The Pure: Book Three of the Oz Chronicles (21 page)

Archie hesitated and then shook my hand.
“I... I am creyshaw, too. Archie...”

“Maynard,” I said. “The warrior with two
hearts.”

He looked at me cock-eyed and stepped
back. “What’s going on?”

“I’m Gordy in case anyone cares,” Gordy
said.

“You don’t remember anything?” I asked.

“What are you talking about?” Archie
asked.

I thought about explaining everything to
him, but I quickly decided against it. We didn’t have the time for me to try to
convince him that he was in two places at once. I wasn’t even sure I believed
it.

A pained squeak shot up from the ground.
It was then I noticed the Myrmidon Keeper laying next to Kavi. “How is he,” I
asked.

“I don’t know,” Archie shrugged. “How do
you know how a ant-guy... man... person... is really doing? This could be
normal for him... it, for all I know.”

I squatted down next to the Keeper.
“This doesn’t look normal,” I said examining the Myrmidon closer. “General Roy
and his boys really did a number on him.”

The Myrmidon coughed and spit up a
bright yellow mucus.

“Nice,” Gordy said.

“I’m not too sure he’s going to make
it,” I said.

Archie knelt down next to me. “What
happens if a keeper dies?”

“Not sure,” I said. "How 'bout you,
Bobby? You know what happens if a Keeper dies?”

“They come through,” he answered. “Some
of them, anyway. The rest come when the Délons catch me.”

I stood. “Well, let’s not get ahead of
ourselves. This Myrmidon’s not dead, and the creyshaw won’t let the Délons get
you.”

Little Bobby hung his head. “That ain’t
how the story goes.” A horse whinnied in the distance.

“Uh-oh,” Gordy said. “I’m guessing that
ain’t the cavalry.”

“I thought it was too cold for those
guys,” Archie said.

We heard the howl of a mandrill.

“That little...” Archie said.

I turned to look down the cave. I
couldn’t see a thing ten feet in. It was a dead end and would leave us cornered
if we decide to use it as our refuge. There was only one thing left to do.

“Quick! Grab his feet,” I instructed
Gordy. He hesitated. “C’mon, now. You can complain later.”

Sensing the urgency of the situation,
Gordy did as requested and grabbed the Myrmidon’s feet. I grabbed his hands. To
Archie, “Lead the way!”

He hesitated.

“Today, Archibald,” Gordy barked. “We’re
about to be up to our necks in purple pukes.”

Archie turned in a panic and then
stopped. By his stiff body language, I could tell he was going over an
imaginary checklist in his mind. I could tell because I had done the same thing
as a leader. He snapped his fingers and turned to Bobby. “Up here with me,
Little B. You’re still my responsibility.”

We trudged along the creek bed. The
almost superhuman strength I had experienced earlier was gone. I could barely
lift the Myrmidon off the ground. Gordy wasn’t faring any better. Tired of
watching our pathetic attempt to carry the giant ant-man, Kavi pushed us aside
and dragged the Myrmidon at a much faster pace than we could carry him.

We heard the sound of General Roy’s men
moving through the forest. The gloom hid their direction. We had no idea if we
were traveling towards them or away from. Eventually we heard the sound of
boots slogging through the water. They were in the creek bed, too.

Gordy whispered loudly, “This is crazy.
We can’t see where we’re going.”

“We’re almost to the clearing,” Archie
answered.

“How do you know?’ Gordy asked.

Archie hesitated. “Because we have to
be.”

“Human,” General Roy’s voice boomed
through the darkness. “Give us the Storyteller!”

Archie suddenly stopped, and the rest of
us crashed into him. His breathing was unsteady.

“Move,” I said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m lost,” Archie responded. “I got
turned around.” A dog barked.

“Did your hear that?” Archie asked.

I nodded not realizing that it was a
useless response because no one could see me. The dog barked again. “Go,” I
said. “It’s in front of us. Follow the sound of the bark.”

