The Land of the Dead: Book Four of the Oz Chronicles (5 page)

The tall boy emerged from behind the gorillas. “I understand,” he said.

Startled, Ajax and Ariabod let out shrill hoots. The tall boy seemed almost amused by their reaction.

I stood. “I’m listening.”

He leaned in and narrowed his eyes. “Is that how I should look when I’m listening?”

“What?” I groaned. “No, I mean tell me what you understand.”

“I understand what they mean by gorillas always know.”

I rolled my eyes. “And…”

“They mean gorillas always feel. They know because it feels as if it should be.”

I peered around him to see if Ajax agreed with the tall boy. He nodded and grinned.

“Throwaways should not be,” the tall boy said.

SIX

The plan was to go back to Stevie Dayton’s house in Tullahoma. We were in a story. That had to be the answer. It made sense… as much as things could make sense in this crazy upside down world.

I wasn’t looking forward to returning to Tullahoma. It was home. But it never could be again. Even if by some miracle we were able to bring the normal world back, Tullahoma would never be the same to me. I had watched it wither and die. I had seen it at its ugliest. I didn’t know if I could ever shake those images from my head.

There was also the prospect of going back to Stevie Dayton’s house. The last time I was there… Mrs. Dayton. They mutilated her, the Délons. Because of me. I drove her son to suicide. I destroyed her world long before it ended for the rest of us. But she still tried to help me. How could she do that? I had taken everything from her. Why didn’t she hate me? The more I thought about how forgiving she seemed to be, the more I hated myself.

I was deep in a bout of self-hatred when I saw a Biltmore estate brochure appear in front of me. It took a second for my brain to register what I was looking at. I shifted my gaze from the brochure to the hand holding it. The meaty fingers and hairy knuckles told me immediately who the hand belonged to.

“We still going here?” Wes asked.

I took the brochure from him and examined the picture of the castle-like building. “What for?”

He shrugged. “It’s a cool place.”

“We don’t have time to sightsee, Wes.”

He snickered. “The way I see it, we don’t know how much time we got. We got all kinds of monsters and bad guys chasing after us. We’ve been fighting and scraping and scrambling just to stay alive. We ain’t had much to look forward to in a long time. Lou looked happy when we decided to go to the Biltmore. I don’t think we should take that away from her… from everyone.”

“But the comics…”

“Will still be there if we get there a day or two later… if they’re there at all.”

I looked at the others emerge from the Walmart and then back at the brochure. “Well, it is on the way.”

Wes slapped me on the back and nearly knocked the breath out of me. “That a boy.”

***

The wind cut right through us as we ascended the mountain interstate. If we had not stopped at the Walmart and both refueled and restocked our supplies, we probably would have needed to take a break long before we reached the exit to the Biltmore estate. Instead, we pushed through the conditions and kept going. Not without objections. As it turns out, April was very good at complaining. In a word, she was annoying. She even outshined Gordy in that particular skill.

I noticed as we walked that one of the Throwaways gradually positioned itself (it seemed genderless) closer and closer to April. It almost seemed to be studying her. Remarkably, it even started voicing the same complaints as April, although not quite as shrilly. In fact, its voice was monotone.

April didn’t seem to mind. She was just glad to have someone who agreed with her.

They squawked and grumbled until we stood in front of the Biltmore. We all stood in silence and stared at the sprawling mansion. It was as beautiful as it was in the brochure, but there was something off about it. Of course, the lawn wasn’t neatly manicured and the fountain was in poor condition. The walls of the mansion were faded and worn. We expected all of that. What we didn’t expect was the feeling we got as we gathered on the cracked pavement of the driveway. We weren’t wanted. None of us said it, but the alarmed look on everyone’s face indicated we were all thinking the same thing. The mansion did not want visitors.

I cleared my throat. “Guys… ummm… I know this is going to sound crazy, but… I think we should just keep going.”

Gordy shuddered. “The place gives me the willies. I’m with you.”

