"Come on," Mattapp beckoned, inexplicably scampering about on all fours like a rabbit. "We must hurry and get to a safe place to camp before nightfall."
"We'd go a lot faster if you'd actually walk like a normal person instead of a drunken cat," said Dan under his breath, but Mattapp was busy muttering to himself and did not hear.
All of a sudden he took a sharp turn to the left into a room full of looming bookshelves and scattered tables. Dan grabbed Chris by the shoulder to prevent him from following Mattapp.
"It's a trap, Mr. Chris, I'm sure of it." Dan said urgently. "It's totally off the path that we want to go, and on top of that it doesn't look healthy for the likes of you and me. Going in there serves Mattapp, not our quest, you mark my words." Chris looked uncertainly at Mattapp, who was waiting impatiently.
"Come, studentses," he pleaded. "Out there bad thingses will be prowling once the Yellow Face goes away. Strange shapeses in the fog, they will get you if we stays out there in the night-time." Dan looked disbelievingly at Mattapp, but Chris shrugged his shoulders and followed Mattapp into the Media Center. That night they slept uncomfortably under one of the tables and awoke with uncomfortable cramps.
"I don't know about you, Mr. Chris, but I didn't hardly sleep at all," said Dan, rubbing his neck. "That awful Mattapp kept batting my head around like a ball of string all night." Mattapp shifted guiltily from one foot to the other.
"Had a bad dream," he muttered sullenly. "Thought you was a ball of string come to get me as a poor innocent kitten." Chris looked askance at Mattapp. A poor innocent kitten he most assuredly was not.
"We must be going now," said Mattapp. "Very dangerous is the 200 hall, even in daytime. Nasty vaporses floating around, will try to get you...not like lovely weed," he trailed of to himself. "We must be holding our breath all the way down, or the nasty shapeses will get us."
"Wait just a minute," objected Dan. "I thought you said they only came out at night." Mattapp glared angrily at him.
"Stupid student, never said that. Only said they were more dangerous at night. Can still kill you in the daytime." With a last, angry backward look at Dan, Mattapp took a deep breath and stepped out of the library. Dan followed suit, and Chris took up the rear.
The next few minutes dragged by interminably. Chris tried to keep track of Mattapp and Dan, but it was difficult in the swirling fog. The black spots that shortly began flashing in front of his eyes did not help matters. Suddenly, the fog seemed to dissipate into nothing, and the hall was filled with beautifully clear air. A featherlight breeze wafted across Chris's face.
Almost on the verge of passing out, Chris opened his mouth with an explosive gasp to inhale another breath. The fog instantly returned, and Chris realized too late that he had only been hallucinating. Strange shapes began to coalesce around him and took on an almost-solid form. Certainly the hands that reached out for him seemed solid enough. Chris screamed and held up his arms to ward them off, then saw that his skin had gone translucent and the fog he had inhaled was seething and swirling inside his hands.
Suddenly a very real hand swished through the vapors, temporarily dissipating them. Chris felt some kind of bizarre device attached to his mouth and nose, then felt as if all the air in his body was being sucked out. He felt a peculiar pain in his hands, and looked down to see them returning to normal, the fog being slowly drawn back up his arm. It eddied and swirled angrily, and Chris guessed that it was probably NOT happy to go. At long last, he felt normal, and the device was removed; another was placed in its place, and Chris felt welcome oxygen flooding into his lungs.
The shape of Mattapp came into focus above his face, with Dan looking on worriedly. Mattapp made signs that Chris was to take a last breath and hold it. He did so, and Mattapp removed the device, which Chris could now see was a portable oxygen mask. He stood up, somewhat dizzily. Dan steadied him as they moved off again, though not before Mattapp had signed angrily, I told you not to breathe.
After another eternity, the fog began to thin out. Mattapp, and then Dan following his lead, let out their breath and began to breathe again. Chris, not to be fooled again, did not. Dan and Mattapp exchanged glances as Chris began to sway on his feet. He would not give in, he told himself. Likely enough, Dan and Mattapp had been taken over by the fog, which was now assuming their shapes to try and trick him into letting go again. Well, he was not going to give in. It wouldn't get him this time.
"Why isn't he breathing?" asked Dan worriedly.
"He probably thinks that we have been taken over by the fog, and that it is now assuming our shapes to try and trick him into letting go again," said Mattapp, giving Chris a sidelong glance.
"We don't have time for this," said Dan urgently. "Look." He pointed back the way they had come, where tendrils of fog were beginning to reach out towards them. "We can't afford another ten minutes of him on that oxygen mask."
Ten minutes? Had it really been that long? Chris wondered to himself.
"You're right," said Mattapp. He walked up to Chris, who backed away until he hit a wall and had nowhere left to go. Suddenly, Mattapp punched him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Chris took in a weak, faltering breath, and was surprised to see that Mattapp and Dan were exactly the same. Oops.
"Well, I'm sorry, ok; if you'd been through what I was, you wouldn't have just started breathing again just like that either," Chris defended himself.
"Mattapp's been here before," said Dan. "He knows when it's safe to breathe. Why didn't you follow his example? Don't you trust him?" Chris gave Dan a long look, trying desperately not to laugh. Dan reddened and looked away, grumbling to himself.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't breathed before when I told you not to, we wouldn't have had this problem," said Mattapp, who still looked as if he had sadistically enjoyed punching Chris.
"I only have one lung," snapped Chris suddenly. "I sold the other one to the devil to get on the ballot in OH."
"Ballot?" asked Dan curiously. "You're not even running for office."
"I know," said Chris. "But I have a strange feeling that I will be, and I wanted to be prepared."
The three of them filed off in silence, each doubting the sanity of the others.