The Madness Below: An Alastair Stone Urban Fantasy Novel (Alastair Stone Chronicles Book 20) Read online

  The Madness Below

  Alastair Stone Chronicles Book Twenty

  R. L. King

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

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  Books by R. L. King

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Every member of the group of seven students and two teachers from Ralph Waldo Emerson High School in the tiny town of Treadley, Massachusetts had a different reason for participating in a late-fall weekend hiking and camping expedition sponsored by the school.

  For the teachers, Neil Warby and Muriel Burford, it was a rare opportunity to get away together. They were quite sure no one—especially their respective spouses—suspected their affair, since it had only been going on for a few weeks and was still mostly in the furtive stages. As soon as the opportunity to chaperone the trip arose, each of them volunteered immediately, and no one even looked at them oddly because they were both avid outdoor enthusiasts. Because they were well aware that the students on the trip wanted to spend time with them about as much as they wanted to spend it with the students, they were sure they could carve out at least one or two free hours for some private activities.

  For Joe Buchanan, seventeen, he wanted to get away from home for a while. Between the stress of trying to keep up his grades so he didn’t lose his scholarship to Stanford, a recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend, his sports and other extracurricular activities, and the way his father kept looking at him like he was some kind of disappointment despite all his efforts, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep it together. A weekend off in the wilderness, especially with people he didn’t usually hang out with, sounded like a pretty good idea.

  For next-door neighbors Clay Horton, sixteen, and Steve Hull, seventeen, their parents thought it would be good for them to get out of the house. They usually spent their time with Clay’s younger brother and Steve’s younger sister playing various fantasy roleplaying games in Clay’s basement, only coming up for air when they wanted something to eat or they had to go to school. They had just finished a particularly satisfying Dungeons & Dragons campaign and were excited to get started on a new one Steve’s sister had been working on; usually their parents didn’t say much about what they were involved in as long as they kept their grades up. The elder Hortons and Hulls were so happy their sons weren’t out doing drugs, smoking weed, or getting some poor girl pregnant that the fact that they’d produced a pair of irredeemable geeks seemed mild by comparison. The camping trip had been an aberration, where both sets of parents had finally put their collective feet down and decided their sons needed to do at least one social thing that didn’t involve dice before the school year was over. Clay and Steve hadn’t argued much; they’d rationalized it by deciding they’d take the experience to get some wilderness skills that might lend some verisimilitude to their upcoming games.

  For Andre Duran, almost seventeen, the trip was about self-preservation. Treadley was usually a fairly liberal place, but every town has its bullies, and a subset of Emerson High’s assortment had set their sights on Andre the previous Friday night when they discovered him behind the gym, locked in a passionate clinch with a guy from Emerson’s next-town-over rival high school. He had managed to avoid them so far by keeping to public areas and never going anywhere alone, but he looked at the trip as a welcome chance to put some distance between himself and the whole situation. It probably wouldn’t be any better when he got back, but he needed some time away to think about what he wanted to do next. He’d checked the list of other potential campers, and as far as he knew none of them had any problem with him.

  For cheerleader Alexandra “Allie” Gaines, sixteen, it was a place to run away. Ever since last week when she finally had to admit that her period wasn’t just late but AWOL, she’d been terrified that someone would figure out her secret before she had a chance to decide what she wanted to do about it. She hadn’t shared her fears with the potential father, Emerson’s star quarterback, and she didn’t intend to. Her parents, members of the most upper of Treadley’s upper crust, would be more likely to forgive an out-of-wedlock baby if they thought the father was one of their own, rather than the handsome but academically lackluster son of a struggling local shopkeeper. She thought the opportunity to be out in the wilderness for a couple of days might give her some perspective, even if it didn’t give her any courage.

  For Jazmin Wynn, two months shy of eighteen, it was simple: she thought it would be a great place for her to smoke a little weed and spend some time communing with nature away from her uptight mother. In truth, she didn’t care much about the nature part, but she’d already loaded up all the secret little nooks in her bag with the primo bud she’d picked up from her boyfriend Tony. She was sorry he couldn’t go with her—she’d never had sex under the stars before—but no school administrator in their right mind would allow a twenty-two-year-old auto mechanic along on a high school camping trip. And besides, her mother didn’t know about Tony, and it was best if it remained that way. Tony had promised to try to show up if he could get away, but he said he couldn’t guarantee it. She hoped there would at least be a shop near the campsite where she could pick up some beer. Maybe if Tony couldn’t show, Warby or Burford would take pity on her and spot her a six-pack if she threatened to reveal their affair. They thought nobody knew, but that was laughable. Everybody knew. Well, at least most of the students did. The adults, as usual, were clueless.

