Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware Page 11

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  Shortly before nightfall, they came upon an abandoned government army base by the path. The walls were of green metal, scratched and dented. The windows were busted. By the side of the building, there was an old, crumpled radio tower on a base of moss-covered concrete.

  Though it was creepy, they decided to stay there overnight. They went inside. All of the furniture was broken, and there were leaves on the floor.

  Bntno explained that, not to worry, it was probably a base where the army had conducted research on the dinosaurs of the hills, or had blocked the approach of the lizard people of Odessa Heights.

  Suddenly, Lily didn’t have a very good feeling.

  They spread out their sleeping bags. Jasper and Lily went out to collect firewood while Katie stayed inside, struggling with the soft-drink machine, whacking the broad plastic buttons and loudly demanding the final few rusting cans of Dr Pepper.

  They lit a fire outside. They ate lentil stew and black bread. Insects sang all around them.

  Lily was frightened of the dark that night. She was embarrassed, but she couldn’t help looking into the shadows and seeing strange shapes. “By dinosaurs,” said Lily, “do you mean big lizards?”

  “Dinosaurs,” Bntno said. “Yes? Tyranno-saurus. Ankylosaurus. Stegosaurus.”

  “Not extinct?” Lily asked.

  “Not in Delaware. Live still in Delaware.”

  “Great,” said Katie, chewing irritably. “Dinosaurs. Surviving here. Just had to, didn’t they?” She protested grumpily, “It’s ridiculous. The tyrannosaurus and stegosaurus don’t even come from the same, like, period. The tyrannosaurus is from the Cretaceous period and the stegosaurus is the Jurassic or something.”

  Jasper was clearly impressed. “Katie,” he said, “I didn’t realize you knew so much about dinosaurs.”

  “Yeah,” said Katie resentfully. “I had to redo a class project on them when I was in fifth grade. They asked us to make a model of a dinosaur, so I made one by covering one of my old Star-Wonder Glitter-Ponies with clay. You know, I gave him wings and stuff. The teacher didn’t like it because he said there wasn’t a real dinosaur that had wings and four legs. And a pink-and-blue sparkly mane. He gave me a D minus and said it was a sad day for paleontology.”

  “I’m worried about the dinosaurs,” Lily said.

  “Oh,” said Bntno, smiling broadly, “do not fear dinosaurs tonight. They do not come here. Not a thing where you should be afraid of.” Bntno squinted up into the foothills. “Lively children,” he said, “will you turn your eyes toward those lights?”

  They looked where he pointed. Far, far away—several miles—there were lights in the hills.

  “Now there, you be afraid. See? Fires,” said Bntno. “The Kangaroo-Riders of Armstrong. Cannibals. Very bad. Very bad peoples.”

  “Cannibals?” said Katie.

  “If they catches you, excellent girl, yes, you are cooked in tinfoils, with tomato and cilantro.”

  “Dastards,” Jasper whispered. “I cannot stand cilantro.”

  Lily was eager to change the subject. Luckily, Katie said, “Hey, Jas, is there anything to drink in your extra backpack here?”

  Lily asked her, “Didn’t you, um, have any luck with the drink machine?”

  Grim-faced, Katie held out two old, grimy bottles of Tyrant Splash. “So do you have anything else to drink?” she asked. “I’m getting thirsty. I heart carbonation.”

  “In the backpack?” said Jasper. “No. Nothing.”

  “It’s heavy,” said Katie.

  Jasper was flustered. “Katie, I’m terribly sorry I let you carry it. It’s my extra bag and I should—”

  “That’s fine, Jas,” said Katie, shrugging.

  “No!” said Bntno suddenly. “No, thirsty girl. Me. I will carry it tomorrow. In the excellent Old World charm of Delaware, we say, the little lady shoulds never be carry the heavy bag. In our excellent Old World charm, we say the little lady, she shoulds just bake corn, lie hammock, paint her eyebrow—”

  “Thanks for the offer. But first, I’m not a ‘little lady.’ And second, I have more than one eyebrow. And third—”

  “No, no, defiant youngster,” Bntno insisted. “I will carry this other bag.”

