“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?”
“But it wasn’t an alligator or a crocodile,” Eric continued calmly.
“We told you that,” Peter said.
“And it wasn’t a shark or anything.”
Dill rolled his eyes. “Noooooo, it came up out of the water.”
“What about a…hippopotamus?”
“We know what a hippopomatus…hippopomamu…I know what a hippo is,” Dill growled. “I’m not stupid.”
“I’m just saying that you’ve probably never seen a live hippo before,” Eric explained, “so maybe you wouldn’t recognize one in person.”
“Hippos don’t walk on hind legs, do they?” Peter asked.
“Probably not, no,” Eric conceded.
“Then it wasn’t a hippopotamus,” Dill almost shouted.
“Calm down, Dill,” Mom said, though she seemed pretty upset herself.
“Guys, you gotta work with me here,” Eric said. His chair was turned backwards underneath him, and he settled his arms on the backrest. “You’re basically telling me a dinosaur lives in the lake.”
“Dinosaw,” Beth burbled happily.
“Now, that’s a pretty big whopper to swallow. Are you sure you’re not exaggerating?”
“Yes,” Peter emphasized, then frowned. “I mean, no, we’re NOT exaggerating.”
“Peter, please, if you know anything that could help the rangers…” Mom pleaded.
“I already told them everything I know!”
The ranger tried to look sympathetic. “Dill? You want to tell me the truth?”
Dill narrowed his eyes. “I’m tired, and I’m hungry, and I saw some kid get carried off by a monster, and this hot chocolate sucks, and I’m freakin’ P.O’D because YOU GUYS KEEP ASKIN’ ME IF I’M TELLING THE TRUTH OR NOT!” Dill hollered. “THERE, IS THAT ENOUGH TRUE STUFF FOR YOU?”
The sheriff’s deputy standing behind Eric stepped forward. He was tall, and much older than Peter’s mom. He wore a cowboy–looking hat and sunglasses, even though it was dark outside. “Show some respect, you little punk,” he snarled.
“I can handle this, Deputy Jenkins,” Eric said softly.
Dill looked up at Jenkins defiantly. “I’ll show some respect WHEN YOU STOP ASKING ME THE SAME STUPID QUESTIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN!”
“Dill,” Eric warned.
“Dill,” Mom hissed.
“I DON’T — ”
“Shut up, you young hoodlum,” Grandfather barked from the corner of the room.
Dill shut up and shrank down under his blanket. Pet
er had the fleeting impression that Dill looked at Grandfather the same way he’d looked at the monster.
“Everybody, let’s just calm down,” Eric said. “Guys, look…we’ve got a dozen deputies and rangers out there searching the marsh on your say–so. I can’t keep ‘em out there all night unless you give me a little something more than a brontosaurus.”
“Don’t be dumb. It was like a bigger, fatter, slimier one of those raptor things from Jurassic Park,” Dill said, “but not as badass. But still really mean–looking.”
“Dill!” Mom snapped. “Don’t use that kind of language!”
“Well, it was,” Dill protested.
Grandfather cleared his throat from the corner, and Dill hunkered down in his blanket again.
Peter had been thinking while everyone else was arguing. “Ranger Eric…”
“Yes?”
“You said you’ve got a whole lot of people searching, but you don’t believe us.”
“I believe something happened out there, Peter. Maybe it was an accident, or maybe you guys were playing around and something got out of hand…or maybe there was some kind of animal. I don’t know.”
“So you don’t really believe us.”
Eric shifted in his seat. “Like I said — ”
“Just say NO,” Dill snapped.
Eric glared at Dill.
“You’re beginning to get on my nerves, Dill,” Eric warned. “And I wouldn’t do that if I were you, because I’m the best friend you’ve got in this room right about now.”
Dill snorted. “How about loanin’ me twenty bucks, then?”
“You don’t really believe us,” Peter continued, trying to take the heat off of Dill, “but you’ve got a bunch of people out there with flashlights. Why? If you don’t believe us, there’s got to be a reason they’re even looking.”
Eric went a few seconds without answering. When he spoke, his voice was weary. “We called Rory McCusken and Greg Witherspoon’s houses, and nobody has seen them since early this morning. Their parents said they were going fishing. Rory’s parents didn’t even see him leave, it was so early. Both families are coming over here now, guys, and I’d really, really like to tell them something believable that might help me get their sons back.”
Dill didn’t say anything this time. He just stared into his cup of cocoa.
Greg’s face appeared in Peter’s mind, his lips moving, right before he disappeared into the air.
You promised…
He started to cry silently.
“Peter, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Eric prodded gently.
Dill broke down, too, into a single, mournful sob. “Because you’re probably not going to get them back.”
“That’s not true,” Peter argued, wiping away his tears.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the deputies were leaning in hungrily, waiting for new information.
“Peter, they’re not asleep,” Dill said angrily. “Face it.”
“Who’s not asleep?” Eric asked. “Rory and Greg?”
“They are! I fell asleep, you saw me!” Peter snapped at Dill.
“Oh.” Eric put his hand over his eyes and rubbed his temples with his fingers.
“It’s true!” Peter said, and pointed to the scratch on his leg. “It stung me, and I fell asleep for five hours!”
Deputy Jenkins suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Dill’s shoulders. “What are you not telling us, you little snot?” Jenkins snarled. He started shaking Dill roughly, making his head snap back and forth. Everybody gasped.
“Jenkins, cut it out!” The other deputy grabbed Jenkins’ arm, but he just shrugged him off.
“I know your family!” Jenkins hissed in Dill’s face. “I know you!”
“Officer — ” Eric sputtered.
“STOP IT!” Peter screamed.
