InHale -1-

-1- Lee Burrows

Growing up you'd be lucky to have and develop a friendship as close as the one I had with Lee. I can still fondly recall that moment in kindergarten when Lee threw his arm around my shoulder. I had gotten into a fight with a group of other kids; name calling that escalated into fists and bloody noses. He backed me up, jumping straight into that mess. Before long the teachers broke the scuffle up and gave us each a talking to, along with some time out. Lee told me, “Kurt, we gotta stick together, just you and me.” And we did, we were like glue and paper.

I admired Lee. He was headstrong, adventurous, and very loyal. He loved playing new games, going on camping trips, or doing anything to distract himself. His favorite activity was exploration, in particular, exploring abandoned homes. One time, when we were exploring an old boarded up house, looking for things to collect and reuse I found him staring at an old family photo. He looked serious and not in a way I was used to. Blowing the dust off the frame he turned his head to look at me.

“This won't happen to us. We'll make this town great, just you and me.” He said.

Our youth was filled to the brim with adventure and escapism. From plotting out bike rides to quests through the forests and mountains, we did all that we could. For you see growing up poor in a small town all we had was our minds and muscles to carry us through the dulldrums that commonly marked the time between school and home. Don't get me wrong, our town, West Markings was a beautiful place. Settled in the Cascade mountains long ago, it was famous for its early mining and logging industries, but those jobs don't carry an economy forever, in fact they usually wither within a century. Eventually people leave for others places and other opportunities. The homes that are left behind become bitter empty tombs with stories carried by the breeze.

The towns that do survive morph and adapt with the times. Whether that means being a host to a Walmart and various fast food chains or becoming a gentrified tourist trap. Feeding on the little flies that drive in for its sweet gimmick they saw on social media. But not West Markings. Due to ongoing misfortune our town would continue to bleed, leading its residents to often curse the town. Hell, we weren't even deemed valuable enough for a McDonald's.

That didn't really concern us. For me and Lee, whatever trouble was affecting the town didn't touch us and besides, we were too preoccupied with our lofty dreams. Dreams of making it big, being heroes, or slaying monsters. Often times we'd create maps to made up treasure, visit made up trolls under bridges, or slay made up dragons near ditches we'd dig.

That imagination would lead to one of my proudest moments. On Lee's 10^(th) birthday. Together with a bunch of friends and their parents, including Lee's dad, Harvey, we built a massive cardboard cave system, castle, and town. I was in charge of drawing monsters in the cave and handling the tape. The joyous look on Lee's face when he was brought to his backyard to see it all was something I'd never forget.

“All of this for me? I'm going to have to get ya guys back for this one. Thank you everyone.” Lee said excitedly.

“Before you return any favors, I think its time to suit up and slay some orcs.” Harvey said while passing out sets of painted cardboard armor and plastic swords.

From fighting with toy weapons to tossing water balloons that day was perfect. We ate good BBQ, wrestled over the few PlayStation controllers, and played like we weren't about to start middle school soon. We exhausted the sun until its warm horizon gave way to the evening hues of blue and black. One could be oblivious to the oncoming trouble set to arrive and change everything. With rumble and shake we witnessed a large convoy arrive in our humble town. A long line of military vehicles rolled through the unkempt streets stirring everyone from their quiet lives.

All of the neighborhood kids were ecstatic, myself included. Something like this has never happened before and we were bound to see what was going on. Our parents had other plans. We were ushered away into the safety of our homes by the adults. I could tell there was an air of serious concern among them. I and a handful of other friends were brought into Lee's home and according to Harvey we would be staying there for the night. The unexpected sleepover was exciting as we all watched, from the living room window, military troops moving up and down the roads, setting blockades, and directing traffic. Harvey spent the night conversing with whichever soldier would come up and talk to him, relaying that information to people on his phone, calling our families, and making sure we were all safe and secure. In our youth, we were blissfully unaware of the weight this situation carried. For us, it was like a parade had come.

“Whats going on?” I asked while sitting on the couch munching popcorn.

“There's been an issue at the plant.” Harvey informed us. “Some kinda leak.” He was pacing in the kitchen.

“That's kinda cool, its like we're in one of those disaster movies, we just need a big explosion and a large trail of black smoke now.” Lee joked.

The reality of the situation took a moment to settle with Lee, that being his dad worked at the plant. Jupiter Bio it was called; they produced fertilizer and chemicals for weed killer, pesticides, and other farm related uses. But most importantly, the plant employed a large swath of the men who chose to stay in this town.

“Wait, are we going to be okay dad?” Lee asked. He looked genuinely concerned.

Harvey seemed uncertain “I don't know bud, I'm sure things will work out. They always do.”

