Leather straps bound his wrists and ankles and crossed his chest. He was wearing a light-colored shirt and what looked to be jeans, tattered and dusty.
Chelsea’s mouth worked, but no more sound would come out. Then she heard a noise from behind her and whirled around again.
A beady-eyed rat was perched on the shrouded man’s soaked chest. Its red eyes gleamed in the moonlight, and when it saw Chelsea, it rose up on its hind legs and squeaked as the rain fell down on it. Then it skittered onto the man’s face.
The man still didn’t move.
“Shoo! Shoo!” Chelsea hissed at it, scrambling toward it and waving her right arm. “Get off him!”
The rat squeaked again. Then it dropped off the man and onto the ground, which was covered with old newspapers, dusty fast-food cartons, and animal droppings. A soda can rolled when the rat knocked it.
The creature stopped, sat up again, and stared right at her. It squeaked.
It scurried straight for her.
Whimpering, Chelsea crawled backward again. She ran into the man strapped into the chair, only this time she connected with his leg. It gave way.
With a strangled cry, she grabbed a wad of dripping newspaper and threw it at the rat.
It squeaked, turned tail, and darted into the shadows.
Then a horrible electrical buzzing shattered the air. The wires attached to the man on the table began to jerk and dance.
The man in the chair jerked, too, his arms and legs vibrating wildly as the noise grew louder. It was horrible, like power lines snapping, zinging, and crackling. He vibrated harder. The noise got louder still, piercing Chelsea’s eardrums.
A jag of lightning shot across the hole in the ceiling.
The eyes of the man in the chair burst open.
And the figure on the table sat up.
chapter THIRTEEN
“No!” croaked as she, Tori, and Gaby ran into another dead end.
They no idea where they were. When the rain had started coming down, they’d turned right around hinking they were headed back to the campsite. But somewhere along the line they’d made a huge mistake, and now they kept running into little inlets surfaced with rock. It was like being in a fun house, without the fun.
“Belle! Chelsea!” Gaby yelled. She stomped her foot, sending mud flying upward onto her shins. She didn’t care. Getting muddy was the least of their problems.
“One, two, three,” Tori said.
“Belle! Chelsea!” they squealed. “Clarissa!”
“We’re too hoarse,” Gaby said. “The rain’s too loud.”
“What are we going to do?” Valerie asked. Her teeth were chattering. “I’m freezing.”
“We all are.” Tori pushed her locks of hair out of her face. “Let’s keep going.”
“Going? Where? Where is it that we’re going?” Gaby demanded. “We’re just getting more and more lost!”
“What do you suggest?” Valerie asked, getting in Gaby’s face. “That we stand here all night until we catch pneumonia?”
“Yes! No!” Gaby fought back tears. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do!”
“I say we keep going,” Valerie insisted. “Maybe we’ll find a cave or something.”
“I can’t believe this.” Tori shined her flashlight into the raindrops. “I hate this.”
“You’re not alone.” Valerie gave Tori a quick hug. Then she hesitated, and gave Gaby one, too.
“Oh, look,” Gaby muttered. “We’re bonding.”
But the truth was, she really needed that hug. So after she held herself stiffly for a moment, she hugged Valerie back. Then Tori.
“Wow, we are bonding,” Valerie said.
The three smiled weakly.
“Let’s keep going,” Gaby said. She aimed her flashlight into the blackness. A jag of lightning revealed a space between two thick pines.
“In there,” she suggested. “Maybe the trees can keep the rain off.”
“Maybe,” Tori said, showing them her crossed fingers.
They headed for the trees.
“Bail faster!” Brynn whispered through the stinging rain, lightning, and thunder, as Candace, Priya, and Alyssa made cups out of their hands and tried to get rid of the water that was filling up the boat. A hole in the bottom, rainwater on the top, plus the combined weight of the four of them . . . it was just too much for the boat to handle.
Plus, they were freezing. Seriously.
