Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"I can't take it anymore!" Kyle shouted. "I've got to get out of here!" "Dude its only been, what, two hours?" Denny replied. "More like four!" "Whatever. Calm your butt down and sit down." "No, I've got to get out!"

And with that, Kyle ran towards the door once more.

"Here we go again," Denny and Joey each said, slapping a hand against their heads. They turned away as they heard Kyle turn the knob, open the door, and rush outside...wait...rush outside?!

"Hey, it melted!" Joey shouted. "We're free!" "Wow, Joe was right," Denny added, scratching his head.

No longer trapped, the two drivers decided the best thing for them to do was pack their stuff, load it into Kyle's Highlander, and get as far away from that cabin as possible. "Once we find Kyle, of course," Denny said, rolling his eyes with a sigh.

He wasn't hard to find.

"Hey Kyle, what's going on?" Denny called out when he saw his teammate sitting on his knees in his snow, his back to the cabin. Kyle did not respond. Denny and Joey started walking towards him. As they got closer, they could hear the distinct sound of sniffling. "Is he...crying?" Joey asked.

Indeed he was. And upon reaching him, they realized why: a small, frozen, furry creature lay before him.

"I didn't want him to die!" Kyle whimpered through his sobs. "I kind of liked him! Sure we didn't start out on the best of terms but who DOES start out on the best of terms with me?" "Um, Kyle," Denny said, but Kyle continued. "The way he looked at me and squeaked. I can't get that out of my mind!" He put his head in his hands and wept. "But Kyle," Joey tried to say. "LET ME HAVE MY MOMENT OF GRIEF!" Kyle bellowed, his voice carrying throughout the frigid air.

"Fine, you can have your moment," Denny said, "but that ain't your squirrel." "It...it what? YOU LIE!" "No I'm not lying. It isn't." "How do you know? Give me one shred of proof you have that this isn't Boopsie." "Boopsie?" Joey asked, his head turned sideways in confusion. "Alright, I'll give you two," Denny said, signaling by holding up three fingers. "First off, that ain't a squrrel." "Huh? It isn't?" "No, thats some rat I knocked in the head while I was cutting the tree down yesterday." "A rat?" Kyle said, gradually regaining his composure.

"And second of all, 'Boopsie' is over there by your Highlander chewing on the valve of the tire." Kyle looked over. Sure enough, the squirrel that had terrorized them the night before was next to Kyle's left rear tire, gnawing away at the valve stem.

"YOU LITTLE....!"

Instinctively, Kyle grabbed the tail of the frozen rat, picked it up, and began chasing the squirrel across the front lawn of the cabin as Denny and Joey looked on.

"Eh, let me know how it turns out," Denny said after watching for a few minutes. "I'll go start packing." "I'll help," Joey offered. Together they walked back into the cabin, shaking their heads as Kyle's curses filled the air.

A half hour later, Denny sat the last box of stuff into the back of the SUV. "Why'd we bring all this crap?" Joey asked. "We thought we were gonna be here more than a day," Denny grumbled. "Well why don't we stay, you know, give it a try?" Denny and Kyle, sporting a nasty squirrel bite on his right eyebrow, stared at him. "Or not."

And with that, the drivers climbed aboard the SUV and started their voyage back home. As he drove down the driveway away from the cabin, Denny looked into the mirror and watched it slowly disappear. He somberly broke into song.

"Na-na-na-na. Na-na-na-na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye."

Kyle and Joey joined him, and the singing trio repeated the verse until they were back onto the main road, the cabin mercifully a safe distance away.