Prologue
Oh, hell... If I keep thinking about it, I’ll never do this.
Jeff dipped a toe into the portal which hummed to life. The blue light lit his face. He pulled on the rope, made sure it was secure, tucked the bat under his arm, wrapped the rope around him, threw the end into the opening and watched it twist and wave in the blackness.
He stepped into the opening, this time going feet first rather than head first.
He glanced down and could see his body twisting and stretching below him. That visual was quite disconcerting, so he looked back up, focused on the solid feel of the rope and continued lowering himself.
Lights flashed by his head, and within a few moments, he was hanging over the forest. Above him, he could see the rope dangling through a black circle that seemed suspended in the sky.
Jeff looked down and saw the trees below him. He lowered himself through the branches which scratched painfully as he dropped through them. He went slowly, slowly, keeping a good hold on the rope, but it was getting difficult to maintain his concentration as the branches scratched and whipped at him.
When he was about ten feet from the ground, his right foot got caught on a branch and upended him. He desperately tried to keep a hold on the rope, but he was twisted and tangled in a way that made it very difficult to right himself.
The bat slipped and the thick end hit Jeff in the head with a resounding ‘bonk’.
That was enough to throw off the intense concentration he had been using to prevent a fall to the forest ground below.
Jeff had just enough time to think: This is going to hurt, before his back made hard, bone jarring, teeth rattling contact with the ground.
He had the very unpleasant, but relatively familiar feeling of having the wind knocked out of himself. He was on the ground, and he clutched his stomach instinctively as he desperately gasped and tried to get air into his lungs.
While he had a familiarity with the sensation, he still couldn’t prevent panicking. Colors flashed in his eyes and he could hear himself making sickening sounds as he struggled to get some air.
His lungs slowly filled and he began to regain normal breathing. He tried to remain still and calm as he rested on the forest floor. He willed his head to clear and his body to get back to a regularly functioning rhythm.
... But before he actually had much time to regain his composure, Jeff saw something moving out of the corner of his eye and tilted his head to get a better look.
About 15 feet away there was an odd... animal. It was about the size of a rabbit and looked generally like one but with small ears, a long, naked tail, long hind-legs combined with very short fore-legs and a bi-pedal stance that gave it the general shape of a very small, furry, rodent Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Jeff reached for his bat which was about a foot away from his right hand. As his hand fumbled and then closed around the bat, the rodent saw him and froze.
The two stared at each other, motionless, for a few moments. Jeff heard a sound, looked up and saw something falling from a tree-branch above the rodent.
It looked like a jellyfish - about 18 inches in diameter - but less regularly shaped than a jellyfish and without tentacles... almost like a huge amoeba. It fell onto the rodent and enveloped it. Jeff could see the frightened animal through the semi-transparent body of the bizarre creature. The rodent was struggling violently to try to escape, but it was completely trapped and didn’t seem to be making any progress.
After about 30 seconds, its struggling stopped, and Jeff could see the ghastly look of death on the rodent’s face.
Jeff pulled his bat tightly to his chest, raised himself shakily to his feet and then slowly backed away, wondering what am I doing here?
Chapter 1:
The boredom was almost painful.
Jeff aimed the remote.
Up, up, up...
He didn’t pause long enough on any channel to really see what was going on. He knew there was nothing worth watching. There was NEVER anything worth watching. Jeff was like a chimpanzee pulling the hairs out of his arm... one... by... one.
Who was it who said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’? Jeff wondered to himself. Einstein? Yeah, like he was one to judge sanity.
“Faced with evidence that either he was crazy or the universe was crazy, Jeff’s father had told him, ‘Einstein decided: ‘It must be the universe.’... And damned if he wasn’t right.”
Jeff laughed, then shook his head to try to rattle some of the crazy out of it.
It didn’t work.
Could boredom actually lead to madness? Was it possible for one’s brain to become so disinterested with the mundanity of life that it started dreaming while the person was still awake?
Up, up, up...
His mom had given up on trying to force him to go to bed at a decent hour. Jeff was deft at playing the ‘I still haven’t gotten over the loss of my father’ card.
He felt like he had to do something... anything... other than what he was doing.
Drifting.
Up, up, up...
It was the kind of boredom that made Jeff's brain itchy.
Beneath the skull where it was hard to scratch.
Not that he hadn't tried.
Somehow he felt that if he stayed up long enough, the next day wouldn’t come... but it always did... and it was always worse when he hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
And then there were the dreams.
For the last several months, Jeff had been having... terrible dreams.
Dreams of a savage creature - somewhat human, but reptilian. It had a powerful, sinewy body. It had jagged, uneven teeth, but it wasn’t the obvious physical power and danger that got to Jeff... there was something else that burrowed into Jeff’s soul like a parasitic worm making its way through the flesh to the vital bits.
Something in the eyes...
Evil, red glowing eyes that ate into him...
He’d try to get away, but his limbs wouldn’t respond...
Push... move... run... scream...
Then nothing but the sound of his breathing and the darkness of his bedroom.
By the light of day, it all seemed so silly.
Monsters?
Jeff was 14 - too old to be afraid of monsters.
It all seemed easy enough to brush off when he was awake, but when he was asleep, it had almost...
A power over him.
Jeff seemed to shift between three different moods - none of them good. Boredom shifted to fear. Fear shifted to sadness.
Jeff paused on a ‘news’ channel. Jeff was too young to remember when television actually broadcast news. This was really a ‘Republicans and Democrats arguing with a healthy dose of celebrity gossip thrown in between’ channel, but as far as Jeff knew it was ‘news’.
A Republican congressman had just been caught in an affair, so, of course, the left-wing nut was horrified while the right-wing nut thought it was no big deal. Sometime in the near future – maybe a week, maybe a month – a Democratic congressman would be caught in an affair and their roles would switch.
Jeff decided that, if his goal was to fend off madness, this tactic was not working.
He rubbed his eyes, twisted in his seat and squinted – trying to bring the clock on the wall into focus.
Damn!
He pushed down on the arms of his chair and...
Nothing happened.
He tried again, this time using far more effort than someone as young and healthy as he was should need. This time he managed to heft himself and started the long walk to bed.
Chapter 2:
Jeff pulled the door shut behind him and looked up the street. It was still a little dark, and that wasn’t helping him put the dream behind him. He knew the whole thing was silly, but he needed the bright light of day for his rational and irrational sides to come to agreement on that point.
The wind stung his neck. He pulled on the zipper of his jacket, but, he found it was already as high as it would go.
There was an eerie, uncomfortable quiet at this time of morning. Jeff stood there for a moment, exhaled loudly, watched his breath swirl and disperse, and then he headed toward the bus stop.
As he walked, he heard nothing but the sound of his own feet.
It almost seemed that he was the only thing that was real.
He looked down, watching his own feet. He had seen the other students gathered at the bus stop ahead, but – for just a few more moments – he imagined there was no one but him.
