Free Critical Failures III (Caverns and Creatures Book 3) by Robert Bevan Page B

said Tim. “Don’t even think about it. I might have a lead on where we can find Mordred. We can’t afford any distractions.”
    “But he’s such a cute little old man,” said Stacy. “Let him have some more yogurt if he wants some. I can run in and get it while you guys work up a plan.”
    Tim sighed. “Fine. Go get some fucking yogurt.”
    “And Doritos,” said Cooper.
    “Sure thing,” said Stacy. She started walking across the parking lot toward the supermarket entrance.
    Cooper leaned out of the van and shouted after her. “Wait, no… Funyuns!”
    “Cooper!” said Tim. “Get the fuck back in the van!”
    Dave pulled Cooper in by the arm. Tim scanned the parking lot. A few old people were looking at him, but nobody was running or screaming, so they had likely dodged that particular bullet.
    “You found Mordred?” asked Dave.
    “Not exactly,” said Tim. “But I think I know where he’s going to go.”
    “Where’s that?”
    “Jack’s Comics,” said Tim. “He left all his C&C shit at the Chicken Hut. He’ll need to restock his books.”
    “Sounds like a long shot,” said Dave. “How do you know he won’t just order books online?”
    “He doesn’t have that kind of time,” said Tim. “He’s already planning to recruit some more players.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I found him on Facebook.”
    “Mordred’s on Facebook?” asked Julian, tapping the screen on his phone.
    “Don’t connect with him or message him or anything,” said Tim. “We can’t let him know we’re onto him.”
    “So where is this place?” asked Julian. “Jack’s Comics.” He spoke the words slowly as he typed them into his phone.
    “Biloxi,” said Tim.
    “Yeah, I’ve got it on GPS.”
    “We’ve still got almost an hour before it opens,” said Tim. “That should be plenty of time to find a good place to –” He yawned. “—stake it out.”
    “Okay,” said Julian. “Well you guys can all follow me.”
    “No,” said Tim. “You don’t have a driver’s license.”
    “Sure I do.”
    “Not one with a picture of a goddamn elf on it. Anyway, it’s best we go in as few cars as possible, so we don’t get separated.”
    “Don’t worry about that,” said Julian. “You can track me on your phone.”
    “Good idea,” said Tim. “But my phone’s a piece of shit. Stacy’s got a tablet in her car.” Tim opened the passenger door of Stacy’s car, retrieved the tablet, and handed it to Julian. “Set it up.”
    After a few minutes of fiddling, Julian showed the tablet to Tim. “You are the blue dot,” he said. “We’re in the same place right now, so that’s all you see. When we go more than about fifty feet away from each other, you’ll see a red dot. That’s me.” He ran across the parking lot. Sure enough, a red dot broke away from the blue dot on the map.
    “Where’s Julian going?” asked Stacy, carrying two plastic grocery bags.
    “Okay, it works!” shouted Tim. “Come back!” He showed Stacy the tablet. “Just testing out this GPS tracking thing.”
    “Neat!” She handed off the bags to Cooper, who passed the bag full of yogurt to a very grateful Professor Goosewaddle.
    Julian rode shotgun in the van so that he could navigate for Randy. Chaz reluctantly climbed into the back.
    Tim hopped back into Stacy’s car, and they were soon on their way to Biloxi.
    Tim’s eyelids were heavy. The last time he’d slept, he was in a different world. “I’m just gonna rest my eyes for a sec…”

Chapter 7
     
    “Okay,” said Julian. “Get ready to make a left up here. You should see a Korean restaurant.”
    “Y’all ain’t gonna kill me when this is all done,” said Randy. “Is you?”
    “I don’t think so,” said Julian. “We haven’t discussed it. Slow down. Okay, there’s the Korean restaurant, and there’s the comic shop.” And there was the Holy Grail. Crappy silver hatchback with a busted rear windshield. “Jackpot.”
    “Huh?”
    “Change of plans,”