by Obert Skye
“Dennis!” Geth yelled down. “Don’t let go!”
The hazen wrapped around Dennis and batted him back and forth like a pale punching bag.
“Do something,” Ezra yelled again.
Geth tried to scoot forward to reach Dennis’s hand but the distance was too great. He couldn’t reach him.
Dennis couldn’t hold on any longer.
He looked at Geth and halfway smiled. He then let go and fell down into the belly of the dark clouds.
“No!” Ezra wailed.
Ezra jumped out of the helicopter, diving down into the clouds. Geth reached out and grabbed the small toothpick and pulled him back in. Winter and Geth rebuckled as Ezra kicked and screamed.
“Cowards!” he yelled. “I could have caught him.”
The hazen pushed up against the front windows and sides, making it almost pitch black. They rocked the helicopter in all directions.
Winter looked up at the only source of natural light. She could see through the two small windows in the ceiling that there were no hazen up above. They had surrounded the sides and bottom of the craft, but the top was clear.
“Tilt the helicopter again!” Winter yelled.
The pilots, desperate to try anything, threw the controls to the side, and the helicopter leaned sideways. The hazen on that side of the copter did not like the rotors chopping through them and pulled back.
“Can you spin around in a circle?” Winter hollered. “I think they hate the blades.”
The captains spun the helicopter around in a full circle, cutting away the hazen. Those bits reaching in pulled outward and the helicopter spun faster.
“I’m going to be ill,” Phoebe said.
“Now go after them,” Winter yelled to the pilots. “If they grab us from below, spin in a circle again and cut them off.”
The copter tilted sideways and moved in a straight line across the sky. The hazen came around the opposite side, but the pilots just spun, cutting at them with the helicopter’s rotors.
“Brilliant,” Geth said, smiling at Winter.
The sky began to lighten as the hazen grew frustrated and moved away. In a few minutes the horizon was hazen free.
“Should we land?” Captain Coin asked.
“No,” Geth replied. “Keep going.”
“What?” Ezra roared. “We’ve got to get Dennis.”
Nobody could make eye contact with the single-eyed toothpick.
“Turn this thing around!” Ezra yelled.
Phoebe reached out to touch Ezra and he screamed at her.
“It’s no use,” Geth said.
Ezra looked at Geth. “I hate me.”
And then, for the first time ever in the history of man, woman, or woodenkind, a toothpick produced a real tear. Lilly clung to Winter’s neck and shivered, Phoebe held Geth’s hand, and they sadly moved on.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Just Add Water
Swig peered over the back of his seat and gazed at Janet and Osck. He made some sort of sad noise and then turned back around.
“The lady one’s not doing too well,” Swig told Tim.
Tim looked into his rearview mirror. He could barely see Janet up against the vehicle’s black leather seating. What he could see of her looked weak and thin enough to simply blow away. Osck didn’t look that much better. His flamelike body seemed dim and he smoldered as if he were just minutes from burning out completely.
“Hold on, you two,” Tim said as cheerfully as he could.
“We should never have left Foo,” Osck moaned, looking at Janet.
“Hurry,” Janet said. “I have to tell myself about Winter.”
Tim’s foot had been pressed down on the gas pedal as hard as it would go. He pushed even harder, knowing it wouldn’t make a difference. The highway was a crazy mess. There were some sections where the roads had been demolished by avalands burrowing under them or telts blowing across them. Some cars had been unable to make it over or around the mess. Luckily for Tim and his group, he had hot-wired a vehicle big and strong enough to make it over the torn-up roads.
“Where are we?” Swig asked.
“Someplace in Kansas,” Tim replied. “Almost to Wichita.”
“So, how much longer?”
“About five hours,” Tim whispered, not wanting to alarm his passengers in the back.
“And this beast is fed?” Swig asked.
“Not enough,” Tim answered. “We’re going to have to get gas one more time.”
The highway was empty at the moment. In fact, it looked like they were the only vehicle in the world. The landscape was covered with farms, and the sky was filled with bright streaks of color. Tim spotted a small gas station off the interstate and took the next exit heading toward it.
The gas station stood alone and closed. Tim pulled the vehicle up to one of the pumps and got out. Nobody was around. Tim stepped over to the small store and banged on the door.
Nobody answered.
Tim walked back to the pumps and looked around. He then pulled open the front of one of the pumps and messed with the insides.
“What are you doing?” Swig asked.
“Seeing if I can get this to work,” Tim answered.
“You’re very ingenious,” Swig said, patting Tim on the head.
Tim jimmied the pump and got the gas flowing. He filled up the tank and then shut the pump off.
“This should be enough to get us home,” Tim said.
“Good,” Swig replied. “To be honest, I don’t feel well. It will be nice to rest.”
Tim wiped his own forehead.
“How about you?” Swig asked. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he lied. Tim was not only ill at ease, he was sick in the stomach. He could tell something was wrong with him, but he had no desire to worry those he was with.
Tim got back into the jeep and started it up.
“You two okay?” he asked Osck and Janet.
“Please hurry,” was Osck’s only reply.
