The Land of the Dead: Book Four of the Oz Chronicles

by R. W. Ridley

  I looked past him and examined the group of Throwaways. No-face’s bump did now appear to have nostrils. I returned my attention to the world outside the window. “We’ll keep our eye on it.”

  I could almost hear him grinding his teeth together in frustration at my lack of concern. “You suck as leader.”

  I didn’t turn to him immediately. I felt an anger building up inside of me that would have led me down a path I didn’t want to take. The painful ice cold blood of my Délon marking started to course through my veins. I sucked air in and held my breath until I felt the rage start to subside. Still, I didn’t acknowledge him. I waited and waited until the feeling was completely gone. If he had pushed the argument, I probably wouldn’t have been able to control it, but thankfully, he remained silent. Maybe he sensed what was bubbling up inside of me and wisely decided to back down.

  I spoke calmly and slowly. “I didn’t ask to be leader, numbnuts. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Since I’ve got no experience with this kind of thing, I’m going with my gut, and my gut tells me that the Throwaways aren’t dangerous. In fact, my gut tells me we could use them.”

  He bit his lip and actually thought before he spoke, something he didn’t do a lot of. “How can we use them?”

  I shrugged. “I’ll let you know when I know.”

  He threw his arms up in disgust. “Fine. But I’m watching them like a hawk, and I’m not going to be nice about it.”

  “Your choice,” I said. I was about to look out the window again when I caught a glimpse of Tyrone’s face. He was glaring at Ariabod. He squeezed and released the handle of his knife over and over again. “I think we need to worry about Tyrone more than the Throwaways.”

  Gordy looked over his shoulder at Tyrone. “Kid’s messed up. Lou says he was really gaga over Valerie. He ain’t been the same since she got killed.”

  “He’s going to wind up doing something stupid,” I said. “Get himself killed and who knows who else.”

  “What do you want to do?” Gordy asked.

  I shook my head. “Nothing for now, but while you’re keeping an eye on the Throwaways, keep another on him.”

  Gordy chuckled. “Safer watching the freaks. I’m pretty sure I can take them. That kid’s had his heart broke and ripped out of his chest. He ain’t got nothing to lose. He’s liable to go nutbag crazy and kill me just for looking at him funny.”

  “Then try not to look at him funny,” I said walking away and heading for the bed.

  “You’re a real big help,” Gordy said.

  “How’s she doing?” I asked Lou as I approached the bed.

  “She’s warmed up a little. Her temperature’s almost normal I think. Can’t tell for sure without a thermometer. She’s still a little delirious. Mumbling about the old man and someone named Grace.”

  “Grace?” I said looking at Mimic.

  “You know the name?” Lou asked.

  “The old man said something about Grace.” In my head, I replayed every word he’d said down in the pool. “Jeremiah… Did she say anything about someone named Jeremiah?”

  “No,” Lou said.

  “Nineteen nine,” Mimic added.

  “What?” Lou asked.

  I thought for a minute. “Yeah, that’s right. He said something about nineteen nine.”

  “Jeremiah nineteen nine,” Mimic said without taking her eyes off April.

  “Nineteen nine?” Lou sat on the edge of the bed. “Code?”

  “Don’t know,” I said. “Sounded just like rambling to me.”

  Lou folded her arms and stared intensely at the canopy on the bed. “Jeremiah, Grace, nineteen nine.”

  I sat on the bed next to her. I got a faint whiff of her sweet scent and momentarily lost my place in time. I zeroed in on her neck. I had never noticed how… pretty it was. The thoughts running through my head started to make me feel uneasy. I cleared my throat in an effort to shake them loose and shouted, “He said Jeremiah was his favorite.”

  She jumped at the volume of my voice. “Oh… okay…”

  “Jeremiah?” Wes barked from his lounge chair. “From the Bible?”

  I twisted my head around. His hands were behind his head. He looked far too relaxed for a guy trying to survive the end of the world. “The Bible?”

