Read Online Midnight Special by Phoef Sutton - Free Book Online Page A

could speak, he felt someone grab his head from behind and twist it to the side violently. Matt saw stars and thought, Somebody’s trying to break my neck , as he fell to the ground. Fortunately that move, which looks so easy in the movies, is pretty hard to pull off correctly, and the “someone” had botched it, merely wrenching Matt’s vertebrae and giving him a bad case of whiplash.
    He looked up to see Flint, on his feet again, not looking too worse for wear after the ax blow to his head, stepping over him and lunging for Eva.
    Eva screamed.
    Just then a shining object flashed down from above and clipped off Flint’s right thumb.
    Matt looked over and saw Barnabas holding a sword. A samurai sword.
    “We better go!” Barnabas said. Was he really laughing?
    Flint fell to the ground, grasping his thumb and crying.
    People were watching.
    And applauding.
    They’d seen Barnabas Yancey chopping off somebody’s thumb with a sword, thought about it, and decided it had to be an act. A part of a show Barnabas was putting on to promote a new movie. And to think they were there! A big hand all around!
    Barnabas bowed, then grabbed Matt’s arm with one hand and Eva’s with the other and dashed to the hearse.
    Eva slipped and Matt picked her up. She was oddly passive in his arms, and he realized that what she reminded him of was Barbra in the movie they were watching. Or weren’t watching. The first victim of the zombie attack, rendered catatonic by the shock of it all.
    Death imitates art.
    They made it to the hearse, and Barnabas clicked his remote control key and the doors unlocked for them.
    Matt stuffed Eva into the passenger seat. Just then, Barnabas, around the other side at the driver’s door, was yanked down to the ground by an unseen hand.
    Leaping over the hood of the car like Starsky (or was it Hutch?), Matt caught a glimpse of Barnabas being pulled under the hearse. For the first time he saw real fear in Barnabas’s eyes.
    He dropped his ax and seized Barnabas’s hand before it disappeared. Matt pulled with all his might—whatever it was that had Barnabas pulled from the other side.
    But Matt was stronger. He yanked Barnabas from under the car, dragging the whatever-it-was, still clinging to Barnabas’s heel, with him.
    Flint.
    Matt slammed his fist down into Flint’s face, just like he had in the toilet, but with more force this time. It took only one blow to knock him unconscious. Or maybe kill him. Matt wasn’t feeling particular.
    Barnabas struggled to his feet. Matt grabbed his ax and opened the door of the hearse, trying to push Barnabas inside.
    He resisted.
    “We can’t just leave him here!” Barnabas said. “His thumb is bleeding!”
    Matt hadn’t given Barnabas credit for that much humanity.
    Barnabas pulled away from Matt and bent down next to Flint. He yanked a handkerchief from his pocket (who still carried handkerchiefs?), wrapped it around the bleeding stump that used to be Flint’s thumb, then bodily dragged Flint into the back of the hearse.
    Matt climbed into the driver’s seat and started the ignition. After Barnabas finished loading Flint into the back, he got into the passenger seat next to Eva and hit the button that raised the glass divider, separating the living in the front seat from the dead in the back.
    “Hit it!” Barnabas said.
    It was an unnecessary flourish. Matt had already floored it.
    “What is happening?” Eva screamed suddenly, snapping out of her funk.
    “It’s Mr. Dark!” Barnabas said. “He doesn’t want me to show the movie either. He wants to stop me!”
    “Stop you from what?” Matt asked as he cleared the gates and drove onto Melrose Avenue.
    “Trapping him!” Barnabas said. He was laughing again.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
    Flint’s jaws snapped shut as he lunged forward and the chain pulled him back.
    “Flint, my man, I’m sorry I didn’t read your script before,” Barnabas said, flipping through a manuscript. “It’s actually pretty good.