11

  Caleb and Stephanie arrived at Anna’s house, prepared to brainstorm ideas. Anna reached out to a few other club members to join the team, but they were too scared to leave their homes. It was probably for the best anyway. She didn’t want to risk any more lives.

  The kitchen table was piled high with notebooks, pens, and a variety of snacks. Each member of the team had their own tablet or laptop. They needed to keep an eye on the local news and to be able to research as needed.

  Anna downloaded maps of the town and of the sinkholes. While busy researching and planning, she was surprised to hear another knock at the door. Anna peeked outside to see a figure with a long dark coat carrying a large backpack. The person at the door wore dark, heavy eyeliner and deep blue lipstick. Her hair fell past her shoulders, dyed at the ends a royal blue color. Not sure if she should let the visitor in, Anna just stared at her. Finally, the woman knocked again, causing Anna to jump. Then Dr. Ebright came to the door. She smiled a big smile, opened the door, and said, “It’s okay. This is my friend, Margot Sheffield. She studies the paranormal. I invited her to join us.”

  After sighing in relief, Anna said, “Welcome. We are so happy to have you here.”

  Caleb stared at Margot Sheffield, the legendary Margot Sheffield.

  “I can’t believe you are here. I can’t, I mean I can, I mean, hi. I have been following you for years.” Caleb stuttered. He was totally starstruck. “I modeled my ViewTube channel after yours. I hope that’s okay. Your show is, well, it’s so good. I mean, great. I mean, hi.” Caleb felt himself blush.

  Margot laughed. “Hello there, Caleb. I’d know you anywhere. I have followed you for a while. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said.

  Caleb blushed again. Then he took Margot’s hand and shook it up and down. The whole time he grinned like a fool.

  “Okay, Caleb. Let go of the poor woman’s hand and let’s get to work. You can stare at Margot while we are working,” Anna said. She shook her head and laughed.

  Caleb took a seat next to Margot. He could not stop smiling.

  That is, he grinned until a loud thud on the front window reminded him of the serious situation raging on outside of the house. Caleb turned and looked at the front window. He could see a beast throwing itself against the window. It howled and shrieked, drooling purple slime. He thought for sure it was going to break through.

  Anna ran toward the window, a golf club in her hand. “Just in case it breaks the glass and gets in,” she whispered.

  But, as quickly as the attack started, it stopped. And the beast took off down the street.

  “As you can see, we have a huge problem on our hands. We have to find a solution,” Anna said. “Let’s get to work.” She put the golf club down.

  Caleb noticed how Anna’s hands were shaking. She was terrified. So was he. But he knew she was trying so hard to appear calm. To Work. To focus on the work and the objective science.

  Dr. Ebright, Anna, Caleb, Margot, and Stephanie finally sat down to get started. “Okay, team, I want to thank you all for coming,” Anna began. “The problem is this mist and the ooze, and we need to figure out what it is and how we get rid of it.”

  “We also need to figure out what to do with the animals and people who have been affected by the mist,” Caleb added. “I know this is scary, but there has to be something we can do.”

  “I have reached out to colleagues of mine and, so far, no one has experienced anything like this before,” said Dr. Ebright. “So, we have a unique problem and need to find a unique solution. Let’s go back to the beginning and see if we can figure this out.”

  “Well, okay,” Caleb started. Then he told them about Agatha Dorsett, her psychic prediction, and the weird, wild storm.

  “She knew a storm was coming, that it was going to bring evil to town and that Anna and I needed to work together to try to help the town survive.” Caleb paused his story and shifted in his chair.

  Anna continued, “None of my equipment worked in the storm. Nothing. Then, just as suddenly as the storm started, it stopped.” Anna picked at her fingernails. Caleb knew she did this when she was agitated.

  “That’s when the beasts appeared,” she said. “I was having dinner at the diner, and I thought one of the beasts was going to break through the glass. I was so scared. So was everyone in the diner. Then, Caleb realized the animals coming into town were coming from the direction of the sinkholes, so we decided to check it out,” Anna said. “We got a front-row view of what happens when a person or animal breathes in the mist. They change.”

  “It would make sense that the mist is causing the changes. There must have been some type of chemical reaction that affected the air around the sinkholes. The change takes place once someone breathes in the mist,” Dr. Ebright pointed out.

  “I agree,” said Anna. “We just need to find out what that reaction is and how we can reverse it.”

  “That is going to be really hard to do without having a sample to work with,” Dr. Ebright said with a sigh. “That would have been helpful, but after that creature just appeared out of nowhere, I really don’t feel comfortable sending any of us out into the streets to try and collect a sample.”

  “Your bag!” Caleb shouted.

  Anna’s face lit up. She clapped her hands together and smiled. “Then we are in luck,” she said. “I happen to have a sample in my bag.”

  “Well then,” Dr. Ebright said. “Now all we need is a lab.”

  12

  Anna gathered their belongings, including scarves to wrap around their faces. “Let’s take two vehicles,” she suggested. “In case we need to separate later.”

