Chapter 16

"I don't want to go home," Nudge whined.

"Can we just stay a little longer?" Gazzy pleaded. "I like it here! There aren't any beaches in Colorado!"

"A couple more days!" Iggy begged.

"No, we're heading home," Jeb insisted. I heard Fang mutter, "It's about time."

We all turned to glare at him.

"What?" he asked, shrugging.

"Fang misses his girlfriend that bad, huh?" Nudge teased.

"Shut up," Fang told her, then turned and stared straight ahead while Jeb tried to reprogram the GPS.

The GPS, by the way, was still telling us to make U-turns on the freeway.

And then it got even worse when Gazzy started mimicking the GPS.

"Take the 405 North, on right," the GPS said.

"Okay," Jeb agreed, turning onto the freeway.

"Recalculating," the GPS insisted.

"WHAT?" we all yelled. Then I noticed Gazzy snickering in the back seat.

"You stop that!" I ordered. "Or we'll never get home!"

"Fine by me," Nudge replied with a shrug.

"UGH!" I yelled, crossing my arms over my chest.

~~::~~

"Alright, kids, here we are," Jeb said. I looked around.

"Jeb, this is a gas station," I replied slowly. "And we don't live at a gas station."

He laughed, handing me a twenty-dollar bill. "If you want, you can go inside the store and pick out some snacks." He pointed to a 7-11 that was next to the gas station.

"Snacks?" Nudge asked, looking up from the manicure she was giving herself. Somehow, she'd found nail polish in California and had bought some. Great souvenir, right?

"Yeah," I said, climbing out of the car. Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy followed. Fang was too busy being boring in the front seat, and Angel was taking a nap.

We headed inside. "Max, can I get a Slurpee?" Gazzy asked.

"Can I – MAGAZINES!" Nudge squealed, running over to a magazine rack and picking up some fashion magazine which, if you ask me, she was way too young for.

"Nope," I replied, ripping it out of her hands and tossing it back on the rack. The employee at the counter looked up and gave us some weird looks, but I ignored him.

Gazzy and Iggy ran up to us, their arms full of candy. "Can we get all of this?"

I looked at the twenty in my hand and then back at them, and grinned. "Duh."

After running though 7-11 and grabbing plenty of junk food, sodas, and whatever else we could find, we headed over to the lone employee, loaded down with snacks.

He looked us up and down, not saying anything.

"Um…we'd like to buy this," I announced, dumping my pile of snacks on the counter.

"You kids able to pay for that?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"Yeah," I told him, holding out the twenty-dollar bill.

Suddenly, his frown changed to a grin. I gasped.

Instead of having normal human teeth, the guy had sharp, wolf-like teeth.

"What?" Iggy asked, sounding both annoyed and afraid.

"E-e-Eraser!" Nudge screamed, dropping her heap of candy on the ground and booking it for the door, Gazzy practically glued to her. I grabbed Iggy's hand and dashed after them.

"Not so fast," the Eraser said, morphing into his wolf form.

Nudge yanked on the door. "Locked," she whispered in terror.

"Crap," I muttered, looking around for anything that could possibly break the door. Unfortunately, magazines and candy did not seem to be very helpful there.

The Eraser leaped over the counter, rushing at us. Nudge screamed and I yanked her and Gazzy away from the door, just as the Eraser smashed into it, sending glass everywhere.

"Go!" I yelled, shoving the others through the now-smashed door.

The Eraser was standing outside, barely harmed.

"There you are!" he said, his face twisted in a nasty grin. "You're mine now!"

"I don't think so!" I shouted, glancing towards the car. We could make it.

"Run for the car. Get in. Do not stop," I hissed in Gazzy and Nudge's ear. They nodded, just as the Eraser lunged at us.

Fang was unhelpfully sleeping in the front seat of the car. "Fang!" I screamed as we raced towards the car. "Wake up!"

He did not wake up.

I yanked the door open, shoved Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy inside, and climbed in, just as Jeb got into the front seat.

"You kids didn't want any snacks?" he asked, turning to face us.

"Jeb!Eraser!" I yelled, pointing. His eyes widened as he turned the engine on. "Everyone hold on!" Our car tore out of the gas station, narrowly missing the Eraser. He chased after us, but eventually couldn't keep up.

With the help of our trusty GPS (not), we were back on the freeway and heading home.

"That was really close," Nudge said. The four of us were still out of breath.

"How do they keep finding us?" Iggy asked, frowning.

Jeb shook his head. "I'm not sure. That's a tough question to answer."

I bit my lip. "Jeb, you used to work for the School. Wouldn't you know about things like that?"

He paused, then replied, "Max, I'm not really sure-"

That was when Fang finally decided to wake up. He looked back at us, a slight frown on his face as usual.

"Didn't you save any snacks for me?" he asked.

I glanced at Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy, and we all burst out laughing.

"Well," I told Fang. "We did try to wake you up."