I squinted. Josh and Kristina weren’t lying. The blue van rolled slowly towards us. Painted on the hood of the van was a brilliant silver A with a curly tail. Dead giveaway.
The Shadow Regime was coming to meet Josh and Kristina. And now, us.
The two of them jumped up and down, waving their arms at the van and pointing at the three of us. At the same time, the A on my arm burned worse until I felt ready to cry out from the pain.
“It’s them!”
“Over here!”
“Now!”
“They stole our bikes!”
“Run them over!”
The blue van sped up. Crap. We were spotted. My legs turned into jelly. There was only one thing to do.
“Run, guys!” I yelled, whipping the bike around.
Penny and Ryan did the same and sped back up the road. I followed, urging Gerald’s bike to pick up speed. It felt like one of those nightmares where you couldn’t run very fast.
Wind snapped against my face. The van’s engine grew louder behind us. Josh and Kristina still jumped up and down on the side of the road as the blue van blazed right past them. I searched for an escape, any escape. Open fields surrounded us on both sides and the houses were too far off to reach in time. We had nowhere to hide.
Except for that dirt path that went into the woods.
“This way!” I yelled once we reached the trees.
Gerald’s bike clinked and clunked as I maneuvered it down the path. Maybe this led to the dirt bike trails the rich guys at school talked about. We could lose the van in there.
Ryan dodged a tree branch. “Where we going?”
My knuckles turned white around the handlebars. “Don’t know!” I really, really prayed this didn’t go to a dead end.
But it did lead to a bunch of mud puddles. A huge one loomed ahead of me. I plowed through it, splashing myself with a gallon of water.
Ryan’s voice rang through the air. “Here he comes!”
Gravel crunched behind us. That meant one thing. The van found the trail.
Penny yelled over the growl of the engine. “There’s another trail up here! Turn right!”
We sped down a smaller, muddier trail. Maybe the van wouldn’t fit. It just might get stuck and we’d be home free. I weaved the bike around another huge puddle and ducked to avoid a cluster of hanging branches. Getting knocked off now would be fatal.
The engine rumbled louder behind us. I stole a glance back. The blue van turned onto our trail and fought its way forward like a hungry dinosaur. Branches cracked and bushes bent forward in front of it.
“No!” I fought down terror as I pumped my legs harder. Adrenaline rushed through me. My throat burned and my sides begged me to stop, which was not going to happen. Trees stung my face. Mud grabbed at my tires, slowing me down. Bugs swirled into my eyes. The engine roared louder and louder behind me. In seconds its wheels would crush me under them, and A. Gist wouldn’t have to worry about me anymore.
Water splashed up from Ryan’s tires, nailing me head on. I looked for an escape, but thick bushes closed in around us. My legs protested, but I couldn’t stop.
“Look!” Ryan yelled.
The trail curved up ahead into three-foot-tall hill. A dirt bike ramp. If we got over that, the van might get stuck on it. It might work. It would have to work.
“Over that!” I cried out.
The engine rumbled so loud behind me now that I could almost feel the ground shaking. The hill loomed taller and narrower ahead of me. I wasn’t sure I could even get over on this bike.
Penny glanced at us, hair flying. “Dump the bikes on the hill and he’ll hit them!”
Desperate? Yes. But I couldn’t think of anything else. Gerald’s bike might not make it over that hill. Dumping them would have to work.
The van honked again, and a cocky voice boomed out of a speaker somewhere. “Rita Morse! Penny Hart! Ryan Sullivan! Stop the bikes. You are to be subjected to Procedure Number Twenty-Eight!”
I leaned forward and gave it all I had. “Go!”
Hitting the dirt hill jolted my whole body. The bike lost speed, and I started to roll backwards. Crap. Ryan dumped the bike and crawled over the hill. Penny’s legs freed themselves from her bike and she toppled over as well. The van’s engine growled in my ears.
I threw myself to the side, flying off Gerald’s bike. Dirt slipped through my fingers as I pulled myself up and fell over the other side of the hill, landing in a mud puddle.
A second later, I heard a loud, metallic crunch.
The blue van had stopped halfway up the dirt bike ramp. Josh, Kristina’s, and Gerald’s bikes lay tangled under the van’s spinning tires. Tendrils of smoke rose angrily from them as the van’s tires spun. A pop sound followed with the hiss of a tire going flat.
This would’ve been very funny in any other situation.
“Let’s go.” Penny tugged on my arm. Ryan stood next to her, frozen.
I couldn’t move or tear my gaze off the figure behind the van’s windshield. A. Gist looked the same as he did that day in the Kool Spot. Only madder. Red hair stuck out everywhere under his hat. His jaw quivered and his eyes bulged like they were about to pop out of his head.
Ryan shook his head and backed away. “Oh my god!”
A. Gist reached over and shoved open the driver side door. An arm sleeved in dark blue came out, which somehow made it all real to me. The Ruler of Ageism was about to kill us.
My legs finally moved as I burst down the trail. “Into the woods!”
“You’re some bold juvenile delinquents, aren’t you?” A. Gist screeched.
His voice made the hairs on my neck stand on end, to put it mildly. Hey, I only stole the bike to save my life. I turned my head to see him standing next to the van, fists clenched in fury. He kicked the dirt with one of his jackboots and faced the van. “After them!”
The van’s back doors opened. Several pairs of feet hit the dirt. I knew what was coming out. Ryan seemed to have heard it, too. He ducked into the woods ahead of me, and Penny followed. I leapt after them and found myself on yet another trail, a footpath this time.
