Brody was surprised to see them. “Hey, our hostages are back.”
“We're not doing that,” said Jayden.
“Please, do you have anything to eat?” Harold asked.
“Yeah, we're starving to death!” said Rolland.
Brody pointed to some cooked fish on a rock by the fire. “You can have the fish if you want it.”
The three of them ran to the four pieces of fish and in no time they had eaten all of it. Harold coughed and pulled a piece of bone out of his throat.
“What are you kids doing way out here?” said Jayden.
“We're lost,” Timothy answered. “Is that a bear?”
“No,” said Brody, “it's a new breed of dog.”
“No it isn't,” said Harold. He examined the two strangers and wondered how much trouble they were in now. “That's not a dog it's a bear cub. Do you guys know the way out of here? We'll die if we don't find our way home.”
Jayden felt sorry for the kids because they looked so desperate. “See that large crooked tree way down there?”
“I see it,” said Harold.
Jayden watched their dirty faces as they all stared at the bear. “Head in that direction for a couple of miles and you'll hit the forest path, and then follow it left.”
Roland got up and started in the direction of the tree. “Come on guys, I don't want to spend another night out here with nose eating spiders.”
Brody watched as the kids headed for the tree and were eventually out of sight; he curled up on the ground and the bear started to chew on his foot. “I need a nap so keep an eye out for nose eating spiders.”
“I think I'm gonna take a nap too,” said Jayden. “I'm beat.”
“What about the spiders?”
“Your bear will eat the spiders.”
“Good bear,” said Brody.
Chapter Twenty-Four
SADDER FACES HAD NEVER BEEN SEEN as they started the long journey of carrying Randy home. The sound of the flowing river was getting further behind them, calling them to come back. Their get-up-and-go had been stomped on by Randy's determination to go home. No one spoke and Randy felt terrible but he knew that it was important to do what felt right, and doing something that others tried to force you to do was always a bad idea. The silence bothered Randy but he didn't want to be the first one to break it. How alone would he feel when he was home and the others started back out into the forest leaving him behind? He imagined that on top of it all would be his parents fighting. He would have to live with his decision. He was already regretting his choice to go home, life was peculiar like that. Now both staying and going felt wrong.
The mood was now more like a funeral than an adventure.
“You're dead to me Randy,” said Michael.
Randy nodded. “Yeah dead weight.”
They were all moving at such a slow pace that Randy thought it might take a week to get home, and every step was a step away from the river and the saucer. Their hearts were no longer into it. It would have been better had he never agreed to let them carry him out there in the first place. “Sorry guys,” he whispered.
Sam felt responsible for the situation and now it weighed on him. He thought they could get Randy out to the disk but things didn't turn out that way. Now he would never hear the end of it and Randy would never know what he missed.
They had only made it about a hundred feet from the river when a silver sphere showed up. It hovered near them as they all stared at it. It scanned all of them which tickled a little. They didn't know what they were seeing, and Sam thought that it had to be something that had either come from the saucer or perhaps it was searching for it. It couldn't be anything other than alien technology. It went right up to Sam's face and when he reached out to touch it, it moved away. Everyone was both fascinated and frightened by it.
Randy couldn't believe what he was seeing. His mouth hung open as his eyebrows scrunched together; he stared at his own reflection in it. “What the hell is it?”
Sam's blue eyes were fixed on it. “It's either searching for the saucer or it has come out of the saucer. That thing is alien technology. It has to be. Just look at it! Now do you believe us?”
The globe passed over Randy several times, seemingly more interested in him than the others. When it moved away it circled a small area of the forest floor as if something had caught its attention. It commenced to make clicking sounds as everyone watched. It went up above the trees and out of sight but then it came right back.
“What's it doing?” Jake was tempted to try and catch it but was too scared to do it. He got all his courage together and grabbed it; it gave him a minor shock and made him dance. “Holy it feels colder than ice!”
“Don't touch it,” said Sam. “You want to get disintegrated?”
The sphere was now spinning and dropping small sparkles of light from it that bounced off them and then crawled into the ground like worms made of pure energy. They moved away from the sparkles not knowing what to expect. Johnny hit one of the sparkles and sent it flying. Might it think that Jake's act was aggressive and now it was going to attack them?
“Wait, wait, wait!” Randy shouted. “You mean the saucer is really real?”
Michael shook his head. “No its fake-e fake. Of course it's real, what do you think we've been telling you! Why do you think we want you to see it so bad?”
The sphere burrowed into the ground and in no time at all had made a hole so deep that they could barely see it down there casting a purple light. It was moving through the earth like something hot moving through butter. Then they could hear grating sounds as it was apparently moving directly through a large rock. They all stared down into the hole in amazement. What the heck was it doing?
“It's heading to China,” said Michael.
Randy suddenly had a peculiar look on his face. The gears of his mind were now moving extremely fast. If the saucer was genuine he had to see it. He simply couldn't go the rest of his life knowing that he could have seen a flying saucer; alien technology was just too much to resist. What he was seeing with his own eyes was simply too weird not to be alien. “Get me across that river guys. If the saucer is real I have to see it.”
