Chapter 4

Investigation Starts

Dana’s bus had finally arrived close to the place where Jennifer and her friends had gone missing. Since the place was located in the middle of the woods, she couldn’t exactly get straight there, even if she still had her own car. This would require some legwork from her, before she could properly investigate the crime scene itself, but it was necessary in order to uncover the truth of what had happened.

Without any hesitation, Dana walked into the woods, hoping to solve the one of the mysteries that was plaguing the city and hopefully find the person she was looking for alive. Unfortunately, she hadn’t noticed a car that had followed her bus to the place she dropped off at.

The journey through the woods itself wasn’t that tough, as the terrain wasn’t tough to walk through. While no park path, it wasn’t terribly uneven or anything like that. In fact, a lot of people often came camping to these woods due to there not being all that much of danger of any kind. Even if there was the occasional bear that was sighted in the woods, they would often rather avoid humans altogether, only resorting to attacking upon being threatened. That was one of the reasons the disappearance of the kids was so strange, as there were rarely any wildlife attacks on campers, especially ones that resulted in a whole group going missing.

Eventually, Dana arrived at the crime scene itself, which had been surrounded by yellow tape that was tied to the trees very haphazardly. A frustrated groan escaped the blonde detective’s mouth as she looked at how the place had been handled. While some of the trash on the area had obviously been left by the victims, a lot of it had clearly been dumped by the “investigators” themselves. Empty coffee cups and candy wrappers could be seen littering the whole place and the yellow tape itself was barely hanging onto the places it had been attached to.

“For the love of… Can’t these fuckers at least try to do their jobs?” Dana muttered to herself as she entered the crime zone. “Well, time for me to do the work of someone else.”

The blonde detective pulled out the case file that Dillon had given her and read through it. As she had expected, it didn’t really have all that much useful information on it. A lot of the texts were just basic observations made on the spot as well as speculations as to what had happened. The file pretty much stated that the attack was most likely done by a large animal, like a bear or something, which completely ignored the fact that such animals were rarely encountered in the area at all.

The one thing that did stick out from the report was that there had been no visible tracks left anywhere, such as foot prints from an animal or even the campers themselves. There had been no traces of blood left behind either, which was at least somewhat comforting.

Dana put away the file and started to investigate the area herself. The campsite itself was very basic, only two tents with a properly made campfire close to them. The file had stated that four backpack, most likely belonging to the victims, had also been at the site near the tents, but had been take to the station as evidence.

The detective began to inspect the tents first. Both of them had been torn apart, most likely in order for the attacker to get their hands on the occupants. Upon closer inspection of the damage, it looked like the fabric of the tents had been torn by what appeared to be claws. This made it look like an animal had actually done it, but that had already been ruled out as a possibility.

Upon looking inside the remnants of the tents, there were signs of a struggle. The grass and the ground showed signs of someone kicking violently with their assailant on top of them. Judging by the fact that both tents had similar signs, it was most likely that there were more than one attacker, as the occupants in neither tent had managed to get out before being attacked after being alerted to what was going on next to them.

It seemed like someone sneaked up to the tents while the occupants slept, cut the tents open and then proceeded to jump down on the victims. However, inspection of the surrounding started to raise more questions. None of the surroundings had signs of being traversed through, almost like whoever did this had appeared out of nowhere. How had they come to this place?

A sudden realization came to Dana, causing her to look up into the trees. If she was reading the evidence right, then the attackers had come by using the trees as a way to move. Sure enough, she saw some strange, string-like thing up on the branches above.

“Guess the people doing the investigation were too busy looking down on their phones to see this,” Dana said with a smirk, as she got ready to climb up. “Well, I guess there’s no other choice than for me to get my hands dirty and get- GAH!”

The detective’s mumbling was cut off as she tried to climb up, only for a branch she took hold of to snap and cause her to fall down rather painfully.

“...This is not my day.”

After her first failed attempt at climbing, Dana managed to get up the tree with a much more careful approach. Once she got far enough, she was able to take hold of the strange string that she had noticed down from the ground. However, as she tried to pull it off from the branches, it didn’t move, like it was stuck on something.

