Monday, July 04, 2016

Tauy Creek Digest #2: Scavenger Hunt

"We just need three more things," Cam said as we drove through the city. We were doing a scavenger hunt sponsored by our public library. The hunt was based on a book so we had to find things from a list that was made from things mentioned in the book. There were only two teams competing, a boys team and a girls team, and we didn't know how well the girls' team was doing. We had driven all around the city finding obscure items, hidden names, and collecting pamphlets, pictures of random things, and checking off things we saw as we drove around.

"What's next?" Matt asked, driving.

"Uh," I looked at the list. "The character went to enlist in the Army. What are the hours of the recruitment center?"

"Where's the Army recruitment center?" Matt asked, slowing down.

"Down on Columbus Street, I think," Justin said.

"17th and Columbus," I said and Matt sped up, now knowing where he was supposed to go. "The next clue is what plant is featured at the Mary Bell bridge in Indigo Park?"

"Indigo Park. Now I know where that is," Matt said.

We swing into the parking lot where the Army recruitment center was located. Cam, who was in charge of taking pictures, got out of the car, quickly snapped a photo of the hours it was open and hopped back in. We then took off for Indigo Park. It was a huge park so we picked a parking lot and Cam and I jumped out and began running down a trail trying to find the Mary Bell bridge. We walked for just over half a mile when we found the bridge. It was surrounded by small violet flowers and a small plaque nearly hidden by them said that they were some variety of posy. We took a picture to remember the name and then ran back to the car.

We began pulling out of the parking lot, "What's the last thing?" Matt asked.

"The character knew the whereabouts of her father when they found his hand on the shore of a lake," I read.

"There's only one lake in the city," Matt said, and began heading in that direction. It didn't take long to get there and the girls' team arrived shortly after we did.

I hopped out of the car and began running toward to the lake. A girl from their car ran out and we both arrived at the lake at the same time. We stood at the shore and looked around. "What are we looking for?" I asked her.

"It said 'a hand' but I don't see anything," she answered.

"Is there anyone around from the library?"

"Maybe this is the item that determines the winner," she suggested.

"So you're saying that there may only be one hand and it just goes to whoever finds it first?"

"Yeah," she said.

"That doesn't seem right. Then what's the point of all the other stuff?"

"Maybe the hand is the most points or the tie-breaker. I don't know."

"There's got to be a pile of fake severed hands around here somewhere," I said and walked closer to the shore of the lake. "The hand in the book was found in the water. Maybe it's around the shore in the water."

I began looking around the water without actually stepping in it. Suddenly, the girl attacked me, knocking me into the water. Half my body was in the water, on my stomach. She sat on my back and took out a pocket knife from her jeans pocket. I tried to thrash and throw her off but she put all her weight on me and I was starting to take in water. She took my arm, pressed it down to the ground just out of the water nearly dislocating my shoulder.

She started carving at my wrist with her pocket knife, slicing open the skin, blood pouring out into the lake. I thrashed and kicked more, tried to scream but only loudly gurgled under the water. Finally, I passed out as she began trying to break the bones with a decent size rock nearby.

She ran back to the girls' team car with my wrist and happily got in.

"What the hell?" Cam asked. "She found a hand. Where's Mike?" Cam got out of the car and began walking toward the lake.

"Are you with the scavenger hunt?" someone called, walking up to him.

"Yeah," Cam said.

"Here you go," he handed Cam a fake severed hand. "I couldn't figure out where to set up. Was that the other team that just left?"

"Yeah," Cam said. "She was holding a hand though. Is there someone else handing out hands?"

"No, just me."

Cam took the hand and ran down to the lake. "Oh my God, Mike!" he screamed when he saw me laying lifeless halfway submerged in the lake, blood trailing from my body up to the hill before disappearing.