• • • • •
In the blackness I hear a bark. That’s encouraging. And then more barks. I need to get Tickles. But I also need to go find my dad.
And then I remember the UFO that has to be so close and yet feels so far away. But that’s okay. The UFO, for once, can be far away.
“Tickles!” I shout. “Come here, boy.”
“Tickles!” shouts Seth.
The trees are thicker around us, letting less moonlight through, so I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight. “Tickles!”
The forest is quiet.
“He last barked in this direction.” I point down the hill to the west. We briskly walk down the hill. “We absolutely cannot lose him. Geoffrey would never forgive me.”
It strikes me that I’m thinking about Geoffrey’s reaction. It’s like I’m not leaving now, and I’m not upset by that thought.
Tickles’s barking gets louder, and I pick up my pace, moving quickly over rocks and fallen trees in the dark.
“I think he’s close,” I shout, but I see Seth falling farther behind again. Right after I say that, the barking stops. I keep going in the same direction until the next bark I hear sounds like it’s coming from behind me. I turn around. The next bark I hear sounds like it’s coming from my left side. The next bark sounds like it’s from my right side. It feels like I’m surrounded on all sides by dogs. . . . I feel dizzy and I lose my footing, and my leg slides out from under me and I fall, and my head smacks the ground. Hard.
“Charlie!” I hear. But I don’t see Seth.
“I’m okay,” I say, standing up. My head throbs with every heartbeat. The barking continues on all sides and grows louder.
I feel disoriented. Through the barking I hear Seth’s words in my head, questioning whether my mother was tortured, or is perhaps dead. And suddenly I’m scared. I don’t like this. I don’t want to be abducted. I don’t want to die.
Five mangy, rabid-looking wolves emerge from the darkened trees and are coming toward me from all sides. As they draw closer, they begin to stand on two legs, their fur tearing apart as if it were nothing but fake skin, a costume. But they still have their fangs and claws. There’s some kind of translucent skin underneath the wolf fur that now hangs from their bodies. Their eyes are small and sharp-looking. And yellow.
Next thing I know, just like with Meridian X, I can’t move my arms or legs or even my mouth. I’m stuck.
I see the fangs of the alien in front of me. I’d shiver if I could move. The alien takes a claw and slowly cuts horizontally across the top part of my forehead. I feel the warm blood running down the bridge of my nose. Another alien pulls open the skin, and I see him place a thin chip-like device into my forehead. Their breath is cold on my skin.
As quickly as they appeared, they disappear. My mind goes black, and soon I am staring into the eyes of Seth as he hovers over me.
“Oh, thank god,” he says. “You’re awake.”
I lean up and look around. “What happened?”
“You tripped and hit your head on that rock pretty hard.”
I touch my forehead, which is bleeding. I quickly look up, and there appears to be nothing there. I look around. “Was anyone else here? Five wolflike creature things?”
Seth looks at me strangely. “Uh . . . just us. You must’ve really hit your head. Maybe you should rest in case you got a concussion.”
“I’m fine,” I say, standing up. “Where’s Tickles?”
“I heard him barking just up on that ridge over there.”
“Let’s go get him. Maybe you can lead this time?”
Seth smiles and starts walking. As I follow, I touch my cut, feeling for anything chip-like inside.
We are close to the top of the ridge, and Tickles is sitting there, almost like he’s been patiently waiting here the entire time. He barks as we get close. “Tickles,” I say. “You bad dog.”
“Charlie? Do you know where we are? Or how to get back?”
“Nope. But . . .” I look up to the sky. “Follow me.”
We walk through the pine trees, around the boulders, dog on leash, Seth next to me. I’m oddly serene. Though, I shouldn’t be. After all, my dad is officially missing. I don’t know for sure if I was just chipped by aliens, which means I might be missing soon myself.
Seth and I are silent. Both in our heads.
“Do you think your dad has been abducted?” Seth asks.
I hear twigs crunch as we walk toward the campsite. Seth’s words are heavy. Doused with something like truth. My dad has been abducted—his soul was taken by my mom, when she left. He has never been the same.
“I mean, he was in the woods when he disappeared.”
“Lots of people are in the woods when they disappear,” I say.
“So you don’t think he was abducted?”
I shake my head. “Doubtful. He probably got drunk and got lost.”
Seth stops walking. “Charlie? Is that you?”
I walk a few more feet and turn back to him.
“The Charlie I know would be swearing up and down that his father was abducted by aliens.”
I shrug. “I guess I don’t really believe he was abducted.”
We keep walking, letting the silence wash back over us.
I realize that I gotta get out of the woods. I gotta get home. I gotta find my dad.
But knowing that Seth is near me makes me feel, I don’t know, okay about life.