sAll about Life has tagged me for something new today and that’s to add to a story originally started by Teresa, the Haunted Wordsmith; it’s like a kind of blogging relay race apparently. This is the story so far……
Teresa’s
Part:
Anne
and Gladys waved as the men left for their hunt. When they were out
of sight, they both laughed knowing full well that none would have
the heart to really shoot anything. They liked a boy’s day out as
much as they liked a girl’s day in.
“So,”
Fred said as they passed the gate into his family’s hunting
grounds. “What do you think the girls are up to today?”
Alec
laughed. “Talking about us, what else?”
Sam
nodded. “Yep.”
As
they walked through the fields into the tree line, the dogs’ ears’
picked up. Boy whimpered and cowered close to Fred’s legs. Toby’s
fur stood on edge as he stared into the woods and growled.
“Easy
there,” Alec said, trying to calm him.
Sam
kneeled and unzipped his gun as quietly as possible. Suddenly, both
dogs were on alert as a …
Morpethroad wrote:
small,
bespectacled man stepped through the bushes. The dogs were going
berserk by now straining at their leashes. It was clear the dogs
sensed a danger the men did not see.
The
man walking towards them was squinting as he approached as he had the
sun in his eyes.
“Good
afternoon,” he said as he drew near, “your dogs won’t bite will
they? I do have a fear of them.”
Sam
stood with his gun in his hands unsure of what he was seeing and
hearing. The place they were in was a piece of rugged bushland, no
one lived there because it was the family’s hunting grounds and it
was considered unsafe to even camp on the land for any reason at all.
Fred
was trying his best to hold onto his dog, and Alec held firm on
Toby’s collar. Once the small man came within a few feet of the
hunting party, they could see…
Pensitivity101 continues:
he
was holding something in a plastic bag.
Fred
lost his grip and Boy lunged at the man who dropped the bag on the
ground and threw his arms up to protect his face.
Fred
was afraid they would have to shoot the dog but Boy wasn’t
interested in the man at all, just the bag, which he snatched up and
obediently brought back to his master.
The
little man was shaking with fear as Sam reached out his hand to help
him up.
“You
realise you’re trespassing don’t you?” he said.
The
man straightened his glasses and collected himself.
“I’m
sorry about that, but we’d received a repor….”
“We?
Who is we? And what are you doing here? You could have been shot!”
Fred
had taken the bag out of Boy’s mouth and stared at the contents in
disbelief.
“Guys?
I think you need to look at this.”
Sadje’s
contribution:
Sam
and Alec stepped forward to take a look at what was in the bag.
Fred’s hand, clutching the bag, was trembling. The bag contained a
severed hand, the digits were shaped like a claw. But it was like no
human hand they had ever seen. It was like it belonged to someone
very big and skinny.
“Whe…,
Ahm….Where did you find this?” Alec uttered the question through
vocal cords which were refusing to cooperate. Sam and Fred were
looking askance at the stranger. The whole situation had taken on a
nightmarish quality.
The
man, again made an attempt to introduce himself. “I am Bennett,
from The Agency of Alien Detection, TAAD. We received the alien
activity signals from this area and a party has been investigating
the situation. This is part of the remains we were able to recover.
Do you have any information regarding this?”
The
three men stared at him with gapping mouth and glazed looks. Who in
their right mind would believe this man. But the evidence was in
their hands.
Sam
took the bag from Fred and was going to examine it closely when…
Cheryl added:
…when
the bag’s contents started moving. The claw-like severed hand was
scratching at the plastic bag. Sam dropped it like a hot potato! The
boys started to freak out and started to whimper. The spectacled man
even stepped back. “Oh my,” Bennett stuttered, “I thought it
was, uh, uh, dead!”
Sam
kept his gun at the ready. There was no way this “thing” was
going to hurt the boys. Bennett fumbled nervously in his pocket to
retrieve what looked like a cell phone, but was actually a
communicator to the rest of the landing crew. His face seemed to
change shape a bit and he started to adjust his hair. Sam looked at
the little man with more than just curiosity. Who was this guy,
really?