  “I love carrying the extra bag,” said Katie. “But I happen to be tired and thirsty, that’s all.”

  “Perhaps,” said Jasper shyly, “you would like some Gargletine Instant Breakfast Drink?”

  Katie fixed him with a long, level stare. Gargle-tine™ caused hysteria in lab rats and took the brown off horses. “Maybe not,” said Katie. “But thanks.”

  “Okay,” said Bntno, “if the little girl does not want me to carry the bag…”

  Katie was in no mood to be called a “little girl.” She was about to stand up to her full height and give him a piece of her mind when, off in the jungle, they heard a distant roar, some miles away, like a monstrous promise for tomorrow.

  They stopped talking. The roaring in the distance faded.

  They looked nervously at each other. They suddenly didn’t have much to say. After that, they all soon went to bed.

  That night, none of the three kids could sleep. Bntno kept muttering in his dreams. Every time one of them almost dropped off, they thought they heard something outside the compound. Things moved through the shrubberies.

  It was only as dawn came that they fell asleep, Jasper with his ray gun cradled by his cheek.

  At nine, they got up and packed their sleeping bags. Katie was still determined to get something fizzy to drink out of the old vending machine. Lily got the feeling that Katie’s anger at the machine was somewhat personal. Katie went around and collected everyone’s change and stood in front of the machine, feeding it coins, slapping its sides, and yelling at it. When Katie had run through everyone’s change, she went outside where the others were waiting. They looked solemn and wary. She looked frustrated.

  “Did you get anything out of the machine?” Jasper asked.

  “A rodent,” she said miserably. “I think it was a capybara.”

  “Someone was here last night,” said Lily. She pointed at the ground. There were footprints from a pair of men’s boots in the soft, black dirt. They circled the building. There were many of them just outside the shattered window of the room where the four travelers had slept—as if someone had crouched there a long while, shifting position carefully—listening through the night.

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  All day they marched through grove and clump. The jungle was hot, rotten. Fur grew on the trees. All four of them were sweating. Far off they could hear the grousing of the dinosaurs, the hysteria of monkeys.

  They had not seen any dinosaurs yet—and Lily was happy to keep it that way.

  They had seen another clue at the military base before they set out. Whoever had been sneaking around the night before had written a message on the door in fading Magic Marker. It said, in English, REMEMBER YOU…—and then the intruder had run out of ink. The door had no more to say.

  Lily was not enjoying the trip. Her head was surrounded by a turban of flies. When she tried to brush them out of the air, or out of her hair, they gathered around her hand like a wristlet. They would not go away.

  But it was more than that. She was frightened of what lived in the jungle. She knew that Katie was used to dealing with monsters, but Lily was not. On the far slopes, she could hear the distant crash of allosauruses through ferns and baobabs. She could almost hear their size. And she knew that she and her friends were headed straight for one of the most dangerous, dinosaur-infested places in all of Delaware.

  “This afternoon, visitor children,” said Bntno, “we come to the ruined city of Greylag. Very ancient city. Large amount of monster.”

  “We have my ray gun,” said Jasper.

  “I’m a little worried about this,” said Katie.

  “Yeah,” said Lily hesitantly. “Do we have a plan?”

  “We go through this city, yes? To bridge. We cross bridge rea
l quick, only lose one of us by snatching.”

  “Great,” said Katie. “How do we decide which one of us?”

  Bntno laughed. “Very droll friend,” he said, “monster decides!” He acted out the monster choosing. He pointed at the air. “Which for lunch? Hmm! This one tasty!”

  “It’s not funny,” said Lily. “How are we going to get through these ruins alive?”

  Bntno smiled. “Old saying of Delaware: Slow girl asks most questions about running.”

  Lily was embarrassed. She caught Katie casting a glance back. Lily knew that the others were thinking of her as the slow one, the one in the most danger. And they weren’t wrong.

