I was half listening, half counting down the time until we were out of school and we could rush home, and then to our meeting spot. There was myself, Jaden and his girl Christine, Alex, her girlfriend Emily, and my girlfriend Penny. The six of us had a special hangout spot on the outskirts of town in the middle of the woods. There was a large concrete basin there where we could make small fires and drink and smoke, or do whatever it was we wanted to do out of view from prying eyes. It also helped the spot was in the middle of the coniferous forest that surrounded our small town. We met up there almost daily after school, and spent as much time there as we could on the weekends.
But today was special. Today we were going to go there and smoke some good weed that Jaden had scored for us. We usually smoked cigarettes, weed being hard to come by. When the occasion arose, we all had our minds set on getting high, drinking, and maybe some fooling around with our partners. It was going to be the perfect Tuesday afternoon and evening. It might seem pretty silly to get so excited about smoking some joints in the middle of the woods, but you have to realize that in our small town with nothing else to do, getting drunk or high was the most exciting thing possible. It also may have been because we were stupid teenagers.
When the bell rang signaling the end of school for the day, the halls flooded with students and everyone poured outside. I met up with Penny first, and we made our way through the crowds until we found Jaden, Christine, Alex, and Emily waiting by Jaden's truck. He was the only one of us who was eighteen and who had his license and a car. The rest of us were seventeen and all in the process. Jaden was always designated driver, which meant he drove us around and drank a little less than the rest of us. Again, stupid teenagers.
"You kids ready?" Jaden asked with a fake, grown-up tone.
"You know it grandpa," I laughed back swinging my backpack into the bed of his truck.
"All aboard then," he said hopping into the driver seat.
Christine got in next to him and the rest of us piled into the bed of the truck. He started the truck and off we went, down the road and out of town into the woods. About a mile in he turned off the little dirt side road. It had mostly been overgrown when we first found it, and only since Jaden had started driving his truck down it had we cleared a more substantial path. We pulled up to our spot and we all got out. I swung my arm around Penny and we went towards the concrete basin. Alex, the pyro that she was, had rushed ahead and was already getting things prepped for the fire. Jaden was unlocking the lock box on his truck, and from within he drew out a bottle of whiskey, a pack of cigarettes, and the long awaited baggy of green bud. Alex opened her school bag and produced a big bag of jerky and a bag of smashed up chips. Dinner!
We all gathered around the fire, sitting on various chairs or objects that we had collected down there over the years. We were already pretty buzzed and were about to start smoking and eat our snacks. The sun was just starting to set now. We kept the fire burning with sticks, brush, and wood from the surrounding trees. We had a great time, joking and laughing, and when Alex busted out her phone speaker we danced a bit. Then as darkness set in, we turned to making out with our partners. Yessir, it was a good time.
As the night went on the fire began to slowly die, so I got up to go grab some more fuel. I gave Penny a dramatic farewell kiss, and she smacked my butt, giggling as I walked away. I was wobbly and felt sluggish, being cross faded out of my mind. I stumbled into the now almost pitch black trees and began feeling around for some pieces of wood, bark, or anything that would burn well. I grabbed up all sorts of stuff, including a couple of the massive pinecones that littered the forest floor. I got back to our fire. Jaden and Christine were still slurping on each other's faces, but Alex and Emily weren't there.
"They're off finger banging each other," Penny giggled.
"Of course," I laughed back. I began throwing wood and brush on the fire. It popped and cracked. Then I tossed one of the pinecones onto the flames. It sat for a bit, flames engulfing it as it began to burn.
Suddenly there was a horrid sound. It was like a scream or shriek, but one that sounded like nails being raked across a chalkboard. It was ear splitting and we all jumped back in surprise, trying to cover our ears. It was coming from the pinecone I had just set in the fire. The shriek continued for another few seconds and then faded off.
"What the hell was that?" Jaden asked. He and Christine were still holding each other, but now they were both wide-eyed and staring from the fire to me and Penny. Emily came running up from out of the darkness.
"What's going on?" Emily asked. "Everyone alright?"
"No idea," I said still starting at the fire. We were all so drunk and stoned. Maybe we had imagined it. "I don't know, it was something in the fire. I put a pinecone in and it made that sound."
Just then I noticed the other pinecone that I had collected and set next to the fire. It was illuminated by the light. It was moving. It kept gently rocking back and forth, wiggling and wobbling around. Everyone was now staring at it, expressions of shock across their faces.
"What the hell..." Jaden said under his breath. I was thinking the same thing. Were we all that drunk and high, or was that pinecone actually moving? It was. It suddenly rolled a bit, and as it did so it slipped out of the light. We watched it roll and listened to it wobble before the sound stopped. We watched the spot in the darkness before we began to hear a cracking noise. If you've ever crunched a pinecone under your feet, you know what it sounds like. Like a hollow bunch of twigs snapping and splitting. Then the sound stopped. We stood and watched the spot where we had heard it, all frozen out of either fear or shock. I think I was more shocked than scared at that point, but that changed quickly.
We then heard strange clicking noises, like the sound of something hard being tapped on the concrete. We listened and watched, and saw something small begin to emerge from the darkness. Two long, spindly legs came into view. They were gray and fixed into points, each one looking like small daggers. It was followed by a grotesque looking bulbous body covered in a sort of silvery-gray exoskeleton. Three beady, black eyes centered at the front of the body stared at us. It moved forward more to reveal two back legs, equally thin and gray, but jointed at the back, like that of a bird. It had three cruel-looking claws on each foot. It looked and moved almost like a sort of bug, reminding me uncomfortably of a spider. It was only about the size of my fist and it moved slowly but deliberately into the light, watching us with those void-like eyes. We were all staring, transfixed at the hideous creature before us. Then it reared up on it's back legs, revealing a small mouth with needle like teeth on it's underbelly, and let out a shriek, much like the one we had heard come from the fire moments earlier. Only this one sounded more like a call than a cry. I screamed and was joined by Penny and Christine. Jaden jumped forward and stepped right onto the thing. It had tried to scuttle away but his aim was true, landing square on it's ugly exoskeleton, followed by a loud crackling and squelching noise.
