"This must be Mister Harley. Have you seen someone around here?"
Ten men in expensive cars arrived at the farm the next day. It was around midday. They were tired, didn't like helping out Joey, despite the fact that they owed him big time. Baseball bats were in their hands and guns in their back pockets.
"Who're you looking for? Maybe I could help you look for them."
"A young man, about my height, short black hair, green eyes. You know him? He's probably not here."
"Not at all."
Some bit of Haley's mind was in a comedic frenzy. For most of the last week, he was busy with kidnappings and snooping eyes. His little secret needed all the attention that he could give it and more. Just by speaking to these gangsters. Crooks know crooks and likewise. The gangster knew he was lying through his teeth by the fact that he would regularly look to his right.
"Are you sure about that? There're a few things that someone told us that you have someone here."
"No, I must get back to my work, goodbye."
Harley turned around and moved inward. Fear of being discovered spread across his body. He needed to have his experiment stable before these men did anything that took up too much time.
"We're not done with you yet."
The biggest man, dressed in blue jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, kicked the front door to the church down. Running past the pews in the church he charged to the basement entrance. It held his experiment, the experiment that would make him stronger than any man alive.
"Get back here!"
The rest of the men followed behind the tall man before chasing Harley into the basement entrance that had been placed next to the doorway that allowed someone to walk into the bedrooms. Harley was beginning to panic as he called amongst his son for help.
"Wake up, come on, come on! Papa needs you!"
"What in the Sam Hill is that?"
Inside Harley's basement wasn't any illegal materials, weapons, but there was one thing, or should the proper phrase be multiple things? The bodies of the boys, they were stitched together to create a creature. Large portions of its body were pure muscle. Its metabolism was sped up so fast that it would need to eat fifteen times as many calories a day to not starve to death. It was on a standing stretcher that held the monster in place. No hair was on its head. Extra hearts were added to its body for speed. When it moved, bits of steam would come off it from how much fat it burnt.
"Come on, attack for Papa!"
The men with their guns and bats ran for the hills, or more accurately, their Broncos. Without disturbance in the air, the man who was trailing shortest behind was grabbed by his right arm. Almost all of his muscles began to ache, but he noticed something that threw the adrenaline further into his system, he was missing an arm. His shock wore off and he let out a scream. The monster, still carrying the slow man's arm, began to attack the other. He saw the creature devouring large amounts of meat. His arm was in the creature's mouth. Steam was being released from its arms and legs. The last thing that he saw, was that Harley was walking out of the basement and into the chapel. He was laughing a little bit.
"H-help me..."
"Why wouldn't I ever do such a thing?"
Harley let out a whistle. The monster, in the blink of an eye, returned. All the gangster could hear was a whooshing sound.
"F-f-father... I... love... you."
"Yeah, whatever. You missed one."
With a small screech, the gangster was devoured whole. Joey was in the trunk of Harley's car the entire time and had to listen to his salvation be massacred.
"There you are. They've been feeding me the worst food that I've ever had for what? This isn't healthy, it'll take years of your life."
Alexandria was sick in a hospital bed during the ordeal. Turns out that she was missing four hundred years of antibodies and had caught an infection. Her vision was blurry and she had been taking plenty of vitamins and antibiotics, but it wasn't making much of a difference.
"See, I have been looking for you for the last three days. Joey and Scott are worried sick. I just wanted you to do recon."
"Maybe I wasn't the best choice for recon. Also, why would you not do it yourself? You know the world better than me."
"I had a date, I'm sorry."
"Oh."
Alexandria had a small smile that grew with every word he spoke. Sears continued on with the briefing as he walked back and forth inside the hospital room. A part of her wondered if in his trance-like state he would run into the wall by accident
"That doesn't matter. Last night, when I went back home, I had a message from Joey. It was an address for that guy I sent you after."
"There's something you need to know about him."
"And that is?"
Being reminded of Harley had sent a shiver down her spine. That man was creepy.
"He made me go to sleep. Like one of those acts a monk once did in my brother's palace."
Sleep, an old hypnosis trick. Maybe Harley had learned it, maybe he had some supernatural ability that amplified the act of the hypnosis.
"What could it be?"
Despite being ahead in the knowledge department, Sears wasn't as smart as BB. Soon afterwards, Sears snuck Alexandria out of the hospital and into the cabin. She felt great that she got to be home again. Mistress and Scott quickly greeted her before they were off to the farm like the farm owed them money. Something about Harley told her that she wasn't going to fare well in an encounter with him again. She couldn't take getting shot again. Sears's eyes were bloodshot with sleep deprivation here and there. Scott looked like he'd been sleeping well but hadn't eaten. Mistress had gotten the best of both worlds and Alexandria the worst of them.
"Do we have anything to eat? I ran out of salsa days ago."
Without looking away from the road, Sears opened the glove compartment and tossed Scott a packet of hard candies. Scott let out a sigh almost as if he was going to pass out.
"That should hold you over. Joey is probably already there."
"Are there any butterscotch in here? Those are my favorites."
"I don't know, probably."
Scott split the hard candies with Alexandria. She was starving. She hadn't eaten any of the hospital's food for the sake of it being absolutely terrible. The one good thing about it though was the fact that she got to sit there for days on end without anything to do but watch television.
"This is amazing. Why didn't you tell me about these sooner? I'm finally feeling like I can walk again."
The time had come when they finished the bag, they were now the third set of visitors to the Harley Family Farm.