Gunpowder and Lead

LXXXV

[Don't Go In the Woods]

POLK CITY, IA - NIGHT - OUTSIDE A PUBLIC RESTROOM IN BIG CREEK STATE PARK

Inside the only car parked in the isolated lot in the woods, two teens were making out and heard a strange whistling noise.

"What was that?" Barbara asked.

"It was nothing," Tom told her. "Just the wind."

The whistling song continued.

"Okay, that -- that wasn't the wind."

"I'll check it out."

As Tom was about to get out of the car, the sheriff opened the door for him.

"What are you guys doing?" Sheriff Romero asked.

"Dad?" Tom called.

"Barbara."

"Hi, Sheriff," Barbara greeted.

"Do your parents know where you are right now?"

"Why do you care?" Tom shot back.

"You're supposed to be studying."

"At Mom's. This is not your weekend. Besides, she's-"

"Out of town. With Todd. I know. She called you. You weren't home. She called me. She's worried."

"Well, you found me. Good for you."

"Hey. Watch it."

"Or what?"

Barbara made herself presentable and got out of the car, heading toward the restrooms.

"Hey, where you going?" Sheriff Romero questioned.

"Um... bathroom," Barbara replied. "You guys need some space."

She turned on the light in the abandoned-looking bathroom and the lights flickered, and she reacted with disgust to what she discovered in the stalls.

"Ugh," Barbara said. "Oh, God."

OUTSIDE AT TOM'S CAR

"Tom, you shouldn't be out here," Sheriff Romero told his son. "But I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"Yeah, you never do," Tom retorted.

BATHROOM

Barbara found a stall that wasn't completely objectionable and resigned herself to using it. The lights began to flicker and the whistling noise was coming from inside the bathroom, along with heavy footsteps and a growling noise. A monstrous hand reached over the stall door and she screamed. Tom and Sheriff Romero heard her from outside and rushed to her aid.

"Barbara?!" Tom called.

"Stay here," Sheriff Romero instructed.

Sheriff Romero barged into the bathroom, gun drawn, and found her purse on the floor of the stall, but Barbara was gone. He ran out of the bathroom and into the woods, and Tom followed after him.

"Barbara!" Sheriff Romero shouted. "Barbara! Barbara?"

The sheriff saw a figure moving through the shadows in the woods, but tripped in the dark and lost sight of it.

"Hey!"

When he got up again, he heard Tom yelling in the distance and ran toward the sound.

"Thomas! Thomas!"

Tom dropped to his knees, sobbing over Barbara's body.

"No! No! No..." Tom said.

BUNKER KITCHEN