Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Sorry that took a while,” Dax said as he drove his official police pickup through the streets of Mountainville.
It was large with an extended cab, so Xavier was comfortable in the front passenger seat and behind him, it seemed as if John and Breaker had plenty of room.
Checking the mirror out his window, he saw that Bo was following in his pickup, with Marco, Leah, and Flint riding with him.
“No worries,” he told Dax.
“I thought we’d be able to find the Littles easier than this. But it’s given y’all a nice tour of town. And it seems like everyone we saw wanted to meet y’all and chat.”
“It was good to visit with them,” Xavier said.
“Yeah.” John spoke up from the backseat. “I could get used to living in a place like this. But there wouldn’t really be a need for the Daddy Guard here.”
“True,” Dax replied. “Though we’ve had our fair share of danger.”
Breaker gripped the seat in front of him and scooted up to where his head was between Dax and Xavier. “Where do you think the Littles are? I sure hope Steph isn’t getting into trouble.”
“Only one place they can be,” Dax explained. “We’ve checked everywhere else. We’re headed to the back of town where Stryker and Harrison have been working on their annual haunted house.”
Xavier was impressed. “You even have a haunted house?”
Dax kept his eyes on the road but nodded. “Oh yeah. Halloween is big around here. The building is up all the time. But they tweak it every year, starting in late summer. My guess is he wanted to show your bunch all the cool stuff.”
That didn’t seem too bad to Xavier. “I’ll take it. That’s not dangerous. And can’t be too much trouble they’re getting into at a haunted house.”
“Right?” Breaker said. “I like the sound of this.”
“An answered prayer,” John added.
They drove for another minute. Something faint was reaching Xavier’s ears, though he couldn’t quite tell what he was hearing just yet.
“Is that…” He hit the button and his window slid down. “…music?”
A baseline thumped in the distance. As the truck went deeper into the undeveloped part of Mountainville, the music became more audible.
“What the hell?” Dax said as the truck rounded a bend.
Xavier looked straight ahead to see what was causing Dax’s disbelief.
The scene was chaotic. A bounce house had been erected and was rocking as an unknown number of people bounced up and down to the music. Nearby, a mobile DJ center was set up with Harrison at the helm wearing headphones, dancing as he hit various buttons.
Two huge cannon-type guns were set up, blowing foam everywhere, while Littles—many of the women just wearing diapers and bikini tops and the men just wearing diapers—ran around in it, danced, and formed a sort of mosh pit.
There were so many people! Xavier couldn’t begin to count them all from where they were.
“Okay, this is crazy,” he admitted, “but I don’t see anything too dangerous going on.”
None of the other Daddies said anything as the pickup came to a stop and they all climbed out. They joined the group from Bo’s truck and hurried closer to the action.
“This is awesome!” Leah said. She kissed Flint on the cheek before running off into the crowd, yelling over her shoulder, “I’m going to find my friends!”
Xavier wasn’t watching her any longer. His eyes were on perhaps the strangest scene he’d ever witnessed—and as a former Las Vegas police officer, he’d seen some weird stuff. “What am I looking at?”
Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and a mummy were all dancing as a group of Littles gathered around them, cheering and clapping.
Dax took off his sunglasses. “Stryker’s animatronics. Those things have caused a lot of trouble around this town. But he has them under control these days. Or so it seems. He can program them to do just about anything.”
A dozen yards away was another animatronic—or so Xavier guessed—who looked like the rotting corpse of an old man. He was dancing awkwardly, while a group of Littles chanted, “Go, Carl! Go Carl! Go!”
Not too far away from that was a trailer with a large window cut into the center, a bartender slinging drinks to thirsty, waiting patrons. Xavier figured that was the booze wagon he’d heard about.
“I still don’t see Little Nova!” he growled, panic starting to rise in his chest.
He fought hard to stuff it back down. Losing his cool wouldn’t help her at all. And logic told him she was safe in Mountainville. But with everything that had happened so far with the stalker, he needed eyes on her to make sure she was all right.
“Ladies and gentlemen!”
Xavier looked at Harrison to see him with a mic in his hands.
“Anyone interested in watching, Nova is about to launch into orbit! You have thirty seconds to make it to the rear of the building.”
Everyone cheered and more than half the crowd stopped what they were doing and hurried toward the rear of the haunted mansion.
“What the hell does he mean, launch into orbit?” Xavier asked as he took off, running fast and bumping a few people as he went through the crowd.
He arrived back there just in time as everyone said, “Three! Two! One!”
Looking up, he saw a sight that made his blood run cold.
Nova was flying off the roof, yelling as she plummeted back to earth.