The Takers: Book One of the Oz Chronicles (22 page)

"No!" I screamed. My foot kicked something across the ground. It was J.J. I picked the sword up and ran at the Taker.

Before I could take two steps in its direction, it swallowed Wes.

"Ahhhhh," I screamed, furious, inconsolable. I lifted J.J. above my head and wildly swung the sword at the huge beast. I brought the sharp blade down on the monster over and over again, until it dropped to the ground. Then I jumped on its back and repeatedly stabbed it in the neck. I shouted, "Wes!"

Pepper saw me, and rushed to my side. "Kid."

I didn't answer. I continued to pound the Taker with J.J.

"Kid!" Pepper repeated. He grabbed my wrist in mid swing. "He's gone."

I was starting to hyperventilate. "No, he's not." I bent down and tried to push the Taker over.

"What are you doing?" Pepper stood over me.

"Help me turn it over," I said.

"Why?"

"Just help me!"

He bent down and helped me turn the slain Taker over. Another Taker rushed us. Pepper fired an arrow and hit it in the head. He reloaded. "We ain't got time for this," he said.

I ran J.J. across the dead Taker's belly and sliced it open. Quickly, I pulled back the flaps of skin and stuck my arm in the open wound. Reaching past the thick layers of fat, I felt a hand. It grabbed onto my wrist. I pulled with all my might. I strained and grunted. Little by little I made progress. I stood and pulled harder. Eventually my hand emerged with Wes's hand tightly gripping mine.

Pepper fired another arrow and then turned his attention back on me. "Good God almighty!" He ran to help. He grabbed hold of Wes's now visible forearm and pulled.

We were doing it. We were pulling Wes out of the belly of the beast. His shoulder came through and then his head. He gasped and struggled to breathe.

"Get me out of this thing," he said, coughing and hacking. "It smells like rotten feet."

Pepper and I stopped only for the briefest moment to gather our strength when Wes was yanked back inside the Taker. He could no longer hold tightly to my wrist. I slipped and tumbled backwards. Wes disappeared into the Taker's belly. Pepper was pulled along with him. He was inside the monster's stomach shoulder deep before he too lost his grip on Wes. He slowly pulled his arm free.

I didn't have time to mourn the loss of Wes for very long. The sound of Devlin screaming caught our attention. I stood to see the stocky warrior pulling on Miles's foot. The rest of Miles was inside a Taker's mouth.

Pepper and I raced to their location. Three Takers greeted us as we approached. Kimball leapt over some dislodged bleachers and stood between the Takers and us. He growled and snapped at the towering beasts. They backed away, clearing a path for us to Devlin and Miles.

When we reached them, Devlin was still holding tight to his friend's foot. He was losing the battle. Pepper fired an arrow into the Taker's thigh, and I swung at the back of its knees. The monster dropped with a thud. Pepper grabbed Miles's other leg and pulled him from the Taker's mouth.

Miles struggled to breathe. He was covered in a thick pink mucus. He rested on his knees, spitting and coughing. "That was fun," he said sarcastically.

I turned to the stage. The apes had disposed of a dozen or so Takers. Ajax beat his chest as he rushed another monster.

Lou continued to read. She showed incredible focus. She was in the middle of the battle. Death and destruction happening all around her, but she kept her head down and read.

More Takers emerged from the ground. Pepper grabbed me by the shoulder. "We gotta do something about that hole kid. They just keep on coming."

I reached in my pocket and pulled out a handful of firecrackers. "This might slow them down." I ran to the hole, swinging J.J. at Takers as I passed. I stopped at the hole and started dropping lit firecrackers down it. A chorus of pops went off, and smoke rose from the ground. But still they came. I swung J.J. at an emerging Taker and struck it on the neck. The monster stopped and thrashed about, plugging up the hole. I lit a string of poppers and wedged them past the Taker's backside. A cacophony of explosions went off and the monster thrashed about even more. The onslaught of new Takers was stopped for the moment.

"Oz," I heard above the near deafening pop-pop-pop of the firecrackers. Lou stood from her chair. "The Queen…"

The Taker lodged in the hole let out a high-pitched scream, drowning out Lou's voice.

"What!"

"The Queen," she shouted. "You have to kill the Queen."

