It was SO early in the morning when we left. We settled for handful of
cereal for breakfast and sips of water.
I had to stop Armpit from taking too much in. 'Save some for later. We have to ration our water.' I reminded him.
I walked next to Zigzag. I shouted to everyone, while I made a fist, with my thumb pointing up. 'What does that look like to y'all?'
'A thumb.' 'DUH, Zig! Look at the mountain. What does that look like?' 'A thumb.' 'Thank you, Zig Zag. Y'all just think on that.'
They walked in silence, until finally.
'Ooooh, IIII get it,' said Squid. ..'YAAAAAAAAA!!!!!'We all started running towards God's thumb.
After a few minutes of running however, we got tired. It was desert after all, even though we'd started out early. I unwinded the top of my orange jumpsuit.
'You gonna run naked?' Magnet asked.
'why was that question posed too hopefully?'
'er..' 'Shut up, Maggie.' 'Girl, I told you, don't call me that.'
I sniggered as I tied the sleeves around my waist, so that the jumpsuit was fashioned into a pair of pants, and ofcourse, I had my white tee-shirt on. I took a swig off water. 'Dude, we're gonna have to start moving out earlier, like before ldawn,' I told the group. 'Are you fucking kidding me?' Armpit heaved. 'no way man, no way.'
'Tolkien's right, bro,' X-ray dusted off his glasses. 'Just look at us, sweatin' like hogs, at eight in the morning.'
'yeah,' said Tinkerbell. 'We're gonna die of the heat if we don't start early.'
'yeah,' breathed flash. 'I ditto that.' Squid passed her a canteen.
'Oh well, we have to keep moving,' ZigZag muttered. I nodded. We moved through the desert towards God's Thumb.
The holes we passed started getting further and further apart, and less frequent. Looking back, we couldn't even see the camp.
Magnet had noticed it first. 'Dude, we're pretty far. I can't see ol' Greenlake no more.'
I had looked back. 'yeah, man.'
Pretty soon everyone had taken at least one look back, and we looked quite dumb walking backwards, the whole lot of us.
And so we walked backwards, the sun above our heads, until we heard a scream of Squid followed by a grunt. He had tripped over a pile of.wood.
'What is this?' Zigzag asked.
Armpit looked at it one way, then another. 'It's a rowboat.'
Twitch read the letters. 'mmMAry Lou.' We all exchanged furtive looks. We all knew of the legendary Caveman and Zeroni. 'Well, at least we're headin' the right way.' Zigzag said. 'I wonder if there's anything down there..sploosh maybe.'
Armpit and Squid moved to lift the boat a bit, so Zig could fit under the crack. He crouched a bit and..a yellow spotted lizard popped out and hissed at him. His voice cracked as he said nervously, '12345678910 11 spots.' We all froze. The lizard now stood on Zigzag's foot.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
The lizard moved.
Finally, it gave a low hiss, and moved across Zig's foot, and to the right of our group. Ten more lizards identical to it followed, their beady eyes looking on us. The lizard family moved into a hole about twelve feet away, and we in turn ran.
'That was SO close,' Flash gasped once we'd run about 30 yards.
'Too close for my liking,' Zig said, a sip of water.
We walked for about three more hours and then we stopped.
It was sunset. We slept on the ground at the base of God's Thumb.
We decided to wait til the next day to tackle it. It was dark now, too dark to clearly see where we'd be going and that was a dangerous thing.
The next morning we overslept.
We had set Twitch to be our night watch, but he had fallen asleep, and the first one awake had been X-ray, an he'd shaken us all awake as well.
We finally too a good look at the challenge in front of us. God's Thumb was a lot bigger than we had ever imagined.
'Woookkieeeee,' were my words. 'guys, we're gonna have to lose some shovels.'
In the end, we got rid of all our shovels, except three, and the rest of the perishable food, which had gotten quite disgusting form the Texas desert heat.
Nobody wanted to be first to go up.
I nominated tink.
'You're shitting me if you think I'm going up there.'
I nominated Maggie.
'Girl don't call me that.and no.' 'Fine!' I snapped. 'I'll go. Magnet, spot me.' He lifted me onto the first ledge, and I was soon three feet up the mountain. 'Come on, you chicken shits!' I called. 'We haven't got all day.'
'yes we do!' Twitch said.
'Well, actually we do, but you KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" I whined. 'Who's coming up next?'
No response.
'Come ON! We didn't come this far for nothing! Back me up here.'
'You're crazy.' Armpit called. 'We can't make. Face it. We should just give up.'
I nearly fell off my spot. 'Are you kidding me?! Think of what we've been through. Stealing from the kitchens, our master plan for escape, wandering through the desert, and the lizards, the pictures in Zig's box. Come on,' I jumped down from my ledge. 'If we go back to camp, if they haven't already destroyed our records, then it's just bag to digging. I don't know how many times you all will put up with Zigzag's YOU GOT TO GO DIG THOSE HOLES WITH BROKEN HANDS AND WITHERED SOULS EMANCIPATED FROM ALL YOU KNOW, and hIs GODDAMN SINGING, but I for one, aM not DIGGING ANTOHER HOLE!!'
The rest of the group was silent. For a minute.
'yeah, girl, you tell 'em, said Magnet. He spotted me, and started climbing up God's Thumb as well. 'I can't fall if my fingers got magnets in 'em.'
'I sure don't want to be emancipated from all I know,' Tink said and followed.
'I already am, so I've got nothing to lose,' Zig said.
'I do. I could lose some weight.' Armpit added.
Twitch twitched. 'If caveman and zeroni can do it, so can I.'
So they all followed. We climbed. And we climbed. And we climbed. For a lloooooooooooooooooong time.
