Post-apacaloft

[Manofevil]

Codename Requiem -The Strange Fate of Gunnison, Colorado 2004 (Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem)
(PART 2)

Alien Life Cycle

Alien Egg
The Alien Egg can survive for an undetermined length of time in various and diverse environments. The egg’s outer skin is translucent, flammable, and is unarmored.
The egg potentially detects a host that is within close striking proximity by sound, movement or vibration. As this occurs, the egg and accompanying organism within are awakened by the viable opportunity to perpetuate the lifecycle. The four petals at the top of the egg open, preparing for the next stage as the so-called facehugger emerges. If necessary, the prey is ambushed. However, the Facehugger may take its time in approaching the host if opportune conditions (ie: a cocooned host) are present…
Facehugger
The Facehugger phase of the Alien life cycle is a creature that has been likened to a hybrid of a crab and spider. It appears to be comprised of an abdomen, legs, and tail with no visible head or sensory organs. It has no equivalent in earth based fauna, so the name 'Facehugger' has stuck even with the few scientists who have become aware of it. The creature is approximately 1.55 meters in length (including the tail), with a long retractable tube-like mechanism extruding from the mouth, that can extend to an approximate length of .5 to .75 meters.
An aggressive physical assault method seems to be what the Facehugger is best suited for when it comes to attacking and subduing a potential host. In this assault, the Facehugger is usually still inside the egg when the potential host “discovers” it. The extremely powerful tail that is coiled beneath the parasite is used as a spring to launch the creature from the confines of the egg and toward the potential host. The creature's expulsion from the egg is so violent and aggressive that the attack is often times overwhelming – in the sense that the victim has little to no time to react to the attack, and is usually subdued within seconds.
However, should initial contact with a host fail, the Facehugger then relies on its legs as a very effective means of locomotion. This creature can react with astonishing agility and speed once on open ground. It has also exhibited a certain degree of stealth while stalking mobile victims so as to gain the upper-hand and potentially catch the prey off-guard. As with its adult counterpart – it seems to have infinite patience. It has also shown the ability to climb.
During an instance where the potential host is either cocooned into the Alien hive walls, or is in some other way incapacitated, the Facehugger has been recorded crawling from the egg, as opposed to leaping from the egg. In this means of acquiring a host, the Facehugger actually takes on the characteristics of a passive creature: it’s actions are slower, and seem to be executed with a certain degree of care – as if to avoid harming the potential host.
The means by which the Facehugger locates its victim are believed to be identical to the means by which the adult Alien acquires a potential host: a combination of heat, smell, sound, and vibration. However, it has not been established where the Facehugger’s sense organs are located.
Speculatively, within the hive, the Facehugger may be responding to a pheromone trace that has been excreted by the adult Alien responsible for the cocooning of the host.
Such a pheromone trace would serve a duel purpose: to be used as a means of locating the host when returning with an egg from the egg chamber (employed by an adult), and to act as a “beacon” for the Facehugger once the egg is open. This would account for the larva’s apparent “nonchalance” in settling on a host so as to begin the process of depositing the embryo. After depositing the Alien embryo, the Facehugger departs from the host, generally dying within a short distance.
Embryo
It’s speculated the host’s body begins to grow the Embryo due to the Xenomorph’s altering of the host’s DNA. The Embryo grows in the chest cavity just behind the host’s sternum for protection, but unfortunately this means a very painful death for the host. Speculation also suggest the Embryo uses some of the host’s ingested nutrients causing the host to feel hungry upon regaining consciousness. The Embryo introduces a chemical into the host’s digestive system to keep others of it's kind from damaging the host. It’s also known that a host will experience a slight fever after removal of a Facehugger as their immune systems reacts to the foreign tissue but due to the altering of the host’s DNA the Embryo is able to develop unharmed.
The time it takes for an Embryo to develop is seventeen to twenty-four hours, and with a Queen Embryo the time is more than twenty-four hours which is speculated to be because of the Queen’s more complicated structure. Embryos can take only two to four hours to develop with a Queen Embryo taking only eight to twelve hours for development depending on the mixture of DNA. If a host dies with an Embryo inside it, this doesn’t necessarily mean the Embryo will die too because there’s no evidence to suggest that it’s tied into the host’s main systems. The life span of an Embryo has yet to be determined.
Chestburster
The larval stage, or Chestburster as it has come to be called, punches through the host’s sternum sending blood and fragments of bone everywhere killing its host. It has a long and slender body with small malproportioned limbs, yet possesses an undeveloped head. The Chestburster moves by using its tail to push it along much like a serpent. One of the first things a Chestburster will do is make its first use of its lungs by letting out a scream or cry. After it does this it will leave its host’s body.
Strangely enough the Chestburster does not feed off the dead host’s body.
A factual reason for this behavior has yet to be determined. It has been speculated that the Alien instinctively flees the host on account of its vulnerable state, attempting to find a secure location in which to molt into the adult. What the Chestburster eats during the maturation process is unknown. It is known that the creature will molt its shell numerous times in achieving the size of a fully developed Alien.
The Chestburster has an astonishing metabolism rate that is significantly higher than at any other point in the life cycle. Based off of the available information, it takes roughly two to three hours for the Alien to reach its full size, an estimated two meters in vertical height.
Adult
The Adult is two meters tall with a strong tail that extends to the height of the body, and it’s generally bipedal in the specimens that have been encountered by humans. However, the movement and shape of the creature shows that it adopts certain physical attributes of the host’s anatomy. When infecting the species of mankind, the Alien may have adopted our characteristic “intelligence.” Speculation suggests that it emits no body heat. This is the assumption mainly because the creature produces no effect on heat-detecting devices. Note: The aliens in Gunnison did not show up on infra-red.
The long head of the Adult may be due to housing an enlarged brain. This does not necessarily mean that the creature possesses a greater natural or innate intelligence. However, this could signify that the alien’s brain is more complex than that of other Earthly terrestrial organisms. It has been speculated that a translucent, featureless cowl on the exterior of the creature's head shows it is young. As it ages, the smooth cowl is lost, exposing distinct textured lining . The reason for the cowl is probably to serve as a protective shell for the still developing cranium. The smooth heads of each alien(s) in observed specimens bears testament to this speculative fact.
Generally, the alien organism proved to be able to survive in settings that might be unfamiliar to its species. The work in the Caribbean lab provided unique insight as to the capabilities of the alien when a hive is established, thriving, and the alien is in its natural habitat. It was also observed that they possess the ability to climb on man-made walls and ceilings, as well as the textured camouflage resin of the hive. This is potentially possible because the alien possesses:
a) extreme physical strength in its appendages, or
b) suction-like, or textured structures on its hands, feet, and tail.
The Adult has five spine-like appendages extending from its back, and the uppermost can be seen to be no more than an exaggerated vertebrae which could aid in warding off rear attacks or just to make the creature seem larger. The other four tube-like appendages have been hypothesized to contain glands that secrete a type of resin much like that used to construct a hive which would aid the Adult in dropping down onto prey or ascending great heights while leaving the arms, legs, and tail free for use. It’s possible they are used to secrete the resin that the hive is constructed of, but it might be that they just regurgitate that substance.
The alien organism also has a tongue-like set of jaws contained within the elongated head. These secondary jaws of the alien which are part of the modified tongue are used in an offensive manner and can spring twelve inches outward from the creature's mouth. The primary purpose of these jaws is to immobilize a potential host. However, they can also be used to intimidate prey and perform basic motor functions. While tense, the strength is greater than bone, and once it reaches its maximum length its jaws close and the tongue is retracted.
The Adult is also able to spit a concentrated ray of venom toward a potential host that can dissolve flesh and enter their blood stream eventually rendering the potential host immobile.
The creature's tail is very powerful and it’s used for agility and balance, an offensive and defensive weapon, and immobilizing potential hosts with its stinger.
In aquatic situations it allows the Adult to move with spectacular grace and agility. The creature's detection organs are all located in or around its head, and are extremely acute. It appears the creature feeds upon any sort of animal life, but what its dietary needs are have yet to be determined. Also, what type of internal organs an Adult contains is unknown along with its life span.
Queen Alien
The Queen Alien is about four and one half meters tall with an extremely powerful tail that is equal in length to the Queen’s height. It possesses a large cranial crown which extends two meters behind the back of its head, and it has a second set of smaller arms. The Queen’s head is kept hidden in its cranium until awakened at which time the front portion of the head will emerge much like a turtle. The large crown may be used for communication between the queen and the workers of the hive.
The secondary jaws of the Queen are similar to the Adult’s secondary jaws, except they’re proportionately larger with a striking length of roughly thirty-six inches. The second set of smaller arms the Queen possesses were speculated to be used in a mating process, but Queens are actually born fertile. A mature Queen has an ovipositor which can reach a length of eight meters. Both the Queen and its ovipositor are suspended from the roof of a hive by thick strands of resin. From the end of the ovipositor, an egg is set down onto the floor of the hive. Ultimately, the Queen is responsible for producing a Queen-bearing Egg(s) but when she starts producing them is uncertain. Speculation suggests that when a Queen’s Egg laying abilities are nearing an end the next Queen born takes over.


Forbidden Lore

What the American Government never learned was that after the events on Bouvetøya, a Predator ship left Earth carrying Alien facehuggers. A chestburster with traits of both species quickly matured into an adult crossbreed and started killing the Predators on board. The hull was punctured and the ship crashed in a forest outside of Gunnison, Colorado, killing all but one of the Predators. Severely injured, the Predator sent a distress signal before being killed by the crossbreed.
That crossbreed and several facehuggers escaped and implanted embryos into several humans. On the Predator homeworld, a skilled veteran Predator received the signal and decided to kill all the Aliens on Earth. He arrives at the crashed ship, uses an acid-like liquid to dissolve evidence of the Aliens' presence, and triggered an implosion to destroy the vessel.
Meanwhile, a Gunnison woman, Darcy Benson, began searching for her missing husband and son, unaware that they were killed by the Aliens and a local waitress Carrie Adams discovered she was pregnant.
The Predator started killing Aliens in the sewer, but four managed to escape. He pursued some to the power plant, where the fight causes the citywide power outage. At the same time, an Alien killed several people at the high school swimming pool and another invaded a home and killed the homeowner while his family escaped. Aliens also attacked the diner where Carrie worked, and she was impregnated by the crossbreed. Darcy discovered her body in horror. Sheriff Morales then arrived and took her with him.
Sheriff Morales and others gathered at a sporting goods store to collect weapons while troops from the Colorado Army National Guard arrived to battle the Aliens but were quickly massacred. Several Aliens arrived at the sporting goods store but the Predator killed them. As survivors attempted to escape Gunnison, they learned Colonel Stevens was staging an air evacuation at the center of town. Sheriff Morales and Darcy headed to the evacuation zone. However, the hospital was invaded by Aliens and the Crossbreed, who impregnated some pregnant women to breed more of it's kind. The Predator arrived at the hospital and dispatched more Aliens. It was then attacked by an Alien and both tumbled down an elevator shaft.
It somehow survived the fall and battled the Crossbreed on the roof in hand-to-hand combat. The two mortally wounded each other just as the F-22 executed the tactical nuclear strike. The Predator activated it's own self-destruct mechanism at the same time and the resulting release of energy did something nobody has since been able to define.

The Day and Night After

When the sun rose over Gunnison the next day, most of the residents were surprised to see it. All woke up, as they would remember it later, laying on the ground where they had been about to die the night before. This applied to the to Predator, Aliens, and Crossbreed amongst them as well. The sunlight drove all Aliens and the Crossbreed down into the sewers, old mine shafts, and caverns under the city with the Predator hot on their trails. It was then that the horrors began. Aliens began to burst from the chests of every person who had been attacked by facehuggers or the Crossbreed. Sometimes, right in front of the victims’ families. Fortunately, since it was a bright sunny day, the chestbursters all fled into the underground and harmed no one else, but the vision of people being torn apart from the inside by these creatures is burned into the minds of all those unfortunate enough to have witnessed them. This was especially the case with those who saw it happen in the maternity ward of the hospital. Meanwhile, the power was still out, communications were still cut off, and about the only thing preventing a mass panic was that most people were gathered at or near the center of town for the evacuation that was announced, though sadly, that was also the place where most of them saw their first chestburstings.
Fortunately, Sheriff Morales and several other city leaders were there and managed to bring some order to the assembly. It was quickly recognized that they were dealing with an unheard of situation. The first thing everyone tried was returning to their homes to call for help. This sadly proved to be impossible as the internet was down, like the cellular network, and even the hard lines. It was discovered that local calls could be made over the landlines but nothing outside of town. By noon, all of this had been discovered and the impulse to run for their lives took hold of the populace. Everyone hastily packed their cars and headed for the town limits. When they arrived, however, they found themselves confronted by a thick fog bank impossible to see through. The drivers wisely slowed their cars as they approached, but then when they were just feet away from the fog, all their cars stalled out and wouldn't restart no matter what was done. Some of the people grew desperate and ran into the fog bank determined to get away from the monsters.

Shortly afterward, they ran back out of the fog even more terrified and told everyone else that the fog was filled with the very monsters they had been fleeing. The refugees retreated back to the center of town to compare notes with those who hadn't fled and figure out a new plan.
Sheriff Morales, his deputies, and some volunteers had been busily gathering and identifying the dead while power company technicians had been hard at work trying to get the power restored. The Sheriff’s department began to take statements from those who had witnessed the Aliens and their actions and were still coherent enough to speak. The more people heard about the creatures, the more scared they got, and it was universally decided by all to arm themselves. Even those who were the most fearsome gun opponents one week earlier were taking the crash course in guns that the local gun enthusiasts offered them. Responsible people like Sheriff Morales made sure safety rules were followed but the level of fear in everyone made more than few worried there would be accidental discharges that might injure or kill. All of that ended after the sun went down, and the creatures began to come out. The power had been restored late in the afternoon so the street lights were up, but there were plenty of shadows for them to hide in. So much planning had been done that the entire population of the town was still gathered in the center of town. Sheriff Morales had managed to put rudimentary plans in place. The city center had been fortified with crude barricades and vehicles had been parked over every manhole. The Sheriff led experienced shooters out of the fort to pick off the creatures then fall back to resupply. The inexperienced shooters stayed behind to guard the children, injured, and others unable to shoot.
One of the children, a little girl named Sara, noticed one of the vehicles parked over a man hole cover was shaking violently. She tried to tell her mother but was ignored until the street beneath the vehicle erupted upward, the vehicle overturned, and the Crossbreed landed right in front of Sara and her mother. Before anyone could move, what would later be named the 'Shuriken' clove the Crossbreed apart at the waist and splashed it's deadly acid blood back on the overturned vehicle melting much of it away, then the cloaked Predator stepped out from behind Sara and her mother toward the remains of the Crossbreed.
"Look Mommy, there's the invisible man I saw earlier," said Sara. The Predator caught the returning shuriken in front of the whole assembly which caused it's cloak, damaged from the previous night, to short out again and the Predator was revealed in all his ferocity to everyone inside the city center fort. At that second, another Crossbreed leapt from the hole in the street only to be beheaded by the Predator shuriken again and it's remains cast down into the hole.
The Predator looked down into the hole and three more crossbreeds hissed up at him. The predator stepped down into the hole and began slashing and shooting left and right, massacring the crossbreeds. Only one of the townsfolk was bold enough to look down into the hole and witness what was happening. The entire exchange took less than two minutes.
When Sheriff Morales and his men returned from their latest sortie to reload their guns, he was shown what was happening in the hole. He drew a bead on the Predator but Sara's mother, Connie, stopped him.
"I don't think he's here to hurt us," she said, and told him what had happened with her daughter. A professor from Western Colorado University in Gunnison advised 'The Enemy of my Enemy' and the Sheriff reconsidered, although he did leave some shooters behind to watch the hole. One of those, Darcy Benson, decided to shoot down a Crossbreed that was moving in behind the Predator and for this, he was spared a one second look from the creature that she claimed was gratitude.
When that first terrible night was finally over, the Predator again disappeared into the underground, presumably, to hunt more Aliens, while Sheriff Morales and the surviving population of Gunnison that could remain conscious- everyone was exhausted after twenty-four hours of terror- compared notes and tried to form another plan for the coming night, For the sun could only set again.

The Isolation of Gunnison

Gunnison is effectively cut off from the rest of the world. There is, and can be, no communication with the outside, if the outside is even there anymore, as some wonder. The people of Gunnison had to work hard to adapt to their new situation. Once the power was restored, everything in the city was put to the test. It was discovered that, for the most part, everything still functioned. This included the telephone network, local radio and television stations, the cellular network, even the internet. It all still worked, it just couldn't reach the outside. People quickly found ways to make use of these facilities to keep each other informed and to verify each other's well being, which has led to much needed boosted morale in the populace as well as many other practical applications. Even the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport is still operational though any attempts to fly over the Barrier have failed. Also, another thing that hasn't really been affected is the water. The Gunnison River and Tomichi Creek both flow out of the Barrier, alongside Gunnison, and back into the Barrier.

The Barrier

No one can even begin to guess what the Barrier is. It's clearly something that has never been seen before. It resembles a large storm cloud that sits at the edge of town, with occasional bolts of lightning travelling across the surface. Anything electrical or electronic shorts out within roughly 15 feet of it including all vehicles. Even the Predator's technology is not immune. No animals will go near it, not even the Aliens. The Predator is not even comfortable around it. This does make it something that can be used against the Aliens, for when a person is being chased by the Aliens and runs up next to the Barrier, the Aliens will not approach them. They fear the Barrier too much. This allows the fugitive to wait for sunrise when the Aliens will withdraw. This has already save several lives.

The People of Gunnison

Gunnison, Colorado had a population of over 5,600 people in 2004. There were over 2,300 households, and over 900 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,829.4 inhabitants per square mile (706.3/km2). There were over 2,500 total housing units at an average density of 826.6 per square mile (319.2/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 86.9% White, 0.6% African American, 2.4% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, 6.6% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.2% of the population.
Of the over 2,300 households, 20.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.6% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 57.2% were non-families. 34.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.2 and the average family size was 2.9.
In the city, the population breakdown was 26.1% under the age of 19, 23.4% from 20 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 16.8 from 45 to 64, and 7.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 120.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 128 males.
On the Day After, almost 150 deaths were attributed to the Alien Monsters and 16 more to various forms of violence like gunshots. When the population reassembled that day after trying to reach the outside world and/or leave, a quick census was taken with everyone there signing their name in a book and parents signing for their small children. This has become a record of all survivors that is checked daily to make sure no one has been lost to the Monsters.
Gunnison had large hunting, gun enthusiast, and survivalist, cultures beforehand so the population has reacted to these circumstances perhaps better than most others would, but the nightly sieges by the Alien Monsters wore heavily upon everyone's health and sanity. As survivalist thinking took hold of the population over the continuing cycle of night sieges and day's rest and preparations, a certain set of rules emerged:

-1. Everyone in Gunnison must look out for each other. Our only chance to survive is together.
-2. Never go anywhere alone. The Monsters look for lone people to capture and use to reproduce. We must do everything we can to deny them that.
-3. Stay out of dark and shadowy places, especially the underground. The monsters strike from the shadows. Stay out of them. Every one of us that's lost is one of them that's born.
-4. Be somewhere safe at sundown. Check in with family and/or central tracking if not at your expected place. Only exception is hunting parties
-5. Everyone of age will have and be able to use a gun. No exceptions. Every one of us taken is one of them born.
-6. Everyone will have a cell phone, keep it charged, and use it. Follow check in procedures every day at sunrise and sundown.
-7. Report every sighting of a Monster. No exceptions. False alarms are better than lost lives
-8. Parents, keep small children close at all times. Children, stay close to your parents. This is no time for games.
-9. Food and ammunition are communal property to be shared and rationed equally. No exceptions. Anyone caught hoarding will lose their gun for a month. (Note: loss of gun means having to be defended by others for a long time and an inability of self defense. A stressful way of life for any length of time in Gunnison.)
-10. No predatory behavior toward humans will be allowed. Predatory behaviors include rape, child molestation, extortion, etc. Full list available to residents. Punishment for proven violation is public execution.
-11. New rules may be proposed at any morning meeting. New rules are adopted or vetoed by majority vote at the Sunday Morning Meeting which everyone must attend.

