FOR a dead person, Brandon the Pilot sounded pretty cheerful.
“Anybody got popcorn?” he asked, looking around at the gaping faces of Max, Kristin, and Alex. “If you don’t move your mouths, I bet I could land three for three—ping, ping, ping!”
As Brandon stood, Alex nearly tackled him to the sand again. Throwing her arms around him, she shouted, “You—you—you’re alive!”
“Hit me a little harder and I won’t be,” he said.
Alex’s eyes were full of tears, as were Kristin’s.
Max didn’t know what to do, so he started to spin. That made him feel pretty good, because each time he came around, Brandon’s smile got bigger and bigger. “Max!” Brandon cried out. “Dude!”
“Welcome back,” Max said. “I promise I will always say nice things about you.”
“You were dead, Brandon,” Alex explained in a rush of words. “Like, flatlined. No breathing. You slipped through a hole, way up near the top of the volcano. We were devastated. We kept going, hoping we’d find you alive. We traveled for so long, down through tunnels. This is incredibly deep in the Earth. No human being could have survived a fall this distance. So seeing your body was our worst fear confirmed—”
“There are creatures down here,” Max added. “Flying reptiles and superhairy beasts. And one that was like a yeti and a spider and a squid all in one, and he poured out this magic fluid from a nunchuck and uncrushed your skull and brought you back to life after you were a carcass.”
Brandon looked confused. He flashed a smile and said, “Yetis and spiders and squids, oh my!”
“Actually it might not have been a he,” Max said. He was standing still now but rocking from side to side with dizziness. “Or a she. It seemed pretty gender-nonspecific. But the point is, this is real, Brandon. No sarcasm. Something happened down here that does not happen in real life as we know it.”
Brandon’s jokey expression was tightening as he looked from one face to the other. “I don’t really remember any of this. . . .”
“You don’t have to.” Alex hugged him tight. “Funny, the moment you revived, I felt better too.”
“It was the liquid,” Max said, pacing the shore. “It doused you too, Alex. That’s why you felt better. Guys, I think we’ve found what we want.”
“Oh . . . my . . . gosh . . .” Alex’s eyes went wide. “Is this what we found, the serum? In the hands of some hairball with tentacles?”
“Exactly!” Kristin said, walking beside Max. “It had an immediate effect. Brandon must not have been dead very long.”
“Maybe it wouldn’t have had the same effect if Brandon’s body had stiffened,” Max said, “or if animals had, say, eaten his eyes or any of his vital organs—”
“I was enjoying this,” Alex said. “Can we lighten up the conversation?”
“So wait,” Brandon said. “It may take me a while to catch up, as I am a pilot of little brain. Jump in if I’m wrong here. So I flew you all over the world to catch these two creeps who stole this tiny batch of some crazy healing formula, and now this monster Muppet brought me back to life by pouring all over me and Alex . . . wait for it . . . some crazy healing formula. And now we’re all alive, we’re all down here together, and we’re not doing cartwheels?”
“Why should we?” Kristin said.
“Because if Trickle Me Elmo just happens to have some of this stuff, then you guys don’t need to find Skunky McSkunkface and his daughter. We have a source!” Brandon said brightly. “We found what we needed! We’ll be rich!”
“We’re already rich,” Max said.
“We could win the Nobel . . .” Kristin said dreamily.
“Just a few pesky details,” Alex said. “First, we have to actually get our hands on the stuff. It’s not as if we can text Bad Hair Day Creature and say, hey, float on back to us and lend us some healing formula. And second, we’ll all die if we can’t get back up. And third, even if we get back up, what do we tell people? Mutant prehistoric creatures . . . daylight from plants . . . an underwater sea . . . a journey deep inside the Earth where no one burns up from heat or gets squished from pressure . . . who’s going to believe us?”
“We can deal with three if we nail one and two,” Brandon said.
“We’ll take photos,” Max said. “We’ve been bad about that so far.”
“We’ll have the formula, Alex,” Kristin said. “That’s all that matters.”
Alex started to answer, but her voice trailed off, her eyes focused on something over Max’s shoulder.
As he turned, so did Brandon and Kristin. For a long moment, no one said a word. Far down the shore three figures were taking form, emerging from the lingering green fog. As they passed a cave opening in the big arching stone wall, Max heard distant whistles and shrieks. Two dark shadows spilled out of that cave and joined the others. From high overhead, a flying creature descended. With a flapping of wings, it perched on the shoulder of one of the walking creatures.
“Holy moly, an underground army,” Brandon murmured.
“M-M-Maybe we can . . . talk to them?” Kristin said.
“In what language?” Alex shot back.
Kristin pulled a white handkerchief from her pocket and waved it. “We come in peace!” she shouted.
“They can’t hear you,” Max said. “And put that away! Maybe to them a white handkerchief means ‘Go suck on a rock’ or something. Crazy cultural differences down here.”
He kept his eyes trained on the procession. More beings were emerging from the caves along the sand. They were hulking beings, about seven feet tall and dressed in tunics. Their faces were humanlike but covered with hair, and their eyes stared out from shadowy ledges under their foreheads. Their shoulders were broad, their legs bowed. In the center of them all was the creature who had saved Brandon, a completely different species than the rest, its tentacles gyrating all around.
