Box Set #4: Sisterhood's End: [The 3 book 4th adventure of Egg and the Hameggattic Sisterhood]

by Robert Iannone

  Egg smiled and nodded.

  *****

  So what do you do first when you end up in the middle of the Badlands?

  The first thing Egg did was to gather her parachute and stuff it into the pack on her back. It would make a great tent.

  Next, she looked around to get her bearings. She looked for the wreckage of her plane . . . feeling the pain of its loss in the pit of her stomach. Poor Ezra, she thought, will be devastated. From her vantage point, there was no crashed aircraft. That meant there were no supplies she could salvage. Oh well.

  It was warm and she took off her flight jacket, headgear and goggles and stuffed them into the pack with the chute. As she looked around, Tee’ka finally got a good look at the now eighteen-year-old Egg. And she liked what she saw . . .

  A new hairstyle, a few more pounds and some appropriate curves in all the right places. She pointed at her friends then clapped her hands in appreciation.

  Egg did a little curtsy to acknowledge the compliment. But it was survival time and she returned to the matter at hand. “Follow me,” and she pointed to a hill not far away. Tee’ka nodded and they started to walk.

  When they got to the top, all they could see was miles upon miles of nothing. Well, technically there was an abundance of desert sands, scrub brush, cacti, hills and valleys . . . but no sign of civilization or water. They were in serious trouble.

  The sun was beginning to set so they needed to find a place to set up camp. Egg looked around for shelter . . . from the wind and from any wild critters that might be lurking about.

  She found an overhang with boulders on either side. “Perfect”. Taking out the parachute, she gave one end to the other girl then they each climbed a boulder and secured the chute. Now they had some real protection with this homemade tent.

  They cleared away some rocks and brush from underneath the tent and made themselves comfortable. Both girls took off their packs. “Tee’ka, what’s in yours?” and Egg pointed.

  Since her name was in her own language (whatever that was), the girl understood she was being addressed. She shrugged because she actually didn’t know. Pulling it in front of them, she opened it and pulled out the contents.

  Water.

  Some kind of food stuff.

  Some clothing.

  What appeared to be matches of some sort.

  Flashlight (more like a light stick)

  Some cooking utensils

  “Epic. What made you bring this?”

  Tee’ka smiled but shook her head . . . not understanding.

  “Sorry, I forgot. Anyway, let’s find some wood and start a fire. Rats . . . sorry. Follow me,” and she pointed.

  They gathered some twigs and brought them back. It took a minute or two, but Tee’ka finally figured out how to use the matches. And as the sun finally set behind the hills, the girls were very comfortable (all thing considered) in their little shelter. They ate some of the food, which must have been incredibly nutritious because it tasted like cardboard. They forced themselves to sip the water because it had to last for quite a while.

  After their meal, they sat close to one another . . . not just for warmth and safety but because it had been five very long years and they missed each other more than they could have imagined.

  Unfortunately, it was frustrating not being able to talk. An awful lot had happened in those years and both of them were anxious to share.

  Boredom finally overcame them, so they hugged one more time and laid back to rest. The sand had been fine to sit on . . . but not very good to sleep on. They tossed and turned until Tee’ka yelled “ouch” or something like it in her language.

  “You okay?”

  The girl didn’t answer; she just rubbed her hip. Then she slapped her forehead. Reaching in to her pocket, she pulled out the two rings and held them out to Egg.

  “Oh my gosh . . . my ring.” She picked out hers and slipped it on. “TEE’KA,” she yelled. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “Egg, you’re so beautiful and grown-up. I love your hair.”

  “I don’t know about beautiful, but I have grown. Syl forced me to change my hair . . . but like always, she was right. So, how are you?”

  “I’m wonderful now. Thank you for saving me . . . that was incredibly brave.”

  “Didn’t do anything except fall. Pretty much anyone can do that.”

  “Still modest. I’m glad.”

  “You are? Why?”

  “Because that means you haven’t changed . . . you’re still you.”

  “Actually, I have changed in other ways . . . and hopefully for the better. What about you? What’s been going on? How did you get here? Where are the others? How’s everybody back home . . . I mean on Aerianna?”

  Tee’ka laughed. “There’s an awful lot to tell. Should I go first?”

  “Please.”

  “We came in the Seven but Serenity had to blow it up.”

  “WHAT?”

  “It was the only way to destroy the shadows.”

  “What?”

  “Um . . . on Earth you call them Zombies.”

  “What?”

  Tee laughed then explained in detail what had happened.

  “So the others are scattered all over the earth?”

  “I’m afraid so. We need to find them.”

  “Yeah we do. Gosh only knows what will happen when someone finds a dragon or sea serpent or a butterfly girl.”

  But they still had so much more to share . . . and they talked for another four or five hours.

  “I really need to go back and apologize to the Queen,” said Egg at one point.

  “Why?”

  “For insulting her.”

  “When did you insult Meggy?”

  “Meggy? No, Dazzle.”

  “Oh, she’s no longer the Queen. Meggy is.”

  “What? Is she okay? She didn’t . . . she’s not dead or anything?”

  “No. She’s fine. But she took Violetta’s place in her new federation so she made our sister Queen.”

