Revenge of the Tiki Men! (2 page)

In a flash the five wild Mango Men surrounded the kids and pushed them behind home plate.

“Don't hit anything!” Liz cried. “Especially not us!” She felt the wire backstop digging into her shoulders.

“We're trapped!” said Mike.

The Mango Men brought their sticks down suddenly and hit—the ground!

Boom! Ba-boom-boom! Ba-boom-boom! Ba!

“Oooh, so swingin'!” cooed Buddy Kool, snapping his fingers to the beat. “Yeah! Make nice music for the people.”

The Mango Men began to dance slowly around the giant head. They flapped their big floppy leaves like wings as Buddy Kool sang.

Tough to dance, in those crazy suits they wear.

Dressed like plants, insects living in their hair.

But they've come a long, long way.

Now they're here they're gonna stay.

It's not France, but, hey, your town's got flair!

“Faster with the pounding!” Buddy Kool urged his men. They pounded faster, and as they did—

Eeeee!
The two deep dark eyes on the giant Tiki head began to glow. They glowed red! Then silver! Then green!

“Could this get any weirder?” Mike asked.

“Probably,” Liz said. “What's happening with those eyeballs?”

Suddenly—
whoosh!
—a sharp breeze swept across the field. And the unbelievable happened.

The grass, so trim and neat, began to slither up through the ground in wild bunches!

In seconds, it was five, six, seven inches tall!

“Oh, man!” cried Sean. “There goes the field!”

“This is impossible!” Liz shrieked, watching the grass pour out under her feet. “It's incredible! It's like a videotape in fast-forward!”

“Ha-ha! More like fast-backward!” said Buddy Kool, chuckling mysteriously. “Right, my melodious Mango Men?”

“Ugh!” they agreed, pounding faster and louder. Then, as if calling to the kids from the real world, there were other sounds.

Bong!
The donut clock chimed the hour.

Sssss!
The pancake pan hissed it, too.

“Check, please!” Mike shouted, as dandelions swiftly coiled around his sneakers. “Me and my shoes are out of here!” He tore free of the winding weeds and ran.

Together the kids grabbed their bats and baseballs and tore off past W. Reid Elementary and down School Road away from the field.

“I think we can forget about this being a non-weird day, Mike!” Liz said, catching her breath.

“Right,” Mike agreed. “Let's go tell your dad about the strange statues. It's archaeology. That's his department.”

“It's also pretty weird,” Holly added. “That makes it our department, too!”

But when they got to Main Street, the ground shook and quaked and rumbled again.

RRRRR!
The street shifted from side to side.

“Oh, no! Not again!” cried Liz. Yes, again. A second giant Tiki man burst up from the ground at the north end of Main Street. A third one exploded south of town at the movie studio. A fourth one shot up at the dinosaur graveyard in the west.

“Big heads are coming up everywhere!” cried Jeff.

“We're being invaded!” Mike shouted.

Then all the Tiki men's eyes glowed like the statue on the baseball field. They all seemed to be staring back at each other. Their eyes sparked.

Then—
ka-thoomp!
—a tall palm tree clustered with coconuts crashed through the sidewalk and wiggled up into the air. A dozen more followed it, swaying up and down the streets. Telephone poles sprouted giant leaves. Streetlights burst into bloom with wild, colorful flowers.

“Grover's Mill!” Liz cried. “The weird jungle thing is happening all over!”

And it was getting worse. With each rhythmic beat of the Mango Men's sticks on the ground, the town was becoming more and more jungly.

Boom!
Big leafy plants exploded from all the mailboxes.
Boom!
The benches on Main Street became masses of tangly vines.
Boom!
Wild branches blasted out the front windows of the supermarket, Pay & G'way.

“Down! You bad greens!” gasped Sean, swinging his bat below him as he leaped over a sewer grate with long green tendrils swirling out.

“We need lawn mowers just to walk down the street!” Jeff cried.

Boom-boom-ba-boom!
The pounding went on.

“It's Buddy Kool and his Mango Men,” said Mike, squishing a bunch of unruly flowers. “I think they're making this happen.”

