from behind a tree. He had been waiting to ambush his friends. He leaped between Brady and Calvin and caught the orange in a dazzling display of athleticism.
“And the crowd goes wild!” he cheered, spiking the fruit on the ground with a splat.
“It’s about time you showed up,” Brady said to Troy.
“Me?” Troy said. “What are you talking about? I’ve been here for over an hour. You guys are late.”
“We had a hard time getting in,” Calvin admitted. “We had to sneak. The police have the whole orchard blocked off.”
Brady caught up to his friends and shoved Troy playfully. “How’d you get past the cops?”
Troy grinned and shrugged. “That’s my little secret. Maybe I have special powers that I can’t tell you about.”
Now Calvin gave him a shove. “Hey, Brady, listen to this. Troy thinks he’s a ninja.”
“Well, I could be,” Troy said. “I could be anything. You guys would never know.”
“You’re special, all right,” Brady laughed, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, well, you guys didn’t find what I found,” Troy told them.
“What’s that?” Brady challenged.
“The new sinkhole,” Troy replied.
The smiles on Brady and Calvin’s faces vanished instantly. The boys were done with silly. Sinkholes were serious! They usually occurred when underground water washed away the limestone below the surface. Without the limestone to support it, the ground collapsed into the space below, forming a sinkhole.
“Where is it?” Brady and Calvin demanded. “Take us to it.”
Troy tilted his head and pretended to consider their request. He frowned, seemingly in deep thought.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “A ninja shouldn’t reveal his secrets.”
“You’re confusing ninja with magician,” Calvin said.
“Okay, fine,” Troy gave in. “But be quiet. If anyone sees us, they’ll make us leave.”
“We’ll try,” Brady teased. “But you’re the ninja. Calvin and I are just big, noisy football players.”
The truth was they were all football players. Brady and Calvin had been best friends since kindergarten. They had met Troy last fall when he joined their travel team.
Brady was the quarterback and leader. Calvin, the biggest of the three, played offensive line. His job was to protect the quarterback, which meant protecting Brady, his best friend. Troy played defense.
The three boys crept quietly through the orange grove. The trees were loaded with ripe fruit and the tangy, sweet scent of citrus filled the air.
On the edge of the orchard stood a bright yellow farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Next to it a big, red barn—
“Whoa!” Brady exclaimed. “Where’s the barn?”
The barn was gone. A roundish crater fifty feet wide plunged into the earth where the building had been. The crater—a sinkhole—had swallowed it whole.
“That’s incredible!” Calvin marveled. “No wonder the police had the property blocked off.”
“But where is everyone?” Brady wondered.
Two empty Gainesville police cars and an empty news van sat parked in the farmhouse’s driveway. But there were no other people around, just the boys.
“Maybe the sinkhole swallowed them,” Troy said, gulping air like a hungry sea monster rising from the ocean.
“How deep do you guys think it is?” Calvin asked as he cautiously approached the sinkhole.
“I don’t know,” Brady replied. “Maybe miles. I think I see an opening or a cave down there.”
The sinkhole dropped straight down for about thirty feet. Then, instead of ending, it curved and disappeared into darkness.
Troy thrust his arms in front of his friends, holding them back. “Be careful! Don’t go any closer. They live down there.”
“They who?” Brady demanded.
“The Omnivorous Oranges of Orlando!”
Brady laughed. “That sounds like a cheesy monster book.”
“Seriously!” Troy assured his friends. “The omnivorous oranges are giant worms that have lived beneath Florida for as long as anyone can remember.”
“Give us a break,” Brady sneered.
Calvin pointed at something on the edge of the sinkhole. “Why don’t we find out for ourselves?” he announced. “There’s a ladder right there.”
A sturdy rope ladder hung from the rim of the sinkhole across from them. It descended all the way to the bottom where the hole curved and leveled off.
“I’m in!” Brady exclaimed, jogging around the sinkhole toward the ladder. Calvin followed him eagerly.
“You guys are nuts!” Troy shouted after them. “Sinkholes are deathtraps. You could disappear forever down there.”
Brady shot Troy a surprised look. “I didn’t know you were such a wimp. How are you ever going to play football in the pros?”
Troy put his hands on his hips. Brady had hit a nerve. Playing football was Troy’s dream. It was all of theirs.