  For the final member of the group, Brittany Lyons, who was also the youngest, it was a last chance. At barely sixteen, she was a small, mousy goth girl who lived most of her life on the periphery of the cool, the smart, the athletic, and the rebellious. Even Emerson’s tiny goth community didn’t know what to do with her, though to their credit they had made an effort until determining it was pointless. Normally, Brittany never would have considered attending something as terrifying as a weekend camping trip, but she’d decided at the last minute to take a chance when she spotted Joe Buchanan on the list of attendees. Brittany had maintained a raging, albeit completely silent, crush on Joe since their first year in middle school, even though she suspected he barely knew who she was. But since the only other girls who’d signed up already had steady boyfriends and Joe had recently broken up with the girl he’d been going with for the last two years, she’d screwed up her courage and decided this was her last opportunity to tell Joe how she felt before he graduated. Her mother had been surprised but delighted at her initiative, thinking the new antidepressants the doctor had recently
prescribed for her (the same ones Brittany had been dropping down the toilet each morning after she brushed her teeth) must finally be working.

  When the seven students gathered in Emerson’s parking lot on Friday afternoon after school, stowed their sleeping bags and other gear in the small bus’s cargo area, and filed on board under the watchful eyes of Mr. Warby and Mrs. Burford, most of them took seats as far from each other as possible. The exceptions, Steve Hull and Clay Horton, sat one in front of the other and continued their animated discussion about their plans for their new D&D campaign without missing a beat. The others all had their phones or handheld video games out, their earbuds in, and their attention focused fully on the digital world, except Brittany was only pretending to play her game as she snatched glances at Joe across the aisle. Only Clay and Steve, the least likely ones to need it, paid any attention to Mr. Warby’s brief lecture about behaving themselves and not getting up to horseplay in the bus.

  Nobody talked much during the hour-long trip. By the time the bus left the main road and wound its way up into the mountains on what started out as a standard-width, two-lane road and ended as barely more than a paved cow path, it was already dark, adding to each group member’s self-imposed isolation. Even Clay and Steve ceased their conversation when a bout of motion sickness hit Steve and he ended up slumped miserably into his seat, sucking down bottled water and hoping desperately that they’d arrive at their destination before he blew chunks all over the bus. Not only would that be inconvenient for him, he knew everybody would hate him for stinking up the place and never let him forget it until they all graduated. He didn’t want to spend his last year at Emerson being known as “Barf Boy” or “the Vomit Comet” or something even worse.

  This time of year, late in the fall, the snow was still at least a month from arriving. The air had a crisp chill and held only a faint breeze, but the temperature was well within the range where down coats and knit caps would keep it comfortable. The trip’s organizers had checked the weather reports, which had promised a weekend of sunny, cold days, perfect for hiking and relaxing around a campfire. The campground, Mr. Warby and Mrs. Burford had assured the group, had cabins, so they wouldn’t have freeze their “tushies” off in tents. Yes, Mr. Warby actually said “tushies.”

  As they drew close to the campground, Mrs. Burford got up from where she’d been reading a magazine and trying not to give Mr. Warby any looks that might make the students suspicious. She stood at the front of the bus, holding on to a railing near the driver, and raised her other hand. “May I have everybody’s attention for a minute, please?’

  The students all glanced up at her—all except Jazmin, who was pretending to be asleep—and then returned their attention to whatever they were doing, like a bunch of bored airline passengers ignoring the safety briefing.

  Mrs. Burford didn’t seem to notice, or else she didn’t mind. “We’re almost to the campground. When we arrive, I want everyone to unload their gear right away. There are three cabins at our campsite, each one with five cots, so we’ll put the boys in one with Mr. Warby and the girls in another one with me.”

  Andre and Jazmin exchanged sly glances, both wondering how long it would be before Burford and Warby snuck off for some quality time in the third cabin, but they didn’t say anything.

  Mrs. Burford was digging in her briefcase, and she handed a sheaf of papers to Clay, who was closest. “Take one and pass them around, please. These are maps of the campground and the surrounding area, including hiking trails. Tonight’s plan is to settle in, get the campfire going, and cook dinner. Afterward you’ll be on your own to do what you want until lights-out, but no one is to leave the campsite until tomorrow.” She gave a little laugh. “Don’t want anybody getting lost, do we?”

  Mr. Warby stood and took his place next to her, with a little laugh of his own. “Also, I know I don’t need to say this but I’m going to anyway: the girls’ cabin is off-limits to the boys, and vice-versa. If I see any hanky-panky going on, there’ll be detentions and your parents will be informed. Got it?”

