by Bill Myers
Suddenly Sean understood. It was the creature. The one that had been chasing them. The one and only ZEEG REEED. It had finally sniffed them out. It had finally found them. And now that it had them trapped, it was closing in for the kill . . .
9
ZEEG REEED
FRIDAY, 11:O1 PST
CLINK . . . SCRAPE . . . SCRAPE.
CLINK . . . CLINK . . . SCRAPE.
The shovel continued its digging until a blinding ray of light stabbed Melissa’s eyes. There was more digging and more light. In a matter of seconds, a foot-wide hole of blazing daylight appeared above her.
It was a welcome sight. Particularly since the water was now up to her mouth. “Help me!” she coughed. “Help!” She reached her hand out of the hole. ZEEG REEED or no ZEEG REEED, she had to get out of there. They all had to get out of there.
More dirt was shoveled away. Clods and globs splashed about her face. She looked up and could see him now, silhouetted against the sun. It was impossible to make out a face, but she was grateful to recognize a rough outline of something that could pass for human.
There were other clues that it might be a real person, like the old, weathered hand that suddenly thrust itself down to her.
And the voice.
“Jez take me hand, matey. Jez take old ov me hand.”
Melissa recognized the accent instantly. She thought it odd that ZEEG REEED and the old man spoke with the same accent. Not only with the same accent, but in the exact same voice.
“Come on, ve haven’t got all day.”
Then it dawned on her. Maybe it wasn’t ZEEG REEED after all. Maybe it was the old man instead. Marveling at her incredible intelligence, she took hold of the wrinkled hand and pulled with all of her might.
“My, iv you ain’t zee heavy one,” he groaned.
She hung on as he pulled until she finally came up out of the water and collapsed on the rocky shore. She could hear the surf pounding the jagged rocks less than a hundred feet away.
Still gasping for breath, she turned over to face him.
“You came back!” she cried. “You came back for us!”
“Iz a long ztory. I’ll be happy to tell you, but giff me a hand vit your friendz virzt.”
Melissa scampered to her knees just in time to see Sean’s head appear out of the hole. He was squinting cautiously.
“It’s okay,” she shouted. “It’s the old man from the church. Here, take our hands and we’ll pull you out.”
Sean didn’t have to be asked twice. Melissa took one hand, and the old man took the other. With more than the usual amount of gruntings and groanings, they finally drug him out.
After a couple breaths, Sean rose to his feet. KC was the next to swim over to the hole. All three reached down and easily pulled her out.
After KC came Slobs, who was also easy (except for the thank-you licks she insisted on passing around to everybody).
Next came Bear.
Fortunately, with all four pulling (and Slobs barking in support), dragging him out wasn’t as hard as they’d feared. It wasn’t as easy, either. But what are a few broken backs and dislocated shoulders among friends?
“Zat iz all?” the old man asked, panting for breath.
“No,” Melissa said. “Spalding is still down there.”
The old man dropped to his knees. “I zee no Zpalding.”
“He’s down there,” Melissa insisted. She joined his side, then lowered her head into the hole. “He has to be. He—” And then she spotted him—way off to the side. “There he is! Spalding!” she shouted. “Hurry. Come on out!”
“I have located the treasure chest,” he called, barely able to keep his mouth above the water. “It was floating over by—”
“I don’t care,” Melissa interrupted. “Swim over to this opening and grab our hands so we can pull you out.”
“But the chest, it is stuck under—”
“Will you swim over here!” she demanded.
Spalding tried to swim, stretching one way, then the other, but he would not let go of the chest, and the chest would not move.
Sean dropped his head down beside Melissa’s. “What’s the problem?”
“The chest,” Spalding coughed. By now there were only a couple of inches of air and he was doing as much coughing and choking as he was breathing. “It is stuck.
“Let it go!” Sean shouted.
“Are you insane?” Spalding yelled. He coughed again, taking in more water.
