War of the worlds-(excuse my grammar and punctuation) This rendition will have several Character stories Each character will contain one chapter, then a general whole story later Some of the Characters stories will integrate together.
My name is Frank Delgato pronounced dell-got-O. People frequently call me dell-gate-O. Now that we have that out of the way I am a F-16 Pilot and maintenance man for the United States airforce. I work in an rather less known(esoteric) small base in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. I am just an average guy, I am originally from deep Florida and would travel to Hawaii for about 3-5 months of the year. I was transferred here about 7 months ago to test new weapon systems on the f-16's and to try and fight out how we can try to make the f-16's go further since they are 30 years old and well above the fatigue excess point. We have been making slow progress but successful. Our base has been working on 10 f-16 aircraft. We have a hangar bay, watch tower, then a decent sized living quarters. Things are not to strict around here since this is a off the grid operation and my team isn't monitored much, there are only 25 of us around, I stay on base along with 9 others. The other part of the team live local or semi local, so they return home during the after hours of work. our base is nested deep in the woods on top of a small plateau on the mountain. I really miss living back in Florida. It is cold here, and honestly nothing to do but entertain myself on video game console, or have a shots. The local town is about 30-40 minutes out and it is quiet small. just a few grocers,gas station, boring farmers and country folk and a million churches. The people around here are nice decent people, but they just are a bit boring for me to want to "chill" with. I am not a part animal but I love being outdoors swimming and surfing in ocean back home, go cruising around and chilling with my friends doing typical mid aged 20 year old stuff, again I am not a wild spring breaker or anything I have good morals. I guess I would be considered a short haired hippie. I don't have close relation family I stay in contact with, my mother and father died 2 years ago in a car wreck, I have a few loose end cousins living in Florida, I do feel like they are like brothers and sisters to me, I got married when I turned 18 divorced when I turn 23, I didn't want to divorce but she cheated on me several times, it was time to cut the ties. I honestly think about her allot but I probably wouldn't if it wasn't for the fact that their are no younger women here really, just one as a side thing, but broke it off when she started drama with me and the local redneck boys around here. I guess that is how my life goes until I get hopefully get transferred back to my lovely Florida town so I can stare at the palm trees and listen to the waves.
It was around 4:30 PM started to get the annoying sun glare about to sunset time, it was cold(for me) 38 degrees out and dropping, I was in the cockpit synchronizing a weapons release sensor relay for one of the f-16's my fellow comrade Joseph(AKA Joe) had just polished the exterior of the jet(all 50 feet long of it). Not a cloud in the sky at the moment, I just closed a sensor box and was wrapping up a wire for my tools when I glazed over into the sky and noticed a cloud literally forming quiet some distance off from me on another mountain about 20-30 miles or more away. But since we are so high up and close to a bluff We can see quiet a bit sky, the cloud formation was compact and abnormally dark, I mean really dark. I called over to Joe, "Joe look at this, I just watched that formation over there form in 30 seconds" Joes eyes was already looking at the clouds, I guess he was watching the area when I was. "Frank something isn't right about that, even summer storms don't pop up like that not out of nowhere. I am not saying it isn't possible but I wonder if we are actually seeing a fire on the mountain over there, since the elevation is so high,it might just be circulating in that area, I have a pair of binoculars in my bag, you look in them and see what you think". I was thinking the same thing Joe was about it could be a fire and just smoking sitting in the area, it was dark as black smoke. I look into the binoculars, they are quiet a nice pair. It took me a min to get them on target, when I looked I could clearly see this wasn't normal, The cloud formation was circling I could see wind from the trees making them sway only in one direction. The trees outside the formation wasn't moving at all. It looked like a miniature hurricane, but the eye in the middle was glowing, I look at joe "This isn't a result of a fire Joe" Joe looked at me with a dumbfounded look and said wait I think I have another pair of binoculars in this bag. While he was scrambling around in his bag I look into the binoculars and noticed the wind stopped swaying the trees. "I found them". Joe looks into the binoculars "What the...that ain't no cloud" at that moment we see a lightening strike, "Well I guess it is a storm, just a..." Zap! another strike, Zap, another and another, "Joe what is this why is it hitting the same area over and over". We heard a buzz over our radios. "Delgato Smith