Skinjacker 02 Everwild

by Neal Shusterman

  "No!" insisted Mary. "You'll have to take care of my children for a while, but I'll work this out! I will! I'll work it out!"

  Allie knew she should have taken this moment to escape, but watching Mary Hightower sink into absolute desperation was mesmerizing.

  "I can still work from this side!" Mary insisted.

  "I think you fool yourself," said Milos. "No! I can make this work, I know I can. Please, Milos," and Mary fell to her knees--a gesture so foreign for her, Allie could only stare. "Please don't leave me like this! I'm begging you, Milos! Please don't leave me!" There were tears on her face now--real human tears.

  Milos reached out his fleshie's hand, and wiped away her tears. "Your children do need you," Milos said thoughtfully. "We will see... ."

  Then he whispered something in Mary's ear that Allie couldn't hear. Whatever he said, it calmed Mary down. She nodded a glum acceptance. Then Milos turned to Allie and she realized she had waited too long.

  Allie could leap to another fleshie, and run, but there were none in the room other than the ones she and Milos had already skinjacked. Then suddenly something occurred to Allie.

  Mary was now a fleshie... .

  Did she dare do it? Did she dare skinjack Mary Hightower, the self-appointed Queen of Everlost? Of course! In fact she couldn't resist! As Milos came at her, she leaped from the guard, and directly into the flesh of Mary Hightower.

  Mary knew the instant it happened.

  She could feel Allie picking through her brain. She felt herself infected by this filthy, filthy girl. "GET OUT!" Mary demanded--and even though she was no longer an Afterlight, the force of her will was still strong enough to hit Allie like a mortar blast. Allie recoiled, and was ejected out of her--but not before seeing the depths of Mary's mind-- and what she saw there, the plans, the schemes, the terrible things that would happen if Mary had her way--it was like witnessing Armageddon itself. And what made it all the more horrifying was that Mary truly believed it was all in the service of good. More than ever, Allie knew that Mary must be stopped!

  But the force of her expulsion from Mary's body had rattled her and made her weak--weak enough for Milos to grab her. They were both back in Everlost now. She was looking at him--not a fleshie, but Milos himself--and his expression was stone.

  "You have made life very interesting, haven't you?"

  Allie tried to pull free, but she was too weak now.

  "You're not going anywhere but with me," Milos told her. "In case you forgot, you made me a promise, and you're going to keep it." Then he pulled her out of Graceland, and she didn't have the strength to resist.

  CHAPTER 37 Sky Refugees

  Johnnie-O sat facing Charlie in the Starboard Promenade of the Hindenburg, a bucket of coins between them.

  "You go first," said Johnnie-O.

  "No, you go first," echoed Charlie.

  "No, you go first!"

  "No, you!"

  How they got here was a mixture of failure, triumph, and luck.

  While Mary Hightower had made her way to Graceland for her momentous meeting with the Chocolate Ogre, her children attacked the train.

  Johnnie-O took charge, ready for the fight. "Bring 'em down or push 'em down," he told the army. Any enemy that couldn't be captured would be sent to the center of the earth. Then he went out into the battle swinging his heavy fists. Charlie, who was not much of a fighter, followed behind him, carrying the bucket of coins, and wearing a gardening glove on his hand to protect himself from the coins' power. Maybe Nick wanted to give these kids a choice, but Johnnie-O and Charlie were determined to send as many of them as possible into the light, whether they liked it or not.

  Johnnie-O grabbed one Afterlight after another, dragging them to Charlie, who would put a coin into their palms, and force their fists closed around it. They all had the same reaction, a look of terrified surprise that was quickly replaced by an expression of utter peace before they disappeared in a twinkling of light. Johnnie-O didn't like the peace part of it. There was no satisfaction for him in making his enemies content, but as long as they vanished from his sight, he didn't complain.

  Ten minutes into the battle, however, Johnnie-O began to worry. Mary's children just kept coming and soon it became clear to Johnnie-O what their objective was. The train.