This
was Fandango’s contribution
“Do
not touch that bag!” Bennett, who was no longer a small,
bespectacled, unimposing man, shouted. He had suddenly grown taller.
His skin took on a shiny, reddish tone and his hands took on the same
claw-like shape of the severed hand in the bag. The three men stepped
back and even the two dogs stopped barking and cowered.
“What
are you?” Alec asked. “you definitely are not human.”
“No,”
Bennett admitted, “I am not. My companion and I were sent here from
our home planet to explore your planet. Our mission was peaceful. Our
intent was merely to collect air and mineral samples. We intended no
harm. But then we encountered a hostile group of creatures who jumped
my companion. I’m ashamed to say that I ran for cover, while these
creatures devoured my companion. All that was left of him was the
hand that I put in the bag. But he is apparently beginning the
regeneration process.”
“Creatures?
What kind of creatures?” Sam asked.
“Similar
to those,” Bennett said, pointing to the two dogs, “but larger
and much more viscous.”
“Wolves,”
Fred said.
Sam
raised his rifle and aimed it at the alien. “Sam, what are you
doing?” Alec shouted.
Suddenly…
Now
over to me:
There
was a noise overhead and both Alec and Sam turned sharply to try and
identify it’s source; necks craning upwards they searched the sky
but there was nothing other than a dense cloud bank.
“Looks
like there’s a storm coming” said Alec “Perhaps it was thunder
we heard”
He
turned to look at Sam who had resumed his position; stock still with
his gun aimed at Bennett’s head
“That
wasn’t thunder, was it Mr Bennett?” Sam said quietly
“Sam!
Please put down your gun, there’s no need for threats, Mr Bennett
has explained that he has no beef with us, he’s just doing some
research”
Alec
was surprised at his friend’s behaviour especially as Boy and Toby
were no longer agitated but laying peacefully at their feet. In his
experience dogs were far better attuned to sense danger than any
human.
“And
you believe him do you?” Sam was absolutely rigid and he spoke from
the corner of his mouth through clenched teeth as though in mortal
terror or suppressed anger, Alec couldn’t be sure which.
“Yes
I believe him Sam now put the gun down for God’s sake before some
gets hurt”
Alec was becoming genuinely concerned, they were both hunters but he knew from long experience that Sam was not a violent man. He stepped forward to try to placate his friend and persuade him to drop his weapon.= but just then the sky darkened and………..
MY contribution:
They were slammed to the ground by a sudden, swirling and violent thrust of downward pressure. The trees bent outwards in futile surrender as they were pelted by leaves and underbrush. The noise was deafening. The dogs, unable to stand, yelped as they crawled towards the outskirts of the clearing. Sam, having lost his tenuous grip on the shotgun, helplessly watched as it was flung beyond his sight. He found himself being tossed around on the forest floor as he tried to find something to hold onto. He cried out to Alec who was frantically hugging the base of a tree at least 20 feet away.
“Alec! What the ever loving f&*k is going on?!” He shouted. As the words left his mouth he knew that the cacophony around him had drowned him out.
Alec, instead of futilely trying to
shout over the deafening noise waved his right arm, his left clinging
to the tree base, caught Sam’s attention and frantically pointed
upwards, jabbing at the forest ceiling.
Suddenly branches and debris began
raining down upon them and both men cowered under the onslaught. Sam
forced himself to look up. Squinting and covering his eyes with one
hand he could see a large object slowly lowering itself into the
clearing, effortlessly forcing aside the trees that dared block its
descent.
The heat was overwhelming, Sam could
only presume it was exhaust.
But from what?
He scrambled to escape the clearing. Alec, with a sudden burst of brevity let go of the tree and did a military crawl to join his friend. Once he reached Sam they locked arms and watched what they could only presume was Bennett’s ride home finish it’s descent.
I tag Steve @ MSich Chronicles to take it to the next level.
These are the rules:
1. Copy the story as you receive it.
2. Add to the story in some fashion.
3. Tag another person to contribute to or finish the story.
4. Please use FTS as a tag so Teresa can find it or link back to part 1.
5. Have Fun!
The Tao of Bill 