A Way Down

  Chapter Seven

  The Failed Escape

  The two spent the whole night in the hut, trying to come up with a reason about last night. Neither of them could. Nothing they came up with was enough to convince them.

  "Hell-a-o," a deep similar voice said. Mr. Malmsteen and Mr. Eisen leaned up to see Kataku standing in the doorway. "Rest-a-good?"

  "Yeah, sure," Mr. Malmsteen said, getting up from the stack of hay. He walked over to Kataku. "I want to talk to you about something."

  "Sure, what-a-is it," Kataku said.

  "Last night me and my friend here tried to leave the village," Mr. Malmsteen started.

  "Don't-a-ever do-a-that!" Kataku furiously shouted. The two CEOs jumped. Mr. Malmsteen took a step back.

  "Why?" Mr. Eisen said. He also got up and walked up next to Mr. Malmsteen. "We have a right to leave here if we want. We don't live here, and we don't want to."

  "Anyway, like I was saying," Mr. Malmsteen continued. "We tried leaving thought the grass, going straight forward the whole time. But, every time we ended up right back here. What's with that?"

  "Don't-a-ever leave-a-the vill-a-age with out-a-me!" Kataku yelled again. He scowled at the two foreigners. "Come, we have-a-work to-a-do."

  Kataku turned around and started to walk out of the hut. As he did, Mr. Malmsteen tried to grab his shoulder, stopping him from leaving. When he took the swipe down at his shoulder, he could see his hand go right through Kataku. He held his hand, watching Kataku continue to leave.

  "Did you see that?" Mr. Malmsteen whispered to Mr. Eisen. He couldn't believe what just happened.

  "Uh, I still can't see," Mr. Eisen said. "What happened?"

  "M...my hand," Mr. Malmsteen started. "It went right through him. Almost as if he weren't actually there." Mr. Malmsteen kept a strange look on his face as he followed Kataku out. Mr. Eisen quickly followed behind.

  The three met in the middle of the village. Everyone else from the village was also present. The fire in the middle was still burning.

  Kataku and the other inhabitants of the village all stood on one side together while Mr. Malmsteen and Mr. Eisen stood on the other.

  "These-a-two tried-a-to leave our belove-a-ed vill-a-age," Kataku said to the entire village. Everyone gasped and quickly gave nasty looks at the two.

  "Look, we don't want to stay here anymore!" Mr. Malmsteen shouted. "We put up with you people for an entire day yesterday! I'm tired! My friend is tired! We want to go back home! We want to leave!" The group of village people were silent. They continued to give dirty looks at the two. "Well, are you going to finally going to give us a da...darn answer this time?! Or are you just going to pretend like you didn't hear that?!"

  "If-a-you wish to le-a-ave," Kataku started. "All-a-you had-a-to do was tell-a-us. At-a-night is when-a-we will take-a-you away."

  The two were relived to hear the news. For once, Kataku gave them an answer that they were happy with. The two couldn't wait to leave.

  "We'll wait in the hut," Mr. Eisen said. The two both turned around and headed back towards their hut. They could still feel the dirty looks they were getting.

  "We finally get to leave this place," Mr. Malmsteen whispered to Mr. Eisen as they were walking back to their hut.

  The two headed inside and sat down on their respective stacks of hay. Mr. Malmsteen placed both his hands behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling.

  "There's just one thing I can't figure out?" Mr. Eisen said.

  "What's that?" Mr. Malmsteen said, barley paying attention to what his friend was saying.

  "Where's your pilot? If we all crashed here, shouldn't he be with us?" Mr. Eisen couldn't get over the fact that he was missing. It just didn't make any sense to him.

  "Who cares where he is," Mr. Malmsteen said. "Maybe he was killed. I can always hire a new one. He didn't even  know how to fly a jet in a lightening storm. He won't be missed."