Those in charge try to foster a can-do attitude in the populace. They want to convince everyone that a future can be built for themselves if they try hard enough. Every night that passes when no one is lost helps feed this, but every life lost nearly shatters it. Whatever the case, Almost everyone accepts that they must work together to survive. If anyone feels differently, they haven't said so.

The University

Western Colorado University had enrolled approximately 2,600 undergraduate and 400 graduate students, with 25 percent coming from out of state and 171 faculty. These people do everything they can to improve life in Gunnison. Physicists study the Barrier, biologists, the Alien remains, mathematicians, rationing.
Computer scientists and programmers from the university were the ones who helped get the local internet and cellular network up and running. A program was also written by a programmer to record every call or text sent to the central computer every sunrise and sunset and send an alert to the Sheriff's dept. when someone doesn't report in. Chemists brew ethanol gasoline for when the gasoline runs out. Engineers try to create new engines that will run vehicles when fuel runs out.

The Lost

Some who witnessed the chestburstings on the first day and the night raids afterwards have had complete mental breakdowns. Their reactions have run the gamut from paranoid delusions to complete catatonia. Some are still functional and are allowed to carry guns and fight the monsters, but the non-functional ones must be carefully guarded lest they be taken by the Aliens and used to procreate. When television and radio services were restored, Old TV shows and music began to be broadcast and watching and listening to this has helped some of them, but most of them have a long road of recovery ahead of them if they can even survive.

Wolf the Predator

The Night After, as it came to be remembered, was the beginning of the alliance, even friendship, between the Gunnison people and the ‘Alien Hunter' as the more educated of the population finally thought to call him. During the first days after the explosion, He was closely observed by all who witnessed him do anything at all. The first thing noticed was how efficient a killer he was. People saw him surrounded by dozens of monsters at once and still be the last one standing. The next thing they noticed was that he seemed to be willing to protect their lives. Several times, it had intervened to save someone's life. Some pointed out that he may have his own reasons for doing that, such as preventing the creatures from using people to procreate. This argument was immediately countered with the point that that was a common goal for everyone. One morning, Sheriff Morales stepped between the Hunter and the nearest entrance to the underground, put down his gun, and approached the creature.
"Can we talk?" he asked. The creature growled in response.
"You do a lot to keep us alive. Maybe we could do better if we worked together," said Morales.
The creature growled again, as if considering it. The two studied each other briefly until the creature growled, "Come with me." then walked away. Amazed that the creature could even speak, Morales fell in behind the creature and followed right down the street in broad daylight in front of God and all the people.
As residents saw the Predator walking down the street followed closely by the Sheriff, those with gumption enough to do so began to follow along. A decent crowd had gathered by the time they'd gotten the trees to the north of town. The creature seemed to notice this, turned to the crowd, and removed his mask. His faced shocked the whole crowd into taking at least one step back.
The single exception was the Sheriff who said, "Not exactly the most handsome fella, are you." which caused the creature's mandibles to spread wider and a series of growls sounding very much like laughter came from the creature. This laughter spread to many in the crowd who also smiled and laughed. The creature then put his mask back on and continued his walk with everyone following after.
When they reached the trees north of town, the creature suddenly stopped, pointed to its right, and growled, "There!"
Everyone looked and saw a beautiful doe step from the forest, heavy with fawn and otherwise unremarkable. To everyone's shock, the creature threw it's shuriken which neatly beheaded the deer. The creature then stepped toward it, caught the shuriken as if it were an afterthought, and growled, "Look."
The creature then used the blades of the shuriken to cut open the doe's belly and reveal several embryonic crossbreed monsters. The creature stabbed one and the acid blood burst out and scorched the earth. He then systematically destroyed them all. One of the university students took some of the remains back for study but the creature ignored this. It, instead, pulled off it's mask, cut some raw venison from the deer's carcass, and devoured it right there.
"Damn, you're a WOLF!" came a voice from the crowd.
The creature looked over at them in puzzlement and repeated the word 'Wolf''
"Yeah," said the Sheriff, "That's what we'll call you. Wolf."
The Creature nodded and growled, "Hmm. Wolf.," and continued to eat.

Forbidden Lore: Like all of his kind, Wolf hunts to live and lives to hunt. He is currently committed to killing all of the creatures in the underground but should he succeed, there is no telling what his subsequent actions towards the people of Gunnison may be no matter what attachments he may make among them. Many suspect this. He can hunt for days without food or rest and frequently does. Many of those in Gunnison see him as a friend, especially those who have joined him in hunting and killing the monsters, but others still fear him.

The 'Bug Monsters' and the 'Crossbreeds'

Allying with Wolf allowed the people of Gunnison to get a better handle on their situation. Communication was difficult at first, one of the university art students thought to use crude pictures to communicate, but through Wolf, they learned of the life cycle of the ‘Bug Monsters’ (as one of the children had called them and the name stuck) from egg to adult. This also meant that there was a Monster Queen somewhere in the underground which was not a pleasing thought.

Wolf also explained how the Monsters attacking pregnant women and animals was a ‘Bug Monster’ born of his own kind. The people tagged them with the name ‘Crossbreeds’ because of that and added a new rule to those above:

-12. All women who discover they are pregnant must inform the community. No exceptions. Remember that the monsters consider you a high value target.

There has not been a single night since the bomb when Bug Monsters have not been on the streets. Sometimes, like the first night, the streets have been overrun and the populace have been fighting for their lives. Other nights, have been sparser. The Sheriff's department and a regular group of deputized shooters have been obsessively patrolling the streets looking for the Monsters and how they're coming to the surface. Manholes and doors to the sewer system have been welded shut except for a few chosen points which the hunters use to ambush the creatures as they come up. A few weeks after the Bomb, the cattle ranchers who also lived north of town went out to their ranches to see what had happened to their herds. About half of the cattle had been lost to the monsters and then only because they were too big for them to drag underground. The eggs had to be brought up from below by hive worker monsters to hatch and infect the cattle instead. Empty eggs and dead facehuggers were all around the dead cattle. It was decided that an attempt would be made to salvage the meat from the dead cattle, so heavy machinery was used to bring them into town and refrigerator trucks trapped in town were used to preserve them. Fortunately, a lot of local hunters knew how to butcher their own meat and this much needed food source was in place to keep people fed. Some are afraid to eat the meat for fear that it may have been poisoned by the monsters but most are desperate enough not to care. The cattle ranchers have now set up a fortified corral for the cattle with it's back to the barrier which they must defend from the monsters every night. Since this is an important food source, the town supplies this corral with ammunition every evening and one of the first duties Sherriff Morales has every morning is to drive up and see how the ranchers have done. The cattle are released every morning to graze off the land and rounded up every night to be defended. The local wildlife has grown very sparse. The usual elk and deer that hunters chased for years grow fewer and fewer though nobody misses the coyotes which were nothing but trouble. Almost every mid sized to large pet dog in town has vanished as have most smaller pets but those are believed to have been eaten. All know the vanished animals have been used by the Bug Monsters to reproduce and it feeds the low mood of the populace who are barely holding together as it is.

The Underground

The underground is not just the city sewer system. Gunnison was an old gold and silver mining town and there are many old mine shafts that were sealed when they were mined out. It is somewhere in these old shafts that the Aliens are nesting.

Current Sketch

It has now been six months since the bomb. The people of Gunnison still battle daily to reclaim their city and save their lives. Nights are filled with gunfire and pitched battle. Days are filled fear and dread. Morale in Gunnison is a house of cards that can crumble at any time and has. Emotional breakdowns are frequent. People make allowances for them since breakdowns are preferable to suicides, of which there have been several. Buildings and houses have become crudely armored fortresses that must have quick escape routes available to the outdoors should the monsters take them. The constant siege mentality is wearing heavily on everyone’s health. To combat this, many things are being done to hopefully boost morale.
The Alien Hunter Wolf has taken the best hunters, shooters, and fighters under his guidance and, after training them, has lead them on some of his nightly hunting trips deep into the underground. These excursions are extremely dangerous and only the most skilled are allowed to join. This includes only those trained to check above, below, left, right, and behind themselves. There have yet been no deaths but there have been serious injuries on these hunts due to acid splash and monster attacks. Wolf has been convinced to wear a cellphone with a running camera on it so there can be a record of the hunts. Wolf is actually impressed with this idea and has begun fiddling with his mask so he may see the videos that are taken. Every morning, the footage is downloaded and studied by members of the community. More of the underground is mapped and more monster kills recorded along with those killed in the streets. The only reason more people haven't been killed is that the monsters are clearly trying to take captives for reproduction. It places them at a disadvantage they might not otherwise be at.
Among those who have qualified to join the hunts are Sherriff Morales and Darcy Benson.
Edward "Eddie" Morales is the town's Sheriff. Eddie received a call for help during the alien invasion, but did not believe it until an alien broke into his house and killed his wife. He later joined a group of survivors, waiting for a rescue. The government presumed him dead when a nuclear bomb was dropped on the town. He assumed a leadership role in the town.
Darcy Benson was the wife of Buddy and mother of Sam, both of whom were out hunting when they witnessed the first ship crash. From there, they went to investigate but were soon chased by escaping facehuggers. Sam fell and gave the parasites an advantage; they circled the pair. Buddy managed to kill one (at nearly point-blank range), which resulted in his arm being melted off by the acid. Another facehugger attacked and succeeded in attaching itself to Buddy's face; with his father being rendered unconscious, Sam was unprotected and was also attacked by a facehugger. The pair were later killed by the chestbursters that erupted from their chests, and their dead bodies were melted by Wolf. Darcy is unaware that her family were killed by the monsters. She became involved in the Alien outbreak and was later presumed by the government to have been killed by the bombing.

If Wolf has anyway of telling her about what happened to her family, he hasn't done it, yet. Darcy is not so naive as to believe here family is still alive somewhere but keeps looking for evidence of what happened to them.

Developments Since the Bombing

Several things have been tried against the Monsters that have had varying degrees of success.
Firstly, since the monsters were similar to arthropods, several different pesticides were tried. While none were lethal to them, they did have the effect of slowing them or even rendering them unconscious and easy to kill. This has become a useful weapon in their arsenal but a sparse one since there isn't a lot of these pesticides in town. Secondly, a powerful ultrasonic device was developed at the university based on ultrasonic pest controllers. The scientists set up a system of speakers around the cattle corral to the north of town and when the monsters attacked after dark, they ran up and down the sonic spectrum hoping to find a frequency, or combination thereof, that was painful, or even lethal to the creatures. They tried for nights at a time while the gunmen shot down any Bug Monsters that got too close. Finally, on the tenth night, they transmitted a frequency that drove back the creatures.
One scientist who had developed a belt worn version of the device and programmed in with the frequency, walked outside the corral and directly toward the creatures just to see them retreat before him. These devices have since been installed in the sewers and have driven the creatures out of them allowing the citizens to reclaim some of their homes. The scientists have warned, however that the creatures may develop a tolerance to the sound and reinvade, so all other defenses and evacuation plans are still in place, after all, they're only one more power outage away from being overrun again.
There have been other mysterious things that have happened. On one of the hunting excursions Wolf was leading, the party came across a group of special ops soldiers who were somehow in the tunnels and surviving fighting the Monsters. The party immediately led them out of the tunnels and up to Gunnison where the community got the first news from the outside they'd had in months. It was learned that the Monsters, or Aliens, as the government calls them, are making occasional appearances around the site of the Gunnison Incident as it's called. The Government has sealed off the area and the Special Ops Unit was one of those tasked with exploring it. They had followed the tracks of one of the Aliens through the mists that filled the hole that had been left behind by the incident to an old mine shaft which they entered with orders to search and destroy every Alien they found. By the time they met the hunting party, they were almost out of ammunition and were approaching the point of last round for themselves(suicide). They were able to recover and rearm in Gunnison and study the film footage of the tunnels to try to find the way back to where they came in. They were even willing to accept the guidance of Wolf and the rest of the hunting party as they went back into the underground to find the way back out. Sadly this proved to be the first of many failures. Everybody involved with the Unit and the hunting parties believes there's a way back somewhere in the underground.

This was further proved when a hunting party ran into two more of Wolf's kind who came to investigate his disappearance and met the same fate as the Unit. One sadly died in the underground but the other took his place beside Wolf and is called Sword for his choice of weapon. He is just as committed to destroying the Bug Monsters and Crossbreeds as Wolf.
The other important event in the months since the bomb is called The Kayaking. One of the townspeople who was a avid kayaker, reasoned that the water in the rivers had to enter from someplace and exit to someplace. In a Sunday morning town meeting, he suggested that people floating down the river in a boat might pass through the Barrier and escape back to the rest of the world. This idea fired the hopes of everybody who thought more about escape than killing the monsters, but thankfully more rational voices prevailed. It was pointed out that nobody knew where the water came out. They might come out in the middle of the ocean or worse. The idea was voted down for immediate action but adopted for reconsideration though there was no putting off the kayaker. That night, he left a note for the townspeople on his door, carried his kayak to the river, paddled out the barrier, and was never seen again. Some think he made it, others think he's dead, but to this day, there have been those who have tried this exit strategy and gotten the same results. One day, all the school aged children went to the river and each released a bottle with a message inside, then watched them all disappear into the Barrier. If anyone ever got those messages, they were never able to respond using the methods some suggested in their messages.

The Darklord

If anyone rules Gunnison, from above or below, no one knows who it is or what it is.
Author's note- For those who haven't figured it out, the first thing a Dungeon Master must do to use this realm is create a Darklord. The Neo-Red Death was triggered by Colonel Stevens heartless decision to use a tactical nuclear weapon on American soil and to gather as many people at ground zero as possible to insure near complete extermination, but because Colonel Stevens was nowhere within the area in question, the realm was left without a Darklord. It now floats in the ether between Earth and Post-Apocaloft waiting for a Darklord to rise. Given the desperate nature of the population, it shouldn't be hard to create one.

[KingCorn]

BRILLIANT, SIR!!! BRILLIANT!!! These are the sorts of things I was hoping to see here!! (must calm down before I sh-t myself) Anyway, re: demihumans, I'm afraid, as they do not exist in cyberpunk earth, they will not exist in Post-apocaloft, but if we want to go the non-human way, the movie to watch is District 9. Watch that one and see the Post-apacaloft possibilities just ERUPT in front of you.

The director of District 9 also directed 2 other movies (also set in South Africa): Elysium, and Chappie. Both are also Sci-Fi (Elysium being earth becoming a wasteland of unemployment and environmental hazards while the rich live in a space station, while chappie is about a police-robot gaining sentience and being taken in by a gang while being hunted down by a PMC-contractor played by Hugh Jackman)

[Mistmaster]

Of course I'd say the Darklord is a human turned Predalien queen mantaining her sentience.

[Manofevil]

Of course I'd say the Darklord is a human turned Predalien queen mantaining her sentience.

I wasn't sure I could do that and remain true to the source material. Looking back on it, I could have just blamed it all on the Neo-Red Death, but I think I actually like leaving it open to DMs to start by creating a Darklord and otherwise having this in-between place. YMMV of course.

[Manofevil]

Flyover Country- The Red Death's Leftover Pocket Domains
It has been discovered by the residents of what most believe was the United States that it IS in fact possible to travel from coast to coast. As each Event happened and the realm continues to expand, explorers have braved the mists hoping to learn what lies beyond. It has proven to be impossible to recreate the national or international internets but several local internets have sprung up in their place. Even nationwide telephone, telervision, and radio service has proven untenable. Satellites signals have also ceased to be reveived. People have had to fall back to the old mail delivery service as developed by Benjamin Franklin. Through steady correspondence by local governments, people have learned the fate of many places on the map that they lost touch with. Newspapers have made a comeback as people seek to learn the news from all across the continent. Plane, trains, and highway vehicles have successfully made the journeys from coast to coast as the old transportation infrastructure is still very intact, but they have returned with strange stories or have simply vanished without a trace. Interstate commerce has begun again but the information age is over and much of American society has been set back 100 years.

Forbidden Lore
The Red Death never went completely dormant. It never stopped lending power to dark individuals committing dark acts for dark reasons. It simply was far less powerful in its actions than it had been. As American society lived through the 20th century, terrible things continued to be done by terrible people which would trigger changes to them by the Red Death. This created several pocket domains that were automatically brought along with New York when the first event happened. Many of these pocket domains were based in small towns which were brought to the new earth realm and have become fictional or mythical on the original planet. There may be more out there that haven't been discovered, yet but the following domains have formed a chain of land across what would be the north American continent beginning at New York and ending in the Rocky Mountains where everything west out the mountains is dominated by Skynet.
New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania are collections of small domains that hold the state together. One of the New Jersey domains is Camp Crystal Lake. Passing through Ohio will bring travelers near Springwood.

As they leave Ohio and enter Indiana, they'll likely find themselves near Travis. Passing out of Indiana and into northern Illinois gives them the choice to head up to Chicago, where one may travel further north to Detroit, Michigan, or further west near Everett, Wisconsin. Keeping to the west route brings them past Haddonfield and 150 miles further west to Warren county where Smith Grove Sanitarium is located. Travelers then cross into Iowa where they will likely pass near Villisca. Travelling further west into Nebraska will bring them close to Gatlin, and finally crossing into Colorado will bring them near Boulder which is near the former site of the town of Gunnison.

Haddonfield Il.
Every small town has a secret. Some are scandalous, some are vicious, some are violent, but very few are as ancient, deadly, or disturbing as the secret of Haddonfield Illinois.

Michael Myers - The cursed killer of Samhain

The story began as follows-

On the night of Halloween 1963, in suburban Illinois town of Haddonfield, six-year-old Michael Audrey Myers brutally stabbed his teenage sister Judith to death with a chef’s knife while their parents were out taking their three-year-old sister, Laurie, to their grandparents so they could then come home and take Michael trick-or-treating. Michael waited at home in his clown costume while Judith was on the couch being intimate with her boyfriend. Neither the parents nor the police could find out what caused Michael to do it. He had never been a particularly talkative child, in fact, doctors had been testing him for mental handicaps, but now no one could get him to say a thing. He didn’t seem particularly pleased with himself, nor did he seem remorseful or angry. Decades later, a psychologist might have recognized Michael’s condition as catatonia or emotional shock, but these terms were unheard of outside psychiatry in 1963. Michael was examined and diagnosed with catatonia and eventually sentenced to Smith Grove Sanitarium in Lancaster county under the care of one Dr. Samuel Loomis.
Dr. Loomis tried valiantly to treat Michael but made precious little progress. For the most part, Michael spent his time staring out the window as he had been found doing before the night he killed his sister. Loomis noticed that Michael’s condition was not as crippling as other recorded cases were. Michael ate, drank, cleaned himself, used the restroom, and noticed when people were talking to or about him. What he never did was respond, not even with hand gestures. There were several violent deaths that occurred around Michael during his time at the sanitarium and Loomis became suspicious of him. A large part of Loomis came to believe Michael Myers was pure evil, but his more rational mind knew such an idea was absurd. He also never saw enough evidence to act on his suspicions. A decision he would come to regret later.
Meanwhile, terrible things continued to happen to the Myers family. Michael’s parents died in a car accident and his younger sister, Laurie, placed in the foster care system. She was eventually adopted by a family named Strode.
In 1978, 15 years later, Michael Myers turned 21 and the court ordered he be tried as an adult. Dr. Loomis, with nurse Marion Chambers, were tasked to drive to Smith Grove Sanitarium where Michael was still incarcerated to escort him to a court hearing.

