Ben was transfixed by the sight. The Glop seemed to pulse with a life all its own. It had somehow become one with the creepy statue. Like it had absorbed it—Ben couldn’t even see the statue inside the Glop anymore.
It was alive!
“Look out!” Cindy cried as she pushed her brother out of the way of a massive, glop-covered fist! The fist slammed right into the spot where they had been standing. The Glop picked up its fist from the ground, then took steps—actual steps!—toward Ben and Cindy.
“What the what?!” Ben yelled. “That thing is coming right for us!”
The massive mound of shambling glop staggered toward Ben and Cindy. It lurched, somehow walking and oozing at the same time. As it moved across the ground, it left a trail of slimy footprints behind it.
Ben and Cindy looked at each other as they both screamed, “RUN!”
IT’S AMAZING just how fast a pair of feet can carry you when you’re afraid. That’s what was racing through Ben’s mind as he and his sister made tracks away from the town square. He stole a brief glance over his shoulder, and he saw the shambling mound behind him. The Glop was moving toward them.
It wasn’t a dream.
It wasn’t even a nightmare, although Ben wished it were.
No, it was real. And it was coming after him and Cindy!
“Hhhhhhuuuuuuu” came a low, rumbling sound from the town square.
“Was that—?” Cindy began.
“I think it was—” Ben added, before he was interrupted by further sounds.
“Hhhhhhhuuuuumannnsssss!”
Ben and Cindy stopped in their tracks.
“Did that thing just talk?!” Cindy asked.
Ben nodded. Both he and his sister looked behind them. Lurching from the town square, slowly, coming toward them, was the massive, oozing form. It seemed to have a face, sort of, and a mouth, kind of. As its “mouth” opened, another sound came out: “Yyyoouuu aaarrrrrrrrre doooooooomed!”
“Did that thing just say we’re doomed?!” Cindy asked again.
Ben nodded, his head barely moving.
They sprinted away.
It’s amazing just how fast a pair of feet can carry you when you’re afraid.
—
“How does that thing move so fast?” Ben questioned. He was panting as he ran, his sister right next to him. Somehow, the giant blob of whatever-it-was had managed to keep pace with the kids. It hadn’t caught up to them yet, but it was right behind them. Ben swung his arms as he sprinted, like he was trying to grab the air in front of him and pull himself forward.
“Can we call it something else instead of a ‘thing’?” Cindy said, shouting over the sound of their sneakers hitting the pavement.
They kept on running. Ahead of them, they saw a stand of trees. The edge of a forest right outside of town. Maybe they could lose the thing in there? It was worth a try.
“Yyyyoooour misssserabbble tooooowwwwwnnnn willll falllll befffoooooore usssss” came a voice from behind them. The creature. The sounds that came from its “mouth” were truly horrifying—it didn’t sound like a person. It was like a creaky door being opened slowly, mixed with the bubbling sounds of a pot of boiling water. A gross parody of a person.
“Yoooooooouuuuurrrr toooowwwwnnnn…annnnnnnddddd thennnnnnnn…thhhhheeeeee wooooooorrrrrlllldddddd!”
Well, sure, Ben thought. You have to take over the town before you take over the world, that only makes sense.
The monster continued moving, dragging itself along the ground, leaving a trail of slimy footprints in its wake. Ben and Cindy kept on running. Now they were breathing so hard, their sides hurt. But they had to stay ahead of it. They had to make it to the trees. To safety.
As if anywhere would be safe.
“Rrrrruuunnnnnn wwwwhillleee yoooouuuuu caaaaaannnnn,” the thing spat. “Wwweeee willllllll geeeeet yooouuuuu beffffoooooreeee yooooouuu caaann waaaaarrrnnnnn annnyyyyonnne.…”
“THE GLOP,” Kei said to himself as he stared at the computer screen. He had spent the last hour reading the Tales to Astonish entry on the monster and Elsa Bloodstone’s notes about it. There wasn’t much to go on, but at least Kei had a name—and a little bit of background now.
