The Monster Apocalypse Read online

  Brin caught a glimpse of all three, from her side window. “Oh. My. God.” It wasn’t just demons: it was giant demons. They stood at least twelve feet high and were trampling down the center of the street like they owned not just Bridgeport but the entire planet. Their heads were small for their robust, rectangular bodies, with orange horns and black eyes, and their feet were biggest of all, so wide and heavy that every step caused the ground to shake.

  “What the hell are they?” Justin asked, terrified.

  “Toto,” she said, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”

  “Really, Brin?” Ash asked, as he ducked his head in the small wedge between his seat and the front of the suburban. “You’re going to quote The Wizard of Oz right now?”

  “You’re not the only one who’s allowed to reference movies in times of distress, Ash,” she said, in utter seriousness.

  “OK,” he said as he disappeared behind Anaya’s legs. “As long as that’s clear.”

  Brin wanted to shout for Mrs. Hallow to start up the car and start swerving around these creatures—it made more sense to try to get around them rather than to stay put and let one of their pizza-wide feet come down and crush all the members of the car to pepperoni pieces—but when she locked eyes with one of the three giants, the whole rest of the world faded away, and suddenly it was just Brin and the monster.

  She didn’t think it could see her—it was pitch black out, after all, and only a modicum of light trickled to the back of the vehicle—but when it turned its head to the left, then to the right, then to the left again, like Michael Myers, Brin knew it had latched its eyes onto her. If it wasn’t the middle of the night, if the creature didn’t have sharp horns, if the monster wasn’t more than twice the size of an average human, Brin might not have been so scared about it and its intentions. The others in the car screamed with panic, but Brin stayed focused on the creature farthest to the left and tried to make sense of it. She stared not just at its eyes, but into its soul. And it looked back at Brin not with animosity or vindictiveness, but with a calm understanding.

  The creature pressed its hands against the side of the suburban and crouched down to its legs, like it wanted Brin to rub its head. With each drop to its knees, the ground shook a little, making Ash scream his girly scream, and making Valerie start loudly praying. Mrs. Hallow and Mr. Barker started whispering again at the front of the vehicle; Brin couldn’t hear their conversation but she figured they had to be contemplating their next move.

  “Get away from them,” Justin said, trying to pull Brin back as the first giant demon pressed its cheek up against the window. Brin swatted Justin away.

  “No,” she said. “Let me try to speak to them—”

  “Try to speak to them? This isn’t a therapy session! There are big, mean monsters out there who could kill us at any second!”

  “They’re not going to kill us,” Brin said. “I don’t think they’d hurt us even if they were commanded to by their demon leader.”

  Justin shook his head and scooted himself to the other end of the seat. “If these are the supporting players, I’d be scared to see what their leader looks like. Who do you think it is? A giant, evil Tyrannosaurus rex?”

  “I think your imagination is getting the better of you,” Brin said, not looking at her brother, not looking at anyone else in the vehicle, but keeping her attention focused on the three giants. The second creature bowed down next to the first, then made way for the third to squeeze in as well. All three creatures pushed up against each other and stayed focused on only one thing: Brin Skar.

  “What are they doing?” Justin asked, his voice high and unsure.

  “They’re… looking at me,” Brin said.

  Silence ensued for a moment, as the second and third creatures brushed the first one to the side, so they could get a chance to push their bodies up against the window.

  “What is going on?” asked Anaya, the only one in the middle seat to not be cowering against the carpet. She looked out the window, then over at Brin, who appeared fascinated by all the attention she was getting. “These things should want to destroy us. They should want to kill us all, or let us go and be on their way. Instead they fixate on you, Brin. Why?”

  “I…” She looked at the creatures, who were starting to become overexcited, as they pounded their fists against the windows. “I have no idea.”

