The Monster Apocalypse Read online

  Justin was looking out the back window. “There’s a car that just went the other way. But it wasn’t real. It’s like a hologram. There’s a family of four inside.”

  Brin, however, wasn’t busy checking out all the ghosts on the side of the road. Her eyes were closed. She’d wanted to see a ghost since the day her dad showed her The Sixth Sense, but right now, she seemed to be the only one reeling from the near death attack by the three giant demons.

  “Brin, come on,” Ash said, tugging on her arm and pointing outside the window. “Check these out. There’s dozens of them. It’s like they all knew we were coming.”

  “No, I’m good,” she said. “Those demons, Ash…. oh God… they almost killed us…”

  “Trust me, I know. That was scary. But check out these ghosts, Brin. They’re the first monsters all day that have no intention of hurting us.”

  Brin opened her eyes. But she didn’t look outside. She just looked at Ash. “Of course they won’t hurt us. They’re ghosts.”

  “Maybe they can touch us. We can’t know for sure.”

  “Isn’t the definition of a ghost, dead people who can’t touch the living?”

  “I don’t think so,” Ash said. “Haven’t you seen Ghost? Patrick Swazye? Demi Moore?”

  “I know what the movie Ghost is, Ash.”

  “Whoopi won the Academy Award, but Patrick was so good in it. Such a shame. I miss that man. Anyway, he was able to work up the positive—or was it negative?—energy to touch objects, even people—”

  “But that’s a movie!” Brin screamed, so loud everyone but the driver turned to her. “This isn’t fiction, Ash. This isn’t some stupid author wannabe’s words on a page in a book somewhere. This is real life, do you understand? This is really happening.”

  Ash paused and gave her a knowing smile. “You think I don’t know that?” He leaned forward against the back of his seat and took Brin’s hand in his. “We’re minutes away from Bodie. We’re minutes away from the scariest rescue mission any humans in all of history have ever attempted. Take a moment, Brin—and look out your window.”

  He rubbed her hands tenderly, his skin warm and comforting. She thought he might try to kiss her, until he pulled her toward her side window, toward the fierce cold wind that started blowing into her red-and-black hair. She finally looked out of the vehicle, not believing, despite the awesome and terrifying and remarkable sights of the day, that she would see a ghost; trolls and aliens maybe, but not a ghost.

  But Brin looked out into the vast silence etched in blackness to see at least three human apparitions, and to her left, five more.

  Brin’s eyes welled up with tears as all the ghostly figures waved back at her.

  “Oh God,” Brin said. She swallowed loudly, then said, “This can’t be real anymore. None of this.”

  “What do you mean?” Ash asked.

  “I just don’t know where we go from here. We’ve seen every monster, every supernatural spook, in the entire canon. Say we survive this night. What, do we just go back to our regular lives? Graduate from Grisly High, go to college? We’re passing by ghosts right now, Ash. Dozens of them. And we’re not even on a Disneyland ride.”

  Ash stayed quiet for a moment. Then: “I don’t know about you, Brin, but as long as we stay alive, as long as none of these supernatural creatures actually kill us, this adventure is going to enrich our lives. It’s going to make us stronger.”

  Brin looked at her friend, let out a half smile, and shook her head. “You’ve seen too many movies.”

  He shrugged. “What else is new?”

  “Hey! Guys! Look at this!” Justin tugged on Brin’s shirt and pulled her toward the center of the seat. He had been staring out the back window at all the brightly lit ghosts on both sides of the road, but now he was hunched over the back seat, and digging his hands through a noisy bag.

  “What is it?” Brin asked, leaning over the back seat. She looked down and tried to make sense of what Justin’s fingers were wading through. The items looked large—large and deadly. “Oh, whoa.”

  It was ammo. Lots and lots of ammo.

  She turned around and nearly crushed Ash’s head as she leaned up against his seat. “Mrs. Hallow… what is all this in the back?”

  The old woman chuckled. “Did you find my secret stash?”

  “What are you doing with all that… that… ammunition?”