The air in the house was awkward. Prior to this Lee's mom had been laid off from the local clinic and was struggling to find work, which made Harvey the sole bread winner. The discomfort never really left but we were determined to distract from it. The Burrows had an extensive DVD and VHS collection, all from sales and discount bins and since it was still Lee's birthday, he got to choose. He was a fan of classic black and white monster flicks. The ones he picked were, 'It! The Terror from Beyond Space', The original 1951 'The Thing' film, and a couple of old Godzilla movies. The night drew on and as we broke out the sleeping bags and huddled together in the living room Lee posed all of us kids a question.

“After ya'll get home tomorrow, do you guys wanna try and get a look at the what went down? Just to make sure that, you know, my dad will still have a job and all. Besides, we all have bikes and know these woods. Should be no problem.”

Besides me there was Devon, Richy, Evan, and Jake. All of us friends from school. They were hesitant to say the least. Richy especially looked nervous, the fear of doing something potentially dangerous showed through his brown eyes. But I didn't want to let Lee feel left out when he brought up that idea. Looking back at it, I would regret what I 'd say that night.

“For sure Lee, you know we got your back. Besides you've never led us astray before.” I gave him a fist bump which invigorated the spirits of everyone else. We whispered under our sleeping bags and formulated a plan. That night was our last night of truly restful sleep.

School was out for the week due to the incident and when we were all picked up in the morning by our parents, our plans were put into motion. We agreed to meet at the bent oak around 3pm and that we would all bring our own supplies. Trying to pack rationally I bagged some snacks, a couple bottled waters, a flashlight and rope. I texted Lee and he did the same, with the exception being a machete he nabbed from his dad's woodshed. We all showed up when 3pm rolled around, except for Evan, the flake.

“Eh, typical Evan.” Jake said in frustration.

“I'm not surprised. He only did show up to my birthday cause his parents dragged him there. Anyway are we ready?” Lee asked.

Everyone nodded their head and started hiking up. The bent oak sat at the bottom of a series of large hills and conjoining mountains. It was popular with high schoolers because of this one large branch that hung down and was perfect for two people to sit on and make-out. We thought the tree was pretty cool due in part to how weird some of the bark grew. In some areas and at just the right angle you could see the face of 'the witch' on account of how much it looked like a stereotypical, well, witch. We left our bikes leaning against that old tree, hoping she'd watch over them; plus the forest was to dense and rocky for our bikes anyway. Fingers crossed no one would take them.

We hiked for an hour and went up and down numerous hills. Conversation kept us in high spirits as we'd often trade jokes, rumors from school, and theories about what happened at the factory.

“Maybe it was some eco-terrorist.” Richy said.

“What the hell is an eco-terrorist?” Devon asked.

“Its uh, a person who gets really mad at the government and corporations for not, like, taking care of the plants and stuff. I don't know I heard it from my older sister. Said the shit from Jupiter Bio was really toxic and bad for the soil.” Richy replied.

“That doesn't make sense Richy, they make fertilizer, which is what plants need. Your sister sounds dumb.” Jake said.

The forest was quiet that day which, when we noticed, put us on alert. No sound of birds or small animals, just the crumble of nature's debris under our feet. It was summer and while we had a few extra hours of day light to operate with most of us wanted to get there and back pretty quickly. Thankfully we did discover that there was indeed a giant black plume of smoke in the direction of the plant. When we saw it we felt a mix of emotion. Relief that we were getting closer but also a tentative worry about what had happened. The look Lee had reminded me of that day back at the empty house.

“Hey can we take a break for a sec?” Richy said. He looked red and sweaty.

“Its only ten, maybe, fifteen minutes away now.” Lee said.

“Hey its not going anywhere, lets all take five and rest a bit.” I said.

We snacked and drank some water. It was still unusually quiet and I was beginning to have a nagging discomfit crawl up my neck. I could tell I wasn't the only one. Devon was staring off into a thicket of trees. His eyes wide and face still with attention. I approached carefully while everyone else was munching together.

“Is everything ok?” I asked Devon.

“Shhh.” He replied. He slowly pointed toward an old pine about 100ish feet away. I stared and stared to see what it was that he was looking at but I couldn't make anything out. Just still silence.

“Hey whatcha looking at? Lee said while crunching on some Doritos. I jumped and hit him reflexively, he laughed and had lost that serious look from just a moment before.

“I don't think were alone. I think Devon saw something.” I said.

“What? Like a dead squirrel or something?” Lee joked.

“Dead squirrel? I wanna see!” Richy chimed in.

“More likely a soldier or someone on patrol near the site.” Jake said. “I wouldn't be surprised as we got closer.” he continued.

“We should probably keep it down then.” I glared at Lee with his crumbled chip bag.

