“The Vampires escaped!” Peggy blurted. “Your dad had already called you and you said you were flying here. We weren’t sure when you’d arrive and we can’t get cell service, so we weren’t able to warn you to stay away. We didn’t even know they’d escaped until we woke two days ago. They were too strong to handle at night so we were only running tests on them when the sun came up. Th-that’s when we discovered your father missing.”
“We locked ourselves inside every night, thankfully. Otherwise we’d all be dead.” Mark paused. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. They got him.”
“His car is gone. He must have driven to get groceries.” Jadee wondered if the extreme isolation had made them jump to the worst conclusions possible.
“They pushed it into a ravine,” Peggy whimpered. “The first thing they did was trash our cars. And we found tracks where they pushed the big rig that hauls this trailer into the river. They’ve stranded us!”
“Right.” She was fed up. “This guy who contacted you probably has friends and they’re seriously messing with you.”
“No! It’s all true!” Peggy swore. “This isn’t a hoax.”
“The RV is fine.” She glanced around.
“The undercarriage isn’t. We checked it during the day once we realized we were trapped. The RV’s impossible for them to move. There were signs that they’d crawled under it so we took a peek. Your father had activated the emergency pillars on the motor home. They are six footings that flatten to the ground. It’s a precaution for high winds and bad storms. The wheels won’t roll. We have the same setup here. It’s why they haven’t managed to kill us yet.”
Jadee was officially fed up. Their paranoid delusions had finally gotten the best of them. Her father ran for supplies often and his hunk-of-junk tow car had probably broken down again. He refused to spend money on it. “The RV has power. Notice the lights on?”
“It’s the solar panels. I’m telling you, we looked under it and they ripped out the oil pan on the motor home. It wasn’t shielded as well as the hood is with the reinforced steel.” Mark shook his head. “We’re stranded. They’ve taken out all our vehicles.”
Jadee clenched her jaw, ready to start screaming at the idiots. They were so gullible. “Have you guys been smoking pot? Been adding a little LSD to it again? Is that it? Or have you totally lost your damn minds? Dad probably went to a bigger town because he needed his car repaired. Remember New Mexico? You called to tell me you thought he’d been kidnapped by an army of ghosts. Instead, he was waiting on a new transmission to be installed in some out-of-the-way repair shop.”
“Wait until darkness falls,” Mark said, suddenly looking exhausted. “They tried to break into our trailer for hours last night.”
Peggy leaned in, her face close to the screen. “Do not let them in! I know you don’t believe us but damn it, we found Vampires, hon. These are real! They kill their victims by tearing out their throats and drinking the blood.”
“Show her the evidence,” Brent urged. “We found a few bodies of the locals. They decapitated them postmortem. We believe it’s so they won’t turn, if legend is accurate about their bites transmitting the Vampire disease. Maybe we should ask her to rush outside and make a run for it in her rental car. She could come back in the morning to rescue us.”
Jadee frowned. “I rented a truck from the airport, not a car. Dad said I’d need one to get to your camp.”
“It’s too late,” Peggy moaned. “It’s miles to the main highway. You’ve seen how fast those things run. They’d catch up to her and attack. Hell, they’d probably be on her before she made it ten feet out the door. Look at the cameras. The sun is too far down. It’s already dark enough for them to be awake and moving around in the shade of all the trees.”
“They have us cut off,” Mark agreed. “She’d never get out of here in time to escape.”
A bad feeling settled in the pit of Jadee’s stomach but she didn’t want to believe what they had to say. In decades of searching, her father and his team had never found anything real. They sure weren’t going to locate a nest of Vampires in the middle of the Alaskan woods. “Hey, loco researchers,” Jadee interrupted. “I’m done playing this game. Where the hell is my father, really?”
“Maybe they won’t go to the motor home since they already took Victor.” Mark ignored her to instead stare at Peggy. “It’s possible they won’t find her rental if we make a lot of noise and keep them occupied. At first light, we can make it out together.”
“That means they’ll attack us again!” Peggy backed up and bumped against the wall. The terror on her face appeared genuine enough as she frantically looked around. “Can the exterior take it?”
Mark stood, approaching her with his hands outstretched to grip her by the shoulders. “The trailer shell is two inches of solid steel. We’re safe. Stay calm. We built it to withstand a Sasquatch attack. They’re supposedly bigger and stronger than night walkers. We made it the last two nights, didn’t we?”
Jadee rolled her eyes. “Sasquatch?”
Brent dropped into Mark’s empty seat. “We were on Bigfoot’s trail, and your dad had designed this trailer after hearing about how the creatures were breaking into cabins. He wanted us to be safe. It’s a nine-by-twenty-five-foot container with all our monitoring equipment. We even have a toilet and two pull-down bunks for taking naps.”
“Oh my God. Does it have windows? Maybe you guys are experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning or something. Open a door and let in fresh air. How long have you been locked in there?” Jadee wondered if that was the reason they’d lost their minds.
A loud thump sounded over the speakers and all three people on the screen looked upward toward the roof of the metal container they were inside. Brent’s eyes widened as he gasped, “They’re back!”
Peggy began to sob.
Mark hugged her against his chest. “Quiet!”
