The Glow Worm Gang

245

The Glow Worm Gang

By Cameron Glenn

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017 Cameron Glenn

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THE GLOW WORM GANG

Prologue

Madness raged across the land. The symptoms which begun in mid-July started out small, nearly unnoticeable, but like a disease the sickness got worse and spread. By the time November approached nearly all the adults seemed affected. The malady didn’t just make the adults act like monkeys scrambling after scattered marbles, but it also caused many to become uncommonly sad, like a five year old who just shattered her favorite porcelain doll she had gotten for her last birthday. And worst of all, the adults didn’t even realize they had become so strange, so no one thought to try and develop a cure.

A little girl at a water park in Toledo Ohio swimming by her father felt the water around her warm. When she looked up at her father, he stammered I-I-I think I wet myself.

She had giggled at the time, not knowing what else to do. When she returned to school after the summer break and told her friends what her father had done, she was surprised to hear that her friends had similar stories of witnessing grownups pee themselves in swimming pools and water parks.

One boy told a tale of his mother coming home from the supermarket and instead of unloading the usual groceries of bread, meat, cereal, milk and eggs, the back of the mini-van was full of twenty five plastic bags of Oreo cookies. Yes, that was awesome at first, the boy who told this story said, "but not so awesome after getting a tummy ache after the fifth day of eating nothing but cookies…and then my dad mashed the cookies into balls which he then threw at neighbors’ houses!’ The friends of the boy who told this tale laughed, but the boy, who kept a look of worry through his story, didn’t.

These types of stories didn’t spring forth just from Ohio. A twelve year old boy in Wichita Kansas caught his mother licking the stomach of his pet iguana; a girl in Miami Florida saw her uncle try to shoot hoops at the basketball courts using a bowling ball a lady in Hersey Pennsylvania used live chickens to try and knock over pins in a bowling alley and none of the other adults seemed to think it strange at all, or if they did no one tried to stop her. A boy in Portland Oregon being driven home from karate class by his father saw a group of five businessmen crawling on their hands and knees while barking like dogs. When his dad also saw this absurd sight, he stopped the car in the middle of the road, got out of the car and joined them, and didn’t return until an hour later.

Hundreds of thousands of cases of ugly and angry grown up brawls at kid soccer matches were reported all across the country, more each passing week, and hundreds of thousands of grownups literally cried over puddles of spilt milk in grocery store aisles and near home refrigerators all across the country. Every child in America had dozens of similar stories of parents, teachers, uncles, aunts, and neighbors all acting out in bizarre ways, much more bizarre than the usual bizarre behaviors of grownups, signaling that the majority of the adult population, everyone from around age eighteen and older, had lost a significant amount of both sense and happiness. As the kids spread these stories to each other, locally and further away using social networks, they learned how widespread and rampant this epidemic was.

But no one except for five children in Southern California knew the cause. Even if these five children told what they had seen, what was causing the adults to drool, pee their pants, bark like dogs, cry and scream over nothing and generally act like lunatics, no one would believe them. As strange as the world had become, the reason for these emerging and increasingly worsening bizarre behaviors was so fantastical and so bizarre that unless one could see with their own eyes what was causing the adults minds to crumble, it would be unbelievable.

And for reasons which will be revealed soon, only these five children could see what was causing these problems, and so only they could follow the cause to the root of the problem; only they could be the ones who could save their parents, teachers, uncles, aunts, neighbors and all the adults; only they could save the country.

As if that were not enough, it would be only them who could also possibly save an invisible world in a parallel dimension next to our own world. Other than falling into a circumstance which allowed them to see the cause of the grownups losing their minds there was nothing really more remarkable about these five strangers who became friends than other twelve and thirteen year olds; they weren’t wizards or superheroes or vampires or child warriors, they couldn’t turn into animals or anything like that. It might not be fair that just five seemingly regular ordinary kids, no more or less special than any five other kids who might be plucked up from America, should have such a monumental task as saving the world, and maybe another world, become their responsibility. But as some wise old man once said, sometimes we pick destiny and sometimes destiny picks us.

Chapter One

Black rain clouds invaded the Easter egg blue sky over Sunnydale Camp in the wooded mountains of Southern California like a marching army. The rare rain clouds normally would be glad news for the drought stricken, land thirsty for water, but the drips became a deluge, causing one camper named Groobs to remark that it seemed like they all had been placed directly under a giant waterfall. And too much rain in too little a time over dry earth makes for a dangerous recipe.

