Chapter 8: Follow The Red Rooster


By that time, Frankie was getting a bit tired of the repeated drugging
and repeated violations on his person in his drugged sleep, the surreal
adventures, the fighting. However, it felt to him like he was being led
down a certain path, maybe a path that would lead to finding his sister
or maybe not. Nevertheless, he was determined to see where it led.
Closure would be a good thing indeed but even if closure did not come,
it would be a shame if he did not see how far down the road to closure
he could get.

The drive up to Brewster was a good opportunity to think things through.
It really was a scenic route once he got past Interstate two eight seven
and was driving through upper Westchester. The autumn colors had painted
the hills and valleys through which Interstate 684 wound in
beautiful shades of yellow, brown, red and gold. The weather was
cooperating, in a relative sense. While it was cloudy and the sun was
effectively dulled, it was not raining and the temperature was not
excessively low either. In another half an hour, the interstate ended
and he was back on the older State Route 22, a state highway but one
that was more of a local connector than a true highway. Really the most
awe inspiring sight along Route 22 was a man made dam that was hundreds
of feet across. While far from the biggest dam in the world, it was
rather broad for the area. It had to be, as the reservoir area was
shallow and wide. There was no place along the road to stop but Frankie
always liked watching the water slide lazily over the wall of the dam as
he drove past. At the tops of narrower dams, water would gush and bound
over, as though impatient to join the next lake or ocean. Here though,
the same water appeared content to take its own sweet time.

The town center of Brewster was not along the highway so all that could
be seen were farms, the odd store here and there, a few gas stations and
some buildings for private organizations sequestered within multi-acre
parcels of land. There was also the typical whitewashed strip mall
housing a major supermarket and a number of smaller stores. But all in
all, it was not a particularly built up area. After a few more miles,
Frankie could see the red and white building of the Red Rooster. It was
not in Patterson as he thought so his recollection was a bit murky. He
had not been there in a while and small towns in the State of New York
tended to blend together after some time. Nevertheless, there was the
Red Rooster by the side of Route 22 in all its glory.

The Red Rooster was just past a miniature golf course, also run by the
same management. It was a relic of the mid 20th Century where food
service would actually come out to cars that were parked in the parking
lot around the building. But that practice ended later in the 20th
Century and all ordering and pick up from then on was done at the
counter inside the Red Rooster. The building was designed to be noticed.
While small, it was painted in red and white stripes all the way around.
A large sign in the shape of a cartoonish rooster, white with a red comb
and wattle, adorned the roof of the building. Because of the large
windows all around the front and side of the building, you could see
right into the order area. There, servers and cashiers in small cloth
hats and Red Rooster T-shirts would take and prepare the orders. Around
the back of the building, there was a picnic area with picnic tables
under a stand of trees. Each picnic table was an ensemble comprising a
table and two benches, all linked together. On days with fine weather,
it was preferable to bring the food out there to one of the picnic
tables, rather than to dine sitting in one's own vehicle.

Frankie pulled into the parking lot and parked in one of the spaces on
the North side of the Red Rooster building. He got out of his car and
went on over into the order area. There he placed an order for a chicken
sandwich, fries and a black and white shake. That was road food at its
finest. The black and white shake was somewhat of a specialty. It was
both vanilla and chocolate, except that the vanilla and chocolate were
not mixed so looking down into the paper cup, you would see a half
circle of white and a half circle of dark brown. Some preferred to stir
the chocolate into the vanilla. Others would stir the vanilla into the
chocolate. Still others would drink it right from the middle with both
vanilla and chocolate going up the straw. The last of the three are the
ones we call weird.

Traffic was a bit light in the order area. Apart from Frankie, another
customer, who appeared a bit like a kangaroo, stepped up to the counter
to get a hot dog special. And another customer, a tiger, ordered a
burger, fries and soda. Frankie had been to the Red Rooster before on a
weekend and it had always been packed, so the lack of a crowd on a
weekday morning was certainly different but not unexpected. As Frankie
was sitting on one of the stools in the order area waiting for his
order, the door opened and in walked a red rooster.

