Rawpocalypse

22 - Myth Buster

The aroma of freshly crisped bacon wafted through the forested canyons of West Virginia as the bright morning sun vaporized dew from green foliage in tiny ghostlike plumes.

Jellybean hiked away from camp with a full belly and a heavy heart. His little buddy stepped alongside him on their covert mission. They had told the older boys in the troop their morning endeavor was to retrieve the deserted Gandalf stick, but for Jellybean, his only objective lay in proving to the adult leaders that the blue creek monster was not a myth.

In his right hip pocket, his smartphone jostled with each step. He knew all too well that having a mobile device outside a backpack for any purpose other than a dire emergency was a high form of contraband, but evidence was critical and the disobedience would be justified.

Before long, Jellybean paused to stare at the weathered trail. A section of thick underbrush seemed vaguely familiar. "Pete," he said. "Is this the spot?"

His buddy shrugged. "Could be."

Like a true scout, Jellybean pointed to a broken branch. "Look. This is it all right."

"Might have been a deer."

"Nope, this is it. Come on."

He tromped into the brush, then looked back to find his friend waiting at the trail. "What?"

"Maybe we should leave some sort of sign in case we get lost."

"We're not gonna get lost. This is the spot. Come on."

Hesitantly, his friend stepped into the brush. "Okay, Jellyfish."

"Don't call me that. It's Jellybean."

"Yeah, but, don't you think you've outgrown it? It sounds a little babyish."

He punched his buddy in the arm. "How's that for babyish?"

Peter rubbed his shoulder. "Whatever. I still like Jellyfish better."

"You like it so much, it's yours, Jellyfish."

Peter rolled his eyes. "It doesn't work that way."

The thicket opened to the familiar head-tall ferns. Jellybean picked up his pace enthusiastically. "See, I told ya!"

Up ahead, the stump of the tree bridge came into sight, the crooked walking stick still propped against it.

Jellybean raced to the scene and grabbed the staff. An instant later, he froze in horror. The shallow pool below the natural bridge looked like the ball-bin at their junior high gymnasium. Dozens of round blue spheres the size of kickballs were mounded above the water's surface.

Shakily he drew out his cell phone and snapped a series of pictures.

"They've grown," said Peter, his voice weak.

"Uh huh."

Simultaneously, their heads turned upstream, toward Momma Creek Monster.

Avoiding the tree bridge, they darted up the steeper side of the embankment, clawing at the mossy ground for handholds. Once finally breeching the peak, they peered over the crest, confirming their suspicions. A blue giant loomed like the Death Star.

"Holy Crap!" said Peter. "It's . . . it's . . . twenty feet tall."

Jellybean whirled his camera on the object and snapped several pictures. Enthusiasm overshadowed his fears as he scrolled through the resulting images, but his excitement quickly withered. "Aw, nobodies gonna believe it. It just looks like a ball." He turned to Peter. "You gotta get closer so I can take your picture next to it."

"N-no way!"

"Here," he said, handing over the phone. "Take my picture then."

Peter accepted the camera, offering the Gandalf stick in return. "You might need this."

Jellybean clambered over the crest and rose to face the distant monster. The mighty staff at his command bolstered his courage, but somehow, standing made the beast's scale unfathomable. With slow, cautious steps, he inched his way forward. Throughout the trickling waters at his side, blue orbs cluttered the stream. The swirling patterns on their wet surfaces made them look like bowling balls stuck in the gutter.

He turned back. "Is this close enough?"

Peter eyed the display. "No, I can't get all of you in the picture. You need to be closer."

Jellybean stepped to one of the baby blobs and aimed the point of his staff at its heart. The thought of stabbing the sedate creature prompted horrific images of awakening monsters, so he lowered the staff and continued his slow progress forward.

Farther upstream, the loud crack of a breaking timber echoed down the canyon. The rustle of branches thrashing against one another followed, then the deep thud of a massive trunk meeting earth rumbled the ground.

He froze in place as the entire forest appeared to hold its breath in silence. A moment later, another tree cracked and rustled to the ground. In quick succession, trees broke one after the other with the urgency of a charging bear.

Jellybean looked ahead into the treetops. Branches shook wildly, then fell to the left or to the right as if the Titanic were barging down the shallow stream.

He backed away, dumbfounded.

A voice called out from a long narrow tunnel. "Run, Jellybean!"

The tip of a rolling blue sphere appeared within the splinter of tree trunks, higher than the trees themselves. It seemed the moon had fallen from the sky and was barreling toward him.

Running was pointless.

A hand grasped him by the back of the shirt. "Come on," shouted Peter.

Jellybean turned, snapping out of his daze to race downstream. The trees alongside him began to shove into motion by the domino effect. Together, Peter and Jellybean slid down the embankment toward Dead Man's Gulch. A massive tree tumbled from above and crashed through the log bridge in violent splinters.

The sky went dark as a massive blue giant flew overhead, snapping off thick trees like toothpicks. Limbs, bark, and leaves rained down, burying Jellybean and his little buddy in a fraction of a second.

A thunderous boom shook the ground when the airborne monster returned to earth and continued its devastating rampage.

Slowly, the crunching of century old trees being leveled to the ground faded into the distance.

Jellybean squeezed from beneath a branch as thick as his body. "Peter!"

A muffled moan erupted somewhere nearby.

"Peter! Are you all right?"

"I . . . I think so. I'm . . . I'm stuck."

In the dark maze of twisted branches, a tan uniform shirt came into sight close by. Jellybean weaved through the narrow gaps to reach his friend. A tree spike had nailed Peter to the ground, narrowly missing the boy's abdomen, stapling his baggy shirt to the rocks.

Jellybean fished for his small pocket knife and hacked at the material with the dull blade.

Finally free of the tree's grip, Peter squeezed from under the fallen tree trunk.

Together the two boys climbed out of the natural jungle gym. At the top of the heap, a bright blue sky filled the scene. Not a tree stood in an eighty feet wide path of destruction that stretched down the mountain. Wedged at the bottom of the valley, a massive blue mound had nestled in the confluence of two canyons. A thousand splinters stuck from it like a porcupine.

Jellybean turned toward camp. At the edge of the newly created clearing, a dazed troop and four adult leaders stood staring back in utter dismay.