Pigeons

“Come on guys, hurry!”

If I had a dollar for every time Henry woke us up at 7 AM, I would probably be a millionaire by now. Last week, he made us get up at six in the morning just to show us two cats fighting over a dead mouse in his backyard. We told him if he ever sees anything interesting, then just take a video, but he always replies with “No, everything is better in person.”

“Henry, where are we going?”

“Just shut up, we're almost there.”

Twenty minutes later and we end up at the docks. He stops by a motor yacht with the name “Alfred” on the side.

“A boat?”

“It’s not a boat Jared! It’s a yacht. God, you can be so stupid sometimes. My dad bought it yesterday. I'm not supposed to mess with it, but he's out of town right now.”

“Dude no, your dad will kill you if he found out.”

“Yeah, Henry, just listens to Felix, we can go for a ride next week when your dad lets you.”

“No you don’t understand, I want to show you guys something, we have to go for a ride now.”

I look at Felix to see if he is convinced, he usually decides if we should listen to Henry.

“Fine, let’s go”

“Eww, can we hurry, there are pigeons everywhere, and I think that one over there is eating a bone.”

“Mia can you please shut up, birds don’t eat bones.”

It’s not even lunchtime yet and I’m already annoyed. I knew today was going to be very long.

We get on the yacht and everything looks so expensive, it had a pool table, a jacuzzi, a mini refrigerator and a couch. Felix, Jared, and Henry start arguing who gets to drive the yacht first. While Mia, Gill, and Ray play pool, and I just go straight to the couch and pass out.

An hour passed and I wake up to tapping sounds from the window. I get up and my eyes are wide open, I see pigeons at every window, the pigeons were basically surrounding the yacht.

“What’s going on? What’s up with the pigeons??”

“Ann, you finally woke up, these pigeons keep staring at us and no matter what we do, we can’t shoo them away.”

“This is too weird, I’m getting my BB gun.” Henry reaches over for his BB gun.

“Henry, no, let’s just go back.”

“Felix, this is my yacht, my rules. I’m shooting them.”

Henry opens a window and starts to aim at a pigeon. Before he shoots, one flies in and attacks Ray.

“GUYS HELP, GET THIS BIRD FROM ME!!”

The pigeon is holding on to Ray’s ear, Felix and I try to grab the pigeon while Mia is screaming and everyone else is panicking. Henry grabs a knife and holds on to the pigeon and cuts the neck. Ray stops struggling and the rest of us go quiet and just stare at the pigeon’s dead body on the floor. I look at Ray and he still has the pigeon’s beak holding on to his ear.

Gill breaks the silence with laughter.

“OH MY GOD, THAT’S THE FUNNIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!! LOOK AT HIS EAR, THE PIGEON’S HEAD IS STILL HANGING ON!!”

“Shut up, it’s not funny. I was actually scared.”

We all start laughing, except for Mia, she just cried instead.

“Henry close the window before more come in, we don’t want them to bite our ears.”

“Alright, that was pretty strange though, pigeons don’t usually attack like that.”

Henry goes to the wheel and turns the yacht around, but suddenly stops.

“Uhh, guys...it ran out of gas.”

“Henry that’s not funny, I need to go home, my ear is still bleeding.”

“No, I’m not kidding, it’s empty.”

Felix goes over to check and he sees it’s empty.

“Looks like we are going to stay here for awhile.”

“Wait, what about our phones? We can call someone.”

“There’s no service..but I know there’s an emergency phone around here.”

“Guys, what about my ear? I'm still bleeding.”

“Oh, the emergency kit is above the fridge.”

Henry, Felix, and Jared looked for the emergency phone. While Gill and I helped Ray with his ear. Mia stares at the window.

“Guys…you need to see this...”

We look up and we see a flock of pigeons eating a fish, including the bones.

“What? Pigeons don’t eat fish??”

“OK this is too weird, we have to get out of here.” Jared starts to look nauseous.

“Wait, Jared are you okay?”

Jared rushes outside to the deck and starts to puke.

“Have you guys found the phone yet?”

“No, we're still looking.”

“Please hurry, everyone is either crying, puking, or getting their ear bitten off.”

Everyone searches for the emergency phone, while Jared is still outside on the deck. Gill stops and points at Jared.

“Oh, no...”

We look at Jared and we see pigeons getting closer to him.

“Jared, come back inside”

Jared looks up and sees the pigeons surrounding him, he slowly starts to panic. Felix starts to yell.

“JARED!! COME ON!”

Jared turns and the pigeons start to attack him, the pigeons start pecking at his head and neck, and the more he struggled, the worse it got. Felix runs out to help, but one pigeon swings by and claws his face. Henry goes out to drag Felix inside. The rest of us are in shock. We stare at Jared and the pigeons are clawing and tearing his flesh. They start to bite his neck and Jared falls on the floor. Henry rushes to close the door.

“NO! WHAT ABOUT JARED!!”

“Mia, it’s too dangerous, just stay inside.”

“Oh my god, look!”

We look back at Jared and we see blood all over the deck, the pigeons were eating his neck and clawing his stomach. Ten minutes later we see the pigeons eating the insides of his stomach, you could see the tips of his ribs.

I never felt so shocked in my life. No one said anything, we just sat in silence thinking about how we just lost our best friend. Henry stands up.

“Guys, I know where the phone is.”

“Where?”

“It’s on top of the yacht.”

“How are we supposed to get up there with flesh-eating pigeons out there?”

“I could go through the window on the other side. I don’t think they will notice since they are distracted eating Jared. I’ll take a knife and Gill can shoot them with the BB gun if they get too close.”

“Why can’t I shoot them?”

“Felix...they clawed your eye and I doubt you can even shoot. Gill and I will go outside. Close the window when we go out, don’t let any of them in.”

