The Vendeleer Brothers Book 4: The Plagued Forest
Chapter 4: Along the Boardwalk

“So we’ve got all these weird sightings of plant things in the woods, so what now?” Jordyn asked, looking immediately to Joey as they all stood in the parking lot of the police building.

“Well, I might be able to track it with this?” Brian said hesitantly, holding up what looked like an old super nintendo.

“Dude! That’s not the super nintendo you actually play on is it?” Roderick asked, horrified. Brian looked at him aghast.

“How could you even think of such a thing!!” he exclaimed. “You know I buy random parts to all sorts of crap!”

“Then let’s head into the woods.” Jordyn said immediately, jumping into the driver’s seat of the van. Brian was about to say something about how he wasn’t keen on her driving his van, but with a sigh, he decided against it and climbed in the back with Ian and Roderick.

A few minutes later, they were pulling up to a park with a sign that had been overgrown with thick vines with wicked looking flowers. Flowers with sharp purple edges and thorns that looked like they were on the verge of dying.

“The Sheriff said they had gotten a lot of sightings around this park specifically.” Ian said while flipping through his notes. “And from the interviews and reports, it does look like there is a rather large concentration here.”

“Well, let’s try my new toy.” Brian said, jumping out of the van before he had a chance to really think about it and chicken out.

The others followed him, and they started to venture out onto the boardwalk and out into the swamp. Brian looked down at his device, waving it around and occasionally hitting it a couple of times. Jordyn’s hand twitched over her holster, wanting to be prepared if anything came out to attack them.

“Are you getting… any of your funky feelings Joey?” Ian asked, looking up at the large trees sticking up out of the swampy water, spanish moss hanging from the branches.

“Unfortunately no…” she said, frowning a bit. “I wish I was. Then I would know what we were really getting into.”

The five of them were silent as they went down the long twisting boardwalk. Mist started to come out of the swamp, and Ian looked down at the goopy water with a bit of disgust. It was strange. Usually in a swamp like this, there should have been the buzz of cicadas in the hot summer humidity, or the croaking of frogs from the water below. But instead, there was nothing.

It was completely silent.

Maybe that’s why they all turned suddenly when they heard a little splash.

“Whatever that was, it probably isn’t friendly…” Jordyn said quietly, slowly bringing out her gun. “Everything else here is dead.”

“I hate to admit it, but you are probably right on that one.” Ian grimaced. Brian turned towards the splash and then slid one of the buttons on the super nintendo device up. As soon as he did, it started to emit a high pitched screech that caused all of them to put their hands over their ears.

“Turn that thing off!!” Jordyn exclaimed.

“Stupid thing!!” Brian yelled, giving it a good whack to try to shut it up. “I probably didn’t connect a couple of things ri-.”

With another good whack, he finally silenced it, causing them all to give a sigh of relief. Well, except for Brian. Brian was suddenly standing there very stiffly, gripping the super nintendo so tightly, his knuckles were turning white. Roderick regarded him with concern.

“Uh… dude? Are you ok?” he asked.

Brian slowly looked down, and they all realized that there was a thick vine now wrapped around his leg.

“Holy crap-.” Ian started to say, when the vine yanked Brian off of the boardwalk before anyone had a chance to do anything. The super nintendo hit the boardwalk and started screeching again, but it was no accompanied by Brian’s screams as he was pulled into the swamp.

“BRIAN!” Roderick yelled, running along the boardwalk as his friend disappeared into the mist. They could hear the splashes and screams of their friend as he was being thrashed around by whatever it was in the swamp. Joey scooped the device up, reached into the cartridge slot and pulled out some wires, causing it to go silent. Then the four of them ran down the walkway.

“Brian!! Brian-where are you!!” Roderick screamed into the mist.

They all stood there panting for a moment and listening. Things were silent again. Then there was a splash and a gasp for help from somewhere nearby.

“LOOK OUT!!” Jordyn yelled, pointing at the boardwalk up ahead. Vines were crawling across the wood towards them, ready to pull them into the swamp as well. Jordyn jumped in front of them and pointed to a spot somewhere between the trees.

