And like its feet, its stride was giant as well. For every fifteen of Dill’s footsteps, the creature only had to take one. Peter saw it clear as day: Dill wasn’t going to escape.
Somewhere behind him, Greg kept screaming and screaming.
13
Peter frantically searched the ground for the biggest rock he could throw. There was one about the size of a tennis ball, smooth and gray. Peter snatched it up and hurled it through the air.
Normally he wasn’t that great of a shot, but maybe because he’d thrown instinctively, without time to worry, his aim was exceptionally good. The rock smacked into the size of the monster’s head with a THUD, hard enough to make the flesh dimple before it bounced off onto the ground.
The monster stopped and ROARED – a low, rumbling sound. Then it swung its head over to see where the stinging blow had come from.
Peter stood there, dumbfounded.
The monster charged.
Although it didn’t seem possible, Greg’s scream actually got higher and louder as Peter turned tail and ran up the slope.
“RUN!” Peter yelled. Greg didn’t need to be told twice: he darted away from the pile of innertubes and raced off into the woods.
The ground shook under the weight of the monster, but Peter didn’t dare look back. He just kept his eyes on the ground and tried his best to keep from falling.
His shadow ran in front of him by a few feet. And then his shadow was gone, blotted out by the bigger darkness of the monster.
It was right behind him, and there was nowhere to go. He couldn’t reach the trees in time, which might have slowed the monster down. There weren’t any caves. There were a few big logs he might have gotten under, but they were further back in the forest.
There were only the innertubes, stacked four feet high.
Peter felt drops of slime splatter across his shoulders.
Fear shot through him like electricity. He leaped into the air, hit the top of the innertubes, scrambled down the doughnut hole in the center, and huddled on the grassy bottom like a baby.
The monster’s head appeared over the innertubes, blocking out the sun. It cocked its head, and Peter saw a single red eye blink above him. Then it attacked the top innertube with its gaping jaws.
Peter screamed and the monster roared. A whole shower of nasty-smelling water dripped onto Peter, and he could see the purplish-pink skin lining its mouth. Blood vessels quivered just beneath the surface, long snaky veins that lead to a black hole at the back of its throat, no bigger than a basketball.
But big enough to swallow me up
Peter got a closer view of its teeth, too, or rather, the lack of them. A long, blunt ridge of toothless gum rimmed its entire mouth.
Its tongue was the weirdest thing. It looked like a lizard’s, long and rubbery, but ending in a fleshy, spiked ball. It reminded Peter of strange fruit he had seen in grocery stores in California, exotic yellow orbs with bumpy, dull thorns – except the monster’s version was pink.
He didn’t have much time to think about it, though, because he was busy trying not to get eaten. He pulled himself into a fetal position and tried to keep as far away from that slobbering cave as he could.
The monster gnawed at the top innertube, but couldn’t seem to get anywhere. It pulled back its head, and a big dollop of mucusy slime plopped down on Peter’s arm. Then it opened its mouth again and the tongue shot out.
Peter had only the briefest image of somebody throwing one of those yellow fruits at him, and then it was back in the monster’s mouth. THWIP. But in that brief second, the spiked tongue thumped against his life preserver and scraped across his thigh on the way back up.
Peter looked down at the life preserver, which had several small holes in it from the thorns on the tongue. His leg had a scratch on the skin, nothing much at all…but suddenly he felt dizzy. He looked up. The monster seemed farther away – much farther, in fact. The view from the bottom of the innertubes, which in reality was only four feet, looked deep as a twenty-foot well. His vision began to dim around the edges.
Far, far away, he could hear Greg wailing in the forest somewhere.
Peter wasn’t sure if it was a dream or reality, but suddenly the monster lifted its head, looked away, and moved off, leaving only a ring of beautiful blue sky that was getting darker by the second.
Sleep nudged the edges of his mind, and his eyelids got very, very heavy.
What’s going…on…
And then something grabbed him from beneath.
