He began rocking on his knees. Alex came close to him. She was crying about Brandon, but despite that she put a hand on Max’s shoulder. To make him feel better. She was connected to Brandon and also to Max. Which meant Max was connected to Brandon. That’s how things worked. “I feel bad,” Max said. “For him. And for you.”
“Yeah,” Alex said softly.
“What do we do?” Kristin asked. “Do we just leave him? It doesn’t seem right. What about his friends and family?”
Max thought for a long moment. He knew two people who had died. One was Basile, the captain of the Nautilus, who had saved their lives. “We left Basile,” he said. “At the bottom of the sea. Where the fish ate him.”
“We had no choice,” Alex said.
Max nodded. “When my grandfather died, our family had a burial. I didn’t like it. There was a lot of crying and fuss about the coffin and the service. It seemed weird to bury people in the ground. But I don’t like thinking about Basile on the seafloor. And I don’t like thinking about leaving Brandon out in the open like this.”
“Yeah, me too,” Alex said.
“We should bury him,” Kristin suggested softly.
Alex nodded. “If we survive, we’ll tell people what happened. We’ll get professionals to come back for Brandon’s body.”
Alex stood. She looked out toward the vast underground sea, empty but for a tiny island at the horizon. Her eyes took in the high, green clouds gathered at the cave’s dome, the lava walls that stretched into the fog.
“All for one and one for all . . . that what was one of the last things he told us,” Kristin said. “He would want us to continue. To get back what was stolen and find out Jules Verne’s secret.”
Max held out a fist. “Family, remember? Till the end.”
Alex smiled weakly. With one arm, she wrapped Kristin in a hug. With the other, she extended a fist bump to Max.
A distant call that sounded something like breeeeeeaaaahhh made them all sit up straight.
“Maybe we should do this really quickly,” Alex said.
“I put trowels in our backpacks,” Kristin quickly added. “We’ll start digging here.”
“Is this body of water tidal?” Max asked.
“What?” Alex said.
“Because if it is,” Max replied, “and if it happens to be low tide right now, the water may rise over the grave and eventually undo the burial. Which is why, in the old Inuit culture, bodies were buried far up from the water’s edge. That’s a fact.”
Kristin gave Max a pained smile. “I am impressed you know that. And it’s a good point. Let’s move him up the shore.”
Alex groaned, staggering to her feet. She and Max took one shoulder and Kristin took the other, and together they began pulling Brandon up the sand. His dragging heels made a soft sssshhh sound as they moved across the surface, in a sad rhythm with Alex’s muffled sobs.
Breeeeeeaaaahhh . . .
The sound seemed closer now. But with the echo, it was impossible to tell where it was coming from.
They set Brandon down on the green sand, about fifteen feet beyond where the hill leveled off. One by one they opened their packs, took out their trowels, and began to dig. The sand was light, almost sugary. With each shovel full of sand they removed, more slid in from all sides.
Now Max could see something distant in the water, floating toward them. It was hard to make out exactly what it was. Despite the lifting of the clouds, the light was still dim and shifting. But from what Max could see, it seemed to have a wide, low body and a thin head like some crazy form of squid.
“What the heck is that?” Alex whispered.
“I don’t know, but it sounds hungry to me,” Max said.
Even in his peripheral vision, Max could tell the creature was moving toward them very quickly. They plunged the trowels in harder and faster. The sound hissed against the walls, along with the chuffing of their labored breaths. But the fine, shifting sand was making it hard to get any depth.
Max glanced up. Now the thing was close enough to see. What he thought was a wide body was actually a stout raft. What he saw as a thin head was the creature itself. It was a tall, thin animal that looked like a broom with no handle, a mass of long hair from head to toe—although below the hair, it was impossible to tell if it had any toes. Two arms, also long masses of hair, were maneuvering a pole, pushing the raft forward. Behind the creature, a long tail dragged in the water like a rudder.
“What the heck is that?” Kristin asked.
“I was hoping you’d know,” Alex said. “We’ve never been to Iceland before.”