“Spalding!” Melissa cried. “Let go of the chest!”
“Absolutely. . .” he coughed again, “not.” Now even his face was disappearing under the water.
“Spalding!” Sean shouted. “You’re going to drown. Let go of the chest?”
More coughing.
“Spalding!”
“He won’t let go!” Melissa cried. “He’s drowning.”
Sean dropped to his stomach and scooted farther into the hole. “Grab my feet,” he ordered.
“What?”
“Take hold of my feet—I’m going in after him.”
“Sean, don’t be—”
“Just take hold of my feet!”
Melissa threw a glance to the old man.
“Grab my feet!” Sean demanded. “He’s drowning!”
The old man nodded, and they both moved into action. They each took hold of one of Sean’s legs. After a deep breath of air and a warning—”Whatever you do, don’t let go”—Sean stuck his head into the water. It was followed by his shoulders, then his chest.
There was plenty of wiggling and squirming as he stretched for the boy, and it was all Melissa could do to hang on. “Please, God,” she whispered, “help me...”
It seemed Sean was down there forever until suddenly he started pulling back.
“He’z got ‘im!” the old man shouted. “Pull, matey. Pull like you’ve never pulled bevore!”
Melissa nodded and tugged hard at Sean’s legs. He seemed a lot heavier than before. She hoped it was because he had Spalding. At last Sean’s shoulders appeared, then his neck, and finally his head. He came out gagging and choking, but at least he was breathing.
“I’ve got him,” he coughed. “Keep pulling, I’ve got him.” They nodded and kept tugging until, at last, Spalding’s face came from the water. But unlike Sean, he wasn’t breathing. And he was blue.
They quickly drug him out and onto the rocky shore.
“Spalding, can you hear me?” KC shouted. “Spalding, can you hear me?”
There was no answer.
“Is he. . . ?” Bear swallowed. “Is he croaked?”
“Not yet,” the old man said. In one swift movement, he tilted back Spalding’s head and pinched his nose. Then he placed his mouth over the boy’s mouth and began forcing air into his lungs.
It only took two or three breaths before Spalding began coughing. The old man pulled away just as the kid coughed out a lungful of water. At last Spalding’s eyes fluttered open. He tried to speak, but no words would come.
“It’s okay,” Melissa said. “You’re okay.”
He kept trying to talk until Melissa finally leaned toward him. She expected to hear some words of thanks, some deep, gut-wrenching emotion. Instead, she heard the gasped question: “Did we . . . get the . . . treasure?”
“Misty, look out!”
Melissa turned to Sean. He was pointing to the newly dug hole. It was starting to crumble around the edges. First a little, then a lot.
“It iz caving in!” the old man shouted.
Melissa didn’t understand. “What?”
“Zee tunnel, zee cavern—it’z all caving in!” He grabbed KC and Bear, quickly pushing them forward. “Run!” he shouted. “Run vor your livez!”
Melissa looked back at the hole. The old man was right. What had been a two-foot wide opening was now six feet. . . make that ten . . . make that it was getting bigger by the second!
Quickly, she stooped down to Spalding, slipping her shoulder under his arm, t
rying to get him to his feet. “Sean,” she shouted, “give me a hand. We’ve got to get Spalding out of here.”
Sean joined her, grabbing Spalding’s other arm. And just in time. Suddenly the ground where Spalding had been lying gave way, splashing into the cavern below.
Melissa screamed. But it wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
A chunk of ground crumbled directly under her foot and fell away. She ran forward, dragging Spalding with her. “We’ve gotta get outta here!” she shouted. She turned to Spalding. “We’ve got to get you to solid ground!”
“But . . . the treasure . . .” Spalding protested.
“Forget the treasure!” Sean shouted from the other side. “Just move your feet! We’ve gotta get out of here!”
Directly in front of them, a huge piece of rocky shore fell away. It was at least twenty feet long and almost that wide as it crashed into the water with a thundering roar. “The other way!” Sean yelled. “We’ve got to go the other way!”