14
The fright jolted him with adrenaline. Everything got clearer and brighter for a second. Peter remembered where he was – trapped in an innertube tower with a giant monster trying to eat him. Apparently it had figured out how to get at him from underground.
Peter screamed.
“Shut up, Dude!” came Dill’s muffed voice from the other side of the innertubes.
“Dill?”
The innertube raised up four inches and Dill’s face appeared, pressed flat to the ground. “Come on, it’s gone – get out and let’s go!”
Peter tried to move, but found that invisible lead weights had somehow been attached to his limbs. “Can’t,” he mumbled. “Too…tired…”
“Too tired?! That thing almost ate you and it’s going to come back! COME ON!”
Dill pulled the innertubes off of Peter, who sprawled onto the ground with his legs and arms going everywhere. Within the tight confines of the innertube, he felt like a cake baked in one of those little metal circles. But Dill had lifted the ring before he finished cooking, and now his body was the batter oozing out everywhere.
Dill gasped. “Peter, what happened to your leg?”
Peter lolled his head around and peered at his thigh. The place where the monster’s tongue had grazed him had turned bright red and puffed up like a thousand mosquitoes had just had a luncheon buffet on him. He touched the puffy red skin and discovered he couldn’t feel anything on his leg at all.
“Huh,” he noted groggily, like he’d just seen a really interesting flower.
Dill hooked his hands under Peter’s armpits and started dragging him through the swamp. “Dude, come on…get up, get up, get up!”
Peter struggled to walk. Dill supported him as well as he could, but Peter felt like he was wading through wet cement. Darkness was closing in around him like the circle at the end of cartoons where Porky Pig stuttered, “B-duh-b-duh b-duh that’s all, folks.”
Peter’s feet gave out beneath him and he slumped to his knees.
That’s all, folks.
“Come on,” Dill hissed frantically. “Just a few more feet.”
“Can’t…”
Dill reached over and noogied Peter’s head hard.
“Owwwww!” Peter mumbled, seriously annoyed. But he kept shuffling forward on his knees as Dill dragged him by the arm.
Peter could see where they were headed. It was a giant fallen tree trunk, rotted and covered with moss. There was a deep hole underneath it filled with leaves and darkness.
Dill pushed Peter forward, and his body toppled into the hole like a rag doll. His head bumped wet, mushy earth, but he didn’t care at this point. He only wanted to sleep.
Dill scooted into the hole after him and propped Peter’s head up. “Dude, are you okay? Dude, stay awake!”
Dill opened Peter’s closed eyelids with a thumb and a forefinger and tried to look at his eyeball.
Peter batted away Dill’s hand. “Leaff me ‘lone,” he mumbled.
Somewhere out in the marsh, there was a scream. Peter’s eyes shot open.
Greg.
Peter struggled to sit up, though his arms felt like rubber gloves filled with water.
“Gotta…save Greg…”
“Stay down, Pete!” Dill commanded.
A low, throaty roar drowned out the scream.
“It’s gonna get Greg!” Peter whined. He looked out the little window between the ground and the tree and struggled to focus on the b
lurry forest.
He could make out Greg, running through the marsh. Behind him lumbered the monster, pushing aside the more bendable trees, even knocking down a small pine. It didn’t run fast, but its strides were so huge that it covered ground quickly.
A lot more quickly than Greg.
“GREG!” Peter yelled, although his tongue didn’t work, so it sounded a lot more like “Grruuuug!”
But Greg heard and ran towards the fallen tree.
Dill clamped a hand over Peter’s mouth and pulled him back. “Don’t, man, it’ll get us! Shut up, shut up!”
Greg was running, tears streaming down his cheeks, the horror on his face more frightening than any Halloween mask. Behind him, the monster slammed through two more trees and splashed the water out of every puddle it stomped in.
Then it opened its mouth.
“Nnnnnnnmmmhhhh!” Peter screamed, muffled behind Dill’s hand.
