by G. L. Argain
“You’re not seriously saying it’s aliens, are you?”
“Hey, hey, it’s totally possible.”
“No! No it’s not! The idea that Andrew went off to live in the wilderness is more believable!”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“Oh, oh, am I?”
“I will fucking prove it! And the best way to do that is to go over to that place for ourselves!”
“Only if we can bring other people. Just in case you’re wrong.”
“Actually, bringing more people would be a good idea, just because there may be something that they could provide….” Drake paused, trying to find the right word to match his thoughts. “Insight! Insight on that we don’t know yet.”
Keith thought about mocking Drake one more time, but he suddenly stopped to allow a series of thoughts to flow though his head. He stood there with the phone to his head and not a single word was uttered. Drake broke the silence with, “Keith? Are you still there?” He responded with “Hold on, I’m thinking.” After another moment, Keith concluded his thoughts by saying, “Who would we bring? Not everyone is willing to go on a road trip just to search for a missing person in the middle of the Nevada desert.”
“It’s for Andrew’s sake. There will be plenty of people who want to know what happened to Andrew.”
To Drake’s surprise, there weren’t all that many people willing to go. There were plenty of people concerned for Andrew’s well-being, such as Elise and Shaun, but they believed that if the investigators didn’t find any clues or evidence, neither would anyone else. There was also the matter that most other people didn’t want to take the risks of going out there themselves. There were two people, however, that did decide to go with them.
Keith had a girlfriend named Marlene, who recently moved to Searles sometime after Andrew had moved out. She previously lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, and although Searles hardly appealed to her, anything was better than living with her athletically-obsessed parents. She was fairly shy and quiet, but of course her personality shined whenever she was around people that she liked and was comfortable being with. Everything she loved most in this world revolved around Japanese anime; she could list off dozens or even hundreds of shows and mangas that appealed to her, not to mention she had an anime collection that crowded her entire bedroom. Her social life was minimal and had not changed much between Searles and Grand Junction, yet the only reason she even knew and cared about Andrew’s disappearance was because she knew Keith, and Keith knew Andrew.
Marlene and Keith found out about each other by accident when Keith decided to dial a random number as somewhat of a prank call, which turned out to be Marlene’s cell phone number. She played along, and Keith couldn’t bring himself to hang up the phone. After several minutes of awkward conversation, in which both people were unsure when to end the conversation and hang up first, they grew attached to each other and became friends. After a couple weeks, Marlene told her newly-found friend about her “duel” between enjoying anime and having to run several miles each week, all the while arguing with her parents constantly. Keith replied, “Why not live with me? I mean, its not much of a place to get excited about—in fact, it’s a freaking salt pit—but at the very least you won’t have to worry about arguing with your parents all the time.” Marlene eventually accepted his offer and saved up some money in order to pay for the trip. Eventually, considering how she was about to go move into some dude’s house she knew nothing about. Predictably, Marlene and Keith did end up in a relationship with one another, and after a few months, he told her about the incident with Andrew.
“You know what? I’ll go with you,” said Marlene, “simply because you want to help him out so much. And besides, the road he was taking—Highway 6—was the same road I drove down to get here from Grand Junction. It’d be nice to see some of those places in Nevada again.”
The other person that agreed to go with Keith and Drake was a former school bully, whom everybody liked to call “Billy Bob.” Technically named Bill Langley, he worked at the nearby factory, thinking about his social peak during his high school years. He had been on the Varsity football team, he had plenty of friends, and he had lived in a rich household with loving parents. So why did he go around behaving like a jackass to any unpopular kids he could find? His parents had hardly ever set limits with him, and his friends weren’t much help either. The only moments when he was under control was under the school system and under law enforcement whenever he got arrested. He never cared about going to college, but he did make sure to graduate high school; he hoped that it would make finding a job easier if he at least had a diploma. It had hardly helped, and the factory sure didn’t care about diplomas.
As the years passed, the real world gave Bill a change of heart. He realized that although the glory days were gone, he could still do something about his life to make it meaningful. I don’t want the rest of my life to end up like this, he thought. I don’t wanna keep working the same crappy job in the same shitty place forever and ever. But….how am I gonna do it? I don’t know what I’d do, or where I’d go, or anything!
It was shortly after thinking this that he heard about Andrew’s disappearance, how Drake and Keith were looking for someone to go with them for the search. Bill decided to start off his “new life” by helping them, but there were some complications.
“And why are you so suddenly interested in helping us?” said Keith. Bill had met up with Keith and Drake in person.
“I’m just trying to get my shit together, that’s all,” said Bill. “I thought maybe I could start by helping some old friends—”
“DON’T! Don’t you dare call us “friends” after these last four years! We have no reason to believe that you, who’s cracked some of our bones before for the fun of it, all of sudden wants to be this peace-loving oaf!”
“You don’t think I’m different now? How would you like working at a boring dead-end job with no way out, you motherf–”
“Enough, God dammit,” interrupted Drake, “both of you! If Billy Bob says that he wants to help out, then maybe he’s telling the truth!” He faced Bill. “And if you really do want to get your life together, then you need to treat people better.”
