by R. W. Ridley
“Oz?” Wes looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“It wasn’t that simple...”
“Yes it was,” Lou said as she started to cry. “You could have all been home.”
“Dude?” Gordy said, “Say it ain’t so.”
“All of us wouldn’t have been able to go back,” I said.
“No,” Lou said, “just everyone who should go back.”
“Who wouldn’t have been able to go?” Wes asked.
Tyrone answered before Lou or I could. “Lou, because she’s not real.”
A white hot flash of anger came over me. “Shut up! Don’t say that!”
“Why not?” Lou asked. “It’s true. I’m not real.”
“You are to me,” I said.
“But that won’t help you get home,” Lou said.
“I’m not going back without you,” I said.
“You have to...”
“All right,” Wes said, “Let’s just everyone settle down. What’s done is done. We need to set our sights on what we need to deal with now.”
“Which is?” Tyrone asked.
“How do we un-Délon Oz?”
“Cold,” Tyrone said.
“We can worry about how cold it is later,” Wes said.
“No,” Tyrone said sounding irritated. “The cold. Remember Devlin? We put him in the walk-in freezer at the convenience store and the Délon just... exploded. He was Devlin again.”
“That’s right,” Wes said.
“Where are we going to find a walk-in freezer out here?” Gordy asked.
“We don’t need one,” I said. “I know a place that might be cold enough. But we’re going to need some Myrmidon meat to get there.”
Seven
It was evening by the time we got to the side of the lake. We made a detour to the Myrmidon camp first. I was elected to make the 200-yard trek from the platform to the camp because in my Délon state I was at least twice as fast as everybody else. I made it to the camp ahead of the worms and stepped in the discarded guts of a Myrmidon that acted as worm repellent.
I carried twelve pounds of Myrmidon body parts back to the platform and broke the news to everybody that they would need to cake their shoes with Myrmidon meat and carry some of it with them just to be safe.
We all stood on the shore and watched as the water sloshed about.
Wes stuck his hand in the water and said, “It’s cold all right, but it ain’t walk-in freezer cold.”
“It is at the bottom,” I said.
“And how do you know this?” Tyrone asked.
“I’ve had the pleasure.”
The egg guarder casually breached the water and then slipped back under.
“Ah,” Gordy said, “What was that?”
“That’s what makes this...” My gut tied in knots and I fell to one knee. The Délon part of me was trying to kick the human side of me out of my body. It was a miracle I had been able to hold together this long. “That’s what makes this so much fun,” I said regaining my composure.” I turned to Tyrone. “Give me your knife.”
He pulled it from its sheath and handed it to me with no questions asked.
I waded into the water knee deep. “If I’m not back up in 20 minutes, leave.”
“Twenty minutes?” Wes asked. “You grow gills?”
I dove into the water and didn’t bother moving slowly to avoid alerting the guarder. Let it know. I needed a fight.
I dove deeper and deeper, moving towards the center of the lake as I did. I hadn’t grown gills, but apparently Délons could hold their breath for a long time.
The guarder flashed in front of me and knocked into me. It was testing to see if I was really there or not. I let it know I was by jabbing the knife into its side as it passed.
It curled around and came for me again. Instead of retreating, I swam straight for it. It opened its mouth, and I was happy to see that it was more than big enough for me to fit inside. It worked with the Taker Queen. Why not now?
The worm recoiled a bit when I swam into its mouth. It was used to chasing down prey. It had no idea what to do with something that volunteered to get eaten.
Once it shut its mouth, I jammed the knife into its flesh and started cutting. The blade moved through the fatty skin with ease. The worm barely realized what was happening to it. I had sliced through the inside of its mouth a good three feet before it even reacted. It started twisting its body and jerking its head. I kept cutting. An eight foot incision. I slammed against a row of teeth. Twelve feet. I heard a splash and knew it had surfaced and dived again. Soon, I had cut around the back of the worm’s mouth. It stopped moving, and I could feel it sinking to the bottom of the lake.
When it came to a sudden stop, I knew we were resting on the bottom. I kicked at the roof of the mouth over and over again until the incision tore open and I could swim out.
Looking down on the dead guarder, I realized that if the blade had been just a little longer, I would have cut the worm’s head completely off from the inside.
The chill of the water hit me as I swam for the egg huts. My body started to ache beyond belief. My skin was cracking and I could feel it getting tighter.
I entered an underwater hut and surfaced. The ache had shifted to an icy burn. I was numb. I opened my mouth and heard my skin rip when I did. My ears popped, not once, but three times. Each time was more painful than the last.
I crawled up the embankment and heard my bones crunching as I did. It felt like I was being ripped in half and trampled to death all at once.
I screamed and the mud dome shook. There was a high-pitched whistle right before I felt my entire body explode. Purple goo flew everywhere. My spider-leg locks ejected out of my head like darts and embedded in the dome ceiling, even impaling some of the climbers hiding in the shadows.
I turned on my back. I had made up my mind this was where I was going to die, but at least I wouldn’t die a Délon. I was human again.
