by Chris Ward
‘There’s something unusual about them,’ Miranda said. ‘I can’t quite figure it out.’
Benjamin frowned. ‘I think I know what you mean,’ he said. ‘They don’t seem … natural.’
They followed the ridge a little farther until they could get no closer without climbing down into the pit.
‘How’s it possible for something that big to reanimate?’ Miranda said. ‘Yet, there’s something odd….’
‘They’re not,’ Benjamin said.
‘What?’
‘Back home in Basingstoke, I used to love these things. I watched Internet videos about them, bought magazines with articles on them, watched TV documentaries, and you know what? They’re exactly like I imagined.’
‘So?’
Benjamin grabbed her shoulder, gave it a little shake. ‘Don’t you see? That’s the whole point. They haven’t reanimated, at least not much. They look just like regular Bagger 300s, but modified to be even more awesome and destructive.’
‘Which means what?’
‘Which means, they have to have someone operating them, and they have to have a regular fuel source. Come on, let’s go down and take a closer look. If we can figure out how they’re running, perhaps we can find a way to stop them.’
From where they stood, the ground dropped away sharply into the pit, but a little farther along was an access road that wound down into the centre.
‘We can go that way,’ Benjamin said.
‘They’ll see us!’
Benjamin grinned. ‘Don’t worry. We’re ghouls now, remember? They won’t notice us.’
‘I’m glad one of us has confidence.’
‘Come on,’ he said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.
They hurried down the road that jagged back and forth across the sides of the strip mine, which had collapsed in places, and they had a few nervous moments before they reached the bottom, a trickle of fallen rocks settling around their feet.
In front of them loomed one Bagger 300 like a giant, metal dragon, the extending arm of its excavator-turned-chainsaw stretching over their heads like a steel-framed bridge. Benjamin had always dreamed of seeing one up close, but now that he did, he felt nothing but terror. The whole machine hummed with electricity, like a giant, live fuse. The arm lifted and descended, its chainsaw blade whirring so loudly Benjamin and Miranda both clamped hands over their ears.
‘What now?’ Miranda shouted.
‘I want to see who’s driving it.’
Soon, they walked in the midst of the war host, dozens of smaller reanimated machines staffed and tended by hundreds of ghouls of all shapes and sizes, who all wandered around them, unaware of their presence.
‘Up there,’ Benjamin said, pointing to a box-shape in the centre of the vehicle. ‘That’s the control cab, but I can’t see anyone. Perhaps it’s got an autopilot.’
‘What about fuel? It must use something,’ Miranda said. ‘Does it have petrol tanks?’
They ran to the back of the vehicle, dodging ghouls going about their work, ducking under protruding spikes and rails. Something glowed with a flickering light from between the spider’s web of struts. As they emerged out from between two tall caterpillar treads, Benjamin saw a huge, oval-shaped orb suspended above them like the egg sack of a giant spider. About the size of a car, it glowed a deep ochre blue and sparkled with an electricity that made the surrounding steel support struts hum with life.
‘What is it?’ Miranda said. The chainsaw at the front had shut off, but the engine’s grumble was still loud enough to make Benjamin’s ears hurt.
The glowing capsule hung from one of the rear balancing struts that was itself the size of a footbridge, suspended in a net of thick cables and wires.
‘I’ll climb up and take a look,’ he said.
‘No! You’re not going up there!’
He pushed away Miranda’s hand. ‘Look, it’s an easy climb. No harder than a tree. I need to see what’s inside.’
Miranda’s expression was a mixture of fear and anger. ‘It’s too dangerous.’
‘We’ve come this far, and that’s the key to stopping this thing, I know it.’
Miranda started to protest, but Benjamin shook his head. ‘Look, you can drag me back to Edgar, or you can let me climb.’
‘You’re as stubborn as Captain Roche is wide.’ Miranda punched Benjamin on the arm. ‘Don’t think I’ll catch you if you fall. I’ll just stand here and watch.’
‘Can’t you reanimate me a mattress or something?’
