by Laura Dower
A sign like that only made me want to touch everything, of course.
“Walter!” Stella called up a flight of stairs.
No answer.
I moved into the round room and searched for the panel that released the secret slide down to the screening room. But nothing seemed to work.
We wouldn’t be getting to the screening room via a slippery slide today. Instead, we hunted for a staircase to the basement level.
Once we actually got downstairs, it took Lindsey only a moment to find the door that readSCREENING . A door next to it read . We decided to head into the vault first to get the movies we needed to see.
I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but it wasn’t what we found. The vault was a black room with no windows. None! Shelves overflowed with reels and videos. DVDs lined the walls. I thought I knew Leery’s movie collection, but there was so much here that I’d never even heard of or read about. Plus, this room had not been touched in a very long time. Everything was a dusty, grimy mess and nothing was alphabetical. We couldn’t really tell if the tapes or reels were copies or real. I assumed Leery would have destroyed originals a long time ago.
I walked over to what should have been the Slimo section and saw three movies there that started with the letter S: Snake Boy, Saved by the Beast, and Son of Slimo. Luckily, it didn’t take too long to find two other Slimo flicks we needed: Slimo and Curse of Slimo were buried in another pile across the room.
We carried Slimo and its two sequels into the screening room.
“Here goes nothing,” I said. Stella hit on the projection machine.
As drops of slime appeared at the edges of the screen, I could practically smell the goo.
CHAPTER 13
CURSES ! SLIMO AGAIN!
The B-Monster Vision used to film Slimo gives it one of the best special-effects scenes in all of Leery’s movies. Just when you think the monster has drowned or disappeared, it rises from the swamp, ready to attack.
The ending with the exploding gas bubble gets me every time. I’ve never watched another movie where I felt like the screen was splurting at me. I love the fact that Slimo escapes without being destroyed in the first movie. That way, we still don’t know what—if anything—is capable of killing the goo.
I took out a pencil and my small notebook, like all the best detectives do. If I was going to be a Monster Squad member, I needed to get serious about asking all the right questions.
Where does Slimo come from? Don’t know.
Who does Slimo eat? Anyone and everyone—except for shoes.
Does Slimo really die in the first movie? No!!!
We popped in Slimo’s first sequel and waited for it to start.
In Curse of Slimo, the B-Monster shows up just before a cruise ship leaves port.
The action starts with a group of guests on a cruise ship. They are eating breakfast. Everything is perfect: the sun, the water, and the sky. Then breakfast arrives in oversize serving trays. Only it isn’t breakfast at all. It is Slimo, disguised as breakfast! It oozes all over the rooms, swallowing cruise passengers (and whatever else it could eat, like pool chairs, inflatable rafts, and shuffleboard sticks) in great big gross gulps. Of course, it leaves a lot of sandals and flip-flops and a foul, foul stench behind in the process.
Damon loved this sequel the best. He was laughing so hard the whole time, I thought he was going to explode. Every time Slimo gulped down another object, Damon burped like a foghorn. At the end of the movie, it looks like Slimo drowns when it falls off the cruise ship during a bad lightning storm. Damon almost fell out of his chair.
Stella, of course, wasn’t laughing one bit. She wanted to debate about how and why the slime dies—or if it dies at all in the sequel. After all, it hadn’t died in the first flick. We couldn’t agree. Lindsey thought it swam away. Damon and Stella both thought a deep-sea creature swallowed it. Maybe it just drowned?
If we didn’t know for sure how Slimo died in the movies, how could we ever really figure out how to get rid of the monster?
I had to keep taking notes! There were answers here, on-screen. I just had to look closer.
The next sequel was called Son of Slimo. As that reel started up, heavy, dark music played in the background. This Slimo leaves trails of sludge everywhere like an enormous snail, even though it is the dead of winter.
In one of the scenes, Stella spotted a waitress at a restaurant scene. Was that Auntie San San? Walter had told us that Sandy appeared in almost every single B-Monster movie. We had to keep our eyes open!
