“The kind that doesn’t respond well to criticism.” Sally shifted into reverse. “Fasten your seat belt and don’t say another word.”

11

Ten minutes after saying goodbye to Adam and Sally, Cindy and Bum began to feel guilty about not doing more to help their friends. At least Cindy felt guilty. She didn’t know if guilt was an emotion Bum allowed himself to experience.

“Maybe we should have gone with them,” she said as they floated toward the beach. The invasion was sweeping the whole town. Cindy kept putting her hands over her ears and eyes. But she could not block out what was happening. What she wanted to do more than anything in the whole world was rescue her mother and her younger brother, Neil. But she wondered if it was a selfish thought. Bum had said it right. Their real hope lay with Adam and Sally.

“I don’t know if we could have helped them that way,” Bum said.

“But we’re not doing anybody any good up here,” Cindy protested.

Bum gestured. “Will we do any good getting changed into Cryo creatures?”

Cindy searched for the ruined lighthouse, which was not far from her home. But they were at least two miles north of her street. If they landed, and she did manage to fight through to her house and reach her mother and brother, the balloon would surely not be there when she got back.

“I wish we’d found a helicopter in the surplus store,” she said, frustrated. “Not being able to steer this thing is driving me crazy.”

Bum scratched his unshaven face. “I’ve been thinking about that very problem. There might be a solution. Coming up below us is a hardware store. You can see it there beside those trees. They carry large fans. We might be able to rig one up and use it for propulsion and steering.”

“What would we use to power it? We can’t plug it in.”

“There are portable generators in the store. They run on gasoline. We could drain some fuel out of our flamethrower. We wouldn’t need much. The largest fan would only need a small generator to power it.”

Cindy liked the idea. “Where would we head?”

Bum spoke gently. “I know you have family in town. We could try to rescue them.” He added, “If that’s what you want.”

Cindy looked down at the madness. Several fires had broken out. Homes and cars were burning. To think of her mother and brother down there was too painful for Cindy.

“Let’s get the fan and generator,” she whispered. “Then we can decide.”

Bum was becoming an expert at ballooning. He brought them down right on top of the hardware store. He anchored their flying machine by tying one of its ropes to a roof vent. He offered to let her carry the flamethrower but she declined.