Page 30 of The Serpent King

“Travis, you can bring the staff this time,” Lydia said, yanking him back to the present. “This place always creeps me out a little at night.”

“What if a possum or a raccoon sees you with me? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”

“Bring the staff before I change my mind.”

“I have my Taser and pepper spray too,” Lydia said. “My mom’s armed me well.”

“What’s your deal?” Dill asked. “You planning on running into like twenty murderers?”

“I’m a vocal woman in the public eye. I take precautions.”

“Maybe Trav and I should start wearing suits and sunglasses when we hang out with you.”

“Are you done?”

“Yeah.”

They picked through the brush at the base of the railroad bridge. By the river, a chorus of whistling frogs joined the clamor of insects. Dill led the way with a flashlight from Lydia’s car.

Lydia swept the ground using the LED from her cell phone. “I’m scared of snakes.”

“If we have a problem with snakes, Dill can handle it,” Travis said. “Get it?”

Dill slapped at a mosquito. “Yeah. I got it.”

The turf grew marshy beneath their feet. Lydia tried taking a couple of pictures with her flash.

“Kinda cool,” she said. “Getting a sort of Ryan McGinley vibe. Either of you want to strip down and run around naked in the dark while I take your picture?”

Dill stepped behind Lydia and peered at the photos. “Not especially.”

“I’d crack your camera lens,” Travis said.

“Oh come on, Travis. You have a beautiful body. Dill, tell Travis he has a beautiful body.”

That line from Freaks and Geeks, one of Lydia’s obsessions, had been a running joke with them ever since Lydia had made Travis and Dill watch every episode in a single day. The joke never failed to slay them.

They reached the large concrete bridge support column that rose out of the ground before the river. They made their way to the side, the mud sucking at their boots, where a small metal ladder covered in chipped green paint hung. To get to the Column—situated in the middle of the river—they had to climb up the ladder on the riverbank column, walk out over the river on the catwalk under the bridge, and climb down another ladder to the Column.

“I’m wondering if I should invoke the ladies-first privilege to avoid having to climb up after you on muddy, gross rungs, or if I want one of you to go first to make sure a giant spider hasn’t made a nest up there.”

“A giant spider like Sha’alar, the Spider Queen,” Travis murmured, loud enough for anyone interested to ask who Sha’alar was. Nobody asked.

“Here.” Dill gripped the ladder, raised a foot, and scraped his boot on the column before stepping on the bottom rung. He did the same with his other boot. “Best of both worlds. Now you won’t get your muddy hands all over what’s left of my body when Shalimar or whatever kills me.”

They climbed up the ladder and squeezed through the tight hole at the top to a catwalk. Travis had to hold his breath.

“We need to remember to bring some butter next time so we can grease up Travis,” Dill said.

Travis laughed, trying to suck in his gut. “Come on guys, give me a yank.”

“Not before you buy a gal dinner,” Lydia said in her best 1940s sexpot voice, flicking ash from an imaginary cigarette.

“If only you walked through holes as easily as you walked into that,” Dill said.

They finally dislodged Travis and continued on the narrow catwalk out to the Column. Travis had to walk hunched over to keep from hitting his head. They got to another hole with a ladder and slipped down it.

“I have an easier time going down the holes than up them,” Travis said.