we need you in here now for a quick briefing and you need to suit up in your f-16's and prepare for an emergency launch" We looked at each other in panic put our binoculars in the bag hurried into the briefing room we couldn't stop staring at the storm on the way in. We hurry in there are only 8 other guys here and our commanding officer everyone is rushing around and rambling to themselves, Johnson our commander officer "we have reports flooding in from our radio feed that the United States is under attack and EMP attacks have knocked out power in many cities and large residential areas. The next part is what is a mystery the reports are stating Tripod like machines are coming out of the ground shortly after a small scale storm clouds role over the the area and lightening strikes are activating this event." Me and Joe look at each other and shrug, Commander-" I don't believe that part is true but something is going on in the cities". Frank-"sir I think it is true(I say frantically), Open the blinds out the window, Joe hurries over and opens the blinds in a distraught way. The commander looks with wide eyes and sees the cloud "me and Joe just witnessed what you just stated sir, Nothing has came out of the ground but it was hit by lightening 26 times". Commander rubbed his head. I couldn't read his emotion but he looked very stressed. Another staff member at the radio " Sir I am obtaining a nationwide message to all military bases from SecDef he is stating that the reports are true giant tripod like machines of alien or unknown origin are attacking the United states along with China Russia and the U.K. and other major countries EMP strikes have knocked out every major city. Military strikes have been unsuccessful." at that moment I heard Joe say "look..look at the mountain!" at that moment We see a machine rise out of the ground in a slow manner and just stand there. Commander-"everyone you are clear for emergency take off, attack that target". We wasn't sure why EMP did not affect us, but I figured because it has something to do with being in the boonies. Other fellow service men had rushed in base from emergency calls from home, everyone was putting on pilot gear and gearing up. I hear a guy say " I am going to turn on the air raid siren". I rushed over to him "DON'T! If military strikes haven't stopped these things, we don't want to let it know we are here. lets take off slowly and try to keep our engines quiet as possible". I was all geared up waiting for staff to attach bombs and load my turrets with Ammunition outside. I went back to the window and looked at the tripod I could see it was turning to the opposite direction of our base. It was (presumably) going to head to a big city about 40 miles south of it's current location. It looked to be at least 150-160 feet tall, it towered over the tall yellow pine trees it was next to. The Commander just looked at it and had a look of disbelief on his face, Joe-"your plane is ready, go." I just hopped in the plane now cockpit glass has been lowered doing a pre-flight diagnostic check, good...good...good... I move the tailrons of the plane back and forth Joes plane is right behind me "Joe it looks like you have been assigned my wing man" I see other 6 other fighters take off. They are not going to the machines direction. HQ tower-"those fighters are going to another location looks like another one of those things is about 60 miles north of here. You two and a third escort are going after that one we seen, keep your cruise speed, so don't rush to it. We want to obtain video from your Dashcam of the ground. keep your speed low... Firefox one and Two (our piloting names) you are clear for take off, take off when ready. We are keeping one f-16 here for watch dog of base". I slowly(with Joe right behind me in his f-16) move the joystick forward. I move my plane into position to hit the sky. Climbing 50,60,70,80, and 90 feet. We continue to climb sky. We decide about 1000 feet in the air is safe enough, "I can't believe this crap" the third pilot from the f-16 said. Frank-"I know Chris, it is a nightmare". Joe-"Lets head in a formation trio and start getting on path the target". We turn our jets to the direction of the tripod. "at this speed E.T.A. will be 3 minutes until we arrive to target". Commander calls in on radio "boys we have obtained from credible sources these things have risen from DC the president and staff are in Airforce one they may possibly head to this location, we only have one f-16 here, Chris please turn your f-16 back to base, we might need you for escort/defender if they decide to land here. We have men on look out in all directions for these tripods, I haven't seen any in our local radius, this might be a good option for them to land here." Chris' f-16 breaks away from mine and joes back to base. I can see that Tripod heading down the highway, I was right it is heading to the major city, Frank-"it appears to be shooting be shooting cars and people with some kind of laser weapons mounted on the arms of the machine, are you receiving this video data HQ". Commander-"yes I am, do a few circles around the machine at the current altitude stay high enough to where it won't start shooting at you. I want to get a look at this thing". I