REDITUS | BILL DENBROUGH [2]

five | the underground treehouse

( italics are the past )

The Loser's traveled through the town, past railroad tracks, past the tunnel, into the woods.

''The barrens,'' Beverly said.

Layla looked around the wooded area, fuzzy memories coming through her mind.

''This is where we came. After the rock fight.'' Ben said, looking around with a smile on his face.

Richie stopped moving around, ''The clubhouse.''

Layla patted Ben's shoulder, ''You built that for all of us, didn't you? You were so into architecture, even when we were kids. Where's the hatch? Does anyone see it?"

Layla suddenly felt a pressure behind her and saw that Beverly tripped on some branches. She grabbed Beverly's arm, ''I didn't know you were this clumsy.''

Beverly gave the woman a smile, ''Shut up.''

Ben began stomping around softly on the ground, trying to think of where the door was. ''You know what? I think the door was around...'' He never finished his sentence because he stomped a little too hard and fell right through the door. ''Found it. I'm okay! Come down!''

Layla climbed down the ladder that Ben had built and stared at the structure in awe. Everyone else followed after, staring at this makeshift structure Ben had built.

It looked pretty sturdy, and even bigger than Layla had imagined.

''What the dick is this?" Richie asked. ''How'd you build it?"

''When did you build it?" Bill questioned.

Ben shrugged, ''Here and there, I guess. It was already dug out for something, so I just had to reinforce the walls and get some wood for the roof door, and that's pretty much it.''

Ben leaned against one of his wooden beams, ''Pretty good for my first time, right?"

However, the pressure caused a piece of the ceiling to come down.