“Well, it’s really weird... but...,” The Search and Rescue officer began. “We have no idea where your son is...”

John, Earl, Mom, Dad, and several other kids stared at the Search and Rescue officer.

“What do you mean, you don’t know where he is?” Dad demanded. “Aren’t you looking for footprints?”

There was a pause.

“Well, actually, yes,” The officer said. “We took a list of all the common clues to look for. Footprints, hand prints, the dragging of a duffel bag. Then, we looked for what you told us he would leave behind. Comic books, his clothes, one of his shoes, his entire bed blanket. We found nothing.”

Mom and Dad stared at him.

“Technically the footprints lead into the forest on the north eastern side,” The man pointed ahead to the giant boulder where Calvin and Hobbes had dived into the forest. “and then, they just... well... disappear. Unless this boy of yours can fly, then I have no clue what happened to him.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“Well, back at it!” The Search and Rescue officer said, wheeling around and marching out of the forest.

John and Earl sighed.

By this time, darkness had fallen over the campsite.

The kids had been sent home, Mom and Dad were sleeping in one of the cabins, John, Earl, and the other counselors had retreated to their cabins, and the Search and Rescue Team continued their efforts to find Calvin.

“HELLO!!!” One member of the team called into an ear piercingly loud megaphone. “CALVIN!! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!”

The man looked around the forest in vain.

The team had made it about half way up the mountain, and had made zero progress on their mission.

Meanwhile, a helicopter was gliding across the sky over the mountain range, the blades whipping against the air, as two more Search and Rescue team members scouted the mountain with binoculars.

By ten o’clock the search was called off for the night.

For all everyone knew, Calvin, his duffel bag, all his belongings, and his small stuffed tiger, Hobbes, had disappeared right off the face of the Earth.



Calvin kicked the cardboard box.

“STUPID TIME MACHINE!!!!” He cried, throwing his fists at the box. “HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DISAPPEAR OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH WITH THIS THING?!?”

Hobbes rolled his eyes.

“Why, exactly, would we want to do that in the first place?” He asked, sitting on a log next to a warm campfire.

Calvin, conveniently, had packed an entire three person tent into his duffel bag, and with it, a small camping oven, and a bag of marshmallows.

Also, Calvin had hooked a generator up to a bunch of light stands, had stationed them on every side of the forest, and was shining them forward, as to see everything within a one mile radius.

When Hobbes asked about this, Calvin said that he had raided Dad’s work shed.

Uh huh.

Calvin glared at him.

“Well, why do you think?” He demanded. “We’re trying to hide from that whatever that we saw last night!”

“I thought we were done with that,” Hobbes said. “I thought we were trying to get back to the campsite, now.”

“Sure, but not by night. Now shut up, while I try and find a way to refuel it.”

Calvin turned back to the Time Machine.

Hobbes sighed, and turned back to the campfire before him.

There was a long moment of silence.

Cut only with Calvin’s hisses and death threats at the box.

Suddenly, Calvin yanked open a compartment on the box, and a large cloud of black burst from it.

“BLAAAAUCK!!” Calvin screamed, wheeling backwards from the smog. “CURSE YOU, LOW BUDGET TIME BOX!!!”

Hobbes rolled his eyes.

He let the smoke and dust clear, then he stood up and yawned and stretched..

“Well, Calvin,” He yawned. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to turn in for the night.”

Calvin looked up, the entire front part of him covered in black soot.

“Fine.” he grumbled. “Goodnight.”

“Night.” Hobbes said, climbing into the tent.

Calvin muttered to himself, then turned back to the Time Machine, holding a screwdriver and hammer.

Neither Calvin nor Hobbes noticed the black shadow moving through the trees, slowly towards them.

“Well, I can’t fix it,” Calvin grumbled, throwing the box aside. “Maybe now would be a good time to start working on another invention of mine.”

“ZZZZZZZZZZ” Hobbes replied from the tent.

Calvin glared at him, and walked over to his duffel bag.

He ruffled through all the junk he had in it, and finally pulled out a small circular device.

It was a chrome portable CD player with a red stripe going around it.

“Ah, here we are,” Calvin said.

He walked over to the camp fire and sat down.

“It’s a wonder I managed to get Dad to buy this for me. ‘You don’t need a CD player, Calvin, you already have a tape player! It even records your voice! That’s more than we possibly need!’.”

Calvin grumbled to himself, and opened the CD player up.

He took a screwdriver, and inserted it into where the CD would go, and began fiddling around with it.

Suddenly, he heard something only a few hundred feet away from him.

SNAP!

Calvin looked up, and stared into the darkness.

He saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“You know, if I had this finished, you’d be in so much trouble right now!” He shouted at the darkness, holding the CD player up.

No reply came.

Calvin muttered to himself, and turned back to the CD player in his hands.

Just then, he heard another sound.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE! SNAP!! SNAP!!

Calvin’s head jerked up.

He looked all around the darkness of the forest.

He stood up, and held the CD player out in front of him like a weapon.