So he was surprised—but not very—when he saw a thread on the Tales to Astonish message board started by a user named benthemonsterkid:
Then, in the same thread, there was another post from benthemonsterkid:
The user had uploaded a couple of blurry photographs, and Kei quickly downloaded them to his desktop. Then he went back to the anonymous article all about the Glop. In addition to the sketch of the gloppy monster, there was a mention of a statue. A statue of an ordinary person. As he kept reading, he learned that the statue seemed to move on its own.
Everything that benthemonsterkid was describing fit the article’s description of the Glop.
“Ben the monster kid,” Kei said out loud, as he started to type. “You are in trouble, my friend. And you’re gonna need help, Kid Kaiju–style.”
THE FOREST AT NIGHT. Clouds overhead. The ground, slick with moisture. Fog rolling in. Strange sounds all around. Like something out of a horror movie.
Only it wasn’t a horror movie.
It was real.
And Ben and Cindy Lee were stuck smack-dab in the middle of it.
Ben and Cindy were slumped against the back of an enormous oak tree in the forest. They were sweaty, panting, trying to catch their breath. How long had they been running? Ben hadn’t had time to look at his phone to check, but they must have been moving for hours. They were tired, cold, wet, and wanted nothing more than to be back at home in their beds—asleep, warm, and waking up to find out that this was all a dream.
“Snap out of it!” Cindy said, punching Ben’s shoulder.
“Ow! Again with the shoving and hitting,” Ben responded.
“You were daydreaming,” Cindy said, suddenly whispering. “Keep your voice down. I think we might have lost it.”
“Why are we keeping our voices down if we lost it?” Ben asked.
“Brothers,” Cindy muttered.
The kids had come to a small clearing in the forest. In the center, there was an enormous stump from a long-dead tree. It looked about the size of a small car. They noticed a hollow on one side of it—a hiding place? Finding the energy for one last sprint, Ben and Cindy raced for the hollow and nestled inside.
“Check your phone,” Cindy said anxiously.
Ben was already ahead of her. He was on the Tales to Astonish website, checking the thread he had started. He did a double take when he saw there was a response to his query about the statue. He did another double take when he saw who had left the message.
Kid Kaiju!
“What are you doing?” Cindy asked. “What are you looking at? Let me see!”
“Kid Kaiju! He posted to our thread! He says, ‘That thing is called the Glop. You need to get away from it as fast as you can. The statue itself isn’t the problem. It’s that goo. It’s a monster…from outer space!’”
IT WASN’T LIKE creatures from outer space were anything new. Everyone at school had heard about the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team of Super Heroes whose members came from, well, across the galaxy. If there was a talking tree person and a wisecracking raccoon from space, why not a big globby monster?
“I would say I don’t believe it, but after everything I’ve seen the last couple of days, it makes perfect sense,” Cindy said.
“No kidding!” Ben replied, excited and scared at the same time. He kept reading Kid Kaiju’s post.
“You mean we were walking around town with alien goo all over our shoes?” Cindy said. “Yuck.”
“Shhhh!” Ben said, agitated. “There’s more!”
“Elsa Bloodstone!” Ben exclaimed. “I read about her—she comes from a family of monster hunters! She’s like, the numero uno head monster person!”
“Keep reading!” Cindy said, punching her brother on the arm.
“Pigs?” Cind
y said, raising an eyebrow. “That’s random.”
“That seems easy!” Ben exclaimed. “Right? Pretty basic?”
Cindy rolled her eyes. “Ohhhh, yeah. Easy. We just have to figure out how to dissolve some alien life-form. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.”
“You say that like it’s going to be hard,” Ben said with a straight face. Both kids laughed.
Suddenly, a sound.
“Eaaaaaaasssssssyyyyyyyy peeaaasssssssyyyy…”
Ben and Cindy whipped their heads up to look at the entrance of the hollow in the tree.
They saw nothing.
“Was that you?” Cindy asked.
Ben shook his head no.
Ben was going to suggest that maybe it was Cindy or the wind or one of a hundred other things, but it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t any of them.
