Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear (28 page)

LIZ HURRIED UP THE TRAIL, hauling Lily with her. “No, no! Tell me this isn’t real!” she gasped. Lily covered her mouth. Neither of them blinked. “That beautiful house! Where’s Teresa? Is she okay?”

Jack shook with worry. “We don’t know, but they got Enola, Mom! They captured her, and now Cheyton went to rescue her. We’ve got to do something!”

“What are we supposed to do? How can we help?”

“With this!” he held up the O/A.

“But that thing’s broken, remember?”

“Yeah, and Dad can fix it. Then he can use it against Davos.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. Your dad’s in jail.”

“There’s got to be a way to get him out.”

Amelia suggested, “Maybe we can raise bail.”

“No way,” Liz said. “Bail is five hundred thousand dollars. We’ll never get ahold of that kind of money.”

“What if we broke him out?” Ayita proposed.

Liz laughed. “Yeah, right. We’re gonna break Ben out of jail. Do you know how hard that would be? Not to mention stupid. We’d have the police all over us.”

Jack pounded his fist in his palm. “We have to do something. You heard what Teresa said. They won’t stop at just Enola. They want to enslave all the Tanakee. Then they want to come after me and Amelia. They want to kill us, Mom. We have to stop them!”

“This is crazy!” she ran her fingers through her light auburn hair. “This can’t be happening. I refuse to believe it.”

“How can you doubt it, Mrs. James?” Amelia appealed to her. “How can you say you don’t believe after all we’ve been through? Do you think last night was a dream? Do you think everything Teresa told us was made up?”

Liz sighed at Lily and Jack. “I guess I never wanted to accept it. I just wanted a normal, secure family life. Ben’s always been a great husband and father, but he’s had so many wild dreams. And when Jack started to show the same tendencies, it scared me. It’s bad enough having a husband who might at any moment rip a hole in the fabric of time and slip through like a bug in a vacuum cleaner. I’d be a basket case if my son wiped himself out of existence, too. It’s just so hard sometimes. A mother wants her children to be safe. You understand, Jack, don’t you?”

Jack toed through the minefield of strewn books, broken glass and stone. He hurried to his mom and wrapped her in his arms. She folded in on his embrace. A tear ran down her cheek.

“I don’t want to lose you, kid,” she whispered. “Is that so wrong?”

“You’re not going to, Mom,” he smiled up at her. “We can do this. All we have to do is get the O/A to Dad. If we have to beg and plead with the police, then that’s what we’ll do. If we have to sneak him out, I’m sure Takota could do that. Right, Takota?”

No answer.

“He left,” Pud asserted.

“What! Where’d he go!”

Pud pointed into the woods. Jack followed in the direction of his gesture, dashing through the brush.

Liz called for him. “Jack, NO!”

“Takota!” his vocal chords felt weak. “Takota! Where are you!”

He sprinted several yards then stopped to listen. A soft breeze played in the trees. Blue Jays squawked high above. No Takota. He sighed and dropped his head.

“How’s your injury?” Takota’s voice came from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

Jack felt his side. The pain was gone. “Better,” he looked up. Nothing.

“You should go back to your mother. You’re not safe with me.”

“I knew you’d come back!” Jack’s spirits lifted when he saw his tiny friend standing on the forest floor in front of him.

“I didn’t. Jack, I’m going away, you understand?”

“No!”

“Everywhere I go it seems all I do is bring trouble to everyone else. I can’t be responsible for this. I’m the reason why Davos and his followers are chasing you. I’m the one who started it.”

“But what about the things Teresa told us? Remember? You’re my protector!”

“The best way for me to protect you is to get away from you.”

“What’s going on?” Ayita caught up with them.

“Jack!” Liz dragged Lily in a huff. “Don’t you ever run off into the woods like that, you hear me?”

All he heard or saw at that moment was Takota telling him goodbye.

“No! I won’t let you! We need you! I need you!” Jack tried to catch him. Takota slipped out of reach. He jumped and bounced between two Douglas-firs, digging his claws into the bark and climbing fifteen feet up.

“I’ve made up my mind, Jack. Do what your mother tells you and stay out of this.”

