Everwild (The Skinjacker Trilogy)

by Neal Shusterman

  "Now, sir?" asked Zin. "Should I do it now?"

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  Yes, that was it! Although he might not have his victory against her children, maybe he could still have his victory against her.

  I give you a gift, Mary, he tried to say, just as he did in his fantasy, but he could no longer speak the words, for his mouth could only make a moaning sound like a cave in the wind. Before his thoughts could become too muddled, he sent Zin forward. "Now," he tried to say--and she must have understood, because Zin lunged toward Mary, grabbed her by the shoulders, and began to push.

  Mary had thought she had a contingency for everything.

  In her mind the Ripper was a minor threat. A nuisance at best. Let the Ripper steal whatever she wants from me, Mary thought. I'll survive. But the moment the Ripper began to push, Mary realized that she had miscalculated. There was a tingling in the back of her head unlike anything she had ever felt before. It moved down across her face to her shoulders as the ripper pushed her backward. What was happening to her? The Ripper wasn't ripping at all!

  Mary opened her mouth and gasped--she actually gasped, drawing in a breath of air like a living, breathing person would, and then it finally dawned on her exactly what the Ripper was doing. She was pushing Mary into the living world! How could that be? Was such a thing possible? She didn't want to find out--so she fought back. Grabbing this horrible child, Mary tried to pull herself back into Everlost.

  Zin had never felt so strong.

  She knew it was the vortex helping her--the vortex had made opening a portal into the living world as easy as slicing

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  butter, and Mary was sliding on through ... until Mary began to fight back. As strong as Graceland made Zin, its effect on Mary was even more intense. Mary's greatest asset had always been the sheer force of her will. Now her will was horribly amplified--and Mary did NOT want to be alive!

  "This will not happen," Mary asserted, her voice loud and echoing in both worlds. "I will not be forced out."

  The commanding sound of Mary's voice sucked away Zin's strength. Mary was halfway into the real world, but she dug her heels in, and each time she spoke, Zin felt weaker.

  "I will not be forced out of Everlost!" Inch by inch Mary pulled herself back through the portal.

  'I will not be beaten by a by a sniveling, illiterate fool!"

  "Help!" Zin cried to Nick. "Sir! I need your help!"

  But Nick was not himself. He was barely anything at all. He was a lumbering boneless mass. His fingers were dissolving until there was not enough of him to reach out, until there was not enough of him to know why he'd even want to.

  "Help me!" Zin cried.

  What is this all about? thought Nick. Why am I here? What's happening? I have to stop and think. So he crawled away into a corner, leaving bits of him behind as he went.

  "I can't do this alone!" yelled Zin

  What is that commotion over there? It has to stop so I can think. If only I can clear my mind, I'll know why I'm here. I'll know who I am.

  And so the dissolving spirit closed its eyes, and melted into a corner, spiraling down into the bittersweet darkness

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  of its own thoughts, trying to find something to grasp on to that wasn't chocolate. In a moment he was gone, and a layer of chocolate slowly spilled out across the floor like a lava flow, burying the green shag carpet.

  Nick had lost. And now Zin was losing, too.

  Mary had pulled herself back through the portal into Everlost, and although Zin still grabbed at her, trying to push, it was useless. There was no way she could fight against the monumental force of Mary Hightower's overwhelming presence. Mary pulled the last of her head through, and behind her the portal began to close. She grabbed Zin by the front of her uniform.

  "You will be rehabilitated," Mary bellowed, her will still magnified. "You will learn to use your powers for good. You will learn to use them for ME."

  Mary took a step forward, but something snagged in her hair. She tried to pull free, but whatever it was pulled back--hard enough make her chin jut upward--and all of a sudden she felt that tingling sensation in her head again. She began to lose her balance, falling backward, and in front of her, the ripper lunged at her once more.

