Farewell to Earth by Bruce Coville

Author:Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2022-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13 [TIM]

A LITTLE CABIN IN THE WOODS

When the stun ray hit me, I felt as if someone had pulled the plug on my brain. The last thing I remember was the glow of purple light and then… nothing!

The next thing I knew, I was in the limousine. At least, I assumed I was in the limo—or, to be more precise, the limo’s trunk. It was pitch black and I could smell auto fumes. Also, I could tell we were moving, even though the ride was amazingly smooth.

My shoulders hurt. When I tried to move my arms, I realized that my hands were tied behind my back.

“Jordan?” I whispered.

“It’s about time you woke up,” he said.

“How long have you been awake?”

“Longer than you,” he replied, by which I guessed that he meant two or three minutes. It annoyed me that he had come out of the stun sooner than I had, but there’s never been any question that he is stronger than me.

I like to think the reason I was out longer was that I have more brains that needed to recover.

“Every time I get tangled up with you and Pleskit, I end up having a near-death experience,” he said bitterly.

“Beats homework,” I said, trying to be cheerful.

He didn’t answer.

I started trying to wriggle out of the ropes that held my hands tied, but they were too tight. Suddenly I felt something furry brush against my hand. My first thought was that it was a rat, and I screamed and lurched toward Jordan.

“What is wrong with you?” he snarled.

“Something just crawled over my hand,” I said. “I think there’s a rat in here with us.”

Then I felt it crawling on my head!

I screamed and tried to shake it off. It grabbed my ear, and suddenly a tiny voice was saying, “Stop being so stupid! I’m no rat! If you’ll hold still, I’ll see if I can chew through the ropes holding your hands together.”

The voice was familiar, but I could hardly believe it. “Doris?” I said.

“Doris!” cried Jordan in alarm. “What’s she doing here?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not even sure it’s her.”

The small, furry creature, whoever it was, had scrambled down behind me. I could feel it working at my bonds. It took all my strength not to twitch, partly because it was tickling me, partly because having something crawling over your hands when they are tied behind you and you are lying in pitch darkness is an incredibly creepy feeling.

I could feel the bonds start to loosen. But before my unseen helper could finish the job, the limousine came to a halt.

A scurrying sound told me that Doris—if that’s who it was, and it was hard to imagine why that evil little creature would have been helping me—was scrambling for cover.

A moment later Ralph opened the trunk and hauled us out—first Jordan, then me. At first I thought we must be in a garage. But as I looked around, I realized that the entire front of the building had lifted up to let the limousine drive in.

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