Footfalls thudded behind us as underbrush crashed. My sides killed me, but I forced myself to run faster. Leaves whipped at my clothes, trying to slow me down. We had to find civilization. We had to find other people. The closest thing was the rich neighborhood. The Shadow Regime wouldn’t kidnap us if other people could witness it. It was our only chance.
I forced the words from my burning throat as I slapped Ryan’s shoulder. “We need to get to those houses as fast as we can!”
“There they are!” a woman called out behind us.
Uh, oh.
Farther down the trail, a circle of light shined through the trees. The trail ended up there. We’d either burst out into someone’s yard or out into the field. I couldn’t tell what.
“Bring them back here!” A. Gist screeched from somewhere behind us. “Break their legs if you have to!”
I pumped my legs faster. Nice guy.
The circle of light got wider. A quick glance behind me showed two blue-armored figures in pursuit: that guy from the window and the tall, dark woman from the Kool Spot. Both still wore the horrible armor. And the crashing through the woods around us told me they weren’t the only Shadow Ones after us. The man scowled as he ran, and the woman kept looking behind her like A. Gist would break her neck if she didn’t catch us. “Come back! We won’t hurt you.”
Ryan’s voice had turned hoarse. “Yeah right. They just tried to run us over!”
“There it is,” Penny choked out as underbrush crashed around her.
The path widened and dried out. My feet thudded against hard earth. A sunny patch of weeds waited at the end of the woods. Lying just beyond that was—
“The houses!” the man called out. “Don’t let them get there!”
&
nbsp; The circle of light grew closer and I saw something that made me want to cry out in joy: the back of a huge brick house. Somewhere ahead, two kids yelled at each other and a car motor revved down a street. We could make it. I thought of shouting to let everyone know we were in here, but my throat was too hoarse.
We burst out of the woods and ran across a stretch of tall grass. A row of huge houses loomed in front of us. Luckily they had no fences.
“We’re not going to catch them!” a man called out behind us. “Back!”
That didn’t make me slow down any. My legs came free of the weeds and I burst onto a neatly trimmed lawn. Underbrush cracked as the Shadow Regime ran back through the trees. I didn’t stop until I reached a huge playhouse on the side of the yard. Penny and Ryan joined me, collapsing to the ground and gasping for air.
Bushes rustled at the end of the woods as our pursuers ran back through them. Thick leaves swallowed the glint of some armor. Goodbye, shadow freaks.
I heaved out a huge sigh and leaned against the playhouse. Penny and Ryan stood, chests rising up and down. Two yards away, a pair of older women sitting on a back porch pointed at us and stared. I didn’t care. We were alive and we’d probably stopped Josh and Kristina from telling A. Gist about detention. With his flat tire, he wouldn’t be too concerned about meeting with them. I hoped.
“Oh, my god.” Ryan grasped a swing to hold himself steady. “I can’t believe that!”
“That was not a good idea,” Penny said. She made a choking sound. “He could have had us right there. He would’ve run us over if that hill hadn’t been there.”
“I didn’t know that was going to happen,” I said through my burning throat. If I did, I would’ve called off the whole thing and moved to another state instead. Now I’d put my friends in danger on top of everything else. My stomach rolled at the thought. So much for sleeping tonight. “I thought he was standing somewhere waiting for Josh and Kristina to meet him. I didn’t know he’d have a van!”
Ryan stared into the woods. “Maybe we should get out of here. I’m never going in those woods again. And A. Gist might get mad and come after us himself.”
“Yeah. Let’s go,” I said. The Shadow Ones were probably still in there, regrouping. I didn’t like the thought of being this close to them, even if they couldn’t come out of the trees.
Without another word, the three of us jogged out of the yard and towards the street. We walked down the perfect pavement towards town, too tired to run anymore. My muscles were going to be super sore tomorrow.
Ryan checked up and down the street. “We still have Josh and Kristina to worry about.”
“Better them than A. Gist,” Penny said.
I really, really hoped they were too tired to come after us now.
“Well, did we accomplish anything?” Penny asked no one in particular, picking at some mud splatters on the front of her shirt. Yeah, we got dirty.
“We did destroy Josh and Kristina’s bikes and give A. Gist a flat tire at the same time,” I said. “Hopefully we distracted everyone enough to save ourselves tomorrow.”
“I hope he’s still stuck there,” Ryan said, bitter. “Maybe Josh and Kristina won’t find him in time to tell him about the detention. We can only hope.”
“He was mad,” I said, kicking the mud off my shoes. “Even if Josh and Kristina find him they might not want to go near him. I know I wouldn’t. Didn’t you see the tantrum he was throwing?”
Ryan’s eyes grew big. “I was too busy running for my life! I can imagine, though.”
We rounded a corner and Penny spoke. “But didn’t you hear Josh and Kristina talking before we followed them? They said A. Gist was going to give them something big for something he wanted them to help with tomorrow. I’m sure it’s coming after us.”
I groaned. “Great.”
“I think we should all ride the bus tomorrow.” Penny winced as she took a step, like she’d sprained her ankle. “There’s lots of people on it. Rita, we still need to find you a place to hide out. Your parents probably won’t be home the whole weekend.”
“Good point,” I said. If they so much left me alone to go grab a pizza, I was toast. They’d stay home tonight as they never did anything on weeknights, but the weekend was a different story.
If I made it that long.