“Hey, Jeff!”
Jeff smiled. “Hey, Larry.” He paused. As he snapped back to reality, he remembered that he hadn’t been able to figure out the algebra assignment. “Hey, did you get that assignment for Martelli’s class?”
Jeff used to be a great student, but ever since he lost his father, he couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything. He always felt off balance - out of place. It seemed like... he should be doing... something.
But he had no idea what that ‘something’ was.
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. You just have to get the variables on one side.” Larry could see the incomprehension on Jeff’s face. “Here, I’ll show you.” He opened the book and began to explain.
“Yo, dweebo.”
Jeff and Larry both cringed. It was Jake - a monster of a 9th grader. At 6’1” and 220 lbs, he would be big for an adult, but he was huge for a 14 year old, and to make matters worse, he was an absolute ass.
Jeff had once walked into the boy’s room to find Jake peeing on the floor and laughing as if it was the funniest, most clever thing he had seen since the last Jackass movie.
Jake snatched Larry’s book and tossed it to his friend, Todd. Todd wasn’t much bigger than the other 9th graders, but he didn’t need to be. As long as he hung around Jake, nobody would ever give him any trouble.
Larry reached for the book, but Todd tossed it to Jake who had moved a little farther away. Larry shifted directions and headed back toward Jake and Jake tossed it back to Todd.
Jeff felt like he should do something.
He felt like it was his fault.
Jeff got along with most people and was usually not the target of bullies.
And he sort of liked it that way.
He wasn’t sure how far that neutral status would take him in this situation, but he had to try. “Jake, come on.”
Jake seemed a little surprised that anyone would have the nerve to do anything other than just stand there uncomfortably. “Jake, come oooooon,” he said mockingly and then held out his hands for Todd to toss the book back.
Jeff felt an uncomfortable twinge in his stomach and a tingling in his arms and legs. As Todd tossed the book, Jeff tried to intercept, but as he leaned in, Jake shoved him angrily. Jeff flailed back awkwardly and off balance as the book hit the ground with a loud ‘thwap’.
That flipped a switch in Jake’s brain.
He turned toward Jeff, reached out and grabbed two handfuls of Jeff’s jacket. Jeff reacted instinctively and punched him - hard - in the stomach. Jake let go of the jacket and stared dumbly for a moment.
Did I actually hurt him? Jeff wondered to himself. Before he could think much more, Jake exploded in a rage. He grabbed Jeff’s jacket again, lifted him a couple inches off the ground and then slammed him hard onto his back. Jeff felt his teeth rattle and pain shot through his kidneys as he hit the frozen lawn.
Jake punched wildly at him and Jeff looped one arm over his face and another around his chest in an attempt to shield himself. Most of the blows hit him - painfully but with relatively little damage - in his ribs and arms.
“Jake! Bus is coming,” Todd yelled.
And the pounding stopped.
Jeff felt dizzy and lightheaded.
Everything went silent and blank for a moment, and then Jeff began to see clouds drift in and out of focus.
As he regained more of his senses, he could see shadows moving around him as the other students lined up for the bus.
Jeff felt an arm grab his and the next thing he knew, he was standing.
“Thanks,” he mumbled to Larry who looked more shaken than Jeff felt.
They got on the bus and Jeff dropped into a seat. He avoided looking directly at Jake, but he didn’t need to see him to know the Neanderthal was mouthing threats.
“After school, you’re dead, Browning.”
Chapter 3:
Oh hell, Jeff thought to himself as he found it even harder than usual to concentrate in history.
He tapped the eraser from his nearly new pencil on his desk - trying to see how many times he could get it to bounce. Jeff was wondering if he could get away with a quick trip to the pencil sharpener. He took as many chances as he could get to stretch his legs and look out the window. By the end of the day, this nice new pencil will be nothing but a nub, he thought.
By the end of the day...
Jeff considered ‘missing’ the bus. It was about a three mile walk. Jeff could handle it, but...
No. That would be a cowardly move.
Jeff wondered what his father would have said about the situation with Jake.
Jeff couldn’t imagine his father ever being afraid of anything. He wasn’t physically strong, but mentally...
Dr. Browning was the sort of person who felt there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do, and that confidence was always visible. Jeff’s father projected the ability to do anything well. If, for example, he was picking up dog poop in a plastic bag, someone would likely say: ‘Wow! That guy really knows how to pick up dog poop in a plastic bag.’
Jeff remembered that his father had talked to him once about fighting: ‘For all the potential fights people get into, there are very few actual fights. Both parties know how the fight’s going to go before it happens, so the guy who knows he’s going to get beat backs down before things get ugly.’ And Jeff had seen that scenario play out several times since his father shared that little bit of wisdom.
Problem was, he knew the outcome of his fight with Jake... and it didn’t end with Jeff still standing.
His only hope in a fight with Jake would be that one of Jake’s arms might, by chance, fall off during the fight.
And that wasn’t likely to happen.
And, truth be told, Jake could probably still kick Jeff’s ass with only one arm.
“What are your thoughts, Jeff?”
Caught!
Jeff realized he had no idea what Mr. Murphy was talking about. Jeff normally enjoyed Mr. Murphy’s class and respected him, so he was particularly embarrassed.
“... Uhhhh...” He hoped for some hint.
“What would the punishment have been?”
“... Uhhh...”
“For those who signed the Declaration of Independence...”
“Death?”
“Yes!”
Mr. Murphy clapped his hands shuffled his feet in what appeared to Jeff to be a piss-poorly executed dance step of some sort.
Nothing like the thought of someone else’s pain and death to get a 9th grade teacher all giddy. I guess if they didn’t enjoy suffering, they wouldn’t stay 9th grade teachers for long...
With that out of the way, Jeff was once again free to imagine various scenarios for what would happen when the final bell rang.
They all ended with one of two possible outcomes: Jeff, invariably, wound up either badly beaten or a coward - afraid to ever show his face in school again.
The more Jeff thought of it, the more he decided he liked the idea of getting his ass kicked best. It would only hurt for a little bit and then it would be over.
Jake wouldn’t hurt him... much. Even Jake - who thought WWF wrestling was real and Jackass was the best movie ever made - was too smart for that. Jake wouldn’t want to end up in juvenile detention or facing a lawsuit for maiming a fatherless boy. No, he’d beat him - soundly - and that would be the end of it. Maybe Jake would even end up with some respect for Jeff if he had the balls to not run from a sure thrashing...
Yep. That was the answer. Stand up. Take it like a man. Show up the next day beaten but not a coward.
Once he made that decision, he felt so relieved he was practically ecstatic. He glided to his locker after final period.
It was the oddest thing.
He was roughly 15 minutes away from a good beating, yet he felt more... alive... than he had in over a year.
Chapter 4:
Jeff boarded the bus proudly. That’s right, I’m here... surprised? he thought to himself.
