As the snake struggled to free itself from the muscled greens, Phoebe darted behind the tree.
The snake reared back its head, angry yellow eyes narrowing on me. I noticed a series of red veins within the constricting vine behind its weaving head. The veins webbed outward from the bite mark like a rapidly spreading virus.
I caught sight of Cody’s face and froze. His bloodshot eyes were rolling up.
“Phoebe?” I asked as the snake hissed, revealing intimidating fangs.
I half expected them to be dripping with poison. Thankfully, they weren’t.
Phoebe darted out from behind the tree, having circled it while the snake was distracted. She raised the stick and brought it down hard.
The impact made the snake spasm, but it didn’t kill it. Phoebe kept it pinned as it wriggled in sharp twists, struggling to get free.
Raising her foot in her crouched position, Phoebe stomped on the broad head. The sickening wet crack was our morbid trumpet of success.
One last wiggle shot through the slithering body before it went still.
Phoebe and I glanced reluctantly toward our unconscious friend. At least I hoped he was unconscious.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Cody wasn’t breathing anymore.
Please, don’t be dead, I thought, tugging at Cody’s weakening restraints.
Warmth swirled in my stomach, and I tried to keep it down. It was what Damien wanted, wasn’t it? When he made me emotional in the last Challenge, when he kissed me. It was all because of this.
I focused my attention on the vine. It flaked and bubbled like a sunburn and blushed around the snake’s puncture wound. It loosened at our tugs, emitting an unearthly groan that repeated up the length of the tree. The snake’s venom must have poisoned it like any other living thing.
Following my lead, Phoebe sank her nails into the vines and yanked. The green blood had turned orange against our fingers.
With frenzied persistence, we tore at the withering plant until we freed Cody’s upper body. He flopped forward, bowed, his legs still trapped.
I felt a sweeping hope when Phoebe dropped to her knees. “Catch him, Fuller.”
We freed his legs with four quick pulls, and then Cody’s body was unrestrained.
Cody was at least a head taller than me. His dead weight hit me harder than I was ready for. I fell to my knees, back arched and muscles strained, until Phoebe could help.
Together, we laid him on his back in the moss.
I had to give Phoebe credit for not freaking out, because I was. Cody’s lips were blue, and vessels in his eyes had popped, making him appear ghoulish. He couldn’t die like this. We were here.
Phoebe tilted his head back, reaching into his mouth to make sure his tongue wasn’t choking him. She did everything to the book, and in my state I focused on what she did to stop my own swell of hysteria.
He isn’t dead yet. He isn’t dead yet, I repeated, focusing on the mantra.
Phoebe plugged his nose and pressed her mouth to his. I watched his chest rise with her first breath and began to curl up, hugging my knees to my chest.
Chest compressions came next while Phoebe counted out loud. Cody’s body jolted with each chest compression, making me feel inutile and sick to my stomach. Neither of us could look away. I bit into my kneecap. The pain in my back wasn’t distracting enough.
He wasn’t moving or responding to her mouth to mouth.
Blinking back tears, I peeled my teeth from my knee and wiped away the saliva. “Do the chest compressions again,” I whispered.
She glared at me. “You want Cody with broken ribs?”
“You want him dead?” I accused, my voice rising.
“He’s dead already if he can’t run,” Phoebe snapped back.
Phoebe was back to mouth to mouth, and I refrained from asking her what I could do. I knew that if there was something, she’d tell me.
Instead, I reached for Cody’s wrist and felt for a pulse. I’d never checked another person before. It took me several tries to find the dull beat beneath my orange-stained fingertips.
Phoebe lifted her face to try chest compressions again, looking green, when we heard the painful gasp. His eyes wide and frightened, Cody took another breath, which wasn’t as harsh as the first.
Phoebe sat back on her legs, looking exhausted but relieved.
“Thank goodness,” I said, trying to get her to look at me, but she was entranced by Cody’s struggle for another noisy, wet breath.
