Délon City: Book Two of the Oz Chronicles

by R. W. Ridley

  General Roy and Miles entered the lobby. Everyone except Gordy and me stood respectfully. The general took notice, but he let it pass without a word. He motioned for everyone to sit while he stood by his chair. He reached down and scooped up a handful of wriggling screamers. “We welcome our honored guests,” he said and then stuffed the worms in his mouth. The other Délons followed suit.

  Gordy and I watched uncomfortably as they chowed down. I heard Gordy belch and cover his mouth. I was sure he was fighting the urge to purge.

  The front door to the building opened, and I turned to watch a crab-like creature enter the lobby. It was Canter. I knew it without being introduced.

  “Ahh, our good friend, Canter,” General Roy said. “Come, come, join us.”

  The creature moved silently and fluidly to our table. He wore the tongue around his neck. He did not say a word, but I could hear him in my head. “Young, Oz. We finally meet.”

  I nodded. We had met before, but I wasn’t exactly sure if meeting in a time-shift counted. Maybe he didn’t even remember. I stared at the tongue hanging from his neck.

  “Gorilla,” he said. “I tore it from a true freak of nature, a talking gorilla.”

  I stood. “Gorilla?”

  A cackle sounded off in my head. “A friend of yours?”

  I lunged toward him, but Gordy stepped in front of me. “Easy, Oz. Don’t go all cowboy on me.”

  “Where is he?” I shouted. “Where’s Ajax?”

  The general mumbled with a mouth full of screamers, “Ajax? Ahhh, don’t make me ruin the surprise.”

  “Surprise?”

  He shook his head. “Yes, tomorrow... instead of the same old tired game of football we’ve scheduled a one-on-one match... There, I’ve said too much. I really don’t want to say any more.” He continued to stuff screamers in his mouth. “I’ve arranged for you and your party to sit with me in my luxury box tomorrow, along with Canter and your parents.”

  “My parents?”

  “That is what they’re called, isn’t it?” The general asked. “I have such a hard time with the human terminology.”

  “They’re here?”

  “They are,” he said snapping his fingers. Miles and another Délon escorted my mother out into the lobby. She could barely stand on her own. A purple rash covered half her face. I ran to her. “Mom!” Her eyes were dull and lifeless. She didn’t recognize me. I turned to the general. “The transformation is killing her.”

  He smiled. “Yes. Some take to it better than others. There’s really no explanation for it.” He stuffed more screamers in his mouth.

  I took my mother’s arm and guided her to a nearby chair. “Don’t worry, mom. Everything is going to be okay.” She shifted her dead gaze to me, slowly lifted her arm, and managed to point a crooked index finger toward the dinner party. “Food,” she said weakly.

  I gulped. “Yeah, food.” I turned to Miles and mustered up the strength to say, “Bring my mother some food.” He complied.

  “My father,” I said still tending to my mother. “Where is he?”

  “Don’t call me that,” said the other Délon who had entered with my mother and Miles.

  I turned to the strange Délon. “Pop?”

  He snarled.

  “Manners, new one,” General Roy said. “The boy is to be your king.”

  The Délon who used to be my father heeded the general’s warning and cast me a menacing grin. “My king.”

  Meanwhile my mother took a handful of screamers from Miles and shoveled them in her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in a week. I couldn’t watch. I went back to my seat.

  Gordy had torn the top off a container of pudding and was sniffing the contents. He dipped a finger in the brown gel and carefully licked it. He sighed. “It’s pudding.”

  Canter approached him, beamed a thought into Gordy’s head, and then silently moved around to the general’s end of the table. Gordy eyed him with a look of horror. He sat motionless with a glob of chocolate pudding on the end of his finger.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

  Gordy swallowed. “Dude, he just told me I have a beautiful tongue.”

  “Oh... well...” I didn’t know what to say, so I decided to leave it at that, an unfinished thought about a disturbing compliment from a half-man, half-crab thingy. Man, my life was getting really weird.