I lay in the freezing water on the embankment and thought about all I had been through to that moment. Pepper was gone. Valerie, too. They would be alive if I had taken the Pure’s deal. Archie and April. My mom and dad. There was a list a mile long of people that should have mattered enough for me to take his deal. But I didn’t. I turned my back on them, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it meant I could keep Lou.
What about Kimball? I heard a voice in my head ask.
Kimball. I’d even turned my back on my own dog.
I still owed that stinking worm for killing my dog. The worm with the half moon scar. I grabbed two eggs and quickly submerged.
I broke the surface of the water in the middle of the lake holding an egg in each hand. It made it difficult to swim, but I somehow managed to make it to the shore.
“It worked,” Gordy said
I was shivering severely.
“Worked too good,” Wes said. “We gotta warm you up now, boy.”
“No time,” I said through chattering teeth.
Some climbers surfaced thirty feet off shore.
“Oh, lordy,” Wes said.
“Lou,” I said handing her an egg. “Stick this on the end of an arrow and fire it across the lake into the tops of the trees.”
She took the egg from me with a scowl and did as I asked without saying a word.
“Now what?” Wes asked.
“Run.”
***
Wes was the last of us to climb up the tree onto the platform. I found myself shaking uncontrollably. Lou reluctantly rubbed my arms with the palm of her hands in an effort to warm me up. It didn’t work.
“And what in the hell are you doing with that thing?” Wes asked pointing to the egg.
“I need it. There’s one last thing we have to do before we leave.”
“And that is?”
“Kill that white whale.”
He squinted as his brain worked to process what I’d just said. When he got it, he rolled his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“Never been more serious.”
“Haven’t we been through enough?”
“No,” Lou said, “Oz is right about this. We have to kill that worm.”
Ajax hooted in agreement.
Ariabod pounded his chest.
“And how do we know it’s not one of those dead worms back at the Myrmidon camp?” Wes asked
I paused and then said, “I know. It’s back at Bostic’s treehouse waiting for its king to feed it.”
“What treehouse?” Wes asked. “You burned it down.”
“Doesn’t change the fact that those are its feeding grounds.” I started down the walkway when Wes called out.
“We don’t even have weapons.”
I felt for Tyrone’s knife on my belt. I had lost track of it in the egg hut. It was most likely on the bottom of the lake.
“I do,” Lou said holding up her crossbow.
“And how many arrows do you have, little girl?”
She held up her entire stock of arrows. “Two.”
I continued down the walkway. “Two is plenty.”
I heard the others following me. Wes brought up the rear and I could tell by the sound of his heavy deliberate footsteps, he was not happy.
When we arrived at the zip line platform, I tugged on the cable. It was still attached to something, but I could feel that it was a weak connection. The cable wouldn’t take much weight at all.
“What’s the plan?” Tyrone asked.
“Climb down and walk,” Gordy said. “We got more of the Myrmidon meat to hold the worms back.”
“We’ve also got this,” I said holding up the egg. “Their interest in this trumps their distaste for Myrmidon. We walk on the ground with this, we won’t get two feet.”
Ariabod climbed up the closest tree, grabbed the thickest branch and catapulted himself to the next tree. He found a thick limb on that tree, sat on his haunches and clapped his hands in our direction.
None of us knew what he was trying to tell us. None of the humans, anyway. Ajax got tired of us trying to figure it out and took the egg out of my hand. He walked to the edge of the platform and tossed it.
I ran after it, barely stopping before falling off the platform. “What are you doing?”
Ariabod stretched out his incredibly long arm and snatched the egg out of the air.
Ajax jumped up into the nearest tree, traveled through the tree tops and positioned himself about fifteen feet ahead of Ariabod.
Ariabod tossed him the egg and then moved through the tree tops to move fifteen feet ahead of Ajax.
Ajax tossed him the egg and moved fifteen ahead of Ariabod.
We watched them continue this game of catch until they disappeared into the fog.
“What do you know?” Gordy said. “Those monkeys are smarter than us.”
“Apes, you idiot,” I said sitting on the platform. “Give me some of your Myrmidon meat.”
He reached in his pants pocket and pulled out a chunk of blood red flesh. I rubbed it on my shoes and started climbing down the tree.
“So, it’s safe now?” Gordy asked.
I looked up at the faces staring down at me. “I hope so.” They all proceeded to rub their shoes with Myrmidon meat. By the time we were all standing on the ground, I figured Ariabod and Ajax were near the other side. I wasn’t sure what was there waiting for them, and I hoped to God they hadn’t dropped the egg, but I was fairly confident they were waiting for us.
We all took a few tentative steps in the direction of the treehouse. The ground was soft and mossy. As we walked, we scanned the ground for worm activity.
The fog that we had zipped through in the past stretched all the way down to the forest floor. It was as thick as pea soup. And, maybe because we were walking through it rather slowly, we all noticed a distinct odor for the first time. It was pungent, like rotting cheese.
I stepped down and my foot slipped on something white and long. Looking closer, I saw that the ground was littered with some kind of white debris.
