by Roy Huff
“What’s that over there?”
“That’s the armies of Them, Felix,” Mallory replied.
“Can we get closer?” Asher asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Calvin responded.
The Ubaloo walked closely behind Calvin, and Mallory led the way. They continued for about twenty minutes until they reached a distance that they felt was the closest position they could get without risking being noticed, but it was still too close. A few minions of Them’s army took notice of their position and started running in their direction.
“Uh oh,” Calvin said.
“Uh oh. Uh oh,” repeated Felix in his high-pitched voice.
“I thought you had the situation under control,” Asher wailed.
“I thought so, too. Give me a minute,” Mallory said to assure him.
The small contingent of Them’s army got closer and closer. With each passing second, the Ubaloo could start to make out distinguishing features of each of the creatures. The soldiers were difficult to differentiate. They were roughly the same height and size. They were a mix of grey, brown, and green, with a shiny coating that resembled mucous. They were thin with long noses and pointy ears. Their stride was more of a lurk, and they dangled their arms near the ground as they galloped.
“I think we should get out of here,” Faine said with a squeal.
“I’m in complete agreement with you,” Asher replied.
“You won’t get any complaints from me,” Calvin said.
“I said give me a minute,” Mallory responded.
“I’m getting a little nervous guys,” Felix said.
“Now just hold on. We’re fine. We just need to appear normal and relaxed. Calvin and I still have a connection with them. If you guys don’t freak out here, they will leave us alone as soon as they get close enough to sense me,” Mallory grumbled.
Seven of the creatures had almost arrived at their position. Felix gripped Faine’s arms, and Calvin did the same to Mallory. Felix braced himself by planting a great big fake smile on his face, and then rolled around in Calvin’s slime in the hopes of appearing more like Calvin and Mallory.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to work,” Faine chided.
“How do you know?” Felix said.
“Well, for starters, they just saw you spin around in Calvin’s slime. If anything, I think you just made yourself look more suspicious.”
“Okay, quiet down now. Let me handle this,” Mallory said as the creatures were only a few dozen feet away.
The small contingent of Them’s soldiers now stood just an arm’s length away from Calvin and Mallory, whom they ignored at first. One of the creatures approached the miniature-sized Ubaloo and began inspecting their features.
Felix was seized with fear and had to keep his hands in his pockets to prevent the creatures from seeing how bad his hands were shaking. Calvin did a similar thing by biting the insides of his cheeks to keep his mouth from quivering.
“What are you doing so far away from the rest of the armies?” one of the creatures said, as its long wet nose brushed up against Asher’s face, almost pushing him to the ground in the process.
“We just arrived from the land of the giants. We were with Oldrik,” Mallory replied.
Another one of the creatures invaded Mallory’s space and extended his pointy forked tongue; he then proceeded to lick Mallory’s face.
“Mmm. Tasty. I taste truth and lies at the same time. I like truth and lies. It makes it easier to deceive the enemy,” the creature said.
“The question is, who are you trying to deceive?” the creature continued as it shrank to the ground and circled Calvin and Mallory.
A third creature spoke up and said, “Come with us. You’re needed with the rest of the armies.”
Felix and Calvin weren’t sure if they had succeeded or if they had failed, but they had no choice but to follow.
Asher and Mallory paid careful attention and looked for any clue they could discern about the position, and anything else they could see, regarding the armies. They did notice that the armies were divided by land and then subdivided by species. From the looks of the soldiers they were following, the creatures hadn’t yet figured out where the Ubaloo and the former Fron belonged. After thinking about it a while longer, the soldiers grew frustrated, and the leader grunted and said, “Just stay with me.”
Felix was relieved. Some of the other species of soldiers were far more hideous than the seven they were currently following, and almost all of them had mouths that could swallow the twelve-inch tall Ubaloo whole in a single gulp. Calvin watched the soldiers who composed the armies. Their connection to Them was clear, but the different races contained within the armies were not, at least at the present moment, possessed by the souls of Them. Mallory knew that the possession would come with battle, as it took tremendous power and energy to control the armies.
Mallory waited until the soldiers gave him enough distance, and then he whispered to Calvin and the Ubaloo.
“We’ll wait until the armies are sleeping, then we’ll sneak out and make a run for the portal. We will have to travel all night if we are going to make it before the armies wake in the morning. In the meantime, we need to find out more about their intentions. If something happens and we get separated, I’ll stay back with the armies and make an excuse for your escape to help buy you some time, and then I’ll come to the portal when I can. Hopefully, though, it won’t come to that.”
Felix looked at several of the soldiers and inspected their eyes for signs of fatigue. He was hoping they would fall asleep soon. A few of them looked at him with suspicion. One of the more grotesque soldiers spat at Felix when he caught the Ubaloo spying on him. Felix wiped his face, which had been completely covered with spit.
“Quit acting so suspicious,” Asher scolded.
“Sorry,” Felix replied as he continued to wipe off the spit that had drenched his entire body.
“Hey. Look over there. What’s that?” Faine asked.
