Glen Wiseman
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2003

Chapter 16

The Metchettes' mobile home was nice as far as mobile homes 
went. It was a small mobile home, but the Metchettes had picked it 
up for almost nothing. It had been repossessed and they had paid 
only the balance due. Their permanent house was being built a 
little ways down the street. In fact, the work crew was down there 
working on it right now.

Glen sat in one of the cheap chairs that came with the mobile home 
and looked around at the living room. It was very small, but he 
recognized the cleverness with which Cliff had set up his situation. 
When his house was completed, Cliff could either sell the mobile 
home or rent it out. Either way, he would probably make a profit.

The telephone rang and Glen turned to stare at it. Cliff had warned 
him not to answer it until after the answering machine had come 
on. This would allow him to screen the call and make sure that he 
wasn't going to be subjected to insults. Glen was expecting a call 
from the Sheriff and almost decided to answer, but felt like he 
should wait. 

The answering machine finally kicked in. The voice on the other 
end immediately said, "Sinners, you are going to burn! Burn, do 
you hear me? The flames of earth will send you to the flames of 
hell. Sinners! Demon Spawn! First, we'll take care of you and then 
your slut sisters shall join you in hell!"

Glen was half tempted to pick up the phone. He wanted to tell the 
caller that he was talking to the switchboard in hell and if the caller 
would only give the name of the specific demon he would make 
the appropriate connection. He resisted the urge as he realized that 
they had no sense of humor and it would only anger them. He 
listened as the caller continued to rant and rave. Only about a third 
of what the caller said was even legible. It was one threat after 
another, although most of them were simply absurd. He wondered 
if this call had anything to do with the fact that the Reverend's 
hearing was today. 

After five minutes the caller hung up. Glen went into the kitchen 
and got a soft drink out of the refrigerator. It really was a small 
place and he wondered how the three of them could live here. He 
was curious about the twin's bedroom, but chose not to investigate. 
He knew that if the circumstances were reversed that they would 
be through everything in the room in a minute. "Oh well," he 
thought to himself, "that's the nature of women." Even as he 
thought it, he realized how sexist that was. It wasn't a woman's 
nature at work, it was the twin's nature at work. 

He returned to the living room as the phone rang again. He waited 
for the answering machine to pick up the call. A different voice 
started talking, "Sinners, repent. The day of judgement is upon 
you. You are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord and you shall 
soon feel his wrath. The servants of the Lord shall do his bidding!"

Glen answered out loud, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Me 
good, you bad. Bad people die. Rah, rah, rah!"

The voice continued to prattle on for several minutes. Glen just 
watched the answering machine record the message. He shook his 
head as he realized just how stupid these people really were. There 
was nothing like leaving recorded messages of threats to help bring 
a case against you if something ever happened.

The person quit talking and hung up after about five minutes. Glen 
wondered if they were being timed by someone. It was definitely 
bizarre. The telephone almost immediately rang again. He waited 
for the answering machine to pick up the call. This time, the voice 
that spoke was very calm. "The next Witch's Sabbath, you shall 
burn like all witches should burn!"

The caller hung up almost immediately. The other calls were 
nuisance, but this one was scary. Glen didn't recognize the voice, 
but that didn't mean the Sheriff wouldn't. He decided that Cliff 
would have to take this tape to the Sheriff. Such definite threats 
could not go undocumented.

The phone rang again. Glenn waited for the answering machine to 
pick it up and took a sip of the soft drink while he waited. He 
picked up the phone when he heard the voice of the Sheriff. He 
said, "Hey, Sheriff. This is Glen."

Dale replied testily, "I've been trying to call for the past half an 
hour. The phone has been busy the entire time."

Glen replied, "Oh just getting a series of death threats here. One of 
them even said what they would do and when they would act. You 
know, the normal kind of thing you have to expect when you're 
evil."

The Sheriff didn't laugh. He said, "Glen, this is very serious. The 
Reverend didn't show up for his court appearance."

"Oh, shit." 

"Right, oh, shit." the Sheriff replied. He said, "These guys are 
definitely upping the ante. Look, they don't care about the law. 
They think they are the law. Reverend Jonathan Corwin thinks he 
is judge, jury, and executioner."

