by Milo Abrams
"Holy shit!" Owen said, "gold mine!"
"Maybe," Jack said, "remember this is a rural area and being back by the woods there are probably lots of animals. I think even bugs can set these things off."
Jack was right. The images began to load and as they scrolled through the slideshow, most of them were of long rod shaped insects that flew in front of the camera's infrared sensor. There were also several of some deer eating from the deer feeder and a couple of a raccoon who tried to get up inside of it in search of a late-night meal.
"Looks like there's a lot more action at the deer feeder than I thought!" James said.
As they got to image number forty, James stopped and they stared at another picture of just the empty field. "Well guys," he said, "only two pictures left. James nervously clicked to the next picture which just showed another deer looking directly into the camera. Disappointed, James took a deep breath and nervously clicked to the last picture. In it, two deer stood at the deer feeder and further behind them in the field was something.
"What is that?" Jack asked.
"That's it!" James yelled.
In the field, walking on two feet like a human was a slender, light skinned creature. Its head was turned back toward the camera as it was walking away, allowing its eyes to glow brightly from the infrared light. Its arms were long and thin with bony fingers that curled near each hand.
"Oh...my...God," James uttered.
They couldn't believe their eyes. For days, James had been seeing something strange at the woods behind his dad's house. That day his two friends also saw something but the distance was too great to really see anything. Now, no one could say that it wasn't true. No one could accuse James of having an overactive imagination or mistaking animals for something they're weren’t. It wasn't the heat causing hallucinations, mirages, or even lies for attention. The monster was real and now they had proof.
They stared at the image on the screen without words. What could they say? What could anyone say? The picture was crystal clear and the monster was some distance away from the camera, but you could see it.
“Oh, I've got goose bumps," James said. "This must've been when the gas tank was stolen. Look! It must be going to the barn right then!"
"We need to tell someone," Jack said.
"Like who?" Owen scoffed. "Who's going to believe us? You want to call the police and say there's a monster in the backyard?"
Owen was right. "Okay, well, we should call your dad, James!" Jack shuddered.
"We can't do that. How will we explain why we’re out here? They won't believe us even with this picture and then we'll be dead meat for sneaking out here. Listen, we'll just wait it out. We'll wait until Nora picks us up and then tomorrow we'll tell our parents. We'll say we found the picture while at your house," James looked at Owen, "and then we’ll be home free."
"Great, so now everything is riding on my sister."
They left the computer and went to look out into the backyard but it was empty. They took turns looking through the binoculars at the woods and waited.
"What do you think it is?" Jack asked.
"A monster, obviously," Owen replied.
Jack looked at him with a blank stare. "I get that, but I'm talking about what kind of monster? You realize this is a rare opportunity we have here."
James took the binoculars and looked out the window. "Opportunity for what?"
"Well, besides major scientific discovery, in every monster movie the protagonist never has any time to think about the monster because they are constantly in a state of either being chased or attacked."
Owen sighed, "You watch too many movies."
"All I'm saying is we need to figure out what we're dealing with here. We're stuck in this house and we need to prepare ourselves."
James put the binoculars down, "Prepare ourselves for what?"
Jack's eyes fell to the floor. "An attack."
Usually, Jack was the level-headed one, but when his insecurity and paranoia reared their ugly heads, all of his common sense went right out the window. His personality spiraled into an endless pit of pessimism and despair that threatened to suck in everyone around him.
"An attack?" Owen scoffed again, "you're being a little over dramatic, Jack. Yes, we have caught something on camera, but think about this. James, how long has your dad lived out here?"
"A few weeks or so."
"And he's never seen anything and it's never attacked the house or you as long as you've been out here, right?"
"Right."
“So, then there's no reason to think we're going to be attacked. Besides, no one else has ever reported or seen a monster, have they? Being as big as it is, it must have been here for a long time but it's never attacked anyone as far as we know." Owen bowed and then sat down.
"You're making a lot of assumptions," Jack said. His level of intelligence and wit were much greater than Owen's. "You're assuming that no one has seen it before just because it hasn't been on the news. Also, you're assuming that it's been here a long time but what if it just appeared, or crawled out of some sort of hibernation? Besides, just because his dad hasn't ever seen it doesn't mean it wasn't there. How many times do you ever stare into your backyard? The monster's behavior has escalated. It's taking more chances. It may or may not have left the woods before, but now we know it has. We have proof in the picture and in the barn. At that rate, it's not hard to imagine that if it will go to the barn it will also come to the house."
As much as they didn't want this to be true, they couldn't deny it. James and Owen knew that Jack was much smarter than they were which is why they often trusted his assessments of things.
"So, what do we do?" James asked nervously.
Jack took a deep breath and rolled his eyes upward in thought. "Well, we can call for help, try and leave here on our own, or wait for my sister to come get us."
The other boys may not have been afraid of upsetting their parents, but James was. He was a good boy, and did well in school, and always listened when he was told to do something. This was his first act of defiance, and for his little underdeveloped twelve-year-old brain, upsetting his parents was somehow scarier than a monster in the woods. He knew with absolute certainty that his parents would be upset with him if he called for help, but he wasn't sure if the monster would bother coming out of the woods again and attack the house, or them, when it had never done so.
