The next morning we got up and met up with everyone else. Kate was looking at some fossil while everyone else was making lunch. Grady and I were trying to avoid each other the whole time, especially in front of Earl. It seemed like he was making sure we stayed away from each other. Earl had me next to him and Grady on the opposite side of the table.

He caught us looking at each other so Earl said, firmly, "Hey! You keeping an eye out on that monitor?"

"Uh, yea. I'm watching it. They're just staying up North." He responded, innocently.

It was silent as were doing our own things until Kate broke it. "Oh my god!"

We all snap our heads up at the same time, yelling "What?"

She looked at us, apologetically and said, "Sorry. Come here. Come here, look at this."

We all went towards her and saw what the fossil was. She says she was studying that same fossil for over a month and she just realized what it was. It was one of the spikes on a graboid. That means they were here over millions of years ago.

Next thing we hear is a lot of beeping, and Pedro yelling something in Spanish. I can't understand that language, it's too confusing. We all look at the screen and find a huge red dot coming for us.

Earl and I grab a gun and get ready to shoot. Before I can get a good shot, Earl says, "That ain't no graboid. It's something more dangerous."

We all walk out and see the biggest truck I've ever seen in my life. We walk to the other side of the truck and see the door open. Our old friend Burt Gummer hops out and shakes hands with Earl.

"Monster HQ, I presume." Was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

"Hey, Burt. Good to see ya." Earl greets.

"Good to see you too." Burt turns to me and his eyes go wide. "Holy shit! Last time I saw you, you were only fourteen. Where did that little girl go?"

I smile and give him a hug, which he returns. "Hey, Burt. It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too, kiddo."

Earl was introducing everybody and once he got to Grady, he got interrupted. "Grady, Grady Hoover. Yea, I read all about you, Mr., Mr. Gummer. Real honor." I shook my head at his stuttering. "Man do you think you got a big enough truck, here?"

Burt looks at Earl and asks, "He the new guy?"

Earl just looks at him with a 'Don't even get me started' look. I follow Grady to the back of the truck and see him hop up. "Hey, what the hell do you have in this thing, anyway?"

Burt quickly pushes him off saying, "Hey, hey. Don't touch, don't touch." He opened it up and let us see what was in there. "Mexican army gave me this truck. And a few little items on my wish list."

All I could see was a bunch of different kinds of explosives. I nod my head in approval but Kate starts laughing. We look at her. She stops laughing and looks back at us. "It's a little much, don't you think?" we continue to stare at her. She realizes we're serious. "Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm right." Then she walks away.

Burt turns back to us with a smile on his face, pointing to the truck. "Makes my old stuff look like cherry bombs." He continued talking but I didn't understand it. He went back to his usual self, doing nothing but talking about bombs.

I walked away soon and got some clothes ready for our next trip soon. I hear the door open but I keep my back to it. I hear one of the beds springs squeak and I have an idea of who it is. My guess was right when I heard them talking.

"Did I say something wrong to make you mad at me?" Grady asks, sad.

I turn around to meet his eyes and I sit on my bed. "No, you didn't do anything. I just didn't really know what to do after last night. It's confusing. I usually ignore something that I don't understand."

He looks even more confused. "What don't you understand? Some moments get ruined like that and all."

"No, I don't understand how I feel about you, yet. Give me a little more time and then I'll figure it out."

"What if you figure it out after this is all over and we already went our separate ways? What will you do then?"

"Well, if that happens, I might just have to go and find you, now won't I?" I wink at him with a smile.

"Yea and I'll be waiting for you. Guess we both have to be patient, huh?" he says with a smile.

"It's getting late. We better head off to bed now if we want to get up early to hunt graboids." I instruct.

He agreed and soon, we were both asleep. Everyone woke up around the same time and we went to our trucks. We made sure everything was packed and ready to go. About a few hours later we met up with Burt where we usually stop to know which way we're going. Earl and Burt agreed that Burt would go east and we would go west.

Right before we were going to leave, Burt called out to Earl, who was eating potato chips, "You know, those are terrible for you. You need complex carbohydrates. Lower those L.D.L.s."

Earl just looked annoyed and said, "I already gave up smoking, Burt. What more do you want?"

"Have an M.R.E." was all he said.

"A what?"

Burt went back in his truck and came back out seconds later with a little package. "Meals Ready to Eat. Freeze-dried, foil sealed. Its got be foil. Plastic is not an oxygen barrier. "

I just shook my head, not understanding a word. Burt went back into his truck and had a whole handful of those little packages. He started handing them to Grady who was the closest. "Here, take these. I buy them all the time. Saves a trip to the super market."

"Oh, no, Burt. We don't wanna use up all your food." Grady said politely. I knew what he was trying to say though. He just used the nice way of saying, 'Please, for the love of God, get that shit away from me.'

Apparently Burt didn't get it and said, nonchalantly, "No problem. Brought 120 pounds of it. Good luck compadres." With that he left, heading for the east while we went, heading for the west.

Earl was driving, Grady was in the middle, and I was on the outside passenger seat, breathing in the fresh air. Seconds later I hear Earl say, "Aw, man. This stuff tastes like toilet paper."