After they saw all the inmates wandering the grounds as they drove up, Loomis exited their car to unlock the main gate, Michael, who had escaped from his cell, jumped onto the roof of the car and attacked Marion, who ran from the vehicle, allowing Michael to steal the car and drive away.
Michael made his way back to Haddonfield, killing a mechanic and stealing his coveralls, then stealing a white mask from a local hardware store. He returned to his childhood home and found it empty and for sale. By singular coincidence, teenager Laurie Strode dropped off a key at the front door of the house because her father is trying to sell It. Michael began stalking her. Laurie notices Michael throughout the day, but her friends Annie Brackett and Lynda Van Der Klok dismissed her concerns. Loomis arrived in Haddonfield and discovered that Michael had stolen Judith's tombstone from the local cemetery. He met up with the town sheriff, Annie's father, Leigh Brackett, and they began to search for Michael. While they investigated the old Myers house, Loomis described how he realized that Michael was pure evil.
That night, Michael followed Annie and Laurie to their babysitting jobs. Laurie watched Tommy Doyle, while Annie stayed with Lindsey Wallace across the street. Michael spied on Annie and killed the Wallace family dog. Tommy spotted Michael from the windows and thought he was the boogeyman, but Laurie dismissed that. Annie later took Lindsey to the Doyle house for the night so she could pick up her boyfriend. Michael hid in her car and strangled her before slitting her throat. Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrived at the Wallace house and found it empty. After having sex, Bob went downstairs to get a beer from the kitchen, where Michael pinned him to the wall with a chef's knife. Michael then posed as Bob in a ghost costume and confronted Lynda, who teased him to no effect. Annoyed, she called Laurie to find out what happened to Annie, but Michael strangled her to death with the phone cord while Laurie listened on the other end. Meanwhile, Loomis discovered the stolen car and searched the streets.
Worried by the phone call, Laurie went to the Wallace house and found her friends' bodies with Judith's tombstone in the upstairs bedroom. She ran to the hallway where Michael slashed her arm, causing her to fall over the banister. Dazed and injured, she managed to escape the house with him in pursuit. She made it back to the Doyle house, but realized she has lost the keys to the front door. Tommy let her in and she ordered him and Lindsey to hide. Laurie called for help, only to find the phone is dead. Michael snuck in through the window and attacked her again, but she stabbed him in the neck with a knitting needle.
Thinking Michael was dead, Laurie staggered upstairs to check on the children, where Michael appeared again. While Tommy and Lindsey hid in the bathroom, Laurie hid in the bedroom closet. Laurie stabbed Michael in the eye with a coat hanger and then in the chest with his own knife, then she sent Tommy and Lindsey to a neighbor's house to call the police, Michael rose again. Seeing the children running from the house, Loomis went to investigate and saw Michael strangling Laurie. She broke free by pulling his mask off, revealing his face. Loomis shot him six times, knocking him off the balcony. When Loomis went to check on the body, he was unsurprised to see that Michael has vanished. He stared off into the distance as Laurie sobbed in terror.
Michael survived his wounds and escaped into the night. Wandering the alleys, he stole a kitchen knife from an elderly couple and killed the teenage girl next door.

Meanwhile, Laurie Strode was taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital while Loomis continued his pursuit of Michael, accompanied by Sheriff Leigh Brackett. Loomis mistook teenager Ben Tramer for Michael due to Ben wearing a similar mask, resulting in Ben being hit by a police car and burning to death. The bodies of Annie Brackett, Lynda Van Der Klok, and Bob Simms were discovered by the police at the residence of the Wallaces. Upon learning his daughter has been killed by Michael, Sheriff Brackett blamed Loomis and abandoned the search, leaving Deputy Gary Hunt to take his place.
At the hospital, paramedic Jimmy develops an attraction to Laurie, but head nurse Virginia Alves limited the time he spent with her. After hearing a newsflash revealing Laurie's location, Michael made his way to the hospital, where he cut the phone lines and disabled all the cars in the parking lot by slashing all the cars’ tires so no one could escape and call for help. Wandering the halls in search of Laurie, he killed the security guard, the doctor, paramedic, and several nurses throughout the night. In her hospital room, Laurie dreamt about the time she learned she was adopted, and remembered she once visited a young Michael at the sanitarium. Jimmy and nurse Jill Franco grew increasingly concerned when they discovered that more and more staff had gone missing throughout the night and searched the hospital for Laurie, who was trying to evade Michael. As nurse Jill Franco tried to start the car to drive to the sheriff’s department, it failed to start and she saw that all the car’s tires in the parking lot had been slashed.
After finding Mrs. Alves dead, strapped to a gurney with an empty IV needle in her arm draining all of her blood out of her body, Jimmy turned to run to go for help but slipped in a pool of her blood and knocked himself unconscious and giving himself a concussion. Meanwhile, police were informed that Michael broke into the local elementary school earlier. Loomis rode with them but his colleague, Marion Chambers, arrived to escort him back to Smith's Grove on the governor's orders and under the enforcement of a US Marshal. On the way, she told him that Laurie was Michael's younger sister; she was put up for adoption after the death of Michael's parents, with the records sealed to protect the family.
Realizing that Michael was after Laurie and being told she was brought to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Loomis forced the marshal at gunpoint to drive back to Haddonfield. Jill finally found Laurie, only to be killed by Michael, who then pursued Laurie through the hospital. She managed to escape to the parking lot and hid in a car. Jimmy regained consciousness, went out to the parking lot and tried to start and drive the car Laurie was in to safety, but passed out again due to the concussion sustained from the slip and fall causing the horn to blare, attracting Michael's attention. Loomis, Marion, and the marshal reached the hospital just in time to save Laurie. Loomis shot Michael until he fell down, seemingly dead. While Marion called the police on the marshal's radio, the marshal tried to check Michael's pulse as Loomis warned him to stay away, knowing he wasn’t dead. Michael revived and slit the marshal's throat with a scalpel.
Loomis and Laurie ran into the hospital and hid in an operating room, where Loomis gives Laurie the marshal's gun before being stabbed by Michael. Laurie shot Michael in both eyes, blinding him. As he swung the scalpel around the space violently, the other two filled the room with flammable gas. Loomis ordered Laurie to get out before igniting the gas, immolating himself and Michael in an explosion. Laurie watched as Michael, engulfed in flames, emerged from the fire before finally collapsing. The next morning, she was transferred to another hospital, traumatized but alive.
Then, On October 30, 1988, ten years later, Michael Myers, who has been comatose since since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital was being transferred from Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium back to Smith's Grove Sanitarium. During the transfer, when Michael overheard that he had a niece living in Haddonfield, he awakened. killed the ambulance personnel and headed back to his hometown to kill her. Dr. Loomis, who also survived the explosion, learned of Michael's escape and gave chase once again.
Loomis followed Michael to a gas station and diner, where Michael had killed a mechanic for his coveralls, along with a female clerk. Michael escaped in a tow truck, igniting the gas pumps, causing an explosion, destroying Loomis's car given by Ridgemont in the process, and disabling the phone lines. Loomis continued to pursue Michael on foot, then hitched a ride with a priest in a pick-up truck.
In Haddonfield, Laurie's daughter Jamie Lloyd suffered from nightmares about The Shape, which was one of the names given to Michael Myers by townsfolk who remembered him. Jamie is also bullied at school for being the niece of "the boogeyman." On Halloween night, her foster parents Richard and Darlene went to a party and left their teenage daughter Rachel to babysit, forcing her to cancel a date with her boyfriend Brady. Rachel picked Jamie up after school to buy ice cream and a Halloween costume. Jamie decided on a clown costume when Michael suddenly appeared to steal a new mask. He went after his niece but fled when she screamed in horror.
That night, as Rachel and Jamie were trick-or-treating, Michael broke into the Carruthers' house and killed the family dog. Loomis arrived in Haddonfield and warned the new sheriff, Ben Meeker, that Michael had returned. As they searched for the girls, At the power station Michael threw an electric worker into a transformer, plunging the entire town into darkness. He proceeded to kill most of the town's police force, prompting the locals to form a lynch mob.
Meeker and Loomis found Rachel and Jamie and tok them to the sheriff's house, where Brady was having an affair with Meeker's daughter Kelly. They barricaded the premises as Loomis departed to find Michael, who has already snuck into the house. The lynch mob accidentally killed a teenager who they thought was Michael. After Meeker left to respond to the shooting, Michael killed Brady, Kelly, and a deputy as Rachel and Jamie fled to the attic and onto the roof. Rachel lowered Jamie down to safety but was attacked by Michael, falling to the ground and losing consciousness.
Pursued by Michael, Jamie ran down the street and right into Loomis. They sought shelter at the school, but Michael found them and tossed Loomis through a glass door. He chased Jamie through the school, until she fell down a flight of stairs, Michael prepared to kill her when Rachel reappeared and subdued him with a fire extinguisher. The lynch mob arrived and agreed to help the girls get out of Haddonfield. Along the way they met a lone trooper who told them there was a substation up the road where they'd be safe. Michael, who had been hidden underneath their truck, climbed aboard and killed the men including The driver. Rachel took the wheel, threw Michael off the truck, and rammed the truck into him. Meeker and Loomis arrived with the rest of lynch mob and the state police, while Jamie approached her uncle and touched his hand. As he rose, Meeker and the others shot him until he fell down an abandoned mine.
Afterward, back at the Carruthers' house, Darlene went upstairs to run a bath for Jamie when she was suddenly attacked.

Loomis heard her cries and saw Jamie in her clown costume holding a pair of bloody scissors, reminiscent of when Michael killed his older sister. Rachel, Richard, and Meeker looked on in horror as Loomis sobbed, saying that the evil inside of Michael had infected Jamie. Gratefully, this would prove to be the only time Jamie would demonstrate this kind of behavior.
Meanwhile, Michael Myers managed to crawl out of the mineshaft before dynamite was dropped down the shaft to assure his death. He floated down a river and stumbled upon the shack of an elderly hermit who nursed him back to health. One year later, he awakened killed the hermit and returned to Haddonfield to resume the hunt for his niece, Jamie Lloyd.
Jamie had been admitted to the Haddonfield Children's Clinic after attacking her foster mother. She had been rendered mute due to psychological trauma and exhibited signs of a telepathic link with her uncle. Dr. Samuel Loomis learned of this connection and wanted to use it to defeat Michael for good. Meanwhile, Michael killed Jamie's foster sister Rachel and began stalking her friend, Tina Williams. Jamie sensed whenever her loved ones were in danger, triggering episodes of convulsions that disturbed those around her.
After unknowingly encountering Michael posing as her boyfriend that he killed, Tina attended a Halloween party at the Tower Farm with her friends, Sam and Spitz. Sensing that Michael was following them, Jamie (having partially regained her ability to speak) escaped the clinic with her stuttering friend, Billy Hill, to warn Tina of the danger. As Spitz and Sam had sex in a barn, Michael impaled the former with a pitchfork and decapitated the latter with a scythe, and also killed two bumbling deputies Loomis had entrusted to protect Tina. Jamie and Billy found Tina as Michael tried to run them down with a car. Tina ultimately sacrificed herself to save Jamie. With nothing left to lose, Jamie agreed to help Loomis stop Michael once and for all.
Loomis and Meeker created a set up at the abandoned Myers house to lure Michael back to his childhood home. The police received a call saying Michael had broken into the clinic, prompting Meeker and most of the officers to leave; however, this call was merely a diversion. Michael appeared and killed the remaining officers. Loomis tried to reason with him, but Michael slashed him and threw him over the stair banister. He pursued Jamie throughout the house and up to the attic, where she found the bodies of Rachel, her dog Max, and Tina's boyfriend. As Michael raised his knife to stab her, Jamie addressed him as "Uncle," causing him to pause. He agreed to remove his mask and let Jamie see his face, shedding a brief tear. However, when Jamie touched his face he went into a fit of rage and chased her again. Loomis reappeared and used Jamie as live bait to lure Michael into a trap. He shot Michael with a tranquilizer gun and beat him unconscious with a wooden plank before suffering a stroke and collapsing on top of him.
Meeker and the police returned and took Michael into custody. He was locked in a cell at the police station until he could be transferred to a maximum security facility for the rest of his life. As Jamie prepared to return to the clinic, a mysterious man in black, who had been quietly observing all day, arrived and shot up the station. Jamie found the bodies of Meeker and several officers, along with Michael's cell broken open and empty. Realizing he had escaped again, she sobbed in despair.
For six years after the previous events, Michael Myers and his niece Jamie Lloyd were prisoners of the Man in Black and his Druid-like cult. On Halloween Eve, fifteen-year-old Jamie gave birth and escaped with her baby in a stolen pickup truck with Michael in pursuit.
Meanwhile, a now retired Dr. Loomis was visited by his old friend Dr. Terence Wynn, the chief administrator of Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where Michael had been incarcerated as a boy. While Wynn asked Loomis to return to Smith's Grove, they overheard Jamie's plea for help on a local radio station. Michael caught up with Jamie and killed her, only to find that she had hidden her child elsewhere.
In Haddonfield, the old Myers house was then owned by relatives of Laurie Strode’s adoptive family: John and Debra Strode, their adult children Kara and Tim, and Kara's six-year-old son Danny, who was tormented by visions of the Man in Black telling him to commit murder, while at the Blankenship boarding house across the street lived Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie babysat in 1978, now a recluse obsessed with Michael's motives. He had also heard Jamie's cry for help, and tracked the call down to a bus station and found the baby, whom he named Steven. Tommy crossed paths with Loomis, who visited Debra to warn her. After Loomis left, Michael killed Debra with an axe.
Tommy located Kara and Danny and took them to safety at the boarding house. He told Kara that he believed Michael was under the influence of Thorn, an ancient Druid curse that drove a person to kill their family on Halloween, and that Steven would be his final sacrifice. Tommy then left to meet Loomis at the local harvest festival. Michael electrocuted John Strode in his home then went to the harvest festival and killed radio host Barry Simms, after which he followed Kara's brother Tim, and his girlfriend Beth back to the house.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Blankenship recounted the history of Halloween to Danny, and told Kara she was babysitting Michael the night he killed his sister. The Man in Black beckoned Danny to the Myers house but Kara rescued Danny, discovered the corpses of Tim, Beth, and Debra upstairs, and was pursued by Michael. Upon returning to the boarding house, they discovered the Man in Black to be Dr. Wynn. Cult members burst in and, with the help of Mrs. Blankenship, abducted Kara, Danny, and Steven and took them to Smith's Grove. Kara was locked in a maximum-security ward while the boys were kept in an operating room.
Tommy and Loomis went to the sanitarium where Loomis confronted Wynn, who insinuated that the Smith's Grove staff had been studying evil to learn how to control it. Steven was implied to be the successful result of in vitro fertilization to clone Michael's DNA. Wynn wanted Loomis to join him, as he was the first to observe Michael's power decades earlier. Loomis refused and was knocked out by another doctor.
Kara awoke on a concrete slab, surrounded by the cult's members, including Mrs. Blankenship, Wynn's secretary Dawn, and other Haddonfield residents. Wynn began a ceremony where Michael would kill Steven as a final sacrifice of innocent blood, after which the curse would pass on to Danny with Kara as his first sacrifice. Kara stalled by appealing to Michael with the revelation that Steven was his biological child. Tommy took Wynn hostage and forced the cult to free Kara and the children. Pursued by Michael, they ran through the sanitarium to a locked gate. Tommy used the power of the ancient runes to stop Michael in his tracks and Loomis helped them escape.

After telling the others he had unfinished business, Loomis found what appeared to be Michael lying on the floor. He removed the mask to reveal Wynn, with whom Michael switched clothes and then escaped. As he seemingly died, Wynn passes on the Thorn symbol, which appeared on Loomis' wrist. Realizing that he was the new cult leader, Loomis screamed in despair while Michael escaped into the night in Wynn's Man in Black outfit. None noticed the mists rising around them.

Haddonfield currently
Haddonfield was never the kind of place to change much. It's people change but the architecture and geography stays fairly regular. The Myers house still stands at 707 meridian street and the town is still mostly agrarian and suburban as it always had been. The only noticeable change is in the night sky. The constellation of the rune of Thorn is there every night.

Forbidden Lore

The Darklord
The Darklord of this realm may be one of three

1.Michael Myers
Michael Audrey Myers descent began in 1963, when six-year-old Michael began hearing a voice in his head telling him to kill his older sister. He had never been very talkative so he didn't try to tell anyone. No one knows what it was the voice said to finally drive Michael to stab his sister so violently but the experience clearly damaged young Michael as well as he was found standing completely catatonic on the front yard. This particular look became the only expression that would ever be seen on his face for the rest of his life. He would never show, joy, grief, or anger though his unsettling stare would become famous to all those who would ever survived crossing his path from then on. During his following time at Smith Grove Sanitarium in Lancaster county, The only person to suspect that he was anything other than catatonic was the doctor charged with his care, Samuel Loomis. What Loomis never knew was that Michael's family had descended from a Druidic tribe that had worshiped, or perhaps, lived in fear of a malicious, perhaps even demonic, entity named Thorn. Thorn was said to have spread sickness, destroyed crops, and otherwise brought death so, in order to appease Thorn, one child from each tribe was chosen to be inflicted with the curse of Thorn which forced them, or perhaps enticed them or convinced them, to offer the blood sacrifices of their next of kin on night the ancient Gaelic festival called Samhain (pronounced SAH-win but most Americans and all residents of Haddonfield pronounced Sam-hane) Another thing Loomis didn't know is that his immediate superior at Smith's Grove, Doctor Terence Wynn, was also a descendent of the same Druidic tribe and was the leader of the modern cult of Thorn and were responsible for placing the curse on Michael. After the murder of his older sister, Michael became what most believed to be a soulless killing machine programmed only to kill almost anyone who crossed his path but he would only do so on certain Halloween nights when planetary alignments caused the constellation of Thorn to appear in the night sky.

He was sometimes captured and imprisoned after a killing spree and many tried to kill him, but the curse of Thorn (or possibly the Neo Red Death) caused him to always regenerate. Unless somehow threatened, Michael would usually only kill after dark on Halloween night. The exceptions to this will be outlined below. He also usually only targeted people between the ages of 14 and 65. He tended to leave the very old and very young unmolested. Any couple or couples having sex, however will immediately gain his attention and he will make a point of killing them unless one of his next of kin presents themselves and draws him off. On those times when he was not captured after Halloween night, he would simply disappear into the landscape and live off the land until the next special Halloween came along.

Michael's Powers
Michael gains greater and greater strength the more people he kills. He also regenerates any wound he suffers including bullet wounds.

