47 - Legend of the Lost Legend (6 page)

I kicked my legs and swung my arms, frantically trying to free myself.

“Oww!” I let out a wild shriek as a fat, gray mouse scratched at my ear.

I reached up. Grabbed it. And squeezed.

The mouse gave a soft groan—and collapsed.

“Huh?” I felt something hard above its furry gray belly. Like a bump.

I slapped away two other mice and examined the one in my hand. I pushed the
tiny, hard bump. The mouse started to squirm and struggle.

I pushed the bump again. The mouse slumped in my hand, silent and still.

“It’s an on-off switch!” I screamed.

I turned to Marissa. She had fallen to her knees. Dozens of mice swarmed over
her. They covered her sweatshirt. They crawled through her hair.

“It’s an on-off switch!” I shouted to her. “Marissa—squeeze the button on
their front. You can turn them off!”

I grabbed a mouse off my neck. Squeezed the button. Shut it off.

I swiped up two more and turned them off.

“They’re not real!” I cried happily. “The mice—they’re fakes! They’re
little machines!”

Marissa climbed to her feet. She was brushing mice off her clothes. Clicking
them off. “Weird!” she exclaimed. “Justin—this is so weird!”

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I told her. “We’ve got to find Luka.”

Marissa tugged a mouse off the back of her neck and clicked it off. “Do you
think this was the test?” she asked. “Do you think we passed it?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. My eyes searched the trees. “I don’t care about
the test right now. I just want to get away from these dumb mechanical mice.”

I brushed two more off the front of my jeans. Then I reached for Marissa. I
pulled a mouse off her shoulder, clicked it off, and tossed it away.

Then we both started to run for the trees.

Mice scurried under our feet. Their shrill squeaks echoed all around us.

We stepped on them as we ran. But we didn’t care. We knew they weren’t real.
We knew they were mechanical.

We were nearly out of the clearing when I stopped suddenly. I had an idea.

I bent down and started scooping up mice. “Wait up!” I called to Marissa.

She didn’t hear me. She kept running toward the trees.

“Wait up! I’ll be right there!” I called. I picked up a few handfuls of mice
and clicked them off. Then I shoved them into my backpack.

These will be
awesome
for playing jokes on people back home! I told
myself. They’re so lifelike. Can you imagine the fun I’ll have with these in
Miss Olsen’s class?

I shoved eight or nine more of them into the pack and closed it up. Then I
climbed to my feet and ran after my sister.

I glanced back once—and saw the mice, thousands of them, crawling over each
other, crawling in wild circles through the grass.

Then I turned and ran, following Marissa into the safety of the white-trunked
trees. Ran full-speed. Ran blindly.

So eager to get away from that clearing and the squeaking, scurrying mice.

“Marissa—wait up!” I called.

She was far ahead, running fast.

“Wait up!” I called.

And then I uttered a sharp cry as I ran—full-force—into a tree.

“Oooof!”

I felt the air burst from my lungs. I saw stars. Red and yellow stars,
dancing in a pure white sky.

Gasping for breath, I reached for the tree trunk.

I heard a cracking sound.

So loud. And close.

The tree!

The tree I had run into—it started to fall!

“Look out—!” I called to my sister.

Too late.

As I stared helplessly, the tall, white tree collapsed.

Marissa’s hands shot up as the tree fell on her.

And crushed her beneath its heavy trunk.

“Nooooo!” I let out a howl of horror. And stared down at my sister.

Marissa lay sprawled facedown in the dirt. The tree trunk had crushed her
back and shoulders.

Was she breathing?

I couldn’t tell.

“Marissa—!” I choked out her name and dropped down beside her. “I—I—”

I saw her body give a hard shake.

She raised her head and squinted up at me. “What happened?” Her words came
out in a whisper.

“Does it hurt?” I cried. “Are you in pain?”

She squinted harder, as if thinking about it. “No. No pain.” Marissa rolled
onto her back. Then she reached up with both hands—and shoved the tree trunk
off her.

“Huh?” I let out a startled cry.