Mallory took a closer look. He could see movement at a great distance starting from the very back of the armies; it was spreading forward at a very rapid rate. As the movement neared the middle, Mallory could see dark black smoke engulfing the soldiers. Mallory could himself now sense the presence of Them possessing the bodies of the soldiers. Row by row, column by column, the races of beings that composed the soldiers were being overrun by the control and thoughts of Them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Calvin screeched.
“Don’t move or you’ll draw attention to yourself. Just be still and wait,” Mallory responded.
It wasn’t long before the last column of soldiers had been possessed. Black smoke filtered through the empty spaces between Calvin, Mallory, and the Ubaloo. The eyes of Calvin and Mallory rolled back into their heads until only the whites of their eyes were visible. Both of them started coughing and spitting, and then making hissing and groaning sounds. Felix started trembling in fear, and Faine was frozen in place, unable to move.
Asher stood still, and then with all his might, he struck both Calvin and Mallory in the face. Their eyes rolled back into position in response to the blow and they started coughing up phlegm and spitting on the ground. After a few seconds of getting their bearings, Calvin and Mallory looked at the Ubaloo, and then looked around at the army.
“I think we may be too late,” Calvin said.
As he spoke, the armies started marching forward. At first they moved only one step at a time, but soon they quickened their pace, moving in unison and marching faster and faster, almost to the point where the Calvin and Mallory couldn’t keep up. Mallory picked up the Ubaloo and placed them on Calvin’s shoulders.
“We have a problem,” Mallory said.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” Faine replied.
“No. It’s worse than that. There was something I sensed when Them took over my body,” Mallory responded.
“What is it?” Asher asked.
“Well
, aside from not being able to outrun the army, Them are using the last bit of power, the last bit of energy. Them are risking everything available to Them at this very moment in an attempt to possess the entire City of Worms, including the worms themselves. That’s how they are hoping to give the worms sentience.”
“What happens if they succeed?” Asher asked.
“At first nothing, but the worms will be unpredictable and wield enormous amounts of power, perhaps enough to tear entire worlds apart. That’s not the worst part,” Mallory said.
“What’s the worst part?” Faine asked.
“Worse would be if Them succeed in taming the wild beasts and are able to make the worms do what they are told,” Mallory responded.
Felix continued to tremble as they got closer and closer to the city and its spires grew larger. The closer they came, the more the Ubaloo could make out the massive dirt structures that were intermingled with the glass shards, which extended thousands of feet into the air.
They could see movement in the ground of the city. The dirt began to swell in the shape of vertical cylinders. The dirt continued to rise, and something was seething just below the surface, ready to burst forth out of the ground. With every rumble and every inch upward, the living creatures that inhabited the subterranean realm came closer and closer to breaking free, and yet, they remained hidden.
Without warning, the armies stopped. Several contingents of soldiers split off from the main armies and headed towards the heart of the city.
“What’s going on?” Felix asked.
“It appears our chance to escape is what’s going on,” Mallory replied. “When I give you the signal, I want you to walk away from the main group, southwest of our current position,” Mallory continued.
“What’s the signal?” Felix asked.
“I’ll point my hand in the position of the southwest,” Mallory replied.
“Which way is southwest?” Calvin asked.
“Geesh! Really, Calvin? It’s in that direction,” Mallory exclaimed as he pointed southwest.
Felix bolted as Mallory pointed, but Asher yanked him back before he had ran any substantial distance from their current position.
“Pay attention,” Asher said.
They waited a few more minutes as the section of army that had broken off continued moving towards the city with an apparent sense of purpose.
Mallory gave them the signal, and then they bolted. Felix, Faine, and Asher had once again climbed atop Calvin, who was bearing the brunt of the legwork. They were hoping that Mallory would soon follow, but he stayed put in his current position.
“I hope Mallory makes it to the portal before he gets found out by the armies of Them,” Faine said.
“I hope so, too,” Calvin replied.
“How much longer til we reach the portal?” Felix asked.
“All night,” Asher replied.
After widening their distance from the armies, The Ubaloo managed to find comfortable and secure positions atop the shoulders of Calvin, who had continued running for over an hour. Despite his best attempt not to succumb to his fatigue, Felix closed his eyes and fell asleep. Faine soon followed. Asher looked at both of them and just shook his head.
CHAPTER 22:
UNIVERSAL LAWS
“I’ve called you all in here because the time has come to reveal some very important facts,” Cleophas said.
Next to Cleophas stood Avery and Dante’s Uncle Jack, both of whom had very serious expressions on their faces.
Cleophas continued. “The first thing we need to discuss is your role in the Echo Club and the reason each of you hold that role. And then … and then … wait, there was something else. I was going to say something just now, but what was it?”
Cleophas stood there with his towering, muscular body, head bowed in thought. The deep wrinkles that creased his face hinted at his age, but this was the first time that Cleophas had appeared vulnerable and old to any of the members of the Echo Club.
Avery interrupted. “You were going to talk about the nine.”
