Who or what it was, Jack couldn’t tel , and didn’t want to know.
The excavation seemed to be attracting a lot of attention from things that came out only at night.
Weezy removed her hands and signaled them to fol ow her. She moved slowly and quietly away from the watcher and the excavation. The farther they
got, the faster she moved. Cutting quickly through the brush and weaving among the trees on a curving course that seemed to be taking them away from
the fire trail and their bikes. But Jack said nothing. He didn’t see much choice but to trust her sense of direction.
He was lost.
Just when he thought they’d never find their way out, when he was convinced they’d wind up like those hunters who entered the Barrens and never
returned, they stepped out of the trees onto a fire trail.
But which fire trail?
Jack’s heart leaped as he watched Weezy hurry across to where three bikes leaned against the trees.
He dashed after her.
“What was that thing in the woods?”
“I don’t know. A big piney maybe.”
“Th-that was the Jersey Devil!” Eddie said. “I just know it!”
Weezy, who bought into every other weird thing, had never bought into the JD.
She looked at Jack as they pul ed their bikes back onto the trail. “I don’t believe you got us out of that car.”
“I don’t believe you led us right back to the bikes. We make a pretty good team.”
She laughed and punched him on the shoulder. “You kidding? We make a
The way she said it sparked a flood of warmth inside him, but it didn’t last. Nerves doused it. They had to get out of here.
No one needed to speak again. They al knew what to do, and where they were going.
Once they were moving toward Johnson, with the sound of the copters fading behind them, Jack’s heart began to ease its pounding.
He glanced over his shoulder. No sign of headlights.
They’d made it.
Wel , not completely. Not yet, anyway.
They’d be home free if the trooper remained where they’d left him. If he just stayed put, watching those pine lights, he wouldn’t know they were gone. He
could look al he wanted, but from that distance he couldn’t see into the dark interior of his cruiser. As far as he knew, they couldn’t open the doors, so he’d
assume the “dumb piney kids” were right where he’d left them.
Another over-the-shoulder look—stil no headlights.
Jack wished he could have hung around to see the look on that suit’s face when he found out they were gone.
Where’s your sneer now?
They were passing the trapper’s spong. Great. Halfway home. He took another look behind and—
He almost lost control of the bike when he saw a pair of headlights bouncing down the trail, coming their way.
He looked around. Even though a car could go only so fast without bottoming out on these undulating trails, it could stil beat a bike. No way they could
outrun it.
“Hey!” he shouted to the others. “They’re after us!”
He heard a frightened whine from Eddie and Weezy cry, “Faster!”
“No! Pul off the trail and hide the bikes!”
“They’l catch us for sure!” Eddie wailed.
“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t think they’ve seen us yet. But they wil if we stay on the trail.”
Weezy angled into a stand of pines at the far edge of the spong clearing. Jack and Eddie fol owed, hauling their bikes into the brush and laying them
