by Bryan Young
“Are you crazy?!” Dallas yelled. “You want to hunt a massive alien elephant twice the size of the biggest elephant on the planet as a bonding experience?”
“Well. Yeah.”
Dallas drew in a deep breath and exhaled. Then he stood up and took off his jersey, carefully folding it over his sleeping back, and then placed his shoes on top. He then walked back to the group, clapped his hands, and asked, “How do we do it?”
“You’re actually on board with this, Dallas?!” Kato asked, surprised.
He nodded and simply said, “Yeah. I am.”
Surprised, Tye gave a teasing clap of approval with a stupid grin still plastered on his face. “All right!” he shouted, pumping his fists into the air. “Since everyone is on board, here’s how this is gonna go down.”
Tye spent the next hour explaining his plan to the group, taking questions and revising his scheme to fit everyone into the mix and to make sure everyone’s role was significant.
The group agreed to set out in the evening as Tye pointed out that the animal’s eyes were small and shallow, so it was likely his vision wasn’t very strong. They spent the rest of the day as Dallas had suggested, taking some time to hone their talents and relax in anticipation of the coming hunt.
As day began to turn into night, they set out into the vast expanse. Tye took point as they flew into the air with Ashley and Carmelita holding Kato and Dallas respectively who had both reluctantly agreed to be flown for the occasion.
They flew aimlessly for roughly half an hour, searching the forest for any sign of the large alien pachyderm. Just as they were about to give up and return to the cave, Tye’s ears picked up the familiar massive trumpet and motioned for the group to follow him towards it. As they got closer to the now very audible noise, they all immediately noticed trees being knocked over in a path that seemed to be heading towards a large body of water.
They moved towards the animal in silence, desperately trying to avoid detection so that they didn’t scare it away and ruin their plans. Soon, they were only fifty feet or so above its massive back. Tye nodded, signaling that this was the creature he had seen and also that the plan was now officially in action. Dallas was to go first, nodding to Carmelita that he was ready. She dropped him in front of the alien.
As he hurtled through the air, Dallas transformed into the familiar hulk and smashed into the ground with such force that he created a small impact crater, unaffected by the hard landing. He stared at the alien creature, which was now fully aware of him. It assumed a defensive position and trumpeted. Dallas stood his ground and slowly approached the beast.
Not one to be scared off by a challenger, especially one so small, it lowered its tusks into the ground and stomped its feet, shaking the ground around it. Dallas responded by cracking his fists and neck. The beast’s eyes grew wide as it saw that the challenger wasn’t scared off by its display. Without warning, it charged forward to attack. In a fashion that almost mirrored Tye’s feat two days ago, Dallas grabbed onto its tusks and used all his weight and strength to drive the beast backwards, tiring it out in the process. After nearly a minute of exerting all his energy, he yelled out to Carmelita, and she flew down into action.
Swiping both her hands, she cratered the ground in front of the creature as Dallas jumped back. She created a sinkhole that swept it from under its feet and trapped its hind legs. It struggled in vain to pull nearly its entire body weight out of the sinkhole. Satisfied, she signaled to Ashley and Kato for their roles to commence as she landed near Dallas to make sure the beast didn’t climb up out of the hole.
Ashley flew towards the ground and dropped Kato off nearby, and he took off into the forest. Ashley ran over to where Dallas and Carmelita were waiting and the struggling beast was now almost successful in pulling itself out of the crater. She put her hands out and shot two beams of energy under the creature’s front legs, collapsing the ground and causing it to slide back into the hole. She then put her hand out and summoned a ring of fiery energy from around the top of the hole that the creature dared not try and escape from. Dallas and Ashley walked over to see the fruits of their labor as Kato came flying in with a massive net of vines tied together.
Watching over the progress, Tye floated down onto the ground and gave the thumbs up for Carmelita to initiate the final phase of the plan. Raising both her arms in the air, she lifted the creature out of the hole and wrapped the massive net around it and then dropping it on the ground.