  “That really is epic. A former Hameggattic Sister is now the Queen.”

  “No, not former. Meggy reinstated the Sisterhood.”

  “Really? She went against her mother?”

  “Um . . . that’s a little complicated.”

  Egg went silent as she thought through what she had just heard. Then her face lit up. “Let me guess. When my grandmother made Dazzle disband the sisterhood she told her when I graduated high school then I could rejoin if I want. That’s why you guys are here, isn’t it. You knew I’m out of school.”

  “When did you find out? Did your Grammy tell you?”

  “No, believe it or not I figured it out on my own. I told you I’ve changed.”

  “But you and Grammy . . . are you two still . . . you know?”

  “Everything is fine between us. We talked it out more than a year ago.”

  “I’m so glad. Everyone will be too.”

  “That’s sweet. Thank you.”

  “Now that you have the ring . . . oh, that reminds me. Meggy said to tell you that you can’t retrieve your suit without talking to the Myst Tree first.”

  “Why?”

  “Dazzle had her son take the ring to him. She wanted the Tree to decide if and when you should be Flying Girl again. She thought you would more easily accept his decision.”

  “Wow. She really knows me.”

  “Anyway, you can still use the ring to take us to your house. And a real bed.”

  “True. But it’s so late now that we would wake everyone up and scare the heck out of them. Let’s make the best of it here . . . then in the morning we’ll go home.”

  “If you think that’s best,” replied Tee’ka who thought it wasn’t.

  “Sorry.”

  *****

  They ended up sleeping very late . . . well past noon. It was the sound of a plane in the distance that finally woke Egg.

  What she didn’t know was that it was Ezra out searching for her.
He had flown all night so he could be in the right location come daybreak. He had decided to look in an area that was not being searched by the authorities . . . just in case she had deviated from her flight plan for some reason.

  He crisscrossed back and forth over the desolate terrain frantic to find signs of the plane . . . hoping that she was able to make a safe emergency landing.

  But as the minutes and hours ticked by, he was running low on fuel . . . and on hope. It was his idea to teach the girl to fly. His idea to give her the plane. And his blessing that convinced Eloise to let her go on the cross country by herself.

  He was responsible. If she was injured . . . or worse . . . how would he ever forgive himself? How would his wife?

  Back at the makeshift tent, Egg yawned then shook the still sleeping Tee’ka. “Wake up sleepy head.”

  The other girl opened her eyes a slit . . . the glare of the noonday sun shone through the tent and onto her face. “What time is it?”

  “Time to go. Let’s gather our stuff. Come on . . . I’m sure everyone is freaking out because I didn’t close my flight plan.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means my parents and grandparents are frantic with worry. Let’s hurry.”

  It only took a minute or two to pack everything away. “Are we going to your house?”

  “No, Grammy’s . . . otherwise I would have to explain how I made it home without a plane. Ready?”

  “Yes.”

  Egg clicked her heals three times while muttering, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

  “What . . .,” but Tee’ka didn’t finish. The world went dark then an instant later they were standing by the backdoor of Grammy’s farmhouse.

  Egg went in without knocking. “Hey Gram, it’s me,” she yelled.

  Chapter 3 – Scattered

  Escape Pods

  High above the earth, seven escape pods carrying five girls, one Shamie and a wheelchair, were slowly descending. Since they, like the ship they came from, were cloaked, there was no possibility they would be seen by anyone who happened to be looking up.

  These little vessels were extraordinarily sophisticated. Unfortunately, the Sisters didn’t get the chance for a full briefing from Serenity. So, they were on automatic pilot – a default setting that instructed it to land and to keep the occupant safe until she exited. Once empty of its passenger, the pod self-destructed . . . this insured that the technology didn’t fall into the ‘wrong’ hands.

  The only person with the knowledge to take full advantage of her pod’s capability was Serenity – and she couldn’t. She was forced to follow the wheelchair pod wherever it went since hers could only control the one with Jynx in it.

  As fate would have, all seven pods were about to land in locations that seemed design to cause its occupant the most trouble. In retrospect, they all should have been as lucky as Tee’ka . . . and just fallen out of an airplane.

  *****

  Gulf of Mexico

  The pod came down in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico . . . pretty sweet if you’re a sea serpent. What could possibly go wrong here? Soo looked out the little window and smiled. “Nice,” she said to herself. No desert, no mountains, no city filled with humans and definitely no steps to climb . . . just lovely blue water for as far as the eye could see.

  Before she exited, she tried her communications crystal. “Hello. Anyone. This is Soo . . . I landed in a large body of water. Can anyone hear me?”

  Static.

  She wasn’t too surprised. They knew that earth had a strong magnetic field and lots of other communications crowding the airwaves and potentially interfering with their signal. Serenity had warned them the range of the crystals might be limited.

  Next, she thought about the pack full of supplies. She pulled it out and looked in. Nothing seemed useful in the middle of an ocean so she left it behind.

  She pressed a big red button and the pod door hissed opened. A recorded voice announced “door ajar. Repeat, door ajar. If you exit the craft, you have two minutes to return to deactivate the self-destruct sequence.” It repeated the message twice more.