This was not a good situation and it would be easy to blame Cliff. 
In fact, Glen had given Cliff a lot of grief about publishing that 
editorial about God. Now, he realized that this was the kind of guy 
that was just looking for an excuse to be hateful. If it hadn't been 
Cliff, it would have been someone else. This guy was as sick as 
Amos Orvin. He said, "Dale, I'm going to ask you for a piece of 
advice and I want you to think about it before you answer."

"What?"

Glen asked, "What should I do if they show up here?"

There was a long silence on the phone. Dale knew exactly what 
Glen was asking. He said, "Use appropriate force to stop them."

Glen didn't reply for a moment and then said, "That doesn't answer 
my question."

"Damn it, Glen. Don't make me say it."

Glen said, "I'll never tell anyone what you said."

The Sheriff was quiet for a long time and then he said, "If you are 
outnumbered, use lethal force. Don't stop until you have superior 
numbers."

Glen was silent for a moment and then said, "Thank you, Dale. 
That's a bit more than I was expecting."

"I never said it."

"I never heard it."

After the Sheriff hung up the phone, Glen set the handset back on 
the phone. He went back to the chair to wait for the Metchettes. All 
three of them were at the house checking out the progress on the 
new building. They would be home soon and he could hardly wait. 
They didn't want him to see it until it was completed. 

He picked up his pistol and stepped out the front of the mobile 
home. The view wasn't very good, but it was their temporary 
home. They hadn't spent much time trying to make it fancy. They 
were spending their money on their real home. He walked around 
the mobile home checking out the surroundings. A buck had 
passed right beneath the window recently. It was possibly less than 
five minutes ago, since the dirt was still moving into the track left 
behind. 

He heard the truck of the Metchettes pull up in front of the house. 
He came around and greeted them by calling out, "Hello. Have fun 
at the new house?"

Wanda smiled and said, "Oh, yes. It is really looking quite nice."

Sandra winked and added, "We can't wait to get you there when it 
is done."

Glen wasn't sure what they were promising, but he knew that when 
they got into this mood it suggested that he would enjoy it. He 
turned to Cliff and, in a very serious tone of voice, said, "I hate to 
be a downer, but I need to talk to you for a minute."

The twins glanced at each other and then went into the house. They 
knew that tone of voice and what it meant when Glen used it. It 
always meant that he was going to give Cliff some bad news. Cliff 
watched the twins as the closed the door behind themselves. He 
turned to Glen and said, "Okay. What's up?"

"I talked to the Sheriff while you were gone. We need to prepare 
for war. I want you to take the twins to town. Give the Sheriff the 
tape to your answering machine. They made some definite threats 
and identified a probable time when they would attack."

Cliff looked worried and asked, "What kind of threats?"

"They threatened to burn you like a witch."

Looking at Glen, Cliff paled as he thought about the threat. Taking 
a deep breath to calm down and to find courage to face the 
situation, he said, "Forewarned is forearmed."

"Exactly. We have a lot of work to do." Glen looked around at the 
mobile home. It wasn't going to be easy to protect it. The woods 
were too close to the trailer. He looked at the road and wondered 
what could be done to help secure it.

Cliff thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Where will you 
be while I'm in town?"

In a deadly tone of voice, Glen answered, "I've got a little shopping 
to do."

It wasn't long before Cliff and Wanda headed into town to see the 
Sheriff. Refusing to go with them stating that someone had to go 
with Glen, she stayed behind to cover his back. Glen didn't feel 
like fighting her over it since she was just doing what he had told 
them to do. 

They drove to the mall and went into the sporting goods store. 
Glen looked around before spotting Henry. It didn't take Henry a 
minute before he noticed Glen waving at him. His last sale to Glen 
had gotten him a good bonus. There was no telling what was going 
to happen today. He greeted Glen, "Hello, Glen. Is there something 
that I can do for you?"

Glen smiled and nodded as he said, "I need some guns."

Henry smiled as he realized this was going to be another big sale. 
He gestured for Glen to follow him to the Gun section. When they 
arrived, Glen's eyes looked over the weapons there. He smiled as 
he considered the firepower represented there. He said, "I'll take 
two of those .22 caliber rifles. Outfit them with 4X scopes. I'll take 
two of those .30-06 rifles. Outfit them with 12X scopes. I'll take 
two of those 20 gauge pump shotguns."