"The Queen?"

"The Taker Queen." She stepped outside of her protective circle of apes. "I know how to get everybody back. You have to kill the Queen."

I moved towards her. The battle raged on all around us. The influx of Takers had stopped. The apes were easily defeating the greasy monsters with little trouble. Miles, Devlin, and Pepper were holding their own with the help of Kimball. It appeared we would win this encounter with only two casualties. It was two too many.

"How do I kill the Queen?"

"Find the Keeper…" A Taker's huge hand swept her off of her feet. The monster held her like a banana.

"Lou!" I ran toward the Taker.

"The Keeper," she shouted. "Find the Keeper."

With that the Taker stuffed Lou in its mouth and swallowed her.

My heart felt as though it exploded in my chest. I felt a rage I had never felt before. I gritted my teeth and raised J.J. above my head. The Taker roared and swung its massive fist. The wind from it knocked me off my feet. My head slammed into a bleacher. Woozy, I sat up on my elbows. My vision was blurred. My head throbbed. I tried to stand but couldn't. The Taker hovered over me. It raised its snout and bellowed wildly. It took great pride in what it was about to do to me, and I didn't care. I wanted it to eat me. I had failed my friends. They were dead because of me. I deserved to die. I lay back down on the ground and waited to be eaten.

Through my blurred vision, I saw three apes leap through the air and land on the Taker's back. Ajax's leathery hand wrapped around my wrist, and he dragged me across the ground. I lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

It was several hours later before I came to. The sun had long since disappeared over the horizon. I lay in a mental haze for a long time. Parts of the battle replayed in my mind. I saw Wes raise his fist in victory. I saw him come to my rescue. I saw him fall prey to one of the Takers. I saw Reya locked in the clutches of the Délon that was once her brother. Finally, I saw Lou snatched up by a Taker and swallowed.

I shot up when the last image played through my mind. My head felt like a lead weight. A sharp pain throbbed at the back of my skull. I leaned to my left and vomited. After resting a few more moments I tried to stand.

"You should stay down."

I turned to the voice. The blurred face of Hollis looked back at me. "She didn't scream." In my mind my voice sounded clear and decisive, but Hollis cocked his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"What?"

"Lou…"

Hollis looked over his shoulder. "He's mumbling something about Lou."

Pepper's face came into view. "You took a good wallop on the head, kid. Probably got a concussion. You shouldn't try to move."

"Lou," I said. I wasn't asking for her. I knew she was gone, but I thought somehow if I said her name out loud, it would erase the past, and she would reappear out of thin air.

"He's out of it," Pepper said. "The girl's gone."

"Listen to me, Oz, you suffered a pretty severe blow to the head. You should really stay still." Hollis placed his hands on my shoulders.

"She didn't scream." My voice was clearer now. They could understand me.

Pepper's face turned sullen. "No, Kid, she didn't. She was brave until the end."

"Don't you understand?" The world around me began to spin. My stomach rolled. The urge to vomit hit me again suddenly. I worked myself up on my hands and knees, fighting my need to purge. I was shaky and weak.

"Kid…"

"She knew it was coming," I said. I could hold it no longer. I vomited violently, my body convulsing.

"Son," Hollis said, "lay back down."

"No," I said in between dry heaves. "We don't have time…" I breathed deeply to gather myself.

"We won," Pepper said. "They're gone. Listen." He stood, threw back his massive chest and yelled, "Come and get us, you friggin' ugly Takers! You mutant freaks, c'mon!"

We waited. They would come soon. He had spoken their name. They craved to be noticed. They yearned to be feared. Terror was the air they breathed. The seconds turned into minutes. I stood on wobbly legs. I was sure they would come, but they didn't.

Pepper smiled. "You see, nothing."

"But they…" I lost my balance. Hollis caught me.

"I really think you should lay down…"

"Where's Nate? Where's the Keeper?"

"Gorilla habitat number three," Pepper said.

"They're alive? They weren't taken?"

"No," Hollis said. "Why?"

"It doesn't make sense." I moved toward the habitat area, but had to quickly stop when I became nauseous.

"What doesn't make sense?" Pepper asked.

"The Takers. They came for Nate… the Storyteller. If they didn't get him, why don't they come?"