Jenkins suddenly jerked away from Dill, his hold broken. Grandfather stood there with a handful of the deputy’s uniform bunched up in one rough, callused hand.
“That’ll be enough,” Grandfather said coldly.
Jenkins knocked Grandfather away. “You get your hands off me.”
“Then you keep away from that boy,” Grandfather said without batting an eye.
“You’re lucky I don’t take you in for assaulting a police officer.”
“You’re lucky I don’t perform a citizen’s arrest for child abuse.”
“I know what he is,” Jenkins snarled. “I know his brothers, I see his brothers all the time in the station. And I know his daddy, oh believe you me, I know alllll about his daddy — ”
“And I know you, Anthony,” Grandfather growled. “I know all about your father, too, with his bootlegging and card–sharking, and his father before him — oh, there’s a good evening of stories. So if you’re looking at family histories, I’d advise you not to start while I’m standing here.”
Jenkins took a step back and scowled behind his sunglasses. “You crazy sonuva…” he muttered before retreating behind Eric’s chair.
Eric got to his feet. “I think we better — ”
“Call it an evening, yes,” Grandfather interrupted. “They’re obviously not telling us the truth, and if there’s a reason behind it, I’ll get it out of them.” He glared at Deputy Jenkins. “And nobody else will do anything.”
“Mr. Flannagan…” Eric tried.
“And nobody else,” Grandfather repeated.
There was silence in the room, broken only by the squelch from a radio.
“Base, this is Gutmann, over.”
The kindly–looking officer who had tried to stop Jenkins pressed on his walkie–talkie. “Canode here. Over.”
“We found something at the lake,” the walkie–talkie crackled.
Peter’s heart leapt into his throat.
Deputy Canode looked at the two boys, then at Peter’s mom and Beth. “Uhhh…we still got those two kids here, and a little ‘un…” “It’s not that — just two bikes chained up to a tree.”
“See?” Dill crowed. “We told you!”
“And the dock.”
“What about it?”
“Hard to say. Most of it’s gone. Coulda broke apart in a storm and sunk, but it woulda had to have been one heck of a storm. There’s still part of it out in the water, and a section on the land — ”
“It didn’t break in a storm!” Peter cried.
“The monster ripped it up!” Dill shouted.
Eric motioned for them to be quiet.
“ — but we didn’t find anything else,” the voice on the walkie–talkie said.
“All right,” Canode said. “Keep looking and keep me posted.”
“Roger. Over and out.”
The room was quiet as everyone absorbed the bad news. Grandfather finally broke the silence when he grabbed Dill and Peter by their necks and forced them to their feet. “Let’s go.”
“Now wait just a minute,” Jenkins snarled.
“Mr. Flannagan — ” Eric said.
“What are you waiting around here for?” Grandfather snapped at the ranger and deputy. “You haven’t heard enough fairytales about dinosaurs? Don’t you have two lost boys you should be looking for?”
Eric and Jenkins looked at each other — Eric helplessly, Jenkins angrily.
“Fine. We’ll be off, then,” Grandfather grumped, and herded Peter and Dill towards the door.
“What if we need to talk to them again?” Jenkins asked in an accusing voice.
“I think you know where I live, Deputy,” Grandfather shot back.
“I’ll take them in my car, Dad,” Mom offered.
“They’re coming with me. I want to have a little chat with them, man to man.”
“Dad — ”
“Man to man,” Grandfather repeated. Mom kept quiet and shifted Beth in her arms.
“I’ll see you at the house,” Grandfather said, and ushered Dill and Peter out of the ranger’s station and into the dark.
18
Grandfather
turned up the heat in the ancient, battered truck. The warm air spilled over Peter’s bare skin, giving him pleasurable shivers up and down his neck. Then he remembered Greg being lifted into the air, and those goosebumps went prickly and cold.
You promised…
Over by the passenger door, Dill seemed a little happier. “Dude, that was awesome,” he said to Grandfather. “I thought you hated me.”
“Let’s get something straight right now, you little hooligan,” Grandfather growled. “I don’t like you. I’ve never liked you. I never will.”
“Uhhhhh…okay,” Dill said, confused.
“I just dislike that fool Jenkins even more.” He took his eyes off the road long enough to glare at Dill. “And that’s saying something.”
Dill shrank back against the passenger door and tried to make himself as small as possible.
Peter shook his head. “You don’t believe us.”
“I never said that.”
“‘They’re obviously not telling the truth,’” Peter rattled off in an authoritarian voice, “‘so why don’t we all go home and I’ll beat it out of them.’”
“Don’t you sass me, boy,” Grandfather scowled. “The problem with you is that you go blabbing your mouth to every Tom, Dick and Harry about things no sane person would ever believe, and then you get mad when they don’t.”
“You mean…you do believe us?”
“Does that mean you’re not sane?” Dill piped up.
Grandfather pointed at Dill without looking away from the road. “I’m warning you.”
“Well…why do you believe us?” Peter asked.
“Because the one thing that hoity–toity ranger didn’t tell you — and probably doesn’t know — is that this has happened before.”
Peter and Dill leaned forward.
“Someone saw dinosaurs?”
“No. But people have disappeared. Every seven years, something seems to happen out near those springs. Seven years ago, it was a strange drop in the wildlife. Fourteen years ago, two school children went missing. Twenty–one years ago, a boat full of high school students went out on the lake and never came back. The thing seems to avoid adults, and instead attacks prey that’s smaller and weaker. The pattern goes back a long, long time. Hundreds of years, actually. But people tend to forget what isn’t in front of their faces, and most of them are too stupid to read their history, so these things happen and are forgotten so they can happen all over again.”
“What is it? The monster, I mean.”
“Did you read those blasted information boards they’ve got up all over the park?”
Peter And The Vampires (Volume One) Page 31