“Yeah!” screamed Michael. “Now you're talking.”
Sam looked as though he was deep in thought. “Hey, what if that thing finds the ship and takes off with it?”
Johnny didn't like the sound of that. “The ship is broken though, right? But what if it can fix it? It's not going to find the saucer in China.”
Jake shook his head at the thought of it. “When we come back next year the saucer might be gone? Or maybe it's already gone?”
After staring down into the deep hole for another minute or two they carried Randy back to the river, which wasn't far at all and started across. They all desperately hoped that the disk was still there so they could show Randy. And what would be the point of the club without the saucer? Each one of them took a corner of the lawn chair and carefully started across with Michael and Sam leading the way. Randy's eyes were wide with fear as they made their way into the river and he actually closed them for a few seconds. The crossing was going fine until just past the halfway point when both Jake and Michael tripped on the rocks under their feet at exactly the same time, they lost their hold on the chair, and the other two couldn't hold on and Randy suddenly found himself floating down the river on the chair.
Randy screamed his loudest. “Help me I'm gonna drown! Sam!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
JOHN WAS TRYING TO READ THE NEWSPAPER as he heard the shower turn on upstairs. His thoughts were on liquor rather than news. He folded it and stared at the television. It seemed that there was always somebody fighting somewhere. Why couldn't they show some good news for a change? And for every feel good story there was a hundred of the feel bad variety.
“Stella's in the shower,” he said to himself.
He rubbed his chin as his eyes shifted from side to side; he was thinking hard on his next
move. John sighed and scratched the back of his neck, staring at his half empty glass of iced Coke on the coffee table. He took a drink and it was delicious but he also knew how he could make it even more so, and again he scratched his neck as if it was part of his thinking process. If he took one little drink how would she know?
He got up and stared out the living room window longer than anyone should, deep in thought, knowing that within fifteen minutes Stella would be back downstairs. No, it would be more like a half hour because she would have to dry her hair and shave her legs. He rubbed his hands together and then cracked his fingers noisily. He glanced at the brown sofa and then back out the window. The decision would need to be made soon otherwise it would be too late. John went back to the sofa and sat, again he sighed as he ran his right hand through his hair twice. The stress that went through him wasn't at all pleasant; he rubbed his forehead hard and it wasn't helping any. Now he figured she would be down in about twenty minutes. He took a deep breath and then he slowly let it out.
John moved to the other end of the sofa and grimaced. He stuck his hand down into the cushion and pulled out a half bottle of rum, staring at it as if it was the enemy, as if it was laughing at him, knowing that he was going to drink it and there was nothing he could do. Did it really have power over him? It felt like it. He unscrewed the bottle and sniffed it and it was a lot like a kid smelling candy. He took the glass of Coke, put some rum in it and placed it back down on the coffee table, closing the bottle he pushed it back down inside the sofa.
“Now what?” he said.
Stella suddenly came downstairs with her head in a towel. She looked at John and thought that he had a peculiar look on his face; she thought that he looked guilty. “John, are you drinking?”
“No, why would you ask that?”
“You look like the cat that ate the canary. Let me smell your breath.”
John was annoyed by the accusation. “Are you serious?”
“I am. Let me smell your breath.” She smelled his breath and didn't smell anything.
He raised his eyebrows at her. “Are you satisfied?”
“I am.” Stella got the hairbrush off the coffee table and headed back upstairs.
John took the glass of rum and coke and sank it.
Chapter Twenty-Six
BRODY WAS BACK IN THE RIVER catching fish. The bear sat and watched as three large fish were thrown out of the water. Jayden watched as he continued to be amazed at Brody's talent for catching fish. It was unbelievable how he accomplished it; it was as if they were attracted to him, as if he was a big chunk of bait. The bear ran off with a large salmon that continued to wiggle in its mouth.
“That's enough,” said Jayden. “We won't be able to eat them all.”
Brody was proud of his fishing talent. “My father was a fisherman and he always said I had fish in my blood.”
“I believe it,” said Jayden.
Brody killed the fish on a tree and cleaned it; he put a branch through it and then held it over the fire to cook. “We should spend the summer in here, build a log cabin and just relax. We have lots of food and water.”
Jayden looked at Brody and could tell that he was serious. “How you gonna build a log cabin without tools?”
“I don't know.”
When they all had their fill of fish Jayden went to go in their tent to take a nap and found the cub in there finishing a second fish. “Brody, get your bear out of the tent so I can take a nap.”
“Just crawl in beside him he won't hurt you. You can use him for a pillow.”
Jayden stood annoyed, trying to decide what to do. Finally he went in and lay beside the bear. The bear made a funny noise almost like a dog bark as Jayden curled up to sleep. “Stupid bear thinks he's a dog.”
