by R. W. Ridley
Three Myrmidons shot up into the air as the first worm surfaced. Six more went flying as I rounded a group of mud huts. The sounds of a battle were in full swing. The Myrmidons were flocking to the scene of the Banshees breaking ground. The worms kept coming. The entire population seemed to be coming to the egg’s rescue. Climbers were joining the battle from above. The Myrmidons were both confused and excited at the sight of the worms. Their craving for Banshee meat seemed to have total control of them.
Zipping between two mud huts I came out near the back of the camp. I saw the cages hanging from the trees. Ajax was on a limb climbing towards them.
I started for them, but a Myrmidon stepped in my path. He wielded a sword that was bigger than me. He clicked out a phrase with his tiny little mouth and then raised the sword above his head.
I nervously fumbled for an arrow but before I could find one, he pulled back. He was staring up at the roof of the mud hut behind me. I turned to see six climbers looking down on me. All of their eyes were fixated on my backpack.
The commotion in the middle of the camp had died down, and I knew why. The egg had stopped screaming. I had one of the remaining three eggs in my hand before the climbers had a chance to move. I stabbed it with an arrow and tossed the arrow in the middle of Myrmidons. Chaos broke out again. It was enough of a distraction to allow me to make it to the cages.
Wes poked his head out between the bars of his cage. “About time you got here. You got any idea what it’s like smelling these damn ant freaks all day?”
“Got here as soon as I could,” I said climbing up a tree. “Decided to go for a swim.”
Gordy and Tyrone stood in their cages. “See you brought trouble,” Tyrone said.
“As usual,” Gordy said.
Ariabod roared and shook his cage.
I looked out over the camp. The battle between the Banshees and Myrmidons was raging. The bodies of dead Myrmidons and hacked up pieces of worms were scattered all over the place. It was a bloody gut-spattered mess.
Back to the cages, I looked at Wes and smiled. He didn’t smile back. I looked at the others and noticed something or someone was missing.
“Where’s Lou?” I asked.
Wes tapped his forehead against the metal bars of his cage. “Damn it. I was hoping she’d be with you.”
I felt a pressure in my ears and an unsettling lightness came over me. It was as if I would float off into space if I let go of the tree. I could barely bring myself to ask, “What do you mean? Where is she?”
“Don’t know,” Wes said. “A couple of Myrmidons and Bostic came and got her a while ago.”
“They said they were taking her to Bostic’s,” Tyrone said.
“Bostic’s?” I said. The image of his treehouse on fire came to me. She wasn’t in the house. She couldn’t have been. I would have known. Wouldn’t I?
“Take it easy,” Wes said. “I know that look. She’ll be fine. Get us out of these cages and we’ll find her, round up April, and then get the hell out of these damn mountains.”
I forced myself out of my funk. “How am I supposed to get you out of there?”
“There’s keys somewhere,” Wes said.
I shook my head. “That’s not real helpful.”
“There,” Gordy said pointing down at the base of the tree.
I followed his finger and saw the keys sitting on a large boulder next to the tree. I removed my backpack, hung it on a sturdy branch, and dropped off the limb I had been sitting on. One step towards the keys and the ground shook. I knew what that meant. A worm was coming. I dove for the keys and managed to land on the rock nose first. Blood gushed and my eyes watered. I blinked away the tears and felt something slimy on my leg. Looking down I saw a medium-sized worm gently probing my leg as it tried to determine if I was food or enemy.
As I was considering my next move, a Myrmidon lurched forward and grabbed the Banshee. He yanked on the worm pulling it entirely out of the ground. He held it up, let out a screech, and then tore a chunk of flesh out of the worm with his teeth. The armor-skinned warrior didn’t even know I was there.
I grabbed the keys and climbed up the tree. With Ajax’s help, we got everyone out of the cages while the Myrmidon chewed on his meal below us.
We sat on various limbs in the trees. The fighting had turned into groups of frenzied Myrmidons killing worms and eating them.