They kept yelling for Alex, but the rain made a terrible racket against the surface of the lake. As patches of fog wafted past them, Brynn squinted through the white billows, searching with her flashlight for Alex, or even better, for land. Clouds covered the moon, and she didn’t see any lights anywhere. Maybe no one lived around here. What about other campers? Were they truly up here all alone, except for the ice-cream guy?
Despite being seated so deep in the icy water, their boat rushed along—or so it felt—like the inner tubes at WetWorld, where they had gone on a camp-sponsored field trip two summers before. That had been their first experience with Gaby, who had intimidated Grace into cutting in line and disobeying their chaperones. No one had liked her. Now Brynn found herself hoping that Gaby was all right—safe, warm, and out of this rain. She hoped that for everyone, including Chelsea.
“Why are we moving so fast?” Candace asked. “We don’t have lakes like this back home.”
“Maybe we’re going toward some kind of runoff place,” Alyssa said.
“Oh. Freaky,” Candace replied.
They grew silent. Kneeling, Brynn was up to her thighs in water.
“Guys, listen,” Brynn said. “The boat is overloaded. It’s in danger of sinking. We have to lighten the load.”
“But there’s nothing in the boat we can get rid of,” Priya said. “I mean, we could probably pull the little bench seat off and toss it, but it doesn’t weigh much.”
“Right,” Brynn said. She was quiet for a few beats.
“Oh,” Candace said.
Brynn waited a couple more seconds to see if the other two would figure out what she was trying to say. But no one said anything. She was going to have to.
“We have two life vests,” she began. “We should pick our two strongest swimmers and they can hold onto the boat while the other two try to keep it bailed out.”
“Hold onto . . . you mean, get out of the boat and swim?” Alyssa asked.
“You can’t be serious,” Priya insisted, her voice shaky and uncertain. “Alex!” she started yelling, straining her voice. “We need you now! Show us where you are!”
“Show us where we are!” Alyssa cried.
“I am serious,” Brynn said as the others sighed and slumped dejectedly back into the boat. “I wish I had a better idea, but if you do, please tell us what it is. So far, this makes the most sense. Whoever swims can hold onto the side of the boat. Someone in the boat could hold onto her wrists to make sure she doesn’t lose her grip.”
“But it’s so cold in the lake. And what if one of the swimmers does let go of the boat? Or the person in the boat lets go?” Priya asked. “If we drift into another thick patch of fog, we might not be able to find her and rescue her.”
“And she might go down and drown in Shadow Lake,” Candace murmured.
“Not with a life vest on,” Alyssa said. “They’ll keep the swimmers afloat.”
“Oh no,” Candace whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Brynn said earnestly. “I can’t think of anything else to do. If no one wants to volunteer, we can do something like pick numbers, or do rock, paper, scissors . . .”
“I’ll go,” Alyssa volunteered. “I’m a very good swimmer.”
“Me too,” Candace said.
Dear, sweet Candace. Brynn actually smiled.
“No offense,” Brynn said to Candace, “I would call you a very good swimmer.” She licked her lips and raised her chin. “But I’m a better swimmer.”
“I . . .” Candace hugged herself. “You’re an excell
ent swimmer, Brynn. But I’m scared. I don’t want to do this, and I don’t want you to do this.”
“I don’t like this, either,” Priya said. “I’m a good swimmer, too. But this is dangerous.”
“Well, I’m not concerned about that right now. Candace, please, give me your life jacket,” Brynn insisted.
Brynn heard the rrrip of Velcro as Candace took off her life jacket. Alyssa was already wearing the other one.
As Brynn slid on the jacket and began to buckle it across her chest, her heart hammered and her hands shook. She tried hard not to think about the ghost story Tori had told them. What kind of things bobbed beneath the surface of the vast, dark lake?