Miranda glared, but finally nodded. ‘I’ll think about it. Hurry up,’ she said. ‘I think Edgar’s spell is wearing off. You’re not looking so … orange as before.’
‘I’ll be quick.’ Before he could stop himself, Benjamin grabbed her arm, pulled her close, and gave her a light peck on the cheek. Then he grinned as Miranda blushed the same crimson colour as her hair and shoved him away.
‘Hurry up!’
With a cheeky salute, Benjamin climbed up onto the nearest struts and pulled himself up the side of the Bagger 300, targeting the balancing arm overhead. It was a steep but easy climb; the machine’s complex body offered hundreds of hand- and foot-holds, and the balancing arm was just an oversized set of monkey bars. Soon, the glowing capsule was right ahead.
As he neared it, his temples abruptly began to pound, like someone repeatedly hitting him on the side of the head. The capsule was translucent but opaque, like a cloudy river. Something lay inside, suspended in a solution that shimmered and sparked with electrical pulses of every possible colour.
Free me.
Benjamin stopped and looked around. Who had spoken? The headache was nauseating now, and he feared losing his balance and falling off. Adjusting his grip, he crawled a few inches closer until he was right over the top of the capsule.
A man lay inside. Tall, older than anyone he had yet seen in Endinfinium, and wearing a dark green robe. A beard of wispy grey. Bald. His body shone with an otherworldly luminescence, as though he wasn’t quite part of this world, still lingering somewhere else, too.
Benjamin sensed great power, more than any power in the world—in any world.
‘Grand Lord Bastien…?’
Eyes snapped open, then narrowed as Benjamin met the old man’s gaze.
Free me!
The machine lurched forward, knocking Benjamin off balance. His feet slipped, and he grabbed the nearest support strut. He hung loose, two storeys from the ground.
Benjamin Forrest. You have come. I knew you would. Free me and save the school.
‘Benjamin!’
Miranda stood below him, looking up, terror on her face.
‘I’m all right. Miranda, quick, the capsule … I think the Grand Lord is inside. Use your magic to break it open!’
‘How?’
‘I don’t know! Just concentrate!’
The orb was just ahead of him. If he swung himself he might be able to jump down on top of it. Perhaps it had a lock somewhere that would enable him to free the trapped man.
He started to swing himself just as a tiny voice called: Bennie? That you, Bennie?
Pausing, Benjamin caught hold of a second strut, then looked around.
A short distance ahead of them stood the second enormous Bagger, halfway up the access slope. Its fuel orb glowed bright like a giant light bulb.
If the first uses the Grand Lord’s power to move it, then who does the second use?
Miranda was screaming at him from the ground now, too. Benjamin reached for another strut, just as the very fabric of the world erased itself beneath a thundering shard of black light.
Benjamin screamed as he fell, trying to refocus on what had for an instant been erased from existence. The glowing capsule and its suspended passenger flashed past him, then he landed on something soft and cushioning.
He stuck out a hand and felt nothing, then rolled and bumped another foot to the ground. He sat up and, rubbing his eyes, wondered what on earth had just happ
ened.
Miranda was beside him. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I don’t know.’ The Bagger 300 still loomed above him, engines humming. ‘What happened?’
She gave him a bashful smile. ‘I caught you. I know what I said, but .... quick, something’s shooting at us. Did you see—did you not see that?’
A squeal filled the air again, and Miranda hauled Benjamin backward as a shard of the world in front of him erased then reappeared. Black light, stripping everything away, and leaving a hole in the ground that might just go on forever.
‘It’s coming from that mountaintop,’ Miranda shouted, pointing up at the pass. ‘Quick, get behind the wheels. He won’t destroy his own war machine.’
‘Who won’t?’
‘I’m guessing that might be the Dark Man up there.’
They ducked in behind the caterpillar treads, Miranda pulling Benjamin along, fingers clenched so tight around his, he worried bones would break. They dodged around scurrying ghouls as they ran for the road back up to the forest, but the creatures paused and turned to watch them like waking statues.
They had just reached the bottom of the road when an unearthly howl rose up behind them, like a million hungry souls catching sight of their prey.
