“This is where it gets freaking hard,” said Johnny. “Now we have to leave the path to go into the deeper woods.”
“Yeah,” said Jake. “And it's gonna be a lot harder carrying Randy but we can do it. I want to see his face when he sees it and he knows the saucer is real.”
Michael laughed. “And if we get too tired we can just leave him in the forest. Bears need to eat too.”
“Yeah funny,” said Randy.
Suddenly they could all hear voices on the wind in the distance; they couldn't make out what they were saying but they were familiar. One definitely sounded like Harold complaining. Sam took his father's binoculars out of his backpack, gazing back down the trail from where they had come, and sure enough he could see Harold and the other two arguing about something. They were definitely being followed.
“Sam, what do you see?” Johnny asked.
Sam took time studying them through the binoculars before he answered. “Harold, Timothy and Rolland are following us. Here, take a look.” He passed the binoculars to Johnny. “What the hell do we do? We can't let them follow us to the saucer!”
“Relax,” said Michael. “All we have to do is keep going. We're only like a mile in, they're not gonna follow us the rest of the way. Those three are too lazy to follow us off the path. They'll turn back or get lost.”
“Yeah,” said Randy. “He's right. I'll bet that they don't even have any food with them.”
Jake laughed. “Yeah, we might find their rotting corpses on the way back.”
Johnny shook his head. “Now that's something I wouldn't want to see. Harold stinks enough now. I just hope they're smart enough to turn back.”
“Yeah,” said Randy. “Just imagine them covered in maggots and their skin falling off and their eyeballs hanging out. Gross.”
Sam nodded. “It's a wonder Harold didn't get his grandmother to follow us.”
They all laughed.
Michael imitated what he thought his grandmother might sound like. “Wait up you young punks!”
Chapter Thirteen
AT JUST ABOUT AN HOUR BEFORE NOON John drove into the driveway jerking the car to a stop; he stared off at nothing in particular as he thought about his next move, but his inebriated mind was having trouble focusing. He hadn't gone home last night, having spent the night in the bar. He knew driving drunk was stupid for all concerned; he not only risked his own life but others as well. John slowly rested his head on the steering wheel, turning his head and staring at the white box on the seat next to him that contained a dozen red roses. It was a gesture to show his wife Stella that he still cared and actions were always more important than words, but his actions weren't too impressive lately. He knew he had to get out of the car but he didn't want to go in there; he knew he was going to get a tongue lashing and worst of all he deserved it.
John fell asleep and commenced to snore. He dreamt of Randy playing ball hockey; he was running and laughing, having a great time, until he was hit by a car and thrown awkwardly into the air. The sound of the impact with the silver car's bumper startled him awake.
His eyes tried hard to focus on the flowers. “Why did I buy these stupid things?” John said to himself. “Probably gonna beat me with 'em.” He opened the door and sat there for another minute or two and then fell out. It had been a couple of hours since his last drink and he thought that he had sobered up, at least a little. Too much whiskey and not enough time had passed to get it out of his system. He got up and fell against the car hitting his head; it didn't hurt but he would feel it when he sobered up.
John got up and reached for the car door but missed; he fell on the lawn and rolled downhill for almost a dozen feet. Although Stella wanted to cry she had to laugh at his drunken behavior as she watched from the window. She really did love him and wanted so much for him to change but the alcohol had him by the throat and was choking the life out of him. Before Randy's accident he hadn't imbibed much at all, but now it was every chance he got. John got up once again but gravity appeared to have a much greater pull than he was used to; still on his feet he couldn't stop himself from going left, staggering so far that his wife couldn't see him anymore. He had crashed headfirst into several shiny garbage cans and was struggling to get up, like a turtle on its back. What must the neighbors think?
Finally back up on his feet he staggered back into view with a banana peel on his shoulder. “Oh yeah, the flowers!” John managed to open the car door and get the long box of flowers; he made his way to the steps as Stella disappeared from the window. He fell once again, squashing the box and some of the flowers, finally making it into the house.
“I cannot believe that you were driving like that!” Stella screamed at him. “You are going to kill yourself or someone else. Do you really want that on your conscience?”
John's words were slurred as he staggered to the sofa and let himself fall on it. “These roses are for you, to show you how much I love you, and and and also so you won't kick me out.”
Stella took the flowers and tossed them across the room. “I don't want your damn flowers I want you to stop drinking! Do you hear me! Do you see how our neighbors look at us? They pity us.”
He tried to focus on her. “Keep your voice down. People across the street can hear you. I have something important to tell you.”
“What, more bullshit?” Stella picked up the flowers and tossed them at him.
He rubbed his forehead for longer than anyone should. “I, I, I decided that I'm going to go to AA. And this time I'm serious.”
“Assholes anonymous?”
John got up and staggered sideways and ended up falling in the corner and breaking the lamp with his head. He looked puzzled. “I don't think that's what it's called. That, that, that lamp was already broke. I think your mother broke it. That's a joke. I'm gonna go to sleep now and when I wake up I'm gonna throw up, and then we're gonna talk about it. We'll talk about AA not the vomit. That's another joke.”
