1:30A.M. Frog Bombs: The Tree City

By Jason Cockerham

Exploding frogs spark strange dreams that lead John

into a city in a tree near his house.  Transformed into a

frog, he has to dodge and fight off frogs trying to kill him while sorting through reawakened memories. 

For ages 13 and up.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jason
• Release date: Dec 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9798201187590

Jason Cockerham

Jason Cockerham grew up a military brat moving around every couple years.  He made a few good friends in each place and had lots of different experiences and fun with them.

Book preview

December 1, 2019

Special Thank You to the frogs who inspired the first two chapters.

Chapter 1: Frog Bombs

It is late Friday night, about 1:30.  After a bath, I walk into my room, wrapped in a towel, when I hear a beeping.  It sounds like the bombs on TV counting down the seconds before the explosion, but this one is going a little faster.  In a split second, my mind goes through all the different things in my room that could be making that noise, but I come up with nothing.  The only thing that comes close is the alarm on my phone, but that is not a perfect match.

Oh shit! I say aloud.  I dive between my bed and the wall putting my bed between me and the sound.  As the beeping continues, fear creeps in, and my heart starts pounding.  A loud Boom! is accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.  The roof partially collapses in.  I exhale, letting out a silent scream.

I try to remain silent as I assess my situation.  The light had gone out in the explosion, so it is pitch black now, and I can’t see a thing, however, I can hear... a frog.  It is behind me in the room.  A light started emanating from the frog.  Then, it started beeping, and my heart stopped.

The glow from the frog is getting brighter as the beeping continues.  In the brightening light, I look around for a way out, any way out!  I see that near my head, there’s a section of wall that is missing.

I crawl out of the house where the wall is missing, drop four feet to the ground, then crawl as fast as I can away from the house.  I hear a thunderous bang accompanied by the crashing of the walls and ceiling collapsing.

I am surprised and horrified to think that frogs are trying to kill me and that my new house, only about a year old now, is destroyed.

Chapter 2: Revenge

I laid there wrapped in my towel in shock for a few moments.  Something felt off.  It wasn’t the weirdness of the situation, the fact that frogs were trying to kill me.  It wasn’t the fact that I couldn’t see anything, for I live in the country where it’s pitch black at night.  Speaking of where I live, I live right near a pond around which there are a lot of trees where birds and tree frogs live.  During the day, the birds chirp and sing.  During the night, it’s a chorus of frogs and crickets.  That’s it!  I realize it now, that the weirdness I felt was because of the silence.  In the pitch blackness of night, I could hear nothing.  It was kind of unnerving since it was unusual, but kind of comforting at the same time since I couldn’t hear any tree frogs that were apparently trying to kill me.

After a few moments in the pitch black silence, I hear a tree frog.  My heart stands still.  It’s not beeping, but I know it could start at any moment.  I listen for it to get closer but every time I hear it, it sounds like it’s the same distance away.  I stand up, and the stickers stab my feet.  I bite my lip to hold in the yelp because I certainly do not want this thing hearing me if it does not already know where I am.

I stand there ready to run, when my