MHI Fan Fiction

[CameronS]

Great idea with Grandpa Bob . . . definitely a neat character.

[moose42]

Great idea with Grandpa Bob . . . definitely a neat character.

I wish I could take the credit for Uncle Bob.  But I can't, I have stolen him from my real uncle Bob.

[FMJ]

Dude...Soviet Bio-weapon lab.  Damn.  You have no choice but to elaborate on that one. 

[Grant]

  Only one thing:

"He worked with your FATHER" after the war"

Shouldn't that be "Grandfather"?   

But gret chapter....Hmm..Russian lab in Vietnam....What would they make?  Were-bears?   They'd do decent to make something to turn living people into zombies......

[moose42]

 Only one thing:

"He worked with your FATHER" after the war"

Shouldn't that be "Grandfather"?  

But gret chapter....Hmm..Russian lab in Vietnam....What would they make?  Were-bears?   They'd do decent to make something to turn living people into zombies......

Thanks for catching the grandfather thing, that could have been a "PLOT CHANGING TYPO!"

Oh about the lab, Uncle Bob will tell you about it in the next segment.  He really didn't get to see it because he kinda dropped a load of 750 pound bombs on it!

I am almost done with the next segment.  I should have it posted today.

[CameronS]

I wish I could take the credit for Uncle Bob.  But I can't, I have stolen him from my real uncle Bob.

 

Uncle Bob . . . I knew that.

[maskedhobo]

All I can say is another great installment! 

[moose42]

And now Uncle Bob's harrowing experience in Vietnam.



Chapter 17 Part 2

The turkey had been devoured and the pumpkin pie was fighting for room next to the mashed potatoes.  The kids were sitting on the couch in the living room watching some animated movie about a fish looking for his dad.  It had been a great thanksgiving dinner as always.  The women in my family all knew how to cook; Miller family gatherings always had a veritable smorgasbord of tasty and fattening foods.

I leaned back in my chair and absently scratched the scars on my neck.  Unfortunately, My mother Kate happened to notice them.  “OHMYGOSH!  What happened to your neck?”

I looked at her sheepishly, “Umm nothing, I’m fine.”

“No you are not fine!”  She reached over and grabbed at my turtleneck.  “What did you do here?”  

I sighed and tried to come up with a good lie.  “Umm I was doing some wood working, and…”

Kat blurted in trying to cover for me, “Water skiing accident.”  I glared at her, she just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a ‘not my fault’ look.

“Marty, don’t lie to me.” She gave me the evil eye that only a mother could do.  I wondered if mothers got together and taught each other how to melt your resolve with a glance?

I cleared my throat; it was time to let them know.  “Michael did it.”

We sat in an awkward silence for a long time, the kids’ movie blared “Fish are friends not food.”

After a while my Anne broke the silence, “What do you mean Mike did it?”  She made slashing motions with her hand.  “Like with a knife?”

I looked at Kat, she looked away, this was my baby.  “No with his teeth.”  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  “My little brother isn’t missing, he’s a vampire.”

I explained his abduction, and subsequent attack in the basement of MHI.  I told them that I wasn’t really in college.   That Katrina and I had been working together to kill monsters.  When I finished I intently stirred the bits of leftover green-bean casserole around on my plate.  

The fish in the movie chanted, “Swim down!” at that moment I would have gladly taken their place in a fisherman’s net.

“But, monsters aren’t real!” Kimberly protested.  “Mike is missing and you’re making some sick joke about it?  What the hell Marty?”  She shook her head and stood up from the table.  “Kids, get your shoes on!”  She yelled into the next room.

Kat put a hand on her arm, “Sit down Kimberly, Marty is telling the truth.”

My mother was on the verge of tears, but I could tell she believed me.  Bob took a deep breath, “Everyone needs to calm down, running off in a huff isn’t going to solve any problems.”  Kimberly sat down, red faced.

“What I am about to tell you is classified beyond top secret.” Bob took off his glasses and rubbed them on his shirt.  After a moment, he continued.  “The government has known about monsters for a long time.  When I was flying F-4’s in Vietnam most of my missions were your regular splashing MiGs, and bombing supply routes, that sort of thing.”

I was sitting on the edge of my seat.  “Then one day we had a briefing with some special operations types.  We were told that the mission we were about to undertake was of supreme importance.”  A few beads of sweat appeared on his brow.  “A soldier without rank or name gave us pilots the briefing.  He said that we weren’t actually going to bomb a steel mill, like our paperwork said.  He told us that the Russians who supported the North Vietnamese had built a lab in Thai Nguyen, a town north of Hanoi.”
Bob began to breathe heavily.