“I will. And don’t call me Billy Bob. Just Bill or Billy.”
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Keith.
“Dude, seriously, I know I’m not all that good, but I can at least try.” Drake winced at Bill’s argument—it was not very persuasive, but at least it seemed honest.
After some discussion involving fees, time, and arrangements within the following week, Drake, Keith, Marlene, and Bill met on a warm July morning at Drake’s house. He would drive first, then Keith, then Bill, then Marlene, and repeat; they would change seats every time they stopped, whether it was to eat, to stretch their legs, or anything else. Whoever wasn’t driving—but was going to drive after the next stop—would sit in the passenger seat. They packed their belongings into the trunk of a Ford Fusion, got into the car, and began the drive.
Bill started complaining a half hour into the drive saying that his knees were hurting. Drake replied, “You know, it’s only been half an hour. We’re not going to stop for at least one full hour.”
“I’m serious though, my knees are killing me. I’ve always had a little bit of trouble with my knees during road trips, but I’ve never had them this bad before. Maybe it’s the muscles in my legs. Can’t we at least stop so I can stretch my legs? That usually helps.”
“Would you like some aspirin instead?”
Bill pondered this for a moment. “Okay, fine, but if it doesn’t get much better, then we’re stopping. Where is it?”
“In the glove compartment. Would you give him the aspirin, Keith?”
Keith handed the aspirin back to Bill, who had grabbed the water bottle he brought as well. He put two pills in his mouth, took in some water, and swallowed.
The group stopped in Lone Pine—the aspirin didn’
t help, and Bill was aching to get out. They stopped at the outskirts of the town where they could see Mount Whitney to the west. All stone with some snow here and there, Drake and Keith enjoyed looking at it for a brief moment. Bill was mostly focused on his knees, which were getting better as he stood and walked, and he didn’t care much for looking at mountains anyway. Marlene was most pleased by the sight since all the high snow-capped peaks reminded her of the mountains in Colorado.
Keith drove from Lone Pine to Bishop; Bill sat in the passenger seat with the seat as far back as it could go, giving him enough leg room to prevent his knees from acting up for a while. Drake, however, sat right behind him, the seat pressed onto his knees as he remained uncomfortable for the next hour.
They had an early lunch in Bishop at a sit-down restaurant named the Bristlecone. Drake and Keith both had sandwiches, Bill had a hamburger, and Marlene had an omelet, believing it was never too late for breakfast. When Keith went up to go to the restroom, Marlene decided to play a little prank by putting whatever condiments she could find into his cola, and the other two guys played along as well. The dark brown color of the cola hid the mustard, steak sauce, etc. quite well. When Keith came back and drank his befouled cola, he said, “Okay, what the hell did you guys do to my drink?”
Drake, Marlene, and Bill laughed for a solid ten seconds, then Keith said, “Seriously, one of you is going to get me another one.”
“I know, I know,” said Marlene, “I’ll buy you a new drink, along with some dessert. How’s that sound?”
Keith closed his lips and nodded his head before responding. “You know what? That does sound good.”
“Wanna know what we put in your drink?”
“No, I would not.”
After several more hours of driving on one of the loneliest highways in America, with everybody saying how bored they were, they finally reached their destination.
“So….what now?” said Keith.
“Well, his car’s gone—must’ve been taken away. I suppose we could check the buildings around here, or maybe we could find somebody up the road that would know what happened to Andrew.”
They were reluctant in checking inside the abandoned buildings in the area, since even if there was the chance that it was legal, it seemed like taboo. All they could find were cobwebs, cockroaches, some old photos, and graffiti on the walls. So, they drove a few miles along the road to the nearest house. It was an old-fashioned house, with some trees around the yard and plenty of crops in the background.
The person who answered the door was an elderly woman, most likely in her seventies, and everywhere from her eyes to her grimace showed that she was bitter. There was noise coming from the television in the house, and it sounded as though an old man of equal age and his son were busy watching it. “If you’re government agents,” she said, “or missionaries, or you’re trying to sell me something, then just go away. I won’t even bother.”
“It’s none of that,” Bill interjected, “we were just hoping to find something out about a friend of ours that went missing around here some time ago.”
“Huh? Oh, I think I heard something about that, but Harry would know more about it.” She turned to the living room of the house. “Harry! There are people here wanting to know about that kid who went missing! Remember those police investigators who were asking about him?”
“How should I know? I never saw that guy in the first place—why would I? I didn’t have anything to say to the investigators, and I still don’t now! Besides, if he did show up here to ask for something, I would’ve just brought out the twelve-gauge.”
The old woman turned back to the group. “Well, sorry, We’ve got nothing.” She closed the door before anyone uttered another word.
When everyone got back into the car, Drake went on a rant. “Shit! I can’t believe we went hundreds of miles for absolutely nothing but shit!”
“So you admit that this was a waste of time?” said Keith.
