Chapter 1

Something disrupts a quiet September day

 

James Barton 

D.O.B. May 17, 1975

 

Donald Barrel

D.O.B. March 23, 1975

 

Jonathon Barrel

D.O.B. March 23, 1975

 

Terrell Beck

D.O.B. July 6,1975

 

Kimberly Winston

D.O.B. November 20, 1974

 

Michael Ford

D.O.B. January 10, 1974

 

Benjamin Polanski

D.O.B. December 8, 1973

 

 

 

Chapter 1

 

Date: 11 September 1984

 

Time 17:35

 

 

Monday evening, two hours after school, and the place was Terrell Beck’s backyard in Cedar Hill, Missouri. There were six witnesses, eight if you include the two dogs: James Barton, Donald Barrel, Jonathan Barrel, Terrell Beck, Kimberly Winston, Michael Ford, Buster; a black lab pup about nine months old and Muffin; a mix breed too big for a lap dog. What they witnessed was something they could not explain that day and wish they could not explain it today. 

Terrell’s was the place to be after school and had always been so for the six kids who practically grew up together. After school, the six children were playing kickball, enjoying what little bit of time they had left outside on this weekday. Moms were coming home from work and fixing quick meals or Dads were bringing home pizza. They made as much use of their daylight hours as they could

            “Pitch the ball Terrell! I’m gonna burn you for a homer!,” Kimberly, whose high pitched voice pierced the air like a needle, could always be heard yelling at one of the guys on any given day.

            James jokingly blurted out, “You can’t kick a homerun, because you’re a GIRL!”

            “Shut up Jimmy (James), before I sock you one.” She yelled back at him.

She then looked back at Terrell and yelled, “Hurry, before my mom calls me in!”

            “I’m gonna!” He yelled right back at her.

            He put a piece of gum in his mouth and threw the wrapper down on the ground. His eyes glared over the ball as he leaned forward to intimidate Kimberly before he pitched the ball. Just as he extended his arm back to pitch the ball the wind began to ruffle the trees as if it was his action that caused it. He then thrust his arm forward and released the ball. 

When the ball hit the ground there was a thunderous like boom simultaneously in the sky. They all jumped and slightly ducked, while looking up as if something was falling in their direction. The ball rolled right passed a very stunned Kimberly because she was now looking to the sky to see what the big boom was along with everyone else. The sky was cloudless, unusually empty and it almost looked like a dark purplish blue. The trees began to blow vigorously. It was like a thunderstorm with now rain, and huge bolts of electricity criss-crossed the sky like lightening on a summer afternoon. 

The noise and light show preceded a black object about the size of the kids’ kickball. It soared overhead less than a hundred feet from the ground. It trailed black ash and hot tar balls as it trailed through the sky. Buster emitted a deep guttural growl from his normally playful throat and began to bark angrily at the object. Muffin cowered under the nearest shelter as a small blob of the hot tar ball scorched her tail.

The object flew past them quickly and Buster ran in hot pursuit. Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t going to get away from him that easily!

“Buster, get back here!” Kimberly yelled as her dog bounded down the road in pursuit of its tormentor.

Another tremendous boom shattered the already disturbed neighbor hood as the object collided with the ground. Dirt, ash and smoke bellowed into the sky as the object bounced hard on the fertile farm land and rolled to a stop.

            “Meteor!” Terrell yelled.  “Let’s go!”

            They looked in the direction that he pointed. They all looked at each other, without saying another word and with little to no hesitation; they ran to the gate; opened it as they all ran over each other trying to get out. They all scurried down the road to see what this was that had just fallen from the sky. All six kids were overflowing with curiosity and oblivious to everything else at this point, including the danger that they were so eagerly racing toward to investigate. Drops of the black tar like substance littered the street, houses and several cars in the neighborhood. 

            Michael was the first out of the gate and as they ran he asked, “What do you guys think it is?”

            “I don’t know but I saw it first, so what ever it is its mine!” Donald yelled at everyone else. He collected insects and any other critter that he could get his hands on or fit into a jar.  

