Chapter Thirteen part two
(Hey, y'all! :D
How's life?
Good? That's cool!
Bad? It's okay, things will get better.
Tired and want to go to sleep? My advice: Drink a whole can of D.P. (Dr. Pepper)…or coffee.
Ha ha ha ha ha! XD
Okay, okay, okay, I'll cut to the chase.
We now…return to…(drumroll, please ;-))…The Birchwood Twin(s): Halloween Special.
-imaginarytoon1)
Beatrice:
A few things happened before the third part of the challenge officially began. One, when I said 'I took a deep breath and entered the trailer', I made a mistake at the end. I was actually looking for the word 'trail' instead of 'trailer'. I was so focused on the challenge and freeing Lexi that I mixed up my words. Two, Smarty stopped me before I went too far into the woods and he handed me the folded piece of paper. I decided to look at it later and put it in my hoodie pocket. And lastly, after going further in to the woods for some time, I heard a faint sound of gunshots.
That's probably Smarty's signal that he was talking about before this part of the challenge began. I thought.
I know that I make too many realizations but I really have to say this. I noticed a couple of times that whenever Smarty mispronounces a word, he would say the word that he mispronounced before and pronounces it correctly.
Maybe he is trying to improve a little bit on his speech. I thought.
As the trail was expanding little by little and the trees were growing thicker, I came across a river, at least as wide as two and a half persons, that was running downstream. There are no stepping stones and the river was probably at least a couple, not two, feet deep. Smooth stones, algae, a branch, brown mud, and two perch were present inside the river.
I know that I can't stop right where I am because there's a river in front of me. So I decided immediately that if the river was deep, then I had to dog-paddle through the river, regardless if I get swept away from the shore.
Carefully, I stuck my foot in the river. It wasn't too cold and the current wasn't too rough or too fast, which was good. I carefully got in the water and making sure that nothing is going to fall out of my pocket. Nothing but the tips of my shoes touch the rocky and muddy bottom. It's a good time to dog-paddle.
Obviously, like a dog, I swam to the other side of the shore and I crawled on to the shore like a turtle.
Do the Turtle Crawl. Hey-yo, hey-yo. I thought with sarcasm.
I began to wring out the hems of my shorts and my hoodie and I made sure that I won't make this part of the challenge to easy for the other weasels to track me down. I even ran around in circles a couple of times to dry myself a little bit. Then, I took the paper that Smarty gave me out of my pocket and I carefully opened it as I walked away from the river.
After unfolding the paper, I saw a hand-drawn rectangle on the bottom of the paper. The rest of the paper was covered with dark shades, as if I was looking at a sketchpad version of night time. Five to six small, white, blank circles were scattered around the paper and a drawing that makes an outline of a bean plant root that stretches and expands from the bottom to the upper half of the paper. A snake-like drawing that stretches from the lower left corner of the paper to the middle and squiggly lines are displayed through the drawing.
This is a map that I'm holding right now. The rectangle at the bottom of the page was the starting point, the house, I mean, and the scattered blank circles are probably areas of the woods that have been cleared a little bit. I am guessing—
*SNAP!* *BONK!* *HYUCK, HYUCK, HYUCK!*
"Will you shut up, Stupid?!" I heard Flasher exclaim loudly. He sounds really, really close.
"Duh, did you hear something, Flasher?" Stupid asked.
Immediately, I stood on the balls of my feet and took off running. I was heading back to the river.
"I heard something from over there!" Flasher said as his voice is fading, due to running away from him and Stupid.
After arriving at the river, I turtle-crawled back in and swam upstream. The current was pushing me hard, urging me to go downstream instead. I pushed even harder. Then, I heard Flasher and Stupid's running footsteps and I disappeared underwater, leaving no trace.
Harder and harder I swam upstream. I opened my eyes and because of the current, my eyes felt like they were going to be pushed in to my head. I try my best to not give up and I wished that I was a fish. I can swim well but I envy fish because their eyes don't sting or get irritated after swimming around in the water.
Unfortunately, I gave up on swimming upstream and I decided to swim downstream. Fortunately, I have the ability to hold my breath for a certain period of time. So swimming downstream won't be difficult as long as I stay under the water and come back up to the surface for air a couple times without exposing myself.
*BANG!* *SPLASH* *BANG!* *SPLASH* *BANG, BANG, BANG!* *SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH*
I watched the tiny bullets act like mini-torpedoes as they're being shot in the water. I'm going through a challenge that's possibly a combination of Lord Of The Flies and The Most Dangerous Game.
Then, the gunshots stop and I watched the wiggly shapes of Flasher and Stupid walking away from the river and disappear somewhere deeper in the woods.