  "Keep them back!" he ordered. "Don't let them near the train." But there were simply too many of them. Johnnie-O and Charlie had dispatched at least fifty or sixty with coins, but there were hundreds more. The Sky Witch had tricked them!

  "Take coins," he told the others. "Everyone, take coins and put them into their hands. Do it!" But that backfired miserably, because every kid who grabbed a coin from the bucket couldn't resist the urge to grasp the coin themselves, and vanish. They were losing more of their own than the enemy.

  It was over in less than twenty minutes. Their entire fighting force was backed up against the train, hands in the air, and the train itself had been captured. It took four Afterlights to hold Johnnie-O down. Then, as he struggled to break free, he felt a drop of water on his forehead, then another, then another and when he looked up, he saw a wet kid in a wetter bathing suit looking down at him. Water dripped into Johnnie-O's eye from a little silver key dangling around the kid's neck.

  "The Sniffer told us all about you, Johnnie-O," the wet kid said. "Mary was even looking for a punching bag, to give you something to do until the end of time, but she never did find one. Guess you'll just have to shadowbox," which was a nasty thing to say, since Afterlights didn't cast shadows.

  Johnnie-O wasn't about to be defeated by a kid in a bathing suit, so he fought himself free from the Afterlights holding him. "Dry up!" he told the wet kid, which was an equally nasty thing to say, because he couldn't. Then Johnnie-O pushed him out of the way, and ran to Charlie, who was sitting on the bucket of coins, hands behind his head and surrounded by a cluster of Mary's kids. Johnnie-O pushed his way in, pulled Charlie up, and grabbed the bucket, swinging it like a weapon.

  "C'mon!" he said to Charlie, and they both ran.

  Mary's forces had captured the Chocolate Ogre's army and they had taken his train--but there was still one more means of transportation available for someone with the nerve to take it.

  The Hindenburg was not too difficult to find, as it was taller than anything around it. There were still dozens of Mary's Afterlights holding it down with ropes, keeping it from being torn away by the brutal wind.

  "There's a whole bunch of them, and only two of us," Charlie said. "I don't like those odds." But Johnnie-O realized something Charlie didn't. These Afterlights couldn't fight, because they already had their hands full. If it took this many of them to hold the airship down, how many would have to be taken off the job until the ship would tear free?

  They wasted no time. Johnnie-O pulled them from the ropes, and Charlie slapped coins into their hands one after another. They had dispatched more than ten of them by the time the others figured out what was happening. They all panicked, and began to let go of the ropes. The airship began to lurch.

  "Let's go!" Johnnie-O said. They raced toward the Hindenburg. The ramp was dragging across the ground, beginning to rise into the air. They leaped on, and pulled themselves inside.

  The airship's nose lifted higher as it caught more of the Everlost wind. Some Afterlights still dangled from the ropes, but they had the good sense to let go, and the zeppelin took to the sky, twisting and turning out of control, at the mercy of the wind. It was just the two of them in the giant craft. They hadn't been able to save the train, or Nick's army, but at least they saved the bucket of coins.

  "Can you fly this thing?" Johnnie-O asked Charlie.

  "No," he answered, "but I got plenty of time to learn, doncha think?"

  They fumbled their way through corridors until finally finding the bridge, and that's when they realized there was a problem.

  There was a bar across the door, and that bar was held in place by a huge padlock. "Where's the key?" asked Charlie. "There's go
t to be a key."

  Johnnie-O knew exactly where the key was, because he had seen it dangling above his face dripping water into his eye.

  "D'ya think we could break it?" asked Charlie. "Those fists of yours can do it, right?"

  And although Johnnie-O tried, he knew it was no use. This was an Everlost door, and an Everlost padlock. Once something crossed into Everlost, it didn't break. Ever.

  The airship rose into the clouds, slowly spinning like a weather vane as it blew eastward.

  "This was a bad idea," said Charlie.

  "Shut up," said Johnnie-O. "Just shut up."

  So now Johnnie-O sat facing Charlie in the Starboard Promenade of the Hindenburg, a bucket of coins between them.

  "You go first," said Johnnie-O.

  "No, you go first," echoed Charlie.

  "No, you go first!"