Henry's eyes lit up at the money that sale represented. Glen moved 
over to the ammo section and looked over what they had. He 
stated, "Give me four of those boxes of .22 caliber long rifle 
bullets. The 500 round boxes. That will last them about ten days. 
Give me ten boxes of the 20 gauge number 4 buckshot. Let's see, 
that's 50 rounds. That's not enough, double it.  Give me 100 rounds 
of the .30-06."

Henry put all of the stuff on the counter. He stated, "You'll have to 
mount the scopes yourself."

"Okay, add the mounting gear as well."

As Henry looked at the pile of guns and ammo, he asked, "You 
going to war?"

Glen frowned and answered, "Not yet. This is just to train the 
twins on how to shoot."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. They are going to fire fifty rounds in the morning and 
another fifty rounds in the afternoon with the .22 caliber. Then I'll 
move them up to the .30-06," replied Glen. He had learned to shoot 
the same way. His father had taken him out with his old .22 caliber 
rifle every day for a month. A hundred rounds a day. By the end of 
the month, he had no trouble hitting the target with a very good 
grouping. He didn't have any trouble moving up to the larger 
caliber rifles.

Henry asked, "Anything else?"

Glen nodded and pointed to the paper targets. He said, "I'll take a 
hundred of the small targets and ten of the large."

Henry rang it all up on the register and whistled. This was a nine 
hundred dollar sale. He was going to be salesmen of the month 
again. He handed Glen a form to fill out. Glen looked it over and 
sighed. He filled out the form indicating that he wasn't a convicted 
felon and hadn't been in a mental institution in the past five years. 
He handed over his drivers license and let Henry fill out the 
identification part. When they were done, Henry looked up and 
said, "Well, I can give you the guns in 72 hours."

Glen snorted, "What?"

Henry nodded his head and said, "New law. Have to have a 72 
hour cooling down period. I can let you have everything else to 
take home now though."

Understanding that arguing was useless, Glen accepted Henry's 
statement. He said, "No problem. I'll take all you'll let me leave 
with now and come back for the guns."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Henry realized that he had been worried 
that Glen would change his mind. If Glen went to a private 
individual, he could get the guns right now. He said, "I'll take it to 
the loading dock and you can drive up. No sense carrying all of 
this stuff through the mall."

Sandra had watched the whole exchange with a mounting sense of 
dread. She wondered if he actually expected her to learn how to 
shoot all of those weapons. Practicing with his shotgun had been a 
painful experience, the damn thing hurt her shoulder every time 
she had fired it. She could barely hit the broad side of a barn with 
it, even though it was loaded with buckshot. 

She followed Glen back to the truck. He pulled it around the mall 
and drove up to the loading dock. Henry was standing on the dock 
waving to him. Glen parked the truck and went to the loading 
dock. As Henry handed down the bags, Glen carried them over to 
the truck and put them in the cab. The last few bags were much 
lighter since they had the targets and the scopes.

Henry waved goodbye to Glen and closed the door of the loading 
dock. As Glen drove off, Sandra looked at the pile of packages 
around her. She asked, "Were you serious about us learning how to 
shoot?"

Glen answered, "You bet your sweet ass, I'm serious. Nobody is 
going to lay a hand on that body of yours except me and Wanda."

Appreciating the concern for her, Sandra smiled. She tried to 
reduce the seriousness of the discussion by asking, "Aren't you 
afraid that I'll get religion and run off?"

Glen chuckled and replied, "Not really."

"So we have to wait three days to start learning?"

"Nope, you start this afternoon. Cliff and I both have .22 caliber 
rifles. We'll put the scopes on them and get you started."

Sandra was very quiet and then stated, "I hate the shotgun. These 
are going to be worse."

Glen said, "No, actually you'll be surprised. The .22 caliber rifles 
hardly kick at all. Compared to them, the shotguns kick like 
mules."

"You're not lying to me are, are you?"

