Escape from the Pipe Men!

by Mary G. Thompson

  “They wouldn’t let me take you to a doctor!” Mom whisper-yelled. “They were just going to let you die.”

  “You were going to take me to Earth? What if something happened?”

  “What could happen? You were going to die!”

  “So you sent the kids to the Hottini? How did you think that would work out?”

  “Like it did, Oscar. They found you a cure.”

  “And now we’re running away? To where? Earth?” Dad almost shouted. “You want to live with Earth people?”

  “We are Earth people,” said Mom, much more quietly.

  “We’re not Earth people anymore,” said Dad. “We’re educated. We live among the Masters.”

  “They teach us that they’re special,” said Becky. “But they’re not. You just have to kick them, and they fall over.”

  “Earth isn’t safe anyway,” said Mom. “There are Masters there. We have to find somewhere else to go.”

  Dad stared at her, shaking his head.

  Our Xaxor dipped one of its legs in my water bottle and gently pushed it into one of the Brocine children’s mouths. It repeated the trick with another leg and the other child. One of the children began to stir. The Xaxor kept doing this until a good amount of water had gotten into both of them, then tried it with the adults. After a few more minutes of this, and Mom and Dad arguing about whether we should run away and where to, the Brocine were all awake, although not moving much.

  Gript and his adult children managed to have a brief discussion in their language before one of them started coughing. The Xaxor fed her the rest of the water.

  The lights came on. The whole sector was lit up as brightly as the dim O-thul-ban daytime.

  “Come on, get in! Becky, help us!”

  Becky opened her backpack and reached out for one of the children.

  “No! Wait!” I held my hand up.

  The Xaxor understood and wrapped a leg around the child, gently moving it into Becky’s backpack, keeping its nose away from her. One of the adults was able to crawl in on his own. The Xaxor lifted the other baby, and Gript helped the other adult into my backpack. They squeaked something at each other, and I zipped it almost all the way. Gript jumped onto my shoulder.

  Pipe Men were all around the outside of the sector, lining the invisible walls. They were many different heights, many different colors of eyes. All together, closing in, they looked alien in a way they never had before.

  “Front?” I whispered.

  There was no response. I didn’t hear anything from that place in my mind where he had spoken. I looked at the row of Xaxor. Three of them were circled around the one with the calculator, hiding it from view, facing the Pipe Men. Becky, our Xaxor, and Gript and I moved slowly toward Dad’s bed. Ip had curled into a ball next to it. With none of his face showing, the horn looked like some kind of desert plant growing out of a rock.

  I raised my arms. “We are infinitely sorry for the disturbance,” I said. “We didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” I cocked my head toward the group of Xaxor.

  They hummed at each other furiously.

  “The Hottini kidnapped us,” I yelled. “These Xaxor rescued us!”

  “I don’t think that story’s going to work,” said Becky.

  Dad stood up and raised his arms. He stumbled forward into the bed, but recovered and raised his arms again. “There is a misunderstanding, honored Masters. We are infinitely sorry to have caused offense. My children did not understand their actions.”

  “Front,” I whispered, “come on, where are you?”

  “Front, help us,” said Becky.

  A stream of Pipe Men began floating through an invisible door, coming toward us. I recognized the first one by its sixteen many-shaded purple eyes.

  “Ry-an,” said Hon-tri-bum. “Beck-y, Os-car, and Hel-ena.” It turned three eyes toward my parents and blinked, acknowledging them. “We will take you back to your sector. You will not be harmed.”

  I brought my arms down and bowed forward. “Master Hon-tri-bum, Minister,” I said, “what will happen to these froms who helped us escape from the terrible Hottini monsters?”

  Pipe Men were beginning to circle the four Xaxor. Two held calculators in their top-holes, and three others held styluses.

  “True to their race, they have stolen something of great value to us,” said Hon-tri-bum.

  “It was the Hottini that took us, honored Master. The Xaxor rescued us.”

  Hon-tri-bum studied me with most of its eyes, keeping only four on the others around us.

  I held Becky’s hand tighter. I didn’t like the way Hon-tri-bum was looking at me. Front, I thought. Where was he? If he could open a portal just a few minutes ago anywhere he wanted, why couldn’t he do that now? And why wasn’t he talking?