  The chatter around the table picked up. The Délons were talking amongst themselves. They paid less and less attention to Gordy and me as the night went on. They filled their bellies with screamers and drank what smelled like rotten milk. I managed to eat one small container of pudding, while Gordy ate five before he started complaining of a stomachache. Time was ticking, and Lou’s chances of survival were getting slimmer by the minute.

  I picked up my backpack and stood up. “Excuse me,” I said, but no one heard me. They were too caught up in their Délon world. “Excuse me,” I said again. Still no response. Frustrated, I opened the backpack and dumped the dead shunter on the table. “Excuse me,” I shouted. The Délons gasped, and Canter looked on almost amused.

  “What is this?” General Roy said spitting bile.

  “A dead shunter. Mine actually,” I said.

  He began to tremble with rage. “What have you done?”

  The other Délons started to hiss. Their spider legs were going crazy.

  “Nothing,” I said. “It just died.”

  General Roy bellowed a rumbling groan. He raised a fist and brought it down on the table, breaking off a piece of the thick wooden surface.

  “I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Gordy whispered.

  “Shhhh,” I said.

  “This is indefensible!” a member of the Royal Council shouted.

  “We should tear his eyes out,” another one added.

  “Whoa, fellas,” I said. “Hold on. Your shunter here is defective. I just need a new one. That’s all.”

  Délons from outside started to pour into the building, one angrier than the next. I knew they would want to kill me, but I had convinced myself when I was coming up with this plan that I could talk my way out of it. I was really beginning to doubt that now.

  “Shunters just don’t die,” Reya practically screamed.

  “This one did,” I said. “Didn’t it, Gordy.”

  Gordy was too scared to speak. He was backing away from the table.

  “Think about it,” I said. “Why would I bring the thing down here if I killed it? Not for a pat on the back, I can tell you that much. It died, get it. I want a new one. Let’s not do something here that we’ll regret.”

  They started to surround me.

  “We won’t regret this,” one of the Royal Council said. “We’ll enjoy this.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said, panic rising in my voice. “Won’t you regret killing your king?” They kept coming. “You kill me and I can’t do... you know... king stuff.” I wasn’t making a very convincing argument.

  “You kill him,” Gordy said, “and you’ll never find the Source.”

  They stopped. Confusion clouded their purple faces.

  I could kiss Gordy for coming to the rescue. Why I didn’t think of it, I don’t know. In my defense, it’s not easy to think with a couple hundred Délons bearing down on you.

  The general moved around the table. He motioned with his hand for the advancing Délons to go back outside. The Royal Council was still bristling. They wanted me dead, and I wasn’t sure how long their need for the Source was going to keep them at bay. I could hear Canter laughing in my head. He was enjoying both the Délons’ frustration and my terror. “Your friend uses his pretty tongue wisely,” he thought.

  “Not usually,” I said out loud.

  Reya leapt onto the table and dove on top of me. “Do not speak!” Her mandibles shot out of her mouth.

  General Roy peeled her off me. Not to save me from her, but to get me to himself. He lifted me by the throat. “A human shall never kill a shunter. It is law.”

 
“The Source,” I said through squeezed vocal cords.

  He tossed me to the ground. “The law is clear. You must die.”

  “But it’s also clear...” I could barely breathe let alone speak. “I’m the key to the Source.”

  He turned on Gordy. “A life for a life!”

  “Stop!” I yelled. I stood with difficulty.

  “Oz...” Gordy managed to say before the general’s hand clamped down on his throat.

  “Let him go!”

  The general squeezed tighter and tighter. Gordy could not breathe. His face was turning blue. I rushed the general, but Reya grabbed me by the arm and tossed me aside.

  Canter moved silently into my line of sight. “Tell him,” he said without speaking, “The Pure lives.”

  I looked at Canter with a puzzled expression. He nodded his upside down head. “If you want to save your friend with the pretty tongue, tell him the Pure lives.”

  “The...” I started weakly. The strength had gone out of my voice. I sighed deeply and then shouted. “The Pure is alive!”