  Everybody nodded, grumbling and tittering. “Can we give them detention?” Jazmin muttered under her breath to Allie, who didn’t answer. Hanky-panky was the farthest thing on her mind right now.

  “Also,” Mrs. Burford was saying, “you may have noticed that you don’t have cell phone reception out here. We picked this place on purpose, for just that reason. We’re out here for a little peace and quiet, so let’s enjoy it. For any emergencies, there’s a phone at the convenience store—you’ll see it on your left soon—about a mile down the road from the campground, but let’s hope we don’t need it. We’ll stop there on the way up so you can all get your last-minute junk food fixes.”

  Clay perked up at that—even though he thought a weekend eating beans and hot dogs roasted over an open fire would be very useful for getting into his elven ranger’s head, he still didn’t relish the idea of going an entire weekend without any Doritos or Mountain Dew. He nudged Steve, who was looking a little less green now that the road had straightened out. “This is gonna be awesome,” he whispered.

  The first night and the better part of the next day passed without notable incident. Despite Mr. Warby’s and Mrs. Burford’s best efforts to forge the group into a cohesive team, the seven students resisted their encouragement. They dutifully followed along on the teachers’ scripted activities, gathering firewood, cooking meals, cleaning up the campsite, and trying their hands (mostly unsuccessfully) at fishing in nearby Lake Nepauhauk, but for the most part (again with the exception of Steve and Clay, who continued yakking away about their D&D campaign until Jazmin threatened to shove them in the chilly lake) they remained firmly inside their own heads.

  After lunch on Saturday, the teachers announced that the group would be going on a hike. “It’s a few miles, so I hope you all brought your sturdy boots,” Mr. Warby said. He showed them the map and pointed out the narrow, winding trail they would be following. “With any luck, we might even get to see some wildlife: deer, maybe, or even a bobcat or a moose.”

  “Or maybe a bear will eat us,” Brittany mumbled. She was feeling morose because she still hadn’t summoned up the courage to approach Joe, and every hour that passed made it less likely she’d get the chance.

  “The nerds will protect us,” Jazmin said with a laugh. “They can throw dice at it.”

  “Yeah,” Steve said, grinning. “If I roll a natural 20, I’ll hit it in the eye!” He mimed shooting something with a slingshot.

  “We aren’t going to see any bears,” Mrs. Burford said, but the shiver in her voice suggested she wasn’t as certain of that as she was trying to sound. “Now, get your stuff together and let’s go so we can get back before it gets dark.”

  All of them had different things on their minds as they set off, bundled up in their down jackets with their daypacks slung over their shoulders.

  Mr. Warby and Mrs. Burford were thinking about their plans to sneak out of their respective cabins when all the students were asleep that night, and reconvene in the third cabin for some extracurricular activities.

  Joe was trying to decide how he would tell his father he’d decided he didn’t want to accept the scholarship to Stanford after all.

  Allie, whose furtive trip to the bushes this morning to throw up had added to her certainty that her fears were true, was wondering how she was going to break the news of her pregnancy to her mother.

  Clay was deep into his fantasy of pretending to be Tharuvel, his elven ranger, prowling through the forest looking for lurking orcs.

  Steve was thinking that Allie looked particularly attractive today in her red down jacket, tight jeans, and white knit cap with a big red pompom on the top.

  Jazmin, who’d snuck out the previous night to smoke a little weed, was planning a nighttime trip to the convenience store, where she hoped Tony would meet her.

  Andre was wondering what Javier, the boy from the rival school, was up to this weekend, and trying to decide
if he should contact him again to set up a more discreet hook-up when he got back.

  And Brittany, trailing along behind the others with her hands jammed into her pockets and her eyes cast down toward the trail, had finally given up on her idea of baring her soul to Joe. The prospect of encountering a bear along the trail halfway appealed to her, and she wondered if anyone would even notice if she wandered off into the forest and never came back.

  The event that set everything into motion, when it occurred almost exactly at the halfway point of the four-mile hike, wasn’t anything momentous. In fact, as events with the potential to alter as many lives as this one went, it was downright mundane.

  The group had stopped for a rest at a small clearing just off the trail, dropping gratefully down onto rocks, stumps, and fallen logs as they pulled out their water bottles and snack bags. While Steve was finding himself uncharacteristically popular with the rest of the group when he produced a full bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and another of fun-size Hershey bars, Joe was more interested in relieving another—and more urgent—need.

  “I’ll be back,” he announced to the group.

  “Where are you going?” Mr. Warby demanded.

  “Just a little way out. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Nobody should go off on their own,” Mrs. Burford said. “Take somebody with you.”