Treasure Chest

by Adam Bennett

  He screamed and jumped up. “A dead man!” Joey stared with horrible fascination at skin all burned and bloody.

  Then the dead man moaned. “Run, kid. It's coming to get you.”

  The big fire made horrible shadows in front of the little boy as he raced toward the woods. Mummy and Daddy said never to go into the woods alone, but they weren't here. He had to get away from the machine or it would burn him up, too.

  He could feel the ground shake every time it walked, hear a clumping sound each heavy footstep made. It had stopped shooting its blasters, but still made scary electric humming sounds as its big eye looked around, trying to zero him.

  He'd made it into the woods and crouched down behind the trunk of a big tree. He was crying and breathing hard, and then he thought, Maybe they can hear me. Joey tried to calm down as much as he could. He was still really scared inside, but he couldn't make any noise or the machine might find him and burn down the forest to get him.

  Then he couldn't hear the machine anymore. He wondered, Did it go away? But he hadn't heard it walk away. A few seconds later, he heard a new sound in the dark, sort of like whispering and clicking noises. The first grader had never seen a real Qu'Tufot before, just photos and drawings, so he didn't know what they sounded like.

  The scary noises were getting closer, but he couldn't tell which direction they were coming from. “Please, somebody come and save me,” he whispered, forgetting to be quiet. Now all he could hear was his own frightened breathing on top of the clicking and whispering. Something was moving behind him, but he was too scared to jump up and run away. He felt a tickle on his left shoulder, and looking down, he saw a black, slimy tentacle squirming near his neck.

  ***

  Joey woke up screaming.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s me, Grandpa. I’m right here. It’s okay, now.”

  Sixty year old Andy Hanson held his grandson tightly in his arms, letting the boy sob against his chest while softly stroking his scruffy, brown hair.

  “We’re going to be okay, boy. I promise. I’ll take good care of you.”

  “I had another bad dream, Grandpa.” He could feel his right hand clutching tight on the neck of Baby, his little stuffed toy giraffe. “It was that big spider machine again, but this time the Bugs came out and tried to get me.”

  “The sweeper. I know. We both saw what it did back home, but don’t worry. The Bugs can’t get us way out here, and we’re going to meet the resistance today, remember?”

  Joey lifted his head from his Grandpa’s chest and looked around; he was half out of his sleeping bag. They were still in the forest, high up in the mountains where they’d been hiking and camping for days and days.

  Pulling Baby up to his chest, he saw that Grandpa had made the campfire again, which was good because it was early and really cold. Then he realised he had to pee and he was hungry.

  “I’m okay now.” The boy looked up at Grandpa again and rendered a weak smile. Then they hugged, and Joey’s fears started to go away a little.

  “Now go on and do your business behind that tree over there. I figure by lunch time we’ll be meeting the local resistance face to face. Then we’ll be safe. Then we’ll be able to finally fight back against the damned… sorry, darned Qu’Tufot.”

  “Okay, but hold Baby for me and don’t lose him.” Joey held the ragged stuffed animal out to his Grandpa in both hands, and Andy solemnly received it.

  “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you or Baby.”

  The boy pulled on his sneakers and ran behind the tree Grandpa pointed out. Andy looked down at Baby. His dear wife Helen, gone now these past three years because of cancer, made it for Joey just after their grandson was born. The child took it everywhere, especially since the Qu’Tufot came. He was terrified to be without it.

  ***

  “Are you getting tired yet? We could take a break if you’d like.”

  “No, Grandpa. I can keep up.”

  “Good boy.” The old man smiled down at the child for a moment and then turned back to the trail ahead.

  To Joey, Grandpa looked like a giant. He had short grey and white hair, and was dressed in his usual blue jeans, and what he called a camo jacket, which was supposed to make him blend in with the trees. He had a big, heavy backpack on. Joey’s pack looked tiny next to it. The rifle on its strap hanging from Grandpa’s shoulder, and the gun in its holster on his hip helped him feel safe. Even if some crummy Bug found them up here, Grandpa would fight back.

  The child looked down at his own clothes for a second. He had blue jeans, too. He wore his favourite superhero t-shirt underneath his flannel shirt, sort of like Grandpa’s, then a heavy sweater, and finally his coat. He had to keep his hands in his pockets a lot because they couldn’t find his gloves before they left. Sometimes though, he had to keep his hands out so he could balance with his arms because the trail they were on was very old, uneven, and full of rocks and tree roots.

  “Grandpa, tell me a story.”

  “What kind of story do you want me to tell you?”

  “Tell me about when you were my age.”

  “Let’s see. That would have been about 1990 or so.”

  “Was it always so cold when you were a kid?”

  “In the winter, yes. But summer was pretty hot.”

  “It gets warmer in the summer now, but not too much.”

  “That’s because they didn’t have nuclear winter back then.”

  “I remember when Mummy was homeschooling me and my friends, she said it was because of the atomic bombs in World War Three that it’s so cold.”

  “That’s right. It kicked up so much dust in the air that it blocked out a lot of the sunlight that keeps the Earth warm.”

  “But I can see the sky now. Isn’t the dust all gone?”

