Chapter 3: The First Night

A Chapter by Doogie

The family enjoys the first night of the trip

Later that day as the sun began to sink below the mountains we sat around the fire. We were enjoying some awesome outdoor dinner pouches of freeze dried chicken and rice.

"Are you excited for your birthday Daniel?" Dad asked me.

I nodded up and down real hard in response with a huge smile across my face. Tomorrow is going to be the big day. I finally turn seventeen. One more year till I'm officially an adult. I hope they brought presents with them. Zach looked jealous. His birthday isn't until winter. Mom got an excited look on her face as well.

"I also have an announcement to make tomorrow as well. I know it's been very hard on everybody the past few weeks with me being sick and I've had some pretty bad mood swings. Everything will be alright and I'll save it for tomorrow night." Announced mom.

Dad looked at her confused. She seemed confident and that must of relieved him of at least a little bit of the stress that has been on his mind.

The sky slowly darkens. A dark orange barely glows over the jagged mountains. It was beautiful and serene. I can't wait for the sub to set and see the night sky. I've always wanted to experience a night sky in the middle of no where. To see the milky way spread across the zenith. Then just like that the peacefulness and serenity was broken. A sound I've only heard on the internet blasted across the sky. It sounds kind of like horns. I've seen videos where people thought they heard the horns of angels in the sky. Is this the same sound? I never imagined I would hear it. We all froze in fear. The sound was loud and harsh. It remained continuous. We looked around trying to figure out what it was or where it was coming from. It had to be something logical causing it. There was no reasoning for it. Could this be judgement day? I watched one of those videos online recently where people thought they've heard horns. It's been happening all around the world. I also recently learned about the Dyatlov pass incident. One of the explanations was a Kármán vortex street. Oh god, I thought. I hope this isn't that happening. Tears start to roll down mom's face. Zach and I both fell over our seats when it started. We were all starting to panic. After about five more minutes of this sound it stops and then there is nothing. Only dead silence. There wasn't even any wind. Any wildlife in the area must have been as scared as we were.

We all looked around baffled. What in the world could that have been? Mom was starting to panic. She looked extremely upset. Dad grabbed on to her and starting to comfort her telling her everything is OK.

"I think with that we're going to call it a night. I'm going to comfort your mom. I've never seen her so disturbed before. Daniel remember we start early tomorrow. I don't want you guys staying up to late. Be careful. I have no idea what that sound was. I'm a little freaked out by it but we're stuck out here. I love you guys. Without you guys Sarah and I would be nothing. That sound was probably some weird natural phenomenon. Try not to think about it to much tonight. We're right next to you guys if you need us." Dad told us as they started to get into their tent. He looked a little startled by what happened but was trying to remain strong.

My brother and I stared at each other. The hate on my arms raised toward the night sky.

"What the f-" I quickly punched my brother in the arm before he could finish what he was saying. "Wow" he shouts and grabs his arm.

"That was the weirdest and scariest thing I've ever heard. I've seen videos online recently about something like this being heard around the word. I thought they were fake. No one knows for sure what it is. That was so weird seeing mom like that too." I said as I look into the sky. The stars were shining bright. I've never seen so many before. It was beautiful. I was happy to finally see this form of night sky. It felt like it was out of a movie. We both stare in amazement. It took all of our problems and fears away for a moment. "Hey look over there on the horizon. Zach do you think that's Venus? It's so bright." I point above the nearby mountains.

Zach looks up towards it. "Are you sure that's not a plane? It feels like it's watching us. It looks pretty close." He replies as he points at it as well.

It makes a flash and shoots off. I grab on to Zach to protect him from any danger. Now that was definitely not natural. We both ran into our tent to hide. What was that? What's going on? We slid into our sleeping bags trying to tell ourselves we didn't see anything.

prev chapter