Plunged immediately away from the gate, the many-puddled dirt driveway disappeared into a dark overhang of evergreen and bare-branched trees. Vee’s mom, who was a real-estate agent, had told the girls a Victorian mansion stood at the end of that road. She’d seen it when it was up for sale a few years ago. Back before the mysterious man nobody ever saw—and it was rumored, hated children—bought it. Another shiver chilled Esther and, glancing over at Aneta who was also darting glances at the gate, said, “Let’s hurry. I’m cold. That place is creepy.”
“It looks like ghosts live there,” Aneta said, pushing more firmly on her pedals.
An unearthly scream split the air. It began loudly and then tapered away to a screechy gasp.
“What”—Esther said, running off the road into the dirt, narrowly missing the ditch,—“was that?”
“It must be one of the ghosts!”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts.” Even though Esther knew she was right, it didn’t stop her from getting back on and pumping her bike pedals.
In seconds they had caught up to Sunny and Vee.
The redhead circled her bike to swoop by Aneta and Esther. “We made it past the haunted house without getting sucked in by the ghosts!” Her usual mischievous grin preceded a big giggle, and she was off again.
“You didn’t hear the scream?” Aneta asked.
Sunny gave her a funny look as she rolled past to ride just a bit in front of Vee. “We’re living the yayness!”
I bet she can’t tell if Aneta is joking or not. Watching Sunny and Vee, Esther knew exactly what Vee would do, and she did. Standing up on her pedals, the long-legged and fastest runner of the Squad pumped twice, caught up to the shorter girl, and kept juuuusssst a tiny bit ahead of Sunny. Vee liked to win.
“Living the yayness!” Esther grinned and threw a look over her shoulder. A truck was a long way back. She pedaled harder. “Let’s pass Sunny and Vee, Aneta. That truck is a long ways back. I bet Sunny and Vee think we’re slower than frozen honey!” She glanced over at her friend. “Ready, set, stand, and pump it!”
She and Aneta stood on their pedals, laughing at their flapping rain slickers.
“We are flying now!” Aneta hollered, her long blond ponytail flopping like a horse tail. “I hope we do not get rained on.” She pumped easily while Esther puffed.
I want us to live the yayness of the S.A.V.E. Squad when we’re a hundred and eighty years old.
They pumped, laughed, and almost caught up to Sunny and Vee when a thunderclap shattered their laughter into shrieks.
When had it turned like almost night? The wind, which had been behind them, viciously folded in on itself and now shoved at them, daring Esther and Aneta to gain any further ground. Heavy raindrops fell, some so big they hurt when they smacked on Esther’s helmet, some slipping between the air vents. “Ow!”
Lightning. Lightning. What were you supposed to do when the sky spit bolts of lightning? Besides not be outside. Esther mentally scrambled through memories of fifth-grade weather camp.
Another bolt split the sky. Esther counted, but no thunder followed. She stopped at ten. This was good. Her dad had taught her that counting the seconds between a lightning bolt and a thunder boom told you how many miles away the full storm was. Count three seconds, and the rain was three miles away. Counting storms, she thought, wishing Uncle Dave’s ranch was closer, is more fun when you’re on a back porch watching it.
Crrrrr-accckkkk! Another bolt.
Aneta screamed, her face furrowed in fear as she turned a wet face to Esther. “What do we do?”
Sunny turned and yelled something like “Pedal for all you’re worth!” or maybe it was “Get down in the dirt”?
“There’s a ditch by that big tree! We can hide there!” Vee leaped off her bike, tripped on the gravel, and tumbled toward the edge of the shallow ditch, her bike falling with her. Or rather, on top of her.
“Vee!” Aneta, Sunny, and Esther screeched.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Her face twisted—probably so she wouldn’t cry. Vee stood up and brushed herself off. “I think I’ll live.” Her clean jeans now had muddied knees. The palms of her hands were muddy and scraped. “C’mon, let’s lie down in here so we’re not the tallest things on the road.”
That was it. Now Esther remembered.
