The Greatest Escape Ever (pt 4) – KheMi-OoZe by Bentley Bryant

The Forest Less Traveled
The Forest Less Traveled
September 10, 2016
Collision of Creatures
September 22, 2016

The Greatest Escape Ever (pt 4) – KheMi-OoZe by Bentley Bryant

Fearing for his life, OsKar moved as far and as fast as he could in order to put as much distance between himself and the 2 humans as he possibly could. He’d left them at the base of the man-hole, but he was smart enough to know that their bodies would be discovered fairly quickly.

He was moving South for nearly 2 hours and now he finally stopped to take a break. Naturally, he was hungry, again, so he gobbled down another bag of his snacks. His Food-Baggie count, now being 4, OsKar, not really sure how far he was from his Final Destination, started to get really paranoid about running out of food. Along his journey, he’d spotted more than a few juicy rats down below the streets, but couldn’t fathom the idea of biting into one of them. The thought grossed him completely out, and he figured he’d surely die if he consumed one of those filthy-stinky-germy things. Ewww! So he’d have to find an alternative, if he wanted to survive his own escape. . .

Hours earlier . . .

Araya woke up from a deep sleep and let out a big yawn. She’d had a full day on Friday, that led to dinner and a movie for her and her Parents. During school she made another picture of her and OsKar and couldn’t wait to show it to him. Excited she crawled out of her Parents bed and raced down to her bedroom. ‘OsKaaaar,’ Araya called for him as she grabbed up her backpack. Pulling out her drawing, as she had done a million times, she turned and noticed that he was not there.

‘OsKar? Are you hiding from me? Oskaaar?’ Now feeling a little panicked, Araya looked everywhere throughout her room. Under her bed, in her closet, on her shelves, behind her bed, behind her dresser, everywhere and no OsKar. ‘Where are you?’ She ran out of her room and back into her Parents’ ‘Mommy! Daddy! OsKar is missing! OsKar is missing!’ Startling both of her Parents from their sleep, her Mom responded, ‘What, Araya? What are you talking about? Araya, now overtaken with emotion, began to cry. ‘OsKar is gone and I don’t know where he is!’ Both of her Parents hopped out of bed to console her.

‘Honey, are you sure?’ asked her Mom looking over at her Dad. As her Mom hugged her, her Dad raced over to her room to look for OsKar. Where could he be? After thoroughly looking through her room, he returned to his room and confirmed that OsKar was indeed gone by just a glance to his wife. Araya was asleep from being emotionally drained. Her Mom began to cry silently as she held her Baby Girl in her arms.

Laying her down gently, her Mom signaled for her husband to meet her in the hallway. ‘What in the world??! Are you sure OsKar’s not in there?’ ‘Trust me Honey, I looked everywhere. I even did a quick scan throughout the apartment. As ridiculous as it sounds, he’s gone.’ As they both stood there, bewildered, each thought what the other wouldn’t say: With the Top-of-the-Line Security the building had, in order for OsKar to be missing, he would left on his own. . . But that was impossible. Or was it?

OsKar knew that Araya’s Parents were smart enough to eventually figure out exactly what he’d done, even though he did his best to ‘cover his tracks.’ It took a few days and a few noticeable clues, but when Araya’s Mom found the unlocked bathroom window, it all became crystal clear. Unbelievable, but crystal clear.

Having nearly a 3-day head start, OsKar was long gone before any of e ‘Missing Signs’ went up throughout the neighborhood. Being quite the artist, Araya convinced her Parents to use the picture she’d drawn in class the day OsKar had taken off. At this point, there was a city wide manhunt for Araya’s. It’s odd, but most people saw the sign automatically thought either dog or cat. OsKar was neither of the two and he was safe as long as he remained underground.

The shadows beneath the streets was his best chance of surviving long enough to get to his Final Destination. But there was a bigger obstacle facing OsKar. An hour had passed since he ate his last Food-Baggie of snacks and he was starting to get hungry again. It must have been all of the energy he was exerting to keep moving. He was starting to realize that he had totally misjudged his journey and the time it would take him to get to where he had planned to go.

He sensed that he was drawing near, because he could smell it. Hungry or not, he had to keep plugging away until he reached his Final Destination. He was excited about getting there but the non-stop journey for the past few hours had taken a toll on him. He was exhausted and needed badly to take a nap. He traveled another mile or two before slowing down to listen to his body. Hoping that he would be able to stall his growing appetite, OsKar found a nice warm spot there in the sewers and dozed off to Sleepy-Land.

Suddenly, a ground shaking noise startled OsKar awake. Now there were screams just above ground where he had been resting. Even more screams followed those and OsKar became concerned. Above ground, it was a scene of mad chaos. A Semi-truck, being driven by an overly cautious, underpaid driver swerved his extended rig in order to not hit a puppy that ran into the street. The driver spared the pup’s life, but ran into several cars along the side of the street. Miraculously, no one died because of the accident that day, but quite a few people had been shaken up.

The company, KoZmann KheMicaL Kompany had been extremely careful since it’s opening 10 years ago. No recorded accidents . . . until now. The company was responsible for creating a Top Secret toxic chemical, KheMical OoZe. KheMical OoZe was an experimental substance used in landfills to help dissolve waste, trash, and other random items found in a landfill. The glowing lime green substance looked like something from a Sci-Fi Movie. It’s consistency was similar to that of an oozy jello and how it would react to different conditions was unknown by it’s creators.

