The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Brin waved her arms wildly into the cold night air in fright and tried to reach back for Justin, as all three of the creatures' claws came soaring into the suburban and tried to pull Brin out of the car.

"Help me!" Brin shouted. "Oh God—somebody help me!"

Justin wrapped his arms around her. "I've got you! I've got you, Brin! I won't let go!"

Brin didn't have much time. The giant demons were too strong. They were going to pull her out of the vehicle, out of sight, away from her friends, forever.

"Mr. Barker!" Brin shouted. "Mrs. Hallow! They're out of your way! Drive! Go!"

"Are you sure?" the vice principal asked. "You don't think they'll try to chase us—"

"They're going to rip me into a dozen pieces if we don't get moving right now! Hurry!"

'OK, OK!" shouted Mrs. Hallow.

Brin felt her golf shirt tearing, a chunk of her hair getting pulled from her skull. Justin held her tight, but Brin felt the tug of a trio of monsters so painfully she thought she was going to be decapitated. She hoped it wasn't all going to end like this.

The first creature reached for Brin's throat and started to pull her out of the vehicle.

"Drive!" Brin shouted. "For God's sake—"

Mrs. Hallow slammed her foot against the pedal, and shouted, "Hold on, everyone!"

Brin never thought a suburban could go from zero to fifty in five seconds, but this one could. Justin pulled Brin back, and Brin pushed away from the creatures, and unthinkably, almost magically, she fell back, inside the car, on top of her brother's belly, without injury. She let out a wild scream—one of the three monsters managed to remove a chunk of her red hair—but nothing else was severed from her body.

Brin tried to normalize her breathing. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought she'd pass out. She looked out the back window of the vehicle and watched in horror as the three demon creatures didn't just stay put in disappointment, but raced toward her, now not with friendly grins on their ugly faces, but with the angriest of demon visages. The suburban had picked up speed but not enough. The creatures were gaining.

"Go faster!" Brin shouted.

"I'm trying!" Mrs. Hallow replied.

"For God's sake, they're going to flip the car!"

The first of the three creatures approached the right side of the vehicle and looked into the back window to get a close view of Justin. While the monster seemed to like the sight of Brin, it obviously didn't care for the sight of her brother. It started pounding its giant claws against the side of the car, hard and fast, and everyone in the vehicle screamed when the back tires were lifted into the air.

"It's going to tip us!" Anaya screamed.

"They're going to eat us alive!" Valerie added. "They're going to feast on us like we're the most tender strips of steak in the world!"

"You're so morbid, Valerie," Brin said, then looked at Mrs. Hallow, who had sweat dripping down her cheeks. "Faster, faster, faster!"

"I'm trying!" the frail old woman said. "Lay off me!" Mrs. Hallow glanced at Mr. Barker real quick, in unsurpassed fear, as one of the three creatures leaped over the entire suburban and landed in front of it.

If it hadn't been for Mr. Barker, the vehicle would have crashed straight into the demon's legs. But the teacher grabbed the steering wheel just in time, and swerved the car to the right, just barely missing the creature.