The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (21 page)

Rocks broke free from the shaft wall and fell into the abyss.

“
Come on, Emmett,” Tom encouraged, “you can make it. Just a few more feet, then we are at the top.”

“
Our bodies are changing, and we are losing our strength. I’m not strong enough.”

Tom made it over the top and reached down to pull Emmett up the last few feet. “Don’t give up. Take my hand.”

Panting, Emmett lay on the ground. “I’m never climbing up that again. You got that?”

“
I hope you can figure out the bomb.”

“
All I need is the key and the code. At least that’s what they need in the movies.”

Tom activated a glow stick and held it up. “I’ll search the body, you look where they might have hidden it.”

“
I’ll look for secret hiding spots, right.”

“
Use your super brain power. We wouldn’t have come this far without it. You can’t help but know stuff.”

“
I deduce things based upon available evidence.” Emmett closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “That I have no evidence for right now.”

Tom dangled a key in front of him. “Would this help? It was around this body’s neck.”

“
That was way too easy,” Emmett snapped the latches open on the case. “Hand me the key. All I have to do is put the key there and then type in the code.”

“
Emmett, the room is getting lighter.” Tom gazed at the walls of the cavern. “The crystals are glowing. What’s making them do that?”

“
How should I know?” The crystals glowed even brighter and started to hum. “This can’t be good.”

Reflexively they covered their eyes. Like glass shattering, the crystals around the room burst into a thousand million pieces, sending splinters flying through the air in a big flash of blinding light. The room went completely dark. Tom groaned; splinters of crystal had pierced the scales on his back. “I can’t see anything except for floating dots. Where are you, Emmett?”

“
Right next to you.”

“
What made the walls explode?”

“
We opened the case and they exploded.”

“
Could it be radiation?”

“
Possibly,” Emmett stated, “then that means it’s leaking. Radiation can be measured in heat. If the radiation makes the crystals explode, we can use them. I want to test it out. We need some crystals.”

“
That’s a bad idea. It’s too risky.”

“
We need something, don’t we?”

They fumbled in the dark and found a few crystals that hadn’t exploded just outside of the cave. Emmett held one up to the case and it glowed faintly. He pulled it away from the case and the glow slowly faded. “We don’t have to open the case to charge them. This is good.”

“
But it didn’t explode.”

Emmett held the crystal up to the case and let it charge. It grew brighter and brighter. “It’s getting hot in my hand.”

“
Throw it,” Tom said.

“
Wait.” The crystal became so bright the light hurt his eyes. He tossed it across the cave and it exploded in a blinding flash.

“
That won’t hurt anything,” Tom said.

“
No, but it looks impressive. It might easily distract or disorient.”

“
I’ll crank the generator and you check the computer for the code.”

“
Tom, bad news. The computer was destroyed during the blast What are we going to do?”

Tom’s scaly brow crinkled. “Ever play poker?”

Down the pit wall to the ledge and through the tube, they crept out onto the balcony. They peered over the balcony rail. The lizardmen were everywhere. The lizardmen carried the lady lizard away and one comforted the child one. Anidea and Winston were held under the guard statue on the center of the park.

“
Crap!” Tom balled his claws. “They got caught”

“
What do we do? They have guns.”

“
Hold it right there,” a voice barked from behind. Emmett froze. Tom turned. The lizardman bounded forward and grabbed them by their tails. Emmett dug into the dirt and Tom held tightly onto the bomb.

The lizardman dragged them and sounded an alarm. Tom thrust his leg at the lizardman, aiming for a soft spot. Emmett kicked at his shin. The lizardman cried for help. They broke free and retreated back into the cave.

An explosion rocked the cave and dust rolled up the tube over them. Coughing, Emmett said, “We’re in trouble now. They’re shooting at us.”

“
I think they’re sealing us in here.”

Another explosion sounded and the dust became so thick it was hard to breathe.

“
Oh no, a light.”

“
They’re not sealing us in, they’re using their guns to open up the cave and get us.”

Three explosions shook the cave in rapid succession.

Tom choked, “Move back, we gotta go back.”

Five more explosions rattled them as they crawled up the cave passage. Rocks bounced off their backs, gravel and sand got into their eyes.

Emmett stopped at the edge of the bottomless pit. “If they keep shooting we will have to go back up.”

“
I don’t think I can climb up carrying the bomb,” Tom said.

“
Forget the bomb, drop it down the pit. They’ll never get it.”

“
I’m not leaving it.”

“
We don’t even know if it works.”

“
I have to find out. It’s the only thing that we have. Anidea and Winston are counting on us.”

“
If I had time, I could figure it out.”

Two more explosions rumbled down the passages behind them.

“
I’ll get you the time. Just use it to get them free.” Tom moved toward their attackers.

“
What are you doing, Tom?”

“
When they get close enough, I want you to charge a couple of those crystals and throw them at the lizardmen. That’s when I’ll strike. With luck I can get one of their guns and take them out.”

“
That’s insane.”

“
What choice do we have?” Another explosion knocked them to the ground. “They must be close now, start charging the crystals.”

Emmett popped the case open. “I only have two. You’d better get this right the first time.”

The crystals glowed and grew hot in Emmett’s hands; he bounced them back and forth like a hot potato. Rocks tumbled down on top of them. “The cave is collapsing in on us, we have to do it now,” Tom said.