Kristin, Max, and Alex started instinctively walking backward.
“Hang on,” Brandon said. Fishing a phone from his pocket, he scooted behind the others and held it up, pointed toward the advancing horde. “Smile, guys.”
“Are you out of your mind this is no time for selfies and besides you fell from a gazillion feet so your phone is busted!” Alex yelled.
Max grabbed Alex’s and Kristin’s arms and turned. Together the three ran away, back down the beach. Max glanced over his shoulder to see Brandon scooping a rock out of the sand. “Fastball, ninety-three miles an hour, down the pike!” He went into a pitching stance, kicked, and hurled the rock into the advancing crowd.
“Don’t antagonize them!” Alex yelled.
“Steeee-rike!” Brandon yelled.
“KRIIIIIIIIIIAAAA!” came a shriek that was way closer than Max wanted.
He and Alex turned. The gang of creatures had doubled. One of them writhed in pain in the sand. The others were picking up speed. Sand spewed in all directions like a greenish-white cloud as they flew toward their attacker.
“You fool!” Alex raced to Brandon and pulled him back. Caught by surprise, he lost his balance. But this time, he wasn’t going to disobey.
He, Max, and Alex ran toward Kristin, who was heading toward a cave opening farther up the beach. “Guys, over here!” she screamed.
“How do you know it’s safe?” Brandon called out, but Kristin was already inside.
A deafening CAWWWW! split the air behind them. Leathery flying creatures were swooping down from high above now.
“I think, yeah, the cave,” Brandon said.
But now Kristin was screaming. She ran out, followed by a slithery yellow reptile. And at the same time, Max felt a hand on his shoulder.
No. It wasn’t a hand.
It was a paw.
“Ahhhh!” Max yelled in shock, twisting his body away, instinctively spinning and kicking. His right foot landed square in the face of a furry, monkey-like beast with wings. It fell to the ground, whimpering, and immediately ran away.
“Whoa,” Max murmured, “did I do that?”
“Max, help me!” came Alex’s voice.
She was surrounded by three of the odd hairy humanoids. Max reached into his backpack and pulled out a squeeze bottle filled with raspberry Gatorade. “Forgot I had this,” he said. “Don’t say I never gave you anything!”
As he squirted the liquid as close as he could to their eyes, they screamed in surprise and Alex crawled away.
Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw Brandon fighting off two more of the creatures. They were bigger, but Brandon had better speed. Max and Alex both ran toward him, but they were stopped by a piercing scream from above.
“No! No-o-o-o-o!”
Max and Alex glanced up to see Kristin’s legs dangling as a flying reptile lifted her toward the sea.
“That thing almost killed me . . .” Max murmured.
He did the only thing he could think of, which was throw the Gatorade bottle toward the beast. He knew it was about the weakest thing ever. And it only grazed the reptile’s tail. But the impact was enough to throw the thing off-balance. It squawked, loosening its talons. With a scream of terror, Kristin hurtled downward. She landed in the soft green sand with a thud and rolled.
As Alex ran after her, Max stopped short.
To their left, another phalanx of the humanlike beasts was approaching from the opposite direction. Kristin was groaning and struggling to her feet with Alex’s help. Brandon was running toward them. “They’re not so tough!” he shouted.
And just beyond Kristin, still floating in the sea, was the raft that had been left by Trickle Me Elmo. On it was one long pole; the other floated next to it. Beyond it was a wide-open sea with no signs of life. Now, in the clearer sky, Max spotted a dark lump near the horizon.
An island.
“Follow me!” Max shouted over his shoulder toward Brandon, who was already passing him by.
“With you, dude,” the pilot said.
Max urged Alex and Kristin toward the water. The sea seemed to have no current, so the raft had floated only about fifteen feet out. Together the four sloshed out in the shallows and climbed aboard.
It was a tight fit, only about six feet square. Brandon lifted the floating pole out of the water. Max took the other pole and stood. Together he and Brandon thrust the planks into the water and pushed the raft farther out. Not daring to look up, Max poled as hard as he could. At any moment he expected a furry paw or slimy claw to grab him off the raft.
But the creatures had gathered on the shore in a clump, staring out to them, grunting and babbling to each other.
“Can you do the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus?” Brandon shouted.
Kristin narrowed her eyes. “The jaw shape . . . the cranium . . . if I didn’t think it was such a crazy concept, I’d say they were Neanderthals.”
“With a random pterodactyl, flying monkey, and walking hairball,” Max said.
“Well, it’s a good thing no one taught them to swim,” Brandon said with a sigh.
“It’s not much of a comfort,” Alex said. “We’re heading into the middle of a sea with no way out.”
Max’s eyes were focused on the creatures. Their chattering didn’t seem so random to him. It seemed more like a discussion.
And it looked like they had reached a decision.
A squad of about a dozen was making its way into the water, following in the wake of the raft.
“It looks to me,” Max said, “like we have some company.”