by Jerry Hart
“What about Chris?” Daniel asked. “Why can’t we find him again?”
“I don’t know. You don’t think he’s…”
“Dead? No. He would be here with us, wouldn’t he?”
“Probably. But why can’t we find him?”
Daniel shrugged. “Something’s definitely wrong with him, though.” He looked at the blue waterfall again. It tended to soothe him. He needed that now.
CHAPTER 6
Doug stared at the sky to his right. It was bright, like there was a giant light source behind the clouds. “Are you seeing this?” he asked Curtis in amazement.
Curtis wasn’t paying attention, though. They had been following Owen for ten minutes, heading west to God knew where. They hadn’t passed a single car in that time. They were in some rural area.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” said Doug, temporarily forgetting the light show above them. “I don’t know you and I barely know Owen, yet I’m driving out into the middle of nowhere with you guys. I’ve only done this once before: I was drunk and partying with my friends and some other people I didn’t know. My friends were tired and wanted to go home, but I was still wired. So the other guys invited me to another party, and I went with them. Can you guess how the story ends?”
Curtis said nothing as he continued to look forward.
“I’ll tell you,” Doug said quickly, having anticipated a response like that. “I woke up the next morning in a field where the party had been, and the guys I showed up with were gone. I didn’t have a ride back. It was scary. I had no idea where I was.”
“How did you get back?” Curtis asked absently; he was still focusing on Owen’s car, which was barely visible in front of them. Curtis was going a hundred and twenty miles per hour on the freeway, so Owen had to be doing the same.
“I called a friend to pick me up. When he asked where I was, I had to ask a couple of people who were just getting ready to leave. They wouldn’t give me a ride, but they were nice enough to tell me that much. Turns out I was in Oklahoma.
“After a while, everyone who had slept there left, and I was the only one. I was so depressed. It took my friend an hour to show up.”
“That sounds like a good friend. I probably would’ve left your ass there.” Curtis still sounded distant, but a smile formed on his face.
“The best,” Doug said. “It was actually my brother.”
Curtis looked at him now. Doug could feel his eyes watering up, but he managed to keep the tears away.
“I’m sorry about what happened,” Curtis said. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I can’t imagine how it feels.”
“Well, Marco was your best friend, so I guess it’s similar.”
“Yeah, I suppose. He was like a brother to me. I’d known him since we were six years old.”
Curtis didn’t say anything else for a while. Doug went back to staring at the sky. The light source had moved away from the field to the freeway. Doug had to look straight up through the windshield to see it.
What he saw frightened him.
The rest of the sky in the distance was pitch black. Doug could swear he saw something just behind the clouds now—a large, dark mass. He also heard something. It sounded muffled, but deep. He rolled down his window and stuck his head out. The wind beat against his face.
Looking up at the sky made him dizzy. He thought about pulling himself back into the truck, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the sky. The sound he’d heard was much more pronounced, despite the wind. It sounded like a constant moan.
The voice of a god, Doug thought. The moan was spine-tingling. Finally he sat back in his seat and rolled up the window. “Dude,” he said to Curtis, “there is some freaky stuff going on up there.”
Just then, a loud bang startled them. Up ahead, something crashed in front of Owen’s car, causing him to swerve. It did no good, because he crashed into it anyway.
And then something landed directly in front of Curtis and Doug. Curtis tried to swerve as well, but he crashed sideways into the object. The passenger-side window shattered, spilling glass over Doug. He closed his eyes as the glass cut his face. When it was over, he opened them and saw, just outside, what they had hit.
It was close enough to touch. It looked like a large stone. It almost looked like a giant forearm. Doug wanted to touch it, but restrained himself.
“Are you okay?” Curtis asked.
“Yeah,” Doug said, not taking his eyes off of what was just outside his door.
Suddenly the stony object moved, causing the truck to shift sideways onto the left tires. Doug thought they were going to tip over, but the object settled back into the ground. He was only faintly aware that he and Curtis were screaming.
A deep, loud noise erupted above them, turning into a higher-pitched screech at the end.
“What the hell is that?” Curtis asked.
Doug had a theory, but was too afraid to voice it. Saying it out loud would make it true.
The object lifted out of the ground again and this time, the truck tipped over completely. Doug and Curtis were turned upside down. Another of those weird moan-screeches erupted, followed a second later by an earth-shaking thud.
Doug looked through the windshield and saw something in front of them. He was able to see the bottom half of the object now and saw large protrusions sticking out of it.
They looked like toes. Doug was looking at a giant foot.
He looked out past Curtis’s window to where Owen’s car had been. It was no longer there.
Curtis unbuckled his seatbelt and fell onto the truck’s ceiling. He groaned and reached up to undo Doug. He fell too, but righted himself immediately. They crawled out through the shattered passenger window. Instinctively, they both looked up and saw nothing but a dark mass.
There was an unmistakable sound coming from the dark giant. It sounded like a running motor. Doug had the impression that whatever was there was staring down at them. Another roar sliced the air. Doug and Curtis shuddered. This roar lasted longer than the others. It was a horrible sound.