Glen smiled at her fear and said, "No. I don't know of many people 
that can shoot five rounds of buckshot out of a twenty gauge 
shotgun. Fifty rounds out of a .22 caliber is not that bad."

It wasn't long before they arrived at the mobile home. There was 
no sign of Cliff and Wanda. They went into the trailer and waited 
for them.

In town, Cliff and Wanda arrived at the Sheriff's office. They went 
in and waited, but no one was around. Cliff was curious and 
knocked on the Sheriff's door. There was no answer. He turned to 
Wanda, "This is weird. Someone should be here."

Wanda nodded as she looked around. She went over to the 
dispatcher station and picked up the radio. Pushing the button, she 
said, "Hello. Is anyone one out there?"

The Deputy got on the radio and asked, "Who is this?"

Wanda answered, "This is Wanda Metchette. We are at the Sheriff 
station and everything is wide open, but there isn't anyone here."

The Deputy said, "The Sheriff is there."

Cliff tapped Wanda on the shoulder and said, "He's not in the 
bathroom."

Wanda replied, "We've looked everywhere. We knocked on his 
door and checked the bathrooms. There's no one here."

Suddenly concerned, the Deputy asked, "What about the 
prisoners?"

Wanda said, "Wait. Cliff is going to check that out. Can you come 
here? I'm getting scared. This isn't right."

Cliff came running back shouting, "There aren't any prisoners."

Wanda relayed the message. The Deputy responded quickly, "I'm 
on my way."

Cliff went over to the Sheriff's door and opened it. The Sheriff was 
on the floor unconscious. Cliff checked for a pulse and found one. 
The Sheriff was breathing okay. There weren't any signs of bruises 
or anything like that. He didn't know what to do, but decided that 
professional help was required. He called out to Wanda, "The 
Sheriff is in here and he's unconscious. Call the hospital and 
request an ambulance."

He stayed with the Sheriff until the Deputy arrived. Frowning in 
concern, the Deputy looked around the office. A bottle of insulin 
was on the desk. He said, "This doesn't look right. He took his 
insulin, but it looks like he's in shock."

Glen asked, "How do you think all of the prisoners got away?"

The Deputy looked around and swore, "I bet it was that fucking 
Barney."

The sound of the ambulance could be heard as it pulled up to the 
building. It was only a matter of minutes before the EMS personnel 
were in the room. Cliff and the Deputy left the room to give them 
some space to work in. 

The Deputy went to the dispatcher station and relieved Wanda. He 
got on the phone and called the State Troopers. This was too much 
for him to handle. The EMS driver came out and walked over to 
the Deputy. He stated, "Someone gave him the wrong kind of 
insulin. He'll be okay. We're taking him to the hospital."

The man went out and got a gurney. Three minutes later, the 
Sheriff was on the gurney and headed to the ambulance. Cliff 
looked around nervously and said, "Glen sent me down here. We 
have gotten a number of death threats, some of them pretty 
specific. I have the answering machine tape here."

The Deputy looked at it and said, "Wait until the State Troopers 
get here. I'm turning the case over to them. This has turned into 
attempted murder and a mass jail break. This is a bit much for us."

Cliff and Wanda went over to the bench to wait for the State 
Troopers to arrive. The pair looked at each other and withdrew into 
their own thoughts. Finally, Cliff went over to the deputy and 
asked, "What is required to get a concealed weapon permit?"

The Deputy stopped what he was doing and looked over at Cliff. 
He said, "I understand your concern. I don't know if we can 
manage that for you, but I'll look into it. You've got some pretty 
nasty folks after you, but the Sheriff and I don't want this to turn 
into a Wild West show."

Cliff said, "I understand your position. You've got to understand 
ours. They are trying to kill us."

The Deputy said, "I'll see what we can do. It's a long process as 
they don't like to give them out."

Cliff nodded understanding despite the fact that he didn't 
understand at all. He had thought that the whole reason for the 
concealed weapon permit was for people in his situation. He went 
back to Wanda and sat down. Worried, she asked, "What's going to 
happen to us?"

Laughing, in part to convince himself that everything was okay, 
Cliff answered, "Nothing. Glen is going to take care of you. He's 
very good at that."

Wanda smiled as she thought of the number of times that he had 
saved them. He had always come through for them. She said, 
"You're probably right."

