“We’ll have to hide in here, then,” said Brian.
“No locks on the doors,” said Ollie. “If there’s a cellar, I didn’t see it.” She had an image of them cowering in a closet that didn’t lock, while those slow, shuffling scarecrows beat the door down. Coco whimpered but didn’t wake. “The barn!” Ollie cried. “It probably has a hayloft. We could pull up the ladder.”
“Are you sure?” Brian asked.
“No,” said Ollie. “But I think it’s better than here. Our best chance.” She looked at her watch. “Three minutes.”
Brian unexpectedly slung Coco over his shoulders in what Ollie vaguely recalled was a fireman’s carry.
“The Boy Scouts are no joke, are they?” she asked.
Brian grinned crookedly and then they ran for the front door. Outside it was the very edge of night, blue-black sky, clouds, no stars. The scarecrows clustered thick around the house, waiting. The light was almost gone. Ollie looked down at her watch. Forty-five seconds.
“We can’t go out there!” Brian whispered, recoiling. “It’s too late. They’ll make us scarecrows too!”
“They won’t,” Ollie whispered back. “It’s not night yet. Come on.” She slipped out of the house and started across the yard. Brian followed more slowly, carrying Coco. Thescarecrows stood perfectly still, snarling or smiling, their faces paper-bag white in the last of the daylight.
Ollie and Brian dodged around them, and then broke into a stumbling run, heading for the barn. Just as they passed the last of the scarecrows, Ollie’s watch beeped and they were out of time.
Footsteps behind them. Ollie darted into the barn, praying. Brian was only a step behind her. Coco, waking up, saw what was behind them and shrieked.
Ollie spun to look. The scarecrows were shuffling toward the barn.
Brian shot into the barn on Ollie’s heels and dropped Coco, none too gently, to the dusty wooden floor. He and Ollie heaved the barn door shut, looked at each other, and each took a grip on a handle. There was no lock.
They were left in pitch-darkness. Coco, with trembling hands, got her phone out and shone her light around. The hayloft was there. No ladder. Ollie felt the first creeping of despair. This wasn’t a small space, not small enough. The scarecrows could get in. She could hear their shuffling steps just outside. She was holding on to the door handle for all she was worth.
“The ladder’s in the hayloft,” said Coco, coughing. She craned on her tiptoes. “I can see it!”
“A lot of good it will do us there,” said Brian between gritted teeth. A steady pressure grew on the other side ofthe door, as if many hands had seized hold of the outside handles and were beginning to push.
“Wait!” cried Coco. “Wait,wait.”
“Yeah,” grunted Brian. “Tell the scarecrows to wait because that always works.”
Coco ignored him.
“Shut up and hang on,” said Ollie grimly to Brian. She had seen what Coco was doing and her heart beat fast with desperate hope. Coco ran barefoot for the barn walls, tripping on loose floorboards. The barn had a post-and-beam construction, so that the posts that supported the barn structure stuck out a bit from the wall itself. Coco threw off her backpack and wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans.
“Coco, anytime now!” screamed Ollie. From the other side of the door came scrapes and thuds. The veins were standing out in Brian’s hands; he and Ollie had all their weight against the door, but they were both in danger of being yanked off their feet.
The door shook. Brian yelled. “I can’t hold it!”
“We have to,” said Ollie.
Coco let out a deep breath, grabbed the post, and began climbing. Ollie kept half an eye on her progress even as she felt splinters from the door handle work their way into her hands. Once Coco slipped and nearly fell, and Ollie seemed to feel the jolt in her own body. “Come on, Coco!” she shouted.
Now Coco was at the height of the hayloft, high enoughabove the barn floor to break a leg if she fell. Now was the trickiest part, where she would have to let go of the post she’d climbed, reach out, and grab the lip of the hayloft. Coco hesitated. The door shook. “Coco!” Brian yelled.
Coco let go of the post, caught the edge of the hayloft, and swung a moment in space, one-handed. Ollie saw the hand slipping; her heart seemed to leap into her mouth. But then Coco’s other hand shot out and she pulled herself up. From as far as the barn door, Ollie could hear the whine of her breathing, almost a sob. But then Coco heaved herself to her feet and the next moment the heavy hayloft ladder slid down and landedthumpon the floor.
“Come on, guys!” Coco yelled from above.
“If we can brace the door with something,” panted Ollie, “it might give us time to get up to the hayloft, pull the ladder up after us.”
“What if they can climb?” said Coco from above. “Or jump?” She was still breathing hard.
“They can’t,” said Ollie, hoping that she was right. “They have garden tools for hands!”
