James woke up with a bad case of headache and he was suddenly very hungry whilst feeling as if he wanted to throw up. What had happened? He looked around to see the others getting themselves up with groans. Seli got up quickly.
‘I’m going home’ she said firmly, ‘Had enough of this’ she had not gone very far when they heard her squeak a small ‘Oh.’
The boys turned and saw that the world had gone mad. The bikes they brought were not the same bikes they were facing. The bikes were 10 feet now and gargantuan. They all stood back to back, properly addressing their surroundings for the first time since they blacked out. What should have once been pebbles or small rocks were now huge gigantic boulders, as tall as half of the Eiffel Tower and as wide as, er, yeah, that, imagine the vast wideness.
‘What the…’ Jones started but ended abruptly as a creature scuttled over the back of one of the boulders. What would have been a normal, small, squishy ant was a huge, dark brown ant. It eyes rested on the teenagers below and it seemed to smile. Its antennae and mandibles shook and clicked excitedly. It had found delicious prey.
‘Run!’ James screamed with all his might, as if he might scare off the ant but it run brutally towards them. The others needed no telling. They run down the mountain, slower than usual since they were small. The Army ant chased them wildly; it might not have eaten in a few days, James could tell from the way it was determined to get them.
The hill was too steep. It increased their momentum and their chances of slipping and falling. They dodged huge boulders and rocks and sometimes climbed over them. Jones was behind as usual and he was already panting and sweating severely. His pace was slowing gradually. And then James heard a ripping of fabric tear through the air and looked back to see the ant had torn off the hem of Jones’ trousers. One more snap like that and Jones would be history. James had to act fast.
He scanned the area with his eyes; how many ants were going to join the chase? Then he spotted a broad but flexible stick protruding out of the ground.
Wow, his eyesight seemed to have improved over the last few…seconds, maybe, it was almost like he could see every spot and speck around him, like he was a living telescope.
He hurried over to where the stick was and stood beside it. Then he timed the ant. It had changed target from Jones to James; sensing for a more foolish target. It broke into a fast run and jumped, ready to pounce upon James, but James pulled the stick backwards and released it just in time. The stick struck like a cowboy’s whip and lashed the ant squarely in the face. It was forced back, writhing and whimpering in pain.
James suddenly heard whoops and applause. The others had waited for him. Quite unnecessarily, he thought.
‘Run!’ James yelled. ‘It’s not dead, it’s just in pain’
They resumed their hasty escape. The ant was back on track now; the only difference was that they had a few feet of a start point than last and the ant sported a red angry slash across its face, souvenir of what James did to it. They made their way quickly down the mountain, the ant hot on their heels.
Finally, they reached the house and climbed the steps which now looked like the Great Wall of China. After a few seconds, they landed on the porch and James was tripped smartly down by the ant. Somewhere behind him, Seli gasped.
The ant approached James slowly. Guess he likes to play with his food, James thought. It had reached him now, its shadow engulfing him in partial darkness.
‘Easy, boy...or girl...is it too late for apologies, eh?’James smiled, trying to cover the fear hitting him from all sides.
The ant’s mandibles clicked wildly.
“So, no?”
It placed the sharp mandibles around James’ neck and lifted three feet in the air. The mandibles pierced James neck like a hot knife. It was pressing ever harder, ready to tear its prey apart and digest it. James struggled and held the mandibles at the sides, trying to pry them open but the ant only edged James head to its dark hole for a mouth. Then a squishing sound filled the air and a foam like substance dribbled out of the ant’s mouth. It released James slowly and fell to the ground, eyes opened. James looked up and saw Nemo absent-mindedly lifting his foot from the crushed ant and heading for door.
‘Oi! Nemo’ James screamed, jumping and waving frantically at the dazed man up there. He had to dive out of the way to avoid getting squished by Nemo too. He watched the already drunk man going inside the house. Nemo couldn’t hear him, or see him…nor would anyone else.
His vision was blocked by a tangle of sleek and shiny black hair and a beautiful face. Seli.
‘James, are you all right?’ she asked James. James nodded and Seli looked him in the eyes deeply, her expression soft. She was so beautiful James wanted to give her a peck there and then. Then Leo dragged Seli away from James. ‘Let him breathe, he’s alright, right?’
