Chapter 7

~~ I Told You So ~~

Ian and Chase lumbered into the class with straight faces. All eyes were on them but they ignored. Well, not totally though. Ian was again staring at Kira, who stylishly shared glances with him as well. Chase pulled him by the hand and they sat down, listening to the English teacher’s teachings.

The duo barely lasted ten minutes when their minds trailed off with different emotions. They could no longer hear the teacher’s voice but their inner voices instead.

Ian couldn’t wait for the class to end, so he could leave for the woods. He wouldn’t have come to class if not for his consistent attendance. He had this feeling that’s he’d find something interesting in the woods. Something had been drawing there ever since he read the news with Chase a while ago. He didn’t know what or why, but he felt he needed to get there as soon as possible.

Maybe he could get answers as to why he’s been having these bizarre dreams of other worlds. While everyone had been insinuating that a wild animal was behind these killings, Ian felt it was something beyond that. Something beyond the ordinary.

Not like he’d want to cross paths with this ‘thing’, but seeing is believing, right?

‘I just hope it’s not the last thing I see,’ he said to himself sarcastically.

On the other hand, and quite in contrast to the weirdly optimistic Ian, Chase was almost panicking as random thoughts ran across his mind, constantly tapping his sneakers on the floor.

Thoughts like how they’d get attacked by a bear or Chayote – the two most common wild animals in Huntsville. How they’d get eaten alive or ripped apart. Or they’d manage to escape and get hit by a speeding vehicle.

Damn! He bit his fingernails like a rat.

The only thing that kept him in check was recalling what Ian said about the attacks only happening at night. Their safety was guaranteed, feasibly.

Ring!

The school bell rang, signifying the end of class and school for the day.

Ian was the first person to stand up, with joy and he grabbed his backpack.

“Come on,” he turned and urged the latter to get up.

Chase reluctantly stood up, sluggishly grabbing his bag, when Ian took the backpack, his wrist and pulled them out of the class in a hurry.

Kira, who was packing her books in her bag, saw them and squinted her eyes.

Ace only scoffed, “Jerks”

~

“Dude, chill!” Chase said and removed his hand from Ian’s grip as they jogged out of the school building.

Ian reached his red painted dirt bike and picked up the two biking helmets. He’d always come to school with the motorcycle if Peter didn’t bring them, which the latter rarely did, expect Jocelyn told him to.

“Are you sure we really have to do this?” Chase asked trying to reconsider, even though doing this would profit them greatly.

Ian sighed and looked at him, “Seriously? Chase, we’ve been through this already.”

“I know, I know. But…” Chase paused, thinking of a good enough excuse to dissuade his stubborn friend. After a second or two, he thought of something.

“What about Avery? Aren’t you meant to take her home?” he pointed at the Junior building by his right.

Ian looked at Chase and smiled, ‘Nice try, buddy.’

“Not today. My mum is coming to pick her up. I already told her I’d be coming home late,” he smirked.

“Huh? You did?” Chase was taken aback. “But how did you know we’d be doing this today?”

Ian chuckled and scratched the back of his neck, “Uhm… So, I had this dream that I’ll be delayed at school due to an impromptu exam.”

“But the session just started. We haven’t even had any tests,” Chase pointed out.

“I know, but these dreams aren’t normal anymore. Remember when I told you that Mr. Humphrey, the science teacher liked cakes due to a hunch I had?” he asked.

“Uh.. Yeah. Then he accepted it and gave me a chance to retake the test, gaining me a B and passing the last semester,” Chase nodded.

“Well, it wasn’t a hunch. I dreamt about it,” Ian simply shrugged.

“So what are you now? The guy who can see into the future through bizarre dreams?” Chase laughed.

Ian chuckled. Seeing that Chase’s tension had been alleviated, he told him to hop on the bike.

“I think you should be a seer. There’s a lot of money in that field,” Chase muttered as he got on the bike. “What should we call you?... Uhm… Ian the dream gazer.”

“Hehe… That’s a terrible name,” Ian said and wore his helmet, Chase followed suite.

