“I will and you take care of yourself too. Don't get eaten by a grizzly bear.”
“I'll try not to,” said Jayden.
They stared at one another for the longest time, as if one was waiting for the other to say something but neither did. They had become two statues frozen in time. A woodpecker high up in a tree broke the silence as they both stared up at it and then again at one another. And so Jayden finally started off, hoping that Brody would decide to join him but he didn't. He walked as slowly as he could, so that Brody would have sufficient time to holler at him to wait for him but he didn't.
“Hey bear,” said Brody. “What you got there?” He walked up to the bear and saw the turtle. “Another turtle. What's with all the turtles?” He picked up the reptile and stared in at him. He cocked his head and tried hard to imagine what it would be like if he was the turtle, being so low to the ground, and having to walk so slow. And then he pictured how big the bear would look to such a small thing and he actually scared himself. He would look like a monster with giant teeth and nose holes as big as two caves.
The cub had wandered off behind the cabin as Broody looked in the direction where Jayden had disappeared. He was surprised by a huge belch that escaped him and with nothing better to do he decided to take a nap. Life would definitely not be the same without Jayden. It would take time to get used to being without him. He already missed him.
Chapter Fourty-Five
THE BOYS HAD FINALLY SETTLED DOWN inside the saucer after the traumatic experience and all were taking a nap except for Randy. It was hard to think that he might never ever get home again, might never see his parents again, and might never see the Earth again. It was difficult because reality just didn't seem real. He continued to think of it over and over again. He never expected such consequences from joining the club. He had been positive that the saucer was some sort of stupid joke but now the joke was on him. But he still had hope that they would eventually get home, it was the only thing that kept him going.
A sphere floated out of the wall and over to Randy; he was lying flat and he followed it around with his blue eyes. He scratched his head through his curly brown hair and watched as it scanned him with purple light. It appeared satisfied with whatever it had seen because it emitted happy beeps. He guessed that it was pleased that it had healed him. He wondered if the strange ball was smarter than the smartest person on Earth.
“Good job you fixed me,” Randy whispered.
“Wee beep weow beep.”
Randy shrugged. “I don't know what the heck you're saying, just take us home and we'll be as happy as a pig in mud.”
“Beep boop.”
“I can't understand your language and you don't understand English so what is the point?” Randy brought up his knees and was so happy to be able to do so.
The window opened revealing a planet in the distance. Randy sat up and opened his mouth so wide that he was lucky there were no flies around. The planet was still quite a distance away and it looked small, the size of a marble but it definitely wasn't Earth that they were heading towards. Was the ship taking them to their home planet? He shook his head repeatedly.
Randy screamed and everyone jumped up. “We're heading for a planet and its not Earth! Look!”
“Yes!” Michael shouted. “I know that planet! That's Mars! I'm gonna be the first one on Mars! You guys have to let me go out first!”
Randy definitely thought that was a bad idea. “Are you nuts? You wanna be stranded on Mars. We can't trust this thing! It left us on the moon.”
“We can trust it,” said Michael. “It came back for us. Believe me I'm going out there if it lands.”
Sam stared at the tiny planet. “Are you sure that's Mars? It looks awful small.”
Michael danced around because to him it was the best news ever. “That's Mars all right! I can't believe it! I was hoping that it would take us to Mars.” And then he started to sing. “I'm going to Mars.”
The window closed for several seconds and when it opened Mars filled up the entire window. Within a second the saucer had travelled more than twenty million miles. The saucer gently touched down on the Martian surface and was waiting for them to go out and explore. Everything was happening so fast. Michael put his hand up to the window to see if he could push through it, and when it did he realized that he could go out onto the surface.
“I'm going out guys,” said Michael. Out he went onto the surface of the red planet and they could see him dancing out there. He picked up a large Martian rock and was staggering around with it. He brought the rock into the saucer and put it down with a thump. “Are you guys coming out or what? And remember that I was the first man on Mars.”
Jake patted Michael on the shoulder. “Yeah, well if we never make it back home who's gonna know?”
“And I thought it was going to be such a boring summer,” said Randy.
Sam was beaming as he stared at the others. “Randy, are you coming? We'll never get this chance again. I'm going out.”
Randy shook his head. “I'm not going. At least this way if the saucer takes off I'll still be in it. Maybe I'll be the only one that gets back home and you guys will be stuck on Mars.”
Sam followed Michael out onto the surface followed by Jake and then Johnny. Randy felt sad as he watched them play out there; Michael was carrying another rock about the size of a loaf of bread until he dropped it. In the background there was a mountain in the distance which added to the magnificent view. It did look like fun out there. Randy sat down to sulk when suddenly something stood him right back up and then pushed him out onto the surface.
Sam was excited to see Randy. “Randy, I knew you wouldn't stay in there all by yourself.”
“It threw me out!”
“The saucer threw you out?” Johnny was in the process of writing his name in the Martian soil.
“Yeah, it threw me out here,” said Randy. “It didn't give me a choice. And there it goes.”
