Page 9 of Ghouls Gone Wild

  He nodded. “I checked on them this morning. They’re all still sending data.”

  “Good. We’ll consider the baseline complete, and we’ll start this bust tonight. Heath, you and I need to come up with a plan to deal with some of that overpowering plague energy that tackled you in the close last night.”

  “Good idea,” he said. “But at least now we know why it was so intense.”

  “Why?” Gopher asked.

  “The close was where the town sent anyone who was showing symptoms of the plague. I figure those caverns were where hundreds, if not thousands, of people perished from the disease. And all that fear and suffering has left an imprint. If Heath and I are going to take on the witch, we’ll need to be completely present and clear of any residual energy.”

  “How are you going to manage that?” Gilley asked me.

  “We’ll have to strike a delicate balance,” I told him. “We’ll need to be really grounded, and we’ll have to tone down our radars.”

  Gopher looked curiously at me. “You guys can tweak the intensity of your radar?”

  “I can,” I said, and eyed Heath to see if he agreed.

  To my relief he nodded. “I think it’s a survival technique,” he said. “If I didn’t dial back my antennae there’d be no way I’d be able to walk through a crowd or get to sleep at night.”

  Gilley finally let go of the door and came back over to sit down on his bed. He still looked upset. “Won’t that be a dangerous thing for you to do, M. J.?”

  I knew what Gilley was hinting at. If I went into the close on anything but high alert, the ghost of Rigella could move in on me before I had the time to feel her coming. “It’s a risk we’ll have to take, Gil.”

  Gilley frowned. “I really don’t like this at all.”

  “None of us do,” Heath said. “But I don’t see how we have any real choice.”

  I glanced at my watch and said, “I’ve got to check on Wendell. Gopher, let me know when you’ve arranged to put Gil and me together; in the meantime, Heath, if you could babysit him until we move, that’d be awesome.”

  “On it,” Heath said.

  Later that evening most of the crew was gathered around the van, which was parked a full block east of the entrance to the close. I had wanted it—and Gilley—to be farther away, but anything beyond one block messed with the reception, which was already challenged due to the signals coming from underground.

  Gil was seated inside the van and was surrounded by magnets. He had on his trusty sweatshirt, and there were refrigerator magnets stuck to every conceivable surface. And I had to admit, I felt pretty good about his being surrounded by so much protection.

  Heath and I had spent a few hours in deep meditation, gathering protective shields to our energy, and then we’d done an exercise to ground ourselves, which involved a visualization where we imagined our bodies as tree trunks with thick roots planted deep into the ground.

  I’d also brought along the charm Bonnie had given me, explaining to Heath that it was an identical match to the one his grandfather had placed around my neck in my OBE. “Where’s my charm?” he’d asked playfully when I’d told him the story.

  “Oh, I think you come with plenty of charm already,” I said with a laugh. Heath liked to flirt with me and I wasn’t about to let up teasing him about it.

  The new cameraman and sound guy weren’t much in the way of personality. Both men were middle-aged, overweight, quiet, and seemingly very skeptical about what we were doing here. They didn’t say anything, of course—they were professionals after all, and I was pretty sure they’d seen all kinds of weird behavior over the years. But it showed in their eyes when we talked through our game plan and how we would try to provoke Rigella’s ghost into appearing, then follow her to her portal. “If we can find that portal, we can shut her down before she has a chance to hurt anyone else.”

  “And if she gets violent, we’ll pull out the grenades,” Heath said, demonstrating to the new crew members what he meant by pulling off the cap to the metal casing housing the magnetized spike.

  “Did you want me aboveground or below?” Gopher asked when we’d gone over the plan.

  “Aboveground,” I told him, and hid a smile when I saw the relief in his eyes. “You stay with Gil and make sure he’s okay.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Gil said, pointing to the array of magnets all over the interior of the van. “This place is reinforced like Fort Knox.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t want to take any chances. You keep in constant radio communication with me, you hear?”

  Gilley saluted. “Yes, sir!”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I mean it, Gil. I’m nervous enough about having you this close to the caverns. That witch is the most powerful thing we’ve ever encountered, and I don’t think she’ll be stymied for long.”

