Monster Blood IV (7 page)

Will it work? Evan wondered. Will the jolt of electricity destroy the ugly,
destructive things?

He swung the broom hard, batting the monsters forward.

Swung it again.

They bobbed and bounced over the low shrubs that divided the yards.

On into Conan Barber’s backyard.

“Nooooooo!” Kermit let out a cry and slapped his forehead. “The switch! I
forgot to turn it on again!”

Creatures bounced into the next yard. Beneath the tufts of black hair, their
skin glowed bright blue in the morning sunlight.

“You jerk!” Evan shrieked at his cousin. “How could you forget again? How
could
you?”

Andy plopped down on the grass, lowering her head and uttering an unhappy
sigh.

Kermit fumbled in his back pocket for the fence control. He finally tugged it
out and pressed the red button to turn on the power.

ZZZAAAAAP!

Evan shrieked and leaped into the air as a powerful shock jolted through him.

“I
told
you not to stand there!” Kermit cried.

Evan jumped aside.

“I turned it up all the way!” Kermit declared.

“Too late,” Evan muttered.

The Monster Blood creatures had all bounced and rolled into the next
backyard.

Conan’s yard.

“Oh, no,” Evan moaned softly. “Here comes more trouble.”

All three of them gasped as Conan came lumbering across his yard, a can of
Coke in one hand, his other hand balled into a tight, angry fist.

“Conan—go back!” Evan warned. But his voice came out tiny and weak. He knew
that Conan couldn’t hear him over the growls and snarls of the Monster Blood
creatures.

“What’s the big idea?” Conan boomed. “It’s not my birthday! Get these
balloons out of my yard!”

“Get back! Get back!” Evan tried to warn him.

Kermit and Andy stood frozen, watching Conan storm toward the bouncing, evil
blobs.

Evan waved frantically with both hands. “Get back—!”

Conan scowled at him. “Are you ordering me around in my own yard?”

“But—but—” Evan sputtered.

Conan kicked at one of the creatures. “Whoa. This balloon has hair on it!”

He bent to pick the creature up—and it jumped onto his arm. With a growl,
it swallowed Conan’s Coke can.

“Hey—!” Conan protested.

The creature started to swell up from the liquid.

Conan struggled to shake it off. But it clung tightly to his arm.

And then, with a loud, wet
POP,
it exploded.

Thick slime splashed over Conan’s face. He spluttered, thrashed his arms out
in surprise. Wiped the slimy goo from his eyes.

And blinked at
two
hairy, round creatures clinging to his arm.

“Get these
off
me!” he shrieked.

With a furious cry, he swung his free arm—and batted the two blobs
together. They made a loud
SQUISH
as they collided with each other. And
they dropped to the ground.

Another creature bit into Conan’s leg. Conan stumbled and tripped over
another one.

He pulled himself up quickly, glaring furiously at Kermit. “You invented
these hairy things—didn’t you!” he accused. “Don’t even answer. It’s some kind
of lab experiment—right? I know this is your kind of thing.”

“No. Listen—” Kermit started weakly.

Another Monster Blood creature exploded, sending a wave of cold slime over
Conan.

He spluttered again and tried to wipe it away. Then he shook a fist at them.
“It’ll be payback time—real soon,” he threatened. “Payback time!”

And he slunk back toward his house, covered in slime.

Evan breathed a sigh of relief. We have enough problems without having Conan
in our face, he thought.

Of course, Conan will be back. But we can’t worry about that now.

He gazed over the backyards. The Monster Blood creatures were spreading out
over the entire block.

What are we going to do? Evan wondered.

He turned back to the house. “Hey—Aunt Dee is home!” he cried.

“When did she get back?” Kermit wondered.

“We have to tell her what’s happened,” Andy urged. “We need help. We can’t
round these creatures up on our own.”

The three of them took off, running across the slime-puddled grass to the
back door. A few seconds later, they burst breathlessly into the kitchen.

Kermit’s mom had her back to them. She was stirring a long spoon in a big
aluminum pot on the stove. She turned as the storm door slammed.

“What’s up, guys?” She smiled at them.

“We need help!” Kermit blurted out.

