Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills Ch. 07

INTRODUCTION & DISCLAIMER - When the Hawkins family find out that their disappearance is front page national news across Australia, they become even more paranoid in their attempts to avoid the supernatural and alien forces pursuing them. The authoritarian father Alistair becomes particularly deranged as the pressure mounts, this not helped by Cornelius's great idea for the family to avoid being identified. But what will happen when the magic pills wear off? And will all of them survive the ordeal?

Read Chapter 7 of this story series to find out. Please note that like previous chapters it contains very strong violence and horror themes which might not be to every readers' taste. All characters and events are fictional, with similarity to real persons living or dead coincidental and unintentional. Please enjoy and rate and comment.

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Another night in an eerie and spooky forest sleeping in a car was not something Erica Hawkins liked, but as she awoke to take her shift at keeping watch at 2 am at least things had been quiet unlike when they had to deal with cannibal pygmies in the Blue Mountains, or yowies and wolves while UFOs flew overhead in the Belanglo Forest the night before.

Erica sat in the back seat of her parents' car listening to the crickets chirping and other nocturnal noises when she heard a bird call that she had never heard before. A loud screeching, menacing and ominous. Erica nervously wound down her window and looked skywards, noting that the Northern Hemisphere sky had reverted to the Southern Hemisphere one and the Southern Cross was once again visible.

However high above the cars, by the intermittent light of the gibbous moon as clouds streaked across the night sky circled six enormous birds, way bigger than eagles or pelicans. They looked like rooks from England, but their eyes glowed blood red. Feeling terrified, Erica shook her sleeping parents in the front seat. "Mum, Dad, wake up!" she urged.

Alistair and Faye Hawkins were awake within seconds, and observed the menacing birds that clearly were not of this world. "We need to go," said Alistair, starting the engine and beeping his horn to awaken the occupants of the other car.

Fortunately Danielle who was keeping watch in the back of her car had also seen and heard the demonic birds, and woke her husband and Gavin, Cornelius immediately starting the engine and following his father's four wheel drive down the track.

The birds emitting their unworldly screeching followed the cars and swooped down like magpies defending their nests. In the back of her car Danielle got the rifle, opened the window and leaned out, firing three shots skywards, this having no effect upon the birds save for making them angrier.

Danielle went to re-load the rifle but was forced to close the window -- and fast -- when a new threat attacked the Hawkins family at ground level. Hundreds of spiders -- deadly and aggressive Sydney funnel-web spiders -- emerged from the vegetation and launched an assault, their fangs bared and dripping with lethal venom.

In the back of her parents' car, Erica put her fingers in her mouth and closed her eyes as in addition to the funnel-web spiders a second type of arachnid -- deadly scorpions -- joined in the chase, and in the headlights huge and aggressive Asian murder hornets could be seen hovering on the road ahead.

Alistair and Cornelius floored it through the dark forest trying to avoid the aggressive arthropods and persistent birds. Erica opened her eyes and wished she hadn't as another strange creature came at them from a trail. Over 30 feet long, it was comprised of numerous body segments and charged the cars, hissing aggressively. It was joined by a second creature very similar in size, although Gavin noted the first monster had one set of legs per body segment and the second had two sets of legs per body segment, so obviously the first was a giant centipede, the second a giant millipede.

Both chased the cars for some way but the Hawkins family seemed to be getting away from the creatures attacking them from the air and at ground level. The birds dropped off their pursuit, and everyone noticed that at the side of the road on which they were now travelling were many cane toads.

The pests introduced to Queensland in the 1930s should not have been this far south, and not about the size of ponies but these cane toads were. Fortunately for the Hawkins family the enormous cane toads didn't seem interested in them, passively watching the cars pass by, flicking out their tongues in and out to catch mosquitos the size of model aeroplanes and making amphibian 'ribbit, ribbit' noises.

Too on edge to sleep again after this latest ambush the Hawkins family drove northwards through the night from the South Coast region headed for the Illawarra region. It was a long, long drive up the coast on the Princes Highway, and both cars were running low on fuel when they reached the town of Nowra and found a 24 hour petrol station to re-fuel, and also food and drink to minimize stops during the day that could be used to trace them.

