by Bryan Young
“Damn it!” Tony and Jax said simultaneously before running after Brodie.
Struggling to catch up but quickly running out of breath, Brodie came to a complete halt panting, hearing Tye’s footsteps get swallowed by the darkness.
Taking a deep breath, Jax suggested that the three of them walk up the rest up the trail and meet Tye at the top, rationalizing that that’s when he would probably stop.
Brodie and Tony agreed with Jax’s logic and proceeded to walk the rest of the trail uphill. Struggling against the growing buzz and all but covering their ears with their hands, they fought every urge to turn around, until Brodie shouted that he could see the top. They looked up to see a figure that they reasoned had to be Tye.
As they climbed the final few yards to the clearing, the buzzing instantly ceased. They all stood alone with their friend in a clearing. The hills loomed around them, and Tye stood staring fixedly on a bright blue light emanating from a crater just a couple hundred yards away.
Chapter 3: The Hills
There was a stillness in the air. A canopy of stellar majesty hung overhead and the bright stars of the night sky shone down on the young boys. Yet Tye noticed none of this, for him the world was the buzzing, and he was transfixed by it’s source, mesmerised, but not knowing or caring why. His friends screamed his name to absolutely no response. They began to shake him violently until he turned to them, his eyes glazed over. He looked back at the light and then shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind of the buzzing still echoing inside.
“Damn! My head,” Tye said through gritted teeth, rubbing his temples. “Where are we? I think I kinda blacked out.”
Brodie furrowed his brow and scratched his head, confused at Tye’s lack of any sort of recollection. “Huh? Dude, you don’t remember taking off at the speed of sound? Running all the way up this hill?”
“What the hell are you talking about? Not at all! Honestly! Like I said, I just blacked out. It was almost like I was sleepwalking up the trail, you know?”
“Sleepwalking while running like Usain Bolt on steroids?” Jax asked.
Tye shrugged and sat down on the grass, looking out over the field. “I guess so, man,” he said with a laugh. “Yo. If I told you guys something... weird, you wouldn’t think I’m crazy, right?”
Jax sat down next to him, followed by Brodie and Tony. “After what’s happened so far tonight? I think we’re way past weird, bro. Shoot.”
Tye stared up at the night sky then turned his gaze to the bright blue light. “I feel like that light has been... communicating with me. Ever since I saw it... I almost feel like... it’s been calling to me. Telling me to come closer and... I don’t know. But that buzzing we heard? I almost felt like it was a voice telling me where to go and telling everyone else to stay out. Am I insane or what?”
Brodie and Tony looked at each other with concern before Tony spoke, “It just sounded like buzzing to us, man. And the light was just a light. You sure you didn’t hit your head or something when you ran up those trails?”
“Yeah man, you might be a little crazy. But you’re okay, and we made it so... I guess everything is alright,” Brodie followed up.
Tye chuckled to himself. “Nah, man. I fell into some dirt but luckily I avoided hitting my head.” He took another look at the hills and the beautiful blue light that shone from below, “You’re right though. We made it, so fuck it.”
Brodie shot up as fast as a bullet, fumbling with the phone in his pocket. “Yo! Amongst all this weird shit, we totally forgot why we even came here in the first place! Tye! You gotta send a pic to your girl!”
Tye got up slowly. “Hey, hey! She’s not my girl. She’s just a really attractive girl that I know I wouldn’t mind taking out to pizza someday.”
“That’s what I said, bro! Your girl,” Brodie shot back with a smile. As he attempted to turn on his phone, he realized no amount of button smashing or phone shaking would work. He groaned in frustration as his attempts were unsuccessful. Tye, Jax, and Tony silently pulled out their phones and were met with the same result. Their phones simply refused to turn on.
“So the plan is out?” Jax asked.
“Kinda sucks knowing we came up for nothing,” Tony groaned, his arms falling loosely to his side as he stared morosely at the ground.