  She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to seem like a coward, but out of the four of them, she was the one person with almost no experience of towering evil. Bntno had been to this city before. Katie had escaped from centipedes the size of commuter trains. Jasper had fought his share of sea-serpents, lunar ogres, carnivorous swamps, battle bots, tankopods, and Saturnian blimp-beasts with suctiony mouths, bundles of eyes, and weird whistling songs sung entirely in chlorine.

  Lily, on the other hand, had only encountered some irritable whales. She saw Katie looking back at her again, concerned.

  Katie offered, “Maybe Jasper should go on ahead and Lily and I can stay here on this side of the city. We’ll walk back along the path to the gravel road.”

  Jasper thought about this and said, “Yes, that sounds like a good plan, Katie. I don’t want to put either of you in danger.”

  Lily protested, “I don’t want to slow us down.”

  Both of her friends rushed to say she wasn’t slowing anyone down, no way, don’t worry. She could tell by the way they rushed to reassure her that they didn’t mean it. She really was slowing them down.

  “I hope no one slow us down…,” said Bntno, holding his finger up in the air.

  “No one is slowing us down, Bntno,” said Jasper firmly.

  “…because listen.”

  They listened. They heard a distant shrieking.

  “What is it?” muttered Jasper. “Dinosaurs?”

  “Triceratops?” whispered Katie. “…es?”

  Dramatically Bntno declared, “I think, the Kangaroo-Riders of Armstrong. They are move to here.”

  “Huh?” said Katie.

  Bntno remained silent, still holding his finger up. The rest fell silent, too.

  Then they heard the drums in the forest. Then they heard the triumphant yelps. Yelps of men on the hunt. Yelps broken by Oomph s and Orkkk s as steeds hit the ground and bounced, knocking the wind out of their riders. The four heard the cannibals hopping through the wood—and they heard them getting closer.

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  “Einstein’s ghost!” exclaimed Jasper. “We’d better make ourselves scarce!”

  Bntno was already rushing down the path, his hands spread, slapping at leaves as he went. The other three followed, their backpacks rattling. They scrambled through the wood.

  Lily saw that Katie was keeping an eye on her, running at Lily’s speed so Lily wouldn’t fall behind.

  The hunt drums sputtered distantly through the palms like something caught in the blades of a fan. Buttabuttabuttabuttabutta. The high, arched war cries drew closer, angry and jolted.

  “You…don’t need to…run slower… because of me,” Lily said to Katie.

  “I’m not,” said Katie. “I’m enjoying the scenery.” She leaped over a fallen trunk. “Great vacation. Thanks, Jasper, wherever you are.”

  They were barreling down a slope now, into a valley. Bntno was in the lead. Jasper had stopped and, ray gun held aloft, stood by the path, waiting for Katie and Lily to pass.

  Just as they were by his side, he barked, “They’re here!” And for a nice, comfortable moment the girls thought he meant the two of them.

  But he did not.

  Lily turned her head back and looked.

  The cannibals of Delaware sifted suddenly out of the trees—they battered down through the wood, spears and tridents raised, kangaroos darting over branch and hummock, slamming to earth, leaping.

  Bntno was so far ahead he could barely be seen. Lily ran after him as fast as she had ever run, her scratched arms flailing, her heart thumping as loud as her feet, her mouth open, hearing the wreckage of leaf and tree behind her.

  Soon Bntno was out of sight. Lily had only the path to guide her, and she stumbled along it beside Katie, terrified. Then she looked up.

  A chieftain stood blocking the path in front of her, arms crossed.

  Jasper, Katie, and Lily had stopped running.

  They were already surrounded.

  Kangaroos and their riders were everywhere.

  With cruel shrieks and hooting calls, the cannibals of Delaware dismounted and began to pace toward the three friends. Except for six

  who, disoriented by all the hopping, paced in the wrong direction, spun in circles, or went to throw up in the bushes. The rest, however, looked menacing. They looked hungry. They dressed in loincloths and terrycloth sweatbands. They were greased, and their hair was long and shaggy like rockers’. In their hands were spears, long forks, chips and salsa, and, cradled in one man’s arms, a Cobb salad in Saran Wrap.

  Their kangaroos hunkered behind them, waiting for the slaughter.

