Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear Read online

  Copyright © 2012 J. Joseph Wright

  All rights reserved

  Cover Art by: Krystle Wright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental (and would be quite remarkable, indeed).

  I want the world to read Tribe of the Teddy Bear. If you’d like to share it with your friends, feel free. Just respect my and my family’s right to earn a living and don’t make money off of it, because that would constitute copyright infringement and subject you to civil and criminal liability. Thank you, J.

  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to thank my past teachers and friends who showed confidence in my writing even when I had none. I’d also like to thank my family, especially my mother, Elaine Wright, and my mother-in-law, Sarah Dollison, for helping with proofreading. Mostly I want to thank my beloved wife, Krystle, without whom this book would have never been possible.

  This world is no more than thoughts manifesting themselves.

  Siddhartha Gautama Buddha

  For Krystle

  TRIBE

  of the TEDDY BEAR

  ONE

  TAKOTA’S HEAD POUNDED so hard, he expected chunks of gray matter to spring from his ears and do an angry dance right there in front of his face. The rumbling, utterly hollow feeling in his stomach, though, posed much more of a problem. Weak and weary, he needed to eat. Yet the stale, lifeless pile on the floor made his gut turn even worse. He picked up a wilted leaf and it drooped in his hand. He forced it into his mouth.

  Bluck!

  He spat, then spat again.

  Bluck!

  The bitterness caused an upheaval he could have done without. At least he had water, fed by a strange metal tube. It tasted funny, but did the job.

  With no outside view, he had no concept of time. He saw there were other cages, but they were empty.

  Finally, he heard something. Faint footsteps growing louder. Metal on metal. Whispers. Cautious tones. The door flew open and a light blinded him. Three silhouettes in silence, staring down.

  Takota stared back. It was the first time he’d seen a human.

  “There he is,” the tallest figure boasted.

  “This tiny thing?” asked one of the other men. “Doesn’t seem too scary to me.”

  The two shorter men chuckled.

  Takota concentrated. He caught the gazes of the two amused men. They stopped laughing. Their jaws dropped. Drool spilled from their lips.

  The tall one noticed and slapped them.

  “Hey! What’s wrong! Snap out of it, both of you!”

  “I’m exhausted,” one yawned.

  “Yeah,” the other stretched. “Really tired.”

  “Stop it, you feeble-minded fools! Can’t you see what’s happened? The creature has hypnotized you!”

  The two men turned to Takota.

  “NO!” their boss pushed them away. “Don’t look directly into its eyes, you idiots!”

  “That, that thing! What is it?”

  “This is Area 51 stuff! You don’t pay me enough for this!”

  “Let’s get outta here!”

  The men hurried out the door, slamming it behind them.

  The tall one shook his fist. “Cowards! It’s in a cage, it can’t hurt you!”

  Don’t be so sure, Takota fixated on him.

  “No you don’t,” he shielded his face. “But I like your style, little guy. You and I, we’re gonna be great friends. Great friends.”

  IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG before Takota became hungry enough to forget about his loathing for the rancid leafy stuff. It filled the void in his gut. Good thing. He would need the strength.

  The door opened again and two men walked in, different ones than before. They were shrouded in white, even their mouths and hands, with dark glasses straddling their noses.

  “That? It’s so little.”

  “Let’s just get this done, okay?”

  One man nodded to the other and they left the room.

  The men proceeded to put Takota through what they called, ‘exercises.’ After several hours in that place, they learned he could leap to the high ceiling, lift massive objects quite easily, and, of course, they’d witnessed his eyecatcher earlier. He decided that was all he would allow them to know—until the cage walls began to shake and the floor started moving, forcing him to walk in place.

  Takota’s heart skipped. He thought it was an earthquake. Once he got used to it, though, the relaxed tempo felt good. Then the pace quickened. Faster. And faster. Then, for fun, he accelerated, making the floor keep up with him. Soon, his legs were a blur. Underneath the cage, it whined and popped as the floor grinded to a halt. Smoke filled the room. His lungs burned.

  A loud, high-pitched noise made Takota cover his ears. The door flew open and the men scrambled in, one carrying a large, red canister. He pointed a black hose at the smoldering cage. A burst of white foam choked the fire.

  A powdery cloud masked Takota’s view. As it settled, gradually, the two men reappeared. Humans in the mist. Sights fixed on him, mouths wide, they stood motionless until one spoke to the other.

  “You okay, Scudder?”

  “Yeah. Diaz?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You, you saw that, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We’d better tell Savage.”

  “Yeah.”

  THE MAN THEY CALLED SAVAGE stooped closer. Takota saw his own reflection in the human’s eyeglasses. Though clearly in charge, he seemed younger than the others, and fitter. Takota sensed he was the type of person who took pride in his appearance. His immaculate suit and styled dark blonde hair made it obvious. The only thing spoiling his neatness was the facial stubble, though somehow Takota knew Savage grew that on purpose.

  “The testing’s gone well?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The results, sir.”

  Savage flipped through the pages. “Yes, Yes…YES!” he tossed the clipboard, letting it Clang! on the metal table. “Do you know what this means? We’ve done it! My client’s finally going to get off my back, thank God!”

