Rutger scoffed at him. “We only monitor in emergencies. Now quit your boo-hooing and come with me to see Master George in the Control Room. We have some serious problems.”
Why didn’t Sofia feel in the least bit surprised?
As soon as his friends vanished, Tick made his way closer to the Haunce, stumbling left and right through the mud. The cracks of the nearby wooden fence splitting and tumbling filled the air.
Jane lifted off the ground and floated the few feet over to their visitor, landing with a squish in the soft earth just as Tick reached a spot right next to her. They both turned their attention to the Haunce.
The ghostly creature showed the face of a young Asian boy. “We know the two of you are bitter enemies. We have observed you both from afar with the utmost interest. Your base and childish actions have disappointed us many, many times. We know that in your hearts, you both want to kill the other.” Its face morphed into a pretty lady as it paused.
Tick, shocked by this odd opening statement, looked at Jane, but she didn’t return his gaze, her mask blank, her eyes focused on the Haunce. Tick glanced back at the silvery glowing face, now an old man. “Yeah, you pretty much nailed that one.”
The Haunce’s voice rose in volume, sounding almost excited. “It is time to put that aside. We cannot let trivial matters interfere with what we are about to do. Your hatred, your anger, your ill-fated desires—they must disappear. Now. Do you both understand?”
Tick nodded, though he couldn’t imagine actually accomplishing such a thing. He hated the woman next to him more than he’d ever known it was possible to hate. But he did try to slide those thoughts and feelings behind the angst of what was now more important. He would do whatever the Haunce told him to do.
The Haunce’s eyes focused on Jane, waiting. Tick noticed in his peripheral vision that she gave a very slow but obvious nod. Just once.
“We can only hope,” the Haunce said through the lips of a hideously ugly man, “that after this experience—if we succeed—you and the rest of the living will remember how close you came to never living again. That you will learn how to live appropriately. That you will learn to see life as the gift that it is.”
Tick couldn’t help but feel a deluge of impatience. Now didn’t seem like the best time for a lecture from a big, fat ghost. They needed to get on with it!
The Haunce’s current face trembled, its eyes narrowing as if it had realized the same thing and was refocusing on the task at hand. “The minutes are ticking away. It is time to begin. What you are about to experience will feel very . . . odd.”
Tick swallowed the giant lump in his throat. He felt such a powerful swell of nervousness in his chest, he thought for sure his heart had been crushed. But then the Haunce turned into a face that looked so much like his mom he almost fell backward. The lady smiled, and the smallest trickle of peace washed through Tick’s insides.
It didn’t last long. A blinding white light came from
everywhere at once, the mud and forest and fence and blue sky swallowed by its brilliance. A loud buzzing sound filled his ears.
And then he felt himself explode.
Chapter 53
Eternity
Sato was thankful for the growing light as he ran through the tunnels, sick of that terrified feeling of blindness in the dark. But it was greatly tempered by the increasing sounds of horror from up ahead. Screeches, mostly from creatures he knew couldn’t be human. Cries of pain from those that were. Explosions and cracking rock.
When he turned a corner and saw the full spectrum of battle in front of him, he couldn’t help but stop. He stared at the scene, having second thoughts about his self-imposed calling for the hundredth time that day.
A massive chamber that looked to have once been some sort of underground atrium for Jane’s Factory now looked like a tornado had touched down. Chunks of earth and stone littered the floor, some taller than a grown man. Patches of open sky broke up what had once been a painted ceiling—murals of Bible stories and famous moments from history. In his quick scan he noticed half of Noah’s ark and a scene of Abraham Lincoln sitting in the theater where he had been shot.
On the floor, dozens of Fifths fought a variety of Jane’s creations, outnumbered twenty to one. At least. But the advanced weapons of the Realitants seemed to even the score. Still, he saw with a pang to his heart that several of the tall soldiers lay dying or dead.
Squeezer grenades exploded on the left and right, downing a whole slew of hairy, fanged beasts, all of whom fell to the ground squealing and squirming from the attacking wires. One of the Fifths shot her Halter tube, sending a spray of darts that immediately paralyzed five or six four-legged things with wings flapping their way through one of the holes in the ceiling; they plummeted to the ground and crashed with a sickening crunch. Thumps from Shurrics pummeled the air like the beating of silent drums. Every time a shot hit its mark, a creature went flying until it smashed into a wall.
Sato watched the battle with an odd mixture of feelings—guilt that he wasn’t out there, an urge to run and join them, terror at the thought of doing so, pride that his little army fought so strongly and bravely—were maybe even winning. Mostly though, it reminded him of what horrible things Jane was doing here by using innocent animals to create those hideous beasts—and soon she would be using children.
He knew what he had to do. He knew his place. There’d be plenty of time in the days and years ahead to lead men and women into battle. But for now, he had to leave the very capable Fifth Army to the fight. He had to find those kids. He had to find them and save them.
He was about to turn around and start searching the complex when Mothball appeared out of the fray, running straight toward him. She pulled up, sucking in huge gulps of air. Then she patted a bulge in the side of her shirt.
“Been . . . waitin’ on ya . . . I ’ave,” she spit out between breaths. “Got a whole . . . mess of them . . . nanolocators in me pocket.”
She didn’t have to say another word. Sato was grateful for the help.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Tick floated in emptiness in a realm he didn’t understand.
He hadn’t felt any pain when his body erupted into billions of tiny parts. It had been more like a wash of tingles spreading across a warm, glowing sensation. Really pleasurable, actually. But now a sense of panic set in as his mind tried to comprehend the impossible thing that had just happened to him.
He could barely articulate within his own thoughts what his five senses were experiencing. He saw spinning lights, orange globes, streaks of blue and silver—all on a canvas of the deepest black he’d ever seen. It was like he floated in the depths of unexplored outer space. That same buzzing sound surrounded him, mixed with something that reminded him of waterfalls. The air had a slightly burnt odor to it. Without understanding how he knew, he realized that he didn’t exist in his usual human form anymore. He had become . . . part of the things that he witnessed around him.