The Chase Page 0,46

the bedclothes.

God, he thought, and kicked the sheet and blanket off. He got up and turned on the light. Now he knew what happened when you went for days without dreaming. Of course there was no snake in his bed.

The last thing he wanted to do was lie down again, though. Might as well go out to the garage. Even if he couldn't work, it might take his mind off things.

When he got to the garage, the snake was waiting for him.

It wasn't like a real snake. It was a surrealist painter's idea of a snake-swirls of darkness that bunched and surged in a snakelike motion. Blue-white light connecting murky segments of body. A sort of combination between a snake and a lightning bolt in a storm.

It came toward him with the blind hunching of a tomato worm. It was at least ten feet long.

If I could get it over into the corner, Zach thought, his mind cold and clear ... He glanced at the corner

of the garage where his 6x6 SLR stood on a tripod. If he could get it over there, he was almost sure he could get a picture of it.

He wasn't stupid. He saw the danger he was in. But the idea of photographing this thing-seeing what it would look like on film-drove every other thought out of his mind.

It was the first time he'd cared about getting a picture since the day of the Game. All at once his artist's block disappeared, his creativity came rushing back. This was real unreality. It might be unsafe, but it was strangely beautiful, too. It was Art.

He was desperate to capture it.

Try the 35 millimeter first, his mind told him. It's closer. Eyes fixed on the wonderfully artistic monster, he reached for the camera on the desk.

The clock in Dee's jeep said 5:45. More than an hour later than it had been in Jenny's dream of Michael's room.

"Oh, God, we're going to be too late," she whispered.

And it was her fault. She hadn't woken up in time. Even with Julian's warning, she hadn't woken up in time.

"Hurry up, Dee! Hurry!"

Trees were silhouetted against a flamingo dawn when they reached Zach's house.

"Let's go through the garage," Tom said as they all jumped out of the jeep. "Last time I was here, the door was unlocked."

Zach wouldn't be so stupid tonight, Jenny thought, but there was no time to argue. She was following the others at a run to the side door of the garage. The door opened under Tom's hand, and they all burst inside.

The garage light was on. There was a sharp, strange smell to the air. A dark circle of soot on the floor.

In its center was a paper doll with gray eyes.

"I was too late," Jenny said stupidly, looking down at the paper-doll Zach she was holding. It stared back at her, the fine lines of its face shaded by Zach's artist's hand. The penciled eyes seemed vaguely surprised.

Dee was rubbing the soot between her fingers. Tom was standing in front of the corner where Zach's camera and a tungsten floodlamp lay knocked over.

"There was a fight," he said.

Michael just licked his lips and shivered.

"His parents must not have heard anything," Jenny said slowly, after a moment. "Or they'd be down here. So we'd better write them a note-from Zach, saying that he's gone to school already."

Michael's voice was subdued. "You're crazy. We can't keep this up. Eventually some of your parents are going to talk to each other-"

"What good is it going to do my aunt and uncle to know Zach's gone? What can they do?"

"Put us in orange coveralls," Dee said from the floor. "Too many disappearances," she added succinctly. "If we lose any more friends, we're going to jail. Now, come on, stop talking, and let's get out of here."

Jenny crept into the house and wrote the note before they left.

Back in the car Tom said, "I don't see how we can go to school ourselves. Not and stick together."

"Then we'll have to take the day off," Dee said. "Gosh, too bad."

Michael looked at her balefully from the front passenger seat. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

She gave him a distinctly uncivilized smile.

"We've got to figure out where the base is," Jenny was saying in the back seat. She'd controlled herself very well this time, she thought: no screaming or crying even when she saw the paper doll of Zach. But the rasping feeling of guilt was still with her. "I haven't been very