A Time to Harvest - Chapter Five

Taffy and Freddy catch up to Doc and Mathis standing at the rear of the decimated farmhouse.

Doc looks at the burned out husk of the house and sees something on the ground. Looking closer, there's a muddy trail leading from the house toward the woods. It's clear that someone has crawled through the grass and mud.

Mathis spots the trail as well.

Following the trail, it leads to the northern edge of Cuzra's farm and walk over 200 yards, a trail leading through thick bushes, undergrowth and deep mud before reaching a clearing. At the centre of the clearing is a low mound on top of which are five standing stones in a circle, with a block of stone laid on its side in the center. The standing stones are very old and range from five to six feet in height. Some have strange symbols carved into them.

You see the form of a man slumped over the flat altar-like stone.

As you get closer, you see Cuzra, apparently kneeling before the altar, his hands gripping the stone, his head lowered and bobbing slightly as if in prayer. A sixteen-pound sledgehammer lies next to him while a large kitchen knife is embedded in his back. You some three of the stones have in fact been broken into large chunks. The bodies of three children, their corpses bearing signs of massive blunt trauma, are scattered about. in addition, the bodies of twenty or so adults lie in a heap at the bottom of the hill.