  Allie had soul-surfed her way back to Graceland as quickly as she could, but it wasn't fast enough. She arrived too late to save Nick, but she could not let herself mourn what had happened to him. The only way she could help him now was to finish the job he'd begun. She didn't understand what was going on until Mary had pulled herself back into Everlost from the living world. Had Mary been alive? As in flesh-and-blood alive? Well, at least the top half of her had been.

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  This kid in the gray uniform had done it somehow--but now the hole into the living world was closing.

  Neither of them had seen Allie lurking there. Good. Quickly she skinjacked a female security guard coming into the room.

  From a living world point of view, the Jungle Room seemed perfectly normal--except for an overpowering smell of chocolate, and a shrinking hole in midair the size of a grapefruit. Through that hole Allie could see the back of Mary's head. So Allie took her fleshie and reached through the hole into Everlost, grabbing Mary's hair, and she began to tug with all her might.

  As she pulled, Mary fought like a shark on the end of a line, but she had lost her balance. Allie pulled again.

  "Let me GO!" Mary demanded. Her will was almost strong enough to send Allie flying away from her, so Allie twisted her hand, making sure her fingers were snagged and knotted in Mary's long copper hair, unable to be freed no matter how Mary worked against her. Then Allie added her other hand as well, pulling on her hair like it was a tug-ofwar.

  There were two of them working against Mary now, Allie pulling, and Zin pushing, but it still wasn't enough. Then suddenly there was a third hand in Mary's hair, and a hand pulling on her chin, and two hands grabbed her by the armpits--yet somehow all those hands were Allie's. She had skinjacked a guard--but two tourists had come into the room as well, and Allie was now seeing things through three different sets of eyes.

  The Intolerable Nexus of Extremes had a different

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  effect on every Afterlight, and now Allie wasn't just skinjacking a single person, she was skinjacking three at the same time--and all three of them had a single purpose: to pull Mary Hightower out of Everlost, and into the world of the living!

  "This will not happen!"

  But for all her will, for all her fury, Mary could not fight that many foes. As the tingling passed through her chest, her waist, and down her legs, she knew that there was no stopping this. But if she was going, she was not going alone! She grabbed onto the Ripper, with hands as tight as claws, and pulled on her. Both of them slid through into the living world.

  Zin was so focused on pushing Mary, she had no idea what had happened to her until she finally let go and looked around. The strange double-vision view of Graceland was gone. The chocolate flood was gone. Mary stood across the room in shock. One tourist suddenly fainted, and the other tourist screamed at the top of her lungs and ran up the stairs. The guard who had first helped Zin, now stared at Mary in disbelief.

  Zin turned around to see the portal shrink down to nothing and vanish. She reached out a hand and tried to create a fresh portal back to Everlost, but the living have no such powers. She was no longer a ripper, she was just a living human girl. She knew, not just because of what she saw--and not just because it hurt when she pinched herself. She knew, because, for the first time in a hundred and fifty years, her cap fell off her head, and tumbled to the ground.

  "What have you done?" Mary glared at her with such

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  raw hatred, it chilled Zin's newly formed blood. So Zin ran, and didn't stop running until she was far from Graceland.

  Allie had released two of her fleshies, one fainting in shock, the other screaming as she ran, but Allie held on to the guard, keeping a close eye on Mary
. Mary's hair was wild, her green dress wrinkled, and she was out of breath from the ordeal. Mary Hightower, out of breath! What a wonderful concept! Allie couldn't contain her smile.

  A tour guide raced down, responding to all the commotion. He didn't even see the tourist who had passed out behind a zebra-skin couch. "What's going on here, Candace?"

  "Don't worry," said Allie, feeling authoritative in her guard uniform. "I'll take care of this. Go find out what that woman was screaming about."

  "Who are you?" Mary demanded once the tour guide was gone.

  "Don't you recognize me, Mary? It's your good friend Allie the Outcast--although it looks like you're the one who's out-cast now." Then Allie realized something with far too much glee. "Now that you're here--alive and all-- there's something I've wanted to do for a very long time." Then Allie reached back, curled her fleshie's right hand into a fist, and swung it toward Mary with all her might.

