Tourist Trap

Chapter 22

Soon the path began to level out and Max and Sarah found themselves in a large flat field strewn with numerous small to medium-sized rocks. A sizable bovine creature was standing halfway across the field with its back turned to them. It hadn't appeared to notice them yet. 

"Shh," Max whispered. "This could be another threat to our well-being. Stay quiet, I'll sneak up behind that guy and knock him out." 

He darted forward, kicking over a small rock in the process. Instantly a cloud of green smoke burst forth from the ground with a loud whooshing sound. Upon inhaling the vapors, Max found himself hit with an inexplicable wave of fear. He curled up into a fetal position on the ground and began whimpering. 

The creature, who was covered in thick matted brown hair and sported two large gray horns in its head, whirled around quickly upon hearing the noise. "You fools! Don't move! And more importantly don't touch anything! I'll be right there!" It maneuvered its way delicately across the field, carefully avoiding every little pebble in its path. "Are you all right, son?" 

Max blinked his eyes rapidly and stared around. The intense feeling of fear began to slowly melt away. He sat up and let out one last shiver before placing his hands on his hips indignantly. "What's going on here? I demand an explanation immediately!" 

"It was the rock," the creature explained. "When you kicked it you set loose something nasty. Looks like you got hit with the fear this time." 

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked. 

"Oh, I suppose you've never heard of this place. These are Pandora's rocks." 

"What are you supposed to be," Max asked. "Pandora's ox?" 

"No, I'm a yak," the creature said. "My name's Willy. I kind of serve as a guardian here." 

"I see," Max said. "Who the hell is Pandora anyway and why the hell does she own a bunch of rocks that scare the living daylights out of people?" 

"Pandora's a wealthy businesswoman who lives in the city," Willy explained. "She discovered this place while out taking a nature walk. Nobody's sure why, but each of these rocks seems to hold down some sort of heinousness. If you lift them up you set them loose. Some of them make you scared, some of them make you sick, some of them make you want to murder people." 

"I don't think I need help from a rock to want to murder Max sometimes," Sarah said under her breath. 

"Anyway, Pandora found this place quite by accident. Turns out she's somewhat of a rock collector, so she started picking up as many rocks as she could find. It took several bouts of nausea, paranoia, and bleak feelings of loneliness before she started making the connection that lifting rocks was causing strange physical and emotional reactions in her. Apparently she turned over a greed rock next because she immediately rushed back into the city and filed a property claim on the area, thinking she could turn a profit by bottling this stuff up and selling it as weapons. Turns out she was right. She made billions of strands of floss selling to the various criminals and scoundrels that inhabit the city, not the least of them being Trevor Mastodon." 

"That guy's got the ability to fuck with people's emotions?" Max asked. "That's not good. This Pandora sounds like an evil bitch." 

"You forget she was beset by greed from this place. It wasn't really her fault," Willy explained. "Besides, she eventually came to her senses and shut down operations. Of course by that time the damage was already done." 

"What's to keep people like Trevor Mastodon from just coming out here and gathering it for himself?" Sarah asked. 

"Well, ostensibly that's why I'm here," Willy explained. "I'm supposed to shoot trespassers on sight. But something about being around all of this nastiness has made me a bit of a pacifist. I try to gently guide people away from the area rather than resort to violence."