Friday Short Story #7: The Red Pill or the Blue Lightsaber

Prompt: "An action thriller camping trip someone that thinks he is a jedi and someone who thinks he is in the matrix"

Bryce crept on his belly towards his still sleeping friend. The sounds in the dark were growing closer with every inch he gained, making each rustle in the tent seem louder and louder.

Like cupping a tiny bird, Bryce slid his hand over John’s mouth. Then, firmly he shook him awake.

John’s eyes snapped open and rolled wildly in their sockets until they fell on Bryce – affixing him with a shocked and almost angry stare. With a single finger over his lips, Bryce slowly removed his hand from John’s, mouthing the word “bear” as he lowered the finger.

Muffled snuffling grunts rose from the night, right outside the tent - dry needles and twigs snapping as something unseen circled the campsite.

Suddenly, a bright blue light burst into the tent, washing out the darkness and every other detail with it.

As fast as he could, Bryce threw himself over the light, knocking the phone from Johns hands.

“What in the world are you doing!?” Bryce hissed through closed teeth, ripping the now dark phone from the floor of the tent.

“I was trying to dial out!” John whisper yelled back. “This is too dangerous, I have to log out, but we don’t have service…”

The grunts grew louder outside with the new commotion, still seeming to circle the area.

“I have no idea what you are talking about, but that was all just a terrible idea.” Bryce shot back, quieter this time. “The force will guide us through this, but we have to be smarter than that. Do you have a knife with you in here?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. All our food is up the bear pole, so it will probably head that way if we can stay quiet. After that, I think I know what to do. Give me the knife and wait for my signal.”

Silence filled the tent and the huffing of the beast filled the night.

Just as the sounds were drawing back away from the tent, Bryce’s nose started to itch.

No! He thought, feeling the familiar cloying creep of dander allergens. Maybe I can use the force to suppress my sneezes. Its just going to get worse until we get away!

Through the tent filtered moonlight, John looked over to see Bryce’s face scrunched up and red with concentration. Silently, John reached for a small silver case next to his pillow and cracked it open with a tiny – tick!

Easing one eye open, Bryce asked, “what is that?”

“Take the red pill in here and everything will be better, trust me.” John replied, stretching his hand out, which held a single red pill.

“We don’t have time for this!” Bryce said, his words barely more than mouthing syllables. “I think its by the food by now. Start getting everything we need together so you can grab it in one go. Hopefully it’ll just go away, but we need to be ready.”

As John set to his work, Bryce crawled to the tent wall opposite to where the noises were coming from and readied his knife. I sure hope he kept this sharp. Was his only thought as he slowly slid the knife through the tent fabric. It went through like a sigh.

The force is with me! Thought Bryce as he started to cut a trap door in the back of the tent, another wave of itching running in and out of his nose till he could feel it encompass his eyes as well. Right hand occupied with the knife, his only relief was to try to hold his nose closed with his free hand. That gesture, however, was the last straw.

He sneezed.

A large angry grunt rose from behind the tent – heavy snapping and cracking accelerating in its wake.

“Go!” Bryce yelled as he threw the knife up through the tent fabric. Parting it open to the chill night air.

John shot through the opening, the collected gear snagging and tearing the whole wider, but also sending him tumbling to the ground. In an instant, Bryce pulled him to his feet and kicked him into motion with a swift foot to the backside.

They were both in a full run as the sound of ripping fabric erupted behind where they had just been.

Bryce ran bare foot through the night, caring not for the sabs of pain from needles, twigs, and tripping roots. John kept pace as well, impressive for all the gear he had collected. When it felt like the threat had passed, they slowed to a stop.

Silence was all they found in the dark forest night.

“Here are your shoes.” John said, shoving them into Bryce’s chest. “Get yourself situated so you can take some of this gear off me. Do you still have my phone?”

“Yes,” Bryce replied, still puffing from the run, “But you have to promise me one of that ‘dial out’ nonsense. We need to STAY lost from that bear.”

“I told you, we don’t have service any way. Your touchy feely force stuff can’t get us a signal can it?” John said, taking a drink from the flask he had brought.

“Not like you’re thinking.” Bryce said picking bits from his feet before putting on his shoes. “But maybe a different kind of signal.”

Bryce closed his eyes and thought about his father. In the movies, Luke always hears some mentor tell him what to do. Maybe I can do something like that.

Sure, you can’t use moss or anything to tell north and south in the dark son, but the night sky has all kinds of clues if you’re smart enough to remember them. The trick is finding the sky through the trees – echoed a voice in the night. John didn’t seem to hear anything at all.