“What do you mean, for nothing?” Tye asked. “We made it to the fuckin’ Forgotten Hills! And yes, I know we don’t technically have anything to show for it, but who cares? Guys! We have experienced some shit that’s... strange, to say the least. There’s five of us as witnesses to what happened and that’s pretty damn valuable, right? Look, I know I came here to impress a girl but... look at this view. Look at how much we hiked. And most importantly? Look at how we’ve bonded. This is a story we can tell everyone!”
Excitedly, he jumped onto a nearby tree stump and pointed down to the crater and said, “And the best part? We still have a big-ass glowing crater to investigate!”
Jax shrugged. “Fuck it, man. I’m down. We made it all the way up here so we might as well see what’s going on down there, right?”
Brodie nodded in agreement, but Tony seemed reluctant to leave the safety of the field to investigate further. “Are you guys sure about this?” he asked apprehensively. “I mean... Considering everything we’ve seen today, are you guys sure this is the best idea? Tye acting weird, our phones not working, us getting randomly sick, animals not being willing to touch this place, the missing kids, and park rangers not even patrolling this area... And now you want to investigate the giant crater with a light emanating from its gut?”
“Well... Yeah,” Tye replied nonchalantly.
Tony huffed in frustration and said, “Okay. Cool. Just um... Just making sure. Let’s walk to our deaths or whatever other monstrosity that’ll scar us for life.”
“Naaaaah. It won’t be that bad, man,” Tye reassured him. “What’s the worst that could happen down there? There’s no one around for miles and it’s literally right there. How many opportunities are we gonna get to see a big glowing thingy in a crater? Could be something pretty dope.”
Tony shook his head in disagreement. “Tye, aren’t you the one always complaining about how white people do dumb shit in every horror movie that gets them killed? And how ‘if they had just done the logical thing and walked away,’ they wouldn’t have their heads mounted on some serial killer’s wall?”
Tye paused for a moment, rubbing his chin. He then pointed at Tony and said, “Okay. True. But we’re not dealing with some psychopath in a town with six people where the police are totally incompetent or some creepy cabin in the woods.” He then pointed towards the crater and continued with a mischievous smile, “We’re dealing with a mysterious glowing crater in the middle of the woods where there’s no one around for miles. This is more sci-fi than horror, to be honest.”
Dejected, Tony replied with a nervous smile, “Oh yeah! No cabin in the middle of the woods. Just a glowing crater! Makes a world of difference!”
Tye winked and walk towards the crater. “Now you’re getting it!”
Tony groaned in frustration as Jax and Brodie laughed and followed Tye down. Tony took a deep breath before slowly exhaling and then sprinting to catch up with his friends, screaming out, “I have a bad feeling about this!”
Tye quickly skidded down the side of the hill and took slow methodical steps towards the glowing hole. The crater looked over 100 feet in diameter. As he approached it, he noticed a small metallic object in the middle emitting the bright blue light that had entranced him not too long ago. He stood at the edge of the crater, looking down at the object. His friends quickly came up behind and gaped down at it as well. It seemed to be an egg-shaped segmented metallic capsule. The segments looked to be six identical blue pods coiled around a centerpiece from which the light shone. A mysterious liquid substance stood stagnant with bubbles forming in the center of each of the pods, encapsulated in what seemed to be a clear glass casing.
“What is
that?” Jax asked.
Terrified, Tony exclaimed, “Guys, I really don’t think we should be here. We should probably get out while we still can.”
But Tye was fixated on the object, once again drowning out the voices as his friends argued about what do. His body was frozen, and this time the urge to race towards the light was more intense than it had been till now. The buzzing came in waves once more, forming words in his mind that almost sounded like they were telling him to go forward. He couldn’t fight the desire; he backed up several feet with determination in his eyes and a sense of finality in his heart. He stopped just a few meters away and then without warning took a running start towards the commanding light.