The tunnel shook again. This time large amounts of slime oozed down, along with more rocks in a slow-motion avalanche of goo.

The lizardmen advanced rapidly. One shouted: “We see your light. You have nowhere to run. Give up.”

“
Throw them now!”

Emmett grunted and threw the charged crystals as hard as he could. They exploded as the lizardmen fired. Tom charged, keeping low. The walls and ceiling finally caved in, pinning his leg. The lizardmen reeled from the crystal flash. Before his eyes slime, spurted out from a fissure in the ceiling, washing over the rocks towards the fleeing lizardmen. With a rumble, the ceiling burst open, and a giant worm crashed into the cave, followed by a wake of slime and smaller worms. The lizardmen’s attack accidentally freed it from its rocky nest. To Tom’s lizardman eyes, it looked mad. Its flesh undulated, and then it recoiled and sprung like a slinky toward the retreating lizardmen.

“
Emmett,” Tom called. “Are you okay? Help me over here, my leg is stuck.”

Carrying the nuke, Emmett emerged from the dust cloud that filled the air. “You look beat up.”

“
Get this rock off my leg,” Tom said as hungry little worms crawled toward him. “I really don’t want these worms to eat me.”

“
What happened?”

Tom wiped the slime off one gun and picked up another. “Didn’t you see? One of those giant worms fell from the ceiling and went after the lizardmen. They dropped their guns.”

“
I guess your plan kinda worked.”

“
No time to talk, we gotta get Anidea and Winston.”

Down at the end of the newly enlarged passage the worm lay still. “It’s blocking the exit,” Emmett said, “It smells like when we were outside the spaceship at school. They must have used the scent of the worm to attract the zombies.”

“
The worm’s not moving,” Tom said. “It must be dead. We’ll have to crawl through that gap to get out.”

They peered out from between the rock and the worm; lizardmen stood guard.

“
We can’t see them all.”

“
Get ready to fire. They must think we are dead.”

“
Wait,” Emmett said, “if they think we are dead that’s good. We can see what’s at the end of the map. Then find Winston and Anidea, and free them.”

“
I’m not backing down. We need to end this.”

“
Now you’re acting like Winston.”

“
Do you think that it’s such a bad idea? Because I don’t. Since when have you cared about being cautious?”

“
I haven’t,” Emmett said, “but just for a change we don’t have to run with what we have. We’re not being forced, and we have choices. This is an opportunity to make a better plan.”

“
The only plan we need here is to save them. Is that a problem?”

Tom opened fire. The lizardmen on the edge of the group scattered, and the ones in the middle melted. “Move. They are running.”

They squeezed past the worm out on to the balcony. Lizardmen had taken up position down below. They held Anidea and Winston in front of their defensive line like a lizardman human shield.

“
Surrender!” A lizardman called up to Tom and Emmett.

Tom fired as many shots as he could at the lizardmen before they returned fire. The one who held Anidea and Winston let go and ran, leaving them out in the open.

“
Run!” Emmett yelled.

But there was nowhere they could go. Confused, Anidea ran toward the lizardmen, jumped and held on to one around its neck. It fought to break free of her grasp. The injured Winston was still unable to run and lay on the ground holding his arms over his head.

Emmett shot above the lizardmen’s heads; he didn’t want to hit Winston. “This isn’t working Tom. What are we going to do?”

Dust and debris flew up in the air around Tom and Emmett, the walls around them disintegrated, and plants vaporized.

“
We have nothing to lose,” Tom said. He stood up and charged down the hill, shooting wildly.

The lizardmen were driven back and Tom ran to Anidea. He knelt at her side with his gun ready. “Are you okay?”

“
Tom!” she cried and buried her face in his shoulder.

“
Emmett, help Winston up. We have to get out of here,” Tom said.

Emmett gave Winston his gun and pulled him to his feet. With the map in one hand and Winston holding on to his other they hopped toward the door after Tom.

“
Anidea, take the bomb,” Tom ordered. “We shoot everything, and I mean everything. Fire every three seconds, that should keep them off us”

“
I still don’t know how the bomb works, Tom.”

“
We can’t stop now. How much further?”

“
200, maybe 300 feet. The map is flashing over that building at the end of this street.”

An intricate garden surrounded the building. Ornamental ponds with flowering plants were on every corner. Fanged creatures they hadn’t seen before flew in the air and bathed in the waters. It smelled like dank soy sauce, and the air tasted like dandelion milk.

“
This is better than being stuffed in a cave with a bunch of slime-spitting carnivorous worms,” Anidea said.

They crouched behind a half wall. “There are no lizardmen guarding the entrance. We’re in luck,” Winston said.

“
It’s a trap. Has to be a trap,” Emmett said.

“
They are hiding,” Winston said.

“
We can’t just walk in there,” Anidea said.

“
Well, we are.” Tom moved. “I’ll shoot left, Winston take the right. We’ll go as fast as we can.”

“
They’ll shoot us,” Anidea said.

“
No, they won’t. They want me alive, remember” Emmett pointed out.

“
We still don’t know what’s in there,” Anidea said.

“
See how the side of the building has been ground down,” Emmett said. “That tells me all I need to know. It was human, and they destroyed it to hide the truth from their people. That they weren’t the first here.”