By the end of the movie, after ingesting a dozen woodland creatures and the town sheriff, the winter slime crawls onto a major highway during a major blizzard. It travels slowly for miles on the road until it finally just collapses. Or does it freeze? Or does it stop breathing?
“It’s not dead!” Damon yelled as the movie ended. “Oswald Leery is tricking us!”
“Wait, I think he’s just giving us clues,” Stella declared. “In every movie we’ve watched, water is always around when the B-Monster gets destroyed. Maybe that’s the answer to all our questions.”
Was Stella right?
Slimo vanishes in water in the first movie. Then, in the first sequel, the ocean gets him again! But what about the last movie? In Son of Slimo, was it the blizzard—the snow—that kills the B-Monster? Snow is just frozen water, after all.
“You’re probably right about the water,” I said to Stella. “Except for the fact that if water kills the B-Monster, then how did it survive in our kitchen and bathroom sinks?”
Stella shrugged. “Oh, good point. This is so hard to figure out!”
“Maybe something is in the water,” Lindsey said. “Like flesh-eating microorganisms.”
“Are you kidding?” Damon said, making a face. “That’s disgusting.”
“No more disgusting than you,” Stella said.
“You guys!” I cried. “We have to figure this out together.”
All of a sudden, the lights went up in the projection room. I squinted at the light.
“Hello, Monster Squad,” Walter said with his ominous voice.
I worried that he might be angry with us. After all, we’d come into the castle unannounced.
But he wasn’t angry. He wanted to help.
“Found anything out about the real Slimo?” Walter asked.
Stella flipped her long black hair and sighed. “No, we’re stuck. How does Slimo really die?”
“We know it has something to do with water,” I explained. “But we don’t know why.”
“Isn’t there something else you can tell us?” Lindsey asked.
“Perhaps,” said Walter. “Perhaps there is something in the water that helps to destroy Slimo?”
“That’s what I was thinking!” Damon cried.
I glared at Damon. He was taking credit for Lindsey’s good idea.
“Okay, you guys, it’s getting late,” Stella said, looking annoyed. “I have to go home now and do my real homework. Sorry.”
“How can you think about homework at a slime like this?” Lindsey cracked.
We all groaned loudly. Stella made a face.
“Have you visited some of the places where you saw the slime?” Walter asked. “Maybe that will help. That’s what Dr. Leery always does.”
“You’re right!” Stella’s face lit up again. “We can check out Mr. Bunsen’s classroom tomorrow!”
“Good idea,” Lindsey said.
“How are we ever going to get into school?” I asked. “Tomorrow is Saturday.”
“I know a way in!” Damon said.
“You do?” I said.
“I’m not a member of the Monster Squad for nothing!” Damon said.
I smiled. We really were all in this together now! In order to get Slimo, all we had to do was get back to the scenes of the slime.
CHAPTER 14
WELCOME TO MOLDY CITY
Damon may be the fifth grade’s most annoying bully, but he is also a total
genius.
We sneaked into school the next day, Saturday, through the downstairs double doors. The basketball team played there on Saturday, but Damon figured that even though most basketball players and fans would not use the lower level, the doors would still be open.
He was right.
Damon also figured that Security Guard Spiker might be at the school building.
He was right about that, too.
But Spiker didn’t keep us out. He said, “Howdy kids. Enjoy the game.”
I think he knew we weren’t there to play ball, but he let us in just the same.
When we sneaked up the stairwell to the third floor, however, we started to get nervous. The school was super-creepy when classes were out of session.
Mr. Bunsen’s class was still blocked off with yellow police tape. We had to climb underneath to get inside the doorway.
The first thing that we noticed was the smell.
Everywhere we looked, it reeked, worse than ever.
“Maybe Slimo is already dead?” Lindsey suggested. “That would make life easier, wouldn’t it?”