We wrapped up our little meal time and continued up the last hill before we hit the ledge view of the factory. The hike up the last portion was especially brutal with lots of rocks and mossy boulders. As we made our final approach I sliced my right palm against a sharp angle of rock. It stung but thankfully Richy packed some bandages and cloth wraps. The spot we struggled to get to was perfect for spying. When we arrived we decided to pitch camp. The area had the perfect amount of coverage and a nice opening to view everything with. Settling in Jake passed us his binoculars. Lee took them first.

“See anything?” I asked.

“Yeah yeah, hold on. Okay. Whoa, there are a lot of guys there.” Lee said.

“That tells us a bunch. What kind of guys? What are they doing?” I asked.

“Troops... and cops mostly. Lots of trucks and small tank things, what are they called?” Lee asked.

“APCs I think.” Jake answered.

“Yeah that sounds right. Okay. Okay. They're moving a lot of stuff out of there. Putting it in the trucks. Boxes, crates, and glass tube things.” Lee said.

“Damnit, pass me the binoculars.” I said.

What Lee poorly described was true. There was a lot of commotion going on. A long blockade and a lot of people moving in and out of the factory. They were carrying cargo with bio-hazard labels on them. Large grouped patrols were coming in and out of the forest at different parts. We couldn't hear anything but could make out certain people giving orders and making calls as they moved in and out of a large camouflage tent. The scene sent us down a dizzying spiral of worry and suspicion.

“What the heck was your dad up to at this place?” Richy asked.

“I- I don't know, he would just go to work and come home, often smelling like shit due to the fertilizer.” Lee stammered out.

Lee paused for a moment, examining all of us. “Where's Devon?” he asked.

All of us looked around and saw that Devon was gone. Without a sound or commotion.

“Where, what the hell!” Richy yelled.

“I- wasn't he next to you Jake?” Lee barked.

“No, no, I thought he was by Kurt!” Jake shot back.

“That's crazy, He was with us when we were climbing up the rocks. Maybe he fell and we didn't see it?” I stammered out like I couldn't believe myself. How did we not see or hear anything?

A wave of panic set in as we scurried over the ledge to peer over and see if Devon had indeed fallen. There was no sign of him, except for a gold compass he had taken out prior. We haphazardly scrambled down the rocks and looked around. We all called his name, only to hear nothing in return.

“I think I found something.” Jake said.

What he had discovered was an exposed part of the forest floor. As we examined further we noticed that the exposure looked like a trail, like someone had been dragged. There was also a multitude of small indents in the ground that accompanied the trail. I brought up the binoculars to peer in the direction that the trail led. What I saw sent a chill down my spine and my heart to race out of my chest. Something was darting between the trees. It looked like a black tangled mass of well, I wasn't sure, it was too fast and it was coming toward us.

“We need to leave like right now!” I yelled.

We all booked it down the hill and ran faster than we thought was possible for us. Breathing rapidly I could feel the sting of dry air burning my lungs. The sweat pouring down my forehead. I was the fastest of the group and because of that had formed a bit of a lead. I kept looking over my shoulder to check if we were being chased. I couldn't see it but could hear the rapid movement of something mimicking our stride. We ran for awhile. I checked again and could see Richy was struggling to keep up. I looked away for a moment, for a path or a hiding spot, anything. I checked again and Richy was gone. No scream, nothing. I stopped in disbelief. Then I felt a pull at my collar.

Lee dragged me and Jake down into a hole covered by a large fallen tree and various bushes and plants. I could see the sweat gleaming down his panicked face as he covered my mouth with one hand and with the other motioned a 'shh' with his index finger over his mouth. I had to force my breathing to slow down. I felt my heart pound through my chest. Under cover we could all hear it approach. It sounded like twigs snapping over and over. The hissing clicks of something loomed just above, looking for us.

Eventually we could hear it begin to move away, deeper into the woods. I don't know how to describe it but every step it took sounded like it was trying to copy how our steps paced and sounded. We waited maybe twenty or thirty minutes. When it started to get dark we moved. Carefully at first, then when we felt comfortable we began to sprint again. It felt like forever but when we reached the mouth of the forest and saw our parked bikes leaning against the bent oak I felt like I could've cried. For a moment we all just stared at each other.

“What do we do? Jake asked.

“What about Devon and Richy?” Lee said. I could see he was about to break saying those names.

“We just left them. Left them to whatever the fuck that was.” He continued.

We all felt a wave of shame overcome us but we truly didn't know what to do. Call the cops and tell them what? A giant monster abducted our friends? Besides all of them were busy at the factory or whatever the military wanted them to do.

No, that night we didn't say anything, just hung our heads and rode home. We were never the same since.

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