“A battalion is en route,” he informed me, resolved. Perhaps even concerned? “They’ll clear the air. The problem is, they are twelve minutes and eighteen seconds out.”
Guess I’d have to find a way to stay awake, no matter the provocation, for twelve minutes. “I’ve got this,” I muttered, and he gave a stiff nod.
Lolli handed me a familiar metal band. An RVM corrector. I anchored the piece around my head and programmed the eye lens to drop. In Theirland, once you exited the base, you experienced upside-down vision. The lens righted everything, but not without consequences. Sharp pains sliced into my brain, and they were worse than any time previous. Usually those pains faded, leaving a dull ache behind. This time, the sharpness remained. Nothing I could do about it now. Eleven minutes, forty-five seconds.
I followed the princess to the truck, expecting the librarian to follow. Before vanishing, he merely called, “Stick to Lolli as if you are glued.”
Great. Just when I needed him most. Trembling, I climbed inside the vehicle. The men jumped in after me. The princess and I sat in the back, settling upon the bench that rimmed the cab, with the others sitting in front of us.
Another thirty seconds down.
High Princess Lolli reached out to slap the side of the truck. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Eleven
Wounds given by a friend are better than the kisses given by a foe.
—The Book of Soal1.20.27.6
The twisting in my stomach only worsened as our truck approached the open garage doors. I palmed a netter and a harbinger. The second we cleared the entryway, entering the night, everything changed. From a well-lit interior to a darkness so thick I felt the ooze of it against my skin. A fetid stench stung my nostrils—one I knew well. The rot of the maddened. Though we hadn’t yet reached the smoke, I made each inhale brief, drawing in as little oxygen as possible. Just ten minutes to go.
We cleared the fenced area around the base, and I heard the maddened too. A symphony of screeches, calls of “Love Soal,” and eerie clicks and hisses. They blended with an ebb and flow of gunfire.
A sharp grinding sound blasted at my left. I lifted my weapons into firing position, preparing for an attack. But where was the threat? My RVM lens only let me see within a five-foot radius.
“Hold your fire, newbie. Pritis poles are rising throughout the terrain,” Lolli explained, and a second later, light exploded from above us, chasing away a measure of the gloom.
Instant fury. So badly I wanted to leap out of the car and tear down each pole.
Misinterpreting my anger, she said, “You may not like me, but you have a job to do. If I receive a single scratch, it will be your fault, and you’ll pay for it.”
“If you’re good enough to rule the realms, you shouldn’t need a quote, unquote newbie to protect you from scratches.” The words escaped before I pondered the wisdom of them.
Her eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d pay for this insubordination too.
No regrets.
We zoomed and bumped along cracked and weathered roads, our tires skidding on loose gravel, sending up tiny, stinging flecks of dust. The acrid scent of burning rubber and more rot tormented my nostrils. In the distance, hordes of feeders cloaked in thick, greasy smoke noticed us and let out guttural, wheezing shrieks before rushing our way. Their bare feet slapped wetly against the pavement, leaving behind dark, viscous smears.
Tremors settled in my hands when the horde cleared the hazy veil. They were nothing like those we’d fought at Fort Bala. Their eyes, devoid of pupils or irises, shone like crimson, radioactive marbles. Wriggling worms, slick with mucus, protruded from their scalps and noses. Even their eyelashes had been replaced with the writhing parasites. White foam bubbled and popped at the corners of their mouths. Putrid green teeth snapped, and nails sharpened to razor points clicked together, eager to tear into flesh. The stench of bile and decay joined the assault against my senses.
I tried to see these creatures as they once were—people, friends, family—and my heart ached. CURED claimed they were beyond help, but I knew better. The berries contained the cure. But right now, mass numbers of soldiers were doing their best to incinerate the field, the fruit juices sizzling and blackening in the flames.
I clenched my jaw. To CURED, feeders were better off dead than saved. Alive and well, they could reveal the mountain of lies fed to the world.
Our driver executed a swift turn, and thumps rang out. The vehicle bounced, bodies crushed under our tires. I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth. The smoke rolled ever closer.
“I’d hate for you to get injured out there, Lady Roosa,” Lolli called over the noise, filling an ammo clip with glowing green bullets. “Whatever you do, stay out of my way.”
I recognized a threat when I heard one. “What are those?” I motioned to the bullets. I’d never seen anything like them.
“An experiment,” she replied with another cold grin, loading and sheathing the gun. “Respond to what I said previously.”
“I will guard your back, and I won’t get in your way.” An easy promise to give since I meant it.Stick to Lolli like glue, Domino?Very well.
“Two minutes out,” the driver hollered. Bounce, bounce, bounce.
The smoke reached us at last. I held my breath as long as possible, the burn in my lungs intensifying fast. Though I snuck an inhalation here and there, I never felt in danger of passing out, so, win.
