Evil Dad glanced into the rearview mirror and smiled.
“Don’t go to sleep,” Angelo said. “I think that’s what they want.”
At last they got off on the exit Nick’s real dad had discovered on their camping trip. But instead of turning onto the gravel road that led to the campground, they continued straight on the fire road until they came to a small cabin.
Evil Dad got out of the car. Nick glanced at the woods beyond the cabin. This was their chance; they couldn’t be that far away from the campground. Angelo nodded and mouthed, Get ready to run.
But before any of them could make a move, the doppelgänger pulled open Nick’s door and wrapped an arm around his neck. “Don’t even think about trying to make a run for it,” he said, squeezing until Nick could barely breathe. “You three do exactly what I tell you or you’re going to be the two Monsterteers.”
“Don’t . . . listen to—” Nick gasped, before his father’s doppelgänger squeezed so hard dots appeared in front of his eyes.
“Let go of him,” Carter said. “We’ll do what you say.”
“Yes.” Angelo nodded.
“Better,” Evil Dad said, releasing his grip just enough that Nick could gulp a mouthful of air. “Now, into the cabin.” He marched the tree boys up to the cabin door and pushed it open. “Get inside.”
Nick squinted as Evil Dad shoved him through the door of the cabin. It was so dark inside he could barely see anything. As his eyes adjusted, he realized why. All the windows had been boarded over. He could just make out a small kitchen, a fireplace, and a table with a single chair in front of it.
Evil Dad herded them to a door on the other side of the table, unlocked the dead bolt, and motioned them into the next room. “Look,” Carter said. “It’s the guy from the campsite.”
Nick peered through the doorway. Mr. Grunwald, the German who had yelled at them before, was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands. He looked up wearily as Carter and Angelo entered the room.
A moment later, Evil Dad released his grip on Nick’s neck and shoved him in the back, sending Nick stumbling into the room. Angelo caught him before he could fall and Nick spun around as his father’s doppelgänger began to close the door. “You’re just going to leave us here?” Nick asked. “We’ll starve.”
“You’ll disappear long before that happens,” the doppelgänger said. “Although you might get a little thirsty. Speaking of food, I have to get home in time for dinner. We’re finally trying that new Italian place.” He closed the door and Nick heard it lock behind him. A minute later he heard a car start and drive away.
Carter ran up to the door and slammed his body against it. He might as well have been throwing himself against a brick wall. The door was built of thick, solid redwood planks. Nick checked the only window in the room, but it was covered with the same thick boards. The only light came through a few spaces between the wood, barely wide enough to slip a finger through. There was no way to get out.
Angelo turned toward Mr. Grunwald, who had put his head back in his hands. “Can you tell us what’s going on?”
Nick thought the man would yell at them. Instead, he only shook his head and, without looking up, asked, “Warum? Why? Why didn’t you tell me you take Männchen?”
“Männchen?” Nick asked.
The German pointed at the homunculus. “Männchen. Little man.”
“It’s my fault.” Carter held out Carter Junior. “You can have him back.”
The German shook his head sadly. “Is too late. He belong to you now.”
“But he’s sick.” Carter wiped his eyes with one hand. “Can’t you help him?”
“Not sick. Dying.” The man rubbed his face with his hands. “Too long away from home and . . .” He sighed.
“We’ll take him back,” Carter said. “I know the spot where we found him.”
Mr. Grunwald chuckled sadly. “Ja. Break down the walls and we all go free.” He said a long string of words Nick didn’t understand. But his meaning was very clear. They weren’t going to escape the cabin anytime soon.
“Do you know about the doppelgängers?” Angelo asked.
The man nodded. “Ja.”
“They’ve taken over our town,” Nick said.
The man nodded again. “You have opened the Türöffnung. The doorway.”
Nick dropped to the floor. He was so tired. “We’re sorry. We didn’t know.”
“Isn’t there some way to fix it?” Angelo asked. “I thought that if we brought the homunculus back it would make things right.”