As the hairy creature poled closer, Max stared at the area where he imagined its face would be. He spotted three speckles of brightness shining from within the cascade of hair, in the place where he expected two eyes. And just beneath the three, where its mouth should be, a red-rimmed black hole opened wide.
BREEEEEEAAAAHHH . . .
Max winced, doubling his grave-digging efforts with the trowel.
“Max . . .” Kristin said. “Stop that. Get back!”
She was pulling him away from Brandon, up the shore. Which was not right. It was against their agreement. They were supposed to take care of Brandon’s body.
Max lost his balance and tried to fight against her, but she was stronger than he expected. “But . . . family . . .” he protested.
The beast was stepping off the raft now. It resembled a walking haystack, and it was impossible to see its legs. Pulling the raft to shore, it lay the two poles on top and turned toward the group.
With a grunt like an agitated elephant, it was gesturing toward Brandon. Alex rose to her feet. But instead of running, she stood between the beast and the body. “You have to get past me, Cousin Itt,” she said.
“I don’t think insulting it is the best idea,” Max said.
The hairy creature moved closer to Brandon. Max and Kristin fanned out to both sides. With its three eyes, it glanced up from one to the other. Kristin said something to it in Icelandic.
“What did you say?” Alex asked.
“I told him Brandon was dead, and he should leave us alone,” Kristin said.
“Does it even have ears?” Max asked.
“Hard to tell,” Alex said. “But if it comes any closer, it’s going to be toast.”
As it let out another roar, Kristin jumped backward. Then, swallowing hard, she said, “Sorry, but you need to go back.”
She stepped in front of the beast as it reached out with its right arm.
Max leaped forward. He grabbed the arm, and the creature let out a squeak of surprise. Kristin quickly grabbed its other arm.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Alex lunged forward with her trowel.
The beast’s three eyes swiveled toward her. Its mass of hair quivered. Max and Kristin held tight to the arms, but that wouldn’t be enough.
From the front of the creature’s torso, hidden under the thick mass of hair, an orange tentacle whipped forward. It wrapped around Alex’s arm and tossed her to the side like driftwood. She screamed in surprise, her trowel flying away and into the water.
Max let go of the creature and ran for his cousin. “Get away from that thing!” he shouted, grabbing her by the ankles to try to pull her away. “You too, Kristin!”
Kristin was lying half in the water, maybe ten feet by the creature. Snorting through nostrils buried under its hair, the beast stood over Brandon. Its tentacle, which had disappeared back into its hair, now emerged from its torso again. This time it was holding a strange metal object, round and elaborately carved like a ninja nunchuck.
“What the heck is that?” Max murmured
“Leave Brandon alone!” Alex screamed.
BREEEEEEAAAAHHH . . .
The shriek was like a quick slap in the face. Max, Alex, and Kristin all recoiled. The mass of hair was kneeling beside Brandon Barker, rearing its tentacle back with the silver weapon.
“Get that thing!” Max shouted. He was t
he first to race back toward the beast. But as he approached, one of its arms rose out toward him. It was rubbery like a Gumby, and the tips of its four hairy fingers glowed and blinked.
Like eyes.
The sight made Max stop short, his body paralyzed. The beast’s tentacle was holding the silver object high, tilting it toward Brandon’s body. From one of its metallic points, a clear liquid dripped on Brandon’s forehead. Moving quickly, the creature ripped open the pilot’s shirt, letting the liquid course down his chest. Brandon’s skin let out a hiss, sending up wisps of green smoke.
“It’s burning him with acid!” Alex screamed. Despite her weakened state, she dived toward Brandon.
As she landed on him, the liquid splashed onto the back of her neck. Kristin blindsided the creature from the other side. With a roar like a creaky door, the hairy thing fell back. Kristin was yelling in Icelandic, pounding the beast wherever she could with her trowel. It let out a scream like a creaky door. Alex fell on it from her side, pulling it away from Brandon. “Hit it, Max!” Kristin shouted.