Apart from a short delay which involved all six family members hiding in their cars when the lights of a UFO could be seen, this went relatively smoothly. Then it was back onto the Princes Highway, and dawn found the Hawkins family at Shellharbour Beach in the southern suburbs of Wollongong, having again re-filled the cars and now trying to get some fresh air and feel less tired after the long night drive after getting chased out of the forest near Bateman's Bay.

There were plenty of other beach-goers at this early hour, but only the Hawkins family noticed something amiss out to sea. First noticed by youngest member of the group Erica, the family watched in amazement as the aliens and demons gave the Hawkins family another demonstration of their amazing powers, and that the family were still very much in their sights for abduction by a spaceship.

Ploughing through the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean was the Titanic again, although unlike on Friday in Sydney Harbour this time it was joined on each side by two other ships very similar. The Hawkins family looked through binoculars at the name plate of the ship that looked very close to the Titanic's port side, and the name-plate read 'Olympic', the Titanic's first sister ship that had been scrapped in the mid-1930s. Further out to sea and on the Titanic's starboard side steamed the third liner, this one in the white, red and green paintwork of a hospital ship, its nameplate reading 'Britannic'.

Behind these liners came two more ships with four funnels although different in size and design. Through their binoculars the Hawkins family read the name-plates, Lusitania and Mauretania, ships sunk in 1915 and scrapped in the 1930s respectively.

The Hindenburg had been visible when they had seen the Titanic on Friday morning, and the Zeppelin flew into sight again, although this time it was joined by a second airship, the R101 which had suffered the same fate several years before the Hindenburg.

These were not the only out of place aircraft in the area, the Hawkins family observing a squadron of five Avenger bombers, a Martin Mariner flying boat and two De Havilland Comet airliners high in the sky.

On the water the bizarre regatta of lost ships continued. A Navy ship -- the name reading HMAS Sydney and lost off the coast off Western Australia during World War II steamed by, accompanied by the SS Waratah, an Australian steamer missing off South Africa for some 90 years.

"What's that ship, Gavin?" Erica asked, pointing at a truly bizarre vessel which had a raised bridge like it was on stilts and gantries up and down its considerable length.

"USS Cyclops," Gavin read. "If I remember, that ship vanished in World War I in the Bermuda Triangle. It's been missing a long time now."

After watching the enormous SS Great Eastern go by, smoke pouring from its stacks and the paddle wheel in rotation, the next two vessels were craft that had all existed in the lifetimes of the Hawkins family. One was a large luxury yacht, and one look at its nameplate -- Patanella -- immediately told everyone it was the vessel that vanished from within Sydney Heads back in 1988. The other was a large car ferry typically seen in Europe -- and it was soon clear that this was the Estonia, lost in the Baltic Sea in 1994.

Behind these came a number of tall ships, two of which bore the nameplates 'Endeavour' and 'Bounty'. On others the Hawkins family could observe convicts, blue-coated officers and red-coated soldiers, as well as some deck crew.

Pirates were evident on a pirate ship that sailed by with the Jolly Roger flag in full glory and there were obviously Vikings to be seen in the Viking ship that also passed by, but nobody at all could be seen on a clipper from the late 1800s with sails set that could also be observed further out to sea, Danielle managing to just make out its name on the side -- 'Marie Celeste'.

Behind the ships the choppy blue waters bubbled, and the Hawkins family watched in amazement -- and increasing fear -- at the creatures that surfaced, all larger than blue whales.

First was a giant squid with ten tentacles, the squid obviously having a break from its home in the deepest darkest depths of the Pacific Ocean. Next was a giant octopus, its yellow-brown body with bright blue rings indicating it was a deadly blue-ringed octopus that the aliens had grown from its usual tiny form to a tremendous size. Third was an enormous box jellyfish, a deadly creature found mainly in the tropical waters off Northern Australia, and like the blue ringed octopus not normally anywhere nearly as big.

Erica's eyes went wide and she pointed at the beach. "Look!"

The others did look, and immediately saw a line of cloven hoofed footprints appearing on the sand. There was no sight of the creature making them, but presumably it was demonic, and the footprints were coming straight for them!