Michael's Rules
Michaels' kills are always meticulously organized. When he first killed in 1963, he was wearing whole body clown costume suit and mask. Whether he decided this would become the usual attire in which he murder or it was the attire all those cursed by Thorn used is unknown, but whatever the case, Michael would always find a one piece suit, usually mechanic's coveralls taken from an auto mechanic he would have killed, and a white mask that somehow became popular after his first rampage in 1978. Michael is capable moving completely silently, but can only walk at a very slow pace. He has never been seen to run. He has no fixed method of murder. He will use whatever is at hand and finish the kill as quickly as possible. He will, however, gather as many of his victims corpses as he can collect and build them into elaborate displays. The reasons for this are unknown.

Michael Myers currently
Michael Myers is now completely beyond anyone's control except maybe Thorn's. He wanders the land, moving from shadow to shadow, killing anyone between the ages of 14 and 65 that he comes across. It's believed he's searching for the baby Steven and the others so that he may finally be free of his curse. Sadly, no one has seen the escapees since night the mists rose. He is the most wanted man in Illinois and there are several bounties on his head, but few bounty hunters have even survived an encounter with him.

Fighting Michael
Michael is strong enough to crush bones and muscle in one hand and can regenerate any wound except perhaps decapitation. However, he can only move at a slow walk and becomes distracted when his mask is removed. The thing that must be remembered about Michael Myers is that he is still very much alive. Killing him may only guarantee that he returns as something far worse the next time.

2.Dr. Terrence Wynn
Dr. Terrence Wynn was the administrator of Smith Grove Sanitarium and the leader of the Cult of Thorn who laid the curse of Thorn on Michael Myers. He was almost dead the night the mists rose and he is still in poor health. Some other members of the cult of Thorn also survived that night and they all regrouped to find a way to move forward with their goals. Danny, Kara, Tommy, and Steven vanished after that night as did Michael Myers. The cult has put out a statewide message to all it's members to either find the escapees, Michael, or a new prospect to take Michael's place.

3.Thorn
The entity known as Thorn may be trapped in Michael's body and The Neo Red Death may be tormenting it with it's own captivity. It would be an interesting thing to learn which entity is stronger in this way.

The Realm
Haddonfield is still a small town but this realm reaches to include a good part of the state of Illinois. Smith Grove Sanitarium is 150 miles away in Lancaster county and Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium is just as far away. The realms borders are defined by places where Michael Myers has been sited and where the rune of Thorn has been seen. but they have been seen as far east as Watseka and as far west as Oquawka. Young people all over the state have been posting the Thorn rune in all kinds of places just for laughs as they often dress up like Michael Myers for the same reason. So many of them don't realize how dangerous this is...for EVERYONE.

The Adversary
The Adversary is, of course, Dr. Sam Loomis. He also was very old the night the mists rose and has grown no younger since. He scours the state looking for both Michael Myers and the cult of Thorn, determined to put an end to them. Law enforcement all over the state know him and while those who have encountered Michael Myers or The Cult of Thorn see him as a very valuable ally in there efforts to save lives, but those who consider Michael an urban legend think he's a crackpot who's destroying himself chasing ghosts.
No one knows Michael Myers or the Cult of Thorn better. Loomis was the first psychiatrist assigned to Michael at Smith's Grove. He came to believe that Michael was nothing more than pure evil and committed his best efforts to keeping Michael locked away. He always believed that Smith's Grove lacked the necessary security for a patient as dangerous as Michael and constantly tried to get him transferred to prison or at least a higher. After he learned of Dr. Wynn' Cult of Thorn, He realized that during their years together at the sanitarium, Dr. Wynn must have been quietly countering Loomis's efforts to have Michael transferred to more secure lodgings and was probably teaching him things, like how to drive a car, when no one was there to see. He secondary goal, after destroying Michael is to learn everything he can about the workings of the Cult of Thorn so that there will never again be a Michael Myers.

Border Closure
When the Darklord closes the borders, the mists rise and and anyone who enters them sees Michael Myers coming at them from every direction with terrible bladed weapons. If they try to fight instead of run back out of the mists, Michael will grab them with his great strength and cast them back out of the mists

Dread Possibilities
Michael vs. Thorn - Is it possible Michael has been fighting Thorn all these years? Is that the reason Michael walks so slowly and doesn't kill the very old or very young. Is Michael constantly battling Thorn for control of his own body? And how would anyone find out if this were true?.
The Mask - Michael seems to lose focus when his mask is removed and has never actually killed without it. Could the mask be key to Thorn's control of him? If he loses the mask, Is he incapable of doing anything but defending himself until he replaces it? What if he can't replace it?
Michael Myers' Victims - With the Neo Red Death in the mix with this world, It's entirely possible that anyone Michael has killed in his many sprees could return as some form of vengeful undead bent on ending Michael for good. It's been known to happen.

[Mistmaster]

The adversary is clear a lightlord with another name.

[KingCorn]

Wait, you make Michael Myers and the druid thing, but not Halloween 3's Silver Shamrock Company? Or the famous theory that they and hte Thorn cult are tied to each other?

[Manofevil]

The Children of the Corn

Gatlin, Nebraska
Excerpts from the published book ‘Children of the Corn’ -‘…My name is John Garrett, and before…things changed, I was well on my way to becoming a household name in journalism.Like most in the profession nowadays, I’m involved in trying to find out what’s happened to the world and what shape the rest of the world is in. Even before… what happened, somehow, my life and career kept coming back to this particular story. It involves what was at once the most horrible and most wonderful time of my life. Wonderful because I reconciled with my son, found my second wife, and my later daughter-in-law. Horrible because…. Well, you’ll see the reasons why. I’ve published this story in magazines and newspapers several times before now, and because of this, other people who have encountered chapters of this cult in the years, since have gotten in touch with me to tell about what they experienced with them, as well. I have made a point of verifying these accounts, first hand, and both photographic evidence and documentation are all included in this book. This narrative will track this cult and the horrors it has committed in chronological order. Gratefully, my family, and I were only present for one of the following incidents.-
The Children of the Corn and He who Walks Behind the Rows - Gatlin, Ne.
In Nebraska, there once was a small town named Gatlin. It was an agricultural community surrounded by huge cornfields. In 1981, the town suffered a severe drought and in a tent, a boy preacher identified as nine-year-old Isaac Croner, claimed that a god, whom he called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", had spoken to him in his dreams. He told the other children that the adults in the town, whom he considered blasphemous, were the cause of their recent problems and led the children in establishing a death cult of children and teenagers to get rid of everyone over the age of 20. Meanwhile, the townsfolk had turned to prayer in hopes to ensure a successful harvest.
Isaac took all of the Gatlin children into the cornfields and indoctrinated them into the cult based around his bloodthirsty deity and, with his subordinate Malachai, led the children in an uprising that murdered all of the adults in town as human sacrifices. Two children, Job and his sister Sarah, were uninvolved in the sacrifices, having not attended the meetings with the other children, but they did witness the murders firsthand.
Two years later, two people,Vicky and her husband, Burt, traveled through rural Nebraska on their way to Seattle, where Burt was to start work as a physician. Meanwhile, a young boy named Joseph tried to flee Gatlin, got attacked in the corn, and stumbled out into the road where Burt accidentally ran him over. Burt discovered, however, that his throat had been cut beforehand.
At the same time, Malachai discovered Job and Sarah in their old house, dressed as grown-ups, listening to records, and playing a board game, all of which were forbidden. Malachai took them to Isaac to be judged and brought along one of Sarah’s crayon drawings as evidence. Isaac, who had been expecting outsiders to come, saw that Sarah had drawn a picture of a car driving toward Gatlin and recognized her as having the ‘Sight’ or the ability to see the future. He recognized this as a blessing, especially after Malachai told him that he had already seen the car while chasing Joseph. Isaac ordered Malachai to assemble the children in preparation for the outsiders. Malachai, however, resented that Isaac punished neither Job nor Sarah for doing the forbidden.
Searching for help, Burt and Vicky found Diehl, an elderly mechanic and the last adult in Gatlin. He refused them service because he had agreed to supply only the children with fuel in exchange for his life. Malachai broke the pact and murdered Diebl after he tried to steer the couple away from Gatlin
Vicky and Burt explored the area and found Sarah alone in a house.When asked, Sarah gave eerie answers about the town. Since the phone there was destroyed, Burt left Vicky and Sarah together to find a working one and report the car accident. While he was away, Sarah and Vicky bonded over Sarah’s crayon drawings and Vicky was pleased when Sarah drew one for her, but then shocked when the drawing was of her being dragged by a group of men holding bloody knives through trees. Malachai and his followers then entered the room, captured Vicky, and dragged her off to the cornfield, where they placed her on a cross to be sacrificed. Vicky awakened tied upright to the cross directly across from the remains of a man in a police uniform and surrounded by children waving farm tools and chanting, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
At the same time, Burt was exploring the abandoned town and found every building decorated in one way or another with dried out corn cobs, leaves, kernels, and stalks, some arranged in religious symbols. He didn’t notice then that he was being followed by Job the whole time. Whrn Burt entered the local church, he found a congregation of children led by a girl named Rachel performing a cultural birthday ritual for a boy named Amos by drinking his blood from a pentagram-shaped cut on his chest. Amos had turned 19, and so was considered old enough for his "passing"—joining their god in the cornfield. Rachel stabbed Burt, who was rescued by Job and the two of them fled and hid in an old fallout shelter with Sarah where Burt learned the story of what happened in Gatlin.
Meanwhile, Isaac scolded Malachai for killing Diehl, their only source of fuel. Malachai responded by taking over. He was tired of Isaac's preaching and ordered Isaac sacrificed instead of Vicky. Isaac warned that sacrificing him would break their pact with He Who Walks Behind the Rows and the children would be punished. That night, though, Burt sneaked into the cornfield to rescue Vicky where he witnessed Isaac's sacrifice. He watched a supernatural light appear and devour Isaac. Burt then overpowered Malachai and convinced the children to abandon the cult and run. Suddenly, the walking corpse of Isaac returned to punish Malachai, informing him in a demonic voice that "He wants you, too", Isaac killed Malachai by choking him and breaking his neck.
A storm appeared, and Burt and Vicky sheltered with the children in a barn. Vicky read from Job's Bible and learned that the cornfield had to be destroyed by fire in order to stop the false god. Burt then tossed a Molotov cocktail into the field, setting it alight and destroying the demon along with Isaac, or so they believed. The couple returned to their car with Job and Sarah to leave Gatlin, but found the car disabled. Rachel attacked Burt, but Vicky knocked her out and they departed with the children on foot.
* * *
Burt contacted me after I published the account of my own experiences with the cult and he and his family agreed to be interviewed by me. Given my own experiences with these unnatural children, I was no less shocked to discover the sheer amount of insanity the cult actually practiced.

Job was the most forthcoming of all and I was amazed at his ability to tell what happened without breaking down. Burt and Vicky decided to adopt Job and Sarah and help them come to terms with what happened. I’m pleased to say I recently attended their high school graduation, but the traumas of their parents’ murder, their experiences with the cult, and their reintegration with modern society still haunt them. Sarah continues to draw pictures of future events and was even willing to recreate her crayon drawings from her time with the cult which have been included in this book. Furthermore, it was Burt and Vicky who reported what was happening in Gatlin to the state police, setting up what next happened to me and my family-
The Final Sacrifice - Hemingford, Ne
Two days after the events in Gatlin, the people of Hemingford, Nebraska decided to adopt the surviving children from Gatlin and help them start new lives. The well-meaning locals were unaware, however, when the children returned to the cornfield where one of the cult members, Micah, was possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
At the same time, in Hemingford, city reporter John Garrett and his son Danny, were having a bitter falling-out over John's failed relationship with Danny's mother. John was in town working on a story about the children of Gatlin to save his downward-spiraling career. He ran into two of his former coworkers, Bobby Knite and fellow reporter Wayde McKenzie, who were on their way out of town and who were later killed in a nearby cornfield after taking a shortcut in their van and a mysterious, powerful storm that lasted only minutes blew up and caused the surprisingly-sharp cornstalks to wreak havoc upon them. Back in town, John met bed-and-breakfast owner Angela Casual and they soon became lovers. Looking to distance himself from his father, Danny befriended orphaned local girl Lacey, who told him some disturbing details about Gatlin.
Meanwhile, Micah and the other children murdered local woman Ruby Burke by sabotaging the hydraulic jacks supporting her house while she was underneath it, causing it to descend and crush her. Micah then killed another townsperson, David Simpson, during church services with a knife and a wooden voodoo doll, which caused him to bleed to death from his head and face. John started to question the town doctor about what was going on, but the doctor acted suspiciously and asked John to leave. Afterwards, the doctor called the sheriff and reported that John was investigating. The doctor was later stabbed to death in his office by the children. Micah and the children also later killed Mrs. Burke's sister, Mrs. West, in the road and made it look like she was struck by a car.
John partnered with Frank Red Bear, a Native American professor from the state university, to try to make sense of the recent chaos and death. Frank led John to ancient Native American rock paintings, and told him that Native Americans believed the area around Gatlin and Hemingford held special power which could magnify good or bad, and that children were especially vulnerable: Frank recited a story which told of children killing their elders, but also how in the end with a funeral pyre. a good spirit would emerge and further stipulated that the rock paintings show this has not yet come to pass.
As they investigated the local corn storage, they discovered that town residents had been selling spoiled corn from the previous year's harvest along with the new crop to maximize profits.

Growing on the spoiled corn was a dark-green acidic toxin which they believed was filling the town's air and contributing to a state of delusions in the children, rendering them emotionless and violent. The Sheriff discovered them spying on the site, tied them up, and left them to be killed by a corn harvester, but they escaped. Along the way, John questioned Frank further about what was going on. Frank told how Native Americans believed in a spirit who would seek revenge for perceived wrongs done to the land, and that He Who Walks Behind the Rows was this spirit.
The Sheriff and the rest of the Hemingford adults attended an emergency town-hall meeting to discuss the situation, but the children locked them inside and set the building afire, killing them all. The children then kidnaped Angela and Lacey and took them out to the cornfield where they pressured a confused Danny to join them in sacrificing Lacey, but John and Frank arrived driving the harvester. One of the children shot Frank with an arrow, wounding him while Danny and John freed Lacey and Angela and attempted to escape, but the cornfield seemed endless and they shortly found themselves right where they started. Micah attempted to harness the power of He Who Walks Behind the Rows until Frank, as he died, restarted the harvester. Micah's robe got caught in the machine but at that moment, Micah was freed from his possession and called for help. Danny ran in to help him but was too late. The harvester pulled Micah in, killing him. The rest of the children scattered, and John, Danny, Angela, and Lacey left the clearing.
John and Danny later reconciled as they burned Frank's body on, what they believed, was a traditional Native American funeral pyre, before they, Angela, and Lacey, all drove off together. Some time later, Frank was seen doing additions to the rock paintings to show that the story had come to pass, with his spirit having become the protector of the area.
* * *
My entire family still have nightmares about what happened back then, but at the same time, it was what brought us together as a family. We don’t like to talk about it much but sometimes we just can’t avoid it. It really was a long time ago. It sometimes feels like it happened to completely different people. Danny and Lacey dated, off and on, all through high school and college in spite of Angela and I adopting Lacey not long after we got married. They were expecting their first child when the world went crazy and everything stopped working. Fortunately, everything got up and running in our local area in time for the birth. It was a boy and we named him Frank Red Bear Garrett after Frank, who we all agreed, was the finest man we’d ever known. I, of course, dismissed his talk of good and evil spirits as old superstition at the time but as I gather more and more stories around this cult, I find myself wondering if he wasn’t right. If a protector spirit did rise after the events in Hemingford, it can only be hoped that it’s at least as noble and brave as Frank Red Bear. I’ve since corresponded with his tribe and they also recognized him as an exceptional man. The rest of us can only hope to follow the example of people like Frank.
The Urban Harvest - Chicago Il.
Three years later, on a farm near Gatlin, Joshua and his younger brother Eli took refuge in the nearby cornfield when their abusive father came looking for them in a drunken rage. As their father approached with a scythe, Eli decided to stay behind and face him, despite Joshua's insistence they flee and find a better hiding spot.

After rebuking their father for beating Joshua, he used a pagan Bible to invoke the power of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" to have the cornstalks murder their father, turning his mutilated body into a makeshift scarecrow. Joshua returned to check on Eli and the two departed, with Eli's Bible being magically buried in the soil.
Eli and Joshua were taken into foster care by William and Amanda Porter of Chicago. The two boys did not mix well with a home in modern Chicago.Their formal, Amish-like clothes from Gatlin, Eli's fire-and-brimstone prayer at dinner, and them bringing a suitcase full of corn that Eli stole to Chicago struck their new parents and neighbors as unusual. On his first night in Chicago, after everyone else had gone to sleep, Eli quietly left the Porters', taking his corn-filled suitcase, and headed to an empty factory on the other side of the backyard fence. There he prayed to He Who Walks Behind the Rows and planted corn seeds on the factory grounds; rows of corn appeared almost instantly.
The next day the boys started school, and Eli nearly got into a fight with T-Loc, a student in Joshua's grade, and harshly criticized Joshua for playing basketball with some of the other students. Disgusted with their classmates' modern lifestyle, Eli decided to bring He Who Walks Behind the Rows to Chicago, and a homeless man who found the cornfield was murdered. Joshua became attracted to his neighbor Maria and befriended her brother Malcolm, gradually spending less and less time with Eli.
The social worker who brought Eli and Joshua to the Porters' then discovered that Eli was originally adopted from Gatlin, Nebraska and that he had not aged since 1964. She tried to warn the Porters, but Eli quickly burned her alive for knowing too much. Amanda noticed Eli's strange mannerisms, and when she tried to cut down his cornfield, it attacked her. She attempted to escape, but tripped on a pole and her head was impaled on a broken pipe, killing her instantly. William found the cornfield Eli had planted and realized that, with its seemingly-perfect natural invulnerability to disease, ability to grow out-of-season and in the worst of soil, it could result in high agricultural demand. William began efforts to market the distribution of the corn and looked forward to the massive profits Eli's strain of corn would bring.
Eli neglected to inform his foster father of another property the corn possessed: it warps the minds of those who eat it, making adults enter a deluded state of cheerful, naive apathy and children turn into followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Wiliam, having tasted the corn, became indifferent to everything except finding the means to distribute the corn, and eventually was able to find backers for the venture. Eli ultimately managed to sway the other students towards his beliefs, turning them against the principal and convincing them to abandon basketball and other typically routine activities. Alarmed at Eli's conversion of the students, the principal attempted to inform other staff, but they didn’t believe him, as Eli's efforts had actually restored order at the school to a degree few had thought possible.
By the time Joshua realized the full truth, Eli had killed the school principal, along with Malcolm and Maria's parents, and had gained full control of his fellow students. Joshua and Malcolm travelled to the farm in Gatlin and, after defeating Joshua's reanimated father, managed to find Eli's Bible in the cornfield. However, He Walks Behind the Rows attacked them with the corn and Malcolm was violently dismembered before Joshua managed to escape with the Bible and return to Chicago. William arrived at the factory and announced that Eli's corn would be shipped around the world. Eli then murdered him with a sickle.