  “Is there something you’re keeping from us, Brin?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Every time I’m with you, the monsters rise from the ground. Every time I’m with you, it’s life and death. The leader of a vampire clan kidnaps your mother, like she’s the most important person in the world; your hair starts turning red; these creatures seem to think you’re their goddamn mother or something. This isn’t all just a coincidence! You’re not telling us something!”

  “Stop it! That’s enough!” Ash shouted, pushing himself back up on the seat. He glared at Anaya with angry eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with Brin! She’s not the reason for all these bad things, all right? She’s one of us. I can’t get inside her own head, but I guarantee you, she’s as scared as the rest of us. Aren’t you, Brin?”

  Brin just nodded.

  “You see?” Ash continued. “It’s not her fault. She’s not one of the monsters. She’s just Brin. She’s just perfect.”

  Brin finally looked away from the window, and glanced at Ash. He didn’t look at her right away. He looked embarrassed by his choice of words.

  “You think I’m perfect, Ash?” Brin asked, delicately.

  She expected him to try to glaze over what he said and dismiss his ramblings. But instead, he sat up straight and said, “Of course I do, Brin. I mean, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?”

  She shook her head. “You’re a good friend, Ash. You really are. But I’m not perfect. I’m not anywhere close to it. I don’t even know what I am, anymore.” Brin pulled down on a strand of her hair, which was a dark, disturbing red. She was turning into a teenage Reba McEntire, and she didn’t even know the words to a single country song.

  The creatures continued to pound their sharp claws against the side window, harder and harder, louder and louder.

  But Brin kept on talking. “Ash, if I were perfect, I wouldn’t be doted on by every monster who steps into my life. First, there was Paul, then there were the thousand zombies at Macabre Golf Course. Now these giant demons before us want to sit around a circle with me and sing ‘Kumbaya.’ It’s getting out of control. It’s getting ridiculous—”

  “What about me?” asked Ash. “You think I’m a monster?”

  Brin stared at the boy. “What do you mean?”

  But before the conversation could go on, the glass to her left shattered.

  And Brin started screaming.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Brin waved her arms wildly into the cold night air in fright and tried to reach back for Justin, as all three of the creatures’ claws came soaring into the suburban and tried to pull Brin out of the car.

  “Help me!” Brin shouted. “Oh God—somebody help me!”

  Justin wrapped his arms around her. “I’ve got you! I’ve got you, Brin! I won’t let go!”

  Brin didn’t have much time. The giant demons were too strong. They were going to pull her out of the vehicle, out of sight, away from her friends, forever.

  “Mr. Barker!” Brin shouted. “Mrs. Hallow! They’re out of your way! Drive! Go!”

  “Are you sure?” the vice principal asked. “You don’t think they’ll try to chase us—”

  “They’re going to rip me into a dozen pieces if we don’t get moving right now! Hurry!”

  ‘OK, OK!” shouted Mrs. Hallow.

  Brin felt her golf shirt tearing, a chunk of her hair getting pulled from her skull. Justin held her tight, but Brin felt the tug of a trio of monsters so painfully she thought she was going to be decapitated. She hoped it wasn’t all going to end like this.

  The first creatu
re reached for Brin’s throat and started to pull her out of the vehicle.

  “Drive!” Brin shouted. “For God’s sake—”

  Mrs. Hallow slammed her foot against the pedal, and shouted, “Hold on, everyone!”

  Brin never thought a suburban could go from zero to fifty in five seconds, but this one could. Justin pulled Brin back, and Brin pushed away from the creatures, and unthinkably, almost magically, she fell back, inside the car, on top of her brother’s belly, without injury. She let out a wild scream—one of the three monsters managed to remove a chunk of her red hair—but nothing else was severed from her body.

  Brin tried to normalize her breathing. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought she’d pass out. She looked out the back window of the vehicle and watched in horror as the three demon creatures didn’t just stay put in disappointment, but raced toward her, now not with friendly grins on their ugly faces, but with the angriest of demon visages. The suburban had picked up speed but not enough. The creatures were gaining.

