was better, a time when the town thrived, a time when his life was happy. “Modoc has been stricken with one of the worst droughts this area has ever seen. Now I’ve seen a lot of droughts, but this one outdoes them all. Never before has this town been so crippled. Modoc has always relied on farming, growing our own goods, and then trading for them. Everyone was happy; everything was going fine. However, those times are gone, and won’t return until we receive some rain.”
“Isn’t there anything else you can do about it besides just sit and wait for some precipitation?” Vic questioned. He seemed extremely concerned.
“Well, there is one thing,” the Sheriff began, but then his voice trailed off. After a moment of silence, he continued. “I wouldn’t want to put you all through that, though.”
“What is it?” Vic pursued. I could tell that he would do almost anything to assist this town; he must really like it.
Jo sighed, as if trying to decide whether or not to share the alternative with us. Finally, he resolved to inform us. “There is a farm that is out of town, but real close at any rate. The crops there are strangely always tended to, despite the fact that no one lives there. What’s even stranger is that it seemed to have sprung up over night. We send someone there to tend to it a while back, but he kept coming into town with stories of ghosts rising from the ground at night and tending to the crops. Everyone thought that he was just making it up, but then one day he simply disappeared. We fear that he is dead.”
“Did anyone look for him?” Vic asked.
“We tried,” the Sheriff said. “However, no one was willing to explore the farm after the disappearance. I went with a scouting party up there after a few days, but we discovered that lots of posts sticking in the ground, and on the end of each rested a body part. Blood seemed to be everywhere. We quickly left. No one knew what had happened there, but for that matter, no one wanted to find out. We were all too frightened that we would suffer a horrible fate of the ‘ghosts’ that were described would find us. It was no longer a story to us; it was real.” I began to wonder if he was serious or making some sort of prolonged joke. His facial features were quite solemn, though, so I decided it would be best just to listen up for the time being.
“Wow,” Vic said as he tried to digest the story that was just given to him. “That’s an interesting predicament.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jo replied. “We know that if we can take over the farm, we’ll be okay until the drought passes us over. However, that doesn’t seem too realistic right now. No one, including myself, wants to get near the damned place.”
“I can’t say that I blame you,” Vic answered back.
“Maybe we could scout the area for you,” I said. I could tell how much it pained Vic to see Modoc in such trouble, and I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to investigate such a strange place.
Jo stared at me, as if trying to decide if I was being serious. Finally, he said, “If you wish to go to the farm, I won’t stop you. Of course, I would prefer if you didn’t go. You don’t know what awaits you there. You may come across many hostile people, or other things, for that matter. I really don’t want you to see you three disappear as well.”
“Well, if things get too hot, we’ll just get the hell away from there as fast as we can,” I informed the Sheriff. “Besides, you said that the ghosts only arose at night; if we go during the day, we should be in the clear.”
“That’s a good point,” Jo agreed. “As long as you are extremely careful, and as long as you don’t get yourselves killed, I won’t object.”
“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Sheriff,” I said.
After Vic and the Sheriff exchanged a few more words, we set off to our destination, the Ghost Farm. Nothing, not even the warnings of Jo, could prepare us for the mass horrors that awaited us there.
posted June 22, 2002 17:36
posted June 22, 2002 18:59