I saw the bewildered expression on my sister’s face. “It’s fake too,” she
murmured.

She reached out and tugged off a chunk of the tree trunk. “It’s plaster or
something,” she announced. “Check it out, Justin.”

My hand was trembling as I tore off a piece of the trunk. I was still shaking
all over from the sight of Marissa falling under the tree.

I squeezed the chunk of tree, and it turned to powder in my hand. I pulled
off another hunk. Soft plaster.

Marissa climbed to her feet. She brushed the plaster dust off her clothes.
“It’s a total fake,” she murmured again.

“Do you think the trees are
all
fake?” I cried. “The whole forest?”

I got up. Then I took a running start. Stuck both hands straight out in front
of me…

…And ran as hard as I could, shoving my hands against a tree.

The trunk cracked easily. I stood shaking my head in amazement as the tree
toppled over. It hit another tree and knocked that one down too. The plaster
trunks cracked and shattered as they hit the ground.

“Fake. It’s all a fake!” Marissa declared. A smile spread over her face.
“That looks like fun.”

She took a running start, aiming at a tree across from the others.

“No! Not that one!” I screamed.

I guess Marissa couldn’t stop in time. She slammed her shoulder into the
tree. “Yaaaay!”

She raised both fists over her head in triumph as the tree toppled over.

But she didn’t have much time to cheer.

As the white trunk fell, I heard the hard flutter of wings.

And I watched in horror as dark forms fluttered up from the fallen limbs.

I had seen the bats. Dozens of black bats. Clinging upside down on the tree
limbs.

I had seen them. But I hadn’t warned Marissa in time.

And now the bats all came flapping up, cluttering angrily, their sleep
interrupted.

Hissing and shrieking at us, they surrounded us—and began to circle. I
could feel the warm breeze from their flapping wings.

Faster. Faster, they circled.

“Are they fake too?” Marissa asked in a tiny voice.

“I—I don’t think so,” I stammered as they swooped in for the kill.

Marissa and I both ducked as the circle of bats swooped low.

I shut my eyes and covered my head with my hands.

And waited.

The sound of a deep
boom
rose over the shrill chittering of the bats.

The ground shook.

Thunder?

Another boom, low at first, then loud as an explosion.

I raised my head in time to see the white trees tremble.

The bats stopped their shrieking. Their wings shot up, stretched out.

Another boom of thunder sent them racing back up to the sky. I watched them
flutter up, rising, rising above the trees, rising against the bright sky until
they seemed to disappear into the sun.

Marissa let out a long sigh of relief. “We’re safe.” She climbed to her feet
slowly.

“But what is that sound?” I demanded, listening hard.

Another thunderous
boom.
Closer this time.

I felt the ground shake. A tree tottered, then came toppling to the ground.

“It can’t be thunder,” Marissa said softly. She pointed to the sky. “No
clouds or anything.”

Another
boom.

Closer.

“I—I know what it is,” I stammered.

Marissa turned to me. Another
boom
shook the trees.

“Footsteps,” I murmured. “Coming toward us. I know it’s footsteps.”

Marissa’s mouth dropped open. “Justin—you’re letting your crazy imagination
run away with you. Again!”

“No. I’m right,” I insisted. “Footsteps.”

My sister squinted at me. “Are you losing it? What could make footsteps that
loud? It would have to be…” Her voice trailed off.

Another
boom
.

I let my crazy imagination run away with me. I couldn’t help it. I pictured a
dinosaur. A Tyrannosaurus rex. Lumbering through the trees. Or maybe one of
those fat ones with the long, skinny necks.

Boooooom. Booooom.

Or maybe
two
of them!

“Whatever it is, it’s coming closer,” Marissa whispered. She shook her head.
“Ivanna
said
this was a test of survival. But—”

So far, it had been a test of our
running skills
!

But I didn’t care. No way I wanted to stick around to see what this giant
creature was.

As Marissa and I turned and started to run in the opposite direction, a
shadow fell over us.

I gazed up to see if clouds had blocked the sun.

But I saw no clouds overhead.

