by Leia Stone
Ronnie grabbed the collar with a shaking hand. “You did it?”
He nodded. “Fill the collar with your blood when we land, and the cat will wake up with you.”
Tears started streaming down her face. “Thank you so much, Jeremy.”
She moved forward to hug him and he backed up, putting a hand out. “Fist bump,” he said, holding out his fist and looking at the ground. Damien told me he’d taught him to do that when he’d been uncomfortable with too much touching.
Ronnie recovered quickly, making a fist and bumping his lightly. “Thank you,” she said again.
He nodded. “I’m tired.”
Damien chuckled behind me. “All right, bud. Let’s get some sleep.”
Ten minutes later, we were all in bed, stacked with more weapons than I ever remembered, a new mewing kitten added to our lot. She lay in a soft black, breathable sling pouch around Ronnie’s neck, cracked out on coffee and attacking the zipper.
I’m in control. I project peace. I give protection. I harness strength.
I was so tired I didn’t even stay awake for Brisk’s “Oorah,” sleep taking me hard and fast.
Nine
The moment I dropped in, I knew something was wrong. I felt the weight leave my hip, and instead of landing on my feet, I opened my eyes to see I was still lying in bed. I looked down frantically to see that the RPG launchers didn’t make it in—and the bed did!
What the hell?
I pulled my gun and popped up on the bed, spinning around. I was by one of the lakes, a pod forest at my back, standing on the bed from our Vancouver loft, with half the weapons I’d brought in. I glanced to my wrist and tried not to panic. My plasma cuff was gone.
What. The. Hell.
Damien dropped in next, with Jeremy right after him. They landed on the bed and when Jeremy saw it, he freaked out. Damien launched over to grab him, and I swooped around the side to make sure he wasn’t going to run.
Jeremy made a distressed sound.
“It’s okay, bud. Let’s get your cards out,” Damien said, searching his pockets frantically.
“I’m down half my weapons.” I told him. I had both samurai swords, one gun, and my hunting knife, but no plasma brick, cuff or the RPG launchers.
Shit. Well, at least this stupid hat made it through.
Damien looked alarmed, searching his body. “So am I. And Jeremy’s cards.”
Jeremy started whining and rocking on his heels. I stepped down from the bed and picked up a broken piece of wood. If we didn’t calm him down, he was going to lose it. “Hey, Jer, do you know how to play tic-tac-toe?” I asked, drawing a quick board in the dirt surface.
His eyes flicked up to me briefly and he nodded, getting off the bed—with Damien by his side—he reached out for the wood piece. I drew an X and handed it to him. He bent down and stared at the markings, planning his move.
“What does this mean?” I whispered to Damien, as the rest of the gang, sans Maxine, dropped in.
He swallowed hard. “It means they’re getting smarter.”
Dammit. That was the last thing we needed. If these flesh eaters figured out how to import us without weapons, we were beyond dead.
I started pacing as Ronnie and the rest of the gang realized they were light on weapons and the bed was lying in the middle of the Dream Wars.
“Okay, the second we wake up from tonight, Nox will give us a course in weapon making. Right, Nox?” I asked.
Nox looked a little shocked but nodded. “Yes, spears, knives, bow and arrows. I can teach you to make them from any found object.”
My nerves settled a little. “Okay, so that’s our plan going forward if this gets worse.” I needed a plan. The commander in me was always one step ahead. If we came in without weapons, then we would just make them.
The ground shook then, and my eyes snapped up to meet Damien’s.
That fucking giant is on the move.
He must have an insanely sensitive nose, and a thing for humans, because it sounded close.
Something tapped my leg, and I looked down to see Jeremy had drawn his O. It was my turn.
I reached down and quickly drew an X.
When I stood, I glanced at the lake.
“I have an interesting idea,” I shared with the group. Our biggest threat right then was that giant, and from what I’d witnessed the last time we were there, he hunted with his nose. At the cadet academy, the thing that advanced you, the thing that turned you into a commander, was your ability to adapt in situations like these, to think out of the box.
