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CHAPTER FIVE FOLLOW THE SCARY NOISES
"You're positive that was dart?" Lucas questions, finally breaking the deathly silence that had lapsed since the group had started to trek through the woods. For a long time, they had all bee silent with the realization that they had would themselves into far more trouble than they had initially thought. Abby walks at the front of the group as they walk along the old train tracks back to where they had started from earlier that day. Abby is still rattled from the events of the junkyard, the moments from the scene that had played out before constantly play in her head as they wander through the forest.
It's much scarier at night, the shadows seem to reach out for them, the darkness can hide almost anything in its pockets, snapping jaws and sharp claws are no exception to this. Their flashlight beams bounce off of the tree trunks and penetrate the shadows, but still they do nothing to calm Abby's racing heart. Each sudden noise that echoes through the forest is enough to make Abby jump. At least, though, she's comforted by the notion that she's not all alone in the woods, though she does periodically glance back every now and again just to make sure that her companions are still with her.
"Yes," Dustin answers firmly. "He had the same exact yellow pattern on his butt."
"He was tiny two days ago," Max argues.
"Yes, well, unfortunately for us, Max, inter-dimensional slugs don't exactly grow as the same rate as a dog," Alex voices from beside Steve.
Dustin nods. "He's molted three times already."
"Malted?" Steve asks.
"Molted," Dustin corrects. "Shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."
"When's he gonna molt again?" Max wonders.
"It's gotta be soon," Dustin replies. "When he does, he'll be fully grown or close to it. And so will his friends."
"And when that happens, we'll all be in deep shit," Alex adds with a small shudder.
Abby gulps and looks over her shoulder at the teenagers behind her. "Right, and what exactly does 'we're in deep shit' entail?"
There's a flicker of emotion that flashes across Alex's face, and Abby can instantly recognize it as the pure look of terror that had crossed her face in the bus. Alex blinks and the expression is gone, though there's some sort of far away look in her eyes as if she's cat in a memory, but the girl is quick to compose herself. "Uh, we're talking really big, really scary, and immune to bullets."