“Oh, you have got to be freaking kidding me… Why me!?” the detective muttered angrily as she tried to pull whatever was stuck on the branches with all her strength. “Get down from there you goddamn-!”

Almost as if on cue, there was a loud cracking sound as several branches broke, allowing whatever it was that was stuck to be finally let loose. Unfortunately for Dana, this wasn’t a good thing for her, as the thing that had been stuck on the tree was far larger than she herself had imagined.

The detective was barely able to avoid the large object that came falling down from the tree, as she managed to duck her head at the last second. However, whatever this object was, it was still stuck on the strings that Dana was holding and it was now pulling her down with it. The blonde woman would have fallen as well had she not taken a hold of a strong branch with her free hand.

“Okay! That was way too close!” the detective said to herself before looking at her hand that was still holding the string. “Hope whatever that was isn’t too fragile, because I’m dropping the cargo!”

Dana let go of the string, only to find out that she wasn’t able to do so. The string had been made from some sort of a sticky substance, as it was now stuck on the palm of her hand.

“...SERIOUSLY!? What the hell!?” the detective screamed in a mixture of anger and fear. “This is some big time bullshit right here! Why is all this shit happening to me!?”

As Dana was desperately trying to think of a way to save herself from this situation, a miracle seemed to happen. Whatever it was that had caused the string she was holding to stick to her hand so much seemed to be weakening, as the string was slowly peeling off her hand, until finally falling off completely.

For a moment, the detective could only stare down in disbelief, as the object that had nearly dragged her to her death fell down and hit the ground. After the initial shock had passed, Dana let out a loud cheer.

“OH YEEESSS! Can’t drag this boss down!” the detective cheered happily. “Unlike Miles and Kerry, I’m not letting some disgusting bag drag me around!”

After making her way back down, Dana went to investigate the thing that had nearly fallen on top of her. Much to her surprise, it was a large bundle of the same string that she had been pulling at earlier. The bundle was quite big, as it was close to the size of a grown man. In all honesty, it looked like a human cocoon.

“First a scaly guy that shoots lightning and now this? Just what the hell is going on?” the detective wondered before getting closer to the cocoon. “Well, might as well open it up and see what we have…”

“Not so fast, Colt!” a familiar voice suddenly yelled, stopping Dana in her tracks.

The detective immediately recognized that voice, as she had heard it not too long ago. It was detective Miles, accompanied by his partner, Kerry.

“You two again… What the hell are you even doing here?” Dana asked angrily. “Did you come to steal the work of others, like you did with detective Montoray? You’re a bit too early for that, since I’m not dead yet.”

“Hey, we had every right to take that stuff from him after he passed away!” Miles quickly argued. “Besides, this is police work. Civilians like you should leave this to the professionals.”

“Yeah, such as arresting criminals,” Kerry added before smirking and pulling out handcuffs. “Which reminds me, you are under arrest.”

“WHAT!? WHY!?” Dana yelled angrily. “WHAT POSSIBLE REASONS YOU DICKHEADS COULD EVER HAVE TO ARREST ME!?”

“Well, we suspect that you have stolen police property and have a connection to these disappearances,” Miles said with a grin. “If you’re asking for proof, I think it’s proof enough that we saw you pull that weird sack from that tree. You clearly knew there was something there and came to retrieve it.”

“The reason I knew it was there was because unlike you idiots I can actually look up, instead of constantly stare down at a phone!” Dana argued. “You’re going to need a lot more proof, if you’re going to arrest me for anything!”

“Oh Dana, proof and connections can always be found, if you look hard enough, no matter what the case you’re trying to prove is. Once you find the proof, it’s all about making a convincing enough of an argument,” Miles said in a smug tone. “And if there are those that would oppose the things we say, they can always be silenced one way or another. Once there is only one opinion allowed, that becomes the truth no matter how crazy it is. Didn’t you learn anything from watching your old friends get removed from the police force?”

As Kerry was moving towards Dana to put handcuffs on her, Miles himself walked up to the cocoon. He knelt next to it and pulled a small knife out of his pocket and cut open the sack made from the odd strings. Once he had made the cut, he used both hands to tear the whole thing open.