Hollis and Pepper had no answer.

With my head pounding and my stomach turning, I headed toward the gorilla habitats.

***

The Keeper was sitting on a boulder in the middle of gorilla habitat number three. His back was to the Willie B. Gorilla Conservation Center. Unable to shake the effects of the blow to my head, I approached gingerly.

"They wanted Lou," I said. It was the only explanation I could come up with for the Takers sudden lack of interest in the rest of us.

The Keeper did not acknowledge me. He was hunched over, cradling Nate in his huge hand.

"Hey, Tarek, I'm talking to you. The Takers wanted Lou."

"What they want doesn't matter."

"It does to me."

"You have done your part. You have delivered the Storyteller to me."

The angrier I got the more my head hurt. I desperately tried to keep calm to save myself the agony. "Why do they want Lou?"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does!" My head felt as if it would explode.

"Because they want you."

I held my hand to my temple and tried to rub the pain away. I tried to process his answer. "Me?"

"And the Storyteller." Tarek looked at me for the first time. "They know you will come for her. But you must let it end here."

"Come for her?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I recalled the memory of trying to pull Wes from one of the Takers. "That means Wes… Everybody… They don't eat people…"

"They transport people."

"Where?"

He looked away from me.

"Where, Tarek?"

"To their Queen," He stood.

"Everybody's alive…" I tried to let the information soak through my throbbing skull. "Lou said to kill the Queen… That's how I get everybody back, isn't it? If I kill the Queen, everything will be back to normal…"

"It's not that simple," Tarek said. "The Délons are here now. Things won't be the same. They benefit if you kill the Taker Queen."

"Why?"

"Because it makes them stronger." The hulking Keeper circled me as he spoke. Nate lay content in his hand. "The Takers hold one Storyteller, the Délon creator. His capture brought the Délons into this world. Because of this, the Délons are subservient to the Takers. If you kill the Taker Queen, the Délons will rule. They will continue their hunt of the other Storytellers with the intent to hold dominion over all other races."

"Then we'll defeat the Délons just like we defeated the Takers," I said it with a dangerous naivete. It was fool's logic. Just because we defeated the Takers didn't mean we could defeat the Délons. I knew that deep down inside, but my desire to see Lou and Wes and my parents again made me more than willing to take my chances with the Délons.

"They are more cunning. More than you can imagine…"

"How do I find the Queen?" My adrenaline began to build. My head hurt less and less as I thought about the mission now clearly laid out for me.

"Let it end here," Tarek said.

"I can't," my voice cracked as I felt urgency run through my veins. "I want my parents back. Now, how do I find the…"

"Don't ask me again." Tarek looked panicked.

"Why?"

Ajax appeared from the back of the habitat and stood on top of the nearby boulder. The moon hovered above his pointy head. He peered down at me and spoke. Not with his hands, but with a booming voice that shook the ground. "Because he must show you the way."

"You can talk?" My mouth was agape. My eyes felt as though they would pop from their sockets. "How?"

"Only because the one you call Stevie Dayton has made it so. This is still his story. It is not over." He held up his hand and tossed something to me. It was the comic book. "The Keeper must show you the way to the Taker Queen. As it is written."

I flipped through the book. Our entire journey was cataloged on the pages before we even took it. I reached the part about our final battle. I saw Wes slipping back into the Taker's belly. I saw the Taker's huge hand swoop down and pick up Lou, a strange look of contentment on her face. The words "Kill the Queen," were written above her head. I turned the page and saw myself coming to, Pepper and Hollis trying to convince me to stay down. On the next page were Tarek and me having the conversation we just had. It was all so strange. Stevie had written what we said word for word.

The next page showed Ajax talking for the first time, and me reading the comic book as I was doing at that very moment. It was like looking into some strange comic book mirror.

I hesitated before turning the next page. Instead of rehashing the journey behind me, I was about to see the journey ahead. I considered the possibility that perhaps Stevie had not written a happy ending. Maybe this whole mess was his way of paying me back for the torment I had put him through.

I turned the page and read. The way to the Queen was not easy. I read the page over and over again making sure I was reading it right. This was Stevie's payback. He had planned to torment me. I did not know if I could do what was asked of me.