Lou nodded. “Yeah… I’ve seen enough.”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Wes said.

We all turned to put the Biltmore far behind us as quickly as possible. But we stopped when we saw Kimball facing the exit with his hackles up and teeth bared. Ajax and Ariabod were nervously swaying next to him.

“That don’t look good,” Gordy said.

Tyrone stepped up. “There’s somebody or something coming.”

“How do you know?” Wes asked.

“You mean besides the animals freaking out? Thought I saw some shadows through the trees up there.” He turned and looked back at the Biltmore. “In fact, it’s going to be dark soon. I say we hole up in that mansion until morning.”

“No,” Wes said. He was as certain as I’ve ever heard him.

“My feet hurt,” April added. “Let’s just stay here for the night.”

April’s mimicking Throwaway repeated her suggestion.

Ajax raised up on his legs and pounded his chest. He and Ariabod were growing more and more agitated, as was Kimball.

Wes sighed. “Mansion it is, and I say we make it quick.”

I called for Kimball, and we all sprinted to the mansion with Ajax and Ariabod bringing up the rear.

The mansion was a lot further away than we’d judged. We all arrived at the door winded, especially Wes. The rest of us thought he might have a heart attack. He wheezed and drooled and grabbed his chest. “No more Twinkies for me.”

Lou gently placed her hand on his back. “You okay?”

He sucked in a deep gulp of air. “Fine… fine. I ain’t dying if that’s what you’re thinking.”

I noticed the other Throwaways for the first time since we took off for the Biltmore. I couldn’t even recall where they were in the group as we ran toward the house. They stared blankly at the front door to the mansion.

“How about you, Tall Boy. You okay?” I asked.

He turned toward me. “Is that my name? Tall Boy?”

I thought about it and then shook my head. “Nah, we can come up with a better one.” I pushed open the door to the mansion and peeked inside. A breeze swept past me. “We sure we want to do this?”

Kimball growled at the somebody or something we had just run from.

“Move,” Tyrone said as he shoved me out of the way. He stepped inside the mansion and then turned back to us. “You coming?”

We followed two at a time.

Once inside, we stood in the large foyer and scanned the immediate area. The inside was even less inviting than the outside. The impossibly high ceilings were hidden under a layer of cobwebs and debris. Bug and rodent carcasses littered every corner I could see. The smell of mold and death filled the air. It was once a grand palace. Now it was an enormous tomb.

Gordy stepped beside me, his face buried in his sweatshirt. “Got a bad feeling about this, boss man.”

“It’s either this or whatever’s outside.”

He turned to the door. Ajax and Ariabod were still clearly agitated by whatever was out there. “Inside it is then.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But we stick together. No one goes anywhere alone in this place. We’ve got no idea if we’re the only ones here.”

Lou snickered. “I got a pretty good idea we’re not.”

We all remained huddled around the door for several minutes without saying another word.

Wes chuckled. “We’ve fought all kinds of big bad uglies, and we’re afraid of a house. I say we find a table where we can gather round and eat like civilized people for once.”

Still no one moved. I felt something brush past my leg. I looked down and watched Kimball slowly move out in front of the group. He turned to us and calmly woofed.

That was all it took for us to unglue ourselves from the foyer and venture into the mansion. It seemed to protest with each step we took. A musty breeze seeped through the cracks on the floors and walls. It almost seemed as if the Biltmore was breathing.

***

“This is the banquet hall,” Lou said holding up the brochure. “At least, I think it is.”

There was a large table in the middle with dozens of faded red cushioned chairs around it. The room was covered in the same thick layer of dust and cobwebs that was present throughout the foyer and hallway. There were three large fireplaces on the wall opposite the door. Two huge chandeliers swayed in the stale breeze.

“You could fit a football team ‘round that table,” Wes said.

“Sixty-four people,” Lou said holding up the brochure again.

Wes did a quick head count. “Well, if you count Kimball, the go-rillas and… the new bunch of… Throw Outs…”

“Throwaways, dufus,” Gordy laughed.