  The chief stood on the path right in front of Lily, Jasper, and Katie. He wore a headdress—a busy, brutal confection of pheasant wings, rat skulls, and sequins—and an old barbecue apron that said I’M HERE WITH SCRUMPTIOUS࢐.

  He smiled grimly at the three friends. He laughed. He called orders to his warriors in his unknown language.

  Lily felt weak. Her arms dropped to her sides. There was nowhere to run.

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  Lily looked from scowl to frown to spiteful grin. She sought mercy. The faces offered nothing but a smorgasbord of hate with a dessert-cart of sweet murder.

  And Lily and her friends were on that menu.

  It was at this point that some late riders arrived, thumping through the wood.

  As they whalloped up and yanked on their reins, they called something down to their chief. Whatever it was, it took a long time to say. It appeared they were having an argument. Several of them pointed at one another and jabbered. Their chief responded with anger.

  Katie, Jasper, and Lily exchanged glances. They did not understand what the argument was about, but they had a feeling that any disagreement might be used to their advantage.

  The chief was yelling and waving his hands around. The warriors bickered, and he replied sharply, shaking his snake-headed staff, bellowing in their harsh, ancient language that rang with the sounds of metal, battle, and clash—a tongue calling to mind the barbarians of the steppes, the night fires in the jungle, cruel raiders in dragon-prowed ships, the sack of cities, and the death of forest-kings.*

  While they were occupied arguing, Jasper carefully raised his ray gun.

  The chief kept yelling.

  So Jasper fired near the man’s feet.

  The chieftain yelped and looked down. Where the beam had pierced, the leaves burned. The chieftain jumped back.

  Jasper grabbed Lily’s wrist and ran past the man—and Katie followed. They bolted down the path. The cannibals watched them, astounded.

  Jasper turned and fired a few more laser bolts back into the trees. Shouts and exclamations of anger reached them. Cannibals grabbed at their spears and scrambled for their war-joeys.

  Leaping over logs, skidding down slopes, spattering brooks, the three kids fled. Soon they could hear the pounding of kangaroos behind them.

  Jasper stopped his flight and stood astraddle the path, gun raised in both hands, one eye a-squint. Needles of blue flame beat through the trees. For a moment, the warriors halted, their steeds rearing back on nervous, tawny legs. Jasper waved his gun and yelled, “There’s more where that came from, you rascals!” Again, he pulled the trigger.

  The trigger clicked. No fire.

  He added, “…as soon as
I dig in my rucksack for some triple-A batteries.”

  And began to run again.

  The whole messy, bouncy cavalcade poured on down the hillside after him.

  “We’re…never…going to make it…,” said Katie. She kept grabbing at Lily’s hand, yanking her friend. Lily stumbled—desperate for speed—reaching out for her faster pal.

  Jasper screamed, “They’re coming!”

  “Do you think…,” said Katie, “they’ll marinate us first? Because I really wrinkle in vinegar.”

  Lily didn’t answer.

  Then it was over, it seemed. Scowling kangaroos were on either side of them. Men waved forks.

  Lily’s heart broke. She could run no more.

  “I give up,” said Katie, also slowing. “All I’m doing is toughening my flank steaks.”

  “We can get out of this, chums,” said Jasper. “I will not die without dignity. And a complete list of the sides I shall be served with.”

  But as they stopped and turned to meet their baker, they realized that their pursuers were silent. All over the slope, the warriors hunched atop their twitch-nosed steeds. They did not move.

  They stared in horror.

  Jasper, Lily, and Katie looked up.

  They had just passed under a stone arch. They looked down the path, the way they had been running.

  There were buildings. Stone buildings. And a giant, flame-eyed statue of a skeleton.

  Suddenly, the three realized that the cannibals would not be capturing them. The cannibals were afraid. The cannibals pointed at the city and muttered words in their language.

  The cannibals turned silently and fled.

  They leaped back up the slope, hardly daring to look behind them. The chief touched himself on the forehead in a blessing and whispered a prayer. Then he ran.

  Soon, all that was left were several spears discarded in the rush and a pile of s’more fixins.