“Right,” Damon said. “Like this going to be easy? I don’t think so.”
“Do you think this first Monster Squad mission is some kind of test?” Stella asked as she walked to the other side of the room.
“I feel like everything in life is a test,” I mumbled. “And I’m this close to failing.”
“Peeuuuw! All the leftover goop in here smells so bad,” Lindsey said, fanning her nose. “I think I might—”
“Don’t say it!” Damon cried. He pinched his nose hard and went into Mr. Bunsen’s science closet. This place was usually off-limits. It was where Mr. Bunsen stored jars and specimens. He had a long shelf stacked with videocassettes and piles of papers, plus a slop sink and a refrigerator.
Lindsey and I followed Damon into the closet. Stella was still across the room.
“Hey, the fridge in here is open!” Damon cried as we turned the corner and saw the light glowing.
“And I guess we’ve found the source of the bad smell,” I moaned, pinching my nose.
We spotted the problem right away. It wasn’t slime, though. It was moldy cheese. There were dishes turning black, blue, and green with fuzz.
“How gross is this?” Lindsey said. “Welcome to Moldy City!”
“Is there anything grosser than old cheese?” Damon said.
“You mean besides your breath?” I joked.
“I’ll pound you later for that,” Damon groaned.
“Wait!” Lindsey said, peering deeper into the fridge. “Look!”
In the back, way in the back, was a row of test-tube vials in a small stand. Inside the vials was something green. It appeared to be glowing.
Slimo!
“Get one of those out.”
Lindsey reached in and got it.
“Cool,” Damon said. “This doesn’t jiggle like the slime I saw in my bathroom.”
“Let me see,” I said, reaching for one of the vials. Damon was right. It didn’t seem gooey at all. “But it has to be the same stuff,” I said.
“So Mr. Bunsen can see Slimo, too . . .” Lindsey said.
“Just like we can,” Damon added.
“What if one of these broke or fell and the slime poured out?” I suggested.
“Massive slimage!” Damon said.
Sluuuuurp.
We all turned our heads. It was coming from the classroom!
“Help!” Stella screamed.
We rushed out. Stella was standing on top of Mr. Bunsen’s desk. On the floor, all around her was a green slime pool, quivering.
“Heeeelllp!” she cried again. She had assumed her best karate pose, but we already knew even the strongest kung-fu chop could not defeat this goo.
I panicked.
Without thinking, I started hurling things at the slime. First, I threw a vial from the fridge (because it happened to be in my hand). Then I reached for a binder from the classroom bookshelf. Damon started throwing, too. He pelted the slime with a few books. Lindsey joined in.
“What are you guys doing?” Stella screeched. “The slime is getting ready to eat me—not read to me!”
“If we feed it other stuff, maybe it’ll be less hungry for you,” Damon said.
Stella howled. The slime stretched up all the way to the ceiling, arching over her like a tidal wave of goo. It looked ready to swallow her in one hungry gulp! I could see hollow holes where its eyes belonged. It had teeth and arms!
Stella was in big trouble.
If she had been the main character in one of Oswald Leery’s movies, this would have been the part where I yelled out, “Oh, nooooo! She’s a goner!”
But I didn’t yell that. This was Stella Min and she wasn’t a goner. She was tougher than any of us! I had to help her.
I leaped onto another lab table and waved my arms around, trying to distract the slime. At first I wasn’t sure the enormous blob could even see me. But slowly, it began to slime in a different direction, toward me.
“Damon! Lindsey! Help me! We can convince the slime to go in an opposite direction, like out the window,” I said.
“Out the window?” Stella yelled at me. “So Slimo can destroy the rest of Riddle? That’s exactly what Dr. Leery wants us to stop it from doing, Jesse! Bad idea!”
“Ooops,” I gulped. “So what am I supposed to do?”
Damon let out a yelp. He was caught in the slime’s grip. One long Slimo arm had wrapped itself around Damon’s ankle . . .