"We can't call," James said, "my parents will kill me. And even if yours won't and we call them, they will tell my parents. I'll be dead either way."
"Okay," Owen reasoned, "so we either walk out of here or we wait. We walk across town all the time, I'm sure we could walk home?"
"No way," Jack said. "At best, we would walk only about three miles per hour and we have to be at least twenty miles or more away from home. At that rate, it would take six to seven hours to get home. By that time, Nora will be here to pick us up. We might as well wait."
Jack was right again. They went around the house to make sure all the windows and doors were securely locked and then sat in the living room to wait. Duffy continued to snore on the floor and occasionally James would take the binoculars to scan the backyard. Everyone was too nervous to eat, so they passed the hours taking turns looking out the window every few minutes until it was too dark to see. Just after sunset, Duffy started scratching at the door.
"Looks like Duff needs to shit," Owen said.
James didn't want to let him out. He knew from the picture that the monster moved at night and it was already dark outside. He knew that he couldn't let him go in the house because the smell alone would let his dad know something was amiss. They had to leave the house as if they had never been there for their deception to work. James wished that Nora would show up sooner but his wishful thinking didn't help the time pass any faster.
"You guys watch at the door while I take him out?" James asked.
Jack and Owen just looked at each other. They didn't want to go outside in the dark ei
ther.
"C'mon, I have to hold him by the collar so I can't just let him out. Once he's on the porch leash I won't need your help.”
"Okay, okay," Owen grumbled. They crawled off the couch and followed James as he led Duffy to the door. He hesitated then quickly unlocked it and opened it. Duffy thrust forward pulling James so hard he nearly fell out of the house and onto the porch. As James attached the leash like before, Duffy tried to make a run for it and the latch that held the leash to his collar snapped apart. James scrambled to grab him and managed to get his fingers around the collar as they tumbled down the stairs and into the grass. The porch light was the only light besides the twinkling stars that slowly peeked through the dull dark sky.
“Are you okay?” Jack yelled to James.
Sore and pissed, James nodded.
Duffy quickly peed then dragged James around in circular paces before hunching over to squat in the grass.
"Ugh!" James gagged as he tightly held onto Duffy's collar while he relieved himself. As soon as he was finished, James yanked hard to pull him back into the house but Duffy froze like a statue, staring off into the darkness toward the barn. Chills rippled through James as he looked. "C'mon, Duff!" He pulled harder but Duffy was intently watching something.
Owen jumped down the steps and grabbed the other side of Duffy's collar and the combined force was enough to move the dog from his stasis. They struggled to drag him up the stairs and once on the porch he ran back inside as Jack held the door.
"What the hell was that?" Owen asked, trying to catch his breath as Jack locked the door with them safely inside.
"I don't know. He just stood there looking at something." James frowned. "No more going outside until Nora gets here." They retreated to the living room to wait and Duffy followed. With a few more hours to go, they decided to put on another movie. Halfway through, they fell asleep as their bodies relaxed into a normal state following the adrenaline boost.
Jack was the first to wake up. He looked at the clock hanging on the wall and saw it was half past midnight. He jumped up and ran to the window but didn't see any cars in the driveway. James woke up and saw Jack running around.
"Shit, we fell asleep, James! We might have missed my sister's call!" Jack looked down at the cordless phone base with its built-in tape answering machine and saw a zero displayed on the little screen. He let out a heavy sigh.
"Did she leave a message?" James asked elbowing Owen out of snoring.
"No," Jack said, "she's late. I'm going to call her." He quickly dialed her number and waited as it rang over and over before eventually going to voicemail. "Ugh, c'mon Nora." He dialed again and again but she never answered.
"She isn't picking up, is she?" James asked.
Jack shook his head. "I think she ditched us."
"Okay," Owen said, "if we try and walk now we will make it home by what, sunrise?"
"Probably. Walking in the dark, too," Jack shuddered.
"Well, looks like we are here for the night. We'll just stay here and call Nora tomorrow."
"Yeah right, James. My sister ditched us, chances of her coming out here even tomorrow are probably nil. She’s an asshole."
"Then we walk," James said. "But for now, let's just sleep the night away. It'll be safer in my room."
"Yeah, but there's one bed. Who's going to sleep on it?" Owen asked.
"Well it's my bed."
"I can't sleep on hardwood floors," Jack said, "but I'm not sleeping out in the living room alone."
"What about my dad's bed?"
"No way," Owen said, "he's got all those huge windows in his room. Gives me the creeps."
Jack pulled a cushion off the couch. "Let's just take these and lay them on the floor in your room."
"Good idea," James said. He felt bad not letting his friends have the bed but he remembered the long walk to the hardware store. It was exhausting and he wanted to get as much sleep as he could before they left.
They closed themselves in James's room for the rest of the night and James turned the box fan on. He couldn't sleep without it. Thunder gently rumbled outside, bringing with it a storm. Rain beat against the window and roof, lulling Jack and Owen to sleep rather quickly but James had a hard time. He kept thinking about the picture they saw and as he eventually drifted toward sleep, his thoughts became looser and more malleable. The fear of the monster slipped into the wonder of what the world might say once they found out. Would the police or the military rush in and capture it? He could see it in his mind, heavily armored military trucks and hundreds of armed soldiers pouring into the field behind the house like a broken dam. The front-page news on every paper would be about James and his discovery. The boy who found a monster, they'd say.
