Adventure Bike Club and the Tire Giant

by Brian Bakos

“it’s close enough. Besides, if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t even be here. So I deserve some credit.”

  “You’ve got that right,” I mutter.

  Melissa starts talking again. New pictures appear:

  We’re at the rain shelter with the weird men closing in on us. Melissa jumps off the bench and, grabbing her English racer, leads us across the park and over the bridge. Then, with a single effortless heave, she tosses the bridge into the creek just as the men are stepping onto it.

  Now we’re on the dirt road with the men coming from all directions. Melissa forces her bike through the underbrush, while I stumble along behind.

  “Oh really?” I say. “What about your nose dive into the mud?”

  Melissa lowers the device a bit and gives me a sly grin.

  “It’s just some artistic license, Amanda. You know, Hollywood style.”

  She finishes the drama:

  We break out of the woods – with Melissa leading, of course – and escape into the Tire Giant. Then Melissa orders us to turn on our lights and beep our horns.

  “And that’s what happened!” Melissa says proudly.

  The tall alien kid takes back the communicator. A little smile creases his face.

  “Kintz One liked your story,” Eddie says. “It’s got the right kind of interesting lies.”

  “Thank you,” Melissa says. “So, Kintz One is his name?”

  “Sort of,” Eddie says. “Kintz is their word for ‘people.’ You can’t pronounce their real names, so I just call him Kintz One.”

  The boy steps forward and gives a slight bow.

  “The others are girls,” Eddie says.

  He points to each one in turn, starting with the oldest looking one.

  “I’ve named them Kintz A, Kintz B, and Kintz C.”

  The girls make stiff little curtsies.

  “You know, Kintz One, you’re kind of cute.” Melissa says, stroking the boy’s long white hair. “Too bad about your hair, though. It looks like my Grandpa’s.”

  A little color enters his face. Melissa hadn’t used the communicator, but he seems to catch her drift well enough.

  “He’s the oldest,” Eddie says. “Kintz A is his sister. The other two girls are twins.”

  Yes, the two smallest ones do look pretty identical, but what do I know? I’m usually not around aliens much and can’t tell them apart very well.

  “What are they doing here?” I ask.

  “That’s a whole other story,” Eddie says. “Better let them tell it.”

  He hands the communicator to Kintz One. The alien makes some adjustments to the thing.

  “Those guys who chased you in here aren’t real,” Eddie says. “They were all just projections of the same Basitch man.”

  “Basitch?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” Eddie says, “they’re secret agent type guys – kind of an alien Gestapo, or something. Very bad news.”

  “You mean, we could have walked right through them?” Quentin says.

  “Yeah,” Eddie says, “we all got conned. And this isn’t really a tire, either. It’s disguised.”

  The situation is getting weirder by the second, but there isn’t time to ask Eddie more questions. Kintz One has begun speaking into the communicator.

  14. Horror Drama

  Bright, wondrous pictures pour out of the communicator, worlds better than the ones made by Eddie and Melissa. It’s like we’re standing in the middle of a Technicolor movie, without the popcorn.

  A fantastic city sprawls around us with glittery towers shooting up to incredible altitudes. The sky is a pinkish orange-blue, and drifting clouds, like puffs of cotton candy, hide the tops of the highest buildings. Kintz type people are everywhere – walking on the skyways, strolling the sidewalks, and riding aboard elevated trains that seem to zip through thin air.

  Then we enter one of the buildings. We’re inside a big hall where hundreds of people are holding a meeting. Everybody is arguing and shouting. You can almost hear the racket, although this is also a silent movie.

  A man at the front of the hall holds out his arms and tries to quiet things down. He’s not having much success.

  “That looks like our last family reunion,” Quentin says. “We don’t get along too well with my cousins.”

  “It’s their Congress,” Eddie says. “The guy in front is the father of Kintz One and Kintz A. He’s some big shot in the government, but he’s got lots of enemies.”

  The scene shifts to an arena type place with a supersized basketball court. There are benches up in a balcony, but no one is sitting in them. On the court, Kintz One and several other boys use hockey sticks to whack around what appears to be a flaming tennis ball.

  Suddenly, a couple of Basitch men wearing long coats bust in and grab Kintz One. The other boys try to help him, but are knocked down by energy blasts.