Sluuuuurp.
“Noooo!” Damon wailed. Within five seconds, he was half-covered in the stuff. “My legs!”
Sluuuuurp.
“What are we supposed to do now?” I shrieked. My thoughts raced. Damon was the meanest bully in the entire school and something seemed so right about him getting swallowed by a B-Monster, but I had to stop it.
“Lindsey!” I cried.
“Water!” she yelled, rushing back over to me. She had a pail in her hands. It was filled to the brim.
“Yes!” I cried as she raised it up.
Before she let go, however, I heard a sucking noise like the world’s loudest straw slurp.
“Nooooo!” Stella cried.
But I couldn’t see her.
“Oh, no!” Damon cried out. “Nooooo!”
We glanced over to Mr. Bunsen’s desk, just in time to see the top of Stella’s head disappear under a blanket of slime. She was gone—except for her pair of black shoes.
Damon looked ready to cry. His face went white. He was next.
Lindsey lifted the pail into the air. “Here goes nothing!” she cried, tossing the water over our heads.
“Sayonara, Slimo!” I screamed.
And we held our breath, waiting to see what would happen next.
CHAPTER 15
THWUNK
I expected some kind of brilliant flash of light. Or a loud sucking noise. Anything that would show me the slime was on its way out.
Instead, the slime quivered and moved forward. It was even stronger than before!
“Oh, no! It’s not working!” Damon yelled. “Ranger, I’m gonna get you for—”
Before he could finish his thought, the slime gulped him down whole.
I looked away. Things were not working out like we’d hoped. We were down to half a Monster Squad.
In the past two minutes, Slimo had gotten stronger.
My mind raced. Time was running out. If Lindsey and I got swallowed up, then there would be no one left to fight the B-Monster.
I tried to remember the Slimo movie facts.
“Jesse!” Lindsey said. “The slime is on my shoe now. Hurry!”
Slimo had twisted a tendril of slime up Lindsey’s leg. It would come after me next.
I had to think faster.
In the first movie, Slimo slips away unharmed. But in the second movie, Slimo dies. He sinks into the water. But what is special about that water? Fish? Seaweed? Wait! It was the ocean. It
was salt water. Salt? In the third movie, he was killed on a highway covered with snow. But what else was on the road? Wait! Salt! Road salt!
“I think I know what to do!” I blurted. “I just hope we have time—”
I darted back into the science closet, leaping over puddles of the green goo and sidestepping those long arms of slime that were trying so hard to grab me. This was trickier than the fifth-grade obstacle course! I’d never seen so much hungry slime in my whole life.
“Yes!” I said when I saw what I was looking for. I grabbed a huge canister from a shelf and raced back into the classroom. “Okay, Slimo! Get ready to DIE—for real!”
Thwunk.
I fell and skidded across the floor. Running into the classroom, I’d tripped on my own shoelaces—again. The canister in my hand opened up and released white dust all over everything.
Lindsey looked horrified. “What is that?” she asked.
I gasped as slowly, on contact, the slime slid off her legs and then her torso. It started to shrivel. My solution was working! Lindsey was free!
“Jesse!” Lindsey cried. “How did you do that?”
The canister was next to me on the floor. I held it up. On the side was one word:
“You figured it out,” I told Lindsey. “You were right when you said the answer was probably something inside the water.”
There had been salt in the ocean water in Slimo
and Curse of Slimo. And there was road salt during
the blizzard in Son of Slimo.
“Thanks,” Lindsey said. “Thanks for figuring it all out.”
“Look!” I cried. The slime was shrinking.
“It’s turning into some kind of green fog,” Lindsey said.
Across the room, I heard groans.
Damon! Stella!
They were both barefoot, but they were back.
“Aaarrgh!” Stella moaned. “My head!”
“What happened?” Damon whimpered. “I feel like something my cat threw up. What is that smell?” He sniffed his shirt experimentally. “Oh, no, it’s ME!”