  Driving slowly down the street to avoid the debris and zombie-like people, Anna noticed that most of the stores and shops in town were closed up tight. The front window of Bee’s Coffee Shop had a huge crack in the glass. Someone had taped the window back together with silver electrical tape.

  It would have to hold until the trouble passed, she thought. The damage from the storm still needed to be cleaned up, but that would also have to wait too. Right now, the only objective was to find out how to get rid of the mist. And the zombies.

  “Here we are,” Caleb said as he got out of the car. “I hope this works.”

  “I think you need to go to the studio. Keep sending out warnings and ask people to let you know what they see,” Anna said. “Take Margot with you. Maybe she can help. I’ll take Stephanie and Dr. Ebright to the lab and we’ll get to work.”

  “You’ve got this. I believe in you,” Caleb said.

  Anna smiled and put her hand on Caleb’s arm. “Thank you. That means a lot. I believe in you too.”

  He asked, “You ready? We need to make a run for it.”

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  Zombie people wandered through the parking lot of the high school. Occasionally, a hairy animal with sharp fangs zoomed through the parking lot and repeatedly threw itself into a parked car or against the school walls.

  Caleb, Anna, and the rest of the team ran toward the building. This time, the door was unlocked. There was no sign of Mr. Gee, the janitor. Had the zombies gotten him?

  “To the studio! To broadcast!” Anna shouted and pointed at Caleb and Margot. “Dr. Ebright and Stephanie, come with me! To the lab!”

  Caleb burst into the studio with Margot following close behind.

  “I think if we reach out to all of our followers, we should be able to spread the message for people to stay indoors. We should also ask them to share what they see. We can make a map to track the information and be able to pinpoint the biggest trouble spots in town,” Caleb said.

  “That sounds like a good plan,” Margot replied.

  Caleb watched as Margot picked up a headset and immediately started broadcasting. He got some paper and markers and began sketching out the main streets and buildings in town. As Margot’s followers shared what they could see, Caleb added the information to the map. Then it was his turn.

  “Hey there, friends, fellow students, and followers of the bizarre. It’s me, Caleb Henderson, and I want to keep you posted about the dangers here in Foggy Creek. I said it before, but let me say it again. Please stay indoors. It is not safe to leave your homes. Keep listening and checking for my posts. I will tell you if it is safe to go out. In the meantime, if you can see out your windows, let me know where you are and what you can see. This is important friends, our town is depending on us. Stay safe, my friends. I’m out.”

  With both Caleb and Margot’s broadcasts complete, they shifted their focus to the map. They added the locations of the animals and zombie people that their followers shared with them. People also left comments that told them about the progress of the first responders. It was a relief to know that the police blocked access to the sinkholes.

  On the other side of the school, Dr. Ebright called out to assign jobs and gather supplies. “Stephanie, find some blank slides and get the microscopes set up. Anna, we need beakers and Bunsen burners to test the compound combinations. Oh! Get the laptop ready so we can keep track of the tests that we run.”

  They bustled through the lab. Everyone was focused. Everyone tested, and everyone worked silently. The seriousness of the situation weighed down on them. The team worked for hours. As they developed the different compounds, they dropped those solutions on a sample of the purple slime. Each time, they held their breath hoping that they got the combination right. Each time, they were disappointed. Time was running out and so was the slime.

  “Someone is going to have to go outside soon and see if we can get another sample. I know it’s not safe, but I don’t know what else to try,” Stephanie said.

  Anna was trying to concentrate. Her frustration was at an all-time high. There was one sample left and she was using her last combination. If it didn’t work, she wasn’t sure anything would. Anna placed the last ooze sample in a dish and picked up a dropper. Then she pulled the solution up into the tube, held it over the dish, and gave it a good squeeze. She waited. And waited.

  “It didn’t work,” she sighed. Anna put her head down on the table and closed her eyes. What were they going to do?

  “Look,” Dr. Ebright said quietly and pointed at the dish. Anna lifted her head and then looked at the dish. It was empty.

  “You did it! Your solution made the ooze disappear,” Dr. Ebright said. They had an answer to their problem! Anna couldn’t have felt prouder of herself. She stood taller and let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

  “Anna, how did you do it?” Stephanie asked.

  “I have to admit, I’m curious too,” Dr. Ebright added.

  “Well,” Anna started, “I remembered that in one of our club meetings, we were testing the stability of different compounds, so I dug out my notes. The one thing that continued to create changes to the compound was salt. I figured out that adding a little sodium chloride, table salt, to the chemical compound could destroy a bond. So, I tried it. The added salt broke the bond of the slime.” Anna was beaming.

  “Great thinking Anna,” Dr. Ebright said. Now that we have a working compound, we need to make more of it.”

  “That’s right, Dr. Ebright,” Anna said. “We need to make more. A lot more.”

  13

  Anna texted Caleb:

  Anna: We got it. Come now. Hurry!

  Anna and Stephanie got busy. They worked to create a liquid salt to squirt to get rid of the slime. Then, they filled every container in the lab and hoped it would be enough.