“This lab was a bio-weapon lab, but it didn’t create poisonous weapons.  No, no.  They were using it to create monsters to kill American soldiers.  They were creating Lycanthropes, and strange horse like demons called Tikbalang.”  Uncle Bob took a long drink of water and continued.

“Our goal was to destroy the lab from the air before the monsters were scheduled to be released on our troops.  The full moon was that night, we attacked during the day on March 10th of 1967.  Our commanders were hoping we would be able to kill the beasts before nightfall.” Bob paused trying to gather his thoughts.

I probed for more, “Uncle, why would they tell you about the monsters?  Why not lie to you and tell you that you were bombing a steel mill?”

He nodded, “I wondered that myself, but they said that we had the right to know since there was a good chance we would be shot down, we needed to know what we were dealing with.  They issued us silver bullets for our .38 revolvers, and silver inlaid survival knives.  That’s when it hit me that this wasn’t some sort of cruel joke.  Monsters were real and the damn Russians and North Vietnamese were trying to use them to kill our boys.”

Bob looked at Kat and Me, “At that point they gave us the opportunity to turn down the mission.  None of us did.  On the way to the target we encountered some heavy anti-aircraft fire, Captain Amen’s, and my ride was hit by some flak.  Paredo and Wayans, our wing men took a look and asked us if we wanted to turn back.  We didn’t.” Bob seemed to be reliving that flight; his eyes were looking far off into the distance.

“We made it to our target, the dammed monster factory.  The air was black with flak; this lab was important to the enemy, so they had placed hundreds of guns to defend it.  We plunged through the madness and dropped our bombs on target.  Our plane shook violently as we were hit twice more by anti-aircraft fire.”  Bob wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“We turned our damaged jets back toward the safety of our base in Thailand.  I looked at the fuel gauges, we had taken a couple of direct hits and we didn’t have enough to make it back to base.  In fact we were probably going to land in the blasted hornets’ nest below us.”

“Amen, and I were about to punch out when Paredo had a crazy idea.  He radioed, ‘Don’t bail out!  I’ll push you!’ We looked over at him and I thought he had lost it.  Paredo told us to lower our tail hook and he would push our damaged plane with his windshield!” Bob’s eyes started to tear up.  “He didn’t tell us that their plane had also been damaged, and that he was flying on only one engine.  He could have let us bail out, and limped his plane back to base, but he wasn’t about to leave us behind, to deluxe accommodations at the Hanoi Hilton.”

“We lowered our tail hook and Paredo pushed on it with his windshield.  It actually worked!  We were still falling out of the sky but it we were going to make it out of the hot zone.  After a few moments our jet was completely out of fuel and our engines flamed out, we were flying a dead brick.  Amen and I tried to keep our jet steady when Paredo radioed over to us that his windshield was beginning to crack.”

Bob swallowed hard, “I told him to stop pushing, if their windshield broke our landing hook would have impaled him, killing him instantly.  Paredo wouldn’t quit, he figured out that he could push on the tail hook where the radar dome met the bottom of the windshield.  He pushed our doomed aircraft for about ten minutes.”

“We radioed for air tankers but there was no way they could have reached us in time, we had no choice but to bail out in Laos.  A couple of Jolly Green Giant helicopters were scrambled from Thailand, but we weren’t out of the woods yet.  We ejected at six thousand feet, and my back got messed up from the ejection seat.  As I was floating down in my parachute some armed guerrillas took some shots at me, a couple of rounds zipped through my chute, but they didn’t hit me.  Unfortunately they would be hot on my trail as soon as I landed.”

Bob absently rubbed his lower back for a moment.  “I crashed into a tree and hung upside down for a few moments before I cut myself free and dropped headfirst into a couple of shrubs.  That’s when I realized how messed up my back was.  It felt like I had been hit with a blob of napalm.  I struggled through the pain and ran, I didn’t have much time, Charlie would find me if I stuck around.”

“I wasn’t sure where Amen was at the time, we both ejected at the same time, but when I landed I didn’t see where he had made ground.  Our flight had been delayed due to inclement weather and night was fast approaching.  The Jolly Green’s were unable to get to us; because a couple of nearby anti aircraft emplacements would fire at them any time they tried to get close.  The A-1E’s and F-4’s were busy with other engagements, so we were on our own for the night.”