Joshua then arrived and confronted Eli, revealing that he and the Bible were linked, allowing one to survive indefinitely as long as the other was intact. Eli charged at Joshua, attempting to reclaim the Bible. but just as he managed to grab it, Joshua stabbed Eli with a sickle, piercing the Bible in the process, and destroying both of them.
Just as all the students broke free of the corn's spell, He Who Walks Behinds the Rows emerged from the soil, taking the form of a giant, grotesque worm-like monster. It began to kill several students, including T-Loc, and swallowing Maria. Joshua identified its weakness as the large, root-like section of its lower body, embedded in the ground. Using his sickle, Joshua sliced through this part, seemingly killing the monster. After it collapsed, Joshua freed Maria and left with the other students.
Meanwhile, a shipment of Eli's corn arrived in Germany, the beginning of shipments all over the world.
* * *
This was the case that got me and many others wondering exactly what we were dealing with in regards to this cult. Every journalist gets wild stories of impossible events and it wasn’t until I got there and saw the carcass of the creature that I realized that this wasn’t just another group of kids who’d inhaled acidic toxins from spoiled corn. There had been all kinds of theories regarding the Children of the Corn as they came to be called. Some blamed demons and/or hell, others thought aliens from another world. There was a very interesting scientist who put forth a unity theory that posited that a meteorite that would have had to have crashed into Nebraska ages ago caused the local plant life to merge into a gestalt creature similar to a Armillaria ostoyae (I won’t go into how much trouble I had making sure that got spelled correctly) which is a kind of fungus that is apparently the second largest living organism on the planet and can spread itself in a vast living network across miles of landscape, only in this case, it take the form of fields of corn. Given my own experience with the spoiled corn and it’s acidic toxin, this actually sounded to me like a viable theory and I meant to follow up with the man but he went to Gatlin to further research his theory and vanished into the corn. Neither he, nor his corpse have been found since. Meanwhile, the carcass of the creature in Chicago was decaying rapidly by the time I finally saw it in person and has since crumbled away to dust completely. The scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago have been studying the dust ever since, with inconclusive results.
The Gathering - Grand Island, Ne
The next year, Medical student Grace Rhodes returned to her hometown of Grand Island, Nebraska to take care of her agoraphobic mother June, who refused to leave her yard. She was having recurring nightmares of being attacked by children. Grace also had to look after her younger siblings, James and Margaret. She took a job at Dr. Larson's local clinic, where she'd worked before. James and Margaret soon became ill, showing similar symptoms to those of the children in June's dreams. While working at Dr. Larson's office the next day, Grace noticed that many other kids had the same symptoms. During the night all of the kids got worse as their fevers skyrocketed, then suddenly it all stopped and the fevers dropped.
Local parents Donald and Sandra Atkins noticed that their son Marcus was acting strangely. One night, a group of children descended upon the house, led by a child preacher, and Sandra was murdered in front of Marcus. The police arrived and questioned Donald while Marcus fled into a field and was chased by the sheriff, whom the child preacher then confronted and killed. A suspect in his wife's murder, Donald went into hiding and was taken in by two elderly sisters, Jane and Rosa.
The children stopped answering to their names and claimed to be other people; longtime resident Dr. Larson recognized the names they used as those of dead children from the town's history. One night, he was killed in his office by two children but when Grace arrived the next day, his body had vanished, and the children's blood tests revealed inexplicable signs of decay and death. June's recurring nightmares started up again—but she was not dreaming; it was all actually happening. She fled her house and drove away but spotted James entering an old barn, she followed him inside, after which children gathered at the barn.
Grace decided to go to Dr. Larsen's house to find him but Donald hijacked her car and forced her to drive at gunpoint to Jane and Rosa's house. Rosa revealed that the child preacher, Josiah, was the illegitimate son of a local woman. He was taken in by traveling preachers and became a gifted preacher. Over the years, Josiah stopped aging and never grew out of boyhood. The traveling preachers gave him over to darkness to stunt his growth, but when word got out, they abandoned him. Josiah killed the preachers, then the townspeople burned him alive and sealed his remains in a well.
Meanwhile, Mary Anne, Grace's best friend and co-worker, was attacked and killed by Josiah. Grace and Donald returned to the clinic and discovered that Margaret was missing, but learned that Josiah's weakness was mercury. It was also revealed that Rosa was Josiah's mother. Margaret, James, Marcus, and all the other children gathered at the barn to offer blood to Josiah. Despite being a hemophiliac and at risk of bleeding to death from even a small cut, Marcus cut his hand and offered his blood to Josiah, while Margaret offered Josiah her soul. Marcus collapsed from blood loss and Margaret was pulled into the pool of blood, from which Josiah emerged.
Donald and Grace arrived at the barn and connected its sprinkler system to their supply of mercury. Donald filled two of his bullets with mercury and gave Grace the gun. Donald stopped Marcus' bleeding, but the children tried to kill him. Josiah attacked Grace, but she shot him with a mercury bullet. She then found the bodies of June and Dr. Larson before Josiah attacked her again. She then activated the sprinklers, which showered him with mercury giving Grace the chance to slash him with his own scythe, finally killing him. The children stopped trying to kill Donald and returned to normal. Grace found Margaret nearly drowned, but managed to revive her.
It was revealed that Margaret was actually Grace's daughter, and that she had abandoned her with June as a teenager. After the victims' funerals, Grace, Margaret, James, Donald, and Marcus all moved out of Nebraska.
* * *
Grand Island is considerably further east in Nebraska than the towns before it and, even more strange, this was a case of a forgotten instance of the cult somehow rearing its ugly head generations later. This raised several questions. One - how far can whatever is causing this reach without being directly transplanted as it was to Chicago; Two - how many instances of this cult have occurred in the history of Nebraska, indeed, in all of the Midwest, without the greater world noticing. I’ve driven through enough of the back parts of the Midwest to know how small and isolated these towns can be, so there’s a certain logic to this cult taking over these tiny places, but Grand Island is a fairly good sized city with a rail hub, highway access, a community college, and several manufacturing plants. One would think it would have the necessary size and infrastructure to at least notice this cult’s presence before anyone got killed. It got me wondering what all this ‘He Who Walks Behind The Rows’ is actually capable of.
Fields of Terror - Divinity Falls, Ne
Two years later, a group of teenagers became lost in middle America and arrived in Divinity Falls, a ghost town along an old unused western Nebraska railroad spur that ran near the sight of the town of Gatlin. A group of forgotten and runaway children had taken up residence in the town and had embraced the duty of serving "He Who Walks Behind the Rows". The teenagers were given less than a week by the runaways to get out of the town. However, they found that their car was destroyed, and held the children accountable. Allison, the leader of the teenagers, overheard that the children were the adopted wards of Luke Enright, a madman who considered himself the savior of the children, and the earthly representative of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Upon remembering that her brother, Jacob, was also among them, Allison and the rest decided to go to Enright's farm to discover the truth behind the bizarre cult.
Upon arrival, one of the children, Ezekiel, stopped the group, informing them they were on private property and had to leave. After a debate, Allison was finally allowed to see Luke. He informed her that her brother was there, and agreed to let her see him, only for her to be rejected by him for leaving him alone with their abusive father. Jacob informed her that he was engaged to be married to a girl named Lily, and also stated that she was pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, the rest of Allison's group were kept outside, where the men were intimidated by a physically powerful and exceptionally tall teen named Jared.
Ezekiel held a ceremony for the annual sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, which involved a child who has reached 18 years of age leaping into a flaming corn silo where the god was supposed to dwell. Jacob was chosen, but he refused and told Ezekiel that his religion was false, angering him. Kir, one of the "outsiders", agreed to become a part of the cult after reading a part of their "Bible" earlier. After Jacob attempted to leave, Kir chose to take the fateful course, climbed to the silo, and leapt to a fiery demise. The rest of the group wished to leave the town, but Allison refused to leave without Jacob. They left her, and she eventually read a message Jacob left her in his Bible which translated to "Help", and she realized he wanted to escape. She enlisted the help of the sheriff to stop Luke and Ezekiel.
One of the outsider teens, Greg, who had developed a crush on Allison, chose to go back to help her so the rest decide to go as well. Allison, with the aid of the sheriff and the fire department, attempted to stop the silo fire and arrest Luke.

While trying to extinguish the silo, the flames came alive and killed the two fire fighters, while Luke killed the sheriff and apparently himself after his head split open and a burst of flame shot through him. Ezekiel revealed that Luke had been dead for years, and he himself was the children's true leader. After killing two of the deranged kids, Allison met her friends, and an all-out battle erupted between them and the kids, ending with the deaths of everyone, except Allison. Allison eventually found her brother, and before dying, he told her how to stop He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Ezekiel tried to kill Allison, but after a struggle, she sent him falling into the silo to a violent, fiery death. She then dumped fertilizer into the silo, blowing it up and killing He Who Walks Behind the Rows, or so it was believed.
Allison then went to Lily's house where Lily's parents told her that Lily wasn't ready to raise a baby because she was a baby herself. Lily told Allison that it would be for the best that she adopt her baby. Later, while the baby was being comforted by song, the green-orange light of the silo fire burned in his eyes.
* * *
This happened much closer to the original site of the town of Gatlin but in this case, the child preacher exhibited an entirely new ability, that of animating a corpse, even making it speak. I visited Divinity Falls to view the remains. Nothing organic was found at the bottom of the exploded silo. This ‘He Who Walks Behind the Rows’ had also never used fire before. The more incidents that happened regarding the Cult of the Corn, the more mysterious it becomes.
Isaac’s Return - Gaitlin, Ne
A year later, Hannah, a girl born in the original Gatlin, Nebraska cult led by the nefarious prophet Isaac, visited the town of Gatlin, which had been reoccupied by this time, looking for her birth mother. After a mysterious encounter with a street preacher named Zachariah, Hannah crashed her car in a cornfield. She was escorted to the hospital by the sheriff, Cora, where she was examined by one Dr. Michaels. There, Hannah learned that Isaac—long thought dead—had actually been hospitalized in a coma for years.
After leaving the hospital and resuming her journey, she was nearly driven off the road by a mysterious truck. After checking into a motel, she met a pair of romantically involved teenagers in the motel office, the standoffish Morgan and her boyfriend, Matt. The next day, as Hannah was leaving, a small crowd gathered around her car, fascinated by her. Meanwhile, Isaac had awakened from his coma and learned he had a son. Hannah returned to the hospital and encountered a man named Gabriel, who helped her find her birth certificate. She was nearly attacked by a man named Jake with an axe, but he was stopped by Gabriel.
Hannah then experienced a number of strange visions, and learned from a strange boy with a machete named Jesse that the truck which attempted to force her off the road belonged to Rachel Colby, her own birthmother. At the town church, Rachel was confronted by Isaac, who accused her of betrayal. Dr. Michaels acted as a confidant to Rachel, urging her to stop him.

Shortly after, Isaac killed Dr. Michaels before approaching Matt, and revealing him to be his son whom he hoped would carry on his legacy.Meanwhile, Rachel confronted Hannah, whom she claimed she long believed to be dead, but was evasive regarding the events surrounding Hannah's birth, only commenting that it had been prophesied that Hannah would return to Gatlin on the eve of her nineteenth birthday.
That night, the cult gathered in the cornfield under Isaac's command and branded Matt as the first of the "chosen". Hannah arrived, but was injected with a sedative by the cultists. The cult then began a union ceremony between Matt and Hannah, but Hannah escaped. Rachel appeard at the gathering and claimed that Isaac was a false prophet. Morgan attempted to intervene to help Hannah, but was bisected by Isaac with a machete. Gabriel fled, reuniting with Hannah in a barn, where the two had sex. Matt proceeded to commit suicide by falling on a scythe.
Meanwhile, Rachel was held captive in the hospital basement. Gabriel killed Jesse before Hannah confronted Isaac, who believed himself to be “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”. Gabriel then utilized supernatural powers and forced Cora to shoot herself, before confronting Isaac with the revelation that he was in fact the firstborn child of Isaac's cult, and that Isaac denied him his birthright in favor of his own son.
Gabriel instructed Hannah to kill Isaac, but Rachel urged her not to. Gabriel then revealed himself to be fully possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. He restrained Isaac with his supernatural powers, and killed him with a broken lead pipe. Rachel subsequently stabbed Gabriel then fled with Hannah as Gabriel remarked that "The seeds have already been sown". Gabriel's wound miraculously healed itself, and he began to set off explosions which killed Jake.
Hannah and Rachel left on foot, walking down a country road. Hannah was unaware of what Gabriel's words meant, or that she was pregnant with the child of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, continuing the cult's legacy.
* * *
With everything that happened in the world between the exposure of the first incarnation of these Children of the Corn like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and all the wars that happened afterwards, it is perhaps not surprising that no one bothered to check on the children of the cult or even verify the status of it’s first child preacher. Like all the other survivors of the cult, I just wanted to put it behind me and never think about it again. I probably never would have gone back, myself, if my journalistic career had been more successful. The curse of the Corn Cult continues to haunt me and I’ve had to tap into courage I never knew I had to keep reporting on it. My wife, son, and daughter-in-law have helped me a great deal but they, too, are haunted by their experiences with the cult. After investigating this story, I made a point of tracking down every survivor of the cult and verifying their well being. They all seem to be healthy enough but I can tell that they’re all just as haunted by the trauma as I am. I also verified the status of all the child preachers who led the cult. There were gratefully no more Isaacs out there waiting to rise again. Sadly, I soon learned that there had been other instances of the Corn Cult we hadn’t been aware of.
Revelation - Omaha Ne
Two years later, Jamie Lowell came to Omaha, Nebraska after numerous phone calls to her grandmother went unanswered. Her grandmother's apartment building, built next to a cornfield, appeared to be empty, except for two young, mysterious children who roamed about. Jamie discovered that her grandmother had received a notice of eviction. She went to see one Omaha Detective Armbrister, who was not much help. While at the local grocery store, Jamie encountered the children from the building, but they did not speak to her. Outside, there was a priest standing in the street, staring at her. She returned to her grandmother's apartment to discover a message: "Jamie go home".
Jamie questioned the building manager, Jerry Ulrich who was of no help. She investigated the basement and found a crop of carrots and tomatoes. She fled when she heard a group of children laughing and ran into a man with a gun, who told her to keep out of the basement. She later met two more tenants, an old man in a wheelchair, who swore at everyone, and a young woman named Tiffany, a stripper. Jerry invited Jamie to a BBQ on the roof, to which she agreed. On the roof, Jerry took a bite of corn and discovered there was blood inside. He was then shoved off the roof by the two children. When Jamie arrived, he was nowhere to be found, and she saw the priest watching her from the ground.
That night, Jamie had a nightmare in which her grandmother was lured from her house by a strange voice to some railroad tracks. The next day, Jamie went to see Det. Armbrister who revealed that Jamie's grandmother was part of a religious cult when she was a child 60 years earlier. The kids, who were led by a boy-preacher named Abel, committed suicide by entering a tent and setting it ablaze. Only Jamie's grandmother survived. Jamie's grandmother's apartment was built upon the site of the fire. This was ironic, because Jamie's parents were killed in a house fire.
Tiffany returned home and, while taking a bath, she was attacked by one of the children who used corn to strangle her, before taking her body. Det. Armbrister and Jamie arrived at the apartment, but didn't notice Tiffany's body lying nearby in the cornfield. Later, after Det. Armbrister left, the old man in the wheelchair was attacked by the kids and pushed through a stair balcony to fall to his death.
Jamie returned to the grocery store, which was ransacked. She spotted a girl wearing her grandmother's hat and chased after her, failing to notice the storeowner's severed head inside a drink cooler. Jamie returned to the apartment, where she ran into the man with the gun. He revealed that everyone else had disappeared and that he was leaving. As he made his escape, the kids trapped him in an elevator and scared him so much, that he had a fatal heart attack. The kids then dragged his body off.
At the same time, Det. Armbrister was summoned to the grocery store where the store owners remains had been discovered. He made the connection to Jamie and headed straight out to find her.
Meanwhile, the priest arrived and told Jamie about the history of Gatlin, and the creature known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", who he apparently believed was the devil. The priest revealed that Jamie’s grandmother was dead and that, if she did not leave, she too would be killed. The priest then left and some of the children arrived to take Jamie down to the basement, where there were now rows of corn growing. Abel appeared and the children closed in on Jamie. One of the children revealed herself to be Jamie's grandmother and though a child, spoke in the voice of an old woman.

Jamie fled, but Abel used his power to prevent her from leaving. Cornered, Jamie faced Abel and the children, who asked her to join them. Jamie agreed, but it was only a distraction so she could cause a gas explosion, though Abel was unscathed.
Abel used corn stalks to tie down Jamie, but she was rescued by Det. Armbrister and they both managed to escape before the apartment exploded and destroyed the corn as well. It was implied that the souls of the children were freed and Abel was killed.
* * *
Like pretty much everyone else in the nation at the time, I was functionally shattered by what happened on 9/11/2001, so when this happened barely a month later, both I and local authorities were caught completely off guard yet again. This time, it happened in Omaha which is the eastern most big city in Nebraska and nearly completely on the other side of the state. Furthermore, it was caused by an instance of the cult that predated the one in Gatlin, which had always been believed to be the original case. This case left all wondering exactly how old He Who Walks Behind The Rows is and how long he has haunted this region.
Genesis - California
In 1973, in a town twenty miles from Gatlin, children rose up and murdered their parents as they had in Gatlin years earlier. Forty years later, in the California desert, Tim and Allie's car broke down and they attempted to find shelter in a remote desert farmhouse after becoming lost. A strange Charles Manson-like character, The Preacher, allowed them inside to use the phone. The couple found out they wouldn't be able to get tow service until the following day. The Preacher and his Ukrainian wife Oksana (also known as Helen) let them stay the night with strict orders to be gone by morning, and not wander "where you are not invited". They found their hosts weird but didn't think much of it and headed to bed after dinner. Allie wandered off in the middle of the night after using the outhouse, and discovered the garage has been converted into a cult worshipping church. She then stumbled upon a crumbling outbuilding where she heard faint cries coming from a child.
Allie ran back and told Tim what she‘d witnessed, but at first he didn’t believe her. He agreed to confront the Preacher about the voices, but fell into a hypnotized trance while viewing digital photos in the Preacher's camera. The child then walked into the house and planted a seed inside Allie and disappeared before being seen. Tim and Allie tried to leave the house, but got locked inside by a supernatural force. Allie called the police, but was unsure if she got through as the line got cut off halfway. Allie fell asleep and dreamed about being murdered by children in a cornfield. Allie and Tim woke up to headlights flashing into the room and a cop arrived to check on the house but was thrown into the air and killed by the supernatural force. After witnessing this Tim insisted on answers from the Preacher, learning that the supernatural force needed children to survive and had already planted a seed inside Allie.
Come morning, a parcel delivery driver dropped things off at the house. He agreed to give Tim and Allie a ride into town. Tim had a bad feeling about the driver so he took off with Allie in the abandoned police vehicle instead. They got to the main road.