  “Things are warming up again a little at a time, but you can’t have that kind of war and not expect to damage ol’ Mother Nature.”

  “Did they have atomic wars when you were a kid?”

  “They had wars, but not like that last one.”

  “If nuclear bombs are so bad, why did anyone use them?”

  “It’s hard to explain. I wouldn’t have understood when I was your age. People can be pretty stupid sometimes, and when you think you hate another country because of this or that, and things start to get ugly between one group of folks and another, then you get war. That last time, things got so bad that one country called Syria shot their missiles at another country called Israel.”

  “Then everybody shot their missiles at everyone else, right?”

  “Well, it wasn’t quite that simple, but yes. It didn’t take long for other countries to be pulled into the conflict, and then they shot off enough nukes to mess things up pretty good. Glad they stopped when they did because no one would have made it, but it was too late anyway. Most big cities were wiped out. Folks like us living in small towns far away from primary targets still suffered, but we survived.”

  “Did Daddy and Mommy fight in that war?”

  “Oh, heck no. Your Daddy had just turned eighteen, and he didn’t even know your Mommy yet. There wasn’t much of a military or a government left after it was all over, and the war didn’t take very long.”

  “So you, and Grandma, Daddy, Uncle Mikey, and Aunt Jamie didn’t have to fight in the World War?”

  “No, not in that one, but I’ll be fighting in the next one.”

  “You mean against the Bugs.”

  “The Qu’Tufot. Yes, that’s why we’re here.”

  “Can we take a break now, Grandpa. I think I’m getting tired after all.”

  Andy stopped and looked down at his grandson, his eyes and mouth smiling. “Sure we can. This looks like a pretty good place. We can sit on those two big rocks over there.”

  Joey heaved himself up on top of the rock with his arms while his Grandpa took off his rifle and pack and leaned them against a tree. The six year old removed his own pack and set it beside him. He made sure Baby�
�s head was sticking out the top so he could ‘breathe.’ Then he decided to take Baby out and hold him close while they rested. When Andy was seated, the boy cuddled next to him while still snuggling with Baby, and Grandpa put a big, comforting arm around the child.

  “Why are the Bugs so mean? What did we ever do to them?”

  “I don’t know. I do know they came last year, ten years after the end of the last war, almost to the day.”

  “Daddy heard about it on the radio.”

  “That’s right. A little part of the government had gotten up and running again, and got radio and some TV stations going so people could talk to each other. If there weren’t a few big telescopes and radar stations left, we probably wouldn’t have even known the Qu’Tufot were in orbit.”

  “Was that when they dropped all those bombs on everyone?”

  Andy sighed and looked up at the piercing blue sky. The tall, verdant pines almost glowed by the morning sunlight. A small creek nearby made a gentle gurgling sound. It was hard for the old man to believe, surrounded by all this glorious peace, that such a horror had ever happened.

  “It’s called orbital bombardment, and as horrible as we thought the last war was, it was nothing compared to what the Qu’Tufot did. We found out later that they spared some of the big cities to use as bases, but…”

  Andy stopped talking and clamped his jaw down tight. Joey looked up and saw tears in his Grandpa’s eyes. Then the little boy hugged him.

  “I’m sorry I made you sad, Grandpa. I won’t ask any more questions.”

  The older man looked down at his grandson. “You have nothing to be sorry for. I love you more than anything in the whole world. It’s important you know about what happened. You’re going to grow up in the world the Qu'Tufot made. You have to know what it’s all about.”

  ***

  Andy walked slowly enough to let his grandson keep up. The terrain was rugged and nothing a six year old should have had to face. They had no choice but to keep going. The man knew their only hope now was joining the resistance.

  Joey reached back to make sure Baby’s face hadn’t slipped down into his backpack. The head of the stuffed toy bounced jauntily as the boy walked over the rough, mountain path.

  “Grandpa, if the Bugs blew up all the big cities from their spaceships, how come they send spider machines to little towns like ours to get everyone?”

  “The sweepers? I guess because they don’t want a lot of people in places like Clark Fork to fall between the cracks.”

  The boy wrinkled his nose. “What does that mean?”

  Andy chuckled. “Sorry. What I mean is that they know a lot of people don’t live in the cities, and they probably don’t want us all getting together and learning how to fight back. So they send sweepers to all these towns, a few at a time, to… to stop us.” Andy felt his throat close at the memory of his devastated hometown.

  “You mean like what they did to Mummy and Daddy.”

  Andy could hear the change of tone in the boy’s voice and stopped. Kneeling down he saw profound sadness etched on the child’s face. Then holding him close, he let Joey cry.

  “I miss them, too. I wish they could be here with us, but the sweeper… I’m just glad you were up at the cabin with me when it happened.”

  “I wish Mummy and Daddy and everyone else had been with us.”

  “Me too, son. With all my heart I wish it.”

  “Do you think, I mean, maybe they got away.”

  Andy pulled back from the boy a tiny bit, but kept his hands on his shoulders. “You were with me when we went to look for survivors after the sweeper left.”