Slowly we moved forward, adjusting our
direction slightly with each subsequent bark. The dog was leading us out of the
woods.

After several minutes, we reached the
tree line and stepped into the clearing and stopped. We all looked over our
shoulders to admire what we had escaped. I turned back and looked across the
large expanse of the sloped clearing and thought I saw a ghostly stick-thin
figure standing on the opposite side. He held a rambunctious dog by the collar.
In the blink of an eye, Bones and Charlie boy were both gone.

Archie looked over the group and nodded
confidently. Kavi let go of the Myrmidon long enough to sign to us impatiently.
She wanted to keep moving and she made it emphatically clear.

We rushed across the clearing into a
cold wind. I hoped it was enough to keep the Délons back. They were weakened.
That was clear. It wasn’t just the cold weather either. It was beyond that.
Something was zapping them of their power. I didn’t much care what it was. I
just hoped it continued. By the time we reached the other side of the clearing,
it was apparent they were no longer following us. It was more than likely just
a temporary postponement of their pursuit, but it was all we needed for now.

***

We must have been a mile from the camp
when we heard the first screech in the gloomy sky above us. It was an inhuman
screech. I guessed it to be a gibbon. I had seen something about them on Animal
Planet when the world was normal. The warbling howl that surrounded us at that
moment sounded just like the gibbons on that program. It was a distress call.
Another howl soared above us, followed by a deafening roar. I heard a man
scream. The battle between Carl’s crew and the apes was in full swing. I pushed
ahead to the front of the line. I turned to the others and signaled them to
stop.

“This is where you get off,” I said to
Archie.

“What?” he asked, shocked and confused.
“No! No way! I’ve got some unfinished business in there.”

“You’ve got unfinished business here,” I
said. I motioned to Bobby.

“I did my part,” he barked, stepping
toward me with bad intentions. “I got him to his Keeper. I can’t help it if the
Keeper is half-dead.”

“We’ve still got a chance as long as
Bobby’s alive and he’s under our care,” I said. “I’m not the smartest guy in
the world, but even I can figure out walking him into a war zone is no way to
secure his safety. You, Kavi, Bobby, and the Myrmidon need to get as far away
from this place as possible. I suggest you loop around the fight and look for
higher elevation. The colder it is the better. The Délons won’t be able to get
to you.”

“Hey, boss,” Gordy said. “Any chance I
can get out of this fight?”

“I’m afraid you’re stuck with me,” I
said.

“Hold on!” Archie shouted. “This isn’t
settled. I know you’re supposed to be this super warrior, Oz, but all I see is
some scrawny kid who likes to order people around.”

Gordy said. “You can get pretty bossy,
Oz-man.”

“You’re not helping,” I said to Gordy. I
pulled Archie aside. “I know you want to make Carl pay for what he did to Tank.
I don’t blame you, but there are more important things to consider here...”

“Wait a minute,” he said. “How do you
know about Tank?”

“We don’t have time to go into that
right now. Let’s just say I know a lot of things. I know about Tank. I know you
hate the song “Friends in Low Places,” because it’s the only song Bobby knows
and he won’t stop singing it. I know you saved April from the halfer. I know a
lot of things. And you have to trust me that I know that taking Bobby any
closer to the fight in front of us is the worst move you can make.”

He looked at me dumbfounded. He wrung
his hands together, and grunted as he began to speak, only to stop abruptly
because he had no idea what to say. Finally, he groaned, “Damn it!”

I smiled and nodded.

A pained squeal soared through the night
air. Kavi hooted. She knew the ape the squeal came from. She leaned forward and
then forced herself to back away. She wanted to join the fight, too.

“The Storytellers are all that matter in
this world,” I said. “We do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Understood?”

Archie stared at me for a long time. He
sighed heavily and then turned to Bobby. “Let’s go, Little B.” They turned to
the right and took a parallel path back up the slope. Gordy and I helped Kavi
hoist the Myrmidon on her back and watched her lumber after her human
companions. Just as the small band of travelers was about to disappear into a
thick row of hemlock trees, Archie stopped and shouted. “I am creyshaw!”