He looked back at Jake who was in the back of the bus. Jeff didn’t stare, but he made sure not to avoid him either. He saw Todd point at him and laugh along with Jake.
When they arrived at their stop, Jeff got up and made his way - calmly - to the door. He could feel Jake breathing down the back of his neck, and he could hear him mumbling in a mocking voice: “Jeffrey... Jeffrey”
Jeff hopped out of the bus. He didn’t turn around, but he didn’t run either. He was there... available for the worst Jake had to offer as soon as the bus pulled away.
Jeff watched the bus pull out of sight, and then - just so it was clear he wasn’t about to run - he stopped and turned around.
And then...
One of the strangest things happened.
Nothing.
Jake was walking the other way, talking to Todd. For a brief second, Jake glanced over his shoulder at Jeff, but then quickly snapped his head back around.
Jeff was almost disappointed.
Chapter 5:
I am your God.
Jeff’s foot hovered over an ant.
I have the power of life or death over you. One simple move of my foot and you will cease to exist.
Jeff leaned back and stretched. He closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the sun on his face as he reclined on the steps leading to his front porch.
As often happened, his thoughts drifted to his father.
Jeff’s father - Dr. Jeffrey Browning – was a brilliant physicist who had contributed significantly to the current models of super-string theory. Dr. Browning was absolutely convinced that a unifying theory was within reach, but his last paper sat locked in a roll top desk gathering dust just seven feet above where Jeff Jr. spent his evenings catatonically flipping through channels.
It had been over a year ago. Jeff came home from baseball practice, pushed open the front door he had an immediate sense that something just wasn’t... ‘right’.
Jeff’s mom, Marie, was upset. It was 7 PM and Jeff Senior hadn’t come home yet. Not particularly unusual... unless you knew Dr. Browning. He was always exactly where he was supposed to be – reliable without fail. He didn’t just wander off places. He had left his lab at 3:00 PM and told a late-working grad student that he was headed home.
Marie got home at 5:00 expecting her husband to be home - as he always was when he said he would be.
After a number of phone calls that confirmed he had, indeed, left for home several hours earlier, Marie knew something was wrong.
She called the police, but they told her he was probably out for a beer with some friends and would return shortly. They told her to call again the next day if, by chance, he didn’t show up later that evening.
He never did show up.
Not the next hour... not the next day... not the next week.
The media latched onto the story and set up camp for a few weeks, and the police did their best. Nearly everyone agreed that Dr. Browning simply wasn’t the sort of person who would just run away without a word. The police felt sure there was foul play of some sort... but they didn’t have any clues.
It seemed he had just vanished.
The last person to see him was a grad student. “We were getting good results and he was looking forward to the next readings. He was in a great mood, and he seemed his normal self that afternoon,” the grad-student had told police.
He had walked to work, so there was no car to offer clues.
The police were absolutely baffled.
Dr. Browning was a good-natured man who had no enemies. He was financially comfortable, but by no means rich enough to attract kidnappers. It was broad daylight and nobody in the area reported any unusual activity of any kind. He was a responsible, loving husband and father who didn’t have any debts, girlfriends or anything else that might entice him to run away.
The best guess investigators could offer was that he was a victim of a random crime that got out of hand and his attacker had successfully hidden the body without leaving any traces.
Jeff stretched against the stairs. He tried to focus on the feeling of the sun on his skin.
Even after a year and several months, there was still a feeling of uncertain confusion. Jeff and his mother kept hoping Jeffrey Sr. would walk through the door any minute... but both of them seemed to know – somewhere deep in their subconscious – he would never come back.
Since they had to at least pretend there was hope - even when hope began to seem irrational - they never got the chance to really be sad or angry.
Jeff looked up and down the street - almost feeling that if he looked hard enough he’d see his father walking home.
It felt like there was something he should do.
It was almost as if he could have an answer if he thought hard enough. Jeff always thought that of his father - that Dr. Browning could figure anything out if he just thought about it hard enough.
Jeff felt like there was something...
A force pulling him...
He shook his head to clear his mind.
An ant was making its way toward Jeff’s sneaker. Its antennae twisted and twitched as it meandered – seemingly aimlessly but never stopping. Something kept it going.
Jeff wondered if it had any concept of what was going on around it. Does it have any sort of primitive understanding at all or is it simply being driven by chemical signals? Do I have any understanding or am I just using a different form of those primitive signals?
Jeff shifted the position of his sneaker and held it over the ant. The ant seemed to pause. Does it know that its life is in my hands? Does it know that with one, small move I can crush it... for no better reason than for my own amusement?
Jeff mentally commanded the ant to stop.
It didn’t.
Jeff mentally commanded it to turn left.
It didn’t.
And as the ant wandered, so did Jeff’s mind.
He thought back to a time when he was 7 or 8. He and his father were walking through a flea market and he found a set of matching lockets. Jeff thought they were the coolest things: “Can we get them daddy?”
His father was reluctant at first - thinking it was a waste and just two more things to clutter drawers - but he softened when he looked into his son’s eyes.
When they got home, they cut two small photos: One of Jeff Junior for Jeff Senior’s locket and vice versa.
For a year, they each wore their lockets day and night... but one day... Jeff Jr. decided he was too old for something so silly. He took it off and left it on his dresser.
A few days later, Dr. Browning noticed Jeff wasn’t wearing it. “Where’s your locket?” he asked pulling his own out of his shirt by the chain and opening it.
“... Ummmm, I’m not a little kid anymore, you know dad.”
His father smiled as he admired the photo in his with a father’s pride. “Well... If you don’t mind... I think I might keep wearing mine. I’ve become sort of... attached ... to it.”
“Sure, I don’t care.” Jeff shrugged.
“Do you think I could have yours - to keep safe in case you ever want it later?” his father asked.
“Sure.” Jeff ran to his room and found the locket on the corner of his dresser where he left it. He ran back to his father’s office.
His father extended an open hand. He had huge hands with long, spindly fingers. He had been quite a piano player when he was younger.
Jeff dropped the locket and watched his father’s long fingers close. They both looked at the hand for a few moments. Jeff felt embarrassed. His father felt a little sad, but also sort of proud that Jeff wasn’t a ‘little kid’ anymore.
Dr. Browning opened a desk drawer and dropped the locket. “I’ll just leave it right here in case you ever change your mind.”
Jeff’s upper lip trembled a bit as he thought back to that moment about 4 years ago. The locket suddenly seemed to mean so much more than it had back then. Back then, it was just a stupid toy he had outgrown. Now it was all he had left of his father...
... But did he even have it?
He assumed it was still in the drawer... or had his father moved it?
He panicked for a moment realizing the locket might very well be just as lost as his father. At that moment, it felt so important and he wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before.
The locket seemed like the most important thing in the world.