The leg rose up into the air and landed a few feet away from the truck.
Doug realized it was walking away. And then something came to him. He turned to where Owen’s car had been just as the other leg came toward them. Doug tackled Curtis as the foot kicked the truck, sending it flying into the air. It landed somewhere in front of the beast. The creature stumbled, roared again, and then kicked the truck into the field to the left.
Doug and Curtis got to their feet and dusted themselves off. They watched the behemoth as it made its way east. All they could see were its rocky legs; the rest of it was shrouded in darkness. They could hear an occasional roar as it walked away.
The street where Doug and Curtis stood was dark once again. The bright patch of sky Doug had seen earlier was no longer above them. A second later, he saw the bright object in the clouds again, heading east, in the same direction of the monster.
“Where’s Owen?” Curtis asked.
They looked around. There was a small crater right behind them where the creature had landed after it fell from the sky. The handprint was at least thirty feet wide, going deep into the ground.
The two of them ran around the hole and over to the other crater where the legs had landed. Inside was Owen’s car. It was lying on its side, the driver’s side facing up. They could see Owen lying unconscious, seatbelt sill fastened.
Curtis started to climb down. “You stay here,” he said to Doug. “I’ll get him out and you pull him up.”
The car was ten feet into the ground. Curtis climbed down carefully, grabbing into the dirt wall like a rock climber. He stepped carefully on the car door. The window was shattered, so Curtis reached in and unbuckled Owen’s seatbelt. The robot was sitting in the passenger seat, apparently powered down.
After getting the seatbelt off, Curtis pulled Owen out of the car. Doug reached down but couldn’t quite grab Owen’s hand, which Curtis was raising up to hi
m.
“I didn’t think this through,” Curtis said with a hint of irritation.
“Wake him up,” Doug said. “He can crawl out himself.”
Curtis slapped Owen’s face a couple of times. Owen came to and looked around.
“Where are we?” he asked wearily.
“In a hole in the ground,” Curtis said simply.
Owen looked down at his car and groaned.
“Can you climb?” Curtis asked him.
“Yeah. You go first; I’m right behind you.”
“I really think you should go first,” Curtis insisted.
“I gotta get my car and my robot.”
Curtis was dumbstruck. “Get you car and … Are you out of your mind?”
“Just go, dude. I got this.”
Curtis didn’t budge. “Boy, get your goofy ass out of this hole.”
Owen suddenly grabbed the back of Curtis’s shirt and threw him upward, out of the crater. Doug reached out and caught him. They crashed painfully to the ground.
“What the hell?” Curtis screamed, more in surprise than anger.
Just then, noises came from inside the crater. They were sounds of metal scraping against dirt. Then two lights shined upward. The next thing Curtis and Doug knew, the front half of Owen’s car rose out of the hole.
Doug and Curtis backed away from the crater as the front tires came down on the street. And then something else shot out of the hole and landed next to the car. It was Owen.
His car teetered on the edge. He stepped up to the hood, grasped the fender, and pulled it the rest of the way. The car was barely damaged. Curtis and Doug were staring wide-eyed and openmouthed at Owen, who was breathing heavily.
“Well,” Owen said to them, “I guess you two are riding with me.”
Something else popped out of the hole and stood silently next to Owen. It was his robot.
* * *
The house on Fairington Drive was dark and spooky. Patrick almost didn’t want to go in. But he had to. It was his job, as an officer of the law.
He stood in the lawn in a T-shirt and jeans and looked around. There was no one here. He cringed as he thought of Daniel Hudson. Further shivers were sent down his spine when he remembered that Daniel was supposedly in this house.
Patrick knew he should have called for assistance, but this situation felt somehow personal to him. He couldn’t explain why, though. He looked to the driveway and saw an old brown car sitting there, the trunk partially opened. He would check that out later, but for now, he decided to hit the house.
He placed his hand on his gun and crossed the yard to the front door, which was wide open. Inside, the floor of the living room was covered with plaster. There was a huge hole in the wall directly to his left. The hole led to a room, but he couldn’t see inside from where he stood; it was too dark.
He walked carefully to the hall on his left and immediately saw three bodies.
Three out of five, he thought.
Drawing his weapon, Patrick walked up to two of the bodies in the center of the hall. One was of an old woman in a blood-soaked nightgown. The other was huge and monstrous. It took Patrick only a second to realize it wasn’t a person but a statue of some kind.
Now he focused his attention on the pale form at the end of the hall. Two out of five, he amended. Patrick knew who it was before he got there. He stood over Daniel’s body and felt light-headed.
This whole scene was messed up, he thought. How did Daniel even get here? Did someone steal his body from the morgue and bring it here? Why? Was his brother involved?
Patrick refused to believe that, but the circumstances were questionable. After inspecting the house further, he found the body of who he guessed was Les Huntington in the room with the hole in the wall. He then went outside and stood in the yard, breathing in all the fresh air he could. He was about to call for backup when he realized he’d only found three of the five bodies promised.
That’s when he gazed upon the brown car with the popped trunk.
