By the time Dad had the campsite up, it was almost dusk. Calvin and Hobbes had gone into the woods as usual.
"Why did we go through here?" asked Hobbes. "What if we get blasted to smithereens by the laser?"
"That's why we need to get there do disable the laser and make our way to freedom. Besides, maybe we'll find more of that gold out here!"
"Yeah, that'll be fun! We'll be like pirates!"
"I'll be Yellow Head the Pirate Captain, and you'll be my first mate, Fuzzy."
Hobbes looked down at Calvin. "Excuse me?"
"Come on! If we find the treasure, we'll give a quarter of it to the scientists and they'll finally leave."
"Even if they do leave, we'll still have to stay here for the rest of the week."
"Yeah, but at least we won't have to constantly look over our shoulders."
"Yes we would!"
"Well, at least we wouldn't have to worry about lasers, aliens and scientists."
"Are you kidding? They'd just take the gold and destroy us."
"Okay, good point." Then a thought occurred to him. "Say, Hobbes?"
"Yes?"
"What did Dad mean by 'you're not real'?"
Hobbes looked up. "What do you mean?"
"He said it in the canoe, but then Dr. Griffin cut him off before he could say what you really are."
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and possibly a few times after that: You have weird parents."
Calvin arched an eyebrow. "What happens when I'm not home and you're alone with them?"
"I'll admit that they never really speak to me, but I'm not too fazed by it."
"Really? If no one ever paid any attention to me, I'd go crazy."
"Well, when you're not noticed, you can get away with a lot. I've raided the cookie jar, doodled in your mom's checkbook, jumped on their bed, drinking juice straight from the carton…"
"Hey! Mom blamed me for those things!" Calvin cried.
"Yeah, that's another advantage! I'm never the prime suspect!"
"Why you…!"
Calvin jumped for Hobbes, but Hobbes laughed away.
"Hoo, hoo, huh, hoo!" he shouted.
The two of them ran off, Calvin shouting unkind things to Hobbes, who continued to name things he had done and Calvin had been blamed for, laughing all the way.
However, neither noticed the fact that something was sneaking up behind him. It was rather large, and it had a lens on the front with a beeping red light. It watched them running off into the distance. It turned around and saw a pair of figures walking out of the brush. It was Mom and Dad, who didn't notice the object, mainly because it was a tree branch.
"Where's Dr. Griffin's campsite?" asked Mom.
"He said it was at the exact middle of island. That's not too much further from here," Dad replied.
"How do you know?"
"There's a sign over there that says TO THE CENTER OF THE ISLAND."
Mom noticed the sign with the words on it. "Oh."
They turned to a surrounding of trees that were in circles. They entered it and looked around. They saw a lone tent with a campfire in front of it. Dr. Griffin was waiting.
"Ah, so nice to see that you found your way," he said.
"What did you ask us here for?" asked Dad.
"I have brought with me the ways to solve all your problems," he said. "Please step into the tent."
The tent was one of those tall tents. The one you can stand in.
"Now why can't we have tents like this?" Mom demanded.
Dad ignored her and continued into the tent where Dr. Griffin was waiting.
"What is this answer you have for us?" he asked.
Dr. Griffin pulled out a crowbar and pried open a giant crate that sat near him. He pulled out a packet.
"This," he said.
"What is it?" asked Mom.
"In this packet is a special formula. It's been approved by the government. This is a special brain modificator. The pills go straight to the brain and repair the problem. He should be done with the modifications by tomorrow if he takes them today."
Dad looked at the pills. "Calvin will never take these. He hates pills."
"I suggest hiding them in some food."
"I'll put it in his sandwich," Dad said.
"Are you sure this will work?" Mom asked.
"Trust me. Two of my previous patients were given this pill and it worked like a charm."
"Okay, thanks," said Dad.
The two of them left the tent and disappeared.
Dr. Griffin chuckled. "Heh, heh. Yes, it worked perfectly on my last two patients, although I wouldn't quite call them patients. I'd call them more like prisoners."
He pressed a button, and the tent dropped. Then a space ship suddenly faded into place overhead. A familiar escalator dropped down, and down walked a pair of familiar aliens.
"Galaxoid! Nebular!" shouted Dr. Griffin. "Attention!"
The two aliens stood in line and said, "Sir, yes, sir!"
Dr. Griffin then removed his toupee and took the head plaster off, allowing two goofy, poofy sideburns to pop out. His body changed form and became a bit scrawnier.
If you think that's Retro, you're right on the money.
"Okay, you two," said the evil genius. "Status report?"
"The machine is almost ready," said Galaxoid in a robotic voice.
"Very good. Very good," Retro said, walking around and scratching his chin. "And the kid?"
"We've been tracking him all afternoon. He's currently at the left side of the island," said Nebular.
"Very good. At least he's still here. Get back to tracking."
"Yes, sir," said Galaxoid.
They turned to board the ship.
"Oh, yes. Boys?" he said.
The two stopped to take on any new orders.
"Start making more of those pills. Then start distributing them to the town in manner of which I explained earlier."
"Yes, sir," they chimed.
