It was definitely their friend.
Watch seemed dazed. He was wandering among the tombstones as if looking for his own grave. His clothes were slightly torn—mainly around the collar and at the hem of his pants. But he still had on his four watches and his thick glasses. He didn’t seem to notice them, although they weren’t far above, maybe only a hundred feet. Adam couldn’t help noticing how pale his friend’s skin was.
“We have to save him,” Cindy called softly.
“That may not be a good idea,” Bum said. “He might be beyond saving.”
Sally turned to Adam. “What do you want to do?” she asked gently.
Adam felt choked with sorrow. “I sure don’t want to leave him down there with all those monsters. But—”
“Yeah?” Sally said. “But what?”
Adam shook his head. “You know the situation. What do you think?”
Sally peered down into the cemetery. Watch had stopped and was just staring off into space. His eyes, seen through his thick glasses, appeared normal. But he was not standing as he usually did.
“There’s something wrong with him,” Sally said finally.
“I don’t care,” Cindy said. “He’s still our friend. We can’t abandon him.”
“Not so loud,” Sally warned. “He might hear us.”
“We might want to call down to him,” Bum said. “See how he reacts.”
“No,” Adam said. “If we shout to him, the other Cold People might hear, too. At least right now, if we want to rescue him, he’s alone.”
“It’s risky,” Bum said. “We don’t know how strong he is now. He could destroy us all.”
Adam was grim. “Yeah. And we can’t use our flamethrowers on him.”
“But if he’s changed,” Sally said, “he might not know that we used to be his friends. He won’t know that we won’t try to fry him. If we surround him, we might be able to knock him out and then tie him up. We have extra rope.”
“We’re not going to hurt him,” Cindy said.
“We might have to hurt him a little to help him,” Sally snapped at her. “This is an emergency. Stop behaving like a little princess. We have to harden our hearts.”
“If it was you I wouldn’t mind picking up a bat,” Cindy said.
“You would just end up clobbering yourself,” Sally said.
“All right, all right,” Adam said, wanting to stop them from arguing. “We’ll drop down to see how he is. If he attacks, we’ll try to knock him unconscious.”
“If we take him with us,” Bum said. “What are we going to do when he regains consciousness?”
“We’ll worry about that later,” Adam said.
“That’s what the scientists who built the first atomic bomb would say to each other when someone asked ‘What if we blow up the world?’ ” Sally muttered.
Dropping down was easy. All they had to do was vent off some of their hot air. Watch continued to stand staring off into space. Because the castle was next to the cemetery, the other Cold People were not far away, about a quarter of a mile. It would take a miracle for them not to see the balloons. For that reason Adam knew they had to act fast. He worried that they might be making a huge mistake. But he figured if he had to risk his life, it should be for his friend.
They landed in a small clearing in the cemetery, a hundred yards behind Watch’s back. Still, incredibly, he appeared unaware of them. They had two flamethrowers left. Sally took one, Bum the other as they climbed out of the gondolas. Adam searched the ground for a strong stick, and found one that fit his grip.
But Adam limped as he walked.
The numbing sensation was definitely climbing.
As a group, they approached Watch.
Watch continued to stand gazing at a huge tombstone.
Adam realized it was Madeline Templeton’s.
The tomb was the end of the Secret Path.
A portal into other dimensions.
Was Watch in such pain, Adam wondered, that he was thinking of fleeing into another reality? It was horrible to think of his friend possessed with the evil spirit of the Cryo Creatures.
But it was not as horrible as having to stare into his friend’s face.
Watch suddenly whirled on them.
His eyes shone with a cold light.
His mouth twisted into an evil line.
A painfully high-pitched wail tore past his lips.
Then he attacked.
Adam—although lame—was leading the group and was therefore closest to Watch. He was the first one to suffer the brunt of Watch’s newfound power. With his bad foot, he just couldn’t move fast enough to get out of Watch’s way. He felt as if he had been rammed by a freight train when Watch crashed into him. For a second Adam went flying through the air. He dropped his stick. He only stopped when he ran into a bigger stick—a tree, actually. It hurt to smash into the trunk, but Adam was back up in an instant.
The situation was already desperate and the fight was only three seconds old. As Adam’s vision cleared, he saw that Cindy had also been knocked down. She may have been hit harder than he had because she didn’t get up right away. Bum and Sally were still safe, for the moment, behind their flamethrowers. But they were doing nothing to corner Watch. On the contrary, Watch was driving them farther apart. Because they wouldn’t fire, they had only the tiny flames at the tips of their flame throwers to scare him. Watch didn’t look all that scared.
“Shoot off more fire,” Adam said. “Let him know he can be burned.”
“Good idea,” Sally agreed, as she pulled back on her trigger. The tongue of flame stretched out three feet, and Watch quickly withdrew from attacking her. He turned to Bum instead, who had also lengthened his flame. Watch took a step back. Adam grabbed the stick he had dropped and limped forward.
“Drive him against the wall,” Adam said. “We can only capture him if we corner him.”
“Do we want to capture him?” Bum asked as he pushed Watch back with the flame. “We won’t be able to control him.”