  “I’ll be fine!” Gil insisted. “Now go along and get to busting her ass, would you?”

  I smiled ruefully and motioned to Heath and the camera and sound guys—whose names I’d already forgotten.

  We made our way to the entrance of the close and I did a sound check. “Gil, you copy? Over.”

  “Copy that, M. J. Over.”

  Heath gave me a thumbs-up to indicate that his headset was working fine, and we opened the door and descended the stairs to the caverns. There was a thick door at the bottom of the staircase, which was very hard to open, and Heath had to help me, but we made it inside without further incident. “We’ve entered the close,” I said to Gil. “We’re making our way over to camera one. Over.”

  “Copy that,” he said. Then more quietly I heard him tell Gopher how hot he was. “It’s friggin’ stifling in this van.”

  “Then take off your sweatshirt,” Gopher said.

  “No way,” Gil said. “Uh-uh.”

  “Oh for cripes’ sake, Gil,” Gopher snapped. “You’ve been complaining about the heat ever since we got in here. Just take off the sweatshirt and set it on your lap. You’ll still have the magnets on you and besides that, we’re surrounded by magnets. As long as you stay in the van, you’re covered.”

  There was a muffled sound in my ear and I knew that Gilley was taking Gopher’s suggestion. I also breathed a sigh of relief, because Gil does tend to whine a lot when he’s uncomfortable, and I saw nothing wrong with Gilley keeping the shirt on his lap instead of wearing it.

  As we walked, I glanced sideways at Heath to make sure he wasn’t suffering any early effects of the plague. He looked totally fine, so I kept moving. A short time later we came to a stop in front of camera one and I waved up at Gil. “How’s the reception?” I asked him.

  “Great.”

  I turned to Heath and said, “Might as well test the waters.”

  Heath put his hand on the canister secured to his belt and nodded. “Ready when you are.”

  I looked up and down the close. Even though my radar was dialed way down, I could still sense a bombardment of souls knocking on my energy. I opened my mouth, ready to call out to Rigella, when we all heard a terrified shriek. It was female and it came from about one hundred yards ahead. “What was that?” the soundman demanded.

  “Don’t know,” I said honestly. “Gil? Can you tell me what you see on camera two?”

  There was a pause, then, “It’s clear, M. J. There’s nothing there.”

  “And what about the meters? What’re they registering?”

  Another pause then, “A small spike,” he said. “But not at camera two. I’m getting increased electromagnetic frequencies coming from where you guys are by camera one.”

  Heath and I locked eyes and then I pulled out the meter around my belt. The needle was bouncing back and forth between normal and high. I pointed the meter around in a circle. It continued to bounce; then it went to high and stayed there. Near my left shoulder I heard a moan and the camera guy jumped. “What the . . . !” he gasped.

  “Hold still!” I commanded, just as a loud knock rattled the cavern.

  “Uh-oh,” Heath whispered, and I felt the first hint of mounting danger beginning to form all around us.

  “Everyone hold still!” I ordered just as another series of knoc
ks sounded right behind us.

  “What’s happening?” Soundman asked in a squeaky whisper.

  “M. J.!” Gilley yelled in my ear. “I’m getting crazy-high meter readings from camera five . . . now four . . . now three . . . !”

  I looked at Heath. “Brace yourself!”

  From down the cavern we all heard it coming, a progression of thunderous thwacks that sounded like a thousand baseballs dropping on a tin roof all at once. It came like a wave, pounding its way toward us, building and building, until even the sound of Gilley shouting right in my ear was drowned out.

  I ducked low and covered my head with my hands when something crashed into me and took me down to the ground. As a terrible racket sounded all around, I realized that Heath had thrown himself on top of me and was attempting to shield me with his body. I struggled to breathe with his added weight, and he held on to my arm and my shoulder so hard that it hurt. I squeezed my eyes closed and in my mind’s eye a crystal clear image appeared of Samuel Whitefeather hovering over Heath and me protectively with his hands splayed, and a white dome of protection covered our bodies—as if he was producing an energetic force field. And at my neck the charm I was wearing became incredibly hot—almost searing against my skin.