“OK, I’ll bite,” He said, glaring at the forest. “Who’s there?”

No reply came.

By this time, Calvin had begun getting a little nervous.

“I must warn you!” He said, pointing at the forest. “I know all about your kind! Don’t think I haven’t brought plenty of garlic and silver bullets with me!”

Silence.

Calvin glared at the nothingness.

“Oh, so your going to be creepy about it, huh? Fine then! I’ll just ignore you!”

Calvin whirled around, to get his screwdriver.

He froze.

Right in front of him was something very large with brown fur.

Very slowly, Calvin’s eyes rolled upward.

There was a giant grizzly bear standing in front of him on all four legs.

Calvin and the bear stared at each other for a long moment, Calvin’s eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“I suppose now would be a bad time to say I haven’t brought any pepper spray.” He said, finally.

The bear opened its large jaws and roared.

“GGGRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOWWWLLL!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUGH!!!” Calvin screamed, stumbling backwards, almost falling into the camp fire.

In the tent, Hobbes jumped, and nearly tore the whole thing down.

Calvin began backing up as the bear approached, glaring at him, dangerously.

“OK, now about all that stuff I said about you being in trouble,” He said. “I was only kidding! I wouldn’t get mad at anyone of your... uh... stature...”

The bear reared up on its back legs, and roared, again.

Calvin jumped.

“OK, OK,” He said to himself. “I know what to do! I know how to protect myself!”

He paused.

“Uh... was it play dead and cover my throat or make myself look huge while making lots of noise...?” He contemplated, tapping his chin.

The bear made a swipe for Calvin.

“AAAUGH!” Calvin screamed, ducking and making a dive for the tent.

He rushed inside, and frantically zipped it up.

“HOBBES!! HOBBES!!” He screamed. “It’s an emergency! There’s a bear here and...”

Calvin looked around the tent.

Hobbes had vanished.

Calvin’s eyes narrowed.

Meanwhile the bear had already lost interest in Calvin and was currently waddling on all fours towards the duffel bag, which had an aroma of food.

Calvin watched it from the tent flap.

“HEY! YOU CAN’T GET IN THERE!” He shrieked. “That’s my food!”

The bear ignored him, and began pawing at the bag.

Calvin growled.

“OK, now your starting to cross the line, now, Teddy!!” He warned.

The bear turned and stared at him.

Calvin shrunk back.

“No, go ahead. Stuff your lousy face with our food while we go hungry and die of starvation! It will all be on your conscience, you overgrown throw rug!”

The bear stared at him.

Then, it turned, and went back to the bag.

Calvin reached into his pocket.

“Switching to plan B, then,” He growled.

He pulled out a small TV remote control from his pocket.

He hit the POWER ON button.

Suddenly, to the bear’s surprise, the duffel bag unzipped itself, and opened up, widely.

An electric blue light burst from the bag, shooting straight upward into the sky, lighting up the night.

The bear leaned over, and stared inside.

There was a intensely bright and colorful swirling vortex inside the bag. Several items which Calvin had packed were flying all around it, and there was a heavy wind going all through it.

Calvin turned, and started turning the VOLUME control up, then he pushed the CHANNEL UP button.

Suddenly, air began getting sucked inside the bag.

As if a giant fan had been turned on, items started being pulled into the bag.

The generator, the lights, the campfire and the various comic books Calvin had strewn on the ground.

Calvin zipped the tent back up, and prepared.

He turned around.

Hobbes was sitting in front of him.

“AAUGH!!” Calvin shouted, falling over.

“Hello, Calvin. What did I miss?” He grinned.

“HOW DO YOU DO THAT?!?” Calvin demanded.

Hobbes shrugged.

Calvin grumbled to himself, and turned back to the zipper.

“Hold on, Hobbes,” He said, taking hold of the tent’s pockets.

Hobbes paused.

“Wh... why?” He asked.

Just then, the tent began shaking.

Hobbes was tossed off his feet as suddenly, the tent was ripped out of the ground.

The bear watched in shock as the green tent, rocketed through the air, and was absorbed into the duffel bag.

After the entire tent had been absorbed, the bag zipped itself back up, and began shaking.

Then, there was a large blast of light, the bag imploded into a small blue sphere about the size of a fingernail.

It fell to the ground, and then silence filled the area.

The bears stared at the duffel bag for a long time, shocked at what had happened.

Then, it looked over its shoulders, stared at the duffel bag, again, unsurely, then turned, and waddled away.

There was a long moment of silence.

Then, suddenly, the bag expanded outward, again, and flew open, once more.

Everything was instantly replaced exactly to where it was before.

The bag then zipped back up, and remained silent.

Calvin peeked out of the tent.

“Well, there. That worked!” He grinned.

He marched out of the tent, grinning.

Hobbes came staggering out, next, holding his stomach.

“Let’s never ever do that, again, hmmm?” He groaned, collapsing onto the ground in a heap.

“Oh, you have no sense of adventure,” Calvin sniffed.

Hobbes glared at him.

Neither one of them got much sleep that night.