She hadn’t shared the story Sarah had told her about the school bus. The story said that one winter, a school bus filled with children had veered off the highway and plummeted into the waters of Lake Michigan. It plunged to the icy bottom of the lake, where it was so cold that the bodies froze . . . and to that day, the bus sat on the bottom . . . except for when the lake waters churned . . . and then it bobbed to the surface, where water skiers and boaters saw the terrified, blue faces before the bus sank again.
“We should sit on the sides and fall backward at the same time,” Alyssa said.
“No way,” Brynn argued. “I want someone holding onto us at all times.”
“Brynn,” Alyssa began, “there’s no other way to get out quickly. And if we don’t get out quickly, we can sink the boat. We’re both good swimmers. We can do this.”
“No, wait,” Candace said. She took a breath and wrapped her hand around Brynn’s fingers. “Please, don’t do it. I’m so scared.”
“It’ll be okay,” Brynn said, giving her a squeeze, but she felt like a total liar. She had no idea if it would be okay. For all she knew, either she or Alyssa could hit their heads on a rock or something floating by, get knocked out, and drown.
It happens. People die, she thought. Then other people make up ghost stories about them.
She let go of Candace’s hand.
“Okay, Alyssa, let’s do it.”
They sat on opposite sides of the boat, facing each other. Brynn was grateful for the break in the fog. She wasn’t sure she would have the nerve to do this if she couldn’t see anything.
“Okay, on my count,” Alyssa said. “One, two, three!”
Brynn fell backward into the water.
It was so cold it took her breath away. For one panicky moment she thought she was going to shoot straight to the bottom, but the buoyant life jacket did its job. She bobbed upright and shot both her hands toward Candace, who grabbed them and wrapped them around the side of the boat.
“Alyssa, are you okay?” Brynn shouted.
“I’m good,” Alyssa said on the other side of the boat.
“I’ve got her,” Priya announced.
“It’s actually kind of refreshing,” Alyssa added, her teeth chattering crazily. “It’s so darn hot tonight.”
Brynn smiled with semi-numb lips. “You know, you’re right.”
She pulled herself up to peer into the boat. She couldn’t see the water level, but she knew it was still too high.
“Okay, guys, keep bailing,” she said. As her legs dangled in the water, she formulated a quick plan in the event that the boat filled up with too much water to stay afloat—she would give Candace back the life jacket, and Candace and Priya would also get out. Then the four of them would flip the boat over. The hull would float, and all four of them could hang onto it.
“Wow, I can really feel the boat moving,” Alyssa said. “We’re definitely going somewhere.”
Alyssa was right. That gave Brynn pause. She wasn’t much of a nature person, but she figured that if the lake waters were flowing toward a point . . .
It could be a point like a waterfall. Her stomach did a flip.
Or it could be some kind of runoff drain, she thought, with a big grate that will hold us back. That would be a good thing.
Oh, please, please, let it be a grate.
Then something bumped against her ankle. She cried out and kicked her legs.
“What’s wrong?” Candace cried, holding onto her hands more tightly.
It bumped against her again. “Something’s touching me!” she shouted.
“Oh, God,” Candace moaned. “Get back in the boat!”
“It could be a fish,” Alyssa said. “There’re fish in lakes.”
“Right,” Brynn said. But her eyes were welling with tears because she was so frightened. She wondered if there were eels in lakes, too. She thought about the Lake Michigan school bus and imagined one of the passengers reaching a cold hand through an open window, trying to get out of the bus . . . or pull her into it.
Stop it, she admonished herself. Pull yourself together. This is just a lake.
Something nudged her other ankle.
She screamed.
Alex was feeling more lightheaded and disoriented as she and Jeremiah rowed through the storm. The boat bounced on choppy waves, adding to her nausea.
I need some sugar, she thought.
“You’re slowing down,” Jeremiah said.
“Do you have anything to eat?” she asked him. “Something sweet?”
“Man, I wish,” he said. “I’m hungry. We have some sandwiches in the truck.”
She closed her eyes and thought about the insulin kit back in her tent. She wished she had thought to grab it. She wished she’d given herself an injection earlier in the evening, when Chelsea thought she had.