“What’s the plan?” Wes asked.
“Find Lou, get April, and get out of here,” I said.
“Then I guess it’s back to the treehouse,” Wes said.
“It’s not there anymore.”
Wes looked surprised. “Where does a house go?”
“Up in flames.”
“You burned it down?”
I shrugged. “I kind of had to. I just hope...”
“You hope what?”
I held my breath before asking a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to. “When did Bostic come get Lou?”
“Thirty minutes ago...” He stopped when he realized what I was trying to figure out. “Son, I doubt very seriously they could have gone from here back to the treehouse in 30 minutes. That’s a forty-five minute trip without dragging an ornery girl like Lou along.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“You find Bostic. You’ll find her.”
I thought of the last place I had seen Bostic. He was lying unconscious just beyond the Myrmidon camp. I found myself hoping that he wasn’t eaten by his worms. I grabbed my backpack and prepared to climb the tree, but reconsidered when I saw the ground below us moving. The last screaming egg I had tossed into the crowd had stopped screaming, and the worms were coming for the remaining eggs.
I opened the pack and turned to the others. “Once I toss this thing, we’ll probably have 10 minutes to get to the other side of the camp, find Bostic, and make it to the treeway.”
“Toss what thing?” Gordy asked.
I pulled the egg out of the pack and said, “This.”
“And what in tarnation is that?” Wes asked.
“An egg.”
A number of worms broke through the surface of the ground and started stretching towards us.
“Seems that egg is popular with our worm friends down there,” Wes said.
“It certainly is,” I said. “And it’s about to get a whole lot more popular.” Not wanting to waste an arrow, I broke a small branch off the tree and jammed it into the egg.
The others were startled by its scream. The worms returned the egg’s scream with their own screams. I tossed the egg as far as I could into the middle of the camp. The worms dove underground and raced off in the same direction. The branches above us started to shake violently. We all dipped back when dozens of climbers dove out of the top of the tree and onto a group of Myrmidons in pursuit of the screaming egg.
“That’s a pretty neat trick,” Wes said. “Got anymore of those?”
“Got one more, but I want to hold onto it for as long as possible,” I said dropping off the tree.
“Why?” Tyrone asked.
“Because if we need more, they’re not exactly easy to get.”
***
We reached the area where I had left Bostic. The ground was full of sinkholes and there were outlines of trenches underneath the soil, but there was no Bostic.
“What now?” Tyrone asked.
A particularly high-pitched screech shot out of the Myrmidon camp.
“We get to the treeway. Bostic’s probably gone back to his treehouse... or tried to anyway.”
Another screech came from the camp.
We ran and made it to the platform by the time the sounds of the fight between the Myrmidons and the Banshees had died down. We had made it just in time. The worms began burrowing their way towards us.
***
When we stepped on the deck before the zip line platform, I signaled everyone to stop and be quiet. The smell of burnt wood traveled on the breeze and I heard two people talking across the walkway. It wa
s April and Bostic. The constant fog that normally blocked his view of the treehouse was now no doubt mixed with black smoke. The zip line itself was probably unusable because there was no longer a structure for it to be attached to. Bostic knew without seeing the house what I had done. I carefully walked halfway out onto the connecting bridge between the platforms and listened to their conversation.
“He burned my house down!”
“How do you know?”
“I can smell it! It’s gone! Everything is gone!”
“You’ll just build a new one, right? I mean you did it before...”
“I didn’t build it! I took it from the people that built it!”
“You what? What people?”
“What difference does it make? We don’t have a house! We don’t have any meat! Everything is gone!” We’re dead!”
“What do you mean? You’ll just get more meat. Like you did last time.”
“It’s not just the Myrmidon meat that’s gone! It’s the Banshee meat that’s gone, too! I need the Banshee meat to give to the Ratty-Bobs so they can set up the Myrmidons for the hunt! Without the Banshee meat, I don’t have a chance to hunt down the Myrmidons.”