circle around it a few times at a safe altitude above it, watching it smash cars zap people I look on my dashcam and zoom in on it. Frank-"when it zaps with those lasers it cremates the people but the clothing remains in tact". Commander-"that is enough I don't want to see it kill anymore people. Frank...Joe you are weapons clear drop your first heavy IED bombs on it, maybe those the reason the military attacks didn't work because they was shooting with pea shooters, lets see how that over sized camera mount stands against our newly improved IED bombs". Me and joe position up and drop our first bomb set. I can see 4 bombs drop from mine and Joe's plane. Joe-"3...2...1...". Boooooom,Booooom,Booooom,Booooom. I see nothing at first but I large smoke screen over the area. We circle around the area for a bit. Commander-"hahahaha looks like you got them, I would have loved to see that in the cockpit instead of this video feed, though it is nice looking at it through a 70 inch flat screen". Joe-"I like to see what they think of us now, hahaha, victory for the Old USA." The smoke cloud clears, Frank-"WAIT A MINUTE! It is still there!". The smoke cloud cleared almost completely now. Joe-"that...that thing...oh god, that thing don't even have one scratch". The tripod was just standing there for a moment, we break away from it for a second. It just started moving forward again on the now broken highway like it never happened. Commander-"(in a quivered voice) I can't believe this didn't...dang it!...Drop your second IED bomb maybe better luck this time". We drop our second(and last) bomb set...4 bombs drop and explode. We all wait in silence until the smoke clears. But it just walks right out of the smoke cloud before it clears still going forward. Frank-"it don't even have a scratch. It didn't even bother stop moving even when the bombs hit it". There is silence again. We have dropped our full payload and are out of bombs. I see Joe turn his nose down to the tripod. Frank-"Joe what are you doing?!". Joe-"we still have our turret 50 cal. I am going to shoot every last round at it. Frank-"Joe get back up here". Joe turns his aircraft down at full afterburner Unloading his turret at the Tripod, I see now it has some kind of electromagnetic force field around it, I personally think even if the shield wasn't there it could withstand anything we have. I see the rounds of Ammo just tap the the shield like if it was peas thrown at a steel door. Frank-"Joe pull up!". He clearly doesn't want to. I see the tripod hit his right wing, his plane goes barreling into the the tripod, of course no effect. Commander-"Frank I can't believe he just...I can't believe this. Return to base, We are going to load you up on bombs again but you are going to stay and patrol the Castle(base). It is confirmed the President is going to land here their original destination has been destroyed and they are on there way here, ETA 35 minutes. I need your aircraft patrolling these skies and escorting him here. He and his staff are going in the underground fallout shelter underneath the base". Frank-"Confirmed. Returning to the castle". I honestly thought does it really even matter if I patrol the sky or not, he just seen what our Maximum payload could offer...Nothing at all. I just turned my aircraft around and was heading back to base. Commander-"When Airforce one enters our local airspace I would like you to escort him to landing. Until then make a few laps around the castle. Frank-"Yes sir." I turned on full afterburner. It only took me a just a few moments to return to base when you are traveling at 1500 MPH. Since you was going barely enough to stay afloat before.
I was circling around the base at a pretty high altitude but enough to see what was going on below. During this time, the radio was silent. I just sat in this cockpit and thought for awhile. I thought first how scary these massive things but be in person on the ground. How many was out there? How many was to come? Is Florida or Hawaii in runes? Can we make peace? If the machines was here and the Pilots was inserted through the lightening, do they have a mothership hovering above space cloaked and invisible to our satellites and telescopes? I pondered on these questions for some time. Worried. Commander-" I am sending the coordinates of airforce one, on your radar screen. Follow up with firefox 3 and escort it here." Frank-"confirmed". So I approached airforce one escorting on one side of the wing and Chris on the other. The Boeing 747 looks amazing, Big blue is it's nick name. Airforce one-"Boy are we glad to see you guys, you wouldn't believe what we have just seen and went through. The President is real shaken up by this, we didn't think we was going to make it". Frank-"glad to see you have made it. But don't get your high hopes up yet." We watch airforce one land. Commander-"stay up there until everyone is inside. Then patrol a 100 mile radius around so we can see whats out there and I can have your video feed up and ready for the president to see in the underground bunker". Frank-"confirmed". I watch the bay doors open on the Airforce one. I see many Secret Service men in black suites come out, as I circle around the base over and over. Then I actually see the President and