  “Go faster!” Brin shouted.

  “I’m trying!” Mrs. Hallow replied.

  “For God’s sake, they’re going to flip the car!”

  The first of the three creatures approached the right side of the vehicle and looked into the back window to get a close view of Justin. While the monster seemed to like the sight of Brin, it obviously didn’t care for the sight of her brother. It started pounding its giant claws against the side of the car, hard and fast, and everyone in the vehicle screamed when the back tires were lifted into the air.

  “It’s going to tip us!” Anaya screamed.

  “They’re going to eat us alive!” Valerie added. “They’re going to feast on us like we’re the most tender strips of steak in the world!”

  “You’re so morbid, Valerie,” Brin said, then looked at Mrs. Hallow, who had sweat dripping down her cheeks. “Faster, faster, faster!”

  “I’m trying!” the frail old woman said. “Lay off me!” Mrs. Hallow glanced at Mr. Barker real quick, in unsurpassed fear, as one of the three creatures leaped over the entire suburban and landed in front of it.

  If it hadn’t been for Mr. Barker, the vehicle would have crashed straight into the demon’s legs. But the teacher grabbed the steering wheel just in time, and swerved the car to the right, just barely missing the creature.

  “Oh God,” Anaya said, closing her eyes. “I can’t look.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Valerie added.

  The second creature pounded its claws against the right side window, shattering the glass into a hundred pieces. Anaya got the brunt of the blow, but ducked her head just in time to not be blinded.

  Mrs. Hallow swerved to the right, this time straight off the road.

  “Where are you going?” Brin shouted.

  “Hold on everyone!” Mr. Barker said, guiding the vice principal’s steering.

  Now, instead of swerving from side to side, the suburban started bouncing up and down, as they pulled out past a restaurant parking lot and started slamming against dirt mounds.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?” demanded Brin. “This is just going to make us go slower!”

  “Trust us,” Mr. Barker said, looking back at Brin for the first time in forever. “We know what we’re doing!”

  “I don’t think you do,” Anaya said, wiping shards of glass from her right cheek.

  “Anaya, are you OK?” Valerie asked, noticing a thin trail of blood running down her face to her neck.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

  “Good,” Valerie said, then puked up all over Anaya’s golf shirt.

  Anaya put her arms up against the ceiling in shock and dismay. “Are you kidding me?”

  The vehicle slammed against five more dirt mounds, and Brin started to wonder if the suburban itself would be the source of their destruction: the vehicle couldn’t possibly take much more of a beating.

  But then the dirt mounds vanished and a long stretch of flat land presented itself, running right alongside the 395 freeway. Brin looked out past the shattered window to her left. It wasn’t just flat land they were driving on now; it was ice.

  “What are you doing?” Anaya screamed, flinging the gobs of puke against the back of Mr. Barker’s seat. “The ice is going to crack. We’re going to sink! We’re going to freeze to death, drown, or be eaten by giant demons! Those are our three options!”

  “The lake is small,” Mr. Barker said. “We’re going to make it.”

  Brin heard cracking, like the suburban would be submerged into the ice cold lake in a matter of seconds. But it wasn’t the vehicle that was doing the cracking; it was the three creatures behind them.

  She looked out the back window to see the three demons chasing after the car, and with every loud step, the ice cracked a little more, a little more.

  “Come on,” Brin whispered. “Come on, please.”

  The ground below felt like it was rumbling again, and Brin brought her cold, clammy hands up to her cheeks. She saw the end of the frozen lake up ahead, as well as the freeway. They just needed a few more seconds.

  The ice cracked and cracked, and cracked some more. Anaya screamed and Valerie shrieked and Ash smashed his hands against the vehicle carpet and shot his legs up against Brin’s face.

  “Ash, what the hell are you doing?”

  “I don’t know!” he shouted. “Honestly, I don’t know anymore!”

  Brin looked out the back window, which was still miraculously in tact, and watched in amazement as the first of the three giants fell straight through the ice, into the deadly cold lake.

