Chapter 17: Basements, Why Does It Seem There Is Always Monsters In The Basement
It had been a day since Zack had left, and of course Jane didn't expect to hear anything back yet. It's just she wished Mike and her could have gone with. Without the luxury mansion to live in life was a little tougher, not to mention a whole lot more boring, without the 8K flat screen TV's and winged Lamas, or the pool.... Or the second pool, indoor plumbing, a stove, microwave, or fridge, solar powered electricity, and a whole lot of other things that just made Jane sad to think about.
But everybody helped, and when the kids took Mike, Sam, and her back to their camp, after Zack left, they noticed that the place wasn't bad. With the help of the alien tech crate, (which Sam and Mike had spent practically the whole rest of the previous afternoon, hauling back) along with all the new food, they were back on their feet in no time. Some kids, not really wanting to sleep on the ground another night, even started the construction of tree-houses, which--aside from providing safer, comfier housing, also doubled as great lookout towers. To help with protection they even started building a wall to keep away predators and other kids.
Of course their wall--which was really just chicken wire, reinforced at some weaker points--would never actually be able to hold back a hungry RipJaw. But Jane hoped it would help discourage some of the smaller pests, and even if it didn't, just having it there made them all feel a little safer come nightfall.
In fact that was where Jane was working when Mike came to say 'hi'.
"How's the wall coming?" he asked, as she stacked a few burnt bricks on. "Hey, you know what," he continued, not waiting for an answer, "The basement is probably still intact.... Now I know you said it wasn't safe to stay there because all the cover is gone. But do you think it's cool if I take some kids down there to see what we can find? At worst we'll at least be able to find some better form of entertainment. I haven't seen anyone laugh since Bob regurgitated all the beef tips, and even that was ruined by the idea that we now had no more beef tips.
"Ah... I suppose it's ok, but good luck getting anyone to come with y--" she started, only to be cut off by Bob himself, who must have been less scared of old basements than working on the wall any longer.
"I'll come, please let me come. Pleeaassee!" he begged. "She said that if I didn't work she would take away supper." This comment was returned with a withering gaze from Jane who now seemed rather angry with the traitorous kid.
"Fine," Mike agreed, sure he was hoping Jane would offer him someone better than the pre-teen Bob, but then again everyone useful was either working on the wall, or the much desired treehouses, which was where Mike previously was. Bob should be fine as long as they didn't bring Derrick--who was busy making a memorial for that winged Llama he named sprinkles, who ran away in the fire. "But we could probably get Sam as well...."
They found Sam, to everyone's surprise, actually helping some younger kids gather berries at the edge of the forest.
Apparently Bob was also surprised, because when he and Mike were approaching the gatherers he let out a very staged choke. "Wow I can't believe he is actually helping. The whole time you guys were gone he just bossed us around.... Well, up to the fire, but that's when it would have been nice to be told what to do."
"Oh, leave him be, it's not his fault he was raised to be a spoiled, pampered, prince and doesn't know how not to be rude," Mike mocked before being greeted by Sam. Mike would never consider himself a rude, insensitive person, but really if there was one thing he didn't like, it would be spoiled kids.... That and medical androids--really what sort of a medical degree was Wikipedia?
"Hello gentlemen, what brings you here?" Sam asked with a rather rare smile, while tossing a few odd, glowing berries into his mouth.
"We were just coming over to..." Mike started before getting distracted by Sam's face which was now starting to glow as well. This caused Bob to fall down laughing, refusing to fill Sam in. "--We are going to check out the basement and see what we can find," Mike quickly continued, managing to keep a fairly straight face. But when Sam just gave him a blank look that seemed to say so what's it to me, Mike added, "And you're coming with us."
"Oh ahh.... I'm dreadfully sorry but I have to stay to.... Ah... Watch the other kids... Yeah they--they need watching," Sam started. Perhaps, trying to come up with a good excuse before a younger kid, whose name slipped Mike's memory, came over from the berry bushes and interrupted.
"Oh no actually.... Thanks Sam but um.... We don't need you anymore." The kid flipped up what must have been a coin compacted laser gun. "Besides you're eating more than you're gathering." With that they started shoving Sam away from the berry bushes. But before leaving to collect more glow berries the kid added, "Good luck. Don't get eaten by those frogs."
* * *
Despite Sam's now growing fear of whatever was in the basement Mike and Bob dragged him to the house ruins. Which were really only a few dozen yards away but took a good ten minutes to get there, no thanks to Sam's complaining and every few feet trying to run away.
True, Sam was obviously proving to be more work than help, and Mike probably shouldn't have bothered with the boy. He could have offered to get one of the younger girls instead. But for some reason Mike figured that Sam would have had no problem with someone else, even someone younger, showing him up. And it wasn't just because he thought of everyone, age, and gender aside, as an equal--he was just a coward.
This only seemed to make Mike want to take the boy even more. After all, why would a grown... or at least somewhat grown, teenage boy be so scared of a basement. True, it was probably dirty and filled with ash. Not to mention a Dramlak or two... dozen (what? They hatch from eggs in groups of twelve), but aside from that Mike couldn't think of anything even the cowardly Sam would have to fear.
When they finally reached the edge of the basement Mike noticed that it looked rather intact. Luckily it looked far enough down that even a Dramlak wouldn't be gutsy enough to make the jump. Though Mike could spot a few frogs hopping around down there. This freaked him out just a little, not because he was scared of amphibians or anything, if anything he was more terrified of snakes than he was a couple of harmless frogs. Though last time he checked the normal harmless frogs couldn't survive a ten foot drop to the basement floor--not like he would ever actually attempt to test this theory.