They scurried up into the ship to start production.
Meanwhile, Calvin was out of breath from chasing Hobbes. Hobbes had outrun him and disappeared.
"Stupid… (pant, pant)…TIGER!" he shouted. "Get back here and… (wheeze)… fight like a tiger!"
He collapsed on a giant boulder that overlooked the lake. He sat up and looked out at the sight. The sun was about to set. It was a beautiful bunch of red, yellow and orange, mixed in with blue, green and a splash of purple, making it look like a painting.
Normally, Calvin would've dismissed such a lovely scene as boring, but this time was different. He felt a warm feeling inside. For a brief moment, he thought maybe things would turn out all right. Maybe it was a false alarm, and Galaxoid and Nebular were coming for a visit. If so, that would make this whole thing more enjoyable. The two of them and Hobbes were perfect friends…
Suddenly, his thoughts changed. Hobbes? Hobbes… He thought for a moment. It was then that he questioned just what Hobbes really was. He had never thought of why people had referred to him as a stuffed tiger, and if he ever did, he thought he knew what they meant. However, this time, something was different. This wasn't another game of Calvinball, or a fantasy like Spaceman Spiff. This was a serious matter, and for the first time ever, he thought that maybe Hobbes maybe wasn't real! Maybe he was just a figment of imagination that only he saw.
But then he thought back to several past adventures. Their first meet, their first wild wagon ride, the experience with the Transmogrifier, battling the monsters under the bed, the attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons, the adventure they'd once had at a mini-golf course, the journey through his backpack, clearing their names after a milk incident, the attack of Dad's computer, the model plane incident, etc, etc, etc,… The list was endless! All those times, Hobbes had been there. Calvin managed to get the disturbing thoughts out of his head, and just in time.
"Hey," came a voice.
Calvin turned around and saw Hobbes was approaching.
"Hey," Calvin replied.
Hobbes sat down on the rock with him.
"Nice view, huh?"
"Nice view, huh, indeed," Calvin nodded.
"CALVIN!" a voice shouted. "Dinner time!"
Calvin and Hobbes got down and ran back to the campsite, not seeing a spaceship fly back in the opposite direction.
Once they were back at the campsite, Calvin and his stuffed tiger emerged.
"There you are!" Dad said. "Just in time for a scrumptious meal!"
He handed Calvin a pair of sandwiches.
"Spam sandwiches?" Calvin asked. "Oh golly, Dad, you're spoiling us."
"Yeah, I know," Dad said, not noting the sarcasm.
Calvin sat down on a log with Hobbes and started eating the sandwich. However, it wasn't very good, so he spit out the first bite.
"You want it?" he asked Hobbes.
Hobbes handed him his own sandwich. "No thanks."
Calvin noticed Mom and Dad were about to start eating their sandwiches, but then Mom said, "Do you hear something?"
"Let's go see," Dad said.
A figure quickly disappeared into the brush as Mom and Dad went to investigate.
Calvin and Hobbes saw Mom and Dad's sandwiches sitting on the log next to them.
"I've got an idea!" Calvin said excitedly.
He grabbed onto Mom's sandwich. He ripped it apart and to the knife from the spam jars. He scraped off the spam from his sandwich, as well as the you-know-what's that were in it. He then slapped it into Mom's sandwich and put it back together.
Hobbes got the idea, and did the same thing with Dad's and his own.
"Clever, Calvin," Hobbes said. "I don't know what I'd do without you!"
"Same here, ol' buddy," Calvin nodded.
Mom and Dad returned and saw Calvin finishing up the sandwich. The other one was gone, but they assumed he'd eaten.
"Wow, you ate it all!" Dad said. "I'm impressed."
"Well, it was hard to stomach, but my stomach microbes are working hard to keep it down."
Mom and Dad started to eat the sandwiches, not knowing what happened. Calvin snickered and winked to Hobbes. However, he had no idea what he had just done. They failed to notice a green glow from their eyes…
Later that night, Calvin and Hobbes were sitting in their tent, a flashlight on and reading comic books.
"Do you think we should go to bed?" Calvin asked.
"What do you mean?" Hobbes asked, managing to look up.
"Well, we know that something is very wrong on this island. Maybe one of us should stay up and keep watch."
"But we're awake already. Wide awake, I might add."
"Then maybe we should investigate," Calvin said, eyes narrowing.
"But I'm right in the middle of the Captain Napalm comic. He's about to—"
"Don't say it!" Calvin shouted. "I haven't finished it yet."
Calvin slowly unzipped the tent and checked his surroundings. So far, so good. There was no one around. But then again, he was facing the lake. The lake looked pretty peaceful. The canoe was right there, and behind it was civilization. They could see headlights going past the canoe rental shack, which was also in view.
Calvin slowly left the tent and looked around behind them. The forest was quite a fright, as opposed to the lake. There were monstrous-looking trees that seemed to reach out for him with their branches.
"Is it safe?" Hobbes whispered.
"For the most part," Calvin replied.
They grabbed flashlight and slowly left. The minute they were in the woods, there was an eerie green glow coming from Mom and Dad's tent.