Chapter 6:
“Don’t bother your father while he’s working,” his mother would warn sternly whenever she caught Jeff in Dr. Browning’s office.
The office was an amazing place to a little kid. It was filled with electronic gadgets - radio parts, lasers, computers.
Some of the gadgets were related to Dr. Browning’s work, but most of them were just toys or junk that he found interesting. He could always justify playing with toys - plasma balls, parabolic mirrors etc. - by telling himself and others that they sparked his mind. He often came up with his most creative ideas by playing with a diverse range of toys that helped him get past road-blocks in his thought.
“Necessity may be the mother of invention, but doing something because it might be cool is the weird, drunken uncle of invention. Sometimes weird, drunken uncles will teach you things your mother won’t,” Jeff’s father once told him with a wink.
Dr. Browning never seemed to mind when Jeff bothered him while he was ‘working’, but he was always very specific in his warnings that Jeff should NEVER go in there alone.
Some of the devices were delicate.
Some were even dangerous.
Jeff’s father also had rivals who wouldn’t mind getting a peek at his notes and experiments, so he generally kept the office locked when he wasn’t there.
Jeff tried the door just to see.
Locked.
It had been open when the police had been there, so Jeff thought there was a chance his mother had left it unlocked.
... In fact, that had been one of the things that had puzzled the police.
The office had been unlocked, and the keys were on the desk.
They thought that might have been a clue, but even that little bit of information - while interesting - didn’t seem to get them anywhere. His wallet was gone, and the police theorized that he had stopped home before going back out for something.
Jeff headed to his parent’s room.
His mother had kept things as they had been.
Jeff’s father’s dresser still had photos of Jeff and his mother. Back behind the photos, there was a small wooden box where Dr. Browning kept his loose change, keys and other odds and ends. Jeff hoped his mom had put the keys back there after the police had left.
Apparently she had.
Jeff grabbed a set of keys that were clearly labeled: “University – Lab”, “University - Classroom”, “Home - Front Door”, “University - Office”... and the one Jeff was looking for - “Home - Lab/Office”.
Jeff smiled to himself. His father always seemed to be organized far beyond what most people would consider practical.
Jeff went back to the office and inserted the key.
It didn’t seem quite right. Jeff jiggled it and tried a few times then looked at the label - “Home - Lab/Office” - That should be right... but it clearly wasn’t working.
He went back to the box on his father’s dresser and checked for any loose keys.
Nope.
Jeff tried to think like his father. His father was very bright, very organized and very efficient.
He’d want the key to be easy to get to when he needed it. He wouldn’t want to have to come all the way back to his room just because he forgot to get the key. He’d probably keep it somewhere close to the office... but where? He wouldn’t want it to be too obvious, otherwise what would be the point of locking it at all?
Jeff looked for hiding places near the office door. He moved a few plants, felt around the door frame, but couldn’t find anything.
He stood there stumped. Think, think, think like Dad.
He looked around and tried to imagine he was his father. He’d want it convenient... but not too convenient. Maybe a little farther away.
Jeff went down the hall checking behind some picture frames.
Jeff tried to think about times he had seen his father open the office, but he had never seen him getting keys out of hiding places.
His mother would know where it was. She had locked it after the police were there. Did she put it somewhere else?
Damn it! It can’t be that hard.
Why would he even change the lock in the first place? After he changed the lock, why would he keep the old key?
Wait a minute.
Jeff pulled the keys back out of his pocket.
He tried the “University - Classroom” one... Nope. The “Home - Front Door” didn’t seem to work either.
Then he tried the “University - Office”
And...
It worked!
Genius!
Jeff smiled considering his father’s thought process. He didn’t need to label the keys accurately. He could easily remember that “University - Office” unlocked his home office, but if someone who was up to no good got his keys, he, like Jeff, would try the one labeled “Home - Lab/Office”, and, when that didn’t work, he’d go looking elsewhere, just like Jeff had done, never realizing that he had the correct key in his hand.
If Dr. Browning had labeled them: “A, B, C...” or simply left them un-labeled, someone would try all of them until he found the right one.
Brilliant.
Chapter 7:
Jeff flicked the light-switch and headed for the desk. He pulled the bottom desk drawer and found the locket exactly where he had seen his father put it those many years ago.
Yes! Jeff felt a warmth wash over him as he put the chain over his head and dropped the locket into his shirt. He knew it was just his imagination, but the warmth almost felt like a real, physical sensation.
But as the initial relief and feeling of ‘rightness’ began to fade, he began to get uncomfortable. This was the first time he had ever been in the office alone. He felt like he shouldn’t be there. It felt wrong... but his curiosity began to get the better of him.
There was a quarter ‘floating’ over a parabolic mirror. Jeff knew it was an illusion and not actually there... but he reached for it anyway. He smiled as his finger slipped through the image. It brought back memories of being in the office with his father. He felt like his father was a magician back then. There seemed nothing he couldn’t do.
Beside the parabolic mirror was an odd electronic device that looked like a large, metal doughnut covered with electronic components. It had wires and conduits that were plugged into some sort of power source/controller several feet away.
Jeff poked his finger into the opening in the toroid, but then quickly withdrew it and jumped back as the device whirred to life.
That’s cool, he thought as the initial surprise wore off. There was a ring of blue lights around the top edge of the toroid, and the unit was emitting a low-frequency, fluctuating hum.
Jeff slowly edged his hand back toward the opening. I’m an idiot, he confessed to himself but didn’t back off. He put his fingers into the opening. He half expected to feel an electric shock, but didn’t feel anything.
And that was the really strange part.
He didn’t feel anything.
His fingers should have hit the table surface, but there seemed to be a hole cut in the table ... which wouldn’t have been too unusual except that Jeff could swear he had seen the table surface through the toroid before it had whirred to life.
Without withdrawing his hand, he leaned down and looked at the underside of the table. It seemed completely intact. He knocked on it with his free hand in the approximate spot his finger-tips should have been.
“That’s freaky!” Jeff said aloud.
He stood back up and looked down into the device. The blue lights caused strange shadows and made it difficult to see clearly... but it looked like his fingers were stretched out into thin, corkscrewing ribbons.
Jeff jerked his hand out of the device when he saw that. He looked at it and shook it vigorously. It looked and felt fine.
“Wow!”
Jeff looked into the opening. It just looked pitch black within the blue glowing ring, but he clearly could not see the table surface which he should have been able to see.
He brought his hand back to the opening and tentatively pushed his finger-tips back into the opening. This time he watched closely, and this time he could clearly see his fingers ‘stretch’. It looked like long, thin banners unfurling in a gently blowing breeze. They stretched and waved and looked to be extended at least 10 inches or more.
This time Jeff laughed.
Amazing.
Looks like dad came up with something even better than the parabolic mirror. This is really cool, he thought. He wondered what his father’s plans were. Was he planning on selling it as a novelty?