That was really close.
Carefully, I swam up to the surface of the water and took a deep breath. I dove back in the water and I continued to swim in the river.
When two minutes felt like forever, I swam back up to the surface of the water to take another deep breath. I was caught by a tangled mess tree roots and I carefully climbed out of the water, keeping my guard up and making sure that no weasel comes out of nowhere and makes an attempt to catch me. I have to trick the weasels somehow and find something that'll give me more time to find the tennis ball and to think about what to do next.
I couldn't believe the sight of the damp ground when my wet feet finally touched the land. There were many unnatural things, like duck decoys, pipes as wide and long as my legs, a shiny survival knife, a faded orange balloon with a lot of air in it, latex gloves, and many things of some sorts were scattered around. The only thing that was natural and earthly was a giant mud pit.
It was no surprise to me that people who carelessly throw stuff out of their cars and trucks and their litter ends up somewhere else. But what did surprise me was that I had an idea after looking at the stuff that's scattered around the woods.
My great-granddaddy once told me that if anyone was a friend to nature and the woods, then nature and the woods are friends to you. I'm definitely a friend so I have to put my plan to work.
I took Greasy's apple, roll of duct tape, and the maps to Gallagher's house and the woods out of my hoodie pocket and took off my hoodie. I placed it next to an enormous pile of leaves and gathered up the things to make…a decoy version of me.
I grabbed a rusty bucket and placed it in front of one of the trees. After picking up a manual hand drill, I marked a spot on the tree. I began to drill to the layer where there's an abundant supply of sap. Every now and then, I would stop and check for any weasels running around the area that I was in right now. After checking, I made it to the layer of sap and it runs down to the bucket.
I ran to a pile of old and worn paintbrushes and I ran back to the bucket of sap. I stirred up the sap and began to find some parts that'll make a good decoy.
After some time later, I found a balloon, two latex gloves, two pipes, a black marker, and a torn garbage bag (but no garbage).
I grabbed the bucket of sap and went to work on my decoy. With the black marker, I made a quick but realistic sketch of my sleeping face on the balloon. I rubbed in some sap in my hoodie and stuck the balloon in it. Like making a teddy bear, I stuffed leaves in my hoodie sleeves and I rubbed in a little bit of sap around the outside of the latex gloves. After stuffing the gloves with leaves, I stuffed the bottoms of the gloves into the sleeves. Thanks to the duct tape, I taped parts of the pipes in the garbage bag.
So far, my decoy, now named 'AKA', looks good but what am I going to use to make shoes for AKA?
I looked at the duck decoys. Their colors are fading but they would have to do…for now. I took off the heads of the decoys and applied a not-so-thick coat of tree sap. I placed the decoys at the ends of the pipes and AKA is completed.
"I assure you, Psycho, I heard something over there." Greasy said from a far distance.
"MONSTER!" Psycho exclaimed in fear.
I gasped quietly and made AKA 'sleep' in a fetal position. I stuffed Greasy's apple in my left pocket of my shorts and the survival knife in the other. The maps were stuffed into my shoes and the roll of duct tape was around my wrist like a thick wristband. I ran to the closest tree and with speed, I climbed up to the middle of the tree and concealed myself in a pile of leaves on the same branch.
Greasy and Psycho walk in to the area of lost items and litter.
"PRETTY GIRLY?" Psycho asked with curiosity.
"Muchacha?" Greasy called.
I watch them and they don't even look up. Psycho spots AKA and he walks around it like he was a shark.
"GREASY! PSYCHO! YOU FOUND BIRCHWOOD!" Wheezy exclaimed while he, Stupid, Flasher, and Slimy walked over to Greasy, Psycho, and AKA.
"It's obvious that she's asleep." Slimy said.
"Let's drag her to Boss and when she wakes up, we'll tell her that she lost the challenge." Flasher said.
"All right, boys," Wheezy said. "Give me a *cough, cough* hand here and let's get to work."
Carefully, I watched five of the weasels carry AKA away with a combination of delicacy and roughness. Greasy stays behind and my heart began to beat at a fast pace.
Then, something rolls out of my pocket. I didn't move but I watched…Greasy's apple fall down and landed next to a pile of leaves.
OH GOSH! I'M TOAST! I thought.
Greasy walks to where the apple landed and examines it with confusion. I listen to him say something in Spanish and I watched him walk away after Wheezy called Greasy.
I let out a huge sigh of relief.
I really want to climb back down but since I'm so tired…thirsty…and hungry…I decided to stay on the tree branch and rest.
As I close my eyes, I thought,
I can't believe that the weasels thought that AKA was me! Ha ha! You know, some weasels are just plain stupid.