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“Are you bats?” he asked.
“Because if they were bats, they would totally answer.”
“Bats. Bats are not a problem.” He chattered.
“Bats have to have a way out, right? They can’t live in a cave all the time. They have to be able to fly out and…and drink blood.”
Duck stood frozen, awaiting the bat attack. He would never see it coming. If they came after him, he would jump into the water.
Yes. Or…or he could get mad and maybe sink through the ground and be safe in the dirt.
“Yeah, that’s a great plan: bury yourself alive.”
The bats—if that’s what they were—demonstrated no interest in attacking him and drinking his blood. So Duck returned to the question of what exactly he should do next. In theory he could jump into the water and swim out into the ocean.
In theory. In reality he could not see his own hand in front of his face.
He squatted in a dry corner of the cave, well away from the water. And in an area that seemed somewhat less populated by weird rustling sounds.
He hugged himself and shivered.
How had he ended up here? He’d never hurt anyone. He wasn’t some evil guy, he was just a kid. Like any other kid. He just wanted to go online and play games and watch TV and listen to music. He wanted to read his comics. He didn’t want to be able to sink through the ground.
What kind of a stupid power was that, anyway?
“The Sinker,” he muttered.
“Weightman,” he countered.
“The Human Drill.”
There was no chance he would ever be able to sleep. But he did. Through the worst night of his life, Duck Zhang drifted into and out of a weird nightmare, asleep, awake, and something in between that made him wonder if he was going slowly crazy. He dreamed of food. At one point he dreamed of a pizza chasing him, trying to eat him. And him wishing the pizza just would.
Then at last he woke up and saw…
Saw!
The light was dim, but it was bright enough.
“Hey! I can see!” he cried.
The first thing he could see was that the cave did not open onto the outside. The mouth of the cave was underwater. That was the source of the light, it filtered up through the blue-green water itself. The open air couldn’t be too terribly far away, no more than a hundred feet maybe, but he would have to swim underwater to get there.
The second thing he saw was that the cave was bigger than he’d imagined. It had widened out and was large enough that you could park five or six school buses and have space left over.
The third thing he saw were the bats.
They hung from the cave ceiling. They had leathery wings and big blinking yellow eyes. There were thousands packed close together.
They stared at him.
That’s when it occurred to him: bats didn’t stay in caves at night, they went out at night and hid during the day.
Plus, normally, bats weren’t blue.
And suddenly they began dropping, opening their wings. He was enveloped in a leathery tornado.
He dove for the water. Freezing cold. He powered down and forward, aiming for the light. Much safer underwater, even with sharks or jellyfish or—