“Where are you going?” Ayita asked. “You’re just gonna leave? Takota, deep down inside you know you should stay with Jack. We Tanakee have a mission. Teresa was right. We were sent here for a reason, like it or not. We have to stay with our children. It’s our duty to protect them.”

“I know,” Takota climbed higher. “That’s why I have to leave. It’s the only way I know to protect him. I can’t control Eteea. I don’t know how.”

“Neither do I!” Ayita trembled. “I can’t control it either. You don’t see me running off!”

“You’re different. You’re from the Lost Tribes. You’re a born warrior. I wasn’t brought up into this.”

“That’s no excuse. You’re a Tanakee. All Tanakee have Eteea.”

“I don’t know
HOW!
” Takota jumped to another evergreen, further distancing himself from the others.

“What about Enola? Are you just going to let Cheyton try to save her all by himself?”

He slumped and labored for breath. “I’m sorry about Enola, but there’s nothing I can do. Goodbye, Jack. Don’t try to follow me,” he looked at Ayita. “Goodbye,” finally he ascended to the top of the tree where he flung himself to the next one, and the next. In a matter of seconds he was out of sight.

“Takota! NO!” Jack took a step and his mother caught his jacket. Sniffling, he felt a tear down his cheek. “Mom, we can’t let him go!”

“It’s his choice, son. You can’t make people, or Tanakee, do something they don’t want to do.”

“But Jack needs him, Mommy,” Lily’s voice was scratchy.

“Not if we steer clear of those people. We need to stay out of this.”

“Mom, we can’t!” Jack protested. “We’re in this. We have to see it through to the end. Davos is gonna come after us again, and next time we need the O/A to work.”

“See, that’s just it. How do you know? Your dad’s machine does some pretty neat stuff, but how do you know it can possibly be powerful enough to destroy the thing that attacked us last night?”

Jack’s breath was heavy. “Because it told me, okay? It promised it would help us defeat Davos if we got Dad to fix it.”

“It…talked to you?” Liz sighed in suspicion.

“Is that so hard to believe? I mean, just yesterday you thought it was impossible for these guys to be actual, living beings,” he gestured to Ayita and Pud. “Is it so hard to believe Dad’s machine might be able to communicate with me?”

Liz breathed hard. “I-I don’t know.”

Ayita stepped close to Liz and widened her large, cobalt eyes. “Please, Jack’s mom. I know you’re only trying to protect your son, but Cheyton is my brother, and Enola is my friend. They’re both in terrible danger. I can see it. Please help us.”

“Mommy, please,” Lily repeated.

THIRTY-FOUR

“I’VE GOT a bad feeling about this,” Amelia held her stomach.

“We’re just borrowing it. Teresa won’t mind,” Liz lowered her voice. “I don’t think.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Jack pondered the woods through the glass.

Lily whined. “Mommy, where
is
Teresa?”

“I don’t know, honey. We searched everywhere.”

“Yeah,” Pud agreed. “I explored darn near every inch of that disaster zone that used to be her house. She’s not in there.”

The Volkswagen van sat in a narrow spot inside Teresa’s barn several yards from the main house, saving it from the destruction of the previous night. Lucky for them, the ignition needed no key. A flat nose screwdriver worked just fine.

“Jeez, this clutch is touchy!” Liz ground the stickshift into first gear. The van lurched. The engine died.

“I
really
don’t feel good about this,” Amelia insisted. Liz started it again and finally got the transmission to cooperate. They rolled down the driveway onto Fernhill Road.

“About what?” Jack fixed his attention on Amelia. “Do you sense something?”

“No. I can’t get a good vision. Just a feeling in my stomach. Like I’m going to be sick.”

“I feel it too,” Ayita rubbed her gut. “It’s getting really strong.”

Liz griped. “No, no. I can’t deal with this right now. I can’t have you two getting sick on me.”

“I’m not sick,” Amelia breathed deep. “I’m feeling better. Maybe if I sit next to the window.”

Jack offered her the passenger chair. The rest of the seating consisted of large beanbags and overstuffed pillows. Comfortable, sure. Yet each time the van even veered slightly in any direction, everything shifted, making for an interesting ride. Lily and Pud loved it. They made it a game, tossing and burying themselves in the soft bundles, falling and tumbling while the VW careened down the rural road.