Jeff wiggled his fingers and watched waves of movement travel through the ‘ribbons’ his fingers had become.
Awesome!
He withdrew his hand and looked at it again. It still seemed fine.
Jeff ran his eyes from the toroid up the conduits to the control box wondering if he could figure out how it worked.
Not a chance.
It just seemed a jumble of wires switches and knobs. There weren’t any labels or instructions. Jeff looked around to see if there were any notes that might explain it. There were pages and pages of notes scattered around the office, but nothing Jeff could understand - mostly mathematical equations that just looked like gibberish.
Jeff nosed around some more. He picked up a small laser that had some serious looking coils attached. Jeff considered trying to turn it on, but thought better of it.
Then he saw it.
In a dark corner of the office was a much larger version of the toroid he had seen on the table. This one seemed very similar but scaled up to the point that the opening was about three feet in diameter.
Jeff approached it slowly, almost nervously.
He got on his knees and began to examine it. Being careful not to touch anything, he moved, twisted, stretched – examined it from as many angles as were possible from his stationary, kneeling position. He could clearly see the floor through the opening in this one just as - he thought - he had seen the table through the smaller one before it had switched itself on.
Jeff made sure he was solidly on the ground. His knees were planted, and he was leaning on his left arm.
He slowly... slowly... very slowly... brought his right arm toward the opening.
As the tips of his fingers began to break the plane of the opening, blue lights around the rim - very similar to what he had seen on the smaller one - clicked on with a hum that was similar but louder. The otherwise dimly lit office was glowing with the blue light of the odd device.
Beyond the plane defined by the bottom of the blue lights, the interior of the toroid had turned a complete, utter black. He could see his fingertips beginning to stretch and waver in the black field, but – again - they felt completely normal.
He began to get a little bolder and leaned in closer. He put his hand in slightly farther and his fingers seemed to stretch so much that he couldn’t see their tips anymore. They were waving and flapping like ribbons of flesh.
He shifted his weight and continued to lower his arm into the opening. His actual fingers (not the ones that appeared stretched by optical illusion) should have been within inches of the floor.
He got to the point where he was sure that he should be contacting the floor, but just kept going. There didn’t seem to be anything there anymore. He continued to lean in until the tips of his fingers were at least a foot beyond where the floor should have been.
How the hell is this possible?
He squinted to see what it looked like, but all he could see was his arm turning into a thin, stretched, corkscrewing, waving ribbon stretching into blackness.
Weird, weird, WEIRD.
He withdrew his arm and hand, looked at it... wiggled his fingers... everything seemed completely normal.
He plunged his arm back into the device and leaned into it. He stretched down - clearly far, far past where he should have hit the floor. As he leaned in, part of his face broke the plane, and, through his right eye, he began to see streaking colors.
Whoooaa! He jumped back and pulled his head, shoulder and arm completely out as he fell back and skidded uncomfortably on the floor.
He was breathing quickly and shallowly.
He leaned back, sitting on the floor with his weight on his arms, and sat for a few moments. He tried to collect himself and catch his breath.
“That was wild,” he said out loud.
He looked at the device wondering just what the hell it was actually doing. It was still glowing blue and humming rhythmically.
Okay, he thought, let’s see how big of an idiot I actually am.
He moved back toward the device and looked it over. There was a sturdy metal bar welded to the frame. He wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a handle... but it looked strong enough to serve as one.
Jeff grabbed it firmly. It was solid steel - nearly an inch in diameter - and felt like it could hold hundreds of pounds easily.
With his right hand on the handle, he leaned his head close to the black field. He moved very slowly and cautiously. The top of his head broke the plane first, and when he rolled his eyes toward his forehead, he could see the top part of his head and hair stretching and waving as his fingers and arm had done.
When his eyes entered the field, he again saw the streaking colors, but rather than jumping back, this time he tried to stay calm as he looked around.
It looked like thousands of multicolored lights streaking past him at thousands of miles per hour. He could see something off in the distance toward which he seemed to be hurtling.
It was a greenish blur that seemed to be growing at a rapid rate. Within a few seconds, it had grown to the point that it looked like it would envelop his head.
He pulled himself back out.
He looked around his father’s office. Everything seemed completely normal. He felt fine, a little dizzy, but otherwise clear headed and alert.
Okay... I’m still in one piece... so far.
He was feeling a bit more confident with each step. It doesn’t seem to be doing anything to me. Jeff patted his head and shoulders, making sure everything was solid and intact. He wasn’t sure what he would have done if he found anything out of place.
He put his head back in, this time with more speed and confidence.
Again he saw the streaking lights and approaching green blur. This time his head passed through the green blur and then...
He seemed to come to an abrupt stop. His eyes went in and out of focus, and he realized he was overlooking a vast forest. He was about ten feet from the tops of some tall trees.
He could feel the blood flowing to his head. He looked back to see if he could see back into the office where the rest of his body was, but all he could see was the top of his shoulders emerging through a black circle the same diameter as the inside of the ‘hole’ he had leaned into. The rest of his body and right arm were ‘stretching’ into the blackness as far as he could see and it waved and fluttered like his fingers and arm had from the other side.
He could still feel the handle firmly in his right hand, and he could feel the floor under his knees. Nothing seemed particularly unusual except that instead of looking into his family room - which was below his father’s office - he was overlooking a forest.
Which was, of course, impossible.
It must be some kind of amazing hologram, he thought.
And then he did something that, in hindsight, was probably very foolish.
He spat.
As the spittle was falling out of his mouth, he wondered what might happen when spit contacted the complex, delicate circuitry of a sophisticated holographic projection device.
But rather than seeing the wavering image that he thought might result as the spit passed through it and hit the circuit board hidden in the device, it hit some leaves, the leaves bent under the weight of it and some of it dripped and slid off onto other leaves while some of it fell to the ground far below.
Exactly as it would have on a real tree.
Amazing!
He began to actually wonder...
No, that was too crazy...
Wasn’t it?
The trees and the forest couldn’t actually be... real, could they?
He pulled himself back out of the device and looked around the office.
He pulled a blank piece of paper off of a yellow pad and crumpled it into a ball.
He went back to the ring, grabbed the handle and leaned in again.
He came to a stop - as before - over the forest.
His left arm dangled, holding the paper ball. He moved it around until it lined up over one of the higher, closer branches. He carefully released it, but some wind caught it and blew it away from the branch at which he had been aiming.
But while he didn’t hit the branch he intended, the paper did hit several other branches as it tumbled and bounced and eventually settled on the forest floor.
Everything it did on the way down had been consistent with what it would have done if Jeff had dropped it onto some real trees in a real forest.
Jeff pulled himself back into the office and sat for several minutes in stunned silence.
Chapter 8:
“And THAT’S why the ducks were in my pants.”
Jeff had no idea what was happening in the show he was watching or why the overweight Irishman in the thick, cable sweater had ducks in his pants.