“Ja,” the man said. “Männchen go back, return to Father Tree, door close, all fixed. If boys bring him back two days ago, one day ago, maybe. But now, too late.”
“Father tree?” Angelo asked. He reached for his backpack before realizing it was no longer there, and Nick knew he’d been going for his monster notebook.
“Father Tree.” The German nodded. “Father Tree source of doppelgänger and Männchen. Keeper of doorway.” He held his hands up over his head and made a gesture like a huge creature walking through the woods. “Walks through woods. Watching. Protecting.”
“Wait,” Nick asked. “Does this Father Tree have really big feet?”
“Ja,” Mr. Grunwald said. “Big feet.”
“That’s what made the footprints,” Carter said.
“And probably what tried to warn us about the doppelgängers with the symbol,” Angelo added. “I’ll bet it came looking for the homunculus when it left to steal our cookies.”
Nick tried to think. “So you’re saying we opened some kind of doorway by taking Carter Junior out of the woods? But if we take him back to this Father Tree, we could close the door and bring the doppelgängers back?”
“Sapperlot!” the German said, slamming his bony hands against the cabin wall. “You can no get out. Even if you could, woods filled with doppelgängers now. Too dangerous.”
“It can’t be any more dangerous than what’s going to happen to us here,” Nick said.
Mr. Grunwald ran his fingers through his messy gray hair.
“What if we found a way to escape?” Carter asked. “What are our chances of making it to the Father Tree?”
Mr. Grunwald held his thumb and finger so close they were almost touching. “Winzig. Tiny.”
Nick closed his eyes. “So what you’re saying is there’s no way to break out of this cabin. And even if there was, we’d never make it to the Father Tree because the woods are full of doppelgängers now.”
The German nodded. “Ja.”
“What about Carter Junior?” Carter asked. “If we stay out here, what happens to him?”
Mr. Grunwald shook his head.
“That’s it then.” Carter stood up. “I’m going for it.”
Nick groaned. “Didn’t you hear what he just told us?”
“It’s my fault,” Carter said. “I brought Carter Junior in and I’m taking him back.”
“We’re locked up tight,” Angelo said. “And we don’t even know where this Father Tree is.”
“It’s impossible,” Nick agreed.
Carter smirked. “Impossible happens to be my specialty.”
Carter stared around the small, dark room. “If I can only find something to cut through the boards.”
“Sure,” Nick said. “If you come across a chain saw, let me know.”
Angelo walked over and examined the dead bolt on the door. It was the kind of lock that had a keyhole on both sides. “I don’t imagine you have an extra key for this?”
Mr. Grunwald chuckled and pointed his thumb toward the boarded-over window. “Ja. Ja. In car. You escape, get key, and unlock door. Except you need key to escape.”
Nick put his eye to one of the spaces between the boards and peered out at an old green station wagon parked behind the cabin. The car was less than twenty feet away. And yet it might as well have been twenty miles for all the good it did them.
Carter edged up bedside Nick, peeking through anoth
er of the cracks. “The keys are in that car?”
“Ja.” The German nodded sadly. “In ignition.”
“All right,” Carter said. “So all we need to do is find a way to get the keys out of the car and we’re good to go.”
Nick patted him on the back. “Let me know when you figure out how to squeeze through a one-inch crack.”
“Hang on a second,” Angelo said. “There’s one thing we’ve never figured out. How did the homunculus get into the car the night we went camping?”
Nick scratched his head. “Maybe it was unlocked.”
“No.” Angelo looked down at Carter Junior, who was resting in Carter’s arms. “Your dad said he locked it, and you checked it. And even if he did get in through the door, how did the homunculus escape from the aquarium the night it disappeared?”
Carter patted Carter Junior’s head. “He didn’t escape. Stupid Kimber Tidwell took him.”
Angelo shook his head. “I’m not saying she didn’t. But let’s say she opened the window and saw Carter Junior. Then what? She climbed in the window, took the books and the board off the aquarium, grabbed the homunculus, and put the books and board back on the aquarium, all without waking Carter up, when he was sleeping right there?”