‘Don’t slow down!’ Miranda screamed, tears in her eyes. ‘We have to move faster, or they’ll catch us!’
Within a couple of turns of the road, Benjamin was gasping for air, but the sight of hundreds of rushing ghouls, all scrabbling up the sides of the strip mine like rats trying to escape from a trap, put another burst of fire into his legs. He took the lead, pulling a sobbing Miranda after him, reaching the top just as the first of the ghouls scrambled up over the edge beside them.
‘Shoot it!’
Miranda screamed, throwing her hands haphazardly up into the air, and the ghoul’s chest exploded in a crackle of electricity. The creature fell back into the pit, pieces of it bouncing past hundreds more climbing up.
‘Come on!’
They raced through the grass toward the relative cover of the spiny forest, while ghouls climbed up over the edge of the pit, though many looked to be already dropping off the pace. Benjamin wondered, now that they were out in full view of the mountaintop, what had happened to the black thunderbolts. He prayed that the Dark Man had lost them, and he closed his eyes, recalling the voice he had heard calling his name.
Bennie? That you, Bennie?
They had never told anyone their secret. It sounded ridiculous anyway, they’d only ever used it for fun, and it got fainter over distance, but on many nights, they’d both lain awake in their bedrooms and held conversations through the walls, conversations no one else could hear.
He’d always thought himself a freak, but he’d clearly heard the voice of the other man, too. Could it be David and he weren’t alone? That there were others?
‘What is it?’ Miranda gasped as they ran. ‘What did you see in that thing?’
Benjamin shook himself back into the present. ‘The Grand Lord,’ he said. ‘I know it was him.’
‘What did he look like?’
‘Older than Edgar. Bald, grey beard, a green robe.’
Miranda nodded. ‘That sounds like him. I met him once. I didn’t get to see him clearly because there was only a single light in his room and he stood in the shadows. I remember staring at his cloak and thinking it was too shiny to be black.’
‘What do we do now? We can’t go back down there.’
‘We have to go back to the school and warn the teachers. They’ll know what to do. Despite what they say, they know all about the magic. They’ll be able to save him.’
Benjamin wasn’t so sure, but he wasn’t in any mood to argue. Unable to run any longer, he stopped, bending double, gasping for air.
‘Come on,’ Miranda said, even though she looked about to collapse herself. ‘We don’t have much time.’
Benjamin tried to speak, but only a dry heaving of his chest came, and then he was crying, with Miranda pulling him close against her, his tears mixing with her own.
‘Benjamin, we have to move.’
‘I know, I know, I just can’t stand this place any longer.’
Miranda drew away from him. She cupped his cheek, and with the same strength he remembered from the first day she’d met him down on the beach, she turned his face toward her.
‘What did you see down there?’
Tears filled Benjamin’s eyes as he shook his head. ‘The other capsule—’
‘What? What about it?’
‘I know who was inside.’
‘Who?’
‘My brother.’
33
EDGAR’S STAND
To their right, a roar rose up out of the forest.
‘The wraith-hounds,’ Miranda said. ‘They’ve got our scent. We have to run.’
Emotions swirled as Benjamin raced through the trees, his brother’s mind-voice seeping like poison through him. The scratch on the back of his hand stung worse than ever, and the latent power inside him stirred, wanting release.
David. I’ll come back for you, I promise.
Flickers of movement appeared to either side. They had splashed through the river some minutes before, and now the land rose steadily toward the hilltop upon which Edgar, Wilhelm, and Lawrence waited for them. They had seen other ghouls, though the creatures had made no move toward them as if aware that there would be no escape from the savage, rushing wraith-hounds.
They burst into the clearing they had entered on the way into the valley, and Miranda took a few steps forward, then fell to her knees with a cry.
‘What is it?’
‘I turned it,’ she gasped, clutching her ankle. ‘I turned it!’
‘Come on, get up!’
The surrounding trees were full of shapes, bounding and skipping. Benjamin pulled Miranda to her feet, and she limped a couple of steps before stumbling again.
