Cadaver Island (4 page)

“
I have plans for you! I
throw you in prison! I keep you forever!” the giant
said.

Dr. Stine dropped the
scepter as the giant turned on his heels and ran through the
forest. As Dr. Stine listened to Razor’s frantic barks, he stared
at the trail of devastation caused by the giant’s feet when he
tracked them down earlier. As the giant carried him deeper into the
forest, Dr. Stine smelled smoke from the forest fire. Flakes of ash
fluttered in the air, carried by a brisk breeze from the west.
Moments later, he glanced to his left and noticed a wall of flames.
Rabbits, deer, and raccoons fled from the flames. The giant stepped
closer to the fire. Dr. Stine winced when the heat singed his beard
and eyebrows.

“
You caused explosion! You
destroyed habitat! You angered forest!” the giant
scolded.

The giant carried Dr. Stine
toward the opening of a dark cave. The heavy footsteps of the giant
caused rocks and soil to tumble from the roof. A few of the rocks
cut Dr. Stine on his face and hands. Blood trickled from a wound on
his forehead and dripped into his left eye. He screamed in pain
when the giant tightened his grip on his midsection, causing a
sensation of hot fire to race through his abdomen. Countless bats,
awakened by the giant’s footsteps and Dr. Stine’s screams, swarmed
in the air and screeched. Moments later, the giant entered a
chamber that was illuminated by the flickering flames of several
torches. When the giant laughed, maggots squirmed on his green,
coated tongue.

“
This is home now! You’ll
stay here! You’ll never leave!” the giant said.

The giant dropped Dr. Stine
into a deep, stone pit. He landed on heaps of human bones. He
screamed when he pivoted his neck and stared at the gaping mouth of
a dead woman. Cockroaches and silverfish swarmed across the stone
blocks of the prison. He glanced up in time to watch the giant
cover the opening with a boulder. He yelled for help while his feet
splashed in cold water. Bones jabbed into his stomach and chest.
Then darkness surrounded him while insects flocked across his robe
and crawled on his skin.

***

Angelique watched the baby
pterodactyls wobble toward her while she inched slowly toward the
central bulk of the huge tree. The newborn creatures squawked and
screeched. Their jaws snapped as their sense of smell guided them
toward the scent of Angelique’s flesh. Angelique wrapped her hands
around a thick, dangling vine and heaved herself out of the nest
before they surrounded her. The baby pterodactyls wailed when they
couldn’t find her. Angelique knew their mother, Sorrow, would
respond soon.

Tree sap oozed across her
metallic hands, the fabric of her summer dress, and the skin of her
legs as she climbed slowly down the length of a leafy vine. As she
moved closer to more sturdy branches beneath her, she noticed more
pterodactyl nests. When the
pop
and
crack
of hatching
eggs alerted her to the birth of more infants, she jumped to an
adjacent vine, which hung from the other side of the tree. If she
glanced at the treetops and succumbed to fear, she knew paralysis
would seize her and she’d fall.

After clinging to the vine
and rappelling down the side of the tree for thirty minutes, she
dropped to the ground and landed in a huge pile of pterodactyl
dung. She covered her nose with her left hand and felt nauseous
when the foul odor caught her off guard. To the west, she heard the
trickle of a flowing stream. After hiking through the woods for
about ten minutes, she dipped her feet and legs into the water and
washed the dung off of them.

Angelique waded across the
stream and stepped into a small clearing where sunlight penetrated
the tree limbs. Large mushrooms towered above her as she walked to
the center of the clearing and let the sunlight warm her face. She
smelled the scent of wildflowers, which covered the ground. Their
pink, yellow, and orange petals created a bright collage of color.
Angelique screamed when a cold, frail hand touched her left
arm.

“
Don’t be alarmed,” a
feminine voice said. The voice’s tone soothed Angelique’s
nerves.