The tongue darted out ten feet and shot the pink, thorny blob into Greg’s neck, then zipped back into the monster’s mouth.
Greg uttered a strangled cry as he fell just feet away from the hiding place. His eyes peered deep into the hole and met Peter’s. He tried to drag himself forward, but his arms and legs seemed to have stopped working. The monster’s shadow fell over him, though all Peter could see were its gigantic feet straddling Greg. Droplets of slime spattered on the leaf-covered ground with a sound like rainfall, and the monster’s low, rumbling growl was the distant thunder.
“You promised,” Greg choked out hoarsely. “You said if I went back…you wouldn’t let it get me...”
Peter trembled. Behind him, he could feel Dill shaking, too.
The end of the creature’s snout suddenly lowered into view and clamped down on Greg’s body.
“You promised…” he whispered as his eyes closed. Then the monster lifted his body from the ground, head and arms dangling limply, and Greg disappeared from sight. The giant, muscular feet turned and thudded slowly away. As the monster got smaller in the distance, Peter could see Greg hanging lifeless from its mouth, the way a dog carries a sleeping puppy.
Dill burst out crying behind him. Hot tears splashed Peter’s neck.
You promised.
The world went black.
15
Before he was even fully awake, Peter felt the cold. His whole body was shivery and damp, and when he tried to move, his arms cramped up.
Peter forced his eyes to open. It was very dark. The hole in the ground under the tree, once bright with sunlight, was now dim and gray. Dill sat in front of it, eyes watching the outside world, knees held tight against his chest.
“Dill?” Peter murmured. He licked his dry lips. His mouth tasted like dirty cotton.
“Peter!” Dill gasped, both excitement and terror in his voice.
“Uhhhhhh…how long have I been out?”
“Hours…four or five, I think. It’s getting dark.”
The image of a frightened boy, his body being lifted up from the ground, swelled inside Peter’s brain.
You promised…
Peter’s eyes widened, and he tried to sit up. “Greg?! ”
Dill shook his head. His eyes welled up with tears. “He’s gone, man. He’s gone, you can’t help him.”
“Dill…no, he can’t be – ”
“Peter, that thing got him. It took him. He’s GONE.”
Dill buried his face in his hands and his back shook, like he was crying silently.
Peter remembered Dill dragging him into the hole, putting a hand over his mouth, telling him to be quiet. All while Greg was still out there, alone…
He wanted to say something angry, to make Dill feel awful for leaving Greg to die, but he stopped. It was obvious that Dill was punishing himself enough already.
And…if he hadn’t done it, that thing might have gotten me, too…
Peter settled back against the cold, damp earth and shivered. “That was…that was all real, wasn’t it.”
Dill said nothing, just nodded.
Peter looked down at his leg. It was back to normal – no puffiness, no redness, just a little pink scratch.
Wait a minute.
“Dill…”
“What?”
“I don’t think he’s dead.”
“Peter…” Dill sniffled. It was obvious from the tone of his voice that he didn’t even want to discuss it.
“No, listen to me! That thing, its tongue, it shot out and stung me or something, and I passed out. It made me really, really sleepy, but it took five minutes for it to work, right?”
“Yeah.” Dill nodded, his heart not really in the conversation. He was just going along with Peter because he didn’t have the energy to fight.
“Well, that thing zapped Greg in the back. I mean, it hit him really hard – he probably got a full dose. I bet that’s why it put him to sleep like that,” Peter said as he snapped his fingers.
Dill sighed. “How do you know it’s not poison? How do you know it didn’t kill him?”
“Cuz I’m fine! Look at me, I’m fine!”
It was true, mostly. His hands and legs still felt like they were rubber gloves, yes, but rubber gloves stuffed with jelly now instead of water. And they were getting stronger every minute. Most of all, his head and vision were clear.
Dill squinted his eyes. He looked like he wanted to believe, but just wasn’t quite there yet. “Why, though? Why put stuff to sleep?”
