by John Wallis
The End Game Begins
Pale faced and sleep deprived we made our way from the hotel.
The four of us walked through the hotel that was still filled with elephant men, talking owls, and countless other talking animals. All of us knew that in this place we were the outcasts. Being the odd one outs felt unusual but had banded our group together.
I knew that Rob looked like a thug but was actually not a tough guy at all. He used tough words but inside he was more frighted than the rest of us. Simon hated not having the answers. He liked school with its rigid schedule and he was a little power hungry. Madeline lived in her own world and seemed to not notice nor care for the surrounding world much. She had adapted best to the high strangeness of our journey.
I could see all these things in my fellow travellers, who were now my friends, and it made me wonder what they saw when they looked at me. One of us remained an enigma though. That odd man bear who walked on a few feet behind us wearing a top hat. Keeping to himself and looking, as far as I could tell for a man in a bear suit, a little smug.
“I'll mention it if none of you will,” Rob began.
“The snowmen,” I replied.
The group turned their attention from Rob and focused on me.
“What do you suggest?” Simon asked.
We had walked through the field and back to the bus stop. By this time we were almost there. Despite the cold and the occasional flakes of snow the sun was out and it felt like we were in a snow globe that had been shaken up last night and was finally beginning to settle.
“I don't think we will get home. Not unless we speak to the Duchess,” I said slowly.
Nobody argued my point. I suspected that they felt the same way and that I was speaking the thoughts in their heads. For a while we did what people at bus stops do all around England. We waited in silence.
As predicted the bus came along and it's doors hissed open.
“Come on, I am a busy man, I don't have all day,” Raheam bellowed at us ushering us on with one impatient hand.
I slouched into the familiar bus seat. The engine noise started, Raheam checked his mirror and pulled out onto an open and featureless road.
“We had a visit from Santa Claws,” Simon told Raheam shouting over the engine noise.
Raheam shook his head and made a tutting sound.
“The Duchess's right hand man. That's not good. I got a message too telling me to take anyone suspicious to the North Pole.”
“ Do you think we can hide from Santa?”
“No,” Raheam said decisively waving one finger in the air to let us all know he was making an important point.
“He sees you when you're sleeping. That's why the Duchess uses him.”
“I think it is time,” Edward the man bear rose steadily to his feet and faced us all. Stood in front of us a bus load of teens was the first and only time we could have looked anything like a school trip.
The man bear leaned on the seat nearest him and stood uneasy as he talked.
“Tommy boy you are right about taking it to the Duchess. She has already come after you with Seagulls and Bloodsuckers. Now she has her right hand man Santa Claws hunting you down and sending snowmanagrams.”
“Is that even a word?” Simon replied his eyes rolling.
“The threat you received from the snowmen,” the man bear said as though it was a regular, every day, normal occurrence.
“The fact is that she will send more. Wave after wave of them. You saw the elephant man? He has been running his entire life.”
The man bear looked around the bus at all of our faces.
It was the moment where we all had a choice to make. I had already made my choice and I moved to a seat on Ted's side of the bus.
“Like I said earlier. I don't think we will find a way out unless we see the Duchess. She knows how to get us out of here. So for that reason alone, count me in.”
Madeline was next to stand. She took a look around at us all then focused on Ted as she spoke.
“The Duchess is a bully. She forces people to live their lives the way that she thinks that they should and no other way. I hate that. So for that reason I'm in.”
She sat back down prompting Rob to stand.
“I agree she is a bully. She gets away with it because so many people are scared of her. Well I am not afraid. I think it's time someone showed her that.”
Rob turned his attention to Ted.
“But that doesn't mean I trust you.”
He pointed forcefully at Ted who smiled a little. Rob sat back down and as he did all eyes were on Simon.
“It doesn't matter what I think because if I disagree then I will be on my own. The truth is I think we should be focusing on finding a way out not going up against the Duchess. She is authority here and we are strangers. What right do we have to question her ?”
Although Simon did not agree with us he made it clear he would be sticking around at least.
“Every right, question everything,” I heard the man bear mumble.
It was decided that despite Simon's reluctance we would accept the snowmen's invitation and visit Santa Claws. I guessed if he was the Duchess's right hand man and he had invited us it was as good a place as any to start.
“Right ahead please Raheam,” Ted shouted “North.”
I noticed the man bear had sat himself on the seat nearest Raheam. The two were just out of my hearing range but I did make out a little of their conversation. They were on Ted's favourite topic, money. Then they laughed as though they were sharing a private joke. Ted's eyes met mine and he seemed to stop laughing right away as though he had been caught out or something but he continued to smile knowingly.
Now we had decided on fighting instead of running there was an atmosphere of anticipation on the bus. The quiet mutterings of conversations about everything and nothing was all around me.
The outside landscape altered almost right away. Now from the windows I could see the road was not bare but weaved in and out of large snow-covered mountains. We even picked up more man bears at bus stops and dropped them off further on up the same road. It reminded me of the conversation I had with Madeline back at the Owl's hotel. About how things here drifted together with very little regard to the rules of time.
One thing I felt right there was that we were now in a new phase of our journey. I think we all felt it really. We were playing the endgame.