“Let's go to my house right now!” Liz called out. “We'll be safe there and we can call my dad. He'll know about these giant Tiki heads. Come on, it's our only chance!”

Liz scrambled up a hedge of vines, jumped down the other side, and headed for Oak Lane. A few minutes later, she and her friends batted their bats through a dense wall of thickets.

“I think I see your house,” Mike said, cautiously. “Well, I think it's your house. It's hard to tell.”

Liz peered over the mass of green growth that half hid her street. Her heart sank. Yes, the yellow shape ahead of them was her house. But it was different now.

Giant vines twirled out of the flower border near the lamppost. The driveway was full of holes where tall weeds had already broken through. A lush tree poked through the porch.

It was a mess. But it was her house.

“Follow me!” she yelled. She ran as fast as she could and rushed for the front door just as a giant vine coiled up the steps toward the knob.

“Yuck!” muttered Jeff. “This vine's all slimy!”

Liz tried to jump away, but it grabbed her ankle. “Let go!” she cried, kicking her foot wildly.

“Off my friend, you dumb weed, or I'll prune you!” Holly shrieked, trying to pull Liz free.

But the vine was strong. It tugged Liz down the steps. It pulled hard, as if it had muscles. As if it could think. As if all of its thoughts were bad!

Liz clung to the railing, but lost her balance. “Help!” She stumbled back down the steps.

Instantly, the vine's long green fingers coiled thickly around her arms.

They had her tight in their grasp.

They pulled her swiftly to the ground.

4

Head for Home!

W
HACK-WHACK!
Mike swatted the vine again and again with his bat. “Back off, you stinky weed! You're not getting Liz!”

Sean and Jeff stomped on the vine while Holly tried to peel its slimy fingers off Liz's arms.

“Let her go!” they screamed as they struggled.

Thlurppp!
The vine loosened its grip for a fraction of a second and Liz's friends pulled her quickly through the door.

WHAM!
Mike slammed it shut.

Liz slumped to the floor, out of breath. “Thanks, guys! Nature is sure zoning on us today!”

“Yeah, your lawn's got a definite attitude,” Sean said, peering back out the window.

Mike stood next to him and watched. In seconds, slithery plants crawled up the side of the house and covered the door. “This is pretty much the craziest thing I've ever seen.”

“My shoes are all messed up,” said Jeff, scraping green slime off his sneakers on the doormat.

“It's those giant Tiki heads,” Liz groaned, double-locking the door behind them. “They're doing something very strange here. I don't know what, exactly, but it has something to do with those eyeballs and those Mango Men and that … that … uncool Buddy Kool! Guys, we're definitely on a weird alert.”

Mike turned and caught a glimpse of something in Liz's living room. “Uh, then you probably won't like what's been happening here,” he said softly. “Unless you, uh, like green a lot.”

Liz held her breath. “It's not my favorite color.” She turned around slowly. “Oh, no!”

Spiky plants were sprouting wildly from the corners of the living room. The piano at the far end was overgrown with grass, as if it had green fur on it. The sofa was prickly with thorns, and bark was growing over the cushions.

“No place to relax here,” Sean said.

“Total jungle,” said Jeff.

Beneath their feet the rug was sprouting puffy toadstools. Moss crept slowly down the walls.

Liz gulped. “My mom is going to have a fit! She hates green as much as I do.”

Thlurppp!
The television was up near the ceiling, in the grip of a giant plant. Making its way down the trunk was a long thick snake.

Mike gulped loudly. “I don't like snakes.” He stepped back to the front door. “I really don't.”

Liz glared at him.
“You
don't like snakes? You think
I
like snakes? I hate snakes. Especially snakes in my own house!”

“Okay, okay, everybody,” said Holly. “How about we move to another room?” She stepped into the kitchen. Something green unfurled from the sink and looked at her. “Nope, not that way. I think up is the way to go.”

“Definitely,” Jeff said, tearing his feet away from a snarly clump of grass and heading for the stairs. “While we can still move.”

“Those things really seem to like you, Jeff,” said Sean.

Liz gulped, rubbing her arms where the vine had clutched her. “Let's just hurry. I don't want to shake hands with any more green slimy things.”