Stella picked up the pieces of the lamp as she shook her head. “Aren't you the comedian? You better go to AA or we're through! You are quite the example for Randy.”
John made it to his leather recliner chair and it wasn't long before he was sleeping.
Chapter Fourteen
THE LARGE BLACK BEAR LIMPED OFF, looking back once as Brody fell out of the tree and then Jayden fell on top of him. Hunger could make a bear do things that it wouldn't normally do, like approaching an area where a fire was burning. Being hurt it was probably much more difficult to find food. Brody ended up with a scratch on his forehead and Jayden with an even bigger scratch on his forearm that was bleeding but nothing serious. Jayden went over and stoked the fire and added another piece of old tree to it as he suddenly thought he could hear the faint sounds of a helicopter. He looked skyward and listened, trying hard to orient on it.
Brody approached him and also stared up into the blue sky. “What cha looking at?”
“Brody, hide! Helicopter!” Jayden ran and hid in the thicker forest, gesturing for his accomplice to join him before they were spotted. This bank robbing adventure was turning out to be not such a good idea after all.
Brody simply scrunched down and remained out in the open. “Look, I'm hiding in plain sight!”
“That's not what that means! Get over here!” Jayden felt like giving him a kick in the butt.
Brody ran to where Jayden was standing. “Why are we hiding?”
“We robbed the bank you doofus! They're gonna be looking for us.”
Brody nodded. “Yeah, we robbed the bank but this is not as fun as I thought it was going to be. Jayden, when I was hit by that baseball bat I think it messed up my memory.”
Jayden leaned against the tree as he waited for the helicopter to appear. He was trying to determine if it was getting closer or further away. “Yeah, and that's your own fault for sneaking around in the middle of the night with that stupid Halloween mask on.”
“Don't forget the rubber knife. I just wanted to sca
re you.”
The bear cub was approaching them from behind, making Brody scream when he caught it out of the corner of his eye, believing that the big bear had returned. “Aaaah! Oh, it's only you little fella. Look Jayden my bear has come back.”
“I see that.”
Brody headed back toward the fire with the cub following him. “I don't hear the helicopter no more. I'm gonna take him with me when we leave. I can buy him fish at the fish market and he can sleep with me. I can use him for a pillow.”
Jayden showed his disapproval by shaking his head. He knew that some animals could be tamed but not a bear. The wild instinct in a bear was much too ingrained and they could never be tamed or trusted. He remembered a guy on television who lived with wild bears and thought they were the best of friends until he was eaten. “That bear will have you for lunch when he gets a little bigger.”
Brody commenced to wrestle with the bear, which was making cute noises. “He's not gonna eat his own mother. I'm his mother now. Besides, I'll keep him so full of fish he won't be able to eat me. They'll be no room in him to fit me in there.”
Jayden sat to think things over. This plan of a bank heist had more problems than a cat in a doghouse. He of course knew that even the best plans could turn to disaster. “Just one swipe from that thing when its full gown will take your face off, or do you not understand that. What are you gonna do without a face?”
Brody tried to take the bear in a headlock. “I could wear that Halloween mask all the time. Or I'll get him a manicure. I'll get his nails trimmed so he can't scratch me.”
“What about his teeth?”
Brody had a puzzled look on his face as he thought about it. “You mean I'll have to brush his teeth?”
Jayden sighed. “I mean he'll eat you with them.”
“You're forgetting the part about me keeping him full of fish. And being his mother. Who's the doofus now?”
Jayden simply shook his head. He may as well be talking to the bear. “Let's just drop the subject. You'll keep the bear until he eats you, end of story.”
Brody thought of Jayden as the big brother that he never had and they had remained friends since their childhood, more or less. They occasionally parted but always seemed to gravitate back to one another. “Sounds like a plan. You call me doofus but when I was eighteen I was going to be a writer.”
He slowly turned his head toward Brody. This he had to hear. “You? A writer? Don't make me laugh. You quit school in grade six. What were you going to write?”
“Words.”
“Of course.”
“Hey Jayden, what if when we get outta here we go to another state and we rob like five banks in the same day, and we buy plane tickets or train tickets or bus tickets so that as soon as we're finished we can take off to another state and that way they'll never catch us. And while the police are investigating one bank robbery we'd be robbing another bank.”
“You know Brody, that's not actually a bad idea.”
They could now hear voices in the distance which alarmed the both of them. Someone was approaching, and this time it definitely wasn't an animal. Was the law on their trail? Jayden considered putting out the fire but it was too late. They were forced to run and hide as best they could. Jayden pulled his gun out.
“Is it the police?” whispered Brody. “Are we gonna have a shootout? Oh yeah, I don't have a gun. If they shoot you can I have your gun?”
Jayden was trying hard to concentrate on who or what was approaching. “Be quiet so I can hear. Listen, it sounds like kids. What would kids be doing way out here in the middle of nowhere?”
Brody watched as the kids broke through the thick forest. “They must be lost. Hey, if they get close enough why don't we kidnap them? Big money in kidnapping.”
“Brody, that's not a bad idea. You're not as dumb as you look. If their parents are rich we could get millions.”
