Saucer in the Dunes

45 Always the Unexpected

I still can't explain it, but I was not frightened, not yet anyway. I was worried, sure, because the teenagers seemed like they were worried, and since they knew the woods a whole lot better than any of us, I had a cause to be worried. Maybe it was because I was still groggy from being roused from a nice sleep. I was still on an excitement roller coaster from even getting to go on the hike; almost nothing could ruin my mood. Almost nothing. Whatever confidence or good mood force field I had disappeared the instant Kema stopped Ronnie and me from breaking down our tent. Ronnie was doing his best to pull up a tent stake that, only a few hours earlier, I managed to squish into the ground all the way to the rope loop. Kema put his hand on Ronnie's shoulder.

"Look, wake up your friend. We don't need this stuff to weigh us down. We're going to have to move and keep moving. You understand?"

Ronnie gave up on the stubborn tent stake and nodded in agreement. Both of them glanced over at me, and that was the moment I started to worry and feel scared, although I nodded, too. It wasn't about leaving the tent behind either. Dad would forgive me for the tent. This was different. Different, like maybe there wouldn't even be a reason to ask for forgiveness. This was almost too awful to imagine. In fact, I tried hard not to think about it too much; otherwise, I felt it would get the better of me. I busied myself temporarily by rousing Jimmy. Ronnie and the teenagers gathered together just what they thought we needed to get back and stuffed it all as evenly as possible in all our packs. It wasn't much.

Jimmy was nearly impossible to wake up, but when I finally managed to wake him, it was hard to get him to shut up. No one could blame him, though; my explanation was short and confusing because I didn't fully understand myself. Plus, we were all scared; we had just had a little more time to get used to it than he had.

Jimmy finally agreed to leave his tent alone, even though it was a gift from his mom and dad. He slipped on his backpack in defeat and helped Tik kick dirt over the smoldering fire. It was then I noticed the night was not nearly as dark as it should have been. The fog, or whatever it was, was closer by who knows how much, and the light it gave off was bright enough to see by once your eyes adjusted. The moon was only half full, but even that light seemed to reflect off the fog. It was bizarre, and I wanted to get out of there, which we did in short order.

We all carried light packs, much lighter than we hiked in with. Jimmy finally settled down from rambling for fifteen to twenty minutes. Ronnie was quiet, looking back occasionally at Jimmy and me as we all followed the teenagers through the darkness. The panic I initially felt had been replaced by exhaustion. Despite the fear-fueled adrenaline from waking up suddenly in camp, the fact that we had walked all afternoon with very little sleep was taking a toll on me. I was sure I was not the only one suffering. Jimmy and Ronnie were both dragging their feet as well. I know mine felt like they were coated in cement.

Tik had gone ahead and out of sight to make sure we were heading in the right direction or at least taking the most direct path away from the creeping fog. The four of us plodded along, ducking stray undergrowth branches and pack-snagging bramble, a challenge in the daylight, a near impossibility at night. Then, just as I let my eyes wander over my shoulder, I got my foot hung on something. Before I could catch myself, I tumbled hard to the ground.

I lay there a moment, not even trying to get up. Slow moving, Jimmy heard the sound, looked back, and stopped. At that moment, lying there, a million thoughts ran through my mind. This was all so unreal. Sure, we were on a camping adventure looking for a crashed UFO in "The Dunes." Sure, Ronnie and I had seen something strange on military trucks and soldiers carrying guns. Yeah, the town was blocked off at the highway, and an army checkpoint had all our parents upset. There had been some stories in the paper and, of course, Dynamite Don. And sure, I had strange daydreams, visions that I couldn't explain. I thought I saw something in my backyard that night, and there was a burned tunnel in the woods behind my house. It's just that it was all just a fun, exciting, real-life comic. That's how I thought of it anyway. I didn't until that very second believe any of the past month or so would turn out to be as scary as it was at that moment. I was terrified, and it really sank in. I was an instant away from tears when I felt Jimmy and Ronnie grab my arms on either side and heft me up on my feet again.