James smiled. Typical Leo for you pretends he doesn’t care much but he really does.
‘Yeah’ James said. ‘Yeah’ and Leo helped him to his feet.
They entered the house through the cat flap to meet Michel watching football, sitting at the edge of his seat and frequently yelling things at the deaf players. ‘Goal...NO that should have been a goal, what’s wrong this guy, phhhhh, purlease’
After many futile attempts to catch Michel’s attention, the four took refuge on the dining table, trying to figure out what to do.
‘Possibly, time has also “shrunk” with us’ Jones said thoughtfully and scientifically.
‘What?’ the other three asked in unison.
‘Haven’t you noticed why nobody is worried we haven’t come back?’ He replied as a matter of factly. ‘I think, for example, two hours of our time will be two hours of their (he pointed to Michel) time. I think we are in another dimension, another episode of time’
‘Ok,” James shaking his head to stop his brain from blowing up o Jones’s theory what we should know is that it starts and ends with this thing’ said James, pointing to the necklace. “You know I want it to be a watch, more manly,’ he added as an afterthought and touched the necklace at the center. Immediately, the necklace dissolved into fast blur and snaked around his body to his arm.
James could have cried out, thinking the thing was going to attack him but it swirled around his wrist like a tornado and settled, leaving a sparkling new watch in around James’ wrist.
‘Whoa’ the other three gasped in fascination and immediately copied James, saying their wishes and touching the center of their necklace. Glinting a little at the face of the watch, were small inscribed words; TRANSFORMAT, James guessed that was what the thing was called. Transformat. Why the heck was it called that? Leo changed his to a watch just like James, Jones, a pair of glasses but Seli decided to keep hers as it was, saying it was beautiful.
They retreated further the table and sat on some ripe bananas. They felt like cushion now. Nobody seemed like talking about anything now; they were all deeply involved in their own thoughts, accessing their situation.
Then James saw his mum coming downstairs, checking her watch and saying, ‘Haven’t they spent much time up there already?’
‘Let them have their fun’ Michel answered as Lucy grabbed the remote and changed it to a News channel. ‘They need it’
Fun. James thought, that’s exactly what they were doing right now, having fun.
Together they watched the “Searcher” news channel, where a lady reporter was talking to a scientist in a long, white, lab coat and white hair. Beneath the TV screen were the words, “A dangerous disease strikes”
‘So Doctor Conroe” the reporter addressed the scientist, ‘Can you make a brief, comprehensible understanding of this dangerous disease you and your team discovered’
‘Well, my instinctive answer should be “no”’ said Dr. Conroe in a light voice. ‘But that is not understandable enough, so all I have to say is that this disease is a dangerous combination of some…chemicals. When you contract it, hemorrhage or hemophilia begins and within hours you’re dead’
/> ‘How many hours exactly?’ the reporter asked.
‘Less than twenty four hours for sure’ Dr. Conroe said with indifference.
‘And there is no cure?’
‘No cure and no way to stop it, well, as far as we know’
‘Thank you Doctor Conroe’ the reporter said, shuffling papers in her hands, ‘Hope to meet you again for updates.’
‘You are very welcome’
‘Wicked’ Jones murmured.
‘Hmmm…’ Leo said dreamily.
‘What’s up?’ James asked him.
‘Uh, oh’ Seli muttered. ‘Whenever he gets that look, it says, “trouble, here I come”
James looked at Leo and truly, his eyes were lit with mischief and he was beaming. He started walking backwards, his eyes set ahead of him at something James couldn’t see.
Leo looked back finally and, satisfied with the distance, he stopped. The he started counting down from five.
He started…
‘Five’…
He bent down and touched the ground.
‘Four’…
He positioned himself like he was about to race, kneeling down.
‘Three’…
He stretched his legs behind him as if ready to run, his position like that of a patient cheetah ready to leap on its prey.
‘Two’…
‘Leo, what are you doing?’Seli asked worriedly.
‘One’...