            Jonathon, the more conservative of the brothers, was not always so quick to touch or play with something if he did not know exactly with what it was that he was playing. He held back from the others, not so eager to run headlong into a potentially deadly situation. His fear of the unknown spawned from years of mysteries, horror stories and bad science fiction flicks, his imagination made him cautious of this thing.

            “You don’t know what that thing is, so you can’t say it’s yours, and you better not touch it or I’ll tell dad.” He yelled as they ran. 

            “Yeah, we don’t know what that thing is Donny, you better not touch it.” Kimberly reiterated as she co-signed Jonathon’s request.

            “You both just shut up! You’re just mad because it’s not yours, it’s mine.” Donny was very adamant about claiming his new discovery.  

            By this time there were people looking out their windows and stepping out onto their porches to see if the rain was close. Most residents, minus these six kids that knew somewhat of what was happening, thought a huge thunderstorm was brewing. 

The kids knew something fell from the sky and into the field down the road. What they didn’t know is that they where in for something far more life changing than finding something new to intrigue their inquisitiveness.  A thunderstorm? Little did they know a maelstrom was about to be unleashed upon them and everyone they knew.

            As they reached the field, they came to a sudden halt as they came upon the impact crater.   Buster beat all of them to the crater and barked nervously at the edge of the fog. He all but danced around the mist while Muffin ran in and our of the misty fog which covered the dimension of the crater, about a thirty feet in diameter and about ten feet deep at the center. The meteor sat in the center of the crater and gave off an orangish glow.  Slowly the children approached the crater with Donny and Terrell in the lead. They stepped lightly and gingerly as they could not see their feet beneath the mist trailing from the meteor. The closer they got to this sphere, the more they could see that it was something too strange to touch. As they inched closer and farther into the crater, they could see the object glowing intensely. It produced no heat, but felt rather cold in and around the crater. The mist felt cold and damp. A slight wind blew the mist aside and they could see the black tar like substance oozing from the object at various ports around its center. 

            “Don’t touch it!” Kimberly warned. “Remember the Blob!”

            “I ain’t gonna touch it. Now shush up! We don’t want to make it mad!” Donny warned. 

            “Make what mad?” Terrell demanded. “It’s a rock covered with black tar!”

             Jimmy and Johnny stayed back, but Johnny did make it to the edge of mist, just to get a look at the object. He wanted to be able to describe this thing if he lived to have children and grandchildren.

Jimmy afraid to even step into the foggy mist stayed back on the road and refused to go any further. Jimmy soon realized this foggy mist was actually a gas that this glowing orb of tar was releasing into the atmosphere. As a look of relaxation came over his friends’ faces, they tried to leave the crater but stumbled on their feet as the effects of the gas became evident. Kimberly noticed her vision was blurry and she could not focus her attention on anything. 

All of them felt the effects of the gas and acted stoned, except for Jimmy. They all had inhaled this gassy mist and it was now in their bloodstream.  Once he saw their bizarre behavior, he started yelling.

“Hey guys, come back away from there! It’s dangerous, come on let’s get out of here!”   

            Jimmy was horrified to see his friends fall one by one, Donny and Kimberly first followed closely by Terrell and Johnny.   Muffin flopped to the ground and whimpered a couple of times as Buster started growling again. Buster yelped loudly as he stepped on a small tar ball and fell into the mist.   Michael stumbled and fell while trying to get Kimberly out of the crater.

            Jimmy ran as if the devil himself was after him.  He stopped a car and excitedly tried to get them to call for help, but the couple in the car wanted nothing to do with a wild-eyed black boy on this stretch of road. 

“Help! We need help!” he yelled as he ran into his neighborhood. Most, if not all, the adults were outside, some looking to the sky and pointing, some was pointing to the smoke from the carter and some trying to clean the sticky black goo from their cars, houses or outdoor furniture. 

“What’s that boy yellin’ bout now?” Jimmy’s aunt Stasha asked as she helped his momma set the table.

“No tellin’. He prolly got beat to that meteor by his brother and wants me to decide who gits it. Sounds excited tho! You check the roast whilst I check my boys.”

“Mama! Mama! Come quick. The mist done got’em all. They went in that crater and the mist took’em all. Mama, call 911 or something! They might be dead soon!”