  “What are your plans for the little guy, sir?”

  He let out a throaty giggle.

  “Archer Savage Industries has landed a very large, very lucrative defense contract with a client who’s been hunting these sneaky little creatures down for quite some time. Animals have been used in warfare for decades—trained dogs and dolphins—but this is a whole new ballgame. These aren’t ordinary animals, and this isn’t ordinary technology…”

  He held up a silver object, no larger than a gnat. Diaz and Scudder each lifted their glasses to study it. Not circular completely, it had rounded ends and a mirrored skin masking its contents.

  “With this, my client can control his every move. More importantly, it’ll let us tap into his powers, like the little mind control game he plays, and other abilities—even more mysterious, even more powerful.”

  Savage pocketed the object and once again dedicated his attention to Takota.

  “What are you hiding from us, huh? What other tricks do you have up your little sleeves?”

  Without moving their heads, the other men shot skeptical glances at one another.

  “Uh, sir?” Scudder cleared his throat. “Do you actually expect it to answer?”

  The men chuckled.

  Takota’s stomach sank. He saw the shift in Savage’s attitude. The corners of his sharp, thin lips dropped. His eyelids pursed shut until they formed narrow slits. A single vein slithered down h
is brow.

  “I shouldn’t expect you to understand,” he was much more reserved than Takota had predicted. “I shouldn’t expect you to grasp the magnitude of this discovery.”

  He smiled at nothing in particular.

  “I’ll be the toast of the defense industry. Finally, redemption! And at long last, my company will take its rightful place in the upper echelon, right next to Boeing and Raytheon,” he stepped closer to Takota’s cage. “And it’s all thanks to them.”

  “Them?” Diaz sounded confused. “We have more of them?”

  “Not yet. We will,” Savage bent near Takota. “You hear that, little buddy? You’re going to have company soon. We’re going to capture your entire species, all your pint-sized friends. And soon my client will have an army of tiny super warriors.”

  He stood and barged his way to the door. “Prep the specimen for surgery.”

  Savage marched into the hallway. Then Scudder made a mistake—he looked into Takota’s eyes without wearing his glasses. Takota had to work fast. He needed Scudder to do a couple things. He focused deep, hoping to plant the seed before…

  “All right,” Diaz announced. “You heard the man, let’s do this.”

  Scudder remained still. Tongue drooping, he gawked at the cage.

  “Scudder!” Diaz tore him away. “You’ve got to be more careful, man!”

  “Uh, wha?” he mumbled.

  “Let’s get to work!” Diaz hurried out the door. “Come on!”

  Scudder followed, then halted after two steps. He spun on his heels and strode to the cage. Takota’s skin tingled.

  “You think you got me, don’tcha?” Scudder grinned. “You think you hypnotized me, and that I’m under your control, don’tcha?”

  Takota noticed a distance in his look.

  “Well, you didn’t and I’m not!” he grumbled. “You have no power over me. None.”

  Possessed with minds of their own, Scudder’s hands began to fumble, patting the cage, the table, the wall. They explored until finding their prize—the locking mechanism for Takota’s prison. Electronically controlled, it was activated with a thumbprint.

  “I know what you want me to do, too,” Scudder went on, oblivious to his own actions. “You want me to unlock your cage. Well that’s not gonna happen.”

  Scudder touched his thumb on the pad. A small beep. An internal rumble. A click, and the lock disengaged. Scudder noticed nothing.

  “Scudder! Get in here, would ya?”

  Scudder flinched, blinking again and again.

  “What the..?” he shook his head. “Uh, coming!”

  He squinted at Takota while bumbling with his safety glasses. Then he backed away and joined his co-worker.

  Takota nudged the cage door open and slipped onto the floor.

  The loudest, scariest noise he’d ever heard came from all corners of the room. The lab went dark except for amber, flashing lights which danced on the walls and ceiling. Takota realized the lab door was about to slam shut. He rocketed past as it closed.

  A dim hallway. Another closed door. Hiding in a corner, he heard the two men arguing.

  “You left the cage open, you idiot!” Diaz yelled. “Open the door!”

  Another click. Diaz hurried through the hall and into the lab.

  “And turn off that alarm!”

  Takota slipped into the next room. He saw Scudder sitting at a desk, staring into several bright objects. Scudder pushed a button and the hideous noise stopped, though the lights still darted in circles. Takota scuffled under a chair, a desk, then to the chair again. Scudder looked up, scanning.

  “I can’t find it!” Diaz stomped in.

  “Shhh!” Scudder pointed. “It’s under there. Get it. Be careful.”

  Diaz scowled. “You let it out. You get it.”

  “N-n-no way!”

  “Fine, you baby,” he shoved Scudder aside and got on one knee. He reached under the chair. “Now just relax, little guy. I’m not gonn–AHHHHH!”

  The chair flew at them. Both men cried out and dodged as it smashed against the wall. Takota darted up to the control panel and hit several buttons until the outer door unlocked. The two men gathered themselves to block his path. Takota scampered through their legs.

  “Hit the alarm!” Diaz bellowed. “We’re screwed if it gets out!”