Angelique turned to face
the origin of the voice. A blonde-haired, naked woman hovered in
the air next to an enormous mushroom. The fairy’s transparent wings
fluttered rapidly, which reminded Angelique of hummingbirds she
used to watch on her balcony during spring mornings back in Thyme.
The aroma of flowers intensified when the fairy touched Angelique
on the forehead with her left hand. Angelique felt strange energy
flow through her body from head to toe. It felt
electric
and
warm.

“
Who are you? What do you
want?” Angelique asked.

“
My name isn’t important. I
want to help you,” the fairy said.

“
Help me? How can you help
me?” She touched her mechanical heart instinctively.

“
Now you can see in the
dark. But you must be quick. The spell fades quickly.”

After Angelique blinked,
she gasped. The fairy was gone. She glanced over her shoulder and
checked behind the large stems of the mushrooms, but she was alone.
When Angelique stepped out of the clearing, she heard a woman’s
voice singing. The melody seemed close, yet far away. Somehow
Angelique knew the fairy would watch over her like a guardian
angel. She hoped the fairy’s kind gesture wasn’t a ruse.

Angelique watched orange
and yellow leaves drift from tree limbs and swirl in a cool breeze.
The stench of damp soil triggered her sense of smell as she walked
toward a mound of moist dirt. She paused when the ground in front
of her shifted and stirred. The pink bodies of segmented worms
poked out of the ground and flopped in the air. Four earthworms,
all larger than anacondas, felt her presence and inched toward her
slowly.

“
They’re…huge. How am I
going to get around them?” she said. She wished Razor and Dr. Stine
were nearby. She prayed that her guardian angel would
intervene.

One of the worms surged
across the ground and wrapped around Angelique’s left foot. She
tripped and fell to the ground. The mechanical fingers of her left
hand gripped the exposed roots of a nearby oak tree. Another worm
inched across the wet soil and coiled around Angelique’s right
ankle. She tried to maintain her grip on the tree’s roots, but the
worms pulled and tugged with all their strength until she let go.
Angelique screamed when they dragged her across the forest
floor.

“
Someone please help me!
Please!” Her fingernails left ten, deep grooves on the ground as
the other two worms wrapped around her legs and yanked her toward a
pit.

The earthworms burrowed
into the earth and dragged Angelique with them. She panicked when
her knees and thighs vanished into the moist, fertile soil. An odd,
sucking sound rose from the ground when an air pocket formed
beneath her feet. Her hands searched for something solid to hold
onto, but the large rocks, tree roots, and fallen branches were too
far away. Beetles, ants, and silverfish swarmed in the dirt as the
earthworms pulled her into the ground. When she tried to scream
again, a stream of dirt flowed into her mouth and choked her. Her
hands reached for the sky and flexed in vain. Then, after her
fingers grew still, the ground swallowed them, too. The soil
shifted and stirred as the ground stabilized. Angelique Bosc,
Princess of Thyme, was buried alive.

***

Razor ran through The
Enchanted Forest of Sorrow and followed the trail of crushed
saplings and fallen trees, which had been toppled by the enormous
feet of the enraged giant. When he reached a clear, flowing stream,
the dog paused and contemplated how he could cross the water
without getting wet. He’d already experienced exposure to moisture
and his internal fixtures were plagued by spreading rust. If he
became submerged in water, he’d rust much faster. Razor glanced
upstream and noticed a leaning, rotted tree. He trotted toward the
tree and placed his front paws on the middle of it. The dog stood
on his hind legs and pushed. White, worm-like bugs swarmed from
deep holes in the tree’s bark. Winged termites took flight and
hovered in the air. Razor pushed harder and heard a ripping noise
as the dead tree’s roots lifted out of the ground.

The dog took a few steps
backward and let gravity do the rest. Brittle branches snapped and
large roots twirled in the air as the top of the tree landed on the
other side of the stream with a thunderous CRASH! Razor barked
three times in approval and crawled onto the makeshift bridge. Cold
water splashed against the fallen tree, creating a spray of mist.
Razor waited for the mist to subside before he proceeded to the
middle of the bridge. The strong current of the stream caused the
tree to move. Razor maintained his balance and jumped over a huge
gap where termites had gutted a section of the tree from the inside
out. When the stream’s current intensified and the tree shifted
downstream, Razor jumped off of the tree and landed on solid
ground. Minutes later, a strong burst of water shoved the tree
again, causing it to float away. Razor celebrated his success by
barking several times and chasing his tail. When he felt a flea
biting him on his back, he scratched himself with his rear-left paw
until the itching subsided.

