"RELLY!" BUTT YELLED BACK. "Do something. Now! He's cooking the engine." Butt pointed to a dial on the dashboard. The little orange needle was tapping all the way to the right. "We'll burn up in about two minutes."
Relly crawlad to the front. Already the smell of roasted rubber and scorched metal filled the van.
Wisps of poisonous green steam floated from under the dashboard.
"Do something!"
Relly tried to concentrate on the van's motor, drawing out the excess heat. He started to sweat and shake again. I put my arm around him, but drew back quickly. "Stop it! This isn't going to work. It'll kill you," I said. His fever cooked right through his coat. It hurt, bad. And it scared me. But I went back and hugged him again. Fever came out of him like venom from a snakebite. Out of him and into me.
Now smoke was billowing from under the hood. I could hear the heat gauge ticking like a bomb. Relly let out a breath that stunk of car exhaust.
"We're dead," he said. "We'll never escape them."
A sudden bloom of red light filled the windshield.
"It's on fire!" Butt yelled and slammed on the brakes. "Out! Out! Get out now!"
He lunged from the driver's seat. I yanked crazily at the door handle. "Come on!" Butt was shouting. Flames shot from the van's front end. I stood there looking stupidly at the broken lever in my hand.
Relly finally came all the way out of his trance. He grabbed me by the arm and dragged me from the van.
We hadn't run far when the whole van was swept into a ball of flame. "Let's go!" Jerod yelled, shielding his eyes.
The van had come to rest right at the front gate of Mount Hope Cemetery. The hills, the bare trees, the endless ranks of white stones faded in and out of the snowstorm.
Mount Hope was locked up for the night. Relly, me, and Jerod were skinny enough to squeeze between the iron gates and flee inside. Butt, being a lot bigger, couldn't get through. He rattled the bars frantically, spitting curses.
Now Knacke's car had pulled up right behind the van. As the headlights died, the fire suddenly stopped, like it had been sucked into a gasping hole in the earth.
All three of us were yanking on the gate now from the inside. "Under. Under!" I yelled. Butt threw himself to the ground and crawled beneath the rusty bars. His coat caught and ripped. But he made it through.
We were in Mount Hope, and for a few minutes at least, the spiked iron fence would protect us from Knacke and the others.
"Come on!" I shouted, and we ran up the cobblestone roadway into the graveyard.