Melissa nodded and headed in the opposite direction, up the steep cliff. But suddenly the cliff itself began to shake. They leaped back just as tons of rock and dirt gave way, falling into the cavern below.
Melissa screamed.
Now they were cut off in the front and the back.
“Over there!” Sean pointed. “Over to the right.”
They veered to the right, still dragging Spalding with them. The ground shook so hard that they could barely stand. The air continued to thunder with crashing land and roaring water. Off in the distance, Melissa heard the others shouting and Slobs barking, but she was concentrating so hard on trying to stand that she paid little attention.
“LOOK OUT!” Sean cried as another crack appeared in front of them, then slipped into the churning water.
Melissa spun around, desperately searching. They were cut off! They stood on a small island of land less than ten feet wide. Everything else had fallen away.
Well, almost everything.
“There!” Melissa pointed. It was a tiny strip of land jutting out from them toward the newly formed cliff. It was about thirty feet long but no more than two, maybe three, feet wide. The water splashed and frothed on both sides, but the strip seemed to be holding. At least for now.
“Are you guys crazy?” Spalding yelled.
“Do you see any other way?” Melissa shouted.
“No, but—”
“Let’s go,” Sean ordered, “while we still can!”
By now Spalding was able to stand on his own. As they approached the narrow peninsula of land, the rest of the group moved to the other end, shouting and encouraging them forward.
“Hurry!” the old man called. “It’z going to cave in. Hurry!”
Sean turned to Melissa. “I’ll go first!”
She started to protest.
“If it gives way, you can race back,” he interrupted.
“But—”
Before she could argue with him, he started. She watched nervously as he inched his way across the narrow bridge of land. On both sides small amounts of dirt and rock continued to give way and fall into the raging water below, but for the most part it held.
Sean took a half-dozen steps before motioning them to follow. Spalding went next. Melissa gave him several feet leadway before she also stepped onto the tiny strip of land.
She was terrified, big time. The water kept splashing and roaring on both sides as the little land bridge kept eroding and growing more and more narrow. Melissa told herself there was nothing to fear, that it was no different than walking the neighbor’s fence. (Although the neighbor’s fence was only five feet high with a nice soft lawn to fall on, as opposed to a fifty-foot drop off onto sharp rocks and swirling water. Other than that, they were exactly the same.)
“Don’t look down!” Sean yelled. “Just keep looking up at the others.”
Melissa obeyed, keeping her eyes straight ahead. Slowly, the three made their way across the narrow peninsula, step by step, foot by foot.
At last Sean reached the cliff and was pulled onto the solid ground by the others.
Next it was Spalding’s turn.
Now there was only Melissa. She had less than a dozen feet to go. Just a dozen short feet and . . .
Suddenly something caught her eye. Off to the right and down in the water.
It was the treasure chest. Floating. It was slapped to and fro by the water, but it was definitely floating.
“Don’t look down!” Sean shouted. “Don’t look down.”
But it was too late. The height, the crashing water, the deadly rocks—they all took their toll. Suddenly Melissa was feeling very light-headed.
“Misty!”
She slowed to a stop, barely able to keep her balance, afraid to move.
“Don’t look down!” Sean cried.
But Melissa couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t take her eyes off the chest and the water and the rocks. She closed her eyes, trying to get her bearings. But when she reopened them, the chest was still there, along with everything else.
“Look at me!” Sean shouted. “Misty, look at me!”
She threw him a brief glance before looking back down again. More and more earth gave way beside her feet, but she couldn’t move. “Help . . . me . . .” she cried.
“Misty!” Sean shouted. “Misty, listen to me.”
Again she looked up.
“It’s just like Peter walking on the water,” he shouted. “Remember, in the Bible? When he kept his eyes on Jesus, he could do it, remember?”
Melissa gave a half nod and looked back down. There was the chest and the water and the—
“But when he looked down,” Sean continued, “when he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the wind and water, remember how he sank?”