“Let’s hear it,” Brisk said.
I faced my Marine and sighed. “I think the giant can smell us. If we douse our bodies in the green stuff, it might buy us a couple hours.”
Damien nodded. “That’s brilliant.”
I’d remembered when I’d shot it’s arm off and it bled, that the blood was the green stuff. My theory was that if we smelled like its own blood, it wouldn’t want to eat us.
Ronnie frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea medically. It’s regenerative to the ghouls but also combustible. Left on our human skin for too long, it leaves rashes and—”
I cut her off, noticing for the first time the little white and cream kitten tucked into her shirt. She was giving me a cock-eyed look. Little shit.
“I know that, Ronnie. But I’m talking about either being giant ghoulie food, or getting a little rash.”
Ronnie eyed the lake. “Or cancer.”
I threw up my arms. “Ronnie.”
She pursed her lips. “Fine. I’ll allow it. If anyone gets short of breath or dizzy, let me know.”
God, she acted like she’d never been slimed before. Though now that we knew it was a source of fuel for our planet, that put it in the same category as gasoline, and that definitely wasn’t something I’d be keen to dip my body into on a normal day. But desperate times and all that….
Now the bigger question was how the hell did we submerge ourselves in it, without getting eaten by a skid? And how was I going to convince Jeremy to cover himself in the stuff?
I spun around and looked at what I had to work with. There was no way we could just dip ourselves in. The skids would see us disturbing the lake and come after us for sure.
My gaze went to the rumpled sheet on the bed.
“Brisk, I’ve got an idea. Grab that sheet,” I told him.
He pulled it from the bed and made his way over to me just as the ground shook again, much closer that time. Adrenaline surged through me as I felt the pressure of doing this in a safe and timely manner.
“Okay, everyone, line up. We’re going to get a little slime bath.”
Josephine was the first to step up. She hadn’t handcuffed herself to Jeremy yet, who was calmly playing tic-tac-toe with Damien.
“Maxine, Nox, shoot anything that comes out of the water,” I told my comrades.
They held their guns at the ready and nodded.
I grabbed one end of the sheet and Brisk held the other. “We run over and dip it in, then run back and wrap it over the person. Repeat for each of us.”
He nodded, eyeing the water with distrust. The skid tentacles were filled with serrated teeth and could pull you into the water in seconds. We needed to move fast.
“Go!” I shouted, and we ran forward toward the bank, Nox and Maxine flanking at our sides. When we reached the lake, we bent down, shoving the sheet in and saturating it. When we pulled it up, it was much heavier and slipped from my hand. I snatched out and caught it before it could hit the ground, and then we were running. Turning my back that close to the lake was one of the scariest things I’d done in a long time, but I knew Nox and Maxine were looking out for us.
Josephine scrunched up her face and held her breath as we slapped the wet slimy green sheet over her. I pressed it down over her body and then pulled it off. Thick green goo rolled down her face and neck, globs of it sticking to her clothing.
She reached up and wiped her face. “Yuck.”
The green stuff was in her hair, her ear, her nose. It was everywhere.
“Sorry.” I winced.
“It’s fine. It’s worth a shot,” she said, then stepped to the side. Mr. Hansen was next.
Brisk and I repeated the process and quickly doused him. The green stuff surprisingly didn’t have a noxious odor; it was more earthy and coppery in nature.
We soaked Maxine next, careful not to get too much on her healing shoulder wound. This stuff regenerated the aliens, but Lord knew what it would do to our bodies. We just had to hope it wouldn’t be too bad during the time before we woke again.
Josephine had cuffed herself to Jeremy while we worked on Maxine. They were now playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt as Damien came over for his turn to get slimed. He pulled Brisk and me aside. “I hate to do this, but the only way Jeremy is going to allow this is if we… just do it.”
Oh God.
“No, that will terrify him,” I protested.