his family come out. Then a bunch more Secret service guys again. Then the staff...then more Secret Service men. I know the plane is big but they are parked in there like sardines. I see papers flying out of there after everyone is out rushing into the base. I guess it was a real wreck and stressful in that plane. It was amazing even up here seeing the president. Of course by this time is almost completely dark. The only way I was able to see them was by the bright lights of the base. Since everyone is inside. They now have turned off every outside light(and inside) off. Which is good to keep less attention to the base. Make it look deserted. fortunately my jet is equipped with night a vision camera. Even my dashcam is night vision. I am out patrolling now. Getting further and further away from the base. I am about 85 miles away from the base east about to get ready to turn back around. all I have seen is just Small towns lights and mainly woods. But wait! I see something. A tall bright light moving. Could it be? Please not...Commander-"I have zoomed into your video feed frank it is a tripod. Though on its current path going straight it would be missing the base by about 7 miles still don't want it anywhere near here. Distract it, make it turn course even more if you can. It isn't fun being down here in an underground bunker surrounded in metal and cement. Worried if they can get to us". I have been down in that bunker before. It has enough MRE's(survival meals) to last a year or more,even with as many people down there. Showers are decent and toilets are strange. It even has a back up power supply. Plenty of Full sized beds, and a full command center under there. I am now approaching the Tripod. I Need a way to distract it. I could do what Joe did and nose dive and pull up. I am going to get close and drop bombs on it and detour it away from it's current path. I am going a high speed low altitude. I drop bombs. They boom. The tripod stands for a moment. Like it is just irritated with a pesky fly. I turn around to drop my second load. I am probably a mile away from it, due to this high speed you move fast. As soon as I turn around It Zaps my Wing. Frank-"I am hit going down! Repeat going down, I am going to Eject". I sent the last transmission before I ejected. I parachute out. I am pretty high up, I look and see the tripod it is roughly still a mile away. It going forward, it either doesn't care if I am alive or thinks I am dead. It is just slightly off the same path it was on. Enough to say I did my Job. I think they will be safe for now. I am slowly descending to the ground can't see below me. It is so quiet. I can see a few stars out and a few cloud coverage too, Kinda eerily pretty seeing it. Just a gentle cloud sweep seeing the stars light up through them. I can hear the Tripod move for the first time. It is a frightening sound. I hear its feet,they are slowly fading as it is going away from me. I hear the machines joints and gears move eeerrn, boom(footstep), Eeeern, Boom. Slowly fades away. I am about to touch ground now. I pray I don't land in a tree. I am in the middle of nowhere. About 3 towns over from the base. I have been in this general area once or twice. But not many. I can barely see a glimmer of the ground. It looks to me to be just over grown grass, thank god it isn't trees. I am preparing for touch down I hit hard...I Roll for a bit and just lay there in the tall grass. It is freezing. Probably every bit of 25 Degrees. I think for a moment laying there. Is my family alive? Will the president make it? I wonder if Joe's family is okay? As I lay there I hear foot steps. I rise up real quick,I grab my side knife and cut my parachute, and put it back in the harness and then grab my side arm. It is a Military issued 9 MM. A light is shined in my face. I worry that is is the aliens. Then I point the gun in the direction of the light. "Whoooooaaa Buddy". The man yelled. He had a very strong southern accent. I immediately put my side arm down. "He is alive". "Thank god". said another, by judging I would say there was about 8 people. A taller man approached me. He said "my name is Bill this is my family. We was out searching for survivors, We seem your plane fly over in flames and you come out of it. we came here to see if you are okay. My little tornado shelter is about 2 acres from here, if you would like you can come back with us, since you are military and all you probably know more then we do, we sure have allot of worried town folk back in the shelter they would like to know what is going on, they seen one of those big things earlier go through and kill out the town". We could sure use a guy like you around. Will you come back to the tornado shelter with me? I dug it myself it is quiet large. We have the room for ya. By the way what is the name. I didn't catch it?" Frank-"My name is Frank, I am relieved know people are still alive, I wouldn't mind coming back with you". I follow the group back through the thick overgrown grass, I am presuming the back is a farmer, this must be hay. Everyone is quiet. Just slight bickering of two young children. We come back to a little old house. We go around to the back yard, an old barn is out back next to a wooded patch of trees. Jim-"in