3. The Walk of a Lifetime

"Oh man! I absolutely love going on walks. Don't you agree brother? The breaths of fresh air, the cool breeze, and the warm sun."

Soon after walking off Nate's road and moving down towards the backroads, Nate made his claim. Pulling the cigarette pack from his pocket, Andrew pulled one out for himself, and he kindly offered one to Nate as well. Although Nate doesn't smoke cigarettes anymore, Andrew never stopped offering one when he smoked. Nate shook his head with a smile. With the expected response received; he put the pack away, and lit his cigarette. Taking a long drag off of it, he exhaled with his reply to Nate's question.

"Yeah man, I do indeed love walks for similar reasons brother. They also make great exercise."

Nodding his head, Nate's eyes looked towards the next turn, which led down a long winding street with trees on either side, all the way down.

"What a beautiful sight. Look at this Andrew. Aren't these trees just magnificent?"

"Yes brother, those are beautiful trees. HmHm."

Andrew chuckled at his buddy for being so strange. If they had nothing else in common, that would be enough. Something caught his eyes though, and so he looked through a clearing in the trees.

"Hey Nate! Come check this out brother."

Andrew called out to Nate, who had walked ahead a bit, to come explore this new avenue with him.

"I found something here, let's go take a look."

Upon returning to his side, Nate looked over towards where Andrew was looking. What he saw, was a large pile of old beer bottles.

"What the hell? These weren't here before right?"

Andrew shook his head, pointing up and down the road...

"I've been here all my life and traveled this road many a times, but I've never seen this pile of beer bottles."

It was normal to find a bottle here or there. Maybe an empty pack of cigarettes or some other loose trash; from other people littering as they do. However, what was strange about this pile of beer bottles, was that they looked very old, and as though they had been there for years. Pondering this fact, Andrew spoke to Nate.

"We walked by here not even a week ago, and these bottles look like they have been here longer than we have been alive, but they are right off the road. We would have noticed this before, considering how we explore everything abnormal that we see."

There were probably 30 or 40 bottles in that pile. These bottles had no neck, meaning that this a more stubby, and round body shape. Some half buried, and some half broken, it was hard to believe that they weren't there before.

'Why are these here? I know they weren't here before."

Andrew thought to himself, sure of his memories. Reading Andrew's hardened expression, Nate reached out to pat him on the shoulder.

"Brother, you think to hard on these matters. Perhaps you just missed this spot all these years. No big deal man. Now we have something to check out huh?"

After stating this, he started walking deeper into the woods. Shortly after taking a quick look around to see if there were any onlookers, Andrew also trailed off into the woods.

***************************************************

"Hey man, how are you doing back there?"

Andrew called out to Nate, who was still climbing over the small damb built in the creek, which they had come across during their expedition.

"Don't mind me brother, I'll catch up shortly."

All day so far, aside from the radical morning, Andrew and Nate have been running amuck all the trees and animals of the woods. Finding a way to pass the time was no difficult matter to these two. They were sword fighting with sticks, chasing after animals, climbing the trees, swimming in the creek, and even simply running around in circles for no reason. Coming into a small clearing in the trees, Andrew stopped to wait for Nate, who was still falling a small amount behind.

'This is a nice spot.'

Seeing that there wasn't anything to sit on, Andrew plopped to the ground in that spot. He sat and waited for the arrival of his dearest friend.

*Leaves ruffle*

Andrew looked over toward the bushes where he heard some moment, and as expected, Nate came walking through. When his eyes met Nate's, as usual, they lit up like a firecracker.

"Oh brother. I thought I had lost you."

Nate too plopped to the ground, next to Andrew. Andrew lightly punched Nate in the arm and stated...

"Yeah man, whatever. You know I'd never leave a brother behind, especially you. I love you man. HaHaHa!

They clasped palm to forarm as a brotherly handshake, and laughed for a moment. Not long after they began to rest there, a siren could be heard loud and clear.

*woooowuuuuwoooowuuuu*

"What is that? Where is it coming from?"

Nate, confused by this sudden occurrence, asked Andrew.

"I think that's the tornado siren in town, but there's no wind, so why is it going off?."

They both looked up into the sky to see that it was clear and blue with very few clouds, and not a lick of wind. Nate pointed up and shouted out...

"What the f**k is that?"

Looking towards where Nate was pointing, he noticed what seemed to be a low flying plane. As he inspected closer, he noticed that it was just a long flame with a round front, and looked like a commet getting closer and closer to the ground. When he noticed it's familiar shape, his eyes grew round and big.

"Holy sh*t dude! We have to go now!"

Andrew started running straight through the trees and directly towards the road. Not realizing how far they had actually traveled into the woods in the passing hours, he ran for about an hour before getting back to the road. He looked up into the sky for several minutes, to see that the Comet like object in the sky had disappeared. About the time he gave up looking for it, Nate came through the trees and onto the road. Breathing hard he put his hands behind his head and asked Andrew....

"What was all that about?"

Shaking his head, he replied shyly..

"You are gonna call me irrational for this, but I was thinking about this morning when I saw that thing in the sky. It seems to have dissap..."

*BOOM!*

Andrew was cut off by a loud explosion that rocked the earth. He and Nate stumbled around for a bit before regaining their balance. Once stabilized, they looked towards one another and made a mental agreement. They then bolted for Andrew's house as fast as they could carry themselves.