“Stasha, you call the sheriff whilst I take this boy and see what’s goin on! Somethin bad happning here.”

She drove Jimmy back the crater where all his friends still lay on the ground. Their eyes were open but they were not coherent to their surroundings. She could see they were breathing but she kept her distance. The gas appeared to be alive and acted as if it wanted to come after her and Jimmy. She backed the car up the road out of reach of the gas. 

She saw Johnny try to get up. He was on the edge of the mist and was least affected by it at first, but as he tried to escape, a stream of the mist floated toward him. He had no idea that the mist was making a beeline straight for him, but he did withdraw himself back far enough that this finger of gas did not reach him to infect him further.

After a couple of minutes, the gas retreated into the glowing rock. Sirens announced the approach of fire, police and medical personnel. As the sirens grew closer, the mist retreated faster. The object’s glow faded and the tar like melted off the orb and flowed into the ground.  The tar melted off the object and the object itself dissolved into the crater. Within seconds, the crater was the only evidence the object ever existed. 

Back in town, the tar melted off everything it touched. It rolled onto the nearest patch of dirt and melted into it, leaving no trace behind that it ever existed. 

            The five children and two dogs in the crater slowly rose to their feet and climbed to the rim of the crater. 

            “These the kids you said was dead? Jimmy, they be alive and kickin! Now what be goin on here?”

            “Mama, you seen the mist yourself! You know it came after Johnny!”

            “What I seen wit my eyes is my boy makin a fool out of me. Listen to me now! This was one of dem meteors, now dat’s all. Anythin else, they be lockin us up in some looney bin, you know it.”

             Now this really made Jimmy look like a storyteller. So he immediately turned to his friends for support and confirmation to the truth, but to his amazement and disbelief each one of them truly had no clue of what happened to them. It was like their memory was clouded. They remembered the loud boom and going to investigate, but they didn’t remember the mist or the orb although Johnny was giving the impression that he could vaguely recall seeing the orb. 

           

           

“What was that big boom earlier?” The question came from a large man known as Big Pants Billy. He lived up to his name in many ways. He stood almost seven feet tall, he weighed over three hundred pounds and worst of all, his voice sounded louder than the thunder itself. “If it was thunder, where’s the rain clouds; and what caused this huge crater?”   Billy asked his questions but had the look in his eyes as if he wanted to say something else. He then looked right at Jimmy and said, “These kids are not lying.”   

            Mrs. Zonsdtuhl, known for her outspoken ways and as being a suspected  neighborhood witch, quickly interrupted with a nagging Cajun accented voice, “Well it’s all nonsense if you ask me. You kids should be in the house preparing for school anyway. Where I grew up down in the Bayou, we went to school and afterwards worked around the farm. There was no such thing as getting into mischief, ‘cause we never had the time. You youngsters nowadays are always into something, like my garden for instance, I just wish you and that damn ball stay out of it. You wanna know where my grandson is… He’s at home raking leaves and staying away from all this mischief and nonsense.”

            Jimmy’s momma left him at the crater to walk back with his friends. She tried to get them all in her car, but they stubbornly refused, causing her no great distress. The elderly Mrs. Zonsdtuhl, who had walked to the crater, leaned heavily upon her cane.

            “Youse let dem children walk back now and gives me the ride. I kin give you ma take on dis ting they dun seen. Let’s go on home now. Dem city folk be here any second wit der suits and all.”

            As the sun faded and the sky prepared for the moon to take center stage, the darkness of the night snuck up on them as they all began to disperse. For the first time in a long time, the disturbing blast of approaching siren broke the serene silence of Cedar Hill.   Shortly following the introduction of the ambulances song of trauma, came the ballet of lights that danced in the trees and on the walls of their homes. This was a rare sight in this small town, so everyone that was outside flocked toward the action to see what was going on in their town.   

Big Pants Billy didn’t leave right away. He stayed behind and watched everyone leave as he looked upon the crater with admiration. Jimmy thought it strange Big Pants Billy was not surprised about any of this and his mannerisms lead Jimmy to believe that he knew more about the orb than anyone else realized. 