“It would help if you knew how to drive this thing,” Jack chided.

Liz sneered playfully. “Hey! This is hard! You try it—uh, I take that back.”

The bouncing pressed the O/A against his hip. He dug it out of his pocket. Its usually vivid, iridescent sheen seemed subdued. The static charge he felt normally was nearly nonexistent. It seemed to have a gloomy mood. He turned it over and ran his fingers around the bullet hole. He tingled with tiny pinpricks, feeling its pain.

“It’s still hurt,” Pud said.

“Yes. Still hurt.” Jack answered. “You did some work to it? What did you do? Show me.”

Pud took the device in both hands. When he touched it, his body stiffened, then he relaxed. “You said it talked to you, Jack? It talked to me too.”

“Watch out!” Amelia pointed at an obscure figure standing in the road. Liz slammed on the brakes. The back end of the van hopped twice. She cranked the wheel, sending the vehicle askew. It flopped and crashed onto its side. Jack slammed against the ceiling. He saw stars but stayed awake.

Out the windshield, through the strewn beanbags and goose down pillows, he saw Davos approaching fast. The first thing, the one thing he thought was to run, to get the Nagas to follow him. If nothing else, he’d save his loved ones from being hurt, even if it meant sacrificing himself. He kicked open the back door, already ajar from the wreck. Rolling onto the rocky road, he peered up.

“There you are!” Davos gave him a fiery stare. He reached with his long, spindly fingers. Jack scooped two handfuls of gravel and threw them in his face. He staggered, shielding his view. The boy hurled himself into the ditch and plunged down a steep embankment.

“Young fool! You will never escape!”

Jack caught his footing, ran three steps and fell. The tangled roots and overgrown vines hindered his escape. A shapeless hoard of coal-colored reptiles streaked above him. Davos had transformed. Jack cowered in the shadows, letting the winged monsters fly past.

He heard a disturbance in the bushes nearby. Twigs snapping, leaves rustling. Then he saw the blackest eyes and his heart skipped a beat. He scuttled several feet backward before realizing it was a deer, a single doe standing there, unblinking. She tilted her head at the dark mass spiraling toward both of them and then galloped away.

As the deer bounced through the dense groundcover, she created a distinct path of broken branches and trembling saplings. The cloud of razor-thin gargoyles pursued its course. The break Jack needed. He scurried in the other direction as soon as they were out of sight, doing his best to cover ground quickly. Not an easy task in such thick vegetation. Springtime brought abundant flora to the rainforests of Northwest Oregon. It provided plenty of camouflage, yet slowed his progress considerably.

In the distance he heard a howl. Finally Davos realized he’d been duped. Jack searched for a place to hide, somewhere to curl under and wait it out. Then he saw the perfect space beneath a fallen log where he pulled himself in and covered up with dead leaves, an old cedar branch and a few handfuls of moss.

A rush of wind blasted away some of his camouflage. He didn’t dare move. The shadowy cluster passed, clicking and clattering, jaws snapping, scales slapping against scales, claws pinching. A gust swirled into a miniature tornado. He held his breath and clenched his eyelids, feeling the log shake, ready to lift off the ground. Then the squall died down and moved to another section of the forest. At last, he breathed, the air a welcomed friend. A stroke of luck! His hiding spot had worked.

He waited a few minutes before standing. The sun was straight up in the sky. He had no way of distinguishing east from west. He listened for any familiar sound. The wind in the trees. The hoot of a Spotted Owl. The stillness of the forest. Nothing else. Inside his pocket, he found a quarter. He flicked it in the air and let it land on the forest floor. Tails. That meant he’d go…he paused, hearing a rumble low in the ground. He knew that sound, the exaggerated bass the older kids loved to blast from their car stereos. A road! He followed the noise. Soon he found Fernhill.

He had a decision to make. Down Fernhill Road, he knew his mom, sister and friends might have been in trouble. He searched both directions of the twisting pavement. Truthfully, he was desperate to return to his mother’s aid. She needed him. He needed Takota, though. Something deep inside told him that. His protector was out there somewhere, and Jack had to find him.