Leo ran like he had just received a hot rod to the bottom. He run past the fruit bowl, past his friends, across the table and when he reached the edge of the table, he jumped, so high.
Seli gasped, Jones hung his mouth, James was in shock, his friend had gone mental, ready to commit suicide.
But just as Leo started to sink in the air, in a fast motion blur, he was suddenly sitting on a fly. He looked startled at first, and then he recovered and shifted himself to a more comfortable sitting position. Then he held the fly by its antennae and started controlling the fly, turning it antennae left and right to show direction.
‘Wanna quit drooling and hop on?’ Leo the crazy jeered at his friends, patting the fly’s back behind him.
The boys, of course, didn’t waste no time, they jumped onto the back of the fly like it was just a cab. Seli, however, was seemingly reluctant but jumped on anyway, muttering something about how they should stick together and how she was surrounded by only boys.
The fly ride was fun; they were zooming into the air like a jet, on a fly! James felt its wings fluttering and buzzing wildly a million times a second, vibrating its whole body and the bodies of its passengers as well.
Air was ruffling their hair and forcing its way into James mouth and nostrils. James would have been careful to shut his mouth lest he swallow a fly but now he was on the fly!
Leo seemed to be a good pilot; like this was a thing normal people did every day. It was as if he had been training for this for all his life… as if.
They were hitting other flies or racing flies and sometimes making a run- or fly for it as the fly chased them, Yo! Tongue twister right there, aha.
Leo decided to have some fun with Michel and Lucy, buzzing in their ears and making them slap them until Michel threatened to go upstairs for the repellant; they veered going that direction again.
Every thought seemed to have seeped through James mind, gone with the wind, maybe.
Then, Leo spotted Nemo sneaking to the dining table for some alcohol and they decided to have some fun with him also. They did the same thing they did to Michel and Lucy, buzzing in and out of Nemo’s ear. But he, however, could hardly whisper or Michel and Lucy will catch him in his act.
It was fun at first, disturbing Nemo and watching him slap himself again and again. James was laughing hard, seeing Nemo’s face contorting with rage he must hide for the greater good of alcohol. Then James saw Nemo’s eyeballs slide quietly to the corners, watching them but seeing nothing but the fly, otherwise, he wouldn’t have done what he did.
James noticed something very wrong was going to happen, he called out Leo’s name, not taking his eyes away from the huge eyeballs.
‘Leo... Leo? Leo!
Even Seli had seen something was wrong and was trying to catch Leo’s attention too but Leo was laughing at Nemo so hard his attention could not bought be caught that easily. The fly too had seen it; James could see Nemo reflected in its many eyes. But it was hopelessly helpless, being controlled by Leo…
It was too late anyway, Nemo had slithered his hand behind him and reared it like a venomous cobra, ready to spit venom on its prey, and he smacked the fly senseless and unknown to him, the teenagers too.
The fly spiraled out of control and its passengers could not get a better grip as they were thrown into the air in all directions. The fly hit the dining table, shaking and jerking uncontrollably until it lay still and awkwardly rigid.
James was sinking into the air, no idea what or where he was going to fall until he plunged into something foul smelling and a little warm. He was knocked inside the liquid fully which was like a smelly large swimming pool. If he had not taken those swimming classes in school, he sure would have been a goner. He waited a few seconds then he swam up to the surface, gasping for air. What he thought was a swimming pool was white and bubbly and surrounding it, was a transparent glass.
Wait a moment; James put a finger into the liquid, reluctantly tasting it. This was no rotten pool; it was Nemo’s cup of alcohol.
James thought whilst spitting out the alcohol. This means that…
Something thrashed in the alcohol beside him. Jones. Drowning.
James dived into the water and swam quickly to Jones, half carrying, half pulling him to the surface; Jones broke the surface finally, gasping for air.
‘Do you know what this is...’ he asked, bewildered.
James nodded before Jones could go any further, a few feet from them, Leo and Seli were arguing with each other.
Just then the glass lifted in the air with a jerk and tilted down alarmingly, plunging them all into the alcohol again. Then it started to zoom towards a gaping, dark hole ahead of them. James need Jones’ screams to tell him what was happening.
They were all going to be swallowed by Nemo.