  Caleb and Margot ran to the lab. They could barely fit into the room with all the containers stacked up. Caleb looked around.

  “I hate to be negative, but what do we do with all this stuff?” he asked.

  He saw everyone in the room look stunned. Here they had a compound that could neutralize the ooze and hopefully dissolve the mist, but how were they going to deliver it?

  “How about we use a plane and spray the solution over the town?” Stephanie asked.

  “Great idea. But I don’t know where we will find a plane and are you a pilot? Because we don’t have one of those either,” Caleb said.

  “Oh, right. I’ll keep thinking.”

  “Let’s use sprinklers and spray everything with that,” she suggested.

  “Also, a great idea,” Anna said. “I don’t know that we can get the solution into the water supply or if that is a safe thing to do.”

  “I wish my dad were here,” Stephanie said. “He’s a firefighter and he always knows what to do. I’ll text him.”

  Caleb put his hand on his neck and rubbed it, trying to release some of the tension.

  “I don’t know what a firefighter could do,” he said.

  “Unless . . .” Anna said. “Unless he’s the driver. Stephanie, can your dad drive the fire engine?”

  “He sure can,” she replied.

  “That’s it!” Caleb exclaimed. He remembered that the town had one of the old-time fire engines that had the water tank attached to the truck. No hydrant would be necessary to fill the hose with water. It would be perfect!

  “We add the solution to the water tank. Hook up the fire hose. And spray the mist. It should make the mist disappear,” Anna practically shouted at the team.

  “He’s at work today. I’ll text him now and ask him to meet us here,” Stephanie said. Then she typed out a text.

  “That takes care of the mist at the sinkholes. But what about the animals and people in town?” Anna exhaled. “This is never going to work.”

  Caleb was silent, racking his brain to figure out a solution.

  “I’ve got it!” Caleb said. “Water Wars.”

  “I’m sorry. But I have no idea what you are talking about,” said Dr. Ebright.

  “Water Wars is something that happens at the end of every school year. The seniors get into teams, and everybody gets a super soaker. You know, those extra-large squirt guns? If you get soaked, you are out of the game. In this case, we put some of the solution into the water guns. We soak the people and animals and, hopefully, we reverse the process.”

  “That is just ridiculous enough to work,” Margot said. “Nice thinking, Caleb.”

  Caleb beamed from the compliment.

  “Now, we need to make a plan. What do we do first? How are we going to know where the trouble spots are?” Anna asked.

  “I think somebody needs to stay in the studio and monitor the news. We need to stay in communication with everyone, including the police,” Caleb said. The team looked at each other and all began talking at the same time.

  Finally, Dr. Ebright spoke up.

  “Listen, I don’t know if I’m the best person for running around town and chasing these beasts. I am the oldest person here. I think I would be the most useful staying behind and monitoring the police and news channels. I can keep you all informed about where to track down the trouble.”

  Caleb agreed with Dr. Ebright. She would stay at the school and continue tracking. That way, she could direct the team where to find the people and animals that needed rescuing. She could also stay in touch with any needed first responders and the news outlets.

  Once that had been decided, Caleb helped Anna and Stephanie as they transported the containers of the solution to the front of the school. Stephanie’s dad and a crew of firefighters met them there, and they loaded the solution into the back of the truck.

  First step . . . tackle the sinkholes.

  Lights flashing and sirens blaring, the fire engine sped through town, eventually stopping close to the sinkholes. They could see the mist but felt relieved that no people or animals could be seen nearby. Stephanie’s dad handed each person a gas mask to prevent them from breathing in any of the mist. He hooked up the hose to the tank and attached it to the truck.

  Anna poured the solution, one container after another, into the tank. Margot, Caleb, Stephanie, and Anna lined up to hold onto the hose with the fire crew.

  “So, how does this work?” Anna asked.

  “Good question, Anna,” said Stephanie’s dad. “Once I turn on the water, it will very quickly flow into the hose. It creates a great deal of force, so you are going to have to hold on with both hands. It is going to be hard to control, but you have to keep a tight grip. Everybody understand?”

  It was going to be a test of strength to make this happen, Anna thought.

  Anna watched as Caleb used his heels to notch a secure spot in the ground. “So you don’t slip and fall.”

  Grasping the hose tightly, Anna was as ready as she could be. She also dug into the dirt with her heels, hoping to keep stable once the water started to flow.

  “Okay, here goes,” Stephanie’s dad said. The water rushed through the hose with a tremendous amount of force. Anna struggled to keep control of the hose. They used all their might to aim the hose at the mist and hoped for the best, but Anna felt like they were losing control. The hose pulled her arms away from her body and she felt her hands slip and slide. Her feet dragged in the dirt as the hose pulled her from side to side.

  “I don’t know how much longer I can hang on,” Anna said.

  “You have to hang on,” Caleb responded. “Don’t let go. This has to work.”

  With her arms aching and legs burning, Anna continued to hang on as the hose sprayed. At first, it looked like nothing was happening. Just thousands of gallons of water spraying into the sky. The team held on and continued to move the hose back and forth into the mist.

 

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