  The vice principal looked at Brin in the rearview mirror. “What, I’m not allowed to follow our second amendment just because I’m a school administrator? Trust me, Brin. Every principal and vice principal in the entire district has a gun. Lots of them.”

  “I hesitate in asking why,” Brin said.

  “You guys are grossly naive if you think you were going to complete a rescue mission without any form of weaponry. Trust me, once you get there, once you get started, and once these so-called vampires I keep hearing about come up out of their shelters and look for necks to feed on, you’re going to thank me!”

  “She’s right,” Ash said, slapping his palm against Brin’s shoulder, playfully. “We’re going to need these guns.”

  “But guns don’t kill vampires. They don’t even wound them!”

  “If we get close enough to their faces and blast a shotgun at full power, I’m sure we’ll be able to take at least some of them down.”

  “Have you ever shot a gun, Ash?”

  “Well… no. But I see them a lot in the… you know…”

  “I know,” Brin finished.

  “I’ve shot a gun,” Anaya said, crossing her arms, keeping her attention forward.

  “Really?” asked Brin. “How’d that go?”

  “Oh, it was no problem. My dad taught me.” Then Anaya looked at Brin. “I can handle any weapon you put in my hand. I promise you that.”

  “That’s good to hear,” Brin said. She turned back to her brother, who was still examining all the weapons in the back of the suburban. She slammed her chest back against the seat and looked down. Justin had laid out all the guns from left to right, the smallest handgun on the left, to the biggest shotgun on the right. All that remained leaning up against the back window were a pair of tennis shoes, two binders, a wad of crumpled up papers, and a broomstick.

  “Mrs. Hallow is a bit messy, isn’t she?” Brin said.

  “I heard that!” the old lady said loud and clear from the front of the vehicle.

  Brin sighed and said, “Sorry.”

  She looked out the back window again, in hopes that she would see more of the ghosts—but she didn’t see a thing. She turned around and glanced at her shattered side window, but still nothing, and no one.

  “Are the ghosts gone?” she asked.

  “Looks like it,” Ash said. “You know what that means?”

  Ash loved throwing riddles at Brin, but this was one time she wanted him to be totally straight with her. “I don’t, Ash. No.”

  “It means…”

  “For God’s sake, Ash. What?”

  Ash sighed. “We’re here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “We’re here?” She leaned up against the back of his seat again and tried to see something, anything, out the front windshield. “Here, where? We can’t be in Bodie yet. We’re still on the paved road.”

  “Well…” he said, like he had jumped too soon to his excited announcement. “We’re to the dirt. The sign. Three more miles.” He smiled and looked at Brin. “The ghosts probably want to stay as far away from Bodie Ghost Town as they can.”

  “…because they’re ghosts,” Brin said.

  “Exactly.”

  He turned back around as Brin shook her head. She turned to her right to see her brother finally facing the front direction. He seemed on edge, nervous—like he didn’t think he’d make it out of this increasingly chaotic adventure alive.

  “You’re going to be all right, Justin,” Brin said. “We’re all going to be fine—”

  “I’m not worried about me, Brin,” her brother
said, interrupting her. “I’m worried about you. If something… if something ever happened to you…”

  “Shh.” Brin planted her index finger on Justin’s mouth. “Stop worrying. Worrying isn’t going to help any of us.”

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah. I suppose you’re right.”

  The suburban came to a complete stop, just to the left of the BODIE GHOST TOWN: THREE MILES AHEAD sign. Brin felt the suburban touch off the paved road and onto the rocky dirt road. This was it. There was no turning back now.

  “All right,” Mrs. Hallow said, in a triumphant voice. “I did it. I got you all here.”

  “Not quite,” Anaya said. “We still have three more miles to go—”

  “I’ve been doing some thinking,” the vice principal said, focusing her attention on Mr. Barker, who had been quiet in the passenger seat for most of the journey. “I’m not going to be much of a help to you guys in there. I’ll just be a nuisance.”