  “Yeah, the Bible. It’s a book. You heard of it?”

  I nodded absentmindedly. “Why would you think we were talking about the Bible?”

  “It’s the only Jeremiah I know,” he said. “Old testament. A lot of death and destruction, if I remember right.”

  Lou and I looked at each other. We both said, “Nineteen nine” at the same time.

  “It’s a verse,” she said.

  “From the Book of Jeremiah,” I added.

  She jumped up and scanned the room. Spotting a dresser nearby, she ran to it as quickly as she could. She frantically started going through the drawers.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Looking for a Bible. There’s got to be one here…” She giggled as she reached in and pulled out a black leather Bible. “I knew it!” She flipped through the book, stopped, turned a few more pages, and ran her finger up and down a page. “19:9,” she repeated to herself a few times. “Ahhh! Got it!” She read silently. Her eyes narrowed. I could tell she was reading the verse a few times.

  “What does it say?” I asked.

  She looked up and simply shook her head as if to say she couldn’t bring herself to read it out loud. Before I could stand, Gordy moved in and yanked the Bible from her hand. He sighed and found the verse. He didn’t bother reading silently to himself first. He just blurted out horrible word after horrible word as loudly as he could.

  “And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. “ He peered up over the leather bound book. “Whoa!”

  Every face in the room, even the blank one, froze.

  “So, there is a dude in the basement who’s into eating… people?” Gordy asked. “Why exactly did we decide to stay here?”

  “Is he Skinner Dead?” Wes asked. The relaxed posture was gone. He was sitting up and rubbing his stubbly chin with his callused fingers.

  “No,” I said.

  “Was he real… you know, alive?” Lou asked.

  “I don’t know…” I stood and stared at the floor as I tried to remember every detail of the old man. “The boy…” I said.

  “What boy?” Wes asked.

  “The dead boy, the one from before. The one that wanted us to follow him to the Land of the Dead, he and the others were there… in the basement. The old man wasn’t too happy to see him.”

  “Others? What others?” Lou asked.

  “The other dead.”

  Gordy threw up his arms. “Great! We’re in a creepy old mansion with a bunch of dead people in the basement and one scary old dude who wants to eat us. This just gets better and better!”

  “Boy,” Wes barked, “you’re ‘bout to get a good dose of my foot up your keister. “ He lifted himself off the chaise lounge and was almost winded by the effort. “What are the chances we just stumbled on the place they wanted us to go?”

  “Slim to none,” I said.

  “That brochure about this place you found at the convenience store, how’d you come across it?”

  I thought about it. “The wind… It just caught my eye.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “That weren’t no wind. Dollars to donuts it was one of your dead friends giving us a nudge in the right direction.”

  “Well,” Gordy said. “They got us here, let’s just call them upstairs and get this thing over with.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” Wes asked.

  Gordy shrugged. “I don’t know, séance maybe?”

  Wes hesitated and then smiled. “That just might wo
rk.”

  April let out a deafening scream. She sat up straight in bed and started bawling. “Mommy,” she cried.

  Mimic hastily backed away. She shrieked like an injured animal.

  Lou ran to April’s side. She began by encouraging April to lie down and then resorted to physically trying to force her.

  “I kissed him on the cheek,” April cried hysterically. “That’s when he decided to eat me.”

  While Lou wrestled with her, the rest of us stood frozen in time and listened to her horrific story.

  “Mommy let me go to a party with him. I picked wild flowers outside while he sharpened his knives in the kitchen. He called me inside and grabbed me. I told him I would tell mommy that he was a mean man. “

  Tyrone held tight onto his knife handle. “Tell her to shut up,” he demanded.

  “He choked me. I kicked and screamed and scratched.”

  “Shut her up!” Tyrone pleaded this time.

  “It took him nine days to eat me.”

  Tyrone raised the knife and repeatedly stabbed the vacant side of the bed. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut Up!”

