Adventure Bike Club and the Tire Giant

railroad track wasteland, I wouldn’t exactly smell like a bouquet of roses either.

  Quentin and Tommy are almost on us now.

  “You stop that, right now!” I yell.

  The boys freeze in their tracks. Eddie is instantly alert, weapon in hand.

  “It’s all right, Eddie,” I say. “They won’t bother you.”

  Quentin gives me a peeved look, but he recovers his cool fast enough.

  “Sure Eddie,” he says, “I only wanted with talk to you a little. Well ... maybe I’ll take a look around, instead.”

  He saunters away innocently with his hands in his pockets. His act is not very convincing. A change of subject is needed, fast.

  “Eddie,” I say, “if you help us get out of here, I’ll ask my Dad to buy you a bike just like this one.”

  Eddie’s head jerks up. “Yeah? Would he do that for real?”

  “I’m sure of it,” I say, “once I tell him how you helped us.”

  The excitement leaves his face, and his eyes narrow.

  “How do I know you’re not just talking hot air – like everybody else?”

  “It’s the best I can do right now, Eddie,” I say. “You could take my bike if you want, it’s a girl’s model, though.”

  Tommy walks up.

  “No need for that,” he says. “You can have my bike, Eddie. As soon as you get us out of here.”

  “That’s very generous, Tommy,” I say.

  “Yeah,” Tommy says, “then your dad can buy me a new one.”

  There’s a pause filled with hope. Then Eddie sits down on the floor, totally dejected.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he says. “I can’t help you escape – nobody can, not even them.”

  “Them?” we ask.

  “Yeah,” Eddie says, “they’re coming now. Don’t you see?”

  Tommy and I look fearfully at each other, then off into the infinite darkness where Eddie is pointing.

  12. Strange Arrivals

  A globe of strange, blue-orangey light appears in the blackness high above us. Blurry figures are floating around inside it, like goldfish in some psychotic fishbowl. Quentin and Melissa join us at the bikes.

  “I don’t like this very much!” Melissa says.

  She wraps her arms around me; we stand clinging to each other, as if this could protect us, somehow. Quentin and Tommy crouch into fighting stances, but they don’t look very fit to handle this new danger. All the while, the figures in the globe are moving toward us like a band of demented angels sinking from the heavens.

  “Oh, man,” Quentin says, “we’re in for it now!”

  “Could be,” Eddie says. “They might not hurt you, though – unless you give them a reason.”

  He seems to enjoy Quentin’s distress entirely too much.

  “Maybe just our being here is enough reason,” Melissa says. “They didn’t send us engraved invitations, after all.”

  Quentin turns on me.

  “Why did you stop us, Amanda? Now we’re surrounded.”

  “Knock it off already,” I say. “You can’t solve everything by jumping people.”

  The glow comes nearer, bathing us in cold, flickery light. An electrical charge sends my hair billowing around my head. I have the strange feeling that my hair is actually holding me up, like the strings on a puppet.

  This is good. Otherwise I might be collapsing about now. At least my hair isn’t hanging limp like a drowned rat’s any more.

  I can make out four figures now. They seem to be smaller than us, except for one which is taller and very thin.

  “Get ready, everyone,” Quentin says. “This is it.”

  “Yeah!” Eddie says with an evil smile twisting his face.

  The globe stops right in front of us. The light is blinding now, and I put an arm up to shield my face. Then the light shuts off abruptly. I can’t see anything except for white spots dancing before my eyes, and then bloody red ones ...

  When the spots clear, I see a group of what seems to be kids standing before us – the weirdest ones ever invented. They have deep black eyes, white hair, and skin so pale you can almost see through it. They wear yellow, form-fitting jumpsuits.

  As far as I can tell, they appear to be a boy and three girls. All of them have little rings in their ear lobes, the ‘girls’ also have them pierced through the sides of their noses.

  We are all too amazed and frightened to say anything.

  The newcomers stare at us for several seconds. Their blank, waxy faces give no clue as to what they might be thinking – like the faces of department store dummies. This is maximum creepy, and I have to fight to keep from screaming.

  Then, thank heaven, they turn away from us and start talking among themselves in low, crackly, musical voices. They seem to be speaking in a combination of Chinese, flute music, and radio static.

  “What are they saying, Eddie?” Quentin whispers.

  “I don’t know,” Eddie says, “but it doesn’t sound good. You might be in big trouble.”