After a few minutes Brody crawled into the tent and lay down beside the bear; the bear licked his face twice and thought that he tasted good. The bear placed what were mostly bones that remained from the fish onto Brody's face. “I'm not hungry, you eat it or save it for later,” said Brody.
The bear removed himself from the tent as the two of them closed their eyes and drifted off to the sounds of the forest. Two hours later Brody awoke with the sphere hovering outside the tent; he quickly grabbed the gun and started shooting at it.
Jayden jumped up. “What the hell are you shooting at?”
“That thing.” They both got out of the tent as Brody took careful aim. “Watch how fast it is.” He shot at it and even though it was only ten feet away it dodged the bullet effortlessly. It was like watching a movie special effect.
Jayden made him put the gun down. “Stop shooting at it before you get someone's attention.”
Brody looked around and couldn't see the cub. “I must have scared him off. Poor little fella. And him with only me for a mother.”
The sphere bumped into Brody's head as if to say stop shooting at me.
The silver sphere shot up over the trees and then disappeared. They both stared at it until it disappeared. Jayden spotted the cub quite a distance away on the bank of the river. It looked like he was pawing at something and when they got closer they discovered that he had found a turtle. The reptile had pulled itself into its shell and was waiting for the bear to get bored so it could wander off.
“Look Jayden, my bear has found a turtle. He must be one of those turtle hunting bears.”
The bear hit the turtle and flipped it over onto its back. “We could make turtle soup except that we don't have a pot to cook him in.” Jayden picked up the turtle and examined him, the bear made a cute sound as it complained about losing his friend. “You ever try turtle soup?”
“Nope,” said Brody. “But I did have a rat on a stick once. I'll eat anything if I'm hungry enough.”
The bear ran back towards the tent and disappeared inside. Jayden put the turtle down and watched as it started to slowly crawl off toward the river bank. They both continued to search the sky for the mysterious ball.
Brody looked at Jayden. “What was that thing?”
“I've never see anything like it. A police probe maybe. We're gonna have to move deeper into the forest.”
“Jayden, how come we turned out to be bad guys? When I was a kid I wanted to be a superhero and catch all the bad guys. Now I'd have to catch myself. Don't you think that's sad? I'd have to stand guard over myself. How would I ever get any sleep?”
Jayden shook his head. “What's really sad is how your brain works.”
The strange sphere returned and again Brody shot at it; it dodged his bullet and then shot a skinny bolt of lightning into Brody who fell hard as if all the life had drained out of him. He was face down and when Jayden turned him over he looked dead.
Jayden had become emotional at the thought of losing his friend. “Don't leave me Brody. I don't want to be all alone out here. When I was a baby my mother ran off and my father gave me away for a case of beer and an old Winchester rifle. It was a pretty good gun but still.”
Brody sat up. “What happened?”
“When you tried to shoot that ball you made it mad and it zapped you. If it comes back don't shoot at it. Here, give me back the gun.” Jayden wiped a tear from his eye.
Brody looked puzzled. “How was I to know that a flying ball would get mad? Think it's a new weapon that the cops are using?”
“Probably. We should move to a different location before it comes back with the cops.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
RANDY FLOATED SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET down river when he finally got caught up on a large rock; he screamed as long and as loud as he could. His throat was sore from screaming but now that he was hooked on the rock the situation wasn't quite so scary; he figured that they would get to him and carry him across soon but it had been a close call. The fear had been replaced by laughter as he imagined the look on his mother's face if she could see him now. She had been overprotective since the accident. What on god's green earth are you doing? She would have said with a stern look. He thought about the
sphere and how cool it looked. If that wasn't alien technology then what the heck was it?
“Well at least I'm not dead,” Randy said to himself. “But I freaking knew this was dangerous. Where the hell are they?”
He strummed his fingers on the lawn chair as he waited patiently for the others to catch up; he didn't want to move around too much just in case he got dislodged from the rock. Randy did seem pretty secure in his current position, especially with the large tree in the water also holding him in position. He could see the terror on their faces as they ran towards him; served them right he thought. He had never seen them run so fast.
“Randy, are you okay?” Sam shouted at him.
“I'm not drowned yet if that's what you mean.”
“They were all terrified at the thought of Randy drowning in the river. They all wanted an adventure but not a funeral. Just the thought of having to carry Randy's dead body all the way back home would be more than any of them could bear. That would definitely be something that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
They waited for Michael to catch up because they were exhausted from running. Michael looked to be a bit shaky as they picked up Randy and carried him the rest of the way across the river and then they all collapsed on the ground and rested. They started to laugh nervously at what had just happened. It turned out to be a lot more dangerous than they thought it would, and they would have to get him across again on the way home.
“See Randy,” said Jake. “We got you across and now you can see the saucer.”
Randy shook his head at the thought of having to cross the river again. Would he survive another encounter with his nemesis the RIVER? “Yeah we barely made it this time but what the hell is gonna happen on the way back? I don't think I'm coming back next summer, that's if I'm still alive next summer.”
“Close calls don't count,” said Jake. “Your fine.”
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