Aunt Dee’s smile faded. “Help? What’s wrong?” She turned back to the stove.
“Keep talking. I just have to stir this. I’m mixing up a new batch of spaghetti
with hot sauce for my reading club tonight.”

“We have a real problem. Andy found a can of Monster Blood, and Kermit opened
it,” Evan told her, all in one breath.

“That’s nice,” Aunt Dee replied, frowning at her hot sauce. She sniffed and
peered down into the steaming pot. “I think it needs more peppers.”

“Mom—you’ve got to
listen
!” Kermit pleaded.

“I am listening,” she insisted, stirring harder. “Go on with your story.”

“It’s not a story. It’s real,” Evan told her.

Still stirring, she glanced back at him. “I hope there isn’t any serious
trouble, Evan. You are in charge, you know. Being out in the middle of the night
and ruining my flower garden is enough trouble for one visit. When I tell your
parents—”

“Mom,
please
!” Kermit begged.

“I’m afraid we
do
have more trouble,” Andy told her.

“The Monster Blood poured out and formed a little blob creature,” Evan
continued, his voice trembling. “It was cute at first. But it drank a lot of
water and exploded into two. Then the two exploded into four.”

Evan glanced out the kitchen window. The creatures were rolling and bouncing
all over the backyard. Some of them had discovered the garden hose and were
soaking up water, inflating rapidly.

Several of them were forcing their way into the big wooden doghouse in a
corner of the yard.

Oh, no, Evan thought. That’s where I stashed the Super-Soakers. Plenty of
water for them in Dogface’s house.

“Now there are hundreds of them, Mom,” Kermit continued the story. “And
they’re not cute anymore. They’ve grown hair, and they’ve turned really fierce.
They’re spreading out all over the neighborhood, and—”

“That’s nice,” Aunt Dee said absently, frowning at her hot sauce.

“Mom—just take a look at them!” Kermit pleaded. “Look out the window. Now!”

“I can’t right now,” she replied. “I have to stir—”

The phone rang.

She handed the long wooden spoon to Evan. “I’ve been waiting for that call.
Stir for me till I get back, okay?”

Before Evan could reply, she ran from the kitchen.

“I don’t think she heard us,” Kermit said, shaking his head unhappily. “If
only she would take one look out the window. Then maybe…” His voice drifted
off.

Evan sighed and stirred the sauce. The steam rising up from the pot burned
his eyes. “This stuff is deadly!” he declared.

And that gave him an idea.

He glanced out the window in time to see a wet explosion of slime from the
doghouse. The creatures had found the Super-Soakers. More of them had clustered around the
little wooden structure.

He turned to Kermit and Andy. “Let’s try Aunt Dee’s hot sauce,” he whispered.

“Excuse me?” Kermit and Andy stared at him, confused.

“You want to eat now?” Kermit asked. “I thought you hated Mom’s hot sauce.”

“I do,” Evan admitted, still whispering. “Because it
kills
!”

“I get it!” Andy declared, her dark eyes widening in excitement. “You think
maybe the hot sauce will kill the Monster Blood creatures.”

Evan nodded. “It’s liquid. So they’ll try to drink it. And maybe it will be
too hot for them to handle.”

“Maybe it will blow them up for good!” Andy exclaimed.

“Worth a try, I guess,” Kermit said softly.

Evan glanced to the door. No sign of Aunt Dee.

“Quick—” he whispered. “Help me carry the pot outside.”

Evan grabbed two pot holders off the counter and handed one to Andy. Then
they each grabbed a handle on the top of the big stew pot and lifted it
carefully off the stove.

“It weighs a ton,” Andy groaned.

“Mom likes to make a lot of hot sauce,” Kermit explained. “She keeps the
extra sauce in the freezer. For emergencies, I guess.”

He held the back door open. Evan and Andy, hoisting the steaming pot between
them, carried it out the door.

Evan raised his eyes to the backyard and let out a cry. “We may be too late,”
he moaned. “There are so many of them!”

Squinting into the sunlight, he thought he saw
thousands
of them! They
bounced and rolled over the backyards. They growled and grunted.

They gulped water from the garden hose. Dozens of them were bouncing through
a neighbor’s flower bed, drinking the plants dry.

Two houses down, Monster Blood creatures had gathered in a small, backyard
goldfish pond. They were busily drinking the pond dry. Some of them were sucking
the liquid out of the goldfish!