  “Yes!” Brin screamed. “It’s working!”

  “Let’s not celebrate yet,” Justin said. “We need to get off the ice first.”

  Brin glanced ahead. They were almost to the end of it. Five seconds. Four seconds.

  She looked back to see the second creature collide against its side and crash through the ice, sinking away from sight.

  Just one left.

  “We’re almost to the highway!” shouted Mr. Barker. “Hang on everybody!”

  “Hang on?” Justin asked, condescendingly. “What else are we supposed to do?”

  “You can be like Ash and do hand stands,” Brin said.

  Justin shook his head and said, “No, thanks.” Then he looked out the back window. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “What?”

  Brin looked back to see the last of the remaining demons, its knees buckled, its horns glowing red, its angry visage throbbing, its mouth open wide, and its claws reaching toward the sky.

  “What’s it doing?” Brin asked.

  “What do you think?”

  The creature let out an earth-shattering yell and jumped up high in the air, at least a hundred feet up. It sailed through the air, like it could fly, and started coming back down, straight toward the suburban.

  “It’s going to crush us!” Anaya screamed.

  Ash pulled himself back up and looked out the back window, one of the few left in the vehicle that wasn’t shattered. “Mr. Barker! Do something!”

  “Hold on!” the teacher shouted, as he leaned over, grabbed the wheel from Mrs. Hallow, and jerked the car to the left.

  The vehicle smashed against another dirt mound, and sailed up into the air, just as the creature landed on the edge of the lake and crashed through the ice, down into the freezing watery depths.

  Brin prepared herself for impact, but there was nothing she could do. The suburban struck the pavement of the freeway so hard, Valerie catapulted forward and slammed her forehead against the glove compartment, and Brin tumbled into the wedge between the back seat and the middle seat.

  “Oww,” Brin said.

  “Brin,” Justin said, concerned, grabbing her hands and pulling her back up, “are you all right?”

  She sat back up, then fell against her brother’s side, like she had no more control over her body. “Never better.”

  “Whoa, that was close,�
� Mr. Barker said, no longer controlling the steering wheel.

  “Too close,” Ash said, finally back in his seat and sitting upright. He glanced forward, then to his right, then back toward Brin. “Is everyone OK? Is anyone hurt?”

  “I could do without the goddamn vomit all over me,” Anaya said.

  “I know, same here,” Valerie added, rubbing her forehead as she sat back in her seat.

  “You’re the one who threw up on me!”

  “Oh, calm down. It wasn’t my fault!”

  Brin had been so concerned with not dying that she hadn’t noticed the putrid stench—until now. She tried to ignore it. She tried to stay calm and rest her head back against her brother’s shoulder.

  But she couldn’t be calm. Even though they had just survived death for the eightieth time in the last twelve hours, Brin knew the worst was still to come.

  The suburban headed toward the oncoming mountains at a steady pace of 40 MPH. It winded around a snowy bend, then an icy creek.

  Then Mrs. Hallow made a left.

  “Oh God,” Anaya said.

  “Oh no,” Ash added.

  “Oh yes,” said Mrs. Hallow. “Here we go!”

  The vehicle veered around the CLOSED sign, which had already been pushed to the left side of the road, and started the sixteen-mile journey on Route 270.

  Toward the snow. Toward Bodie Ghost Town.

  Toward the group’s impending doom.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  After the unexpected madness in Bridgeport, the souls inside Vice Principal Hallow’s suburban stayed pretty quiet on the thirteen-mile journey on paved road, toward the bumpy dirt road that would be taking them into the heart of Bodie Ghost Town.

  That is, until they started seeing ghosts.

  “I see a third one, a fourth one,” Ash said, pointing out the left window. “It looks like a little girl. She’s waving to us.”

  “I see an old man, tall, black,” Valerie said. “He’s digging with a shovel. But he can’t touch the dirt.”