here". I go in the barn, I see two doors with light running through them. Voices, quiet a few, I was surprised to see he was right it must be large. He opens the doors up."We got the soldier, he is alive. He will know what is going on". Everyone is runs inside. I see lights are hanging up some lanterns more battery operated ones. Their are a variety of people there. Since this town is a "stop and fill up town" allot of tourist had been going through the town during the attack. Allot of elderly and children here too. I would say around 30-35 people are here. Everyone looks at me, I am immediately blasted with questions. "did we get them?" "are they Russian?" "how bad is the rest of the world?" "What Do they want?" Etc. Etc. etc. Jim-"WHOA one at a time. Let the man breathe I am sure he will answer your questions, one at a time please". I was so overwhelmed I didn't know what to say at first. I stand in silence with eyes gleaming on me. I hear some crying in the back ground and whispering. Frank-"as for your questions, this is what I know, Me and a fellow comrade engaged a tripod our weapons was in effective. I was stationed at a secret base on patrol about 90 miles from here. I was trying to detour a tripod away. As far as I know according to worldly sources, the entire planet is under attack by alien entities with advanced and far superior weapons. I don't know why why attacked or what their future intentions are. They have cause blackouts in major cities. Our best bet is to stay here for the moment and try to wait things out until morning, everything is going to be okay". I was immediately flooded with questions again. Jim was trying to shut them up, I went and sat by the door in a tacky lawn chair and thought to myself. I knew everything is not okay. I knew if I stayed with this group It might be my last decision. I had two choices. I could stay with the group and try to survive or I can go alone and try to make my way back on foot to the base. I look around at all these innocent faces. Old,young,big and small. I can't leave these people.
I am going to stay with them and try my best to pull this through. Things started to quiet down. I am guessing it was around 11:30 Pm or so. Jim gave me a throw blanket and nodded. I through it around me. I sat there for awhile blank...Then I closed my eyes, I wake up to a noise. I look around and it is pans rattling. 2 parents are trying to scrounge up food for their two kids. I see a man next to me looking at an old mag, I ask him what time it is, he says 4:30 AM. A few hours later, Jim is creating a fire in his little redneck fireplace, trying to cook breakfast for everyone. I look through the cracks of the door. I can see morning light. I am guessing it is 7:30 or so. I gently open the door and go outside. I can tell people are concerned. A few people follow me out, They are smokers and light up cigarettes. It is strange seeing people even do the same ordinary things in times of crisis. The man next to me that was reading that old mag comes up to me and says "need a light?" Frank-"no thanks". The man says "my name is Rob, I was traveling through here from Wisconsin when these things hit. I seen one of those things zapping a building in half. I gun it off a side state road, ended up here. I hit another car from the back end and totaled mine when I entered town. I went walking down the highway in this little dinky town and that is when that Jim fellow asked me to come with him. Not sure where I am going from here." I looked at the older balding man. He was wearing a blue button up and black tie. Looks like one of those guys who don't give a crap. Frank-"I don't know where they are at, but you can bet another one or group will come through this town." I look around. I see a few farm animals. Allot of chickens, a few ducks and geese even 2 smaller pigs. I go around back of the barn, I see a smaller stream running. It is slowly running debris through it. Definitely from the attack. I go up front again and see a well pump. I open up the hose line and take a drink. Jim comes up to me Jim-"breakfast is ready friend, come have some". I go in My food was set on a bucket lid. with a plastic fork. There was a few pieces of chicken,(probably from his stock) and hash browns. I haven't ate since yesterday at noon. I ate it pretty quick. I seen some people go to the stream and wash up. Other people was trying to turn on cell phones. Kids was running around, but close enough to the barn. A man comes out of the shelter yelling "hey hey everyone, Hello? I need your attention I am going to head on the highway and walk north I am sure the military will come pick us up. Who wants to go?" Jim stepped out Jim-I don't think that is a good idea. You are safer here". The Man says "Bull this country hick will sit here and let you all die, the aliens will come and slaughter you like he does his chickens!" Frank-"Hey, I am a military man, I don't think that is a good idea being that open and asking to be seen. For now just stay here. We are secluded and this is a temporary safe zone." The man replies "Nope screw that, I am out come with me or stay here with the idiots I am leaving". He grabs his small suite case and walks off, Allot of people followed him. Mainly tourist. So We was left