Chapter Seven: The Rattlesnake Round-up.
We had been really busy throughout the summer working the restaurant and the Haunted Meadow. As August turned into September it was time to start shutting down the store and looking ahead to our next challenge.
When we had our meeting Earl spoke up right away and said that he had an idea that he’d been thinking about for awhile and he thought it could be a good idea for the club to pursue.
This sounded interesting and I could tell that we were all intrigued. Everyone was silent as we waited for Earl to explain his idea.
“I spent some time last summer traveling with my family,” he said. “We went to some theme parks where you would walk around to see the exhibits. I thought at the time that it was too bad that they needed to have all of the signs directing us to go this way or that way all of the time. It really detracted from the experience.”
Earl stopped talking and we all just waited for him to continue. After a few more moments of silence James prodded him.
“And you thought of something that might help?” he asked.
“Yes,” Earl answered, coming out of his trance. “I think I did and I think we could make it pretty cheaply and we could market it.”
That’s the moment the Rattler was begun. Earl’s plan was cool. Basically he explained that instead of directing someone with signs in an open area where you wish them to follow a set path or stay inside set limits you use sounds. The more serious the infraction, the more nasty the sound. It sounded really cool and four days later we had a test area set and ready for experiments.
We chose a spot just beyond the Haunted Meadow at Lance Ranch. The area was a mix of trees, bushes, and sage brush piled up against rocky outcroppings and bare dusty areas. Earl’s goal was to have a person walk into the midst of the area and by using sound alone, direct them to where he wanted them to go.
I drew the short straw and got to enter the field. I was told to walk forward 150 paces and then turn in a circle 10 times. Then I was told to wander around and see what happens. Earl had a spot marked on the ground with a home base set down. I wouldn’t be able to see it until I was practically standing on it.
I did as I was told and I ended up a bit dizzy and alone in the middle of the field. I decided on a direction and started heading that direction. After about 20 paces I heard a loud rattle coming from the bushes directly in front of me. I turned to the right and started that direction and once again traveled for a short while until I heard another loud rattle from directly ahead. I decided to head in the opposite direction and try my luck that way.
This time I was able to travel for quite some time before I came to a spot where two simultaneous rattles started. One directly in front of me and one to my left. Deciding to be a little difficult I reversed my direction and started right back in the direction I had just come from. After stepping that way for only a few steps the rattle started from in front of me leaving me just the one option to go.
In a few more minutes and with just a couple simpler course corrections I heard a shout and looked down to see the home plate at my feet. The test was a success. Earl had steered me right where he wanted me to be without using anything other than a few rattlesnake sounds coming from some speakers strategically hidden around the field. We headed back to the clubhouse to celebrate and discuss our next move.
During that session we refined and improved upon the plan in a few super cool ways. First we added the ability to use a motion detector to trigger the signal to make it easier for someone to utilize it without needing a lot of help to watch where people were walking plus making it less confusing for the worker. With the motion detector if someone steps into the range finder, the noise is triggered and the message is sent.
“Can we do other things than rattlesnake sounds?” Amie asked.
“Of course!” Earl answered. “I can use digital sound and get it to playback when we trigger it. We can even set it to trigger lights or any other electronic system we attach it to.”
“Oh! I have a great idea!” Cora shouted. “Can you set each one to play a musical note?”
“Easily,” answered Earl.
“We could set them up to play back a song as a person walks or runs by them,” she answered. “We could even add some cool lighting and maybe some colored smoke or fog effects.”
“Wow!” James said. “That will be fun to do. We have to film it.”
That’s when we decided that we needed to create a video highlighting some of the possibilities of using the Rattler. We spent the next week doing just that and by the end of the week we had a great three minute video showing me finding my way through the field to the home plate, along with a great clip of Cora running through a set of Rattlers as they played The Star Spangled Banner. Earl was a real patriot. The song added some great firework explosions and smoke effects for the bombs bursting in air and a dramatic red, white and blue colored light display during the last line ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’. The last few segments showed some of the different sound, light, and smoke options you could use and how easy it is to change them.
It was a great video and when we finished with it we didn’t really want to be done with the Rattler but we didn’t know what else we could do except wait for some potential sales.
That’s when Amie had a great idea.
“You know, Halloween is coming,” she said.
The resulting silence coupled with the excited looks let me know that everyone already wanted to do her idea without even knowing what it was.
“It seems to me,” she continued. “That we could use these in a kind of Halloween Maze with some ghosts, witches and goblins.”
“We could use the Hay Monster again!” I said. I really liked the Hay Monster.
That started another session of brainstorming. A really good session. At the end of the planning session the idea that we rolled out was to take our Rattlers and Hay Monster and make them the beginning attraction of a Haunted Woods to end all Haunted Woods. We’d make a lot of money and not have to do very much of the work. It went like this.
