through the sunroof and into the car.
The van bucked in and out of a hole.
Dane fell, the back of his head slamming onto the carpeted floor. Was that the fireworks popping or just the ringing in his head? Everything went black.
“Lookout!” Paul screamed into Dane’s endless void.
Dane’s last coherent thought was of Alex: the vision of the van crashing, her flying through the windshield, and those black-clothed bloodsuckers lapping blood from her split skull.
28
Dane woke to his friends’ screams. The vampires were in the van! He’d failed them all. A surge of adrenaline fluttered his eyes open. Vibrating floor beneath him, the shadow covered ceiling materialized too slowly.
“Dane, you did it!” Penny yelled.
He opened his mouth to say he was sorry, but strong hands snatched the words from him. Which vampire had him? His mind swirled.
“L-l-look!”
Dane blinked. Collin came into focus. His friend, and not a monster, had lifted him up. And Penny wasn’t in the grip of terror. Her teeth glimmered a smile.
The world tilted. For a moment, Dane thought it was his swimming head, but it was the van rising up the other embankment. The angle out the door-less back gave a clear view of the creek bed. He could only see one of the VW Bug’s headlights.
The van pinnacled the embankment. The engine whined, tires spun finding traction on level ground.
“They hit a big rock,” Penny said. “Thanks to your plan.”
“And Alex’s driving,” Paul said. “It’s a miracle we didn’t hit it.”
“What’s wrong?” Penny asked. “It worked.”
“Lost the helicopter.” Dane turned off the RC controller. “Pen, you want to sing backup for my extra video?”
Penny laughed and said, “I’ll pass.”
Between the front seats, Alex’s silhouette turned to them. “Agent Baker is waking up!”
“What happen?” Agent Baker asked.
Alex released the steering wheel to the agent. “We got away from the vamps.”
In Simone’s hand the phone said, “I’ve engaged the garage door.”
Dane looked back at tree shadows. There was no sign of the Men in Black vampires.
“The safe house is directly across from the alleyway,” the phone said. “There are more humans inside than what is on the official log.”
Agent Baker didn’t let up on the gas. The van actually gained speed.
“Slow down!” Alex yelled, struggling for the wheel.
Dark trees blurred by. Leaves and limbs slapped and scraped the van. The Blue Beast flew out of the patch of woods, lumbering over the curb. On either side, fences and the back of homes were bleak smears.
“Oh, God,” Simone whimpered.
Dane could do nothing to help.
After everything they’d been through tonight, they were going to crash straight through some family’s home.
At the end of the alleyway, the house’s garage door began to rise.
“We’re not going to make it.” Paul said, closing his eyes.
Dane climbed into the empty chair next to Paul and fastened his seatbelt.
The van’s undercarriage grinded up the driveway, tremors vibrated Dane’s sneakers.
The garage door was almost up.
“What’s that noise?” Simone yelled.
A deep mechanical hum from within the garage.
The van’s lights revealed a car-less garage. The van’s roof scraped the still rising garage door. The far wall was imminent.
Dane clutched the chair’s armrests.
“Holy Sunday Driver,” Alex said in awe.
Instead of crashing into the garage’s far wall, the van dipped down into the earth. The garage’s floor sloped into a hidden tunnel.
“Now we know what the hum was,” Simone said.
Agent Baker finally pumped the brakes, slumping over the steering wheel. The van skidded down the cement ramp and into a lengthy, dim tunnel.
The van sparked against the narrow tunnel’s stonewalls.
“She’s unconscious,” Alex yelled. “I can’t reach the brake.”
Simone helped Alex turn the wheel. Scraping metal howled through the opening in the back. The van eased off the wall.
Dane’s seatbelt cut into his waist.
“The emergency brake pedal!” Penny yelled.
Alex shoved the agent against the door and leaned for the pedal.
The van stopped stubbornly coming to rest with both fenders touching either side of the tunnel.
Dane unfastened his seatbelt. “Penny, the Blue Beast is going to need a new paint job.”
“I’ll add it to the list.”
A few yards up the tunnel, a side door opened, spilling light into the subterranean passageway. A group of men filed out. They wore solid black uniforms. An older man with a crew cut was in the lead. He was the only one without a machine gun.
“Collin?” Dane asked.
Collin’s reply was unintelligible.