Damien looked pained. “I know, but if we try to ask him, he’ll make a big scene and try to run. He hates being dirty. There’s no way he’ll agree.”
I didn’t think I could forcefully smother sweet Jeremy with slime without his consent. “Let me try, and if I can’t get him to agree, we’ll force him,” I told Damien.
He looked conflicted but nodded. I handed him my piece of the sheet, so he could finish getting Nox, himself, and Brisk, and then it was just me and Jer.
Walking over slowly, I bent down to get into Jeremy’s field of vision.
“Hey, bud, I need to talk to you about something.”
He marked an X and then flicked his eyes up to me for a brief second.
“I need us to make a deal. Something we both agree to,” I added.
He set the stick down. “What?” he said softly.
He spoke. He spoke to me in the Dream Wars. That meant he trusted me, and I didn’t want to betray that trust.
“I need you to do something for me that you’re not going to like, but it’s going to keep you safe. Then in return, I’ll do something for you. Anything you want.”
He was quiet for a long time. “I’m never safe here. You can’t make me safe.”
Fucker was too smart for me.
“Well that’s true. The Dream Wars are dangerous, but I can make you safer if you do this thing for me.”
He sighed. “What is it?”
No way. I wasn’t dealing my cards first. He was either clueless to the fact that Josephine was dripping green slime, or he didn’t care.
“Tell me first what you want from me if you do me this favor. Remember, it can be anything.”
He grinned. “Anything? Like a list of demands you would give to the police to release a hostage?”
I tried not to laugh. He watched way too many movies. “Yep, what are your demands?”
The ground shook then and Jeremy jumped, a high-pitched whine in his throat.
“You do whatever I say with the hat. Let me study your brain and telepathic power.”
Damn.
“Done.” I stood.
“And,” he said.
Ugh.
I crouched back down. “Quick, buddy. What else?”
He smiled hugely. “You have to get Damien to let me have chocolate chip ice cream every morning for breakfast, forever.”
Oh my God, Damien would kill me.
“For a month,” I countered.
“Fine,” he agreed. “And lastly, I want a pet lizard.”
What the hell did he just say? Where in God’s name was I going to find a pet lizard?
Josephine met my eyes and shrugged.
“Done,” I said, and hoped he would maybe forget about the lizard thing when we woke.
He stood. “You want me to get all messy with the green stuff, don’t you?”
He was smarter and more aware of his surroundings than we gave him credit for.
“I do. I think it’s going to keep the giant ghouls away from us. Keep us safe.”
He started blinking rapidly, like a nervous tic. “Okay, Kit.”
For whatever reason, hearing him say my name made my heart pinch. I vowed right then and there to never let anything bad happen to this adorable fucking kid.
Damien and Brisk were standing behind him and I nodded.
“Coming up behind you, buddy. Cover your face,” Damien said.
Jeremy did and they quickly threw the blanket over his head, causing him to shriek.
“I hate it!” he screamed, and they pulled the sheet off him.
His chest was heaving, fighting a panic attack no doubt, and I wanted to cry but somehow manage to keep my shit together. “Thank you.”
I looked up and just off in the distance, I could see the head of a giant appearing.
“Okay, let me get covered, and then let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, grabbing the sheet from Damien.
Brisk and I ran double time to the edge of the lake. I shoved the sheet in quickly, saturating it. As I was bringing it out of the water, I saw something move below the surface.
I didn’t even have time to scream before a tooth-filled tentacle shot out and wrapped around Brisk’s leg. His plasma arm cuff was also missing.
Maxine started firing into the water, and I used my free hand to pull my knife from my thigh holster. Using the close proximity, I lurched forward just as Brisk was being dragged into the lake, and I sliced off the tentacle in one clean swipe. I landed awkwardly on top of Brisk, which caused us both to fall onto the ground. He and I scrambled to get up, but I could see from his wincing that he was hurt pretty bad.
Damien swooped in, grabbed the dripping green sheet from me and tossed it around my shoulders. He did a quick pat-down so the goo would stick to my body, and then the heavy sheet fell away.