The saucer took off and was gone in a flash. The ship now had an intrinsic connection to all of them, and in its own way it told them that it would be back. The problem was that it wasn't telling them in words but in feelings, and Randy had a difficult time believing those feelings. Michael had written his name in several places and was in the process of doing another one when he stopped. The wind blew some sand against his bubble but then it dissipated.
Sam bent down and picked up another rock. “It is useless to write your name in this soil guys because the wind will just blow it away.”
“Yeah, you're right,” said Michael. “We should all take some rocks back with us so that we can prove we were up here.”
“If we ever get back,” said Jake.
Randy walked right through Michael's bubble on his way to sit on a boulder. “If we were sure it would take us home.”
Johnny sat beside Randy. “Notice how weird time feels right now? I can't tell if we've been in the saucer for a day or a month.”
“Yeah,” said Jake. “My watch stopped working.”
Sam thought about different possibilities. “What if the ship brings us home and we find out that we've been gone for like ten years? That would be so freaking weird.”
“Being here is unbelievable,” said Michael. “But I don't wanna live on some freaking weird planet.”
After several hours of exploring they were now all worried that the saucer wasn't coming back but then it touched down in front of them and they each brought several rocks with them into the saucer. Michael was the last one to go inside the disk but finally he was frightened that it would take off without him. The craft lifted off from the Martian surface and in less than a second it had travelled another twenty million miles as it was about to shift into a second gear of sorts.
Inside the saucer the window closed as the alien craft accelerated and then in less than a minute it opened to reveal the gas giant Jupiter. Everyone jumped up and stared at the storm that was the Great Red Spot and the wonders of the huge planet.
It was taking them on a tour of the solar system and definitely taking them further away from the Earth. They all had mixed emotions about the sights they were seeing along with the worry of getting back home.
Michael screamed. “Jupiter cool!”
Sam nodded in awe. “Jake, I hope this thing doesn't take us to Uranus.”
“Stay away from my anus you pervert.”
Randy looked like he was thinking about something. “Jupiter is all gas right?”
Michael nodded. “I think so.”
“So we're not gonna be walking on this thing.”
“Nope,” said Michael.
The saucer went down into the planet's atmosphere and exited out the other side. They couldn't distinguish much in there but they did see orange lightning and strange flowing clouds. The window once again closed and in a few minutes they all settled down.
“You know,” said Randy. “This thing was broken and it fixed itself but what if it broke again, like right now.”
Michael shook his head. “That's the way to think positive.”
Sam shrugged. “It is what it is. We have no control over this thing so wherever it takes us it takes us. Probably would have been a good idea if we'd never come in here; I mean if it doesn't bring us home.”
A sphere emerged from the floor and went over to Sam and started beeping at him as if it was having a conversation with him. Sam nodded and pretended to understand it. “Oh, you don't say? Yeah, that's what I thought too.”
“What's it saying?” Jake asked.
“How the hell should I know?” said Sam. “Could be saying that's its taking us back to its home planet to be eaten by aliens. Could be asking me how we like the trip so far. Who the hell knows?”
The window expanded as it opened and they were now approaching Saturn. They all jumped up and ran to the window. Johnny tripped over Jake as the sphere continued to talk to Sam. It was a mind-blowing sight. It was the beauty of Saturn in all its glory and those fantastic rings from such close proximity were amazing. How could they not be in awe? The sphere went up to the window and then returned to Sam and then did it again.
Michael looked puzzled as he watched the alien globe. “I think it's trying to tell you something.”
“Imagine if we get home,” said Randy. “And I put that thing on a leash and took it for a walk like a dog.”
The sphere went out through the window and floated in space and then came back in. Everyone stared at one another realizing what it was saying. Johnny shook his head and then everyone followed.
Michael looked puzzled. “It wants us to go outside in the middle of space? It has got to be kidding?”
Jake stuck his head out and discovered a view like no other. The ship approached the planets rings and he could now see the sizes of the particles that made up the rings, some were like dust and others were the sizes of small cars. Some rocks were going right through his bubble and he managed to catch one that was like a small rock. A larger rock bounced off the bubble as it protected him. When he brought his head back in he showed the others the rock; it was as cold as ice. The rock looked to be dust particles held together with ice. They all took turns going out into space and catching rocks and dust but always with their feet being held by two, one guy holding each leg.
Sam brought in a large chunk the size of his head and was surprised when it instantly turned to dust with the warm air inside the ship. He took a small empty pill bottle where he kept his matches to keep them dry from the elements and filled it with the dust. “Guys, if we ever get back this stuff will be worth more than pirate treasure! That's if we can get them to believe us.”
“I know,” said Johnny. “We'll probably all be rich and famous. We'll be on the news all over the world.”
They examined their booty; all the small rocks and chucks of ice that were now melting and then the portal closed once again. Having Martian rocks was one thing but having a piece of Saturn's rings must certainly be treasure. The entire ship flashed black and then white and it commenced to glitter in waves, as if it was now made with pure energy, and for the first time they felt a slight tug of acceleration. They all stared at the light show not knowing what to think. The saucer was now travelling faster than it ever had with them in it as it shot out of the solar system.