Tyrone was the only one brave enough to reach down and pick up the nearest white object. He held it close to his face to get a good look. Then, his head jerked back, and he dropped it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s a bone. They’re all bones.”
“What?” Gordy grabbed my arm and squeezed. “Bones? C’mon, don’t say that. They can’t be bones. There are too many of them.”
Wes reached down and picked one up. “They’re bones,” he said showing us what he was holding. It was the skeletal remains of a human hand.
“So what, this is like their puke place?” Gordy asked looking as if he might puke himself.
“Don’t know and don’t wanna know,” Wes said. “Just keep moving.”
We broke through the fog and saw the burned treehouse for the first time. The front wall was still standing, but it was a much darker color than it had been before. Black char marks lined the edges of the house. Burned and smoldering lumber was jammed into the crook of the tree. And a few planks of the flooring hung down and swung in the breeze. The tree itself was partially burned, but it remained standing.
“Whoa,” Gordy said.
“You really did a number on this place, Oz.”
I didn’t reply to him. “Where are Ajax and Ariabod?”
As if they’d heard my question, they leaned out from behind the tree trunk just below the house, and flashed their teeth in exaggerated grins.
“Where’s the egg?”
Ajax produced it from between his legs.
I breathed a little easier. Although I wasn’t sure why. After all I was going to use the egg to draw in a man-eating worm. That sort of thing shouldn’t have made me feel relaxed.
The ground in front of the tree was crawling with dozens of worms. They were twisting and turning on top of the ground, fighting to bury themselves, but also feeling the urge to get to the egg.
“What now?” Lou asked.
“We have to get to the other side of the tree.”
“Why?” Tyrone asked.
“Because the worm with the half moon scar has surfaced twice over there. That’s its spot.”
“I still ain’t clear on how we’re going to kill this thing? Two arrows ain’t going to do nothing but piss it off.”
“Good,” I said. “If it’s pissed, it will make a mistake.”
“That’s your plan?” Wes asked. “You hope that it gets mad when we try to kill it so we can kill it?”
I shrugged. “More or less.” I yelled up to Ajax and Ariabod. “Keep moving. Three more trees down.”
They resumed their climb-and-catch routine and signaled with hoots when they’d reached their destination.
I looked into the forest canopy and saw a dozen or so climbers jumping from tree to tree.
“We’ve got to move fast,” I said.
The worms had disappeared from the front of the tree, so we ran around it and stood on the spot where the worm had taken Kimball.
The back deck to the treehouse had collapsed. There were charred splintered chunks of wood all over the place. I picked up a good-sized spike. Everyone but Lou did the same.
I held the spike like a sword and turned to the others. “We’re doing this for Kimball.”
They all nodded.
“I’m going to get it to come up here, so you all stand on either side of me. Lou, you’re next to me. Fire as soon as it surfaces. Only use the second arrow if you have to. Things are going to get crazy, so you could hit any one of us by accident.”
“Right,” she said.
I was about to signal to Ajax and Ariabod, but Lou stopped me.
“Wait, I want to say something first.” If I didn’t know better, I would have said she was about to cry. Was she scared? “You guys are my family, and I want you to know that. I’d do anything for you. If something ever happens... Well, I just want to thank you and let you know you made me feel like I belong.”
Wes put his arm around her and said,
“Sweetie, you do belong, and ain’t nobody going nowhere.”
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded.
I gave her a smile and then turned to Ajax, “On the count of three, throw me the egg.”
He grinned and nodded his massive head.
To the others, “There’s no going back when I count to three. They’re all going to come for us. Our worm will be first out of the ground. Once Lou shoots it, the rest of us will each stab it twice as quickly as we can. In, out, in, out, and then find high ground. Got it?”
“Not really,” Gordy said.
“What’s the problem?”
“How do you know our worm will be the first one out of the ground?”
I thought about his question and then said, “Because it has to be.”
I counted to three.
Ajax tossed me the egg.
I extended my arm in front of me straight and squeezed the egg until it start screaming.
The ground shook.
A worm surfaced, and I almost jumped for joy when I saw the half moon scar.
Lou fired her shot and hit the worm in its open mouth.
The rest of us lunged forward. Stab. Stab.
Tyrone leapt up and grabbed a branch above him.
Gordy turned, took three steps, and jumped up in the lowest crook of the tree that held the charred treehouse.
Wes joined him.
I kept stabbing. I wasn’t going to take the chance that the worm that killed my dog would survive. I stabbed and I stabbed and I stabbed until the ground beneath me swirled. Then I tossed the screaming egg as far away as I could.
We stood silently for a few brief seconds and let the bedlam die down. The worm was dead. There was no question.
“We did it!” Gordy said. “We killed it! And we’re not dead!”
The gorillas started whooping. Tyrone swung off his branch and actually laughed when he touched down on the ground.
“Lordy, Lordy, Lordy,” Wes said.
I turned to celebrate with Lou but she wasn’t there. “Lou?”
The others settled down when they heard me call her name.
“Lou?”
“Where’d she go?” Wes asked.
Her crossbow and last arrow were lying on the ground where I had seen her standing last.