“Ah yes, the nine. Well, the thing is that all nine of you are here and the others are not. That was it, wasn’t it? No. Wait. There’s more I think. Yes. I remember now. The nine of you are here and the other members of the Echo Club were not invited, because of your origins. Your lineage comes from your parents, or a single parent in some cases, that have a connection to a very special world.”
Anika, Dante, and Owen knew exactly what Cleophas was talking about and were listening intently to what he was about to say next. The other six that were sitting there didn’t have a clue what Cleophas meant by “a very special world” and their facial expressions indicated that they were quite perplexed.
Cleophas went on. “Earth is in the center of a much broader realm. Well beyond our dimension lies a place called Everville and another place called The Other In Between. Surrounding each of the realms are eight bordering realms. The worlds surrounding Everville are primarily good, with a little bit of evil. The realms surrounding The Other In Between are mostly evil, with a little bit of good. Earth is in between the two, but separated by time and space across dimensions.”
“Wait. What?” one of club members sputtered.
“Awesome!” yet another member said.
“Listen. One of you has a lineage that is connected to Everville, and the other eight of you have lineages that come from the eight lands surrounding it. Your parents don’t have a biological lineage, but instead, they have a connection through a weakness in time and space. This weakness has imparted to your parents a certain essence that linked them to that realm, and as such, it has also linked you as well.
“There’s more. There are borderlands outside of our dimension, and others have connections to those lands, too. Some of you can see into your realm. Others can influence that world, and one of you can transport yourself to that realm.”
As he spoke those words, he turned and looked at Owen, who nodded, acknowledging his understanding.
Cleophas continued. “The other members of the club have connections to one of the borderlands, specifically those lands closest to the eight surrounding lands of Everville. They have not been invited here to this meeting because the measure of good within each of them has yet to be determined, and the power that they possess is not as great as yours.
“You must understand that the greatest power exists at both extremes of the multiverse. Due to the position in the multiverse, Everville and The Other In Between hold the greatest capacity for power. With each level removed, there is an order of magnitude decrease in the capacity to generate and wield such power.”
“This is getting really confusing,” one of the members said.
“Yes. It’s a lot of information to take in, but stay with me. You’ll get it soon enough. Now, like I was saying before. Like I was saying before. Wait a second. What was I saying before?”
“You were talking about the levels of power in each realm of the multiverse,” Avery replied.
“Ah, yes. That was it. All those realms are like the skin or shell of a sphere, and Earth is in the middle of that sphere, but Earth is special. There are roughly a hundred realms that have connections to Earth from the shell of that giant sphere that composes our multiverse. Each realm has a connection to at least one person, but some realms have more than one connection. As such, some of you are connected to more than one realm. The level of evil or good varies with each world and so does the power. That means some of you have tremendous potential for good or evil and tremendous amounts of power to different degrees.
“Earth is special because it’s the only borderland within the sphere of our multiverse that has a connection to the shell. Earth lies in a universe that is in the center of the multiverse. Its universe occupies its own dimension, with its own laws of physics and time. There are an infinite number of universes within our multiverse, like a bubble in an infinite pot of boiling water.
“The connection between Earth and
the shell goes both ways. This means if the balance of power shifts on the shell of our multiverse, Earth is the barometer that can measure that change, but there is more. Because the connection goes both ways, Earth acts like a hologram to the shell of our multiverse. If the balance of evil increases on Earth it will impact the balance of evil on the shell. Think of it as a feedback loop. To make it more complicated—”
“No. Please don’t,” one of the seated students wailed.
“I’m almost done. Stay with me. Wait. What was I saying, stay with what? Oh, yes. I remember now.
“Our multiverse is just one multiverse in an infinite number of multiverses, and our multiverse acts as Earth does to an even larger multiverse. This continues ad infinitum, an infinite number of holograms in an ever complex series of multiverses with a never-ending shift of good and evil in an infinite ocean of time and space.”
“Okay, I was there with you for most of the way, but you lost me on that last part,” Anika said, shaking her head.
“The important thing to remember about that last part, Anika, is that the access to good and evil, as well as power, may seem like it has settled to a certain level, but that is just an illusion. It may appear that evil has won out over good or that good has won out over evil, but it has not. It’s a constant struggle, a never-ending battle, which is why your understanding of what good and evil are is the most important thing for you to understand.
“I have said before that there are certain truths that you know are true within your own heart. Your level of good or evil is in large part dependent upon your willingness to accept or reject those truths. Your connections within the multiverse and the realms to which you are connected only provide you with a certain level of innate knowledge and power. It’s what you do with that knowledge and power that’s important.”
“Okay. I think I get it,” Owen said.
“There is just a bit more. While good or evil can never be completely destroyed within the greater multiverse, it is possible for a single multiverse, a single universe, a single realm, or a single planet and species to be destroyed. That is why it is so terribly important for you to choose your friends wisely. You are the average of your friends in many respects, and the eventual fate of the universe may someday be dependent upon those with whom you choose to consort. You must be true to yourself, trust your instincts, and don’t allow yourself to succumb to the groupthink that can rob you of your own ingenuity and efficiency.”