Now, what Miles had expected to find was valuables. Money, jewelry or anything that was worth a lot. He and Kerry were planning to take whatever they found for themselves, claiming that the real culprits had already gotten away with the things that would be “missing”.

However, what he actually found made him scream in terror.

“GYAAAAH! W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL!?!” Miles screamed, getting the attention of both Kerry and Dana, who turned to look at what had scared him.

Upon seeing what Miles had discovered, Kerry’s face turned pale before he fell down and wet his pants. Dana managed to hold her composure much better than the other two, but even she felt like throwing up from what she was seeing.

Inside the cocoon was a dead body that seemed to be dried up, as the skin clung to the bones so tightly they were visible. The eyes were wide open and staring straight up in the sky, as a dreadful grimace had been frozen on the face of the corpse, telling those who saw it just how painful the victim’s death had been.

After she managed to break out of her initial shock, Dana realized that this body wasn’t just any corpse. It was actually the body of one of Jennifer Harris’ friends, Kevin Matley.

“Oh shit… If this is what happened to Jennifer’s friend, I’m not sure if the others are in much better shape,” the detective muttered to herself. “Still, I have to find her at least. If for nothing else other than to give her parents some closure.”

As Dana was having her own thoughts regarding this discovery, Kerry had walked up to Miles.

“Hey, you okay?” the “detective” asked his partner.

“Do I look okay!?” Miles asked as he continued to stare at the corpse. “What the hell could have done this!? This is insane!”

“I don’t know, man… It kind of looks like a mummy,” Kerry said as he moved closer towards the corpse to take a look. “He looks like he’s been… sucked dry. Like a giant mosquito did this.”

“Okay, I think even you two dipshits are now clearly aware that something very messed up is going on in this city,” Dana said. “I think we can all agree that we now need to put aside our differences and work together to solve this whole mess.”

“Work together!? SCREW YOU!” Miles screamed angrily at the detective. “You think we would ever go and do something as lowly as that!? Hell, I’m sure you’re the one who is somehow involved in this yourself! I just know it!”

“Oh for the-! Grab a brain, asshole! How the hell could I have any part in something like this!?”

As Dana and Miles were arguing, Kerry had noticed something that completely grabbed his attention. It was a precious looking necklace that was hanging around the neck of the corpse. He was certain that by selling it, he could make a good amount of money. And if he was quick and discreet about it, he wouldn’t have to share it with Miles. Kerry had always felt like Miles was always just using him as a tool and getting a bigger share of the loot the two took for themselves. This would at least be entirely his.

After making sure that no one was looking at him, Kerry began to reach a hand towards the necklace. However, he completely failed to notice that there was movement coming from withing the corpse itself, as a strange bulge was forming at its stomach.

What happened next happened in an instant. Suddenly, the stomach of the corpse seemed to explode with something flying out of it. This thing let out a loud screech, as it crashed into Kerry, bringing him down to the ground with the thing on top of him.

Dana and Miles stared with wide eyes at the creature that had just appeared out of nowhere. It was the size of a dog, about the size of a German Shepherd to be exact, and it looked terrifying. It looked like a cross between a wasp and a beetle, as its body was encased in a thick, gray armor that made it look like a small tank on legs. Its six legs were long and sturdy-looking, and had what seemed to be serrated blades at the end. The creature had four large, dark blue eyes on its head and large jaws with powerful mandibles. There were also two pairs of yellow wings on the creature’s back and a large, sharp stinger at the end of its body.

Having finally broken out of his shock, Kerry began screaming and struggling against the creature currently on top of him, hoping to break free. However, it was completely fruitless, as the insect-monster had him pinned to the ground with its legs.

The struggles of its prey seemed to agitate the creature, as it raised its stinger up and brought it down on Kerry’s body, easily piercing his body. This caused said man to scream even louder due to the pain. Whatever poison the insect was pumping into its victim seemed to be working fast, as it took only a couple of second for Kerry’s face to start turning into a pale blue color from it. Soon foam started to come up from the man’s mouth and his struggles ceased, leaving his body to only twitch a bit. With its prey subdued, the creature opened its mouth and began to tear into Kerry, splattering blood all over the ground.