"Run!" yelled Alistair, he, Faye. Gavin and Erica jumping into the four wheel drive, and Cornelius and Danielle into her car and driving away. Erica looked out the back of her father's car as it sped away, and noted that none of the other people at the beach were disturbed by the presence of ships and aircraft from many years earlier, nor giant squids, octopuses or jellyfish in the sea, or even cloven hoof footprints in the sand by some invisible demon. Were they blind?

Alistair followed by Danielle made haste through Wollongong's southern suburbs, and Gavin looked out the window at the Port Kembla Steelworks, Wollongong along with Novocastrian Danielle's home city of Newcastle being the two steel cities of New South Wales.

"So Gavin, you still have relatives in Wollongong, right?" Alistair asked him.

Gavin nodded. "Yes, a set of grandparents, an aunt and uncle and three cousins."

"Make sure you keep watch for them and if you see them, make sure they don't see you," ordered Alistair. "We had a narrow escape with Danielle's grandparents in Newcastle on Friday, I don't want to risk something like that again. And remember if the aliens think they know something, they will come for them."

"I'll be careful," promised Gavin. He didn't want to be responsible for aliens, monsters, ghosts or demons arriving at the houses of any of his Wollongong relatives.

"Make sure you are," growled Alistair, who was getting increasingly agitated by a red light that just refused to turn green.

Finally it did change and Alistair, grumbling and mumbling went through it, followed by Danielle. Hoping for safety in numbers, Alistair went to the main area of Wollongong Beach, the oceanfront area full of parklands with many large Norfolk Island pines. The family got out of their cars, and Cornelius immediately found trouble when a bird ran at him, a large brightly colored bird probably supernatural in origin that fanned its tail and called out, "Help!'

"Aah!" exclaimed Cornelius, backing away from the bird in terror and falling over onto the grass.

His father was unimpressed. "Cornelius that is a peacock. It's harmless! Stop being a moron one day in your life."

Cornelius got back onto his feet, glaring at the peacock. "Fucking stupid bird. I'm going to fucking chase it away!"

He made a move to do this, but his father's sharp tone stopped him. "No, leave it."

Cornelius again went to run at the peacock and chase it, but again was stopped by Alistair's angry voice. "I said no!"

At this, Cornelius gave up on his plans to chase the peacock and stood sulking and mumbling under his breath, glowering at the peacock as it moved away. Gavin had already had enough of his girlfriend's brother even though it was only the early morning. Fortunately, he had an excuse to get away from Cornelius if only for a short time, his bladder was bursting and he really needed to relieve himself.

"I need the toilet," he said, making off at a dash towards a nearby toilet block.

The other five walked along the pavement where there were some cafes and shops, considering if it was worth the risk going in there to procure breakfast. Glancing through the windows of a café, they all stopped short. A large screen television was in the café for patrons to watch, and on the early morning news they could see pictures of themselves with 'Missing' a prominent caption, plus a police number to be called. None could hear what was being said, but the registrations of both missing cars were then shown on the screen along with descriptions on the vehicles. It was lucky that they had put up false Queensland and Victorian plates on the two cars.

Next the image switched to the Hawkins family house, media everywhere, the entire property taped off with 'Police Line -- Do Not Cross'. The female reporter indicated the strange patterns on the lawn but of course what she said was not audible. In the next short Cornelius's crappy car was clear, and the back door was still wide open like he had left it.

Cornelius was enormously relieved. "They didn't take my car," he said.

His father glared at him. "Who would steal that piece of shit?" he growled.

"The Mexicans returned my car," said Faye, noticing her own vehicle parked in the garage from where it had been stolen. "I wonder why?"

"It must have been some sort of trap," said Alistair. He sighed. Now they were on TV and people would be looking for them, which would lead the aliens right to them and able to carry out their plans of abducting them and taking them away in a spaceship.

Gavin was unaware of himself and the other five members of their group listed as missing and now on the news. He had exited the toilet block, and immediately forced to take cover behind a Norfolk Island pine as an older couple walking two Australian silky terriers came along the path.

Anyone who looked at the couple would simply assume that they were just a couple taking their dogs for a walk and enjoying the nice sea air. But this couple were deeply worried. Last night they had been informed by their tearful granddaughter that their grandson had gone missing from Sydney along with his girlfriend and the girlfriend's dysfunctional family. They had enjoyed little sleep, and the walk was to clear their heads and ease some of the worry about their missing grandson.

