Ezra was all for boosting the signal on his perimeter sensors to see if he could draw the other two Graboids up to his house, but to do that he would have to go outside and the other men insisted that the risk wasn’t worth it. Well, some of them insisted. "The other two are here now, he wouldn’t be takin’ much of a risk," Nathan had observed. "And while they were up there we could get everyone out of here in JD’s truck."

"Yeah, and save the government some money on the protection program while we’re at it," Buck had replied sarcastically, and that had been the end of that discussion. But the problem of what to do next still remained.

They had finally decided that Ezra would take the jeep trail to Bixby and get help when Mary’s house started to shake, almost dislodging she and her son from the roof. Dust shot up from near the foundation. "What the hell?!" Chris exclaimed. "They weren’t makin’ no noise."

"I thought these things only respond to vibrations," Nathan agreed. "JD, what are they botherin’ them for?"

"They must be trying to figure out the buildings," JD called out. "They know we’re here, they just can’t figure out how to get to us."

As if on cue, the store shook again and the roof buckled alarmingly, knocking everyone off their feet. "Think they’re learnin’ fast enough," Buck grunted, pushing himself back to his feet. "We’ve got to get off this roof."

"I’m open to suggestions," Chris said sarcastically, leaning over the edge to try to see what was going on at the base of the building. "We still need to make it to the mountains, but that ain’t gonna be too easy with every four-wheel drive in the area sucked halfway into the ground."

"Except Ezra’s," Josiah said. "But even if he drives down here, as soon as he stops for us they’re going to get him."

"And if he goes on into Bixby we’ll most likely all be dead by the time anyone gets to us," Vin added. The building trembled again. "These things are gettin’ smarter by the minute."

"We’ll have to try to hold out somehow." Chris had made a decision. "He can’t stop, but maybe he could get close enough to, I don’t know, throw us a bag of those grenades or something so we could defend ourselves. It’s the only chance we’ve got." He picked up the radio. "Ezra, slight change in plans; do you think you could get some of those grenades to us before you head out?"

Once the Southerner understood what was going on he was all for trying a rescue in spite of the Graboids, but Chris and Buck convinced him that it wouldn’t work and he reluctantly agreed to their plan. "All right then, I’ll be there momentarily - as the remaining two creatures are down there harassing you, I shouldn’t have a problem getting to my vehicle…"

The sound of a car alarm going off interrupted him and they heard him swear. "Ezra, what’s goin’ on?"

"Looks like another slight change in plans, gentlemen," Ezra’s voice came back tiredly. "And perhaps you should count your Graboids again, I believe you’ll find you’re missing one."

The men on the roof exchanged a horrified look; they had all assumed, just as Nathan had, that both Graboids were still in town. "There’s another one up there with you?"

"Unless there are some other subterranean vehicle-consuming lifeforms here that I’m not aware of, then I should say so. And I don’t believe I will be going anywhere in the foreseeable future."

"You just stay put, we’ll think of something," Chris told him and then turned back to the other men. "Well, so much for that idea. Anyone got a better one?"

"Ain’t no more vehicles in town that’ll go off road," Buck mused unhappily. "What we need is somethin’ big, somethin’ they can’t suck down…like a tank."

"I don’t see a tank anywhere," was Nathan’s rather acid comment. Chris and Josiah both shot him a look and he bristled. "Well, what we need is plans we can use! Speculatin’ about what we don’t have ain’t gonna get us anywhere."

"Brainstorming can get you lots of places," Vin corrected quietly, startling the doctor. "’Cause it gets you thikin’, and once you’re thinkin’ your problem’s halfway solved."

"Make that all the way," Buck announced triumphantly. He grinned at the hopeful expressions. "We may not have a tank, boys, but we have the Cat! That danged thing weighs twenty tons, ain’t no way them Graboids can suck it down!"

"We won’t all fit on the bulldozer," Josiah pointed out.