Tye walked around the captured animal and placed his hands on it. It was breathing heavily and was far too tired to struggle against its restraints. He yelped with excitement and cheered, “What’s gonna work?! Teamwork!”
“Wait, if it’s a team effort, what was your part again? You left that out when you were explaining our roles to us,” Carmelita pointed out.
“Ah,” Tye answered as if he was waiting for someone to ask. “The most important part of this whole thing.” He walked around towards its massive head and looked into its watery pleading eyes. “Ash,” he said solemnly.
“Yeah, Tye?”
“This net can definitely take the weight of this thing, right?”
“Yeah. The tensile strength of those things is crazy. With them woven together like that they should hold from my experience,” she turned to him and put her hands on her hips. “Why?”
Tye winked at her and then grabbed a loose vine. Before anyone could say anything, he took off into the air with the alien elephant in tow. Shocked, they stood in silence. Moments later, Tye came back without the giant.
“Tye. What did you do...?” Carmelita asked, confused.
“Oh. I let it go,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.
The rest of the teens let out a collective “WHAT!”
“You said we were hunting it!” Ashley whined, throwing her hands up in the air. “We did all that for nothing?”
“I said it was a team-building exercise, not a requiem for bloodthirsty savages. Sheesh.”
“So what’re we gonna eat?” Dallas asked, crossing his arms.
“Well, not that,” Tye shrugged. “Wait. You guys didn’t actually expect to eat that thing, did you? You saw how big it was, right? One of its legs would’ve filled us for weeks. It’d be a waste of food! Plus, the thrill is in the chase, not the kill.”
“So what now?” Carmelita asked.
Tye scratched the back of his head and looked around. “Well, we should probably get dinner. We can hunt something a bit smaller to satisfy your thirst for blood and our collective stomachs.”
“We going back to the cave?” Carmelita countered.
Tye shook his head. “Again, this is all part of the team building! We can go on an actual food hunt and have a little campout right here to break up the monotony.”
Within the next hour, they had found and killed another boar and decided to stoke up a fire where they were to cook it. They stripped down nearby trees and used vines from the dense part of the forest to cobble together a stand to roast it over.
As they sat around the flames, watching the pig-like alien cook, Ashley walked over to the sinkhole and peered inside. She then turned to the group and said, “You know. I’m sure we could fill this thing with water from the lake nearby, right?”
“You wanna fill that dirty-ass hole with water and then have us drink from it?” Tye asked.
“Yeah. I mean, we can easily pack the edges with rocks and leaves, so it doesn’t just get absorbed into the ground, but I’m pretty sure I can boil out any impurities,” she replied, as she sat back down with the rest of the group.
Tye nodded in approval and then asked, “Okay, but how are we gonna fill that thing with water?”
Ashley turned to Carmelita and asked, “Hey, does your telekinesis happen to work on liquids?”
Carmelita nodded. “It should be just fine. It’s a little harder for me to grab a liquid than a solid but it should be okay. Did you want me to make the trip?”
“Yes please!” Ash
ley said politely.
Carmelita stretched and stood up. “Sure,” she responded sweetly. “But,” she pointed at Tye, “he’s gotta come with.”
“What?” Tye said, louder than he intended to before standing up and walking over to her. “Why me? That’s work.”
“Because. I don’t want to walk alone in a dark forest by myself?” she said, sticking her tongue out.
“We can’t just fly?” Tye asked. “I mean since we can, I feel like it makes the most sense.”
Carmelita rolled her eyes and began walking into the woods, motioning for Tye to follow her. He groaned and jogged to catch up.
The path they were following was lit by a number of bioluminescent plants and animals growing and crawling around them. For some time, neither of them said anything. They simply observed the strange yet beautiful world around them, taking in the absolute splendor of an environment they had only ever imagined seeing in movies or in their dreams.
