Bad Yeti Read Online Free PDF Page B

but if you want to go back, I understand. You can take the compass if you need one.”
    The girls exchanged glances. “Five more minutes?” Europa asked.
    Amethyst nodded. “Seems fair.”
    I turned to the yeti. “You heard them, dude. Think we can get there in five?”
    The beast nodded, chuffing eagerly, and we took off again at a slightly more manageable pace. We went over a rise and around a bend and down a slope, and then we were on a road. Roads aren’t the most exciting things in the world, but this one made my heart beat like crazy. For one thing, it was a sign that we hadn’t slipped off the grid entirely, and that was a major relief. There was a big khaki-colored windowless building up ahead, and I was so relieved to have found a sign of civilization that I was tempted to run up and kiss it. A sign outside still bore the outline of letters that had long since been removed —PUPTOPIA PET BOARDING .
    On the north side of the mystery building was a dingy trailer home propped up on cinder blocks. A row of pens ran along the south side. There was a yeti in one pen and what looked like a freaking
liger
in another. It was huge, bigger than the lions at the zoo, anyway, with tiger stripes and the big, blunt head and mane of a lion. Out of all the creatures in the world, both real and imaginary, I’d always wanted a liger. In Jonah math, lion plus tiger equals awesome.
    I was still gaping at the liger when our yeti let out a bellowing cry of sadness at the sight of its friends in the cages. It probably would have attracted a lot of attention if there wasn’t already a guy standing at the trailer door, pointing a rifle at us.
    We stopped and stared at him. He stared back, but he didn’t lower the gun. The dangerous end was drifting toward the yeti, and I felt both relieved and guilty that it wasn’t pointed at me or the girls.
    The yeti hunched over like it was trying to hide. It looked terrified, and I couldn’t blame it. That gun had me feeling a little sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I had the crazy urge to break out into song and try to distract the guy so we could make a run for it, but I couldn’t make my mouth work.
    “Freeze!” the guy yelled.
    “We’re not moving, dumbass!” Calamity said.
    “Step away from the yeti!” he demanded.
    I couldn’t help it. I started giggling. I was so scared; it was either that or pee my pants. And once I started, it was impossible to stop. It spread to the girls too, even Calamity, and pretty soon we were all laughing hysterically.
    “Stop that!” the guy shouted, waving the gun around like it was a mind-control device.
    It worked. We stopped laughing.
    “Who do you work for?” he snapped.
    “Nightdark Clan,” I said automatically. Then I realized that smart-assery wasn’t exactly wise in the face of firearms. “Uh, I mean, we’re high school students.”
    “Who do you work for?” he repeated. “Altagene? Morphologix?”
    We stared at each other. The guy was clearly one conspiracy theory away from the nuthouse, and I really wanted to get as far from him as possible. But I didn’t want to leave the yeti behind. It had clearly run away for a reason, and now it looked like it was trying to do the turtle thing again. The yeti was scared of this dude, and that meant I should probably tread lightly. After all, I had the rest of my team to protect.
    “I’m sorry, sir,” I said, putting on my best suck-up face. “We really don’t know what you’re talking about. We were just following the yeti.”
    “Yeah,” Europa added helpfully. “He crashed our Scout camp. Like, literally.”
    The guy looked us over again. “What the hell are you wearing?”
    “Costumes.” I shrugged disarmingly, but my usual charm wasn’t working on this guy. He frowned at me like he had a serious thing against costumes and our wearing them in his presence was almost enough to make him start shooting. For all I knew, that might actually have been