The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz

Author:Mo Netz [Netz, Mo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-12-13T00:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

“SO HOW DID YOU FIND ME OUT HERE?” I ASK.

We continue on the path in search of Mama. I pause every now and then to pick up a new arsenal of stones. Even without the map, it hasn’t been hard to find our way—the trail is fairly well-worn. But we don’t know where the nests are, so we have to stay alert.

“I saw you on my way home from dance practice,” Chapel says. “Going into the woods. I figured you had a good reason. But the woods aren’t safe and I didn’t want you to go alone. So I ran back to my room and got my wilderness stuff and came after you. You weren’t hard to find. I followed your tire tracks in the mud.”

I look behind me at the twin ruts furrowing through the ground. It’s so strange to think that while I was following Mama’s boot prints, Chapel was following me. I recall the glow of light behind us, the times I thought I heard something nearby, and feel relief, if only for a second. “But weren’t you scared?”

She rubs her glittery arms. “Sure. But I’ve been reading about wilderness survival. I thought maybe I could be a rescuer someday.”

“I thought you wanted to be a ghost.”

“I have to be something before that, though! I told you I want to live a long time.”

“Future ghost, jump rope champion, dancer, wilderness rescuer . . .” I tick them off on my fingers.

“I was in the Brownies until I got kicked out for trying to bring home a squirrel from camp.”

I can’t stifle my laugh. “What?”

“Well, it wasn’t so much the squirrel itself, even though they were mad about that. It was just a baby and I was trying to help. I got kicked out because the squirrel escaped in the back of the van and chewed through two tents and five boxes of cookies.” She shrugs wistfully. “But I did learn some wilderness survival skills on that trip.”

I think about Chapel going into the woods to save people. She’d be good at it. “You already rescued me,” I say. “So you’ve got a head start!”

“I mean, I hope I did,” she says. “We’re still in the woods with demons after us.”

I scan the rows of knotty pines with my headlamp. There’s a quick flash of something—a long, white skull with antlers, like a deer, standing tall on two legs. It runs off into the trees and disappears.

I grip Chapel’s forearm. “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

Suddenly I’m not sure I saw it, either. My eyes are playing tricks on me, I think.

We’re quiet for a moment, focused on finding stones and watching the trail. “You know the map I had?” I say. I had already told her about the map, the Xs that marked demon nests, and how I’d been tracking Mama.

“Yeah.”

“It also said that these roads lead to something called Guardians. I’ve heard that term before. Sometimes at night the radio picks up this strange station. I know it sounds really weird, but I hear voices talking about Guardians over the radio.

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