Henry grabs his knife and they climb to the top of the yacht. I look at a window to see if the pigeons were still eating Jared. I step back in shock.

“What? What happen?”

“Mia, no, stay away from the window!”

Mia screams and it startles the pigeons. Jared’s face was gone. The pigeons literally ate everything, even his eyes. Felix runs over to cover her mouth and to calm her down. I see Gill at the window.

“ANN, WE NEED HELP!!”

I climb out of the window to help Gill and Henry. The pigeons were now surrounding Henry.

“Guys, don’t worry, go back inside”

“Henry, we don’t want to lose you too.”

“JUST GO!! NOW!”

Gill and I go back inside, we have no idea what’s going on, we could only hear Henry’s footsteps on top of the yacht. I go back outside to see what was going on, and I see Henry actually fighting them off, but the pigeons kept coming near him and without realizing he was close to the edge...he slips off.

“HENRY!!”

Henry falls off and gets impaled on a flagpole. I see the pigeons coming after me, but I just stood still. I couldn’t move.

“ANN GET INSIDE!!”

Gill grabs me and rushes inside, she shuts the window. I look over at Felix and I see tears on his face. Henry was his best friend, they were like brothers.

“Where’s the emergency phone?”

“Henry had it in his hand, but he slipped and the phone fell into the water.”

“This is all my fault, if only I told Henry no, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“It’s not your fault Felix...you didn’t know.”

“Are you kidding me?? It is his fault, we wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for him.”

“Mia, shut up. If it wasn’t for you screaming and crying the pigeons wouldn’t even have noticed Henry. Honestly, I don’t even know why we let you hang out with us. All you do is whine and cry.”

Mia starts to cry.

“When we get out of here, I’m never talking to either of you again.”

“What do you mean, if we ever get out of here,? The least we can do is just wait until someone finds us and who know’s how long that will take.”

Five hours go by and we are still waiting. I just want to go home and never see a pigeon again. I never felt so distressed in my life.

“Hey, look, what is that pigeon doing?”

Gill gets up and looks over.

“Oh no, this looks bad”

The pigeons were surrounding the windows, they were clawing and banging into the glass, trying to break in.

“They're hungry, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, can they actually break in?”

“I mean, we didn’t think they would actually try to kill us, but we all know how that ended.”

“We need to come up with a plan.”

We all look around for ideas and then it hit me.

“Guys!! Birds don’t like fire! We can break a pool stick and make a torch to scare them off.”

“That’s a great idea, but how are we going to set it on fire?”

“Maybe there’s a lighter somewhere.”

We look around for a lighter until we hear the window crack.

“It’s the window near the jacuzzi.”

“Mia. Stay away from there.”

Mia walks over to the window near the jacuzzi and the pigeons continue to bang their bodies against the window. The window cracks even more and eventually breaks. The glass lands on Mia’s face and she slips into the jacuzzi. She tries to get up, but a group of pigeons holds her chest down, drowning her. Me, Ray, Gill, and Felix duck down. The pigeons start flying everywhere. I go to the pool table and I notice a lighter under the couch. I crawl and grab the lighter. I carefully set the pool stick on fire and swing it around. The pigeons start to fly out. I go over to Mia and I see her in the jacuzzi, her face was mauled off with one eyeball hanging out. Felix grabs another pool stick and sets it on fire, we climb on top of the yacht and put torches around the yacht to keep the pigeons away. An hour later, we see a helicopter, we yell and wave our arms around.

“Thank God, it’s all over.”

Gill gets up and knocks over a torch, the yacht catches on fire.

“GUYS!! WATCH OUT!!.”

We move away from the fire and the helicopter gets closer. The helicopter sends down a ladder, Felix and Gill start to climb.

“GUYS WAIT!! RAY IS STILL INSIDE!”

I rush inside and I see Ray passed out on the floor. I wake him up and we both hurry to the top. The yacht starts to slowly sink and I couldn’t reach the ladder, so I jumped. I grab on, but I still see Ray trying to catch up.

“RAY, HURRY! GRAB MY HAND!!”

“I CAN’T REACH AND THE YACHT IS SINKING DEEPER!”

“RAY, YOU NEED TO JUMP!!”

Ray runs closer to me, but he struggles to grab my hand. The yacht is almost completely underwater and Ray is struggling to catch up to me.

“RAY YOU NEED TO JUMP HIGHER!!”

Ray jumps, but he doesn’t grab my hand. My heart stops...I was so distressed and heartbroken, I didn’t realize...that he actually grabbed my leg. I start to climb up to the helicopter and Ray climbs up to. We reach inside the helicopter and we all start to hug each other.

“Let’s never go on a yacht ever again.”

The helicopter lands on top of the hospital, Ray and Felix get medical attention, and we explained everything to the police and to our parents. I and Gill step outside of the hospital for fresh air.

“It’s going to be pretty empty without Henry waking us up early in the morning.”

“Yeah, it’s also going to be kinda boring without Jared around.”

“Well, at least it will be quiet without Mia crying all the time.”

“Yeah, true...and at least we don’t have to go through this alone... I’m going back inside to check up on Ray and Felix, want to come?”

“I’ll catch up. I just want to stay outside for awhile.”

Gill goes inside and I just relax. Even though I lost two of my closest friends, I knew they weren’t suffering anymore, I knew they were in a better place now. They wouldn’t want me to cry, they would want me to move on with my life. I close my eyes and I think of all the happy memories we all had together. I think of the first time Henry woke us up, or the time Jared and Henry would argue. I also think about the pigeons, but I feel relieved because I never have to deal with those violent creatures again. It’s funny because it almost feels like I can hear them next to me.

I open my eyes and I instantly freeze, I'm surrounded by pigeons...