His mind was completely occupied with what he had just seen. What was that?
He ran it through his mind again and again trying to make some sense of it. It couldn’t have actually been real... could it? It sure looked real... but how would that be possible? Could it just be an extremely clever illusion? It would have to be very sophisticated. Could it actually be some sort of... portal?
No... that’s crazy.
But what other explanation is there?
Is it more realistic to believe that it’s a hologram... that is able to interact with objects... and integrate those objects into its system so that not only does the hologram move appropriately as the object passes through, but deflect the object and allow the object to pass through space... that doesn’t actually exist... and come to rest in a way that perfectly fits what a person... who has spent his entire life observing the complex interactions of physical objects would expect?
Jeff thought about CGI special effects in movies he had seen, and he thought about how they - no matter how professionally they were rendered - always left subtle clues to the human eye that something just wasn’t right. He could never define or say what it was that wasn’t right, but his experience told him something wasn’t right.
That forest scene was flawless.
It looked absolutely perfect. There wasn’t anything about it that seemed unnatural.
And what about the floor? How could it just not be there after the device turned on?
Could it really have been a portal?
As crazy as that sounded, it almost seemed more believable than a perfectly rendered illusion.
Could that...
Jeff stopped himself.
He wondered if he was really ready to go there?
Could that . . . be where Dad is?
Jeff shook his head.
That’s just crazy wishful thinking.
Isn’t it?
Based on the keys, the last, real place that Jeff knew his father had been, was in that office.
He stood up and began to pace. He was filled with nervous energy. He felt anxious. He felt apprehensive.
He felt... hopeful.
He felt foolish.
Let’s start over, he thought to himself. He clasped his hands behind his head.
Dad disappeared mysteriously. He wasn’t the sort of person to run away. He didn’t have any enemies or anyone who would want to do him harm. Based on the location of his keys, the last place he was known to have been was in his office. There was a mysterious... portal... in his office.
Is it possible... is it likely... that he went into the portal? Do any other explanations make sense? Am I just thinking it’s possible because that’s what I want to believe?
Jeff sat heavily on the bed, and then jumped right back up again. His muscles were like over-wound springs.
Okay, let’s assume it’s possible. What now? Should I tell someone?
No, they’d just take over and push me aside. What would Dad want? He certainly wouldn’t want a bunch of officious busy-bodies climbing all over his marvelous discovery.
Jeff made up his mind.
Chapter 9:
Jeff ran his finger along the labels on the stacks of boxes: Christmas decorations, old toys, Halloween...
Here!
He yanked the box and nearly toppled the whole stack. He steadied the other boxes, and was then able to carefully slide the one he wanted out from under them. He let it drop to the floor in front of him and then, after making sure the rest of the stack wasn’t going to topple, lifted the lid.
It was as he remembered - filled with rock climbing supplies that Jeff had used many times when he had gone climbing with his father. There were ropes, pulleys, harnesses, carabiners etc.
Jeff grabbed a long rope and several carabiners.
He half ran, half stumbled back down the attic ladder, folded it back up, pushed the door and let the springs pull it the rest of the way until it slammed loudly.
Jeff cringed. For a very brief moment he expected to hear his father scold him to be more careful.
He made his way back toward the office and suddenly became aware of each footfall. Once he had decided this was what he wanted to do, he couldn’t move fast enough, but he also had a fear that something would happen to stop him.
When he was back to the device, he dropped the large coil of rope, which fell with a thud beside the device. He examined the bar he had used to secure himself previously.
Seems solid enough, he thought as he tugged on it and visually examine the size, shape and apparent sturdiness. He attached a large carabiner to the ‘handle’ and then yanked on that to verify the strength of the system. He looped the rope through it and was nearly ready to descend into the portal...
He paused.
I’m going into some strange... zone... that I know nothing about. There is no way to know what to expect. He had been running on adrenaline, but now he felt like he needed... something.
A weapon or something to protect himself.
Jeff’s father didn’t have any guns.
Then Jeff had an idea.
He made his way back out of the office and down the hallway to the bedroom and from there to his closet. He pushed and threw things aside – not at all concerned or even conscious of the mess he was making – until...
Here!
He lifted his aluminum baseball bat. He held it firmly in his right hand and slapped at it with his left hand – trying to feel the solidness and strength of it.
That should give me some protection.... against anyone or anything that isn’t too much bigger or stronger than me, he thought to himself.
He went back to the office and stood in the doorway trying to think if there was anything else he needed. He looked at the door. Should I leave it open? No... if I leave it open, Mom might come strolling in.
He closed and locked the door, dropped the keys in his pocket and then turned off the light.
It seemed pitch black for a moment, but his eyes quickly re-adjusted. He stumbled toward the portal, feeling his way as he went.
Jeff paused as he reached the edge of the device and exhaled forcefully.
Should I really do this? Am I being an idiot? What am I getting myself into?
He had more questions than answers. Part of him realized this wasn’t a very good idea, but that was countered by the fact that... he had more questions than answers. Curiosity can be a strong motivator.
What kind of world would this be if we always let our minds get in the way of our hearts?
One with a lot less discovery, innovation and achievement.
And one with a lot fewer drunk, naked Facebook and Twitter photos.
Oh, hell... If I keep thinking about it, I’ll never do this.
Jeff dipped a toe into the portal which hummed to life. The blue light lit his face. He pulled on the rope, made sure it was secure, tucked the bat under his arm, wrapped the rope around him, threw the end into the opening and watched it twist and wave in the blackness.
He stepped into the opening, this time going feet first rather than head first.
He glanced down and could see his body twisting and stretching below him. That visual was quite disconcerting, so he looked back up, focused on the solid feel of the rope and continued lowering himself.
Lights flashed by his head, and within a few moments, he was hanging over the forest. Above him, he could see the rope dangling through a black circle that seemed suspended in the sky.
Jeff looked down and saw the trees below him. He lowered himself through the branches which scratched painfully as he dropped through them. He went slowly, slowly, keeping a good hold on the rope, but it was getting difficult to maintain his concentration as the branches scratched and whipped at him.
When he was about ten feet from the ground, his right foot got caught on a branch and upended him. He desperately tried to keep a hold on the rope, but he was twisted and tangled in a way that made it very difficult to right himself.
The bat slipped and the thick end hit Jeff in the head with a resounding ‘bonk’.
That was enough to throw off the intense concentration he had been using to prevent a fall to the forest ground below.
Jeff had just enough time to think: This is going to hurt, before his back made hard, bone jarring, teeth rattling contact with the ground.
He had the very unpleasant, but relatively familiar feeling of having the wind knocked out of himself. He was on the ground, and he clutched his stomach instinctively as he desperately gasped and tried to get air into his lungs.
While he had a familiarity with the sensation, he still couldn’t prevent panicking. Colors flashed in his eyes and he could hear himself making sickening sounds as he struggled to get some air.