Hiding behind the tree Gavin's heart raced as his grandparents came closer, and then he heard a buzzing noise. Turning around, he saw a paper wasp, a particularly bad-tempered Australian insect with a nasty sting far worse than that of a honey bee hovering very close to his ear lobe, maybe planning to check if there was a nice juicy caterpillar in Gavin's ear canal.

Instinctively Gavin jumped away from the wasp -- and right into view of his grandparents. He stopped short and looked at his grandparents -- and his grandparents stopped short and looked at Gavin.

"Gavin?" his grandmother asked.

Gavin did not answer, but with a pounding heart sprinted away and up the street as fast as he could, panic running through his entire body. He saw the others and ran towards them.

"Mr. Hawkins, I'm sorry, but my grandparents saw me in the park and..." he began, but his girlfriend's father cut him short.

"What?" he roared, Alistair's skin color suggesting he had scarlet fever, the veins on his neck throbbing.

"Mr. Hawkins, I'm sorry," pleaded Gavin, but Alistair was not about to accept the apology.

"You had one thing to do, just one thing, to avoid seeing any of your family and you do it within five minutes," he bellowed. "Everyone, get in the cars now, we have to leave. Gavin's grandparents will call the police, and the police will tell the aliens where we are."

Everyone jumped into the cars, and Gavin could see Mr. Hawkins seething as he drove down the road. He expected his girlfriend's father-in-law to continue going north, but instead to confuse their pursuers Alistair suddenly turned south towards Port Kembla, this maneuver certainly succeeding in confusing Danielle, his daughter-in-law having to swerve violently to keep up with him.

Getting to Port Kembla wasn't that easy. Seeing a police car coming, Alistair and Danielle had to exit the main road and go down some back roads, where they immediately ran into a problem. The road they were taking was blocked by a large truck piled up with bricks. Unloading and moving the bricks and impeding their path with a small forklift-type loader was the driver, a young surly looking sort of guy, mid 20s and a typical bogan.

Alistair glared at the driver, thinking him a slacker. The young guy glared at Alistair, and moved the loader forward an inch to allow Alistair to get his large four wheel drive up the pavement with just a millimeter of paint to spare. He aggressively indicated for Alistair and Danielle to go through the small space.

Alistair was unimpressed, and laid on his horn to get the bogan to move out of his way. All the bogan did was mouth off at Alistair and make an obscene hand gestures at him. Alistair went redder still, unable to be sure if this guy was just an ignorant smart-ass prick who needed to be taught a lesson, or whether he was in league with the demons and aliens. Either way the angry Alistair knew he had to get this guy out of the way and fast.

Putting the car in neutral and with the handbrake on, within a second Alistair's seatbelt was off and he was out of the four wheel drive running at speed at the bogan driver, his face contorted with rage. "I'm coming to get you!" he roared.

The aggressive bogan looked at the madman coming at him fast and immediately knew he had made a mistake tangling with this man. He had never seen anyone look this angry anywhere, or at any time. At first the driver tried to get away on the loader but it was way too slow especially laden with bricks, so he abandoned it and tried to run away on foot.

Unfortunately for the driver, he tripped as he tried to run, and getting off balance cost him a chance to escape his attacker, Alistair coming straight for him roaring in rage, brandishing an iron bar he had grabbed from the back of the loader. In three quick strides Alistair had caught up with him, and before the bogan had a chance to defend himself, Alistair pounced. The furious Alistair struck the bogan's upper arm with the iron bar, breaking the bone.

The young guy screamed out in agony and Alistair hit him again, this time to the ribcage breaking several, before applying the iron bar to first his right shin and then his left knee. The madman seemed to have the strength of ten men, and even when the bogan went to the road screaming in agony and for mercy, Alistair Hawkins showed him not one ounce of sympathy, instead stepping up the ferocity of his attack.

Alistair went into a frenzy as he bashed his opponent with the iron bar, other times kicking him in the groin, stomach and head with the heavy boots he wore, the repeated kicks to the young man's testicles probably ending any future prospects of fatherhood. Grabbing a brick, Alistair smashed it into the young man's face, breaking several of his teeth before turning his now unconscious opponent over and jumping on his head.