It became even more obvious when the tree trunk that had been their hiding place was suddenly uprooted from the ground, roots and all.
“LLLLLLEEENMMMMOONNNNN squeeeeeeezzzzzyyyyyy!!!”
The Glop had found them. With barely a thought, the creature tore the tree stump from its roots and tossed it aside like the bad test paper that Ben had crumpled up earlier that week because there was no need to keep a test on which he got a 39 out of 100.
Like a flash, they were on their feet and out of there. Ben and Cindy sprinted across the clearing, diving through the Glop’s gloppy legs, landing at a stand of trees on the opposite side. The Glop turned, faster than you’d think, to face the kids. If it had a face, it looked almost like it was smiling. Like it was playing some kind of sick, twisted game.
“It did NOT just say ‘Easy peasy, lemon squeezy,’” Cindy gasped, as she grabbed her brother’s sweatshirt, pulling him into the forest.
“I think it did,” Ben said. “That might be scarier than anything else so far.”
“It is absolutely scarier than anything else so far.”
“Yooooooooooooouuuuuuuuu arrrrrrrreeeeeee doooooommmmeeeeed!” shrieked the Glop, its wet voice echoing through the clearing. Then it started to move, one gloppy “leg” after another. Faster. Faster. Closer. Closer.
“I don’t wanna be doooooooommmmeeeeed!” Ben yelled.
Ben and Cindy ran as fast as they could.
“Do you have a signal yet?” Cindy asked, as twigs snapped beneath her feet. She ducked under a branch, narrowly avoiding a collision.
“Signal? What? Why? For whaaaaaaaah?” Ben said as he tripped and slid down a muddy incline on his back.
“Why? To call for help! The cops! The National Guard! The army! The Avengers! SOMEONE!” she said.
“Call and tell them WHAT?” Ben said, back up and running. “A giant pile of glop is gonna gobble us up? They’ll never believe it! Don’t you watch horror movies? Adults never believe the kids until it’s too late!”
Ben thought for a second as he picked himself off the muddy ground.
“Well, the Avengers might believe it, maybe, but I don’t exactly have their number in my contacts. Besides, aren’t they off fighting the Masters of Evil or something?”
“Then what about Spider-Man? He’s the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man—we live in a neighborhood…he should have to help!” Cindy said, practically hyperventilating.
“We also don’t have Spider-Man’s number in our contacts,” Ben said.
No, Ben thought. Calling for the cops isn’t going to help. It’s not like Don Cyphers’s dad would be able to do anything against that slime from space: Now get home, Glop, before I call your parents! Yeah, that wasn’t gonna work.
But Kid Kaiju…now he might be able to help!
It wasn’t easy, but Ben called up Tales to Astonish on his phone while he was running. The screen was bouncing up and down as Ben tried to look at it. His stomach felt a little queasy. He remembered that he had skipped dinner and hadn’t really had anything to eat since lunch earlier that day.
“Hold on!” he called to Cindy, who had gotten ahead of him. She stopped, turned, and shot him a look.
“Hold on? We have to keep running! Did you see how fast the Glop was moving? It’ll be here any second!”
Ben held up a finger as if to say, Just give me a minute. He typed on his phone as fast as he could. A bead of sweat from his forehead dripped onto the phone. He wiped it away.
Then another bead of sweat dripped.
Wipe.
And another.
Wipe. And another.
And it was then that Ben realized it wasn’t sweat at all.
It was glop.
KEI COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. He was glued to his computer, reading a new post from benthemonsterkid.
And it wasn’t good.
Kei read the message, his mouth agape. Aside from the typos, it was clear that the monster kid was in trouble! But what did “The Glip us slivr” mean? Kei figured that “Glip” was “Glop,” but “slivr”? If the monster kid was on the run, that would account for all the mistyped letters. Kei glanced down at his keyboard and typed
SLIVR
He looked at his fingers on the keyboard. Then it hit him. S was right next to A. The R was right next to E.
benthemonsterkid hadn’t typed “The Glip us slivr.”
