Banshee Worm King: Book Five of the Oz Chronicles (25 page)

***

I made it to the treeway and collapsed on one of the
platforms.
 
Somehow I had managed to hold
onto the backpack, my crossbow, and most of the arrows.
 
My clothes were sticking to me.
 
It almost felt as though they were frozen to
me.
 
I had to warm up or I wasn’t going
to be much good to anyone.
 
There was
only one place I knew of where I could get warm, and maybe even find a dry
change of clothes, Bostic’s treehouse.

I forced myself to my feet and tried to get a sense of
where I was on the treeway. My head was spinning.
 
I was pretty sure my brain was one big chunk
of ice.

Before I could decide which way to go, I heard voices in
the distance.
 
I grabbed my stuff and
tossed it into the tree, quickly hiding it behind some branches.
 
I stepped on the lowest branch and maneuvered
around the tree so I couldn’t be seen by anyone traveling by.

“I don’t understand how he got away,” I heard a man say.
 

“I don’t know, maybe because you passed out,” the other
voice said.

I saw the top of Bostic’s head as he stepped onto a bridge
from one platform to the next in the distance.
 
“No, I know that.
 
What I want to
know is why in the hell he would leave like that?
 
He basically killed his friends because the
Myrmidons ain’t what you would call a forgiving bunch.”

“He just did.
 
What’s
so hard to understand?”

“What’s hard to understand is you were sure he’d take the
deal to save his friends.
 
If he’s run
off to save his own hide, then I ain’t got a deal.
 
If I ain’t got a deal, I ain’t going to be
happy.”

They stepped onto the bridge headed towards my
platform.
 
“Maybe he decided he could
find them and save them without giving himself up,” April said.

“Then he’s just about the dumbest idiot fool on the
planet.
 
One kid against a camp full of
Myrmidons is like a kitten taking on a pack of wolves.”

“Oz is that stupid,” April said.
 
“Trust me.”

He stopped on my platform and turned to her.
 
“You sure you’re being straight with me.”

She nodded with a terrified look on her face.
 
“I swear it.
 
I passed out like you and when I come to Oz was gone and you were taped
to the bed.”

He hesitated and then continued on to the next
platform.
 
I worked my way around the
trunk as they passed to keep myself hidden from view.
 
Eventually I worked myself around to the
platform and stepped back on it.
 
I
stretched my neck to see if they were still in sight.
 
Just before disappearing onto the next
walkway to the next platform, April turned and spotted me.
 
She gave me a slight nod and smile.
 

I retrieved my stuff and headed in the direction they had
just come from.
 

***

I fell to the deck of the house after unhooking from the
zip line. I had virtually no strength left in my legs.
 
It took all the strength I had left to lift
myself up and stumble into the house.
 
I
moved as quickly as I could to the wood burning stove, hoping against hope that
there was something still burning inside. The door screeched open, and I saw a
single smoldering chunk of wood.
 
I blew
on it and let out an involuntary laugh when it burned a little brighter.

I needed something that would burn, but there was nothing
in the immediate area except sacks of Bostic’s meat and kindling for the
stove.
 
The sacks?
 
I might be able to get them to burn.
 
I grabbed one, dumped the meat onto the floor
and tore the sack into pieces.
 
As I
placed a piece of the sack into the stove, I blew on the ember.
 
It grew brighter and brighter and the piece
of canvas started to smoke.
 
I giggled
madly when it caught on fire.
 
Quickly, I
added more of the canvas sack and some pieces of wood. Before long I had a
raging fire and couldn’t bring myself to get more than three feet away from the
stove.
 
I needed the heat.
 
I craved it.
 

When I started to feel warm again, I shifted my attention
to my next dilemma.
 
I was hungry.
 
A quick search of the others’ backpacks and
supplies came up empty.
 
Our food was
gone.
 
Looking back in the kitchen, I saw
the piece of Myrmidon meat I had dumped on the floor.
 
I had to admit it looked delicious.
 
It was thick and red and, judging by the
grease that had caked April and Bostic’s faces, it was probably a nice juicy
piece of meat. But there was no going back if I ate it.
 

I spotted something under the cot and got on my hands and
knees to get a better look.
 
It was
jerky.
 
Probably the same jerky Bostic
had given Gordy the other night.
 
He had barely
touched it.
 
I pulled the plate across
the floor, picked up a piece of jerky and smelled it.
 
It did smell like spoiled ham.
 
My stomach turned from the odor.
 
I didn’t have the option to be picky so I
closed my eyes and stuffed a piece in my mouth.
 
I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t bad.
 
In fact, after I chewed it a few seconds, I
decided it actually tasted good.

I shoved as much as I could in my mouth.
 
I couldn’t forget that I still had friends to
rescue from 200 Myrmidons.
 
Not to mention,
I would have to deal with Bostic in some way or another.
 

Ajax was also on my mind.
 
He risked his life to draw the worms away from me.
 
He had to be alive.
 
He was Ajax.
 
He knew what he was doing.
 
I told
myself he was going to be waiting outside the Myrmidon camp when I
arrived.
 
