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.
~
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.
And yet he was still Tick. Still had the cognitive functions of his brain. Still kid enough to simultaneously think this was really cool and also really scary.
The Haunce spoke, and its booming voice made those peripheral sounds dampened and dull. Tick couldn’t see the collection of ghosts—just heard it with ears he didn’t have at the moment.
“Atticus. Jane. Nothing we could have said beforehand could have prepared you for what we have done to you. For that reason, we said nothing. With time running out, we must begin our attempt to rebind the barriers of the Realities, to seal up the cracking splits and seams, to make the universe whole again. In the end, we promise we will do everything in our power to return you to your prior forms.”
Tick didn’t like the sound of that. If they succeeded, there must be a chance he’d never make it back to what he’d had before. Maybe he’d have to float here for the rest of his life.
“Where are we?” he asked, though he had no idea how he did it with no tongue and no mouth, no audible words. It was more like he’d projected his thoughts. “And what did you do to us. What are we right now?”
“Yes.” It was Jane’s voice, but not her voice. “I think we deserve to know what we’ve volunteered for.”
When the Haunce spoke again, Tick heard real emotion in its voice for the first time: impatience. “We have mere minutes, do you understand? It would take us a hundred lifetimes to explain the complexities of what and who and where you are right now. You are in the depths of space, in the smallest of smallest quantum realms, on the infinite path, in the past, present, and future. All at once. You are a trillion miles long and an atom’s width short. You are here and there and everywhere. You are, quite simply, joined with eternity. One day you will understand. Perhaps. But for now, you must do what we say, or everyone and everything will die!”
Tick listened in awe, hoping Jane would shut up and do the same.
The Haunce continued, sounding a little nicer. “The true power of Chi’karda lies not in scientific formulas and complicated theorems and atomic mapping. No. It lies within the heart and mind and spirit. It lies in the power of the soulikens. The two of you have more Chi’karda concentrated within you than any two humans we have ever observed. Far more. We still do not understand why this is so with Jane. Atticus, you have it because every one of your Alterants has died, and their soulikens have transferred to you. Why that happened, we do not know for sure.”
If Tick’s face had existed, he would’ve scrunched it up in confusion. But he remained quiet.
Jane didn’t. “I thought you said we had no time to waste.”
“Silence! Every word we speak is vital. You need to know that the Chi’karda is magnificently potent and powerful within both of you. Almost violently so. You must know this so you will have the confidence that the task you are about to perform will indeed accomplish our mutual goal of saving the Realities. Do not try to understand how or why. The breakdown of the intricate and infinitely complex background of it is for us to worry about. The two of you will use your powers in a way that your minds best decide to present it to you symbolically.”
The Haunce paused then, maybe to let its words sink in. Tick didn’t quite understand—not at all, actually—but he knew better than to resort to any childish antics when everything was on the line. He’d only move forward and do what he was asked to do.
“The two most powerful and effective things in the universe are the human mind and Chi’karda,” the Haunce continued. “They will now work together within you to present what we need in a way you will best understand it. Trust your instincts and accomplish the task. That is all. By doing so, you will put the pieces in place to heal the breaches in the Barriers. No matter what, trust what you see. No matter what, do what is asked of you. No matter what. Do you both understand?”
Tick’s first instinct was to nod, but nothing moved because there wasn’t anything to move. So he verbalized again. “Yeah. Yes. I understand.”
“Jane?”
She didn’t answer until a few seconds passed, probably trying to save a little face, a little power. “Yes. I understand.”
“Then let the process begin,” the Haunce pronounced.
~
Again, Tick could never have explained to anyone what happened next. The swirling lights and glowing orbs and colored streaks suddenly twisted around him like a
pyrotechnic tornado, spinning and spinning until he wished he could close his eyes or look away. Dizziness filled him, those pleasurable feelings of floating and tingles and warmth gone in an instant.
Everything blended into one bright, all-encompassing light around him, joined by a rushing sound of wind and roaring trains. Tick felt a pressure, small at first then building, as if his parts had been thrown into a compressor and were being squeezed back together. It had just started to hurt when it all stopped, instantly. The light, the sounds, the heavy force.
He felt nothing. He saw only darkness.
Then things began to change.
One by one, his senses picked up new impressions. He heard a soft wind blowing through the branches of trees. Cold prickled his skin as he suddenly felt that same cool breeze, felt the crisp air all around him. The strong smell of pine trees filled his nose as he pulled in a deep breath. He licked his lips, tasted salt. The bottom of his feet pressed against something—he was standing—and they were cold, too.
Wind. Nose. Lips. Feet.
Tick had been put back together. But why the darkness?
Idiot, he chastised himself. His eyes were closed.
He opened them and took in another burst of quick breath.
A forest surrounded him, a thick layer of freshly fallen snow making the whole place a winter wonderland. Huge trees—mostly pine—towered above him, their branches heavily laden with the puffy white stuff. Tick glanced down to see his feet buried clear up to the ankles. Some of the snow had melted, and his socks were wet, his toes beginning to freeze.
He looked around at the tightly packed trees that went on in every direction as far as he could see. He slowly turned in a circle, taking it all in. The place was beautiful and reminded him of the woods near his home in Washington, though this forest seemed even larger and more widespread.
He’d turned about ninety degrees when he noticed a piece of paper stapled to a thick oak tree just a few feet away. The paper didn’t seem wet at all, which meant someone had to have put it there recently, and several lines had been written on its surface. Curious, he stepped forward, slogging through the snow until he reached the mysterious note, now only inches from his eyes.
He began to read but didn’t get very far before he knew exactly what it was.
A riddle.
~
Mothball’s flashlight unfurled a spooky path in front of them.
Sato felt like he’d been soldiering with her for years. They slunk their way through the still-shaking tunnels and hallways of the Factory like old pros, anticipating each other’s movements as they tried to use their four eyeballs to look in every direction for potential enemies. So far it seemed as if all of Jane’s creatures had congregated at the main battle.