The soldiers would storm the woods and bum-rush the monster—it wouldn't have a chance. Captured, it would claw and scream and hiss within its heavily armored cage and James could see it up close. His mind gradually slipped away from reality and into sleep as the room melted into a colorful fluid and James's consciousness shifted from his body to a dream.
He stood in the field with a soldier holding a thick automatic rifle that looked heavier than James, and his steel-like frame was barely hidden beneath camouflage army fatigues. He looked at James and smiled proudly. Behind him, James’s parents huddled together in a mix of pride and horror while a large trailer attached to a truck rolled across the field, scarring it with the tracks on its wheels and the weight of a large metal box on its back. Inside, the wails and hisses of the flailing monster echoed across the countryside. The soldier next to James yelled to the driver of the truck and it came to a halt. The engine bubbled and hummed in anticipation of driving away.
"You want to see it?" the soldier asked James.
Besides the soldiers that captured it, no one had seen the monster except for James and his friends. He had already seen it through binoculars and of course in the world-famous picture he captured with his game camera. He didn’t have to think long about it—of course he wanted to see it. From the moment he realized there was something more than just deer in his dad's backyard watching and waiting for him, it was all he could think about. The monster that had watched him like a wolf stalking a tiny rabbit for days was finally caged and James was safe to take a good long look—up close and in person.
"Yes, of course," he answered.
The soldier smiled and they walked together to the back of the trailer. He hopped up, helped James up, then walked to the backside of the cage. The cage wasn't a cage in the traditional sense but more of a box. The soldier explained to James that it was a barred cage on the inside with panels that they could slide up to look inside without worrying about what was inside getting out. As they inched closer, the one-ton box rocked back and forth violently, shaking the trailer as the monster screamed and rammed the inside.
James stopped, his hands weak and cold feeling. He had never seen it like this. He had imagined that it was dangerous and vicious but all he had ever seen of it were tranquil poses at the back of the field. He had nearly forgotten that the box contained a real monster. The monster within the monster had come out—a monster James had never seen before. He looked to the side as other soldiers and his parents stood by watching and smiling, their silent cheers and pride beaming like invisible spotlights on him. He was a hero, they thought.
"You okay?" the soldier asked him. “Don't you want to see what you've done?"
What you've done, the words echoed in his mind. What had James done? He was responsible for capturing a monster. A monster that could have killed and injured God knows how many people. A monster that could have killed him. New and unintelligible feelings swirled and gurgled in his belly. They didn't feel like pride or happiness at all, but instead like guilt.
Why do I feel like this? he thought.
As they stood before the giant box, the monster inside suddenly ceased its activity. "Can it hear us?" James asked the soldier.
"If you can hear it, it can hear you," he answered.
What a terrifying thought. It had stopped making noise because it could hear him. A wild animal in a cage would have probably continued to wail and fight, regardless of any human presence. Somehow it knows me.
His throat dried out. He struggled to ask a question. "I...it can't get out of there, right?" He looked up to the soldier with wide and terrified eyes.
The soldier smiled and patted his rifle. "Nah, and even if it did it wouldn't get far."
That was hardly reassuring. James panicked and his heartbeat picked up. He wanted to run far away from the cage but he couldn't move. The gravity of everyone watching held him there. All the soldiers watched him. His parents watched him. Everyone was watching and waiting for him to meet his monster. He felt a sense of responsibility now as if he had to. Oh, how his parents would be ashamed if he didn’t and all the soldiers that risked their lives to capture it. He had to see it—out of respect for them.
He looked over as his parents stood there waving. Behind them a line of soldiers walked from the woods carrying large black bags. They walked like a line of army ants with one on each end carrying a total of twelve bags as they walked out. James didn't have to ask what they were because he already knew. Body bags.
He faced the box as the soldier reached down and unhinged a latch, sliding the heavy metal panel up which revealed thick steel bars less than an inch apart, covering a pitch black square the size of a car window. James stood there paralyzed, unable to take his eyes off the empty blackness. The soldier pulled out a flashlight and clicked it on. The beam cut through the dark with a sharpened edge, revealing a gray huddled mass in the back corner. James was stunned. It sat shivering and tried to cover its face, its naked body covered in a thin, slippery gray skin. It groaned as if the light were hurting it. It doesn't look like a monster at all, he thought, it looks like a terrified animal.
James sat straight up in his bed, his bladder burning and his mind racing from the dream. He carefully climbed over Jack and Owen who unknowingly were sleeping right up against each other and he made his way to the door. Still half asleep, the dream began to fade as he stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom, flipped the light on and closed the door. He sighed in relief and shivered as he emptied his aching bladder. The welcomed positive feelings left him feeling relaxed and calm. A deep rumble of thunder rumbled the walls as he flushed the toilet. As he stepped out of the bathroom he could hear Duffy quietly whimpering in the other room.