“Aha!” Becky appeared from under a ledge holding a square container with what looked like a straw sticking out of it. She shook the container, and it sloshed. Before I could stop her, she was sucking on the straw.
“Becky!” I held my breath.
She grinned. “Water!”
“What if it was rocket fuel or something?”
“There’d be cross-eyes. Probably on a doggie head.” She handed the container to me.
I wanted to be mad, but I was too thirsty. I didn’t even realize how thirsty until I started drinking. It was all I could do to stop drinking and give some to Gript. He drank, and we brought it over to the Xaxor, who dipped two of its legs into the container, humming contentedly with the other four.
The Xaxor peered carefully at all the gauges, then left the controls and sat down with us in the middle of the floor. Becky pulled another canister of water out from under the ledge, along with a box full of wafers wrapped in Pipe Man fabric. They were dull and tasteless but better than nothing.
The ship hummed and shook as it moved, but it generally seemed to be holding together. Becky ate a little bit, then lay down on the floor. The Xaxor had its eyes closed too, its legs folded completely under it. Only Gript seemed to be wide awake, gnawing nervously on his paws.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
“How am I going to rescue my family without the soldiers? I don’t even have my weapon anymore!”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. Something had been in the back of my mind, percolating ever since we’d run from the cave. “The Masters think the Hottini came to O-thul-ba and stole us. That might mean we can just go back, pretend we’re happy to be there. I can find your family and rescue them without having to fight at all.”
Gript kept chewing on his paws.
“You’re small enough to hide in my backpack. We’ll figure something out.”
“I hope they’re all right.” Gript wrapped his paws around his chest. His golden eyes began to water.
“They are,” I said, thinking about my dad, how he looked lying there with all the wires over him. I wondered if he was still alive.
Twenty-Six
I OPENED MY EYES. Everything was blurry. I blinked, trying to see, trying to remember what was going on. My head was touching something cold and hard. I tried to lift it, but it was too heavy. I groaned. A few minutes went by, and I tried again to lift my head. This time, it worked a little better. My eyes were starting to clear, showing me something metallic, shiny. The ceiling of the spaceship. In a flash, my mind came back to me. I sat up slowly, aching all over. My arms and legs tingled like I’d been lying on them funny. My neck itched, and I ran my hand over a welt the size of a nickel.
Becky was lying on her side in front of me. Her arm was stretched out beneath her head. It wasn’t how she normally slept.
“Becky?” I crawled over to her, shook her gently.
She shifted and groaned. As her hair moved, it revealed a welt on her neck like mine.
“Becky, come on, wake up.” I shook her again and looked around for Gript. I almost screamed, but it caught in my throat. A hatch was open next to the ship’s controls, and just inside it was a Xaxor. It was not our Xaxor, but a different one. It looked exactly the same as ours, but I could tell. Its eyes glared at me, without any friendship. Behind it, four more Xaxor perched on their bug legs.
As I stared at the scene, trying to make sense of it, Becky managed to sit up. She took it in silently.
“He stole us again,” she said.
The Xaxor at the front of the line stepped into the room. The other four scurried behind it, making a row between us and the controls. The very last one of these was our Xaxor. Somehow, I’d learned to tell it apart from the others. Maybe it was the way it wilted a little, the guilty bug.
I looked away from it and talked to the first one. “What are you going to do now, sell us?”
“They didn’t come for you,” said Gript, pushing his way between two of the Xaxor.
“Then what?” I asked, but before the words were out, I realized what he was talking about. “The calculator.”
Becky grabbed my backpack and stuck her hand inside. “It’s gone,” she said, glaring lasers at the row of bugs.
The first Xaxor in the row held up the calculator in one leg. But it looked different than it had before. It was now wrapped in what looked like pieces of Xaxor legs, leaving just enough space for some light to spill out from the screen.
“They figured out how to use it,” said Gript, running forward to meet me. None of the Xaxor tried to stop him. “I saw them open a portal while I was hiding under the controls.” He turned back to the row of Xaxor and shook his nose. “You can’t poison a Brocine.”
I rubbed the sore spot on my neck. How was this possible? It was supposed to only work for me. Front was going to be so mad. And now I was never going to get home. I was never going to get the antidote to Dad.
Our Xaxor stepped forward, pulling his tablet out of his pouch.
They have agreed not to sell you. We will open a portal to the passage, and you will be free to go.
“So that makes you our friend now?” I snapped.“You’re not going to sell us? You might as well. We need the calculator to find the right door. We might need it to escape forever. You know that.”
The Xaxor wilted even more and pointed all three eyes at its tablet, as if it couldn’t think of what to say.
Becky poked me.
“They’re not going to sell us, but they’re going to keep the calculator.” I sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Ask them to help,” Gript whispered.
“Why would they help us?” The twelve eyes of the four unknown Xaxor glared at us. There was nothing friendly about them.
“It feels guilty,” said Gript, pointing to our Xaxor.
As Gript talked, it folded up its legs and lowered itself to the ground, head hanging over its middle section.