"No, but we could pull somethin’, maybe drag a car, I don’t know…"

"That old semi trailer!" Chris exclaimed. "The tires are shot, but that bulldozer can pull anything."

"We got us a god-damned plan!" Buck yelled. Then he visibly deflated, looking over at the Cat…which sat about two hundred yards away from the store. "Okay," he said weakly as everyone noticed what he’d noticed and groaned. "Now if someone comes up with a plan to get us to the plan, we’re home free."

"What we need is a distraction!" came from JD on the water tower.

"Yeah, a distraction," Vin repeated. "Gotta buy someone time to run over there and get that bad boy started."

"Pity Melvin ain’t here," Buck said under his breath to Chris. "I could’a probably got him to be a distraction if I offered him five bucks."

"Probably, but I think he already was a distraction," his friend replied in kind. "Too bad we don’t have one of Billy’s little remote-controlled trucks over here, that might do it."

"How ‘bout the riding lawnmower?" The question took everyone by surprise, and Josiah shrugged. "Why can’t we start it up, sent it off on its own? Let them chase the lawnmower for a while if that’s what they like."

Everyone grinned. All four men helped Josiah ease down onto the windowsill near his little lawn tractor, and he braced the gas pedal and the steering wheel with sticks before starting the small vehicle up and letting it go. It rattled off noisily across the uneven ground, and after they had pulled the big man back up everyone watched it, waiting. And then a dust plume went up, heading away from the store.

Mary’s trembling house stilled, and then another dust plume followed in the wake of the first. "It’s working," Nathan breathed. "They’re followin’ it!"

Buck beamed and slapped Chris on the shoulder. "Okay, here I go. Wish me luck!"

Chris grabbed his arm before he could reach the edge of the roof. "No, here I go; I’m better at drivin’ the Cat."

Buck wrenched out of his grip. "Not while I’m around." The two men locked eyes, made identical faces…and then each stuck out a clenched fist. "Okay, on three…"

Vin looked over at JD perched on the water tower and then across the way to Mary’s house where the writer and her son were cowering on the roof, and he made a decision. Pushing past the two arguing men, he vaulted lightly over the edge of the roof to land on the rusting porch awning; his weight proved too much for the rickety structure and both metal roof and college student hit the ground with a frightening crash. Vin sat up, shook his head to clear it, then scrambled to his feet and started running full speed toward the distant Cat.

Larabee swore as he watched the younger man run. "God dammit, what does he think he’s…can the little bastard even drive a bulldozer?!"

Everyone looked toward the water tower. "JD, can Vin drive that Cat?" Buck yelled.

"Yeah, he can drive just about anything," the kid yelled back. "He usually works construction during the summer, it's how he pays for school."

Buck nodded and waved a thank you, but Chris’ frown deepened. "Wonder what he’s doin’ out here, then?" he mused, not taking his eyes off the running figure.

Vin was less than halfway to his goal when, unbeknownst to him, the little lawn tractor hit a rock and turned over, its small engine sputtering and dying into stillness almost immediately. The hidden menaces underground stopped for a few seconds…and then turned around.

JD watched as the two sets of dust plumes streaked toward his friend, realizing that the Graboids could ‘swim’ faster than Vin could run and that he was still too far away to make the safety of the Cat. But they weren’t too close to him yet… "Vin! Stop running! Stop running, DON’T MOVE!!"

Vin heard the warning and froze just in time; the ground trembled under his feet, a growing ripple of movement that suddenly erupted into the gaping beak of a Graboid a few yards in front of him. The little snake tentacles shot out and flailed around on the ground, searching…

The horrified men left behind stamped and screamed and cursed, but the hungry worm was not interested in such faint vibrations when it knew that there was prey to be had so much closer - if it could only find it. JD, watching the tentacles sweep back and forth from the top of the water tower, suddenly realized that the only way to draw it away from Vin’s position was to convince the creature that there was much larger prey to be had. He looked around wildly, wondering if he could somehow tip the tower over…and then he spotted the patched and leaking pipe that led down from the tower to the trough underneath. Quickly he swung down the ladder and began to kick the pipe for all he was worth, swearing when the rickety-looking thing proved much tougher than anticipated.