‘I can’t. I can’t! Leave me!’
‘Never.’ He gripped her hand. ‘Come on, you can hold them off, and if you can’t, maybe I can.’
A growl rose up from the trees, and the undergrowth rustled. Then, hundreds of the beasts broke out from the forest in a long, disorderly line. Jaws made from broken cans and glass and bent nails snapped and snarled. Benjamin gritted his teeth as the hounds slowly advanced, aware that their prey was crippled, ready for the kill.
‘There’re too many,’ Miranda cried. ‘I can’t hold them all off. I don’t have enough power.’
Benjamin stared at the oncoming creatures, anger rising. Deep down he felt a knot like a muscle waiting to clench.
‘I do,’ he said, pulling Miranda up beside him. ‘I can turn them back.’
‘No, you mustn’t,’ she gasped. ‘You can’t control it. It’ll destroy you.’
Benjamin smiled. ‘I don’t care. For all I know, this could be a dream. And if it’s not … make sure they save David. Make sure they save my brother.’
As the hounds roared and rushed forward, Benjamin stepped in front of Miranda, lifting his hands, hoping something would happen. As he sought for the power within, trying to clench the knot in his stomach that would unleash it, a sudden wind caught him from behind and he stumbled to his knees, falling over in the long grass. Jaws rushed toward him, then the ground split apart, drawing him away from the hounds as they leapt for him, many plummeting into the dark before they realised what had happened. Hands gripped his shoulders and pulled him back. He looked up, expecting to see Miranda. Instead, Wilhelm stood there, Edgar beside him, arms aloft and face set like stone as he stared down their pursuers.
‘Back, you ugly scoundrels!’ Edgar shouted, and the ground shuddered, knocking more of the hounds into the chasm, sending them tumbling into the dark. Then, to Benjamin he said, ‘Get to Lawrence. He’ll know what to do. I’ll hold them off.’
Benjamin lifted Miranda on one side, Wilhelm on the other. The girl screamed and shouted at them to wait for Edgar, but the old wizard waved them
away as brave hounds continued to throw themselves to their deaths. As they reached the edge of the clearing, Benjamin took one last look back to where Edgar was kicking away the first of the wraith-hounds to make it across.
Lawrence, still curled around the outcropping, pulsed with colour in greeting as they approached, then lowered his huge maw to allow them to carry Miranda inside. Wilhelm helped to seat her in front of Godfrey, still tied up in the back, then Benjamin returned outside to wait for Edgar.
A line of wraith-hounds raced up the grassy hillside, a handful of lumbering ghouls at their backs, but of Edgar, there was no sign. Benjamin looked up at Lawrence’s huge head, hoping for some instruction.
‘Go,’ the snake-train mumbled in a booming hoot.
Benjamin ran inside, and Miranda started screaming again as the maw closed, sealing them off. Through Lawrence’s massive eyes, they saw the rushing army of wraith-hounds, when a swish of Lawrence’s massive tail sent hundreds flying back into the trees.
With a bellowing roar, Lawrence raced down the hillside, building up speed through trees and clearings, over outcroppings and through rivers, taking them away, away, away from the High Mountains, the war host, and the eyes of the Dark Man.
‘We left him behind.’ Wilhelm ran a hand through his hair. ‘He sacrificed himself for us.’
Beside him, Miranda was inconsolable, face in hands.
‘Then let’s not let it be in vain,’ Benjamin said, cheeks burning, shame and guilt gripping his skull like a monkey’s paw. ‘We have tell the teachers what’s going on, that the Dark Man’s army is coming. Then we have to be ready when they come.’ He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to cry. ‘We have to be ready for a war.’
PART III
THE BATTLE FOR THE END OF THE WORLD
34
MIRANDA’S SECRET
For the first couple of hours of the journey, no one spoke. Lawrence was a like a giant homing pigeon—he knew the way back by memory, but for his passengers, the thrill of the outward rollercoaster ride was gone. Edgar’s sacrifice hung over all of them, and Benjamin’s mind was filled with memories of those glass-and-metal teeth.