  Meanwhile all around us the thwacking sounds continued, until I thought they would never stop.

  But abruptly—they did.

  And all that was left was Gilley’s frantic pleas. “M. J.?! Heath?! Come in! COME IN!”

  I’m not sure who moved first. It might have been Heath, or it could have been me, but eventually we both sat up and looked around in a daze. Dust swirled in the air, which was foggy and thick. “We’re here, Gil,” I said, my voice cracking slightly before I coughed.

  “Ohmigod!” he said. “I was scared to death! Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I mean, I think so.”

  “What about Heath?”

  I squinted at my fellow medium. He nodded to indicate he was fine. “He’s okay.”

  “And the crew?” Gopher’s voice asked.

  I coughed again and waved my hand at the air, trying to clear it. I couldn’t figure out what had caused so much dust, but the other thing I noticed was that it appeared to be noticeably darker here in the cavern.

  “They got the bulbs,” Heath said as if reading my mind. He pointed to the edges of the ceiling where the industrial lightbulbs were lined up one every ten feet or so. I could see that several lights along the cavern’s cieling had been broken, but one just down from us cast an eerie glow to the floor, which looked uncharacteristically bumpy.

  “M. J.?” I heard Gopher say. “Are you there?”

  “I’m here,” I said, trying to get to my feet. “I’m here.”

  “What’s the status of my crew?”

  I realized as I stood up that the ground was littered with stones and rocks and even pebbles of all sizes. There were thousands of them strewn all about, and I sucked in a breath of surprise when I realized that none of them had hit me. I glanced at Heath again in alarm, wondering if he might be covered in bruises, but he looked all right.

  “M. J.!” Gopher shouted, clearly impatient now. “What is the status of my crew?!”

  “Um . . . ,” I said, turning in a half circle, looking for Cameraman and Sound Guy. Coughing again, I said, “I don’t see them.”

  There was a pause before Gilley asked, “What do you mean, you don’t see them?”

  “They’re not here,” Heath replied.

  There was another pause as Gilley and our producer took that in. “Exactly what happened down there?” Gopher asked.

  “Can’t you see it?” I asked, right before my eye fell on the broken glass and pieces of black plastic littering the floor underneath where we’d secured camera one.

  “We have no eyes on the ground,” Gilley said. “All the cameras are feeding us snow.”

  “Well, it’s a mess down here,” Heath said. “It’s like a tornado whipped through here or something.”

  “Yeah, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore,” I concurred.

  “Guys!” Gopher snapped impatiently. “Where is my crew?!”

  I waved the dusty air with my hand, coughed, and squinted into the gloom. “Gopher, they’re not here. My thinking is they’ve either run deeper into the cavern or headed up top.”

  “That’s it,” I heard Gopher snap. “I’m going down there.”

  I was about to tell Gopher to stay with Gilley and we’d look for the crew when Heath stepped awkwardly on a rock and fell down.

  “Careful!” I said, hurrying to him. “You okay?”

  He tried to laugh it off as he got up quickly and said, “I’m fine.” He then kicked aside several stones. “How the hell did we dodge all of these?”

  I shook my head and almost smiled. “I believe your grandfather might have granted us a little protection.”

  “Yeah?” Heath asked curiously.

  I nodded and then remembered how hot my charm had gotten during the onslaught and I reached up to my neck and pulled out the charm I’d been wearing.

  “Whoa,” Heath said, pointing to the necklace. “It’s cracked in half!”

  I took it off carefully to inspect it more clearly in the dim light. Sure enough the charm had a huge fracture running through the middle of it. I tapped it, and the whole thing just broke apart.

  “Crap,” I said as several pieces of the charm fell on the floor. “There goes our added protection.”

  “The energy that came at us was so strong that it must have absorbed right into the charm,” Heath said. “And when he was alive, my grandfather used to tell me about charms that could do that, but I’ve never actually seen it.”

  “Until now,” I said, wiping my hands on my pants and coughing again in the dirty air. “You ready to get outta here?”