BRNNNNG!

“The phone!” Liz cried. “Yes! It might be my dad!”

They rushed up the stairs and scrambled into Liz's bedroom only to find the walls covered with flowers. But it wasn't Liz's wallpaper.

“The house is alive!” Mike said, watching tiny green tendrils stretch out from an electrical socket in the wall.

BRNNNNG!

“Quick,” yelled Liz. “Before they hang up!”

Sean searched the bushes growing around Liz's night table. “I don't see the phone! There's a clock, and a book, and a box of tissues, and—”

BRNNNNG!

“We've got to find it!”

Liz leaped over to the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a purple plastic ruler. She dived at the thick bushes. She sliced at the vines. She chopped at the weeds.
Chop! Chop!

BRRR
—“Got it!” Liz yanked the phone up.

“Liz,” said the voice. “This is your father. I—”

“Dad!” Liz screamed into the phone. “The jungle is all over our house, and—”

RRRRR!
Rumbling and quaking shook the house suddenly, throwing the kids to the floor! Terrible crunching noises echoed up from the basement.

“Oh, no! Not again! Another Tiki man!” Liz screamed into the phone. “Dad! Another Tiki man is coming up from our basement!”

“Let's get out of here!” called Holly.

KRRAKK!
The living room floor shattered as the giant head crashed up from the basement.

“Before it's too late!” Mike pushed open Liz's window and kicked out the screen. A big, shaggy tree was growing right outside. Long vines curled around on it, reaching for the house.

“Everybody out!” Sean yelled. He climbed out the window to the nearest limb. Holly followed him, then Jeff.

RRRR!
The stone head pushed into the living room below, throwing couches and end tables out of the way.

“Dad!” cried Liz. “We've got to get out!”

“Get to the museum right away!” her father yelled into the phone. “We've found the answer to the—”

Nnnnnn!

“The phone's dead!” said Liz.

“Let's not be next!” said Mike, half out the window and holding his hand out to Liz. “Will you come on!”

Liz took one more look around her room and jumped to the window just in time.

KA—KROOOOM!
The fifth giant Tiki head exploded up through the floor.

5

Where Science Rules!

L
iz and Mike swung out to the tree and followed their friends to the ground just as—

KRUNCH!
The giant stone Tiki man burst from the roof and rose up over the house, sending splinters flying in all directions.

The kids scrambled across the yard and back out to the road. Liz felt angry when she saw the damage to her house. She gritted her teeth. “Somebody's going to pay for this.”

Boom! Ba-boom-boom!
Mango Men emerged from the thickening jungle and circled the new stone head. They pounded the ground. They flapped their floppy leaves.

A moment later, Buddy Kool was there, too, snapping his fingers.

“Wherever that guy is, something bad happens,” whispered Holly.

Sean gripped his bat. “Yeah, I wish we could take these guys on right now. We'd break their branches. We'd rake their leaves.”

Eeeee!
As the pounding got faster, the eyes on the big head began to glow. Soon Liz's house was completely overgrown with thick gooey vines. The vines spread to the sidewalk and across the road.

Mike motioned to his friends. “Come on, let's get to the museum. Between my parents and Liz's dad, we'll get to the bottom of this.” With his bat held high, Mike started bashing his way into the jungle. The others followed.

Looking up one last time at the giant Tiki man sticking out of her roof, Liz wasn't so sure science would help. Who knew if there even was a bottom to all this? Maybe the whole thing was … bottomless!

Like one of those caves under Grover's Mill.

Like one of those deep dark pits!

After battling their way for what seemed like forever, the five friends finally saw the dome of the Welles Observatory and Science Museum.

“There it is!” cried Mike, clobbering a tough weed that lay in his path. “The place where science rules.”

Rrrrr!
The ground rumbled under them again.

“Hurry,” Liz urged. “It's getting worse.” The kids tore up the broad steps, through the massive double doors, and into the museum.

Inside the large rooms it was almost normal. The jungle was climbing up outside the double-paned windows, darkening them. But it hadn't broken through the thick stone walls. Yet.