His lungs slowly filled and he began to regain normal breathing. He tried to remain still and calm as he rested on the forest floor. He willed his head to clear and his body to get back to a regularly functioning rhythm.
... But before he actually had much time to regain his composure, Jeff saw something moving out of the corner of his eye and tilted his head to get a better look.
About 15 feet away there was an odd... animal. It was about the size of a rabbit and looked generally like one but with small ears, a long, naked tail, long hind-legs combined with very short fore-legs and a bi-pedal stance that gave it the general shape of a very small, furry, rodent Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Jeff reached for his bat which was about a foot away from his right hand. As his hand fumbled and then closed around the bat, the rodent saw him and froze.
The two stared at each other, motionless, for a few moments. Jeff heard a sound, looked up and saw something falling from a tree-branch above the rodent.
It looked like a jellyfish - about 18 inches in diameter - but less regularly shaped than a jellyfish and without tentacles... almost like a huge amoeba. It fell onto the rodent and enveloped it. Jeff could see the frightened animal through the semi-transparent body of the bizarre creature. The rodent was struggling violently to try to escape, but it was completely trapped and didn’t seem to be making any progress.
After about 30 seconds, its struggling stopped, and Jeff could see the ghastly look of death on the rodent’s face.
Jeff pulled his bat tightly to his chest, raised himself shakily to his feet and then slowly backed away.
Chapter 10:
Now what?
Jeff was surrounded by tall trees. Even though the sun was nearly directly overhead, the shade from the trees made it almost dark where Jeff stood. The non-tree plant-life was minimal. Jeff assumed that the lack of light prevented lush growth.
He could see what appeared to be a clearing a few hundred yards away, and he thought it might be a good idea to head that way. The strange creatures he had seen had creeped him out and he wanted the comfort of bright day-light.
Maybe that will give me a hint of where to go from here.
He hadn’t really thought it all through. He didn’t really think that his father would be standing there waving when he arrived... but he didn’t really think that he wouldn’t be there either.
He didn’t really think about anything.
In the back of his mind, he had realized that if he had stopped to think about it too much, he likely wouldn’t have done anything. And his heart had been lobbying, VERY HARD, for him to charge ahead. It was as if his heart had kicked open the door to his brain and dropped a satchel filled with bundled hundred dollar bills on the desk: ‘I’m sure we can come to some kind of understanding on this.’
When he was about 50 feet from the clearing, he froze. He saw some movement at the base of a nearby tree. He clenched his bat tightly and tried to get a better look. From a hollow in the tree, emerged a HUGE beetle - about 2 feet in diameter with sharp, six-inch mandibles. The beetle climbed out of the tree and headed away from him into the clearing.
Then another beetle emerged and followed the first... then another and another...
Soon there were 20 or 30 very big beetles all marching in formation into the clearing.
Jeff watched silently hoping they would get well out in front of him. He wanted to keep an eye on them. He was a good bit larger than them, but those pinchers looked like they could do some damage, and if they ganged up on him...
Jeff had seen nature shows in which ants had taken down grasshoppers many times their size with some well coordinated teamwork. He shuddered at the thought.
When the lead beetle was about 100 feet into the clearing, Jeff saw a large shadow pass over the line, then another.
Jeff looked up to see what was causing the shadow, but the trees were blocking his view. He cautiously edged closer to the clearing.
Holy...
Circling the line of beetles were three huge... birds? They had wingspans of about 9 feet.
There also seemed to be something unusual about their heads. Jeff squinted into the sun and saw that their heads didn’t look like bird heads, but looked more like badger or weasel heads.
The birds swooped and snatched beetles from the line. The formation scattered and some of the beetles headed back toward Jeff.
Jeff began to panic.
The beetles were running fast and erratically. They were going in all directions.
Jeff started backing quickly away, but tried to keep a watch on as many of the beetles and birds as possible. Within seconds though, he had beetles in front of him, behind him and on all sides.
Jeff saw one of the birds swoop down and snatch a beetle just at the tree line, but the birds didn’t seem to pursue the beetles beyond that line.
After a few more minutes, the beetles that hadn’t been eaten found hiding places. The birds went off and out of sight, and the forest was calm again.
Jeff stood for a few moments weighing his options and began to think this might be an example of discretion being the better part of valor.
He wasn’t sure what wetting his pants and crying like a little girl would have been the better part of.
I think it’s time to go back and re-think this whole thing.
He began re-tracing his steps to where he had dropped. He had paid close attention to the path he had taken and he had a good sense of direction.
Crap!
He thought he was headed in the right direction, but everything started to look the same.
He began to panic.
He was tempted to begin running, but he realized that would be very foolish. Instead, he continued slowly and methodically and tried to tell himself he had a clue where he was going.
After about 5 minutes – that felt more like 20 – he could see the spot where he had landed.
There it is!
The rope was dangling down the side of the tree. Jeff followed the rope with his eyes and he could see it was hanging through a black circle in the sky.
I wish I had thought this through a little better.
He could climb most of the way by finding footholds on branches and using the rope to balance and guide himself. But there was a gap of at least ten feet from the top of the tree to the portal, and that would be a hard climb.
Jeff was a good climber, but the rope was thin and not knotted.
It would be tough.
Just relax, take your time, Jeff told himself. I can lock off and take a break if I need to. I can just inch my way up if it’s too hard to do it all at once.
His stomach turned over as he thought about himself hanging there... in the sky, far above the ground with nothing but rope. He felt sweat bead on his forehead even though the temperature was cool.
He decided that the longer he thought about it, the harder it would be, so he grabbed the rope and began to make his way up the tree.
He had the bat tucked under one arm, but quickly realized he couldn’t hold the bat and climb easily at the same time. He dropped the bat and watched it fall with some trepidation. The bat had given him some sense of comfort, but it was holding him back now.
For a moment, he thought about his mom and how she wouldn’t be happy about replacing the bat, but then he wondered why his brain occupied itself with such mundane details when his very life might be in danger.
He climbed quickly and within a relatively short time, he was nearing the top of the tree. He paused a moment to catch his breath. He had a good view of the portal now, and, as he looked at it, he saw something that made his face go white.
The black circle seemed to be getting... smaller! Jeff squinted and tried to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, but the longer he looked, the surer he became that the portal seemed to be closing and tightening around the rope.
The black circle was basically gone now and the rope seemed to just be hanging in the air.
Jeff stared.
He wasn’t sure what this meant, but he was getting very nervous. He hoped that, when he got to the end of the rope, he could coax the portal to open again... as he had opened it on the other end by breaking the plane.
But he couldn’t be sure that would work.
He continued to stare at the end of the rope – just hanging there.
As he watched, he saw the end of the rope begin to... glow.
Then it began to spark.