Rolling onto his side, facing me but not looking at me, Cody wheezed, “Thanks.”
Phoebe swallowed. “You’re welcome, buddy.” She patted him on the back. Her hand made a sucking sound on his sweat-drenched shirt. A blue shirt that wasn’t the same as the one I’d seen him in last.
Wiping at my face, I felt the strained smile. Cody wasn’t dead. I looked to Phoebe, catching her eye, and mouthed, “Thank you.”
She winked at me, looking tired and pale.
Cody tried to sit up, but his arm went limp, and he grimaced.
“Did you break it?” I asked, remembering the crack.
He shook his head. “No, it’s just sore, hard to move.”
“Did you dislocate it?” Phoebe shuffled to his side and mechanically felt his shoulder with nimble fingers.
He shook his head again, but Phoebe wasn’t paying attention. “Nope,” she concluded. “Does this hurt?” She raised his arm, and he winced.
“I’m okay,” he assured her, though Phoebe wasn’t satisfied.
I was the first to stand on shaky legs. “How did you get out of the shadow, Cody?”
In the previous Challenge, Aidan had lost Cody to a shadow creature while I was busy puking my guts out in front of Damien.
Cody licked chapped lips and said, sounding like an old man, “I woke up here. Found a door but…locked.”
“We got it open,” Phoebe said, eyeing his shoulder.
Cody used his head to motion in the opposite direction. “There’s a meadow over there.” After shaking his head, he said, “I hate snakes.”
Phoebe and I helped him to his feet. Stumbling between us at first, he was able to catch his bearings, and he rotated his sore shoulder.
“Watch the ground,” Phoebe instructed as we made our way toward the door.
“And the trees,” Cody advised.
I looked up uneasily. Vines wrapped around all of them in the thick vegetation. I squeezed my shoulders in when I nearly brushed up against a tree.
I heard the hissing of snakes all around us, but they didn’t emerge from the dark underbrush.
The opened black door came into view at last, and Cody shuddered with relief. “Have you guys found Robin?”
Phoebe and I shook our heads at the same time.
Robin was Cody’s girlfriend. I was assuming, if my dreams were all true, that Phoebe lost Robin just like I’d lost her in the first Challenge.
Stepping through the door, I shut it with a firm tug and latched it back in place.
“At least we didn’t have to run through the door,” I said, trying to sound positive.
Phoebe nodded, somewhat distracted. Her yellow eyebrows furrowed before she asked, “Where’s your pet, Fuller?”
“She’s not here.”
I live for the obvious.
The tiger, which I’d assumed would be waiting for us, had vanished from the hallway. She hadn’t followed us in the Challenge either. I admit, I felt much better without her.
“Who isn’t here?” Cody followed my gaze.
Phoebe told him about the tiger.
Cody glanced at us both then twitched with a nod and croaked, “Where do we go now?”
“Back to the hotdog stand?” Phoebe started to crack her knuckles, a nervous habit dating back to our schoolyard days.
I nodded in agreement. It would be good to re-evaluate our situation. We could decide the next best Challenge to pick. There were obviously more doorways than people. That meant one or two Chal
lenges would end up being dead ends. We took turns supporting Cody half way through the S-turns before he felt confident enough to walk on his own.
“Why are you wearing pajamas?” he asked me. “Are those penguins?”
Phoebe chuckled under her breath.
We led the way up to the first sign with the picture of the snake and fat Jackal. Passing it, we started up the path, and I began questioning the hallway. I didn’t remember charred branches sticking out between the cages before. Above our heads, blackened trees arched and stretched bony fingers into an archway over the cages.
I opened my mouth to mention this when a loud BANG had us all jumping and huddling together instead.
The ground at my feet shuddered, sending vibrations into my knees.
Phoebe glanced at the sky, Cody searched the dusty path, and I looked up and down the pathway. Each of us was desperate to find what was happening.
“What was that?” Cody whispered gruffly, his eyes darting.
