Feelers - pt. 8

I couldn't react quickly enough to move one muscle before Grant went tumbling underneath a big black shadowy thing, a thing that was the most real object I'd seen in this weird foggy between-world place. It was growling and snarling, rumbling like the bottom keys of a piano. I felt stupid and slow as I turned around to help Grant. The creature was the size of a Shetland pony, sharp and quick, as he wallowed over Grant, snaking his head forward and back, trying to get past Grant's beating arms. I saw blood glistening.

 

Frantically I kicked at the animal's leg that was closest. It was thick and furry, like a bear, and I may as well have been a moth for the attention it paid me.

 

"Get off! Get off!" I screamed.

 

What? What did I have to get this thing off him? There was no time to over-think it. Grant was yelling and bleeding, the creature was swinging back its arm for a giant cuff. I swung my backpack around and then straight for its head with all my might. The corner of a book connected into the side of its temple, and, overbalanced, it fell backwards.

 

From somewhere, I realized I now had a new freshly sharpened yellow Ticonderoga pencil in my other hand. Dropping the backpack, I took the pencil in both hands point side down, aimed, shut my eyes, and drove it with a chopping motion down at one of its red-rimmed eyes. In that moment I heard a barking grunt and was hurled away several yards and to the ground. I caught a glimpse of the bear-like creature with impossibly long legs disappearing into the fog with my new pencil still in its right eye. I rolled over with some fear to look at Grant. I had a flash of realizing what it would mean if he were dead or dying. All alone in this place!

 

I was relieved to see him sitting up and looking at me with an expression that probably matched mine.

 

"You're OK!" We both said in unison, and then flopped back down, letting the adrenaline fade away with shudders and teary giggles.

 

"I think they are just surface scrapes," Grant said, as we inspected his wounds.

 

"It bothers me because they might be from its teeth," I said. "It might get infected. We need to wash it or something." I looked in my backpack, my wonderful backpack that I was starting to realize might be the thing that would help us survive in this place.

 

"I've got a water-bottle, but I hate to use it up if we get thirsty later. How about using this?" I held up a small travel-size bottle of mouthwash, minty-fresh.

 

"You go to school with a bottle of mouthwash?" Grant asked incredulously.

 

"Hey, you never know!" I said defensively. "I don't want to breathe Dorito breath on.. well, anyone..." I finished lamely. "Anyway, if it kills germs, it should help here."

 

"We're assuming that these are Earth germs!" Grant said under his breath.

 

I ignored him and drizzled some of the green fluid over his bloody scrapes. He howled as the mouthwash ran over the wounds and rinsed off some of the blood. The green liquid and the red blood made a sort of brown color that I finished wiping off with the corner of my shirt. I dug in my pack once again and brought out a pink bandana. I folded it over and tied it like a bandage over the injury.

 

"That should keep it clean at least," I said. "Now, what next?"

 

It seemed like hours, days had gone by, but there was still just the pale gray fog surrounding us and my stopped watch to remind me there was no time here. The pale shadows that looked like a scene from our school had quit moving, and other, more strange shadows had become more active.

 

"Come closer, sit by me," Grant said, patting his side. I scooted over, putting my pack between my feet. "Can we figure any of this out? Are there more creatures like, uh, that one?" he said quietly.

 

"It's my guess this whole place is like this," I said, "though we should probably walk around a little to make sure. The only other thing we've seen that's as real as we are was the creature." I patted the ground. "See? Even the ground isn't really dirt, or grass, or anything, really."

 

Grant ran his fingers along the misty ground in front of us. He scooped his hand up but only tendrils of smoke poured out from between his fingers.

 

"I wonder if it ended up like us here, sort of by accident, but from another world," he said gazing at the flickering shapes of long-legged creatures that faded in and out of the ghost show.

 

"Well, I don't care. I don't feel sorry for what I did to it!" I declared.

 

"No, never," Grant hastily replied, "but, I was just wondering right now if maybe it decided to come back. If it was a carnivore, you know, and it was really hungry and stuff..." He trailed off. I was thinking, too, that we should get a move on. Nothing to be gained by waiting. No one was going to come and rescue us. Nobody was going to come and deliver a pizza while we sat waiting. Thinking about pizza made my stomach growl. I was embarrassed until I heard Grant's stomach making noises too.

 

Silently I reached into my backpack and pulled out a Payday, broke it in half and handed that part over to Grant. He took it and we chewed silently for a few moments.

 

"What else have you got in that thing?" he asked. "Maybe we should take inventory."

 

"I don't want to empty it here. If I lose something out of it, we might never find it again," I said gesturing towards the fog. I also wasn't quite sure myself what all was in there, and if there was something embarrassing, I didn't want to spill it out right in front of him.

 

"Good thought," he said. "We might need everything we have."

 

"And now," Grant said, rising to his feet, "It's time we got moving."

 

"One thing," I said. "It may be important to know just where we came into this place. There aren't any landmarks, and once we move around, we won't have any point of reference. We would be absolutely clueless!"

 

"Not that we aren't pretty clueless anyway!" he joked, "But you're right. What have we got that we can spare?"

 

I pulled out the Payday wrapper I'd shoved into my pants pocket and smoothed it out. I laid it out in front of us. It seemed to rest on top of the foggy ground, it's orange and blue colors shimmering. "This will have to do," I said. Grant agreed, and with a gesture that seemed so natural, he reached out and took my hand and we began walking.

 

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