Melissa nodded and glanced back up at him. Sean had taken a half step toward her, back out onto the narrow strip of land.
“It’s the same thing here,” he shouted. “Don’t look down. Don’t pay attention to the water or the rocks or that treasure. Just keep your eyes up here.” He stretched out his hand. “Just keep your eyes on me and start walking.”
Melissa swallowed and took a tentative step toward her brother.
“That a girl.”
And then another.
“You’re doing fine.” The others also started shouting encouragement.
But once again the temptation overwhelmed her. Once again the glittering chest caught her eye, and once again she had to look down.
“Misty, no!” Sean shouted. “Keep your eyes up here. Don’t look down. It’s just like Dad said: Keep your eyes on God. He’s the real treasure. It’s not down there—it’s up here. Keep your eyes fixed up here!”
Melissa continued staring at the chest.
“Misty . . . ”
And then she heard it. Felt it, really. The ground began to shake violently.
“Run!” Sean shouted. “Misty, run!”
She saw his face fill with terror. She threw a look over her shoulder and saw the reason. Directly behind her, the bridge was falling away.
“Hurry!” Sean shouted. “Hurry!”
She began walking, fighting to keep her balance amidst the shaking and rocking.
“Faster!” Sean yelled.
“I’m going as fast as I—”
“RUN!” he shouted. “MISTY, RUN!”
Now she felt the bridge giving way behind her—felt it slipping just behind her heels.
“RUN!”
She broke into a sprint, still unsteady. Maybe she’d reach her brother before she slipped, maybe she wouldn’t. It didn’t matter. Not now.
She was ten feet away. Then five. Three . . .
Suddenly the ground gave way under her left foot. She lost her balance. She started to fall.
“SEAN!”
She was falling backward. Tumbling, plunging into the raging waters and the crashing—
When suddenly she felt a hand grab hers. She looked up. Sean was leaning down over the cliff.
Bear and the old man were holding him as he stretched out, hanging on to her hand.
Melissa didn’t have the strength to hold on. But Sean did. He quickly pulled her up and onto the solid rock just as the last of the land bridge collapsed, pounding and thundering as it crashed into the sea below.
10
wrapping up
FRIDAY, 11:59 PST
Everyone lay out on the rocks, catching their breath. The ground had finished falling into the sea, and the ocean had pretty much stopped all of its spraying and splashing. Now everything was growing calm and peaceful.
It was hard to imagine. Just a few minutes earlier, there had been a beautiful rocky beach in front of them. Now the beach was gone and replaced by a jagged cliff over the ocean.
“I don’t get it,” Sean finally said as he turned to the old man. “How did you know where to find us?”
The old-timer shrugged. “Vhen I come back vor more ztuff, I zaw zee hole in zee church vloor. It vaz zhen I knew you had gone avter zee treazure.”
“And you knew we’d get stuck in that shaft?” Melissa asked.
“I knew it vould be high tide, and I knew you vould ztop at nozing until you vound my treazure.”
“Your treasure?” Spalding challenged.
“Of courze.” He looked sadly out onto the water where the chest had last been seen. “In zat chezt vehre all me clothez I’d been ztoring.”
“Clothes?” little KC croaked. “You mean, there were only clothes in that chest?”
“Of courze . . . clothez and me bookz.”
“Books?” Melissa asked in surprise.
The old man nodded. “Zey are me treazure, all zat I own.” He sighed sadly as he continued to look out over the ocean. “And now zay are gone . . . zay are all gone . . .”
“We risked our lives for a bunch of old clothes and some books?” Sean repeated in amazement.
The old-timer looked at him and nodded.
“But that chest,” Spalding interrupted. “It was solid gold.”
The old man shook his head. “It vas painted vood.”
“Wood?” Spalding cried.
“I am avraid zo.”
“But what about all those jewels on top?”
“Jez colored glazz I glued on.”