The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (19 page)

Down the hall they went. Left and right though halls, up and down spiral ramps. At first they hid around corners and behind statues. Eventually they gained confidence. None of the lizardmen reacted to them. They didn’t give chase, alarms didn’t sound. They didn’t seem to care.

Then one stopped them. “Shouldn’t you kids be in school?” he asked. They were being treated like kids playing a game.

They took off, running down a side corridor away from the lizardman who had spoken to them. “Don’t they know about us?” Anidea said.

“
They must not have noticed us escaping,” Winston said.

“
I’m willing to bet they know we’re gone,” Tom said. “They also know that we have nowhere else to go.”

“
Not every person knows about every secret experiment that the government does on Earth,” Emmett said. “It’s only natural that most of the lizardmen are completely unaware of who and what we are. But I do know that they want me.”

“
I think we can take it easy,” Tom said, “All we need to do is stay out of sight and blend in. They think we are kids skipping school.”

“
Maybe we could disguise ourselves,” Anidea said.

“
Now you’re talking my language. Let’s find us some lizard clothes,” Tom smiled.

Anidea looked at Tom and took in the details, his scales, the few remaining patches of hair. Even as a reptilian he was still a lanky, socially inadequate doofus.

“
Yes?” Tom said.

“
You look better as a lizard,” she replied.

They entered a vaulted room lined with statues of lizardmen, sitting, standing, and pointing in meaningless gestures, dressed in clothes and wearing hats.

“
This looks like a mall,” Winston said, “I guess shopping is universal.”

“
How many times have you hit your head today?” Anidea said.

“
I was thinking of you, Anidea.”

Tom surveyed the room. Banners and tapestries hung from the walls, and robes were on display in front of doorways. He pointed to a giant glass wall. “Over there looks like the open place where we landed. That’s where we are heading.”

“
After we get some clothes,” Anidea said.

“
Hey, you kids come here. What are you doing?” a gruff voice boomed.

“
Go.” Tom pushed them forward. “Don't stop for anything.”

“
Stop,” said the lizardman. “Get those kids.”

Lizardmen with baskets filled with fruit and carrying bundles of cloth were pushed out of the way as Tom, Anidea, and the twins ran past. They grumbled and gawked. A lizardman screamed at them, “You kids put clothes on. Get out of here.”

“
Grab those clothes off that hook.” Tom pointed as they ran past a shop.

“
Shouldn’t we try them on first?” Anidea said.

“
Who's being dumb, now?” Winston said.

They burst out of the doors into the canyon park, knocking down several sportily dressed lizardman ladies who were coming in from yoga class. They ran to the center of the park by a large fountain. The fountain looked like one they had seen from the balcony, but they couldn’t be sure. They didn’t know how to distinguish signs or landmarks. If there was writing they couldn’t read it.

“
Stop, you kids!” The lizardman voice boomed again.

“
There’s a tunnel over there. That way.” Tom led.

Running past fountains, tentacle plants, and triumphant statues, they entered. The walls of the tunnel were smooth and grooves ran along the floor by some unknown machinery. They disappeared into the darkness.

“
Are they following us?” Anidea asked.

“
I don’t think so,” Tom said, “Don’t stop though, we can’t take any chances.”

“
Slow down, I need to catch my breath,” Emmett panted.

Tom spotted the lizardmen coming. “There they are.”

“
They’re not following us in, they stopped,” Emmett said.

“
What’s wrong with them, they aren’t following us?” Winston asked.

“
I have a bad feeling about this,” Anidea looked at the entrance to the tunnel and then quickly to her hands, “OMG. Do you see this? My hands are shimmering and my middle fingers are growing together. I’ll never wear a ring.”

Deeper into the tunnel their heads reeled from the smell. What Tom saw made him choke. This was where the lizardmen disposed of the old plants. Mounds of bones; human bones, alien bones, bones from a thousand species were piled almost to the ceiling. The mounds bubbled and gases burped and farted from steamy holes.

“
As if the smell of rotting cat food wasn’t enough,” Anidea said.

“
My new lizard senses tell me that it’s what’s for dinner,” Emmett added.

The roar of an engine echoed from down the tunnel; lights were moving closer to them.

“
It looks big,” Winston said.

“
We have to hide,” Emmett said. “What if a lizardman is driving it?”

“
Where?”Anidea said perplexed.

A machine sped toward them. “Climb up the mound,” Tom said.

“
It’s like climbing a spinney honeycomb, but the honey is pus.” Anidea shook the goop from her hands.

The machine passed.

“
No one was driving it,” Winston said.

“
Like I said before, an intelligent society will be automated. Everything is automated. That gives us an advantage,” Emmett said.

Anidea screamed. Worms and centipede-like creatures crawled out from the bones and scurried over their feet and around their legs. One crawled too far up Anidea's leg. “They're biting me,” she cried. "Get them off me.”

She hit at the centipede that circled her leg but slipped, fell backwards, and slid head first down compost heap. Another wound around her neck, its needle-like feet pricking her as it tightened its grip.

Tom jumped down the compost heap, landing by her side and pulling her up. He grabbed the centipede and pulled. He strained to get it off her but it just tightened its grip. “It won’t let go.”

Gasping for breath, she clutched at the centipede.

Emmett stepped in next to Tom. “Let me.” and calmly bit the centipede’s head off.