“Same guys from the library?” Dane said. He hated saying it for his friend, but time was of the essence.
Collin nodded.
Dane understood why Collin could hardly get a word out. Worry hollowed out Dane’s stomach, and it wasn’t just the machine guns, the soldiers were stoic, fearless figures.
Alex stumbled back, into Dane’s lap. In the past, Alex this close would equally excite and terrify him. But given the circumstances, he didn’t give it a second thought.
Paul glanced at him. Was that fear contorting his friend’s face or something else?
“Paulie,” Penny whispered, “quick, pass me the book and magazines.”
Paul picked up the book and sprawled magazines at his feet. He passed them without taking his eyes off the leader.
Agent Baker groaned, struggling to keep her head, she tracked the leader.
The man walked in front of the headlights. His wrinkled face and the knowledge in his eyes set him apart from the others. He swung his legs over the wall-stuck bumper and strode to the driver side window.
“John Jameson,” Dane whispered.
“What?” Alex asked.
“He looks like Peter Parker’s boss.”
Agent Baker eyed the phone in Simone’s hand.
The agent whispered something Dane couldn’t make out.
Simone shook her head, “I don’t under—”
The buzz-cut leader pointed at the window. A soldier used the butt of his gun to smash in the window. Bits of glass shimmered on Agent Baker’s blazer.
The man studied the agent’s glowing red arm. “Son, give me that fire extinguisher.”
Paul picked it up off the floor and passed it to him.
He pointed the nozzle and fired chemicals at the pulsating vine on Agent Baker’s arm.
Air stuck in Dane’s lungs and Alex’s pressure on him tensed.
The glowing neon turned grey. The alien worm-thing died.
“Mason, Connors,” the leader commanded, “get her to the infirmary immediately.”
Two soldiers ran over. Agent Baker’s groggy eyes met Simone’s. She whispered something.
Dane leaned forward to listen, Alex’s weight pressing further into his thighs.
“What?” Simone whispered.
Agent Baker said something, which sounded like potty fuss.
“Does she need to use the bathroom?” Dane asked.
“What?” Alex glanced back, her cheek brushing against his nose.
Dane cleared his throat. “Did you catch what she said?”
Alex shook her head, her ponytail tickling his face.
The two soldiers opened the door and drug Agent Baker’s limp body from the van. The leader was nowhere in sight.
The van’s sliding door rolled open. The crew-cut headed leader towered over them with squinting eyes. All he needed was a cigar to chew on.
Indeed fowl, stagnant tobacco wavered across Dane’s fac
e when the man growled, “Put these meddling kids in The Break Room.” His eyes shifted down.
Dane covered his bracelet. Had the guy seen it? Dane hoped not. One thing was for sure, he didn’t like the sound of The Break Room, not one bit.
29
Dane and his friends were herded from the tunnel through the same door the soldiers had entered. The steel door led into a sterile hallway, buzzing with florescent lights.
“Well this is odd,” Alex said next to him.
Dane rubbed his eyes, blinking. “It looks like a cross between my Dad’s office building and X-Mansion’s subbasement.”
“X-Mansion?” Penny asked behind them.
“Xavier’s estate from X-Men,” Paul answered.
“You know it’s not real right?” Penny’s exasperation reverberated off the slick walls.
All the doors on either side were closed, some of which had square windows. Dane tried looking in one of them, but they were moving too fast. He saw nothing but white light and walls, matching the hallway.
They came to an intersecting hallway. Alex elbowed him. Two soldiers carried Agent Baker into a room. Green light washed over the soldiers, not from the room they were entering but from a door across the hall. The light peeked through the door’s square window. As suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. Had he imagined it?
Alex’s wide eyes met his. She’d seen it too.
The buzz-cut leader stopped at the last door, fumbling for the keycard around his neck.
Dane ran his hand through his hair. So this was The Break Room. Beyond the wired glass it wasn’t an underground torture chamber where secrets bled from victims. No, the Break Room was nothing more than an office break room, complete with tables, chairs, cabinets, microwave, and refrigerator. A red-lit soda vending machine was in the far corner.
The door unlocked with a buzz.
A gun barrel jabbed Dane’s back. “Hey!”
The soldiers didn’t follow him and his friends inside.
The door shut: the mechanical deadbolt activated with a quick whine and heavy click.