With a sudden realization of what madness was about to unfold, Brodie screamed as Tye raced into the abyss. Jax and Tony spun around just in time to witness their friend take a powerful leap, taking off from at least 10 feet before them, clearing the three boys completely, and landing at the base of the crater completely unharmed. They looked on in shock and disbelief as they struggled to comprehend what exactly had taken place. Jax pulled on his hair with his mouth hanging open. Brodie mirrored Jax’s expression, and Tony refused to believe anything he was witnessing in that moment. “WHAT THE FUCK!” they simultaneously screamed at the top of their lungs, watching Tye walk methodically towards the mechanical object.
Tye was still staring at the blue light radiating beautifully from each segment. The light pierced the sky and seemed to call out to him to come closer. With every step he took, he could feel the buzzing intensify in his mind and the energy deep inside him grow more and more powerful. When he was right before the object, the buzzing in his mind cleared. The voices in his head became clear. His mind was no longer foggy and cluttered with the incessant buzzing. The only thing he could hear was a voice pushing him forward towards an enigmatic goal. One phrase rang clearly in his mind: Make contact.
He reached out to touch the object, it was smooth but felt warm to the touch almost as if it was alive. Running his fingers down it for a brief few seconds, he could feel an exchange of energy between his hand and the egg. The object made a booming noise as it lit up, five of the six segments quickly separating from the center. Tye’s trance broke as he was thrown back by the force of the sound. Not fully understanding the events taking place, he got up slowly and tried to focus his vision on the machine whirring to life.
He looked around in a desperate attempt to make sense of his surroundings. Why the hell am I in the crater? And what the hell is that thing in front of me? Looking up, he saw his friends screaming and waving at him to run back to safety. Realizing the danger, his instincts took over and he made a scramble for the top. The boys frantically called to him to hurry as five of the pods accelerated into the sky vanishing in streaks of blue light.
As Tye reached the top of the crater, his friends pulled him out of the hole. The boys made a mad dash for the trail, hoping that pure adrenaline would enable them to make it back to the car in record time. However, as they ran, they heard a thunderous roar wash over them as one of the pods appeared in front of them, blocking their path. A bright blue light shone from the bottom of the device, aimed squarely on Tye. He stood there once again, transfixed by the light. His friends attempted to drag him away, screaming at him to keep moving. As the object drew closer, they were forced to jump out of the objects path, leaving Tye as a tendril extended from its base. A small hole opened at the tip and a large hypodermic needle emerged and extended towards Tye.
Brodie watched as the tendril slowly moved towards his childhood friend. Fueled by adrenaline and instinct, he rushed to push his friend out of harm’s way, only to instantly be met by a second tendril cracking against his ribs that sent him flying into a nearby tree and knocked him unconscious. The first tendril seemed to inspect Tye as it neared him. It moved around him, examining every muscle and every bone in his body before rearing and striking suddenly. The needle jabbed directly into his left pectoral while making a rhythmic noise.
As Jax and Tony rushed to pull the tendril out of Tye’s chest, they were blown back by what seemed to be a wave of energy that sent them sprawling. The object continued to prod Tye, all the while making its strange noises. The second tendril then reached around to Tye’s back and stabbed him in his spine. Tye was still in a trance. He barely flinched at the invasion of his body. Suddenly, as quickly as it had begun, the object retracted its tendrils, made one final buzzing sound, and then in a brilliant flash accompanied by a thunderous boom, it disappeared in a cloud of electric smoke. Jax and Tony watched on in shock as Brodie slowly came to.
They gingerly walked over to their friend, who stared up at the night sky before falling to his knees and spitting out the contents of his dinner. Wiping the bile from his mouth, he asked Jax to grab the bottle of water from his backpack. They watched as Tye gulped down the entire bottle in one go. He took deep breaths and wiped the sweat from his brow as Jax and Brodie held him from either side so he could regain his balance. Tye looked around before frantically rubbing his chest and back, searching for the entry points of the needles that had pierced his skin.
“What the hell just happened to me?!” he screamed in confusion.
“We... have no idea. That thing attacked you and... You know what? Forget it,” Jax responded before regaining his calm and collected manner. “All I know is that we have to get you to an emergency room as soon as possible.”