I mean, that’s not it.
Weather camp: Never, never lie down in a ditch when there’s lightning. That scrap of memory ejected itself from the past into the now. The wind was picking up. She had to shout to be heard. “No, don’t lie down!” They were supposed to get into a car, roll up the windows, and not touch the sides of the car.
Except they didn’t have a car.
The girls were looking at her, expecting her to have a better idea. After all, she was the Internet expert.
Squeezing her brakes, Esther stopped so suddenly her back tire skittered a bit. With a big wobble of the handlebars, she managed to get her feet down and keep the rest of her standing up. Away from trees? There was nothing but trees. Trees on either side of the road. Trees over that creepy black fence. Trees as far as she could see across the road.
“No, don’t lie down in the ditch!” Her breath came in gasps. Uncle Dave’s ranch was still out of sight on the road that began at the community center and wound its way as a country road. About the only ones who drove it were the people who lived in the sparsely dotted homes, farms, and ranches. Boy, did they need help now. “Help, Lord!”
The first rumble of thunder sounded like a giant’s stomach had just decided it was lunchtime. Heavy drops screamed for a few more of their fat friends, and in the time it took Esther to scan for a spot with no trees, the girls’ legs and feet were sopping. If they hadn’t quickly tied the hoods of the many-colored raincoats, they would look like they’d just washed their hair.
“We look like M&M heads,” Sunny said.
Flash! One–two–three–four—BOOM!
Aneta screamed.
Vee jumped.
Sunny laughed. “I think my ribs rattled!”
Esther needed a plan to help her friends.
In the next moment, while they crouched near the side of the road away from the big bare tree that leaned over the black fence, the air stilled. Solitary still. Scary still. Like nature had sucked in a bottomless breath and held the planet hostage. A tingle shivered through Esther. Whoa. What was that?
Thwaaack! Not a pop, not a thud. Something hit by something else.
“My cousin’s car!” Sunny shouted, looking around.
“It’s a gun!” Vee flattened herself on the ground.
Aneta and Sunny joined her. “Esther, get down!”
Esther dropped so fast dirt went up her nose.
A rustle in the overarching branches of the big tree made them look up in time to see two objects, one larger than the other, dropping fast in front of their faces.
Two pairs of round yellow eyes; wings spread awkwardly; wideopen, sharply curved beaks hissing; and a strange sound that could not be mistaken for anything other than pain.
And blood. Blood on the feathers. Blood on the ground.
Chapter 3
The Man with the Mask
Aneta screamed.
Vee pulled her hood up until it covered her eyes. “What is that?”
“Blood. There’s blood!” Sunny scooted back from the two owls.
“Are they dead?” Esther watched. One wasn’t. It twitched and flopped. The other was still, raindrops denting the feathers. Dead?
Aneta crawled forward on her elbows toward the two big-eyed owls. Yellow eyes the size of dimes. “Oh, the poor things are hurt!”
The sharp-looking beak opened farther. Another hiss. Another flop with the brown, white, and gray feathers.
Vee threw back her hood and crouched by the two birds. While the storm continued to jolt and pour, Esther didn’t know what to do. But she did know if they didn’t get somewhere safe, both the girls and the owls would be dead. She cast another look
back down the road.
The truck! It had stopped at the big black fence. Peering through the sheets of rain that pelted her raincoat so loudly she couldn’t tell what the other Squaders were talking about, she gauged the distance between the tree and the truck. Could they dodge the lightning if they sprinted? Was a moving target harder for lightning to hit? She turned back to the other three who were circled around the birds.
“Should we pick them up and take them for help?” Aneta reached out a hand toward the less-bloody bird. The beak stretched open. Even though they were small, their wingspread was easily as long as Esther’s arm. Maybe longer.
“I say we go get help.” Vee’s dark, wet bangs stuck to her forehead. She pulled up the hood again. She looked ready to run wherever.
Esther surveyed the two birds, the one still unmoving. If they left them here, they’d drown in the rain. She shivered. The temperature had dropped again, and suddenly her school sweatshirt under the raincoat wasn’t warm enough. Maybe the owls would freeze. Those little bodies couldn’t take the cold, wet ground.
