Invasion of the Scorp-lions by Bruce Hale

Author:Bruce Hale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

THE BIKE RIDE home was like watching a zombie movie in Swahili—confusing, scary, and full of unanswered questions. Plus, my limbs were still wobbly after my sting, so we had to flee slowly.

“Well, the good news is, we don’t have ghosts,” I said. My voice wobbled a bit.

Benny gave a shaky laugh. “And we know what made those big paw prints Mr. Boo showed us.”

“Yay, us.”

We rolled along in silence for a while, still trying to deal with what we’d seen.

“A scorpion mixed with a lion?” said Benny. “How is that even possible?”

“I know.” My heart thudded faster at the thought of the creatures. Benny and I pedaled onward, through pools of light cast by streetlamps.

“I’ve got a C in science, and even I know that insects can’t breed with mammals,” he said. “Plus, there’s the whole size difference.”

I shook my head. Traces of my poison-caused visions still shadowed me. Melancholy made me sluggish.

“Poor José,” I murmured. “Poor Mr. Boo and the rest.”

“The victims?”

I nodded. “First, they get blasted with images of their worst fears, then they fall into a permanent sleep.”

Benny glanced over at me. “That’s what happened to you? Hallucinations?”

I tried to swallow around a lump in my throat that felt like an ostrich egg. “It was awful. And if you hadn’t been there, I’d be in a coma right now.”

Benny’s smirk was wistful. “Remember that, come Christmastime. Only sixteen more shopping days left.”

“Seriously,” I said. “You saved me. That was quick thinking.”

He sat up a little straighter. “It was, wasn’t it? Pure instinct, you know. Maybe I’ll become a doctor.”

“But first, Dr. Brackman, we’ve got to tell the hospital how soda counteracts the poison.”

“Absolutely,” said Benny. “We’ll just call them up, and, uh…” He petered out as a thought hit him.

I sagged in my seat, having the same realization. “And tell them, ‘Hey, just pour soda over your comatose patients. That’ll save ’em. No, really, it will.’”

Benny rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, we might need to work on the wording.”

As our bikes leaned into a curve, I said, “We’ll get on it tonight. But right now there’s another problem on my mind.”

“How high to make the monument to my awesomeness?” said Benny.

I sent him a sober look. “How the heck do we drive those monsters out of town?”

He had no answer for that one.

Turning off the main road, we entered our neighborhood. Blue TV-screen light shone from living room windows. The burble of dinnertime conversation drifted into the night. These people were relaxed, happy. They had no clue about what lurked in our school.

“You know, Mrs. Johnson would want us to tell her about this,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Benny.

“And then back off,” I said.

“Yeah,” he repeated.

I shifted on my seat. “Somehow, that doesn’t sound very heroic.”

“Nope,” Benny agreed, “it doesn’t.”

I didn’t know why (stubbornness? revenge?) but I didn’t want to just step away from this problem. Not yet. I wanted us to come up with a solution on our own.

“We’ve got a day and a half,” I said as we turned into my driveway.

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