  “You’ll be what?” Mr. Barker asked, shaking his head. “Don’t be silly, Rosalie. You’re smart. You’re strong. You’re—”

  “Way too old for this shit,” the vice principal said. “I intended to go into this forgotten city alone, all by myself, to get our beloved Principal Stine out of there.” She turned to her right and looked at the students, taking time to acknowledge all five of them. “But I secretly hoped and prayed I’d stumble upon the rest of you. You all have much more courage and strength than I do.” She looked back at Mr. Barker. “Which is why I must leave you, here and now.”

  “What?” Ash said.

  “You can’t just leave us!” Valerie shouted with a high-pitched squeak.

  “I won’t be gone for good,” the woman said. “Trust me, I’ll be watching. And I know you’ll do well. I want every single one of you to make it out alive, return home, and be back at Grisly High first thing tomorrow morning, understand me?”

  Brin thought of asking Mrs. Hallow to stay and help them fight, but she stopped herself; it was an issue Brin had been mulling over since the vice principal picked everyone up. Mr. Barker was a little older than everyone else, but he was in his early thirties, and was strong and surprisingly buff behind those dorky outfits; plus he was a werewolf. Justin was a few years older than the high school students but was definitely capable of taking care of himself and helping out the group. Mrs. Hallow, on the other hand, looked seventy years old. She wouldn’t be able to help. If anything, she’d hold them back.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Mr. Barker. “Just stay out here in the cold and wait for us to come pick you up?”

  “No,” the woman said, shaking her head. “I believe in all of you, I really do, but if I did that, I’d be sitting out here all night.” She looked back again. “No, I have other plans in mind.”

  Everyone sat in stunned silence. Nobody knew what she was talking about.

  “Will you take them the rest of the way?” Mrs. Hallow asked Mr. Barker.

  He didn’t respond with words. He just nodded.

  “All right then,” she said. “This is where I leave you. Do stay out of trouble, and if you are able to save Principal Stine, and Brin’s mother, and manage to come back in one piece, I promise you something right here and now that’s of the utmost importance.”

  “What’s that?” Anaya asked.

  “Extra credit.” And with that, Mrs. Hallow opened her driver’s side door and stepped out into the fierce cold.

  Everyone in the vehicle just stared at each other. Anaya looked at Brin, and Brin looked at Ash, and Ash looked at Valerie, and Valerie looked at Justin, and Justin looked at Mrs. Hallow as she slowly walked around the car.

  “What is she doing?” Ash asked.

  “I have no idea,” Brin said.

  Mrs. Hallow finally stopped at the back of the suburban and opened up the back door.

  “Hello again,” she said.

  “Uhh, hello,” Brin said, still confused as to what the old woman was up to. “Did you forget something?”

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I did.” Mrs. Hallow reached into the back and started perusing all the guns that Justin had laid out in an organized fashion.

  “Oh,” said Brin, “that makes sense. You might need a gun just in case the vampires escape the town again and chase after us—”

  “I’m not taking a gun,” the vice principal said proudly. “Those are all for you.” She dug her hand around the right side and pushed the tennis shoes away. She grabbed the object she had been looking for. “Ahh. Here we are.”

  Mrs. Hallow removed the broomstick from the back of the vehicle.

  Justin narrowed his eyes, and Brin’s jaw dropped a little bit, just enough so that her saliva trickled down her chin.

  “You have all the guns in the world, and you choose that to be your weapon?” Justin asked.

  Brin figured it out before anyone else. “No,” she said. “No, you can’t be.”

  Mrs. Hallow winked at Brin and took a few steps away from the car. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I don’t have a hat, I don’t wear green make-up, and I don’t—I swear—have a cackle.” She straddled the broomstick and glanced at Brin. “Good luck!”

  “No way,” Ash said, as stunned as Brin.

  Mrs. Hallow darted her eyes up at the night sky and let the wind blow through her long, gray hair. She pointed up to the full moon, which was practically hidden behind all the black clouds.

  “And off we go!” she screamed.