Jim James and three other troopers arrived at the office together. 
He went over to the deputy and talked with him for several 
minutes. Worried frowns appeared on the faces of the troopers as 
they listened to the details that had motivated the Deputy to call 
them. Jim went over to the Metchettes and said, "Hello. I hear you 
are being threatened and have a tape with their threats."

"Yes, Jim. That's what brought us here. We found the place 
deserted and it scared the hell out of us."

Jim looked around uncomfortably for a moment. He said, "Well, 
give me the tape and we'll add it to your file. I'm going to be 
stationed here for a while."

Relief at getting rid of it spread over Cliff as he handed the tape 
over to Jim. He had listened to it before coming here and it had 
scared the hell out of him. Those religious fanatics really thought 
they were above the law. He wanted to change the subject. He 
replied, "That's great. By the way, Sue is working out great. She's 
doing a first class job."

Jim relaxed, happy to be talking about his sister in law. He said, 
"She loves the work. Says it fits into her schedule perfectly and is 
bringing in good money. My wife and I have been reading the 
magazine online. We're really impressed with the quality."

Grinning, Cliff asked, "How about the subject matter?"

"Not quite our thing, I'm afraid. Still, I'm amazed at the balanced 
picture you present. You don't dwell on either the negatives or the 
positives."

Cliff replied, "We try very hard to be balanced. We feel that false 
pictures of reality do more harm than the truth. Alternative 
marriages are not for everyone and work out for only a few people. 
We just wanted to tap into a market that had been under exploited."

Jim nodded his agreement. He said, "Well, you've done wonders 
for Sue. She's getting by now."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Jim said, "Well, you can go now."

"I think we are going to go over to the hospital and check on the 
Sheriff. I don't think he likes me, but I like him."

With a very serious expression on his face, Jim replied, "Well, he's 
lucky you like him. If you hadn't found him, he would probably be 
dead about now. Someone out there doesn't like him and made the 
opportunity to free all of the prisoners."

"For a bunch of religious fanatics, they sure don't take the Ten 
Commandments very seriously. It seems to me that they sure like 
the idea of killing way too much."

Jim nodded, "Between a bunch of sex perverts and religious 
fanatics, I'll take the perverts every time."

Cliff burst out laughing and quipped, "You got us."

Shaking his head,  Jim went back to the office carrying the tape 
with him. He wanted to listen to the threats and get a feel for the 
seriousness of the situation. His skin was crawling by the time he 
reached the end of the tape. It was clear to him that Cliff was not a 
match for these guys.

Cliff and Wanda went to the hospital to visit the Sheriff. He was in 
an emergency room bed, conscious at last. It was very clear that he 
didn't look very happy at being there. He looked up in surprise to 
see Cliff and Wanda step into the area. He grunted, "You aren't 
supposed to be here."

Wanda bent over and kissed him on the cheek. She smiled down at 
him and said, "We are so glad that you are alive. We were so 
worried when we found you."

The Sheriff looked at her and Cliff in surprise. He asked, "You two 
found me?"

Cliff answered, "Yeah, we did. We thought about leaving you 
there, turning you into a swinger, or calling for help. Decided on 
the last."

The thought of being turned into a swinger made the Sheriff laugh. 
If anyone could do that, he believed that Cliff could. He shook his 
head and said, "You are incorrigible."

Wanda held the Sheriff's hand as she whispered in his ear, "You're 
lucky you didn't grow up with him as an older brother."

The Sheriff laughed. The nurse came around the corner and said, 
"Well, I guess by all of the noise coming out of this room that 
you're feeling better."

"Nah, these two are torturing me. However, they're so ineffective 
at it, that I have to laugh." The Sheriff couldn't help but like the 
Metchettes. They were very nice people that did care about those 
around them. Victims of a madman, they had come out a lot 
stronger than most people would. Pursued by fanatics that were 
willing to kill him, they didn't let fear rule their lives. 

The nurse chuckled as she took his vitals and noted them on his 
chart. She glanced up at the Sheriff and stated, "I'm going to have 
to give them lessons. We can't have the victims of torture laughing 
about it."

