Free ClownFellas by Iii Carlton Mellick

the force of the explosion as they were thrown off their feet, but they saw nothing. Even the flames were invisible as the ship caught fire.

Chapter 27
    “Come on!” Jackie the Grump yelled from the dock.
    The girls coughed on the mime smoke as Earl and the clowns staggered down the ramp. Jackie stood there dripping wet, holding a gumball shotgun, the bodies of three dead clowns by his feet. “What took you guys so long?”
    Hats handed Mandy off to Jackie the Grump. “We ran into Coco de Merde. The douchebag knew how to mime.”
    “I hate mimes,” Jackie said.
    Three cars filled with Le Mystère reinforcements came roaring down the road toward them. Vinnie waved the group toward Captain Spotty’s car. “Let’s go. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
    Captain Spotty pulled up next to them. Vinnie, Hats, Jackie, and the three girls piled into the backseat. Earl rode shotgun.
    “Hold on,” Spotty yelled. Then he floored it and sped away from the docks into the streets of Little Bigtop.
    Earl couldn’t believe it when he saw the six people in the backseat. It looked strange enough when there were only three people layered together back there. They looked like a 3-D movie without the glasses, his daughters folded inside the clowns sitting between them.
    “Can you lose them?” Vinnie asked.
    Spotty looked a little worried. “I don’t know. I’m going as fast as I can. They’re gaining on us.”
    The clowns on their tail opened fire. Spotty swerved as the bullets pierced his trunk and back window.
    “Get down,” Vinnie told the kids, holding their heads as low as they could go in the backseat.
    Jackie poked his head out the window and returned fire, but the gumball shotgun had a limited range.
    The back of Spotty’s car was shredded into Swiss cheese. “We’re not going to make it without backup. Where’s Jimmy and Bingo?”
    “Forget about them,” Vinnie said. “I’m not bringing Jimmy into this.”
    “What about Bingo?”
    “There’s no time. You’re just going to have to shake them.”
    Earl opened the glove box. Steam poured out. “We could use the pie.”
    He grabbed the piping-hot pie out of the oven, the tin burning his fingers.
    “Not the cherry bomb!” Spotty cried.
    But Earl moved too quickly. He leaned out the window and tossed it at the car behind them. The pie splatted against the windshield. The French clowns riding in the car stopped firing their weapons and stared at it.
    When Captain Spotty said the cherry bomb could take out half a city block, Earl figured he was just exaggerating. But once the French clown car evaporated in the explosion and the streets were swallowed by flame, Earl realized that Spotty had actually understated the weapon’s potency. The pie was a miniature nuke.

Chapter 28
    Earl woke up in the hospital surrounded by clowns. With their sinister smiles and wide piercing eyes, his first thought was that he was having some kind of horrible nightmare. But then the memories flooded in, as did the pain.
    Bandages covered half his body. One arm was in a cast, propped up in a sling. One eye was swollen shut. He didn’t remember anything that happened after the explosion, not even being hit with a faceful of shrapnel. Vicky and Mandy were by his side, safe and uninjured, happy to see him wake up. His teenage daughter wasn’t with them.
    “Look who’s awake,” said Captain Spotty. “I thought you bought it back there.”
    “Where’s Sarah?” Earl raised himself up, trying to get out of the bed.
    “Relax, Doc.” Spotty pushed him back down. “She’s in the next room. She’ll be fine. Just a slight concussion.”
    “And my wife? Laurie? Where’s she?”
    Captain Spotty shook his head. “We still don’t know, Doc. You shouldn’t worry about that now. Just be happy that your kids are alive and well.”
    Earl held out his hand to Vicky and Mandy. They each grabbed on to a finger. But when he looked them in the eyes he couldn’t stop thinking that,