  The light in the main hallway made Takota squint in pain. He navigated through a crowd of people dressed in the same white cloaks Scudder and Diaz wore. Chattering and laughing, no one noticed him.

  A loud voice boomed throughout the corridor. “Alert! This is not a drill! Security to Sector Three!”

  Shouts. Screams. The casual atmosphere dissolved into a mass of hands and feet, snatching and kicking at him.

  “Get it!”

  “Stop that thing!”

  One man with no hair except for two furry eyebrows tried to catch him, but leaned too far too fast and fell flat. A woman with large feet attempted to stay in front of Takota. He tripped her. She fell, too.

  He sailed past a hallway, and out of nowhere lunged a set of sharp, salivating jaws, barely missing his shoulder. A large dog, dragging a portly man in black. The snarling, gnashing, frothing beast made Takota hit the afterburners.

  “Close the doors!” the man released the leash.

  Takota became a streak of fur, darting through a narrowing gap between the exits. Behind him, he heard a Crash! immediately followed by a terrible whimper. He didn’t turn back, ramming straight through a metal barricade.

  “SIR, WE HAVE THE REPORT for you,” Jensen stood next to Savage holding a tablet computer.

  “Just give me the gist,” he examined the tiny hole in the steel perimeter fence.

  Jensen coughed. “Residential to the southeast. About 400 units. But that’s a busy road, I doubt if…”

  “Let me do the doubting,” Savage stood straight. “And do NOT underestimate this thing. It put our K9 in the vet, and it escaped in less time than it takes you to gobble down a Krispy Kreme.”

  Several agents within earshot chuckled. Savage put an end to that.

  “Glad to see you people think this is funny! Jensen, go ahead.”

  “Directly north, east, and west is the river of course. To the southwest is undeveloped forest. And to the immediate south, a light industrial center…umm, consisting of a lumber yard and a distributor.”

  “What kind of distributor?” Savage asked.

  “Umm,” Jensen scanned the page. “Toys…L and S Toy Distributors.”

  “Toy distributor, huh?” Savage thought out loud. “All right. Assemble the search teams. You know the drill—no stone unturned.”

  The agents hustled to the largest building in the compound.

  Savage’s cell phone rang. His throat tightened. His client, Davos Mann, always had such eerie timing.

  “Hello, sir. How are you?” he pretended to be calm.

  “Do we have a problem, Savage?” Davos said in his gravelly, smoke burnished voice.

  “No, sir. No problem at all.”

  “Are you certain nothing’s amiss? I’d hate for you to lie to me.”

  The hair stood on Savage’s neck. How did he know?

  “Well, sir. Actually we do have a little bit of a situation. We lost the creature. But you can rest assured, we’ll get it under control.”

  “This is unacceptable. You know that, Savage?”

  “Yes, sir. I am aware of the…”

  “You are aware of NOTHING!” Davos stung his ears. “I cannot begin to place enough urgency on this situation, Savage. The creatures must be captured—all of them. And that one you so carelessly allowed to elude you was the key to finding the rest. Savage, you must fulfill your end of the bargain. You’ve gotten plenty of capital and plenty of time. Now time is running out. We have to capture those creatures before, before—let’s just say if you don’t have them soon, I’ll be greatly disappointed. And you won’t like me when I’m disappointed.”

  Savage shook his head. He did
n’t like the guy much already.

  “So GET GOING!”

  He twitched into motion, threw the phone into his pocket and sprinted to his center of operations.

  TWO

  “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I PRESENT to you, omnidimensional energy absorption,” Jack James tugged at the large, white bedspread, unveiling his simple display of three tall mirrors hinged together. “That’s the end result of my dad’s revolutionary technology. It all has to do with the quantum mechanics theory of entanglement…”

  “Yawn!” Dillon Shane rolled his big baby blues and Mrs. Adams’ fifth grade class erupted in laughter.

  “Now, people,” the teacher warned. She had a youthful look, yet the deep, dark circles under her eyes suggested years of sleep deprivation. “Remember, we all agreed to be courteous.”

  Groans of reluctant acceptance.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Adams,” Jack smiled, trying to preserve his self-confidence. His teacher was coming to his aid a lot lately, though in this case he couldn’t figure out why. He truly had some monumental information, if the other kids would just listen. They were all too busy joking around to take notice.

  All of them, that was, except Amelia Klein. For the past two weeks, ever since she’d arrived at school, her smile seemed glued on Jack perpetually. Today marked day nine in a row. While the rest of the class registered their protests, she sat at her desk, twirling her long, raven-colored locks and gazing at him with her impossibly light brown eyes. For a moment, nothing else existed—no classroom full of critics, no teacher taking pity on him—nothing else but Amelia, radiant in her sunset-colored dress. Sweet Amelia.

  Then Wendy kicked her shin and frowned in disapproval. Amelia looked at her desktop.

  “Wendy Wurtzbacher!” the teacher barked. “You keep your hands and feet to yourself, young lady. Hear me?”

  “Aw, Missus A,” Dillon debated. The towheaded kid spoke a mile a minute. “Do we have to listen to this? Jack talks about this stuff all the time.”