As the creature was feasting on its victim, both Dana and Miles were frozen still from the sheer shock of what they were witnessing. Things like this weren’t supposed to exist in reality. They were supposed to only appear in movies, comic books and video games. Yet here was something straight from a horror movie right in front of their eyes.

Dana finally broke out of her shock and pulled out her pistol. She aimed at the monster that was too busy eating to notice the threat right behind it. The detective fired a couple of shots from her gun, but it didn’t seem to do much. The bullets hit their target, but didn’t fully penetrate its body. Instead, they bounced off the tough shell that was covering the creature. Visible cracks could be seen on the monster’s armor, but no actual harm had yet been done to it.

After it had been attacked, the creature stopped its feast and turned its attention towards the attacker. With the monster’s attention occupied, Miles used this opportunity to get up and run away as fast as he could.

“Miles, you cowardly bastard!” Dana yelled after the fleeing man.

With Miles now out of the picture, the blonde detective was starting to worry over her chances of survival. While her pistol had managed to cause some damage, she wasn’t certain that it would be enough to take down this kind of enemy. What she had hoped for was that Miles would have shown at least a bit of courage for once in his life and had stood his ground. That way, the both of them could have been firing at the creature from two directions, which would have increased their chances of survival greatly.

However, now that she was alone, all Dana could hope was that her pistol would be enough to put a stop on the beast that she had surely managed to anger.

“Come on then, you ugly son of a bitch,” the detective said while keeping her gun aimed at the monster. “Let’s end this already.”

Instead of attacking, the beast let out another loud screech before spreading its wings and flying away. All Dana could do was stare after the creature as it disappeared into the trees.

“...What the hell? Why didn’t it go for me?” the detective wondered before it suddenly came to her. That thing was aiming for an easier prey. “Shit! It’s going for Miles!”

As much as she wouldn’t mind to see the traitorous fake detective get devoured by some monster, Dana was still cop at heart. She couldn’t allow another human being get harmed when she herself could prevent it. Even if the person in question was the lowest of scum. Not to mention, the blonde had something to ask about from Miles.

“Goddammit I hate to do this, but I’ve got no choice!” Dana cursed as she started to head towards the direction Miles and the creature had gone to. She stopped upon noticing the body of Kerry and walked up to it instead. “Hope that useless bastard has at least something worthwhile on him. My own gun couldn’t seem to do the trick.”

Digging through the dead man’s jacket, the detective found something that should be of some good use to her.

“...This is even better than I thought,” Dana mumbled in slight amazement before grinning. “You asshole. Back in my day, this would have never been allowed. This almost makes me happy over that new chief coming into power. Almost being the keyword obviously…”

Meanwhile, Miles was still running for his life, trying to get away from the monster that had just killed his partner. After a while, he stopped to catch his breath, believing that he would be safe by now. He was certain that the creature wouldn’t be able to catch up to him anymore, as it was most likely too busy eating Dana, along with Kerry’s corpse.

“This should be far enough… No way is that thing coming after me anymore,” Miles mumbled to himself while taking deep breaths. “What in the hell was that thing anyways? Some sort of an alien? Whatever the case, I need to call the chief and-”

A sudden loud snap of a nearby tree branch cut off the detective’s musings. He looked around in a panic, wondering where the sound had come from and what had made it. Miles pulled out his gun as well, readying himself to fire upon whatever it was.

“WHO’S THERE!?” Miles yelled while holding his gun with shaking arms. “I’M A POLICE OFFICER, SO YOU BETTER COME OUT RIGHT NOW!”

There was no response to Miles’ loud request and after waiting for a couple of seconds, he was certain it had just been some animal. With a sigh of relief, he lowered his gun and put it back in its holster.

However, as soon as he did this, the leaves of a nearby tree suddenly rustled, causing him to look at its direction. There was again a moment of silent, until a familiar screech could be heard from the trees. Miles looked up and felt his blood freeze within his body, as he saw the creature that had killed his partner looming there.