“Well, just kill a Banshee, and you’ll have more meat.”
“That’s easier said than done. I can only do it without risking my neck when the worms are asleep, and they only sleep after they’ve eaten. I need food.”
“So get food.”
“Are you that stupid? I don’t have the kind of food I need. Not enough of it anyway...” He stopped talking, and I started backing down the bridge. “One tiny girl isn’t enough to make a dent...” I kept backing away. “But if I had your other friends, that would be more than enough.”
“What are you saying?” April asked. “You feed the worms people?”
He laughed. “What do you care? You need the Myrmidon meat just as much as I do. Does it really matter how I get it.”
She didn’t answer right away, but to my horror she eventually said, “I guess not.”
“Let’s go.”
I turned and headed down back to the platform. “C’mon,” I said in whisper. “Follow me.” I was guessing that they were headed back towards the Myrmidon camp to see if Wes and the others were still there, so I lead everyone down a bridge to a platform that was in a different direction.
On the platform, I signaled for everyone to get down, and we listened for April and Bostic to pass.
But they didn’t. They stopped on the previous platform, and Bostic said, “Go look after the girl. I’ll meet up with you in a couple of hours.”
He continued on and April stepped onto the walkway headed towards us. I waved everyone back and hid behind the tree. When she stepped onto the platform, I stepped up from behind her and put my hand over her mouth to muffle her scream.
“Shhh, April it’s us,” I said.
The others stepped forward, and I could feel her body relax.
“You’re alive?” she said.
“For now,” I said. “Where’s Lou?”
“She’s this way. I was just headed there.”
“I know,” I said. “We heard.”
She looked back over the walkway and then back at us. “I’m not with him. I swear it. I just didn’t know what to do. He has the meat.”
“Had the meat,” I said.
She looked at me and grinned. “You did burn down his treehouse.”
“I did.”
“He’s not too happy,” She said.
“Not my concern. Take us to Lou.”
She nodded and pushed her way in front of us. “Hope you don’t mind caves.”
I rolled my eyes. I did mind caves. In fact, I downright hated caves after what the Pure had put me through. There’s only one person I’d go back into a cave for.
***
“Lou’s in there,” April said pointing up at a cave entrance in the side of a mountain. It was different from all the other mountains. There were few trees and little grass on the mountain. It looked like a pile of rocks. There was a trail at the bottom of the mountain that led right into the mouth of the cave about 100 feet up.
We all stood on a platform that was a dead end in Bostic’s treeway.
“How in tarnation do we get there?” Wes asked.
“There’re footholds on the tree,” April said.
“I ain’t concerned with the getting down as much as the how we’re going to make it up that hill without becoming a meal for them worms.”
“Oh,” April said, “Bostic says they don’t come this far. Says it’s past their territory.”
That’s all I needed to hear. I stepped on the first foothold.
“Hold up,” Wes said. “Why we listening to her exactly?”
“Because she helped me get away from Bostic before.”
“Maybe,” Wes said staring holes in her. “Or maybe that’s what she wants you to think.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Don’t know,” Wes said. “But she weren’t the most reliable person before she ate that meat. Now I wouldn’t trust her far as she could throw me.”
“I told you I’m not with Bostic.”
“I know what you said. I just don’t believe it.”
I climbed down. “We don’t have a choice, Wes. If she’s lying, we’ll know soon enough.”
I stepped down onto the ground and planted my feet. I watched the ground for any movement and felt for the telltale signs of Banshees burrowing their way underground. Satisfied that April was right, I said, “It’s safe.”
Tyrone and Gordy hopped down followed by April and then Wes. I started slowly up the hill and then stopped. Turning to the others I said, “Where are the climbers?”
“What’s a climber?” Gordy asked.
“The monkey worms,” I said. “The Banshees have been following us underground since we got back on the treeway, but I haven’t seen a single climber.”
