Free The Deadly Past by Christopher Pike Page B

scared!” Sally yelled. “It calms me down!”
    â€œThe only way out of this predicament is to find the truck in the next few minutes,” Bryce said quietly. “Watch, which direction did you hike right after you parked?”
    Watch pointed. “Toward that peak. Isn’t that the one you were on, Cindy?”
    Cindy shook her head. “No. It was that one over there. Don’t you remember?”
    Sally continued to fret. “We have the blind leading the blind.”
    Watch paused and wiped off his glasses. A moment later he settled them back on his nose and nodded in surprise.
    â€œYou’re right, Cindy,” Watch said. “My sense of direction got turned around. My lenses keep steaming up in this place.”
    â€œSo does this mean you know where the truck is now?” Adam asked, praying that his friend said yes. Thankfully Watch nodded and pointed to their left.
    â€œIt should be just over there,” he said.
    They found the truck five minutes later.
    Fifteen minutes to detonation.
    There were five of them now, rather than the usual four. They couldn’t all sit in the front. Actually, the truck had bucket seats. Only twocould be comfortable up front. Cindy joined Watch in the driver’s compartment while Sally, Adam, and Bryce bounced in the back. The road home was rough because, well, actually there was no road. They were all amazed that Watch had managed to push the truck as far back into the primeval forest as he had.
    Time flew by. It always did when one was in a hurry.
    Seven minutes to detonation. Still no sign of Spooksville.
    â€œAre you sure you’re heading the right way?” Adam called to Watch.
    â€œNot absolutely positive,” Watch replied.
    â€œWe’re running out of time,” Sally said for the tenth time.
    â€œWe’re running out of gas as well,” Watch said.
    Sally screamed at the sky. “I hate this!”
    But maybe Sally shouldn’t have screamed so loud. She might have called attention to themselves. From out of the low hanging clouds a screeching pterodactyl suddenly appeared. And it was probably their pterodactyl because Watch noticed it had a bruise on its head from the boulder he had dropped on it. He said as much to the others.
    â€œYou knocked it out?” Sally asked in amazement. “You had it helpless? Why didn’t you just kill it?”
    â€œIt’s a mother pterodactyl,” Watch called out the truck window. “It has babies to feed.”
    â€œIt has babies it wants to feed us to!” Sally shouted. “Adam! Do you still have that laser pistol?”
    Adam pulled out the weapon. “I do.”
    Sally tried to grab it from him. When she failed she fidgeted anxiously as she stared up at the sky. The pterodactyl had gone into another one of its famous dives and there was no mistaking its target.
    â€œShoot it then!” Sally yelled. “And don’t give me any idiotic lines about not wanting to harm it. Believe me—it wants to harm us.”
    Adam hesitated. “How many babies does it have?” he asked Cindy.
    â€œThere were four eggs in its nest,” Cindy replied, her head stuck out the window. She was also staring up at the pterodactyl with fear in her eyes. “One of them hatched just as I was leaving. It scratched my leg.”
    Five minutes to detonation.
    Watch spoke up. “I think I see signs of Spooksville!”
    It was true, the scenery up ahead was beginning to look less weird.
    But the pterodactyl didn’t care. It was coming fast.
    â€œIf you keep the laser on Stun,” Bryce suggested to Adam, “a few shots might discourage it from attacking.”
    â€œNo!” Sally cried. “Put the laser on full power! Blow the monster out the sky! It tried to kill us this morning! We don’t owe it any tenderness!”
    Adam came to a decision. Raising the laser, he took aim along the barrel.
    â€œI’ll try to stun