Once he had managed to get past the initial shock, Miles quickly went for his gun and tried to pull it out for his defense. Unfortunately for him, the monster was a lot faster. It opened its jaws and spat out strange substance from its mouth that was similar to what had been wrapped around the body of the missing boy’s body as well.

The sticky substance struck its mark, pushing Miles at the tree behind him and effectively gluing him in place. The detective tried to struggle in a panic, but couldn’t free himself. His movements only became more and more restricted, as more of the substance covered his body. Soon his whole body was covered, leaving only his head visible.

With its prey now captured, the creature jumped down from the tree it had been perched upon. It quickly yet carefully made its way to what would soon be its next victim and upon reaching him, it readied its jaws and stinger. Miles could only look on in horror with tears in his eyes, as he saw the maw that would end his life come closer and closer.

Just as the creature was about to take its first bite, the sound of a gun firing echoed loudly through the forest. The sound was different from a normal pistol and sounded much closer to that of a cannon firing. The bullet struck its target, the monster that was just about to devour Miles, and pushed it off him.

Miles looked to his side where the creature had fallen and saw it wriggle its numerous limbs wildly in the air, as it struggled to get back up. Before it could do so, two more shots were fired, which finally seemed to put an end to it. Now the creature laid still with dark blue blood oozing out of the three holes on its body.

The sudden sound of footsteps approaching caused Miles to turn his gaze again, this time finding Dana slowly walking towards him with a gun in her hand. This wasn’t her normal pistol, but a much larger handgun that had been modified. Miles immediately recognized the weapon she was holding as his partner’s personal firearm.

“That-! That’s Kerry’s gun!” Miles yelled. “How dare you-!”

The detective’s complaints were cut off by Dana hitting him across the face with the back of the gun she was holding. Miles spat out blood and even a tooth, as the blonde woman simply stared at him with a blank expression.

“Now, that is not very nice, is it? I mean, I just saved your worthless ass from being eaten by what appears to be an overgrown insect,” Dana said while casually spinning the gun around her finger. “I believe that in times like this, you’re supposed to say two certain words. They’re “thank” and “you”.”

“G-Go to-” Miles began to say in an act of defiance, only to earn himself another smack from Dana’s gun. This time to the other side of his face.

“I’m sorry. My hand slipped a bit,” Dana said while gritting her teeth from anger. “What was that you were trying to say there?”

“...Thank you,” Miles said in a whimper that almost went unheard.

“Good boy. Now I would normally want to hear an apology as well for your bad behavior, but I have far better things to do than spend time with you, which also something I’d generally want to avoid, so I’ll just go right down to business,” Dana said. “I have a couple of questions for you and I expect you to answer me honestly here. Got that?”

“And why should I tell you anything?” Miles asked with a glare directed at his interrogator.

Suddenly, the large bug creature began to move and make noise again. Without even looking, Dana simply pointed her gun at its direction and fired a shot at it, ensuring that it would stay still and silent from now on.

“Because I am a person with a very low tolerance for bullshit, which is something you’ve subjected me to way past my limits, and I’m now the one with the gun and desire to inflict harm on those who have angered me,” Dana explained as a sadistic smile crept up to her face. “Need I make this anymore clear?”

“...What do you want to know?” Miles squeaked out, now completely terrified.

“Good to see you’re not completely stupid,” Dana said with a smile, once again casually spinning her gun around her finger. “First of all, I want to ask about that thing I just put down. Any idea what the hell it was?”

“What the-!? HOW SHOULD I KNOW!?” Miles screamed angrily. “I have never seen anything like that before in my life! I thought things like that only appeared in comics and movies!”

“Are you sure?” Dana asked, now pointing the barrel of the gun at Miles’ face. “I would hate it, if you were lying to me.”

“I SWEAR! I SWEAR! I SWEAR! I’M TELLING THE TRUTH!” Miles screamed in a panic, like a scared little girl. “Seriously, why the hell would I know anything about that thing!? Or even if I did, why would I lie about it!? You can probably already tell that I haven’t just pissed myself, but I have already shit my pants as well!”

“Good lord, pull yourself together,” Dana said as she rolled her eyes and pulled the gun away from Miles’ face. “I just wondered if you’ve got some insider info, as you’re basically the police chief’s personal bottom bitch.”