  “But maybe…”

  Andy pulled Joey close to him again. “I wish so, too.”

  “If we’d stayed longer, maybe we could have found them.”

  “We couldn’t. Remember what I said? A few days after a sweeper leaves, the scavengers come.”

  “You mean those other machines. The ones that take all the stuff the Bugs can use, and get rid of the rest, get rid of…”

  “Don’t think about that part. Think about being with me and being safe.” Andy didn’t want the boy trying to imagine the scavengers vaporising the dead along with the debris of the only home he had ever known. His parents, Aunt, Uncle, all of his little friends had been erased from existence by the Bugs, along with everything else those monsters touched.

  “I hate to push, but we’ve got to get moving again.” He tried to keep his voice as soft and gentle as he could. “We can’t be late for the rendezvous.”

  “I’m okay, Grandpa. We can go again.”

  Andy stood up, offered his hand, and felt small fingers clutching his. “Let’s make sure Baby’s hanging in there. How’s it going, Baby?” The man made a few adjustments to the toy’s position so that the stuffed animal’s head was secured.

  “Baby says he’s fine. He says he loves both of us.” Joey took a deep breath and tried to make his face look brave.

  “Tell Baby I love him, too. Tell him I love both of you so much, so very much.” Andy looked away for a second and blinked tearful eyes.

  “Okay, Grandpa. Let’s go.”

  For just that moment, it was as if they were on an adventure together, a Grandpa and his little grandson on a great quest, an epic saga, out to slay dragons. Then, the moment faded, but there were monsters in the world, and there would be war.

  “Tell me some more about the resistance. Did you find them after the sweeper got everything?”

  “Oh no. I’ve been talking with them by radio for months.”

  “Why do you call it a Ham Radio. What’s it got to do with ham?”

  Andy laughed. “No, it doesn’t mean ham like you eat. It’s an old fashioned name for what’s called Amateur Radio. My Dad used it to talk to people all over the world. It’s how I found out not only about the Resistance here, but how they’re organising everywhere, all over America, and in a lot of other countries, too.”

  “Are they all hiding in the woods like us?”

  “Some are. The ones we’re going to meet are supposed to be someplace near Lake Coeur d’Alene. They haven’t told me so as such, but I’m betting they plan on connecting up with other resistance groups using the Spokane River.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, the Spokane River is a tributary, uh, it flows into a bigger river, the Columbia River. You can follow that river and eventually get to big cities like Portland and Vancouver.”

  “Are the Bugs in those cities?”

  “That’s what I hear. The Resistance cell we’re meeting isn’t too big, but if I’m right, they’ll meet up with a lot of other small cells, getting bigger and bigger, until they’re big enough to fight back against the Qu'Tufot.”

  “But what about the Bug machines? Aren’t they stronger than guns and stuff?”

  “Rumour has it that the resistance has already captured some of the alien’s tech and reverse engineered, uh, that is, they figured out how it works so we can put it in weapons.”

  “You mean like those plasma rifles you told me about before?”

  “Exactly. We can use their own tech against them.”

  “Do we have any of those atomic bombs left?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think all of them were used in the last war, but they were probably the first thing the Qu'Tufot destroyed when they landed, if they could find them all.”

  “What if they bomb us again, all of us?”

  “I don’t know about that. The resistance can’t say a lot over the radio, just in case the Qu'Tufot are listening. We’ll have to wait until we join the local cell. They won’t tell us everything until they can trust us, and make sure we aren’t collaborators.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Some people have decided it’s better to work for the Qu'Tufot rather than fight them.”

  “You mean they’re working with the Bugs against us?”

  “I know it sounds horrible. I guess they’re just too afraid of what would happen
to them if they didn’t.”

  “I’d never work for the Bugs! They’d have to send one of those sweeper things after me.”

  “I know you’re angry. I am, too. But we need to keep optimistic thoughts in our heads. That’s what will hold our spirits up. That’s how we’ll make it.”

  “Okay. I’ll try to think good thoughts.”

  “I know it’s not easy. But Baby will help cheer you up.”

  “You cheer me up, too, Grandpa.”

  ***

  “Here we are, Joey. Now we wait.” Andy looked at his watch. The meeting should happen in about fifteen minutes.

  “Where are we?”

  “Right where we’re supposed to be. In a small clearing just a few miles north of Wolf Lodge. The Qu'Tufot machines went through this whole area a while ago, so we should be safe.”

  ***

  The underbrush rustled to Andy’s left and he forced himself to remain still. But even knowing this was the place and time he was supposed to make contact with them, he still jumped when he heard the man’s voice.

  “Just stay calm. We’re all around you. Start by placing your rifle on the ground at your feet, and then remove your gun belt and put it in the same place. After that, take off your backpack and set it on the ground behind you. Keep your hands visible at all times.”

  “Sure. Whatever you say.” Andy complied, moving slowly and deliberately. Then they came out from undercover, six of them forming a circle around him.

  The speaker was about thirty five, African American, well over six feet tall, a good build on him. “Name’s Tanner. Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. What’s the countersign we radioed you?”

  “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

  “Welcome to paradise. So you’re Hanson.”