Nick hadn’t really thought about that before. It did seem strange that Kimber would put the board back in exactly the same spot before leaving. In fact, it didn’t make sense at all. “So what are you suggesting?”
Angelo opened and closed his fingers as though squeezing his monster notebook. He turned to the German. “You said that the doppelgängers and the homunculus both come from the Father Tree?”
Mr. Grunwald nodded.
“The doppelgängers look like this freaky, faceless bark kind of thing when they aren’t copying humans,” Angelo said. “What does a homunculus look like in its natural form?”
The German rubbed his chin with his knobby fingers. “Could be branch. Could be fruit. All part of tree.”
“A branch?” Nick asked, with a flash of understanding.
“That’s it.” Angelo beamed. “That’s how the homunculus got into the car and out of the aquarium.” He turned to Carter. “Your homunculus can squeeze through small spaces by turning into a branch.”
“You’re saying Kimber didn’t take him?” Carter asked.
“Not at all.” Angelo paced across the room. “She probably did sneak down to your house that night. And I’ll bet she opened the window too. The homunculus must have seen her, escaped from the aquarium by turning into a branch, and went to the window, where she grabbed it. That would explain why she was keeping it inside a cage, inside a wooden chest. Because she’d seen what it could do and she didn’t want it to escape.” He pointed to the window. “You have to get Carter Junior to squeeze between the boards and take the keys from the car.”
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “I don’t think he’s up to it.”
“He has to be,” Nick said. “It’s our only chance of getting out of here. Our only chance of saving him.”
Angelo grabbed a chair and kicked at one leg until it splintered off. Shoving the splintered wood between the boards, he jabbed at the window until it shattered. Then he cleared away as much of the broken glass as he could.
Carter held the homunculus up so it could see through the window. “Can you do it?” he asked. “Can you get the keys?”
Carter Junior raised his head weakly. “Keys?”
“Yeah,” Carter said. “Car keys. Like in Need for Speed. You know, vrummmm, vrummmm.”
The homunculus perked up with interest at Carter’s revving sound. “Keys.” It looked through the window at the car. “Vrummmm, vrummmm.” Slowly it lifted one hand to the small space between the boards. For a moment nothing happened. Then its hand and arm turned into a small leafy twig.
“That’s it!” Carter cried. “He’s doing it.”
Once his arm was through the crack, Carter Junior changed his leg into a branch as well. He slid both his leg and arm as far as he could through the opening. His body turned into a gnarled, brown branch no thicker than a finger, and his head became a small, green fruit.
“Holy limeade,” Carter muttered as the homunculus, now completely in plant form, wriggled and pushed its way through the opening until it emerged from the other side.
As soon as it was through the crack, the homunculus changed back into a little Carter Junior. “Keys, vrummmm, vrummmm,” it repeated, climbing over the windowsill and down the cabin wall. A moment later it appeared on the ground below.
Nick, Carter, Angelo, and Mr. Grunwald pressed their faces to the boarded window as the homunculus made its way across the uneven ground. It stopped by the door and looked up at the open car window.
“It doesn’t have any way to get up,” Nick said.
But the homunculus was more resourceful than he thought. Carter Junior searched the ground until he found a long, narrow branch, and carried it to the car, where he leaned it up against the door. Then, like a miniature tightrope walker, he scaled the branch. A foot or so below the open window, he flexed his knees, bent, and leaped through the window and into the car.
“Yes!” Carter, Nick, and Angelo shouted, pumping their fists in the air.
Even Mr. Grunwald raised his hands. “Ja! Ja!”
A few seconds later, the station wagon’s engine roared to life.
“What’s he doing?” Nick asked.
“Don’t turn the keys!” Angelo yelled out the window. “Take them out of the ignition.”
There was a loud clunk, and the station wagon jerked, then began rolling slowly forward.
“Oh, shoot,” Carter whispered.
“What do you mean, shoot?” Nick said.
Angelo glanced nervously from the window to Carter. “What’s it doing?”
