Chapter Two

The children meet before the hunter stalks his first victim

 

Chapter Two

           

The Lake at Cedar Hill was almost the prettiest thing Kimberly could remember. After her contact with the mist, she all but forgot this was her favorite time of day. She loved to watch the lake reflect the last rays of the sun as day gave way to night.

            Darkness embraced everything her eyes captured, as night fell upon the calm sky leaving the streets with a glossy appearance. It was not cold, although the air was unusually crisp and slightly chilled as a weak but persistent breeze rushed in from behind her.   The breeze slowly graduated to a small but aggressive wind vigorously tossing leaves and dust from behind her parents storage shed and lifted them off into the night.

            She felt she needed to be with Ben, Donald, Jonnie and Michael. Something about being apart from them did not feel right. She did not want to see Jimmy, not for any particular reason, but she no longer had the desire to see him.

            Across the street and up a few houses, Donald and Johnnie could not sit still. Thei parents were on them to settle down, but their father finally told them to take their WWF Wrestling show outside. Once outside, they looked towards the lake. Peace seemed to flood the air they breathed. Without speaking, they took off in the direction of Kimberly’s house.

            Ben stumbled around with his chores, not wanting to do them, not understanding whey he had to do them and finally gave in when his momma threatened to take her metal spatula to his behind. He took the trash out as requested, but the night caught him quickly. He didn’t even think about it, but he as much as ran to Kimberly’s house. Something said they needed to be there and be there with her.

            Terrell was not feeling well. His head hurt and his eyes bothered him a lot. He cold not see straight, he felt nauseous, but he felt Kimberly’s draw on him as well. Struggling to his feet, he started walking towards the lake   Barely able to place one foot in front of the other, he trudged on. 

            Jimmy noticed Terrell and slipped out the back door to chase him down. Terrell was retching big chunks of his lunch and supper by the time Jimmy got to him. Spasms raked his abdomen as more food came from deep inside. The last thing to pop out of his mouth was a black blob of something. He felt much better once that object was out of his system. Jimmy noticed the black tar ball roll towards the dirt, and then dissolve into it at the side of the road.

            “Michael, man are you okay?”

            “Yeah, yeah. I okay now. Guess I ate too fast or something. I feel so much better now. Donald isn’t going to like you coming with me. This is our thing man, not yours. Go on back home. I’ll tell you if we do anything fun, okay? Maybe next time. Go on. I’m okay.”

            “No one’s okay, can’t you see that? You’re not okay, Ben’s not okay, Kim’s not okay and the double Barrel brothers are far from okay and you know it!”

            “All I know is Kimberly needs us to come to the lake. We don’t need you. You didn’t come when they called.”

            “They, who’s they? And how did they call?”

            “That’s my point. If you have to ask, then you don’t need to come. We all know why we are going to meet Kimberly. We know why they came and why they called us tonight. No go!”

            The sound of Terrell’s voice boomed deeply inside Jimmy’s body. He felt as if Terrell had punched him or something. This was more than strange; now it was scary. Jimmy ran home and got back inside without getting himself caught. There was enough strangeness for one day already. He picked up his journal and wrote the events he witnessed. For some reason, he felt a strong need to make a written record of everything he encountered that day. 

            Back at the lake, the five neighborhood children along with one normally frisky lab pup stood and looked out over the lake. Each seemed off in their own world, yet if a person looked closely and paid attention to them, they would see each child and the dog all breathing in unison. Even their hearts beat as one.

            Kimberly led them all into the woods as each picked up the smell, sight, sound, taste or feel of their newfound invader. Terrell broke the silence first as he realized where they were. 

            “Hey, this is that old man Pitt’s huntin’ cabin. Didn’t he die last year?”

            “Yeah, that’s why we had to find it first. We have to make sure it isn’t here yet, then we can start warning the others,” Kimberly said. 

            “We all they is, ain’t we?” Johnny asked.

            “There are others, now sit and listen to me. This thing we saw today is bad. Big Pants Billy knows its bad too. I thought he might be here, but he must have other things to do. A hunter is here, and he brought a dog with him.”

Buddy stood on his back legs when Kimberly mentioned the dog. This animal served as a hunting dog on his home planet, but on Earth it was closer in shape to a bull. The animal sported two small ‘horns’ used to pick up trace elements in the air. These trace elements allowed it to discriminate between the adrenalin-induced fear it loved to hunt and the lower level fear or anxiety. 

This ‘dog’ had three eyes. Two eyes in the normal location and the third set back a bit on its head. This eye rotated constantly and picked up on small variations in light as it moved. The ears were large and could rotate in every direction to find the source of sounds. It’s large mouth contained adequately large sharp teeth, but the average full grown large species earth dog had teeth just as long and sharp. 

The fur covering its body interlocked the way a bird’s feathers interlocked. It could manipulate the fur into camouflage so it could blend into the background on its home planet. Earth’s colors proved much too complex for this to help it much.

Large claws provided a nasty weapon on the front paws while the back feet terminated in two powerful claws used to rip into solid structures. 

ON Earth, this beast could run faster than a cheetah for several miles.