  “Okay, here goes nothing,” and she slid out the craft. She dove down to get a feel for the water. That may sound strange but not all seawater is the same. Temperature, current, salinity (how much salt is in it) can make all the difference in the world . . . well, in the sea world.

  But it was perfect. She even saw a school of some kind of aquatic life. She chased them and ate a mouthful. Her eyes lit up . . . nothing like a tasty seafood dinner.

  She turned around to face the pod when it began to beep rapidly. The beeps came at longer and longer intervals then finally stopped. A moment later the little craft literally crumpled upon itself as if a big hand had just squished it . . . sinking below the surface and was gone.

  And now she was on her own. She quickly reviewed the few things that she knew. There was no sentient sea life, though an aquatic lifeform called dolphins and others called whales were close and should be left unharmed. There were no particularly violent sea creatures except sharks . . . but for the most part, she was so much bigger than they were, it would be no problem defending herself.

  She needed to head for a place called North America . . . one of the land masses on the planet and home to Egg and Sylvia. Once there, she was to stay out of sight and out of trouble until she was contacted.

  Easy peasy. So she looked around to get her bearings then headed due north. Since all of this rescuing was going to take a while, she swam at a leisurely pace. At first, she alternated between swimming on the surface and diving down to skim along the seabed.

  But it didn’t take long to realize that life at the bottom was not very appealing. There were areas of thick black ooze that killed everything it touched (crude oil), and there was all sorts of junk that littered the sea floor though she had no idea what it was.

  So she abandoned the bottom and swam on the surface where, for the most part, the water was much cleaner. About an hour or so later she altered her plan because she was getting hungry. She dove down . . . but only about half way . . . and scouted for food. It took a while but she finally found another large school of fish.

  She easily caught up to it, opened her big mouth, and scooped a large quantity of the smallish fishy deliciousness. After another few gulps, she surfaced, one of her patently absurd, self-satisfied grins stuck on her face. But the grin quickly turned to a frown when she realized she was in deep trouble. “Good grief”. She tried to swim away before she was seen, but found herself trapped in a net.

  “Holy mackerel, what the heck is that?”

  The captain turned to the helmsman. “What?”

  “Over there sir. In the net.”

  Taking out his binoculars, the Captain looked at the fishing net his ship was pulling. “GOOD GRIEF,” he screamed.

  “What is it?” someone asked.

  The first mate responded, “It’s got to be a prehistoric sea monster. Captain, that thing looks dangerous . . . should I kill it before it destroys the net?”

  “Kill it? What are you crazy? Yolo, get a camera pointed at that thing. Franz, get me Doc Holliday at Sea Side pronto.”

  A moment later, the Captain was talking to the head biologist at the Sea Side Sea Aquarium. “So, what is it?”

  “No idea . . . I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ll need to examine it. Can you bring it in?”

  “Of course. Shall I use the rifle you provided to shoot it first?”

  “Yes. That would be best.”

  *****

  Antarctica

  F’yre Dragons, as you may recall, hate water. The only thing they hate more is very cold water. And, just to finish their list of things they really don’t like, let’s add extreme cold.

  So, the fact that Bl’azzz’s pod landed on a small frozen lake in the never-never regions of Antarctica should come as no surprise. What could be worse?


  Um . . . well, actually, if a pod lands on ice, it would be so hot from falling through the atmosphere that it will melt that ice. At least, for a short while. Long enough for the pod to sink.

  Then the lake will refreeze.

  And the pod, and its occupant, would be permanently trapped.

  The only good news for Bl’azzz was that she was warm, dry and, for the time being, safe.

  All in all, that was something. For outside in the snow were some very angry birds apparently disturbed by her unannounced arrival . . . and she wanted no part of them.

  *****

  The Everglades, Florida

  It was difficult to keep all three pods together . . . but Serenity did her best. Unfortunately, as they approached touchdown, Jynx’s craft hit some very tall trees and it went straight in. Serenity’s pod continued to glide as anticipated . . . landing maybe a quarter mile away. Her wheel chair landed a few hundred feet further on.

  She fiddled with some controls and Jynx appeared on her screen. “You okay?” she asked.

  “Grrrrrrr.”

  “Good girl. Sit tight for a few minutes while I figure out what’s going on. Okay?”

  “Grrrrrrr.”

  The problem was to find a way to get Jynx to retrieve her wheelchair. Once that happened, she would be mobile again. However, first things first. She scanned the area around her little ship to determine what they were up against. She saw nothing but swamp . . . the brackish water as uninviting as anything she could imagine. Upon closer inspection, yuk turned to yikes. The place was infested with wild life . . . most of it looking very unfriendly.

  “Oh my gosh”. She checked her database and decided this particular brute was something called an alligator . . . a carnivore. Apparently, both she and Jynx would make a fine meal for it.

  She continued to research the area . . . her mood going from grim to despairing. “So we have no dry land, more than enough alligators to play with, if they get boring, there are a gaggle of venomous snakes swimming about and to top it off - forty quadrillion flying insects buzzing around with every intent to suck out our blood. A lovely place to visit . . . particularly if you’re in a wheelchair.”