“Hey, I know this sucks,” said Marlene, “but at least we know this wasn’t some sort of lie that the investigators made up, right? Andrew really is missing?”
“NO! We haven’t solved ANYTHING by going on this trip! Andrew’s either still at God-knows-where, or he’s just dead, and we haven’t gotten a single clue leading to him!!!”
“Well, we can’t just give up now….not like this,” said Bill.
“And where do you suppose we should look? The desert? The mountains? Both of which are too large and demanding to go through, by the way. We didn’t even bring any water bottles….”
“….Yeah, I guess we’re retarded for not thinking this through, huh?”
Everyone sat silently.
Bill looked up to the sky, thinking to himself. He was somewhat pleased by the idea that he answered the lady at the door first, that he took the initiative to help everyone find Andrew, though to little avail. He was, however, discouraged along with everyone else that there was nothing they could do.
Then Bill’s eyes widened. He was looking at a star in the sky that was getting progressively brighter, soon becoming large enough to show that it wasn’t some star.
“Guys, get out and look up.”
“Why?” said Keith.
Bill and Drake went out anyway, then Keith and Marlene followed suit shortly afterwards. They looked up into the sky and saw the same sight that Andrew experienced not too long ago.
What surprised them the most was that it was not nighttime, when stars are supposed to appear. It wasn’t even close to dusk.
Chapter 16
Three months have passed on Ku-an Doel since Andrew began his training.
There was a large creature prowling the forest, different from the area that Andrew and the hupac had met in. The creature was gray and leathery, having no hair on its wrinkly skin. Its general body size was somewhere between that of a moose and a bear. It was an odd omnivore, eating fish and small mammals where it would find some, yet also eating grass and berries like salad along the way. It was at the top of the food chain in its natural environment. However, it would meet a real challenge as Andrew and the hupac came to visit.
Andrew’s hair had grown all over; since he was training in the elements, his body needed to provide some kind of warmth, however minor. Therefore, Lee was ordered not to remove all of his hair permanently during the genetic procedures. Plus, he no longer had the suit—it had long been taken off. It would be accurate to say that, aside from the beard and the long hair on top of his head, the hair on his body grew by fifty percent. He did not look like a hairy ape, however.
The human never gave the hupac a name, as far as he thought. He thought about giving it one for a while, from something as simple of a name such as “Carl” to a more eloquent one such as “Shasta,” but he could never decide on anything. He thought that maybe it would help if he discovered what gender the hupac was, but he later found out it had no observable gender—its parts were taken out just like his were. Reproduction and the idea of living a legacy were not possible for this animal. If the hupac did have a name, it would simply be “Hupac,” since that was what Andrew called it from time to time.
The two predators wanted to go outside of their normal environment, making their way into something more challenging. They had just found this gray, hairless creature wandering around, which they would take as their first test. Andrew was nearly two hundred and eighty pounds now, all earned from muscle mass, and the hupac had gotten a little tougher as well. They cooperated remarkably during their time together, since the hupac could understand everything that Andrew was saying. Unfortunately, feedback was a problem, since the hupac had no effective ways of using language or any communication past primitive vocal sounds and body language. Neither one of them knew anything about sign language.
“Alright,” said the human, “I’m gonna distract that thing while you sneak up from behind. Whichever one of us he or she faces towards, the other one will attack, alright? So if it’s facing me, then you atta
ck it, and vice versa, okay?”
The hupac nodded its head.
“Good—and no running away this time. That was a pain in the ass for me to deal with.”
As the hupac walked around the creature at a seventy-five meter radius, Andrew walked straight up to the beast, its eyes meeting his. It was bewildered for several moments—the animal had never seen a human before, and although its memory of the scientists was strong, it did not regard Andrew as one of them. This human was part intel-being and part animal, and the creature did not know whether to just walk away or attack. After a few seconds that seemed to drag on for ages, it walked up to Andrew and pawed him. He did not retaliate, standing strong in his position, but he was left with five straight tears on his torso. Doing this enabled the creature to know how durable and strong Andrew was, and it made its decision with a loud roar.
At this moment, the hupac sprang onto the beast at a four O’ clock direction and broke the creature’s hip upon impact. Startled, the beast turned around and directed its full attention onto the hupac, forgetting about Andrew. The human had kicked its other hip, and although he had managed to displace it, he did not break it. Even so, the creature found itself in a very painful position, unable to stand and attack the duo. The hupac pounced and sunk its teeth into the creature’s jugular area, and Andrew punched and kicked at the displaced hip as much as he could. The beast remained standing on its front legs, yet unable to move from pain flowing throughout its body. After about two minutes, it fell down unconscious, and the two finished it off.
Andrew and the hupac found a cave to use as shelter for the night, taking their newly-earned prize with them. The human took an old log and a few sticks he found for firewood, while the hupac laid the entire time in the cave doing nothing. The human took a long time to get the fire going, seeing how all he relied on was the friction burn of rapidly twisting a stick onto another stick, but he had enough wood to keep the fire going throughout most of the night.