Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills Ch. 03

None of the Mexicans acknowledged him, and the one in the driver's seat turned on the ignition. Alistair went to fire the gun, but the fucking thing wasn't loaded. Damn! Before Alistair could get his ammunition, the Mexican reversed Faye's small hatchback car out of the garage, the car somehow going through the metal but when Alistair went to chase it he couldn't follow it.

Alistair hurriedly opened the garage door and ran out in pursuit of his wife's car, but it was far too late, and by now vanishing up the street at great speed.

"Come back here, you fucking Mexicans!" boomed Alistair, but of course the Mexicans who had stolen his wife's car did no such thing.

Storming back into the garage, Alistair threw the firearms, the chainsaw, the axe, shovel and length of pipe into the back of his four wheel drive. He slammed into the house, seeing Faye throwing some paperwork into a plastic shopping bag.

"What was going on out there, Alistair?" Faye asked anxiously.

Her husband shook his head in fury. "Mexicans stole your fucking car, Faye!"

"Mexicans? Stole my car?"

"Yes, they drove away up the street," growled Alistair. "I tried to stop them, but my goddamn shotgun wasn't loaded."

"Alistair, I still think we need to call the police," said Faye.

"No, we can't," said Alistair. "The aliens sent the Mexicans to steal the car hoping we'll go to the police, and the police are in on this for sure, conspiring with the aliens and the demons to get us."

"Did Mum's car get stolen?" Erica asked, she and the others emerging from the back of the house carrying bags containing a few changes of clothes.

"Yeah, five Mexicans did it," growled Alistair. "But we can't worry about it now, we need to get going before the aliens come to the house." He noticed that Danielle had her mobile phone. "Danielle, leave that, the aliens and demons can use it to track us, or they could use it to put messages in our heads to control us."

Danielle, realizing her mistake put down her mobile phone, while Alistair turned to his son. "Cornelius, go and get some bottles of water so we have something to drink and won't have to stop so much."

"Yeah," said Cornelius. He ran into the kitchen and threw open the refrigerator, then immediately slammed it shut.

"Oh fuck!" yelled Cornelius, running back into the hallway, white as a ghost.

"What's going on?" his father snapped. "Where's the water?"

"Dad, there's a tiger in the fridge!" exclaimed Cornelius.

"A tiger?" For some reason despite every crazy thing that had happened in the Hawkins house that morning, Alistair found it very hard to believe that a tiger lurked in the refrigerator. "Oh don't be so fucking stupid Cornelius, if you're acting like a moron when there's all this stupid shit going on..."

Alistair stormed towards the kitchen in a rage, Cornelius following him. "No Dad, don't open the fridge, please, there really is a tiger in there!"

His father had no intention of listening, and to his son's horror flung open the refrigerator -- and was immediately confronted by a tiger, which snarled and roared at the men, baring its formidable fangs. Alistair tried to slam the fridge door shut, but was too late and the tiger sprang out, chasing Alistair and Cornelius from the kitchen.

Faye leaped back in horror as her husband and son ran past followed by the angry tiger, and Erica cowered in Gavin's arm as the big cat ran after them.

"Lead it into the laundry!" yelled Alistair, he and Cornelius running for the laundry door, then ducking at the last minute, the big cat going through the open door, Alistair slamming it shut. The angry roaring of the tiger filled the house, and the laundry door shook on its hinges as the tiger flung itself against it in a frenzy.

"Let's go!" shouted Alistair, the family grabbing the clothes and other items they had hastily packed, Faye quickly opening a kitchen drawer and taking a large carving knife, which might come in handy if they were under attack later. "Erica and Gavin, come with us, Cornelius and Danielle, you go in Danielle's car."

Cornelius and Danielle ran for the front door, fumbling with the doorknob as they hurried to get out, their fear and urgency increased as the same ghost as earlier appeared at the end of the hallway, and began to advance towards them. Finally they managed it, racing out the house and slamming the door behind them, frantically locking the screen door.