  "No, you!"

  But neither one was willing to take a coin. Instead they both stared at each other as the Hindenburg drifted across the sky, each wondering who would be the first to blink.

  CHAPTER 38 Last Train Out of Memphis

  Milos raced as fast as he could with Allie, staying away from the living, just in case Allie found strength enough to skinjack and escape. He had no idea whether Mary's force had captured the train. If they hadn't, Allie would be a bargaining chip. If they had, Allie would be a valuable prisoner.

  "I saw her thoughts, Milos," Allie said weakly, as he pulled her along. "You can't go through with this! Mary hasn't told you everything! You don't know what she plans to do!"

  But he was already overwhelmed with things to think about, and didn't need this. He was confused, and more than a little bit scared about what would happen now--and that just made him angry. "Quiet," he told her, "or I might just have to push you into the ground myself to silence you."

  "Do it," said Allie. "I'd rather be there than have any part of Mary's plan."

  "It's not her plan anymore," he told her. "It's mine."

  They came through into a clearing, where the train rested on dead rails. Milos spotted Speedo right away, shouting frantic orders. The airship's ground team had just arrived, which meant the Hindenburg had been cast off. They had captured the train, and Mary's plan had proceeded without her.

  The entirety of the Ogre's army had been squeezed into the last train car. It had been Mary's idea--something she learned from Pugsy. "Afterlights can fit wherever you put them," she had said, and she was right--there were hundreds of them in that car: faces, hands, feet, and elbows pressed against the windows. It was a kind of purgatory until they came around to Mary's way of thinking.

  When Speedo saw Milos, he looked worried. "Why aren't you with Jill at the bridge?" Then, when he saw Allie, his afterglow began to falter. "Something went wrong, didn't it? What went wrong?"

  "Lock this one up somewhere special," Milos told Speedo, "but be careful--she's clever," and regaining some of his suave composure, he winked at Allie. "A little too clever for her own good--but maybe she can be, as Mary says, 'rehabilitated.'"

  "Mary's not back yet," Speedo said. "We can't go till she gets here."

  Milos hesitated for a moment. There was no easy way to tell Speedo the truth. "Mary will not be coming back," Milos said. "I am sorry."

  "You mean ... the Ogre defeated her?"

  "The Ogre is gone," said Milos. "They are both gone."

  Speedo was shell-shocked. He wanted to know everything, but there was no time, and Milos wasn't quite ready to share. "All we can do now," said Milos, "is to finish what she started."

  "But how are we supposed to go on without her?" "Oh, I think Mary will always be with us," Milos told him. "We can be certain of that."

  Speedo had Allie strapped to the very front of the train, facing forward, and Milos allowed it.

  "I was thinking something a little more comfortable," Milos said. "But this will do just fine."

  "I am not a figurehead on a ship!" insisted Allie.

  "Today you are," Milos told her calmly. "You took away Mary from her children. They would prefer that you were tied in a bag, and sent to the center of the earth, but I told them no. I told them that we must show you compassion, the way Mary would. Hate me all you want, but I just saved you."

  "Forgive me if I don't thank you," Allie snapped.

  Then Milos got close to her, and said, "I can forgive you for everything ... except for taking her away from me. I will not forgive you for that."

  Then he went to tend to Mary's masses, leaving Allie lashed to the front of the train, with a better view than anyone else of the path ahead.

  The train had come to the end of its tracks as it reached the river. It could go no farther, for the trestle that ran down the center of the Union Avenue Bridge was very much a part of the living world. There were no Everlost bridges that crossed the mighty Mississippi.

  The train waited as Moose, Squirrel, and Jackin' Jill arrived and came on board.

  "You must be Allie the Outcast," Jill said, as she passed the front of the train. Then, glancing casually at the way Allie was all trussed up, she said, "Cute." Allie suspected what was about to happen, but wanted to believe that it wouldn't. She held on to that hope until she saw and heard the explosions.

  The first detonations took out the bridge's eastern tower, then its western tower blew just a few seconds later. Girders tore apart like confetti and flew in all directions. The rail trestle gave way, the traffic lanes collapsed, and the entire bridge plunged into the river, taking dozens of cars with it.

