Nightmare’s Edge by Bryan Davis Read Free Book Online Page A

just like stalkers from the misty world.
    The window of the car to their left zipped down. The passenger, his lips thin and firm, pointed a sonic rod at Gunther. A blue light flashed on at the tip, and an ear-piercing shriek ripped across the rushing air and into the van.
    Gunther cringed. Keeping one hand on the wheel, he pointed his gun at the pale-faced officer and pulled the trigger. A loud bass tone roared from the barrel. As it melded with the sonic rod’s wall of sound, the combined noise shook the van, rattling the frame, but the painful shock waves no longer scrambled their brains.
    Another shriek blasted through the open hatch, higher-pitched and louder. Nathan clapped his hands over his ears. His mother and Kelly did the same, while Gunther kept his gun trained on the first officer, his jaw trembling as he grunted through his words. “Have to slow down before this tin can breaks into pieces!”
    “Want me to close the hatch?” Nathan asked.
    “Not yet. I might have to aim back and forth between these two and hope for the best.”
    The van slowed to thirty miles per hour. Tony’s truck and the two stalker vehicles matched its pace, maintaining their positions at the side and rear.
    “Call Amber!” Kelly shouted. “Maybe she can neutralize the other rod!”
    Daryl reached over and unclipped the phone from Gunther’s belt while Nathan fumbled in his pocket for Tony’s business card. “Don’t bother,” she said. “I know it.”
    With the van shaking so hard his teeth ached, Nathan watched Daryl punch the numbers in from memory. With her own teeth clenched, she held the phone to her ear and waited. Nathan looked back again. Tony had pulled his pickup alongside the squad car trailing Gunther’s van, and all three front-seat passengers came into clear view. Amber’s expression was serene, but Molly and Tony both looked tense as Tony pressed the phone against his cheek.
    “Tony!” Daryl shouted. “Ask Amber if she can cancel the other rod.”
    Lowering the phone for a moment, Tony turned to Molly and Amber, moving his lips while keeping a tight grip on the wheel. Two seconds later, Amber’s head emerged from the passenger window, her bright yellow hair whipping in the wind.
    “She has to do what?” Daryl yelled. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
    “What?” Nathan asked.
    Daryl pulled the phone away from her ear and looked back. “Sounds like she’s going to do an Indiana Jones!”
    Nathan’s mother and Kelly crawled into the cargo area with Nathan and stared at the pickup. Amber, the sleeves of her dress beating against her arms, climbed out the window. She sat on the frame for a moment, then stretched her arms over the roof and grasped the back edge. She pushed up to her feet, and, with the grace and power of an Olympic gymnast, swung her legs to the top of the bed cover. The officer, still aiming his sonic rod at the van, stared at her, his eyes wide.
    Now standing, Amber raised her hands. As her hair blew across her face, she took in a breath and sang a note as low and loud as a ship’s foghorn. Like a battering ram, her song plunged into the rod’s wall of sound, counteracting the horrible noise.
    The officer withdrew his sonic rod and extended a pistol, pointing it at Amber. His hand shaking, he fired a shot. With a deft turn, Amber angled her body to the side, dodging the bullet.
    Nathan grabbed the cell phone. “Tony! Back off! The stalker’s shooting at Amber!”
    “And leave you to face the zone police?” Tony shouted. “No way! Besides, she’s got it under control.”
    “Yeah, but — ”
    “Duck!” Tony pushed Molly’s head down. The gun fired again. The window on Tony’s side shattered, sending glass flying. The stalker shifted his aim toward the van and shot a third time.
    “Arrgh!” Nathan’s mother dropped to her back, clutching her wrist. Blood poured from her left palm and streamed down her arm.
    “Mom!” Nathan threw himself down beside her.
    “Mrs.