by C S Allen
“Someone, check to see if there’s a quart of oil in the back of the car. I’ll take a look at the hole in the oil pan and see what I can come up with,” I said. Just as I knelt down to get under the car, I realized that we were supposed to have a screw and some plastic to put in the hole. I then stood back up, without looking under the car, and looked at Olivia, who was standing by. “Olivia, where’s that hammer you had yesterday?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, I tossed it over here,” Olivia stated, as she walked to the front of the car and picked up the hammer.
“Cool, all we need now is some plastic wrap and a screw,” I stated out loud.
“Steve had that screw that Olivia got out of the kitchen chair. Damn, we need to get another screw from the cabin, Olivia,” Emma mentioned.
Mike closed the back door of the car and came over to us with a quart of oil in hand. “Well, it looks like we have everything except a screw, so let’s go get one in the cabin,” Mike stated.
Just then the sky opened up, and it started to pour down with rain. Mike ran to the cabin while Olivia, Emma, and I jumped in the car to avoid getting soaking wet.
“Whoa! This is some heavy rain we got here, girls,” Olivia stated.
“That’s a cold rain coming down there, boys, did you guys feel that?” I replied to Olivia’s statement.
“You two are hilarious. When you both figure out if we are all girls or boys in here, let me know,” Emma said, as the three of us laughed.
As we waited for Mike to get back with a screw, the rain slackened. Twenty or so minutes had gone by, and Mike was taking longer than expected to get back. I told the girls I was going to go check up on him in the cabin, and I would be right back. As I got out of the car and headed towards the cabin, I glanced toward the lake and thought I saw something in the lake like what Steve had said before. The object was hard to make out because of the distance and the rain in my eyes. When I got to the cabin and opened the door, I didn’t see Mike inside. I yelled for him as I walked inside, but he didn’t answer. The kitchen table had been moved, and the back door was wide open. There was water on the floor in the living room and on the kitchen floor like someone had hosed the place down. I walked out the back door and again yelled Mike’s name, and he still didn’t answer.
Hisss!
I jumped nervously as I’d forgotten those damn raccoons were there. I turned around to look at the roof, and the same raccoon that had been there earlier was still there. It was angry and showing its teeth like it wanted to eat me or kill me. I yelled again for Mike as I walked around the backyard area. I didn’t want to walk down to the water because I didn’t want to see Steve floating in the water dead, but I had to. I pushed through the brush and could see the water and looked around.
“Mike!” I yelled one more time.
I could see algae massed in one area of the lake, and something looked odd about it. There was something partially sticking out above it, but I couldn’t tell what it was because of the distance. The rain started to pick up more as I walked forward, and it was getting into my eyes. As I got closer, it looked like the algae was moving with the water toward the shore in one large mass. As I wiped my eyes and looked down toward the center of the algae, I could see someone’s canoe had been trapped underneath. One end was close enough for me to reach, so I started to pull it out of the water[pe6].
“Ahh!” A white- and grey-colored face came floating out from underneath the canoe; it was Steve. I quickly dropped the canoe and ran as fast as I could from the shoreline, through the brush, and up to the car. I opened the back door and jumped in and then slammed the door closed. The girls were nervous and wondered why I didn’t have Mike with me and why was I running.
“Where’s Mike?” Emma asked.
Before I could say anything, Olivia cut in. “What the hell is going on, Will?”
I was shaking from being cold and wet and tried to get my breathing under control from running all out.
“Will, what the hell is going on?” Olivia yelled this time.
“I can’t find Mike; he’s not in the cabin. I went looking for him and found Steve’s body in the water instead,” I replied.
Olivia was sitting in the driver’s seat and started blowing the horn. I couldn’t stop shaking because I was so cold and scared at the same time.
“There’s a beach towel behind you, Will, wrap yourself up,” Emma stated.
“Shit, where in the hell is Mike, goddamn it!” Olivia yelled, while pounding on the steering wheel.
