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“We’ll send a team to investigate,” Milos said.
The skinjackers now peered out of the parlor car at Milos for an explanation.
“What gives, what gives?” asked Squirrel. “Did you find out why we stopped so hard?”
Then Jix, leaning out of the entrance to the parlor car, pointed over Milos’s shoulder, to the south. “There! Do you see that?”
Milos looked to where he was pointing. Night was falling quickly; the sky was already dark . . . and yet there was light coming from behind a nearby hill.
“Is that a city?” suggested Jill, probably hoping she could go reaping again.
“I don’t think so,” Milos said, his worry building. It looked like headlights in a haze, but the source of the light was still hidden by the hill. “It’s getting brighter.”
Jix released a growl that sounded much more like the real thing than any of his previous attempts. “We can’t stop here!” he told them. “We have to leave. Now!”
“We can’t leave!” Milos told him, pointing to the building in their path.
“Then go backward!” Jix shouted.
“Backwardsh?” said Moose. “Back to where?”
“Anywhere!”
Then there came a sound like the mechanical groaning of some infernal engine.
. . . Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-cha! Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-cha . . .
By now kids were looking out of the train windows, pointing at the light, murmuring to one another, while the sound coming over the hill got louder and more menacing by the second.
. . . Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-cha! Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-ah—Grr-cha . . .
“What is that?” asked Jill. “Some kind of machine?”
“No,” said Jix, just as the source of the light finally crested the hill. “It’s a war cry.”
Now it was clear what that light had been. It was the combined glow of countless Afterlights coming over the hill toward the train. This was an invading force.
“Bozhe moÄ!” It didn’t take a Russian translator to get the gist of what Milos had said.
As wave after wave of Afterlights came over the hill toward them, the awful sound resolved into the voices of a mob shouting their singular war cry:
. . . Oogah—oogah—oogah-cha-ka! Oogah—oogah—oogah-cha-ka!
Mary’s kids were not prepared for this.
Months ago, when she had gathered her army of children, she had readied them for battle against the Chocolate Ogre—but back then, they knew exactly what they were up against, and had the advantage of being the attackers. This, however, was an ambush, and no one knew what to do, so everyone panicked.
Kids ran from the train, then ran back to the train, then ran out again. Kids screamed, they cried, and they fought with one another, as if that was somehow going to help.
“Stop it!” Milos demanded “Everyone stay calm!” But of course no one did.
. . . Oogah—oogah—oogah-cha-ka! Oogah—oogah—oogah-cha-ka!
The approaching marauders had faces painted with neon-bright war paint—green, yellow, and red—that glowed even more brightly than their bodies did, and many of them held what appeared to be weapons.
Milos ran up to the engine cab, where Speedo looked at him, wide-eyed and frozen like a rabbit before the radial. “What do we do?” warbled Speedo as Milos climbed in.
Milos looked toward the mansion, still a quarter mile ahead of them. “We ram it!” Milos said.