            As they walked toward the approaching lights and sirens, Jimmy was confused about what he saw earlier with his friends and what he was now witnessing. They all acted as if nothing happened to them just 20 minutes ago. He looked over at Johnny and could see a look of concern in his eyes, so Jimmy trotted over to him and began to talk about the incident that they encountered prior to the ambulances interlude.  

As they walked and talked Johnny would not look up at Jimmy for eye contact. So Jimmy placed his hand on Johnny’s shoulder and stopped him. For some reason, before Jimmy opened his mouth to speak, he looked back at Billy who was still at the crater about fifty feet away. Jimmy noticed that Billy was looking right at them   

            He looked Johnny right in the face and asked him, “Can you tell me what just happened back there? Is it just me or is something going on? I’m confused and it seems like to me you are the only other person that saw what I saw and yet they are acting like nothing happened. But Billy over there knows a little more than we think.”

            Johnny’s eyes stared into the ground as Jimmy’s eyes gazed upon Johnny’s face attempting to engage in eye contact. Like a zombie Johnny walked straight ahead as if he didn’t even acknowledge Jimmy’s presence, but he did turn to look at Billy and made eye contact with him. Billy quickly turned and looked away. 

            Following Jimmy’s observation of Billy’s and Johnny’s conduct, Jimmy then turned and asked Johnny, “What was that all about?” 

            After a slight pause Johnny disregarded Jimmy’s last question and began to nod his head as he replied to Jimmy’s previous questions, “Jimmy, I don’t know what happen but you are right. Something went down that has me a little spooked. You see, I started getting dizzy and weak, and when I was trying to follow you I saw something that I can’t explain, and I want to talk to everyone else. I think maybe they saw them too.”

            “Them, them who? Johnny, did you see someone in that crater?”

            Searching for the best way to explain what he saw, Johnny looked at him and hesitated, “It was all like a dream…or should I say nightmare. The weird thing is it was happening while my eyes where wide open. I could tell what was happening back there and I was dreaming at the same time. Do you understand what I am saying?” 

            The whole time Johnny spoke, not once did he look at Jimmy, he also spoke as if he was being coached on what to say

            Jimmy started nodding his head as to say yes, “Yeeeaa…” but he caught Big Pants Billy looking at them still the huge man followed them at a distance, too far to be a threat, but too close for comfort. Jimmy shook his head no, “…nope! Not really.”

            They both started back to walking toward the ambulance lights to see what was going on in there town.

            He then asked Johnny, “But what did you see back there in this drea… nightma… whatever it was you were having? …dreammare I guess.”

            He giggled a little bit but upon realizing that Johnny was not even smiling he instantly wiped the smile off his face and asked, “So what was it that you umm, saw again?”

            Johnny stopped walking and for the first time during this conversation, he looked up at Jimmy with one of the most frightening facial expressions that Jimmy had ever seen.  He made eye contact and said, “The hunters are here and they need my help.”

            Johnny turned and started back to walking as Jimmy stood there staring at the back of his head. He was speechless and confused.

            “…who? …HUH! What are you talking about?” he asked as he trotted to catch up with him.

            Johnny quickly glanced at him and smiled, “You’ll see soon enough Jimmy.” 

            This perfect September day ended with so much confusion, mystery and strangeness had Jimmy known what was coming, he probably would have run for his life and left Cedar Hill forever. Not that it would have done him any good. 

They soon faced the first tragedy associated with the appearance of the orb, although the connection was still to be made by others, it seemed too much a coincidence to Jimmy. The young boy looked lifeless as he lay on the ambulance gurney. His parents extremely distraught and talking to the paramedics in very excited tones. Big Pants Billy looked at the body quickly and moved on towards his own house. Jimmy thought he saw a blob of the tar fall from the stretcher, but he was not sure. The flashing lights made it hard for his eyes to focus on the boy’s body. 

While everyone gawked at the sight of this tragedy, Jimmy was still thinking about his conversation with Johnny and the last statement that he made. Jimmy knew that something was going on, and it concerned that orb. He knew that from this day on his friends and his life would never be the same after this day in Cedar Hill.