Buck was the first to notice his absence from the tower platform and he drew the others’ attention to the plan he could see unfolding before him. "Vin, hold still just a minute more," he yelled, hoping the other man could hear him and would know help was on the way. "Josiah, how full is that thing?"

"Full enough, I hope." The pipe finally gave way and water began to splatter down on the hard-packed ground.

One of the tentacles had just made a nearly successful grab for Vin’s leg when the Graboid suddenly dove back underground and vanished. Vin waited a heartbeat and then ran for his life, expecting any moment to feel the ground reach up and swallow him. Reaching the Cat, he vaulted into the driver’s seat and began to coax the diesel engine into starting, hoping the others had been right about the bulldozer being too heavy to be sucked down; it was going to take him a few minutes to hitch on the semi trailer.

He picked up JD first, raising the bucket so the younger man could jump down into it and then high-fiving him when he clambered back into the cab. "Owe ya one, pard. Now let’s get everyone collected and get the hell out of Dodge!"

Soon everyone was safely ensconced in the back of the trailer and Chris was navigating the Cat up the road to Ezra’s house while Vin kept watch from the roof of the cab, rifle in hand. "We’re headed to the mountains!" he called out as they pulled alongside the concrete-walled structure. "Come on, we can’t stop for long! These things are damn smart, they’re already figurin’ it out, tryin’ to dig out from under us when we stop!"

Ezra appeared at the edge of the roof, looking more than a little the worse for wear with one arm secured in a makeshift sling and streaks of orange ichor staining his face and clothes. He tossed two heavy bags down into the trailer with a shouted warning to get out of the way; when Buck protested that they were only going nine miles, he yelled over the rumble of the Cat’s engine, "And those things will be on you every step of the way. Now get moving!"

"You can’t stay here!" Vin yelled back.. "They’ll pull this place out from under you in half an hour!"

"That’s as it may be, but going with you would only slow you down," was the response. "This exodus will have to be completed on foot, and my altercation with that…animal has left me unable to make such a journey. Not that I could have gone into Bixby anyway…"

"Dammit, Ezra, we are not leaving you here!" Chris roared from the drivers’ seat. "Now grab those grenades and jump! Josiah, catch him!"

At that moment the bulldozer lurched as one of the Graboids - or perhaps both of them - tried to attack it from underneath. Ezra saw the determination in Larabee’s face…and the fear in Billy’s. It was the latter that decided him. Swinging the sack of grenades over his shoulder, he clambered awkwardly up onto the ledge and locked eyes with Josiah, who nodded and braced himself. And then he jumped.

Chris had the Cat moving again almost before Ezra had hit the back of the trailer, but from the corner of his eye he had seen the smaller man go limp in Josiah’s grasp and he called back over his shoulder, "He all right?"

"He’s got a dislocated shoulder and a hurt ankle," Nathan called back. "Hang onto him, Josiah, puttin’ that shoulder back in place is gonna bring him around in a hurry…" An indignant yell of pain proved him right, and Chris heard the doctor’s voice turn soothing. "Now you just sit back again and let me take a look at that ankle, see what needs to be done…"

Vin leaned over the cab roof and grinned. "He’s gonna be okay - just gave Nathan the damn dirtiest look I ever did see."

"What do you think he would’ve done if we’d left him behind?"

The grin disappeared. "I think the minute we were over the hill he would have waded out into the desert with a grenade in his hand and blown some hungry Graboid all to hell." Vin jumped lightly down into the bucket and scanned the horizon, estimating how long it would take them to reach the safety of solid rock. "That’s what I would’ve done if I were him."