True, this was a little creepy but it was not creepy enough to chicken out of going down there and grabbing a few valuables. Everyone was counting on them, anything they could grab down there would greatly help them, and he wasn't about to let an irrational fear of frogs get in his way.
"Ok so we need one guy up here to grab the supplies, and the other two to hand up the stuff," Mike suggested.
"ME!! I will stay up," Sam offered a little too eagerly.
"Oh... Is the big fifteen year old scared of his own uncle's basement," Mike mocked intentionally.
"No! I just figured I would grab the stuff for you," he replied, glancing over at the chubby, shorter Bob as if implying that he couldn't. He then quickly added, "But I'm not scared."
"Ok, then it's settled," Bob replied, returning the scrutinizing stare, "I'll stay up here and grab the stuff. Because I will admit I am a little scared."
"Thank you for your honesty," Mike applauded, hiding back his smirk, and with that he jumped down into the basement, not waiting for Samuel.
Mike landed on the basement floor, thankfully on his feet, with a grunt, and luckily the frogs were nowhere in sight. Soot, ash, and unfortunate ruins, sure, but no frogs. Sam landed next to him, though he was not as lucky to land on his feet.
"Well, this is depressing," Sam sighed, returning to his generally annoyed attitude. "Everything my uncle worked hard to build, reduced to a collapsed hole in the ground."
"I thought your uncle was a president? That's gotta count for something," Mike offered, trying to make Sam feel better--though he didn't really know why.
Sam looked at him blankly. "He was a politician? After the first four years he just cared about the paycheck. Besides, he was the one who signed the Ares exploration thingy. You know the one that led to the war with the Ralams. Doesn't really make you that popular--I think the only way he got re-elected was by finding someone that messed up worse than him to target...."
"Oh.... Well, I'm su--"
"Mike. You don't have to say anything nice. I'm just complaining to complain--It's the only thing I really succeed at...." There was a melancholy pause. "See I was complaining there and I bet you actually felt sorry for me--if only for a few seconds.... The key is to draw it out, and talk in a monotone, only subtly changing your voice at certain times, it creates a sense of melancholy and nostalgia. Same thing works for wallowing in self pity.... Let's just get some stuff and get out of here."
* * *
After a little bit of snooping and digging through all the burnt wood and broken bricks, they found a few valuable items. Among the various knicknacks, there were also a few of the kid's weapons that collapsed into the basement with the rest of the house, some salvageable planks, and a few sleeping bags. Why would an old president in his seventies have a bunch of sleeping bags, and why would they not be destroyed? Mike honestly didn't really know. But in a world where an alien saucer, a huge six headed giraffe, and giant Armadillidiidae weren't odd, why would he find undamaged sleeping bags weird.
Once they were done tossing the stuff up to Bob, Mike noticed a metal room that looked undamaged. "What's in there?" he asked, gesturing to the room.
"Oh that must be my uncle's famous bunker...." Sam replied, actually proffering a small amount of emotion other than melancholy. "He always claimed he had a secret bunker in here. But we could never find it and just figured it was a hoax he made up to get secret service to give him some space."
It was also then that Mike realized that all the frogs seemed to be watching him, similar to how they would watch a fly, before they ate it. Except more cartoony, in a comical, animated violent sort of way, if that makes any sense. How long had they been doing that?
"Ahhh... Sam?!" Mike said as fear crept into his voice, "Would you by any chance know the code to get into that bunker?!"
"Maybe his birthday? The day he was elected..." he rambled off as he looked through some more rubble. Obviously he wasn't impressed with the bunker. Nor did he seem to notice the growing group of amphibians.
"Ok. This may sound crazy, but we need to get in there, LIKE NOW!!" Mike shouted as some of the frogs seemed to almost smile revealing multiple rows of hundreds of dagger sharp fangs. At that moment Mike wondered why everything had to be vicious and bloodthirsty. True, it was the humans fault that the flora and fauna mutated, but still, Mike couldn't catch a break.
"Um..." Sam looked up from the rubble and the growing hoard of frogs. "That's the best idea you had all day," he agreed, looking up from the rubble, as he ran to the safe-like bunker, the frogs right behind them. First he tried 1967 then 2017 but when both didn't work he stared at Mike, who was swatting away the monsters with a stick, in horror. "It didn't work!"
"What do you mean it didn't work!?" he replied whacking a few more. They just kept coming. "Keep trying." Finally, to the boy's great excitement, the door clicked open and Mike shoved Sam in and then jumped in after, chucking the stick at the killer frogs--which they quickly devoured--and then slammed the door shut behind them.
With the door shut the room was amazingly dark aside from an eerie glow coming from the center of the room. For a few minutes they sat in silence, listening to the frog's light bumping sound, as they banged against the door.
Finally Mike asked, "So what was the code then?"
"Oh just 1776 I really should have guessed that." (Obviously some stuff was too important to change in any dimension.) "But, does that light not bother you? Because it's really freaking me out," Sam said, gesturing to the glowing light in the center of the room.
"It's probably just a dehumidifier or something," Mike explained distantly, as he searched the door for a light switch, wondering why everything freaked the boy out. "So, how do you figure we get out of here then?" he asked, switching on the now found switch.
"Ah... well... I guess I just figured we would use that!" Sam choked, gesturing to the thing that was in the middle of the room that definitely wasn't a dehumidifier! "Well that's assuming it doesn't kill us first...." He sighed again. "I give up. This should be Bob. Not me...."
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