I WOKE UP IN a cold sweat. My dream was breaking up into fragments of memory, and I didn’t try to hold on to them.
My clock said 9:07. I’d gone to sleep at sunrise, 6:00 or so.
Three fat hours. I was going to be in great shape today.
It didn’t matter. I had work to do. Lots of it.
I was dressed in seconds. Quietly I opened my door and heard my mom’s snores from her room. I tiptoed downstairs and punched Ariana’s number on the kitchen phone.
She picked up in the middle of the first ring. She was sobbing. “I’m sorry! Oh, I’m so glad you called. I … I love you so much. Please come over. Please!”
“Sure, Ariana,” I replied softly. “I’ll be right there.”
“David?”
“Uh-huh.”
She groaned. “I thought you were Stephen! Ohhhh, I feel like such an idiot! Why did you do that to me?”
“Uh, Ariana, you didn’t even wait to hear my voice.”
“Okay, okay. What do you want?”
“I need to talk to you. I know who George Derbin is.”
“Really? Who?”
“Reggie Borden.”
The phone fell silent. “Ariana,” I continued, “are you still there?”
“Yeah. I must be half-asleep, though, because I thought I heard you say George Derbin was Reggie Borden. Silly me.”
“That is what I said. The names are anagrams of each other. Derbin was young, thin, black, and incredibly tall — just like Reggie. The photos of Reggie look a lot like the guy I saw with Jason — except George Derbin had those growths on his face.”
“Oh, this is too weird. I’m not hearing this.”
“Ariana, remember in Chief Hayes’s office, when you suggested that Jason had been led into the basement?”
“Yeah, I suggested George Derbin had led him. What are you saying? That Reggie Borden actually hibernated underground all these years, like Rip Van Winkle?”
“If he did, he’d be Chief Hayes’s age.”
“Oh! He’s been in suspended animation! Okay, that explains it. Whew, for a minute I was confused.”
I ignored Ariana’s sarcasm. “Just listen to me. One of the voices used fifties slang, and he sounded our age. I know it seems farfetched, but — ”
“You think one of the voices was Reggie’s? He brought Jason down and then hopped back in the hole with two ghost buddies?”
“Jason was desperate to get us George Derbin’s business card. He must have been trying to warn us.”
Ariana didn’t answer.
“You can’t deny what you saw, Ariana! Is my theory any less believable than a crack in the earth that spits out smoke and slime monsters?”
“No, I guess not. Go on.”
“Okay. The voices said they were delivering a message. From whom?”
“The slime monster,” Ariana said dryly.
“Must be. And this thing takes people, roto-roots them from the inside — ”
“Gross, David.”
“Sorry. It wasted no time gobbling up Rick, John, and Jason — but it spares others. It hasn’t touched the Delphic Club members, who hold their meetings practically on top of it. It didn’t do anything to Chief Hayes in 1950, or to you and me. I dove into its hole — and even then it didn’t want me. It gave me back.”
“Because you were too early — that’s what you said it said,” Ariana reminded me. “Maybe it’s going through the whole school in some strange order.”
“The voices want me to find out who they are,” I barged on. “They’re testing me.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure, but I have an idea.” I took a deep breath. “In 1950, the same time Reggie disappeared, three other kids showed up dead. Reggie was never found … until now.”
“The thing kept him,” Ariana said.
“And I think it wants to keep me — make me into a fourth … voice.”
“Oh, great. So this is some kind of aptitude test for admission to zombieland? They think you’re stupid enough to want to join them — ”
“I am.”
“What? Stupid?”
“No! Don’t you see? I have to do it. If I find out about them, I might find out about the monster. This whole thing might come together — the earthquake, the murders, everything.”
“I was wrong. You’re not stupid. You’re insane.”
“What’s the alternative? Staying ignorant and letting more people die?”
“You saw your forehead, David. You’re developing a growth, like Chief Hayes. How long before you look like this … ghost of Reggie Borden? What if you and Chief Hayes are turning into zombies?”
“I’m not turning into anything, Ariana. Chief Hayes doesn’t remember exactly what happened to him in the basement. But he escaped, just as I did. He went on to live a long, normal life — and so will I. We were — infected in some way, but obviously not enough.”
“How do you know that? This could transform you slowly, over years. How do we even know Chief Hayes is on our side?”
“Ariana, we can’t get paranoid about this.”
“I can get as paranoid as I want!”
I couldn’t tell whether or not Ariana was crying.
“We can’t bring John and Jason and Rick back,” I said softly. “But we owe them a little effort. If we can figure out why they were chosen, we may be able to predict who’s next.”
Ariana sighed. “Okay. You’re right. I — I shouldn’t be giving you a hard time.”
“So you’ll help me?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ll come over in a few minutes.”
“No. Meet me at the library. I want to look at the town history again. The thing was here in 1950, and it took Reggie. But no one else disappeared that year — ”
“So you think the other two voices were taken at another time, and you want to check, for earthquakes and strange disappearances and murders.”
“You got it.”
“Hey, I didn’t get to be editor in chief for nothing.” Ariana gave a weak laugh. “But here’s what I want to know: Say this thing wakes up every few years, just belches out of the ground, makes everybody’s life miserable, eats people like flies. Then why does it go back to sleep? Does it get too full? Does it have some fatal, weakness?”
“Maybe it’s allergic to females.”
“Ha-ha. Keep it up. I guess you enjoy going to the library alone.”
“Meet you there in ten minutes?”
“Let me call Stephen back. We had this fight before you called. We were supposed to hang out this afternoon, but he called to say he couldn’t make it.”
“How come?”
“Well … that’s what I need to find out. I figured it had something to do with Monique, so I hung up on him.”
My heart started pumping. Now she would get angry at him. “Okay, work it out. I’ll see you in twenty minutes?”
“Make it a half-hour.”
“Twenty-five.”
“David — ”
“Bye.”