Max stood over the struggling creature. He held his trowel high. The thing was squeaking and snorting now, its three glowing eyes whirling and its red-rimmed mouth opening and closing. Its hair swirled as it struggled, revealing not one but four tentacles hidden under it, along with its arms. Two of the tentacles were waving wildly in front. The other two were digging into the sand along with its arms, trying to push away from Alex and Kristin.
“What are you waiting for?” Alex demanded.
But Max couldn’t bring himself to stab it. “It’s not attacking anymore,” he said. “It—it’s trying to get away from you.”
“What?” Kristin said.
Alex glanced up at him in shock.
With a sudden lurch, the beast leaped away, out of Kristin’s and Alex’s grip. Now its arms and tentacles were carrying it along the sand, scuttling like a crab overgrown with seaweed.
Kristin sprang to her feet and began to run after it, screaming angrily. Alex overtook her, running faster than Max had seen her move in a long time. “And never come back!” she shouted.
“Alex?” Max said. “You just ran like a world-record sprint.”
She stood there, staring down at her own body. “I know. Wow. I guess I wasn’t as sick as I thought.”
But Max’s eyes were fixed on Brandon. Where the hissing liquid had touched his body, his pale greenish skin was darkening. From a series of thin lines along his forehead and torso, it spread like the branching of nerves, setting off blotches of deeper color that grew and joined until he no longer had the same tinge as the lake. The bloody gashes on his head seemed to knit up with fibers of his own skin, the streaks of blood drying and flaking.
Max stepped closer.
Brandon’s head lolled toward him. His eyes fell open, and Max jumped back with a scream.
“I feel like I just died,” said the corpse. “What’s for lunch?”
35
FOR a dead person, Brandon the Pilot sounded pretty cheerful.
“Anybody got popcorn?” he asked, looking around at the gaping faces of Max, Kristin, and Alex. “If you don’t move your mouths, I bet I could land three for three—ping, ping, ping!”
As Brandon stood, Alex nearly tackled him to the sand again. Throwing her arms around him, she shouted, “You—you—you’re alive!”
“Hit me a little harder and I won’t be,” he said.
Alex’s eyes were full of tears, as were Kristin’s.
Max didn’t know what to do, so he started to spin. That made him feel pretty good, because each time he came around, Brandon’s smile got bigger and bigger. “Max!” Brandon cried out. “Dude!”
“Welcome back,” Max said. “I promise I will always say nice things about you.”
“You were dead, Brandon,” Alex explained in a rush of words. “Like, flatlined. No breathing. You slipped through a hole, way up near the top of the volcano. We were devastated. We kept going, hoping we’d find you alive. We traveled for so long, down through tunnels. This is incredibly deep in the Earth. No human being could have survived a fall this distance. So seeing your body was our worst fear confirmed—”
“There are creatures down here,” Max added. “Flying reptiles and superhairy beasts. And one that was like a yeti and a spider and a squid all in one, and he poured out this magic fluid from a nunchuck and uncrushed your skull and brought you back to life after you were a carcass.”
Brandon looked confused. He flashed a smile and said, “Yetis and spiders and squids, oh my!”
“Actually it might not have been a he,” Max said. He was standing still now but rocking from side to side with dizziness. “Or a she. It seemed pretty gender-nonspecific. But the point is, this is real, Brandon. No sarcasm. Something happened down here that does not happen in real life as we know it.”
Brandon’s jokey expression was tightening as he looked from one face to the other. “I don’t really remember any of this. . . .”
“You don’t have to.” Alex hugged him tight. “Funny, the moment you revived, I felt better too.”
“It was the liquid,” Max said, pacing the shore. “It doused you too, Alex. That’s why you felt better. Guys, I think we’ve found what we want.”
“Oh . . . my . . . gosh . . .” Alex’s eyes went wide. “Is this what we found, the serum? In the hands of some hairball with tentacles?”