We would be reunited, and
everything would be back to normal.
 

My hunger dealt with, I went back through the others’ stuff
and found dry clothes.
 
Once I was
dressed, my eyes fell on the cot again, and I had to fight the urge to lie down
and take a nap.
 
I was warm, dry, and I
had food in my stomach, but I was far from being at full strength.
 

I picked up my crossbow, arrows, and backpack and opened
the door.
 
I was a half step outside when
I saw them.
 
I was so startled I jumped
back inside.
 
Twenty climbers sat on the
railing of the deck staring back at me with twice as many eyes.
 
Their wormy heads were pulsating, but the
rest of their bodies remained perfectly still.
 

The backpack bumped against the doorjamb, and I realized
they wanted the eggs.
 

I was trapped. I needed to get to the zip line and there
was no way they were going to let me get close.
 
In fact, I was pretty they were going to pounce on me if I didn’t shut
the door soon, so that’s just what I did.
 
I paced back and forth trying to come up with a plan.
 
I had to get to the others.
 
I couldn’t fail now.
 
We had done so much.
 
Swimming down in that icy cold lake to get
the eggs.
 
Avoiding the guarder
worm.
 
Max and Ajax risked their lives
with the screaming eggs..

The screaming eggs.
 
That was the answer.
 
I could use
a screaming egg to distract the climbers.
 

I heard the crackle of the fire in the wood burning stove
and a plan hit me.

I ran to the cabinets and threw open all the doors looking
for the liquor.
 
I hurled a bottle at the
back door.
 
Glass and liquor exploded all
over the place.
 
I quickly ran to the
wood burning stove and opened it.
 
With a
pair of thongs, I pulled a burning log and tossed it toward the back door.
 
Flames shot up and followed the paths of the
spilled liquor.
 

I hurried to the front door, removed the backpack and
pulled out an egg.
 
Taking a deep breath,
I pulled open the door and held out the egg to the climbers.
 
They screamed in unison.

I stepped back and threw the egg into the expanding
fire.
 
It let out its piglet squeal.
 
The climbers hopped off the railing and
rushed inside the house.
 
They passed by
me on their way to save the egg from the fire.
 
I picked up my backpack and crossbow and hurriedly stepped on the deck,
but stopped just before I closed the door because I spotted the sacks of meat
in the kitchen. They could come in handy.
 
I ran back inside, grabbed Lou’s backpack, and filled it with Myrmidon
meat.
 
I peeked over my shoulder once to
see if the climbers would turn their attention to me, but they were desperately
trying to retrieve the egg from the flames.
 

Back on the deck, I slammed the door shut and frantically
put on my harness. I was weighted down with the two backpacks and the crossbow,
but I would make myself manage someway. I had to. A horrible series of screams
came from inside the burning house.
 

I hooked onto the zip line and jumped off the deck.
 
Before entering the lingering fog, I looked
back to see if any of the climbers were coming after me.
 
They were still inside.
 
They most likely were going to stay inside
trying to save the egg. They would burn with the egg before they gave up on
saving it from the fire.

***

It was dark by the time I made it to the platform near the
Myrmidon camp.
 
The ‘X’ was easy to spot
because the Myrmidons had a series of campfires going.
 
I could make out dozens of figures milling
around, but I couldn’t make out faces.
 
I
had no idea where Lou and the others were.
 

I heard what sounded like a step behind me and froze
up.
 
A warm breath on the back of my neck
sent chills down my spine.
 
Somebody was
behind me.
 
Right behind me.
 
At least I hoped it was somebody and not some
thing.
 

A hoot-grunt brought a smile to my face.
 
I turned and wrapped my arms around as much
of Ajax as I could.

“You big dumb gorilla.
 
You got away.”

Max stepped out from behind him and said, “Me, too.
 
I got clean away.
 
Them climbers chased me until I couldn’t run
no more.
 
Tossed the egg once it give out
and quit screaming.
 
Jubilee meat kept
them away after that... I mean I took your jubilee meat to keep it safe.
 
That’s all. Didn’t want it to go bad nor
spoil your plans and such.
 
Honest.”

“That’s all right, Max,” I said letting both backpacks drop
gently to the deck.
 
“I got more.”

“More?” Max said with his eyes open wide.

“That’s right, and if you play your cards right, you’ll get
some.” I could tell by the look on his face that he was about to do his jubilee
meat song so I stopped him.
 
“No singing
or dancing. Not ‘til later.”

He worked hard to contain his excitement.

I looked over the deck and could see the worms churning up
the ground.
 
Off in the distance, I could
see climbers moving through the tree tops.
 

The ‘X’ was too far away for me to sprint.
 
The worms would take me down before I ran
fifty feet.
 
Or would they?
 
“The worms want the eggs right, Max?”

“They surely do.”

I handed him the pack with the eggs and told him to go the
other side of the deck.
 
The worms moved
with him.

“Is there any way to hide the eggs from them so they can’t
sense them?

He shook his head.
 
“Not hardly.
 
Them worms are
fixated on eggs.
 
Screamers most of all.”