Tim turned the jeep around and headed toward the highway.
“What’s that?” Osck asked nervously.
Tim looked around but couldn’t see anything. “What’s what?”
“I think he’s talking about what’s behind you,” Swig said politely.
Tim turned his head around. All he could see through the back window were multiple mounds of dirt.
“Go!” Osck screamed.
Tim pressed on the gas like it was a lump of coal that needed to be squeezed into a diamond. The jeep growled and surged forward like a boxy bolt of lightning. In his rearview mirror, Tim could see the avalands barreling directly toward them.
“How many are there?” Tim asked.
“Eight, nine . . . I don’t know, at least twenty.” Swig’s small voice was loaded with panic.
“Let’s see if we can go faster than they can,” Tim hollered.
The jeep curved onto the highway and took off. From the new angle, Tim could see the avalands much better through the rearview mirror. The beasts were as large as small hills, their backs covered with crops and grass. He could see their dirty eyes and their massive mouths that chomped through the dirt as they moved.
The avalands dipped and twisted below the highway, popping back up on the other side. New ones were racing in from the other direction.
“They’re all over,” Janet cried.
“Are they getting closer?” Tim asked.
“What do you want me to say?” Swig asked.
“The truth, remember?”
“Yes,” Swig answered. “They’re getting much closer.”
Tim glanced in the rearview mirror and saw dirt and debris flying everywhere. Large chunks of soil and stone were beginning to pelt the back of the jeep.
“Honk the horn,” Janet suggested.
Tim honked, but nothing happened.
“Go faster,” Osck begged.
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Tim hollered.
The bac
k of the jeep began to lift as the avalands caught up. Tim turned the wheel and flew off the side of the highway and into a field of dead cornstalks. The jeep burned through the field as the avalands hurried to make a wide turn and keep after it.
A large avaland with a back full of grass moved alongside the jeep and thrust its head into the side of the vehicle. The jeep bumped sideways as Janet and Swig screamed.
Another even larger avaland galloped along the other side and butted its huge dirt head into the jeep. The vehicle bounced back and forth between the two beasts as it raced over the rutted field.
Tim wound through two small mounds of earth; the avalands just burrowed through them as if they weren’t there. He then made the mistake of looking into the rearview mirror again. He could see a massive avaland inches behind them. The beast opened its mouth and chomped down on the spare tire attached to the back of the jeep. The avaland ripped the tire off and bucked wildly. It took everything Tim had to keep the vehicle under control.
“They’re all behind us,” Swig said.
The avalands had bunched together as a mammoth herd. They were in a triangle formation, the front one right on the tail of the jeep.
Swig began throwing anything he could find out the shattered back. He nailed one avaland with a tire iron and smacked another one with one of the headrests that had come loose. The attack did nothing to slow the avalands.
The jeep burst out of the cornfield and onto a narrow highway. A large sign in need of repair read Cheney Reservoir. Tim drove off the other side of the road and toward the reservoir. An earth-fill dam sloped up to the highest point where the water was.
Tim drove up the sloping dam as fast as he could.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Swig asked.
“Nope.”
Janet began to wail louder as the avalands pushed from behind, causing the jeep to jump forward.
“They’re all behind us?” Tim asked, his forehead dripping with perspiration.
“Every one of them,” Swig cried.
The jeep skidded and roared as it climbed the earth-fill dam.
“Is there water up ahead?” Swig asked.
“I sure hope so,” Tim yelled back.
“Osck can’t get wet,” Swig said urgently.
“I know.”
The jeep crested the top of the dam, flying over the lip of it. The avalands simply pushed through the earth dam after it. The jeep came down on the top of the dam, and Tim pulled the wheel to the right as hard as he could. The jeep flipped and rolled two complete times as the avalands shot through the dam and blew out into the reservoir. At their speed and with their size, they had no chance. Some blew hundreds of feet into the water.
Long swatches of dirt floated to the top of the reservoir as the avalands all dissolved, one after another, in an explosion of dirt and water. Heaps of muddy waves and ripples washed up against the side of the dam.
The jeep came to a stop on all four wheels. As dust settled around the vehicle, Tim caught his breath. He looked back at Janet and Osck, amazed that all of them were still in one piece.
“These things are helpful,” Swig said, stretching out his seat belt.
“Wow,” was all Osck had to say.
“You’re okay?” Tim asked.
Janet and Osck nodded.
“Let’s see if this still works,” Tim said, pressing on the gas.
The jeep was beat up, but it moved forward. Tim turned the wheel and headed toward Iowa as the sky turned an uncomfortable shade of brown.
“I hope we make it,” Swig said calmly.
“Me too,” Tim replied.
The jeep shook violently as they drove.
“Are you doing that?” Swig asked.
“No,” Tim yelled. “I think the jeep’s broken, or—”
“They’re still after us,” Osck said dryly.
Tim looked in the rearview mirror. “I don’t see anything . . . I . . . oh, no.”
“What is it?” Swig asked, interested.
“The dam’s breaking,” Tim yelled. “The avalands must have weakened it.”
“Is that bad?”