* * *
Owen sped down the freeway, doing over a hundred miles an hour. Curtis and Doug were in the back seat, grabbing on to whatever they could. Curtis, who was fairly large, had to slouch to fit comfortably. Doug, however, was quite comfortable.
The robot got to ride shotgun.
None of them had spoken for ten minutes, ever since leaving the spot where they had encountered the giant monster that fell from the sky. Apparently none of them wanted to have that discussion. Not yet.
Finally Curtis asked Owen, “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You know what. How did you get this car out of the crater?”
“I didn’t,” Owen said. “The robot did.”
Curtis didn’t believe that for some reason. He knew there was more to Owen than what appeared. The boy was skinny and blond, with not much muscle on him. Maybe that bowling ball was giving him powers…
“Where are we going?” Doug asked.
“Birch,” said Owen.
“Why there?”
“It’s my hometown. I think I might find answers there.”
“You think?” Curtis said sarcastically.
“Hey, I told you guys not to come.”
“No you didn’t,” Curtis snapped.
Owen was about to respond, but instead thought about it for a second. Then he said, “Well, me running out on you guys when you asked where I was going should’ve tipped you off.”
“The only thing it made me think was that you didn’t want to tell us about that ball you’re carrying around.”
“I prefer to call it an orb,” Owen said with a grin.
The backpack with the orb inside was on the floor at the robot’s feet. Curtis, who was sitting behind the passenger seat, could see it. He looked at Owen, whose face was lit up by the blue light from his dashboard, then stealthily reached between the passenger seat and the door. He wanted to open the bag to get a better look at the “orb.”
His fingertips brushed against the pack’s rough texture. He then felt the zippers. Both zippers had come together at the top of the pack. Normally, Curtis would’ve used two hands to open it, but he improvised and grabbed only one zipper. He pulled it to the right a little, then reached into the pack. He came in contact with something warm.
Something cold and hard gripped his hand, nearly crushing it. Curtis groaned in pain and was met with electric-blue eyes. Owen’s robot had caught him.
Owen looked back at him. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing. Tell your robot to let go of me.”
Owen did. Curtis stared at his tortured hand and groaned again.
“What were you doing?” Doug whispered.
“Nothing. Just forget it.”
No one in the car was aware that the orb was now glowing faintly.
* * *
Another bout of silence fell upon the car. Doug couldn’t stand it anymore. “Are we seriously not going to talk about what happened back there?” he asked.
Owen’s eyes looked back at him through the rearview mirror. “What are you talking about?”
Doug scoffed. “I’m talking about that huge freaking monster that dropped from the sky and almost killed us.”
Owen’s brows pulled together in confusion. “What monster?”
Curtis and Doug exchanged quizzical looks.
“Where do you think the hole in the road came from?” Curtis asked.
Owen puzzled over the question for a moment, then said, “I thought it was already there and that I drove into it.”
“No, dude,” Curtis said. “A monster leg crashed down in front of you. You swerved but hit it anyway. You don’t remember seeing the leg?”
Owen turned back to look him square in the face. “Are you guys yanking my chain?”
“No,” said Doug. “You don’t remember swerving to avoid it? Why do you think we’re riding with you in the first place? Curtis’s truck was destroyed by the monster.”
&n
bsp; Owen shook his head. “What did it look like?”
“We don’t know. All we could see were its legs.”
Owen looked at Doug through the mirror again, as if gauging whether he were speaking the truth. It was as if he couldn’t accept it to be true. Doug didn’t blame him.
“That’s not all,” Doug added. “I think it fell from the shape I saw in the clouds.”
“Really?” Owen said unenthusiastically.
“Yep. And that’s still not all. The shape was heading toward San Sebastian.”
* * *
Nikki packed as much as she could, as fast as she could. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she had to leave soon, before Owen found out she’d lied to him. She hadn’t wanted to lie to him, but she’d found herself with no other choice.
Darlington, who was also packing (he had very few belongings and was helping Nikki with her stuff), had heard Owen’s statements while under hypnosis, same as she, and though he hadn’t seemed to understand at the time, he seemed worried now.
Owen would figure it out eventually, and when he did, he’d be back. And he’d be angry. Nikki bought herself some time by lying to him about what he’d said while hypnotized.
And then that Curtis guy had come along. It had been an unexpected bonus. She’d seen the connection between the two young men and decided to use it to her advantage. Owen was a smart boy. The plan had been to get him and Curtis together with the knowledge that their dead friends’ bodies were in the same place. She would’ve said she didn’t know where—though she actually did—and they would go off in search of them.
Then the zombies showed up. Nikki hadn’t expected that, nor had she welcomed it. They were walking voids, and that frightened her.
Darlington had finished packing and was standing by the purple curtain divider, waiting. Nikki knew she had plenty of customers who loved her for the fortunes she’d read for them, and plenty who hated her for the same reason. Those who didn’t despise her would gladly help her out. All Nikki had to do was pick one.
Suddenly a thud shook the gift shop. She spun around to look at Darlington. He shared her puzzled expression.
