Pod People in Pleasanton, a Mafia Game (Day 1 begins: Post 28)
On August 3rd, 1952, Jack Finney took his dog Baboo out for a long walk through the quiet streets of Pleasanton, Ohio.
He is never seen again.
Two nights later, someone reports a disturbance in the alley behind Gibson's Market. Baboo is there, but the once-friendly mutt is suddenly feral, savagely attacking the patrolman who went to investigate.
Other dogs in the town appear to go mad, biting beloved owners, cringing away from friendly hands. The cats of the town are not immune. They escape through any opened doors and lurk under porches, unwilling to be tempted by cans of tuna or a trilling bird.
Reports trickle in from across the state of strange, hypnotic lights in the sky. There are disappearances in other towns, too, and maddened animals.
Then a whisper that a Something was found in New Zion, a town 20 miles away. A Something that was somehow like a man, but not a man. A Something that was somehow alive, but not alive. A Something that grew as if, and this sets the skeptics to laughing, in a giant beanpod.
There is a bonfire in New Zion that night.
Skeptics in Pleasanton blame the weather, the heat that boils off the streets and dances on the brick buildings of the square. These are the dog days, and such heat always leads to craziness and paranoia.
A week passes. August 10. Pleasanton sits and swelters among the rolling hills of farm country. It's a crossroads town, with two thoroughfares meeting in the town square. There, a statue of the town's founder, Benjamin McGillicuddy, appears to direct traffic around a roundabout.
But the square is dark and quiet this Sunday night, until the screaming starts. For something has been found. Something like a plant and like a man. Something alive, but not alive. Something with the face of Jack Finney.
There will be a bonfire in Pleasanton tonight. There will be many bonfires in the days ahead.
The Pod People have come to Pleasanton.
Reply with quote
Originally posted by Rabid Renaissance
