the cold-chapter 3

Earl rolled over and yawned. He shivered from the cool morning air. It was dark inside the shack, but streaks of morning sunlight were shining through the cracks in the wooden walls. Earl opened his eyes and yawned again. His head ached. He crawled to his hands and feet, then stood up unsteadily. He looked around. He was alone in the old shack. The fire had gone out sometime during the night, and only ashes and half burned logs remained in the fire pit. Then he realized he was hungry. But before long, the memory of the night before came flooding back to him, and he forgot all about being hungry.

As quickly as he could, he scrambled out of the small shack and into the morning sunlight. His friend Ricky had been transformed into some kind of creature last night. It was all the fault of that little silver key Ricky had pulled from his pocket. The one with the skull engraved into it. Ricky was nowhere to be seen now. But what of Hank? Hank had been right behind
him before he had fainted. Now there was no sign of Hank either. Perhaps the creature had killed Hank as well. There was no sign of a struggle at least.

"Hank!" cried Earl. "Can you hear me?! Hello? Hank!?" No answer. Earl lumbered through the cemetery, trying to get out of that spooky place as fast as he could. If only he could remember where they had parked the night before, he might be able to get help. But as he waddled past grave after grave, the surroundings began to look more and more unfamiliar.

"Where am I going?" he thought. He looked around. Something didn't feel right. Everything felt off. He was all turned around. Just then, he heard a clap of thunder and looked up. Dark clouds had formed in the sky and it was beginning to rain. Moments later, he saw lightning.

"Thunder before lightning?" he thought, puzzled. Something was definitly wrong. Nature didn't work that way. It began to pour. He took shelter under a nearby tree. About ten minuted passed, then suddenly lightning truck the tree Earl was standing under. But luck was on his side! The electricity didn't hurt him. It didn't even touch him. He felt fine. Then, another strange thing happened. As soon as the lightning had struck the tree that Earl stood under, hundreds, maybe thousands of worms and caterpillers appeared on the cemetery ground all around him. They wriggled as if in pain for several seconds, then were still. All dead.

Something supernatural was taking place, unseen by human eyes. Earl stood perfectly still, allowing his new found powers to enter his body. He suddenly understood everything that had gone on the night before, the streange unexplained transformation of Ricky. The disappearance of Hank. And the storm. And the worms and caterpillers appearing and suddenly dying. It all made sense to him now.

"I'm am no longer Earl Harrison!" He said in a loud voice. "I am Caterpiller man!" The back of his dirty white T-shirt began to rip, and two extra sets of arms grew out of his side. His skin took on a greenish color with black and yellow
spots, and he grew two antenna on his head.


"I will soon morph into a butterfly and get my wings." he said in a deep yet soothing voice.

"It's time to go find Ricky and Hank."