In the evening gloom, his eyes glowed with evil light.

Adam was too weak to flee.

“Watch,” Adam said gently. “Don’t do anything weird right now. We’re almost home. Just sit here quietly and everything will be all right.”

Watch was not interested in his advice.

With one swift smash of his fist, Watch broke the glass. He reached in and grabbed Adam by the throat. Adam tried not to scream but he made some sound. He heard Sally scream and run toward them. Out of the corner of her eye he saw her raise the flamethrower. At the same time he felt Watch’s cold breath on his cheek. He didn’t know what his friend was going to do to him, but he imagined it was not going to be pleasant.

“Watch,” Adam gasped. “You’re my friend.”

The words had some effect. Watch hesitated for second. As it had in the cemetery, the cold light in his eyes briefly faded. His blank expression contorted. It was as if he was trying to remember Adam from another life. Perhaps he would have remembered him, but Sally arrived right then, and Sally did not believe in reasoning with a monster.

“Let him go!” Sally shouted as she aimed the flame thrower at the camper portion of the truck. “Let him go or you’re Liquid Drano!”

Watch released Adam and immediately turned on Sally. He did so by smashing through the side window of the camper and leaping outside. His speed was breathtaking. He stalked Sally but she kept him at a distance with her flamethrower. Yet she was not willing to burn him, and Watch seemed to know that now. He didn’t seem to be as frightened of the fire as before.

And Sally had other problems.

Her flame seemed to shorten even as she pulled harder on the trigger.

“I’m running out of fuel!” she called to Adam.

“Back up in the direction of the dynamite sticks!” Adam shouted. “We must blow those lines and we must blow them now!”

“We still have to light the oil once it’s in the reservoir!” Sally called. Keeping an eye and the flame on Watch, she managed to walk back to the tanks. There she broke into a jog, brushing each stick’s fuse with her flame as she passed. It was a dangerous maneuver. If her aim was only slightly off, the dynamite would go off in her face.

But Sally had a steady hand.

Soon all the fuses were burning bright.

Still, Sally’s flamethrower continued to fail. She tried getting back to Adam and the truck, but at each turn Watch blocked her way. Watch seemed particularly intent on getting to her. Perhaps he remembered how she had knocked him over the head in the cemetery.

“I can’t reach you!” Sally cried.

“It doesn’t matter,” Adam called back. “Just get away from the oil lines.”