“I don’t care about the pros,” he stated. “I’m going to play for the Florida Gators. You’ll see.” Brady and Calvin thought he meant the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, their home. That’s where they wanted to play, too.
“Then stop whining like a cheerleader and come on,” Brady admonished him.
Troy shook his head. “No way. Have fun without me.”
“Whatever, you cheerleader,” Brady huffed.
“Go play with your pom-poms!” Calvin taunted him.
Without another look at their friend, the pair scrabbled down the ladder. Brady, always the leader, went first. Thirty feet was farther than it looked and both boys were breathing heavily when they reached the bottom.
They peered dubiously into the tunnel that opened in front of them. Darkness peered back.
“Are we sure there’s no such thing as omnivorous oranges?” Calvin asked nervously.
“What are you, Troy’s twin?” Brady asked sarcastically. “I don’t want you becoming a cheerleader too.”
“I’m just saying,” Calvin defended himself. “This tunnel doesn’t look natural. It looks like something made it.”
Brady pulled out his cellphone and used its flashlight app to brighten the smooth limestone passageway.
“We’re here to find out,” he said, starting forward.
Calvin hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Remember, there are a bunch of cops down here,” Brady reminded him. “They have guns and stuff. Giant worms don’t stand a chance against them.”
Calvin exhaled and reluctantly followed his friend and quarterback. He wished he had a flashlight or a cool app on his phone.
The tunnel burrowed through solid limestone. Its smooth surface looked almost polished, and the boys’ footfalls echoed in the darkness with each step. No other sound emanated from the black abyss.
Were Calvin and Brady really alone? What about the police? The news crew? Maybe Troy had been right about the sinkhole being a deathtrap.
A voice called from the darkness ahead.
“Help!”
Calvin gasped. “Did you hear that?”
Brady cocked his head, listening.
The call came again, fainter but still recognizable.
“Help!”
“Who do you think it is?” Calvin whispered.
Brady shrugged. “Does it matter? Someone is in trouble and we can save them. Just think of the news headlines: Local Football Stars Rescue Victim Trapped in Sinkhole. We’ll be heroes!”
“I guess,” Calvin said unconvinced.
After a short walk, the tunnel opened into a cavern as large as a high school gymnasium. A dozen other tunnels connected to it like the spokes on a wheel.
“Is this where the omnivorous oranges meet up?” Calvin murmured.
Brady ignored him. He jogged toward something lying on the far side of the cavern. It looked like a black box with a blinking red light.
“Check it out,” he said when he
reached the object. “It’s a TV camera.”
“But where’s the TV crew?” Calvin wondered, squinting fruitlessly into the various black passages.
“Let’s see if we can get it to work,” Brady suggested. “Come here. I’ll hold the light.”
The boys squatted next to the camera. Brady held his cellphone aloft while Calvin fidgeted with the camera’s buttons.
“Here, I got it,” Calvin said, pushing rewind and then hitting play.
An image appeared on the camera’s small viewscreen. It showed a female news reporter clutching a microphone. She wore a suit and looked professionally attired, but her face was ghostly white. Her eyes widened in panic.
“They’re everywhere!” she screamed into the camera. “I can’t count them all! There’s too many! The police are trying to hold them off, but—”
The camera’s angle suddenly lurched sideways and the picture turned black. The sounds of screams and police gunfire erupted in the darkness. Then the playback stopped.
Brady and Calvin stared at one another in silence for only a moment. The camera had told them everything they needed to know. More than they wanted to know. Something had attacked the police and news crew. Something deadly.
“We have to get out of here!” Brady howled. “Run!”
He grabbed Calvin’s arm and sprinted toward the exit. They didn’t get far.
Creatures darted into the chamber from every tunnel. But they weren’t giant orange worms like Troy had predicted. They were a Florida legend come true. A Floridian nightmare.
Gatormen!
Brady had heard stories about Florida’s gatormen, especially about their most famous specimen, Jake the Alligator-man. He had never expected to see one up close and very personal.
The monsters were half alligator and half human. They had shrunken human heads covered in scales and mounted on small gator bodies. Their front legs
Zombie King and Other Scary Short Stories for Halloween (Mystery Underground) Page 4