The sphere showed them a small image of the ship, which was in blue, and then showed them a straight white line, and then animated the image as it showed them flying past the white line. It had never showed them an image before and they were all trying to figure it out. What was it trying to show them?
Michael looked at Sam. “What is it?”
“Beats me,” said Sam.
“Oh no!” Randy shouted. “No, no, no. Don't you see? Were in the little saucer shape and the straight line is light.”
“So,” said Jake.
Randy continued to shake his head. “It's telling us that we're now flying faster than the speed of light!”
Johnny examined his sparkly rock that he had taken from Saturn's rings; he turned and stared at the image they were being shown. “That's not possible.”
“Not possible for our inferior technology but this thing was made by aliens.” Randy started to pace back and forth. “I think its taking us to its home planet!”
Sam nodded. “I'm not sure how it works but I think time slows down for us. If we do get back home it could be a hundred years in the future. Everyone we know would be dead. And then there are worm holes and a whole bunch of other shit we don't know about.”
Michael shrugged. “I'm not worrying about any of that stuff until I see it with my own eyes.”
The disk attained the speed of light and then surpassed it many times.
Chapter Fourty-Six
A HUGE TRIANGULAR SPACESHIP flew silently; it was almost darker than space itself. It was seventeen floors thick and bigger than the size of Texas and California put together. The station had a white pulsing pyramid on top of it as it approached a gray planet, a gray water world not unlike the Earth. Several small triangular windows showed peculiar looking beings inside, big ugly heads with four small red beady eyes. A single red blob of light went around the ship, sucking up energy from the stars; the blob seemed alive the way it moved pausing briefly in different locations and then continuing on.
The ship's occupants had destroyed their own world after more than a hundred thousand years of abuse, and now the only life that remained from their devastated planet was onboard. They were a warring species and several battles were taking place inside the craft. Their leaders knew that it was important for them to find a new world soon lest they completely destroy themselves and their ship. They were in search of a planet to take over and call their own but unfortunately their scanners were already indicating that the gray planet had an atmosphere that they couldn't survive in. It also detected a rare element inside the planet that was valuable to them, that would make their ship more energy efficient.
The massive station slowly adjusted itself until the point of the pyramid on top was aiming at the exact center of the planet. The station moved to a safe distance from the planet before the order was given to initiate its huge energy blaster. A stream of white energy with red beams within hit the center of the planet, and less than twelve hours later the planet exploded completely destroying it, rendering the beautiful world into nothing but drifting debris. The ship moved in and extracted the small amount of the kjbal element and then moved off.
Inside the craft in an incredibly bright white room several of the strange creatures slithered across the room being happy with the destruction of the gray planet. The leaders pointed their feelers to a 3d image of the planet Earth. It was to be their next destination. They had detected it from quite a distance away but it did look promising. More than fifty percent of the planet was water. The scanners had shown that many strange species existed; it appeared that the planet was teeming with life.
Chapter Fourty-Seven
BRODY AWOKE TO THE SOUNDS OF THE BEAR CUB
PLAYING. The first night without Jayden had been a restless one and he had been the first thing that had come to mind when he opened his eyes. He hoped his friend was okay but there was no way of knowing. It was never a good thing when friends parted; he felt like a turtle without his shell. He hoped that Jayden was okay and that he hadn't gotten himself lost in the forest. He had had a difficult time getting to sleep fretting about his friend, and had tossed and turned most of the night. But perhaps it was time for him to make a go of it on his own. Now the bear was his best friend. It saddened him to think that if the bear left him he would end up alone and it wouldn't be easy to find another bear.
Brody sat up on the corner of the old mattress and watched a spider make its way down on its web by the door. He wondered how that skeleton had managed to lug the mattress way out here, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't figure it. How the hell did he get that heavy stove out in the middle of the forest? It made no sense to him. Maybe he had floated it downriver? He was going to give himself a headache if he continued to try and guess how it had been done. There must be a logical explanation to it but he couldn't figure it.
It was a bit of a cool morning but also fresh and invigorating, only the slightest hint of a breeze; he thought that Mother Nature had done a wonderful job out here. There was dew on the flowers and the forest floor, with a bee making its rounds from one flower to another. An unseen woodpecker was hard at work. The forest wouldn't judge him and neither would his bear. He got up and stretched. The cub bellowed and he picked up a dead fish that was on the floor and threw it out; the cub went and got it and then came back inside. He got along better with the bear than he did with most people. The life of a bear wasn't nearly as complicated as the life of a human but just as important Brody thought.
Brody put some more wood in the stove that he had chopped before lighting it. The bear took his fish and moved away from the fire, complaining at the sight of it. He thought that Jayden might be cold without a fire and that made him sad. Being cold was one of the many difficult things in life and of course loneliness was another but loneliness couldn't be chased away with fire. When one was alone there was no one around to cheer one up and it made the world appear empty. A lonely person could even be alone in a crowd. A true friend was like the sun shining on the first warm day after a long winter.
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