  This was one strong fleshie!

  The punch connected with Mary's eye so hard, that Mary's entire body spun around, and she collapsed into a leopard chair. Allie's knuckles hurt, but it was a good kind of pain.

  "My eye!" wailed Mary. "Oh! My eye."

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  It was the first pain Megan Mary McGill had felt in more than a hundred years. She brought her hands to her face, but it hurt to even touch it. She felt she would die from the pain, and she wished that she would, so she could be free from this horribly limited body. I'm alive, Mary thought. Heaven help me, I'm alive! There was no greater hell for Mary than to be bound to a flesh-filled hell on earth.

  Allie prepared to peel back into Everlost, but before she could, a man grabbed her by the throat, and pushed her against the wall. It was the tourist who had fainted.

  "I should never have freed you! So much trouble you have become!"

  Milos! He had found her, but he was too late.

  "Before you strangle this poor fleshie," Allie said, "why don't you have a look at your fearless leader."

  Milos turned to see Mary, and he was stunned.

  "Milos? Milos, is that you in there?" Mary, her eye already starting to swell, stood and gathered what composure she could. "This is only a small setback. You have to go through with the plan--nothing has changed."

  Milos just stared at her, still trying to take it in. "But ... but look at you ... everything has changed... ."

  "No!" insisted Mary. "You'll have to take care of my children for a while, but I'll work this out! I will! I'll work it out!"

  Allie knew she should have taken this moment to escape, but watching Mary Hightower sink into absolute desperation was mesmerizing.

  "I can still work from this side!" Mary insisted.

  "I think you fool yourself," said Milos.

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  "No! I can make this work, I know I can. Please, Milos," and Mary fell to her knees--a gesture so foreign for her, Allie could only stare. "Please don't leave me like this! I'm begging you, Milos! Please don't leave me!" There were tears on her face now--real human tears.

  Milos reached out his fleshie's hand, and wiped away her tears. "Your children do need you," Milos said thoughtfully. "We will see... ."

  Then he whispered something in Mary's ear that Allie couldn't hear. Whatever he said, it calmed Mary down. She nodded a glum acceptance. Then Milos turned to Allie and she realized she had waited too long.

  Allie could leap to another fleshie, and run, but there were none in the room other than the ones she and Milos had already skinjacked. Then suddenly something occurred to Allie.

  Mary was now a fleshie... .

  Did she dare do it? Did she dare skinjack Mary Hightower, the self-appointed Queen of Everlost? Of course! In fact she couldn't resist! As Milos came at her, she leaped from the guard, and directly into the flesh of Mary Hightower.

  Mary knew the instant it happened.

  She could feel Allie picking through her brain. She felt herself infected by this filthy, filthy girl. "GET OUT!" Mary demanded--and even though she was no longer an Afterlight, the force of her will was still strong enough to hit Allie like a mortar blast. Allie recoiled, and was ejected out of her--but not before seeing the depths of Mary's mind-- and what she saw there, the plans, the schemes, the terrible

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  things that would happen if Mary had her way--it was like witnessing Armageddon itself. And what made it all the more horrifying was that Mary truly believed it was all in the service of good. More than ever, Allie knew that Mary must be stopped!

  But the force of her expulsion from Mary's body had rattled her and made her weak--weak enough for Milos to grab her. They were both back in Everlost now. She was looking at him--not a fleshie, but Milos himself--and his expression was stone.

  "You have made life very interesting, haven't you?"

  Allie tried to pull free, but she was too weak now.

  "You're not going anywhere but with me," Milos told her. "In case you forgot, you made me a promise, and you're going to keep it." Then he pulled her out of Graceland, and she didn't have the strength to resist.

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  CHAPTER 37 Sky Refugees

  Johnnie-O sat facing Charlie in the Starboard Promenade of the Hindenburg, a bucket of coins between them.

