13 DESPERATE TIMES

13 DESPERATE TIMES Lunar day 217 High noon "Dashiell! Run!" Kira ordered. And then, just in case I didn't understand, she grabbed my hand and yanked me down the hall. "Go get him!" Sonja ordered Patton, while Lars and Lily cheered him on enthusiastically. Patton obediently chased after us. Kira and I loped through the base as quickly as we could in our bizarre, low-gravity way. On a normal day, I might have yelled for help, but all the other adults were out on the lunar surface—except Dr. Marquez, who wouldn't have been able to defend me against a butterfly. Luring Patton back into the

bathroom and making another attempt to suck his face off with the Urinator didn't seem likely; the only other thing I could think of was to get to my residence, lock the door, and pray Patton wasn't strong enough to break it down. In the meantime, while I fled, I tried to reason with the bully. "Come on!" I yelled. "I'm sorry for using the Urinator on you. I was only trying to defend myself. I never would have done it if you hadn't attacked me first!" "Know what I'm gonna do when I catch you?" Patton roared. "I'm gonna shove your whole head down the toilet!" So much for reason. Kira and I bounded past the gym, the medical bay (which I hoped I wouldn't be needing soon), and the rec room. Violet and Kamoze were so riveted to Squirrel Force, they didn't even notice us go past. "Go SuperSquirrel!" I heard Violet cheer. "Save the day!" I couldn't tell where Patton was behind me—I didn't want to chance looking back—but his guttural grunts and screams seemed to be getting closer. It sounded like I was being chased by an animal rather than a human.

Normally, to get to my second-floor room, I would have pulled a U-turn in the air-lock staging area and climbed the stairs to the catwalk, but today that seemed way too slow. I glanced at Kira and realized she had the same idea. Both of us launched ourselves at the outer wall of the rec room and sprang off it. The moon's low gravity might suck for running, but you can make some superhero-style moves in it. Kira and I both sailed up through the air across the hall and caught the catwalk rail. We were right by the doors to our rooms. Kira sprang over the rail with ease and I followed.... Only, Patton lunged upward and snagged my foot right before it cleared the railing, then dragged me back down. He lost his footing, though, and fell flat on his back. I landed right on top of him. I was hoping I'd at least hit hard enough to hurt him. Instead I landed so softly, I might as well have been a bag of potato chips. Patton clamped his meaty hand around my neck. "No!" Kira screamed. "Let him go!" Patton's reptile eyes flicked toward Kira, then narrowed evilly. Still looking at her, he did exactly the opposite of what she'd asked, squeezing my neck

tightly. I gasped for breath, but found none. Above me on the catwalk, I heard Dr. Marquez emerge from his room along with Roddy. "Dr. Marquez!" Kira cried. "Make him stop!" For a brief moment, I wondered if maybe Dr. Marquez wasn't so useless after all. And then, Dr. Marquez, displaying his standard inability to grasp what was going on in any situation, demanded, "Dashiell, get off Patton right now! You're going to hurt him!" I scrabbled at Patton's fingers, trying to pry them off my neck, but he was too strong. I began to see spots as my oxygen deprivation got worse. Kira realized Dr. Marquez wasn't going to be any help and came to the rescue herself. She leaped back off the catwalk, landed beside Patton, and dug her nails into his scalp, yanking back hard enough to uproot tufts of his hair. Patton howled with pain and released his grip on me. I sprang back from him, slamming into the door of Dr. Janke's residence. I knew it wasn't very cool to let Kira fight for me, but at the moment, all I could do was desperately gulp air. Patton sprang to his feet and lashed out an arm,

catching Kira in the chest. Since Patton was twice her size, he sent her flying across the hall, where she crashed into the wall of the rec room, whacked her head, and then crumpled to the floor, out cold. The bully then spun back on me. Kira had furrowed his forehead with her fingernails, so there were now slashes of red over his eyes, making him seem even more evil than usual. He was seething with anger now, glaring at me with such hatred that I feared he might actually kill me. I tried to back away, but there was no place to go. And I was still reeling from nearly being choked to death. Patton lurched toward me. "Dashiell!" Zan yelled. "Brace yourself!" I didn't see where she was when she said this. Probably because she wasn't actually anywhere to see. She was inside my head, speaking to me without expending the energy to display an image of herself. "I'm about to break the rules here," Zan warned. "Don't be afraid." Patton cocked back a fist. Something erupted through the floor between us. Cement and shards of tile spewed into the air, although I couldn't feel any of them because they

didn't really exist. They were simply an image projected into my mind—and given Patton's startled reaction, his mind as well. The creature that had burst through the floor was absolutely horrifying. It was moving so quickly, I didn't get a great view of it, but it appeared to be the worst parts of every nightmare creature combined, an unnerving combination of teeth, scales, tentacles, and slime. And I was only seeing its backside. The business end was reserved for Patton. The creature hissed in Patton's face. A frill around its head flared out, the same way a cobra's would, only this one appeared to be lined with claws. Patton's eyes nearly popped out of his head. His face drained of what little color it normally had. He screamed in terror and sprang so far backward, he slammed into the wall by Kira. A big wet spot blossomed in his pants as he peed himself in fear. The alien creature slithered out of the hole toward him. It was long and snakelike, with stubby clawed legs, like an enormous, terrifying centipede. For a moment, Patton was so discombobulated, he kept backpedaling into the wall, as if hoping to plow through it to escape. His scream became a