Unfortunately, the Driver would never make it to his original landfill destination today. And even more unfortunate; the crash caused 1 of the 6 large Kanisters to crack secretly releasing about a gallon of the KheMicaL OoZe or KheMi-OoZe as it was called in the Lab.

Once free, it moved quickly to a nearby street drain, unseen by the crowd due to all the commotion caused by the crash. The drain led down to an area about 10 feet away from where OsKar had been resting and now wondering what all the activity was about on the street above him. A corner in the sewer separated him from the KheMi-OoZe. So, even though he saw the weird green glow as soon as it entered the sewer, high above him around the corner, he had no idea what was about to happen.

As the KheMi-OoZe slid down the wall, it’s substance completely cleaned the wall in a path behind it. It didn’t happen right away, but it happened. But the more the KheMi-OoZe moved the more it seemed to take on the movement of a Living Thing. At one point, it looked behind itself and seemed to admire it’s work.

After some time, it reached the floor level of the sewer and began to inspect its surroundings. A couple of curious rats watched but dared not get too close to the strange glowing substance. After a few minutes, the KheMi-OoZe seemed to notice the filthy water that streamed along beside where it had been sitting. It let out an audible ‘HISSSS’ that made OsKar look and wonder just what was going on down there in the sewer, around the corner.

The KheMi-OoZe extended a part of itself which resembled an arm and from its ‘arm’ it extended what appeared to be a ‘finger.’ Carefully, it placed it’s ‘finger’ into the water and drew it back with a loud squeal. Hearing this, OsKar wanted to go back the way he’d come but knew that would be a backwards move. Especially since there was definitely nothing good for him back the way he’d come.

The idea that the developers of KheMi-OoZe had no idea of what all it could do made it the most dangerous chemical known to man. On it’s second attempt, the OoZe left it’s finger in the water and after a few seconds, it began to hum and vibrate. Another few minutes, and the water around it’s finger began to clear up from all of the murky-filth that was in it. It seemed as if the water was getting as much benefit from being touched by the OoZe as it was getting from touching the water. Another minute or two and the water within 10 feet was as clear as the water on the beaches of Bora Bora.

Seeing the clear water made OsKar even more curious about just what was around the corner. Moving silently to a point where he could see what was going on without being seen, he looked around the corner and could not believe his eyes. What the heck was that Green Blob in the middle of the sewer and what was it doing?! Without realizing it, OsKar moved out from his hiding spot to get a better view of his ‘new friend.’ He stood there staring for quite awhile before the KheMi-OoZe spun around and snatched it’s finger from the water.

As sirens continued to pierce the noise above, 4 all White Vans pulled up seconds after the accident had happened, beating all Emergency Response Personnel that would normally show u p to an accident. From the back of 3 of the vans, 6 people, resembling Astronauts, burst out on to the scene of the accident.The Astronauts’ suits all bare the same K-3 Emblem found on the side of the Semi’s cab and trailer.

Two of the Astronauts grabbed the Driver from the cab and helped him dress into a bright yellow suit complete with his own Astronaut Helmet. Rushing him to the back of the 4th Van, 1 of the Astronauts jumped in and the other shoved the Driver in behind him. The 2nd Astronaut jumped in, slammed the door and the Van screeched off.

In all of the commotion, only a few people saw this play out. What appeared to be the K-3 Hazmat Team, immediately started placing ‘keep away’ tape around the perimeter of the accident. It was much like the caution tape Police Officers put up except it was red with black emblems that repeated themselves over every inch of the tape; the K-3 Emblem/a Skull and Crossbones/ and so on. The Hazmat Team was very thorough and efficient in their clean-up efforts, but had no idea that a gallon of KheMi-OoZe was coming to life in the sewers below their feet.

For some time, with the 2 standing there facing each other, it seemed like a scene from an Old Western Movie. A great stand-off between a super smart pet and a deadly chemical. Finally, OsKar, terrified that this thing had spotted him and seemed to be staring him down, moved, ever-so-slightly.

To his surprise, the KheMi-OoZe mimicked his move at the exact same time! Now, more intrigued than anything, OsKar moved in different directions and the OoZe mirrored him. Feeling a little afraid, OsKar figured he couldn’t get around the Green Glob, so he thought that he had no choice but to retreat. Fast. Moving almost too fast to see, OsKar sped away in the opposite direction. Behind him, he heard the thing scream a high-pitched scream and he suddenly felt burning on 8 different areas of his body. He was being snatched back towards the Glob as fast as he had taken retreat.

Bentley Bryant
Bentley Bryant
Hello Readers, I am originally from a small town in South GA where everyone loves a good story. I now reside in AZ with my Wife and our 2 daughters, who are very supportive of my efforts here on WereWoofs. Being a movie buff (along with spending a number of years in the Military and Prison System, as a Senior Correctional Officer) I've seen and experienced, a lot of things that I equate to a good story. Writing about these various events, and adding a bit of mystery, comedy, suspense, horror and intrigue comes natural. I'm not sure if I have a specific 'genre,' but for now, it seems, most of my stories will be suspenseful and spooky, with elements of real life events that I have personally experienced. It is my hope that you enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy writing them. HappySpookyReading! Bentley Bryant

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