“Maybe the Myrmidons killed them all.”
I shook my head. “No, not likely. Too many of them and they’re too fast.”
“What difference does it make?” April said impatiently. “You have to go in the cave.”
“Have to go in the cave?” Tyrone said. “What do you mean have to go?”
“I mean to save Lou,” she said sounding nervous now.
“It’s a trap,” Wes said. “I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. She’s setting us up.”
“I am not,” April said. “You heard Oz. I helped him get away from Bostic.”
“The way I see it,” Wes said. “You helped Bostic out by letting Oz go. The Myrmidons are out of the way, and he’s got plenty of Myrmidon meat to soothe that crazy craving y’all got. And he’s got Oz, the bargaining chip of all bargaining chips for any future deals he wants to make. And he’s got us, worm food.”
I stepped down the mountain. “Is Lou in that cave, April?”
She nodded. “Yes, I swear it.”
I hesitated before asking my next question. “Is she alive?”
She paused before answering and my stomach turned. “I don’t know.”
The idea of wrapping my hands around her throat and strangling her crossed my mind, but I controlled myself. “Why did Bostic put her in there?”
“So she’d be guarded,” April said.
“Guarded by who?” Wes asked.
April looked down. “Not who. What.”
“Don’t say that,” Gordy said. “That doesn’t help. We don’t need to know that. It’s just creepy and wrong.”
Wes’ cheeks turned red. I had a feeling he was considering choking April, too. “Guarded by what?”
Her lower lip started to quiver. “The worms.”
I thought I’d heard her wrong. “The what?”
“The worms. He controls them. They’re like his pets or something. He feeds them and they do what he says. He’s basically their king.”
The word king ricocheted in my head. It meant something to me, but at first I didn’t
know why. Then I remembered Nate’s drawing. I removed the backpack and hoped it had survived everything the backpack had been through since I stuffed it in the pocket of the pack, including thirty feet of icy cold water. I unzipped the pocket and felt the thin stiff edges of the paper. I pulled it out and carefully unfolded it. Amazingly, the colors had run only a little.
“What’s that?” Wes asked.
“A drawing. I saw Tarek and Nate. Nate made this drawing for me. I didn’t think it really meant anything, but now I’m beginning to wonder.”
“Let me see that,” Gordy said taking it out of my hands. “It’s some dude holding a rock, and another dude with a crown and a bloody mouth, and some chick being attacked by snakes. And for some reason, the sun isn’t round. It’s a long french fry looking thing.”
I was mad at him for taking the drawing from me at first, but after hearing his description, I realized he saw what I hadn’t been able to see before. The squiggly cloud wasn’t a cloud at all. It was a mass of worms. Nate had drawn what was about to happen. “The dude with the crown, that’s got to be Bostic. The girl under the worms, that’s got to be Lou. The pile of rocks,” I said pointing at the hill. “That’s got to be that mountain.”
“Okay,” Wes said. “But what’s the french fry sun and the other stick figure.”
I thought I knew the answer, but I didn’t want to say it.
Tyrone said it for me. “The other stick figure is purple. And the sun isn’t round, it’s long. Long day. Day long. It’s a Délon, and he’s holding...”
“An egg,” I said. “A Banshee egg. The Délon is me.”
“Wait,” Wes said. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m not trying to say it,” I said. “Nate said it. I’ve got one chance to save Lou. Only I can’t do it. Not me. Not in this... form.”
“This form?” Wes walked up the hill a few steps and turned around. “You’re talking insanity, son.”
“Wes, I just rescued you guys from cages hanging from trees while a bunch of ant men fought giant worms with shark teeth. What about this isn’t insane?”
“But you just made a huge leap about Nate’s drawing. How do you know that ain’t a french fry in the sky? How do we know he didn’t use purple to draw that one stick figure just because he likes the color purple? You’re talking about doing something very stupid based on some fool notion that picture tells you how to save Lou!”