Gordy shook his head. “Nice. He should
yell a little louder so every creepy crawly on the mountain knows where to find
him.” I smiled. “He is creyshaw, Gordy.”

He shrugged. “So. What does that mean?”

“That means I feel sorry for any creepy
crawly that does find him.”

We found a dead gorilla with an arrow
through his neck shortly after Gordy and I split from the others. It was a
young male. Ten feet from the gorilla we found the twisted body of some teenage
boy. The kid was dressed in black from head to toe. A member of Carl’s crew, no
doubt. A orangutan was huddled next to the dead boy. It was trembling. It
didn’t take notice of us until we were mere feet away. The orange ape turned,
flashed a toothy grimace, but didn’t advance.

I slowly put my hands up in front of me.
“It’s okay.” The orangutan pounded a fist on the ground and barked. “We are on
you side, red,” Gordy said.

The ape grabbed the twisted body of the
boy and cradled it. “What do you make of that?” Gordy asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I think
he’s confused. He’s been taught to protect humans, and now he’s forced to fight
them.”

We carefully made our away around the
orangutan and the boy and moved closer to the battle that was raging on in
front of us. The groans, growls, hoots, and screams grew more and more intense
as we inched forward. The instinct to flee was growing nearly impossible to
fight. One look into Gordy’s eyes and I could see he was struggling with the
same impulses.

“Tell me this is a good idea,” he
whispered.

He snickered. “You’re a terrible liar.”

As I was about to comment, I was
interrupted by a hriek of unbelievable power and volume. A brown blur leapt
from a nearby tree and knocked Gordy to the ground. I sprang forward only to
have my left ankle whacked by a heavy tree limb. I crumpled in pain and flailed
on the forest floor trying to rub the burning sensation out of my leg. A
chimp’s face emerged in my line of sight. I quickly adjusted to the shock of
seeing the ape suddenly appear, and determined that it was holding a rock above
its head. It was about to bash my brains in.

“Hey!” a voice boomed. “Get your furry
ass away from there!” The chimp looked up, huffed, and then backed away.

I peered up and nearly burst into tears
when I saw Wes’s fat frame plodding toward me. I immediately forgot about the
pain in my ankle and stood up. “Wes!”

“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” he said as
he approached. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked at me carefully. “Is
it really you, Oz?”

“I think it is,” I said.

He guffawed. “Lordy! Lordy! Lordy!” he
said hugging me so tight I could barely breathe.

We heard a screech and wail, followed by
Gordy screaming, “Get this thing off me!”

Wes and I couldn’t help but laugh as we
watched Gordy trying to fight off a small spider monkey.

“Did you have to bring him?” Wes asked.

Gordy successfully knocked the tiny
primate from his shoulder and struggled to catch his breath. “Nice to see you
too, Wes!”

“Come here,” Wes said putting his burly
arm around Gordy and pulling him in for a bear hug.

The wisp of an arrow flying through the
forest and the whack of the arrow hitting a nearby tree put a sudden end to our
happy reunion. We all dropped to the ground and took cover.

“Man,” Wes grunted. “Those little punks
brought the firepower with them.”

“How many are there?” I asked.

“Hard to tell,” Wes said. “I’m guessing
three dozen or so. But as well trained as they are, there might as well be a
couple of hundred of them.”

“What weapons do we have?”

“Four crossbows, some knives... nothing
compared to what they’ve got.”

“I’m for turning around,” Gordy said.

“Where’s...” I hesitated before I said
her name. I was almost afraid of Wes’s answer. “Lou?”

“We split up when this whole thing
started. She spotted some poor sucker with J.J. and took off. She ain’t the
most rational person.”

“That’s what makes her a great warrior,”
I said smiling.