  The Throwaways huddled closer and closer together until they were almost one jumbled mass.

  April sucked in a long breath of air and then collapsed into a blubbering mess.

  I had had enough of Tyrone’s act. Without considering the consequences, I barreled into him and knocked him to the floor. Thankfully, the knife went flying out of his hand. I raised my fist, prepared to pummel him within an inch of his life, when I saw the expression on his face. It was calm. He wasn’t fighting back. He wasn’t screaming or thrashing about. He was waiting for me to hit him. I let him go and stood up.

  “What is going on here?” Lou asked sounding as stressed as I felt. She had an arm draped over April’s shoulder.

  “This is crazy town,” Gordy added. “The heart of it!”

  My hands began to shake. “It’s this room,” I whispered.

  “Speak up,” Wes demanded.

  “The room feels different,” I said.

  Wes looked around and then crossed his arms. “Got colder, that’s for damn sure.”

  Tyrone found his knife and picked it up. “He’s here.”

  I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t feel like him.” I spun around to face Tyrone and in doing so happened to glance at the dark corner of the room. There, almost blending in with the black shadows stood the little girl from the basement. My heart raced. I tried to tell the others, but I couldn’t speak.

  “It took him nine days,” she said. At least I think she did. I saw her lips move, and I heard her voice, but no one else reacted. “Nine days,” she said just before she vanished into the darkness. The coldness was gone.

  My legs began to wobble, and I struggled to keep my feet. I bent over and placed my hands on my knees, breathing deeply.

  “What’s wrong with you, son?” Wes asked.

  “We’ve got nine days.” I straightened up, shivered, and rubbed my hands together.

  “For what?” Tyrone asked. He was stoic and detached.

  “I’m not sure,” I answered.

  “Nine days?” Gordy yelped. “I’m not particularly interested in sticking around here for another nine minutes. I say we get on our giddy up and put some serious miles between us and this freakfest.”

  “Can’t,” I said.

  “Oh man!” Gordy stomped his foot. “No one ever listens to me!”

  “Because you’re a moron,” April said.

  None of us noticed that she had spoken at first. Her voice was weak, but it was actually April speaking this time, not whatever it had been before. As if we were all connected to the same thought, everyone in the room did a delayed double take.

  Lou rubbed her back. “Are you okay?”

  April weakly shook her head. “No, not even close.” She winced. “I feel like my insides have been shredded.”

  Mimic giggled. She brought her hands to her face and swayed back and forth. She was clearly happy to see April back to her old self… almost.

  April turned to the Throwaway and recoiled. “What… June?”

  Mimic smiled softly. “Does it please you?”

  April scooted across the bed to get away from Mimic.

  “June?” I looked to Lou to see if the name meant anything to her. She looked as confused as I was.

  “No,” April said staring dumfounded at Mimic. “That’s impossible.”

  “It is what you wanted,” Mimic said.

  April was too shocked to respond.

  “Who’s June?” I asked.

  Mimic looked at me and smiled. “I am.”

  “No!” April barked. “No, no, no!”

  “April,” Lou said loudly, but gently. “Calm down. It’s okay.”

  April looked at her in irritated awe. “Don’t tell me it’s okay. Don’t tell me that.” She pointed at Mimic and screamed. “You are dead… June is dead… My sister is dead!” She buried her face in the pillow and started to wail.

  EIGHT

  April cried herself to sleep. The rest of us tried to collect ourselves. We were all on pins and needles. All of us except the Throwaways. They were eerily calm. Even Mimic. We had to pry her away from April’s bedside. She told us several times that she needed to stay by her sister’s side, but at my prodding Tall Boy talked to her and convinced her to join the other Throwaways.

  The questions came fast and furious among us non-Throwaways. First, Wes wanted me to explain what I meant when I said we had only nine days. I had to tell him on several occasions that I didn’t know. For some reason, he felt that if he asked me the question in a slightly different way over and over again, I would finally be able to give him the answer he wanted. All it really accomplished was making me more and more irritated with him and making him more and more frustrated with me.

