Charlie, Me and the Giant Ball Bearing Pt. 3

Continued from "Charlie, Me and the Giant Ball Bearing Pt. 2"

The sun was rising over the hills, and it was beautiful. The ball had stopped singing though.

"Charlie, SHIT! The ball...it's...it's a ball again! And it's quiet".

Charlie shook his head and stretched, looking at the alien contraption. "The lights are gone, too. Do you think it's out of juice?"

I shurgged. How the hell should I know? Just yesterday I had been convinced that we had been majorly ripped off, then I'm following this thing without giving it a second thought, eating the random food it produces from somewhere in its odd machinery and... "Damn, Charlie, what the hell are we doing? We don't even know what this thing is".

He looked at me without any real expression of worry. But he didn't say anything, and I guess that was sort of a good thing. It wasn't often Charlie kept his loud mouth shut. I stood up, keeping an eye on the giant ball bearing, wondering if I should pick it up, or kick it, or wait for it to do something again. I dusted off my worn out jeans, and as I did, the ball bearing made the decision for me. It started doing something.

"Look!" Charlie shouted. It began to hover again, only a few inches from the ground, and a low, melodic humming started from somewhere inside it. The humming got louder, and the ball began to unfold again, taking on the shape of a flying saucer again.

Charlie looked at me, his eyes glazed, "We don't have much further to go, Duke".

"How do you know that?"

Charlie shook his head, then looked at me, "I don't know...I don't even know why I said that, it was like," he sighed, "It was like that thing was in my head".

I got a chill, but before I could say anything, the flying saucer started it's flight again, and again, Charlie and I were helpless not to follow it.

We were in the foothills now, and the happy, looping, showy flight patterns the thing was taking almost felt like mocking as we trudged up the rocky trails. I wasn't as entranced this time around, and I was growing tired and agitated a lot more quickly. The sun was high in the sky, and not having had any breakfast I was feeling hungry, and at least a little grouchy.

"Do you think we have to ask it to feed us? Or maybe last night was just a one time deal? Fuck, man, I am so hungry". Charlie was whining.

"I know as much about this thing as you do, remember?" I snapped at him.

"Yeah, but I'm really hungry."

Just then the ball saucer made an abrupt turn, flew sideways for a moment and then disappeared into the opening of some sort of man made cave.

"Shit." I started to jog toward the cave.

It was waiting for us right inside the mouth of the cave, boucning happily and doing a much better light show than would have been possible in full daylight. The lights kind of did make me happy. They were warm, somehow.

Then, it pulled its blooming flower trick again; and again, there was food. It was different from the food from the night before, but just as alien, and just as delicious. After lunch, I felt energized. I was ready to hike a hundred miles, no! A thousand.

The ball took off almost as soon as Charlie had popped the last of the alien grapes into his mouth, and we both stumbled and nearly fell trying to get up to follow it. It's colorful lights cast abstract shadows along the wals of the tunnel as it zipped through at what felt like thirty miles an hour. Of course, it coulnd't have been that fast, because we were keeping up with it. I mean, it definitley wouldn't have been possible for it to effect our running speed...