Brodie scoffed at the idea. “And tell them what? That we trespassed on private property and an alien tentacle pod attacked us? They’re not gonna believe that shit. They’re gonna think we’re some idiots who got high in some place we shouldn’t have been. They might even arrest us for trespassing!”
Tony intervened nervously, “Then what do we do? That thing didn’t stab Tye for no reason! What if it injected something that’ll kill him or spawn little aliens?”
“I agree!” Brodie retorted. “All I’m saying is that no one is gonna believe us, and I doubt emergency rooms are equipped to find alien... you know… whatever is in Tye. All that’s gonna happen is we’ll get into trouble.”
“We have to try though.” Jax said calmly but firmly. “We have to at least see if something can be found. If there’s even a 0.0001% chance of there being something that they can find, we have to take that chance.”
As Jax, Tony, and Brodie argued, Tye pulled off his hoodie and shirt and ran his fingers over his left pectoral. He discovered a small sealant over what he suspected was the injection site. He then examined his back and found the same thing.
He turned to his friends and said softly, “Brodie is right. No hospital. It’d be a waste of time. The only thing they’d take seriously is us trespassing. And honestly? I don’t think I need it. Something tells me that... that thing, it wasn’t trying to hurt me.”
Jax stared at Tye, bewildered. “It wasn’t trying to hurt you? Dude, it stabbed you twice and you’re telling me it wasn’t trying to hurt you? You’ve been acting weird all night, Tye. I’m legit worried about you at this point, man.”
Tye looked at Jax and said reassuringly, “I’m fine. Outside of the holes in my hoodie.” He shrugged and proceeded to walk back to where they had come from as he put his clothes back on.
Tony called out after him, “Are you freaking kidding me? You take off like a speed demon, jump over the three of us, land in a crater that’s like 50 feet deep without a scratch, and get prodded by God knows what for God knows why, and you’re fine? Dude. This. Is. Not. Normal. We have to figure this out!”
Tye shrugged once more and repeated dryly, “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“So what’s the plan then?” Brodie asked.
“You’re asking me?” Tye countered.
“Yeah. You’re the man of the hour. That thing wanted you for whatever reason, so I think it’s fair to let you pick.”
Tye looked at the ground and thought for a moment before gazing up at the sky. “I don’t know. I think for now, we just go back to the car, dri
ve home, take some long showers, and try to move on with our lives. We’re okay.”
“Sounds like a plan, I guess,” Jax commented.
Forgetting his past failures in turning on his phone, Brodie tried to activate his device again to tell Nathan that they were on their way back and to warm up the car for them in about 45 minutes.
Just as the familiar blue light on Brodie’s phone came back on, Tye looked back and noticed Brodie texting. “Wait. Your phone’s working?” Tye said with surprise.
“Yeah, dude. It’s a new phone. It better work,” Brodie replied apathetically.
“Dude! Remember how none of our phones were working? I wonder if that thing in the crater prevented electronics from working for a specific radius or something? Kinda like an EMP?”
“Oh yeah,” Brodie replied. “I kinda forgot about all that when you got Super Mario hops and got stabbed by an alien egg. But. Yeah. Cool?”
“Nah man. You don’t get it!” Tye exclaimed as he rushed to position himself in the clearing so he could have the hills as a backdrop while frantically turning on his phone. “Yo! Jax, Brodie, Tony! Get your asses over here and help me take this picture!” The other three boys were still shaken by the ordeal but agreed, walking over to Tye to help decide on a pose and a position so he could take a few pictures and send them back to Gemma as proof that he had indeed conquered the hills of legend.
Satisfied with how they looked and that they gotten enough of the hills in frame to prove they weren’t trying to pass off some random place as the Forgotten Hills, the boys began to walk back, laughing and making light of their harrowing experience in order to better cope. As they descended the steep incline back, they looked down to find multiple patrol cars lined up and driving out of the lower trail, headed by city police vehicles.
“Why are they all leaving?” Jax asked in a hushed voice.
Tye noticed they were turning onto a pathway that would connect them to the Buck Hallows Farm trail a couple miles down. “I don’t think they’re leaving. They’re coming up!”