Jeff had an idea where this was headed, and he got a firm footing on a strong branch. No sooner had he done that than the rope fell and hung limply from his hand.
He pulled the rope up and examined the end. It looked like it had been burned through.
“Idiot!” Jeff said out loud.
He hadn’t even thought about what would happen when the machine turned off. It had turned itself off before when he had left the office and then came back. It must only stay open for a limited time. Probably uses a lot of power so it has an automatic shut-off, Jeff thought.
He dropped down and sat on the branch on which he had been standing.
For a while, he just sat there and stared.
But after a few minutes, he was shaken out of his daze by a long, eerie, moaning howl coming from somewhere in the forest.
Chapter 11:
Jeff paused about five feet from the ground. He scanned the ground for anything that might be moving. His stomach twisted as he remembered the ‘jellyfish’, and he twisted his head back to squint upward through the branches.
Nothing...
At least nothing that he could recognize as dangerous.
But what might be dangerous here?
Were there plants that would come to life? Or maybe they just kill more mundanely by exuding toxins...
He pulled his hand off of the branch and looked at it.
He shivered and thought about the time his father told him: “There are very few things as frightening as the unknown.”
I’ll go crazy if I imagine everything that could happen.
He hopped onto the ground and snatched up his bat as quickly as he could manage. At least it gave him some sense of security... Hey, if I can imagine all types of irrational danger, I’ve got a right to put some irrational trust in a piece of aluminum, he reasoned.
He scanned the forest. He couldn’t see anything other than trees and underbrush, but he could hear sounds. Insects? Birds? They didn’t quite sound like anything he had ever heard... but they didn’t sound particularly unusual either.
Like the sounds he’d expect in a forest, just a little... off.
He began walking slowly, scanning everything around him obsessively.
Where do I go from here?
He didn’t have many choices. It was basically: a) Head into the forest to face God-knows-what.
Or...
b) Head into the clearing to face God-knows-what.
He decided on the clearing. He wasn’t sure if that was the wisest thing. After all, he’d be more exposed out there. He hoped he was too big for the ‘birds’ to make a meal out of him... but he wasn’t sure.
There were times, back home, when he had ‘hoped’ Alicia Keys would show up in his room - naked, bearing Ho-Ho’s and Vanilla coke - and offer to give him a back rub while she sang gently in his ear.
That had never happened.
But he knew he’d feel more comfortable in the clearing than in the forest. He might have less cover in which to hide... but so would predators.
It was a very strange and very uncomfortable feeling to have no idea where he fell on the food chain.
Jeff stopped.
There was a large hole, about 6 feet in diameter 10 feet ahead. He had the uncomfortable feeling it was a burrow of an... extremely large... animal of some sort.
He considered moving away as quickly as possible, but his curiosity got the better of him. He kept his distance but stretched up on his toes to see if he could see anything in it.
There was a flash of movement... And the next thing Jeff knew, an ENORMOUS snake was emerging from the hole. Its head was over 3 feet in diameter.
Jeff jumped back and adrenaline shot into his system. He took off at a run - faster than he ever knew he was capable.
Over his shoulder, he saw the snake completely clear the hole. It was shorter than he would have imagined with its body about a third the length he would have expected from the size of its head.
Also - and this was a detail that Jeff was too distracted to notice at that particular moment - it had three pairs of short, stubby, lizard-like legs. It moved like a snake, but the legs helped propel and steady it at certain points. Other times they tucked up and out of the way - like an alligator’s legs did when it swam.
Jeff realized that it was gaining fast and he didn’t have a chance of out-running it. He had no choice but to try to fight and decided the quicker and more forcefully he acted, the better.
He turned to face it, raised his bat - the snake was nearly on him. His arm tensed and he brought the bat down with all the force he could manage on the snake’s nose.
The bat made contact with a satisfyingly powerful impact. The snake shook, lurched and backed off several feet, taken by surprise and, seemingly, slightly dazed.
The two looked at each other.
Jeff was trying to stay focused. He was breathing hard, and the exertion and adrenaline were giving him a feeling of light-headedness. Time seemed to slow down as each of them considered the other - both nearly motionless. Jeff was right at the edge of the clearing now, and he could see shadows of birds, but he tried not to let that distract him.
Then the snake began to move. It moved its head to Jeff’s left, keeping a good distance this time. Jeff had the bat raised over his right shoulder in a batting stance, ready to swing, but not wanting to swing until the snake was in range. He kept his left shoulder pointed at the snake’s head focused intently on every move.
The snake could move fast, but Jeff took some comfort in the idea that a baseball could also move pretty fast... and presented a much smaller target.
Though most baseballs lacked enormous fangs.
The snake pulled back and then moved slowly around on Jeff’s right side. Jeff followed its movements keeping his left shoulder pointed at his target.
The snake’s mouth was open slightly, and Jeff could see rows of hundreds of 6 inch long teeth. He grimaced as he imagined for a moment what would happen if those teeth sunk into his flesh.
The snake moved back to the left...
Then the right.
Then left again.
Then it LURCHED!
Jeff acted instinctively as the snake came at him - extremely fast with mouth open.
Jeff smashed him as hard as he could in the mouth and several teeth cracked as the bat struck them. Again the snake retreated... but only enough to get safely out of range.
Jeff didn’t know how long he could keep this up. He already felt exhausted. It didn’t seem like he was doing much, but the adrenaline and hyper-focus really seemed to be wearing him out.
He backed into the clearing, hoping that the snake might prefer the cover of the trees and not follow. Jeff tried not to get distracted with thoughts of what might be out in the clearing that would frighten the snake...
The snake followed him into the field. It was holding back a little - apparently still feeling some pain from their last encounter - but it held within about 10 feet of Jeff.
The dance started again.
The snake moved slowly from one side to the other and Jeff matched each of his moves.
Jeff began to try to steal quick glances to get a read of his options. He was afraid that if this became a marathon, the snake could easily outlast him. Jeff was on the verge of exhaustion, but the snake, while maybe in some pain, wasn’t exerting much energy at all.
Jeff noted a few trees with low hanging branches that he thought he might be able to scale if he could knock the snake out or distract it.
Can snakes climb trees?
Can lizards climb trees?
Could this... thing climb trees?
I’d assume ‘yes’ on all three counts.
Jeff felt a wave of shear panic wash over him then quickly disappear as his mind stopped drifting and focused back on the urgent, immediate concern.
The snake seemed to be more stationary than it had been. Jeff wondered if it realized time was on its side and there was no rush.
Jeff felt his muscles start to relax for a moment, and he forced himself to snap back into focus.
Fatigue and a sense of hopelessness were beginning to crowd out his sense of urgency.
The snake reared back and prepared for another attack.
But the snake held.
Jeff got a sudden sick feeling that the snake was afraid of something.
Something behind Jeff.
A shadow fell over him, and before he could react, something grabbed him and jerked him violently backward.