The child in the outbuilding then killed Helen and psychokinetically caused Tim and Allie to have a car accident, in which Tim died. The parcel driver approached the accident and brought Allie back to the farmhouse where a group of children and their mothers greeted her. In a trance, she sat next to the little child in the outbuilding and began to sing to him. The child was then seen playing with a doll, then dropped it on the floor, which caused the cop's corpse to fall from the sky onto the ground.
* * *
This story reached me before …things changed and I wasn’t able to investigate it. The idea that there might be branches of the cult in forgotten corners of the nation everywhere is very disturbing, but then again, this and Chicago seem to be the only outliers and this instance was carried by a survivor of the initial cult purge in Gatlin. Perhaps He Who Walks Behind The Rows, if it even exists, is not necessary to spread the cults influence. Perhaps survivors trauma is all that’s needed to start it all over and over again. It may take generations for this cult to be eliminated from the world, if it even can.
Forbidden Lore
The Darklord
The Darklord of Gatlin is, of course, He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and the scientist, John Garrett met with who had the theory about Amillaria Ostoyae was actually closer than he realized. The entity that identifies as He Who Walks Behind the Rows exists as a vast network of plant matter that extends throughout most of the state of Nebraska, similar in structure to Amillaria Ostoyae. It feeds off the Ogallala aquifer for water as do all plants in the region and becomes active when corn grows tall above it. It’s hard to guess how long it’s been there since even before Nebraska was farmed, it was all grassland. The entity is similar in its powers to those of the entity, Cthulhu, only if it lurks below the land rather than the sea It is also telepathic and visit its followers in dreams, but drives them to fanaticism rather than madness and usually only targets disaffected children rather than adults. It has become familiar with old school evangelical Christianity and has developed a corrupt doctrine through which it enslaves populations until someone is able to break its control. Its influence usually takes hold during hard times when people‘s spirits are low. It always begins by choosing one particularly disaffected and/or pious child from among a population and, through dreams and visions, leads them to believe that they have had divine revelations and must embrace the word of God as revealed to them. The doctrine begins with one biblical quote from Isaiah 11:6, ”And a little child shall lead them.” Child preachers are not unheard of in evangelical circles, so the chosen children’s ideas are not dismissed as fantasy. The child preachers will lead the other children out into the nearest cornfield and deliver the message of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The general thrust of the message is that all problems are caused by adults, and the best way to end problems is to destroy all adults in the community. Any person, child or adult, regularly exposed to this indoctrination will eventually become convinced of the truth of it and this usually ends with the children of the community killing all of the adults, including and especially the children’s parents. Those murdered by the cult are generally buried in the cornfield where their bodies fertilize the earth and make the corn grow stronger.

The children then become lifelong servants to the corn and He Who Walks Behind the Rows under the guidance of whatever child preacher has led them to this. He Who Walks Behind the Rows has proven able to confer gifts upon its followers, such as remaining young for decades at a time, or the ability to animate an adults corpse, so that it seems the Children have adult supervision.
Since all children age, He Who Walks Behind the Rows has his child preachers eliminate members of the flock who grow too old. In Gatlin, this involved a ritual bloodletting of the congregant at 19 from a pentagram carved into their chest. The younger congregants would drink the blood until the 19 year old was dead from blood loss, then the corpse would be taken to the cornfield for burial so that they may fertilize the growing corn alongside all who passed before them. The pre-ritual differed for male congregants and female congregants. At 19, a male congregant would choose a female with whom he would like to have a child and the two are left alone to procreate. Once the girl is verified as pregnant, the ’passing‘ ritual proceeds for the boy. A girl’s ritual starts a year earlier. When a girl turn 18, it was she who would choose from the male congregants to father her child, then a year later, after her baby has been born and weaned. Her ritual of passing may proceed when she turns 19. It is unknown what other rituals most other chapters of the Children of the Corn practiced except for the one at Divinity Falls, who had their members cast themselves into the burning silo as offerings. Given the ages of the cultists finally taken into custody by law enforcement when the assemblies were broken up, it’s clear that something was done with older members, but it has yet to be learned what.
Sometimes, the Children of the Corn will allow older adults to live among them if they can provide needed skills like medicine, animal care, machine repair, or fuel formulation. Almost any other skill, like cooking or first aid, can be learned by the children so these people make a point of keeping their heads down and doing what’s expected of them. They live in stark terror of the Children and it doesn’t take much for the child cultists to turn on adults, even if it’s against one who provides needed resources or a relative.
Also, the corn, if planted somewhere outside of the Nebraska realm, can give rise to a separate, smaller, entity that will also cultivate it’s own cult of children swearing obedience to He Who Walks Behind the Rows. It is unknown if these satellite corn walkers are somehow the same entity or not.
The Corn and the Children
Once indoctrinated, the children will do literally anything for He Who Walks Behind the Rows. In Divinity Falls, one girl became so consumed by her indoctrination that she cast herself directly into the burning silo. Adults are not completely immune to the indoctrination but are generally able to shrug it off. That’s why all adults, known or unknown, are targeted for murder the minute they enter the Corn Children’s domain. Outsider children, however, are lured, taken, or just forced into the cornfield at the nearest opportunity so that they may be taught the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Sometimes, the cult will then give these children the task of murdering their parents, which they may or may not be able to keep themselves from doing.
As a chapter of the cult is established and all adults within a days walk are murdered or frightened off, The Children of the Corn claim all structures and vehicles within that area by putting cornstalks and leaves within them, sometimes.shaped into the form of religious icons. All symbols and texts in any local churches are changed to reflect the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows as are all learning materials in schools. This is often done by the child preacher and his closest followers themselves.
The corn itself has magical powers of its own. It can grow to maturity almost overnight, has a seemingly-perfect natural invulnerability to disease, and the ability to grow out-of-season and in the worst of soil. Another property the corn possesses is it warps the minds of those who eat it, making adults enter a deluded state of cheerful, naive apathy and children turn into followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. This is perhaps its most insidious power as many greedy people may think they have found the solution to world hunger in this corn but may only spread a terrible pestilence masquerading as sustenance.
Confronting The Children and He Who Walks Behind The Rows
Outsider adults who find themselves confronted by a murderous band of Corn Children in a town or on a road are in a certain amount of danger but should be able to fight them off in most circumstances. Generally the corn children will be smaller than them and unskilled in fighting.The elderly and disabled can find themselves at a serious disadvantage, however. The children can be quite lethal with the sickles, axes, and other farm tools they have used their whole lives. but most adults with even a small conception of fighting skills will generally able to fend them off or outrun them provided they don’t panic. The children have also learned how to move very quietly and generally use ambush tactics. They usually strike from behind when outsiders aren’t looking so those who have learned to pay attention to their surroundings can often catch them. Because of this disadvantage, the children will often try to trap adults in buildings or vehicles and light them on fire, but the worst thing they’ll do is lure any outsiders into the corn fields where the corn itself will turn against them. He Who Walks Behind the Rows uses every part of the corn plant to lethal effect. The stalks, leaves, and roots all strike and entangle victims with surprising speed. The leaves, when dry can be remarkably sharp and a person caught in them can find themselves cut up and bleeding badly. The stalks, when broken, can also be very sharp and make lethal projectiles when thrown by other cornstalks or driven by the wind. He Who Walks Behind the Rows has also demonstrated the ability to generate powerful, but very brief, wind and rain storms to attack it’s targets. Every once in a while, one of the corn children will realize the horrible insanity they have been a part of and try to flee the cult. These ‘unbelievers’ are hunted mercilessly by the others and, should they step into one of the corn fields, the corn will turn on them as well. Many an outsider has been lured into the cults town by a child‘s corpse found in the ditch between the road and the corn. To fight against He Who Walks Behind the Rows and his children, one must destroy the corn, all of it, as much as can be destroyed.
This has been done by fire, poison, and the many large harvesting machines that are everywhere in farm country. The children and the corn itself will do everything they can to defend the crop, including and especially standing in front of a harvester, hoping the operator will stop which most do.

Whatever the case, once enough of the corn is destroyed, the children are released from bondage to it, but not freed, for they know, as does He Who Walks Behind the Rows, that rain will fall again, plants will sprout, corn will again grow high, and children will again hear the voices in their heads. To truly destroy He Who Walks Behind the Rows, almost all of Nebraska would have to be dug up to discover and destroy all the entity’s roots beneath all the fields. This is fundamentally impossible since the day the mists rose, the central government and most technology that could do it was lost to the people of Nebraska.
Scarecrow Sacrifices - Occasionally, an adult or one of the cultists would do something that He Who Walks Behind the Rows, his local child preacher, or both, felt required a special example be made. When this happened, this person was tied alive to a cross in the cornfield as a sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows and left there to die. Once dead, the corpse was dressed in old clothes to disguise it and left there to feed the crows. This is not done by every chapter of the corn cult, but by some. These corpses, unless taken down and properly laid to rest, can be enslaved and used to defend the corn by He Who Walks Behind the Rows should the corn be threatened with destruction by outsiders.
Corn Bibles - Some of the child preachers chosen by He Who Walks Behind the Rows write down what is revealed to them in large books. Some of the preachers who were well schooled in scripture would rewrite the whole of the Bible around the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. These Bibles are often decorated with corn kernels in patterns of holy symbols. They also become bonded to the child preachers, are direct links to the power of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and can keep them young for decades. The preacher can only be killed if the Bible is destroyed and vice versa. If the child preacher is killed but the Bible id not destroyed, then the child preacher will heal. If the Bible is destroyed but not the child preacher, then the child preacher begins to age at an accelerated rate and must recreate the Bible in order to save themselves.
The Realm
The realm of the entity that identifies as He Who Walks Behind the Rows stretches from the edge of North Omaha, NE in the east to Divinity Falls in the northwest corner of the state. It runs like a spiderweb under the earth along the Platte River basin, but can’t grow under major, closely built, urban areas like Omaha, Most other ‘large’ cities in Nebraska have a fairly small, closely built, downtown area surrounded by suburban developments interwoven with farm fields. If these fields have spawned chapters of the corn cult, they have not been exposed, yet.

[Manofevil]

The Children of the Corn

Gatlin, Nebraska
Excerpts from the published book ‘Children of the Corn’ -‘…My name is John Garrett, and before…things changed, I was well on my way to becoming a household name in journalism.Like most in the profession nowadays, I’m involved in trying to find out what’s happened to the world and what shape the rest of the world is in. Even before… what happened, somehow, my life and career kept coming back to this particular story. It involves what was at once the most horrible and most wonderful time of my life. Wonderful because I reconciled with my son, found my second wife, and my later daughter-in-law. Horrible because…. Well, you’ll see the reasons why. I’ve published this story in magazines and newspapers several times before now, and because of this, other people who have encountered chapters of this cult in the years, since have gotten in touch with me to tell about what they experienced with them, as well. I have made a point of verifying these accounts, first hand, and both photographic evidence and documentation are all included in this book. This narrative will track this cult and the horrors it has committed in chronological order. Gratefully, my family, and I were only present for one of the following incidents.-
The Children of the Corn and He who Walks Behind the Rows - Gatlin, Ne.
In Nebraska, there once was a small town named Gatlin. It was an agricultural community surrounded by huge cornfields. In 1981, the town suffered a severe drought and in a tent, a boy preacher identified as nine-year-old Isaac Croner, claimed that a god, whom he called "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", had spoken to him in his dreams. He told the other children that the adults in the town, whom he considered blasphemous, were the cause of their recent problems and led the children in establishing a death cult of children and teenagers to get rid of everyone over the age of 20. Meanwhile, the townsfolk had turned to prayer in hopes to ensure a successful harvest.
Isaac took all of the Gatlin children into the cornfields and indoctrinated them into the cult based around his bloodthirsty deity and, with his subordinate Malachai, led the children in an uprising that murdered all of the adults in town as human sacrifices. Two children, Job and his sister Sarah, were uninvolved in the sacrifices, having not attended the meetings with the other children, but they did witness the murders firsthand.
Two years later, two people,Vicky and her husband, Burt, traveled through rural Nebraska on their way to Seattle, where Burt was to start work as a physician. Meanwhile, a young boy named Joseph tried to flee Gatlin, got attacked in the corn, and stumbled out into the road where Burt accidentally ran him over. Burt discovered, however, that his throat had been cut beforehand.
At the same time, Malachai discovered Job and Sarah in their old house, dressed as grown-ups, listening to records, and playing a board game, all of which were forbidden. Malachai took them to Isaac to be judged and brought along one of Sarah’s crayon drawings as evidence. Isaac, who had been expecting outsiders to come, saw that Sarah had drawn a picture of a car driving toward Gatlin and recognized her as having the ‘Sight’ or the ability to see the future. He recognized this as a blessing, especially after Malachai told him that he had already seen the car while chasing Joseph. Isaac ordered Malachai to assemble the children in preparation for the outsiders. Malachai, however, resented that Isaac punished neither Job nor Sarah for doing the forbidden.
Searching for help, Burt and Vicky found Diehl, an elderly mechanic and the last adult in Gatlin. He refused them service because he had agreed to supply only the children with fuel in exchange for his life. Malachai broke the pact and murdered Diebl after he tried to steer the couple away from Gatlin
Vicky and Burt explored the area and found Sarah alone in a house.When asked, Sarah gave eerie answers about the town. Since the phone there was destroyed, Burt left Vicky and Sarah together to find a working one and report the car accident. While he was away, Sarah and Vicky bonded over Sarah’s crayon drawings and Vicky was pleased when Sarah drew one for her, but then shocked when the drawing was of her being dragged by a group of men holding bloody knives through trees. Malachai and his followers then entered the room, captured Vicky, and dragged her off to the cornfield, where they placed her on a cross to be sacrificed. Vicky awakened tied upright to the cross directly across from the remains of a man in a police uniform and surrounded by children waving farm tools and chanting, “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
At the same time, Burt was exploring the abandoned town and found every building decorated in one way or another with dried out corn cobs, leaves, kernels, and stalks, some arranged in religious symbols. He didn’t notice then that he was being followed by Job the whole time. Whrn Burt entered the local church, he found a congregation of children led by a girl named Rachel performing a cultural birthday ritual for a boy named Amos by drinking his blood from a pentagram-shaped cut on his chest. Amos had turned 19, and so was considered old enough for his "passing"—joining their god in the cornfield. Rachel stabbed Burt, who was rescued by Job and the two of them fled and hid in an old fallout shelter with Sarah where Burt learned the story of what happened in Gatlin.
Meanwhile, Isaac scolded Malachai for killing Diehl, their only source of fuel. Malachai responded by taking over. He was tired of Isaac's preaching and ordered Isaac sacrificed instead of Vicky. Isaac warned that sacrificing him would break their pact with He Who Walks Behind the Rows and the children would be punished. That night, though, Burt sneaked into the cornfield to rescue Vicky where he witnessed Isaac's sacrifice. He watched a supernatural light appear and devour Isaac. Burt then overpowered Malachai and convinced the children to abandon the cult and run. Suddenly, the walking corpse of Isaac returned to punish Malachai, informing him in a demonic voice that "He wants you, too", Isaac killed Malachai by choking him and breaking his neck.
A storm appeared, and Burt and Vicky sheltered with the children in a barn. Vicky read from Job's Bible and learned that the cornfield had to be destroyed by fire in order to stop the false god. Burt then tossed a Molotov cocktail into the field, setting it alight and destroying the demon along with Isaac, or so they believed. The couple returned to their car with Job and Sarah to leave Gatlin, but found the car disabled. Rachel attacked Burt, but Vicky knocked her out and they departed with the children on foot.
* * *
Burt contacted me after I published the account of my own experiences with the cult and he and his family agreed to be interviewed by me. Given my own experiences with these unnatural children, I was no less shocked to discover the sheer amount of insanity the cult actually practiced.

Job was the most forthcoming of all and I was amazed at his ability to tell what happened without breaking down. Burt and Vicky decided to adopt Job and Sarah and help them come to terms with what happened. I’m pleased to say I recently attended their high school graduation, but the traumas of their parents’ murder, their experiences with the cult, and their reintegration with modern society still haunt them. Sarah continues to draw pictures of future events and was even willing to recreate her crayon drawings from her time with the cult which have been included in this book. Furthermore, it was Burt and Vicky who reported what was happening in Gatlin to the state police, setting up what next happened to me and my family-
The Final Sacrifice - Hemingford, Ne
Two days after the events in Gatlin, the people of Hemingford, Nebraska decided to adopt the surviving children from Gatlin and help them start new lives. The well-meaning locals were unaware, however, when the children returned to the cornfield where one of the cult members, Micah, was possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
At the same time, in Hemingford, city reporter John Garrett and his son Danny, were having a bitter falling-out over John's failed relationship with Danny's mother. John was in town working on a story about the children of Gatlin to save his downward-spiraling career. He ran into two of his former coworkers, Bobby Knite and fellow reporter Wayde McKenzie, who were on their way out of town and who were later killed in a nearby cornfield after taking a shortcut in their van and a mysterious, powerful storm that lasted only minutes blew up and caused the surprisingly-sharp cornstalks to wreak havoc upon them. Back in town, John met bed-and-breakfast owner Angela Casual and they soon became lovers. Looking to distance himself from his father, Danny befriended orphaned local girl Lacey, who told him some disturbing details about Gatlin.
Meanwhile, Micah and the other children murdered local woman Ruby Burke by sabotaging the hydraulic jacks supporting her house while she was underneath it, causing it to descend and crush her. Micah then killed another townsperson, David Simpson, during church services with a knife and a wooden voodoo doll, which caused him to bleed to death from his head and face. John started to question the town doctor about what was going on, but the doctor acted suspiciously and asked John to leave. Afterwards, the doctor called the sheriff and reported that John was investigating. The doctor was later stabbed to death in his office by the children. Micah and the children also later killed Mrs. Burke's sister, Mrs. West, in the road and made it look like she was struck by a car.
John partnered with Frank Red Bear, a Native American professor from the state university, to try to make sense of the recent chaos and death. Frank led John to ancient Native American rock paintings, and told him that Native Americans believed the area around Gatlin and Hemingford held special power which could magnify good or bad, and that children were especially vulnerable: Frank recited a story which told of children killing their elders, but also how in the end with a funeral pyre. a good spirit would emerge and further stipulated that the rock paintings show this has not yet come to pass.
As they investigated the local corn storage, they discovered that town residents had been selling spoiled corn from the previous year's harvest along with the new crop to maximize profits.

Growing on the spoiled corn was a dark-green acidic toxin which they believed was filling the town's air and contributing to a state of delusions in the children, rendering them emotionless and violent. The Sheriff discovered them spying on the site, tied them up, and left them to be killed by a corn harvester, but they escaped. Along the way, John questioned Frank further about what was going on. Frank told how Native Americans believed in a spirit who would seek revenge for perceived wrongs done to the land, and that He Who Walks Behind the Rows was this spirit.
The Sheriff and the rest of the Hemingford adults attended an emergency town-hall meeting to discuss the situation, but the children locked them inside and set the building afire, killing them all. The children then kidnaped Angela and Lacey and took them out to the cornfield where they pressured a confused Danny to join them in sacrificing Lacey, but John and Frank arrived driving the harvester. One of the children shot Frank with an arrow, wounding him while Danny and John freed Lacey and Angela and attempted to escape, but the cornfield seemed endless and they shortly found themselves right where they started. Micah attempted to harness the power of He Who Walks Behind the Rows until Frank, as he died, restarted the harvester. Micah's robe got caught in the machine but at that moment, Micah was freed from his possession and called for help. Danny ran in to help him but was too late. The harvester pulled Micah in, killing him. The rest of the children scattered, and John, Danny, Angela, and Lacey left the clearing.
John and Danny later reconciled as they burned Frank's body on, what they believed, was a traditional Native American funeral pyre, before they, Angela, and Lacey, all drove off together. Some time later, Frank was seen doing additions to the rock paintings to show that the story had come to pass, with his spirit having become the protector of the area.