As a bolt of lightning jagged overhead, he turned his head and looked hard at her. “Are you okay?”
She began to nod, and then she shook her head. “I’m a diabetic,” she said. “If something . . . happens . . .” She swallowed. She had to be clear with him. “If I happen to faint—”
“Oh, man,” he said, sounding frightened.
“Listen to me,” she said.
They both stopped rowing and he hung over his oar, giving her his full attention.
“If I faint, get me something sweet as soon as possible. A candy bar, a soda, anything. Okay? After we . . . don’t go over the waterfall?”
“Oh, God,” he said.
She looked at him hard. “You have to promise, Jeremiah. Will you try your best?”
Her look must have steadied him. He took a deep breath.
“Okay. I will. If you faint.” He frowned. “You’re not saying this to get back at me, are you? For scaring you guys?”
“I would never joke about something like diabetes,” she said. But some people would. She thought of Chelsea.
I wonder where she went. I wonder what she’s doing right now.
Despite her hurt feelings, Alex really did care.
“All this happened because of Chelsea. She’s that girl who left first. People started leaving to go find her. Did you guys see her?”
“No,” he said. “We were already gone. To get the . . . chain saw.” He exhaled. “We’re stupid,” he said. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
“No argument here.”
They rowed for a bit, and then he let his oar trail in the water. “Hey, shine your flashlight to the right.”
She had the flashlight in her lap. She did as he asked, looking where he was looking, but seeing nothing.
“Do it again.”
She did, squinting into the rain. If they’d been in a car, she would have told him to pull over until the rain stopped. Then it occurred to her that they might ram the other boat without realizing it.
Great. Something else to worry about.
Just then, she saw a faint yellow beam through the rain!
“You guys!” she cried. Waving her left arm, she steadied herself and half-rose.
“Stay down!” Jeremiah shouted.
So she sat down again and waved both hands. “Priya! Lyss! Candace! Brynn!” she yelled.
She heard them yelling and cheering. She waved her flashlight back and forth, back and forth, screaming as loudly as she could.
<
br /> In the foggy darkness, they did the same.
“Yes!” she shrieked. “We’re coming!”
“Keep the flashlight steady,” he urged her. “We don’t want to lose them in the water.”
Another zigzag of lightning lit up the sky like fireworks, and she saw his huge grin.
But a wave of dizziness hit her hard, and her fingers loosened from around the black cylinder.
And with a plop, the flashlight fell into the lake.
Gaby ducked beneath a tree limb cracked lengthwise, which was spouting water like a rain gutter. She grabbed Valerie’s arm. “Look,” she said, pointing dead ahead.
Valerie stumbled beside her. Tori pulled up short.
All three of them stood frozen in the downpour. Then they backtracked into the bushes, peering around the branches at the black wide-body truck that sat silent and unmoving in the rain. It was facing away from the three girls.
“It’s got to belong to whoever was chasing us in the woods,” Tori said into Valerie’s ear. In turn, Valerie repeated what Tori had said to Gaby, as if they were playing “Operator.”
Gaby nodded. Valerie put her arms around herself, shivering, wondering what they should do. The truck lights were out. The doors were shut. Maybe the bad guy was in there, watching them in their rearview mirror. Maybe he was going to jump out at any second and chase them some more.
“Well, the good news is, I don’t think Cropsy had a truck,” Valerie said, trying to make a joke.
Gaby grunted. “That’s not funny.”
They watched for another minute or two. It seemed like forever to Valerie as they huddled together in the rain. It was hard to believe that only this afternoon she had been too hot, and her biggest problem was that she’d been worried she’d have to sleep with Chelsea or Gaby when they drew lots for tents.
Between rolls of thunder, something crashed in the woods behind them. Valerie stiffened. The others girls heard it, too. Gaby jerked and Valerie caught her breath.
“We should stay out of sight until we know what that is,” Valerie said.
Hide and Shriek #14 Page 14