  "You go first," said Johnnie-O.

  "No, you go first," echoed Charlie.

  "No, you go first!"

  "No, you!"

  How they got here was a mixture of failure, triumph, and luck.

  While Mary Hightower had made her way to Graceland for her momentous meeting with the Chocolate Ogre, her children attacked the train.

  Johnnie-O took charge, ready for the fight. "Bring 'em down or push 'em down," he told the army. Any enemy that couldn't be captured would be sent to the center of the earth. Then he went out into the battle swinging his heavy fists. Charlie, who was not much of a fighter, followed behind him, carrying the bucket of coins, and wearing a gardening glove on his hand to protect himself from the coins' power. Maybe Nick wanted to give these kids a choice, but Johnnie-O and

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  Charlie were determined to send as many of them as possible into the light, whether they liked it or not.

  Johnnie-O grabbed one Afterlight after another, dragging them to Charlie, who would put a coin into their palms, and force their fists closed around it. They all had the same reaction, a look of terrified surprise that was quickly replaced by an expression of utter peace before they disappeared in a twinkling of light. Johnnie-O didn't like the peace part of it. There was no satisfaction for him in making his enemies content, but as long as they vanished from his sight, he didn't complain.

  Ten minutes into the battle, however, Johnnie-O began to worry. Mary's children just kept coming and soon it became clear to Johnnie-O what their objective was. The train.

  "Keep them back!" he ordered. "Don't let them near the train." But there were simply too many of them. Johnnie-O and Charlie had dispatched at least fifty or sixty with coins, but there were hundreds more. The Sky Witch had tricked them!

  "Take coins," he told the others. "Everyone, take coins and put them into their hands. Do it!" But that backfired miserably, because every kid who grabbed a coin from the bucket couldn't resist the urge to grasp the coin themselves, and vanish. They were losing more of their own than the enemy.

  It was over in less than twenty minutes. Their entire fighting force was backed up against the train, hands in the air, and the train itself had been captured. It took four Afterlights to hold Johnnie-O down. Then, as he struggled

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  to break free, he felt a drop of water on his forehead, then another, then another and when he looked up, he saw a wet kid in a wetter bathing suit looking down at him. Water dripped into Johnnie-O's eye from a little silver key dangling around the kid's neck.

  "The Sniffer told us all about you, Johnnie-O," the wet kid said. "Mary was even looking for a punching bag, to give you something to do until the end of time, but she never did find one. Guess you'll just have t
o shadowbox," which was a nasty thing to say, since Afterlights didn't cast shadows.

  Johnnie-O wasn't about to be defeated by a kid in a bathing suit, so he fought himself free from the Afterlights holding him. "Dry up!" he told the wet kid, which was an equally nasty thing to say, because he couldn't. Then Johnnie-O pushed him out of the way, and ran to Charlie, who was sitting on the bucket of coins, hands behind his head and surrounded by a cluster of Mary's kids. Johnnie-O pushed his way in, pulled Charlie up, and grabbed the bucket, swinging it like a weapon.

  "C'mon!" he said to Charlie, and they both ran.

  Mary's forces had captured the Chocolate Ogre's army and they had taken his train--but there was still one more means of transportation available for someone with the nerve to take it.

  The Hindenburg was not too difficult to find, as it was taller than anything around it. There were still dozens of Mary's Afterlights holding it down with ropes, keeping it from being torn away by the brutal wind.

  "There's a whole bunch of them, and only two of us," Charlie said. "I don't like those odds."

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  But Johnnie-O realized something Charlie didn't. These Afterlights couldn't fight, because they already had their hands full. If it took this many of them to hold the airship down, how many would have to be taken off the job until the ship would tear free?

  They wasted no time. Johnnie-O pulled them from the ropes, and Charlie slapped coins into their hands one after another. They had dispatched more than ten of them by the time the others figured out what was happening. They all panicked, and began to let go of the ropes. The airship began to lurch.