“I hope I hit something…” she muttered to herself, firing a few bullets. The vines recoiled as something in the trees screeched in pain. The four of them charged forward, and then in relief, saw Brian trying to pull himself out of the swamp on the side. Ian reached down and pulled him onto the boardwalk, and then immediately regretted it when he found his arm coated in the same foul smelling mud that Brian was now covered in. Brian stood there with his arms out and gagging.

“Can we leave now?” he asked pitifully as Ian wiped the mud off on his pants, scrunching up his nose.

“I think that’s a good idea…” Jordyn said, covering her nose.

Since the shower was not working, they had to buy a few gallons of distilled water from the store so Brian could wash himself off. Once he was all clean, they realized that he had a couple of gashes and scrapes from where he had probably hit trees and roots coming out of the water. His leg also had some nasty bruises on it from where the vines had been gripping onto him.

After bandaging up, they ordered some pizza to try and cheer him up. Then Joey pulled out a board game.

“Really? A board game?” Jordyn scoffed, sitting on the motel bed with her arms folded. “What are we-twelve?”

“I’ve always wanted to play this game though.” Joey said a little shyly. “I just… never had anyone to play with before… so I thought maybe…”

Jordyn rolled her eyes, but then grabbed another piece of pizza and sat down at the table with everyone else.

“Fine. How do you play?” she asked. Joey gave a smile and pulled out the game.

“It’s actually a haunted house game, which I thought would be kind of funny and ironic knowing what we have to deal with now. And the gameplay changes depending on what haunt you get. Apparently halfway during the game, one of us will be a traitor and will become the villain of the game.”

“Yessss. I hope I get to be the villain!!” Roderick said with excitement, rubbing his hands together. Beside him, Brian slowly chewed on a slice of pizza and nodded, wrapped up in a blanket and looking down at the game. Roderick gave him a playful push.

“Soon, you’ll forget all about almost drowning by some weird swamp monster.” he told him. Brian raised a brow.

“Easy for you to say.” he scoffed. “You weren’t the one with a vine around your leg.

“Well, here. You can be the little girl character since you’re such a crybaby.” Jordyn said with a smirk. Brian stuck his tongue out at her as if he was a child, and then took the little girl character anyway.

“I guess I’ll be… this guy?” Ian said slowly, picking up a really buff guy figurine. Ian was actually pretty excited to be playing a game. He liked board games. Especially since he and Joey had started to play different things.

An hour later, they were all deep into their parts. It was nice to have an actual break for once in their now crazy lives and do something together. Jordyn had turned traitor in the game and was slowly killing them all. Ian had died early and was now pouting off to the side and watching as the others started to lose to Jordyn.

“Have fun in hell!!” she sing songed evilly, killing Joey in the game. With a sigh, Joey tipped her figurine over.

“It’s up to us now Brian!!” Roderick exclaimed. “We can still do this!!”

“Uh… Yeah…”

Jordyn looked at the rule book for a moment and then moved her pieces.

“Alright Brian. What are you going to do now? It looks like you’re cornered.” she grinned devilishly. Brian sat there with the blanket wrapped around himself and shivered.

“Um… I’m… going to go this way…” he said a little shakily, moving his piece to the right. He was sweating profusely now, and Roderick started to wonder if it was more than just the game.

“Hey uh… are you alright Brian?” he asked. “You’re starting to look a little pale.”

“Uhm…”

Brian swallowed, and then shakily started to stand up. Then, he ran to the bathroom and about kicked open the door. The others were silent as they all heard him throwing up.

“Brian?” Roderick asked as his friend came out wiping his mouth.

“I’m kind of… feeling sick…” he said hoarsely, swaying a little. Then, he fell to the ground unconscious without warning.

“Brian!!” Roderick exclaimed, rushing to his side. Joey felt his forehead.

“He’s got a fever for sure. You don’t think it’s-the… sickness in town do you?” she asked.

“Damn it! He was dragged into that water wasn’t he?” Jordyn said through gritted teeth. “We need to get him to the hospital. NOW.”

Ian and Roderick picked Brian up by the arms and legs, and Roderick looked down at his sick unconscious friend, worried about what the days ahead would bring.

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