“The back door was open when I got inside the cabin, and the floor was wet like it had been mopped from the front door to the back. Why in hell would there be water in the cabin like that?” I said out loud while grabbing the towel.
“Who has the key to this car, Will?” Olivia asks.
I thought for a second and then reached into my pockets and found nothing. I did it again this time thinking about what I had done with it the evening before.
“Oh my God, we don’t have the key, do we?” Emma stated looking at me
“You better have the key Will!” Olivia said angrily, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
“I had it in my hand after we got out of the car last night. I don’t know what I did with it. I have to go back to the cabin and look for them.”
“Steve has the main keys to the car, doesn’t he? And why not, it’s his car, right? Well it looks like someone is going to get Steve’s key out of his shorts, right Will?
“I’m not going down there to pull Steve from the water and then grab his keys out of his shorts,” I stated.
“My God, we’re never getting out of here,” Emma said and then started sobbing.
Olivia pounded on the horn a few more times and then said, “Fuck this shit. I’m not fucking staying here. Steve is dead, Mike is gone somewhere, and I’m getting out of here before I disappear!” Olivia stated, as she opened the car door and got out.
“Olivia, stop!” Emma yelled.
I quickly opened my door and grabbed Olivia by the arm. “Olivia, I have a plan to get us out of here, just wait,” I said.
“What plan? You’re too chicken shit to get the keys out of Steve’s pocket, so how are we going to get out of here?” Olivia asked angrily.
“Get back in the car so we can all talk about it and see if you all will agree with me,” I pleaded. Olivia turned around and got back into the car. I didn’t have a plan off hand; I just wanted Olivia to get back into the car at that moment. I looked around the area before getting back into the car, hoping to see Mike. “Listen, Steve has the key to the car in his shorts. I am scared as hell to touch Steve because he’s dead. I don’t mean to be scared, but I am. I would feel better if we all went down there and got his key together, okay,” I stated.
Emma, wiping her tears away, said, “We have to stick together no matter what.” She looked at Olivia.
Olivia looked off in the distance and replied, “I don’t want to see Steve like that, Will. I don’t want to remember him lifeless and in the lake like you said he is. I’ll go with you guys, but I’m staying away from seeing him.”
Chapter Six
We agreed to go down to the water, but first we had to find another screw and some plastic from inside the cabin. As we left the car, we yelled Mike’s name a few more times, but we heard no response. Once back in the cabin, we went looking everywhere for the key that I had and couldn’t find it. We really didn’t want to go down to water and mess with Steve,
and the girls took it out on me with their words.
After twenty or so minutes, we got tired of looking for the key and decided to get on with what we initially went to the cabin for. Olivia watched out the back door for anyone, and Emma stood at the front. I broke two legs off of the already broken chair that Olivia had damaged earlier. I pulled out two screws and put them in my pocket. I gave Emma and Olivia each a leg from the chair for their own protection. I broke another part of the chair so that I could have a leg to defend myself also.
“Emma, close the door and come over here before we go outside,” I said to Emma, while waving her into the kitchen. “You guys, there’s a damn raccoon on the roof, so be ready for it to hiss at us when we start out the door,” I said, pointing at the ceiling.
“Oh, just great, raccoons that are stalking us,” Olivia stated.
“When we clear the door, let’s stay side by side,” I said to the girls, and they agreed. I went out the door first, and nothing hissed at me. Olivia and Emma darted out the door at the same time and caught up to me. We turned around to look at the roof, and there was the raccoon, lying on its side, dead.
“That’s what you get for hissing at us, yeah bitch!” Olivia yelled. We got a good laugh at Olivia’s comment.
“Okay, let’s go,” I said to the girls. We started down to the lake and pushed through the brush. As we got to the beach, we saw a dead raccoon on the sand.
“That’s what you get, bitch, for hissing at us!” Emma, said as she pointed at the raccoon and yelled.
