Chapter 17

chapter seventeen Dirk and I tumble through cracked concrete and dirt and down into darkness and then— WHOMP! Hard ground. There's a heavy, wet smell in the air, like soil. I rise, take a step, then pitch forward into something. Something alive. My mouth is open, ready to shriek, but it's Dirk. He throws a big, dirty palm over my face. "Shh..." he says, lifting a finger to his mouth. "These walls have ears—" "WHAT? Ears?!" I scream as I spin, eyes darting, imagining the most horrific thing my mind can conjure: the fabled, long-lost...

WALL OF EARS "No, dingus, not real ears," Dirk says, nodding ahead. "Those...." I see Vine-Thingies, swaying, bobbing, moving curiously. One snakes toward us, like it's curious. "I think they're listening to us," Dirk whispers.

"They must know how cool our conversations are." Dirk jabs me with a quick elbow and nods ahead. Beyond the next cluster of vines, I see endless tunnels. The only reason we can see at all is because the Vine-Thingies glow. They crawl along the tunnel walls, and their flowers hum with purple and green. "All this neon reminds me of the laser tag joint," I say. "Hey! Idea! After we get outta here, we should—" "Not now!" Dirk growls, and he steps forward, brushing through a large, pulsating leaf. I follow closely behind. We turn a corner and it's like someone cranked up the lights on Space Mountain. This isn't just one tunnel—it's many tunnels that split and shoot off into forks and branches. "Whatever carved these tunnels must've been real big," Dirk says as we continue our trek.

Cool air rushes through the tunnel. I pull my hoodie tight. "Must've done it recently, too," Dirk adds, poking at the wall. "The soil's wet." Every step on the soft earth squishes beneath our feet. It's quiet, eerily quiet, until— A spine-chilling SCREAM erupts! I draw the Slicer. Dirk readies his fists. We burst around the next corner, ready for anything—

I'm taking you to Jack town June fist, right to your nose! "STOP!" Quint says. June holds up her armored hand. "Whoa, it's us! Y'know—your friends!" Fists and Slicer are lowered. "That could have been messy," June says. "I almost blasted you." "I'm just happy you're enjoying the Gift," I say with a grin.

Quint points at my arm. "Jack," he says. "You're bleeding." He's right—a small cut on my arm. Something scraped me as we came around the corner. My eye catches on a spike jutting from the wall. "Hmm," Dirk says as he plucks it out like a giant splinter. Quint eyes it. "It's a quill from the Hairy Eyeball Monster." He gives the tunnel a once- over, then adds, "And there are lots of them." The spikey quills fill this section of the tunnel. Some are broken. Others have bits of monster flesh on the end, like they were ripped from the creature's body. "It's like after the Vine-Thingies captured it, they didn't just beat it up or eat it up," June says. Quint nods. "They dragged it through here." "But dragged to where?" I ask. Dirk extends his arm, drops the quill, and it hits the dirt floor with a muffled thud. Then it rolls down the path like a runaway pencil.