“All we ever do is make public statements on social media or hold seminars at the headquarters, where we just talk about how we must be more sensitive and all that crap!” Miles explained. “Seriously, we spend most of our time on the internet, trying to find things to make statements about! We don’t actually go outside that much!”

“Any idiot could have figured that out,” Dana grumbled. “I was just wondering if you had some information, as you did follow me with your freaking life partner. I guess I should have figured out that you don’t know shit after you screamed like a little girl upon seeing that thing’s victim.”

“SCREW YOU, DANA!” Miles yelled out in defiance, only to have the barrel of a gun pointing at his face again. “I-I mean, that’s a fair and sharp assessment.”

“Now for my second question. Why were you following me?” Dana asked with a glare. “While I get that the current chief, as well as many of her personal servants in the force, don’t like me all that much, I can’t help but doubt that you two would be sent after me over some papers I got from Shane and Dillon, let alone just to mess up my job. What is that damn cow trying to hide by sending you assclowns after me?”

“I-I have no idea!” Miles said, causing the blonde detective to push the gun harder against his face. “I SWEAR THAT I’M TELLING THE TRUTH! The chief figured out that you would be looking into the missing campers and wanted us to put a stop to your investigation! She told us to arrest you on whatever bullshit reason we could come up with or even kill you, if it became too much of a hassle!”

“And neither one of you thought about asking why she needed you to do this?” Dana asked with a raised eyebrow.

“NO! We don’t ask questions! We just do whatever she tells us to do and get paid well for it!” Miles explained. “We just assumed that she had gotten tired of your antics and wanted to finally get rid of you!”

“Some freaking detective you are… However, I do believe you,” Dana said as she put the gun away, causing Miles to sigh out of relief. “Are the cops doing anything at all in regards to these recent disappearances? Besides stopping those that would try to look into them.”

“Not much. Whenever a strange disappearance or murder happens these days, we just go to the crime scene to take some photos, ask questions and then just abandon the whole thing,” Miles explained. “I mean, it’s not so different to how the chief used to have us do stuff. Before she would listen to what most likely happened and then have some of her people look deeper into the case, if it could be used to make her look good. These days we are specifically told to essentially drop all cases we come across. We just hand over our findings to the chief and go spend time on coffee breaks.”

“Really now? Any idea why she would do something like that?”

“I don’t know! She has some powerful friends that keep her safe and let her do whatever she pretty much wants! Maybe one of them has told her to keep us out of all this!?”

Dana thought about this for a moment. While she knew that the current chief of police wasn’t exactly one to do any actual work, she wouldn’t just abandon all police work. She would have at least some of her goons try to solve a couple of the cases at the very least. Unless of course there was something that made it far more better to ignore everything happening in the city. If there was a powerful “friend” of Chief Cannary’s pulling the strings behind the scenes, they needed to be uncovered in order to find out what was truly going on.

“Hey, I’ve told you everything I know, okay!?” Miles suddenly called out, snapping Dana out of her thoughts. “Free from this stuff already! It’s really gross!”

“...Nah, I think I’ll leave you there,” Dana said nonchalantly as she began to walk away. “I don’t think I have anything that could cut you free from that stuff anyways, but I think some fresh air would be good for you. You’ve been spending too much time on your phone and social media, after all.”

As the blonde woman walked away, she could hear Miles screaming angrily behind her, calling her all sorts of names and threatening her. She simply ignored his cries, as she had a lot of other things to think about instead.

In the last few days, a lot of strange things had been happening. That strange person attacking her with electricity, the many disappearances and deaths, the thing that had crawled out of the dead camper and the way the chief of police was acting. Dana’s hunch was telling her that all of this wasn’t a coincidence, but that something was connecting all of it together. She just needed to find the connections themselves now.

A lot of questions were running through the detective’s head. What were these creatures that had suddenly appeared? How many were there and where had they come from? What was it that Cannary was trying to keep hidden?

Dana couldn’t help but worry that what she had seen so far was just the tip of the iceberg. She could only hope that she would be able to solve this case as soon as possible and hopefully save the kids that had gone missing.