“Where’s the trailer?” Jadee stood. “I’m coming over there to prove that you guys are nuts. Or your so-called source is just some asshole having fun at your expense. You’ve lost it. You need to open the doors and I’ll take you to a nice hospital where they’ll treat you for whatever the hell is wrong with you.”
“We locked ourselves inside every night, thankfully. Otherwise we’d all be dead.” Mark paused. “I’m so sorry, Jadee. They got him.”
“His car is gone. He must have driven to get groceries.” Jadee wondered if the extreme isolation had made them jump to the worst conclusions possible.
“They pushed it into a ravine,” Peggy whimpered. “The first thing they did was trash our cars. And we found tracks where they pushed the big rig that hauls this trailer into the river. They’ve stranded us!”
“Right.” She was fed up. “This guy who contacted you probably has friends and they’re seriously messing with you.”
“No! It’s all true!” Peggy swore. “This isn’t a hoax.”
“The RV is fine.” She glanced around.
“The undercarriage isn’t. We checked it during the day once we realized we were trapped. The RV’s impossible for them to move. There were signs that they’d crawled under it so we took a peek. Your father had activated the emergency pillars on the motor home. They are six footings that flatten to the ground. It’s a precaution for high winds and bad storms. The wheels won’t roll. We have the same setup here. It’s why they haven’t managed to kill us yet.”
Jadee was officially fed up. Their paranoid delusions had finally gotten the best of them. Her father ran for supplies often and his hunk-of-junk tow car had probably broken down again. He refused to spend money on it. “The RV has power. Notice the lights on?”
“It’s the solar panels. I’m telling you, we looked under it and they ripped out the oil pan on the motor home. It wasn’t shielded as well as the hood is with the reinforced steel.” Mark shook his head. “We’re stranded. They’ve taken out all our vehicles.”
Jadee clenched her jaw, ready to start screaming at the idiots. They were so gullible. “Have you guys been smoking pot? Been adding a little LSD to it again? Is that it? Or have you totally lost your damn minds? Dad probably went to a bigger town because he needed his car repaired. Remember New Mexico? You called to tell me you thought he’d been kidnapped by an army of ghosts. Instead, he was waiting on a new transmission to be installed in some out-of-the-way repair shop.”
“Wait until darkness falls,” Mark said, suddenly looking exhausted. “They tried to break into our trailer for hours last night.”
Peggy leaned in, her face close to the screen. “Do not let them in! I know you don’t believe us but damn it, we found Vampires, hon. These are real! They kill their victims by tearing out their throats and drinking the blood.”
“Show her the evidence,” Brent urged. “We found a few bodies of the locals. They decapitated them postmortem. We believe it’s so they won’t turn, if legend is accurate about their bites transmitting the Vampire disease. Maybe we should ask her to rush outside and make a run for it in her rental car. She could come back in the morning to rescue us.”
Jadee frowned. “I rented a truck from the airport, not a car. Dad said I’d need one to get to your camp.”
“It’s too late,” Peggy moaned. “It’s miles to the main highway. You’ve seen how fast those things run. They’d catch up to her and attack. Hell, they’d probably be on her before she made it ten feet out the door. Look at the cameras. The sun is too far down. It’s already dark enough for them to be awake and moving around in the shade of all the trees.”
“They have us cut off,” Mark agreed. “She’d never get out of here in time to escape.”
A bad feeling settled in the pit of Jadee’s stomach but she didn’t want to believe what they had to say. In decades of searching, her father and his team had never found anything real. They sure weren’t going to locate a nest of Vampires in the middle of the Alaskan woods. “Hey, loco researchers,” Jadee interrupted. “I’m done playing this game. Where the hell is my father, really?”
“Maybe they won’t go to the motor home since they already took Victor.” Mark ignored her to instead stare at Peggy. “It’s possible they won’t find her rental if we make a lot of noise and keep them occupied. At first light, we can make it out together.”
“That means they’ll attack us again!” Peggy backed up and bumped against the wall. The terror on her face appeared genuine enough as she frantically looked around. “Can the exterior take it?”
Mark stood, approaching her with his hands outstretched to grip her by the shoulders. “The trailer shell is two inches of solid steel. We’re safe. Stay calm. We built it to withstand a Sasquatch attack. They’re supposedly bigger and stronger than night walkers. We made it the last two nights, didn’t we?”
Jadee rolled her eyes. “Sasquatch?”
Brent dropped into Mark’s empty seat. “We were on Bigfoot’s trail, and your dad had designed this trailer after hearing about how the creatures were breaking into cabins. He wanted us to be safe. It’s a nine-by-twenty-five-foot container with all our monitoring equipment. We even have a toilet and two pull-down bunks for taking naps.”
“Oh my God. Does it have windows? Maybe you guys are experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning or something. Open a door and let in fresh air. How long have you been locked in there?” Jadee wondered if that was the reason they’d lost their minds.
A loud thump sounded over the speakers and all three people on the screen looked upward toward the roof of the metal container they were inside. Brent’s eyes widened as he gasped, “They’re back!”
Peggy began to sob.
Mark hugged her against his chest. “Quiet!”
“Where’s the trailer?” Jadee stood. “I’m coming over there to prove that you guys are nuts. Or your so-called source is just some asshole having fun at your expense. You’ve lost it. You need to open the doors and I’ll take you to a nice hospital where they’ll treat you for whatever the hell is wrong with you.”