  As Allie watched, wailing in the anguish of this terrible scene, the thoughts that she had dug out of Mary's mind came back to her.

  Some will be sent into the light before this day is done, but their sacrifice will pave the way for the many thousands we will save.

  Thousands, Mary had thought. And even then, that's only a start.

  And so the bridge came down, killing all those who were on it ... but out of the smoke of its destruction, a memory of the bridge materialized, as solid and as real as anything else in Everlost. The Union Avenue Bridge had crossed into their world.

  Although the wind would not allow anyone to cross the Mississippi by foot, by boat, or even by airship, a steam engine could beat that wind. All it needed were tracks.

  Allie, still strapped to the front of the train, was the first to inch out over the bridge as the train pulled forward, challenging the Everlost wind with the brute force of its engine. It roared at full steam, and although the wind struggled to hold it back, it was no match for such a powerful machine.

  In just a few minutes the train crossed the river, rolled onto a dead rail line on the river's far side, and chugged forward with Allie unwillingly leading the way into the vast Western unknown.

  CHAPTER 39 At the Moment of Madness

  Everyone living in Memphis remembers where they were when the Union Avenue Bridge was taken down. The evidence pointed to unlikely suspects--a few road workers seen on the bridge, and a demolitions expert with no history of violent crime. A half dozen radical groups tried to take credit, making the truth even more difficult to ferret out. All that was known for sure was that somebody intentionally brought the beloved landmark down, taking the lives of close to fifty people.

  At the moment of the disaster, a redheaded girl in a green velvet dress was seen watching the bridge collapse from Martyr Park, which overlooked the river. Witnesses noted something strange in her demeanor. She showed no sign of surprise, nor concern for the many people losing their lives before her eyes. Rumors had already begun to spread that she was a terrorist, or that she was a ghost, or that she never really existed at all. Mysterious sightings of the girl in green were being reported everywhere, and she was quickly becoming a local legend. A green velvet dress would be a popular Halloween costume for redheaded girls in Memphis this year.

  At the moment of the disaster, another girl several miles away, wearing a very authentic Confederate uniform, was caught trying to steal a chicken right off a supermarket rotisse
rie. In the commotion of the blast, as shoppers ran out into the street to find out what had happened, the girl had thought no one would be looking, so she could take what she pleased. However, the store's manager was more concerned with criminal activity in his market than with death and destruction elsewhere. The girl made a big fuss about being caught, but became respectful when a uniformed police officer arrived on the scene.

  As it turned out, the girl was a strange case. She claimed to have no family, no home, and she didn't match any children in the national database of kids reported missing.

  "You have to have some family somewhere," the officer insisted as he let her eat the stolen chicken.

  "Nope, ain't got no family a-tall," she said, in an accent from a place so Southern-deep, you could get the bends coming up from it. "Nope, no family," she said. "... a'course I do got a dog... ."

  The officer concluded that, under the circumstances, finding that dog was as good a place as any to start.

  At the moment of the disaster, Mikey McGill finally arrived at Graceland to find a handful of Afterlights in distress, not knowing what they should do. They had come with the Chocolate Ogre--but the Ogre had gone into the vortex, never came out, and no one was brave enough to go in after him.

  "What about Allie?" Mikey asked. "What happened to Allie?"

  They told him that a girl fitting her description was taken hostage by another Afterlight--a tall, dark-haired boy with strange speckled eyes. By the time word came down that the bridge had been blown, and that an Everlost train had taken Mary's followers across the river, Mikey knew he was too late. Allie would be a prisoner on that train, and the train was long gone.

  Mikey raced to the bridge, and although it was solid beneath his feet, he was not a steam engine. No matter what form he changed himself into, he could not overcome the wind. He couldn't cross that bridge to rescue Allie.

  And at the moment of the disaster, a bubble surfaced on the chocolate-covered floor of the Jungle Room, jarred into being by the rumble of the blast. The bubble rose to the surface, searching for consciousness, and settled back down again, unable to find it.