  All at once, Hon-tri-bum flashed all of its eyes toward the invisible door the Pipe Men had come through. More Pipe Men appeared, floating out of the shadows beyond the lights.

  At first I didn’t see them because they were surrounded by tall Pipe Men, but as the group came closer, I saw two Hottini among the Pipe Men bodies. They held their heads up, but they were walking gingerly, almost shuffling along the artificial ground. The Pipe Men went two by two through the invisible door, pushing the Hottini into single file. As they came closer, I could see that they were not wearing any coverings. Their blue hair was dull and matted against their bodies, and they were barefoot.

  Grav-e glared at me as they approached. Tast-e took in the scene, fixing his eyes on the group of Xaxor.

  “These froms have failed to adequately explain how they created the rift that nearly sucked Hottin into Brock,” said Hon-tri-bum.

  “What?” said Dad.

  Gript dug his claws into my shoulder.

  I looked at Grav-e, trying to get something from him that would give me a hint of what they’d said about us, but I couldn’t read anything in those angry purple eyes. “They have some kind of lab,” I said. “We had to go through it to escape. That’s how they opened the portal.” I tried to remember what Hon-tri-bum had called it. “The rift of variable infinity.”

  “We have examined the lab,” said Hon-tri-bum. “It is not capable of creating such a rift alone.” It shifted three more eyes toward the Xaxor.

  Becky’s hand was sweating, and so was mine. There were too many for us to kick over. No way to escape without the calculator or Front.

  “There are none behind us,” Gript whispered. His nose was dangerously close to my cheek as he leaned into my ear.

  “The Xaxor have stolen something more valuable than you, Ry-an. My question is, where did they get it?”

  “What is it talking about, Ryan?” Dad put his arm around both Becky and me. “My children haven’t done anything wrong, honored Master. There has been some terrible mistake.”

  A great, awful humming came from the four Xaxor. One of the Pipe Men butted a Xaxor with its top-hole. That Xaxor kicked with all of its legs, and the other three jumped on the Pipe Man. More Pipe Men floated over to butt the ball of flailing Xaxor. Xaxor legs wrapped around Pipes, squeezing them. Several Pipe Men came streaming in from outside, holding penlike instruments in their tops, and poked the Xaxor with them. The Xaxor jumped off the Pipe Men and rolled into four tiny balls. As the last Xaxor balled up, the calculator appeared as if out of thin air and fell to the rubbery ground with a soft thump. Its Xaxor leg–like wrapping left no doubt where it had come from.

  The two Pipe Men who had calculators whooshed over to it. They sank down, bending eye by eye until half of their bodies were bent horizontal over the ground, and held their calculators out. Pipe Men with regular styluses bent over them and began pressing parts of the screens and rubbing the jagged edges. The three calculators buzzed and then lights flashed, connecting the three calculators in a web of lights.

  “Bless my eyes,” said Mom.

  Dad stared at me.

  Points of light burst into being above the three calculators, one after the other. I recognized the
pattern from the Hottini ship—a star map. Stars flashed by as the Pipe Men moved the display by tapping the side of it with one of their styluses. After several passes, the stars suddenly disappeared, replaced by blackness swirling with points of red, just like a portal in the passage.

  Hon-tri-bum stared at it for several long seconds, blinked something at the others, then turned ten of its eyes toward me. “Frontringhor.”

  “Where is that?” Dad looked at the swirling black, then back at me. “Did you use that device to go to some other planet?”

  “It was an accident,” I said. I turned to Hon-tri-bum. “It was an accident. I got lost in the passage when I was trying to visit my parent in the hospital.” I pointed to Dad. “I don’t know where I went. I was just in a cave, and I knew it was the wrong door, so I came back out again.” But how could I explain the calculator? I shouldn’t have said I was in the passage. I should have acted like I didn’t understand.

  “How do you know what that is?” Hon-tri-bum flashed four eyes at the calculator and the swirling black. I didn’t know which part he meant.

  “I don’t!”

  “Raise your arms when you speak to the Masters,” said Dad.

  I raised my arms.

  “How did you open the portal in the hospital?” asked Hon-tri-bum.

  “I didn’t!”

  More Pipe Men were coming into the sector. Many were holding the penlike things that had shocked the Xaxor into little balls. They weren’t helpless anymore. I couldn’t just kick them and get away. But Hon-tri-bum didn’t have a weapon, and so far, there still weren’t any Pipe Men behind us.