Now, it was obvious that the red rooster was actually someone in a red
rooster outfit. The head, too large to be real, was covered in
fluffy but artificial red feathers. Two large cartoonish eyes and a
large yellow plastic beek adorned the front of the head. On top of the
head, a large red comb made of felt stood up in a stiff manner. The body
of the red rooster was also covered in fluffy red artificial feathers.
At the end of each arm, there was a large white cartoonish glove, much
like Mickey Mouse, a flagship character of a large 20th and 21st
Century entertainment and media conglomerate, although not quite as
exaggerated. On its body, the red rooster was wearing a polyester
basketball jersey with the number fifty five on it. The body of red
feathers extended down to the crotch and behind, which were round, vague
and formless so as not to offend. Below the waist, two yellow legs stuck
out. Those were the costume wearer's legs encased in bright yellow
tights. On the costume wearer's feet were large exaggerated plastic
shoes in the shape of orange scaly chicken feet. On each foot, three
orange scaly, or rather scaly rendered in plastic, toes stuck out to the
front, while one smaller toe pointed towards the center.

As the red rooster cavorted around the order area, Frankie, who was
watching with a bit of interest as he loved mascots, had a thought. What
if the note saying "Follow the Red Rooster" meant this red rooster? It
was then that the red rooster decided to leave the order area. Fumbling
for a bit with its large gloved hands, it opened the door and stepped
outside. Frankie waited two seconds and then he got up from the stool
and went out the door too. The red rooster was doing a strange romp
around the parking lot. It was pretty much going in a figure eight but
every time it got to the center of the figure eight, it would stop and
shake its behind a few times. Frankie watched the strange dance of the
red rooster and as he recalled, it was curiously similar to the dance of
a bee reporting the location of a source of nectar to the rest of the
hive.

The red rooster did the figure eight dance for a dozen more rounds --
Frankie was not counting -- and then it waddled off to the picnic area
round the back of the building. Frankie took off after it although he
really was not worried about losing such an obvious and red object of
pursuit. The red rooster bounded around the picnic area, doing rings
around a few of the trees. Then it crossed the mowed grassy area and
headed further back towards the wooded area. Frankie followed, at a
distance of about two hundred feet. The red rooster romped towards the
woods and then disappeared behind the trees. Frankie saw that there was
a hard packed dirt path going into the woods. Trees were marked with
bars of yellow paint, although over years of undermaintenance, the marks
had gotten rather worn out and hard to see. Still, the dirt trail was
pretty obvious, having been worn rather smooth, apart from some rocks
and roots, from centuries of hikers passing through there.

As the red rooster bounded ahead down the trail deftly leaping over
the ancient tree roots that crossed the path and dodging trees and
branches that had fallen on the path, Frankie wondered how it was able
to do that. From having worn a mascot suit for a charity event a number
of years back, he knew that vision through the mascot's head was poor
and he certainly would not have been able to hop the roots as the red
rooster did, let alone follow a trail through the woods. He also
wondered how the red rooster was able to avoid heat exhaustion, although
he reasoned that it probably either had a battery fan set up underneath
the costume or was wearing a cool vest. Or maybe it had both of those.

About a quarter of a mile into the woods, Frankie saw an enormous rock
formation rising up fifty feet above the ground. Other than the sheer
size of the rock formation, it was not terribly out of place as
outside of the trail, the wooded area was full of rocks and boulders. He
also noticed that there was an opening in the front of the rock
formation. It was dark in the opening so he was not able to figure out
exactly how deep the hole was, although it had to go pretty far in.

At that point, the red rooster went off the trail. After hopping some
rocks, it was at the opening of the rock formation. Then the red rooster
went into the opening, disappearing into the darkness. Just before the
red rooster vanished into the blackness completely, it seemed to be
going downwards, perhaps down a sloping passageway.

As Frankie arrived at the opening of the rock formation, he saw that
there was indeed a passageway sloping downwards. Furthermore, it
appeared to be too smooth to have occurred as a result of geological
action. It appeared as though someone had carved the passageway down
through the rock bed. And even curiouser still, the passageway was not
dark. It glowed with a soft light that became brighter further down the
passageway. Frankie felt like he was following the White Rabbit down the
rabbit hole. He also felt like he should not be there but he had to
follow the red rooster. And so he did.

The passageway led down for a few hundred feet, descending below the
rock formation. The floor, walls and ceiling of the passageway were all
smooth rock. After a few hundred feet, it leveled off and Frankie could
see that the soft light came from lamps attached to the walls of the
passageway. The Red Rooster continued forward relentlessly. After
another few hundred feet of the same rock tunnel, the tunnel opened up
into a large hall of rock.