This time Olivia and I didn’t laugh because something didn’t look right about the raccoon.
“What? Olivia says that, and we thought it was funny. When I do it, no one laughs,” Emma stated, looking at us.
“That raccoon looks like the life was sucked out of it,” Olivia said.
“What the hell happened to these raccoons?” I stated.
“Who cares, as long as they stop hissing at us and causing us to freak out. They’re the ones that made us think a damn monster was out to get us last night,” Emma said.
“Where’s Steve, Will?” Olivia asked nervously.
“Stay here and watch us, okay?” I stated. I looked over at Emma and motioned for her to follow me. When we had walked about fifty feet away from Olivia, I could see the algae where Steve was supposed to be. The algae covered Steve so we couldn’t see where he was. “Steve is in there somewhere, Emma, the damn algae covers him,” I said.
Emma looked at me with fearful eyes and stated, “I’m not going in there, Will.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wanted this to be quick and over with, but now the algae had to be moved around to find Steve. Just as we were looking in the water, bubbles started coming up from the algae.
“What the hell?” Emma stated. We stood there puzzled at what was causing bubbles to rise up from the algae. Just as the bubbles started, Steve’s body popped up, scaring the hell out us. Emma and I backed up like Steve was going to rise from the water. We were scared out of our minds, but we stayed watching. This time, Steve’s body was face down, which made it a bit easier to see this time. The bubbles slowly dispersed and finally went away altogether after a few minutes of watching.
“I think the bubbles are from Steve’s body, Will. The gases from his body are escaping as he bloats from the water, I think,” Emma stated.
“So, his body is farting?” I replied, trying to be funny.
“Pretty much,” Emma replied.
I looked back at Olivia and saw her standing in the same spot where we had left her. She had her arms crossed and was looking down at the sand, moving it around with her foot. I finally got up the nerve to enter the water where Steve was and go to his body. I took a breath and held it as I reached down to feel for the keys on the outside of his pockets. The first pocket I felt had the keys in it, and I reached in to retrieve them. I was almost out of air as I grabbed the keys and quickly stopped holding my breath. I turned around and started toward the beach where Emma was standing and held the keys in the air.
“Will, look!” Emma yelled, as she pointed behind me. “Get out of the water!”
I looked behind me and saw something black wrap around Steve’s body and pull it underwater. I stopped looking and ran from the water up to where Emma was standing. I turned around to see more bubbles come up from where Steve’s body had been.
“What the hell was that, Will?” Emma yelled.
“Come on, let’s go!” I grabbed Emma by the arm and ran toward Olivia with Emma in my grasp.
“What’s going on?” Olivia asked.
“Just run, Olivia!” I yelled at her, and she followed us all the way to the car. I got in the driver’s side, Olivia got in the car behind me, and then Olivia pushed Emma over so she could get in beside her.
“Lock the doors, Emma!” I yelled, as I locked the two front ones.
“What the fuck is going on?” Olivia shouted.
I was busy trying to find the right key to put into the ignition, and then I realized that we hadn’t fixed the drip pan under the car.
Emma was explaining what we had just witnessed in the water to Olivia when Emma yelled at me, “What are you doing, Will? Let’s go!”
“We can’t go because the car is not fixed, Emma!” I replied angrily and hit the steering wheel with the bottom of my fist. The rain didn’t let up while we sat there, and it seemed to be getting darker. We didn’t say a word to one another for a moment; we just listened to the rain falling onto the car. I broke the silence first. “Let’s fix the car now since there’s nothing out there that I can see.”
“Do you have the screws with you, Will?” Emma asked.
I patted my shorts pocket and felt them there. “Yeah, I still have them,” I replied.
“I have the hammer back here on the seat. What are we missing?” Olivia asked.
“Damn it, plastic, we didn’t get any from the cabin,” I replied. “Wait, look around the car, there’s got to be some in here,” I stated. We looked for plastic everywhere, but nothing was there.