“You could at least come with us to the hospital so we can save our parent. You have the most powerful technology in the universe because of us. We trusted you!” I shouted the last part. At that moment, the Xaxor didn’t seem so scary. They weren’t going to hurt us. They were just a bunch of bugs.
Our Xaxor lifted its body up a little, then turned its eyes toward the one next to it. That one began rubbing its legs, causing a shrill humming. Soon, the others joined in.
“They’re actually considering it,” Gript whispered.
I reached out for Becky’s hand, barely daring to breathe.
Finally, after a lot more humming, the one our Xaxor had turned to, who seemed to be the leader, skittered forward and took the tablet from our Xaxor.
You have helped one of us; therefore, we will help you.
The four unknown Xaxor stepped into the portal first, taking the calculator with them. It didn’t look like my calculator anymore, still wrapped in what seemed to be parts of Xaxor legs, so that the screen was almost invisible. But the Xaxor apparently didn’t need to see the screen. The one who carried it held it close to its chest, two legs wrapped all around it. I wondered what Front would think if he knew that the Xaxor not only had the calculator, but had somehow figured out how to use it without me. Were they as bad as the Hottini and the Brocine, or were they worse?
“You first,” said Gript. He was riding in my backpack, claws on my shoulders, nose perilously close to my neck.
I shifted my head a little.
“Don’t worry, Earth. I’ve got my nose under control.” He gave a squeaky chuckle. “Only babies poke people without meaning to.”
Becky giggled. “Babies.” It sounded like “hic-hic” in English.
“Okay, okay. Once we go back in the passage, we have to be serious. We’re going straight to our house. No stops anywhere, no matter what happens. If the Pipe Men come out, we act like we were kidnapped by the Hottini and the Xaxor rescued us.”
“I know.” She rolled her eyes.
“I got it. I’m not here.” With that, Gript slid down into the backpack. I swung it around and closed the zipper over his head.
“Can he breathe?” Becky asked.
“I left it a little open, see? It’s open, so you can’t make any noise.”
Gript wiggled his nose at me. I hoped that was the Brocine version of a thumbs-up.
Our Xaxor pointed a leg toward the portal, indicating for us to go first.
“You don’t trust us?” I couldn’t forgive it for stealing my calculator, for knocking us out, and for letting the Xaxor board our ship. It didn’t have to do that. If it was really our friend, it would have helped us get away.
The Xaxor let all of its eyes rest on me, then pointed two eyes and a second leg toward the portal.
“Fine.” I stepped into the passage, pulling Becky. I didn’t see the other Xaxor at first. All I saw was the passageway, how different it looked. The walls were not the same pinkish color, but had changed to many shades of pink and red, darker in some places than in others. And there were black splotches, misshapen and unevenly spaced along the bottom of the doors. The doors were barely recognizable—swirling pockets of black and red, no longer square, churning in different directions from each other. Even the walls were not clearly walls, blending into the floor and ceiling so that the whole passage was like a disfigured tube.
“Bless my eyes,” I said.
“The floor is squooshy,” said Becky. She scratched her ear. “It’s doing something.”
The Xaxor, seeing that we had come through, began skittering along, apparently unconcerned. It made sense, since they had never been here before. They wouldn’t know it had changed.
My steps were heavy, as if I were sinking into wet earth. If I hadn’t looked down and seen fleshy pinkness, I would have thought I was walking through a bog. I wished I were like the Xaxor, who went so lightly that they never sank in even an inch.
“Is the air in here different, too?” I asked.
“It’s hot,” said Becky. She was sweating, and my tunic was sticking to me again.
“I hope whatever changed the passage didn’t change the way the doors are numbered.”
“It didn’t,” said Becky.
“How can you tell?”
“They make my ears pop. Can’t you feel them?” She tapped her left ear. “They go duh-dum, duh-dum. It stings.”
I concentrated, but I couldn’t hear or feel anything.
We followed the four Xaxor around a bend to the left, then a bend to the right, then down a long curving passage that grew hotter and darker as we went.
“Do you think we’re getting close?” I asked.
“Yes. Our house is that way.” She pointed to the door to the right of where the four Xaxor stood.
The Xaxor were looking at the door to the left, waiting for us. The one holding the calculator hummed to the others, and they all turned and faced the other door.
“You knew it changed before they did! How did you know that?”
Our Xaxor was staring at Becky too. It couldn’t understand English, but it had seen her point and seen its fellows turn.
Becky looked at all of us and shrugged. “It popped dut-dut. Next to the right door.” She rubbed her right ear. “It was doing that last time, but I didn’t know why.”
I didn’t like the way our Xaxor was looking at her.
“Stay away from Becky! You have the calculator. What more do you need?”
Our Xaxor lowered its eyes then scurried toward the rest of them. The other four sets of bug eyes stared at Becky hungrily.
Becky glared back.
“You can’t be alone with them,” I said.
“They’re not going to get me.” She raised both arms and wiggled her fingers, then turned her back and wiggled her butt at them.
My heart skipped a beat. “That’s not funny, Becky. It’s not funny. You can’t provoke them.”
She turned around again, arms folded. “Okay. Let’s just go home.”
“Okay.” Without another word, I led her toward the waiting Xaxor, pushed my way in front of them, and went through the door.