Groobs, along with four others kids, Sam, Daphne, a girl named Louie and a boy named Alistair, had been sent to the camp mess hall (what the military, and some kids summer camps call a dining and kitchen area building) about five minutes before the thunderstorm had struck in the early evening around 6:15 on a Thursday. They were told to sit at a table and wait for the disciplinary camp counselor codenamed ‘Tumbleweeds’ to come and have disciplinary discussions with them concerning each of their recent behavioral problems: Groobs meant to make a big splash near a swimming instructor by jumping near her as she swam in the lake, but instead landed his cannonball dive right on top of her; Alistair had wandered away by himself from his group during a hike in pursuit of a baby deer whom he thought ‘magical’; Daphne had made some overly sensitive girl burst into tears and tattle that she’s a ‘meal girl’ just because Daphne had given this girl a side-eyed glare while crinkling her nose; Sam had sassed the camp director, code named Big Kaduna and Louie, while roasting a marshmallow over a campfire for S’mores had lit the marshmallow on fire, flicked her marshmallow roasting stick up causing the flaming marshmallow to spring into the air and then caught the falling flaming marshmallow in her mouth; an admittedly awesome trick everyone who saw it agreed, including the adults, but dangerous, as one really shouldn’t play with fire under any circumstance but especially in a dry woods during a drought.

Tumbleweed’s late, Sam said.

Probably drowned in a rain puddle, Daphne said.

I love it, Alistair replied. I love when it rains. The sounds. Imagining all the wet little animals out there taking shelter.

I hate it, Daphne said, while seemingly admiring her reflection in her shiny fingernails. Rain is gross.

We could be stuck here awhile, Sam sighed. It’s like, the end of days Apocalypse type of rain out there.

I’m not afraid of a little rain, it can’t stop me from doing anything, the girl named Louie declared. She then sprang up from the table, marched towards the door, flung it open and leaped outside. Here I am nature! she yelled. Do your worst!

Oh no, she’ll get wet! Groobs said.

No duh, Daphne said. And like, boo-hoo, who cares.

Louie leaped back inside. Water dripped off her extended arms; she looked as if she had just walked up from the ocean floor. Shivering a little, she then laughed and said, Whoa. That. Was. Intense.

Are you alright? Groobs asked.

That was really brave, Alistair said.

Congratulations, you’re crazy, now, like, go get a towel or something, don’t get any of us wet also, Daphne said.

Louie walked over to the other four kids at the table and then shook herself like a shaggy, wet dog. The three boys giggled while Daphne shrieked.

There’s been a drought. This rain could cause mud slides, Sam said a bit worryingly.

Or flash floods, Alistair responded.

The five children sat in silence for a moment, just listening to the rain pound the roof and ground, sounding like an ocean of nails clanking down a steep metal slide. The summer evening sunlight didn’t permeate past the dark thunderclouds enveloping them. The ‘Super Moon’ night hike scheduled at 11p.m. would obviously be cancelled. They glanced up at the jiggling ceiling lights half-wondering if the force of the rain would cause the ceiling to fall on top of them. A thunderclap boomed right above so loudly that the vibrations rose up from the floor, through their feet and into their bones. Louie, Alistair and Groobs all shrieked and flinched simultaneously.

Oh my gosh, you guys aren’t all babies are you? Daphne scolded.

Raindrops on roses and warm woolen mittens, Louie began to sing.."

That’s not even how it goes, Daphne said. And your pitch is off. Stick with sports and not choir.

A lightening flash burst sending blue electric light flooding in through the windows followed by a crackling thunderclap so loud that it felt like only the very sky ripping apart could have caused it. The boom blasted right above them and it caused all of the children to stiffen their backs and clench their teeth. The electricity went out; darkness. Daphne whined a crying sound.

Who’s the baby now? Louie teased, although she also had felt like whimpering.

Sam took out his cell phone, turning on the flashlight app, and set his phone on the table.

Hey, I have one of those too, Groobs said, turning the light on his phone on and set it next to Sam’s phone, casting the same eerie light effect of when storytellers telling spooky stories place flashlights under their chins.

You guys are going to waste your batteries, Daphne said.

I’m just going to go ahead and assume you become mean when you’re worried, Louie said. My mom told me to try and see the best in people, and I doubt anyone could always be as mean as you’re being.

Daphne rolled her eyes. Whatever.

Yup, we’ll defiantly be stuck here for awhile, Sam said.

Aren’t they sending a team to rescue us? Groobs asked as his fists and face tightened.

Rescue us from what? Louie asked. I don’t need any rescuing. Unlike little princess in distress here, she said, then lightly shoved Daphne’s shoulder.

A distant roar rumbled in the distance. All the children now stood.

Is that your stomach rumbling I hope? Alistair asked Groobs.

"Look, just because I’m a little pudgy doesn’t mean I’m hungry all the time, Groobs replied, but then added under his breath, I would really like a Hawaiian pizza now."

The rumbling gradually became louder. Then the loudness increased in decibels rapidly. The vibrations of the rumbling rattled the floor, table, ceiling, and the children’s bones.