Bob couldn’t speak for a moment; he seemed to be reliving the terror of that day those many years ago.  “Later at dusk I stumbled upon Captain Amen.  He had broken his ankle when he hit the ground and wasn’t able to walk very fast.”

He took another drink; sweat was running down his neck.  “When the full moon came up that night I’ll never forget the horrible howl that the werewolf made.  We hadn’t killed them all, we figured out later that they had already forward deployed a few of their first test subjects.  We ran as fast as we could, I helped the Captain hobble forward, but the beast had our scent.  As the infernal beast grew closer, and we knew he would soon overtake us, we turned to fight the blasted monster.”

“When it burst through the bushes we were ready for it.  It leapt for me, and we fired.  The little .38 special bullets hardly even slowed it down, even loaded with silver bullets.  As it pinned me to the ground, I saw my life flash before my eyes, its claws shredded my flight suit and ripped large gashes into my chest.  As it was about to bite my throat out, Captain Amen charged the beast, with his broken ankle and smashed into it.  They wrestled on the ground as I hurriedly reloaded my pistol.  Amen, was holding its jaws shut, while it started to tear him to pieces.  Somehow he managed to hold its head still and I fired all my remaining rounds right into the damned things brain.  As it lay twitching on the ground we cut its head off, and tossed it into the river.  So yes, monsters are real.”

Nobody spoke until the kids’ movie ended and they ran over to tell us that the little orange fish had indeed been saved.


If you would like to read about my Uncle Bobs actual experience in Vietnam follow this link.  First Lieutenant Robert Houghton is my Uncle.  He has told me this story many times, I never tire of hearing it.  I changed the names in my FF a little but I tried to do it justice.

[maskedhobo]

  That was a very good addition!

[dot4x4]

Great addition, well worth the wait...



   Is it wrong that my favorite part was    the Nemo reference?   Bruce rocks. 

[CameronS]

Bob talking about his mission is very cool. However, I don't know about Marty outright telling his family about monsters. I mean, they'd think you were completely off your nut, regardless of what Uncle Bob might say.

[moose42]

Bob talking about his mission is very cool. However, I don't know about Marty outright telling his family about monsters. I mean, they'd think you were completely off your nut, regardless of what Uncle Bob might say.

Yeah I wasn't quite sure about being open with the fam about monsters.  But I figured that when three people corroborate the story, it makes it harder to ignore.

[maskedhobo]

They may think that, but if they are a close family they would know if you were lying.

[moose42]

I was kind of expecting a scene in MHI where Z tells his Dad the truth.  And the dad says something like, "Makes sense, I did see some freaky s___ in 'Nam."

[Grant]

  I can sorta see it, at least with close family.

Although I hope the sister ain't a blabbermouth.....The MCB would have a field day with that....

  Great chapter!! I liked that part.  Especially how the .38 didn't work real well 

[sarge712]

Niiice touch with the Soviet bio-weapons lab. They really did have some weird interests and experiments so who knows what they really tried though I'm sure nothing like lycanthropes. 

My family would believe me because, as was brought up previously, we are close and they could tell if I was lying plus they all trust me to begin with though monsters would certainly put it to the test like nothing else. In fact my mother-in-law would back me 200%. Despite being a gracious, religious and cultured woman with a Masters degree, she still retains a lot of her old time Cherokee Indian beliefs and those include things like witchcraft, spirits, shapeshifting AND monsters from Cherokee myths & legends. She's never seen any of that but that doesn't stop her. Eh, who really knows?

[Raptor]

No way in heck would my family believe me. They already think I'm borderline nuts as it is (rabidly libertarian and pro-gun).

As has been said before, very nice touch with the bio-wepons lab. And great job integrating your uncle's experience with the rest of the story.

[moose42]

So I have a question for you guys, who are monster junkies.

If a vampire requires an invitation to enter a home, how does one revoke it? 

Near the end of MHI, Julie tells her mom that her invitation to her house was revoked.

So do you have to tell them in person or what?  How about leaving them a note.   

Michael Miller the vampire obviously had an invitation to the Miller family home when he was alive.  How does one go about getting rid of that invitation?

[CameronS]

Hmm . . .  him really hard?

Nah, just kidding. I really don't know. Maybe leaving a note would work, but that seems too easy.

[strangelittleman]

Niiice touch with the Soviet bio-weapons lab. They really did have some weird interests and experiments so who knows what they really tried though I'm sure nothing like lycanthropes. 