Twenty-Seven
THE HOUSE SEEMED TO BE EMPTY.
“Mom? Ip? Anyone?” I called.
No one answered, but it was clear someone had been here since we’d left. There were mud splotches on the carpet, marks I was sure we hadn’t made after our foray into town. Also, the furniture in the living room had been haphazardly rearranged.
All five Xaxor followed us, touching things with their legs, poking their eyes into corners, humming to each other. Our Xaxor sat under the kitchen table, poking the bottom of it with three legs, lifting it slightly into the air.
“What’s so great about a table?” asked Becky.
“I don’t know, but someone else has been here, and it wasn’t Mom.” I pointed to the mud stains. “I don’t want to be here when they get back.”
Something knocked on the kitchen window.
Becky and I froze. For the first time, I noticed that the curtains were not completely closed. They were open a few inches on the right side. Mom would never have done that. We always kept all the curtains tightly closed, all the time. I leaned over the sink, trying to see what was out there. There was only a little light from a faraway streetlight—
“Ah!” I jumped back.
Becky leaned over the sink, poking her head up. “Ip!”
I stepped forward again. Indeed, I could now see the outline of something blobby and two large, hard eyes. I struggled with the latch and pulled the window open. “Ip, is that you?” I whispered. I didn’t know if our neighbors would be able to hear us, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
“Ryan!” Ip whispered back. “You’re safe!” Ip’s face left the window, and after a loud thump, the kitchen door opened, revealing Ip, who squeezed his way through the door and into the kitchen, slamming the door behind him with a smash of his horn. It was immediately apparent where the mud had come from. He was covered in it almost completely from the middle down.
“Ip!” Becky ran forward and, unconcerned about the mud, gave him a big hug.
“My eyes, Becky! When was the last time you had a wash?”
“When has Becky washed? Look at this mud! Mom is going to kill us.” But I ran over and gave Ip a hug, too. It was good to see someone I knew I could trust.
Gript popped up out of my backpack. “Were you going to let me out? I scratched my claws on that eye-rotting ‘zipper’!”
“Infinitely sorry, Gript,” I said. “Gript, meet Ip. Ip, Gript.”
“A Brocine!” Ip exclaimed. “I never thought I’d see another one. Don’t you folks live in packs?”
“Indeed,” said Gript. “I’ve been specially trained to travel.” He puffed up proudly, then deflated again.
“Another one?” I asked. “Do you mean you’ve seen Gript’s family?”
“The ones in the zoo? They are your family?” Ip let out a wheezy sigh. “Yes, I’ve seen them.”
“Are they all right?” Gript climbed up on my shoulder, claws digging into my neck. He scratched the welt from whatever the Xaxor had poked me with, and I squirmed.
“Seeing you now, I’m sure they aren’t,” said Ip. “They were lying together, looking not much aware of their surroundings.”
“You said ‘they,’” said Gript. “How many were there?”
Ip thought for a few seconds. One eye rolled toward the Xaxor who was still under the table. Without me noticing, the rest of the Xaxor had slipped silently over to us. “Xaxor,” Ip observed. He looked back at us without further comment. “There were four of them. All rolled up together. Two your size and two smaller.”
Gript squeaked and sat down on my shoulder. “All of them.”
“And they’re still in the zoo?” I asked.
Ip nodded. “They’re in their sector.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask the next question, but I
didn’t have to, because Ip guessed.
“Oscar is still alive. I saw Helena briefly, and it seemed all right.”
I translated for Becky.
“But what happened to Ip?” she asked.
“Becky wants to know what happened to you. And so do I,” I said. “What were you doing outside on Earth? What if someone saw you?”
“It was nighttime. Earth people are diurnal, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, but they still come out at night sometimes! Can’t you see the streetlights?”
Ip shook his horn. “Well, no one saw me.” Then his eyes brightened. “What a wonderful sky! The stars are so different from Hdkowl. And the air! I fear the Masters haven’t taken such good care of our planet as they have of yours. I feel ten revolutions younger!”
“That’s great, but did you get in trouble? Have the Masters asked about us? They know we’re gone because Hon-tri-bum saw us on Brock. What did you tell them?” It all came out in a rush. I needed to know how much trouble we were in.
“Calm down, Ryan, you are safe here. I will tell you everything that happened.” Ip eyed one of the kitchen chairs and wrenched it away from the table with a blobby arm.
Our Xaxor skittered out from under the table, joining its fellows, who stood in a row, watching us.
Ip plopped down in the chair, his too-big body oozing over the sides. Mud splashed onto the linoleum.
Becky jumped up on Ip’s leg, and I took another chair. I gave our Xaxor a pointed look and turned the chair so that when I sat, I’d be facing away from all of them.
Ip looked from me to the row of Xaxor. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
“Just tell us what happened,” I said, folding my arms.
“All right. Well, I led the Masters away and came back here as fast as I could. Got a message to the Hottini. Then I went back to the kitchen to get more Earth nutrition. You know, to make it seem like you were here. They just happened to have some insects. Anyway, I got you some if you’re hungry.”
Escape from the Pipe Men! Page 14