And let me tell you, climbing a mountain is no easy feat.
I had to stop Armpit from taking too much in. 'Save some for later. We have to ration our water.' I reminded him.
I walked next to Zigzag. I shouted to everyone, while I made a fist, with my thumb pointing up. 'What does that look like to y'all?'
'A thumb.' 'DUH, Zig! Look at the mountain. What does that look like?' 'A thumb.' 'Thank you, Zig Zag. Y'all just think on that.'
They walked in silence, until finally.
'Ooooh, IIII get it,' said Squid. ..'YAAAAAAAAA!!!!!'We all started running towards God's thumb.
After a few minutes of running however, we got tired. It was desert after all, even though we'd started out early. I unwinded the top of my orange jumpsuit.
'You gonna run naked?' Magnet asked.
'why was that question posed too hopefully?'
'er..' 'Shut up, Maggie.' 'Girl, I told you, don't call me that.'
I sniggered as I tied the sleeves around my waist, so that the jumpsuit was fashioned into a pair of pants, and ofcourse, I had my white tee-shirt on. I took a swig off water. 'Dude, we're gonna have to start moving out earlier, like before ldawn,' I told the group. 'Are you fucking kidding me?' Armpit heaved. 'no way man, no way.'
'Tolkien's right, bro,' X-ray dusted off his glasses. 'Just look at us, sweatin' like hogs, at eight in the morning.'
'yeah,' said Tinkerbell. 'We're gonna die of the heat if we don't start early.'
'yeah,' breathed flash. 'I ditto that.' Squid passed her a canteen.
'Oh well, we have to keep moving,' ZigZag muttered. I nodded. We moved through the desert towards God's Thumb.
The holes we passed started getting further and further apart, and less frequent. Looking back, we couldn't even see the camp.
Magnet had noticed it first. 'Dude, we're pretty far. I can't see ol' Greenlake no more.'
I had looked back. 'yeah, man.'
Pretty soon everyone had taken at least one look back, and we looked quite dumb walking backwards, the whole lot of us.
And so we walked backwards, the sun above our heads, until we heard a scream of Squid followed by a grunt. He had tripped over a pile of.wood.
'What is this?' Zigzag asked.
Armpit looked at it one way, then another. 'It's a rowboat.'
Twitch read the letters. 'mmMAry Lou.' We all exchanged furtive looks. We all knew of the legendary Caveman and Zeroni. 'Well, at least we're headin' the right way.' Zigzag said. 'I wonder if there's anything down there..sploosh maybe.'
Armpit and Squid moved to lift the boat a bit, so Zig could fit under the crack. He crouched a bit and..a yellow spotted lizard popped out and hissed at him. His voice cracked as he said nervously, '12345678910 11 spots.' We all froze. The lizard now stood on Zigzag's foot.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
The lizard moved.
Finally, it gave a low hiss, and moved across Zig's foot, and to the right of our group. Ten more lizards identical to it followed, their beady eyes looking on us. The lizard family moved into a hole about twelve feet away, and we in turn ran.
'That was SO close,' Flash gasped once we'd run about 30 yards.
'Too close for my liking,' Zig said, a sip of water.
We walked for about three more hours and then we stopped.
It was sunset. We slept on the ground at the base of God's Thumb.
We decided to wait til the next day to tackle it. It was dark now, too dark to clearly see where we'd be going and that was a dangerous thing.
The next morning we overslept.
We had set Twitch to be our night watch, but he had fallen asleep, and the first one awake had been X-ray, an he'd shaken us all awake as well.
We finally too a good look at the challenge in front of us. God's Thumb was a lot bigger than we had ever imagined.
'Woookkieeeee,' were my words. 'guys, we're gonna have to lose some shovels.'
In the end, we got rid of all our shovels, except three, and the rest of the perishable food, which had gotten quite disgusting form the Texas desert heat.
Nobody wanted to be first to go up.
I nominated tink.
'You're shitting me if you think I'm going up there.'
I nominated Maggie.
'Girl don't call me that.and no.' 'Fine!' I snapped. 'I'll go. Magnet, spot me.' He lifted me onto the first ledge, and I was soon three feet up the mountain. 'Come on, you chicken shits!' I called. 'We haven't got all day.'
'yes we do!' Twitch said.
'Well, actually we do, but you KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" I whined. 'Who's coming up next?'
No response.
'Come ON! We didn't come this far for nothing! Back me up here.'
'You're crazy.' Armpit called. 'We can't make. Face it. We should just give up.'
I nearly fell off my spot. 'Are you kidding me?! Think of what we've been through. Stealing from the kitchens, our master plan for escape, wandering through the desert, and the lizards, the pictures in Zig's box. Come on,' I jumped down from my ledge. 'If we go back to camp, if they haven't already destroyed our records, then it's just bag to digging. I don't know how many times you all will put up with Zigzag's YOU GOT TO GO DIG THOSE HOLES WITH BROKEN HANDS AND WITHERED SOULS EMANCIPATED FROM ALL YOU KNOW, and hIs GODDAMN SINGING, but I for one, aM not DIGGING ANTOHER HOLE!!'
The rest of the group was silent. For a minute.
'yeah, girl, you tell 'em, said Magnet. He spotted me, and started climbing up God's Thumb as well. 'I can't fall if my fingers got magnets in 'em.'
'I sure don't want to be emancipated from all I know,' Tink said and followed.
'I already am, so I've got nothing to lose,' Zig said.
'I do. I could lose some weight.' Armpit added.
Twitch twitched. 'If caveman and zeroni can do it, so can I.'
So they all followed. We climbed. And we climbed. And we climbed. For a lloooooooooooooooooong time.
And let me tell you, climbing a mountain is no easy feat.