My entire family still have nightmares about what happened back then, but at the same time, it was what brought us together as a family. We don’t like to talk about it much but sometimes we just can’t avoid it. It really was a long time ago. It sometimes feels like it happened to completely different people. Danny and Lacey dated, off and on, all through high school and college in spite of Angela and I adopting Lacey not long after we got married. They were expecting their first child when the world went crazy and everything stopped working. Fortunately, everything got up and running in our local area in time for the birth. It was a boy and we named him Frank Red Bear Garrett after Frank, who we all agreed, was the finest man we’d ever known. I, of course, dismissed his talk of good and evil spirits as old superstition at the time but as I gather more and more stories around this cult, I find myself wondering if he wasn’t right. If a protector spirit did rise after the events in Hemingford, it can only be hoped that it’s at least as noble and brave as Frank Red Bear. I’ve since corresponded with his tribe and they also recognized him as an exceptional man. The rest of us can only hope to follow the example of people like Frank.
The Urban Harvest - Chicago Il.
Three years later, on a farm near Gatlin, Joshua and his younger brother Eli took refuge in the nearby cornfield when their abusive father came looking for them in a drunken rage. As their father approached with a scythe, Eli decided to stay behind and face him, despite Joshua's insistence they flee and find a better hiding spot.

After rebuking their father for beating Joshua, he used a pagan Bible to invoke the power of "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" to have the cornstalks murder their father, turning his mutilated body into a makeshift scarecrow. Joshua returned to check on Eli and the two departed, with Eli's Bible being magically buried in the soil.
Eli and Joshua were taken into foster care by William and Amanda Porter of Chicago. The two boys did not mix well with a home in modern Chicago.Their formal, Amish-like clothes from Gatlin, Eli's fire-and-brimstone prayer at dinner, and them bringing a suitcase full of corn that Eli stole to Chicago struck their new parents and neighbors as unusual. On his first night in Chicago, after everyone else had gone to sleep, Eli quietly left the Porters', taking his corn-filled suitcase, and headed to an empty factory on the other side of the backyard fence. There he prayed to He Who Walks Behind the Rows and planted corn seeds on the factory grounds; rows of corn appeared almost instantly.
The next day the boys started school, and Eli nearly got into a fight with T-Loc, a student in Joshua's grade, and harshly criticized Joshua for playing basketball with some of the other students. Disgusted with their classmates' modern lifestyle, Eli decided to bring He Who Walks Behind the Rows to Chicago, and a homeless man who found the cornfield was murdered. Joshua became attracted to his neighbor Maria and befriended her brother Malcolm, gradually spending less and less time with Eli.
The social worker who brought Eli and Joshua to the Porters' then discovered that Eli was originally adopted from Gatlin, Nebraska and that he had not aged since 1964. She tried to warn the Porters, but Eli quickly burned her alive for knowing too much. Amanda noticed Eli's strange mannerisms, and when she tried to cut down his cornfield, it attacked her. She attempted to escape, but tripped on a pole and her head was impaled on a broken pipe, killing her instantly. William found the cornfield Eli had planted and realized that, with its seemingly-perfect natural invulnerability to disease, ability to grow out-of-season and in the worst of soil, it could result in high agricultural demand. William began efforts to market the distribution of the corn and looked forward to the massive profits Eli's strain of corn would bring.
Eli neglected to inform his foster father of another property the corn possessed: it warps the minds of those who eat it, making adults enter a deluded state of cheerful, naive apathy and children turn into followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Wiliam, having tasted the corn, became indifferent to everything except finding the means to distribute the corn, and eventually was able to find backers for the venture. Eli ultimately managed to sway the other students towards his beliefs, turning them against the principal and convincing them to abandon basketball and other typically routine activities. Alarmed at Eli's conversion of the students, the principal attempted to inform other staff, but they didn’t believe him, as Eli's efforts had actually restored order at the school to a degree few had thought possible.
By the time Joshua realized the full truth, Eli had killed the school principal, along with Malcolm and Maria's parents, and had gained full control of his fellow students. Joshua and Malcolm travelled to the farm in Gatlin and, after defeating Joshua's reanimated father, managed to find Eli's Bible in the cornfield. However, He Walks Behind the Rows attacked them with the corn and Malcolm was violently dismembered before Joshua managed to escape with the Bible and return to Chicago. William arrived at the factory and announced that Eli's corn would be shipped around the world. Eli then murdered him with a sickle.

Joshua then arrived and confronted Eli, revealing that he and the Bible were linked, allowing one to survive indefinitely as long as the other was intact. Eli charged at Joshua, attempting to reclaim the Bible. but just as he managed to grab it, Joshua stabbed Eli with a sickle, piercing the Bible in the process, and destroying both of them.
Just as all the students broke free of the corn's spell, He Who Walks Behinds the Rows emerged from the soil, taking the form of a giant, grotesque worm-like monster. It began to kill several students, including T-Loc, and swallowing Maria. Joshua identified its weakness as the large, root-like section of its lower body, embedded in the ground. Using his sickle, Joshua sliced through this part, seemingly killing the monster. After it collapsed, Joshua freed Maria and left with the other students.
Meanwhile, a shipment of Eli's corn arrived in Germany, the beginning of shipments all over the world.
* * *
This was the case that got me and many others wondering exactly what we were dealing with in regards to this cult. Every journalist gets wild stories of impossible events and it wasn’t until I got there and saw the carcass of the creature that I realized that this wasn’t just another group of kids who’d inhaled acidic toxins from spoiled corn. There had been all kinds of theories regarding the Children of the Corn as they came to be called. Some blamed demons and/or hell, others thought aliens from another world. There was a very interesting scientist who put forth a unity theory that posited that a meteorite that would have had to have crashed into Nebraska ages ago caused the local plant life to merge into a gestalt creature similar to a Armillaria ostoyae (I won’t go into how much trouble I had making sure that got spelled correctly) which is a kind of fungus that is apparently the second largest living organism on the planet and can spread itself in a vast living network across miles of landscape, only in this case, it take the form of fields of corn. Given my own experience with the spoiled corn and it’s acidic toxin, this actually sounded to me like a viable theory and I meant to follow up with the man but he went to Gatlin to further research his theory and vanished into the corn. Neither he, nor his corpse have been found since. Meanwhile, the carcass of the creature in Chicago was decaying rapidly by the time I finally saw it in person and has since crumbled away to dust completely. The scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago have been studying the dust ever since, with inconclusive results.
The Gathering - Grand Island, Ne
The next year, Medical student Grace Rhodes returned to her hometown of Grand Island, Nebraska to take care of her agoraphobic mother June, who refused to leave her yard. She was having recurring nightmares of being attacked by children. Grace also had to look after her younger siblings, James and Margaret. She took a job at Dr. Larson's local clinic, where she'd worked before. James and Margaret soon became ill, showing similar symptoms to those of the children in June's dreams. While working at Dr. Larson's office the next day, Grace noticed that many other kids had the same symptoms. During the night all of the kids got worse as their fevers skyrocketed, then suddenly it all stopped and the fevers dropped.
Local parents Donald and Sandra Atkins noticed that their son Marcus was acting strangely. One night, a group of children descended upon the house, led by a child preacher, and Sandra was murdered in front of Marcus. The police arrived and questioned Donald while Marcus fled into a field and was chased by the sheriff, whom the child preacher then confronted and killed. A suspect in his wife's murder, Donald went into hiding and was taken in by two elderly sisters, Jane and Rosa.
The children stopped answering to their names and claimed to be other people; longtime resident Dr. Larson recognized the names they used as those of dead children from the town's history. One night, he was killed in his office by two children but when Grace arrived the next day, his body had vanished, and the children's blood tests revealed inexplicable signs of decay and death. June's recurring nightmares started up again—but she was not dreaming; it was all actually happening. She fled her house and drove away but spotted James entering an old barn, she followed him inside, after which children gathered at the barn.
Grace decided to go to Dr. Larsen's house to find him but Donald hijacked her car and forced her to drive at gunpoint to Jane and Rosa's house. Rosa revealed that the child preacher, Josiah, was the illegitimate son of a local woman. He was taken in by traveling preachers and became a gifted preacher. Over the years, Josiah stopped aging and never grew out of boyhood. The traveling preachers gave him over to darkness to stunt his growth, but when word got out, they abandoned him. Josiah killed the preachers, then the townspeople burned him alive and sealed his remains in a well.
Meanwhile, Mary Anne, Grace's best friend and co-worker, was attacked and killed by Josiah. Grace and Donald returned to the clinic and discovered that Margaret was missing, but learned that Josiah's weakness was mercury. It was also revealed that Rosa was Josiah's mother. Margaret, James, Marcus, and all the other children gathered at the barn to offer blood to Josiah. Despite being a hemophiliac and at risk of bleeding to death from even a small cut, Marcus cut his hand and offered his blood to Josiah, while Margaret offered Josiah her soul. Marcus collapsed from blood loss and Margaret was pulled into the pool of blood, from which Josiah emerged.
Donald and Grace arrived at the barn and connected its sprinkler system to their supply of mercury. Donald filled two of his bullets with mercury and gave Grace the gun. Donald stopped Marcus' bleeding, but the children tried to kill him. Josiah attacked Grace, but she shot him with a mercury bullet. She then found the bodies of June and Dr. Larson before Josiah attacked her again. She then activated the sprinklers, which showered him with mercury giving Grace the chance to slash him with his own scythe, finally killing him. The children stopped trying to kill Donald and returned to normal. Grace found Margaret nearly drowned, but managed to revive her.
It was revealed that Margaret was actually Grace's daughter, and that she had abandoned her with June as a teenager. After the victims' funerals, Grace, Margaret, James, Donald, and Marcus all moved out of Nebraska.
* * *
Grand Island is considerably further east in Nebraska than the towns before it and, even more strange, this was a case of a forgotten instance of the cult somehow rearing its ugly head generations later. This raised several questions. One - how far can whatever is causing this reach without being directly transplanted as it was to Chicago; Two - how many instances of this cult have occurred in the history of Nebraska, indeed, in all of the Midwest, without the greater world noticing. I’ve driven through enough of the back parts of the Midwest to know how small and isolated these towns can be, so there’s a certain logic to this cult taking over these tiny places, but Grand Island is a fairly good sized city with a rail hub, highway access, a community college, and several manufacturing plants. One would think it would have the necessary size and infrastructure to at least notice this cult’s presence before anyone got killed. It got me wondering what all this ‘He Who Walks Behind The Rows’ is actually capable of.
Fields of Terror - Divinity Falls, Ne
Two years later, a group of teenagers became lost in middle America and arrived in Divinity Falls, a ghost town along an old unused western Nebraska railroad spur that ran near the sight of the town of Gatlin. A group of forgotten and runaway children had taken up residence in the town and had embraced the duty of serving "He Who Walks Behind the Rows". The teenagers were given less than a week by the runaways to get out of the town. However, they found that their car was destroyed, and held the children accountable. Allison, the leader of the teenagers, overheard that the children were the adopted wards of Luke Enright, a madman who considered himself the savior of the children, and the earthly representative of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Upon remembering that her brother, Jacob, was also among them, Allison and the rest decided to go to Enright's farm to discover the truth behind the bizarre cult.
Upon arrival, one of the children, Ezekiel, stopped the group, informing them they were on private property and had to leave. After a debate, Allison was finally allowed to see Luke. He informed her that her brother was there, and agreed to let her see him, only for her to be rejected by him for leaving him alone with their abusive father. Jacob informed her that he was engaged to be married to a girl named Lily, and also stated that she was pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, the rest of Allison's group were kept outside, where the men were intimidated by a physically powerful and exceptionally tall teen named Jared.
Ezekiel held a ceremony for the annual sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, which involved a child who has reached 18 years of age leaping into a flaming corn silo where the god was supposed to dwell. Jacob was chosen, but he refused and told Ezekiel that his religion was false, angering him. Kir, one of the "outsiders", agreed to become a part of the cult after reading a part of their "Bible" earlier. After Jacob attempted to leave, Kir chose to take the fateful course, climbed to the silo, and leapt to a fiery demise. The rest of the group wished to leave the town, but Allison refused to leave without Jacob. They left her, and she eventually read a message Jacob left her in his Bible which translated to "Help", and she realized he wanted to escape. She enlisted the help of the sheriff to stop Luke and Ezekiel.
One of the outsider teens, Greg, who had developed a crush on Allison, chose to go back to help her so the rest decide to go as well. Allison, with the aid of the sheriff and the fire department, attempted to stop the silo fire and arrest Luke.

While trying to extinguish the silo, the flames came alive and killed the two fire fighters, while Luke killed the sheriff and apparently himself after his head split open and a burst of flame shot through him. Ezekiel revealed that Luke had been dead for years, and he himself was the children's true leader. After killing two of the deranged kids, Allison met her friends, and an all-out battle erupted between them and the kids, ending with the deaths of everyone, except Allison. Allison eventually found her brother, and before dying, he told her how to stop He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Ezekiel tried to kill Allison, but after a struggle, she sent him falling into the silo to a violent, fiery death. She then dumped fertilizer into the silo, blowing it up and killing He Who Walks Behind the Rows, or so it was believed.
Allison then went to Lily's house where Lily's parents told her that Lily wasn't ready to raise a baby because she was a baby herself. Lily told Allison that it would be for the best that she adopt her baby. Later, while the baby was being comforted by song, the green-orange light of the silo fire burned in his eyes.
* * *
This happened much closer to the original site of the town of Gatlin but in this case, the child preacher exhibited an entirely new ability, that of animating a corpse, even making it speak. I visited Divinity Falls to view the remains. Nothing organic was found at the bottom of the exploded silo. This ‘He Who Walks Behind the Rows’ had also never used fire before. The more incidents that happened regarding the Cult of the Corn, the more mysterious it becomes.
Isaac’s Return - Gaitlin, Ne
A year later, Hannah, a girl born in the original Gatlin, Nebraska cult led by the nefarious prophet Isaac, visited the town of Gatlin, which had been reoccupied by this time, looking for her birth mother. After a mysterious encounter with a street preacher named Zachariah, Hannah crashed her car in a cornfield. She was escorted to the hospital by the sheriff, Cora, where she was examined by one Dr. Michaels. There, Hannah learned that Isaac—long thought dead—had actually been hospitalized in a coma for years.
After leaving the hospital and resuming her journey, she was nearly driven off the road by a mysterious truck. After checking into a motel, she met a pair of romantically involved teenagers in the motel office, the standoffish Morgan and her boyfriend, Matt. The next day, as Hannah was leaving, a small crowd gathered around her car, fascinated by her. Meanwhile, Isaac had awakened from his coma and learned he had a son. Hannah returned to the hospital and encountered a man named Gabriel, who helped her find her birth certificate. She was nearly attacked by a man named Jake with an axe, but he was stopped by Gabriel.
Hannah then experienced a number of strange visions, and learned from a strange boy with a machete named Jesse that the truck which attempted to force her off the road belonged to Rachel Colby, her own birthmother. At the town church, Rachel was confronted by Isaac, who accused her of betrayal. Dr. Michaels acted as a confidant to Rachel, urging her to stop him.

Shortly after, Isaac killed Dr. Michaels before approaching Matt, and revealing him to be his son whom he hoped would carry on his legacy.Meanwhile, Rachel confronted Hannah, whom she claimed she long believed to be dead, but was evasive regarding the events surrounding Hannah's birth, only commenting that it had been prophesied that Hannah would return to Gatlin on the eve of her nineteenth birthday.
That night, the cult gathered in the cornfield under Isaac's command and branded Matt as the first of the "chosen". Hannah arrived, but was injected with a sedative by the cultists. The cult then began a union ceremony between Matt and Hannah, but Hannah escaped. Rachel appeard at the gathering and claimed that Isaac was a false prophet. Morgan attempted to intervene to help Hannah, but was bisected by Isaac with a machete. Gabriel fled, reuniting with Hannah in a barn, where the two had sex. Matt proceeded to commit suicide by falling on a scythe.
Meanwhile, Rachel was held captive in the hospital basement. Gabriel killed Jesse before Hannah confronted Isaac, who believed himself to be “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”. Gabriel then utilized supernatural powers and forced Cora to shoot herself, before confronting Isaac with the revelation that he was in fact the firstborn child of Isaac's cult, and that Isaac denied him his birthright in favor of his own son.
Gabriel instructed Hannah to kill Isaac, but Rachel urged her not to. Gabriel then revealed himself to be fully possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows. He restrained Isaac with his supernatural powers, and killed him with a broken lead pipe. Rachel subsequently stabbed Gabriel then fled with Hannah as Gabriel remarked that "The seeds have already been sown". Gabriel's wound miraculously healed itself, and he began to set off explosions which killed Jake.
Hannah and Rachel left on foot, walking down a country road. Hannah was unaware of what Gabriel's words meant, or that she was pregnant with the child of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, continuing the cult's legacy.
* * *
With everything that happened in the world between the exposure of the first incarnation of these Children of the Corn like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and all the wars that happened afterwards, it is perhaps not surprising that no one bothered to check on the children of the cult or even verify the status of it’s first child preacher. Like all the other survivors of the cult, I just wanted to put it behind me and never think about it again. I probably never would have gone back, myself, if my journalistic career had been more successful. The curse of the Corn Cult continues to haunt me and I’ve had to tap into courage I never knew I had to keep reporting on it. My wife, son, and daughter-in-law have helped me a great deal but they, too, are haunted by their experiences with the cult. After investigating this story, I made a point of tracking down every survivor of the cult and verifying their well being. They all seem to be healthy enough but I can tell that they’re all just as haunted by the trauma as I am. I also verified the status of all the child preachers who led the cult. There were gratefully no more Isaacs out there waiting to rise again. Sadly, I soon learned that there had been other instances of the Corn Cult we hadn’t been aware of.
Revelation - Omaha Ne
Two years later, Jamie Lowell came to Omaha, Nebraska after numerous phone calls to her grandmother went unanswered. Her grandmother's apartment building, built next to a cornfield, appeared to be empty, except for two young, mysterious children who roamed about. Jamie discovered that her grandmother had received a notice of eviction. She went to see one Omaha Detective Armbrister, who was not much help. While at the local grocery store, Jamie encountered the children from the building, but they did not speak to her. Outside, there was a priest standing in the street, staring at her. She returned to her grandmother's apartment to discover a message: "Jamie go home".
Jamie questioned the building manager, Jerry Ulrich who was of no help. She investigated the basement and found a crop of carrots and tomatoes. She fled when she heard a group of children laughing and ran into a man with a gun, who told her to keep out of the basement. She later met two more tenants, an old man in a wheelchair, who swore at everyone, and a young woman named Tiffany, a stripper. Jerry invited Jamie to a BBQ on the roof, to which she agreed. On the roof, Jerry took a bite of corn and discovered there was blood inside. He was then shoved off the roof by the two children. When Jamie arrived, he was nowhere to be found, and she saw the priest watching her from the ground.
That night, Jamie had a nightmare in which her grandmother was lured from her house by a strange voice to some railroad tracks. The next day, Jamie went to see Det. Armbrister who revealed that Jamie's grandmother was part of a religious cult when she was a child 60 years earlier. The kids, who were led by a boy-preacher named Abel, committed suicide by entering a tent and setting it ablaze. Only Jamie's grandmother survived. Jamie's grandmother's apartment was built upon the site of the fire. This was ironic, because Jamie's parents were killed in a house fire.
Tiffany returned home and, while taking a bath, she was attacked by one of the children who used corn to strangle her, before taking her body. Det. Armbrister and Jamie arrived at the apartment, but didn't notice Tiffany's body lying nearby in the cornfield. Later, after Det. Armbrister left, the old man in the wheelchair was attacked by the kids and pushed through a stair balcony to fall to his death.
Jamie returned to the grocery store, which was ransacked. She spotted a girl wearing her grandmother's hat and chased after her, failing to notice the storeowner's severed head inside a drink cooler. Jamie returned to the apartment, where she ran into the man with the gun. He revealed that everyone else had disappeared and that he was leaving. As he made his escape, the kids trapped him in an elevator and scared him so much, that he had a fatal heart attack. The kids then dragged his body off.
At the same time, Det. Armbrister was summoned to the grocery store where the store owners remains had been discovered. He made the connection to Jamie and headed straight out to find her.
Meanwhile, the priest arrived and told Jamie about the history of Gatlin, and the creature known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows", who he apparently believed was the devil. The priest revealed that Jamie’s grandmother was dead and that, if she did not leave, she too would be killed. The priest then left and some of the children arrived to take Jamie down to the basement, where there were now rows of corn growing. Abel appeared and the children closed in on Jamie. One of the children revealed herself to be Jamie's grandmother and though a child, spoke in the voice of an old woman.

