While he was chasing Apollo, another bird flew from the tree to the roof and Apollo pursued it. When Emmet turned around to follow his dog, he suddenly saw that the roof of their house was covered with birds. They were flapping their wings and hopping about, making a strange chittering sound. Florida had hundreds of bird species. Nighttime was a symphony of animal noises, from birds to frogs to alligators bellowing in the canal behind their house. But he had yet to hear the call of this one. To Emmet it almost sounded like bees in a hive. Maybe it was some kind of seasonal migration no one had bothered to warn him about.
As he trailed Apollo toward the house, the sound changed from a low-pitched hum to a high screech. Emmet skidded to a stop in the yard. Apollo was in a barking frenzy. Now that he was close enough to see the roof clearly in the light, Emmet froze in fear.
These were not birds roosting on the rooftop of their house.
They were bats.
A whole lot of bats. Hundreds of them. And as Emmet shouted in alarm, they rose as one into the night sky, wings flapping. A horrible shriek rose over the noise of the wind. Terrified, Emmet wanted to run but was rooted in place.
“Dad! Dad! Hurry!” he shouted as loud as he could.
The bats circled briefly in the air above him. Then, like something out of the most frightening horror movie he had ever seen, they turned in flight.
And they dived directly toward him.
Text copyright © 2013 by Michael P. Spradlin.
Interior art by Jeff Weigel.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, November 2013
Cover art by Owen Richardson
Cover design by Nina Goffi
e-ISBN 978-0-545-57668-0
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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