The shadow was cast by the creature, thundering closer and closer behind us.

I heard trees crunching underfoot. The ground shook. The heavy footsteps
boomed close behind us.

How tall
was
it?

I glanced back—but could see only quivering trees.

Booooom. Booooom.

My knees buckled as the ground shook under my feet.

Marissa and I ran side by side. We hurtled through the trees as fast as we
could, gasping for breath as we ran.

But we couldn’t run out of the shadow. No matter how hard we ran, it floated
over us, cold and dark.

Booooom. Booooom.

So close now. So close that every footstep made me leap into the air.

My heart thudded. My temples throbbed.

Marissa and I forced ourselves to keep running, desperate to escape,
desperate to run out from under the wide shadow that seemed to hold us prisoner.

We ran until we reached a wide stream.

We both stopped inches from the muddy shore. And stared down into the
fast-flowing, blue water.

“Now what?” I cried breathlessly. “Now what?”

The shadow darkened as the creature moved over us.

Marissa tugged my sleeve. “Look. You can see the bottom. It looks really
shallow. Maybe we can walk across it. Or swim if we have to.”

Boooom. Boooom.

The shadow darkened.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We stepped into the cold, clear stream.

The water flowed faster than I thought. I stepped onto the stream’s soft
bottom—and nearly lost my balance as the current swept around me.

I grabbed Marissa’s shoulder to steady myself. We clung together for a
moment, getting used to the water.

“Brrrr.” I shivered. The water felt ice cold, even through my jeans legs.

But it was shallow, as Marissa had said. It came up only a few inches above
my boots.

I took another step, leaning forward, trying to balance against the stream’s
fast current.

One more step. We were both halfway across the stream.

“Oh—!” I cried out when I realized I couldn’t take the next step.

“Hey—!” Marissa exclaimed. I saw her struggling, too. “I’m stuck!”

“The bottom is so soft!” I cried. I worked to pull my foot up from the mud.

Stuck. My hiking boots had sunk below the surface of the muddy bottom.

I leaned down. And pulled. Pulled my leg up.

It wouldn’t budge.

I grabbed my leg with both hands and tried to tug my foot out from the muddy
stream bottom.

No.

“We-we’re sinking!” Marissa wailed. “Justin—look! We’re sinking fast!”

I swallowed hard. She was right. I could feel myself being pulled down. Down
into the cold water, into the soft, sticky mud.

The water came up to my knees now. It seemed to be rising quickly.

But I knew the water wasn’t going up. I was heading
down.

“Pull off your boots and swim for it!” I instructed Marissa.

We both bent over and struggled to reach our hiking boots.

But they were buried too deeply in the mud.

The water rose up over my waist. If I kept sinking, it would be over my head
in a few minutes.

Booom. Booom.

The thundering footsteps made the water ripple.

The dark shadow spread over the stream.

“Justin—look!” Marissa cried. She pointed to the other shore.

I turned to the shore—so close. But so far away.

I squinted into the shadows to see what she was gawking at. “What is it?” I
cried.

“A big plug,” Marissa reported. “In the stream bottom. Like a bathtub drain
plug. This stream isn’t real, either. It’s a fake.”

“The water feels plenty real!” I exclaimed, feeling myself sink even deeper
into the mud. “Can you reach the plug, Marissa? Maybe if you pull it up, the
water will drain.”

She leaned toward it, bending at the waist. She stretched out both hands for
the ring on top of the plug. “I-I’m trying,” she groaned. “If only…”

Boooom. Booooom.

Marissa uttered a sigh. “I can’t! I can’t reach it! It’s too far away.”

The cold stream water flowed against my chest. I felt myself drop farther
into the muddy bottom.

“I think we failed Ivanna’s test,” I murmured.

“Noooo!” Marissa wailed. She began thrashing at the water with both hands,
twisting her body one way, then the other.

The deepening shadow moved over us.

I turned back and raised my eyes to the shore.

I saw the creatures lurching toward us.

And opened my mouth in an ear-shattering scream of horror.

At first I thought I was seeing black clouds, floating low over the trees.