My family would believe me because, as was brought up previously, we are close and they could tell if I was lying plus they all trust me to begin with though monsters would certainly put it to the test like nothing else. In fact my mother-in-law would back me 200%. Despite being a gracious, religious and cultured woman with a Masters degree, she still retains a lot of her old time Cherokee Indian beliefs and those include things like witchcraft, spirits, shapeshifting AND monsters from Cherokee myths & legends. She's never seen any of that but that doesn't stop her. Eh, who really knows?

No, No my poor dear older brother, I would not believe you...after picking myself off the floor from laughing til I puked, I'd hit you in the eye.

[moose42]

Chapter 18 draft 1 is done.  I will do my once over and have it posted sometime this evening.  Probably around 9-10pm MST.

[sarge712]

No, No my poor dear older brother, I would not believe you...after picking myself off the floor from laughing til I puked, I'd hit you in the eye.

Hmmph, Dad would buy it. Actually I was talking about Julie's family...you'd probably be a ruffled shirt wearing, sensitive Twilight or Ann Rice vampire by then. 

[strangelittleman]

Hmmph, Dad would buy it. Actually I was talking about Julie's family...you'd probably be a ruffled shirt wearing, sensitive Twilight or Ann Rice vampire by then.  

Yeah, but wouldn't I look fabulous...... and I'd be fashionably sensitive too!

[moose42]

You guys scare me more than the monsters.   




Chapter 18
Bad Night

It was the strangest after thanksgiving dinner conversation.  Instead of a bunch of sappy things we were thankful for we talked about monsters and how to kill them.  We argued back and forth about what to do about Michael.  My sisters argued that maybe he was a good vampire and that we could keep him in the basement and feed him on pigs’ blood.  I reminded them that he had almost killed me.  My mother ended the argument with just one sentence.  “My son is dead; a monster is all that remains… kill him.”

Anne and Kimberly were worried and asked if there was any danger to their children.  Fortunately for them, my sisters were born from another father, and did not have the Miller bloodline running through their veins.  Michael and I were the last of the Miller bloodline.  I shuddered; no I was the last, they had already gotten my brother.  Some soulless undead beast had murdered him by sucking all his blood.

I helped take my sleepy nephews, out to the cars and buckled them in their car seats.  Those stupid things kept getting bigger every year.  Soon enough the safety Nazis would require us to encase our children in solid blocks of high impact foam.  When I was growing up I couldn’t remember ever using a car seat.

Kimberly drove off for home with her three kids.  Anne lived much further away so she and her daughter were spending the night; her husband was off at National Guard training somewhere in California.

Right before I was about to turn in for the night, I remembered that my mom had a door mat with welcome in bold letters at the front door.  I went outside and tossed it in the trash.  There were a lot of things lurking out there that were not welcome.  I chuckled to myself at the thought of buying my mother a floor mat that read, ‘Come back with a warrant’.

I looked out across the rooftops of the quiet suburban neighborhood.  The sun was setting, and the clouds were lit with a blood-red glow.  My life had been changed forever; I used to enjoy beautiful sunsets.  Now all they did was fill me with fear.  Sunsets were the warning sign for hunters that as soon as it got dark vicious monsters went to work.  When I was a kid I was afraid of the dark, I was certain that monsters lived under my bed, or in my closet.  I grew up and like all logical adults I told myself that there was nothing to fear in the dark, monsters weren’t lurking in every dark corner of the bedroom.  After being awakened to a world of sinister evil, I was afraid of the dark again.  Monsters did lurk in the shadows, ready and able to snatch unsuspecting victims and feast upon their blood.

As the sun dipped beneath the horizon I called out to the dark street, “Michael!  If you’re out there you have no right to enter this home!  Do you hear me?”  An elderly couple walking their dog gave me a wide-eyed glance and hurriedly walked past.

Kat was put up in the guest room with my sister, and her six year old daughter; while I got the lumpy couch.  Uncle Bob had setup an air mattress on the living room floor.  Before bed he retrieved an old 12 gauge pump from his car and leaned it up in the corner.  I pulled out my pistol and set it on a little table next to the couch.  I had just bought a tactical light and mounted it to the rail in front of the trigger.

Bob and I talked for a while; he told me that after the incident in Laos, he thankfully did not have any more run-ins with the paranormal.  I told him about zombies, the Naga underwater monster, and the damned Necro-Devourer beast.  I asked him if he had ever been offered work hunting monsters.  He said he knew about Lee Miller’s job with MHI, and turned down work from them to start a family.