“Will, did you look in the glove box?” Emma asked.
I hadn’t paid any attention to the glove box. I had been too busy looking around the seats and the floor to even notice. I quickly opened the glove box, and sure enough, there was a plastic bag with the car owner’s manual in it. “Yes, we’ve got plastic!” I said excitedly and then pulled out the bag. The girls looked on as I dumped the manual out of the bag and ripped the bag in different sizes. After all of the plastic was torn, I reached into my pocket to get a screw out. One at a time, I took a piece of plastic and forced it down on to the screw. When the screw was about three quarters full, I stopped and told the girls that I was ready to fix the pan.
“Yes!” Emma and Olivia stated.
“Here’s the hammer, Will!” Olivia said loudly and gave me the hammer from the back seat.
As I reached for the door handle, lightning lit up the sky and made me jump. “Holy shit!” I yelled and then got out.
I quickly got under the car with everything to fill the hole in the oil pan. I found where it was leaking oil and pushed the screw in as far as it could go. The screw was about halfway in, but I thought it could use a few taps from the hammer as well. Before I got out from underneath the car, I did a quick prayer while looking at the screw. “Please, God, let us get the hell out of here and home to safety.” I opened the car door and asked for the oil that Mike had found earlier. The girls looked around in the back of the car and around their seat and couldn’t find it.
“Oh wait, Mike dropped it on the ground before he went to the cabin, Will,” Olivia stated.
I looked outside the car and found the oil container on the ground against the back tire. I went over and picked it up and then reached underneath the dash to pull the hood latch. I looked around and listened for anything before pulling the hood up. When it was all clear, I pulled up the hood and placed the quart of oil on the battery. I looked around for the oil cap for a few seconds, and then thunder hit, causing me to jump from fright. I found the oil cap to the engine and twisted it open as quickly as I could. I grabbed the quart of oil from the battery and then opened the container. I saw lightning out of the corner of my eye, and it almost blinded me, causing me to close them for a few seconds. As I opened my eyes, I poured the oil into the engine and used up the whole container. Once I was done, I tossed the container off to the side of the car and replaced the engine cap. I stood up from being bent over and looked around once again before closing the
hood. Lightning struck close by again as I closed the hood and ran for the driver’s side door. I heard cracking and popping sounds coming from the dirt road as I pulled open the door and jumped in.
“Are we good?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, we’re good, guys!” I said loudly over the sound of thunder rumbling. I reached into my pocket to get Steve’s keys out to start the car. “Wish us luck!” I said, as I put the key into the ignition and turned it. Miraculously, the engine turned over; it sounded rough, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get the hell out of the woods. I put the car in reverse and did a half turn to face the dirt road that we had come down the day before.
“My God, we’re going to get out of here!” Olivia replied.
Once I stopped backing up, I put the car into drive and started to leave the cabin area. I felt relieved that we were actually leaving to get help, but that didn’t last long. “What the hell!” I yelled out as I saw a tree lying diagonally across the dirt road.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Emma stated when she saw the tree.
I pulled up close enough to the tree to see it was uprooted from the ground. “Tall, skinny ass pine trees always fall in the wrong places,” I said. The car was still making noise, but there was no smoke so far. I turned off the engine so I could sit there and think what to do next.
“Why did you turn the car off, Will?” Olivia asked.
“I don’t want the car to keep running while we sit here trying to figure out what to do next. We can’t move the damn tree, we don’t have a chainsaw, and we can’t burn it because it’s raining. How much worse can it get?” I said.
Crash! The car’s windshield imploded with glass and debris from something. The car bounced around like something was jumping up and down on the hood. My eyes shut automatically, and my arm went up instinctively to cover my face. “Jesus Christ!” I yelled, as the car stopped moving. I looked up slowly to see the whole windshield was shattered, and something was leaning against it.