“Let’s go!” he said, as the ground shook again.
Nox grabbed Brisk’s arm and draped it around his shoulder so Brisk could limp and use him as a crutch.
The tentacle was hacked off but still wound up and down Brisk’s leg, bleeding red and green onto the earth.
“Ronnie!” I shouted.
The surgeon was standing there, mouth agape, hands shaking. I’d never seen her so… terrified.
“What?” I asked her, looking over my shoulder, sure the giant or some skid was about to take my head off. Ronnie was never terrified. Ever.
“I don’t have my med bag,” she said, looking completely lost.
Well, this night just keeps getting better and better.
“We’ll figure it out. Move!” I told her, and Lucy hissed at me from her spot draped around Ronnie’s neck in her little sack.
I ripped the clean fitted sheet from the bed as I ran, and we all booked it into the pod forest and away from the lake, away from the giant.
Using my knife, I tore a few long strips off the fitted sheet and twisted them together quickly in a thick makeshift braid. Brisk was limping bad, and I knew running with that thing wrapped around his leg was killing him. I had one medical item I always brought with me, something they taught us in cadet school to take in, in my thigh pocket. A tiny medical staple gun. It fit in the palm of your hand, and in a pinch, it could save your life.
“Let’s stop up here,” I told the group as we came to a cave-like structure of flat rocks and bright purple trees.
“Ronnie,” I called out.
She walked over and looked at the sheet rope in my hands.
“Tourniquet?” she asked, and I nodded. Then she saw the other thing in my hand.
She sighed. “No anesthesia, no disinfectant, no beautiful suture kit.”
“Ronnie,” I groaned. Not everyone could have perfect stitches and walk away with minimal scarring.
She took the items from me, then removed the baby kitten sling from her neck and handed it to me.
“Um, what?” I asked her, as Lucy stared at me with one bugged-out eye. This cat had had way too much coffee. I was surprised it was able to sleep.
“Shut up and hold her. If sh
e gets away, I’ll never talk to you again,” Ronnie warned.
Even though we were best friends, ride or die, I knew she was telling the truth. This kitten was her greatest life’s accomplishment, and if I lost it or let it get injured, I would be dead to her.
I took the cat and noticed inside where her collar was, Ronnie had tied it to the sling so she couldn’t jump out. I put the sling over my neck, and Lucy batted at the zipper that hung from the top of my suit.
“Stop it!” I told her, pushing her paw into the sling. “This is a serious moment kid.” The second I pulled my hand away, she went back to attacking the dangling zipper.
Fine, whatever. Shred up my five-thousand-dollar suit.
Brisk was now lying on the ground, Nox on his right, and Ronnie on his left.
“Bite down on something, baby,” she said, and I jerked my head back at her term of affection for him. What the hell? In twenty-four hours, they’ve already gone to the ‘baby’ stage? By next week they’ll be married and having kids. That actually gave me a warm feeling in my tummy.
But that warm feeling was ripped away when I heard Brisk’s violent muffled scream. He bit down on a piece of wood as Ronnie tightened the tourniquet above the tentacle cutting into his leg.
“I haven’t even pulled it off yet,” she told him.
“Just do it!” he roared, with the stick still in his mouth.
Ronnie flinched. Now that they were romantically involved, this must’ve been twice as hard for her. With a deep breath, she yanked the top of the meaty tentacle and, using both hands, unwound it from around his leg. With swift precise movements, she cut his pant leg off exposing his entire limb.
Brisk made small grunting noises but kept his shit relatively together given the circumstances. Once the thing was off, Ronnie went to town with the stapler. With each staple, the Marine just bit into that stick until I thought it was going to snap in his mouth. There must’ve been fifty puncture marks.
When she was done, she looked up at him. “Okay, you feel all right?” she asked breathlessly.
He spit the stick out of his mouth, forehead covered in sweat. “You really want me to answer that?” He looked pale and on the verge of passing out.