“Too late,” Evan murmured. “We’re just too late.”

“It might work,” Andy said, not very enthusiastically. “If we can get them to
drink it.”

“I—I have to set it down,” Evan told her. “The handle is hot. My hand is
burning.”

“Mine too,” Andy replied.

They set the steaming stew pot down on the grass in the center of the yard.

“Now how do we get them to try it?” Kermit asked. Without waiting for an
answer, he cupped his hands around his mouth and began shouting, “Come and get
it! Come and get it!”

Evan grabbed him and pulled him back. “I don’t think they speak English,” he
told Kermit, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s back away from the pot and let them discover it on their own,” Andy
suggested.

“Good idea,” Evan replied. He tugged Kermit back some more. “They haven’t had
any trouble finding liquid everywhere. If we step back a bit, they’ll discover
the hot sauce.”

The three of them backed toward the garage, keeping their eyes on the pot of
hot sauce.

Monster Blood creatures bounced over three or four backyards, sucking up any liquid they could find. Flower beds lay wilted
and dead. Large patches of grass were brown and dry.

Will they find the hot sauce? Evan wondered.

Will they try it? Will it destroy them?

It nearly destroyed me! he remembered. It burned my lips and took all the
skin off the roof of my mouth!

Will it burn up the hairy blue blobs?

The spicy aroma of the hot sauce drifted to Evan’s nose. You can probably
smell it all over the backyards, he guessed.

He stared without blinking at the aluminum pot gleaming in the sunlight. And
he crossed his fingers, hoping his idea would work.

As he watched, a few Monster Blood creatures turned toward the pot. Their
round eyes bulged. They began bobbing up and down, as if excited.

Then they started to bounce toward the hot sauce.

“Yesssss!” Evan whispered. “Yessss!”

But before the creatures could reach the pot, another figure came bounding
into the backyard.

Evan was concentrating so hard, at first he didn’t recognize the big
sheepdog. But Kermit’s cries made Evan realize what was happening.

“Dogface—get away!” Kermit cried frantically. “Dogface—no! Go home, boy! Dogface—go home!”

But the big dog ignored Kermit’s cries. Wagging his stub of a tail furiously,
he trotted toward the shining hot sauce pot.

“Dogface—get away!” Kermit cried, frantically waving the big sheepdog back.

Panting hard, his pink tongue hanging down from his furry face, Dogface
bounded up to the hot sauce pot. Ignoring Kermit’s desperate cries, he lowered
his head to the pot and sniffed it.

“No! Go away! Go away!” Evan joined in on Kermit’s cries. “Get him away from
there!”

They couldn’t move fast enough.

The big dog bumped the pot over. The orange hot sauce poured out over the
grass.

Dogface lowered his head and licked up a few tastes.

Blue Monster Blood creatures bounced closer. A few began hungrily drinking up
the spilled hot sauce.

Evan waited and watched, his fingers crossed so hard, they hurt.

No. No.

The hot sauce didn’t bother the hairy blue blobs a bit.

But Dogface raised his head from the ground. Behind his thick fur, his black
eyes rolled crazily. The big dog opened his jaws in a long howl of pain.

And as he howled, a growling blue blob leaped onto the dog’s back.

Stunned and in pain, Dogface shook himself hard. But the creature clung to
the fur on his back.

“No! Get away!” Evan shrieked as another blob leaped onto Kermit’s dog.

With another howl, the big dog took off. His big paws pounded the grass. He
shook himself as he ran, trying to throw off the two creatures.

Kermit stood openmouthed in shock.

“The blobs are drinking up all the hot sauce!” Andy declared. “And now
they’re biting and snapping at each other! It’s turning them even meaner!”

“Come on!” Evan cried, running after the dog. “We’ve got to save Dogface!
Those creatures will kill him!”

Evan took a deep breath and started running full speed, following the howling
dog. Kermit and Andy ran right behind him.

“Dogface—whoa!” Kermit called. “Dogface—stop! Stop!”

But, as always, the dog ignored Kermit.

Shaking his back, he ran in crazy zigzags.

Through backyards. And then across a street. And onto the sidewalk.

The dog barked and howled in protest. But the two blobs hung on, appearing to
enjoy the ride.