I looked through the thicket of trees to
try to get a handle of the state of the battle. I spotted a silverback squared
off against six of Carl’s crew, half armed with bows and arrows, the other half
armed with large hunting knives. I caught a glimpse of the silverback’s scarred
face and recognized Ajax’s snarl. I bolted ahead without a word to Wes and
Gordy.

“Hey,” Wes growled. “What in tarnation
do you think you’re doing?”

I felt a few arrows fly by my head as I
raced through the woods. The searing heat of anger was coursing through my
blood. I felt a surge of strength rise up inside of me. Previous experience
with this phenomenon suggested the feeling was fleeting and wouldn’t last long.
I had to take advantage of it quickly. I leapt through the air and tackled one
of Ajax’s attackers to the ground. The arrow he had cocked flew harmlessly into
the treetops. One of his friends tried to react quickly to my attack with a
swift kick aimed at my head. I ducked, and the booted foot landed squarely on
the jaw of the kid I had just tackled. I jumped to my feet and pushed the first
body I could find into the next body. It was total chaos. Ajax grunted, and I
heard the glorious pock, pock, pock of him pounding his chest. I was back with
my warriors. I was where I belonged.

Ajax had taken out four of the Carl’s
crew before the other two bolted through the woods and out of sight. I turned
to my old gorilla friend and shrugged, “You’re slipping, old friend. You used
to be the one who came to my rescue.”

Ajax hooted. He teetered forward on two
legs. His brown eyes nearly sucked the life out of me he was peering at me so
intensely.

“It’s me,” I said. “It’s really me.”

He grabbed me and put me in a bear hug
that dwarfed Wes’s. I patted his massive back. “Easy, big guy,” I wheezed.
“Easy.”

“Let him go, you big ape,” Wes barked.
“You’re going to smother him to death.”

Ajax released me. He bobbed his head
while letting out a rapid-fire series of yowls.

“Lord goodness almighty Aphrodite, I
ain’t never seen him carry on like that,” Wes said

“Hey, fellas,” Gordy said. “I hate to
rain on this love fest, but you do know that there are a bunch of guys dressed
in black running around here carrying lots of pointy things, right?”

The words had just settled on our
eardrums when Gordy yelped and grabbed his shoulder. The arrow that struck him
had splintered upon striking him. I turned to see a redheaded girl slowly
approach with a bow loaded and cocked.

“Wait a minute, little miss,” Wes said.
“Wait a minute.” Ajax panted.

“Madison,” I said.

She stopped and lowered the arrow. “Do I
know you?” “No,” I said. “But I know you. You helped Archie and the others.”

She cocked her head as she studied me.
“Where is he?”

I thought about the question. “Making up
for some mistakes,” I said. I stepped forward. She raised the arrow again. I
saw a bruise under her right eye.

“Carl do that?” I ask.

She looked away for a split second and
then turned her focus back on me. “Rules are rules,” she said. “And consequences
are consequences.”

“And fathers are fathers.”

She clenched her teeth. “How do you know
so much about me?”

“Let’s just say I heard some things.”

“Look, miss,” Wes said. “I’d really
appreciate it if you’d just put that bow and arrow down. Ain’t no harm happened
here yet...”

“Excuse me,” Gordy said holding his
shoulder. “What about me?”

Wes frowned. “Okay, almost then. Ain’t
no real harm been done. You’ll live.”

Distracted by the exchange between Wes
and Gordy, Madison didn’t notice the baboon that had snuck up behind her. In
the blink of an eye, it dashed forward and ripped the bow and arrow from
Madison’s grip. Gordy stumbled forward and tackled her to the ground. He raised
a fist, and Wes immediately stepped in.

“Oh, no,” Wes said grabbing Gordy by the
forearm. “Can’t let you do that, my friend.”

“She tried to kill me,” Gordy screamed.

“No she didn’t,” I said. “You’d be dead
if she was trying to kill you.”

Gordy huffed. “I suppose you want me to
thank her for shooting me in the shoulder.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Madison
said. “Just get off me, and we’ll call it even.”