It wasn’t until Tye tripped and Carmelita stopped him from falling face first with her telekinesis did they speak the first words to each other since they had left.
“Thanks for the assist, buddy!” Tye said as he was lifted back to his feet.
“No problem, pal,” Carmelita chuckled.
As the two continued walking, Tye felt more comfortable talking. “So, why’d you bring me on this little adventure through the woods? And why didn’t you want to fly?”
Her eyes darted to the ground and she grabbed her left arm as she said, “Honestly? To talk.”
Tye looked at her confused, “Well, you haven’t done a whole lot of that. Is there something wrong?”
“I don’t really know how to address it...”
Tye’s eyes grew wide and large smile formed on his face, “OH!” he yelled, placing his hand on the back of his head. “You brought me all the way out here to tell me that you dig me? What a totally cliché moment. You know, I—”
Before Tye could finish, Carmelita burst out laughing. “OH. MY. GOD. NOO!” she yelled as Tye’s shoulders dropped, dejected at the rejection. He asked what she meant with much less moxy and a visibly bruised ego.
“Something slightly more important than a stupid crush. A crush that doesn’t exist by the way,” she said, still chuckling.
Tye’s attention was piqued at this. Standing straight again, he waited to hear what Carmelita had to say. “Important? What is it?”
Carmelita turned awkward again as she tried to find the best way to explain herself. “Well, remember when we first met and I put my hand on your forehead?”
Still confused, Tye slowly replied, “Yeah...?”
“Well, in that moment,” Carmelita said, still hesitating, “I might’ve read your mind. But not just your current thoughts, I saw... a lot.”
Impatiently, Tye asked her to just be honest and say what she had on her mind. She sighed and finally said, “I saw what happened at the hills, Tye.”
Tye stopped walking and stared at her with wide eyes. As soon as she turned to face him, he started stammering, “I... I... I’m sorry, Carmelita. I... I didn’t know. This... I had no idea it would cause any of this. I just wanted to see something cool with my friends and I’m so sorry...”
She folded her arms and frowned, then put her hand on his shoulder and quietly said, “Tye, it’s okay. There was no way for you guys to know that going on a hike would lead to any of this. You can’t blame yourself for something nobody on earth even knew could be a problem.”
Looking away, he somberly said, “Yeah, but it’s still my fault and I hate that.”
“It’s not your fault!” she said forcefully.
“Isn’t it? Is that how other people would see it? There’s a reason I haven’t told anyone. I’d be hated. People inside and outside this place would blame me for nearly causing the death of the entire planet... or maybe not even nearly. That’s a burden that I... It’s not something I think I can handle.”
“Tye, I’m not gonna tell anyone. I brought you out here to tell you this away from everyone else. You don’t have to worry about that,” she said, trying to calm him down. “This stays between you and me. I just felt I should tell you that I knew.”
He leaned against a nearby tree, still trying to gather his thoughts. “It’s not even about telling people though. I mean, yeah, I’d like to keep that under wraps, but it’s the responsibility that I still feel. There’s a reason I didn’t want to be anyone’s leader, y’know? I don’t like being responsible for others. Sure, I can be responsible for myself and handle my own shit, but other people? If I fail and they get hurt, then that shit is on me forever. And I won’t be able to ever let it go if someone gets hurt on my watch.”
Carmelita leaned on the tree next to him. “I hear you. But that’s life, dude. Sometimes you’re gonna be responsible for others and sometimes bad things are going to happen. And it’s not like you’re a stranger to that.”
“What do you mean?” Tye asked.
“I’ve been in your head, dude. Diverting those guards at the hills, protecting Rakesh, coming here because you felt like you caused this? You’ve been taking responsibility even though you don’t feel like you have and you’ve done a great job of it so far. You’re more responsible and more of a leader than you think. They say those are two of the best qualities of a hero.”