  “Hear that, Tommy?” Quentin says. “We’ve got to take action.”

  The strange beings finish their conference. The taller one moves toward us, then he holds up a long tube type thing.

  “Look out,” Melissa cries, “it’s a gun!”

  “Now!” Quentin shouts.

  He dives into the kid, or whatever it is, and knocks him over.

  “Stop it!” I cry. “Tommy, break them up.”

  “No way,” Tommy says. “Come on, help me tackle the others.”

  But then the fight suddenly ends.

  TA-ZAPP!

  A burst of crackly light explodes from Quentin’s opponent.

  “Yow!”

  Quentin tumbles away and sprawls on his back with his arms and legs thrust out in a big X. His hair stands straight up, and his T-shirt glows. The three of us gape with shock. Then Tommy and I rush to help Quentin.

  “I’m electrified,” he groans.

  Melissa finds the opponent to be more interesting. She crouches beside him and studies him carefully.

  Quentin feels tingly all over, and little sparks shoot out wherever we touch him.

  “Can you get up?” I ask.

  “I-I think so.”

  Quentin begins to move, slowly and painfully. His hair starts returning to normal and his glowing T-shirt shuts off.

  Eddie roars with laughter.

  “This is great!” he cries.

  “Oh yeah?” Quentin says.

  He wobbles back to his feet, with me and Tommy each holding onto an arm.

  “Get rid of that spike, then we’ll see how funny things are,” he says.

  “Relax,” Eddie says, “they weren’t trying to hurt you. That tube he’s got is just a communicator device.”

  I give Eddie my icy stare treatment.

  “That was really mean!” I say. “I thought you were going to help us.”

  Eddie looks down, avoiding my glower.

  “Well ... he shouldn’t have talked to me like he did,” Eddie says. “He’s as bad as Joey.”

  Quentin tenses. For a second, I think he’ll tear away from us and attack Eddie, railroad spike or not. But then a softer look comes over him, like he kind of feels sorry for the kid. I am reminded again why I like Quentin so much.

  “All right, Eddie, we’re even,” he says. “Now, can you help us with these guys?”

  Eddie thinks this over. Meanwhile, Melissa is talking to Quentin’s opponent who is still lying on the floor.

  “That was some trick,” she says. “You’re not going to zap me, are you?”

  The alien, for that’s what he surely is, shuts down his crackling glow. Melissa helps him to his feet and retrieves the communicator device for him. He takes it from her with a stiff bow and limps back to join the other aliens. They all crowd around him – as scared as we are, it seems.

  “Okay, it’s a deal,” Eddie says at last. “But no more nasty talk, right?”

  Quentin nods. “Deal.?
??

  He offers his hand and, after hesitating a second, Eddie takes it.

  Then Eddie walks over to the aliens and gestures toward the communicator. They give it to him.

  13. Midair Show

  The communication device is about a foot and half long and a few inches around with one end flared out like a trumpet. Eddie hefts the thing with confidence.

  “I’ll tell them how I found you,” he says.

  He brings the wide end of the gizmo to his face and starts talking into it. I can’t figure out his muffled words, but soon a wavery glow leaves the other end of the tube.

  Then, a moving picture suddenly appears, hovering in midair like magic. It shows the four of us standing beside our bikes. The picture is about half life sized and kind of sketchy, but you can still make out our features.

  We all gasp.

  “Man, this tops the Saturday matinee!” Quentin cries.

  “He’s not showing my best profile,” Melissa says, “and my real hair looks much better than that.”

  In the movie, Tommy and I start buzzing our horns, but you can’t hear anything. We are like a TV show with the volume turned off.

  “Wow!” Tommy says. “How does it do that?”

  Eddie lowers the device.

  “Beats me,” he says. “All I know is that it took a long time to make it work with English.”

  “Give me that.” Melissa snatches the communicator. “I’ll tell them the rest of the story.”

  She starts talking into the device. Again, moving pictures flash in mid air. In them, Tommy, Quentin, and I are still pretty vague, like cartoon figures almost, but Melissa shines out in full detail. You can even see her designer wrist watch.

  We’re all riding down the street. Melissa is racing ahead while the rest of us struggle to keep up. Suddenly, for no reason, Quentin turns up a driveway and crashes into a tree.

  “That’s not how it happened!” Quentin protests.

  Melissa lowers the communicator.

  “Oh hush, Quentin,” she says,