"What do you think it is?" he said.
"I dont have a clue," said Chuck.
"Looks... expensive," said Andy slowly.
Chuck only nodded, his glasses reflecting the light from the early afternoon sun.
A phone rang and both men turned to face the foreman's trailer to their backs. "Chuck," a harsh, female voice came loudly from inside, "looks like Lucy's in hot water again!"
Chuck cursed under his breath. "Be right there," he called back. He turned to Andy, "I guess I'll have to find out later," he said tiredly, and started walking for his old pick up.
"Don't be too hard on her," Andy called to his friend. He thought he saw the back of Chuck's head nod as he climbed into the dusty old Ford and drive away.
That kid's gonna be the death of him, Andy thought, as he turned back to the object that had captivated his attention. "Dave!" he shouted over his shoulder, " gather up some of the boys and grab some shovels and lets see how deep this thing goes. "Alright boss," replied a voice from somewhere behind the trailer.
Andy looked up at the hot Arizona sun and hoped this would be worth stopping work for a few hours.
* * *
"Alright, alright now, be careful," said Andy. "What the heck do ya think it is, boss," came a voice from somewhere on the other side of what turned out to be a large, copper colored cube. "For the last time, Jim, I don't know," said Andy. "Now get those brushes and start cleanin' it up so we can get a better look at this thing. "I bet its a government cover-up," said a large man to Andy's right. "That may very well be, Bob, but right now, we're uncovering it."
Andy walked around the cube, amazed by all of the detail of it. Every inch of the six or seven foot cube was covered in ancient looking glyphs and complicated clockwork mechanisms. "It looks like some sort of machine," he said, mostly to himself. "But what does it do, boss?" said Bob, from behind him. Andy didn't respond, he simply kept walking, and looking.
Finally, he said, "We need to contact someone.. someone who knows about these things. Someone who can tell us how much this thing might be worth, and if its gonna explode when we touch it. Any suggestions?" There was no response, but several of the boys moved a few inches away from the object. Clearly the possibility of it being a bomb hadn't occured to them. "Chuck might know somebody," Jim said eventually, "he's into this kinda stuff, ain't he?" "Chuck's busy right now," said Andy. "Someone else."
Once again he was met with silence. "Hey, boss," called Bob from a few feet away. "Yeah?" replied Andy. "I think I found a button." Andy started, "well shit man, don't push it till we find out what this thing is!" Bob looked embarrassed. He coughed once, and looked up at Andy. "I alrea-" he stopped as the box started to hum.
They all stared at the cube. Gears began to turn on all sides, and the glyphs began emitting a powerful white light. "What the hell did you do?" Jim and Dave shouted at Bob simultaneously. Andy could only think of one thing to do. He reached into his pocket and fumbled for his cell phone to call the police, the bomb squad, anyone. When he finally found it, it seemed the battery was dead. He shouted profanity and said, "Jim, quick, toss me your cell!" Jim found his cell phone and passed it to Andy. "Damnit!" said Andy, "this one isn't working either! Boys, get out your phones and see if they work."
Andy was met with a chorus of no's.
"Dave," he said, "run inside and tell Marie to call the cops." Dave ran off towards the trailer and Andy said to the others, "This thing is pretty huge, so if it is a bomb this probably won't do you any good, but go find something solid to use for cover. I'm gonna stay here and see if I can figure out a way to stop this thing. Bob, before you go, show me where you found that button." Bob showed him as the others ran off seeking cover, and when Andy nodded, he ran off to hide as well.
Andy examined the button. It was located in the center of one of the sides, surrounded by several rings of the same metal that made up the rest of the cube. They were all covered in glyphs, and they seemed to be lighting up, working their way towards the button itself. Most of the cube already glowed with a fierce white light.
The button itself seemed to have some sort of lightbulb on the end, and Andy assumed that when that lit up, the box would do whatever it had been designed to. He cursed himself for having dug the damned thing out of the ground. He knew he should have had someone else handle it. He looked around the gigantic object for some sort of mechanism to turn the thing off. As the seconds ticked by, more and more of the glyphs surrounding the button lit up.
After the looking as hard as he could in the short time that he had, without actually knowing what to look for, Andy realized his time was up. He'd scoured the cube for signs of another button but found nothing, and the last glyph around the button was beginning to light. He thought about his regrets; that he'd never married or had children, although, as his subconscious pointed out, that had gone real well for Chuck.
As the last glyph began to glow, the cube started to hum, louder and louder and by now Andy had pretty much decided that the thing was a bomb. He closed his eyes, and began to pray, even though he had never been to Church in his life, he figured that this was a pretty good time to start.
The humming stopped.
The light shining through Andy's eyelids faded slowly, and he stopped running down the list of things to ask forgiveness for and risked a peek. The cube looked entirely harmless. The clockworks had stopped turning, the lights had gone out, and the button didn't seem to be doing much of anything at all. Andy breathed a sigh of relief. Must have been a dud. Praise Jesus, he thought. I think I'll start going to- his train of though cut off as the button lit up. It didn't look very impressive. The damned thing wasn't even all that bright. And it scared Andy shitless.
He started backing slowly away, hoping that maybe he'd find time to hide somewhere before the thing went off.
That was when everything seemed to dim. The sun seemed.. less bright, the air felt cooler, and all the sounds of the world seem to disappear. Andy heard someone shout. All he could do was stare at the button. One by one, the glyphs around it began to light up, the clockworks began turning, and the machine seemed to hum unbearably loudly in the silence. Andy turned and ran.
The humming grew louder and louder, and the light from the cube seemed to bleach the color from everything. In fact, except for the cube itself, it seemed that there was no light coming from anywhere at all.
Andy prayed as he ran, tears running down his cheeks, and he hoped to God that he'd live to see another day. He made it as far as the door to the foreman's trailer; M & W Housing and Construction, it said. He pulled it open and looked back at the cube as he made his way inside. The world seemed to go white.
Andy Mallard never got the door closed.