Carter stepped away from the wall. “Remember when I told you guys I taught Carter Junior how to play Need for Speed Most Wanted?”
Nick nodded, a dull burn moving up his chest.
“Well, the thing is . . . I taught him how to use my steering wheel and pedal controllers. But he could only reach one at a time. Which meant that every time he tried to drive a car he always ended up—”
Suddenly the station wagon’s engine revved and the car shot forward, dust and rocks pluming out from beneath its back tires.
“Look out!” Carter yelled. He, Nick, Angelo, and Mr. Grunwald dove for the other side of the room a moment before the front of the station wagon smashed through the wall of the cabin like a battering ram. Boards and logs splintered and flew through the air like toys. The car’s headlights shattered and one of the front tires came all the way up into the room. Bits of wood, dust, and metal filled the air in a choking cloud.
As soon as the car stopped, Carter was on his feet. “Carter Junior!” he screamed. “Are you okay?”
“Vrummmm, vrummmm,” a weak voice said. There was a soft cough, and then nothing.
Nick walked to where Carter was cradling Carter Junior in his arms. “Is he . . . ?”
“He’s breathing,” Carter said. “But just barely.”
“You must get him to Father Tree,” Mr. Grunwald said. “Now!”
“Can you drive us?” Angelo asked, eyeing the mashed-up front of the car.
“No time,” the German said. “Männchen is going.” He pointed into the woods behind the cabin. “Straight and down. Father Tree will be near Türöffnung. But be careful while doorway is open. Do not get sucked in or you will never come out. And do not take Männchen near doorway. Türöffnung will destroy him.”
“Okay,” Carter said, breaking into a trot.
Nick looked at Angelo. “You know trying to get through the woods is probably suicidal.”
Angelo nodded. “If I’m going to die, I want to do it as a Monsterteer.” Together they ran and caught up with Carter.
“So, uh, what’s our plan?” Carter whispered as they entered the darkness of the woods.
“You mean other than getting des
troyed by our Evil Twins?” Nick said, searching the shadowy forest around them.
Carter pushed so close against him their shoulders touched. “I was kind of hoping dying was Plan B. Or C. Or maybe even Z.”
“One of you better come up with the plan,” Angelo said. “I’m fresh out.”
“All right.” Carter stepped on a branch and all three boys jumped at the sound of the crack. “The first thing is don’t step on any more sticks.”
Nick wiped his sweat-covered hands on the front of his jeans. “You’re not inspiring a lot of confidence in me. Does any of this look familiar to either of you? Which way should we go?”
Immediately Angelo and Carter pointed in opposite directions.
“I remember that rock,” Angelo said, pointing to a half-buried boulder. Nick thought he might vaguely recognize it. But he wasn’t sure.
“I never forget a cookie,” Carter said. “And I’m telling you, the cookie trail went that way.”
Two minutes in and they were already arguing. “Come on, guys,” Nick said. “We have to work together here.”
“All right,” Angelo said. “Maybe it was a different rock. I have to admit, I’m not positive, and Carter does have a good memory for food.”
“That’s better,” Nick said. “Now, what do we do if we see a doppelgänger?”
“Run,” Carter said. “As fast as we can. And hope it’s someone like Old Man Dashner. Did you see how he was jogging? If he went any slower he’d be going backward.”
“Down,” Angelo whispered. The three of them dropped to the ground. Angelo pointed into the trees thirty or forty feet ahead. “Something’s coming.”
Nick squinted into the darkness. He didn’t see anything. Then he had it. A shadow was moving stealthily through the trees. He tried to make out what it was, but from this distance all he could make out was a figure a little shorter than him.
“Nick,” a voice called out. “Angelo, Carter. Where are you guys?” The figure got closer.
Carter stood up. “Tiffany? What are you doing here?”
“Oh, thank goodness,” Tiffany said, breaking into a grin. “Angie told me I’d find you guys up here. But I think I turned the wrong way and got lost.”
Case File 13 #3 Page 14