  Every dead eye in the building focused on me. The general’s grip on Gordy’s throat loosened. His blue cheeks turned red.

  “The Pure,” a Royal Councilman said. He fell to his knees and appeared to be praying. “He’s alive.”

  The general let go of Gordy and let him fall to the floor. He turned his sights on me. “What do you know of the Pure?”

  I looked at Canter for guidance, but he turned and strolled away. “He’s alive,” I said.

  “That’s not possible,” Reya said confused, “He is dead. We all saw him fall.”

  I looked into the face of every Délon in the room. They were scared. Canter had given me a key piece of information. The Délons were terrified of this Pure guy and him being alive did not fit into their plans.

  “What can I say?” I managed a wicked grin. “He got back up, and he ain’t happy.”

  “You’re lying,” the General snapped. “The collective would know if the Pure lived.”

  “Well,” I said, “I guess the collective is out of order because old Mr. Pure is alive and kicking, and you’re on his ‘get even’ list. Understand?” I looked over at Gordy. He was massaging his throat and in obvious pain, but he was alive.

  “How could you know this?” one of the Royal Council asked.

  I scanned my brain for a feasible lie. “You think you’re the only one who knows I’m the key to the Source. The Pure knows, and he’s made a very generous offer.”

  “We’re dead!” a member of the Royal Council screamed.

  “Kill the human,” another one shouted. “Better to never know the Source than to risk the Pure finding it first.”

  “Hold up,” I said panic rising in my voice. “Let’s not do anything hasty.”

  Reya turned to Roy. “The Royal Council is right. Kill the human. The Pure cannot find the Source.”

  It was apparent I had overplayed my hand. “Wait! Wait! Hear me out. I want what you want!” When those words came out of my mouth time stood sill. I saw Mrs. Dayton’s scribbled handwriting on her notepad. “You want what they want.”

  “What is it we want?” the general asked setting time back in motion.

  “Control,” I said staring off into space. “The way it was before...” I focused on General Roy. “Before you killed the Pure, or thought you killed the Pure.”

  “It had to be done,” the general said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  He ignored the question. “Miles will escort you to the incubation center.” He walked away. As he passed by Miles, I heard him say, “He enters the center alone.”

  Pop, if it was possible to still call him that, grabbed my Mom by the arm and practically dragged her out of the lobby after General Roy.

  The Royal Council turned their attention to the screamers in front of them. They continued to feed and only gave me passing glances as they gorged themselves.

  Reya approached. “The general finds value in you.”

  “And you don’t.”

  “I should do the collective a favor now and snap your neck.”

  I cleared my throat. “General Roy will kill you himself if you do.”

  “Then I die with honor.”

  I backed away. “You can kill me tomorrow. I’ve got things to do tonight.” I moved to Gordy’s side and helped him to his feet. “Get up to the room and keep an eye on Lou.”

  “Gee, I’m doing swell,” he said sarcastically. “Thanks for asking.”

  “Don’t let anybody...” I looked at Reya. “Or anything in. Okay?”

  Still massaging his neck, he nodded. “I’m a fourteen-year-old kid outnumbered about a billion to one...” He shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry. Nobody’s getting past me.” He looked at me smugly. “I’ll just lock the door. That’ll keep the bad guys out.” He turned and headed for the elevator. “I liked it better when I used to tell you what to do.”

  “So did I,” I said.

  ***

  As instructed, Miles escorted me to the incubation center. We didn’t speak on the ride there. I couldn’t help but think of Miles and Devlin as they used to be. Devlin was the fat kid who was always looking for that next chocolate bar, and Miles was his best friend and fellow troublemaker. They were two peas in a pod, as my grandmother used to say. Yet, now Devlin wasn’t even a speck of a thought in Miles’s Délon brain.

  The incubation center was an old hangar at the airport, a large metal building with 100 foot ceilings. It was long enough for at least two football fields and wide enough to park two jumbo jets sideways. It was heavily guarded by Délons.