With the burglar and the other three creatures still dancing on the roof, Danielle and Cornelius hastily ran to her car, threw their things into the back with Danielle jumping into the driver's seat, Cornelius into the passenger seat.

"I left my car door open!" said Cornelius, making a move to go and shut it, but his wife stopped him.

"Leave it, there isn't time," she said, Danielle putting the car into reverse gear and backing off the lawn into the road to wait for the four wheel drive.

It wasn't long in coming, Alistair speeding out of the garage leaving the roller door up, and racing up the road. In the back of the car with Gavin, Erica looked backwards at Mr. Cole, the man still standing in his garden and watching their hasty departure.

Both cars screeched to a halt outside the Baxter house. "Now remember, just grab essentials, no messing around!" Alistair warned Gavin.

"Yes Mr. Hawkins, I'll be really quick," Gavin promised his girlfriend's father, before running out of the four wheel drive and into his parents' house. In a frenzy, Gavin packed some changes of clothes, underwear and toiletries like his toothbrush, running out so fast he almost forgot to lock the front door, Gavin hastily doing this and sprinting for Mr. Hawkins' car.

He was not a second too late. From the skies came an ominous whirring noise, and the occupants of both cars looked upwards to see another UFO. This was a different design from the other UFO, but an alien craft regardless that had come to capture them.

"Just follow me!" Alistair called to Danielle, his daughter-in-law giving him a thumbs-up signal in response. With a squeal of tires, both cars sped away as fast as they could, their departure impeded by the aliens or possibly the demons with whom the aliens were clearly in alignment.

The house three doors down from the Baxter house was an Italian-style house with columns, lots of marble, and six lion statues in the garden. As the cars came level with it, the concrete lions morphed into real, living lions, which let out terrifying roars, chasing both Danielle and Alistair's cars up the street, baring their teeth, the wind flowing through the lions' manes as they picked up the pace. Soon they were joined in the pursuit by other felines. The tiger had somehow escaped from the laundry back at the Hawkins' house and was running behind them, next to the panther from the fence. A cheetah ran from one garden, a leopard leaped out of a box tree planted on the verge of another house and a jaguar jumped off the roof of another house.

"Alistair, hurry!" urged Faye, Alistair putting his foot down so the four wheel drive was now at 100 kilometers per hour in the quiet suburban street, Danielle likewise pressing her foot down too to keep up with her father-in-law, but the big cats could no longer keep pace and fell away into the distance. With squealing tires both cars sped through a roundabout at the end of the street, and raced along the new road at breakneck speed.

Gavin looked out the window at the UFO, which was still hovering around making the scary whirring noise, but it seemed to be going north, perhaps anticipating setting up an ambush further up the road.

"We'll head south to the city," said Alistair, also looking at the flying saucer as it flew away in a northerly direction.

With Danielle right behind him, Alistair drove for the road that would take them to the Harbour Bridge and across into the Sydney CBD. In the back seat of the car, Erica hoped that her brother Brendan was okay back at the house, especially with big cats loose in the street, a zombie neighbor across the road, toilet and power point demons and ghosts roaming around.

Back at the Hawkins house, it looked as though everybody had headed out to their respective days. Nobody would have given the house a second glance, except that it would have been unusual for Cornelius to leave his car door ajar, and for the family not to close the roller door of the garage.

In the house itself all was quiet, the only sound to be heard that of Brendan Hawkins using the dust-buster in his granny flat, and the sound of the refrigerator struggling to keep cool with an open door, a ticking clock and a dripping kitchen tap that punctured the eerie silence of the Hawkins family's abandoned house, the flickering static snow on the TV set left on adding to the creepy atmosphere. The sound of the telephone ringing was audible through the house, but the telemarketer on the other end would never have their call answered before the answering machine kicked in.

END OF CHAPTER 3 -- TO BE CONTINUED...