“We can do what Sally said,” Adam replied. “We can tie him up.”
“I don’t know if rope can hold him,” Sally said, having second thoughts.
“Just get him against the wall,” Adam ordered.
The wall surrounding the cemetery was high and nearby. A minute after they started on the offensive, Watch was cornered. He glared at them with his weird glowing eyes, and they each felt a chill. But he didn’t have the power of an original Cryo Creature. He could make them shiver, but he couldn’t freeze them.
“Now what?” Sally demanded.
“Now I’ll talk to him,” Adam said, taking a wobbly step forward.
“What are you going to talk about?” Sally asked. “Ice cream? Popsicles? Smoothies? The guy is a walking ice cube. You can’t talk to him.”
Adam gripped his stick tightly. “A part of him must remember us.”
“We’ll keep guard,” Bum said. “But if he does attack, we may have to burn him a little.”
“I understand,” Adam said. “Try not to burn me while you’re at it.”
Adam stepped to within ten feet of Watch. His friend had his back pressed against the wall. He continued to glare at them, although something in his eyes seemed to change as he stared at Adam. There may have been a flicker of recognition. Adam couldn’t be sure, but it gave him hope.
“Watch,” Adam said. “We don’t want to hurt you. We want to help you. Do you remember me, Watch? I’m Adam. I’m your friend.”
Watch stopped glaring and his right cheek twitched. The weird light in his eyes faded, although his eyes did not return to normal. There was a blankness to them that Adam found disturbing. It was as if Watch’s brain had been wiped clean by the cold man. Once again Adam wondered if Watch could ever be returned to normal.
“I really am your friend, Watch,” Adam said, encouraged by the change, any change, in his condition. Adam took another step forward and held out his hand. “You can come with us. We’ll take you away from these evil monsters.”
At the mention of the word monsters Watch glanced in the direction of the castle. So far the other Cold People had not appeared. But Adam knew their luck couldn’t last forever. Watch’s dull expression trembled as he looked in the direction of his new partners. For a moment he appeared terribly sad. Adam took another step toward him. Watch was now only five feet away.
“Please try to remember,” Adam pleaded. “Your name is Watch. You’re a human being.”
For a second Watch’s dull expression vanished.
He smiled faintly. Adam smiled brightly.
“Watch!” Adam cried. He dropped his stick and moved to hug his friend.
But the smile faded. The cold light returned.
Watch leapt toward Adam, his fingers spread like claws.
Again, Adam felt a terrible blow and went down. Through a fog of physical and emotional pain, he saw Watch raise his claws to rip into his chest and pull out his heart and fill his body with Cryo fluid. But before Watch could strike again, Adam also saw the blur of a brown stick as it was brought down on the back of Watch’s head. His friend blinked and the wicked light in his eyes went out. Watch toppled aside.
“He has a hard head,” Sally said, setting aside the stick Adam had dropped. Adam noticed that the stick was broken in half. Sally must have hit Watch pretty hard. He lay sprawled on his back. He didn’t appear to be breathing. Adam knelt anxiously by his side.
“Is he dead?” he moaned.
Bum shook his head. “Cryo Creatures don’t breathe. I don’t even know if their hearts beat.”
“Is he all right?” Cindy called, staggering over, a hand to her head.
“He’s unconscious,” Adam said. “But we think he’s alive. How are you?”
“She looks terrible,” Sally muttered.
Cindy snorted in Sally’s direction. “You get hit the way I was and we’ll see how long you stay down.” She nodded to Watch. “Let’s get him into one of the balloons.”
“I don’t like this,” Bum said as he leaned over to pick up Watch. “But if we’re going to take him, we better take him now.” He nodded in the direction of the castle. “I think they heard us. They’re coming.”
Bum was right—four of the Cold People were climbing the cemetery walls. The monsters had three times as far to go to get to the balloons, but Adam wondered who was going to get there first. His leg seemed to be getting worse with each passing second. It was now almost completely numb, and the cold sensation was as high up as his right knee. He fell behind the others as they raced for the balloons. He wondered if he would be joining Watch as a monster soon.
Sally reached the balloons first, of course, and began to loosen the ropes that would allow them to take off.
“Hurry!” Sally screamed. “Adam!”
Cindy arrived next, followed by Bum carrying Watch. But Adam was now tripping every other step. As he climbed back up, he saw that he was already too late. One of the Cold People had moved between him and the balloons. He was trapped, in a cemetery more dangerous than a snake pit. Adam froze as the cold person fixed him with its gaze and slowly began to approach.
“Get away!” he called to the others. “Save yourselves!”
“Drop that hero garbage!” Sally called back, climbing out of her balloon with her flamethrower ready. So intent was the creature on Adam that it hardly seemed to notice Sally.
Until Sally torched it from behind.
Like the one in the surplus store, the creature did not burn. It was more like it melted into a pile of blue fluid. Sally kept the flame blazing until there was nothing left except a smelly puddle sitting atop a grave. Sally grabbed Adam by the arm and pulled him toward one of the balloons.
“I just hope I never have to do that to Watch,” she said, adding, “or to you.”