The Night Of The Cryptids

Weird Things

When you're a teenager, your sense of what is or isn't weird, might not be quite as refined as an adult's sense.  So the teens really couldn't be blamed for not noticing when weird things started to happen.  The first was losing the radio.  That in and of its self probably wouldn't be too weird, except that it just cut out mid-song, and they hadn't even driven behind a hill or even a large tree for that matter.  It cut out in the middle of a long straight stretch with a clear view of the valley below.  An area where the radio signal should still be plenty strong!

The next weird thing to happen was with the truck.  As Matthew rounded a corner in the road, he looked down and noticed that even though they had just filled the gas tank less than an hour ago, it was already ready well below half a tank.  That worried him a bit, but he chose not to mention it to the others.  Just in case the gauge just stopped working or something, he didn't want to be the one to ruin the fun.

As it turns out, he wasn't going to be able to avoid that fate.    As they got closer to where they were planning on camping, the rounded another corner in the road, then the truck pulled sharply to the left.  Matthew stopped the truck as quickly and as safely as he could.  

"Fuck!  It's a flat tire" he yelled.  "I guess we'll have to walk the last few hundred feet.  We can probably carry all of the gear in in two trips, that shouldn't be too bad."

The five lugged all of their gear to the camping spot.  As it turned out, all five made one trip, then just the boys were able to get everything else without the girls having to make the trip twice.  By the time the boys got to the campsite with the second load of stuff, the girls had already put their tent up.  About 10 minutes later, the boys had theirs up as well. 

After getting their camp set up, the boys got out the cooking gear and the girls got the food out.  Less than an hour later the meal was ready.  The boys, Ruth and Mary all dug in.  It was the best food they had ever had!  They all looked over at Jane.  

"Jane, I've had food at gourmet restaurants that wasn't this good" said Ruth.  

"Thanks" Jane replied sheepishly.  "My dad taught me how to cook.  He used to run a restaurant before he passed away."  The mood darkened very quickly. 

 "I'm sorry, I didn't know."  Ruth mumbled.  

"It's okay, nobody really knows, it's not something I talk about" Jane said.

After the wonderful dinner, the five sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the outdoors and the quiet.  Until they noticed it was a little too quiet.  

"It's pretty quiet out" said Ruth.  "Where are all of the birds and other forest creatures?"  

"That's a good question" replied Mark.  

"I was actually just about to ask that myself."  Jane piped in "They say animals can detect things like natural disasters, maybe something is going to happen that they can sense, but we can't"