  Gript jumped off my shoulder and landed on Hon-tri-bum’s top-hole.

  The Pipe Man screeched and squiggled around as Gript dug his claws in.

  “Come on!” I yelled. I grabbed Becky, turned, and ran toward the invisible door to the next enclosure, the one where everything was giant. I couldn’t be sure, but I had to hope that those creatures didn’t live only in the zoo, that there was a portal somewhere in their sector. And I had to hope that everyone would follow. I stole a glance behind me.

  Hon-tri-bum was sliding along at a wild pace after us, still trying to shake Gript. Our Xaxor jumped on Hon-tri-bum’s back and wrapped its legs around it. Hon-tri-bum screeched louder and fell over right onto its eyes, Gript still on the back of its top-hole. The other Xaxor leapt out of their balls in a coordinated poof and jumped on the Pipe Men in front of them.

  Ip rolled out of his ball and pushed Mom and Dad forward. Dad was arguing with Ip, but Ip kept pushing, and Mom pulled Dad along. The other Pipe Men were coming faster.

  “Come on!” I yelled. “This way!” I kept running, through the door and into the next sector. Even with all the tall trees, there was no place to hide. They were spaced too far apart. My only choice was to head for the giant caves and hope there was a portal in one of them, and that I’d find it.

  “Which one do you think has a portal?” I asked.

  “That one.” Becky pointed to the third cave down.

  I ran. Noises were coming from behind us, voices in English and Pipe Man, Xaxor hums, and screeches that could have come from anyone. I wanted to keep everyone together, but my first priority was Becky. I had to get her out of here. I pulled her into the third cave.

  “Stay back, or my friend pokes the Minister in the eyelid!” Ip’s voice came from behind me.

  “That’s right,” squeaked Gript. “If you like Hon-tri-bum, honored Master, Minister of Trade, and all that, you’ll float right back!”

  Mom and Dad appeared inside the cave. It was so dark that we could barely see anything, but the cave appeared to be empty except for damp rocks.

  “They’re holding Hon-tri-bum hostage?” I whispered.

  “We can never come back,” said Dad. He put his hands to his forehead and rubbed his eyes.

  “There’s a portal in here,” said Mom, rubbing Dad’s back. “It’s popping. Duh-dum.”

  “Becky thinks there is too,” I said.

  “That’s my girl,” said Mom, smiling at Becky. “Go. We’ll follow you.”

  “Not without Ip and Gript,” said Becky. “We can’t leave them.”

  “We can’t leave the Xaxor either,” I said.

  “Yes, we can,” said Becky.

  “Don’t come after us!” said Ip. “If you hurt any one of us—the Earth people, the Xaxor, the Brocine—”

  “What about Grav-e and Tast-e?” asked Becky. “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “We can’t worry about them right now.”

  Becky pulled her hand out of mine, and before I could stop her, she had run back out of the cave. I followed, and so did Mom and Dad. There was Ip, who had Hon-tri-bum wrapped in a giant blobby arm. Gript was perched on top of the same arm, claws digging into Ip’s hide, nose less than an inch from one of Hon-tri-bum’s eyes.

  “You have to let Grav-e and Tast-e come with us, too,” Becky said.

  Four Xaxor skittered past us and into the cave, but our Xaxor stopped when it reached us and stood next to me and Mom and Dad. I rushed forward and grabbed Becky’s hand again. We were facing rows of Pipe Men, more Pipe Men than I’d ever seen together before.

  “Translate,” said Becky.

  “We want our Hottini friends, Grav-e and Tast-e,” I said. “Let them go or we’ll . . . we’ll . . . cut one of Hon-tri-bum’s eyes out.” I hoped I’d have a chance to make it up to Hon-tri-bum later—and that the Pipe Men wouldn’t call my bluff.

  Ip pointed one pomegranate eye toward me, then shifted his vision back to face the crowd. “That’s right,” said Ip. “Those Hottini need to come too.”

  Some of the Pipe Men blinked at each other. Others spoke in whispers that I couldn’t hear. All the eyes stared at us, ten plus twelve plus sixteen plus eight plus ten . . . I gripped Becky’s hand harder.