We would spend the next few days canvassing the city for clubs or merchants that would like to join in the Haunting. The requirement was that each participant would be assigned a path or open area that they would be responsible for ‘haunting’. Each merchant would be allowed to add some merchandising or marketing to their location but would need to have their haunting plan submitted and approved in advance. Participants could choose one of three options. Tot Spot, meant to be safe and not scary for parents bringing in very young children. Mellow Monster, intended to frighten, but at a very mild level suitable to grade school children. Black Diamond Demented, designed to be very frightening to all ages.
We planned on having a healthy mix of each with at least three catering to the younger kids and the rest devoted to frightening everyone else. We already had a great spot to use for the Haunted Meadow since the spot we used to scare Bob and Tracy was also located close to a county road so people could drive to where we are and not have to walk very far. Plus, we planned to use the Rattlers and some other effects to make the walk into the meadow a fun and interesting one.
The next day we canvassed the town. We had a lot of interested merchants and the organizations and clubs we contacted almost all wanted to be a part of the action. We planned to be open on the weekends through Halloween and for the four nights before as well. We were charging admission and of course offered snacks and drinks for sale along with some branded merchandise. We were getting pretty good at this.
As an added incentive to the participants we offered a cash prize of $1000 for the ‘path’ that was voted the best by people attending the Haunted Meadow. We knew that this should help get some increased frightening.
And it did. We actually were in the position of auditioning the ideas before we approved the participants. There were some really great ones. I had to admit I was excited to see some of them myself.
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Bob and Tracy were on one team. Bob’s uncle Mark was the owner of Annison’s Plumbing and Heating and he had apparently chosen Bob and Mark to work on their contribution. We had to approve the plan since their proposal included teleporting the crowd from one spot to another. How they were going to possibly pull that off was a mystery, but since we didn’t require the participants to submit their plans in advance, we would just have to wait and see. We all decided to keep our eyes on this one though.
We placed the Rattlers at the edges of the meadow and at the front of each path leading to the separate areas. The Rattlers showed people that they were at the edge of the meadow and also showed people the fright level of each pathway. If it was safe for all ages the Rattler would sound off with a purring sound like a contented kitten. If the path was designed for the younger kids with just a hint of scare quality then the rattler emitted a chicken sound, buck-buck-bacaw! And if it was the scariest, the rattlers would sound out with an eerie bones crackling together sound. It was great.
For the next 10 days the work progressed until we were all set to open on the first Friday night in October. Not that there hadn’t been quite a few glitches along the way. We were kept busy helping to solve the problems from minor to major so much that we hadn’t been able to keep even half an eye on Bob and Tracy and the Annison’s Plumbing team.
That Friday the weather was great and the excitement was high as we saw the crowd growing and the lines starting to get big awaiting our opening. We were already making money selling snacks and souvenirs, mostly Halloween themed items like glow necklaces, lighted eyeglasses, vampire fangs, and more.
After we opened things went smoothly. The Rattlers did a great job directing people and we noticed lots of satisfied smiles as people were leaving. We kept hearing about the great time they had at the Teleportation Booth. Almost everyone was talking about it. It definitely made me curious as to what it was. A kid I knew from school was going about and raving about it so I called after him “Hey! Where’s the teleportation booth anyway?”
“You should know!” he answered. “It’s your place, isn’t it?”
Now I remembered why I didn’t like him so much. “Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Just tell me, ok?”
“It’s Annison’s Plumbing,” he said. “And it’s really cool.”
The next day we held a meeting and decided that we needed to check out all the areas and make sure that everyone was delivering what they had promised. I think we all wanted to see what the fuss was all about at the Plumbing booth. As soon as we opened, we designated Peter and Mark to wander over and check it out.
Twenty minutes later they came running up out of breath and excitedly talking a million miles a minute.
“Wait!” James said. “We can’t make out a word you’re saying! One at a time!”
“It was great!” Mark said. “They moved us from one spot to another to another in just a few seconds and then they made one of us disappear!”
“What?” James asked. “It has to be a trick!”
“If it is, it’s the best that I’ve ever seen,” said Peter.
Now we all wanted to see it so we drew straws to determine the order we could go over to see the booth. Cora and I drew the shortest straws so we would be going last. We had the pleasure of seeing each team of two come running up and heaping even more praise upon the wonders of the Plumbers. We were catching comments like “Did you see that tree move?” “Where did that kid go anyway?” “He just disappeared!” “I know! That was amazing!” “Let’s go again!”
“Wait!” I yelled to that one. “We get to go once before you get to go twice!”
“Okay, okay. Go take your turn.”
Cora and I set off following the Rattlers until they led us to the Plumbers Path. We started down it and noticed that there was a force which seemed to be pushing us back as we tried to move down the path.