My voice shook as I said, “I think it might be the Freeze Tag Monster.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Phoebe cried out and grabbed Cody and me by the arms.
With a violent yank, we were propelled down the Jackal pathway.
We all ducked our heads, hiding among the palmettos that protruded between the cages. I suppose it was better cover than burnt wood.
We shoved the leaves aside as we dodged and spun around the vegetation that protruded between bars.
Phoebe must have seen something, because she stopped beneath the thickest overgrowth. Looking up, she shoved Cody and me to the side, hiding us beneath the leaves with her. Each of us tried to ease the noise of our breath as we followed Phoebe’s gaze up, squinting through any tiny gap.
Cody nudged me, and I looked back where we’d come to see a pair of large feet in the hallway. White, crisp hair covered most of the primate-like legs.
Ducking, I could see the beast just past a leaf.
It had inclined its head, listening. Its face, shoulders, and back were that of a gorilla. The eyes were a cloudy blue, so pale that they looked like cataracts as they swept from our hallway to the Snake path. The arms weren’t long like a primate’s but had hairless, bloodless hands tipped with blue fingertips and nails. Peeling back lips in a mute snarl, it revealed a row of very sharp teeth. It was tall. Tall enough to peer over the cages and see inside them on tippy-toes. These cages had to be at least twelve feet tall.
As it turned its broad body toward our hallway, I felt Cody stiffen behind me; his breath caught and held.
The monster raised its head high and sniffed the air, huge nostrils flaring as mist expelled and faded. In fact, there was an aura of cold air all over its body. It stepped forward, and its broad shoulders were forced to scrunch between the bars.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Oh please, don’t let it smell us. Please, please…
The thunderous steps forced me to open my eyes, and I prepared to bolt. The beast had shifted its weight towards the Snakes pathway.
I heard Cody release his breath at last, the hot air cascading down my back and giving me goosebumps.
Each step the monster took made the ground rumble.
“Come on,” Phoebe whispered and motioned for us to follow.
I hunched over and scurried behind them.
“I can’t believe it,” Cody whispered and glanced over his left shoulder at me.
“What?” I asked.
“That was the abominable snowman.”
Phoebe snorted. “That’s original. The abominable snowman is the Freeze Tag Monster.” Her distaste in Damien’s choice was obvious.
Phoebe was already several strides ahead of us.
Cody’s long legs could have easily kept up. I think he slowed down as a courtesy to me.
Of course I’d have to find the two athletes first. I hoped we wouldn’t have to run from anything; I’d be dead last.
“So are we heading towards the meadow?” Cody asked, sounding a little less gruff.
“Sure, we’ll check it out. Not much of a choice with the Bumble back there,” Phoebe said just as a black door came into view.
I straightened and watched as Phoebe opened a latch on the door.
I frowned. We had left our stick back in the snake’s cage. It could still be draped over the cottonmouth. I wish we had it now.
She swung the door inward and paused in the threshold, inspecting the new Challenge.
Just past her shoulder, I could make out a narrow path through spruce trees. I could see the clearing that Cody had mentioned at the end.
Centered in the meadow was a thick-trunked tree. I’d bet we could all stand around it, our arms outstretched, and never see each other’s hands.
Cody nudged me and motioned to Phoebe’s back. She was limping, not enough to spark major concern, but it was vaguely noticeable, as if she were trying to hide it.
Head lowered, Phoebe motioned to us while surveying the new area.
Following her in, I moved closer to ask her about her leg when she stopped and held up a hand for silence.
At the same time, I noticed the tree house nestled within the lush leaves of the central tree.
“Hello?” Phoebe called.
The silence of the zoo responded.
“Maybe no one is here,” Cody suggested, squinting at the partially hidden tree house.
“Well, we might as well find out,” Phoebe said.
Surrounding the clearing were rows of pine and spruce trees. They were so close together they blocked anything that might be watching.
Keeping to a tight formation, we moved into the clearing. I kept an eye behind, while Cody checked our sides. Phoebe took lead, as usual, and kept her attention on the tree ahead.