“Exactly!” Kristin said, walking beside Max. “It had an immediate effect. Brandon must not have been dead very long.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t have had the same effect if Brandon’s body had stiffened,” Max said, “or if animals had, say, eaten his eyes or any of his vital organs—”
“I was enjoying this,” Alex said. “Can we lighten up the conversation?”
“So wait,” Brandon said. “It may take me a while to catch up, as I am a pilot of little brain. Jump in if I’m wrong here. So I flew you all over the world to catch these two creeps who stole this tiny batch of some crazy healing formula, and now this monster Muppet brought me back to life by pouring all over me and Alex . . . wait for it . . . some crazy healing formula. And now we’re all alive, we’re all down here together, and we’re not doing cartwheels?”
“Why should we?” Kristin said.
“Because if Trickle Me Elmo just happens to have some of this stuff, then you guys don’t need to find Skunky McSkunkface and his daughter. We have a source!” Brandon said brightly. “We found what we needed! We’ll be rich!”
“We’re already rich,” Max said.
“We could win the Nobel . . .” Kristin said dreamily.
“Just a few pesky details,” Alex said. “First, we have to actually get our hands on the stuff. It’s not as if we can text Bad Hair Day Creature and say, hey, float on back to us and lend us some healing formula. And second, we’ll all die if we can’t get back up. And third, even if we get back up, what do we tell people? Mutant prehistoric creatures . . . daylight from plants . . . an underwater sea . . . a journey deep inside the Earth where no one burns up from heat or gets squished from pressure . . . who’s going to believe us?”
“We can deal with three if we nail one and two,” Brandon said.
“We’ll take photos,” Max said. “We’ve been bad about that so far.”
“We’ll have the formula, Alex,” Kristin said. “That’s all that matters.”
Alex started to answer, but her voice trailed off, her eyes focused on something over Max’s shoulder.
As he turned, so did Brandon and Kristin. For a long moment, no one said a word. Far down the shore three figures were taking form, emerging from the lingering green fog. As they passed a cave opening in the big arching stone wall, Max heard distant whistles and shrieks. Two dark shadows spilled out of that cave and joined the others. From high overhead, a flying creature descended. With a flapping of wings, it perched on the shoulder of one of the walking creatures.
“Holy moly, an underground army,” Brandon murmured.
“M-M-Maybe we can . . . talk to them?” Kristin said.
“In what language?” Alex shot back.
Kristin pulled a white handkerchief from her pocket and waved it. “We come in peace!” she shouted.
“They can’t hear you,” Max said. “And put that away! Maybe to them a white handkerchief means ‘Go suck on a rock’ or something. Crazy cultural differences down here.”
He kept his eyes trained on the procession. More beings were emerging from the caves along the sand. They were hulking beings, about seven feet tall and dressed in tunics. Their faces were humanlike but covered with hair, and their eyes stared out from shadowy ledges under their foreheads. Their shoulders were broad, their legs bowed. In the center of them all was the creature who had saved Brandon, a completely different species than the rest, its tentacles gyrating all around.
Kristin, Max, and Alex started instinctively walking backward.
“Hang on,” Brandon said. Fishing a phone from his pocket, he scooted behind the others and held it up, pointed toward the advancing horde. “Smile, guys.”
“Are you out of your mind this is no time for selfies and besides you fell from a gazillion feet so your phone is busted!” Alex yelled.
Max grabbed Alex’s and Kristin’s arms and turned. Together the three ran away, back down the beach. Max glanced over his shoulder to see Brandon scooping a rock out of the sand. “Fastball, ninety-three miles an hour, down the pike!” He went into a pitching stance, kicked, and hurled the rock into the advancing crowd.
“Don’t antagonize them!” Alex yelled.
“Steeee-rike!” Brandon yelled.
“KRIIIIIIIIIIAAAA!” came a shriek that was way closer than Max wanted.
He and Alex turned. The gang of creatures had doubled. One of them writhed in pain in the sand. The others were picking up speed. Sand spewed in all directions like a greenish-white cloud as they flew toward their attacker.
Enter the Core Page 16