  A path opened up between the lines of Pipe Men, and slowly, Grav-e and Tast-e shuffled forward, their bare handlike feet scraping awkwardly against the springy artificial ground. The Pipe Men let them step past their perimeter, toward us. Grav-e looked at me, head held high, then turned his eyes to Becky. He nodded to us, ever so slightly. “Thank you,” he said, and both Hottini continued past us into the cave.

  “Come on,” I said, “let’s go.” I waved to Ip.

  Gript moved his nose a little farther from Hon-tri-bum’s eye.

  Ip pulled Hon-tri-bum slowly backward.

  “Mom, Dad, come on.” I pulled Becky, following Mom and Dad into the cave.

  “We’ll let it go as soon as we’re safely away,” said Ip. “We won’t hurt it unless you try to stop us.” He backed into the cave, still holding Hon-tri-bum around the eyes. “We got everyone, Ryan?”

  I squinted through the dim light. We had Mom, Dad, and Becky; Grav-e and Tast-e; our Xaxor; Ip, Gript, and the other Brocine in our backpacks; and way back in the cave, huddled together, the other four Xaxor. “We have everyone.”

  “Okay, let’s find a portal and get out of here,” said Ip.

  I led the way to the back of the cave. It was even bigger than it had seemed at first. As Becky and I reached the four Xaxor, they circled around us. For the first time, their presence was actually comforting.

  “It’s here,” said Becky. She pulled me off to the left, to where the cave narrowed into a slit.

  “How could the creatures who live in this giant sector get through here?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know, but there’s a portal.” She pointed. I couldn’t see it, but I had a feeling she was right. Maybe it was a light buzzing around me, or maybe it was just my imagination.

  “Do you think it goes to the passage, or straight to their planet?” I asked.

  “We don’t have much choice,” said Mom.

  “Okay, then.” Becky and I passed through the slit into the portal.

  Thirty-One

  I STUMBLED, MY BODY buzzing with the shock of the portal, and tried to get my bearings. I was back in the pa
ssage. At least, I thought it was the passage. It had changed even more since the last time I’d been in it. Far from being its original pink, it was no longer even blotchy shades of pink and red. Instead, the entire misshapen tube was a pale, pulsing green. A glob of green goo fell on my shoulder from above. The whole ceiling was dripping, all the way along the passage.

  I slipped on the gooey ground and stumbled into the far wall, only it was nothing like a wall anymore. It was soft and sticky, and my hands sank in.

  Becky smashed against the wall next to me and screamed. Her arm and leg were inside a door, its insides swirling madly, expanding toward me. I pulled her out of the door, just in time to see Mom and Dad come through.

  “Be careful!” I yelled.

  Dad pulled Mom into the space between our door and the next. “Where are we going?”

  “That way,” said Becky, pointing to my left.

  I opened my backpack a little, motioning for Becky to do the same with hers. “Are you all right?” The Brocine I was carrying were standing up, looking at me. The adult nodded. “Are yours all right?”

  “Kind of,” she said.

  “Hang on, okay? It’s going to be a rough ride.”

  The adult nodded again, and I closed the bag.

  Tast-e burst through the door and nearly fell into me.

  “Tell them to be careful of falling into these doors! They need to come one by one and follow us slowly!” I had to shout to be heard. A wind was blowing against my face, whooshing past my ears.

  Tast-e put his head back through the portal.

  Becky pushed past me and Mom and Dad, and we all started clomping slowly forward, our feet sinking in deep with every step. The wind was against us, making our progress even harder. The passage vibrated and hummed. A glob hit the side of my face. I reached up to wipe it away, but another glob fell on my head.

  Dad slipped and fell forward, taking Mom with him. They scrambled to get up again. Another glob hit me on the chin. Thick, greenish liquid was now falling from the sky and spraying out from all the walls.

  A Pipe Man appeared in a doorway just ahead of us on the right. It floated halfway through, thrust itself just past the doorway, and then was sucked back through the door. Another one appeared at the next door. It was sucked back before it even made it all the way through. I glanced behind me. Tast-e and Grav-e were now in the passage, followed by Ip, who was carrying Gript and pushing Hon-tri-bum forward, and then all of the Xaxor. We had made it through. But the Pipe Men weren’t sticking to the bargain.