Razor paused when he sensed
a battery pack nearby. A sensor in his brain caused a low, chiming
noise to echo in his skull. He sniffed the ground and followed the
stream to the north. He whimpered when he reached the area where
the battery pack
should have
been. When he didn’t see a
battery pack, or Angelique, he started digging. Moist soil and wet
leaves flew through the air as the dog dug faster. As he did so,
the signal grew stronger and the chiming noise in his brain
intensified. Razor realized that the battery pack, or his beloved
Angelique, was somehow deep
underground.
When the soil
turned to rocks and stone, Razor gave up. He whined and yelped in
frustration.

He returned to the trail of
devastation caused by the giant’s massive feet. Razor jumped over
shattered trees and bypassed fallen saplings as he ran faster. Up
ahead, a rusted, wrought-iron fence interrupted the trees and
foliage of the forest. Razor stepped cautiously under an old gate,
which boasted the words OLD OAK CEMETERY in a semicircle of steel
above his head. Razor walked along a cobblestone path while he
scanned granite headstones, moss-covered mausoleums, stone Cupids,
and enormous, leaning crosses made of rock. On the other side of
the cemetery, Razor noticed that the forest was on fire. A huge
wall of flames rose from thick foliage in the background of the
cemetery’s monuments. To the east of the inferno, Razor spied the
entrance to a large, deep cave. He activated his sensors, which
allowed him to detect the body heat of living creatures from miles
away. After concentrating on the cave for several minutes, he
locked in on the giant and Dr. Stine. He could see their
silhouettes and body temperatures with his robotic eyes. He barked
three times and trotted toward the other side of the cemetery. When
he reached the end of the cobblestone path, flames from the inferno
cooked headstones and seared the side of a mausoleum. A tornado of
flames whirled around a huge oak tree, which collapsed to the
ground and disintegrated into ash.

Razor growled when three
wild boars, solid black in color, emerged from behind a headstone
and walked toward him. Despite their large size, which he estimated
to be the equivalent of grown tigers or lions, Razor sensed the
boars were babies. They grunted and thrust their tusks at him. When
Razor stood his ground and barked at them aggressively, the wild
boars paused and stared at something
behind
Razor.

Razor turned around and
stared at their mother, a giant, black, angry pig. Her nostrils
flared and loud grunts rattled her massive ribcage. Her beady eyes,
filled with rage, locked onto Razor and identified him as a threat
to her babies. Razor whimpered and tried to run away when their
mother charged and tried to impale him with her sharp
tusks.

***

Dr. Stine shielded his eyes
with his left hand when the boulder at the top of the pit slowly
slid to the side, allowing light from torches to spill into his
tight, bone-clogged prison. The giant’s face appeared at the top of
the shaft moments later. His three eyes scanned the bottom of the
pit, searching for anything that might be out of place. When he
realized that Dr. Stine hadn’t tried to escape, he exhaled a deep
laugh and pointed at him with the log-sized, index finger of his
left hand. His laughter echoed throughout the deep cave.

“
You can’t get away! You’re
my pet! You’re here to stay!” he yelled.

Dr. Stine scanned the
moss-covered, stone walls of the pit. His fingers pulled a network
of thick vines away from the skeletons of the giant’s previous
victims. He examined small holes in the walls, which allowed a cool
breeze to flow into the shaft from a subterranean chamber. He
realized that if he could somehow chisel his way to the other side,
he could search for a way to escape in the labyrinth on the other
side of the wall.

“
Maybe I should cook you!
I’m getting hungry! I like human stew!” the giant said.

“
Please let me out of here!
I don’t have
time
for this nonsense!” Dr. Stine
said.