"The fuck was that thing?" Jaden half yelled looking around at us with wild eyes. No one said anything. "Come on man, you're smart you know what that was?" I shook my head.
"We should bring the body back with us, show Mr. Rellin or something," Penny said, looking a little sick. "The biology teacher?"
"Right," I said. "Alright."
Then we heard Emily scream. we turned and looked. We couldn't see her, but we could now hear her sobbing in the dark, and then I noticed a blueish light that must be her phone.
"Come on," I said motioning to everyone and we made our way over to her. "What's wrong Em?"
"Alex," she said in between gasps and tears. "When that thing came out, I came to get Alex." She held up a jacket. Alex's jacket. It was soaked in what was unmistakably blood.
"Jesus Christ," was all Jaden said. Penny was quiet next to me, and Christine was starting to whimper as well.
Then we began to hear that snapping and cracking noise again. Pinecones. All around us the sound began to fill the night. I pulled out my phone and turned on the light. Everyone else followed suit. We shined the lights around trying to see into the dark woods, but we could only see a few feet into the trees. The sound of breaking pinecones stopped, and was then almost immediately replaced by the sound of brush and pine needles being scattered about as a scuttling noise came closer and closer. It was more of those things, those gray bugs. They'd broken out and now were heading right for us. We probably should have shut our lights off and hid, but who knows if that's what attracted them. Either way we didn't want to find out what would happen when they reached us.
"Get to the truck!" Jaden yelled and we all scattered.
"What about Alex?" Emily screamed at us.
"We'll come back to look for her," I yelled as Penny and I grabbed Emily by the arms and began pulling her. As we rushed towards the truck I ran past the fire and grabbed a long branch that was sticking out of it. The end was alight and I brought it was me as a torch. Fire always meant safety right? As we neared the truck we saw them in our lights. Dozens of those gray little bug-things heading towards us. They were coming from all over and with their speed they were going to get to the truck before us. But we kept going, we had to try.
Suddenly they all stopped. They had almost completely surrounded us. They covered the ground, and the truck. Everywhere we shown light we saw them. Then we saw Alex. She was now standing in front of the truck. Her expression was blank and her eyes vacant. Her throat was slit deeply, and crimson blood still bubbled out and down her front.
"Alex!" Emily shouted trying to rush to her. I held her back.
Alex starred at us and then slowly began to raise her arm. She pointed at us and then opened her mouth as if to speak. But the only sound that came out was the horrid shrieking noise. I then noticed something glinting and reflecting the light inside her mouth. Three black eyes shimmered. I felt sick as I realized that thing was nestled in her mouth, into her throat. I saw one of it's front, bladed legs was sticking out Alex's mouth and raised up. The right leg, same as Alex's right arm that was pointing at us. That thing, whatever it was, was controlling her. The left leg came out of the mouth and moved up, and sure enough Alex's left arm also moved up. She raised both arms into the air and made that horrid shriek, even louder than before, and then to our horror the mass of gray bugs began to rush towards us once more.
I acted fast, doing the only thing I could I think of. I let go of Emily and rushed back to the fire only a dozen feet away. I grabbed the half-full whiskey bottle and threw it at Alex's body. I then chucked my torch after it. The glass bottle shattered at her feet, whiskey soaking the ground, and the torch landed right near it. Within a second the ground, and then Alex's body, was engulfed in flames that continued to grow. The shrieking cry we had heard from the first pinecone pierced the night and all the other gray bugs stopped in their tracks, their black eyes seeming to take in the flames burning Alex's body and the bug inside her. Then they decided to go ahead and attack. They scuttled towards us so fast we almost didn't have time to escape. Penny didn't.
As we got to the truck and piled into the front seat I felt Penny, who had been holding my hand, jerk back. I turned and saw that multiple bugs were now crawling up her legs and others were stabbing into her with those blade-like front legs, pulling on her and trying to drag her back. I shouted and pulled on her kicking at any of the bugs I could but they slowly and strongly began to pull her from my grip. Jaden came to my aid, attempting to help me pull her as well, but to no avail. She was dragged from our arms, and she screamed as the things swarmed over her. After a few seconds her screams were cut short as I saw one of the bugs plunge it's bladed arm into her neck. Jaden, Christine, Emily and I were crammed into the truck breathing heavily and crying silently. We took a brief moment, and then Jaden started the truck. The engine roared and the headlights turned on, illuminating the forest, which was now crawling with hundreds of those horrid gray bugs. He floored it and we flew out of there, the wheels crunching and crushing the bugs as we drove over them. The things scurried after us, but by the time we got to the main road there were no more on our tail. We drove to the edge of town and then Jaden pulled the car over.
"Why are you stopping?" Christine gasped.
"What the hell are we gonna do? Who do we tell? What do we tell them?"
"We have to go to the police," Emily said in a quivering voice.
"Yeah but tell them what?"
"Tell them," I said flatly, "the truth. Tell them what happened. Tell them what's out there. Tell them they're still out there. Tell them we need to burn the pinecones, hell maybe the whole forest."
"Alright," said Jaden. "No one's gonna believe this shit though."
"He's right," Christine agreed.
"We have to try," I said. Emily nodded.
"Alright," Jaden said again as he began to pull back onto the road. "To the police then."
As we drove into town I looked in the rear view mirror of Jaden's pick-up truck. Just fading out of the tail lights, standing in the middle of the road, was Penny.
No comments:
Post a Comment