He had typed, “The Glop is alive!”
In addition to the sloppy text message, benthemonsterkid had also told Kei where they were located. It was too far away for Kei himself to get there to help. Not in time, anyway. He needed someone who could get there fast. From watching the news with his mom, he knew that the Avengers were off fighting the Masters of Evil. So even if he could get in touch with them, they wouldn’t be able to help.
But he didn’t need the help of a Super Hero.
No, what Kei needed was the help of another monster. Something that could give the Glop a fight and give Ben the monster kid a chance.
Now that was something that Kid Kaiju could handle!
WHEN BEN LOOKED UP and over his shoulder, he saw what he thought was a huge tree in the shadows. Except this tree moved and was dripping wet.
Dripping with glop.
“Eaaaaasssssyyyyyy peeeaaaasssssyyyyyy…” the Glop hissed, spitting little drops of glop from its “mouth.”
“Stop saying that!” Ben shouted. He started to run, then tripped, rolling down a hill. His sister grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.
“Run!” she shouted as the Glop smashed a tree in half with a gloppy appendage.
“Who told you to stop and text?” Cindy said, angry. “I said CALL somebody! It’s a phone, too, you know!”
“I did better than call somebody,” Ben said, huffing and puffing. “I made a post to Tales to Astonish! I told Kid Kaiju where we were and what was happening! I told him that the Glop is alive!”
They had managed to put a little distance between themselves and the great gloppy beast that pursued them. Ben shoved his phone into Cindy’s face, proudly showing her the message that he had sent to Kid Kaiju via Tales to Astonish. Cindy pushed the phone back at him and kept on running.
“Are you nuts? Why are you showing this to me now, when we need to be running!” she shouted. Then she added, “You wrote ‘The Glip us slivr.’”
“I what?” Ben said, panting.
“You heard me. ‘The Glip us slivr.’ What does that even mean? Nice typos!”
As both kids ran past trees and branches, Cindy glared at Ben. “Let’s hope Kid Kaiju can read your crazy message,” she said to her brother.
“Hey,” Ben replied. “You try texting while you’re running from that thing!!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Cindy said, bent over and out of breath.
Ben was bent over, too, his head between his knees, trying to catch his own breath. His chest ached. His sides hurt. It felt like they had been running for hours. He didn’t even know where they were anymore. Were they still in the woods?
“What is it?” Ben asked, without bothering to look up. His head felt like a bowling ball—almost too heavy for him to pick up. Besid
es, he didn’t want to see anything else. Everything he had seen so far that night had been pretty terrible.
“You have to see it to believe it.”
Sighing, Ben looked up. He and his sister had come to another clearing in the woods, and in the distance, they saw a beat-up, weathered old house. The exact kind of house that kids would say was haunted. Boards were missing, shutters were hanging off at the hinges. Ben could have sworn he saw a bat or two flying overhead in the moonlight, but that was probably just his imagination.
But do you know what wasn’t his imagination?
The graveyard that stood between them and the house and beyond that, the woods on the other side of the clearing.
“A cemetery?! Why is there a cemetery in the middle of the woods?” Ben said. “Come ON! Like it isn’t creepy enough, getting chased by the Glop. Now we have to run through a graveyard?”
“I know, right?” Cindy said in disbelief. “This is fifty kinds of unfair.”
Cindy was right. Neither of them relished the thought of wandering through a remote graveyard in the dead of night. But they couldn’t just stand there. They knew they had to keep moving if they were going to have a prayer of staying ahead of the Glop.
“Maybe we can go a different way,” Cindy suggested. “Head back into the woods? Maybe it won’t see us!”
“I don’t know, Cindy,” Ben said, still trying to catch his breath. “We’ve been running forever. We have to find someplace to hide and rest. Even for just a little bit. Maybe that house…?”
Cindy put her foot down. “I am not running through a graveyard.”
There was a gurgling sound in the distance and the sound of twigs snapping.
Marvel Monsters Unleashed: Beware the Glop! Page 4