  We were at each other’s throats. Something was under our skin and I had a feeling it had very little to do with us.

  Wes shook his head. “Let’s just settle down a bit here and go over what we know.”

  “We know it don’t make a lick of sense to stick around here,” Gordy said.

  “Stop your grousing,” Wes said. “It ain’t helping.”

  Lou took a deep breath and composed herself. She was in better control of her emotions than the rest of us. “We know it took him… whoever he is… nine days to eat her… whoever she is.”

  “He is Albert,” I said. “The Flish, and she is Grace.”

  Wes looked puzzled. “Albert… the Flish and Grace. Why is that familiar?”

  “Must be an old guy thing because it doesn’t mean a thing to me,” Gordy said.

  I looked at Ajax. “What do you know?”

  He sat back on his haunches and grunted. Nothing.

  I shifted my gaze to Ariabod. “You?”

  He signed and Lou interpreted. “Fish gets in.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Lou watched him sign again. “He said he means what he said.”

  Ajax joined the conversation with some signing of his own.

  Lou hesitated before she interpreted. “Ajax says he means fish haunts from within.” She added her own interpretation. “I think they’re saying the Flish possesses people.”

  “Possess?” Gordy asked. “Like in the movies when a ghost takes over a person.”

  “Not a ghost,” Lou said.

  Gordy waited for Lou to expound on her statement, but she remained silent. He sighed and shook his head. “What is it if it isn’t a ghost?”

  She still hesitated.

  “Answer him,” I insisted.

  She readied herself and said, “The devil.”

  There was a burst of silence. That’s the only way to describe it. It practically blasted the room apart.

  “The devil,” Gordy finally said. “Evil guy? Horns? Pitch fork? That’s what you’re saying, right?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not saying it. Ariabod is.”

  “No,” Gor
dy snapped. “He said the fish gets in. You took that and brought the devil into it.”

  She began to lose her cool. She gritted her teeth and said, “I’m just trying to make sense of all this, that’s all.”

  “Okay,” I said. “This isn’t working. We can’t keep jumping down each others’ throats.”

  Wes chuckled. “That’s easier said than done, Oz. I’ll be honest with you, I got a knot in my gut that is irksome as hell.”

  I nodded. “Me too.”

  Lou grimaced. “No knot, but you all are definitely irritating me.”

  Gordy shrugged. “Not sure what irksome means, but like my old man used to say, I feel like I’m wired for a fight.”

  “So what do we do?” Lou asked.

  “Wait it out,” Wes said.

  Gordy groaned. “In the house?”

  “Just for the night. We’ll head out in the morning…”

  “No,” I said.

  “No?” Wes replied.

  “You’re forgetting the Land of the Dead.” I avoided eye contact with any of them.

  “The Land of the Dead?” Gordy said. “You’ve got to be kidding? Who gives a flip about the Land of the Dead?”

  “We were led here…” I started but Wes cut me off.

  “The little piss-ant’s got a point. We should stick to the Tullahoma plan. Let’s get back there and find them comic books. I thought you said the answers was there?”

  “They are… well, I’m pretty sure they are, but that doesn’t mean we can forget about everything else. They want us to go to the Land of the Dead. We have to go.”

  “Who is they?” Wes asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, but they’ve been trying to get my attention for a long time.” I thought back to my time in the “facility” when they watched me sleep.

  “Can we vote on this?” Gordy asked.

  “No,” I said moving away from Wes and positioning myself closer to Lou. The pain in my gut eased. I stepped away from her and it got worse. I stepped back toward her, and the pain was gone. I quickly walked to Gordy. The pain intensified. I stood next to Wes. The same thing.

  “What the hell you doing, boy?” Wes asked.

  “It’s us,” I said.