the apes and then walked away, leaving their bodies strewn across the great lawn of Beach Haven Park. The battle was now entering the less romantic and exceedingly more ugly phase, and the toughest days were yet to come.
The light hit Gabriel Billingsley first and his restful night of sleep was quickly pushed aside and he became enraged, flashing from his human form to that of his more natural selection, his ape self. He pounded his giant fist on the ground, causing the ground the tremor and his just-awake family members to come to attention and stand up. One by one they turned over from human to ape as they shuffled toward a spot in front of Gabriel in a military-standard straight line.
He pounded his chest and then galloped back and forth in front of the line, dragging his knuckles on the ground. He finally stopped after a series of passes and pounded his chest again yelling toward the heavens, “WE DON’T LOSE AGAIN!” His fellow soldiers pounded their chests and roared as they followed Billingsley through the trees back to their lair, where they would simmer until returning to the field that night.
There was very little said in the House of Hartwell leading up to night four of the battle. These hardened veterans knew what was happening in front of them and were even more well versed in being on the short end of extended struggle. Cal was feeling less than at his best and looked to canvas the group just a few minutes before hitting the cool night air and the park.
“Is it just me or do any of you feel a little sluggish today?”
Hartwell had been thinking all day that he had to take a different approach to this battle than just meeting it head on, because it had become obvious that as they days were moving along that his crew was becoming weaker and their opponents were growing stronger.
Hartwell kept silent as the others began chiming on their limited preparedness for the fight.
“Yeah, I have felt better,” Aaron stated.
“I’d rather be watching TV than going out to fight,” Belinda said.
“Do you always feel this way after a few night of going at it?” Samuel asked as the others discussed the feelings they had in previous battles.
Meanwhile, Daniel stood between Cal and Andrew and he elbowed both of them gently in the ribs and then pointed with his chin to suggest they observe Hartwell, who appeared to be deep and thought and was both physically and mentally separated from the group. Cal elbowed his father, Thaddeus, and Drew tapped Garrison and they all were checking out Hartwell as Daniel said, “I’ve seen him like this before. He is definitely up to something.”
Everyone looked toward Garrison for confirmation because he obviously had the most battle experience on Hartwell’s side.
“He will never let us perish.”
Cal looked at Garrison and his eyes widened in the knowledge that his one-time arch nemesis was all about the family and he put his own feelings as a secondary consideration. Although many of the fights were about only the two of them, there was intent by Hartwell to draw him into a mano-a-mano battle to lure him away from his family, thus making the hunters a less effective group. This higher level of understanding would do little to help the group’s plight on this night, however.
There were differing strategies taking shape as the groups headed toward the field of battle. Maxwell was considering groupings that would veil the group’s diminished strengths and abilities, while Billingsley was oozing confidence and decided to go with a much more direct approach.
“Everything we’ve got at Hartwell. All of us focused on taking him out. Head off or heart out and we go home victorious. He is the only person of interest for us going forward.”
Hartwell knew he would be the target of the apes on this night and not just because he was always in harms way as the key to victory for the opposition. The apes didn’t mind temporarily sacrificing their lives with the promise of renewed and better life waiting for them on the other side.
His group waited for the apes on their side of the field and decided to internally communicate with Maxwell and Kayla only moments before the fight was to begin. His options were let everything play out and say nothing or attempt to preserve the strength of his family members, who would surely be weakened if they were to be slain.
“Children. It has come to my attention that we are in the midst of a siege of which we cannot oppose by conventional methods. I need you to step aside and let the apes end our night quickly by taking me out. Opposing them will only make them stronger and the work I have to do is not corporeal in nature. Please understand that I would never do anything to jeopardize this family and I will keep you posted every night on my progress.”
They looked at Hartwell and nodded in understanding as the apes swung off the trees and pounded the ground as they headed toward the enemy. Maxwell remained cool even in the face of increasing pressure and yelled “Funnel!” internally to his other team members. Kayla then barked the first thing that came to mind, “Rolling thunder!” a strategy that meant absolutely nothing if Hartwell wasn’t one of the people that was going to be protected.
The House of Hartwell members arranged in a funnel-like formation with Hartwell himself at the front of the cone. If anyone had realized that he had been put in harm’s way, then the formation would have surely been altered. Even Daniel, who was always so connected to his father, was focused on spending quiet time with his wife Nicole when they returned home after the fight.
The tremendous force exerted by the ape eight easily popped Hartwell’s head of as the passed through the vampire and beyond the other members of his crew. Under normal circumstances and within the rules of vampirical combat, the fight would have been over and the opposing parties would have gone their separate ways. But that was not the case on this night, because the apes made it abundantly clear that they did not play by conventional rules and would not be confined by a world that was not their own.
To a person, all of the people in the Hartwell group let their guards down once they saw their leader’s head roll a good distance away from his body. They had been schooled in the finer points of playing to the whistle, or fighting until the battle was officially over. And, as far as they were concerned, the battle on this night was officially over.
Billingsley and his apes were so locked in that they didn’t even see Hartwell’s head separated from his body and rolling down the field like a runaway bowling ball. In the span of about 13 seconds, another nineteen heads were separated from their bodies without even slightest hint of a struggle. The amped-up apes then took the the trees and never looked back at the carnage that was their first victory as a group. They were now an unstoppable force that would be nearly impossible to stop without some sort of creative intervention.
TWENTY
Hartwell and his family were somewhere in between heaven and hell and the corporeal world, but he had more of a purpose in mind for his down time. His son Daniel happened to be the second person to perish on this night because Daniel, too, had an ulterior motive for his timely death.
Father was going to talk to Linda Vinson in her sleep and son was en route to an even more meaningful dialogue with her daughter Claire Vinson, who he had developed a decent rapport with following her unsuccessful out-of-body revenge experience against the family.
“Claire, I need to talk to you,” Daniel said after he located her subconscious and then guided her spirit to a safe place for them to talk. She always liked the ocean so Daniel made sure they would be talking by a version of the coastline just outside of the house.
“Daniel, is that you?” she asked as she became more aware of her surroundings amidst a dream state.
“Yes, it is me Claire. I didn’t mean to startle you in your dreams.”
Her image sat down in the sand and Daniel plopped down right next to her.
“I know you wouldn’t have come to me in my dreams unless something was wrong and your family was suffering,” she made an educated guess.
Daniel lowered his head and then picked it up to talk, “We have run up agains
t an opponent that appears to be getting stronger with each passing day, and something tells me that their added strength has more to do with intervention than preparation.”
Claire smiled, “Then I guess my grandma‘ is at it again.”
“We will surely perish if we cannot compete on an even playing field,” Daniel said with no sign of sarcasm in his face.
She received the serious vibe and returned his mood in kind, “Then, a level playing field is what it will be.”
Hartwell liked to be as direct as possible and he also needed every second of rest he could muster if he were to lead his family in perhaps their most difficult task to date. There were no beaches in his alternate universe, just clouds and blue sky.
“Your mom is killing us... literally!”
“Why hello, Thomas,” Linda Vinson replied as she eased into this dream state.
“They died and got stronger,” he added.
She also believed in being direct, “So don’t kill them anymore!”
“That’s what I was thinking,” he countered. “But it would also be nice to let them exist in their truest form.”
“As apes?” she asked.
He nodded, “As apes.”
“It might take a few days,” she stated.
Hartwell broke out of his serious gaze and smiled, just as his son had done moments earlier, “I could use the rest,” as she