  It took three Délons on each side to open the enormous doors. The smell of Délon City seemed to originate inside the hangar. I could almost see pillars of odor propping up the death dome overhead. Miles and I dismounted. I stood at the doorway looking into the cavernous hangar wondering if I had the courage to enter.

  “Go,” Miles barked. “I don’t have all day.”

  “Got a full day of kissing the general’s butt in front of ya’, huh?”

  He ignored my remark. “The general’s stock is in the back. You’ll know it when you see it.”

  “Why do you suppose he wanted me to go in alone?”

  Miles shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. Don’t care.” He started to walk away.

  “C’mon, take a guess.”

  He stopped and peered over his shoulder at me. “He doesn’t want you to come out alive.”

  I swallowed hard. “I guess taking a weapon with me is out of the question.”

  He walked over to Chubby and pulled J.J. off the saddle. “Take it,” he said tossing it to me.

  I was appreciative, but confused. “I thought it was against your law for a human to kill shunters.”

  “It is,” he said. “But the shunters are the least of your problems in there.”

  I stared into the enormous dark building. The little light from outside seeped in, and I could make out piles of solifipods throughout the hangar. Some looked as high as mountains.

  “You want to clue me in?” I asked Miles.

  “No,” he said.

  “You don’t want to give your king a fair shake? It would be nice to know what to look out for in there.”

  He climbed on his horse. “Look out for the Long Legs.”

  “Long legs?”

  He steered his horse west. “No need for me to wait. If you make it out alive, you know the way back.” With that he tapped his horse in the rib cage with his heel and rode off.

  “Great,” I mumbled under my breath. “Just great.”

  I breathed in deeply and blew out a long steady stream of air. A blip of a vision of Lou popped into my head, and I knew I didn’t have a choice. I had to enter. I was inside the hangar before I had time to talk myself out of it. The Délons closed the door behind me.

  The shunters must have sensed my presence because as I got closer to the first pile of solifipods they chirped in unison. It
was a deafening clatter that hurt my eardrums. I put a finger in one ear and held the other ear to my shoulder while holding on to J.J.

  I felt something move to my left. I turned, but it was too dark to see. I crept forward. There was a light coming from the back of the hangar so I followed it. Mountains of solifipods surrounded me. I was in a maze created in someone’s sick nightmare. Something moved again, it zipped across one of the solifipod mounds. It was too fast for me to see, but I got the sense that it was very big. Some more movement to my right. I carried on. My empty backpack served as a constant reminder that I was on a life or death mission. I heard quick, scattered footsteps – dozens of them. Long Legs, I presumed.

  The hangar was so big I almost felt like I needed a rest half way through it. My nerves were on end with the chirping shunters, the invisible Long Legs scurrying around me, and the pressure of finding the general’s line before Lou’s brain liquefied.

  I stepped through a line of solifipod mounds and was forced to take a hard right when two huge solifipod hills blocked my way. A rope dangled in front of me. I knocked it to the side and passed. The rope was too stiff to swing. It moved to the side like a stiff tree branch, snapping back as soon as I let go of it. It brushed the top of my head as I passed, sending a chill down my spine. Another rope appeared, and then another. I looked up. A dark oval mass hovered above my head. I scanned the ropes and discovered they weren’t ropes. They were legs, long legs. I was standing underneath a giant Daddy Long Legs spider. It must have been twenty feet tall. An enormous mouth on the underside of its body made a horrific sucking noise. I raced forward, swinging J.J. back and forth as I ran. The legs were long and luckily easy to cut through. The giant Long Legs toppled to the hangar floor. I stopped and turned to admire my work only to see every mound I had just passed covered in giant Long Legs, and all of them were fixated on me.

  Part of me just wanted to give up, to lie down, and the let the Long Legs have me, but I knew it wasn’t possible. Lou needed me. I raised J.J. in the air and ran through the solifipod maze. The Long Legs scurried after me. The sucking noise grew in volume the faster I ran. They were either really hungry or really mad, either way it didn’t look good for me.