Peter sat and thought. “I don’t know. But I’m okay. So maybe Greg is okay, and Rory is, too…”
“You don’t know that!” Dill started to tear up again. “Maybe it ate Rory!”
Peter’s stomach turned at the thought. “Maybe…but that thing, whatever it is, isn’t that big. If it ate me or you, do you think it would be running after more stuff?”
Dill pondered that one. “No…”
“Big snakes on the Discovery Channel take forever to digest their food. There’s no way he ate Rory, he’d be sleeping till Christmas!”
“That’s not a snake, Peter,” Dill pointed out.
“Yeah, it’s a big, freakin’ huge salamander.”
Dill laughed in spite of himself. An overgrown salamander was a lot less scary than…that thing.
“Not a crocodile,” Peter continued, “not a snake, a salamander. I’ll bet you a million dollars they’re just asleep. If a little scratch from its tongue put me out for four hours, imagine what a whole bunch of that stuff would do.”
Do you really believe that? Peter asked himself.
He shuddered. The alternative was too horrible to contemplate.
“Well…what do we do?” Dill asked.
Peter thought for a second. The memory of its mouth snapping above the innertubes made him shiver. “We can’t go hunt it ourselves,” he decided.
“Well, that’s the first thing I’ve heard that makes any sense,” Dill agreed.
“We gotta go get the rangers.”
Dill’s face tightened. “Dude…”
Peter looked out the hole. He knew exactly what Dill was thinking. “Have you seen it yet?”
“Not since it got Greg.”
“Then we’re probably safe.”
Dill just sat there, not saying anything.
“Dill…we gotta get out of this hole sometime.”
Dill finally relented. “Okay,” he sighed. He peered into Peter’s eyes. “You ready?”
Peter flexed his arms and straightened his legs. They were tingling like they had been asleep, but it wasn’t painful. Just kind of numb. “I think so.”
Dill nodded and crept out of the hole. Peter crawled across the dank soil and followed him.
16
They took it slow at first, going from tree to tree and pausing at every little noise. When it became obvious that the monster wasn’t around, they gradually sped up. Within five minutes, they were running for their lives.
Fifteen minutes later they heard something new: the chugging of a truck engine. Peter and Dill
exchanged howling laughs and dashed through the trees.
The truck was fully loaded with kids and innertubes. It was just driving off when the boys broke out of the treeline and into the clearing.
“WAIT!” Peter screamed, waving his arms.
“STOP, STOP!” Dill bellowed.
One of the teenagers in the back of the truck banged on the cab roof. “Hold on, stop, hold on!”
The truck coasted to a standstill. Ranger Eric, the guy who had been talking to Peter’s mom earlier that morning, opened the door and stepped out.
“Hey, Dill! Peter, right? Haven’t seen you all… ” Eric’s voice trailed off as he looked more carefully at their faces. “What’s wrong? Where are your tubes?”
Peter pointed back at the marsh and struggled to speak as he gasped for breath.
“Two kids…back there…something got them.”
17
The ranger station looked like a log cabin from the outside, but inside it was nice, with carpet and smooth walls and framed photographs of the park. Peter and Dill sat wrapped in towels and drank hot cocoa as they eyed the adults in the room.
Eric straddled a chair across from them. Another ranger and two sheriff’s deputies stood behind him. Peter’s mom was there, anxious and afraid, trying to control a restless Beth. In the corner of the room stood Grandfather, arms crossed over his vest and tie. As always, he looked extremely disapproving.
Darkness showed through the one plate glass window in the building. Outside, yellow flashlight beams swept the forest.
“Okay, you’re saying a what got them?” Eric asked.
“I don’t know,” Peter answered.
“You said you saw it.”
“Yeah we saw it,” Dill snapped. “but we’ve never seen it before, so how’re we supposed to tell you what it was when we don’t know what the heck it is?”
PETER AND THE VAMPIRES (Volume One) (PETER AND THE MONSTERS) Page 31
