Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Been a long day," Denny said as he looked outside at the night sky. "Think we should turn in?" he asked his teammates. "Oh come on," Joey, now untied and back to playing his Wii, protested. "Its still early! Especially for you!" "I know, but tonight I think we should get our rest." "I'm with you," Kyle added, yawning. Relunctantly, Joey agreed, turning off his video game. The trio headed upstairs, sleeping bags in hand.

"Hey, only one bedroom?" Denny asked, scanning the hall. "You didn't notice when you were up here earlier?" Kyle replied, shrugging. "We have to share a bedroom? Thats just wrong!" Joey put in. "We'll be in our own sleeping bags, dude." "Screw that, I'm going to sleep on the couch," Joey said, turning to head down the stairs. "First off," Denny said, "we didn't pack any blankets. So you'll freeze to death." "And second off," Kyle added, "if a bear breaks in this place where do you think the first place he'll go is?"

"The refridgerator?" Joey asked innocently enough. Denny and Kyle looked at each other. "THE COUCH," they shouted in unison. A look of terror crossed Joey's face. He dropped his head and climbed back up the stairs and walked past Denny and Kyle into the bedroom.

Shortly therafter, the trio was nice and snug in their bags. Kyle was sleeping the soundest of the three. His loud snores filling the room made it difficult for the other two to get to sleep, but Denny had made it. Joey, meanwhile, unable to get the image of a bear jerking him up off the couch and doing a two-step with him - lunch and dessert -, was wide awake. Gradually exhaustion began to wear him down, and realizing that the way he was positioned, any bear would most certainly have gotten Kyle first and given him and Denny, who was nicer to Joey anyway, time to escape put his mind at ease.

He was almost asleep, drifting off into dream land, when, barely audible above Kyle's raucous snoring, he heard the sound of a glass break. He shot upright immediately. "Guys! Guys!" he whispered loudly. Denny didn't stir as he was deeply asleep, apparently dreaming about the ladies he'd seen on the TV earlier that day. Kyle's snoring had to have drowned him out anyway.

Petrified, he looked around the room for anything he could protect himself with against a bear attack. Once again he heard the sound of something falling off a table and striking the floor. His heart stopped. "GUYS!" he cried out, then covered his mouth, fearing the bear might have heard him. He got down on his knees and shook Denny violently, trying to rouse him. "DENNY!" he whispered as loudly as possible into his teammates ear.

"Mmmm, yeah baby," the deep-in-la-la-land racer mumbled, "whisper in my ear like that again." Joey slapped his hand against his forehead before repeating the process with pretty much the same result. Just then, he noticed the absence of two sounds. The bear, apparently, was occupied for there were no more sounds coming from down stairs. More noticable, however, was the fact that Kyle's snoring had stopped. Joey looked over at him.

"What are you doing?" Kyle asked aloud, staring. "Trying to wake Denny up! I think there's a bear downstairs!" Joey whispered. "Wake him up, huh?" Kyle asked, the second half of what Joey said lost upon him as he recalled Denny's fashion of awaking him earlier. "Here's how you do it," he said, grabbing Denny and slapping him across the face multiple times.

His payback worked...a little too well.

Incensed and without a word, Denny sprung from his sleeping bag, grabbing Kyle and slamming him onto the floor. The two elder JGR drivers grappled, rolling across the floor, throwing curses at one another as Joey looked on, afraid the ruckus might draw the bear upstairs. Just as he feared, another ill-fated item crashing to the floor sounded. Kyle, on the floor, and Denny, hovering over him with his fist primed to show Kyle what his brother had felt after trying to rattle Jimmy Spencer, stopped cold.

"What was that?" they whispered. "That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Joey cried in a hushed tone. "There's a bear down there!"

Denny and Kyle looked at Joey, and then each other. "Oh crap," they said as something else downstairs fell to the floor. The thud made Denny jump a foot in the air, at least removing him from atop Kyle who was beginning to struggle for air. Frantically and with both hands on his head, Joey paced back and forth on his knees. "What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?" "We gotta draw him outside," Denny said. "Kyle, you got any M&Ms with ya?" "Yup, Kyle replied, not looking at either driver. "Well? Where are they?"

"Downstairs."

That plan no longer an option, the not-so-fearless leader of the group pondered. "Joey, what's that?" he asked, noticing what looked like a rod of some sort nearby. "Its a flashlight," Joey said, picking it up. "Good, we'll use that as our weapon, give it to me." "Denny," Kyle said, "in case you didn't notice, there's a bear down there. What are you gonna do with that flashlight? Blind him?" "Exactly," Denny replied. "Lets go." "I'm not going down there!" Joey cried. "You're gonna come down here with us or we'll tell Big Tom about-" "Okay I'll do it!" Joey said, throwing his arms in the air.

Gently, as quietly as possible, armed with their super-dangerous flashlight, the trio tiptoed down the stairs. Just before stepping off the last stair, Denny gulped. Joey followed suit but Kyle was too frightened to gulp and ended up making a quiet yelping sound. "SHHH!" Denny and Joey chided him. Denny exhaled deeply and turned the flashlight on. Then he stepped off the stair and around the corner.

Within seconds, his high-pitched scream filled the room.