“Bob, I am sure Monster Hunter International could use a good pilot like you, why don’t you give them a call?”  I probed even after all these years he was still a skilled aviator.

Bob shook his head, “Marty, I’ve already had more adventures and danger in my life than I would ever care to repeat.  I’m retired now and I have some good hobbies doing woodworking and…”

I cut him off, “Bob you’ve never been the same since Vicki died.”  As soon as the words escaped my lips I wanted them back.

His voice grew harsh, “Boy, stay out of my business!  I have enough demons of my own to feed without looking for more!”

That was enough talking.  After a while my uncle nodded off to sleep.  My eyes were getting heavy but I stayed awake.  Too many demons were floating in the back of my mind.  Where was Mike?  Why were vampires after our bloodline?  And why did women always talk about childbirth when they got together?  The first two questions I could probably figure out, the last one was destined to be more mysterious than the Sphinx.

I wasn’t sure if I was awake or asleep when I heard it.  The sliding glass door off the dining room had opened.  I kept still, listening; two sets of heavy footsteps crept in from the backyard.

One voice whispered, “Hey, are you sure this is safe, people are home man.”

“Dude, don’t worry, I cased this place out the other day, just some single gal lives here.” The second deeper voice replied.  The thieves moved on into the kitchen, the refrigerator opened, spilling a dim light into the room. 

“So what are we gonna do if she wakes up?” the henchman asked his mentor.

He chuckled softly as he fished for some food.  “I dunno maybe we could have some fun with her?”  He said as he closed the fridge, “Crap they ain’t got no beer!” the thief exclaimed obviously frustrated with the lack of free booze.

Silently I sat up and grabbed my XD off the table next to the couch.  The weapon had a loaded, magazine inserted but I always left the chamber empty when it wasn’t on my body.  I flipped the safety off, and racked the slide.  “Bob grab the shotgun!” I yelled as I flipped on my weapon light. 

“Holy s___!” the two thieves yelled, as I lit them up with my flashlight.  One of them was holding a tire iron and the other had a rusty old revolver, when he started to raise it up I fired two rapid shots, nailing him in the chest.  He fell to the floor and the other thief ran for the door, by this time Bob was up and had racked the slide on his trusty old shotgun.
“Freeze!” He yelled as the skinny punk tripped over his baggy pants, his head smacked into the edge of the kitchen table.  My blood was pumping and despite the ringing in my ears I could hear the panicked cries coming from the bedrooms down the hall.

“Drop your weapon!”  I yelled at the punk who was still clutching the tire iron, “Bob check the guy in the kitchen he’s got a gun!”

He ran into the kitchen and leveled the muzzle of the shotgun at the figure writhing on the floor.  The punk dropped his tire iron and stayed still lying on the floor.  “Ok idiot, I want your hands, interlock your fingers on top of your head.  Cross your legs!”  I barked, “Do it now or you’ll look like your buddy!” He complied, while Bob retrieved the revolver off the floor and set it on the kitchen counter.

I moved over to the counter while still covering the punk on the floor, he turned his head to watch me, “Hey! Look at the floor!” I snapped.  I held my pistol with one hand and flipped open the cylinder with the other.  I dumped the shells out onto the counter and set the pistol back down.

Kat came down the hall, I assumed she had her pistol, but I didn’t want to take my eyes off my target. “Hey you guys ok?” she asked.

“Call an ambulance.”  I responded without looking.

The police and ambulance arrived ten minutes later.  The injured home invader was rolled out on a stretcher.  We had put a makeshift bandage on his wounds, but it looked like he had a collapsed lung.  Later I found out that he had died in the operating room.  His family would later try to sue me in civil court, but the judge threw the case out.

The second goblin was tried and convicted of burglary, accessory to manslaughter, and assault with a deadly weapon.  Unfortunately they only put him away for six years.

As we watched the ambulance drive away, I put my arm around my mother, “Hey mom, you never asked me what I was thankful for today like you usually do.”

She shivered in her bath robe, “OK, so what are you thankful for?”

“I am thankful that we were here tonight, and that you didn’t have to face those thugs alone.”  My hands were still shaking even after the danger was over.  I couldn’t stop thinking about how it would have played out differently had she been alone.  My mother was never fond of firearms.

“Are you thankful for anything else?” Kat said as she slid up behind us.

I thought about it for a moment.  “Well yeah, lots of things, .45 autos and beautiful women.”  I said with a grin.  She smiled back.

[FMJ]

“Well yeah, lots of things, .45 autos and beautiful women.”

Damn straight.