That’s not thunder, Louie declared.

Earthquake! Groobs yelled and fell on his knees, locking his fingers over his head while squeezing his eyes shut. Quiet whimpers escaped his lips.

Uh, that’s not earthquake position, Louie flatly declared.

I’m scared, Daphne said.

That’s not an earthquake! Sam yelled over the loudness of the rumbling.

The sound reached a crescendo, sounding similar to a low flying jet passing directly above them. Daphne covered her ears and screamed. Just then, a giant wall of rushing watery mud crashed through the entire west wall of the mess hall causing the wood sidings to look as sturdy as soggy notebook paper.

We’re dead, Alistair whispered, wide eyed.

Everyone grab hands! Sam commanded.

The children heeded his instruction in a flash just as the wall of watery mud smacked them head on with its cold hard force. The impact swept the children off their feet, swallowing them just as if they were the branches, twigs, trees and other debris and small forest animals unfortunate to not scamper away in time. They were captured helplessly, forced to go wherever the whims of this new mud river would take them.

Keep kicking! Keep your head above the water! Sam yelled.

My dress is ruined! Daphne yelled.

This is no time for jokes! Louie countered.

I’m not joking!

You were right, Alistair, Groobs yelled. I was hungry. My worst fear: I’m going to die hungry! And the irony; we were so close to a kitchen!

No one’s going to die if we fight this together! Sam yelled.

Who wears a dress during summer camp anyways, you weirdo! Louie yelled.

Stop yelling! Sam yelled. Everyone, save your energy!

The muddy flash flood carried them for miles. A span of four minuets felt like four hours trying to stay afloat and swim against a current. Weakened by exhaustion, they had all begun to lose their will to keep kicking and keep their heads above water, as Sam had directed what felt like so long ago. A sense of despair leaked into their wavering consciousnesses. Louie and Sam thought they heard the rushing roar of a waterfall ahead. Then Daphne, Alistair and Groobs heard the same sound and thought the same thing: that’s the sound of a waterfall ahead. Then a long wooden beam rushed at them from behind, smacking each child, sapping out the last remaining consciousness each possessed. Now, whether they would live or die was no longer within their power to control.

It’s too bad each had blacked out before the fall, because under happier circumstances, like at a water park, some of the children, Louie certainly, would have enjoyed the sensation of falling over the fifty foot long waterfall. Yet, they all fell over without either being able to enjoy it or scream out of fear from it any more than a leaf caught in a strong current of either wind or water is able to scream. The violent weather had caused an opening in the earth, a hole which the water and the children carried by the water plunged into. At the bottom of this hole laid an underground lake which caught the falling water and the children with big plopping splashes. Connected to this underground lake was a system of previously undiscovered caves and tunnels. The water of this lake, now about the size of a small crater on the moon, absorbed and calmed the rapid turbulence which fell into it. The ripples carried the children to the rocky shore of the cave lake. Although none had yet regained consciousness, each had luckily survived the immediate effects of the flash flood. Although, of course, they were nowhere near out of danger yet.

Chapter Two

Sam woke up groggily. He looked around and rubbed the back of his head. Where am I… Did I just have a dream about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battling Transformers?

As the events of his dream, which also involved a pink unicorn in a tutu, dissolved, pushed away by reality, he recalled it all: he had been in the mess hall to await some dumb scolding lecture about how you should respect authority, and he had met four other children: two pretty girls, one blonde, and a bit of a spoiled princess type, one brunette, a bit crazy, a funny tubby guy and some artist kid. Then there was the sudden apocalyptic thunderstorm, the rain, the lights went out, a flash flood struck them, and…oh my gosh, my phone. He bolted up and checked his pockets, looking around, the only light to use being a silvery blue beam pouring down from the hole above. I should check if the others are all right first.

Hey, he said. Are you guys alright? He bent down near Louie and lightly shook her shoulder. Hey, Louie, are you alright? He stood up again and used what little light there was to survey the scene: no blood, no apparent broken bones on the others. He then heard a light little moan coming from Louie.

Mom, I don’t want to get up, I don’t care if I’m late for school, Groobs said, the voice bouncing off the cave walls and through the cave tunnels.

Sam smiled. You two are alive! What about the others? Daphne, Alistair, check them, Sam said.

Who? Louie asked. Where am I? I had the weirdest dream I was a ballerina tackling players in the NFL. Is that why my head hurts?

Within minutes, all the children had woken up, rubbed their heads, assessing their injuries fortunately nothing but cuts and bruises.. Groobs had tried an ill-timed joke of pretending to have amnesia which he quickly dropped when realizing that the ‘joke’ was neither funny or far-fetched enough to be unbelievable which is where the ‘funniness’ of the charade would have come from.

"We need to find