“Hero? Let’s pause on that talk. I’m just a guy that wants to help. And what about this one, Carmelita? How do I follow through and get us out of here?” Tye asked.
She shrugged and pushed herself off the tree, “By kicking ass at these last two trials and saving the world. Simple.”
Tye took in a deep breath and exhaled as he walked towards her. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said. “Ass-kicking kinda is our thing now, right?”
Carmelita nodded and did a kick in the air, making the karate “hiyah” sound.
“Nice kick there, buddy. So, did you see anything else in my head that you wanna discuss?”
She thought for a second. “Eh. Just that you think I’m hot. And that your last name is Cooper. Which is cute. Maybe I should call you that,” she said, winking.
Tye rolled his eyes as they resumed walking, chatting and making their way towards the lake. When they reached it, Carmelita used her telekinesis to roll a large amount of water into a sphere and levitate it over them as they flew back to the group.
Chapter 14: The Truth
Carmelita and Tye rejoined the others just in time to see Ashley finishing up the makeshift well. Carmelita deposited the water into the structure and stood back. Ashley then reached both arms into the water and instantly it began boiling, with impurities rising to the top. She asked Carmelita if she could remove them, to which she obliged. Thanking her, Ashley turned her attention back to the water and instantaneously, the boiling stopped and the water was still.
She called over to the others to come and see how it worked and one by one, they reached into the pit and drank the cool refreshing water, the likes of which they had never tasted. Initially using their hands to take sips, they eventually dunked their heads into their well to take in as much of the rejuvenating liquid as possible.
Once satisfied, they stepped back and made their way back to the fire, leaving Ashley and Carmelita to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
Kato stripped the meat, using the massive leaves from the surrounding trees as makeshift plates. As they gathered around the fire, Tye unexpectedly stood up to speak.
“You gonna make a speech?” Kato asked.
“Not in the slightest,” Tye responded. “I just wanted to say that this is all going according to plan. And now it’s time for phase 2.”
A collective murmur rose and with a wide grin on his face, Tye pulled out two large bags of sour candy from his backpack and dangled it for everyone to see.
“YOU HAD FOOD THIS WHOLE TIME?!” Kato yelled.
Tye rolled his eyes and said, “Dude, it’s two bags of candy and we haven’t exactly been starving out here.”
“Oh,” Kato responded. “So, why bring it out then?”
Tye sat down and opened one of the bags. “We’re gonna do a little team-bonding exercise that I call ‘Real Talk Campfire.’ We’re all gonna say something interesting about ourselves, something deep and meaningful, as a way of getting to know each other better. Each person that says something gets a handful of candy. Deal?”
“Who decides what’s deep and meaningful?” Dallas asked. “What if someone just says some bullshit like their favorite color?”
“Fair point, Dallas. Which is why i’mma be the one asking the questions. You guys are free to go wherever you want with your answers but they’re not gonna be softballs.”
“Sounds fair,” Ashley commented. “Who goes first?”
“I’ll take it,” Dallas responded immediately, surprising everyone with his eagerness.
This brought a smile to Tye’s face. He rubbed his hands together like a horsefly spotting a fresh pile of rotten meat. “Okay... Dallas,” he began, popping one of the candies into his mouth. “Tell me. Where does the anger come from, man? I feel like the whole time you’ve been here, you’ve been pretty uh... hostile?”
“That’s supposed to be deep?” Dallas chuckled.
“Well, it’s not exactly a discussion about whether or not the universe has any meaning. But for our purposes, I feel like there’s enough to unpack there,” Tye responded.
“Fair enough,” Dallas said, shrugging. “I think the first thing you all have to understand is that I come from a football background. As you can tell by my favorite jersey, I live, breathe, and eat football. And I guess I’ve always stuck by the mantra that when somebody on your team screws up, somebody has to say something. Because you’re only as strong as your weakest link. And sometimes that’s going to come out a lot tougher than people are maybe used to.”