I didn't even have to look at Grady to see the smile on his face. I could hear him smiling when he said, "Earl…That is the toilet paper."

A few hours later, we were cleaning the truck, just like we always do after we kill a graboid. We all looked in the east direction, where Burt was. Let me tell you that was one hell of a bomb if we heard it clear over here. We continued cleaning until we heard the radio go off and Burt's voice on the other end. "Yo, Grady, Charlie, and Earl! I got one, over."

Earl and I went to the radio while Grady was removing another piece of gut off the hood. That almost seemed to be his job. Earl and I wiping down the truck while Grady gets rid of the guts all over the place.

"Yea, we know, Burt. We heard it clear over here." Earl said, annoyed.

"Damnedest thing too. It had a big ole chain hanging out of its mouth."

That got Grady's attention as his head snapped up. "Damn it!" That was how I felt too. Before I could grab the mic., Grady got it first, jumping in the truck, lying down on the seats. "Burt, you skunk, that one was ours!"

"Oh, yea, son? Well, I didn't see your name on it."

I snatched the mic. back up and snapped, "Burt, damn it! Yes it did! That was the one that took my radio because of this shit head!" I hit Grady on the back of the head as he let out a yell in the background.

Burt started chuckling and responded, "Oh, really? Well you wanna know what, Charlie? TOUGH LUCK! Over and out."

I threw the mic. back, pissed off. Grady felt the same too because he said, "Why did we invite him anyways? And why the hell would you slap me over the head?" he looked at me with wide eyes.

I shrugged me shoulders as I stated, calmly, "Because…you're the reason I don't have a radio to listen to music to. And if you know me well enough, you know I need music!"

Earl just had this big smile on his face, laughing at the two of us. It looked like he was about to say something else but he was interrupted with the screen beeping. We all gathered around it and watched what was going on.

We saw a big red dot, near us. "We got one!" Grady said, excited. We got a closer look at it and realized something. "Wait a minute. It's moving away from us." He started looking around until his attention back to us. "Well, it must be something else."

Earl looked at him, like he was stupid. "Like what? A giant prairie dog?"

"Well, shit. I don't know, Earl. It's moving away from us." Grady defended. We all started looking around us until Grady spoke up again. "Should we follow it?"

I took the silence as a yes. I hopped out of the cab and got in the bed of the truck. "I'm gonna stay back here and get the bombs ready, just in case. That alright?" I asked, knowing how protective Earl is.

He looked hesitant at first but gave in. "Fine, just make sure you don't hurt yourself."

I roll my eyes at him. I couldn't help but think,'Hurt myself, my ass.' The boys were in the truck while I was on the outside. I kept looking ahead after I got everything ready. I heard the boys talking but I only heard their voices I didn't hear the exact words but I knew they were talking about the graboid. Earl was freaking out and I was, on the inside. On the outside, I remained calm as if nothing was going on.

We were moving slow but fast at the same time. As we turned a corner, we saw the graboid, right in front of us, above the ground. I yelled, as did Grady, and I heard Earl yell, "Holy mother!"

Earl hit the reverse, but before anyone could stop him we went down a steep hill. Since I wasn't in the cab or anything I went flying down. I felt my body collide with the trailer of my truck. I felt like I blacked out for a minute. I couldn't move, talk, or anything. All I could do was listen and think.

I heard Earl freaking out over the graboid. "Shit! Shit, how could they do that?! Got to get to Burt's gun!"

I hear a bunch of banging on the hood of my truck. I wanted to tell whoever it was to knock it off but I couldn't. It seemed like my body wouldn't let me and it shut down. I felt someone next to me, grabbing a gun, who I assumed was Earl.

"Hey, Charlie. Come on, let's go." When he didn't see me move, he started to shake my shoulders. "Charlie? Charlie, come on! Damn it, Charlotte! Wake up!"

I could hear the panic in his voice. I heard Grady coming down the truck, by my side. "What happened? Is she alright?!" Grady asked, scared.

"I don't know. She won't wake up." He continued to shake me, begging me to wake up. I wish I could but something was holding me back. He started whispering, "Charlie, come on. Wake up, you got to. We need you right now, Charlie."

"Earl! I found out what's wrong!" Grady yelled, even though we're both right next to him. "Quick, get a rag or something. She's bleeding on the back of her head."

I felt someone pick my head up and set it in their lap. The person started stroking my hair, whispering, "Don't worry. We're gonna fix you right up. You'll be good as new in no time." by how gentle and soft his voice was, I could tell it was Grady.

"Here, this was all I could find." I hear Earl come back.

I felt Grady pick my head up once more and put some kind of clothe to the back of it. "I think it'll be good enough."

I was starting to fall asleep. I hear both their heavy breathing. I heard someone cock their gun and started walking off. I knew it was Earl when he started talking. "I'll be right back. I got to see what the hell happened with that graboid."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up, give me a minute." I hear Grady say, quickly. The last thing I though before I fell asleep was how good it felt to be in Grady's arms and him comforting me.