with Jim and his family. A few tourist families. I would say 17 people. I would say an 30 minutes or so maybe more passed by. I was sitting on a rock in front of the barn and heard a horn from a distance. It was a frightening sound, similar to a boat but just plain creepier. I have never heard it before, But I could tell the people did, one started crying everyone rushed in the shelter, I followed. I knew it was the tripods. I thought for a moment. Frank-"Jim,you,you,you and you, help me real fast. We need to go out here for one moment." Jim and other stated "we can't go out there right now?". Frank-"just do as I say We need to tear this small barn down real fast, make it look collapsed so they won't bother looking at or in it." Hesitantly they followed me out, we shoved hit and pulled the barn apart. Looked like a tornado hit. I heard the booming of the feet of a tripod coming. We hurried even faster. Done! Since the shelter doors are same as the barns and worn red painted, they blended we thrown hay all around the flattened barn and crawled in one of the doors gently. Frank-"Jim put out that fire". He threw a blanket and a half bucket of water on it. It smoked up the room a little bit. All the lights was turned out. Just the slight light of the door was gleaming through. Everyone was in the back of the room pushed back to the wall. Eyes are all looking at the door. I hear the tripod coming closer. Kids are crying. A rude man says "Shut those little hooligans up before kill them and I mean that". I realized this man could be suspicious and I would need to keep an eye on him. I could tell Jim thought the same thing. I gathered the children together and told them Frank-"I will protect you, but we gotta be real quiet, okay. I am an "Army Man" and I can beat them up but we got to be quiet for now. Okay?" The kids nodded. I held them for a few moments. Again I heard "Boom eeern boom eeern Booom" they was right above us at that point. I told everyone to stay put I walked up to the edge of the door and peeped gently through a crack that I could see the house, I couldn't see a Tripod at that moment. Just it's giant legs, I see these tentacles or wire like things come out of the air, they obviously came from the tripod. I see them bust open a door of the house. They was looking around. I could hear screams but they wasn't from Jim's house or this shelter, they sounded faded too. I try to turn a little more and look up at the Tripod, I could see the tripod. Then I could see these cages...They was full of people. I looked the tripod looked the same as the ones I had fought. Same size,color,dimensions but no laser arms on these and they had the wires running out of them that was scouting that house. So I concluded the are the ones that abduct people and the others was "Destroyers". I couldn't understand why these was abducting people, I would soon find out. I couldn't much make out the faces on the people, but the voices was familiar. Some of the people in those cages was from the group that separated from us not all of them but some. I see the wires in the house come out, I thought they was just going to go back in the tripod. But they wrap around the house pick it up in the air and smash it. I look back at the 2 cages on the back of the tripod. I see something come out of the back of the tripod and wrap around one of the people, It yanks the person inside of the tripod, then 5-10 seconds later I see just blood come out of the sides of the tripod. It was like a meat grinder then just blew the liquefied human out the side. Not sure at the time why They did that. Next I see the wires looking on the ground. Some of them had a visor on the front of them, so they had cameras on them. Other Tentacles/Wires just brushed the ground. they brushed over the door, My heart was throbbing. A piece of the door fell in. I Heard some gasp. I grab the piece of the door and hold it back up to where it broke. Just holding it there hoping they didn't notice. A dog that was in the shelter started barking. The tentacles stopped moving, a Father shut the dog up. But I am scared the tripod noticed. The Wires started moving backwards. Then one pushed on the door another one pushed against the place I was holding. I thought it was over. It pushed hard. But not nearly as hard as it could of. I could barely hold the large wood plank up anymore. They quit pushing and retracted the wires. The tripod Lifted it's legs and slowly stomped off. I guess it thought that the wood doors was just wood planks laying on the ground. If it knew this was a bunker it would have busted through easily just like it lifted that house 70 feet in the air and smashed it. I let my arms down. I looked at the people, I stated "It is time we salvage what we can and pack up. More will be here to do the same. I don't think our luck will hold out next time". I could tell people agreed, Jim didn't want to I could tell, but he knew it was best. So we packed up. We went outside, He looked at his old smashed house, He cried a little he Grabbed a picture of a woman. He found in the wreckage. I believe it was his Wife. Which obviously wasn't in our group. He takes it out of the small frame and ask "Where are we heading?" I stated back " in the woods up the mountain".