“Look!” Cora said. “They’re using fans to cause the air flow to go against us.”
“Nice touch!” I said. We moved down the pathway and started to read signs warning us to keep out. It was posted as an experimental government installation using radiation and testing diseases. There were dead animals lying alongside the path.
“Fake,” Cora said. But I noticed her voice was slightly shaky. It was an effective display.
“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t want to say more in case my voice was shaky too.
Towards the end of the path there were two red cones alongside each side of the path with red and blue flashing lights and a robotic voice repeating warning messages.
“Warning! You are in a highly radioactive quarantined area. Leave immediately and proceed to the nearest medical facility to be treated for radiation poisoning! You have less than 30 minutes.”
The message repeated itself in Spanish, French, Russian and Chinese. I had to admit it was effective. Right beyond the flashing warning lights was the remains of a gate system that looked like something had crashed through it and broken it down.
I had to admit it was effective and somewhat frightening. After we passed the gate there was more signs of damaged furnishings. It was amazing what they had done with some small amounts of debris to give off the appearance of a damaged industrial complex. The close proximity of the surrounding trees helped cover the background and made it much easier to design.
We came to an opening in the trees that had a wall built of large white bricks with some damaged spots in the center. There was a large door with an armed guard holding a rifle and wearing a bio-hazard suit next to it. He was counting off numbers as he let us pass. We entered into the room inside which appeared to be an open reception area with white-washed walls and a desk. There was a series of fluorescent bulbs that were all burned out except for one which flickered.
I looked very hard and could tell that the walls were probably plywood sheets that had been carefully and cleverly painted to look like the inside of a government lab building. The lowlight helped to mask the reality and add to the effect.
Another scientist in a bio suit directed eight of us into another opening. We stepped into a small room and were told by a loudspeaker that we were going to be decontaminated. But then another voice spoke and explained something different.
“Tell them the truth!” he urged.
“Stay out of this!” the first voice commanded.
“They have a right to know!” the second voice said.
“Where they’re going they don’t need to know.” First voice.
“They at least need to know that one of them won’t be coming back!” Second voice.
“That’s the luck of the draw. And we need to take that loss.” First voice.
“Hold on!” First voice. “3-2-1-“.
The door had closed and there was a shaking motion and a loud humming sound. Then there was a crash and part of the wall opened up to reveal that we were somewhere in the depths of space. There were some beautiful stars and moons surrounding a large bluish planet and as we looked a small comet passed by the window. It was great.
The wall closed and again we felt the motion and the humming noise. A few seconds later the wall opened again and we saw that we were rushing at an incredible rate of speed through some kind of blurry tube.
“Wormhole!” said one guy who was wearing a blue baseball cap.
The wall closed again and the motion and the humming started again. Seconds later the wall opened and there was a deep blue orb in the center of the view. The orb pulsated slowly and then started to speak.
“Earthlings,” it said in a mechanical sounding low voice. “You have come to pay us your debt to correct the obscene damage you have caused on your planet. We will now choose one of you to remain here as to ensure that your race does no more experimenting in this area. Stand still while we choose.”
A few seconds went by and then the voice stated “We have chosen. Come now!”
There was a bright flash followed by a couple seconds of darkness and then the low
light was enough to allow us to look around again. The orb was still there but the guy in the baseball cap wasn’t. On the floor where he had stood was his cap. He was nowhere to be seen.
“Go now!” the orb ordered. “Return to your planet and disturb the cosmos no more!”
The wall closed again and we felt the motion and the humming again before everything stopped again and the door opened revealing a scientist without the bio suit on.
“You did it!” he said. “The world owes you a great big thank you. But you can’t tell anyone what happened here ever. Now leave this place and do not return!”
We were directed to exit on a different pathway than the one we walked in on and came out into the meadow area.
“That was great!” Cora said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I have to agree.”
We headed back to our friends and spent the next few hours trying to decide how they had done it. We were already convinced that we would be handing them the thousand dollars the next day.
And we did. Amie and James made the presentation in a meeting with all of the participants’ right before we opened. No one even contested that we hadn’t made the right choice. The only bad part of it was that Tracy and Bob were the ones that we had to give the check to. As they received it I asked Tracy if he wanted to share with us just how they had pulled off the disappearance.
“No,” he said. “I think we’ll keep that a secret.”
“The toughest part that I want to know how you pulled off getting one of us who were riding along to disappear so quickly and not have us aware of it,” I said.
“Yep,” he answered. “That is the hard part. I think we’ll keep that a secret too.”
“Okay, fine,” I said. “But I can’t help notice that you do have that nice blue baseball cap on today.”
With a slight blush, Tracy took the check and walked away.
The End!
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