The gate hadn’t opened yet. Someone must still be in the truck. That someone had just been named a helper to the S.A.V.E. Squad. “We’ll get the people in the truck to help. The birds are too big for us.”
“This would have been a great time for the Anti-Trouble Phone,” Vee grumbled, looking disgusted. “I wish I hadn’t left it at home.”
They agreed. Esther shot a glance at the truck and then up at the gray sky that delivered a never-ending supply of water. Her teeth began to chatter. Oh, she was cold. And wet. And, well, all kinds of scared.
Cr-rrr-ack!
The thunder banged in the sky, and her lungs rattled again. She pulled off her raincoat, threw it over the owls, and ran for the truck.
Vee and Sunny reached the truck first. Esther expected one of them to pound on the driver’s side window and scream for help, but that was not what redheaded Sunny did. Reaching the side of the vehicle, she yanked open the passenger side and launched herself into the backseat.
“Sunny!” Vee screeched and stopped short. “What are you doing?”
Another vicious crack of lightning, and Vee joined Sunny.
“Where’s the driver?” Esther heard Vee say.
Bang! More lightning. Aneta dove into the truck on top of Vee.
Her teeth chattering, Esther remained outside, unsure. Where was the driver? They were crazy. We’re talking major stranger danger here. Everything she’d ever learned about safety flashed through her head along with the booms of thunder and flashes of lightning.
Yow! This had to be a special case. She flung open the driver’s door and leaped in, slamming it behind her.
Nobody said a word. In seconds, their gasping had steamed up the windows so the truck’s interior felt like a sweaty cave.
Outside, the lightning flashed, the thunder boomed, and the pounding sheets of rain fell.
“If the gate’s not open, where’s the driver?” Vee wanted to know, pulling herself out from under Aneta and squishing Sunny into the door in the process.
“Maybe this is a ghost truck, and the driver is a ghost.” Aneta’s voice trembled.
Sunny grunted and gasped, “Okay, I think this is the worst trouble the S.A.V.E. Squad has ever been in.”
Vee eventually wriggled herself upright as the others straightened themselves. Staring straight ahead at the fence and headlights, Vee nodded. “We’ve just jumped into some strange truck where nobody is driving during a killer rainstorm, leaving two hurt owls.”
The raincoat by the tree hadn’t moved. “Lord, we’re in big trouble,” Esther said. “If the truck is running and the lights are on, someone has to be somewhere to help us help those little owls.”
A small voice said from the backseat, “We look like we took a shower with our clothes on.” It was Aneta. Twisting around to see her, Esther watched her friend’s face tremble, and for a moment, Esther thought she was going to cry. Instead her blue eyes crinkled, and her mouth followed with a quivering smile then a choking laugh.
Sunny bent her head as her shoulders shook. “Bahahaha! I feel like a dog in a shower!” Shaking like a dog, her tangled mess of curls flung raindrops on the front and back seat, her laughter gaining speed and volume until she was seriously hooting.
“Hey!” Vee frowned. “Getting help for the owls is—” Her stern look wobbled, and she pitched off into a silent fit of hilarity.
This is crazy. Esther felt a bubble of laughter beginning. Why were they laughing? The bubbles were beginning to hurt. She was going to laugh. No she wasn’t. Somebody had to be in charge here.
Each of the other three was now soundlessly shaking with mirth. In another second she would join them. It was that kind of laughter after something so scary happened you couldn’t deal. She leaned against the cool, fogged-up window, trying to make herself take a breath. Someone had to have a plan. Her face felt like it was on fire, so she turned her face to the glass.
Esther screamed.
The door fell away from her face, and she scrabbled with the steering wheel to stay in the truck. A hard clamp on her arm made her scream again.
“Esther!” the girls were shouting. “What’s wrong?” Vee was climbing to the front until her bent right knee locked, leaving her stuck between the two front seats. “Let her alone!” If the Vee Stare could be a voice, Vee was using it now.