The centipede relaxed its grip on Anidea’s neck, and Tom pulled it off. He threw it down to the bottom of the pile of bones. Its headless body scurried away into a hole. “Good thinking. I couldn’t have taken a bite of that so easily.”

“
They’re quite tasty.”

From the entrance they heard the lizardman yelling at them to come back, it was too dangerous in the disposal shaft for kids. Anidea stared at Emmett, aghast.

Centipede juices ran down his face. “It seemed natural,” he held up a smaller centipede and smiled, “Want some?”

“
Won’t they act like parents and try to rescue us?”Anidea asked.

Emmett said, “If they really thought we were kids, yes.”

“
I don’t think we are going to go back that way,” Winston marched onwards, “That machine is coming back.”

“
Hang on, I have a plan,” Tom said.

“
Let me know if any more of those bugs come out, the last one was quite sweet tasting.”

“
What are you doing?” Anidea asked Tom.

“
Getting us a ride.” From the top of the compost pile, Tom hopped onto the alien machine as it passed. He landed in the cab and worked the control levers on the console.

The machine swerved and crashed into the cave wall. Tom flew out of the cab onto the ground and landed on his back.

He lay still for a second or two, but when pain didn’t come he stood up and brushed compost slime off. Anidea and the twins ran to him. They were surprised.

“
That worked well,” Emmett said.

“
You’re alright,” Anidea said, “that was dumbest playground failure tactic I’ve ever seen.”

“
I made a hole in the wall,” Tom said.

Emmett stepped up and peered in. “It doesn’t look like it was dug out in there. It looks natural.”

“
Do we have any other way to go?” Winston asked.

Grroar...!

“
OMG what’s that?” Anidea held her hand up to her face.

“
It’s big. It’s purple. It’s aahhh!”

“
It’s why they didn’t follow us,” Winston chattered.

What could have been a compost pile launched itself from the shadows, landing directly in front of them. They stared straight into the maw of a giant, slime spewing worm.

“
Worms don’t pounce!” Anidea screamed.

“
Everyone into the hole,” Tom shouted.

The worm gnawed at the rock to get at them. It undulated and spewed wads of pus into the hole that sizzled around them. They climbed up the far wall to avoid the voluminous mass of goo that splashed in after them. It washed up the wall to their feet. Tom gulped and danced. “It’s burning.”

“
The slime is eating the rock,” Anidea said.

They scrambled away into the pitch black of the cave tunnel, bashing into the rocks, squeezing and scraping through tubes.

“
Wait,” Tom said relieved that the burning had lessened. “We don’t have to run any more. It can’t chase us here.”

Their lizard eyes adjusted to the gloom. While they couldn’t see details, they could see the outlines of stalactites and stalagmites and hear dripping water in the distance.

A faint streak of light flashed up ahead of them, momentarily revealing the cave in better detail.

“
What was that?” Anidea asked.

“
A light,” Emmett said.

“
Where we are going,” Tom said.

“
No. What caused the flash? Dummy.”

“
These crystals on the wall. See, when I touch one it lights up. They must react to touch,” Emmett said. “Simple caloric generated luminescence really.”

“
Can you put it in playground speak so the people who have a life, like me, will know what you’re talking about, nerd boy?”

“
Heat. The heat from our bodies stimulates the molecules which. . .”

“
Then if they react to heat,” Anidea interrupted. “What made those over there light up?”

“
That’s not over there. It’s right here,” Emmett said.“Your perception in the dark is poor. The cave ends just a few feet away. There’s nowhere else to go.”

Anidea’s stepped forward with her hand held out and quickly sank into water up to her shoulders. “It’s warm. There’s your answer, genius.”

Tom pushed Anidea out of the way. “Let me in there,” he said. “It feels like it gets deeper down this hole. We can swim through.”

“
It could be a dead end. We’ll drown,” Winston said.

“
Something tells me that it goes through. I’ll go first,” Tom said.

“
Something tells me you’re going to drown. Mr. Lizard Instinct,” Anidea told him.

Tom submerged into the black water, leaving the sound of tiny bubbles popping in the darkness. Moments later he reappeared taking a deep breath. “It goes through just like I thought. Come on.”

They emerged on the other side into a dimly lit cavern. The sharp crystals that grew from the cave’s walls glowed shades of blue. They swam out of the hole and found that the pool was only waist deep.

“
Told you. It’s wasn’t that bad. Over here’s a ledge,” Tom said.

Flashes of light swam around them, darting in and out of sight. “Ah. Something stung me,” Anidea said. “Ah. It bit me.”

The water bubbled and spurted up; white crayfish like creatures with mottled carapaces swarmed around them, picking at their scales. They pressed on through the dark water.

“
They must like you Anidea,” Emmett said. “Think of this as a lizard spa treatment. Maybe they are removing all of those unwanted dead scales?”

“
What’s dripping on my head?” Anidea ducked. “It’s the slime. We must be underneath one of those giant jumping slugs.”

“
It doesn’t hurt on my lizard skin,” Winston said, “but on the last of my human skin it stings like crazy.”

“
You look like a Halloween freak, the way you only have tufts of hair left.” Anidea poked at him.

They took shelter under an overhang of rocks.

“
The slime is floating on top of the water, it’s slick with slime. We need to find another way. Girls don’t wade through slime,” Anidea said.