Jamie fled, but Abel used his power to prevent her from leaving. Cornered, Jamie faced Abel and the children, who asked her to join them. Jamie agreed, but it was only a distraction so she could cause a gas explosion, though Abel was unscathed.
Abel used corn stalks to tie down Jamie, but she was rescued by Det. Armbrister and they both managed to escape before the apartment exploded and destroyed the corn as well. It was implied that the souls of the children were freed and Abel was killed.
* * *
Like pretty much everyone else in the nation at the time, I was functionally shattered by what happened on 9/11/2001, so when this happened barely a month later, both I and local authorities were caught completely off guard yet again. This time, it happened in Omaha which is the eastern most big city in Nebraska and nearly completely on the other side of the state. Furthermore, it was caused by an instance of the cult that predated the one in Gatlin, which had always been believed to be the original case. This case left all wondering exactly how old He Who Walks Behind The Rows is and how long he has haunted this region.
Genesis - California
In 1973, in a town twenty miles from Gatlin, children rose up and murdered their parents as they had in Gatlin years earlier. Forty years later, in the California desert, Tim and Allie's car broke down and they attempted to find shelter in a remote desert farmhouse after becoming lost. A strange Charles Manson-like character, The Preacher, allowed them inside to use the phone. The couple found out they wouldn't be able to get tow service until the following day. The Preacher and his Ukrainian wife Oksana (also known as Helen) let them stay the night with strict orders to be gone by morning, and not wander "where you are not invited". They found their hosts weird but didn't think much of it and headed to bed after dinner. Allie wandered off in the middle of the night after using the outhouse, and discovered the garage has been converted into a cult worshipping church. She then stumbled upon a crumbling outbuilding where she heard faint cries coming from a child.
Allie ran back and told Tim what she‘d witnessed, but at first he didn’t believe her. He agreed to confront the Preacher about the voices, but fell into a hypnotized trance while viewing digital photos in the Preacher's camera. The child then walked into the house and planted a seed inside Allie and disappeared before being seen. Tim and Allie tried to leave the house, but got locked inside by a supernatural force. Allie called the police, but was unsure if she got through as the line got cut off halfway. Allie fell asleep and dreamed about being murdered by children in a cornfield. Allie and Tim woke up to headlights flashing into the room and a cop arrived to check on the house but was thrown into the air and killed by the supernatural force. After witnessing this Tim insisted on answers from the Preacher, learning that the supernatural force needed children to survive and had already planted a seed inside Allie.
Come morning, a parcel delivery driver dropped things off at the house. He agreed to give Tim and Allie a ride into town. Tim had a bad feeling about the driver so he took off with Allie in the abandoned police vehicle instead. They got to the main road.

The child in the outbuilding then killed Helen and psychokinetically caused Tim and Allie to have a car accident, in which Tim died. The parcel driver approached the accident and brought Allie back to the farmhouse where a group of children and their mothers greeted her. In a trance, she sat next to the little child in the outbuilding and began to sing to him. The child was then seen playing with a doll, then dropped it on the floor, which caused the cop's corpse to fall from the sky onto the ground.
* * *
This story reached me before …things changed and I wasn’t able to investigate it. The idea that there might be branches of the cult in forgotten corners of the nation everywhere is very disturbing, but then again, this and Chicago seem to be the only outliers and this instance was carried by a survivor of the initial cult purge in Gatlin. Perhaps He Who Walks Behind The Rows, if it even exists, is not necessary to spread the cults influence. Perhaps survivors trauma is all that’s needed to start it all over and over again. It may take generations for this cult to be eliminated from the world, if it even can.
Forbidden Lore
The Darklord
The Darklord of Gatlin is, of course, He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and the scientist, John Garrett met with who had the theory about Amillaria Ostoyae was actually closer than he realized. The entity that identifies as He Who Walks Behind the Rows exists as a vast network of plant matter that extends throughout most of the state of Nebraska, similar in structure to Amillaria Ostoyae. It feeds off the Ogallala aquifer for water as do all plants in the region and becomes active when corn grows tall above it. It’s hard to guess how long it’s been there since even before Nebraska was farmed, it was all grassland. The entity is similar in its powers to those of the entity, Cthulhu, only if it lurks below the land rather than the sea It is also telepathic and visit its followers in dreams, but drives them to fanaticism rather than madness and usually only targets disaffected children rather than adults. It has become familiar with old school evangelical Christianity and has developed a corrupt doctrine through which it enslaves populations until someone is able to break its control. Its influence usually takes hold during hard times when people‘s spirits are low. It always begins by choosing one particularly disaffected and/or pious child from among a population and, through dreams and visions, leads them to believe that they have had divine revelations and must embrace the word of God as revealed to them. The doctrine begins with one biblical quote from Isaiah 11:6, ”And a little child shall lead them.” Child preachers are not unheard of in evangelical circles, so the chosen children’s ideas are not dismissed as fantasy. The child preachers will lead the other children out into the nearest cornfield and deliver the message of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The general thrust of the message is that all problems are caused by adults, and the best way to end problems is to destroy all adults in the community. Any person, child or adult, regularly exposed to this indoctrination will eventually become convinced of the truth of it and this usually ends with the children of the community killing all of the adults, including and especially the children’s parents. Those murdered by the cult are generally buried in the cornfield where their bodies fertilize the earth and make the corn grow stronger.

The children then become lifelong servants to the corn and He Who Walks Behind the Rows under the guidance of whatever child preacher has led them to this. He Who Walks Behind the Rows has proven able to confer gifts upon its followers, such as remaining young for decades at a time, or the ability to animate an adults corpse, so that it seems the Children have adult supervision.
Since all children age, He Who Walks Behind the Rows has his child preachers eliminate members of the flock who grow too old. In Gatlin, this involved a ritual bloodletting of the congregant at 19 from a pentagram carved into their chest. The younger congregants would drink the blood until the 19 year old was dead from blood loss, then the corpse would be taken to the cornfield for burial so that they may fertilize the growing corn alongside all who passed before them. The pre-ritual differed for male congregants and female congregants. At 19, a male congregant would choose a female with whom he would like to have a child and the two are left alone to procreate. Once the girl is verified as pregnant, the ’passing‘ ritual proceeds for the boy. A girl’s ritual starts a year earlier. When a girl turn 18, it was she who would choose from the male congregants to father her child, then a year later, after her baby has been born and weaned. Her ritual of passing may proceed when she turns 19. It is unknown what other rituals most other chapters of the Children of the Corn practiced except for the one at Divinity Falls, who had their members cast themselves into the burning silo as offerings. Given the ages of the cultists finally taken into custody by law enforcement when the assemblies were broken up, it’s clear that something was done with older members, but it has yet to be learned what.
Sometimes, the Children of the Corn will allow older adults to live among them if they can provide needed skills like medicine, animal care, machine repair, or fuel formulation. Almost any other skill, like cooking or first aid, can be learned by the children so these people make a point of keeping their heads down and doing what’s expected of them. They live in stark terror of the Children and it doesn’t take much for the child cultists to turn on adults, even if it’s against one who provides needed resources or a relative.
Also, the corn, if planted somewhere outside of the Nebraska realm, can give rise to a separate, smaller, entity that will also cultivate it’s own cult of children swearing obedience to He Who Walks Behind the Rows. It is unknown if these satellite corn walkers are somehow the same entity or not.
The Corn and the Children
Once indoctrinated, the children will do literally anything for He Who Walks Behind the Rows. In Divinity Falls, one girl became so consumed by her indoctrination that she cast herself directly into the burning silo. Adults are not completely immune to the indoctrination but are generally able to shrug it off. That’s why all adults, known or unknown, are targeted for murder the minute they enter the Corn Children’s domain. Outsider children, however, are lured, taken, or just forced into the cornfield at the nearest opportunity so that they may be taught the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Sometimes, the cult will then give these children the task of murdering their parents, which they may or may not be able to keep themselves from doing.
As a chapter of the cult is established and all adults within a days walk are murdered or frightened off, The Children of the Corn claim all structures and vehicles within that area by putting cornstalks and leaves within them, sometimes.shaped into the form of religious icons. All symbols and texts in any local churches are changed to reflect the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows as are all learning materials in schools. This is often done by the child preacher and his closest followers themselves.
The corn itself has magical powers of its own. It can grow to maturity almost overnight, has a seemingly-perfect natural invulnerability to disease, and the ability to grow out-of-season and in the worst of soil. Another property the corn possesses is it warps the minds of those who eat it, making adults enter a deluded state of cheerful, naive apathy and children turn into followers of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. This is perhaps its most insidious power as many greedy people may think they have found the solution to world hunger in this corn but may only spread a terrible pestilence masquerading as sustenance.
Confronting The Children and He Who Walks Behind The Rows
Outsider adults who find themselves confronted by a murderous band of Corn Children in a town or on a road are in a certain amount of danger but should be able to fight them off in most circumstances. Generally the corn children will be smaller than them and unskilled in fighting.The elderly and disabled can find themselves at a serious disadvantage, however. The children can be quite lethal with the sickles, axes, and other farm tools they have used their whole lives. but most adults with even a small conception of fighting skills will generally able to fend them off or outrun them provided they don’t panic. The children have also learned how to move very quietly and generally use ambush tactics. They usually strike from behind when outsiders aren’t looking so those who have learned to pay attention to their surroundings can often catch them. Because of this disadvantage, the children will often try to trap adults in buildings or vehicles and light them on fire, but the worst thing they’ll do is lure any outsiders into the corn fields where the corn itself will turn against them. He Who Walks Behind the Rows uses every part of the corn plant to lethal effect. The stalks, leaves, and roots all strike and entangle victims with surprising speed. The leaves, when dry can be remarkably sharp and a person caught in them can find themselves cut up and bleeding badly. The stalks, when broken, can also be very sharp and make lethal projectiles when thrown by other cornstalks or driven by the wind. He Who Walks Behind the Rows has also demonstrated the ability to generate powerful, but very brief, wind and rain storms to attack it’s targets. Every once in a while, one of the corn children will realize the horrible insanity they have been a part of and try to flee the cult. These ‘unbelievers’ are hunted mercilessly by the others and, should they step into one of the corn fields, the corn will turn on them as well. Many an outsider has been lured into the cults town by a child‘s corpse found in the ditch between the road and the corn. To fight against He Who Walks Behind the Rows and his children, one must destroy the corn, all of it, as much as can be destroyed.
This has been done by fire, poison, and the many large harvesting machines that are everywhere in farm country. The children and the corn itself will do everything they can to defend the crop, including and especially standing in front of a harvester, hoping the operator will stop which most do.

Whatever the case, once enough of the corn is destroyed, the children are released from bondage to it, but not freed, for they know, as does He Who Walks Behind the Rows, that rain will fall again, plants will sprout, corn will again grow high, and children will again hear the voices in their heads. To truly destroy He Who Walks Behind the Rows, almost all of Nebraska would have to be dug up to discover and destroy all the entity’s roots beneath all the fields. This is fundamentally impossible since the day the mists rose, the central government and most technology that could do it was lost to the people of Nebraska.
Scarecrow Sacrifices - Occasionally, an adult or one of the cultists would do something that He Who Walks Behind the Rows, his local child preacher, or both, felt required a special example be made. When this happened, this person was tied alive to a cross in the cornfield as a sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows and left there to die. Once dead, the corpse was dressed in old clothes to disguise it and left there to feed the crows. This is not done by every chapter of the corn cult, but by some. These corpses, unless taken down and properly laid to rest, can be enslaved and used to defend the corn by He Who Walks Behind the Rows should the corn be threatened with destruction by outsiders.
Corn Bibles - Some of the child preachers chosen by He Who Walks Behind the Rows write down what is revealed to them in large books. Some of the preachers who were well schooled in scripture would rewrite the whole of the Bible around the doctrine of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. These Bibles are often decorated with corn kernels in patterns of holy symbols. They also become bonded to the child preachers, are direct links to the power of He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and can keep them young for decades. The preacher can only be killed if the Bible is destroyed and vice versa. If the child preacher is killed but the Bible id not destroyed, then the child preacher will heal. If the Bible is destroyed but not the child preacher, then the child preacher begins to age at an accelerated rate and must recreate the Bible in order to save themselves.
The Realm
The realm of the entity that identifies as He Who Walks Behind the Rows stretches from the edge of North Omaha, NE in the east to Divinity Falls in the northwest corner of the state. It runs like a spiderweb under the earth along the Platte River basin, but can’t grow under major, closely built, urban areas like Omaha, Most other ‘large’ cities in Nebraska have a fairly small, closely built, downtown area surrounded by suburban developments interwoven with farm fields. If these fields have spawned chapters of the corn cult, they have not been exposed, yet.

[Manofevil]

The Adversary
The Adversary of He Who Walks Behind the Rows and The Children of the Corn is the ghost of Frank Redbear. Frank was a doctor in anthropology of the State University, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln or UNL, famous for its Cornhusker sports teams, in that region. He came to Gaitlin and Hemingsford to investigate what drove the children at Gaitlin into committing the mass murder of adults there.
Frank Redbear was full blooded Ponca tribe and a descendant of the great chief, Standing Bear, who is famously remembered as the greatest civil rights leader of indigenous Americans that ever lived. When Standing Bear was on trial in 1879 for leaving Indian territory in Omaha Ne, The great chief was allowed to make a speech on his own behalf. Raising his right hand, Standing Bear proceeded to speak. Among his words were, "That hand is not the color of yours, but if I prick it, the blood will flow, and I shall feel pain," he said. "The blood is of the same color as yours. God made me, and I am a Man.” Because of this speech and the decision rendered by the court, all indigenous Americans were officially recognized as human beings by American law from then on.
Frank teamed up with John Garrett, who became the Corn Cult’s chronicler, to investigate what was happening. Frank led John to ancient Native American rock paintings, and told him that Native Americans believed the area around Gatlin and Hemingford held special power which could magnify good or bad, and that children were especially vulnerable: Frank recited a story which told of children killing their elders, but also how if it ended with a funeral pyre, a good spirit would emerge and further stipulated that the rock paintings showed that this had not yet come to pass.
He discovered the Afrotoxin in corn which contributed to the disaster, and that the townspeople were mixing in every years harvest to expand their profits. The Sheriff discovered them spying on the site, tied them up, and left them to be killed by a corn harvester, but they escaped. Along the way, John questioned Frank further about what was going on. Frank told how Native Americans believed in a spirit who would seek revenge for perceived wrongs done to the land, and that He Who Walks Behind the Rows was this spirit.
John and Frank drove the harvester into the cornfield where they found John’s son being harangued to join the Corn Cult in sacrificing a girl. John and Frank‘s arrival dispersed the Children but one of them shot Frank with an arrow, wounding him, while John and his son freed the intended sacrifices and attempted to escape but the cornfield seemed endless and they shortly found themselves right where they started. The Corn Cult’s leader attempted to harness the power of He Who Walks Behind the Rows but Frank restarted the harvester as he died. The cult’s leader‘s robe got caught in the machine and he was pulled in, killing him. The rest of the Children scattered, and John and his family left the clearing.
John and his family later burned Frank's body in what they believed to be a traditional Native American funeral pyre, before they drove off together. Some time later, Frank was seen doing additions to the rock paintings to show that the story had come to pass, with his spirit having become the protector of the area.
Frank’s spirit will often appear to outsiders or cultists fleeing from the Corn Cult. He will never lead them away from their pursuers, though, only toward why they will need to destroy the cult.
Border Closure
When He Who Walks Behind the Rows and/or the Children of the Corn’s leader want to prevent outsiders or fleeing cultists from escaping, the cornfields become endless and always lead back to the Children. The same thing happens to cars on the roads. All roads lead back to the Children of the Corn.
Dread Possibilities
All Those Lost - Anyone who has died at the hands of the Children of the Corn or been killed by the corn itself can rise again as some form of vengeful undead should the Neo-Red Death choose . The single exception are the Scarecrow Sacrifices which will always rise as thralls of the He Who Walks Behind the Rows.
Outside the Realm - Unlike most other entities trapped by the Neo-Red Death, the entity known as He Who Walks Behind the Rows can establish itself outside of its assigned realm. If the corn is planted elsewhere, it sprouts up and generates a smaller version of He Who Walks Behind the Rows in that area, as it famously did in Chicago. It has the same weaknesses and can be destroyed in the same way, however.
The Corn Shipments - During the Chicago incident, a shipment of corn was sent to Germany where it still sits…waiting to be distributed, eaten, and or planted.
Gabriel’s Child - Hannah walked away from her night with Gabriel and the Children of the Corn pregnant with his child. The child must have been born by now. What if it’s a boy? What if it’s a girl.
Survivors - Any adults that escape being murdered by the Children of the Corn and any Chidren who escape from the cult or survive a chapter’s destruction never really get over the trauma. The horrors of their experiences can come back on them even decades later, especially should the Corn Cult rear its ugly head again nearby. That’s what happened in the California desert and it’s still there, even though it’s right next door to several other realms.
Mr. Whippin - No one knows where he came from. Some say he is black, others white, all agree on what he wears. He’s dressed in work boots, denim overalls, a plaid shirt, and carries a long four inch wide leather belt in his hand. No one knows where he lives, either. All that’s known for certain is that sometimes when a chapter of the Children of the Corn gets established, this man walks out out of the morning haze and begins to stalk the Children of the Corn. Any he finds and catches, he thrashed their backsides until they cry uncontrollably. This whipping, while harsh, actually breaks the hold the Children and the Corn and He Who Walks Behind the Rows has on them. Once the hold is broken, the children realize what all they have made to do and usually keep crying until they decide what to do next. Meanwhile, Mr. Whippin moves on to find and whip the next child. He’s too big for any of them to fight off and even large groups of them can’t seem to bring him down. He never stops until every child is freed from the cult or until He Who Walks Behind the Rows does something to stop him. There are stories of him being burned inside buildings and others of him being swept away by tornadoes. There are also all kinds of stories of his origins. Some say he’s the parent of one of the child preachers who founded a chapter of the Children of the Corn. Others say he was a relative of one of the familes who was killed by them and decided he had his own solution. Whatever the case, this is the enemy The Children of the Corn fear most.