“Listen here,” Gordy growled. “Don’t get
smart...” Madison grabbed Gordy’s hair, and he let out a high-pitched shriek.

Wes and I pulled them apart chuckling
madly as we did. We didn’t hear Carl and his crew approach. It was the arrow
that struck Wes in the leg that finally got our attention. I spun on my heels
desperately trying to muster the anger that gave me superhuman strength. It
never came. We were severely outnumbered, and they had a trump card that kept
me in check. One of Carl’s crew held my old sword J.J. to Lou’s neck.

I felt a heavy pounding in my chest. I
heard the thumping of my own heart. Every breath I took was amplified. My mouth
went dry. She had changed since the last time I saw her, but I could still see
that scared, dirt covered little girl I first saw in the Kroger’s store in
Manchester. Her eyes opened wide when she saw me. She wanted to run and wrap
her arms around me, but she couldn’t. She swallowed, and I could see tears
forming in her eyes.

Carl saw it, too. “My, my, someone’s
happy to see you,” he said to me.

“Let her go,” I said.

“Hmm,” he said. “Let me think about
it... Ahhh, no. You’re all coming with us.”

Ajax roared, charged forward, and
wrapped his huge leathery hand around Madison’s neck. She fruitlessly slapped
at his arm.

It was clear he had reduced her ability
to breathe. She had to gasp to catch a breath.

Carl motioned for two of his crew to
move in. Ajax responded by increasing pressure on Madison’s neck.

“Ajax,” I said. “Don’t...”

“Break her neck,” Wes said wincing in
pain.

“What? No!” I snapped.

Lou yelped in pain as the kid holding
the sword to her pressed harder and pierced the skin on her neck. Blood
trickled down the blade.

“Stop!” I demanded.

“Kill her,” Carl said to Ajax. “Snap her
neck like a twig. She’s been a terrible disappointment anyway. I’ll of course
order Jerry to slice this one’s neck open.” He circled Lou as he talked. “It’s
a shame, too. She’s a real fighter. If I had known, I wouldn’t have tried to
sacrifice her to the lung locusts.”

“Mister,” Wes wheezed. “You kill that
little one, and I promise you I will tear you limb from limb, put you back
together, and do it all over again.”

“Nobody is going to kill anybody,” I
said. “We’ll turn Madison over to you and you’re going to turn Lou back over to
us.”

“Forgive me,” Carl sneered. “but this
isn’t a negotiation. Either you’re all coming with us, or you’re all going to
die.”

I scowled and stepped forward. “Carl, I
don’t really like you.” He wrinkled his brow. “Do I know you?”

I shook my head. “No, but I know you. I
know where your complex is. I know Madison is your daughter. I know you like to
bully kids into believing that you’re this great leader when the truth is you
couldn’t lead a Boy Scout troop in a sing-along. You’re as phony as a silk
flower.”

He cleared his throat and stuck his chin
out in an effort to look more authoritative. “Kill them,” he said to Jerry.

“Whoa,” Gordy said holding his wounded
shoulder. “Let’s not do anything rash. Oz has been out of the loop for a while.
He’s not really feeling like himself. So let’s just relax. Maybe we should just
sit down and get to know each other. I’m a Libra...”

“Shut up, boy,” Wes said.

Ajax narrowed his glaring eyes and
dragged Madison forward. Jerry raised his arrow. “The ape...”

“What about him?” Carl barked.

“He’ll kill Maddy as soon as I fire.”

“Did I ask you to access the situation,
soldier?”

“No, sir,” Jerry responded.

“What I did I order you to do?”

“Kill them, sir.”

“Then what is the problem?”

Sweat formed on Jerry’s face. “She’s
your daughter...”

Carl raised his crossbow and fired. The
arrow struck Madison in the chest with a sickening thud. Startled, Ajax
released his death grip on her neck and gently cradled her head in the crook of
his arm.

A deafening silence shattered the anger
and tension that had been building. Carl’s crew stood in stunned disbelief. In
an instant, Carl had changed from leader to monster.