“Whatever,” Wes said. “It adds up to 15 members in our party. You reckon the maître d’ will seat us or do we gotta seat ourselves?”

April considered the question. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s called a joke, little girl,” Wes said. “Let’s pony up to the table and have us a nice relaxed meal…”

A faint low rumbling sound traveled through the hallway behind us. A chill went shooting down my spine, and, by the looks on the others’ faces, they were experiencing the same sensation.

“Wind,” Tyrone said to himself as much as to any of us.

Wes chuckled nervously. “A relaxed meal may be too much to ask for, but let’s give it the old college try.”

We approached the table like we were all attached at the shoulders. The Throwaways appeared to be afraid only because we were. That is to say they weren’t afraid at all. They were mirroring us.

We sat at the table and pulled power bars and nuts from our backpacks.

“Ration, people,” I said. “The Walmart had been ransacked a couple of times before we got there. I got a feeling we’re going to find fewer and fewer supplies from here on out.”

They didn’t argue, and I didn’t watch over them like a hawk as they ate. I had issued my warning. It was up to them to listen to me or not.

As we ate, the mansion settled. Creaks, cracks, pops, and countless other noises seemed to sound off endlessly. Part of me thought the house was issuing a warning. It wanted us out.

I was in the middle of scaring myself by reliving every ghost story I had ever heard when Gordy nudged me. The subtle touch of his elbow on my arm startled me at first. I gave him a hateful glare.

“Dude,” he whispered. “Look at no-face guy.”

I complied with his request. The Throwaway with no face sat nearly motionless next to Tall Boy. “What about him?”

“You notice something different?”

I looked closely at No Face. He was on the other side of the large table, and the room was poorly lit, so I leaned forward. I scanned him up and down… and then I spotted it. There was a small bump in the center of his blank face. I squinted and zeroed in on the bump. “Was that there before?”

Gordy said, “No,” without hesitation, and then he added, “I’m almost sure it wasn’t.”

I shook my head. “Probably was. Had to be. We just didn’t notice it.”

“He’s changing,” Gordy said. “Or she, or whatever it is.”

I looked at him. “Into what?”

He shook his head slowly and said “What do we do?”

“We don’t do anything,” I said breaking off one last piece of my power bar. “Keep your on eye on… it.”

He sneered. “Me?”

I smiled and nodded.

“C’mon, let someone else do it. What about April or Ty?”

“It’s not like I’m asking you to marry it. Just watch it.”

He growled. “But look at it. It’s creepy.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it probably feels the same way about you.”

“He does not,” Tall Boy said. He was sitting next to No Face.

Gordy and I squirmed. We had unintentionally gotten louder and louder as we talked. The Throwaways and everyone else in the room had heard us.

“He wishes for me to tell you he does not find you creepy, any of you.”

I scowled at Gordy.

He smiled nervously. “Cool… Nothing personal. It’s just the whole…” he waved his hand over his face. “I’m just used to… stuff being in this general facial area. Sorry.”

With dinner out of the way, the question was what to do next. It was nighttime by now. Traveling in the daytime was dangerous enough. Doing it in the dead of night was insane. No one wanted to stay in the Biltmore, and it was fairly clear the enormous house didn’t want us there either. We had to choose between an almost certain danger outside and what could be an imagined danger in the house. The house won.

“I say we go exploring,” Lou said.

“What?” Gordy replied. “Are you nuts?”

“Yeah, I gotta say I don’t see the sense in that at all, Lou,” Wes added.

“I’d rather know what we’re dealing with than sit around here and wait for something to come get us,” she said.

“Waiting sounds good,” April said. Her Throwaway mimic repeated what she said.

I gave the matter some thought. Finally I said, “I agree with Lou.”

She smiled.

“Of course you do,” Gordy said. “She’s your girlfriend.”

Lou looked terrified by his statement. I let out a sound that was either a laugh or a bark. Even I didn’t know what to call it. “Shut up,” I insisted.