Ian kick stared the bike, revved by twisting the handles, then he let go of the clutch and the red dirt bike slightly jolted forward. He turned to face the road and the bike took off, leaving behind accumulated smoke and dust in its wake.

Riding through the streets of Huntsville with familiarity, Ian took the routes that were shorter to ply and would lead them faster to the woods. They got into the woods in no time, but had to stop and move slow, because of the security personals placed at some specific locations — where the ‘beast’ was said to have been sighted.

Luckily for the duo, where they placed the solar-gale was somewhere inconspicuous, nobody patrolled the area.

Revv! Revv!

The red dirt bike came a stop amid the infertile radius of land. Yeah, there weren’t any trees in this area of the woods, due to a certain chemicals accident that occurred a few years ago, leaving the land deluged with its toxic contents. Ever since then, the area of about 200 meters in radius has been left barren. There was no sign of animal life here too.

This was what made it a perfect spot for them to try out their new invention — The Solar-gale. As the name implies, it is powered by the sun’s radiation and centrifugal force of the wind. It’s a device that helps nourish the soil using a few treatment methods, like Bioremediation, which is the use of biological processes to degrade, transform, or essentially remove contaminants from soil and water. This process relies on micro-organisms including bacteria and/or fungi, which use the contaminant as a food source.

Then chemically oxidizing the soil. This process will slowly convert the soil into a non-hazardous one.

There’s also, the basic watering and manure after the seed has been planted.

Hopping from the bike and removing their helmets and backpacks, Ian and Chase’s eyes dilated, their faces contorting as they almost burst into tears. What they saw stunned them and set their emotions loose.

About ten feet away from them was a Hackberry tree that was about 5 feet high. It was still in its mid-growth stages, it had draping green leaves on its thin branches. Seated by the root of the baby tree was machine that looked bigger than a medium sized generator. It was yellow and black in color. It’s top and two sides had solar panels glued to them, and its rear had holes that allowed the fan within it usurp air.

‘It worked! Our Solar-gale freaking worked!’

Ian and Chase were extremely excited, dashing towards the tree and squatting by it. They checked the Solar-gale for a minute or two, but found it still perfectly okay.

They uprooted its cords attached to the Hackberry’s roots since it no longer needed the machine to survive. They were sure of this from their calculations and hypothesis. But they’ll be coming to check it weekly just to be sure.

With a combined effort, they lifted the heavy machinery and dropped it behind the bike. Ian took some ropes and strapped it in place.

With a sigh, he said, “See? Like I said… Everything worked out just fine.”

“Please don’t say that,” Chase retorted, shaking his head.

“What now?” Ian was getting frustrated with Chase’s negativity this afternoon.

“You could jinx our luck. Ever watched thriller movies? It’s always when someone says stuff like that, then the bad guy shows up--”

He hadn’t finished talking when a rush of wind blew beside them and he sprang back like a frightened cat, shouting too. Ian also turned to see what caused the loud rustle.

“What the heck was that?!” Chase asked in fear.

“Take I easy. It’s probably just the wind,” Ian said, half sure.

“Just the wind? Did you check the check weather report for today? It’s sunny. Sunny, Ian!“ Chase yelled,

Ian frowned, “Quit being such a big baby and--”

Swoosh!

Something dashed right past them, sending them and the bike falling to the floor.

Deep growls could be heard from behind them, getting louder and louder. The dry leaves on the floor let out crackling sounds as they got crushed by something,

Thud! Thud! Rustle!

As the growls increased in volume, so did the footsteps and breaking damp leaves.

Thump! Thump!

Ian and Chase’s heartbeats got louder too as they remained seated on the ground. The hair on their body stood straight when they saw the shadow in the shape of a humanoid, cast over them from behind, the footsteps had stopped but the growls sounded very close now!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

One couldn’t tell which was louder, the growl of the unknown or heartbeats of the horrified duo.

Overwhelmed by shock and not being able to hold in his fear again, Chase screamed!