“It’s worse than bad,” Tim moaned, pressing on the gas as hard as he could. In the rearview mirror he could see the top of the earth-fill dam breaking up as water began to push through.
“Osck can’t get wet!” Janet yelled.
“I know!” Tim yelled back.
The jeep raced along a high road that stretched out from the far side of the dam and ran alongside the river where the dam released water. Tim could see that the dam was continuing to crumble from the top.
“Look,” Swig shouted, pointing in front of them.
Tim was not fond of vulgarity. He had always thought that there were far better ways for people to express themselves than to swear. Many times he had told his sons, Rochester and Darcy, that if a man can’t find a clean word to properly express himself, then he is not very imaginative or bright.
Apparently Tim was a bit dim at the moment.
“That’s a fancy word,” Swig complimented. “What’s it mean?”
“It means we’re in trouble.”
What Swig had pointed out for Tim to look at were more avalands. They were coming from the south, and there were hundreds of them.
“Wait,” Tim said nervously, wiping more sweat off his head. “I have an idea.”
“Osck can’t get wet,” Janet reiterated.
“I know,” Tim yelled.
The dam was spilling over in huge, spastic waves now, water washing away the earth that had successfully held it back for so many years. Tim could hear the howling of air. The water tearing out of the dam was pushing a massive body of wind in front of it. The water was rising up out of the riverbed, wiping out the banks and creating a noise so terrible it made the jeep shiver.
“Tell me how far away the water is,” Tim hollered, looking in his rearview mirror.
“But all I can see is water,” Swig cried.
In front all Tim could see was the mass of avalands. They were racing from the side and almost directly in Tim’s path. The jeep screamed as it flew. Osck and Janet were huddled together moaning, and Swig was holding onto the seat and looking out the back.
“The river’s rising,” Swig cried.
The noise of the approaching water was deafening. And now Tim could hear the roar of the avalands.
“This better work,” Tim screamed.
Tim turned sharply and headed up the steep side of the small gorge. The jeep cried and sputtered as it tore up the rocky incline, the tires throwing dirt and stones everywhere. The water was only inches away from the back tires.
The front tires of the jeep caught the top of the gorge, and the jeep hopped up on top of the ridge just as the water roared by below.
“You made it,” Swig said proudly.
The landscape opened up below and the water from the reservoir spilled out, flooding over the entire valley and washing away every avaland. The beasts screamed and protested, but once surrounded there was nothing they could do but turn to mud. Tim and his group watched the water spread out for miles from safely up above.
“Wow,” Swig said. “That’s a lot of water.”
“It’s like we planned it,” Tim said.
“You really are good with this thing,” Swig said. “What’s it called?”
“A jeep.”
Osck cleared his throat.
Tim pushed on the gas and tore off, heading north and leaving a giant mess behind him.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Standing Before Both the Problem and the Answer
Leven was tired. Every bone in his body ached and screamed for him to rest awhile. He felt sick in the stomach and worried in the mind. He could feel Foo falling apart and knew very well that it was only a matter of hours before it was completely finished. Despite his pain, Leven kept putting one foot in front of the other, working his way up the dirt trail toward the tree.
“Good or bad?” Clover
asked him.
“What?” Leven replied, his thoughts elsewhere.
“Good or bad?” Clover said again. “Is the next thing good or bad?”
“All of them are draining,” Leven replied. “I’m not sure I’m up to it. I can’t see straight.”
“So you feel that too?” Clover asked.
“Feel what?”
“Sick,” Clover said softly. “Geth used to say that in the end we’ll all feel ill and then fade away.”
“I wish he were here,” Leven said seriously.
“But then he’d be making some of the decisions that you should.”
“That’s why I wish he were here, to make some of the decisions.”
“You know who’s good at making decisions?” Clover asked.
“Who?”
“My brother Pebble,” Clover answered. “No matter what’s going on or who’s in charge, he’s always trying to make a decision.”
“Hmm,” Leven replied. “It’d be kinda cool to meet some of your family.”
“There’s a lot of them.”
The ground became harder as they marched around a massive statue of a siid. The statue was covered in moss and bird droppings, and the back third of it had cracked off and fallen to the ground.
“It’s almost as big as a real siid,” Clover whispered.
“I wonder how old it is.”
The forest surrounding the statue creaked and moaned like a wooden ship in a choppy sea.
“I’ve never seen so many trees,” Leven observed. “Everywhere you look there’re hundreds of trees hiding hundreds of ruins. I would love to have seen this place when it wasn’t a grown-over wasteland.”
As if they had heard Leven, the trees thinned just a bit and the overwhelming sweet perfume of flowers filled the air. Large orange flowers carpeted a small valley that was thick with long grass and animals.
“What is that?” Leven asked, pointing to a tiger-looking creature with horns.
“That’s a lorn,” Clover said. “She’ll eat the flowers and then throw them up.”
“Let’s go around,” Leven suggested.
The path of glass wound around the valley up through some thick trees and over a bridge that spanned a weak mountain stream. The sound of some sort of monkey could be heard screaming in the distance.