A green military slicker yanked Esther out of the truck. The rain had slacked off to mist. She was so cold, so wet.
“What do you want? Why are you in my truck?”
Esther looked in the face of her assailant. A mask. He was wearing a mask. Her voice dried up.
Tears gushed from Esther’s eyes, and she began to gulp, feeling more scared than she’d been in her life. “H–h–help the baby owls…over—” Deeper sobs took over. She couldn’t finish. Vee had untangled her legs now, made the front seat, and in another second shot from the truck, aiming her helmeted head toward the tall, skinny man’s stomach.
Chapter 4
Attempts to Escape
They’d blown their first chance for escape. Except, had they really, wondered Esther, since they didn’t know they would need to escape? Everything happened so fast.
Never had she seen someone move as quickly as that man. Vee made full contact, and while her helmet remained embedded in the masked man’s slickered front, he’d grabbed her by the shoulder of her raincoat and Esther by the arm. He’d shoved them in the back with Sunny and Aneta, who had gone deathly silent. Vee was still dizzy from the head butt and complied. Esther’s legs quivered like jelly. She obeyed.
They watched the man grab a dog crate from the covered back of the truck and gently scoop up the owls in towels that he pulled from the crates. Then the crate went into the back. The man got in, and there they were.
Kidnapped.
As the truckload of unhappy girls, unhappy owls, and unhappy masked man bounced through the water-filled potholes leading away from safety and toward the haunted mansion, Esther, behind the driver, wanted another look at his face. It was a strange kind of mask. It was clear and kind of smeared his face a little. Openings showed his nose and lips. She also wanted to memorize it so once they escaped, she could tell the sheriff. For, if she knew her S.A.V.E. Squad girls, Vee was plotting and Sunny was plotting. Aneta was hoping that the other three would do something brave. Now.
After one particularly deep hole that jounced everyone right, sending Esther into Vee and Vee into Aneta, who in turn smashed Sunny into the door.
The masked man muttered something about “fixing this good.” Uh, Lord?
“You’d better let us out,” Sunny announced. “Vee gets major carsick. Esther, trade with Vee so she can have the window for when she hurls.” As she spoke, Sunny shoved Aneta and whispered, “Go between Esther and Vee.” Moving her long legs, Aneta hitched under Esther as Esther sprawled across the two girls on her way to Sunny’s side. What was Sunny up to?
Vee shot to rigi
dly upright. “I do n—,” she began. Aneta jammed an elbow into her ribs.
“Poor Vee does not ride good.” The English wasn’t so great, but Aneta was terrified and that’s when her English flew out the window.
“Oh, I do.” Vee rocked back and forth, emitting soft groans. “I puke everywhere. We’re talking projectile. Even my stepbrothers get grossed out.” She belched loudly.
Where had Vee learned that? Esther pressed her lips together. She didn’t want to give Vee away.
“I’m cold and wet, and this truck smells—”
It did smell. Like old wet animal something.
Whispering so hard in Esther’s ear that Esther shoved a shoulder up to protect her hearing, Sunny said, “When he stops for Vee, pull up the lock and fall out.”
Why me? Esther twitched a look out at the gloomy woods, the muddy road pitted with puddles. Falling out would hurt. But then, being kidnapped wasn’t living the yayness.
Leaning forward between the seats, Aneta sneezed violently and wetly. “Ah’b catching a code.” She leaned back against Vee. “Ah’b gedding sick.”
The masked man shuddered and pulled up the hood on his raincoat, slowing down for another puddle. Steering with one hand, he opened a cell phone and punched a number with his thumb.
“You’d better meet me at the house. You have to help me take care of something.”
They had to hurry. He was calling his accomplice. Every criminal had an accomplice.
It helped that Aneta was in the game now. She never sneezed juicily. Aneta’s sneezes were dainty little “ah-choos.” Come to think of it, she’d never been sick.
He drove on. Vee belched and retched, and Aneta sneezed and coughed. Still he drove.
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