I was grateful for the bit of moonlight that peeked through the clouds. The shadows stretched and twitched, leaving me to distinguish between what was my imagination and what was real.
I hoped that the movement out of the corner of my eye was my imagination.
“Crap,” I heard Phoebe whisper, prompting us all to turn our heads to the tree.
The tree house was as standard as they came.
It had four grey walls, a flat plywood roof, and off of the front was a narrow deck. A crude railing made of decaying wood circled the open porch, hammered together crookedly.
At the edge, I could see a roll of ropes tied together in what appeared to be a rope ladder. Considering there were no footholds to even jump to the lowest branch, I wondered how it got up there.
The part that made Phoebe point was what was beside the bundled ladder.
A leg in jeans and a sneaker dangled over the side between the railings.
I tried to hop onto my tippy toes, but the body was too far from the edge to see who it could be.
Phoebe took several quick steps before whispering back, “I think it’s Read.”
Before either of us could respond, Phoebe bolted for the tree in a dead run.
I started to shout a protest when Cody shot after her.
With one final glance around us, I took off in a sprint to join them. What if it was a trap?
Cody easily caught up to her and grabbed her arm.
When we reached the tree, we all took deep breaths and stared at the branches and the hovering sneaker. It could be Read’s shoe. I realized I never really looked at Read’s shoes, or Aidan’s for that matter. What if it was Aidan’s? I felt my back stiffen at the thought.
“Give me a boost,” Phoebe suggested.
Cody glanced at me and shrugged before reaching down and grabbing Phoebe around the knees. “Shouldn’t we lift Nora up?” he asked after a quick assessment of the weight he was about to lift.
Cody Lewis was one of the best college basketball players. He was lanky and lean but not much of a beefcake. I, being shorter, seemed to translate into “lighter.” To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t know. Phoebe was rail thin, lean, and taller than me.
Phoebe opened her mouth, her face twi
sted in what promised to be a sarcastic comeback, when a deep growl caused her to hesitate.
My eyes trailed to the earth on the other side of the tree. Maybe fifteen feet away from us was a large cavernous hole in the ground. A mound of dirt as high as my knee was beside it. Within the darkness of the hole, two yellow eyes reflected the dim moonlight. I hadn’t noticed the hole when we were running; it was half hidden behind the tree.
“Lift her up,” I hissed through my teeth, refraining from kicking Cody in the ankle.
“Maybe if we don’t move, it won’t see us,” Cody grumbled.
Phoebe rolled her eyes. “This isn’t Jurassic Park, dumbass. Lift me and I’ll drop down the ladder.”
The dog creature jerked halfway out of the hole, teeth bared. It was pitch black, and gold trimmed the ears that were taller than its snout and around its eyes.
Lips peeled back, revealing a malevolent grin and a set of sharp teeth, and the thin, rat-like tail knocked the dirt back and forth.
“Jackals dig?” I asked.
“How should I know?” Phoebe asked.
Without warning, Cody lifted Phoebe at a staggeringly fast pace. Surprisingly, Phoebe didn’t lose her balance.
With her arms ready, Phoebe grabbed the lowest branch as if she’d done this a hundred times before. She kicked herself free of Cody’s grip, luckily without jabbing him in the face.
He backed away, falling in beside me.
The jackal emitted a low-pitched rumble. The primal sound rippled fear up my spine.
Cody and I took a step back together.
“Nora, I don’t think she’ll get the ladder down in time,” Cody said in a soft voice.
I glanced up to see Phoebe still struggling up onto the branch. She was far from the tree house. She wouldn’t be up there for at least a few more minutes.
And this dog-like creature didn’t appear willing to give us more than a few seconds.
The jackal’s long, talon-like nails, which were also golden, dug into the earth just before launching into the air.
Cody and I shouted gibberish warnings and spun on our heels.
Legs pumping, I tried to keep up with Cody. He was kind enough not to leave me too far behind, but the fact remained: I was behind.
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