Frankie looked around in amazement. The rock chamber was quite a
bit more brightly lit than the passageway. In addition to the
lamps on the walls of the chamber, there was also a chandelier
hanging down from the ceiling in the middle of the chamber. Mounted on
the walls of the chamber were empty suits of armor, much like the ones
he saw in the battle motifs on the vases, rugs, and throws in both the
back office of Lace 'n Love Boutique and the kitchen of The Barnacle.
All together, there were half a dozen sets of armor. Each suit of armor
was topped with a brass helmet, elegantly curved to a pointed tip in
front of the forehead area. The torso was a solid brass chest plate
extending down to the sternum and to each shoulder. From both shoulders
to the ends of both arms, chainmail hung losely. Chainmail also hung
down from the chest plate covering the abdomen area. The hip girdle was
also solid brass. Two brass legs were hinged to the brass hip and there
was a brass swivel joint at each knee connecting the upper brass leg to
the lower brass leg. Next to each suit of armor was a steel lance, about
as long as the suit of armor was tall and then longer still by about a
third. On the other side of each suit of armor was a steel shield,
decorated with an emblem that Frankie did not recognize as being from
any of the clans he knew about. The emblem was a square divided
horizontally and vertically into four smaller squares. On the top left
and bottom right of the emblem, there was an icon of a lion facing
sideways to the left. Both lions were yellow on black. On the top right
of the emblem there was a moderately detailed image of a ferret lady,
looking much like his sister would, against a light green background,
standing next to another identical ferret lady. Both ferret ladies were
wearing a long light blue gown hanging loosely from shoulders to feet.
The bottom left corner of the emblem was an iconic representation of a
light beige mushroom against a light green background.

As he entered the chamber, Frankie noticed that the red rooster had gone
into another passageway just to the right of the one it took to the
chamber. So, after pausing to take a look at the suits of armor, Frankie
too went down that passageway. The lamps in this passageway were a
little more dim, or perhaps, Frankie thought, that was only in contrast
to the brightly lit chamber.

As he went down this passageway, Frankie heard voices further down the
passageway. The voices got a bit louder and more distinct as he went
down the passageway. Frankie saw that the passageway once again opened
up into a chamber. Before he got to the chamber, he stopped short and
hid behind a small depression in the stone wall of the passageway.
Peering into the chamber from behind the depression, Frankie saw another
brightly lit chamber. In the chamber, he could see the Red Rooster,
still completely in costume, a tiger in a dark grey suit and tie, a lion
also in a dark grey suit and tie. Also present were two golden
retrievers in black suits and black pants. Frankie recognized them from
his dreams as the two figures who drove up in a black van to
the playground and abducted his sister.

"So the red rooster crows in the morning" said the tiger.

"Okay har har" groaned the red rooster. "So how far are we with the
experiments?"

"We have taken genetic samples from the ferret lady" said the lion. "She
is being kept in a safe place that no one will stumble upon."

"The report I have from the medical technicians indicates that she is
not the one with the implant though. They checked the back of her neck
and there was nothing." said the tiger.

Frankie's curiousity was piqued. He had never really explored every part
of his body but when he heard that, he brought his hand up to the back
of his neck and poked at the soft flesh there. He had a bit of a
surprise as his fingers stopped at something hard embedded next to his
neck bones, between the third and fourth vertebrae. Since he was a kid,
he had known that the back of his neck would become tender or sore at
certain times although he never knew why. Usually, that would go away
after a short time and that part did not ever become sore again once he
reached his late teens.

"And what of the ferret guy, who is the brother of the ferret lady?"
asked the red rooster. "I have received reports that he has been poking
around in some of our key locations, the abandoned warehouse and the
Love 'n Lace Boutique, and asking some probing questions. Our spies
have even reported that he has entered the residence of The Barnacle."

"I do not believe he is any danger to us." said the tiger. "We have been
keeping him under control, keeping him occupied with false leads.
Manasquan Mannequins and Manufacturing? Who ever heard of
something hokey like that?"

Frankie took the little yellow sticky note out from the pocket of his
jacket. It read "Manasquan Mannequins and Manufacturing". He crumpled it
up and tossed it up the passageway.

"The sedating and hallucigenic mushrooms have been instrumental in
keeping him under control" said the lion. "As long as he thinks it is
some kind of surreal dream, he will not be poking around too much."

"And I took the liberty of taking a genetic sample while the ferret guy
was out cold. Although I think I accidentally left a condom at his place
of residence. I do not think though that he knows where it came from.
Probably thinks it is from one of his little romances." The tiger
chuckled.

Frankie could feel the by then familiar bung hole clenching sensation.
The other sensation he felt was anger. Not mere anger but a wall of rage
that if it were visible would be almost completely white with small red
specks.

"So I am curious" the lion said. "Why are you always in the red rooster
suit?"