  The scene shifts to another room with a bouncy floor. Kintz A, B, and C are jumping around playing a game with colored light beams. Basitch men bust in and grab them.

  They carry the children outside where Kintz One is being held by another goon. Kintz One is all tied up and gagged, he’s struggling hard to free himself but can’t.

  Next thing, the kids are all being pushed inside a large, round structure like a flying saucer. One of the Basitch men gets in with them, the other goons push back an angry crowd that is trying to rescue the kids. The flying saucer begins spinning, then it disappears.

  The pictures fade away, leaving us alone in the shadows.

  “The ending was a real bummer,” Melissa says, “but I’d sure like to visit that city! It makes New York look like a cow town.”

  The Kintz all stand together hugging each other and wailing in their strange, musical voices – as if they are at some very tragic funeral.

  “They got kidnapped, as you saw,” Eddie explains. “Their parents are important leaders, and some bad guys want to blackmail them. A civil war is breaking out in their world.”

  “Wow, that’s ugly,” Quentin says, “Where is their world, anyway?”

  “It’s in some other time or universe,” Eddie says. “Real Twilight Zone type stuff.”

  “Wherever it is, I’ll bet the shopping is fantastic,” Melissa says.

  “I can’t believe they just plopped this big thing down here without anybody checking on them,” Tommy says. “What about our government?”

  “The guard paid out some bribes,” Eddie says. “Kintz One says it’s easy to buy off officials on this planet.”

  Tommy looks very upset. “That might be true in other countries, but not here!”

  “That’s right,” Melissa says. “We have the best government money can buy.”

  “Whatever.” Eddie shrugs. “And anybody who slipped through, like us, got picked up by the long coat guys.”

  “So, why did they come here, anyway?” Quentin asks.

  “It’s only for a little while,” Eddie says. “Once they get recharged and repaired they’ll be off again.”

  “Where to?” I ask.

  Eddie shrugs again. “Beats me. They’ll just keep moving, I guess.”

  “Have to outrun the posse, eh?” Quentin says.

  “Something like that,” Eddie says.

  I don’t like the sound of this one bit. Bad enough that we’re stuck in here like hamsters in a cage, now we have to worry about an outer space cops & robbers drama. Then a really scary thought occurs to me.

  “What happens to us when they leave?” I ask.

  We all turn toward Kintz One.

  He seems to understand what we were talking about. He brings the communicator slowly up to his mouth; his hands are shaking a little now.

  A picture of the Tire Giant appears:

  It is spinning faster and faster. The tire disguise blows away revealing the flying saucer type structure inside. The thing takes off. Actually, it just sort of disappears.

  The ship is hurtling through outer space with legions of stars flashing by. Then a h
atch opens and something tumbles out. Me and my friends – including Eddie!

  We’re all frozen solid, our faces are twisted with screams and our eyes are popped out. The crystal on Melissa’s designer watch is shattered.

  Kintz One stops talking and the dreadful pictures fade. He stands looking at the floor, as if his last speck of energy has drained away. The Kintz girls crowd around him. They all hug each other and weep.

  We humans just stand with our mouths hanging open, like goldfish tossed out of the water.

  15. The Dreadful Truth

  Then, each in our own way, we try to deal with the horror.

  “They told me at the Children’s Home that I’d come to a bad end,” Eddie says, “but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”

  Melissa moves over to the Kintz.

  “Don’t cry, please,” she says in a tiny, wavering voice. “It makes everything worse.”

  Kintz One turns toward her and brushes tears from his eyes. The others quiet down, too.

  “That’s better,” Melissa says.

  She holds onto Kintz One’s hand. With her free hand she strokes his long, silvery-white hair.

  “I-I know this great stylist who could do wonders for you,” she says. “How’d you like to be blond, or maybe a nice light brown? And you’ve definitely got to work on your tan.”

  Quentin and Tommy just look stunned, as if the whole world has caved in leaving them no place to stand.

  It’s probably just a way people try to protect themselves from going nuts, but I simply can’t believe the pictures. They are far too horrible – things like that might happen to other people, but certainly not to me.

  I don’t think Melissa really believes it, either, judging by the way she’s hanging onto Kintz One like he’s some movie star.

  Besides, how could Kintz One know what’s going