  “More than ready.”

  We moved over toward the nearest exit and as we got close, we could clearly see something fuzzy lying on the floor. We hustled over to investigate and found the furry-covered microphone still attached to its boom, which had snapped in half.

  “Our brave crew must have made it out,” I whispered.

  “Let’s hope so,” Heath said.

  “Gil?” I said more loudly into the microphone.

  “Yeah?”

  “We think Cameraman and Sound Guy made it out of the cavern.”

  There was a small chuckle in my ear. “They have names, you know,” he said.

  “Oh yeah?” I asked him. “What are they?”

  “Heck if I can remember,” Gil said, giving in to another laugh. “And you guys still haven’t told me what happened.”

  “Rocks,” I said.

  “Rocks?”

  I stared around the close, littered with debris. “Yep. The whole cavern was pelted with them.”

  “Are you sure you two are all right?”

  “Yep,” I assured him, eyeing a shard of the charm on the floor. “At least for now we are.”

  Just then the door to the cavern burst open and Gopher stood there looking sweaty and out of breath. “Hey!” he said when he saw us. “I got here as soon as I could.”

  His appearance made me angry. “I told you to stay with Gilley,” I snapped.

  “I was worried about my crew,” he replied defensively.

  “Yeah, well as far as we can tell, your crew made it out of here okay, and my guess is that they’re already on their way to the airport. I’ll also bet you dollars to doughnuts that they’re not coming back for round two.”

  In my ear I heard a faint knocking sound and Gilley ask, “Is that you, Gopher?”

  “He’s here with us,” I said.

  “Then who’s knocking on the van?”

  “Probably Camera Guy and Soundman.”

  Gilley chuckled again. “I thought it was Cameraman and Sound Guy.”

  Heath smiled. “They all look alike. Or at least, they all look alike when they’re running away.”

  There were shuffling noises and I knew Gil was making his way over to the door of the van, and in the second before I imagined he opened the door, I got a terrible prophetic feeling. “Gil!” I shouted. “Don’t open the
door!”

  But it was too late. No sooner had I finished shouting out my warning than I heard the door to the van slide open, and a frightful shriek sounded in my ear loud enough for me to yank off my headset. It came to rest around my neck as muffled cries of terror erupted from the earpiece.

  “Gilley!” I yelled, and bolted to the door. “Hang on! We’re coming!”

  Heath was next to me in an instant and together we pulled the heavy door open and flew up the stairs. “Get off me! Get off me!” I heard Gilley scream. I knew intuitively that something had pulled him out of the van, and I also knew that without his sweatshirt he was a sitting duck.

  My heart was thundering in my chest as I charged up the steps, shouting, “Gilley! Get back into the van!”

  I had the headset back on my head and was listening to Gilley struggle and fight with some unknown assailant. Then, a small ray of hope when I heard him bang hard on something metallic, and the door of the van slid either open or closed again.

  “We’re . . . coming!” I panted as I struggled to hurry up the steps.

  Heath was faster than I and he made it to the top door first. But when he pulled on the handle, it wouldn’t move.

  I reached him just seconds later. “Open it!” I shouted impatiently.

  “It’s locked!” Heath exclaimed. “It won’t budge!”

  I was so afraid for Gil that I rudely bumped Heath out of the way, grabbed the handle, and pulled with all my might. But he was right. The door was shut tight.

  “What’s happening?” Gopher called up from the bottom of the staircase.

  I didn’t answer him. Instead I yanked the microphone up close to my mouth and shouted, “Gil! What’s going on?”

  Gilley was crying and blubbering incoherently, but I did manage to catch, “M. J., I’m back in the van, but something’s still outside! Help me!”

  I slammed my fist against the door and shouted for anyone who might be passing by to help. But through the dirty window I could see only darkness outside.

  “The other exit!” Heath shouted, and without waiting for me, he bolted back down the stairs.

  I took off after him and cried, “Gilley! Hang on! We’re coming!”

  To make matters worse, Gilley’s terrified cries reached a new level of fear and volume. “Go away!” he shouted. “Get away from here!”