Brody smiled and nodded. “And then I can drive two hundred miles an hour in my new Ferrari. Maybe I'll end up going back to the future?”
“More like back to the hospital.”
Brody watched as they came into view. “They look lost.”
Chapter Fifteen
SAM AND THE OTHERS HAD STOPPED for yet another rest period, carrying Randy was hard work. It was a lot more difficult than they thought it would be. Exhaustion had replaced the excitement of the adventure, at least for now. It was about two hours before sundown and they didn't want to travel in the forest after dark so they decided to set up the tent for the night. Their progress was slower than they had anticipated and their youthful energy was being depleted.
“Wow, my legs are like rubber,” said Michael.
Randy nodded. “I tried to warn you guys about carrying me this far but you wouldn't listen. If your legs are already rubber maybe we should turn back in the morning? You guys said we're not even half way there. Where are you going to get the energy to carry me back?” He didn't think they would go for it but he put it out there nonetheless. He thought it might be a lot safer to just turn around and go home.
“Never!” said Sam, Michael, Jake and Johnny simultaneously.
Randy laughed as they put him down and commenced to put up the tent. “Boy, you guys are so pigheaded. Come on guys, we all know there's no flying saucer out here so what the hell are we doing?”
“Nope. You'll see,” said Johnny.
“What?” said Randy.
“I didn't say anything,” they all responded and then laughed.
The blue tent sprang up in no time and Sam started to dig a small hole about a dozen feet in front of it with his mini shovel. The others gathered in the tent as they watched Sam work. The hole got wider and deeper as Randy looked puzzled. “Sam, are you digging to China?”
“Nope,” said Sam. “Digging a fire pit. It gets really dark out here at night and the fire will keep the animals on their side of the forest and get rid of the mosquitoes.”
Randy was impressed. “You guys know a lot about being in the woods. Where'd you learn all this stuff?”
“We learned some on the Internet and some by experience. All our families like to go camping.” Sam stared at them inside the tent. “All right you guys, I dug the pit so you guys gather the wood for the fire.”
They were all tired and they slowly exited the tent one by one and began their search for wood and branches for the fire. Randy stuck his head out of the tent and looked around; it seemed to him that it would be easy to get lost being so far out into the forest. “Sam, is it hard to start a fire?”
“I brought a can of lighter fluid but you have to be careful, last year I set my foot on fire.” Sam stopped and examined his work. “That should do it.”
“You set your foot on fire!” Randy laughed. “Are you serious?”
“I'm serious but I didn't get burnt. I pulled my sneaker off in two seconds flat.”
Michael and Jake found an old tree that had fallen years ago that was partially covered with moss, over the years it had deteriorated to such a degree it was that they were able to pull some of it apart. The bugs under it were now losing part of their home and they watched as they scurried around.
Michael started loading Jake's arms up with wood. “Jake, what do you think Randy's gonna say when he sees the saucer?”
Michael shrugged. “I don't know. Just the fact that we know that aliens are real is kinda scary though. I'm always staring up at the stars and wondering if anyone lives around that star or that star.” Jake tripped and dropped all the wood and had to be loaded up again. “Michael, what would you do if an alien came back for his ship while we were in it, and it was all ugly like some sort of giant bug?”
“I'd shit my pants that's what I do. Probably die of a heart attack too but at least that way I wouldn't have to watch you guys get eaten.” Michael looked pensive as he pictured it, an alien that looked like a combination of lizard and grasshopper, with strange sharp teeth dripping ooze and eating Jake alive.
Jake didn't like to th
ink about aliens coming back for the ship. “So what do you think happened to the aliens? I mean if they died in there shouldn't there be bones or something?”
Michael thought about that. “Maybe they didn't have any bones. Maybe they were big globs of walking snot and when they die they just evaporate, or maybe it's a robot ship and no one was ever in it.”
“How could a big pile of snot make a cool saucer like that?”
“Maybe they move things with their minds?”
Back at the tent they now had a large enough pile of broken trees and branches to get a good fire going. They all sat and rested. Randy was scared of the coming darkness and being so far from home; he didn't know how he was going to get any sleep. At least the fire would probably bring him some comfort as well as light. He could see that the sky was starting to darken as the sun was heading for the horizon and the other side of the world, but there was no way out of this situation now because he certainly couldn't crawl home. And what if his parents checked on that dummy tent they had set up? He thought it wasn't likely since they were much too busy fighting.
“When do we start the fire?” Randy asked Sam.
“Just before the sun goes down.”
“Will it burn all night?”
“Most of the night but it'll be out by morning.” Sam thought that Randy looked nervous but guessed that he would be in better spirits in the morning. Things always looked better in the morning. There was a low rumble of thunder in the distance. “Unless it rains.”
Randy nodded. “Hope it doesn't rain too hard.”
Suddenly the big black bear appeared and it was only about twenty feet away, it was as if it had come out of nowhere. Randy screamed and pointed. They all froze as Sam realized that he had lost his canister of bear spray. The bear stood up on its two hind legs and looked aggressive; if it attacked it was sure to get one of them. They all thought about Randy because he couldn't run. But then again running was definitely not a smart thing to do with a bear because then it would see you as food.
The Saucer Club Page 6