“We need to find a clearing,” Bryce snapped to attention. “I could see moonlight through the tent, so we should be able to see clearings in the dark pretty easily… There! To your left. It looks more silver over there.”

“Fantastic,” John said as he handed a share of the packs to Bryce. After the last pack, John held out his hand one last time in front of Bryce. “I promise it will help. Worst case, nothing will happen. Best case, I can drag you out of this mess if that clearing happens to get us service.” Then dropped the red pill into Bryce’s hand.

I bet it will finally shut him up thought Bryce as he stared at the pill. He’s just full of crap any way. Has been since we were kids. With a swig from the flask and a gulp, the red pill was gone.

Nothing happened.

“Right” said Bryce, relieved for some reason. “Let’s go.”

As they crept through the night shrouded forest, no sound suggested that the bear had followed them. Slowly but surely, the clearing grew closer and closer.

“Ah! Shit!” came John’s voice, knee jerk tight as only words in pain can sound.

“What happened!” Bryce asked through the dark.

“Something bit me.”

“What?”

Something bit me!”

“I know but what?!”

“I didn’t see, idiot, its dark!”

Bryce heard John wince through his teeth as he stopped talking.

“We’re almost to the clearing, then we can start getting out of here, just hang on.” Bryce said. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah, right now it just burns like hell, but my ankle is getting tighter, we should hurry.”

“Here, sit down over there where its bright and I’ll try to get a look at your ankle.” Bryce said as they limped into the clearing.

The area was oblong, which made it hard to tell exactly how big the clearing was. More clear ground was visible behind some stands of trees, but others were walls of darkness. Moonlight bathed the grasses and painted the whole world in silvery blue.

As Bryce started to roll up John’s pant leg, he said “The moon light is so bright, I might actually have trouble finding the right stars. I don’t know the moon well enough to know if its headed east or west, or what.”

But John was not listening. He was already intent on his phone – its light now minuscule compared to the lunar splendor around them.

“I have service.” He said quietly.

“Ugh, John, I need to take care of your bite first, it sounds venomous!” Bryce said, exasperated.

“You don’t know what this means! I can dial us out of here!” Said John, pulling his leg from Bryce to stand and already dialing his phone.

After a pause, he spoke again, “Yeah, I know its late, but we need to get out of here… I got bit, there was a bear… No, I can’t explain, just get us out. You can use the phone GPS to find us, I know its not ideal all the way out here… Hello? Hello?!”

John slowly lowered the phone from his ear.

“I lost them.” Was all he said before slumping to the ground.

“John,” Bryce said after a time “Your leg doesn’t look good…”

“I can feel that.”

“Maybe we… maybe we could…”

John’s hand lit up and vibrated. A single text glowed on the screen. It read: CALL GOT DROPPED. GOT A GPS SIGNAL THOUGH. ON THE WAY.

“Why does it say, ‘from mothership’.” Asked Bryce as is eyes readjusted to the dark after staring at the screen.

“Shut up.” Said John, “What matters is that we are going to be ok.”

More timeless moments passed as the moon moved from one end of the clearing to the other. Then, Bryce spoke up. “I thought it was going to be faster than this. The whole ‘leaving the matrix behind’ thing. Do you think the force is like a glitch in the hologram you keep talking about, or will it still be there in the real world?”

“Shut up” John said again. Ignoring Bryce by focusing on keeping pressure on his leg.

Then, on the other side of one of the dark stretches of trees, came two headlights that swung about and came to a stop. The sound of opening and closing car doors was followed by the bray of a large dog and a woman’s voice yelling “John! John are you around here?! It’s your mother!”

Bryce slowly fixed John with a smirk as sideways as a snake. “Mothership, huh?”

The dog’s nose picked up where the boys were before the mother’s flashlight and was already loping across the clearing. It barreled straight into Bryce.

Laughing as the dog licked his face, Bryce noticed he wasn’t sneezing. In fact, he hadn’t had the urge since around when they made it to the clearing.

“Hey,” He said to John after he got the dog to calm down. “Was that pill just a bunch of dayquil?"

“I told you. You had to take it before you could come with me. I knew my mom would bring the dog to pick us up.”

END

This and all "Friday Short Stories" are requested by friends and loved ones via social media and chosen at random. Thanks this weeks goes to my friend Bryce for this pop culture clash of a request. Thanks Bryce (not to be confused with this stories character lol).