Hunter's Time

Chapter 2

"Have you guys seen this?" Connor asked as he walked into the hotel room, newspaper in hand. Ren stood up from the chair he was sitting in and took the newspaper from him. I walked over beside him to take a look at the paper too. The article headline read 'Multiple plane crashes at air show at RAF Cosford Museum in Shropshire. Reason for plane failures unknown. Air shows are cancelled until further notice.'

"You think this might be a case?" I asked while reading through some of the article.

Connor gave a nod, "yeah, it says here," he pointed to a paragraph in the article, "that the control cables were cut and all the planes that crashed had the same damage done to them."

Ren threw the newspaper down on the coffee table and picked up the keys for the truck. "Let's go, then. I'm driving."

The drive from London to Shropshire took us about three hours. It was none too soon. I was sick and tired of listening to the two boys talk about how women can't drive and have no sense of direction. Even though we got lost, twice. Because Ren was driving.

We pulled up to the large airbase now known as Cosford Museum. We walked into one of the large hangars of the museum. There were several planes strewn about the room on display. We wandered around for a bit when we heard a man snap in frustration, "I told you already! It was a little critter I saw!"

We stopped and looked over to see what looked to be a pilot and a mechanic arguing. The mechanic rolled his eyes at the pilot, "I think you've had too much to drink again. You were seeing things Sebastian. The wires were somehow damaged, they probably weren't wired right. That's all, now let it go."

The pilot cussed a few times and continued to argue, "I know what I saw John! It was a critter twice the size of a rat!"

John sighed, "you do realize how long it would take a rat to chew through a metal cable? Besides, a rat wouldn't be able to get underneath the plane to get to the wires like that. Those access panels are completely secure. You even said so yourself."

Sebastian gave a frustrated growl, "I didn't say it was a rat now did I? I just compared the size of what I saw to a rat."

"Then what was it Sebastian?"

He threw his hands up in exasperation, "I don't know! But whatever it was, it cut through those bloody wires! Maybe it was a gremlin."

John laughed at this and shook his head, "you pilots always get superstitious when it comes to a mechanical failure like this. You do realize there is no such thing as a gremlin right? Nothing but a mythological creature."

Sebastian turned around and stormed off, muttering under his breath. As he walked by us I asked him, "excuse me, could we ask you a few questions?"

He spun around and glowered at me, "and who the bloody hell are you?"

Ren quickly spoke up, "We're university students who are working on a paper on mythological creatures. I'm Ren, this is my older sister Tara and this is our friend Connor."