  The broomstick lifted the vice principal up into the air and catapulted her fast and loud straight up into the sky, out of sight.

  The car didn’t budge; no one inside moved a muscle for more than a minute. Everyone looked out the back window, like they thought Mrs. Hallow would return, like she would jump down from the top of the car and laugh at all of them for buying her silly practical joke.

  But then everyone slowly turned around, in both shock and acceptance. There was no disbelieving anything anymore.

  “All right, then,” Justin said, in an exhausted voice.

  “Didn’t see that coming,” Brin added, crossing her arms and facing forward. “Now how many do we have left?”

  “Only six,” Ash said.

  “Only six?” said Anaya. “That’s not so bad. There’s still enough of us to fight.”

  “And we have the weapons in the back now, too,” Valerie added.

  Brin leaned against the seat and kept her eyes focused on Mr. Barker. He was the one they all wanted to look up to in that moment, but the Film teacher had yet to move seats. He was still huddled on the passenger side, looking back at the teens, still clearly at a loss for what to do.

  “Well?” Brin said. “What do you say, Mr. Barker? Do we keep going?”

  He didn’t answer her. Instead, he turned around, kicked open his door, and stepped outside. Brin watched as he walked around the front of the car and immediately slammed his butt against the driver’s seat.

  “Is that a yes?” Brin asked.

  Mr. Barker turned back to the five who remained. “All right, guys. Say your prayers. We’re going in.”

  Brin clasped her hands together. She was scared to go into the apocalyptic battleground, but she also had no desire to turn back around and go home now, not when they were this close, not when they were just three miles away.

  Mr. Barker turned on the ignition and pushed his right foot against the pedal. The suburban started up.

  Ash looked back at Brin, and Brin looked back at Ash. They smiled at each other, in a sad sort of way, as the suburban started descending the first of two hills. They were just ten minutes away.

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Ash said. “I promise you, Brin.”

  Brin stared back at her best friend, the guy she trusted more than anyone. She nodded, but then looked away from him. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Paul didn’t know what time it was. Hours had passed. Maybe days. He didn’t know. He wa
s happy he wasn’t human, because he would’ve died from hunger at this point. But he had gone over two weeks without blood of any kind—and he was feeling hunger pains of a different variety.

  He pushed himself up off the dirt ground. He wanted to hear Principal Stine’s voice again. Even though the older man had been two cells over, away from his sight, just knowing somebody else in his shoes was close by had comforted him. Now he was all alone, the principal sprawled out dead on the ground in front of him, in a dark dungeon of the Underground that even he didn’t recognize.

  He shoved his back against the cell wall and waited to die. He didn’t have any help this time. He didn’t have anyone who was going to save him. His father, his new mother, the entire clan, were going to have their way with him in any way they wanted, and there was nothing he’d be able to do to stop them. It was him versus hundreds. He was going to be torn to smithereens—and he wouldn’t ever see Brin again.

  In those final moments of silence, Paul thought about Brin Skar, about her startling good looks, and her kind, compassionate personality. He never thought he’d fall for another human again, but he had done so with Brin, and in such a short amount of time. Deep down he knew his time with her wasn’t going to go on forever, definitely not an entire semester’s worth at Grisly High. He might have been naïve in leaving Bodie for a better life, but Paul didn’t ever want to settle and just be another one of his father’s minions. He wanted something more, something right.

  Paul figured he’d rather be dead than live a lie.

  The loud metal door opened into the hallway, and footsteps entered the dark room. He tried to listen for the sound of Mrs. Skar’s high heels, or his father’s tap-tap-tap of his black dress shoes. He couldn’t tell whom the person was coming toward him. All he could tell was that it wasn’t just one member of the Bodie clan, but two.

  He waited for Tessa and Droz to appear, but the two figures stepping into the light were two men, both highly unstable and slow. He didn’t recognize them at all, even from their wardrobes.

  But when the two vampires appeared in full next to the lit torches lining the dirty hallway, Paul had to keep from screaming in shock.