The Sheriff shot the nurse a dirty look and then realized that she 
was teasing him. He said, "We all know that you are a licensed 
torturer. Sister of mercy, my ass."

Laughing the nurse said, "That reminds me. Time for me to give 
you a shot in your ass. I'll be sure to make it hurt."

The Sheriff groaned and pulled the cover over his head. Laughing 
at the Sheriff, she left the room. Cliff laughed and said, "Well, we 
just wanted to check on you. You know, make sure that you're 
feeling okay."

The Sheriff pulled the cover down and asked, "By the way, what 
brought you to the office?"

Cliff was about to answer, but a look from Wanda made him 
change his mind. He said, "Just came in to gaze upon your lovely 
face. Don't worry about that. Just get better."

The Sheriff looked at Cliff with a very serious expression. He said, 
"Someone switched my insulin. In my book, that means that 
someone tried to kill me. All those bastards escaped while I was 
lying helpless on the floor of my office. I'm pissed. They tried to 
kill me and that is something that I'm not going to forget. You and 
Glen, you do what is necessary to protect yourselves. Do you 
understand me?"

Cliff swallowed heavily and answered, "Yes, sir."

"I've thought long and hard about this while I was lying here in this 
bed. Your magazine isn't hurting anyone. As far as I can tell, you 
are helping some folks face serious problems. I may not agree that 
it is right to have a bunch of people living together and screwing 
each other all of the time. However, you've never done anything to 
harm anyone." The Sheriff suddenly got very quiet.

Cliff put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Get better. The world 
needs people like you watching out and protecting us from the bad 
guys."

The pair left shortly after that and headed towards the house. It was 
forty minutes later that they arrived at home. They found Glen 
standing in front of the mobile home waiting for them. Glen looked 
worried while Sandra didn't appear concerned. Cliff got out for the 
truck and explained, "The Sheriff was nearly killed in town. 
Someone switched insulin on him."

Glen softly swore, "Damn, this is really getting nasty. Is he okay?"

"Yeah, we found him and called for the ambulance before he was 
too bad. All of the prisoners escaped though."

"Shit," exclaimed Glen. He was not happy about this turn of 
events. He wondered if all the calls this morning were intended to 
bring Cliff to the Sheriff's office earlier. They may have intended 
to take him then. He said, "You guys are coming over to my place. 
We have some training to do."

For the next two hours, Glen taught the Metchettes the basics of 
gun use. He had them all lie on the ground. He told them, "Don't 
expect to be shooting while you are standing. When all hell breaks 
loose, get down on the ground just like you are right now. Think 
small and try to blend in."

Wanda asked, "What about bugs and snakes?"

Glen laughed as though she had just told the greatest joke ever. He 
said, "The only bugs around here are mosquitoes. They'll get you if 
you are standing or on the ground. The bastards that are attacking 
you are the only snakes you need to worry about."

Sandra blushed in tune with Wanda. He was amazed once again at 
the closeness between the pair of twins. Cliff said, "I know you 
don't want to hurt anyone, but they seriously want to hurt you. We 
are going to have to get mean. You two are my little sisters. I've 
done the best I can to watch over you both. You're going to have to 
help yourselves on this one."

Glen nodded his agreement. He said, "There are about thirty of 
them. The next time we face them, I expect we'll be facing all 
thirty. Cliff and I can only do so much. We need your help."

The twins, eyes wide as the enormity of the situation dawned on 
them, nodded. Sandra said, "We'll be there."

Glen squatted and looked at them. He said, "There are some things 
that you are going to have to learn. First, when you jump to the 
ground, you have to be careful not the get the end of your gun 
filled with dirt. Second, when you are on the ground, you want to 
check to see if there is any dirt in your gun. If there is, throw the 
gun away. It will kill you if you fire it."

Sandra said, "Why?"

Glen answered, "Blow back. If the end of the gun is blocked, then 
the pressure of the shot will cause the gun to explode. You don't 
want that to happen to you."

The twins went on to fire fifty shots at the target. Both of them 
were pleased to learn that firing the small caliber rifle was a lot 
easier on their shoulders than the shotgun. However, they were still 
going to have sore shoulders in the morning. Glen grinned at the 
thought of giving the twins massages that night.