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We might have darted through the circle to the car, abandoning the field to them. But that would leave a dozen rock monsters headed for the park’s boundaries and into Bridgeport.
Instead, we moved closer to one another.
“Thoughts?” I asked. “Suggestions? Teleportation possibilities?”
“Pants soiling,” Theo said. “That’s my only current thought.”
“We can’t break stone with our weapons,” Petra said, and it sounded more a curiosity—an interesting dilemma—than a concern.
“Well, Theo and I can’t,” I said. “I’m not ruining my blade onthose things, and I doubt a gun will do more than send shrapnel into the air.” Which made me worry about Theo the most. He was the most human of us all. (Technically, he was the only human, but I loved a goodStar Trekcallback.)
“And they’re getting faster,” Theo said. “I would like a very specific plan to avoid becoming dead.”
“Hold until they get close,” I decided. “Hold, and when I give you the signal, run.”
“Did you say hold?” Petra asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot.
“Yes. Let’s see how well they maneuver.”
“You’re thinking they’ll take out some of their own,” Theo said. “That sounds much too easy.”
“It won’t be,” I said. “She’ll see to that.”
A bull as boxy as the elephant paused a few yards away, pawed at the ground, anticipating—a fight? Dinner? Props from a demon?
“It’s like a henge,” Theo said. “If the henge stones became animate and tried to bash your brains in.”
The circle tightened. A bear with wide shoulders shook its head as it moved forward, the motion lifting thescreechof grinding rock into the air. Their bulk blotted out the ground lights beyond as they drew nearer like a noose, only small gaps between the animals now...
“Go!” I shouted, and we darted into the gaps, ran through the circle. Behind us, the crunch of stone animals striking one another echoed out. When I’d put fifty feet between us, I looked back.
Lightning lit the park, putting the animals in stark silhouette. It looked like an archeological ruin, the ground littered with the broken stones and pieces of sculpture. But only three or four animals had crumbled enough to stop moving.
And then the rest were giving chase again.
“Petra!” I called out, hoping she’d had time to recharge.
I kept my eyes on the monsters until she lit a spark—a bright blueflame that burned in her palm—and threw it at a charging rhinoceros that was a yard away from her. It jagged through the air on a strangely angular path before striking the rhino in the head.
With a tremendouscrack, its head split from its body and dropped to the ground, its lifeless eyes staring up. Both pieces went still, frozen into stone again.
“Damn,” Petra said after she’d walked over and looked down at the granite carnage. “That’s more horrifying than I thought it would be.”
“Yeah,” I said, and tried not to think about the call the mayor was going to make about ruined sculptures.
“Duck!” she called out.
I did, heard the whoosh of air as something big and heavy swung over my head. I hit the ground and rolled just in time to avoid the gorilla’s pounding fist. It had made no sound in its approach, and I hadn’t even heard the grinding rock over the near-constant thunder.
The pounding left a foot-deep hole in the soil, right where my head had been.
I vaulted back to my feet, ducked again as it swung its other arm. As it shifted its weight, I pivoted close enough to smell its sulfurous stench, tried to shove it onto its side.
It didn’t move an inch.
It flung back an arm, and then I was airborne. I hit the ground hard, was glad at least for rain-softened grass, but still needed a moment to unscramble my brain.
These things have to have a weakness, I thought, climbing to my feet again and immediately jumping to the side as it ran toward me. A path here rose to crest the central hill in a series of steps... and I realized the creatures’ fundamental flaw.