The Red Rooster said "I am forced to always wear this suit or
anything that covers me from head to toe due to an unfortunate medical
condition. I am a frog."

At the mention of "frog", Frankie's ears perked up. Perhaps this was
the frog referred to in The Barnacle's instructions to "kill the frog". 

"But unlike other frogs," the Red Rooster continued. "I have an extreme
sensitivity to light that causes my thin membraneous skin to peel off
and blister. The red rooster suit protects me and I can see out through
special filters in the eyes of the head."

The red rooster paused, and then continued. "Since I had this red
rooster suit, I thought I would get a gig performing for the
clientele of the Red Rooster Drive In. After all, even the mastermind of
a secret underground organization could use a part time job in this
depressed economy."

And at that, the red rooster chuckled. And so did the lion and the
tiger. The two golden retrievers stood quietly at the edge of the
chamber until the red rooster turned around and looked at them. Then
they too started to chuckle.

Frankie leaned forward peeking out a little more to take another look at
the red rooster. It was then that a ball point pen slipped out of his
jacket pocket and fell to the ground. It could not have been louder than
the sound of a pin dropping to the ground but in the echo of the
passageway, the little clatter seemed as loud as the firing of a dozen
cannons in a field of battle during the Civil War.

"What was that?" asked the tiger.

"It came from that passageway" said the lion, pointing to where Frankie
was hiding.

"Check it out, boys" said the Red Rooster, motioning to the two golden
retrievers.

The golden retrievers started walking briskly towards the passageway.

Frankie knew the gig was up. He bolted back up the passageway with the
two dogs in pursuit. He got to the chamber with the suits of armor, with
the two dogs following closely behind. Thinking quickly, he picked up
a shield off the wall. Then he picked up one of the lances. Struggled
with the lance would have been a more appropriate way to put it, as the
lance was extremely long and unwieldy.

As the dogs entered the chamber, Frankie lifted up the lance that had
thus far been lying on the floor with more than half of its length flat
on the floor. The first dog tripped over the lance and landed flat on
his face. The second dog jumped over the lance and rushed to Frankie
with a fist pulled back over his head. He swung his fist towards
Frankie's head aiming to deliver a deadly blow. Frankie swung around and
lifted the shield up. The second dog winced in pain as his fist struck
the shield with a deafening ring. Frankie then jumped up and swung the
shield down onto the second dog's head with another deafening ring.
Sensing his opportunity now that both dogs were down, he hopped over the
second dog and ran up the first passageway back towards the entrance.

After a few seconds, he was back at the bottom of the sloping part of
the passageway. Looking behind, Frankie could not believe what he saw
but the two dogs were nearly caught up with him again. The first dog
threw a flying kick but Frankie dodged it and the dog went flying up the
passageway falling flat on the ground. The second dog caught him by
surprise and landed a punch on his back. Frankie fell forward but
managed to catch himself. He turned around and just managed to duck a
punch from the second dog. Frankie swung around and landed an elbow into
the second dog's back. He continued running and ran up the wall of the
passageway, defying gravity for a split second. Then he flipped around,
threw his left leg out and landed a kick right between the second dog's
eyes. Bearing the brunt of the force of the kick, the second dog was
sent sprawling down to the ground moaning.

In the meantime, the first dog had gotten back up and was charging
towards Frankie, fist held behind his head ready to swing around and
deliver a punch. Frankie saw the punch coming. He leaned back a little
and dodged the punch so that the fist went sailing by harmlessly. Before
the first dog could bring his arm back in, Frankie acted quickly and
wrapped his right arm around the first dog's outstretched arm in a
locking hold. With all the strength he had, he pushed his body downwards
and towards the first dog, forcing the first dog down too but with his
arm still pointing diagonally upwards. Frankie heard a slight cracking
sound as the first dog's arm socket popped. Then Frankie brought his
left foot up and kicked the first dog in the temple.

Jumping over the first dog, he ran up the sloping section of the
passageway. In mere seconds, he was back out of the opening in the rock
formation and back in the woods. He ran back up the trail for a bit
before turning around. Seeing that neither of the dogs were following,
Frankie reasoned that the two dogs were down for more than a moment
and so he was safe. Frankie continued running back up the trail and
across the picnic area. He stopped running when he got to the Red
Rooster building. His order was sitting on the counter, and it
had been waiting for the last fifteen minutes, according to one of the
Red Rooster shirted staff. Not wanting to stay there too long lest the
two dogs recovered and continued the pursuit, Frankie asked for the
order to be bagged. Then he brought the chicken sandwich, fries and
black and white shake back to his car and drove off, heading back home.